BusinessDay 07 Jun 2019

businessday market monitor FMDQ Close

Everdon Bureau De Change

Bitcoin

NSE

Foreign Exchange

Foreign Reserve - $45.1bn Biggest Gainer Biggest Loser Cross Rates - GBP-$:1.27 YUANY-N44.35 Guinness Seplat N513.4 2.68pc N47.5 -2.06pc Commodities 30,527.07

Cocoa

Gold

Crude Oil

US$2,427.00

$1,341.40

$60.86

news you can trust I **friDAY 07 june 2019 I vol. 15, no 327 I N300

₦2,800,100.87

-0.20 pc

Powered by

g

Buy

Sell

$-N 358.00 361.00 £-N 459.00 465.00 €-N 398.00 404.00

www.

Market I&E FX Window CBN Official Rate Currency Futures

($/N)

Spot ($/N)

3M

360.67 306.95

1.13 12.66

NGUS aug 21 2019 360.93

M

0.03

10 Y 0.23

20 Y 0.00

14.44

14.50

14.54

5Y

0.76 12.88

NGUS nov 27 2019 361.38

NGUS may 27 2020 362.28

@

g

APAPA GRIDLOCK

51 Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s promise: “I will rid Apapa of gridlock in the first 60 days of my government.”

South Africa’s Ramaphosa points way to Buhari on timely constitution of cabinet

Inside details on 6 oil bloc licences revoked by DPR ore reasons have emerged as to why Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) decided to revoke five oil mining licences (OML) and one oil prospecting licence (OPL) belonging to

6M

g

Owen Omogiafo (3rd l), MD/CEO, Transcorp Hotels plc, and Shola Adeyemo (3rd r), public relations and marketing manager, Transcorp Hilton Abuja, flanked by World Travel Hostesses at the Africa and Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony where the hotel coveted 5 awards at the 2019 World Travel Awards in Mauritius.

OLUSOLA BELLO, DIPO OLADEHINDE & OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN

fgn bonds

Treasury bills

PanOcean, Allied Energy lose out

five companies.

The DPR, in a public notice issued on Thursday, said the revocation was based on a presidential directive to “recover legacy debts” owed by the companies operating the licences.

“Notice is hereby given that in furtherance of the presidential

directive on recovery of legacy debts owed the federation and in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Act Cap. P10 LFN 2004, the under-listed Oil Mining Leases (OML) and Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) have been revoked by the Federal Government of Nigeria for non-

compliance with statutory regulatory obligations,” DPR said a statement on Thursday.

An OPL gives its holder the exclusive right to explore for and develop oil and gas within a defined area while an OML gives its Continues on page 34

MICHAEL ANI t took South African President Cyril Ramaphosa only 96 hours to constitute his ministerial cabinet after he was sworn in for his first full term on Continues on page 34

I

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

2

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news Ecobank raises $50m in Eurobonds

DISCUSSING AFRICA’S ENERGY SECTOR L-R: Alex Cole, head, business development, Central Africa, Sahara Group; Eleni Giokos, CNN business Africa correspondent; Wale Ajibade, executive director, Sahara Group, and Valery Guillebon, CEO, Sahara Energy International, at the Angola Oil and Gas Conference in Luanda.

…offer oversubscribed 4.6 times SEGUN ADAMS

E

cobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the Lomé-based parent company of the Ecobank Group, has successfully raised additional $50 million in Eurobonds, the bank said on Thursday.

The bond due in April 2024 will be consolidated to form a single series with the $450 million 9.5 percent issued in April 2019 and due in April 2024, the pan-African bank said in a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The tap issuance was launchedasa RegS5-year USDdenominatedseniorunsecured bond offering. It was oversubscribed by over 4.6 times.

Ade Ayeyemi, group chief executive officer of ETI, on the success of the transaction, said ETI’s ability to open Africa to the world makes the bank a compelling choice as investor appetite deepens for emerging market offerings.

Ayo Adepoju, acting group chieffinancialofficer,comment-

ed that the success of the raise, “which was more than four times oversubscribed, confirms ETI as an attractive investment for fixed income investors”.

The issue price of the bond is 104.915 percent of the principal amount reflecting a yield of 8.25 percent, a difference of 1.5 percentage points and a significant improvement from the yield of 9.75 percent for the initial issue.

The tap issue with credit ratings of B and B- Stable, according to Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, respectively – in line with ETI’s corporate rating – have been placed with a broad range of institutional debt investors across Europe and Africa.

The transaction resonates with the pan-African bank’s strategic objectives and forms part of the proactive management of its balance sheet to diversify funding sources and extend the average debt maturity profile, the statement said.

The capital raised would be channelled to finance ETI’s general corporate activities and boost liquidity.

Angola’s new 6-year licensing rounds position it ahead of Nigeria STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

A

ngola’s two-yearold oil reforms have entered a new stage thanks to its launch of the first phase of a brand new six-year oil licensing strategy, making it Africa’s hottest oil and gas frontier, ahead of Nigeria.

Paulino Jerónimo, chief executive officer, National Agency of Petroleum, Gas, and Biofuels (ANPG), launched the licensing round at the Angola Oil & Gas Conference 2019 which ended Thursday. The licensing round covers a total of 10 blocks, including Blocks 11, 12, 13, 27, 28, 29, 41, 42 and 43 in the Namibe Basin, and Block 10 in the Benguela Basin.

This is the first public auction in Angola since the presalt layer blocks auction of 2011, and the first of a series of licensing rounds that will see as many as 55 blocks put up for public bidding or direct negotiations until 2025.

It follows the strategy set out under Presidential Decree No. 52/19 released last February to boost exploration, maximise reserves replacement and ultimately increase national production of oil and gas. The strategy maps the auctioning of 31 blocks under public bidding in 2019, 2020 and 2023. It is also the first to take place under the oversight of the ANPG. “The promotion of the blocks is starting immediately. The ANPG will embark on an international roadshow in September to engage with investors in Houston, London and Dubai prior to opening

the tendering process in October,” Jerónimo explained.

“Our message to the global oil industry is simple: Angola is open for business,” he said.

Angola is only the latest oil-producing African country in the news announcing bid rounds. Uganda did same recently; Egypt too.

While many countries sitting on oil reserves are keen to produce the commodity before it becomes less valuable as globalpoliciestoaddressclimate change come into effect, Nigeria isdraggingitsheelsonthereform of the oil and gas industry.

The reform efforts, which date back to April 2000 when the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo set up the Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee, have suffered serious setbacks.

President Obasanjo’s administration had set two growth targets for the nation’s oil and gas industry: to increase oil reserves to 40 billion barrels and production capacity from 2.5 million barrels per day to 4 million bpd by 2010.

Four licensing rounds were held during the Obasanjo administration – in 2000, 2005, 2006 and 2007 – although they were marred by controversy as they suffered shortcomings. Those were the last licensing rounds to date.

Oil licences are often perceived as the biggest reward for political patronage in Nigeria, with many oil blocks now ownedorpartlyownedbypoliticians and government cronies.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng www.businessday.ng

CBN mops up N170bn as financial market resumes HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

T

he Nigerian financial market on Thursday resumed activities after the two-day holiday, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mopping up a total of N170 billion from the system through its Open Market Operation (OMO).

OMO refers to the buying and selling of government securities, usually by the central banks, to control liquidity in the system.

The results of the OMO auction on Thursday showed that the short- and medium-term instruments were undersubscribed while the long-term tenor was oversubscribed.

A breakdown of the OMO auction results revealed that N20 billion was offered for 98 days to mature on September 12, 2019. The offer recorded total (under) subscription of N0.071 billion at 11.4 percent stop rates.

The N30 billion offered for 175-day tenor recorded a total of N2.13 billion subscription and sales at a bid range and stop rate of 11.63 percent.

The offer, which will mature on November 28, 2019, was undersubscribed.

For the long-term instrument, the CBN offered a total of N120 billion for 364-day tenor, which was oversubscribed by N155.78 billion at the stop rate of 12.48 percent.

The offer which matures on June 4, 2020 was earlier bid at a bid range of between 12.42 and 12.50 percent.

Ayodeji Ebo, managing director, Afrinvest Securities Limited, told BusinessDay that under-subscription of the short- and medium-term tenor instrument was as a result of the attractiveness of rates in the secondary market.

He explained that the longterm instrument was more attractive than the last primary market auction.

Analysts at Afrinvest had

earlier advised investors to take position in the expected OMO offering and stay alert for attractive medium-tolong-term bills available in the secondary market.

Overnight interbank rate, which is the rate at which banks borrow and lend shortterm money to each other, on Thursday dropped to 9.21 percent, from 10.21 percent on Monday, June 3, 2019.

Similarly, the Open Buy Back (OBB) closed at 8.29 percent, representing 1.00 percentage point compared to 9.29 percent it recorded on Monday.

In line with the contractionary monetary policy stance, CBN Bills were used as the major instrument for the conduct of OMO to manage the liquidity in the banking system.

The CBN’s annual activity report for 2018 showed that CBN Bills offered at the OMO auctions increased to N34.6 trillion compared with N13.7 trillion in 2017. The total subscribed during the same

period increased to N24.9 trillion from N12.3 trillion in the preceding year, while the amount sold rose to N22.3 trillion in 2018 from N11.3 trillion in 2017.

The high level of activity during the review period was attributable to the increased number of auctions to moderate the excess banking system liquidity occasioned by the payments of statutory revenue to the three tiers of government, other fiscal disbursements and maturing CBN Bills, amongst others.

At the foreign exchange market, the nation’s currency closed at N360.67k per dollar, gaining 0.02 percent over N360.76k traded on Monday at the Investors & Exporters forex window before the holiday, data from FMDQ show.

Nigeria’s external reserves rose to $45.1 billion as at June 3, 2019, representing 0.67 percent compared with $44.8 billion as of May 3, 2019, data from the CBN website indicated.

House of Reps passes 352 bills, resolves 1,413 motions, considers 2,015 petitions in 4 years ...8th NASS most persecuted, harassed in Nigeria’s history – Dogara JAMES KWEN, Abuja

T

he House of Representatives has passed 352 out of 1,643 bills presented in the lifespan of the 8th Assembly, resolved 1,413 out of 1,588 motions sponsored, and considered 205 out of 1,192 petitions received.

Edward Pwajok, chairman, Rules and Business Committee of House, who gave this breakdown Thursday at the valedictory session of the 8th Assembly, said in the first session, 685 bills were introduced and 68 were passed, while in the second session, 379 bills were introduced and 41 were passed.

In the third session, 446 bills were introduced and

94 were passed, while in the fourth session, 143 bills were introduced and 63 were passed, bringing the total bills passed to 352 out of 1643 bills that were presented.

“For motions, 1,413 were resolved, 1,137 were referred to various committees, 17 were withdrawn and 1 was deferred leaving a total of 1,588,” Pwajok said.

“The House received and laid on the table 1,192 petitions, laid and yet to be considered 22, considered on the floor of the House 205, and rejected 2. 108 of the bills came from the Senate, 1,465 of the bills were private members’ bills,” he said.

On other achievements of the House during the period

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

under review, Pwajok said the 8th Assembly made history by altering the constitution.

“This Assembly successfully altered many sections of the constitution, including giving the state legislature and judiciary financial autonomy.

We also lowered the age limit for those contesting in the ‘Not Too Young To Run’ bill, which opened up the space for our younger citizens to offer themselves to be voted for offices,” he said.

“We also amended the constitution so that if there is any vacancy or something happens to Mr. President, the Vice President will not only step in but retain power and the same thing too for governors,” he added. @Businessdayng

Pwajok said it was through the 8th Assembly that private members’ bill changed Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12, and it was the same Assembly that increased the minimum wage to N30,000 as against the N27,000 proposed by the executive.

“There are many progressive bills passed which are awaiting assent. There is one to remove age discrimination because we have earlier declared state of emergency on unemployment so that our employed youths and graduates will receive favourable attention by the public service,” he said.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

3

4

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

5

6

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

NEWS FG inaugurates governing boards for five health regulatory bodies Innocent Odoh & Oyin Aminu, Abuja

F

ederal Government has inaugurated five Health Regulatory Boards/Councils under the supervision of Ministry of Health, with a charge to the board and council members to exhibit more professionalism, teamwork and dedication in line with the Act setting up the Boards.

Permanent secretary, Ministry of Health, Abdulaziz Mashi Abdullahi, who inaugurated the boards on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, gave this charge in his remarks during the brief inauguration ceremony in Abuja.

He said due to the challenges in the health sector, it had become incumbent on all the chairmen and members of the boards and other stakeholders to collaborate towards achieving an effective and efficient service delivery in the sector.

The five boards inaugurated included: Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board of Nigeria (MRTBN); Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN); Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Registration Board of Nigeria (ODORBN); Health Records Office Registration Board of Nigeria (HRORBN), and Community Health Practitioners Registration Board of Nigeria (CHPRBN).

Abdullahi noted that over the years the Ministry had made some laudable achievements in oversight functions, adding that there remained a lot to be done to truly position the health sector to the desired status.

He listed factors such as professional and administrative misconducts, funding and legal issues pending in industrial court as the cause of unrest in the health sector. Others included unethical behaviours, indisci-

pline and lack of institutional capacity and many others, according to him, point out that these sometimes lead to industrial actions. He tasked the boards to address these factors promptly.

“The inauguration of these governing boards today is a further move by the federal government towards strengthening the health sector in line with the focus and direction of this administration, which is transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility. I therefore urge you not to betray the confidence and thrust reposed in you by Mr President,” he said.

He asked the board chairmen to collaborate, promising that the government would continue to create an environment for a better performance as the governing boards exercise oversight functions to ensure a smooth implementation of government policies.

Osinbajo, others to headline Techmoney Africa Summit starting Monday FRANK ELEANYA

N

igeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is one of the headline speakers at the maiden edition of Techmoney Africa Summit, which kicks off on Monday, June 10, at University of Lagos (Unilag). The summit intends to position the tech ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa for the right investors to locate.

Unicorn Making, organiser of the event, in a statement sent to BusinessDay, notes that Africa has benefited from unprecedented capital inflows into technology, with Nigeria as the premier destination for

tech investment. With Lagos driving tech investment and innovation, Nigeria, it says, is definitely leading the change.

It says the summit will ensure that technology, innovation and strategy leaders across major organisations and enterprise in Africa engage with the next generation of disruptive and exponential technology and opportunity, so that they can continue to drive value for internal and external stakeholders by being at the heart of the technology and innovation that is changing the world and providing real opportunity to change lives for the better.

“Dare we re-imagine a powered up, technologically

www.businessday.ng

advanced Africa, a society with reliable electricity supply, stable telecommunications infrastructure, fast and efficient transportation? This could transform Africa and the lives of its 1.3 billion citizens. We are ready to write our own story, change the script, introduce new players and take centre stage,” the statement states.

Aside from uniting tech entrepreneurs with investment opportunities, Unicorn Making hopes to create a platform to enable investments in the right areas using the right processes into the right products and build an enabling ecosystem for technology and innovation in Africa.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

7

8

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

NEWS Shell boosts domestic gas distribution across Nigeria OLUSOLA Bello

S

hell Nigeria Gas (SNG) has increased its gas distribution capacity by over 150 percent following the safe completion of its second gas train, the Agbara-Ota Capacity Increase Project. The world-class facility enables SNG and its partners to achieve regular gas supply to subscribed industries in Ogun State, while efforts are ongoing to reach more states.

Ed Ubong, managing director, SNG, said apart from increasing the distribution capacity in existing states where it operates, SNG was maturing opportunities to expand its gas distribution network to new states. On completion of its expansion projects, over 1,000 megawatts equivalent of energy will be directly supplied to variousindustrialparksandmanufacturing companies in Nigeria.

Ubong spoke with journalists at the recent media launch of the 2019 edition of the Shell in Nigeria Briefing Notes,anannualpublicationdetailing the activities of the business interests of the global energy firm in Nigeria covering Shell Nigeria Gas, The Shell Petroleum Development Company,

ShellNigeriaExplorationandProduction Company and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company.

SNG completed the first phase of its pipeline expansion in Abia State, connecting manufacturing industries in the Osisioma area directly to pipeline gas. It will also deliver pipeline gas to the IPP consortium that provides electricity to the popular Ariaria Market in Abia State – one of the largest open-stall markets in West Africa, with over 37,000 shops. The 1st Phase of the Ariaria IPP project commissioned

by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 currently provides electricity to over 4,000 shops.

Ubong said, “Shell as a leading energy company is committed to supporting the Federal government’s aspiration to grow the domestic gas market, making domestic infrastructure investments under the right commercial conditions and continuing to birth domestic gas projects that will be major game-changers in Nigeria’s quest for cleaner energy sufficiency, industrialisation and economic growth.

“SNG currently supplies natural gas to over 100 industrial and

commercial customers, mostly in Ogun, Abia, and Rivers states. This drives industrialisation, providing employment for the skilled and unskilled local population in addition to directly improving internally generated revenues in these states.”

In 2017, SNG entered into an agreement with the Rivers State for the distribution of gas to industries in the Greater Port Harcourt area and its environs. In 2018, it explored opportunities to distribute gas to the Lagos State Government as part of the embedded power ‘Lights Up Lagos’ initiative. Efforts are ongoing through partnerships to develop opportunities for natural gas distribution to wholesale and retail customers in Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Epe areas of Lagos area.

He said this year, in collaboration with the Nigerian Content Development and Management Board and the Bayelsa State Government, SNG has signed commercial agreements with customers to supply gas to industrial clusters and parks in Bayelsa State, close to the SPDC JV Gbaran Ubie world-class gas facility.

Agreements have also been signed for off take of the Assa North gas project in Imo State.”

SEC’s armed personnel man Oando headquarters, disrupt normal business activity ENDURANCE OKAFOR

A

s of 3pm on Thursday, June 6, reports reaching BusinessDay was that armed security personnel, on the directive of the SEC, were still present in Oando’s head office building.

The armed security personnel became residents in Oando’s Ozumba Mbadiwe office on Monday, June 3, occupying the ground floor reception as well as the stairwells, intimidating employees from resuming to business as usual for fear of accidental discharge.

Reports began circulating on Monday that the armed men had laid siege at their office and had caused widespread alarm and panic among Oando employees.

An employee of one of the corporate tenants at the

Wings Office Complex, where Oando’s head office is located, said he was taken by surprise when he got to the office on Monday to see so many armed personnel in the ground floor reception.

“It just seemed odd when I saw all these policemen but I didn’t take much notice – the building has quite a number of tenants so I didn’t think too much about it. Later in the day everybody in the office was talking about how they had taken over the Oando offices and then I got a little panicked.

“Having no idea what the issue is with Oando I was worried about the outcome of a fullblown altercation with armed personnel. You know in this Nigeria one has to be careful when dealing with someone with a gun,” he said.

The presence of the armed men on the directives of the

SEC has intimidated the company’s employees and disrupted normal business activities in Oando. The disruption to normal business activity will not only impact the company but will also impact the country at large, specifically since the release of the SEC’s directives the company has seen a downward spiral in their stock price.

A letter from the Lagos commissioner of Police clearly states that they were deployed to Oando on the directives of the SEC director-general to maintain law and order.

What does the SEC hope to achieve through intimidation in a free country? As Nkechi Agbanusi, a legal attorney, said: “The SEC’s action is what you can describe as Dictatorial Democracy, on the surface they are the regulator with the best interest of the market at heart, but in truth they are destroying value.”

Apapa: Road users not swayed by temporary respite CHUKA UROKO

A

papa, the headquarters of traffic congestion in Nigeria, has in the last 72 hours been largely free and motorists within this period have had pleasurable, unencumbered ride to the port city.

Given the daily unpleasant traffic experience on Apapa roads and bridges, the gridlockfree experience of the last three days calls for celebration, but in the opinion of residents, business owners, port operators, and sundry visitors to this oncerevered city, it is too early to clap.

“We have seen gridlock-free Apapa roads and bridges before.

Personally, I am not thrilled by what I have seen in the last 72 hours, which seems to be a make-up for the failed 72-hour presidential ultimatum for the trucks to vacate the roads and bridges,” Emma Ameke, a port worker, told BusinessDay on Thursday.

“Again, don’t forget that two of these three days were public holidays when there were no activities at the ports. If there is any day to clap for, it is just Thursday,” Ameke said.

But in all of this, what is important now is that there is respite here for motorists and even commuters. Anybody who was part of the last week Friday ‘night-vigil’ on all routes

to Apapa would appreciate and celebrate even one day that he or she either drives or commutes to this port city without sweat.

It is not yet clear what could be responsible for the fragile respite, which is almost total as there are no trucks at all on both Ijora and Eko bridges.

But our findings reveal that truck owners have committed to co-operating with the new presidential taskforce by taking their trucks off the roads.

Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO), had explained to BusinessDay that part of the reasons for the persisting gridlock amid the presidential order was Federal Government’s perceived double standard in the application of the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) developed to guide traffic management in Apapa.

This, he alleged, was why the new taskforce was struggling with traffic management, making motorists and port users continue to surfer long travel time.

“The Federal Government has directed the new taskforce to give priority to and allow free access to trucks belonging to companies such as BUA, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Honeywell, Dangote as well as sided trucks, reefers, silos, fish trucks and

France 2019: Super Falcons go for three points against Norway Anthony Nlebem

S

uper Falcons say they are in the mood and spirit to take all three points off the Grasshoppers of Norway in their first match of the 8th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in Reims on Saturday. This is coming after the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) cleared all their outstanding entitlements in a move to motivate the girls for success in Poland.

One of only seven teams to have made it to every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals since the inaugural competition in 1991, the Falcons have made it out of the group stage only once previously, and that was 20 years ago.

A 2-1 defeat of North Korea and 2-0 win over Denmark, on either side of a 7-1 roasting by Team USA, steered the African champions to the quarter finals, where they came back from three goals down to draw with Brazil before losing by the golden goal in extra time.

Nigeria’s closest walk to the knockout rounds since then was Germany 2011, where they lost by the odd goal to both France and Germany and then defeated Canada by the odd goal.

Midfielder Ngozi Okobi told thenff.com: “It is true that we have not really pulled our weight at the FIFA World Cup before now. But I can say we have the team to do that here in France. The NFF www.businessday.ng

has done well by ensuring good preparation for the team, with the tournaments that we played.

“A lot is hanging on the first match against Norway.

If we are able to get a good result, then we will take it from there.”

Norway comes into the encounter with the mindset that they should be able to steamroll the African champions. Only last week, the Grasshoppers hammered another African representative, South Africa 7-2 in a friendly. And going back 24 years, at the second edition of the FIFA World Cup staged by Sweden, Norway lashed Nigeria 8-0 in a group stage encounter in Helsinborg. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

flatbed trucks.

“The directive should have been for all trucks to vacate the roads to Apapa in order to enable the traffic management officials to control the traffic rather than treating some categories of trucks differently from others,” Ogungbemi said, stressing, “since SOP is selective, it has failed from inception.”

He pointed out that the same exemption and priority consideration was given to all trucks carrying export containers, adding that the taskforce and the presidential committee that set up the taskforce, needed to review the SOP in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to come up with a workable procedure.

“The selective nature of the directive is the cause of the problem. The directive should not be selective. It should have been total by letting all trucks to leave the roads. This is why we are not getting it right,” he added.

Whether the present free state of the roads and bridges is as a result of the harmonisation of the SOP or any other procedure, especially the callup system being promoted and managed by NPA, what motorists, residents, business owners and port users want in Apapa is an environment that is enabling for living and doing business in the port city.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

9

10

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

comment

comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

Your Excellency the governor THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

C

ongratulations for being sworn into the exalted office of chief executive of your state. Under our constitution, you are not only the principal administrator but also the chief security officer of your state.

Some of our jurists opine that, under our 1999 constitution you enjoy more prerogatives than the incumbent of the high magistracy of our great federal republic. You would have drawn the envy of the Roman Proconsuls of old.

Your constitutional immunity confers on you power to commit murder and get away with it. Yes, it seems a rather extreme thing to say, but that is the order of things on ground.

One of the northern governors once told us how he woke up one morning, beholding through the window of his mansion at Government House, the kaleidoscope of cars and the ghosts of unwashed masses passing by. He had an epiphany: “It is true that while we are not god; but god, in his infinite mercy, has given us absolute power over the affairs of men”.

One morning this governor was on his motorcade to Abuja when he beheld a beautiful building on the outskirts that had been constructed to lintel level. He asked his personal aide if he knew the owner. It belonged to Ahaji X, who had the misfortune of being one of his political rivals. There and then he placed a call to his Chief of Staff. He left a simple instruction. If he returned that evening and the said building was still standing he should consider himself

sacked. Without waiting to find out the reasons for that executive order, the Chief of Staff went to the Ministry of Works to get some bull-dozers. Within minutes, the property was brought down. It wasn’t that the man had constructed the building without planning permission. His Excellency merely wanted to leave the man in no doubt as to who is the boss of all the bosses – the Capo di tutti Capi.

What Sir Winston Churchill terms “the rare ambrosia of power” can be quite intoxicating. It often gets into people’s heads and they soon begin to behave like the possessed of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia’s great nineteenth century novelist. It takes an enormous level of civic virtue, maturity and selfrestraint not to get carried away by the allurements of power.

One of the governors was in the habit of regularly calling up judges to issue diktats on the cases pending in their courts. No such thing as the independence of the judiciary exists in his political lexicon. Investors cannot implement any big profitable projects without giving the governor his own stake. Another was known to issue all the government contracts - large or small - strictly to his own fronted companies. No single individual other than members of his own family was ever empowered in financial terms during his eight years in office.

Until the recent initiative of the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), all the local government finances were usurped by the governors.

One notorious nut-case has been in the habit of deliberately stoking up local embers of inter-ethnic violence so as to justify quadrupling his monthly security votes. One was openly videotaped taking bribes in dollars and pocketing same in his starched flowing gowns.

This buffoon has desecrated the ancient and venerable Kano Emirate just to spite the king. Others are creating new emirates out of old chiefdoms in the Middle Belt to advance what Chief Olusegun Obasanjo describes as “Fulanisation and Islamisation”.

One of the eastern potentates – who suffers from a strange virus known as iberiberism - was in the habit of erecting idolatrous statues of foreign leaders while spending the money of the state in building private luxury estates in the name of his wife. He was only barely thwarted from making his son-in-law his own successor while purchasing the senatorial ticket for himself and the House of Representatives ticket for his own wife. He literally turned his benighted state into a personal family estate while oppressing everybody with his barely literate, overbearing loquacity. Like many others, before handing-over he borrowed massively from commercial banks at extortionate rates; condemning his people to debt peonage. I hear the EFCC will soon take him in.

Your Excellency, Mr Governor, let me hope your case will be different. You have an opportunity to write your name in gold. From day one, you must take charge. It is easy for your advisers to run rings round you and turn you into a prisoner in a gilded pavilion. You must know the state of the finances. You will need prudent in managing the scarce public resources. In an era of dwindling oil revenues, we must brace ourselves for secular decline in the level of statutory transfers from the federal centre.

You must give priority to generation of internal revenue. But you can only do that effectively when peace reigns and when you expand the possibility frontiers of welfare and economic opportunities, especially for medium, small and micro-enterprises.

You must also audit your human resources. Of late, many states have had difficulty paying salaries and statutory pensions to retirees. Ghost workers abound. You need a rigorous HR audit to flush them out. Jobs must be matched with functions, roles and outcomes. You need tough love. If there are redundancies, bite the bullet and cashier them off. You need a civil service that delivers.

Equally important is selecting your team. This has been the Waterloo

‘

Nepotism is not only bad governance; it belongs to the original sin of corruption.

of many a well-meaning governor.

The easiest temptation is to bring in relations and old schoolmates. That would be a mistake. History will judge you, not them. Bring in strictly people with ability that will help you achieve your objectives. Donald Trump used to counsel that one must “bring in people that are smarter than you are - and distrust them”. But your cabinet should also reflect the diversity of the state while prioritising merit and performance. Nepotism is not only bad governance; it belongs to the original sin of corruption.

I would also counsel you to get an expert to design an economic policy blueprint for your administration. Four years will pass before you know it. You must hit the ground running, as the American Marines would say. Reinvent yourself as a performer. Be hungry for success. Set clear goals and targets for your team. Build a true cabinet in the sense of a team united together by a common vision. Be ready to kick arses.

Follow the ancient African proverb which enjoins the king to “speak softly but carry a big stick”.

You will need all the wisdom and knowledge in the world. You will also need good luck. Politics in our own climes is a very murky business. The waters are always brimming with sharks.

They will test your patience and resilience at every turn. You must therefore develop the skin of a crocodile. Keep a good sense of humour.

Celebrate success. Give praise where praise is due. Discipline and punish. But avoid destructive criticism.

A good leader is also a teacher. Cultivate networks of informants who will tell you the naked truth, not what they think you want to hear. Be wary of fawning praise-singers and political prostitutes.

Good luck!

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)

#SaveTheVultures: They need all the help Temi Bamgbose

V

ultures are not just birds. They are active players in the seamless flow of the cycle of life. They are the unpaid cleaners of bio-debris who diligently perform their natural task of preventing diseases from spreading through dead animal. If there were no vultures, humans would constantly be plagued with outbreaks of diseases which may potentially emanate from decomposing carcasses. And if humans were to pay for the services of the vulture, the bills would be in billions. Yet, the vultures are under severe threat.

Currently in Nigeria and some other parts of Africa, vultures are killed in volts daily. This must stop.

Vulture population is nearing total collapse.

From the millions of individual birds a little over a decade ago, the population has dropped to a few hundreds. There are about 30 vulture species throughout the world. Eleven of these species are found in Africa while six are native to Nigeria. Of the 11 in Africa, eight are threatened while five of the six species in Nigeria are on the brink of extinction. Whether we realize

it or not there is a state of emergency in this regard. These birds who have, by their mere act of feeding, saved the government huge sums of money by preventing outbreak of diseases such as botulism and anthrax are now ending up as mere game, in traditional medicine markets, in constant conflicts with man over habitat and dead from accidental poisoning.

Naturally, vultures shouldn’t be in this acute situation. According to many traditional folklores, vulture are sacred birds or messengers of the gods helping to take sacrifices to the heavens. For example, the Yorubas of West Africa have it in their oral poetry and incantations that “...akìí pa igún, akìí j igún, akìí fi yigún borí”.

Meaning “..we don’t kill the vulture, we don’t eat the vulture and we don’t use the vulture for sacrifice. It is like that in many other cultures even beyond Africa. Sadly, Ibadan and Ikare are among the three hubs of vulture sales in Nigeria, joined by Kano, according to a 2017 survey by NCF. The same features that make the popular raptors sacred and protected seem to be working against them in other climes. There are many reports of vulture parts seen in voodoo markets and in possession of traditional healers and sorcerers. Recently a vulture and its owner was “arrested” by the police in Maiha, Adamawa state over beliefs that it was associated with ill-luck. The woman who held the vulture captive on the other hand, claimed that it was

www.businessday.ng

for protection of her husband who was in jail.

Thankfully, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation stepped in to make sure that the vulture is not returned to its tormentor.

Apart from belief related killings, vultures are declining in numbers through mass poisoning.

It has been found that residues of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac (sold under several trade names) for the treatment of pains in cattle is one of the leading causes of mass poisoning of vultures. In a bid to prevent sick cows from dying, herdsmen usually use this drug to treat their animals during the long nomadic grazing movements. If the animal eventually dies, and the scavengers feed on it, they die en masse. Also, vultures are common sights in abattoirs. When vultures feed on leftovers from the slaughterhouse it is usually their last meal.

To prevent unintentional mass killings like this, a thorough orientation must be given to all in the meat production value chain. Diclofenac, originally developed for human use only, is cheap and very effective for cattle farmers, so the knee-jerk approach of banning the drug may be hard to implement. Rather finding a safe substitute and ensuring it is adopted swiftly by cattle farmers is a viable option.

A multidisciplinary team of expert must work together to end this killings before the consequences become obvious. The Agricultural Extension apparatus of the nation must

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

be called upon to meet this challenge. Animal science associations, cattle rearers associations, the National Orientation agency, Center for Disease Control, and the Environment ministry must join hands with NGOs such as NCF, Birdlife International, A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI) among others that have taken it upon themselves to preserve and be the voice of these voiceless birds.

A verification of what ailments vulture parts are believed to cure should also be made and empirical proofs that vulture parts does nothing to treat such disease should be presented.

Religion leaders need to assure their followers that the vulture is another unique creature in the universe just like any other and that they are not demons or evil spirits. This way, the public health epidemic waiting to happen if vultures go extinct would be prevented. The government also needs to set up an apparatus that sees to resolving conflicts between wildlife and humans.

There is an ongoing campaign to save the vultures. Everyone has a role to play. Learn facts about the vultures today and tell it to others. You never can tell, one who needs to know may just be in your network.

Bamgbose studied Agricultural Extension at the University of Ibadan. He is a wildlife and conservation enthusiast. He can be reached on temi@conservationsng.com he tweets @pomare3

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

comment

11

comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

Weaponising knowledge: The Huawei 5G saga and the shape of things to come HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

T

he travails of Huawei, a Chinese phone and technology company, have been much in the news lately. First there was the arrest, in December 2018, in Vancouver, Canada, of one of its directors, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the founder and CEO of the company – Ren Zhengfei. She was accused of defrauding financial institutions and breaching the ban placed by the US government on dealing with Iran.

Since then, her team of lawyers have been working day and night to fight off a request for her extradition to the USA to face criminal charges.

The Chinese government is upset about the action of the United States and has accused America of unfairly targeting the Chinese company. There is an ongoing Trade War between the two countries, with Donald Trump imposing tariffs on Chinese products and the Chinese mulling ways to retaliate.

The received wisdom in international affairs is that trade treaties already signed between sovereign nations should be honoured, even if governments change.

President Trump has torn up the rule book. The problem is that his own rule book, by which he intends to play,

is still shrouded in a certain mystery. He has announced several times that his predecessors allowed other countries to take advantage of the United States.

As evidence, he points to the substantial trade deficit with China.

The Huawei saga has continued to develop, and to expand in scope.

Huawei was founded in 1987 in Shenzhen, Guangdong, in China. It produces mobile phones and fixed broadband networks. It also offers consultancy and managed services, as well as multimedia technology, tablet computers and dongles. In the thirtytwo years of its existence, it has been a phenomenal success story, and a great advertisement for the can-do spirit of Chinese people. In 2018, the company made a profit of US$108.5 billion. It has 188,000 employees, 76,000 of whom are permanently engaged in Research and Development. In one year, it invested $13.8 billion in Research. In 2017, it filed more patents for new inventions than any other company in the world.

Huawei products are sold in 170 countries, and its networks reach one third of the world’s population. In 2012, the company overtook Sweden’s Ericsson as the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world.

In 2018, it overtook Apple as the second largest manufacturer of smartphones, behind Samsung.

In 2018, Huawei became the subject of accusation from the US government that it was engaging in cybersecurity breaches with its mobile equipment and software. The company denied the allegation, but it persisted.

It appears, on reflection, that it suddenly dawned on the Western world recently that Huawei had become a front-liner in the cutting edge of infor-

mation technology and had, perhaps, edged ahead of its Western counterparts in the area of 5G technology. Some of the countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom were already, on a purely merit basis, considering awarding contracts to Huawei for the development of 5G services which would be critical to their national security architecture.

At this junction the accusations against the company from the USA became strident. It was leaving a ‘back window’ in its software, the Americans hinted darkly, through which Chinese security agencies could intrude and monitor ‘the free world’. There was, of course, no proof for the allegation.

Some people wondered if the Trump administration wanted to use the company as a bargaining chip in its trade negotiation.

Mobile technology – the spine around which much of present-day living hangs, is a battleground between companies eager to outdo one another.

The ‘big boys’ – Apple, Samsung, Huawei and others, spend tens of billions of dollars every year hiring the best brains and creating a fertile space for invention. Everyone wants to be the one that would come up with ‘the next big thing’.

Much of the innovation, up till recently when the Chinese stepped in, had been centred around Silicon Valley and other parts of the USA. Interestingly, the world to date has shown a unity in the usage of mobile technology that it does not show elsewhere. iPhones are bought and used not just in America and Europe, but even more, in China. The popular Android system is run on mobile phones made in Europe, as well as in those made in China. Common application-systems such as the Google bouquet function

‘

…by ‘demarketing’ Huawei, America could be forcing the tech world on a binary growth path

in phones made all across the world, from Russia to Japan. The presence of the same, or at least compatible software in mobile gadgets all across the world makes it possible for such gadgets to be bought and used virtually all over the world, irrespective of where they are made. There is, in reality, up till now, a happy, seamless technological ‘one world’.

That ‘one world’ is now under threat, principally from Donald Trump and his men. The truth may be that, at heart, they are miffed that China, from being a second-rate consumer and ‘copier’ of technology, like Nigeria, is now in the forefront of the world, in 5G technology, in aerospace, and even in military technology. This is totally unacceptable to people who see it as an act of faith that America must always be ‘number one’.

How will the high-stake drama play out?

There is a strong fear, articulated by commentators such as Fareed Zachariah, that by ‘demarketing’ Huawei, America could be forcing the tech world on a binary growth path. The Chinese could develop alternatives to Google and Android. Equipment running on such Chinese platforms may not be popular in the western world, true, but the Chinese could push with aggressive marketing to carve out alternative market domains in their homeland, Africa and much of Asia.

It would be a new technology ‘Cold War’, with China - not Russia, now as the ‘enemy’ of the ‘West’. It is not certain how such a war would play out, but it could be the beginning of the end for America’s global dominance.

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

Beggars in uniform

OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA

B

eggars have existed in human society since before the dawn of recorded history. Street begging has happened in most societies around the world, though its prevalence and exact form vary, according to Wikipedia.

Historically therefore, begging is as old as the world. In ancient Palestine and Greece, beggars were people who had been examined by the authorities and certified that they cannot help themselves, they cannot help their situations to improve in any form by themselves or family members, and finally, the authorities cannot help them either.

The authorities, after certifying them helpless, gave them permission to stay on the street corners and highways to beg, with official uniform – literally called garment (begging garment or cloak). With this, passers-by knew them and could throw a coin or two at them as the spirit led. This set of people included the blind, cripple, those with leprosy and other contagious ailments.

One thing was common with the beggars, once they were free from the ailment or their situation changes for the better, they were expected to drop the garment or cloak of begging, and the authorities must be notified.

In recent times, begging has been restricted

or prohibited at various times and for various reasons, typically revolving around a desire to preserve public order or to induce people to work rather than beg for economic or moral reasons. Various EU nations ‘poor laws’ prohibit or regulate begging from the Renaissance to modern times, with varying levels of effectiveness and enforcement. Similar laws have been adopted by many other nations.

Enough of this boring history. The issue at hand is brought about by the lamentation of a young reporter BusinessDay sent to cover a programme in Cote d’ iVoire. Giving account on his return, he painted a pathetic and shameful way our uniformed men and women at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, beg. “It is now almost a culture that the job of an Immigration or Customs officer is not complete until he or she asks a passenger to buy them tea,” he said.

Tea in this instance is a corporate way of asking for stipend for doing the job they are paid to do. Thus, the act of begging by some officials in Nigerian airports has become an issue for travellers who continuously make it a subject of discussion at the boarding and arrival gates.

“From the entrance of the airport to almost the last person you see before boarding your flight, everyone wants something from you, the rate at which they beg is alarming,” a foreigner departing Nigeria from Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos who asked not be identified, said.

Although, the rate at which this act happens at the arriving end of the airport is quite different from the departure. The officials at the arriving end do not beg as much as those encountered by passengers when leaving the state or country.

The fact that the arriving passengers are tired from a long flight and are not wearing smiling face like those who are just about to embark

www.businessday.ng

on a journey, coupled with the rush at the arriving end as the passengers hurry to pick their luggage are some of the reasons that may be adduced for this.

What has become a near normal begging tradition in Nigerian airports is not the same in other African airports, as visits have revealed that the officials in Togo, Ghana and South Africa airports do not use slangs and different methods to beg but however collect when they are given of your own free will.

On the other hand, the constant gridlock in Lagos, and I am sure, in many other states, is a major and daily avenue for some police officers to beg. Most sadly, some of them even carry their duty riffle by the side to beg.

Daily, commuting through Amuwo Odofin from Festac to Mile 2 through the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, there is a permanent police checkpoint between the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and the diversion going to Badagry. Yes, the officers are there to help control traffic, but their other major pre-occupation is to beg. From afar they easily spot fine vehicles, they get up and go near to chat with the driver and occupant.

What you hear is, your boys are loyal; anything for your boy, even for pure water, etc. as they do this, the traffic they are supposed to help ease is gradually building up behind.

The Police officers in Apapa now make fun out of it. The other day, a colleague on his way to the office was stopped and asked by a Police office – Why is your tyre rolling? He stopped to realise that the officer was only joking; because he wondered, if his tyres do not roll how can the car really move? the officer laughed as well as my colleague. At the end, my colleague parted with N500 when the officer asked him to - just buy him water. At times, they tell you straight – your boys are hungry. What a disgusting way of making extra income. It is so all over Lagos.

I know in Nigeria nobody ever agrees his/her

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

take home is ever enough, but to wear a uniform representing the Federal Republic to beg should be seen as an aberration from normality, especially to those of us who have been fortunate to have visited other nations.

The recent Presidential directive on Apapa gridlock was seen as a welcome idea, but shockingly (as I conclude this write-up) I was trapped on the bridge - inward Apapa - where traffic from Ijora and Island meet on the bridge, with the right route to Mobil Road. What was the problem – the Police officers were negotiating with a truck driver not minding passers-by, while the FRSC officials looked hapless, making the whole essence of the directive misplaced.

I remember a children programme I once watched. The presenter asked the children what they wanted to be and why. A child said, “I want to be a Police officer to collect money on the road (this is a paraphrase of the actual response).”

From the modus operandi of these officials begging in uniform it clearly shows they joined the services to collect money, just as that little child said years ago.

The time has come for these beggars to realise that the uniform they are in confers on them the collective responsibility of all Nigerians. Begging in it desecrates our collective responsibility to ourselves, nation and the future generation that may grow up to think that begging in uniform is a norm. As somebody once said, Nigeria has good laws but lacks the will to enforce them.

The authorities, as a way of preserving public order, should induce uniform personnel to work rather than beg for economic or moral reasons.

This should be followed with varying levels of effectiveness and enforcement.

Osa Victor Obayagbona is assistant News Editor, BusinessDay

@Businessdayng

12

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Publisher/CEO

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

Nigeria and the African Continental Free Trade Area

I

n April 2019, Gambia ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), helping the AfCFTA reach its twenty-two member threshold. It means the trade area will take off later this year with or without Nigeria.

It is a shame that Nigeria has not yet signed nor ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

We must now do so or risk being left behind by the rest of the continent.

Curiously, Nigeria’s reasons for refusing to sign the trade treaty, in which its international trade policy expert was the lead negotiator, was that it does not want to become a dumping ground for goods from African and European countries, who would use smaller countries to gain free entry into the Nigerian market. “We will not agree to anything that will undermine local manufacturers and entrepreneurs, or that may lead to Nigeria becoming a dumping ground for finished goods,” President Buhari tweeted while declining to sign the

treaty last year. The special adviser to the president on Media and publicity, added subsequently that the president said the country is yet to fully understand the economic and security implications of the agreement.

This only brings to focus the embarrassing lack of coordination within the Federal Government and its agents.

Does it mean that on such an important issue, policy papers and memoranda had not been previously read by the President and Vice President before the crucial FEC meeting that ratified the treaty? Does it mean that the Vice President did not consult the President to know his thoughts before leading the entire cabinet to ratify a treaty with which their Principal disagreed?

What do we make of the fact that the globally-respected trade policy expert, Ambassador Chiedu Osakwe, who led Nigeria’s negotiations and played a very significant role in bringing African countries to achieve this momentous milestone, must now be extremely embarrassed that his President never believed in the job

he was tapped and mandated to spearhead.

And what exactly are Nigerian manufacturers afraid of? What have we been for imports from China and South East Asia all these decades?

Which African country has a greater manufacturing/trade capacity than Nigeria outside South Africa? What does South Africa “dump” in Nigeria that harms us? The treaty is also not merely about goods. What about services? What about intellectual property? These are areas in which Nigeria enjoys significant advantages. However, by refusing to ratify the African Trade Treaty, we have effectively ranged ourselves against all our major trading partners. This is almost like our own Brexit, except that the President’s decision to act against the advice of his entire Cabinet lacks a credible basis.

Does the government realise that in Africa, it has, perhaps, the largest number of its citizens living and doing business in other African countries? Does it realise that perhaps, beside South Africa, it has the largest number of its banks and companies pur-

suing internationalisation programmes in other African states? What will become the fate of Nigeria’s biggest industrialist now operating in over fourteen African countries?

Perhaps, the president needs to consider the benefits of the AfCFTA to Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The AfCFTA has the potentials to permanently change Africa’s fortune from dependence on assistance to increased trade.

Intra-African trade, which currently stands at only 10 percent, is the lowest in the world and one of the chief reasons for Africa’s backwardness.

Our salvation ultimately lies in trading amongst ourselves and consequently developing our economies and not in isolationism as Nigeria is tending towards.

Although rumours from the presidency has it that the president will sign the agreement before the implementation, we cannot be consoled by rumours. The president needs to sign the treaty now. It is a shame that Nigeria that should be leading such initiatives, now finds itself struggling to follow from behind.

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

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Dick Kramer - Chairman Imo Itsueli Mohammed Hayatudeen Afolabi Oladele Vincent Maduka Keith Richards Opeyemi Agbaje Amina Oyagbola Bolanle Onagoruwa Fola Laoye Chuka Mordi Mezuo Nwuneli Charles Anudu Tunji Adegbesan Eyo Ekpo

Enquiries NEWS ROOM 08169609331 08116759816 Lagos 08033160837 Abuja

}

ADVERTISING 01-2799108 08034743892 08033225506 SUBSCRIPTIONS 01-2799101 07032496069 07054563299 DIGITAL SERVICES 08026011296 www.businessday.ng The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria.

01-2799100 Legal Advisers The Law Union

OUR Core Values

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

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

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

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

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

comment

13

comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

Now that we are on our way for 2019 Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

S

o our elected leaders have arrived their destinations having been voted in for another four years. It is the time for them to think deep about their four-year term as a report card and remember what it is like especially for those who lost. It is exhilarating to get in there I am sure, but the job is beyond the arrival at the position. This is when all those ideas you nursed when you were struggling to get the attention of the voters must now come to play. Did you have a manifesto? What did it say? How much of it are you planning to execute? Did you mean a lot of what you said or it was just election rhetoric?

This is when you should look inwards and ask yourself what it will be like when you are done in four years. It looks very far away but trust me, four years goes like a flash. You must look back and see a legacy project. One that posterity will remember you for. It is almost like marketing. What are the gaps? What is the need assessment?

What do your people need most?

Remember, it is not really about you.

It is not about your family. It is about the people - those who voted you in.

If you are a governor, this is when

to see how to make your state stand out. For so long only city centres mattered. What are you doing for the other parts of the state beyond the capital? In collaboration with the local governments how can we change the landscape of the rural areas. How can we attract people to come and invest in there and provide jobs for our boys and girls wandering around in our hinterlands with nothing to do? How are we concerning ourselves with rural electrification to help the entrepreneurship spirit of our youths?

How are we concerned with food preservation? As I travel through Nigeria’s hinterland, I see wasted fruits, mangoes and oranges because of lack of a preservation system. Will the private sector invest in your state? Will direct foreign investment come knocking?

How about security?

I have watched with trepidation the comments by those we want to attract who say “Oh no, there are parts of Nigeria I cannot go to”. How are we making our country safe for citizens and non-citizens alike?

I have also kept a keen eye on social media and what I see is pretty devastating. Trolls’, abuse and more abuse. The worst case of ethnic jingoism, language unguarded and all manners of vitriol. I worry about those spewing forth nonsense, disunity and untruth. Everyone is holding their side, building a formidable army of fake reporters and fanning the embers of violence. No one is on the side of Nigeria and therein lies the tragedy.

Someone who is not even familiar with Nigeria’s history, unschooled and un-researched will take to social media and say the most untrue things

about places and peoples; it boggles the mind.

These days’ even those who know are dancing naked on Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. So, to what end is your post if people in one part of the country begin to kill innocent citizens on your account? When you repost an image of a beheading whose source you cannot ascertain, how do you recover from the consequences. When the violence erupts who are you going to tell sorry? As a board member of the Professor Ibrahim Gambari led Savannah Centre for democracy, development and diplomacy, we have long preached against hate speech with the slogan, “Hate speech is not free speech”. But the freedom and anonymity of the internet fuels the worst kind of hatred. People lie about how they love each other, love Nigeria but go on social media or hire others to go for them and then demolish those precepts. A nation that is growing daily in distrust needs to have an honest national conversation.

Today everyone is everyone’s brother’s keeper in pretence and politicians are not helping matters.

Civil servants are supposed to be above board with the nation’s interest at heart but stories emanating even from the civil service is as scary as they come. Nepotism, favouritism, corruption and lack of knowledge in many instances makes us wonder how the few who are upright are coping.

I have always wondered whose nest we are furthering whether as politicians or as civil servants when people who have no set skills are hired into a position to fulfil a political need or to

‘

We need men and women at national and state levels and everywhere, who are brilliant at what they do, who understand Nigeria’s cultural ethos, who are disciplined and who hate corruption as all Nigerians ought to

prove that we are helping our families.

Political thugs cannot be converted to civil servants with no knowledge of the job description. Your brother or sister cannot become a technical adviser just because they are related to you. The consequences are everywhere. People cannot write simple reports and cannot deliver proposals and cannot even respond to memos.

In technical and professional fields, we are throwing up fake doctors and fake journalists. When we meet our contemporaries on the international circuit we cannot rise. With the brilliance with which we are endowed we ought to hire right each time.

Faulty hiring leads to poor outputs and a nation on its knees. From State Commissioners to Ministers to Chief executives, our watchword should be competence. In other climes, that is the only language they understand.

It is irrelevant to them if the person is your brother or first cousin, if he/she is a non-performer, the appointees would not have not done the nation any good. Proper checks must be carried out.

We need men and women at national and state levels and everywhere, who are brilliant at what they do, who understand Nigeria’s cultural ethos, who are disciplined and who hate corruption as all Nigerians ought to.

Men and women who understand the urgency of national development and are committed to the nation. Men and women of excellent pedigree, empathy and integrity. We are hopeful.

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

Business, boardroom politics and the crabs in the bucket

EIZU UWAOMA

W

hen you put one crab in a bucket, it will claw and craw its way out and foray into the wild and explore. But when you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket, don’t bother covering the bucket. It won’t successfully when they are in a group, you can travel and come back and you’ll meet all of them together.

This is so because the crabs in a group is such that no crab even though they are all trying to get out of the same bucket will allow any other crab to successfully climb out of that basket. So, if any of it tries to climb out, the others will claw on it to bring it down. This cycle continues for as long as they stay together in that bucket. So in the end, no one goes out.

In life and business circle, there are systems and people with that state of mind; the crab mentality of “if I can’t have it, neither can you”.

The modern day witchcraft has left the shrine to the internet, and down into the boardroom. From cyber bullying to cartels and self-interest based clique that undermines growth. This starts of from ‘’what is in it for me?’’ degenerating into unhealthy politics. This moves from spreading fake

news intentionally to hurt another person all in an attempt to reduce that person’s brand equity, self-confidence of others (especially someone known or they personally know) striving to achieve more. This is mainly out of mediocrity, envy, resentment, spite, conspiracy, or competitive feelings, to halt their progress. Nowhere are the political battle lines more sharply drawn than in the boardrooms of our modern corporations. The battlefields include questions of promotions, nepotism, executive compensation, conflicts of interest, absence of transparency, ineptitude and corruption. Many boards are inadequate for the tasks with which they are charged (which is mainly supposed to be corporate, business and operational development of strategy in that order). But the skirmishes that take place in the boardroom find debilitating replication in the rest of the organization and a trend that eventually destroys everyone in the long run, through its multiplied effect.

We can achieve more from playing down politics to sincerely supporting each other by accepting our differences for a common good. We grow better through a series of levels.

There are three levels of growth: dependence, independence and interdependence. Some people are very independent in relationships, others are dependent, and a number of people are co-dependent (which means they put aside their own well-being to maintain a relationship with another). The goal is to use your independence to get more dependent people independent. Then moving everyone else to interdependence just like a real system should. This is because interdependence is a role only Independent people can play. There is a lot in terms of cheering and supporting one www.businessday.ng

another and interdependence we can learn from the Jewish people in America.

The Jewish phenomenon of success is amazing. When you look at the statistics, the Jews make up only 2% of the total U.S. population, yet a whopping 45% of the top 40 of the Forbes 400 richest Americans are Jewish. Onethird of all American multi-millionaires are Jewish. The percentage of Jewish households with income greater than $50,000 is double that of non-Jews. 20% of professors at leading universities are Jewish. 40% of partners in leading New York and Washington D.C. law firms are Jewish. 25% of all American Nobel Prize winners are Jewish. The fundamental of this is the ownership mindset transferred through parenting and nurture that grows them into interdependence within themselves. It’s in the concept of “take care of your own and they will take care of you”.

In close comparison to the Jews is the Chinese and Italians. I once had a chat with an Italian who explained that in their circle, whether it’s the street or the boardroom, as you go higher, it gets colder. As some point, elimination begins. Business becomes kill or be killed. You are constantly in tables of foes who pretend to be friends, if you’re not careful, innovatively competent and well put together, you’d move from the table to the menu, from eating to being eaten. But they run on a delicate balance between friendship and assertiveness. In the words of Al Capone from the Mob, “You can get much further with a kind word and a gun then you can with a kind word alone”. Regardless, the battle is an iron fist in a velvet glove and a reminder to still carry everyone along. That’s a delicate balance for competition.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Healthy competition is key; it brings about the right motivation and innovation which usually propels everyone forward. But when it grows into full fledge jealousy then that’s backward integration into the cave age. In our primitive state, everyone’s DNA has a little bit of jealousy. It’s just an emotion, till you let it control you.

We all have an element of jealousy, some conceal it, some show it, while some have acquired the grace through nature, nurture by upbringing, environment spiritual enlightenment, social and emotional intelligence and mentality to have won that battle of the heart. I believe the source is insecurity. Haters and hating is a two way battle we fight in different ways.

When people hate you, it’s because you have something in the hate that they want. It’s usually by someone close in your circle. This because, whoever is close enough to kiss you, is close enough than anyone else to stab you. We all want something, but must we all hate? Personally, my secret recipe to eliminate any trace of jealousy in me is to go out of my way to help, even if it’s to get on my knees to pray for my competitors and consciously celebrate them first in my spirit before I try to draw closer or even mere saying congratulations to them. The secret to success is to add value to that of others. We have to celebrate ourselves. Your success has nothing to do with my failure. Healthy competition is key; it brings about innovation which usually propels everyone forward.

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

@Businessdayng

14

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

cityfile Waste: LAWMA begins mop-up operation JOSHUA BASSEY

I

L-R: Vishal Kaveti, commercial director, The La Casera Company plc (TLCC); Chinedum Okereke, managing director, TLCC; Ruth Ode, senior brand manager, La Casera, and Aderonke Adesoye, assistant chief scientific officer, LAWMA, at Pic by Olawale Amoo the 2019 World Environment Day Commemoration by TLCC in Lagos.

Accidents claim 1,618 Nigerians in 3 months JOSHUA BASSEY

T

he Federal Road Safety Corps says t hat at l e a st 1,618 people have lost their lives through road accidents between December 2018 and February 2019.

The figures are contained in the report of Road Traffic Crash for D e c e m b e r, 2 0 1 8 a n d January 2019, released b y t h e Fe d e r a l R o a d

Safety Corps (FRSC).

According to the report, over 21,577 people were involved in road crashes involving cars, minibuses, motorcycles, trucks, tankers and trailers.

Further analysis shows that the top five causes of road accidents were speed violation, w ro n g f u l ov e r t a k i n g , dangerous driving, tyre burst and brake failure.

The FRSC report identified Kaduna-Abu-

ja road as the most prevalent route in cases of accident fatality within the period under review.

Similarly, the LagosIbadan, Abuja-Lokoja and Kaduna-Zaria were also identified as routes with high record of road crashes.

The report called for the intensification of patrol and rescue operations along routes with high crash records to further reduce casualties.

“There is need to conduct workshop on vehicles safety education as w ell as safe usag e due to high involvement of cars, minibuses and motorcycles in crashes.

“As a matter of fact, the corps needs to step up enforcement on overspeeding or initiate a high powered technology to detect and stem the tide of over-speeding as part of operational activities,’’ the report added.

Abia: Youths protest alleged murder of 23-year man by police UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia

Y

ouths in Okwulaga, Afaraukwu, Ibeku, in Umuahia North local government, Abia State have protested the alleged killing of one Chukwubuike Onuoha, aged 23 by a trigger-happy police sergeant identified as Collins.

The youths, who took to the streets of Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on Wednesday, are demanding that the policeman who allegedly killed Onuoha, be arrested and brought to justice.

It was gathered that the deceased who was relaxing in the village square with his

mates, reportedly told his assailant to dim his light as he approached them with a police vehicle he was driving.

Apparently angered by the audacity of the victim to ask him to dim his light, the assailant was said to have jumped out of the car and rained abuses on the deceased.

It was further learnt that following the exchange of words that ensued, the trigger-happy policemen reportedly pulled out his AK 47 rifle and shot Onuoha twice on the hand and chest, and later fled the scene when he noticed his victim had given up the ghost. www.businessday.ng

One Ngozi Ogbonna, who spoke on behalf of the protesting youths, said that the assailant lives in the same neighbourhood as the victim, even as he described the late Chukwubuike as a quiet and unassuming young man.

When contacted, Geoffrey Ogbonna, the police public relations officer of Abia police command, condemned the killing and described it as an unprofessional act by the policeman.

Ogbonna said that the Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Ene Okon, has dispatched a team of homicide detectives to the scene of the incident, while

another team of senior police officers had equally been sent to commiserate with the family of the deceased and the traditional ruler of Okwulaga Afaraukwu autonomous community.

Meanwhile, a statement

by Abia State government signed by Ifeanyi Agbai, permanent secretary, ministry if information, has called on the Commissioner of Police to ensure that thorough investigations are conducted into incident with a view to bringing the assailant to book.

The state government has equally commiserated with the deceased family.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

n line with the recent executive order issued by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, against indiscriminate waste dumping of waste, the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has flagged off an intensive waste evacuation operation tagged, “Lagos at 4am”, to tackle the menace of improper waste disposal in the state.

“The early morning operation is to enable us restore the state to the path of cleanliness and environmental sustainability.

The operation starts by 4am; when we roll out our operational vehicles at strategic locations across the metropolis to sanitise the environment and mitigate waste challenges”, said Obinna Onyenali, spokesperson of LAWMA. Onyenali added that the authority would not leave any stone unturned in the quest to clean up black spots across the state and urged Lagosians to

support efforts of the state government by avoiding indiscriminate dumping of waste and patronising their assigned PSP operators.

Meanwhile, LAWMA has reiterated its commitment to tackling the challenge of environmental degradation in Apapa area of Lagos occasioned by the inaccessibility of the road for waste evacuation.

“As you are well aware, we recently raised alarm over the deplorable state of the environment in Apapa which was majorly caused by utility vehicles blocking the roads, thus making it difficult for LAWMA trucks to operate in the area. “ Ho w e v e r, w e w i l l intensify our efforts to clear backlogs of wastes dumped within the Apapa environment as traffic situation in the area improves”, said Onyenali.

Recall L AWMA had recently called on the authorities in Apapa to speedy up the process of decongesting the roads to make it accessible for effective waste evacuation.

Fire destroys N200m cashew nursery in Ogun

A

cashew nursery based in Kobape under Obafemi Owode local government area of Ogun has been razed by fire, destroying 130,000 seedlings and eco-friendly nursery structure said to worth N200 million.

Sotonye Anga, owner and operator of Sotonye Anga Farms, speaking on Wednesday, said that the fire started in the early hours of June 1.

Anga said that the cashew nursery was the largest in Nigeria and arguably in Africa and had employed over 500 people in the Ogun community since its establishment.

“The fire started around 12 midnight. On the piece of land, we had two nurseries but since they were built apart, one of the nurseries was not touched by the fire, while one was completely burnt down.

“The nursery was a major employer of labour in @Businessdayng

the community. We created over 500 jobs, if we had succeeded in taking the seedlings into the field it would have created over 5,000 jobs,’’ he said.

Anga, who is also the national publicity secretary of National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), said that the farm would have significantly contributed to the total cashew production output in Nigeria.

“Although we tried to salvage but only about 2,081 seedlings were saved but still they are of no economic benefits because they cannot be planted.

So, you see that nothing is left,’’ he lamented.

According to a police report obtained from Gogo Peters, the farm manager, who had immediately reported the incident to the Owode Egba divisional police headquarters, the fire was said to have been caused by thunder and lightning.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

15

CHI limited new product variant resonant with Nigerian consumers

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

Pg. 16

MARKET

Banks’ return on owners’ funds improve to 5 year-high in Q1 SEGUN ADAMS & ISRAEL ODUBOLA

N

igerian banks demonstrated greater efficiency in utilising owners’ investment to generate earnings as the return delivered on shareholders’ fund accelerated to a 5-year high in the first quarter of 2019.

The return on equity (ROE) of all the 13 listed banks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) climbed marginally to 4.16 percent in the review quarter, 0.04 percentage points more than 4.12 percent recorded in the previous comparable period.

The return on equity ratio is a key efficiency indicator that evaluates

the ability of a company to generate profit from its shareholders investment. ROE shows how much profit each naira of common stockholders’ equity generates.

A high ROE when compared with peer(s) or historical performance of a company

indicates how the company is effective in using equity financing to fund operations for growth and expansion.

Given the first quarter ROE figures, lenders were able to generate N4.2 from every unit held in banking stocks in 2019, an addition of 4

kobo year-on-year, while they grew profit marginally to a 5 year high of N255 billion.

Since 2016 when Africa’s largest economy witnessed its first economic downturn, lenders have been growing their returns on shareholders’ fund steadily,

even though the latest growth seen in three months to March 2019 has been the weakest.

The combined ROE figure for the 13 lenders averaged 3.75 percent in 2015, dipped 0.43 percentage points to 3.26 percent in 2016, and rebounded to 3.75 percent again in 2017, after which it trended upwards to 4.12 percent and 4.16 percent in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The five tier-one lenders, First Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA , GTB and Access Bank generated N5.9 on each unit of common stock in the review quarter, N2.8 higher than N3.1 realized by their mid-tier counterparts.

While the big banks saw improvement in their ROE by N1.7 in the

first quarter of 2019, the figure for the mid-tier banks contracted 2 kobo.

The cumulative net income of the 13 quoted banks grew faster than their shareholders’ equity at 64 percent versus 23 percent, without adjusting for inflation.

The combined aftertax profit of the five big lenders surged 72 percent to N185.1 billion in 2019’s first quarter, from N107.4 billion five years earlier, higher than the 43 percent appreciation in eight mid-cap lenders net earnings to N69.4 billion.

Total shareholders’ funds of big lenders climbed N1.1 trillion higher to N3.1 trillion in the review quarter, while the figure shed N200 billion for mid-tier banks in similar period.

Company

Pep’s revenue surges 7% amid challenging retail market OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

P

epkor, owners of clothing retail store, Pep and Ackermans brands, says it recorded a satisfactory results during the six months ended 31 March 2019 amid shrinking consumer wallet and challenging retail market.

The company’s sales and earnings rose in the six months buoyed by marketshare gains in clothing and merchandise. The clothing outlet also grew its market share in the period with the group’s retail store footprint expand to 5332 stores, including 164 new store openings during the six-month period.

Group revenue rose 7 percent to R35.3bn. Excluding one-off items, operating profit increased by 6.9 percent to R3.4bn and headline earnings per share grew 3.4 percent to 52.4c. The company did not declare a dividend. Its PEP Africa contributed 3.4 percent to group revenue during the period and reported like-for-like sales growth of 10.8 percent in constant currency terms.

While its operations in Nigeria performed very well as the dynamics of the local the market is better understood With the clothing and general merchandise segment, the groups’ largest contributed revenue growth of 5.2 percent to R23.1bn and a 6.6 percent rise in operating profit to R3.1bn.

Its building-materials segment contributed a 1.5 percent increase in revenue to R4bn however had 66.9 percent fall in operating profit to R42m.

However, the devaluation of Angolan and Zambian currencies resulted in a sales decline of 3.4 percent in reporting currency terms. The business continues to focus on enhancing processes, systems, and efficiencies as it consolidates its base. Zimbabwe remains a concern and operations have been intentionally slowed down while viability is assessed and risk is managed.

The retailer, previously known as Steinhoff Africa Retail, said its “defensive market positioning”, partly hinged on competitive

prices, boosted growth.

“Management remains cautiously optimistic about the retail environment and expects improved consumer confidence following the completion of SA’s elections,” it said.

The group expects to grow its store footprint,

with space growth in the financial year 2019 of between 3 percent and 4 percent on a net basis.

Pep’s growth in Nigeria has been further hampered by booming second hand clothing market over the last couple of decades in major cities across the

country, dominated by low-income earners and part of the shrinking middle class that can no longer afford brand new clothing.

The second hand clothing sector has often been criticized for contributing to the tepid growth of the retail and garment pro-

duction industry in Nigeria. Despite efforts by the government to regulate it, the business is still thriving and textile manufacturers in the country struggle with limited capacity for clothing production, poor patronage, and meagre purchasing power.

L-R: Adewale Yusuf, CEO, Techpoint.ng; Shamsideen Fashola, group head, consumer liability and segment management, First City Monument Bank (FCMB); Babajide Asegbeloyin, team lead Techspace Ecosystem Business; Bolaji Akinola, investment manager, Transsion Future Hub, and Laura Li, senior investment manager, Transsion Future Hub, at the Techpoint Inspired Conference, supported by FCMB in Lagos.

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

16

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

CONSUMER GOODS

CHI limited new product variant resonant with Nigerian consumers KELECHI EWUZIE

C

HI Limited, a major player in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry has introduced into the market Frooty Happy Hour for consumers desirous of a healthy and refreshing fruit drink.

Available in 100ml pack size, the brand offers more in terms of natural fruity benefits for a shot of refreshment to upwardly mobile consumers and is also the most affordable quality fruit drink on the market shelf.

Probal Bhattacharya, marketing director, CHI Limited said the response from consumers was a validation of the brand’s avowed commitment to being the leader in innovation and price strategy in the fruit beverage space.

He added that at a price point of N25, Frooty Happy Hour by Chivita is the most affordable value for money offering for a healthy refreshment drink in the market.

According to him, “We are driven relentlessly by a desire to refresh the Nigerian consumer in a way that resonates with their evolving lifestyle of healthy living and quest for great tasting refreshment.

Frooty Happy Hour by Chivita is a result of such quest, and we are pleased that consumers love it”.

Joseph Eteng, a graphic designer in Calabar commended Chivita for producing Frooty Happy Hour which he attest is a healthier and affordable beverage option for refreshment from the range of products available on the shelf.

“I have since taken to Frooty Happy Hour by Chivita

because it resonates with my lifestyle and is a clear favourite for its natural fruity benefits as well as refreshing goodness.

Its handy size means I can have it for refreshment during and after a hectic day’s schedule,” Eteng said.

Daniel Elijah, a Lagos based journalist agrees that Frooty Happy Hour by Chivita is uniquely refreshing, affordable, great tasting and comes in a variant of his favourite fruit.

“Frooty Happy Hour by Chivita comes in my preferred fruity variant of Red Berries and is ideal for frequent shots of great tasting refreshment throughout the day. It is very affordable and its 100ml size ensures that I can take several packs along with me to the office to ensure optimal value addition in terms of quality refreshment from my beverage,” he added.

L-R: Ben Langat, MD, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, and Maureen Ifada, marketing manager, Peak Milk, serving breakfast packs at the Peak Breakfast activity on World Milk Day, in Lagos.

COMPANY

Malta Guinness joins Muslims in marking Durbar fiesta in Zaria, Kano ADEOLA AJAKAIYE, in Kano

M

alta Guinness, Nigeria `s leading non-alcoholic brand joins hundreds of Muslims in celebrating the annual Durbar Festival in the in Zaria and Bauchi by giving them a taste of it non-alcoholic premium Malt drink.

The Durbar festival was organized to mark the end of the Muslims holy month of fasting and giving, and Malta Guinness involved was a follow up to earlier visit to various Mosques in the Northern parts of Nigeria, to share the goodness and vitality of it Malt drink with Muslim faithful.

Two weeks ago, the company commenced breaking of fast event at the National Mosque

in Abuja and it was followed by visits to several other mosques in Abuja and Kaduna.

The event in Kaduna was held at Al Manar Mosque Ungwa Rimi, Nawair- Ud- Deen Mosque, and Sabo Central Mosque, respectively, and similar event was also held at Alfurqan Mosque, Alibaba Mosque, and Fagge Central Mosque, Kano, last week.

Speaking at the occasion, Ife Odedere, assistant brand manager of the Malta drink brand said: “By celebrating Ramadan with Muslim faithful across the country, Malta Guinness is reaffirming its position as the leading non-alcoholic drink in Nigeria.

“This visit has provided us with a platform to showcase the

energy –giving attributes of the Malta Guinness drink which revitalizes the bodies of consumers”, he disclosed.

The major event at the ceremony was the donation of ablution kettles to the Mosques they visited, as well as donation of free Malt drink to Muslims observing the fasting.

In addition to these Mosque visits, Malta Guinness is also supporting a good number of Ramadan programs on TV and Radio stations to educate and inform Muslims on best practices during the holy month.

Also the company will be visiting additional mosques in Bauchi in the coming week, to spread the message of greater giving.

L-R: Ore Famurewa, corporate affairs director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO; Ajiboye Suraj, MD, Smap Farms; Awawu Galadima, dairy farmer; Ben Langat, MD, FrieslandCampina WAMCO; Amina Idris, dairy farmer; Wale Arikawe, sales director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, celebrating 2019 World Milk Day at FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s Milk Bulking Centre, Iseyin, Oyo State [Theme #EnjoyDairy with a #PeakBreakfast].

MARKET

Meristem seeks greater value for Nigerians through healthy living MODESTUS ANAESORONYE

M

eristem, a leading investment firm and capital market conglomerate is seeking healthy living for its numerous clients and the Nigerian public as a critical factor in achieving increased productivity and value creation.

The company believes that its slogan ‘Lets grow wealth for you’ is only realizable when the person involved is healthy to be able to create value, stating that this is why it is taking it as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility to ensure that Nigerian’s begin to imbibe healthy living culture.

Meristem made this disclosure during the maiden edition of Green Fest, an initiative of the company held at the Muri Okunnola Park, Victoria Island, Lagos. The healthy living festival aims at encouraging the practice of organic nutrition, fitness activities, and overall health consciousness in order to

foster personal growth and increased productivity.

Held under the theme, ‘Unjunk, Green Fest’ witnessed the convergence of businesses in the healthy-living space and participants who received enlightenment on consumables, natural skin and hair care, physical and mental fitness coaching and more.

Sulaiman Adedokun, deputy managing director, Meristem told journalist during the event that the company was doing this to create value for its clients and the society.

“This is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to our clients and the general public. We believe that for you to add value, the source or spring from where you create value must be watered. When you are healthy you can do a whole lot of things because your mind and the entire body system are coordinated.

Adedokun noted that what Meristem was doing today is a Green FEST, that is, live www.businessday.ng

green, eat well, so that entire body system can be activated to enable you add value and contribute meaningfully to yourself, to the society and to the environment, “We want to see people active, we want to see people happy, and we want to see people healthy so that cost of managing health issues can be significantly minimized, such that such resources can be channelled to investment or something meaningful that give happiness than, spending that in the hospital.

Solape Akinpelu, head, Brand & Marketing Communications at Meristem also in an interview said the event is all about raising a healthy nation, one person at a time.

“You find out that living a healthy life can reduce frequency of your doctor’s visit; it curbs diseases if you are conscious of how you live. Basically it should be everybody’s business to eat healthy, to live active, to maintain a healthy

L-R: Uchechi Nwaukwa, chief technology officer, Signal Alliance; Bode Fagbemi, director, business development, Signal Alliance, and Bright Ubamadu, product manager, CSP (Cloud Solutions Provider), at the CloudGo launch for SMEs.

L-R: Kolawole Akintimehin, brand manager, Gulder NB plc; Ben Umeh, regional business manager, Gulder NB plc, Onitsha, and Freya Doessel, brand manager support, Gulder NB plc, at the Gulder Red Night Party In Onitsha.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

MONEYINSIGHT

17

Nestlé launches innovation challenge to empower qualified startups in Nigeria CALEB OJEWALE

N

estlé’s Research and Development (R&D) innovation challenge has been launched in Nigeria, as part of the company’s efforts to contribute to the local innovation ecosystem.

It is expected that the challenge will help boost local entrepreneurship, as well as provide a platform for start-ups, researchers and developers to contribute to local sustainable growth by bringing breakthrough ideas to the market. The innovation challenge aims to bring partners together to identify sustainable and scalable science and technology solutions that help to accelerate the innovation of products that meet local consumer needs.

The R&D innovation challenge covers Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. The goal is to work collaboratively with start-ups and universities to identify sustainable and scalable science and technology solutions that help to accelerate the innovation of

Jadesola Adedeji

products that meet local consumer needs.

The R&D innovation challenge calls for novel solutions across four areas: environmentally friendly packaging solutions, sustainable cocoa plantlets, affordable nutrition and new routes to market.

According to Stefan Palzer, Nestlé chief technology officer, there is a growing number of Africa-based entrepreneurs and local researchers with creative ideas to address issues facing

their communities. “This R&D innovation challenge presents for our company an exceptional opportunity to leverage the outstanding creativity, while helping to turn the most promising ideas into reality,” Palzer said.

To engage with local start-ups, Nestlé partnered with Kinaya Ventures as part of the Spring Fellowship Program, which is designed to accelerate corporate start-up partnerships and catalyze digital entrepreneurship. The challenge also calls

Millennials are turning to robots for financial advice STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

M

illennials, the first generation to grow up with the internet and born after 1980 are disruptive and rely on technology to shop, listen to music, communicate with friends and hail a cab, now they take personal investing advice from robots.

From social media to Amazon, Spotify, Uber, and Kolobox, millennials have transited, in the words of Bill Gates from electricity-based to an internet-based lifestyle. Gates had in his book “Business at the Speed of Thought” argued that it humanity long to build a civilisation around electricity. Now, with the internet and World Wide Web, the world has entered into a new mode – web-based civilization.

Financial Technology (fintech) companies are taking advantage of these traits to disrupt the personal investing industry.

“Just as manufacturing companies have replaced assembly line workers with robots, these companies have replaced financial advisors with robo-advisors, which use big data and algorithms to determine the best places to put clients’ money—and appeal to a whole new generation of investors” Michael Blanding, a columnist

at the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge wrote in an article titled “Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing”.

Blanding said traditional financial advisors cater to baby boomers with substantial savings, requiring minimum amounts for investment upwards of $100,000 to access their services. By contrast, industry-leading Wealthfront and similar firms such as Betterment, Vanguard Personal Advisor and Acorns have tapped into an underserved market by allowing clients to invest as little as $5,000.

Wealthfront doesn’t even charge a fee for assets of less than $10,000— and even after that charges a 0.25 percent fee, as opposed to fees of 2 to 3 percent by traditional firms.

In Nigeria, Kolobox has also presented products to cater to this underserved market. The micro-investment platform aggregates fund from customers pulls it together and because of the joint might, it is able to negotiate for higher returns on investment.

Everyone in the pool gets the same rate of return on their investment, irrespective of the amount invested.

“We put our funds in Treasury bills, usually products that are www.businessday.ng

backed by the Federal Government. Kolobox, among our competitors, is the only one that is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Your funds are guaranteed and insured. We do not give our funds to microlenders where the risk of loss of funds is high” he added.

The platform has a number of products, where you can lock in your funds. It also has others where your funds are not locked.

Locked options give higher returns naturally. Kolobox has partnered with Radix Capital, which has been around for the last 15 years and done almost all the Lagos State bonds. They are one of the key investment banks in Lagos. They are SEC regulated and before any product is brought to the market it has to be approved by the Commission.

One new feature on the platform is group investing. This allows an individual to invite family, friends, and colleagues, making investing more fun. This can help people set short medium and long term goals, a family may want to save towards their mother’s 80th year birthday or for a marriage.

Saving together then serves as motivation. Kolobox was launched in July 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

on universities in Central and West African countries to submit solutions.

The selected teams will enter an accelerator program to help advance and potentially commercialize their ideas. During the accelerator, the start-up and university teams will have access to Nestlé’s R&D expertise and infrastructure at the R&D Centre in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, including shared labs, kitchens and pilot-testing equipment. At the end of the accelerator, teams

will have the opportunity to pitch their proof of concept to Nestlé management.

Speaking on the challenge, Mauricio Alarcon, MD/CEO of Nestlé Nigeria noted consumer needs and challenges are rapidly evolving. Individuals and families expect tasty nutritious food choices that are at the same time affordable and accessible.

Innovation has a critical role to play in providing solutions to these needs and challenges. It is also a key driver of economic growth. “We are therefore happy to launch the R&D challenge today to provide a platform for collaborating with local startups, academia and key external partners,” he said.

The R&D innovation challenge is part of Nestlé’s Global Youth Initiative which has an ambition to help 10 million young people around the world have access to economic opportunities by 2030. This supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.

Nigeria’s Blockchain space taking life of its own without CBN FRANK ELEANYA

A

t the just concluded Techpoint Inspired conference it became very clear that the blockchain space in Nigeria was no longer willing to forever second-guess what direction the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would take.

Prior to now, the most prominent talents in the space were the traders and managers of the exchange platforms. However, at the Techpoint Inspired session sponsored by Luno Nigeria there was opportunity to listen and engage with people servicing the legal and governance side of the cryptocurrency market.

Gradually an assortment of talent is emerging in the blockchain space and servicing the growing demand. The list of speakers was an indication of what is possible in the space. From a crypto lawyer, to an educator, a trader and good governance consultant the space is breeding new talents as it waits for the regulator’s nod.

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity and attracting new @Businessdayng

experts. A 2018 report showed that cryptocurrency and blockchain-related job opportunities significantly increased in the US despite the slump the market experienced that year.

Blockchain includes a diverse range of underlying technologies, technical competencies, and applications. The different underlying functions demand different competencies required of engineers.

“The relative nascency of blockchain technology and the time required to gain blockchain expertise raises the question of how companies can best set themselves up for hiring the talent needed to successfully scale their blockchain projects into the future,” said Luke Horvat, an analyst with hrmagazine. co.uk.

Owenize Odia, country manager of Luno Nigeria noted during the Techppoint session that while the CBN is taking its time to put together a regulation, having given the responsibility to a committee, exchanges like Luno are getting ready, through self-regulation and engaging the best talents in the market.

18

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

INTERVIEW ‘Sports gaming creates employment, lifts local communities and boosts government revenue’ With over 40,000 people who are directly and indirectly employed in its platforms, an agent network of over 10,000 shops within local communities, millions of Naira paid everyday to winners across the country, Bet9ja, foremost sports gaming company in Nigeria, insists that sports gaming is the way to go. In this interview, Ayo Ojuroye, managing director, Bet9ja unveils the benefits of sports gaming, feats, the new campaign, regulations among other issues to Obinna Emelike.

W

What is the journey so far with Bet9ja? e are Bet9ja and we are the leading gaming company in Nigeria. If you go on Alexa, the web ranking service, we are ranked number 2 Most Visited Site in Nigeria after google.com, which is number 1, while google.com.ng ranks third.

That tells you the level of visits we get on our platform and the level of customers we service over time.

We are the fastest growing gaming company in Nigeria. We run two phases on our platform, the online platform and retail channels.

Bet9ja has been on a journey since 2005.

We purposed ourselves from the beginning to be a sports betting company of choice. We have worked through the processes over the couple of years; from 2012 to ensure we get to that point and we keep evolving. We started with something very small and as the business developed and with technology, we are where we are today.

We always meet our statutory obligations.

Our doors are always open to different government bodies that come to meet us; the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), the Lagos Sate and the National Lottery Board.

We employ over 40,000 people directly and indirectly. We have a strong agent network across the country and they also employ staff.

So, if you look at that trend, it is not just only about Bet9ja, but about our communities.

Moreover, we have an agent network of over 10,000 shops within local communities across the country.

What is driving the growing interest in sports gaming in Nigeria?

There are three key things; the large population. Of course, Nigeria is a growing population of over 200 million people now.

The increase in sporting culture is driving it as well, majorly in the English Premier and the Italian leagues, which are fast growing. The interest is extremely vast and contributing in growing our gaming industry.

The increase in internet penetration is also part of the reasons we are growing. The high level of unemployment is also driving engagements on our platform.

Are there benefits for sports gaming?

As you know, there are really few opportunities out there for Nigerian youths. So, we serve as one of the platforms that will help these youths to engage in something positive, start something and make some money for themselves.

Sport betting adds a level of economic values to the government. Now, if you look at our counterparts in other countries, they serve as major revenue generation for the government, and that is what we are here too.

We generate a lot of economic values for the government; we have started a lot of businesses with lots of people who go out to employ other people. So, there is this viral effect on what we do and we payout almost immediately you win.

Why the campaign, ‘it is more than a bet’?

People see us as a betting company for the past five to six years now. What we really are is a company that changes lives. People on

Ayo Ojuroye

the streets go to these shops do play as low as N100 and win up to N11 to N15 million. It happens every week and this automatically changes their lives. What we are saying is, do not look at us as a sport betting company, but as a company that actually changes lives. For every person that walks into our shops and places a bet, you are issued a ticket and that ticket to that person is more than a bet.

I will give you real live experiences. When people wake up in the morning with N100 or N200, they are caught in between, do I buy food with this N100 and go hungry all day or do I buy something to sustain me with N100 and go to Bet9ja shop and play with N100 to win N1000, while N1000 may be inconsequential to some people, it is a lot of money to the average guy on the street. He puts in N100 to win N1000, but some put in N100 to win millions and we have archive of data to show how people win and how their lives are changed.

So, that ticket is more than a bet, it is an opportunity to change the person’s life.

With the campaign, we are going on to show people how a single ticket can change their lives, we go into the streets to have interviews and documentaries to show how people won money, what they invested it in and how their lives have changed overtime.

Hence, we are going into the Big Brother show, which affords us another wide platform to amplify our ‘more than a bet’ campaign and to see how we can help the average guy on the street to develop a skill set and move from point zero to a higher point. That is how we see ourselves.

It means it is not all about paying the bet; we are fulfilling our statutory obligations, we are creating employment within the areas we operate, and are also trying to run corporate social responsibilities in the right areas that have meaning to us. We consider sports betting to be a great fun.

Also, we pride ourselves in commitment

www.businessday.ng

“

We have had some strategic partnerships as betting is evolving in Nigeria. The government and EFCC have spoken along the lines of how we can help in preventing corruption, anti money laundering

and integrity. Not only our commitment to our brand and to our customers, but integrity is very key.

We are not saying that we are perfect, but to get to number 1, it takes a lot of drives and inputs. But Bet9ja is truly more than a bet.

Yes, there might be economic challenges across the country, so what we do to aid that is to look for areas we can plug and we considered sports because we are a sports betting company. We looked at people with visibility in that area, safety in our communities and what we can do in those areas.

We started picking on those areas, inviting appropriate people to have those conversations with them, so that we make that difference and not just fulfilling every obligations like everybody else.

When we talk about ‘more than a bet’, we

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

are looking at changing lives and it would be reflective in any one of our campaigns and other sponsorship platforms we come in contact with.

We have had some strategic partnerships as betting is evolving in Nigeria. The government and EFCC have spoken along the lines of how we can help in preventing corruption, anti money laundering.

Our legal team has worked closely with EFCC and we have gone through training to make sure that all our network of agents are compliant and we are compliant with what their expectations are. So, we embrace anything that the government brings to table to help in preventing corruption, and further partnership with the government.

How are you going to make money with the Big Brother Naija sponsorship?

If you look at it, Big Brother reality TV show sponsorship is human advancement initiative for us. Yes, it is right to wonder how a sport betting company will make money from Big Brother. We are not going to play any of the Big Brother games; of who is going to leave the house or stay. It is more of empowering the viewers and housemates. What they have is fame, but fame does not equal money. Part of the ideas we have is to make everyone a winner. There is a ripple effect where everyone has some level of financial backing, they start to employ other people and that is the ripple effect.

In terms of making money for us, that is not our overall goal. It is campaign amplification for us because of the spread of what Big Brother has. Nigerians will get the best of show this time because Bet9ja will not interfere in the show.

So far, what are your major corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?

We are currently looking at what to do to help displaced people in Bauchi State. We are concerned about disabled people in sports and security in our local environment where are businesses are. We often start things from these locations and build out.

We look to partnering with women in sports. Bet9ja continues to be innovative with new ideas and products we bring to the market that are user-friendly for our customers and clients. We have introduced state-of-the-arts virtual job racing platform, which we have adequate technology and well-trained staff to take our customers through that.

We are the lead sponsor of Big Brother 2019. We are working very hard with DStv to make sure it is a success. We intend to leverage on that as a brand in terms of CSR and other things we want to do in the community.

Our agent networks of over 10,000 shops in local communities come up with initiatives that will benefit their communities and we finance them.

We are the title sponsor of League 1 championship, which is the third division league competition in Nigeria, we are the sponsor of Bet9ja Ereke Cup, a grassroot football competition in Ogun State, we are the jersey sponsors of Sheyi Akinwunmi Charity Tournament in Lagos State, we are the category sponsor of the annual Felabration, lead sponsor of Olojo festival in Ogun State, among others.

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

19

INTERVIEW ‘I intend to facilitate a bill that creates proper credit reporting system’ Otunba Akin Alabi, founder of Nairabet.com and philanthropist will be representing the Egbeda/Ona Ara Federal constituency in Oyo State as a member of the House of Representatives having been declared the winner of the election that took place in March 2019. In this interview with BusinessDay’s Frank Eleanya, he speaks on his new mission as a lawmaker and how he intends to address multiple taxation and access to credit which affect many Nigerian businesses.

You have always been big on private sector until your election. Tell us a bit about your journey and why did you decide to become a public servant? am an entrepreneur. I started doing business in January 2003 after I completed the compulsory NYSC program.

I have dabbled into different businesses.

I tapped into the love Nigerians have for sports and started publishing a sports paper called Word Soccer News. I also published a business opportunity newspaper called Income. I also have a training and seminar company. I pioneered the sports betting industry in Nigeria when I launched Nairabet. I have my hands in so many other businesses.

Philanthropy has been a major part of my life as well. When I clocked 10 years in business in 2013, I launched my own NGO, Akin Alabi Foundation. A large chunk of my earnings goes into this. From financial support to small business owners to taking care of the aged and widows, not to mention the construction of public utilities like schools, roads, sports facilities, scholarships and infrastructure for rural communities like bore holes for better access to pipe bore water etc, our foundation has been very busy and resourceful. My life has been all about entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

Firstly, my dad is a politician so I grew up watching him participate in grassroots politics.

I used to follow him to our village meetings, so I’ve always liked politics. In fact, my dad contested for a seat in the House of Representatives in the 90s but lost. When I started my foundation, I became convinced that there is a lot more I can do to have an impact in the society outside spending the little I have. Government is the biggest single entity that can make impact in the lives of the citizenry and I believe that is where I should be. I believe that we have to present our best minds in politics to change our collective fortunes.

Going into government is a big disadvantage for me financially. We have not even been sworn in and I am facing difficulties already. I have had to sell my shares in many companies because those companies do not want to be involved with politically exposed people (PEP).

I have to close down bank accounts here and there. I am going to suffer it financially but it’s what I signed up for, this is a sacrifice for the greater good.

Why did you choose APC? When I decided to join partisan politics, I criss-crossed nearly all the parties in Oyo state, looking for like-minds. I attended meetings in Accord, PDP, Labour parties. No party is perfect yet but I believe I have found my natural habitat amongst the progressives. We have a President that is willing to move the country to the next level and I look forward to achieving that with him.

A lawmaker’s constituency is one of his primary focus, but in Nigeria the focus has always shifted. How would you approach governance within your constituency and also the financial allocation that comes to the constituency?

There are three aspects to the duties of a legislator; lawmaking, oversight and con-

I

Otunba Akin Alabi

stituency outreach. Even though lawmaking and oversight is very important, the man on the street is more interested in constituency outreach. We made a lot of promises during the campaign and we will be fulfilling them communicating with them steadily. We will be holding a monthly “Meet Your Rep” and also a quarterly town hall meeting. Of course there would be other electronic channels available.

We will also reach out to internet savvy constituents via several digital media channels.

Our Twitter handle is @akinmeansbiz and it is @Akinmeansbusiness on Facebook and Ins-

“

We are also working on the construction of an innovation hub for young people. This hub will create the platform for young people to come together to create solutions to local problems

www.businessday.ng

tagram. This will make constituents follow our legislative agenda through the next four years.

During our orientation program, we learned that no lawmaker is given money for constituency projects. What happens is that lawmakers will nominate projects for their various constituencies. When approved, the relevant government agencies will execute the contracts. This is not a bad thing if you ask me. I will make sure that I demand accountability and transparency; my experience in the no-nonsense private sector will help my constituents.

As a business man, what business friendly policies and bills will you be working towards?

I believe one of the biggest problems Nigerians face in business is multiple taxation and access to credit.

For taxation, I intend to sponsor a bill that will revoke the requirement for multiple taxation. The CIT imposes a minimum tax on companies where they have no taxable profits; these companies are forced to pay taxes out of their capital. This law is discriminatory as it does not apply to companies with significant imported equity capital; it discourages investments and increases the risk of failure of companies in periods of little profitability.

We also intend to stop the multiplicity of taxes by ensuring one tax for each tax base.

So Apart from Tax reforms, what other business friendly proposals should we expect?

For access to credit, I intend to facilitate a bill that will create a proper credit reporting system, what we currently have limits information sharing in the financial sector. This new bill will empower private credit reporting

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

companies that can get proper credit scores for their clients, this will be properly regulated. We will also create alternatives to the collateralbased lending criteria.

Business registration is another issue I want to work on. It will be better to have a flat fee structure for incorporation and stamp duty, remove out-dated requirements like the need for a company seal or a statutory declaration of compliance and remove minimum share capital requirements. After working extensively with the CAC, we can also see how we can reduce or remove the fee involved in registration for small businesses so as to bring more people into the formal sector and expand the tax base to improve Government revenue.

What are your plans for the unemployed young People in Egbeda/Ona Ara? I intend to work on skills acquisition and we are already facilitating a directorate that will gather data on unemployed persons in the two Local Government. This directorate will provide immediate internship opportunities within and outside the constituency after our several skills acquisition programs.

We are also working on the construction of an innovation hub for young people. This hub will create the platform for young people to come together to create solutions to local problems. We will provide the required access to credit, investments and grants to the solutions that will scale as proper businesses.

Human capital development will be very important in Egbeda/Ona Ara over the next four years and God willing, we will be able to deliver and also attract businesses to Egbeda/ Ona Ara with my networks in the Business world.

As a Sports Lover and Investor, What are your plans for grassroots development of Sports?

One of the problems we have identified in sports is our lack of infrastructure and this is especially worse in rural areas. Rural dwellers do not have access to good sporting infrastructure despite their natural zeal for sports like football, basketball, table tennis etc. This is why I am building a state of the art sporting complex at Urban Day Grammar school in Ibadan. This complex will bridge the game and give rural dwellers equal access to sporting infrastructure that will not only be good for recreational use but also to create and develop new talents and careers in sports, taking our young people off the streets.

I have always sponsored our local sports club, Shooting Stars. I have also sponsored several grassroots tournaments where we have identified talents. This will continue as I represent my people in Abuja. We will only scale these activities up. I will be working on legislation and community outreach to improve sports all over the country.

How do you intend to mix your business and politics?

Months before the election, I resigned as CEO from my company. We have an excellent structure that keeps the company running well without me. My focus now is to give the people of Egbeda/Ona Ara the very best representation they deserve.

@Businessdayng

20

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE How Nigeria can radically accelerate access to healthcare ANTHONIA OBOKOH

N

igeria is currently trying to focus its efforts in improving access to healthcare for Nigerians though the Public Private Partnership.

The PPP initiative is a guide to what is working and a tool for inspiring further action.

Experts say healthcare in Nigeria increase access by sustainability, public private partnership and that urgent attention to optimise delivery and avoid experiencing progressive deterioration due largely to weakened political will on the part of successive governments to effectively solve a number of problems that have accumulated in the sector over many years must be carried out.

According to the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems in 2016, Nigerian was ranked the 187 out of 190 countries.

However, financial protection is at the core of universal health coverage (UHC) and one of the final coverage goals.

Financial protection is achieved when direct payments made to obtain health services do not expose people to financial hardship and do not threaten their living standards, experts say.

The dynamics in Nigeria’s health insurance space has plans to capture about 200 million Nigerians under the Scheme but the public healthcare has been limited by massive challenges.

Millions of Nigerians still face uncertainty when it comes to the access, supply

and affordability of healthcare delivery and products. This is not only a problem for people in resource-limited settings, but it is today a national issue.

“It is the responsibility of every country and national government to pursue Universal Health Coverage.

Spearheading the advocacy required to secure the political support of global, regional, and national leaders,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general said when or where The challenges are complex, going beyond the persistent challenges posed by infectious killers and the rise of lifestyle diseases.

Similarly, climate change is already affecting the supply of medicines to island nations and isolated communities.

To address some of the complex challenges that are limiting healthcare access in the country, experts say Nigeria must improve on its National Health Insurance coverage, implementation of policy and create ideal healthcare facilities with good infrastructure spaces, needed equipment, information and communication technology

and adequate staff numbers among others.

They added that government needs to encourage activities through non-governmental agency to promote advocacy, nationwide screening program in order to enhance early detection, control the upward trends and reduce the mortality rate of Non- communicable diseases.

“Nearly 95 per cent of Nigerians are accessing health care through out-of-pocket payment to meet their health needs. However, access to health care should continue to be an absolutely critical area of focus for governments, and non-government stakeholders including the private sector,” said Larne Yusuf, a medical practitioner based in Lagos.

According to Yusuf, it requires strong governance of the health system at all levels to achieve Universal Health Coverage in the country, saying Nigeria must improve the quality of its healthcare services.

“Political will is one of the bases to successful healthcare system, more effort should be made to increase the budget-

ary allocation to the health sector, in order to stem the tide of increase in mortality and morbidity rate” he added.

However, Lessons learned from global strategies indicate that the role of multi-sectoral partnerships, particularly the private sector at country level, is a critical precursor to accelerating progress towards improving healthcare delivery.

Francis Durosinmi- Etti, consultant, clinical oncologist and chairman of National Programme on Cancer Management in Nigeria, said that the country needs strong and clear leadership; effective deployment of new innovations.

“There is a convincing opportunity to engage the private sector and other non-State actors to go together government in advancing its healthcare delivery,” A 2014 study by the World Bank shows that huge health inequality gaps will strain the attainment of the Universal Health coverage.

Chibuzo Opara, Co-CEO DrugStoc Nigeria, said approaching the issues of universal healthcare is about elaborating equitable and affordable healthcare at the end of the day.

“There should be an agreement and a commitment between citizens and decision makers on where the country places universal healthcare among other important priorities.”

“In order to create a catalytic process within the system, we need to focus on tackling the issue of financial access to healthcare, holding individuals and entities accountable and measuring the impact of interventions and activities in the healthcare sector,” Opara said.

How women can save fertility despite undergoing cancer treatment ANTHONIA OBOKOH

F

ertility preservation is becoming increasingly important to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors. Patients may not be aware of their options for preserving fertility as they focus on their cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Owing to more-aggressive and advanced treatment, an increasing number of cancer patients do usually suffer infertility as a direct effect of cancer. Worldwide, millions of individuals in the reproductive age group are affected by cancer, Nigeria inclusive.

More often it is cancer treatment such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgery, which results in reduced fertility, early menopause or even sterility in cancer survivor.

Nigeria’s cancer death ratio of 4 in 5 affected persons is one of the worst in the world and is responsible for 3 per cent of total mortality leading to 72, 000 death per annum says World Health Organisa-

tion (WHO).

An expert in fertility has said that there are gaps in Nigeria in our perceptive of the clinical techniques, and patient and provider awareness, particularly for young women and girls diagnosed with cancer.

“There is need for oncofertility counselling for women in Nigeria in order to spread awareness and help patients preserve their fertility after chemotherapy,” said Abayomi Ajayi, specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology and the Chief Executive Officer of Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos, at theAssociation for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH), annual international scientific conference held last year.

Available statistics shows that there are about 12 million infertile persons in Nigeria, which is almost 10 percent of the total population.

Ajayi said that the oncofertility counselling will help patients in high survivorship and provide good quality www.businessday.ng

of life.

“There needs to be a change from an old way of thinking to a new one, as this field of oncofertility expands.

There exists in Nigeria urgency to clarify and update patients on oncofertility services that are provided on a global scale in order to share best practice” he said.

Fertility preser vation aims to preserve reproductive tissues for future use.

Oncofertility is a term coined for fertility preservation in cancer patients. Oncofertility counselling with specialists including oncologists and psychologists can reduce stress and improve quality of life.

Often, men and women, who have been diagnosed with cancer, may not be comfortable about bringing their fertility issues to the forefront.

Unfortunately, fertility preservation services are rarely offered or even discussed with the patient before starting cancer therapy.

Studies have shown that infertility is a significant sur-

vival concern. Patients who received information regarding their sexual and reproductive health had lower levels of psychological distress than patients who did not receive this information. An informed decision reduces reproductive regret in these young men and women.

Ajayi said there are several barriers that face oncofertiltiy practise in Nigeria; “we have to look at social, cultural, religion, lack of institution and research fund and the issues of cost, and other barriers such as lack of awareness among oncologist, gynaecologist and patients.”

Fertility treatments are not covered by health insurance in Nigeria and over 90 per cent of fertility service in Nigeria is provided in private centres and clinics , but some In-vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) centre at university hospitals may offer low cost service and some charity organisations are now coming up to support patients who have the resources to pay.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Air pollution responsible for 7m premature death worldwide SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

A

round the world, more than seven million premature deaths are attributed to air pollution.

H o w e v e r, a b o u t 600,000 children are at risk of the adverse effect of air pollution; according to a statement signed by Medinat Abdulahi, Communication Officer, Media Advocacy and Technologies Center (MATEC).

To commemorate the world environment day 2019 with the theme‘beat the air pollution’ which was meant to create awareness on harmful activities that affect the earth, MATEC has stressed the need for everyone to beware of air pollution. Adding that, all hands must be on deck to do everything possible to reduce the adverse effect of air pollution on our health and environment.

The group said: “No doubt, polluted air is creating more emergency.

Cases like asthma, respiratory infections, and heart disease are on increase.

“Around the world, more than 7 million premature deaths are attributed to air pollution.

“Similarly, about 600,000 children are at risk of the adverse effect of air pollution.

“There is also the high link between poverty and pollution, according to the World Health Organisation. “ Ho w e v e r, M AT E C wants to affirm that the right to clean air is embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and fully enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

“We want to implore government at all levels to come up with environmental protection guidelines that will regulate activities like Bush burning, firewood, and charcoal productions, and make tree planting compulsory in commercial, learning and residential areas.”

However, experts say healthy people can experience health impacts from polluted air including respiratory irritation or breathing difficulties @Businessdayng

during exercise or outdoor activities.

On the risk, high air pollution levels can cause immediate health problems including aggravated cardiovascular and respiratory illness added stress to the heart and lungs, which must work harder to supply the body with oxygen.

Those most susceptible to severe health problems from air pollution are individuals with heart disease, coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure; individuals with lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pregnant women among others.

It is a strong irritant that can cause constriction of the airways, forcing the respiratory system to work harder in order to provide oxygen.

It can also cause other health problems like an aggravated respiratory disease such as emphysema, bronchitis and asthma, lung damage, e ven after symptoms such as coughing or a sore throat disappear, wheezing, chest pain, dry throat, headache or nausea, reduced resistance to infections, increased fatigue, weakened athletic performance.

Pa r t i c u l a t e m a t t e r (PM) and wildfire smoke have also become major concerns. Particulate matter is a complex mixture that may contain soot, smoke, metals, nitrates, sulphates, dust, and water, and tire rubber. It can be directly emitted, as in smoke from a fire, or it can form in the atmosphere from reactions of gases such as nitrogen oxides.

The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. Small particles (known as PM2.5 or fine particulate matter) pose the greatest problems because they bypass the body’s natural defences and can get deep into your lungs and potentially your bloodstream. Exposure to such particles can affect both your lungs and your heart.

Long-term exposure to particulate pollution can result in significant health problems including death from lung cancer.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

21

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE What is stroke, its causes, prevention measures, signs, symptoms and more FOLASADE ALLI

What is stroke is? troke is a medical emergency that occurs when the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the brain either reduces or gets blocked. This interruption of blood flow causes brain tissues to die, which leads to a stroke. Also, treatment must be administered as soon as possible in order to prevent further brain damage.

S

Why must stroke be treated quickly?

Stroke must be treated as soon as possible due to the long-term complications including temporary or permanent disabilities, bladder or bowel control problems, depression, paralysis on one or both sides of the body, pain in the hands and feet with movement and temperature changes, trouble controlling and expressing emotions, and so on.

Are there types of stroke, if so, what are they?

There are three forms of stroke, including Ischemic stroke which is the most common type of stroke, then there is transient ischemic attack (TIA) or ministroke, and finally, haemorrhagic stroke.

What are the causes of stroke?

The factors that cause stroke depend on the type of stroke. That said, TIA is similar to ischemic stroke because it is often caused by clots either in the blood or elsewhere. This sort of stroke should be taken seriously because it indicates signs for future major strokes as there may be partially blocked arteries or clot source in the heart. Ischemic stroke is caused by blockages or narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the brain. These blockages are often as a result of blood clots in either the arteries or blood vessels. Finally, haemorrhagic stroke occurs when the arteries within the brain either burst open or leak blood, which

damages the brain cells due to the flood. It also interrupts the flow and supply of blood reaching the brain tissue after the haemorrhage point. The rupture can be caused by conditions such as trauma, hypertension, blood-thinning prescriptions, and weaknesses in blood vessel walls.

What factors increase the likelihood of developing a stoke?

There are several factors that increase ones risk of getting a stroke. These factors include age especially of individuals from 55 and above, obesity, family history, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, heavy drinking, physical inactivity, drug abuse, and so on.

What are the signs and symptoms of stroke?

The signs and symptoms vary among patients. The most common symptoms of stroke include difficulty understanding others, difficulty when speaking or confused speech, headache possibly with altered consciousness or

More actions needed to create awareness in health risk, say experts ANTHONIA OBOKOH

E

xperts in Nigeria’s healthcare sector have called for more actions to change the low level of health risk awareness amongst Nigerians posed by health challenges.

They say that the steady rise in communicable and non-communicable diseases in the country is an indication of inadequate or ineffective control measures to curtail the disease as a result of lack of awareness.

Available data shows that many of the most prevalent infectious diseases are common to sub-Saharan Africa.

As a result, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, has a large number of cases of widespread such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) among others.

However, changing eating habits and an increase in sedentary lifestyles among an expanding middle class have contributed to a rise in the prevalence of NCDs like hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease.

“The major drivers for the high morbidity are fear, reluctance to accept fee for screening and the unaffordable medical bills associated with late presentation” Ifeoma Okoye, radiologist at university of Nigeria teaching hospital (UNTH) and founder of Breast Without Spot told BusinessDay. Okoye stated that the fear that fuels the wrong perception, can only be buried if we can change the narrative through; improving early detection, increasing opportunities for free screening, and assisting

HBL TEAM

‘

In order to minimise brain damage, strokes must be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible. The treatment of a stroke patient depends largely on the type of stroke experienced as previously discussed

vomiting, weakness and inability to move parts of the face, arm or leg particularly one side of the body, when one part of the face droops downwards, trouble seeing, dizziness and trouble walking. If you notice any of these signs, please immediately call emergency lines.

What important facts do we, Nigerians, need to know about stroke?

In addition to what we have discussed, I would stress the preventive measure the most. The best way to prevent a stroke is to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and treat underlying conditions that increase the risk of developing a stroke such as hypertension. Also, in order to minimise brain damage, strokes must be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible.

The treatment of a stroke patient depends largely on the type of stroke experienced as previously discussed.

Folasade Alli, Consultant Cardiologist at Lagos Executive Cardiovascular Clinic

Rotary partners Ogun, Lagos to reduce spread of malaria scourge under 5 children and pregnant women as well as causes health s part of effort to curb conditions such as premature the spread of malaria delivery, still birth, spontaneous scourge in two South- abortion, brain damage, coma, west states of Nigeria - Ogun and loss of muscle function and sudLagos, the Rotary International den death.

District 9110 has provided free He however requested memanti malaria drugs and tests in bers of the public to be hygieniall health facilities across the cally sensitive, by riding their two states. environment of stagnant water, The provision of free anti noting that most effective and malaria drugs and tests to health inexpensive way to prevent mafacilities in Ogun and Lagos laria transmission is by sleeping states by the Rotary Interna- under Long Lasting Insecticidetional District 9110 was done Treated Nets. in partnership with the two Earlier, Festus Soyinka, DirecState governments to mark 2019 tor, Public Health Department, World Malaria Day. Ministry of Health, appreciated Speaking at a sensitization the Rotary District Governor, walk recently held in Abeokuta, Kola Shodipo for his contribuOgun state capital to celebrate tion, saying that the fight against the World Malaria Day, tagged: malaria should not be left for ‘Zero Malaria Starts With Me’, government alone, just as he Festus Adetonwa, past presi- called on stakeholders and welldent and chairman, Roll Back meaning Nigerians to partner Malaria Committee, noted that with government in order to kick the increasing cases of malaria the disease out of Nigeria. in the country prompted Rotary Soyinka, a physician, exintervention on malaria spread, pressed worry over nonchalant control, diagnosis and treatment. attitude of Nigerians towards Adetonwa noted that malaria health facilities as the people parasites, transmitted to people with symptoms of malaria usuthrough the bites of female ally refuse to approach health Anopheles mosquitoes is one of facilities nearest to them for life-threatening diseases in the early diagnosis of malaria and World, saying that it is prevent- eventual treatment, explaining able and curable if reported at that it is imperative for people early stage. to take their health as priority, as He also said the disease is malaria is a curable and preventresponsible for the death of most able disease.

RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

A

indigent patients to cope with their medical bills. These interventions will improve survival statistics.

“We urge the public to be aware of risks associated to their health.

Know the causes and risk factors so that appropriate precautions can be taken to modify or avoid them. In addition to prevent and reduce the risk of cancer, individuals should refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol, be physically active, and have a balanced diet” she said.

“We have to be in this together, as we do not know where the prevalence of this disease without cures is going to come from. The looming global epidemic of cancer means that all of us in the medical profession have to come together to make sure anyone and everyone has a awareness said Ojo Sikiru, a medical practitioner based in Lagos.

Sikiru stated that awareness is a key to survival, experts have emphasised the importance of awareness and are working together

everywhere and anywhere that there is a patient.

Significantly increasing awareness of health issues will reduce stigmatizing conversations around diseases, while empowering families with important information about life style modification changes that research has shown can play a role in reducing the risk of health issues or improving outcomes for wellbeing.

An unhealthy environmental condition also increases the risk of both non communicable and infectious diseases, which is reflected in the strong integrated nature of the Goals.

Expert says this lifestyle of unhealthy diet has caused millions of Nigerians disease such as high blood pressure, overweight, respiratory diseases, high cholesterol level and it is a huge burden.

Individuals need to take caution of their lifestyle and be aware to carry out more exercises in order to reduce the blood pressure and curtail the sugar level.

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

22

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

LEADINGWOMAN

Ayiri’s ATINUDA event for 2019 promises to Yes she can…stop the stereotype be an unforgettable experience

A

tinuda the premium conference for the event industry is set to hold its 4th edition June 13th – 14th 2019 at Harbour Point Event Center, Victoria Island, Lagos. Atinuda, which is the largest event conference in Africa, was birthed by the Founder of Oaken Event, Ayiri Oladunmoye. The Atinuda Experience 4, promises to raise the bar even higher with its lineup of local and foreign speakers, who are ready to share their knowledge and experience in order to move the Nigerian event industry to international standards.

Atinuda has through the years, brought to her participants, such great and phenomenal industry giants like Preston Bailey, Marcy Blum, Diann Valentine, Christina Holt, Seyi Olusanya, Elizabeth Solaru, Mai Atafo and Adebola Williams amongst others. This year’s theme tagged “Commitment to Excellence and Innovation”, is in line with Atinuda’s goal to create a platform that allows growth and development to take place.

This will help in building and shaping young entrepreneurs who have made the decision to pursue a career in the event industry. For its 4th edition taking place from Thursday 13th – Friday 14th of June 2019, Atinuda has an even more interesting line up of speakers, namely Ty Bello, David Tutera, Seyi Tinubu, Ndidi Nwuneli, Ifeoma Williams, Samke Mhlongo, Anita Erskine,

Bukky George, Chukwuka Monye, Mary Akpobome, Jacqueline Nwobi, Udo Okonjo and Dzigbordi Kwaku-Dosoo.

The Atinuda Experience 4 will also host a Masterclass and Dinner on Friday 14th of June 2019. The conference breakdown consists of: Day 1: All-day educational session and exhibition, 8:00am - 6.00pm. Day 2: Masterclasses (Design, Cake, Leadership, Finance, and Business), and dinner, 8:00am - 5:00pm.

Atinuda is a conference for Event Industry Leaders and

professionals. This notable event is designed to enhance creativity and uniqueness in the events industry in Africa. It is an exclusive event that connects international and local exhibitors, and attendees in search of new trends, techniques, materials and resources required to drive their business all year round.

With an intimate passion for event management, Ayiri Oladunmoye began her career in the event planning industry, when she planned her own wedding in 2002 and several other

events for charity organisations and friends. Urged by family and friends to pursue her passion in event management, led to the creation of Oaken Events - a fullservice event design, consultation and management company.

A dedicated, oriented and highly creative person in her design concepts, she has succeeded in creating a niche for her brand. Ayiri has organised numerous successful high profiled events within and beyond the shores of Nigeria. Her clients love her because they can be rest assured of her executing their events flawlessly, with a great level of personalization and top most confidentiality. Besides planning and designing events, Ayiri is highly dedicated to influencing and repositioning the event industry in Nigeria. In her words, “the desire to see continuous development within the event industry sector led to the birthing of Atinuda (born out of creativity)” in 2016.

Atinuda is a gathering of event businesses in Africa held annually to raise standards within the event industry in Africa.

She was also recently recognised as one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) global class of 2018, Business and Entrepreneurship Category. Ayiri loves providing support to less privilege children, enjoys spending time with her family and her immediate church community.

Ambode urges Sanwo-Olu to take COWLSO to greater heights DESMOND OKON

W

ife of the former governor of Lagos State and former Chairman of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO), Bolanle Ambode has urged the wife of the governor-elect, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, to take COWLSO to greater heights.

She said this while handing over the leadership of the committee to Sanwo-olu at a brief ceremony at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, recently.

Ambode hailed the vision of the founding mothers of the committee, which is to complement the efforts of the government in critical areas that are women and children-friendly.

She said the committee, under successive chairmen, had continued to walk in that great vision, leading to remarkable improvement in the lives of women, girls and children, in vital areas of health, empowerment, educa-

tion and others.

“My lovely women, with all sense of modesty, we happily recall some of our collective achievements in the health sector, by way of interventions in maternal and child health, year after year,” Ambode said.

Explaining more on the achievement she said the phases of intervention led to the sponsorship of goitre surgeries for 30 women, free hearing aids for 15 children, three women and two men; as well as the upgrading of the ENT Department of the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos.

She said that COWLSO unwww.businessday.ng

der her leadership purchased and installed state-of-the-art audiology equipment, including Otoread OAE capable of detecting hearing defects in new-borns.

“Other phases of intervention saw the procurement and donation of two Transport Incubator Ambulance to the Gbagada General Hospital and Island Maternity Hospital, coupled with the donation of 32 neo-natal incubators to 13 General Hospitals and six fully fitted Birthing Suites for Amuwo-Odofin Maternal and Child Centre, Epe General Hospital and Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos, among oth-

ers,” Ambode added.

She thanked members of the committee for supporting her and the Ambode administration over the past four years, and appreciated her predecessors for their advice and words of wisdom.

Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu praised her predecessor for taking COWLSO to a remarkable height, promising that she would not deviate from the founding ideals of the committee.

“I thank my big sister, Her Excellency, Bolanle Ambode, for the great steps she has taken to move the committee to its current level. I thank her for the words of encouragement that I should not be scared about the challenges of that office. I will do my best, God helping me, to move COWLSO to the next level,” she said.

Sanwo-Olu, who also commended Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his attention to the committee, noted that governance was a continuum.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

ADESOMOJU ADETOSIMI

W

hat’s the big deal with a lady being a mechanic, a pilot or even an Uber driver? What’s the big deal with a man being a nurse, or going to the market and coming home to cook for his family?

The society has created a gender stereotype and it has greatly undermined the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms and has affected the mentality of individuals.

A stereotype is dangerous when it limits women’s or men’s capacity to build their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives and life plans.

There’s no doubt that the ability to control when and where you work can be really useful for better balancing work with family life. For example, being able to work from home

means you can avoid (sometimes very long) commutes.

And, in some cases, it can help you blend care or household work alongside your job. Flexible schedules allow workers to avoid peak traffic and make tag-team parenting, where one starts early and does the school pickup, while the other does the drop off and works later – achievable I believe.

Empirically, studies have shown that giving mothers access to flexible working arrangements significantly decreases the likelihood that they will drop out of the labour market after giving birth to their first child. It will also decrease the likelihood that they will reduce their working hours after the first or any subsequent childbirth. Given that reduced working hours and moving into part-time jobs is one of the most important causes of the persistent gender wage gap, this flexibility may well help to reduce it.

Careers and occupation shouldn’t be classified based on genders. Women should be given the freedom to venture into any occupation of their choice, be it strenuous or not.

In our present society, we see tradition and believes putting us way back in the mindset that says females are meant to be house wives . There is no harm in a lady being an engineer working at sites when she has the passion for the occupation.

A lot has been written al-

ready on female leadership, and many hypotheses have been formulated to explain why there are still so few women leaders. Even today, there is still a striking imbalance between the number of men and women in leadership positions.

You might have argued that this simply reflected the fact that more men were working or that more men had a college or university degree, this is not the case at all because nowadays, with as many women obtaining a university degree as men, this can no longer be the case. In fact, on average, female graduates obtain higher grades and graduate when due, unlike some men who engage in activities against a school’s rules and end up spending extra years in school.

Some people believe that women should be occupying leadership positions because

they believe that women are more cooperative and peopleoriented than men and that they bring a different set of competencies to the table. This can lead to the point of view that the best way for women to achieve a leadership position is by adopting a different approach than men and to highlight their unique abilities that shows they qualify, not merely because they are women but because they are up to the task.

However, the question is?

“Do we really want to put women in a leadership position simply because they are women with ‘women like’ competencies? If you think about it, are female leaders so different from their male counterparts?”.

The answer to me is No. There is more to a woman than her gender. If she is intelligent she is intelligent. Her intelligence is not because she is a woman.

She is simply intelligent!

For these reasons, we feel that, instead of some people focusing on trying to downplay the narrative about women because they are excelling in the existing male-dominated hierarchies, organisations can strive to counter gender-related stereotypes and biases.

We need to challenge some of our gendered assumptions of men and women’s roles at home. These changes are crucial, especially if flexible working is to help reduce the stereotype and bring about a better work-life balance.

@Businessdayng

Read the

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

23

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

‘Nigeria yet to recognise importance of having standards in agricultural products’ VINCENT ISEGBE, director general, Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) in this interview with CALEB OJEWALE, highlights some of the issues bedevilling agricultural exports from Nigeria, and what needs to be done to secure more confidence in the international markets. He touched on issues ranging from fake export certificates, to the ban on Nigerian beans by the EU.

H

ow would you describe the state of Nigeria’s agriculture export?

We are generally doing well but we can do much better because there are so many commodities that are available in the country and for one reason or the other, we are unable to export them. Some of them could be issues of quality, packaging and different conditions that the exporters are not able to meet.

We are having some challenges with certification, in the sense that a lot of people fake the certificate and take commodities outside the country. I will be fair to some of the owners of the commodities; they do not know their commodities did not pass through quarantine. When that happens, that is when the exporter, now, in pains, approaches quarantine- “The certificate you issued, they have rejected my commodity.

What is happening?” When they bring the certificate, we find out it did not pass through quarantine at all.

We are not at the dispatch ports because there are two government circulars that say quarantine should not be in certain areas.

Because of that, a lot of export leaves the country and quarantine is not aware. So, it’s a big challenge for us. If we recall, the European Union (EU) talks about export control and the major part of export control is that we are able to see and approve whatever leaves this country and we are able to be there to receive whatever is coming into the country.

We have addressed that to government severally because the government set up quarantine for a particular purpose, but the executive order one is being misinterpreted in the sense that the agencies that have domiciliary supervision over the ports of entry (either air or sea) are saying that the executive order will be implemented the way they want to interpret it. In that case, what happens to export control? I don’t think that is the intention of the executive order 001. We have made several complains about it and the situation has not improved.

You mentioned those that use fake certificates to export. Who are those that apply for those fake certificates if the exporters don’t know?

Some exporters just print the certificates (on their own) in order to avoid quarantine. The owners of the consignment don’t usually know what has been done. We have seen situations where the owner will come and say, “My consignments are on the sea and we need certificates.” How do we give certificate to something we did not even see? For such, we reject. In other circumstances, you find the owner coming to say he has this certificate and we are not aware of that certificate, letting them know the certificate is fake. We have continued to receive emails from the National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) of the importing countries asking us to verify the phytosanitary certificate for consignment sent to their country. Where those goods did not pass through quarantine, we say we don’t know about it. Once the quarantine is not aware, the exporter is left on his own. By

Vincent Isegbe

implication either the commodities are sent back to the country or destroyed at the point of import and that does not augur well for Nigeria and the person who has suffered to package these things for export.

There is something that was said that NAQS was not totally banned that they can be invited by customs to

‘‘

Some people may say considering economic inequality, they want to buy cheap.

If you buy cheap you’ll go to the hospital. The same money you don’t want to pay for a standard product, you are likely to pay five times more in hospital bills

www.businessday.ng

inspect. Does that happen?

Yes. That is the subsisting government circular.

Has that been efficient so far?

Quarantine is supposed to ensure that only certified products leave the country and come in too. Custom is supposed to take revenue for whatever is going out and coming in. What would you say to that?

If I am the chief of customs, I will ensure that I collect revenue for whatever goes out.

The question is, those items that get to their table, are they all certified by quarantine? The answer as we know is No. As good and laudable as the program may be, it does not benefit the country because the implementation definitely will be faulty.

Conflict of interest?

Yes. That is where the problem is. Customs has a target revenue figure to be me, so nobody blames them. The issue is that, what is going out, have we certified it. That is why there has to be that complete harmony. Let quarantine be able to say, “Customs, this one we are sure of it, let it go.” But where that is not there, people are faking certificates because quarantine is not there and custom will not know which certificate is genuine or not. If custom sees any certificate, they will assume it is a genuine certificate from quarantine and they are bound to honour it. So that linkage will have to be corrected.

What has been done to address indiscriminate chemical use in beans, bearing in mind the EU ban?

Concerning the beans, we are doing a lot of sensitization across the country. We have been doing sample analysis of beans. In fact, right now, the results of the latest samples will be out which we are collating. The fact still remains that as a nation, we have not come to accept the full importance of having standards put in place. It is what we have that we export. So, if you find the local farmer

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

or the person selling the commodity not minding the sanitary conditions in which those commodities are in the local market, it will have an effect at the export market. You see the way our meat is carried, would you want to export meat that is carried like that?

As a vet, I would not even certify it. So we are having challenges. But why do people still buy the meat in the local market? The business thrives only because the sellers find a ready market to sell those commodities. Once collectively as a nation, we say we don’t want this, then we can finally resolve food quality issues. If you present your meat on a table without covering it, and we decide we will not buy, then the person who is selling will have to adjust because nobody will buy from him. It has to be a collective national consciousness that we have come to the end (of unsafe food practices).

Some people may say considering economic inequality, they want to buy cheap.

If you buy cheap you will go to the hospital.

The same money you do not want to pay for a standard product, you are likely to pay five times more in hospital bills. If you bring something and nobody buys, you will not bring the same commodity to the market. Invariably, if things are done right in the local market, we will have less issues at the export desk. That is why quarantine goes out of its own way to do the export improvement initiative and the export certification value chain.

We go back through the value chain and inform the person transporting that he has to do this and that for this thing to reach us properly. We meet the warehouse people and tell them “if you want this thing to pass through the export market, these are the things that have to be done”. What we are doing through this process is to inform farmers that the level of pesticide they are applying is not helping anybody. If you want to apply pesticides, these are the recommended people that we know sell genuine pesticides, not those selling unlabelled pesticides.

When should we expect resolution on the ban of beans export by EU? We expect to go back to the EU soon. We are preparing our last report because the last lab sample has been completed, and we will do a detailed report of what we have done so far and submit to the EU. They have to see what we have done so far, so that they can appreciate the efforts that we have put in place, lift the ban and then we can set a working road map henceforth.

We are not looking at the beans issue alone because we don’t want the beans issue to be resolved and then the next day comes another commodity. We are just using beans as the stepping-stone to jump-start other value chains.

Apart from beans, which other commodity is facing this ban challenge?

No other commodity has any ban on it. What we are having is where there are cases such as the certificate not properly written or the certificate is fake. So it’s just that particular commodity (shipment) that will have an issue.

@Businessdayng

24

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Hotels

‘We aim to create scale in key markets with 40% growth from hotel take-over, green field hotels’ Once again, Radisson Blu, the upscale brand of Radisson Hotel Group, has maintained the lead as Africa’s fastest growing hotel brand, according to the recently released W Hospitality Pipeline Reports 2019. In this interview Andrew Mclachlan, senior vice president, Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, Radisson Hotel Group, tells Obinna Emelike why the brand is ahead of others in Africa. Excerpts: Congratulations to the Radisson Blu team once again for maintaining your lead as Africa’s fastest growing hotel brand. But what do you think were responsible for the feat? ision, pragmatic approach to development, relationships and trust with our owners and timing would be the four main contributing factors to the continued success and growth of Radisson Blu brand across Africa.

Across the African markets Radisson Blu continues to be well received and supported by guests and hotel investors and in my experience good hotels breed more hotels and this is definitely the case for Radisson Blu. T h e R a d i s s o n Ho t e l Group started doing business in Africa 18 years ago, so compared to our three global competitors such as IHG, Hilton, Marriott and Accor (all with 50+ years in Africa) we are still a youngster who may have started late but moves faster. We had the vision to be the first to open a dedicated hotel development office focused only on Africa, which we located in Africa and staffed it only with Africans. We were the first to create a financial investment vehicle to support our hotel growth, and pragmatic and commercial approach to development in Africa gave us a head start and first mover advantage in a lot of markets, so our timing was right.

Is the growth connected to your five-year development strategy, as well, how far have you executed the expansion plan, especially in Africa?

100% correct. In 2018 we launched a new 5-year development strategy for Africa with big ambitions to grow our portfolio 130 hotels by the end 2022 and have Radisson Blu as the leading upper upscale brand in Africa. To achieve this, we aim to create scaled hotel growth in 23 pre-selected markets across Africa and at the end of year one of our five-year plan Radisson had added 16 new hotels, and continuing doubling our year one target.

Do you think your strategy in converting unbranded and underperforming hotels and repositioning them to the right brand and market segment within

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

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

V

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

Tel: 01 277 3560

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

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

the Radisson Hotel Group brand portfolio has aided your growth in Africa?

Radisson believes we can add as much value to an existing unbranded or underperforming hotel as we do when we get involved in a green field hotel project.

The benefit to converting an existing hotel to one of our brands is the time it takes to convert and join our system.

On average, a green field build hotel takes four years to open while a conversion of an existing hotel can take a few months. Our pragmatic approach really adds value to our stakeholders when we look to take over and reposition a hotel.

You plan to add 12 hotels to your African portfolio this year, which destinations are you looking at and what model are you adopting to ensure the quick delivery of these projects?

We aim to create scale in the identified key markets according to our 5-year development strategy for Africa with 40 percent of the growth being hotel takeover and rest being green field hotels. We will continue to grow our core brands Radisson Blu and Park Inn

by Radisson. However, we see a lot of opportunity for a new brands Radisson and Radisson Collection www.businessday.ng

in Africa. About 70 percent of our future growth will c o m e f ro m t h e 2 3 p re selected markets where we aim to create scale in cities such as Abuja, Casablanca, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos. Radisson also ha s i nt e nt i o n s t o g row in the leisure segment in proven leisure destinations across Africa.

Securing 130 hotels by the end of 2022 in Africa is a huge ambition, but how are you going to realise this considering the economic headwinds in most African countries are not favourable, especially for foreign direct investments, are you depending on local investors?

There are plenty of opportunities in Africa, but it is getting competitive, so we need to work harder to see the angle and do the right deals. Well-located, well-positioned and correctly branded hotel products with good concepts will beat economic and supply cycles.

Regarding the hotel real estate investment, 90 percent of the Radisson hotels in Africa are owned by African investors, who are investing in their home markets, which they understand. Radisson brands, manages, markets and administrates their hotel

investment under a longterm international management agreement.

Park Inn by Radisson also entered the same top 10 brand list, securing the fifth position. What is the magic and where are Radisson and Radisson Red brands in the whole equation?

We see Park Inn by Radisson having the ability longterm to behave like a domestic brand in countries like Nigeria and South Africa. Both markets have the depth for at least 20+ hotels each. Radisson is a new brand to Africa and was only launched in March 2018 and we already have five Radisson hotels in Africa. This will be the brand, which will grow the fastest in the future.

Radisson RED is a lifestyle brand and its growth will be very selective in Africa.

Do you think W Hospitality Pipeline Reports are credible enough and not necessarily in your favour?

All the major hotel groups and brands active in Africa provide the information, which is represented in the W Hospitality Pipeline Reports.

The information is extremely creditable and the data has become a very important tool to measure how the hotel industry is performing in according to development.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

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

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

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

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

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

Friday 07 June 2019

Harvard Business Review

BUSINESS DAY

25

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

Case Study: Was that harassment? — the experts respond 2 SARAH BEAULIEU

S

hould Teaira push forward the complaint against Jackson?

Dropping the complaint may leave an important issue unaddressed. Pushing it forward may result in outsize punishment for Jackson and damaged relationships for her.

Until she knows what she wants — and fully understands her options — she shouldn’t file an official report.

It’s unclear what Teaira does want: For Jackson to learn to be more accountable for his actions? For Coltra to work harder to create a more inclusive culture, rather than focusing on policy? For the risk of unfair blowback to be minimized for her colleague?

Although Rainer was trying to do the right thing, he should have given Teaira a heads-up and talked through these issues with her first. He should have said he felt he had to report the incident (if the company has a mandated reporting policy). Unknowingly, he took her power and choice away and left her blindsided.

Given her status and performance at Coltra, Teaira could

use this as an opportunity to pressure her company for more training. Bystander intervention and feedback might be a good place to start. But she must be clear about the potential consequences first.

While seemingly supportive, zero-tolerance policies are problematic. Fearing too-harsh punishment for their colleagues, people are less likely to report

minor offenses or warning signs — an important indicator of cultural challenges and knowledge gaps. And these policies limit people who experience harassment to high-stakes, one-sizefits-all solutions, which overlook the very real financial, social and professional obstacles to reporting.

Once, at a benefit dinner, a wealthy donor said to me, “If I were 20 years younger or you were 20 years older, I’d chase you around the table right now.”

We all laughed, and I responded with something like “You wish.”

I didn’t feel unsafe in the moment, and, like Teaira, I felt I could handle myself.

I better understand today that such comments contribute to a culture that makes people vulnerable and allows harassers to get away with even worse behavior. Still, I wouldn’t have wanted

human resources to barge in like a police officer. That would have felt infantilizing and, worse, might have made it harder for me to do my job.

What I wanted was for one of his wealthy peers to call him out so that I didn’t have to do the work.

Or for my team to have had the opportunity to workshop it so that we could all get better at handling off-color jokes. There’s a vast middle ground between expecting people to fend off egregious harassment themselves and calling in the riot police to respond to a joke. Behavior exists on a spectrum; so should our systems of discipline and accountability.

Sarah Beaulieu, a senior adviser to a national venture philanthropy organization, responds to the case study

Doing creative work when you can’t stop looking at your phone BRIAN SOLIS HAPPINESS igital distractions are taking a big toll on businesses. A new survey from Udemy finds it’s a special challenge for millennials and Generation Z workers, 36% of whom report spending two hours or more each workday “looking at their phones for personal activities.”

As they lose time to all the distractions around them, employees are “stressed, unmotivated and feeling bad about themselves, their jobs and their careers,” the poll found. Threequarters of those who have learned to reduce distractions say they’ve become more productive. It’s the latest addition to a mountain of research warning about this problem.

But the propensity to distraction can also be a good thing, and it has been shown to help increase creativity. A 2015 study

D

found that “leaky attention may help people integrate ideas that are outside the focus of attention into their current information processing, leading to creative thinking.”

A few years ago, I found myself in a professional crisis. I was online or on my phone virtually all the time, consuming irrelevant content.

I’ve spent my career as a digital analyst, so I am well aware that many apps and social media platforms are specifically de-

signed to be addictive. So I set about finding a solution that could work for me and the businesses I advise.

The key, I discovered, was to accept and even embrace the desire to check notifications, read various media or watch videos — but to teach myself patience in doing so.

I began to build my workday with frequent breaks for “productive distraction.” I used these planned breaks to let those impulses run free. I also

tried to include something physical during breaks, like a moment of simple, brief meditation , which would help reset my mind and give me fresh perspective when I resumed work.

Being organized makes all the difference. Research has found that scheduling these pauses boosts creativity.

Because I knew these breaks are coming up, I found it easier to stop myself from giving into every distraction. It took months, but I got my periods of continuous, intensely focused work up to about 22 minutes, using my own take on the time management strategy known as the Pomodoro Technique.

Just like the people surveyed by Udemy, I found myself not only more creative, but also happier.

(In the survey, three-quarters of people who have learned to reduce distractions also report being more productive, while 56% say they’re happier at work.)

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

YE

AR

S

Expertise It’s in our DNA

In an ever changing economy, with 125 years of serving YOU, we remain strong, trustworthy, dependable, safe and consistent.

You can be confident that we will continue to deliver innovative banking products and services which seamlessly and conveniently suit your lifestyle needs.

Visit www.firstbanknigeria.com to learn more about us.

This change takes intentionality. Every day, we each have the choice to commit to changing our behavior. That includes unlearning bad habits, such as frequently checking social media platforms (which have “hijacked” our psychological propensity for social reciprocity).

Much of it boils down to redefining FOMO, changing it from “fear of missing out” to “finally over missing out.”

A researcher at Copenhagen Business School, writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, casts productive distraction as a way of balancing curiosity and concentration, maximizing the extent to which you both “actively seek diverse input” and focus on tasks at hand.

I’m proof that it can be done.

Brian Solis is principal analyst at Altimeter Group and the author of “Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive and Happy Life.”

26

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

Atunda Entertainment renews commitment to nurturing budding artistes for Africa …Ara Thunder releases single today OBINNA EMELIKE

T

he management of Atunda Entertainment has reiterated its commitment to the development and promotion of budding artistes of African extraction in line with its creed, which it said is based on building the continent of Africa by projecting to the world its artistic talents, human resources, tourism and economic potential.

This is even as the entertainment outfit is set for the official release of the single (audio/video) of Ara (Thunder), one of its protégé and renowned Nigeria sensational female potter. The title of the single is Bojuboju.

Speaking on the focus of the outfit, which over the years has nurtured and promoted to the limelight a number of musical artistes in Nigeria and across the continent, the management disclosed that the organisation is neither a record label nor artiste management outfit as some people in the industry have erroneously projected and sold to the

Ara Thunder

unsuspecting public.

Explaining further in a press statement released by it, the management said Atunda Entertainment is part of the activation of Motherland Beckons, a developmental organisation founded by Wanle Akinboboye, president, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort.

The main focus of the organisation is developing and promoting different aspects of the continent through its ‘Continent Building’ project, which is devoted to attracting

people of African descent and Africans in Diaspora to motherland to be part of its development by investing and experiencing it rich and savoury offerings.

Essentially, the major activations of Motherland Beckons cut across tourism, entertainment, arts, culture, as well as, security, with different outfits dedicated to executing projects related to each segment. Corporate Guards is one of such outfits, with focus on provision of security services and products across the continent.

On the tourism front is

La Campagne Beach Resort, which is devoted to developing African themed resort. It has extended this to other parts of Nigeria, with an outfit in Koton Karfi in Kogi State and other parts of Africa such as Cote d’ Ivoire, and Ethiopia.

On the economic front, it has developed an economic blueprint known as Diaspora Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (DNERGP), which affords Africans in Diaspora and others to invest in Africa and own businesses alongside its Hope, Unity,

Oge Kimono to host memorial concert for her father, launches first album

O

ge Kimono, the daughter of Ras Kimono, the late rub-a-dub master and reggae legend, is set to host a memorial concert for her father. Oge will also be launching her first album titled “Good Ole Days”.

According to her media team, the concert would be commemorating the one year anniversary of Ras Kimono’s death and launch the formal taking-over of the Massive Dread band by Oge. “Ras Kimono was one of the greatest musicians of the reggae genre that Nigeria ever produced, we cannot just forget him, there has to be some sort of honor for him every year to mark his transcending to the glory beyond”, the team said.

Speaking further, the team said the concert and memorial lecture are to keep Kimono’s memories alive in the hearts of music lovers both home and

abroad. One of the highlights of the event is the launching Oge’s first album, which is dedicated to Ras Kimono. The Album tells the story of the good old days where everything was nice and smooth, good night life, good music, sincere government that cared for the people and a communal society where people looked

out for one another. “This album is essentially telling the government to go back to good governance”, the team noted.

Billed to perform at the memorial concert include; Sound Sultan, Ego, Righteous Man, Joel, Buchi, Dezign, Oritz Williki, Oge kimono, Baba Leon and many more.

There will be a lecture in the morning with the theme “Revolutionary Music of Equality and Justice”. The paper will be presented by a renowned scholar, Professor Duro Oni of the University of Lagos. The lecture will take place on June 10, 2019 by 11 am at the COSON House Ikeja, where the late Ras Kimono was a director before his demise.

The memorial concert will take place at the Niteshift Coliseum, Ikeja from 7pm on June 10, 2019.

It would be recalled that Nigerian music industry and reggae lovers woke up to hear the demise of the great reggae icon on June 10, 2018 after celebrating his 60th birthday a month earlier. In his heydays Kimono used his music to fight injustice, oppression and bad governance.

Ras Kimono and Oge, his daughter, performing at Afropolitan Vibes. www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Rebirth and Prosperity (HURP) programme.

Explaining further, the management said Atunda Entertainment understands perfectly the attendant problems associated with discovering and nurturing talents in the country for the creative industries. As a result it has taken it upon itself to engage not only in discovering, nurturing and promoting young Nigerians and Africans but also went further to provide conducive environment and incentives for the talents to blossom.

These it does among others by taking them under it tutelage to live within standard accommodation provided by it with musical instruments, back up artistes and professionals to tutor them. It also exposes them to the outside world through live performances across the country and the continent.

To this end, countries such as Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo and Cote D’ Ivoire now have a number of Atunda Entertainment artistes making waves.

As part of this developmental process, African international Music (AIM) Festival was introduced by

Motherland Beckons about three years ago to provide a platform for its artistes and other artistes in the creative industry to exhibit their talents, thereby attracting interest from the public and corporate outfits in furthering their growth.

Some of the notable artistes under the stable of Atunda Entertainment include; Anu the Lady Ekwe, a former beauty queen of Sisi Oge fame, who is Nigerian only Ekwe female instrumentalist; Olo omidan bata, Nigerian only female bata drummer; Afe Onikoko, another female potter and the current rave of the moment, and Ara (Thunder), who is the only female Igbo talking drummer, singer, choreographer and song writer.

Last year, she enthralled Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who was hosted by the Lagos State Government. She not only taught Macron to play the talking drum but also presented him with one. Her single, Bojuboju, is due for release on June 7, 2019 in Lagos, with the audio and video produced by renowned producers through collaborative efforts.

Travelbeta unveils Davido as first official brand ambassador

T

ravelbeta, Nigeria’s leading travel and tour company, is delighted to announce Davido, a musical superstar, as its brand ambassador.

Davido will henceforth represent the brand in most features, if not all of Travelbeta’s marketing campaigns.

Davido, being an international artiste with a massive fan base worldwide, fits perfectly with Travelbeta’s innovative approach towards travel.

The newly forged relationship with Davido is in line with Travelbeta’s lifelong mission to provide a seamless travel experience with services such as international and local flight bookings, visa assistance, hotels, rental apartments, group tours, airport pickup, @Businessdayng

holiday packages, corporate packages, travel insurance etc.

In a statement issued to make the announcement, the company noted: “We at Travelbeta are delighted to partner with multiple award winning Davido. David’s vibrant persona and Pan-African appeal, just like the Travelbeta youthful and technologically-driven mindset, offers a perfect brand association that will strengthen our message and touch people’s imagination with possibilities.”

On his own, Davido also expressed delight with the partnership, saying: “I am elated to partner with travelbeta.com which has been a preferred travel partner for a lot of Nigerian customers.

As an avid traveller, my passion for music has taken me to every part of the globe.”

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

Exerting executive manners Business etiquette

Janet Adetu

W

hat does it mean to have executive manners?

Are you a professional? Are you a self -employed business person?

Whatever your line of business be it in the service, manufacturing, finance, legal, trading industry or government, your attitude, behaviour and ways of communication determine whether a new acquaintance, colleague, client or customer will want to know you more, or even do business with you.

The first impression you send out is the determining factor that will make or break you. It is what you leave in the minds of people you meet. The idea of mastering manners in today’s business world is fast becoming more and more essential. Corporate organisations have come to realize that your ability to develop and manage your soft interpersonal skills( manners, etiquette, civility + protocol ) is now far more important than mastering your technical skills. It is well known now that softskills are the new hard skills, meaning employers prefer to know how well you get along with others, how well you work with others a,d how best your team initiative can impact the organization.

Becoming a leader of respect, repute and recognition involves learning the rules of the game. Though these protocol rules are unwritten, people expect you to know them whether no matter the situation.

Executive manners will guide your business and social behaviour and set the necessary framework for building your moral IQ. .

How do you show Executive Manners?

Visualize entering a board room for a very important meeting with potentially high prospect clients. The meeting is an all day affair and will include lunch. How best do you show executive manners? In a nutshell I am emphasizing on the need to cultivate relationships in life that will enhance business and social intelligence. That which will position you for trust and credibility as well as exert your best self.

In five easy steps your executive manners will be determined by: (i) Whether you present yourself positively (ii) Your ability to communicate with utmost care . (iii) Your strength in networking and building a rapport for better relationships. (iv) Your personal conduct and body language in the meeting. (v) How well you dine with confidence and ease.

Strategic reasons for Executive Manners Executive manners are what you learn on a daily basis and practice regularly to stay on top and outclass

your competitors. They become a part of you and your daily demeanour. Ultimately executive manners will be your route to success in your professional and personal life.

Because the lack of manners can cost millions in business, health, relationships and success it is essential we identify why we need executive manners.

Need for Executive Manners First Impression You only get one chance to make

27

a good first impression; you must always put your best image forward.

Good executive manners will create the most needed first impression to get ahead start in business. If you consider how important your reputation is, you will guard it with all your life.

A good reputation commands power, where a successful reputation is based on how well your executive manners propel you to the top. Ensure that in your appearance, clothes, gestures, words and actions portray the right first impression congruent with your goals and values in life.

Executive Presence You can spot a leader from a mile away, there is always something extra ordinary about them, and they tend to have that exceptional attribute which is presence. Using your wide base of soft skills to your advantage will exhibit leadership skills that make others want to know you better and benefit from your experience. Knowledge of executive manners will surely accelerate you to heights, greater than you can imagination you begin to command respect, your presence will speak for you in high places.

Positive Networking Developing your networking skills, ensures that you are able to work a room with confidence, comfort and ease, this we refer to as commanding a room and creating reconition in a good way. You would be able to engage in discussions of all manner and nature and nature without becoming wall paper (i.e tied to the corner of a room). If you are called upon at any point in time as an executive, to comment on any particular thing, you will not be caught unaware. Executive manners will expose you to the tricks of small talk and public speaking.

Ruling Respect Respect they say is earned comes to whom it is due. The moment you are able to show excellent skills in manners and etiquette you begin to command and show respect: Respect must be for yourself, others, corporate property and your environment. A perfect gentleman or elegant lady, never goes unnoticed. Carriage of you with grace and calm is the epitome of

‘

Corporate organisations have come to realize that your ability to develop and manage your soft interpersonal skills( manners, etiquette, civility + protocol ) is now far more important than mastering your technical skills

respect. Develop your executive manners today and see how much respect you are able to earn.

Confidence Capture If your executive manners are on point you may experience a spring or a bounce in your step. What do I mean by this; generally your self-esteem will be boosted because of that extra air of confidence. Good executive manners will enable you navigate any awkward situation and you will feel comfortable, at ease and command well deserved respect once again.

Confidence must be worked on and nutured daily, having executive manners will set that tone.

Assertive Attitude With executive manners you know what you are doing, you are able to conduct yourself accordingly at the right time, right place and with the right people, having the right attitude and set mind will guide you through your progress to the next level.

Mentoring Many leaders, professionals, business entrepreneurs and individuals are quite unaware of the fact that many other are watching from a distance, actions, conduct, words and character.

When you are not so accessible others will feel you are mentoring them from a distance without you knowing. This is a good thing especially if you are impacting positively. This means be careful how you appear, behave and communicate, your attitude, character and personality are being constantly judged without your permission. Simply put exert your executive manners at all times, it the best way the move to your net level and transform your potential.

Conclusion With executive manners you are an invaluable asset to your organisation.

As an asset you will be able to lead and achieve successful results, the ultimate objective of every organisation.

Take that bold step today Goodluck!

Janet.adetu@jsketiquetteconsortium.com @janetadetu @jsketiquetteconsortium @peakperformancecoach www.jsketiquetteconsortium.com

Heart & Soul premieres amid acting opportunities for youths

O

n Tuesday June 4, 2019, Heart & Soul’, a medico-spiritual TV series premiered on Africa Magic Showcase Channel 150.

Produced and directed by Obi Emelonye, a renowned filmmaker, the TV series will run at 5:30 pm weekdays. The movie, which was shot under The Obi Emelonye Foundation’s ‘50-50 Legacy’ project, is also offering opportunities to Nigerian youths interested in taking part in the film and television industry when they engage with the TV series on social media (Facebook: Heart & Soul NG and Instagram @heartandsoulng).

The foundation is an initiative to offer budding talents in Nigeria the opportunity to join the film and television industry. The TV series started with a string of film workshops in Lagos, and had enlisted about 100 youths in the state to take part in the filming as actors and crew members, with the aim of giving their aspirations in the industry the needed boost.

Speaking on the movie project and its mentorship opportunities, Obi Emel-

onye says: “When my twin brother and I, turned 50, we thought of how we could

A scene from the movie

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

give back to the society in our various fields. This is the result. I am doing mine through television I am interested in giving the opportunity to young Nigerians to realise their dreams in the audiovisual industry. We started at Nsukka with ‘Crazy, Lovely, Cool’. At the Lagos end, we have done this TV series, ‘Heart and Soul’, which has given about 100 young Nigerians the opportunity to participate in the industry. It is usually difficult for the young ones to get that very first opportunity. That is what we intend to bridge with this project.”

Comparable to classic medical dramas like ER, Casualty, and Scrubs, ‘Heart & Soul’ has been described by critics as ‘Grey’s Anatomy set in Lagos with African mystery’, and features Nollywood star, Anthony Monjaro alongside Adekola Amoo, Phoenix Ezendu and many new but talented acts who were selected from the film workshops by the ’50-50 Legacy’ initiative of The Obi Emelonye Foundation.

@Businessdayng

28

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Sports Football Association and BT agree £50m strategic sponsorship deal Stories by Anthony Nlebem

T

he Football Association (FA) has agreed a five-year sponsorship deal worth around £50 million with BT, a British multinational telecommunications firm.

The FA had been searching for a lead sponsor since its seven-year partnership deal with Vauxhall expired following the 2018 World Cup. The FA’s new deal, announced before the Women’s World Cup and men’s Nations League finals, is believed to be worth close to £10m a year until 2024.

BT, which the FA is keen to stress is separate from broadcasters BT Sport, eventually agreed terms for a five-year deal which has been signed in time for this week’s Nations League finals in Portugal and the Women’s World Cup. As the lead partner for all 28 England football teams, the players are expected to wear sponsorship logos for the first time on their training kits this week. The deal will also see EE renew its sponsorship of Wembley Stadium and remain as its lead connectivity partner.

The announcement comes after a season in which billionaire Shahid Khan withdrew his £600m offer to buy Wembley Stadium. Proceeds from the new deal will be spent on grass-roots,

the FA pledged.

“This partnership will reach all areas of football, including grassroots football and communities up and down the country,” said

Marc Allera, chief executive of BT’s consumer division.

Mark Bullingham, FA chief commercial and football development officer, said: “This

How Liverpool fans celebrated their victory at Heineken UCL final after party

A

t the blast of the final whistle which brought the 2018/2019 UEFA Champions League to an end, fans of Liverpool Football Club erupted in volcanic excitement as their team clinched the coveted trophy for the sixth time in their history.

Prior to the final which was held at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid, Liverpool last won the coveted trophy in 2005 where they beat AC Milan on penalties in the finals at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul after a dramatic comeback from 3 goals down at half-time.

In the 2018/2019 season, Liverpool enjoyed an excellent campaign but winning the Champions League was their only hope of any silverware in a season they were exceptionally good; that hope was almost lost, but for an unprecedented Semi-final comeback to defeat Spanish side, Barcelona by 4-0 goals at Anfield after trailing 0 - 3 from at Camp Nou a fortnight before.

With their confidence now at an all-time high, Liverpool faced an equally pumped up

Tottenham side that also qualified ahead of Ajax FC after trailing by a lone goal from a home defeat from the first leg, setting up the all English finals.

A penalty within the first minute of the game served as the perfect start for Liverpool after a low cross by Sadio Mane struck the outstretched arm of Moussa Sissoko inside the 18-yard box. The spot kick converted by Mohammed Salah turned the whole atmosphere at the Heineken House into a frenzy as Liverpool fans vigorously celebrated their early lead. The first half ended with Liverpool at an advantage as both teams battled to take full control of the game.

Halftime performance by Nigerian Rapper, MI Abaga came handy for fans of both clubs and enthusiasts who needed to ease some tension before a resumption of the second half. MI gave a rousing performance to the delight of the guests who partied with the musician as they enjoyed chilled glasses of Heineken and endless supplies of food.

The second half soon resumed with both

www.businessday.ng

teams determined to win the contest. The fans were not left behind as they engaged in friendly banters while enjoying the game within the red star hospitable space of the Heineken brand.

It was, however, Divock Origi’s 79thminute goal that sealed the game for The Reds after the Kenyan born player fired past Hugo Loris for the second goal of the game. Even the little rain showers did little to bother the Liverpool fans who believed their team deserves to win the championship after an exhilarating run during the campaign. They stayed to watch as the team lifted the trophy with loud shouts of victory.

The after-party soon took off with MI Abaga back on stage to continue his performance, dishing out his hit records all the way.

Tinuke, a software analyst and Liverpool fan couldn’t contain her excitement as she praised the Merseyside team for clinching victory saying; “I am very happy tonight because my team won this match. We worked really hard for it and we deserve it. I was very nervous going into the game but after we scored the early goal, I became a little more relaxed.”

Another fan, George Uzi, thanked Heineken for the opportunity to watch the finals at the Heineken House saying; “Heineken has done great by creating this space for football lovers like myself to enjoy this game. I’ve had lots of food and drinks today and I’m going to party hard now because my team deserves to win”.

Heineken has sponsored the UEFA Champions league for over 20 years running. During the just concluded season, the brand did a tour of the UCL trophy, in April accompanied by FC Barcelona Legend, Carles Puyol.

There were also a number of match viewings in some locations across the country during match days and seven lucky fans were taken on an all expense paid trip to watch the second leg of the semi-final - the famous Liverpool Barca game live at Anfield.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

is a great start to an exciting week for England football, with the Lionesses starting their World Cup campaign and the men’s senior team in the finals of the Nations League.”

The FA already has 22 commercial partnerships including the likes of Nike, Coca-Cola, Lucozade and Head and Shoulders but BT will now become the lead sponsor.

“I’m really pleased that alongside Barclays and Boots this year, we can add BT to our growing portfolio of commercial partners,” Bullingham added.

“We have worked with the FA for sixyears as part of our partnership with Wembley Stadium to connect even more fans with the national game, and this ground-breaking deal sees us extend that from grassroots football all the way to the pinnacle of the women’s and men’s teams.

We’re committed to making BT a national champion, and what better way than backing the national game and the national teams. This partnership will reach all areas of football, including grassroots football and communities up and down the country.

“We look forward to revealing our plans in the coming months and we can’t wait to get started.”

The BT agreement includes all 28 England squads and will see the company logo appear on all development, futsal and disability team training kit.

All set for 2019 Nigeria Pitch Awards

T

he 6trh Award Ceremony of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards will hold in Asaba, the Delta State capital on Saturday 8 June 2019. Organizers announced that the ceremony will begin after the Nigeria-Zimbabwe International Friendly scheduled to hold at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.

Speaking in Lagos, Shina Philips, President of the Nigeria Pitch Awards, said organizers have concluded plans to host all nominees, the media, and football stakeholders including top NFF bigwigs.

‘The Award Ceremony’, Philips continued ‘will spotlight top Super Eagles members, other footballers, coaches, referees, football journalists and other stakeholders who were voted as winners by our voters spread across the 36 states of the country.’

At the 6th Award Ceremony, winners will be announced in all 20 categories. Guests at the ceremony and football fans world over would be eager to know who among Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo and Wilfred Ndidi will emerge King of the Pitch which is the awards version of the Most Valuable Player.

Interestingly, the State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and Delta State are among nominees for the Football Friendly Governor Award and Award for the State with the Best Grassroots Football Development Award respectively.

‘The voting process of the Nigeria Pitch Awards is coordinated entirely by SIAO Partners, Nigeria’s foremost accounting firm. Like all lovers of football in Nigeria, we eagerly await the results from the accounting firm at the award ceremony in Asaba’, Philips concluded.

The award ceremony will be anchored by Stephanie Isuma, aka ‘Calabar Chic’. The event will kick off at 7:00 pm with Red Carpet appearances and interviews while the award proper will commence at 8:00 pm at the Golden Tulip Hotel on Maryam Babangida Way, Asaba

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

29

FINTECH News

Products Review

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

Technology Review

One year to CBN’s financial inclusion 2020 vision, cashless link still missing

cent) of the estimated 100 million adult Nigerians enjoy some form of financial inclusion while about 58 million (58 per cent) adult Nigerians are financially excluded. EFiNA in a separate study of 2016 estimated that 41.6 per cent of 96.4 million adult Nigerians are financially excluded,” NIBSS stated.

Much of the success of CBN’s financial inclusion drive is hinged on deepening a cashless culture, which means expanding the payment network coverage and scaling technology infrastructure across the country.

Unfortunately, technology infrastructure has not been growing with the pace of adoption. While over 114 million Nigerians are on the internet as at January 2019, the infrastructure that powers the internet is still at a primitive level. NCC reports that broadband penetration climbed

to 33 per cent in 2019, it was overwhelming dominated by mobile broadband. The ICT ministry under Adebayo Shittu largely paid no attention to fixing the many challenges facing fixed broadband which is more reliable and efficient.

This has ensured that despite the perceived growth in broadband penetration, the network failures Nigerians experienced never went away.

To be sure, the redundancy in technology infrastructure is not for lack of interests from investors. Over time, it has shown clearly that it requires the right leadership to unlock those investments.

For instance, Emefiele’s CBN is yet to issue mobile money licenses to mobile network operators who have expressed interest in providing the service and who have significant capital for investing in the infrastructure. At least 30 business names have applied for registration as payment service banks since 2018 when the CBN indicated that it will be opening up the space for non-banking agents. In fact, in less than 5 months, the PSB licensing period will be one year and the CBN is yet to give an official statement whether it will be going ahead or not.

The CBN under Emefiele however has taken steps at various times to reduce the amount of cash in circulation but it would need to more than double its steps in convincing Nigerians and merchants to stick with the electronic payments. Once Nigerians have faith in them, it could be easier to convince those who are not banked to come on board.

But would Emefiele move quickly in order to save his financial inclusion vision in his second coming?

shareholder meeting said that cryptocurrency trading is “just dementia”.

“I’m looking forward to meeting a true pioneer in investing,” Sun, the 28-year-old founder said. “I’m excited to talk to Warren Buffet about the promise of blockchain and to get valuable tips and insights from him about entrepreneurship and making bold bets on the future.

As part of winning the bid, Sun is allowed to bring up to seven friends to go to lunch with Buffet at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in New York City.

Tronix also known as Tron or TRX was launched in 2017 and it is currently valued at $2.56 billion. It is the 10th largest cryptocurrency in the world, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

O

n Monday, the eve of the Ramadan celebration, anyone who worked into most of the banks in Nigerian would have noticed the unprecedented crowd of people inside the halls.

At a branch of GTBank in Apapa, the queue for customers waiting to collect cash over the counter was so long, the staircase was nearly blocked, and more people were still trooping in to get some cash for the holidays. The bank even had PoS ready for people with debit cards that couldn’t access the machines due to network. A few minutes later, the bank informed people on the deposit queue that due to network problems, there will be delay in posting their transactions.

At different ATMs around Ajah-Lekki axis in Lagos, people also waited on queues for hours waiting to withdraw cash to spend. Shopping malls and other merchants ditched their PoS machines and transfer options for cash payment because of erratic network fluctuations was delaying transactions and shoppers were beginning to agitate.

At a popular restaurant at Ikorodu, the manager preinformed customers before they ordered for drinks or meal that money transfers was not allowed, PoS was not working, only cash was accepted. One visibly angry customer whipped out his phone and displayed the message his bank had sent him on Tuesday, 4 June, 2019: “Dear esteemed customer, We sincerely apologize for

the delay you may have experienced in processing transactions on our digital platforms.

This is due to a challenge with our national switching service platform designed for facilitating electronic payments.”

He turned to this reporter and asked “Why does it happen every weekend or holidays when they know people are going to need to make payment?”

It is barely days since Godwin Emefiele, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) commenced his second term in office, but the cashless vision he inherited from his predecessor, the current Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, may miss its 2020 deadline.

For those not acquainted with the vision, the CBN cashless policy was established in 2012 by the Central Bank of Nigeria to curb excesses in the handling of cash. The policy not only sought to ad-

dress the inefficient handling of money it was also a strategy to bring more Nigerians into the financial system electronically. The CBN alluded to this in the report: “An efficient and modern payment system is positively correlated with economic development, and is a key enabler for economic growth.”

Following the policy, the CBN adopted the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) in 2012. The NFIS was built on four strategic areas of agency banking, mobile banking and mobile payments, linkage models and client empowerment. The NFIS was revised later by the Emefiele led CBN including a major goal of reducing the proportion of adult Nigerians that are financially excluded to 20 per cent in year 2020 from its baseline figure of 46.3 per cent in 2010.

In less than six months,

2020 will be here and Nigeria could still be nowhere near achieving the target. According to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), there are currently 35 million Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) in the country and an estimated 10 million of this number are considered to be financially included and financially served, these being the BVN holders who are actively engaged in financial transactions through banks, Microfinance banks, etc. The remaining 25 million are adjudged to be financially underserved. NIBSS also estimate that 7 million financially underserved individuals do not own bank accounts but enjoy limited financial services through informal arrangements such as cooperatives, esusu, mandatory insurance, etc.

“It follows therefore that only about 42 million (42 per

Crypto founder stakes $4.6m to secure lunch date with Buffet

A

s part of efforts to convince the world’s most influential investor, Warren Buffet that cryptocurrency was worth his money, Justin Sun, founder of Tron and CEO of peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTrent, has revealed that he staked a record-breaking bid of $4.57 million to win a charity lunch date with the legend.

The charity lunch date is an annual initiative by Warren Buffet in which he auctions off a three-hour lunch date to benefit Glide, a San Francisco charity organisation. The relationship between Glide which helps the homeless in San Francisco and Buffet began through his wife, Susan, who died in 2004. Prior to her death, Susan had volunteered to work at the Glide. www.businessday.ng

“I official announce I’ve won the record-setting 20th anniversary charity lunch hosted by @WarrenBuffet” Sun tweeted from his handle @justinuntron on Monday.

“I’ll also invite #blockchain industry leaders to meet with a titan of investment. I hope this benefits everyone. #Tron #TRX #BTT #BitTorrent.”

Buffet is a well know critic of the cryptocurrency market.

In a February interview with CNBC, the legendary investor said bitcoin has no unique value at all.

“It attracts charlatans,” he said. “If you do something phony by going out and selling yo-yos or something, there’s no money in it – but when you get into Wall Street, there’s huge money.” In 2013 he called bitcoin a “rat poison squared” and at the annual

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

30

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FEATURE Eko Innovation Hub positions to support Sanwo-Olu’s 21st Century Lagos economic dream Modestus Anaesoronye

T

Sanwo-Olu

novation Hub, speaking on the initiative, said the hub was inspired when this space was used as a campaign office that brought in the present governor of Lagos, “and we were kind of working with him to do a few things that could help with the manifesto and some of the concepts.”

“We felt that in doing co-creation it wasn’t just a form of government to the people, but it was also the people trying to be a part of the solution to problems. We went back to the manifesto and one of the things we saw was the fact that there was a key agenda which was making Lagos a 21st-century economy.”

He said that creating a 21st-century business economy meant creating more businesses, providing solutions to problems driven by innovation and technology. This, according to him, had to be the basis of the kind of solution the government could bring to solve the massive issues that are peculiar to Lagos.

Afolabi also noted that Lagos is to a large extent one of the largest economies in Nigeria, accounting for between 30 and 40 percent of the total economy, and also housing, unofficially houses between 20 and 25 million people.

He also pointed out that based on the demographics in terms of the youth, more than 65 -70 percent of the people are youths, mostly below the ages of 35. The way to take care of the large proportion of the population, according to him, was to create a space where the society will be able to nurture business ideas that are

www.businessday.ng

built around innovation and technology.

With this, he said, “we will be solving a major part of the issues in Lagos and to a larger extent contributing to helping governance.”

“The mantra is from concept to commercialization, and what we intend to do is to look for start-ups from young people of 18 years to 35 years with innovative ideas and concepts. It is going to start from an incubator to an accelerator and the idea has to be commercially viable.”

According to Afolabi, the Hub would be requesting for entries, and that during the first six months it would have been able to train those shortlisted by the advisory board and the faculty. About 50 people will be selected and taken through a six-week intensive course to freshen up their ideas

‘ In future the

centre will be the organization supplying the largest number of companies for private equity firms

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

‘

he new Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is committed to following up on his campaign promises, so that they will not just be on paper.

He is executing projects that will enable those promises to come to reality.

One of such promises, which was vividly captured in his campaign programme to Lagosians, was making Africa’s biggest city a 21st-Century economy driven by technology and innovation.

To enable this happen, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a day before his inauguration on 29th May 2019, commissioned the Eko Innovation Hub, a technology co-work Centre created from one of his campaign offices on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi,to raise young minds that will drive solutions to the numerous problems facing the mega city.

According to the governor, the EKO Innovation Centre is a co-hub working space established to raise a new generation of young Nigerian start-ups that will drive solutions to make Lagos a 21st-century economy.

It is meant to complement the new governor’s campaign promises of raising youths who have creative minds to start up new enterprises from start to commercialisation, the governor said.

Sanwo-Olu in an interview with journalists during the commissioning of the centre said “this used to be one of my campaign offices. It used to be a place where I had a lot of young people burning very long nights. We have developed concepts out of here; campaign promises, campaign ideas, strategies and all that.”

He said part of the things that he promised Lagosians was that whatever resources needed to address the state problems, “if available here, let’s tap from it.”

“We have said to ourselves, what is the best use we can give this complex? Let’s turn it to a tech-hub where young people can come and learn the best ways of doing things. That is what these young men have put together and they have called it an innovation centre. They have all the ideas of what the place would have potential of becoming, and we have seen some of the partners they want to work with to build this future,” he said.

“So I’m excited that they are thinking positively. It is for Lagosians to come and take advantage of it once it is fully ready for utilisation. It is part of our own contribution to the things we said we will do while we were campaigning, that we will make Lagos a tech-hub.”

Sanwo-Olu therefore called on other wealthy Nigerians whose houses are not in use to turn them into places where young people could come and espouse ideas.

Victor Gbenga Afolabi, CEO of Eko In-

and come up with business plans suitable for a pitch.

The pitch will be open, beyond the faculties and the advisors, and through it the top 5 will be selected, who will go through the incubator and accelerator process, according to Afolabi.

“Our focus is not having co-working spaces for rental income, but incubating and accelerating businesses. During the programme we will ensure that these startups are focused on their operations, while we provide all the other services that allow a business to thrive. The plan is that for the first five years, we want to make sure that we improve the chances of you succeeding, as we will give you access to finance as well as administrative aids,” he explained.

He further explained that the centr4e had partners from Microsoft, and other organisations working with it. “We are willing to provide strong handholding from administrative issues to finance issues to tax and legal issues. They are all available in house, as we have seen from experience that these are things that distract start-ups from achieving success, these are things they spend even the funds they raise on and so all these things are available for you in-house to ensure that we improve your chances of commercialising and improving your chances of succeeding,” Afolabi said.

In future the centre will be the organization supplying the largest number of companies for private equity firms, Afolabi said Afolabi observed that financing and running of the hub is not from Lagos state government, and that the Hub had no plans to depend on Lagos. Instead, its job, he said, was to add value to governance by helping it solve the issues.

“It is not only Lagos State we are looking at as potential beneficiaries, but also private equity firms that see viable companies that they are willing to take and scale up, organisations who are into impact investing too can be involved but we want to ensure that any start-up that we curate through this place is commercially viable and therefore very good for investment.”

Stressing the point that the programme was free of Lagos State government funding or interference, he pointed out that Lagos state would be like other off-takers of the concept and could buy into it, even the Lagos state government will be invited for the pitch process as we pitch the businesses to potential investors.

“Unemployment and underemployment is our greatest problem and we believe this is a way to solve those problems making sure those young people are gainfully engaged and they are creating solutions that will make them have a better life. That is the only way every one of us can live peacefully in this country and talk about good governance,” the innovation centre said

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

31

INSIGHT What will Shekarau bring to the 9th NASS? Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

T

Ibrahim Shekarau

to drown the rock of electorate’s protest votes.

One key lesson party leaders will take away from the last general elections, if they are intelligent, is that they can’t always get away with betrayal of the people’s trust.

Perhaps the biggest casualty of the last general election is the President of the 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki. The Senate President fell down in the battle to retain his seat in the Nigerian Senate chamber. The Speaker of the House of Representative, Mr. Dogara, narrowly escaped the political arrows of the opposition. On its part the ruling APC party leadership, aided by incumbent Governors, sacrificed the party interests on the altar of selfish considerations.

The result was the imbroglio that charactised the party’s primary elections in Zamfara and, Rivers states, for example. In the former, the win that PDP could not garner from the ballot boxes was delivered to it in the court room of the Supreme Court.

That verdict of the Supreme Court will be a subject of debate for many months to come and, as the debates deepen, they will further expose the many weaknesses of our electoral system and the laws governing it.

Again, the PDP’s failure to unseat the incumbent APC Governor in Kano State, despite all their control of the youths voting bloc, is traceable to the national party leaders’ selfish meddling in the PDP’s state machinery.

Precisely, it was down to the imposition of the Kwankwasiya returnees on the party loyalists that kept the party’s flag flying in the state while Kwankwaso forayed into the APC camp, which he found www.businessday.ng

too hot for comport in the end. In the din of political machinations Kwankwaso ended up losing his Senate seat to his political archrival, Shekarau. He also lost the bid to capture the Africa House seat of power for his anointed candidate.

Classically the hunter became the hunted.

The biggest winner in this selfdestroying entanglement of the PDP apparatchik was Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. When the national leadership of the PDP imposed Kwankwasiyya retunees on the party leadership, Shekarau simply and peacefully left the PDP to APC. He was rewarded with the ticket to contest the Kano Central Senatorial seat, which he went on to win with massive landslide victory.

There is some kind of mystical inter-twining of the destinies of these two political heavy weights in Kano—one rising to prominence from the ashes of the other. In 2003, Shekarau, then a political neophyte, rose to prominence when he contested the governorship race and won against the incumbent Kwankwaso, at a time when the popularity of the incumbent was at its lowest ebb. Today,

“

Shekarau will bring to the 9th Senate his vast experience in the art of good governance, conflict management and resolution, team building and accountability

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

“

he 2019 elections have come and gone. Democracy has been further tested -- or is it stretched, for the democratic evolution’s elasticity of the country reached a breaking point. All the actors in the political processes have been interrogated and the majority of them found blameworthy in the near miscarriage of our political march to the ideal society. If you discounted the role of God in saving the country, I am surprised how we escaped being pushed off the brink.

But here we are in the aftermath of the election turmoil. Elected executives—President and Governors—took their oath of office on May 29thand we are about to witness the formal inauguration of the 9thNational Assembly (NASS) on the 11th June. That the upper chamber of the NASS is increasingly becoming the retirement home for ex-Governors is a topic for another day, but nonetheless there is the need to x-ray the potential that such ex-Governors have to impact on the quality of legislation, leveraging on their past experiences, to invigorate the Senate and make it worth the billions of tax payers’ money that goes into oiling its machinery.

The x-raying is essential so that, in the business of accountability which democratic dispensation is all about, we can at the right moment hold such ex-Governors accountable. One such ex-Governor coming to the Senate for the first time is Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, a two-term Governor of the most populous state in Nigeria—Kano— from 2003-2011.

However, before I dwell on this career teacher-turned politician, I would like to draw some lessons from the just concluded elections and the roles its key actors played in contributing to the positive and negative outcomes of the elected positions, depending on which side of the divide you are. Positive or negative outcome aside, the actions and or reactions of these key actors have no doubt thrown up surprises that kept many mouths agape.

How the mighty have fallen on the battlefield! Many barely made it back home alive. Political foxes have ended up entangled in the traps of their hunting machinations. The hunters became the hunted. Greedy party leaders have smiled all the ways to the banks leaving their stalwarts licking the wounds of their woeful defeats.

No wonder the calls for the heads of such gluttonous party apparatchiks are getting louder by the day.

The current of greed is too shallow

Shekarau has again won the senatorial seat as Kwankwaso stands by helplessly.

Three undeniable traits defines Shekarau—humility, his peace-loving nature and visionary outlook. Surely, these are valuable asset to take to the Senate.

In stark contrast to what obtains nowadays in Kano State, the good governance he engendered while in power is nostalgically remembered. His was a government that left LG funds in the hands of the statutory authorities, allowing them to run the administrations independently as they deemed fit under the supervision of the ministry of Local Government. His was a government that prioritized staff welfare, revived staff development through trainings and courses long forgotten by the state civil service scheme. His zeal for staff welfare extended to the senior citizens of the state.

His unprecedented settlement of over 20 year’s arrears of pension gratuities, prior to his ascension to power, is still a constant reference in the state today. In his days, pensioners get paid before any group of civil servants. The overhead costs of running the MDAs were never in short supply. In short, in the transparent and accountable manner he ran the government made one ace journalist and publisher to rhetorically ask “Why is Shekarau doing this to Governors?” in back page article of his newspaper. In effect, he was making his contemporaries look inferior.

His approach to governance easily showed him as someone who values human capital development. His visionary antecedences were captured in many facets of state craftsmanship he displayed during his days. These are too numerous to mention in this write up. But one that stands the test of time and continues to be relevant was the Hisba. This is a socio-religious body brought about as a tool of implementing the Sharia Law in the state has won the hearts of many in the state— Muslims and Christians alike. Its role in the implementation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)

@Businessdayng

mechanisms reduced the number of people reporting to the police or taking their cases to courts was remarkable.

The visionary body has over the years built a cordial working relationship with other federal institutions, such as NAPTIP and NDLEA apart from the police that has been keeping Kano free from child traffickers, drug peddlers and other petty criminals.

His peace-loving disposition is best appreciated in the manner he handled the security situation of the state in the 8 years of his administration. Prior to his coming to power Kano was notorious for its ethnic-cum-religious crises.

But throughout his eight year administration Kano was at peace.

Not a single crisis was recorded during his first and second tenures, thanks to his dexterity in managing the complex, cosmopolitan and multi-cultural society that Kano is and will continue to be. How he was able to neutralize the dangerous, rascals and recalcitrant youths called ‘Yan Daba’ in Kano and kept the Boko Haram insurgents at bay remain to be fathomed.

Shekarau going to Senate will enable him continue playing these positive roles at the national level.

His first shot into national limelight was his attempt to contest the Presidential race in 2011 under the ANPP. Few months into Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidency, he was appointed as Minister of Education.

Most of the landmark achievements of the Jonathan’s regime in educational sector were achieved while he was in the office.

Shekarau will bring to the 9th Senate his vast experience in the art of good governance, conflict management and resolution, team building and accountability.

On the other hand, he will be closely watched by those who sent him there from the 17 LGAs that formed the Kano Central Senatorial district. They will expect more from him in terms of contribution to meaningful debates that will unite the country against its many fault lines.

They will expect him to prominently partake in the checking of the excesses of the executive and ensure that socio-economic developments across the nation are evenly distributed. They will, above all, expect him not to play to the gallery of untoward activities occasionally found in the National Assembly that boarder on political misadventure, economic sabotage or moral bankruptcy.

The 9th Senate will find in Shekarau a valuable asset.

• Hassan, GM, Norhern Operations, BD, contributed this piece from Abuja.

32

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

MARKET INSIGHT FirstBank Nigeria, innovation and 125 years of resilience BALA AUGIE

T

he first lender in Nigeria, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited was birthed in 1894, exactly 125 years ago.

Running a business such as banking in a tough and unpredictable macroeconomic environment for 12 and a half decade is a unique achievement. A lot of companies and lenders had gone bust in these periods, while others have exited or being bought over by investors.

Undoubtedly, FirstBank is a frontier financial institution in the industry, as it continues to adapt to the ever-changing business environment.

The lender has since inception taken the lead in business and network expansion. It is the first to record mergers and acquisition in this country, as Bank of British West Africa -as it was formerly called in the colonial era- ac-

Adesola Adeduntan, CEO, FirstBank Nigeria

quired Anglo African Bank, its competitor.

It is the first commercial bank and business organization to have an extensive reach to its cherished customers. The bank has continually lived to this expectation.

FirstBank is the first lender to give long term loans to the colonial government, as it continues to demonstrate its long term commitment to national development.

At the nation’s independence in 1960, it advanced the first ever loan to citizens of independent Nigeria.

“We have always recognized the need to provide a platform to economically empower people so as to strengthen their contribution to the economy,” said the bank.

In 1971, FirstBank – then Standard Chartered Bank Limited - was the first financial institution to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), paving the way for Nigerians to buy or own part of the bank’s heritage into the potentials of financial services powerhouse.

In 1991, the largest lender by asset introduced the first Automated Teller Machine (ATM), as part of its investment in technology and banking round the clock.

Today, the bank has over 2700 ATMs across the country.

In 2008, FirstBank became the first lender to hit the N2 trillion market capitalisation, a milestone that no bank in Nigeria has reached till date.

In 2010, the lender became the first organization in Nigeria to www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

be granted notable international standardization: the International Management System (ISMS) –ISO/IE 27001 2005 – which is the world’s highest accreditation for information protection and security.

In 2011, the largest lender by asset launched the first Biometric ATM in Nigeria, consistent with its tradition of pioneering far-reaching innovation in the financial services industry. It also launched the first cash deposit ATM in the country. That same year, it was named “Nigeria’s number one Banking Brand” by the Banker subsidiary of the Financial Times.

Through one of its subsidiaries FirstBank Capital, the bank launched the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), achieved in collaboration with The Ngozi Okonjo Iweala (NOI) polls in 2012.

The PMI adds Nigeria to the list of countries which make use of this economic indicator and therefore gauges the temperature of the sector at monthly intervals.

In 2015, FirstBank was recognized by Interswitch as the first financial institution to 100 million sustained monthly transactions in electronic payment.

FirstBank has been named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 – 2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” of the Financial Times Group; “Best Retail Bank in Nigeria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker International

@Businessdayng

Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance for 15 years.

The Nigerian lender has over 6 million digital users, the fastest mobile banking penetration across Africa. It became the second bank to issue 10 million cards to customers.

In 2018, FirstBank processed the highest number of transactions on electronic channels- annually, over 1.60 billion or about 33 percent of the industry volume - in the industry.

It has 2921 ATMs, the highest in the industry as it continues to intensify its mobile banking strategy.

For the year ended December 2018, the lender’s fees and commission income increased by 24.13 percent to N92.72 billion from N74.45 billion as at December 2017.

With some 15 million customer accounts, FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services with over 750 business locations.

The Bank has international presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.

Improvement in Q1 profitability despite challenging environment FirstBank has utilized the resources of shareholders in generating higher profit even amid a challenging environment.

Return on average equity (ROAE) increased to 11.80 percent in March 2019 from 8.90 percent the previous year.

The lender’s net interest margin moved to 7.90 percent in March 2019 as against 7.20 percent a year ago, amid a low yield environment as yields on short term government securities have fallen in 2018.

Gross earnings were up 4.96 percent to N145.80 billion in the period under review from N138.90 billion as at March 2018.

Profit before tax of N19.3 billion, up 2.6 percent year on year (y-o-y) while profit after tax up 6.9 percent to N15.8billion.

FirstBank has a risk management strategy as asset quality has continued to improve after the precipitous drop in crude oil price that hindered valued customers from honouring their obligations stoked exposure to the oil and gas.

Impairment on financial assets fell by 45.30 percent to N86.91 billion in the period under review from N150.42 billion a year ago.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

33

CULINARY DELIGHTS

Meet SIA the Cordon Bleu trained Chef taking Nigerian cuisine to the world @lehlelalumiere Lehle works at BusinessDay in Strategy Innovation and Partnerships, she is also a financial inclusion advocate and radio anchor.

Originally from Senegal Lehle has a passion for food and culinary experiences and enjoys discovering new restaurants in Lagos.

C

hef SiA, Simisola Idowu Ajibodu is a budding chef and entrepreneur based in London, England and Lagos, Nigeria. Her mantra, “To Cook Is To Be Happy,” captures her passion for creativity and fusion of great food. Trained by the esteemed Le Cordon Bleu London, Chef Sia, with a long-term focus on opening her own restaurant, is currently living a life of respect, innovation, and passion for both people and food. As a Chef, her aim is to reinvent the image of Nigerian flavors using fresh produce, creating a new avenue for all foods to coexist.

It’s not every day you get proper Chef hosting a dinner in Lagos so I was excited to go to a private tasting a few days before her roundtable along with some amazingly talented Nigerian culinary like Chef Benedict, Chef Alex, Chef Duharte, Chef Obehi amongst others as well as food writers and bloggers. As I arrived at the Ikoyi residential address, I was excited to taste the mouth-watering food I had previously seen on the menu. The tasting was an opportunity to taste the food items on the menu and give feedback in time for the actual roundtable.

The dinner started shortly after we arrived and after a brief introduction of the menu by chef Sia, the dinner was off to a good start.

On the menu was Panko fried plantains with rodo jam and oxtail pepper soup, which is slow cooked oxtail in a pepper soup gravy with ehuru pie crust. The next dish was fish banga with poached fish which was really tasty. I really enjoyed how rich and balanced the dish was. The flavor permeated through each inch of the fish.

The next meal was the rosemary lamb which was rosemary tuo with penja roasted lamb. I like how we got to taste different meals that all

complimented each other. We ended the meal with the Chef is crumble which is mixed fruits topped with lavender gari crumble and a petit fours which is mint bliss jelly and Zobo truffle.

Overall I found the food experience unique and the food tasty.

I had the opportunity to speak with Chef Sia and find out about her passion for food and culinary experiences.

What inspired to become a chef?

When I was much younger, let’s say between the ages of 6-8, I was fascinated by baking and cooking. I watched my grandma and mother cooking and was always transfixed. Fast forward to boarding school, my favorite class was Food Technology and I knew then that I wanted to be a chef. 3 degrees and a few jobs later, I decided to go to culinary school and I have not looked back How do you describe your cuisine?

This is an easy answer for me. I attended Le Cordon Bleu London, where they teach primarily French cuisine. I was quite motivated to use the techniques, I learned to recreate Nigerian dishes. Our traditional dishes are

bold and flavor so there is no reason why we can’t re-imagine the way they are presented.

For instance, our Jollof Rice can be turned into a rice cracker that is served with ponmo mousse and rodo oil. Why not if not!

3. Is the chef business profitable in Nigeria?

If you are a well-known brand, guests are more willing to want to experience your cuisine. My long-term goal is to open an exclusive modern dining restaurant feeding 15-20 people with a long tasting menu, showcasing locally grown food that is in season. I do hope it is profitable but I am happy for my passion to be experienced through food.

How has your experience at Ikoyi the popular Nigerian restaurant in London, helped you grow as a chef?

Ikoyi has been a wonderful experience. It has allowed my mind to broaden about the wide potential that The west-African ingredient has.

Having worked as other restaurants such as Cut at 45 Park Lane, I can boldly say that Ikoyi has been the best learning experience.

Is the world ready for West African cuisine to become mainstream similar to the way Italian and American cuisine?

East African Cuisine (Ethiopian for instance) is fairly popular. I would say right now it is a novelty. A one time experience with bold flavors.

It is going to take a little time (with the help of eager foodies) to take our food to the world!

What is your favorite Nigerian dish?

Haha, this is a very difficult answer to give. I would say anything with plantain from gizdodo to mosa to boli to fried & boiled.

CHEF SIA Engaging guests can be difficult especially when attempting to sell a service related to food. There can be a tendency to solely focus on social media, however, that does not always translate to guests reserving a seat. I rely a lot on recommendations and over time have built relationships with loyal guests.

This culinary experience was different than just going to a restaurant to eat, it brings a different flair to your average dinner party and I look forward to booking Chef Sia for an experience or attending the next roundtable in the near future.

To book an experience with Chef Sia contact: info@chefsia.com

RATING 4.5 Total N25,000 per person

Contact: info@chefsia.com

How do your build your clientele?

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

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

34

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news Inside details on 6 oil bloc licences...

Continued from page 1

holder the exclusive right

to explore for, develop and produce oil and gas within a defined area.

BusinessDay had earlier reported on May 8 that the Federal Government had reportedly revoked licences of six OMLs and one oil prospecting lease (OPL) in the onshore, shallow water and deepwater Niger Delta basin over alleged non-payment of royalties.

The assets affected are OML 98 controlled by Pan Ocean, OMLs 120 and 121 held

by Allied Energy, now Erin Energy (which is now bankrupt), OML 108 owned by Express Petroleum, OML 110 held by Cavendish Petroleum Nigeria Limited, and OPL 206 held by Summit Oil International, a company founded by the late Moshood Abiola.

But while the DPR said it took the action to “recover legacy debts”, sources close to the government agency said the move was to calm speculations going around about the revocation of licences and to ascertain those that are really affected.

While some industry stakeholders are alleging double standards in the Federal Government’s action as it was said to have applied different and milder sanctions on other companies that committed the same offence, other stakeholders are of the opinion that the decision would send positive signals to others who currently occupy oil fields that are not producing.

Another industry source close to the matter said all the revocations may not make sense as Pan Ocean is finding it a bit surprising because it has invested so much money and technology in producing oil from OML 98 which is currently producing about 3,500 bpd.

“A substantial volume of oil and gas is being produced.

So what will happen to the million-dollar investments invested by Pan Ocean in developing the bloc or its 40 percent working interest? Will it be given to another person?” an industry expert asked.

Ayodele Oni, energy partner at Bloomfield Law Practice, said the government acted within the scope of the laws governing the petroleum sector and each breach has a corresponding penalty.

“Remember also that the minister possesses discretionary powers to revoke or withdraw oil licences,” Oni said.

Ademola Henry, team leader at the Facility for Oil Sector Transformation (FOSTER), said that it’s within the powers of DPR to revoke licences, especially oil blocs not producing.

“Why keep something that is depriving the country of huge revenue which we desperately need now when we can find other investors?”

Henry told BusinessDay. On the implication of DPR’s decision going forward, Henry said, “It means people that bid for licences should be those that have both financial and technical capacity, which

implies DPR should make sure those that bid for these licences are well vetted.

“It means we will probably get quality investment and we will have more people who actually can do the business and maybe we eliminate the cardcarrying contractor who just wants to get the licences to sell.”

OML 98 controlled by Pan Ocean Located in the onshore Niger Delta, OML 98 is the only asset belonging to a Joint Venture (JV) between NNPC which owns 60 percent working interest and Pan Ocean Oil which has 40 percent.

According to a source close to the matter, OML 98 has a more delicate and complicated relationship between the JV partners, the NNPC represented by National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the investment and management arm of NNPC, and Pan Ocean Oil Corporation.

The source disclosed that high-level negotiations held previouslytoresolvetheissuesof outstanding payment as well as relatedprojectstiedtotheJVand other assets within the vicinity of OML 98 between representatives of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources led by the minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and Pan Ocean had failed to yield any positive result.

Another meeting was scheduled for early last month to iron out all matters regarding the asset with Pan Ocean agreeing to work with the government to ensure smooth resolution. However, no posi-

tive result was achieved after the meeting.

OML 98 is located in the Northern Delta Depobelt and in the northern fringe of Niger Delta Basin. It covers an area of 523 km² in Edo and Delta States. Fields within the bloc include the Ogharefe, Ologbo, Asaboro, Adolo, Owe, Ossiomo, Ona and Erimwindu fields. Pan Ocean commenced crude oil production at the Ogharefe field (OML 98) with an initial production of about 11,000bpd in 1976.

OML 108 owned by Express Petroleum Earlier in the year, reports had made the rounds hinting that many oil licences would not be renewed, and OPL 108 owned by Express Petroleum was among those listed. The licences had expired in 2014.

However, five years later, aside from defaulting in payment of royalties, the licence for OML 108 is yet to be renewed.

“OML 108 hasn’t been a vibrant asset through the years.

They have found it difficult to maintain production and sustain the asset. That’s why it was difficult paying royalties and renewing,” the source added.

The OML 108 (formerly OPL 74) assigned 40 percent interest to Conoco Energy Nigeria Limited as technical advisor. Conoco relinquished its 40 percent stake in the bloc in 2004 and transferred it to Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited same year.

OML 108 covers an area of 750sqkm in a water depth of 88ft (30m) in the western edge of the Niger Delta in shallow water offshore Nigeria, six

miles southwest of Chevron’s Meren field, but reaches water depth of 700ft (213m) on the southern portion of OML 108.

The bloc is composed of oil-producing Ukpokiti field, Kunza discovery and deeper pool prospects in the southern portion of the bloc. The Ukpokiti field comprises five oil wells and one injector well.

OMLs 120 and 121 held

by Allied Energy After Allied Energy plc (now Erin Energy) acquired 40 percent working interest in Nigerian OMLs 120 and 121 from Nigerian Agip Exploration, a subsidiary of Eni SpA, in 2012, not much production activity has been done on those fields.

In April 2018, New York and Johannesburg-listed Erin Energy filed for bankruptcy as it sought to restructure its debt and regain financial viability as AlliedEnergyplcandCamacInternational Nigeria Ltd founded by renowned Nigerian-born industrialist Kase Lawal.

Erin bought what it called the “economic rights” to Nigerian oil mining licences 120 and 121, which included the productive Oyo oil field owned

by Lawal and his family. However, Oyo oil field turned out not to be as productive as forecast as Erin shareholders sued the CEO and certain directors of Erin over the deal.

The shareholders claimed the CEO of Erin Energy overpaid by almost $200 million in the Oyo field deal that also benefitted Allied Energy, another company controlled by Kase Lawal.

The shareholders also claimed that certain directors

failed to protect the negotiations from the CEO’s undue influence and then sent out the transaction proxy which misleadingly portrayed the deal process as pristine.

The legal dispute started in 2012whenAlliedEnergybought 40 percent of the oil rights from a subsidiary of Italian oil major ENI. However, Allied only paid $100 million of a $270 million purchase price, according to court records, putting Erin Energyinjeopardyleadingtoasubsequent embarrassing scenario for Erin Energy.

In another development, a Federal Court in Texas, United States of America (USA), also ruled in mid-March 2018 in favour of two drilling firms Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea VII and Indigo Drillings on claim of $14 million against Erin Energy. The claims arose from unpaid bills in respect of work which they carried out on OMLs 120 and 121 offshore Nigeria.

OML 110 held by Cavendish Petroleum Nigeria Limited OML 110 has been operated by the family-owned Nigerian firm Cavendish Petroleum since 1996 but has not had an official titleholder since Cavendish’s rights to the zone expired in 2016.

Cavendish Petroleum was founded by the late entrepreneur Alhaji Mai Deribe, who hailed from the northern Borno State. He was able to pull strings under Sani Abacha, military head of state from 1993 to 1998, to pick up oil blocs and become one of the richest businessmen in his state.

South Africa’s Ramaphosa points way...

Continued from page 1

May 25, 2019. Ramaphosa was first elected unopposed as President of South Africa by the National Assembly on February 15, 2018 after President Jacob Zuma’s resignation. He was again elected by the National Assembly on May 22, 2019 for his first full term following the ANC’s victory in the 2019 South African general election.

This is, however, not the case for Africa’s biggest economy as nine days after President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration, Nigerians and the business community are still waiting for the ministerial list to be sent to the Senate for screening and approval.

President Buhari was sworn in on May 29 for a second fouryear term after defeating the candidate of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to emerge victorious in the February 23 presidential election.

Even though expectations are subdued following Buhari’s less-than-spectacular performance in his first term, many had believed that the 76-year old president would break from the past by quickly constituting his ministerial team this time around. This, however, has yet to happen, with dire consequences for the economy.

“A delay in the formation of a cabinet would leave investors scratching their heads as they

won’t have a clear-cut idea on the policy direction of the fiscal authority for the economy,” said Gbolahan Ologunro, equity research analyst at Lagosbased CSL Stockbrokers.

“GrowthinNigeriaisstillvery much in its fragile state, thus the country would need more of the private sector to help drive growth above the 3 percent population growth rate and curb down on its high unemployment rate that is currently above 23 percent,” Ologunro told BusinessDay on the phone.

Recallthatafterhewassworn into office in 2015, it took President Buhari over six months to constitute a cabinet to drive the policies in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of government. That delay, among other factors, conspired to drag the country into a lengthy recession that crippled the oil-dependent nation.

Ologunro explained that actions like the formation of ministerial cabinet send signals to the market, either positively or negatively depending on how the market perceives it.

In South Africa, for instance, the rand reacted positively immediately after 66-year old Ramaphosa named his ministerial cabinet, gaining some 0.5 percent against the dollar after an initial loss of 1 percent prior to the announcement.

Like Nigeria, the South African economy witnessed a turbulent time owing to alleged www.businessday.ng

L-R: Uba Sani, senator-elect for Kaduna Central; Ahmed Lawan, senate leader; President Muhammadu Buhari; Nasir El-Rufai, governor, Kaduna State, and Danjuma Goje, senator representing Gombe Central Senatorial District, after a meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

NAN

bad governance and mismanagement under Jacob Zuma.

But markets rallied strongly the day after Ramaphosa assumed the Presidency in 2018, with stocks rising and the rand reaching its firmest since early 2015. Government bonds also increased in strength.

Nigeria is still very much in a fragile state after it managed to limp2.2percentinthethirdquarter of 2018 after three quarters of negative growth (recession), thanks to growth recorded in the country’s agricultural, manufacturing and transportation sector.

For Ramaphosa, the timely constitution of cabinet would fast-track the process through

which his administration aims to revitalise the economy while exercising the greatest care in the use of public funds.

Aside from the prompt appointment of ministers, the South African president cut down on his ministerial appointees from 36 to 28 in order to cushion the effect of a ballooningcostonthegovernment.

“The cut in the cabinet is a significant move of downscaling our state. Many people believed our government was bloated and this was agreed right across the board. All South Africans are acutely aware of the great economic difficulties our country has been expe-

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

riencing,” Ramaphosa said while delivering a speech at the swearing-in ceremony.

His cabinet is also devoid of gender bias as it comprises 14 men and 14 women. Analysts say President Buhari can learn from this as Nigerians await his ministerial list.

Even though Nigeria is battling with a huge cost burden, the country’s leadership is not showing any signs of planning to cutdownonthesizeofitscabinet or its ambiguous and duplicated ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Rather, it is even planning on adding more.

In a statement made in 2017, President Buhari @Businessdayng

claimed he had been working with a “trimmed cabinet to avoid waste” but that he would soon shift ground in response to his party’s demand.

The country currently has 35 ministers, with 13 of them being ministers of state. Buhari is the substantiveministerofpetroleum.

With a ministerial list of 35 members, Africa’s biggest oil producer plans to spend as much as N4 trillion on recurrent expenditure and N2.03 trillion servicing its debt in 2019.

An expansion of the cabinet system could mean higher cost burden on the cash-strapped economy, according to analysts who spoke to BusinessDay.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

35

news Ibom Air gets Air Operating Certificate Ifeoma Okeke

A

fter few months of its launch, Ibom Air, Thursday was granted Air Operating Certificate (AOC) by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

This certificate gives the airline the licence to operate commercially within the country.

The management of Ibom Air commended the NCAA for the objective, professional, competent and thorough manner in which it had conducted the certification process thus far.

This is so as the airline says its attention has been drawn to the existence of several misinforming stories and ’news’ items about it in the social media space.

“While the airline remains committed to our strategy of allowing our services to speak for us, we believe it is necessary at this point to reassure all well meaning Akwa Ibomites and Nigerians in general, that Ibom Air

is no ‘pie in the sky’ proposition and that we are here to stay and to change the game as Nigerians know it.

“We emphasise that an airline is not a bus service that can just acquire buses and start operating as our detractors seem to think. In any country in the world, a start-up airline like Ibom Air has to go through a painstakingly thorough certification process in order to be given the ‘nod’ to operate.

“In the case of Nigeria, this process is overseen by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Based on our commitment to operate to world-class standards, Ibom Air submitted itself totally to the process. The process in Nigeria, in terms of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, is designed to take at least 9 months to complete.

In the case of Ibom Air, we are pleased to say that we are on course to complete the process under 7 months,” the airline management said in a statement.

NOI Polls: President Buhari polled an average of 49.3% in first-term ratings HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

N

igeria’sPresidentMuhammadu Buhari polled an average approval rating of 49.3 percent in his first term in office, according to a Nigerian public opinion firm that appraises the performance of the President - the NOI polls.

The results revealed that the President’s scorecard was highest in his first year in office with an average of 63.9 percent, as the report remarked that the appreciated ratings of first year could have been influenced by his high rating in September and October 2015, with 78 and 80 percent, respectively.

The poll ratings also revealed that the President polled an average of 44.8 percent in the second year of his administration, an indicative of a slip downward of his administration’s first year.

Further rating of the President by the rating agency showed that thethirdyearofhisadministration showed an average rating of 47.1 percent, with the average score of 41.3 percent.

It would be recalled that the NOIPolls had been conducting

these polls on a monthly series to evaluate the performance of Nigeria’s sitting president since January 2013. This has continued through the assumption of office of President Buhari.

The rating agency informed that Nigerians had participated in appraising the performance of President Buhari on specific indicators using a Likert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represents ‘Very Poor’ and 5 represents ‘Excellent’.

Starting off with his 3 cardinal policy thrusts: the president was rated 36 percent on Security; 27 percent on Corruption; and 16 percent on the Economy.

Correspondingly, the President scored 37 percent on Agriculture and Food Security, 26 percent on Power, 25 percent on Healthcare, 24 percent on Education, 22 percent on Infrastructure, 15 percent on Job Creation, and 13 percent on Poverty Alleviation.

Averagely, the President was rated poorly on all indicators analysed in his first term in office.

Specifically, the President on job creation recorded a poor average of 15 percent in his first term in office and this may suggest that some Nigerians are unemployed.

Group protests Anambra exclusion from oil producing state Emmanuel Ndukuba, Awka

H

ost Community of Nigeria (HOSCON) Producing Oil and Gas, Anambra State chapter, on Thursday peacefully demonstrated against exclusion of the state from oil producing states in the country.

No fewer than 70 persons with some placards from four major oil and gas communities, Aguleri Otu, Enugu Otu, OgwuAnacha and Ogwu-Ikpele of the state took their protest to the NNPC mega station retail outlet and Government House, all in Awka, to demand the inclusion of the state as one of oil producing states.

Some placards inscription include “Anambra is qualified and deserves all the trapping of an oil producing state! Stop denying her that, We are Anambra, We are oil producing DPR declare us ooo and Stop oil bunkering in Anambra State, Give us our 13 percent!!!”

Tony Chiokwe and Emeka Ilouno, state chairman and leader, Elders Advisory Council, respectively, led the group in the peaceful demonstration.

Chiokwe told newsmen that the state was long over due as an oil producing state, saying seven years of sufficient oil prospecting in the state was supposed to have earned the state full recognition as an oil producing state.

“With its attendant ben-

efits, but no, we are still being denied that status,” he said.

He said former President Goodluck Jonathan had on August 30, 2013 declared Anambra State as oil producing state, with Orient Petroleum prospecting in Enugu Otu. “Since then, other oil companies have entered the terrain, prospecting oil in the state. While OPL 815, 816 and 817 are allocated to two oil companies, Sterling Global has since 2013 been exploring oil in Ogwu-Ikpele and Ogwu Anaocha.

“At Ogwu-Ikpele, they are not only prospecting oil but flaring gas; two activities that are seriously degrading the environment.

“Most disturbing is that they drill in Anambra state and pipe the crude to Delta state, from where it is barged and exported, thereby making it look as if the oil is prospected from Delta state,” Chiokwe said.

According to Chiokwe, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is still in denial of the presence of Sterling Global in the state.

“As we speak, the oil rig/ platform of Sterling Global is standing on Anambra soil.

“We demand that DPR/ FGN should confirm the presence of Sterling Global on Anambra fields and consequently extend all the benefits due to our state, as an oil producing state, to us,” he said.

ECAM summit to discuss modern trends in exportation HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

E

L-R: Jeff Tang, marketing manager, Tecno West Africa; Kwawou Veronica, student of First Africa Church Mission School 1/ one of the winners of Give the Nigerian Child a Future; Omodojo Adejoke, head of section, social mobilisation, Ifako/Ijaye Local Government Education Authority, and Jesse Oguntimehin, PR manager, Tecno Nigeria, at the Tecno Foundation presentation of scholarship award for primary school student in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

Edo lauds EU’s interventions, seeks more support ... as team inspects progress at Science College, Benin, others

E

do State government has made a case for increased support from the European Union (EU) in deepening its financial management and procurement processes, which will enable the state attract more investments through Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

Acting commissioner for finance and special adviser to the Governor on Economic Matters, Joseph Eboigbe, said this during an assessment tour by an EU delegation in the state. The tour of the EUsupported projects in the state made stops at the Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) Benin City and

other Edo State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR) project sites in the state.

Eboigbe commended the EU for supporting the state government’s developmental programmes and sued for more support in the area of Public Financial Management (PFM) and procurement practice to improve financial accountability, transparency, and attract investors.

He noted that through the agency’s intervention programmes, “youths in the state have been engaged in public works, which have reduced restiveness and www.businessday.ng

made them to be productive, adding that more access roads have been constructed to boost social and economic activities while the school for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been revamped.”

He explained, “SEEFOR’s Community Driven Development (CDD) has brought development to rural communities, as the state government is complementing the initiative by setting up the Edo State Primary Health Care Development Agency to address challenges in the health sector.”

He added that SEEFOR had supported the reforms of the

State Financial System with contributions to strengthening the state’s Internal Revenue Services, which has led to significant increase in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Responding, the EU representative, Durero Roberto, thanked the state government for the progress recorded, urging the state to collaborate with Lagos-based European Business Organisation (EBO) to improve relations with the EU. The EU team visited the Benin Technical College in Benin City where the state government is carrying out renovation work as well as Edo SEEFOR/FADAMA intervention projects.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

CAM summit 2019, a two-day event, will give valuable insight on cur rent trends and practices in the export industry, as delegates will have access to practical insight that will assist in driving the business to global market, organisers say. ‎The event has the theme: Digital era, business on the move: Export on the fast lane, the organisers say in a statement on Wednesday.

T h e o r g a n i s e r s e xplained that the event would be focusing on utilising ICT to promote investment and export, and will take place July 2 – 3, 2019 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island Lagos.

According to the organisers, the event is aimed at bringing together people f ro m d i f f e re nt s e c t o r s ranging from Agrictech, Medtech, Pharma, Banking, Insurance and Logistics sectors to develop insight into current trend and best market practices from experts and keynote speakers. @Businessdayng

The summit is further aimed at addressing the benefits of utilising ICT in promoting export and d r i v i ng t h e i r bu s i n e s s from local to global, covering innovations, comp e t i t i v e n e s s, l o c a l i s a tion and logistic solution, access to support from agencies including, NEPC, NEXIM, NIPC, NITDA , CBN, NPA , Ins u ra n c e a n d f i na n c i a l experts who are focused on increasing export sales growth and network with Nigerian companies in each key targeted sector.

Also, the summit will also look at export challenges and solutions will be addressed in the twoday event and a road show exercise will take place the second day. This road show is aimed at showcasing the level of export i n Ni g e r i a, w h i c h w i l l throw more light on the level of Nigerian export and provide a road map for attaining globalised export market.

The highlight of the event will be an Award presentation, which will take place at the dinner night, networking, barbeque/suya night.

36

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

NEWS

DHL spools out e-commerce platform to more African markets following initial success Jonathan Aderoju

F

ollowing the success of the DHL Africa eShop app in 11 countries across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), DHL Express has announced that its innovative mobile and desktop platform has been rolled out in nine more countries across the continent.

Growing demand for online retail service fuels further growth.

According to Hennie Heymans, CEO of DHL Express SSA, says they’ve seen impressive growth in usage of the DHL Africa eShop app since it was initially brought online in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana, Sierra Leone and Uganda in April this year.

The uptake and usage of this platform over the past seven weeks have been incredible, with exponential growth in subscribers and physical orders.

Based on this rapid growth and the positive feedback that we have received from the market, DHL Express has decided to proceed to the next phase of the

rollout as quickly as possible.

The platform is now live for consumers in Cameroon, Democratic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, The Gambia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.”

The DHL Africa eShop enables African customers to shop directly from over 200 US- and UK-based online retailers, with purchases delivered to their door, by DHL Express. This solution was developed in partnership with Link Commerce a division of Mall for Africa.

Heymans notes that there is a growing demand for world-class online retail services in Africa.

“As one report by the McKinsey Global Institute shows, Africa has a fast-growing middle-class consumermarketwhichisembracing the internet at an astonishing rate.

By 2025, the projected internet market penetration is expected to reach around 50% for the continent, with around 360 million smartphones expected to be in circulation. DHL Africa eShop provides the perfect solution for African consumers to access global brands.”

AFCON 2019: Super Eagles battle-ready for Zimbabwe in Asaba Anthony Nlebem

T

hree-time African champions, Nigeria’s Super Eagles, have a full house in Asaba, Delta State, for Saturday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations send-forth friendly against the Warriors of Zimbabwe.

Since qualifying for this year’s AFCON finals following a 1-1 draw with South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in Johannesburg

in November 2018, the Super Eagles have played two friendlies – a 0-0 draw with the Cranes of Uganda in Asaba on November 20, 2018 and a 1-0 defeat of seven-time African champions Egypt also in Asaba on March 26, 2019.

Both teams are expected to offer a sneak preview of how prepared they are for the AFCON, with Nigeria seeded in Group B and rated to go far in the finals,

and Zimbabwe believing it can punch above its weight in a pool also having host nation Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

While Egypt 2019 will be Nigeria’s 18th appearance at the AFCON, Zimbabwe’s Warriors are making only their fourth appearance, following group stage exits in 2004, 2006 and 2017.

Nigeria was one of the reasons Zimbabwe crashed out at

Access Bank resolves disruption to banking services, issues apology to customers

F

ollowing the difficulties experienced by customers in executing transactions on the Access Bank digital platforms recently, the bank has announced a resolution to the service disruption and also issued a formal apology.

In a statement released Thursday, the bank assures its customers that all transaction challenges experienced on its platform have been resolved while reiterating its commitment to providing exceptional banking services across board.

“We are deeply sorry for every delay or inconvenience experienced in the use of our digital channels this period,” the statement notes. “Please be assured that these issues have been fully resolved.”

The disruption in transactions across digital platforms also affected several other financial organisations across the country including GTBank, Zenith Bank, FCMB, among others.

The electronic payment gateway is a staple of the Nigerian economy as data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that a total of 557,083,712 electronic-payment transactions valued at N34.02 trillion were recorded in selected banks across the country in the first quarter of 2019.

Access Bank’s timeouts response to feedback from its customers on social media and other platforms reflects an unwavering commitment to quality service delivery and best-in-class user experience on all its platforms.

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

group stage in 2006, as the Super Eagles defeated the Warriors 2 - 0 in Port Said, with one of the goals from Mikel John Obi. Incidentally, the midfield enforcer and 14-year veteran of the Super Eagles, John Mikel Obi, is returning to the group on Saturday after one year out. He played no part in the AFCON qualifying matches and friendly games post-World Cup but is back in the flow for the finals.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news

37

NIMASA to end capital flight, job Settle down to work now, Sanwo-Olu losses in economy with national fleet tells new appointees

One million people diagnosed of STD every day - WHO

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

ANTHONIA OBOKOH

N

igerians will be able to lift its nation’s crude oil for export if the national fleet comes into operation, Dakuku Peterside, director-general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has assured.

Peterside, who spoke at a breakfast meeting on the sideline of the ongoing Nor Shipping Conference and Exhibition in Oslo, Norway, said the establishment of national shipping lines would end capital flight associated with the present arrangement of selling oil on free on board (FoB) basis to customers.

While assuring that it will also lead to employment creation, he said the new national fleet would be owned 49 percent by a technical partner and the remaining 51 percent reserved for Nigerian investors.

According to Peterside, Nigerian investors will hold equity in lots to avoid having domineering shareholder. He however stated the planned national fleet would be private sector led to ensure sustainability and profitability.

“The national fleet is part of the country’s new strategic plans on developing the blue economy, designed to tap its maritime potentials. While opportunity in crude freight and right of first

refusal to lift cargo generated by all tiers of government are just some of the much potential in the sector,” he said.

He invited local and foreign investors interested in the project to partner the country, saying the country was also taking its maritime security serious and had invested in the acquisition of security assets to boost the policing of its waters.

He listed the assets to include patrol boats, special mission aircraft, helicopters, unmanned air vessels and special mission ships, adding that the assets, acquired under the ‘Deep Blue Project,’ he described as homeland security solution that would be operational

by September this year.

He however called on investors to tap into the rich potentials of the maritime sector in Nigeria, adding the government has incentivised the sector with offers of tax holidays and institutional support.

“Nigeria is an investment friendly environment with comprehensive maritime security, a robust financial sector and six port complexes with numerous terminals, and is focusing on implementing reforms to enhance ease of doing business,” he said.

Nigerian ports and border stations, he said, account for 70 percent of seaborne trade into West and Central Africa, and is endowed with a skilled workforce.

Sahara Group urges enforceable policies to support climate protection in Africa

A

s the world marks the 2019 ‘Environment Day,’ Sahara Group has advocated the need for more stakeholder collaboration in the design and adoption of enforceable policies and regulation that can effectively curb the menace of climate change in Africa.

June 5 of every year is celebrated globally as World Environment Day. The theme for this year is: #BeatAirPollution.

Pearl Uzokwe, director, Governance and Sustainability, Sahara Group, said while it was commendable that some African nations had started implementing several environmental protection policies, the continent requires “holistic and tailored multi-stakeholder cooperation to achieve sustainable milestones.”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), nine out of 10 people in the world are exposed to polluted air and worse still, air pollution kills 7 million people each year. A new World Bank report found that air pollution costs the global economy more than $5 trillion annually in welfare costs, with the most devastating damage occurring in the developing world.

Africa needs to establish incentives that promote investments in renewable energy, pollution control technologies, energy efficiency and clean production mechanism to combat air pollution effectively, Uzokwe said.

“Quite impressively, we have seen policies targeted at increasing industrial energy efficiency and reducing fuel sulphur content for refined petroleum products (Afri4); increasing investments in public and non-motorized transport systems and improving access to clean cooking and heating fuels. What we need now is a higher level of commitment and cooperation from governments,

energy companies, regulators, civil society and other stakeholders to ensure these policies are backed by laws and enforced as appropriate across the continent,” she said.

She said Sahara’s commitment to protecting the environment inspired the recent partnership between Sahara Energy Resources DMCC Dubai and Brooge Petroleum and Gas Investment Co (BPGIC) geared towards setting up an oil refinery with up to 250,000 barrel per day capacity to produce clean bunker fuel in the Emirate of Fujairah.

The facility will be one of the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa to comply with the new regulations of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 2020 by capping sulphur content in shipping fuels.

Working through West Africa Gas Limited (WAGL), a Joint Venture between Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Sahara Group, the energy conglomerate contributes to the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas to enhance access to clean and safe energy in Africa via WAGL’s ultramodern vessels, MT Africa Gas and MT Sahara Gas. In addition, Sahara recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to facilitate access to affordable and sustainable energy in Africa.

“Sahara Group is constantly reviewing its business practices to promote effective environmental governance, resource efficiency and ecosystem management. We are passionate about pursuing and promoting multi stakeholder collaboration between regional and global organisations to drive the achievement of Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action) across the world,” Uzokwe added. www.businessday.ng

JOSHUA BASSEY

L

agos State governor, Babjide Sanwo-Olu, has urged his first set of appointees to immediately hit the ground running, as their appointments are critical to the success of the new administration.

Sanwo-Olu made the declaration while swearing in the new appointees on Thursday.

They include Folasade Jaji, secretary to the state government, Tayo Ayinde, chief of staff, and Gboyega Soyannwo, deputy chief of staff.

Also swore in were six new permanent secretaries, including Ademuyiwa Eniayewun, who until his elevation was the medical director, Lagos Island Maternity; Olumide Erinle, principal, Apapa Senior High School, Education District IV; Oludara Okelola, principal, Babs Fafunwa Millenium Senior Grammar School, Education District VI and Wasiu Akewusola, general manager, New Town Development Authority.

Others include Yewande Falugba, director, administration and human resources, ministry of Youth and Social Development; and Mustapha Osi-Efa, director administration and

human resource, ministry of Home Affairs. The portfolios of the new permanent secretaries, according to governor, would be announced in days to come.

The governor said their appointments were a call to service and an acknowledgement of their track records in their various fields of specialisation.

“This appointment is necessary and also critical for a smooth take off of this administration, which is barely one week old. You have been brought on board to assist the administration for effective actualisation of the visions and agenda of the APC, our state and the people,” he said.

He advised them to be innovative and receptive to new ideas that would continue to make the state a centre of excellence, and stressed the need to avoid complacency in the discharge of their duties.

He also urged them to ensure delivery of services in tune with the demands of 21st Century economy and provide leadership to other levels of staff.

Responding on behalf of the appointees, Jaji thanked the governor for giving them the privilege to serve, and promised to justify the confidence reposed in them.

M

ore than one million new cases of four sexually transmitted infections (STIs) chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis (or trich) and syphilis, are contracted every day, according to figures released Thursday by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The WHO finds on average that one in every 25 people globally has at least one of these STIs, sometimes known as STDs, among people aged 15-49 years. This amounts to more than 376 million new cases annually.

“We’re seeing a concerning lack of progress in stopping the spread of sexually transmitted infections worldwide,” said Peter Salama, executive director for Universal Health Coverage and the Life-Course at WHO. “This is a wake-up call for a concerted effort to ensure everyone, everywhere can access the services they need to prevent and treat these debilitating diseases.”

The report, based on 2016 global data, which are the latest available, shows that there were 127 million new cases of chlamydia in 2016, 87 million of gonorrhoea, 6.3 million of syphilis and 156 million of trichomoniasis.

STIs are transmitted through unprotected vaginal, anal and oral sex. Some can be passed from mother to child during pregnancy or childbirth - notably chlamydia,

gonorrhoea and syphilis. Syphilis can also be transmitted by coming into contact with infected blood.

If left untreated, these infections can have serious consequences - such as infertility in men and women, stillbirths, ectopic pregnancy and an increased risk of HIV. Syphilis alone caused an estimated 200,000 stillbirths and newborn deaths in 2016, making it one of the leading causes of baby loss globally.

And while all of these infections are treatable with antibiotics, shortages in the supply of enzathine penicillin have made it more difficult to treat syphilis and antimicrobial resistance to gonorrhoea treatments is also a growing health threat, the WHO said.

Larne Yusuf, a Lagos-based medical practitioner, says more awareness needs to be created in Nigeria to help as part of solution on reducing the spread of STDs, especially among young adults.

“We can slow down behavioural change in sexual practises in the country by abstinence and encouraging protected sex, because the more people are exposed to multiple sex partners, the more chances people are infected.

“I urge us to take promotion sexual health education to schools and communities and effective condom use, increase efforts to advance STI surveillance, and increase new treatments and diagnostics,” he advises.

Ahmed Musa, footballer, and Cana Wang, MD of Syinix Nigeria, exchanged a Syinix branded shirt with the football brand ambassador.

Transcorp Hilton Abuja named Africa’s leading business hotel for 5th consecutive year SEGUN ADAMS

T

ranscorp Hilton Abuja has been recognised as Africa’s Leading Business Hotel for the fifth consecutive year at the prestigious World Travel Awards.

At the 2019 Africa & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony held at the Sugar Beach – A Sun Resort, Mauritius on June 1, Transcorp Hilton Abuja scooped five of 11 awards won by Hilton properties, as voted for by travel and tourism professionals globally.

The hotel, which is owned by Transcorp Hotels plc, the hospitality subsidiary of Transnational

Corporation of Nigeria plc, was recognised in the following categories at the 2019 World Travel Awards Africa & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony with hundreds of industry leaders in attendance: Africa’s Leading Business Hotel; Nigeria’s Leading Hotel; Nigeria’s Leading Business Hotel, and Nigeria’s Leading MICE Hotel, while the Presidential Suite at Transcorp Hilton Abuja won Nigeria’s Leading Hotel Suite.

Receiving the awards on behalf of the hotel, Owen Omogiafo, managing director/chief executive officer, Transcorp Hotels, said it was an honour to have been recognised by the World Travel

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Awards 2019.

“The award is a testament to the genuine passion and dedication our hotel puts into going the extra mile for our guests. Thank you to all our guests and our amazing team members at Transcorp Hilton Abuja who are at the heart of our successes; without them we wouldn’t have been recognised for this great achievement,” Omogiafo said.

Kevin Brett, general manager, Transcorp Hilton Abuja, said, “We are honoured to have been recognised by the World Travel Awards 2019. This recognition is a testament to our commitment to excellence and to providing @Businessdayng

an outstanding guest experience and is a reflection of our hotel’s exceptional team members and facilities. Winning the award for Africa’s Leading Business Hotel 2019 is also a recognition for the destination of Nigeria being elevated among the best on the African continent.”

The prestigious World Travel Awards, established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry, has become a key global institution of the industry and is recognised as the ultimate hallmark of quality worldwide.

The winners set the benchmark to which all others aspire.

38

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

FT

BUSINESS DAY

39

FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

VICTOR MALLET

E

mmanuel Macron has issued a thinly veiled appeal to Donald Trump to stand by the western and international institutions established after the second world war and to push for peace in the Middle East.

“A m e r i c a , d e a r P re s i d e n t Trump, is never as great as when it fights for the liberty of others . . . as when it is faithful to the universal values championed by its founding fathers,” the French president said at a ceremony on Thursday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in Normandy.

“We should never cease to cherish the alliance of free peoples,” Mr Macron said, before awarding Légion d’Honneur medals to five US veterans of the landings.

Mr Trump also made a speech paying tribute to the veterans and to the alliance that defeated the Nazis. The US president said: “Our bond is unbreakable.”

But Mr Trump’s frequently expressed scorn for Washington’s western allies, his rejection of international agreements reached by his predecessors and his championing of a Brexit process that damages the EU has alarmed Mr Macron and other European leaders.

Mr Trump and Mr Macron, who both took power after insurgent political campaigns that shook up the traditional parties in their respective countries, initially forged a “bromance” after Mr Macron was elected in 2017.

But relations soured last year when Mr Trump criticised French

Emmanuel Macron urges Donald Trump to stick with western allies

On D-Day anniversary, US president insists relationship with French leader is ‘outstanding’

plans for a European army and mocked Mr Macron over the antigovernment gilets jaunes demonstrations that swept through France from November 2018.

The two presidents also differ sharply over Mr Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate accord and his withdrawal from the international agreement to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic ties with the west.

At a summit with Mr Trump in Caen, Mr Macron emphasised the strength of French-US defence ties, for example in anti-Islamist operations in Mali. He compared the wartime alliance with what France and the US were doing today “to preserve democracies and liberty, together in Africa, in the Near East and amid international crises”.

However, the two men could not hide their disagreements over how to deal with Iran. While a belligerent Mr Trump boasted about the effect of his economic sanctions — he said it was “extraordinary how powerful they’ve been” — Mr Macron emphasised the importance of new negotiations and called for “peace in the region”.

Mr Trump acknowledged past differences with Mr Macron but insisted the personal relationship and that between the US and

Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron watch a flyover at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, flanked by first lady Melania, left, and the French president’s wife Brigitte © AFP

France was now “outstanding”. He said: “It’s been good sometimes, and sometimes it hasn’t been, but right now it’s outstanding, so the relationship we’ve had together has been terrific.”

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former French prime minister and ally of Mr Macron, has sharply criticised

Mr Trump for his approach to foreign policy, including his promotion of a hard Brexit and what Mr Raffarin called the “dismantling of Europe”.

Mr Raffarin told the Financial Times: “Allies like that are not much good . . . The meeting will be a chance for the [French] president to

tell President Trump of our disappointment.”

A group of French trade unions and the far-left France Unbowed party called for a demonstration in Caen on Thursday afternoon after Mr Trump’s visit, saying that the US president represented “racism, sexism and climate denial”.

Mario Draghi readies fresh stimulus Zambia lured by the siren song of resource nationalism The government should take note of historical lessons as economic fears grow PETER LEON

ECB floats renewal of bond-buying and joins US Fed in considering rate cuts CLAIRE JONES

M

ario Draghi is preparing to cut interest rates and embark on a fresh round of bond purchases before he leaves the European Central Bank this autumn, in a bid to boost the eurozone’s economy and combat mounting global uncertainty over trade.

The bank was ready to “use all the instruments that are in the toolbox” if the slowdown in the bloc’s exportdriven manufacturing sector began to infect other parts of the economy, the ECB president said at a press conference on Thursday after the bank’s policy meeting, adding that “the policy space is there” for any necessary measures.

The bank’s governing council had started discussions on the detail of how to address investors’ fears that weak inflation and growth would continue to weigh on the single currency area, Mr Draghi said.

He specifically mentioned a fresh expansion of the bank’s €2.6tn quantitative easing programme and rate cuts as possibilities, but insisted that the central bank’s efforts would need to be matched by a boost in public spending by the region’s governments.

At the meeting, the ECB extended its pledge to keep rates on hold at record lows until the middle of 2020 as poli-

cymakers grapple with mounting concerns about weak inflation. Mr Draghi signalled that the next move in interest rates — specifically the deposit rate — was more likely to be down than up.

His remarks capped a dovish week for the world’s two most important central banks. Jay Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, said earlier this week that he was prepared to cut rates should the global trade war begin to affect the US economy.

After rising 0.5 per cent against the dollar earlier in the day, the euro fell back after Mr Draghi said the bank was willing to take bold new measures.

The bank believes it has significant headroom for fresh QE, due to the hitherto slight fiscal expansion in the eurozone and European Court of Justice judgements on earlier bond purchases.

The bond-buying programme, which began in the spring of 2015, was halted at the end of last year. But the ECB is still struggling to hit its price stability target of less than 2 per cent. Inflation fell sharply in May to 1.2 per cent.

While some bounceback is expected in June, a closely watched measure of markets’ price pressure expectations, the so-called five-year-on-five-year inflation swap rate, is less than 1.3 per cent and close to levels last seen in 2016, when the ECB ratcheted up monthly bond purchases through QE from €60bn to €80bn. www.businessday.ng

Z

ambia, the world’s seventhlargest copper producer, is the latest leading African mining jurisdiction to succumb to the siren song of resource nationalism.

In recent years this trend has seen international miners and their host governments in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo clash over swingeing tax changes and other regulatory imposts.

The government’s current court application, through its state-owned proxy ZCCM Investments Holdings, to liquidate Konkola Copper Mines, a business controlled by Vedanta Resources, has been greeted with alarm and marks the culmination of a three-year clampdown on private, and especially foreign, influence in the mining sector.

In 2017, the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) initiated a mining industry tax audit, claiming it was losing $3bn annually through “illicit financial flows”, mostly in the mining sector. In 2018, the ZRA slapped Canada’s First Quantum with a $7.9bn tax bill, which remains unresolved.

In September, the government announced a series of fiscal reforms: introducing a new 5 per cent import duty on concentrates; increasing royalties by 1.5 per cent and making them no longer tax-deductible; while replacing value added tax with a non-refundable sales tax.

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

The latter is significant, as mining companies were owed $600m in VAT refunds at the end of 2018.

Then in January, the ZRA declared it would not pay, claiming that its (unpublished) audit showed mining companies owing more than this in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest.

So why is the government doing this? And why now?

Typically, resource nationalism manifests in response to certain cycles. Most fundamental is the investment cycle. Countries that are rich in natural resources, but lack the capital, operational and technological resources to extract them profitably, adopt liberal legal frameworks and fiscal incentives to entice foreign investors (who may otherwise invest elsewhere, if it promises a better return on their capital outlay).

Once investments are made (and capital sunk), the government may flex its legislative muscle to claim a greater share of the returns than the original laws or licence terms allowed.

Whether a government does this depends on one or both of the following immediate factors. Commodity cycles drive resource nationalism in countries that are highly dependent on raw mineral exports: during a period of price depression, the state receives less revenue from royalties and export duties, but a subsequent surge in prices presents an opportunity to feed the fiscal deficit by extracting higher rents from mining

@Businessdayng

companies.

Electoral cycles also drive resource nationalism in countries that have regular elections with relatively close margins, as incumbent governments often seek to increase their support by exploiting the populist appeal of resource nationalism.

Zambia is no exception, but is in fact a stark exemplar of both price driven and populist resource nationalism.

The country’s finances are extremely sensitive to the price of copper, which accounted for 80 per cent of export earnings in 2016, when copper’s price per tonne reached a 10-year low of $4,800 a tonne, down from its 2010 peak of $8,800. That year, Zambia boasted annual GDP growth over 10 per cent and a fiscal deficit of 3.3 per cent.

But by the end of 2018, after four consecutive years of sub-4 per cent economic growth, the deficit had ballooned to 7.5 per cent of GDP, and Zambia had accumulated over $10bn in external debt (73 per cent of GDP), despite having had most of its debts extinguished under the IMF’s “heavily indebted poor countries” scheme in 2005.

On top of this acute fiscal strain, the government also faces intense electoral pressure. President Edgar Lungu won the 2016 election with just over 50 per cent of the popular vote, only 2 per cent more than his rival Hakainde Hichilema.

40 BUSINESS DAY

FT

Friday 07 June 2019

NATIONAL NEWS

India cuts interest rate to lowest level in 9 years Central bank lowers forecast for GDP growth and signals possible further easing AMY KAZMIN

I

ndia’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate for the third time this year as it seeks to reverse the country’s sharp economic slowdown and also signalled the possibility of further easing.

The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee voted unanimously to lower the benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent, bringing it to its lowest level since late 2010.

The rate cut comes just days after Narendra Modi was sworn-in as prime minister for a second term after a landslide re-election victory that affirmed his strong personal popularity, despite his inability to deliver on the faster economic growth job creation he had promised in his 2014 election campaign.

Government data released last week confirmed that India’s GDP grew at its slowest pace for five years, expanding 6.8 per cent for the full year ending March 30 compared to 7.2 per cent the previous year.

Industry groups argue India needs near double-digit growth to create enough jobs for the country’s young,

aspirational population.

On Thursday, the RBI also lowered its GDP growth forecast for the current April-to-March financial year to 7 per cent, down from its previous forecast of 7.2 per cent, with bellwether indicators, such as car sales, pointing to continuing weakness in April and May. Shaktikanta Das, who was appointed RBI governor late last year, said the current economic conditions compelled the committee to “act decisively and act in time”.

“Growth impulses have significantly weakened,” added Mr Das, whose predecessor was accused of maintaining overly tight monetary policy despite evidence of a slowdown.

The RBI has also shifted its monetary policy stance from neutral to accommodative, which Mr Das said was intended to rule out any nearterm rate increase, and signal the possibility of future easing if growth remained soft.

The RBI cited concerns about slowing global economic momentum, against the backdrop of sharply rising tensions between the US and China, and sharply decelerating domestic growth.

Calvey fraud case casts pall over Putin’s St Petersburg summit High-profile western visitors largely absent as Baring Vostok chief remains under arrest MAX SEDDON

F

or the past decade, US financier Michael Calvey has been a fixture of the economic conference Vladimir Putin hosts every spring in St Petersburg, insisting that the rewards of investing in Russia outweighed the risks.

But this year, the founder of private equity firm Baring Vostok and one of Russia’s largest foreign investors is under house arrest on fraud charges. If he is allowed to attend, it will be with an ankle bracelet and two prison guards watching his every move.

Russia’s case against Mr Calvey and three other partners at Baring Vostok, who remain in jail, has cast a pall over the country’s business community since their arrest in February on fraud charges. Mr Calvey denied the charges, which Baring Vostok said were a salvo in a battle for control of the bank with minority shareholder Artem Avetisyan.

Investor appetite has already foundered because of souring relations between Moscow and the west, and the effect of sanctions imposed by the US, EU and others against Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The Baring Vostok case threatens to overshadow Mr Putin’s investment pitch at a plenary session alongside Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday.

Although more than 1,0000 Chinese guests are expected, highprofile western visitors — which in recent years have included French president Emmanuel Macron and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde — are largely absent. Mr Putin and Mr Xi will speak alongside António Guterres, the UN secretarygeneral, as well as the leaders of Armenia, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

Jon Huntsman, the US ambas-

sador who encouraged American companies to attend the forum last year, is boycotting the event in protest at the Calvey case.

The Calvey case highlights “the risk of doing business in Russia”, said Alexis Rodzianko, president of the US-Russia Chamber of Commerce.

“I hope it doesn’t create a signal that it’s open season on foreign investors.

That’s the concern.’

Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin’s press secretary, appeared to signal a shift in tone this week when he said the Kremlin hoped “that all these gentlemen will be released” and “would obviously like to see Michael among the forum participants”.

Mr Putin had privately backed the case against Mr Calvey and refused to intervene despite entreaties from several Kremlin-connected investors and Total chief executive Patrick Pouyanné.

While in pre-trial detention, Mr Calvey repeatedly told visitors he remained committed to investing in Russia and encouraged others to do so in an attempt to win the Kremlin over to Baring Vostok’s side. But foreign and Russian businessmen alike say the case has made that proposition seem absurd.

“I’ve not met anyone who thinks there’s anything to this,” a Kremlinconnected businessman says. “The secret services aren’t very good on the economy. They suspect everyone of being a criminal.”

Mr Calvey’s case has already done much to undermine his praise for Russia’s advances in improving its arbitration court system and corporate governance. With all but one of Baring Vostok’s representatives in jail or under house arrest, the bank has restructured parts of its loan portfolio at several board meetings since the arrests. www.businessday.ng

Rice from Thailand can be found at thousands of Nigerian markets © Reuters

Smuggled rice makes mockery of Nigerian quest to boost farming President Buhari’s efforts to boost agricultural sector have had mixed success NEIL MUNSHI

I

nside Olatunji Bintin Laye’s small shop at the Ido rice market in Lagos, 50kg sacks are stacked up to eye level with brands such as African King and Royal Stallion, which proudly announce themselves as a “Product of Thailand”.

There is a name for the rice among Nigerian traders: Cotonou, the port city in the neighbouring country, Benin, from which the rice is smuggled.

“Cotonou is cheaper than Nigerian rice — it is not supposed to be like this,” said Mr Bintin Laye.

“Nigerian rice should be cheaper.”

As he begins his second presidential term this month, Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sharpen his focus on diversifying Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy by boosting the agriculture sector. In his first term he had mixed success.

Mr Buhari’s efforts to spur domestic rice production through special loan schemes and a virtual ban on importing rice in some ways succeeded: production hit a record 4.78m tonnes last year, according to a US Department of Agriculture report, up roughly 60 per cent since 2013. But Nigerian rice farmers are unable to cope with

demand. Many farmers still do not have any mechanical help and infrastructure — from roads to irrigation to mills — is shoddy while double-digit inflation is driving up prices.

Nigeria’s rice imports are expected to rise 13 per cent this year, to 3.4m tonnes, making the country of 200m people the world’s biggest rice importer after China.

The data, and the scene at Ido market and thousands like it across Africa’s most-populous country, contradict a claim by Mr Buhari in the lead-up to his re-election in March: “We don’t import rice, virtually, any more. We don’t import rice.”

In reality, Nigeria’s markets are full of foreign rice, which usually sells at a steep discount to its Nigerian counterpart. More than 1m tonnes of rice — 20m 50kg sacks — entered Nigeria through its porous border with Benin in the first three months of this year, according to the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria.

Benin, a tiny country of 11m people, has seen its rice imports from Thailand soar since June 2015, when the Central Bank of Nigeria first created a list of products — from cement to wheelbarrows and toothpicks to rice — for which importers do not have access to discounted foreign exchange.

Rice is among the most important staples of Nigerian life. It accounts for about 10 per cent of household food spending, according to PwC. The influx of foreign rice highlights the failure of one of Mr Buhari’s most important policies: to spur local production and manufacturing through the list, said Nonso Obikili, director of the Abuja-based Turgot Centre for Economics and Policy Research.

“I don’t think the CBN’s 42-item list has worked that well, not just for rice but for many other items on the list,” he said. “Benin is now one of the worlds largest importers of rice and we all know where it’s going.”

By essentially closing the ports to foreign rice and other goods that are ultimately smuggled in, Mr Obikili said, the government had “lost out on potential customs revenue from forcing the trade underground”.

The forex import ban is a reflection of the central bank’s broader unorthodox currency policy.

After the oil price crash in 2015, the bank sought to stabilise the naira by implementing multiple discounted exchange rates for various sectors and groups — from importers to those paying for medical care abroad. The move was partly blamed for exacerbating the recession that subsequently hit Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy.

US and Mexico officials fail to agree on deal to avoid tariffs Trump says talks will continue but jump in border arrests may complicate negotiations COURTNEY WEAVER AND JUDE WEBBER

M

exico and the US have agreed on the need to curb illegal migration but failed to strike a deal to avert tariffs on all Mexican exports from June 10, with talks to continue on Thursday.

“Immigration discussions at the White House with representatives of Mexico have ended for the day.

Progress is being made but not nearly enough!” US President Donald Trump tweeted.

“Further talks with Mexico will resume tomorrow [Thursday] with the understanding that, if no agreement is reached, tariffs at the 5 per cent level will begin on Monday with monthly increases as per schedule,” he added.

The tariffs could rise in stages to 25 per cent by October if the US president’s migration demands are not met.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican foreign

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

minister, told a news conference in Washington that he had never expected a deal to be reached after just two hours of talks, but highlighted a “willingness” on the US side to reach an agreement.

“Both sides recognised that the current situation cannot be maintained.

The flows are getting too much,” Mr Ebrard said. Illegal migration has risen by a third in the past month alone.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mexico deployed police to halt a new caravan of migrants from Honduras.

However, Mr Ebrard added: “The US is looking for short-term or immediate measures . . . our position is that you have to take not [just] immediate and not [just] punitive measures.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants the US to invest in development projects in Central America. Mr Ebrard has, however, admitted that not a single project has yet been identified.

Hopes had been rising earlier on Wednesday that an agreement could @Businessdayng

be reached quickly and Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the US Senate finance committee, predicted a deal between the two countries could be announced on Thursday night.

He said Mexican officials would offer a “long list of things” to their US counterparts during the talks.

Mr Ebrard had said earlier this week that he was 80 per cent optimistic of a deal, but made clear Mexico would not accept a so-called third safe country agreement under which migrants would be forced to stay in Mexico to apply for asylum instead of the US. Speaking in Ireland earlier on Wednesday, Mr Trump suggested there was room for a deal to be made: “Mexico, you know, wants to make a deal . . . I think they will stop [the flow of migrants and drugs]. I think they want to do something. I think they want to make a deal.” Just a day earlier, the president had defiantly predicted that the levies would take effect as planned.

Five per cent levy would cost agricultural sector $1.4bn a year

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

41

FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Flixbus aims ‘to make coach travelling cool again’ Founders of Uber-style intercity bus and train service targets global expansion

MARK WEMBRIDGE

I

f there is one skill that separates the world’s most successful entrepreneurs from the rest, it is their ability to identify an opportunity and then act on it.

For Daniel Krauss, André Schwämmlein and Jochen Engert, founders of Flixmobility, that opportunity came in the form of the 2013 deregulation of Germany’s public transport sector. The new rules allowed intercity buses to compete with state-run subsidised railways.

The deregulation proved to be a catalyst for the Munich-based trio’s Flixbus, which has gone on to operate an intercity bus network across Europe and the US. “[The deregulation] was the ignition point for what we do today.

We felt that this was a huge opportunity — the market had been regulated for almost 80 years,” said Jochen Engert, co-managing director, speaking in Monaco at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year awards where Flixmobility is a finalist.

“We knew there was a market out there — people wanted an alternative to cars and trains. We wanted to do something outside of regular jobs. We wanted to become entrepreneurs.”

Daniel Krauss, who worked at Microsoft before co-founding Flixbus, said: “We didn’t invent the coach but we made it sexy and dragged it into the 21st century.

We wanted to make coach travelling cool again.”

The approach has helped the business’s operations expand to cover 2,000 destinations across 29 countries, with millions of passengers travelling each year on buses sporting distinctive lime green and orange livery.

In the same way that ride-hailing company Uber does not own the cars that its drivers operate, Flixbus holds no stake in the buses nor does it employ the drivers. Instead, it runs the operational side, controlling the scheduling, ticketing, customer service, network planning, branding, marketing and IT. For the on-the-road side of the business, Flixbus partners with established regional bus networks that are responsible for the day-today running of routes. Such an arrangement freed Flixbus from the hefty start-up costs of establishing an expensive network and training drivers, and enabled the group to scale up quickly.

“We took Germany as a starting point and quickly felt that this could be an international prod-

uct and service. This is the nice thing about Europe — you can internationalise really fast,” said Mr Engert.

The group last year expanded into German rail, with the launch of Flixtrain, and into the US intercity bus market — predominantly around West Coast cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego, but recently adding eastern hubs such as Washington DC and New York.

Flixmobility’s subsidiaries Flixbus and Flixtrain combined have more than 1,200 staff, while its 300-odd partner bus and train companies employ some 7,000 drivers. More than 45m passengers travelled with Flixbus and FlixTrain in 2018, up 40 per cent from 2017.

The group uses dynamic pricing to sell tickets through an online sales platform and a Flixbus app. Passengers have access to free Wi-Fi on board and GPS live tracking of buses.

“We have a revenue sharing model where we typically keep 25-30 per cent [of the ticket price], the rest goes to our partners,” said Mr Engert.

Flixbus also guarantees to pay a minimum level of income to its partners as it is confident that its algorithms can forecast passenger numbers. “We are basically telling them: ‘You are not going to run empty buses because we know [the market better] in terms of which routes are going to work and where you are going to have high demand’,” said Mr Engert.

The privately held company, which does not disclose financial details such as turnover and profitability, is backed by the likes of General Atlantic, Silver Lake Partners and Daimler, and said it had no immediate plans to go public.

“To make a good network and schedule based on the understanding of demand and how traffic works . . . leveraging machine learning to come up with what people are prepared to pay . . . that’s what differentiates us,” said Mr Krauss. The group employs 250 software engineers.

As for the future, Mr Krauss said the group was looking to expand into Russia in the coming year, and also harboured plans for Latin America and India.

“There are still more things for us to do in Europe, still more ground to cover. The US is a big market for us. Brazil is going to be very interesting for us, as is Mexico,” said Mr Engert.

“We really want to build this into a global consumer brand that anyone can turn to wherever they live.” www.businessday.ng

Daniel Krauss, André Schwämmlein, Jochen Engert from Flixbus

Stocks to watch: Renault, Deutsche Wohen, eOne, At Home, M&B German landlords slide on Berlin rent freeze proposals

BRYCE ELDER

R

enault dived after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles scrapped its €33bn merger offer, saying “political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully”.

Analysts saw state interference stymying Renault’s chances of finding a merger partner in the foreseeable future, particularly as France was said to be wanting guarantees about postdeal continuation of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. “Considering how much the alliance has stalled operationally in past years and Nissan’s priority for a standalone turnround, we question why the state is placing such priority on the alliance to the detriment of Renault’s strategic options,” said Jefferies.

The collapse of talks led Citi to take Renault off its “buy” list. It saw margin expectations for standalone Renault as too optimistic and said the automaker may follow partner Nissan with a dividend cut. ● Landlord Deutsche Wohen was the Stoxx 600’s sharpest faller in response to a proposal from Ber-

lin’s urban development senator to freeze rents in the city for five years.

Katrin Lompscher also proposed that modernisation spending resulting in rent hikes would need to be preapproved, argued for landlord fines of up to 500,000 and said tenants should have the right to take rent adjustments to court.

The German constitution might not permit local rent controls, said Kepler Cheuvreux, citing a Bundestag research paper released in February that stated local governments did not have the right to legislate if the subject was already covered adequately at the federal level. “However, the process could take several months, as it seems that the local government will try to find a law professor to back it. In the meantime, the uncertainty about the outcome could weigh on stocks.”

According to Kepler, Deutsche Wohnen takes about three-quarters of its rental income from Berlin. A cap would cut its funds from operations by between €15m and €17m in the first year, or 3 per cent of the total, the broker forecast. Other landlords affected included Vonovia and Lux-

embourg-based Grand City Properties, which took 10 per cent and 14 per cent of rental income from Berlin, respectively, it said.

Entertainment One led the FTSE 250 gainers after it said Hollywood mogul Mark Gordon, its head of content, would not be leaving the group. The shares had slumped on Wednesday in response to reports in Variety and its sister website Deadline Hollywood saying that Mr Gordon would be stepping down from his position as group president. Entertainment One in a statement said that Mr Gordon “continues to be part of the eOne team”.

Any change in Mr Gordon’s role was likely to be a positive, said analysts.

Citigroup highlighted that Entertainment One last year signed a fiveyear exclusive deal with Mr Gordon as part of an agreement to take 100 per cent control of his production company. “There are at least four years left to run on that contract which means jumping ship and working for other content producers is unlikely to be possible,” Citi said.

Financial watchdogs in discord over Woodford fund CAROLINE BINHAM

A

war of words has broken out between two watchdogs over the rapidly deteriorating position of the flagship fund of Neil Woodford, which froze investor withdrawals earlier this week.

The Guernsey-based International Stock Exchange, or TISE, on which Mr Woodford listed assets where he had sizeable stakes, on Thursday took the unusual step of clarifying a statement made a day earlier by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, which directly regulates Mr Woodford’s Equity Income Fund. TISE said it had not been consulted prior to the FCA’s release of yesterday’s statement.

“It is important to note that The International Stock Exchange Authority made several

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

attempts to contact the FCA back in April 2019 but with no initial response, finally securing a call with them on 8 May 2019,” said Fiona Le Poidevin, chief executive of the parent group of TISE. “The International Stock Exchange Authority proactively engaged with the FCA in the spirit of regulatory cooperation but subsequently was given no prior warning of the FCA statement or its content.”

The FCA’s statement said that it had previously been unaware of the decision to list certain assets on TISE, which enabled Mr Woodford to avoid breaching the rule against going over a 10 per cent cap on unlisted securities that is imposed on fund managers by European Union rules known as Ucits.

The FCA also added that it was now in discussions with TISE and @Businessdayng

the fund’s corporate director, Link Funds Solutions “regarding the circumstances around the listing of certain of the fund’s assets on that exchange.”

FCA insiders insist that it first contacted TISE for more information on Mr Woodford’s listings in early April, when it first became aware of the move, and that this predated TISE contacting it.

TISE’s statement on Thursday added: “The International Stock Exchange Authority only has a remit for certain securities listed on TISE where the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund is an investor. However, The International Stock Exchange Authority will of course communicate with and support the FCA further, as and if required.”

The FCA declined to comment on Thursday in response to TISE.

42

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FT

ANALYSIS

Microsoft quietly deletes largest public face recognition data set

Stanford and Duke universities also remove facial recognition data MADHUMITA MURGIA

M

icrosoft has quietly pulled from the internet its database of 10m faces, which has been used to train facial recognition systems around the world, including by military researchers and Chinese firms such as SenseTime and Megvii.

The database, known as MS Celeb, was published in 2016 and described by the company as the largest publicly available facial recognition data set in the world, containing more than 10m images of nearly 100,000 individuals.

The people whose photos were used were not asked for their consent, their images were scraped off the web from search engines and videos under the terms of the Creative Commons license that

Microsoft itself has used the data set to train facial recognition algorithms, Mr Harvey’s investigation found.

The company named the data set “Celeb” to indicate that the faces it had scraped were photos of public figures. But Mr Harvey found that the data set included several arguably private individuals, including security journalists such as Kim Zetter, Adrian Chen and Shoshana Zuboff, the author of Surveillance Capitalism, and Julie Brill, the former FTC commissioner responsible for protecting consumer privacy.

“Microsoft has exploited the term ‘celebrity’ to include people who merely work online and have a digital identity,” said Mr Harvey.

“Many people in the target list are even vocal critics of the very technology Microsoft is using their name

How a private equity boom fuelled the world’s biggest law firm Can the hard-charging culture at Kirkland & Ellis survive a dip in dealmaking?

JAMES FONTANELLA-KHAN, SUJEET INDAP AND BARNEY THOMPSON

W

Facial recognition technology is demonstrated at an exhibition in Fujian province, China © Reuters

allows academic reuse of photos.

Microsoft, which took down the database days after the FT reported on its use by companies, said: “The site was intended for academic purposes. It was run by an employee that is no longer with Microsoft and has since been removed.”

Two other data sets have also been taken down since the FT report was published in April, including the Duke MTMC surveillance data set built by Duke University researchers, and a Stanford University data set called Brainwash.

Brainwash used footage of customers in a café called Brainwash in San Francisco’s Lower Haight district, taken through a livestreaming camera. Duke did not respond to requests for comment. Stanford said it had removed the data set after a request by one of the authors of a study it was used for. A spokesperson said the university is “committed to protecting the privacy of individuals at Stanford and in the larger community”.

All three data sets were uncovered by Berlin-based researcher Adam Har vey, whose project Megapixels documented the details of dozens of data sets and how they are being used.

Microsoft’s MS Celeb data set has been used by several commercial organisations, according to citations in AI papers, including IBM, Panasonic, Alibaba, Nvidia, Hitachi, Sensetime and Megvii. Both Sensetime and Megvii are Chinese suppliers of equipment to officials in Xinjiang, where minorities of mostly Uighurs and other Muslims are being tracked and held in internment camps.

and biometric information to build.”

When the Financial Times previously contacted people in the database, they were unaware of their inclusion. “I am in no sense a public person, there is no way in which I’ve ceded my right to privacy,” said Adam Greenfield, a technology writer and urbanist who was included in the data set.

“It’s indicative of Microsoft’s inability to hold their own researchers to integrity and probity that this was not torpedoed before it left the building,” he said. “To me, it is indicative of a profound misunderstanding of what privacy is.”

Tech experts said Microsoft may have been in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Law by continuing to distribute the MS Celeb data set after the regulations came into effect last year.

“They are likely to have taken it down because their lawyers expressed concern that they do not have a basis to process special category data such as faces under Article 9 of GDPR,” said Michael Veale, a technology policy researcher at the Alan Turing Institute. “They may not have a get-out clause for processing biometric data for the purposes of “uniquely identifying a natural person”.

“Particularly as the use of the data set has moved from a purely research use to something that products are being built with,” he added. “There is reason to believe that the people in data set cannot be considered to expressly and clearly have made their faces public.”

Microsoft said it was not aware of any GDPR implications and that the site had been retired “because the research challenge is over”. www.businessday.ng

hen he took the helm at a Chicago-based law firm called Kirkland & Ellis in 2010, with the aim of turning it into a world-beater, few in the industry thought Jeff Hammes stood a chance.

For decades, the most lucrative and prestigious careers for ambitious young lawyers were to be found at the “white shoe” set of leading New York firms — long-established, fed by the best Ivy League graduates and nourished by work for Wall Street’s allpowerful banks and Fortune 500 companies.

Mr Hammes took over as chairman of Kirkland’s global management executive committee, at a time when the firm was regarded as a litigation specialist, hired to win corporate disputes and courtroom battles. Perhaps its most famous lawyer was Kenneth Starr, best known as the government prosecutor who investigated president Bill Clinton over a series of scandals, including Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair. William Barr, the current attorney-general, is a Kirkland alumnus.

In the blockbuster dealmaking world, however, the firm was largely irrelevant. One Kirkland veteran says it was “always known as a good litigation firm in Chicago with a decent mid-market private equity practice — but nobody took them seriously on Wall Street”.

Chart on Kirkland & Ellis They do now. Fuelled by explosive growth in private equity, aggressive poaching of talent and most of all, a business model that resembles a freewheeling investment bank, Kirkland has become the highest-grossing law firm in the world. At the end of 2018 revenues stood at $3.7bn, up nearly 20 per cent on the previous year and more than 130 per cent higher than when Mr Hammes took control.

In the process it elbowed aside its nearest rival, the US firm Latham & Watkins, which posted revenues of $3.4bn last year. After that, the gap widens: the largest global firms, such as Baker McKenzie ($2.9bn) or DLA Piper ($2.8bn), generate big revenues but are far less profitable, while annual turnover at the UK’s “magic circle” elite firms such as

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Clifford Chance is closer to $2bn.

Kirkland’s 430 equity partners — its highest echelon of lawyers who split the firm’s profits — took home more than $5m on average last year. Of its American rivals, that is second only to the small Wall Street corporate specialist Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. In London, the leading City firms do not come close to that sort of remuneration.

This rise reflects the shift in the financial world’s balance of power since the financial crisis. Investment banks, the dominant force before 2008, have been eclipsed by private equity firms, which now sit on hundreds of billions of dollars of investment funds.

Kirkland thrived by hitching itself to this dealmaking activity. “Were we lucky or smart?” asks one US partner at the firm. “Both — lucky in the sense that private equity has become a massive asset class . . . with a demand for legal services that is diverse and deep.

But smart because we realised how damn good that business was.”

The law firm declined to comment for this article but interviews with dozens of its past and present lawyers, clients and others close to the firm reveal an organisation with a relentless — many say ruthless — focus on growth, a phenomenal work ethic and a desire to upend what it sees as a lazy hierarchy. Yet the firm also faces questions about whether its winning streak can continue. Will its private equity clients continue to prosper? And can a firm with such a hard-charging culture survive in the long run?

Robert Smith’s Vista Equity Partners, a tech-focused investor, had less than $1bn under management when Kirkland began working with it more than a decade ago. It has since grown to manage assets of about $46bn. That typifies Kirkland’s relationship with rising middlemarket private equity groups — others include Chicago-based GTCR and Thoma Bravo — that helped turbocharge its revenues and profits as private capital exploded after the crisis.

Mr Hammes, who will step down as chairman next year to be replaced

by Jon Ballis, joined Kirkland in 1985 when the vast majority of its revenues were generated by disputes lawyers. A decade ago, the split between litigation and transactions work had closed to roughly 50:50.

Today, three-quarters of its fees are @Businessdayng

deal-related.

To establish Kirkland as a major player, Mr Hammes turned his attention to recruitment. An early coup was the hiring of David Fox, a specialist in public company mergers and acquisitions and one of the biggest earners at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who jumped ship in 2009 along with his younger colleague Daniel Wolf.

The arrival of Mr Fox put Wall Street on notice that the Chicago upstarts were now targeting all areas of dealmaking. “Hiring Fox and Wolf from Skadden helped us build brand recognition,” says a partner who has been at the firm for more than a decade. “That made it easier to hire new talent.”

The recruitment strategy and the revenue gains fed off each other, allowing Kirkland to penetrate big M&A — advising on recent deals such as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s $90bn acquisition of Celgene and Danaher’s purchase of General Electric’s life sciences unit for $21bn. At the end of 2009, Kirkland ranked around 90th for global M&A business, according to several data providers tracking the industry’s performance. Today, the firm tops almost all M&A rankings.

But, sceptics ask, how will Kirkland cope if and when the private equity boom ends? Some leading figures in the industry such as Jonathan Lavine, co-managing partner at Bain Capital, have sounded warnings over the sector’s mounting debt pile and risks of a crash. If Kirkland is left with a roster of multimillionaire stars, with its headcount heavily skewed in favour of the private equity and M&A practices, it could be exposed if advisory work from those sectors shrivels.

The firm seems unfazed. “Dry powder” in private capital — money raised but not yet spent or committed to deals — hit $2tn at the end of 2018. As long as there is the appetite to buy and sell companies, it believes there will be demand for top-end legal services.

Furthermore, beyond the buying and selling of businesses, private equity clients create a bounty of other legal work. Some lawyers specialise in negotiating buyout contracts while others draft the financing papers for leveraged loans and junk bonds. Portfolio companies themselves create their own pool of work when they make additional acquisitions or themselves are sold.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

43

44

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY

After Buhari, there may be no more APC, says Onyebueke MIKE ABANG, Calabar

F

idelix Onyebueke, a legal expert and constitutional lawyer, has predicted that the fortunes enjoyed by the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), shall seize to exist after the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari administration.

Onyebueke says the goodwill enjoyed by the party in 2019 general election will no more be there after the tenure of the President in 2023.

Speaking to BusuinessDay in an exclusive interview in his office, the legal luminary also predicted that before 2023, both APC and the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) shall come together to form another party that will take over power .

Mohammadu Buhari

“Buhari brought life to APC, if not, they couldn’t have gotten up to eight states in the 2019 general election and the way he handles the

party, is the same way he handles the affairs of the country,” he said.

According to Onyebueke, “Reasonable people in this

Oyo ALGON petitions Buhari over sack of LG, LCDA chairmen REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

T

he sacked chairmen of Local Government Areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in Oyo State have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over their removal from office.

The chairmen, under the auspices of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), who reported the state governor, Seyi Makinde, urged the president to call him to order, arguing that there is a valid and subsisting court judgment that restrains any governor from sacking them.

In a letter dated June 3, and signed by the ALGON Chairman and Secretary in the state, Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye and Olayinka Jesutoye, respectively, the embattled council bosses asked the president to advise the governor to respect the will of the people of Oyo State to have the Local Government areas run by the chairmen and councillors who were democratically elected by the electorate in the area.

Justice Aderonke Aderemi of the Oyo State High Court on May 6 had given an order of injunction restraining the Oyo Sate governor, his servants, agents, privies or any person whosoever from dissolving the 33 Local Govern-

ment Councils and 35 Local Council Development Areas in Oyo State or removing, suspending, terminating and or doing anything whatsoever to truncate the tenure of the claimants (Chairmen) except in accordance with the provisions of section 7 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended).

However, in their petition, they alleged that there have been persistent threats from the governor and members of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) in the state to forcefully take over the administration of the local councils, a situation they say may lead to breakdown of law, order and public peace.

Agbaje denies dumping PDP, attacks Bode George Iniobong Iwok

J

imi Agbaje, governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in Lagos State in the 2019 gubernatorial election, has described insinuations that he has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as false.

Agaje stated this Thursday in a statement to journalists in Lagos.

According to him, the statement was in reaction to Wednesday’s statement by PDP former National Vice Chairman, Bode George, that he had joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“People should please tell Bode George to shut up and leave PDP if he lacks any value

to add to the party, instead of being a dog in the manger, hampering the progress of the party in Lagos State,” he said.

The Pharmacist-turnedpolitician described the news about the purported defection as misinformation that should be discountenanced.

Agbaje said he had never been a member of APC, stressing that any thought of returning to the APC had never crossed his mind.

“That false narrative is the product of a sick mind. Or how else do you describe someone who just sits down to concoct fiction and markets it as reality? He should tell the world where he got the news he’s spreading round,” Agbaje said.

Agbaje however, berated George, pointing out that www.businessday.ng

as long as the PDP National Headquarters continued to pamper the divisive characters and pander to their whims, the party will continue to fail elections in Lagos State.

He said that George in the past clashed with former PDP chieftains who tried to contribute towards elevating the party but ended up frustrated.

“These shameless party leaders have 2023 in mind.

The game-plan is mischievously simple: Give the dog a bad name and chase it away from the party.

“By 2023, this mudslinging will have scared off credible people from the party, which will leave the whole field to them to continue to corner party resources,” Agbaje added.

country have said that there is no alternative to Buhari and he knows how to use power. He understands Nigeria very well; he is doing it at his own pace.”

On the recommendation to the President for the creation of state police by the executive secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwuled Presidential Committee, Oyebueke said the system will create more grassroots criminals than the governors are doing now “State police is not the issue, if the police wants to do their jobs, they will do it; the police chiefs are not sincere, when we watch them giving change to drivers and nothing happens. We are not yet ripe for state and local government police, if not, you will see more of political assassinations across the country,” he said.

Isenah emerges Speaker as 6th Bayelsa Assembly inaugurated Samuel Ese, Yenagoa

T

onye Emmanuel Isenah, representing Kolokuma/ Opokuma Constituency I has emerged the new Speaker of Bayelsa State House of Assembly as the 6th Assembly was inaugurated on in Yenagoa on Thursday.

Earlier, the member-elect representing Yenagoa Constituency II, Ebiowou KokuObiyai nominated Isenah for the speakership and was elected unopposed as there was no other nomination.

Isenah, who was the chief whip in the 5th Assembly was sworn in as Speaker by the clerk of the house and becomes the sixth Speaker of the house since its inauguration in 1999.

The third-term member of House of Assembly then sw o rn -in Abraham O n gobere, representing Brass Constituency III as Deputy Speaker before swearing in

the other 21 members of the 24-member house.

One seat, Brass I has no representative presently as the matter is still pending in court while only 11 members of the 5th Assembly made it back to the 6th Assembly.

Other principal officers of the house are Monday Ogbolo (Southern Ijaw II) as leader, Bernard Kenebai (Sagbama II) as deputy leader, Michael Ogbere, Ekeremor III as chief whip and Koku-Obiyai as deputy chief whip In a brief inaugural address, Isenah expressed appreciation to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other stakeholders for his emergence as Speaker.

He promised to work with all the members of the house and the executive arm of government in order to make sure Bayelsa State is where the founding fathers wanted it to be.

Lawmakers loyal to Oshiomhole absent at Edo Assembly valedictory session IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

S

ix members of the 6th session of the Edo State House of Assembly suspected to be loyal to the former governor of the state and the current national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole were on Monday absent at the valedictory session of the house. The six lawmakers were also reelected for the incoming 7th assembly.

The lawmakers are Chris Okaeben (Oredo West), Audu Abdul Ganiyu (Etsako West 1), Henry Okhuarobo (Ikpoba Okha), Crosby Eribo (Egor), Ugabi Kingsley (Etsako East) and Victor Edoror (Esan Central).

Th e s i xt h a ss e mb l y , which was inaugurated June 8, 2015, came to an end Thursday, June 6, 2019 and seventh assembly is expected to be proclaimed next Monday 10, 2019 by the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki.

Tussle for the principal leaders of the incoming assembly has also become a source of crisis rocking the party in the state as Governor Obaseki and his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole are said to be at loggerheads over who

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

Adams Oshiomhole

becomes the speaker and other principal officers of the house.

BusinessDay gathered that about 19 incoming lawmakers are said to Adams Oshiomhole’s die-hard loyalists while five are said to be loyal to the incumbent governor of the state.

Meanwhile, in his valedictory speech, the speaker of the House, Kabiru Adjoto said the assembly passed 71 bills in the past four years and also adopted 191 resolutions.

Adjoto listed some of the passed bills to include proscription of community development association, prohibition in trafficking in persons, prohibition and criminalisation of secret cult activities, a law for the elimination of violence against persons in private and public life, criminalisation of energy theft and law to establish Edo State primary healthcare development agency, among others. @Businessdayng

He however, commended the executive and judiciary arms of government for a cordial relationship that the house had enjoyed in the last four years.

He added that for a better transition, the clerk of the house will immediately commence preparations for the incoming members.

The speaker directed all the outgone members to commence the process of parking out all their belongings from the house and legislative quarters. “ The quarter master should take steps to move round the quarters and make sure he takes inventory of government properties in all the honourable members’ apartments and submit to the clerk of the house on or before midnight of tomorrow (today), June 7, 2019.

“All honourable members too are to take steps to handover government properties in their possession to the clerk of the house; all the number plates and their official vehicles should be handed over to the clerk of the house,” he said.

He opined that the Edo State House of Assembly, especially the sixth assembly defended democracy and responded positively to the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

45

BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST

Export institute, IITA, experts to build capacities of Nigerian banks on developing non-oil export desks EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

F

oremost export-oriented training outfit in Nigeria, the Institute of Export Operations and Management (IEOM) along with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan and some experts are to build the capacities of bank officers in the country to support the Federal Government’s non-oil economic and export diversification programme.

The capacity-building event is planned for the IITA training complex in Ibadan, Oyo State between 26 to 30 August this year.

Some of the experts to undertake the training include: Theodore Markham, senior consultant and former senior staff member of the International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva, Switzerland.

Others are: Judson Welsh, a financial

expert and an independent consultant, a strategic advisor/ consultant to the Central Bank of Nigeria, AU/NEPAD Dakar Senegal, ECOWAS Commission, as well as NEXIM Bank private sector directorate Abuja Nigeria.

Welsh is also consultant with the European Union Brussels, trade finance program for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. He also consults for Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI); USAID EGAT AFR/SD/EGEA; African Cashew Initiative; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF); West Africa trade hub (USAID) and ECOBANK Transnational Inc. Lomé, Togo.

Other resource persons are: Jonathan Aremu, a professor of International Economic Relations and former vice-chancellor of Covenant University, Otta, Nigeria, and adviser to several international

organizations. Currently he is the head of trade, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG); Chuks Aghaunor is the unit head, export finance under Agric and Export Finance; John Isemede (Ph.D), National Expert on Value Chain activities for both the local and export market. He is the immediate past director general of NACCIMA and author of Exporting in West Africa, A Practical Guide.

It was gathered that most commercial banks in Nigeria do not yet have dedicated desks to which staff are assigned to help existing and potential exporters to transact export business with banks, despite the Federal Government’s policy objective to develop the non-oil export industry in order to diversify the economy, thereby engender jobs creation.

According to the IEOM, many private sector small and medium-scale enter-

prises (SMEs) are willing to respond to the government’s initiative, but do not get assistance from the banks in Nigeria due to absence or poorly developed export desks.

“This situation is more prevalent in the bank branches throughout the Federal Republic. More often than not, bank staffs at the international desks are more conversant with import trade matters than those relating to exports.

“Meanwhile, there are now available new international market analyses and trade intelligence tools that have been developed to facilitate and render more effective the assistances that banks are expected to render to established and new exporters. In so doing, the assigned staffs are likely to win more business clients for their banks,” Ofon Udofia, executive secretary and chief executive of IEOM said in a training concept note

seen by BUSINESSDAY in Port Harcourt.

“The IEOM through this programme seeks to collaborate with the banks to equip designated staff with the new tools; and encourage banks to set up export desks to reach out to SMEs and other companies in the private sector in a win-win situation,” he said.

Udofia said, IEOM seeks “to introduce certain innovative and powerful analytical and trade intelligence tools, and equip designated bank officers with skills that will enable them to apply the tools in banking operations related to foreign trade transactions. In so doing, the bank officers are likely to win more clients, and at the same time provide the opportunity to the collaborating banks to contribute to the development and diversification of non-oil exports, job creation and the growth of the Nigerian economy.”

Value-chain traders group wants Nigeria to expand its petrochemicals, fertilizer sectors EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

A

Brown giving out starter-packs to a beneficiary

Lawmaker urges constituents to embrace entrepreneurship …empowers others in vocational skills EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

A

ware of the new reality that educational certificates are not enough to create wealth; but skills and vocations are the drivers to boosting the national economy, Amaopusenibo Randolph Iwo Oruene Brown, the lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, has advised his constituents to develop the spirit of enterprise, embrace entrepreneurship and shun seeking white-collar jobs if they hope to better themselves,andcontributetostimulating the local economy and creating wealth.

Brown gave this advice during the graduation ceremony, presentation of certificates and awards of start-up items to133beneficiariesofhisskillsacquisition project, which held at the Delta Hotel in Port Harcourt.

The young people were trained in: catering,fashiondesign,driving,shoeand bag making, bead making, entrepreneurship,cosmetologyandmake-up. Start-up items were provided to the graduands, including:gascookersforcatering;sewing machines for fashion design; cash in lieu for four other categories; while 23 drivers trained had the cost of their permanent driver’s licences fully paid.

“The truth is that wherever your interests lie, there’s almost certainly a way to turn it into business or entrepreneurial success,” the lawmaker told a crowd of young people who were trained in the different self-help enterprises and vocations.

He urged young people in his constituency to embrace entrepreneurship, which he said, is globally acclaimed as the key driver of economic growth, jobs and wealth creation and social change.

Brown advised the graduands that, having undergone the training they should not relent in any of their endeavours, nor despise their little beginnings because every sustained effort comes with a reward. “In every venture, there is a value attached to it. It is left for one to identifythatvalueandpursueitvigorously to achieve set objectives,” he added.

Tom S. Sogules, chairman of the constituency management advisory committee (CMAC), said this has been a well-conceived and diligently implemented program that has touched the lives of the citizenry in Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency. He commended the patron and benefactor, Brown for his courage and determination to see to the successful conclusion of the project despite several challenges. www.businessday.ng

Sogules said Brown had appointed a 10-member committee of eminent persons from the two constituent LGAs toconceiveandexecuteacomprehensive vocationaltrainingprogramforDegema/ Bonny Federal Constituency.

He said the first phase of the training atUdisVocationalInstitutestartedwith66 persons from Degema and 166 persons from Bonny LGAs, who were trained on catering,fashiondesign,driving,shoeand bag making, bead making, entrepreneurship, cosmetology and make-up.

The federal lawmaker noted that the Bonny Federal Constituency has taken this path to train constituents in various skills, stressing that: “it is my desire to support them commence a process that will see them employ themselves with basic working tools required to start up, contribute to wealth creation and stimulate the local economy.”

He said his constituency office had undertaken the vocational training and empowerment option because it would establish entrepreneurs; maximize their potentials to contribute to development and wealth creation; adding that through the vocational training, individuals and groups are empowered to expand their abilities and participate fully in the development process.

facebook.com/businessdayng

traders’ outfit, the Value Chain Traders Organization of Nigeria (VACTION), wants Nigeria to expand its petrochemicals and fertilisers sectors in order to extend the country’s non-oil revenue takings, which would in turn, create huge employments.

According to VACTON, which is keen in changing the business landscape in the country, Nigeria’s continued reliance on crude oil economy for many years now, which has also come with much pressure and hiccups, would not take the nation out of its present economic downturn.

Ralph John, the national president and chairman board of trustees of VACTON, establishing petrochemicals and fertilizers plants have the tendency to generate several thousands of jobs, with the attendant multiple revenue lines from both domestic consumption and exports.

Nigeria currently has only one petrochemical plant, the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals at Eleme (IEPL), near Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with over $2.1 billion investment.

Manish Mundra, the managing director of IEPL in an exclusive interview with BUSINESSDAY two years ago, said Nigeria’s petrochemicals market was worth over $20 billion; adding that the country was yet to scratch the surface to harness its petrochemicals sector.

A report in 2015 said Nigeria was losing N2 trillion annually to imports due to its failure to develop petrochemical plants that would meet the needs of manufacturing companies, which still import about 80 per cent of their raw materials worth over $10 billion.

In the area of fertilizer, Nigeria would soon be producing over 4 million metric tonnes per annum by 2021 when Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals (IEFC)’s two plants of 3MMT, Dangote Fertilizer, and Notore Fertilizer and Chemicals. Both plants are already being described by analysts as potential

@Businessdayng

@Businessdayng

ground shifters for fertilizer trade in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, VACTON boss told BUSINESSDAY in an interview in Port Harcourt that their organization, which would operate mainly as nonprofit outfit, has a set goal to redefine manufacturing, export-import and trading business in Nigeria. “Our aim is to rid corrupt practices from among business operators,” he said.

John said, VACTON was established to assist agencies in the country to properly carry out their regulatory functions; get attentions shifted to long neglected areas like cassava ethanol, waste re-boosting and recycling and resold to industries.

These new fields would generate vast employment opportunities, he said.

Ralph John, Ph.D and a maritime expert, said, they would be operating mainly through their six strategic committees like: “trade economic and statistical planning; political, strategic and policy; special assignment; ethics and arbitration; finance; contact and mobilization.” They would run by seasoned experts and technocrats.

The VACTON national president said they have set up various departments such as: Investment and Trade, which would engage in investment and trade; Trade and Statistical to engage in data gathering; the Political department would be analysing government policies to come out with informed commentaries. The Ethics and arbitration department would deal with issues of infraction, while the Finance arm would handle levies, freewill donations and grants from international and local donor agencies, and lawful investments.

Recall that VACTON has aims and objectives to: promote and educate Nigerians in trade policies, agencies and multilateral organizations; champion measures to promote global value-chain in the ECOWAS common industry policy; encourage trade education to suit international trade compliance, and provide information concerning government regulations with the aim of avoiding unnecessary clashes between government and stakeholders.

46

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 07 June 2019

BUSINESS DAY

47

Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 06 June 2019 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 223,934.92 6.30 0.80 185 6,101,666 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 212,036.41 6.20 -2.36 171 8,049,708 ZENITH BANK PLC 640,488.47 20.40 0.74 397 36,024,046 753 50,175,420 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 249,472.28 6.95 0.72 140 7,519,044 140 7,519,044 893 57,694,464

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,787,550.56 136.95 0.26 239 3,166,217 239 3,166,217 239 3,166,217 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 3,220,655.90 189.00 2.83 125 470,502 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 161,077.95 10.00 - 87 1,537,363 212 2,007,865 212 2,007,865 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 302,107.44 513.40 2.68 52 115,634 52 115,634 52 115,634 1,396 62,984,180 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,710.00 85.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 14,408.66 5.40 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 1 23,378 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 70,589.34 74.00 - 11 33,350 PRESCO PLC 58,000.00 58.00 - 10 50,800 22 107,528 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 511.20 4.26 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,890.00 0.63 6.78 8 367,290 8 367,290 30 474,818

DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 794.19 0.30 - 3 73,288 JOHN HOLT PLC. 182.90 0.47 - 0 0 S C O A NIG. PLC. 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 47,151.67 1.16 0.87 52 3,403,274 U A C N PLC. 19,016.56 6.60 5.60 48 1,819,559 103 5,296,121 103 5,296,121

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 28,578.00 21.65 9.90 26 469,619 ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 26 469,619 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 3,897.59 1.50 - 24 452,582 24 452,582 50 922,201 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 9,395.40 1.20 8.11 12 242,719 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 104,043.18 47.50 -2.06 40 3,589,657 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 171,917.24 20.00 - 11 1,029,951 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 463,820.32 58.00 - 91 761,061 154 5,623,388 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 82,000.00 16.40 -1.20 58 1,006,215 DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 144,000.00 12.00 - 46 332,577 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 57,405.31 14.00 -1.43 116 4,642,493 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 9,040.43 1.14 4.59 15 429,400 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 39,211.69 14.80 0.34 32 387,657 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,321.07 12.15 - 0 0 267 6,798,342 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 20,566.31 10.95 - 16 54,809 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,157,278.13 1,460.00 - 46 211,523 62 266,332 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 2 50 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 4,815.75 3.85 - 14 56,479 16 56,529 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 32,359.39 8.15 - 20 120,256 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 177,807.92 30.95 -0.16 52 1,796,773 72 1,917,029 571 14,661,620 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 184,412.99 10.05 - 20 79,320 FIDELITY BANK PLC 50,126.40 1.73 1.76 64 2,427,954 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 903,537.20 30.70 -1.92 239 82,815,059 JAIZ BANK PLC 13,553.55 0.46 -4.17 21 2,924,035 SKYE BANK PLC 10,687.83 0.77 - 0 0 STERLING BANK PLC. 69,097.00 2.40 -9.58 221 2,252,638 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 203,845.27 7.00 - 23 65,885 UNITY BANK PLC 8,182.54 0.70 - 2 5,577 WEMA BANK PLC. 23,144.68 0.60 -3.23 41 2,636,609 631 93,207,077 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,712.54 0.68 3.03 10 438,475 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 20,055.00 1.91 -3.54 7 203,568 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 1,788.60 0.22 4.76 12 2,874,800 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 19,811.94 1.91 - 0 0 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 2,945.90 0.20 - 4 20,540 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 1 200 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 0 0 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 2,270.26 0.31 3.33 5 223,000 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 1,976.31 0.46 - 3 1,300 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 4,000.00 0.50 - 1 9,975 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,234.55 0.20 - 0 0 NEM INSURANCE PLC 10,825.03 2.05 -8.07 11 275,240 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 1 890 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,691.28 0.50 - 1 1,000 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 - 4 294,350 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 1,918.39 0.23 - 3 2,400,000 STACO INSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 3 60,200 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 5,353.10 0.40 - 12 219,999

www.businessday.ng

78 7,023,537 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 11,799.67 2.58 - 0 0 3,086.96 1.35 - 13 187,030 NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 13 187,030 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 3,780.00 0.90 - 0 0 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 5,796.93 1.39 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 7,000.00 3.50 0.29 95 1,874,662 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 35,291.19 6.00 -0.83 12 534,091 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 660.00 0.44 - 0 0 FCMB GROUP PLC. 32,476.45 1.64 2.50 42 2,051,018 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,131.98 0.22 - 0 0 435,223.50 42.50 1.19 18 1,033,607 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC UNITED CAPITAL PLC 12,900.00 2.15 0.94 91 3,574,087 258 9,067,465 980 109,485,109 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 1,680.29 3.37 - 0 0 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 852.75 0.24 - 6 500,990 6 500,990 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 593.50 0.60 - 0 0 0 0 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 7,575.00 5.05 - 2 8,000 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 9,148.46 7.65 - 7 20,640 3,933.54 2.28 - 6 15,635 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,063.53 0.56 - 1 1,752 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 16 46,027 22 547,017 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 781.44 0.22 -8.33 25 2,507,805 25 2,507,805 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 1 500 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 648.00 6.00 - 1 30,000 346.47 0.70 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 2 30,500 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,596.66 0.34 -2.86 29 1,630,897 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 9,996.00 2.38 - 0 0 29 1,630,897 56 4,169,202

BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,912.83 6.60 - 17 156,730 CAP PLC 21,770.00 31.10 - 17 51,768 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 197,152.51 15.00 - 9 37,850 FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 844.14 0.40 - 0 0 MEYER PLC. 313.43 0.59 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,959.74 2.47 - 0 0 PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 43 246,348 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,641.98 1.50 -3.23 40 2,219,961 40 2,219,961 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 37,497.90 75.00 - 6 1,522 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 6 1,522 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 89 2,467,831 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,565.08 3.76 - 1 500 1 500 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,803.64 8.20 - 0 0 0 0 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 79.20 0.36 -10.00 6 502,940 6 502,940 7 503,440 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,628.30 0.26 -3.85 18 1,421,936 18 1,421,936 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 49,725.65 4.00 5.26 191 6,200,223 191 6,200,223 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 63,104.17 175.00 - 11 5,178,361 CONOIL PLC 15,960.90 23.00 4.55 24 429,986 ETERNA PLC. 4,760.13 3.65 - 5 2,350 FORTE OIL PLC. 33,538.89 25.75 - 32 137,221 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 6,354.80 20.85 - 4 2,290 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 55,002.54 162.00 - 11 2,842 87 5,753,050 296 13,375,209

ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,820.01 0.41 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 17,551.17 1.80 - 2 1,500 2 1,500 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 341.14 0.29 - 0 0 0 0 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3,242.23 5.50 - 13 94,380 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 342.26 0.73 - 0 0 13 94,380 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,723.78 3.05 - 0 0 3,014.25 1.45 - 3 2,720 IKEJA HOTEL PLC TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,862.53 3.50 - 1 250 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 41,042.18 5.40 - 1 70 5 3,040 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 4,800.00 0.40 - 1 1,300 1 1,300 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 175.39 0.29 7.41 4 209,800 LEARN AFRICA PLC 1,033.74 1.34 - 2 21,340 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 0 0 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 858.50 1.99 1.02 12 1,216,400 18 1,447,540

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Women in Business

Joycee Awojoodu Founder/CEO of ORÍKÌ Group

J

oycee Awojoodu is the Founder/CEO of ORÍKÌ Group. She is an entrepreneur, economist and power sector specialist.

She has a history of running companies in Nigeria mainly: ORÍKÌ and PowerCareers.

ORÍKÌ is a luxury personal grooming brand that fuses all-natural ingredients primarily sourced from the Continent of Africa with scientific research to create extraordinary personal care products for women and men; and PowerCareers is a leading recruiting and training solution for the colossal human capacity gap in Nigeria’s energy sector.

Joycee has completed Universal classes accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is certified in natural skin care and actively leads the research and innovation of the ORÍKÌ brand. She most recently worked for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) infrastructure assistance programme in Nigeria, the Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF) as the Technical Assistant on Research, Analysis and Informatics (Performance Monitoring) to the Honourable Minister of Power for the past 2 years.

In this role, she worked on the on-going reform, privatisation and future policy strategy for Nigeria’s power sector. She began her career in power at Constellation Energy, a Fortune 100 company in the United States.

At the age of 23, she started a successful energy brokerage firm focused on the supply of renewable energy, natural gas and electricity across four states in the USA. A few years later, she decided to move to Nigeria, having never been before, to pursue her ambition of contributing to the realization of stable and reliable electricity for all.

Prior to her role consulting for the Nigerian Federal Government, she commenced work in Nigeria in the Renewable Energy Research and Development Team at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) where she created policies for incentivizing renewable energy investment for the Federal Government of Nigeria. Joycee was a part of the team that developed the renewable energy tariffs that still hold today for invest-

BUSINESS DAY Friday 07 June 2019

By Kemi Ajumobi

www.businessday.ng

Adenike Adebukola Akinsemolu ment in Nigeria’s power sector.

Before ORÍKÌ was birthed, Joyce’s journey into the world of natural oils began at 12 when she mixed an avocado, yogurt and olive oil together to make a mask for her hair; the result left her in awe and she continued to pursue this passion, a passion that led her back to Nigeria to birth the brand ORÍKÌ.

“I am passionate about creating an African indigenous luxury brand that touches the lives of the women and men who gather the nuts, plants and herbs to produce the raw materials. The company is committed to sourcing the best quality and finest selection of products.” She says.

For Joycee, “ORÍKÌ is poised to go global as a proudly African all-natural personal grooming & lifestyle brand. Beyond our international and global aspirations, at ORÍKÌ we aspire to make a difference.”

ORÍKÌ was birthed after years of experimenting with all types of natural ingredients, at one point creating a mini lab in a home setting, testing and experimenting with diverse materials from activated charcoal to wild berries and ingredients in between. She wanted others to experience and believe in the potency of natural. Seeing a void in the industry and a depiction and narration of Africa as being helpless and lacking, she launched a skincare brand “inspired by nature and crowned with opulence,” focusing on a wide range of raw materials and ingredients for all skin types, creating formulas that work for all depending on skin type and concern.

They carefully considered a name that would best reflect the inspired fusion of their brand, blending natural and organic ingredients with scientific research to create extraordinary skin care, hair care and body products that are superior.

The word ‘ORIKI’ [Or.eek.e] has a rich ancient history in the Yoruba language, one of the predominant tribes and languages in Nigeria. The literal translation is “Your Crown/Your Origin” and an ORÍKÌ name is meant to inspire and bring out the best in an individual.

Joycee is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a nominee of The Future Awards Prize in Public Service, 2013, selected into the African Leadership Network, and a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program Fellow.

Founder, The Green Institute

A

denike Akinsemolu is a passionate environmental educator and author of numerous studies, which have appeared in reputable publications. Her passion for the environment propelled her to study Environmental Microbiology at doctoral level.

A former intern at Clinton Foundation, Adenike’s work and enthusiasm for youth and the environment has taken her all over the world. In order to make environmentalism a part of the everyday experience of Nigerians, Adenike started the Green Campus Initiative. This initiative began at the Adeyemi College Campus, a college of Obafemi Awolowo University, where she is a lecturer.

By creating Green ambassadors on college campuses across Nigeria, Adenike’s movement aims to positively impact the ways in which Nigerian youth incorporate green living into all elements of their lives – from riding bikes to taking shorter showers. In 2016, the Green Campus Initiative transitioned into the Green Institute, the first Nigerian research institution that subsidizes college tuition costs through a waste management program while training leaders that will systematically transform attitudes about environmentalism in Africa’s most populated and polluted country.

Additionally, Adenike founded the Girl Prize, which provides financial and mentorship support for young Nigerian secondary school girls with an interest in the sciences.

She is currently an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society and a Robert Bosch Stiftung Young Researcher Awardee.

Adenike holds a masters and PhD in Environmental Microbiology. She advocated for the inclusion of green education and sustainability in the Nigerian academic curriculum.

She is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society and a member of the National Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Practitioners Association of Nigeria and a faculty member at Curators University. In 2015, Sahara Reporters did a documentary on her Green Journey.

“The Green Campus Initiative (GCI) tackles the challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability through

innovative academic research, results-based green initiatives, and building a generation of environmentally conscious, socially conscious student leaders.” Adenike says.

The Green Institute is the first Nigerian research institution that subsidizes college tuition costs through a waste management program while training leaders that will systematically transform attitudes about environmentalism in Africa’s most populated and polluted country.

The institute offers both training and research, in line with some of the challenges listed in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Their principal area of concentration is environmental sustainability, but they adopt both a micro and macro-level approach that encompasses relevant studies in the sciences, arts and social sciences. Their onsite campus is located in Ondo Kingdom, Nigeria.

Asked why she decided to establish the Green Institute and she responds “In one of my lectures, I asked my students what they understood by ‘Going Green’. Surprisingly, in a class of over 250 students, no-one could explain the idea of going green. About 98% of them simply had not heard about it before.

When you ask an average Nigerian youth to participate in community service or volunteer their time in helping the underrepresented communities, they simply ask ‘What do I stand to gain?’ or ‘How does that put food on my table?’ You cannot totally blame them. It is the culture. I also noticed students discard their waste in classrooms and around the school environment.” Adenike says. She continues “Additionally, a lot of them do not have skills needed to survive upon graduation.

How can we encourage students to live their life in such a way they do not harm themselves, the people around them and most importantly their environment? This question birthed the Green Campus Initiative. In the first 8 months of our green journey, nearly 150 university students from 28 universities have been trained with the goal to have a chapter of the Green Campus Initiative at each of Nigeria’s university campuses.”

When she is not raising the next generation of green leaders or scientists, she can be found spending time in nature and playing sports.

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Advert Hotline: 08034743892. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Patrick Atuanya. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.