BusinessDay 03 Jan 2020

businessday market monitor

Biggest Gainer MTNN N105

Foreign Exchange

Biggest Loser

Seplat +3.81 pc N657.8 26,867.79

FMDQ Close

Everdon Bureau De Change

Bitcoin

NSE

-9.99 pc

Foreign Reserve - $38.6bn Cross Rates GBP-$:1.29 YUANY - 52.05 Commodities Cocoa US$2,521.00

Gold $1,530.72

news you can trust I ** friDAY 03 january 2020 I vol. 19, no 470

₦2,568,206.37 -0.44

N300

Sell

$-N 358.00 362.00 £-N 468.00 481.00 €-N 390.00 400.00

Crude Oil $66.18

I

Buy

g

www.

Market

Spot ($/N)

I&E FX Window CBN Official Rate

364.79 307.00

Currency Futures

NGUS mar 25 2020 364.46

($/N)

F

or the second time in six months, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sanctioned banks for failing to meet its new loan to deposit ratio (LDR) directive.

The CBN debited deposit money banks about N600 billion for non-compliance with the 65 percent LDR.

The apex bank had given banks up to December 31, 2019 to comply with the 65 percent LDR or face sanctions.

Although the details of the deductions are not yet open, sources told BusinessDay that it was done last week Monday, using daily return numbers of banks. The sources say they expect that CBN would make the announcement within the coming week.

Tunde Abidoye, head, equity research at FBNQuest, confirmed that the banks were indeed debited.

“I can confirm that the banks were indeed debited. I don’t have the industry numbers yet,” Abidoye said.

“The major implication is that there will be more competition to create quality risk asset by the banks. This may continue to put pressure on interest rates

3M 0.00 5.17

6M

5Y

0.00 4.12

0.00

10 Y 0.00

30 Y 0.06

10.30

11.66

12.95

NGUS jun 24 2020 365.37

@

g

Banks fined over N600bn as CBN hits LDR defaulters again HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE & IFEANYI JOHN

fgn bonds

Treasury bills

and banks’ net interest margin,” he said.

Ayodele Akinwunmi, relationship manager, corporate banking, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, said he was not aware of the debit.

Efforts to reach a CBN top official for comment were not successful. A CBN deputy governor did not respond to a text message Continues on page 34

NGUS jan 27 2021 367.48

g

5 ways oil sector can jumpstart Nigeria’s economy in 2020 ISAAC ANYAOGU

T

he oil sector grew at an average of 4 percent over the three quarters of 2019, compared to 2.4 percent in 2018, indicating a potential to help Nigeria burrow out of an impending economic turmoil.

But analysts say the Nigerian government needs to be intentional to leverage the sector to achieve growth.

Already, the indices appear positive. Average daily oil production level rose to its highest in the last three years, reaching 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 2019 when condensate is included, compared to 1.8 mbpd in 2016, and 1.9 mbpd in both 2017 and 2018.

Some analysts recommend passing the critical Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), holding new bid rounds, completing the Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme to deepen gas investments, tightening regulation by reining in the Department of Petroleum Resources whose regulations are sometimes at variContinues on page 34

Inside

L-R: Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor, Lagos State; Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor, and Olalere Odusote, commissioner for energy and mineral resources, at the inspection of the Ikeja Power Project in Lagos, yesterday.

Stock market sustains year-end bull run, opens 2020 in rally mode P. 2

2

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news $1.1bn Malabu oil scandal: Court grants EFCC’s application to detain Adoke for more 14 days Felix Omohomhion, Abuja

A

Federal Capital Territor y High Court in Abuja, Thursday, granted the application of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to keep the former attorney general and minister of justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, in its custody for additional 14 days preparatory to his arraignment.

Justice Othman Musa, in granting the application, stated that “the extension of the remand of the respondent for another 14 days for the purpose of his arraignment in court is necessary and granted as prayed”.

The anti-graft commission arrested Adoke on December 19, 2019, upon his arrival from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Adoke, who fled the country in 2015, has pending criminal charge of alleged abuse of office and money laundering in respect of the granting of the Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 to Shell and ENI. The government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo revoked the OPL 245, which the late General Sani Abacha granted Dan Etete, his then petroleum minister, and reassigned it to Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).

Etete’s Malabu Oil and Gas, however, reclaimed the oil block in

2006 through the court.

While Shell challenged the decision, a “fraudulent settlement and resolution” was consummated under President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, with Shell and ENI buying the oil block from Malabu in the sum of $1.1bn.

Investigations by the EFCC into the deal revealed crimes that border on conspiracy, forgery of bank documents, bribery, corruption and money laundering to the tune of over $1.2bn against Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep (SNUD), Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE) and their officials. These culminated in criminal charges against Adoke, Etete and others, which are pending in both the FCT High Court and the Federal High Court, Abuja.

The absence of the defendants slowed the prosecution of the suspects, forcing the EFCC to obtain an arrest warrant against them on April 17, 2019.

Adoke, however, arr ived the countr y on Thursday, December 19, 2019 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, into the waiting arms of EFCC operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

His return has now cleared the way for him to answer to the charges against him.

Justice Musa adjourned the case to enable its assignment by the chief judge.

Stock market sustains year-end bull run, opens 2020 in rally mode ENDURANCE OKAFOR

T

he Nigerian stock market joined its global peers to start the new year on a rally, ensuring there was no immediate hangover after the closing gains of 2019.

Closing last day of the year in the green, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) opened the year on a positive note with 0.10 percent year-to-date performance to add 25.72 points and closed Thursday with

a trade of 26,867.79. This was after the market lost almost 15 percent in 2019.

The gain on Thursday holds the record as one of the few times the market has closed in the green on the first trading day of a new year and more important as it marks the first trade of a new decade. The 1.5 percent gain in 2013 remains the best record in the period.

The Nigerian stock market, which closed on Wednesday for New Year’s Day, wrapped up the year 2019 in green amid yearend portfolio rebalanc-

T

he travel measures taken against Nigeria by the United States last year are starting to have a clear and, potentially, longterm effect.

Data from the US travel and tourism office shows Nigeria recorded the largest global drop-off in visitors to the US. As of October 2019, 34,000 fewer Nigerians traveled to the US compared to the previous year—a 21 percent drop. After a sustained period of growth between 2011 and 2015, the number of Nigerian visitors to the US started to plateau in 2016 until the big drop-off last year.

According to Quartz Africa Weekly Brief, the tougher overall visa stance by the Trump administra-

tion comes at an inopportune time for middle class Nigerians who are increasingly emigrating amid fears of economic uncertainty back home.

Nigeria’s once promising economy remains mired in sluggish growth since a 2016 recession while unemployment continues to climb. With many middle class professionals searching for alternatives, the number of Nigerians seeking legal immigration pathways to the US, UK and, increasingly, Canada, has risen sharply over the past half-decade.

The second largest drop was for visitors from Venezuela (17.7 percent). The South American country is in the midst of an economic and political crisis which has Continues on page 34 www.businessday.ng

CSL Stockbrokers, said.

Nigerian stock market performed poorly in 2019 largely due to low investor sentiments in the country that was dragged by unclear policies and tough economic environment.

The key advancers of the Thursday trade as compiled from the NSE included MTNN, Dangote Sugar, FBNH, Vitafoam and UACN. MTN Nigeria closed at N109 per share, a 3.81 percent increase from the previous market trade Continues on page 34

2020 off to a good start for Nigeria as oil prices close 2019 near $70/b

Nigeria records biggest global … but it’s not all rosy drop in visitors to US in 2019 OLUSOLA BELLO which will in turn aid bud...as Trump visa policies take hold

ing ahead of new year positioning. Following that positive on Tuesday, December 31, the record 2019 negative return moderated to -14.6 percent.

The increased rally in the last week of 2019 pushed the positive returns higher by 1.61 percent.

“The rally last week was mainly down to end-ofyear rebalancing on some bellwethers. Furthermore, bargain hunting in oil & gas and industrial stocks has been the key lift for the market,” Ayorinde Akinloye, a consumer goods analyst at Lagos-based

T

he year 2020 may have started on an optimistic note for Nigeria as oil, which accounts for up to 80 percent of the country’s revenue, closed the year at almost $70 a barrel.

Nigeria’s crude oil, Bonny Light, which is equivalent of Brent crude, topped $67.42 on December 31, 2019. With this, crude oil prices booked their biggest rise in the last three years.

Experts project the current trend will be sustained through the first quarter of 2020.

“Prices ended the year with optimism close to 70$/ bbl for Brent and we expect them to stay supported through Q1,” Florian Thaler, OilX chief executive, told Oilprice.

If this happens, Nigeria may be on the way to meeting its revenue target from oil in the 2020 budget,

get implementation.

The 2020 budget is benchmarked on crude oil price of $57 per barrel, while the average daily crude oil production was fixed at 2.18 million barrels per day (bpd).

But Nigeria may not have the latitude to take full advantage of this development as its daily crude oil production has been restricted to 1.774 million bpd by OPEC+ production cut.

The upward swing in prices has been attributed to the support by the combined force of OPEC+ production cuts and the improvement of trade relations between the United States and China.

“In March, all eyes will remain on OPEC and OPEC+ and whether the action of production adjustment will be extended further. We observe that most of the recent opti-

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

mism can also be attributed to the US/China trade talks and that will remain a key factor to watch as based on OilX data, China is the single largest growth factor in global oil markets,” Thaler said.

Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources, had unveiled as part of his agenda to increase crude oil production within the lifespan of this administration despite OPEC restrictions.

He listed the priority areas to include implementation of the reduction of Federal Government’s equity stakes in Joint Venture (JV) participation to 40 percent; curbing petroleum products crossborder leakages; completion of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme; increasing crude oil production to 3 million barrels per day, and reducing the current @Businessdayng

cost of crude oil production by at least 5 percent.

Other priority areas include aggressive promotion of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), promotion of inland basin exploration activities, and promotion of deep offshore exploration activities.

“Oil prices have followed the general de-risking drift into year-end despite a rise in Middle East tensions and last week’s bullish-for-oilprice inventory draws as the broader markets appear to be losing some of that holiday cheer,” Reuters quoted Stephen Innes, AxiTrader market strategist, as saying.

Yet not all is rosy.

“Oil pr ices, though largely expected to trade positive, will face headwinds from subdued global growth momentum and robust U.S. shale output levels in the first quarter,” Benjamin Lu, analyst from brokerage Phillip Futures, told Reuters.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

3

4

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news Waterways, rail to attract increased investment from Lagos in 2020 JOSHUA BASSEY

T

he waterways and ongoing rail system, which should constitute major modes, asides road, in the public transportation sector, will be the target for increased investment by the Lagos State government in 2020.

Although Lagos is richly endowed with water bodies, its contribution to the overall public transportation system in the state, according to statistics from the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), is about 0.34 percent.

Similarly, inter-city rail trips are non-existent in the state, as the only passenger rail system that runs through the state is operated by federally owned Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), and bears no impact on inter-city movement.

Consequently, the road accounts for almost 100 percent of movement for people and goods, in a city heavily impacted by increasing urbanisation and population (estimated at 22m residents).

The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu is, however, seeking to change this status in 2020, with the promise to invest heavily on the waterways and ongoing construction of the state-owned rail system

(Blue Line).

Sanwo-Olu, in a new-year message in which he unveiled his administration’s policy direction, also assured of prioritising investment in other critical infrastructure.

According to Sanwo-Olu, the state government is prepared to shift the burden of transportation away from roads alone.

The objective, he explained, is to disperse traffic on the roads and give residents alternative choices in mass movement across the state.

With the signing of the state’s N1.168 trillion 2020 budget, the governor says his administration is now statutorily emboldened to tap into the potential of its waterways and rail corridors by pursuing fresh investment and partnerships that will help to deliver the much expected inter-modal transportation system.

“We are prioritising investment in infrastructure this year to shift the burden of transportation away from the roads unto the waterways as a means of moving our people around safely and efficiently. Lagos is endowed with a large body of water that has been underexploited over the years. This is why we have to challenge ourselves to invest in this under-utilised channel.

www.businessday.ng

5

LCCI predicts 70% LDR, high insecurity Adesina might not have become AfDB President if not for Jonathan - Obasanjo on visa-on-arrival in 2020 Gbemi Faminu

L

agos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is projecting an increase in loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) from 65 percent to around 70 percent by 2020.

The chamber also predicts that the introduction of the visaon-arrival policy will open the country to more opportunities and investors, but warned that it may worsen insecurity in the country.

In a statement signed by Muda Yusuf, director-general, LCCI, the chamber says increased LDR will help key sectors such as the manufacturing to improve its performance.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently raised LDR from 60 percent to 65 percent to boost lending to the real sector.

The LCCI commends the policy, but warns that it may worsen non-performing loans as the domestic economic landscape is still fragile and borrowers may find it difficult to fulfil obligations.

On visa-on-arrival policy, the chamber says its introduction will facilitate continental economic integration between Nigeria and other African nations at a time the continent is bracing up for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement scheduled to start on July 1, 2020.

“On the flip side, the policy could exacerbate insecurity in

Nigeria as expressed by the National Assembly if steps are not taken before implementation,” the chamber warns.

The visa-on-arrival policy, adopted recently by the Federal Government, permits Africans to come into Nigeria without a visa.

However, they will be required to apply when they arrive.

“We hope the necessary government agencies would take steps required so as not to expose the country to security risks, and properly scrutinise those that would be coming into the country through the visaon-arrival facility,” the chamber admonishes.

“The potential for growth of the Nigerian economy is immense. But we should not remain a nation of potential. In order to unlock these huge potentials, we need to put in place appropriate policies, regulations and institutions,” it further says.

In its recent report, the African Development Bank Group (AfDBG) ranked Nigeria the 30th position in visa openness in Africa. The report also says that most of the countries that made the greatest progress on visa openness since 2016 are strong adopters of technology.

The LCCI recommends adoption of visa free policy for nationals of selected advanced economies to facilitate the inflow of investment from these countries to Nigeria.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

RAZAQ AYINLA

A

s Akinwunmi Adesina prepares to contest the presidential seat of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a five-year second and final term this year, former President Olusegun Obasanjo says if former President Goodluck Jonathan had not appointed Adesina to serve as minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in his cabinet between 2011 and 2015, the AfDB president would not have got the job.

Obasanjo, who narrated the intrigues that characterised the appointment of Adesina as minister under Jonathan’s presidency, explained that if Adesina had not come back when former President Jonathan had a rethink to give the slot to Adesina, having earlier declared his administration’s intention to zone the slot to the North, then former minister might not have got the job at AfDB. Speaking at the Thanksgiving Service that was organised

by Christian Association of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter in honour of the former President Obasanjo at Chapel of Christ Glorious King within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta on Thursday, Obasanjo noted that the track record of good governance as portrayed by

@Businessdayng

Adesina under People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government between 2011 and 2015 deservedly earned Adesina AfDB president.

While speaking directly to Adesina who was in company of his wife, Yemisi, to the Thanksgiving Service, Obasanjo said, “Akin AfDB (Akinwunmi Adesina) you know I will recognise you but before I recognise, I will recognise Yemisi (his wife). Akin was telling a story but he didn’t tell the story of how he got to have 45% and Yemisi has 55%.

When Akin came down to be the Minister, Yemisi grudgingly released him.

“But he was coming to be Minister and after he had arrived here, the man who said we should look for somebody who can do the job changed his mind and he said he had zoned the post of Minister for Agriculture to the North.

When I heard that, I said, Akin pack and go back to where you are coming from and Akin went back.

“I don’t know what happened but I believe I know part of it, some people went to talk to him, so he called me and said where is the man and said the man had gone back. He said can we have him back and I said no, we can’t, it is too late, he has gone back, so he pleaded with me and I called Akin.

6

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news

Why FG should focus on implementing ERGP rather than tax drive in 2020 – NECA … calls for synergy between fiscal, monetary policies JOSHUA BASSEY

N

igeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has asked the Federal Government, in 2020, to redirect its focus on the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which, in the outgone 2019, tended to receive less attention.

NECA is of the view that, this way, the efforts to restore economic growth and expand the tax net to improve revenue generation will begin to yield positive results, as against the direct focus on tax increases, which have remained burdensome on businesses.

According to Timothy Olawale, director-general of NECA, “beyond the rhetoric of improved Ease of Doing Business rating, employers expect that greater effort would be made to reign in the excesses of some regulatory authorities, whose actions tend to stifle

businesses, invariably increasing the unemployment rate.”

Olawale believes that the private sector should be aggressively supported to create jobs through business-friendly policies and regulation.

Olawale, while reviewing the performance of the Nigerian economy in 2019 in Lagos on Thursday, said the economy struggled with a growth rate average of 2 percent in the first three quarters of 2019, with inflation still in double digit, orchestrated mainly by increasing food inflation as a result of the closure of land borders in order to curb smuggling.

He observed that though the economy had great potential for growth, a more concerted and collaborative efforts with the private sector could have made significant impact.

On organised private sector’s (OPS) expectation for 2020, he called for synergy between the fiscal and monetary policies of government,

as it seems only the monetary authorities have been in the driving seat of the economy.

He averred that for any economy to fulfil its full potentials, efficiency and synergy of the fiscal and monetary authorities was critical.

On the budget 2020, he called for “full and timely implementation of the budget and early release of funds in order to stimulate the economy,” wanting monitoring mechanisms be institutionalised to gauge how well the budget is implemented.

Special focus, he noted, should be given to infrastructure development, as enshrined in the 2020 budget, saying this is the foundation for national development.

The DG stated that “we expect that for the sake of our country and the teeming populace, government at all levels will see the private sector as an engine of development and a worthy partner in the realisation of the Nigerian dream.”

Illegal use of paracetamol in food preparation will be severely sanctioned – NAFDAC ANTHONIA OBOKOH

N

ational Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned that anybody or organisation found to be involved in the dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation will be severely sanctioned.

According to a press statement seen by BusinessDay, the agency therefore alerts the public on the dangerous and unapproved use of paracetamol tablets to soften meat used in food preparation, stating, “NAFDAC is seriously concerned by social media publication on dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets to tenderise meat by some households and restaurant operators.

“The members of the public, especially restaurant operators are cautioned to desist from the

dangerous and unapproved use of Paracetamol Tablets to soften meat used in food preparation, as such illegal practice makes food to be toxic, unwholesome and unfit for human consumption.

When used to cook, paracetamol is broken down (or hydrolysed) into a toxic substance.”

The agency warns that this substance ultimately damages the liver and some other organs in the body. Thus, the consumption of toxic and unwholesome food illegally prepared using paracetamol tablets may result in serious health consequences, including liver damage, kidney failure, and untimely death.

However, the agency urges members of the public to use genuine NAFDAC registered table salt (in moderation) to tenderise meat (by soaking meat in salted water for about 30 minutes prior to cooking) to prevent serious health consequences that

may result from dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation.

“Genuine paracetamol tablets registered by NAFDAC are used to relieve mild pain and if the pain persists, the patient should consult a healthcare professional for expert advice,” says the agency.

Meanwhile, NAFDAC has heightened surveillance on restaurant operators across the country to prevent the dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation.

“The members of the public are implored to contact the nearest NAFDAC Office with any information on dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation.

“Consumers are advised to report adverse events related to dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation to the nearest NAFDAC office,” it says.

Shutdown of PHEDC operations in Yenagoa over N16.5bn debt, blackout enters Day 10

E

lectricity outage occasioned by the face-off between the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) and the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) has entered the 10th day with unpleasant impacts.

The IYC had, on December23, besieged the offices of the PHEDC and forced the staff to shut down operations, occupying the premises to protest perceived poor power supply to residents.

The development, which resulted in a total power outage in Yenagoa and its environs, as well as Ahoada and some parts of Rivers, has made the residents to rely wholly on power generators with resultant increase in petrol demand and cost of living.

The News Agency of Nigeria checks in Yenagoa indicate that

filling stations struggle to cope with long lines of residents who throng the stations and wait for hours to buy fuel in jerry cans.

Dialogues and other efforts to resolve the conflict hit a brick wall, as the power distribution company claimed that it was grappling with a debt burden of N16.5 billion as at November 2019, which hampered its operations.

The IYC subsequently challenged PHEDC to substantiate its claim that customers in Bayelsa owed it N16.5 billion.

Kennedy Olorogun, Central Zone chairman of IYC who gave NAN an update on a dialogue sought by Bayelsa government to resolve the face-off, said the debt claim was a ‘fairy tale’ to cover up incompetence.

According to Olorogun, information from the Transwww.businessday.ng

mission Company of Nigeria (TCN) showed that there was sufficient power at the substation at Gbarain, Yenagoa, but the PHEDC was not taking the power to homes.

NAN investigation showed that TCN, on Aug. 20, 2019, announced the lifting of a suspension order from the electricity market it placed on the PHEDC on July 27, for breach of ‘Market Conditions/Participation Agreement.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news

7

Why we demolished Saraki’s property - Kwara …PDP says demolition done in bad faith SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin, & INIOBONG IWOK, Lagos

T

he Kwara State government says the property of the late state political icon, Olushola Saraki, was demolished because the land belongs to the state, while the ownership of the property was illegally transferred to a private firm for commercial purpose with the firm refusing to pay a kobo to the government or obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy.

In a statement to the media, Thursday, signed by Rafiu Ajakaye, chief press secretary to the governor, the government said the land was originally meant for the construction of government secretariat, a clinic, and parking lot.

The plot of land borders the civil service clinic in Ilorin; however, eyewitnesses’ accounts say the state government commenced the demolition of the building, popularly called Ile Arugbo, at about 4:00am on Thursday.

This came after the security operatives dispersed protesters who kept vigil to prevent the demolition.

It was gathered that the government on Wednesday around 2am tried to demolish the structure but was stopped by protesters.

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the state governor, had, last month, announced the decision to revoke the late Olusola Saraki’s property owing to alleged illegality in its acquisition.

“The reclamation exercise began in the early hours of Thursday to avoid any needless confrontation. Attempts

by some persons to provoke government’s agents on lawful duty were resisted by the security agents who exercised the highest level of restraint and professionalism.

“Contrary to the claim that the State Government was served court papers on the matter, we state that no court paper has been served as at the time the government took steps to preserve what lawfully belongs to the people. “Finally, we urge the people of the state to remain calm, peaceful, and be guided only by facts of the matter and not be drawn into emotional outburst that is targeted at distracting the public from the issues at stake.

“While the administration is focused on restoring sanity to the state after years of barefaced impunity, we will do so within the limit of the law,” according to the statement.

However, reacting to the demolition in an interview, Kola Shittu, the state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), condemned the action of the state government, saying the governor had taken it too far.

“Governor Abdulrazaq has taken it too far by demolishing the structures on Olusola Saraki’s place where he used to take care of the elderly women (Ile Arugbo) every week.

“The demolition is shocking, it is unfortunate. The issue of the land was being treated as if it was a stolen land and it was not, it was allocated and there is a letter of allocation written by the government which allocated it.

Oil starts New Year on higher trade optimism, Mideast tensions DIPO OLADEHINDE, with agency report

P

rice of Brent the benchmark for Nigeria crude oil rose in the early days of 2020, buoyed by signs of improving trade relations between the United States and China, which eased demand concerns and rising tensions in the Middle East.

Brent crude futures rose 25 percent to $66.25 a barrel by 5pm Nigeria time, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 13 cents at $61.19 per barrel.

Oil was also boosted by optimism that trade talks between the world’s two largest economies will support demand.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US-China Phase 1 trade deal would be signed on January 15 at the White House.

“We may need to see that economic optimism turn into better data before we see more substantial gains,” analysts at New York-based OANDA said.

The two world superpowers account for about 34 per cent of the global crude oil. The commodity also account for 2/3 of Nigeria revenue and nearly all of foreign exchange earnings.

Persistent trade spat between the US and China and global economic weakness has forced global oil agencies

to roll back assumptions for demand growth for last year and this year.

Oil prices went on a downhill in June last year with investors becoming increasingly concerned about slowing demand. Appetite for oil is at risk of a further slump if the US and China fail to resolve trade differences in 2020, which will cause the global economy to weaken even more.

Also, US forces targeted the Kataib Hezbollah militia in retaliation for attacks on bases in Iraq that are used by the US military over the weekend.

The Americans have fought for years alongside Iraqi government forces in their confrontation with the Islamic State (IS) group Angry at the airstrikes, protesters stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, although they withdrew after the US deployed extra troops.

“We do not see a threat to Iraq’s crude supply at the moment, other than a small wind down over the first few months of 2020 in line with its OPEC cut agreements,” consultancy JBC Energy said.

January also marks the scheduled start of deeper output cuts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners, including Russia. www.businessday.ng

Yusuf Kazaure (l), outgoing MD of Galaxy Backbone Limited, and Muhammad Abubakar, his successor, at the latter’s assumption of office in Abuja.

NAN

FG spent N55.28bn to subsidise petrol in December 2019 HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

N

igeria, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), spent N55.58 billion to subsidise Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) - petrol - in December 2019, according to available data.

This is according to data obtained on Thursday from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the Nigerian petroleum downstream sector regulator.

According to PPPRA’s pricing templates for PMS between December 1 and December 31, 2019, the expected open market price of petrol stood at an average of N176.4 per litre, implying that at a regulated price of N145 per litre, the Federal Government paid an average of N31.4 per litre of the commodity as subsidy.

Accordingly, the volume of PMS supplied across the country, as obtained from the PPPRA’s Daily Truck-Out

Reports for PMS for December 2019, revealed that 1.77 billion litres of PMS were supplied across Nigeria in the month under review, translating to an average daily PMS supply of 57.1 million litres.

Therefore, paying an average of N31.4 per litre on 1.77 billion litres, meant that the Federal Government spent N55.28 billion to subsidise PMS for Nigerians in December 2019 alone.

The amount expended in subsidy on PMS in December 2019 represented 16.3 percent of the N306 billion budgeted for fuel subsidy in the 2019 budget.

The Expected Open Market Price, EOMP, of petrol is the price the commodity is expected to be sold to motorists if the government stops paying subsidy on the commodity.

However, as of today, the subsidy is borne by the NNPC on behalf of the federation.

Notably, the NNPC, which is currently the sole importer

Keystone Bank partners Medplus to promote healthy living among women

I

n furtherance of its commitment to empower, enhance and promote healthy living among Nigerian women, Keystone Bank Limited has announced its partnership with Medplus Pharmacy, Nigeria’s leading health and beauty retailer, to offer its PINK Network card holders who purchase health and beauty products from the pharmacy, a discount ranging from 5 to 10 percent.

In a statement by the lender, the bank said partnership will proffer solutions to the challenge posed in accessing quality, genuine healthcare and beauty products in Nigeria.

The bank further explained that the partnership would see its female customers with a Keystone Bank PINK debit card get 10% discount off all drug purchases and 5% discount off non-drug purchases in

any Medplus Pharmacy nationwide.

Commenting on the partnership, Keystone Bank executive director, Adeyemi Odusanya, stressed: “Women’s health needs differ at every life stage, from puberty to pregnancy, menopause and overall wellbeing.

Women are also very conscious of their beauty and self-care, hence the growth of the beauty industry.

“However, finding access to quality healthcare and beauty products can sometimes be a challenge; either they have to battle with the cost or the fear of counterfeit products which have infiltrated the market.

“And to solve this predicament, Keystone Bank is partnering with the renowned pharmacy, Medplus through its PINK Initiative for women, giving them access to quality health and beauty products at a discount.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

of PMS into the country, bears the cost of subsidising the commodity and deducts the cost from earnings from its domestic sale of crude oil and gas, before making remittances to the Federation Account.

Giving a breakdown of the EOMP and amount incurred as subsidy in some selected days in December, the PPPRA reports declared that from December 2 to December 6, EOMP of PMS stood at N166.44 per litre, N165.98 per litre, N170.36 per litre and N171.12 per litre, respectively, translating to subsidy of N21.44 per litre, N20.98 per litre, N25.36 per litre and N26.12 per litre, respectively.

For December 9 and 12, EOMP, according to the PPPRA templates stood at N172.73 per litre and N172.92 per litre respectively, translating to subsidy of N27.73 per litre and N27.92 per litre respectively, while for December 16 to December 20, EOMP stood at N177.33, N77.32, N174.81,

N177.92 and N180.22 per litre respectively, translating correspondingly to subsidy of N32.33 per litre, N32.32 per litre, N29.81 per litre, N32.92 and N35.22 per litre.

In addition, for December 23 and 24, the amount incurred as subsidy by the Federal Government stood at N35.78 per litre, N37.53 per litre respectively, as EOMP for those days respectively, stood at N180.78 per litre and N182.53 per litre, while for December 27, EOMP of PMS rose to N184.64 per litre, translating to subsidy of N37.53 per litre.

On the other hand, from December 1 to 15, the PPPRA Daily Truck-Out Report stated that PMS supply stood at 8.7 million litres, 68.3 million litres, 74.5 million, 78.8 million litres, 75.4 million litres, 64.6 million litres, 21.4 million litres, 1.1 million litres, 67.2 million litres, 68.2 million, 75.1 million litres, 69.97 million litres, 18.7 million litres, 42.1 million litters, and 6.9 million litres respectively.

Meeting Flora Nwapa inspired Chika Unigwe to become a writer

N

igerian writer Chika Unigwe says she met Flora Nwapa, the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain, when she was in elementary school, “and I wanted to be like her”.

The Nigerian Literature Prize laureate was speaking about the spur and inspiration for her journey into becoming a writer.

Chika Unigwe features as the first literary writer to lead the conversation in the My Book World section of the Executive Bookshelf in BusinessDay Sunday. She spoke on many aspects of her career and her engagement with the book.

Unigwe is currently working on a significant new work that would be “a reimagining / rewriting of the myth of Hades and Persephone, set in Nigeria (mostly Enugu) in the 21st Century. Atlanta, GA and the underworld also appear in it.”

Chika Unigwe is a prolific @Businessdayng

author of novels, short stories and other creative work. She is famous for On Black Sisters’ Street (Jonathan Cape, 2009) that fetched her the coveted Nigerian Prize for Literature.

Her latest work is Better Never Than Late (Cassava Shorts, 2020).

Other works of the prolific writer include Tear Drops; Enugu: Richardson Publishers, 1993; Born in Nigeria; Enugu: Onyx Publishers, 1995; A Rainbow for Dinner; Oxford: Macmillan, 2002; In the Shadow of Ala: Igbo women’s writing as an act of righting; Dissertation, Leiden University, 2004; Thinking of Angel, 2005; Dreams, 2004; The Phoenix; Lagos: Farafina Publishers, 2007; On Black Sisters’ Street (translation of Fata Morgana). London: Jonathan Cape, 2009; Night Dancer; London: Jonathan Cape, 2012; Black Messiah (2014); Zwart, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Atlas Contact, 2018.

8

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news

Nigeria needs digital education to fix development challenges - Don ODINAKA ANUDU biodun Akinpelu, a professor at the Lagos State University, says Nigeria needs computerised system of education as a catalyst for accelerated national development.

He said early exposure of children to computer would inevitably enable them gain problem-solving skills, stressing that such education had globally become a necessary tool in bringing lasting solutions to numerous human problems today.

Akinpelu, who is the director of Centre for General Nigerian Studies, Lagos State University, Ojo, spoke as a guest speaker at the 13th annual convocation of the Triune Biblical University (TBU),USA, Lagos Campus, which held recently in Lagos.

He used the occasion to appeal to policy makers in the

A

education sector to ensure that computer education be made top priority across all levels of learning in the country.

“If our children must compete favourably with their peers in developed climes, we must put the necessary infrastructure in place and, more importantly, setup operational computer centres in all our learning institutions,” he said.

Speaking at the convocation, Maurice Odiete, president of Nipem Education Management International and TBU Nigeria representative, said education in its broadest sense provided the backdrop against which development acquired its meaning and must not be compromised. He said he was particularly excited that TBU founded by a Nigerian professor, Daniel Durojaiye, had offered Nigerian students an opportunity to experience offline and online system of education in its programme.

Eni, BW Offshore agree extension for Abo FPSO DIPO OLADEHINDE talian major Eni has extended its deal with BW Offshore, a provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry, for Abo Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit off Nigeria.

The Italian major will now hold onto the floater on its operated Abo field off Nigeria until the end of the fourth quarter 2021.

Eni also holds optional contract extensions out to the end of 2021, BW Offshore said on Tuesday in a press release from the Oslo Stock Exchange-listed company.

In early July, Eni extended its deal with the FPSO until the end of this year, with options running to the end of 2020.

I

The floater has been in service at Abo for the Eni subsidiary since production started in 2003. BW Offshore said in its first-quarter report in May that a contract extension was on the cards.

BW Offshore is represented in all major oil and gas regions worldwide with a fleet of 15 owned FPSOs. The company has more than 30 years of production track record, having executed 40 FPSO and FSO projects.

Eni has been present in Nigeria since 1962, with operated and non-operated exploration, development and production activities in the onshore and offshore areas of the Niger Delta. In 2018, Eni’s equity hydrocarbon production amounted to 100 000 boepd.

Lagos to upgrade capacity of Alausa IPP with private investment JOSHUA BASSEY

L

agos State government is to harness private investment to upgrade the capacity of the Alausa Independent Power Plant (IPP).

The 10.4 megawatts capacity IPP was built in 2013 by the Babatunde Fashola’s administration to provide electricity to the state secretariat and number of other public institutions within Ikeja, including streetlights on major highways.

Since the last two years, the power plant has been experiencing intermittent shutdown due to operational challenges, with the state secretariat and other public facilities connected to it resorting to generators, which were decommissioned during the Fashola’s era.

But Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who visited the IPP on Thursday, said his government would be expanding the capacity of the plant in partnership with private investors, in response to the growing need to sustain the “Light-Up Lagos” project of his predecessor and also to take on more public offices around Ikeja.

He did not mention the capacity to be added to the

existing 10.4MW, but said consultations ongoing with stakeholders to that effect. The IPP is currently being managed on behalf of the government by Alausa Power Limited.

He said: “We considered embarking on this facility inspection of the Lagos IPP to see how we will optimise the current usage of the plant early this year, given the growing demand for electricity to power public facilities around.”

Sanwo-Olu explained that the current output could no longer meet the demand of the state. He said the inspection tour to the facility would be followed up with a meeting with partners on the IPP initiative to discuss sustainable growth plan on the output, as more government’s facilities are set to be integrated into the power grid.

“What we currently have now certainly cannot meet up with our requirements. We want to expand and grow the LightUp Lagos initiative, so that we can light up strategic highways and areas, including Ikorodu road, Ogudu, and Oworonsoki and extend the initiative to Adeniyi Jones and Oba Akran road.

We want to have the whole parts of the state lit up at night,” said the governor. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Amaka Okonkwo, technical assistant, Enugu State Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Centre; Nwachukwu Odigbo, facilitator; Chimdike Offornabo, communication officer, Enugu SME Centre, and Ogochukwu Ozoagu, administration officer, at a NAN free digital marketing training by Enugu SME Centre in Enugu.

What analysts think of these high yield stocks in 2020 BALA AUGIE

W

ith the scorching macroeconomic environment and the uncertainty surrounding the global market due to a protracted US-China trade spat, it would be hard to blame cautious investors for seeking safer portfolio with guaranteed passive income.

This means that a stock with high dividend yield can be a more tempting option than the fixed income as yield on the latter has been nose-diving after a stringent policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

High dividend yields make stocks attractive to global investors in a low yield environment, according to analysts, but such gains could be a temporary euphoria if the economic fundamentals fail to lift corporate earnings.Analysis of the books of some top performing firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange shows that shareholders of bellwether companies like Zenith Bank,

United Bank of Africa and Dangote Cement plc will earn more money in dividend in 2020.

“While these stocks deliver higher returns, investors are advised to start buying them by end of February. And you should start positioning by January,” said Yinka Ademuwagun, equity research analyst at United Capital plc. “The weak macroeconomic conditions are turning investors to equities.”

Nigerian companies will be paying final dividend by end of March this year after they will have released their full-year financial statement on the floor of the NSE. ZenithBank,thelargestlender by profit in Africa’s largest economy, has a yield of 14.93 percent as it had paid an interim dividend of N9.14 billion as at Half-Year 2019.

But the lender’s shares have not beenrallyingsincethestartof2019 as it has a year-to-date (YTD) of -20.17 percent.

United Bank of Africa’s stock yields are at 11.81 percent, and it hadpaidafinaldividendofN10.26

How CEIBS affects lives through humanitarian services Odinaka Anudu

T

he China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) Alumni, Nigeria chapter, has donated relief materials to three humanitarian organisations operating in Lagos.

The donations, which include personal care, clothing and food items, were delivered to Tower of Refuge Motherless/ Orphanage Home, Surulere; Nigerian Red Cross Society Motherless and Abandoned Babies Home, Yaba and Old People’s Home, Yaba, by a team led by Sunday Agboola, its president.

Besides the gifts, the visiting team also spent some time with the orphans and the elderly people as well as the workers, saying it was a demonstration of the essence of Christmas.

Speaking at the donation, Agboola said the activity was motivated by the organisation’s desire to affect the lives of the

least remembered members of the society and give them sense of belonging.

“A number of people often forget those who should have been prioritised during celebration and any other time. No child chooses to be an orphan but the society makes them so.

Orphans are products of the social upheavals. They need to be cared for. This is what informed our visit and donation,” he said.

“We also take time to visit the elderly people to remind the rest of us that we will be in their condition one day. What should we do if we truly believe that we will be in the state they are now? We should care for them; we should visit and play with them,” he also said.

Agboola pointed out that the gesture would be sustained as part of the robust charity programme designed by CEIBS Alumni, Nigeria chapter. He had earlier said that the organisation would be more visible in charity in the coming year.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

billion for 2018 financial year.

Dangote Cement has a dividend yield of 11.27 percent, and it had paid a financial dividend of N272.64 billion in 2018.

Nigeria’s most capitalised firm and largest producer of building materials in the country has revealed plans to buy back 10 percent of its entire issued shares from shareholders. The exercise is to help underpin its stock price and bolster earnings per share (EPS) as the company had issued commercial papers with a view to reducing finance cost and strengthening working capital position.

Dangote Cement, which currently has 17.04 billion fully paid-up ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, would be buying back 1.70 billion shares. It said the share buy-back was going to be on terms and conditions determined by the board of directors.

“They feel that the stock is too cheap and they want to suck up liquidity. In the long run, stock price will go up. They are not happy that the stock price is

between N140 and N160,” said Paul Ozim, a stockbroker.

Ozim said Guaranty Trust Bank’sgoodcorporategovernance and transparent shareholdings make the largest lender by market capitalisation a value stock.

“You hardly find a director that owns more than 5 percent of sharesorstocks;henceitisdifficult forsomeonetotakeadecisionthat will rattle the market. Foreign investorslikesuchastockasitboosts their confidence,” said Ozim.

GTBank is trading at a price to earnings ratio of 4.38 times and it has a yield of 9.48 percent.

Lack of good corporate governance is inimical to the capital market, especially when a shareholder holds majority of the shares.

Absence of structural reforms in strengthening the resilience of the domestic economy, rising vulnerabilities to external shocks, poor corporate earnings delivered mostly by consumer goods companies in recent times dampened foreign investors’ appetite for Nigeria equities.

Tambuwal signs bills to boost Sokoto’s fiscal responsibility, revenue SEGUN ADAMS

G

overnor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State has passed into law two bills aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in state’s finance and generating more revenue for the government.

The state government on Tuesday signed Fiscal Responsibility Agency and for other Connected Purposes (FRAC) to provide for the establishment of Fiscal Responsibility Agency in the state, Muhammad Bello, the Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the Governor told Press.

At its plenary the Sokoto State House of Assembly (SOHA) presided over by its Deputy Speaker Abubakar Magaji had passed the law on the same day, Bello said.

Tambuwal also signed another law to integrate, harmonise and consolidate all revenues accruing to government ministries, departments and agencies; in order to enable it generate @Businessdayng

sufficient revenue that could be ploughed into social service and economic growth in the state.

The enactment of both laws, which took effect December 31, 2019 and also signed by the Clerk to SOHA, Abdulrazak Shehu, followed the presentation of two reports regarding the establishment of FRAC and the need to enact the law on revenue integration to the House

by Hon. Ahmed Mohammed Malami member representing Sokoto South II constituency.

Section 2 (vii) of the preliminary provisions of FRAC stipulates that when the agency comes on stream it will “provide full, accurate and timely disclosure of financial information relating to the activities of the Government and it’s agencies that is ensuring transparency and accountability.”

Equally, sub-section (viii) of the preliminary provision stated that FRAC shall “manage risk faced by the State prudently, having regard to economic circumstances.”

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

9

10

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

comment

comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

France’s currency war against West Africa THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

O

n Saturday 21 December, French President Emmanuel Macron and his Ivoirian counterpart, Alassane Ouattara, announced a package of “historic reforms” of the 70-year West African CFA monetary Zone. Macron explained that the reforms were part of an effort to reposition the partnership between France and Africa that is too often perceived “in terms of domination and the trappings of colonialism that did exist”, but which he admitted to be “a profound error”.

The CFA was created in 1945 as a currency for France’s colonial dependencies.

It comprises 8 countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Niger, Mali and Guinea-Bissau. They operate a customs and currency union (WAEMU) and a regional central bank, BCEAO, headquartered in Dakar.

The arrangement has long been criticised as a symbol of France’s continuing stranglehold over our continent. Under the currency union, each member country is obliged to keep 65 percent of its foreign reserves in an “operations account” in the French Treasury, as well as another 20 percent to cover basic financial liabilities. Paris maintains a cap on credit extended to each member country up to

a maximum of 20 percent of its public revenue in the preceding year. Although the BCEAO has an overdraft facility with the French Treasury, the drawdowns on such facilities are subject to the consent of the French Treasury and based on strictly commercial terms. The French Treasury invests all the foreign reserves in its own name on the Paris Bourse. The countries are never told what profits or losses have been incurred over time.

The BCEAO has no monetary policy of its own. French officials are on the boards of the key institutions and reserve veto powers on important decisions.

In 1994 the French treasury imposed a unilateral 50 percent devaluation of the CFA, amidst protests throughout Francophone West Africa. In 1999 when France joined the European single currency, the CFA was pegged to the Euro.

The CFA is the visible symbol of a complex architecture of informal Empire -- “Françafrique” -- that has allowed France to commit daylight robbery and pillage on our continent. When Charles de Gaulle offered the Greek gift of “independence within the French community” in 1957, Sekou Toure of Guinea was the only leader who had the balls to say “non”; declaring that his people prefer “freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery”. As a deterrent to those who might have similar ideas, the French behaved like savage barbarians; destroying vehicles, offices, schools, farms, industries, hospitals and even typewriters. They even shot cattle in ranches. What they could not destroy they threw into the lagoon. They left Guinea in ruins.

In 1962 Modibo Keita of Mali withdrew from the Franc Zone. He was later overthrown in a military coup by a former French legionnaire, Lieutenant Moussa Traore. In 1963, Sylvanus Olympio, the LSE-educated economist

and first president of Togo, took the fateful decision to create a separate currency for his country. He was assassinated by a French agent and sergeantmajor, Etienne Gnassingbe Eyadema.

Since the post-war era, the French have needed Africa to bolster the illusion of being a world power. Paris has always viewed the French-speaking countries as its captive “pre-carré” and exclusive economic domain. For companies such as Bouygues, Peugeot, Bolloré, Total and Elf Aquitaine, Africa is a lucrative market. French companies dominate the public utilities, with right of first refusal for public works contracts and mining concessions. The French nuclear generator, Areva, for example, sources 43 percent of its uranium from Niger. Until recently, they were paying the poverty-stricken country a mere 60 cents per kg of uranium when going price globally was US$200 per kg.

Last year, Der Spiegel, the influential German weekly, declared that Françafrique is undermining the coherence of the EU’s Africa policy. They also revealed that African countries have been paying annually an iniquitous US$500 billion in colonial taxes into the French treasury.

Earlier this year a diplomatic stand-off took place between Paris and Rome, when Italian political leaders blamed France for ruining its former colonies, thereby forcing the floods of youth immigrants into Europe. There have been demonstrations within and outside our continent against the welter of economic, military and financial ties that keep our countries tied in an exploitative and highly asymmetric relationship with France.

The reforms of the West African CFA cover four essential areas: the name is to be changed to “Eco”, with external reserves no longer to be managed by the French Treasury. No French officials will

‘

This Eco is a double-aged sword that will divide ECOWAS and alienate everyone against Nigeria, especially coming at the wake of the controversial closure of our borders

be represented on the boards of the key institutions of the currency union while the external reserves will no longer be managed by the French treasury. However, France will remain the guarantor of last resort, very much as before. The Banque de France will guarantee convertibility between the Eco and the Euro.

The latest reforms are the outcome of a collusion between Emmanuel Macron and Alassane Ouattara, a foreign agent who rode to power on the blood of the Ivoirian people. They do not amount to a dismantling of the strategic manacles of Empire; but more like a hare-brained scheme to redeem France’s tainted image on the world stage. The French have recently been fingered in the rise of terrorism in the Sahel. They have allegedly been involved in massive thefts of the natural resources of Mali and Burkina Faso. Nigerian youths recently demonstrated at the French Embassy in Abuja; accusing Paris of having their leprous hands in the murderous activities of Boko Haram.

This Eco is a double-aged sword that will divide ECOWAS and alienate everyone against Nigeria, especially coming at the wake of the controversial closure of our borders. We are left with the prisoners’ dilemma option of going it alone and being isolated; or face the humiliating prospect of joining a club that has been founded by a despised foreign power.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Dr. Mailafia is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a development economist and public finance expert with a DPhil from Oxford obmailafia@gmail.com; 08036590990 (text messages only)

Audit process will block revenue leakages

O

ne of the cardinal agenda of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is the war against corruption. In fact, his desire to fight corruption was among the factors that gave him an edge over his co-contestants in the 2011 and 2015 presidential election. Arguably, the administration records some successes in the anti-corruption war, definitely, more still needs to be done to curtail corruption in Nigeria, particularly when government said corruption was fighting back.

For a thorough, genuine and successful anticorruption battle, the Audit process remains a very useful tool that cannot be left behind. Certainly, public service is about adding value to citizens and society, and about continuously increasing that value. To focus on the value that government adds, audit should be about the outcomes that benefit citizens and society and to which government activities contribute. It should also help all stakeholders play their part in continuously improving the value that governments add.

Meanwhile, where there are no proper checks through effective auditing, the value will be eroded, corrupt practices will thrive unhindered and the masses will be at the receiving end. To improve accountability, transparency and judicious utilisation of public resources, the Public Account Committee (PAC) of the Senate and House of Representatives and the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF) must carry out their mandate effectively.

In a bid to enhance the audit function and empower the OAuGF to effectively discharge its constitutional mandate, the 8th National Assembly passed the Federal Audit bill and forwarded to the President for his assent. However, President Buhari neither assented nor declined assent to the bill. This singular act of non-assent to this allimportant bill is a cause for concern that perhaps

President Buhari is not ready to institutionalise the anti-corruption fight.

No doubt, there was a missing link somewhere.

It is either the President does not really mean his words on the war against corruption or he might have been wrongly advised on the essence of the Audit Law. Now that we are in the 9th Assembly, particularly with this synergy between the current leadership of the executive and legislative arms, it is time to resuscitate the bill with a view to clearing gray areas to make for a smooth passage by the National Assembly and ready for President’s assent.

The Chairman, Public Accounts Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, Senator Matthew Urhoghide and Honourable Busayo Oluwole-Oke who co-chaired a session of stakeholders during a 3-day Stakeholders Consultative/ Technical Session on the Audit Bill organised for members and staff of the Senate and House of Representatives Public Account Committees and the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) in Abuja with support of the Department for International Development’s Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (DFID-PERL), vehemently expressed the desire, commitment and determination to ensuring the enactment of Audi Law in the country.

They assured that the 9th National Assembly will breathe a new life into the Audit Bill and ensure its passage again. Senator Urhoghide and Honourable Oluwole-Oke lamented that the nation’s current audit practice does not meet the global best practices and that necessary reforms that would empower and enable the office of the Auditor General of the Federation to function optimally and efficiently are imperative.

Senator Urhoghide said that the nation would reap huge benefits if the Audit Bill becomes law as it would block revenue leakages and curtail corruption. Urhoghide said the nation must ensure

www.businessday.ng

proper auditing of the spending of public money.

He said strengthening the office of the AuditorGeneral to perform effectively will block leakages and that the nation will save a lot of money and curb corruption drastically.

For Honourable Oluwole-Oke, if the Bill becomes law, it would enable the Auditor General to carry out his duties very efficiently and effectively. Oluwole-Oke said Nigeria is a member of Comity of Nations and should do things in line with the global best practices. He said the Audit Bill if passed and assented would help to curtail corruption in the country.

Senators Ibikunle Amosun and Gabriel Suswam who are members of Senate Public Account Committee in their respective submission maintained that necessary steps must be taken, including the audit law to eradicate corruption and ensure that Nigerians get value for public money utilised by those elected and appointed into public offices. Similarly, the Attorney General of the Federation and Hon. Minister for Justice in his paper titled: “Implications of the Audit process on the fight against corruption” reiterated the importance of an enabling legal framework and adequate resourcing for the OAuGF to enable it complement the fight against corruption. He went further to challenge the OAuGF and the NASS PACs to reflect on their mandate and processes with a view to bridging inherent gaps. The Hon. Minister for Finance, Budget and Planning who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, re-emphasised the importance of auditing in effective public financial management.

The Head, Technical Support, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) Engaged Citizens (EC), Mr John Mutu, who facilitated the session explained that it was aimed at building consensus between the NASS, the Executive and the OAuGF to ensure that the audit bill suc-

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

HAMEED OYEGBADE ceeds in becoming a law. Mutu explained that the main objective of the session is to provide a platform for the National Assembly’s Public Account Committees (NASS PACs), the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) and the Presidency to reflect and review the Audit Bill so as to identify areas of concerns that prevented the President from giving his assent to the bill.

The National Team Leader, Engaged Citizens Pillar (ECP) of DFID funded Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn (PERL), Adiya Ode observed that the office of the Auditor General of the Federation plays a critical role in the fight against corruption which is one of the major agenda of President Buhari’s administration. Adiya noted that if the government is really committed to fighting corruption, the audit law is a useful mechanism to achieve the objective. She said that having the audit law in place would strengthen the Auditor General to perform his functions well and also send signal to corrupt people that they would be exposed and prosecuted.

In conclusion, having realized that Audit Law is a useful tool to help Nigeria deal with corruption and even nip corrupt tendencies in the bud, all hands must be on deck to ensure speedy passage of the Audit Bill by the 9th Assembly and assented

by President Buhari, without delay so that Nigeria will nail the coffin of corruption and bury it.

Oyegbade writes from Osogbo, Osun State

@Businessdayng

Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 years

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

comment

11

comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

Socrates, democracy, and the ‘ta-ta-ta elections’ in Kogi state HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

O

ne of the fondest claims of Western liberal education is that “democracy” as we know it originated from the Greeks. Seekers after History are often drawn to the ruins of the Parthenon in the ancient citadel known as the Acropolis, on the outskirts of Athens. Beyond the sheer beauty of its harmonic proportions, it is regarded as a monument to democracy, which itself was said to have been founded in Athens during the period of the temple’s construction, in the years 492-449 “Before the birth of Christ.”

Another innovation bequeathed to the world by the ancient Greeks is Philosophy, which seeks to explore and explain the rational basis of human existence.

No figure in the field of Philosophy is more venerated than Socrates. He was one of the earliest the use of philosophical logic in public discourse.

Among the fundamental assumptions of democracy are that “all men are born equal”, and every man is entitled to vote to elect his leaders.

It is only then that the higher goal of having a “government of the people, by the people” is achieved.

In the past century when colonised territories in Asia, South America and Africa have fought anti-colonial struggles to shake off the shackles of colonial rule, the Grecian innovation of “democracy” was a persistent rallying call for the struggle. To listen to the Mahatma Gandhis and Kenneth Kaundas during their struggles for independence, it seemed reasonable to expect that once “democracy” was achieved, their countries were going to become virtual “heaven on earth”.

The bogey of “Democratic Values” was even used by Western powers to attack and subvert countries behind the Iron Curtain where authoritarian rule had taken grip, limiting or eliminating personal freedoms.

Over time, “democracy” has become the prized asset of a Liberal Democratic drive seeking to spread itself globally. It is championed by such exemplars as Tony Blair and Angela Merkel.

Only recently have people begun to question whether democracy, as currently practised, truly guarantees “government of the people by the people”, and truly embodies the best form of governance known to man.

Socrates in his public discourses uttered words that indicated he was deeply sceptical about some of the assumptions inherent in the concept and practice of democracy. His premises, as recorded in a dialogue attributed to him in Plato’s Republic, are concise and cogent. democracy assumes that every citizen is entitled to, and competent to, use the vote effectively in the onerous assignment of electing the right leader to public office. Those assumptions, says Socrates, are not necessarily true.

Using the ballot requires a certain amount of civic education in order to ensure that each citizen makes

the appropriate choice. He offers the example of a trader who sells confectionery that tastes sweet but causes diabetes and obesity when eaten in excess, and a doctor who heals the sick, competing for the people’s vote.

The sweets merchant would say I can give you unlimited sweets which you will enjoy”.

The doctor, on the other hand, may find himself making a pitch such as “Your health is already precarious from unhealthy eating. I need to save your lives by applying painful injections and bitter medicines”.

In an untutored system where the voter has not been rigorously trained to the responsibilities of his “office”, the sweets merchant would win, hands down.

Socrates’ notion is easy to misconstrue and misapply. Racists in the deep South of the USA for several decades used a perversion of it to prevent large numbers of black people from voting, claiming they were not sufficiently ‘educated’. But the education demanded by Socrates is a civic, not a formal one.

There is a compelling logic to Socrates’ worry that needs to be acknowledged. Almost a century after African nations became ‘independent ‘Democracies’, with many observing the periodic ritual of ‘one man one vote’, their ‘Democracy’ is not working. All too often, as in the case of Nigeria, the blame has been on thieving, incompetent ethnically biased leaders who contrived to be the beneficiaries of ‘democratic’ elections time and time again. That explanation, sadly, does not give the complete picture. It appears to absolve ‘the people’ who ‘own’ the vote from all responsibility for the sad situation.

What is the responsibility of the ordinary people who collect five

‘

Socrates in his public discourses uttered words that indicated he was deeply sceptical about some of the assumptions inherent in the concept and practice of democracy. His premises, as recorded in a dialogue attributed to him in Plato’s Republic, are concise and cogent

thousand naira to sell their votes?

What about the ‘average citizen’ who would vote again and again for the convicted thief because he is ‘generous’ and ’from my village’? And what about the young Kogi women singing to celebrate the recent, infamous ‘TaTa-Ta’ elections in Kogi State, Nigeria, flaunting the fact that their man ‘won’ by ‘shooting’ or ‘threatening to shoot’ the opposition? They may be party hacks, and the man may be ‘from their village’. He may even “share the money”. In Socratic logic, their culpability for the failure of ‘Democracy’ is every bit as much as, or perhaps more, than the ‘winner’ of the Kogi ‘election’, a man who comes across in the public space as totally bereft of merit or empathy.

It is an important leverage to hand to the next generation, who may be in despair and on the point of giving up on the possibility of ever creating a true ‘Nigerian democracy’. They may be told - Work to make the voter take responsibility for the power of his vote.

Start from the children. When you build a critical mass, then, perhaps, you may have democracy.

The story of faulty ‘Democracy’ did not end well for Socrates. He was arraigned on trumped up charges of morally contaminating the youth of Greece. In an exercise of democratic justice, a jury of fifty ordinary Athenians was convened to try him. They found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

No greater demonstration of the responsibility of the citizen to rigorously interrogate his voting responsibilities is possible than the spectre of Socrates slumping to his death after drinking poisonous hemlock juice.

Olugbile is a writer and psychiatrist. synthesiz@gmail.com

Hexavian business laws for 2020 (1)

O

nce again, welcome to 2020! We are in this together. As part of my contribution to your growth, here are 21 Laws to help you have a greater year. Let me run you through each one.

Law of purpose As 2020 starts, take some time out to play back what you’ve achieved (both individually and on a corporate level) last year. And then as a progression, write down and memorize what you want for 2020. If you don’t know and define where you are going, then everywhere you get to would look like it. In 2020 – START RIGHT, CHART YOUR COURSE. Application: create a central theme for this year. And then make a mind map using the Be>Do>Have Triads Of Manifestation concept (I mean define the things to Be, what to Do and have) to make each Wheel Of Life better, Say 1.Family: Things you want to be, broken down into sets of things to do and have. You can loop the same process for 2. Spirituality 3. Health 4.

Business 5. Finance 6. Socials etc.

The law of vision In 2020, if you’d be limited, it will not be by your abilities, but by – YOUR VISION. Have a big picture of what you want at the end of 2020 while it starts and ensure that there is a progressive realization of each of those set goals. It’s vital that you do this.

Practical Applications and Tips: Create a vision board. Collect items and assets you wish to have, people you wish to be like, cut out the images and attach them to the vision board.

Keep them in a place you access often maybe

by your mirror, wardrobe, work desk etc. It constantly reminds you of all you need be while creating a supernatural and metaphysical magnet that draws them closer to your reality. This is in line with the faith movement and the laws of attraction.

The law of knowledge 2020 holds massive growth for those who know. To grow more, to do more – LEARN MORE. Practical Applications and Tips: Have a PDP (an acronym for Personal Development Plan). It may be getting a set of mentors and mentees, (to learn and in turn teach). It may be joining a book club, having one more degree, attending any of the Hexavian masterclasses, Breakfast with Eizu series or engaging Hexavia in a retreat or strategy session for your team, it may even be reading more books, traveling more etc.

The law of branding Define who you want to be, and how you want to be seen next year. Beyond reality, master perception. Please understand that the only thing more important than what you’d be doing or selling in 2020 is what the buyer believes he is buying – BE BRANDED. Define who you want to be, and how you want to bed seen this year. Please understand that the only thing more important than what you’d be doing or selling in 2020 is what the buyer believes he is buying – BE BRANDED. Practical Applications and Tips: Take your online representation serious. Be intentional.

Have a theme for your social media, create a

www.businessday.ng

logo, website, theme colour for yourself. Define what you believe in and what you want to contribute to the world and begin to blog about it. Let people know you for something.

The law of character Be firm. Do not overvalue what you are not and undervalue what you are as well as what you do. In 2020, we will become what we have repeatedly done – CHARACTER Practical Applications and Tips: Make a list of things you’d never do. Hang around people who are more credible. Choose to be truthful and honest in all situations with your mind made up to accept and enjoy the sacrifices and results that come from it. Make a list of people you know with integrity and then draw closer to them. They’d rub off on you. Cut off two-faced people. Take your religion more seriously.

The law of value and results In 2020, please don’t be a busy bee like you’ve always been. In the past, you may have worked hard, now it’s time to work smart. Look at the value chains of your life; recognize the things that have added the most value and things that have wasted your time. And then from this, know what to start, what to stop and what to keep doing. In our pursuit for wealth, value is the currency. Its glaring that people don’t pay for efforts, they pay for results – in, be result oriented, add VALUE. Practical Applications and Tips: Wake up every morning with the prayer and mindset to lookout for what to help with and who to help. Complain and judge less. Attempt to be

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

EIZU UWAOMA

a solution to a problem around you and never a problem to a solution.

The law of people 2020 is the year of influence, the year of people. It is that year that the relationships you have built in the past years would come to play. My advice is that you know and stick with the right people. In 2020, how you NETwork will determine your NETworth. Begin to use your built connections and goodwill. And if you don’t have enough of that, then begin to build one. Remember, PEOPLE – are the greatest assets for 2020, invest in them.

Practical Applications and Tips: Create an inner circle. Have a mastermind group. Join a religious cell. Be more involved with your community, volunteer for social work. Learn to be more assertive. Control and be more in charge of your physical and mental space while also listening more.

I’d be sharing the rest 14 of the 21 laws in subsequent articles.

Uwaoma is a start-up, corporate restructuring and strategy consultant. contacteizu@gmail.com

@Businessdayng

12

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Publisher/CEO

Frank Aigbogun editor Patrick Atuanya DEPUTY EDITOR John Osadolor, Abuja NEWS EDITOR Chuks Oluigbo EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STRATEGY, INNOVATION & PARTNERSHIPS Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Ijeoma Ude FINANCE MANAGER Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (South East, South South) Patrick Ijegbai COPY SALES MANAGER Florence Kadiri DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan

Focus on fresh vistas and opportunities in 2020 “By 2020 Nigeria will be one of the 20 largest economies in the world, able to consolidate its leadership role in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena.”- Vision 2020 document. elcome to 2020, dear reader. Welcome to the year when Nigeria assayed that it would achieve significant progress on all indicators. 2020 was supposed to be the year of health for all, housing for all and all-round progress on various indicators for all citizens of Nigeria. Alas, we enter the year with stakeholders, local and international, lamenting the missed opportunities and fretful about the risks ahead.

All the reports, analyses and prognoses about Nigeria point to a difficult year. It starts with the federal government. A recent report by global ratings agency Fitch thumbs down the economic policies of the government as contributing more to knock than to uplift the economy. The economy is more vulnerable and the Naira a low-value currency.

W

There is a high risk of a devaluation of the Naira. Devaluation is bad news ordinarily but given the statistics of Nigeria, devaluation would be devastating. Yet the possibility hovers over the economy.

There is no clarity in the economic policies that the government is implementing. Fundamental policy measures are not subjected to any debate before Mr President or other official such as the boss of the Customs announces them and begins rushed implementation. The National Assembly looks on.

The country is steadily going back to the era of massive debts.

The National Assembly is committed to approving the president’s request for Nigeria to take a loan of a huge $29billion ostensibly for funding infrastructure projects. It will add to the $80b that Nigeria currently owes and the weight of debt servicing and debt repayment.

Inflation would likely spike in 2020 given policy measures such as the 50 per cent increase in Value Added Tax, the increased minimum wage, the continued closure of the Western border and restrictions on forex financing for a wide range of imported goods.

GDP growth at 2.4 percent would be below the rate of population growth. In real terms we would have negative growth in the economy. The key ratios look bad. Inflation is high. Interest rates do not support enterprise.

We have already mentioned the low value of the Naira as a tool of global trade.

There are dire warnings from multilateral institutions about the trajectory of our economy.

We enter the new year and new decade tremulous. BusinessDay believes we should take a different stance.

“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head”, William Shakespeare got Duke Senior to exclaim in As You Like It. The many aphorisms of the peoples of Nigeria affirm this with expressions such as tough times reveal the content of the man.

Stakeholders of Nigeria must see 2020 as a call to arms. They cannot bow to the headwinds of the economic situation, even as it is clear majority of the challenges are self-imposed.

Fresh ideas, new thinking, new strategies must spring forth from operators of the economy.

Players in other areas of life must weigh in with positivity.

The times call for cooperation and collaboration. Professional bodies that have focused only on member relations must rouse to the challenge of national engagement. Associations focused on the economy should also do more.

Economic history shows that serendipity often comes into play when there is a national resolve. It is heartening that President Muhammadu Buhari is suddenly mindful of the need to have a united country and worries about his place in history. He could give the nation a New Year gift by changing the character of the administration with new appointments that reflect the diversity of our peoples while enthroning merit.

Enterprises in the country must embrace true research and development to tackle the shortfalls and changing dynamics of the economy and market. The experts such as Morgan Stanley also forecast calmer waters in the global economy, growth in emerging markets and a positive outlook. Nigeria must be a part of this positive outlook once more.

Happy New Year 2020.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Imo Itsueli Mohammed Hayatudeen Afolabi Oladele Vincent Maduka Opeyemi Agbaje Amina Oyagbola Bolanle Onagoruwa Fola Laoye Chuka Mordi Mezuo Nwuneli Charles Anudu Tunji Adegbesan Eyo Ekpo Wiebe Boer Paul Arinze Boye Olusanya Ayo Gbeleyi Haruna Jalo-Waziri Clement Isong

Enquiries NEWS ROOM 08169609331 08116759816 08033160837

} Lagos Abuja

ADVERTISING 01-2799110 08033225506 SUBSCRIPTIONS 01-2799101 07032496069 07054563299 DIGITAL SERVICES 08026011296 www.businessday.ng The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria.

01-2799100 Legal Advisers The Law Union

OUR Core Values

Mission Statement To be a diversified provider of superior business, financial and management intelligence across platforms accessible to our customers anywhere in the world.

BusinessDay avidly thrives on the mainstay of our core values of being The Fourth Estate, Credible, Independent, Entrepreneurial and Purpose-Driven.

• The Fourth Estate: We take pride in being guarantors of liberal economic thought • Credible: We believe in the principle of being objective, fair and fact-based • Independent: Our quest for liberal economic thought means that we are independent of private and public interests.

• Entrepreneurial: We constantly search for new opportunities, maintaining the highest ethical standards in all we do • Purpose-Driven: We are committed to assembling a team of highly talented and motivated people that share our vision, while treating them with respect and fairness. www.businessday.ng

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

comment

13

comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

Becoming a better parent in 2020 Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

I

t is a brand-new year and it is official, our children are quite distracted by all manner of things, internet, TV and just a weird world if I may say so. So, as we enter the new year, let us pull up our socks and be committed to becoming better Parents. You know this idea of becoming better parents requires some self-introspection and a measure of discipline.

Permit me to give you some insights as to how parenting has become a core for a better society.

Actually, it has always been. Socialisation is how a society becomes.

Our values, our thoughts and beliefs are often things we picked up from our parents. We have imbibed quite a bit from our parents, greeting, respect for elders, kindness, family, welcoming strangers, hard work and some measure of community. The rest we picked up on life’s journey, from schools to our peers and our role models. However, they are often pari- pasu with our core values emanating from our homes.

I am a teacher so I enjoy imparting and impacting. I am constantly between schools and churches where I give talks on Parenting and children management. In a very complicated world and a place of diminishing moral values, it is often heart-warming to share knowledge and give tips. As a mother myself, I wish to remind Parents especially young ones that we were once young parents too and some-

times you second guess your decisions and sometimes, we make mistakes.

Remember Parents are human and it is really hard to be responsible for another human being. Being a parent is a tough call, a sacrifice for all times and we are not perfect. Here are some tips for becoming a better Parent as the year opens up like a beautiful flower in 2020.

Remember that examples are critical. A child learns faster when watching their parents. Don’t say smoking is bad and then sneak to the garden to have a smoke. Years down the road when you stop smoking, don’t be alarmed when your son or daughter becomes a chimney.

Never use vile words on your children. You are an idiot or are you a goat is bad even as a joke. Try and caution your children with less abuse and more love.

Pray together as a family. It gives the kids a foundation that there are things that can be attained through praying to a higher being. Psychologists have also told us that the spiritual side of things can help manage depression or even an anxiety ridden child. If they form a habit, they will pray when you are not there and the stress of life is getting to them.

Love your kids in the things they enjoy. Don’t condemn an arty child because you would rather, they were science oriented. Provide paper and a paint brush and let them begin to doodle early in life. As they get better, they are happier. Creatives need encouragement not just Scientists. Get an Art teacher. Develop your child’s inner talent. I have four daughters who are Artists. I should know. Also, Art can improve self-esteem in a child who is unsure.

Never ever compare children and make one feel less than the other. I always find a way to make each child feel special. So, if its cooking, I am going to take each child’s strength and celebrate them on it. In my home, we have The

Egusi Queen, the Spaghetti MasterChef, the sauce expert and the jollof rice maestro, the fried rice aficionado and the Salad guru. You can spare some time to celebrate their cooking effort and make them feel extra special. It is good for confidence building.

If you have to travel somewhere special and you cannot take them all at once for one reason or the other, make sure you compensate. Children never forget and they keep things in their heart for a long time. So, your 26-year-old would remind you that you chose a sibling over her to go to Ghana when she was nine. Believe me they never forget!

Do things together. Homework.

Building a toy aeroplane or car. Cleaning. Cooking. Children love to do things with their Parents. Never ever be too busy.

Listen. Try to hang around your kids when they return from boarding school and they are eating their favourite meal which they have missed. Tongues loosen from good food. Drop in and out of the kitchen or the study and listen to the chatter of your kids. You would get unsolicited information and answers to many questions you have been asking.

When a child says I want to talk to you. Please do not be too busy to listen.

We often say not now and then forget and move on. Try and create the time. If the time is bad, note it and return to the matter. Don’t be too eager when you return to it otherwise, they shut down. Be casual. Invite her/him into the kitchen while cooking or ask him to join you to water the garden and start innocuously with something unrelated like school uniforms or basketball which he enjoys then act like you suddenly remembered. “Oh, you were trying to tell me something yesterday, I am all ears.” If you go straight to it, he/she may decide he no longer wants to tell you.

When you are discussing your children’s misdemeanour do not do it in front of the child concerned or even in

‘

Remember that examples are critical. A child learns faster when watching their parents.

Don’t say smoking is bad and then sneak to the garden to have a smoke

front of the other children except it is a teachable moment. I have been known to use eye signs to bring my spouse to the bedroom so we can talk about an erring child.

Tone of voice matters to children.

The way you scold a child matter. Loud voice for big errors, a softer tone for minor errors. Using a sledgehammer for small things often tells a child you have poor judgement. Be appropriate in tone.

Do not give a child everything they want. When you are no longer liquid, they would not believe you and begin to throw insane tantrums. Tell them gently why you cannot afford a toy house or toy motorbike. Give them phones that are age appropriate less they steal going forward to own the new trending phone.

Do not spoil your children. Tell them when they mess up. Set up boundaries.

Let them know why they can’t go to some places and why they must return home before a curfew. Ground them when you have to. Tough love is good.

Love them. Tell them you love them.

Teach them the way to go and they will not depart. Love them, teach them to love you back Be on the same page with your spouse. Kids know how to play their parents. They know who is likely to say yea or no. Ensure you discuss issues and agree on how to react.

Watch that house girl or houseboy.

They may have more influence on your kids and teach them things you do not want. Open your eyes. Stay Present in your own home.

Parenting is hard in today’s very complicated world but we must keep striving. We are moulding the future.

It’s our duty. It’s our calling.

Happy new year to you all. I wish you a very successful year ahead full of glad tidings and God’s special favours.

Abu is a broadcaster, writer, trainer, brand and multimedia strategy expert and media consultant. abu_eugenia@yahoo.com

Thoughts on qualifications for school teachers

A

s the December 31, 2019 deadline for the removal of unqualified teachers approaches, this is a humble call requesting that, at least some form of consideration be given to some competent teachers, who would otherwise be referred to as “unqualified,” going strictly by their nonpossession of the N.C.E/B.Ed./PGDE and other education-related qualifications, as well as their status of registration with the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (T.R.C.N).

Going by this new policy on possession of only education-related qualifications by all school teachers, some pertinent questions arise in the minds of many, especially those who are more likely to be affected by it. Such questions include: Would someone who currently works as a Subject Teacher in a primary or secondary school for example, and who studied a course related to the subject he teaches, but only at the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) or Bachelor of Arts (B.A) level, be required to forfeit his/her current teaching position, to be replaced by someone else who has an N.C.E, B.Ed., PGDE, or other education-related qualification in that subject area?

Would people currently working as Teaching Assistants/Assistant Teachers/Classroom Assistants also be required to possess the education-related qualifications currently required of all schoolteachers?

Also, considering the high rate of unemployment in the country currently, will the

removal of teachers from classrooms on the grounds that they do not possess educationrelated qualifications, not cause the already high level of unemployment in the country to rise? If this directive is implemented, many who entered into the teaching profession as “apprentices,” by learning on the job, and who have over the years made significant progress in the teaching profession, who have become competent and quality teachers, and who have also developed a strong passion for the teaching profession, would be forced to exit the profession, with probably little or no alternative employment opportunities or sources of livelihood.

In addition, with regard to the effect of unemployment on people, psychologists find that among today’s unemployed, psychiatric and psychological problems are increasing, as well as emotional instability, frustration, progressive apathy, and loss of self-respect. When a person with children to care for loses a job, it is a terrible personal tragedy. The world has collapsed around them. Security has evaporated. Today, in fact, some experts note the emergence of an “anticipatory anxiety” related to the possibility of losing one’s job. This anxiety can seriously affect family relations and can have even more tragic results, as recent suicides of unemployed persons may indicate.

Furthermore, the difficulty of breaking into the labor market is among the probable causes of violence and social alienation of young people.

It should also be noted that many other factors contribute toward the low quality and www.businessday.ng

falling standard of the educational system apart from the inadequate qualification of some schoolteachers. These other factors include: the poor remuneration of teachers, the absence of functional and well-equipped libraries in many public and private schools across the country, absence of modern teaching facilities, etc. In addition, the attitude of the students themselves, toward the success of their own education, also plays an important role, and should not be taken for granted.

For example, with regard to libraries, due to the absence of functional and well-equipped school libraries in many public and private schools across the country, students and teachers are ill-equipped with adequate educational materials and resources that could greatly contribute towards the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning in such schools.

In view of the above, some steps that could be considered as an alternative to the instant removal of “unqualified” or incompetent teachers from the classrooms, in my humble opinion/suggestion, could include the other option of administering competence-based tests for these supposedly “unqualified” teachers that do not have the above-mentioned education-related qualifications, to ascertain their level of competence as schoolteachers, and then, for those who are found competent, trying to make a provision/opportunity for them to remain in the teaching profession, perhaps by giving them some extra time to update their qualifications, or stipulating other

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Daniel IGHAKPE

alternative requirements for them, rather than instantly removing them from the classroom or requiring that they go back to school to obtain the required education-related qualifications, especially as they must already have had many years of experience on the job, as well as other equivalent, though not education-related qualifications.

Another option could be that these teachers be provided with adequate training and development opportunities perhaps within the schools where they work, that will expose them to more advanced/improved methods of performing their duties as schoolteachers, and help them update their skills and competence level. This would be more preferable than causing them to lose their jobs as teachers - entirely removing them from the occupation that they have come to love and for which they have developed a strong passion. Thank you!

Igbhakpe writes from Lagos and can be contacted on 08174795742. danighakpe@gmail.com.

@Businessdayng

14

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

MONEYINSIGHT

Outside treasury bills, 3 places to invest your money in 2020 FRANK ELEANYA

T

reasury bills attraction for individual investors may have ended with 2019 after rates dropped to record lows towards the end of the year.

Investors will be looking forward to new opportunities with rates above 10 percent in 2020.

The drop below 10 percent was largely a fallout of the instruction by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in October to lenders to ban individuals and startups from buying treasury bills from primary or Open Market Operation (OMO) auctions if such customers are borrowing customers or those of other banks. The aim was to push banks to lend more to businesses.

The apex bank had also mandated deposit money banks (DMBs) to increase their lending to deposit ratio (LDR) by 65 percent before the end of the year.

The apex bank plans to increase the LDR target to 70 percent in 2020.

Following the mandate, the rates for the 182 days tenor dropped from 11.02 percent in October, to 8.12 percent in November and 5.60 percent in December. Experts say the rates might drop further as the CBN push LDR target to 70 percent.

With the treasury bill firmly out of the way as an investment option, the following are the three places you can put your money in 2020.

Agriculture The agriculture sector has always been investors’ keepsake because people will always eat and they will willingly pay for it. But the increased attention in

recent times from the Nigerian government has made the sector even more attractive. Particularly in 2019, some of the notable policies taken by the government, which brought up controversies, were aimed at boosting productivity in the agriculture sector. For instance, the land border which overshadowed most public discussion in 2019 was because the government took a decision to curb the smuggling of rice and other food items.

Consequently, rice production received significant investments including a rise in platforms that enable people to be part of the agricultural revolution without having to physically be present in the farms. Technology-driven platforms such Farmcrowdy, FarmAgric, FarmKart, Growsel, Thrive Agric, among others, are enabling their users to invest in

www.businessday.ng

real farms with returns between 10 and 20 percent. PiggyVest, a fintech company allow its users to invest as low as N5,000 and N10,000 in farms for returns above 10 percent.

Equity stake in startups This may not be a space for speculators or short term investors, but, for investors with money they are not going to need in 5 to 7 years and an appetite for risks.

Investing in startups is not new. If you have ever given money to a cousin for a business idea you thought sounded promising and which you expected to be paid back, you invested in a startup. The only difference is, not only were your decision driven by sentiment but you didn’t sign up for equity.

Investment in startups has

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

grown over the years driven by venture capital firms that are able to establish a process that ensures investors do not lose their money and that they make significant returns. VC firms like Microtraction, TLcom, Venture Partners, Trium Capital have participated and even led investments in several startups across the country.

Although startups which have received investments are yet to declare profits, the investments are closely monitored by VCs ensuring investors’ funds are protected.

Using a VC is usually a good bet if you are unsure of how to go about investing in startups.

However, should the VC space proof too complicated, there is Angel Investment. Angel investors are typically individuals who have spare cash available and are looking for a higher rate of return than would be given by more

@Businessdayng

traditional investments. They invest in new or small business ventures, providing capital for startup or expansion. An angel investor often looks for returns of 25 percent or more.

Whatever the choice is, startups are definitely one of the best vehicles you want to board as an investor in 2020, especially now that the market has grown so much a number of them are thinking of going public. There is also increased expectations of mergers and acquisitions in the new year. If you bought a share in a companies considered takeover targets, then you stand a good chance of making a profit when a bid is made in the future, either by the offer being accepted or because it propels the valuation of the company upwards.

Fixed deposits on online savings platforms Interest rates on fixed deposits in commercial banks may have lost their allure due to recent cuts in bank fees by the CBN which is forcing commercial banks to adjust the rate, but online platforms have proven resilient. Saving your money for longer periods on platforms like PiggyVest, CowryWise and Carbon could earn you returns between 10 to 15 percent annually. There is more money to be made if you meet the referrals standards on PiggyVest.

While you are earning returns of 10 to 15 percent on CowryWise, the platform also gives you the opportunity to invest in assets like mutual funds for returns as high as 15.3 percent.

Nevertheless, do not release your money until you have done your due diligence and are satisfied with the terms and conditions of service. Also lookout for the fees you will be charged for those services.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

15

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

Consumer Goods

PZ Nigeria plunges into N1.58bn half-year loss on weak consumer spending OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

P

Z Cussons’ revenue half year result for the period ended 30th November 2019 slumped 3.2 percent t o N 3 3 . 9 4 b n f ro m N35.05bn in same period in 2018. Its cost of sales surged 7.4percent to 28.15bn from N 2 6 . 2 2 b n , l e av i n g gross profit at N5.79bn from N8.82bn in 2019.

Selling and distribution cost dropped 9.6percent to N4.62bn from N5.11bn. Administrative expenses increased 34.1percent to N2.66bn from N1.98bn in half year 2019, leaving the cosmetics and soap maker in a battered state with a loss

of N1.58bn as compared with a profit of N1.22bn in same period last year.

According to the parent company of PZ Cussons Nigeria, PZ Cussons in United Kingdom which owns a 73.27percent stake in the group in Nigeria, the fortune of the company was impacted by a weak consumer spending in its major markets.

According to the makers of Nunu Milk, Imperial Leather soap and Morning fresh soap, its Africa revenue plummeted due to weakness in its massmarket Home and Personal Care brands offsetting strong growth in Electricals while profitability was impacted by

continued consumer pricing pressure, continuation of charges associated with the port in Lagos and the closure of the borders limiting exports.

The company noted that in Europe & the Americas, whilst Imperial Leather and original source continued to demonstrate market share growth, continuing consumer uncertainty and well-documented challenges in the UK high street adversely impacted overall revenue and profit.

Results remained solid in Beauty with continued growth in retail sales of St Tropez in the USA. The company however expressed optimism for the second

half.

“A stronger second half is expected subject to no further worsening of the economic and trading environments across our key geographies,” the company said in a statement.

Nigeria’s demographic features remain extremely attractive to consumerfacing companies and retailers. First, her large population size creates a huge consumer market for companies to target According to World Bank data, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt — contributes above 50.0% of Africa’s total consumer spending.

In all, while Nigeria’s market size is its biggest case for consumer

companies to invest in the nation, weak consumer disposable income and high poverty rates had made the case for growth less compelling.

Additionally, the country’s tough operating environment; decrepit infrastructures, porous borders, double-digit inflation and sluggish economic recovery, have further compounded sector players woes as they struggle to break-even, as the disposable incomes of consumers continue to shrink in real term – owing to the consistent double-digit inflation rate and sluggish economic growth — consumers have constantly adopted affordability as the key

factor in consumption decisions, rather than the brand name.

Aside from the current challenges, the major upside potential going forward is expected to come from the potential implementation of the new minimum wage.

However, the gains from the new minimum wage would be eroded as the government is proposing to review upward its Value Added Tax that is expected to be passed on to consumers, in the form of price increases.

PZ Cussons’ shares traded at N5.65 at the last day of trading in 2019 , shedding 53.13percent year-todate.

COMMODITIES

Gold hits jackpot in 2019 but holds mixed outlook in new year SEGUN ADAMS

G

old ended 2019 with its best performance in nine years after the bullion hit a 3-month high helped by weaker dollars. With the focus now on the New Year FXTM analysts say the outlook is positive as improving global growth and easing trade tension worry others.

The bullion gained 18.9 percent year-on-year in 2019 to deliver its best returns since a 29.7 percent return in 2010.

“The explosive (gold) rally witnessed in recent weeks will most likely extend into 2020 despite easing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies,” Lukman Otunuga, FXTM analyst told Reuters.

“A lingering sense of caution over trade developments and lack of details on the Phase 1 deal may also stimulate appetite for gold

during Q1 of 2020.”

Gold gained about 4 percent in December shrugging off the effect of trade deals talks between the US and China.

However, analysts worry that easing global uncertainty might take its toll on gold while JPMorgan told Bloomberg that gold might not offer best portfolio protection tipping bonds as likely defensive assets in the next downturn.

“There are very few certain environments in which gold does well, and it’s not necessarily the case that 2020 won’t be any of those,” Hannah Anderson, a global market strategist at JPMorgan, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “In the next downturn, I do believe that bonds still could be defensive assets.”

Last year was marked by global uncertainties to which the trade war contributed largely forcing central banks in the developed

world to push new money into the monetary system.

Amid fears of a currency war and negative-yielding bonds, global investors fled from risky assets into safe

havens like gold, stoking price of the low-risk asset.

But the outlook for 2020 is for faster economic expansion and Trump on Tuesday set January 15 to

sign a phase one deal with China, aimed at de-escalating their dispute.

For the bulls, with weaker U.S. dollar narrative gathering steam into the election

year 2020, risk hedgers are starting to flock to the security of gold rather than the dollar,” said Stephen Innes, Head of Asia market strategist at AxiTrader.

L-R: Paulina Udosen, marriage counselor; Shalom Okonmah, conveners of Covenant Marriage Counselors: Joseph Okonmah, and Theophilus Akatugba, marriage counselor, Life Coach, during the 2019 Couples Conference in Lagos.

16

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

BANKING

Union Bank opens two branches in Anambra State HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

U

nion Bank, one o f N i g e r i a’s foremost financial institutions, recently launched full-service ultramodern branches in Ekwulobia and Amawbia, Anambra state. The branches were opened as part of the Bank’s continued efforts to provide its customers with simpler and smarter banking services. The locations of the new branches take into consideration banking convenience for residents and businesses in these communities.

Speaking at the launch, Emeka Emuwa, Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank said the branches would

give the Bank’s customers increased access to a reliable and efficient banking experience and actively promote financial inclusion within the community. According to him: “We are delighted at the opportunity to bring our signature banking services to you right where you are. At Union Bank, we believe banking should be simple, smart and relevant to the needs of the customer. It is this customerfocused outlook that drives us to continuously improve on our products and services across all our touchpoints as we strive to deliver our signature simpler, smarter banking.”

Speaking at the event in Amawbia, Willie Nwokoye, the representative of the Executive Governor of

Anambra State Chief Willie Obiano, praised Union Bank’s focus on ensuring excellent service delivery.

He said, “Union Bank has honoured our people with this establishment. We thank the Management and staff for seeing the potential economic case in Amawbia, and we are confident our people will support the growth of the Bank.”

The new branches are equipped to cater to the banking needs of all categories of customers including individuals, small businesses and larger organisations, reiterating Union Bank’s commitment to providing its valued customers with excellent banking services that enable their success.

L-R: Doyin Abike Somoye, WWcode, director for finance and compliance; Uche Mukolo, WWcode, director for technical research and innovations; Chinelo Madueke, head, thehatch Innovation Hub; Damilola Olukoju, WWcode, director for communications and public relations, and Hope Oluwalope, WWcode, director for human capital management, at the Women Who Code yearly leadership hangout hosted at thehatch Innovation Hub in Lagos.

HEALTH

Ekocorp makes investment in new machine to take on cancer SEGUN ADAMS

L

isted healthcare company, Ekocorp has acquired and is installing a radiotherapy machine that would help patients with cancer, the largest segment of Nigeria’s medical tourist, the company has said.

The radiotherapy machine described as states of the art is part of the Ekocorp’s transformational agenda.

“Ekocorp…has acquired and is in the process of installing a state of the art radiotherapy machine (Gamma Beam 100 Equinox

ERBT) to cater for cancer patients of Nigeria who constitute the largest number of medical tourist of the country,” said Eko Corp.

The company boasts of being Nigeria’s only private hospital providing radiotherapy service in the country.

Providing cancer management and treatment services in Nigeria brings care closer to cancer patients living in the country, and could help the economy retain some funds that would otherwise have been spent on cancer treatments abroad.

The healthcare company said it is not relenting in maintain its leading role in the industry through quality manpower and technology, all geared towards efficient service delivery for the benefit of every citizen of the Nation.

Ekocorp did not state the cost of the machine in the release published on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The stock gained about 26 percent to N22.1 in 2019, outperforming the broad market which declined more than 10 percent.

L-R: Yusuf Kazaure, managing director of Galaxy Backbone Limited; Adeniyi Adebayo, minister of industry, trade and investment, and Chidi Okpala, marketing manager of Galaxy, during the Minister’s facility tour of the ICT solution company, recently in Abuja.

Festive cheer sends eurozone bond yields to fresh highs Signs that Germany is contemplating higher borrowing have added to selling pressure TOMMY STUBBINGTON

B

ond yields in key European markets start 2020 at their highest levels since the summer, after an outbreak of optimism about the global economy sparked a heavy sell-off at the end of the year.

Germany’s 10-year government bond yield, which serves as a benchmark for the eurozone, climbed sharply in recent days to end the year at minus 0.19 per cent, up from minus 0.36 per cent at the start of December. Yields move inversely to price.

Last year, investors piled into the safest government bonds, betting that a global recession was imminent, pushing yields on more than $17tn of debt around the world below zero by the end of August. Since then, an improvement in economic data has made fund managers increasingly uncomfortable about buying bonds that guarantee a loss if they

are held to maturity. The eurozone — and particularly German Bunds — bore the brunt of the late-year selling thanks to the region’s deeply negative yields.

“Investors are sniffing a global growth recovery and they are selling the most vulnerable asset in that scenario — Bunds,” said Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management. Mr Paolini added that signs that Berlin is contemplating higher borrowing in a bid to stimulate a flagging economy has added to the selling pressure. “The German government appears keen to loosen the public purse,” he said.

Yields across the euro area have followed Germany’s higher. France’s 10-year yield is at 0.12 per cent, the highest since June. Italy’s 10-year borrowing costs hit a five-month high of 1.41 per cent.

Following the sell-off, which has also pushed bond yields higher in the US and

Japan, the global pool of negative-yielding debt has shrunk to $11.2tn.

Some traders and investors say that thinly traded markets during the Christmas period have exaggerated moves in prices. Many are betting that the drivers of low yields — mainly sluggish growth and dovish central banks — will reassert themselves when trading resumes in the new year.

The European Central Bank continues to buy €20bn of bonds a month under its “quantitative easing” programme, for example. That is enough to hoover up all the expected net issuance of debt across the eurozone this year.

Eurozone governments are set to issue less debt this year than they did in 2019, thanks to a decline in the value of maturing bonds that need to be refinanced, according to Jan von Gerich, Helsinki-based chief strategist at Nordea.

L-R: Edit Udofi, director, policy advocacy, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC); Abdulmalik Ibrahim, director, enterprise promotion and development, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); Gbenga Ogundeji, South West Coordinator, and Kyriakos Schizas, managing director, Zota Transport Advantage Limited, at the SMEDAN & NIPC match-making session between MSMEs and large enterprises, in Lagos.

L-R: Jean-Pierre Choulet, director of alumni development, Henley Business School; Paul Orajiaka, president, Henley Nigeria alumni and Chief Executive Officer, Auldon Toys; Nneka Idam, Vice-President, Henley Nigeria alumni, and John Board, dean Henley Business School, at the inauguration of Henley Nigeria chapter Alumni association in Lagos

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

17

cityfile NGO tasks Sokoto on WASH policy

A

nongovernmental organisation , Save The Child Initiative (STCI), has stressed the need for Sokoto State government to implement Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) policy to ensure maximum improvement on water and sanitation services in the state.

Programme manager, e-WASH project/ head of programmes of STCI, Muhammad Garba made the call at the establishment of the Urban WASH Community of Practice (COP) on Wednesday in Sokoto.

Garba stressed the importance of the law to the public lives, noting that if implemented the WASH policy would enhance the quality of water supply and promote efficient management as in use of water secured “It would also make the Water Board viable to mobilise resources and provide quality water supply to the people of Sokoto state.

“Where you do not have water supply, it can also make sure that communities around the different places enjoy water supply in line with international best standard practices.” he said.

The manager said STCI signed a sub-agreement with the e-WASH project to implement the project in three zones of Sokoto, adding that two other CSOs were also working in four additional zones.

According to him, STCI was mandated to form the COP to carry out high level advocacy visits and also engage other community stakeholders to address WASH issues in the state.

New security outfit begins operation in S/West Jan. 9

G

overnor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti says the joint security outfit, “Amotekun” initiated by the six governors in the zone would commence work on January 9, 2020.

Fayemi said the outfit would complement the efforts of the regular security agencies.

“On January 9, 2020, the Western Nigeria Security Network known as ‘Amotekun’ shall commence operations in all the six states in our zone “Ekiti is very active in this initiative which will go a long way in securing the people and protecting the state. The fact remains, however, that criminality cannot be totally eradicated even as we are working meticulously at reducing it to the barest minimum in Ekiti State, and the evidence is there for all to see and acknowledge that we are making steady progress ”Since we are not an Island, we are working with neigbouring states to strengthen our security architecture,” he said.

The governor also urged community leaders and groups not to allow themselves to be used to cause unnecessary tension that could trigger crisis in the state.

“I have personally kept a close watch on the security situation within and around Ekiti State, and I can assure you that as a government, we are leaving no stone unturned to ensure safety of lives and property in our dear State.

“Ekiti remains one of the safest places to live, work and conduct business in Nigeria.

“Henceforth, I urge our community leaders or groups not to allow themselves to be used to spread fake or unsubstantiated news with a view to setting the residents against themselves or destabilising the peace of the state “We must encourage our people to report any strange signal or incident, but we must resist the temptation to resort to self-help at any time,” he said.

The governor also stated that the 2020 budget bears eloquent testimonies to his deliberate and honest quest at providing good road network and improving the enabling environment for business concerns.

Fayemi added that residents of the state would continually enjoy affordable education at all levels, good and motorable roads, improved agriculture, social security benefit and development at the grassroots. NAN

Members of the Spring Life Global Ministry, Giwa, Ogun State, worshiping during the crossover night service that ushered in the New Pic by Olawale Amoo Year in Ogun State.

Waste-to-wealth: Igando dumpsite to convert to power plant JOSHUA BASSEY

T

he refuse dumpsites located along LASU-Isheri road in Igando area of Lagos, is to be converted to energy generating plant, in line with the waste-to-wealth policy of the Lagos State government.

The conversion of the dumpsite is also to prevent a potential exposure to epidemic outbreak among the residents of the area.

Commissioners for health, Akin Abayomi, and his counterpart in the ministry of environment and water resources, Tunji Bello, in a joint statement, stated that both ministries were aware of the challenge associated with the dumpsite, especially the menace it constituted to the immediate environment.

Abayomi said the proximity of the dumpsite to the Alimosho General Hospital where medical care was being provided, left much to be desired.

“Situating a waste yard right beside

a general hospital or in the proximity of residential community is totally unacceptable, and we acknowledge the health and environmental dangers this dumpsite constitutes to the neighbourhood and particularly the Alimosho General hospital”, said Abayomi.

He further noted that the dumpsite, which was on the outskirts of the metropolis until population expansion, commercial and residential buildings caught up with it, had earlier been shut five years ago, but reopened by those engaged to manage waste in the last four years under the previous administration.

“We are aware that these dumpsites have caused residents of the area so much discomfort and agony over the years.

These coupled with the attendant exposure to environmental hazards which is inimical to attainment of good health are the reasons why we are taking the bull by the horn to provide lasting solution to this ugly menace by decommissioning these sites and restoring serenity in the

environment”, Abayomi said.

Bello while highlighting initiated plans aimed at finding a lasting solution to the dumpsites and landfills in the axis disclosed that the ministry of the environment and water resources has mandated the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to begin the process of decommissioning of Solous 3 dumpsite; which is the dumpsites close to the Alimosho General Hospital, starting with rehabilitation and improved management of the dumpsite as a critical first step to eventual decommissioning in two to three years.

“The rehabilitation will involve leveling of the refuse, slope stabilisation, soil covering, grading as well as rolling and landscaping. As part of the rehabilitation, we will also rebuild the drainage and road network within and outside the site. These measures will help greatly to control pollution, eliminate rodent’s breeding grounds, prevent landfill gas emission and widen capacity for landfill gas capturing”, Bello explained.

New Year: Fun seekers want improvedeconomy in 2020

F

un seekers at various fun spots in Ibadan metropolis, including Agodi Gardens and Palms Mall, Ring Road, have urged the Federal Government to improve the economy in 2020.

They made the appeal in separate interviews during the new year celebrations in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

Anna Igbakpa, a civil servant in Ibandan, urged the government to create jobs for the youth and improve the health sector in particular.

She said that government should also improve the education sector as well as workers’ welfare. Igbakpa, who took her children to have fun at Palms Mall, thanked God for the grace to witness another year.

Mary Adebayo, also a parent and business woman, appealed to leaders to fulfil the promises made to the citizens during electioneering.

“We need improvement in social amenities, www.businessday.ng

road construction, power supply and security.

When there is adequate security in the country, there will surely be peace.

“I thank God for the year 2019 and pray for a bigger business breakthrough in 2020,” she said.

Similarly, Femi Kushimo, a father and business man, urged government to invest more in agriculture by providing basic farm facilities and implements for the farmers.

Kushimo urged the government to open the country’s borders, saying this would help reduce the cost of his business materials.

“The prices of engineering equipment, especially the imported ones, we sell have really increased since the closure of the border.

“We commend the Federal Government on its efforts to curb corruption, while appealing that they should do more work to improve the economy in all aspects in 2020 in order to better our lots, ” he said.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Also, Tunde Mohammed, a youth and member of staff of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), urged the government to concentrate more on road construction especially that of Ibadan to Lagos and Niger to Kwara.

“We really commend the Federal Government for improved security in the country and the efforts to curb corruption as well as restructure the economy.

“Our youths should not be waiting for white collar jobs; they can engage in farming, which has different value chains and is capable of making them employers of labour,” he said.

The fun seekers, including parents, children, youths and suckling babies, were sighted at the centres eating, drinking and catching fun.

Also reports that other fun spots such as Bubbleplus, RinGii and Paris Kitchen, were not left out, as people filled up the places to celebrate the new year.

@Businessdayng

18

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

What Banking can teach health care about handling customer data JOHN GLASER

W

hy can we run our entire financial lives with a few smartphone apps, a couple of plastic cards and an ATM network, while so many of our interactions with the health care system still rely on phone calls, copiers, fax machines and even the occasional multipart form? Why is the routine exchange of health care information still so difficult compared with the routine exchange of financial information?

Banking has solved some foundational interoperability issues that health care still struggles with. As the longtime CIO at Partners HealthCare in Boston and, more recently, as part of my work at Cerner, a major vendor of electronic health records, I’ve watched this struggle up close for decades. The obstacles are numerous, but they include a lack of agreement on standard methods of information sharing, a habit of regarding patient information as a competitive advantage to be jealously guarded and a fragmented system of reimbursement that doesn’t encourage interoperability.

The widespread adoption of electronic health records should theoretically mean that we don’t have to repeat our medical history for every new doctor and that any emergency room ought to know we’re allergic to penicillin even if we arrive unconscious. Patients who seek their care from a single health care system with advanced information technology, such as Kaiser Permanente or Intermountain Healthcare, may see at least some of these benefits now. But most of us don’t. What lessons can we learn from banking to help bring health care’s information-handling capabilities into the 21st century?

LESSON 1: LIMITED INTEROPERABILITY CAN ADDRESS A BROAD RANGE OF NEEDS. Banks move money among themselves with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) messaging system, which was established by 293 banks in the 1970s and is now used by more than 11,000 banks, brokerage houses, securities dealers and other institutions. They pay a membership fee and a pertransaction fee based on message volume; in exchange they

get a method of quickly and securely transmitting instructions for payments and other transactions. The system delivers more than 34 million messages every day.

The health care industry has a more complicated informationsharing task than the financial industry. But we may be able to accomplish a major part of what we need by concentrating on focused and highly effective forms of interoperability. Our initial to-do list might include notifying the care team whenever a patient receives any health care services, regardless of provider or location; automating the “prior authorization” exchange between providers and insurers; and ensuring that all providers know about a patient’s history of opioid abuse.

LESSON 2: INTEROPERABILITY WILL ONLY SUCCEED WHEN IT MAKES BUSINESS SENSE FOR THE PARTICIPANTS. SWIFT members can use the system to quickly debit and credit the accounts of their customers, an ability that they all benefit from. However, they set their own policies for when to clear the transactions and credit the money to the relevant accounts. And they keep sole custody of their customers and their customers’ money.

Likewise, even though easy access to all available information on a given patient would

be best for the patient, it hasn’t (up until now) been best for providers. The business case for interoperability in health care is taking shape with the adoption of value-based reimbursement models, where providers are rewarded for delivering higherquality care at lower cost and keeping patients healthier. Under a value-based system, it’s more important for providers to be able to track complete information about a patient than it is to keep that patient’s data imprisoned. A provider may risk losing money if its clinicians don’t have a clear picture of a patient’s overall condition, or if the provider can’t manage the patient’s care across multiple settings. The financial health of all providers is coming to depend on access to one another’s data.

More than a third of payments to providers are now made under some value-based arrangement, though those arrangements currently represent only a modest total increase or decrease in income for most providers. For example, while a third of a provider’s claims may be covered by value-based contracts, the amount the provider stands to gain or lose based on its performance may be only 2% of that revenue, so the total bottom-line impact of these arrangements is less than 1% either way.

The percentage of revenue at risk is likely to increase as

we gain experience with valuebased care. As it does, the business case for easier data sharing will solidify. Information exchange efforts will follow the specifics of value-based contracts and government regulation. They will not be driven by an altruistic regard for the patient’s well-being.

Patients may help drive the development of this business case for providers. As David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, observes, a provision in the 21st Century Cures Act requires providers and vendors of health information technology to include open application programming interfaces (APIs) with their products.

Open APIs are the magic that enables a universe of apps to talk among themselves without human intervention. Once patients start to see this magic applied to their health data, they will seek out providers who use it well — just as the banks with the best mobile apps now enjoy a competitive edge.

LESSON 3. INTEROPERABILITY MUST BE DRIVEN BY INDUSTRYWIDE EFFORTS. Health care needs its own SWIFT: a single organization supported by the whole industry that develops and refines interoperability business cases, establishes data and transaction standards, allocates costs, monitors industry progress, addresses any legal or regulatory barri-

ers and develops procedures for participation.

The industry may be about to get such an organization. In the United States, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology soon expects to appoint a governance organization to be the “Recognized Coordinating Entity” (RCE). The RCE’s mandate will be to bring the health care industry together to establish the technical, business and legal mechanisms and agreements necessary to significantly advance interoperability in health care.

This move addresses another provision in the 21st Century Cures Act. While participation is voluntary, so is participation in SWIFT. The proposed RCE will have a big job, and it may take years to know whether it’s effective, but the health care industry needs something like it.

Despite a decade of rapid progress on adopting electronic health records, the health care industry still has a lot to envy when it looks at the ease of datasharing in industries like banking. Interoperability in health care is a perennial priority, but up until now the industry has taken action only sporadically and sometimes under duress.

Technology and business imperatives may finally be converging to get it done.

John Glaser is an executive senior adviser at Cerner.

Friday 03 January 2020

Harvard Business Review

BUSINESS DAY

19

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

Success comes from affirming your potential LAURA MORGAN ROBERTS, ANTHONY J. MAYO

W

hen you see how underre p re s e n t e d African Americans are in current leadership roles, it can be easy to get discouraged about their prospects for leadership advancement. Despite a rise in the number of black college and university graduates, just 8% of managers and under 4% of CEOs are black. In the Fortune 500 companies there are currently only three black chief executives, down from a high of 12 in 2002.

We, however, are not discouraged. In the course of our research, we have met myriad African American leaders who, despite being underestimated, underappreciated and underresourced, have prospered. How do they do it?

Our research suggests that success in the face of systemic discrimination often begins with affirming one’s own potential. When people believe in their ability to grow, they make decisions that reflect this conviction.

Here, we offer a set of selfaffirmations developed from interviews and surveys we have conducted with African American professionals, as well as from our analysis of research on black leadership and career paths. The practice of selfaffirmation has broad benefits, not just in helping people to develop a healthy self-identity but also to limit the effects of negative stereotyping and overt discrimination. We tested these affirmations for validity among a group of approximately 150 African American professionals across all career stages and found that they reflected people’s experiences, fears and successes.

We hope you’ll draw on these affirmations as a reminder of your potential, particularly when you find your leadership authority challenged, when you’ve begun to doubt your ability to advance or when you wonder whether the trade-offs have been worth it.

IN THE EARLY STAGE OF MY CAREER, I envision myself becoming a leader.

— I build a robust sense of self that strengthens me.

— I critically question and reject negative stereotypes and society’s lowered expectations

of black leaders.

— I embrace my unique strengths and cultural resources. I bring new perspectives and ideas that have value and are specific to my experience.

— Like everyone else, I will fail sometimes. This is not because of my race, and my failures do not reflect on my race as a whole. Because I understand this, I use every failure as an opportunity to learn, grow and develop my resiliency.

— The workplace is not perfect, and neither are my colleagues. At times, I experience painful bias, but I do not let these microaggressions limit my career. Instead of shutting down or quitting, I choose to seek the support of my colleagues in making my workplace more inclusive.

— I develop the credibility, networks and capabilities to thrive by aligning my skills and my cultural resources — my connections and my background — with strategic opportunities for my company and career.

IN THE MIDDLE STAGE OF MY CAREER, I am positioned to grow into greater leadership roles.

— I recognize that as my core strengths and talents increase, I can be a stronger contributor in my organization. I draw on these attributes to position myself for increased responsibility and greater visibility and impact.

— I proactively cultivate vibrant networks — both existing and new — in which my

peers and mentors support my growth. I know I can’t necessarily rely on existing networks to provide me with everything I need to grow and develop; too often, marginalized people are excluded from these places.

While I do participate in existing networks if possible, I also construct my own spaces where I can draw support while I learn and grow.

— Sometimes, even when I am in a position of authority, my authority is challenged or contested. I choose to not let this make me feel less secure in my leadership. I learn from feedback and others’ perceptions, but I do not let them limit my leadership potential.

— When the path forward isn’t obvious, I carve my own path. I have deep ingenuity and know I am capable of building inclusive and high-performing organizations in which I can flourish.

— At times I question whether I have to choose between my career success and my authentic self. I want to be able to wear my hair and clothes in a manner that I feel is professionally authentic, discuss my personal interests and commitments with my colleagues and supervisors and honor my background and experiences. For the sake of my health, I make choices that promote my ability to be authentic at work — whether that is expressing myself through my appearance or my language — and I am accountable for those decisions. This is the paradox of authenticity. I embrace this

with courage.

IN THE LATE STAGE OF MY CAREER, I use my leadership, power and influence for good.

— I face the same challenges as other leaders when it comes to fighting biases, ethical breaches and abuses of power.

At the same time, because of my race, I am held to higher standards and face greater scrutiny.

I continue to uphold my integrity by being mindful of my decisions about how I lead, and I use my powers to uplift others.

— My power and influence give me the opportunity to design and implement more inclusive leadership practices, regardless of my job title or formal responsibilities. I use this opportunity to clear the pathway to leadership for others.

— I willingly pass on experience, knowledge and credibility to expand opportunities for the rising generation. In so doing, my legacy is strengthened.

— I seek out people on the margins of the organization and find more ways to both include them in conversations and bring their names to meetings in which they might not otherwise have been mentioned.

It is my personal responsibility to make open, public commitments to developing these future leaders.

Many of the affirmations above are about shaping the context of your career and responding strategically to bias, microaggressions and authenticity struggles. This is hard work. Here is our final affirmation for black leaders across all

career stages: I find space — space to be nourished, space to explore and space to flourish.

Seek physical spaces that are conducive to your growth, including at historically black colleges and universities, raceinclusive leadership development programs, black churches and civic engagement organizations and same-race peer-mentoring programs.

Even in places where the soil is rocky, remember that it is not your responsibility to grow there. People of all races across your organization are responsible for improving the environment. Look for people who are forging cross-race alliances, creating opportunities for global assignments or enabling mentorship and sponsorship that provide candid feedback and positioning.

This last affirmation is important: While our model puts you — the leader — at the center, we don’t want you to feel alone in what you want to accomplish. Across the country, there are millions of us working alongside you, because we, too, believe in our collective .

Laura Morgan Roberts is a professor of practice at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Anthony J. Mayo is a senior lecturer of business administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit of Harvard Business School.

20

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE A year in review: BusinessDay’s top 10 health stories that shaped 2019 ANTHONIA OBOKOH

B

usinessDay covered some of the biggest health stories in Nigeria, right from the role in bridging the healthcare gap, roles and failures of government, private sectors innovations and the tide of investigations about infrastructures and healthcare welfare in Nigeria.

A lot happened in Nigeria’s healthcare space in 2019. As the year comes to an end, BussinessDay health analytics gives you a quick review of its top health stories and expert interviews that shaped 2019.

Undercover Investigation: The Lagos hospital wards of deadly wait On Dec 31, 2019

F

or two weeks, TEMITAYO AYETOTO embedded herself with patients at the accident and emergency centres of two of Nigeria’s biggest tertiary hospitals, LUTH and LASUTH. She uncovers how a lack of bed space leaves patients stranded at the emergency ward for dozens of hours, oftentimes days. With the motto ‘no bed space’, patients suspend their destiny on the hope that an in-patient is discharged, transferred or, rather sadly, dies. When this will happen, though, they have no idea.

The loitering began mounting under the car-park shade, where I observed proceedings from afar. Frail patients in desperate hunt for ease and tired legs of anxious relatives and friends flanked the main entrance.

There was only one wooden bench on which an assortment of medical troubles squeezed in a row. It was Tuesday, November 12, at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Ward of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos.

Beyond the glass-door ushering into the reception hall was a white iron gate manned by two security personnel. All distressed eyes were fixed on that gate in the utmost anticipation of being called in.

Randomly, a triage team of young doctors and nurses in green uniforms would stroll out of it within an average of 30 minutes to an hour to file in new cases and return.

Part: https://businessday.ng/ businessday-investigation/article/ undercover-investigation-the-lagoshospital-wards-of-deadly-wait-i/ Part 2:https://businessday.ng/ lead-story/article/undercoverinvestigation-the-lagos-hospitalwards-of-deadly-wait-ii/.

Why Ehanire must arrest Nigeria’s declining healthcare system

By Anthonia Obokoh and Temitayo Ayetoto On Aug 22, 2019

M

edical practitioners want Osagie Ehanire, health minister, to fix infrastructural deficits in the sector and improve public healthcare delivery across the country.

They also want him and his minister of state, Adeleke Mamora, to work towards improving practitioners’ welfare to stem the massive migration of Nigerian doctors, and improve annual budgetary allocation to health sector in the country.

“We believe that it is time to invest more in improvement of the healthcare service delivery processes in Nigeria,” said a health analyst.

Francis Faduyile, President, Nige-

rian Medical Association (NMA), said the minister should be able to work with commissioners for health in states to strengthen service delivery.

“With their collaboration, they can put a lot of pressure on the governors and the National Council of Health to mobilise resources at the primary and secondary levels of healthcare,” Faduyile said. https://businessday. ng/health/article/why-ehanire-mustarrest-nigerias-declining-healthcaresystem/ Stalled legislations worsen healthcare delivery in Nigerians

By Anthonia Obokoh and Temitayo Ayetoto On Sep 25, 2019

L

egislations on critical health policies that could have enhanced access to better care and expanded the Universal Health Coverage for Nigerians have continued to suffer in the National Assembly.

Data compiled by BusinessDay show that bills older than a decade have been circumventing cycles of reintroductions without substantial effort to enable them become law. The… https://businessday.ng/exclusives/ article/stalled-legislations-worsenhealthcare-delivery-for-nigerians/ Health is wealth: ‘Minor ailments’ reduce productivity . . . As basic healthcare becomes luxury CALEB OJEWALE, ANTHONIA OBOKOH & TEMITAYO AYETOTO On June 28, 2019

A

sick population cannot be productive, and in Nigeria, poverty for many people implies they cannot afford to fall sick, or it could cost them their life. If an individual can afford to get treatment, it may perhaps even be understandable if they become ill, but not in Nigeria where 93 million people are estimated to live in extreme poverty.

Nigeria bears a disproportionately high share of the global disease burden, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

One hundred million malaria cases are recorded in Nigeria every year, out of which an estimated 300,000 deaths are recorded.

Even though most of the world has eliminated malaria, it remains a leading cause of death in Nigeria, and poverty is not farfetched from this phenomenon.

With 152 million Nigerians living on less than N720 ($2) a day, paying for healthcare, however basic, has become a luxury.

For instance, in Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos, to treat malaria costs about N6,000. The malaria MPwider test costs about N2,000 while drugs and consultation cost about N4,000.

To treat typhoid, another ‘common ailment’, costs about N8,000. Treating both malaria and typhoid when the doctor identifies the twin ailments would cost about N15,000, excluding hospital admission which could drive health costs up to about N25,000. https://www.pressreader.com/nigeria/business-day-nigeria/20190628/ textview How Nigerian female entrepreneurs are bridging healthcare gaps through innovation

By ANTHONIA OBOKOH Aug 30, 2019

www.businessday.ng

On

N

igerian female entrepreneurs are increasingly bridging the gap in the country’s healthcare system through investment and innovation.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, access to good health care is a luxury many cannot afford. No wonder the country’s average life expectancy rate is one of the lowest in the world at 52.2 years.

Since 2001 when Nigeria alongside Heads of State of member countries of the African Union (AU), “Abuja Declaration” declared to commit at least 15 percent of their annual budgets to improving their health sector, Africa’s largest economy has not attained the pledged funding benchmark as the federal government has never voted more than six percent of its annual budget to the health sector.

The highest percentage since the declaration was in 2012 when 5.95 percent of the budget was allotted to health.

However, some women in the country are making great contributions to the Nigeria’s health sector, thereby demonstrating equal strength as their male counter parts in the industry. https://businessday.ng/health/article/how-nigerian-female-entrepreneurs-are-bridging-healthcare-gapsthrough-innovation ‘103 senators’ salary enough to vaccinate over 1 million Nigerian children’

By Oyin Aminu, Abuja On Apr 30, 2019

E

xperts in the Health sector have task the government with the full immunization on Nigerian children. The call came in the wake of World Immunisation Day celebration, which is celebrated on the 24-30 of April of every year.

Although, Nigeria recorded an unprecedented immunisation coverage from 48 per cent in 2017- to 57 per cent in 2019, the first time in the last 10 years, the country still accounts for the highest number of under-immunised children in the world with over 4.5 million children not immunised.

Speaking at the breakfast session of Health Watch Forum in 2019, with the theme ‘Prevent Epidemics: Immunise’, organised by the Nigerian Health Watch, Oyewale Tomori, a professor of virology and former vice chancellor of Redeemer’s University, Ogun State, Nigeria said for Nigeria to prevent imminent epidemics, the population must be vaccinated.

“If only some of the children gets vaccinated, the virus spread, and if most gets vaccinated the virus is contained,” he said.

Speaking on the decadence that has led to the high index of the country, Tomori, said immunisation is the first line of defence against infectious disease and it is one of the most cost effective and public health interventions that can ensure the averting of estimated 2-3 million deaths recorded under immunisation every year. https:// businessday.ng/health/article/103senators-salary-enough-to-vaccinateover-1-million-nigerian-children/ Sterling Bank: Bridging Nigeria’s healthcare financing gaps

By Anthonia Obokoh 2019

A

On Oct 18,

bout 139 years after the nation’s first healthcare facility in Obosi opened its doors in 1880, primary and advanced healthcare delivery

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

is beyond the reach of many citizens.

Healthcare development plans and reforms dating back to 1945 all sought to improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for all Nigerians.

Some of the recent reforms undertaken to reposition the health sector for efficient and effective services include the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), National Immunisation Coverage Scheme (NICS), Midwives Service Scheme (MSS) and Nigerian Pay for Performance (P4P) scheme, among others.

Highlighting the major challenges confronting the health sector, Clare Omatseye, president, Health Care Federation of Nigeria, placed inadequate funding and investment at the top of the list. She called for the establishment of a ‘catastrophe health fund’ to provide financing for medical equipment and infrastructure, among other nagging industry needs.

Curiously, foreign aid and philanthropic donations to the health sector are not in short supply. Yet our healthcare challenges remain daunting and is further aggravated by a rapidly increasing population. The health sector is clearly in need of more sustainable sources of funding. And the good news is that Sterling Bank is committed to bridging the sector’s financing gaps to help it save more lives.

Interestingly, Sterling Bank is the reputable go-to bank for financial solutions that help alleviate social and economic challenges in five crucial sectors of the economy. The sectors, known as the HEART of Sterling, are Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Transport. They are the bank’s focus sectors. https:// businessday.ng/health/article/ sterling-bank-bridging-nigeriashealthcare-financing-gaps/ Nigeria loses about 1.3% of GDP annually due to poor sanitation ...Third of that cost as a result of open defecation

By Kemi Ajumobi On Aug 15, 2019

I

was driving to work recently and after making my right turn away from the third mainland bridge and heading towards Apapa, as I drove further and about to link the bridge to Apapa, I saw a young man sitting on the bridge’s rail and as I drew closer I observed his trouser was ‘sagged’ (or so I thought) but to my surprise, the reason his trouser was down was because he was actually defecating…

‘Openly?’ I asked myself.

I couldn’t help but kept wondering, despite being disgusted at what I saw, how bold he was to be defecating at such a location, in such a manner, in broad day light? So you would think he is just sitting on the rail, not knowing he was dangerously positioned on a major high way and openly defecating right into the water beneath the bridge.

I am sure this doesn’t only happen in that part of Lagos alone; people do it on dry land and definitely several places across Nigeria where open defecation is still being practiced till date.

Little wonder we are ranked second among countries practicing open defecation globally.

From statistics available in the 2018 WASH National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASH NORM) survey, 24 per cent of the population (47 million people) practice open defecation.

On the 8th November, 2018, President Buhari launched the National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Action Plan and declared a State of Emergency in the sector with a strong statement to end open defecation in @Businessdayng

the country by 2025. The question is, how feasible is this? https://businessday.ng/health/article/nigeria-losesabout-1-3-of-gdp-annually-due-topoor-sanitation ‘Political will, free healthcare to pregnant women will address maternal mortality in Nigeria’

By Sikirat Shehu On Nov 29, 2019

O

lusegun Mimiko, the immediate past Governor of Ondo State has advocated for free healthcare services to all pregnant women in Nigeria to reduce the rate of maternal mortality.

Mimiko, who made the call in Ilorin while delivering a paper at the Seventh Kola Olafimihan College of Health Sciences Endowed Lecture of the University of Ilorin, posited that maternal and child health care are cost-effective interventions and have been recognised by United Nations, World Health Organisation (WHO) and in Nigeria policy papers as the desired entry point to Universal Health Coverage.

He, however, suggests that sustainable strategies to reduce maternal mortality would include policy targeting of maternal care, increased public health funding, elimination of financial barrier, health system strengthening and sustained political will.

“A society that did not recognise the vulnerability of a pregnant woman and does not embrace any ameliorative process is guilty of some form of violence against women” said Mimiko in his paper presented- entitled: “Sustainable Strategies to Reduce Maternal Mortality in Nigeria: My Experience”.

Mimiko said training local birth attendants will not save maternal lives in the country, noting that traditional birth attendants should only refer pregnant women to public facilities but not to handle birth deliveries. https://businessday.ng/health/article/political-will-free-healthcareto-pregnant-women-will-addressmaternal-mortality-in-nigeria Nigeria, others to access HIV self – testing kits on CIFF’S $25m investment

By Anthonia Obokoh 2019

K

On Oct 18,

nowing one’s HIV status in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries will soon become a thing of ease thanks to the $25 million invested in Global Fund by the Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).

CIFF recently announced the investment aimed at fighting AIDS, and dedicated to scaling HIV self-testing in the African region.

The impact of self-testing may be greatest in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the largest number of people living with HIV who do not know their status.

“CIFF is championing HIV selftesting and other methods to promote self-care as one of the most powerful ways for youth, women, and men to take control of their sexual & reproductive health,” said Miles Kemplay, Executive Director for Adolescence at CIFF. “People deserve the choice to test when they want, where they want and how they want.”

Paulyne Chemeli, a Nairobi pharmacist stated that distributing self-test kits is improving the uptake of HIV testing among individuals who require confidentiality or who do not trust healthcare workers. https://businessday.ng/health/article/nigeria-othersto-access-hiv-self-testing-kits-on-ciffs25m-investment

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

21

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE Executive Travel Health

Dr Ade Alakija Q-life Family Clinic

lifeadvisoryservices@outlook.com

I

mportant Tips: Before booking your holidays, Discus with your Travel Health Advisor. Make sure your asthma is well controlled before Travel.

Carry important Contact numbers on your person, including your doctors and the recommended doctor at your destination. If your asthma is normally well controlled, you should be able to go sightseeing, trekking, swimming and other leisure activities you wish, so enjoy yourself but do not Scuba Dive.

Must Know: Your symptoms may vary greatly, from mild and infrequent to debilitating and severe. This may influence the type of trip and destination you choose.

Asthma: A travel message - Is it a storm or fair weather?

Know your triggers. (Many people with Asthma have allergies which can trigger asthma symptoms eg House dust mites, animal dander, moulds, pollen and cockroach droppings. Tobacco smoke, air pollution, strong odours and fumes are irritant that often aggravates asthma. Please, if you are advised not to travel, do not travel. Some food items may help you stabilise your asthma and some others could trigger the symptoms.

Consult your nutritionist.

Before departure: A detailed history will be required of you including mode of transport and destination.

Plan your diet: If you have food allergies, be certain that the food you will be eating does not contain substances to which you are allergic.

Keep your allergy shot schedule: If you are taking a long trip, discuss with your allergist how to continue to take or receive your allergy shots. Health Insurance is essential. You will have to declare your asthma status and it should include repatriation. Make sure you

have a self-management plan with details of medication and use, what to do in an emergency and contact numbers. Two inhalers must be taken in case of loss or theft (one in your hand luggage, and one with your responsible companion or checked in luggage). The same goes for stand by emergency suppositories. Wear an information bracelet or neck chains were possible (Get from Medic-Alert or SOS Talisman). Take a little more medication(all clearly labelled) than you think you need and carry a print out of all regular prescriptions in case you lose your supplies and to prove the medicine is for your personal use. An adequate supply of all your medication should be in your carry bag. (Hand luggage)The usual immunisations for your destination should be taken along with annual influenza shots and pneumococcal vaccine.

Plan for an emergency: Ask your doctor for an asthma action plan that will outline what to do in case of an asthma episode.

After Departure:-On Route: Do not over-indulge in food and alcohol especially when on the move. Drink plenty of water and nonalcoholic drinks in flight. Sit well forward in non-smoking areas in aircraft (most flights are non-smoking these days).

Avoid smoking areas in the Airport. Do not smoke. Irritability could be an early sign of reduced oxygen intake. Try to move about every hour, to exercise your legs to prevent blood clots. Give the note from your doctor (detailing Condition and Medication) to the ship’s doctor if you are going on a cruise.

At Destination: Your condition may improve or deteriorate during your holiday due to climate change, absence of allergic triggers (fewer allergens at high altitude), stress or exercise/exertion.

Virtually all large cities in the developing world have significantly polluted air and the developed world in some major cities. Air pollution can be severe in cities where there are no controls over petrol and diesel exhausts.

If possible avoid heavy traf-

fic. Temperature changes, like sudden exposure to cold and dry air can bring on asthma symptoms, also aerosol metered dose inhalers may not function properly under freezing conditions and may need to be warmed in the hands before use. All beds and pillows harbour dust mites-unless they are treated with a microbial compound (for example, Ultra Fresh) which inhibits their growth.

Be wary of hotels that look unclean. Take all necessary precautions as a regular traveller. You can do virtually all activities, but do not overexpose yourself to the sun and other extreme conditions. Be cautious if you have exerciseinduced asthma, especially exertion of mountain climbing. Acclimatise properly. If you must dive, go snorkelling instead and not scuba diving.

Increased asthma therapy prior to exercise will achieve better control but intensive exercise should be avoided as much as possible.

Sports: If you are going to exercise a lot, especially activities that you are not used to, such as mountain climb-

ing, hiking, etc., remember that exercise itself can trigger asthma symptoms. Any activity should start with a warm-up, and your quickrelief medication should be taken 15 to 20 minutes before you begin.

All is Clear: If you have a clearly labelled Medication & Spacer (in your carryon bag),a responsible companion (if necessary). Your Asthma is stable. Letters with details of your condition and medication & information bracelet or neck chain.You are all clear to go. On return, you may need to inform your doctor of your experiences so he can plan better and safer trips for you and other asthmatics. Gather more information from the following websites and literature. www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/ General/Astma.html , www. asthma.org.uk (subscribe to Asthma Magazine), www. asthmacontrol.com (Gives you an idea of how well your asthma is controlled).

Answer: With due consultation, it is not a storm, but fair weather. Have a Nice Journey

Oyo’s health insurance scheme Estate surveyors harp on promoting healthcare delivery in Nigeria adjudged most responsive, exemplary ... Saint Davis Hospital opens for patients in Ada yo State Health Insurance Agency (OYSHIA) has been recognised and awarded the most ‘responsive and exemplary’ in its approach to affordable primary healthcare delivery in the State.

The agency was listed

While responding on the achievement, the Executive Secretary of the agency, Sola Akande, a medical doctor said the award was dedicated to the State government for his drive to make primary healthcare affordable and closer to all and sundry.

“This award is dedicated to the State governor, Seyi

among the top winners of the 2019 Miss Oyo Merit and Good Governance Award and was presented by the organizers recently at event which held at Ibadan recently.

OYSHIA was established two years ago as an insurance scheme to make access to good healthcare cheap for civil and public servants but has spread its reach to private organizations, artisans and the general public.

Makinde for making the scheme a pivot to drive affordable healthcare system in the State, it is a call to do more, the reward of hard work, they say is more work.

“We are dedicated to this cause of achieving universal health coverage in Oyo State, a situation where people will not have to bother about financing their health needs, this we promise the people among other things in the coming year,” he said.

REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

O

HBL TEAM

E

state surveyors have shown interest in reshaping the Nigeria’s healthcare with an ultramodern world-class health facility christened Saint Davis Hospital in an ancient town of Ada, in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State.

The proprietor of Mount Davis Hospital, Bode Adediji, who is also the Group executive chairman and principal partner of Bode Adediji Partnership, a foremost firm of Estate Surveyors, Valuers and Real Estate Consultants based in Lagos, said that the multi-million Naira hospital is “basically an inspiration from God” saying, “each time I came home to Ada, I came across situations of various types of untimely, undeserved, premature, accidental and mysterious deaths.”

According to him, a pertinent question usually bugged him; “Can something be done to curtail all these incidents? Then, the inspiration for the hospital came as a result of that!” He pointed out that what cannot be argued is the fact that two or three things usually make up an efficient and effective world-class hospital. These, he said, include physical edifice, equipment, and human capital - the medical professionals available. “To God be

the Glory”, he said, “We have been able to accomplish all these towards achieving the best diagnosis and treatment of patients.”

Also speaking Adediji, a past President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), said that the hospital is not built for the people of Ada and environs alone but it is proposed to be a refer-

ANTHONIA OBOKOH / Reporters. Email: obokoh.anthonia@businessdayonline.com

ral centre whereby people from across the country and beyond would come for consultation and treatment by world-class specialists.

He further said that another objective for the hospital is to become the centre for a medical mission when Nigerian and foreign medical practitioners alike, backed up by foreign and local philanthropists can converge

on Ada as a team for medical researches without finance being an impediment.

In this regard, MDH, as time goes on, Adediji disclosed, shall become a centre of medical excellence that will be patronised by Nigerians and people from all over the continent.

He said, “It is for this reason that we have designed and constructed a complex having the medical blocks in front and residential blocks at the back to cater for the accommodation of doctors, nurses and other categories of hospital workers.

“Aside from my family, God has been gracious to send various kinds of divine helpers to us at every stage of its conceptualization, design and construction, the equipping and of course, the operational phase of the hospital,” Adediji remarked.

Olatunde Adejumo, Resident Doctor at the MDH, said his vision for the hospital is to ensure that the international standard on the ground is duly maintained and adequately improved upon. He declared that the facilities already on the ground include a top-notch theatre, two labour rooms, one postnatal ward, two surgical wards (male and female) each furnished with 10 beds, a well-equipped laboratory and pharmacy.

I David Ogar, Graphics

22

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FINTECH News

Products Review

In association with

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

New Year Resolution for CBN: Scaling BVN accounts beyond 100m in 2025 FRANK ELEANYA

A

s of 29 December 2019, only a little over 40 million active bank accounts were linked to a Bank Verification Number (BVN), according to data from Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).

Whereas, over 124 million bank accounts were created

by November of the same year and the total number of active bank accounts was at over 79 million.

In other words, about 80 million bank accounts exist without BVN, while more than 30 million active ones are also not linked.

On the last Monday of 2019, the Central Bank of Nigeria said its resolution is to increase the number of BVN linked accounts to 100 million in 2025.

Earlier in December, the Bankers’ Committee had unveiled a new plan that requires classification of BVN into two; BVN Premium and BVN Lite.

The BVN Premium covers customers that can provide the 18 basic requirements for a complete BVN enrolment, while the BVN Lite requires minimal documentation like name and phone number for bank customers, especially those in rural areas that do not meet the full requirements.

BVN, an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) remains the best centralised verification system in Nigeria’s data harmonisation history. The unique identification number which uses biometric technology to register customers acts as a universal identity

enabling easy identification across the financial services industry.

But since 2014 when the CBN started the exercise to link every account in all the banks to a BVN, less than half has been linked successfully.

Millions of bank accounts not linked to a BVN means interoperability in the banking sector would remain a dream. This is why customers are still required to fill out forms and provide documents such as utility bills, passports, etc when they want to open another account with a bank.

As a result of the BVN, the CBN is able to create a database of bank customers maintained by the Nigerian

www.businessday.ng

Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The database ensures that banks and individuals are protected from fraud as suspicious transactions are easily identified and reported. But the inability to link all bank accounts means that these fraud incidences go unchecked.

Although data harmonisation is a continuous process because banks and other financial institutions have to open new accounts on a daily basis, the CBN projecting till 2025 to link 100 million accounts when as much as 124 million accounts exist raises some concerns.

First, the population of the country is currently estimated at 200 million people. Nige-

ria’s population is projected to reach 233 million by 2025 according to populationpyramid.net, which means with technological advancement, more than 150 million people would likely have a bank account.

It should also be said that having 124 million bank accounts in existence with 79 million very active, does not mean that the remaining 76 million without bank accounts are unable to using banking services because they are ineligible. The World Bank report found that over 40 million Nigerians who do not go close to ATMs carry on online transactions, e-Commerce among other engagements that will make them finan-

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

cially included in the Nigerian financial ecosystem.

Interestingly, the CBN said in August that it has set a target of 95 percent financial inclusion rate for Nigeria 2024.

With that pledge, the CBN should be looking to link more than 100 million accounts by 2025. To make that happen, a lot of attention has to be given to data harmonisation in 2020.

The apex can start with ensuring that all 79 million active accounts are active before the end of the year.

It is encouraging that officials in the CBN are already thinking in this direction. At a function in 2019, Musa Jimoh, deputy director, Payment System Management, CBN noted that not only was the

@Businessdayng

banking regulator committed to meeting the target, it was working with all the stakeholders including telecoms, fintechs, commercial banks among others to get about 150 million Nigerians to embrace the financial system and its numerous offerings.

Biometric enrolment benefits the unbanked segment who cannot read or write as they only require their fingerprints and pictures as signatures. BVN will also increase access to loans as it helps credit providers to reduce situations where loan defaulters, for instance, move from one bank to the other and the banks extend new credits to them, without knowing their history.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

23

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

‘Transiting from major rice importer to producer was not easy, but rewarding’ In response to forex restriction on rice importation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), TUNJI OWOEYE, managing director, Elephant Group Plc told CALEB OJEWALE in 2017 that the company had to acquire a rice mill in order to remain relevant. For context, Owoeye was once chairman of Nigeria’s rice importers association, before transiting to local production. Two years later in December 2019, he spoke on the experience in local production, and the ‘profitability’ between importation and local production.

T

rice importer?

I tell you quite frankly, there’s a joy in you seeing the total value chain, and seeing that this is produced by you. We cannot put a value on that, rather than being a trader. It is not much of the profitability, it is more of the impact that we are able to make as a company.

Today, we are happier because we generate much more employment for people and could say that, yes, we are involved in a process that is key to the country and that is feeding our people. That is more important.

Moreover, across the value chain, for those other activities that are dependent on the mill, we could say that we are empowering people; vulnerable people, less privileged people, women, young people. We are empowering farmers to know what to do and they see that they have a consistent and sustainable off taker. This makes the farmers happy because they are able to take care of their families. I think the joy in that actually transcends the comparison of how much profitability.

he last time I was here, you spoke about the rice milling operation you had going on in Port Harcourt, what has changed between then and now?

Two years ago, we won a bid to revamp the mill in Portharcourt that used to belong to Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). What we’ve done in the last two years is to change it from white rice mill to parboiled mill and increase the capacity from four to twelve tons per hour and I’m happy to let you know that the mill is running now.

In the last two years, we have been revamping it, including the milling side.

In fact, it had no parboiling facility; we had to procure the parboiling equipment for it. We also had to get a colossal tower. We had to do a lot of work and right now, it is functioning.

The bid you won for the mill, was it for an acquisition?

It was a long lease for 20 years.

In terms of annual production, what is the estimated output?

It will be giving us close to 36000 metric tons depending on the number of hours put into milling. By the time there’s serious pressure on demand, what we try to do is to increase number of milling hours from say 12 to 18 hours. Output is largely dependent on the number

of hours put to work on a daily basis.

I remember you were once the chairman of Rice Importers Association of Nigeria.

What has the transition been like for you, for someone who was at the forefront of importation to someone who is now producing locally?

It has not been easy and

it has not been bread and butter. But I tell you, it is all out of passion, dedication and the love to see Nigeria transit from an import dependent Nation to a producing Nation. Also, from the company’s perspective as one of the major importers, then, we felt that either we ship in or ship out. We were not prepared to lose our market share of what we had then as importers.

Remember then, we had

brands that were known in the country. So we had to decide whether to invest or lose the brand completely and, of course, thankfully, we took the decision to invest in the value chain and it’s been a remarkable outcome.

You may not want to talk specifically in terms of numbers but how profitable has it been as a rice producer compared to being a

How many brands do you currently have for local rice that you produce?

Currently, just Elephant Pride but others are expected in the future.

When you were importing, was it also elephant pride?

No. It was Elephant Gold and that was four years back. Beyond all of this, we are happy that we transited from an agro trading com-

pany to agro processing and producing company.

That, for us, is an incredible transformation.

The last time we had this interview, you were complaining about having some rice in the warehouse, which could not sell because of the smuggled ones. This year, the borders have been closed. Is it right to assume processors like you are having the best time ever?

I think the government has taken a step in guaranteeing investments of value chain operators, which is commendable. What that creates for investors and operators is to see that: number one, their investments are protected and that we are able to meet our obligations and commitments to lenders.

It also gives us the assurance that we could work on increasing capacity. When people talk about smiling to the bank and all of that, I think that the guarantee we have is that when we produce, we believe that we are not going to be stocking them up in the warehouses, but that there are markets.

The margins are decent, just decent enough for us to meet our obligations because as producers, it is not a monopoly market. If you decide to be unreasonable (with pricing), the market is there. People go to those places, which are competitive, and so you cannot afford to be unrealistic in your pricing.

Mechanisation, labour services to reduce costs by farmers unveiled by Farm Troopers

G

etting labour and equipment for farm work could be a challenging endeavour for intending farmers in many parts of Nigeria, and easing this could enable many farmers scale faster. A new service has now been launched, which according to its promoters is expected to make farm owners access labour and mechanisation with more ease, and without having to worry about capital expenses to acquire equip-

ment.

Wale Akintade, managing director, Farm Troopers Nigeria Limited, told Agribusiness Insight in an interview, that his company has commenced provision of farm labour services to farm owners. The company, he says, provides services from land preparation through to planting, managing the farm, harvesting and even post-harvest operations.

“Farming has gone beyond hoe and cutlass, so www.businessday.ng

we have very smart handheld equipment and tools that we have and use on the farm,” said Akintade.

For instance, depending on the nature of a farm, if the farm cannot be ploughed, or if it is not tractorable, it is most likely because there are stomps or it is totally remote, he explained. To address this, the company could bring in stomp grinders, which is used to grind those stomps and all other impediments for tractors to work. With this, the land

can become tractorable.

“We can use hand tractors, we can use proper tractors and whatever is required. We can prepare your soil, help you plan and manage,” he said. There are also boom sprayers that can be brought in, spraying insecticides or fungicides or whatever it is that is required on a farm, he explained.

Considering cost could be an important factor in adoption of this service, Akintande says, “what we

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

have done is benchmark our costs and come down low on what you get on the streets.”

According to him, if for instance a service can be procured for N10,000 on the streets, Farm Troopers offers the same service for about N9,000. Also, if it is going to take the regular manual labour three days to do a job, “you can be sure that we will get it done within a day or maximum of two,” he said. “So, we save on time, save on cost @Businessdayng

and you save on quality because we don’t use hoe and cutlass. We use light implements, light cultivators.”

According to him, “it was the frustration encountered in the course of farming,” that gave the motivation to start this business. Being a farmer himself, he experienced firsthand the challenges of getting labour, and decided to come up with this solution he believes other farmers could benefit from.

24

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Hotels Top BusinessDay Partner Hotels Four Points by Sheraton Hotel (Oniru Chiefatancy Estate,Lekki) Tel: +234 1 448 9444

Transcorp Hilton Abuja 1 Aguiyi Ironsi Street Maitama, Abuja Tel: +234-708-060-3000

The Wheatbaker #4 Onitolo(Lawrence Road), Ikoyi, Lagos.

Tel: 01 277 3560

Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Abuja 1 Uke St, Garki, Abuja.

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

Lagos Continental Hotel Plot 52, Kofo Abayomi St, Lagos Tel: 01 236 6666

Book ahead, save more in 2020 OBINNA EMELIKE

H

urrah, it is a new year with fresh beginning.

As the year rolls on, it offers opportunities for corporate and business engagements, as well as, need for accommodation during such trips.

Moreover, hotels always seem to account for the largest portion of travel funds. Even when you are not booking a four or fivestar property, a few days stay in a hotel can easily empty your pocket if you are not financially disciplined or planned well ahead of your trip.

Of course, most travellers like good hotels, but when you are on budget, especially now that the exchange rate is very high, it is best to make sure you have enough after airfare and lodging to actually enjoy your trip; have good meals, go sightseeing, and buy some souvenirs for your loved ones.

However, there are few tricks and tips on how to

book cheaper hotel rates.

Use search engines The popularity of hotel multiple search engines is on the rise and for good reason: It is one of the most efficient ways to find affordable accommodations.

If you are unfamiliar with this concept, a multiple search engine, especially hotel metasearch engine is a website that searches multiple hotel booking sites at once. For example, instead of running a search on Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and the hotel’s website, you can use a metasearch engine to search multiple sites at once to see which provider offers the lowest rates and best value. Kayak, Hipmunk, Room 77, TripAdvisor, and Trivago are just a few of the options available.

Call the hotel directly If you have a particular hotel in mind, calling the hotel directly can often result in better rates. Since you are able to speak with someone in real time, the staff will often be privy to rates that are not advertised online or, at the very least, they will be able to give you insight as to what is afwww.businessday.ng

fecting hotel room pricing.

Events like conferences, concerts, and conventions can cause hotel room prices to skyrocket, and of course, certain times of year, such as the holidays, will see more expensive rates. If you are traveling and found out there is an event causing hotel rooms in the city center to be more expensive, then you need to research hotels away from the city center to find lower rates.

Book cancelable rates Room rates can fluctuate as quickly as minute to minute because a hotel’s inventory is always changing. It is simple supply and demand: the more people booking rooms at a hotel, the more the hotel can charge. One thing you can do if you are not flexible with your hotel choice is to book a cancelable rate.

It should be fairly obvious which rates are actually cancelable; there is usually a call-out that states something like “FREE cancellation – PAY LATER,” as seen on Booking.com. You better book this rate (but cross check it is actually cancel-

able) and then monitor the price, as well as, prices of nearby, comparable hotels.

It may take a little bit of extra legwork, but this tactic can save you as much as $US100 per night.

Book last minute This is a trick best reserved for shorter trips, like romantic weekend getaways or impromptu get-togethers with friends in the city. But it is not good to wait till the last minute to book a hotel room for that expensive international trip you have been saving up for or leaving your lodging needs up to fate when there could be a major conference happening that results in a hotel room shortage. However, if you do a bit of research and are flexible, booking last minute can result in much cheaper rates. Lastminute booking apps like HotelTonight, which works with hotels to negotiate deep discounts on unsold rooms, are a great starting point, and many of the online booking sites, like Expedia and Priceline, have their own “Tonight” or “Deals Tonight” section.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Radisson Blu Hotel Ikeja #38/40 Isaac John St, Ikeja GRA100271, Ikeja Tel: +234-908-780 5555

206 Exclusive Hotel Plot 206 Oladipo Diya Road Opposite Olympia Estate

By Games Village Second Gate Durumi2 Abuja

Novotel Port Harcourt Address: 3 Stadium Road Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt Rivers State, Tel: 0809 713 5734

Radisson Lagos Ikeja #42-44 Isaac John Street, GRA Ikeja, Lagos

Southern Sun IkoyI Hotel Address: 47 Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos Tel: +234 1 280 5200 / +234 1 280 0630 Email: ssikoyi.reservations@ tsogosun.com

Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel 1A,Ozumba Mbadiwe,Victoria Island.

@Businessdayng

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Personal Performance

25

Get things done

I

‘

I struggle with keeping track of my tasks and end up having to rush projects at the deadline, turning in subpar work or in some cases completely forgetting I had work to get done

t’s time for us to get into the practicals of designing a system that helps you become more disciplined and productive.

Much like attending an alcoholics anonymous meeting, the first step towards getting better requires acceptance.....acceptance that you’re really not as good as you think you are at remembering things. The mistake a lot of people make here is thinking they can remember the tasks they’re meant to work on.

If you’ve said something similar to this statement before, you’re definitely guilty. We’ve all been here before, so here’s your first lesson - your brain is more suited to analysis than it is to memorisation. Also, if you rely on your brain to keep track of tasks, you’ll likely fall prey to the salience bias. This bias makes you pay attention to what’s super obvious...and what’s super obvious isn’t what’s super important. It might be super obvious that you need to respond to your best friend’s DM, but it isn’t necessarily super important. So how do you get your brain to focus on what’s important? By being deliberate about knowing what your tasks are and being deliberate about the task that you focus on.

The key to keeping track of your tasks is to create a system around the collection and processing of your tasks. Here’s where the Getting Things Done method by David Allen comes in. The GTD method helps you build the right habits to: 1. Note your tasks 2. Organise your tasks 3. Review your tasks 4. Get your tasks done I’ve outlined the main steps because it’s important you remember them. Now let’s dive in!

Note your tasks 1. Stop trying to leave tasks in your head. It’s a habit that at best does little but occupy your thoughts at best and at worse makes you seem unser ious when you consistently forget tasks. Instead, make it a habit to consistently write or type down your tasks in real time. Noting your thoughts down make them more concrete and are a solid first step to figuring out where you start with managing your tasks. Take a blank sheet of www.businessday.ng

paper and put down every task that you can think about. From doing your laundry to sending your boss a draft of your presentation. Take all the tasks from your head and put them down on paper.

2. Next, decide what you choose to use to take down all your tasks. This could be a notebook or it could be an app. If it’s a notebook, then I’d recommend you go for something that feels substantial i.e. a hardcover or a moleskin notebook. If you choose to use an app, there are multiple options like Wunderlist, Omnifocus and Things. I’ve tried all of them and found that Things works best for me. However, it’s rather pricy and only works with the Apple ecosystem.

If you’re on Android, Wunderlist should suffice. If there are other options that you use, please let me know on twitter and I’ll include them.

• Behavioral Psych Tip: How you frame your tasks play a significant role in spurring you to complete them. Frame your tasks in action terms. So instead of simply writing ‘Laundry’, you write ‘Get Laundry Done’. This frames your task as an action, which puts you in the right frame of mind. Pun intended.

Organise Your Tasks Once you’ve put down your tasks, now it’s time to process them. The mistake people make is put down their tasks and then do nothing after wards. You might feel productive because you’ve put down what you need

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

to do, but if you don’t make the next steps towards doing those tasks, then you’ve failed.

Think about this like doing your laundry and having to arrange your clothes. If you were the organised type, you usually sort through your clothes and arrange them by type: Underwear would go in one pile, shirts in another, and trousers in another pile, and dirty clothes (hopefully) in another pile.

Just like most people have pretty much the same categories when it comes to laundry, most people’s tasks will typically fall into two piles: 1. Personal 2. Occupation/Career/Business Break Down Your Tasks The next step is important, it involves breaking down tasks. After every task gets written down, you have to filter, modify, and break down tasks. Place them in their own projects and subprojects. One of the reasons we procrastinate is because we see certain tasks as insurmountable and large. We then try to ignore the task in hope that it somehow sorts itself out. However, it never does. It only gets worse as time becomes a constraint. The way to deal with this kind of situation is to take the task and break it down into simple bits. This way, when you see the small actions you need to take, the whole project then takes on an achievable outlook. For example, if you were placed in charge of organizing an event, you’d have to figure out where to start. So @Businessdayng

start thinking of the necessary things for an event. Let’s focus on just the venue of the event.

First, put down ‘Research Venue of Event’. Here’s how this part of the project would go.

1. Research Venue of Event • Search the Internet for Good Places in Abuja • Call and ask friends who’ve organised events in the past • Visit and take a look at these places 2. Select venue 3. Pay for the venue You can see how we’ve made the act of finding a venue easy by breaking it down into smaller tasks which require minimal effort.

Put Deadlines to Tasks Next, put start and due dates to this action. Tasks only truly become more achievable when they have an established time constraint. This way, you can incorporate these bits of the tasks into the empty spaces you have on the calendar.

Congrats! If you followed all these steps, you’ve unlocked the first level towards being more productive. Now you should have clarity on all the work you have to do. Here’s where the next level kicks in - developing the habits you need to stay consistent with tracking your tasks. After you achieve this, the next level requires you to get these tasks done.

After all, that’s the entire point of this system you’re building.

Culled from Notion

26

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment Events that shaped the Nigerian entertainment in 2019

OBINNA EMLEIKE

T

he year, 2019 was an exciting one for the Nigerian entertainment industry, which recorded many feats including; groundbreaking events, more movie releases, enthralling music events, reality shows among other exci8tments.

From the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award, All Africa Music Festival, Africa Movie Academy Awards, Big Brother Naija reality show to the many music concerts that dot the last quarter of the year, especially the festive season, 2019 was entertaining for many despite the economic realities that negatively impacted their purchasing power.

The year 2019 began with exciting news from Multichoice Nigeria that Bet9ja, Nigerian sports-betting company, would be the headline sponsor of the 2019 edition of Big Brother Naija reality TV show, aptly tagged ‘Pepper Dem’.

That announcement in January 2019, got many excited, looking forward to the show later in the year. Bet9ja took over the sponsorship from Payporte, which headlined two previous editions of the reality show.

When the show finally kicked off in June, it got Nigerians talking. After 99 days in Big Brother

Scene from Omoniyun 3

House, Mercy Eke won and became the first female ever to win the BBNaija reality TV show since it began over a decade ago.

But the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) also got Africa talking in 2019, especially when the organisers withdraw the hosting right from Ghana, the host country and later brought to show to

Lagos, Nigeria, its debut city.

According to the International Committee of the awards, the withdrawal of the hosting rights from the Republic of Ghana for the 2019 and 2020 editions of the annual music festival was due to lack of capacity by the host country to meet the financial and contractual obligations entered to on July 12,

Scene from Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Farming

2018, necessary to retain hosting the biggest music event in Africa.

Well, the show later held in Lagos and was a huge success.

Nikita Kering, a 17-year-old Kenyan music sensation, was the highlight for many who graced the awards night, when she emerged winner in two notable categories.

She defeated the likes of South Africa’s Sho Madjozi and Tellaman, Nigeria’s WurlD/Sarz and Skiibii, Egypt’s Hamada Helal and Tanzania’s Rosa Reese to emerge winner of the Revelation of the African Continent category.

Of course, she was truly a revelation. She started in music when she was barely 9 years as a passion and today, the 17-year-old singer has toured the world, thrilling international audience and wining fans with her music at home and abroad.

Yet, she surprised those who undermined her prowess by going further to win the Best Female Artiste in Eastern Africa, a category mostly won by established music acts.

Also top winners at AFRIMA 2019 include; Saudi Sol, who clinched the Album of the year in

Africa, Artiste of The year in Africa went to Burna Boy, while Wizkid won the Song of the year award.

As well, the 2019 edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) held in October at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos.

Rwandan movie, Mercy of the Jungle, proved to be the biggest winner on the night with four awards, including Best Film of the award.

Top among the awards was Michael Anyiam Osigwe Award For Best Film by an African-Born Director Living Abroad, which was won by Julius Amedume’ Rattlesnakes.

Of course, the African Magic Viewers Choice Award thrilled viewers in the 2019 edition as Multichoice recognized excellence in movie production and business across the continent.

However, the excitement got better in the last quarter of 2019, especially December. There were many exciting music shows that ended the year in grand style.

One of the shows was Detty Fest by Bet9ja. Detty Fest December was a music and entertainment fiesta, which featured four concerts headlined by four top Nigerian music acts.

Teni the Entertainer thrilled the audience and won more fans during the first concert of Detty Fest, which was tagged ‘Teni Live Concert: The Billionaire Experience’.

Wizkid staged ‘StarBoy Fest Lagos’ at Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island Lagos, Davido hosted ‘City of David’ at Ocean View Grounds in Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, while Naira Marley enthralled with his massive concert tagged, ‘Marlian Fest’, at the Eko Convention Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island in Lagos.

The movie scene was groovy too with many new releases. However, Kemi Lala Akindoju made her directorial debut at the Lagos Theatre Festival in 2019 with ’Lavender, a stage play.

Funke Akindele also made her directorial debut with Your Excellency.

But the entertainment industry also welcomed outfits too. Ebonylife Place, which houses cinema halls, studious, lounges among other facilities, was a highlight.

Bintu - The Musical to premiere in Abuja first quarter 2020 OBINNA EMELIKE

T

he United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) recently premiered Bintu - The Musical, at the MUSON Centre in Lagos. The theatre production is a bold and thoughtful dramatization of the humanitarian impact of the decade-long crisis that has plagued Nigeria’s north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. WFP taps into Nigeria’s vibrant performing arts and

entertainment industry to tell a story of conflict-driven hunger, resilience and humanity.

“We hope the play will spark conversations around the crisis in the North East and lead to greater engagement of all parts of society – the private sector, government agencies and individuals – boosting efforts to achieve zero hunger in Nigeria,” said Paul Howe, WFP representative and country director in Nigeria.

The play follows a young girl called Bintu, whose dreams of going to university are dramatiwww.businessday.ng

cally cut short when insurgents strike. Bintu and her friends find refuge in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), where they receive humanitarian assistance. While in the camp, Bintu slowly begins to rebuild her life.

W r i tt e n a n d d i re c t e d by Agozie Ugwu, a Nigerian playwright who teaches performing arts at the Nile University of Nigeria in Abuja, the play uses powerful song, dance and poetic performances to depict people’s struggles, their will to survive and the vital humanitarian assistance

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

they receive.

“This work goes beyond a theatre piece. It is a call to action from humanity to help humanity,” said Ugwu, whose Mosaic Theatre Production developed the play with WFP. Bintu - The Musical, whose premiere in Lagos will be followed by a showing in Abuja in the first quarter of 2020, is based on the real-life experiences of people caught in the conflict which has driven an estimated two million people from their homes. Nearly three million @Businessdayng

people struggle to meet their food needs in the three crisis-affected states - almost double the number at the same time last year.

Since 2016, WFP has been providing a lifeline for vulnerable families affected by conflict in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, supporting internally displaced people, returnees, young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women with life-saving food and nutrition support. In 2019, WFP and partners served an average of 800,000 people with food or cash every month.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

27

entertainment

This year, get out of your own way

T

here is just that thing about the New Year that infuses unchallengeable hope in you- it does not matter what stage you are in life, there is huge delight about opening a new page, or having ‘that new sheet to write on’; as an outcome of this, we all typically decide to be a better version of ourselves. So, we design vision boards and write new year resolutions but sadly very few achieve all they have written; not because the intentions and plans are not right, but because, according to Julian Hayes II, a life coach, we hold ourselves back through self-destructive habits.

I thought I’d share with you today, six habits that can help you get out of your own way to success this year: Stop the negative self-talk: “I could never lose 20 pounds.”“I’m so stupid, I could never do that job.”“I’ll look stupid and weird if I try to wear some of those clothes.”When you receive a compliment about your work, you say, “Oh, that’s nothing.”

These are the types of things most people say when suffering from negative self-talk. Self-talk is a normal process we all experience, but once it becomes filled with irrational ideas that are negative, then there’s a problem.

The story that goes on in your head is a hundred times worse than the actual story going on in your day-to-day life.

Silencing the inner critic and putting a positive spin on things are two of the best ways to eliminate negative self-talk. Start by eliminating negative vocabulary, such as always, can’t, never (and ever), won’t, but, should, and try. As Yoda would say, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Stop criticizing and judg-

ing others: Do you realize how quick people are to judge and label other people even without knowing them? To become the best version of yourself, you need to eliminate all negative energy. When you throw negative energy at people, you’re potentially damaging a person’s self-worth and self-esteem.

You’re also throwing buckets of negative energy out into the environment yourself.

Those who are selfish and bitter with the world never finish first. Not always easy, but avoid criticizing and judging others by not assuming anything; pretend to walk in their shoes to see the situation from their perspective.

Stop the fear of failure: Do you tell people beforehand that you don’t expect to succeed or thrive in order to lower expectations?

If this describes you, then you likely suffer from fear of

failure. It’s important to realize that failure is a natural part of life and doesn’t signal the end of the world. Especially as highly successful people, such as Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Bill Gates have all failed at some point in their life. Failure is needed because that’s when valuable insights are learned that can drive you to become highly successful in life.

Overcome your fears by analyzing all potential outcomes, practice positive thinking, have a worst-case scenario to ease your worries.

Remember: “Fear will do one thing and one thing only: hold you back.” – Kya Aliana Stop the fear of success: If you get nervous when everything seems to be going well, because in your mind life can’t possibly be this awesome, so naturally something goes wrong as expected? Do

you get close to making the major breakthrough, but something, somehow, falls through?

Fear of success hides in our subconscious and displays itself in scenarios like the examples above.

People are afraid of success for a myriad of reasons, such as fear of losing their identity, more responsibility being added, raised expectations, and not being able to handle success well. Success is a good thing, everyone deserves to live out his or her dreams and have a positive impact on the world. Handle success by staying authentic and remembering who you are, accept you won’t please everyone, and be comfortable with every decision you make.

Stop people pleasing: Do any of these descriptions sound like you? · I want everyone to like me

· I’m scared/I try to avoid disagreeing with people · I never speak my mind · I never say no (I’m a yesman) · I never get angry · I never tell someone how I feel, even when they make me angry · I’d rather go along with the pack than stand my ground If any of these describe you, it’d be great to tell yourself “No more!”

It’s time for you to stop playing the role of the ‘doormat’ and start becoming selfish and putting yourself first. For each second you remain in this people-pleaser role, a piece of you dies .People pleasers are taken advantage of, prone to stress and depression, develop resentment over time toward people in their lives, and are prone to health issues. Once you quit people pleasing, you’ll regain your sense of who you are and build up confidence.

Stop procrastination: Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination. Procrastination is another form of laziness. Procrastinators sabotage themselves from becoming the best versions of themselves.

Procrastinators are sidetracked by insignificant factors that ultimately derail their goals.

There are many variations of procrastination. To stop procrastinating, make you actions precise and calculated, have some form of accountability established, and set your goals up in a way in which they are small, manageable, and easily achievable.

Have yourself a successful 2020!

Courtesy of Pressure Cooker series

by Nkiru Olumide-Ojo

Africa Magic’s new reality shows to begin this January

N

igeria’s leading Pay TV operator, MultiChoice Nigeria has announced the launch of 3 brandnew reality TV shows titled ‘Date My Family’, ‘Dr. Laser’, ‘Confessions’ and a brand-new drama series - ‘Unmarried’.

Date my Family, a reality dating show with a twist, follows the unique story of a suitor who goes for dinner with three different families of potential dates and eventually has to choose a date based on their experience with the date’s family members. In Date My Family, the suitor only gets to see his pick at the eventual couple dinner. The 45-minute show will air at 06:30 pm (WAT) on Sundays, beginning January 5, 2020, and will run till April 26, 2020.

Dr Laser is a medical reality

show about people undergoing plastic surgery in Nigeria. The show explores the motivations and emotions behind the choices people make to enhance or repair various body parts. The show will air at 09:00 pm (WAT) on Fridays, beginning January 10, 2020, and will run till April 3, 2020.

In Confessions, people confront their fears and secrets that have been eating them up. Viewers get to see real-life confessions between friends, siblings, and love interests, etc. These confessions might be good or bad or both.

The person being confessed to is not aware until the camera begins to roll, so viewers get to see reallife reactions and situations. The 30-minute show will air at 06:00 pm (WAT) on Mondays, beginning January 6, 2020, and will run till www.businessday.ng

April 27, 2020.

Unmarried is at heart, a story about friendship as three friends face challenges in their careers, in their dating lives, and their relationships. The dynamics of their relationships, the depth of their friendships, marital issues, romance, heartbreak, general issues that women go through personally and professionally will be explored. Nengimote (Nengi), Funbi, Kamsiyochukwu (Kamsi) grew up on the same street in a simple Lagos neighbourhood, although their personal decisions have taken them on very different paths through life.

Despite these changes, they remain best of friends. Several cultural nuances peculiar to Nigerians will be addressed in Unmarried; some nuances that seem

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

not to apply in this time and age but unfortunately still govern our daily existence; looking for a child; excitement for a male child, marriage, separation, divorce, family interference in marriage, class, segregation, women discrimination in the workplace, bigamy, infidelity, misconceptions about marriage. This series will air at 09:00 pm (WAT) on Wednesday, beginning January 8, 2020, and will run till April 29, 2020.

On the launch of the new reality shows, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, channel director, said: “Reality-TV shows are extremely popular because they showcase real people experiencing real-life circumstances and situations, thus connecting with viewers and fans on a more personal and relatable level. Following the success of @Businessdayng

the Big Brother Naija show, Date My Family, Dr Laser, Confessions and Unmarried have been curated to address and confront real-life issues from the African perspective.”

Following the successful run of the Big Brother Naija Season 4 in 2019, Channel Director further revealed that with the introduction of 3 new reality shows on its Africa Magic channels, MultiChoice Nigeria is again reiterating its commitment to create platforms for sharing Africa’s stories and to invest in the development of local content and talent.

Date My Family, Dr Laser, Confessions, and Unmarried, with 13 episodes each will air on DStv Africa Magic starting January 2020 exclusive to AM Showcase (CH 151).

28

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

LEADINGWOMAN Queen Moremi, a legacy 2020 is here, make a plan! that lives on DESMOND OKON

OSARENNOMA OGBEIDE

A

deyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, has said that women can rise to be president of Nigeria because they have the strength and potential of good leadership.

The traditional ruler expressed this belief at the opening session of the second edition of “Queen Moremi, the Musical, Reloaded” held at the Lagos Continental Hotels in Lagos.

He charged Nigerians to “try to uplift the position of women because they have a lot to offer the society,” while noting that there were lots of God-given talents in women, which were demonstrated through the heroic deeds of Queen Moremi Ajasoro (QMA) many years ago.

“We’ll keep telling the story of Queen Moremi Ajasoro to bring out the strength, talents and powers of women and what they can offer to our society to make a difference.

“Our prayer is that someday, we will have a female president, probably, they may even do better. We had only struggled to have a female speaker but she could not scale through to the end so we need to support them to excel in future,” he said.

The monarch also called on both government and private organisations to continue to support the cause of the girl-child to give them a sense of pride in the society.

“We’ll keep telling the story of Queen Moremi Ajasoro to focus on how the society can uplift the girl-child to have a sense of pride and occupy a place in the progress of the country in future,” he said.

Ogunwusi also commended the wife of the former Ogun State governor, Olufunsho Amosun, who he commissioned as the “Queen Moremi of our time” for

I

her support in promoting the female cause.

Moremí Àjàsorò was a figure of high significance in the history of the Yoruba people of West Africa Moremi was a courageous queen whose fame contributed to the victory of the Yoruba tribe over a neighbouring tribe.

She was a member-by-marriage of the royal family of Oduduwa, the tribe’s fabled founding father. The Oloori Moremi lived in the 12th century, hailed from Offa, and was married Oranmiyan, the heir to the King of Ife and Founding Father of the Yoruba tribe, Oduduwa. Ile Ife was kingdom that is said to have been at war with an adjoining tribe who were known to them as the Forest people known as the Ìgbò. (Ìgbò in the Yoruba language, though the said tribe is believed by scholars to have had no relation to the contemporary Ìgbòs of modern Nigeria). Scores of Ife citizens were being enslaved by these people, and because of this they were generally regarded with disdain by the Yoruba city-

states.

Following the war she returned to her first husband, King Oramiyan of Ife (and later Oyo), who immediately had her re-instated as his Princess Consort. In order to fulfill the pledge she made to Esimirin before embarking on her mission, her son Oluorogbo was given in sacrifice to the Spirit because this is what it asked her for when she returned to its shrine.

The Edi Festival is said to have then been started as a means of celebrating the sacrifice the princess made for the people of Yorubaland. Furthermore, a number of public places are named after her in contemporary Nigeria, such as the female residence halls at the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University.

In 2017, Oba Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ile Ife, Osun State, erected a statue of Moremi in his palace.

The statue is the tallest in Nigeria, displacing the previous holder of that record (a statue in Owerri, the Imo State capital). It is also the fourth tallest in Africa.

wouldn’t want to bore you with a definition but I might as well give a highlight. A plan is an outline of intended actions.

As simple as the definition is, it’s still difficult for some to make congruent plans. Even with the saying “failing to plan is planning to fail” being over flogged, many are shallowly satisfied with living life as it goes.

Spontaneity isn’t bad but it is problematic when it becomes a usual pattern as you’ll be susceptible to unforeseen consequences that accompany your decisions. A New Year is here, in light of this we ought to have plans and structures in place to see to a smooth running year.

The holy book said; suppose one of you wants to build a tower, don’t you just sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? It’s not enough to have goals. You’ve to walk the talk. We shouldn’t expect a good product without putting effort in the process. This passage clearly explains why many people have half-finished projects. Adequate plans weren’t made to see the project through, not enough thought to foresee possible complications and no

reasoning on how to manage and overcome the challenges.

Let’s look at some wisdom from the book of Proverbs. It says that plans fail for lack of counsel but with many advisers they succeed.

This goes a step further by elaborating the importance of setting wise plans and seeking counsel.

So now, it’s not just enough to make plans but it’s also expedient that you seek wise counsel from people who have ‘been there and done that’, benefiting from their fountain of knowledge.

A wise friend once told me that he only buys things he can afford to purchase 3 times. This sent me far in thought. The intelligence conveyed in this principle should not be underrated as financial planning is key. It is clearly unwise to live above your means. If you don’t have the money to buy something at the moment, why not work hard and plan towards it.

It may tarry but we must also learn to delay gratification and set priorities. Map out structures on how you want to spend your money (definitely within the fence of your income) and see that financial anxiety will be far from you.

Planning is a whole lot, making a good plan is a commitment and achieving your plan requires sacrifice. Have you made plans for year 2020?

Leave your mistakes and move on vation, we made some mistakes and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in that- we would use our saliva to try to clean it. It only ended up looking worse and eventually exposing the error we tried to hide. My mum would sometimes catch me in the act and just one look from her would bring me back to order.

Thereafter, I learnt to cancel my mistakes with just a single line, making it less obvious that there was a cancellation.

Even now that I see how people cancel errors, I’m just in shock.

They would draw thick straight or diagonal lines from left to right, go back and forth while some even end up shading. This only makes it look rough and obvious.

Now, let’s liken this to our lifestyle. The days of using pen-

OSARENNOMA OGBEIDE

H

ave you ever wondered why an eraser can’t clean off a pen/biro writing (at least not completely)?

I recently read an article and it reminded me exactly of my earlier days. In primary school then, we used pencil to write and it’s much easier because an eraser can easily clean any error made. However, we “graduated” to using a pen in primary 4. In as much as using pencil and eraser seemed easier, using a pen came with some form of prestige and in different colours as well. The downside of using it was that mistakes couldn’t be erased. We had to write with extra caution.

In the excitement of this elewww.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

cils were our childhood, where mistakes we made could easily be forgotten, overlooked or erased by the actions of our parents. We then graduated to adulthood and it seems any mistake we make sticks unless completely eliminated. How about we stop striving so hard to erase the indelible error and just simply cross it off. There’s no time to dwell on mistakes, instead you just learn not to repeat it another time and this time, get it right.

It is popularly said that we learn from our mistakes and not ‘dwell on our mistakes’. Don’t let this continuous hovering cost you advancement. Decide to move past them and rewrite a better story. No need to attract attention on that mistake: Leave it behind and move on!

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

29

Conversations with Ade Adefeko

Leadership lessons from Rwanda

A

s a frequent business traveller particularly around Africa, I am often intrigued and sometimes bewildered at the discussions on the leadership question among the citizenry across nations from the continent. I am most times comforted by the patriotic fervour and enthusiasm that runs deep in their veins. UBUNTU; a Zulu word that loosely translates to human kindness but deeply means having the human virtues of compassion and humanity is quite prevalent. Often times I juxtapose these thoughts with that of my beloved country Nigeria and am in a quandary as to how we came to this sorry pass . I wrote this article initially in 2017 but I want to refresh the minds of my readers with it against the backdrop of happenings around the continent and as we usher in a new year.

I use today the Rwandan example to bring home the fact again that we need to learn a lot from some of our brothers across the continent. As I have often said, Leadership is about public good and not self- preservation and nowhere else is representative of this virtue than Rwanda. A particular event in Kigali titled IMIHIGO which is about performance contracts, accountability and citizen centred development amply demonstrates that.

The event which held on Friday September 9 2017 at the exquisite Kigali Convention centre is an annual one and was chaired by the president of Rwanda Paul Kagame. It brings together central and local leaders who come to present performance outcomes for the last financial year and signing of new contracts for the new financial year. The system which was introduced in 2006 is credited with improving accountability and speeding up the pace of citizen centred development activities and programmes in the country. Hitherto the evaluation of the IMIHIGHO was done by government officials but the exercise is now handled by the INSTITUTE OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH (IPAR) a private think tank to ensure its outcomes are more scientific and objective.

With the research institute serving as the arbiter, the results are fact based, independent and reliable unlike when the evaluators were the ones who were supposed to implement the same contracts based on observations and assumptions.

At Nigeria’s weekly Federal Executive Council meetings we often hear … Council resolved to award the contract for xyz and more often than not no policy statement emanates from there. It is a weekly or bi weekly contract award session.

One had heard previously Ministers announcing the award of contracts or signing of memoranda between Countries, states and private sector

Ade Adefeko with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

organizations which were never binding and were as worthless as the paper on which they were signed.

What doesn’t get measured does not get done.

We do not track neither do we evaluate . We as a nation and not only the federal government but the sub-nationals (state governments) and the local governments that pride itself with slogans that even the proponents do not believe in.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda in his key note address from which I take some excerpts said and I quote ‘Leadership is not an individual task, it is about how the opportunity that gives you a leader works with others to achieve a common goal. Leadership is also about learning from our mistakes and applying lessons . He goes on to say.. Failure in leadership is when you choose to pursue your own interest and not the interests of the people you lead. Our success must be evaluated based on the change we see in the lives of Rwandans not the life of individual leaders.

Imihigo is not about praising individuals or punishing others. It is about changing the lives of our citizens.

You cannot sit back pray and wish for success, you cannot reap what you have not worked for. Freedom is the opportunity that gives you hope that you will stand tall. This Rwanda is ours, it is our house. It is not a house someone has lent to us. It is ours to work on and transform. This freedom of ownership is indispensable.’’ The speech was powerful and poignant www.businessday.ng

particularly as it connected back home with OUR CHANGE AGENDA in words. It resonated well with the entire Rwandan citizenry who knew where they were coming from after going through an unprecedented genocide that threatened the very fabric of their existence and only a leader in the mould of Paul Kagame could hold them together and instil in them a sense of unity and belief in their oneness. A strong leader who has built strong institutions in

‘

Leadership is not an individual task, it is about how the opportunity that gives you a leader works with others to achieve a common goal.

Leadership is also about learning from our mistakes and applying lessons

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

equal measure. A landlocked nation that relies on its human resource elements which it uses to develop capacity its burgeoning youthful population which it unleashes onto the ICT space, and its diaspora remittances whose citizens contributions is added to donor funding to build infrastructure and social amenities.

You could see a sense of genuine pride and patriotism from a leader and reciprocated by the citizenry.

No one is coerced to imbibe the cause. They look at their antecedents, coming from 24 years post genocide and conflict and say on our honour we must make this country work not only for this generation but those unborn. For their tomorrow they are ready to give their today. Juxtapose this with the Nigerian experience and what you are confronted with is cynicism and bigotry. There is an apparent lack of belief and faith in the leadership strata but it seems to be changing but very slowly.

The ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’ started on a turbulent note with claims that it was a stolen concept.

In equal measure Nigerians have started to deride the programme as not striking a chord and a bit of the same old slogans and mantras that do nothing to bring out the nationalistic fervour in us. The vim and gusto is lacking as the people believe rightly or wrongly there is a serious disconnect that needs to be addressed by the leaders. They insist and rightly so that by their actions and deeds our leaders must show @Businessdayng

commitment to the cause.

The time for spiritual reawakening and rebirth ( note I didn’t say religious) is now. We need to have a common agenda and destiny and a conscious effort must be made to affect national development from our respective spheres of influence and quit complaining. Citizens must hold their leaders at all levels accountable and those who err should be made to return the loot and in addition jailed to act as a deterrent.

We often hear that the person or persons engaged in looting or corrupt practices are from a particular ethnic group or belong to a certain religious creed as if that is an excuse or a licence to steal. The situation hitherto where corruption was not only rife but endemic and stealing in high places was elevated to an art must be condemned in its entirety.

Our collective patrimony must not be mortgaged, and we must stop whining and wailing, pick up the gauntlet and show the way.

I was particularly impressed with the letter to the nation on January 1st 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari where he espoused his vision and plans for the country in the coming year and to which I urge Nigerians to hold him to account with respect to the promises made therein He made a detour from perennial speeches and decided to use that medium to make his New Year speech to the nation.

The letter reminds me of ‘LETTER TO MY COUNTRY MEN’ in the 90s made popular by Nigeria’s former Information and Culture Minister Prince Tony Momoh who served in the Babangida government in the years 1986-1990.

Leadership comes with enormous responsibility and sacrifice, and our Leaders must see themselves as servants of the people and must show accountability to those they Lead.

The days of RULERSHIP are over and our LEADERS must now lead from the front both at the Federal, State and Local government levels.

Happy New Year to All

Adefeko, is Chairman Agricultural Trade Group, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA)

30

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

31

Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 02 January 2020 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 359,006.78 10.10 1.00 153 33,544,111 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 246,235.83 7.20 0.70 207 28,168,755 ZENITH BANK PLC 587,114.43 18.70 0.54 503 30,910,561 863 92,623,427 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 233,319.40 6.50 5.69 279 60,265,373 279 60,265,373 1,142 152,888,800 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,218,641.92 109.00 3.81 55 380,728 55 380,728 55 380,728 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,419,752.05 142.00 - 153 1,871,726 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 222,287.58 13.80 -9.80 139 6,063,918 292 7,935,644 292 7,935,644 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 348,418.02 592.10 -9.99 15 3,999,854 15 3,999,854 15 3,999,854 1,504 165,205,026 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,710.00 85.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 11,473.56 4.30 1.18 5 134,520 5 134,520 5 134,520 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 134,520 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 53,037.40 55.60 - 6 15,303 PRESCO PLC 47,500.00 47.50 - 8 49,857 14 65,160 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,500.00 4.25 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,500.00 0.50 - 5 79,163 5 79,163 19 144,323 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1,456.01 0.55 - 0 0 217.92 0.56 - 0 0 JOHN HOLT PLC. S C O A NIG. PLC. 1,903.99 2.93 - 1 5,067 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 43,493.35 1.07 8.08 51 4,482,245 U A C N PLC. 25,643.54 8.90 3.49 66 1,500,894 118 5,988,206 118 5,988,206 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 521.24 3.51 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 26,268.00 19.90 - 7 4,063 ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 7 4,063 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 2,598.40 1.00 - 7 346,855 7 346,855 14 350,918 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 7,438.02 0.95 - 10 272,979 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 65,821.00 30.05 - 31 135,548 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 81,660.69 9.50 - 19 506,062 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 471,817.22 59.00 - 33 97,213 93 1,011,802 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 168,000.00 14.00 2.94 76 1,362,526 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 80,777.48 19.70 - 38 444,128 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 7,930.20 1.00 1.01 34 2,927,916 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 2 2,000 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 34,310.23 12.95 - 9 69,422 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,321.07 12.15 - 0 0 159 4,805,992 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 19,815.03 10.55 - 22 82,934 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,165,125.42 1,469.90 - 14 6,942 36 89,876 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 5,878.97 4.70 6.82 63 797,389 63 797,389 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 22,433.20 5.65 - 28 110,827 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 118,921.61 20.70 -5.91 25 141,185 53 252,012 404 6,957,071

BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 120,189.56 6.55 0.77 58 1,065,537 FIDELITY BANK PLC 58,529.09 2.02 -1.46 80 5,286,323 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 859,390.43 29.20 -1.68 186 18,898,012 JAIZ BANK PLC 18,267.83 0.62 - 24 428,713 STERLING BANK PLC. 54,701.79 1.90 -4.52 20 2,780,498 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 176,180.55 6.05 0.83 61 955,805 UNITY BANK PLC 7,831.86 0.67 4.69 11 4,512,500 WEMA BANK PLC. 26,230.64 0.68 -8.11 39 1,656,138 479 35,583,526 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,989.75 0.72 - 13 2,536,162 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 20,790.00 1.98 - 0 0 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 3,170.70 0.39 - 1 1,000 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 22,820.04 2.20 - 0 0 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 7,217.46 0.49 8.89 14 1,055,689 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 0 0 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 0 0 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 1,830.86 0.25 - 6 97,000 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 2,148.17 0.50 - 1 10,000 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 4,240.00 0.53 - 1 17,500 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,234.55 0.20 - 6 674,700 NEM INSURANCE PLC 12,778.82 2.42 - 7 179,400 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 0 0 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,960.40 0.55 - 2 49,000 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 - 6 1,044,000 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,502.25 0.20 - 1 40,453 STACO INSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 1 5,000 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 4,683.96 0.35 2.94 35 13,581,370 94 19,291,274 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,629.63 1.15 - 0 0

www.businessday.ng

0 0 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 4,200.00 1.00 - 0 0 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,796.93 1.39 - 0 0 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 8,000.00 4.00 - 36 148,455 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 35,291.19 6.00 - 6 143,448 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 600.00 0.40 - 0 0 FCMB GROUP PLC. 36,040.93 1.82 -1.62 65 4,166,981 1,697.97 0.33 10.00 2 132,930 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 420,198.69 40.00 -2.44 18 5,819,755 UNITED CAPITAL PLC 14,400.00 2.40 - 30 463,996 157 10,875,565 730 65,750,365 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 2,119.05 4.25 - 0 0 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 781.69 0.22 - 1 30,000 1 30,000 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 494.58 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 5,841.81 2.80 -9.68 14 2,493,088 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 6,577.32 5.50 -9.84 25 2,211,222 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 3,329.70 1.93 - 9 68,800 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,177.48 0.62 - 2 58,000 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 50 4,831,110 51 4,861,110 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 888.00 0.25 8.70 10 1,172,377 10 1,172,377 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 486.00 4.50 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 316.77 0.64 - 0 0 0 0 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,596.66 0.34 3.03 10 1,234,351 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 10,962.00 2.61 - 0 0 10 1,234,351 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,123,311.48 298.90 - 0 0 0 0 20 2,406,728 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,956.31 6.75 - 14 56,830 CAP PLC 16,800.00 24.00 - 13 72,650 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 237,897.37 18.10 - 0 0 MEYER PLC. 286.87 0.54 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,769.32 2.23 - 0 0 PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 27 129,480 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,342.56 1.33 - 14 105,770 14 105,770 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 26,898.49 53.80 - 0 0 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 0 0 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 41 235,250 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 2,289.35 5.50 - 2 7,686 2 7,686 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,781.64 8.10 - 0 0 0 0 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 20 5,740,000 20 5,740,000 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 83.60 0.38 - 0 0 0 0 22 5,747,686 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,252.54 0.20 - 18 2,076,712 18 2,076,712 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 49,601.34 3.99 - 67 1,222,045 67 1,222,045 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 53,332.04 147.90 - 9 18,651 CONOIL PLC 12,907.51 18.60 0.54 20 188,360 ETERNA PLC. 4,694.92 3.60 - 10 77,501 FORTE OIL PLC. 23,444.66 18.00 -0.55 29 591,812 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 4,663.23 15.30 - 0 0 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 37,652.97 110.90 - 19 4,437 87 880,761 172 4,179,518 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,509.28 0.34 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 15,796.05 1.62 - 0 0 0 0 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 247.03 0.21 - 1 38,662 1 38,662 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,623.26 4.45 - 6 18,719 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 431.34 0.92 - 0 0 6 18,719 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,259.15 2.75 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 2,328.25 1.12 - 3 59,849 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,862.53 3.50 - 0 0 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 37,241.98 4.90 - 0 0 3 59,849 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 4,320.00 0.36 - 6 15,728 6 15,728 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 223.78 0.37 - 0 0 LEARN AFRICA PLC 871.74 1.13 - 1 29,000 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 6 12,342 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 560.83 1.30 1.56 5 186,200 12 227,542 ROAD TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 745.97 0.45 - 1 13,000 1 13,000 SPECIALTY INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 757.44 3.20 - 0 0

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

32

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY

Adesina might not have become AfDB President if not for Jonathan - Obasanjo ...Narrates how Yemisi facilitated the job for her husband RAZAQ AYINLA

A

s Akinwunmi Adesina prepares to contest for the Presidential seat this year, of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a five-year second and final term, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that if former President Goodluck Jonathan had not appointed Adesina to serve as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in his cabinet between 2011 and 2015, the AfDB President wouldn’t have got the job.

Obasanjo, who narrated the intrigues that characterised the appointment of Adesina as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development under Jonathan’s Presidency, explained that if Adesina had not come back when former President Jonathan had a rethink to give the slot to Adesina, having earlier declared his administration’s intention to zone the slot to the North, then former minister might not have got the job at AfDB. Speaking at the Thanksgiving Service that was organised

by Christian Association of Nigeria, Ogun State Chapter in honour of the former President Obasanjo at Chapel of

Christ Glorious King within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Obasanjo noted that the track record of good governance as portrayed by Adesina under People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government between 2011 and 2015 deservedly earned Adesina AfDB President.

While speaking directly to Adesina who was in company of his wife, Yemisi to the Thanksgiving Service held in Abeokuta, Obasanjo said, “Akin AfDB (Akinwunmi Adesina) you know I will recognise you but before I recognise, I will recognise Yemisi (his wife). Akin was telling a story but he didn’t tell the story of how he got to have 45percent and Yemisi has 55percent. When Akin came down to be the minister, Yemisi grudgingly released him.

“But he was coming to be minister and after he had arrived here, the man who said we should look for somebody who can do the job changed his mind and he said he had zoned the post of Minister for Agriculture to the North.

When I heard that, I said, Akin pack and go back to where you are coming from and Akin went back.

“I don’t know what happened but I believe I know

Akinwunmi Adesina

part of it, some people went to talk to him, so he called me and said where is the man and said the man had gone back. He said can we have him back and I said no, we can’t, it is too late, he has gone back; so he pleaded with me and I called Akin.

“And I called and I said, well Akin, the man has changed his mind, maybe you should come back, and Akin said, it was no longer in

Kwara govt demolishes Saraki’s structures in Ilorin ...PDP chairman, women leader react SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

T

he Kwara State government has eventually demolished structures on late Olusola Saraki’s land (Ile Arugbo), the political meeting point for Saraki’s family at Ilofa road, GRA, Ilorin.

Residents in the area narrated how mobile policemen in their hundreds came, tear gassed and shot sporadically to scare people away before gaining access to demolish the over forty years old structure on Thursday.

An eye witness, who identified himself as Saheed, said that they started hearing sound of gun at about 3am to scare away elderly women who were keeping vigil on the property while several cannisters of teargas were also fired to eject them from the land after which they carried out the demolition at 4 am by a bulldozer hired by the government and ended at about 5am.

BusinessDay visit to the scene observed that a mo-

torcycle with APC inscription and a tricycle alleged to be brought by people, who carried out the demolition were damaged by the irate mob who were protesting against the demolition of the structures.

However, the state government claimed responsibility for destroying the structure on the reclaimed land.

A statement signed and released to journalists by Murtala Olanrewaju, Commissioner for Communications stated that “the Kwara State Government early today began the physical reclamation of the plot of land bordering the civil service clinic in Ilorin.

“The reclamation exercise began in the early hours of Thursday to avoid any needless confrontation. Attempts by some persons to provoke government’s agents on lawful duty were resisted by the security agents who exercised the highest level of restraint and professionalism.

Contrary to the claim that the State Government was served court papers on the www.businessday.ng

matter, we state that no court paper has been served as at the time the government took steps to preserve what lawfully belongs to the people.

“Finally, we urge the people of the state to remain calm, peaceful, an be guided only by facts of the matter and not be drawn into emotional outburst that is targeted at distracting the public from the issues at stake. While the administration is focused on restoring sanity to the state after years of barefaced impunity, we will do so within the limit of the law.”

Speaking with journalists after the demolition, Kola Shittu, the state branch of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) condemned the action of the state government, saying that the governor had taken it too far.

The PDP Chairman said: “Governor Abdulrazaq has taken it too far by demolishing the structures on Dr Olusola Saraki’s place where he used to take care of the elderly women (Ile Arugbo) every week.

his hands, it was in the hands of his wife. Well, I didn’t know that the wife at that time is Yemisi who incidentally happened to be the daughter of my Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture when I was the Military Head of State.

“I said who is your wife and he said she is the daughter of your former Permanent Secretary, I said give her the phone and he gave her the

phone. And then, I think after about 30 minutes, I persuaded Yemisi though she had a number of points to make, she allowed herself to be persuaded and Akin came back and he became the Minister of Agriculture.

“Then, from there, Akin became (of course we went round) the President of African Development Bank. So, I said to Akin, your becoming President of African Development Bank, you have done only 45% of the work, Yemisi did 55% of the work because if Yemisi had not allowed you to come and become Minister of Agriculture, you will not have become the President of the African Development Bank.”According to him, “That is why it is Akin - 45 and Yemisi - 55. But, you know the bond between husband and wife, so when he started complaining, Yemisi said shouldn’t we give him something more, so we agreed and we increased it from 45 to 46 but Akin is greedy, he always wants to take more than what you have to give.”

Although, Adesina didn’t respond to all the statements credited to Obasanjo as regards how he became the President of the African Development Bank, occasional smiles and nods to what Obasanjo was saying from the po-

dium confirmed the veracity of issues that characterised the emergence of Adesina, first as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria and currently, President of African Development Bank.

Also, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state, who was the only governor present at the Thanksgiving Service in Abeokuta, said this of Obasanjo, “The relationship I have with you is that of a father and son relationship that dates back to so many years.

“Baba’s Christian life is a very consistent one that is indeed worthy of emulation.

Baba has always lived his life to the fear of the Almighty God and he never fails to appreciate all what God has done for him and that is what we are seeing today.

“We all know and appreciate that God doesn’t make and didn’t make many like Baba and I’m sure that God is not probably going to make anymore like him.

“Baba is a world ambassador, Baba is an African icon, Baba is a global citizen but more importantly, Baba is an Ogun son that we are well pleased in. I don’t think that anything can be better than starting the first working day of the year other than thanking God.”

2023: Why Nigeria must reduce parties, introduce independent candidate - APC chieftain Iniobong Iwok

A

yodele Adewale, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos State, has said that the on-going moves to amend the 2010 Electoral Act must lead to the deregistration of several of the existing political parties in the country, saying that the high number of parties was a set back to the nation’s electoral system.

More than 90 political parties are registered in Nigeria and participated in the 2019 general election; however, due to their poor performance in last year’s elections there have been agitations in recent months from stakeholders for the number to be reduced.

Stakeholders say the large number of parties has only succeeded in adding to the logjam in the electoral system.

Speaking in an interview with BusinessDay, Thursday, Adewale said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should set target

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

and boundary for political parties to meet before they can contest national elections.

He supported the agitation for the scrapping of some nonperforming political parties by the National Assembly, stressing that the number of parties was unreasonable and was part of the problem bedevilling the electoral system.

According to him, “Yes, I support the amendment; 80 percent of the political parties have not even won a councillor seat, so if you cannot win a councillor why are you there?

They are just clogging the system. We would get to a stage where we would have a million parties; can we put that in the voting paper? It would be crazy.

“We need to set limit and set boundary; that is we are not saying you should not form a party, but if you form a party you need to be in a class, if you win certain number of seat you move to the next class.

We should create independent candidacy, because if we do that we would not have this number of political parties. @Businessdayng

Speaking further, the former council boss, urged smaller parties to form alliance with the major ones to compete favourably, while seeking the introduction of electronic voting into the electoral Act for the 2023 general elections.

“We should also encourage parties to form alliance with a dominant party. But what I think the focus should be more on electronic voting so that people can vote from the comfort of their rooms.

Not where poling units where someone would come and snatch the ballot box away.

“E-voting is what is done in Canada, Britain and other advance societies; it would discourage all this problems and make people have confident in the system when they know their votes would count.

“Even in LASU, electronic voting has been adopted and is being used in the conduct of SUG elections, within few minutes the result is out; we even do money transfer from our phones why not electronic voting?” he add.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

33

FEATURE NDIC: Understanding consumer protection in the digital age Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

C

onsumer protection and the role of the financial regulators was the focus of the NDIC annual FICAN conference held in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, from 10-12 December 2019.

The topic could not have been more apt than now when there is renewed commitment by regulators to neutralize the efforts of criminals to undermine consumers of digital financial services (DFS) by exploiting the latter’s vulnerabilities in an increasingly digital and data-driven world.

There is a Consumer Protection Department at CBN and two consumer desks at the NDIC, which shows a national commitment provide safety nets to consumers.

Digital financial services (DFS) have been defined as financial operations using digital technology, including electronic money, mobile financial services, online financial services, i-teller and branchless banking, whether through bank or nonbank institutions. It can encompass various monetary transactions such as depositing, withdrawing, sending and receiving money, as well as other financial products and services including payment, credit, saving, pensions and insurance. DFS can also include non-transactional services, such as viewing personal financial information through digital devices.

It is only as recently as 2018 that the G20 countries came up with a non-binding policy guidelines on financial consumer protection in the digital age, indicating the fact that regulation in this sector is just emerging.

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) is aware of the paucity of regulatory policy initiatives in this sector and is therefore providing a platform for stakeholders in the nation’s financial sector to rub minds on how to better the economy and protect the consumer. This is the essence of the Financial Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) workshop, sponsored by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) annually.

The 16th edition of NDIC/FICAN workshop was refreshingly intellectual and went a long way in adding value to the general public’s financial literacy in the country.

The high points of the annual workshop’s brilliant discussions around developments in the financial sector focused attention on protection of the consumer by the financial regulators.

The MD/CEO of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, was ably represented at the occasion because of the value he put on promoting financial literacy and his commitment to financial journalism practice. It is not surprising that the MD declared in his opening remarks that “with the recourse to

Umaru Ibrahim, MD, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC)

technology and Fintechs, the entire dynamics of banking has been altered to such an extent that it poses serious challenges for both operators and regulators”. He also made it clear that “it was in recognition of what the future is likely to portend for the banking industry that for this year’s workshop is dedicated to providing insight.”

Digital Financial Services (DFS) have both tremendous benefits and equally terrible risks as captured by the study conducted by the G20/ OECD in 2018. A few of the benefits include: The digitalisation of finance offers the opportunity to achieve broadbased financial inclusion by extending the availability and penetration of financial services and by reducing the costs of providing financial services to the underserved population as we have seen with mobile banking.

New financial technologies can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access alternative funding sources for supporting their cash flow and risk capital needs.

DFS are offering more convenient, faster, secure and cheaper transactions. This has positive implications in both advanced and emerging economies for businesses and consumers, both established users of financial products and the newly financially included. The latter in particular stand to benefit from a digital environment even in the absence of physical branches or agents, provided appropriate security measures and consumer precautions are in place to avoid fraudulent transactions and other risks.

The digital revolution goes handin-hand with new providers entering the market and offering financial services directly to individuals through digital channels can have an impact on the level of competition in the www.businessday.ng

financial market and contribute to lower costs, and offer improved experience to financial consumers.

Examples here include what we are witnessing in Nigeria in the urban transportation sector; more digital platforms for moving around using taxis and the popular tricycle is being introduced into the market.

These are indeed interesting developments that capture one’s imagination, courtesy of digital financial revolution unfolding before our eyes.

The associate risks are also awesome categorized as follows: • Market driven: this can include misuse of unfamiliar (or new types of) products to uninformed consumers; new types of fraud, often taking advantage of consumers’ uncertainty in the digital environment; a lack of security, privacy and confidentiality of data; inappropriate or excessive use of digital profiling to identify potential customers and exclude unwanted groups; • Regulation and supervision driven: this can encompass uneven levels of protection within (e.g. inadequate disclosure and redress mechanisms) and across countries (e.g. variety of providers, cross border selling, regulatory arbitrage); consideration of data protection issues; a lack of coordination among authorities for example with respect to new types of digital financial services.

• Consumer driven: the growing digitalisation of daily life and of financial decisions is not necessarily matched by increasing digital and financial literacy levels.

• Technology driven: the increasing use of algorithms, which can affect decisions about credit, insurance or investments and can lead to denied access to certain services or inappropriate charges based on inaccurate or wrong correlations made without human interpretation; unreliability of

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

mobile networks and digital finance platforms may lead to inability to carry out transactions, inaccessibility of funds or cyber security risks.

Each of the 5 papers presented did justice to the topic. Let us glance at them briefly.

Dr. K.S.Katata of the Research, Policy and International Relations of the NDIC presented two papers on Fintech and Future of Banking and Key Attributes and Bank Failure Resolution Option. The former paper surmised that Fintech firms and bigtech organizations are capturing more and more of the banking value chain, providing services such as payments, checking and even savings accounts that could erode much of the traditional bank revenues in the foreseeable future.

He demonstrated how these new entrants pose a threat to banks by raising service expectations and coming between banks and their customers.

He also cautioned traditional banks that their response should go far beyond closing branches, improving online and mobile banking offerings or making current products and services “more digital.” Instead, he advised banks to move further into the daily lives of customers, providing assistance before, during and after the financial transaction. He agreed with the forecast by PwC that to be successful as a Bank in 2030, the bank of the future will need to; embrace emerging technology; remain flexible to adopt evolving business models, and put customers at the center of every strategy.

The second paper discussed the objectives of effective resolution of banks that fell into deep crisis and the various legal frameworks and the tools developed over the years to help minimize risks of bank failures within Nigeria and the international best practices. For instance, he listed the key objectives of the efforts to protect depositors to included: minimise adverse effects on banking and financial system stability; ensure continuity of basic banking functions; minimise reliance on public sector support; and protect client funds and assets Abdulhamid Aliyu of the Bank Examination Department of the NDIC presented Emerging Issues in the banking regulation and supervision.

He identified six emerging issues of concern to banking regulators as: Defaults from traditional income haven of banks, namely oil & gas; Derivatives defaults, especially on currency swap; Disruptive technology; Entry of big Tech firms like Google, Amazon an Apple into the financial services will post a fin stability risk; Cyber-crime and Insufficient expertise in the assessment of IFRS 9 implementation may affect the level of compliance and enforcement.

The paper went on to give possible mitigating steps as: Continue proactive measures to ensure financial system stability; Investment in disruptive technology; Core invest@Businessdayng

ment in the training and re-training of bankers and regulators; Regulators will need new laws to enable a level plain field with smaller tech firms and banks and more investment in Cyber security.

S.A. Oluyemi of Communication and Public Affairs Department of the NDIC presented a paper on The Role of Banks in Financial Literacy and Inclusion. His paper dwelt on the achievements and challenges of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS).. He concluded that enhanced financial literacy is the key to financial inclusion and financial inclusion, consumer protection and financial literacy complement each other.

The three formed the bed rock of the NFIS. The NFIS is essential to increase financial inclusion and consumers have to gain the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to make good financial decisions and the banking industry is necessary and supportive of the strategy’s goals.

Finally, the paper titled Consumer Protection in the Financial System was delivered by S.K. Salam-Alada of the Consumer Protection Department of the CBN. The paper concluded that consumer protection is critical in all that the financial system gamut is out to achieve in guaranteeing the future economic and social wellbeing of Nigeria through: promoting savings culture and entrepreneurship; poverty reduction; improved income-facilitating development; engendering consumers’ confidence; addressing socio-economic challenges and ultimately ensuring financial system stability, sustainable economic growth and national development.

NDIC has come of age, having celebrated its 30 years of existence this year. It has every reason to celebrate its monumental achievements in carrying out its core mandate of minimizing risk through deposit insurance system (DIS) in our financial system.

Of the 30 years, no doubt the last 10 to 12 years were most illustrious.

Thanks to the present leadership of Malam Umaru Ibrahim and the entire management he is leading. When he quits the scene, he will be leaving behind one of the strongest regulatory institutions in the country, with a reputation for disciplined, among other professional attributes.

He has also contributed significantly to building an institution that is not resting on its oars in ensuring that it delivers on its core mandates of Deposit Guarantee, Bank Supervision, Distress Resolution and Liquidation and Risk Minimiser. Its primary public policy objectives remain to contribute to financial system stability, protecting depositors and providing an orderly means of resolution and compensation in the event of bank failures.

Hassan, a financial analyst, wrote from Abuja.

34

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news Banks fined over N600bn as CBN hits LDR...

Continued from page 1

sent to his phone. Similarly, a Monetary Policy Committe member did not respond to calls to his telephone.

The loan to deposit ratio was raised twice in 2019.

First, it was raised from the previous 58.5 percent to 60 percent in July with a deadline of September 30, and then to 65 percent in October with a deadline of December 31.

The N600 billion fine is following a fine of around N499.1 billion placed by CBN on banks for defaulting on the 60 percent LDR directive as at September 30, 2019. This brings the total sanction by CBN on banks to almost 1.1 trillion in the second half of 2019 alone.

CBN sanctions are punitive measures taken on the banks for failure to adhere to the regulator’s instructions.

CBN in a letter to all banks stated that failure to adhere to the minimum loan to deposit ratio of 65 percent by the specified date would result in a levy of additional Cash Reserve Requirement equal to 50 percent of the lending shortfall of the target LDR. The sanction of N600 billion means that banks had a loan shortfall of around N1.2 trillion from the required value of loans that will have enabled them meet the 65 percent LDR policy. While the banks will not lose the money taken as sanctions, they will forfeit any interest they would have earned on the deposits. Analysts told BusinessDay that banks may be losing up to N6 billion monthly in interest income due to this December sanction.

Up to 12 banks defaulted in meeting the 60 percent deadline at end of September, warranting the CBN to sanction the banks with fines totalling N499.1 billion after a combined loan shortfall of nearly N1 trillion.

However, the regulator refunded part of the funds it debited a dozen lenders that

missed its September deadline of a minimum lending threshold after a majority of the affected banks improved their LDR positions.

Analysts say they expect to see increased growth in loan exposure from the big banks in the fourth quarter of 2019 as many of the banks significantly reduced their prime lending rate which helped make loans cheaperandmoreaffordablefor businesses. However, not everyone is optimistic that the banks created enough loans to avoid anotherroundoffreshsanctions from the apex regulators.

“It will be very difficult for most banks that defaulted the first time to suddenly meet up with a higher hurdle,” said one banker in one of the Tier-2 banks who pleaded anonymity.

“I expect the combined fines to be somewhere between N200 billion and N300 billion this time, which is smaller than we saw the last time, but things can get even worse for banks if CBN increase the loan to deposit ratio again. I am not sure the books of the banks will still look healthy in 2020 with all these rush to book loans,” the person said.

The CBN may be considering raising the LDR once again this year, Hassan Bello, CBN’s director of banking supervision department, said while speaking at the 2019 workshop for finance correspondents and business editors.

“We are thinking of doing 70 percent by the end of next year. Within the period that we have increased the LDR, industry lending has increased by over N1.1tn,” Bello said.

CBN has been encouraged by the performance of loan creation since it began raising LDR. The apex regulator appears confident that by raising the bar higher and higher, banks would be forced to do what they are reluctant to do, which is to create more loans in a low growth environment with high risk-free treasury bill returns.

Nigeria records biggest global drop in...

Continued from page 2

seen more than four million people flee the country and the US is restricting entry to Venezuelan migrants.

The dip in Nigerian visitors to the US followed a string of visa clampdown measures by the Trump administration targeting Africa’s largest economy.

After indefinitely suspending its visa interview waiver for Nigerian applicants (the waiver allowed frequent travelers renew their visa without going through in-person interviews each time), the Trump administration also raised visa application fees for Nigerians by including additional “reciprocity fees”

ranging from $80 to $303 depending on the class of visa. And even though the Nigerian government immediately slashed visa application fees for American applicants in a bid to get the US to reverse its price increase, the reciprocity fees remain in place.

The measures followed reports that the Trump administration was looking to impose visa restrictions on countries whose citizens have a track record of overstaying beyond the validity of their short-term US visas. As it turns out, Nigerians were the highest ranked African country for US visa overstays in 2018.

Even though official www.businessday.ng

Emeka Ihedioha (m), Imo State governor, signing the 2020 Appropriation, and 5 other Bills. From left are: Reginald Ihebuzor, commissioner for budget and planning; Uche Nwaneri, majority leader, Imo State House of Assembly; Chinelo Emeghara, clerk of the Assembly; Chiji Collins, speaker, Imo Assembly; Gerald Irona, Imo State deputy governor; Ndukwe Nnawuchi, attorney general of the state; Nnaemeka Maduagwu, special adviser to the governor on legislative matters; Chuma Nnaji, commissioner for public utilities, and Uche Uwaleke, commissioner for finance, at the EXCO Chambers, Government House, Owerri.

5 ways oil sector can jumpstart Nigeria’s...

Continued from page 1

ance with government’s

objectives, and reducing interference in the sector.

“The PIB is long overdue and is needed to complete the overhauling of the sector that most recently saw the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Amendment Act (DIBPSA) that passed at the end of last year,” Desmond Ogba, energy lawyer and partner at Lagosbased Templars Law firm, said.

“The minister [of state for petroleum resources] announced on 1st January, 2020 that the Bill would be passed by mid-year 2020. It won’t solve all the problems but it will give certainty which has been lacking for over 12 years now,” Ogba said.

The passage of the PIB will provide the clarity on a fiscal framework required to organise a bid round. Timipre Sylva, minster of state for petroleum resources, has said it would be passed in June.

The Muhammadu Buhari administration has balked at holding an oil bid round despite having over 200 fields lying fallow. It has quietly renewed dated licences of block holders and under his administration the Nigerian Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC) has played a

data confirms the effects of the measures, there were already warning signs the administration’s policies were having an adverse impact on potential travelers. The policies also spawned fear-fueled rumors among locals as well: mid-last year, the United States embassy in Nigeria was forced to deny a widespread rumor that it had placed a ban on issuing student visas to Nigerians.

But despite the Trump administration’s policies, the US remains a popular destination for Nigerian students seeking foreign degrees as the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million over the past academic year.

prices, offer some possibility of attaining NNPC’s production goal of 3 million barrels of crude oil/day and, if marginal fields are included, increase the number of indigenous operators, Ogba said.

Greater attention is shifting to cleaner energies and gas looks to emerge the winner but Nigeria is yet to place a premium on its vast gas reserves, estimated to be the ninth largest in the world. Enacting forward-looking fiscal terms for gas and holding bid rounds to develop gas fields are actions other countries have taken to drive gas investments.

Nigeria’s plan to sell flared gas, launched in 2016, has been praised as a positive step but it is yet to gather steam.

“After a recent drop in gas flared, 2019 saw an increase and we are still one of the world’s top gas flaring countries, basically burning money every day,” said Ogba.

Justice Derefaka, programme manager, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), said the programmes is proceeding according to plans.

Ogbasaidtheprocess“needs tobecompletedandbiddersenabled and incentivised to commence their projects as soon as possibleasgasutilisationhasthe potential to earn more revenues for the country than crude oil production”.

The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas finally took final investment decision on its seventh train on December 27, 2019 after years of negotiation. Derefaka said the “milestone” reinforces the Federal Government’s “commitment to the acceleration of the gas revolution in line with the June 28, 2017 approved National Gas Policy which essentially builds on the ministerial mandate and policy goals & initiative”.

But analysts say the government should commence and complete, as soon as possible, the Ajaokuta-KadunaKano Gas Pipeline ensure that the DPR supports the FG’s policy on LPG penetration rather than work against same because of vested interests.

“Some of the DPR’s new policies are at cross purposes with the FG’s overall gas policy and strategy. Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies must be coordinated and work for the success of the overall policy of the FG,” Oni said.

The DPR recently begun sterner enforcement of its regulation requiring entrepreneurs applying for licences to open a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant to include land titles as part of their application.

It said it would soon send away operators inside petrol stations, raising the ire of operators.

Stock market sustains year-end bull...

CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 7 percent to close at 13.78.

In the last trading day of 2019, investors finally got a sign of relief on the US-China trade front as President Trump tweeted that the Phase 1 US-China trade deal would be signed on Jan 15 at the White House, where high-level representatives from China would be present.

Trump also mentioned in the tweet that he would be going to Beijing soon “where talks will begin on Phase Two”.

The signing of this phase-one deal will definitely lead to a rally among stocks, especially those with high exposure to China, industry experts said.

larger role in ramping indigenous oil production.

However, the new Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Amendment Act, while capable of increasing royalty rates in the short term, has the potential to stifle investments in projects that are being planned based on the old royalty rates, said Ogba.

So, a new bid round allows the government to have a basket of new projects to apply the terms.

The Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), a group of oil producers, has warned that the new rates will stifle investments and make Nigeria unattractive for new investments.

A pliant legislature provides Buhari the legal cover to pass new petroleum sector but analysts say it needs have professionals at the table.

Ayodele Oni, energy lawyer and partner at Bloomfield law firm, warned that government could engender trust by reducing interference in the sector.

“There is a need to reduce political interference in the energy sector and let the right people with the right professional qualifications and capacity hold the technical positions in the sector,” Oni said.

A bid round with more assets would increase interest from new entrants and existing players, increase government revenue from the bid

Continued from page 2

of N105. Dangote Sugar, FBNH followed in the same vein as they both reported 2.94 percent and 5.69 percent rally. Vitafoam and UACN also closed the market with a trade of N4.7 and N8.9, respectively, 6.82 percent and 3.49 percent increase from the previous market trade.

BusinessDay analysis of the global market performance for the first day trade of 2019 revealed that the All Country World Index (MSCI’s ACWI), broadest index of world shares, added 0.2 percent to December’s 3.3 percent jump and the 24 percent gained in 2019.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Europe’s main markets gained 0.4 percent to 0.8 percent, following Asia higher in their first trading session of the new decade.

In the same vein, the S&P 500 e-minis was up 0.4 percent, a suggestion that the Wall Street may have recorded similar gains.

Benchmarks closed in the green on Tuesday as President Trump confirmed that US-China trade deal would be signed on January 15.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 76.3 points or 0.3 percent to close at 28,538.44 and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 8,972.60, gaining 26.61 points or 0.3 percent. The fear-gauge @Businessdayng

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

35

Sports NFF promises better days for Nigerian football … says to focus on qualifiers, youth programs in 2020 Anthony Nlebem

P

resident of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Melvin Pinnick, has revealed the focus of the federation in the year 2020 will be on the various qualifying matches for major competitions as well as youth and grassroots development programs.

Pinnick made it known on Tuesday that the football – governing body will set much store by the qualifying campaigns of the Super Eagles for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, as well as the qualifiers of the Super Falcons for the 12th edition of the Women Africa Cup of Nations, and those of the U17 girls and U20 girls for their different FIFA World Cup finals.

“We are also determined to concentrate much effort and resources on youth development programmes, including but not limited to the NFF/Zenith Bank Future Eagles Programme. It is important that we continue to churn out quality talents and work hard to nurture them to

excellent products who will then fit into the age-grade National Teams and bring honour to the nation at various championships.

“As we have made known, teams representing Nigeria in international matches and competitions will be told in no uncertain terms that they are expected to win, not just participate. The era of simply

being there to participate is long gone.”

The draw for the qualifying campaign of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals will be conducted in Egypt in January 2020, with 10 groups of four teams each that will produce only the winner from each group advancing to a fierce, five home-and-away battles which will eventually produce

Africa’s flagbearers in Qatar.

Already, the Super Eagles are in command of their pool in the qualifying race for the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations finals in year 2021, with two wins out of two against Benin Republic and Lesotho last month. Second –placed Benin Republic are three points adrift, with the race set to resume in August 2020.

Nigeria took the bronze medals after finishing third among the 24 participating teams in the biggest –ever Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt this year summer.

Nine –time African champions, Super Falcons also have a qualifying round to negotiate before heading to the finals of the Women Africa Cup of Nations to defend the crown they taken consecutively between 2014 and 2018.

The U20 girls, Falconets and the U17 girls, Flamingos have qualifying matches for their different FIFA World Cup competitions already set.

The 2020 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup finals will be cohosted by Costa Rica and Panama, while India will host the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals.

FA Cup magic returns as Liverpool, Man City set to thrill football fans Anthony Nlebem

T

he year 2020 will kick off on an exciting note for football lovers as the third round of games in the prestigious English FA Cup; the oldest football competition in the world kicks off on Saturday,

January 4.

As is custom, top English Premier League teams will begin to participate in the competition from the third round after lower league teams played in the first and second round of games to secure their spots in the knockout competition.

The pick of the third round

www.businessday.ng

of games is the Merseyside derby on Sunday, 5 January, which will see league leaders Liverpool attempt to continue their dominance over Everton and stay in the race for a domestic double.

The Reds are favourites for a first league title in 29 years and may be forced to field fringe players for the FA Cup competition, although they will be conscious of a similar decision, which cost them a spot in the Carabao Cup Semi-final when they lost to Aston Villa 5-0.

Elsewhere, at the Etihad, Manchester City will be expected to land a spot in the fourth round as they host Port Vale on Saturday, 4 January.

Pep Guardiola’s team has been left to play catch up to Liverpool in the Premier League this term, but the Citizens will not relent in their aim to end the football season with major trophies to their name.

Struggling North London club, Arsenal will have their work cut out days later as they welcome Championship outfit Leeds United to the Emirates on Monday, 6

January. The Gunners ran out 1-0 winners the last time both clubs met in the competition in 2012, with club legend Thierry Henry snatching victory for his team with fifteen left to play on his debut for a second stint with the club. The Gunners will, however, relish the clash as the promising centre forward Eddie Nketiah may not feature for Leeds as he continues his season-long loan spell from Arsenal.

The clash between Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux Stadium on Saturday, 4 January, is a potential banana skin for the Red Devils who have struggled to pick maximum points from midtable teams in the Premier League this season, and the hosts will be up for the challenge from the kick-off to compound under-fire manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s woes.

Other highly interesting games to look forward to include Leicester City vs Wigan Athletic, Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest, Southampton vs Huddersfield Town, Brighton & Hove Albion vs Sheffield.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Esepo happy to win Best Boxer Prize at GOtv Boxing Night 20 … as Ehwariemi knocks out Baracamonte to win WBF Title Anthony Nlebem

T

aiwo “Esepo” Agbaje, the national featherweight champion, has expressed delight at winning the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy for the best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 20 held recently at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.

Agbaje claimed the cash prize of N1million attached to the trophy after knocking out Olusegun “Embargo” Moses in the fourth round of a featherweight challenge duel.

The win was the third time Agbaje has won the award. He previously won at GOtv Boxing Night 17 and 19.

Agbaje said he is thrilled to win the award again.

“I’m very happy to win the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy for the third time. When I enter the ring to fight, my main focus is just to knock out my opponent and secure a win. But to be considered as the best boxer by the journalists twice in a row and claiming the award three times overall still feels like a dream. I’m very excited and I dedicate this award to my ever-supportive fans,” Agbaje said.

He, however, said his attention has now shifted to becoming the West African Boxing Union (WABU) featherweight champion.

“I’m the national champion, so my aim now is to become the WABU featherweight champion. I’ll continue to work hard to ensure I remain at my peak in order to not just be in contention and win the title, but to ensure that I’m the best boxer in my weight division on the African continent,” he said.

Also, Nigeria’s Onoriode “Godzilla” Ehwariemi emerged the World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercon@Businessdayng

tinental heavyweight title champion after he defeated his Argentine opponent, Ariel “Chiquito” Baracamonte, at GOtv Boxing Night 20.

Ehwariemi secured the title after his combination of vicious blows knocked out Baracamonte in the first round of the 12-round fight, which held at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.

Eight other bouts were held at the event, including the World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental heavyweight title bout in which Nigeria’s Onoriode he knocked out his “Godzilla” Ehwariemi emerged as the champion after Argentine opponent, Ariel “Chiquito” Baracamonte, in the first round.

Rilwan “Real One” Oladosu of Nigeria retained his West African Boxing Union (WABU) title after he defeated Eric Quarm of Ghana in a lightweight title contest, Nigeria’s Rilwan “Baby Face” Babatunde defeated Sanitor Agbenyo of Ghana to retain his WABU welterweight title, Segun “Success” Olanrewaju knocked out reigning national champion, Adewale “Masevex” Masebinu, in a national light heavyweight challenge duel, and Sikiru “Omo Iya Eleja” Shogbesan defeated his more experienced opponent, Ridwan “Scorpion” Oyekola, via a split decision in a national super featherweight challenge duel.

Opeyemi “Sense” Adeyemi knocked out Ajibola “Jah” Adeniran, in the second round of their national super bantamweight challenge contest, Alaba “Eylbow” Omotola won Bolaji “Fight to Finish” Abdullahi in a national lightweight challenge contest, while Cynthia “Omo Bobby” Ogunsemilore won the all-female clash as she defeated Aminat “Smart” Yekini in a national super featherweight challenge duel.

Friday 03 January 2020

FT

BUSINESS DAY

37

FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

LAURA PITEL AND LEO LEWIS

L

ebanon said it had received an Interpol request for Carlos Ghosn’s arrest as the former Nissan chairman sought to quash allegations his family had played a role in his evasion from Tokyo to Beirut.

The Lyon-based international police body has issued a so-called “red notice” that asks the country’s law enforcement to locate and “provisionally arrest” someone, the Lebanese Justice ministry said on Thursday. Lebanon is under no obligation to comply with the request.

The move comes as authorities in Japan and Turkey stepped up their investigations into Mr Ghosn’s escape.

On Thursday Japanese prosecutors raided the house formerly occupied by the former carmaker executive in Tokyo, while Turkish police detained seven airport staff and pilots in Istanbul.

Mr Ghosn, who was facing trial in Japan for financial misconduct, landed in Beirut on Monday. He appears to have transited via Turkey after jumping bail and flying out of Osaka airport on a private jet.

Mr Ghosn on Thursday labelled allegations that his wife Carole and other members of his family had helped him as “false and deceitful.” ”It was I alone who organised my departure,” he said in a statement via French public relations firm Image 7.

The Turkish authorities are investigating whether the detainees, including four pilots, helped Mr Ghosn escape, according to Anadolu agency.

Turkish media also reported that the detentions were part of an investigation by the interior ministry into Mr Ghosn’s transit, given neither his entry nor exit were registered.

Interpol issues ‘red notice’ for Carlos Ghosn as Turkey detains 7 Former Nissan chair insists his family played no role in his escape from Japan

Carlos Ghosn, who was facing trial in Tokyo for financial misconduct, landed in Lebanon on Monday after jumping bail © Eric Piermont/AFP

Turkish media said investigators were focusing on the pilots and a brief period of just under an hour during which a private jet carrying Mr Ghosn from Japan landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport.

Two airport staff and the trade and operations manager of a cargo company were also detained by Turkish police, according to local media.

A Turkish aviation official confirmed

reports that Mr Ghosn had transited via Ataturk airport.

The airport was closed to commercial passengers last year and now only deals with cargo planes and private jets. Publicly available flight records show that a private jet travelling from Osaka’s Kansai airport landed in Istanbul on December 29 at 5.26am, having departed Japan at 11.10pm the previous night.

Mr Ghosn, who was arrested in late 2018, had been awaiting trial in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct — accusations he has consistently denied and which he claims were trumped-up as part of an attempt to remove him from his position as chairman of Nissan.

For the past seven months he had been living in a large house — a former embassy building — in the heart

of Tokyo under strict bail conditions and what was thought to be the watertight scrutiny of Japanese prosecutors.

Before the Tokyo District Court granted Mr Ghosn bail — for which he handed over almost $14m — prosecutors warned that a man of his wealth and global connections was a clear flight risk.

Mr Ghosn’s escape had been planned with the help of private security operatives since October, according to people familiar with the situation.

It has exposed loopholes: although three of his passports — Lebanese, Brazilian and French — remain under lock and key with his Japanese lawyers, he has carried another French passport with him in Tokyo since his release on bail, to fulfil Japanese requirements that foreigners carry formal identification. It is not unusual for executives who travel a lot to hold two passports from the same country.

Lebanon on Monday said there were no grounds to arrest Mr Ghosn, who entered his home country with his French passport and Lebanese ID. There is no extradition agreement between Lebanon and Japan. France’s junior economy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said on Thursday morning that if Mr Ghosn was to travel back to France he would not be extradited “because France never extradites its citizens”.

HSBC forced to close Hong Kong Wall Street hits fresh high as PBoC stimulus boosts global stocks branches as protests intensify Sentiment boosted after China’s central bank pumps $115bn into financial system Territory’s largest bank came under fire after account used to raise funds for demonstrators closed PRIMROSE RIORDAN

H

SBC was forced to close branches and suspend some ATMs in Hong Kong on Thursday after the closure of an account used to raise funds for demonstrators led to the territory’s biggest bank being targeted for the first time.

Ten of its branches or ATMs were shut after undercover police carried out violent arrests of protesters who had turned their ire on HSBC following accusations it helped the police close an account held by Spark Alliance fund, a crowdsourcing operation.

The attacks on HSBC extended to the iconic bronze lions outside the bank’s Queen’s Road Central headquarters, which still bear bullet marks from fighting during the second world war when the territory fell to Japan in 1941. Their eyes were smeared with red paint, their crevices stuffed with pamphlets and one was lit on fire on Wednesday night.

The bank, which generates the vast majority of its profits in Asia, has attempted to remain neutral during the protests that began last year because of fears Beijing is threatening the independence of the former British colony. HSBC’s

one intervention came in August when the bank took out full-page advertisements in local newspapers calling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

“It just goes to show how difficult it is to navigate the corporate world in Hong Kong at the moment because the protester wrath can turn on you,” said Fraser Howie, a former managing director at CLSA. Protesters have designated some companies as “yellow” or supportive of the movement, and others as “blue” or backing the police and authorities.

HSBC has said the decision to close the account in November was for compliance reasons and came before the police intervention.

Late last month, police arrested four people for money laundering and froze HK$70m ($9m) held by Spark Alliance, alleging some of the money had been misused to purchase personal insurance products.

Analysts said that being targeted is more of a public relations challenge for HSBC, rather than one that threatens profits — which are at greater risk from the trade war between the US and China. In October, the bank said in a quarterly update it had delivered a “resilient performance” in Hong Kong. www.businessday.ng

ALICE WOODHOUSE, MAMTA BADKAR AND MYLES MCCORMICK

G

lobal stocks rallied on the first trading day of the year with Wall Street notching fresh intraday highs after China’s central bank moved to improve economic growth by pumping $115bn into the country’s financial system.

The S&P 500 climbed as much as 0.6 per cent to a fresh high of 3,250.04 led by gains in technology stocks. A 1 per cent increase to 9,060.69 pushed the Nasdaq Composite to a record high as well. However, by late morning trade both benchmark indices had trimmed their gains to trade up 0.2 and 0.5 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, Treasuries rallied with the yield on the US 10-year down 5.4 basis points to 1.863 per cent. Yields move inversely to price.

And the dollar index, a gauge of the buck against a weighted basket of peers, climbed 0.4 per cent, eyeing its best day since early November.

Wall Street tracked gains in Asia and Europe.

Chinese stocks led the advance on New Year’s Day, with the CSI 300 of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed companies rising 1.4 per cent to hit their highest level since February 2018. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

index gained 1.3 per cent to reach its highest since July, just hours after anti-government protests ended in violence.

The upbeat sentiment came as the People’s Bank of China on Wednesday cut the reserve requirement ratio for commercial lenders across the board by 50 basis points, to release about Rmb800bn ($114.9bn) of fresh liquidity into the banking system ahead of the Chinese new year later in January.

Meanwhile, a survey showed continued growth in China’s manufacturing sector.

Analysts said the PBoC’s move, which had been expected, would reduce banks’ funding costs and free up credit for private companies and small businesses.

European markets rose, with the Stoxx 600 adding more than 1 per cent. The stock market gains were driven by rallies in London’s FTSE 100, Frankfurt’s Dax 40 and Paris’s Cac 40, which were up 1 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively. The German 10-year Bund’s yield, which moves inversely to the price, slid 4.3 bps to -0.233 per cent.

Meanwhile, the iShares MSCI emerging markets ETF rose 1.4 per cent.

Line chart of CSI 300 index over the past year showing Chinese stocks start 2020 on a charge @Businessdayng

Chinese stocks, which in 2019 enjoyed their best performance in five years, were buoyed after US President Donald Trump this week said that he will sign a “phase one” deal alongside Chinese officials in Washington on January 15. That could signal a truce in the longrunning trade conflict.

“I expect near-term positive momentum for Chinese equities as investors react positively to two catalysts this week: the RRR cuts and the signing of the phase one deal,” said David Chao, Asia-Pacific global market strategist at fund manager Invesco.

Data released on Thursday indicated continued momentum in China’s manufacturing sector. The Caixin-Markit China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index survey for December came in at 51.5, firmly above the 50-point level that indicates growth in the sector.

The reading was slightly down from 51.8 in November, the highest in three years.

“The [prospect of a] phase one trade deal between China and the US has sent out positive signals,” said Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group. “There is room for a recovery in business confidence, which should be able to help stabilise the economy.”

38

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

NATIONAL NEWS

Canada’s farmers struggle to reap gains from EU free trade deal

Two years on, effects of landmark pact offer lessons for the UK ahead of Brexit CHARLIE MITCHELL

F

or evidence that a landmark trade deal with the EU has not so far lived up to the hopes of Canada’s farmers, just ask True North Foods.

The beef processing plant in the Canadian prairies spent a year and C$100,000 to gain certification to export to Europe, lured by the prospect of a lucrative market.

But since then True North has sent just one beef shipment to the EU, which it completed in a single day in July.

“We’re not all that motivated to send anything to Europe at the moment,” said Calvin Vaags, the plant’s owner, who is overburdened by demand from North America.

“It’s a new market and it takes a lot of work.”

Implemented in 2017, the EU’s trade agreement with Canada — Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or Ceta — was the biggest in the bloc’s history and eliminated 98 per cent of bilateral tariffs. But two years on the deal has been less fruitful than many Canadians expected.

Overall EU exports to Canada rose 11 per cent in 2018 from a year earlier, while imports from Canada rose 7 per cent. Canadian agricul-

quota in 2018. Cattlemen filled 3.1 per cent of theirs in 2018 and have netted just C$16m ($12.2m) from Ceta in the first nine months of 2019, far below initial expectations of $600m annually. By contrast, European fine cheese exporters have filled their export quota to Canada.

“This negotiation took many years, and it was actually the last Conservative government that negotiated those market access elements,” a senior Canadian trade official said. “And yes, we don’t like exactly where we are at.”

The US is the primary destination for Canadian meat. Canada’s farmers find that the disparity between American and European standards makes it hard to sell meat profitably to both.

Unable to ignore the market on their doorstep, British farmers too might struggle to fill shelves both in Europe and further afield after Brexit under a Ceta-style agreement.

“If [EU] standards are significantly different [from those in] your largest market, the US”, that is a major drawback, said Carlo Dade, director of the Trade & Investment Centre at the Canada West Foundation. “You can understand why a farmer making a rational decision might look elsewhere.”

Alberta cattle farmer Bob Lowe: ‘You try to do something that’s going to cover a whole group of countries at once. Now that’s a bit on the difficult side’

tural exports to the EU, however, fell 15 per cent.

The imbalance stems partly from stringent European standards banning antibiotics and growth enhancement technology, Canadian meat industry bodies and farmers told the Financial Times. Farmers must have their methods endorsed by EU-certified veterinarians, who are in short supply in the Canadian west.

Bob Lowe, an Alberta cattleman who uses growth enhancement, said that despite the initial excitement, he had not yet seriously considered ditching the money-saving technology to sell EU-certified beef.

“If it doesn’t work in our scenario, then we won’t change,” he said.

Canada’s mixed experience could prove instructive for the UK, whose prime minister, Boris Johnson, has touted a “Canada-plus” arrangement for Britain’s trade relationship with the EU, based on Ceta.

While the Canada deal has been held up as an example of how a single country can negotiate trade terms with the EU, the reality has been more complex.

A vast new market was a selling point of the deal, but export quotas — the caps placed on the amount of different goods that can be shipped within a given period — tell a different story. Canadian pork farmers filled just 1.5 per cent of their export

While Canadian farmers have struggled to reap the benefits of Ceta, other industries, from pharmaceuticals to vehicles, have prospered. In the year to date, Canada has sent 368 per cent more aluminium to the EU than in the 12 months before Ceta.

Canadian consumers are also benefiting after double-digit duties disappeared on European food and clothing.

“I believe European businesses have benefited more from Ceta than Canadian businesses,” said Christian Sivière, a Canadian trade expert and consultant.

Trade in services between Canada and the EU is up 11.7 per cent compared with two years ago. But without single-market building blocks, from free movement to an integrated court system, there are still restrictions. A local licence is still required for the provision of services under Ceta, hindering seamless cross-border business.

However, that may not remain the case. The agreement’s mostfavoured nation clause means that if Europe offers another partner, such as the UK, greater financial services access, then it must offer the same to Canada. That could prolong EU-UK negotiations, which will focus on services, as member states balk at unintended concessions to Ottawa.

Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve have managed to avoid fresh instability in the repo market © FT montage; Bloomberg

Grim repo: how the Fed plans to return crucial market to normal US central bank averted a year-end cash crunch, but stepping back is now a challenge COLBY SMITH AND JOE RENNISON

W

hen a crucial US financing market went haywire in September, the Federal Reserve resolved to do everything in its power to avoid a repeat at the end of the year.

On the final day of 2019 — often a fraught time for the “repo” market, where cash is borrowed in exchange for high-quality collateral such as Treasuries — the central bank’s actions proved successful.

By injecting tens of billions of dollars into the financial system in the intervening months, in the form of daily and longer-term repo loans and outright purchases of Treasury bills, the Fed ensured there was enough cash swilling around to prevent market rates from spiking higher.

Now, investors and policymakers alike are eager for a longer-term fix: one that brings some normality back to funding markets without requiring heavy-handed interventions by the Fed. “I really think they hope to be in a place where they get the money markets operating in a way that they don’t have to frequently intervene and inject liquidity,” said Nathan Sheets, a former US Treasury official who is chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income, which manages $838bn in assets.

The question is how the Fed can remove that support. “The market doesn’t have clarity there and really wants it,” says Mark Cabana, an interest rate strategist at Bank of America.

A graphic with no description Crucial to any plan is the level of bank reserves, which is indicative of the available cash in the financial system that could be supplied to other bank investors in the repo market. It is widely thought that September’s cash crunch coincided with reserves dropping too low.

The Fed has since intervened by buying short-term Treasury bills. As the Fed buys securities, more cash enters the financial system, boosting banks’ reserves. Once reserves have increased to a level able to withstand short-term shocks to money markets, the thinking goes, the Fed will be able to step back from its current repo operations.

Last month Fed chairman Jay Powell said that once reserves reach a sufficient level, “it will be appropriate for overnight and term repo [operations] to gradually decline”. But that level remains unspecified. Banks currently hold $1.5tn in cash reserves at the Fed — up from $1.3tn in September when funding markets seized up.

Moreover, Mr Powell has opened the door to expanding beyond the Fed’s current bill-buying programme and purchasing other short-term securities to bolster banks’ reserves.

Investors have begun to consider what kind of impact such purchases could have on asset prices, given the parallels to the “quantitative easing” programme of the post-crisis recovery.

Buying Treasuries pushes their prices higher, lowering the yields

on offer to investors and potentially encouraging them to seek out riskier assets — such as stocks and corporate bonds — to boost returns. This effect is more pronounced if the Fed increases the maturity of the government debt it buys, say investors. “As you move out the curve, at some point it becomes operationally equivalent to QE,” said Mr Sheets of PGIM. Kathy Bostjancic, chief US financial economist at Oxford Economics, said the best option is for the Fed to remain involved in the market. She favours a standing repo facility: a permanent programme allowing institutions to exchange their Treasury holdings for cash at a set interest rate.

“If banks feel at any given time they could swap Treasuries for cash reserves, that should eliminate any hoarding of reserves,” she said.

The Fed discussed this option during its policy-setting meeting in June, raising concerns over how it would determine who can access the facility and at what rate of interest. Half a year later, it does not appear the central bank is any closer to making real progress. “I think the standing repo facility is something that’ll take some time to evaluate . . . and put into place,” said Mr Powell last month.

Bank executives have seized on the recent repo stress to pressure regulators to ease liquidity requirements put in place following the financial crisis. They argue that these rules have dissuaded banks from lending into short-term funding markets despite being flush with cash.

PMorgan to ban fintech apps from using customer passwords Bank will issue tokens for third parties to access data in effort to tighten security LAURA NOONAN

J

PMorgan Chase has vowed to ban fintech apps from using customer passwords to access their bank accounts, forcing tougher security standards some three years after chief executive Jamie Dimon first warned about the dangers of data-sharing.

Bill Wallace, Chase’s head of digital, told the Financial Times the lender was working towards getting customers’ passwords “out of the system” and instead issuing tokens that send third parties a narrow range of data in a secure form.

Aggregator Yodlee recently became the first company to agree to use tokens for 100 per cent of its interactions with Chase while Goldman Sachs-backed aggregator Plaid has signed up to start using tokens to access data on behalf of the many budgeting, personal finance and other apps which use Plaid to connect to customers.

Mr Dimon, who runs America’s biggest bank, warned about the risks of the current system in a shareholder letter in 2016.

“Many third parties sell or trade information in a way customers may not understand, and the third parties, quite often, are doing it for their own economic benefit — not for the customer’s,” he wrote. “Often this is being done on a daily basis for years after the customer signed up for the services, which they may no longer be using.”

Christina Tetreault, policy counsel for Consumer Reports, said the advocacy group’s research showed “few people” read the privacy statements they signed.

“Most of the digital financial products and services . . . are take-itor-leave-it transactions where consumers lack both meaningful notice about what is collected and where it goes,” she said.

Mr Wallace said agreements like the one with Yodlee limited “third parties to what they need to serve

the customer, lets the customer know exactly what information is being used . . . and removes the need to hand over their passwords”.

Chase has not set a target date for eradicating password-based access, but Mr Wallace said the bank was in the “first half of the soccer match”. He did not think the decision would result in some apps not being able to engage with Chase customers, and insisted it was not aimed at deterring customers from moving to new platforms.

“I think it’s the opposite of that,” he said. “It’s enabling people . . . to get their data where they need it.”

Chad Wiechers, Yodlee’s senior vice-president for data access, told the FT that the company, which collects data for 1,200 fintech clients with 30m customers across 51 countries, used data feeds for about 67 per cent of the data it collected. In the other cases where screen-scraping — the system whereby consumers hand over their passwords to allow access to their financial information — was employed, only “necessary” data was retrieved.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

39

FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Time for investors to rethink government bonds Persistent negative interest rates are undermining their safe haven role KATIE MARTIN

T

hey say no one rings a bell at the top of the market. Major shifts in investment patterns are typically easy to identify in hindsight but hard to see happening in real time.

The current profound shift in thinking about bonds — their direction and function in portfolios — may be an exception. For many fund managers and wealth advisers, the precise point for a rethink arrived on September 13, 2019, when the German tabloid Bild doctored an image of Mario Draghi — then the president of the European Central Bank — to represent him as a vampire. The front-page image of the fanged “Count Draghila” suggested the central bank was sucking the blood out of German savers’ bank accounts with its new package of easing measures.

The broader message was pretty typical of the abrasive German tabloid press. But this image of a sinister-looking Mr Draghi felt more personal, angry and urgent. If you ask a fund manager when they started seriously to worry that negative interest rates had really gone too far, this is often the answer.

Tremors were there before that, such as when Swiss bank UBS started to charge wealthy customers for deposits, or when Denmark’s Jyske Bank started paying customers to take out mortgages. But something about the vampiric Mr Draghi rather sticks in the throat, if you will pardon the pun.

Didier Saint-Georges, a managing director at French fund house Carmignac, described the imagery as “obscene”. But it has also proven to be one reason to think more carefully about what supposedly safe bonds really do for an investment portfolio when support from central banks sweeps prices so uncomfortably high.

Feasting on bonds made sense while central bankers were still slashing rates and effectively promising consistent monetary support, he said. Now, though, policymakers are calling more loudly for fiscal help and a public backlash is building.

“Historically, especially in the past 10 years, if you had a balanced portfolio of equities and bonds, bonds were a terrific part of your portfolio construction because, not only were they doing well, but they were also a hedge to equity risk,” he said.

Now, the assumption that interest rates can keep falling in pursuit of higher inflation, pulling up bond prices with them, is crumbling.

Relatively small pullbacks in prices can be painful and the capacity for further gains in bonds in the event of a wobble in stocks is seen as limited.

Mr Saint-Georges predicts that “2020 is not necessarily going to be a binary thing — crisis or not crisis”. But he believes it will bring a profound reshuffle in how people think about the right portfolio construction.

Good quality emerging-market debt, emerging-market currencies and gold could come more into favour as hedges for when stock markets turn sour, he said.

China steps up asset sales of Dajia Insurance Beijing aims to dissolve former Anbang group that put country’s financial system under SUN YU

D

ajia Insurance, known as Anbang before it was taken over by the Chinese government, has stepped up its sale of assets.

It is the latest effort by Beijing to dissolve the group following its credit-fuelled expansion, including the purchase of Waldorf Astoria in New York, that put the country’s financial system under stress and led to the arrest of its founder on fraud charges.

The conglomerate is looking to sell a 55 per cent stake in Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, CRCB, one of its affiliated companies, for Rmb26.2bn ($3.76bn), according to a filing on Beijing Financial Assets Exchange.

The group is also seeking to offload shares in 11 rural banks for a combined Rmb85m.

Analysts said the sales were a milestone in Anbang’s asset disposal, a microcosm of China’s deleveraging campaign, as CRCB had played an instrumental role in the group’s rise to prominence.

“The golden days for private financial holding firms, which grow by runaway debt accumulation, are gone,” said Zhuang Bo, an analyst at TS Lombard, a consultancy.

A local state official in Chengdu

said the city government was interested in taking over the lender through one of its investment vehicles.

“Government ownership will help CRCB operate in the public’s best interest,” said the official.

It remains a question whether Chengdu could win the deal as it comes with a heavy financial burden.

At the end of 2018, a consortium led by the city government dropped a bid for 35 per cent of CRCB for Rmb16.8bn.

Anbang first bought a 35 per cent stake in CRCB for Rmb5bn in 2011, two years after the lender, then owned by Chengdu, began operation.

The group later increased its holdings to more than half through various subsidiaries even though Beijing banned a single party from owning more than 20 per cent of a bank.

Over the next few years, CRCB grew by leaps and bounds as its total assets surged 273 per cent from 2011 to 2017, making it China’s largest rural commercial bank and Anbang’s most valuable business unit.

CRCB saw a change in fortune in 2018 when Wu Xiaohui, Anbang’s chairman, was arrested for fraud and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission took over the group. www.businessday.ng

While the UK government trumpeted the cross-border listings scheme as ‘groundbreaking’ at its launch, traders and investors say that it has always faced significant practical hurdles © EPA

China halts tie-up between Shanghai and London exchanges

Cross-border listing scheme’s suspension comes as UK government criticises handling of HK protests SUN YU, YUAN YANG AND PHILIP STAFFORD

C

hina has halted a flagship scheme for cross-border listings between the Shanghai and London stock exchanges, according to people familiar with the matter, amid UK government criticism of the crackdown on demonstrations in Hong Kong.

The London-Shanghai Stock Connect, which was first announced in 2015 and allows companies listed on one exchange to apply to sell shares on the other, was designed to deepen economic and financial ties between the UK and China.

An official at the Shanghai Stock Exchange, who asked not to be identified, said the Stock Connect had been postponed, with “no timetable” for restarting. An employee of Huatai Securities, the only Chinese company so far to use the scheme, added that the suspension was due to political reasons.

The suspension, first reported

by Reuters, comes after the UK government has on several occasions criticised the Hong Kong

government and police’s handling of demonstrations against Beijing’s influence in the territory. Beijing has accused the US and UK governments of interfering in its internal affairs.

Although former UK prime minister David Cameron and Chinese president Xi Jinping hailed the scheme as part of the beginning of a new “golden era” in Sino-British relations in 2015, it only officially started in June and no UK-listed company has used it to issue depositary receipts in Shanghai.

Shanghai-listed Huatai Securities, a partly state-owned brokerage, became the first Chinese group to use it in June when it raised $1.54bn selling depository receipts on the London Stock Exchange. As recently as September, David Schwimmer, the LSE’s chief executive, said there was a second company “in the pipeline” to join. “We hope and expect to see more coming soon,” he told an industry conference.

However, Chinese state-owned hydropower company SDIC Power, which in November announced it would use the scheme to list on the LSE, subsequently postponed

its plan, citing market conditions.

Another Chinese official said that no formal directive had been issued, and it was up to companies to decide if they wanted to use the scheme. China’s foreign ministry said it was unaware of the matter.

The UK Treasury declined to comment.

The LSE declined to comment.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“There’s a long list of Chinese state-owned companies looking to go on the connect, because it presents a way for them to raise dollar-denominated equity and use that to pay off dollar debts — exactly what Beijing’s policymakers want to happen,” said Jonas Short, head of the Beijing office of investment firm Everbright Sun Hung Kai. “But, sometimes political tensions can trump economic considerations.”

Last month, UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab urged China to respect its commitment to rule of law and autonomy for Hong Kong as enshrined in the handover treaty between London and Beijing, the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

German savers shrug off negative interest rate fears Cautious households risk pain as wealth stashed in cash and current accounts hits €1.8tn OLAF STORBECK AND MARTIN ARNOLD

N

egative interest rates have had little impact on the ultra-conservative savings behaviour of Germans, whose holdings in cash and current account deposits rose 8.5 per cent last year to a record €1.8tn.

Data from DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest lender, show that Germans on average put aside 11 per cent of their disposable income in 2019 — the same rate as in the previous year. The savings ratio of German households is about twice that of the EU as a whole, according to OECD data.

However, as most German savers shun the stock market and very few multiyear savings plans now pay any interest, they are increasingly relying on current accounts and cash to park their savings.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

This strategy is becoming ever more painful as a growing number of banks in Germany have started to roll over negative interest rates to retail clients.

Last year negative interest rates cost German savers €27bn in real terms after adjusting for inflation, according to a calculation by DZ Bank.

“The ongoing low-interest rates environment has caused a gigantic investment jam among private households in Germany,” said Michael Stappel, an economist at DZ Bank.

DZ Bank found that 27 per cent of Germans’ financial wealth in 2019 was held in current accounts, compared to 16 per cent a decade ago.

Only 7 per cent of German households’ financial wealth is invested directly into the stock market, while investment funds account for another 11 per cent, its survey shows.

Last year, German savers increased their cash holdings 10.5 per cent to @Businessdayng

€250bn while their current account deposits rose 8.1 per cent to €1.55tn, the survey found.

Negative interest rates were introduced in the eurozone in June 2014 to boost a flagging economy by nudging banks into lending more money, rather than leaving excess liquidity languishing at central banks.

German households have long been more conservative in how they handle their money than those in most other wealthy countries, saving a greater proportion of their income and keeping more in cash or on deposit at banks rather than investing in the stock market. “German savers are highly cautious,” said Mr Stappel.

Since the European Central Bank cut interest rates further into negative territory in September, a growing number of German banks have started to pass on the “penalty interest” charges to companies and to wealthier individuals.

40

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

ANALYSIS

The world’s indifference to Muslim woes

Donald Trump and Boris Johnson jeopardise what remains of the west’s human rights credibility EDWARD LUCE

I

magine if China had incarcerated upwards of a million Christians. Or India said it would take all refugees except Christian ones. The west would be in a state of frenzy. Since both China and India’s targets are Muslim, their cause is given short shrift. Both US president Donald Trump and UK prime minister Boris Johnson claim to champion oppressed Christians. By downplaying much larger-scale violations against Muslims, they jeopardise what remains of the west’s human rights credibility. Such passivity reinforces the global shift to religious nationalism that began in the Muslim world.

The coming year will test whether these double standards are here to stay. Because Muslims are resented more than other minorities, their plight tests whether liberal democracy means what it claims to mean. There are two reasons Muslims rank lower on the global totem pole than other groups. The first is politics. Opinion polls across the west — and beyond — show Muslims as the least trusted minority. They are thought to integrate less well and be more supportive of terrorism. People believe the Muslim

is another way of looking at it. The world’s three largest countries by population — China, India and the US — are to varying degrees now hostile to Muslims. In each case, Muslims are now at the forefront of civil rights struggles.

Their chances look most hopeless in China, which is closing mosques, banning Muslim garb and enforcing a switch from Uighur to Chinese. Some call this “cultural genocide”. Most exiled Uighurs will not protest by name for fear of jeopardising relatives back home. Their fate is a barometer of how far Chinese president Xi Jinping is prepared to return China to totalitarianism.

As the world’s largest democracy, India offers greater scope for Muslims to resist. But it is a losing battle. India’s prime minister Narendra Modi wants to turn the country into a Hindu nation that elevates citizens whose faith is homegrown — Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists — as the only true Indians. Those who turn to Mecca or Rome for spiritual guidance are viewed as second class. Mr Modi did include Christians among the refugees India would accept in the recent Citizenship Amendment Act. Their exclusion would have sparked a western outcry.

But he is uninterested in the fate of Myanmar’s Rohingyas, who

Protesters gather during demonstrations against India’s new citizenship law in Allahabad last month. Muslims are leading the struggle to stop India’s slide into illiberal democracy © AFP via Getty Images

reproductive rate is higher than other groups. Almost a quarter of the world’s population — roughly 1.8bn people — are Muslim.

The second is how badly most of the Muslim world treats its minorities. Whether it is Coptic Christians in Egypt, Shias in Saudi Arabia, or Sunnis in Iran, Muslim-majority countries are among the worst places in which to be a minority. Do not even think of being Jewish in an Arab country. Combine these two stereotypes and you have a world that is largely callous about the fate of Muslims where they are a minority. To put it crudely, popular opinion is telling them to taste their own medicine. The fact that Muslim countries, particularly in the Arab world, have barely raised a whisper against the plight of the Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang, or protested against India’s Hindu nationalist makeover, only underlines the loneliness of Muslim minorities. Even their own look the other way.

Both Mr Trump and Mr Johnson, among other western leaders, have done a great deal to stoke such caricatures. But there

are the world’s biggest victims of ethnic cleansing in recent years.

It is worth stressing that it is Muslims who are leading the struggle to stop India’s slide into illiberal democracy.

Mr Trump is no bigger a fan of pluralism than Mr Modi — or Mr Xi for that matter. But America’s guardrails are far more robust. In Mr Trump’s first year, US courts blocked him from imposing a ban on visas from Muslim countries.

He also scrapped plans to set up a database of US Muslims. But he launched his political career on the false claim that “Barack Hussein Obama” was a foreignborn Muslim. And he has reduced America’s intake of refugees to a historic low.

America no longer presents itself as a beacon. According to the Arab Barometer, there has been a rise in pro-secular sentiment — and a fall in support for Islamism — in the Muslim world over the past year. It would be a cruel irony if flickers of hope on the Arab street and beyond were to be extinguished by a world that appears to be heading in the opposite direction. www.businessday.ng

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, left, at a ceremony honouring Russian specialists who helped restore Cuba’s ‘Capitolio’ building © Dmitry Astakhov/TASS

New Year, New You! The boom in executive coaching Having a coach was once a sign of weakness in business. But now it is like an athlete using a trainer EMMA JACOBS

N

ew Year is a busy time for Catherine Devitt.

“People are thinking, ‘What next?’” she says. Grappling with such existential questions is a fundamental part of her working life, though she is not a religious minister. For the first week in January is when the chief executive of Meyler Campbell, a London-based executive coaching group, receives a surge in the number of inquiries from people requesting a coach.

After all, she says, the festive period is not just a chance to make merry but a rare opportunity to reflect on work, away from the distractions of meetings, bulging inboxes and the constant hum of chatter in open-plan offices.

The role of an executive coach is to help a client achieve professional and personal ambitions by honing their performance. Unlike a mentor, the relationship should be one of equals and involve regular meetings, either in person or by Skype.

Until only a few years ago, it might have been seen by many in the business world as a sign of weakness to be assisted by a coach — an indication that an executive had many challenges that needed to be overcome. But these days, it often indicates a serious corporate player, someone who is valued by their employer — much in the way an elite athlete is honed and sharpened by a personal trainer.

Michelle Walder, chief executive of TXG, which organises coaches for multinationals, says the perception of executive coaching has changed dramatically. “Coaching used to be remedial, then it was kudos,” she says. “Now [it’s] a pragmatic tool.”

The new year’s boost swells a business which has transformed over the last two decades from a quirky sideshow into a multibillion-dollar industry, one that draws on the culture of self-help and selfimprovement that pervades the corporate world.

According to the International Coach Federation, which started in 1990 to establish standards for the industry, the US spent $2.35bn

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

on coaching in 2017 (the last year it compiled figures). In western Europe the figure was $898m.

Its membership has grown from 22,135 members in 2013 to 33,739 at the end of 2018.

While some individuals find their own coaches, large employers hire coaches to develop top leadership teams and embed coaching into learning and development programmes. The boom in coaches has produced the growth of middlemen like TXG and Praesta that match coaches with blue-chip companies.

Most business schools too, offer coaching.

Carsten Schermuly, professor of business psychology at SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences, says: “In the beginning if someone said you need coaching [you would] think, ‘Oh God, I’m going to be fired.’”

Yet some chief executives credit coaches for a role in their success.

Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, co-wrote a book (Trillion Dollar Coach) about the late Bill Campbell, who advised Silicon Valley leaders, for giving him insights on his performance because “the one thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them”.

Brad Feld, a US entrepreneur and venture capitalist at the Foundry Group, describes the role of a coach to developing an athlete as “similar to the role of a coach in the development of a business leader or entrepreneur”. He hails his own coach, Jerry Colonna, sometimes dubbed the “CEO whisperer” as “simply the best in the world”.

Coaching is a broad church — executive and business coaches exist alongside happiness coaches and “wantologists” (who, unsurprisingly, help clients identify wants). It is not regulated and has no barriers to entry. In theory, a sacked executive could start touting for coaching work the next day. So how did business become addicted to coaching, which is rooted in sports, therapy and positive psychology and has no standardised measure for return on investment?

Business coaching’s birth is partly a product of the slow demise of the company man, in which an employee could rely on one @Businessdayng

employer to see them through his working life (for in the postwar period, it was typically men). Today, the advice of a coach might be sought to help workers navigate several complex organisations. As longevity and rising pension ages increase working lives, so workers will also change careers multiple times, perhaps seeking the advice of a coach to help do so.

At the same time, an almost religious mysticism has evolved about work, so that its function is no longer just to provide money but purpose and passion. A small selfhelp publishing industry caters to this demand, for example, Shawn Achor’s Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, or Angela Duckworth’s The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

Erik De Haan, director of the Ashridge Centre for Coaching, says the industry has filled some of the gap created by these changes in society.

“Work in the past would be more predictable. In private life, there was support from religion, in particular, to help people come to terms with the harshness of their lot. That has fallen away.”

Existential questions about the meaning of work set in earlier than in previous generations, he says.

“Lots of people choose a profession and have questions about that in their 20s.” To meet that need, inevitably, an industry of quarter-life crisis coaches has sprung up to deal with young professionals’ worries about their careers.

The surge in executive coaching is also a result of the change in organisations, which have shifted from command-and-control management to flatter hierarchies, demanding greater entrepreneurialism, innovation and autonomy from its workers.

Tony Aponte who was coached ahead of becoming an audit partner at EY, a professional services firm, says that in large organisations it can be “hard to decipher how to achieve your goals”.

Coaches promise to help develop increasingly-important soft skills such as leadership, teamwork and networking.

Friday 03 January 2020

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

41

Women in Business

BUSINESS DAY Friday 03 January 2020 www.businessday.ng

By Kemi Ajumobi

Folashade Ambrose-Medebem

Eleanor Nwadinobi

Communication, Public Affairs & Sustainable Development Director- Lafarge Africa plc

President-elect, Medical Women International Association (MWIA)

F

olashade is the Communication, Public Affairs & Sustainable Development Director at Lafarge Africa PLC. Lafarge Africa Plc is a member of the LafargeHolcim Group is the biggest building and concrete solutions company in the world. It is a publicly quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and serves Nigeria and South Africa with a wide range of building and construction solutions designed to meet housing and construction needs from small projects like individual home buildings to major construction and infrastructure projects.

Folashade is a consummate multi-faceted and proven business leader with an extensive background in finance, strategy, and project/ change management, business development, thought leadership, sustainable development and management consulting across a wide industry spectrum in the UK, Nigeria and Europe.

Exceptionally diverse business management skills, very apt at overcoming challenges, coupled with effective organisational skills, excellent stakeholder relationship management, an entrepreneurial mind-set to ‘make things happen’, marketing know-how and flair for creativity, innovation and a passion for people development.

Medebem has more than 23+ years senior management experience delivering world class strategic business transformation solutions with a variety of global FSTE 100 multinationals including LafargeHolcim Plc., Diageo Plc., PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ford Motor Company, Zurich Financial Services, Learning & Skills Council UK, Nigeria Ministry of Finance and Department for International Development (DFID) UK. Throughout her career, she has successfully led and executed robust business transformation strategies pivotal in achieving sustainable growth. She has an excellent record of bottom-line achievements in the deployment of large-scale business solutions and in leading cross functional global teams at board level.

A proven track record in setting clear direction and priorities, addressing nonperformance challenges/gaps with sensitivity, pace and a sense of urgency.

She holds a Bachelor of (Hons) Accounting degree from London Guildhall, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the

Open University, UK and is a certified Financial Management professional with the chartered Insurance Institute (Cii), UK amongst a plethora of other professional certifications.

Medebem was appointed as Director of Communication, Public Affairs & Sustainable Development, Lafarge Africa Plc. in October 2016. Prior to this role, she worked as Integration Business Transformation Consultant for LafargeHolcim (LH) (2015) focusing on enabling a speedy integration (following worldwide merger of LH) in order to deliver the country business ambition as one holistic organization in Nigeria. She also successfully led the culture transformation phase one focused on delivering a safe and high-performance culture.

In addition to her corporate profile, Folashade serves on the NESG 24 Executive Committee, is a member of the UN SDG Nigeria – Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) - Cluster 8 Co-Lead to the Federal Government of Nigeria and is the leading catalyst driving Women in Manufacturing Africa (WimAfrica) initiative, all of which Lafarge Africa Plc. is a member.

Having spent the majority of her life and career in the UK, a huge challenge Fola faced was stereotyping however, she quickly learned the best way to respond to criticism is to simply perform and deliver.

Folashade enables every woman to become her best self and “wiin” in her career.

WIIN means Women Inspiring Impact Network, a platform Folashade designed to provide insightful guidance and mentorship to young and discerning women to enable them to achieve higher levels of success.

“I am very passionate about helping women succeed in the workplace through discovering and applying their best self. My primary mission is to drive opportunities for impact by encouraging women to speak up in the workplace and by sharing how to implement career winning strategies. This is why I have established Women’s inspiring impact network (WiiN) focusing on enabling winning impact for all interactively.” She said.

Medebem has been married for 25 years to her husband Iyke Ambrose-Medebem and have three beautiful girls. She is a huge classical music fan and in addition to giving back to career women, she is also passionate about mentoring and coaching teenagers to be their best.

M

WIA is an organisation representing women doctors in six continents with different cultural backgrounds, medical traditions and challenges.

MWIA provides its members with the opportunity to exchange ideas medically and personally, and to exchange interests and experiences with colleagues from other nations. They have found that though they have different languages, customs, ideologies, and racial backgrounds, working together with mutual respect, they can contribute to humanity. They are motivated by the same hope, that all the world’s people will become physically and mentally healthier and consequently better world citizens.

Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi was recently named the President-elect of Medical Women International Association (MWIA) in the United States.

Eleanor Nwadinobi, is an independent gender, health, women’s rights, and women, peace, and security consultant. She has worked on a wide range of issues including child trafficking, girls education, peace building, and violence prevention with the African Union, ECOWAS, UNICEF, the World Bank and others. Eleanor oversaw the women, peace and security networks that conducted advocacy on the Nigerian National Action plan, including special initiatives around widows and persons with disabilities in conflict-prone environments.

The network actively advocated for the release of the 200 Chibok girls abducted by insurgents. More recently, Eleanor facilitated support for passage of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition act in Nigeria. Eleanor has presented numerous papers on women’s rights and security, most recently “Achieving Economic Empowerment and the Women Peace and Security Agenda” at the 2018 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women conference. Eleanor is president of Widows Development Organisation.

Eleanor created the Widow’s organisation being inspired by the need to address the violations and dehumanisation that widows are subjected to. “The founders were four women, two who had suffered harmful traditional practices as widows

and two of us who felt sufficiently burdened by what we had seen widows go through. We wanted people to know that widowhood is not a taboo.” She said.

In every profession there are challenges but Eleanor recalls her major challenging period during her time as an anaesthetic registrar in the UK. “The practice of anaesthesia was such that one covered theatre duties, emergency duties, such as resuscitating patients in the accident and emergency unit, and providing services for women in labour, such as epidural pain relief. It was also my duty as the Anaesthetic registrar to provide emergency services on the air ambulance.I worked with hospitals under the South East Kent Health Authority, including Dover, Folkestone and Ashford.”

Another major challenge was when she returned to Nigeria to run a private practice, The Tabitha Infirmary in Enugu, with her colleague. “The practice closed down due to increasing demands on me to provide services as international health and gender expert. All in all, it was a very exciting time but also challenging to cover the vast range of duties that the job required” Nwadinobi stated.

Eleanor completed her medical school programme and university degree, her house jobs and National Youth Service Corps programme at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital. Since she was married, she was allowed to stay in the same location as her husband in Enugu. She continued at the teaching hospital as a senior house officer. It was however, her dream to pursue her specialist training in the UK. she had a very dedicated mentor, Prof Ezi Ashi, who introduced her to his peers in the UK and like they say, the rest is history.

Nwadinobi believes in the resilient attitude of Nigerians. According to her, “Nigerians are creative, with an entrepreneurial spirit but it doesn’t mean that because we are resilient, we should continue to be knocked. There is a limit to which you knock something that it will react; but despite everything, we are still suffering and smiling.” Said Eleanor.

Nigeria boasts of several resources but according to her, the decision to make it a better place collectively rests in our hands.

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Advert Hotline: 08033225506. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Patrick Atuanya. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.