Businessday 06 jul 2018

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news you can trust I **FRIDAY 06 JULY 2018 I vol. 15, no 91 I N300

Sell

$-N 358.00 361.00 £-N 472.00 480.00 €-N 410.00 418.00

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Foreign Exchange Market

Spot $/N

I&E FX Window 362.25 CBN Official Rate 305.70

fgn bonds

Treasury Bills 3M -0.05 11.56

6M

5 Years

10 Years

20 Years

-0.02 12.70

0.00% 13.60%

0.08% 14.20%

0.07% 14.33%

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Hotel sector expands on rising foreign, domestic travellers Jonathan Aderoju & Oluwatosin Dokunmu

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Orange holding off Nigeria investment until mobile money lodging up 6.7% in 2017, first increase since 2013 regulatory tweak LOLADE AKINMURELE

igeria’s hotel industry achieved double-digit growth in 2017 with increasing foreign and domestic travellers reinforcing the sector’s potential for growth.

In a PwC report on hospitality in Africa released yesterday, titled Hotels Fact 2018-2022, Nigeria recorded the largest forecasted expansion in the hotels market compared to other African

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Central Bank regulation barring non-financial institutions from providing financial services in Nigeria is all that stands in the way of Orange SA from rolling out mobile banking operations in Africa’s most populous nation, according to two persons familiar with the matter.

The French telecommunications group did not immediately

Continues on page 38

Consumer firms’ right issues pay off as debt levels fall BALA AUGIE

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his could be the best time to buy consumer goods firms’ stocks as the capital raising embarked upon by them combined with the relative stability in the FX market has helped lower debt to record lows while underpinning profit.

Continues on page 38

Continues on page 38

Inside

L-R: Kayode Omotoso, CEO, Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN); Saadiya Aliyu Aminu, MD, Urban Shelter; Ugochukwu Chime, national president, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria; Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, and Ene Nduka-Nwagbo, representative of MD/CEO, FMBN, during the BusinessDay Real Estate Roundtable and Exhibition 2018, themed ‘Innovative Housing Finance Model as a Catalyst for Home Ownership’ in Abuja, yesterday.

Pic by Tunde Adeniyi.

Banking industry stakeholders mourn Adamu Ciroma P. 2

Fashola outlines FG’s plans to recapitalise FMBN to N500bn TONY AILEMEN & HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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inister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, says the Federal Government has concluded plans to recapitalise the Federal Mortgage

stakeholders want housing as growth catalyst

Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to a N500 billion capital base.

This will enable it play a more determinant role in closing the housing deficit gap in the country.

The FMBN current capital base

is currently put at N2.5 billion, of which the Federal Government has only paid N1.5 billion of its own contribution.

Fashola, in his keynote remarks at BusinessDay Real Estate

Roundtable and Exhibition, with the theme: “Innovative Housing Finance Model as a Catalyst for Home ownership,” said the plan Continues on page 38

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Nigeria debt service burden MARKETS Large caps take a beating as NSE-30 down 2.11% ytd jumps to N2trn in 2018 David Ibidapo & Emeka Ucheaga

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Budget deficit for 2018 is N1.95 trillion down from N2.36 trillion in 2017 thanks largely to rising crude oil prices which have raised 2018 federal government revenue estimates higher than the preceding year. The Ministry of Finance is looking to finance the budget deficit with a combination of both external and local debt to lower the overall borrowing cost of the Federal Government.

Up to 90 percent of the projected debt service cost is to be used solely for domestic debt obligations. As at December 2017, domestic debt stood at N12.5 trillion while external debt stood at N5.7 trillion.

The bulk of Nigeria’s debt is long dated bonds which gives the government enough wiggle room to manage its debt load. FBNQuest estimates that only 25 percent of Nigeria’s debt was raised through short term treasury bills. All foreign debt used to fund the budget deficit raised over the past year are long term eurobonds with maturity between 10-30 years.

FBNQuest estimates that the average cost of domestic borrowing is about 13.2 percent. Eurobonds raised in the past year were between 6.5-7.6 percent, almost half the cost of borrowing internally. This informed the government’s move to increase external borrowing in 2018 in order to lessen the overall borrowing cost for the country significantly.

igeria debt service burden appears to be worsening as budget office estimates an increase of around N340 billion in debt servicing cost this year.

This year, Nigeria’s debt service provision is expected to increase significantly by 27 percent from N1.66 trillion recorded in 2017 to N2.01 trillion according to 2018 budget estimates. As a result, up to 22 percent of the N9.1 trillion budget will be used for debt service alone.

This compares poorly with South Africa who is using only 10 percent of its budget to service its public debt.

It is worthy to note that debt servicing as a percentage of total budget is lower in South Africa even though the national debt there is higher than in Nigeria. This could be traced to the lower interest rate environment in South Africa which has its monetary policy rate at 6.5 percent compared to Nigeria’s MPR of 14 percent. Also with country risk premium a lot lower in South Africa than in Nigeria, the SA government can raise external debts at lower borrowing costs than Nigeria.

High borrowing cost combined with a very porous tax net has Nigeria spending almost one third of the revenue generated in 2018 to service the national debt. Debt servicing to revenue is up 2 percentage point from 29 percent to 31.8 percent as Nigeria continues to accumulate more debt to fund its regular budget Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com deficits.

Banking industry stakeholders mourn Adamu Ciroma HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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remember Ciroma for his discipline in the management of the finance Ministry of the country during his administration.

Ajibola described him as a sound technocrat, experienced public officer and politician with integrity.

“He left behind a sound, measurable contribution to the growth of the economy,” he told BusinessDay by phone.

Adamu Ciroma was born in Potiskum, Yobe State on November 20, 1934. He was one of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) presidential aspirants in 1979. He contested in the party’s presidential primary, in which he was supposedly sponsored by the faceless Kaduna Mafia, a rumored group of northern intellectuals, serving officers and bureaucrats stationed around Kaduna.

Ciroma emerged third winner in his party primary, behind Shehu Shagari and Maitama Sule. His candidacy was partly financed by Hamza Rafindadi Zayyad, the head of the New Nigeria Development Company.

The elder statesman was briefly the secretary of the NPN and he later served at various times as Minister for Industries, Agriculture and Finance. As a senior cabinet minister in the Shagari administration, he played key roles in the implementation of the president’s agenda especially in the areas of food production and working with international agencies to develop an Agricultural Development Project (ADP).

he banking industry was thrown into mourning on Thursday over the death of Adamu Ciroma, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and former minister of finance.

The 84-year-old founding member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) died in an Abuja hospital on Thursday after a protracted illness.

Reacting to the news of Ciroma’s death, Uju Ogubunka, president, Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, described him as a professional who played an active part in Nigeria’s economy as former CBN governor and finance minister.

Ogubunka who was the former registrar of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) said the country moved forward during Ciroma’s tenor in government.

“He was approachable, disciplined, we did not had problem relating with him. I take him as a thorough professional. We will miss him,” Ogubunka said by phone.

Ciroma became the CBN governor in 1975 till 1977 during which N20 banknote with portrait of late head of state was introduced. He served as Minister of Finance in the government of Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2003. Currently, his wife Maryam Ciroma holds the position of PDP National Women leader in Nigeria.

Segun Ajibola, fomer president/ chairmen of council, CIBN, will Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com

Emeka Ucheaga

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t hasn’t been a fabulous year for 12 large cap stocks on the NSE30 in 2018. The NSE30 is an index that tracks changes in prices of the largest stocks in the equity market. NSE 30 companies account for more than 95 percent of the total stock market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

After a blistering start to the year that saw the NSE30 index move from around 1,800 points to over 2,000 points within the first 3 weeks of the year, the NSE30 has since reversed all its gains in January and is now down -2.11 percent, after dropping to 1,709 points at market close on Thursday.

Large cap equities such as Nigerian Breweries, Total and Nestle are currently down -14.78 percent, -3.17 percent and -1.91 percent respectively. As a result of the significant price losses in Nigerian Breweries this year, the market valuation of the company has now dropped below N1 trillion to about N910 billion.

Market bears have been extra powerful this year and their might has been felt most by Forte oil. The company is the least performing stock on the NSE30 index and is currently down -39.4 percent. Forte oil has now dropped to N28.50 on Thursday, its lowest point since late 2013. The rout is still not over for Forte oil shareholders who have seen their wealth sharply eroded after the stock began its current downward trend from its record high of N342 per share in February 2016.

Alongside Forte oil as NSE30 biggest market laggards this year are Union Bank of Nigeria (-26.92%), International Breweries (-22.29%), Dangote Flour (-16.47%) and Lafarge Africa (-10.19%). The market rout appears to be far reaching across different companies in multiple industries as almost every sector is represented among the big losers.

Dangote Sugar and Fidelity bank which were the top market performers in 2017 are both down this year by -2.79 percent and -7.34

percent respectively. Diamond bank which reported significant losses in 2017 and Transcorp which suffered around 30 percent drop in profit between 2016 and 2017 were punished by investors as the stocks are currently down -6.67 percent and -7.79 percent year to date respectively.

While the bears have been very busy this year, the bulls haven’t been idle either. Equity prices of 19 publicly listed companies on the NSE30 index have all trended northwards this year.

All of these companies have outperformed their market benchmark.

The best performing stock on the NSE30 this year has been Okomu oil (+40.86), Skye bank (+38%) and NASCON (+31%). Yes, Skye bank is the second best performing stock this year but don’t be fooled, the stock is currently trading at 72 kobo as at market close on Thursday and still has an ocean to cross to get to its 2014 level of N4 before the rout began.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com

Emmanuel Macron, France President (m); Akinwunmi Ambode, governor, Lagos State (r), and Tokini Peterside, founder of ART X Lagos, at the special exhibition curated by ART X Lagos at the New Afrika Shrine.

Rite Foods competes for market share after N30bn investment CHINWE AGBEZE

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ith N30 billion worth of investment already down, Rite Foods Limited has tripled production capacity to capture a large share of the sausage rolls and Carbonated Soft Drinks segments.

The production of its soft drink in different variants of Cola, orange, bitter lemon, apple, soda water and two exclusive variants is further widening competition in the CSD segment dominated by Coca Cola, Pepsi and La Casera.

BusinessDay visited the Ososa, Ijebu factory of the food and beverage company in Ogun State. Findings revealed that the company’s production volume for soft drinks has moved up by 300 percent to meet up with growing product demands.

The company upped daily production of its soft drinks to 120,000 packs from 30,000 in 2017, and currently produces 9,000 cartons of sausage rolls daily from 5,000 cartons, a year before. “We started with one production line in 2016.

Now, we have four lines, and by November 2018, we’ll add two more lines, “Seleem Adegunwa, managing director, Rite Foods told BusinessDay. The carbonated soft drinks

(CSD) segment in the country has In October, 2015, Big Cola, continued to grow despite consum- a soft drink produced by AJE ers reduced purchasing power. Re- Group, a privatively-owned mulsearch into the CSD market shows tinational beverage company that there are over 18 carbonated with headquarters in Lima, Peru, drinks competing aggressively for gained entrance into the Nigerian market share in the country. market, offering consumers more Coca Cola and Pepsi, the two big quantity and selling 65cl at N100 players in the CSD market hold the against competitor’s (Coca cola largest market share of 50 percent and Pepsi) 50cl for N100. and 40 percent respectively, leaving Two months later, Pepsi, one 10 percent share for smaller play- of the dominant brands responders. Coca Cola has a global brand ed to the competition with the value of about $79.4billion, and launch of its new 60cl ‘Long Pepsi about $19.6billion.

Throat’ bottle retailed at same In a bid to increase market price as its former 50cl bottle. penetration, manufacturers of In a bid to stay ahead of compesoft drinks have adopted different tition in the soft drinks market and strategies to expand the reach of also drive more sales for its prodtheir products and gain new con- ucts, Coca Cola Nigeria Limited sumers. This has further deepened upped it’s ante in February, 2016, the battle among manufacturers with the release of a 60cl PET bottle for larger chunks of the soft drinks as a direct challenge to both Big market. To attract more patronage Cola and Seven-bottling company’s and create loyalty, Rite Foods offers ‘longthroat’ PET bottle drinks. consumers more quantity product In October 2016, most beverage for less amount and less than two companies reduced the quantity of years in the market, its Bigi drinks their soft drinks by 17 percent on are challenging similar variants of the back of soaring inflation. Coca dominant brands.

Cola Nigeria Limited and 7up BotBigi Cola’s 60cl drink retailed at tling Company cut the sizes of all N100 is competing with the 60cl their PET bottle drinks to 50cl from Coca Cola sold for N150, and 50cl 60cl for same price of N100.

Pepsi which sells for N100. Bigi Orange is also challenging Fanta Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com and Mirinda drinks.

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Photo splash Participants at the BusinessDay Real Estate Roundtable and Exhibition 2018, themed “Innovative Housing Finance Model as a Catalyst for Home Ownership� held in Abuja.

Frank Aigbogun (l), publisher, BusinessDay Newspapers, with Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing.

Ugochukwu Chime, national president, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria.

Frank Aigbogun, publisher, BusinessDay Newspapers.

L-R: Ugochukwu Chime, national president, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria; Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing, and Ene Nduka-Nwagbo, representative of MD/CEO, FMBN.

L-R: Joshua Aloaye Egbagbe, chairman, Value Chain, with Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing.

Babatunde Fashola, with Guy Okechukwu, member, BOT, REDAN.

L-R: Peter Okolo, principal partner, Peter Okolo and Company; Bashir Hassan Ibrahim, GM, northern operations, BusinessDay Media Limited, and Ogho Okiti, president, Time Economics.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing.

Pictures by Tunde Adeniyi

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NEWS Lagos mulls multiple contract partners Oil prices ride on Trump’s tweets, adds $10 for N844bn 4th Mainland Bridge … remains uncertain on commencement JOSHUA BASSEY

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fter it failed to name the preferred bidder for the much-anticipated Fourth Mainland Bridge in June, as earlier announced, the Lagos State government is now tinkering with the idea of engaging multiple contractors for the multibillion-naira project.

The state, however, remains uncertain on commencement of work on the all-important infrastructure, but maintains that it was working to ensure the project becomes a reality.

Adebowale Akinsanya, commissioner for works and infrastructure, told BusinessDay on Tuesday that the government was reviewing the strategy for the construction of bridge, as it had resolved to divide the 36 kilometres bridge into three or more lots to be handled by different interested partners, still on Public Private Sector (PPP) arrangement.

“The project will no longer be handled by one contractor.

We are considering three or even more. One is a Chinese firm, and we are working on others. It is the same strategy we have deployed for the

Lagos-Badagry Expressway,” Akinsanya said.

The state government has been struggling to secure investors’ buy-in for the development of the bridge since it cancelled the earlier agreement it signed with a consortium of investors in May 2016.

On April 18, this year, the government announced it would unveil the new preferred bidder for the project in May or June, but it failed to do in what indicated it was yet to close a new deal with any interested partner to build the bridge.

“We have received a number of proposals for the project.

As I speak, we’re at the last phase of selecting the preferred bidder. I believe this would be announced to the public by either May or June,” Akinsanya said in April 2018.

The bridge under the previous contract cancelled by the government in May 2017, was to cost a consortium of investors about N844 billion.

Government had cited undue delay on the part of the investors in the commencement of work on the project, in what was said to be related to funding. The investors included Visible Asset Limited,

Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Hitech Construction Limited, J.P. Morgan, Eldorado Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Westminster Dredging and Marine, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Access Bank. The government had cited delay in the commencement of work by the investors as reason for the termination of the contract.

The 4th Mainland Bridge was conceived by the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (1999 and 2007) but was unable to implement it.

His successor, Babatunde Fashola (2007 to 2015), however, drew up the first alignment/design but could not push through.

The first breakthrough for the infrastructure was in May, 2016 when Governor Akinwunmi Ambode signed a PPP agreement with a consortium of investors to fund the construction of the bridge at the cost of N844 billion.

The investors were to Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) the infrastructure back to the state government after 40 years of recouping their investment.

However, one year after the agreement, the government terminated it in May 2017.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU, with agency report

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resident Donald Trump of the United States of America has taken to his Twitter handle again, but with opposite results to his expressed intent for oil prices cut.

“The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up and they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s,” Trump tweeted 9:46pm, July 4.

This has had reverse effect on the oil market because oil traded near its highest in three and half years on Thursday, boosted by potential disruptions to flows from Iran and the Middle East Trump saying the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should cut prices.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil producer, may benefit little from this rising price level because its average monthly production since May stood at 1.8 million barrels per day, including condensate. It means Nigeria may be unable to add new

barrels to take advantage of the spot price.

Brent crude futures were at $78.12 a barrel. Analysts say Brent poised to reach 100 dollars in spite of spurious price pegging. Brent sweet oil is natural unlike oil from cracking. US crude futures were up 32 cents at $74.46.

“Your tweets have increased the prices by at least $10. Please stop this method,” the oil ministry news agency quoted Kazempour Ardebili, Iranian OPEC governor as saying.

Last Sunday, Trump tweeted that Saudi Arabia had agreed to increase oil output by up to 2 million barrels in order to lower prices, and compensate for falling outputs in oil-rich Venezuela and Iran.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), however, mentioned later that Trump and King Salman had simply agreed on “a need to make efforts to maintain the stability of oil markets,” without concluding any formal deal.

OPEC countries and other oil producers reached an agreement at the end of 2016 to reduce oil output by 1.8 million barrels per day compared

to October 2016. The deal, aimed at boosting oil prices, was extended twice, with the last one set to last until the end of 2018.

OPEC together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia started to withhold output in 2017 to prop up the market.

Recent price rises have also been spurred by a US announcement that it plans to reintroduce sanctions against Iran from November, targeting oil exports.

OPEC and Russia said in June they were willing to raise output to address concerns of supply shortages due to unplanned disruptions from Venezuela to Libya.

In addition, a potential fall in Iranian supplies due to US sanctions is a factor too.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that Tehran might block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for transporting crude in the Gulf.

“If they want to stop Iranian oil exports, we will not allow any oil shipment to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” Ismail Kowsari was quoted as saying.

Lagos gives N500m grants to CDAs

NNPC Retail commences nationwide audit of delisted trucks

JOSEPHINE OKOJIE

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L-R: Enase Okonedo, dean, LBS; Lolade Sasore, head, communications and knowledge engagement, FBNQuest Merchant Bank; Kayode Akinkugbe, MD/CEO, FBNQuest Merchant Bank, and Chinwe Okpala of FBNQuest Merchant Bank, at the press conference on the FBNQuest Bloomberg Room expansion at Lagos Business School-Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.

Experts forecast MPR to remain constant till end-year 2018 BUNMI BAILEY

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conomists at Bloomberg forecast that Nigeria’s current Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 14 percent will remain constant till the end of H2 2018.

If that happens it means that the rate, which has been constant at 14 percent since July 2016, will remain unchanged till end-year 2018.

“Economists say a reconfiguration of the monetary policy committee(MPC)inlate2017and the early 2018 has increased the sway of Godwin Emefele over the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to keep the policy rate on hold at 14 percent in 2018,” Mark Bohlund, economist,BloombergAfrica,said in an article.

“Nigeria’s inflation rate dropped from a high of close to

20 percent in early 2017 to around 11.6 percent in May. But the CBN expects it to be subject to upward pressure in the second half of the year, thanks to fiscal stimulus. The Naira peg against the US dollar is likely to remain in place beyond 2019 elections,” Bohlund said.

Analysts in Nigeria have agreedtothisforecastsayingholding the rate constant till the rest of the year is logical, especially in the light of heightened electioneering activities coming up in the second half of the year.

“The fact that budget disbursement will start earnest and we have a N2.87 trillion capital expenditure that the government will want to disburse quickly, coupled with the huge election expenses that will come into the financial system could make the CBN to hold the rate,” Johnson

Chukwu, MD of Cowry Asset Limited, explained.

“This thing will exact a lot of pressureonliquiditysituationand on the FX. The CBN will do everything to manage the liquidity. So, whiletheyhavethatpressure,they arenotlikelytoworsenitbyreducing it under the cash reserve ratio or MPR because if they do they will be using their hand to shoot themselves.

“In the same vein, they cannot increase the rate because the economy is still recovering at a sluggish rate of 1.95 percent. So, the option they have is to keep the rate at the current level,” Chukwu said.

The MPC is a committee saddled with the statutory responsibility of managing the monetary and exchange rate policy of the economy. The MPC meeting

is held bimonthly, making it six times every year. The next MPC meeting is scheduled to hold between July 23 and 24, 2018, according to the CBN. Ayodeji Ebo, MD of Afrinvest SecuritiesLimited,agreedwiththe forecast, saying, “It is not the best time to bring down the rate so as to maintain the stability in the FX market till the rest of the year.”

The CBN has a target of lowering the country’s inflation rate to single digits in 2018. As of May 2018,inflationratewas11.6percent accordingtodatafromtheNational Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“As long as inflation is double digits, it is unlikely that they will reduce the MPR. We are entering elections soon so they might want to be very careful,” Dolapo Ashiru, a Lagos-based stockbroker, said.

overnor of Lagos State Akinwunmi Ambode has presented grants of about N500 million to Community Development Associations (CDAs) in the state for the promotion of self-help projects in their various constituencies.

GovernorAmbode,whomade the presentation yesterday at De Blue Roof, at the Lagos Television (LTV) premises in Ikeja, reiterated his administration’s commitment to good governance and inclusive leadership.

He urged the communities to remain selfless to their commitments, adding that the state was alwaysreadytosupportatalltimes.

“Todayishistoricalasinterventions to the tune of N500m have been provided for the 275 CDAs, ranging from N1m to N10m. I am happy to note that the volume of these grants is historic and will be a continuous exercise.

“It is my expectation that all the projects covered by these grants will be completed for the usage of thecommunities.Therealgovernment is at the community level, reason why we are giving them priority,” he said.

He said the need for government intervention for the projects had become very compelling, as they were well conceived to help communities.

The governor appealed to the communities to take full responsibility of all the amenities.

Speaking also during the presentation, Akeem Sulaimon, special adviser to the Governor on Communities and Communications, said, “Today, we have come to actualise the translation of that visiontoaction,thetransformation of our promise to reality across the length and breadth of the state.”

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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igerian National Petroleum Corporation Retail Limited, the downstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with stake in supply and distribution of petroleum products, has embarked on nationwide audit of its field operations.

The corporation said to ensure all delisted trucks were in compliance with the requirement to remove the company’s logo and other brand attributes.

Group general manager, group public affairs division of the Corporation, Ndu Ughamadu, said in a statement that the move had become imperative to ensure that only authentic NNPC Retail tested and certified trucks bear the company’s logo and brand insignia.

He said as market leaders in the downstream retail business, the audit would help instil lasting sanity in the petroleum products haulage space across the country.

On the trending social media video skit showing a leaky fuel truck bearing an NNPC Retail like insignia, speeding-off along a non-descript highway, the Corporation dismissed the video, noting that there was nothing concrete in the said clip to show that the truck in question belong to the NNPC Retail fleet.

Unfortunately, our inhouse investigation has been constrained by the lack of a plate number on the said truck and other identification marks we normally stencil on all authentic NNPC Retail trucks across the country,” the Corporation said.

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BUSINESS DAY Highlight of the news reports on our digital platforms this week

Best five stories this week Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers explains multi-fund investment structure

For more visit our website at businessdayonline.com to catch up on full news stories.

The multi-fund investment structure in the pension industry, taking effect from July 1, 2018, resonated at a preretirement seminar organized by Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited in Lagos, during which the leading Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) provided deeper insights on the workings of the scheme.

Buhari meets Ngozi OkonjoIweala, seeks reparation of stolen assets President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday in Nouakchott, Mauritania met former Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo - Iweala on the sideline of the ongoing Africa Union ( AU) meeting. of approach and his critical spirit in approaching issues of domination and power in world politics.

POLL RESULTS: MTN Nigeria IPO to begin August after SEC’s go ahead The worry of investors and stakeholders awaiting an announced date for the much anticipated MTN Nigeria initial public offering (IPO) is finally over, as sources privy to developments have confirmed to BusinessDay exclusively that August is the targeted beginning date for the planned sale.

The Poll question: Do you feel that the Nigerian Government cares about the average Nigerian? #BDPolls 15% of Nigerians say that the Nigerian government cares about the average Nigerian while 85% says that the Nigerian government does not care.

Write us with your opinion at digital@ businessdayonline.com to let us know what your preference is.

Poll of the week

More trouble for Buhari, APC, as nPDP, others form rAPC

Genocide, hegemony and power in Nigeria

More trouble awaits President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2019 general election.

The Italian Marxist political philosopher Antonio Gramsci was one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. I admire his freshness

Video of the week

Tweet of the week

Cartoon of the week

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COMMENT

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TALES FROM THE MAIN ROAD

EUGENIA ABU 07043185277 (Text only) myspace@eugeniaabu.com

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am excited as any Nigerian, indeed any African about the strides Nollywood has made. In fact, Nigerians should beat their chests hard because we have the best actors and actresses, some of Africa’s leading Thespians. We are so good that many channels have been birthed off our films. While I am not necessarily jumping for joy for some of the names of the channels which play into the Africa voodoo narrative. I am completely chuffed that the movies at least have multiple homes.

Our long journey from when our first movies hit our home entertainment stations on DVD’S to when they began to appear on television has paid off. Regarded as the world’s third largest movie industry, Nollywood has continued to stand tall while investing in collaborations across the West African sub region and internationally. Most of our leading

KEMI ADETUTU Kemi Adetutu, a social commentator, writes from Abuja

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otoriously reputed as a cesspool of grave corrupt practices in Nigeria, the Nigerian Immigration Service continues to stink of all forms of vices, right under the anti-corruption noose of Muhammadu Buhari.

It remains an unpleasant experience to have any dealing with this government agency charged to control the movement of humans and non-humans in and out of the country. The clumsiness of an otherwise simple process like obtaining International Passport is often accompanied with extortion of innocent individuals in magnanimous proportions.

With the introduction of fiscal reform policies like the Treasury Single Account, one would expect some level of sanity in the operations of NIS as evident in other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

However, several years after the full implementation of TSA, not much has changed in NIS. Just as the government is trying to clamp down on defaulters and ensure all revenues

Friday 06 July 2018

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com

Nollywood: The nurses are begging for rescue actors are easily recognizable in any part of the continent and among the African diaspora and that is impressive. However, as Nollywood continues to grow in leaps and bounds hitting over two decades in existence, we cannot act the ostrich. There are challenges no doubt but there is still so much that needs to be addressed. Script for one. It is heartwarming to see various bodies including some international organizations like the World Bank take an interest in better screenplay for Nollywood movies. Scriptwriting needs a lot of improvement if the stories must have depth and compete internationally. Then there is the issue of stock characters.

Most Nollywood characters need to break the mound. All we have are the same bad guys, the same grandmothers, the same villains, the same prostitutes.

Can we be versatile please and allow a bad guy to be the good guy sometimes? He may even be a better good guy.

There are several others that need intervention in order to make us world class but I would get to them going forward. But for now the one that is about to finally do me in which needs urgent intervention are the nurses. My late mum was a nurse, a very special one at that. I watched Mrs.

The nursing profession is serious business, so are doctors and policemen. I wonder why professional nurses are not complaining and helping to train nurses for Nollywood in a collaboration.

Hollywood actors spend months getting into character. We may not have their budget but we can try Amodu dress up, uniform, cap, and stopwatch in place. Always impeccable. A stop watch on her left breast pocket, flat shoes and functional earrings. It was always such a pleasure to watch her at work. I have accompanied her to work many times. I admired all the nurses who worked with her. They empathized, they were courteous and they spoke soothingly. But for my squeamishness, I may have considered becoming a nurse. While today’s nurses may not carry the baton as well as my

mother’s generation, there are still some stellar nurses to emulate. I know things are shabby everywhere in our customer service delivery but our Nollywood nurses certainly have to take the cake. They honestly depress me continuously. Their uniforms are completely off the mark, too big, too small, not smart, not there.

What about the acting? This has to be the shame of Nollywood, ranking no. 1 ahead of cheesy doctors and shabby policemen.

I have asked myself many times where on earth the producers harvest the persons presented as nurses in their movies. They look lost, un-coordinated, unable to pronounce the basic nursing terminologies and totally bereft of the standard nurses outlook.

They are the most confused in times of a medical crisis running between pillar and post. Also sometimes I think their role is to stand rooted to a spot, blanked out for a while when spoken to and then suddenly act like they were switched on by a button, then they come alive flailing their hands and driving me completely spare. Is it possible to hire better actors as nurses? Is it possible that one of any of the two nurses in a Nollywood movie can be sent to understudy a proper nurse to get their mannerism right and just get a sense of what it takes to be a nurse? Simple sentences

befuddle them and directing instructions leave them rattled.

What is it really that makes us deserve badly behaved persons and stupid acting fellows for the role of professional nurses? Every little thing counts. The fact that Mike Ezuronye and Kate Hens haw are in the movie does not make up for a bad nurse.

Please take note Nollywood directors and producers. We can see poorly cast nurses, which can make us switch off your movie. I know what a good nurse should be like, my mother was one. And I am not the only one who notices. Everyone else who has ever seen a proper nurse including ten year olds can see. We deserve better. Don’t use your cousin who came visiting and has no acting chops as a nurse and do not use your neighbor’s daughter just as a favor to your neighbor. The nursing profession is serious business, so are doctors and policemen. I wonder why professional nurses are not complaining and helping to train nurses for Nollywood in a collaboration. Hollywood actors spend months getting into character. We may not have their budget but we can try. One more left legged nurse and I cannot take responsibility for my action.

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Biometric visa on arrival: Nigerian Immigration Service continues to shun FG’s TSA policy in the public sector are collected into a single consolidated account, NIS continues to profit by diverting funds into private hands.

Treasury Single Account is a policy which stipulates that all government revenues (income) and payments (expenses) are done through a single account and sub-accounts. It is hosted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and by implementation, no government MDA is permitted to carry out financial transactions outside of the account.

Despite reciting the gains of the TSA at every occasion, the federal government has failed to incorporate the foreign earnings of MDAs into the TSA. A lot of MDAs, therefore, continue to profit from this major flaw of a policy regarded as Buhari’s greatest achievement.

On June 12, 2018, NIS started issuing Biometric Visa-on-Arrival, which costs foreigners $110. It was suspended within such a short period of time due to controversies surrounding the charges. As uncovered by media investigations, people who have already paid $110 to obtain visas before coming into Nigeria were being required to

pay the same amount again for the biometric visa upon arrival.

NIS reportedly engaged the services of two private companies, Online Integrated Services (OIS) and New Work. These private organisations proceeded to charge $90 and $20 respectively for the issuance of the biometric visas, an act in total disregard for the TSA policy, which holds that all revenues should be remitted directly to the government.

What is the antecedence of these companies? On what basis were they engaged? Are they registered with industry regulators like the Central Bank of Nigeria and National Information Technology Development Agency? Was there a transparent bid before they got the deal?

OIS website reads that “OIS Services is the official partner of a number of diplomatic missions and consortia of International schools.”

At what point did this company leave its job of facilitating international admissions to getting involved with NIS on Biometric Visa on Arrival?

New Works may be a completely fictitious firm as it has no footprint on the internet!

Although the NIS Comptroller General, Muhammed Babandede,

has swiftly moved to suspend the Biometric Visa on Arrival, the problem is not with the policy itself, but with the NIS. Visa on Arrival in itself is applicable in all countries of the world, and is said to be good for business. However, paying OIS and New Works for whatever service is misaligned from the centralised collections system of the TSA. The NIS has a history of thwarting government initiatives and this recent development brings to light the level of infernal corruption that still exists among MDAs six years after the commencement of TSA. NIS has sneakily removed passport payment from the TSA. “If you pay your passport through the right channel which only cost N17,000, you may not get it in months, but if you double that amount and give directly to an agent, you can get the same passport in 12 hours. That is how it works here,” a frustrated applicant said.

“Most of the agents here work for NIS officials and they are trained to peddle rumours on the unavailability of passports. This story changes after a financial inducement,” another said.

The government must immedi-

ately move to block all avenues of corruption and diversion of public funds in NIS. Visa-on-arrival is currently executed outside of the TSA and Biometric visa-onarrival is now contracted without recourse to TSA. It is essential that the foreign currency component of the TSA kicks off within the shortest time possible before the situation completely gets out of hand. Or isn’t it then appropriate to posit that certain individuals in this government and their appointed representatives who profit from the non-commencement of this leg of the TSA initiative are responsible for stalling its implementation?

Nigeria has made progress in improving oversight of its cash resources, but lack of information on ALL of Nigeria’s cash holdings will continue to lead to additional borrowing on the part government and corruption will continue to thrive.

It is time to act, so the TSA, which perhaps is this government’s only accomplishment in four years, does not become another failed scheme.

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How agile is your organisation in these complex and disruptive times?

WITH

A

s the business landscapes continue to change in a rapid and disruptive ways – coupled with high level of unpredictabilities, organizations that will survive and thrive will be those that will consistently demonstrate agility in the face of any circumstance.

Your organizational agility which is simply your organization’s capability to recognize, deal with and exploit opportunities in this continuously changing and demanding environment is majorly what will determine your performance, growth and sustainability. This is why the Economist Intelligence Poll showed that nearly 90% of executives indicate that agility is essential to business

INWALOMHE DONALD Inwalomhe Donald writes from Osogbo, inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com

O

‘UJU ONWUZULIKE

Uju Onwuzulike is Nigeria’s leading authority on Systems Thinking and Strategic Management. He was a Steve Haines trained strategy and systems thinking expert and a former global partner of Haines Centre for Strategic Management, California, USA. He is the founder and Chief Results Officer of MCL – a strategy and outstanding performance specialist firm. He can be reached on 09091142093 or uju.onwuzulike@mclgroup.net.

sun State Government is not part of the partnership agreement between All Works of Life Development Organisation (AWOL International Limited) and Turkish Biray Group. I want to clarify that Osun State Government signed a concession agreement with AWOL. The partnership agreement between All Works of Life Development Organisation (AWOL International Limited) and Turkish Biray Group for the completion of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M. K. O) Abiola International Airport at IdoOsun under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) arrangement has failed and could not pass Turkish concessions law on privatization and hence funds were not released

by Exim Bank of Turkey for the project. AWOL has violated the terms of the agreement and Osun State Government got a court order to terminate the agreement which makes it unfeasible for AWOL to continue with the project. The problem about Osun Airport Concession is between AWOL and Turkish Biray Group. Osun State Government is only implementing the concession agreement.

The partnership agreement between All Works of Life Development Organisation (AWOL International Limited) and Turkish Biray Group which defines partner relations to each other and the business in addition to the rights of each partner collapsed. The partnership agreement which stipulates the

success and it is a critical pathway to higher revenues, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.

Agile organizations adapt to and create change more successfully than competitors and are able to capitalize on the opportunities emerging around them. Unlike, non-agile organizations that whither in the face of market and technological changes, business uncertainties and complexities.

Working with diverse CEOs and having had the privilege of a one on one interaction with Rome Business School executive MBA students where I teach strategic management, I found that there is still a big gap between awareness of the need for organizational agility and organizations actually

Agile organizations adapt to and create change more successfully than competitors and are able to capitalize on the opportunities emerging around them. Unlike, nonagile organizations that whither in the face of market and technological changes, business uncertainties and complexities taking time to institutionalize agility capabilities.

I have always been reminding CEOs and leaders of organizations

that the most proactive way to compete if they really want to make a difference for their organizations is to compete through marketplace agility. Now more than ever, marketplace agility would require all workforce regardless of level, role or position to engage in proactive, adaptive, and generative behaviors, bolstered by a supportive mindset.

Bringing this home, dynamic organizations compete, and uniquely make money, in complex and unpredictable marketplace through market place agility, and in practice, dynamic organizations develop marketplace agility through organizational agility.

And a key vehicle to drive organizational agility is through human resources strategy and especially through the mindset and behaviours of employees towards building marketplace agility.

As a CEO of a company who builds organizational agility for clients, I have a thorough understanding of the critical importance of every organization having agility oriented mindset in driving their business to success in these tough, unpredictable and chal-

lenging times and this is why we have championed agility capability development in Nigeria.

By enrolling your executives, senior management, functional managers and managers at our upcoming Building Organizational Agility in Tough Times Program, taking place July 16-18, 2018 in Parkview Astoria Hotel, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Nigeria, your organization will bridge the agility gap and would be able to react successfully to the emergence of new competitors, the development of new industry-changing technologies, or sudden shifts in overall market conditions.

After this agility program, your people will be well equipped to make your organization more competitive and profitable as they begin to move quickly to adapt, learn fast and act on challenges, opportunities and emerging trends.

Wouldn’t your organization rather build this rare capability?

Let’s join hands in building agile organizations.

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Osun airport concession: A failed partnership between AWOL Internation limited and Turkish Biray group limitations of authority of each partner and includes an overview of the powers between AWOL and Biray Group failed. The agreement on day-to-day operations of the business, and the partnership agreement which also specify the standards for daily management routines failed. There is a conflict of interest between AWOL and Biray Group. There is a conflict of interest about the project which both AWOL and Biray Group could not resolve.

Osun State Government has terminated the concession agreement it signed with a concessionaire, All Works of Life (AWOL) International Limited for the completion of MKO Abiola International Airport in October, 2017 citing breach of contract agreement. The company was in fundamental breach of terms of the agreement mutually signed with the State Government and hence the Concession Agreement was legally terminated in consonance with the stipulation of the contract. The letter of termination was dated 5th March, 2018. The action of Awol International Limited is constituting a security risk to the project and has the potential of occasioning a huge economic loss to the state because Osun State followed due and legal process to terminate the agreement.

One of the breaches of the contract was the non compliance with the agreement which the Chairman of AWOL International Limited, Ambassador Nurudeený James Ogunlade signed that the company would shoulder 100 per cent funding of the project. The company chief said the project will begin on November 9, 2017 while the first phase will be completed within eight months. Due to the non-compliance with agreement,

the contract was terminated; the project has depreciated from the original state which it was when government handed it over to the concessionaire. The project was a development agreement.

Governor Aregbesola is a man of great knowledge and expertise. I am ready to enter into a public debate on this matter. Aregbesola’s reputation and his work speak for him. I have comment on this. Additionally, I am making this matter a matter of public debate and I expected that the agreement will be honoured.

It’s disgraceful to be exposing what technocrats and experts are making of Osun Airport. “It’s rather unbecoming and disgraceful to continue along this line.

Osun Airport is one concession that has remained clear to all till date.

In October, 2017, the Osun State government entered into an agreement with All Works of Life Development Organisation (AWOL International Limited) for the completion of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M. K. O) Abiola International Airport at Ido-Osun under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) arrangement. The signing of the concession agreement on the completion of the airport was to hasten the take-off of its operation in the next eight months.

The Managing Director of Biray Construction Nigeria Limited Mr Kartal Arikan said the company firmed up the agreement with the Turkish EximBank on the provision of funding for the project through the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria.

He said 85 per cent of materials and services will come from Turkey Construction Company to boost the quality of work during the construction work. Arikan said: “During the last visit of Governor Rauf Aregbesola to

Turkish Ambassador Hakan Cakil, the ambassador promised to facilitate $350 million for the project’s development from Turkey Investment Group and effort for that is ongoing.

“Let me assure the good people of Osun and government that Biray Group will support the project, bring to bear the best international professional standard in airport construction and development.”

Speaking after signing the agreement, the Chairman of AWOL International Limited, Ambassador Nurudeený James Ogunlade said the company would shoulder 100 per cent funding of the project. The company chief said the project will begin on November 9, while the first phase will be completed within eight months. Ogunlade said the airport would serve local and international passengers as well as cargo services. He said: “ýWe are entering into an agreement with the Osun State government to fast-track the completion of the MKO Abiola International Airport, having realised the zeal and effort being put into it

by Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

“AWOL International Limited will fund the project 100 per cent through our financial partner, like Turkish Exim Bank and Biray Group of Companies from Turkey.

We will Build, Operate and Transfer the first phase of the airport with an ultra-modern commercial complex (terminal building, control tower, among others), standard infrastructure (offices, duty-free shops, among others), construction of maintenance building and power house, workers’ training centre, fire fighter station, security infrastructure and services, apron and taxiway parking, dual carriage road from Oba Adesoji Aderemi

to the airport and completion of the fence and surveillance road within the perimeter of the airport and completion of 3.5-kilometre of standard runway.

The first phase of the Airport will be completed within eight months and it will take off with five aircraft, three passenger plane (B767-200ER, MD73 Helicopter (1) and B727 (1) cargo by AWOL International Limited. “Also, the completion will be done within two years. By then, we must have had in place the establishment of the airport with five star hotels, including amenities, such as a cultural centre, water park, recreation centre and garden, butterfly museum, casinos, among others. Enumerating facilities to be expected at the Corporate Airport, Amb. Ogunlade who heads the concessionaire held that aside the first phase to be completed before the last quarter of 2018, other amenities that befits the location and geographical area of an airport will be facilitated within 2 years.

His words “On the completion of the construction of First Phase of the Airport within the period of 8months, it will take off with five aircraft, three passengers helicopter and one cargo by AWOL International Company. To complete the entire establishment of the Airport with 5 Star Hotels including all amenities like Cultural center, Water Park Recreation Center and Garden, Butterfly Museum and Casinos, it will take the period of 2 years.”

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Editorial PUBLISHER/CEO

Frank Aigbogun EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Prof. Onwuchekwa Jemie EDITOR Anthony Osae-Brown DEPUTY EDITORS John Osadolor, Abuja Bill Okonedo NEWS EDITOR Patrick Atuanya EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SALES AND MARKETING Kola Garuba EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SERVICES Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Adeola Ajewole MANAGER, SYSTEMS & CONTROL Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Patrick Ijegbai CIRCULATION MANAGER John Okpaire GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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

Friday 06 July 2018

Regulatory requirements derailing financial inclusion in Nigeria

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here is unanimity of opinion in the financial sector that the best way to ensure greater financial inclusion in the developing world, especially for a country like Nigeria, is through digital financial technology (fintech). This is because access to physical financial services in these countries continue to be hampered by various barriers to access such as long distances to access financial services, bureaucratic bottlenecks and the sometimes prohibitive costs of banking services in a country like Nigeria where the banks charge exorbitant fees for routine and normal services like email and SMS alerts, account maintenance fees and the huge interests charged on loans. What is more, traditional financial services seem not to be designed to meet the needs of small depositors and borrowers. That is why, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report titled: “Digital Finance for all: Powering Inclusive Growth

in Emerging Economies”, “...56 percent of adults (in Nigeria) do not have a bank account, and 80 percent of cash in the economy is not deposited in a bank. Trust in banks is low, and many citizens, particularly those living in rural areas, are not familiar with financial services.” The report was emphatic in its conclusions that digital finance “has an opportunity to flourish in emerging economies because network coverage is near ubiquitous and rapidly increasing in quality.”

We need not look far for examples of successes of fintech in bringing financial services to the poor. Kenya – and indeed the entirety of East Africa and other emerging markets – provides key lessons here. Digital mobile services in Kenya, for example, are widespread with over 17 million active users conducting more than $50 billion in cashless transactions yearly.

However, regulatory bottleneck has continued to stifle the growth and flourishing of most fintech companies - which incidentally are startups that should be supported

to grow – in Nigeria. For instance, a key CBN regulatory requirement for fintechs to be licensed to operate include 3 years tax clearance of each of the founders, draft agreements with technical partners, participating banks, switching company, merchants, telcos and any other party; payment of non-refundable application fee of N100,000 to CBN; and evidence of shareholders’ fund of N2 billion before a licence is issued. The initial capital requirement used to be N500 million but was recently jacked up to N2 billion.

Should a mobile money start-up even manage to provide the tax clearance, draft agreements from banks, telcos, partners, merchants and pay the N100,000 non-refundable application fee, where would it get the N2 billion shareholders’ fund just to be licensed?

The requirements may also explain why over 80 percent of the licensed companies are based in Lagos. Meanwhile, the greater percentage of financially excluded Nigerians do not reside in Lagos but in the far interior of the country

– where fintechs find it difficult to survive due to the strangling regulatory requirement.

In January 2018, the CBN threatened to revoke the licence of more than 15 mobile money operators for failing to meet up with the N2 billion capital re quirements. The operators’ grace period will end on July 1, 2018. Currently, Nigeria has just 21 mobile money operators. If the CBN makes good on the revocation threat, the country will be left will less than 10 licensed operators servicing the over 60 million unbanked population in Nigeria.

The CBN needs to create a robust regulatory environment for both big and small players in the industry to flourish and thereby help capture all the financially excluded in Nigeria.

It could also create a multi-tier license process with different capital requirements for players in each tier or segment.

This will not only energise the fintechs, but will give the small fintechs not based in Lagos a chance to contribute to the onerous task of bringing financial inclusion to all Nigerians.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Dick Kramer - Chairman Imo Itsueli Mohammed Hayatudeen Albert Alos Funke Osibodu Afolabi Oladele Dayo Lawuyi Vincent Maduka Maneesh Garg Keith Richards Opeyemi Agbaje Amina Oyagbola Bolanle Onagoruwa Fola Laoye Chuka Mordi Sim Shagaya Mezuo Nwuneli Emeka Emuwa Charles Anudu Tunji Adegbesan

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Friday 06 July 2018

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MoneyInsight Personal Finance: Investing Retirement

Taxes

Credit Cards

Home Buying

10 stocks that delivered over 62 percent returns in H1 2018 SOBECHUKWU EZE & EMEKA UCHEAGA

tions right and invested in them at H1 2018.

The top ten stocks that have would have gotten investors smiling home this first half ending starting from the highest are Cement Company of Northern Nigeria which started the year at the price of N9.07 and closed at the end of H1 at N24 a 164 percent change.

Unity Bank started the year at N0.53 and ended at N1.06 giving investors a 100 percent return on their investment. Newmont Mining Corporation had a 95.78 percent change starting at N1.66 and closing at N3.25. Caverton started the year with N1.21 and ended half year at N2.19 giving 80.56 percent return. Learn Africa plc started the year with at N0.88 and ended the first half at N1.58 with a 79.55 percent

return.

Eterna Plc, started the year with N3.7981 and ended the first half at N6.7 giving a return of 79.55 percent. C & I leasing started the year at N1.29 and closed at N2.27 giving the investors 75.97 percent return.

Ikeja hotel started the year at N1.78 and ended the first half at N3.13 giving investors a 75.97 percent increase in returns. BetaGlass started the year at N50.

6815 and closed at N86.3 resulting in a 70.28 percent change.

Fidson Healthcare plc started the year at N3.7 and at half year had climbed to N6, recording a 62.16 percent appreciation..

These ten stocks gave investors returns between 62 and 164 percent, a performance that dwarfs the NSE’s overall return.

Spacefinish brings office spaces of the future to Africa

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esign company, Spacefinish recorded a big feat recently when it worked on the Vibranium Valley project, a hub for technology and innovation startups commissioned by Venture Garden Group.

The space which was inaugurated

by Vice - President, Yemi Osinbajo in Lagos, includes a conference room, training room, six meeting rooms, three storage rooms, a skylounge, cafeteria, nap rooms, audio studio, and multiple alternative workspaces.

The 2500 square meter world-class office was fully furnished, equipped, designed, and built by Spacefinish to accommodate the needs of its employees. The tech hub which is located at the former Concord Press office in Ikeja is now being described as the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.

Remi Dada, Spacefinish’s chief executive officer, expressed the belief that productivity and creativity of a company can be boosted by reinventing their work environment, highlighting the need for extra efforts deployed in developing modern office spaces.

“Our goal is to redefine the idea of what an office space should look like, from the rigid spaces they currently are today into spaces that are more dynamic and supports the way the employees work.” said Dada.

Other notable companies that have partnered with Spacefinish to

Vice - President, Yemi Osinbajo; Venture Garden Group, MD/CEO, Bunmi Akinyemiju; Executive Director, Kunmi Demuren applauding Spacefinish’s Chief Executive Officer, Remi Dada at the inauguration of Vibranium Valley recently.

redesign their offices include; • Google: Spacefinish designed Google’s office in Nigeria, by creating a workspace that reflects their global standards while remaining locally relevant to their core mission in Africa.

• Andela: For the Andela Epic Tower, Spacefinish designed a scalable workspace to house their 400+ and growing team of engineers.

• Stanbic IBTC: Spacefinish also worked very closely with Stanbic IBTC to create their Blue Lab, a co-working space aimed as an innovation hub for incubators with great ideas.

• Sterling Bank: The bank has partnered with Spacefinish to trans-

form their Headquarters, the Sterling Skyscraper in the heart of Lagos Marina, into a modern workspace that better supports the agile and collaborative nature of their teams.

• RenMoney: The micro finance bank is working closely with the Spacefinish team to create a collaborative workspace unlike anything that currently exists on the continent.

“When it comes to building innovative workspaces, similar to what you will find in tech communities like Silicon Valley, Spacefinish intends to continue providing the right office environment for local companies to become more innovative, productive, and collaborative.” He concluded.

Financing

Nigeria Stock Market bearish at H1 as foreign outflows surge he first five months of the year have witnessed a bearish market in the stock exchange, with foreign investors displaying little faith in the market, as outflows hit N364.6 billion against an inflow of N332.69 billion.

This had led to a negative withdrawal of N31.91 billion net cash flow.

The rise in the US Federal Rate with the expectation of further hikes and the prevailing political uncertainties in the country posed by next year general elections are all factors that can be attributed

uity market in second quarter relative to first quarter.”

Also commenting on the situation Michael Famoroti, a chief economist at Vetiva Capital, stated that “impending elections are also likely to induce greater economic uncertainty and distract policy and governance at the tail-end of the year, neither of which is positive for confidence or investment.”

It would be recalled that the Nigerian capital market was last year adjudged the number 3 best-performing in the world, after recording a full-year average of 42.30% and closing 2017 with ₦4.36

in influencing investors’ decision in profit taking and the subsequent bearish environment in the first half of 2018.

Nigerian equities recorded a net capital appreciation of ₦258.36 billion between January 2nd and June 29th 2018.

This development represents about 2 percent increase, which is a sharp contrast to 25 percent gain in the first quarter of 2017 during which equities gained ₦2.29 trillion.

According to the Nigeria stock exchange monthly reports, the cumulative transactions from January to May increased by 97.13% from N714.99 billion in 2017 to N1.409.47 trillion in 2018.

However, the total transactions in the market as at the close of the month May was at a lower trade of N318.27 billion compared to the initial trade at the start of the year of N394.44 billion.

Ayodeji Ebo, managing director at Afrinvest Securities Limited believes that “As election activity kicks in, investors may trade cautiously prompting more volatility in the eq-

trillion in market capitalisation.

The FPI outflows in May 2018, at a value of N130 billion ranks as the highest this year, with an increase of 125 percent from N58.25 billion in April. The spike in outflow is despite the fact that the market saw a reduction of 3 percent in the inflow of foreign investment, which fell from N64.28 billion to N62.06 billion from the month of April to May 2018. This is a sharp contrast with outflows which stand at an average 33 percent over the course of the year, as reported in the Nigeria stock exchange monthly report for the month of May. O n the local front, the market saw an increase in trades done by domestic investors as transactions went up by N35.6 billion f ro m Ap r i l t o May 2 0 1 8 , which recorded N89.7 billion to N125.3 billion respectively.

However, this value is still at a lower level of trade compared to N228 billion transactions done in January 2018.

SOBECHUKWU EZE

T

I

t is common knowledge that investing could be quite a risky endeavour, and investing in the stock market is even riskier. Equity investors typically diversify their portfolio to mitigate risk and maximise their return. An investor putting funds in the Nigerian Stock Exchange Index would have had a return of 3.6 percent at end of the first half for this year. However, an investor who committed funds in some specific stocks would have gotten a lot richer.

Currently, the Nigeria stock market has been experiencing some political uncertainties prevailing in the economy on account of next year’s general elections which are fast approaching. This has led the equity market on a bearish trend with investors, foreign and domestic investors cashing out gains in search of a better environment.

In spite of the current bearish trend in NSE, some stocks however have proven to be more resilient and more viable, giving returns much higher that the index to investors who have had the good fortunes, done their calcula-

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Influencers

Highlights from Hogan Lovells renewable energy report II

Scaling Solar to create a viable market ISAAC ANYAOGU

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nother interesting aspect of the Hogan Lovells report on the sector titled : Africa and Renewables Wholesale change or short term surge? Is the report on the Scaling Solar program, which offers a template to assist governments in addressing obstacles to the development of utility-scale solar power.

Scaling Solar is a ‘onestop-shop’ initiative designed by the World Bank to create viable markets for solar power in emerging markets through standardization. It aims to address the frequently voiced complaint from developers and financiers that a lot of time and money can be wasted researching opportunities in many countries with different incentive and legislative regimes.

However, according to the report, with Scaling Solar, the IFC takes the earlystage development risk for the projects by identifying the right site and grid connection points, and negotiating project contracts.

Projects are also guaranteed a high level of support and

Global levelised cost of electricity from utility-scale renewable power generation technologies, 20102017

involvement from government authorities. “[Scaling Solar is] establishing a template for solar deployment and reducing tendering timescales and costs, but putting these structures in place and building market understanding of them and the related bankability issues takes time, and can require market specific adaptation,” said Alex Harrison, a London based partner at Hogan Lovells.

Three years on from

the launch of the Scaling Solar scheme in Zambia, the programme is gaining traction. Four other African countries are now running procurements – and Zambia is coming back for another helping. Between them, they account for over 1.2GW of capacity. But the programme is yet to be extended to Nigeria.

This could largely be attributed to the dearth of supporting facilities especially policy and regulatory

uncertainty. Nigeria is every investors dream – just before waking up. A few start-ups worked tirelessly to ramp up solar adoption in rural areas only for the government to conjure up a tax on solar panels, this is despite a minigrid law that was supposed to incentivise investments.

The report highlights that the case is different in Senegal where the country has set a new benchmark for solar power pricing in

April through its first tender under the initiative.

The winning bidder has been awarded contracts to supply power for less than US$0.05/kWh from two projects with a combined capacity of 60 MW. The tariff undercuts the price of US$0.06/kWh that Zambia secured under its first phase of Scaling Solar.

“The main contributors to reducing our tariff was, at that time, the perspective of a very fast development to-financial-close process, as well as the support of the World Bank with a partial risk guarantee, reducing the offtaker risk,” said Cyril Perrin, regional director for southern Africa at Neoen Solar. Ethiopia and Madagascar have also tendered under the initiative.

While Scaling Solar and the IFC’s templated approach can greatly speed up the development of projects, their progress “is not always quick”, said Josefin Berg, research and analysis manager, solar and energy storage at IHS Markit.

Some aspects that hamper IPP development in emerging markets still apply, such as land rights, unclear regulatory regimes and administrative hurdles. There

are other inter-governmental efforts to standardize incentives for renewables across countries. The Economic Community of West African States’ Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency has also looked at standardizing incentives across West Africa.

The critical factors for success of the Scaling solar are a template approach for all process to enhance enable rapid preparation, tendering and financial close.

Balanced, bankable documents that can be offered to bidders on a non-negotiable basis with the comfort of pre-approved financing available to all suitable bidders creates certainty as well as tenders designed to attract competition among top-tier investors and minimize resulting tariffs.

For project developers, it is important to create market, reduce development time and costs and a level playing field through clear and transparent award process allowing developers and investors to compete on the basis of lowest tariffs and long-term commitment. This will create a seamless path for international donors and development partners.

Market news Nigeria

United Kingdom

W’Bank approves $350m for REA’s solar power projects in schools, others

Nestle opens a wind farm in Scotland

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he World Bank says Nigeria will get $350 million from the $2.1 billion it recently approved for the country, to push through its electrification programme expected to provide electricity for 2.5 million people and 70,000 micro, small and medium

enterprises.

The $2.1 billion concessionary loan is expected to support the funding of seven projects in key sectors in Nigeria, and the $350 million from it, used to further solar power projects in schools, hospital and small and medium scale enterprises the Rural Elec-

trification Agency (REA) has initiated.

The programs include nutrition, access to electricity, states’ fiscal transparency, polio eradication, women’s economic empowerment, public finance and national statistics and reducing vulnerability to soil erosion.

Germany

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The food and beverage powerhouse said the facility was generating 125 gigawatt hours of power annually, and that enough electricity to power 30,000 homes would be sent directly to the national

network each year. The wind farm is located at Sanquhar in Dumfr ies and Galloway, Scotland, and has been developed in conjunction with energy company Community Windpower.

United States Bill to set California on a path to 100% renewable energy by 2045 heads to assembly

Wind, solar energy gain traction in Germany

ind and solar plants generated a total of 104 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the first half of 2018.

The lion’s share of green electricity came from wind turbines on land and at sea which, according to Ger-

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estle has officially opened a nine turbine wind farm that is able to produce enough power for half of its U.K. and Ireland factories, offices and warehouses.

man energy company Eon’s figures, contributed around 55 billion kilowatt hours in the first half of 2018. Overall, renewable energy production rose by nine percent compared to the first half of last year.

According to Eon, the

amount of green electricity produced from January until the end of June 2018 would be sufficient to supply all German households with electricity for one year with at an average consumption of 2,500 kilowatt hours.

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alifornia has mandated that utilities must move towards sourcing 100% of their electricity from renewable energy and other sources that do not emit CO2.

On a 10-5 vote, the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee approved

Analyst: Isaac Anyaogu, Email: isaac.anyaogu@businessdayonline.com, 07037817378,

SB100, a bill that will set a 100% by 2045 clean energy policy. The bill now goes to the full Assembly for a vote, and if approved will go to Governor Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it.

SB100 was introduced by former Senate Presi-

dent Pro Tempore Kevin De León (D) in January 2017, and has had a long and arduous path. The bill initially passed the Senate in May 2017, but got stuck in Assembly committees, and it has taken another 10 months to get the bill to where it is today.

Graphics: Joel Samson

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 06 July 2018

15

CityFile

Man nabbed with human skulls in C’River MIKE ABANG, Calabar

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30-year-old man identified as Otu Edem Bassey has arrested by the police in Cross River State for having in his possession two human skulls.

Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa, the Commissioner of Police (CP), in charge of the state police command, who paraded the suspect at the command headquarters in Calabar, explained that operatives received a distress call from an unknown number that some group of cultists were undergoing a fortification ritual.

Inuwa said upon receiving distress call, the anti-cultism/ kidnapping squad of the command swung into action and arrested Bassey at his number 12b Etim Edem Street, Calabar, while others took to their heels.

The police boss said items recovered from the suspect included two human skulls, charms and other items used for incantation, assuring that the suspect would be charged to court when investigation is concluded.

However, Bassey, who did not show remorse during the parade, chided the police for arresting him, claiming that he was a traditional healer and that the skulls were left behind by his father who died eight years ago.

“I am an herbalist and I heal people of different ailments. I have my license to operate as an herbalist.

Somebody ran in front of my house and the police came to my house to arrest me. They have no right because I have been using these skulls for my

job since my father left it for me eight years ago,” Bassey contended.

The state police command also paraded one Leo Columbus Enwa in Akamkpa local government area of the state for tying up his niece, Destiny on a guava tree and burning her two legs with fire.

According to Inuwa, the 37-year-old Enwa committed the “wicked act” at Enghaut headquarters camp in Uyanga, Akamkpa local government area. He said the victim was rescued and rushed to a hospital in Akamkpa for treatment.

“On July 2, 2018 at about 1640hrs, information was received by Juvenile Welfare Center (JWC) of Akamkpa division that one Leo Columbus Enwa of Enghaut headquarters camp in Uyanga tied up his brother’s child, Destiny on a guava tree and burnt her two legs with fire that caused her harm,” the CP said.

However, the suspect, while regretting his action, said he did not intend to burn his niece, alleging that she was always going into his neighbours’ houses to steal.

“My neighbours have been complaining that she comes to their houses to steal and I had to beat her but my intention was not to burn her.

I had just finished cleaning the house and was burning some things outside. I did not know when I pushed her into the fire,” Enwa explained.

On the whole, Inuwa said the command made about fifty arrests and recovered several firearms in the last one month, with 20 robbery cases and eight cases of kidnappings, while seven cultists were arrested.

Police burst fake recruitment syndicate Samuel Ese, Yenagoa

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he police have arrested a man alleged to have defrauded over 500 job seekers of millions of naira, for nonexistent jobs, in Benin, the Edo Sate capital.

Crusoe Osagie, the special adviser to the state governor on media and communication strategy, said the suspect identified as Benjamin Amachi Chukura, perpetrated the illegal act through an agency known as KAI Consulting.

“The suspect is a graduate of Public Administration, from Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Ekpoma. He claimed that his organisation wrote a letter to Edo State government in November 2017 seeking recognition and partnership with the state on environmental issues.

“Chukura told security agents that KAI Environmental is a voluntary organisation operating in Delta State with about 60 workers,” Osagie said. The governor’s aide further said that Chukura

is being interrogated by the police to explain the roles of his colleagues in the employment scam.

The news of the employment scam broke last week in Benin that over 500 job seekers were made to pay over N10 million for jobs, by KAI Consulting, which claimed that it was recruiting workers for the Edo State ministry of environment and sustainability.

But the commissioner for environment and sustainability in the state, Omoua Alonge Oni-Okpaku, debunked the claim and said that all state government jobs are handled

by EdoJobs, a government jobs portal.

Media reports quoted Chukura as saying that KIA Consulting received 113 applications from applicants who paid for training in preparation for their recruitment into the government agency.

The sums of money collected from the unsuspecting job seekers include: N5,000 for uniform; N2,000 for handout; N1,000 for Identity Card; N500 for examination fee; and another N2,000 for rank.

Olatunji Disu, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)/Commander, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), in a group photograph with the newly promoted officers after they were been decorated at the RRS headquarters in Alausa Ikeja Lagos.

S/East losing land to 2,800 gully erosion sites, says Foundation Emmanuel Ndukuba,

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orld Igbo Environmental Foundation (WIEF) has said that there are over 2,800 active erosion sites threatening to sack most communities in the South-East of Nigeria from their ancestral land.

Odili Ojukwu, chairman of the foundation raised the alarm while speaking to newsmen in Awka on Wednesday.

Ojukwu, an engineer called for community participation in the management and protection of environment from erosion.

He blamed the prevalence of gully erosion on faulty road

construction and drainage systems, adding that people must ensure that development activities in their areas do not result to erosions.

According to him, there are over 1000 active erosion sites in Anambra, 300 in Imo, 500 in Abia, 500 in Enugu and 500 in Ebonyi States.

“We tried to establish bottom line of the causes of erosion and gully issues within the South-East and SouthSouth regions; these are the areas that are most exposed to erosion.

“As we speak in Anambra alone, there are over 1000 active erosion sites, in Imo there are about 300, Abia 500, Enugu 500 and Ebonyi 500. If you aggregate it, you will discover that the entire region is at risk of losing its

ancestral land.

“WIEF is saying that every community has their right to protecting their environment; nobody should come into your land to destroy it unless you allow them.

“Communities need to take ownership of their environment that is what will enable them see potential erosions and check it to prevent them from becoming gullies.

“Climate change is also a factor but that is after all the anthropogenic issues have been taken care of, that is; all human effect on vegetations must be limited,” he said.

Ojukwu who is an environmental consultant said gully erosions are regional problems and not localised, adding that there was need for holistic approach to ad-

dressing the menace.

He said government at various levels have not done enough to check erosion as the institutions and policies that guarantee sustainable environment were non functional or lacking.

“Historically governments have not been able to do much to ensure environmental sustainability; this is also made worse by the I-don’tcare attitude of the people.

“Our institutions do not work, that is why there no technocrats who act on issues of environment on constant basis “Gullies do not begin overnight, there are processes leading to them and they can be stopped with minimal effort at the community level.

Living below poverty line:

Teacher needs financial aid to replace damaged hip Name: Godwin Adanon State of Origin: Lagos State Age: 26 years Dependents: None Occupation: Teacher used to teach Music at Christabel Nursery and Primary School, Oshodi. I also taught Music in College Best Secondary School but I quit teaching music schools in 2015 when I started experiencing a severe hip pain.

I have had issues with my left leg for a long time but sometime in 2015, I discovered that each time I stood up to teach, the pain at the hip was always severe.

What did you do when you noticed the severe pain?

I went to General Hospital, Isolo, for diagnosis. I was referred to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for X-ray. After the X-ray, I was told I needed a surgery. The doctor said my entire hip has gone and must be replaced.

I

The bill I was given was huge so I went to my pastor for prayers. One of the leaders in my church raised N50, 000 for me and another leader from another church raised N50, 000, totaling N100, 000. Since then (February 2016) till now, no more money has been raised.

What is the cost implication?

The bill I was given LASUTH on September 30, 2016, was N823, 000 for the hip replacement, but recently, I went back to the hospital and was told I needed about N1.4 million which will cover the surgery, admission, drugs, and blood.

Have you taken any treatment since then?

I have not taken any treatment. The doctor advised me to be using crutches to avoid total breakdown of the hip since I don’t have the money for the surgery. I also have to use the crutches each time I want to go out to reduce the

pain on my leg.

I have had this issue for long and I usually take Renaf Plus and other painrelieving drugs prescribed by my doctors. I take the drugs once in two days just to calm the pain and it lasts for a week, after which the pain would come up again.

How have you been coping since you noticed this in 2015?

I had to stop teaching music in schools. I only teach a student music at home on Saturdays and I’m paid N15, 000 a month. I used that money to support myself. My family is poor and could barely feed themselves let alone help with my medical bill. I still support them with the little I make.

I cannot go far with the crutches. Sometimes, I have to trek from my house to the junction to catch a bus and that usually gives me a tough time. I discovered that each time I walk the bones at my

Godwin Adanon

hip rub against each other and that gives me serious pains at the hip. I was told that surgery is the solution.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS

BUSINESS DAY

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ARM Life’s profit surges on investment income

Pg. 18

Co 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

Africa Re records over $100m profit in 2017 ...pays $22.8m dividend Modestus Anaesoronye

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frica Reinsurance Corporation (Africa Re) has recorded a growth of 16.3 percent in gross written premium to $746.83million for the year ended 31ST December 2017.

Speaking at the 40th annual ordinary meeting held in Conakry, Guinea, the chairman of the board of directors and general assembly, Hassan Boubrik said that gross written premium stood at $746.83million in 2017 when compared to $642.024million reported in 2016; indicating a growth of 16.3 percent.

Net profit amounting moved from $87.982 million in 2016 compared to $100.2million in 2017.

The African reinsurer assembly also approved a dividend of $ 22,811,240 to be paid at the rate of $8.0 per subscribed and paid up share

of $100 per value when compared to $6.0 per subscribed paid in the previous year of 2016.

He added that conscious of the need to strengthen the corporation’s financial base, whilst ensuring return on shareholders’ investment, the general assembly decided to distribute the net result as follows: $43,991million to the company’s general reserve; US$8million to be transferred to the reserve for loss fluctuation; $879,822million to be transferred to the corporate social responsibility fund and the balance of $12,300millio to be added to retained earnings.

Speaking further on its performance in 2017, he said the quality of the corporation’s result was acknowledged by Standard and Poor’s and AM Best international rating agencies, while noting that both agencies reaffirmed ‘A’ rating with stable outlook.

L-R: Enahoro Okhae, MD, Pause Factory; Sola Oyegbade, Head, FCMB Training Academy; George Ogbonnaya, Group Head, Business Banking, First City Monument Bank (FCMB); Felicia Obozuwa, Divisional Head, Corporate Services, FCMB; Oliver Okpara, Regional Director, Lagos, FCMB; Moradeyo Wola-Oyesoro, Ipso Facto Consulting Ltd, and Paul Adebo, Head, SME Liability, FCMB at the Business Empowerment and Sustainability training organised by the Bank in Lagos for its SME customers

Investors reward top performing companies with higher market valuation Emeka Ucheaga and David

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hile overall stock market performance over the last five years has been mostly flattish, a group of 15 publicly listed companies have been able to deliver cumulative stock return of more than 300 percent between July 2013 and July 2018. Thus, outperforming the market benchmark by large margins and enriching shareholders.

The best 5 performing stocks over the last five years were MRS Nigeria (1642 percent), Beta Glass (842 percent), NEM insurance (802 percent), C&I Leasing (534 percent) and Custodian and Allied Insurance (532 percent) based on cumulative returns according to data compiled from Bloomberg.

The rapid growth in share

price for some of these stocks can easily be traced to their impressive earnings growth during the same period. NEM insurance which was the third best performing stock in the Nigerian equity market was also the third best performing company in terms of earnings growth among publicly listed companies in Nigeria.

But not all companies which have grown profits astronomically over the last five years have seen their share prices soar high enough to earn them a spot in the top 15 stock performers.

Out of the top 15 companies by earnings growth on the Nigerian Stock Exchange between 2013 and 2017, only 8 featured among the 15 best performing stocks between 2013 till July 3rd 2018.

The 8 companies who made both list are Presco, Okomu Oil, C&I Leasing, Fidson Healthcare, NEM Insur-

ance, Eterna, Dangote Sugar and Beta Glass. The average price to earnings (PE) ratio of these companies is 6.17 which shows that the stocks may still be relatively cheap and may continue that impressive share price growth if earnings continue to swell.

Some of the rapidly growing companies have gone noticed by most investors, as such these companies have not seen valuation catch up to their profit performance, thus providing an opportunity for bargain hunters to swoop into these companies.

For other companies like MRS Nigeria which was the best performing stock between 2013 and H1 2018, the company barely made it into the top 25 companies by earnings growth over the same period, which shows that predicting future performance of any stock cannot be entirely based on earnings.

Rites Foods eyes export of beverage, snacks to West African markets RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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aving satisfied the local market with the supplies of beverage brands such as Bigi carbonated soft drinks, premium drinking water, Fearless energy drinks and Rites sausage rolls, Rite Foods Limited has declared move to enter West African market through exports of its products to Ghana, Republic of Benin, Togo, among other West African countries.

Rites Foods Limited, which prides itself as one of the biggest patronizers of locally produced raw materials from Nigerian millers and farmers, revealed that more than 90 percent production inputs are sourced locally, and that has provided employment opportunities for huge number of Nigerians either as farmers, millers, factory workers or

distributors.

Speaking while receiving ISO 9001:2015 Certificate from Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) at Rite Foods Factory, Ososa, Odogbolu Local Government of Ogun state, Saleem Adegunwa, managing director, Rite Foods Limited, said the firm would not rest on its oars, as far as production of quality foods and beverage are concerned, adding that the company would extend its products to neighbouring African countries after it has effectively satisfied and met the demands of consumers in Nigeria.

He said, “It is no secret that the company has one of the highest standards of quality when it comes to food production and food safety processes. The journey towards this certification has indeed not been easy one, as it required countless hours of hardworking to achieve.

“We pride ourselves with going after the best practices in the world, training our people. Spending much on their training to ensure we live up to our promise of being truly world class.”

Responding, Osita Aboloma, director general of SON, while presenting ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System certificate to the Rite Foods Limited, required manufacturers in the foods and beverage industries to ensure production of quality products at all times, saying manufacturers shouldn’t toy with priceless lives of consumers locally and internationally.

Aboloma, who was represented by the Director of Laboratory Services, Mojisola Kehinde, said quality in foods production is crucial since it promotes public health, especially as regards the prevailing health challenges in the country.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS ARM Life’s profit surges on investment income …GPI up 31.63 percent in FY’17 BALA AUGIE

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RM Life Insurance Plc, a company quoted on the NASD Plc, recorded improved profit, thanks to a surge in investment income as huge annuity contract liability undermined underwriting performance.

For the year ended December 2017, ARM Life’s net income surged by 324.68 to N453.65 million in December 2017 from N106.82 million the previous year.

The growth in profit was largely driven by a 37.02 percent increase in investment income to N1.28 billion in the period under review that helped make up for an underwriting loss 121.77 million as the firm continues to invest premium income in bonds, equity, and real estate with a view to magnifying shareholders’ earnings.

Insurers in Africa’s largest economy are strengthening their asset allocation strategies in order to boost profit since rising claims and other liabilities result in thin underwriting profit.

However, analysts are of the view that firms have to be cautious while investing such funds as the environment is fraught with risks such as rising inflation and interest rates.

For the year ended December 2017, investment income of 17 insurers that have reported results spiked by 53.24 percent to N48.39 billion from N31.58 billion the previous year.

Despite the tough and unpredictable macroeconomic environment, ARM Life recorded growth in premium income, a stellar performance that validates the firm’s diversified product base.

Gross premium written (GPW) increased by 31.63 percent to N3.62 billion in December 2017 from N2.75 billion the previous year.

Gross premium income (GPI) moved by 30.18 percent to N3.58 billion in December 2017 from N2.75 billion at December 2016.

HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA

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he Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said it has drawn a comprehensive strategy, which is geared towards ensuring greater compliance with its Regulations and Orders by operators in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

The Commission also noted that the imperative for closer monitoring of the performance of its licensees and the ethical conduct of the

Other areas of focus for the management of the Commission, it said included the urgency to invest in resolving bottlenecks at transmission/ distribution interface points, incentivising a sustainable growth in energy delivered to consumers nationwide and an expedited resolution of customer complaints.

The Commission further reaffirmed its commitment to provide a fair and firm regulatory environment but with a warning that necessary enforcement measures would be pursued on defaulters in the industry.

Winners emerge in Star millionaires promo Anthony Nlebem

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ver two thousand winners, including 11 millionaires have emerged in the Star Lager ‘United We Shine Millionaires Promo’ which was launched on June 15th 2018 for only consumers on the legal drinking age.

Among the winners are Kelvin Baita and Jackson Ukim who were among the 11 people that won one million naira each from the promotion and were presented with their cheques on Sunday, July 1st, 2018 at a Star Gala event held in Abuja.

Anayo Aniogbe, a twentyeight year old student at the University of Abuja couldn’t hide his delight as he described how lucky he felt to have won a million naira in the promo.

“This all feels like a dream and I am extremely happy to be this lucky today. I love drinking Star Lager and wasn’t even expecting to win anything, but getting a reward like this for a beer I love is like the best feeling ever. I am grateful that Star has chosen to reward consumers this way.”

Apart from the millionaires that have emerged so far, over three thousand Nigerians have

ARM Life is able to turn each naira of revenue into higher profit as profit margin increased to 14.37 percent in the period under review from

L-R: Emeka Nwani, sports presenter, Sports Splash, Lagos Television; Adeyemi Saka, sports presenter, Femi & the Gang, Naija Info FM; George Enema, Assistant Category manager skin care & Deos, Unilever Plc Nigeria; Latifat Adebayo, presenter, Top Radio FM and Bimbo Awoleye, sports presenter, Femi & the Gang, Naija Info FM, at the Live Consumer Draw for the ongoing Rexona Street to Stamford, Africa XI campaign in Lagos.

NERC reinforces strategy to improve utility market compliance respective managements is key, as this is in line with best practice in a regulated utility market.

The Commission said it has reviewed progress of customer enumeration exercise (including asset tagging) by the electricity distribution companies in its determination to ensure this is completed within the stipulated timelines in the Work Plan.

This is on account of the significant benefits towards the reduction of commercial and collection losses in the industry.

Net premium income rose by 30 percent to N3.38 billion in the period under review as against N2.60 billion the previous year.

won instant airtime recharge, while over twenty consumers have claimed ten thousand naira (N10, 000) instant cash since the kick off of the promo.

The United We Shine promo which runs for 8 weeks from June to August, will have 5 lucky Nigerians winning the mega dream cash of Ten (10) Million Naira each, 5 consumers to win five million naira each, while nine people will win two million each.

Speaking at the Abuja Star Gala prize presentation event, Victor Uzondu, the regional trade marketing manager, Abuja said.

4.73 percent as at December 2016.

The Nigerian insurer utilized the resources of shareholders in generating higher profit as return on equity (ROE) increased to 14.65 percent in December 2017 from 4.76 percent as at December 2016.

ARM Life is licensed by the National Insurance Commission of Nigeria (NAICOM) to underwrite life, annuity and health insurance.

ARM Life, formerly known as CrystaLife Assurance Plc, is the insurance subsidiary of Asset & Resource Management Company (ARM) Limited.

Its parent company, ARM, is one of the largest non-bank financial services firms in the country focused on asset management. It manages assets of over N500 billion.

Established in 1994, ARM started operations as a traditional asset management company, specialising in the management of quoted equities and fixed income securities.

Layer3 marks 13 years in business

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ayer3, a leading information technolog y company has announced that it is now 13 years in business, a significant mark of longevity in the fast-moving and evolving technology sector.

Founded in 2005, Layer3’s vision was to lead in making businesses more successful using technology. Since then, the company has grown consistently through careful and purposeful management. Today, Layer3’s customers include some of the most demanding and respected companies across Africa.

According to Layer3’s CEO, Oyaje Idoko “It has been a tremendous journey filled with experiences that have made us better with each passing year. Our struggle and desire, against all odds, to make our customers’ businesses more successful, is what drives us.

Since we believe success is a journey, and not a destination, our work is not yet done. We will continue to work with our customers in the long term to make them and their business more successful and in so doing, build a great and thriving company that the whole of Africa will be proud of.”

As she marks her anniversary, the company celebrates great achievements, recognitions and awards such as Tony the Elumelu Foundation’s Nigeria’s Fast Growth 50 , Jobberman Recognition Award for Best 100 places to work in Nigeria, Beacon of ICT awards as the Best Cloud Service Provider, as well as two year consecutive awards for Best Customer Service in Information Technology amongst others.

“We owe our existence to our resilient and committed staff, understanding and happy customers as well as our valuable partners”, added Oyaje.

Heritage Bank, other sponsors scout for ambitious entrepreneurs OBINNA EMELIKE

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iding on the successful hosting of the past four editions and the feats achieved by winners, Heritage Bank is leading other sponsors to scout for ambitious entrepreneurs in this year’s edition of The Next Titan, an entrepreneurial reality TV show, which is now in its fifth season.

The TV reality show, which runs for 10 weeks, gives an opportunity to young talented Nigerians from 21-40 years who have great, innovative and unbeatable business ideas, to compete against one another in real-life entrepreneurial challenges in a bid to ultimately win N5 million and a brand new car to start their new

business or to support their existing business.

Aside Heritage Bank, which headlines the new season as the lead sponsor, other sponsors include; Sifax Group, as the associate sponsor, while Ford Motors, Coscharis Motors, Airpeace Airline, Nikky Taurus, Afromedia Plc, and Hygeia HMO are all supporting sponsors.

Unveiling the new season during a media parley held recently at Ikeja, Mide KunleAkinlaja, executive producer, The Next Titan and managing director, Bravopoints International Limited, reiterated that the reality show was designed to provoke the entrepreneurial spirit of young Nigerians.

“Aside the entertainment aspect of the 10-week show,

its importance lies in igniting entrepreneurial spirit and showcasing the possibility of entrepreneurship in transforming lives with just an idea that can be scaled to greatness with a market and with Nigeria’s population”, he said.

Explaining the modalities of the show, Kunle-Akinlaja said, “The process starts by allowing the contestants to pitch their business ideas through auditions at 4 major zones in Nigeria which are Abuja, PH, Enugu, and Lagos, from which the Top 50 are usually selected for Top 50 Boot Camp, before 16 final contestants with brightest ideas are shortlisted to live together for 10 weeks, and to compete by carrying out weekly evictions in the boardroom by the judges”.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS RenCap sees Int. Breweries gaining market share from rivals Abimbola Hassan

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ecent report shows that the struggle for Nigeria beer market is kicking in strong, with different players battling to increase their market share.

Nigerian Breweries, which owns the largest market share compared to Guinness and International Breweries have

in recent times, faced new threats posed by International Breweries for market share with the Company’s pricing strategy.

Recent increase in the price of beer products by both the Guinness and Nigerian Breweries is steadily paving way for International Breweries add to its market share, according to analysts at Renaissance Capital, who forecast an increase in market share for International breweries but at the cost

of its operating margins though.

International Breweries rapid expansion in Nigeria has seen it gain 16.4 percent in market share in 2017, which drove the industry margin lower. While it holds great potential to grow faster than the industry in the nearest future, analysts are concerned about its margins outlook and the figures on their financial statement post-merger.

In light of this, Adedayo

Ayeni, an analyst at Rencap explained possible scenarios going forward. “ We e x p e c t i t ( I N T BREW) to report net losses in full year 2018 and full year 2019, driven by low operating margins, as it sells at materially discounted prices and has high interest expenses. While it’s not in our base case, we think management might consider a rights issue in second half of 2019 to restructure its balance sheet,” Ayeni said.

Contraction in first quarter revenue combined with a negative growth in volume for NB will cause a further decline by 11.2 percent in volume for NB for the whole of 2018 and followed by another decline of 3.0 percent in 2019 which will result in them ceding part of their market share to International Breweries.

Guinness has seen a slight gain in market share in the past two years as a result of its introduction of new prod-

ucts and products discounting strategy. However RenCap analysts believe the brand will suffer as well from recent price increase which will result in a loss of their market share but at a lesser extent, as well as an expected increase of 4-5 percent in the volume of their non-alcoholic brands.

Estimates of market share according to Rencap by 2022 is projected at 45 percent for Nigeria Breweries, 31 percent for International Breweries and 24 percent for Guinness.

Lagos Business School Alumni Association President’s dinner

Inauguration of the New EXCO of the LBSAA.

LBSAA EXCO members.

L-R - Mr Akin Fatunke, Ms Bunmi Afolabi and Mr Olu Onakoya

Handover ceremony from the outgoing President, Mrs Bola Adesola (right) to the incoming President, Mrs Clare Omatseye, Dean of LBS Dr Enaise Okonedo and Frank Aigbogun, new Vice President.

Guests at the Cocktail Networking Session.

Guests having a good time at the dinner.

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INTERVIEW

BUSINESS DAY

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INTERVIEW

World Remit eyes six new banks after inking First Bank deal Leading digital money transfer service, World Remit, recently joined forces with First Bank of Nigeria Limited (First Bank) for instant money transfers to all First Bank accounts in Nigeria. In this interview with Business Day’s LOLADE AKINMURELE, Andrew Stewart, Regional Head of Middle East & Africa at World Remit, talks about the new strategic partnership which considerably expands WorldRemit’s footprint in the country and allows its customers send money to First Bank accounts directly from their phones.

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Why First Bank ur partnership with First bank gives our customers globally in 50countries, including Nigerians in Diaspora, the ability to send money through our app to 14 million bank accounts in a convenient way. With the new partnership, they can send money to a First Bank account within minutes. And that’s what we are about at World Remitconvenience for our customers.

The deal supports our plan to serve 10 million customers connected to emerging markets by 2020.

First Bank is a leader in remittances in Nigeria, they account for around 40 percent of the total remittance market. To put that into perspective, the Nigerian remittance market is worth $22 billion according to World Bank estimates. (That works out to around $8.8 billion – N2.7 trillion) They are also one of the largest banks in terms of retail customers. We like to partner with respected and reputable companies in the home countries we invest.

Exciting partnership prospects We are looking to partner with as many as eight banks in total for direct integrations, including our existing partnership with GTB and First Bank which means we are targeting six more for now, depending on how hard we work.

It is important that we get strategic partners. There are some exciting discussions on the way.

While we are in Lagos we have been meeting some organisations, but particularly we are here to enhance our partnership with First Bank and we are looking forward to officially launching the service.

First Bank is our second direct integration after GTB. Historically we have relied on aggregators like Interswitch, but we are now moving to direct connections. We are doing that for two reasons. One is that it takes out the friction as there is no middle man and secondly, it is good for customer engagement and good for co-branding opportunities.

We see opportunities in doing intra-Africa transactions. We were initially focused on payments between emerging and developed economies and the euro corridor, but there is a tremendous opportunity for the intra-African payments space. East, West, South and North Africa. The SouthAfrica Zim corridor, for example, is the largest in Africa with over a billion USD, so we are looking to launch in South Africa over the next few months. We are targeting 13 countries across Africa. To do that we need to incorporate WorldRemit and create local subsidiaries. Across Africa, we will continue to invest and create offices.

Potential growth spurts Nigeria represents a significant growth opportunity for us as it is ranked fifth globally in terms of size and volume of transactions- $22 billion in 2017, according to World Bank estimates. The global remittance market is driven by migrant movement. 15 million Nigerians live abroad

and as long as that keeps growing there will be growth in people sending money back home.

The remittance market is at the forefront of change. It is going from a predominantly offline industry to online and WorldRemit is in front of that change. We are a disruptor and we are taking on the bigger guys.

Our model is nimble, digital and cheaper.

Bigger offline competitors have fixed investments in brick and mortar as well as agent networks for pay-in and pay-out. To manage that vast network means that that there is an embedded cost in the system.

As a digital firm WorldRemit doesn’t deal with cash because we don’t have an agent network. Instead, transfers are done on your desktop or mobile phone.

We pass on our low costs to customers by offering more for less.

How World Remit’s charges compare to traditional competitors To send money£100 from the UK to Nigeria with us costs £1.99 and if you compare that with our major competitors, they can be double the cost – charging £4.90 for £100 transfer. The World Bank’s average cost of remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa averages around 9.4 percent – so you can see we are a fraction of the costs which is great for our customers because their money goes further! Because we don’t have the inherent cost structure of our bigger competitors, we can afford to keep our rates low and competitive.

One million Nigeria transactions (200pc growth y/y) in 1yr Our biggest send markets into Nigeria are UK, Nigeria, US, Canada and Germany and there is a periphery of other smaller markets. The average Nigerian is sending about an average of £150 Sterling per transaction. And over the last 12 months we have done a million transactions into Nigeria. That’s a year on year growth of 200 percent.

We are well placed to do even better and that’s why we continue to invest in the brand, invest in technology and invest in attracting new customers in the Diaspora and building new partnerships.

The First Bank partnership is a testament to that journey and we will continue to expand our footprint to make it more convenient for our customers to send and receive money. We don’t want them to have to queue to pick up cash; we want to send it directly to their bank account.

The transaction can hit your account within minutes. If I get a call now from my mother who is ill and needs money before noon because I have her bank details, sending the money is as simple as sending an email.

Engaging CBN to drive remittances through mobile money We are actively engaging the CBN on this matter. Where mobile money has been successful and grown tremendously has been where central banks have embraced mobile-led initiatives, like in East Africa from Kenya to Uganda and Tanzania. In Nigeria, it is still bank-led and I think until

Andrew Stewart

a time when those changes, mobile money in Nigeria will be where it is today, nascentit is definitely growing, but slowly. We have seen players like Paga, Pagatech, MTN, Transmobile etc. there’s a lot of FinTech companies out there. I’m impressed with Paga in terms of their growth with digital wallets.

However, I do think WorldRemit is well positioned to lead the mobile money revolution, because what we do is connect the digital mobile-first remittance service to a wealth of existing mobile money services across the world.

We are currently connected to 36 mobile money services in 24 countries. When

the mobile money revolution started in Kenya 11 years ago, Safaricom’s M-PESA took the lead and today the market has grown exponentially.

Just last year sub-Saharan Africa crossed half a billion mobile money accounts. In 2017, there are now 590 million mobile money accounts, according to GSMA data.

(Latest data suggests that user growth is being driven not solely by East Africa but West Africa, notably Ghana. Over 30 percent of active mobile money accounts in sub-Saharan Africa are now based in West Africa, compared to just 8 percent in 2011.)

There are so many counties in Africa where there are more mobile money accounts than bank accounts. This means that Africans are em-

So historically, where you have seen people make one transaction per month or in two months, our customers make up to three transactions per month because they can send low values more frequently because it is from their phone or app and it is relatively cheap

bracing the new way of transacting with mobile money operators as opposed to going with the legacy financial institutions to some extent.

What was considered previously as a disadvantage for Africa- lack of financial inclusionis now translating to leapfrogging the whole system and revolutionizing access to financial services not through having bank accounts anymore but through mobile money wallets.

This is not happening in the West, not in the United States or UK, but in Africa..

I think that being a global mobile money transfer business, with a founder from Somaliland, we understand Africa really well and this revolution and I think it is one of our unique selling propositions that make us compete better.

(Ismail Ahmed, a founder and Chief executive officer of World Remit is from Somaliland.

He holds an MSc and PhD from University of London and has published widely-cited research on the effect of remittances on Somaliland following the country’s civil war).

We don’t want to speak on behalf of the mobile money and banking industry, but there is space for both to operate separately because there is always this healthy tension

between whether it should be Telco or Mobile Network Operator (MNO)-led or bank led, or whether one has to collaborate and partner with the other. What you see in East Africa is that it was MNO-led and that has been huge success and now there is a need to focus on interoperability and start introducing new products and that’s where the banks can come in.

So, MPESA is now partnering with KCB in Kenya for micro-loans and micro insurance policies.

But the banks are starting to replicate what the mobile operators are doing and they can do so because they have got their own customer-base and agents.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s high remittance cost is giving way Our model, which is digital, means we don’t have the fixed costs and high charges that our traditional competitors, that operate with brick and mortar, do. We are digital and we don’t need brick and mortar offices everywhere which helps us save a lot of costs. We pass this onto the consumer so that we are able to offer lower prices.

Consumers are shifting to WorldRemit because we are cheaper and more convenient.

So historically, where you have seen people make one transaction per month or in two months, our customers make up to three transactions per month because they can send low values more frequently because it is from their phone or app and it is relatively cheap.

The example we like to give, is that we are moving remittances online the same way travel services moved online ten years ago. Back in the days, to travel from Lagos to Nairobi, you had to go to a travel agency and wait in line and then it was quite expensive and stressful. Now in the same way the travel industry moved online and saved people all that stress, we are moving money transfers online, whereby you can send money at any time and from anywhere and you don’t need to queue for hours trying to send or receive money.

WorldRemit’s contribution to financial inclusion We need to drive mobile money. Remittance is the start of financial inclusion.

We are an enabler of mobile money and financial inclusion because we are providing a service to people who can send money back home that can be useful for women’s empowerment, or to run small businesses and so on.

The naira/USD exchange rate for transfers All banks and International Money transfer Organisations (IMTO) s are regulated by the CBN and therefore guided by the CBN’s official exchange rate.

The challenge brought on by informal channels That’s our daily challenge. We talked about $22 billion into Nigeria, but that’s through formal channels alone. No one knows the size of the informal flows. Globally there is $600 billion and if you include informal flows it could even triple to $1.5

trillion. But we are confident that the convenience and low charges we offer are decisive in attracting customers.

Informal channels are not cheap, by the way. For example, people pay as much as 15 percent to move cash through taxi drivers from South Africa to Zimbabwe.

That’s not to forget the social cost of informal channels- robbery, theft, abuse of individual handling the money and, guess what, it is probably going to take two days to arrive, so there’s also the issue of timeliness.

Obviously, we need to be more competitive with the exchange rate we offer to give customers fewer reasons to use informal channels.

(As at the week ended June 8, the spread between the black-market rate -N363 per USD- and CBN official rate -N305.95 per USD- was N57.05 per USD, according to FMDQ data.)

We are engaging with the central bank on that, but beyond pricing, what is more important for us is the convenience of our service.

Security of transactions We have a large engineering division that is continuously looking at ways to secure transactions on our platform.

We started this company in 2010 and were a digital company from day one. The DNA of the company is digital and mobilefirst as opposed to competitors who started offline and were cash-based and are now trying to re-invent themselves as digital players; they may not make it because they have huge legacy systems across the world that they have to update in order to catch up with us. In the meantime, we are nimble, fast and flexible.

Plans to allow transactions in cryptocurrency We are exploring that, not so much cryptocurrency but blockchain. But these are early days for now.

And the thing is that to reach that last mile, you don’t get any additional mileage

with cryptocurrency, but we get that from mobile money.

In order to cash out with crypto, you need a platform that is not currently mobile money, not on the phone right now and so you will need to rely on some sort of bank account, bank of last resort, or an exchange house which hardly exists today in rural communities.

So how do you reach the rural communities across Africa, how do you go that extra last mile? The solution for us right now is mobile money, until something else changes.

Lessons learnt from CBN’s sudden clampdown on IMTOs in 2016 (The CBN suddenly withdrew the licenses of 15 IMTOs, including that of World Remit, in 2016, trimming the number of channels available to some 15 million Diaspora Nigerians to send money back home to three- Western Union, Moneygram and Ria, in a move that threatened to exacerbate a severe dollar crunch that was stirred by a collapse in global oil prices and militant-inflicted production shut-ins. The regulator cited the need have a sterner grip on money transfers) We regularly engaged the regulator and explained the benefits of a digital model and in August 2016. CBN ultimately understood that there were large benefits for consumers and reinstated our licenses after significant negotiation and discussion.

It was not an easy moment for us because Nigeria is our biggest market in Africa and our second biggest globally. The market is currently growing at 200 percent year on year, which is significant. But we did take the risk to have these discussions and in the end the consumers, regulators and our business have benefitted.

Fear of policy inconsistency It is a risk we have to consider. However, part of our government affairs policy is to regularly interact with central banks in the countries in which we operate. We try to have open dialogues with central banks to understand their thinking and potential policy changes. I know there is a potential policy rethink on mobile money.

So, we stay close to the regulators to share our views and opinions on these matters and then whatever is decided, we react accordingly.

Taking Malaysia for example, we had to discuss with the regulator and explain the benefits of the digital model as opposed to the traditional method and we happened to be one of the first four FinTech companies regulated within the new Malaysian government sandbox (The others to be regulated under the sandbox include Dutch financial advisor and insurance aggregator, Go bear; Malaysia-based Getcover, and Money match, a remittance operator) This speaks to the benefit of having a close relationship with the regulator and working with them. This is because ultimately, when you have an innovative product that is well regulated, consumers benefit.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS Shippers Council seeks Nexim Bank’s support on dry ports, truck transit parks projects CHUKA UROKO

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he Nigerian Shippers Council, a federal government’s agency, established with the mandate to create an enabling environment for all stakeholders in the transport sector, is seeking the support and collaboration of Nigeria export and import (NEXIM) Bank for the execution of its two critical projects.

The two projects said to have huge economic potentials and are targeted at boosting trade and export opportunities, employment creation and foreign exchange earnings for the country, are the Inland Dry Ports and Truck Transit Parks planned for designated states of the country.

Hassan Bello, the Council’s executive secretary/CEO, explained during a visit to NEXIM Bank that the two projects were initiatives of the council that have the support of the National Economic Council of the Federal Government, and are

aimed at addressing the issue of de-congesting the Nigerian Sea Ports.

The projects, he added, were also aimed to provide seamless movement of goods and services between the Sea ports/Dry inland ports, and assist in the over-all costs of cargo movements to hinterland locations as well as transit cargoes to landlocked countries.

“The Truck Transit Parks will also provide multiple benefits, including safety of truck drivers and the environment, while also stimulating other economic activities such as hotels, restaurants and hospitals that will be built around the parks”, Bello stated.

Bello highlighted the merits of other collaborative initiatives between the two agencies like the Sealink project which is an initiative of NEXIM Bank. He disclosed the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in providing an enabling platform for the Dry Inland Port, soliciting for NEXIM’s intervention under a Public Private Partnership arrangement.

Abba Bello, managing di-

rector/CEO, NEXIM Bank, commended the efforts of the council and emphasized the need to deepen relationships with relevant agencies and stakeholders in the sector to collaborate/explore areas of synergy so as to provide the much needed infrastructure and logistics to ensure that a standard dry port is established.

“The Inland dry port will promote and drive the exports of Nigerian products, and will also serve the West and Central African markets that are landlocked”, he said, pledging the Bank’s commitment to driving the initiative by participating, on a promotional basis, and providing the relevant technical/ financial support.

He urged the council to come up with a workable framework to map out the areas of partnership and support to be provided by the Bank, encouraging them to ensure the successful establishment/ running of the Kaduna Dry Inland port which should serve as a pilot model for creating other Inland Dry Ports.

Business Event

L-R: Akinwunmi Lawal, managing director; Azubuko Udah, DIG Rtd, chairman; Idemudia Osaro, company secretary, and Jude Ohanehi, executive director, operations, all of NPF Microfinance Bank Plc, at the 24th annual general meeting in Kano.

SACA urges IOCs on international best practice From: Samuel Ese

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Yenagoa based nongovernmental organisation, Stakeholders Alliance for Corporate Accountability (SACA), has tasked multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region to adopt international best practice in their operations.

A representative of the organization and a Missionary attaché to the Irish Embassy in Nigeria, Kevin O’Hara, made the call during a courtesy call on the Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Gboribiogha John Jonah in Government House, Yenagoa.

O’Hara who was in the company of the Irish Ambassador, Sean Hoy disclosed that SACA was established

in 2006 to monitor the compliance of oil companies particularly, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) with international standards.

He said it was imperative that Bayelsans benefited maximally from their Godgiven resources, especially as the state plays host to the Gbarain/Ubie Gas Gathering Plant, which is Shell’s biggest multi-billion dollar investment in Africa.

O’Hara said SPDC would soon sign a Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) with Gbarain/Ekpetiama cluster communities and expressed the hope that the people would not be shortchanged.

He revealed that a United Kingdom based coalition known as Economic Council For Corporate Accountability

(ECCA) has been prevailing on oil companies to improve on their relations with host communities in the Niger Delta.

According to him, efforts by the council since 1996 to get the SPDC board of directors to adopt the same international standards in Nigeria as in the United Kingdom have proved abortive.

In his response, Gboribiogha John Jonah, deputy governor identified failure of oil companies to honour memoranda of understanding, cases of oil spillage and compensation as major sources of conflicts between host communities and oil firms.

Jonah also decried the non-participation of the Niger Delta people in the oil and gas industry and lauded SACA for its efforts towards giving the people a sense of belonging.

Anambra partners’ Austrian firm on waste-to-energy technology Emmanuel Ndukuba

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he Anambra government says it would enter into partnership with an Austrian company on Waste-to-Energy technology development.

James Eze, chief press secretary (CPS) to governor Willie Obiano said this in a statement.

Eze who is with Obiano on tour of Austria said the Anambra delegation had visited Energie Versorgung Margarethin GmbH, (EVM) Biomethan Station in Vienna, a leading electric power and gas company in Austria.

He said the governor was exploring the best possible and cost effective ways of converting tonnes of waste in the state to energy.

Eze said Anambra was dire need of electricity to power its industrial sector, which had a lot of employment potentials.

“Willie Obiano took his quest for a better Anambra to the premises of Energie versorgung Margarethin GmbH, (EVM) Biomethan Station in Vienna, “He is looking for how to convert the huge waste generated in Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka to electricity that we are dire need of as well as gas.

“There are strong indications that EVM and Anambra State might go into a partnership that will turn the heaps of waste generated across the state into electricity.

“This initiative will lead to the creation of jobs and more jobs for the people,” he said.

According to Eze, the chief executive of EVM Mag. Wermer Wenolf was delighted to receive Obiano and his team.

Wenolf took the delegation on tour of the energy plant.

“The Governor and his team later held preliminary conversations on the possibilities of setting up a similar project in Anambra,” he said.

L-R: Ashwin Prabhu, head of marketing, OK Foods Limited; Murali Krishnan, managing director, OK Foods Limited; Girish Nair, marketing director, Olam Packaged Foods Beverages; Rajesh Rajurker , head of sales, OK Foods Limited, and Ashish Agarwal, chief financial officer, OK Foods Limited, during the brand unveiling of Nustrisnax Oats Digestive biscuits in Lagos.

L-R: Modupe Mujota, commissioner for education, science and technology, Ogun State; Hamid Bobboyi, executive secretary, Universal Basic Education; Adekanla Adegoke, head, Oando Foundation, and Lawal Buhari, executive chairman, SUBEB, Kaduna State, at the Oando Foundation/Universal Basic Education Commission private sector dialogue in Lagos.

L-R: Jane Eleodi, clinical dietitian, JSprings Nutrition & Dietary Health Services; Elijah Mohammed, registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN); Monica Eimunjeze, director, registration & regulatory affairs, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); Chukwuemeka Obi, chief operating officer, Pharmacy Plus Limited; Iziele Asogun, permanent secretary, Edo State Ministry of Health, and Ahmed Yakassai, president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), during the launch of WhiteHouse Apple Cider Vinegar in Benin.

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HLA driving innovations to improve patient-centred care outcomes in Nigeria ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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he Healthcare Leadership Academy (HLA) is offering the PatientCentered Care (PCC) training programme aimed at equipping medical practitioners with knowledge and tools they need to become trans-formative leaders.

This includes motivated, front-line clinicians across all cadres and disciplines, doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, optometrists, physiotherapists and pharmacists.

There have been increasing cases of litigation, medical negligence cases coming to the fore. “In a bid to improve patients experience, safety and health outcomes in the country, we need to equip healthcare professionals with the tools they need to transform healthcare delivery in their respective facilities, impact their community and the health system positively” Hala Daggash, executive di-

L-R Jane Bakare General Hospital Alimosho ,Temi Adamerewa Quality Improvement Expert, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation, Madewa Adebajo(Medical Director, General Hospital Alimosho, Hala Daggash Executive Director, Healthcare Leadership Academy Africa), Pharmacist Abimbola Ajayi General Hospital Alimosho; Anuli Erike Program Lead Healthcare Leadership Academy Africa.

rector of HLA said.

The PCC programme is delivered as a three-part master class series that focuses on developing communication skills; an understanding of patient safety, and core medico-legal and ethical principles; and an understanding of quality improvement and how to embark on and drive quality improvement initiatives within the workplace.

According to Daggash, a major distinguishing feature of the PCC programme is the implementation of a facility-based improvement project that provides participants the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during the class-based phase to solve real-life challenges within their various facilities.

The emphasis is on im-

Kasi Center for Telehealth earns Gold member certification from Medical Tourism Association KEMI AJUMOBI

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asi International, a healthcare company doing more for healthcare in Nigeria by designing, organizing and operating healthcare facilities and services according to international safety guidelines, has obtained a gold member certification from the Medical Tourism Association due to the ground-breaking decisions and efforts made by the forward-thinking management team of Kasi Healthcare to open the Kasi Center for Telehealth Lagos Airport.

The good news is that Nigeria now has experienced professionals who are available to convey their expertise and provide Nigerian buyers of international healthcare services a specialized expertise and commitment to sound and trusted practices.

The certification recognizes that our professionals can coordinate and secure positive experiences for health and wellness seekers from Nigeria.

The Medical Tourism Association, also referred to as Medical Travel Association, is the first membership based international nonprofit trade association for the medical tourism and global healthcare industry made up of the top international hospitals, healthcare providers, medical travel facilitators, insurance companies, and other affiliated companies and members

with the common goal of promoting the highest level of quality of healthcare to patients in a global environment.

The gold-member certification, according to the Director of Kasi Healthcare, Dayo Osholowu, is “an affirmation of Kasi International’s drive to deliver healthcare of the highest global standard to Nigerians.”

“We are doing this in a number of ways”, he said.

“Our large network of hospitals across the globe, including Europe USA India Turkey and the UAE allows us to connect Nigerians with their preferred doctors and specialists for consultations or advanced surgical procedures at choice destinations” “Our state of the art facility, Kasi Center for Telehealth Lagos Airport, which is only 15 mins away from the International Airport in Lagos, enables us to take full advantage of technology to provide crucial healthcare service such as tele-consultation, which involves speaking to doctors anywhere in the world from the comfort of the facility in Lagos, and tele-radiology for review of X-Ray and MRI” “For those who seek to travel to any of these hospitals across the globe, we provide the facilitation of medical visas and discounted airfares through partnership with leading airlines such as Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. All of these and many more earned us the certification

from the Medical Tourism Association.”

The Chief Media Officer of Kasi Healthcare, Peter Adeshina, explained further that the gold-member certification of Kasi International from the Medical Tourism Association, is a demonstration of Kasi’s doing more tag line.

“Kasi Healthcare’s doing more tag line is not just a catch-phrase, but a culture we demonstrate in all our services – and this gold member certification is proof of our contribution in International Patient Management. The service provided at the Kasi Center for Telehealth Lagos Airport, which provides access to doctors and quality healthcare for Nigerians, is especially crucial at this period the country is witnessing an acute doctor shortage” In addition to the membership The President of Medical Tourism Association and Co-founder Global Healthcare Resources, Renée- Marie Stephano has also invited Directors of the Kasi Healthcare Center for Telehealth Airport Road to Attend the Medical Tourism Association and Global Healthcare Resources Annual Conference tagged ‘HEALTHCARE ЯEVOLUTION’ scheduled to take place on October 2830, 2018, in Orlando, Florida USA to discuss further opportunities to joint venture in increasing traveling patients within the region to high quality networked providers worldwide.

proving community strategy between healthcare practitioners and the patients, ensuring that our healthcare practitioners are aware of the ethical practices and rules as the landscape is changing.

And also imbibe in our medical professionals a culture of improvement so that the overall patients experience is improved.

We hope that they would improve the overall patients’ experience in their facilities,” she added.

The course is delivered using proven adult learning

methods including, facilitated discussions, role play activities and case studies specifically designed for the master class series.

Key staff from Alimosho general Hospital were beneficiaries of the PCC programme of 2017.

Madewa Adebajo, medical director Alimosho general hospital, Igando, Lagos, said PCC is about meeting the expectations of patients. We need to find out the challenges of patients by meeting them, and when we do it is necessary to sit down and postulate how we can meet those challenges.

“In Nigeria we are used to challenges and a lot of people have not made attempt on how to solve these problems, we just accept it, but when you make those changes, you realise that people start to embrace it and thinking it is possible.

“So what the HLA is doing is to train healthcare professionals on how to identify what the patients’ expectations are” said Adebajo Abimbola Ajayi, assistant director, pharmaceutical service, Alimosho General Hospital, Igando, complaint management officer, qual-

ity facilitator and patients centered care drive for the hospital who spoke on their improvements said the facility chose to focus their effort on the project to address the high number of patient complaints on the difficulty of navigating the large hospital campus.

“Our improvement was on increasing accessibility to service points within the hospital.

“The project’s success has had a significant impact on health service delivery at their facility, increased monthly hospital patronage from 25,000 to more than 40,000 and decreased hospital waiting times and the number of complaints. Implementing this change idea and obtaining positive results earned the hospital a prestigious Service Charter Initiative award in 2017 and the Safe Care Quality Improvement Award 2017,” she said.

The Healthcare Leadership Academy is working to achieve similar success stories in other public and private health facilities in Nigeria by equipping and empower ing healthcare providers with the requisite knowledge and tools to offer optimal healthcare services.

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DOING MORE

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Edo state sickle cell centre records 3,573 new cases in three years …as foundation donates medical kits to sufferers

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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do state government has raised alarm over steady increase in the number of sickle cell patients on list of the centre for past three years.

Caroline Omoti, chairman of the Sickle Cell Board, made this known recently during the presentation of Self-care tool kits to people with Sickle Cell by a non-governmental organisation Tonymay foundation in Benin City.

According to Omoti, “A total number of patients at the Centre in Benin City,

indicates a steady increase in the number of patients from 4,000 to 7,573 between 2014 and 2017.”

“The commonest type of presentation was Vasoocclusive and hyper haemolytic crisis,” she said.

The chairman, who commended the donor for the gestures, however appealed for more attention to the centre through allocation of funds, education and research to assist sickle cell patients in the provision of medical care.

Also speaking at the event, Andrew Otokhina, chairman Tonymay foundation Sickle Cell Aid, said the donation was part of

the foundation’s contributions and investment in the health of sickle cell patients in the state.

“Sickle Cell is not a disease but a disorder that can be managed by medical professionals, however I advise sickle cell patients against patronising unqualified medical personnel’s in private hospitals,” he said He further advised that sickle cell patients should not always allow themselves to be dehydrated or fall into malaria crisis and also avoid stress and infection for children in a bid to live a normal life.

The occasion, was how-

ever used to advise people that are about to get married to go for genotype test before marriage in order to avoid and prevent the increasing cases of sickle cell patients in the society.

Meanwhile, sickle cell patients in the state have appealed to the state government for urgent signing of the sickle cell bill recently passed by the State House of Assembly into law.

The sickle cell patients, who made the call in the just celebrated World Sickle Cell Day in Benin-City said the bill when signed into law will reduce challenges in accessing medical services in the centre.

Routine immunisation has prevented outbreak of epidemics in Ogun - Amosun RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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lufunsho Amosun, the wife of Ogun state governor says the routine Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) as well as Immunisation Plus Days (IPDs) exercise have really helped in fighting scourge and prevention of epidemic outbreak, adding that the clinical measures had also strengthened health system in the state.

Amosun made the statement during the flag off of the first round 2018 MNCHW and second round 2018 IPDs at the Osiele Primary Health Centre in Odeda Local Government Area of the State, adding that such an effort should be sustained by the government with the support of the entire residents of the State in order to further prevent child and maternal mortality.

She stated that regular campaigns had ensured progress in the realisation of the children’s right to good health

HBL TEAM

care and to the best start in their formative years of life, noting that the present administration desired to improve the healthcare seeking behaviour of the people in the state.

“We desire to improve the healthcare seeking behaviour of the whole family, especially pregnant women and caregivers of children between ages 0-59 months”, Amosun said.

In his remarks, Babatunde Ipaye Commissioner for Health, noted that last year, there were series of epidemic

outbreaks in the country, in which the state was not affected, as a result of the consistent rounds of the MNCHW and IPDs that has helped in boosting the immunity of children in the state.

He enjoined women and mothers of children from ages 0-5 to take advantage of the programme, highlighting some of the free health services to be provided to include: routine immunisation, de-worming, malnutrition testing, vitamin a supplementation, as well as free counselling and testing on HIV/AIDs

and health education on key household practices.

Earlier in his welcome address, Semiu Lawal the Chairman, Odeda Local Government, appreciated the State government for its various programmes and interventions, especially in the health sector, which he said had improved the overall health of the people.

He implored mothers and caregivers to take advantage of the exercise by getting their children immunised against killer diseases and infections, disclosing that government had made huge investment for the overall wellbeing of the people.

In their separate remarks, Rashidat Sopade and Esther Adesanya thanked the state government for providing qualitative and affordable health for all, promising to avail themselves and their children to health officers whenever they visit and inform others to immunise their children at the nearest healthcare centre.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH and ANI MICHAEL / Reporters I David Ogar, Graphics

Friday 06 July 2018

FG donates academic, clinical equipment to Ogun school of nursing RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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he Federal Government has donated over 400 equipment of various types to the Ogun State School of Nursing, Idi- Aba, Abeokuta as part of effort to deepen nursing training and sustain accreditation status of the Nursing School with a view to ensuring provision of quality healthcare service to the people.

Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health, who spoke while handing over the equipment to the State at an event held in conjunction with the Carter Centre, Nigeria, at the School of Nursing, Abeokuta, said the gadgets would go a long way at improving the quality of knowledge, skills and ability of the health care providers.

Adewole, who was represented by the National Project Coordinator, Nigeria Public Health Training Initiative (NPHTI), Kadiri Shakuri, added that the equipment would also reduce key morbidity/mortality indicators, standardized health professional curriculum and ensure sufficient properly trained instructors, saying, the initiative

would provide both pre and in- service career advancement incentives for health workers.

“Let me reiterate the objectives of this initiative which are to, improve the quality of knowledge, skills and ability of the Nigerian health professionals, provide classroom resources and reduce key morbidity and mortality indicators,” Adewole said.

Speaking at the event, Babatunde Ipaye the State Commissioner for Health, , represented by the Permanent Secretary, Nafiu Aigoro, lauded the Federal government and Carter Centre Nigeria, for their gesture, assuring that the equipment would be well used and adequately maintained, to meet the objectives to which they were given.

The equipment and material donated included, students desks with chairs, tutor’s chairs with tables, microscopes, stethoscopes, white board, packets of markers, neo-natal lines and tubes, foetal skull, mucus extractors, desktop computers, printers (HP laser pro M series), photocopy machines, among others.

Drug abuse: NGO sensitises secondary school students SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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Non-Governmental Organisation, the Grassroots Aide Initiatives has embarked on awareness campaign programme to educate secondary school students on danger of illicit drugs.

Leading the sensitisation programme to Jalala Junior Secondary School, University of Ilorin premises, Kehinde Khadijat Kadiri, the Executive Director of the NGO, cautioned the youth against indulging in hard drugs and other illegal activities that could affect their future.

The initiative according to her was part of determination to tame the rising cases of drug abuse among Nigerian youths.

Kadiri, who is a lecturer in the department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, challenged government at all levels, key stakeholders and relevant organisations to work towards controlling and eradicating illegal drugs in the society, stressing the

need for effective policies to achieve the desired goals.

She used the occasion to award scholarship to eight indigent and well behaved students of the school to inspire them to complete their education.

According to her, some of the indigent students have pulled out due to their inability to pay the school charges, pointed out that the NonGovernmental Organisation paid for full academic session of all the beneficiaries.

Kadiri, therefore charged wealthy individuals, organisations and members of the public to collaborate with the Organisation towards addressing the challenges facing the poor in the society and complement government in tackling poverty.

The NGO Director, however, pledged commitment of the Organisation to continue to ensure better living of the people not only in grassroots but also assist young men and women in the immediate society to achieve better living.

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FINTECH News

Products Review

Technology Review

Personality Review

BUSINESS DAY

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Company Review

NEWS

Fintech startups in Africa attract most investment in H1 Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

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he fintech segment continued to be tech investors’ number one attraction, garnering 25 deals worth $95 million in the first half of 2018, according to new data from Weetracker.

Nine of the fintech startups on the report are based in Nigeria while 6 are in South Africa.

Startups on the African continent saw an investment influx of $168.6 million spread across 118 disclosed deals in the first half of 2018. The figure eclipses the entire 2017 annual funding mark of $167.7 million.

Cellulant and Branch International – both fintech companies with outlets in Nigeria - secured the most investments in the period.

Cellulant, which has a Nigerian co-founder, announced a $47 million Series C funding from TPG Growth in May 2018 while Branch bagged $20 million in March, both controlling 39.88% of the total

investments.

The African Startups & VC Ecosystem Report noted that the investment amount also represents a massive leap of 3.5 times in amount invested from the first half of 2017 where investors only poured

in $47.23 million in 72 deals.

Majority of the investment came in through grants and seed investments. 27 startups received grants whereas 19 deals went to seed investments during the period.

Nigeria emerged the top

investment destination with 31 deals attracting $29.41 million. Although Kenya had lesser deals (23) it however received far more funding, $82.86 million, almost three times of the total funding to Nigeria.

The Weetracker report quoted David Van Dijk, cofounder of African Business Angels Network (ABAN) as saying, “The secret sauce of finding the right deal at the right time in Africa is not different from anywhere else in the world. You need to understand the market – the opportunities, the challenges – better than anyone else and be brutally good at picking the team that indeed can deliver.

Execution in Africa is very different, as there are many additional battles to win before calling victory.”

Leading the tech companies in Nigeria that secured the most deal during the period are SureRemit, a fintech firm which secured $7 million through initial coin offering (ICO); Lidya, another fintech that attracted $6.9 million in seed investment, and Terragon Group, an analytics company which received $5 million VC funding.

Healthtech and agritech managed to corner 13 and 10 deals respectively to emerge the top three.

Ecommerce which had 9 deals cleaned off the top four spot. Nigeria’s recent ecommerce misadventures were evident as none of companies operating in the country announced any deal in the first half. Remarkably, six of the nine ecommerce startups are based in Egypt.

The investments into the continent cut across venture capitalists, Angel Networks, corporate, accelerators and incubators.

“African startups have a strong support system in the form of many tech hubs, incubators and accelerators,” authors of the Weetracker’s report noted. “The first two quarters of the year saw the launch of 11 incubators and accelerators. South Africa followed by Nigeria and the maximum number of these facilities being opened up.

Notably, four of these had a focus on skill development of aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs. Also the World Bank gave $3 million to Nigeria, to be invested in six technology hubs across the country.”

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Why Unified Payment Hour Settlement Service will disrupt retail

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igerians’ adoption of electronic payment across many channels has seen significant traction in 2018.

Data from Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) showed that in the first quarter of 2018, the total number of registered point of sales (PoS) reached 199,999 compared to 182,806 registered in the previous quarter.

However, experts have said that Nigeria is only doing less than 10 percent of the mar-

ket potential. The reason is simple; retailers who are supposed to be the major drivers of growth in adoption are not embracing it fast enough.

Top on the list of concerns for retailers is the persistent delay in electronic payment settlement. The existing settlement system requires that retailers get money from transactions with customers the next day, otherwise known as T+ or Transaction Day+1.

Some retailers even say that settlement could take up to

four or five days, especially during holiday periods.

In an attempt to address the problem, Nigerian fintech firm, Unified Payment announced a new product known as UP Hourly Settlement Service (UP-HSS) in June.

UP- HSS is as ambitious as it is novel in the payment space in Africa.

At the basics, the product ensures that retailers get their monies on an hourly basis in addition with full settlement

report that aids them in reconciling daily sales.

In other words, the product makes it possible for a retailer to get paid an hour after a transaction with a customer.

The implication of UP-HSS is a new system that makes available funds for retailers when they want it.

The previous system, which is mostly unpredictable and dependent on whatever whims and caprices shows up the next day, make it impossible for retailers to plan. Once

access to funds is affected, the retailers supply can also take a hit. The result is that a significant number of prefer cash transactions. Cash is immediate.

“If we can guarantee that they (retailers) can have access to their funds which we can now do, it means that they will adopt electronic payment and that will grow electronic payment in Nigeria,” Agada Apochi, CEO of Unified Payment stated in a recent interview.

Apart from ensuring retail-

ers received payment within an hour, UP-HSS also enables settlement on any card brand.

In other words, retailers can receive their money irrespective of the card brand used to initiate the transaction of the processor of the card. That is a major boost for customer convenience.

Already four banks are collaborating with UP-HSS to increase adoption. The banks already enlisted include Diamond, UBA, Access and FCMB.

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Friday 06 July 2018

Death and the King’s Horseman thrills the stage four decades after Stories by OBINNA EMELIKE

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he year 1976 was very spectacular for students and readers of Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate and foremost Nigeria literary icon. That year witnessed the release of ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’, an enthralling literary and drama masterpiece from the stable of the Nobel Laureate.

It marvels that after 42 years, the play is still relevant and could even draw discussions around culture amid contemporary living. As well, it has had several enthralling stage performances notable among which are in 1988 by the Addison Center Theatre in Dallas, Texas, under the direction of Clinton Turner Davis. On November 20, 2016, the National Troupe of Nigeria staged the play at Cinema Hall 2, National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, to celebrate the 40 years anniversary of the play.

The play, which was premiered first on March 1975 at the 1,200 capacity Vivian Beaumont Theater in Manhattan, New York, is based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule and the Second World War of the early 1940s.

Set in the old Oyo Kingdom, ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’ emphasizes the cultural heritage, which entails a chief to voluntarily die when a king passes on. As the drama flows, it also showcases the rich cultural heritage of the people,

A scene from the play

especially dance and language.

As the tradition demands, the King’s horseman known as ‘Elesin Oba’ must commit suicide before the burial of the late Alafin in order for the Elesin’s spirit to precede and clear the way for the transition of the Alafin’s spirit.

A cultural dialogue ensues when information gets to Mr. Pilking, the British Colonial Ad-

ministrator who sees the age-long tradition as quaint and repugnant.

His intervention and subsequent arrest of the Elesin Oba at the climax of the rites of passage set off multi-facet tragic trajectories and dislocations within the Oyo Kingdom. Olunde, the first son of the Elesin, a medical student in England who returns to bury his father as tradition demands,

commits suicide to fill the void left by his father’s arrest. But the intrigue for the excited audience at any theatre the play stages is that Elesin still takes his own life in his captivity when the natives present the corpse of his son to him.

The play seeks to explore the tragic consequences associated with diminished sensibility and understanding of the intercultural

behavior, communication and tolerance, especially during the British Colonial era in Nigeria.

The thematic relevance of the play in the present day Nigeria where youths are adrift in the social media could be found in Olunde’s choice of honour, self-sacrifice and patriotism in contradiction to the Elesin and the Pilkings’ arrogance, self-preservation and sacrilege.

Beyond its many theatrical feats, the play is now moving on with a much more global audience target, especially with the recent announcement by EbonyLife that the play is under development to be adapted into a film.

“Work and planning continue with EbonyLife Films development of our upcoming feature film ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’. EbonyLife Films has acquired the rights to make this incredible work into a feature film for global distribution”, Mo Abudu, CEO, EbonyLife Television, who made the announcement on her Instagram page @moabudu last month, said.

“We will continue to change the narrative and tell our stories. Lord we thank you for the incredible opportunities you give,” she assured.

The Nigerian movie industry awaits the film, which many stakeholders believe will be a sold-out like most movies by EbonyLife. As well, cinema owners and movie distribution companies are already lobbying to get a share of Soyinka’s ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’, which is going to be a money spinner soon.

Lara And The Beat sets for an epic premiere

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fter its enthralling production tagged Banana Island Ghost (B.I.G), BiolaAlabi Media is back with another phenomenal production this summer titled ‘Lara and the Beat’. The official movie premiere is set for Sunday, July 8, 2018 in Lagos, in what is poised to be an exciting evening of fabulous fashion, mesmerizing music and much more.

Lara and the Beat stars music superstars such as; Seyi Shay and Vector, as well as, leading Nollywood acts including; Somkele, Chioma Akpotha, Chinedu Ikedieze, Uche Jombo, Shaffy Bello, Lala Akindoju, DJ Xclusive, Toni Tones, Deyemi Okanlawon, Demola Adedoyin and many more.

The movie, which hits cinemas nationwide from July 20, 2018 is a coming of age movie about the young and beautiful

Seyi Shay and Vector

Giwa sisters caught in the centre of a financial scandal with their late parents’ Media Empire. The sisters are forced out of their privileged bubble, and must learn to build their own future through music and enterprise to salvage their family’s past.

It promises to be a thrilling delight, especially with the exciting themes explored in the movie including financial literacy, family values, sisterhood, friendship, music, fashion, culture and love.

BiolaAlabi Media promises a wonderful outing for movie lovers this weekend as the movie premieres. The outfit is a fast growing media company based in Lagos, Nigeria, and dedicated to telling authentic African stories to local and global audiences. BiolaAlabi Media also Produced the 2017 hit movie, Banana Island Ghost (B.I.G), and Nigeria’s favourite TV food show, Bukas& Joints.

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Business Etiquette

Movie Review - Ocean’s 8“The plan is priceless”

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he plan was indeed priceless as they paid utmost attention to details in strategizing and planning for this mission. If you had followed suit over the years from Ocean’s Eleven in 2001 to Ocean’s Twelve in 2004, then you had Ocean’s Thirteen in 2007 and the latest of them all Ocean’s 8 this year with an all-female cast, featuring loads of amazing and popular actresses.

Although this movie had a lot of buzz and hype and it was okay, there just something missing about it, I don’t really know if I should say that, because there were no men in the crew, or the action wasn’t absolutely as impressive as the previous series, but for many they didn’t experience that “WoW” factor they were seeking when they decided to see the movie. I did find it very entertaining seeing smart and intelligent women pull off such a mission, but I wasn’t also 100% impressed, nor my expectations surpassed. This movie talked about a group of 8 ladies who came together to carry out one of the biggest robbery yet without arms and ammunitions.

It was exciting to see the amount of planning and sleepless nights that had to go into this operation, by these ladies. A well thought out operation and a group of young talented ladies with unique skills. All played important roles as they made up for each other’s weaknesses. At the end we were all surprised as they even stole more than what was required, which made them even richer. The movie was written by Olivia Milch and Gary Ross and directed by Gary Ross. They had a well thought out and articulated story, which linked properly.

The production was good, the cast and crew were on point, nice costumes and amazing action scenes. The end of the movie was absolutely amazing as the girls all cashed out to start their dream lives.

The movie started with Debbie being released from the prison and setting up a team to assist her on the new mission she wanted to embark on. She was going to embark on a mission that will shake the whole of United States. For five years, eight months, 12 days and counting, the lead actor Debbie Ocean has been strategizing the greatest robbery of her life. She knew she was going to need the best brains and hands to join her team to help her achieve this mission seamlessly. She went back to seek for her good friend and partner in crime Lou Miller,

with Janet Adetu

Bootcamp benefits for Kids

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Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Richard Armitage Genre: Action, Adventure & Comedy Director: Gary Ross Ratings: PG 13 (for language, drug use and suggestive content) Written by: Olivia Milch and Gary Ross Runtime: 110 mins Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures together they went out scouting for a group of women who will be pretty to distract people and yet good one aspect of the operation. They found the jeweler Amita, street con Constance, suburban mom Tammy, hacker Nine Ball, and fashion designer Rose. Their mission was to steal a necklace worth $150m, which they did successfully.

After weeks of strategizing, planning and having no sleep to make sure that the operation was smooth and successful, the day was here for them to strike, they were to strike at the New York City’s annual Met Gala and there the necklace will be stolen from the neck of the celebrity who had worn it to the event. The truth was that they had initially gone to view the neck piece in the Cartier store some before then scanned it with a high tech glass and then made a clone of it, looked exactly like the original one, and no one was going to find out except at the point of return. It was a beautiful plan, although filled with so many assumptions and for me, one thing going wrong meant the end of the mission, but they were lucky to have that and even much more. After the mission all the ladies moved on

different cities and started a new life. The end was awesome how Debbie set up and framed the guy who had initially sent her to jail, they put a piece in his pocket and there he was being sent to jail for something he knew absolute nothing about, fantastic end also.

Ocean’s 8 was okay with a beautiful story sequel to the Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen, you will wonder why 8 now, off course it will be quiet difficult to bring together 14 lead actors in one movie. I felt it was nice and a new twist with having all women in the cast, but there was just something missing out for me, one that was even quiet hard to lay a finger on. To my verdict I would say they deserve a 7/10 nice cast and story, but a bit of the real action was missing, they made it look so easy and we all know that kind of mission isn’t that easy to pull. For the action movie lovers, then you could try this out.

Feel free to review any movie of your choice in not more than 200 words, please send us a mail to linda@ businessdayonline.com and stand a chance to win a free movie ticket Linda Ochugbua @lindaochugbua

t is that time of the year once again when the Summer break is fast approaching, and you are wondering what to do with your kids. It is a time when every parent should be concerned as to how to keep their children productively active, to keep them away from bad habits, distracting activities and impolite behavior.

Many organizations who engage in children’s educational activities and the like try to get creative all in a bid to helping provide that added knowledge outside the school environment.

Ultimately the aim is to help parents provide a place for their restless children to attend.

We at JSK Etiquette are strong a advocate of Bootcamps for kids as we try to modify behavior mannerisms, encourage character education, help boost the confidence of the children, while encouraging them to learn skills for life to bring out the true leadership potential in them. Bootcamps depending on the season of the year whether it is Easter, Summer or Christmas time can help a child exert themselves, meet new people, excel in their given talents and lots more. I have had vast experience with children in my plight to execute excellence, I can categorically say that many children all find such boot camps very inspiring, engaging, educating and a good use of their time. I have looked at a few reasons why I feel that bootcamps are very beneficial to our growing children today.

B E N E F I T S O F B O O TCAMPS Confidence building During Bootcamps many children attend either because they have been asked to attend by their parents, tend to be reluctantly, while some others may be excited at the prospect of learning new things. I have seen that most times children and teens during sessions tend to quietly take their positions on first arrival, some begin to start forming or sizing each other up, looking for approval of some sort. Amazingly it does not take time before we see the same kids and teens open up. All it takes is for them to feel comfortable with their environment, they then suddenly they are bubbly, lively, active and friendly. Boot-

camps help expose children, confidence starts building as they learn new things among their peers which is much different from the normal classroom atmosphere.

Character Education Millennials of today are exposed to the real world in more ways than we care to think of. The internet plus social media think of the internet plus social media is free for all who care to tap into it, providing extended information that today can be difficult to control. Some children use the 21st technology positively and to their advantage, sadly we have seen the consequences of the total misuse of social media and online platforms.

Bootcamps center on curtailing bad behavior usually picked up from current bad trends of today.

With character education your child will be able to maneuver awkward situations, learn proper conduct and mannerisms to help apply to their everyday lives.

It is a must that we mould the character of our youths today, in a way that brings out assertiveness, credibility, trustworthiness, honesty and politeness. These are the secret traits of a leader.

Build Relationships Bootcamps bring together children from all walks of life and different age groups.

Every opportunity for your child to come away from the television, the phone or social media will help them build themselves for the future. The Bootcamp is a break away from social devices, it will help them make contacts with peers, where they will share ideas, collaborate, have fun and grow. I have seen many children develop good friendships through Bootcamps just by virtue of seeing new people daily. As they mature unto adolescence it is a life skill that will benefit them in the future.

Talent Recognition Every child has a hidden talent, It comes out only when they are exposed to the right opportunity. Even when kids are asked what they would like to become as their chosen career it is amazing to see that they express one career line, and also tell you their great hobby which is an indication of where passion and talent lies.

Bootcamps help children engage in activities that they may not ordinarily to do at school or home. It is considered exciting for kids as the Bootcamp strives to promote soft skills rather than just the technical skills, the Bootcamp is one of the best tools for added growth and learning for your child.

Skill Sets Finally what is your child’s

Skill Set? Have you been able to identify what your child does excellently? A talent is inborn waiting to be revealed, skills in certain aspects of life are cultivated, built and developed overtime. Surprisingly many children have the gift and skills of drawing or sketching, yes it is a talent too, but the skills and precision have grown over time. I have seen youths master the skills of writing, acting speaking and much more. As a parent do not over estimate your child’s talent or skill sets, as much as possible try to discover, notice and nuture it, they may be the key that holds the future.

Join our Courtesy Campus Easter Bootcamp this holiday season, for children aged 4-17 years who wants to make a difference in their generation, impact society and grow to be tomorrow’s leader. Let your child be a member of our SPLASH KLUB. Keep your children productively busy this holidays.

Janet.adetu@gmail.com

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Hotels

Southern Sun Ikoyi refreshes brand with new meeting facilities …hosts clients to exclusive VIP cocktail OBINNA EMELIKE

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n appreciation of its loyal customers for their patronage, Southern Sun Ikoyi recently treated its customers, friends and esteemed individuals of Lagos’ thriving business community to an exclusive mid-year quarterly Corporate Cocktail, which also marked the unveiling of the hotel’s newly added meeting and boardroom facilities.

Celebrating the refurbished new look of the hotel and speaking fondly about

the support from clients and partners at the corporate VIP cocktail event, Mark Loxley, general manager, Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotel, thanked guests for their continued business support and patronage to the hotel, and prayed for a better second half of the year.

He further reiterated that the cocktail event is a simple gesture to the local business communities and clientele of the hotel in appreciating the support provided to the hotel within the business environment in which they operate.

“We are excited to showcase the recent enhance-

ments to the hotel, with the addition of one board room and two meeting rooms which was a necessitated need due to growing demand for exclusive business meetings at the hotel”, Loxley said.

According to the general manager, “the new development was a perfect opportunity for valued long-term partners and new guests to experience our dedication in delivering the Southern Sun Ikoyi signature in comfort, hospitality and brand values.”

Ensuring that the taste buds of guests at the corporate VIP cocktail event were not

left disappointed, Chef Alex Mwuara, and his team of culinary experts treated guests to a delicious array of sweet and savory bites, including fresh prawns, juicy steak burgers, fine wine and champagne alongside assorted cheeses and more, as they relaxed and networked over glasses filled with finely blended juices.

Also in attendance among the special guests from the diplomatic community gracing the evening’s occasion included; Azwianewi Mbedzi, the vice consul political from the South African Consulate General in Nigeria, who particularly expressed great delight at the opportunity to meet and mingle with esteemed individuals from Lagos thriving business community. He also commended the hotel for its consistency in delivering top quality service within the environment which it operates making it a comfortable home for Nigerians and expatriates alike who have experienced their unique service.

The evening continued with a special session of lucky prize draws, wherein guests had the opportunity to win scrumptious dinners for two, Sunday brunch for four and luxurious weekend stays at the Southern Sun Ikoyi among other prizes.

Emaar Group to brand Togolese hotel as first ‘Address’ in Africa

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maar Hospitality Group, the leisure division of Emaar Properties, a Dubaibased real estate developer, has signed an agreement with Kalyan Group, a West African conglomerate, to open a hotel in Togo, marking Emaar’s entry into subSaharan Africa.

The premium hotel in Lomé, the capital of Togo, will operate under Emaar’s Address Hotels and Resorts brand and is scheduled to open later this year.

“Our management agreement to operate Address Hotel 2 Février Lomé Togo is a significant landmark in our expansion to Sub-Saharan Africa,” Olivier Harnisch, chief executive of Emaar Hospitality, said.

“Togo is a fascinating country with strong growth prospects. It is also strengthening its tourism sector with the goal of increasing the GDP share of the industry from 2 to 7 percent by 2020, investing in infrastructure

Friday 06 July 2018

upgrades and boosting the industrial sector,” Harnisch added.

The 30-storey property, first established as Hotel 2 Février in 1980, is located seven kilometres from LoméTokoin International Airport and occupies the tallest building in Togo. It will open its doors to guests following a rebranding and, once complete, will offer 256 rooms and suites, 64 serviced apartments, restaurants, meeting rooms, a ballroom and other facilities.

The management agreement was signed with the building’s owner Kalyan Hospitality Development, the hospitality arm of Kalyan Group, one of Togo’s largest conglomerates.

Kalyan Group made its name in phosphates but has diversified into other industry sectors including dry bulk shipping, largescale farming, commodities and hospitality. The hotels division is headed up by chief executive Ashok Gupta.

“Address Hotel 2 Février

Lomé Togo is positioned to welcome business and leisure guests, led by its central location and iconic status as the tallest building in Togo,” Harnisch said.

“In addition to boosting the hospitality sector, we will also contribute to the local economy by creating local jobs and extending training on hospitality services.”

Togo is the sixth international destination for the Address Hotels + Resorts brand, which has six hotels in Dubai. There are other, upcoming, Address projects in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and the Maldives, as well as, several planned new openings in the UAE, according to Emaar Hospitality.

The company, which operates 13 hotels in Dubai under its three hospitality brands Address, Vida Hotels and Resorts and Rove Hotels, aims to operate more hotels in Sub-Saharan Africa, one of its key growth markets, it added.

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

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

Protea Hotel Apo Apartments Address: Ahmadu Bello Way, Apo, Abuja Tel: 09 480 1818

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

Chida Hotel International Address: Plot 224, Solomon Lar Way, Utako, Abuja Tel: 0810 871 8882

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

206 Hotel Plot 206 Cadastral Zone B02 Opposite Kenuj 02 Mall, Oladipo Diya Road, Durumi District, Abuja Tel: 08119707993 Email: 206abuja@gmail.com

Protea Hotel (GRA Ikeja) GRA Ikeja

Protea Hotel (V/Island) Off Ajose Adeogun Street, V/ Island

Gombe Jewel Hotel, 22, Njamena Street, off Aminu Kano crescent Wuse 2, Abuja.

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

Friday 06 July 2018

BUSINESS DAY

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Experts/Industry Views

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Friday 06 July 2018

Send in News content and your Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

Analysis

Innovating the cattle business ‘out of violence’ (2) CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

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inding a lasting solution to the violence which occurs on account of nomadic movement of cattle to graze, has seen divergent views, but mostly opposition to anything short of introducing proper ranching systems.

The Federal Government first mooted the idea of importing grasses from Brazil, a concept that appeared to be roundly derided in the public sphere, then later pushed for cattle colonies and grazing reserves. None of the government’s proposals appeared to be readily accepted by the populace, as it appears there is a need for cattle rearing to finally become a properly run business.

“The establishment of cattle colony has been recommended as a solution to the (herdsmenfarmers) conflict. However, this approach is not feasible unless the root cause of the problem is addressed comprehensively and sustainably, implying that a ranch business model that caters for the basic needs of the herdsmen and the herd must be thoroughly implemented,” said Abiodun Jegede, a doctoral candidate at the Wageningen University, in a presentation on behalf of a group of Nigerian postgraduate research students in the Netherlands, that developed a model they expect will deliver solutions in cattle rearing.

The group expects to achieve this by addressing a number of questions on: how climate change impact can be reversed; how water and feed can be provided

abundantly; how a circular economy can be maintained within the ranch; and how the cherished nomad philosophy of the Fulani can be preserved.

Jegede, a PhD candidate in Environmental Technology at Wageningen, told BusinessDay earlier this year, that “the idea can contribute to ending the herdsmen-farmer clashes and improve the livestock industry in Nigeria. In addition, this concept will help to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and can contribute to powering our rural communities.”

Beyond developing ranches, the prospect of readily available grass to feed cows has the potential to curb recurring violent clashes in different parts of the country between farmers and herdsmen. It will also see the value of cattle improve as better feed implies improved beef and milk quality.

“That is the only thing we

need in Nigeria if we want to improve cattle, dairy and beef production in Nigeria,” said Ayoka Adebambo, a professor of animal breeding and genetics, at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, in a phone interview with BusinessDay. “We have the land required and instead of going to places like Brazil to import grasses, many places in the north can be used to produce adequate high quality grass,” Adebambo explained.

S oji Apampa, CE O, the Convention on Business Integrity, in a chat with BusinessDay, explained that his organisation has introduced cultivation of Napier grass in the Laduga grazing reserve in Kaduna state, where cattle owners are reporting significant improvements in their livestock.

The Laduga reserve according to the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) has a size of 88,411 hectares, and was

officially gazzetted in 1996 by the Kaduna State Government. The Grazing Reserve is divided into six blocks for settlement of nomads with transhumant corridor for temporary settlement.

Apampa told BusinessDay that before introduction of the grass in the grazing reserve, milk production hovered around 1 litre (and usually less) per cow, but within weeks of feeding, cows could produce as much as 3 litres of milk in a day.

He also explained that the business of grass production is gradually gaining traction as rural dwellers around the reserve sold N6 million worth of Napier seedlings. This, he said can improve if deliberate efforts are made to encourage increase in production, and making it a structured business so as to attract the right investments.

Napier grass, also known as “elephant grass”, “Sudan grass” or “king grass”, is a fodder grass

that produces a lot of highprotein forage. It is not entirely new in Nigeria, but now holds prospects of a profitable industry that could as well end years of violent conflicts between farmers and herdsmen.

The grass is suited to high rainfall areas, but is droughttolerant and can also grow well in drier areas.

For a cow to produce well, it needs feed of about 15 kg a day.

Impliedly, Nigeria’s estimated 19 million heads of cattle will require about 285,000 metric tonnes of feed in a day. As many nomadic herdsmen may be unable to produce the grass required to feed their cattle, this opens an opportunity to grow grass in commercial quantity to meet the needs of this market, and improve cattle quality in the country.

Chryss Onwuka, a professor of ruminant animal nutrition and president of the Nigerian Society for Animal Production, in a previous interview with BusinessDay, had said “In their [nomadic herdsmen] tradition, once their fields start thinning out and water becomes less available, they start moving towards regions where there is enough food and water.

“And all these tell on the cattle’s energy, which in turn reflects on their weight; bringing about weight losses that they had hoped to gain by moving.

The little potential they have for weight gain is lost in the course of transiting from one place to another. If they were sedentary, then their restricted movement would have translated into weight gain,” Onwuka said.

Expert Views

Getting women productively engaged in agribusiness OLUWAFEMI ABIOYE Co-founder/CEO, Agricmedia Twitter: @agricmedia Email: oluwafemia@ agricmedia.com

W

omen play a significant role in agriculture, the world over.

Estimates have shown that women account for about 70 percent of the agricultural workers, 80 percent of food producers, 10 percent of those who process basic foodstuff, and undertake 60 to 90 percent of the rural marketing.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, even noted that women account for over two-third of the workforce in agricultural production.

According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, women account for 75 percent of the farming population in Nigeria, working as farm managers, marketers, processors and suppliers of labour to various agricultural endeavours.

Though women constitute a large

portion of the farming population, it appears that the potentials of women in agriculture are hindered by formal, religious and traditional rules. Despite the fact that women produce much of the food in the developing countries such as Nigeria, they also remain less financially empowered than most men are.

Although women do the majority of work in agriculture at the global level, elder men, for the most part, still own the land, control women’s labour, and make agricultural decisions in patriarchal social systems. Hence, the essence of this article is to create a mind shift for our women and have them take the front space alongside their male counterparts in the business of Agriculture (Agribusiness) in Nigeria.

It is recognized globally that agriculture is an engine of growth and poverty reduction in countries where it is the main occupation of the poor. However, Agricultural sector in many developing countries is underperforming, in part because women, who represent a crucial resource in agriculture and the rural economy

through their roles as farmers, labourers and entrepreneurs, almost everywhere face more severe constraints than men in access to productive resources. Efforts by federal government, state governments and the international community to achieve their goals for agricultural development, economic growth and food security will be strengthened and accelerated if they build on the contributions that women make and take steps to alleviate these constraints.

Womenmakeessentialcontributions to the agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries. Their roles vary considerably between and within regions and are changing rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and social forces are transforming the agricultural sector.

Women often manage complex households and pursue multiple livelihood strategies. Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in

trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes.

Many of these activities are not defined as “economically active employment” in national accounts but they are essential to the well- being of the households and national growth.

Quick Facts: • In Sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80 percent of the basic foodstuff.

• In Africa, women provide nearly 90 percent of the wood for household consumption and 70 percent of wood collected for sale.

• In Sub-Saharan Africa, women comprise 60 percent of the informal economy, provide about 70 percent of all the agricultural labour and produce about 90 percent of the food.

• In several countries in Sub- Saharan Africa and Latin America, the number of female-headed households is increasing, largely due to male migration, divorce, illness and conflict.

It is important for the consideration of women in key sectors of the Agribusiness value chain whilst, the

Federal Government should encourage women into the core agribusiness ventures such as: i. Farming (food crops, vegetables and cash crops) ii. Processing iii. Marketing iv. Financing v. Cluster equipment leasing and management vi. Cluster land ownership and group farming vii. Extension services viii. Export Also, the system should encourage the celebration of successful women in Agribusiness, such as Yemisi Iranloye and Hajia Salamatu Garba for their giant strides in Agribusiness development and women empowerment in Nigeria.

It is believed that women are God’s perfect creation for reproduction and multiplication of whatever comes their way hence, when you empower women for Agribusiness in Nigeria then the nation is bound to see positive multiplication effect and giant leap in our Agribusiness landscape.

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Friday 06 July 2018

ANALYSIS Nigeria needs a new strategy for a changing global gas market A new report by Paris-based energy think tank, the International Energy Association highlights an evolving global gas market landscape which has implications for Nigeria, writes ISAAC ANYAOGU.

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hree major issues stand out in the 2018 Gas Market report released by the International Energy Association which has grave implications for Nigeria: the bulk of demand growth will come from China, US supplies will flood the market and Industries will need more gas than power plants.

Global demand for natural gas is forecast to increase at an average 1.6% over the next 5 years with emerging Asian markets as the main engine for demand. Global gas demand will grow at an average rate of 1.6% a year, reaching just over 4,100 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2023, up from 3,740 bcm in 2017, according to the IEA’s latest annual gas market report, Gas 2018, which was released today China alone accounts for a third of global demand growth to 2022 thanks in part to the country’s “Blue Skies” policy and the strong drive to improve air quality, says the IEA. Chinese gas demand is forecast to grow by 60 % between 2017-2023, underpinned by policies aimed at reducing local air pollution by switching from coal to gas.

China alone accounts for 37% of the growth in global demand in the next five years and becomes the largest natural gas importer by 2019, overtaking Japan. The IEA also forecasts strong growth in gas use in other parts of Asia, including in South and Southeast Asia, driven by strong economic growth and efforts to improve air quality.

The bulk of these supplies could be met with rising production in the United States. The country is expected to lead gas production growth worldwide to 2023, thanks to the on-going US shale revolution.

Most new US supplies will be geared to export markets as LNG or through pipelines. The development of destination-free and gas-indexed US LNG exports will provide additional flexibility to the expanding global water-borne traded market.

The IEA says industry takes the leadership from power generation in sectoral demand growth Gas for power generation, once the primary source of growth, expands slowly amidst tougher competition among generation fuels.

Power generation accounted for half of the growth in natural gas consumption over the last decade, helped by abundant fuel supply in mature markets, fuel switching from oil in emerging markets, and the reduction in nuclear generation in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

During the projection period, natural gas for power generation continues to grow in North America and the Middle East driven by cheap domestic resources, but slower global electricity demand growth, the rapid rise of global renewable

electricity production and tough competition from coal, particularly in Asia, limit its growth prospects.

The industrial sector is expected to account for 40% of the increase in natural gas consumption, replacing power generation as the main driver. Incremental industrial uses cover both energy for processes and feedstock for chemicals including fertilisers in emerging economies and feedstock for petrochemicals for export in regions with abundant natural gas.

What does this mean for Nigeria?

The consequences for Nigeria are unnerving. The bulk of Nigeria’s gas is supplied to Japan and other Asian markets in the form of liquefied natural gas, in the next five years, the competition for these markets will be intense and production is not prolific.

Nigeria started its LNG opera-

tions 24 months after Qatar but Qatar now produces 77 million tonnes per annum, while Nigeria has not moved the needle on 22 MTPA. In Africa, significant gas finds in excess of 127 trillion cubic feet in Mozambique have created the potential for another African super player. Mozambique is expected to become the second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by 2025, as the country steps up production from 10 million tonnes per annum in 2017 to an envisaged 50 Mtpa.

Egypt which could become selfsufficient in natural gas by the end of this year with the start of Eni SpA’s giant Zohr field has vast facilities to turn gas into LNG, which can be exported by ship.

This is just Africa. The IEA believes that Australia, Qatar and the United States supplying 60 per cent of the world’s LNG by 2023 and increasingly doing battle for a big-

ger share of the key market of Asia.

Right now, Australia has built more facilities than it can provide them with gas.

Nigeria has been unable to add new trains to its LNG plant. The units that freeze natural gas into liquid form for export on ships are known as trains in the natural gas industry.

Big ticket projects like Olokola LNG, Brass LNG and the NLNG’s Train 7 have been unable to reach final investment decision by the stakeholders.

The OK LNG project was stalled because all the international oil companies (BG, Shell and Chevron) withdrew from the project, with only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation left.

The Brass LNG project, which was designed to produce 10 million metric tonnes per annum, was to be built by the NNPC, Total, ConocoPhillips and Eni Group. But ConocoPhillips withdrew from the project in 2013.

“It’s time to prepare for the likely demand outlook that’s positive, and has out-performed projections in the last three years. Let’s get back to exploration and production activities,” Tony Attah, managing director and CEO NLNG Limited said at Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja in February.

Nigeria could struggle to regain prized markets for its long-term contracts due to its unstable regulatory environment, including the moronic decision to amend the NLNG Act by the House of Representatives.

The fact that competitors are offering more flexible terms calls for rethinking the NLNG strategy.

LNG buyers receive fixed monthly volumes. Even if a buyer cancels a cargo due to a period of unusually

low demand, payment is still due under “take-or-pay” obligations.

Most Asian long-term supply contracts contain “destination clauses” which prevent buyers from on-selling LNG to third parties.

To protect buyers and sellers from sharp price swings, the LNG under most long-term contracts is indexed to oil which is prone to volatility.

However the United States has developed destination-free and gas-indexed US LNG exports and this provides additional flexibility to the expanding global LNG market and makes its cargoes more attractive to Asian markets where Nigeria is targeting.

What is more, industry leaders say shorter-term contracts and spot markets will increasingly gain prominence. Charif Souki, chairman at US LNG developer Tellurian Inc., at the Flame conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday, said long-term contracts in the LNG sector would soon be a thing of the past.

“The market has become sufficiently liquid today that a buyer does not need to enter into a longterm contract,” Souki -- who was the founder of US LNG pioneer Cheniere Energy – said according to reports by Platts.

“There is no incentive, no imperative to have a long-term contract,” Souki said, unless a buyer is a large utility that needs the guarantee of supply.

Nigeria also needs to review its domestic gas policies. Oil majors with access to vast gas acreages have no financial incentive to develop them because it does not make economic sense due to limited returns in domestic market sale, this leaves these assets stranded. Independents have motivation but lack acreages and Nigeria does not have separate licensing round for gas blocks.

The domestic market needs to be attractive and government can do this by liberalising pricing.

Local gas producers, forced to sell to power plants almost 20% of their market invoice due to exchange rate volatility. Their gas contracts are in US dollars but they are paid in naira at Central Bank exchange rate of N305 to a dollar.

40% of their income was wiped out in 2016 when the dollar exchanged for N510.

Nigeria lacks critical infrastructure to move gas around the country.

Statutory charges involved in moving gas do not incentivise producers.

Investments required to build them stalls on absence of a viable fiscal law that encourages investment and tardiness in enacting a reformative petroleum industry bill.

“In framing gas fiscal term, Nigeria would need to decide if it wants to grow revenues or develop the domestic market,” Austin Avuru, the CEO of Seplat said at a conference last year.

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 06 July 2018

Harvard Business Review

29

ManagementDigest

‘Managers don’t have all the answers’ (part 1) ELLA MIRON-SPEKTOR

Q: The biggest risk to the system these days might be cyberattacks.

How well prepared is JPMorgan Chase?

T

he New York Times once referred to Jamie Dimon as “America’s least-hated banker.”

For a Wall Street titan, that’s about as good as it gets.

Dimon has been at the helm of JPMorgan Chase for more than 12 years. At 62, boyish and sometimes blunt, he remains true to his roots as a straight-talking guy from Queens (albeit one who has an MBA from Harvard Business School, runs the biggest bank in the United States and is a billionaire).

JPMorgan weathered the 2008 financial crisis better than most. It was perhaps the healthiest of America’s big banks but felt compelled to join others in taking billions of dollars in a government bailout — a plan meant to avoid singling out banks with truly dire problems. To this day it irritates Dimon that his bank was lumped in with the ones that got themselves in deep financial trouble.

He suffered a reputational hit of his own in 2012, when a trader in JPMorgan’s U.K. office — nicknamed the “London Whale” — made a series of derivative transactions that mushroomed into $6.2 billion in losses. In a letter to shareholders Dimon called the episode “the stupidest and most embarrassing situation I have ever been a part of.”

Nevertheless, Dimon has led JPMorgan on a steady path of growth. Under his watch the bank acquired and successfully integrated two once-troubled institutions: Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. And it has continued to expand nearly every aspect of its business. Its 2016 profit of $24.7 billion (on revenue of $95.7 billion) is reportedly the largest ever for a U.S. bank.

Dimon has evolved as a leader as well, most notably since his recovery from throat cancer four years ago. He is more outspoken on political and social issues, well beyond those pertaining to financial regulation. And he is the lead cheerleader for JPMorgan’s deep engagement in helping to rebuild the economically troubled city of Detroit.

The following conversion between Dimon and Harvard Business Review’s editor in chief, Adi Ignatius, has been edited for clarity.

Q: The public’s view of Wall Street is still pretty negative. Do you see it as part of your role to try to improve

We spend $700 million a year in that area. That said, no matter how good you are, your adversary is good too. It’s an arms race. We’re working closely with the government, but we need to do more and do it faster.

Q: What other potential threats concern you?

that?

It’s hard to change that perception, because banks are different from normal businesses. If you walk into Walmart and have cash, they’ll sell you something. But banks have to turn people down. We won’t make the loan. Or we’ll give you the loan but tell you that to meet your covenants, you need to practically sell your firstborn. Everyone has a horror story. We just have to do our job, serve our clients well and let that be our reputation.

Q: Does this negativity carry a cost?

Yes, it matters. Part of that negative perception was well earned during the financial crisis. Not all banks were responsible for the failures and for the downturn in the economy, but we all got painted with the same brush: “They’re all fat cats. They all got bailed out.” It will take a generation for the industry to rebuild its reputation.

Q: A far greater concentration of assets is now in just a few U.S. banks’ hands. Is that OK? Yes, I think it is. People have to be rational about this. The banking industry is far less concentrated in the United States than in many other countries: Japan, France, the U.K. If you’re global and diversified, you have to be large. It’s hard to compete if you don’t have economies of scale.

Q: Does that mean “too big to fail” is a meaningless concept?

You don’t want banks that are too big to fail — if the result of failure is that the people have to pay for it or the economy goes down. But a company should be allowed to fail in a way that is safe for the economy and that doesn’t require taxpayers to pay the price.

Q: Have the laws enacted since the financial crisis helped with that risk?

The new capital-equity regulations are good. Today Lehman Brothers [which collapsed during the 2008 crisis] would be required to have three times as much equity and four times as much liquidity — and if it were in trouble, it probably wouldn’t fail. If a bank does fail, regulators now have a mechanism for unwinding things in an orderly way.

Plus, any money lost will be charged back to the banks, not to the American people.

Q: Are you happy in general with the amount of regulation in place these days?

Just to be clear, no big bank wants to throw out Dodd-Frank and rewrite everything. And some of the regulations are actually good: stresstesting, living wills, capital-liquidity requirements, transparency. But other aspects were overdone and not coordinated. If we can change those things — through calibration and eliminating duplication — we’ll have a safer system that’s in a better position to finance growth.

We do more than 100 stress tests a week — related to geopolitics, capital downturns, recession, war. For each one, we don’t just guess at the probabilities; we prepare for the worst.

As a result, we have the capital and the earnings and the capabilities to withstand any of those things — just as we managed to survive during the financial crisis.

Q: What do you consider to be your chief competitive threat?

The biggest potential disruption to our business is new forms of payment. You have PayPal, Venmo, Alipay and more. These companies are doing a good job of embedding basic banking services in their chats, their social, their shopping experience.

Q: Do you view Chinese banks as a threat?

I think Chinese banks could be big competitors. They’re supported by their government. They make more money than we do. They have a huge home market, which is a competitive advantage. And they adopt a strategy of following their own companies overseas to handle basic banking services and then moving upscale to more-sophisticated services. They’re coming. They’re ambitious.

Q: What’s your view on cryptocurrency? A few months ago you said you thought bitcoin was a fraud and that you’d fire any trader dealing in it.

I probably shouldn’t say any more about cryptocurrency. But it’s not the same as gold or fiat currencies. Those are supported by law, police, courts.

They’re not replicable, and there are strictures on them. Blockchain, on the other hand, is real. We’re testing it and will use it for a whole lot of things.

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

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Q: Many of your fellow CEOs complain that short-term pressure prevents them from doing things for the long-term good of the company.

Do you feel that?

We invest a considerable amount in projects that have a long-term payoff. Some of them are table stakes for a business — investments in training, in branches, in technology. You can’t stop-start them. They’re not done in a single year. There’s no magic to 12 months.

Q: But what about the pressure to make your numbers?

I’m a fanatic about numbers, but some of what goes into earnings estimates is fiction. You might develop a product that could hurt your earnings for the year, but you’re doing the right thing for the company. So you have to explain it to shareholders, and the smart ones will say, “Go ahead. I don’t care if my quarterly earnings go down.”

Q: What’s your view on providing quarterly earnings forecasts?

We don’t give quarterly earnings forecasts, and I don’t think any CEO should. They put the company in a terrible position. You can’t possibly account for all the things you need to know to create that forecast.

I do believe in transparency. I’ll tell people what we plan to spend on technology, or how many branches we’ll open. But earnings are based on decisions that have been made over the past 10 years — or maybe on the weather and how it affects business. An earnings forecast suggests precision, but we can’t be precise on so many factors. It gives a false sense of security.

Q: In your recent letter to shareholders, you seemed almost apologetic that you had to do some stock buybacks. Is that a fair characterization?

It’s absolutely fair. The goal is to use your capital well. When you can’t use it to grow — and we couldn’t for years, because of regulatory issues — then you have to do something. You can raise your dividends or, rather than let it sit in your pocket, you can buy back stock. But I would prefer to spend it to grow the business.

Friday 06 July 2018

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BUSINESS DAY

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BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST

PHCCIMA boss, stakeholders confident NCCG can entrench transparency accountability EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

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resident of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Emi Membere-Otaji along with other members of the business community in Port Harcourt, say they believe that the new Nigeria Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG) put in place to drive the ease of doing business, would attract local and foreign investments into the country.

For them, the NCCG has capacity to enhance the integrity of the Nigerian market by entrenching a culture of disclosure, transparency, and accountability.

The PHCCIMA boss, speaking during the second public hearing for the exposure draft of the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018 (NCCG 2018) organized by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment held at the Novotel in Port Harcourt, said it was a novelty; hence through the PHCCIMA or at the national chamber, NACCIMA, at PETAN or AGPMPN, or Nigeria Medical Association, the Code seeks to raise public awareness for essential corporate values, ethical practices and stakeholders’ confidence.

The MD/CEO of Seplat Nigeria Limited, who was represented by the legal adviser, Obianuju Daniel, also expressed confidence that the entrenchment of the NCCG will address critical issues bedeviling the economy and set

Emi Membere-Otaji a template for a seamless process to attract investments.

The managing director said Seplat is a Nigerian upstream exploration and production company with a focus on Nigeria; adding that the NCCG will be key to the Seplat’s operation as a company, which since its inception has acquired an attractive portfolio of assets in the prolific Niger Delta region.

The oil company boss commended the FRCN committee and expressed confidence that it was about a new

paradigm in the Nigeria business ecosystem.

Making a presentation titled the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018, the chief executive officer of Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Daniel Asapokhai, said companies in the country must adhere to the new version of the code of corporate governance.

According to him, the NCCG 2018 which has a 60-page code, contained in 230 recommended practices and

28 principles of corporate governance, has the capacity to boost the nation’s competitiveness.

He said this time they have adopted an ‘apply and explain’ principle, which requires companies to apply the requirements of the code and to explain the process for doing so.

“The Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018 shall apply to all public companies, whether listed or not, all private companies that are holding companies of public companies and other regulated entities, concessioned and privatized companies, and regulated private companies,” Asapokhai said.

According to him, the decision to adopt the ‘Apply and Explain’ approach was made after careful considerations of several factors, including the Nigerian legal system, Nigerian culture and history, government policies, state of the Nigerian economy, global economic and political climate, and levels of capital inflow of investment coming into the country.

The FRC boss noted that the new code replaced the suspended 2016 Code of Corporate Governance, following its revision by a 15-man technical committee, extensive consultations, and engagement with numerous stakeholders and regulators.

He said if adhered to, the NCCG 2018 will promote ease of doing business, attract local and foreign investments and enhance the integrity of the Nigerian capital market and raise public awareness of good corporate governance practices.

Export institute gets more fellows EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

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igeria’s foremost export agency, the Institute of Export Operations and Management (IEOM) has inducted more persons as fellows of the body, as it continues to gain traction.

During the institute’s second export breakfast meeting, which held on 23 June at the Swiss Spirit Hotels and Suites Danag, Preye Grace LittleJohn, a chartered accountant, and now a committed missionary with deep passion for equipping and empowering the under-served, was inducted into the IEOM’s fellowship.

Also inducted was Nneka Joyce Enang, the regional business executive, Retail, South-South for Sterling Bank, where she has worked since 2007.

Enang, a professional banker with 20 years’ experience has honed her expertise in various segments as customer services, retail, consumer, and commercial sectors.

She holds an MBA from University of Calabar, a PGD in Finance and Management, and a B.Tech in Agricultural Economics and Extension from the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Owerri.

Last March, 12 business executives from around the country were inducted as fellows of IEOM during the institute’s maiden export breakfast meeting in Port Harcourt.

Utchay Princewill, the chairman and CEO of Prime Seafoods International Limited and Prime Chinese Restaurants Limited, Lagos, was elected as president of IEOM.

ICT University sets up e-learning centre in Abia Poly PHCCIMA ranked ‘most GODFREY OFURUM, Aba

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he ICT University Foundation, Louisiana in United States of America has donated and installed e-learning computer systems in the ICT centre of the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, in the first-phase of its collaboration with the institution.

Consequently, Abia Poly students can now take lectures online from anywhere within the campus, whenever a lecturer is online-real-time.

Another good thing about the system is that the lecture is recorded and left in the archive for 3 days, so students, who missed a class, can recall the lecture from the archive.

Victor Mbarika, a professor and president, ICT University, Louisiana, while commissioning the e-learning management system, revealed that ICT University will provide technical support to Abia State Polytechnic, as well as training and retraining of staff and students of the institution.

He stated that about 140 staff, including academic staff of the institution have already been trained, stressing that training will continue.

According to him, “Training has started and would continue. The beauty of the system is that it was built for the 3rd world countries. With a simple sim-card, students can access the system.

Mbarika explained that the project was not financed single handedly, by the ICT University Foundation, but contributions from several stakeholders in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.

In his words, “We have funding organizations that support us, to

promote high quality education in the developing world, which is our mandate.

“We have been mandated to develop 30 of this system in the developing world, in the next two years and Nigeria alone, has received 8 of the 30”.

He also revealed that the e-books for Abia State Polytechnic have arrived, while the server is being installed.

He stated that with the e-books, students and lecturers of the institution, would have access to hundreds of thousands of textbooks to download.

According to him, “They don’t need to enter this library to do that.

They can download it from any part of this campus with their laptops and mobile phones.

“If there is any textbook that you want that is not included at the moment, call us and we will upgrade it”.

He explained that the ICT University Foundation donated 25 computers systems, a server for the e-library, a data centre in the US, totaling $250,000 investment in Abia State Polytechnic, stressing that the goal of the foundation is to ensure that the collaboration works.

According to him, “It is a continuous relationship for the next 5 years, before Abia Poly can run it. It has worked in other smaller institutions and I don’t know why it won’t work here”.

He commended the Rector of Abia State Polytechnic, Ezionye Eboh, for his commitment to ensuring that the institution gets better.

Eboh, who was highly elated at the development, expressed surprise that the project was executed within

a short time.

According to him, “When the ICT University came to us for discussion for this e-learning programme, we didn’t know that it would be as fast as it is. Today, what we have commissioned is a laudable exercise in the field of learning, because for first-class institutions, like Abia State Polytechnic, you don’t just stay in your closedoor environment and think you are getting it right.

“You have to know what your counterparts in other parts of the world are also doing in your relevant fields of learning and specialization.

And that is the gap this partnership is meant to close and the ICT University has sent to us computers equipped with teaching methods and methodologies in various fields, indeed in all spheres of learning.

“As we teach, we will also look at what our counterparts elsewhere are doing and we improve on that”.

He stated that the e-learning laboratory is the first step in the partnership between Abia Poly and the ICT University.

“Within the past five months, the President of ICT University Professor Victor Mbarika has visited this institution twice from the United States of America for the purpose of this project.

“He is here again for the commissioning. I want to say again that this project cost the University about $250,000 and we hope that this is the first step, because discussions are ongoing and I know that in the next couple of months, some of us might be there, to further discussions on not just e-learning, but physical exchange of programmes.

innovative’ in South-South EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

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he Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce (PHCCIMA) has been awarded as the ‘most innovative Chamber of Commerce in the south-south geopolitical zone of the countr y.

According to coalition of chambers of commerce in the zone under the aegis pf Forum of South-South Chambers of Commerce Industr y, Mines and Agriculture (FOSS CIMA), during an elective emergenc y general meeting of group in Warri, Delta State, PHCCIMA has undertaken some innovative steps, which have brought about system efficienc y in the chamber.

Presenting the award during a PHCCIMA expanded executive council meeting last Monday 25 June, Tony Nwogbo, who represented PHCCIMA president, noted that the award was in recognition of the chamber ’s effort in taking up innovative and positive steps to increase system efficienc y and innovative ideas that have positively affected busi-

nesses in the sub region.

At the FOSS CCIMA elective general meeting, some PHCCIMA members including its president, MembereOtaji, were elected into positions of trust. He was elected FOSS CIMA’s second deputy president ; while Emmanuel Ogbonda was elected the vice chairman, Trade Fair Exhibition and Training. Others are, Tonye Membere-Otaji as vice president, Youth Entrepreneurship and Nwogbo elected the vice chairman, Special Duties of FOSS CCIMA .

Receiving the award, PHCCIMA president said, it ser ves as an impetus for ever yone to continue in their stride towards repositioning the chamber for quality and efficient ser vices that will impact on member businesses.

He dedicated the ‘most innovative chamber of commerce award to the executive, council and members of staff, who he said, jointly are making significant contributions to sustain innovations and practical performances that have inspired others.

34

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 06 July 2018

Live @ the Stock exchange Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 05 July 2018 Company

Symbol

Deals

Current Price

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 299,404.51 10.35 0.49 137 34,403,232 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 353,964.01 10.35 0.49 196 294,922,701 762,934.80 24.30 -0.62 398 38,302,703 ZENITH INTERNATIONAL BANK PLC 731 367,628,636 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 376,900.57 10.50 -0.47 236 11,758,602 236 11,758,602 967 379,387,238

BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 3,885,235.69 228.00 2.24 26 59,325 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 338,263.70 39.00 - 70 401,335 96 460,660 96 460,660

EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD 382,488.96 650.00 - 11 762 11 762 11 762 1,074 379,848,660

CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 3 47,000 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 87,759.72 92.00 - 13 19,060 PRESCO PLC 75,100.00 75.10 - 30 88,193 46 154,253 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 511.20 4.26 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 2,250.00 0.75 - 10 57,892 10 57,892 56 212,145

DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1,217.75 0.46 - 7 38,010 JOHN HOLT PLC. 225.71 0.58 - 1 500 2,111.93 3.25 - 1 250 S C O A NIG. PLC. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 54,061.83 1.33 -3.62 143 10,801,360 U A C N PLC. 39,041.57 13.55 -2.52 33 172,668 185 11,012,788 185 11,012,788

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 38,214.00 28.95 3.21 16 133,723 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 ROADS NIG PLC. 16 133,723 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CO. LIMITED 4,962.94 1.91 - 6 10,249 6 10,249 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,900.00 95.00 - 1 500 11,300.89 45.20 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 26,682.70 10.00 - 2 30 3 530 25 144,502

AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 1,384.07 0.29 - 3 83,898 3 83,898 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 14,406.27 1.84 -8.00 16 694,658 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 212,467.13 97.00 - 35 996,549 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 352,430.34 41.00 -3.19 22 5,633,165 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 903,649.93 113.00 1.80 121 412,315 194 7,736,687 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 50,000.00 10.00 - 63 228,896 DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 228,000.00 19.00 3.54 60 772,638 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 127,111.77 31.00 -5.34 88 1,089,897 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 16,494.81 2.08 1.96 84 3,173,917 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,489.00 0.40 - 1 400 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 1,167.21 6.55 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 60,274.72 22.75 - 30 298,110 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,676.41 13.45 - 0 0 326 5,563,858 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 23,101.89 12.30 - 24 67,865 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,188,984.38 1,500.00 - 39 40,565 63 108,430 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3,231.35 3.10 - 14 110,480 14 110,480 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 82,188.87 20.70 - 36 145,923 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 295,867.78 51.50 0.49 44 456,497 80 602,420 680 14,205,773

BANKING DIAMOND BANK PLC 32,192.94 1.39 -0.71 56 4,931,297 ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 366,991.02 20.00 - 33 212,466 FIDELITY BANK PLC 62,295.81 2.15 -2.71 46 1,435,093 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 1,178,718.73 40.05 0.13 131 13,679,040 JAIZ BANK PLC 19,446.40 0.66 4.76 23 835,770 SKYE BANK PLC 9,993.82 0.72 -2.78 47 1,979,869 STERLING BANK PLC. 42,609.82 1.48 5.71 33 1,762,872 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 171,812.44 5.90 1.72 75 10,238,675 UNITY BANK PLC 11,923.12 1.02 -7.27 22 1,215,596 WEMA BANK PLC. 28,545.10 0.74 1.37 23 742,725 489 37,033,403 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,573.93 0.66 1.54 37 2,545,210 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 29,400.00 2.80 - 12 410,428 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,380.00 0.34 9.68 46 6,897,387 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 15,040.48 1.45 - 10 175,509 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC. 4,271.56 0.29 - 0 0 EQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 33 3,235,201 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 2,411.47 0.53 - 0 0 GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 1,913.74 0.50 - 0 0 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 2,333.20 0.38 - 2 6,010 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 539.32 0.42 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 2,709.67 0.37 -2.70 14 1,184,855 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 4,038.55 0.94 - 1 500 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 6,400.00 0.80 - 6 101,300 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 3,280.00 0.41 5.13 17 1,309,282 N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 16,369.56 3.10 -8.82 23 409,230 NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 2,089.66 0.27 - 14 84,214 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 2,061.40 0.54 -1.82 9 1,018,210 REGENCY ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 1,667.19 0.25 4.17 17 2,188,000 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,502.25 0.30 - 3 56,000 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 5,422.63 0.42 - 0 0 STANDARD TRUST ASSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 516.46 0.20 - 1 6,000 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. UNIVERSAL INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 8,000.00 0.50 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 4,160.00 0.30 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 6,156.06 0.46 -2.17 58 3,438,830 303 23,066,166

Company

Symbol

Deals

Current Price

Trades

Volume

MICRO-FINANCE BANKS FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 11,799.67 2.58 - 0 0 4,115.95 1.80 - 21 346,825 NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 21 346,825 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,460.00 1.30 - 3 205 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 5,922.05 1.42 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 5,664.87 0.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 3 205 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 8,000.00 4.00 - 45 917,400 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 32,350.25 5.50 - 6 18,002 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 720.00 0.48 - 1 1 43,565.96 2.20 -3.51 54 1,677,371 FCMB GROUP PLC. NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 1,852.33 0.36 - 0 0 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 522,572.22 52.00 -0.10 24 376,509 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC UNITED CAPITAL PLC 18,600.00 3.10 -1.27 49 1,506,275 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 ValuAlliance Value Fund 179 4,495,558 995 64,942,157

HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 1,680.29 3.37 - 0 0 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 1,350.19 0.38 - 0 0 0 0 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 544.04 0.55 - 1 2,696 1 2,696 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 9,000.00 6.00 - 0 0 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 22,721.65 19.00 - 19 35,102 2,332.40 2.38 5.78 23 595,786 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,035.90 0.60 - 17 580,101 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 477.00 2.20 - 0 0 59 1,210,989 60 1,213,685

COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 710.40 0.20 - 6 56,525 6 56,525 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 680.40 6.30 - 2 202 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 435.56 0.88 - 0 0 2 202 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,737.54 0.37 - 2 6,005 19,110.00 4.55 - 0 0 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 2 6,005 10 62,732

BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 2,477.99 8.55 - 9 5,440 CAP PLC 24,500.00 35.00 - 12 44,824 30,537.27 24.30 4.74 20 2,951,899 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 801.94 0.38 - 4 85,400 MEYER PLC. 361.24 0.68 - 0 0 467.82 0.59 - 0 0 PAINTS AND COATINGS MANUFACTURES PLC PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,626.50 2.05 - 3 29,449 PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,279.20 10.40 - 0 0 48 3,117,012 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,641.98 3.00 - 13 247,887 13 247,887 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 45,222.47 90.45 - 0 0 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 0 0 61 3,364,899

CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,752.39 4.21 - 5 45,355 5 45,355 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 2,023.60 9.20 - 5 2,945 5 2,945 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 937.63 0.22 10.00 26 2,860,969 26 2,860,969 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 74.80 0.34 - 0 0 0 0 36 2,909,269

ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 2,442.45 0.39 8.33 45 8,253,771 45 8,253,771 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 80,804.18 6.50 -0.77 96 1,716,575 96 1,716,575 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 63,104.17 175.00 -7.89 31 57,068 CONOIL PLC 19,083.68 27.50 - 39 180,670 ETERNA PLC. 9,129.01 7.00 7.86 35 4,429,705 34,320.38 26.35 0.96 125 699,520 FORTE OIL PLC. MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 8,701.65 28.55 - 6 8,594 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 71,299.59 210.00 - 16 11,664 252 5,387,221 393 15,357,567

ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 2,219.52 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 20,866.39 2.14 - 1 100 1 100 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 541.12 0.46 - 0 0 0 0 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3,654.88 6.20 -4.62 12 105,993 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 379.77 0.81 - 1 20 13 106,013 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 1,156.19 0.36 - 3 6,400 3 6,400 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,801.22 3.10 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 6,506.63 3.13 - 2 505 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,862.53 3.50 - 0 0 56,623.01 7.45 - 0 0 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 2 505 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 5,280.00 0.44 - 1 10,000 1 10,000 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 302.40 0.50 - 0 0 LEARN AFRICA PLC 1,157.18 1.50 -0.66 36 1,626,650

Friday 06 July 2018

C002D5556

NEWS Apapa-Wharf Road: Dangote reassures on project completion this month … as 43km Obajana-Kabba concrete road gets completion deadline CHUKA UROKO

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s reconstruction work progresses steadily on the 2-kilometre ApapaWharf Road being resurfaced with Dangote Cement concrete model, AG-Dangote Construction Company Limited, the contractor handling the project, has reassured motorists and residents of the port city that the road will be ready this July, at least, on the concrete side. This means the stress on the road would soon be over.

Aliko Dangote, president/CE of Dangote Group, had, during an inspection tour of the road project a couple of months ago, assured that the road would be ready in June, hoping that the delivery of the project would ameliorate the daily suffering on that road.

“We will double our efforts to complete the project on schedule, that is, latest by the end of June. We will surprise you because this is going to be the first time a contractor will deliver a road project on schedule, or

even before the scheduled date,” the Africa’s richest man said.

Dangote described the reconstruction of the road being undertaken by Dangote Group in collaboration with Flour Mill Nigeria and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as a special PPP arrangement, saying it was part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) as corporate citizens concerned about the poor state of the road.

Billions of naira is lost every day in Nigeria because of poor state of roads infrastructure.

Paul Gbadedo, group managing director, Flour Mill Nigeria, estimates that the economy of Apapa is over N20 billion a day and that, effectively, that is what is lost to traffic gridlock in the premier port city in Nigeria.

“To allow this kind of situation (poor road condition) to be impacting on that economy means a lot of money is being lost on daily basis not only by businesses, but also by the country,” Gbadedo said.

At the moment, work is upbeat on the road and officials

of AG-Dangote told journalists on inspection of the project last week that, in spite of the huge challenges they face from surging traffic and rains, all the concrete work on the road would be completed this month, disclosing that whereas the outbound lane of the road was completed, the in-bound lane was 75 percent done.

According to Jimoh Tunde Olatayo, the project manager, the road could have been completed earlier but there were some constraints, particularly some gas pipelines that had to be relocated, and that made them lose over 90 days of the project timeline.

“We continue to assure every one of our commitment and determination to finish this road on schedule. We are heavily mobilized on site in order to finish the project. We have adopted two-pronged approach to doing the work. Actively, by the end of this month, we will complete this project,” Olatunbosun Kalejaiye, the company’s project director, assured.

dous progress in this particular export zone, and I hope participants would have the time to see what it is that is actually going on in that place.

“Just to give you a clearer picture of what we are saying.

At the end of 2020 when the investment of the Dangote Industries and other Deep Seaport that we are putting in that place will fully come on stream, the export inflows that we are projecting for that place is over $6 billion and that is just the way to go,” the governor said.

He added that through the export initiatives being spearheaded and monitored by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), state government had identified and commenced the process of developing three key commodities in which the state has comparative and competitive advantage including coconut, fish and vegetables.

“For all the years, if you say oil is 90 per cent of what our economy is all about, if there is a flip in the price of oil, what happens to 190

million people on just one product? So, the idea is this, if in 2050, Nigeria is targeted to be the third largest country in the world with 400 million people and then maybe Lagos population by then will be about 50 million people, then there is going to be a problem if by now we are not thinking about other products.

“And then, who cares about oil anyway when there are people using vehicles without oil and so something must be wrong if we are not thinking 2050 in 2018. We have been speaking about this and it is almost sounding like a broken record but if something goes wrong with oil, what are we doing,” he said.

The executive director/ CEO of NEPC, Olusegun Awolowo, called on state governments to seriously consider bringing export products in their respective states for the committee on export promotion to look at, saying such was important going forward.

in Nigeria’s automotive industry.

The forum was attended by CEO and other representatives of the global automakers, including GraffitiSA,Nissan,Toyota,Deloitte, Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency(GIFA),AutomotiveIndustry Development Centre, DataDot Technology, Standard Bank of SouthAfrica,InternationalFinance CorporationandAfropulseGroup.

Wooing the investors, Obaseki said Edo State is strategically located to become one of the largest automotive hubs in West Africa, maintaining that the state has a robustautomotivesalesandservices sector, which guarantees impressive Return on Investment (RoI).

Noting that the Benin Auto Park will transform Nigeria’s automotive industry and help upgrade the used car market, he said the park will avail Nigerians of the opportunity to be able to buy new cars at affordable prices and be

assured of top-of-the-range aftersales services.

On why the park has come to stay,heexplained,“Wewantyouto work with car dealership to create thelargestsinglemarketlocationin Benin City, where people can buy cars. We want to properly organise the auto dealers in Benin City, transform the car components sector and attract investment to the state.”

Jelani Aliyu, director-general of the NADDC, said the council was excitedwiththeproposaloftheEdo StateGovernment,andseesatleast two scenarios for growth.

According to him, “with this support by the state government, I see the state becoming a hotbed for automobile sales. The first instance will see the state grow from supplying used cars to brand new cars. Also, we see the influx of automobile component makers, who are also here.”

Exports from LFTZ to hit $6bn by 2020

JOSHUA BASSEY

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xport from the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) is projected to hit over $6 billion (about N2.159trn) by 2020, Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode says.

Ambode gave the projection Thursday saying it was time for Nigeria to continue to build its export capacity focusing on multi-sector products beyond oil to further strengthen the economy.

He spoke at t the second National Committee Meeting on Export Promotion of the National Economic Council (NEC) held in Lagos, on Thursday, saying it was important for the country to put in place infrastructure and other initiatives to support other sectors with the view to preparing them for export.

He noted that efforts were being made in Lagos in this direction, pointing to the development of Lekki free zone as a one-stop exportprocessing zone.

“We are happy to report that we have made tremen-

Benin Auto Park: Edo, Automotive Council, BMW, Ford, Nissan, others commit to park’s devt

P

oised to develop the largest single auto sales market in West Africa, Governor of Edo State Godwin Obaseki says the state is willing to explore farreaching partnership with the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) and the Africa Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM), in actualising the Benin Auto Park, sited in Benin City.

Governor Obaseki, who said this at the Edo Automotive Investment Forum, held in Benin City, noted that the state government was ready to provide necessary support structures to facilitate the setting up of global automotive playersatthepark,whichislocated opposite the Benin Industrial Park (BIP).

The Forum was attended by a delegation from AAAM, who had the mandate of the global office, to explore investment opportunities

BUSINESS DAY

7

36 BUSINESS DAY NEWS Electricity distributors group accuses NERC of being partial, incompetent … we don’t recognise them, NERC says ISAAC ANYAOGU

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igeria’s electricity distribution companies under the aegis of the Association of Electricity Distribution Companies (ANED) say the major problem in the sector is the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), who is partial, unfair and incompetent. However, the regulator says the group does not worth a response.

This highlights the depth of the friction that exists in the sector, a contributory factor to why Nigeria’s epileptic power situation has defied all efforts at remedy: par ties abandoning the real issue to squabble over trivial issues.

“The major problem in Nigeria’s power sector is a regulator that is partial, unfair and incompetent, and until we get it right nothing will move forward,” Sunday Oduntan, executive secretar y of ANED, said on a morning programme on Television Continental, a Lagos-based broadcast station.

O d u nt a n , d u r i ng t h e interview, alluded to the brewing battle over encroachment of franchise area belonging to Enugu

Disco, a private company to support the claim of NERC’s partiality.

BusinessDay sought the response of NERC and Usman Abba Arabi, its spokesperson, said, “We don’t respond to ANED. They are not our licensees. NERC does not recognise them.

So, we will not join issues with them.”

Pressed further that the claims of an association that speaks for its licensees when valid should warrant more than just a cavalier response, Arabi insisted that the group does not matter, as the members are not the ones they are regulating.

On June 13, NERC granted a 9.5 megawatts embedded electricity generation licence to Ariaria Market Independent Power Plant Limited, an Independent Electricity Distribution Licence, to distribute power within Ariaria Market, in a franchise area already allocated to Enugu Disco citing ‘public interest.’

In their reaction, Enugu Disco through its spokesman, Emeka Eze, said, “This act is in clear contravention of the regulatory provision that no company can set up a distribution network within a franchise area of a distr ibution company

Friday 06 July 2018

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where there is already an existing and active distribution facility in the area.”

The tussle adds to the l o ng l i st o f c ou r t ca s e s pending in various courts around the country. There are court cases over plans by the Fe deral G overn ment to recapitalise the Discos, effect a change in their board structure, and Gencos are in court over payments to Azura Power from the N701 billion power assurance fund they say is at their own expense.

However, these kinds of tussles mask the real issues plaguing the sector, including some Discos teetering towards bankruptcy, an electricity market that is illiquid, a failing transmission grid that cannot even move full capacity generation, insecurity of feedstock for power plants, huge debts to gas producers and a regulator perceived as having too cosy a relationship with some of those it is regulating, hence lacking the ability to enforce market rules.

Nevertheless, for many Nigerians, black outs have become a regular feature.

It is even worse in rural areas where they go entire months without a glimpse of power.

Oil community wants Shell to expedite action on spill ‘I’ll declare intention to defect from APC soon’ SPDC officials, regulators,

… as SPDC commissions investigation STEPHEN ONYEKWELU, with agency report

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esidents of Aghoro, Ekeremor Local Government Area in Bayelsa State have acknowledged current effort from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to deal with May 17 oil leakage in its neighbourhood, but want more.

SPDC says it has commissioned a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the Aghoro community and that investigation is underway to ascertain the cause of the oil leakage.

Bamidele Odugbesan, the media relations manager of SPDC, told the New Agency of Nigeria in Yenagoa on Thursday that the oil firm had convened a joint investigation team to visit the area.

He, however, regretted that the rains and swampy nature of the area were hampering the spill response operations.

Reacting to allegations of delayed response to the spill, which was reported in May, Odugbesan said that the allegations were baseless, adding that Shell was doing everything possible to control the spill.

“We have been working round-the-clock since the leak occurred; we got the report and as we speak, the JIV is underway but it is not yet concluded because there are three leak points in Aghoro community.

“The JIV team, comprising

community representatives and Bayelsa state ministry of environment officials must visit the three spots before arriving at a conclusion.

“The JIV report will indicate the cause of the spill as well as the estimated volume of crude that was discharged into the area,” he said.

However, community sources in Aghoro say that the investigation team had so far visited two out of the three leak points.

Agbai John, a resident who was part of the JIV team, said that preliminary findings indicated that the oil leaks were traced to corroded pipelines.

He said that sabotage was ruled out because the pipelines, which were buried about three metres underground, showed no signs that they had been tampered with prior to their exhumation with swamp boogie equipment.

Meanwhile, the Oil and Gas Producing Areas Enlightenment and Empowerment Initiative (OGPAEEI), a community-based civil society group, has urged SPDC to expedite action in dealing with the oil spill in the area and bring relief to the victims.

A spokesman for the group, Anapurere Awoli, said the prolonged exposure of residents of the community to crude oil had exposed them to certain health challenges.

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja

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s mixed reaction trailed the formation of the Reformed All Progressives Congress (RAPC) from the All Progressives Congress, an aggrieved APC senator, Suleiman Hunkunyi, has disclosed that he would announce his decision to leave the governing party very soon.

Speaking when he received a delegation of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from Kaduna North, Hunkunyi, who represents Kaduna North Senatorial District, said he had detailed discussion with the delegation on how to work together to salvage Kaduna State from poor governance.

He said the formation of the Reformed APC was a serious blow to the governing party.

His words: “The crisis in the APC is nothing new. Everyone is aware of it, and what happened yesterday (Wednesday) signifies the climax of the crisis in the party.

“We discussed a lot of things and it is not an understatement to say that we are all unhappy with the situation in the state. We discussed on how to seek solution to the challenges in the state.

“The political arena as we know guarantees freedom of participation, association and very shortly we will come up with a position on the direction for our polity, to correct the anomalies in the state.

Senate summons IGP over killings, police protest OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja

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he Senate has summoned the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to appear before it over the recent killing of nine policemen in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The police chief is also to brief lawmakers on the recent protests by police officers in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, over unpaid six months allowances.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Abu Ibrahim, made the disclosure on Thursday, following an inquiry made by Senatepresident,BukolaSaraki,during amotionmovedbyMaoOhuabunwa on the growing proliferation of joint police and army manned roadblocksalongtheSouth-Eastern express roads.

Saraki, who expressed concern

over the rising killing of security officersinthenation’scapital,urgedthe committee to look into the issues.

In his response, Ibrahim said: “The Committee on Police Affairs invited the IG on the killing of seven police officers and what happened in Maiduguri. And it is going to be on Tuesday.”

In his contribution, Senate minority whip and senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Philip Aduda, disclosed that ninepolicemenwereactuallykilled by unknown gunmen and not seven.

According to Aduda, while two policemen were killed by armed men who opened fire after they were stopped by the police for a search on the Abuja-Lokoja road around Sunday, armed attackers gunned down seven police officers at Galadimawa Junction less than 24 hours later.

Edo inaugurates 3rd Children’s Parliament, as Richard Asen emerges speaker

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doStategovernmenthasinauguratedthe3rdAssembly ofthestateChildren’sParliament with a representative from each of the 18 local government areas of the state.

The inauguration was conducted by the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, and Office of the Wife of the Governor, at the Government House in Benin City, Edo State.

Wife of the governor, Betsy Obaseki, urged the parliamentarians to perfect the act of parliamentary engagement, as legislature remains the bedrock of democracy.

Represented by senior special assistant on Administration in the Office of the wife of the governor, Chattie Anakhu, Obaseki noted, “Asyoucarryoutyourassignment, bear in mind that you are one of

the fortunate children in the state and let this fill your hearts with humility and inspire you to conduct yourself with dignity throughout your tenure.”

She said the parliamentarians should learn from their predecessors, adding that a fully furnished office in her office had been provided to enable them carry out their legislative engagements.

At the inauguration, Master Richard Asen, a 13-year-old Junior Secondary School 3 student from Spring Leaders Secondary School in Estako West Local Government Area was elected as Speaker of the Parliament, while Miss Nittabeatrice Otasowie, a Senior Secondary School 2 student from Asoro Grammar School, in Oredo Local Government Area was elected Deputy Speaker of the Parliament.

L-R: Shola Tinubu, managing director; Olawale Okuyedi, head, finance; Abodunrin Roberts, assistant general manager, client services, and Lanre Sogbesan, assistant general manager, client services, all of Scib Nigeria and Company Limited, during the press conference to announce the company’s 40th anniversary celebration in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Pius Okeosisi

Tourism reform: South African firm, others jostle for Sokponba Blue Water Resort

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he rising profile of Edo State as an emerging investment destination following the reforms embarked upon by Governor Godwin Obaseki across all sectors has caught the attention of South African investors and other big-ticket investors in the global tourism sector, who are jostling for the development of Sokponba Blue Water Resort.

According to Osazee Osemwingie-Ero, commissioner for arts, culture, tourism and Diaspora affairs, the investors have indicated interest in the development of the Sokponba Blue Water Resort, a world-class recreational and leisure facility that will give Edo State her slice of the annual global tourist receipt.

Osemwingie-Ero disclosed

this during a tour of the ancient Illewa Hill in Okpella, Estako East Local Government Area, which the state had pencilled down for development.

He explained that firms from South Africa and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, are billed to make presentations to Governor Godwin Obaseki on their interest to develop the facility soon.

He added several tourist sites have been identified by the state government and are being categorised and repackaged for international exhibition.

“These are natural sites, second to none in the world. If you have the privilege of travelling abroad, you will discover that the tourist sites we see over there are artificial.

“Even the Unuamen, where Queen Idia fought the war with Aruan and Oba Esigie has become a tourist destination for students of history,” the commissioner said.

He explained that the visit to the site at Ido II, in Okpella, was on the order of Governor Obeseki, after the heads of the Okpella communities submitted a letter to him to include the Hill as a potential tourist site in the state.

The commissioner said the governor has urged his ministry to identify more tourist sites as part of efforts to diversify the state’s economy and improve her revenue base.

“There is a lot that can take place here, from movies, hotel accommodation, gymnasium and more. Few weeks ago, we

were in Abeokuta for the Drum Festival and we climbed Olumo Rock which is not as beautiful as this, so we have decided that we will beautify this place and make it a proper tourist site.”

On his part, the Otsegban of Okpella, High Chief Peter Airenokhaleexpressedhisappreciation to the governor for his prompt response to the community’s request, noting, the community anticipates that the visit will put the IllewaHillandOkpellacommunity on the global tourism calendar.

Vice Chairman of Estako East Local Government Area, Princess Benedicta Attoh, assured that the people are ready to support the programmes of the governor to ensure that the Illewa Hill becomes a notable tourist site in Nigeria.

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Vote for Fayemi, cede your land to Fulani herdsmen - Secondus …Fayose berates FG over closure of Akure Airport … Atiku, Makarfi, Lamido, others urge voters to vote Olusola RAZAQ AYINLA & RAPHAEL ADEYANJU, Ado-Ekiti

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che Secondus, national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has warned that a vote for Kayode Fayemi and All Progressives Congress (APC) in the July 14 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State, would amount to ceding Ekiti land to Fulani herdsmen.

Secondus, who spoke in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday at a mega rally staged by the party, said: “By the grace of God, Ekiti people are very peaceful and we can see the clear demonstration of love for Fayose and in-coming governor, Olusola, you won’t vote for herdsmen’s attacks and killings.”

Addressing the rally that drew party bigwigs such as the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; former governors, Sule Lamido, Attahiru Bafarwa, Ahmed Makarfi; Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State; Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State, among others, Secondus further said: “We believe Ekiti State is full of people with highest level of manpower and professors.

Our youths are very strong, innovative and resourceful and not lazy; they are future leaders of tomorrow; among you there would be governors, ministers and presidents, among others.

“APC is broken; I am here

Ayodeji Ogunsakin, running mate and wife as well as Kolapo Olusola, PDP governorship candidate raising the party flag having received it from Uche Secondus, the national chairman of PDP in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday

with National Working Committee of the PDP to appreciate you for standing for PDP. As you can see, Fayose has worked for Ekiti and the evidence is all over, in the infrastructure development, education and economic advancement.”

According to him, “All PDP states are witnessing great developments, these are not so in APC. PDP is winning and moving forward to rescue our country from economic, and security collapse and all inhuman treatment meted out by APC. You can see killings in all states- Zamfara, Plateau, and others.

“APC leaders are not God; we refuse to be intimidated by them. It is their style to put fear in people, but we refuse to fear.

“If you vote for Fayemi, he will take your land to herds-

men. We are experiencing civil war because of killings.

Buhari and APC are behind it. PDP will rescue this nation from them. APC is shattered; ask Fayemi, on which of the APC factions’ platform is he contesting? We have the best candidate for Ekiti.”

Addressing the crowd, Governor Ayodele Fayose said that no amount of intimidation could stop electoral victory of the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Ekiti State, Olusola Eleka Kolapo, who received the party’s flag from the national chairman of the PDP. Fayose, who also berated the Federal Government and APC for allegedly shutting down the Akure Airport, the nearest airport to Ado-Ekiti, said that such development was a shameful act of political witch-hunt.

“Our leaders have spoken, I

No division in Lagos APC - Balogun INIOBONG IWOK

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hairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Tunde Balogun, has denied the existence of any faction in the party in the state, stressing that the party was united ahead of the 2019 general election.

Balogun, whose victory is still being challenged at the court by the Fouad Oki-led faction of the party in the state after emerging the state chairman in a controversial state congress held last month, stated this yesterday at the empowerment programme organised by a member, House of Representatives, representing Kosofe Federal Constituency of the state, Rotimi Agunsoye, expressing hope that APC in the state would continue to wax stronger, urging all aggrieved members to seize the

opportunity to reconcile with the party, pointing out that APC in the state was not fighting any member.

“I want to use the opportunity to say this that APC in Lagos is one and not factionalised. I, therefore, call on aggrieved members to come forward and reconcile with the party because the party is not at war with any of them,” the Chairman said.

Balogun called on party members to ensure they go out and register with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the on-going registration exercise, saying they would only be able to vote come 2019 provided they registered and obtained their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

Also speaking at the event, a leader of APC, in Lagos East Senatorial District, Hon. Ade-

bayo Osinowo aka Pepper, denied recent media report of a rift between him and the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode or between the governor and leaders in the zone, declaring that all the party leaders were solidly behind the governor’s second term ambition.

Osinowo, who is a sitting member of Lagos State House of Assembly, argued that the state had three senatorial zones where each zone had produced governor that served for eight years each, excepting Lagos East that was yet to serve its first four years through the incumbent Ambode.

“I am not fighting Governor Ambode. All that was being said about me fighting Ambode is a lie, such rumour was not strange; Nigeria is currently witnessing ‘season of lies’”, he said.

want to say to you, if you vote for APC, God forbid, you are voting for Boko Haram and herdsmen attacks. In PDP we believe in human beings and not touts. INEC, we know your plans, you want to rig for APC; we will follow you bumper to bumper; we know your agenda, that you want to preload smart cards for APC; Ekiti is a no go area. We don’t allow violence in Ekiti. Since, I was governor, no violent or political killings in Ekiti; it is when you came that such is happening again. Whether you go for violence or not come July 14, Olusola will be next governor,” he said.

“We want to tell the security agencies, 99 percent of officers working for INEC are not from Ekiti; leave our state for us. I won’t receive Buhari into Ekiti, he has not done anything to deserve such honour.

They have locked up three teachers; since Monday they have been arresting people; don’t join them to do violence; don’t allow them to provoke us.

“We will give APC 16:0 again; l want to condemn Federal Government for closing Akure Airport and force people coming here to Ekiti to come through Ilorin Airport; it is shameful and unleaderlike,” the governor said.

Earlier, Atiku Abubakar, a presidential aspirant, assured the people of the state that the PDP would re-enact the development of infrastructure that took place from 1999 to 2015 before the coming of the APC on the national scene and would sustain the good legacy that the Fayose administration if they voted Olusola.

“PDP guarantees you good hospital, road, infrastructure, education and many other dividends of democracy; it is time for you to ensure that this administration continues because that is the key to development. What we are doing is a rescue mission; we will bring back peace, security and prosperity of this country. Make sure you vote and stay there till results are announced,” Atiku said.

Ahmed Makarfi, another presidential aspirant, said: “For me I am very happy to see PDP family giving APC government sleepless night.

Three reasons to vote for PDP in Ekiti are, our candidate is a Professor, he is senior to APC’s who is a PhD holder; Olusola is a pastor while Fayemi is merely a church goer, and we

know APC is a student while ours is a teacher. We know APC will sack teachers, ours will empower our women and promote teachers.”

Another presidential aspirant, Sule Lamido, said: “In the name of God, the compassionate and we are not here to campaign but to celebrate victory because we know our candidate is a governor-elect.

One reason is that APC is scattered. Second is that Buhari has left Fayemi’s office vacant which means he knows Fayemi cannot win here.”

Attahiru Bafawara said: “I congratulate you Ekiti people, you have a visionary leader in Fayose, who loves you; he is leaving but he has brought somebody who will continue the good works he has been doing. Continuity is very important.

Keep on supporting Fayose and support PDP, with what we have seen today I know by the grace of God we have won.

What remains is for you to protect your votes on July 14.”

In his response after receiving the party’s flag, Olusola said: “By the grace of Almighty God, we assure our leaders and Ekiti that we will sustain the good legacies of Fayose, we will improve on it and sustain the legacies. I assure you of adequate security, healthcare, excellent infrastructure, civil service, education enterprises, and exemplary leadership among others. Ours is a divine agenda. It is a divine mission with divine agenda it cannot be conquered by APC. Congratulations Ekiti, your governor-elect is talking.”

Oshiomhole wades into NASS-Buhari feud …visits Senate, Reps JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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dams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is apparently making moves to end the constant bickering between the APC-controlled National Assembly and the Executive.

This is as Oshiomhole Wednesday visited APC members in the Senate and is also billed to visit the party members in the House of Representatives Thursday.

Though the agenda of both visits has not been disclosed but BusinessDay observed that this cannot unconnected with Oshiomhole campaign and inauguration promise to swiftly

wade into feud between the legislative and executive arms of government both run by APC. One issue that dominated the campaign promises of Oshiomhole was to ensure smooth working relationship between the APC-dominated National Assembly and the Buhari-led Presidency to end the unnecessary acrimony that often impedes implementation of policies and programmes derivable from party’s manifestoes.

The APC National Chairman made the pledge to see the end to the faceoff shortly after he was inaugurated, saying: “I believe that with my own background, things will be resolved amicably because I am used to managing divergences

and this is just another task.

“It will be done to the satisfaction of our President, governors, senators, representatives, House of Assembly members and all the rank and file members of our party. We will devote all our time to it because that is the oath of office that we have sworn to and we will administer the party on the basis of our constitution.”

Oshiomhole, while addressing some party leaders and members at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja shortly after the visit to Senate, stated that “like I said in the Senate, we knew there were challenges when we offered ourselves to contest for offices for which we have now been elected. So, we can’t claim that we didn’t know.

38 BUSINESS DAY NEWS Hotel sector expands on rising foreign...

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countries.

According to the report, “the Nigerian market grew by 11.7% in 2017 and we forecast that it will continue to grow at a 12.6% compound annual growth rate over the next five years. For the forecast period as a whole, the number of available rooms in Nigeria will rise from 9,700 in 2017 to 12,600 in 2022.”

With the Nigerian economy recovering from recession, previously abandoned projects have begun to bounce back and occupancy rates are equally favourable in the hotel markets responding to the economic recovery.

“Tourism to the African continent has proven to be resilient in the face of economic and political uncertainty, impacts of droughts and other regulatory changes. The opportunities are aplenty for this industry to enjoy further growth albeit at a more modest pace,” Pietro Calicchio, Hospitality Industry Leader, PwC Southern Africa said.

“However, as we continue to

Friday 06 July 2018

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see there are also a number of challenges facing each country.

This is an industry that is reactive to the smallest change in political, regulatory, safety and sustainability matters.” Pietro said. The hotel markets in Nigeria recorded an increase in guest nights by 6.7 percent in 2017, the first increase since 2013, as economic conditions stabilised and confidence in business increased. With the Nigerian economy based on oil, falling oil prices led to a slowdown in economic growth in 2015, followed by a 1.6 percent decline in 2016 that persisted through the first quarter of 2017.

The domestic economy is the key driver of tourism in Nigeria, with 97 percent of tourist spending in Nigeria in 2017 having been generated by domestic travellers.

Amongst the countries sampled in the report, Nigeria has the smallest percentage contribution to GDP of about 5 percent.

Despite these impediments, Nigeria remains an attractive market for international hotel brands because of its large

economy. Based on the PwC report, Hilton, Marriott, Westin, Sheraton, Radisson and Best Western are scheduled to open new hotels in Nigeria during the next five years Jemi Alade, CEO, Jemi Alade Tours, told BusinessDay, “a lot of people are scrambling for the Nigerian market now. The hotel industry is looking favourable because the market is big and everybody wants to have a niche in the market so most international hotels are looking at Nigeria for growth to expand in the West African sub region.”

The tourism market in Nigeria is expanding with the emergence of the Eko Atlantic Project and other ongoing projects in the Pipeline, hence, the need for expansion through partnerships and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

“Majority of the top hotels are coming in with projects and most of them are partnering with Nigeria hotels while some are coming in to invest directly and build their own brand in the country so there is room for expansion because most of the cities are yet to have international standard hotels,” Jemi said.

Orange holding off Nigeria investment until...

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respond to an email seeking comment. There is a separate report

by Bloomberg that Orange, which started offering banking services in its home market last year, is partnering Ivory Coast’s Groupe NSIA to start banking operations in Abidjan and Senegal, in a move expected to expand over time into neighbouring West African countries. Orange targets 400 million euros ($466 million) in revenues in 2018 from mobile financial services across all its markets, the company said last November.

“Orange is ready to invest billions of dollars in Nigeria, but the framework has to be right for them to come in,” one of the sources, who did not want to be named, told Business Day. “It’s not just Orange who is looking to come in, some other companies, foreign and local are positioning to come as soon as the regulatory environment permits,” another source said, declining to name the companies.

The current regulatory environment, as guided by the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), makes no provision for non-financial institutions to provide financial services.

Business Day, however, understands that the central bank is weighing options to tweak the law, worried by falling financial inclusion rates in the country.

The percentage of Nigerians with access to financial services fell to 40 percent in 2017, down from 44 percent in 2014, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex report, moving Nigeria further away from a target of 80 percent

by 2020.

That compares poorly to the inclusion rates in other African countries; 84 percent in Kenya, 78 percent in Uganda and 58 percent in Ghana. These countries have particularly been helped by a rapidly growing mobile money market. Nigeria does have a mobile money market, but one that is exclusively bank-led, as opposed to the model in Ghana as well as in Kenya and Uganda.

That has meant the Nigerian mobile money market is not growing at the same pace as neighboring African nations.

Ghana’s ability to creatively tweak its regulation to allow telecommunication companies double as mobile money providers, particularly holds lessons for Nigeria, economists say.

Accra’s change of tack means non-bank entities can be licensed as financial services providers and are supervised by the Bank of Ghana in an arrangement that once shut them out of the mobile money market and gave exclusive right to commercial banks to play in that space.

In the new arrangement, Ghana’s mobile money operators from MTN to Airtel and Tigo are required to set up subsidiaries that would engage in the business of mobile money, independent of their core operations.

That decision resulted in a 73 percent increase in registered mobile money customers in just one year, according to World Bank data, and has helped lift financial inclusion rates in Ghana to 58 percent in 2017 from 41 percent

in 2014.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com

Fashola outlines FG’s plans to recapitalise...

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Ifeanyi Okowa, governor, Delta State; Tony Elumelu, founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and chairman of UBA plc, flanked by TEF entrepreneurs from Delta State, during the presentation of the young entrepreneurs to the Governor at the State House in Asaba, Delta State, yesterday.

Consumer firms’ rights issues pay off as debt...

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Investors are upbeat that major players in the sector will utilize the resources of their owners in generating higher profit this year since balance sheets are purged of financial risk.

The cumulative total long term debt of the 14 largest consumer goods firm that have released 2017 results dipped by 25.77 percent to N328.86 billion, this compares with a 48.75 percent increase in debt recorded in the 2016 periods at the height of the economic downturn.

Unilever Nigeria Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Champion Breweries Plc, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Dangote Sugar Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc, International Breweries, PZ Cussons Plc, Nascon Allied Industries Plc, and Cadbury Nigeria Plc. Industry debt to equity ratio, reduced to 64.95 percent in 2017, from an all-time highs of 81.36 percent and 81.15 percent in the 2015 and 2016 financial periods.

The debt to equity ratio beats NSE 30 Index average of 112.92 percent, which means firms are increasingly reducing the debt in their capital structure.

A reduction in interest expenses also helped underpin profitability of these firms Industry ROE was 19.81 percent in 2015, slumped to 9.31 percent in 2016 while it finally spiked to 19.90 percent in 2017.

Combined finance costs or interest expenses of the largest consumer names fell by 9.06 percent to N53.73 billion in the period under review, this compares with an increase of 52.71 percent to N77.22 billion in 2016 and 2015 financial periods.

“Firms like Guinness, Unilever, and Flour Mills raised capital by way of rights issue with a view to reducing debt and that strategic plan is paying off as seen in lower debt and higher ROE,” said Olalekan Olabode, head of research at Vetiva Capital Management.

“There has also been a moderation in effective interest on their borrowing compared to few years ago because a lot them

were able to refinance their debt. Earnings are expected to be better in 2017 on the back of reduction in debt in their books,” said Olabode.

Several Nigerian companies have tapped capital markets last year to strengthen their balance sheets after a currency crisis in 2015 dragged the country’s economy into recession and stoked inflation, frustrating businesses and consumers.

The year 2016 was horrendous for companies as huge finance costs exposed their bottom lines to volatility in the interest rate environment.

However, the a combination of the foreign exchange policy introduced by the central bank and a rebound in crude oil price and output helped the country exit the recession as dollar became available for companies to meet their obligations.

A N40 billion rights issue and foreign exchange stability are responsible for underpinning Flour Mills’ capital structure and cash flow position. Net Debt/ Equity improved to 120 percent from 160 percent in 2017, while Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com

would create more opportunities for Nigerians earning a living to own a home.

The minister said the Federal Government was determined to ensure it delivered affordable housing for Nigerians, pointing out specifically that the housing problem must not define us but must challenge everyone to contribute by building to cut down the much bandied figure of housing deficit.

According to Fashola, “Nigerians must be ready and committed to closing the deficit gap at all levels.

If 52 of us in this conference resolve to do something and not just talk about the problem, the deficit would gradually drop, even with the huge effort the Federal Government is addressing the housing deficit.”

Fashola, while giving detailed insight on Federal Government’s National Housing programme, he said, “We are running a National Housing Pilot Programme in 34 states of the federation to address concerns of affordability, acceptability and access of housing.

“We have done it before during former President Shehu Shagari, and the Buhari government has come with a defined strategy to undertake this housing programme.

“Every other administration has had a one form of housing programme or the other, and it is these two government that came up with this programme on a national scale.”

He also pointed out that the Shagari housing programme was not a perfect one, adding that its imperfection and successes served as a

laboratory for the current National Housing Programme of President Buhari currently ongoing in 34 states of the federation.

On some of the concerns of the Shagari housing programme, he said, “We found out that in some cases, people did not occupy those houses. In the first quarter of this year, I still received letter from people informing us of their desire to take over those houses.”

He stated further, “One of the key concerns we identified is that we built uniformly for diverse people, and we are addressing that. We have called a meeting asking key stakeholder: what is affordable? What is the building type acceptable in the North-East, in the South West, and others?

“From the consultation we had with them we designed the pilot phase for our programmes. The designs are mainly one, two, and three bedroom housing units, and suggestions of building them differently to respond to the cultural needs of such person.”

Frank Aigbogun, publisher/CEO of BusinessDay Media Limited, said, “As a media house, we cannot leave behind those that cannot meet up

easily with housing issues. This is why we must keep bringing these issues at the front burner.”

Quoting Paul Coury, an economist, Aigbogun said, ”There is indeed no reason why Nigeria as a country could not properly mobilise its housing sector for the expansion of its economy, just the way Margaret Thatcher was able to use the Council House in the United Kingdom to crystallise the economy.”

Continues on wwwbusinessday online.com

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39 NEWS

BUSINESS DAY

ECA to host high-level Leasehouz debuts in Lagos memorial symposium in with premium leasing honour of Adebayo Adedeji services HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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conomic Commission for Africa (E C A) w ill b e hosting a high-level memorial symp o si u m i n Lag o s, Nigeria, in honour of Ad e b ay o Ad e d e j i , f o rm e r e xe cu ti ve s e cret a r y of E C A o n Ju ly 7 .

The late Adedeji is a ck n ow l e d g e d by ma n y as one o f th e m o st towering intellectual figures and development practitioners in Africa in the late 20th Centur y.

He s e r v e d a s e x e c u t i v e s e cre t a r y o f E C A f o r 1 6 years ( 1 9 7 5 - 1 9 9 1 ) , t he longest tenure in that position by any executive s e cre ta r y.

The symposium will re fle ct o n h i s i d ea s a n d notions of development, their relevance in contemporary era, t h e t r a j e c t o r y a n d c u rre n t c o n t e x t o f A f r i c a’s development, and the c h a l l e n g e s, o p p o r t u n i ties and prospects for the structural transformation of African e conom i e s a n d th e c o ntine nt.

Under his leaders h i p, E C A a s s u m e d n o t only re g i o na l bu t g lo ba l prominence initiating and leading several PanAfrican projects and working closely with the then Organisation of A f r i c a n U n i t y ( O AU ) i n p ro m o t i n g re g i o n a l i n tegration, and the social and e c o n o m i c d e ve l o pme nt o f th e co nti n e nt.

IFEOMA OKEKE

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easehouz, an online marketing platform where various assets, goods and services, sold by various vendors and partners are displayed f o r sa l e, ha s d ebute d in Nig e r ia.

The p lat f o r m i s p ow ered by AssetKap Investment Limited, a newly established service sol ut i o n c o mpa ny p rov i ding modern-day asset s o l u t i o n s a n d o t h e r rel a t e d s e r v i c e s i n Ni g e ria. Assetkap provides s e r v i c e s i n t he a rea s of leasing, fleet managem e n t , f i n a n c i a l i n t e rmediary/advisory and i nve st m e nt s.

Speaking during the announcement of the product launch in Lag o s, If ea ny i O gb o r, CE O of AssetKap, says L easehouz offers to finance the purchase of assets displayed on platform f o r i t s custo m e rs i n retur n f o r p e r i o d i c i n st a lments structured conveniently. Leasehouz a l s o f a c i l i t ate s t he outr ig ht purcha s e o f g o o ds a n d s e r v i c e s.

“A t L e a s e h o u z , y o u w i l l e n j oy t h e c o nv e n ience of browsing for choice products, making s e l e c t i o n s a n d ap p ly ing f o r l e a s e s o n l i n e . Cu s tomers will enjoy imm e d iate p o ss e ssi o n and us e o f a ss e t s, g o o d s and s e r v i c e s w hi l e t he y pay i n i n s t a l m e n t s t a i l o re d to t he i r ca sh f l ow s.

Atiku Abubakar, former vice president of Nigeria and leading presidential aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (l), with Uche Secondus, national chairman of PDP, at the grand rally for the Ekiti governorship election scheduled for July 14, in Ado Ekiti, yesterday.

CCNN leads best performing stocks at close of H1 SOBECHUKWU EZE, with agency report

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mid the bearish environment prevailing in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) rides out to lead the best performing stocks in the first half (H1) of the year, with a percentage change return of 164 percent closing at the price of N24.

According to data from Bloomberg terminal, the company’s’ stock during the period increased by 164 percent to close at N24 on June 29, from the price N9.08 at the beginning of the year, a change of N14.93. The data showed that Unity Bank trailed with a percent change of 100 percent to close at N1.06 compared with N0.53 at the beginning of the

year 2018.

NEM rose by 95.78 percent to close at N3.25 as against N1.66 at the start of the year. Ikeja Hotel went up by 75.84 per cent to close at N3.13 against N1.78 opening year figure. Caverton rose by 80.56 percent to close at N2.19 against N1.21. Learn Africa grew by 79.55 percent to close at N1.58 compared with N0.88 in January.

Speaking on CCNN stock performance, Ambrose Omordion, chief operating officer, InvestData Limited, said the stock dominance was as a result of the company’s impressive corporate earnings and proposed merger plan with Kalambaina Cement, a subsidiary of BUA Cement.

The stock jumped 4 percent on official announcement of the proposed merger as investors

The colloquium

President Macron’s whirlwind visit to Nigeria Continued from back page

fact that we have a common destiny and second, because we have a very important African Diaspora in France and the rest of Europe and they cannot live and develop themselves in France or in Europe if in their countries people don’t succeed.”

One of the highlights of Macron’s visit was the signing of a US$475 million financing agreement to cover several bilateral projects. The funding agreement comprises a US$200 million loan facility grant to Lagos, another $200 million loan for land degradation project in Ogun State and some $75 million for the execution of water projects in Kano through the French international development agency Agence Francaise Development.

France remains one of Nigeria’s most important trading partners, with a total trade volume exceeding US$12 billion. Nigeria comes in fifth place for France’s hydrocarbon imports and the first on our continent. More than one hundred French companies operate in Nigeria.

France is a world leader in avionics, ICT, heavy industry, precision engineering and fast trains. It is in our national interest to encourage more and more French companies to invest in our country. But we must improve our physical infrastructures, train our people and create an ecosystem that is attractive and competitive.

The late General Sani Abacha is not anyone that people will credit with any great ideas. Before his sudden death I understand he was about to introduced a new curriculum in our education system that would make the French language a compulsory subject for all pupils. I have often told people that all our neighbours speak French, with the exception of the Atlantic Ocean. If we are to live up to our destiny as the regional and continental leader, we must prepare our young people to pursue business opportunities throughout ECOWAS and beyond. We can only do so effectively if our people speak French. I therefore advocate that we make French a compulsory subject in our secondary schools.

During his brief stopover in Abuja he met with President Buhari where he reiterated France’s support for Nigeria’s development efforts, reaffirming his commitment to supporting the four-nation military alliance to defeat Boko Haram.

I was privileged to have spent some of my formative years studying Economics and Public Administration as well as French language and civilisation. I am a student of French diplomatic theory as well as practice. I know that French diplomats are highly meticulous. They never leave anything to chance. Although he never said it in so many words, from his body language, you could tell that he was not very enamoured of our political leadership in Abuja. Unlike his predecessors like François Hollande and Jacques Chirac who would have used the opportunity to deliver a long, patronising lecture on good governance, democracy and the rule of law, Macron belongs to a new generation of French leaders who genuinely believe in the equality of Europe and Africa. But

cheered the news. 2017 annual report reported a strong growth in revenue and profit as their Profit after tax increased by 157 percent from its 2016 level while revenue increased modestly by 39 percent.

The company also showed a sustained growth in profitability in the first quarter of 2018 as company profits increased 111 percent quarter on quarter.

Furthermore, low competition at where the company supplies cement also played a major drive of utilization rates for the company.

Bismarck Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company, told BusinessDay that the performance of the company was as a result of the growing capital investment by the cement industry with key players consolidating,

there was no doubting that the Matignon, seat of the French government and the Quai d’Orsay, their foreign office, have been monitoring the genocidal killings going on throughout the Middle Belt. They have also taken judicial notice of “the indifference” -- to use a recent phrase by the United Nations -- that characterises the attitude of our officialdom to these killings.

Our new Salafi jihadists have taken this country more than a decade back. The blood of the holy innocents – women, children, the elderly and the poor – is fully in the hands of those who have chosen to look away where thousands are being killed, maimed, killed and pillaged by this undeclared Jihad on an unarmed and defenceless people. This is why Emmanuel Macron gave his priority to visiting the New Africa Shrine while spending more time engaging with young people, business leaders and artistes in Lagos rather talking to the dinosaurs in Abuja. We would be fools not to read the writing on the wall.

Continued from back page

functioning Nigeria with reasonably contented federating peoples, could be constructed.

The work was urgent.

Tola Adeniyi, ex editor of Daily Times, and former spokesman for military President Babangida sounded like a man who had seen too much and was disillusioned by the plethora of contradictions concerning the Nigerian entity he had observed over the years. There were problems, including the 1914 amalgamation itself, but the real problem now was a minority with an agenda, wanting to ride on the back of religion and chaos.

It was necessary to resist, using knowledge, teaching the people.

For Tony Nyiam, where structures and actions were based on a flawed constitution that was not of the people, such actions were not ‘legal’, but illegitimate.

Tony Nnadi, firebrand, breathed fire, recommending a referendum before any action to push any reorganization of the nation’s architecture.

Dr Tafawa Balewa brought a breath of fresh air to the debate. He was scion of a famous Bauchi family, whose mother came from Ogbomosho, and who lived abroad from the age of two years. Medical doctor, physicist, inventor with a beguiling smoothness of

and also that the stock price was just readjusting from its undervalued price.

On the other hand, insurance companies dominated the worst performing stocks during the period under review.

Unic Insurance, FTN Cocoa, Multiverse, Africa Alliance and Courtville were the worst performing stocks for the period under review in percentage terms, having dropped by 60 per cent each.

The loses from the insurance company came as a no surprise to analyst as insurance companies being cyclical in nature, are exposed to the swings of the economy and when the economy deteriorate the stocks perform badly Bismarck explained.

elocution.

‘I feel schizophrenic at the nature of this discourse…’

Nigeria was not doing so bad in the early days in his father’s days (his father was Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, he averred, giving an anecdote about the deliberately contrived parliamentary shenanigans between his father, Chief Remi FaniKayode-Femi’s father - (‘who was inclined naturally to be combative’) and Zik that led to the parliament’s approval for the building of the Niger Bridge. It has been a downhill journey since the military came. ‘We have a scale of mediocrity now (in leadership) which is dipping into the abyss of insanity...’)

The discussions, arguments and postulations went on deep into the afternoon.

The conclusion, such as it was, was that the Nigerian entity was probably secure, but seriously in need of reconstruction through the agency of a restructuring. It would be necessary to build a consensus of sorts, so that everyone everywhere, including the youths all across, could see more promise than danger for themselves in that ‘born-again’ country that all the speakers agreed was the Nigeria that could work. That promise, after all, was the purpose for the gathering, according to the conveners, the VOR.

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Europe braces itself for twin Trump summits Fears president will act on attacks on Nato and European defence shortfalls MICHAEL PEEL , KATRINA MANSON AND RICHARD MILNE

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month after a G7 summit broke up in acrimony, US allies are desperate to avoid another confrontation with Donald Trump — this time over Nato.

But, as diplomats brace themselves for the security alliance’s summit next week, the deeper fear is that the US president will cut funds and forces from the continent’s defence and perhaps move closer to Russia’s Vladimir Putin in the meeting’s aftermath.

Analysts say that US troops in Germany, a Nato battlegroup in Poland and an ambitious new fund intended to deter Russia are potential targets because of Mr Trump’s wrath over what he sees as freeriding by Washington’s allies.

“There is a Trump hell where [in his view] Nato is as bad as Nafta and the EU and worse than China,” said one European official. “It raises the question of the future of transatlantic relationships.”

The Europeans’ anxiety is still greater because Mr Trump will hold a summit with Mr Putin in Helsinki on July 16, just days after the July 11-12 gathering at Nato headquarters.

The European official added that although US officials have been engaged in “damage control” in European capitals ahead of the Nato summit, they have also been cautioning “that they don’t know what President Trump is going to do or say”.

Another European official said: “It’s pretty much up to Trump and

how he relates this to what he’s doing with Putin.”

Mr Trump has long made clear his dissatisfaction with Nato allies who fail to meet the alliance’s target of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence — particularly Germany.

The White House is considering relocating or withdrawing some of the 35,000 US troops based in the country, according to officials familiar with the matter — although the Pentagon has reassured Berlin no decision has been taken.

Mr Trump and Jim Mattis, defence secretary, have sent pointed letters to Nato allies, including Canada and the UK, calling on them to do more on defence.

The president’s June 19 dispatch to Erna Solberg, Norway’s premier, warned that it would “become increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries fail to meet our shared collective security commitments”, according to a copy seen by the FT. Responding to such concerns, Frank Bakke-Jensen, Norway’s defence minister, said his country had increased defence funding by 24 per cent in real terms since 2013.

But Europeans will feel they have got away lightly if they suffer only verbal barbs or another failure by the president — as at last year’s summit — to commit publicly to Nato’s Article 5 on collective defence.

European diplomats accept they need to do more to respond to US calls, dating back well before Mr Trump, to spend more — especially as Nato says barely half its 29 members have credible plans to reach the 2 per cent benchmark by 2025.

Germany’s top telecoms regulator has US tech groups in its sights Watchdog says providers of messaging and email services should be regulated TOBIAS BUCK

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ermany’s top telecoms regulator has set its sights on US technology groups such as Google and Facebook, insisting that providers of messaging and email services should be regulated just like ordinary telecommunications companies.

“What we are seeing is that the line between traditional telecommunications services and web-based services like [Google’s] Gmail and [Facebook’s] WhatsApp has become very blurred. Users often cannot see any difference at all,” Jochen Homann, the president of Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur, said in an interview with the FT. “It cannot be right that a company providing traditional telecommunications services has to meet certain regulatory requirements, like those concerning data protection, while

a company providing comparable services over the web does not,” he added.

The Bundesnetzagentur, or Federal Network Agency, has been locked in a legal battle with Google since 2014, after it ordered the US internet giant to register its email service as a telecommunications operator.

That status triggers a series of additional regulatory requirements, in areas such as data protection and security, including the obligation to provide information and access to police and security services. The case is currently before the European Court of Justice.

Mr Homann made clear that he regards the legal dispute with Google as a test case, and that victory at the European tribunal would be followed by a broader crackdown.

“We want European companies to have a level playing field when Continues on page A2

US immigration crackdown disrupts businesses

Trump administration policy makes the search for seasonal employees more difficult

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t started at Corso’s, an Ohio landscaping and gardening company, located near the Lake Erie shore.

On June 5, beginning at 7am, 200 officials from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies descended on the company’s two locations, wielding guns and arresting 114 undocumented immigrant workers.

Two weeks later, at Fresh Mark, a meatpacking plant 120 miles to south in Ohio, as many 100 officials from ICE, US Customs and Border Protection and the US Border Patrol rounded up 146 workers — many still dressed in the white lab coats, hair nets and boots they wear when making hot dogs, bacon and deli meats.

They were the two biggest immigration raids in the US in the past decade — and a signal of the

broader shift of immigration policy under President Donald Trump.

In contrast with the Obama administration, which focused on undocumented immigrants with criminal records, Mr Trump has taken a broader-brush approach to immigration enforcement, often targeting workers who have lived in the US for years.

In 2017, Mr Trump’s first year in office, ICE arrested more than 37,000 undocumented immigrants with no criminal record — compared with 22,000 with no criminal record who were arrested in 2016.

Twenty-six per cent of the people arrested by ICE in 2017 had no criminal convictions.

In 2018, the trend has only amplified. In January, ICE swept through nearly 100 7-Eleven stores in more than a dozen states, arresting 21 people. In April, 97 workers were arrested at a meatpacking plant in Ten-

nessee, the biggest single workplace raid in 10 years before last month’s Corso’s and Fresh Mark raids.

“They’re picking up people who normally wouldn’t have gotten picked up in previous years,” said Elizabeth Ford, an Ohio immigration attorney, who is representing individuals detained in the raids. “They weren’t considered priorities, and now they are . . . Now everybody is treated the same as a drug trafficker, versus someone who has spent years working at Corso’s.”

Jessica Ramos, a lawyer at the Ohio non-profit Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, said an estimated 40 women and 120 men remained in detention following the two Ohio raids. After the first raid on Corso’s, 80 to 100 children in the area were left without one or both of their primary caregivers, she said — a situation recalling the recent separation of migrant families at the Mexican border.

Critics decry waste of $500m as India plans world’s tallest statue Project’s grandeur criticised against backdrop of millions struggling in poverty SIMON MUNDY

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or all the famed exploits of the 17th century Hindu warrior king Shivaji, he never extended his domain to Bombay, instead watching from afar as the fortified archipelago passed from Portuguese to English control.

Today’s Mumbai, as it is now known, is the throbbing financial capital of independent India — and if local officials have their way, it will at last fall under Shivaji’s imperious gaze, thanks to a controversial project to build the world’s tallest statue at a cost of more than $500m.

The fierce debate over the plan highlights the sensitivities around history in India, and the scrutiny of government spending priorities in a country where millions still languish in extreme poverty.

“It has to be the tallest statue in the world,” said Sachin Chivate, undersecretary for public works in the government of Maharahstra state, of which Mumbai is the capital. “It will be a big inspiration for generations to come, just like the Statue of Liberty.”

Standing at 212m on an artificial island to be built near the Mumbai shoreline, the Shivaji statue would be more than double the height of New York’s famous monument.

That follows a series of amendments to the plan: first, to ensure the statue is taller than a rival being built at 182m in the neighbouring state of Gujarat, honouring independence hero Vallabhbhai Patel; and later, to outdo a new 208m Buddha statue in China’s Henan province.

The project’s cost — initially estimated at Rs2.6bn ($38m) — has ballooned along with its physical scale. In March the government signed an agreement with engineering group Larsen & Toubro to build the first phase of the project at a cost of $370m. A second phase, which will include several landing jetties and a heliport, is projected to cost a further $160m.

Mr Chivate played down concerns about the statue’s cost, saying it was “not a big thing” compared with other schemes, such as the city’s $3.1bn metro project.

Yet the project has drawn fierce condemnation from local pressure groups,

who have filed several lawsuits seeking to block it. The scheme is “a criminal wastage of public funds when people are living with poverty and struggling for survival”, says one petition, filed by the leader of a local fishing community that says the statue will destroy vital breeding grounds.

Maharashtra is one of the more prosperous states in India, but lags behind on some key metrics. Its healthcare spending of $1.8bn this year amounts to less than $20 per inhabitant: well short of several poorer states. A quarter of Maharashtran children are dangerously underweight — a figure well above the national average, according to official data.

Opponents of the Shivaji statue say it is a cynical scheme to win the votes of the Marathi-speaking community from which the ancient leader hailed, and which remains the state’s dominant group. Marathi rights in Mumbai, India’s most cosmopolitan city, have become a political pressure point — spearheaded by the Shiv Sena, a far-right group that has been accused of fomenting aggression towards Muslims and other minorities.

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Malaysia suspends $22bn China-backed projects Government also investigates link to scandal-ridden state fund 1MDB STEFANIA PALMA

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alaysia has suspended three of its largest China-backed projects worth in the region of $22bn and is probing whether part of a loan from a Chinese state-owned bank was used in a transaction that benefited 1Malaysia Development

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Berhad, the scandal-ridden state investment fund.

The projects in question are the East Coast Rail Link, which would connect Malaysia’s less-developed east coast to southern Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, and two pipeline projects that cost more than $1bn apiece.

Malaysia Rail Link, the govern-

ment company administering the East Coast Rail Link, and Suria Strategic Energy Resources, a body run by the finance ministry that oversees the two pipelines, on Wednesday sent letters to their respective project contractors — state-owned China Communication Construction Company and China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau — instructing

the suspension of the projects because of excessive costs, according to a senior ministry of finance official.

CCCC said in a statement that the duration of the suspension was not specified in the notice, adding that it was concerned about incurring additional costs and about its 2,250 local staff. CPPB, the pipeline arm of China

National Petroleum Corp, declined to comment.

The suspension of the three projects is the starkest manifestation yet of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s call to diminish Chinese influence in Malaysia. Under former leader Najib Razak, billions of dollars poured into Malaysia from Beijing, making it a success for President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has seen other infrastructure across south-east Asia stall.

Germany’s top telecoms regulator has US tech groups...

Trump renews Opec threat in July 4 tweet

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President demands lower oil prices in return for security ties

it comes to data protection, public safety and registration requirements.

That would apply to messaging services such as WhatsApp, Facebook and all the others that offer similar services,” he said.

“We have shown the way forward.

We want these companies to meet the same regulatory requirements in principle as conventional telecommunications companies, for example when it comes to messaging services,” Mr Homann said. “Companies should be aware of the direction we are going in.”

Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon are facing scrutiny from a growing number of regulatory bodies in Europe, from the antitrust arm of the European Commission to Germany’s Federal Cartel Office as well as tax authorities across the continent.

The probes are based on a variety of legal and regulatory grounds but reflect a general anxiety in Europe about the market clout of the leading US technology and internet groups.

Google declined to comment on the court case itself but cautioned that the course set by the German regulator was at odds with the rest of Europe.

“The particular importance of this question arises from the potential consequences . . . for other communication services and from the impact on other EU member states,” Google said in a statement. “The Bundesnetzagentur is the only supervisory authority in Europe that . . . regards the registration of Gmail as a telecommunications service as necessary.”

The Bundesnetzagentur was set up 20 years ago to supervise Germany’s energy, telecommunications and postal sectors. According to Mr Homann, one big concern for the agency is the state of the country’s energy and communications infrastructure.

Germany is a notorious broadband laggard, with much of the country still served by old copper cables rather than a faster and more robust fibre-optic network.

“Germany spent a long time backing copper and the speeds you get with copper are more than enough for most households. But it is clear that fibre is the future,” Mr Homann said.

Regulation, he added, would play an important role in encouraging the rollout of fibre-optic — signalling that his agency was leaning towards a lighttouch approach for network companies such as Deutsche Telekom.

“We have to find ways of making it more attractive to invest in the expansion of the fibre network, including for Deutsche Telekom. The problem at the moment is that hardly anyone is prepared to pay extra for it,” he said.

Mr Homann added: “We’ve been saying for some time now that we don’t want to regulate fibre in the same way as we do the copper network. We’re currently looking at how far we can scale back regulation and if there is a need for it at all.”

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Theresa May spent Wednesday meeting her ministers as she tried to overcome Eurosceptic resistance © AFP

Theresa May struggles to unite Tories behind post-Brexit customs plan Idea of UK collecting EU tariffs likely to displease both Brussels and Eurosceptics GEORGE PARKER, JIM PICKARD AND ALEX BARKER

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heresa May is struggling to unite her feuding Conservative party behind a new plan for a complex customs system between the UK and the EU after Brexit.

The pr ime minister spent Wednesday trying to persuade Eurosceptic ministers to back her proposed “facilitated customs arrangement” ahead of a crucial cabinet meeting on Friday.

Under the plan, goods arriving in Britain would normally attract a UK tariff, set independently of EU rates.

However, British customs officials would collect a potentially higher EU tariff for goods passing through the UK en route to the bloc’s single market.

Downing Street claimed only 4 per cent of trade would attract the EU tariff — which would be remitted to Brussels — and that goods would be tracked to establish whether they were ending up in either Britain or the EU. Boris Johnson, foreign secretary and leading Eurosceptic, was said

to be reserving judgment until he saw the detail of the plan, although Brexiters have long argued against the idea of Britain acting as a tax collector for Brussels.

An even bigger problem for Mrs May could be the reaction in Brussels to the latest customs plan — a convoluted compromise intended to unite the warring sides of Mrs May’s cabinet.

Brussels will want to know why the plan would not be an open invitation to smugglers, who might choose to pay a lower UK tariff at a British port before moving their goods on to the EU single market, possibly through an open Irish border.

The reliance of the plan on untested or non-existent tracking technology is another major problem, while Brussels is unlikely to devolve collection of the EU tariff to a “third country” without any form of European Court of Justice oversight.

One senior EU official, referring to Mrs May’s new plan, said: “It will be laughed out of town.”

MPs, who have major legislative votes on the customs question this month, may conclude that it would

be simpler for Britain to remain in the EU customs union — an arrangement Mrs May has vowed to resist.

Mrs May travels to Berlin on Thursday to urge German chancellor Angela Merkel not to dismiss out of hand the new British plan when it appears in the form of a white paper next week.

The policy document is due to outline the government’s vision for the UK’s long term relationship with the EU after Brexit.

Brexit at Chequers: what to expect from cabinet meeting About 40 Conservative MPs met Julian Smith, the party’s chief whip, to air their concerns about the vision of Brexit that Mrs May is expected to put forward during the cabinet meeting at Chequers, her country residence, on Friday.

James Gray, a veteran Tory, told Mr Smith that a meeting of the proBrexit European Research Group on Tuesday had been “the angriest such meeting” he had ever attended.

There was heavy criticism of Olly Robbins, the UK civil servant heading the Brexit negotiations, who is accused by some Conservative MPs of bowing to pressure from Brussels.

Praxair sells $6bn in European assets to Japan’s Taiyo Disposal aims to smooth path of merger of US gas group with Germany’s Linde

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S industrial gases group Praxair has sold nearly $6bn worth of European assets to Japanese rival Taiyo Nippon Sanso in a bid to gain regulatory approval for its megamerger with Germany’s Linde.

Taiyo, Japan’s biggest industrial gas supplier, announced the acquisition on Thursday, saying it was part of a plan to be more “globally competitive.”

The group has set itself an explicit target of ¥1tn in total sales, with 50 per cent to come from overseas as it attempts to diversify away from its home market. “We regard this acquisition as a means to make a large advancement toward realising such vision and an attractive opportunity with strategic significance at the

same time,” Taiyo said in a statement.

The latest deal is contingent on the Linde-Praxair merger, announced in June 2017, being approved. The $80bn deal is expected to create the world’s largest supplier of industrial gases, though to get the deal through Linde is also expected to dispose of more than €3bn in assets.

For Taiyo the deal is part of a broader trend among Japanese companies eyeing the long term shrinkage of the Japanese market and looking to grow overseas by acquisition.

The European gas market was “stable”, Taiyo said, noting it was second in size only to North America.

“This acquisition will accelerate our global expansion by obtaining businesses with a certain share in the

market in which we have not had previous participation,” it added.

Analysts have been predicting for several years that an outbound M&A trend that has been strengthening since 2013 and began with a heavy focus on the financial services sector would ultimately spread into the heavier industrial companies.

Taiyo’s purchase comes as recently released data from the Tokyobased M&A research group Recof Data showing that Japanese companies made a record number of overseas M&A deals in the first half of the 2018 calendar year. The combined value of those deals — which include Takeda Pharmaceutical’s ¥7tn planned takeover of Shire — was around ¥11.7tn.

S President Donald Trump tweeted about Opec on Wednesday amid Independence Day celebrations, to repeat a threat that lower oil prices should be the quid pro quo for the security ties some members of the group enjoy with the US. Mr Trump has been pushing Saudi Arabia, Opec’s de facto leader, to raise oil output by as much as 2m barrels a day, partly as the US is reimposing sanctions on its chief regional rival Iran. That is expected to cut Iran’s oil exports later this year.

Saudi Arabia has indicated it will raise oil output by approximately 1m b/d from the level it produced in May, which should take its output to the highest level on record later this summer.

It has also said it has spare capacity to help meet any additional demand in the market, but has stopped short of saying it will immediately start adding the full 2m b/d.

Traders and analysts say adding the full 2m b/d requested by Trump would stretch the kingdom to its limit and leave global spare capacity close to zero, with little buffer should there be further supply outages.

Oil prices have been supported above $75 a barrel despite Saudi Arabia saying it will raise output due, in part, to severe supply outages in Venezuela and Libya.

The US has also said it wants to push Iran’s oil exports — which stand around 2.5m b/d — close to zero, taking a more aggressive stance than first anticipated by the market.

Traders fear that if the US is even halfway successful in that aim that, combined with other supply outages, the market could be left short even if Saudi Arabia did decide to push output close to its maximum levels.

The kingdom has said it could produce 12m b/d if necessary but it would require at least six months, with additional drilling and investment required.

Saudi Arabia has pushed the US to take a tough line with Iran, including supporting its withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

Other Opec members with spare capacity, including the UAE, are also moving to raise output while Russia — the largest exporter outside the group that has struck a close oil-based alliance with Riyadh — is also raising output.

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Stobart moves shares around ahead of crucial AGM vote

Infrastructure group embroiled in row over attempts by former chief to oust chairman JOSH SPERO

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tobart Group has shifted shares to an employee benefit trust, potentially giving the management an edge in a battle for control of the company at Friday’s annual general meeting.

Andrew Tinkler, former chief executive, criticised the move, which may reduce his chances of unseating chairman Iain Ferguson.

In recent weeks, Stobart has moved 7m shares, worth approximately £16m and with 2 per cent of the company’s voting rights, from corporate treasury into the employee benefit trust. Within the treasury the shares have no voting or dividend rights; in the EBT they do.

The votes for and against Mr Ferguson’s election among major shareholders are currently tight.

Largest shareholder Invesco, which owns 25 per cent, has said it will support Mr Ferguson, as has Royal London, with 2.6 per cent.

Fund manager Neil Woodford, whose Woodford Investment Management has 20 per cent, is voting against Mr Ferguson, as is Mr Tinkler, who owns 7.8 per cent and Allan Jenkinson, a former Stobart director who sold his biomass business to the company when Mr Tinkler was chief executive and owns 5.6 per cent.

In a letter to shareholders on June 29, Mr Tinkler said: “There was no requirement for any such [share] transfers to be made, certainly not on that scale, and shareholders are entitled to ask whether the transfers were made with a view to the trustee voting in favour of Mr Ferguson’s reelection at the AGM, and diluting all other shareholders’ voting rights in the process.”

He added that it would “very clearly be inappropriate in the current circumstances” for the trustees to vote with those shares.

Stobart Group, which owns

Southend airport, Stobart Air and a biomass business, said there was no such ulterior motive: “This is a transfer of shares to meet obligations under long-term employee incentive plans; as a result, the majority of these shares will be transferred to LTIP vesting plans. It will be up to the trustees to decide if, and how, they are voted.”

Jupiter Trustees, which is responsible for the EBT, declined to comment, but one person familiar with the trustees’ voting intention said they would abstain.

Mr Tinkler was fired as a director of Stobart Group in June after his campaign to unseat Mr Ferguson and replace him with retail entrepreneur Philip Day. Stobart said at the time it was issuing legal proceedings against Mr Tinkler, alleging “breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty”. Mr Tinkler then launched defamation proceedings against Stobart’s board.

Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholders Service, proxy advisers whose recommendations are widely followed by investors when voting at annual meetings, have come out in support of the current chairman, Mr Ferguson.

The company is also holding an extraordinary general meeting on July 18 to consider whether to elect Mr Day. This week Glass Lewis recommended opposing him, saying the so-called “dissidents” of Mr Tinkler, Woodford Investment Management and Mr Jenkinson had failed to present a “credible and convincing case” in favour of replacing the chairman.

“In our view, the dissidents have not articulated how appointing Mr Day to the board would improve corporate governance at the company or lead to a more favourable outcome for all shareholders,” Glass Lewis said. ISS has yet to issue its recommendation for the special meeting.

Bacanora secures $150m financing from Red Kite for lithium project HENRY SANDERSON

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acanora Minerals has secured $150m in debt funding from London’s Red Kite fund to develop its lithium project in Mexico.

The London-listed company said the facility with RK Mine Finance, a subsidiary of Michael Farmer’s Red Kite hedge fund, was at “competitive rates.”

“We believe that senior debt facilities of this size have been few and far between in the junior resource space in recent years,” Bacanora’s chief executive Peter Secker said.

“Furthermore, we consider that the costs and terms of the Facility are highly competitive when compared to other debt packages that have recently been reported for greenfield lithium projects in Canada and Australia.”

The $150m facility is structured as two separate Eurobonds. A

$136m bond will have an interest rate of 8 per cent above the three month Libor rate for six years, Bacanora said. A separate $56m bond will have a 20-year term and be repaid by reference to monthly production of lithium at a rate of $160 per tonne of lithium produced.

In addition Bacanora will grant 6m warrants exercisable over five years at a 20 per cent premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average price of the company’s shares.

Still, analysts at Numis said the cost of the debt was more expensive than they had anticipated.

“Whilst it is positive that Bacanora has secured debt the first bond is more expensive than we had previously envisaged with the second bond being more like a very expensive stream,” they said.

“We remain cautious on the shares given both the significant amount of funding that the company still needs to secure and the uncertainties set out above.”

Former Stobart chief Andrew Tinkler is fighting an increasingly acrimonious battle to unseat the group’s chairman

European stocks in demand ahead of US tariff deadline Exporters and tech shares gain, Wall St set to rise but China’s equities fall again MICHAEL HUNTER AND HUDSON LOCKETT

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or every investor who is worried about where this trade battle is heading, there is another who points out that this stage of the trade measures is not likely to have a large impact on corporate profits or growth in either the US or China” — Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac.

“We should take [Donald Trump’s] threat [of further tariffs] very seriously, given Mr Trump’s longstanding views on trade, his protectionist promises on the campaign trail and polling indicating his voter base remains with him into the November midterms.”

Hot topic Global markets are bracing themselves as the deadline nears for the US to start imposing tariffs on $34bn of imports from China, in what will mark a significant milestone in the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

China’s stocks are continuing to take the biggest hit, with wider AsiaPacific equities broadly lower. Euro-

pean stocks are rising, with some major exporters helping Germany’s Xetra Dax 30 outperform its neighbours.

Meanwhile, the onshore exchange rate for China’s renminbi is holding above the nadir touched earlier in the week as worries ease that the trade dispute could reach the currency market. As investors remain on watch for signs that China will allow the renminbi to weaken markedly as part of its response to Washington’s protectionism, the currency is just 0.1 per cent weaker at Rmb6.6365, well away from the extremes of its daily 2 per cent trading band.

Equities Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 is up 0.9 per cent, with carmakers in prominent positions on its leaderboard. London’s FTSE 100 is 0.3 per cent higher and the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 is 0.4 per cent stronger.

The Stoxx index tracking carmakers has gained 3.5 per cent. BMW is in pole position in Frankfurt, up over 4 per cent, with Daimler close behind, up 3.7 per cent.

The CSI 300 index of major Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed stocks is down

0.7 per cent, taking its loss for the week to almost 5 per cent. The Shanghai Composite index is weaker by 0.8 per cent for the session and almost 4 per cent for the week.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 0.9 per cent.

Tokyo’s Topix is down 1 per cent as industrials dropped 1.2 per cent.

Seoul’s Kospi was off 0.8 per cent.

According to futures trade, US markets will return from the Independence Day break with a 0.4 per cent rise for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.

Forex The dollar index is down 0.3 per cent on the day, as its wider rally of almost 2.5 per cent for 2018 leaves it looking tired. The Federal Reserve is due to publish minutes of its June meeting later in the session, at which it raised rates. The detail of the discussion will feed into market expectations on the pace of US monetary tightening.

The euro is up 0.4 per cent at $1.1703, helped by a stark improvement in German industrial orders for May. The data beat forecasts having been significantly short of expectations in April.

Activist investor urges indebted Premier Foods to sell Batchelors Hedge fund Oasis faces uphill battle against strong support for Premier CEO NAOMI ROVNICK

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n activist investor that has been agitating for the chief executive of Mr Kipling and Bisto gravy owner Premier Foods to resign has piled extra pressure on the foodmaker by urging it to sell its high-performing Batchelors soup and noodle business.

Oasis, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund that owns 9 per cent of Premier, last month claimed the food group’s CEO Gavin Darby should step down and alleged he was overpaid and that the company has underperformed under his leadership. It now wants the group to sell Batchelors, its fastest growing brand, to raise what it thinks could amount to £200m, arguing this will help the company reduce its debt load and annual interest bill to reinvest in its brands.

The hedge fund launched its latest missive on the same morning as influential investor advisory group recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the resolution to re-

elect Mr Darby at Premier’s annual general meeting on July 18.

This follows a strong show of support for Mr Darby from Premier’s chairman Keith Hamill. The trustees of the group’s pension fund have also publicly backed the embattled CEO. Investor advisory groups Glass Lewis and Pirc have also swung behind keeping Mr Darby at the helm of the business.

Oasis, which is best known for trying to shake up Asian companies such as Japan’s Nintendo, issued a 14-page document last month alleging there had been “five years of failure under Gavin Darby’s leadership”.

This came after Oasis executive Daniel Wosner joined the group’s board temporarily, but stepped down in March. This was partly because he was unsuccessful in trying to persuade Premier to explore a sale of Batchelors, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.

Premier’s share price has fallen from over 70p in 2014 to 40p currently. Its shares trade at 5.2 times

forecast earnings for next year, according to Bloomberg data, while it has long been a target for hedge funds who believe it could command a higher valuation with better management and strategic decisions.

The food group’s board rejected a proposed 65p a share takeover offer from American group McCormick in 2016, drawing fire over this decision from shareholders including John Paulson, the head of Wall Street hedge fund Paulson & Co. Premier has suffered in recent years from price wars between its supermarket customers and has been forced to cut its advertising spending. The food group is working hard to modernise its food brands, some of which, such as Angel Delight, are associated with dining habits from the 1970s and 1980s which have changed as shoppers tastes’ developed in favour of fresh products. It also has a partnership with Japanese noodle producer Nissin that is says has helped it add new innovations to Super Noodles.

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BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 06 July 2018

ANALYSIS

China and US: the tech fear behind Donald Trump’s trade war America’s anxiety about Chinese technological prowess is reflected in Washington where politicians are rethinking their attitudes to foreign investment SHAWN DONNAN

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he ZGC Innovation Center bills itself as a one-stop incubator for the tech start-ups of the American future.

Its main facility is in Santa Clara, California, just down the road from the Google and Apple campuses.

Its new Boston location is squeezed between two of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions — Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As well as abundant office space and laboratories, the centre offers another attraction to ambitious entrepreneurs in artificial intelligence, robotics and other technologies: capital via its investment fund. “Our full incubation and business supporting services in the centre will dramatically speed up your start-up growth,” its website declares.

Yet the incubator could also just as easily be ground zero in a 21stcentury innovation war between the world’s two largest economies.

Behind the Silicon Valley and Boston facilities is Zhongguancun Development Group, a venture capital fund that originated in Beijing’s technology district and is owned by the city’s municipal government.

It is at the sharp end of what has become one of the most neuralgic issues in Washington.

While the headlines about the Trump administration’s trade war with Beijing often focus on raw materials such as steel, aluminium and soyabeans, the underlying motivation of the new protectionist mood is American anxiety about China’s rapidly growing techno-

logical prowess.

At a time when the US is engaged in a battle for technological pre-eminence with China, the ZGC project is exactly the sort of state-backed Chinese investment that American politicians across the political spectrum view with scepticism.

“China has targeted America’s industries of the future, and President Donald Trump understands better than anyone that if China successfully captures these emerging industries, America will have no economic future,” Peter Navarro, the White House’s director of trade and industrial policy and a leading China hawk, told reporters recently.

Mr Trump’s most immediate fight has taken the form of US tariffs

on $34bn in imports from China that are due to take effect on Friday as part of a squeeze intended to end what the US says has been years of state-endorsed Chinese intellectual property theft. But it is also part of a broader battle against what the White House has labelled China’s “economic aggression”.

Viewed from America, President Xi Jinping’s Made in China 2025 industrial strategy is a stateled effort to establish Chinese leadership in the technologies of the next generation of commerce and military equipment — notably AI, robotics and gene editing.

Many US officials are now questioning one of the basic assumptions about how the American economy operates: its openness to foreign investment. Nathan Sheets, a former Treasury undersecretary for international affairs in the Obama administration, says that when he entered government, he was sceptical of any efforts to restrain foreign investment but left convinced of the need to fight back.

“When I open up my textbook and read about the glories of for-

eign investment . . . one doesn’t have in mind a government amassing a war chest of several billion dollars and then going into a country to systematically buy up companies and technology,” he says. “As I left the Treasury I was quite concerned about where this was heading.”

While some technology executives extol the potential for co-operation in areas such as AI, the Washington establishment increasingly sees them as central to a growing geopolitical competition.

Chinese investment in earlystage US technology deals Some US analysts fear it might be too late to take decisive action to prevent Chinese inroads into the

tech sector. “We may have missed the gluttony on this already,” says Ely Ratner, another former official in the Obama administration. “The time we really needed this was a few years back.”

The US does not have the infrastructure necessary to properly scrutinise investments, says Mr Ratner, who advised the then vice-president Joe Biden on China policy. For that reason alone a “freeze on Chinese investment makes sense in some industries”.

Chinese entities participated in up to 16 per cent of all venture deals in early-stage technology companies in the US between 2015 and 2017, a sharp increase in the previous years, according to Michael Brown and Pavneet Singh, industry experts working for the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley outpost. Between 2010 and 2017, China participated in 81 AI financings in the US which raised $1.3bn, and $2.1bn of deals in augmented reality start-ups.

Neither the Zhongguancun Development Group nor its US arm, ZGC Capital, responded to requests for comment. But on its website the Chinese parent company is open about the purpose of its overseas ventures.

“Following with national strategy ‘the Belt and Road Initia-

tives’ . . . ZDG is actively [expanding] its overseas business,” it says, citing Mr Xi’s global development strategy.

The goal is to “learn overseas experience of [an] innovation ecosystem”.

The model is akin to that followed by a growing number of Chinese tech companies and funds that have turned up in places like Silicon Valley looking to absorb knowledge and start-ups, says Brewer Stone, a partner at boutique investment bank Nfluence, which specialises in US-China tech investments.

“Much of it is just commercial investment . . . Their number one

The White House’s director of trade Peter Navarro has accused China of targeting America’s industries of the future © Reuters

Nathan Sheets, a former Treasury undersecretary in the Obama administration, has become convinced of the need to look again at foreign investments © Bloomberg

interest is in finding good quality companies to invest in and earn good returns,” Mr Stone says.

Many Chinese investors are looking for companies that can help their growth plans in China.

But occasionally he has detected what in hindsight can seem like odd co-ordinated behaviour. A few years ago, Mr Stone says, he received three or four calls in one month from Chinese companies wanting to invest in businesses that were suppliers to tech titan Apple. “It implied that there could be some kind of co-ordination behind the

scenes, although obviously I don’t have proof of that.”

While many in Washington look with growing suspicion on Chinese tech investments, there are no shortage of American companies eager for the funding — especially those that are looking to gain entry into a tricky but very large market.

Formlabs, a maker of industrial 3D printers based near Boston which counts former Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt among its early investors, recently set out to raise capital with one goal in mind: attracting investors who could help it crack China.

The result, announced by the company in May, was a $30m investment from a group that included Shenzhen Capital Group, a venture capital firm launched in the late 1990s by the southern city’s municipal government.

The new investors did not gain any board seats or secure access to any of its intellectual property, says chief executive Max Lobovsky, who founded the company in 2011 with two fellow MIT graduates. But they did bring promises to help Formlabs increase its “strategic ties” to China and relationships with potential customers and suppliers. “Those were really valuable things they were offering. That’s why we wanted to do it with them,” he says.

BUSINESS DAY

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I FRIDAY 06 JULY 2018

Opinion President Macron’s whirlwind visit to Nigeria

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uring this week, the youthful French president Emmanuel Macron, made a whirlwind two-day visit to Nigeria as part of an overall campaign to promote business and cultural relations between France and Africa.

As we understand it, the occupant of the high magistracy of the French republic was a special invitee at the 31st African Union Summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania which ended on Monday 2nd July. He met our own President Muhammadu Buhari during that summit where the French president did express his wish to make a brief stop-over on his way back to Paris.

By the standard of international diplomatic protocol, it could hardly be described as a state visit.

The bulk of his time was spent in our commercial capital of Lagos while the Abuja leg of the visit was a very brief affair.

During his visit, the Emmanuel Macron was quite emotional about how he spent 6 months in our federal capital of Abuja as a trainee intern in the course

of the year 2004. He had been a brilliant student of the prestigious École national d’administration, France’s elite school for the training of her leaders and top technocrats. The curriculum requires that, as part of their training, students spend at least 6 months of professional attachment at one of France’s embassies abroad or with a company or an international organisation. Students are often consulted on where they can do their internship.

More likely than not, young Emmanuel Macron would have made Abuja his first choice.

Memories are what life is made of. I was privileged to have attended the same institution in Paris in the mid-eighties. I was given three choices for my internship programme: The Vatican, Madagascar and Canada. Some of my friends were offered places such as London, Brussels and Stockholm. I was not very happy. I ended up choosing Canada. Looking back, I realised I ought to have chosen The Vatican.

When you are very young you are sometimes bereft of wisdom. My professors

thought they had found the best internship opportunity for me, but I thought otherwise. Looking back, I now realise my own folly.

Barring being a Cardinal or Bishop, nobody will easily have opportunity to spend 6 months in the Vatican working on economics and international finance while being paid for it. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time in Ottawa where I had an office by the Ottaway River, overlooking the courtyard of the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada at No. 24 Sussex Drive at the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa. I have fond memories of my time in Ottawa and Quebec City that have lasted until today.

Interestingly enough, when the French Ambassador in Ottawa invited me for dinner in his very wellappointed home, the music that was being played in his palatial edifice was the songs of Fela AnikulapoKuti. As I recall it, much of our conversation centred on Fela, his music, pan-Africanism and protest politics. They were intrigued when I confided to them that I met the Abami Eda

HumanAngle FEMI OLUGBILE Physician, psycho-profiler and essayist

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hey were gathered together on this Thursday morning at the National Institute of International Affairs to listen to an interesting array of speakers, and to participate in discussion on a topic that has been agitating the minds of Nigerians from all works of life all across the land. The topic was ‘Restructuring – a Panacea For justice and peace In Nigeria’.

It was organized by ‘Voice Of Reason’ (VOR), a group of opinion leaders from the South-West, who considered it necessary to make a stand in the public space in order to rescue the nation from what they saw as imminent perdition. The main plank of their advocacy was a conviction that Nigeria as at present constituted and operated was a flawed federation and a failing state.

Working at improving operations using the present model was throwing good money after bad, or doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

There was an impressive

when I was an undergraduate at Ahmadu Bello University. As we scruffy students milled around him, bantering away -- especially my childhood friend Ahmadu Abubakar of blessed memory, Sule Katagum and others – Fela was very curious about me because I was the one who never said a word, being terribly shy as a teenager. When our eyes met, Abami Eda jokingly hissed at me and bellowed, “Foolish Hausa man”. Everyone roared with laughter!

From the look of it, Macron profoundly enjoyed his time in Nigeria. He apparently visited Fela’s Kalakuta Republic and was enthralled by the Emperor of Afro-beat. Of this experience he says: “I like Nigeria a lot. It’s an appealing country. I’ve got a lot of memories…. that haven’t left me.”

Macron used the opportunity of his visit to launch the new offices of Alliance Française in Lagos. The latter is a non-profit cultural institution committed to spreading the French language and the culture and civilisation of the Frenchspeaking world. Macron also addressed the youth beneficiaries of the Tony

Elumelu initiative on entrepreneurship. He also met with business leaders and canvassed for more business links between Nigeria and France. He also made it a point to engage with artistes and people in Nollywood. He took off his tie and jacket and made attempts at playing the talking-drum with local musicians. He underlined the importance of cultural capital as an important component of the new wealth of nations.

He underlined the fact that the future lies in business and entrepreneurship, especially on the part of the energetic youth. He urged the youth of Nigeria and of our continent at large to take their future in their own hands. “Nobody has to lecture us, which means that we have to take our responsibilities, think about the legacy, the sustainability of our deeds, and how we should develop our countries….This new narrative is to say Africa is the one to decide for Africa, to explain about Africa, and to create its own model of entrepreneurship with its own culture and to explain it to the rest of the world,

and famous sense of humour, he tried to put the audience at their ease. He was a man of many parts – physician, businessman, traditional chief whose title translated roughly as ‘warlord’ or ‘General’ of the Ijebu army. Beyond the easy affability he was a man known to be hard as steel.

highlights of the document.

And then it was time for the main discussants. Toyosi Akerele-Ogunlusi set off the talk. She was a thirty-fouryear-old, the youngest person on the panel. She was voluble, and she had a lot to say. Her generation were not being reckoned with in the scheme of things, she averred. And yet they were not only the future of Nigeria, they were also the present of Nigeria.

‘Give us the autonomy to take decisions on things that belong to us ...’ She was full of energy, and passion. A course mate of hers at Harvard had become a Minister in the government of President Macron of France soon after they left school. That was a country that valued youth and education. People who were not afraid of ideas.

The tone was set. The deliveries that ensued harped on various areas of discontent with the polity but came back to the same conclusion. A new way was needed. Restructuring the federation was the way.

For Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, veteran of many battles – physical as well as legal – you had an abiding image of him in your mind with a massive black swelling over one eye after an encounter with the police during a protest march at Yaba, Lagos in the hey-day of the Abacha dictatorship - the questions were being asked in the wrong order. Before going

The colloquium The main plank of their advocacy was a conviction that Nigeria as at present constituted and operated was a flawed federation and a failing state

array of speakers lined up from all across the nation.

There was Olisa Agbakoba.

And Abduljelil Tafawa Balewa.

Tony Nnadi. Tony Nyiam.

Ann Kio Briggs – soft-spoken firebrand advocate in the cause of the South-South.

Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, one of the new voices. And sitting

in the front on the audience side, eager to engage, were such redoubtables as Ray Ekpu, Tola Adeniyi and Shina Fagbenro-Byron.

Proceedings kicked off in earnest with an opening address by the Chairman of the occasion – Olorogun Sonny Kuku. With his husky voice

The VOR group had gone to the trouble of preparing a draft constitution for a restructured Nigeria. It was to be a living contract between consenting federating units in a truly federal republic and was meant to serve as a discussion draft to be shared with other stakeholders for the kind of ‘contract’ that would ultimately replace the all too flawed ‘military’ document that currently purported to represent the people’s will.

One of their members talked the audience through the

THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

OBADIAH MAILAFIA 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)

and not just to be part of the globalisation.”

Macron also stressed the point that Europe and Africa are partners of destiny. He noted that if Africa doesn’t succeed, France and Euro are unlikely also to succeed on the long run, “For two very simple reasons, Europe is not an island and all this migration crisis is exactly due to the Continues on page 39

on to talk about restructuring – which was the ‘how’ of being a nation, the question needed to be asked first ‘Do we want to be together?’ Once beyond that, having answered in the affirmative, as he expected, he cautioned that the current language of the restructuring push was too harsh and was alienating those in the North of the country who might otherwise have bought into it.

Bridges would need to be built with like minds, and it should not be assumed that they did not exist or were incapable of seeing that there was a value proposition for everybody. He referred to the Aburi Accord and the 2014 National Conference report as take-off points.

Ann Kio Briggs in her soft, persuasive voice spoke of how injustice continued to be the lot of her Niger Delta people.

Odia Ofeimun, writer, polemicist,leapt in from the floor to say that people should not set too much store on the Aburi Accord as it was a flawed document itself, and had been rightly shot down by minorities, afraid of domination by their regional ‘brothers’.

Ray Ekpu chimed in to assert that Nigeria’s peoples were inextricably bound together, whatever anyone said. The best strategy was to form a committee of stakeholders to drive the restructuring project, the platform on which a united Continues on page 39

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WOMEN’S HUB Friday 06 July 2018

BUSINESS DAY

in her 40s

“There is an urgent need to bridge this gap between the market, research and policy” NDIDI NWUNELI

in her 30s

“Being able to sit there in the cockpit and control this big huge metal bird is amazing.”

LADI OGUN

4 DIFFERENT GENERATIONS OF FEMALE ACHIEVERS

in her 20s

“My first experience with the UN nudged me in realizing my potentials and values towards my choice of career path.”

CHISOM OGBUMMUO

in her teens

“I enjoy when I see the difference my projects make to girls in places I visit” ZURIEL ODUWOLE

EDITOR’S NOTE

BUSINESS DAY

WOMEN’S HUB

Friday 06 July 2018

KEMI AJUMOBI

It’s the first edition in the month of July and we are excited to bring you informative and enlightening stories.

In her 40s

Our cover story is on 4 different ladies from different generations, all success stories worth learning from.

The Founder of LEARN and former Firstly Lady of Lagos State, Abimbola Fashola, recently had a conference for youths on the Not Too Young To Run Bill, asking the question through the theme, What Next?

We conclude Osaruguemwen B. Ogbeide’s story on Teaching in Makoko.

Chinyere Okeke, shares a story on the importance of having self-control.

We also share with you on killings in Plateau State and how an organisation, Women for Women International, suspended their operations there.

These and more we have for you this week.

Enjoy!

KEMI AJUMOBI kemi@businessdayonline.com

Graphics by David Ogar

NDIDI NWUNELI Meet her didi is a serial social entrepreneur who has worked in international development for the past 22 years. As founder of LEAP Africa, one of Nigeria’s most credible leadership development organisations established in 2002, she has gained practical experience leading social change. She also co-founded AACE Foods, an agroprocessing company and Sahel Capital, an advisory and consulting firm focused on unlocking the agriculture and nutrition landscapes in West Africa. Based on her experience working at LEAP, AACE FOODS, and Sahel Capital, she wrote a book titled, “Social Innova-

tion in Africa: A Practical Guide for Scaling Impact”, published by Routledge in 2016.

Her views As an agribusiness entrepreneur sourcing cereals, grains, herbs, and vegetables from 10,000 farmers in Nigeria, I constantly contend with the slow pace of change in the food system. Given the lack of credible research, my team and I are forced to make investments through trial and error, resulting in significant waste. Research and innovation could transform our entire food system by not only increasing food production but also improving post-harvest handling, storage, processing and distribution. But today the region remains a net importer of food–despite close to a billion dollars of annual investments in research

Meet her To some, she is the young teenage girl who bothers world leaders to do something quickly and seriously about the issue of Girls Education. To others, she is the world’s youngest film maker, whose full length documentary films since the age of 12 have shown in cinemas or screened across 8 countries on 3 continents. Yet to most girls in Africa, the 15 year old is one of them, an inspiration, and proof that an educated girl can change the world.

In January 2017, she was honoured in Washington DC by US Secretary of State John Kerry, for her projects that puts the girl education agenda on the global agenda, including teaching unemployed girls film making.

Secretary Kerry called her the world’s most powerful girl, for her ability to engage one-onone with world leaders, having now met with 28 Presidents and Prime Ministers across Africa, Europe and the Americas.

At the age of 10, she started the DUSUSU Project, which became the DUSUSU Foundation, to recognize the tireless girls-education advocacy work of leading African women.

How are you able to achieve so much despite being a teenager?

I just do some things, and I do them maybe differently from most other people, and by the grace of the LORD results come. But I enjoy what I do a lot. I think sometimes also when you are young, everything is new, so you are very excited about it all, like I am about Girls Education and also teaching Girls how to tell their own stories, like filmmaking skills. I am just thankful I can do something, and I am also excited about doing even more in the future.

Current projects you are involved with Right now, I am traveling through Africa, 5 countries, and one in Europe and Asia for my summer time projects. I came back from Ghana recently, where I met President Akufo Addo of Ghana. He has many women in his cabinet. I also had the honour to present our 2018 annual DUSUSU Awards for the Gender Minister category to Hon Otiko Djaba, for her many programs trying to stop Girl marriage in Ghana. Can you imagine a girl being married? That is so un-cool. Seriously, it is very sad when that happens. I am 15 and I can’t even think for one second that somewhere in Africa, a girl my age is married, or sometimes younger than me.

Eewww. Gross !!!

Anyways, the other things I am working on is a new project that would create a report I like to share with the UN, the EU

N

and development.

There is an urgent need to bridge this gap between the market, research and policy.

Only then will West African agriculture be able to meet the region’s rising food demands from a population expected to more than double from 350 million today to close to 800 million by 2050.

Changing course will not be easy, but West African governments and agribusiness can benefit from the experiences of other countries that are now net exporters of food, including Australia and Brazil.

In a recent visit to Australia, I witnessed first-hand how farmers and food processors drive research priorities – in large part through directly funding that research. For example, the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) is largely funded by farmers who benefit from the improved seed varieties developed by the center. In fact, Australian wheat farmers willingly pay a research levy at the point of exporting wheat varieties developed to meet the specific quality requirements of international customers such as global noodle manufacturers.

Similarly, AgriBio,, a public-private partnership between the Australian government, through the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, and La Trobe University devotes 70 percent of its activities to challenges posed by the private sector, while 30 percent is focused on regional priorities in the areas of plant, animal and microbial biosciences, and biosecurity challenges.

West African research institutions should consider adopting similar approaches to private sector engagement. By introducing export-focused levies linked to innovative research, establishing private sector advisory boards, private-public partnerships, and challenge funds to drive demand-driven research, they could diversify their funding and ensure widespread impact.

Cote D’ivore is one West African country already moving in this direction. The country’s National Centre for Agricultural Research (CNRA) is primarily funded by private producers. Food producers are organized based on commodity crop and pay membership fees to a fund that allocates at least 75 percent of its assets into research on that crop. The remainder supports a solidarity fund that serves farm sectors (mostly food crops) unable to raise sufficient funding through their membership fees.

To be truly market-driven, West African research institutions must also restructure to fully embrace technology and performancedriven cultures.

In her teens

ZURIEL ODUWOLE

“

In her 30s

KEMI AJUMOBI

Meet Her Chisom Ogbummuo is a Nigerian. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Conversation Cafe. The Conversation Cafe was birthed on the altar of hard work, creating safe spaces, alternative education, interactive dialogues on societal issues to engender community development and many more values that are in tandem with what she stands for. She has coordinated and facilitated multiple delegations of Model United Nation conferences in Nigeria over the past six years. As well, represented Nigeria enormously and severally at delegations such as the annual UN Youth Assembly at the UN headquarters, Instagram, United States Mission To The United Nation among others. She is a pivotal member of the United Nation Association of Nigeria and also a co-host of the TW Conversation TV show.

First experience with the United Nations, experience till date My First experience with the UN was as a high school student representing my school at the annual Nigeria International secondary schools model United Nation conference. It was a very enlightening experience and exposure for me as I got to know names of countries I have never heard of before, the histories of these countries and their roles in the international scene. It felt so good to step.

Into the shoes of being an ambassador of a country and being fondly called “delegates”, was enlightening to learn the language of the UN and to play out the rules of procedures. My first experience with the UN was the first step in realiz-

In her 20s

LADI OGUN Meet her Before being a pilot, Ladi got in-depth knowledge practically as she trained to be a flight dispatcher at NCAT ZARIA and worked on ramp in Lagos with IRS Airlines for 4 years before going to flying school.

She wanted to fly because she looked up to her cousin who is a pilot with the Nigerian Airforce. Unfortunately, girls were not being taken back then. She then trained in South Africa, NCAT in ZARIA Kaduna and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Ladi started flying commercially in December 2009 but got her first pilot license in 2006.

Flying for Ladi commercially has so far been on the Boeing 727-200 as Nigeria’s first Female cargo pilot with Allied Air DHL. She flew within Africa on the 727-200 aircraft popularly known as the whisper jet. Thereafter, with Arik on the Q400 for 4 years before flying for Bristow on the Embraer Jet and finally Boeing 737 NextGeneration with Asky Airlines, a Pan African Airline.

Being a female Pilot I see being a female pilot beyond being an achievement but my own calling. God made me a woman first before I became a pilot. One of my life’s essence is to fulfil God’s purpose for me here on earth.

Love for flying What better way to fulfil your dreams than doing what you love to do. Imagine being opportuned to fly a man-made flying bird, how awesome can it be? Flying for me expresses the other side of humanity, showing and viewing how awesome God is. The plane is a brilliant invention by man. Being able to sit there in the cockpit and control this big huge metal ‘bird’ is amazing. When going through turbulence and bad weather, then you now come out of it and see the rainbow, it reminds you that there is balance in the universe, sometimes you face storms but it will come to an end and everything will be clear and beautiful.

Intimidated to be in a terrain dominated by men?

Honestly, as much as you want to be confident to say who you are, you will go through that phase of intimidation, everyone does at a point in time, you get to a situation where you doubt yourself, you are like “I am a woman, what am I doing here?” but after a while, it goes away and UNESCO. It’s about a method and process I because you train like everyone else, you believe would allow more girls to not just stay in go through similar circumstances and it school, but stay in school longer. could be more difficult because you have

to prove yourself as a woman. So yes, it Accomplished goals and intended goals comes briefly but trust me, it doesn’t stay Our annual award is twice a year, so we are done for long. for 2018, because the First Lady of Mozambique,

Isaura Nyusi received that category’s award for this Career goals year. What I am looking forward to is the continuI do not intend to restrict myself within ation of our film class, which I piloted in Namibia the cockpit but to go into further trainings in February 2016. So now because of its success, I and also be able to assist in training other work with partner companies like Sahara Energy, pilots as well. to teach more young women the basic steps of film making, so they can tell stories we would never What Plane are looking forward to have heard of. Sahara and I already had this project flying? done in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast in January Presently I am flying the Boeing 737. My this year, so I am looking forward to more countries first experience flying was a Boeing 727, a later this year. Sahara is cool like that.

200 series for DHL. People call it Durasic

because it is an awesome plane. I flew it in Advice for teenagers out there 2009 and stopped in 2012. It was an amazAlways dream because dreams are free, so dream. ing experience flying that after my flight Make sure you dream, and don’t dream tiny school. Currently, I am on the 737 Next dreams. I’ve met President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Generation owned by Asky Airline. Asky from Liberia twice, and she said something seriAirline is an international airline based ously very cool that I love so much. “If your dreams in Lome, Togo, operating internationally don’t scare you, then they are not big enough”. So, all over Africa, soon to begin operation to I advise teenagers to dream huge dreams. I do, all Paris. Most pilots dream of flying a Wide the time. Everyone should, even adults.

Body Aircraft. It will be startling to fly the

Dreamliner which is a Boeing 787. What What inspires You? makes the Dreamliner unique is that it Doing things people think won’t make sense, or actually flies like a bird. When it’s about to can’t be done. That’s a reason to do more, because land, the wings come down and when it’s the best way to fail is not to try at all. That is so true. taking off, the wings actually flip up. I have So, I have to try to do something. I have to, and I flown in it once before but as a passenger, pray for direction always because there is so much I sat by the window but one day, I will be to choose from and I am still learning. I’m only 15. in the cockpit flying it.

CHISOM OGBUMMUO ing such potentials I exude in communicating and representing the values and my choice of career path as I grew older.

Not Too Young To Run bill?

60% of the country’s population are youths within the ages of 18-35 years, statistically, we are over 170 million people which means there are over 100,000,000 youths. According to an analysis by “Rethink Nigeria” if the Nigerian youth population were to be an independent country, it will be ranked the 4th most populous country in Africa and 19th in the world. This is to say that The Not Too Young To Run bill as far as I am concerned is as relevant as eating a nourished three course meal daily. Its relevance reawakens political participation, prospects innovation, yields cognitive flexibility, establishes more creative methodologies, births ideologies for governance and discourage bad political vibes. Kudos to the team behind this, for if we have the right to vote, we should also have the right to be voted for.

How do you feel the youths can influence positive change?

Social and political participation, Less interest in negative vices, Commitment & collaboration fostered for development, Promoting Quality education, being tolerant and being a responsible citizen.

Advice for youths like you Dear young person like me, If you want something, you have got to make yourself available for it! If you can think it, you can do it. You are valuable and you need to start that which will propel you to share your gift of life with others, and if you have started, I know it’s hard sometimes! But don’t forget your future is so bright! So don’t stop. One more thing, Never allow anything to enslave your soul.

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BUSINESS DAY

WOMEN’S HUB

Friday 06 July 2018

KEMI AJUMOBI

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eadership Empowerment And Resource Network (LEARN) in partnership with Youth African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Network, recently had a conference tagged “Not To Young To Run, What next?”.

The event was convened by the Founder of LEARN, Abimbola Fashola, whose vision for the conference was to bring young political aspirants together to hear from people who have been in government at various levels to serve as inspiration to the incoming ones who intend to ride on the wings of the recently passed NotTooYoungToRun Bill.

The speakers on both the first and second panel included, Tokunbo Odutola, a seasoned legal practitioner and former House of Assembly aspirant in Surulere constituency; Ayisha Osori, A lawyer, consultant, a campaigner for social justice for women and girls and the author of Love Does Not Win Elections; Taofeek Folami, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Lagos Waste Management Authority; Japheth Omojuwa, Founder, The Omojuwa Foundation; Owei Lakemfa, Former Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress; Adebola Afun, Former Permanent Secretary, Office of Enviromental Services, Ministry of the Environment, Lagos state; Rotimi Oyekan, former Commissioner of Finance, Lagos state, Oyin Danmole, a seasoned lawyer, politician and active member of APC and Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity (VEEP).

It was an intriguing conversation on two different panels. They all shared from their experiences and inspired the young politicians who came to hear and learn. For Odutola, “You must contribute your quota at whatever level you are, start from somewhere, not necessarily the Presidency, you can start from being a councillor, start from the grassroot”.

Ayisha advised the youths to be well informed and engage in political analysis. She explained that the

L.E.A.R.N organises conference for the youths themed ‘Not Too Young To Run, what next?’ reason she decided to be involved in politics, under the PDP, was because in her words, “I come from a background with the perception that politics is a dirty game however, I ran for office because as a nation, I believed we could do better. Finance is crucial in running for office and I was able to raise some during my campaign.”

Japheth, speaking on ‘The role of the media in creating awareness in a democratic dispensation’, during his speech, said “Politics is a game of narratives and the media is about the people. The media gives us what we give to it. We control the narratives of the media, what narratives are you interested in? What kind of narratives are we feeding our readers? The best way to curate people’s thinking is to go to the internet and check”.

Sharing on the role of a Special Adviser in a democratic dispensation, Taofeek says “Civil Service is

Iretiola Doyle, Toyin PojuOyemade, others to speak at Becoming Conference 2018

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he Beautified Network is set to hold the 4th edition of her annual conference tagged-Becoming. The conference aims at empowering young women between the ages of 18 and 35 to discover

thorough, if you understand it then understanding the human behaviour is easy. Civil and public servants are the most important part of governance. No matter how brilliant you are, someone has to implement your policy for you. It is not only about efficiency but effectiveness.”

Still on the importance of the Civil Service, Afun stated that “The civil service is the engine room of modern democracy. They are equipped to champion the development of any nation. The officials are chosen based on merit, and because government policy must translate to tangible results, you must realise that in running for office, running is leadership and leadership is to serve”.

In the view of Owei, it isn’t enough to clamour for young people ruling because there is a way the ‘new’ can replace the ‘old’ yet the new is still

set in the ways of the old. The new breed can become the new greed.

The concept of NotTooYoungToRun is a revolutionary campaign, it is sound but not profound however, it is important for you to know that you can challenge a ruling party” he said.

In Oyekan’s view, speaking on the role of a Commissioner is a democratic dispensation, “You must be prepared for the challenges ahead.

The policy of the government is the function of the council. If you become a commissioner of finance like I was, the question is ‘how can you be effective with the money available for stated projects? When you eventually get there, the question is, ‘what do you want to be remembered for?”

According to Danmole, before you go into politics, you must understand what was, what is and what

ought to be. “The first thing is to get interested in politics. Politics is serious business, if you say it is dirty, who will clean it? You must be brave, firm and ready to say the truth respectfully. You must be submissive and willing to learn.”

Osaze shocked us all during his speech when he revealed that in Lagos alone, not to talk of other states, 1.4million PVCs were yet to be picked. He said that registration is the first step in a democratic process and it must be followed to the end. In his words, “you lose your democratic right to vote if you are not registered. Your power lies in your vote, use it and getting to any desired position is work, you will not get it on a platter of gold” The conference ended with participants asking questions from the panellists and getting responses. It was also a time of networking and mentorship.

purpose, live up to their full potential in order to contribute their quota to transforming their societies and the world at large as they listen to and learn from the true stories of older women who have attained certain level of success and significance in their respective fields.

This year’s conference which will hold on the 21st of July at NIKOMS Event Center, Yaba, Lagos, will attract women from all walks of life, gathered to be equipped and empowered as they listen to inspiring and transformational stories of women who have ‘become’.

Keynote Speakers for this fourth edition include Iretiola Doyle, Renowned Actress; Toyin Poju-Oyemade – Founder, Storyteller NG; Motunrayo Ade-Famoti –CEO, Money Stewards. These women will be sharing their unscripted ‘Becoming’ Stories to inspire, encourage and propel young women to live their best lives

regardless of their past or current circumstances.

For the very first time, the Conference will feature ‘Heart2Heart’ sessions where women who have been through pain and loss in certain areas and have overcome, share their stories with the aim of equipping women going through similar situations with wisdom and strength to go through, as well as healing where necessary. Sharing at the Heart2heart sessions are Eniola Adeniji, Ngozi Adebiyi, Bolutife Oladipupo and Tomisin Balogun There will also be a panel discussion on ‘Young Women and Politics: What’s the big deal?” to encourage young women get involved in politics following the ‘Not Too Young To Run’ bill that was recently passed.

“The empowered woman is a great asset to a thriving nation and there’s no better time to empower and equip women than now!” states Funto Ibuoye, Convener of the Becoming Conference.

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BUSINESS DAY

Omotola, Odugbemi’s Oscar membership invitation fresh boost for Nollywood?

Friday 06 July 2018

The invitations, which were issued to professionals in the film industry across 59 countries, on Monday, 25th of June, was in a bid to diversify the rank and file of the Academy of Motion Pictures, as well as a fulfilment of the Academy’s stated mission to include more women and more people of colour after the 2014 and 2015 ‘OscarsSoWhite’ controversies, which essentially shut-out non-white acting nominees from all 20 spots in the lead and supporting acting roles.

The invitations of both Nollywood veterans, with 926 others makes the 2018 class of membership the largest in history.

Jalade-Ekeinde told CNN that the decision to include African filmmakers and actors into the voting membership of the OSCARS signals Hollywood is ready to “move closer to African filmmakers.”

DESMOND OKON

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here may be a new wave of fresh boost for Nollywood, the second largest filmmaking industry in the world in the international community as two of its finest, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Femi Odugbemi gear up to take a seat in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, known as OSCARS, a professional organisation for those engaged in the production of motion pictures based in the United States.

Among other things, the academy was assigned the task of considering awards presentations; and only members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may nominate and vote for candidates for the Oscars.

Therefore, the membership invitation to the 2018 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science admits both seasoned Nollywood stakeholders into the league of influencers and decision makers within the illustrious filmmaking body.

WOMEN’S HUB

“I told them about how curious they were to get to know us and know about our market and how to work with us in future, but obviously, we did not explore as much as we should have to draw them in.”

Five years later, Jalade-Ekeinde thinks now is the right time for the industry’s stars to “take the bull by the horn.”

“They’ve given you some kind of key. It’s up to you to now open the door, to now leave it open for everybody to flood the place. And that’s what I intend doing,” she said.

Jalade-Ekeinde added that she has high hopes that a Nollywood movie will someday win an Academy award, “It’s happening in fashion, and in music with the Grammys and the MTV awards,” she said.

As indicated in the list, Omotola was invited for the roles played in the 2010 romantic drama ‘A Private Storm’ and the 2012 thriller ‘Last Flight to Abuja’ which brought her huge recognition.

Both movies have been known to have received awards.

Co-directed by Lancelot Imasuen and Ikechukwu Onyeka, A Private Storm received three nominations at the 7th Africa Movie Academy Awards including awards for Best Makeup, Best Supporting Actor and Best Nigerian Film. Last Flight to Abuja, written by Tunde Babalola; directed and produced by Obi Emelonye won the Africa Movie Academy Awards award for ‘Best film by an African based abroad’ On the flip side, the multiple award winning producer, Odugbemi who announced his invitation through his social media page was invited based on his documentaries: Bariga Boys and Literature, Language and Literalism about the late Nigerian writer, Daniel Fagunwa.

In 2008, he produced ‘Abobaku’, a short film directed by Niji Akanni. The film won the Most Outstanding Short Film at the Zuma Film Festival held in 2010.

The actress cum activist while reacting to her inclusion said she was “optimistic, and happy for Nigeria and Africa.” “This is an olive branch stretched out to us, and I believe that they are trying to let us know that we are welcome and that they are looking forward to us coming in. This latest recognition of African filmmakers suggests it is time to bridge the gap,” she said.

According to her, there was a curiosity about the industry after meeting Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis at a dinner to celebrate the Time 100 honour.

“I know that they are very inquisitive and they’ve been inquisitive for a while. Even in 2013 when I went for Time 100, I came back and I told colleagues about the discussions I had with Daniel Day Lewis and Steven Spielberg.

Killings: Women for Women International suspends operations in troubled Plateau DESMOND OKON

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n response to recent gruesome attacks in Plateau State which left scores dead, Women for Women International, a non-profit organisation offering support, tools, and access to life transforming skills to enable women move from crisis and poverty to self-sufficiency and stability has temporarily suspended all its field operations in Plateau State.

This decision, deemed a necessary measure to protect the organisation’s staff, came after a member of its local staff was

injured in the attack that killed many in the State where it operates.

At least 86 people were killed during a sectarian attack carried out in Plateau State, Nigeria, where Women for Women International operate. “All of us at Women for Women International are shocked by this spur in conflict, especially as it has touched our staff and the women we serve directly.

Sylvester Inedu, a dedicated staff member, was injured in the attacks. As he heals, the situation in Jos, where our country office is located, remains tense. To ensure the security of our staff, we’ve decided to temporarily suspend all programs until further notice” said Laurie Adams, CEO, Women

for Women International.

“The continued violence among Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers is sometimes deadlier than Boko Haram’s attacks. Fuelled by scarce resources in the region, the conflict has torn apart communities and families but continues to receive little to no global attention.

Women for Women International launched our work in Plateau State in 2003 when violence between the two communities escalated and we remain committed to our work for women and communities harmed by violent conflict in the region. As we monitor the situ-

ation to be able to resume our activities, we stand with our staff, the women we serve and their families and loved ones, and the people of Nigeria in this difficult time,” Adams said.

Confirming the statement, Country Director, Bukola Onyishi said; “It is true that sadly we’ve had to close our office on Monday, June 25 and suspend our field work until the situation stabilizes. One of our local staff was injured in the attacks and we want to ensure that our staff remains safe. Our program participants have also been displaced from their homes.

They are scattered all over in safer locations.

Hundreds of lives have been lost and many were wounded, properties were destroyed and there is still a lot of tension in the air. The state of hopelessness is horrible. Field activities have been suspended for the safety of our staff, but our hearts go out to our participants and their families.”w Onyishi further adds that “We’re hoping to resume work as soon as the situation stabilizes. We are currently monitoring the security closely. We pray and hope that peace and sanity returns to Plateau State as soon as possible”

Friday 06 July 2018

Teaching in Makoko, what an experience (Part 2) OSARUGUEMWEN B. OGBEIDE

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couldn’t sleep that night. I spent the night re-strategizing and thinking of ways to handle and manage my class better. I revised what I was taught at the TFN training institute. I thought of ways to win the hearts of my pupils and make them like me because children never learn from teachers they don’t like. I even went as far as buying a book to teach me how to speak Yoruba to aid my communication with the children.

The following days in that first week of school still weren’t easy for me. The children didn’t let me have it easy. But I spent those days getting to know and understand the children in relation to their environment and their community. Something that struck me was the level of poverty in that area. Most of kids would come to school hungry and not eat anything the whole day. A child would literally weep if he lost N20 he was to use to buy food and be overjoyed when I gave him N50 to replace the lost money. Some children couldn’t afford to buy books or biros to use and write. I would buy books for some of the students who couldn’t afford them and buy a pack of biros for them to use in the classroom to

write. Children would come to school in torn uniforms and spoilt school shoes because they couldn’t afford new ones. Many children worked more than they should for their level.

Some would wake up as early as 4am, bath themselves and their younger siblings, cook for their mother to sell in the market, fetch water, sweep and clean the compound, run to the market to help their parents open and set up their shops, and still have to be in school as early as 7am. Seeing this broke my heart. Yes it wasn’t these children’s fault that they were born into such a life but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t have access to quality education. I put all my effort into helping these children see that their future is bright and they are the hope of tomorrow despite their current situation. They need all the help they could get. Little deeds of kindness and words of love make this world a better place for them to live.

In about a month, I was gradually winning the hearts of some of the children. The children were fascinated by attractive things and items.

I bought charts and decorations to brighten the dull nature of the class-

room. I involved my pupils in the decorating of the classroom and they were excited about this. I would play videos and show them pictures while teaching and this always got their attention. I started giving out gifts and rewards to those who did well in the class and this encouraged others to do their best and put in more effort.

I also gave gifts every week to the 2 neatest students and this encouraged the pupils to try and dress in their complete uniform to school.

I also encouraged the children to speak in English. Whenever a child spoke to me in Yoruba, I would understand bits of what they were saying, reply in English and teach them the correct way to say what they had to say in English.

By the end of the first term, I was gaining ground in my class. I was gradually investing in my pupils. I was steadily changing their mindset from what they grew up with in their community to what they could be outside that community. I introduced them to what life could be beyond Makoko community and they appreciated and accepted it well. The children learnt to know what I liked and what I didn’t

Self control, a must have CHINYERE OKEKE

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watched with admiration as Joyce walked down the aisle to meet her husband to be. My heart swelled with joy as their hands linked into one another’s and tears welled in my eyes as he lifted her veil. The tears eventually came running down when he planted a kiss on her lips as the priest pronounced them husband and wife.

You wouldn’t blame me for those tears if I tell you what Joyce went through before she got herself a man. Joyce had been single for a long period of time. She attended all the youth programs in church. She never missed out on any singles program hosted in church. She sought for every opportunity to meet a Godly single guy. Any avenue that would fetch her a God fearing man, she went for it. But it was as if life itself was against her. None of the relationships worked out. It was either the men turned out to be pretenders, liars, cheats or not God fearing. Joyce had a friend

who attended those singles event with her. They both had similar problems. Her name is Amanda. After the single hang out proved futile, they stopped attending singles event and started attending night vigils and crusade. They sometimes organised vigils themselves and fasted till their collar bones protruded. This went on for years and finally, luck was just about to shine on them.

A new brother, from the same church visited their branch. His name is Isaac. Isaac, told the Pastor of his plight. He badly wanted a wife. “I need a Godly woman, with the fear of God. One with a good attitude and a gentle spirit.” He said wearily.

The Pastor of course had Joyce and Amanda in mind. He said to bro Isaac, “I understand how you feel. I believe God led you to me for a purpose. I know two ladies who have been praying to God for a husband. They are both God fearing and both seem like good wife materials to me. But you know what you desire, I don’t. So how about we come up with a plan or scheme to test them both right now.” Bro

Isaac who was obviously thrilled about the suggestion gave in.

“Sure, definitely. Why don’t we test them both on anger and self-control?” he suggested.

The Pastor readily gave in. “You will test them separately. He called Amanda on phone saying, “Sister Amanda, there is a gentle man I would like to introduce you to.” Trust me, she was thrilled. She knew just what the Pastor meant by that. Her joy knew no bound. She waited patiently for him. She imagined a guy with broad shoulders, wearing a well ironed tailored suit

like or wouldn’t accept them do.

I told them the importance of speaking English and learning how to read and write. A major challenge I faced in my class was the fact that my primary 4 pupils couldn’t read or write. I solicited for funds from people I knew to buy Queen Primer for the whole class to help the children learn how to read. I also used the funds to buy books and create a small library in the classroom. We have reading period every morning in the class. I watched as their interest in speaking and learning how to read grew because of this.

With my relationship with the other teachers and members of staff in the school, I did my best to develop a friendly and cordial relationship with them. I made sure I built a strong relationship with my partner who teaches in the other arm of primary 4. This was very important to me because I knew there was a lot I could learn from her. She had over 10 years teaching experience and most of it was in public schools so she knew the system well. I went to her whenever I needed help and she was always willing to help. The relationship between my partner and I was solid that other teachers including the head teachers were amazed at how we worked together so well. We got along so well that she would sometimes come to me for help when she needed it or send some of her pupils to me when she was having a challenge with them. We worked together to devise means to achieve all we had to teach for each week. We would combine classes so she could teach subjects like Yoruba which she was better at teaching while I teach subjects like Physical and Health Education which I handled better. This made the work easier and lighter for both of us.

A few days back, my partner came and told me she was impressed at how I have handled my kids so far.

She asked me “Miss Osas how do you do it?” She told me she is amazed at how I managed to get my pupils who previously always communicated in Yoruba to learn how to speak English now (their English isn’t perfect but their communication in English is better than it was before I started teaching them). She mentioned how astonished she was that a young girl like me who is below 25 and resides in Lekki could cope in such a hard environment and get to the children the way I did. She ended by saying she enjoys how we work well together and that she is praying that government doesn’t move her and

with expensive perfume walk up to her and introduce himself to her. Few months after now, they will be married. She was in her dream world when suddenly she felt water splash on her.

That jolted her back to reality.

She screamed without control, “Mr man. Can’t you see? What are your eyes for? For decoration? How can a grown man be so careless? You want to ruin my once in a life time chance. But you have failed. If they sent you, tell them that you didn’t see me.” She walked out on him still fuming and muttering to herself.

“Good for nothing fool, he just wet the cloth my husband-to-be should have seen me in. I have to tell the Pastor to shift this meeting.”

Just across her, Sister Joyce too was waiting for the same gentle man that sister Amanda was waiting for. She was excited about seeing him. She imagined what it will be like to have a ring placed on the forth finger of her left hand. What it would feel like to be called a “Mrs” She was jolted to reality when someone splashed water on her dress. She was so angry, she wanted to react but she held her tongue and instead said, “Can you kindly watch

BUSINESS DAY the school doesn’t change her class because she really enjoys working with me. She told me that even the head teacher was impressed at how I was coping. Her words made my day.

I was elated.

It’s almost the end of Term 3 and an academic session and a huge part of me is starting to miss my kids. (Yes, they are my kids). I have grown to love them and see them as mine. I am not just their teacher; I am their friend, sister, mother, confidant, mentor and counselor. At the end of school every day, some pupils will refuse to go home after I have dismissed them, saying they will leave school when I leave. This gladdens my heart and to appreciate them for this, I walk them close to their houses before I go my own way. Some of them would even say they didn’t want to go their houses and wanted to follow me home instead. Such statements make me smile even though we know they aren’t exactly feasible.

In the past months, I have watched my kids grow and I am very proud of them. I see them correct their mates and other students on certain things I’ve taught them. I see them tell other pupils not to fight, or not drag their feet when walking, or to stop running, or to speak English.

At moments when I hear this, my heart leaps for joy.

Has my first year as a teacher been easy? No it hasn’t. But has it been regret? Definitely not! Teaching is challenging. It comes with its stress. But despite that fact, I have peace and fulfilment in what I do.

I am proud to be a teacher. I am rewriting the future of children. I may not impact all 50 children I teach at the same time, but if it’s just one child that learns how to read, I am satisfied. If it’s just one child who couldn’t identify his alphabets before but can read up to 4 letter words, I am satisfied. If it’s just one child who has learnt not to take things that do not belong to him without asking, I am satisfied. If it’s just one child who learns to use his magic words, I am satisfied. If it’s just one child that learns to greet his elders, I am satisfied. If it’s just one child that learns to stop using insulting words, I am satisfied. If it’s just one child that learns to walk without dragging his feet, I am satisfied.

If it’s just one child that learns that fighting is not the best way to resolve or settle his grievance, I am satisfied.

If it’s just once child that realizes that he is the hope and future of tomorrow, I am fulfilled!!

where you are going sir?” He was moved to his bones. He had never seen such patience and self-control. Deep down he knew he had found what he wanted. He had good news for his Pastor. He was just saying “Pastor, I have met my wife” when Amanda came in. The Pastor thinking it was Amanda said, “Amanda congratulations.

So you passed the marriage test?” Isaac quickly replied, no she isn’t the one. It’s the other one. Amanda was dumbstruck.

Everything suddenly made sense. So the gentleman at that water scene was just a test. She fought the tears that welled in her eyes. She looked at the gentleman, and he was everything she imagined he was. She wished she could undo what happened but she couldn’t. The Pastor eventually called in Joyce and congratulated her. Months later, her wedding card was printed, and there I was at her wedding with tears of joy rolling down my cheeks with deep thoughts clouding my thoughts.

It does pay to have self-control.

It does pay to griddle your tongue. Be less quick to speak.

Go through your words before saying it. The only thing you can’t take back are your words.