BD Weekender Magazine 11 Edition

EDITION 11 I 10, OCTOBER 2020

#EndPoliceBrutality Art of the Week

Exclusive Interview

Portrait of Thought

by Sabrina ColemanPinheiro

‘What keeps me going is being able to make positive impact, both from an organizational perspective and also from the talent in bringing people up with me’ - FUMBI CHIMA Businessday.ng @Businessdayng

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Contents

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

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C O N T E N T S

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INSPIRE Rest

HEALTH TODAY How to live your best life despite having a heart Condition

INTERVIEW ‘If you see something, say something’ - Oluwamayomikun Deji-Omotayo

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HUMAN RESOURCES The consequences of untrained staff

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INTERVIEW ‘Be persistent long enough for luck to meet you on the journey’ - Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, CEO of 54gene

DIARY The diary of a young executive: Onyinyechi Eze, Head Digital Services, BusinessDay Media

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MUSIC AND CULTURE ‘When I got into radio production, a lot of producers were either too scared or too lazy to try.’ - Tyrone Grandeur

TECHNOLOGY The Business Leader’s Guide to Launching AI Chatbot Programmes

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL The courage to do big things as a young professional

SPORTS Premier League summer spending far above other top leagues

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INTERVIEW Create products that people need: Something that solves a genuine problem - Ehime Akindele

OPPORTUNITIES Opportunities in the midst of a Storm?

RECIPE Chicken Pesto pasta

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Editorial

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PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Frank Aigbogun MANAGING DIRECTOR Ogho Okiti

Editor’s Note SATURDAY 10 OCTOBER 2020

EDITOR BUSINESSDAY Patrick Atuanya EDITOR BUSINESSDAY SATURDAY Lehlé Balde EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha

Dear Weekender readers,

hope you are all doing well and staying as safe as you possibly can. I have spent majority of this week pondering on the importance of peace. Peace of mind, peace in our nations, and overall peace in the world. How do we achieve peace in our personal lives and across the board in broader society?

What does peace mean to you?

Our lead story spotlights the plight of many Nigerians across the world who are advocating for a wholesome dissolution of Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) to end police brutality and the extra-judicial killings. On Thursday thousands of protesters took to the streets of Lekki and Ikeja in Lagos as well other states in Nigeria, to protest and relay their frustrations and make their requests known. The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Adamu announced the ban placed on SARS and all other tactical units of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). This good news came following the outcry on social media when a video was uploaded showing confusion around the Wetland Hotel in Ughelli area of Delta state, after SARS officials allegedly shot a young man to death and escaped with his vehicle. Police brutality needs to be addressed as a matter of absolute urgency. Across the world everyday folks and celebrities alike are lending their voices to this issue.

Inside this week’s edition find: An exclusive interview with Funmi Chiba the Chief Information Officer at Adidas and board member at Africa Prudential. As international Day of the girl child is on October 11th, this edition explores the various struggles of the girl child in Nigeria. We also speak to Emalohi Iruobe who is the founder of Tribe XX Lab, a female-led co-working space which just started an initiative to exterminate violence against women on school campuses.

There is also an interview with Dr. Abasi Ene Obong who is the founder and chief executive officer of 54 Gene, a health technology company advancing the state of healthcare through large scale discovery and translational research, advanced molecular diagnostics, and inclusive clinical programs for the benefit of Africans and the global populations. We also talk to Tyrone Grandeur who has revolutionized the radio/voice-over industry in Nigeria. There is a piece on AI chatbots, a pasta recipe, HR advice, a piece on the importance of rest, a book review, a pasta recipe, Diary of a young executive featuring BusinessDay’s Head of Digital Services and a lot more exciting content.

In happy news, from a shortlist of 5, Okonjo Iweala, former minister of finance in Nigeria has made it to the final two candidates competing for the post of Director-General in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, a long-distance runner now holds two world records as on October 7, 2020, he broke the 10,000m world record with a finish time of 26 minutes 11 seconds, thus adding this to his previous 5000m world record smash on August 14, 2020. Also, Nigerian stocks did really well on Tuesday as it gained the most it had seen in the last five years. The equity market’s All Share Index (ASI) increased 4.9 percent in Lagos, becoming the best it had been since April 2015. More news updated in our weekly news round-up.

Have a restful weekend and Happy October. Thank you for reading. BD

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Lehlé Balde is the Editor of BusinessDay Weekender email: lehle.balde@businesssday.ng | social: @lehlelalumiere Businessday.ng

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STRATEGY, INNOVATION & PARTNERSHIPS Oghenevwoke Ighure MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso CalibriMANAGER, ADVERTS Ijeoma Ude COPY SALES MANAGER Florence Kadiri DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua HEAD OF DIGITAL SERVICES Onyinyechi Eze HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION Orasopee Communications Ltd. CONTRIBUTORS Favour Olanrewaju Toju Akpa Sabrina Coleman-Pinheiro Mercy Ayodele Titilade Oyemade Fumbi Chima Oge Funlola Modie Monisola Adanijo FMCP Oluwamayomikun Deji-Omotayo Oluchi Okafor Ekine Tamunotonye Ifeoluwa Falola Tolu Adelowo Elizabeth Osho Samuel Anyanwu Adedoyin Jaiyesimi Anthony Nlebem Stephanie Erigha PHOTO CREDIT Freepik, Google Images ENQUIRIES lehle.balde@businessday.ng samuel.anyanwu@businessday.ng ADVERTS Ijeoma Ude +2348033225506 PUBLISHED BY BusinessDay Media Limited The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria.

01-2799100 www.businessday.ng LEGAL ADVISERS The Law Union

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

News Roundup

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IGP has banned FSARS from stop and search duties and other road block activities

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OLUWAFADEKEMI AREO

GP has banned FSARS from stop and search duties and other road block activities. On Sunday, October 4 2020, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Adamu announced the ban placed on the Federal Special AntiRobbery Squad (FSARS) popularly known as SARS and all other tactical unit of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).

This good news came following the outcry on social media when a video was uploaded showing confusion around the Wetland Hotel in Ughelli area of Delta state after SARS officials shot dead a young man and escaped with his vehiclea white Lexus Sport Utility vehicle.

The IGP announced that all members of the NPF tactical unit have been banned from carrying out routine patrols and other conventional low-risk duties: stop and search, mounting of road blocks, check points and traffic check

with immediate effect.

Nigerians are, however, advocating for a wholesome dissolution of SARS to end police brutality and extra-judicial killings and on Thursday took to the streets of Lagos from Lekki Toll Gate to Zone Two Headquarters and Area A Command at Oniru, Lagos Island, to protest and relay their hearts.

Nigerian celebrities like Folarin Falana, popularly called Falz, Runtown, Jaywon, Elozonam Ogbolu and Prince Enwerem were all part of this protest.

Nigeria’s Okonjo Iweala makes final shortlist in the race for WTO DG

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rom a shortlist of 5, Okonjo Iweala, former minister of finance in Nigeria has made it to the final two canditates competing for the post of Director General in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

She was nominated by President Buhari in June 2020 for the post and she has succeeded in climbing the ladder to the final round with Yoo Myung-Hee, minister of trade in South Korea as her only competition. The WTO has never been led by a woman or an African and the hope is that having an African head the organisation

Joshua Cheptegei smashes 10,000m world record as Letesenbet Gidey sets new women's 5,000m best

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ganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, a longdistance runner now holds two world records as on October 7 2020 he broke the 10,000m world record with finish time of 26 minutes 11 seconds, thus adding this to his previous 5000m world record smash on August 14 2020. The previous holder of the world record for 10,000m race was Kenenisa Bekele’s who had a finish time of 26 minutes 17 seconds, set in Brussels in 2005.

Cheptegei’s new record means that he ran an average of 100m every 15 seconds.

On the women’s side, Letesenbet Gidey, an Ethiopian long-distance runner made Africa proud by smashing the women’s 5000m 12-year-old world record with a finish time of 14 minutes 6 seconds.

Nigerian stocks posted biggest daily gain on October 6 2020

could boost the continent’s trade, which has stagnated at 2 percent to 3 percent of the global average. The successful candidate is expected to be announced next month.

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igerian stocks did really well on Tuesday as it gained the most it had seen in the last five years.

The equity market’s All Share Index (ASI) increased 4.9 percent in Lagos, becoming the best it had been since April 2015.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented Nigeria’s 2021 budget estimate of N13.08 trillion on Thursday

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he proposed N13.08 trillion budget is divided into recurrent expenditure of N5.65 trillion, capital expenditure of N3.85 trillion, personnel cost of N3.76 trillion and debt service of N3.12 trillion.

Revenue is estimated at N8.433 trillion and it is benchmarked on oil price of $40/barrel while the total available revenue to fund the budget is N7.886 trillion.

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SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

The silent destruction of the Nigerian naira FAVOUR OLAREWAJU

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taring at the ceiling looking wary and dejected, John absently hears the cock crow in the early hours of the morning, sleepless, restless and exhausted. As a youthful and vibrant teenager who was doing his BSc program at Yale university, he is now in quite the dilemma given the prolonged foreign exchange (FX) challenges faced by Nigeria following the coronavirus pandemic.

At the beginning of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit full force, the naira was valued at N306 to $1. This meant that his tuition fees of $10,000 was equivalent to N3.06 million asides other costs such as Businessday.ng

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feeding, transportation among others.

Already, the cost of light and water bills that comes with accommodation expenses had been taken care of because he was staying with his aunt abroad. However, the rhythm of the music had changed from a thrilling tune and come to a reeling and abrupt halt as the future looked bleak to say the least.

In the space of the first 8 months of the year 2020, the naira has officially been devalued twice by the apex bank – the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The naira was first devalued on March 20th to N360 from N307 and further devalued to N381/$1 in August. These timelines fell during the global lockdown and COVID-induced difficulties to cater

for revenue shortfalls exp e r i e n c e d by d i v e r s e sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Specifically, the foreign exchange reser ves account lost $454 million between June 1st and July 15th, and as at September stood at $35billion as against $36billion in July.

This further increases the pressure on exchange rate.

Initially, John did not understand the magnitude of what this devaluation really meant for him, his family and other Nigerians – not until he and his dad were discussing the likelihood of resuming school and the cost implications.

John was speechless to realize that his school fees had now escalated to N3.81million, which is N750,000 (25 percent) higher than it was at the beginning of the year.

He was still trying to remain positive until his dad reminded him that commercial banks would definitely charge higher than this official rate talk less of the other numerous exchange rates including the black market which currently stands at N458/$1, that is, N77 higher than the official rates per dollar.

This implied that any international transaction made during this period would be much more than the already increased official exchange rate of N381 per $1.

According to his dad, an online course which he registered for last month at $49 cost about N19,355, indicating exchange rate of N395/$1 – almost N400 per dollar. His dad then started reminiscing about the good old days when naira had much more value at N2/$1 in 1973. That would mean paying just N20,000 for John’s tuition fees as against the almost N4 million that he is currently paying on just fees alone, asides other basic needs.

This numerous devaluations of the naira in 47 years now indicates that naira has lost its value by over 190 times, that is, a depreciation of the Nigerian currency by almost 19,000 percent. Outrageous right?

Well, this is the dilemma of Nigeria as a whole. BD

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Cartoon

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By Toju Akpa: An Illustrator and an animator with a passion for financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

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Art of the week

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Portrait of thought by Sabrina Coleman-Pinheiro Contact: Sabrina Coleman-Pinheiro I +234(0)901-844-0829 I Sabrina@sabrinacolemanpinheiro.com Businessday.ng

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Lead - International Day of Girl Child

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

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THE MANY STRUGGLES OF THE GIRL-CHILD IN TODAY’S WORLD International day of the girl child is October 11 MERCY AYODELE

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remember one night many years ago, my parents sat in the sitting room to watch the 9pm news. Cyril Stober was reporting that night and the news highlight was about a young girl who was raped by a thirty-something-year-old man, it was very tragic. My Mum was being all dramatic and shaking her head in disbelieve at the news, my Dad on the other hand who was not paying so much attention to the news looked up and asked about the rape case.

My mum gave this face which evidently meant my dad should not mention the rape word in my presence but my dad did not

get the message so he came again with the question and this time louder than the former. Then my mum, clearly upset that my dad was not reading her facial expression correctly said “don’t ask me about that word, I don’t want her wondering about what that word means”. The 7-year-old me, sitting on the floor pretending to be focused on Zandi and the wonderful pillow, a story book I had read a gazillion times already, laughed loudly in my mind, thinking “these two do not know how much I know”.

Right now, thinking back at what must have been on my mum’s mind that day, she was just trying to protect her Businessday.ng Businessday.ng

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Lead - International Day of Girl Child

SATURDAY 03, OCTOBER 2020

little girl. She felt the less curious I was the better. Although I receive daily instructions which already became a mantra “If any uncle calls you, don’t answer, don’t sit on anyone’s lap, don’t open the gate for anyone you don’t know, if anyone touches you, tell me”. I cannot remember her telling me “why” at that age but the instructions were strict and clear. My brothers did not seem to get the same instructions; this was what made me even curious. What was she afraid of?

Parents tend to be more careful with their female children.

You hear them say “that skirt is too short, your makeup is too much, don’t go out late at night” the list goes on. As I grew and began to understand the world, I really can’t blame parents so much, maybe not the best approach but they are afraid, they don’t feel their female children are safe.

The world we have found ourselves is quite toxic, especially to the female child. October 11 is globally recognized as the International day of the Girl Child, a day set aside to recognize the challenges faced by the girl child. They are numerous really but I will be discussing just three reasons why it is so difficult to be a girl in this modern world.

Sexual Abuse I once had a conversation with a group of females and somehow, we began talking about sexual harassment, there was no single female in the room that has not had any form of harassment. Sexual abuse is sexual behavior (any kind) or a sexual act forced upon a woman, man or child without their consent. I think the problem here is people do not understand that abuse does not necessarily mean rape, it is any sexual act without consent. It could be subtle acts like rubbing a woman’s thighs, passing comments about body shapes or any touch without consent. It is weird how even the females do not know some things fall under the category of harassment so you see them laughing hysterically when these things are done to them or to another female.

The social media buzz regarding the rape of Uwa, Jennifer, Barakat and othesr left an impression on the heart of many but I think the hash tags were mainly because these girls were raped and killed and because it happened concurrently. The media is particularly silent about other girls who have been raped within this period.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu announced that 717 rape cases were reported within the first five months of 2020 alone. This is sad, I wonder how many have been added to the list now. We have a lot of organizations doing wonderful things but we still need to do more.

Female Genital Mutilation This one is particularly sad, it is not a topic you hear about in the everyday conversation but this practice is deeply rooted in Nigeria. The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for nonmedical reasons. Basically, it is carried out using unsterilized instruments like scissors, pieces of glass or razor blades to cut off a part or the whole of a girl’s clitoris and some other parts of her sex organs for cultural or any other non-therapeutic reasons.

One in four Nigerian women between the ages of 15 and 49 years has experienced FGM, making the country number three in the world following Egypt and Ethiopia, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. The reason why this is done is almost unbelievable; some believe it makes sex more enjoyable Businessday.ng

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for men, others think it stops them from being promiscuous.

Obviously this is ignorance considering that it is medically confirmed that FGM has immediate and long term health consequences such as infertility, infections, loss of sexual pleasure and in some cases death. This needs to stop.

Child Marriage There are some issues that we don’t pay attention to, maybe because it does not happen in our immediate environment but they exist and they are real. Do you know Nigeria has one of the highest number of child brides in Africa? According to a 2018 UNICEF report, about 22 million girls are married before the age of 18. This is sad, considering they are being pushed to do what they are not ready for emotionally or physically. Worse is, they are not even given the opportunity for education or to explore their gifts and potential. Although Nigeria has laws against child marriage but if this is still happening it is a pointer that more needs to be done.

The Way Forward First, I think we need more sensitization especially in rural areas. People need to outgrow some wrong beliefs and mindsets, regardless of how long they have been in existence especially regarding issues of FGM and child marriage. Also, the earlier a child understands issues regarding sex, rape and gender discrimination, the better. This job should not just be left to parents, it takes a village to raise a child, and everyone must play their part.

Also, educate the male child, this is key. The male child needs to understand he is not superior because he is male, and it is wrong to make sexual comments about a female or touch her in any form without consent. Also, because a girl is not properly dressed is not a good reason to rape her or touch her, it is very sad this is is one of the top reasons given by rapist, well next to “it is the devil’s work”.

Finally, I think we need more strict laws regarding sexual harassment even for the considered “less harmful ones”. If Mr A goes to jail for raising a woman’s skirt, Mr B goes to jail touching a lady without consent and Mr C also goes to jail for rape, it will become clearer to people what sexual harassment really means. BD

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Book Review

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Book Title: Small Business, Big Money Author: Akin Alabi Year of Publication: 2017 Number of pages: 223 Category: Business

How to make Small Businesses Profitable – A Review of Akin Alabi’s Small Business, Big Money TITILADE OYEMADE

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one are the days when having a good idea was all you needed to start a thriving business. As a matter of fact, many businesses have died on the altars of passion and good ideas because they had no concrete plans to make money. More than ever, making your small business profitable transcends just being passionate.

In a place like Nigeria where many experienced and successful entrepreneurs hardly share their knowledge, small business owners often lack mentors and role models to glean lessons from. It is one of the reasons Small Business, Big Money, a book by long-time entrepreneur and now member of the National Assembly, Akin Alabi comes handy.

Small Business, Big Money compresses more than ten years of the author’s experiences into just over 200 pages of wisdom. While its subtitle, How to Start, Grow and Turn Your Small Business into a cash-generating machine, might give an impression of a quick fix book, it is fair to say that Alabi held nothing back as he shared insights about turning small businesses into profitable ventures.

The author gets in your face with his ruthless honesty and spares no details as he lays bare the brutality of conducting business in Nigeria. He however also share insight into what small and big businesses must do to thrive here.

Before he bares it all, Alabi issues a rather humorous disclaimer cautioning readers. “Any use of this information is at your own risk,” he writes. Even though he shares his experiences, he states that does not assume any liability to any loss, damage or disruption caused by errors or omissions, due to the information provided in the book. For such a work, such disclaimers is but expected.

In its seven chapters, Small Business, Big Money shares various stories including how Alabi started his first online sports betting site in Nigeria and hard facts around some of his other deals, fights back, unique selling points and how he has functioned in the Nigerian market.

If you feel bad about failing in business, Alabi gives you reason to feel good about yourself because he has had several failed enterprises before his major breakthrough with Nairabet. In his mostly casual style of writing, Alabi shares tons of step-by-step actionable tips in this down-to-earth book to help small business owners make more profit.

The author presents the truth about entrepreneurship, discusses some new business ideas, explains how to emerge first in the marketplace and walks the reader through the process of getting people to know, talk about and patronise your business. He highlights many of the ways small businesses run out of business. For instance, he writes: “One of the reasons small business owners go out of business is because they keep reducing their prices due to competition forgetting that Nigerians are not looking for the lowest prices, they are looking for what they perceive as the best deal.”

Although targeted at small business owners, the secrets shared are useful even to experienced business owners across various sectors. Overall, Small Business, Big Money is a good resource that would help business owners in Nigeria to overcome some of the challenges of operating in Nigeria and thrive well into the future. BD

oyemade is a business execute in a leading organisation and holds a degree

in Russian Language. She’s the convener of the Hangoutwithtee Ladies Event and the publisher of Hangoutwithtee magazine. She spends her weekends attending women conferences, events and book readings. She loves to have fun and to help other women have the same in their lives.

Email: titi.oyemade@gmail.com Social: @tiipree

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Lead

SATURDAY 03, OCTOBER 2020

#ENDPOLICEBRUTALITY OLUWAFADEKEMI

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hen some Nigerian youths were asked to choose between being stopped by armed robbers or being stopped by the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) popularly referred to as SARS, they chose the first option.

Jola (not real name) recounted his experience with SARS officials in December 2019 and the memory brought tears to his eyes as he spoke.

“On that fateful day, I had just gotten news of my twin sister’s death and as I was roaming the streets of Mafoluku, Lagos, a SARS van stopped beside me and two officers dragged me into the van without saying anything,” Jola said.

“As I struggled with them asking what I had done and where I was being taken, they just kept on hitting me and telling me to stop talking, and that was how I found myself in a cell for a whole week, being beaten almost every day,” he recounted.

Jola’s case is one of the numerous cases of the brutality Nigerians, especially the youths within ages 17-30 have faced at the hands of SARS officials.

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AREO

Last week Saturday, the hashtag #EndSARS started trending again on social media after some SARS officials allegedly shot dead a young man in front of a hotel in Ughelli area of Delta state and a video surfaced reporting the gruesome act and showing the car of the victim being driven away by the officials.

The media went wild on the issue and almost at the same time, some powerful people from the entertainment industry, the ministry of youth and sports as well as the political side lent their voices to the issue stating clearly that something urgent needed to be done about the FSARS. Davido tweeted “if we all come together as brothers and sisters and also as citizens of this country we can end this Nonsense!!.” Wizkid on the other hand tweeted directly at the president saying “Donald Trump is not your business!

Old man! Police/SARS still killing Nigerian youth on a daily!

Do something.”

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar lent his voice to the issue expressing that the SARS officials are not facing their goal as a team and it is expedient that their activities be reviewed

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SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

to ensure that the rogue elements are removed from the unit.

It was, therefore, some form of good news on Sunday when the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu announced that SARS and other tactical unit of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) have been banned from carrying out their usual stop and search as well as roadblock duties.

The NPF also announced that all members of the force must at all times wear their uniforms or approved tactical gear.

Some hours after the ban by the IGP, the current Vice President, Yemi Osibanjo also expressed his anger at the issue and emphasised that something was going to be done immediately.

SARS and the abuse of power SARS, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force and one of the 14 units of the Force criminal Investigation Department (FCID) was created in 1992 by former police commissioner Simeon Danladi Midenda in a bid to curb high crime rate at a time when the NPF was at war with the Nigerian army because of the death of Colonel Rindam at the hand of police officers in Lagos.

They had 3 roles: detain, investigate and prosecute people involved in crimes armed robbery, kidnapping, and other crime forms and they have had several successful missions.

In 2009, they started making it into universities to take down cultists and internet fraudsters (yahoo boys), and soon spread to the streets across Nigeria, further becoming power hungry and losing their core focus. Even Wikipedia says SARS has come under controversy for being linked to extortion, torture, framing, and blackmail before 2012.

In 2010, the squad was accused by Amnesty International, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) of abusing three bike riders in Port Harcourt who were detained and beaten every night for one week straight and within that same year, a ruling court asked the squad to release the culprits in the killing a 15-year-old secondary boy they mistook for a kidnapper.

In 2016, a report released by Amnesty International showed how SARS officers frequently detained youths in facilities around the country, tortured and coerced them into confessing to crimes they did not commit, and also extorting these young Nigerians.

Their new extortion trend according to people’s shared experiences on social media is through the use of Point of sale (POS) machines and taking their victims to Automated Teller Machine (ATM) stands to transfer large sum of money.

Uproar against FSARS before now, and how it was met In December 2016, Segun Awosanya, a human rights activist put together an online advocacy campaign against the brutality of SARS. This was coming after Amnesty International had threatened to sue the NPF on the grounds of SARS brutality.

Nonetheless, members of the NPF at the time and some quarters shunned SARS brutality claims stating that the

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squad was doing a great job and it was criminals who were reporting these cases and trying to make them look bad.

By December 2017, the IGP reorganised the unit into operational and investigative parts and also asked that allegations against the squad be investigated. This, however, did not stop the complaints against the squad and by August 2018, the federal government announced the total overhaul and decentralisation of the squad, following its renaming to FSARS by the IGP. There was a further decentralisation in January 2019 which saw the Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs) of FCID and commissioners of police in states being held accountable for the action of SARS officials.

Despite all these positive efforts to change the notorious tag of the FSARS, the new report of Amnesty International titled ‘time to end impunity said a total of 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extra judicial execution by FSARS have been documented between January 2017 and May 2020.

The Director of the organisation has therefore called for the Nigerian authorities to go beyond lip service to ensure

there is a real reform with the NPF with emphasis on FSARS. “These reforms must translate into holding police officers suspected of torture to account, ending torture, unlawful detention, extortion, extrajudicial execution and other human rights violations that SARS officers are known for across Nigeria,” he said.

In conclusion, the total crime rate in Nigeria worsened by 7.05 percent in the last crime statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2018 as a total of 134,663 cases were recorded in 2017 as against the previous 125,790 in 2016.

Of all the crime types, offences against property which accounts for robbery cases has had the highest contribution at 65,397 in 2016 and 68,579 in 2017.

The Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) should more than anything be focused on its core goals of fighting robbery and reducing crime rates to its barest minimum. BD Businessday.ng

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Exclusive Interview

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SATURDAY 03, OCTOBER 2020

‘What keeps me going is being able to make positive impact, both from an organizational perspective and also from the talent in bringing people up with me’ - FUMBI CHIMA FUMBI CHIMA is an accomplished senior executive and Non-Executive Director with extensive experience, leading digital transformations within established, global corporations. Fumbi as a Chief Information Officer & Business Leader, focuses on driving business outcomes through the use of technology and digital solutions, with in-depth experience in global transformational programmes and inspiring an organisation to embrace a new future.

Prior to joining Adidas as CIO in 2019, Fumbi has been the transformational CIO for several global organizations and was most recently the CIO of Fox Network Group; CIO at Burberry Corporation, CIO of Walmart Stores Inc Asia business operations, and CIO of American Express’ Global Corporate Technologies.

She has a proven track record of successfully partnering with business leaders and building world-class teams. Fumbi has a Bachelor of Arts, Politics and Philosophy, University of Hull, North Humberside, U.K. In addition, she has a post graduate certification in Women Corporate Directorship, Hong Kong University and Executive Leadership Development of Harvard University.

Highlights of her career include developing and managing the execution of multi-channel digital strategies that doubled revenue and decreased spending by 23%, creating significant margin expansion.

Within another strategic initiative, Fumbi led a team that divested low-value functions and reinvested in high-value ones that had an impact of several billion dollars in additional incremental annual revenue.

Fumbi has both for and non-profit board experience and is a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from the CIO’s role in the executive suite and boardroom, to making digital part of an organization’s culture.

She has been recognized as a top leader in STEM, Globalization, and IT. She is Independent Non-Executive Director at Africa Prudential.

Excerpts of the interview with the BusinessDay Weekender.

If you were to use one word to describe your transition/journey of being CIO of various global organizations including Fox Network group, Walmart stores, Burberry corporation and others, what would that word be? f I had to use one word, it would be Transformation! I think transformation just because a lot of those companies that I got into, partners I worked for, and work with are trying to use technology as an enabler to improve their business outcomes and or imperatives.

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What is your motivation/what keeps you going/what is your mantra in the industry?

My motivation is making a difference. What keeps me going is being able to make positive impact, both from an organizational perspective and also from the talent in bringing people up with me.

What was your starting point and defining moment that set you on the right track?

My starting point, I would say is, great mentorship and sponsorship. The ability to help people that believe in you and give you that opportunity to do things and for me the courage to take on difficult challenges and coming out of my comfort zone.

As a young girl growing up, did you (always) see yourBusinessday.ng

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self as a leader? Would you say leadership was taught to you by the top notch universities that you attended for undergraduate and graduate studies or instilled in you by your experiences; perhaps it was a natural/ inborn talent?

I don’t think I would say there was any moment I knew I was on track because that would exude an element of arrogance.

I think it is just going one at a time. I just believed I was going to do the best I possibly can and with hard work and resilience. Through that, I was blessed to have great people around me that mentored and guided me. I never had a destination plan that I was going to be X. To me, that helps make that whole difference because it is not about the target it is about having a broader perspective.

Yes. We are all leaders. I have always been a leader in the sense that I have had opportunity to be either a prefect in school or drive a change or lead a team from a sport perspective. Leadership is never taught. You either have it or you don’t. However, having that background taught me on how to apply broad knowledge and bringing it back to your professional life. For me, it is less about my institution, because people can go to the best universities and still come out with nothing. I was lucky to work for great organization during my formative career that taught me how to be an individual, on how to be a leader. I also had people that I looked up to or I have seen either at the work place or in person and I admire

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Exclusive Interview

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and like their leadership style and would love to emulate.

Personally, what do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

My biggest achievement is being a Mother.

Honestly, I don’t weigh my success based on my profession. I base my success on how balanced my children have been and I am blessed two wonderful kids that are grounded in every aspect. I don’t wake up every morning in a haste on managing the home. Bringing up two balanced young women is my greatest achievement.

Tell us about your first experience in the boardroom.

Oh my goodness! That was a long time ago!

My first experience to interaction with a board was in an Executive capacity, where I was presenting some of the I.T / Technology Road Map and vision to the board. Therefore; the transition of participating in board meetings as a CIO (part of the executive management team) and regularly interact with the board members has helped me transition not only being a presenter at the board room, but knowing the kind of questions the board members ask, lessons learnt and I take that and incorporate it into my next presentation and pivoting onto the other side, I have been a Non-Executive Director, I am able to balance both. I can see what it is like to be a presenter and knowing the kinds of questions to ask. At first when you go in you could feel fluttered about being in their presence but then when you think about it, they are human like you so don’t be nervous.

Your BSc. and graduate degrees were more about politics and leadership, how did you delve into technology/IT? I had a short stint in Finance and Accounting. The marriage between Finance and Technology was what got me into Technology. I worked on projects where I had to help with translations of Accounting principles to help determine how the companies were doing against a project or implementation and that was really a close alignment with working with Tech people. That intellectual perspective, maybe it is the art of when you are doing philosophy and art, you think broad. I was able to connect things together and apply some of that into those projects and the experience and I realized that I actually liked it. I wanted to spend more time in that arena and I got an opportunity to do that. It also speaks to the element around what do you do when given those opportunities to take up challenges. I pushed myself beyond what I Businessday.ng

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Exclusive Interview

thought I could and I believe it paid off.

What would you say is the most common recurrence when leading people?

I think most people want direction. They like leaders that can set directions, that have a focus and can help guide them. And I think people are very excited when you spend time to understand who they are and the needs they want and being helpful to achieve that. I describe myself as a Coach and I think what that means is that I focus about keeping the momentum, encouragement, helping the team navigate to achieve the optimum outcome. I know the end state and I create that vision but it is that motivation and encouragement that sharpens everyone to move directionally into the path that we need. It has been most recurrent in leading people. Also, trust is very important. Most people don’t have the confident in themselves and sometimes giving them that power and ability to make decisions can be overwhelming and you need to provide that confidence to make them believe in themselves You were just announced as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Africa Prudential; did you see this coming?

No, I didn’t see it coming. I have been helping to advise and give perspective to the idea of how the company wants to be positioned and I am humbled that some of those ideas were taken and they see the value that I am bringing to being an Independent Non-Executive Director. It is fairly touching, and I hope to do my best to help them reach their goals and objectives.

What are your thought on the technology ecosystem in Africa and how is Africa Prudential playing a role in this?

From a digital standpoint, I think Africa moved frontier before anybody did because they didnt have the infrastructure and they weren’t encumbered with the legacy systems that many modern world had to deal with. They just had to leap from into digital in all aspects and I think that has been an advantage for them. The challenge is to keep that momentum going and I think Africa has that innovation and talent. The potential is huge. It is just how much we harness it in the right way to continue to exposure that innovation and creativity to the rest of the world. Africa Prudential is a very ambitious company. They want to be dynamic, disruptive. How often do you see a company pivot from a traditional registrar to becoming a digital company that wants to create products that services entities across multiple domains? I think that speaks for the dynamism and aspiration and I think they are well positioned to do that.

How do you de-stress after a long day at work?

I am much of an outdoor person. I love to go for a long walk or run. I also love to watch the TV. My kids make fun of me because I am always watching CNN. I also love to spend time with family and friends and do enjoy having a great dinner.

Which part of the entertainment industry appeals to you the most for relaxation purposes? And who is your favorite personnel in that particular industry (e.g. actor/actress, musician). Why this choice? Anything in common with the person?

I don’t really have one. I would watch good movies when it is out but I won’t get excited over it. If a good movie comes out, Businessday.ng

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SATURDAY 03, OCTOBER 2020

I will go watch it. I do enjoy music, I love jazz music. I believe a lot in my faith so tend to listen to worship songs as well and that particularly allows me to connect my inner being and self. Between my worship and jazz music, it really enables me to relax and meditate. I think every actor or actresses. I admire them in a different way. I think everybody does phenomenal in their own aspects and they all rise up in different topic of discussions that I admire.

What are your coping mechanisms given your busy schedule? How do you combine your personal life, work and family? Does it get easier?

I didn’t think there is a coping mechanism and I don’t think there is a work-life balance. I call it a work-life integration. I mix my home and work together. When I need to leave work for personal I excuse myself and whenever I need to sacrifice my personal time for work, I do that too. It is really more of an integration. I pick my battles. Does it get easier? No, it doesn’t, I stopped feeling guilty about it. Th moment I feel guilty it becomes a limiting factor in my life and journey. I have gotten to this point in my life and career that it works for me and my family What is the first number/first three numbers on your speed dial? Which contact do you communicate with the most frequently?

It would be my children which are my daughters, my husband and my sisters.

If you had one grand wish, what would it be?

I am on the journey in life to deepen my spiritual relationship.

I think my wish is to continue in that journey more deeply than I have ever done. Sometimes, work takes priority but I think it is important one’s spirituality is just as important and my biggest wish is that I continue to grow deeper in that.

What advice would you give to women out there on balancing their family and work lives, while still setting good examples (as in leadership) for others?

You’ve need have a good support network. Whether it is inlaws, nannies, friends etc that is going to help you in that journey. I mentioned in an earlier question with regards to work life balance that it is important not to feel guilty and accept that there would be tradeoffs along the way. You can’t feel guilty to say o gosh I missed my daughter’s recital because of work. If that was really important to you, then you would have gone to the recital and excused yourself at work. Because at the end of the day, work remains work. It is important for one to realize what tradeoffs they are willing to accept. Do it for yourself. Do not do it because yoU think that is what is expected of you. Do YOU!!. Most important, you have to enjoy it. The moment you don’t enjoy it, then there is no fulfilment.

What technology medium would say is the most aweinspiring.

I am in awe of this TitTok app. They it has basically engulfed the youth market. It started as a teenage thing now a lot of adults are using it. Especially seeing the surge of adoption in the last 6 months has been a very interesting one on TikTok. It helps revolutionized the way we communicate within ourselves and to other people. It has been fun. BD

Inspire

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

REST OGE FUNLOLA

MODIE

A

s we enter in to the last quarter of the year, I can only imagine the kind of pressure most of us face. The Pandemic has taken almost 7 months of the year and we have all of 3 months left to either wait the year out or push ahead to complete some of our goals.

As we draw near to the end of the year, I have reminded myself to take time out and rest Why rest?

The year 2020 has taken its toll on us in so many ways we still cannot see. We have become winners over many adversities and these have had their wear and tear on the body. Rest is to help you heal, recover and plan for 2021.

REST: (verb) to refresh oneself, as by sleeping, lying down, or relaxing. to relieve weariness by cessation of exertion or labor as defined by Dictionary.com Taking time to REST empowers you for the next move, assignment, role, project, milestone etc. This could be short or long periods. The whole idea is giving yourself time to go somewhere quiet and refresh.

The process of Rest that I have discovered and use is; R etreat, Refresh, Renew E mbrace, Empower, Energise S urrender, Seek, Sustain T ime Retreat, Refresh, Renew When you decide to take a REST, you must shut down all activity and find a getaway to Retreat, Refresh and Renew your Spirit, Soul and Body. Remember we as humans are three dimensional and you must cater to each of these elements. To retreat simply means to find a secluded place all by yourself for privacy and aloneness.

When you find a place of retreat, your key objective would be to refresh your body through sleep, your soul through rest and your spirit through prayer and meditation. As you sleep, the body renews itself by building strength through rest and repair. Your soul is renewed through a process of unloading emotions, dismantling notions and most importantly forgiving yourself and others. You find rest for your soul by deliberately going through a process of forgiving. Your Spirit gets renewed through prayer and mediating

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on words; the Word of God (for me) and reminding yourself of just how special you are (words of affirmation).

Embrace, Empower, Energize As you pass through the 3Rs, you come to a place where it becomes imperative to embrace where you are. This I call “a moment of liberation.” Be joyful for the Journey thus far and as you do this, you empower your thought life to be open to more creativity, empower your Spirt and Soul to be receptive of the new. Find things that help the process of empowering; it could be Music, Books or even Podcasts. For me, prayer helps my empowerment process as I navigate through conversations with God and the next phase of life. It is also important that you get energized from the REST period. Do things that make you happy; taking walks, being a foodie, reading, running etc. Pamper your body, soul and spirit. You matter!!

Surrender, Seek, Sustain You must surrender to the process of rest, how? Surrender is a form of submission. Submit completely to the process of REST. Give up all and focus on making your time out matter. Take times of rest as an essential element for good health. Whilst you surrender to the process and are going through your 3Es (Embrace, Empower, Energize), if you discover you need help; medically, spiritually, psychologically etc. please seek help. In these times where our stress levels are really high and our mental wellbeing can be adversely affected by our experiences, it is imperative to seek help if at any time you need it. Don’t be shy, it’s always helpful to your process when you can get some help. Once this help is paving the way to a happier and healthier you, please sustain this process till you are fully recovered. If you have also found the period of rest to be helpful, sustain it by deliberately closing out periods on your calendar for REST. Time Remember that to REST adequately, you need time, if you all you need are short periods quarterly, then by all means take it, if you need longer periods, go for it, you would be much better for it. BD is a published author, writer and speaker. She is the Editor and writer of GetFearlessly AunthenticTM Newsletter, a personal leadership newsletter that chronicles her life as a professional. She is involved in causes for women, young people and the vulnerable. She loves to read comics, watch comedy flicks, listen to music and play golf. Shares her love threefold- Love for God, Love for People, Love for Country. oge

www.ogemodie.com

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Health Today

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How to live your best life despite having a heart condition

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DR MONISOLA ADANIJO

o you or (your loved one) have been diagnosed with heart disease. It can be a very daunting diagnosis and the initial reactions are usually denial, anxiety grief and or depression.

The may be feelings of “what is the point of living” or you may feel “this is the end, I can’t live a normal life”. The good news is: there are ways to live your life to the fullest, while at the same time improving your health and general wellbeing.

1. Positive outlook: Our mental state affects the way our body reacts to illness. Having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body. Positive thinking means that you approach adversity in more positive way. You always look at the best case scenario, and it often starts with how you talk to yourself in your head, these thoughts can be positive or negative. Negative thoughts may arise from misconceptions that you create in your mind because of lack of information. The health benefits of positive thinking include: Increased life span, lower rates of depression, improved immunity, better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, better coping skills during hardships and times of stress. It’s also thought that positive and optimistic people tend to live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and don’t smoke or drink alcohol in excess.

2. Daily acceptable exercise. Exercise is one of the ways you can lower your blood pressure, your blood sugar and cholesterol. Exercise also helps strengthen the heart and increases blood supply to the heart muscles. It also improves your “feel good” hormones, which help to elevate your mood. Heart disease doesn’t stop you from exercising, you instead have a modified version that is compatible with the state of your heart as well as your fitness level. Your cardiologist will educate you on the kind of exercise to do to improve your health.

3. Take your medication and go for follow up. Your medication will only work if you swallow it! Many people stop taking medication after a while especially when they

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feel better and think they don’t need the drugs any longer.

Some also stop going for clinic visits with the doctor because they think they “know the drug doses and they have no complaints” . Doctor visits help assess the progress of treatment, and if you need more or less medication or any additional therapies. Adequate treatment is important to living with heart disease.

4. Get support. Surround yourself with family and friends that have your interest at heart. Having someone cheering you on during tough moments is very important for your mental health. Communities or support groups for people with heart disease help you interact with others on the same journey and let you know you are not alone. Vital information about heart disease and how to live with it is often shared in these groups. You can learn from their experience and this will help overcome fears you may have about your heart condition.

5. Avoid mood altering substances. (Alcohol, drugs, and so on). One may feel the need to “forget the diagnosis” and turn to mood altering substances to do so. These are directly harmful to the heart and other body organs and will worsen your condition. Some of these substances may interact with your medication and with unpleasant circumstances and worsen your condition on the long term.

6. Eat healthy. Getting a good daily dose of fruits and vegetables, avoiding food rich in fat, salt and preservatives also contribute to improving heart health. Moderation and portion control is also key.

7. Practice gratitude Find something in your day to be grateful for, even being alive is a great blessing and privilege. This will help improve your mood and general wellbeing. BD

dr adanijo fmcp a Cardiologist and the Medical Director at Naveen Healthcare.

With experience spanning over 20 years, she built her pathway in medicine and cardiology working in reputable medical centres such as Mecure Healthcare Limited, Barnes Hospital, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Chevron Hospital, Lagos to mention but a few. Her passion for preventive cardiology led her to convene the Naveen Healthcare 10,000 Hearts Project, in order to help individuals detect, protect and correct cardiovascular diseases. Skilled in cardiovascular diagnostic procedures and treatment, a fellow of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, a member of Nigerian Cardiac Society, American College of Physicians, Hypertension society of Nigeria and an international associate of the American College of Cardiology. She also has a Diploma in Leadership and Management from the University of Washington, USA. As a Continuous Medical Education (CME) provider, she has worked with the likes of Trigen Healthcare Solutions, Pfizer GP Academy, Diamond Helix Medical Assistance, Pfizer Pharmacy Academy, Global Health Project and Resources, Sanofi-Aventis Nigeria, Novartis Nigeria and Servier International. She has helped build capacity in Electrocardiogram interpretation, preventive cardiovascular diseases, management of heart failure, patient education and more. She launched the first TeleElectrocardiogram project in Nigeria and West Africa and does her part in contributing to good health and wellbeing, a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG3) of the United Nations. moni.adanijo@naveenhealthcare.com I www.naveenhealthcare.com I Instagram: https://Instagram.com/moni_adanijo I https://Instagram.com/naveenhealthcare I Linkedin: Monisola Adanijo

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SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Interview

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‘If you see something, say something’ - Oluwamayomikun Deji-Omotayo The dynamics are shifting, spaces are opening up and the conversation is expanding. There are people fighting to push sexual violence against women completely out of all spaces. The fight is strengthening more and more each day. Meet Emalohi Iruobe, the founder of Tribe XX Lab which is a co-working and wellness space in Lagos exclusively for female-led businesses to provide budding female entrepreneurs with an opportunity to thrive in their chosen paths.

In this interview, she shares with us Tribe XX Lab’s new initiative I GO TALK which is focused on exterminating silence surrounding sexual violence against women, especially female students in universities in Nigeria. The ‘XX’ in Tribe XX Lab represents the genetically assigned chromosome for females.

She discusses the power dynamics in sexual violence experienced by women in universities and seeks to educate more people on approaching these situations with the right mindset and equipping people all over with the knowledge to navigate this messy plane.

Emalohi stays sharing “Make una talk o!”

If you see something, say something.

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Interview

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SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Could you tell me about yourself and how Tribe XX Lab came to be? ey, I’m a human being interested in preventing and ending gender based violence against women especially in Nigeria. Education-wise, I am an attorney, professor and tribe xx lab was really just a direct response to the Nigerian Senate striking down the gender equality bill that came up in 2016 and just basically saying that women are not equal to men and passing a bill like that was against our cultural values.

I lived abroad for all these years and I moved back to Nigeria and it was just really difficult to get office space or a space where I could work without needing to pay one or two years rent up-front; without needing a male chaperone: you know, you have to be somebody’s wife, daughter, baby mama, whatever it is. So that led me to start Tribe XX Lab. I recognised the privilege I had even though I still needed a male chaperone to help me co-sign on a place but that’s how Tribe XX Lab started out; to give women a leg-up. It’s a community space where we share work, resources; we give access to funding.

Our current and pressing initiative right now is our grant from Voice. Voice Global is a donor agency that is supporting a project we created at Tribe XX Lab to prevent and end sex for grades in universities in Nigeria. After the BBC documentary by Kiki Mordi came out last year, that really spurred something in us to craft a project where we work through direct action to say this is not okay. You can’t keep doing this to women and young people in universities, they need to graduate because it’s not that you just stop this person from getting their grade, it’s that they don’t graduate and their access to employment is lower and that leads to poverty and that leads to generational poverty. And so the effect of sex for grades is far reaching and Voice believed in a project we wanted to do and funded this project called ‘I GO TALK’ and I named the project I GO TALK as a way to encourage people in Pidgin English that “make una talk o!”.

The idea is nobody says anything but me, I would talk. And it’s like a double-edged sword like “hey listen, if you do anything to me, I will talk and if I see you doing something to somebody else, I will talk”. So it’s basically saying don’t be a bystander. You know, another reason why rape culture exists and continues to thrive in our society and our communities is this idea of silence so our project with I GO TALK is to encourage people to speak up; not only for yourself but as a bystander: you saw a professor do this to someone, you should tell on the professor.

And so we are here to provide the support; legal support for victims, psychosocial support, and also encouraging them and letting them know that they have this community where they have access, and we are here to help them and fight for them.

Our project also involves us providing peer to peer counselling for victims, and now also explaining the new sexual harassment bill that passed in July. And what the bill was specifying was basically a response to the sex for grades and the Association of Universities was at the hearings almost everyday saying this bill should not pass. I mean, why would a student body group, that is supposed to care, say they shouldn’t pass a bill that protects students from sexual harassment.

Part of our projects in I GO TALK is explaining to stu-

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dents what their rights are under the law and letting universities also know what their responsibilities are. And it’s not an adversarial thing. So it’s not all students against the university. It is all of us; university students, faculty in Nigeria; against sex for grades, against rape culture, against gender based violence against women and girls and young people.

So that’s my long spiel (chuckles).

I GO TALK is a new initiative by Tribe XX Lab. What us the focus of the initiative, who are your target audience and why now?

So our target audience is actually everybody in Nigeria. But the people we want to help are our stakeholders: the people we want to empower with knowledge and skills to say no to my professor, you can do this or to say I have a right to an education our students in universities everywhere in Nigeria, grants focuses on University of Lagos, University of Ilorin, and University of Benin. But we are creating open source documents and programming that anyone can replicate on their campus and we are making it available for free.

This is because the idea is to let students be empowered to say, “Oh, actually, there’s a lot that says, you can’t ask me out on a date, Professor Whatever-your-name-is and if you keep failing me in this class without any reason, then these are the resources I have at my fingertips to get help”.

As regards to “why now?”; there’s never a bad time or too late time to tackle gender based violence.

Last year, in October, when the BBC Sex for Grades documentary came out, by the time we watched it and rewatched it and we saw the impunity with which these professors, who by the way are still teaching in University of Lagos (Unilag). Some of our stakeholders are students in Unilag, and we have two staff on our team, who are current students of Unilag, who have told us first hand that one of the professors in the documentary still teaches, and she had run into him at the ATM on the Unilag campus.

And so “why now?” is this is the time and with COVID19, you’re trying to pivot students who were in school to online learning and a lot of women are facing increased violence, because they are indoors and they’ve lost their source of income. So “why now?” is it can never be late. And after that BBC documentary and gathering all the information and trying to find a way to make sure that this documentary just doesn’t become one of the things that we just watch, and nobody does anything further. That was why we applied for this grant, created this program and were blessed and qualified enough to be granted the funding to actually carry out this program. And we have so many programs coming up under this push and campaign to exterminate silence (#xxterminatesilence), which we’ll be inviting you to. We have lots of panels we had a virtual festival during the lockdown, in which we engaged young feminist leaders from every group from Stand to End Rape (S.T.E.R Initiative) to Kiki Mordi (who actually did the BBC Sex for Grades documentary), to psychologists and doctors who talked about the far reaching effects of gender based violence in universities.

We did explainers about the sexual harassment laws, and we will be carrying out these programs till the end of the year. Some of them are going to be physical, some are going to be virtual. But the idea is to have a human impact and actually reach students who may have been affected by this,

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

to reach students who are about going to university to let them know, “Hey, listen, we have done this work for you, so if you encounter someone that does this to you, these are the resources for you” you know.

So really, that is why it is urgent and necessary to take action now and with the world changing the way the pandemic has made us realize a lot of our systems and the way we view the world do not really work, it is really urgent to keep changing and pushing this narrative that you can’t stop a whole person’s future and their life in school, who’s already even disadvantaged, by demanding sex for grades.

In the universities you mentioned you work with, there are no private universities, only public universities. Is there a reason for that?

So we actually did not include private universities in our pitch, not because they are excluded, but we realize that with private universities, it may be harder to receive access, because they are private. So when we made our pitch, we said these states and federal universities, however, it’s very, very important to note that our materials and our campaign and all the stuff that we’re doing is free for anyone to replicate, you don’t even have to write to us. All you need to do is to go on our website, look at the resources you need and replicate it, you can spread it out to your own network in your own university to say, “Hey, listen, if Professor does this to you, this is what you can do.”

There are helplines, the are resources, they can contact us directly, they can reach out for support, they can join our Whatsapp group where we blast out information on GVV networks, resources where you can connect and meet up, survival support meetings and legal support meetings.

So yeah, these are all the things that we have. So we it’s not that private universities are excluded. But penetration wise, we felt it might be easier to hold federal universities accountable than a private space.

But we do hope to penetrate private universities, I mean, we have University liaisons who work with us and we’re hoping to get some from a private university who are willing to say, “Hey, I will be a liaison at this university and spread the word about how sex for grades needs to end” in reality, not just because they passed a law now, you know, because that’s the other issue, you pass the law in Nigeria, but then there’s no enforcement. And this is why this work is also important that, if you don’t even know that something is illegal, or there’s recourse, then you kind of still battle with that demon.

Based on your experience and the journey so far, how would you describe the handling and the general culture towards sexual violence in Nigeria?

In general, the idea is that women who have faced sexual violence, were asking for it. There’s a lot of rape apology happening and so a re-education and relearning is required, especially with our male counterparts.

So a lot of men always want to say “not all men”, but that’s not the point. The point is, okay, so you, you’re not a rapist, your father is a professor, whatever. You’ve never heard of anyone that was sexually harassed in the university. But if you ask a young lady “has any professor ever pitched to you sex for grades?”, they all know at least one other person apart

Interview

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from themselves, who a professor has reached out to for sex in exchange for good grades. So it is very, very important to change the idea that women who are targeted, ask for it in any way. So we’ve noticed that there’s a lot of rape apology, there’s a lot of trying to excuse it and then the biggest thing is that people just want it to be swept under the carpet and they want you to shush about it. And this is why I GO TALK is the slogan, is the hashtag (#IGOTALK) we’re pushing on social media, with our platforms and our content, saying “Talk o! Talk! Talk! Talk!” because if everyone wants to keep it quiet, then how are we going to get rid of this terrible smell if we’re burying and hiding the bodies?

The general issue is that people would rather not talk about it so pushing it in their face to say no, this is really important to talk about, it’s what’s needed and it’s what’s happening in my experience in the work that I’ve been doing.

What are some of the issues women are facing in the university environment? And could you give specific examples?

Tribe XX Lab works with a lot of young people, Generation Z specifically. Everyone on our team went to university in Nigeria, and is a recent graduate so all of them have first-hand experience. One of our team members, while in University of Ilorin was constantly harassed by a professor who told her that he will never pass her project on till she sleeps with him and she actually stayed an extra year trying to avoid this professor. So we have these experiences of people constantly making students repeats classes they’ve already taking, because the student refuses to have sex with them, or a romantic relationship with them.

Second of all, we have also experienced students who come forward during our discussion forums. So we’ve have veteran discussion forums where students come and talk about the experiences and actually name professors that they’ve gone through this situation with.

In one of our discussion forums, there was this whole issue about “who cares? as long as you’ve passed out, and you managed to survive it, well, you don’t really need to bother trying to help other people behind”. And so the purpose of I GO TALk was to say, “well, you survived it, but did you like it?” You did not. So it is important to clear the way so that people coming behind us don’t have to go through it.

That way we clear the stink.

So these are some of the real challenges women face, they actually made to repeat full academic years. For example, one of our team members had a professor who was her department head, who had to sign off on everything in total for her to graduate. We’ve also had a volunteer who never graduated University all because of this sex for grades matter. So it’s a really serious issue.

And then there are also people who are of the school of thought that “Well, girls want to sell their bodies anyway. So the ones who wants to sell their bodies for grades, why should we care about them?” but that’s not the point.

They can never ever really be making the decision to sell their bodies because the relationship is not equal. Your professor always has power over you. So in the same way, it is still sex for grades, even if you are the one who offered yourself to your professor.

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Interview

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The issue of sexual violence against women is one that we’ve seen tends to draw lots of noise in a bid to drown out the voices that need to be heard. So have you encountered any direct resistance? And what are the recurring challenges that you with this initiative?

Okay, so direct resistance? No, not really, what we have seen is that men or those who identify as men are worried about being accused of rape, because a lot of the behaviors that are normalized in our society are actually assault and harassment. So we haven’t had any direct pushback. But we’ve had like a couple of Nigerian musicians block us on social media because we had called them out for statements they had made. What happened with the musicians was that we found their old tweets where they were promoting rape culture. Peruzzi was one of them and there were a couple of other social media influencers who used their own mouths to say they are rapists. So what we were trying to say was that this is not proper that you have this platform and you have people who look up to you, it is not proper to push and say that it is okay to rape women, that women are only objects for sex, to demand their bodies from them in exchange for anything. So that’s really been the only push back if I can call it push back. But I think it’s still momentum because we were able to bug him enough. Even Brymo blocked us and some others, which, at the end of the day, it means that we made some impact in doing that.

But I don’t think that stories about gender based violence make a lot of noise. The thing is that the issue is very, very widespread and so accepted that women are less, it is so accepted that “na so dem dey like am”, all of those things that helped to make it harder for women to come forward and say this happened to me, this was my experience, or I didn’t graduate because of this, or I should have graduated with honors, but I graduated almost barely at the bottom of my class.

One of the other experiences of one of our volunteers was that there was a a coalition with other professors. So the one professor who went into have a relationship with her, who she refused then poisoned all her other professors’ minds against her and so she was just consistently failing every class. And it’s just so stupid and annoying.

And if you watch the BBC documentary, one of the professor’s said to the girl that “when I’m done with you, I’ll pass you on to another professor.” So that is another level of trafficking that we’re not even talking about; that the student is such a commodity, and she has no power. And “until I say she can graduate, she cannot graduate. So I would rape her every time I want and when I am done, I will pass her on to another professor”.

That is a network of terroristic gender based violence happening in universities in Nigeria, and nobody is doing anything about it. I mean, after the BBC documentary by Kiki Mordi that has garnered over 5.1 million views on YouTube, how can the professors still be working?

So at the end of the day, more noise needs to be made, more re-education that women are not less, more taught that the power dynamics are stacked so much against women that you stop them from getting higher education, they dropout, their economic status goes lower, they become poor.

And as women continue to remain economically disadvanBusinessday.ng

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taged, the world will never reach the level of wealth it can.

70% of the informal sector and economy is run by women and 32% of those women are in university. Do you know have any uni girls have a side business either selling wigs, weave, whatever it is, their clothes, they resell, they are influencers; these are all these are all entrepreneurs making money. And then if you depress them, you mess with their minds and they can’t graduate, you are stealing the future of this person and their generation.

So it’s really, really a big thing. And our goal with this I GO TALK program is really to get as loud as possible, for this hashtag to go everywhere and for people to say “yes, I go talk now, Professor so and so did this to me”.

We had one of our panels and one of it was a three generation panel. We had women that were Baby boomers, Millennials and Generation Z exchanging ideas and conversation. And one of the Baby boomers said, this exact same thing happened to me when I was 17, 42 years ago. In Nigeria, I mean, just imagine that it is so widespread, it is so normal, it’s so normalized, that more noise needs to be made. I mean, look at how D’banj is still free. Like after everything that happened and that lady was courageous enough to step up and say “I go talk, D’banj did this to me.”

You know, so at the end of the day, more and more noise needs to happen. More people need to know that this is not okay. Now, more people need to not be desensitized to hearing about, rape or trauma of women and students in university. They need to understand that if these girls can graduate from university without hindrance, then they move up to the top with merits. They can get better jobs, they can get better NYSC postings.

It’s not just the grade. That is the problem. And that is the main reason why we are saying to everyone, even if it’s not you it happened to, speak out about it, shout so that other people will know and to stop the impunity with which this abuse happens.

What is I GO TALK’s vision moving forward; what can we expect to see in terms of growth and reach?

Okay, so our plan moving forward is we’re going to be having events in a week’s succession in which every day we’re doing panels, discussions, expressions, concerts, basically, mounting a campaign through arts, media, activism, community engagement, encouraging people to talk encouraging people to take the I GO TALK pledge on our website, encouraging men to take the pledge to be a “Manbassador for her”, encouraging our community to speak up to say, “Stop that! Don’t do that!”, to believe women.

Going forward, we would like to reach over 1000 university students just in Lagos State alone. And we’d like those numbers to replicate across all the states in Nigeria, especially through our virtual platform. Because the beautiful thing about digital media and digital spaces and digital communities is that their reach is exponential.

So our goal is for people everywhere to just join the pledge, take the pledge, and be reporting anonymously to be talking and saying “I go talk. I saw somebody do this today, I stopped it.” “Somebody tried to do this to me today, I stopped it”.

Supporting survivors, believing survivors, we also have funds to provide psychosocial support through survivor

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group counseling, where we talk about tactics with a psychiatrist, a Board Certified consultant psychiatrist who’s on our staff, we also have legal support clinics. So if there are students, who wants to take legal action, who have gone through any type of sexual assault or harassment in universities, we also have resources to help those students.

And finally, we want as many people, the governor, Lagos state to take part in the gender sensitivity workshops that Tribe XX will be putting on, which is basically understanding the sensitivity in gender and inherent bias against women that lets rape culture thrive.

And so with I go talk, we hope that we can reach just a critical mass of just 1000 women in Lagos only, and then an unlimited number of up to 10,000 across the country, we hope the hashtag #IGOTALK goes viral, because we know what we are doing is not only for Nigeria, anyone anywhere that has suffered or is suffering or wants to encourage their communities to stop the silence around rape culture, wants to encourage people to speak out so that when you remove the veil and silence, and this thing is put out in the open, maybe that will bring an end to it.

So when I go talk, we’re just encouraging everybody to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, attend our workshops, understand your inherent bias, and take the pledge and promise that in your circle, you be the influence to say “I go talk o, if you do that thing” or even the one that talks to say, “hey, do you know that thing you’re doing this is actually harassment?” So that is our goal and our vision. Because what I’ve also seen is a lot of people are sympathetic, but they don’t really know what to do so but you need to move from just sympathy to

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actually strength in numbers to organizing, it is enough that we sympathize. But now let’s organize for change.

Let’s stand by these women. Let’s explain these laws to them, let’s explain their rights to them. Let’s hold the government accountable. I would love for the governor to take Tribe XX workshops and make it mandatory for all the gender based violence and sexual violence units that Lagos state has created. I think even when the officers or law enforcement in charge of hearing about sexual based violence cases, knowing how to respond to victims, understanding that some things there’s nothing like family matter or “na school matter”. So this is our goal and our vision.

We’re also building a documentary of our work as we’re going on. And that documentary will premiere in December. And so there’ll be a lead up of activities almost every week, and weekend up to the month of December where we’re pushing out this campaign encouraging people to exterminate silence and to talk.

I’m really hopeful that we would make some serious and real impact because women need to be free to really reach their potential. I mean, with all the opposition and oppression women face, look at what they have achieved already.

So imagine if there was more freedom, you know? BD I GO TALK Website: www.igotalknow.com Instagram: @tribexxlab @triberinchief @igotalknow Businessday.ng

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Photo of the Week

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Kili Golf Tanzania Osse Sinare Content Creator | Youtuber | Photographer | www.ossegrecasinare.com Businessday.ng

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Human Resources

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THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNTRAINED STAFF OLUCHI OKAFOR “What if we train them and they leave” “What if we don’t and they stay? lmost every training organisation in the world has used the phrase above to impress upon training managers and organisations on the need to ensure that staff are regularly trained and retrained. So much so it almost starts to seem like a sales pitch, complete with the consequences of not making a purchase. But it’s as correct today as it has always been. Unfortunately, small and medium scale businesses do not see the value of such a time-wasting intangible like training for staff. For them, it’s impressive enough that they even spend on staff in terms of welfare and salaries. Some hours off spent in a classroom; that’s definitely not something that sounds appetizing enough to sink more funds into.

There is no doubt that SMEs are massive employers of labour in all sectors. A fact they do not get enough credit for quite frankly. While running business in an incredibly difficult economy, coupled with unfavourable policies and a generally unforgiving environment, I have had the pleasure of meeting exceptional business owners who treat their staff with more respect and attention than some multinationals.

The challenge is that for exceptional growth as an SME, service and experience are factors that cannot be ignored.

A smart business owner knows this. The challenge is actually imparting the same level of importance on staff. Generally, staff of companies has a detachment to the business itself and are there for understandable selfish reasons.

First on the list of reasons being their remuneration and other benefits that come directly to them. Courtesy is implied at the point of hiring, especially for customer facing staff. But there is a further need to buttress this time and time again, and to show the link between great experiences and productivity.

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Many organisations have made millions because of the right staff saying the right things to the right person. Many have also lost millions due to a wrong interaction. While employing the services of a trainer or training firm might seem like a lot of money, the resultant consequences of not hiring one can be dire. For a cash-strapped organisation, owner can look into self-training from free courses on the internet via sites like Edx, Coursera or Udemy, and then cascade to staff. For members of staff that are more educated, look into registering them for same free courses and getting their feedback on learnings in form of reports or policy and standard improvements.

Most importantly, draw a simplistic link between the levels of service offered and profitability of the company. If service is bad, customers will not return. Worse still, they will share their horrible experience with at least 8 – 10 people. If the customer doesn’t return and then dissuades others from coming, it’s a chain of events that spell doom for the situation of the company. Bad service also serves as a PR disaster for a company as reputation is everything, regardless of the industry.

Staff can elevate your business when you hire right. That elevation can double or even triple if you invest in them and do not expect that the skills and attributes you hired them with will stay same, months or years later. Training is not a luxury anymore. In this new normal, service is what will stand you out amongst a sea of competitors. Investing in your staff ensures that you show your organisation as forward thinking and competent enough to handle the needs of your new and existing customers. BD okafor is a customer experience consultant and has trained and consulted for

over 100 SMEs on how to improve their processes, retain happier customers and deliver great experiences every time. She is also the General Manager at Multimix Academy, Nigeria’s foremost supply chain management institute.

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Interview

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

‘Be persistent long enough for luck to meet you on the journey’ - Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, CEO of 54gene LEHLÉ BALDE DR. ABASI ENE-OBONG is the founder and chief executive officer of 54gene – A health technology company advancing the state of healthcare through large-scale discovery and translational research, advanced molecular diagnostics, and inclusive clinical programs for the benefit of Africans and the global population. 54gene recently closed a 15 million-dollar investment that increased the company’s total investment to 20million.

Could you shed more light on 54gene’s focus?

At 54gene, we decided that Africa needed a research and development company as there aren’t a lot of companies like these on the continent. When you do find research facilities, they’re typically public NGOs. It was our belief

that we could spur a biotech revolution where as a continent we can study our own genetic variation. Genetics is now leading the way to understanding the cause of diseases, finding new drugs or understanding the reasons why certain drugs work on some populations and not work on others. We wanted to build a company that could lead the way in doing that in Africa. We wanted a company that could potentially discover or have some breakthroughs that improve the lives of Africans and people all over the world. The funding we received is helping us build the right infrastructure to further support our research objectives. For instance, we recently set up one of the largest genomics facilities in Africa and we are also about to set up a Biosafety level 3 research lab that would facilitate the study of infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, Lassa fever by our in-house experts which could provide a cure that can help improve lives.

You mentioned that you just returned from Ogun state, what is 54gene doing in terms of testing capacity in collaboration with the NCDC? When the crisis hit Nigeria, our first strategic approach was to develop a sustainable solution. One of the ways we did this was to raise funds from some of our collaborators in order to improve the testing capability in public labs and not just private labs. Through the funds raised, we bought PCR machines which were given to the NCDC and some state governments. We wanted public facilities to be equipped, not

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Interview

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

just for this period but for the future, to help with surveillance and serve as a future support measure to protect us from the next epidemic. Our next action was to leverage our internal molecular capabilities to increase the testing capacity of the country. 54gene has a molecular diagnostics lab in Lagos state that was used for research purposes primarily but we converted it to a COVID-19 lab for this period to ramp up testing. We have partnered with several state governments - Ogun, Ekiti, Kano as well as private sector companies like FCMB, Arnergy, Argentil etc to set up mobile molecular diagnostics laboratories and we have received accreditation from the NCDC to provide testing facilities in these various states.

As you may know, Senegal is planning to create a testing kit that would cost one dollar, how do you plan to make testing accessible in Nigeria?

I think because of the low testing capacity we’ve had in the country, there has been an issue in targeting prioritised individuals who urgently need the test. The NCDC developed a prioritisation metric to determine this based on their symptoms. The first step for us was to support the NCDC and the states our mobile labs are in to ensure we target those priority individuals who are already showing symptoms first. I must commend Senegal for such a brilliant step, it is a win for the African continent as a whole.

You make a good point when you say we need to work and do exactly what Senegal is doing a ‘need for blended finance.’ What is your suggestion concerning the private and public sector working together?

It is very important that businesses repurpose what they already have and create sustainability. We are able to do what we do because of our partnerships with the private sector such as FCMB that funded thousands of tests in Ogun state, Arnergy that helped in installing solar energy to our labs and gave us three-months solar power for free and some other partners. Also, launching in Kano was also a private sector collaboration with Flour Mills of Nigeria, the company helped tremendously with providing PCR machines, oscillators, testing reagents and others.

From your professional experience, what do you envisage will happen in the next coming months, do you think our interview session will still be on zoom? (smiles) I can’t say what it will be like because we still have a lot to learn from the pandemic as research is ongoing. But for the

next 2 years, there would be a few modifications in research on drugs and vaccines that would hopefully be approved at the end of this year or next year. We would also still be in some form of quarantine or the other. The coming years I see would begin to expand our knowledge on the essential services and workers to employ. Manufacturing companies will have to ensure that their factories are uncontaminated so that they can keep running. I also envisage the safety measures that would be carried out and the clearance that would be needed before traveling. For a country like Nigeria, we need to find new mechanisms that will ensure that people are protected but keep the economy running.

Share your entrepreneurial journey thus far with us?

I started my journey as an entrepreneur while in school. As I started my career, I continued running my business until my career became my business. While studying for my BSc at the University of Calabar, I set up a car wash service for several hotels and hired people but had to stop because it was affecting my studies. After that, I set up a student cinema business where I downloaded movies at cybercafes and played them at the student theatre. I’ve always been entrepreneurial at heart. In 2013 as I was wrapping up my PhD, crowdfunding had just started so I tried to set up a crowdfund for Africa.

I lost a lot of money at that time as I had to set it up using sophisticated infrastructure which I couldn’t access. In the same year, I devised a plan to move to the US, get a Masters in Business, work as a Management Consultant for pharmaceutical companies as a way to gain experience and then raise money from Silicon Valley to build the largest healthcare company in Africa. When I moved back to Nigeria, I also consulted for state and federal governments, USAID and other organisations in the healthcare space.

While consulting, I discovered that there was a lack of molecular diagnostics capabilities in the country and knew this was what I needed to solve. All these led to me starting 54gene.

So 54gene is like the 54 countries in Africa?

(Laughs) Yes, correct.

Share the lessons you have gained in your journey so far?

Well, one important lesson I have gained is: ‘Discipline.’ You need discipline to start, run and finish. When we have dreams, we tend to view it in complex ways, when all we need is to start at a gradual pace and simplify. I have learnt that now. When I couldn’t raise the money to build a molecular diagnosis,

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I thought about how I could create a service that can put me in that value chain and rapidly integrate building the online portals and I was able to get in and start as a result and now, we have a molecular diagnostics lab. The bottom line is stretch yourself with the wisdom and knowledge needed to grow.

Audience Questions From Adedayo: There is a rumour that says people of high melanin or the African descent could not contract the virus at the initial spread of the virus.

What is your opinion on this?

Well, I guess the rumors have been debunked with the rate of coronavirus infections in Africa, US and the UK and the number of people who have died due to the pandemic.

There are studies that the rate of infection can be slower in hotter climates, but that does not mean the virus isn’t infectious. We’re still trying to learn more about it.

Do you think we would get easy access to testing in Nigeria? Let’s use the Senegal case as an example.

Okay, let me say something about the Senegal test. I don’t think the testing kits have been finalized or reviewed for approval by the regulatory bodies. There is no doubt that Senegal is doing a fantastic job, however, it is better we take things easy and not rush. Our lasting safety is what matters.

How much of reality should businesses communicate to their investors and employees at this time?

Well, different methods for different companies. One of the things I did was communicate the severity of the disease to my team and how it was going to affect the economy.

I laid down all the facts and was honest and transparent with them. It’s always a good idea to inform your stakeholders so they can work on contingency plans.

How do you keep innovation at the heart of your company during these times?

Well, you need to tell them the capacity you require. We started working on our funding before Covid-19; some people think that we were just lucky to close the funding during Covid19 because other investors were pulling out of their commitment. One thing I always ask myself is: Am I pushing my team too far out of what we are set to do or am I building in them new capabilities? It depends on how you see it; however, you need to work within that which you are capable of doing. For a company to be innovative, it needs to think of working on the processes to make life easier. BD Businessday.ng

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Music and Culture

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SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

‘When I got into radio production, a lot of producers were either too scared or too lazy to try.’ - Tyrone Grandeur EKINE TAMUNOTONYE

IFEOLUWA FALOLA

Advertising goes a long way in elevating brand success for any brand, and in a country such as Nigeria, broadcast media remains one of the most viable mediums of advertisement.

The voices we hear on radio and TV promoting brands and advertising products often shape our perception of brands. In many more ways than not, voiceover production and brand advertisement have influenced pop-culture In Nigeria. Brands now look to musicians and pop-culture icons as ambassadors for their products. Evidence of this is, is the recent Guinness Smooth campaign that featured Fireboy DML, Beverly Naya, social media icon, Oli Ekun – popularly known for his “Agba” skits on Twitter.

We speak with Tyrone - music producer, Voice over producer & Brand Strategist, and Head of Programs at Cool FM Nigeria on the influence of the voice-over industry on brands in media and outside of media.

Did you ever think you will end up in radio or broadcasting? And if. Not what did you think you will be doing with your life? ot at all. I studied microbiology actually and even though I wasn’t hoping to be in broadcasting I knew I was never going to be stuck at a lab practicing, I didn’t like blood but I liked the radio and listened when I could.

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It’s said the signature of a radio station is its sound.

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How have you been able to combine and create independent sound effects for the biggest media houses in broadcasting?

When I got into radio production, a lot of producers were either too scared or too lazy to try. It was easier to just cut effects and promos from pre-existing audios done by foreign radio stations and producers and then add a local station slogan and boom – you had something. But that “something” was not original to you and could be heard in many other stations and with many other productions. My

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professional pride just wouldn’t let me do that. I wondered why they wouldn’t just create their own and make a unique sound that can always be traced back to you. So I started and trained myself and used the limited resources around me at the time to make magic and basically revolutionized radio and TV audio production in Nigeria.

Back then, a lot of people used to think the stations I worked for were subscribed to some foreign production house. It was the “foreign” production but with Nigerian voices. It got them thinking, perhaps these productions were done in Nigeria. for those who took the extra effort to find out, they did and were amazed. One person talks to another and I ended up changing audio production for a lot of entertainment houses (radio/TV) in Nigeria. Can’t mention names due to the nature of the deals.

Do you really know how instrumental you are, or the immense role you play in the commercial aspect of storytelling for brands?

The brand story is an important aspect of creating and brand narrative and indeed a brand voice which in turn hugely influences the public perception of a brand. As I have learned over the years, perception is many times more important than reality. A brand can be the best at creating a given product or providing a service but if it’s not perceived as such nor occupy that mind space, it’s

similar to winking in the dark. Creating that narrative and perception through various media is what I now specialize on.

Bringing ideas to life is something I’ve always been passionate about. Whether it’s a song, radio jingle, radio drama series, producing a concert, scoring a movie, creating a TV commercial or social media campaign, I’m happy to do it and the satisfaction of my clients is my “orgasm”.

Who was the first major client you got for producing jingles?

Major client, I’d say the Tolaram group: makers of Indomie,

Power oil, Nobel Carpet, Hypo, Munch It, Minimie chin chin and noodles, Magik fruit drink etc. A very illustrious group.

They pull no punches when it comes to advertising and supporting laudable causes. I’m so proud to be associated with them and to be a part of telling their brand story for several years now But before them, I was working other brands off and on with more of my focus on radio and production at the time.

What inspires your creative process?

First is clarity. If the brand handlers are very clear on the message what they want to pass across, I’m a creative and will certainly be able to find ways to communicate their ideas. Also the concept of garbage in and garbage out has never been truer at any moment in my life than now.

I often occupy my mind with creative concepts of others that I admire as this sparks up your own creativity and gets the juices flowing.

Do you think the voice over industry is a viable market or still need structure and support?

It certainly needs some structure but like everything in Nigeria, you have to find a way to benefit from the chaos.

There are many benefits you get from a well-structured industry that don’t seem to be obtainable here. Like when I’ve worked with foreign clients, I get paid a “usage” fee for as long as the stuff ’s in use. That’s not the case here but hey, we move. BD

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Technology

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

The Business Leader’s Guide to Launching AI Chatbot Programmes TOLU ADELOWO

and making their opinions matter.

2. Know Your Customer The second stage of managing a chatbot project is understanding the habits and preferences of the end users.

Understanding your customers helps informed decisions like what interfaces to the chatbot can interact on and how the conversation flow should be designed.

For example if most of the end users prefer WhatsApp over telegram then an organisation can better focus its efforts on developing a chatbot for the WhatsApp channel rather than develop for all platforms.

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rom Ada to Leo to Temi, Artificial Intelligent (AI) Chatbots are increasingly finding their way into the wish list of business leaders. I am still amazed at the number of organizations that are just starting to dip their toes into AI chatbots, given the high costs of maintaining customer service centers for Africa’s large population.

A Chatbot is a software that can simulate a conversation (or a chat) with a human user in natural language t h rou g h m e s s a g i ng app l i c at i ons (whatsapp, mess enger), websites, mobile apps or through the telephone.

Chatbots are important for Africa at this time because a number of factors have aligned perfectly to make Chatbot programmes strategically important.

Such factors are: • the Covid-19 pandemic forcing most organizations to rethink how business should be run virtually, • the emergence of messaging platforms like whatsapp as the primar y communication channel amongst Africans • The high cost of providing personalized services to our large population in Africa • The success of the SMS/USSD banking bots.

• The increasing number of customers willing to transact and buy over messaging platforms like whatsapp.

Most businesses in Africa can benefit from an AI Chatbot programme however the ‘perceived’ complexities can scare many managers. Some managers that considered launching AI chatbot programmes in the past may have been turned off by all the technical terms like Natural Language Processing, APIs etc that technology professionals like to throw about.

However, a Chatbot programme is much more than the underlying technology. If anything, AI Chatbot programmes are 80% process and 20% technology. It is far more important to get the process right, than to pick the hottest AI technology tools. In this 3part article I present an easy to follow step by step guide for every business leader looking to start or manage an AI Chatbot programme in their enterprise.

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1. Start with why As with any product, a chatbot should solve a fundamental strategic problem for an enterprise. It is unfortunately very easy for organizations to fall into the me-too trap and launch AI Chatbot programmes because competitors are doing it. The results from such me-too chatbots are usually muted.

It is important to have solid ‘Why’ behind any AI Chatbot programme and as such, a solid business case must be made before starting to talk about technology.

As part of defining the business case, managers must define the benefits for the two sides of the conversation. The benefits to the customer and the benefits to the organization.

Benefits to the business are usually based around 3 key factors: • Increasing Revenues (e.g New Sales Channel) • Reducing Costs (e.g reduction in customer service costs) • Minimizing Errors (e.g automation) Benefits to the customer are usually based the core behaviors that drive customers in digital interactions (see Digital Transformation PlayBook book by David L. Rogers). These are • Access - providing faster and always on experience for customers • Engage - interacting with customer one-on-one • Customize - providing persoanlized services to an ever increasing divergent customer base • Connect - giving the customer a voice

3. Determine the Primary Role of the Chatbot “We want the Chatbot to be able to do everything”.

This is a common statement we hear from clients when discussing chatbot projects. This of course is not possible! A Chatbot must at least start off doing one thing and doing it very well. For success in any chatbot project, organisations must determine early on what the primary role of the Chatbot should be. Making this decision early on helps guide the team in later stages and helps keep any AI Chatbot project on track.

In the book, ‘A guide to AI chatbot Project management’, the author (Igor Luzhanskiy) presents the six different purposes of chatbots. These are: • Sales – for helping customers make purchases.

• Lead generator - for keeping users engaged and converting leads.

• Interface - for providing access to external services.

• Informant - acts as a directory service for providing information.

• Helper - customer service bots that help users solve their queries and issues.

• Psychologist - for providing advice and counseling. BD adelowo is the Chief Executive Officer of Cousant

Limited – a Technology Consulting Company that provides Advisory, Technology and Talent Solutions for clients. Tolu is also an accomplished author that has written two e-books which are the ‘The Case for decentralized workplaces in developing economies’ and ‘The Rise of the Emerligent Economies - How African economies can win the AI war’.

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'Create products that people need something that solves a genuine problem' - Ehime Akindele MRS. EHIME EIGBE-AKINDELE is the founder and CEO of Sweetkiwi Frozen Yogurt. She holds a degree in Business Information Technology and International Studies from London Metropolitan University. EigbeAkindele has also completed an Entrepreneur Management program at the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan-African University in Lagos. Ehime Eigbe-Akindele is a dairy explorer, entrepreneur, and a remarkable pioneer of frozen yogurt in the African market. Her brand ‘Sweetkiwi Frozen Yogurt’ Sweetkiwi Frozen Yogurt is an enterprise that provides premium and healthy frozen yogurt using the freshest, finest and richest ingredients.

The brand specializes Frozen Yogurt, Smoothies, Parfaits, and Waffles, and more. It’s a healthier alternative dessert to the calorie type of ice cream. Through Sweetkiwi, Eigbe-Akindele wants to promote and create a trend in the Nigerian community about the importance of healthy eating habits.

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Interview

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Who is Ehime away from the SweetKiwi Business? hime away from Sweetkiwi Founder is a new mom who is figuring out being a mom. I love music, love to dance, love tennis and I love movies I should be a professional movie critic. I also love food, so I am always trying out new recipes.

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You have been a recipient of grants recently, What has the process been like?

I have been very blessed lately and won several grants that we applied for. I think the key is learning our story most authentically. We won the VISA & I Fund Women Black Women-Owned Grant, The Red Backpack Grant by Sara Blakely & Spanx, The ‘Do You’ grant

by Digital Undivided, and a grant for winning the Black Girls Ventures Pitch.

God has truly favored us in this season.

We typically apply and go through the process, some require pitching, some do not so it is important to practice being able to pitch your business and tell your story in a way that resonates with your audience.

Sweet kiwi Launched CPG Products in Whole Foods – Washington D.C. Congratulations! It must have been an incredible experience. Share your experience with us?

It was definitely an incredible experience to be able to see our products on the shelf and see my face on freezer doors. A very humbling experience! We launched our products in the US last year and we were already in smaller grocery stores, so it was great being able to pitch to the Whole Foods Team, and being accepted was the biggest validation of my career. I remember not being able to sleep the night before we were meant to launch, I woke up early the next morning and drove into the store, it was so surreal seeing our products on the shelves.

What are some of your future plans for Sweet Kiwi?

Sweetkiwi is going to continue growing our vision of creating the best tasting lowcalorie desserts and food products. We are currently backward integration to create more value within the local Nigeria dairy chain. We will be putting out more dairybased consumer packaged goods in our bid to support the growth of the local dairy Businessday.ng

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industry. We will keep growing in the US market and start looking to explore other markets in Africa and Europe.

You are young and getting it, what are some of the business lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship.

Keep innovating, never be stagnant.

Committing all my plans into the hands of God. Be unrelenting about your dream but flexible in your methods.

With your years of experience as an entrepreneur, what advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs in the food and beverage ( CPG) business?

My advice is to create products that

“

A business born for just profits will find it difficult to connect with consumers

“

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people need, something that solves a genuine problem people have and you are already successful. A business born for just profits will find it difficult to connect with consumers. In everything you do, look at how you can add value to your customers, your team, and with a community focus.

The name of your flavors are unique, is there a story behind each flavor?

Our flavors are created through listening research, we listen to what consumers are saying and we create flavors that meet their needs.

What are some of the advice you

would give your younger self?

I would tell my younger self to trust God more and not worry so much. Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. - Prov 16:3 As a woman in business with spanning years of experience, what would you advise the younger generation?

Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. I believe women can have it all, you just have to be flexible, prayerful, and wise. Wisdom is what we all need!

You have been vocal about the government assisting SMEs in Nigeria - Kindly give us specific points on how the government can assist?

The government needs to do a better job of removing the tax burdens and harassment small businesses face, instead, they should be creating programs to support the growth and longevity of small businesses. This same government offers more support to international brands than their own home grown brands, they get more grants and government funded loans however the tax burdens then to fall on the small businesses who they do not show any support to. Till date the 50bn Covid loans have yet to reach the majority of businesses that need the money and there is no transparency on how said funds were applied. SMEs who even received the funds got only 10% of the amount promised so there is a lot that really needs to change in governance.

With expansion comes more responsibilities. Will you be more focused on Sweet Kiwi in the states than in Nigeria, which is more profitable?

Sweetkiwi is one company regardless of location so I am focused on Sweetkiwi. BD is a detailed strategist and a communications expert. She is the founder of So.MeSolutions, a communications company that has helped a significant number of brands boost their possibilities including Sterling Bank, South African Tourism, MasterCard Foundation, Unilever, Filmhouse Cinemas, Sweetkiwi to name a few. Liz has been recorded among the100 most inspiring women in Nigeria (2017).

She was likewise interviewed by CNN where she spearheaded one of the most insightful events on Digital marketing tagged Dedicated to Digital. osho

Opportunities

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

Opportunities in the midst of a Storm?

FAVOUR OLAREWAJU

A

nthony and his sister, Joyce were passing by a fashion store where attractive clothings were on display.

Sadly, their excitement was cut short by a debit alert of card maintenance fee and a gloomy reminder of their reality red account balance as they barely have any savings or investment.

It is no hidden fact that individuals, businesses and even government agencies are reeling from the negative effects of the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic.

F e a r, a n x i e t y a n d uncer tainty became the new norm as governments worldwide had to make the difficult decision to lock down their countries and restrict movements both locally and abroad. While still trying to deal with the numerous rising cases and deaths around the world, companies desperately sought a way to stay afloat in this imminent crisis by slashing salaries and laying off workers given the now stifled revenue streams.

For a country like Nigeria, which was yet to fully recover from the 2016 recession, coupled with the already high poverty, unemployment and inflation levels to mention a few, many Nigerians have been relegated to greater financial difficulties and distress with no foreseeable signs of definite hope.

Yet, surprisingly in the midst of this severe crisis, quite a number of famous persons have been trending for their luxurious lifestyles.

Three months ago, by the end of May, the internet was on fire about the newly acquired mansion in Banana Island Lagos of popular Nigerian musician, Davido, worth $1.5 million (over N400 million).

More recently, just last week, news was everywhere about the 3 Ferrari Portofino cars that famous billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola bought for his three daughters, DJ Cuppy, Temi and Tolani Otedola.

A Ferrari Portofino is said to be worth

over $200,000. The recent BusinessDay weekender edition estimates the three Ferrari cars to be worth N386 million.

Also, just last weekend, on September 19, the media mogul, Linda Ikeji spent a fortune buying a 2020 Range Rover Autobiography, 85 shoes and 35 designer bags to mark her 40th birthday celebration.

Well, how much is too much? While some term this as extravagance, everyone is entitled to their choice of lifestyle particularly if they can afford it.

Although a larger proportion of

Nigerians are poor while relatively fewer persons are wealthy, everyone, including the richest Nigerian, Dangote (with net worth of $9.9 billion according to Forbes) has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in one way or the other.

So, the big question here is, how do we bridge this gap and navigate these trying times to be relatively better off and ensure financial security irrespective of economic and social crisis? On a regular crisis-free day, one could argue that purchasing products that are valued in dollars can be much cheaper than otherwise.

However, in the current global crisis, dollar funds are tied down due to unstable exchange rates and to prevent domestic currencies from losing its value. So, relying on dollar-naira valuation is quite limited.

This comes without the saying that saving during this pandemic is not worth it, rather money should be wisely invested as

33

investment appreciates in value over time. So, what viable business opportunities exist that are not money-draining, you may ask.

Mutual funds This is a collection of funds pooled in multiple assets including stocks, bonds and other securities. It is one of the latest trending games in town as it is less costintensive and one can start investing with as little as N1,000-N5000. Reliable and proven fund managers include Stanbic IBTC Nigerian equity fund, FBN money market fund of First bank and Legacy Money Market Fund (LMMF) of the First City Asset Management Limited among others.

Land/Real Estate This is the booming sector in recent times.

Most Nigerians are not aware of the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) which is a collective investment scheme that pools money to invest in real estate and mortgages.

Like, mutual funds, REITs is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Value can be gained on real estate by renting a part or all of the purchased property using the 2% rule according to Bigger Pockets which states that monthly rent should be at least 2% higher than the purchase price.

Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum) This is another viable and thriving ventures that involve a bit more money but is a highly profitable opportunity. 2017 was the year that cryptocurrency really skyrocketed as its market value grew from $21bn in March 2017 to $454bn in September 2020.

Bitcoin for one is valued at about N4.07 million (or $10,510) and Ethereum at N132,072 (or $340.8).

Here, there is no minimum investment amount as this depends on the investment platform. For instance, on coinbase, bitcoin can be bought for $2. BD is an Economics and Markets Analyst at BusinessDay Media Nigeria. In addition to writing content surrounding economic and financial issues, she is a researcher and pre-doctoral research fellow.

She is also a masters’ degree holder from Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria. She is an active member of a charity organization known as Clothe A Person and strongly believes in making the world a better place by proffering solutions to societal problems through research analysis. olarewaju

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Diary of the BusinessDay Newsroom

34

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

THE DIARY OF A YOUNG EXECUTIVE

Onyinyechi Eze, Head Digital Services, BusinessDay Media SAMUEL ANYANWU What was the last thing you did that requires courage? conversation: explaining that in technology there will be incidents, however workarounds exist to ensure uptime. This took a lot of courage in an industry that demands 100% uptime.

A

What have you done recently for the first time?

I did a photoshoot for the first time. I also tried squid for the first time and it tasted like fish but not the normal kind although I tried to pretend it was normal. I am also learning how to play the piano at this age.

What apps do you use the most often on your phone?

The most would be Daily bread and Apple note app, which is synched to my iPhone and Mac book pro and iMac in the office so I don’t miss any of the notes I take every day. I use twitter to find out what’s buzzing and Instagram for relaxation. I also use banking apps for daily transactions. I also used LinkedIn to keep up with what's happening in my field of work, conferences, webinars and get motivational notes.

What is the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up?

The first thing I do is check my phone for the time, urgent messages and then my app, the Daily bread app.

Who is your guru?

I have had so many. In my field there are more men than women and asides Businessday.ng

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their backlash I would have to say Mark Zuckerberg is one of my mentors. He makes me wake up and think about how old I am, what am I doing with myself and what innovative thing I can do to solve a need.

What do you crave at the end of your typical long day?

I crave some chocolate chip ice-cream.

Something crunchy, sweet or sour.

What song is currently playing in your head?

The last song I listened to was a Christian song titled ‘Scars’. The song currently playing in my head is ‘singing in the rain...’

by Gene Kelly.

Is there anything that you wish to understand more about?

I wish I understood that not everything is black and white; and there are other colours in this world. This is especially for me that grew believing that there is only good and evil. Understanding that everyone is different while appreciating everyone's individuality. I wish I knew earlier in life how to accommodate people. Learning not to compare a

lot because things can be different and things can be beautiful in its own accord.

How would you define success?

Success to me is, mapping out a goal and achieving it within a set time and a set place.

Are there any ideas in your head that you can't really seem to shake off?

The idea of the world being a better place if people learn to show love. I believe a lot of people take a lot of pride in division and discord, but if we all work together the world would be a better place.

In your mind, what is worth paying for?

Education, holidays, good food or...?

Education and training are worth paying for. With education I can get a lovely holiday and the best food anytime.

To whom did you address your last hand written letter/note to?

The last letter I wrote was a note to myself in 2015. It was a note to tell me what I want to achieve in a year, and I still refer to it every year when I remember it. BD

Young Professional

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

35

THE COURAGE TO DO BIG THINGS AS A YOUNG PROFESSIONAL ADEDOYIN JAIYESIMI

W

hen you hear the word ‘pioneer’ what comes to your mind? One of the official definitions of the word is to be the first to use or apply a new method, area of knowledge, or activity. When I hear the word ‘pioneer’, a picture of someone who is courageous and fearless comes to mind.

I haven’t always been someone who loves to stray far from her comfort zone. Yet, I look back at my career of over eight years and I marvel at how I was able to make some big moves – moves that stretched me and took me into new territories professionally.

Many times when people refer to me as being courageous, I am quick to remind them that I am simply a woman who is curious enough to ask “why not” and take a baby step despite having uncontrollable palpitations. There is a quote about courage that I love so much and I heard it first from the movie, Princess Diaries.

If you ever watched that movie, you already know the quote – “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

My question to you is this – what is more important to you than the fear you feel.

As a young professional, I have had to deal with the fear of being broke. It was quite paralysing. You would think that because I wanted to make a lot of money, I would have charged a good amount for my services. Nope! That’s not what happened.

That fear also tainted my professional self-worth. “Don’t let me charge too much. I don’t want to scare them away.” I remember many sleepless nights spent working on briefs that only brought in little, not because I couldn’t have earned more but because I simply did not have the courage to ask.

There are many, many examples – not pitching for opportunities because I kept wondering if I was good enough, not asking for a pay rise despite the fact that I brought great value to the organization, not promoting my work and achievements because I thought it was better for my work to speak for itself.

As I started to review my capacity and potential with the status quo I experienced, I knew I could not do great things if I continued to allow fear to limit me.

So what did I do?

I became intentional about pushing past the fear and doing the

things I was afraid to do. It was daunting at first but those baby steps led me into an ocean of global opportunities. Fearfully (and also cluelessly), I pitched for my first project with a top tier bank and I won that pitch! Fearfully, I reached out to a senior executive and asked to volunteer to handle communications for a renowned conference. That particular step changed things significantly for me in my professional journey. The list is endless but one thing remains constant, when I feel the fear, I ask myself, “What is the worst that will happen if I choose to go for it?”

Usually, the worst is receiving a ‘no’ or being ignored. But I have realized that getting a rejection is not the end of the world. The flip side holds much more potential for me and for that reason, I step out of my comfort zone and do the thing I feel scared to do.

What is that thing that you’ve been mulling over for months? A promotion. A job opportunity with a global organization? Starting your business? Positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry? Becoming a contributor or writer? It’s time to stop over-analysing and take that baby step that will get you to your desired end goal. It’s time to go for it!

Remember, doing big things requires courage and courage does not mean you will not feel fear. It means you will do what you need to do in spite of and despite the existence of that fear.

So just in case you missed the point of this piece, go for it! BD is the Chief Communications Consultant at The Comms Avenue, a capacity building and knowledge exchange platform for leading and innovative communications professionals across the world. The Comms Avenue offers high-level knowledge sharing meetings and training programs for communications professionals and corporate organizations. jaiyesimi

She has vast experience consulting for international organizations and top corporate executives and specializes in providing strategic communications consulting for development, philanthropic and corporate organizations, helping them to develop and implement a robust communications strategy.

Adedoyin has successfully executed projects for the W Community, Women in Business, Management and Public Service (WIMBIZ), Leading Ladies Africa, Heritage Bank, African Philanthropy Forum amongst others. She has been profiled on She Leads Africa, Leadership Newspaper and Lionesses of Africa.

She was also featured as one of The Spark’s Visionary Women in 2019.

Instagram: @adedoyinjaiyesimi I Email: adedoyin@thecommsavenue.com

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Sports

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

37

ANTHONY NLEBEM

Premier League summer spending far above other top leagues

P

remier League summer spending was only slightly down from recent years but it was much higher than Europe's other top leagues, as the transfer window closed. Premier League clubs spent £1.218bn and £158m down on last year's £1.376bn, says investment company Carteret Analytics.

There were 12 deadline-day signings on Monday, 5 October - the fewest total in recent years.

Arsenal signed Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey for £45.3m in the biggest deal of the day.

The deadline was later than usual as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the season starting later. The previous two Premier League windows had closed before the more traditional start to the season in August.

"Total expenditure on player acquisitions is significantly down across all the top five European leagues against the five year average - ranging from -7% in the Premier League to -46% in La Liga," said London-based investment company Carteret Analytics.

"It is a fair assumption that Covid-19 has caused this significant contraction in the player transfer market in this window."

Everton brought in Norwich defender Ben Godfrey for £25m in the second most lucrative transfer of the day.

Manchester United recruited Porto left-back Alex Telles for £13.6m, former Paris St-Germain striker Edinson Cavani on a free transfer and teenage wingers Amad Diallo and Facundo Pellistri for a combined £28m.

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38

Sports Today Health

However they did not sign long-term target Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund. Leeds bought Rennes winger Raphinha for an initial £17m. Everton signed Roma goalkeeper Robin Olsen on loan and loaned winger Theo Walcott to Southampton.

Fulham landed Manchester City defender Tosin Adarabioyo on a three-year deal, while Chelsea winger Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lyon defender Joachim Andersen joined the Cottagers on loan.

Arsenal midfielders Lucas Torreira (Atletico Madrid) and Matteo Guendouzi (Hertha Berlin) and Manchester United defender Chris Smalling (Roma) were among the players to leave the Premier League.

Championship club QPR signed former Nottingham Forest winger Albert Adomah and Benfica forward Chris Willock. Premier League spending was more than three times as high as in La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 and double that in Serie A, said Carteret. The group advises three Premier League clubs, and another 12 leading sides from around Europe and the rest of the world, on potential new signings and transfer finances.

Notably Premier League clubs spent £820.2m more on bringing players to the division than they recouped for selling players to other leagues - higher than the five-year average. By contrast La Liga (£58.6m) and Bundesliga (£8.9m) received more transfer fees than they spent this summer.

For the past two seasons the Premier League transfer deadline was before the season started but this season clubs voted to revert back to 31 August. However, the deadline across Europe was moved again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Manchester City's capture of Dias and Chelsea's £71m signing of Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz were the only Premier League transfers of £50m or more this summer.

By contrast last summer 11 Premier League clubs broke their transfer records (with Sheffield United breaking theirs four times) and there were six £50m+ signings. Chelsea were the big spenders this summer, shelling out £222m on players including Havertz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy, according to Carteret. Manchester City (£141m) and Barcelona (£112m) were the only other major European sides to spend more than £100m.

Last season at least 10 teams spent more than £100m.

Former Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards has picked his three signings of the summer - all of them happening for £20m or below.

Liverpool signed Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara for £20m, Everton brought in Real Madrid playmaker James Rodriguez for a fee the BBC reported as £12m but it has been claimed in other places it was a free transfer and Tottenham re-signed Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale on loan.

"James has just been a revelation. What a player he is. I knew he was quality and would perform, he just needed some loving and Carlo Ancelotti has certainly given him that. He is my number one, definitely," Richards told BBC Sport.

"I know we have not seen him in action yet but I still think the Gareth Bale deal is amazing. Even if he is just 75% of the player he was, defenders, look out for Gareth Bale.

"Thiago won the Champions League last year, so for Liverpool to get that calibre of player for the price they did, he has got to be one of my top three signings of the window." BD Businessday.ng

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SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

FIFA grants Akpoguma permission to play for Nigeria

N

igeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Pinnick has announced FIFA’s approval of Kevin Akpoguma to switch allegiance to the Super Eagles. The central defender represented Germany at various youth levels and he also captained the European country at the 2015 FIFA Under-20 World Cup finals.

Akpoguma was born in Neustadt an der Weinstraße, Germany to a German mother and a Nigerian father on 19 April 1995.

Pinnick took to his official Twitter account to make the announcement ahead of the Super Eagles’ two international friendly matches against Alge-

ria and Tunisia.

“I’m extremely happy to announce that FIFA has just granted Hoffenheim defender and former German U20 national team skipper Kevin Ufuoma Akpoguma permission to make his switch to Nigeria with immediate effect,” Pinnick tweeted.

Akpoguma is part of the Super Eagles squad in Austria where they are scheduled to take on Algeria and Tunisia on October 09 and October 13 respectively.

The former Fortuna Dusseldorf player will be hoping to make his senior international debut as Nigeria prepare for next month 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.

Ighalo makes Man United Champions League squad

Arsenal to reopen Mesut Ozil pay-off talks

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ll is looking good for Nigerian born striker, Odion Ighalo, for Manchester United in the new season as he prepares make his debut in this season’s UEFA Champions League.

Man United has confirmed the 25 players selected in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's list for the Champions League, with Ighalo making the squad.

Ighalo, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are the four strikers picked by the Solskjaer.

With UEFA announc-

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rsenal will re-open talks with Mesut Ozil about a pay-off - which could pave the way for a move to Major League Soccer.

Ozil, who turns 32 next week and the club’s highest earner on £350,000-a-week, has been left out of Arsenal's Europa League squady.

Arsenal tried to reach an agreement before the transfer window shut, but Ozil did not want to leave and later went on a PR offensive by offering to pay the wages of club mascot Gunnersaurus knowing he would be snubbed.

Recipe

SATURDAY 10, OCTOBER 2020

39

Chicken Pesto pasta Ingredients • 8 oz. (half a 1 pound box) penne rigate pasta • 1 tbsp. olive oil • 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast cut into bite size chunks • 1 tsp. Italian seasoning • 1/4 tsp. salt • 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper • 3/4 cup basil pesto Instructions 1. Cook the pasta according to it’s package directions. Before

draining the pasta, reserve 1/4 cup of the starchy cooking liquid.

2. As the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add the chicken, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir well to coat the chicken. Cook for 6-8 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Remove the skillet from the heat.

3. Add the cooked and drained pasta and the pesto to the skillet with the chicken. Stir well.

4. To loosen up the sauce, add some of the reserved starchy cooking liquid, if needed. BD Businessday.ng

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