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s a Nigerian, being the subject of a medical or obstetric emergency or among the few survivors in a mass casualty event such as fatal accidents could spell doom, in a country starved of the supply of a life-saving commodity: blood. When an accident occurs,

lives are lost at the spot of the incidence. On the way to the hospital, more people die. But most pathetic of all, another set of casualties, who could have won the wrestle against death with the support of a solid blood base, still die on arrival at the hospital from blood deficit. “The transfusion that we have in the country is based on family replacement donation,” said

Sulaimon Akanmu, a professor and the head of department of Haematology and Transfusion Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). “But we run into trouble with that in cases of emergency. Where will you get the family of someone travelling from Kano to Lagos and is involved in an accident? That is a big issue that is costing us a lot of lives.”

0.00 10.93

NGUS JUN 26 2019 360.94

The university requires about 12,000 units of blood yearly and collects a little over 1,000 units of blood every month. Of that 1,000, less than 10 percent comes from voluntary donors, corroborating existing data that over 75 percent of Nigeria’s blood donation comes from commercial channels as blood Continues on page 34

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-0.20 13.74

14.47

NGUS SEP 18 2019 361.39

Nigeria’s blood shortage means survival bleak during emergencies A TEMITAYO AYETOTO

FGN BONDS

TREASURY BILLS

10 Y 0.17

20 Y 0.09

14.65

14.38

NGUS MAR 25 2020 362.29

Download e-copy of Women’s Hub from www.businessday.ng

CBN, Bankers’ Committee set up N200bn fund for exports ... propose 10-year tenure at single-digits HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers’ Committee on Thursday set up a N200 billion intervenContinues on page 34

Inside CULINARY DELIGHTS L-R: Ernest Ebi, chairman, board of directors, Fidelity Bank plc/chairman of occasion; Osaretin Demuren, chairman, board of directors, GTBank plc/president, governing council, Bank Directors’ Association of Nigeria (BDAN); Tunde Lemo, former deputy governor, operations, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Olusola Oworu, financial secretary, BDAN, at the bank directors’ conference 2019, with the theme ‘Cybersecurity in Banks: The Role of the Board’ in Lagos, yesterday. Pic by Olawale Amoo

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Lagos sweats as extreme heatwave adds to power outage woes P. 35

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Friday 05 April 2019

Slow pace of regulation rains on Lekoil’s $1bn investments plan for Ogo fields …underscores need for deep reforms in Nigeria’s oil sector ISAAC ANYAOGU

ekoil plc, an Africa-focused oil and gas exploration and production company with interests in Nigeria and Namibia, says navigating through the maze of regulatory approvals in Nigeria represents its biggest challenge in taking the Ogo fields, offshore Lagos, to production. Lekan Akinyemi, the company’s CEO, told BusinessDay that the slow pace of getting approvals due to over-centralisation of regulatory approvals in Abuja has been its biggest challenge stalling a plan to invest $1bn in developing the field. “Slow pace of regulatory approvals has been the single biggest challenge that I faced since I returned to Nigeria to start Lekoil. The single biggest challenge we have faced as a company has not been technical, it has not been money, it has been regulatory approvals,” Akinyemi said. Wood Mackenzie, a leading energy research organisation, said the Ogo field which lies in the KetaTogo-Benin Basin discovered in 2013, yielded a P50 reserves estimate of 770 mmboe, well in excess of the pre-drill 200 mmboe estimate. The field was the third largest oil discovery in the world in 2013 and the largest discovery in Nigeria within the past 10 years. The slow pace of regulatory approval is at the heart of the company’s recent legal case against the government. Lekoil applied for Ministerial Consent to acquire 23 percent par-

ticipating interest in OPL 310 block, in Ogo fields, from Afren Nigeria Holdings in 2016, but the consent was neither given nor denied. In May 2017, Yemi Osinbajo, then acting president, issued an executive order which among other things provided that any application not approved or rejected by a government agency or official within the agency’s specified timeline shall be assumed to have been approved. Relying on this provision, the company proceeded to complete the acquisition. However, a Federal High Court in Lagos last week ruled that the acquisition still requires consent from the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Based on the judgment, OPL 310 interest is still held by the seller, Afren Investments Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited. Lekoil still holds a 17.14 percent participating interest in the block. “We have the Ogo consent which has been pending for three years and this is an asset we have spent over $100 million of our money and the other entity we bought has spent $100 million, so between us there is over $200 million spent but still there is no regulatory approval so we cannot move forward,” Akinyemi said. Renewal of oil leases and organising licensing rounds which are almost routine processes in other countries have suffered undue complications in Nigeria. Analysts say this speaks to a need for deep reforms in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

L-R: Natalie Kolbe, non-executive director, Sigma Pensions; Attahiru Maccido, director, Buraq Capital Limited; Mark Collier, chairman, Sigma Pensions; Abubakar Maina Sadiq, head, advisory, Buraq Capital; Dave Uduanu, chief executive officer, Sigma Pensions, and Patience Oniha, director-general, Debt Management Office (DMO), at a business roundtable in Abuja, yesterday.

Land prices in Eko Atlantic 40% ahead close neighbourhoods ... price per square metre compares with Manhattan Island CHUKA UROKO

he relative lull in the Nigerian property market caused by the economic downturn in the country is apparently not having any significant effect on land price in the upcoming Eko Atlantic City in Lagos where values are way ahead of what obtains in the city’s close neighbourhoods. Land price in Eko Atlantic is the highest of the various prime island locations in Lagos including Ikoyi,

Victoria Island and Lekki. It is followed closely by Banana Island, the most exclusive residential location in Lagos. Price per square metre of land in Eko Atlantic, estimated at $1,720 (about N523,000), is about 40 percent higher than the value of land in the neighbouring Victoria Island. That price compares favourably with land values in Manhattan City in the United States. Manhattan real estate costs an average of $1,773 per square foot, which is also ahead of San Francisco, the next most expensive area on per-

square-foot basis, according to NeighborhoodX, a real estate price tracking agent. Land price in San Francisco averages $902 per square foot. Eko Atlantic is an emerging city in Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital. It is the single most ambitious and comprehensive mixed-use development plan to come on stream in the West African sub-region in recent times. Modelled after the Skyscraper District of Manhattan Island in New York City, Eko Atlantic is expected to be home to no fewer

Continues on page 34

Ambode pushes for commissioning of airport road, OTI before May 29 Respite underway as Hitech mobilises JOSHUA BASSEY

utgoing governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, is taking steps alongside contractors handling some ongoing key infrastructure projects in the state to wrap up work and prepare them for commissioning before his exit date of May 29, BusinessDay can reveal. Top on the list of the major projects are the Lagos airport road, Oshodi Transport Interchange (OTI) and Ayinke House (Maternity Hospital), Ikeja, which costs run into several billions of naira. An aide to the governor told BusinessDay that the three projects, which he described as “very dear to Ambode’s heart”, are listed top among the governor’s exit gifts to Lagosians in keeping with to his promise to complete and hand them over for public use. “Construction works on these projects are at advanced stages of completion. I think it’s certain they would be handed over before this government hands over,” said the aide who does not want his name in print. “The governor went on inspection of them recently and was given the assurance by the contractors that they would be ready possibly this April,” the aide said. While Ambode inherited the Ayinke House, fondly called ‘Lagos babies’ factory’, from his predecessors in office, the ongoing expansion of the Lagos airport road and Oshodi Transport Interchange are

his administration’s initiatives aimed at changing the ‘ugly face’ of public transportation in Nigeria’s economic capital. BusinessDay learnt that the Ayinke House situated within the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has been retooled and fitted with modern medical equipment to support expectant mothers and aid safe delivery. During a visit to the maternity hospital some months back, Ambode had directed the contractor handling the project to redouble efforts so as to deliver faster. The health facility had been out of use for more than eight years and it would excite expectant mothers around Ikeja and environs to have it swing back to life. The transport terminal, which construction is being completed, is aimed at transforming chaotic Oshodi environs into a world-class central business district with provision for leisure and travel activities in a secure and hygienic environment that is comparable with similar facilities in advanced economies. The OTI has been designed to consolidate hitherto 13 loading parks at Oshodi into three multi-storey modern transport terminals with ticketing stand, skywalks linking the three terminals, waiting area, restrooms, driver lounge, and parking area for high capacity buses being introduced as part of the state’s Bus Reform Initiative (BRI), according to Ade Akinsanya, Lagos State commissioner for works and infrastructure.

Continues on page 34

for work on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway

… trailer park gets new delivery date as work progresses on shoreline … but analysts foresee worse congestion within port environment CHUKA UROKO & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

or motorists on the ApapaOshodi Expressway, port users, business owners, and Apapa residents, there’s a piece of good news as Hitech, one of Nigeria’s frontline construction companies, is getting set to start reconstruction work on the dilapidated expressway which has remained a nightmare for so long. Hitech, which has started demarcating the expressway with concrete breakers from the Oshodi end of the 32-kilometre road, has been engaged by the Dangote Group for the reconstruction work. Aliko Dangote, president/CEO, Dangote Group, disclosed last year that the group would be engaging another construction company to join AG-Dangote to do the work. Dangote Group is undertaking the reconstruction of the expressway which stretches from Apapa through Oshodi and Oworonshoki to Ojota and will be spending N72 billion on the project which, according to the CEO, would be completed in 24 months. “Yes, Hitech is about to start work on the expressway. I would say work has started already, but we are just waiting for a stakeholders meeting that will be holding soon. Hitech is the

construction company Dangote has engaged to do the work,” Adedamola Kuti, federal controller of works, South West Zone, confirmed to BusinessDay by phone on Wednesday. The expressway, which has been in deplorable condition, made worse by indiscriminate parking of trucks, is a dual-carriageway constructed between 1975 and 1978. It has in each direction three and two lanes in the main carriageway and the service lane, respectively. It connects the Eastern part of the country and LagosIbadan Expressway at Oworonshoki. It is one of the two major routes to Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, Nigeria’s busiest seaports. Expectation is that when the expressway is reconstructed, it will ease gridlock and congestion in and around the ports in particular and Apapa in general. But analysts have their reservations. They reason that all the efforts to fix Apapa and Tin-Can Port access roads in order to address the problem of congestion within the port environment may see the problem disappear for about four or five years, only to return worse than the current state. Apapa problem, they explain, will only truly go away if the government provides inter-modal transportation for cargo evacuation and rebuild

critical transport/road infrastructure. Theanalystsestimatethathundreds of thousands of vehicles transit around Apapa, Oshodi and Ebute-Metta at the peak time, saying that if the nation continues to prosper and the volume of cargo traffic increases, Nigeria would discover that it is more difficult to manage prosperity than poverty. Dangote Group is undertaking the reconstruction of the expressway with money it would have paid as tax to the government. The reconstruction work will be done with concrete. The Dangote CEO assured that the reconstruction work would be done speedily and completed on schedule. “We know how important and strategic this road is and so, we are not going to disappoint Nigerians. This is going to be the first road project that will be finished ahead of scheduled date,” he said. Meanwhile, after the initial hitches posed by the delay in importing and clearing of materials at the ports, work has started on the shoreline protection of the trailer park being constructed along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to provide parking bay for the trucks currently parked on the roads and bridges.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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NEWS Ethiopian Airline crash: Preliminary report shows crew lost control of aircraft despite following all procedures ... AIB to release final reports on Delta Airlines incident, five others on April 25 IFEOMA OKEKE

thiopian Airlines has acknowledge the preliminary report of the accident of ET 302/10 March, 2019, revealing that crew followed all procedures, but were unable to control the aircraft. The airline also disclosed that the aircraft’s airworthiness was certified; the crew were capable of flying and followed Boeing’s procedures, and take off appeared normal. In a statement issued by the airline Thursday, “The preliminary report clearly showed that the Ethiopian Airlines Pilots who were commanding Flight ET 302/10 March have followed the Boeing recommended and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) approved emergency procedures to handle the most difficult emergency situation created on the airplane. “Despite their hard work and full compliance with the emergency procedures, it was very unfortunate that they could not recover the airplane from the persis-

tence of nose diving. “As the investigation continues with more detailed analysis, as usual we will continue with our full cooperation with the investigation team.” Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airline said he was proud of airline’s pilots’ compliance to follow the emergency procedures and high level of professional performances in such extremely difficult situations. “We are also very proud of our Global standard Pilot Training Centre and the Ethiopian Aviation Academy which is one of the largest and most modern in the world equipped with state of the art and latest training technologies,” GebreMariam said. This is also as Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) said it would release six final reports of accidents and incidents on April 25, 2019, including the serious incident involving Delta Airlines Airbus A330-223 on February 14, 2018, which one of its engines caught fire causing the aircraft to return after take off. Akin Olateru, commissioner of the AIB, made this known Thursday in an ad-

dress at the AIB 2019 Stakeholders’ Forum with the theme to Review Accident Investigation Bureau Regulations 2016 and its implications on stakeholders. According to Olateru, apart from the Delta report, other final reports to be released are the Cessna 208B Caravan with registration 5NBMJ belonging to late former governor Danbaba Suntai which happened October 25, 2012, Diamond DA40 aircraft belonging to International Aviation College (IAC) Ilorin with registration 5N-BRD on November 25, 2013. Other incidents include the 2018 Dana Runway incident in Port Harcourt Bristow helicopter Sikorsky S76C++ with registration 5N-BQJ on 3rd February 2016, and the Gulfstream 2000 belonging to NestOil with registration number 5N-SRI in February 2018. Olateru said he had sent the report of the Delta incident to the aircraft manufacturer, Airbus for the 60 day review before the release of the report and it returned from the manufacturers with ‘No Comment’ meaning a great deal of confidence is reposed in that final report.

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FSDH sees FG raise VAT revenue to N3.47trn in 2023 HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

he Federal Government may raise its Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue from N1.09 trillion in 2018 to N3.47 trillion in 2023, if consumption grows and the ratio of VAT revenue to GDP increases to 2.5 percent from 2019 through 2023, according to FSDH Research. Consequently, the research arm of the FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, on Wednesday suggested measure to increase VAT revenue, which include to leverage existing associations/ecosystems in the informal sector to encourage and aid in VAT collection and remittance to government; continue to work with the deferent operators in the financial industry to increase financial inclusion and reduce informal sector of the economy, and enforcement of appropriate sanctions on any agent who defaults in VAT collections and remittances. Other measures are to organise sensitisation programmes for collections agents to educate them on their roles in VAT collections and remittances; deploy technology to capture

VAT payers and give them incentives at the end of a fiscal year, deploy technology to capture the collection agents and to give them collection incentives at the end of the fiscal year; the efforts to increase VAT compliance and block leakages may increase VAT revenue by N8.25 trillion between 2019 and 2023 without increasing the VAT tax rate from 5 percent. In addition, FSDH Research recommends the sale of government assets that are not currently profitable and are draining government’s meagre resources. This will generate income for the government in the short-term and save income for the government in the medium to long term. The firm linked the low VAT revenue to the large informal sector in Nigeria whose VAT is difficult to capture. The National Bureau of Statistics puts the size of the informal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 41.43 percent as of 2015, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts it at 65 percent in 2017. The non-remittance of VAT collected by certain collection agents and weak consumption in Nigeria are also linked to low VAT revenue.

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Rahman Lawal tasks Oyo governor-elect RAZAQ AYINLA

he Baale of Molunkan Village via Lalupon in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State, Rahman Adegboyega Lawal, has congratulated and tasked Oyo State governor-elect, Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, on his victory to deliver on his campaign promises and also deliver on good governance. Baale Lawal also tasked the governor-elect to be led by the fear of God and beware of sycophants around him, and to rely on God in the day-to-day administration of the state. The Baale of Molunkan further stated that the governor-elect should also pay attention to the plights of pensioners in the state and employ graduates, and also reinstate civil servants illegally sacked and ensure prompt payment of salaries. He also enjoined all Nigerians leaders and the led to abide by democratic principles, such as respect for human life, human rights and the rule of law, and also urged all Nigerians to eschew all forms of indiscipline and corruption and be resolute rather than lose hope in our struggle for a better future and nation.

Paga dominates mobile money services with 72m transactions worth $4.6bn in 10 years … eyes Mexico, Ethiopia for expansion, leveraging multi-currency, multilingual platform JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

aga, Nigeria’s mobile payment platform, is mulling expansion to other markets after successfully dominating the most populous African nation with 72 million transactions worth about $4.6 billion since being founded in 2009, and opening its doors for commercial operations in 2012. The company, founded to solve Nigeria’s ‘use of cash’ and inability to make payments efficiently, is arguably one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the world with over 20,000 agents across Nigeria, and has been named one of the top 15 Fintech companies to watch out for in 2019. Speaking at a press conference to celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary on Wednesday, Tayo Oviosu, founder/CEO of Paga, said the company had grown enough to expand into other markets both in Africa and other parts of the world, saying, “Right now, we are focused on Mexico and Ethiopia as our next growth markets, and will be leveraging our multi-currency and multi-lingual platform to capture those markets.”

Jay Alaraba, co-founder/ director, business development, Paga, said, “already, there is a global view that Paga has, with the fact that we support a whole lot of international companies in Nigeria. With our international remittances, we are already everywhere in the world.” Nigeria, with over 200 million people and 90 percent of transactions done in cash, is Paga’s first market. “Though the company started in April 2009, we took our services to market in August 2012. It took us 25 months to get our license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, and then another 7 months to close our Series A financing. “A lot has happened since then: The trailblazing team of 4 has grown to a team 460 and counting. Paga has served over 12 million customers and processed over 72 million transactions worth $4.6 billion. The company has also raised $34.7 million since its inception, attracting investors such as Tim Draper, one of the earliest internet investors, Flourish, a venture of the Omidyar Group, and the Global Innovation Fund, amongst others,” Oviosu said. Speaking on a possible threat of the new Payment

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Service Banking (PSB) licenses for telecommunications operators and other companies interested to fintech companies like Paga, Oviosu said, “I think it is a fallacy to think that because MTN has over 60million mobile subscribers, then they will immediately have 60million customers for payment services. “If we look at India, where the PSB license originated, Airtel applied, and so did other telcos, but the largest player by far is PayTM, a third party independent player that existed with a mobile money license before PSB. Agent network gets you access to customer base, it’s not the same network that sells airtime.” Since its commercial launch in August 2012, Paga has developed into a sophisticated omni-channel payments platform offering users a safe and convenient way to send and receive money, and pay their bills. Customers are able to use Paga on any mobile phone by dialing *242# on any network, Paga’s mobile app or website, or through any Paga agent. The innovative wallet allows users to link multiple bank cards and also fund the wallet directly in order to access funds from one worldclass secure location.

He charged him to tackle the lingering issues of hunger, poverty, hopelessness, unemployment, decay infrastructure, high cost of goods and services and abandoned projects, and further boost security in the state and ensure the smooth take-over in the NURTW issue. He also charged him on the need to open his doors for suggestions, ideas and advice on how to take Oyo State to a greater heights, as better times lie ahead of us, also he should not see himself as governor of a political party, but of Oyo State. According to the Baale, it is my desire, hope, and prayer that, if the principle of good governance, transparency, accountability, consensus building, etc, being the hallmarks of governance, it would lead to accelerated development and prosperity for the people of Oyo State and Nigeria at large. He implored the governor-elect to remember that the masses who voted him to power did not do that so as to inflict them with pains, therefore he should not betray trust and the enormous goodwill upon which he was voted for, hence, the need for understanding, mutual trust and perseverance for successful tenure.

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Nigeria, Ghana, Tunisia hold business investment forum in Tunis OBIINA EMELIKE

n international business forum aimed at bringing together entrepreneurs and business en from Nigeria, Tunisia, and other West African countries, is to hold between June 8 to 14, 2019, in Tunis, the Tunisian capital. The business forum, a collaborative effort between the Tunisian Embassy in Abuja, CMD and Tours, and Grey and White Nigeria Limited, has the theme: Harnessing Business and Trade Opportunities between Nigeria and Tunisia. The forum will focus on business relationship between Tunisia and West African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic, and others. In a press release issued on the business forum, signed by Cecile Doumbe, the organisers said the reason for the forum was based on the need for a genuine wealth building through networking to achieve robust economic growth and development and also attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the country. “Nigeria and Tunisia Business Investment Forum

is anchored on this principle, to harness businesses and trade opportunities together,” she said. She noted Nigeria, with a population of about 191.8 million and growing GDP of about $581.6 billion, was a business hub, with a robust private sector. The Nigeria government is promoting the increased production in the non-oil sector of the economy by creating a level playing field for private sector-led activity. Essentially, the pivots around which the framework for economic growth and development will revolve include the following: agriculture and agro-business, solid minerals development, other manufacturing, including information and communications technology (ICT), crude oil, natural gas, tourism and services. “Tunisia has a population of 11.5 million, a GDP of $41.6 billion, and an average production of 190,000 tons, was the world’s second largest olive oil producer in 2017 behind Spain, and growing global demand could double that amount. Tunisia also has substantial phosphate deposits and was the world’s fifth largest producer until 2011.”

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Stand first Patricia Scotland

nala Ngulu was married to a man of 47 who had two other wives. She was 13-years-old. At a time when she should have been in school, learning about the world, she was forced to grapple with adult responsibilities like marriage and childbearing. At 15, Enala gave birth to her first child and subsequently had five more daughters. This is the story of around 375 million women alive today who were married or partnered before their 18th birthday. What makes Enala unique is she did not let it hinder her aspirations. She enrolled herself in primary school at 29 with six children. She continued her studies and received a Malawi school certificate of education in 2012. She now works for the Foundation for Community Support Services as a Field Officer in Karonga. But her education and career were not the only dreams and desires which burned deep inside - she was also steadfastly determined to keep all of her six daughters in school without being forced into marriage. Enala achieved this goal and went on to be an advocate of the Commonwealth’s work in Malawi to prevent and eliminate the practice of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM). CEFM is now banned in Malawi.

It is the resilience of women like Enala which inspires me to advocate on their behalf at the highest levels to ensure their stories are not forgotten and are at the centre-stage of decision-making. At a young age, I realised women’s equality is a key source of a country’s economic growth but that social perceptions and discriminatory laws continue to impede their full participation. This ugly reality inspired me to pursue a legal career and left me determined to help empower women and girls in every way possible. In 1997 I entered the House of Lords as Baroness Scotland of Asthaland. Throughout my Ministerial career in the Foreign Office, Lord Chancellor’s Department, Home Office and as the first woman Attorney-General of England, Wales and Northern Ireland I continued my efforts towards gender equality and the empowerment of women. At the Foreign Office between 1999 and 2001 we created the Forced Marriage Unit, the International Child Abduction Unit and the Human Rights Panel to help support young people around the world. In 2003 I then chaired the InterMinisterial Group on Domestic Violence. Through its work we developed a multi-agency approach to deal with the pernicious nature of this crime. We introduced the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act and working together with other government departments, local authorities and charities ultimately reduced domestic violence by 64 per cent while the cost of domestic violence dropped by £7.1 billion a year. Up until this point the issue was wrongly assumed by many to belong in the private sphere rather than to be tackled by Government. Three years ago, in 2016, when I became the first woman to whom 53 Heads of Government entrusted the responsibilities of Commonwealth Secretary-

General, I reaffirmed my commitment to women’s equality - an urgent priority for our member countries, as endorsed in the Commonwealth Charter. A 2016 World Bank Report found that 41 of the 46 Commonwealth countries studied had at least one law impeding women’s economic opportunities. Systematised legal inequalities such as these, based on gender, are barriers to full participation in society by women, and multiple detrimental effects ensue. Without official or formal identification, a person can struggle to access financial services such as opening a bank account or obtaining a loan; social benefits including cash transfers; healthcare; education; political and legal rights such as voting, owning property or receiving an inheritance; and prevention of early and child marriage. In order to remove these impediments, the Commonwealth in collaboration with UN Women is developing a global strategy to eradicate discriminatory laws; it is called “Levelling the Law”. Within this framework, we help member countries enact, amend and reform laws to protect the rights of women and girls in the Commonwealth and beyond. We cannot afford to lose the skill, energy and passion of each woman and girl. We must build on such social capital if increased wealth and improved health are to be assured for the long-term. Every woman and girl deserves an equal chance to shape her future, whether she lives in a small country such as Nauru with only 10,000 people, or in the most populous, India, with 1.3 billion people. It is encouraging to see powerful advocacy by the Commonwealth and other partners resulting in these laws being reviewed and bearing fruit in policies which are more just and more equitable. To advance women’s empowerment, we are working closely with our member

‘

At a young age, I realised women’s equality is a key source of a country’s economic growth but that social perceptions and discriminatory laws continue to impede their full participation

countries on a range of programmes and initiatives which include: • Legal tools to overcome barriers to women’s rights to land and inheritance • Tools to measure the economic cost of violence against women and girls such as loss of income • The triennial meeting of Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers to help ensure women are seen as equal partners in the pursuit of economic development • A Commonwealth checklist for gender inclusive elections to encourage greater inclusion and participation of women in the electoral process • A flagship annual publication ‘Gender Equality in the Commonwealth’ which reports country-by-country on the progress made • The biennial Commonwealth Women’s Forum which offers recommendations to our national leaders for addressing gender inequality throughout our 53-member family of nations. Women’s empowerment is not a women’s issue; it is everyone’s issue. Investing in women means a future which is more inclusive, more fair, more prosperous and more secure. This means millions of promises, with each and every one of us committing to eliminating child marriages, to no more girls out of school, to removing barriers for women to own a business, and to tackling violence against women and girls. However, I am worried that if we do not implement gender responsive policies in time, it may slow our progress towards achieving the Agenda 2030 which is integral to women’s full economic participation.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Scotland is Commonwealth Secretary-General

Now that PMB has won again

Olukunle A. Iyanda The price of greatness is responsibility.—Winston Churchill ull disclosure before you read this article, I am not a politician neither do I belong to any political party; therefore, this piece is not a support for any political class, its objective is to spur our political elites into accountabilities. As expected, after the presidential election many people will be in the analysis and name calling mode, however, we should not allow our analysis to spring up hatred that will further divide us. Our concern is to get Nigeria to work again. Having said this, let me congratulate President Mohammed Buhari (PMB) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the process is not perfect, but you helped to deepen Nigeria democracy; therefore, you both deserve commendation and congratulations. Congratulations to Nigerians. Though the result may be disappointing for some and celebratory for others, what is important is not who won but how to make Nigeria win, therefore, all must join hands together so Nigeria can win. Age is a powerful thing, no wonder the holy scripture says “teach us to number of days that we may apply our heart to wisdom, by the time PMB finishes his second term, he will be fourscore years. This is nothing but divine grace because not too many are privileged to achieve such an advanced age especially in a country where the average lifespan

is 53years. I believe that after reaching that age, nothing much is left to be achieved in life therefore, the need to begin to appraise one’s legacy and the opportunity to rewrite the wrong. PMB now need to seriously and passionately focus on seizing the grace that Mother Nature has bestowed on him; build an enduring legacy and a nation where everyone has equal opportunity to live their full potential. No matter how well-intentioned, I do not think history can be kind if one leave a legacy where 50% (91million Nigerians) of the population are in extreme poverty, where 23.1% per cent of the people are unemployed, where 43.3% of the population are either underemployed or employed, where 55,4% percent of the young people between the ages of 15-35years are either unemployed or underemployed, where some states in Northern Nigeria have almost 90% of people living in poverty and over 80% in illiteracy. I rode in an Uber three days ago and had a conversation with the young man who chauffeured me. I was shocked to find that he studied Mechanical Engineering at the University, and because he could not get a job, he took to cab driving. Such an individual will find it difficult to trust in the Nigeria system. Mr President should leave a legacy of diversity and inclusion: where the life of every Nigerian counts; where every Nigerian is given the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the growth of this country; where genuine entrepreneurs have access to the required capital; where every Nigerian has access to quality education, healthcare and security; where every Nigerian can aspire to become anything in the land without the fear of being marginalized either because of religion, ethnicity, gender or political views. PMB now has the opportunity to significantly change some perceptions especially accusations relating to nepotism and ethnicity bias. The war on corruption must not just be sustained but must be pursued with vigour, and without mercy; however,

it must be seen to be done without fear or favour. Corruption cannot be won if it is selective; the battle against corruption will be lost if the president cannot begin the campaign with the closest and the dearest to him. The president must remember that corruption can only be fought successfully by building a strong economy because as long as there is a high incidence of poverty, high unemployment the war against corruption will be a mirage. The president needs to build a solid economic management team because currently, the cabinet seems to be the weakest in the current time. In selecting the team, no attention should be paid to colours, gender, race, ethnic background or religious affiliation or political leanings; what the president should be concerned with is a Nigeria that works. We need a sound cabinet to manage the affairs of this country, after all, no one can grow taller than his or her head. We need a highly cerebral, committed economic management team - a team that understands the dynamics of our economics. There are bright minds that would have been brought to the fore in other sane society, minds like Dr Andrew Nevin, Bismarck Rewane, Kingsley Moghalu, Dr Sarah Alade, Prof Pat Utomi, Dr Alex Otti and a host of others in the academia and many more that are not within the shores of the country. The president should go beyond ethnics, religious and gender divide to make things work for Nigeria. The president needs people with cultural intelligence, people who put the nation above their interests. As PMB and his team celebrate their victory at the 2019 election, they should remember the average Nigerian. The President should not adopt a winner takes it all approach. He should extend olive branches to the opposition or oppositions. He should be wary of excluding them because Nigeria deserves the victory and not APC or PDP or other parties. The celebration will be meaningless if it encourages #exclusion; those who are celebrating should remember that Nigerians are becoming

more politically intelligent. Therefore, the era of some people seeing themselves as political invincible are gone. Godfatherism is going extinct as well. Keeping people in poverty and giving them handouts just like some shameless and conscience dead and morally bankrupt politicians is losing relevance. Apart from the fact that it will not cut it anymore, bribing your way into office with 2kg of rice, garri and some hilarious combinations will not build any legacy. History won’t be kind to those who chose to continue to undermine the potential of the people. PMB sir, a great opportunity has been presented to you to become a father of modern Nigeria. To do this should not be difficult, leave no stone unturned to lift people out of poverty, build a strong economy, practice diversity and inclusion, live by example, eradicate extravagance in governance (no public official should be using taxpayers money to fly business class or charted aircraft) embrace selfless service, maintain zero tolerance for corruption, shun nepotism and work for the good of all. Speak words that edify and motivate the people, let your words flow with kindness and your heart ruled by empathy. If you do this at this age and time, history shall forever be kind to you and yours, and if you chose not to, the history would only see you as one of those men or women who pass the face of the earth and lost the opportunity to make a difference. In conclusion, to drive this nation forward, we need courageous and fearless leaders. PMB needs to exhibit courage if Nigeria is to achieve a much higher level of success. In your hands lies that power to shape the future of this country, to take a bold stand that will transform the capacity and capability of the Nigerians, I do hope that the President will for the sake of Nigerians take a bold stand, act decisively, and engage with Nigerians in an extraordinary way. Dr Iyanda is a strategy and innovation advisor

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Growth, strategy and romance: Managing business and love

EIZU UWAOMA

on’t we all know these names; Bill and Melinda Gates, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Munroe, Fela and Tara Durotoye, Joke Silva and Olu Jacobs, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Barrack and Michelle Obama, Bonnie and Clyde, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, Julius Caesar and Cleoptra, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Where am I driving at? These people are unusual; they built romance and empires together. Discussing strategy and romance, merging love and business is most time a weird mix. The truth is, in business being deeply loved by someone while growing your enterprise gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage. But being in the wrong tangle will kill both and it will affect your business. Extrinsic strategies are taught in business schools but intrinsic battles fought in the chambers of our heart can ruin the most solid strategy. In line with this, I’d like to look at how romantic relationships affect business. I used to say that in the next ten years, the two things that can change a man’s destiny is the people he meets and the books he reads. And then a client added the third one, saying, “the person you end up with as a spouse”. As entrepreneurs and professionals with the right one, we find balance, we act and think better. But with the wrong person, romance becomes reduced to an expensive hobby that drains your energy and it can affect the quality of your outputs. As a business consultant with clients

who are a couple, I sometimes sit in for dinners and then subliminally I have my thoughts and my heart play John Gottman (the psychologist, John Gottman can listen to a couple for 5 minutes and determine, with 91% accuracy, whether they can be successful together and whether they’ll be divorced in the next 5 years). He looks out for interests in vision, and how they carry out and manage criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling during conversations. This isn’t something entrepreneurs manage well and something they have to be open to or even have to give up. Love and romance in its naked form is giving up a part of you or giving someone the power to hurt you in return for just a feeling, a dream, a wish and a hope that he/she won’t. Its effect is timeless for most people have got their heads cut off. This is typically what happens when we become the wrong person or we give the wrong people the right power to hurt us all in the name of love. Business, finance and love can be parallel and most people have learnt to keep it that way and instead use one to get and manage the other. That’s a typical trajectory, even shown consistently in history including most of the stories in our holy books. I had a good laugh when pastor at a church I attended told all the young men in love and wanted to get married to come out for “anointing for marriage”, as the men rushed out, he asked all those without a job to go back. While one facilitates the other, being in parallel is a skill only a few can have or manage. A few weeks into my marriage, I and my wife had an argument. After a few back and forth, I knew I had to apologize. So while at it, I held her hands, looking deeply into her eyes, I said to her “there’s really nothing we both can’t achieve if we give ourselves peace and support”. That state of mind is priceless. And it’s great if a lot more people can have that. It’s still a guiding ideology. I still feel that romance and business shouldn’t be parallel and

that your partner should be that which makes success and greatness easier for both of you to achieve, together. For me, chemistry was never enough. In a relationship, one person should not be significantly smarter, wealthier or more influential. That is not called relationship, it is called parasitism. Power couples are powerful. Every generation needs them to inspire better families and to create a set of cumulative advantages for the coming generation. But they don’t come ready made or serve a la carte. You have to intentionally choose your mix or even create it. There are steps to building strategies for building a business alongside a balanced romance life. You’ve got to have core values agreeable and biding by both parties. There has to be a structure and routine for it too. Beyond emotions, you’ve got to be at a certain level too. I’d tell you what, if you need a certain type or category of person in your life, then you yourself have to be at some certain point too to start with, perhaps fit or meet certain criteria also. Just like for an organization to grow there has to be culture fit and strategic fit, same is applicable here. Just like in an enterprise system, the brand has to define its core values and let that inspire its hires. Culture fit then is defined as the collection of the various individual’s attitudes, values and beliefs being in line with the core values and culture of an organization. That convergence has to be there. While strategic fit is defined as the degree to which an organization is matching its internal resources and capabilities with the opportunities in the external environment. That has to be there too. It’s easier when there are tangible assets that may have been developed even before the union or at least while in it. This why progress and personal development is key. You want a queen, then you must have developed a level of kingship first. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Munroe, Jay-z and Beyonce, Bonnie and Clyde,

‘

A “power couple is a term that’s often used to describe those extremely rare couples who transcended beyond a normal, safe, comfortable relationship, to a partnership that brings out the highest potential in each individual and their successes

Obama and Michelle,Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, Julius Caesar and Cleoptra, Bill and Hillary Clinton are just my case study out of the not so many people who have succeeded in being brands of both success and love as their lifestyle explains how a complete life requires you having someone that can complement your drive without a decline. To them, a great marriage and career can be merged, and also as a great marriage and relationship isn’t far from having a smart, skilled and successful partner who loves and respect you so much without being too mushy to the point of complete dependency, perhaps its best to have someone that can complement your speed, success. Let’s explore a few love stories for business starting with Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), American motion-picture actor, who became the most famous Hollywood actress and international sex symbol of the 20th century. Born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles, the daughter of an emotionally unstable mother, she spent a troubled childhood in foster homes and orphanages and at the age of 16 entered into an illfated marriage. In 1944, while working in a defense plant, she was noticed by a United States Army photographer who induced her to pose for posters for the troops. Instantly popular as a model, Monroe soon found other assignments and registered with a modelling agency, which sent her to charm school and put her on a number of magazine covers and then she became unstoppable ever after while rising to being the biggest Hollywood star of all time and it even got better when she fell in love with Joe DiMaggio who was perhaps one of the biggest baseball player of that time.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Uwaoma is a start-up, corporate restructuring and strategy consultant. He writes via contacteizu@gmail.com

Little citizen Success as a point of contact

Ademola Crownson Adegoke

Amidst the seemingly unending run of heart-rending events of the previous days which included the violent and blood-spilling dimension the recent elections took in some states, with Rivers state occupying the drivers’ seat in that regard, the internecine killings in Southern Kaduna and the fiendish gun attack on innocent worshipers inside a mosque in faraway Christchurch, new Zealand, Nigerian netizens were, some days ago, treated to a video clip in which a little girl, later to be known as Success, was protesting her being sent away from school; on ground of failure of her parents to pay her fees. In the video, baby Success, with matadorial boldness and the fury of a bruised viper, was not equivocal in condemning the decision of the authorities of her school to deny her the right to acquire knowledge. Speaking in impeccable pidgin English typical of inhabitants of the Niger Delta region of the country and with an eloquence enough to make disciples

of Demosthenes, the legendary Greek orator go green with envy, Success could not just understand why she should be sent out of school when, at the end of the day, she would still pay the fee for which she was sent out. Such was the desperation of Success to remain in school that she was ready to be flogged to no end by her school minders instead of sending her out. The original source of the video clip might have meant it to serve as the much-needed interlude or comic relief in our daily seafaring in the boundless ocean of existential challenges. If this was the original aim of the video clip, needless to say that that goal was largely achieved as yours sincerely cannot deny the fact that it succeeded in eliciting some initial sense of amusement in him and I’m sure I may not be alone in this feeling. At first view, Success came off as a baby actress, perhaps being prodded by an adult to act a script. After all, there are so many of such kid thespians these days partnering with adults and churning out a motley of online skits. But the video has done more than evoking amusement. Much more than the initial sense of amusement that encounter with baby success might have evoked in many of us, it also succeeded in once again, drawing our attention to the rueful deprivations and denial of opportunities that many of our compatriots battle with every day. It has unwittingly brought to the fore, the near total failure of government in this clime to provide citizens with basic needs that elsewhere come as a matter of course.

A follow-up video to Success’ outburst has shown that the school from which Success was sent out is a government owned school in no other state than the oil-rich Delta, supposedly one of the richest states in the country. To say the least, the school could easily have passed for one in a war-ravaged zone. According to one of the teachers in the school, pupils are usually forced to move to one corner of the classroom to escape being drenched whenever it rains as the entire classroom becomes a veritable swimming pool with water dripping from all conceivable angles. On account of poor illumination in the classroom, an albino who needs a brighter environment to see well has been permanently condemned to a better illuminated part of the class for him to be able to write while in the class. He is not alone in that plight as he has, in that same school, two other siblings who are albinos like him. In her own account, the Head Teacher of the school said vital documents in the staff room had in the past been destroyed by water dripping from leaking roof. (Let’s hope some big ogas at the top in the ministry will not be cross with the woman’s ‘effrontery’.)Yet this is the same school from which fuming Success was sent out for defaulting in fees payment. Shouldn’t we now understand why little Success was livid with (holy) anger? Pray, tell me, where do fees being paid go to and what are they used for? That a school in that serious state of decrepitude could exist in Delta state

and Nigeria of 2019, speaks volumes about the long, long way we still need to go in the journey towards attainment of minimum threshold of human development. It is a sad commentary on how low the Nigerian state and its component units are on issues of citizen’s welfare. With schools like this under their watch, it will be interesting to know what the job description of those in charge of education at different governmental levels looks like. What really are they suprintending over? Baby success is only a point of contact for millions like her in the land. They are burning with the desire to tap into the opportunities that exist in this age and time for self-actualization and dream realization. They are resolute on their journey to the promised land and they are ready to confront headlong anyone or institution intending to slow them down. All they ask for is the removal of the hurdles placed on their way by the very government that should help them realize their goal. Elsewhere the nation-state is the caring mother hen under which citizens are protected and nurtured to goal attainment. In our own case, the state is a demented mother hen, laying precious eggs, but with its own beak, breaking and sucking life out of them. (Apologies to Professor Adebayo Williams.)This is what Baby Success, with countless unheard voices in her shoes, is protesting against. Adegoke is a Lagos based communications consultant and public affairs analyst.

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

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Mobile money can be a win-win for banks and telcos in Nigeria

obile money as used in some African c ountrie s is as simple as it sounds, yet, capable of very sophisticated applications. In Ghana for instance, it has applications from purchasing treasury bills, Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), health insurance, to even the basic money transfers and digital service payments. Mobile money in Ghana has gone beyond just achieving financial inclusion. It has also immensely redefined consumerism and flow of money within the $47 billion economy. At the end of 2017, mobile money transactions hit $32 billion, according to data by the Bank of Ghana, a figure that represents 68 percent of the country’s GDP. Users not only get to deposit and withdraw via mobile money, but there is also provision for interest accruals, between 1.5 per cent and 7 per cent as approved by the Ghanaian Central Bank, subject to whatever each telecommunications company can negotiate with each partner bank. In the 2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money by GSMA, it was noted that the 2015 regulatory guidelines

from the Bank of Ghana have allowed customers to accrue interest on mobile money deposits, resulting in exponential growth in total deposits in that market. Mobile money is however not functioning in isolation of the formal financial sector, that is, commercial banks. At least in Ghana, mobile money is linked to banks, as different telecommunication companies work out modalities with partner banks. For the mobile money agents, they also have to visit a bank in order to get ‘eCash’ for their mobile money accounts. Without visiting the bank, they cannot get it, ensuring the banks benefit from the system. The mobile money system is bridging the gap between the banked and the under-banked population while providing convenience in transactions. Registered mobile money accounts in Ghana are now 23.9 million out of an estimated 28 million population. At the end of 2017 the Bank of Ghana in its report, stated there were 11.1 million active mobile money accounts. The number of registered mobile money accounts, at 23.9 million is almost double the number of bank accounts, which was 12.5 million in 2017. The active registered agents of the three (3) mobile money operators (MMOs) in 2017 stood at

151,745 and showed a growth rate of 41.27 percent over the previous year’s position of 107,415. Despite this, banks do not appear to consider the mobile money system as a threat. The financial service providers have buy-ins structured into the operation of the mobile money system, which invariably makes it beneficial to them. Ghana’s central bank in a 2017 report even alluded that “The growth in mobile money emanated from productive collaboration between mobile money operators and banks.” The volume of mobile money transactions soared from 266.2 million in 2015, to 550.2 million in 2016, and the growth continued in 2017 with a 78.4 percent increase to 981.5 million transactions. Similar growth has been occurring in value of mobile money transactions, from GH¢ 35.4 billion in 2015, growing to GH¢78.5 billion in 2016, and then a 98.51 percent growth to GH¢ 155.8 ($32 billion) in 2017. While cheques continued to be the major non-cash retail payment instrument in terms of values of transactions, value of cheques cleared as a percentage of total value of non-cash retail payments dropped from 60.21 per cent in 2016 to 49.33

percent while value of mobile money grew from 31.02 per cent in 2016 to 42.81 per cent in 2017. The volume of mobile money transactions represented 97.50 per cent of total volume of noncash retail payments. However, in terms of value of transactions undertaken in 2017, cheques continued to maintain its lead with GH¢179.6billion ($36 billion), while mobile money followed closely with GH¢155.8 billion ($32 billion). Despite the best efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country largely remains a cash based society. With mobile money however, the CBN’s cashless policy will be bolstered, while also creating an opportunity for commercial banks to collaborate with the telecommunication companies in electronically circulating unprecedented cash volumes. Even though the telecommunication networks will be facilitating transfer of cash value among users (and other payment destinations), the banks will still be the custodians of this cash. They will be able to shore up their cash holdings, lend more, and expand their operations. With mobile money, Nigerians will be incentivised to spend more money, and the banks just like Telcos, can cash in on this opportunity.

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IBEDC says no staff docked in Ilesa

he management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has denied the alleged report that three of the company’s employees were arraigned at the Osogbo Magistrate Court 3 for setting ablaze IBEDC office in Ilesha. Angela Olarenwaju, head, corporate communications and strategy of IBEDC, in a statement, Wednesday, claimed that those arraigned in the court were not staff of the electricity company. According to IBEDC, the alleged report did not reflect what transpired in the court or what was on the charge sheet. Olarenwaju listed the trio that were arraigned to include 39-year Bidemi Adebisi, a lottery agent; Philip Sunday, 19, and Adeyemi Sunday, 17, both spare parts apprentices who claimed they were arrested from their shops. The accused were said to have pleaded not guilty to the six-count charge and were remanded in Ile-Ife prison as they could not meet up with their bail conditions. IBEDC further clarified that there was no part of the six-count charge linking the arraigned persons to the employment of IBEDC. “As a matter of policy, IBEDC does not employ or engage underage persons to work and in this case, two of the arraigned persons are underage,” Olarenwaju said.

3 die in cult clashes in Calabar

he police in Cross River have confirmed the killing of three persons after clashes between cult members in Calabar South local government area of the state. The police public relations officer in the state, Irene Ugbo, confirmed this to newsmen, saying the clashes occurred between suspected members of Klans and Black Axe cult groups. ‘‘Three persons have been killed and four people have been arrested; we are interrogating them,” Ugbo said while speaking with newsmen. Residents interviewed said that the clashes happened between Tuesday and Wednesday. John Achibong, a resident of Ambo Street, claimed that he witnessed the killing of one of the deceased at about 11:10 p.m. on Tuesday. He said the deceased was killed with a machete and left to die in a pool of his blood in the middle of the road.

Despite efforts to save lives, pedestrians abandoned government constructed footbridge in Sabo Yaba, Lagos.

Insecurity: Zamfara to recruit 1,700 locals to strengthen CJTF

amfara State government is to recruit 1,700 locals in addition to 8,500 members of Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) earlier engaged, to address security challenges in the state. The state commissioner for local government and chieftaincy, Bello Dankande, said at a security meeting with traditional rulers, Fulani leaders and local government council chairmen, on Wednesday. The meeting was organised by the ministry to discuss with all stakeholders on how to address the challenges. According to Dankande, the move has been necessitated by the increasing security challenges. Zamfara is one of the

Living below poverty line:

21-year Mohammed desires enrollment in school

brahim Mohammed is a 21-year tiger nuts seller who hawks at Ojuelegba under bridge in Lagos State. He stays at Sabo, Yaba. The Katsina indigene was introduced to the business by his uncle. Every day, Mohammed rolls the nuts in his wheel barrow around Ojuelegba, expecting passers-by and people engaged in other petty businesses around the area, to buy. He says he uses the proceeds from his petty business to take care of his family who lives in the northern part of the country. According to him, his desire is to increase the volume of tiger nuts he sells daily, make enough money to cater to his family and enroll in school for formal education. Mohammed wants assistance to enable him actualise the desire to grow the business and go back to school.

Pic by David Apara

northern states seriously affected by the activities of killer militants. “We are going to recruit 100 local charmers in addition to the 500 CJTF recruited in each of the 17 emirates. We are also going to recruit other personnel from each of the emirates to monitor filling stations and ensure that fuel does not get to the bandits in the forests.” He said the government had earlier met with Fulani leaders in the state and encouraged them to discuss with their members involved in banditry and criminal activities. “If they have any grievances we can sit down with them and resolve them,” he said, stressing there was the need for the Fulani leaders to call their people to order, as majority of them were involved in criminals activities crippling the state. “Enough is enough because as a government, we will not allow such criminals to be killing our people on a daily basis. Both the federal and the state governments are making efforts to end criminal activities in the state,” he said. Emir of Gusau, Ibrahim Bello who spoke on behalf of the state council of

chiefs, said the meeting as a good step towards addressing security problems in the state. Bello described the involvement of traditional rulers in the meeting as `a morale booster’’ to them. “As custodians of our people’s culture, we have vital a role to play in addressing so many problems in society. We are partnering at the emirate level with various stakeholders.” The Commissioner of Police (CP), Celestine Okoye, called for dialogue among aggrieved groups in the state. Okoye said all the police wanted is restoration of peace and stability in the state. “The involvement of our royal fathers and Fulani leaders will help in tackling the security challenges in the state,’’ he said. “If we look at the world today, dialogue is being used in addressing security challenges. We don’t want to use fire in tackling these challenges unless where it becomes necessary,” the CP said. Chairman, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in the state, Ibrahim Sulaiman, urged the government to assist in educating Fulani youths.

NDLEA arrests 81 over illicit drugs in Oyo REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

O Mohammed

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yo State command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it arrested 81 suspected drug traffickers between January and March 2019. The state commander of the agency, Ralph Igwenagu, in a statement by his public relations officer, Mutiat Okuwobi, said that the convicts were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from six months to five years. He said 600.561kg of cannabis sativa were also seized from suspects during the period under review. Igwenagu

further said that the command reduced the circulation of substances of abuse including Dazepam, Exol 5 and Tramadol among others in the first quarter of the year. According to him, the anti-drug agency also gave drug intervention to 42 persons in the year under review, among whom 10 are still undergoing rehabilitation. The command also uncovered a secret laboratory where the production of “skushi”, a derivative of potpourri of illicit and controlled drugs, was done illegally. “This led to the seizure of 290 litres of the illicit cocktail drink and its paraphernalia.”

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Experience London in Lagos, at Brass and Copper in Lekki

s the name suggests Brass and Copper, the restaurant located in Lekki Phase 1, is literally filled with beautiful and stunning brass and copper aesthetics, ornaments and furniture. The restaurant reminds me of a very sophisticated restaurant/lounge in the heart of London’s West

unde, and Osa Bazu. What I like about Brass and Copper is that while creating and building the restaurant, the founders thought about the modern day consumer. The consumer that is busy and appreciates multipurpose space to get many essential things done. Any Lagosian can relate to being stuck in traffic in between errands which can be very frustrating. This is why,

barber shop in the space called Next by Good Hair. Upon entry at Brass and Copper, you will immediately notice the attention to detail paid into the decor and feel of the restaurant. Let’s just say this place is perfect for a colorful and sophisticated impromptu photoshoot. Brass and Copper is divided into two sections, the bar and then the restaurant

culinary experience to end. The menu at Brass and Copper offers many options from your traditional Nigerian or English breakfast to delicious fish and chips or even scrumptious ribs. To top off our delicious seafood-based meals, we decided to have a strawberry milkshake called ‘Tutti Fruitti’ to put the cherry on top of a delicious meal.

@lehlelalumiere Leslie works at BusinessDay in Strategy Innovation and Partnerships, she is also a financial inclusion advocate and radio anchor. Originally from Scnegal Lehle has a passion for food and culinary experiences and enjoys discovering new restaurants in Lagos.

Seafood pasta N7,000 Grilled Salmon N9,000 2 Tutti Frutii milkshakes N5,000 TOTAL BILL: N21,0000 Contact: https://www.instagram.com/brassandcopperofficial/

End. Designed with tasteful furniture and culinary sets, Brass and Copper is located on the top floor of the Good Hair Space off Admiralty Way in Lekki, right behind Ebeanno supermarket. The commercial building comprises of a popular women’s hair salon called Good Hair and a barber shop called Next by Good Hair. The restaurant is owned by well-known entrepreneurs Chioma Ikokwu, Kike Os-

particularly in Lekki around rush hour, the multipurpose Good Hair Space is the space for women and men on the go. As a busy working woman, the multipurpose space allows me to kill two birds with one stone. I usually go to Good Hair to get my hair and nails done and then head upstairs to have a delicious meal at Brass and copper and often use the restaurant to have after work meetings. This also works for men, because there is also a

which allows for flexibility depending on your preference or occasion. On this particular occasion as I made my way to the restaurant section I was greeted by a very friendly waitress. As she handed me the menu she suggested I have the grilled salmon and I agreed and my dinner companion had the seafood pasta. Both were delicious and carefully made. The meals took a while to finish because we didn’t want the

I must say that the staff at Brass and Copper are very professionally trained and very pleasant. They are also highly knowledgeable on the menu options which is helpful for particular diners. Brass and Copper is perfect for an afternoon meeting, a girl’s brunch, an event launch, and even a fabulous birthday party. They are definitely ready to bring London to Lagos in style and you will thoroughly enjoy the experience.

To make recommendations or for collaborations please send an email to lehle.balde@businessday.ng

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Afromedia’s net income dips 39% on declining operating profit Pg. 17

C O M PA N Y N E W S A N A LY S I S A N D I N S I G H T

HOSPITALITY

Three companies dominate Nigeria’s most profitable in 2018 OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN

et incomes of Niger ia’s most capitalised company, Dangote Cement Plc, and two of its biggest lenders, Zenith and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), outstripped that of the entire listed firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the full year 2018. The three companies posted a total profit of N768.37 billion in 2018 as against an aggregate net income of N668.14 billion posted by eighty-eight (88) other companies that have so far released their 2018 financial results. Although when companies that recorded losses in the year are ignored, the aggregate profit of the other firms would increase to N706.24 billion, indicating a N62.13 billion shortfall compared to the N768.37 recorded by the cement maker and the

two lenders. BusinessDay analysis shows that profits made by Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and GTBank in the review year accounted for 52 percent of the entire profits of N1.47 trillion realised by all publiclyowned firms at the Lagos

bourse excluding those companies that made losses to become the most profitable listed companies in the country. The three firms’ percentage share of the entire net income realised on the NSE however increased to 53.36 percent

when 23 other companies that recorded losses in 2018 are included. This implies there was a shift in profitability dominance from the other companies on the exchange, which recorded 52 percent share of the total of N1.14 trillion

realised profit in 2017 having accrued N599 billion, to Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and GTBank in 2018. The three companies, which recorded N545 billion total profits in 2017, accounted for only 48 percent of total profit garnered in the year. In the 2018 financial year, the Africa’s biggest cement producer grew after-tax profit by 91 percent in the year to N390 billion, making the cement giant sustain its position as the most gainful company in the country. Profit of tier-one lender, Zenith Bank, rose 11.3 percent to 193 billion, while that of Guaranty Trust Bank was up 10.5 percent to N184 billion. Dangote Cement Plc accounts for about 30 percent of the total value of Nigeria’s stock market with its 2018 profit surpassing the total net income of 61 listed companies and accounting for more than a quarter of the

total net income accrued for the year. Nigeria’s biggest firms continued to occupy bigger shares of their respective markets as smaller entities struggle to compete with little resources, a development causing significant profit growth for the large companies with little for others. While profits of Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and GTBank grew by 40.97 percent from N545 billion in 2017, other listed companies only saw their aggregate net income improve by 11.5 percent to N668.14 billion from N599.34 billion. Meanwhile, shares of Dangote Cement have returned 0.16 percent since the start of the year to close at N190 on Wednesday. The year-to-date return of GTBank stood at 1.60 percent at N34, while Zenith Bank has lost 5.42 percent of its market value this year to close at N20.40.

lion through a rights issue by October 2019. An analysis of the company’s result for the full year ended 31 December 2018 shows turnover increased by 37 percent to N679.5 billion compared to N497.4 billion in 2017, buoyed by higher oil prices resulting in higher oil revenue and higher gas prices, which led to higher gas revenues. In addition, gross profit grew by 9 percent to N96.3 billion, from N88.1 billion in 2017. Th e G rou p b o rrowings for the period stood at N210.9 billion, 11% decrease

from the full year in 2017 at N237.4 billion in its upstream borrowings reduced by 21% to $255.6 million compared to $324.6 million in 2017. Oando debt rose to $2.5 billion after acquiring oil and gas assets from U.S giant ConocoPhillips. Speaking on the sidelines of an Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last year, Tinubu said the energy company plans an increase of 50,000 barrels daily over the next three years, at which point the company’s total production would more than double from current levels to 90,000 barrels daily.

OIL & GAS

Tinubu’s Oando set to raise fresh capital OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

EO, Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu, has revealed plans to raise fresh capital over the next two years and acquire more oil assets after paying down its debts. According to Tinubu, the oil giant will no longer have long term debts in the next four years. Oando bought Conoco Phillips’ Nigerian assets for $1.5 billion in 2013, but high financing costs coupled with lower oil prices hit profit, leaving it unable to repay its debt. Tinubu said Oando has paid over 77 percent

of the acquisition debt and plans to pay off the rest in 12 months, which would allow it to resume dividend payments. He said Oando would be left with a total debt of $300 million In its 2018 results, the company revealed strategic initiatives aimed at improving its working capital and cash flows. Part of which is to reclassify up to N38.4 billion of current liabilities into long-term liabilities thus creating a substantial remedy to the negative working capital position. According to the company, the implementation

of this initiative started in 2018 and will be completed between April 2019 and June 2019. Restructure the Corporate Loan Facility at Oando Energy Resources to ensure the loans are default free and fully compliant with credit agreements, achieve a tenor extension of up to two years, reduce debt service requirements in the near term. Refinance an approximate N5.4 billion credit facility provided by one of the bilateral lenders. Sale of the Company’s shares in Oando Energy Resources to raise up to N84 billion in 2020

in order to prepay debt across the Group - Sale of the Company’s 25% stake in Glover BV to raise up to $41 million over the next 12 months. The Company has entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement with the buyer and proceeds will be applied towards repayment of debts across the Group. - Converting up to N27.5 billion of the Group’s current Debt into equity. the Company has begun the conversion process by engaging with the Security and Exchanges Commission. Recapitalization by raising up to $200 mil-

Editor: LOLADE AKINMURELE (lolade.akinmurele@businessdayonline.com) Graphics: David Ogar

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COMPANIES & MARKETS DEALS

Mastercard agrees to become a shareholder in Jumia JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

astercard has agreed to become an investor and form a strategic partnership with Jumia, leading pan-African e-commerce platform, to grow its operations and support the digital transformation of the continent. Jumia revealed that the new agreement for MasterCard to become a shareholder is subject to certain conditions, however, the two companies will look to build on Mastercard’s presence across Africa, bringing its deep knowledge and expertise in payment solutions and technologies to spark new innovations and spur development in new customer segments. As part of the deal, the companies have also agreed to build on their current efforts to accelerate the adoption of electronic payment platforms among consumers and merchants. Sacha Poignonnec, coCEO of Jumia, said: “We are delighted to strengthen our existing partnership with

Mastercard, and consolidate Jumia’s position as the leading e-commerce platform in Africa. This investment highlights the strategic synergies between the two companies, as we both seek to develop the payments ecosystem and drive financial inclusion across Africa.” Jumia and Mastercard first partnered in 2016 with the successful launch of Mastercard Payment Gateway Solutions in several markets. That same year, Mastercard supported Jumia in the launch of JumiaPay, the payment service of the Jumia platform that facilitates transactions for consumers and sellers. Sami Louali, executive vice president for corporate development and financial services, Jumia, said: “Brick and mortar stores still dominate the commerce industry in Africa, but e-commerce is rapidly on the rise. As a global expert in digital payments with local expertise, Mastercard will provide its unparalleled capabilities to help create further awareness about Africa’s booming e-commerce sector, and allow us to make our services more secure, seamless and

reliable for our customers.” Currently, e-commerce is nascent in Africa and accounts for less than one percent of total retail volumes. However, there are over 400 million internet users across the continent - amongst the largest in the world - which highlights the vast potential for growth. Elcin Yanik, executive vice president, market development, Middle East and Africa at Mastercard, said: “Mastercard has been rapidly expanding its presence and partnerships in Africa, bringing new technologies to the continent that help to enhance the consumer experience and enable greater access and inclusion. This partnership with Jumia underpins Mastercard’s commitment to transforming Africa’s digital payments landscape. In recent years, we have invested heavily in technology, people and local markets, and have seen tremendous growth in online payments in particular. We look forward to working with Jumia to enhance the region’s digital infrastructure and ecosystem.

CSR

n its continuous effort to support avenues that work for the progress of women, Wema bank, one of the commercial banks in Nigeria, launched “Sara by Wema” on Friday 29th month, 2019. Sara by Wema is a vibrant community designed to give the Nigerian woman the capacity to participate in, solely contribute to and fully benefit from growth opportunities that help maximize her personal or business goals Ademola Adebise, MD, Wema Bank said that the improvement of women and the society was what inspired the initiative “Looking at the population of women and the poverty level in the country, we believe that if we can improve the lives of women, we can also improve the society,” Adebise said.

L-R: Lanre Olusola, the catalyst; Debola Deji-Kurunmi, CEO, Immerse Coaching Company; Abisola Longe, CEO, Human Capacity Development Consultant; Adeboye Martins, partner, Marita Learning Center, and Toyin Ademola, lead strategy, Skillsultant Limited, at the 1st annual productivity plus summit in Lagos. Pic Olawale Amoo

TECHNOLOGY

Wema Bank empowers women with launch of SARA BUNMI BAILEY

L-R: Rob Kleinjan, finance director, NB Plc; Uche Unigwe, sales director, NB Plc; Jordi Borrut Bel, MD/CEO, NB Plc; Tiwa Savage, nigerian singer and Star Radler brand ambassador; Sade Morgan, corporate affairs director, NB Plc; and Emmanuel Oriakhi, marketing director, NB Plc, at the Unveiling of Tiwa Savage as Star Radler brand ambassador.

“And in terms of being a responsible corporate citizen, we believe that in line with the sustainable principles, actualizing the goals of women is one of the main key goals of the sustainable banking principles,” Adebise further said. This community will give women access to participate in, wholly contribute to and fully benefit from growth opportunities available within Wema Bank. It will be leveraged on all existing product offering across the savings, current and loan portfolios. It is open to all Nigerian women across all socioeconomic classes, the community specifically targets female owned SMEs, registered and unregistered businesses, start-ups, stay-at-home entrepreneurs and mothers, workers and salaried women, and low income earners.

Also in commemoration of the International Women’s month, the bank in partnership Aramide, an Afrosoul or Jazz musician held a Songversation with Aramide event, an initiative of the artist. The event, which in its second year, aims to promote positive narratives for Nigerian women and reemphasises their role in society The Bank also used the occasion to celebrate the achievements of women who were changing, shaping and enriching the lives of Nigerian women and girls through awards They were Kemi Onabanjo, a management consultant, Omoyemi Akerele, an icon in Nigeria’s fashion industry, Oghenekaro Omu, founder of Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls (S.A.N.G) and Temie Giwa-Tubosun, founder of Lifebank

M-naira App launches to promote seamless mobile money transfers JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

ith the growing level of acceptance and also teething challenges of mobile money and other digital remittance Nigerians face on daily basis, BeepTool, an indigenous tech start-up has unveiled m-naira mobile application, designed to bridge the gap in financial inclusion, mobile payment and remittance space. M-naira mobile app has been described by industry watchers and stakeholders as a timely intervention in the mobile payment ecosystem, contributing to the country’s stride towards a cashless economy. The m-naira App is designed to be a fast and secure way to send and remit money home directly to a bank account or mobile wallet. The m-naira app is also designed

for paying bills for family and friends from any part of the world. Mayowa Ihinmikaiye, cofounder and chief marketing officer, BeepTool CIS Limited said “m-naira App is a value sharing and money transfer service platform that interconnects all Nigerian bank accounts, mobile wallets, and billing systems to deliver instant remittance services to Nigeria from anywhere in the world. Whether you’re supporting your family or doing business in Nigeria, m-naira App makes it convenient and safer to send, receive, pay and save cash instantly from your phone, at a quarter of the cost of your bank or high street money transfer provider.” “m-naira App works directly with service providers to enable remote payment for services such as utilities,

healthcare, school tuition, etc. Nigerians living in rural areas are not left out, as we are connecting them to the financial world using Nano-satellites. This will allow Nigerians in areas with poor or no connectivity use the m-naira app to send and receive payment for goods and service,” he added. Having features such as; instant transfer available from any UK, USA and EU approved countries of the world to Nigeria, with 24/7 delivery, realtime updates on your transfer, so you know exactly where your money is and there is no credit or debit card fees. The mobile app can be downloaded via Google Play Store for now, with the iOS version coming soon or via website. The M-naira app has a high level of encryption, Know Your Customer (KYC) and security.

said Wema Bank is trying to push digital across the world particularly in Nigeria, adding that the program was aimed at providing innovative ideas that will grow Nigeria in the socioeconomic space. She said the participants were chosen based on merit and scoring techniques disclosing that there were 220 initial applicants but cut down

to 19 teams who participated in the competition. She said the winner would receive a grant of $ 10,000 as well as access to workspace and other platforms to develop their ideas. While for Wema Bank the platform will serve as a growth and development strategy for the bank and as well grow its reach in the digital space.

Wema Bank supports tech start-up with $10,000 seed fund GBEMI FAMINU

n a bid to implement its corporate social responsibility, Wema Bank hosted maiden 3-day hackathon session in Lagos themed the “Wema Bank Hackatholics” which brought together gurus in the technological space, developers as well as stakeholders in the Fin-tech

environment. The 3-day event came to an end on Sunday with the Easy Change team emerging as winner making their idea supported with $10,000 seed funds as well as access to workspace in Wema bank. Speaking at the competition, the MD/CEO Wema Bank, Ademola Adebise stated that Wema Bank aspires to be an

innovative bank adding that the hackaholics will be an annual event which will bring the young and energetic Nigerian entrepreneurs together and harness their ideas while providing advisory services and funding. He said “the engine of growth is the small and medium scale enterprises sector of the economy, we need to create more start-ups and we

know the challenges of these start-ups is access to funding and ability to have a platform to incubate their ideas as well as advisory services to be successful entrepreneurs, these are the kind of things we are going to provide for start-ups “ Abimbola Agbejule, head corporate responsibility and sustainability team Wema Bank

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Business Event

MEDIA

Afromedia’s net income dips 39% on declining operating profit …record first gross profit in the last five years DAVID IBIDAPO

he net income of Afromedia, a provider of out-of-home media services to advertising industry in Nigeria, recorded a significant drop by about 39 percent in its profit for the year 2018 as operating profit during the period waned. Profit after tax decreased to N381.08 million as performance began dwindling after the company rebounded in 2017 from its loss position in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. This was largely affected by a 77 percent decline in income generated from other operations in 2018. Operating income declined to N514.616 million against

a whooping N2.229 billion recorded in 2017. This resulted to a decline in operating profit to N370.699 million against N836.481 million in 2017, representing a decline by 56 percent during the period. Operating margin for the period declined to 97 percent compared to 194 percent margin recorded in 2017 due to more income gotten from its other operations. This was however despite impressive gross profit position on effective cost management on sales recorded in 2018. Afromedia recorded its first gross profit in 2018 against the last five years of gross losses. Gross profit stood at N144.714 million in 2018,

a rebound from a loss of N122.44 million losses in 2017. Cost of sales considerably reduced by 57 percent during the period to N236.354 million in 2018 against N552.524 million in 2017. Revenue however declined to N381.06 million in 2018 from N430.077 million in 2017. A 5-year analysis of the performance of Afromedia stock has shown dormancy during the period with price at N0.50 with no activity on the stock, returning no value to investors and the exchange at large. Afromedia has a market capitalization of N2.2 billion with a share outstanding of 4.44 billion units of shares.

L-R: Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com, and Martha Omoekpen Alade, founder of WITIN, winner in the community impact category at the Technology Playmaker Awards 2019, which held in London Recently

AVIATION

Air Peace orders 30 brand new jets in $2.1bn deal with Embraer IFEOMA OKEKE

est Africa’s biggest airline, Air Peace on Wednesday set a continental record with a firm order for 10 brand new Embraer 195E2 aircraft. The deal which was unveiled on Wednesday during Embraer Business Meeting with the Aviation World in Port Louis, Mauritius, makes Air Peace the first to order the brand of jets in the whole of Africa, thereby becoming the official launch customer of the brand of aircraft in Africa. The order comprises purchase rights for a further 20 E195-E2 jets. The aircraft is a 124 seater jet in dual class and 146-seater jet in single class

configurations respectively. With all purchase rights exercised, the contract has a value of US$2.12 billion based on current list prices. The carrier also set a regional record in September 2018 when it ordered 10 brand new aircraft from Boeing, increasing its fleet size then to about 37 aircraft. With the new order, Air Peace’s fleet size has increased to 67 aircraft. Shortly before the firm order for 10 brand new aircraft from Boeing, Air Peace set a domestic record as the first Nigerian airline to acquire and register the Boeing 777 aircraft in the country. Three of the four wide-body aircraft it acquired for its long-haul operations to Dubai, Sharjah, Johannesburg,

London, Houston, Guangzhou and Mumbai have so far been delivered. Speaking on the latest order in faraway Port Louis, Allen Onyema, Air Peace Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, said: “Embraer’s new E195-E2 presents us with a marvel of economic performance. It’s also great that we will be the first E2 operator on the African continent. We already have the ERJ145s in our fleet, so we understand the high standards of Embraer products.” The E195-E2 aircraft, he said, would strengthen Air Peace’s drive to deploy the right kinds of aircraft to underserved and unserved domestic and regional routes under its no-city-leftbehind project.

L-R: Olusakin Labeodan, executive director, sales and investment, Leadway Pensure PFA Limited; Adedoyin Salami, CEO, Kainos Edge Consulting, and Lanre Idris, executive director/chief operations officer, Leadway Pensure PFA Limited, during a breakfast meeting themed “Post-Election Economic Outlook: Positioning to win” organized by Leadway Pensure PFA Limited in Lagos.

MARKETS

Dangote Flour shares decline 11.76% IFEANYI JOHN

nvestors responded to the poorer than expected results of Dangote Flour as there was a 11.76 percent loss in total market value of the company since results were released on Monday. The company could not turn around the run of bad results posted in the earlier quarters of the year and this was reflected in their full year performance. Dangote Flour Mills Plc result was unimpressive as revenues declined from N124.69 billion to N112.34 billion representing a 9.91 percent reduction of their topline. Cost of sales increased by 7.4 percent in 2018 from N95.06 billion to N102.09 billion leading to a 65.43 percent slump in gross profit, the first since 2014.

The company’s inflows from core business operations emanate from the sales of flour and pasta products. Flour sales, which contribute over 86 percent of total revenues, fell from N107.81 billion in 2017 to N96.97 billion in 2018 representing a 10.05 percent decline. Pasta sales dropped by 8.98 percent from N16.88 billion in 2017 to N15.36 billion in 2018. Cost of sales increased rapidly due to the growth in cost of work in progress and raw materials which tripled from N7.91 billion in 2017 to N25.98 billion in 2018, distribution causing the dip in gross profits. Gross profit margin significantly reduced from 23.46 percent to 9.12 percent year on year which led to operating profits falling to less than half a billion naira from N22.09 billion reported in 2017. The N398.34 million operating profit represents 97.85 percent declined year on year.

After a N33.18 million tax credit, Dangote flour made loss of N1.15 billion for 2018 financial year compared to 2017 profits of N15.12 billion. The stock was the second-best performing stock of the first quarter of 2018 but led the laggards in market at the close of business on Monday losing 9.80 percent of its market value. An extra 2 percent loss in market value left the price at N9.00 at the close of trading on Tuesday. Analyst had expected a poor performance based on the economic climate and the heat it brought on the consumer goods market but expected the management of the company to keep the company profitable. Dangote Flour failed to declare dividends for 2018 as retained earning slipped into negative territory moving N2.12 billion in 2017 to a deficit of N650.69 million at the end of 2018.

L-R: Fitgerald Akaehomen, Overall winner, Amber House leader, receiving a trophy from Ezinne N. Onoh, proprietress, The Brains Premier School and Nwogoh Lawrence, chairman of the occasion and the head, billing, operations, Classic Marine Services.

L-R: Katya Stead, winner best re/insurance article; Patrick Alushula, winner Pan-African Re/Insurance journalist of the year and Best Re/insurance print article; Sara Bar-arhout, winner Best Re/insurance French article, Femi Oyetunji, group managing director/CEO Continental Reinsurance Plc, at the 2019 Pan-African Journalism Awards.

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Company Review

Products Review

More Nigerians trade cryptocurrencies than use as currency – Experts Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

xperts have revealed that more Nigerians prefer to trade cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, etc, than use them as a means of exchange. The experts were speaking at the Luno Meetup which held in Abuja on Saturday, 30 March, 2019. Owenize Odia, country manager of Luno Nigeria announced that the company plans to begin a monthly trading webinar to enable beginners across Nigeria learn more about the market; the benefits and the pitfalls. Cryptocurrencies have become very popular in Nigeria driven by the proliferation of exchanges. Nigeria has the highest number of cryptocurreny exchanges – about 12 in operation - in Africa. Luno is one of the top three exchanges

that have fuelled adoption of the non-bank financial product powered by blockchain and attracted investors’ fund as well. Data from CBInsights showed that investors staked $232 million in blockchain and bitcoin companies in the

second quarter of 2017. That number is set to be doubled in 2019. Given its potential to bring in additional revenue, cryptocurrency trading now accounts for the most activity on many exchanges. Armed

with a cryptocurrency wallet and an exchange that allows him or her buy and sell, anyone can begin their journey as traders. Olaleye Awe, a notable cryptocurrency trader and trainer said the market could

be tricky and a pose little inconvenience for first time traders. “Trading cryptocurrencies is a 24/7 market; every day of the year you can make money and you can also lose money,” says Awe who is popularly called ‘Prof Awe’. “It is important that you are aware of what the market can give you.” Awareness remains the only constant while trading any cryptocurrency. He recommended that first time traders should start with wellknown wallets like the Luno Wallet and prominent coins like bitcoin and Ethereum. A good first foray into cryptocurrency tradin is the obvious, buying a major cryptocurrency like bitcoin. After that, the trader will probably want to trade naira for crypto on an exchange like Luno. Once that is done, the trader can then try Bitcoin and Ethereum for other cryptocurrencies. The market volatility is a

well-documented fact and can be a double edged sword. Awe believes the right time to buy is usually when there is a major drop and sell when the market is bullish. The mentality of the trader should be focused on making profit. “Anytime profit is showing on your bitcoin, take it. It doesn’t have to be big profit, small profits add up over time. The only way to get rich in trading is through your compound interest. If you do 20% of N1,000 in 60 trades, you will make N1 million,” he said. Lucky Uwakwe, co-founder of Cheetah Africa and COO at Blockchain Solutions Limited noted that issues around high volatility and cyber criminality are partly behind the regulators stance on cryptocurrencies. At the moment, the Central Bank of Nigeria has taken a neutral stand while it considers – through a special committee – how to regulate the market.

through more hops and yet are processed faster, it will be unfair to totally blame the high decline rate on too hops as Tayo Oviosu, CEO of Paga suggested on a recent Twitter post. Even Nigerian cards used on foreign PoS terminals are authorised faster than the same cards on local PoS. There may also be point to reviewing the networks the transactions travel on. However as a payment expert who would not want to be named pointed out, the same MTN network which carries most of the PoS traffic in Lagos is also used to support WhatsApp calls and videos which are more network demanding.

“The challenge is that NIBSS centralised infrastructure is not very efficient,” one expert told BusinessDay. “Being a monopoly, granted by the CBN and the banks, they have zero incentive to step up their games. When people complain, they tend to deflect and blame the banks.” But the banks are not totally guilt-free. For instance, a report identified account selection during card payment as a major contributor to the failures. According to the report, the account selection feature which requires the salesperson to either punch in either current or savings can tricky. Often times the cardholder will choose current account but the salesperson would go ahead and select savings account. Secondly the reverse time for failed deductions is a major problem. “A solution would be to license 2 more aggregators and force the POS to be able to talk to either of them depending on availability. After all, POS terminals in Nigeria are usually dual SIM, why can’t the aggregators be load balanced as well. Aggregators must then be forced to have similar prices so that competition can only be by performance and reliability. Banks, who own these terminals, will now be at liberty to switch between aggregators based on performance,” the expert said.

The sore foot in Nigeria’s PoS transaction hops

ost Nigerians that have had the opportunity to travel outside the country and used their debit or credit cards to pay for goods at a mall or restaurant will notice how seamless the transaction goes. You rarely get the ‘Error’ or ‘Transaction declined’ message despite the customer’s originating bank only located in Nigeria. Why does it become easy to make a successful card transaction outside the country with multiple hops involved and yet have issues when you do so in Nigeria with fewer points? What is responsible for the many PoS transaction declines Nigerians face? Adoption is not the problem The problem of PoS transaction declines is not lack of adoption. It used to be that merchants preferred taking cash because it made things easier for them with regards to having liquid cash to buy more goods and paying for logistics. Things have since changed according to data made available by the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The number of registered PoS terminals increased by 2 per cent between January (266,418) and February (272,272). There was a little drop in March to 270,111 however the

value at N217 billion was more than the value in February at N193 billion. The number of registered terminals in March 2019 also dwarfed what was recorded in March 2017 (137,047) and March 2018 (200,000). The number of PoS terminals deployed in the first three months of 2019 also surpassed that of 2017 and 2018. In January 2019 the terminals deployed grew to 223,098 compared to 159,579 and 113,510 in 2018 and 2017 respectively. The terminals deployed rose to 225,924 in February 2019 compared to 164,607 and 115,044 in 2018 and 2017 respectively. March 2019 at 221,056 saw a little drop from the previous month, but nevertheless bigger than what was recorded in the same period in 2018 (170,306) and 2017 (109,916). How does a PoS system work? The PoS system is more than the portable hand-held machine that cashiers present to customers. It is a combination of devices and software programs for keeping track of transactions and completing sales. Retailers and online merchants use PoS systems to accept payments and manage their businesses. They can calculate and track order tickets, process credit and debit payment, print receipts and complete cash exchanges.

The way PoS systems setup could vary in look and functionality depending on your choice of technology. Modern PoS systems have a frontend interface for the point of sale and back-office or dashboard side behind-the-scenes analytics and management functions. The staff processing the transactions uses the frontend interface while the backend is accessed separately in a browser or application window either on the same device or separate computer. There are multiple points required to finally complete a PoS transaction. In Nigeria where the PoS was introduced in 2012, these points may include the banks which issues the PoS; NIBSS is supposed to provide reliable data channel as well as services on terminal certification; Payment Terminal Service Aggregators (PTSA) which deploys, carry out maintenance and support

of PoS terminals on behalf of the acquiring banks; and there is the internet provider. Most PoS terminals are provided with connectivity through GSM subscriber identity module (SIM). Anyone of the points can fail at any time. The decline in the volume and value of transaction on PoS recorded in the months of February and March is largely due to increase in declines incidences. Failure rate on a daily basis can go as high as 14 to 15 per cent. The implication is that in every 100 attempts to process card payment on PoS terminals, 14 to 15 are likely to fail. The picture becomes clearer when compared with the 0.7 per cent failure rate of the NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP service), that means only about 7 NIP fund transfers fail out of 100 attempts. Are the hops too many? Considering that cards travel

Buck stops with NIBSS Many experts have questioned the role of NIBSS in the entire chain and why it is difficult to replicate the success of the NIP fund transfer.

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LEADINGWOMAN

What motherhood means to me

Keseina

Okonkwo KEMI AJUMOBI Mildred Kingsley Okonkwo Founder, Just Us Girls

he minute they placed her in my arms, everything stopped. Suddenly no one else mattered. In that moment nothing else mattered except the feeling of our hearts entwined and bonding at a level I never thought humanly possible. She snuggled closer and settled into not just my arms but in my heart. She was mine. My baby. I had become a mother. She was my free gift child, no morning sickness, no nausea, no spitting, no swollen feet or nose, nothing. I was a mother because I chose her. I became a mother the minute I began to pray for her, search for her, and finally when she was placed in my arms. The minute I held her I knew nothing could be greater than this feeling. Two years after I lay on an operating table undergoing an emergency caesarean section, after a failed induction and hours of labour fighting for her life and mine. The opportunity to push the baby was taken from me. I cried...had I failed? But, the minute I saw her, all I had ever heard, all traditional and overzealous people had told me about pushing being the determinant factor for motherhood became obviously a lie. I felt the same way. The way I felt the first time I became a mother, like my heart would burst out of my chest with love. Today, I’m a mother of three amazing miracles and I have come to this conclusion, it’s not when you push a child that you become a mother. A child lives in your heart not necessarily in your womb. Pregnancy doesn’t make you a mother; love does. For someone who had to deal with infertility, being a mother for me is a privilege. One I don’t take for granted at all. Motherhood is the opportunity God gives us to experience a tiny fraction of the love he feels for us. So whatever path you choose to motherhood, adoption, surrogacy, IVF or you are simply blessed to get pregnant easily, becoming a mother means you have agreed to have your heart live outside your body every single day. As intense as this sounds it is the most life transforming feeling ever. I love my children, and though they didn’t

come so easy for me, one thing I am confident for is that being a mum has changed who I am and how I love.

Adedamola

Olufunmilayo Olufunmilayo Alero Gombe CEO, The Event Nanny

otherhood to me is the most rigorous and yet fulfilling challenge ever. It’s a constant reminder of God’s unconditional love for me as my love for my children is unconditional too. It’s an incredible gift and a privilege that I hold dear to my heart. Motherhood to me means being courageous (as it’s not an easy feat), being a positive role model (even when you don’t feel like it), being a constant cheerleader, being a driver, being an uncertified pediatrician (laugh), being a cook, being a shoulder to cry on and being that safety haven they can always fall back to, rest assured mummy will always be there for them. Above all, motherhood to me is being that custodian God has found worthy to help guide the children he has placed in my care (biological and adopted) to fulfilling their purpose in life. Motherhood is a priceless journey I’d embark on over and over again.

Keseina Umuze Founder, Inspired By You

otherhood to me is sacrificing my personal interest for my children’s achievements and deriving joy in their achievements. The entire process of bringing life to this world is such an emotional experience that ‘sometimes’ makes you forget who you really are and who you were before the beautiful bundles of joy arrived. Each stage of the lives of the children marks a new chapter from them being very dependent to becoming independent. As my friend will always say Monkey no dey born goat (meaning a monkey cannot birth a goat). I look at my children and realize that they are truly a reflection of me and all I have taught them. Motherhood gives you a new sense of purpose and meaning in life. You encounter a love and passion for your children that you’ve never experienced before.

Adedamola Ladejobi Founder, AskDamz (Weight loss/nutrition expert)

otherhood is life in itself. It is a time you discover the strength you never thought you had. A time to care, nurture, guide, pray and support the people in my life not just my children. A time to give your all expecting nothing in return to the ones you love and care so much about. For me, motherhood is a ministry to always be on my feet, to learn and also to deal with the challenges that come with it.

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Satellite technology will improve medical data record Dementia has increased by 400% in Nigeria in last two for Nigeria’s healthcare system - okuzu

with dementia as this is curOkey Okuzu is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of InStrat Global Health Solutions, a United Kingdom Space Agency International SEYI JOHN SALAU rently lacking in the country. recent study published Adeloye however advocatPartnership Programme seeking to raise the standard of Nigerian healthcare outcomes in areas with poor communication through the application by the Journal of Global ed for a bill broadly focused on of satellite connectivity. He tells ANTHONIA OBOKOH in this interview what Nigeria can do to deepen penetration of e-health services. Health Reports, Univer- protecting the rights of individ-

an you give an insight into the current state of healthcare in

Nigeria? Nigeria, like many other countries, is working towards improving basic healthcare facilities in rural areas. As Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation, improvements in Nigeria’s health system are required to address the widening geographic and socio-economic disparities in health care access across the country. However, chronic infrastructure deficits and other health system challenges have led to difficulty in attracting and retaining frontline health workers to work in remote parts of the country, inadequate and irregular training programmes, and weak data management systems. This has impaired the ability of Nigeria’s health care system to deliver quality health care to rural and hard-to-reach populations, placing them at greater risk of economic and social isolation. Who is InStrat and what services do you offer? InStrat Global Health Solutions (InStrat) company is funded to address up information on health delivering in Nigeria through the help of mobile app information with funding support from the UK Space Agency, the International Partnership Programme (IPP). InStrat is focused on global health innovation by deploying turnkey mobile health solutions using 3G wireless and satellite internet connectivity to reach populations in underserved regions. However, the Nigeria e-health innovation project was commissioned in March 2017 as a concerted and strategic response to the telecommunication infrastructure deficits and health system challenges impairing the delivery of quality health services to rural and hard-toreach populations across the country. InStrat Global Health Solutions was formed in 2010 to leverage appropriate health technologies to foster improved healthcare in developing countries. They have successfully introduced and scaled multiple mobile health solutions in partnership with international and Government partners. They are able to reach any health worker in any health facility, in any location, with mobile health solutions. Using InStrat satellite technology, the project extended the reach of quality essential health services to remote, off-grid communities by overcoming the ‘last mile’ – the final portion of the communi-

cation network that physically reaches the service user. A consortium of partners including Inmarsat, InStrat Global Health Solutions (InStrat), Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development of the University of Leeds, research teams from University of Abuja, Bayero University Kano, and University of Lagos collaborated with the Federal and State Ministries of Health in Ondo, Kano, Lagos as well as the Federal Capital Territory. What was the concept behind the establishment of the IPP programme in Nigeria? Nigeria was invited to be part of this programme to provide health services to help facilities in areas that are not covered by 3G with the use of satellite technology. The International Partnership Programme (IPP) is essentially looking to promote the social impact using the space of technology in addressing key health systems challenges using satellite communication technology to improve health information management and governance, provide videobased health worker training, and strengthen disease surveillance capabilities for mitigating public health risks. IPP Nigeria has leveraged and demonstrated the unique value proposition of satellite communications to catalyse the emergence of a platform that enables innovative health solutions to reach the last mile and achieve scale in Nigeria, creating the foundation for long-term sustainability. How does the IPP get funding? The IPP, by the UK Space Agency is funded through the UK Government and provides local funding through a grant the Overseas Development Agency programme. So they have been funding this for the past two years but the grant has just expired. So we are working for a renewal of the grant. The investment of IPP is robust enough funding to bring back a hundred and twenty - five primary

health facilities in three states of which seventy five are off the grid. This covers the cost of deployment, the hardware, software, connectivity as well as the monetary evaluations, so it enough investment to achieve the objective of the investment. How will the program work – kindly explain how you intend to use technology to drive the initiative in rural areas? We first have to recognise that the health needs are most dire in rural areas, that is where we have the poor Nigerians and they have the least access to healthcare solutions and interventions. So it is incumbent on us to try to find ways to get to them. In rural communities, technology-enabled healthcare applications, coupled with satellite connectivity can help counter the lack of healthcare infrastructure, support an under-skilled workforce, control the spread of communicable diseases and record the increase of manageable conditions such as diabetes. E-Health solutions can also enable a more equitable treatment for girls and women, by empowering them through access to health information to improve their lives, especially during pre- and post-natal care. Provision of high-speed satellite technology is a key solution for eliminating the geographic barrier and offering better health services to rural areas. The biggest barrier in reaching them is internet connectivity because there is no 3G or terrestrial network coverage. So with the use of satellite, internet connection can be delivered to any location anywhere on earth wirelessly. We are able to now both deliver InStrat programmes to the primary healthcare facilities in the rural areas and allowing the satellite internet to provide the communication backbone of the services. There is a lack of medical data in Nigeria, how do you breach that gap

to implement such a technologically driven project? Medical data has been an issue in Nigeria, but there are innovative solutions to help the country develop medical data record for the healthcare system. Our system captures data’s or we provide tools for health workers to capture data at the primary care level in primary healthcare facilities. So each patients has the unique individual patient record created that is a case file, instead of having a paper case file but rather have a digital case file. What we do is we have files across thousands of thousands of patients, so we aggregate all the data’s and that data is now what we make available to the healthcare system. So that is where we bridge that data gap, we provide it to the doctor, ministries of Health and also to the National Health Management information system. How does IPP assist the Nigeria Health ICT Vision of enabling and delivering universal health coverage by 2020? The achievement of Nigeria’s Health ICT Vision of enabling and delivering universal health coverage by 2020 remains a distinct possibility if the government of Nigeria embraces these insights, sustains the gains recorded so far, and leverages emerging opportunities for its rapid scale-up across the country by ensuring adequate funding, technical and operational arrangements for satellite communications that address geographic disparities in access to health care. The Government of Nigeria has outlined a bold aspiration to achieve universal health coverage by 2020 and it is explicitly that it cannot be achieved UHC without technology. Nevertheless the second part of it is that primary healthcare systems are integral to every part of our health system. Therefore, UHC is almost dependent in the effectiveness within the primary healthcare system. So taking the two and evaluating it we are deploying technology into the primary healthcare system so we are going to make significant efforts towards the government realisation of the UHC. Nigeria is really improving in technology; but we need to attend to the policies that address financing of healthcare because if healthcare is well financed it throws more money to address all other component of the sector, so the role of Government is continue providing the political will to ensure continuity and sustainability to better the sector more.

sity of Edinburgh has revealed that dementia, which is a clinical syndrome caused by neurodegeneration and characterised by progressive deterioration in cognition and capacity for independent living, has increased astronomically in Nigeria (400%) in the last two decades. The global epidemic that has been found to occur more in low and middle-income countries is closely linked to population ageing, thus may continue to rise for decades. It is estimated that about 47.5 million people are living with dementia globally, with over two-thirds residing in LMICs, including Africa, where there is very limited access to social protection, and relevant care, services and support. This first national comprehensive study equally reveals that several communities in Nigeria still link dementia to a normal process of ageing, with many patients stigmatised and abandoned in the belief that the condition is beyond any medical intervention. Thus, many of those affected delay seeking medical care and endure poor outcomes. However, the situation is exacerbated by poor mental health service access which partly results in high out-of-pocket expenses that few can afford. Davies Adeloye, the lead researcher of the centre for global health research, University of Edinburgh, said some of the factors responsible for the prevalence of this disease include genetic, cultural, and nutritional variation in the country. He urged the government to provide comprehensive care and support institutions for people living

uals with mental disorders and setting standards for mental health practice in the country. “It is important for policymakers to direct efforts at ensuring adequate infrastructure, personnel, training and research that focus on dementia, among other important mental health needs, in Nigeria,” he stated. It has been estimated that the number of dementia cases increased by over 400% over a 20-year period, from 63,500 in 1995 to 318,000 in 2015 among persons aged 60 years and below. Prevalence was highest in North-central; followed by North-west and Southwest while the prevalence was also higher in urban settings compared to rural settings. Alzheimer’s disease, one of the subtypes of dementia, had the highest prevalence while other dementia subtypes had prevalence rates less of than 1%. According to the UN estimates (based on Nigerian census), the population of Nigerians aged 60 years and below nearly doubled from approximately 5 million in 1995 to 9.5 million in 2015. Thus, even if the existing age and sex-specific prevalence of dementia remains stable, there will be an increase in the number of older individuals at risk of progressing into dementia. In 2014 and 2017, Davies Adeloye, a renowned Epidemiologist with extensive clinical, research and training experience spanning Nigeria and the United Kingdom, also led similar studies on hypertension and type 2 diabetes in Nigeria.

‘Nigeria ranked 4th out of 30 countries with high prevalence of tuberculosis’ SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

ohammed Abdulrasheed, the Kwara State program Manager, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control has disclosed that Nigeria, among the 30 countries with high burden of tuberculosis ranked forth and second in Africa. Abdulrasheed, who stated this in Ilorin, noted that “It is worrisome Nigeria is ranking high. Before, it was South Africa but now, Nigeria is having higher prevalence. “From the research, one infected person with tuberculosis has the probably of spreading it to another 15 to 20 people around him.” He however, warned people to stay away from any person suffering from the disease and enjoined the victims to visit both private and public hospitals for the treatment of the disease free of charge. According to him, tuber-

culosis is airborne disease which spread by droplet infection. A communicable and chronic disease that if one contact it today, he might not know because it takes time for it to show. It is not hereditary but can be transmitted from mother to child through inhalation. He identified weight loss, fever, loss of appetite, chest pain, unresolved cough, productive of scrotum, blood spill as symptoms of tuberculosis. Abdulrasheed further explained that “if somebody has tuberculosis, he would cough out, as he is coughing some of bacteria are released in to the air and this can spread in the air and anybody that inhales those particles from the air is likely to come down with TB. “Also, if a scrotum from an infected person was spitted wrongly on the table, another person come in contact with it, it will affect that person.”

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Easter Break 2019- Tips for your Journey by Air, Sea or Land

Q-LIFE FAMILY CLINIC

ADE ALAKIJA

s the Easter Season and Holidays approach, and the lots of fun and merry making that go along with the season, many Easter breakers will be looking forward to sunny destinations and a/or long week(s) of relaxation. Some may travel to tropical hot spots, like Cancum Mexico or South East Asia, while others may opt for bustling cities, like New York or Hong Kong and many will be going to their towns and villages unaware of the dangers on route and at the destination. General advice to travellers:Good preparation for family trips leads to less stress is better for your health, and it is also a sign of an organised and alert mind. Your to do list is essential. Don’t leave the Baby at Home or in the Airport. It has happened and will still happen so don’t be the one. Always do a head count for groups on the move at every stop. Fatigue and tiredness can play tricks with our minds. Make sure on the list you have your essential travel documents like Passports, Air tickets and Visa’s, Yellow Fever cards, Medicines etc and the expiry dates of passports, Visas and Medicines, Mobile phones and contact addresses. I have personally seen people arrive at airports whose passports and visa’s have expired. It is a frustrating horror, probably the end of the vacation. Also make sure documents do not expire during your trip. Carry just the bare essentials for the trip. Paper wipes or Antiseptic hand sanitisers, torchlight, family games to keep the children engaged. First Aid Kits It is wise to carry along a properly stocked first aid

kit for small emergencies. Travelling by Air: Travel by air is normally contraindicated in the following cases: infants less than 48 hours old (longer after premature births) and women after the 36th week of pregnancy (32nd week for multiple pregnancy).Those suffering from: Any potential traveller with an underlying medical condition who is unsure of their fitness to flyegangina or chest pain at rest, any active communicable disease and severe chronic respiratory disease/breathlessness at rest should seek advice from their GP in the first instance. Airlines’ regulations may vary so if in doubt advice should also be sought from the medical department of the airline concerned. Many travellers will be departing from the Airport. The start of your fun and ordeal. Make sure you arrive on time and all documents are complete. The airport is usually a congested place and spread of disease is more likely. From the check in through security and all the contamination levels can be high. Dirty shoes on security screening conveyor belts. In the business class lounges and all other lounges, food to be eaten and water to be drunk should be inspected, smell, observe and decline if suspect and not fresh. In the plane: Accidents and injuries do occur in the cabin during flight so buckle up at all times and obey all flight instructions. Do not let your young kids play in the toilet unsupervised. Head rests are contaminated with yeast, mold and bacteria and can cause skin problems. Wear a scarf if possible. Viruses and bacteria circulating in the cabin increase your chances catching cold and other respiratory infections. If someone is sneezing or coughing near you, try to hold your breath and dip

your head down or use a handkerchief which may help reduce contaminants into you lungs. You can wipe down your tray table with sanitary wipes and please be careful of seat pockets some may have been contaminated with all sorts of items including soiled baby diapers. Don’t put anything like your cell phone and close use items into those pouches. Use alcohol hand sanitizers as frequently as possible. Walk around as frequently as possible to help the circulation and drink a lot of water. Road Travel-I call Wilderness Travel in Nigeria: The benefits of aerobic exercise in indoor and outdoor environments cannot be overstated. Insulin sensitivity is improved, protective HDL-cholesterol levels are increased, the bone mineral density increases, and there may be a reduction in anxiety and depressive symptoms. Please make sure your car is Fit for Travel-well gauged tyres etc. The journeys by road in Nigeria can be an enjoyable sprint or a nightmarish marathon. When you leave your house by road to your Village, Town or City you never can tell when you will arrive. Luckily with the advent of Google Maps which has become more reliable, dependable and accurate you can have a good idea of your arrival time. Journeys above 2 hrs should come with a break. Treat as if you are travelling by air. Stop in a safe place to walk around, if you are stuck in traffic and cannot get out of your car you can do in seat exercises as on the planes (Tiny stretch and muscle exercises). Carry disposable plastic bottles to urinate in. For women it is a bit tricky but it can be done with specially designed bottles and funnels. When outside the vehicle select well the area you use. Women can use funnels or just stand astride on the

Organisation checks counterfeiting, provides marketplace powered by verification and trust … Wins Skoll awards to scale their work and increase their impact KEMI AJUMOBI

ver the years, mPedigree as an organisation, has led in the fight against drug counterfeiting. Their core innovation is a unique product identification marker that consumers use to determine authenticity. They simply scratch off the label or unveil a bar code to transmit a code within seconds using a mobile phone camera or text message. A rich overlay of software tools and sensor technologies create full supply chain traceability and visibility, risk management, and predictive analytics. Empowered consumers in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East know immediately if they have counterfeit goods not after they’ve entered diabetic shock or have seen crops fail. Regulators continue to embrace the technology and industry sees that product integrity and supply chain analytics correlate with strong sales. While graft and corruption wane, consumer confidence in the marketplace grows. Both government and industry actors have great incentive to stamp out counterfeiting and supply chain fraud. “mPe-

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digree has formed partnerships in both the public and private sectors. Nigeria now requires labeling on all anti-malarial and antibiotic medicines. Kenya requires labeling on all seed packages for smallholder farmers. More countries across COMESA are revamping their regulatory systems with e-platforms designed and/or supported by mPedigree.” Bright Simons, Founder, mPedigree said. The metadata from those millions of authentications help corporations spot counterfeiting trends and supply chain dysfunction. Beyond mobile technology, mPedigree is deploying sensors and machine learning to predict counterfeiting before it occurs and measures its socio-environmental impact. mPedigree’s work is unified by a simple grand vision: a marketplace powered

by verification and trust. Kicking off soon is the 16th Annual Skoll World Forum and the foundation has announced mPedigree as one of five winners of the 2019 Skoll awards for social entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organisations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact. “These brave entrepreneurs are on the frontlines of solving the world’s most pressing problems,” said Jeff Skoll, Founder and Chairman of the Skoll Foundation commenting further, he says “Each social entrepreneur may have a distinct approach, but they all share a relentless pursuit of impact and the desire to create a more just world.” “These leaders have demonstrated how to spark transformative change to improve health, protect vulnerable individuals, and provide new opportunities for young people,” said Richard Fahey, Interim President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “We are thrilled to welcome these passionate problem solvers into the Skoll community.”

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Airlines’ regulations may vary so if in doubt advice should also be sought from the medical department of the airline concerned. Many travellers will be departing from the Airport. The start of your fun and ordeal. Make sure you arrive on time and all documents are complete

side road to urinate- Squatting down to urinate depending on the environment could be dangerous. Pack food and plenty of water( I remember the Well water I used to drink from when I visited my Grandmother in Amukpe Village near Sapele- It did not kill me) but be careful of contaminated water. By Boat- This is probably the most unsafe and treacherous mode of transportation depending on your route. Life jackets must be worn at all times. Inspect your boat before departure, if not sure wait for the next best available boat. The creeks and rivers are not well charted and attacks by armed groups may be likely. Carry water, snacks and a torchlight amongst others. Motor bikes, bicycles are other travel modes. Take all necessary precautions on the trip. Wear protective wear. Don’t get fatigued and fall asleep while driving. At the journeys end remember you might arrive famished and thirsty and just want to plunge into food and drinks. (You can snack and drink a bit before arrival), but remember to great your folks politely and exchange gifts and pleasantries. Study the food and water given you and if it has gone stale/off because of delays in your trip, kindly decline(politely decline and say you are tired and go and rest)you can sneak out at night to the kitchen to prepare your own food(Don’t say I told you so.). Just be practical. Remember: Always have a functional fully roaming and topped up mobile phone that can roam at the destination country. Remember the worldwide emergency number even if your phone has no credit is 112. It is free of charge and it works. Have a pleasant and safe trip and a pleasant family Easter Holiday. Don’t spoil a great holiday. Boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it.

‘We want to improve health care, sanitation in communities’ KELECHI EWUZIE

uinness Nigeria Plc as part of its on-going commitment to achieve the United Nations Sustainable development Goal (SDG) 6 which focuses on clean water and sanitation has partnered with WaterAid to provide a solar powered water facility in the D’ka community of Wasagu LGA, Kebbi State. The ultimate goal of project is to ensure sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene, while helping people take action to improve their health and well-being. Demmo Ibrahim; Territory Manager Sokoto/Kebbi Guinness Nigeria Plc. representing Penni Vika; Head of Division North, Guinness Nigeria Plc while speaking about the project said Guinness Nigeria has established several water schemes under the Diageo Africa Water of Life programme, a project that provides access to clean drinking water and socio-economic development. Guinness Nigeria and WaterAid Nigeria worked with the Kebbi State Government through the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) to provide inclusive access to clean water to an estimated 2,500 people in D’ka village and strengthening the capacity of the community. According to him, “Diageo Plc. through their ‘Water of Life’

project continues to extend sustainable water services to hard to reach communities and marginalised members of the society. At WaterAid, equity and inclusion is a fundamental guiding principle in our effort to deliver clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. We are therefore excited at the opportunity to be part of the commissioning of this water facility provided to the people of D’Ka community with support from Diageo Plc.” “Guinness Nigeria’s partnership with WaterAid and Kebbi State Government on this programme is in line with our company’s commitment to driving interventions that help more Nigerians access clean drinking water. We believe that water is a basic human right and our commitment remains unwavering in

ensuring that people in underserved communities continue to have access to clean water,” he added. Suleiman Shindi, executive chairman, Danko Wasagu LGA, Kebbi State while speaking at the commissioning of the water project, commended Guinness Nigeria for the provision of clean water to D’Ka Community. According to him, “We say a big thank you to Guinness Nigeria and all the organizations that have come together to put together this water project for the progress of this community. I want to also call on the people of D’Ka community to thank these organizations going into rural areas to bring development and I urge you to support them and also thank the Kebbi state government for supporting this project.”

L-R: Brand Manager, Mortein West Africa, Ms Phoebe Larry-Izamoje; Member, 2019 World Malaria Day Planning Committee, Dr Papetua Uhomobhi; Chairman, 2019 World Malaria Day Planning Committee, Dr Uzodinma Aderieje; and Co-chairman, Mr Oteikwu Oteikwu, during the 2019 Pre-World Malaria Day Press Briefing in Abuja.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH and ANI MICHAEL / Reporters. Email: obokoh.anthonia@businessdayonline.com I David Ogar, Graphics

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

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ManagementDigest

The right way to lead design thinking JONATHAN ZITTRAIN, ROBERT D. AUSTIN

nne Lind, the head of the national agency in Denmark that evaluates the insurance claims of injured workers, had a crisis on her hands. Oddly, it emerged from a project that had seemed to be on a path to success. The project employed design thinking in an effort to improve the services delivered by her organization. The team interviewed and video-recorded clients as they described their experiences with the agency. The approach led to a surprising revelation: The agency’s processes were designed largely to serve its own needs rather than those of clients. The feedback was eyeopening, but also upsetting. Poignantly captured in the videos was the fact that many clients felt harmed by the agency’s actions. Lind’s staffer thought of themselves as competent professionals. They were shocked to hear such things. Lind worried that her team was taking it too hard. It was a moment that called for leadership. What she did next would determine whether people rose to the challenge of transforming how they helped clients or sank into demoralized frustration. Much has been written about how organizations can use design thinking for innovation. Our in-depth study of almost two dozen major design-thinking projects in

five countries suggests that effective leadership is critical to its success. Design thinking usually describes processes, methods and tools for creating human-centered products, services and experiences. It involves establishing a personal connection with the people for whom a solution is being developed. But design-thinking connections with customers can feel uncomfortably emotive and overwhelmingly affecting. Design-thinking methods also ask employees to not converge on an answer as quickly as possible, but rather expand the number of options. That can be difficult for people accustomed to valuing a clear direction, cost savings and efficiency. As if that were not enough, design-thinking approaches call on employees to repeat-

edly experience something they have historically tried to avoid: failure. The iterative prototyping and testing involved in these methods work best when they produce negative results. But piling up seemingly unsuccessful outcomes is uncomfortable for most people. Enduring the discomfort of design thinking is worth it, because improvement and innovation can result. Our research has identified three categories that executives can use to lead design-thinking projects to success: leveraging empathy, encouraging divergence and navigating ambiguity, and rehearsing new futures. LEVERAGING EMPATHY In the early phases of a design-thinking process, employees working on a project need to set aside

their preconceptions about the product they are offering. Leaders can help them do this by openly endorsing the process, while also supporting employees who are dealing with the distressing emotions that arise when the effectiveness of their work is questioned. Lind understood that she had to turn the revelation about clients’ experiences with her agency into a positive force for change. That meant getting employees to focus on customers rather than themselves. She accomplished that by involving people across the organization in interpreting findings from the early stages of the project and assigning managers to orchestrate ideageneration exercises in their units. The leaders we studied worked hard to illuminate

2017 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate

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users’ real needs, even if the process initially struck employees as pointless or the findings made them uncomfortable. When Poula Sangill, the leader of an organization that delivers prepared meals to senior citizens in the municipality of Holstebro, Denmark, first proposed an improvement project, Christian Bason was for eight years head of MindLab, a cross-governmental innovation unit in Denmark that involves citizens and businesses in developing new solutions for the public sector. Since November 2014 he has been chief executive of the Danish Design Centre. is a professor of information systems and the faculty director of the Learning Innovation Initiative at Ivey Business School. He is also a co-author of “The Adventures of an IT Leader.”

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Odunayo Oyasiji

Agency relationship in law

gent and principal relationship is an important part of our day to day life. This relationship often exists for the purpose of business. It arises in form of a person hiring other people to do things on their behalf. Agency relationship is a fiduciary relationship where the principal appoints an agent to act on his behalf. The agent is however acting subject to the control of the principal. Examples of agency relationship are lawyer/ client and employer/employee. Agency relationship can be created orally or in writing. An agent can act based on actual or apparent authority. Actual authority also means express authority. In this situation the principal instructs the agent on what to do. Apparent authority on the other hand exists where the agent acts on behalf of the principal concerning a business with a third party and the third party is made to believe that the agent has the authority to take decisions. The agent is required to be loyal to the principal he is acting for. This simply means that the principal’s interest must take priority over that of the agent. Also, he must act according to the express and implied terms of the agency contract. This means that the terms of the terms of the contract must be strictly followed. The agent owes the principal a duty of care, competence and diligence. The agent must dedicate his skills to the principal’s task

or assignment. Furthermore, the agent is expected to follow the instructions of the principal. On the other hand, the principal also owes the agent some duties. That is, the duty to act in accordance with the terms of the contract entered into with the agent. The principal is expected to indemnify the agent where his assignment causes the agent to incur liability. The principal also owes the duty to deal fairly and in good faith with the agent. BREACH OF DUTY AND ITS REMEDIES IN AN AGENCY RELATIONSHIP It has been discussed that

both parties owe each other some duties. What happens when there is a breach of duty either on the side of the principal or the agent? What are the remedies available for the two parties? Such remedies are outlined belowREMEDIES AVAILABLE TO THE PRINCIPAL 1. Dismissal- Where the agent breaches any of his duties then the principal can dismiss the agent. 2. Damages- the principal can institute an action in damages against the agent. 3. The Principal can institute an action against the agent-

Implications of writing a Letter of Comfort in Business Transaction A

letter of comfort can simply be said to be an assurance from one party to another that the obligations of a party under a contract will be met. An example of a situation where such letter is often issued is when a parent company writes such a letter in favour of a subsidiary assuring a third party that the subsidiary will not default or will meet its obligations under a contract. Sometimes, it is issued in a loan transaction. It must be noted that the party issuing it is usually not a party to the agreement that is between the person to whom the letter is addressed and the person in whose favour the letter is issued.

The letter is often worded in a way that the party issuing it will not be accused of guaranteeing anything. It therefore places no legal burden on the party issuing the letter. At

best, it only creates a moral obligation for the person. In essence, it carries no legal weight. It must be noted that a letter of comfort is not same as a guarantee in case you request that a party should bring a letter of guarantee from a credible person or organisation and such a person brings a letter of comfort. You will have no legal claim whatsoever against the person that issued the letter of comfort.

Where the agent commits a tort then the principal can bring an action in tort against the agent. An example of such situation is where the agent commits tort of conversion. 4. Action to recover money had and received- This kind of action can be brought where the agent makes money from the transaction without the knowledge or informing the principal. The principal can institute an action against the agent to recover the money. In the case of Andrews vs. Ramsay and Co(1903) 2 KB 635- The agent made profit on the goods he sold for the principal without informing the principal. The

principal then sued to recover the commission he paid to the agent and the secrete profit he made. The court held that he was entitled to recover the money. REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO THE AGENT 1. The agent can institute an action against the principal to recover the payment due to him under the agency contract. 2. The agency can exercise a right of lien on the goods of the principal that are in his custody or possession lawfully. This can be done where the principal refuses to fulfil his obligations under the agency contract. However, before the right of lien can be exercised, the following must be fulfilleda. The agency contract does not have provisions that opposes the right of lien b. The goods are lawfully in the possession of the agent. c. The goods came into the agent’s possession by reason of his position as an agent. 3. The agent can institute an action for indemnity against the principal- This he can do to be indemnified for losses incurred by the agent in the course of carrying on his duties as an agent. A third party also have remedies against the agent or the principal in a situation where he suffers any form of loss1. He can maintain an action against the agent and principal for tort of deceit. 2. Equitable remedies are also available to a third party.

LOCUS CLASSICUS Addis v Gramophone [1909] AC 488 House of Lords

he defendant employed the plaintiff as a manager. However, the defendant terminated his employment contract and recruited another person to take over his position. This was done in a way that breached the contract between the defendant and the plaintiff. The plaintiff then instituted this action claiming for breach of contract and that the damages to be awarded should reflect the way he was dismissed as it has affected his prospect of getting other jobs. The court held that the aim of contract law is to put parties in the position they would have been in if the contract had been performed as agreed between the

parties. Therefore, the claim of the plaintiff can only be limited to his wages and loss of commission. Contract claims does not give room for exemplary damages or damage to reputation. This can only be claimed under law of tort.

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Friday 05 April 2019

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Insecurity makes food security harder for over 5m Nigerians in his comment during a meeting in Maiduguri last year, reflects the position of FSIN, that humanitarian assistance cannot solve the lingering food crisis. When BusinessDay visited Borno and Yobe states last year, meetings with farmers and some of their leaders, showed there was a lot of fear due to insecurity, preventing them from returning to the farms to resume food production. According to FSIN, in 16 states of northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) the number of people in Crisis and Emergency decreased by 40 percent between June-August 2017 and 2018 to 5.3 million. At the peak of the lean season 3 million people were acutely food insecure in the three north-eastern states affected by the Boko Haram insurgency where protracted conflict and mass displacement disrupted agriculture, trade, markets and livelihoods, and pushed up food prices

Stories by CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

igeria has again featured prominently in the 2019 Global Report on Food Crises, as the population of those unable to get food in the world remains over 100 million people. While Nigeria has for years been making efforts to ramp up food production, over five million people remain in critical need of food, as insecurity limits production. It is especially worse in the Northeast where Boko Haram insurgents make it difficult for most people t o v e nt u re i nt o t h e i r f a r m s. Consequently, nearly impossible to either produce food or even make money to buy it. The Global Report on Food Crises identified Nigeria among eight countries with the worst food crises in 2018, which collectively accounted for two thirds of the total number of people facing acute food insecurity – amounting to nearly 72 million people. The countries in order of severity, were: Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Sudan, South Sudan and north Nigeria. Generally, more than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger requiring urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance in 2018. Coordinated by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), the report is described as a major collaborative effort between numerous agencies in the international humanitarian and development community. The reported noted for several years the number of people who cannot meet their daily food needs without humanitarian assistance has been rising, primarily driven by two factors: persistent instability in

conflict-ridden regions and adverse climate events. These growing needs have been reflected in the increasing level of international humanitarian assistance, which reached US$27.3 billion in 2017, up from US$18.4 billion in 2013. While critical to saving lives and alleviating human suffering, humanitarian assistance does not address the root causes of

food crises. “For (over) seven years there hasn’t been farming in the whole of Borno state, and we have been depending on the largesse of people like Dangote, and others, but for how long will Dangote feed Borno people with rice?” remarked Abba Gambo, a professor of Agriculture, and Borno indigene. The sentiment expressed

Economic Impacts Although food prices declined globally in 2018, rising unemployment, lack of sustainable livelihoods or regular reliable work, currency depreciation, poor functioning markets and high food prices are regular outcomes in countries experiencing protracted conflict, often making economic shocks a secondary or tertiary driver of food insecurity. In West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali and north-east Nigeria) and East Africa (South Sudan and the Sudan), elevated prices were observed for most of the year instigated by production shortfalls, currency depreciation, insecurity and policies such as large-scale restocking of national inventories or subsidy cuts. Currency devaluation drove prices up in South Sudan, Nigeria and Zambia.

The Nigerian Naira depreciation undermined cross border trade and the purchasing power of those who sold livestock regionally. It was also noted in the report that military operations and checkpoints disrupted agricultural production as well as markets and other livelihood activities. While four households in five had access to farmland in Yobe and two in three in Adamawa, almost half of them were not able to cultivate. In Borno two households in three had no access to farmland. In Adamawa, floods and conflicts between pastoralists and farmers also weakened household food security. Food availability reportedly improved in late 2018 in the northeast as a result of better security conditions and access to land, favourable agro-climatic conditions, gradual recovery of markets, and restoration of livelihoods following continuous provision of assistance. However, the 2018 harvest prospects in the three states were belowaverage mainly because of the ongoing impact of insecurity in Adamawa and Borno. 256,257 Livestock production was hindered by limited access to pasture in northeastern conflict-affected areas, and inter-communal conflicts in central states – Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, and Adamawa – as well as cattle rustling in the north-west. In the short-term outlook for 2019, Nigeria, along with Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Sudan, and South Sudan are expected to remain among the world’s most severe food crises in 2019. Large segments of populations in most of these countries risk falling into Emergency levels of acute food insecurity. For Nigeria, it is yet to be seen if security encumbrances will be promptly eliminated so that food production can rise significantly.

EXPLAINER

What Index Insurance can do for Nigerian Farmers I

FC and Africa RE recently announced plans to develop index insurance for smallholder farmers in Nigeria, and similar intention had been expressed by NIRSAL last year. But then, what does Index Insurance really entail? According to the Global Index Insurance Facility Factsheet, insurance providers in Africa and other developing regions rarely offer the hazard insurance f a mi l ia r to i n d u st r ia l i ze d countries. Earthquake, flood, and hurricane victims often lose their homes in an instant, re c ov e r i n g n o n e o f t h e i r investment unless they are fortunate enough to be part of a donor-funded disaster relief program. Likewise, droughts can wipe out the crops that farmers rely on for income. IFC, together with the International Bank

for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), also a member of the World Bank Group, has established the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) to address this problem. G I I F t a k e s a n i n n ov a t i v e i n d e x- b a s e d a p p ro a c h t o insurance that aims to expand access to insurance products in developing countries, and particularly to farmers and people in agrarian communities. With traditional insurance, a farmer insures crops for loss, so if 20 percent of crop yield is damaged, for example, the insurance company pays damages. This system creates moral hazard and requires that claims are individually checked for actual yield loss leading to high transaction costs and the frequent need to subsidize premiums. Results of this type of insurance are often poor for

the insured and the insurer, and the complexities involved provide little incentive to expand such insurance provision into emerging or frontier markets where it is needed most. U n d e r a n i n d e x- b a s e d insuranc e s che me, l oss e s resulting from weather and catastrophic events are assigned values on a predefined basis, using an index. When one of those events is triggered the insured par ty receives an insurance payment according to the pre-defined payment formula. For example, insurance will be paid out in the event of drought as a result of less than an anticipated amount of rain, a wind storm of certain category, or an earthquake registering a certain Richter scale, occurring within a fixed distance from a location. This innovative approach

to insurance provision m e a n s t hat p o l i c y h o l d e r s qualify for payouts as soon as the statistical indexes are triggered, without having to wait for claims to be settled in the traditional way. The insurance will pay if the index is triggered, irrespective of the actual loss. The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) is a dedicated World Bank Group’s program that facilitates access to finance for smallholder farmers, microentrepreneurs, and microfinance institutions through the provisions of catastrophic risk transfer solutions and index-bas e d insurance in developing countries. Funded by the European Union/ACP, the governments of Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands, GIIF is said to have facilitated more than 4.6 million contracts, with

$730 million in sums insured, covering approximately 23 million people, primarily in SubSaharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Providing access to finance for the vulnerable, insurance is an important element to poverty alleviation. Unfortunately, agricultural insurance and disaster insurance are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive in many developing countries. Index insurance is an innovative approach to insurance provision that pays out benefits on the basis of a pre-determined index or loss of assets and investments resulting from weather and catastrophic events, without requiring the traditional services of insurance claims assessors. It also allows for the claims settlement process to be quicker and more objective.

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Hotels Global Earth Hour; an inspiration beyond an hour …as Transcorp Hilton Abuja celebrates 2019 edition

Top BusinessDay Partner Hotels

OBINNA EMELIKE

n March 30, 2019, millions of guests in top hotels across the world celebrated this year’s edition of Earth Hour, an observance one hour of putting off all lights in the hotels and thereby illuminating a powerful message about environmental awareness and action. The observance, which turned out to be ‘an inspiration of one hour that went beyond an hour’ enabled millions of people to shine a light on the climate action the planet needs. However, the observance was a sacrifice on the part of the guests who also have right to defer. In partaking in the one hour light off, guests enabled hotels not only to reduce carbon emission, but also to save money from the electricity that would have been consumed within the light off hour. Though hotels, especially in Nigeria, wish it could extend to two hours or more because of the epileptic electricity supply, the global observation was just for an hour. It is estimated that over $5 million worth of energy is saved within this one hour across hotels, institutions and countries that observed all over the world. In Nigeria, the observance was obvious at Transcorp Hilton Abuja where the hotel joined the global community to celebrate Earth Hour 2019 from 8:30pm to 9:30pm local time on Saturday March 30, 2019. The hotel joined thousands of Hilton Worldwide’s more than 5,300 properties across 106 countries in switching off energy and shining a light on climate change.

Four Point Hotels (Oniru Chiefatancy Estate,Lekki)

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

The general manager speaking aLondon emerges city with highest number of 5-star hotels

The hotel’s Blue Energy Committee in conjunction with Connected Development, an NGO, organised the event. The audience included hotel guests, secondary school students and NGOs, while the Abuja Metropolitan Music Society (AMEMUSO) performed to the applause of the audience. There were messages by guests on the need for everyone to take part in reducing energy use and preserving the environment. In his remarks at the event, Kevin Brett, general manager, Transcorp Hilton Abuja, said, “We fully support initiatives like the Earth Hour aimed at energy conservation and protection of the environment where we live, work and travel. Beyond the Earth Hour, we will continue to show our commitment to energy conservation while delivering great guest experiences. We owe it a duty to this generation and future one to reduce the impacts of our business on our environment.” In line with Hilton 2030 goals, Transcorp Hilton Abu-

ja has also initiated various programs aimed at preserving natural resources and strengthening communities. The programs include; Soap for Hope, which entails the repurpose of used soaps into new soap bars. Later, the hotel donated the new soap bars to needy communities during the team’s outreaches. As well, the hotel tracks its sustainability performance with Lightstay, the Hilton brand’s sustainability measurement platform. Created by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour began in 2007 as a way for individuals and businesses to show how simple steps can make a significant s impact on addressing climate change. The idea was conceived during a WWF meeting held at the Hilton Sydney, Australia. In its first year, more than two million people turned off their lights for an hour and reduced the city’s energy consumption by more than 10 percent. It became a global movement in 2008 with more than 50 million people participating, and today it is the largest grassroots environmental

movement in the world with more than 7,000 cities and towns in 172 countries and territories and hundreds of millions of people participating across seven continents. As well, the hotel is demonstrating its commitment to sustainable travel with its Travel with Purpose. Travel with Purpose is Hilton’s corporate responsibility strategy to redefine and advance sustainable travel globally. By 2030, we plan to double our social impact investment and cut our environmental footprint by half. We track, analyze and report our environmental and social impact at each of Hilton’s more than 5,600 hotels through LightStay, our award-winning performance measurement system. Travel with Purpose capitalizes on Hilton’s global scale to catalyze local economic growth; promote human rights; invest in people and local communities; and preserve the planet by reducing human impact on natural resources. Hilton’s strategy aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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

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

Best Western Hotel Hotels 12, Allen Avenue C/O Funmi (Front Office Manager)

Make your Easter memorable at Southern Sun Ikoyi

n celebrating the Easter season and ensuring that guests have an opportunity to experience its luxury and culinary offerings with family, friends and their significant other, Southern Sun Ikoyi has unveiled its exquisite Easter package for guests to help relax and rejuvenate this season. From Thursday, April 18 to 22, 2019, the hotel is offering guests the opportunity to enjoy a wonderfully chic and uncluttered room for a bed and breakfast stay at the hotel at the special rate of N45, 000 only for Standard Rooms and N53, 750 only per executive rooms inclusive of a refreshing breakfast for two in ensuring that they have a memorable Easter experience at the Southern Sun Ikoyi.

Famed for its fine dining and serene ambience, the Easter holiday’s package by Southern Sun Ikoyi is one dedicated to give guests a memorable treat of exquisite dishes designed to truly satisfy the taste buds and yearnings of guests with an experience reminisce of a

culinary ecstasy through its wide varieties on its special Easter brunch on Sunday April 21stat a special rate of N17, 000 per person with an a la carte menu also available on demand and choice wine selections and cocktail at the bar. Guests are set for an ex-

hilarating treat at the Southern Sun Ikoyi this Easter season as it offers them an impressive experience of synergy of stylish sophistication and luxurious elegance, combining classic contemporary design with modern trends and rich textures, beautifully furnished rooms, suites and deluxe suites that guarantee utmost peace and privacy. For fitness enthusiasts, the gym is well-equipped to meet your needs and is run with friendly staff who are working together in making guests’ overall stay at the hotel, a memorable one. In making this year’s Easter celebration truly unforgettable, take advantage of the long weekend break and usher in the arrival of the Easter bunny in luxurious comfort and style.

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

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

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Friday 05 April 2019

Lagos Theatre Festival; over 140 shows in seven days …as Akindoju make directorial debut at the festival Stories by Obinna Emelike

nce again, the Lagos Theatre Festival is set to thrill audiences across different parts of the country with superlative stage performances. Now in its sixth edition, the festival, which is West Africa’s biggest performing arts festival, is set to take its offerings a notch higher with over 140 shows in seven days across different venues in Lagos including; Freedom Park – (the main hub of the festival), British Council, MUSON Centre, Terra Kulture Arena, Bariga Market among others. Assuring on the quality of the performances at the festival, which holds from April 8-14, 2019 on the theme ‘Imagine the Unimaginable’,

the organisers said that the participating production companies and individuals are deep into the rhythm of rehearsals to ensure that they not only have the best of their arts on display, but also retain the interest of the audience towards the propagation of theatre culture in Lagos and Nigeria. “This year’s programme is designed to ensure that the festival offers unforgettable experiences to everyone that will be attending”, Sola Oyebade, the festival director, said. The festival was conceived and launched in 2013 by British Council; the United Kingdom’s cultural organisation, in response to their inspiration to provide a platform for theatre makers in Nigeria, to develop audiences for theatre productions and to produce theatre works in unconven-

tional spaces. As well, the festival organisation has recently transited into the care of a registered trust, a not-for-profit organisation, managed by the board of directors.

However, Kemi Lala Akindoju will be making her directorial debut at the festival this year with ’Lavender, a stage play. The stage play is presented by The Make It Hap-

pen Productions, which is owned and run by Kemi Lala Akindoju. The play stars Kehinde Bankole, Deyemi Okanlawon, Oludara Egerton-Shyngle and Rita Edward.

Written by Ademola Soares, Lavender tells the story of “Abike” a young lady who agrees to be a surrogate for a couple who has been very good to her and her family. She soon discovers as the delivery date approaches, that not only would it be difficult to give up this child, but she has fallen in love with the father of the baby. Lavender follows the success of ’NAKED’, a onewoman show by Kemi Lala Akindoju, which premiered at the Lagos Theatre Festival last year. It would be recalled that the 5th Lagos Theatre Festival took place in February 2018 across Lagos featuring over 110 events, with remarkable audience attendance of workshops and shows at the various venues during the six-day period of the festival.

Ray BLK to stage first live show in Nigeria at Gidi Culture Festival 2019

Davido rating soars on American billboard charts

…as Kenya’s Blinky Bill, Ghana’s Joey B, Dj Cuppy, Sir Shina Peters join line-up

avido has continued in his big break in the American market, as he climbed from No. 37 to No. 28 on the billboard charts with his hit song ‘Fall’. The Nigerian singer had released the song in 2017 and it became an instant hit in Nigeria, other parts of Africa and in mainstream UK. He however could not get a break into the American market with it then. In an interview on Hot97, New York with Ebro Darden, Davido said he gave up and returned to Africa before a sudden twist gave him a leap in the North American music market. The Nigerian singer is said to be last week’s second biggest gainer on the @billboard emerging artist charts. According to billboard, in the week ending March 30, 2016, ‘Fall,’ which has been on the R&B/Hip-Hop airplay charts for six weeks, fell from a peak position of number 17 to number 18. However, Davido climbed from No. 37 to No. 28 on the American billboard charts last week with the hit song. Following a successful 2018, Davido, who had been nominated alongside the likes of BlackPink from Asia, Troye Sivan from Australia/New Zealand, Europe’s David Guetta, Taylor Swift from North America, J Balvin from Latin America and UK’s HRVY, was however unable

idi Culture Festival announces more names to join the forward thinking line-up for the 2019 edition in Lagos this Easter - including the first returning show for Ray BLK, Nigerian-born UK-based artiste, Kenya’s Blinky Bill, Ghana’s Joey B, DJ Cuppy, and Sir Shina Peters, the Afro-Juju maestro. Ray BLK is a British singer, songwriter and rapper. Durt, her self-released EP, won the BBC’s Sound of 2017, becoming the first unsigned artiste to do so. The R&B singer already has Stormzy collaboration, played a set at Glastonbury Festival and a whirlwind tour of America under her belt. Having just sold out her biggest London headline show, Gidi Fest is excited to bring her back to her birthplace in Lagos for a significant show at Landmark Beachfront, Victoria Island. Speaking on her return to Lagos, Ray BLK says: “I am very excited to be coming back to my hometown to perform. It will be my first ever live performance in Nigeria.”

In same vein, Blinky Bill is a trailblazer on the Kenyan urban scene, with his debut album Everyone’s Just Winging It and Other Fly Tales standing as one of the most progressive albums off the continent in 2018. The DJ and producer, who is the backbone of the collective “Just an Band”, toured France and the UK. He has also played at The Cape Town Jazz Festival, Littlegig in Stellenbosch, the TED Conference in Vancouver and has been included in the 2018 Yerba Buena Centre of the Arts YBCA100 - a list of 100 people shifting culture and creating change. His music is a mix of electronic music, futuristic African beats, funk, and hip-hop Joey B, is a Ghanaian hiphop recording artiste known for his single “Tonga”. He has collaborated with artistes such as Sarkodie, EL, Fuse ODG, Edem and many others. The rapper’s music has been influenced by several artistes, such as Kanye West and Kid Cudi. DJ Cuppy also joins the bill this year, representing a new generation of African women

with truly global. She launched her music career in 2014 as the resident DJ for MTV Africa Music Awards and has since made a name for herself in the scene. One of the highlights of the show will be Sir Shina Peters, Nigeria’s afro-juju legend, who would be delivering a nostalgic performance with some of his classic hits like “Afro-juju”, “Ijo Shina” and “ACE” to name a few. His style of music offers a powerful fusion of juju, afrobeat, and intense fuji-style percussion, leaving fans in ecstasy after every performance. The organisers express satisfaction over the array of internationally recognized talents featuring at the festival this year to deliver an unforgettable experience. The expected artistes include; Blinky Bill, Joey B, Ray BLK, and Sir Shina Peters. Others are; Patoranking, Wande Coal, Niniola, Teni the Entertainer, Moonchild Sanelly, DJ Obi, DJ Neptune, with Zlatan and LAX headlining the Next Gen Stage, among other nextgen talents. The show further boosts Gidi Fest status as a leader in the urban youth movement and a globally recognized platform by connecting international acts through the festival. Gidi Fest 2019 is sponsored by Budweiser, Pepsi and supported by Jameson, Absolut, British Council, VISA, Landmark Event Centre, Mikano and Lagos State government.

Jonathan Aderoju

to add another gong to his packed cabinet. The award, which was hosted by DJ Khaled honored major names in the entertainment industry in the categories of music, movies, TV and more. Davido is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Lagos, Davido made his music debut as a member of the music group KB International. He studied business administration at Oakwood University before dropping out to make beats and record vocal references. Davido rose to fame in 2011 with the release of “Dami Duro”, the second single from his debut studio album Omo Baba Olowo (2012). The album also contains six additional singles: “Back When”, “Ekuro”, “Overseas”, “All of You”, “Gbon Gbon”, and “Feel Alright”. In 2012, Davido won The Headies Award for Next Rated. Between 2013 and 2015, he released the

hit singles “Gobe”, “One of a Kind”, “Skelewu”, “Aye”, “Tchelete (Goodlife)” featuring Mafikizolo, “Naughty” featuring DJ Arafat, “Owo Ni Koko”, “The Sound” and “The Money” featuring Olamide. In January 2016, Davido announced via Twitter that he signed a record deal with Sony Music. His announcement was met with mixed reactions. The record label put out a press release to confirm the deal. A few months after signing with Sony, Davido founded the Davido Music Worldwide (DMW) record label. Dremo and Mayorkun are currently signed to the label In July 2016, Davido signed a record deal with Sony’s RCA Records. He released the 5-track EP Son of Mercy in October 2016, supported by the singles “Gbagbe Oshi”, “How Long” and “Coolest Kid in Africa”. The EP features guest appearances from Simi, Tinashe and Nasty C. Davido revealed in April 2017 that he renegotiated his contract with Sony due to creative control issues. He released five singles in 2017 after restructuring his contract, including “If” and “Fall”. The former generated worldwide social media activity, while the latter became the longest-charting Nigerian pop song in billboard history. Indeed Davido has continued to put the country on the map in the entertainment industry all over the world as many talented upcoming artist look up to the award winner for mentorship.

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BUSINESS DAY

The flow of your voice? Business etiquette

Janet Adetu

ave you ever listened to a TV news presenter and felt that the person was somewhat boring? Did you find yourself switching channels looking for something more interesting to watch? What about listening to someone on the other end of the phone sounding so dull? We find that when listening to the radio, what keeps us tuned in is first and foremost the program, then the content but most importantly the voices we are hearing. The voice of the radio presenter needs to be soothing to the listening ear and that comes from talking with inflections; keeping up the highs and the lows in the voice. Where necessary exclamation and extras are added to keep everyone alert. The same applies to you when you are talking whether on the phone, in a teleconference or during a presentation. People will tune off you instantly if your voice has nothing to offer. Essentially we find that many people speak, however they lack the required energy to keep others engaged. At times it might involve you laughing or chuckling at your

own jokes or exhibiting expressions of emotion and appropriate body language to buttress your point. Maybe you are a teacher, facilitator, executive, professional entrepreneur, you have a platonic, monosyllable voice, without knowing it you begin to sound dull, dragged and uninteresting to those listening you. It is important wherever you find yourself speaking, add variety to your voice, raise it a little; emphasize it more and keep it under control. There are a few things that you need to adhere to in order to get you off on the right footing. Let us try this QUICK TEST [1] Take out a news paper [2] Choose a paragraph from an article [3] Place your phone on record

[6] What did you notice? [7] Ask for a second opinion [8] Try again with inflection and variety in your voice [9] Notice the difference [10] Practice, practice, practice Guide to finding the variety in your voice Speed\ Pace: Maybe over the years you have trained your voice to be fast and you are quite comfortable with that. Well you run the risk of losing all those listening to you. Before you land one sentence you have picked up another. It is time to consciously slow down. You may want to pause a little and slight fillers to your sentences. The most important task for you is to complete the full pronunciation of your consonants and words

‘

The voice of the radio presenter needs to be soothing to the listening ear and that comes from talking with inflections; keeping up the highs and the lows in the voice

Pitch: I have said many times that some people inspite of the use of a microphone still project a very low voice. Your pitch determine the inflection required depending on what you are talking about. A high pitched voice can come naturally or raised when you are laughing or joking about something. The pitch becomes lower when you are speaking about something more serious and formal.

[4] Read out loud [5] Play it back to yourself to identify your voice, the pace, the pitch and the tone

Pausing: As much as pausing can be a distraction to the flow of your speech, especially when it is too long. Pausing is necessary to add to the variety in your voice. It is needed to help you breath in between sentences. You may want to readjust your voice through coughing, drinking water for instance. If you are a facilitator

to aid listening and assimilation you may pause once a question expecting a response. Also in response to an enquiry you are expected to stop, think then respond hence you must pause. As a teacher give your listeners a chance to understand you, take recordings or write notes, you also get space to think when pausing. Volume: Finding variety in your voice comes from the volume. The louder the more attention, the calmer the more work to get attention. Your voice is your power point it may either attract people towards you or distract them. If you are told that you come across a bit loud then take notice of this and correct yourself. Check your voice for whether it is low, high, squeaky, muffled, undertoned or simply loud Words: Your words give more emphasis when stressed in certain statements, variety in your voice. Depending on the word you will need to stretch them to help project the essence of that word. Finally it is funny when I invite guests for an interview on my radio program they always squiggle when they hear their voices playback. It is almost as if is not their t\rue voices. This is to tell you that not everyone knows like their own voice. By discovering and mastering your voice skills you will find the variety in your voice. Please be kind to share your experience. Follow me on all social media platforms @Janetadetu. Send me an email at janet.adetu@jsketiquetteconsortium.com

Movie Review – “SHE IS”

Linda Ochugbua

his movie kinds of remind me a lot of the lovely movie of 2017 “Isoken” the story about a young, pretty, ambitious lady in her 30’s who was still single. She had searched and search but yet couldn’t find a suitable suitor until the very end. Well “She is” told a similar story in a slightly different way, in this case the lady in question had a tight time frame left, with a serious medical health challenge that meant she only had 1 year to find a man, marry him and have her own baby or loose the opportunity of carrying her own child for a lifetime. This and many more issues made her life more complicated. There was a funny twist in this new movie that made it nice, off course it wasn’t any out of the box story, but its simplicity won it for me. She Is was produced by Omawunmi

Megbele & Waje Iruobe and was directed by Chris Eneng Enaji, the almost 2 hours movie told us a conversant story but with a slightly new twist, a lot of A List artists featured in it too, both young and old. It was nice to see some old faces again like Segun Arinze and Desmond Elliot. The actors did put in a lot of efforts and tried to play their roles very well. I really liked the costumes; I felt the production was okay for their first movie; cinematography was ok too and just a few locations used. They were a few things out of place like the lead actress having similar head dos almost throughout the movie, and the story being so plain with nothing so extraordinary or fabulous. Somkele Idhalama who played the lead role in this movie, actually did try to put out a good show. She was a young, successful beautiful young lady who was close to her 40’s. She had lived a terrible life and after a while decided to change and follow the way of the Lord. One would have thought that her new ways would have brought her a very good husband easily, but that wasn’t the case at all. She was wealthy had a nice car, leaved in a very classy home and had all she needed except for a man. Her world came crumbling when she noticed series of health issues and that was when her doctor informed her that she had 12months to take in and have a baby before it was too late. They laid all the options for her on the table

but none seemed suitable to her, as she insisted she wanted to take in the Christian way (first get married and then have children). Apparently it didn’t seem that this order or process would work out well, as she had no man in her life at that time. The funny side in this movie was how she received advances from all the wrong men and not the kind of men, she wanted. At a point her father even offered to provide her with men he felt would help her, all didn’t match Somi’s taste of a husband. It was

her faith that saved her at the end and also brought true love again, you would have to watch this movie to see how and who she ended up with and how it all played out. Cast: Desmond Elliot, Somkele Idhalama, Bishop Ime, Waje Iruobe, Omawunmi Megbele, Linda Ejiofor, Chiwetala Agu, Chigurl, Frank Donga Genre: Comedy & Drama Director: Chris Eneng Enaji Ratings: R15 Runtime: 105minutes Release Date: March 22nd 2019 This week I would score this Nigerian movie 7/10, because I would like to acknowledge that they did put out a good job considering that this is was their first ever produced movie. I did like the simple story, dresses and production, but I felt that a few things were left out and proper details not paid attention to. The inconclusive end was also a turn off for me, but hey it was a good movie eventually. Feel free to review any movie of your choice in not more than 200 words, please send us a mail to linda@businessdayonline. com , also please do answer the question of the week on social media and stand a chance to win a free movie ticket. Linda Ochugbua @lindaochugbua

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Benedict Peters celebrates Super Eagles Class of 94 at Aiteo-NFF Awards Stories by Anthony Nlebem

he founder of Aiteo Group, Benedict Peters, through his company, joined hands with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to celebrate the legacy of Super Eagles team of 1994 during the second edition of the Aiteo-NFF Awards on Monday April 1, 2019 at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The Aiteo-NFF awards celebrate and rewards excellent football performance and exceptional contributions to football in Nigeria. In addition, the second edition celebrates the Super Eagles class of 1994. The team won the African Cup of Nations in style and stunned the world with an eclectic display of football skills at the World Cup. In his speech, Benedict Peters, the Executive Vice Chairman of Aiteo, paid homage to the legacy of the legendary team that stood tall and made Nigeria proud 25 years ago. “Today, we all remember that golden era with very fond emotions. It was a phenomenal moment when our country spoke one language – football; when we achieved the highest FIFA ranking ever for an African

Francis Peters, deputy managing director, Aiteo Group (middle); flanked by Amaju Pinnick, President of Nigeria Football Federation (right), as he presents the Presidential Award to Abdul Mumuni Abiola, son of late Chief MKO Abiola at 2018 Aiteo-NFF Awards held in Lagos on Monday night.

team for our beautiful playing style; and when our team gave us something bigger than a trophy -A legacy” He gave a historical perspective to Aiteo’s partnership with NFF in the past two years as its biggest sponsor. “Since we forged this winning partnership, football in Nigeria has witnessed tremendous improvements. We have not only intervened decisively in eliminating financial constraints that hitherto constricted on-field performance; we have also provided strong moral support to the facilitation of instructive plat-

forms such as this, the Aiteo NFF Awards.” It was a night of glamour and elegance at Nigeria’s premier football awards. The event was attended by prominent people across various facets of society. Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who received a special award from the NFF was present, alongside Lagos Governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Kwara state Governor-elect, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, and Abia state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu.

Easter delight for boxing fans as GOtv Boxing Night train moves to Ibadan

ollowing a successful run of GOtv Boxing Night since its inception in November 2014, there has been a massive rebirth of boxing in Nigeria with the discovery of young and talented boxers. Organisers of GOtv Boxing Night have assured fans of memorable and delightful Easter celebration to remember as the18th edition of GOtv Boxing Night holds at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo (formerly Liberty) Stadium, Ibadan on Sunday, 21 April. The event organisers, FlyKite Promotions, at a press conference held in Lagos on Tuesday, announced this. This is the third time the event is being hosted in the Oyo State capital, where it held in March 2017 and July 2018.

GOtv Boxing Night 18 will be headlined by the African Boxing Union (ABU) lightweight title defence bout between reigning champion, Oto “Joeboy” Joseph of Nigeria and Success “Brave Warrior” Tetteh of Ghana. It will also feature another international bout, a light middleweight challenge duel between Nigeria’s Akeem “Dodo” Sadiku and the Republic of Benin’s Ekpresso Djamihou. Also on the bout card are six domestic bouts. They include; the national super featherweight title bout between Ridwan “Scorpion” Oyekola and Taofeek “Taozon” Bisuga. West African Boxing Union (WABU) welterweight champion, Rilwan “Babyface” Babatunde returns to action when he takes on Ganiyu “Energy” Kolawole in a challenge bout. The

hard-punching Tawio “Esepo” Agbaje will battle it out against Michael “Holy Mike” Jacob in a national lightweight contest, while Adeyemi “Sense” Opeyemi and Sadiq “Happy Boy” Adeleke will slug it out in a national bantamweight challenge. Three graduates of GOtv Boxing NextGen Search 3 will also be in action. Morufu “Oloke” Owolabi will take on Jamiyu “Sunshine” Akande in a national lightweight challenge, while Issac “I Star” Chukwudi will be up against Ibadan-based Jubril “Terrible” Olalekan. The best boxer at the event will go home with a cash prize of N1million alongside the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy. GOtv Boxing Night 18 will be beamed live by SuperSport, in 47 African countries.

L-R: Chidozie Bede-Nwokoye, senior marketing manager GOtv; Jenkins Alumona, CEO Flykite Production; Jennifer Ukoh, public relations manager, GOtv; Rafiu Ladipo, president NBBofC and Remi Aboderin, secretary general of NBBofC during the GOtv Boxing Night 18 Press Conference held in Lagos on Tuesday.

From the football community, FIFA Secretary-General Fatma Samoura, who also received a special award, graced the event alongside members of football royalty across the world. Members of the NFF were led by the president, Amaju Pinnick and the Vice Presidents, Shehu Dikko and Seyi Akinwunmi, who is the Chairman of the Awards Committee. During the event, the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick called for a standing ovation to honour Benedict Peters for his steadfast commitment

to football in Nigeria. “Today, Aiteo alone funds 30% of the entire expenditure of the NFF. All the deals we have with Aiteo are also for a duration of five years. We have so many Nigerian billionaires, and we think they should emulate what Aiteo is doing.” Pinnick stated in his poignant speech to eulogise Peters and Aiteo. The most intriguing moment of the event was the presentation of awards to the Super Eagles Class of 94. Among those present to receive the award in person were: Peter Rufai, Daniel Amokachi, Augustine Eguavoen, Sunday Oliseh, Jay Jay Okocha, Samson Siasia, Edema Fuludu, Mutiu Adepoju, Alloy Agu, Nduka Ugbade, Ben Iroha, Uche Okechukwu, Finidi George, Taribo West and Victor Ikpeba. Daughter of late Super Eagles forward, Rashidi Yekini also walked the stage to receive her father’s award. Speaking on behalf of the 94 team, Sunday Oliseh said “Indeed it is a great one for me and my teammates, those of us alive; we are very proud and it is also a moment to reflect on those who have passed on.” The event ended with the presentation of the awards for the Player of the year in the Male and Female categories, won by Ahmed Musa and Onome Ebi respectively.

Nigerian ambassador commends Integral support for Super Falcons

igeria’s ambassador to the Republic of France, Dr (Mrs) Modupe Irele, has commended Integral, the official hospitality services provider for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™. She also promised adequate support for the Super Falcons when they fly Nigeria’s flag in June. In a meeting at the Nigerian Embassy in Paris with the managing director of Integral, Abimbola Ilo, Dr (Mrs) Irele applauded the efforts of the company to ensure successful handling of Nigeria’s travelling fans during the tournament. A strong advocate for women empowerment, Dr Irele sees the appointment of Integral as an important one to promote and support women’s football in Nigeria. With France as the host country, she believes the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ is a unique avenue to further strengthen Franco-Nigerian relations as she welcomed Nigerians to France. Being the first female Nigerian Ambassador to France, Dr Irele said: “Women’s football is fast growing and I am happy to welcome Nigerians to this prestigious tournament in France. I encourage Nigerians to come and support Nigeria’s Super Falcons who are the reigning African Champions. “I commend Integral for using its position to not only promote women’s football but also to create an unforgettable experience for Nigerians to enjoy French culture, which will promote Nigeria-France relations”. In his response, Abimbola Ilo said: “We are pleased to have the

Modupe Irele, Nigeria’s ambassador to France, with Abimbola Ilo, managing director at Integral

support of Ambassador Modupe Irele and are committed to delivering a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience for our clients in France. The Super Falcons are the most successful African team in women’s football and the hospitality packages are a way to not only watch the team in comfort but also to enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of iconic French host cities”. Integral, Nigeria’s leading sports marketing, management and hospitality agency has been appointed as the exclusive sales agent of MATCH Hospitality in Nigeria for the sale of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ official hospitality packages. The 8th edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup is scheduled to hold from 7th June – 7th July 2019. Nigeria will be one of the 24 countries challenging for the ultimate prize and have been grouped with the hosts, France. The Super Falcons take on Les Bleues on June 17, 2019, in Rennes, a match the Ambassador says she is looking forward to. It has also been tipped to be one of the most exciting group stage matches.

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Experience London in Lagos, at Brass and Copper in Lekki

Seafood pasta N7,000 Grilled Salmon N9,000 2 Tutti Frutii milkshakes N5,000 TOTAL BILL: N21,0000 Contact: https://www.instagram.com/brassandcopperofficial/

To make recommendations or for collaborations please send an email to lehle.balde@businessday.ng

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Politics & Policy

Friday 05 April 2019

2019 presidential election: l have fulfilled my promise - Buhari Tony Ailemen, Abuja

resident Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he fulfilled the promise he made to Nigerians that his electioneering campaigns would not negatively affect governance. The President had on the eve of the 2019 Presidential campaigns, declared that “governance would not take the back seat in spite of his busy campaign schedules to all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory” Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement on Thursday listed 10 major landmark achievements said to have been made by the government despite the busy engagements of the President who had to tour all the 36 states and the FCT during the electioneering campaigns, starting from January to March, 2019. President Buhari had during the period, inaugurated the Presidential Technical Advisory Committee on the Implementation of the

Muhammadu Buhari

National Minimum Wage (PTAC), with a mandate to advise the Federal Government on how best to fund, in a sustained manner, the additional costs of implementing the imminent increase in the National Minimum

Wage. The Committee, chaired by Mr. Bismarck Rewane, submitted its report on Monday, March 25, 2019. Also in January 2019, President Buhari submitted a National Minimum Wage

Amendment Bill to the National Assembly for passage, following the approval of the National Council of State. The Bill is now awaiting presidential assent. Presidency listed the Strategic Revenue Growth Ini-

Buhari lost Ondo due to anti-party activities - APC leader YOMI AYELESO, Akure

member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ali Olanusi has decried the level of anti-party activities of some members of the party in Ondo State in the recently concluded general election. Olanusi said that the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, as the 2019 Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), lost in the state due to the anti-party activities which members of the party engaged in before the general election. He said this during a stakeholders’ meeting held in Akure, to appraise the performance of the ruling party in both the Presidential, and the National Assembly election in the state. The APC Chieftain, who was also an erstwhile Deputy Governor of Ondo State, accused the Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu of initiating the members of APC in Ondo State into anti-party activities after failing to secure the party’s tickets for his preferred candidates in the just concluded National Assembly election.

Olanusi said Akeredolu orchestrated anti-party activities by directing the members of the ruling APC in the state to work for some candidates of Action Alliance (AA) in the 2019 general election held in the state. The BoT member noted that though the stalwarts of the party had raised the alarm over the anti-party activity of the governor earlier before the poll but added that leadership failed to quickly act before the election. “If Buhari had won the presidential elections in Ondo state, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu would have gotten the credit despite working against the party, APC in Ondo State. “And we had envisaged this problem in Ondo State, and that is why we cried to the National leadership of the party on the anti-party activities of Governor Akeredolu. “But they failed to listen to us, and didn’t recognised our voice then; for me, I am for the growth and unity of the party. And we shall progress. “So, we must not allow the monster, who is an ingrate and has no fear of God including respects for elders, and colleagues to come back

and rule us here again.” According to him, “Let not allow ourselves to be monetised by other politicians but to educate our people while we should vote for right candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in the state. “We must learn how to come together and appreciate each other. A divided house cannot stand; we need to work as a team so that our party can move forward. “We recorded 54 percent in 2015 presidential election when we did not have APC as state government; now as state controlled by APC we performed woefully,” he said. Similarly, Isaac Kekemeke, a formal chairman of APC in the state, said the fund disbursed to Ondo State by National leadership of the party for 2019 general election was diverted by Governor Akeredolu. Kekemeke, who explained that Governor Akeredolu was the major financial of the Action Alliance (AA) in Ondo State, said there is need for the party leaders to intervene on the anti-party activities of the governor before the 2020 Ondo governorship election. “The governor worked against the APC and he re-

tiatives (SRGI) programme of launched by Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, in Abuja, in January as part of the achievements The initiative is aimed at achieving sustainability in revenue generation, Identifying new and enhance the enforcement of existing revenue streams, as well as achieving cohesion in the revenue ecosystem (people and tools). The President also signed Executive Order 007 of 2019, as an instrument for Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme. The scheme will enable companies that are willing and able to spend their own funds on constructing roads to their factories or farms, will recover their construction costs by paying reduced taxes, over a period of time. Under the first phase, 19 road Projects are to be undertaken by 6 leading manufacturing and construction firms, in 11 States, and in each of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones, Dangote Industries Limited; Lafarge Africa Plc; Unilever Nigeria Plc; Flour

Mills of Nigeria Plc; Nigeria LNG Limited; and China Road and Bridge Corporation Nigeria Limited, were approved to embark on the projects During the same period, the President also assented to the new Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), Nigeria’s first unified and comprehensive Competition legislation. The new Act establishes the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), to replace the Consumer Protection Council. President Muhammadu Buhari also on February 9th, commissioned the NSIA - LUTH advanced cancer treatment centre located in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), IdiAraba, Lagos. The public-private partnership (PPP) project valued at $11m is between the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital LUTH and is designed to offer world class cancer diagnostic services, using advanced radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.

Group urged APC to decentralise Senate principal positions ally didn’t want President Muhammadu Buhari to win the 2019 presidential election because they did not work for him in Ondo State, rather they all worked for their Action Alliance party,” he said. However, Segun Ajiboye, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, in his reaction said it was rather unfortunate that an elderly person, the former Deputy Governor, would make such frivolous allegations. “However, it must be noted that Governor Akeredolu is a disciplined and devoted party man. “True, the outcome of the recently concluded presidential election was unfortunate, but the governor immediately set to work and put all the necessary machinery in place for the governorship and legislative election. “The result is out there for everybody to see. In a resounding victory, the party won 23 of 26 seats in the recently concluded House of Assembly election. “It is important to note that Olanusi and every other member of the party in Ondo State should come forward and join hands with the governor in this onerous task of developing our state.”

…drums support for Kalu’s ambition Iniobong Iwok

group, Justice and Equity Forum, has urged the leadership of the Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone principal offices of the upper chamber of the National Assembly amongst the six geopolitical zones in the country to ensure balance, equity and justice, saying that the position of the Deputy Senate President should be zoned to the South East. The group stated that former governor of Abia State and the Senator-elect for Abia North Senatorial district, Orji Uzor Kalu remains the best Senator from the South-eastern Nigeria to occupy the position of the Deputy Senate President in the 9th National Assembly. According to the group, “The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senators elected on the platform of the ruling party go through the consultation and final process of selecting the leadership of the Senate, we the Justice and Equity Forum (JEF), wishes to appeal to the stakeholders to call for zoning of the principal of-

fices amongst the six geopolitical zones in a manner that would ensure balance, equity and justice.” In a statement to journalists in Lagos, signed by the group’s national coordinator, Ikenna Ahumibe, noted that Kalu’s dedication towards the building of the APC and the success of the Buhari administration was obvious for all to see. The group stated that Kalu possesses the required experience to occupy the position, having been a successful business man, recognised and respected across the country, stressing that the position would afford him the opportunity to further build the APC in Southeastern Nigeria. “We believe that making Kalu the Deputy Senate President would not be out of place. Since his entry into APC, Kalu has devoted his energy and resources towards promoting the party’s political interests and agenda; and becoming the deputy Senate president would further provide him the platform to achieve more, especially in terms of making APC rooted in the South East geopolitical zone of the country,” it said.

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BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Thursday 04 April 2019

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 04 April 2019 LOSERS

GAINERS Company FO VITAFOAM OANDO ZENITHBANK STERLNBANK

Opening

Closing

Change

Opening

Closing

Change

N24.95

N27.4

2.45

MOBIL

N178

N170

-8

N3.57

N3.85

0.28

CAP

N37.4

N33.7

-3.7

N4.8

N4.95

0.15

DANGCEM

N190

N189

-1

N20.4

N20.5

0.1

UNILEVER

N35.7

N35

-0.7

DANGFLOUR

N8.5

-0.5

N2.48

N2.55

Company

0.07

Stock investors lose additional N44bn …Year-to-Date returns at -5.97% Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

he bears continued their reign on Thursday April 4 at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), causing equity investors to book additional loss of about N43.42billion at the close of trading. With just 11 gainers as against 18 losers, the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns moved further into the negative territory to -5.97percent. The NSE All Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.39percent to close at 29,553.12 points from a high of 29,668.73 points the preceding day. Also,

the value of listed stocks closed at N11.100trillion against preceding day high of N11.144trillion. Forte Oil Plc recorded the largest value increase, from N24.95 to N27.4, adding N2.45 or 9.82percent; also, Vitafoam moved up from N3.57 to N3.85, adding 28kobo or 7.84percent. Oando Plc increased from N4.8 to N4.95, adding 15kobo or 3.13percent. On the losers table, Mobil Oil Plc recorded the highest dip, from N178 to N170, losing N8 or 4.49percent. CAP Plc was down from N37.4 to N33.7, losing N3.7 or 9.89percent; while Dangote Cement Plc dropped from N190 to N189, losing N1 or 0.53percent.

“The steep downtrend of the main index eased as losses tempered. The first trading week of the quarter will likely end in red even as declines continue to soften. However, as the All-Share Index dipped below 30,000 on Wednesday for the first time since January 9th, 2019, we see the possibility of investors bargaining on attractive entry prices of stocks across the board”, said research analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities Limited. In 4,133 deals, stock traders exchanged 499,087,955 units valued at N2.894billion. Sterling Bank Plc, Chams Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and UBA Plc were actively traded stocks on the NSE.

Dangote Sugar Refinery posts N34.6bn profit

igeria’s largest sugar producer, Dangote Sugar Refinery has announced a profit before tax of N34.6 billion for the financial year ended December 31, 2018. A breakdown of the result released on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated that while gross profit stood at N39.7 billion, the refinery earned revenue of N150.4 billion. The Board has recommended a dividend payout of N1.10 kobo per ordinary share of 50k to be paid to shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2018. This is subject to shareholders’ approval at the 13th Annual General Meeting of the Company. In terms of volume, seasonal sugar production at Savannah Sugar was 12,375 tonnes; full year refinery production at Apapa 564,785 tonnes, while Group sugar sales volume was

581,504 tonnes. Ravindra Singhvi, Chief Operating Officer, Dangote Sugar Refinery while speaking on the results said, “Though we maintained our market leadership position in the sugar sector, year 2018 was very challenging due to the impact of unlicensed sugar, smuggled and sold in our key markets nationwide, and the logistics challenges brought about by the continued Apapa traffic gridlock. The gridlock constrained availability of trucks required daily to evacuate the production volumes, while the influx of smuggled sugar exerted a downward pressure on selling prices. “Despite efforts being deployed by the regulators to stem the tide, the influx of smuggled sugar into the markets spread further across our key markets in the North East and North West. We are currently focusing on process optimisation and the realisation of

our Sugar Backward Integration Projects targeted at the production of 1.08 million metric tonnes of sugar in 6 years; from our various projects across the country.” Dangote Sugar is Nigeria’s largest producer of household and commercial sugar with 1.44M MT refining capacity at the same location. The refinery located at Apapa Wharf Ports Complex, refines raw sugar imported from Brazil to white, Vitamin A fortified refined granulated white sugar suitable for household and industrial uses. Its subsidiary, Savannah Sugar Company Limited, factory located at Numan, in Adamawa State, is an integrated sugar production facility, with an installed factory capacity of 50,000 tonnes. Covering 32,000 hectares, the Savannah estate has considerable opportunity for expansion which is underway as part of the Dangote Sugar for Nigeria Project, campaign.

ASI (Points) DEALS (Numbers) VOLUME (Numbers) VALUE (N billion) MARKET CAP (N Trn

29,553.12 4,133.00 499,087,955.00 2.894

Global market indicators FTSE 100 Index 7,401.94GBP S&P 500 Index 2,868.54USD -4.86-0.17% Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 26,333.00USD +93.00+0.35%

11.100

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 11,988.01EUR +33.61+0.28% Nikkei 225 21,724.95JPY +11.74+0.05% Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 3,246.57CNY +30.28+0.94%

Union Bank grows full year pre-tax profit by 33% to N18.5bn

nion Bank of Nigeria Plc has released its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018. The Group financial highlights shows Profit Before Tax (PBT) went up by 33percent to N18.5billion from N13.9billion as at December 31, 2017. The bank’s earnings went down by 11percent to N145billion, from N168billion in 2017 due to 8percent drop in loan book. Net Revenue After Impairments was up by 16percent to N93.5billion, compared to N80.64billion in 2017. NonPerforming Loan Ratio

(Bank) was down to 8.1percent, from 20.8percent as at December 31, 2017. Customer Deposits was up 7percent to N857.6billion against N802.4billion as at December 2017. Operating Expenses was up from N66.7billion in 2017 to N75.0billion as at December 2018. Following the successful execution of the bank’s debut local currency bond issue to raise N13.5billion and the tightening up of its loan portfolio, Union Bank said it is well positioned to continue executing key business priorities in 2019. Speaking on the Group’s results for the year, Emeka Emuwa, MD/CEO, Union

Bank of Nigeria Plc said, “Our priorities in 2018 were three pronged; enhancing our productivity across board; tightening up our loan portfolio (especially resolving key large exposures which drove NPLs up significantly at the end of 2017); and optimising the Bank’s capital and funding base. “I am pleased to report that we made significant strides in each focus area. Notwithstanding a depressed economic environment and a challenging operating landscape, our efforts to optimise productivity delivered results”, he noted.

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Friday 05 April 2019

Markets + Finance ‘Providing proprietary research, commentary, analysis and financial news coverage unmatched in today’s market. Published weekly, Markets & Finance provides all the key intelligence you need.’

Managing ‘Emotional Returns’ in investments is key to staying on track – Alexis Calla

n our 2019 outlook, one of the key messages that we have constantly communicated over the years is the importance of diversification. While we get the sense that some of our investors have been heeding this message, it is also clear that some are yet to be convinced. This year, in conversations with some clients, we introduced the idea of “emotional” investment returns, highlighting that the way you implement diversification can have an impact on how your investment returns affect you. This can, in turn, impact your future investment decisions which could be detrimental to your long term financial returns. This idea clearly resonated with them and we decided to share it more broadly. One of my favourite books is Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman is a Nobel prize winner for his research (with Amos Tversky) into behavioural biases. One of their theories is “prospect theory”, which states that “the pain of losing is 2 times greater than the pleasure of winning”. Let’s examine the recent performance of a couple of different asset classes in recent times to demonstrate the importance of this finding. One of the most popular asset classes in 2018 was US equities, which rose 11.2% from its start of the year level of 5212 to its 5794 peak-level in September, before falling 14.0% from the peak to its year-end level of 4984. From a “classic financial” point of view, if this was the person’s only investment (let us say USD 10,000), the loss would have been 4.4%. Not ideal, but hardly the end of the world. However, from an “emotional” point of view it was probably a lot worse. Taking Kahneman’s 2:1 emotional cost/benefit ratio into account, the investor would have experienced 11.2 gain in ‘emotional points’ followed by a 28 points loss (2 multiply by 14), before arriving at a net loss of 8.8 “emotional points”. What an emotional roller coaster! But what about an investor who got intrigued by our call for

Alexis Calla

diversification? There are two potential ways to achieve this. One way is to invest equally in two different funds. The second is to invest in a fund that has a 50:50 split between the two asset classes. While they are financially equivalent (assuming the fund manager invests in the same underlying assets), emotionally they can be very different. To work fully, financially as well as emotionally, diversification requires investors to look at their investments as a pool and not as a set of separate items. Another Nobel prize winner, Richard Thaler, established that many of us have a tendency called “mental accounting” that often prevent us from looking at things in totality. What this means is we all have the tendency to look at each individual line of an investment portfolio. This can influence us to make suboptimal decisions.

Developing the above analysis further, let’s take the example of an investor who decided to split her US equity investment, allocating USD 5,000 to global bonds. On

‘‘

this second investment, she would have made a loss of 1.9% (loss of 3.8 “emotional points”) through to the peak in the US stock market and then a gain of 0.7% (gain

The risk of ignoring the investor’s ‘emotional’ pain would be so great that they would sell what is hurting them. Not only could this distract them from their longterm objectives, but in this instance, it would also have meant selling equities just before the strong rally we subsequently saw since the turn of the year (+11.8%)

BD MARKETS + FINANCE Analysts: BALA AUGIE

of 0.7 “emotional points”) in the remainder of the year for a net loss of 2.4 “emotional points” over the year. The combination of the two investments would have been a 4.6% gain through to the peak in the US stock market and then a loss of 7.1% in the remainder of the year for a net loss of 2.8% over the year. But “mental accounting” would have prevented our investor from aggregating ‘emotional’ returns, the equity allocation remaining a painful 8.8 “emotional points” loss. However, for the investor who decided to invest USD 10,000 in one fund that diversified across both US equities and global bonds, her return would have been 4.6% (4.6 “emotional points”) through September and then a loss of 7.1% (-14.2 “emotional points”) in the remainder of the year for a net -5.6 “emotional points” loss. As you can see, the financial return is clearly the same at each point, but the ‘emotional’ returns can be very different if the investor mentally accounts for each individual investment. When using a balanced product, the reduction in the ‘emotional’ pain during the equity market fall (-14.2 points vs -28 points) far outweighs the loss of ‘emotional’ gain up to the peak period (4.6 points vs 11.2 points). The risk of ignoring the investor’s ‘emotional’ pain would be so great that they would sell what is hurting them. Not only could this distract them from their long-term objectives, but in this instance, it would also have meant selling equities just before the strong rally we subsequently saw since the turn of the year (+11.8%). Helping our clients make less biased investment decisions is one of our key objectives at Standard Chartered Bank. The above academic research, together with our day-to-day experience with clients, suggests investors should allocate a significant portion of their investments to core diversified holdings as we believe this will help them manage their emotions and stay on track when it comes to their longterm financial goals.

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 05 April 2019

INTERVIEW “We must accept that WA Monetary Union in 2020 is not a possibility,” AfDB Chief The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) on Tuesday launched two reports - the 2019 African Economic and West African Regional Economic Outlook, both of which provide detailed economic and social analysis of key development trends across countries in the region, comparing progress over time while linking regional integration and the level of economic transformation in different countries. At the launch, EBRIMA FAAL, Senior Director, AfDB, Nigeria Country Department, briefly spoke to ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Businessday’s Abuja Bureau Chief and CYNTHIA EGBOBOH on major highlights of these reports. Faal says that Nigeria must move faster with growth to facilitate economic expansion in the region and particularly expressed fears that the 2020 West African Monetary Union deadline may not happen. He further advised on the need to draw lessons from mega regional blocks such as the European Union and current challenges presented by BREXIT. EXCERPTS…

ive us quick highlights of the 2019 Economic outlook for Africa and West Africa just launched The two reports are part of the knowledge reports that the bank produces every year and this is the 19th year of production for the Africa economic and for the regional, we just started it last year. Essentially, what we are trying to do, is to do a comprehensive review and analysis of the economies of the member countries of the entire Africa continent and support that with the regional analysis that gives a more granular look at activities in the countries. We have also tried to make the report readily available by putting them in the most popular languages across the continent, we are doing eight languages now. It is a report that is well received, this year’s version we decided to launch the West African version in Abuja. The main highlights really are that ; the region is growing at the rate of 3.5 percent, interest rate is coming down not as quickly as we would like to see, but it has come down significantly. Fiscal deficits are still on the high side, we have seen some improvement in some countries including Nigeria and external balances are still in deficit as well. So it’s sort of a mix bag of results. In terms of Nigeria in particular, we have seen recovery from the recession since 2016. Last year we recorded a growth of about 1.9 percent, we have seen some very encouraging signs during the report which is that the big risk going into 2019 was the election and I think that has at least panned out okay. Interestingly, I was in Lagos last week and a lot of the big hotels were actually 100 percent booked, and that is an indication of investments coming back into the country. We see over the medium term that growth is improving for Nigeria, we also note that the lections went well which reduces risk, we are also beginning to see sort of more steadfast and accelerated implementation of the ERGP. Other things are good, not only for Nigeria but because Nigeria is 75 percent of the region, it is good for the region. If you look at the regional growth before 2017, it actually was declining very quickly and that is because of the Nigerian recession. So, I think prospects are

Ebrima Faal

looking good, they are important downside risks, including the fact that commodity prices could reverse and there is a small improvement happening now. Two, we in some countries that debt is increasing in the level of external debt in particular but also very importantly in Nigeria for example domestic debt, we don’t think that it has reached crisis level or systemic to lead to crisis at the moment, but the trend is a bit worrying and we really need to watch that very carefully. Is there a concern for you, or the Bank around the

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Think that if we are having a honest conversation, we must have to accept that monetary union in 2020 is not a possibility. So far, not many people are saying it, but that’s a reality

fact that Africa is still dependent on what goes on in the commodity markets, how can we begin to move out of this circle? It is a concern, we note that even when Africa was growing, there region was growing at 5 percent or more, we were not seeing it transform into jobs for example or reducing poverty levels and from the analysis that we have done and what others have done, we discover that a lot of that is that we are still producing primary commodities and we are not transforming those commodities. So on the bank side when Adesina came in, we sort o9f focused on some priorities, one was ofcourse the “feed Africa” which is agriculture and the second is “industrialize Africa”, which is trying to make sure that not only do we grow agriculture but how do we then transform those agriculture into finished products that are manufactured. So in the process, as you move from primary production in agriculture towards industrialization, there is whole lot of jobs that have been created, whether in the services sector, distribution and actual manufacturing itself. So, I think this is where we have been advising our member countries to move across the whole value chain and not just to move and improve the value chain in cassava, cashew nuts etc to but also ensure that we are linking up to other interna-

tional and global value chains realizing this is the only way we can create sustainable jobs. How huge is the impact of the Nigeria fragile growth on the entire African economy? It is cyclical, let’s go back before 2016 when Nigeria was growing real fast, I think the average growth was about 5-6 percent or so at the time. At that time, the region was enjoying also Nigeria’s rapid growth. So as Nigeria fell in the down cycle, then everybody in the region felt it and it is not just the region but the continent. When Nigeria, Angola and South Africa grow, the African continent also grows. So I don’t think of it as a problem, the fact of life is that the economies will always go in cycles, so we just try to make sure that the down cycle is not as long or as deep as it can be. And in the case of Nigeria really, it wasn’t a really long down deep cycle, it was a deep cycle but then it rebounded quite quickly and that is good news for the region. There were some other very good performance like I said in my introduction, Ivory Coast is growing at 7.4 percent, Senegal is growing at 7 percent and what we are seeing in those countries is that they have over the last five years invested heavily in infrastructure and then the benefits of that they are now beginning to reap.

What potential do you think the Continental Free Area Agreement holds for the continent, how would you advice countries to sign on, going forward? The Continental Free Trade is important, as you saw in the presentation. If you take the whole of Africa with fragmented markets, one country in Europe has a higher economy than the whole of Africa, that is clearly unacceptable. So trade and regional connectivity infrastructure is important and I think that the ACFTA is quite important in that regard. I think it is a process, countries have to go through their own internal review processes, have to go their legislatures and cabinets before they can approve it. I am confident that in no distant future, Nigeria will be on board after it has done its own due-diligence so to speak, but a lot of big countries are already in, South Africa and others. And Nigerian government has said that once they have completed their studies at the right time, they will also be joining but I think they know ofcourse the importance of CFTA. West African economies have set a 2020 deadline for monetary union, what lessons do you think we should learn from Brexit as we progress? Well, from Brexit, we are not there yet in terms of having that kind of union. What I was saying in the presentation was that the head of states at the ECOWAS have said that by 2020, we should have a single currency for the West African region. Now, any economist will tell you that to have a monetary union, the economies comprising that union must have the same macroeconomic variables such as the deficit, growth, inflation, interest rates, all of that must converge and that is not happening in West Africa yet. Their fiscal deficits are all over the place, inflation is about 12 percent in Nigeria and higher in some countries. Debt and deficit levels are also extremely high, so there is no convergence, there is a lot of asymmetry in terms of the macro economic variables and I think that if we are having a honest conversation, we must have to accept that monetary union in 2020 is not a possibility. So far, not many people are saying it, but that’s a reality.

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Nigeria’s blood shortage means survival... Continued from page 1

supply deficit nears 2 million.

Of the estimated 1,336,000 total number of blood units needed by Nigeria each year, Nigeria Blood Transfusion Service says approximately 1,130,000 units of blood are collected annually through the various types of donations, leaving a deficit of over 206,000 units. The voluntary donors are the altruistic individuals who donate blood with the sole aim of saving a life, without regard to any form of inducement. They are usually mobilised through the mass media or blood donation drives to schools, churches and mosques. The family replacement donors donate for a hospitalised relative, friend, or associate without expectations of remuneration. The sole focus is to save life. However, chronic blood deficit coupled with increased poverty in Nigeria has been fuelling the rise of the commercial crop of donors who give blood strictly for monetary gratification. These have continued to increase in number and prominence in Nigeria, fuelled by the very huge deficit in blood supply and utilisation. But still, shortages severely trim people’s chances of survival. According to Lifebank, a tech start-up ensuring efficiency in the mode of blood distribution to Lagos hospitals in the best conditions,

lack of access to blood as and when needed is both a problem of scarcity and affordability. The company has moved 13,000 pints of blood to save 3,100 lives but in all of these, calls from indigent quarters still come through seeking for help. Lagos resident Abigail Chima’s husband was in one of the worst conditions when they reached out to Lifebank for assistance. There was no penny left from the trouble of holding three sessions of dialysis weekly due to the failure of her husband’s kidney. In fact, at the point they called, the dialysis sessions had dropped to one but he needed a sufficient amount in his system to make it happen. Her husband was supplied blood free of discovery and screening fee. “It wasn’t easy. There was no money. There nothing. Dialysis that was done three times a week began to be done two and later on, once a week. We had to beg for blood to keep him alive. But at the end of everything, I lost him,” she explained tearfully. In the case of about 10 children under the watch of Dorcas Foundation, the blood scarcity issue arose around May 2018. Despite operating in collaboration with teaching hospitals to access sufficient and right amount for its mostly cancer patients, not a pint of blood was in view when transfusion need arose. A particular child was moved to Ogun State from Lagos in search of blood.

“Accessing blood for the children that we support has not been easy. It led us to research an organisation called Lifebank. Since then, they enrolled us on their CSR platform,” Akinkorede Akindele, programme officer, Dorcas Foundation, told BusinessDay. To sustain the positive response to these growing calls for help, Lifebank is raising about N100 million from corporate donors under an initiative called Blood Oxygen Access Trust (BOAT). The initiative billed for launch on World Health Day will dedicate resources to ensure that blood is collected from eligible donors in the country, screened, and distributed to indigent Nigerians in time of need. “BOAT is basically this idea of ensuring that the general population has access to blood. About 76 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day and a significant chunk of them will need blood,” Temie Giwa-Tubosun, Lifebank’s founder, told BusinessDay. “The average cost of a pint of blood is around N12,000 and most people need about two or more pints. So if you need two pints of blood and your income is not that significant, where are you going to get the money? Almost 75 percent of health spending in Nigeria comes of out people’s pocket which means that you have to pay for it. Many people don’t have insurance. A lot of times, they would call us begging for help and many times we have served them free of charge,” Giwa-Tubosun said. Lack of access to blood could be the difference between life and

Anglophone West Africa, AFREXIMBANK; George Etomi, principal partner, George Etomi & Partners; Brent Omdahl, US commercial counsellor; Chijioke Ugochukwu, executive director, Fidelity Bank, and Emma Esinnah, director, AFC, at the public presentation of Africa Franchise Index in Lagos, yesterday. Pic by Pius Okeosisi

CBN, Bankers’ Committee set up N200bn... Continued from page 1

tion fund for export business at a single-digit interest rate.

The 10-year tenure loan is targeted at boosting palm oil, cocoa, sesame seeds, shea and cashew exports, as well as the creative industry. The intervention fund is expected to help generate employment, boost economic activities and bring relief to foreign exchange issues. Kennedy Uzoka, group managing director/CEO of UBA, while briefing the media after the Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos, said the findings of sub-committee set up by the Bankers Committee after its annual retreat in December 2018 was that the industry has a lot of policies but the challenge has been on execution. The committee therefore broke down the challenges into seven broader areas, part of which include finance, logistics and policies, he said. “In terms of the policies that drive export, we believe that a lot of them need to be changed and we know about the congestion at the port, so we looked at all these things and

grouped them into immediate, midterm and long-term because some we cannot address within a very short period,” Uzoka said. Herbert Wigwe, group managing director/CEO, Access Bank plc, spoke on the creative services and IT sectors, saying a lot more work has been done and that there are four verticals of the sector, including movies, music, ICT and fashion. “What we have decided to do it to take it to the next level which is basically to revisit the entire value chain of each of these verticals, right from the production facilities – all the way to the last mile in terms of capacity building, making sure that whatever is produced along each of the verticals is such that is of worldclass standard,” Wigwe said. He said the Bankers Committee has got the final nod to take the initiative to the next level. “By next week there will be some advertorials out in the market for eligible people who want to participate in each of the verticals,” he added. Wigwe said it is a big initiative

which will do a couple of things to the country. As a starting point, he said it will lead to about 300,000 jobs in five years, as well as lead to a significant accumulation of foreign exchange and significant savings. Ahmed Abdullahi, director, banking supervision, CBN, said the economy had recorded positive development in spite of the headwinds before the 2019 election period. He said lending to the private sector and the economy generally had increased, adding that $6 billion came into the country from foreign investors after the 2019 general elections. Abdullahi said the committee decided to consolidate on the gains and continue with those initiatives that brought about the growth. He identified such initiatives as import substitution programme, Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, among others. Others who addressed the media include Segun Agbaje, managing director/CEO, GTBank plc, Patrick Akinwuntan, managing director/ regional executive, Ecobank Nigeria, and Isaac Okorafor, director, corporate communication, CBN.

death, according to experts. Women bleeding in childbirth have between 25 minutes and two hours to die because of lack of blood banks. Experts want the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) to be more aggressive in its campaign, saying higher government intervention could elicit positive attitudes towards donation. Globally, 108 million blood donations are collected and half of these are in high-income countries with only 62 countries obtaining 100 percent of their blood supply from voluntary donors. To donate or not There are certain benefits which a volunteer returning donor – an individual who has donated blood twice for more than a period of 10 years – can enjoy, according to Akanmu of LUTH. Studies show that they live a healthier life compared with people who have never donated before. “People who are volunteer returning donors tend to have a lifespan more than the lifespan of an average person. The lifespan of volunteer returning donors have three to five years more than an average person,” Akanmu said. When blood is lost from donation,

Friday 05 April 2019

the area in the body where that blood is formed undergoes the haemorrhagic challenge. Normally, the blood is formed on a daily basis and is destroyed on a daily basis in the body. One percent of the blood is destroyed and replaced with another one percent which comes from the bone marrow. What produces the blood in the bone marrow, red marrow, with age, becomes yellow marrow and eventually turns into white marrow. But individuals who donate regularly do not have their bone marrow ageing because it frequently undergoes the haemorrhagic challenge. When it ages, it becomes a yellow marrow which is capable of reversing to red marrow, producing more blood. “The bone marrow of an individual who is a volunteer returning donor when he or she is at 70 or 80 will look like somebody between 40 and 50. The individual also does not suffer from anaemia of the age. They do not accumulate an excessive amount of iron in their bodies,” Akanmu said. “The transfusion requirement of a community is met if 5 percent of the eligible donors donate once a year. If this happens, we will be able to meet transfusion needs,” he said.

Land prices in Eko Atlantic 40% ahead... Continued from page 2

than 500,000 residents, with commuter volume expected to exceed 300,000 people daily. The uniqueness of this city is chiefly in its self-sufficient and sustainable state-of-the-art urban design, its own power, clean water, advanced telecommunications, spacious roads with about 200,000 trees planned to be planted. The residential units will be constructed as vertical high-rise apartment towers which explain its description as Africa’s Dubai. The city enjoys considerable interest from both local and foreign investors. But in the last two years of economic slowdown in the country, Ronald Chagoury Jnr, vice chairman of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, told BusinessDay that interest has come largely from foreign investors. “What we have today is a foreign market unlike two years ago when the city was a Nigerian market,” he confirmed. It is easy to see a correlation between land values in Eko Atlantic and Manahattan Island relative to their closest neighbourhoods. “Per square foot real estate in Manhattan is the most expensive in the United States, with the average property in the borough eclipsing all other locals,” notes Catherine Clifford in a report, adding that the price beats San Francisco which is widely viewed as one of the frothiest housing markets in the country by a mile. “While Manhattan real estate is an average of $1,773 per square foot, the next most expensive area on a per square foot basis is San Francisco, which averages $902 per square foot. That’s followed by Boston at $586 per square foot, Washington D.C. at $515 andMiamiBeachat$504,”Cliffordsays. This reflects the situation is Lagos where Eko Atlantic land goes for

$1,720/N530,000 per square metre while land in Victoria Island is selling at $1,244/N379,000 per square metre and Lekki at $681/N207,000 per square metre, but their prices have risen by 14 and 15 percent, respectively, in the course of last year. Oniru land, selling at $579/N176,000 per square metre, has grown by 7 percent over the year, while Banana Island has remained stable. Ikoyi, the coveted residential and commercial real estate address in Lagos, has shown the strongest growth over the year, growing by 22 percent from $1,039/N316,000 per square metre to $1,226/N409,000 per square metre. But Eko Atlantic is still ahead. Analysts are of the view that the growth trajectory seen in Eko Atlantic land values underpins the opportunities which it has in store for savvy investors. “The city harbours great investment and growth potential and the opportunities are limitless,” an analyst who did not want his name mentioned told BusinessDay. Eko Atlantic is a response to Lagos’ housing shortage in 30 years. The city is meant to bring 250,000 new jobs and address a housing shortage brought on by a surging population. This, and the fact that it’s privatelyfunded, has lent it the support of the state and federal governments. It’s being sold to investors as a valuable foothold in Africa which is one of the world’s emerging growth markets. What makes Eko Atlantic’s development an investment haven is its location. The city borders Lagos directly and it is rising from the ashes of Lagos Bar Beach through the dredging and filling in of 10-kilometre worth of land. Before the project began in 2006, the area was virtually non-existent, giving the city the appearance of being an island created from nothing.

Ambode pushes for commissioning of... Continued from page 2

The Lagos airport road, hitherto a two-lane road in a state of neglect, is being designed as a six-lane dual carriage expressway (three-lane on both directions), two-lane service roads on both directions. The road is constructed with a ramp bridge to provide a U-turn from Ajao Estate to the airport, construction of a flyover at NAHCO/tollgate and drainage

works. It is coming with two new pedestrian bridges at Ajao Estate and NAHCO/Hajj Camp, as well as slip road to provide access to Ajao Estate, lay-bys and installation of streetlights to meet required international standard. On completion and handover, it is expected to boost Nigeria’s image given that it links to the country’s most utilised international airport.

Friday 05 April 2019

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NAMEL partners MANTRAC to deepen access to land for agric use Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja

he Nigerian Agricultural Mechanisation and Equipment Leasing Company (NAMEL) on Thursday entered into partnership with Mantrac Nigeria Limited to deepen farmers’ access to lands for agricultural use across Nigeria. Ahmed Adekunle, CEO, NAMEL, speaking at the MoU signing in Abuja, said the collaboration was aimed at opening up additional hectares of arable land with a minimum of 13,000 hectares per state and increase annual food production in the country. He said, “The main objective of this project is to open up additional 500,000 hectares of arable land with a minimum of 13,000 hectares in each state and FCT from over 47 million hectares of unused arable land in the country”. Adekunle explained that the high cost of proper agricultural land development often discouraged most investors in primary production, adding that there was need for the government to promote commercial agriculture by developing contiguous farmlands and give farmers access to lands. According to Adekunle, the project is structured to complement and optimise

government efforts and resources in land development using a cost split mechanism to support smallholder farmers and youth empowerment programmes in the country. “The project will complement and optimise the government effort in land development using a cost split mechanism to support small holder farmer and youth empowerment programs while creating a flexible investment window for medium and large scale primary production investor to open more land with less initial cost,” he said. Ahmed Ragab, managing director, MANTRAC, said the project aimed to empower farmers as well take away the financial burden from the federal, state and local government, adding that the projects had potentials of creating jobs, increasing agricultural product and ensuring food security in the country. “We are excited and confident that our presence in Nigeria will empower farmers and boost agriculture in the country. This project will create more jobs, crops, food and increased industrial activities. “The project aims at taking away the financial burden from the federal, state and local government, investors as well as the farmers through the use of flex-

ible deferred payment model while enhancing the needed capacity for small and medium scale farmers to expand their areas under cultivation and increase their productivity,” he said. Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture, said the partnership was a significant step to complement the efforts of the government to accelerate and deepen the pace of mechanisation in Nigeria, adding that there was need to compel the high population and the imperative of achieving national food sufficiency as quick as possible. “With NAMEL and MANTRAC working collaboratively as partners on this project, i believe that we shall record resounding success given your commitment and attention to details in terms of project design, complemented with flexible financial payment terms, embedded value chain development and marketing processes. “The National Agricultural Land Development project is our focus and it aims at bringing an additional 500,000 hectares across the country for cultivation and optimal use. Undoubtedly, land can be optimally used when it is prepared and developed through the application of new knowledge, enterprise and technology,” he said.

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try came en masse to say No to such sacrilege. The silence of the Muslim Ummah is the loudest of all! The attitudes of some of the authorities smack of complicity. A few years ago, a prominent Governor from one of the major northern states confessed that they had to go to neighbouring countries to pay appeasement money to restrain those behind the Fulanis killing people in the Middle Belt. He alleged that they had been on a mission to avenge the killings of their kinsmen who had been caught in the crossfire of political violence following the 2015 elections. So we are led to believe that they know who the masterminds are. The truth of the matter is that no herdsmen have been brought under the judgement for the killing of innocent people. Non-Muslims, on the other hand, are being hounded and imprisoned under the slightest pretext. A tragic example is the recent case of Kaduna State where government appears to be in complicity with the militias in destroying the Adara community in Kajuru Local Government. Official government policy swings between denial on one hand, and appeasement, on the other. The

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Since Hugo Grotius, international law and custom prescribe that people who face a direct threat to their own existential survival have both a duty and right to engage in legitimate self-defence federal government has announced a plan to create “cattle reserves” for herdsmen throughout the country. It has met with a lot of resistance for several reasons. First of all, all land in Nigeria is communally owned, with ancestral usufructuary rights going back since time immemorial. Government can appropriate land on occasion for projects of a public nature, so long as adequate compensation is made to the affected communities. Other critics believe that, through their current policies of appeasement, the administration are only trying to spread by stealth the Fulani emirate system throughout the

country through the mechanism of the so-called “cattle reserves”. They also wonder why a private business should be so expensively subsidised by our government at the expense of the rest of the citizenry. The reality of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of those killed or dispossessed are non-Muslims. There are often reprisals killings on both sides, of course, but the majority of the victims are the local farming communities. It is their lands that are often expropriated and it is their people that often found in overcrowded internally displaced refugee camps. The government, which controls the police, the army and the security services, often tends to systematically disarm the communities. They go from house-to-house in search of arms which they summarily confiscate. Only herdsmen are allowed to openly carry firearms in Nigeria. And they do so in very brazen ways; using them at the slightest opportunity as the spirit moves them. I am one of those who sincerely believe we would somehow have to accommodate genuine Nigerian pastoralists. But it would have to be part of a fair and just settlement anchored on confidence building, fairness and social justice. Forcing people to surrender their ancestral lands out of fear

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BUSINESS DAY

Lagos sweats as extreme heatwave adds to power outage woes …fuels climate change concerns ANTHONIA OBOKOH

agos, Nigeria’s largest city is currently experiencing an extreme heat wave with the temperature at record highs in most parts, including coastal areas, which is being exacerbated by poor power supply. More and more Nigerians are increasingly groaning due to rising temperatures especially in the afternoon, leading to excessively hot weather and causing discomfort. This has also been worsened by the perennial epileptic power supply, which has meant that people cannot even power their fans and air-conditioners which could have ameliorated the situation. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), said earlier in the year that 2018 was one of the hottest years and the predicted that 2019 will not be very different noting that temperatures will be very high between the month of March and May and will be abnormal during this period. “It is very clear that, our environment is in serious challenge of extreme weather events as a result of climate change, which is seen as the single most prominent risk,” Sani Abubakar Mashi directorgeneral and Chief Executive Officer NiMet, said. Scientists agree that while

individual weather events cannot be directly attributed to climate change, global warming increases the likelihood of extreme conditions. Following the persistent hot weather in Lagos and other parts of the country, at over 38 degrees Celsius, experts’ warn that Nigerians are at risk of heatstroke and advice citizens on the health implication of the sweltering temperature. “Lagos state and some other parts of the country are currently experiencing heat wave, which is a prolonged period of excessively and abnormally hot weather with temperatures exceeding 32.2oC,” said Doyin Odubanjo, Chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter. According to Odubanjo, continuous exposure to the excessive heat is dangerous and could cause health problems to anyone especially people who have medical problems such as asthma or are on medication for certain conditions. “The heat wave could lead to heat stroke and patients with heat stroke often undergo dehydration, most likely without sweat, but with weakness, seizures and/or coma which could lead to death,” he said. “Heatstroke”, also known as “sunstroke”, is a condition that occurs after prolonged exposure to very high temperature or severe physical exertion in

a hot environment in which, even though the patient is not sweating and there’s no noticeable increase in body temperature, the extreme heat does severe damage without it being detected early till it causes exhaustion for the victim. On the heat wave, Mashi of NiMet said that there are lots of diseases that tend to flourish under these conditions. “When temperatures are high, vapours of diseases normally flourish,” he said. In Nigeria, however, late detection and lack of warning systems, along with inadequate public emergency containment plans, could have wider implications. Odubanjo added that knowing the symptoms of heat exposure can prevent illness from becoming worse or life-threatening. “It is very important, for people to take off any excessive clothing, put cool clothes on, and drink cool drinks that have salt and sugar as part of ingredients, he advised. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences warns that prolonged exposure to extreme heat can cause heat exhaustion, heat cramps, heatstroke, and death, as well as exacerbate pre-existing chronic conditions, such as various respiratory, cerebral, and cardiovascular diseases.

Success as a metaphor for the crisis ...

Security, development and political order Continued from back page

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of bloodthirsty hounds can only lead to a graveyard peace. History shows incontrovertibly that appeasing murderers never works. Since Hugo Grotius, international law and custom prescribe that people who face a direct threat to their own existential survival have both a duty and right to engage in legitimate self-defence. The long-suffering peoples of the Middle Belt have a right to defend themselves if there is no one to defend them and if the government of their country has decidedly thrown its lot with genocidal murderers. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said that the greatest evil in the world arises not from lack of love but from cold indifference. We shall be killing our democracy and indeed our country if we allow such iniquity to continue to gain ascendancy. If there are still men and women of conscience left in Nigeria – as I would like to hope there are -- they cannot allow such evil to prevail. When the history of our age is written, let it not be said that we genocide to take place in our country by looking away and playing the ostrich. • Being the Text of Remarks at a One-Day Seminar on Insecurity in Nigeria, Fraser Hotel, Abuja, on Thursday 4th April, 2019

create a minimum standard of aesthetics and functionality for all the schools in his state. Success’ whole behaviour expresses a cultural eagerness to learn,which is present in Delta State, but which cannot be taken for granted all across Nigeria. Nigeria, in fact, has the largest population of out of school children in the world. It is an absolute disgrace for a nation that created a Universal Basic Education programme in 1999 which guarantees a compulsory minimum of 9 years free education (6 years Primary, 3 years Junior Secondary) to every Nigerian child. It is a law that has been respected more in the breach than in the observance, which is part of the reason for the crisis in basic education. Another part of the reason is that Nigeria in 2019 is spending only 7.05% of its budget on Education, while Ghana, her neighbour regularly spends 20-40% of its budget in the same cause. As usual officialdom tries to spin failure to look like virtue. On the website of the UBECommission are a panoply of meaningless data about how many classrooms have been built across the nation and how many text books have been bought. The statistics would have been more useful if they reflected the size

of unmet need - how many classrooms that were needed have not been built, and how many dilapidated, almost uninhabitable schools, such as Success’, were waiting to receive attention, whether from ‘federal’, ‘state’ or LGA resources. Even the scandal of out of school children – the almajiri, the young beggars, street traders, is given a positive spin on the UBEC website. They are engaged in ‘out of school learning’. A final note: Education is not just about classrooms but also about parenting. The framers of the 1999 UBE law gave a token recognition to this when they put the onus on parents ‘and guardians’ to ensure children got to school and stayed in school. What they failed to say was what the state would do where there was no active parent or guardian- which is the real problem at the heart of the Nigerian ‘out of school children’ problem. Talking about jailing parents, as the current Minister has said plays well to the gallery, and will work in Delta state, as in Lagos, and Enugu. Butit will cut no ice in Kano state and other places in the north where the real almajiri problem lies and festers. It is an issue we shall have cause to revisit, because the current situation is a prescription for present failure and future disaster.

36 BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 05 April 2019

MoneyInsight The Myth Around Literacy and Financial Inclusion ADEDEJI OLOWE, (Guest Writer)

ccording to EFInA (Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access), Financial Inclusion is “the provision of a broad range of high-quality financial products, such as savings, credit, insurance, payments and pensions, which are relevant, appropriate and affordable for the entire adult population, especially the low-income segment” (EFInA, n.d., p1). It requires that financial services (bank accounts, credit, insurance, remunerative savings, and payments and remittance systems) be available and accessible to the underbanked and unbanked. The Global Findex database showed that as of 2017, there were about 1.7 billion unbanked adults worldwide (Asli et al., 2017). The database also revealed that nearly 50% of these people lived in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan (Asli, et al., 2017) as shown in figure 1 below. The map shows that Financial Exclusion is mainly confined to the developing world. Figure 2 below shows that 4% of the world’s unbanked adults live in Nigeria. Between 40-64% of adult Nigerians are excluded from any form of financial services, and ownership of Mobile Money accounts in Nigeria stayed at between 0% and 9% between 2014 and 2017 (Global Findex Database, 2017). A recent report dubbed Nigeria “the poverty capital of the world” (Kazim, 2018) and the World Bank’s 2018 atlas of development goals showed that Nigeria had 86.9 million people living in extreme poverty (The World Bank Group, 2018). Compared to the second runner up, the Democratic Republic of Congo at 60.9 million people, that is saying something. One just can’t help wondering if our leaders care even just a tiny bit that Nigeria has overtaken India (with a population seven times that of Nigeria) as the country with the most significant number of people living below $1.90 a day (World Poverty Clock, 2019). Well, that’s a rant for another day. Financial illiteracy has been blamed for the statistics in Nigeria. It is argued that the main reasons for financial exclusion in Nigeria are poverty and illiteracy (Martin, 2008). As of 2015, the adult (15 years and over) literacy rate for Nigeria was 59.6% (Knoema Database, 2015). It is the popular belief that most financially illiterate Nigerians are the uneducated and the under-educated. Illiteracy has been linked, consciously or unconsciously, to financial illiteracy. This conception is even somewhat backed by research and statistics. But, is this really the case? Is it true

Figure 3: Top 10 African countries with extreme poverty (June 2018) Source: The World Bank Group SDG Atlas 2018 Reproduced under the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative Figure 2: Distribution of Adults without a bank account in 2017 Source: Global Findex database Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution license

that the illiterate shy away from financial instruments and services mainly because they are unable to grasp the basic concepts of finance? Is this really the full picture? Financial literacy can be defined as the ability to identify, acquire and utilize financial information and services independently. It is demonstrated by the ability to display the basic skills needed to function in the present economy. These basic skills include numeracy, problem-solving and general prose literacy (Robson, 2012), as well as the ability to figure out abstract things. The interesting thing is that the very same basic skills are required to get a grasp of mobile smartphone technology as well. In fact, it can be argued that mobile telephone technologies are much more complex than financial technologies. This, however, hasn’t stopped the developing world from taking up mobile technology. Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest-growing mobile region in the world (Damian, 2018) with over 400 million mobile subscribers and an overall subscriber penetration rate of 44% (GSMA, 2018). About 250 million of these mobile subscribers own a smartphone (Damian, 2018) and this figure is expected to grow to 690 million by 2025 (GSMA, 2018). And believe me, not all those 690 million smartphone owners will be university graduates. Just ask the Bodaboda driver in Uganda or Bàba Làsìsì who sells beef in Sábó market. The big question now is: if digital inclusion is exploding across the continent, why then isn’t the same true for financial inclusion? When mobile phones first hit the scene in 1983 with the Motorola

Figure 4: Mobile subscription and penetration in Nigeria and Africa Source: Jumia Mobile Report: Nigeria 2018

DynaTAC 800x, they seemed so advanced and brain-wracking, and they came with fat user manuals. The Motorola DynaTAC 800x cost almost $4,000, was about a foot long, and had a battery life of a half hour. IBM’s Simon was probably the world’s first commercially available smartphone. It cost about $1, 099 and was equipped with a calendar, address book, clock, notepad, PDA, email service, fax service, a QWERTY keyboard, and a touchscreen. In the 26 years since Simon’s debut, smartphones have come a long way. They have become more affordable and pretty easy to use. In order to stay competitive, phone makers have had to “dumb down” the previously complex technologies that run these devices by hiding these technologies behind easy to use interfaces. We went from having to tap like a million times just to get to the figure 9 to QWERTY phone pads with emojis. Even my three-year-old niece can pick out the camera and YouTube icons in

a heartbeat and knows to swipe to unlock her mum’s phone. Now, Bàba Làsìsì, who didn’t go beyond primary 6 and who can’t speak a lick of English, has WhatsApp on his phone and can torment all his friends and kids with random broadcast messages that threaten doom and damnation if you don’t forward them to 20 people. He didn’t need a degree or the ability to speak Queen’s English to be able to take selfies on his phone or to send a message to Mama Put to let her know that her cuts of meat are ready. The figure below shows that a larger percentage of Nigerians can carry out several functions on a smartphone than are able to perform financial transactions. Why have people taken to mobile technology in a way that has seemed impossible with financial services and products? The truth is that people simply developed functional literacy around mobile phones – how to identify numbers,

key in airtime tokens, read balances, etc. It helped that the mobile phone developers made the technology accessible and within reach of everyone, educated or not. The user interfaces on phones are very intuitive and make navigating the otherwise overwhelming world of technology pretty straight forward. It is easier for Bàba Làsìsì to recognize the phonebook icon and call button on his phone than for him to wrap his head around the notion of a revolving line of credit. What then is this telling us about the so-called illiterate Nigerian? Illiteracy doesn’t necessarily mean that people are dumb or have low IQ. Illiteracy is mostly a function of access, or a lack of it, to formal education. Illiteracy cannot take all the blame for financial illiteracy and financial exclusion. In fact, a survey carried out amongst students from a large metropolitan university in South African revealed that 17% of the respondents were financially illiterate, and 68% moderately financially illiterate (Shambare & Rugimbana, 2012). This shows that education does not necessarily imply financial literacy and that even the educated still struggle with some aspects of their finances. The world’s poor and un(der)educated don’t need to go to school or have a fancy degree to understand banking. The banks need to bring banking services and products to them right where they are intellectual. The banks need to borrow a leaf out of Apple and Samsung’s book and present financial services and products in such a way that they can be understood using functional literacy. If undergrads, who are technically considered as literate if they could get to that level of education, don’t understand the concepts of compound interest or have any idea what a credit history is, how then is the man on the streets expected to do that? these banking concepts need to be simplified and made as easy to grasp as tapping an icon on a phone screen. If using an App required having to type in some code in C++, smartphones would have died out eons ago. The simple truth is this: having a bank account should be as simple as using a mobile phone; having insurance should be as simple as understanding risk; services should be cheap enough to be within the grasps of the poor – the poor are very sensitive to pricing. In my opinion, banking for the poor should be free, and the banks should figure out how to make money off their larger customer base; understanding how your savings is performing should be as easy as saying “Ok Google.”

New innovation network seeks to create support ecosystem for start-ups

group of hubs across Nigeria has united to establish the Innovation Support Network (ISN), to develop a community that encourages best entrepreneurship practices across the country and promote knowledge sharing. The growth of the innovation sector in Nigeria over the last decade has been steady and this is evident in the quality of start-ups, mentors, angel investors, innovation hubs and other stakeholders that are participating in the fast-growing early stage entrepreneurial ecosystem. The creation of Innovation Support Network (ISN) Hubs an or-

ganisation of 75 Hubs from across Nigeria that has begun its process of registration as a legal entity and welcomes all members of the growing community of Nigerian Hubs is to achieve the goal of promoting collaboration amongst hubs supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in Nigeria. The mission of ISN Hubs Mission is to foster collaboration, inspire and support Nigerian Hubs in building a diversified economy that promotes the development of technology, innovation and the early stage entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nigeria. To ensure that ISN Hub is an

organisation that operates by worldclass corporate governance, member hubs have elected five directors to run its affairs and report to an executive committee comprising each of the founding hubs. The directors each run five directorates of the organisation namely Corporate, Finance, Partnerships, Ecosystem, and Marketing. Abdulganiyu Yakub, the corporate director, of DD Hubs, Kano said that “ISN Hubs will be governed by a constitution written collectively by members and approved by the Executive Committee.” The diverse nature of the organisation’s members is reflected in the

board’s gender balance with two female board members and a female company secretary. The directors are: Abdulganiyu Yakub, Digital Development Hub, Kano; Fayo Williams, Exponential Hub, Ikeja; Solape Agagu-Hammond, Impact Hub, Ikoyi; Hanson Johnson, Start Innovation Hub, Uyo; Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, GoDo. ng Hub, Ikeja while Christie Eze, Kedge Anchor Hub, Port Harcourt is the Company Secretary. Fayo Williams, Partnerships Director, was of the opinion that “the diversity already shown in the board formation will guide future engage-

ments that will ensure innovative women entrepreneurs will be given equal opportunities to succeed.” ISN Hubs believes that with the right kind of collaboration and partnerships, innovation will become deeper entrenched in our entrepreneurs and add tremendous value to the growth of the Nigerian economy. Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr., said “ISN Hubs is aiming to create a platform for increasing collaboration between hubs through the facilitation of the identification, exchange, and use of commercial best practices by workspaces, incubators and accelerators in Nigeria.”

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MoneyInsight Digital transformation in financial services – Part 1 objectives. A good digital innovation strategy should provide direction so employees know in which direction the organisation wants to go and why. At the end of the day innovation strategy is about action and should be specific enough to help execute in terms of how to allocate company’s budgets and where to focus on. A good innovation strategy focuses on both technological innovation and business model innovation, as not just the technology or legacy infrastructures can become obsolete, but also business models can become outdated. So, corporate innovation can be defined as a process that established businesses go through to introduce and implement new opportunities into their existing working practices. Larger organisations will often have a dedicated team to identify what the current trends and opportunities (both from a technology and business model point of view) are.

SUSANNE CHISHTI

utty Sark, United Kingdom’s legendary sailing ship built in 1869 transported tea and cocoa beans across the world. Lots of incremental innovations and design improvements made the clipper to one of the fastest sailing ships in its time. Cutty Sark made several journeys to Africa. Unfortunately, the owners did not see the disruption coming when steam technology took over and soon steam ships came to dominate the global trade routes. As a result Cutty Sark became a training ship and today you can admire her, beautifully restored at a dry dock at Greenwich, east London overlooking the shiny skyline of London’s financial centre. Will banks, asset managers and insurance companies face a similar fate, will it just be a question of time until some of them turn into museums as one author of The FINTECH Book (published by WILEY) predicted? Disruption is part of our lives: What happened to the American company Kodak and its film business when they missed to respond to the trends towards digital photography? What happened to European telecommunications giant Nokia who owned 49.40 percent of the global mobile phone market in 2007 and ignored the launch of Apple’s iPhone that same year? Disruption has started in financial services – summarised by the term FINTECH. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned of the growing competition by FinTech startups when he said in a letter to shareholders in 2015 “Silicon Valley is coming. There are hundreds of start-ups with a lot of brains and money working on various alternatives to traditional banking.” The challenge - all of us who work in Financial Services face - is that digital transformation and corporate innovation is really hard. It is very difficult for financial services companies to come up with commercially successful innovation and to build an organisation which can remain innovative on an ongoing basis. Already in 1942, the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter researched unexpected, rapid spurts of entrepreneur-driven growth and introduced the term “creative disruption”. The importance of this concept has grown steadily with an increased speed of change how companies disrupt and displace each other. Profitable big incumbents normally have a blind spot towards disruption especially when it comes from smaller, more innovative players outside their traditional set of competitors. These fintech firms lack the incumbent’s fear of disrupting existing profit streams and do not have the burden of old

Susanne Chishti

legacy systems, or the high cost structure of existing banks, investment managers or large insurance companies. In large financial services organisations, the “innovation muscles” are often weakened by growing bureaucratisation, loss of tolerance for risk, commitment to existing financial products and services and fears about cannibalising those, adherence to current business models, reliance on financial metrics to measure innovation and lack of innovation culture and leadership. Therefore it is estimated that 70 percent of organisational

‘‘

All financial services companies need to develop an innovation strategy to set the priorities between different types of innovation options and to manage the trade-off between short- and long-term innovation opportunities

change efforts fail (source: “Cracking the Code of Change”, Harvard Business Review, May-June 2000 by Nitin Noria and Michael Beer). The FINTECH Circle Institute works with financial leadership teams on Digital Transformation challenges both in the UK and globally via our FinTech MasterClasses. Below, I share a summary of the most important concepts how digital transformation can become a success including the important role the top leadership team has to play. Scale alone is not an impediment to innovation capability. In 2007, when Apple launched the iPhone, it was already 30 years old and it was number 123 on the Fortune 500 list. So what are the lessons large banks, asset managers and insurance companies can learn – how can they digitally transform their organisations? Digital Innovation Strategy It all starts with the leadership commitment to innovation and to embrace change as a matter of survival long-term. All financial services companies need to develop an innovation strategy to set the priorities between different types of innovation options and to manage the trade-off between short- and long-term innovation opportunities. It is also required to set the “tone from the top” and to align different parts of a complex organisation towards common

Innovation Capabilities For any financial institution to remain competitive two organisational capabilities are key: first, the ability to identify valuable new ideas to solve problems and second, to know how to select well between all possible choices to focus on those opportunities best for your enterprise. In order to innovate well, a diverse talent pool is important who brings a variety of functional, technical and industry know-how together as many breakthrough innovations require diverse knowledge domains. Innovation requires rapid experimentation, iteration and learning by building and testing solutions in prototypes and getting customers feedback from very early on. Corporate innovation models: Open vs Closed Innovation Closed innovation models are those where the corporation seeks to do innovation in-house to build its own digital skill base. Innovation models consist of research, internal intrapreneurship programs and internal accelerator models. Open innovation models are those where corporations work with third-party organisations including fintech startups to improve their business products and services, reduce costs or increase regulatory compliance led by an open innovation team. Open innovation models can also include innovation outposts, corporate venture capital and external acceleration programs. There is no right or wrong corporate innovation model. It depends on the organisation, their objectives and budgets – however in practise we have seen that a combination of open and closed innovation models work best. No

innovation model can be a ‘one size fit’s all’, instead they should be viewed as a guide to lead towards digital transformation. We will now look at these models in more depth. Research and development Most corporations will have some form of a research and development department/team to research market trends, new technologies and their use cases for finance and investigate ways to keep that company innovating. Across finance, we are dealing with lots of new technologies from cloud computing, to big data analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, the internet of things etcetera. Most technologies are complex and unfamiliar territory for employees in financial services companies (we will talk about the role of education and upskilling financial services employees later). The role of the R&D function among other things is to assess these emerging technologies and new business models (such as crowd-funding, peer-to – peer lending, multi-sided platform business models etc) and recommend which ones will impact the organisation and should be explored further. Education Most employees in finance need to learn more about technology innovation (to understand what is already available on the market and how it could benefit their own organisation), agile working practices such as design thinking methods and learn about new business & revenue models to decide on their product and pricing strategy overall. “FinTech” is the generic term for all types of financial technology applied to finance, consisting of several sub-verticals including: WealthTECH – the application of fintech solutions to the global investment management, wealth management and private banking sectors InsurTECH – the application of fintech solutions to the global insurance and re-insurance market RegTECH – the application of fintech solutions to support regulated entities with the compliance requirements from KYC/AML onboarding PayTECH – the application of fintech solutions to payments of all types (individual, company) and in all currencies (FX, remittance payments) LegalTECH – the application of fintech solutions to all legal work across financial services. Susanne CHISHTI, CEO and founder of FINTECH Circle & FINTECH Circle Institute providing education and courses in digital transformation leadership and fintech innovation.

38 BUSINESS DAY NEWS CBN, Bankers’ Committee set up N200bn fund for export business HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

entral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers’ Committee on Thursday established N200 billion intervention fund for export business at single digit interest rate. The 10-year tenure loan is targeted at boosting palm oil, cocoa, sesame seeds, shear and cashew exports as well as the creative industry. On the benefit of the intervention fund, it is expected to helped generate employment, boost economic activities and bring relief to foreign exchange issues. Kennedy Uzoka, managing director/CEO of UBA who said this while briefing the media after the bankers committee meeting in Lagos said the findings of sub-committee set up by the bankers committee after its annual retreat in December 2018, was that the industry has a lot of policies but the challenge has been on execution. Consequently, the committee broke down the challenges into seven broader areas, part of which include finance, logistics and policies. “In terms of the policies that drive export, we believe that a lot of them needs to be changed and we know about the congestion at the port, so we looked at all these things and grouped them into mediate, mid-term and long-term because some we cannot address within a very short period”, Uzoka said.

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‘Lack of regulation bigger threat than funds to franchising in Africa’ FRANK UZUEGBUNAM

ack of regulation, government support and nonclarity of franchise rules have been identified as bigger threat than funding to franchising business Africa. Government of most African countries has scanty understanding of franchising and its capacity to transform the fortunes of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) on the continent, according to the 2019 Africa Franchise Index report unveiled in Lagos by the Africa Franchise Centre (AFC). The report is meant to provide existing and prospective franchisors, franchisees, governments, fund

providers, regulators and the public intelligent information to make success of franchising endeavour. “The report helps to fill the data gap. You cannot move franchising forward without data. It is data that will convince people to know that there is future in franchise and also convince global franchisors to come to Africa”, Paul Arinze, director, AFC, said. The survey, a continental effort that covers 18 African countries over 3-month duration, reveals untapped potential within the franchise market. The report reveals that South Africa is leading Africa’s franchise industry but there have been an increasing number

of franchises in other African countries like Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Botswana. “The survey is perhaps the first of its kind in Africa that seeks to provide a lamp to light the path for operators and regulators alike on the continent. Its uniqueness lies in the number of countries covered. In addition, AFC interviewed a selection of US commercial diplomats in 8 West African countries,” Emma Esinnah, chairman, AFC, said. Franchising, according to the report, will unlock economic growth and prosperity in Africa where about 326 million people are estimated to spend about $2.2 trillion on buying of goods and ser-

vices by 2030. “Enterprising business people across the globe have employed the franchise business model to generate literally trillions of dollars of value to themselves, their communities and their countries. As African economies diversify, the franchise business model can and must be strategically employed to reduce downside business risk and failure,” Brent Omdahi, US Commercial Counsellor, said. The Africa Franchise Index report states that as the continent’s middle class grows, there is a corresponding increase in demand for consumer goods as well as luxury brands. This demand is clearly reflected

anagement of 9mobile has denied reports that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has nullified the sale of the telecoms company to Teleology Nigeria Limited. Reacting to some online news, the company clarified that the court hearing on April 1, 2019, was for the case of

SEGUN ADAMS

D L-R: Attahiru Jega, pro-chancellor/chairman, governing council, Plateau State University, Bokkos; Fidelia Osime, organisation/ human resources director, Lafarge Africa; Suleiman Elias Bogoro, executive secretary, TETFUND; Laoye Jaiyeola, CEO, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG); Sonny Echnono, permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, and Doyin Salami, economist/ member of faculty, Lagos Business School (LBS), during the NESG/NUC policy dialogue, with the theme “interactive Session on the Rapid Revitalisation of Higher Education in Nigeria” in Lagos, yesterday. Pic by Olawale Amoo

transfer of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service (now trading as 9mobile) licence to Teleology, the new owner, and had nothing to do with the sale, which has been finalised. “The Federal High Court, Abuja, did not nullify the sale of EMTS; the court on 1st April 2019 made an order for parties to maintain status quo as at April 25, 2018. As at the said date, EMTS (9mobile) was not

a party to the suit before the court. The action before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court is not about the sale of EMTS (9mobile) but rather, the transfer of the licence even without locus standi,” the company said in a statement sent to BusinessDay. 9mobile says it has however appealed the order and also sought an injunction pending appeal at the Court of Appeal.

Clarifying the recent reports, Ore Olajide, company secretary/legal adviser, 9mobile, said, “The sale of 9mobile to Teleology Nigeria Limited has not been nullified. The court made an order to maintain status quo as at April 25, 2018 when EMTS was not a party to the suit and we have appealed the ruling as well as sought an injunction pending appeal at the Court of Appeal”. The news of the said April 1

ruling broke online on Thursday and forced 9mobile to clarify certain issues. “These news reports are incorrect, misleading, mischievous and a total falsehood,” 9mobile said in a statement. “9mobile hereby assures our subscribers and all stakeholders to remain calm as matters are under control and we are working with our team of legal counsels to follow through as deemed necessary,” it said.

neously integrate and ISO Standards – ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management Standard), ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Standard) and ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety Standard); Achievement of its first ever Investment Grade Rating from GCR (ShortTerm: A2; Long-Term: BBB+) and Agusto (Bbb). Axxela is a designated natural gas shipper on the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP). Axxela is also the pioneering private sector-

led developer of natural gas distribution in Nigeria, delivering at peak 80 million standard cubic feet per day to over 160 industrial and commercial customers via a vast network of gas infrastructure. With over 280km in gas pipeline infrastructure built, Axxela provides unique energy solutions primarily through its subsidiaries: Gaslink Nigeria Limited, Gas Network Services Limited, and Central Horizon Gas Company Limited.

Axxela now 100% owned by Helios DIPO OLADEHINDE

xxela Limited, a fast-growing African gas and power portfolio company, has formally announced the acquisition of Oando’s remaining 25 percent interest in Axxela by Helios Investment Partners, a leading private equity firm with a focus on investments in Africa. This follows Helios’ initial purchase of a majority stake in Axxela’s gas and power business enterprise

in the food and beverages, retail and business services sectors of the economy accounting for 75.24 percent, 31.31 percent and 27.4 percent patronage of franchise business, respectively. However, prospective franchisee owners are more open to franchising opportunities in the business services sector as indicated by 63.38 percent of the sample size. It is even more important to note that 54.8 percent of consumers patronise franchise businesses at least once a month, owing to the quality of service they enjoy. This implies that the goods and services of franchise businesses enjoy significant market demand even with the current level of purchasing power.

DIDI Museum celebrates landmarks, artists with Journey to Mastery Exhibition

9mobile: Court voids transfer of licence, not sale, to Teleology Nigeria JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

Friday 05 April 2019

in December 2016. Following Oando’s divestment, Helios is now the sole principal investor in Axxela with a 100 percent ownership. Speaking on the transaction, Axxela CEO, Bolaji Osunsanya, said: “While paying homage to our storied history and legacy, our recognition as being fully owned by Helios gives us global positioning, greater financial flexibility, and access to capital going forward. “As a partner of choice,

we have immense pride in the growth, robustness, and stability of our existing business enterprise, enabling us spur the aggressive expansion of our footprint via our audacious growth initiatives in Nigeria and the West African region.” Axxela recently achieved a series of “Firsts”: First private company to attain a shipper’s licence on the West African Gas Pipeline; First company in the Nigerian oil & gas space to simulta-

IDI Museum, the first privately owned museum in Nigeria, is holding its ‘Journey to Mastery’ Exhibition that will open on April 18, 2019. The ‘Journey to Mastery’ Exhibition is a celebration of the respective journeys of DIDI Museum and two renowned Nigerian artists, Uche Edochie and Ayoola. The Exhibition started with humble beginnings and DIDI Museum has become a home, a place where art lives through its powerful and compelling artworks. The collection of works at DIDI Museum represents the common struggle, common progress and most importantly shared African character. Didi Museum is the brainchild of Chief Newton Jibunoh. His passion for art was first ignited when he visited the British Museum in the United Kingdom. Nothing could have prepared him for what he witnessed during that first visit. The artefacts he saw proudly displayed in the Nigerian section, with extensive historical data and information bore an unsettling resemblance to those, which were taken away from his village when he was a little boy. The memory of missionaries destroying artworks in Jibunoh’s earlier years in Delta State marked the beginning of DIDI’s journey. Newton Jibunoh’s desire to collect, preserve and educate fellow Africans on the beauty of African art was birthed and this led to a series of events. Upon return from his studies in the UK, he started collecting art pieces.

Friday 05 April 2019

De-registration of parties: INEC to seek amendment of Electoral Act INIOBONG IWOK

he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will require an amendment to the Electoral Act by the National Assembly before the commission can deregister any existing political party in the country. At least 90 political parties were registered by INEC to take part in the 2019 general elections, but only few of them won elective positions in the general elections. This has fuelled agitations from stakeholders for deregistration of non-performing parties. But speaking in an interview with BusinessDay, Thursday, Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and chairman of the commission’s committee on information and voter education, noted that INEC does not have the power to deregister any political party because such an action would be against the electoral Act. The INEC National Commissioner stressed that the commission had no choice but to register new parties which met its deadlines ahead of the general elections, adding that law would guide the commission on the issue.

39 NEWS Nigeria to issue first ever 30-year bonds in 2019 www.businessday.ng

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ONYINYE NWACHUKWU

....DMO puts total debt stock at N24.387trn as at end 2018

igeria’s Federal G ov e r n m e n t will for the first time issue 30year tenored bonds in 2019, given the relatively low-interest rates compared with 2017 levels of over 18 percent, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday. The DMO said the bonds issuance will meet the needs of annuity funds and other long term investors while also developing the domestic capital market and reducing the re-financing risk of the Federal Government.

“It will enable government raise long-term capital for Infrastructure, serve as benchmark for private sector raising of long-term investment capital, reduce short-term debt, as well as help deepen the Life Insurance sector in particular,” Patience Oniha, DMO’s director-general, said in Abuja while giving updates on the country’s debt status. This comes as the country hopes to achieve a 5050 balance in its domestic to foreign borrowings this year as it moves ahead with its strategy of borrowing

cheaper long term money from external sources more than locally. About N1.648 trillion has been penciled as new borrowings in 2019 - though subject to National Assembly approval - to partly fund the budget. According to the DMO boss, N824billion would be sourced locally through FGN Bonds, Sukuk, Green Bond , as well as Savings Bonds while another N824billion would be external, comprising largely concessional loans in order to achieve the 50-50 mix.

“The external loans will be cheaper and will help reduce debt service cost, longer-term funds for infrastructure, will create space for private sector borrowing and increase external reserves,” she explained. Total public debt stood at N24.387 trillion or $79.437 billion as at December 31, 2018 representing a year-onyear growth of 12.25 percent, according to latest figures from the DMO. Domestic debt stock dropped to 68.18 percent in 2018 from 73.36 percent the previous year, as against for-

NAFDAC warns against unregistered Fanyogo ‘Gin and Ginger’ CALEB OJEWALE

T L-R: Nsikak John, head, enterprise innovation hub, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Abolaji Oyebo, head, technology services, NSE; Ezekiel Oluyori, managing director, Investment One Financial Services Limited, and Fisayo Fagbemi, chief technology officer, Investment One Financial Services Limited, at the Investment USSD code*5678# launch in Lagos. Pic by Pius Okeosisi

ICAN deepens capacity to assist FG’s fight against corruption KELECHI EWUZIE

nstitute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) says it is strategically positioned to train the required manpower to assist the Federal Government in its fight against corruption in the polity. The accounting body says its Centres of Excellence serve as breeding grounds for specialised professionals to contribute to the growth and development of the nation. Razak Jaiyeola, president

of ICAN, said the foremost accountancy body had over the years identified several advantages of specialisation, adding that among other things created an avenue for the judicious use of human and material resources. Jaiyeola stated this in his opening address at the induction ceremony of the 109 candidates that qualified for certification in Audit, Investigations and Forensic Accounting; Financial Reporting; Insolvency and Corporate ReEngineering, and Corporate

Finance Management. According to Jaiyeola, graduates of the Audit, Investigations and Forensic Accounting Faculty continues to bring to bear their professional training in assisting government to achieve its goal of fighting corruption in the polity. “The graduates from this Faculty are occupying strategic positions in both the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy. Graduates of other Faculties are playing similar roles in the

different fields of accounting, such as taxation, financial reporting, consultancy and IT, insolvency,” he said. According to the ICAN president, with disruptive technologies bringing down geographical boundaries in labour mobility, the premium placed on specialisation is becoming more pronounced and the opportunities it now affords are expanded. With the aid of technology, seasoned experts can now provide their services across countries and geographical

areas, he said, saying, “I must however add that as the opportunities are vast, the inductees must realise that it makes competition also more intense. “However, if you continue to be in the frontiers of knowledge in these areas, then you have the world as your professional marketplace. Your remaining at the frontiers of knowledge in the various subfields would largely depend on your ability to leverage technology for improved service deliveries.”

N/Assembly wants Shell to pay Niger Delta host communities N7bn OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja

he National Assembly has called on Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to comply with the resolution of the Senate and pay oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta the sum of N6.9 billion. The amount is for accumulated rentals, expired leases, judgment debts and discriminatory payments for land re-acquisition and

eign debt at 31.82 percent, Oniha said. DMO’s 2013-2019 debt strategy is to achieve a debt stock mix of 60 percent for domestic and 40 percent for external. Oniha said the DMO new strategy of deploying relatively cheaper and longtenored external funds was achieving the objectives which include; to create more space for other borrowers in the domestic market, extend the average tenor of the debt stock in order to reduce refinancing risk and increase external reserves.

rentals in the Niger Delta. This was sequel to a petition from Bekele Jones and Associates to the National Assembly, lamenting the refusal of the company to comply with the resolutions of the Senate. In separate letters to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and managing director, SPDC, Clerk to the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, called on the multinational

company to give effect to the resolution of the Senate, which adopted the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions mandating the company to pay the host communities the sum. Pipelines in the affected communities, according to the letter dated March 4, 2019, include Utapate South Delivery Line, 16’ South Forcados Pipeline, Port Harcourt Oloibiri Pipeline, Oloibiri Field as well

as the entire Utapate/Akwa Ibom Fields. The CNA also asked the SPDC to honour court judgements for payments to landowners in Suit No. NET/23/1977 in favour of Iko Community. The Senate had on January 24, 2019, mandated SPDC to pay a uniform rate of N600,000 per hectare of land as rent per annum for all loss of use of surface rights from 2014. The upper chamber also

directed the multinational company to “cancel all long-term leases of 99 years already imposed on landowners and comply with the provisions of the Oil Pipeline Act, which stipulate a term of 20 years only.” It also resolved that SPDC should respect powers of attorney donated by landowners to their agents/ consultants to negotiate for them and receive their rentals from the multinational company.

he National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has stated that a certain Fan Milk “FanYogo Gin & Ginger” purported to contain 12.5% alcohol is not registered by the Agency. NAFDAC, in a statement sent to BusinessDay, said the product was not known to the Agency and was not in circulation in Nigeria. It says thorough investigation at the facility of Fan Milk PLC revealed no such product is being developed by the company, and no stock of packaging materials of the said “FanYogo Gin & Ginger” were found in the premises. The company, Fan Milk PLC, known to NAFDAC as a producer of milk products, according to the statement has also issued a letter to the Agency in which they have referred to the image circulating in the news and social media as a “false, mischievous and malicious image”. Fan Milk Plc, according to the correspondence NAFDAC says it received, asserts the purported “FanYogo Gin & Ginger” will not be registered in Nigeria. “The images are the imagination of some mischief makers that have seized the opportunity to distort the social media space,” the company said. NAFDAC in the statement reiterated its commitment to assuring the safety, wholesomeness and quality of processed foods and other regulated products offered for sale to the public.

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Always put quality first in your business - Tolu Erogbogbo

ntroduction: Tolu Erogbogbo is the Founder of Cookie Jar and Eros and Gourmet, a leading bakery and fine dining business catering to people with discerning palates in Nigeria. Widely admired for his passion for quality food and mastery of the culinary arts, Chef Eros on this article of the Ignite Your Passion Series, sheds light on his journey in this industry emphasizing on the importance of being an accountable entrepreneur and knowing when to take the next big step. My name is Tolulope Erogbogbo popularly known as Chef Eros and I am in the food and beverage industry. Cookie Jar has been in operation for four years, Eros and Gourmet three years but I have being an entrepreneur in Nigeria for eight years. MY LIGHTBULB MOMENT I wouldn’t say I had one light bulb moment because I have had several over the last four years. But the one that resonates with me was in February 2012; valentines day February 14th, I remember waking up from a very short nap after working throughout the entire night, still so much noise downstairs, the smell of cookies totally consumed my apartment. The whole downstairs of my apartment had been converted into a bakery and I picked up my note pad that I was taking down my orders on and they were was at least three

pages of orders. And I asked myself how did I end up with so many orders after just one month of operation and with very little or no marketing. At that point it occurred to me that it was the product. I would say that my light bulb moment was knowing that the product is key and as long as the product is great, as long as the product is loved you will continually have business. LESSONS LEARNED IN BUSINESS Keeping my eyes on the numbers will have to be my biggest lesson learnt; I mean I remember my first restaurant project in 2009 through 2011. I was very focused on entertainment and just the quality of the food and the service. That was all I was focused on and that’s where I put all my attention. I forgot about

the numbers, which I needed to stay in business; obviously that project failed and that was due to the fact that I didn’t put my eyes on the numbers. Now, starting another project or starting a new business Cookie Jar and Eros and Gourmet from the very first day my numbers have been very important to me. Maybe not the most important thing because product is the most important thing but the numbers come second because without the money I cannot even afford the kind of quality that I am trying to go for. THE BIG MISTAKE You know as an entrepreneur it is very difficult for me to say I have made mistakes but the truth is I have made mistakes. My biggest one was expanding too quickly. My business Cookie Jar expanded to three locations

in one year and that’s similar to spreading yourself too thin and so I started to struggle. I am gradually getting out of that; this is six months after I had felt like we had gotten to the point where we had spread ourselves too thin. I didn’t have the processes in place for the kind of expansion that I had invested in so as a result we started to have issues. The good thing is that my product is so good that my customers didn’t leave me but what has happened is that in the last few months we have invested a lot of time into designing processes that can help us keep the standards right. BREAKING BOUNDARIES MOMENT I would say it is my ability to achieve something that is very dear to me which is making a difference in people’s lives. This happened recently when I got a call; I remember walking into my office and the excitement in the room when we had just gotten a call from Jamie Oliver saying they wanted us to be part of the food revolution. Getting a call from Jamie Oliver is one thing but being part of the food revolution is the main thing that got me happy. I came into business in the early stages to make money, to deliver a product and to deliver a service. But over time, you will find that you are going to gradually get bored. Yes money is good but there is a sense of satisfaction derived from making

a difference in people’s lives and that’s what we are doing with the food revolution. MY MANTRA That’s very simple I won’t say that I have made it. As a matter of fact I just started and I am still on my journey but there is one thing that has been a part of my journey and will always be part of my journey; it’s something that I stand, by It’s something that my team stands by, it’s something that my company stands by and that’s pretty simple, quality first. About Aim Higher Africa Ignite Your Passion The Aim Higher Africa Ignite Your Passion Series is an edutainment web-program under the Aim Higher non-profit organization. This series shines a light on millennial entrepreneurial leaders in different industries who have overcome economic challenges and built businesses that are transforming their communities as well as making global economic impact. With the vision of bridging the gap between poverty and prosperity, we hope that through this series, aspiring entrepreneurs will be able to identify their passion and turn them into business ventures that will in turn enrich their communities by creating employment opportunities. AHA Entrepreneurship Clinic

How to accelerate the business ladder in this internet age

t is said that the only constant thing in life is change and the business world is not an exception to this. Just as the world is fast evolving, so also are the ways things are being done in the corporate environment and this is fast occurring at an extraordinary rate. The Internet age comes with countless technological upgrades that already existing businesses have to step up so they can stay relevant in the business world. With trends such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and even robotics, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that this fourth industrial revolution is considered a new era because of its highly innovative or groundbreaking technologies. One of the many good things that come with this rapid rate of change in the corporate world, however, is the vast amount of opportu-

nities it presents for business growth. With the speed of technological breakthroughs in this new age, entrepreneurs have to always be on their toes else they would be left behind. In what ways can one accelerate the business ladder? Every business should have a web presence because the first point of referral for any business is the website. A business without a website is like a beginner learning to swim without applying the first rule of swimming – stay afloat. No business out there is new. The newness we see today is the upgrade done on existing business ideas to form a new business and this is made possible through the use of technological advancements. Businesses with web presence stand out of the competition because you are able to interact with your customers first-hand without being physically present. Your

website gives your clients/ customers an insight into what your business is about and if engaging enough, they could contact you for a meetup to discuss further. Remember, the customer is king in every business. An influx of customer means more cash in your account for whatever product or service you offer and this shows growth in business. This only happens when your customers can easily locate you through your website. Every business must utilize social media. The importance of social media cannot be exaggerated enough. Traditional marketing methods are fast fading away as more people are beginning to interact more with brands with the use of social media. Using the different social media platforms, customers are able to make enquiries, place orders or even express their feelings (be it gratitude or anger) for

the previous service shown to them. The long and short of it all is that social media makes it a lot easier and convenient for customers to communicate with businesses. Every business exists for the satisfaction of the customers. This new age has given consumers of goods and services, the control of every business so much so that whatever products or services a business offers has to be made to suit the needs of customers. Carry out feedback or surveys to learn from your customers what they really want and in what areas you can improve your service to them. Every business should have a global vision. This new age has presented businesses with a platform to break limitations and go global. The global stretch of businesses such as Uber, Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix etc., has played a principal role in the

success of their product offering. The more your business is able to respond to global needs instead of localized needs just as these mentioned companies above does, the more success spelt out for your business. No matter the nature of your business, you can go global. “Flexibility and a willingness to try new technologies or processes will ensure entrepreneurs stay relevant in our ever-changing environment.” Kobus Engelbrecht, the spokesperson for the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year®, says. As an entrepreneur, one has to learn to keep up with the trends of the times so as to be able to remain on top. Pearl Zhu said, “Many organizations are on the journey of digital transformation which represents the next stage of business maturity.” Is your business one of such?

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FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

How US college bribery scandal shattered Bill McGlashan’s image Private equity executive had built a name for ‘social impact’ investing MARK VANDEVELDE AND JOSHUA CHAFFIN

efore he was caught discussing how to pay a $250,000 bribe to guarantee his son a place at a sought-after US university, Bill McGlashan had a plan to save capitalism. At TPG Capital, the $103bn private equity firm where Mr McGlashan was a top executive until earlier this month, he seemed less interested in chasing the next deal than pioneering a more ethical form of investing. Alongside Bono, the rock starturned-activist, he raised $2bn for The Rise Fund, which promises to make investors richer while tackling social problems. “We think we can take this beast called capitalism and help to direct it in a way that is productive,” Mr McGlashan said. But criminal charges filed by investigators probing a US college bribery scandal this month have shattered Mr McGlashan’s image as a socially conscious visionary. Last Friday, he appeared in a Boston court where the judge blocked his request to take a family holiday in Mexico after prosecutors argued they owned properties in Montana and northern California they could visit instead. Mr McGlashan was among dozens of affluent parents — including famous actors and business leaders — arrested for allegedly participating in a brazen conspiracy to bypass the admissions process and in effect buy college places for their children. Phone conversations recorded by the FBI and reproduced in court pa-

pers suggest he was an enthusiastic participant. “I would do that in a heartbeat,” he responded after a crooked admissions consultant laid out a ploy to have Mr McGlashan’s son admitted as a prized football recruit to the University of Southern California — even though he did not play football — in exchange for a $250,000 payment. “I love it. I love it.” Months earlier, Mr McGlashan allegedly paid the man, William “Rick” Singer, $50,000 to doctor his son’s entrance exam. Mr McGlashan has denied the charge; prosecutors did not assert that he ended up making a $250,000 payment, and his lawyers say he did not. Still, his arrest has led to a messy departure from TPG. The two sides have sparred over whether he resigned to tend to personal business or had been “terminated” by the board. His abrupt exit has left TPG in the lurch just as it was preparing to absorb a $1bn chunk of another social impact fund, the Dubai-based Abraaj Group, which collapsed under its own scandal last year. More broadly, it may tarnish the vogue for a type of investing that promises people they can do good while doing well, though some sceptics had already dismissed social impact investing as a public relations exercise for an industry with a poor image. Officials at the Rise Fund have declined to comment — as has Bono. The Rise Fund was created after the two met at a gathering on Richard Branson’s Caribbean island that was devoted to hatching “big ideas”. Their

UniCredit waits in wings to bid for Germany’s Commerzbank Italian lender prepares rival offer should Deutsche Bank deal falter DAVID CROW, PATRICK JENKINS, OLAF STORBECK AND GUY CHAZAN

niCredit is preparing a rival multibillion-euro bid to take control of Commerzbank amid signs that plans to merge the German lender with Deutsche Bank are facing mounting difficulties, according to several people familiar with the matter. The Italian bank is unlikely to gatecrash the merger negotiations between Commerzbank and Deutsche but is ready to make a move should the discussions fall apart, the people said. “The way for us might be open,” said one person close to the Italian bank. UniCredit’s plan involves amassing a sizeable stake in Commerzbank, which has a stock market value of €9bn, and merging it with HypoVereinsbank, the German lender it already owns, one of the people said. The combined entity would be based in Germany while UniCredit would maintain its headquarters and listing in Milan, the person said. Commerzbank would retain a free float of shares listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange, they added. “The combination would make sense for Germany,” said one person advising UniCredit. “It could be

presented as a national champion.” UniCredit declined to comment. UniCredit has been interested in a deal with Commerzbank for several years and approached German officials about a tie-up in 2017, the people said. However, the Italian bank decided not to make an offer at the time, in part due to political opposition in Germany to cross-border banking deals, but also because the Milanbased lender was restructuring its own business. Any deal between UniCredit and Commerzbank would need approval from the German government, the Frankfurt-based lender’s biggest shareholder with a 15 per cent stake. The Italian bank’s renewed interest is predicated on the hope that German politicians will be more amenable to a cross-border deal if Commerzbank’s talks with Deutsche fall apart because the lender is already “in play”, one of the people said. UniCredit’s interest in Commerzbank had “never ceased”, said one person close to a major European regulator, although they predicted that politicians in Berlin would continue to oppose the deal given the lender’s importance to the domestic economy.

innovation — helped along by Jeff Skoll, eBay’s first employee — was to develop a method to quantify and account for the social impact of their investments. “The reality is that no matter which side of the aisle you’re on, and no matter what your framework is, if I can build a great business that’s profitable and successful and, oh, by the way, here’s the impact and the multiple of impact that’s created through that business’s successes, I think that’s good for everybody,” Mr McGlashan told the New York Times in 2016. In more than a dozen interviews, former colleagues and others who have known Mr McGlashan for decades described a hustling opportun-

ist who would talk of making a difference to other people’s lives — and large amounts of money for himself. Most said the prosecutors’ allegations described behaviour they found surprising and out of character. “The words that are attributed to Bill McGlashan are hard to understand,” said Bill Price, the TPG cofounder who brought him to the firm in 2004, and is married to the twin sister of Mr McGlashan’s wife. “It is not consistent with the man I know, and I don’t have a way to explain it.” Not everyone agrees. “I wasn’t surprised at all,” says a person who knew him in his twenties, and regarded him as a sharp negotiator who did not think too hard about the person

on the other side of a deal. “If it were legal, Bill would do it.” To a remarkable degree, Mr McGlashan’s life has followed the same trail blazed by his father. Both attended Yale and Stanford, and both have worked for investment firms and founded their own businesses. “He worshipped his father,” says one longtime acquaintance. “He’s very much a role model.” When Mr McGlashan, who is now 55, was in his early teens, his family spent a year on a kibbutz in Israel to gain a different perspective on the world; decades later, he moved his job at TPG to India for a year, telling friends he wanted his own children to have a similar experience.

Ethiopia calls for review of Boeing 737 Max flight control system Investigators find that pilots were not to blame for crash near Addis Ababa last month AARON MAASHO, TOM WILSON, SYLVIA PFEIFER AND PATTI WALDMEIR

thiopian investigators have called on Boeing to carry out a full review of the antistall system on its 737 Max aircraft after finding pilots of a plane that crashed near Addis Ababa last month had followed the stipulated emergency procedures but were unable to save the aircraft. The preliminary findings of an investigation into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 released on Thursday heap pressure on Boeing to fix a flawed anti-stall system already implicated in a previous deadly crash in Indonesia. Ethiopian minister of transport Dagmawit Moges called on the embattled aircraft manufacturer to carry out a full review of the anti-stall system on its 737 Max aircraft before they are allowed to fly again, after finding that the pilots were not to blame for the crash last month. The two crashes have provoked a crisis of confidence in Boeing and in the procedures used by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to certify aircraft as safe to fly. Coming within months of each other, the crashes claimed 346 lives and have also shaken

public confidence in the 737 aircraft, Boeing’s best-selling plane and a workhorse of the world aviation industry. Ms Dagmawit told a press conference in Addis Ababa that the crew of the Ethiopian Airlines flight, flying from the country’s capital to Nairobi in Kenya on March 10, “performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but were not able to control the aircraft”. The FAA, which is working with Ethiopia on the crash investigation, said in a statement “we continue to work towards a full understanding of all aspects of this accident. As we learn more about the accident and findings become available, we will take appropriate action”. Aviation regulators grounded the 737 Max worldwide in the wake of the Ethiopian crash. The tragedy followed the crash in October of a Lion Air 737 Max flight in Indonesia, in which the so-called “manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system” appears to have contributed to bringing the plane down. MCAS is an automated stall prevention system that if triggered can, under certain circumstances, try to force down the nose of the aircraft even if pilots are flying it manually, leading to a steep dive

and making the jet hard to control. MCAS receives information from sensors on the angle of the aircraft and is unique to the Max. Earlier versions of the 737 have different stall-protection systems that do not automatically drive down the nose. “Since repetitive, uncommanded aircraft nose-down actions were noticed in this preliminary investigation, it is recommended the aircraft flight control system shall be reviewed by the manufacturer,” Ms Dagmawit said. Amdiye Ayalew, head of the Ethiopian investigation, said that it was still too early to say whether there was a “structural design problem” with Boeing’s aircraft. However, he also said that, from data collected, there was no evidence that any foreign object had damaged the plane and caused the crash. Asked whether Boeing agreed with the preliminary investigation, he said that the US National Transportation Safety Board, which is representing Boeing in the probe, was “in agreement”. Boeing said it was reviewing the report. In line with international rules on air accidents, the preliminary report did not attribute blame. A final report is not due for many months.

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FT Imamoglu’s battle to lead Istanbul energises Turkey’s opposition

South Africa presses ahead with over-budget power stations Plans to deal with severe outages and rising debt announced as elections loom

Mayoral contender has shown that ruling elite can be challenged in country’s biggest city

JOSEPH COTTERILL

LAURA PITEL

n the campaign trail he became known for his mild-mannered demeanour. But as a bitter dispute rages over political control of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu has revealed a steely core. As president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party continued its efforts to thwart his apparent victory, the opposition’s mayoral challenger on Wednesday upped the ante. He accused ruling party officials of “behaving as if they’ve had a toy taken away” and warned: “They must not make the 16m people of Istanbul the victims of their internal score settling. The world is watching us, and watching this election.” Both sides agree that preliminary results from Sunday’s vote give Mr Imamoglu a waferthin lead of about 25,000 votes. But Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) has complained of irregularities and launched a formal challenge, setting the stage for a messy dispute. Yet even if Mr Imamoglu does not win, the self-effacing former district mayor has electrified Turkey’s demoralised opposition. By building political alliances and reaching across the country’s deep divides, analysts say he has shown that the ruling elite can be challenged in a city it has controlled for 25 years. “This has already had the effect of energising the opposition,” said Ilter Turan, a professor of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University. “They have gained the feeling that, if they work hard, and if they adopt reasonable strategies, they have a chance of replacing the government.” Mr Imamoglu’s Republican People’s party (CHP) has struggled for years to make inroads. Seen as nationalist and militantly secularist, it is treated with suspicion among the country’s Kurdish minority and by religious conservatives who support the AKP. But the Istanbul candidate’s family background sets him apart from the stereotypes. Like Mr Erdogan, his family hails from Turkey’s conservative Black Sea region. He grew up in small stone house above a stable where the family kept cows. His father, who ran a business selling construction materials, was active in rightwing parties. Mr Imamoglu worked with one of them briefly. But he was introduced to leftwing politics at university and later joined the CHP. He has said that a stint as a party official was “an important education” in Turkey’s political divisions. “I saw how much polarisation there was,” he said in an interview with Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper in December. “I was able to break that down, because we have all types in my family.”

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Diminished Bouteflika bows to Algeria’s hunger for change Leader who brought postwar stability pushed out by protesters and army HEBA SALEH

bdelaziz Bouteflika was a veteran of Algeria’s glorious war of independence who brought stability to the country after years of turmoil. Twenty years later, he has left as a diminished figure whose authority had crumbled. The 82-year-old tendered his resignation late on Tuesday under pressure from the military, capping a series of concessions his regime has made to thousands of protesters who have massed repeatedly over the past six weeks to denounce him. Though he was incapacitated by a stroke that paralysed him and impaired his speech in 2013, Mr Bouteflika remained in office in the six years that followed. Speculation about who was really in control had mounted among Algerians while discontent grew, finally exploding this year when he sought a fifth term in office. Dalia Ghanem Yazbeck, resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said Mr Bouteflika had overstayed his welcome, tarnishing his image and erasing whatever respect Algerians had for him. “If he had stepped down a few weeks ago, I would have told you people will remember him as an architect of peace who ended the

civil war,” she said. “But today I think he has sullied his image [with] his contempt for the people by seeking to stay on despite being debilitated by a stroke, stuck in a wheelchair and unable to speak.” His quest to run in April elections, which were subsequently postponed, was widely seen as an attempt by powerful members of his inner circle to maintain control and protect their interests. Analysts speculated that Algeria’s autocratic regime — a coalition of establishment factions — had decided it would be easier to back an infirm figurehead than upset the balance of power by choosing a successor. But that proved to be a mistake. As the protests gained momentum, Mr Bouteflika’s allies began to abandon him and the army chief of staff — once part of his inner circle — demanded the launch of proceedings to declare him unfit for office. It was the final nail in the coffin of his presidency. Born in 1937, he joined the war of independence against France in 1956. In 1963, at the age of 26, he was appointed foreign minister not long after independent Algeria was born. He served in that role until 1978, spanning a period when Algeria was seen as a beacon for Third World independence movements and he

enjoyed a high profile at international events. In 1999 he was installed as president by Algeria’s “pouvoir”, the influential decision makers at the top of the military and intelligence establishments who had shaped politics since independence. At the time Algeria was emerging from a brutal conflict between radical Islamists and the army. His Civil Concord policy helped end the violence — which killed more than 100,000 people — by convincing radical groups to put down their arms after an amnesty in 2000. Aided by soaring oil and gas prices, he managed to buy peace by spending billions on cheap housing, infrastructure, and grants and subsidies for Algerian citizens — moves that helped ensure the Arab uprisings of 2011 bypassed his country. Mr Bouteflika spent much of his rule wrangling over power with senior officers behind the scenes. He once famously said he did not want to be the “decoration on the cake”, meaning he wanted to exercise his prerogatives as president and not just function as a façade for the factions that competed for control of the power structure. Over the years, he was able to expand his influence at the expense of those who had sought to block him.

Dimon vows JPMorgan will take policy advocacy ‘to next level’ Head of biggest US lender lays out political manifesto LAURA NOONAN

PMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon insists he is not running for the US presidency, but that didn’t stop him from using his annual shareholders’ letter to lay out at a ten-point manifesto to restore America’s fortunes. Wall Street’s best-known banker — a former member of President Trump’s disbanded business advisory council and longtime critic of recent “mismanagement” of the US economy — told investors that the American dream was “fraying for many” and that JPMorgan would “take advocacy to the next level”.

To address “what is holding back growth and opportunity”, Mr Dimon said policymakers should reform a dysfunctional mortgage market and tackle “soaring healthcare costs”. His laundry list of issues demanding attention also includes education, immigration, infrastructure, regulation, the tax system, litigation, the labour market and budgeting and planning. He called on CEOs to “get involved” and use their “unique capabilities, data and resources” in designing solutions. JPMorgan is strengthening its own public policy teams to “take advocacy to the next level”.

With 10,000 staff in London, JPMorgan has the biggest presence in the City of any of its peers, but Brexit merited just two passing mentions in the 27,000- word missive. Instead the section on risk homed in on the “increasing” dangers of bad policy arising out of everything from “monetary policy, trade snafus or simply deep political gridlock in an increasingly complex world”, echoing comments from Mr Dimon on his last earnings call. The banker also repeated warnings on the dangers of cyber security, which “may very well be the biggest threat to the US financial system”.

outh Africa’s struggling state electricity monopoly said that it would press on with finishing twin giant coal stations whose $20bn cost, overruns and design faults have worsened a debt crisis and severe power outages at the utility. Jabu Mabuza, Eskom’s chairman, said on Wednesday that “we will continue to fix design problems” that have plagued the Medupi and Kusile plants, rather than abandon their construction after years of waste and swelling costs that caused the utility’s debts to balloon to more than $30bn. Mr Mabuza was outlining plans to avert debilitating blackouts that shut down Africa’s most industrialised economy last month, and threaten to return ahead of national elections in May. The outages were caused by breakdowns affecting a large portion of Eskom’s total generating capacity of more than 45,000MW. The cuts were imposed after multiple breakdowns occurred at decrepit power stations that the utility failed to properly maintain amid massive corruption scandals under Jacob Zuma, the former president. Eskom began building Medupi and Kusile as the world’s third and fourth biggest coal plants more than a decade ago to replace much of the country’s ageing capacity and cut the risk of blackouts from failures to meet power demand. But they have become notorious for the doubling of their original budgets to more than R300bn and long delays, ranking them among the world’s most expensive power projects. Eskom is unable to service its debts on its own because of falling revenues, and received a $5bn bailout from the South African Treasury in February. A proliferation of flaws has also limited the output of the plants’ completed units, exacerbating recent blackouts and increasing doubts that the plants will ever live up to their planned 9,600MW capacity. Environmental activists have also called Medupi and Kusile vast “stranded assets” in the making as international investors increasingly stop financing coal because of emissions-reduction targets. Yet “there is no turning back now” from finishing Medupi and Kusile, Phakamani Hadebe, Eskom’s chief executive said. Eskom estimates that it will cost another R18bn to complete the plants. Bankers have said that Eskom would have to write off billions of dollars from Medupi and Kusile’s value if it were to try to sell them, and would struggle to find buyers given the plants’ problems. Blackouts have been avoided in the past fortnight as Eskom replenished diesel reserves for running expensive back-up generation. But the outages have been a big embarrassment to the ruling African National Congress of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has promised to undo the graft that took place under his predecessor.

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Equities mixed as trade talks continue in Washington EDWARD WHITE AND MICHAEL HUNTER

S stocks struggled to build on its recent gains on Thursday as investors awaited news of progress in the US-China trade dispute and digested President Donald Trump’s latest threat to close down the country’s southern border with Mexico. Having reached its highest closing level since October in the previous session, the S&P 500 was down 0.1 per cent in midday trade, with gains in consumer discretionary and financials offset by declines in utilities and information technology. The Dow Jones Industrial Average — boosted by Boeing’s 2.8 per cent gain — was up 0.5 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite was 0.4 per cent lower. The moves come as Mr Trump said on Thursday that trade talks with China were going well and as negotiators work to hash out a final deal on the trade dispute

ahead of a meeting between the US president and the Chinese vice premier later in the day. Despite the optimism on trade, investors remained on edge after Mr Trump upped his threat to seal the border with Mexico if the country does not do more to stem arrivals of migrants from Central America. European bourses ended mixed on Thursday. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 closed up 0.3 per cent at a new multi-month high, while the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 was 0.3 per cent weaker. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent, with the pound within its well-worn trading range — down 0.6 per cent at $1.3078 — as investors kept watch on the UK’s uncertain Brexit politics. Mainland China’s CSI 300 added 1 per cent ahead of a national holiday, while the Topix in Tokyo eased back from a modest gain to end down 0.1 per cent. The euro ticked down 0.2 per cent to $1.1211, taking a knock after further disappointing German economic data.

Weird things keep happening in the markets The 2008 crisis and the reforms that followed sparked a profound behavioural shift GILLIAN TETT

decade ago, there was a pattern in global markets, known as the “covered interest parity rule”, that was so widespread it “verge[d] on a physical law in international finance”, as the Bank for International Settlement puts it. This stipulated that the interest rate differential between two currencies in the cash money markets should equal the differential between the forward and spot exchange rates. Or, in plain English, that relative exchange and interest rates moved in lockstep. No longer. These days a gap has emerged, of around 40 basis points for five year dollar-euro cross-currency swaps and 70bp for dollar-yen swaps. This is tantamount to a violation of covered interest parity. Now, I dare say most ordinary mortals do not care a jot about this, especially when there are more obviously weird things going on in markets, such as the inversion of the US yield curve. But investors should take note. For the key point to understand, as Claudio Borio, chief economist of the BIS recently observed, is that this violation is just one of several “anomalies” haunting global finance. If nothing else, this suggests that there is much about the new post-financial crisis world that regulators are struggling to understand. Consider overnight lending. A decade ago, the uncollateralised overnight lending rate between private parties was always higher than the collateralised rate. That seems only logical: the whole point of posting collateral is to

make loans less risky and thus cut borrowing costs. But in recent years, as Mr Borio notes, the “uncollateralised rates for overnight transactions among private sector parties [has been] hovering below the risk-free ones on central bank deposit facilities.” That is weird. Similarly, money market interest rates have become unpredictably dispersed, even though these used to move in tandem. And interest rates and spreads keep spiking at the quarter and year end. That used to only occur during a financial crisis. Now it happens even when markets are calm. Weird, it seems, is the new normal in global finance. Why? If you pose that question to bankers, they will often blame the regulators, who tightened rules in a way that has hampered liquidity — so much so that prices in derivatives markets (and elsewhere) periodically go haywire. Or so the argument goes. There is probably some truth to it. But there are other potential explanations. One is the fact that a decade of quantitative easing has created a legacy of half-hidden distortions and unforeseen consequences. The fact that uncollateralised overnight borrowing is cheaper than collateralised deals, for example, may reflect the fact that central banks are using so much high-quality collateral that it is in short supply. Another factor is the uneven health of global financial institutions. One reason why cross-currency swaps are behaving oddly might be that non-American banks are still so desperate to get dollar funding that they will pay a premium for it.

Lyft struggles to hitch a ride five days after floating PETER WELLS

early one full week after its initial public offering, Lyft is battling to avoid joining Facebook as a much-hyped float that is sitting in the red five sessions after its first trade. Up 2.5 per cent at $71.56 in morning trade on Thursday, shares in the lossmaking company now sit ⅓ of 1 per cent below its listing price of $72 as it struggles to overcome some of the highest levels of shorting seen for a newly listed company. Winding the clock back to the ride-hailing company’s first day of trade on March 29, shares settled 8.7 per cent higher than the IPO price, some way off a maximum intraday advance of 23.1 per cent. Although that sounds solid, Lyft’s first-day advance lags the performance of other notable tech

or big-name IPOs. On their first days, Snap, parent company of social media app Snapchat, and Twitter settled 44 per cent and 72.7 per cent higher than their float prices. Most recently, Levi Strauss, the well-known denim maker, finished nearly 32 per cent above its IPO price on its first day of trade on March 21. The stock is up 29.1 per cent over its first 11 sessions as a public company. Lyft shares took a tumble in subsequent days, drawing them closer in comparison to Facebook, whose shares flopped in the wake of its 2012 IPO. Five sessions after floating, Facebook stock was down 13.1 per cent from its float price. Versus a handful of other notable tech floats, Facebook stands out as the only company to be in negative territory one month

(defined as 20 trading sessions) after listing, down 21 per cent and comfortably in a bear market. Much like the social network’s drop at the time prompted investors to reassess the company’s prospects and the broader outlook for the primary market, Lyft’s muddled debut could have implications for other so-called tech “unicorns” that are coming to market this year, most notably that of direct rival Uber. Over the past five sessions, the S&P 500 is up 2.2 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite, on which Lyft is listed, is up 2.8 per cent. But Lyft bulls need not despair: Having closed positive on their first day of trading, Facebook took just over 300 sessions to recover to its listing price. Despite the rough start, the stock is now up some 366 per cent from its IPO price.

Amazon expands healthcare services with Alexa deals Company reveals partnerships and data protection compliance for voice-activated device HANNAH KUCHLER

mazon said that its voiceoperated Alexa device now complies with US rules protecting the privacy of healthcare data, pitching the company deeper into a race among technology groups to provide health services. The company on Thursday unveiled a string of partnerships that will allow Alexa users to check their blood sugar, communicate with hospitals and reorder prescriptions on the device. Cigna, the US health insurer, Express Scripts, a pharmacy home delivery service, and US healthcare providers Swedish Health Connect and Atrium Health are among those launching what Amazon calls healthcare “skills” on Alexa, now that it complies with regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Boston Children’s Hospital is also using the device to allow parents to give its care teams updates on a sick child’s recovery and allow patients to schedule appointments. Livongo, a digital

health company specialising in chronic conditions, will integrate Alexa with the rest of their devices, allowing members to query their blood sugar readings and receive personalised “health nudges” on the device. Rachel Jiang, a senior manager at Amazon Alexa, said it expects to expand to other developers soon. “These new skills are designed to help customers manage a variety of healthcare needs at home simply using voice — whether it’s booking a medical appointment, accessing hospital post-discharge instructions, checking on the status of a prescription delivery,” Ms Jiang said in a blog post. Amazon is competing with Apple and Google in healthcare, but they all have to prove they can be responsible custodians of sensitive data. Consumers may be reluctant to trust a technology industry that faces questions about, and investigations into, their handling of private data. E a r l i e r t h i s ye a r, A n n e Wojcicki, chief executive of genetic testing company 23andMe, said she believed the scandals

around Facebook’s handling of personal data had damped sales growth at her company, as had concerns about law enforcement accessing the information. Amazon‘s other forays into health include creating specialised services for healthcare and life sciences companies on its Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform, and buying PillPack, an online pharmacy, for $1bn last year. Most prominently, it is building a joint venture with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to find new ways to cut the cost of employer health insurance and improve health services to customers. The venture, led by the surgeon and writer Atul Gawande, will be called Haven. While the current Alexa skills are targeted at patients in their homes, many doctors are interested in finding a way to incorporate new voice technologies in their surgeries. Fed up with spending more time looking at screens than at patients, they are eager to find ways to automatically record what is happening in a consultation.

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ANALYSIS

How start-ups have used Instagram to build $1bn businesses Mattress company Casper and beauty brand Glossier leverage social media marketing CAMILLA HODGSON

A Has the yield curve predicted the next US downturn? Some believe that an inversion of the markets’ original ‘fear gauge’ is not a predictor but a cause of recessions ROBIN WIGGLESWORTH AND JOE RENNISON

lan Greenspan, the then Federal Reserve chairman nicknamed The Oracle for his economic soothsaying, told the US Senate on July 21 2005 to disregard an obscure glitch in markets that some fretted could portend an economic slowdown. The socalled “yield curve” was obsolete, he declared. “The evidence very clearly indicates that its efficacy as a forecasting tool has diminished very dramatically because of economic events,” Mr Greenspan confidently told the Senate Banking Committee. The yield curve is Wall Street’s original “fear gauge”, notching up a perfect predictive record before pretenders such as the Vix index were even glimmers in the eyes of financial engineers. Typically, countries pay less to borrow for three months than five years, and less for five years than for a decade — after all, investors want some compensation for the gradual erosion of inflation, or the risk, albeit faint, that a government could renege on its debt. Plotted on a graph, the bond yields of various maturities form a “yield curve” that most of the time slopes gently upwards. But sometimes short-term yields rise above longer-term ones, an “inversion” of the usual shape of the curve that has been an uncannily accurate harbinger of recessions, preceding every downturn since the end of the second world war. For instance, when Mr Greenspan in 2005 read the last rites for the yield curve’s predictive powers, the threemonth Treasury bill yield was still 0.9 percentage points below the 10-year Treasury yield. A year later the curve inverted and 18 months after that the US economy entered its worst recession since the 1930s. Ominously, the US yield curve has now inverted once again, with the 10-year Treasury yield on March 22 dipping below the three-month T-bill yield for the first time since 2007. Combined with the length of the post-crisis expansion — this summer it will become the longest growth spurt in US history — and deteriorating economic data, the inverted yield curve has stirred fears that the countdown to the next downturn has already begun. Chart showing how inversions of the yield curve have preceded recessions in the US in recent decades “The curve has been flattening and sending a warning signal for some time,” says Douglas Peebles, head of fixed income at Alliance-

Bernstein. “I’m a yield curve junkie and I don’t think you can ignore that.” But it is a complicated soothsayer. Signs of steadier growth have now lifted the yield curve back into positive territory, and investors and economists remain relatively sanguine, arguing that there are market forces at play that are distorting the curve’s message. “I’m not worried,” says Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz. “The yield curve’s signal is not what it used to be.” Paul Samuelson, the Nobel economics laureate, once joked that the notoriously fickle stock market had forecast nine of the past five recessions. This was at the back of Campbell Harvey’s mind when he was considering doctoral dissertations at the University of Chicago in 1983. A summer internship at a Toronto mining company had hammered home how useful it would be for companies to have a better market indicator to gauge the economic outlook, but reams of research had also amply demonstrated the stock market’s patchy record of prediction. Inspired by an obscure 1965 paper noting how the yield curve undulated with the economic cycle, Prof Harvey realised this could be a much cleaner way of gauging recession risks. His thesis committee was initially sceptical, given the paucity of observations, but it has become part of the canonical work on the yield curve. Its simplicity is a major reason for the scepticism, according to Prof Harvey, now a professor of finance at Duke University. “The model is really simple. It’s a point of attack” for critics, he says. “But it’s got a good record.” In essence, the yield curve distils the wisdom of millions of investors, and their views of the current and future health of the economy. Individual fund managers may be wrong from time to time, but the overall judgment of a lot of smart people tends to be fairly accurate. Longer-term bond yields are influenced by interest rates set by central banks, but mostly by the economic outlook. When investors think economic clouds are gathering, which will depress inflation, they tend to buy Treasuries, lowering their yields. And when they sink below short-term bond yields — which are more closely aligned to base interest rates — it is a strong indication that investors think monetary policy is too tight for the deteriorating health of the economy. That can precipitate a recession and force the central bank to cut rates again, buoying bond prices. However, there are many forces that shape yields. And some could

be causing the bond market’s soothsaying glitch to suffer a glitch itself, say economists and investors. “You are an idiot to ignore the yield curve but it is not proof that a recession is coming by itself,” says Seth Carpenter, chief US economist at UBS and a former senior Treasury and Federal Reserve official. Post-crisis regulation encouraged banks to keep more money in ultra-safe assets, and it is hard to find anything safer than US Treasuries. The Fed is still sitting on $2tn of Treasuries acquired through bondbuying programmes, while negative interest rates and quantitative easing programmes in Europe and Japan have nurtured colossal demand for highly rated debt. Combined with secular forces such as technology and demographics subduing inflation, that keeps longer-term yields pinned down — almost irrespective of the economic situation. At the same time the US government is financing much of its yawning budget deficit by issuing short-term bills rather than longerterm bonds. Combined with the Fed’s recent balance sheet shrinkage and interest rate increases, that has exerted tremendous upward pressure on Treasury bill yields. This is why many fund managers prefer to use the two- and 10-year Treasury yields as a cleaner measure of the curve’s shape. This “spread” has remained positive, bouncing around between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent since last year. The two and 30-year Treasury spread, another popular measure, has actually steepened this year, muddying the yield curve’s signal. Moreover, its predictive abilities seem to travel poorly. Japan, the UK and Germany have all seen inversions in the past without suffering recession. Some investors therefore argue that the yield curve preoccupation is overwrought. “The market has become overly obsessed with it,” says Kasper Elmgreen, head of equities at Amundi, the asset management company. However, this does not negate the signal the yield curve is sending, according to Peter Fisher, a former top New York Fed and Treasury official, head of fixed income at BlackRock and now a professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. “The mistake is to think it is a predictor of recessions,” he says. “I think it causes recessions.” He argues that a flat or inverted yield curve dampens the willingness of banks to lend. After all, their funding costs are tied to short-term interest rates. But when longer-term rates fall below their cost of financing, the incentive to lend is ruined. That then ripples through the economy and helps cause a recession, rather than merely predicting one.

woman’s manicured hand clutches a glass filled with a clear liquid poured over ice, her first and middle fingers each adorned by two sparkling gold rings. “Two finger ring stacks are in. Millennial pink is basic. Ugly shoes are money. Juice cleansing is dead. U follow?,” reads the photo’s caption. It is just one of Dirty Lemon’s more than 3,000 posts on Instagram, the social media platform that has been key to the direct-to-consumer beverage brand’s growth. “I have an order issue,” wrote a customer in the comments. “Checking now x,” responded Dirty Lemon, whose products include a “collagen beauty elixir” and “charcoal daily detox”. Dirty Lemon, which raised $15m in seed funding at a valuation of $60m last December, is just one of dozens

Dollar Shave Club, which grew its following by posting tongue-incheek photos of bearded men posing in steamy bathrooms, raised $165m from venture capital firms over four years. In 2016, it was bought by consumer goods company Unilever for $1bn. Dirty Lemon founder Zak Normandin said Instagram was “critical” to his firm’s early growth. In 2015, the health drinks company launched using only an SMS-based ordering service and Instagram account to build an audience. Mr Normandin said the company grew its following “quickly and organically” using free and “relatable” posts. Relatable — for a company that charges $65 for six bottled drinks — includes Instagram posts of bikiniclad women holding Dirty Lemon drinks with captions such as “let’s pretend for a moment we’re on boats in mykonos or whatever” and “my life

of start-ups that have leveraged Instagram’s 1bn users to build their businesses. Larger examples include beauty brand Glossier and mattress company Casper, both of which became “unicorns” last month, after raising another $100m each. As more companies have embraced social media marketing, the photo-sharing app has become a nexus of branded marketing, with millennials browsing the latest fads and a large number of so-called “influencers” peddling products. Last month, in an effort to harness these new networks, the Facebookowned platform said that it was launching a shopping feature that will allow users to buy products directly from the app. With Instagram checkout, merchants will be charged a “selling fee”, calculated as a percentage of each transaction. Creating an Instagram page that displays a gallery of products remains free. But paid-for advertising on the platform has become big business since it launched in 2017: eMarketer forecasts that Instagram will make up 6 per cent of global mobile ad spending this year, and a fifth of Facebook’s ad revenues. “Brands have gone all in on Instagram,” said Alexa Tonner, cofounder of social media marketing agency Collectively, pointing to the beauty, wellness and fashion sectors, in particular. She added that Instagram’s simple, visual layout — a rolling feed of images as well as individual user galleries — makes it well-suited to advertising. The opportunity for unmediated communication between brands and users has also allowed early-stage direct-to-consumer businesses, such as personal grooming brand Dollar Shave Club, to develop personal relationships with customers.

is nonstop, running from meetings to the studio to travelling to throw a party”. In 2017, the company became one of the first to pay for advertising on Instagram, and was at one stage spending $30,000 a day on the platform to build a customer base. While it does not disclose revenue or profit figures, Dirty Lemon said sales had doubled every year since 2015 and were expected to increase by 250 per cent in 2019. Meanwhile, Casper’s chief marketing officer Jeff Brooks said Instagram had been “integral” to building awareness of the mattress company, and for cultivating “a community where we can connect and engage with our customers”. Its posts include photos of people and small dogs swaddled in duvets with captions such as “emotional support pillow” and “if you’re reading this, go to sleep”. Debra Williamson, an analyst at eMarketer, said that for early-stage companies looking to develop a following, Instagram has helped provide a “level playing platform” because it shows users the posts and ads it thinks they will like most, rather than those from the biggest brands. But Mr Normandin argues that the rising cost of advertising on Instagram has reduced its “value as a marketing platform” for small businesses. The cost for Dirty Lemon to acquire a customer on the platform rose from around $30 in 2017 to more than $100 at the end of 2018, he said. Instagram declined to comment. According to researchers at AdStage, the median “cost per click” to advertise on Instagram fell 80 per cent to $0.83 year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018 — though the platform’s median click through rate also jumped 121 per cent to over 14m clicks.

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Opinion Security, development and political order THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

he first and most elementary duty of the state since Aristotle is to protect the lives and properties of its citizens. Any government that fails its people in that fundamental will sooner or later lose its legitimacy. Nigeria, I’m afraid, is one of the most insecure countries in the world. For one thing, we are the kidnap capital of the world. There is a spate of kidnapping going on throughout the country, the most notorious being along the Abuja-Kaduna highway. On a daily basis, women and men are being kidnapped by hooligans, many of them from foreign countries. Nihilistic violence has become a way of life in our country. While the insurgency has been ongoing for the better part of a decade, herdsmen militias have been on a rampage with the ferocity of a Himalayan tiger. They have killed and maimed and destroyed without anyone able to call them to order. Nigeria is a multiethnic, multi-religious country. As is to be expected of any fledgling democracy, the dynamics of domestic politics often reflects existing ethno-religious fissures. Ordinary people, whether urban or rural, often live peacefully with one another. It is usually the elites who stir up ethnic and sectarian divisions for their own selfish ends. And the victims are always invariably

the poor. This morning I want to dwell on the herders-farmers conflict which has become a nightmare for millions of defenceless peasants in the Middle Belt. Conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and sedentary peasant farmers in Nigeria have been perennial in West Africa. They often begin with allegations of trespass into farms by Fulani and their cattle, resulting in destruction of crops. There are typically disputes over such things as pasturelands and water resource over which local communities have evolved effective dispute-resolution mechanisms. Herder-farmer relations were defined not only by conflict. On the contrary, they were mostly symbiotic. A farmer would invite a Fulani after harvest to bring his cattle to rummage the remnant while depositing much-needed manure on the farm. Fulani rarely eat beef; being also allergic to goat meat. Their preferred source of meat protein is sheep and chicken. Whenever a cow or bull broke down they would normally donate it to the local farmers. Their women sold milk and butter to the local farming communities while buying from them millet, corn, fruits and vegetables. There was always the occasional kerfuffle between a farmer and a herdsman, but inter-communal clashes between them were virtually unheard of. In fact, inter-marriages were common and many Fulani were often fluent in the local languages. The primeval savannah of my birth was a peaceful and orderly world. The highest a herdsman would have on them was the traditional stick and perhaps a dagger to stem off leopards and other wild beasts. Today, a new breed of herdsman has emerged: an aggressive and murderous terrorist bearing sophisticated firearms. Bob

Dylan sang that “the times they’re a changing”. This rings true today. The phenomenon of the firearm-bearing herdsman is partly a response to the new phenomenon of cattle rustling which was quite rare when some of us were growing up. But it is also because of the militarisation of politics and the rise of religious fundamentalism and the culture of violence in general. In 2014 the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) categorised the Fulani herdsmen militias as the 4th deadliest terrorist organisation in the world, just coming behind Boko Haram, Isis and al-Shabab. Whilst it is true that the herdsmen militias have also attacked Muslim communities in Zamfara and Birnin Gwari, their key targets are the non-Muslim population. We are led to believe that Boko Haram and herdsmen militias are acting out a script written by powerful elements within and outside government. Indeed, their backers may well be far as afield as Arabia and the medley of terrorist organisations from Afghanistan to Somalia and Iran. What is even more troubling is the silence of many of the prominent leaders of the North and the indifference of so many people whose voice could have made a difference. For example, when a Coptic Church was attacked during Christmas Eve of 2010 in the ancient city of Alexandria in Egypt, Muslims and Christians throughout counContinues on page 35

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)

Success as a metaphor for the crisis in Nigerian education HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

he story of a young Nigerian girl named Success has gone viral on the social media. Success is an eight-year-old girl who lives in Sapele, Delta State. Delta State, as everyone knows, is one of the richest states in Nigeria, with a lot of income accruing from its status as an oil-producing state. The story is emblematic of Nigerian society, warts and all. It also illustrates, with great eloquence, a lot of what is wrong with education in Nigeria. But first, the story. It started with a young girl in school uniform being accosted on the street by someone who obviously knew her. The interviewer, an older person, perhaps armed with an intention to do mischief, was wielding a camera-phone. Why was she not in school, the little girl was asked? The listener would perhaps, at that point, be expecting a contrite and sober voice, choking back tears. But no, the voice, when it came, was feisty and combative. She had been beaten and driven out of class, she declared. She did not say by whom, but it was obvious she was referring to her class teacher. She had been caned

because she did not pay some money that was demanded. She did not mind being caned, as long as she was allowed to stay in class. But she had been caned and she still found herself ejected from class. That was the bit that got her goose. Her interlocutor was clearly impressed. The little girl continued her narrative with gusto. ‘They’ thought they were stubborn by caning her. They could cane her as much as they liked. She would prove to them who was the more stubborn. No commentary was required. It was a story with a very powerful message, and the public quickly got the message. Many of those who reacted to the story of Success took it at a personal level, in the usual manner of the bleeding-heart Nigerian who cannot bear to hear a hard-luck story or see a fellow Nigerian suffer, though in actuality he lives his dailylife in the midst of untold human suffering – physical and psychological. More than one person offered to give the little girl, by now everybody knew her name – a scholarship ‘up to University level’. Some of the displays of compassion raised a strong whiff of suspicion that they had eyes on the publicity potential. Even the lady who accosted Success and put her story on Facebook insisted on ‘compensation’ and ‘empowerment.’ After the knee-jerk reaction, the sober questions began to come in. Was this supposed to happen in Nigeria? Was education for an eight-year-old Nigerian not supposed to be free and compulsory all across the land? In the middle of the public discussion, another video emerged on the social

media. A lady paid a visit to the little girl’s school. What emerged was truly shocking. The whole school environment was shabby and dilapidated. The roofing sheets over the buildings were torn and scattered, leaving much of the classroom space exposed to the elements. Students described how they had to huddle in those parts of the classroom where the roof was still intact whenever it rained. When the rain was done, they would spend time baling water out of the class with buckets. A teacher pointed out an albino child who suffered from short-sightedness. As the little boy blinked into the camera, the other children confirmed that he often had to move his desk right up to the black board whenever the teacher was teaching in order to see what was written on the board. The teacher had advised his mother to ‘get glasses’, but she had replied she had no money. Obviously, there was no such thing as ‘School Health Service’ in Sapele. It is good that Success now has a scholarship and work is ongoing to fix her school. Somewhere in the mix, it is hoped that someone would remember the albino boy who could not see distant objects – no, not to donate money to him, but to set up a basic school health system that could help thousands of similar children who have simple health challenges that are easily remediable, but which continue every day to impair their learning and their future. The story of Success is not just about Success alone, or even about Delta State whose government has served their children ill, and whose governor should as a priority move to Continues on page 35

Femi Olugbile is a Writer and Psychiatrist. Comments to synthesiz@gmail.com’

The tyranny of the bronzer Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

ake-up has been with us for as long as we can remember. The story of Nefertiti and Cleopatra is well told. In Nigeria, the story of the Calabar fattening room, use of shea- butter for glowing skin and camwood for soft skin is with us as is body art tattoo, used to beautify among many Nigerian tribes and as a name tag has always been with us. Make-up is modernizing daily and has grown to be a multi-billion-dollar industry. Award winning musician Rihana has joined the fray as has reality star Kylie Jenner. Back home, make-up artists are morphing into manufacturers and multi-million naira entrepreneurs and taking the lead is Tara Durotoye, who has become a role model for many make up entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Being a television personality meant that make-up was part of my tools for the job and very early in my career, I went to NTA TV College Jos to take a certificate course in presentation and one of the modules included make-up. This module was taught by an expatriate lady who taught that TV make-up is different from street make-up and day time make-up different from party make-up. I’m sorry to report however that most people don’t take this into consideration and over the years’make-up has become an obsession especially for the younger demographic.TV viewing on Nigerian television is getting harder not only by virtue of poor content but by the faces we see on TV both men and women who do nothing to add value to the TV business. Some of the men have never heard of corn silk to remove shiny noses and generally look fresh on TV and some of the women are either over made up or simply look shambolic and this is worrisome because really all of these people described have no business being on TV. In our time, you were properly auditioned to make the mark. Foundation is meant to cover some skin challenges like acne, discolorations, etc. and is expected to be used as you grow older to allow your skin to breath. But today, girls as young as 18 are piling on the foundation and when they take it off, we do not recognize them. For make-up, I’ve always believed in less is more. It’s meant to enhance your look, not to change you to a different person. Too much make-up always makes people look gaudy, fake and cheap. Just a little bit always does it. A little more for weddings and TV, never over the top. Now enter the bronzer, a shiny golden dust of a make-up palette that is supposed to just warm your face a little bit. I’m sorry to report that Nigerians are now bathing in it. So before you have met somebody, you practically meet the bronzer, a well pan-caked face with a sunny glow all over the face. It’s meant to frame your cheekbones just lightly and the bridge of your nose very thinly. An enhancer really but it has become the powder now and the whole face is luminous in a rather unfortunate way. In church, at social events, people’s noses look like it has been dipped in gold, comical in the main and it may seem like no one is subtle in this bronzer business. Old and young contest for who will wear the most bronzer. Bronzer, rouge, false eye lashes, over drawn eyebrows, everyone looks like a doll. It is difficult to tell who is real and who is not. Women are taking longer and longer to wear make-up; I feel sorry for the men. But the bronzer craze has to take the cake. We all feel attacked by this shiny luminous make-up that is inappropriately applied. So Mr. Abu arrives at a wedding without me and sitting amongst many bronzed out women, he then asked the ignorant question, what happened to your faces ladies, did you suffer a burn? Some of them called to report him. It was hilarious, a lot of the ladies were amused but honestly, we can really go easy on the bronzer, you don’t have to wear it all in one day. Go easy girls, too much make-up ages you.

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

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