BusinessDay 12 Jul 2019

Buhari’s victory manipulated by INEC, security agencies in north, Atiku’s witnesses say FELIX OMOHOMHION, Abuja

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ll the witnesses called by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and his party at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, Thursday, rubbished the result that produced President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23, 2019, election.

They described the return of

President Buhari by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winner of the election as a big fraud, adding Buhari’s victory was stage-managed and aided by both INEC and security agencies.

The witnesses, who are from the northern part of the country, claimed in their testimonies that the election was poorly conducted with irregularities, cancellations and out-

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news you can trust I **FRIDAY 12 july 2019 I vol. 18, no 352 I N300

Boosting the Nigerian Textile Industry: Godwin Emefiele (3rd r), governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), flanked by representatives of the Service Chiefs and heads of uniformed services in Nigeria at a meeting held at the CBN head office in Abuja, yesterday.

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Nigeria to save N24bn annually as NSPMC becomes sole printer of e-passports Experts question minting company’s capacity to meet demand

OBINNA EMELIKE

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ollowing President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval, Thursday, of the Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Company (NSPMC) as the sole printer of all

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Foreign Reserve - $45.12bn Cross Rates - GBP-$:1.25 YUANY-N52.40 Commodities Cocoa

Gold

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Families look for local alternatives to pricey summer trips …boosts school boot camps, local tourism

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OBINNA EMELIKE & KELECHI EWUZIE

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espite foreign exchange stability and increase in flight options, many families that usually travel abroad for summer are shelving their holiday plans this year owing to high cost of travel and growing security concerns in some outbound destinations.

Sales for 2019 summer out-

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

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Inside Segun Agbaje, CEO, GTBank, receiving the awards for Africa’s Best Bank and Nigeria’s Best at the Euromoney Awards held at the London Hilton Hotel, Parklane on Wednesday, 10th July, 2019.

GTBank named best bank in Africa at Euromoney P. 2 Awards

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news With property market upbeat in 1st half, investors see increased activities, deals in 2nd half of 2019 CHUKA UROKO

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f t e r f r u s t r a ting 12 straight quar ters of a negative growth trajectory that ended in the first quarter of 2019, the property market in Nigeria has started waking up with observable activities and closed deals which investors in the sector hope will record a marginal increase in the second half of this year.

Over the past four years, the last six months of the year have been the most promising period in the market. This was reflected in the high number of calls and inspections which the investors say they have been receiving for both residential and commercial properties.

According to them, even before the general elections, this was happening, and the second quarter of this year was really more active than the first, meaning that buyers and investors’ confidence level in the economy which was slightly eroded by election concerns has started rising again.

Indications that the market might witness a rebound in 2019 were visible from its performance in the last two quarters of 2018. The growth rate in the real estate sector in Q3 2018 was higher than the growth recorded in Q3 2017 by 1.44 percentage points.

Dolapo Omidire, founder, Estate Intel, a real estate research company, affirmed that the performance of the sector in 2018 generally was better than what was seen in 2017.

Modupe Anjous, managing director, Rydal Mews Limited, a real estate firm, agrees, predicting an increased performance and growth in the sector and basing her projections on the country’s economic growth.

But there was a flipside to the perceived and anticipated growth in the sector.

The sector was among the least attractive sectors to commercial banks and other institutional lenders. Not surprisingly, the sector got one of the smallest portions of loans advanced in the third quarter of 2018.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

97 Nigerian firms top list of LSEG, PwC’s companies to inspire Africa … As African companies raised $1.3bn on main market in 2018 YTD … ARM Life gets London, NSE recognition HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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igeria’s 97 firms topped the lists of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)’s and the PwC’s Companies to Inspire Africa 2019 edition.

This represents about 30 percent increase of the numbers of Nigerian companies meeting this height this year over about 60 percent recorded in the previous edition of 2017.

The report is a pioneering publication by the LSEG, which identifies and celebrates some of Africa’s most inspiring growth businesses.

The research project is carried out with the support of PwC, the Africa Development Bank Group, Asoko Insight, CDC Group, and Instinctif Partners.

The launch of the 2019 edition of the report was

held in collaboration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos on Thursday.

One of such Nigerian companies that made the list was ARM Life Plc, due to its laudable achievement and the unique contribution of growth of the company to the national Gross Domestic Product, and the Olori Cosmetics, among others.

This is coming as the total market cap of African companies listed on LSE currently stands at $197 billion, while African companies raised $1.3bn s on main market in 2018 Year-T-Date (YTD).

Similarly, $39.3 billion was raised in African bonds in 2018 YTD. In 2018, 15 African issuers from 9 countries launched 55 bonds on the London market.

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R-L: Ronke Kuye, CEO; Uche Uzoebo, head, distribution and engagement, and Abimbola Ogunti, team lead, product and operations manager, all of Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities (SANEF) Limited, at the courtesy visit of BusinessDay management team to SANEF headquarters in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by David Apara

GTBank named best bank in Africa at Euromoney Awards

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oremost African financial institution Guaranty Trust Bank plc has been named the Best Bank in Africa 2019

by Euromoney at its annual Awards for Excellence, which held in London on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at the London Hilton Hotel, Park Lane.

GTBank was also named the Best Bank in Nigeria for a record ninth time, reflecting the Bank’s position as one of the best managed financial institutions in the country, with strong and focused leadership that keep the business in a constant state of re-invention and innovation.

Now in its 50th year, Euromoney is the leading publication for covering the growth of international finance. Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence are the awards that matter to the banks and bankers who matter. This year, Euromoney received almost 1,500 submissions

… also emerges best bank in Nigeria for a record 9th time from banks in an awards programme that covers 20 global awards, more than 50 regional awards, and best bank awards in close to 100 countries. The Magazine’s Awards for Excellence celebrates the best banks around the world by recognizing institutions that have demonstrated leadership, innovation, and momentum in the markets they operate. In selecting its award recipients, Euromoney combines quantitative and qualitative data to honor institutions that have brought the highest levels of service, innovation and expertise to their customers.

Key to the emergence of GTBank as the Best Bank in Africa and the Best Bank in Nigeria, is the Bank’s digital drive and its clarity of vision in reimagining the future of banks and banking. The Euromoney awards

also recognized GTBank’s commitment to leading the future of banking as well as its consistent long-term strategy led by a senior management team that abhors complacency and keeps the business in a constant state of innovation.

Commenting on the Bank’s Euromoney awards, the Chief Executive Officer of GTBank, Segun Agbaje, said; “We are delighted and proud to win the Euromoney Awards for Africa’s Best Bank and Nigeria’s Best Bank.

These awards reflect the progress we are making in delivering the best banking experience that captures what customers want in the world of today and tomorrow. They are also a testament to our leading role in driving world class corporate governance standards, excellent service quality and

Nigeria’s external imbalance widens on increasing offshore borrowings MICHAEL ANI & SEGUN ADAMS

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igeria’s ability to weather the storm from external shocks or sudden deterioration in economic conditions is waning as the country’s increasing appetite for foreign borrowings continues to outpace accretion to external reserves.

Since the 2014 collapse in oil prices that caused the spread between the Federal Government’s actual and projected revenues to widen, the country has resorted to

tapping debt from the international market (offshore) to fund its planned expenditure and this has caused external buffers to thin.

A country’s external buffer is the difference between external reserves and total foreign debt (borrowings). Put differently, in the event of a downtrend in oil prices and foreign portfolio outflows, the external buffer shows the extent to which the countries could withstand such pressures.

For Africa’s largest economy, external debts have almost tripled and despite

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External buffer has declined since 2017 where the cushion broke a downward trend and grew to $19.86bn. The growth in 2017 was on the back of a 50 percent increase in external reserves as Brent bounced back from the 2016 price fall.

However, since buffer rose 38 percent in 2017, it has steadily declined by 14 percent to a current amount of $17bn, the second least recorded in the last six years and only $2.57bn higher than when Nigeria entered recession in 2016.

“The data reflects that the Nigerian economy still remains vulnerable to external shocks, particularly downturn in global oil price,” said Gbolahan Ologunro, equity analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbrofgn bonds kers. “Notwithstanding, there 10 Y 5Y 20 Y is still some sort of headroom 0.00 -0.22 -0.17 for urgent fiscal measures to avert the impending crisis.”

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improvements in foreign exchange reserves, the country’s external buffer has declined in the last six years as the upsurge in offshore debt during the period weakened the economy’s shock absorber.

The country’s defence against external shocks to the economy has weakened by a Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR or constant annual growth) of 7.24 percent since 2014 owing to increase in foreign debt of 23.59 percent (CAGR), while reserves accretion grew by a CAGR of 5.48 percent.

businessday market monitor NSE

innovation in Africa’s banking industry.

He further stated that; “At GTBank, we are passionate about building the bank of the future by leveraging the best of technology to add real value to our customers’ lives, and these awards illustrate the hard work and commitment of our staff, management and board towards achieving this goal.

GTBank has consistently played a leading role in Africa’s banking industry. The GTBank brand is regarded by industry watchers as one of the best run financial institutions across its subsidiary countries and serves as a role model within the financial service industry due to its bias for world class corporate governance standards, excellent service quality and innovation.

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CBN updates list of banks, MFBs, finance companies, BDCs Hope Moses-Ashike

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entral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday updated the lists of Deposit Money Bank (DMBs) and financial holding companies operating in the country.

Also updated on its website were the lists of licensed Microfinance Banks (MFBs), finance companies and Bureau De Change (BDCs).

Consequently, as at June 30, 2019, there were 21 commercial banks, four financial holding companies, five merchant banks, and one noninterest bank operating in the country.

Further breakdown of the list of the banks shows that there are eight commercial banking licences with international authorisation, 11 commercial banks with national authorisation and two banks with regional authorisation.

The CBN’s update indicates that there are 908 MFBs, 73 li-

censed finance companies, and 4798 BDCs operating across the county.

Banks’ total assets and liabilities of the banks amounted to N38,641.8 billion at end-April 2019, showing a 0.5 percent increase, compared with the level at the end of the preceding month, according to the CBN’s economic report for the month May 2019.

Funds were sourced, mainly, from mobilisation of time, savings and foreign currency deposits, drawdown on reserves and reduction in claims on central bank. The funds were used mainly, to acquire foreign assets, reduce claims on federal government and to pay off demand deposits.

Banks’ credit to the domestic economy rose by 0.6 per cent to N20,973.8 billion at end-April 2019, compared with the level at the end of the preceding month.

The development was attributed to the rise in claims on the Federal Government.

NMRC beats economic headwinds, grows gross earning 15% to N7.086bn CHUKA UROKO

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espite challenging operating environment, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has recorded a good financial performance, growing itsbalancesheetby63percentand full-year gross earnings rising 15 percent to N7.086 billion in 2018, up from N6.160 billion in 2017.

NMRC is Nigeria’s secondary mortgage institution, a private sector-led mortgage institution set up with the primary purpose of raising funds from the capital market and using same to refinanceloanspresentedbyprimary mortgage banks (PMBs) in order to increase liquidity in the mortgage system.

At the third annual general meeting of the company on Wednesday in Lagos, Charles Adeyemi Candide-Johnson, the chairman of the company, also

announced to its directors and shareholders that the company’s refinanced loan portfolio grew by over100percenttherebypositioning the company for sustained growth and profitability.

Though the company recordedalossinitsprofitbeforetax, which decreased marginally by 0.5 percent from N1.945billlion in 2017 to N1.935 billion in 2018, the chairman blamed it on the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard Number 9 (IFRS9) by the company.

Its earnings per share also declined to N0.93 in 2018, down from N1.04 in 2017. But its total assets increased by 63 percent to N69.29 billion as at December 31, 2018, up from N42.54 billion as at December 31, 2017.

As a mortgage refinance company, NMRC performed its function creditably in the year under review. Its mortgage refinance loans increased by 106 percent

to N17.02 billion in 2018, up from N8.23 billion in 2017.

The downsides in the performance of the company in the review year could be easily traced to the reversals in growth expectations in both local and global economy. “2018 started with the expectation of synchronized pickup in global growth, but ended with synchronized global downturn,” Kehinde Ogundimu, the company’s MD/CEO, noted in his statement at the meeting.

The CEO noted further that within that year, the Nigerian economy continued its slow recovery on the back of higher agricultural output, relatively higheroilprice,stabledomesticoil production and Nigeria’s exemption from production cuts by the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

He pointed out, however, that “population growth outpaced

economic growth in 2018, resulting in increased unemployment and poverty level” both of which are anti-economic and mortgage growth.

In the past five years of its operation, NMRC has, to some extent, lived up its mandate and public expectations. Besides refinancing about 12 mortgage institutions to the tune of N18 billion asannouncedinDecember2018, thecompanyhasalsodoneabitof mortgage market development.

Ogundimu announced at the meeting that in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria (MBAN) and other stakeholders, they have developed the Uniform Underwriting Standards for Nigerians in Diaspora. With this, he explained, these Diaspora Nigerians now have access to mortgage to buy homes in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s MSMEs rose by 12% in 4 years - report … as number of medium enterprises fell by 61% Josephine Okojie

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he number of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria has rose by 12.3 percent over four years, a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) notes.

The number of MSMEs grew from 37 million in 2013 to 41.5 million in 2017, the 2017 National Survey shows.

According to the report, micro enterprises account for 99.8 percent of the total businesses, while small and medium size enterprises both account for less than 1 percent each.

“Compared with 2013, both total MSMEs and micro enterprises grew by 12.1 percent, while small enterprises grew 4.6 percent from 2013,” the report states.

“The number of mediumsized enterprises decreased sig-

nificantly from 4,670 in 2013 to 1,793 in 2017, indicating a 61 percent drop,” the report notes.

Lagos, Oyo and Osun account for the highest gaining states for the growth in the number of MSMEs, while Kano, Rivers, Plateau recorded the biggest decline.

The report states that wholesale/retail trade; agriculture and other services activities make up 76.3 percent of micro businesses.

Education, human health and social works were identified as sectors that require high numbers of employers or skilled labour with very low numbers of micro businesses.

Accommodation and Food services is a preferred sector (top 5) across all business classification types, the report states.

“MSMEs generated 59,647,954 jobs as of December 2017, five percent or 2,889,715 of those jobs were created by SMEs with males accounting for 57 percent compared with 43 percent for females,” the report says.

MTN Nigeria slashes data prices by 30% Daniel Obi

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wo weeks after launching 4G+, which offers customers faster data speed, MTN Nigeria has announced a price slash across all its data plans and offerings.

Under the new price structure, customers can now enjoy up to 30% more data volume for 30-day plans. They will also enjoy up to 100% incremental volume for weekly data plans and 25% incremental volume for daily plans, the company said.

In addition, new customers will enjoy introductory offers, with access to prices as low as N50 for 50MB and N500 for 2GB. Subscribers will also receive a 100% bonus on data purchases for four months.

Commenting on the new offerings, the Chief marketing

officer, Rahul De said, “With the faster internet speeds delivered by the launch of 4G+, this data price slash could not have come at a better time for our customers, as we have seen that faster data speeds means more data usage”.

He went on to explain how increased quality and speed on the MTN network, had enabled customers explore new ways to use old services while discovering applications. “In the space of a few years, people went from instant messaging to sharing funny videos and from listening to music to streaming high definition movies. People’s data needs have changed, we recognise that. Our customers need much more and we are delivering that for less”.

To enjoy the price slash, a customer can dial 131, *131# or download the MyMTNApp on their mobile phones. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Joshua Bamfo, partner and head, transfer pricing, Andersen Tax; Olaleye Adebiyi, managing partner; Funke ArabaLashmann, former director, NOTAP; Ogochukwu Isiadinso, associate director, Andersen Tax, and Ephraim Okejiri, director, Technology Transfer Registration Department, NOTAP, during the Andersen Tax NOTAP Seminar in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Pius Okeosisi

EFCC partners anti-corruption agencies worldwide for return of stolen funds IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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conomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday said was collaborating with other anticorruption agencies across the globe for the return of the nation’scommonwealth in overseas countries.

The commander of the Benin City zonal office of the commission, Suleman Bello, made the disclosure in his speech to commemorate African antiCorruption Day with the theme, “Towards a common African Position on Asset recovery,” in Benin City.

Bello, who lamented that the African continent had continuously lost billions of dollars to Europe and other continents as a result of corruption, said Nigeria had over the years lost billions of naira to illicit financial flow.

He however attributed the backwardness of the country after

58 years of sovereign statehood to corruption.

“It is a settled fact that Nigeria as a country has over the years lost billions of naira to illicit financial flow. This act of corruption is the reason our country is still touted as potentially great nation after 58 years of sovereign statehood.

“It is this reason that there is unconscionable poverty in our otherwise rich nation,” he said.

He opined that the resources that would had delivered the good life to the majority of the people had been cornered and stolen by ravenous elite, leaving our roads, hospitals and other socialamenitiesinappallingstate.

He also disclosed that the Benin zonal office had in the last six months secured 51 convictions of persons involved in various kind of fraud, the sum of N45,619,706,71 million and properties and instruments of frauds, proceeds of crimes had been forfeited to the Federal Government.

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Access Bank wins Karlsruhe Sustainable Finance Award

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ccess Bank plc has emerged winner of the 2019KarlsruheSustainable Finance Awards for “Outstanding Business Sustainability Achievement”atanawardceremonyheld Thursday,inKarlsruhe,Germany.

Winning for the fourth consecutive time, the award was presented to the bank’s GMD/CEO, Herbert Wigwe, with top brand managers, executives, CEOs of leading global financial institutions, top German government officials, policy makers, regulators and key sustainability stakeholders in attendance.

Theawardisinrecognitionofthe bank’s unwavering commitment towards embedding social, environmental and economic sustainability into its core business strategy that helps address issues across its businessoperationsandvaluechain.

The Global Sustainable Finance Awards celebrate financial institutions, related organisations and top executives making significant contributions to the field of @Businessdayng

sustainable banking and finance, while also aiming to promote the growth of sustainable financial instrumentsandmarketsglobally, particularly with a focus on green finance and investments; financial inclusion and social finance; green equity and venture capital, including the holistic integration of sustainability among financial institutions.

Speaking at the event, Wigwe said, “The global finance sector playsamajorroleintheeconomy, as they provide huge amounts of capital and have the ability to influence other companies and customers across sectors through their products and services.

“Many banks are now placing agreatdealofemphasisondriving sustainability as well as digitising core business processes and reassessing organisational structures tobebetterpreparedforthefuture of banking. This transformation illustrates the increasing desire to become a sustainable and digital bank.

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If Carthage must be destroyed THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

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he name “Nigeria” was invented by an English woman of questionable virtue, Flora Louise Shaw, who later married the colonial administrator and Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lord Lugard. Although she supposedly coined the name from the River Niger, it rhymes more with the derogatory word “Nigger”. Thus it comes about that most German native speakers and the Scandinavians tend to pronounce our country as “Niggeria”. We are, to all intents and purposes, “the Land of the Niggers”.

None of our chiefs were consulted during the 1914 “Amalgamation”. It was done to save administrative costs and to garner money for the war effort. In 1960 the British left behind a warped federal structure which Dame Margery Perham, a noted authority on colonial administration, described as a fragile “tripod”. It was a structure doomed to fail.

The British clearly intended that power should remain permanently in the hands of the North. It was their only guarantee of continuing post-colonial influence. They deliberately sowed the seeds of instability, for which we are yet to recover.

Nigerians are a highly intelligent, enterprising lot; a self-confident people. Some of our cultures date back to Pharaonic Egypt. Nigerian students are consistently at the top percentile in Ivy League institutions the world over. Like Archimedes the Greek mathematician, all that our people plead for is a place to stand and they will move the world.

Our population is forecast to reach 410 by 2050, just behind China and India.

We have considerable natural resources endowments; with a land and climate that is conducive to agriculture. We have potential to become an inner-directed technological-industrial power.

I believe there is a secret trans-Atlantic project to destroy Nigeria and truncate her promise and destiny. It is a part of a grand strategy to keep our glorious continent as a mere source of raw materials while breaking the spirit of black people throughout the world. In America today, there are more black men in prison than in college. We are the people without a history; an invisible race, with no mind, no soul, no hope and no future.

I prophesy that Nigeria’s emergence as a world power will change everything.

That’s why they fear and hate us so venomously. That’s why they condemn us as nothing but a nation of thieves and scammers. Bechir Bef Yahmed, the Tunisian publisher of Jeune Afrique, a publication known for links with French intelligence services, has campaigned for Nigeria to be kept outside the international information highway. American think tanks have been in the pernicious habit of predicting our future doom. One of their war colleges uses our country as the model of a failed state in annual war games exercises. Barack Obama was one of the worst things that ever happened to black people. Apart from his whirlwind shallow lectures on good governance, he did nothing for our continent, unlike Bill Clinton and the two Bushes. During his second term in office Obama blocked all sales of our oil on American shores, depriving us of more than 25 of our traditional market; at a time when we were facing a major recession. He also blocked the sale of arms to our government; denying us the wherewithal to confront Boko Haram. To all intents and purposes, the man was hell-bent on strangulating us and bringing our country to ruin. And each time State Department included Nigeria on his African safari, we are told,

he would strike it out with a red pen.

In Europe, they have placed a secret embargo on our non-oil exports. When Nigerian palm oil and yams are taken to Ghana and repackaged, however, they gain free entry into EU markets. And they would not take a definitive stand against the genocidal herdsmen militias. Meanwhile their pharmaceutical companies continue to sell killer drugs and baby formulas to our people. An international agent from Liberia was paid to fly all the way from Monrovia to infect millions of our people with the dreaded Ebola virus. He was only stopped by Ameyo Stella Adadevoh and her heroic medical colleagues in their clinic in Lagos. Only God knows whatever stratagem they will come up with next. Imperialism works through shadowy agents and economic hit men whose ultimate mandate is to block our wheels of economic and political development. A foreign whore who used to call herself the “mother” of the Niger Delta gangsters was behind those who held our economy by the jugular for years. I would not be lachrymose for the rather overrated Moshood Abiola. He and his lieutenants were foreign agents.

Sadly, some of those foreign agents have ruled Nigeria while others have occupied sensitive posts in the military, interior and foreign affairs. Some are not even Nigerians. This is why they have been so contemptuous of our national interests.

These self-same people have kept our borders wide open to allow killers to come and indiscriminately slaughter unarmed, defenceless people.

Boko Haram started off innocently enough as a bunch of village thugs in Maiduguri before metamorphosing into a deadly terrorist group networked to Al Qaida, ISIS and Al Shabbab. Together with the herdsmen militias, they are sponsored by shadowy international interests hiding out in military bases in our neighbouring countries. The real game plan is to foment an ethno-religious war that would spell doom for our country.

This is why, in these evil days in which we

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Imperialism works through shadowy agents and economic hit men whose ultimate mandate is to block our wheels of economic and political development

live, before we run amok and start killing one another, let’s step back and think!

Late elder statesman Maitama Sule once narrated what a European leader told them when they were sent as envoys to canvass support for the government during the Biafra war: “….let me tell you, we do not care about you, all we care about are your resources, if we could get robots to exploit your resources for us to develop our economies, we would not mind a lot of you being eliminated. But you Nigerians are a peculiar case, you have the population, resources and we know your resources more than you do know about them. All you need in Nigeria is about a fairly long period of say ten to twenty years; you will be able to make it. You will become a very strong economy, will join the economic powers but you need this period of uninterrupted peace.”

“But we would not allow you because if you have this period of peace and stability, you will use your brains and Nigerians have got brains, you will work hard and you are hard working people, you will exploit your resources and you have them in abundance and you will develop your economy. And developing your economy needs a market, you have no problem looking for a market, Nigeria’s population alone will serve the market, in addition, the entire West Africa region will be your market. And if that happens, you will be a thorn in our flesh, we would lose our source of raw materials because you will be using them in your factories, we would lose our market because you will be the market and also get other markets in West Africa. So even after your civil war, we would create one problem after another so that you may not enjoy peace and stability that will enable you to develop and become such a strong country”.

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)

As the 55-country African market opens through AfCFTA

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pportunity beckons to the bold entrepreneurs of our land with the signing

by Nigeria into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Saturday, July 6. The project commenced in May 2018 and effectively took off two months ago. President Buhari signed for Nigeria at the AU meeting in Niamey.

AfCFTAwill deliver access to all the 55 countries of Africa as a single market. The idea of the African common market is to enable better exchange between and among Africans to trade in goods and services with each other. It is one huge opportunity for our entrepreneurs and sundry businessmen.

What is AfCFTA, and how would AfCFTA serve our businessmen?

AfCFTA is a project of the African Union aimed at promoting and deepening trade between countries of Africa. Data on the trading relations of African countries shows that only 16% of business holds between and among African countries. The rest of it is with nations of Europe, America and Asia.

Various online sources such as Wikipedia state that “The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a free trade area, outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement among 54 of the 55 African Unionnations.

The free-trade zone is the largest in the world in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organisation.

The African Union brokered the agreement that 44 countries signed in Kigali, Rwanda on March 21, 2018. A central plank of the deal

is the requirement on participating countries to remove tariffs from 90% of goods. They will allow free access to commodities, goods and services across the continent. United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that AfCFTA will boost trade among African countries by 52% by 2022.

AfCFTA needed a minimum of 22 signatories to take effect. When the Gambia signed on April 2, 2019, as the 22nd country, the agreement became binding on May 30. It became operational following the Niamey Summit of Heads of State on July 7, 2019, where Nigeria signed.

The premise of the free trade area is that all participating countries would remove barriers of tariffs and quotas for products and services made in their countries of origin. Shoes from Aba should now move freely from Cape to Cairo, Nairobi to Niamey.

Make no mistake about it. AfCFTA is not only about big companies or what we know as the organised private sector. AfCFTA is about every business in Nigeria that seeks the potential of a bigger market. It opens the doors to legitimate exports from Nigeria to other African countries and for imports from those countries to Nigeria.

Nigerian entrepreneurs are ahead of AfCFTA in many years of trade and enterprise across Africa. They quickly went into South Africa at the collapse of apartheid. They are in all the countries of West Africa and pulling their weight in Nairobi and other capitals of East Africa. The requirement now is that they do so following all the appropriate channels.

AfCFTA will bring opportunities as well as

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significant challenges. Nigerian business would have to organise very well and synergise with the government to ensure that we derive the most benefits from this free trade area. One of the issues would be perception management.

Nigerian business must work collectively with all stakeholders and interest groups in the country to manage and improve the reputation of our country. All parties must be involved.

In its early days, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) coordinated Japan’s foray into the export market. It ensured that firms met global standards and best practice and avoided short cuts that yielded only fleeting benefits. Soon enough, the world associated Japan with quality and nothing less.

Nigeria needs to deploy all its resources.

While manufacturers, agriculturalists and others are working on their products, we should use cultural communication to sell the country as a place and people with high capability and quality orientation. We need Nollywood, our music, our fashion and our cuisine working in synergy with other entrepreneurs to market Nigeria.

Nigerian firms need more than ever before to build strong brands. Strong brands start with the product or service itself and then extends to the augmented product that is a function of creativity in creating and depositing positive impressions about it in the minds of target audiences. It covers processes, procedures, packaging, relationships and everything that goes into making the product appeal.

It is crucial for Nigerian entrepreneurs to avoid messing around with AfCFTA as we did

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The Public Sphere

CHIDO NWAKANMA with AGOA. Nigeria was one of the countries that could not take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act of the Bill Clinton era to export to America in large numbers. We did not pay attention to standards, to proper packaging and the procedures and rules of international marketing.

Enlightenment is critical. We have all the necessary bureaucratic organs, from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council through NAFDAC and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to the Office of Trade Negotiation. They must rise to the challenge of AfCFTA. Commence with a programme of Communication, Education and Information that prepares our people and associations to the challenge and opportunity.

Nwakanma is a Visiting Member of the BusinessDay Editorial Board and serves on the Adjunct Faculty at the School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.

Email chidonwakanma@gmail.com.

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A tyranny of the righteous?

HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

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he subject of this piece has been brought to the front-burner by the recent drama surrounding an Abuja-based pastor and accusations of sexual offences from some members of his flock. Watching the testimony of two of the accusers is a troubling experience, as is the Jekyll and Hyde character of the ‘man of God’ himself that comes from watching a video clip where he ‘confesses’ that he was a cult leader in University, before he was ‘born again’. There is a compelling necessity to drill down to the bottom of all this, determine if there is culpability, and what consequences, if any, should follow. Gathering evidence to prosecute ‘historical sexual offence’ is a daunting task for even the most sophisticated police forces in the world.

For Nigeria’s much-derided Police, it may look like an insurmountable challenge, but it is one they would have to rise to. ‘Prosecution by media’, attractive as it may be, is not a real alternative, and does not give justice in the end to accused or victim. Everybody becomes a victim.

The following stories, hopefully, would help to illustrate, how the pursuit of a popular ‘righteous’ sentiment may lead ‘right-thinking’ citizens to perse-

cute not just the offending principal, but anyone who dares to raise their head above the parapet in a dissentient stance.

Rugby is one of the most popular spectator sports in Australia. The country is a world leader in the game. One of the current super-stars of Australian rugby is a young man named Israel Folau. He plays for the Sydney-based New South Wales Waratahs, as well as the national team. As recently as last February he signed a contract extension with his club to play for them until 2022.

Like many people of his age, Folau is a regular user of social media. Some weeks ago, he placed a message on his Instagram page. It was, according to him, a quotation he got from the Bible.

The message of his posting was simple.

All ‘drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters’ would go to hell, unless they repented.

The post immediately went viral.

Then all hell was let loose.

He was spreading anti-gay sentiment, his critics screamed. He was guilty of anti-LGTQ+ hate-speech.

In short order, his employers – Rugby Australia, queried him and set up a Board of Enquiry to probe his conduct.

Folau was advised by friends to remove the post from his Instagram page and apologize for its content.

But he felt he had done nothing wrong in sharing his honest opinion.

Troubled, he had a conversation with his father.

The Polao family were devout ‘Born Again’ Christians. The Church they belonged to believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible and its strictures.

‘Don’t do it’, his father told him.

‘You’ll go to hell’.

With that admonition, the young man’s hands were tied, and his fate sealed.

The upshot is that Israel Polao’s playing contract with Rugby Australia has been terminated. His career, which appeared to be at its zenith, has come crashing down.

Though his employers averred they were only showing they abhorred discrimination based on sexual orientation, there was a strong suspicion that their action was based on the fear of a backlash from gay activists.

The questions then arose – was the expression of a religious belief that was probably shared by many ordinary people, even if they were in the minority, tantamount to ‘hate’? Should a promising career have been destroyed because authorities feared a backlash from activists? Was this not a modern form of thought-control, even tyranny?

The second story concerns Ronald S Sullivan, a Professor of Law at Harvard University, and until recently the Faculty Dean of Winthrop House, one of the twelve Houses for undergraduate accommodation in that famous University. The Dean-ship is a position of considerable prestige, and Professor Sullivan is the first black scholar to have occupied it.

Sullivan is something of a liberal in his views. One particular pitch he is fond of making to his students is that even a ‘bad’ person deserves to be represented and defended by the Law. It is a notion that should be straight forward, but which can sometimes be emotionally troubling for people to accept. For instance, it might provide a justification for vigorously defending the legal rights of Adolf Hitler or a Colombian drug baron.

Professor Sullivan, unfortunately, is

‘

There truly is an increasing tendency all over the world to public lynching, principally in the social media, and especially in ‘sexual’ matters, not just of alleged ‘culprits’ but anyone who raises a voice for caution and due process

now in trouble with his employers. The trouble started when it was disclosed that he was on the legal defence team of Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein, remember, is the Hollywood mogul charged with several counts of rape involving some famous actresses. Weinstein has lost his job, and his company has collapsed, but he is yet to be convicted on any of the charges made against him.

The Harvard students, however, influenced by the #MeToo movement, are incensed that one of their teachers could be standing up in court for a ‘rapist’. They have demanded his sack. Sullivan has now been sacked as Dean, though he remains a Professor at Harvard.

Many people would probably agree that the rights of homosexuals and the LGBTQ+ community need to be protected, although even that may be a controversial notion in Nigeria with its draconian anti-Homosexuality law.

Many would agree that Harvey Weinstein is at least an exploiter of the female sex who took advantage of actresses on his ‘casting couch’.

For anyone who truly cares about human freedom, the fate that has befallen Israel Polao and Professor Sullivan should raise some troubling questions. There truly is an increasing tendency all over the world to public lynching, principally in the social media, and especially in ‘sexual’ matters, not just of alleged ‘culprits’ but anyone who raises a voice for caution and due process. This is not exactly evidence that the world is moving towards the just and caring society that everyone is striving for. Or is it, really?

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

How grace and luck works in business

T

oo many people set up businesses or even their lives and lifestyles on “que sera sera”, whatever would be would be. In the words of Paul Adefarasin, “whatever will be, won’t be, until you insist it’s got to be” When you ask an average Nigerian who has made it to come on stage to explain how he made, he’d say, “its grace o”. Every time we say that, we lose the ability to pass on the steps we took for someone else to learn and duplicate same. .

When it comes to business, I think we are overselling and depending on this thing called luck and grace. The tallest tree in the forest didn’t grow to become the tallest tree by luck or just because it was just meant to be the tallest tree. The tallest tree grew that way because it was first of all a good seed, and then there was no other tree drastically blocking its sunlight, no one came across its path to cut it down and that the surrounding soil was more fertile and it understood how to leverage it for extraordinary growth. Luck and grace is not that fictitious and unexplainable concept. It’s a dependent variable with loads of independent variables that contribute to it. In the case of the tree, those variables make up the real luck. It’s logical. Success in life, including luck can be very logical.

Africans have a culture for superstition. An average business man in Nigeria has someone interceding for him, there’s a group dependent on fetish rituals for luck, and then another group of religious people in search of anointing for grace. Either one, what I see is still the same mentality of microwaves. It’s just different faces of the same coin. Look around you, you’d see a sudden explosion of churches and betting sites and centers. They are both promoters of luck and grace. I read a report that clearly uses data to show how the top 20 poorest countries hap-

pen to be the most religious (with exemptions to America), how the top 20 most prosperous countries have the least belief on any religion People want everything fast but Success requires process. We need to teach process and not just result by luck. We need a generation of people and businesses that understand structures and processes. Success is more attainable and sustainable as that.

We got here as a county because of the lack of process, the oil curse came from selling oil without processing it. In the same vein, we don’t process or follow through on our thoughts too.

You can create and increase luck. It’s by preparation and intentional structures. As you keep preparing opportunities would begin to spring forth. The keyword is preparation. I have this conversation all the time with my wife and let me be practical with it here. We have just welcomed our first child. And I keep thinking, if from an early age, we give him a chance to travel round the globe (exposure), expose him to good music, intentional and creative play (creative intelligence) he learns to speak 5 languages (social leverage) including the emerging Chinese Mandarin (trendy). And then we introduce him to principles, God and reality (depth). Open up his mind (vision), gets him to make connections early in life with other kids of successful parents in his international school (networking), and still allow him mingle with the streets and his village (localization). And then show him what he can be by getting to be close to a great leader in his field of interest (mentorship), does that give him more chances and luck to succeed?

Most times, success can be so logical that your ability/inability to succeed in life comes from a huge difference of when, how and where we grew up. This is same as business. As we build enterprises, never leave luck to luck.

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You can create luck, that’s what successful people do.

Too many people depend on luck, they depend solely on grace and even prayers without work or even understanding the essence of value. Success, wealth and greatness doesn’t come from that. It comes from either generating or being a channel of transmitting value. I used to ask God to bless me, but nothing happened. Then I changed my prayer line, from “God Bless Me to “The World Will Be Blessed through Me” and everything began to change.

I used to wake up every morning to ask God for a better day. And it hit me that today won’t be better. It’s going to just be another yesterday if I did the same thing I did yesterday. This helps me think differently.

The highly successful game console of the 90s was called Nintendo. The name comes from a Japanese word which means, “Leave luck to heaven”. Please do. God gave you a head, so you can give him rest. I believe God’s work is to be God, not to do for man what man should do for himself. A lot depends on us. Fortunes and failures are answerable to the same principle of intentionality. We fail to plan then we plan to fail. Like I love to say, anyone can fall off a ladder by accident but no one climbs a ladder by accident. Our rise and fall is not also by the ladder but how we climb it. But some people have resulted in blaming the ladder which is not a variable but a constant. The main metaphor is that the root of poverty comes from a mindset that transfers responsibility from self to another being or force. In Nigeria, ours is luck, God or someone we know. When things don’t work out, we back the mirror to blame the government, we blame the market, and we blame the competition and sometimes even blame life.

These things are mathematical constants as

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EIZU UWAOMA they affect everyone. So while some succeed regardless means that they did something different than we did.

Everybody wants to be successful, everyone is interested. It’s not by being interested but by invested, and this type of commitment takes processes. We have to reverse this else we might just be building a new generation of guys who don’t understand the concept of work!

If there was one true ingredient to luck, it would be preparation. They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. As cliché as that sounds, its true regardless. People just need to be more prepared. Preparations can make you lucky. I read of a man who was not considered talented. He was even once stoned and booed off stage in a freshman’s year concert in Hampton. They introduced him as John Stephens and the crowd didn’t know or like him. He got off that stage back to the studio, he stayed there for years. And a few years later, he returned with multiple Grammy Awards and a name, John Legend!

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

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

Costly tardiness on cabinet appointments

T

h e Mu h a m m a d u Buhari Presidency is taking Nigeria on a familiar but unpleasant journey in the matter of delay in the selection of a cabinet. Two months into his second tenure, President Buhari has yet to form a cabinet or even give indications of establishing one.

The consequences have ranged from the sad to the ridiculous.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu was forced to issue disclaimers when some media organs unveiled a list of ministers. He suffered severe backlash on Twitter as many respondents ridiculed his statement.

The Senate taunted the Presidency on July 9 saying it would go on its vacation at the end of July whether or not they get the nominations for ministers.

Senate spokesman Senator Adedayo Adeyeye stated, “It is the prerogative of the President to send his ministerial nominee list to the Senate and when he does that we will consider it.That is our constitutional mandate.

It is not even within our powers to even advise. We will wait until the matter is transmitted to us.The executive is aware of the timetable of the Senate. There is a particular time the Senate will

go on recess. That being in mind, they should be mindful of when they carry out this constitutional responsibility.”

The matter goes beyond the optics. A similar delay in 2015 by about six months contributed to economic stagnation followed by a descent into recession. Every reasonable expectation was that such a situation would not arise again.

Since May 29, 2019, President Buhari has operated as the sole administrator of Nigeria. A single administrator is ultravires the provisions of the constitution that stipulates that the President would run the business of the country with a cabinet of ministers appointed to reflect national spread and interest. The constitution, among others,insists that the Government must have an Attorney General.

There is as yet none in office.

The economy suffers the inertia arising from the absence of ministers. Ministers sign off on policies.

They are central to conversations with bilateral and multilateral missions and agencies. Without ministers to sign off on agreements and plans, policy implementation also suffers.

Experience from the first cabinet of the President shows that a long wait before appointments does not ensure a better cabinet.

Not in the least. Across the world, governments elected after the Ni-

gerian elections appointed their councils on inauguration or immediately after. This was the case with South Africa and India.

The presidential system ought to be easier for cabinet formation.

The cabinet is the prerogative of the President but with contributions from his party. He only needs to do so and to ensure compliance with the 1999 Nigerian Constitution on representation and spread. In 1999 at the dawn of this democracy, President Olusegun Obasanjo did not waste any time in nominating his cabinet. This was a man out of circulation by the matter of his imprisonment by the previous regime.

Permanent Secretaries and their subordinates in the Civil Service currently run affairs of state.

While the Permanent Secretary remains the Chief Accounting Officer of the ministry, he does not take responsibility for all actions.

That duty falls on the cabinet appointee.

We run a grave danger with running an administration without anadequately constituted cabinet. One of the risks is that persons without authority would initiate and take actions. The RUGA settlement scheme that blew up in the face of the country is one such example of persons without cabinet responsibility initiating and implementing policies.

The policy environment in the absence of ministers is so foggy investors cannot see. Investors are making it clear that they cannot commit to the country in the absence of policy heads with whom they can discuss. A similar consideration is affecting the stock market because of uncertainty in the lack of a cabinet.

It is unacceptable that placements announced by the Presidency are for positions that would report to ministers. It is putting the cart before the horse. The appropriate procedure is to have policy heads and then work with them to appoint heads of agencies under the ministries. The current situation is a recipe for indiscipline as the appointees would tend to see themselves as beyond the control of the ministers eventually appointed. It happened under this same government with the nowdismissed boss of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

We urge Mr President to act quickly to turn this situation around. He has had four years to work with various Nigerians and to study the situation. He should by now have identified persons with whom he can work to develop and implement policies for the second term.

Name your ministers today, dear Mr President. Jumpstart this second term now.

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The slaps of a senator Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

I

have been slightly numb since I saw the video released by Premium Times of a 41-year-old Senator slapping a shop keeper in a shop. I first of all felt rage, the type I have not felt in a long time and then slow overwhelming anger and then some disturbing calm. You know the type that gives you an out of body experience. The type that gives you an edge to attack someone and then deny that you ever did such a thing. That calmness that turns you into a different person. After the various levels of emotions, I have since returned to myself and now able to speak about the incidence. The battering of the young lady went viral of course and the “slappee,” a young man Elisha Aboh expected to be thinking of how to make laws, learn the ropes of law making and apply himself to his new elevated assignment is in the throes of what may be considered the biggest scandal of the 9th senate in 2019. All the things that YIAGA has been advocating, teaching and addressing to give Nigerian youth a chance, Senator Aboh emasculated in one day. But he cannot threaten that movement. The Youth have no choice but to rise to the occasion.

I have been on the journey with YIAGA since they started the advocacy and have spoken to young politicians at “The Convergence” before the elections and to elected young politicians just recently. While I cannot confirm, I would think that Senator Aboh would have been in the room where Samson Itodo and his team had gathered newly elected politicians to listen to carefully selected resource persons who gave from their hearts, tips, advisory strategy and information to assist in their journey of representing their communities. I was part of that group of resource persons and we were all very proud of the young elected politicians, a result of efforts of the not too young to run movement pushed on all fronts by YIAGA and other efforts and calculations. I held my breath when the age of Aboh came back as a totem for those who say the youth are not ready. Not so Aboh. Not so. The number of persons who worked hard to get you to this position are numerous. From institutions to individuals and all civil society organisations who pushed the envelope. For me so many things come to mind. How are those who supported you to feel today? Secondly, how on earth can a sex toy shop be your priority at this time? I mean, people’s sexual preferences are private to them and they are welcome to it but you chose not to visit that shop quietly, you slapped and brutally attacked a young lady, threatened her and used language unbecoming of your position. In other words, you escalated a private matter to the public domain.

There are certain behaviours that do not qualify people for national posi-

tions. We are as a nation on our knees with the number of deviants pretending to serve their nation. I have always wondered how we got here. That takes us back to how persons for leadership positions are recruited in Nigeria. Is it based on competence, good character, hard work, antecedents of excellent service? What makes us choose a man or woman to represent us? Is it money?

Is it the fact that he knows someone who knows someone? If we fact check, we would find deviant behaviour among many of our elected and appointed persons past and present. Do we ever check? And therein lies part of our national ethos.

I have watched the video over and over again and I cannot come to terms with the self-entitled position of the Senator. Not only did he batter the young lady in a manner that suggested that she was a lower animal who he wanted to hunt down but he also calmly called on his friends in security positions (paid to protect us) to come and arrest the “imp” who dared to question a senator for bringing badly behaved ladies in tow. He stood there like the winner of some kind of trophy and threatened to beat another girl in-shop whom he described as his friend. I worry about our security agencies, some of whom can be called up by a supposed “big man” to come in and join in being aggressors while kidnaps and armed robbery attacks are still going on. We await the Inspector General’s report on which of his men helped perpetuate our collective shame in a sex toy shop of all places.

Then there was the apology, which while brave, does seem to me an at-

‘

As a people, we do not often allow the law to take its course. We appeal to base sentiments and refuse to tell each other the truth

tempt to save the senator’s political skin.

As a people, we do not often allow the law to take its course. We appeal to base sentiments and refuse to tell each other the truth. A young senator starts his legislative journey at a sex toy shop and adds violence to the mix. The whole crime of violence against women is symbolically upon him. What should we expect of him in the next four years?

When angry, what would he do to any female senator who challenges him?

As a nation we need to grow a critical mass, where we are collectively outraged when something or someone reduces us as a people and demand accountability and integrity in our public spaces. The shame is not just Aboh’s and that of his family. It is a national shame because the international community are watching us remove our clothes in public and we are becoming the laughing stock out there. When we travel abroad, we do not want to be remembered as a country where a serving senator acts irrationally and irresponsibly in a sex toy shop by meting out crass violence to an unarmed woman, or remembered as a nation where we attack our women randomly.

It will take checking character, integrity, historical antecedents of service, mental health and such other indices to recruit persons both in elected and appointed positions to deepen our democracy.

The drama does us no good.

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

Nigeria’s stake in Russia’s Africa Agenda?

• Continued from yesterday

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he Guardian, a British daily, on June 11 2019, published details of leaked documents showing that Russia is seeking to bolster its presence in at least 13 countries across Africa by building relations with existing rulers, striking military deals, and grooming a new generation of “leaders” and undercover “agents”.

The findings revealed that Russia is calculative and deliberate in increasing its presence across Africa in a bid weaken UK and France’s influence in Africa and ultimately and replace the West.

According to the Guardian, the documents show the scale of Prigozhin-linked recent operations in Africa, and Moscow’s ambition to turn the region into a strategic hub.

The report also note a network of firms linked to the oligarch, including Wagner, are known by employees as the “Company”. The document also suggest an orchestration overseen by senior officials inside Russia’s foreign and defence ministries.

Spotlight was put on Russia’s activities in CAR, which was revealed to be strategic given the sensitivity of religious divide between Muslim North and Christian South; an ember of conflict Russia fans to expand across the continent and exploit the country’s mineral resources.

The CAR government is selling mining rights for gold and diamonds at a fraction of their worth to hire trainers and buy arms from Moscow, New York Times reported earlier in March.

In the report by the US news agency, Judd Devermont, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington was quoted as saying, “Moscow and its private military contractors are arming some of the region’s weakest governments and backing the continent’s autocratic rulers.”

For Devermont, “This engagement threatens to exacerbate current conflict zones.”

So far Moscow has entered into military partnership with close to 20 African states. Evidence from the leaked document show deeper ties with CAR, Sudan and Madagascar which are all ranked as five, the highest level of corporation in Russia’s scheme.

Libya, Zimbabwe and South Africa follow next at rank four, while South Sudan are at three, with DRC, Chad and Zambia at two.

Russia according to the report by the Guardian cited Uganda, Equatorial Guinea and Mali as countries of interest where it plans to work and Libya and Ethiopia as nations where cooperation is possible.

The Former Soviet Union is also alleged to be interfering with the democratic process of African countries through a hijacking of electoral processes to aid parties which fit into their agenda secure political offices.

In April, a Russian media outlet Proekt said it had come across hard evidence from “the office of Eugeny Prigozhin’s political consultants show Russia’s strategy for intervention in African politics — to incite anti-Western sentiment and revive old territorial disputes” Madagascar’s election, and more recently South Africa’s election were mentioned as instances Russia had attempted to experiment with the democracies of African nations.

The document suggest Russia was not in favor of the leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a farleft party headed by a former ANC official, and was scheming to employ tactics that would promote propaganda to paint DA and EFF leadership black.

Russia has been suggested to have attempted interfering with elections in the United States, sparking a series of investigation into the Donald Trump’s rise to becoming the POTUS in 2016.

US special counsel Robert Mueller pointed out that St Petersburg – the Internet Research Agency (IRA) ran campaigns to discredit Hillary Clinton www.businessday.ng

and sway public sentiment towards Trump.

The same Prigozhin has been connected to the Wagner Group mercenaries that executes Moscow’s wishes in Africa.

In Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, former leader and authoritarian saw a kindred spirit in Russia’s leadership. Facing possible ousting from official, he invited Moscow’s mercenaries in January to help secure his seat.

Although al-Bashir’s campaign failed, Russian mining contractors have continued to reap the benefit the ousted Sudanese dictator guaranteed Russia in exchange for Russian armaments and soldiers of fortune.

In Libya, New York Times reports a collusion between Russia and former General, Khalifa Haftar to help the military leader secure control over the Libya’s government and vast oil resources.

Across the sub-Saharan region, Russia has cut deals with Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, all of which have taken the similar form of a request for military support and an alliance that hands Moscow strategic control in return.

For Nigeria which in 2017 took similar step, caution is not enough. The country in similarity to CAR has a fragile social fabric characterized by deep ethnic awareness. In addition, its geographically distinct religious divide with Christians dominant in the South and Muslims in the North mirrors CAR’s divide.

After America seemed to be losing interest in Nigeria’s oil given its own recent strides in developing energy resources, and former colonial master of Nigeria, Britain announced that its military can be available to support Nigeria but that the West African is “a sovereign Nation and they have got to want our help”, Nigeria has turned to make long lasting its temporary flirt with Moscow’s military.

The Nigeria’s defense minister had said it is Russia’s experience in counter-terrorism and ability to modernize ability to provide the Nigerian army

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TEMISAN ADIO more sophisticated weaponry which makes it the ideal permanent ally in the fight against terrorism.

Dan-Ali had in mind Russia’s success in repelling pirates off the Somali coast and made a entreaty for similar support in the Gulf of Guinea which had become a more dangerous ground where piracy, kidnapping, the dumping of toxic wastes and other vices reigned.

Equally important, both Nigeria and Russian already prior engagement which suggested an easier working relationship than with the West.

For instance, some 1,200 Nigerian Security Personnel across various branches of the State’s force had been secretly trained in Moscow to combat insurgency.

In 2014 Nigeria attempted the purchase of U.S. Cobra attack helicopters from the United States but was turned down which led to the procurement of 21 Mi-35 helicopters, and 11 Mi-17 Utility helicopters.

In 2016, Nigeria also bought 12 Russian Mi-35M attack Russian helicopters although it was unable to secure ten Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters in 2017.

While the menace of the Boko Haram still lingers, Russia’s quest in Nigeria remains more worrisome. The dilapidated state of its embassy in the country point in less economic and commercially driven interest in Nigeria; and although Moscow’s help has also been sought to build transportation infrastructure and develop Nigeria’s nuclear program, its mission in Nigeria, CAR, Libya, Sudan and Africa as a whole points to one thing: Reducing Western control by any means necessary.

• concluded Adio, a political commentator, writes from Lagos

@Businessdayng

14

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

cityfile 50 get Kellogg Superstars scholarship DAVID IBEMERE & JONATHAN ADEROJU

F Nasiru Dembo, deputy president-general, Senior Staff of Electricity and Allied Company (SSAEAC) (2nd l) addressing staff members of Yola Electricity Distribution Company, during their protest over alleged lack of condition of service in Yola on Wednesday. NAN

Why LSWC is unable to bridge Lagos’ huge water supply gap

JOSHUA BASSEY

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n advocacy group, Water is Life, says the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) has been unable to bridge the huge gap between demand and supply of potable water in the state because of inadequate funding over time.

Convener of the group, Tunde Ogunbiyi, who is launching a campaign for the appropriate funding of the sector, alleged that the last four years had been particularly difficult for the corporation to meet

the water need of the ever growing population of Lagos, leading to intermittent cut in supply to homes and offices.

There have been series of complaints by the residents of Nigeria’s former capital, as staff of the water corporation struggled in vain to meet the demand of the over 21 million residents.

Statistics from t he LSWC shows that Lagos runs with about 326 million gallons shortfall in daily supply, which leaves millions of people sourcing water from boreholes, wells and broken pipes

running through the gutters.

While the current production capacity of the corporation is put at a little over 214 million gallons per day, the state actually requires at least 540 million gallons to make any meaningful impact in homes and offices.

It is estimated that an investment of about $3.5 billion would be required to execute additional water schemes to cover the state. According to the water master plan being executed by LSWC, some measure of stable supply ought to be achieved by

2020 if the $3.5 billion investment is made.

Pundits, however, believe that this huge investment would require not only appropriate pricing of water in the state, but also the buy-in of the private sector through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, a move said to have been slowed, as a result of delay in approvals from the immediate state administration.

Although the state government over the years had invested billions of naira in the sector, Ogunbiyi, the convener of the advocacy group, believed that much

Erosion: Edo reclaims 284,143 hectare from gully sites IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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do State government says it has reclaimed about 284,143 hectares of land from gully erosion sites, with 46, 68 hectares remediated in target subwater shed.

The state governor, Godwin Obaseki disclosed this at the 10th environmental outreach public lecture/awards organised by the Environment Outreach Magazine in Benin, with the theme, “managing land degradation in Nigeria: The challenges, actions and remediation”.

The governor, represented by his commissioner for environment, Omua Alonge Oni-Okpaku noted that the reclamation was carried out in collaboration with the Nigerian Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), a World Bank project.

Obaseki listed the gully sites to include Queen Ede, Auchi, Ekehuan, Ewu and Ibore. He said the government has also established nurseries to plant first seedlings into forest reserves and also partnered with individuals and organisations in programmes relating to www.businessday.ng

tree planting.

According to Obaski, the state government has also activated the Benin Storm Water Project to ensure the control of flooding and erosion as well as reduce the destruction of life and property.

Chairman of the occasion, Lawrence Ezemonye, called on the public to lend their voices to the passage of the bill of the institute of environmental practitioners of Nigeria.

Ezemonye, who is the vice chancellor of Igbinedion University, said the bill would ensure that the Nigerian environment is protected in line with

global practices.

“That is very important because it will provide competent, talented expert that will manage the Nigerian environment”, he said.

Noble Akenge, publisher of the environment outreach magazine, said gully erosion has become so widely spread that if nothing is done to halt it, large portions of arable land and even roads, private and other major infrastructure would be lost to the scourge in the next few years.

“While the desert is advancing at a very disturbing rate in the north,

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ifty young winners have emerged in the Kellogg’s Superstars competition. Kellogg is leading Nigerian breakfast cereal.

At the award presentation in Lagos, Ronke Soyombo, a director in the Lagos State ministry of education, commended Kellogg Tolaram Nigeria, for the scholarship awards.

She said “I want to commend Kellogg for a rare foresight aimed particularly at making the whole child, by not only rewarding pupils through scholarships but by also investing heavily in educational infrastructure, educational partnerships, literacy commitment and all other primary needs that ensure brighter opportunities for the Nigerian child.

“It is clear that Kellogg’s Tolaram essay competition and reward initiative were borne out of passion and will no doubt contribute to the ever-expanding educational status of Lagos State and Nigeria.”

Kellogg’s Superstars contest is a school-based essay writing competition designed for primary school pupils to sharpen their writing skills while also bringing out the creative uniqueness in them.

The contest which began in March 2019 reached out to more than 1.8 million pupils at approximately 12,000 schools in Rivers, Lagos, and Oyo States.

The pupils were tasked

to exhibit their writing talent on the topic ‘What Makes You a Kellogg’s Superstar’ from which 50 outstanding pupils emerged.

The major highlight of the ceremony was when the young Kellogg’s superstars read their essays to the audience which comprised of parents, representatives of their schools, ministry of education officials, and other dignitaries.

A member of the Federal House of Representatives, Tolu Akande-Sadipe, said, according to UNICEF, one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. She also noted that even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5- 14 years are not in school and only 61 per cent of 6 – 11-year-olds regularly attend primary school.

The general manager, Kellogg Tolaram, Vani Malik, said the country was still battling with the challenge of out-of-school children, noting that it was why they initiated the Kellogg’s Superstars scholarship by way of the brand contributing its quota to Nigeria’s economic growth.

“Kellogg’s Superstars programme follows a holistic developmental approach, which begins with making sure children have the best start to their day by getting a complete breakfast option through Kellogg’s various cereal variants while also encouraging them to identify and improve their inherent academic skills in the area of writing,” she stated.

Man charged with kidnap of housewife

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he police in Lagos have arraigned a 21-year-old driver, Innocent Rufus, before an Ikeja Magistrate Court for allegedly kidnapping a woman and demanding N1 million ransom.

Rufus, whose address was not provided, when he appeared in court on Wednesday, is charged with conspiracy, kidnapping and threat to life.

The prosecution counsel, Victor Eruada, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on May 21 at about 9 p.m. at Kofoworola Street, Okupe Estate Maryland, Lagos.

He alleged that, the de@Businessdayng

fendant conspired to kidnap a housewife, Margaret Barovbe and demand N1 million from her family.

Eruada also alleged that Rufus threatened to kill Barovbe’s husband if he failed to pay the ransom.

The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of sections 411, 271 and 56 of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2015. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The magistrate, M.I. Dan-Oni, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties in like sum. DanOni adjourned until July 11 for further hearing.

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

15

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

Pension

Leadway outshines peers with best half-year return on Fund II ...beats inflation with impressive fund II, III performance OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE, SEGUN ADAMS & ISRAEL ODUBOLA

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eadway Pensure grew RSA fund II the most in the first half of the year, beating inflation to post the biggest return among biggest pension funds in the Nigerian Pension Industry.

The Pension Fund Administrator had an annualised return of 13.07 percent after unit price of Fund II rose 6.41 percent from N3.0931 on January 2. Also, Leadway Pensure noted an impressive annualized return of 12.6 percent in its fund III, while inflation stood at 11.4 percent.

BusinessDay analysis of the half-year return of five of the biggest Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) based on available data reveals that these PFAs delivered an annualized average return of 11.666 percent on Fund II. The choice of Fund II is based on the fact that the fund types dominate total RSA fundsFigures from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) reveal that total funds in RSA as at March 31, 2019,

stood at N6.9 trillion, with Fund II (N4trn), followed

by Fund III (N2.1trn), Fund IV (N732bn), and Fund I (N12.7bn) Under the multi-fund structure introduced in 2018, the fund II type is meant for middle-aged contributors – below the age of 49 - and this accounts for 58 percent of the total RSA fund.

Taking account of inflation, which accelerated to 11.40 percent in May, a 0.03 percentage point higher than 11.37 percent in January, PFAs within the coverage of this analysis returned 5.69 percent on Fund II, with annualized returns of 11.666 percent.

Other biggest PFAs with annualized returns above inflation include Pension Alliance with 13.07, Premium Pension with 11.72 percent, Stanbic IBTC Pension Manager with 10.73 percent, and ARM Pensions Fund Manager with 9.75 percent. Bigger fund managers not included was due to unavailability of relevant data as at the time of research.

The five PFAs have a combined 64 percent market share in the pension industry, with Stanbic IBTC

L-R: Reginald Okeya, director, MTN Foundation; Emmanuella Odiri, MTNF-MUSON scholar; Aishatu P. Sadauki, director, MTN Foundation; Dennis Okoro, director, MTN Foundation; Nonny Ugboma, executive secretary, MTN Foundation; Mazen Mroue, chief operating officer, MTN Nigeria, and Joseph Shaibu, student president, MUSON School of Music, Class of 2018-2019, at the graduation concert of the MTN Foundation-MUSON Music Scholars’ Class of 2019 in Lagos.

Pension leading the space with 37.2 percent. ARM Pension, Premium Pension, Trust Fund Pension has an individual market share of 8.8 percent, 7.9 percent, and 6.4 percent, respectively. These are followed by Pension Alliance (4.78) and Leadway Pensure with 4.8 percent share.

Pension Assets jumped 4.5 percent to N9 trillion

while Pension to GDP stood at 28.3 percent in Q1 2019 from 24.52 percent in Q4 2018. While in 2018, total Asset under Management (AUM) was N8.14trn ($26.6), more than the combined assets in Egypt, Ghana, and Kenya.

In the full year 2018, Nigeria’s pension to GDP was 6.7 percent. By comparison, it stood higher

than Egypt’s 1.5 percent, Ghana’s 4.4 percent but below Kenya’s 12.9 percent. Meanwhile, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries averaged 53.3 percent in 2018.

Leadway Pensure was incorporated on the 25th of August, 2004 as a Pension Fund Administrator

in accordance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004.

The PFA was formed by a consortium of three (3) major financial service companies, and is one of the most capitalized PFA’s in Nigeria with an authorized share capital of N2.0 Billion. Leadway’s shareholder’s fund is in excess of N4.0 billion.

OIL & GAS

Conoil Q1 profit surges to highest level in 5 years SEGUN ADAMS

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onoil, a listed oil and gas company, has announced a 53.9 percent increase in its profit for the first quarter of 2019. This increase pushed the company’s net profit to the highest level in the last five years.

The company on Wednesday reported that it made N325.18 million as profit in the first quarter, up

from N211.295 million made a year earlier. The increase was driven by improvements in Conoil’s revenue and cost management.

In the quarter, Conoil recorded revenue of N35.64 billion from the sales of petroleum products, representing 13.8 percent more than the oil company made in the corresponding period of 2018.

Conoil makes its revenue from three segments namely; White products, Lubricants and Liquefied

Petroleum Gas (LPG).

White products segment involves the sale of Premium Motor Spirit(PMS), Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), Low-pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) and Automotive Gasoline/grease Oil (AGO). In Q1, White products contributed 95 percent to revenue while Lubricants accounted for the other 5 percent.

Despite the double digit growth in revenue, cost of sales rose 15 percent

to N32.68 billion paring Conoil’s gross profit in the quarter. As a result, top-line shrunk to N2.96 billion, down from N3.06 billion in Q1 2018.

Conoil’s other operating income fell to N30.9 million, 68 percent less than N96.42 million previously earned.

However, the oil and gas company was able to reduce its cost in the period which translated to improved earnings. In the period, distribution ex-

penses fell by 31 percent and the company was able to cut down administrative expenses by 7 percent, while finance cost declined some 4 percent.

Consequently, Conoil was able to post a profit before tax of N478.202 million in Q1 2019 as against N310.730 million in the same period of 2018. The company made a profit of N325.18 million while its tax expenses rose 53.9 percent to N153.03 million.

On the back of its im-

p rove d p e r f o r ma n c e, earnings per share rose to 47 kobo in Q1 2019, from 30 kobo in Q1 2018 while Net asset per share rose to N26.76 from N26.09.

Meanwhile, Conoil shed 9.93 percent on Wednesday to close at N19.95 per share.

The company’s share has fallen by 14.19 percent so far in 2019. Conoil markets refined petroleum products in Nigeria. The Company also manufactures and distributes lubricants and chemicals.

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

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

Telecommunications

Report reveals MTN as S/Africa’s best mobile network MIKE OCHONMA

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TN has once again secured the title of South Africa’s best mobile network in the MyBroadband Insights quarterly ‘Mobile Network Quality’ report.

The 2019 second-quarter report ranks South Africa’s mobile networks on a network quality score. Based on 330,596 speed tests performed by 11 004 MyBroadband Android Speed Test App users across South Africa between April 1 and June 30, MTN achieved a network

quality score of 9.78.

This is a slight contraction on the preceding two quarters’ network quality score of ten, being the highest value obtainable when comparing the relative performance of networks, with the score calculated for each network considering download speed, upload speed and latency.

The telecommunications giant had secured a ranking of ten in the fourth quarter of 2018, based on 383,479 speed tests conducted between October 1 and December 31, 2018, and a ranking of ten in the first quarter of this year,

based on 345 700 speed tests between January 1 and March 31.

Meanwhile, Vodacom achieved a score of 8.24 in the second quarter of this year, sliding quarteron-quarter from its firstquarter score of 8.33.

Rain scored 6.09, Telkom 6.16, and Cell C 5.35 during the second quarter, compared with the preceding quarter’s scores of 7.01, 6.26 and 5.89 respectively.

“There has been a significant increase in network performance from MTN, Vodacom and Telkom in 2019,” says MyBroadband Insights director Marius Hollenbach.

L-R: Niyi Yusuf, director, Nigeria Economic Summit Group; Wonuola Adetayo, director, NESG; Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, co-chair, NESG Steering committe, and Udeme Ufot, chairman, media and publicity committee, NESG, at the Inauguration of the steering committees of the policy commissions of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Lagos

Hollaport app launches in Nigeria to drive mobile money penetration IFEOMA OKEKE

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ollaport, a new payment-inmessaging platform that brings a mix of social media excitement with financial technology, has been introduced to drive mobile money penetration in the country.

The two-in-one app which gives its users the ability to boost their social interaction through chatting, receiving and sending of money and other numerous services was launched on Saturday at Zone Tech Park, Gbagada, Lagos.

Speaking during the launch in Lagos, Kabiru Rabiu, the Managing Director, Hollaport, stated that Hollaport App was solely an indigenous platform

designed to meet the needs and yearnings of Nigerians, especially the unbanked in rural communities across the country.

Rabiu pointed out that there were a lot of unbanked areas in Nigeria, adding that the platform would create the opportunity for Nigerians in remote communities to partake in the various banking transactions.

He disclosed that the journey of the app started two years ago and was borne out of the need to ease financial transaction and increase financial inclusion as well as transfer money and make payments not only in Nigeria but throughout the African continent.

According to him, Hollaport is a Nigerian payment-

in-messaging platform designed to provide both social and financial solutions to its numerous users through technological aids.

“The application has two major features at the moment. It has chat and payment features but we are going to include additional features in the nearest future.

We have airtime top-ups, cable, electricity, and data subscription and paycode – a technology that enables users to withdraw cash from ATM without the need to have a card or bank account.

“Our focus is to boost financial inclusion of the unbanked and to also increase the possibilities and convenience of chatting, sending and receiving money without leaving the chat platform,” Rabiu explained.

TECNO Spark 3 wins AITTA Phone of the Year

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ecno Spark 3, a smartphone model by Tecno, one of Africa’s leading smartphone brands, has been awarded as the smartphone brand of the year at the 2019 edition of the Africa Information Technology & Telecoms Awards (AITTA).

Held at the at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra Ghana on 28th June 2019, the AITTA has been acclaimed as one of the most prestigious platforms recognising excellence and innovation in the African telecoms and technology industry.

The Tecno Spark 3 was awarded as the phone of

the year as a result of its cutting-edge features as well positive reviews shared

by Tecno’s loyal customers.

Commenting on the award, Jeff Tang, Marketing Manager of Tecno Nigeria said: “We dedicate this award to every member of the team at Tecno, because of our belief that ‘together we can do more’. We are humbled to receive this award. At Tecno, we will use this worthy recognition as a fuel to push the boundaries of mobile technology and innovation across Africa and beyond. In Nigeria, we shall continue to build a brand that’s useful, and beneficial to the Nigerian people as Tecno is for Ni-

gerians” The award also buttressed a recent report by Brand Africa, that shows Tecno as the No 5 most admired brand in Africa.

In the last two years, Tecno has risen year on year, first from number 14 spot to number 7 and now to number 5.

Entering the Nigerian market in 2006 with its first phone called the T201, Tecno also pioneered the first dual SIM smartphone in Nigeria, a feature that was ‘badly’ needed in a market where owning a dual SIM device is a necessity due to unreliable mobile network coverage across the country.

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L-R: Travers Nicholas, GM, Central West Africa, Dell Technologies; Habib Mahakian, vice president, Emerging Africa, Dell Technologies, and Walid Yehia, Middle East, Turkey and Africa Presales director, Dell Technologies, at the Dell Technologies Forum in Lagos.

L-R: Obiora Manafa, director, inspectorate and compliance, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON); Isa Suleiman, deputy director/coordinator, Surveillance, Investigation and Monitoring (SIM) Unit, and Dele Omolawon, Team member, SIM, leading the evacuation of substandard roofing sheets seized, at joint operation at a warehouse by SON in Lagos

L-R: John Omesili,principal technology officer, NOTAP; Enoh Ugbona, head business operations, Inlaks; Ashwin Hedge, executive director, Inlaks; Ephraim C. Okejiri, director, technology transfer registration, NOTAP; Femi Adeoti, MD, Inlaks, Africa operations ; Habiba Yahaya, senior technology officer, NOTAP, and Tope Dare, executive director, Inlaks at a recent visit to Inlaks Corporate Head Office in Lagos.

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

17

MONEYINSIGHT OPay $50m raise marks new era of Chinese influence in Nigeria’s tech scene FRANK ELEANYA

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or many years, Chinese businesses have paid scant attention to the growing attraction of foreign venture capital firms to Nigeria’s tech scene, instead choosing to focus on infrastructure and manufacturing sectors’ financing. However, with OPay, a firm founded by Norwegian browser, Opera, securing $50 million in funding on Wednesday, the time of playing on the fringes could finally be a thing of the past.

Although four companies participated in the funding round, three of them were core Chinese owned companies; Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, and Opera which was acquired in 2016 by investors from China for $600 million.

The only outsider in the round is IDG Capital, a venture capital firm that was founded in Boston, with strong Chinese investment sentiments. It should be noted that IDG was the first global investment company to enter China in the 1990s and an early investor of Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi, Meituan and Qihoo 360. By 2017, IDG and China Oceania Holdings Group teamed up to buy International Data Group (IDG) and its subsidiaries International Data Corporation (IDC), IDG Communications, and IDG Ventures.

To be fair, Chinese companies have always invested in the development of technology in Nige-

ria and other African countries.

Transsion, the parent company of dominant mobile and smartphone brands like Tecno, Infinix and Itel, has always had its big investments cap on the continent. Technology giants such as Huawei, Ant Financials and other Chinese investors have at various times given grants to African startups. Nevertheless,

they have largely stayed away from participating in the equity side of investments in tech startups.

The OPay funding is not only the biggest funding raised by any Nigerian focused tech startup in 2019; it is also the first time Chinese VCs have pulled their weight in any tech company in Nigeria.

The OPay mobile payment service

was launched in August 2018 and has become an infrastructure on which new services like ORide, its motorcycle ridehailing service, and OFood, its food delivery unit, is riding on.

Barely one year after it was launched, OPay have added over 40,000 active agents and saw daily transaction volumes in excess of $5 million arguably making it the

largest mobile transaction provider in Nigeria.

Much of the $50 million funding will go into expanding the company’s payment business in Nigeria as well as support its platforms; ORide and OFood.

“By incubating OPay and supporting the company through its rapid acceleration, Opera has also demonstrated its ability to leverage its brand and consumer reach to create attractive, fast-growing businesses on the African continent,” Yahui Zhou, chairman and CEO of Opera Limited said in a statement.

OPay’s funding is sure to put competitions in the various verticals where the company plays on high alert. It would be recalled that Gokada and Max.ng both ORide’s competitors in motorcycle ridehailing have recently secured new investments with which they are using to map out their expansion strategies. Gokada and Max.ng both launched in new cities across Nigeria and have also added new services as well as increased the number of motorcycles in their fleets. Should significant portion of the $50 million funding go to ORide, the unit will be no match for the competitors.

In mobile payments, OPay will be looking to dislodge the likes of Paga and taking on more cities beyond Nigeria. The most important development for the funding will be gingering more Chinese VCs to vie for a share of Nigeria and Africa’s tech scene.

Stem Mets Resources celebrates five years Youth Hub seeks to promote economic growth through creativity, entrepreneurship of creating opportunities through STEM

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he Innocreativa Youth Hub declared open on July 2, in Lagos by Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, has received significant traffic online from Nigerian Youths who want an outlet for their creative energy on www.cycdi.com/ ic2030.

The Youth Hub was launched at the Civic Centre alongside the launch of the United Nations’ Solutions 17 Sustainable Development Goal’s programme, an event which was well attended by the Ronald Kayanja, country director of the United Nations Information Centre, diplomatic missions, corporate organisations and members of the press.

Foluke Michael, promoter of the project, and the founder of Creative Youth Community Development Initiative confirmed that calls for entries to be part of Solution17 for United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 has been embraced by Nigerians.

“Just one week into the calls for entries we have had unprecedented traffic on our websites www.cycdi.com/ic2030 and beyond anything, this has commu-

nicated to us that the interest by the Nigerian youth to contribute to the SDGs has been on the rise” she said.

Last week, Soyinka, a supporter of the project, who spoke at the unveiling of the Innocreativa Hub, said that the Nigerian youth needs to do a little more to be part of the solution to national and global problems.

He said; “Nigerian youths are full of spunk outside but when they are inside Nigeria, they are full of gas. We are building a generation of illiterates. They are the first to comment on the internet on issues they are ignorant about.

When you talk about education, I get texts from the new generation and can’t believe these texts are from the youth.”

He went ahead to commend Michael’s initiative and her team as one of the examples of positive engagement of the myriads of the Nigerian problems.

“I have had to work with so many young people and I must say I am very proud of Foluke and her team” he added.

Foluke’s Creative Youth Com-

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munity Development Initiative (CYCDI) Solution 17 won the United Nation’s Action Award in 2018 which is presently being franchised to be deployed in India, Morocco and Switzerland.

The Innocreativa Youth Hub is a call for youth to take on the challenge of the 17 SDGs. Seventeen finalists would be camped at the Innovation Lab and would be taken through several empowerment initiatives for two weeks before they eventually present their respective solutions to the public.

Tayo Orekoya, lead consultant at the CITC Global Consulting firm which is presently partnering with CYCDI to deliver values and raise deliverables on the project said that, “there are positive developments already following the challenge of Professor Wole Soyinka.

“I believe we are at the edge of a major revolution and the Innocreativa Youth Hub is a great catalyst system for social change and our strategic edge would help put more value on the table for all stakeholders” he said.

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S

TEM METS Resources, an organisation committed to inspiring Nigerian children by providing quality, innovative and alternative educational learning platforms has marked its fifth anniversary.

In the past five years, the organisation has delivered world-class Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.M) based programmes to children with the mission to inspire creativity and innovation and also ensure that they are equipped with the skills required to succeed in their careers in future and contribute to the economic development of Nigeria. Since its inception in 2014, STEM METS has organised over 50 workshops and trained over 7000 learners through its various programs across South-West Nigeria.

While expressing her delight about the achievements so far, Jadesola Adedeji, director, STEM METS Resources, said, “We are committed to bridging the 21st century skills gap within the Nigerian educational system by providing hands-on and project-based training programmes for children ages 3-16.”

These STEM-based programmes develop critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaborative skills and the knowledge of these skills will equip the Nigerian child with future ready, employable skills sets to compete in the technology enabled future workplace. The ultimate goal is to develop and @Businessdayng

nurture creative thinkers who will bring innovation into solving local problems, inspire entrepreneurship and also teach them how to think not what to think.

“We want to use this opportunity to thank our stakeholders who have been a part of our success, and we look forward to recording more wins in the future. We hope to continue building and inspiring interest more interest for future careers in STEM fields through our fun and impactful curricula; and as technology continues to evolve, our goal is for the Nigerian child, who is the future of tomorrow, to be at the forefront of innovation” Adedeji added.

The fifth-anniversary event featured a panel discussion with professionals such as – Folawe Omikunle, Lanre Oniyitan, and Modupe AdefesoOlateju – who provided insights on the importance of education and skills development for economic development. They emphasised the significance of building transferrable skills for students necessary to improve the overall quality of education in schools and called on corporates to invest in sustainable projects that will impact the quality of education in Nigeria.

STEM METS Resources programmes include Bricks4Kidz, The Little Engineer, and Robotics and Computer Programming which are available through after-school enrichment clubs, holiday camps, and teacher workshops.

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FEATURE

19

Lagos waste management: Government ineptitude or residential rascality?

At any time of the day, you see them scampering around in their numbers, happy to live among humans, it seems. Long ago, these hairy animals where seen once in a while on the streets, especially dark corners or around heaps of refuse, but these days, massive well-fed rats are seen strolling down the many streets in Lagos, a clear result from the neglect of the environment, which are paved with heaps of refuse. On the other hand, swarms of cockroaches also compete with the rats in being more daring, as they are found in cars, on the main roads and every other place. Can it now be said that Lagos, the most populous mega city in West Africa and home to over 20 million inhabitants, is rat-infested and in dire need of rescue, asks OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA.

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s the rainy season gains momentum in Lagos State, it has become a daily struggle for motorists, commuters and for pedestrians going through most major roads and streets. This is occasioned by the daily heap of garbage, rain waters that can not go into the drains due to the drains filling with excess refuse, push and disperse all over, floating and causing flood after every single rain drop.

For motorists, finding the way through the heaps of pet bottles, unused household items, heaps of flies infested garbage with overfed rats strolling to and fro in them – even in broad daylight, and the drains swarming from sewage some notorious landlords stylishly connected to the main gutters, and the inevitable offensive smell you can not avoid, has become a sad experience many must go through daily.

On August 3, 2017, BusineesDay published a feature story titled: Death in a Mega City, which put the blame of the poor waste management in the state at the doorstep of the government. Today, the residents should take part of the blame, as a question I put up on Twitter – on issue of waste management: Government ineptitude or residential rascality? Most responses said, “Both.”

Look at it this way: commuting from Iyana – Ipaja through Ikotun, Okota, or if you chose to go through Cele to Oshodi Apapa Expressway, to Amuwo – Odofin, Mile 2 through either Amukoko or Ajegunle into Apapa, the site is the same. Also, from Ota in Ogun State through Iyana – Ipaja, Agege, Ikeja, Oshodi, Iyana - Isolo through Cele in Oshodi – Apapa Expressway, to Amuwo – Odofin, Mile 2 through either Amukoko or Ajegunle into Apapa, the site is also the same.

A major feature common to these roads is – both sides of the roads

accommodate stores, restaurants, markets and supermarkets, filling stations, shades of different sizes of businesses and business centres, etc.

It could be recalled in 2017, Jide Idris, the then Lagos State commissioner for health, disclosed an outbreak of diarrhoea in the state.

Of the 27 cases confirmed, a total of two deaths were recorded and the remaining 25 persons placed under surveillance.

While briefing the press at Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, Idris said the cases of diarrhoea were reported in key areas in the state including: Somolu LGA on July 19, 2017, Oshodi-Isolo LGA on July 20, 2017, and Surulere LGA on July 21, 2017, after the incidence of the heavy rainfall in the state that caused massive flooding in most parts.

Reviewing the statistics of the cases reported, Idris noted that six cases were reported in Somolu LGA with one of the patients reported dead.

“Two cases were recorded in Oshodi-Isolo LGA. One was managed at a private hospital and he is alive, while one died at home.

Fourteen cases were reported at Surulere LGA and managed at Randle General Hospital. No death was recorded.

“Two cases were managed at Mainland Hospital, both are alive.

Three cases were managed at Gbagada General Hospital and all are alive. The cases managed at the two hospitals are currently being investigated.

“Majority of the cases presented with the typical diarrhoea and vomiting associated with cholera.”

Looking at the epidemic waiting as a time bomb to explode, we do not need a seer to know the enormity of what we have at hand; this is the time to act fast.

We can mitigate against this if collectively we make up our minds to improve on waste disposal in our

the state, if proper waste management is adopted).

Government went wrong It was a sad time for Lagosians when the then state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, engaged a new waste manager – Visionscape – without any concrete agreement with the former waste managers – the PSPs, who cried foul and did everything to frustrate the new operator. At this stage, the waste problem was still being partially manageable.

Lagos became urban slum when Visionscape was frustrated from the system of waste management by the combined efforts of the PSPs and the Lagos State House of Assembly.

Before now, Visionscape had gone to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise a state-backed bond, and had done everything to mobilise men and materials across the state, but the conspirators did not gave a hoot before kicking it out, not minding taxpayers money going down the drain.

Till date, the state is losing money with residents no longer ready to pay for waste evacuation, instead they dump waste at the centre of roads waiting for the PSPs to come, maybe once a week or two weeks, to evacuate.

Ajegunle

immediate environment.

Recently, as part of its community development initiatives and commemoration of this year’s World Environment Day (WED), a private organisation went on environmental sensitisation at Ajiran community in Eti-Osa area of Lagos State with a view to educating them on creating an environment that is safe and liveable.

The community complained that the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) no longer come to their area frequently to collect waste, adding that even when they

did, bad roads did not allow them go near individual houses.

They therefore requested that very big waste bins be provided for them where household wastes could be dropped for easy collection by the waste management authority.

The story is same across the state, as the Private Sector Participation (PSPs) operators the state implored to carry on with waste collection after the sack of Visionscape Waste Management have not been able to handle waste issue across the state. This may be so as most of

Mobil Road, Apapa

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the PSPs do not have serviceable vehicles to handle the menace, as they go for waste collection only when their vehicles are moveable. Go round the state you see some of these vehicles broken down in different corners and have become waste collection point on their own.

This delay or near neglect still makes chart pushing business thrive, even after years of their disbandment. It will not be misleading to say that if this is allowed to continue, an environmental waste cataclysm is about to happen in the Lagos environmental landscape, and the health catastrophe can only be imagined.

To date, the state has lost count of the amount of solid waste generated on daily basis, but it is certain this has increased drastically.

Sadly, the collapse of the government run dumpsites, the failure of government to fix the rot and pay licensed waste managers what is due them, the piles of garbage on street corners and marketplaces are the consequence of the narrative above.

Wale Adebiyi, managing director, WeCyclers, told BusinessDay recently that Lagos was estimated to generate about 14,000 to 15,000 tons of waste daily. Of that, roughly, 30 percent is recyclable and 50 percent of the recyclables is plastic.

In essence, about 2,250 tons of plastic waste is generated in Lagos daily, and which can be recycled, annually, this is 821,250 tons (almost 1 million tons). At

$500 per ton, if only 500,000 tons of plastic can be recycled annually, it will potentially be a $250 million industry. This figure will increase significantly when other parts of Nigeria are factored in.

However, far less than10 percent of plastic waste is actually being recycled in Nigeria, the bulk of which ends up constituting nuisance for the environment when it could have been recycled to make money (just imagine how much revenue this can add to the internal revenue generation of

Government speaks Managing director of LAWMA, Ola Oresanya, told BusinessDay recently that the issue was not about the state or PSP operators losing money as a result of tenements not paying their waste bills.

According to Oresanya, government was more interested in cleaning up Lagos, and has therefore guaranteed to pay the PSP operators, but expect them to get into the nooks and crannies of the state to collect refuse.

Oshodi under bridge www.businessday.ng

Oresanya said though waste collection had a commercial value, there was, however, a social service side to waste management, which the state government, for now cannot totally overlook (in essence, the state wants the residents to get involved).

What to do Education! Education!! Education!!! should be overemphasise.

The state should embark on a mass media campaign on the danger of improper waste management. As Lagos is home to over 15 FM Radio stations and over 10 TV stations, with the combine effort of these mass media outreaches, nobody would be spared of not hearing the jingle, either from the radio or TV (as part of the media corporate social responsibility, we should be ready to do this free).

This will include what the residents stand to gain, and the implications of doing otherwise – outbreak of epidemic.

Now, the state should be humble enough, and for the interest of us all, to call back the operations of Visionscape Waste Managers because of the efforts – both human and materials – the company had deplored. I am not advocating for Visionscape, but no PSP operator in Lagos currently has what it takes to manage the waste threatening all now – both human and material.

This is why you see the state in this present state of waste. Let the state bring back Visionscape and marry them with the PSPs in order not to allow the materials and recourses already deplored to go waste.

On a more drastic note (my humble opinion), after the period of combined jingle should come serious sanction for any erring resident (this can vary depending on the offence). A taskforce should be set up to monitor the state, and if improvement is slow, no trading and business activities should be carried out in any street, road, lane, etc, that still wants the wrong waste dispersal status quo until improvement is seen.

Alternatively, firms in the recycling business should be incentivised, and waste-to-power initiative be encouraged, as the state is rich in waste generation, and the population provides a ready market for the power.

Things are the way they are currently because there is a breakdown in the social contract between the government and the people. If this is allowed to continue, the state may find it difficult to convince the residents to pay their taxes and see reasons for a change in attitude.

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Olorunsogo, Mushin

Barracks bus stop, Apapa

Oshodi

Marine Beach

This is also why the issue of education and campaign is imperative; the residents should be made to own the process of waste management for us to come out of this quagmire.

Until residents and business @Businessdayng

Pictures by David Apara.

owners, who are the real culprits of illegal waste disposal, own the process of proper waste management, the state will only achieve little. This is so as no Lagosian is willing to pay for waste disposal any more.

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE

Catholic medical practitioners want resolute Medical doctors performs first stem cell transplant on blood cancer patient in Edo state efforts in tackling drug abuse menace

is the first record of a successIDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin This ful stem cell transplant for patients

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ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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he association of Catholic Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (ACMPN) have called for resolute efforts in tackling the menace arising from drug abuse in the country warning its increases poverty, threatens personal wellbeing and peaceful relationships.

They say actions should be taken from the prospective of creating more awareness in the country.

“Drug abuse and poverty is a vicious cycle of one leading to the other”, said Raphael Ogbolu, consultant Psychiatrist, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) who spoke at the 14th annual scientific conference and general meeting with the themed: “effect of drug addiction on integral human development” held from the 4th -7th of July in Lagos.

According to Ogbolu drug abuse increase the risk of psychosis from direct effect on the brain in cases of such drugs as cannabis noting that these effects can lead to lower productivity and therefore lower or no income, and as a result, such a person will be unable to afford housing, feeding and other basic needs required for personal wellbeing.

However, the Nigeria drug use survey finding shows that about 12.5 percent of the populace had experienced consequence due to other people’s drug use in their families, workplace and communities, including loss lives.

Also about 66 percent of drug users reported having serious problems as a result to missing work, poor performance in school

or at work. All of these affect users’ prospects at earning reasonable income and t so they slip or remain in the lower socio- economic class.

Drug addiction may also results in forms of mental illness that will warrant loss of freedom due to prolonged hospital admission.

Cannabis is the most commonly used drugs followed by opiods which includes the likes of tramadol, codeine, and heroin Drug use in most common among those 25-39 years which should be worrisome being that they belong to the main productive age range in the youthful population of Nigeria.

Also speaking Emmanuel Okechukwu , the president (ACMPN) and a public health physician said that one of the thing that is expected after the conference is to have some action points to create awareness on the enormousness of the problem of drug abuse because the multiple effect on the life of the individuals family and

the society at large.

“I hope that as we keep challenges in mind in reflecting on the effects of drug addiction in integral human development, with a clear vision, championed by convinced members, the association will be able to make impacts that will positively influence the society and the country’s health policies,” added Idahosa Amadasu Reverend Father, the National chaplain.

Ogbolu said there is a need to take deliberate action, “ there are fact that drug abuse needs to be addressed early, promoting school mental health is important, a functional family system is imperative especially in terms of parenting style and communications,” “We must stop stigma towards drug abuse and other mental illnesses because it is a barrier to treatment and we should adopt the conceptual frame work of Integral human development,” he stressed.

Heinrich Boell, partners advocate improved budget for PHCs SIKIRAT SHEHU in Abuja

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eirich Boell Foundation and partners in Nigeria have recommended an improved budget and political will for Primary Health Care Centrers (PHCs) as part of measures to address challenges confronting quality healthcare service in Nigeria.

They also requested government at all levels to invest more in primary healthcare and consider viability of clean and reliable energy sources like solar power as dependable means of improving service delivery from the Primary Health Care Centers.

Speaking at a Solution Driven Stakeholders Dialogue on “Carving a path for improved Access to Clean Reliable Electricity for Primary Health Care in Nigerian” that was held recently in Abuja, Tunde Salman Jimoh, who spoke on behalf of Heinrich Boll Stiftung Nigeria and Partners, noted that a study conducted in India showed that a solar-powered health centre treated 50 percent more patients and oversaw 50 percent more safe deliveries since it is being operated round the clock.

He lamented that over 80 million Nigerians, representing 60% of the

country’s population lack access to grid electricity, according to world Bank in 2018, saying that with poor electricity grid supply, PHCs depend on dirty, unreliable and noisy energy sources and are exposed to acute respiratory illnesses that come from air pollutions.

While calling on International funding organizations and business communities to support research and institution of solar system and other clean energy sources to improve access to electricity for PHCs in Nigeria, he said the only clean and reliable way to improve service delivery of clinical and medical centres in Nigeria is to adopt solar powered system in Nigerian hospitals, clinics and other health centres.

He added, “Worthy of urgency, there is need to review the energy experiences in PHCs and explore new thinking, new partnership and new avenues to scale up practices that can remedy the connection between improving access to clean electricity which is needed to improve the functionality of PHCs in Nigeria.”

Tsema Okoye in her presentation at the roundtable event, that Nigeria’s erratic power supply had been the bane of Primary Health Care Centres in the counwww.businessday.ng

try. “World Health Organization (WHO) Standard Operating Procedures for most health centres require reliable energy for water supply, temperature control for medicine/vaccine storage, basic lighting, ventilation, preservation of consumables and clinical processes. Energy is required to expand services for the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases.”

Panelists, Nouhou Amadou; Tech. specialist ECOWAS, Aanu Rotimi; Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, Ekpe Philips Uche; Chairman FCT Chapter –Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), and other stakeholders, considered various options and suggested that banks and other financial institutions, including Rural Electrification Agency should explore the mainstreaming of funding for Primary Health Care Centers as part of their sustainability banking principles and Electrification projects.

They also advocated constructive pressure of CSOs and other professional groups on the State governors for the provision of counterpart funds in the National Basic Health Fund to promote development in electrifying health service delivery and as well save more lives.

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groundbreaking medical feat has again been recorded in Edo State with the successful performance of first stem cell transplant for blood cancer in the state.

The medical feat was carried out by Celltex health medical centre, Benin-City in collaboration with Sudabelt, Terumo BCT, and global blood funds in July, 2019.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Godwin Bazuaye, consultant Haematologist and Coordinator of UBTH stem cell transplant center, said it was the first stem cell transplant conducted on patient with blood cancer (multiple myeloma) in Nigeria.

Bazuaye said the stem cell transplant was carried out by a team of doctors with the aid of a latest Optia Spectra machine, and the patient is currently in the isolation room and responding to therapy.

“We have successfully on the 4th of July, 2019 carried out the first stem cell harvest with the latest Optia Spectra machine.

We were also able to successfully transplant the stem cells to the patient with multiple myeloma.

with blood cancer in Nigeria. The patient is currently in the isolation room and responding to therapy.

“Celltek Healthcare medical center became operational since December 2017 and it is the only functioning stem cell transplant center in the entire sub-sahara Africa except South Africa and some North African countries.

“The center has collaborated with Bazuaye Godwin and since December 2017 we have performed a total of six successful stem cell transplantation for sickle cell disease with a 100 percent overall survival, disease free/and cure”, he said.

Bazuaye who commended the Edo state government for the vision of making the state a centre of medical excellence and tourism noted that they have keyed into the vision.

While disclosing that the centre currently has patients from Ghana and other neighbouring countries assured that with support from government and people of the state the centre will make the state a centre for stem cell transplant and medical tourism in the SubSahara Africa.

Experts back food seasoning as WASCO intensifies safety awareness

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JI-NO-MOTO food seasoning safety awareness campaign train moves to the South-East geopolitical zone of the country with a courtesy visit to the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, at his residence in Onitsha, Anambra State and over 130 medical professionals and food scientists affirming that the food seasoning also known as Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is safe for consumption.

The Umami food seasoning which has been across the globe for over 100 years is produced in Nigeria by West African Seasoning Company (WASCO) Limited.

Niki Junichi, managing director who led the campaign said the organisations objective is a continual interaction with the medical, scientific and professionals groups, with the aim of using their platforms to dispel the falsehood, perception issues as well as misconceptions that characterised AJI-NO-MOTO MSG in the south.

“MSG is 100 percent safe for consumption, urging the participants to disregard unscientific rumours about the product, describing them as ’fake news,” he said In his welcome address at a one day Umami Seminar with stakeholders, held at the Presidential Hall, All Saints Cathedral Onitsha.

According to Junichi, umami is the fifth basic taste along with sweet, bitter, salty and sour while glutamate is an amino acid found naturally in protein-containing foods such as meat, tomato, vegetables, poultry and human breast milk.

“The seasoning is made from natural sugarcane and therefore, safe for consumption. What people are saying about AJI-NOMOTO is complete fake news @Businessdayng

because there is no scientific evidence to their claim. For a long time, we have kept quiet about these rumours. But now, we have decided to address them”, he said.

Speaking on the topic: “MSG: A Safe Food Flavour Enhancer”, Helen Henry-Unaeze , a lecturer at the Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, said glutamate enhances flavour of natural food and also gives it a delicious taste.

She explained: “When you hear of umami, what comes to your mind is MSG, that is AJI-NOMOTO MSG. And MSG simply means sodium salt of glutamate acid which is an amino acid that is naturally in our body and present in all food especially in protein rich foods. We have it in plant foods, animal, onion, tomato, carrot, locust bean like Daddawa , castor oil bean seed and Iru. When you ferment them, the glutamate in them rises and it’s actually the glutamate that impacts the umami flavour that we are talking about. So, you can see it’s safe for human consumption”.

Dispelling rumours about the product, Henry-Unaeze reminded the participants that as far back as 1998, a research was carried out on MSG at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which revealed that it was safe for human consumption.

Also, Stanley Egbogu, President, Association of Resident Doctors, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, said some patients mentioned that they took AJI-NO-MOTO and they had diarrhoea. But the truth is that, most diarrhoea diseases are infectious and not mainly from seasoning.

“Naturally, the product does not cause diarrhoea. Safety is guaranteed. It’s just an MSG product”, he added.

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

21

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE

‘Institutionalising health surveys in Nigeria will make data, care provision easy to provide’ Sunday Ikpe, is the health Informatics team lead, University of Maryland Baltimore in Nigeria.

In this interview with ANTHONIA OBOKOH, Ikpe gives an insight on how the NAIIS survey was carried out and what Nigeria can do to achieve better collection of health data.

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hat is Maryland Global Initiative Corporation (MGIC) all about?

The Maryland Global Initiative Corporation (MGIC) presence in Nigeria is as a nonprofit affiliate of the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) that works in research and program implementation servicing the areas of health service delivery, health workforce development, quality improvement, laboratory systems strengthening and health care policy development with a special focus on infectious diseases, maternal child health, non-communicable chronic illnesses and neglected tropical diseases.

In Nigeria, it started in 2004 as the technical partner to the Catholic Relief Services AIDS Relief Consortium, implementing HIV Care and treatment services in 16 states.

MGIC has implemented programs in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) to increase tuberculosis case detection in Nigeria and scale up these detection and treatment services to important underserved areas and populations.

What projects are supported by your organisation in Nigeria?

Currently we support the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in surveillance and also support a number of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) projects in Nigeria.

More recently, UMB have done some work with the NCDC who we are currently supporting in issuing surveillance in 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory now and we are hoping to expand that to the remaining states. We support their work around surveillance of antimicrobial resistance including their laboratory and diagnostic efforts too.

Last year 2018, we got involved in running the largest HIV survey ever done in which was the Nigeria HIV/ AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) project in a consortium with partners including AFENET and funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Global Fund and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Sunday Ikpe

The project was implemented throughout the entire country and looked at identifying the HIV prevalence as well as prevalence of Hepatitis B and C infections. This is central to evaluating where Nigeria stands in the 90-90-90 cascade for HIV control. This refers to knowing the percentage of people living with HIV AIDS who know their status, the percentage of HIV patients on treatment and the percentage of HIV patients on treatment who have viral suppression.

How was data collected during the Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey?

What we did was that we had this done computer-assisted. We had 190 teams spread across the country and distributed across each of the geo-political zones. We had between25-35 teams in a state working at each time collecting data at different levels.

Prior to the start of the survey we worked with the Nigeria Population Commission to determine what distribution would be statistically

representative using their own data base to identify enumeration areas in the country. That was the first step of data that was collected to identify where exactly we should go to.

Then the next step was community engagements. We followed proper process getting consent from the communities, household and the individuals we interviewed and all of these were captured on these tablets and transmitted in due time to the central office in Abuja, a command and control center where we could actually visualize and bore the progress of the survey real time.

Doing these, we were able to also track what could go wrong in terms of quality and communicate to those in the field from the call Centre which was set up for this purpose.

What were the routine challenges faced before, during and after the survey in completing the survey?

There was a challenge in identifying the right people, recruiting and training them in a very short period of time and they been able to

assess them and confirm that these people were good enough to go out to the field. We had to be sure that the laboratorians were qualified and trained also for human subject research since we were going to take blood samples and were going to deal with people including children aged 0-14 years.

During the course of the survey, the overall coordination had the potential of becoming a logistical night mare but overall we surmounted this challenge by getting in the right people and instituting the right processes. The major challenges were really around the current political and geographical situation of Nigeria, I mean the challenges with difficult terrain including mountainous and riverine areas.

What were the measures put in place to manage the data?

The survey had to meet certain requirements that are best practice.

We ensured that we were collecting data and we also took not just behavioral data but also metadata including timestamps and geo-location.

We had a team of data monitors stationed in the NAIIS central office who monitored the data coming in real time with their focus on completeness, accuracy and human subject matters.

There were routine meetings which held twice daily to monitor the progress of the survey and identify issues so they could be mitigated immediately. These were done along with risk assessment with consideration for all the active states and teams at every point. He had the obligation of ensuring the teams sent on national duty all returned safely.

What was the role of government in collection, storage and processing these data?

Apart from its role as sponsor and project owner the Government of Nigeria was actively involved in the survey. Activities that involved the government represented by the Federal Ministry of Health and NACA included coordination of the Technical Committee meeting held monthly to review the status of the project; field activities – particularly observation of field teams to ensure they kept to the protocol requirements of the survey.

Notably other government agencies that were involved were the National Bureau of Statistics and as previously mentioned the Nigeria Population Commission.

How different was NAIIS compared to other PHIAs (Population Based HIV and Impact Assessment This was significantly different from other PHIAS in several ways.

First off, this was the first PHIA being handled by the University of Maryland Baltimore. We had to deal with a sample size never previously dealt with in any single country in Africa.

To achieve the goal and to do it in shorter time than in any previous survey we had to be innovative and thus had a team of brilliant Nigerians working for the University of Maryland Nigeria Program who came up with technology tools and solutions and pulled off a successful survey and did so with quality and on time.

What lesson can Nigeria learn from this survey?

There has been a lot to learn from the survey in all of its stages and leading up to its successful implementation. We learnt that we have it in us as Nigerians to do extra ordinary things. A larger percentage of the planning and strategizing for this survey were the product of Nigerians finding solutions in innovative ways to a myriad of problems, tackling them one at a time. We saw dedication from the teams that fearlessly and tirelessly went out day in day out collecting data and I can tell you if you need people to go the extra mile then Nigerians will do that for you.

From a survey and scientific perspective the numbers for HIV prevalence in Nigeria were mostly speculative before the survey but now we can say we have accurate numbers.

This experience can be extended to other areas and for other diseases to identify what the numbers are for us as country as this becomes a basis for planning, interventions, preventions depending on the study in view and the sector requesting the study.

Overall it was a worthwhile experience and showed that as Nigerians when we put our minds to it, we are capable of doing truly great things.

and symptoms hours, days or weeks in advance.

Nigeria records more than 1.5 million cases of coronary heart disease per year. You or someone near you may be having a heart attack if they experience any of the following symptoms: Tightness or pain in the chest, neck, back or arms, as well as fatigue, light-headedness, sweating , an overwhelming feeling of

anxiety which may or may not include an unusual awareness of a racing heartbeat. Women are more likely to have atypical symptoms than men.

Treatment of a heart attack will depend on how much blockage has occurred within the ‘coronary’ arteries supplying the heart and how much damage to the heart muscle has occurred as a result.

How to know you are at risk of heart attack ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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ver the past few decades, the burden of heart attacks has shifted from high-income to low-income and middle-income countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria inclusive.

Heart attacks complications of can be serious and possibly life-

HBL TEAM

threatening. The older you are the more likely you are to experience serious complications following a heart attack.

A heart attack is a medical emergency. A heart attack usually occurs when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the heart. Without blood, tissue loses oxygen and dies.

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) or Ischaemic Heart Disease is a

leading cause of heart attacks. It is a condition in which coronary arteries (major blood vessels supplying the heart with blood) get clogged up with deposits of cholesterol. These deposits are called plaques.

How do I know if I am having a heart attack?

Heart attack is not just one thing; some strike suddenly, but many people have warning signs

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

22

FINTECH News

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Products Review

In association with

Technology Review

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Technology Review

CBN picks side in mobile money battle between banks and telcos Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

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n a short circular released to the public on Thursday, 4 June 2019, the Central Bank of Nigeria made it clear which institution it favoured to lead mobile money in Nigeria.

The circular titled ‘Operation of Mobile Money Wallets by Deposit Money Banks’ signed by Sam C Okojere, stated that “Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) shall henceforth not require prior approval to offer mobile money wallet services.”

They are however expected to notify the CBN before the commencement of these services and are required to operate within the extant regulations on mobile money operations.

The apex bank said the move was part of efforts aimed at deepening financial inclusion and achieving the national target of 80 per cent by 2020.

CBN’s latest move amounts to giving commercial banks a head-start ahead of the proposed licensing of the telecom-

munications operators (telcos) that have indicated interest in providing services in the mobile money space.

It will be recalled that in 2018 the CBN and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) signed a memorandum of understanding which is expected to consider telcos in the issuing of mobile

money licenses allowing them to play as payment providers in the country. Following the memorandum, the CBN in October released guidelines for licensing and regulations of Payment Service Banks (PSBs) in the country. The guideline specified that the PSBs, which includes interested telcos, will need to make a minimum capi-

tal deposit of N5 billion. The CBN reportedly granted the telcos a provisional approval to apply for a PSB license through a subsidiary company.

There have been expectations that the licenses will be issued before the end of the first quarter of 2019. At the BusinessDay Inclusion for All summit which held earlier in

2019, Nurudeen Zauro, the Technical Adviser, Financial Inclusion Secretarial at CBN said, “Most probably by the end of this first quarter we’ll roll out PSBs.” The second quarter of 2019 has passed, yet no word from the apex as to when the telcos will get the license.

“CBN allowing banks to do mobile money won’t achieve anything,” said a top VC executive who chose to remain anonymous in order to speak freely. About 10 banks currently have mobile money licenses and they have not done anything with it. How are the rest going to be different?”

Mobile money licensing has been a lifelong pursuit of telco companies like MTN Nigeria, Africa’s largest telecommunication network, and Airtel. MTN is betting on its dominance of the telecoms market to woo customers to its mobile money service. Despite a fractious relationship with the CBN which accused it of illegally repatriating $8.1 billion in profits and debt of $2 billion

in taxes, MTN said it would be applying for a mobile money license in Nigeria in 2019.

Airtel which received $1.2 billion in new funding and is set for an IPO on the Nigerian Stock Exchange has also indicated open interest in securing a mobile money license in 2019.

While the telcos continue to wait for the CBN to fulfil its promise, it should be noted that banks providing mobile services is not likely to make any difference. To start with, many Nigerian banks already claim to be offering the servicesyet the number of unbanked Nigerians has not moved at the pace expected.

“Banks are fine with banking and mostly mobile money as very troublesome business with very little margin,” the VC executive said. “Getting N5000 into 1 million accounts is just N5 billion in deposits. It is pretty marginal for a bank with an NFRR of say 8 per cent to just N400 million a year. N400 million won’t operate mobile money with 1 million active customers.”

How Page Financials is democratizing access to credit in Nigeria

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ccess to credit is one of the many challenges that plagues different individuals, whether single, married, parents or entrepreneurs. Apart from the problem of whether the credit is available, there is also the tricky awareness that you are about to lose your debt-free life. No one likes the creditor knocking on their door, so better to avoid at all cost.

But it is easier said than done, particularly if you live in this part of the world. Nigeria may have some of its redeeming graces, but it is certainly not the

cheapest place to live. Lagos for instance, was ranked the fourth most expensive city to live in Africa by Mercer, a firm that produces individual cost of living and rental accommodation cost reports for cities.

The report which was released in June 2019 saw Lagos moving up 17 points from last year’s ranking, as one of Mercer’s top five expensive cities in Africa.

The price of basic necessities including food, fuel, transport, housing and rent, and entertainment are often disproportionate to real wages, hence individuals often have to manage resources.

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Page International Financial Services also known as Page Financials and established in 2014, is one of the fintech firms addressing the need for credit.

The company’s most impact is in loans where it services over 150,000 customers. Page Financials’ loan is structured in such a way that customer can either request and get a loan of N5 million in less than three hours or become an investor with very attractive interest rates. Page Financials also have a partnership with Yes Mobile that allows customers to buy smartphones from the phone dealer and pay over

a convenient repayment tenor.

Recently to demonstrate how far it could go make things easier for families and individuals, Page Financials unveiled the loan box initiative. Spinning boxes are placed at strategic locations around Lagos with a number that allows passers-by to call in and request for quick loans.

“The loans range from N200,000 to N5 million and are structured for a flexible tenure of 3-12 months to suit individual borrowers, while also being available to both low and middle income salary earners in Nigeria,” Chinelo Ngene, mar-

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keting manager, Page Financials said in a statement BusinessDay received.

Customers can make repayment via four different channels depending on which is convenient. The first is through Remita which serves as an automated primary form of repayment towards your existing facility.

Remita is set up by contacting the customer’s bank and having them set it up on their behalf.

The second is direct debit mandate (DDM) which is usually adopted as the primary form of repayment towards an existing facility and is set up as a part of

@Businessdayng

an initial application process via an online profile. Third is NUBAN Cheques which serves as a fall back plan for repayment and will be presented only in cases where Page Financials is unable to claim repayment via Remita or DDM. Finally, there is online payment; customers can login to their online profile page on their secured online banking platform and conveniently make their loan repayment. The payment is reconciled automatically without human interference and can easily be adopted as a primary form of repayment.

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

23

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

The 10 commodities CBN is focusing in next five years, are you positioned?

Stories by CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made agriculture a focus area in recent years, and in the apex bank’s plan for the next five years (2019 to 2024), ten commodities have been identified for special intervention.

Rice, Maize, Cassava, Cocoa, Tomato, Cotton, Oil-palm, Poultry, Fish, and Livestock/Dairy, according to Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, are to record a boost in agricultural productivity through the provision of improved seedlings, as well as access to finance for rural farmers.

The ten focus commodities are highlighted below, with some prospects.

Rice “Before the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, we would cultivate rice, but will not have buyers,” said Mohammed Suleiman Ambursa, a judge of the Kebbi State High Court, who was on his farm during a visit to Birnin Kebbi. “The price was so low before,” he said.

Now that there more rice mills springing up, there is an increase in demand for paddy. This presents an opportunity for those who want to take advantage of producing rice, which is perhaps Nigeria’s most consumed staple food.

For the price of local rice to come down significantly, Rotimi Fashola, general manager, Elephant Group Plc, told BusinessDay the cost of paddy (which is the raw material) will have to sell well below N100,000 per metric tonne. Currently, it sells for N115,000 on the average, before other logistics costs are factored in, which could then take it to about N130,000.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria’s rice production reached 7 million tonnes (4.2 million tonnes, milled basis) in 2017, up 12 per cent from 6.3 million tonnes (3.8 million tonnes, milled basis) in 2015. Official, accurate data to ascertain consumption and the gap with production is not readily available. However, when the smuggling market is considered, the opportunities become more obvious.

The Ogun State Area Command, Nigeria Customs Service recently said it had intercepted 29,905 bags of rice in the first six months of this year (2019).

Cassava Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, responsible for an estimated 20 per cent of global output, which in 2017 was 285 million metric tonnes in the global cassava processing market report.

The irony is, whereas there is abundance of cassava in Nigeria, the value extraction is extremely low.

Even though Nigeria ranks as the world’s largest producer of cassava, the yield is low (at five to ten tonnes per hectare against global average of 25 tonnes per hectare). More importantly, for industrial usage, the starch content derived from the best of cassava tubers is between 18 and 22 per cent. Whereas, in countries like India and Malaysia, starch content of between 38 and 40 per cent is derived, and there are possibilities of doing even better.

Cassava has some major Industrial Products among which are Ethanol, Industrial Starch, Cassava Flour, Glucose Syrup, Sweetner etc.

Industrial Starch, a major product from Cassava, is used in the Gum/ adhesives, Textiles, Pharmaceuticals, Book binding, Paper and packaging, Confectionery, Chemical and household products manufacturing, Batteries, Drinks, beverages, Baby

foods, and Wood finishers etc.

Despite these potentials, Nigeria imports over 95 per cent of the Industrial starch used in the country.

Cotton According to the Agriculture Promotion Policy (2016-2020) Nigeria’s Cotton demand is 700,000 metric tonnes, with a production of 200,000 metric tonnes (as at 2015). It noted that demand is for seed cotton and could rise to 1.0 – 1.5 million tons subject to textile sector revival.

The Central Bank of Nigeria recently intervened in the cotton value chain and textile industry, with the distribution of seeds in Katsina state to over 100,000 farmers cultivating an estimated 200,000 hectares of farmland. The CBN’s intervention is projected to increase cotton production from 80,000 tonnes produced in 2018 to 300,000 tonnes by 2020. There is still a substantial deficit of potentially 500,000 metric tonnes to be met.

Cocoa The demand for Cocoa in Nigeria according to the APP is 3.6 million metric tonnes, while producing a meagre 250,000 metric tonnes. The APP also noted demand is global, and will rise to 4.5MMT by 2020.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that in the first quarter of 2019, Nigeria exported N31.35 billion worth of Cocoa (in different variants). The country can export not just more raw Cocoa,

but as well cover the deficit in local needs, particularly in the production of confectionaries.

Poultry As noted in the APP, Nigeria’s annual chicken consumption is 200 million birds, while supply is 140 million birds. There is a deficit of 60 million birds (at least as at 2015), which is often filled through smuggling of poultry products. Many times, the smuggles products even make it difficult for the local market to thrive.

With the CBN’s support, local producers could get to lower their operating costs, produce more, and find the business more favourable.

Maize Maize/Corn demand in Nigeria according to the APP is 7.5 million metric tonnes, while production is 7 million MT. Limited importation is required but can shift due to feed demand, which primarily drives demand in Nigeria.

However, there is a need to ramp up production, as availability of maize can spur an increase in production for some manufacturers that require it as raw material. Even the poultry sector depends on increase in maize production, as higher volumes and lower prices will enable the sector to thrive.

Tomato Tomato demand in Nigeria is put at 2.2 million metric tons per annum, while annual actual production is 1.5

million metric tonnes but 700,000 metric tonnes is lost to post harvest wastage, leaving only 800,000 metric tonnes supplied to the market, according to data from the agric ministry.

The 40 percent loss, valued at N72 billion annually, between farm and market, on face value, portrays what could be a viable business, particularly in processing for tomato paste.

Fish According to a 2017 report by the NBS, Nigeria’s fish production data has reflected that 5,788,474 tonnes of fish had been produced between 2010 and 2015. Year 2014 recorded the highest tonnes of fish produced with 1,123,011 tonnes.

Artisanal fish production has consistently accounted for the bulk, more than 60 percent annually, followed by Aquaculture (Fish farms), and the least from Industrial commercial trawlers. However, Nigeria has a deficit of over 2 million metric tonnes.

With the focus from CBN, Fish farms could take advantage of this opportunity to expand, and go beyond just production of Catfish, which they have been predominantly known for.

Livestock/dairy In Milk/Dairy, Nigeria has a demand of 2 million metric tonnes, but only produces 600,000 MT, a gap noted in the APP to be driven by insufficient milking cows and low yields.

Oil Palm Oil Palm in Nigeria has a demand of 8 million MT but production is 4.5 million MT, which refers to fresh fruit bunch (FFB) from which oil is extracted at a 10 per cent – 15 per cent efficiency rate.

Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was reported to have noted palm oil importation is $500 million annually. With the recent restriction announced by the CBN, local palm oil producers are likely to get an even favourable market for their produce.

Agriculture in Nigeria, particularly primary production is challenging and widely considered ‘high risk’.

However, considering the huge deficits and growing demand, the opportunities also abound.

Global food, commodity prices to remain low as agricultural output increases

O

ver the next ten years, the prices of food and commodities are expected to remain low across the world, at least on the average, as agricultural output is projected to increase, absorbing any increase in future demands that may even be driven by population growths.

This was a major finding contained in an annual report, the ‘Agricultural Outlook 20192028’, a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), prepared with input from the experts of their member governments and from specialist commodity organisation The report noted that several years of strong supplies have reduced the international prices of most

agricultural commodities, with cereal, beef and sheep meat prices showing short-term rebounds. For nearly all commodities covered in the Outlook, real prices are projected to remain at or below current levels over the coming decade, as productivity improvements continue to outpace demand growth.

Global demand for agricultural products is projected to grow by 15 percent over the coming decade, while agricultural productivity growth is expected to increase slightly faster, causing inflation-adjusted prices of the major agricultural commodities to remain at or below their current levels.

“G l o b a l a g r i c u l t u re h a s evolved into a highly diverse sector, with operations ranging from small subsistence farms to large multinational holdings,” José Graziano da Silva, FAO Directorwww.businessday.ng

General and Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General wrote in the Foreword of the report. Along with providing food, they added, today’s farmers “are important custodians of the natural environment and have become producers of renewable energy.”

They also noted that; in order to meet the high expectations society places on agriculture, public and private decision makers require reliable information on the likely trends of global demand, supply, trade and prices and the factors driving them.

The Outlook projects that yield improvements and higher production intensity, driven by technological innovation, will result in higher output even as global agricultural land use remains broadly constant. Direct greenhouse

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gas emissions from agriculture, meanwhile, are expected to grow by some 0.5 percent annually over the coming decade, below the 0.7 percent rate of the past 10 years and below the projected output growth rate - indicating declining carbon intensity.

At t h e s a m e t i m e , n e w uncertainties are emerging on top of the usual risks facing agriculture.

These include disruptions from trade tensions, the spread of crop and animal diseases, growing resistance to antimicrobial substances, regulatory responses to new plant-breeding techniques, and increasingly extreme climatic events.

Uncertainties also include evolving dietary preferences in light of health and sustainability issues and policy responses to alarming worldwide trends in obesity. @Businessdayng

Worldwide, the use of cereals for food is projected to grow by about 150 million tonnes over the outlook period - amounting to a 13 percent increase - with rice and wheat accounting for the bulk of the expansion. The most significant factor behind the projected growth in food use of staple products is population growth, which is expected to rise fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

“The Outlook makes abundantly clear that trade is critical for global food security,” said Ken Ash, OECD Director for Trade and Agriculture.

“Regions that are experiencing rapid population growth are not necessarily those where food production can be increased sustainably, so it is essential that all governments support open, transparent and predictable agrofood markets.”

24

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Hotels

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

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

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

Tel: 01 277 3560

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

Some of the staff members with the their awards for a decade of service

Southern Sun Ikoyi celebrates staff members for decade of service OBINNA EMELIKE

I

t was all smiles and glamour at the Southern Sun Ikoyi when the management team of the hotel alongside a team from Tsogo Sun South Africa celebrated some staff members who had spent a decade of service to the Southern Sun Ikoyi brand, the Nigerian people, and guests from across the world.

On that day (June 19, 2019) about 93 staff members were appreciated for their decade of consistent and dedicated service, which has contributed in making Southern Sun Ikoyi a top choice for hotel accommodation, corporate engagement venue, diners’ delight among others for the guests.

They were also appreciated for upholding personalised services and innovations, which have offered guests and tourists alike wholesome experiences, especially the home-away-from-home feel at the hotel.

Renowned for its excellent services across dining, bar and accommodation, the hotel, which is famed as the ‘business hotel of choice in Lagos’ attributed

its success to the dedication of the staff members over the years.

Aside their dedication, most of the staff members have also undergone series of trainings in Nigeria and oversees to professionalise and equip themselves with the right skills needed for excellent service delivery.

Speaking on his experience over the past decade, Adedoyin Famakinwa, cost controller of Southern Sun Ikoyi, stated that his journey with the brand started in January 2009, when he was employed alongside other staff members to join the flagship team in creating a niche for the Southern Sun Ikoyi brand in the Nigerian market.

According to him, over the past 10 years of service, the hotel has actively engaged him in leadership and management skill trainings, which have improved his personality, work efficiency and insights on business management and engagements with his colleagues and industry players.

Through the trainings, he has been able to improve as a business driver with the focus of ensuring cost management across board from operations, to vendor management, ensuring that the hotel gets www.businessday.ng

the best deals at reduced costs.

With the confidence reposed in him by the hotel and empowerment through trainings and development exercise, Adedoyin has been able to manage the hotel’s running cost to a minimum industry standard, adding value to the organisation, which further impacts on the cost of services to guests.

For Ifeoma Obiorah, credit controller of Southern Sun Ikoyi, who joined the team as an account supervisor over ten years ago and has developed within the organisation, it has been a fulfilling experience working in the hotel. Her growth is driven by hunger for excellence, taking up challenging roles, and thinking out of the box for solutions.

Through periodic inhouse trainings, she has learned the importance of team work, as well as, leveraged on it to achieve individual and collective goals at Southern Sun Ikoyi.

Ifeoma, who is a two times recipient of the Hotel Staff of the Month Award, also commended the ability of the staff to imbibe the ‘I Can Do’ spirit, which has aided proactive and more effective service delivery for the guests.

Also speaking at the 10 years celebrations and staff recognition awards, Gospel Osiebe, head of concierge, stated that, beyond the security at the gate, and the courteous doorman who ushers every guest with a smile to the hotel, his role as the head of concierge for the past ten years has been key in giving guests details of the exquisite offerings and facilities of Southern Sun Ikoyi. “Over the past ten years, I have played the role diligently alongside my team in being attentive to guests’ requests and in providing them with the best quality of service.”

According to Gospel, through the trainings, he has imbibed the winning attitude of never giving less of you and always giving a 100 percent in carrying out tasks as the success of the hotel is a collective effort, which involves every staff member and not just the management team.

Other staff members who were awarded for their dedicated services over the past 10 years also expressed their appreciations to the management of Southern Sun Ikoyi and the Tsogo Sun brand for the opportunity to serve, exposures and trainings that have improved their skills over the years.

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

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

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 12 July 2019

Harvard Business Review

BUSINESS DAY

25

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

Building the AI-powered organisation TIM FOUNTAINE, BRIAN MCCARTHY & TAMIM SALEH

A

rtificial intelligence is reshaping business — though not at the blistering pace many assume. The technologies that enable AI are advancing rapidly and becoming increasingly affordable. Yet many organizations’ efforts with it are falling short.

Why the slow progress? At the highest level, it’s a reflection of a failure to rewire the organization. AI initiatives face formidable cultural and organizational barriers. But leaders who at the outset take steps to break down those barriers can effectively capture AI’s opportunities.

To scale up AI, companies must make three shifts: — FROM SILOED WORK TO INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION: AI has the biggest impact when it’s developed by cross-functional teams with a mix of skills and perspectives. Having business and operational people work side by side with analytics experts will ensure that initiatives address broad organizational priorities, not just isolated business issues.

— FROM EXPERIENCE-BASED, LEADER-DRIVEN DECISIONMAKING TO DATA-DRIVEN DECISION-MAKING AT THE FRONT LINE: When AI is adopted broadly, employees up and down the hierarchy will augment their own judgment and intuition with algorithms’ recommendations to arrive at better answers than either humans or machines could reach on their own. But for this approach to work, people at all levels have to trust the algorithms’ suggestions and feel empowered to make decisions — and that means abandoning the traditional top-down approach.

— FROM RIGID AND RISKAVERSE TO AGILE, EXPERIMENTAL AND ADAPTABLE: Organizations must shed the mindset that an idea needs to be fully baked or a business tool must have every bell and whistle before it’s deployed. On the first iteration, AI applications rarely have all their desired functionality. A test-and-learn mentality will reframe mistakes as a source of discoveries, reducing the fear of failure.

Such fundamental shifts require leaders to prepare, motivate

and equip the workforce to make a change. But leaders must first be prepared themselves. To get employees on board and smooth the way for successful AI launches, they should devote early attention to several tasks: — EXPLAINING WHY: A compelling story helps organizations understand the urgency of change initiatives and how all will benefit from them. This is particularly critical with AI projects, because fear that AI will take away jobs increases employees’ resistance to it. Leaders have to provide a vision that rallies everyone around a common goal.

— ANTICIPATING UNIQUE BARRIERS TO CHANGE: Some obstacles, such as workers’ fear of becoming obsolete, are common across organizations. But a company’s culture may also have distinctive characteristics that contribute to resistance. For example, if a company has relationship managers who pride themselves on being attuned to customer needs, they may reject the notion that a machine could have better ideas about what customers want and ignore an AI tool’s tailored product recommendations. Understanding the barriers to change cannot only inform leaders about how to communicate with the workforce but also help them determine what AI initiatives are most feasible, what training should be offered and what incentives may be necessary.

— BUDGETING FOR INTEGRATION AND ADOPTION: Companies that engage in successful scaling practices spend more than

half of their analytics budgets on activities that drove adoption, such as workflow redesign, communication and training.

— BALANCING FEASIBILITY, TIME INVESTMENT AND VALUE: Pursuing initiatives that are unduly difficult to implement or require more than a year to launch can sabotage both current and future AI projects. Still, organizations needn’t focus solely on quick wins; they should develop a portfolio of initiatives with different time horizons.

Prioritization should be based on a long-term view and take into consideration how several initiatives with different timelines could be combined to maximize value.

There’s a lot of debate about where AI and analytics capabilities should reside within organizations.

Often leaders do one of three things: consolidate the majority of AI and analytics capabilities within a central “hub”; decentralize them and embed them mostly in the business units (“the spokes”); or distribute them across both, using a hybrid (“hub-and-spoke”) model. None of these models is always better than the others at getting AI up to scale; the right choice depends on a firm’s individual situation.

Deciding where responsibility should lie within an organization is not an exact science, but it should be influenced by three factors: — THE MATURITY OF AI CAPABILITIES: When a company is early in its AI journey, it often makes sense for analytics executives, data scientists, data engineers, user interface designers, visualization spe-

cialists and the like to sit within a hub and be deployed as needed to the spokes. Working together, these players can establish the company’s core AI assets and capabilities. But as time passes and processes become standardized, these experts can reside within the spokes just as effectively.

— BUSINESS MODEL COMPLEXITY: The greater the number of business functions, lines of business or geographies AI tools will support, the greater the need to build guilds of AI experts. Companies with complex businesses often consolidate these guilds in the hub and then assign them out as needed to business units, functions or geographies.

— THE PACE AND LEVEL OF TECHNICAL INNOVATION REQUIRED: When they need to innovate rapidly, some companies put more capability building in the hub, so they can monitor industry and technology changes better and quickly deploy AI resources to head off competitive challenges.

Some art is involved in deciding where responsibilities should live, since every organization faces distinctive competitive pressures.

For example, an organization might have high business complexity and need very rapid innovation (suggesting it should shift more responsibilities to the hub) but also have very mature AI capabilities (suggesting it should move them to the spokes). Its leaders would have to weigh the relative importance of all factors to determine where, on balance, talent would most effectively be deployed.

To ensure the adoption of AI, companies need to educate everyone, from the top leaders down. To this end some are also launching internal AI academies, which typically incorporate classroom work, workshops, on-the-job training and even site visits to experienced industry peers.

Most AI transformations take 18 to 36 months to complete, with some taking as long as five years. To prevent them from losing momentum, leaders need to do four things: — WALK THE TALK: Role modeling is essential. For starters, leaders can demonstrate their commitment to AI by attending academy training. But they also must actively encourage new ways of working. AI

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

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requires experimentation, and often early iterations don’t work out as planned. When that happens, leaders should highlight what was learned from the pilots. That will help encourage appropriate risk taking. The most effective role models ask questions and reinforce the value of diverse perspectives.

— MAKE BUSINESSES ACCOUNTABLE: Business units must be responsible for their own success. Ownership ought to be assigned to someone from the relevant business, who should map out roles and guide a project from start to finish. Sometimes organizations assign different owners at different points in the development life cycle (for instance, for proof of value, deployment and scaling). That’s a mistake, because it can result in loose ends or missed opportunities.

— TRACK AND FACILITATE ADOPTION: At one North American retailer, an AI project owner saw store managers struggling to incorporate a pilot’s output into their tracking of store performance results. The AI’s user interface was difficult to navigate, and the AI insights generated weren’t integrated into the dashboards the managers relied on every day to make decisions. To fix the issue, the AI team simplified the interface and reconfigured the output so that the new data stream appeared in the dashboard.

— PROVIDE INCENTIVES FOR CHANGE: Acknowledgment inspires employees for the long haul.

A CEO may start meetings by shining a spotlight on an employee who has helped make the company’s AI program a success or create new roles for top performers who participated in the AI transformation.

The ways AI can be used to augment decision-making keep expanding. Companies that excel at implementing it throughout the organization will find themselves at a great advantage.

•Tim Fountaine is a partner in McKinsey’s Sydney office and leads QuantumBlack, an advanced analytics firm owned by McKinsey, in Australia. Brian McCarthy is a partner in McKinsey’s Atlanta office and co-leads the knowledge development agenda for McKinsey Analytics. Tamim Saleh is a senior partner in McKinsey’s London office and heads McKinsey Analytics in Europe

26

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

Trailing Adekunle Gold’s journey to stardom OBINNA EMELIKE

I

f you listen to his music or watch the music videos, you will appreciate the stuff Adekunle Gold is made of. But you need to see his performance in a live concert to discover how he has taken his music a notch higher since going solo in 2014.

Last year, at the Johnnie, Jazz & Whisky concert, Nigeria’s biggest and brightest afro-jazz music platform, Adekunle Gold was on fire. Amid support from the 79th Element, his band, he serenaded the audience with afro-jazz covers of popular hits. In other concerts, he always gives nonstop performances with the mastery that only comes with years of skill and preparation.

The afro-pop singer also shutdown Lagos in December 2018 with his ‘All wrapped in Gold’, a 3-night live music concert at Terra Kulture.

The unique thing about the ‘Ire’ crooner and his live performances is that at the end, the adulating crowd and fans become one with their entertainer; miming, singing and dancing alongside.

But who really is Adekunle Gold? He is a Nigerian urban highlife singer, songwriter and graphic designer. Born Adekunle Kosoko in Isale Eko, Lagos Island, Lagos State, he is a member of the Kosoko Royal House of Lagos and the only son of his parents.

Adekunle discovered his musical talent at a young age. Like most of his folks, he started singing

in his church junior choir and wrote his first song at the age of 15. He went on to study Arts and Design at the Lagos State Polytechnic and majored in Graphics.

In the early years of his career, he was a member of a boy band called The Bridge.

He went solo in 2014 after he disbanded the group, forming his own band, which he called the 79th Element.

Adekunle added Gold to his name after an inspirational session in church.

His single ‘Sade’, a cover of one directions ‘Story Of My Life’ enjoyed massive airplay from radio stations in Nigeria. It was termed best cover by music critics. The single won Best Alternative Song at the 2015 Headies Award. After the release of “Sade”, Adekunle released his first official single titled ‘Orente’ through YBNL Nation after signing a music contract with the record label on March 5, 2015.

After the release of two successful singles, he released another hit song Pick Up. After numerous back to back hits, Adekunle released an album titled ‘Gold’ in July 2016. The album is a 16-track project that had production credits from Oscar Herman, Masterkraft, B Banks, Pheelz, Sleekamo and Seyikeyz.

With pictorial representation, and hitting #7 spot on Billboard World album chart, the Gold album did not fall short of fans expectations.

The success of his album, earned Adekunle Gold various awards including Best Alternative Song Headies 2015, Best Song Beat of Lagos 2015,

Adekunle Gold

Best New Act NEA Awards 2016 Revelation of Africa, AFRIMA Awards 2015, Best New Act to Watch Nigerian Entertainment Awards, and Best Song Nigerian Entertainment Awards.

Adekunle Gold departed from YBNL Nation due to the expiry of his contract

in December 2016. He unveiled his band ‘The 79th Element’ in reference to the atomic number of gold.

His 2017 songs ‘Only Girl’ ft Moelogo and ‘Call On Me’ off his anticipated 2017 album received massive air play and rave views.

Following the success of

his ‘One Night Stand’ UK tour, Adekunle Gold held his first headline concert in Nigeria at the Balmoral Event Centre, Federal Palace Hotel.

His About30 Concert in London on June 29, 2018 was a sold-out show.

In the first quarter of

2018, he released a new song and music video titled ‘Ire’, a personal song, which reflects on his life’s journey with a message that will inspire his fans for a long time to come.

In his usual unique style, ‘Ire’ is a life lesson packaged in a slow tempo song and accompanied by traditional Yoruba percussion sounds.

Interestingly, Adekunle Gold sings in his native Yoruba language as is his usual style. He also sings in English for an uncharacteristic amount of time, alluding to his desire for his songs’ important lessons to be understood. At the release of ‘Ire’ he explained, “Ire’ is a symbolic summary of my life experiences and my journey to becoming Adekunle Gold.” Then, he also took to Instagram to let his fans know that “This song will be the soundtrack of your life.”

In March this year, Adekunle Gold gave an enthralling performance at A Night Of Music And Conversation at the 2019 ‘Songversation With Aramide’, an event supported by Wema Bank in commemoration of international women’s month in Lagos.

Moreover, he is multitalented. Apart from music, he also excels in movie acting. He made his movie debut in the movie ‘Mentally’ where he played the role of a bus conductor.

But the afro-pop artiste is just beginning. He is promising fans new releases and excitement on stage, radio, TV, online and more with the Adekunle Gold’s brand of music. “Watch this space”, he insists.

Nigerian-British actress Susan Wokoma casts in ‘Enola Holmes’ adaptation

A

fter her enthralling role in Super Simple Love Story, a new CBS romantic comedy series, which premiered in April, Susan Wokoma, an award-winning NigerianBritish actress and writer, has landed a role in ‘Enola Holmes’ adaptation at Legendary directed by Harry Bradbeer. She will be joining other worldclass members of the cast including; Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Sam Claflin, Fiona Shaw, and Adeel Akhtar.

Actress Susan Wokoma

Wokoma is best known for her roles in Netflix www.businessday.ng

shows Crazyhead and Chewing Gum, as well as,

the British sitcom Year of the Rabbit.

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Written by Jack Thorne, based on Nancy Springer’s book series, The Enola Holmes Mysteries, the story follows the adventures of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes’ much younger sister, Enola, a highly capable detective in her own right.

Brown is producing alongside Paige Brown, a p r o d u c i n g p a r t n e r, through their PCMA Productions shingle. Alex Garcia and Ali Mendes will oversee for Legendary.

Susan Wokoma was born on December 31, 1987, in Southwark, London, England. She was @Businessdayng

listed as one of Europe’s Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017 and named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit by an international jury, later that same year.

Wokoma made her television debut at 14 as a participant in CBBC’s Serious Jungle in 2002. She was also a member of The National Youth Theatre, making her professional acting debut in the BAFTAwinning That Summer Day before going on to train at RADA aged 19.

She is represented by Scott Marshall Partners, Gersh, and Management 360.

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

27

entertainment

Three exciting days of music at BUDXLagos OBINNA EMELIKE

L

agos was introduced to a different kind of fun in the last weekend in June courtesy Budweiser with its second edition of BUDXLagos, a global programme that connects and spotlights outstanding creative minds in music and pop culture from around the world. Focusing on exciting emerging scenes – from Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh, Lagos and beyond – BUDX delivers the absolute best that these cities have to offer across cultural hot points, including music, art, technology, fashion, film and entertainment.

In its two editions, BUDX Lagos has successfully created a platform that not only encourages Nigerians to express their inner fierceness, it also offers room for them to hang out with their favourite superstars, affording them the opportunity to ask such stars questions they may never have had the opportunity to pose. In conjunction with Mixmag, Budweiser succeeded at creating an atmosphere of good music, fun games and a great tasting beer for LDA’s who welcomed the new and exciting experience.

Split into Day Time Programming and Night Time Programming, participants were greeted with a blend of mind-boggling experiences, including homegrown artistes who shared insights on several topics around music, fashion, Nigerian

Mayorkun performing at the event

culture, Nollywood and women thriving in entertainment via carefully curated sessions. These sessions saw celebrities like Banky W, Adesuwa Etomi, Toke Makinwa, DJ Obi, DJ Lambo, Reminisce and Teni The Entertainer, among others, shed inside information on how to become a successful entertainer in Nigeria’s super competitive entertainment industry.

Teni, for instance, talked about her family being her biggest obstacle when she decided she wanted to go into music full time.

Toolz, Adesuwa, Teni and Toke during the BUDXLagos MasterClass Session

According to the “For Your Case crooner”, their reasons were simple, her older sister was already a popular singer and another entertainer in the family was not welcomed.

She explained how she pushed through and eventually won them over with the success of her career.

Adebayo Oke-Lawal, creative director and founder of Orange Culture, opened up to participants about his motivation for starting such a unique brand and the challenges he faced. According to the fashion designer, the hate he received only proved to him that there was an intense and urgent need to change the narrative of the metro sexual male whose fashion voice was being drowned in Nigeria. “I was bullied because I dressed differently, liked colors that weren’t considered for men, my voice was too thin.

Orange Culture became a brand that was created to be a home for people who saw masculinity in a different light.”

Toke Makinwa, the self acclaimed Baby Girl for life, tackled the issue of unequal pay in the entertainment industry and a total disregard for the female gender.

She explained that one simple way to overcome the unfair treatment of women in the entertainment space is to become exceptionally good at your craft so that no one will see you as a female on air personality, a female DJ, or practically a female anything. The prefix disappears

because you are simply the best among men and women.

Popular for breaking the world record of longest ever set spending 240 hours spinning, DJ Obi explained during his session on The longest DJ set of all time with DJ Obi that most times presentation is what may be hindering the success of some budding entertainers. He came to this conclusion when he realized that he had inadvertently taught a lot of Nigerians to appreciate house music, a genre of music quite unpopular in this part of the world. “During my world record breaking DJing set, I learnt that you can teach people things because eight out of the ten days I DJed, I only played house music and I realized I was able to teach people about a genre of music they didn’t know they liked. I presented it to them differently and they accepted it.”

The master classes, which were billed to last for only a couple of hours, eventually took up so much time, as participants could not get enough of the celebrities. It was indeed intriguing sitting across the room with the stars by those who had no airs about them as they shared real life experiences with a few of their fans turned friends.

At the end of the daily sessions, guests were ushered into a hall at Queen’s Park, Lekki, which had been transformed into a concert with strobes, free cold beers and popping music. It was impossible to sit with disc jockeys like DJ Obi, DJ Nana, DJ Jillionaire, DJ Krowd Kontroller and the others holding down the musical forte, guests going wild on the dance floor dancing to their unique mesh of oldies and new hit songs that got people off their seat, busting a move.

There was a game center littered with video games, a tattoo parlor, and an illusion room specifically created to facilitate the best selfies ever. Talking about photos, the hall was so exquisitely decorated, it did not matter where you were, participants were sure to get professional-like photos that did not need any filters.

Budweiser outdid itself on this one, presenting fans of the brand with a free concert, a date with stars, alongside free food and drinks for three straight days. It was a fun, educative, entertaining and an innovative mesh of quality planning all wrapped up in one great week; a week that will remain unmatched for a long, long time.

Farming wins big at Edinburgh International Film Festival

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dewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Farming has scooped the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF). Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s acting credits include The Bourne Identity, G.I Joe Rise of the Cobra and Suicide Squad. Farming, about a black member of a white skinhead gang in 1980s Essex, is his directorial debut.

The winner was chosen by jury members Antonia Campbell-Hughes, David Hayman and Philip John. “The unanimous decision of the Michael Powell Jury goes to an important, powerful and disturbing film from Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje,” they said. “This story forces us to confront an unfamiliar, uncomfortable reality. Farming keeps you invested in its brutal world.

Culturally adrenalising. Visceral. Inspirational.”

The same jury awarded the Best Perfor-

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s ‘Farming’

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mance in a British Feature Film accolade to Damson Idris for his role in Farming.

“I am absolutely thrilled to have received this prestigious award, named after one of my cinematic heroes, for my first film,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje said. “I am equally delighted that Damson Idris won for Best Performance.”

The Award for Best International Feature Film went to Miia Tervo’s Aurora, which received its U.K. premiere at this year’s festival. The winner was chosen by the International Jury made up of Natalie Brenner, Jack Lowden and Fred Tsui.

The Award for Best Documentary Feature Film went to Ben Asamoah’s first feature film, Sakawa. Anca Damian’s The Call won the best short award.

Social satire Boyz in the Wood, starring Eddie Izzard, opened EIFF on June 19 while Mrs Lowry & Son closed the festival on June 30, 2019. @Businessdayng

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

INSIGHT

Fixing poor contributors’ data with ECRS technology The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has introduced an Enhanced Contributor Registration System (ECRS) meant to solve the challenges faced with the existing Contributor Registration System (CRS). Osa Victor Obayagbona writes that aside helping to lift contributors’ confidence in the industry and bring in more people into the financial system, the enhanced application is expected to open up transfer window for Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders to switch Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

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enerally, the ECRS also enables Nigerians based abroad to participate in the CPS and deepen contributors’ confidence in the industry.

In this new world, technology is seen as the way to go, as institutions that think and act ahead embrace it daily. Technology does not only make agencies’ operations seamless, but brings efficiency and trust to their services.

For PenCom, one of the biggest challenges confronting Nigeria’s pension industry is cleaning up existing data of contributors and pensioners under the CPS. Thus, in order to fix this challenge, it became a priority for PenCom to transit from the use of the precursor application, the CRS, to a more robust ECRS to enable the Commission entrench efficiency, transparency and contributors confidence in its operations.

PenCom said the ECRS was designed, developed and deployed to provide a more dynamic and friendly user interface even as it fully addresses the issues identified with the CRS. Thus, the deployment of the ECRS, the commission said, will greatly enhance the integrity of contributors’ data and also provide a platform for registration of Micro Pension Plan participants and Cross Border participants including Nigerians living abroad and foreigners living in Nigeria who wish to contribute under the CPS. “Electronic submission of employer code requests by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) on employers and the full automation of the process of issuing employer codes. Updates and edits of contributors’ information on the National Databank maintained by the National Pension Commission by the PFAs. The deployment of the ECRS is a major step towards the introduction of the transfer widow, which will enable contributors change to the PFAs of their choice, in line with Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014,” the report said.

The Commission said that the ECRS has been integrated with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for authentication of the uniqueness of individuals seeking to register under the CPS. “The ECRS is an electronic platform for the submission of requests by PFAs for the registration of contributors and issuance of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs). Consequently the Commission has transited from the use of the existing Contributor Registration System (CRS) to the ECRS,” the statement said.

The Pension Reform Act mandates every employer with a minimum of three employees to open an RSA for the workers, which would be funded by both employer and employees. The employer is required to pay 10 percent while the workers are required to contribute eight 8 percent of total monthly emolument.

Under the CPS, the PFAs manage

Aisha Dahir-Umar

the funds, which are in the custody of the Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs).

Acting director-general, National Pension Commission, Aisha DahirUmar says the Commission introduced the ECRS because it has seen the tremendous positive impact technology can make on the industry.

Dahir-Umar explains that the ECRS consists of six major functions: contributor registration to generate unique pin; recapture for existing contributors; bio-data update; update of signature and picture, where applicable; temporary PIN for employer initiated registration and Retirement Savings Account (RSA) verification service.

She says the assets under the CPS had continued to rise hitting N9.03 trillion “since the introduction of the CPS and I am pleased to note that appreciable progress has been made consistently.”

According to her, the statistics are clear evidence that the CPS has greatly improved access to retirement benefits for employees in both the public (Federal Government) as well as the private sectors.

For contributors’ data integrity, the enhanced registration system also has the following capabilities: dashboard availability for Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to view status of their requests and summary reports and PFAs can also receive notifications via Dashboard, emails and Error Codes.

Also, Peter Aghahowa, head, corporate communications department

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of PenCom, notes that PenCom’s authorised staff can also use the ECRS to view status of submissions by PFAs, generate reports and approve requests that require authorisation.

In addition to download responses, latest upgrades, patches, employer codes generation, the system also has capacity for National ID verification with NIMC. The system went live on June 24, 2019, after PenCom assessed the environmental readiness of PFAs and pilot run for the PFAs to use ECRS. This new development is significant for the pension industry as it may pave the way for the implementation of other critical policies hitherto prevented by poor contributors’ data.

One of such policies is the transfer window provided in the Pension Reform Act, 2014 (PRA, 2014), allowing RSA holders to switch PFAs if they so desire. Under the CPS, a comprehensive and reliable data of RSA holders had been a huge challenge; a development some sources said was the reason why PenCom has been reluctant in opening up the transfer window.

The PRA, 2014 provides that an employee may, not more than once in a year, transfer his or her RSA from one PFA to another without producing any reason for such transfer. Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act 2014 also provides that, “subject to guidelines issued by the commission, a holder of a retirement savings account maintained under this Act may

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not, more than once in a year, transfer his account from one Pension Fund Administrator to another.” Despite this provision, PenCom is yet to authorise PFAs to allow RSA holders to transfer their RSAs from one PFA to another.

The implication of non availability of the RSA transfer window is that RSA holders, whose PFAs are underperforming in terms of return on investments, are stuck with such PFAs as they cannot move their contributions to PFAs with better history of high returns on investment.

Indeed, poor contributors’ data integrity has been a major hindrance to the opening of the transfer window.

There are concerns among pension managers and operators that until existing data of contributors are properly refined and deemed reliable, there will be cases of identity theft and large-scale frauds. The coming of ECRS is one of the innovations of the Commission to clean up the database of RSA holders to ensure that issues such as duplications and misinformation are tackled.

In this regard, PenCom recently directed all RSA holders to provide their National Identity Number (NIN) to their fund managers. The new development involved both active and retired RSA holders and is in line with Federal government’s policy mandating all Nigerians to have a National Identity Number.

By law, the NIMC has the mandate to implement the National identity system in Nigeria and the harmonisation by all data gathering agencies may be part of federal government’s strategy to have a clean National Identity System.

PenCom advised RSA holders to approach their PFAs to provide their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), NIN as well as other needed biodata.

These latest innovations, ECRS and integration of BVN and NIN with RSAs, may be a golden opportunity for PFAs to clean up their databases to combat identity theft as well as prevent fraud in the pension industry.

Mathias Abiodun, a Lagos-based pension contributor, says a clean database in the industry will also pave the way for the introduction of the transfer window that will enable RSA holders to switch accounts from one PFA to another to get better services.

Abiodun believes that the issue of the role of pension funds in economic

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development had moved into the focus of public attention, particularly with regard to Nigeria’s growing need for long-term capital.

He explains that successful mobilisation of pension fund assets and contributions to the economic growth of any nation were essential policy objectives. “For the first time, our country can now boast of a longterm funding base and the impact to date has included the funding of the government and government projects, development of the capital market as well as increased foreign development inflows,” he added.

Pension assets rise The PenCom data showed that total pension assets in the country have risen to N9.03 trillion as at March 31, 2019, up from the N7.44 trillion it was in January 2018.

The Commission says these assets have been judiciously and prudently invested in 24 major asset classes to yield interests to the contributors. Giving a breakdown of how the assets were invested, the Commission said federal government’s securities took a lionshare of the investment as it received well over N6.51 trillion, representing 72.9 percent of the total assets.

Specifically, Federal Government bond got N4,458,806.38 of the funds, representing 49.37 percent of the total assets; while N1.94 trillion was invested in treasury bills (21.44%); N11.96 billion in Agency Bonds (NMRC & FMBN), (0.13%); N94.11 billion in Sukuk (1.04%) and N8.51 billion in Green Bonds, (0.09%). The commission also said in line with the Multi-fund structure, RSA Fund 1, witnessed N12.73 billion investment and RSA Fund 11, recorded N3.99 trillion investment, RSA Fund 111, saw N2.15 trillion investment while RSA Fund IV, recorded N732.13 billion investment.

The report showed that N596.61 billion, which was 6.54 percent of the funds, was invested in domestic ordinary shares; while N62.59 billion, amounting to 0.69 percent was invested in foreign ordinary shares.

Also, N144.31 billion (1.60%) was invested in state government’s securities; corporate bonds got N463.99 billion (5.4%); corporate infrastructure bonds, received N8.64 billion, (0.10%); corporate green bonds, N5.46 billion (0.06%); supra-national bonds got N5.37 billion (0.06%); local money market, N874.39 billion, (9.68%) commercial papers, N64.46 billion (0.71%); banks - N809.94 billion (8.97%), among others.

Financial pundits commended the management of PenCom for their consistent, devoted, transparent and enlightened implementation of the Pension Reform Act, which has led to more contributors embracing the CPS and deepening of the financial system.

They insisted that series of reforms in the sector have raised accumulations from contributors to N9.03 trillion, as well as brought brighter hopes to retirees.

Friday12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Sports Super Eagles get dollar boast ahead of semi final clash …As Dangote, Otedola pledge dollar rain for every goal scored … Rohr urges focus and total commitment ahead of Sunday clash Anthony Nlebem

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o l l ow i ng a s u perb performance against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa (conquerors of seven –time champions and host nation Egypt) that saw Nigeria reach the semi finals of the Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON 2019), the Super Eagles have received pledges of more dollar rain from two of Africa’s richest businessmen.

During his visit to Super Eagles’ Le Meridien Cairo Airport hotel on Thursday morning, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) put a call through to the two well -known philanthropists Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola, where he tasked them to commit to supporting the team ahead of their semi final game on Sunday.

While Dangote made

a pledge of $50,000 to the team for every goal in their remaining two matches at the championship, Otedola pledged the sum of $25,000 for every goal.A Dangote, who holds Nigeria’s second highest national honour (GCON) is the President of Dangote Group and is

ranked as the richest person of African descent in the world.

The Dangote Group has interests in various commodities in Nigeria and other African countries.

Oil baron Femi Otedola has recently been involved in a number of commendable interventions for ailing former

Nigerian international players, including 1980 AFCON winning team –captain Christian Chukwuemeka Chukwu and goalkeeper Peter Fregene.

Further words of encouragement came from His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) following Wednesday night’s victory,

with the President urging “the team and their handlers to be focused, disciplined and scale the remaining two hurdles to glory.”

It would be recalled that following their Round of 16 defeat of Cup holders Cameroon in Alexandria on Saturday, businessman Captain Hosea Wells Okunbo pledged the sum of $20,000 for every player, while Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu came good with $5,000 for every player.

NFF’s Official Optimum Partner AITEO also weighed in with the sum of $75,000, being $25,000 for each of the three goals scored by the team against the Indomitable Lions.

Also, even before knowing the identity of their AFCON 2019 semi final opponent, Super Eagles’ technical adviser Gernot Rohr has charged his wards to be focused and fully committed to the task at hand as they countenance another tough session on Sunday night

at the Cairo International Stadium.

“The next match in a championship is always the toughest, so it is always important to approach it that way. That is why we must now forget what we achieved against South Africa in our quarter final match and start to build up towards the semi final.

“There is no time to rest on our oars. We must make all the sacrifices we can now to achieve our objectives at this tournament. We must stay focused and be fully committed.”

The three –time champions were back at the Aerosport pitch inside the Cairo Airport on Thursday morning to begin training for Sunday’s encounter, which would be against the winner of the Algeria/Cote d’Ivoire fixture.

Victory over South Africa took Franco –German Gernot Rohr’s record with Nigeria to 20 wins in 34 matches, of which he has drawn five and lost nine.

LBS partners LaLiga Business School to host Sports Business Programme Anthony Nlebem

AFCON 2019: Okowa hails Super Eagles, urges team to remain focused Mercy Enoch Asaba

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ove rno r I feanyi Okowa of Delta State has hailed the Super Eagles of Nigeria for qualifying for the Semi finals of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and urged them to remain focused.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria qualified for the Semi finals of the 32nd edition of the tournament by beating the Bafana Bafana of South Africa by 2-1.

Governor Okowa in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu in Asaba, commended the resilience of the Nigeria National side, adding that Deltans and Nigerians are fervently praying for the team to succeed in their quest to bring back the trophy home.

He commended the coaching crew and the NFF for ensuring that all necessary logistics were put in place to encourage the Eagles to defeat their South African counterparts.

The governor urged the Eagles to remain focused and make the nation proud once again when they take on their next opponents in the semi final encounter.

“On behalf of the government and people of Delta State i congratulate you all for your success so far even as i urge you all to remain committed and focused as you approach your next opponent in the semi final encounter.

“I have no doubt in mind that you will all remain committed as you prosecute the next match with same zeal and vigour as Nigerians are desirous to see you return home with the coveted trophy,” he added. www.businessday.ng

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agos Business School (LBS) and its partner institution (academic partner), LaLiga Business School are jointly hosting the second edition of the Sports Business Management Programme (SBMP) scheduled to hold in Nigeria and Spain in July and September respectively. The

Sports Business Management Programme (SBMP) is the product of collaboration between LBS and Spanish league, LaLiga to promote capacity development in Nigeria’s sports sector through research and training in sports business management and administration.

The organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2018 to kick off the first edition of the programme.

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This year, however, the SBMP will be delivered in two phases. In the first phase, participants will take class lessons from LBS faculty and experts in Nigeria’s sports scene including Henr y Onukwuba, Dr Uchenna Uzo, Dr Kweku Tandoh, Chief Segun Odegbami, Dr Larry Izamoje, and others.

Speaking on the importance of the programme, Academic Director, Henry Onukwuba said, “The SBMP

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was designed by LBS and LaLiga Business School to bridge a long-existing learning gap in the Nigerian sports industry and owing to the success of the first edition, we have designed a more comprehensive and richer learning experience for participants this year.”

The second phase, LaLiga week is an immersion experience specially designed to help willing participants explore the vibrant sports city of Madrid. The six-day experience will include classroom sessions at LaLiga Business School, study tours to major sports facilities and LaLiga football clubs, and attendance of a live football game.

Head of LaLiga Business School, José Moya said, “We are once again thrilled to have the opportunity to spread the LaLiga expertise across Nigeria and Africa.”

The collaboration with LaLiga Business School is part of LBS’ efforts towards partnering with global business schools and top organisations with the aim to positively impact the practice of management across sectors.

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

31

POLITICS & POLICY

We’re waiting for ‘Abuja politicians’ to seal EDHA - Obaseki IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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do State Governor, Godwin Obaseki on Thursday said the state government was waiting for the members of the National Assembly ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.

Obaseki made the disclosure at a solidarity rally by Governor Godwin Obaseki/ Phillip Shaibu support group in Benin City.

According to him, “To those of you who have gone out to Abuja, to send people from outside to come and invade Edo to come and seal our House of Assembly, we are waiting for you.”

The governor, who said that politics has not commenced in the state, noted that some persons want to pull them out of politics before the appointed time.

“I want to leave you with these words that those people

Seyi Makinde (m), Oyo State Governor, presenting artwork frame to former Head of State, Abdulsalam Abubakar while Debo Ogundoyin, Speaker, Oyo State House Assembly look on during a courtesy visit to Governor’s office, Ibadan.

who are parading themselves and seeking self-interest, Edo people are watching you.

“We have not started politics but they want to pull us out early. INEC has not scheduled timetable for elections, yet they have already come out with that of Kogi and Bayelsa States.

“What I will not do as a governor and as an Edo man is to eat the seed yam. The seed yam is meant for cultivation so that we can have a double harvest. The little money we have today, I will not allow anybody to disturb it. That money is to be used so we can have a future for our

We have no reason to fail, Akeredolu tells cabinet members YOMI AYELESO, Akure

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overnor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has reiterated his commitment to the welfare of the people of the state, as he charged members of the state cabinet to brace up to the challenges ahead.

He urged all cabinet members to be closer to the people at the grassroots, adding that they should endeavour to be with their people at least once every week.

Governor Akeredolu spoke at the meeting of the State Executive Council, the first since the inauguration of a new Head of Service, Dare Aragbaiye as well as a minor cabinet reshuffle arising from the appointment of five commissioners and two special advisers.

He urged the cabinet members to show more commitment in their duties, saying, “The people expect more from us.”

According to a statement released by the commissioner for Information, Donald Ojogo after the meeting, the governor noted that the cabinet had no reason to fail the people in the remaining one-and-half years of the present administration.

He said: “In spite of the dwindling finances every-

where in the country, we have no excuse to fail the people of the state who have invested their confidence in the government. Ours is to continue to discharge our responsibility as effectively as we can.

“The primary responsibility of government is to provide for the people, their basic needs some of which are statutory obligations which are more often, described as dividends of democracy.

“The modest achievements so far recorded notwithstanding; there is still much to be done and the people are more expectant by the day. We therefore, have no reason to fail the good people of the state, that is not an option.

“By this charge, cabinet members have an obligation to be closer to the people at the grassroots as good ambassadors of government. Therefore, the more effective way to endear the government to the people lies in the conscious efforts of cabinet members to visit their local governments regularly, at least once in a week.”

The cabinet members and their ministry are, Kola Olawoye (Attorney General); Wale Akinterinwa(Finance); Emmanuel Igbasan(Economic Planning and Budget); Funsho Esan(Environment); Lola Fagbemi (Local Government www.businessday.ng

children,” he said.

According to him, “This struggle started 12 years ago in this town; the struggle has not ended, the struggle has just entered gear two.

To those of you who are old enough, what we are going through today, we went through 10 years ago. The

same thing and nothing has changed.”

The governor, however, disclosed that his administration has so far created over 100,000 jobs out of the 200,000 jobs he promised to create in his first term in office.

He said the government will continue to commit to its electoral promises to the people.

He noted that the focus of his administration was to use the state resources to develop the state by constructing roads and other infrastructure and not individual. He assured that his government will continue what is best for the state and country.

“We have no doubt that we are on the right track and we know God, the people, traditional rulers, Christian leaders, Muslim leaders, NLC, market women and youths are with us”, he added.

Reacting to the solidarity rally, the coordinator of Edo Peoples Movement (EPM), Henry Idahagbon described

the rally as a last kick-off of a dying horse.

Idahagbon, who was attorney-general and commissioner for Justice during Adams Oshiomhole administration in the state, said the solidarity rally was stage-managed to deceive Nigerians that the governor is popular.

“We are not moved by the so-called deceptive one million-man march protest rally for Obaseki. The protest or rally is a last kick of a dying horse.

“By the time we get to the bridge we know how to cross it. When the chips are down, those crops of people you see in that rally will dump him. They are running their mouths and condemning our national leader, even God will not forgive them because you do not bit the finger that fed you.

“All the people in that rally are product of Adams Oshiomhole; so when the cloud is clear, we will see the true colour of the sky,” he said.

Jonathan: NASS should take over appointment of INEC chair ... As Okurounmu, Adebanjo, others call for urgent restructuring and Chieftaincy Affairs); Bayo Ademodi(Regional Integration and Special Duties); Femi Agagu (Education, Science and Technology); Wahab Adegbenro (Health); Rasheed Badmus (Physical Planning and Urban Development) and Saka Yusuf Ogunleye (Works and Infrastructure) The rest are, Gboyega Adefarati, (Agriculture); Yetunde Adeyanju (Water Resources, Pubic Sanitation and Hygiene); Titilayo Adeyemi (Women Affairs and Social Development); Temitayo Oluwatuyi (Natural Resources); Fatal Olotu (Lands and Housing); Akindotun Olubunmi Owanikin (Youth and Sports Development) and Yemi Olowolabi (Culture and Tourism).

The Special Advisers are, Olawumi Ilawole (Education); Boye Oyewumi (Investment and Development); Tunji Ifabiyi (Commerce and Industry); Tunji Ariyomo (Energy); Tobi Ogunleye (Transport); Alaba Isijola (Union Matters); Raimi Aminu (Lands, Works and Infrastructure); Bunmi Ademosun (Public and Intergovernmental Relations); Jibayo Adeyeye (Health) Victor Olabimtan (Political Matters and Strategy); Babatunde Kolawole (Rural and Community Development) and Oyebo Aladetan (Niger Delta Affairs).

Iniobong Iwok

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oodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s immediate past president, Thu rs day , ca n vassed for the immediate institutionalisation of the process of appointment of the members and head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to eliminate the problem of lack of credibility which has trailed recent elections conducted by the commission in the country.

The former president stated this at a launch and public presentation of a 669-page book, titled: ‘The Dream: Pursuing the Black Renaissance through the Murky Waters of Nigerian Politics,’ written by notable politician, Senator Femi Okurounmu.

The event took place at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, with the publisher of Nigerian Tribune Newspapers, Adetokunbo Awolowo- Dosumu as the reviewer.

Jonathan, who conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential election and seamlessly handed over power to incumbent Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All progres-

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sive Congress (APC), noted that the appointment of the members and head of electoral body had become so important that it cannot be left in the hand of a single individual.

According to him, “So, if the process of appointing the key members of the election management body is institutionalised, it would inspire confidence among all stakeholders. One way this can be achieved is for the relevant arm of the National Assembly to study the different modes of recruiting electoral management body in other countries.

“This would guide toward establishing a functional template that would secure independence for the Independent National Electoral Commission to meet the expectation of the people,” Jonathan said.

Speaking further, Jonathan, who was the chairman of the occasion, raised the alarm about the widened problems facing the country, warning that it was time to set aside political differences and commence the implementation of the 2014 national constitutional conference report.

“The constitutional con@Businessdayng

ference will solve our immediate challenges; my administration was prepared to change the narrative of our constitutional democracy with the assurance that sovereignty belongs to the people.

“However, we were timeconstrained; the conference was conducted one year to the end of my tenure. We did not have the time; even the National Assembly which supposed to validate the report was busy with political survival”.

“I did not insist on rush implementation because my administration did not set out to achieve political popularity but to genuinely advance the course of nation building,” Jonathan added.

In his speech at the event, book author, Femi Okurounmu, canvassed for an urgent return to true federalism, stressing that the country had stagnated with the current structure.

“Without restructuring back to federalism, I have no hesitation in declaring that Nigeria’s development will continue on a downward path, and the state of social disharmony and insecurity will continue to heighten”, Okurounmu said.

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Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

LEADINGWOMAN

Naza Alakija, empowering entrepreneurs to build tech solutions to fight climate change velopment plans. This year, I will be focusing on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen with them, supporting emergency aid and psychosocial care for children.

KEMI AJUMOBI

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aza Alakija is the founder of the Social Accelerator for A Green Economy (SAGE) which has a focus on empowering entrepreneurs to build and scale bold tech solutions in the fight against climate change. Naza has been featured as an influential advocate, social entrepreneur and speaker by several publications and outlets including business day. Naza has an unwavering commitment to ensuring positive change in the fight to reduce atmospheric CO2 as well ending inequality in the education of children. She is a prominent climate change strategist who offers regular support to organizations like UNICEF. The depth of her dialogue ranges from climate campaigns to more complex legislation that bears long-term implications on the rights of children nationally and internationally.

She currently works with a number of key institutions including Bloomberg and UNICEF where she has worked on a number of initiatives including providing help in humanitarian crisis situations on emergencycare and long-term development aid plans. Naza also invested in the development of solar panelled boreholes through WASH and UNICEF in different parts of Borno State in N.E Nigeria. Her area of focus in the upcoming year is the ongoing conflict in Yemen where Naza is currently providing and raising funding for emergency care aid such as food, medical supplies and psychosocial care.

She is a graduate of Biomedical Materials Sciences and Engineering from the University of Manchester and finished with a 2.1 grade.

Where it all began I spent a great deal of time with my Grandfather growing up and he is truly one of the most hard-working individuals I have ever come across. Himself and my family always encouraged me to study and work to achieve whatever I wanted from life. Their never-ending support has played a huge role in who I’ve become today.

Fighting against climate change It has been during the past 5-6 years I’ve been in Nigeria that I really began feeling the impact of climate change and once I started to talk about this to family and friends, I realised that there is a lack of awareness and a serious lack of information on what is ac-

What is your take on SDGs and in what ways are you involved with it?

The SDG’s are great benchmarks that we should all aim to be meeting not just in our daily lives but also within our work. If every one of us aims to target at least 1-2 of these goals, globally we can bring about positive change.

SAGE Innovation Centre aims to target many of the SDG’s from SDG 13 (Climate action), 10 (Reduced inequalities), 14/15 (Life on land/below water), 7 (Affordable and clean energy), 5 (Gender equality) and so on.

tually happening. So, my goal to date has been to increase awareness through writing, through speaking engagements and in bringing awareness to organisations I work with to implement incremental changes.

Relationship with UNICEF I worked with UNICEF last year to implement solar-panelled bore holes in Borno State within

the refugee camps in N.E Nigeria.

They are such a great organisation and they are so supportive in implementing long-term de-

Why the passion for climate change?

Climate change is threatening global development over the past 50 years. We are ultimately the first generation to feel the negative impacts of it and the last to be able to do anything about it. The world population is growing and with this comes a higher demand in energy and consumption. If we truly want a harmonious environment for future generations, we need to find a sustainable way of life. If we do not, there will be global chaos and disorder.

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What is the greatest lesson life has taught you?

Getting comfortable with failure. I used to be so scared to fail.

But I have come to realise that in the most testing times are the greatest seeds of growth.

Personal and professional challenges Self-growth! It is by far one of the most difficult challenges we face in life. But once we do, it is by far the most rewarding experience.

Why the concern about Yemen?

There is a serious humanitarian crisis going on right now in Yemen and it is man-made. There is a vacuum and a whole generation of children are growing up witnessing nothing but war, famine, poverty and disease. If we do not address it, we will give room for growth of more terrorism. This will affect us globally.

We are under the false notion that because charity begins at home, it should end at home, however if we wish to maintain an open global economy, we cannot live by such closed political notions.

How are you helping to end inequality in the education of children?

Education has and is playing an important role in my life. I believe every single child has the right to an education and climate change is the biggest threat to this. If we continue on this current trajectory, millions of people will be pushed into poverty.

There will be serious implications for human rights especially for those already living in poverty.

With SAGE innovation centre, I aim to bring resilience within these communities and also to aid our transition into a greener economy. www.businessday.ng

What is your take on women empowerment?

In every successful economy, there are empowered women.

In a world where we are all striving for equality, climate change and environmental disasters will only magnify inequality. The need to empower and support one another is imminent and it needs to start amongst women themselves. By empowering one another we are ensuring success for future generations.

What every young girl out there needs to know Stay humble and be the best version of yourself. Anything you want, you can achieve. You just need patience, persistence and resilience. @Businessdayng

Friday 12 July 2019

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news

BDCs seek boost for naira-yuan swap deal, derivatives market support HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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NNPC dispels rumour over impending PMS price hike HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

… clarifies GMD’s statement in NASS

igerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has advised motorists and other petroleum products consumers to disregard a trending rumour about plans to hike the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol.

In a clarification statement on Thursday, the corporation said the statement of its Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, at the National Assembly Wednesday did not suggest any plan to increase the price of the white product.

NNPC Group General Man-

ager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, in the statement explained that what the NNPC GMD said during his engagement with the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, at the National Assembly on Wednesday was that the price of petrol was abysmally low in Nigeria compared to what obtained in neighbouring West African countries.

Ughamadu noted that Kyari had observed at the event that the huge disparity in the pump price of petrol between Nigeria and her neighbouring countries tended to encour-

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age cross-border leakages, as he sought the support of the leadership of the National Assembly to curb the malaise of smuggling.

He advised Nigerians from all walks of life to disregard the insinuation of a planned hike in the price of petrol by NNPC, saying that statutorily, NNPC was not even in a position to regulate the price of petroleum products, advising that NNPC role as an operator must be differentiated from that of any of the industry regulators.

The NNPC spokesperson

stated that as directed by relevant agencies of the Government, the pump Price of petrol remained N145 per litre.

NNPC cautioned petroleum products marketers not to sell petrol above N145 per litre following the disclaimed rumour.

NNPC advised Nigerians to remain vigilant and volunteer information to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the industry regulator, or to any law enforcement agency around them, on any station, which sells petrol beyond N145 per litre.

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ureau De Change (BDC) operators on Monday urged the Federal Government to strategise and capitalise on the emerging global trends to strengthen Naira -Yuan Swap deal andboostderivativesmarketwithnew product development.

Theongoingeconomic,tradeand currency wars between the United States of America and Russia/Asian countries present Nigeria with some lifetime opportunities that need to be explored,AminuGwadabe,president, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), said.

He said the fear of the dollar losing itsglobaldominancewasrealasRussia and Asian countries unite against the United States, as Russia and Asian countries were already becoming less reliance on dollars and its hegemony, advising Nigeria and other emerging markets not to be caught unaware.

Ayodele Akinwunmi, head of research,said,“Nigerianeedstodevelop competitive advantage in the produc-

@Businessdayng

tion of certain exportable goods that China currently imports in order for the country to get the full benefits from the currency swap deal.”

Gwadabe said the insistence by Russia and China that the global economic system must change in such a way as to stop the United States from being able to exert economic pressure on world countries is an indication of how both countries can pursue the agenda, which has certain implicationsforNigeriaeconomy,itscurrency and financial system.

He recalled that at the recently concluded G20 meeting in Tokyo Britain, France and Germany announced that the special trade mechanism that they have been working on this year is now up and running. It is called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex) and it will permit companies in Europe to do business with countries like Iran, avoiding Americansanctionsbytradingoutside the SWIFT system, which is dollar denominated and de facto controlled by the US Treasury.

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news Families look for local alternatives to pricey ...

Continued from page 1

bound bookings are unimpressive, according to travel agents who spoke with BusinessDay. The number of core clients and a few would-be clients has shrunk. The budget for holidaying abroad is too huge.

Flight bookings are down to about 40 percent, unlike this time last year when it was up to 60 percent, the travel agents tell BusinessDay. This is despite political stability in the country following successful general elections, sustained economic recovery and more flight options. Travel agents who had expected high record increase in both sales and customer engagement for the summer holiday this year seem disappointed.

“It is not funny. Most of my clients are lamenting that even with N1 million they cannot afford flight tickets for a family of four, aside from the costs of hotel accommodation, feeding, transportation, shopping, among others, which would sum up to at least N2 million,” Kike Osundare, a travel agent, tells BusinessDay. Emmanuel Akagha, another travel agent, says the traditional outbound summer destinations for Nigerians such as London, Paris, New York, Florida, and Dubai are very expensive this summer, and even South Africa is only for those with deep pockets.

“At present, the cheapest airfares to London and Paris are from N500,000 for connecting flights, direct flights are nearing N1 million. Longhaul flights to the United States are higher with about 30 percent,” Akagha says.

He says though cheaper tickets and hotel rooms were available months before the summer, many holidaymakers left their plans until the last minute.

Standard rooms were from $100 before summer, for instance, but now they are going from $200 because of the high demand from tourists, he says. An increase in visitors also sees a rise in prices at bars, restaurants and even concert tickets.

With overseas summer holidays out of reach for many, families are looking to local alternatives.

Michael Eziashi, a parent, is looking to stay at HiImpact Planet Amusement Park, one of such homegroomed destinations beckoning on holiday-makers this summer, for two weeks instead of his proposed family holiday in Dubai.

Set on an expansive landscape on Km 12, LagosIbadan Expressway, Ibafo, Ogun State, the park is the biggest of its kind in Nigeria,

a one-stop shop for family fun this summer.

“With N500,000 my family of four can comfortably stay for a week here. They have world-class rides and attractions for children, good accommodation for family, cinema, lounge and bars for nightlife. I think it is also secured. We are trying it out this summer,” Eziashi says.

With eyes on the N35,000 per night self-service apartment, three rides per day for his two children, lunch and dinner, timeout with his wife at the lounge, Tunde Alimi, a father of three, insists that he would spend as much as N500,000 for a five-day stay at Hi-Impact. He thinks the facilities are great, and offer a cheaper alternative to Dubai for a summer outing.

And students can also be positively engaged this summer at Hi-Impact with its boot camp tagged Hip Students’ Special, according to Abiola Adelanwa, its marketing executive. The boot camp, which is on till September 15, 2019, offers students free access in the park on Thursdays and Fridays to enjoy several rides and attractions amid exciting educational activities. Adelanwa says while the apartments, cinema and lounges entertain the parents, children and students can have unending fun with the rides and attractions on offer at the park.

Another domestic offering is the 48 hours at Uyo and Calabar in Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers State, respectively. Jude Mbeh, general manager, Remlords Tours, says the two-day tour package is targeted at promoting domestic tourism and offering Nigerians an alternative to overseas holiday, especially this summer.

According to him, intending holiday-makers have two options of 48 hours in Calabar or Uyo for less than N100,000 inclusive of two nights’ accommodation, tours to major attractions, among other offerings from August 9-11 and 23-25, 2019.

Other great summer deals for families are at Smokin Hills Ilara Mokin, Ondo State; Ikogosi Warm Spring; Nike Lake Enugu; Ibom Hotel and Golf Resort, and Fifth Chukker Kaduna.

Couples can also consider the likes of La Campagne Beach Resort, Inagbe Beach Resort and La Manga Ilashe because of the exclusive environment. The intrigue for intending visitors is that a week in any of the above mentioned places goes from N500,000, far cheaper than flight tickets to outbound destinations.

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

Nigeria to save N24bn annually as NSPMC becomes sole printer of e-passports Nigerian e-passports and related documentation, the country is set to save over N24 billion annually from the outsourcing of the production and personalisation of the booklets to foreign companies.

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) before now, on behalf of the Federal Government, paid about N24 billion ($66.8 million) annually to Malaysia, the Netherlands and South Africa for the production of the Nigerian international passport booklets.

BusinessDay calculations, from figures given

by Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) sources, show that passport offices across Nigeria issue at least 4,800 passports on a daily basis and about 1,248,000 passports a year, going by five working days in week.

BusinessDay gathered that the Ikoyi, Lagos office of NIS issues an average of 800 passports daily but has

demand of over 1,000, while Festac and Ikeja combined issue 1,000 passports daily with demand of over 1,400.

Abuja issues an average of 500 passports daily with demand of over 800; Kano, Asaba, Ogun and Ibadan issue 500 passports altogether, with demand of almost 1,000, while other states in Nigeria combined issue an average of 2,000 passports daily with demand of over 3,000.

The government spends about N19,500 for the production of one passport.

This implies that the government spends N19,500 x 1,248,000 to produce Nigerian passports every year, which amounts to N24.34 billion.

This amount will now be retained in the country with President Buhari’s approval of NSPMC as the sole printer of Nigerian e-passports.

Aside from the huge savings, Clement Amuda, a retired diplomat, said printing

the passports by an indigenous company would help the country gain respect on the international scene.

“There are things you don’t outsource no matter the circumstance. All the countries that have produced our passports in the past all have a chunk of our data and security profiling, which questions the sovereignty of any sane country,” Amuda said.

Emeka Ossai, an immigration lawyer, was more concerned with the capacity of the NSPMC (the Mint) to meet the huge demand for passports by Nigerians, saying the indigenous printing and minting company had been dwindling in performance for over two decades now.

“Nobody is sure that the Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Company (NSPMC) still handles the printing of naira going by its poor performance. If that is the case, how can it

handle about 5,000 passports needed on daily basis for the growing population of Nigerians looking to jet out of the country every day,” he said.

Before now, the passport booklets were produced by Iris Smart Technology Nigeria (ISTL) through its parent company, Iris Corporation, based in Malaysia, then a company in the Netherlands was responsible for the biometrics and security details inserted into the passports, while South Africa provided the ink used for the printings done in the passports.

But Abbas Umar Masanawa, managing director/ chief executive officer of the Mint, assured that since 2014, the organisation has recorded landmark achievements under chairmanship of Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, a development which he noted has improved the production model, capacity and target

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

L-R: President Muhammadu Buhari;Ahmed Joda, chairman board of trustee, Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, and Jogdish Chanrai, chairman, Tulsi Chanrai Foundation Eye Hospita, during the commissioning of the Eye Hospital in Abuja, yesterday. Pic by Tunde Adeniyi

Buhari’s victory manipulated by INEC, security agencies ...

Continued from page 1

right alteration of results in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Buhari.

The witnesses testified that in Kaduna and Borno States, high scores were fraudulently credited by INEC officials to Buhari and APC. They said for this, some of them refused to sign the result sheets at the polling units, wards, local government and state levels.

The witnesses told the tribunal that in spite of restriction order on the election day, people were transported from one place to another, unchallenged, to vote for the APC.

They stated that their protests and complaints lodged with security agents were ignored, making them to realise that the security agents were compromised.

The witnesses are Major Yahaya Sikko, Jafari Abas Ibrahim, AbdulRaman Usman, Nicholas Msheila, John Makama, Khalid Yelwa Kugo and Adam Ali Sanni.

Sikko in his evidence in chief on the alleged election malpractices in Kaduna State told the tribunal that wrong figures were accredited to Buhari and APC, making him refuse to sign the result sheet as required by law.

The witness told the tribu-

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nal led by Justice Mohammed Garba that in his presence results were doctored by APC agents with the full backing of security personnel.

Answering a question from Buhari’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the witness said that he protested against the wrongdoings at the collation centre but was ignored.

He, however, admitted that accreditation was done by smart card reader.

In his own evidence, Jafaru Abas Ibrahim, a senior lawyer, informed the tribunal that strange people were transported to certain areas where they cast votes for APC @Businessdayng

in spite of the presence of security personnel.

The witness said that results were not correctly transmitted to form EC8C. Answering a question from Buhari’s counsel, Ibrahim admitted that he signed the result sheets but that his signature cannot authenticate the election malpractices.

He further said that he made complaints to INEC Returning Officer but nothing was done to correct the anomaly, especially the reduction of votes of the petitioners.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

Friday 12 July 2019

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CULINARY DELIGHTS

The Grill by Delis a delightful mix of art, ambiance and exotic food in Victoria Island

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he Grill By Delis is located on Karimu Kotun off Akin Adesola in Victoria Island. The restaurant has been around for a while and as of last year, was taken over by a new management team. As I drove into the restaurant, I immediately noticed the outdoor section, which is a pleasant seating area filled with green plants,

yond the food.

I took a look at the menu and the first thing that caught my eye was the oysters, so I decided to order some while I waited for my guest. The oysters were surprisingly fresh and tasty. I have never had oysters in Lagos before and they most definitely didn’t disappoint. Oysters are definitely an acquired taste, being from Senegal

times. The veal is often in the form of cutlets, such as the Italian cotoletta or the famous Austrian dish Wiener Schnitzel. Veal is lower in fat than many types of meats, so care must be taken in preparation to ensure that it does not become tough. I will say that veal is much different than regular beef or steak, still tasty but quite different in texture. The serving was

@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.

GUEST

luscious blooming flowers, and a large crystal clear blue pool. A botanical garden is what describes the outside section. There are plenty of beautiful picture worthy backdrops that I took full advantage of. There is also a well-designed indoor space that is quite classy and has exquisite African art hung on the walls. I appreciated the décor, it is tasteful and not too loud. The room was well lit and the ambiance was calm yet chic. It was a Tuesday evening so the place was just starting to fill up.

I was met by a friendly waitress who asked me if I wanted to sit outdoors or indoors. I am usually an outdoor person but because of the luscious plants, the garden in the evening is prone to insects so I chose to sit indoors. I had made a reservation the night before but did not particularly like the table given to me because it was too close to the kitchen, so after I identified where I wanted to sit, I asked to be moved and the manager was happy to seat me at my requested table which overlooked the garden indoors. I think its really important to request for your preferred seat if it is available because going out to eat should be an experience be-

which is known for its fresh seafood, oysters are a part of many people’s culinary pallets.

Up there with caviar and foie gras as one of the world’s ultimate luxury foods, oysters don’t look much from the outside, but the flesh of these bivalved molluscs is tastefully succulent and delicately flavored, varying in colour from pale grey to beige, surrounded by a clear juice.

My guest on this occasion was Vimbai Mutinhiri, who is a seasoned journalist, talk show host, media personality, former big brother Africa contestant and founder of the Vimbai.com which is a pan African community of dreamers, thinkers and game changers. Vimbai is someone whose work I admire greatly so it was a pleasure to have her as a dinner guest.

She is originally from Zimbabwe and has a very pan African presence so we definitely had lots of things to talk about.

After deciphering through the menu, I opted for the Veal chop with mashed potatoes and Vimbai had the grilled Salmon with vegetables and mashed potatoes. Veal has been an important ingredient in Italian, French and other Mediterranean cuisines from ancient

large, so in the attempt to not waste food I asked them to pack my leftovers.

Here is what Vimbai had to say about her experience “Beyond the friendly staff, and ocean-fresh oysters, I thoroughly loved the understated elegant decor at the Grill by Deli’s.

The interior is intimate and modern, with a touch of Africa. I was a little disappointed that when I ordered my salmon I wasn’t given an option as to how I would like it done, but the yummy Bee-Hive cocktail went a long way in keeping me in good spirits”.

Overall our experience was fun, we were there for 3 hours and did not feel the time go by, the food came out in a timely manner and the staff pleasant. I suggest you make reservations before you go to avoid any disappointments. The space is perfect for private events, date night, an intimate dinner or lunch and is ideal for nature lovers. They have an extensive drink menu as well as an impressive dessert menu which I will come back for, I just didn’t have any space left! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @bdculinarydelights. See you next week!

VIMBAI MUTINHIRI

RATING 4 6 oysters

- N9000

Veal

- N12 800

Salmon

- N12 800

Total

- N34,600

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

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

CONTACT Instagram @thegrillbydelis

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AN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM FOR TEENAGERS

19th - 24th OF August, 2019 IMPACT HUB, 7A MILVERTON RD, IKOYI, LAGOS TO REGISTER VISIT WWW.THECEOAPPRENTICEAFRICA.COM.NG

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EDITION

For sponsorship enquiries call Linda on 0802 601 1296 www.businessday.ng

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BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 12 July 2019

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NEWS

‘Market instability, lack of comprehensive framework hinder investment in telecoms, ICT sector’ Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson

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xperts say the Nigerian telecoms and ICT industry will keep bleeding as a result of lack of funding to sustain the highly capital intensive business of information and communication technology.

Although robust telecoms network is important for economic growth, especially at a time the government is looking to diversify from oil, Nigeria’s ICT sector is still struggling to get adequate investment needed to build the sector and impact the economy positively.

Giving an address at the Telecom Executives and Regulator forum organised by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) on Thursday, Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said, “$68 billion investment in Nigeria is huge, but it is by no means adequate for one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world.

“The capital intensity of the industry, the need for service providers to increase their infrastructure deployment to satisfy the ever increasing demand, creates room for double the size of this investment in the next ten years. We have about 40 million Nigerians yet to be reached with basic infrastructure and services and that is why the NCC put up a roadmap for broadband which has created new frontiers for

investment.”

According to Danbatta, the quest for data and social media as well as increasing value added services will create new frontiers for investment.

Speaking during a panel session to discuss ‘Funding telecoms and ICT investment in Nigeria: How would the deficit in the Nigerian telecom infrastructure be financed?’ Aminu Buhari, managing director/CEO of HD Technologies Limited, said foreign investors were hesitant to invest heavily in the sector due to lack of a clear roadmap and instability.

“All the intervention from the CBN including the universal service provision fund (USPF) is not more than $2billion meanwhile the telecoms sector needs more than $140billion. Original equipment manufacturers, telecom operators and the regulator all need to collaborate as an industry and come up with a comprehensive, transparent framework, so that investors can see exactly what they are putting their money into,” he said.

Yusuf Kazaure, CEO, Galaxy Backbone, who chaired the panel session, said it had become apparent that the sector was in dire need of both local and foreign investment. Therefore, there is need for public private partnership to ensure appropriate investments in the industry, he said.

Olivier Angot, CFO, IHS Tower Nigeria Limited, said the issue of foreign exchange instability and time of loan

maturity was also a hindrance to getting funding.

“The market needs to show some stability and assurance to attract both local and foreign investment; the complexity of the market and risks involved will also hinder their interest. So it is not as if the money is not out there, it is just that there is a lot to do on the macro side to ensure that we get this funding into the sector,” he said.

Soji Maurice-Diya, chief commercial officer, ATC Nigeria said, “It is completely unsustainable to expect 22 percent interest on long time investments. So, we need to be able to go as an industry to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or PenCom. US investors are willing to wait 10-15years on a single digit return on their investment; we can’t see why some of our local pension funds can’t do the same. I don’t think there is any pension fund playing in the telecom space.”

In response to question, Mahammed Babajika, director policy competitors and economic analysis development, NCC said funding cannot be provided by government, however, the Federal Government will create an enabling environment and collaborate with necessary agencies and businesses to ensure that the sector is properly invested in.

“We are negotiating subsidy for licensed infrastructure companies to the tune of N65 billion and we are vigorously pursuing the approval of these subsidies.”

in a bidding round to secure flared gas for monetisation.

Fo l a s a d e Ye m i - E s a n , permanent secretary at the ministry on Thursday, said an initial evaluation exercise covering some 238 Statements of Qualification was complete.

Yemi-Esan added that 205 applicants would be emailed

this week with invitations to attend a Qualified Applicants’ Workshop 19th August at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in Abuja ahead of the Requests for Proposals (RfP) phase, according to a report from www.upstreamonline. com, a platform that provides oil and gas news.

Nigeria’s flared gas monetisation programme set to name final bidders

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

S

even months after it swung into action, the Nig e r i a n Ga s Fl a re Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), under the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources, now has a list of successful candidates who have qualified to participate

World Population Day: Obaseki urges political will among state actors, others on healthy, productive population

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do State Governor Godwin Obaseki has called on state actors, civil society, religious groups, corporations, the media and other non-state actors to demonstrate the desired political will and collaborate on actions that will ensure a healthy and productive global population.

Obaseki made the call on Thursday in commemoration of the 2019 World Population Day, marked on July 11, each year.

According to Obaseki: “All development actors across the globe need to close ranks to address factors militating against a healthy and productive global population.”

He noted “though population issues vary from one country to another, the common aspiration as leaders is to

empower our population with globally sought-after skills that can put food at the tables of the billions of people across the world.

He further said, “Transnational collaboration is required to end hunger, eliminate diseases and tackle the problems associated with migration.”

He explained that in Edo State, his administration has prioritised population issues, such as gender rights, health, education, and empowerment and is working with development partners to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In his notes on this year’s celebration, United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said “the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is www.businessday.ng

the world’s blueprint for a better future for all on a healthy planet.

“On world Population Day, we recognise that this mission is closely interrelated with demographic trends including population growth, ageing, migration and urbanisation,” Gutterres said.

The UN said, “This year’s World Population Day calls for global attention to the unfinished business of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.

“Twenty-five years have passed since that landmark conference, where 179 governments recognised that reproductive health and gender equality are essential for achieving sustainable development.” https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

Friday 12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

A3

news We’ll expand frontiers of engagement with NASS for quick passage of oil industry-related bills –Kyari ... seeks quick assent to deep offshore amendment bill HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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igerianNationalPetroleum Corporation (NNPC) is set for a new era of robust engagement with the National Assembly to ensure speedy passage of laws related to the oil and gas industryforenhancedperformance.

The NNPC group general manager, group public affairs division, Ndu Ughamadu, stated that thenewGroupManagingDirector of NNPC, Mele Kolo Kyari, made the commitment during a visit to the Senate president, Ahmed Lawan, at the National Assembly in Abuja.

TheGMD,whowasaccompaniedonthevisitbyhispredecessor, MaikantiBaru,saidthecorporation would give maximum support and cooperation to the legislative arm of government to ensure the emplacement of an enabling legal framework for the growth of the oil and gas sector.

Speaking at the occasion, the immediate past GMD of NNPC, MaikantiBaru,explainedthatavisit to the Senate President was part of the programmes planned for the periodoftransitionfromhimtohis successor which was not possible due to certain exigencies, stressing that he considered it necessary to still visit even after the formal handovertopersonallysayfarewell considering the good relations he enjoyed with the Senate President.

Baru stated that beyond introducing his successor, the visit was meant to canvass the Senate’s supportforthequickpassageofthe Deep Offshore Amendment Bill whichhasthepotentialofboosting theFederalGovernment’srevenue by about $5 billion per annum.

Shedding light on the significance of the bill, he explained that thenationhadbeenvirtuallylosing revenue running into billions of dollarsduetodelayinthereviewof theextantDeepOffshoreActwhich stipulatesthatthefiscaltermscould be reviewed when the price of crude oil had surpassed the $20 barrel mark and production had gone on in those acreages consistently for 15 years.

He said the amendment bill proposes to raise the royalty paid on deep offshore production in order to ensure a higher revenue take for government, adding that no operator could oppose such a move as it was fair going by current market realities.

On the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), Baru stated that though the 8th National Assembly broke the bill into segments for easy passage, itstilldidn’tseethelightofday;addingthattherewastheneedtorevert to the original intent of warehousing the various petroleum laws under one omnibus PIB. He urged Kyari to work closely with the executive to re-submit the proposed law as a single bill.

Xpress Payment deepens financial inclusion through digital payment Seyi John Salau

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ne of Nigeria’s indigenous digital paymentserviceproviders, Xpress Payment Solutions Limited, is vigorously driving and deepening financial inclusion as it continues to take financial services to the unbanked, particularly the rural dwellers.

Managing director/CEO, XpressPaymentSolutions,OluwadareOwolabi,statedthisatthe19th annualDigitalPayExpoconference and exhibition in Lagos.

His presentation was titled, “Payment initiatives driving digital financial services innovation.”

He noted that until payment services were taken from major cities and towns in the country to the unbanked rural dwellers, financial inclusion drive target of the Central Bank of Nigeria, may not achieve the set objectives with many denied access to financial services and products thereby.

The three-day event brought together digital service providers and relevant stakeholders.

The theme of the event was, “Finclusion:Aligningexpectations with the digital financial service business case”. The theme was built around key contextual subjects that influence the development of digital financial services.

“In driving or deepening digi-

tal payment services in the rural areas in the country, we have our licensedsuperagentsthatenabled us to recruit and deploy agents across the nation. So, we are focusing mainly in villages in unbanked areas, bringing people to bear.

“That is what Xpress Payment Solutionsisdoing.Weareavailable intheruralareasacrossthecountry andwearelocatedinthosevillages.

And this has facilitated the growth of the financially included,” the managing director said.

On threat posed by quack payment service providers, Owolabi suggested that the apex finamcial regulator in the country, central bank should set up a machinery through which it receives feedback on the activities of such and device means of arresting the situation.

Hesaid,“TheCBNshouldhave a machinery to understand what is going on in the market. They shouldhavemachinerythatdrives report to them. They should have machinery to see what is happeningoutsideofus.CBNisaregulator and should do more to cover every nook and cranny of the country.”

According to him, to upscale the financially excluded would requirecooperationfromtheservice providers and the regulators and pushing services to the unbanked locations before the country can achieve the desired set objectives.

Owolabi stated further, “There

Lagos, Netherlands to partner on water transportation, others JOSHUA BASSEY

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agos State government and the Netherlands have opened discussions on partnership to develop infrastructure on the Lagos waterways.

Other key sectors also being considered include healthcare delivery, education, tourism and hi-tech. This came to the fore when Sigrid Kaag, Netherlands minister for foreign trade, development and cooperation, led a business delegation to the Lagos House on Wednesday.

Kaag was received by Governor Babajide-Sanwo-Olu, who assured of a business-friendly environment and readiness of his administration to partner the team or any foreign investors to further grow the economy of Lagos.

Lagos is Nigeria’s biggest economy state with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $136 billion as at 2017, which makes it one of biggest economies in Africa in addition to being the commercial hub of West Africa.

Sanwo-Olu told the visiting business delegation that there were ample investment opportunities across sectors of the economy which both local and foreign investors can take advantage of.

On water transportation, he said the state was working on dredging to further enhance

safety of operators and passengers on the waterways.

“We are doing a lot of reclamation to safeguard water.

These are some of the things we are dealing with to upscale our transport system.

“What I am trying to present is total transportation but for available resources. Water transportation is for us and of course, we need to complete our rail projects too so that we can have easy movement of our people from one part of the city to the other,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu also ignited the interest of the team in the Eko Atlantic city. “That is a city that is rising on top of water. It is actually an engineering that we are really proud of.

“With technology, you need to sand fill a lot of the place there, it went 12 metres down and has a height of about 9 metres up and that is twice the size of Victoria Island,” he said.

The governor acknowledged the efforts of Netherlands on skill acquisition and poverty reduction programmes, which had made Lagos State foster economic relation with the country.

On education, he said “Netherlands is good in development of skills which reduce poverty hence our aim of partnering with you is to ensure that poverty is reduced by 2030,” the governor said.

Palm oil makers’ mid-year performance may remain unimpressive as headwinds linger BUNMI BAILEY

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here is the possibility that the factors that crippled the revenue of Nigerian palm oil producers in the first quarter of 2019couldresurfaceinthesecond quarter.

Therevenueoftwolistedfirms in the sector, Okomu Oil Palm and Presco plc, declined by 42.4 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019, BusinessBay analysis of the firms’ financial results for the period shows.

Analysts attribute the decline in revenue of the two firms to lower crude palm oil prices in the international market. This is as favourable weather conditions in the world’s largest crude palm oil producing countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, led to increased production and yield which, in turn, had made importation of the raw product cheap.

“The problems that they [local producers] faced in the first quarter are not yet over yet as there are still favourable weather conditions in those countries,” said Ibrahim Tajudeen, head of research, Chapel Hill Denham.

“The tariff to import the crude oil palm is expensive so Nigerian consumers of the oil palm prefer tosmugglefromotherneighbouringcountries because itis cheaper there,” Tajudeen said.

Palm oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree, which is grown in tropical regions of Asia and Africa.

The majority of global palm oil production takes place at large plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. Producers in these countries grow very large oil palm

crops, which thrive in the tropical conditions found in that part of the world.

According to data sourced from Bloomberg, oil palm prices trended southwards to $2,040 on June 18, 2019 from $2,368 on August 15, 2018.

Oil palm prices in Nigeria are believed to be relatively higher than international prices primarily due to import restriction on the commodity following the introductionoftheCentralBankof Nigeria’slistof42foreignexchange excluded items in 2015.

An import charge of 35 percent is levied on the importation of oil palm.

Although Nigeria is one of the topproducersofoilpalm,production is not enough to meet the demand of its rising population. The deficit is catered to by importation of oil palm from other countries.

The demand is driven by the increasing household consumption of technical palm oil because of taste and increased demand for special palm oil that is processed into refined, bleached and deodorised for industrial purposes.

“I expect their revenues to further decline. The issues from smuggling and lower crude oil prices caused by supply glut are still befalling them,” Ayorinde Akinloye, analyst at CSL Stockbrokers, said.

Despite increasing oil palm demand, production growth is challenged by several factors, which are insufficient research and development, multiplicity of smallholder farms, high working capital requirements and inefficient farming and milling technologies. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Yusuf Kazure, MD/CEO, Galaxy Backbone; Ibrahim Dikko, MD/CEO, Backbone Connectivity Network (BCN); Mohammed Babajika, director, policy competition and economic, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and Olusola Teniola, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), at the 2019 ATCON telecom executive and regulator’s forum in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

Obaseki to attend 2019 BusinessDay agribusiness conference

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overnor of Edo State, GodwinObaseki,hasconfirmed his attendance at the 2019 editionoftheBusinessDayAgribusiness and Food Security Summit where he will be the Special Guest of Honour.

Themed “Fixing the Broken Linkages between Farm and Market,” the annual summit organised byBusinessDayMediaLimitedisset toholdJuly18attheLandmarkCentre, Plot 2 & 3, Water Corporation Drive,VictoriaIslandAnnex,Lagos.

At the summit, experts and stakeholders would convene to take the lead in setting an agenda foragriculturalprosperityinNigeria.

Theannualsummitshavesofar beenunarguablyamongthebiggest

and most diverse agriculture sectorfocused events in Nigeria, bringing together,virtuallyeverynotablestakeholderintheagriculturevaluechain.

It has consistently drawn progressive farmers, resellers, distributors, importers, government officials,academics,seedcompanies, agricultural machinery vendors, fertiliser producers, agrichemical makers,packagingcompanies,and many more.

Last year’s summit, which held under the theme ‘Evolving Actionable Models to make Agribusiness more viable’ had an impressive turnout matched by impactful discussions.

Speakers included Audu Ogbeh, former minister of agriculture

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and RuralDevelopment,and GodwinObaseki,GovernorofEdoState.

Buildingonthesuccessofprevious events, the 2019 edition of the BusinessDay Agribusiness and Food Security Summit will seek to consolidate on the deliberations of the previous summits.

This 2019 will adopt a resolutely solutions-based approach as speakers and panellists will proffer solutions to pressing issues, instead of rehashing problems that are already familiar and well documented.

At the event, Local and foreign expertsandorganizationswithsolid, cognate experience and outstanding success rates in the focus areas will be assembled by BusinessDay @Businessdayng

to identify practical solutions to some of the problems in the agribusiness value chain.

In 2019, advocacy for policy changeandsupportforprivatesector action will be of utmost priority across all sessions. Discussions at theSummitwillbefocusedonfour engaging panels.

Thetentativepaneldiscussions are as follows: Risk Management Approaches and Solutions for the Agricultural, Finance and Trading, Optimizing value by eliminating post-harvest losses, State of Agriculture in the States, Improving the attractiveness of local backward integration for multinationals in Nigeria and a fireside chat on the Role of Quality Inputs.

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@Businessdayng

Friday 12 July 2019

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BRYAN HARRIS & CAROLINA UNZELTE in São Paulo

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razil’s long-awaited pensions reform bill passed a crucial hurdle late on Wednesday when the nation’s lower house of Congress voted in favour of the legislation after months of wrangling.

Years in the planning, the overhaul is widely seen as essential to restore confidence in Brazil’s economy, which faces the prospect of a return to recession in the second quarter.

By raising the retirement age to 65 for men and 62 for women, the legislation seeks to tackle the government’s precarious fiscal position with savings of $250bn over the next 10 years.

More broadly, investors have seen the bill as a test of whether the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro will be able to pass its broader economic agenda of deregulation and privatisation.

Their hopes were boosted on Wednesday when the pension reform passed a first vote in the lower house of deputies by 379 votes to 131. The bill faces a confirmatory second vote in the house before it moves to the Senate, where it will also be voted on twice. Lawmakers and experts expect the legislation to pass conclusively around September.

The passage of the bill is seen as pressing. Hit by plunging investment and shrinking industrial output, the Brazilian economy

Investor hopes rise as Brazil pension reforms pass Congress hurdle

Lower house votes for bill widely seen as crucial to restore confidence in economy

contracted in the first quarter of the year. Early data for the second quarter suggest the outlook continues to darken.

“I’d say a technical recession is about 50:50 at the moment. Industry is doing really badly — the key lies in whether the services sector has started to make a recovery,” said William Jackson, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.

After a spike in optimism immediately after his election in October, business confidence has declined under Mr Bolsonaro amid continued infighting between the president and the Congress and supreme court.

“The pessimism of the first quarter of the year has greatly affected investment and this lowers the prospects for growth for the coming years,” said Silvia Matos, a senior researcher at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.

“We have lost a lot of time and the population has become very pessimistic, with growing unemployment and falling incomes.”

Grounding of 737 Max aircraft has boosted fares and was a ‘marginal benefit’ for carrier

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elta Air Lines on Thursday raised its profit outlook, pointing to strong domestic demand, lower fuel costs and moves by rivals to ground the 737 Max jet.

The Atlanta-based carrier boosted its full-year earnings outlook to between $6.75 to $7.25 a share, up from its previous forecast for between $6 to $7 a share.

The rosier guidance accompanied upbeat second-quarter results, boosted by higher demand and higher revenue from premium seats as well as lower fuel costs.

Chief executive Ed Bastian also told Reuters it had seen a “marginal benefit” from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max planes.

A spokesperson confirmed the comments.

Delta does not use any 737 Max aircraft, which are used by rivals like United, American and Southwest and that continue to be grounded following two fatal crashes in which 346 people died.

As a result, the company hasn’t faced similar fleet woes. How-

ever, the grounding of the 737 Max has raised the industry’s pricing power as seat availability has been restricted.

American Airlines on Wednesday warned of a $185m hit to its second quarter pre-tax profit as a result of flight cancellations because of the grounding. Its fleet currently includes 24 737 Max 8 aircraft, with an additional 76 on order. However, it bolstered its outlook for a closely watched gauge of pricing power.

In its fiscal second quarter, Delta said revenues rose 6.5 per cent from a year ago to $12.54bn, just ahead of expectations for $12.5bn, according to a Refinitiv survey of Wall Street analysts.

“With record passenger loads, customer satisfaction and $1 billion in revenue growth for the June quarter, demand for Delta’s customer-focused product and service has never been stronger,” said Mr Bastian.

The carrier, which serves 200m passengers annually, said its total passengerrevenueclimbed8percent fromayearago,whileitsfuelexpenses fell 2 per cent over the same period. www.businessday.ng

The pension reform proposal was initiated originally under Michel Temer, Mr Bolsonaro’s predecessor, but it became a victim of political bargaining when the former president was implicated

in graft claims.

Since the election of Mr Bolsonaro, however, lawmakers have gradually come round to the idea of reining in Brazil’s vast web of public payments obliga-

tions, which have undermined the state’s ability to make crucial investments in health and infrastructure. The country spends almost 13 per cent of its gross domestic product on pensions.

US stocks rise and dollar slips as investors track central bank signals on rates

Delta boosts profit outlook as airline dodges 737 Max fallout MAMTA BADKAR in New York

Congress members celebrate as Brazil’s pensions reforms cleared their first legislative hurdle after years of wrangling © Reuters

MATTHEW ROCCO in NewYork, MICHAEL HUNTER in London & DANIEL SHANE in Hong Kong

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he dollar fell further on Thursday, while the euro held its ground as minutes from the European Central Bank’s last governing council meeting did little to revise investors’ outlook for monetary policy.

Attention was moving back to the Federal Reserve, with its chairman, Jay Powell, back on Capitol Hill for a second day of testimony to Washington lawmakers.

Mr Powell told the hearing on Wednesday that uncertainties in the US economy “have increased in recent months”. His words assuaged worries that the Fed could be put off its path to cutting rates by last week’s unexpectedly robust jobs report and helped stocks rally while leaving the dollar looking exposed.

That trading pattern held, although after US inflation data showed the biggest month-on-

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month increase in consumer prices in almost 18 months, the scrutiny on Mr Powell’s words looked likely to deepen.

“The stronger 0.3% m/m gain in core consumer prices in June won’t prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates later this month and, in any case, we doubt that strength will be sustained,” said Andrew Hunter, senior US economist at Capital Economics.

Wall Street’s S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent to 2,996 after earlier retesting its intraday records by climbing back over the 3,000-point threshold, a line it crossed for the first time in its 62-year history on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed 27,000 for the first time, advancing 0.4 per cent.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1 per cent after setting a new closing high in the prior session.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was up 2.6 basis points at 2.0873 per cent. The two-year @Businessdayng

yield, which is considered more sensitive to monetary policy changes, gained 1.4 basis points at 1.8401 per cent.

The euro was up fractionally at $1.1253, while the index tracking the dollar slipped by 0.1 per cent. That took the dollar index’s two-session decline to about 0.5 per cent.

Mi n u t e s f ro m t h e E C B showed policymakers agreed that the central bank should be “ready and prepared” to restart stimulus measures.

The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 fell 0.1 per cent, erasing earlier gains, while the region’s major bond yields rose. London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2 per cent. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 slipped 0.4 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and South Korea’s Kospi led gains, adding around 0.8 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

Japan’s benchmark Topix rose 0.5 per cent. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was flat.

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Nervous investors to check for rates squeeze on US bank earnings Clouds on banks’ horizon include interest rate cuts, a slowing economy and rising bad loans ROBERT ARMSTRONG in New York

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nvestors are getting nervous about US banks. Over the past 12 months, US bank stocks have trailed the S&P 500 index by 14 per cent.

Shares in the biggest six banks trade at between 9 times earnings and 11 times earnings, while the broader market is at 18 times.

Banks as a group trade at the biggest discount to the market in four decades, according to Autonomous research.

The reason is simple. Few have the stomach to pay up for economically sensitive banks at the end of a decade-long boom, when interest rates seem set to fall.

But if the cycle is not quite ready to turn, and expectations of three more US rate cuts this year proves premature, then banks look like a bargain.

So investors will be watching closely when Citigroup kicks of the banks’ earnings season on Monday, followed by JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on a hectic Tuesday morning, with Bank of America on Wednesday and Morgan Stanley bringing down the curtain on Thursday.

Rates and margins: how bad is it?

This is the question that is all but drowning out the others.

The yield on the 30-year treasury, which was over 3 per cent for much of last year, has tumbled to just above 2.5 per cent since April. The yield on the US 10-year treasury is now below that of three month bills — the dreaded yield curve inversion.

The market is pricing in two or three Federal Reserve rate cuts this year after Fed chair Jay Powell’s dovish comments on Wednesday.

For banks that make their money on the spread between short and long rates — and most do, one way or another — this could be a threat to profit margins.

But the relationship between the rate environment and bank profits is not simple or linear, so investors will be keen to hear just how bad it is. One bank, Wells Fargo, has already cut its projection for net interest income — the difference between funding costs and loan yields.

Will others follow? JPMorgan and BofA, the biggest lenders in the country, think net interest income will grow by 5 and 3 per cent in 2019, respectively. If they trim those expectations significantly, the market will sit up and take notice.

Richard Ramsden, Goldman Sachs banks analyst, thinks consensus earnings estimates do not incorporate any rate cuts at all, suggesting some new, lower numbers may have to be pencilled in before very long.

Can fee income offset rate pressure?

If you can’t make money on spreads, make it on fees. Two areas give considerable reason for hope

here: wealth management and mortgages. Markets ended the quarter on a high note, so analysts expect the big wealth managers — including Morgan Stanley and BofA — to report a decent quarter.

On mortgages, low rates mean homeowners refinancing. And at 3.75 per cent, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now lower than it has been since 2016, leaving 45 per cent per cent of homeowners eligible to refinance, according to Goldman. Good news, potentially, for Wells Fargo, which has the biggest mortgage origination business among the banks.

Will investment banking and trading pick up?

The big banks generally provide an update on their advisory and trading businesses with about a month to go in the quarter. This year the news in late May was not cheerful, and analysts are expecting advisory fees to be down in the mid-teens from last year, and markets down in the mid-single digits.

Even measured optimism from the banks about the M&A business or trading activity in the second half of the year would go a long way. But with deal volume tailing off slightly, according to Citigroup, and continued worries about global trade, don’t count on it.

Was the first quarter a blip on credit quality?

This could be the one that sneaks up on people. Given low unemployment, solid economic growth and low interest rates, there is widespread complacency about loan losses. But credit cycles always turn eventually, and there are some signs that the process has already begun.

Most of the attention here goes on credit card and subprime auto loans, where delinquencies have crept up, but do not ignore corporate loans. In the first quarter, nonperforming loans at the big banks rose significantly for the first time in three years. The banks call this “normalisation”, as non-performing loan rates return to historic averages. If the trend accelerates, investors will call it another reason to sell bank stocks.

Are bankers still bullish on the US? In their first quarter investor calls, the banks struck a cautiously optimistic note about the American economy. It has slowed only “modestly” said Bank of America boss Brian Moynahan. Marianne Lake, then chief financial officer of JPMorgan, said the US consumer was still “robust”.

The big banks have as good a window into the US economy as anyone; in the case of Citi and Goldman, they have clear line of sight into global conditions, too. As this economic expansion grows older, worries about its end are accumulating. Any change in tone from the bank bosses will be dissected by investors and commentators worldwide. www.businessday.ng

Matteo Salvini denies his party received funds from Russia, saying: ‘I have never taken a rouble, a euro, a dollar or a litre of vodka in funding from Russia.’ © Reuters

Italian prosecutors to probe League Russian funding allegations Far-right party alleged to have solicited cash from Moscow ahead of EU elections DAVIDE GHIGLIONE in London

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ilan prosecutors have opened a corruption probe into Italy’s farright League party over allegations that it received funds from Moscow ahead of May’s European elections.

The investigation came to light on Thursday, a day after the website BuzzFeed reported that a close aid to Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of the League, held talks with Russian businessmen soliticing financing worth more than €1bn.

BuzzFeed said it had obtained an audio recording of the meeting earlier this week.

The meeting allegedly took place at the Metropol hotel in Moscow in October last year when Mr Salvini was visiting the Russian capital, although there is no suggestion that the deputy prime minister was present.

Under the reported arrangement, fuel was to be sold at a discount to an Italian oil firm by a Russian oil company, through

intermediaries. The difference, reported by BuzzFeed to be worth an estimated $65m based on fuel prices at the time, was allegedly to be diverted to the League.

Earlier this year, Italian magazine L’Espresso reported alleged links between Moscow and Mr Salvini’s entourage and suggested that money could have been secretly funnelled into the far-right party’s finances.

According to some extracts of the recording, the meeting was organised “to negotiate the terms of an agreement to send millions of dollars from Russian oil to Salvini’s party, through a secret channel.”

Mr Salvini has denied the accusations. “I have never taken a rouble, a euro, a dollar or a litre of vodka in funding from Russia,” he said in statement on Wednesday.

On Thursday he repeated: “We have had zero Russian funds, it’s clear that we are treading on someone’s toes”.

Responding to the BuzzFeed report, Mr Salvini said “I have already sued for libel in the past, I’ll do so again today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

The League’s alleged emissary Gianluca Savoini confirmed he was at the taped meeting but denied any wrongdoing.

“There was never any discussion or any deal. I have never received any money. This tour involved a large public meeting between businessmen and it was normal to have talks among private individuals. I have never done anything illegal and I am free to meet whoever I want, if they are not criminals,” he told the Financial Times on Wednesday.

Mr Savoini, who is married to a Russian and has been dubbed Mr Salvini’s “sherpa to Russia” in Italian media reports, uses a photograph of himself with Mr Putin as his WhatsApp avatar.

The investigation into alleged Russian funding could trigger fresh tensions between the League and their coalition partner, the anti-establishment Five Star movement.

We are “worried about what happened. We don’t have to underestimate the opening of the probe” a Five Star movement source said. “We want transparency. No shadows on this government” they added.

Epstein’s ties to Wall Street elite revealed in filing Financier’s firm invested in US manufacturer backed by Apollo’s Leon Black KADHIM SHUBBER in Washington

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effrey Epstein’s wealth has long been a mystery, and there are few records about his privately held firm, the inscrutably named Financial Trust Company.

But a US securities filing shows the links between the registered sex offender — who was indicted in New York on Monday on federal sex trafficking charges — and Wall Street’s elite, notably Leon Black, billionaire founder of Apollo Global Management.

In July 2011, Financial Trust revealed a 6.1 per cent stake in Envi-

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ronmental Solutions Worldwide, a Pennsylvania manufacturer of catalytic converters and filters for diesel engines that was backed

by Mr Black and counted Apollo executives as board members.

US securities laws require firms holding stakes of more than 5 per cent in publicly traded companies to notify the Securities and Exchange Commission. In all the years that Mr Epstein has managed money, purportedly only for billionaires, the filing by Financial Trust in 2011 appeared to be the only time the firm triggered that obligation. @Businessdayng

ESW, which is traded over the counter, had a chequered past.

In 2002, the SEC accused the company and its then-chairman, Bengt Odner, of participating with others in a $15m scheme to “pump and dump” ESW’s stock.

The case was settled a year later, with the company neither admitting or denying the allegations.

Mr Odner was ordered to pay a $25,000 civil penalty.

Financial Trust appeared as an investor in ESW several years after Mr Epstein had registered as a sex offender as part of a controversial 2008 plea deal in Florida.

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@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Shock Mexican resignation deepens danger for investors Finance minister’s exit comes on top of imminent downgrade threat from rating agencies JONATHAN WHEATLEY

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alk about slamming the door on your way out.

Carlos Urzúa, Mexico’s finance minister until his shock resignation on Tuesday, slammed it four times.

The government, he said, was taking decisions on public policy without proper foundation. Economic policy should be evidencebased and free of extremism, on the left or right, but this was not so in Mexico. People had been imposed on the finance ministry who had no understanding of public finances.

And this was being done by “influential persons” in government, with a patent conflict of interests.

Who can he possibly mean? It is hard not to see an irreparable schism opening between Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, and technocrats such as Mr Urzúa. It is also hard to see things being any easier for Arturo Herrera, Mr Urzúa’s former deputy and now successor. Mr Herrera told the Financial Times in March that Mexico would delay a costly and contentious refinery project, only to be contradicted within hours by Mr López Obrador.

The peso fell as much as 2.3 per cent on the resignation news before paring about a third of its losses.

Several analysts warned of the dangers of fiscal slippage. Before the resignation, Mexico’s bonds were already trading at levels suggesting an imminent downgrade from rating agencies. Two downgrades by the end of next year cannot be ruled out, taking Mexico within one notch of speculative grade, or junk.

Yet, despite such wake-up calls, it is very much risk-on time in emerging markets — a mood that will have been reinforced by Jay Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, who on Wednesday cemented the case for cuts in US interest rates.

Rather than fundamental risks in the likes of Mexico, this is the kind of news that moves markets.

When the Fed first signalled an imminent rate cut in mid-June, it drove a surge of cross-border flows to EM stocks and bonds, according to data from the Institute for International Finance.

Investors had also been cheered by an apparent improvement in trade relations between the US and China. According to the IIF, cross-border flows to EM assets averaged more than $3.2bn a week during the past six weeks, enough to reverse the more than $5.4bn of weekly outflows during the previous three weeks, when the Fed was sounding hawkish and trade tensions were high.

Negative bond yields spill into Europe’s emerging markets Sovereign debt from Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland now offers sub-zero returns TOMMY STUBBINGTON in London

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n the bizarro world of global debt, even bonds from Europe’s emerging markets are spewing out negative yields.

Sky-high bond prices — long a fact of life in the core of the eurozone’s debt markets — are increasingly spilling into what was once considered risky territory. All of the Czech Republic’s euro-denominated debt, for example, now trades at sub-zero yields, which means prices are so high that buyers accept a loss to hold them. Short-dated Hungarian bonds and a growing slice of Poland’s debt are following suit, with Warsaw’s 10-year yields just fractionally above zero.

Emerging market investors, who traditionally viewed these markets as their domain, are being forced to look further afield for returns, fuelling a debt rally from Croatia to Kazakhstan.

“The rising tide is lifting all boats,” said Viktor Szabo, who manages a portfolio of emergingmarket bonds at Aberdeen Stan-

dard Investments.

Bonds across the region have joined in a global rally sparked by expectations of looser policy from the world’s major central banks.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates this month, while the European Central Bank is hinting at rate cuts and a return to its bond-buying in a bid to boost a weakening economy.

The promise of a flood of new liquidity into markets has driven eurozone bond yields to new lows.

As a result, some investors who traditionally stick to more developed markets have become “yield tourists” in central European bonds, fund managers say.

According to Mr Szabo, Japanese life insurance companies have been spreading into previously unfamiliar markets, such as Poland and Hungary.

“These markets are not really attractive for emerging-market investors like us any more,” he said.

“Either you have to move into some of the smaller markets or take on significant risk and volatility in somewhere like Turkey.” www.businessday.ng

Carlos Urzúa, right, with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a news conference in February. In his resignation letter, the finance minister said his job had been rendered impossible © Reuters

Iran tensions highlight long-term UK energy supply risk British gas market is regularly topped up with LNG cargoes from Qatar DAVID SHEPPARD

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ran’s alleged attempt to disrupt the passage of a UK crude tanker through the Persian Gulf has added to fears in oil markets, boosted prices and raised insurance costs for shippers.

But for the UK itself oil is not the issue or a particular vulnerability. The country imports hardly any crude from the Middle East to the point where it spent more on olive oil importslastyearthanitdidonpetroleum from the Gulf. Higher oil prices stemming from tensions in the region may hurt at the margin, but that applies to every country that relies on buying its crude from international markets.

However, the recent tensions with Iran highlight one longer term risk the UK faces to its energy supplies: its growing reliance on imports of liquefied natural gas.

The UK gas market is regularly topped up with LNG cargoes from Qatar and other countries and is

expected to become more reliant on shipments of the supercooled fuel as North Sea output declines in the coming years. So far this year the UK has imported an average of five Qatari cargoes a month.

The good news, for now, is that the UK’s LNG imports this year are largely due to a current glut of supplies of the fuel, as rising output from the US and Australia has outstripped demand in Asia.

But while importing LNG is a choice for the UK, over time it is expected to become less of an option, and more of a necessity. Compared with other big gas consumers, the UK would be less well equipped if a future supply threat did one day affect LNG cargoes.

Gas storage capacity in the UK is less than 2 per cent of annual demand compared with more than 20 per cent in France and Germany. The UK government has said this is not an issue, putting its faith in a purely market-based strategy

to secure short-term gas supplies.

But parts of the industry disagree.

Industry veteran Niall Trimble at The Energy Contract Company has warned that at a minimum UK gas prices will become more volatile because buyers will need to compete with customers in Asia for cargoes of LNG. “There’s going to be more uncertainty,” said Mr Trimble.

The fear is that a “perfect storm” could one day leave the UK short.

A cold winter in Asia and Europe would raise competition for cargoes. Throw in a pipeline outage or a threat to LNG shipping and it is not hard to see a scenario where the UK could struggle to meet its needs.

“There’s always a risk that if you depend on LNG there will be shortages,” Mr Trimble said.

The UK is lucky for now that gas supplies are ample and so far Iran has shown little interest in targeting non-oil tankers.

Macau gaming shares race higher on resurgence in Chinese visitors Absence of high-rolling VIPs remains a concern to some analysts HUDSON LOCKETT in Hong Kong

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nvestors are once again placing their bets on Macau’s casinos as trade war fears recede and visitor numbers rise, bolstering the shares of major operators in the world’s biggest gambling centre that were dealt a harsh hand last year.

Stock prices for Macau casino operators listed in Hong Kong — including Sands China, Wynn Macau and MGM China — have climbed nearly 20 per cent since early June, according to the Bloomberg Intelligence Macau Gaming index, compared to a 7.5 per cent gain for the benchmark Hang Seng index.

The surge in stocks follows renewed inflows of mass-market

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punters from the Chinese mainland, especially from the nearby megacities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, where gambling is illegal. But some question whether this lucky streak can last, given the reluctance of once high-rolling VIP gamblers to flash their cash.

“From an investor perspective, the macroeconomy and trade tensions are really what’s driving the share prices,” said Jonathan Galligan, deputy head of research at CLSA in Hong Kong.

High-end gamblers, he said, “still show up and gamble like the rest, but they’re not staying that extra hour, not gambling that extra hand” as their appetite has been more severely dented by China’s growth slowdown.

Analysts note that major casinos @Businessdayng

in the former Portuguese colony, which became a special administrative region of China 20 years ago, are on an upswing. A surprise year-on-year jump of nearly 6 per cent in gaming revenues for June was double the most optimistic forecast from economists.

Mr Galligan said that Chinese mass market punters — a growing focus for Macau in recent years because of a crackdown on corruption launched by Beijing in 2013 — were helping to offset a slide in betting by VIPs. Making up that difference is vital for the listed gaming groups.

During much of the past decade Macau has suffered a lengthy slump as the anti-corruption crackdown squeezed the amounts laid down on baccarat tables.

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ANALYSIS

FT The ex-Facebook star back in the spotlight with Virgin Galactic deal

Chamath Palihapitiya became a strident critic of Silicon Valley’s culture MILES KRUPPA in New York

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hamath Palihapitiya vowed to reinvent the way technology startups go public two years ago when he listed Social Capital Hedosophia, a blank cheque company that raised $600m on the New York Stock Exchange.

The 42-year-old former star Facebook executive promised to use the shell for what he and his British partner Ian Osborne called “IPO 2.0”, a way for tech unicorns to reverse onto the public markets without the fuss of a traditional IPO process.

The first shell was given the ticker IPOA, and Mr Palihapitiya explained it would be the first of many vehicles, called IPOB, IPOC and so on down the alphabet.

He claimed that he had been approached by 15 tech chief executives after the 2017 launch.

Then for almost two years the shell company lay dormant. On Tuesday, with just weeks to go before it had to make an acquisition or be wound up, Mr Palihapitiya turned to another man with a grand vision, buying 49 per cent of Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic.

The deal, backed by $700m

from SCH and $100m of Mr Palihapitiya’s personal money, is one of the highest-profile transactions during the recent boom for specialpurpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. Mr Palihapitiya originally said the cash shell would target companies valued between $3bn and $20bn. But he said the Virgin Galactic business, valued at $1.5bn, also made sense within the SPAC’s strategy.

“The filter was really less about the market size,” Mr Palihapitiya said. “What I was trying to say there . . . is how important it was for us to find a fast-growing technology company that can thrive in the public markets and that was a really indelible consumer brand, and I think Virgin is all of those things.”

Mr Palihapitiya started evaluating Virgin Galactic as an acquisition target nine months ago, after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi caused the company to back away from a $1bn deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

He later contacted Sir Richard after Virgin Galactic’s first test flight in December and travelled to Mojave, California, where Virgin Galactic is based, to discuss the deal further, one person familiar with the process said.

UK warship stops Iranian attempt to ‘impede’ BP tanker British government says three gunships tried to block journey in Strait of Hormuz ANJLI RAVAL & ANDREW ENGLAND in London & NAJMEH BOZORGMEHR in Tehran

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Royal Navy warship has rebuffed an attempt by Iran to “impede” the safe passage of an oil tanker owned

by UK energy group BP through the Strait of Hormuz, the UK government said on Thursday.

In apparent retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian vessel by the UK last week, three Iranian gunships tried to halt the journey of the British Heritage through one of the world’s most important oil transportation routes on Wednesday.

The incident came on the same day that Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, warned the UK that it would face “consequences” for impounding the Iranian tanker last week and will escalate already heightened tensions in the oil-rich Gulf.

“Contrary to international law, three Iranian vessels attempted to impede the passage of a commercial vessel, British Heritage, through the Strait of Hormuz,” said a UK government spokesperson. “We are concerned by this action and continue to urge the Iranian authorities to deescalate the situation in the region.”

The spokesman said the HMS Montrose, a British frigate, was “forced to position herself” between the Iranian vessels and the tanker.

BP said its top priority was the safety and security of its crews and vessels. A spokesperson for the company said: “While we are not commenting on these events, we thank

the Royal Navy for their support.”

The UK’s defence ministry described the three Iranian ships as “gun boats”.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, however, denied approaching any British tankers.

On Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian reporters the British “claims” were “worthless” and only made “to create tensions”.

“The guards’ naval forces continue their vigilant, precise and firm patrols in the Persian Gulf . . . and have not come across any foreign tankers, including British tankers, over the past 24 hours,” said a statement by the naval forces’ fifth zone on Thursday.

The guards added that should there be any order from higher authorities to stop a tanker, the elite force would do so “without hesitation, decisively and quickly”.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, Iran’s deputy commander of the guards, said retaliatory measures that would make Britain “regret” its actions would be announced soon.

Iranian officials have been threatening to disrupt the flow of oil and petrochemicals traffic through the Gulf since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers and imposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Iran then threatened UK shipping after Royal Marines and Gibraltar police last week seized the Grace 1 supertanker because it was suspected of smuggling Iranian oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. www.businessday.ng

The trillion-dollar taboo: why it’s time to stop ignoring mental health at work Stress is costing businesses and claiming lives, so why do employees feel unsafe asking for help?

LILAH RAPTOPOULOS & JAMES FONTANELLA-KHAN

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abe MacConaill was working on a lifedefining case. The 42-year-old junior partner at global law firm Sidley Austin had been put on the bankruptcy of a company called Mattress Firm. The process was complicated and multipronged, taking 41 subsidiaries down with it.

In the months leading up to the bankruptcy filing in October 2018, many people surrounding MacConaill noticed he was isolating himself. He closed his office door more often. His friends rarely saw him. He worried aloud to his wife, Joanna Litt, that he didn’t have enough debtor experience and would be sued for malpractice.

MacConaill stopped sleeping regularly. He stopped laughing and going to the gym. At one point, Litt suggested he see a therapist but he told her he could barely get his work done, let alone find time to start counselling.

Later, later, he promised her. After the filing.

But as the date got closer, MacConaill began to break down. He told his wife that he believed his body was failing him but feared that if his bosses saw weakness, it would be the end of his career. A heart-attack scare sent him to the emergency room but he powered on, gathering his energy to fly to Delaware and file the case. He came home. Litt thought they had made it through.

A week later, MacConaill died by suicide in the parking lot of his law firm.

“So many things happened that created this perfect storm, but the slightest thing could have saved my husband,” Litt tells us in the Los Angeles home that she and MacConaill shared, her mother in a chair beside her. The house is modern and immaculate, covered in flowered vines and surrounded by lemon trees. It is up for sale. Litt can’t imagine living there without MacConaill.

Last October, she published a letter in American Lawyer magazine called “Big Law Killed My

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Husband”. It was shared widely within the legal world. We are sitting in her living room because Litt believes MacConaill’s story holds lessons for leaders, legislators and companies across the world.

Though the causes of suicide are always complex, experts say that the 21st-century workplace can exacerbate issues that lead to it, such as overwork, burnout and depression.

Litt says that MacConaill lacked essential coping mechanisms and had an occasional problem with binge drinking. There was a history of mental illness in his maternal family line, though she had never seen signs of it in him before. But as she wrote in her letter, “These influences [were] coupled with a high-pressure job and a culture where it’s shameful to ask for help, shameful to be vulnerable, and shameful not to be perfect.”

Experts in workplace psychology overwhelmingly agree that burnout is a growing public health crisis. In December, Ryan Keith Wallace, a 27-year-old associate at a Houston law firm, died by suicide after a particularly stressful day, his death a total shock to those who knew him. “I sit here and blame myself every day and wonder what I lacked as a wife to not help him,” says his widow, Kyrie Cameron. “But the truth is he was just so happy until he felt that pressure. It seemed like work was at least the trigger for him.”

Cameron, who is also a lawyer, believes that her husband’s perfectionist personality and fear of failure was so daunting to him that he didn’t feel he had another way out. “Our profession has lost perspective,” she says. “We think being a lawyer defines us. That success means being the highest- billing, highest-earning, most productive person there at the expense of taking care of ourselves.

That we can’t show vulnerability or reach out for help.”

Fields such as law, finance and consulting seem particularly prone to intense, demanding workplace cultures but the issue affects people in all sectors. One doctor dies by suicide every day in the US. Stress, depression or anxiety account for 44 per cent of @Businessdayng

all work-related ill-health cases in Britain, and 57 per cent of all working days lost due to ill health, according to the government’s health and safety executive.

When the FT set out to investigate this issue, we asked readers to describe how their employers handle mental health issues, including stress, burnout, anxiety and depression. More than 450 people responded from 43 countries. Although they were a selfselecting group, their responses were significant: the majority felt unsupported, alienated or discriminated against on the basis of their mental health. Two-thirds believed their work had a somewhat to extremely negative effect on their health, and 44 per cent said they did not think mental health was taken seriously by their organisation. Half said they either didn’t know where at work to go, or had nowhere to go if they needed support.

Even as many companies strengthen their policies to close the gender pay gap and end sexual harassment, mental wellbeing often remains an afterthought. “This is not about buying Fitbits for employees and teaching them deep breathing so we can pile on more work,” says Donna Hardaker, a workplace mental health specialist at Sutter Health, a not-for-profit healthcare network. “You must address the micro and the macro.

There is a deeply entrenched cultural idea that workplaces are fine; it’s the employees who are the problem. But employers have a social responsibility to not be harming the people who are working within their walls.”

A failure to support employees is also costing companies a fortune: an estimated 615 million people suffer from depression and anxiety and, according to a recent World Health Organisation study, this costs an estimated $1tn in lost productivity every year. Companies that do not have systems in place to support the wellbeing of their employees have higher turnover, lower productivity and higher healthcare costs, according to the American Psychological Association. They also face significant legal risks.

Friday12 July 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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47

POLITICS & POLICY

We’re waiting for ‘Abuja politicians’ to seal EDHA - Obaseki IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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do State Governor, Godwin Obaseki on Thursday said the state government was waiting for the members of the National Assembly ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.

Obaseki made the disclosure at a solidarity rally by Governor Godwin Obaseki/ Phillip Shaibu support group in Benin City.

According to him, “To those of you who have gone out to Abuja, to send people from outside to come and invade Edo to come and seal our House of Assembly, we are waiting for you.”

The governor, who said that politics has not commenced in the state, noted that some persons want to pull them out of politics before the appointed time.

“I want to leave you with these words that those people

Seyi Makinde (m), Oyo State Governor, presenting artwork frame to former Head of State, Abdulsalam Abubakar while Debo Ogundoyin, Speaker, Oyo State House Assembly look on during a courtesy visit to Governor’s office, Ibadan.

who are parading themselves and seeking self-interest, Edo people are watching you.

“We have not started politics but they want to pull us out early. INEC has not scheduled timetable for elections, yet they have already come out with that of Kogi and Bayelsa States.

“What I will not do as a governor and as an Edo man is to eat the seed yam. The seed yam is meant for cultivation so that we can have a double harvest. The little money we have today, I will not allow anybody to disturb it. That money is to be used so we can have a future for our

We have no reason to fail, Akeredolu tells cabinet members YOMI AYELESO, Akure

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overnor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has reiterated his commitment to the welfare of the people of the state, as he charged members of the state cabinet to brace up to the challenges ahead.

He urged all cabinet members to be closer to the people at the grassroots, adding that they should endeavour to be with their people at least once every week.

Governor Akeredolu spoke at the meeting of the State Executive Council, the first since the inauguration of a new Head of Service, Dare Aragbaiye as well as a minor cabinet reshuffle arising from the appointment of five commissioners and two special advisers.

He urged the cabinet members to show more commitment in their duties, saying, “The people expect more from us.”

According to a statement released by the commissioner for Information, Donald Ojogo after the meeting, the governor noted that the cabinet had no reason to fail the people in the remaining one-and-half years of the present administration.

He said: “In spite of the dwindling finances every-

where in the country, we have no excuse to fail the people of the state who have invested their confidence in the government. Ours is to continue to discharge our responsibility as effectively as we can.

“The primary responsibility of government is to provide for the people, their basic needs some of which are statutory obligations which are more often, described as dividends of democracy.

“The modest achievements so far recorded notwithstanding; there is still much to be done and the people are more expectant by the day. We therefore, have no reason to fail the good people of the state, that is not an option.

“By this charge, cabinet members have an obligation to be closer to the people at the grassroots as good ambassadors of government. Therefore, the more effective way to endear the government to the people lies in the conscious efforts of cabinet members to visit their local governments regularly, at least once in a week.”

The cabinet members and their ministry are, Kola Olawoye (Attorney General); Wale Akinterinwa(Finance); Emmanuel Igbasan(Economic Planning and Budget); Funsho Esan(Environment); Lola Fagbemi (Local Government www.businessday.ng

children,” he said.

According to him, “This struggle started 12 years ago in this town; the struggle has not ended, the struggle has just entered gear two.

To those of you who are old enough, what we are going through today, we went through 10 years ago. The

same thing and nothing has changed.”

The governor, however, disclosed that his administration has so far created over 100,000 jobs out of the 200,000 jobs he promised to create in his first term in office.

He said the government will continue to commit to its electoral promises to the people.

He noted that the focus of his administration was to use the state resources to develop the state by constructing roads and other infrastructure and not individual. He assured that his government will continue what is best for the state and country.

“We have no doubt that we are on the right track and we know God, the people, traditional rulers, Christian leaders, Muslim leaders, NLC, market women and youths are with us”, he added.

Reacting to the solidarity rally, the coordinator of Edo Peoples Movement (EPM), Henry Idahagbon described

the rally as a last kick-off of a dying horse.

Idahagbon, who was attorney-general and commissioner for Justice during Adams Oshiomhole administration in the state, said the solidarity rally was stage-managed to deceive Nigerians that the governor is popular.

“We are not moved by the so-called deceptive one million-man march protest rally for Obaseki. The protest or rally is a last kick of a dying horse.

“By the time we get to the bridge we know how to cross it. When the chips are down, those crops of people you see in that rally will dump him. They are running their mouths and condemning our national leader, even God will not forgive them because you do not bit the finger that fed you.

“All the people in that rally are product of Adams Oshiomhole; so when the cloud is clear, we will see the true colour of the sky,” he said.

Jonathan: NASS should take over appointment of INEC chair ... As Okurounmu, Adebanjo, others call for urgent restructuring and Chieftaincy Affairs); Bayo Ademodi(Regional Integration and Special Duties); Femi Agagu (Education, Science and Technology); Wahab Adegbenro (Health); Rasheed Badmus (Physical Planning and Urban Development) and Saka Yusuf Ogunleye (Works and Infrastructure) The rest are, Gboyega Adefarati, (Agriculture); Yetunde Adeyanju (Water Resources, Pubic Sanitation and Hygiene); Titilayo Adeyemi (Women Affairs and Social Development); Temitayo Oluwatuyi (Natural Resources); Fatal Olotu (Lands and Housing); Akindotun Olubunmi Owanikin (Youth and Sports Development) and Yemi Olowolabi (Culture and Tourism).

The Special Advisers are, Olawumi Ilawole (Education); Boye Oyewumi (Investment and Development); Tunji Ifabiyi (Commerce and Industry); Tunji Ariyomo (Energy); Tobi Ogunleye (Transport); Alaba Isijola (Union Matters); Raimi Aminu (Lands, Works and Infrastructure); Bunmi Ademosun (Public and Intergovernmental Relations); Jibayo Adeyeye (Health) Victor Olabimtan (Political Matters and Strategy); Babatunde Kolawole (Rural and Community Development) and Oyebo Aladetan (Niger Delta Affairs).

Iniobong Iwok

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oodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s immediate past president, Thu rs day , ca n vassed for the immediate institutionalisation of the process of appointment of the members and head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to eliminate the problem of lack of credibility which has trailed recent elections conducted by the commission in the country.

The former president stated this at a launch and public presentation of a 669-page book, titled: ‘The Dream: Pursuing the Black Renaissance through the Murky Waters of Nigerian Politics,’ written by notable politician, Senator Femi Okurounmu.

The event took place at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, with the publisher of Nigerian Tribune Newspapers, Adetokunbo Awolowo- Dosumu as the reviewer.

Jonathan, who conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential election and seamlessly handed over power to incumbent Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All progres-

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sive Congress (APC), noted that the appointment of the members and head of electoral body had become so important that it cannot be left in the hand of a single individual.

According to him, “So, if the process of appointing the key members of the election management body is institutionalised, it would inspire confidence among all stakeholders. One way this can be achieved is for the relevant arm of the National Assembly to study the different modes of recruiting electoral management body in other countries.

“This would guide toward establishing a functional template that would secure independence for the Independent National Electoral Commission to meet the expectation of the people,” Jonathan said.

Speaking further, Jonathan, who was the chairman of the occasion, raised the alarm about the widened problems facing the country, warning that it was time to set aside political differences and commence the implementation of the 2014 national constitutional conference report.

“The constitutional con@Businessdayng

ference will solve our immediate challenges; my administration was prepared to change the narrative of our constitutional democracy with the assurance that sovereignty belongs to the people.

“However, we were timeconstrained; the conference was conducted one year to the end of my tenure. We did not have the time; even the National Assembly which supposed to validate the report was busy with political survival”.

“I did not insist on rush implementation because my administration did not set out to achieve political popularity but to genuinely advance the course of nation building,” Jonathan added.

In his speech at the event, book author, Femi Okurounmu, canvassed for an urgent return to true federalism, stressing that the country had stagnated with the current structure.

“Without restructuring back to federalism, I have no hesitation in declaring that Nigeria’s development will continue on a downward path, and the state of social disharmony and insecurity will continue to heighten”, Okurounmu said.

Women in Business

BUSINESS DAY Friday 12 July 2019

By Kemi Ajumobi

Ijeoma Ndekwu

Tosin Lawson

CEO / Founder of Redrick Public Relations Limited (RPRL)

CEO, African Things

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jeoma Ndekwu is the CEO / Founder of Redrick Public Relations Limited (RPRL), is a boutique PR consultancy agency specialising in designing strategic integrated campaigns guided by market intelligence. Their campaigns support start-ups and enterprises to innovate, accelerate and grow.

Redrick aims to become an integral part of your company’s success. They apply their passion to your business; whether it is in creating buzz worthy content, securing targeted features or conceptualizing an experience that allows for an intimate connection with your brand.

Ijeoma’s late father was an entrepreneur; he was a major influence in her life and her first mentor. So even before she totally comprehended what it meant to be an entrepreneur, she wanted to be one. However, surprisingly, starting her company was not as meticulously deliberate as she had imagined her entry into the entrepreneurial space would be.

She had been actively working as the Style Editor of Nigeria’s Leading Entertainment Website – BellaNaija.com since she was 18, and assumed that role amongst others via internships all through her undergraduate degree programme in Global & Integrated Marketing Communications, and life after that.

Her role as a Style Editor served as the perfect training ground. In that role, she was forced to test her ability to execute and expand on a vision, and she honed some crucial skills, including supervisory and leadership skills – as it was her responsibility to recruit, manage and lead the style writers. In addition, she learned valuable brand building skills through liaising with PR Firms, designers and creatives in the African fashion industry in order to establish strategic partnerships.

Due to her experience at BellaNaija.com, she began to explore a career in Public Relations, researching the PR Industry in Nigeria and defining her areas of interests within it.

She had envisaged that she would work in a PR Firm after graduating, and then later set up her own firm in the near future.

She communicated this plan to one of her

mentors and was called up a few months later and said she had a client for her and encouraged her to provide that client with specialist PR services, as she had the capability and capacity to do so whilst she was still job hunting.

Ijeoma started off her entrepreneurial journey with that one client, and without a proper company structure - no name, no logo, no staff…nothing. However, she received a number of referrals from that client which led her to formally register a company. Once that was done, everything else had to fall into place. In retrospect, when Ijeoma thinks of her entrepreneurial journey, she says “I believe it was a situation where opportunity met preparation.”

We all have hope and aspirations for our lives. For Ijeoma, hers will be to expand her team, together with their strategic partnerships, network globally and grow their service offerings, especially in the corporate sectors. “So far, we have been fortunate to work with a few Nigerian Government parastatals, indigenous leading SMEs and corporations in fashion, beauty, lifestyle and retail sectors; also a multinational NGO and international consumer brands.”

For Ndekwu, they will continue to seek new ways to add value to this existing client base and offer their clients PR opportunities through strategic partnerships on the African Continent and globally. However, they will remain a boutique PR Firm. “Ultimately, we would like to be the ‘go-to’ PR Firm in Nigeria for personalized, detail-oriented public and media relations services.

This has been a key success factor for us and I think it will be of higher importance in the future, as public relations begin to have more of a definitive role for Nigerian brands and corporations.” Said Ijeoma.

Ask her about her company and she will readily tell you “We are a close-knit team who not only work passionately to create and execute successful campaigns for our clients, but we are also very involved in our individual career growth paths. It is important that my team see value in the work they are doing.”

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osin Lawson is the CEO of African Things. She is a graduate of the University of Nottingham with a BEng (Hons) in Product Design and Manufacture. Coming up with new designs, whether it’s a new logo or a new product is what she lives for. Every time she is out with friends or family, she is constantly observing her surroundings and getting new inspiration for new designs and solutions especially to empower Africans.

Her aim is to produce creative designs that contribute to make the world an easier and more enjoyable place. With her background in Product design, she is able to be more creative and find new ways to improve the current designs that they have available.

Tosin was selected as one of 1000 entrepreneurs around Africa to take part in Tony Elumelu’s Entrepreneurship program; A program that aims to develop and provide seed money for up-coming businesses in Africa.

African Things aims to change the negative image associated with African manufacture and be a symbol of high-quality products while empowering Africans. African Things designs and produces a wide range of African inspired products to all kinds of wholesale customers both in Nigeria and overseas.

Since their start in 2013, they have taken part in African Fashion Week Nigeria and have been featured on Total Woman magazine, Complete Fashion, Star Gist, Ebony live and other popular media channels.

We currently supply to over 30 retail outlets including Spar (Park ‘n’ Shop), Hubmart, Jumia, Amazon, Game, Mega Plaza, Terra Kulture, School Kit, Konga and more.

The company makes contemporary African inspired lifestyle products that are functional with innovative designs in a manner that empowers Africans. They aim to change the negative image associated with African manufacture and be a symbol for high quality products whilst at the same time empowering Africans. So far in their product range, they have produced back-

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packs, bow ties, earrings and bangles and several other fashion related items.

They have expanded to more lifestyle products such as plates, towels and kitchen appliances using African fabric and materials. They manufacture from a variety of factories based here in Nigeria and China.

Over time, they also aim to set up their own factory here in Nigeria, thereby creating jobs and wealth creation.

People start businesses for various reasons and for Lawson; she says she started African Things to promote African designs and culture in everyday lifestyle. “After schooling abroad and seeing how foreigners saw Africans, often as poor and backward, I was very inspired when I returned home and saw that Nigerian fashion design especially in the area of accessories was beginning to boom”. She believed she could push the business further to international standards and include lifestyle items such as plates, household furniture and home accessories and yes she did.

On what inspires her, she says they get their inspiration from “Africa of the old”. In her words, “Our African culture is rich in tradition, colour and excitement, but due to westernisation, young people are rapidly losing touch with Africa, especially in their lifestyles. We want to modernize Africa, specifically the way the western world sees us.”

For Lawson, with African Things, customers can feel connected with their roots by using their products such as backpacks, jewellery and more in their everyday lives without feeling embarrassed to say it’s African.

Tosin’s entrepreneurial journey has been very exciting, mixed with a lot of stressful moments. “Thank God for my Mother who has always been there giving me advice and sharing all her business knowledge with me.

When I first started out and was doing a lot of door to door sales, she was the one who told me to sell on a larger scale to stores and I took her advice and did just that. Thanks to that great advice, African Things has expanded faster than I even thought possible.” She said.

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