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news you can trust ** tuesday 13 october 2020 I vol. 19, no 670

Crude Oil $41.78

I

N300

Buy

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ntb

www.

Dangote Cement plc

Axxela Nsp-spv Funding 1 (Natural Gas) PowerCorp plc plc

386.00

0.00

-0.04

-0.86

0.00

0.01

-0.10

379.00

1.33

4.05

6.37

6.87

7.75

9.48

$-N 450.00 466.00 1m £-N 600.00 616.00 Currency Futures 28-Oct-20 388.88 €-N 540.00 554.00 ($/N)

g

FGN

MTN Nigeria plc CP

Spot ($/N) 29-Apr-21 5-Mar-21 23-Jul-30 30-Apr-25 20-May-27 27-Feb-34

Market

₦5,295,669.04 +0.37

Foreign Exchange

Benchmark Sovereign & Corporate Bonds

3m 2m 25-nov-20 30-Dec-20 391.71 394.55

6m 12m 31-Mar-21 29-Sept-21 403.06

420.09

60m 36m 27-Sept-23 24- Sept-25 497.46

589.09

*NTB - Nigerian Treasury Bills; *CP - Commercial Paper

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#EndSARS: Businesses bleed as protest rocks Nigeria

Threatens business existence, prospective investors – NECA Dissolution first step to reform – Buhari Sanwo-Olu to brief Buhari today Lack of business plan, structures CSO petitions US, UK, EU to slam visa ban on Oyo CP, family members squeeze millions of Nigerian SMEs

Frank Eleanya, Lagos, REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan, & Tony Ailemen, Chiedozie Emmanuel, Abuja

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day after the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, announced the disbandment of the Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS), protest has continued across Nigeria.

Yesterday, activities around the

Lagos International Airport experienced difficulties as #ENDSARS protesters formed a human wall around the airport’s access plaza.

The blockade of the road caused serious gridlock, with most motorists stuck on the road as at midday, as the protest was bound to disrupt travelling activities at the airport.

The protest, which entered its fourth day in a row on Monday,

made movement within the commercial city of Lagos very difficult.

As early as 4am in Lagos, protesters occupied strategic major roads like Lekki Tollgate, Lekki Link Bridge tollgate leading to a complete standstill along the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

Businesses and employees working along the axis have to call in to Continues on page 30

Odinaka Anudu

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mmanuel Okezie is a shoemaker at Faulks Road, Aba, Abia State. Even with his N60,000 monthly revenue, Okezie is not registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and does not have

a separate business bank account. He mixes his personal income with his business revenue, and dips his hand into his bank account to pay his two children’s school fees and take care of his home.

One analyst predicts Continues on page 30

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news Strike: Government mulls proscription of ASUU among other options John Osadolor, Abuja

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ederal Government may proscribe the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the teachers’ union refusal to call off its over eight months strike, BusinessDay learns.

Lecturers in state and federal universities have been on strike since March 9, 2020, over the government’s insistence that the teachers must register on the Integrated Personnel Payment Information System (IPPIS), which the government says will enable it know the number of university teachers in its employ and the cost of running the university system, and also help it fight corruption.

Lecturers of state-owned universities who are members of ASUU are on strike in solidarity with their federal counterparts, except those in privately owned universities.

Sources close to the office of the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, discloses to BusinessDay that the government is considering several options of making the teachers return to the classrooms, but top among them are proscription of ASUU or “float an online Integrated Personnel Payment Information System (IPPIS), which is the main object of the strike to allow university lecturers who are interested in registering on IPPIS to do their registration seamlessly.

“Upon completion of their registration, each lecturer will print this form, attach a recent passportphotographtohisform and submit to the Vice Chancellor for signature and onward submission to the office of the AccountantGeneralfortheFederation, who will do the needful by paying the registered staff.”

BusinessDay learns that while the conservative staff of the ministry and its departments and agencies at a meeting where the decisions on what options available to government to return the teachers to work are pushing for the second option, the hardliners are said to be pushing for the proscription of ASUU. The parley where the options were laid out, it was learnt, held last week at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja headquarters of the ministry.

A source at the meeting said the officials also agreed that “lecturers who have their registration completed ‘on the IPPIS platform’ will be paid their February salaries only,” while “the next salary will be paid with effect from the date the lecturer registered.”

Academic staff members of federal and state universities have not been paid salaries since February this year.

This, according to the source, is to ensure the implementation of the ‘no work, no pay’ rule as contained in the nation’s extant labour laws.

A document seen by BusinessDay detailing the deci-

sions reached at the meeting states, “a lecturer is deemed to have called off the strike only after he/she has registered on IPPIS. There is no doubt that many lecturers are willing to register on IPPIS.” “Apart from the online registration, the Federal Government has the option of out-rightly proscribing ASUU,” while the document alleges that the ASUU had in the recent past physically assaulted its members who were willing and ready to register on the IPPIS registration platform.

It was learnt that the hardliners at the meeting were of the view that ASUU leadership allegedly resorted to physically assaulting its members who wanted to register on the IPPIS platform to prevent them from doing so, adding that was enough ground to proscribe the over 50,000 – strong – member teachers’ union.

“There are two good reasons why government should ban ASUU as an organisation.

First, there were allegations that ASUU officials physically assaulted lecturers from registering on the IPPIS platform. This is enough reason to ban ASUU. The association has no right under any law whatsoever to physically assault its members.

“Secondly, at the time of the national and global pandemic, otherwise called Covid-19, when the entire world is searching for a cure through laboratory research, Nigeria’s ASUU found it very convenient to embark on an indefinite strike when they should be doing research to come up with vaccines to tackle the pandemic,” the document states.

Other options under consideration are for the government to recruit lectures from Eastern Europe, after sacking those who refused to enrol on IPPIS, and “the government can also religiously implement the policy on adequate Graduate Assistant Engagement, where the best three students in any department will be retained as graduate assistants,” in line with the recent President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval that the best brains from each institution be retained as academic staff.”

“Also open to government is the option of retiring all academic staff who have refused to enrol on IPPIS and introduce the system of parttime lecturing as it is being done in the United States of America. In addition, all doctorate students should also take up lecturing as part of their doctorate programme,” the document notes.

Ben Bem Goong, head of media, Federal Ministry of Education, told BusinessDay in Abuja that the options open to the government and ASUU in resolving the crisis were many but declined further comment.

Meanwhile, Oghenekaro Moses Ogbinaka, former Uni-

Continues on page 31 www.businessday.ng

Nigeria sees shortfall in grains production as flood destroys harvest

… to quicken food inflation Josephine Okojie

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rom rice, maize to wheat, Nigeria is going to see a sharp decline in its grains production as floods have destroyed over 20 percent harvest across the nation.

Not less than 3 million hectares of farmland of rice, maize and sorghum across the country have been submerged by water, thus, sparking fears of food insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation.

The situation has also led to the loss of billions of naira worth of investment across the grain value chain, especially in Northern Nigeria where the bulk of the country’s food crops are cultivated.

Similarly, farmers who are already suffering from the devastating effect of coronavirus outbreak may be heading for the worst, while manufacturers that utilised grains as an industrial raw material will experience a drop in output.

“We are going to experience a shortfall in maize, rice and wheat production, especially in 2021. This is because the dry maize and other grains that will be used up in the agro-allied industry next year is cultivated this year,” Ayodeji Balogun, country manager, AFEX Commodities Exchange Nigeria, notes, saying, “Prices of major grains are going to escalate and the country’s inflation rate will also accelerate.”

Climate change has been

altering and disrupting the farming cycle in the country for over three years, leading to a surge in importation.

However, with the naira devaluation and importers’ inability to access foreign exchange for imports, local prices of grains have surged by over 15 percent within a month.

BusinessDay survey at some markets in Lagos shows that the average price of a 50kg of local parboiled rice now sells for N29,000 as against N23,500 sold a month ago, indicating a 23.4-percentage rise in price.

A 100kg bag of sorghum sells for N23,800 as against N15,800 sold a month ago, while a metric ton sells for N238,000 as against N158,000 in September, indicating a

51-percentage rise in price.

Similarly, a metric ton of maize now sells for N150,000 as against N180,000 sold a month ago, indicating a 20-percent drop, which experts attribute to the government waiver for some firms to import maize.

Nigeria’s food inflation accelerated to 16 percent in August, while core inflation edge up to 13.22 percent in August 2020, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

“About 400,000 hectares of our rice farm in Anambra is currently flooded and we have suspended planting because of the floods,” a stakeholder who does not want his name on print, states.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor, Lagos State, addressing #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, yesterday.

Poor funding for rural electrification drags down rural economic growth HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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he Nigerian government’s poor funding of its Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is already taking toll as regards growing rural economy and providing power to the unserved and undeserved, industry stakeholders say.

The stakeholders are also worried that 83 million offgrid electricity consumers in Nigeria may not be able to have access to power to contribute economically to the country’s growth, with government’s near absolute dependence on development partners to drive its rural electrification programmes.

There are concerns that the poor funding has seen over dependence on World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB). For instance, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which ought to remit a certain percentage of funds to the rural electrification fund after its an-

nual audit, has not been able to meet the obligation, citing liquidity in the power sector.

Sanusi Ohiare, executive director, Rural Electrification Fund, told BusinessDay, “NERC is supposed to determine by the end of the year what all the licencees and the eligible customers were supposed to pay to Rural Electrification Fund to drive rural electrification, but they are yet to do that. This has dragged down the progress of the agency heavily.”

According to Ohiare, the on-grid electricity consumers are getting all support while leaving out 83 million Nigerians who do not have access at all, which is nearly half of the population.

“We can’t be spending all money on the on-grid while off-grid consumers are left with no source of funding,” Ohiare said.

Ohiare, while decrying lack of funds by the commission to fulfil its mandate, said the agency might be forced

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to seek an alternative source of funding to drive its programmes.

“If this source of fund from the market is not forth coming, we would need the regulator to help us determine another alternative source of fund, may be from the consolidated revenue, petroleum sector. We may be looking at renewable energy development fund or charge something similar to stamp duty,” he suggested.

The REA’s mandate is focused on provision of electricity in unserved and undeserved communities across the country to catalyse economic growth and improve quality of lives of Nigerians.

The REA secured funding of $350 million from the World Bank and $200 million from AfDB to drive the National Electrification Project. The objective of the National Electrification Project is to deploy solar hybrid mini grids to serve over 2 million Nigerians and over 10,000 SMEs as well as deploy solar homes system @Businessdayng

to 1.5 million households.

Findings show that most of these projects are World Bank and AfDB assisted, which put to test its sustainability and ambitious bid of providing access to unserved consumers by 2030, as outlined by the United Nation’s Sustainable Energy for all.

Ify Malo, a renewable energy expert and executive director of Clean Technology Hub, wants the government to reconsider the duty cost of imported renewable energy equipment to enable easier access for alternative energy source.

“The East African cities have made appreciable progress because they addressed the concerns of import duty. There are lots of lessons we could learn from that,” she notes.

According to Najim Animashaun, a renewable energy expert, Nigeria needs to be creative in driving energy mix and energy transition programme to stimulate wealth creation in major cities as well as undeserved areas across the country.

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Whatever happened to EU’s integrity with the Philippines?

DAN STEINBOCK

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ecently, the EU Parliament adopted a resolution denouncing the state of human rights and press freedom in the Philippines. However, the resolution seems to rely on flawed data, political agendas and prejudicial bias.

In Brussels, the resolution got 626 votes in favor, only seven against, and 52 abstentions. Nine of ten members of European Parliament (MEPs) voted for it.

Despite its stated concern for ordinary Filipinos, the resolution seems to reflect dubious cooperation between a small group of European parliamentarians and Philippine Liberal Party (LP) leaders who suffered a dramatic loss in 2016 – and who now seem to be positioning for the impending 2022 election.

But why would Brussels allow itself to be used in a way that risks European credibility?

PH drug explosion escalated under Aquino The European resolution is based on estimates of Philippine extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations, which differ dramatically from the official figures.

EU member states are pushing for an “independent international investigation” following Duterte’s presidency in 2016.

There may be a reason why the resolution is not keen to explore the magnitude of drug trade, corruption and human rights violations before 2016.

In the Philippines, Duterte’s government is the first that has taken the drug problem seriously, as do most Filipinos whose neighborhoods were invaded by drugs during the era of former President Benigno Aquino III (2010-16). That’s when drug syndicates began to produce meth, which caused illegal drug trade to soar to $8 billion.

US State Department had warned that drug trade and its funding could have a corruptive impact on Philippines politics.

Yet, the drug problem was downplayed by Philippine media and largely ignored by international media.

It was only after Duterte launched the war against the drugs that critics awoke, as Google Trend search evidences. Since

2016, there have been several surges, which reflect concerted, coordinated international pressure campaigns – but ones whose combined impact has progressively declined (Figure).

Story mentions about the Philippine drugs in worldwide media.

Sources: Google Trends; various Philippines, international, US and UN Sources The real question is where was the concerted international response when it was really needed prior to 2016?

Staggering costs of drugs and corruption Before the 2016 election, the initial anticipation was that LP would win six more years with Manuel “Mar” Roxas as President Aquino’s designated successor. As the former interior minister and exinvestment banker in Wall Street, Roxas was seen as a sure bet. But Filipinos disagreed and Duterte won in a landslide victory.

Only days in the office, Duterte named half a dozen “narco-generals” believed to be protecting drug lords that allowed shabu (meth) sales to flourish during the Aquino era. Some were linked with Roxas who denied all ties with the so-called “Roxas generals.” Yet, some heavyweights, such as General Marcelo Garbo, the perceived “protector of drug syndicates,” had been identified among police generals in a closed-door meeting with Roxas’s staff at Manila’s Novotel Hotel.

Based on official data from June 2016 to July 2019, 135,000 anti-drug operations were conducted and 193,000 people were arrested. While 5,526 suspects died in 135,000 anti-drug police operations, over $720 billion worth of drugs were seized LP leaders accused Duterte of inflating the drug problem, even though the number of addicts had reportedly soared to an estimated 4 million people.

According to independent international re-

search, the cumulative value of illicit flows soared to more than $1 trillion in emerging Southeast Asia between 2003 and 2014. In country comparisons, the Philippines and Vietnam each lost over $90 billion in illicit financial flows during the period. Moreover, independent international data supports Duterte’s ‘narco-state’ concern. Between 2003 and 2013, Colombia lost “only” $15 billion in cumulative illicit flows, whereas the Philippines lost an estimated $75 billion more.

The question is why did the resolution ignore these cold realities of the drug trade and corruption that accelerated during President Aquino’s term? Without appropriate evidence, an exclusive focus on the opposition narrative fosters an impression of prejudicial bias.

Why LP offshored its rights battles During the ongoing drug war, the wide majority of Filipinos continue to support Duterte. As a result, the Liberal Party has effectively “offshored” the human rights accusations hoping to involve Washington and Brussels in an anti-Duterte crusade. That’s why the European resolution demands the Philippine government to drop all “politically motivated charges” against and the release of Senator Leila de Lima.

It is a demand that most Filipinos see as a travesty of justice. Already in 2016, Discovery Channel showed drug trade and gang leaders’ luxurious life in the New Bilibid Prisons, with the involvement of Senator de Lima who allegedly received millions of pesos in payola money from drug lords and had a 7-year affair with her lucratively-rewarded driver Ronnie Dayan - her money collector for drug protection and campaign finance.

Another role in the misrepresentations seems to belong to Chito Gascon, a veteran LP leader and the head of the Commission of Human Rights since 2015. As Gascon failed to garner adequate human rights support at home, pressure campaigns were taken to selected local and international media. What followed was a series of manufactured human rights “events” (the post-2016 surges in the Figure), often in cooperation with Vice President Leni Robredo.

Like de Lima, Robredo is amid a battle for her political life.

After the 2016 election, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Dr. Dan Steinbock is the founder of Difference Group and has served at the India, China and America Institute (US), Shanghai Institute for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more, see http://www.differencegroup.net/

Oil be there for you

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filed an election protest against Robredo at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which has mysteriously kept the case pending for over four years, thanks to three Aquino-appointed justices, as disclosed by The Manila Times recently.

So, the question is, why would the MEPs allow the EU’s association with a set of Philippine opposition politicians, whose activities seem to be motivated by political self-interest, moral hazard, or criminal conduct?

Not-so-independent media monies The EU resolution decried the “threats, harassments, intimidation, unfair prosecutions, and violence” against journalists in the Philippines. It appealed to drop the case against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and her former researcher; two journalists of the online news organization convicted of cyber libel last June.

To understand the consequent international pressure campaigns, it’s useful to follow the money. Last fall, Ressa was awarded by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which got wide international coverage. What was left unsaid was that the CPJ is funded by Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s controversial founder and Rappler’s billionaire founder. Right after Ressa’s arrest and release, the Omidyar Network and the CPJ raised $500,000 for her legal defense fund.

Despite murky financial flows and politics, Rappler portrays itself as an independent outfit. But as investigative journalists Alexander Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal have reported, “Rappler’s mission in the Philippines appears to have an ulterior and entirely opposite agenda.” The site’s user-tracking model has attracted concern because it couples journalism with behavior profiling.

Last mid-June, Ressa was found guilty of cyber libel. A week later, Hannah Neumann, the key MEP behind the European resolution, interviewed her in a public video streaming. Instead of measured balance, Neumann asked: “Maria, what can we do?” Apparently, Ressa persuaded her to push the EP resolution so that the Philippine government would withdraw all charges against her or risk European trade sanctions. In the process, Rappler’s violations of media legislation and murky financing flows were all conveniently ignored.

CHELSEY ANNE

hile COVID-19 has wrought havoc on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, it may have also brought currents of change paving the way for a brighter, more diversified future Nationwide.

COVID-19 exposed economic vulnerabilities latent in many sectors and industries around the globe. In no sector has this become more apparent than in oil and gas. As the end of April 2020 saw oil prices go negative, OPEC, Russia, and other oil-producers again made another production cut, as producers faced a lack of room to store their goods. According to the latest, global oil producers will reduce total output by 10 percent, a cut of 9.7 million bpd of pro- duction—the largest ever.

This is not the first time Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has brought the country close to economic ruin. In 2014, the country experienced another oil-price shock, leaving the government without a major source of its revenue and hitting the country’s foreign reserves hard, leading

to an economic recession. Thanks to Nigeria’s industry’s structure, it paints a different picture than other oil-producing countries, due to its reliance on the upstream market for its government revenue. Indeed, it is government revenue and foreign reserves that Nigeria loses when oil prices hit rock bottom, as opposed to actual GDP. Oil and gas make up for around 9 percent of Nigeria’s GDP, this same contribution in other oil-producing nations is anywhere from 30 to 50 percent. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the petroleum sector makes up around 80 percent of the federal government’s revenue and perhaps more importantly, 90 percent of its export earnings.

As such, it is from the upstream market that Nigeria sees the most benefit from its oil and gas reserves, mostly in the form of rent and exports. In contrast, the downstream sub-sector accounts for less than 1 percent of its GDP, while the government spends billions of naira on subsidies for imported refined-oil products.

As such, in the pre-COVID-19 world, in

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addition to diversification, the government encouraged investment in refineries by local players to increase midstream and downstream markets. With its Direct sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) contract, Nigeria downstream producers could exchange crude oil for refined oils from European, Asian, and American markets, thus lessening the pressure on foreign exchange used for oil imports into the country.

The current distress that the system is experiencing on a global scale shows that the imbalance between supply and demand is not only there, but hugely problematic for even the largest economies. COVID-19 could be the real push that oil-reliant countries need to diversify into greener pastures, bringing about change not only for the planet but for national economies as well. According to a recent Oxford University study co-written by economist Joseph Stiglitz, projects on clean energy infrastructure are expected to create twice as many jobs as fossil fuel projects, while driving down costs of the clean energy transition.

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For Nigeria, this could mean exploiting the country’s solar resources in its north, 5 percent of which, according to estimates, could generate 42,700MW. Infrastructure for hydropower generation and other green energy the country is already using, could also be increased. While it is clear that COVID-19 has brought hardship, it has also brought about greater solidarity in Nigeria’s business community with the Coalition Against COVID-19. Even the NNPC and other oil players have pledged $30 million to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control in the health battle against the virus. And who knows?

Perhaps the current world-wide situation and this increased cooperation between local private sector players may be just what Nigeria needs to build a more stable and diversified economy that is not solely reliant on the whims of the global marketplace.

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The endless fantasy of prosperity (1)

The issue of concern is how not to be a failed state STRATEGY & POLICY

MA JOHNSON

W

hen Louis “pop” Armstrong of blessed memory sang the song “What a Wonderful World” in 1967, this writer was barely a teenager. With the current state of the world it is now that I think to myself; what a wonderful world? A world where friends shake hands in public, saying “I love you” only to go behind doors to ferment trouble for themselves and humanity. In spite of much hatred and violence in the world, it is still beautiful. How wonderful the world would have been if only we had given it a chance for improvement.

There is always a chance for improvement and growth but coronavirus has brought with it bad times.

The pandemic has exposed weaknesses everywhere in the world. In Brazil, it has shown a story of inequality and political dysfunction.

Coronavirus has exposed vulnerabilities of millions of migrant workers in India. Lebanon’s endemic corruption has been brought out.

The opacity of the Chinese government has been exposed. In Nigeria, the pandemic has laid bare the dependency of Nigeria on cheap commodities like crude oil. There has been unrest in some parts of the world, from Minneapolis to Brasilia, from Beirut to Minsk because these societies are found wanting. And it brings to the fore the leadership question.

Since the early part of the year 2020, I have been wondering what

would be going on in the minds of economists globally. It is because of the negative impact of the COVID-19 on the global economy.

Before the pandemic, economists have succeeded for several decades to convince us that growth was not only desirable but normal and expected in any country. So, growth became the solution to most of the economic problems encountered such as poverty and unemployment. In almost 6 years of this column, I have realized from seminars, conferences and professional development programs that we live in a culture of growth; to question it, could be regarded as an attack on the culture.

Anyway, the role of most governments is to facilitate and promote growth, and perhaps to ensure that the economy is not out of control. A failure of growth became inconceivable. No one prays for occasional downturns which economists refer to as recession. If there was recession, it would be followed by recovery of the economy depending on policies and how they are implemented. But when one does not see the recovery, questions would be asked.

When the growth is sluggish, the citizenry is duty bound to ask questions, raise observations and complain because they want to be prosperous. Citizens want to be rich and successful. They want to make money. But prosperity depends on economic growth, according to economists. Some economists go to the extent of explaining that for a people to be prosperous, their country whether in black Africa or Latin America must enjoy a period of peace and prosperity. I cannot fault this assertion because I have either travelled to or lived in few countries that are classified as prosperous where the standard of living of their people can be regarded as above average. I have equally visited

and/or lived in poor nations where the standard of living of citizens is barely average.

But with population growth higher than economic growth, even a prosperous nation would ultimately have its citizens earn low wages, and its working class will gravitate gradually into poverty unless there is an urgent intervention by the government. Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are not impressive these days. For some time, Nigeria’s economic output was stagnant with rising inflation and high unemployment.

At the time of writing, inflation was 16 percent. Unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2020 was 27.1 percent. According to available statistics, Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment rate (28.6%) is a combined 55.7 percent. Prices of food items and other commodities have been increasing. Some Nigerians are losing their jobs as a result of the weak economy. In addition, there are security challenges across the entire country.

Poverty has hit historic heights.

One keeps wondering how Nigeria arrived at this point. At the last count of those who are poor in Nigeria, the NBS reckoned 82 million Nigerians live on less than $1 a day. This unexciting figure ranked Nigeria as the country with the highest number of poor people in the world, according to reports. Forty percent of people in Nigeria live in poverty, according to the statistics office recently. Mr President has, however, promised to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years. To cap it all, the 2020 fragile States Index ranks Nigeria as the 14th most fragile state out of 178 countries in the world and 9th in Africa.

The Failed State Index does not provide all the answers needed to be a prosperous nation. But the index is a starting point for a national debate about why states fail and what could

‘

To some, it is a reality that Nigeria is failing.

While others’ perception of Nigeria is that she is a prosperous nation. Truth be told, what Nigerians ought to be debating now and working assiduously towards actualising is how Nigeria will not be a

be done at all levels of government to prevent failure. With these figures compounded by worsening security challenges, some state officials want Nigerians to keep quiet by adopting a “conspiracy of silence.” Whether Nigeria is a failed state or not depends on the lens being used to gaze at the country’s economic data.

To some, it is a reality that Nigeria is failing. While others’ perception of Nigeria is that she is a prosperous nation. Truth be told, what Nigerians ought to be debating now and working assiduously towards actualizing is how Nigeria will not be a failed state. In the midst of the current weak economic performance, one would certainly expect some analysts to criticize the government in power and its policies.

To object to someone’s opinion on the state of the nation by verbally attacking his or her personality instead of addressing the issue of concern is to say the least anti-democratic and unprogressive. I thought most state officials in the government are progressives. I was proved wrong by some state officials who are intolerant to ideas that matter.

So, what can any Nigerian say that will attract insults? While we may forget the personality of an individual expressing his or her personal opinion on the state of the nation, let us look at the issue of concern.

The issue of concern, according to reports, was ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s quoted view that only self-deluded people will claim that all is well in Nigeria and warned that the country was becoming a failed state and a basket case that urgently needs to be pulled from the brink of collapse. This to my mind should generate a debate, not broadsides.

(To continue) Johnson is an author and a retired naval engineer who has passion for African development and good governance

Braving the challenges of foreign private equity investment in Nigeria

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igeria has witnessed a steady decline in Foreign Direct Investment in recent time. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Foreign Direct Investment was $1.19 Billion in 2018 while only $934.34 million was received in 2019. Several reasons account for this trend, including drop in global oil and commodity prices, poor macroeconomic policies, insecurity and currency volatility.

One recent concern has now been management conflict that has been witnessed between Nigerian companies and their Foreign Private Equity Investors. A recent example of such conflict is that of Health Plus and Car45.

These conflicts have become matters of litigation and arbitration.

When conflicts like this occur, it sends a wrong signal to other prospective investors, who may tag Nigeria as an unsafe investment destination and avoid any investment in our economy.

Foreign Private Equity Funds normally have an average span of between Five and Ten years. The legal structures most commonly used as a vehicle for private equity funds are: Limited companies under the Companies and Allied Matters Act chapter C20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and General

or Limited Partnerships, or the newer Limited Liability Partnerships under the Partnership Law of Lagos State 2009 (as amended).

Offshore registered funds can only solicit investments from investors in Nigeria with SEC approval.

There is transaction documentation which must be in place including: Non-disclosure agreements and term sheets; Offer documentation; Due diligence reports (legal, financial, tax, and technical); Share purchase or subscription agreements; Shareholders agreements; and Disclosure letters. Each of these documents lay the foundation for a proper transaction.

If all the processes stated above are in place, there should normally be a seamless transaction. The issues we have with conflict arising thereafter are actually two sided. One, on the part of the Nigerian Company who receive the Foreign Private Equity and the Foreign Private Equity Company.

Let us start with the Nigerian Companies.

Sometimes, at the point of drawing up the investment agreements, all relevant terms to ensure needless conflict including exit strategy etc are not properly drawn up. You also have cases of diversion of funds from the intended investment by the Nigerian firms. When funds

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are received from the foreign investors, some Nigerian Companies will prefer to divert the funds to other businesses than use it for what was stated in the agreement. There is also the issue of poor corporate governance and management structure.

On the part of the Foreign Private Equity Firms, our research shows that some of them actually do not fulfil their obligations as stated in the agreements regarding milestone fund injection. This may be due to breach of agreement on the part of the Nigerian partners as well. The issue of greed also comes in at the point of existing transactions. Knowing the size of the Nigerian market, some may be reluctant to relinquish their holdings when they should. Failure to structure regular audits of the Nigerian firms also led to Foreign Private Equity Investors losing track of the business they invested in and how their money was deployed.

Whatever the case, trust remains sacrosanct to effectively pull through a profitable partnership. As much as possible, Nigerian business owners must first be committed to abiding by the contract as agreed. For instance, in the on-going case of HealthPlus Limited, comments from both sides point to poor corporate governance as a major factor affecting the fortune of the business. While

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OLUYOMI MARTINS the Founder said enough money has not been provided for the operations, the investors insisted money has been provided, with more to come only if KPIs are met, hence the appointment of a Chief Transformation Officer for the Company.

Venture Capitalists and Private Equity Investors want to invest their monies where the prospects are high. The Nigerian economy presents a veritable platform for such investments. The successes of some Nigerian businesses that have such foreign partnerships speaks to the fact that it is not all gloomy. What is required is diligence and deliberate efforts at following through on the agreements.

It always takes two to tangle in any business transaction to avoid unnecessary and avoidable conflicts. It is important to adhere to rules as agreed and put transaction monitoring strategies in place to nip any variation in the bud speedily.

Martins is a Financial Services Advisory Consultant and the MD/CEO Black Martins & Company Limited.

@Businessdayng

Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMMENT

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Shifting global demographics: An African opportunity? (4)

RAFIQ RAJI

A

frica still has time to benefit from the age of labour (1) Century after century, technological progress has failed to produce massive job losses or the feared “technological unemployment”.

Robots can and do take over routine tasks (and increasingly some non-routine ones), with job losses owing to factor substitution. But evidence of job losses due to 4IR is scarce. Author Daniel Susskind argues in his 2020 book A World without work: Technology, automation and how we should respond that while machines take over some jobs, they add value to the jobs they do not take over.

The total value from the complementarities of the “pro-

ductivity effect”, “bigger-pie effect” and “changing-pie effect” generates more demand and thus new jobs (Susskind, 2020).

That is, they create as many or more jobs as they displace.

There is wide agreement on this thesis. This motivates Susskind (2020) to assert that the current “Age of Labour” will continue for decades.

Human labour has repeatedly proven its utility in the face of many innovations over the past centuries, and humans are intrinsically more adaptable than machines. Thus, people should continue to add value regardless of how proficient machines become. And as the past two industr ial revolutions each lasted for at least forty years, one could reasonably assume that the fourth will probably last as long. Also, as the digital technologies of the fourth industrial revolution would transform production and its inputs in unprecedented ways, the cycle may take longer to fully evolve. In other words, its impacts may emerge more slowly than the hype suggests.

In his 2020 book How innovation works: And why it flour-

ishes in freedom, author Matt Ridley highlights famed futurist Roy Amara’s portrayal of how we tend to overestimate the impact of a new technology in the short run but underestimate it in the long run. Artificial intelligence’s underwhelming evolution to date almost certainly reflects the Amara hype cycle (Ridley, 2020). He makes the point succinctly: “I am not saying autonomous cars won’t happen, just that we are likely to be underestimating the time it will take and the disappointments along the way (Ridley, 2020).”

So, Africa probably still has time to leverage its demography for growth over the next thirty years or so. And this cycle could very well last longer than that. That said, with the skill level and labour intensity of the past industrial revolutions inversely proportional to each other, there is little doubt that production-related sectors will need less labour in the future.

Regardless, thirty years is more than enough for Africa to earn its demographic dividend.

It took China just thirty-five years to transition from an

‘

Human labour has repeatedly proven its utility in the face of many innovations over the past centuries, and humans are intrinsically more adaptable than machines.

Thus, people should continue to add value regardless of how proficient machines become

agrarian economy to an industrial powerhouse, for instance.

Africa could very well have as much as eighty years to do likewise and equip its population for the inevitable future of high technology.

This is because “even at the century’s end, tasks are likely to remain that are either hard to automate, unprofitable to automate, or possible and profitable to automate but which we will still prefer people to do (Susskind, 2020).” Also, Africa does not need to take as long as China.

Edited & published by the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies at Nanyang Business School, Singapore. References, figures, tables, etc. in original article viz. https ://nbs.ntu. edu.sg/Res earch/Res earchCentres/C AS/Publications/ Documents/NTU-SBF%20 CAS%20ACI%20Vol.%20202032.pdf “Dr Raji is chief economist at Macroafricaintel.

He was previously an Africa Economist at Standard Chartered Bank, London, UK. (Twitter: @ DrRafiqRaji)”

Reflections on 60 years of U.S. – Nigerian engagement

S

ixty years ago, this week, Ambassador Joseph Palmer II presented his credentials as the first United States Ambassador to the Government of Nigeria. The occasion presents the opportunity to reflect on the breadth and depth of the partnership between our two great nations, each evolving democratically, over the intervening decades. In his welcome address to the people of Nigeria, President Dwight D. Eisenhower embraced the wishes of a people who cherished individual liberty and independence as we recognised the assumption of Nigeria to its sovereign place in the world community.

Considering these remarks, I have delighted in spending some time taking stock of just how far our relationship has come. Reflecting on President Eisenhower’s recognition of our mutual priorities in global health, economic prosperity and above all else a democratic way of life, I am struck by the continuity of interests in our bilateral relationship. Still, Eisenhower could have never imagined the challenges a pandemic like COVID-19 would pose. We laud and respect the vigilance adopted by the government and people of Nigeria to close borders, restrict public gatherings and to adopt public health recommendations.

Over the past twenty years the United States has invested $8.1 billion in foreign assistance in Nigeria, including more than $5.3 billion in health assistance. In

2020, we provided more than $57 million in assistance for the COVID-19 response, including U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiological COVID detection surveys and technical assistance and service plans.

Following a conversation between Presidents Trump and Buhari, reflecting the bond of this U.S. president’s first-ever conversation with an African president during his tenure in office, we delivered 200 ventilators to Nigeria through the efforts of USAID. Similarly, we celebrated with all Nigerians as the country attained the wild polio virus-free status, through an effort in which we were proud to invest approximately $200 million since 2012.

Perhaps our greatest gains have come through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, through which we have invested more than $5.3 billion to support Nigeria’s HIV response and provided lifesaving HIV treatment for nearly one million Nigerians.

Our bilateral work has also expanded in the world of trade. The United States is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, and two-way trade has expanded to a value of over $9 billion. The mission has welcomed the U.S. Commercial Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, and most recently an office from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to render assistance in expanding the economies of our two great nations

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while reducing the number of those impoverished.

As we continue to develop and expand our partnership with training and equipment between our militaries, we do so with the singular focus of increasing security while reinforcing democratic institutions with a keen eye on fundamental human rights. Through USAID’s democracy, human rights and governance investments we support responsive governance at state and local levels, enhanced credibility for elections, and increased capacity for civic engagement.

We witnessed progress as recently as the Edo elections last month and look forward to peaceful and transparent elections in Ondo state. Recognising the fervent sixtieth anniversary sentiments of both President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo, we look forward to advancing our partnership in shaping fruitful conversations on resolving conflicts which too often take on unfortunate religious and ethnic dimensions.

Sixty years ago, President Eisenhower recognized the many Nigerians who studied in the United States. In a new century, I meet graduates from American universities in virtually every sector here in Nigeria and know how much they contribute to Nigeria’s development while bringing our great nations closer together.

In the last twenty years we have welcomed over 150,000 Nigerian students to the U.S. and supported thousands of others

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MARY BETH LEONARD on professional development-oriented exchange programs. These extraordinarily beneficial exchanges are among the strongest pillars in reinforcing mutual understanding between our great nations.

We have benefited from the positive role Nigerians in America have played, just as we look back with pride on how our sixty years of diplomatic relations have blossomed to support a broad array of mutual priorities ranging from agricultural productivity and entrepreneurial knowledge, to strengthening the rule of law across the 36 states of Nigeria.

Three American presidents from both major political parties have officially visited Nigeria, while five Nigerian presidents from different parties have officially visited the United States. We look forward with hope, optimism, and anticipation to ensuring decades of growth in our partnership, and to the leadership that Nigeria will continue to play in advancing a more secure and prosperous SubSaharan Africa.

Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard, U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

EDITORIAL PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Frank Aigbogun EDITOR Patrick Atuanya

DEPUTY EDITORS John Osadolor, Abuja Lolade Akinmurele NEWS EDITOR Osa Victor Obayagbona NEWS EDITOR (Online) Chuks Oluigbo MANAGING DIRECTOR Dr. Ogho Okiti EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha ADVERT MANAGER Ijeoma Ude MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (South East, South South) Patrick Ijegbai COPY SALES MANAGER Florence Kadiri DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu

2021: Imperative of participatory budgeting Shunning inputs from target beneficiaries renders any budget a waste

P

resident Buhari on Thursday presented the 2021 budget proposal of N13.08 trillion in expenditure, to the National Assembly.

Beyond the question of whether or not the budget is dead on arrival, it is important to score the budget on how participatory this newly proposed budget is.

One common feature of the budgeting process in Nigeria is that politicians decide what to include in the budget, without getting the required input from the target beneficiaries – the masses.

The result is that community participation is non-existent both at the federal and state government levels with glaring consequences such as misplaced priority, project duplication and abandonment.

Since the return of democracy in 1999, efforts at participatory governance have never received the full backing of the ruling class, because it is perceived as a threat to their collective interests. One important aspect of governance where citizens have continuously been alienated is on budgetary issues.

Budgeting in Nigeria is seen as an exclusive preserve of the executive arm of government, especially as it concerns budget preparation and implementation, with the

legislature participating during the appropriation and audit stages. The only opportunity given to citizens to participate in the process is at the public hearing sessions.

A budget is the principal instrument of fiscal policy used to encourage stable growth, sustainable development and prosperity in the economy and is a key instrument for macroeconomic management.

The budget is also a tool for the implementation of social, political and economic policies and priorities which impact on the lives of the population. As a planned course of action, a budget depends heavily on information, analysis and projections.

Hence, a successful budget must be a product of a process that is based on sound and quality information, rigorous impact analysis and an effective feedback mechanism to internalise lessons of past budgets.

Why is participatory or inclusive budgeting important? It is important because the resources collected, be it taxation or petroleum royalties being used by federal, state or local governments belong to the people.

There is no development that is not people-oriented, hence the need to carry the target beneficiaries along in the conceptualisation, articulation, approval, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in Nigeria.

A recent study by the Department for International Development (DFID) on the budget and budgeting process in Nigeria revealed that thirteen (13) states have no information on their budget for public consultation. Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Edo, Imo, Rivers, and Zamfara states have no mechanisms for the public to be involved in any phase of the budget process.

Participatory budgeting’s root lies in a radical democratic project led by the Workers’ Party in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1984. Since then, the idea has spread around the world in several waves. First was Brazil then Peru where the national constitution was amended to require all municipal-level governments to use participatory budgets.

Following were such countries as Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, the United States.

(Chicago), India, Indonesia and South Africa. Today, participatory democracy is no longer a localised phenomenon but rapidly expanding across the world. It is also attractive to major international donor agencies like the World Bank, European Union, and USAID, because of its emphasis on citizen empowerment through participation, improved

governance, and better accountability.

One advantage of inclusive (participatory) budgeting is that it entails the community deciding the projects needed for it to develop.

Once the projects are identified and appropriated, targets are set on how to achieve the objectives. For this to be achieved there must be cohesiveness and mutual understanding.

Governments should institute consultative meetings to ensure efficient and effective implementation of the annual budgets, while the constituencies should serve as units of input.

Furthermore, the process should be institutionalised to pave the way for a bottom-up approach in the budget process and to guarantee participation of all stakeholders.

Budget public hearings should be decentralised and brought closer to the people.

The inability of citizens to make input into annual budgets denies them the opportunity to state their needs and to hold the government accountable for not implementing those needs. And without opportunities for citizens’ active participation particularly citizens from marginalised and vulnerable groups, budget systems would only serve the interests of powerful elites who have dominated the political scene since independence.

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan

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

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Tuesday 13, October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS NDDC uncovers plot to divert oil companies’ contribution to UK private account IGNATIUS CHUKWU

T

he Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has just raised alarm, saying it has uncovered plots to divert the entire payments from oil companies to a private account in the UK. The Commission expects over N200Bn from oil companies plus about N65Bn from the FG every year to add to other sundry sources for its yearly operations.

Oil companies are by law to remit three per cent of its annual budgets to the NDDC. This has been an issue because the Commission has long complained that the companies do not allow them access to their annual budgets so as to ascertain what three per cent is.

Next, a consultant was used

over the years to collect the money at a fee of N1Bn each month, making it N12Bn per year, more than the recurrent salaries of workers in one year few years back.

A statement by the Commission Friday, October 9, 2020, evening, said: “It has come to the attention of the NDDC that a security agency, working with unauthorised private individuals, is coercing international oil companies to pay the three percent levy due to the Commission to a private account in the United Kingdom.

“This is an alarming development and a clear case of illegality by elements within that security agency. We wish to state that the law setting up NDDC does not provide for the collection of its revenue by any agency other than the

Commission. Secondly, extant rules, particularly the Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime, mean that all revenue due to any agency of government can only be paid to that agency’s account in the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The NDDC wishes to alert the general public and all stakeholders that it has not authorized any security agency to collect remittances on its behalf. Such payments and or remittances shall never count as statutory payments to the NDDC. “Accordingly, any oil company, invited on such purposes should insist on payment of any such sum to the NDDC account with the Central Bank of Nigeria but not to any other agency’s account.

“Any security agency wishing to recover un-remitted

funds from the IOCs or oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region should do so in collaboration with the management of the NDDC and such refunds should be directed into the accounts of the NDDC with the Central Bank of Nigeria, but not otherwise “Any oil company coerced to make such payments should report same immediately to Mr Clever Okoro, Director, Legal Services, of the Commission on +234 813 011 7590.”

It looks like those keen on looting the commission have no plans to step down as device after device is unleashed. Few weeks back, the Commission said over 50 of the 2019 batch of foreign scholars did not care to go to the UK for schooling, meaning they stayed back in Port Harcourt to collect over $30,000 allowance.

Niger Delta Leaders At NDDC

Macobarb Int’l accuses NLNG of demolishing its base in Bonny despite N969m case pending at NCDMB ...NLNG says it owes nothing to the contractor IGNATIUS CHUKWU

T

he indigenous firm, Macobarb International Limited, which demands N969m from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) for unpaid contract fees and losses over a contract, has cried out again, alleging that its base in Bonny Island of Rivers State within the NLNG complex has been destroyed by the host company without settling the protracted dispute.

The company told newsmen in Port Harcourt in the week that the NLNG has gone ahead to demolish its facility to give way for a fencing project without first resolving the claims dispute despite the matter lying on the tables of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The managing director of Macobarb, Shedrack Ogboru, who spoke to newsmen equally frowned at the delay by the NCDMB in the matter that had been before them for almost one year now. Now, the NLNG has allegedly gone ahead to destroy the contractor’s base as if the case did not exist, he further cried.

The dispute is a claim by Macobarb asking the NLNG to obey the terms of the contract and pay the sum of N969m for lost time and downtime arising from failure to pay for equipment and personnel on site. Instead, he said, the multinational corporation has gone ahead to demolish and destroy Macobarb’s entire facility made up of offices and equipment.

The NLNG has since denied any such liability to Macorbab, telling newsmen that the NLNG terminated the contract and paid the contractor the much he deserved. The NLNG had said through their then head

of corporate communications, Andy Odeh, that the multinational corporation was not responsible for the loans the contractor took.

Ogboru has continued to press for the N969m claim, saying it was the NLNG that caused the crisis in the contract by violating the critical clause in the contract, which is that NLNG must not owe for milestone executed. He said the NLNG failed severally to pay for approved milestones and that this caused financial crisis and messed up the contract.

He also said the NLNG did not pay off the contractor and detained equipment and men on site and should have to pay for them as provided for in the contract. But instead of paying for them, the NLNG has gone ahead to demolish Macobarb’s base to give way for a fencing project. H said this was why his firm approached the NCDMB for intervention in 2019, but that nothing seems to be heard from them after initial hearings on December 9, 2019.

He wondered if the NCDMB had given verdict on the dispute and awarded victory to the NLNG without the knowledge of Macobarb officials to the extent of NLNG going ahead to destroy Macobarb facilities.

The contractor which had since accused the NLNG of squeezing it into extinction by refusing to pay the said N969m debt said the latest action as indication that the multinational was out to destroy the local contractor as usual.

The managing director raised fears that the NCDMB has been too slow in reaching a verdict, fearing that what the NLNG used to do to other FG agencies that tried to intervene to save indigenouscompaniesmayhaveequally happened to the NCDMB.

NDDC discovers N1.6Bn overshoot in project milestones

...As Niger Delta leaders pay visit, insist on forensic audit ...Activist, Annkio Briggs, warns that power of NASS to pick and choose what it wanted in the NDDC budget is dangerous IGNATIUS CHUKWU

T

he Niger Delta Development Commission says its new method of project inspect has started yielding fruits with N1.6Bn already saved from false claims of stage of job that came shot. This is as leaders in the oil region have paid a solidarity visit to the Commission and insisted on the forensic audit.

The NDDC Acting Managing Director, the professor of virology, Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, who received the leaders, said in the area of project monitoring, the Commission had since changed its approach.

He explained: “In the recent inspection of just 15 projects by the Executive Director Projects

and his team, the Commission saved N1.6 billion from overstated milestones. They could not match what was on ground with what was presented in Interim Payment Certificates, IPCs. We could have done more of these project inspections but for the distractions coming from our detractors. Nevertheless, we are set to resume the inspection visits.”

The NDDC boss said that the Commission had been engaging the governors of the nine Niger Delta states. According to him, “our plan is to hold regular meetings but this has not been realized because of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have been able to hold virtual meetings through Zoom.”

Pondei lamented that various agricultural programmes have failed in the Niger Delta region on account of poor funding. Notwithstanding, he said, the Commission had started a pilot rice planting project which would be spread across the region subsequently.

He said further: “This project will help in getting our youths to be meaningfully engaged in farming. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is ready to provide loans for it.

“We also have plans to train our youths to benefit from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Train 7 project.

Barring funding challenges, we want to train the youths in under-water welding.”

The prominent Niger Delta

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leaders and critical stakeholders threw their weight behind the Pondei-led Interim Management Committee (IMC) and declared their support for the on-going forensic audit in the Commission.

The team led by the chief, Timi Kaiser Ogoriba, declared support to the embattled IMC. The delegation included Ankio Briggs and Alhaji Asari Dokubo. They lauded the IMC for taking some notable strides, while urging it to do more because the development of the Niger Delta region was still a far cry from what was envisaged by those whose agitations led to the establishment of the NDDC. Ogoriba said: “The on-

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going forensic audit is very necessary because the funds that have passed through the NDDC from inception till date, do not match the development on ground. Given this fact, anyone that is against the forensic audit has a problem and such a person is an enemy of the Niger Delta people.”

He observed that a lot of the funds that had come into the NDDC were not properly managed, stating: “We want a situation where things are done differently for better results.”

Ogoriba applauded the NDDC for completing its permanent headquarters building, urging the Commission to also monitor the proper execution of its projects. “You need an independent project @Businessdayng

monitoring committee that will stick to rules and ensure compliance with set standards,” he said.

In her own remarks, an environmental and human rights activist, Annkio Briggs, bemoaned a situation where the NDDC and the Niger Delta region were now a laughing stock in Nigeria because everybody who wanted to make excuses for the injustice in the region, cites the poor performance of the NDDC. The truth, she said, was that the Commission had to deal with a system where its budget must be taken to the National Assembly where the lawmakers were at liberty to pick and choose what they wanted before approving the budget.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

COMPANIES&MARKETS

BUSINESS DAY

15

Business Event

WACT commissions $15m new Mobile Habour Cranes, reach stackers at Onne Port AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

T

he West Africa Container Terminal (WACT) on Tuesday 6 October 2020 moved a step further towards realising its vision of becoming the gateway to East Nigeria and beyond, by commissioning two new state-of-the-art Mobile Harbor Cranes (MHCs) and two reach stackers to boost efficiency and cargo handling operation at Onne Port in Rivers State.

The equipment will further improve the already quick turnaround time for vessels calling WACT. The two new cranes and handling equipment acquired

by WACT are valued at $15 million. With the acquisition and commissioning of the new cranes, WACT now boasts of four MHCs deployed into its operations, with one more planned to arrive in 2021.

Speaking at the commissioning in Onne, Rivers State on Tuesday, Aamir Mirza, managing director of WACT,

said the equipment were acquired as part of the terminal’s $100 million investment announced in 2019 to significantly increase the terminal capacity.

“Our equipment and infrastructure upgrade are the key enablers for WACT to better serve her customers.

Our cranes will offer improved and higher productivity, which means shorter port stay of vessels, resulting in saving to our liner customers. We are now able to handle the next generation and larger gearless vessels,” he said.

According to him, “This investment will include the deployment of reefer racks having 600+ plugs, a new workshop, larger powerhouse and 20 Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTG) cranes. All of this will result in more efficient operations and shall enable customers to take delivery of their cargo much earlier.”

Mirza said with the massive investment at the terminal, WACT has established itself as the largest and most

efficient container terminal in East Nigeria, adding that the company has also created 2,950 direct and indirect job opportunities in the country.

“Our vision is to make WACT the gateway to East Nigeria and beyond. We believe this vision can be achieved much earlier if government can support us by addressing some fundamental challenges like security risk because of piracy, clearance of overtime containers, improving roads and related infrastructure that connect Onne Port to the rest of Nigeria,” he said.

Hameed Ali (rtd), comptroller-general of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), who was represented at the event by the Assistant Comptroller General in charge of Zone C, Elton Edorhe, while reiterating the commitment of NCS to trade facilitation, said the deployment of the new cranes and reach stackers by WACT would improve efficiency and aid quick release of cargo at the port, leading to increased revenue for the government.

L-R: Elton Edorhe, Zonal Coordinator, Zone C of the Nigeria Customs Service; Aamir Mirza, managing director, West Africa Container Terminal (WACT); Ajayi Adekunle, general manager, Operations and Technical, Oil & Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA); Auwal Muhammed, Customs Area Controller, Port Harcourt Area II Command; and Abubakar Dantsoho, Port Manager, Onne Port, during the commissioning of two new Mobile Harbor Cranes and two new Reach Stackers acquired by WACT at the Onne Port, Rivers State recently.

Omoluabi Mortgage Bank changes name, launches new mobile app, corporate website IFEOMA OKEKE

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eading financial and investment services company, Omoluabi Mortgage Bank Plc, has changed its name to LivingTrust Mortgage Bank Plc. The bank in a statement on Sunday said the name change followed the approval granted to it by the Central Bank of Nigeria and Corporate Affairs Commission. It also announced the launch of a new mobile app, named TRUSTMOBILE, and a new corporate website.

It described the developments as fallouts of the strategies introduced by the new management of the bank, led by seasoned banker and technocrat, Mr. Adekunle Adewole, to ensure that it effectively discharges its commitments

to it’s growing customer base.

The bank’s management was recently overhauled, while its board of directors was also reconstituted, following the acquisition of majority shareholding in it by Cititrust Holdings Plc. According to the bank, with the increasing cultural diversity of its fast growing customer base, it became necessary for it to adopt an image which correctly reflects its current outlook and strategic focus.

The statement further says that the name change is also a reflection of its corporate transformation plan, which primarily aims at delivering superior quality products and services to all customers, regardless of their status or location.

On the newly introduced

mobile app and corporate website, the bank said both became necessary due the phenomenal growth it has achieved within a very short period and the need to adopt a multi-channel approach to service delivery for an enhanced customer experience.

Speaking on the development, Alhaji Adebayo Jimoh, chairman of the bank, said the new name reflects the renewed vision of the reconstituted board to transform LivingTrust into a leader in the nation’s financial landscape.

According to Jimoh, the new board which comprises tested administrators, technocrats and financial experts with track records of excellence, has mapped out strategies that would ensure the bank remains the partner of choice in the business of mortgage finance in the country.

May&Baker introduces ‘Malact’ to reduce malaria related mortality

M

ay&Baker Nigeria Plc, a pharmaceutical manufacturer has introduced Malact, a new antimalarial medicine that promises to revolutionize malaria disease treatment in the country.

The new drug, named Malact is a Dihydroarteminsin-Piperaquine combination-based formulation which ensures fast relief from malaria and guarantees better post treatment protection.

With increasing resistance to older drugs, the World Health Organisation (WHO) years back jettisoned Chloroquine and recommended Artermisinin based Combination Therapies (ACTs) as first line drug for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria.

However, most ACTs have since then shown limitations including resistance to treatment.

But Dihydroarteminsin-Piperaquine combination, the newer artemisinin-based combination therapy has shown excellent efficacy in multiple trials and is considered the most promising drug currently available for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria.

The combination has a reliable efficacy which guarantees patient faster relief compared to other ACTs currently available in the market. It also has better post treatment protection because of the Piperaquine content that makes it possible for patients not to experience www.businessday.ng

relapse for at least six weeks.

Malact, the new product from May&Baker, therefore prevents malaria for up to six weeks and prevents recrudescence of malaria. Other advantages of Malact include convenient dosing because it is taken once a day and this reduces the chances of dosage non-compliance. It does not require to be taken with fatty meals by the patient before it can be absorbed.

Nnamdi Okafor, MD/CEO of May&Baker said the introduction of Malact is part of the company’s efforts at continually confronting the malarial scourge by providing effective and affordable medicines for treatment of the disease.

L-R: Gboyega Adelowore, Divisional Head, Enterprise Risk Management, Credit Direct Limited; Jimoh Fatai; Ademusayo Pauline,Teachers in Lagos State; Chukwuma Nwanze, Executive Director, Credit Direct Limited; Ajayi Olusola, and Abiodun Adigun, Country Head, Sales, Credit Direct Limited, during the recognition and presentation of gift to some outstanding teachers in their head office in Lagos State to celebrate Teachers Day 2020.

L-R: Tafa Zibiri Aliu, vice chairman of Ikoyi Club 1938; Abayomi Orenuga, chairman of Ikoyi Club 1938; Abiodun Olaleru, honorary secretary of Ikoyi Club 1938, and Adetoye Sode, former chairman of Ikoyi Club 1938 at the 82nd Aniversary of Ikoyi Club 1938

Obinna Emeribe, head of marketing, Pharm; Chukutem Chukuka, executive director, sales & marketing, Pharm; Nnamdi Okafor, MD/CEO, Pharm, and Yetunde Adigun, head, Pharma Plant Operations, all of May & Baker Nigeria Plc, at the media launch of Malact Tablets, during the company's new anti-malarial medicine in Lagos at the weekend.

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

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BDTECH

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E-mail: jumoke.akiyode@businessdayonline.com

Mastercard’s Girls4Tech programme reaches 1million girls in 30 countries JUMOKE AKIYODE LAWANSON

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astercard’s signature STEM program, Girls4Tech has recently reached its initial milestone goal of educating one million girls. The program has a new and inspiring goal to reach five million girls by 2025.

The technology company’s signature program, which launched in 2014, offers activities and curriculum built on global science and math standards – and incorporates Mastercard’s deep expertise in technology and innovation – to enable children to discover a range of STEM careers, such as fraud detective, data scientist and software engineer.

The Girls4Tech workshops hosted across Kenya and Nigeria, have inspired numerous young girls to build the skills they need for STEM careers.

“Through the Girls4Tech programme, we’re extending our commitment to Africa’s next generation of women leaders by equipping them with valuable skills that ensure more women have a voice in the development of the products and services of the future,” Ifeoma Dozie, director, marketing and communications, Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard, said.

Starting as a hands-on, in-person

...sets new goal to educate 5million girls by 2025

session run by employee volunteers, the program has reached more children by expanding into new topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cybersecurity, and extending access of their STEM curriculum through online resources on Girls4Tech Connect which has been translated into fourteen languages.

Susan Warner, vice president of community engagement and founder of Mastercard’s Girls4Tech program said, “Our goal is to build foundational STEM knowledge and develop critical 21st century skills girls need for their studies and career success. Our program sparks their curiosity in STEM and teaches

them real-world applications of those skills.”

How Girls4Tech reaches future STEMinists •Announced a new partnership to create a Girls4Tech digital curriculum with Discovery Education — the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engag-

ing content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms — to reach 1.6 million girls by 2023.

•Partnering with scalable organisations such as AIF, Be Better China, Discovery Education, Major League Baseball, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), R&A, Scholastic and YCAB in Indonesia to further scale the program and offer STEM skills in unique ways to girls ages 8-16.

•Adding new curriculum to give students deeper exposure to the growing fields of cybersecurity and AI. •Extending programs, Girls4Tech 2.0 for girls aged 13-16, as well as a 20-week coding program, Girls4Tech & Code for girls 8-10.

Moving the needle for Girls in STEM In 2019, Mastercard commissioned a study seeking to understand gender and generational differences surrounding perceptions and attitudes of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In addition to STEM-based topics, the survey investigated challenges and motivations to pursing college majors and careers path.

The study showed that females are less confident, receive less encouragement and need more mentors in STEM. Mastercard’s Girls4Tech program was set up to provide each of those elements to young women.

Indigenous identity verification startup, Youverify gets ISO certifications for data security JUMOKE AKIYODE LAWANSON

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ouverify, an indigenous identity verification startup has been given the ISO 27018 and 27001 certifications by the International Standards for Organisation.

The certification indicates that Youverify is compliant with Nigerian and global data protection regulations, and is capable of securely handling KYC (know your customer) data for banks, ride hailing companies and other small, medium and large organisations.

With this feat, Youverify has be-

come the first and only tech company to have been awarded both the ISO 27018 and 27001 certifications in sub-Saharan Africa.

The ISO 27001 is a globally recognised information security standard that indicates that a company complies with the international security management best practices and comprehensive security controls.

Similarly, the ISO 27018 is conferred on organisations that have systems and controls for implementing measures to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in accordance with defined

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privacy principles for public cloud computing environments.

Gbenga Odegbami, CEO of Youverify, said that the certifications confirm Youverify’s commitment to service quality, data security and customers’ confidentiality. According to him, “the ISO 27018 and 27001 certifications are not a oneoff award. They indicate a commitment to an ongoing process of continuous improvement in our security standards and processes.”

“We are glad we have gotten to this stage. Most importantly, we are committing to running a system that is defined by a consistent

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improvement, review, and engagement of our processes to provide the best-in-town services to our customers”, he said.

Launched two years ago, Youverify helps businesses automate and digitalise due diligence and compliance processes via APIs and Web Services. Some of their services include identity verification, address verification, digital identity, digital addressing, business verification, and alternative credit scoring. It offers a simple, nimble, easy-to-adopt, and cost-effective solution that transforms the customer onboarding decisions and

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streamline the process to reduce fraud, manual effort and cost.

So far, it has helped organisations to automate due diligence and compliance by using datadriven decisions especially within the financial services, and telecommunication industries.

With an ambition to help organisations use data and insight to make automated and efficient business decisions, Youverify conducts digital and regulatory compliant verification for some of the biggest banks, Fintech platforms and on-demand platforms in Nigeria.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Media business Nigeria’s Public Relations industry asks government for business patronage against palliatives Daniel Obi

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h e ra m p a g i n g Covid- 19 pandemic has laid prostrate a number of businesses while many organisations and institutions have been adversely affected. With this understanding, Nigerian government has moved to cushion the economic effects of the impact of the eight-month pandemic as it has granted some palliatives to businesses and families.

This has come in form of grants, tax reliefs and debt waiver.

But Nigeria’s Public Relations industry with registered corporate firms that have successfully built brand reputations of government and corporate organisations and which is yet to enjoy this government palliative is instead asking for government support and business patronage.

In addition to other sectors which have received palliatives, Federal Government recently granted palliatives to segments of the media including 60% debt forgiveness to licensed

radio and television stations.

Lagos State government also recently waived the permit fees for outdoor practitioners spanning three months from April to June 2020. “This represents 25 percent of the outdoor practitioners’ bill for the year 2020”.

Lagos State through its signage agency, LASAA said that the palliatives have become imperative because the advertising sector and the economy at large had been badly hit by the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly the outdoor advertising industry.

The agency which has been asked by outdoor operators to also cancel its fees on vacant boards expressed optimism that the palliative initiative will go a long way to demonstrate the agency’s resolve to help the industry grow as well as cushion the negative effect of the pandemic on outdoor advertising business in the state.

Speaking to BusinessDay, Chairman of Lagos State chapter of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Segun McMedal therefore appealed to the Federal and state governments to support the local public relations

Segun McMedal, chairman, NIPR Lagos Chapter

industry which is equally affected by the pandemic with businesses to cushion the Covid-19 effects.

“Now that the world is smarting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is one of the best times to drum support for local content to grow the economy. This is the time for government to use the services

of the Nigerian Public Relations Consultants because for communications to be meaningful, it must be localized. We can surely tell our stories better”, he said.

In the past, Nigerian government and political parties had relied on the services of foreign Public Relations for job executions in spite of enormous capacity

in the form of well-trained and experienced consultants, a development which did not go down well with local operators.

The hiring of foreign agencies for local jobs were criticised on the premise that Nigerian PR consultants and agencies understand the local terrain better and are, therefore, better positioned to craft and project the right strategies and messages.

To redirect government into believing in local practitioners, public relations bodies have since moved to make government officials understand that hiring foreign agencies is a stumbling block to the development of the Nigerian economy and marketing communications industry. They also stated that Nigerian professionals are best positioned to understand the issues as well as the local nuances and peculiarities.

It was a welcome development therefore when the Federal Government’s Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 expressed its readiness to partner with Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria

(PRCAN), the umbrella body responsible for the professional practice of public relations in Nigeria with a view to develop a robust communication strategy to effectively; inform, educate, enlighten and engage with Nigerians on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF) and the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force, Boss Mustapha said this recently after the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN) offered the services of its members pro bono to the PTF, in order to strategically and effectively communicate with more Nigerians on this pandemic.

“I am happy to inform you that our risk communication strategy has been enhanced by the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN). The PTF appreciates this offer and looks forward to consolidating the relationship,” he said.

Nigerian Public Relations industry as said my Segun McMedal would like this government- PR relationship to be deepened for proper messaging and for the benefit of Nigerian economy.

Nigeria’s fast growing retailer, FoodCo expands footprint in Lagos

United Nations’ CEO Water Mandate iniative launched in Nigeria

nspite of the challenging economic climate, foremost omnichannel retailer, FoodCo Nigeria Limited, has doubled its branch network in two years making it perhaps the fastest growing company in the category.

This was disclosed during the unveil of the company’s latest store in Ajah Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. The new store is the 13th brand outlet in the south-western region where FoodCo currently operates.

The launch of the Ajah outlet follows the unveiling two weeks ago of FoodCo’s Ologuneru Plaza in Ibadan, Oyo State which offers full range of Foodco services and promises to bring low prices and high quality products and delicious cooked meals at low prices.

Speaking on the Lagos outlet, Ade Sun-Basorun, the Managing Director, FoodCo Nigeria Limited stated that it houses general merchandise, grocery, a Quick Service Resturant and entertainment centre and it is positioned to bring the joy of high quality retail to a growing suburb in Lagos.

He said: “Rolling out two stores in two weeks is simply a continuum in what has been a consistent and successful

Marketing: Twisco appoints Tiwa Savage as brand ambassador

he UN CEO Water Mandate, a global compact initiative that mobilizes business leaders on water, sanitation, and the Sustainable Development Goals has been launched in Nigeria.

The event hosted by the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG, was part of pre-summit events leading up to the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit. This, according to a statement was to galvanize the private sector to actively commit to improving water resources management for sustainable use for businesses and individual consumption.

The CEO Water Mandate, according to a statement was officially launched by Asue Ighodalo, Chairman of the NESG, who, in his address, stated, the “event marks a significant milestone for the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) as it underscores our mission to be an enabling platform for mobilizing the private sector to tackle challenging

wisco, a premium chocolate dr ink powder from the stable of Promasidor Nigeria Limited has appointed Nigerian music sensation, Tiwa Savage as its brand ambassador.

Tiwa Savage was unveiled alongside her son, Jamil, to signpost the brand building objective and essence of the new product offering from the foremost dairy company. The new chocolate drink power, according to Promasidor, is fortified with enerfort, a special blend of ten powerpacked micro-nutrients, including Vitamin B2, B6, B12, C, D3, Niacin, Calcium, Phosphorous, Iron and Zinc- all which are necessary for optimal energy release that consumers need to power their dream.

Speaking on the choice of Tiwa savage as an ambassador for Twisco, the Managing Director, Promasidor Nigeria, Anders Einarsson, said in a statement that “Tiwa Savage is a great Nigerian, multi award-winning singer and songwriter known worldwide.

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expansion that has seen the FoodCo double its foot print in two years.The business has equally been commited to bringing affordable great products to customers both offline and online, leading to its investment in creating Nigeria’s first true online supermarket which affords residents of Ibadan and Lagos to get access to its full assortment of modern retail from the comfort of their homes withing a matter of hours”.

When asked why the investment continued in the face of the challenging economic cycle and questions of sustainability of modern retail in Nigeria, Sun Basorun said: As a brand, we are deeply commited to helping our customers save money and there is no time they need to do that more than during the challenging economic cycle. And having been around for 38 years, the FoodCo brand is wrapped around a rich legacy of outstading customer service driven by innovation.

Sun Basorun further added that the choice of Ajah is in line with the brand’s strategic approach to deepen retail penetration particularly among emerging communities who prefer the convenience and comfort that modern retail offers.” www.businessday.ng

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economic and social issues which confront our nation.’’

Endorsers of the CEO Water Mandate commit to continuous progress against six core elements of stewardship and in so doing understand and manage their own water risks.

Presently, 175 companies, globally, have endorsed the mandate.

Engineer Suleiman Hussein Adamu, Federal Minister for Water Resources, in his keynote address, added that there has been a decline in investments to water supply infrastructure by the state governments, therefore, there is a need for private sector participation.

On the need for private sector participation, working with the government agencies, Laoye Jaiyeola, CEO of the NESG affirmed that Nigeria will need to invest at least 1.7% of its GDP, annually, to prevent Nigeria becoming water stressed.

Currently, over 2 billion people worldwide are living in places experiencing high water stress, a third of

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the world’s biggest groundwater systems are already in distress and 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030.

During the launch, Ighodalo also said that Nigeria is presently ranked as an economic water scarce country, due primarily to inadequate investments over time in the development and management of available water resources for social, economic and environmental needs. “If our current levels of investment and management of water resources remain the same, Nigeria may slip into the league of water stressed nations, due to expanding aggregate demand from an increasing population and heightened economic activities. This will negatively impact our lives, our businesses, and our economy”.

The NESG has set up a Water and Sanitation Thematic Group, to galvanize the private sector into committing to the CEO Water Mandate, and interface with the UNGC. @Businessdayng

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ADVERTISING APCON, NBC agree to tackle age-long media industry debt

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he Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the two government agencies regulating advertising practice and the broadcast media respectiviely have agreed to collaborate in ensuring the resolution of the age-long industry debt, adherence to advertising code among other critical industry issues. This was part of the agreement reached during the courtesy visit of APCON management to the leadership of NBC. The APCON Registrar/ Chief Executive, Olalekan Fadolapo recently met with the Acting Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Armstrong Idachaba to seek collaboration towards promoting policies that will improve the advertising industry and strengthen intersectoral relationship.

The APCON Registrar hinted on the plan by APCON to develop a new business framework and Standard Operating Procedure for the advertising industry.

He stated that the business

framework will be comprehensive and will address critical industry concerns which include industry debt, payment policy, inter and intra sectoral relationships among other issues.

The APCON Registrar stated that NBC is expected to make substantial input and adequately participate in the formulation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the industry. While the SOP will require stakeholders’ participation, the APCON Registrar sought the mutual collaboration of NBC as a government regulatory agency to support and ensure compliance. He also solicited the support

of NBC in ensuring that all broadcast media organisations comply and enforce the advertising code.

The APCON Registrar noted that the visit was in line with the directive of the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, requesting that all agencies regulating the advertising and media industry should collaborate and seek solution to the age-long media debt.

The Acting Director General of NBC, Armstrong Idachaba expressed delight at the call for collaboration

by APCON. He reaffirmed the commitment of NBC to partner with APCON in

every area of interest that will improve the long-standing relationship and the respective mandate of the two government agencies.

He assured the APCON Registrar on the support and participation of NBC in the formulation and implementation of the SOP. He further sought the support of the APCON Registrar on Zero Debt Tolerance policy of the broadcast media and the revised broadcast code.

The two regulatory agencies agreed to sign a MOU and work together to promote a healthier business environment for all stakeholders.

How digital marketing can help brick-and-mortar retail outlets

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t’s exceptionally frightening to see the abundance of small and big businesses coming under business rescue or closing altogether as well as hundreds of thousands of people who become unemployed as a result. Unfortunately, not a lot of them are succeeding in finding jobs.

“The companies who survive,” says Lisa Schneider: managing director at the Digital School of Marketing, “are those who have sufficient amounts of cash flow to sustain their business during times when no money is coming in. Those businesses who also survive are those who are able to operate digitally.”

With the social distancing requirement, which will probably be here for the next two years (this is the predicted length of time that Covid-19 will still be at

pandemic levels) prompting people to stay away from events that require people to gather in one place at the same time – such as in a shopping centre – there’s no telling when ‘businessas-usual’ will resume for bricks-and-mortar retail outlets. This means that, in order to survive, they are go-

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ing to need to rethink their strategies.

Customer touchpoints have migrated It used to be very simple, and required not a lot of effort to keep in touch with your customers. If all else failed, you could just put a shop assistant into your store who would guide the

customer towards a purchase.

“However now,” continues Schneider, “retail brands have to think outside the box because people are not coming through the doors.” Because people are buying more and more online, this means that brands who have traditionally only retailed in-store, with a bit online, now have to focus the majority of their efforts on their digital marketing and attracting online sales.

It’s not impossible to make this jump, but it does take a bit of time, effort and creative thinking. “Brands need to pay particular attention to tried-and-trusted marketing principles as these will ensure that any planned digital marketing campaign will achieve the targets that it intends to,” concludes Schneider.

Culled from Bizcommunity.

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NNPC Retail, KCB Bank Kenya, others win 2020 Africa Finance Awards

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he Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC Retail), KCB Bank Kenya and Ghana Union Assurance are some of the African top businesses that won the 2020 Africa Finance Awards.

Other winners mentioned in a statement include Credit Ville, Infinity Mortgage Bank Plc, Norremberger, Hygeia HMO, Crystal Finance, Xymbolic Development, Marvelous Mike Press, Landwey Investment, McDon Security and several others.

The 2020 edition of Af-

rica Finance Awards presentation, which was initially postponed due to the Covid 19 pandemic, has now been scheduled to hold in December 2020.

According to the Project Director, Africa Finance Awards, Abidemi Adesanya, “The award which is the benchmark for celebrating excellence, innovation and professionalism in Africa will honour some great brands that have been outstanding in their market segment in the course of the challenging”, he said in the statement.

Lagos State partners Fly Africa to put Nigeria on world map

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t was all cheers and gleeful celebration at the indoor sports hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, as Fly Africa, an initiative of Outori Limited, in conjunction with the Lagos State Government, broke a Guinness World record in celebration of Nigeria’s Diamond Jubilee Independence Anniversary.

The event which was tagged Sweet 6ixty event was monitored by officials of the Guinness Book of Records and spectators watched in batted breath as 150 volunteers arranged 60, 000 world’s largest anniversary logo made with cupcakes.

Speaking during the landmark event, the Managing Director of Fly Africa/Outori Limited, Wole Olagundoye in a statement noted that the Sweet 6ixty initiative was created to inspire and educate Africans, through live experiences, to rise up to their great potentials by taking actions that will move the

African continent forward.

He stated that “Only Africans can make Africa succeed, our own destiny is not in the hand of other nations but right in ours and we must seize this moment to make the necessary change”.

In her opening remark, the State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, . Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, said that rather than enriching other countries through international tour, we want to change the narrative by making our state a more beautiful city where international tourists can visit and invest their money. “Lagos State occupies a significant position in the history of this country economically, historically, financially and numerically; that is why the state is often referred to as a mini-Nigeria. More efforts would be channeled towards the development of the State’s local tourism sites and promotion of local creativity”.

Life Lager brand to invest over N40m in South East SMEs

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ife Lager is set to support over 200 businesses with a cumulative sum of over 40 million Naira, in the “Chop Life” Experience, according to a statement.

In a similar vein to the acclaimed progress booster campaign, the Chop Life Experience will see Life Lager empower its consumers with cash to support their businesses. This will be done through in-bar activations that will span across southeastern cities like Enugu, Aba, Uyo, Warri, Onitsha, and Port Harcourt from September 27 to October 25, 2020.

Speaking on the Chop Life Experience, National Trade Marketing Manager, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Funso Ayeni, in the statement expressed his delight at the launch of the initiative.

“As a brand, Life Lager believes in progress, and the Chop Life Experience is @Businessdayng

our way of empowering our consumers. We recognise that sometimes all we need is financial support to get our dreams off the ground, and help us progress. We share this sentiment, and we are humbled to have the opportunity to support businesses across the southeast”.

Life Lager has had a stellar year with remarkable initiatives such as its brand relaunch, as well as the widely acclaimed lighting of the Niger Bridge and the release of its theme song titled “Chop Life” featuring Phyno and Flavour.

The Chop Life Experience which started on September 27 and has run through Enugu, Ikom, Makurdi, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Aba and Warri with plans to proceed to Owerri, Fegge, Oji, Otukpo, Asaba, Nkpor, Okigwe, Agbani, Aba, Nsukka, Festac and Nnewi in the coming weeks.

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

ENERGY INTELLIGENCE OIL

GAS

PETROCHEMICALS

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POWER

FG’s new gas push will deepen energy access for Nigerians - Clarke Energy ISAAC ANYAOGU

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iannis Tsantilas, the managing director of Clarke Energy, a leading energy solution provider in Nigeria has said that the country’s power market has made significant progress despite challenges and government’s renewed focus on gas will deepen energy access for Africa’s largest economy.

Tsantilas said the growth potential in the energy sector is still significant despite current challenges.

“When I compare my experience in the last 18 years with the reality on ground, I think that Nigeria has made significant progress.

However, some things need improvement but more often than not people tend to focus only on what is not going well,” Tsantilas said.

He further said that the privatisation of the power sector in Nigeria was a remarkable feat. This led to the unbundling of the old Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) into new power generation, transmission and

Yiannis Tsantilas, MD, Clarke Energy

distribution companies.

“This courageous step has placed Nigeria ahead of a lot of countries who are yet to do the same.

“The government’s focus on the utilisation of natural gas to increase power generation capacity largely through gas-fired power plants is another achieve-

ment.

“The Ajaokuta-KadunaKano (AKK) pipeline infrastructure that is being constructed by the federal government will increase the availability of natural gas for industries located in the commercial territories along the pipeline corridors.

“The initiative will impact

the gas value chain market, help industries lower their cost of production from the utilisation of piped natural gas to develop private plants to meet their power requirement, which also helps make quality products available at affordable prices to the consumers.

There has been significant progress in Nigeria’s regulatory policies and market development. Perhaps, we would have seen more progress if the global recession had not impacted Nigeria, he said.

RCE Overseas Ltd recently partnered with Clarke Energy to deliver the 10MW Jenbacher gas-fired power plant which provides electricity to the NCDMB Towers, in Bayelsa state.

The plant provides 24/7 electricity supply to the 17 floor office complex of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) building, which was christened Nigerian Content Tower, four storey multi-level car park facility, one-thousand seater capacity conference hall and Other ancillary facilities “We are privileged to have participated in this world class project both in terms of qual-

ity and delivery. The project demonstrates how far Nigeria has come.

Clarke Energy provided technical support for RCE Overseas Limited, which was one of the primary contractors on the project. “We believe we were considered because we have demonstrated an excellent customer-focused and technical capability in designing and maintenance of power stations for over 20 years in the Nigerian market.

This is what has established us as the number one player in the captive power generation market segment.

“Although, we keep up a low profile; individuals who are close to the market are familiar with the Clarke Energy brand and INNIO Jenbacher range of gas generators. Whereas those who are grounded within the sector know we are engineers and what we care about is providing reliable solutions to our customers.

RCE Overseas Ltd and Clarke Energy have developed a strategic partnership over the years which has led to more productive delivery of large-scale projects. More

specifically, the leadership of both companies enjoy an excellent relationship, which has helped to facilitate the designs and customised solutions required to comply with their contractual obligations.

Speaking about the project which the company is now looking to replicate in the other parts of the country, Jean Merhej, general manager of RCE Overseas, with over 20 years experiencing managing projects in the energy sector said the Nigerian market is big and the appetite for new projects is tremendous especially in providing power for industries.

“Industries that take advantage of the opportunity to invest in Nigeria will see returns for their investment.

The country is growing and industries are springing up in many places outside Lagos but electrification rate has not kept pace.

“This provides an opportunity for power companies to fill the gap seen in the national grid that supplies about half of Nigeria’s electricity needs.

Private companies can play in this space and gas provides the cheapest option,” said Merhej.

NLNG paid FG $18.3bn as dividends in 20 years Bangladesh’s U-turn on coal power warns Nigeria again about oil’s future DIPO OLADEHINDE

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he Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG)saysithaspaidover $18.3 billion to the Federal Government as dividend through its shareholding in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the last 20 years.

According to its newly released Facts and Figures 2020, NLNG said it paid a dividend of $915 million in 2019 compared to $904 million in 2018 while a total of $18.3 billion have been paid since 1999.

Nigeria LNG Limited has also paid over $15.2billion to the Federal Government for feed-gas purchase since the inception of its operations.

NNPC received a total of $819 million for feed gas purchase, last year compared to a total of $990 million in 2018.

Specifically, the company said that its corporate income tax which includes tertiary education tax, paid to the Federal Government of Nigeria amounted to about $943 million, which is 9% higher than

what was paid in 2018.

NLNG also said its assets is now worth about $17.5 billion at cost with 51 per cent stake by international oil companies and 49 per cent belonging to the country through the NNPC. In the period 1999-2019, NLNG said it converted 193.6Bcm (Billion standard cubic meters) or 6.84Tcf (Trillion cubic feet) of Associated Gas (AG) to export products (equivalent to more than 2478 LNG and NGL cargoes) which otherwise would have been flared.

NLNG has a total of 23 LNG vessels on long-term time charter for deliveries of LNG from its six-train operation, and one LPG vessel used exclusively for LPG deliveries into the Nigerian domestic market.

The NLNG, which is jointly owned by the Federal Government and three international oil companies, was established on May 17, 1989 to harness Nigeria’s vast natural gas resources and produce the LNG and natural gas liquids for export.

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angladesh, a rapidly industrialising south Asian country is scaling back on its planned massive coal-fired electric power plants.

Once coal’s future haven, Bangladesh is now set to leave developers and importers in hot water. A major factor influencing this radical departure from coal is the global drive to abandon dirty sources of energy such as coal and crude oil for cleaner ones such as natural gas and renewables.

This is a clear signal that the countdown to the end of fossil fuels as major energy resources has long begun and Nigeria’s 37 billion barrels of oil reserves may well be less valuable two decades from now.

Bangladesh’s 2016 energy plan showed some 20 gigawatts (GW) of coal power capacity to be developed in the next two decades. Now, the government is scaling back the coal-drive dramatically and capacity will peak at 7.3 GW in 2025, a Rystad

Energy analysis shows, a development that will hurt Chinese and Japanese developers and cancel nearly 30 million tonnes of expected annual coal imports towards 2040.

This is a blow for thermal coal exporters in Australia, Indonesia and South Africa who were hoping that a growing Bangladesh market post-2025 would help fill the void stemming from declining demand in more mature Asian economies such as Korea and Japan.

Based on Rystad Energy’s revised development outlook, it is estimated that coal power generation in Bangladesh will increase from the current 6 terawatt-hours (TWh) and peak at 46 TWh by 2025. Annual thermal coal demand for power generation is forecast to rise from the present 2.3 million tonnes to 18 million tonnes by 2025 to fuel the new plants that weren’t scrapped.

“While this is still a significant increase above the existing low coal demand levels had the coal power generation pipeline been developed as per the

2016 master plan, annual coal demand growth would have been almost three times greater, potentially reaching 50 million tonnes by 2040,“ says Steve Hulton, Rystad Energy’s Senior Vice President and Head of Coal Research.

Over the past ten years, some 36 different coal-fired generation projects were proposed. The government will now abandon all but five of the new coal projects; keeping only those that are either currently operating or under construction.

These include three major government-backed projects; Payra Phase 1 (1,320 MW), Rampal (1,320 MW), and Matarbari (1,200 MW) thermal power plants; and two private independent power producer projects Barisal (350 MW) and Banshkhali (1,224 MW) thermal power plants.

Bangladesh is responding to global demand for cleaner energy. This is time for Nigeria to latch on to its vast natural gas reserves, which would serve as a transitional fuel to renewables.

Last year, the European Union set out to stop funding oil, gas and coal projects at the end of 2021, cutting €2bn (£1.7bn) of yearly investments.

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s financing department, will bar funding for most fossil fuel projects. The ban will come into effect a year later than originally proposed after lobbying by EU member states.

Since 2013, the EIB has funded €13.4bn of fossil fuel projects. In 2018, it funded about €2bn worth of projects.

Under the new policy, energy projects applying for EIB funding will need to show they can produce a kilowatt-hour of energy while emitting less than 250 grams of carbon dioxide, a move which excludes traditional gas-burning power plants.

Gas projects are still possible, but would have to be based on what the bank called “new technologies” such as carbon capture and storage, combining heat and power generation, or mixing in renewable gases with fossil natural gas.

Editor: Isaac Anyaogu / Analysts Stephen Onyekwelu, Dipo Oladehinde / Feedback: 07037817378, / email: isaac.anyaogu@businessday.ng,

Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

21

property&lifestyle

Here are 3 major reasons student housing is next destination for investors CHUKA UROKO

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hough analysts say there are a number of reasons student housing is the next destination for yield-hungry investors, three of them are compelling even in this era of global health emergency when every attention is focused mainly on survival.

According to the analysts, the market is huge, meaning that there is ready demand. It is estimated that 70 percent of Nigeria’s growing college population seek alternative accommodation outside poor campus hostels, making the country’s studenthousingindustryagoldmine waiting to be tapped.

Additionally, a UNESCO report says there are over 100million young adults studying courses in Polytechnics, Universities, and Colleges of Education across Africa and, out of this number, 15 million are in Nigeria.

Checks by BusinessDay show that Nigeria’s already dilapidated on-campus hostels are able to provide accommodation for only 30 percent of the university students whose

annual enrolment rate stands at 12 percent. This number is not expected to reduce anytime soon.

A re c e n t re p o r t by K.Parkwood Property Services on ‘Student Housing’ cites figures posted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) showing that 1.8 million candidates registered for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and 1.9 million candidates were

registered this year, which is the highest number in the 41 years history of the board.

Apart from the fact that Nigeria has the biggest university system in sub-Saharan Africa, the country has seen a surge in students’ enrolment over the years. The surge however, has not been matched by a corresponding growth in quality facilities for student accommodation.

This means there is a huge supply gap which translates

Octo5 launches STOW mobile app to ease homeownership process

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etermined to ease the process of owning homes for young professionals and other Nigerians, Octo5 Holdings Limited, a Nigerian Real Estate Development Company, has launched its Save to Own (STOW) platform.

STOW is a web and appenabled home purchase platform for off-plan and new build homes provided by proven real estate developers.

STOW enables prospective homeowners to reserve / subscribe to homes in existing and upcoming communities while making monthly payments over a defined period to take ownership of such homes on completion.

According to the company, STOW is designed as a demand aggregator and marketplace for buying and potentially trading homes being developed by Octo5 and a network of proven developers. Through STOW, prospective subscribers can evaluate projects, subscribe to chosen ones, track their payments, monitor project progress and, if desired, exercise an option to convert their purchases to mortgage homes.

Babajide Odusolu, chief executive officer, Octo5 Holdings Limited, noted at a virtual conference titled “The Octo5 Discourse” hosted by it, to address homebuyers concerns which impede real estate investments in Nigeria that STOW is the next step

in the company’s continued quest to enable hardworking Nigerians to become homeowners and gain economic empowerment.

According to him, “the twin challenges that stop many from buying properties in planned communities with good title are the need for payment flexibility and fear of nonperformance. STOW creates a defined method for payments via instilments and project tracking through the app” Despite an increase in private sector investments in the Nigerian real estate industry, the country’s housing deficit keeps getting worse. Nigeria with an adult population in excess of 100 million, has a homeownership rate below 30 percent which is one of the poorest for large economies.

The number of Adult Nigerians living in sub-standard homes is in excess of 50% in urban and peri-urban areas.

Even with several recent laudable initiatives such as the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company and Family Homes Funds by the Federal Government and initiatives such as Lagos HOMS, the challenge remains unabated especially as there is a perennial mismatch between the desired homes and what are available for career professionals.

STOW seeks to serve as credible platform and bridge for marrying homebuyer needs with developers output.

Odusolu added that STOW enables users to save as low as N50,000 monthly towards purchasing their dream homes. “What we have done is to remove a major entry barrier that discourages Nigerians from aspiring to become homeowners.

“Until we unlock the latent wealth in the informal sector, Nigeria will not grow! STOW creates access to property with good title and high income prospects which can serve as both first homes and investment property and trade capital” our goal is to set every working Nigerian free economically, this starts with building assets that can be leverage.

Also speaking during the event, Madu Hamman, managing director/CEO, Abbey Mortgage Bank PLC said, “We are excited to partner with Octo5 to demonstrate our commitment to the development of the real estate industry in Nigeria and indeed Africa.

“We believe in providing equal opportunities for players in the sector so we welcome men and women to partner with us to foster the much needed development. We are repositioning ourselves and redesigning our products to encourage people to save consistently towards owning homes. These reinforce our mission to make dreams come true as well as create a paradigm shift in Africa’s vast real estate market.”

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into opportunities for investors. “Hostels for students are an opportunity crying for investment and, if a developer has an understanding with an institution, it is a worthwhile investment,” Rotimi Akindipe, MD/CEO of Groveworld Realties, confirmed to BusinessDay. This was affirmed by Godwin Asuelimen, Head, Core Product, Propertypro.ng who said that investment in student hostel is very viable, especially in areas with high number of

tertiary institutions.

“Available accommodation within most Nigeria campus can only cater for not more than 20 percent of the students enrolled and, according to the National Universities Commission (NUC), the provision of student housing is less than 30 percent of its demand which, in turn, means that the market has found it difficult to keep up with the increasing growth,” the K.Parkwood report also affirms.

Return on investment (ROI) is a major highpoint of student housing. “This investment asset gives about 22 percent returns which is more than double what commercial real estate gives, not to talk of residential real estate which gives just 4-5 percent returns per annum. For this reason, we are encouraging other developers to come in”, Abayomi Onasanya, Founder/CEO of Student Accommod8, told BusinessDay in interview.

In terms of rental yield, the K.Parkwood report says student housing has an expected target return of 15 percent in 2020. It cites UAC Prop-

erty Development Company (UPDC) which has the largest Real Estate Investments Trust (REIT) in West Africa with total assets under management (AUM) of N33.5bn. It has diversified investment in residential, commercial, retail and industrial real estate.

The report notes that the company’s student housing project (Pearl Hostel) at the Pan-Atlantic University Campus in Ibeju-Lekki was their highest yielding asset in 2019 with 6.6 percent rental yield.

It however cautions investors, advising too that investment should be targeted at tertiary institutions with significant enrollment growth. Investment should be done in areas or locations where there is a greater concentration of students.

“Market entry should be in institutions that are expanding but not building new student hostels and campus with inadequate or no hostel accommodation; investors should be taking into consideration the proximity to the academic institution, food market, entertainment centers and access to reliable transportation,” the report says.

Increased opportunities in FM as due to Covid-19

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round the world, we are adjusting to a new reality in every part of our lives as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19). As this unprecedented event continues to evolve, facilities management practitioners will have to start looking at how to rethink their relevance as organizations consider new ways of doing business.

The ‘new normal’ is fast becoming a cliché to describe our adjusted expectations after a disruption to the way we live or work. It has emerged gradually as we take small steps from the old ways into the unknown. However, before COVID-19 hit us, the facility management profession had been moving towards a ‘new normal’ for years in what can be termed evolutionary progress.

For facility management practitioners, the pandemic has raised a new set of issues to deal with as well as fresh opportunities to provide value-based solutions to their organizations. As we find our paths to the next ‘new normal’, one fact is clear though—the pandemic has not altered the underlying impetus for transformation – the need for facility management practitioners to keep up with the evolving requirements and expectations of the people they serve.

The major impact of Covid-19 on global economy presents opportunities for facilities management prac-

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titioners to scale above the existing realities. Increased opportunities will emerge in areas such as: 1) Data - interpreting and leveraging data to optimize the utilization of facilities.

Facility managers in collaboration with senior management will have to determine what roles and work functions should return first.

2) Cleaning - from routine to high frequency. This will include sanitization of all touch areas and disinfecting of the facilities.

3) Space Utilization – this will include redefining what is office space and designing smart workplaces with consideration for physical distancing.

4) Healthcare -the safety of the employees will be the primary goal in order to give confidence to the employees that their wellness and wellbeing are of utmost importance. Workplace standards and expectations for employees returning to work should be published. Additional signage will alsobe required.

5) Compliance -new government guidelines/regulations with legal implications are likely to be issued and compliance will be required where necessary. A look at how human resources (HR) policies support the business and employees is advisable.

6) Technology - leverage technology to monitor air quality, control access, shift/ schedule management, occupancy rate, predictive @Businessdayng

maintenance etc.

Now is the time for value-based delivery of FM services. This means facility management practitioners must do the following to take advantage of new opportunities: Identify Value: identify what are the critical services to the organization, this will require knowledge ofthe organization’s business and operations then have in place essential activities needed.

Sustain Value: facilities services need to be maintained to ensure that they operate at their optimum performance and compliance with legal requirements. Prepare for emergencies and be equipped for disaster.

Contribute value: contribution of value should be intentional through continual improvement, increasing productivity, implementing innovation and improving quality.

With everyone following guidance from government health officials, the NigeriaCenter for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), facility management practitioners will have to prioritize challenges and focus on what they have control over bearing in mind the initial capital expenditure that may be required against the possible economic realities of organization’s lost revenue.

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

EDUCATION Weekly insight on current and future trends in education

Primary/Secondary

Higher

Human Capital

My mandate is to provide enabling environment for quality education – Seriki-Ayeni A trait that admirers and even critics attribute to Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State is that of keeping words. They add that she is not given to running away from tasks; rather, she derives joy in tackling challenges and addressing the needs of education community in the state. This form engaging story the Director General tells MARK MAYAH, as she bares her mind on the activities of OEQA, challenges in the education and other salient issues. Excerpts: Can you lead us into your personal and professional background? believe in the power of education to transform societies. Very early in my career, I did not intend on getting into education and I found myself there by chance. I recognised at the completion of my university level by taking a trip to Haiti with a missionary group, the Importance of education in joining cultulrarists in language, in context, in empowerment and I found education to be a vehicle at which change can actually happened. I found education to be a powerful tool and that is the means at which we can transformed.

With Education, that is basically where we are and that is where I am now.

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One year down the line, what has been your experience so far?

It’s very interesting. Before me, I had one predecessor in the person of Ronke Soyombo, whom I was privileged to have known. I had an idea of some of the issues that were on ground that needed to be addressed to move the agency forward. I think one year down the line despite the COVID - 19 pandemic, I think we have done pretty well. And how do I gage that?

I gage that by looking at the transformation of my staff.

When I came, there seems to be a lot of hopelessness. They just needed to be leadership; they needed to be a direction that they all can buy into.

Very early on I was able to communicate to my staff, the type of agency that I believe we can achieve together. That has to do with things like: integrity, moral, honesty, hardwork and commitment.

So very early on, it was very important for them to understand the values that I hold as a person, the values that I hold as a professional, one of the things, we were able to flexed out what some of the key priorities should be. They found that there is a method to the madness. So when am saying that we need to sit down and plan, initially they may have thought that its stressful, not really meaningful, that we needed to focus

on a big things like we need to purchase a Toyota bus, tablet or we needed money.

But far from it, as we examined why we were here in the first instance, where we are going and what impact do we hope to live behind? All these have been the help. I have seen it in the buying-in and the commitment that I noticed from my staff over a period of time. I think that is my biggest achievement this year. Achievement is centred on relationship, the Importance of relationship We see that in the quality assurance collaborative technical committee, where we reached out to various MDAs and we told them that we recognised our limitations in our own expertise as educators by assisting us when we go out to the schools, we need a more holistic views when we are looking at our schools, can you give us your representatives in your MDAs so we can liaise with them, we can have them as part of our monitoring team, so we can have their ideas to ensure that when we go out to schools, we would be going with a 60-60 degree lens Something that can capture the whole picture of our schools and that has been helpful. We recently launched it even in the delivery of our training for school reopening, and that is where we had experts from health because we wouldn’t be able to give health expertise We are also beginning to have our entire processes automated and that covers the way we do our quality assurance, not manually going in and write reports but actually putting it in on a tab for quick turnaround.

What are the Cardinal aims and objectives of the OEQA? It’s centred on making sure that we have standards for how education is delivered, standards for how business of School is conducted, standards on how children are assessed, and standards on how we can gage teacher’s effectiveness. It’s very important as simple as it may sound, we have standards to ensure we are able to drive the rate at which we are able to drive quality education in the state. We have www.businessday.ng

learning methods in the schools are improved statewide. The challenges the sector is faced with, were unquantifiable at the inception of the administration and proffering solution to these multi-faceted challenges required the laying of formidable foundations to achieve laudable feats in the quest for positive changes and the resolve to surmount these challenges.

Where were you before your appointment as The DG, Office of Education Quality Assurance?

I had worked in Lagos as Governor Ambode senior special assistant on education. I did that for some time.

I also worked extensively in the USA within the education space to be specific. Years ago, I worked in the oil industry in Lagos State as well.

Abiola Seriki-Ayeni

standards, we are creating standards and thinking that to have business processes for everything, even how our officers goes to the field, how they conduct the affairs of the agency, by recognising that everything needs to be intentionally taught and captured, not just actions but also in terms of strategic documents. I recognise that I am not going to be here forever, my tenure has a limited period of time. I want the system to be able to run well without me, I also know that my officers would be here after I might have left.

So it is important for us to live a legacy for them that is different, that is meaningful and that is sustainable. Towards improving the efficacy of the Office of Education Quality Assurance, a grading instrument was instituted for evaluating the standard of education in schools -a revamping of guidelines for establishing, operating and sustaining a school and increased Private School Registration above 100% year on year. The Office has since launched the read Aloud Programme for Basic School Students in the State.

With all these laudable ideas and proposed proj-

ects, are you adequately getting supports from the state governor?

I am getting his full supports in terms of work we put forward before Mr Governor.

No programme I embarked upon that I don’t seek his approval, to be able to move forward with it. The governor has been exceptional. With the vision to become a model of excellence in the development of education in the country, by providing high quality education accessible to all learners, through effective and efficient management of resources for the attainment of self-reliance and socio-economic development, the Sanwo-Olu led administration has continue to raise the bar with strategic measures and transformation plan for the success of the sector. The administration with the passion for learning, schools transformation and capacity building for teachers has been further driven with the new trends towards engendering quality education that will be at par with the 21st century standard of learning.

The State Government with its trail blazing agenda has resolved to restructure the Education sector by ensuring that the teaching and

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What would you say are the challenges confronting office of education quality assurance?

The challenges definitely still exists and I think recognising these challenges quickly and been able to circumvent them. It is the key that one really needs to embrace. We are civil service, we are in government and typically things are seen in 13 ways and I think for the office, it’s important that whatever it is, am spearheading my office to a model for how education in government can work. Typically, we have seen that education in government can’t work, and for me, working with my staff, we have recognised our limited resources and understanding that they are like seas.

What can we do with what we have? If we chose to focus on what we don’t have, we can be there forever. But if we think about the fact that we has experts in education that have been here for years, people that knows their onions in and out, are there in the right roles, are we putting into consideration the welfare of our officers.

What small thing can we put in place to motivate our officers that is not moneybased? Can we recognise people, can we celebrate people, can we be there for @Businessdayng

people, the most important resource I have in my team are my people and able to recognise that early made a little difference.in terms of challenges, you always have such as lack of fund and no enough buses for operational use. Although I know those things exists. Getting other people to recognise opportunity has been a challenge for something that I have seen.

Our governor had exemplified, we have no choice than to key into that.

Who can you say influenced you the most among your parents in your academic pursuit?

I will say both of them in different ways. My father has always instilled the importance of good education, the importance of integrity, the importance of being the best, from a very young age, the importance of honesty of telling the truth. I will say my mother instilled the sense of responsibility to others. She instilled the Importance of loving other people, the Importance of understanding one’s language and culture.

Between both of them, she is always being the one to speak the native tongue to me and as a result, I understood it before I could speak it. I would say they are both heavenly influenced who I am and what I stand for.

Can we get to know what you do with your leisure time or rather which best is your form of relaxation?

Right now, I would probably say I don’t have that much relaxation time but I do spend my time intentionally. I spend a lot of my time with my family. My children are still very young, the work I have at hand does not allow me much time with them. I spend majority of my time with them by shutting off my phone, shutting off everything when am with them, Just being around my family very important to them.

I have been very blessed to have both my parents alive.

But I had lost people along the way. I know the Importance of making the best use of today; enjoy the small things, and things that I don’t see quite meaningful.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

23

EDUCATION School heads decried rots of Educational system in Nigeria SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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ead of some schools in Kwara State have called on governments at all levels and other stakeholders to transform the nation’s educational sector and make it better.

The leaders pointed out that despite developmental projects and policies executed by the government recently; there is still room for improvement as most schools encounter inadequate teachers in core subjects, learning facilities and infrastructure.

Speaking to our Correspondent in Ilorin the state capital ahead of schools reopening and the way forward as Nigeria clocks 60 years of independent, Oseni Ibrahim, Head Master, at Flora Nursery and Primary School expressed delight as government ordered schools to resume back for academic

activities.

He decried the time frame assigned for revision after students have missed knowledge for months, saying “they gave us two weeks for revision, what students have missed for seven months, how the students can assimilate? We are not been sincere with ourselves and the implication lie on students?

Ibrahim who lamented on the state of education system in Nigeria also noted that ”we are not there yet, there is nothing to write home about in terms of educational development, there are so many areas we should address.”

The Head Master suggested that “governments should take bold step by bringing qualified personnel to be in the right position.

“Somebody who doesn’t have background knowledge in education should not be given opportunity to man such sensitive ministry.

“Our teachers must be

Adamu Adamu, education minister

qualified to teach students right. Stakeholders in education should insist on age limit, there must be readiness and maturity in children before going to school.”

Private sector ‘Learn at Home’ Project targets 1million disadvantaged school children KELECHI EWUZIE

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etermined to provide opportunities for continued learning for 1 million disadvantage school children, Data Science Nigeria and Malezi in partnership with Mastercard Foundation have unveiled ‘Learn at Home’ initiative.

Prolonged school closures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have left millions of children in Nigeria without any formal school learning over the last six months. Cut off from any instruction, feedback, or interaction with their teachers, learners are now at risk of losing important learning gains and will need to catch up on what they missed.

The new initiative will enable remote learning through multiple channels; namely, radio, mobile and web, and aims to provide learning access for 1 Million children in Nigeria within the next 12 months. This initiative is made possible by the Mastercard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Programme.

Chidinma Lawanson, Country Head, Nigeria at the Mastercard Foundation, observes that this pandemic continues to upend basic assumptions about where, when, and how we learn and work.

According to Lawanson,

“Right now, the priority, in terms of education, is ensuring that children learn no matter where they are or whether they have access to the internet. Ensuring universal learning continuity is critical if we are going to mitigate not just losses in learning, but the overall inequality being perpetuated by this crisis”, Lawanson explained that the project delivery is split into two major channels Offline and online learning. Data Science Nigeria will take charge of delivering the offline learning and has created a localized and relevant learning syllabus that can easily be accessed on radio stations close to the children and on any mobile phone by simply dialling a USSD code, a data connection is not required.

Speaking on the five key differentiators of this project, Toyin Adekanmbi, executive director of Data Science Nigeria said; “Our approach to tackling education for disadvantaged kids rests on our understanding of the obstacles and we have worked to overcome them head on. Learn from Home requires no internet connection to access, the curriculum is localized per locations across Nigeria and based on the NERDC curriculum, the highest quality standard of teachers have been engaged for content delivery and each student will have a unique school registration number www.businessday.ng

that allows student-teacher engagement and regular opportunity to test learning using simple mobile telephony services like USSD and SMS”.

Malezi, who have experience in large-scale education across several countries in Africa, will be in charge of delivering the online learning. Malezi will provide a rich learning experience to children who have access to internet connectivity and smart devices. This category will cover self-paced learning with numerous curriculumaligned e-notes, videos and quizzes as well as teacher support through live tutorials and question and answer options. Learning content will be accessed through both mobile and web platforms.

Malezi also plans to offer downloadable learning material for those students who experience intermittent data connectivity.

The ‘Learn at Home’ project will commence just in time for the back-to-school season in late September/ early October 2020 and will prove critical learning for children across the country whether they have access to the internet or are offline.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, a return to in-person school delivery is yet to be determined by many state governments, making this intervention by Data Science Nigeria, Malezi and the Mastercard Foundation especially timely.

In her submission, Olaifa Esther Fumilayo, Head Teachers of Five Ways International Nursery and Primary School Ilorin, said that Covid-19 pandemic

has really affected not only education but all sectors in the country.

She explained that students have really missed a lots adding that , “ government and others stakeholders in control should adjust the curriculum in a way that will be based on the students’ level because the system of education has changed.

“The pandemic has really affected our curriculum and we need to go back.

So, we are appealing to the state government to assist in providing learning facilities to schools for students to assimilate.

Fumilayo, who appreciated President Mohammadu Buhari for allowing schools in the country to reopen and forge ahead, equally thanked Binta Logun, the Proprietress of the school for ensuring proper fumigation of the school from time to time, provision of hand sanitizer, drums for water and even palliative given to

staff during lockdown.

Lady Abimbola Oyebanji, the Principal, Bishop Smith College thanked the state government for building more class rooms for the school as she observes that “we can say that there is room for improvement inspite the development. We still need more teachers for core subjects’ particularly English language, Mathematics and Science subjects.

Oyebanji advised Nigerians to work hard to merit whatever position they hold to develop our country and be proud of it. “When you go to foreign countries that are doing better you discover Nigerians are there giving their talents to other countries. It is our duty to develop our country so, let us be proud of our dear country.

“Nigeria will be great if only we can be patient, truthful and God fearing.”

BusinessDay observed that most schools in the state complied with Covid-19 protocols.

Cross River SUBEB trains 2,509 teachers on COVID-19 protocols MIKE ABANG, Calabar

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he Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board (CRSUBEB) in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), has commenced the training of 2,210 Head Teachers and Deputies including 299 Principals of Public primary and secondary schools on COVID-19 preventive measures in preparation for the re-opening of schools in the state.

The training workshop which kicked off yesterday with an opening ceremony at the West African People’s Institute (WAPI), Calabar, will hold for 2 days each in 8

centers across the state.

Declaring the workshop open, the Board Secretary, Cyril Itam said the training was to ensure adherence to COVID-19 protocols in schools, in order to keep teachers and pupils safe when schools re-open.

Itam said the importance of this training workshop cannot be over-emphasized in light of the global pandemic. He urged the participants to pay rapt attention to facilitators and to also cascade training to other members of staff.

“This training is very crucial because we do not want to take any chances when it comes to the safety of our children.”

“While plans are in motion

to re-open schools, it is important that we arm you with the necessary information on COVID-19 to prevent its spread among pupils, students and staff to ensure everyone’s safety,” he emphasized.

The South-South Zonal Director, UBEC, Osahon Igbinobar stated that the training became necessary to enhance the prevention, early detection, and contact tracing of suspected cases of COVID-19 in schools.

To ensure that more stakeholders in the basic education sub-sector are abreast of the Covid-19 protocols, other categories of staff are to be trained alongside teachers in order to contribute their quota to the safety of Pupils and Students.

The law establishing Enugu state University of Education out soon says Ugwuanyi REGIS ANUKWUOJI, Enugu

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nugu state Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has ordered for the immediate facilitation of a law that will formally establish Enugu state University of Education in Awgu local government area of the state.

The Governor who announced this after performing the ground breaking ceremony of the construction of a faculty building donated to the university by IHE Shikeaguma Foundation, a US

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based nongovernmental organization, said that he is highly committed to the project.

Speaking on behalf of the governor, Uche Eze, Enugu state commissioner for education said that the state attorney general is busy working on the law and that before long the law will be in place. “His Excellency is so much committed to this project which is his initiative,’’ he said.

He praised the US based IHE Shikeaguma foundation for donating the faculty building to the university, saying it shows the kind of collaboration @Businessdayng

that the people and government should have for speedy development of humanity.

“The event that is happing today is an indication of a group of individuals who have that will to work for humanity, what is happing here today will not only benefit people from IHE,or people from Awgu or Enugu , Nigeria rather it will benefit the entire Humanity, this is center which his excellency initiated for the purpose of human development, everyone of us know that the greatest assess any nation has is human capital,’’ he said.

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

ManagementDigest

When it’s time to pivot, what’s your story?

Rory McDonald and Robert Bremner

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n 1908 Roald Amundsen of Norway planned an expedition to the North Pole. He got scientists to share their equipment, won a grant from the Norwegian Parliament and persuaded many to pour money into the project. He borrowed a schooner called Fram and recruited men willing to risk their lives on a journey through the Bering Strait.

Ordinary Norwegians cheered Amundsen on, imagining he would plant their flag in a land where no one had ever been.

Then Amundsen got word that the Americans Robert Peary and Frederick Cook had beaten him to the North Pole. Now what?

Amundsen’s quandary is all too familiar to entrepreneurs.

Launching an ambitious endeavor requires enormous support. You need to attract funding, staff and media coverage. And you need a good story, told with passion and conviction. With any luck, enthusiasm builds around the story and investors pile in, along with employees, partners and, eventually, customers. But often innovators realize they’ve made a mistake and that they need to pivot.

Changing direction is, in theory, a good thing for a business. After all, Twitter launched as a podcast directory, and YouTube was once a dating site. But pivots can incur a penalty if they’re not correctly managed. A reorientation is an implicit admission that the plan to which the founders were once committed was flawed. Deviations can suggest a lack of competence, and investors, employees, journalists and customers need to be persuaded to stick around.

In recent years we’ve interviewed hundreds of founders, corporate innovation chiefs, market analysts and financial journalists, and reviewed dozens of news releases, analyst reports and media stories. From this research we’ve identified a sequence of stratagems that are critical to establishing and maintaining stakeholder support during major reboots.

THE PITCH: FOCUS ON THE BIG PICTURE To build early credibility entrepreneurs must have a

unique, concrete plan that meets a specific market need.

Yet in their eagerness to gain initial support for their solutions, they can box themselves into a corner: The more specific a startup’s narrative is, the more likely it is to turn out to be wrong. To avoid this trap, our research shows, savvy entrepreneurs craft broad narratives — umbrella ambitions rather than narrow solutions — that leave room to maneuver along the way.

The use of big, abstract ideas encourages audiences to see what they want to see — in much the same way voters respond positively to candidates who take ambiguous positions on issues and thus leave their stance open to different interpretations. Our research indicates that entrepreneurs who follow a similar approach with stakeholders generate more support and, ultimately, get higher valuations.

Consider the early days of Netflix. Reed Hastings, the company’s founder, anticipating a later switch to streaming video, started with the stated purpose of offering the best home video viewing for everyone — not DVDs by mail, which was the company’s original product. As the business pivoted to digital distribution, the original sweeping ambition still made sense.

THE PIVOT: SIGNAL CONTINUITY The human mind values consistency. Audiences are thrown by a confusing plot; they view inconsistent orgawww.businessday.ng

nizations as less legitimate and ultimately less deserving of their support. But people are less likely to register deviations as significant if these seem to be in line with larger aims.

When Steph Korey and Jen Rubio, the co-founders of the luggage startup Away, realized that their first suitcases would never be ready for Christmas as they had promised, they threw themselves into making a coffee-table book about travel instead. Though it came with a gift card redeemable for a bag the following year, the move could have easily unnerved supporters. Yet the founders maintained credibility and support by spelling out how the move fit with their higher-level goal of building a travel and lifestyle brand.

While luggage was a key part of that brand, a book worked, too. Investors were convinced, and so were journalists. Within a few weeks 2,000 books had been sold (meaning 2,000 bags had been pre-ordered).

THE AFTERMATH: MOVE QUICKLY BUT WITH HUMILITY Swift retreats don’t always sit well with customers and other stakeholders, who may feel abandoned after a reboot.

Empathy and remorse are a balm when informing people of changes they may not welcome. But too often entrepreneurs think empathy is a sign of weakness. Some simply make the change and never admit they were wrong. Instead of preparing audiences

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for a change, they spring it on them. Only when stakeholders react do they apologize. By then it’s too late.

In 2012, Glitch was a struggling online video game that centered on collaboration. Its founders soon realized that the messaging technology developed so that gamers could communicate with one another would make a terrific tool for companies, so they transitioned to that more promising business. Glitch’s creators showed humility and remorse for how others would be affected. The company issued a public apology, saying that the game had failed to attract enough players. Executives empathized with those who had signed up and thanked them for their support. They gave them useful information about the shutdown, such as refund details. The message to stakeholders was honest, helpful and sensitive to their needs. In short, it was kind.

In the end, Glitch’s pivot didn’t provoke a serious backlash and the new business, the hugely successful communication platform Slack, launched with roughly $17 million in funding from Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, both original Glitch investors.

WHILE OUR RESEARCH has focused on startups, the same principles should apply when big companies pivot to new business models. Think of how much easier it has been for Marc Benioff at Salesforce to move into new business lines given his firm’s broad @Businessdayng

aim of “democratizing digital transformation.” Or the plaudits given to Microsoft after its leaders justified its shift to cloud-based services in 2013 by linking the change in strategy to the company’s broad vision of “modernizing the workspace.”

Great leaders understand that stories and sense-making are especially important during periods of uncertainty. As the COVID-19 pandemic upends industries and changes consumer behavior, businesses will increasingly face the need for strategic reorientation. How they explain their reinventions will play an outsize role in their ability to endure. Amundsen recognized this. Upon hearing that others had beaten him to the North Pole, he decided to change course — literally. It wasn’t the route or the destination that mattered, he told his fellow Norwegians. From the beginning, his was a mission of scientific discovery. And he had stayed true to that aim.

Amundsen went on to become the first person ever to reach the South Pole.

Rory McDonald is the Thai-Hi T. Lee (MBA 1985) associate professor of business administration in the technology and operations management unit at Harvard Business School.

Robert Bremner specializes in using data to drive innovation and market development in technology-based companies.

Currently a strategist at Electronic Arts, he completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University.

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COVID-19: PTF says only 600,000 Nigerians tested, warns against laxity HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA

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he Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 said on Monday that only 600, 000 persons have so far been tested for the coronavirus in the country, urging Nigerians to adhere to the protocols of non-pharmaceutical interventions and safety protocols to avoid further spread of the disease.

The government had earlier given a target of testing 2 million people within the first three months of the commencement

…fails to meet target of 2m tests in 3 months of the pandemic but failed to meet its own target despite the current downward trend in the recent figures of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sani Aliyu, the national coordinator of the PTF who stated this on Monday during a briefing in Abuja, also warned against laxity on the part of people as the government gradually opens the economy and schools to address concerns of possible surge of the viral infection.

According to Sani, sub nationals are expected to meet at 1 percent testing of the population, observing, however, that only the federal capital territory, Abuja had met that target with Lagos State gradually reaching that target.

He noted that as the government restrategises on the reopening of the economy, Nigerians must strictly adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions and abide by all necessary

safety protocols.

“What is means is that as we continue to relax the restrictions, the coronavirus spreads quietly and quickly and this is why we must maintain safety measures at all times especially in our schools and public places” He noted that the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the federal ministry of education, and state authorities were working closely to ensure that safety as well as commu-

nicate their procedures clearly.

Speaking on school resumption, he said schools must take adequate measures to understand how Covid-19 can spread, in order to avoid the second wave in the spread of the virus.

“We must follow steps on how to mitigate the pandemic’s transmission, in line with its official guidelines and if they have a positive case, they need to know how it would be managed and whom to report to.”

No going back on pay-as-you-go, Reps tell MultiChoice ...as company says model not technically feasible JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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he House of Representatives on Monday told MultiChoice, the owners of DSTV that there was no going back on the implementation of the payas-you-go/pay per view/pay per watch regime.

Chairman of the house ad hoc committee investigating the non-implementation of pay- -as-you-go tariff plan by broadcast satellite providers, Unyime Idem made this declaration at investigative hearing in Abuja.

Idem directed the company should as a matter of urgency comply with the new National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) code and allow for content sharing and local content development.

He s a i d t h e re w a s a clarion call by Nigerians and stakeholders within the broadcast industry for a change in the price regime of all Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTl) and Direct To—Home (DTH) providers from the present one bundle system to payas-you—go/pay-per-view/ pay-per-watch. i.e. daily, weekly or monthly model.

The lawmaker argued that: “It is in this vein that we have to listen to the plight of Nigerians by living up to our constitutional responsibilities as stipulated in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended for the full implementation of pay-asyou-go model across Nigeria by satellite TV operators.

“We are also of the opinion that MultiChoice, the owners of DSTV is not sensitive to the plight of Nigerians at large for increasing the tariff of their various bouquet and anchoring that on VAT increment from 5 percent to 7.5 percent where in the real sense most of its bouquet price tariff is more than the 2.5 percent increment, unlike many other companies both local and international that are providing palliative measures to cushion the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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“For safety of students, teachers, and staff, schools must have detailed communication protocols that include parents, staff, school health team, school authorities, local and state authorities as well as communicate their procedures effectively and clearly.

He also directed public servants and workers in public offices to always wear their face masks and avoid the risk of spreading the disease.

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1.5m Nigerians suffer from arthritis annually SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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he Nigerian Orthopaedic Association has disclosed that more than 1.5 million Nigerians suffer from arthritis annually. Arthritis is a leading cause of disability, with both physical and emotional impacts.

The association, however, advised the general public to indulge in lifestyle changes such as weight regulation, initiating weight loss in the overweight or obese, regular exercise for weight therapy and improved motion of the joints.

This was contained in a statement issued by Kunle

Olawepo, president, Nigerian Orthopaedic Association in commemoration of World Arthritis Day, 2020.

“About 350 million suffered from arthritis globally, while more than 1.5 million people present for treatment in Nigeria annually owing to this condition.

“This observance calls global attention to a complex, multifaceted disease that evidence shows is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with both physical and emotional impacts,” he said.

The expert explained that people of all ages, sexes and races can and do have arthritis, and it is the leading cause of disability in the human joints.

Describing arthritis as a

group of disorders affecting the joints comprising more than 100 clinical conditions arising from degenerative, inflammatory, infective, metabolic or autoimmune causes, he said these include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gouty arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, vertebral spondylosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and psoriatic arthritis, among others.

Olawepo stated that common arthritis joint symptoms include swelling, pain, stiffness (especially morning stiffness) and decreased range of motion, adding that risk factors to developing arthritis are family history and predisposition, age, previous injury to the joint

and Obesity.

“Arthritis is a global phenomenon with debilitating complications, prevention is the watchword.

“There should be provision of adequate Health insurance to ameliorate the cost of expensive investigations, and treatment including medications and interventions even joint repair, joint fusion and joint replacement surgeries.

“Lifestyle modification on the part of individuals and Government’s support by providing medical aid towards its treatment shall go a long way in the proper management of this condition whenever it arises even as we commemorate the 2020 World Arthritis Day,” he said.

Senate intervenes in FG/ASUU’s dispute KAMARUDEEN OGUNDELE, Abuja

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resident of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Monday waded into the dispute between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government over the enrolment on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and other outstanding issues.

Lawan met with a delegation from ASUU led by its president, Biodun Ogunyemi, at the National Assembly to discuss the lingering crisis which had made it impossible for some universities in the country to reopen after the Covid-19 lockdown.

Lawan said the meeting was to further explore how the senate and indeed the National Assembly could intervene to resolve the issues that were still outstanding.

He said: “We really don’t need this kind of situation where our universities are shut. Our children are the victims of this.

“Therefore, the govern-

Nigerians demand Buhari’s executive order backing SARS’ disbandment ENDURANCE OKAFOR

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ationwide protests seeking a reform of the Nigeria Police Force intensified on Monday amid demand for an executive order

by President Muhammadu Buhari backing the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

After three days of sustained nationwide protests on #ENDSARS and more than two weeks of outcry and anger with videos and pictures showing police brutality, harassment and extortion in Nigeria, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on Sunday, bowed to pressure and disbanded the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

While Nigerians celebrated the announcement on Sunday, it was cut short by the thought that same declaration was made in 2017, 2018, 2019 and even in January of 2020 which never yielded the desired result.

As a result, the #EndSARS protests intensified on Monday, the fourth consecutive day, as more campaigners marched in their numbers to ask for the reform of the police force. It was more intense in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub which is home to over 21 million people as roads to major parts of the city and airport were blocked by protesters.

“To dissolve SARS, there must be an executive order from Mr President. Until then, we stand unshaken,” a protester who identified himself as Eric, told BusinessDay at the blocked Lekki Tollgate on Monday.

“We want an executive order, dissolving SARS is not enough, Apostle Johnson Suleman said.

According to another protester, the reason “why we still fight is because SARS has been banned, disbanded, stopped over the years but we are still here. We do not want audio.

The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria needs to give an executive order, and we must see action.”

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari declared on Monday that disbanding of SARS is the first step to extensive police reforms by his administration.

Speaking at the launch of the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme (P-YES), aimed at creating 774,000 jobs across the Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country, President Buhari directed that all those responsible for the misconduct or wrongful acts be brought to justice.

“The disbanding of SARS is only the first step in our commitment to extensive police reforms in order to ensure that the primary duty of the police and other law enforcement agencies remains the protection of lives and livelihood of our people,” said in Abuja.

Created in 1992 the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a branch of the Nigeria Police Force under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) has been alleged to be engaged in human right abuses, illegal stop and search, illegal arrest and detention, extrajudicial killings, www.businessday.ng

sexual harassment of women and brutalizing many young Nigerians.

While it is difficult to access data on the number of the alleged victims of SARS, Amnesty international documented 82 cases of detainees between January 2017 and May 2020.

According to protesters, the detainees are usually subjected to beating and eventually hanging, and this is aside those that do not make it to the station.

Led predominantly by young Nigerians in different cities alongside many activists and celebrities, the #EndSARS protests is as a result of the long security challenges in the country which has been reoccurring despite the high volume of security personnel in the most populous nation in Africa.

Nigeria’s police force was ranked as the worst in the world and as it occupied the bottom out of 127 countries on the measure of whether the public view security providers—particularly the police—in a favourable light, as compiled from the World Internal Security & Police Index of 2016.

While most African countries have less police staff, Nigeria is one of the few that meets the United Nations (UN) recommended police officer per citizen.

According to the UN, one police officer is needed for every 450 citizens. While Kenya has one for every 1,150, Tanzania, one for 1,298, Ghana one for every 1,200 Nigeria has over 370,000 police officers and a police-to-citizen ratio of 1:400. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

ment and ASUU ought to find a common ground for our institutions, particularly our universities to open and of course, offer the kind of services that are expected of our universities.

“We cannot afford, as a country, to continue to have this kind of crisis. So I receive you on behalf of my colleagues at the Senate and indeed the National Assembly.

The idea is to find out how we can resolve this issue.”

Lawan said even though there were many outstanding issues, the parties should imbibe the spirit of give and take in resolving the dispute.

“Government cannot expect to have it all its way and I believe that ASUU shouldn’t expect it to be that everything it asked for must be given.

“Our situation today is something that everyone knows what it is. It’s a very stressful economic situation and I believe that government is supposed to even, within this kind of situation, play its own part. Its obligations must be redeemed within the confine of what we can do.

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news Lack of business plan, structures...

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that Okezie’s business is

already set up for failure and needs urgent restructuring.

But the Aba shoemaker is not alone in this. More than 60 percent of the 41.5 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are like Okezie, which informs why the majority die in the first three years of set-up, analysts say.

“These are what we call foundational principles, and they are the critical success factors,” said Femi Pedro, chairman of the board of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), at a webinar tagged ‘Repositioning Nigerian SMEs for Growth and Sustainability’ organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Lagos at the weekend.

“Many small businesses are not financially disciplined and cannot separate their businesses from their personal lives,” Pedro said.

Pedro, who was formerly a deputy governor of Lagos State, noted that MSMEs would not make much headway without character, integrity, structures, passion for the industry and mentorship.

“Do you have a mentor?

These are people who have gone ahead of you and succeeded. You need to have them behind you. Also, you must have a business plan, and capital to start and run the business. Many entrepreneurs are lone rangers: They are CEOs, accountants, HR officers and everything, and they have their cheque books in their pockets always,” he said, stressing that these were factors that could make or mar businesses.

He urged MSMEs to take advantage of the N75 billion Survival Fund and numerous Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) funds domiciled at deposit money banks.

About 41.469 million (99.8%) of Nigeria’s 41.5 million MSMEs are micro businesses, according to a 2019 report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN). The data say MSMEs contribute 50 percent to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP), accounting for 86.3 percent of jobs (59.6m jobs) as of 2017.

Most of the structural or foundational challenges are found among micro businesses rang-

ing from ‘akara’ (beans’ balls) sellers to kiosk operators.

“Getting your books audited can go as low as N20,000,” said Adams Adebayo, chairman, Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Lagos State chapter,” he said.

He, however, reminded government of the need to make the environment better for businesses, while ensuring that raw materials meant for small businesses were subsidised, if possible.

Nigeria jumped 15 places on the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business Index, ranking 131st from 146th in 2019.

This represents 39 forward jump since 2016 when the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) was set up.

Segun Kuti-George, immediate past chairman, Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists(NASSI),saiddespite these improvements, the government had a role to improve the environment and end the overlapping functions of its agencies. He stressed the need to have industrial parks in the country where young Nigerians would put their energy to work.

On his part, Daniel Dickson-Okezie, chairman, LCCI SME Group, pointed out the need for the government to improve the business environment and boost decaying infrastructure to unleash MSMEs’ potential.

He said the Lagos State government had reformed certain aspects of the business environment, but added that more needed to be done to eliminate multiple taxes and improve power supply.

Toki Mabogunje, president, LCCI, said the performance and contributions of the SMEs had been impeded by the country’s operating environment characterised by high production costs, declining purchasing power, excessive regulations, high borrowing costs, policy uncertainties and poor trade facilitating infrastructure.

He said all these were stifling MSMEs, making it hard for them to survive, thrive and compete favourably with global peers.

She said these challenges were made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated containment measures, which impacted almost all Nigerian MSMEs, though to varying degrees.

Strike: Government mulls proscription...

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versity of Lagos branch chairman of ASUU while reacting to the perceived plans by the government to proscribe the activities of the Union, said, “I will not be surprised if the government decides to make attempt at proscribing ASUU. It is not the first time. The government tried it during the military era.” The government cannot prevent a union from fighting for their rights in any given circumstances, he said.

The IPPIS that the govern-

ment is making effort to implement is not only the reason why ASUU is fighting, instead the government should come clean and honour the numerous agreements successive and the present government have reach to give Nigerian universities the lift it desire to globally compete, he said.

A text message and several calls to the national president, ASUU, Abiodun Ogunyemi, a professor at the University of Abuja, were not responded to as at the time of filing this report. www.businessday.ng

President Muhammadu Buhari (r) with Ngozi OkonjoIweala, former minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy/top contender for the position of director-general, World Trade Organisation (WTO), during their meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.

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request a work-from-home

model to make up for absence from work.

The protest is continuing despite a video announcement by the IGP that the police unit had been disbanded.

According to Ayodeji Ebo, a senior economist/head, research/strategy, Greenwich Merchant Bank, the protest if not curtailed would affect productivity as offices may close, and would slow down investment generally.

Sadly in Lagos, commercial buses had to increase fares 100 percent within the routes affected, with Ajah to CMS, for instance, going as high as N800 from N400.

Update in Surulere area of the state, according to a note sent to colleagues in the office, read, “We have just received reports of live rounds being fired in clashes between security forces and protesters during the EndSars protests at Surulere. At least one protester has been killed and some others arrested.

“If you live in Surulere or will be going home through that route, please ensure that you are careful and keep safe.

If possible, avoid the Ojuelegba-Stadium axis completely.

“Kindly ensure that you do not leave the office late today as well so that you are not caught up on the road in the dark.”

Oguche Agudah, CEO of Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), said the #ENDSARS protest in many parts of Lagos caused some traffic, which delayed people getting to their places of work on time.

“Like you know, as early as 5am, there were twits on the protest, anybody could have expected some distractions.

However, for our kind of business, one day would not have made much impact, but if it takes three or four days, we can begin to feel it,” he said.

In a telephone conversation with BusinessDay, Timothy Olawale, director-general, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), said the protests had come to worsen the already fragile security situation in the country.

According to Olawale, this has further put businesses and investments at risk, as business concerns in areas where protests are being concentrated have had to shut down.

“No business organisation wants to put its investment and the lives of its workers at risk. Naturally, businesses have to shut down to avoid being attacked should hoodlums hijack the protests. And as you know, when you shut down your operations, you lose productive hours, when you lose productive hours, you lose money, when you lose money, you lose profit, and when you lose profit, the existence of the business is threatened.

“This not only affect existence businesses but also prospective investors. Nobody wants to invest in a clime that he is not sure of the safety of that investment. That is why the government should do all that is necessary to ensure that the threat from the protests and the general atmosphere of insecurity in the country, which we have been drawing attention to, is urgently addressed.”

Also, Muda Yusuf, director-general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said the protests might turn out to be negative for the economy if not well managed, stressing the need for proportionality on the part of protesters and the law enforcement agents, calling for calm from all the players involved.

Yusuf noted that President Buhari had shown deference by scrapping SARS, saying police reforms would naturally take some time to come into place.

On his part, Ambrose Oruche, acting director-general, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said he hopes the whole situation would lead to better protection of lives, businesses and property.

Joe Abah, an expert in law and former head of Bureau for Public Enterprises, said on his Twitter handle that the police must stop firing live ammunition on peaceful protesters, saying the more innocent protesters were killed, the more difficult it would be to appeal for calm.

Meanwhile, governor of La-

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gos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is to meet with President Buhari, today in Abuja, following the eruption of violence in the #EndSARS protests in the state.

Sanwo-Olu, who has identified with the protests against the dissolved SARS, braved the odds on Monday to address the protesters at Lekki where crowd of youths camped and blocked the expressway. He urged them to be decorous and peaceful while expressing their grievances against the excessive use of force by SARS. Sanwo-Olu left the weekly meeting of the State Executive Council and moved to address the EndSARS protesters.

The governor told the demonstrators that their protest was legitimate, but pleaded with them not to block the roads while passing on their grievances to the authorities.

He said he had spoken with the IGP on Monday to outline the position of the Lagos government on police reforms, adding that he would visit President Buhari on Tuesday (today) and present the demands of Lagos youths on the issues.

The protest continued in Abuja on Monday, but with a new demand by the demonstrators for a “comprehensive police reform” of the force.

The protesters’ initial demand was the dissolution of the SARS unit of the police, which was granted and announced by the IGP, but could not quell the wide spread national protests.

The ‘EndSARS’ protest have also gained international attention as countries such as the UK, Sweden and France urged the Federal Government to listen to the demand of the people.

In Abuja, the demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force as well as the embassies of the US, UK, and the EU to press home the fresh demand of absolute reforms of the police who they say have continued to brutalise citizens, particularly the youths.

At the three diplomatic houses visited in Abuja, Concerned Nigerians - a civil society organisation participating in the police reform protest, filed separate petitions, calling for a visa ban on the Oyo State police commissioner, @Businessdayng

Nwachukwu Enwonwu and members of his family.

Convener of the civil society group, Deji Adeyanju, who read a copy of the petition before journalists, said: “We appeal to the US and other development partners of Nigeria to place a visa restriction on the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Nwachukwu Enwonwu and members of his family over his handling of the ongoing EndSARS protest, which has led to extrajudicial killings and several human rights violations in the state.”

In Oyo State, Governor Seyi Makinde said security agencies had been deployed to maintain law and order as well as secure lives and property, declaring the protesters as championing the #ENDSARS protest, but urged them to remain peaceful so as not to negatively affect the peace of the state.

In a state broadcast, the governor said security agencies excluding the Nigerian Police, had been deployed by the state government to take the frontline in securing the #ENDSARS protesters and to maintain the peace.

Although business places and major markets were affected by the protest, the governor assured the state that he would do everything within his powers to ensure “no further lives are lost.”

“While peaceful protesters must not be hurt in the process, protesters must also remain peaceful as they make their legitimate grievances known to government,” he said.

Ajibola Bashiru, a senator representing Osun Central, called on the Federal Government and the IGP to close all detention centres used by operatives of the disbanded SARS. This is as the #ENDSARS protesters in Osun State trooped out to the state Governor’s House where they disrupted activities by blocking the main entrance gate.

The protesters also moved to the Osun State House of Assembly where they were given an audience by members of the state legislative house.

The protest follows even when President Muhammadu Buhari had described the disbanding of the police unit as the first step to measures aimed at reformingtheentirepoliceforce.

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Aftermath of COVID-19: federal, state varsities plan increase in tuition fees

Abia to ensure artisans benefit from MSME Survival Fund GODFREY OFURUM, Aba

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bia State government says it has made arrangements to ensure that potential beneficiaries of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Survival Fund from the state are not denied the opportunity.

About 9,009 artisans in Abia will receive N30, 000 each from the scheme.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, gave the promise at a town hall meeting with Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) and trade association leaders on artisan and transport support component of Survival Fund, held last Saturday in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.

Represented at the forum

by Chinenye Nwaogu, the state’s focal person on special investments, Ikpeazu argued that Aba has the largest concentration of MSMEs in the Southeast zone of Nigeria and so deserves priority attention.

“Today, Aba is unarguably the leading light in small scale manufacturing in Nigerian and we want to just put that on record, so that in subsequent planning and programmes of the federal government, Aba will be given priority attention.

“There is so much required to build SMEs in this place. When the Vice President visited us, we told him that Aba, should not be left for the state government alone to develop, because if we build Aba and build the capacity of businesses, we will not have any business going to China to import things.

“I will like to clarify that in the other components, Abia received a higher number of slots, like in the payroll support, business registration and others, but for this artisan and transport support scheme which was distributed equally, among all the States, we had expected to also receive higher than some States.

“States like Lagos, Kano, should also receive higher than other states because they have larger concentration of artisans and transporters in the country.

Ikpeazu, commended the Federal Government for introducing the fund for artisans and transporters and hoped that this and other economic policies, geared towards improving the livelihood of Nigerians, would be implemented with the same zest and vigor, so that the people will have a breath of fresh air, stressing that there is a lot of economic pressure on Nigerians currently.

MARK MAYAH

…as parents, students urge FG to intervene

s tertiary institutions across the country resumed yesterday after about seven months of closure to check the spread of Covid-19, the authorities of more state and federal universities are hiking tuition fees.

BusinessDay can confirm that some of the institutions have already begun the implementation of the hiked fees.

According to our findings, no fewer than four universities have so far increased their tuition fee this year with the claim of augmenting the schools’ finances to meet pressing needs.

Recall that the permanent secretary, federal ministry of education, Sonny Echono, had argued that parents’ claim of fee increment was untrue, asking Nigerians to disregard the media report and support government’s effort to revamp the education system.

Echono said government was working towards a means to generate funding opportunities for the institutions.

“I must confirm to you that government has no plan to increase tuition fees in Nigerian universities as being claimed by parents. There might be gaps in funding the education sector,

particularly the universities, but the claim of such increase in tuition fees by parents is untrue.

“However, I can confirm that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the federal ministries of education and finance to develop a workable plan that would herald increase in funding opportunities for the institutions.”

Echono disclosed that the education ministry had revisited its plans to establish an education bank that would give low interest loans to interested students and parents to fund their education needs.

But it is clear that the planned fee hike by the various universities is progressing in a subtle way and without the federal ministry of education calling them to order.

The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology increased its tuition fee by 60 percent.

In a statement, the institution’s registrar, Joseph Agboola, said that with effect from the 2020/2021 academic session, indigene students of the owner states (Oyo and Osun) will pay N250, 000 per session while non-indigenes will pay N300, 000.

Prior to the new tuition re-

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gime, as gathered, students of Oyo and Osun states origin paid N73, 500 per session, while nonindigenes paid N82, 500.

The current 100 level students, after a long strike, were instructed to pay N120, 000 (indigenes) and N150, 000 (non-indigenes) as part of the resolution by the institution. All students, both new and old, are to pay the same amount, according to the new fee on resumption.

Similarly, the management of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Akoko, Ondo State, increased tuition fee from N75, 000 to N200, 000. It was stated that while fresh students in the faculties of arts and education were to pay N150, 000, returning students were to pay N120, 000.

Fresh students in the faculties of science, agriculture, social and management sciences, were to pay N180, 000 and the returning students N150, 000. Fresh students in the faculty of law were asked to pay N200, 000 and the returning students, N150, 000.

The increment was, however, resisted by parents and other stakeholders.

“This cannot be feasible without a slight adjustment in accommodation charges and in some fees items payable by

L-R: Sam Onuigbo, member of the House of Representatives; Enyinnaya Abaribe, a senator; Use Okoh, representing Abia State governor; Olorunnimbe Mamora, minister of state for health, and Ngozi Ekeoma, initiator of the project, during the inauguration of a 50-bed ultra modern medical centre in Umuahia, Abia State.

Shopagric offers investment opportunities in agribusiness value chains JOSEPHINE OKOJIE

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hopagric, an agri-tech crowdfunding platform is offering investment opportunities for investors in cash crops and livestock value chains in the country.

A monthly sponsorship window allows potentially interested investors to fund their e-wallet and sponsor as many farm units of their choice as possible with a return on investment (ROI) of 18 percent in 18 weeks per unit of poultry farm, 20 percent in six months for a unit of fish farm and 21 percent ROI for rice processing in six months.

Shopagric has been in operation for over 12 months with a ranch and an agroprocessing plant located at Kuchiko-ijah, Niger state, Nigeria.

Since its inception, Shopagric has completed six major poultry farm projects with a production capacity of 46,000 broiler birds, a fish farm project, and a rice farming project.

Currently, they have a 4, 000 layer bird capacity farm with a view on expanding before the end of the year to a 20,000 layers bird capacity pen fully automated.

The company also has a catfish farm production capacity of 22, 000, and recently set up a functional hatchery to

help increase the catfish production capacity to 100,000 by December 2020.

With the increasing consumption of rice as a staple in Nigeria, a 60 tons per day fully automatic rice milling plant has been approved by the board of directors to be set up on the ranch and agroprocessing plant, in Niger state( being one of the largest rice-producing states in Nigeria).

Shopagric also has a completed and fully functional meat processing house on the ranch and agro-processing plant for the processing of all produced birds in the farm, to increase the value of the agrochain in the poultry broiler production sector.

With a view on further expansion of production capacity on the various agro-sectors, a formidable and smart team had to be built; Shopagric has staff strength of 37 young Nigerians in five different states in the country (Kano, Edo state, Abuja, Niger State, and Jos).

Shopagric also has other investment packages such as Eduvest which gives parents or intending parents the opportunity to invest in a compound interest rate of 2.5percent per month, a savings plan within the range of 1.55 percent to two percent monthly.

students in some faculties.”

He said the increase in accommodation fee only affected all students who desire to stay in the halls of residence, adding that “residency in the halls of residence is optional.’’

Afraid of the unfolding development as the remaining 2019/2020 academic session kick-off, parents and students are pleading with the Federal Government to intervene before all the other institutions jump on the bandwagon.

According to them, as the institutions are increasing fees to fit into the economy, they also are seeking subsidised fees to enable them to cater to their other social needs.

A civil servant, Olawale Idris, who has two of her sons in two different universities, said her children, had to go to school in spite of the increased fees, but the Federal Government should intervene.

He said, “We all know that education is not free as claimed in Nigeria. If the government is saying education is free, it means they are liars. If the increment is outrageous, there is nothing we can do. We want the best. State universities’ fees are outrageous.

SARS: PDP demands overhaul, restructuring of police

www.businessday.ng

KAMARUDEEN OGUNDELE, Abuja

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he People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says it welcomes the dissolution of the Federal Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS) of the police but charges President Muhammadu Buhari to completely overhaul and restructure the police.

This, it said, would promote professionalism, adherence to rule of law and respect for the fundamental rights of Nigerians.

The party in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, also urged the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to go be-

yond the dissolution of SARS by prosecuting officers found to have been involved in extra judicial killings, unlawful arrests and detention, extortion, harassment and dehumanization of innocent Nigerians, particularly in the last five years.

The statement said, “Without mincing words, the PDP insists that no indicted officer should be reassigned and allowed to go unpunished after such heinous crime against the Nigerian people.

“Those who killed, maimed, dehumanised and foisted a reign of terror on innocent Nigerians must be made to answer for their devilish actions.

“Anything short of this will

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amount to granting official cover to felonious elements and a tacit encouragement of further perpetuation of such crimes against Nigerians.”

The opposition party also accused the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of using “a certain impostor as spokesperson in the social media to attempt to trivialise, politicise and detract from the essence of the public protest against the excesses of the disbanded police outfit.”

“Nigerians were shocked when a particular agent of the APC, in a tweet on Sunday, made false and diversionary allusions to the creation of SARS @Businessdayng

in a bid to divert attention apparently because of APC’s complicity in the atrocities being protested against by Nigerians.

“The APC is apparently jittery because, whereas SARS was created in 1992, far before the coming to power of the PDP, it had turned monstrous within five years of the command of APC administration, under which our nation has witnessed horrific cases of arbitrary and extra-judicial killings, illegal arrests, arbitrary detention, torture and reported disappearances as also detailed in the reports by the United States Department of State, Amnesty International (AI) and Transparency International (TI).

Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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NEWS

102 contractors jostle for 226 intervention projects in Oyo REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

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o fewer than 102 local contractors bided for the execution of the 2019 Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) intervention projects during the bidding exercise which held last weekend in Oyo State.

The projects are to be jointly financed by the Oyo State government through SUBEB and the Federal Government through UBEC. The contracts bided for include: the construction of a model school, construction of eight blocks of six classrooms, construction of 14 blocks of four classrooms. Others are construction of 32 blocks of 3 classrooms, construction of 4 ECCDE pilot centres, construction 10 perimeter fencing.

The contractors bided for renovation of 66 blocks of classrooms, sinking of 40 boreholes, procurement of 48 lots of furniture and procurement of 3 lots of sport equipment/facilities.

Speaking after the bidding exercise, the executive chair-

man, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Nureni Aderemi Adeniran said a total of 226 projects were being undertaken, adding that the bidding was transparent and followed due process.

He said this was done in compliance with the provision of Public Procurement Act 2010, Adeniran, “we allowed due process in this bid opening, which states that people should be allowed to tender for any goods and/ or services, and the tender should be open in the presence of the tenderers”, he said.

While he reiterated the board’s commitment to transparency and integrity in the selection process, he admonished contractors who submitted bids to embrace the spirit of sportmanship.

Adeniran also disclosed that the Board is on the verge of completing the 2018 FGNUBEC/OYOSUBEB Intervention projects, adding that the projects are on 80 percent completion.

Chairman therefore urged tenderers to deliver a thorough job and ensure speedy completion of the intervention projects.

Seyi Makinde (r), governor, Oyo State, presenting a souvenir to Jerome Pasquier, France ambassador to Nigeria, during his courtesy visit to the governor, at the governor’s office, Agodi, Ibadan.

World Bank puts debt burden of least developed countries at $744bn

Lagos chamber seeks urgent reform of Customs cargo clearing processes AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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orried by the chall e n g e s f a c e d by Nigerian business community during cargo clearance at ports, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has called for urgent reform of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) cargo clearing processes and procedures.

According to the chamber, the situation is severely hurting investors and adversely affecting economic recovery efforts.

“The situation calls for urgent intervention and reforms of the Nigerian Customs Service. There are issues of undue delays, weak application of technology, arbitrariness in valuation, impunity, uncertainty of international trade transactions, cost escalation, negative investment climate perception, ineffective mode of seeking redress, pervasive human interface, among others,” said a statement signed by Muda Yusuf, director general, LCCI. Yusuf stated that the business community was compelled to interface with too many units of Customs and other government agencies which makes doing business extremely difficult, frustrating and predisposes the system to brazen extortionist practices.

He listed the units to include the pre-arrival assessment report (PAAR) office, valuation units, examination, releasing, unblocking, DC report, stamping unit, exit gate,

and enforcement, including other government agencies at the ports such as NAFDAC, SON, Plant Quarantine, SSS, Police Anti-Bomb Squad, and the Port Police.

He, however, stated that importers were confronted with Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Customs, Customs Strike Force, and the Customs Police outside the ports. He added that encounters by the private sector with these numerous agencies imposes unbearable burden on importers and investors in terms of costs, time, and bureaucracy.

“There are also recurring issues of valuation of imports and HS Code classification of products. PAAR issued by Customs headquarters are frequently queried by Customs operatives at the ports.

Many businesses have suffered severe disruptions in their investment projections because of large variations arising from revision of value and re-classification of imports by the PAAR office at the Customs headquarters and the Customs units at the ports.

This phenomenon has become persistent and hurting investors. It has also become a major source of uncertainty for businesses,” Yusuf stated.

He further stated that it has become imperative for the Federal Government to urgently domesticate the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement to which Nigeria is not only a signatory but ratified on January 16, 2017. www.businessday.ng

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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ebt burden of least developed countries climbed to $744 billion in 2019, World Bank said on Monday.

The Washington based international financial institution said more detailed and more disaggregated data on sovereign debt will help implement debt relief efforts in least developed countries.

In response to an urgent need for greater debt transparency, the latest edition of the International Debt Statistics (IDS) report provides more detailed and more disaggregated data on external debt than ever before in its nearly 70-year history, including breakdowns of what each borrowing country owes to official and private creditors in each creditor country, and the expected month-by-month debt-service payments owed to them through 2021.

Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising public debt levels were already a cause for concern, particularly in many of the world’s poorest countries as discussed in our Four Waves of Debt re-

port published in December 2019. Responding to a call from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the G20 endorsed the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in April 2020 to help up to 73 of the poorest countries manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the 2021 IDS report, the total external debt of DSSI-eligible countries climbed 9.5 percent to a record $744 billion in 2019 from the previous year, highlighting an urgent need for creditors and borrowers to collaborate to stave off the growing risk of sovereign-debt crises triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pace of debt accumulation for these countries was nearly twice the rate of other low and middle-income countries in 2019. The debt stock of DSSI-eligible countries to official bilateral creditors, composed by mostly G-20 countries, reached $178 billion in 2019 and accounted for 17 percent of long-term net debt flows to low- and middle-income countries. Within the G-20 creditor group there have been some important shifts characterised by a marked increase in lending

by G-20 member countries that are themselves middle-income

countries. For example, China, by far the largest creditor, has seen its share of the combined debt owed to G-20 countries rise from 45 percent in 2013 to 63 percent at end-2019. Over the same period the share for Japan, the second largest G-20 creditor, has remained broadly the same at 15 percent. The 2021 IDS data release also reflects progress made to increase coverage of complex debt instruments, given their rising prominence in the debt profiles of developing countries. The central bank and currency swap arrangements that represent loans from other central banks also occur in low- and middle-income countries. The World Bank is working to ensure that these debt instruments are captured in the IDS dataset. Increased debt transparency will help many low and middle-income countries assess and manage their external debt through the current crisis and work with policymakers toward sustainable debt levels and terms. “Achieving longterm debt sustainability will depend on a large-scale shift in the world’s approach to debt and investment transparency,” said World Bank Group president, David Malpass. “The time has

come for a much more comprehensive approach to tackling the debt crisis facing the people in the poorest countries— one that involves debt-service suspension as well as broader efforts such as debt-stock reduction and swifter debt-restructuring, grounded in greater debt transparency.”

Greater debt transparency is critical to productive investment and debt sustainability. The World Bank Group has called for full transparency of the terms of the existing and new debt and debt-like commitments of the governments of the poorest countries. It has urged creditors and debtors alike to embrace this transparency—to facilitate analysis that would enable countries to identify sovereign-debt levels that are consistent with growth and poverty reduction.

“Debt is what enables governments to have extra resources they need to invest in health systems, education, or infrastructure,” said World Bank chief economist, Carmen Reinhart.

“If you have a debt problem, all those ambitions suffer. That’s why it’s important to get the debt onto sustainable ground as quickly as possible. We can’t afford another lost decade.”

Korea, Belgium to support Nigeria on maritime security, trade AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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outh Korea and Belgium governments have pledged more support for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in its drive to enhance trade and security in the Nigerian maritime domain.

Kang Haenggu, new consul-general of the Korean Embassy in Nigeria, and Daniel Bertrand, ambassador designate of Belgium in Nigeria, made the promise when they visited Bashir Jamoh, the director-general of NIMASA, at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.

Jamoh expressed NIMASA’s determination to curb criminal attacks on Nigerian waters as well as the entire Gulf of Guinea region.

The envoys acknowledged the security challenge in the Gulf of Guinea and promised to support Nigeria’s efforts to improve security on its waters.

Addressing the South Korean and Belgian delegations at separate meetings, Jamoh said the Nigerian government placed high premium on safety and security of shipping on its waters and the Gulf of Guinea, and had invested heavily in maritime security infrastructure.

“Nigeria has made huge investments in the establish-

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ment of a comprehensive maritime security infrastructure to confront the menace of maritime criminality head-on.

The Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure, also called the Deep Blue Project is designed to secure our waters, up to the Gulf of Guinea,” Jamoh said in a statement signed by Philip Kyanet, head, corporate communications of NIMASA. According to him, the project is nearing completion, with over 80 percent of the assets, comprising Special Mission Vessels, Fast Intervention Boats, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and Armoured Vehicles, already in the country.

“The information and in@Businessdayng

telligence hub of the Deep Blue Project, the Command, Control, Communication, Computer, and Intelligence Centre (C4i), was commissioned in August last year.

The centre is up and running with round-the-clock production of needed maritime domain awareness. The C4i has helped to identify and monitor activities in the black spots, leading to arrests of many suspects in recent times,” he added.

Jamoh said the training of personnel for the Deep Blue Project had commenced and would be concluded this month, ahead of the deployment of the assets by December.

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY

How poverty shapes elections in Nigeria INIOBONG IWOK

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story is told of a gruesome act attributed to a former Soviet l e a d e r, J o s e f Stalin which describes him purportedly plucking a live chicken in order to demonstrate “how easy it is to govern stupid people.”

Stalin was said to have ripped all the feathers off a live chicken as a lesson to his followers. He then set the chicken on the floor a short distance away. The chicken was bloodied and suffering immensely, yet, when Stalin began to toss some bits of wheat toward the chicken, it followed him around. He said to his followers “This is how easy it is to govern stupid people; they will follow you no matter how much pain you cause them, as long as you throw them a little worthless treat once in a while.”

The above illustration appears to capture how the Nigerian hapless voting masses are being treated by the ruling class. Today, politicians and their parties appear to have adopted vote-buying as a very easy way to compromise the electoral process and achieve victory.

It appears to be a regular feature in Nigeria’s election, and taking place in the full glare of security agents.

Although electoral fraud has been in the country for many years, observers say that it is increasingly getting worse. It is believed that political office holders deliberately deny the people good governance and the fabled democracy dividend, waiting to buy their way into office on Election Day, latching onto the unfortunate level of poverty in the country.

Since the general election 2019, the incidence of vote-buying appears to be getting worse in subsequent elections. It featured prominently in the September 19 gubernatorial election in Edo State, and increased in

Mohammed Adamu, Inspector General of Police

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman

tempo in the just-concluded Ondo election.

Speaking on his observation in Ondo, Samson Itodo, executive director, YIAGA Africa, an election monitoring group, said: ‘It shows that they (politicians) are not lifting anybody out of poverty. So, the only way they could keep winning is to make people poor and to use vote-buying to secure victory at all cost.”

According to Itodo, “The thing happened in the full glare of security agents, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that is part of the electoral process, were just watching and nobody is being arrested; I am yet to hear about any prosecution by the EFCC. What we are seeing today is either procured massive turnout or procured votes.”

The YIAGA boss noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) aspresently constituted lacked the power to prosecute electoral offenders, urging the National Assembly to make necessary legislation in that regard.

“What we see in some places as large turnout is actually made possible by the token doled out. The electorates collect such handout

poverty rate among Nigerians and the electorates.

Though, political watchers say that the lack of punishment for offenders and culpability of security agencies had fuelled the trend.

Though last Saturday’s election may have been won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and incumbent Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu who polled 292,830 votes, while the People’s Democratic Party candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, got 195,791 votes, and the Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, of the Zenith Labour Party, came a distant third with 69, 127 votes, the election may have been relatively peaceful across the state, observers say that the recurring trend of vote-buying in elections in Nigeria calls for serious concern among Nigerians, leaders and the electorates.

Ondo, a Niger Delta State blessed with crude oil, receives a significant amount from the revenue sharing formula by the Federal Government. But despite the huge income, a large percentage of the indigenes of the state live in poverty.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) published earlier this

in exchange for the fabled democracy dividends,” an analyst, who craved anonymity, said.

Among the major issues that characterised last Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ondo State was vote-buying by politicians and their agents. In its preliminary report on the conduct of the Ondo governorship poll, election observer group, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), had said that there was large scale vote-buying by politicians, especially among the two leading parties, while warning that stakeholders in the electoral process should come out with modalities to address the menace.

“Regrettably, our observers reported that vote-buying is becoming more brazen and was a major feature of this election. INEC, the security agencies and other stakeholders need to work out measures to effectively address this ugly phenomenon,” Faith Nwadishi, CTA’s executive director had said.

Over the years, vote-buying is not new to elections in Nigeria, however, the trend has exacerbated in recent times largely due to desperation to win election at all cost by politicians and the high

year, over 82.9 million Nigerians are living in poverty and the poverty headcount rate in Ondo State is 12.52 percent.

There is no doubt that the high poverty rate among Ondo indigenes played a role in influencing the pattern of their voting last Saturday. This is largely due to the monetary enticement they got from politicians; oftentimes the electorates often vote against their conscience. Reports say the major political parties were sharing money openly to willing voters who would accept to vote for their candidates even in the presence of security agencies.

However, what is obvious is that Nigerians politicians understand the poor economic state of Nigerians and the voting population and are often out to exploit the situation and influence their voting pattern to their favour.

Though INEC had promised to initiate a mechanism to check vote-buying in previous elections, what is obvious is that such measures if it was ever initiated had failed.

Festus Okoye, INEC chairman of information and voters education, told BusinessDay recently that the commission was aware of

the challenge posed by vote buying to the electoral system and would deal with it.

According to him, “We are aware of the problems vote-buying poses and we are adopting new strategies to deal with it. We appeal to political parties and the candidates to steer clear of our polling units as the commission will not condone buying and selling of votes or voters cards in any of the polling units.

“We shall collaborate with security agencies to stamp out vote-buying,” he said.

Some days prior to the Ondo election, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Rufus Akeju, had said it was putting measures in place to curtail votebuying and violence during the election through voter education across the state.

“I want to assure you that the INEC is more than ever before, committed to the con­duct of free, fair, credible, conclusive and acceptable election in Ondo State, come Saturday, October 10, 2020 in line with international best practices.

“Furthermore, the commission is working very hard towards eradicating the ‘do or die’ attitude, vote buying menace as well as the high level of apathy associated with the electoral process,” Akeju had said.

Observers also said that most times, it was poverty that drove some youths to act as thugs for politicians.

“If you look at most of the boys that act as politicians’ thugs, they look unfed and generally unkempt. Many of them do not even have good accommodation. So, they depend on the handouts by politicians who prey on them,” a pundit said on condition of anonymity.

However, observers say that the lack of legislation to check vote buying and the lack of powers by INEC to punish election offenders was a major problem that must be dealt with if the ugly trend is to be checked ahead 2023 election.

Edo lawmakers impeach Speaker, Okiye IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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he Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye has been impeached for alleged financial impropriety.

Okiye, who was sworn in as speaker of the house in a controversial circumstance in June 2019, was im-

peached by nine members of the 10-legislative house.

Following his impeachment, Marcus Onobun, representing Esan West constituency, was elected new speaker.

The impeached speaker was also suspended for three months to allow for a peaceful transition.

The motion for the impeachment was moved by www.businessday.ng

Henry Okhuarobo, All Progressives Congress (APC), representing Ikpoba Okha and seconded by Yekini Idiaye, representing AkokoEdo constituency 1.

Moving the motion for the impeachment, Okhuarobo said members have compelling reasons to effect the house’s leadership.

While noting that the impeachment of the speaker

was long overdue, he said they decided to wait for all political activities to be over before the change of leadership as well as the need to sustain the peace and harmony in the state.

“Irrespective of APC and PDP members in the house, we were all united to move the state forward. Staff were also in support of the impeachment,” he said.

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Okiye was already presiding at the plenary session before his impeachment.

Okiye, who did not resist his impeachment, humbly vacated his seat for the Deputy Speaker of the house, Roland Asoro, who presided over the plenary after the impeachment.

In his remarks, the new speaker, Marcus Onobun, thanked the members for @Businessdayng

his election as new speaker of the house.

He however, dissolved all the house standing committees and relieved all the appointees of the house by the impeached speaker of their appointments.

Onobun also constituted a three-man committee to look into financial records of the house under the leadership of the former speaker.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Monday 12 October, 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Monday 12 October, 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS Company

Opening

Closing

A3

Change

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

SEPLAT

N410

N420

10

FLOURMILL

N22

N21

-1

ETERNA

N3.63

N3.99

0.36

BUACEMENT

N41.5

N40.9

-0.6

ACCESS

N7.8

N7.9

0.1

CUTIX

N1.72

N1.8

0.08

INTBREW

FCMB

N2.26

N2.31

0.05

AFRIPRUD

MTNN

N140.5

N140

-0.5

N4.72

N4.29

-0.43

N5.73

N5.6

-0.13

ASI (Points)

28,337.49

DEALS (Numbers) VOLUME (Numbers)

4,750.00 369,177,675.00

VALUE (N billion) MARKET CAP (N Trn)

5.060 14.811

Global market indicators FTSE 100 Index 6,001.38GBP -15.27-0.25% S&P 500 Index 3,546.54USD +69.41+2.00% Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 28,792.00USD +274.00+0.96%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 13,138.41EUR +87.18+0.67% Nikkei 225 23,558.69JPY -61.00-0.26% Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 3,358.47CNY +86.39+2.64%

Stock market dips by 0.27% ...as investors continue profit taking Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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igeria’s stock m a r k e t opened the new week in red (down by -0.27percent) as investors continued to take profit following recent gains.

Stocks like Flour Mills, BUA Cement, MTNN, International Breweries and Africa Prudential were mostly offered on the sell side of the Nigerian bourse on Monday, leading to about N41billion decline in the cumulative value of listed equities.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased to 28,337.49 points while market capitalization dropped to N14.811trillion

L-R: Rachael Ogolo, product group manager, Vitafoam Nig. plc.; Joseph Alegbesogie, finance director; Taiwo Adeniyi, group managing director/CEO; Abbagana Abatcha, group technical and development director; Lekan Sanni, group head, Legal and Admin, and Alfred Savage, head, Logistics, during the Press conference on Vitafoam’s BUY RIGHT Campaign, Ikeja, Lagos.

as against preceding trading day’s high of 28,415.31 points and N14.852 trillion respectively.

In 4,750 deals, in-

vestors exchanged 369,177,675 units valued at N5.060billion. UBA, GTBank, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings, Transcorp were

Vitafoam launches products awareness to boost earnings …assures investors superior return on investment Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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itafoam Nigeria Plc, a leading manufacturer of flexible and reconstituted foam, furniture and allied products, is set to launch national awareness on the relationship between body mass and mattress to promote healthy living, widen customer base and boost its return on investment (ROI).

Already, the company has concluded arrangements to flag off buy right that covers mattresses for six distinct categories of body weight, ranging from under 50kg to all weight categories.

Addressing financial journalists in Lagos on Monday, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Taiwo Adeniyi explained that the Vitafoam had decided to educate the entire public on the need to consider

body weight before purchasing mattresses in view of the health challenges of using wrong foams.

Adeniyi disclosed that the company’s new move was borne out of empirical facts and obligation to create awareness as part of its Community Social Responsibilities (CSR).

“Many people have suffered from health challenges because of disparity between their body weight and the mattress they use. Our actions are based on empirical facts and not intuition. Some people just buy mattresses on the basis of their pocket. We have found out that there is a need to have basis for buying.

One of the questions that our outlets ask customers is their body weight and there are scales to measure it for proper guidance.

“What you sleep on determines what your day looks like. Bad mattress causes bad dream. People do not bother about what www.businessday.ng

they sleep on. But a lot of health challenges come along. We are taking our campaign, scheduled for three months to both urban and rural areas. We can customize our products to body mass”, said Adeniyi.

By the company’s categorization, people that are under 50kg should go for Vita Shine mattress, up to 70kg, Vita Grand and Vita Corona, up to 100kg, Vita Haven, Vita Supreme and Spring Flex, above 100kg, Vita Spring Firm, up to 120, Vita Sizzier and all weight categories which is not suitable for children, Vita Twill, Vita Galaxy Orthopedic and Galaxy Classic.

According to Adeniyi, the new development on body weight as a basis for purchase of mattress is a result of the company’s continuous improvement on its existing product categories. He explained that the new categorisation of mattresses by body weight did not affect their existing prices.

actively traded stocks.

Flour Mills Nigeria Plc led the losers table after its share price decreased from N22 to N21, losing N1 or

4.55percent. BUA Cement Plc followed, from N41.5 to N40.9, down by 60kobo or 1.45percent. MTN N Plc dipped from N140.5 to N140, down by 50kobo or 0.36percent.

Despite pockets of profit taking last week, the nation’s equities market still gained N747billion.

Some analysts had expected some level of correction and stability this week, thereby foreseeing continuation of last Friday’s profit taking activities.

“For this week, we expect the monument to be sustained judging by the huge liquidity in the system coupled with fewer investment alternatives. However, we do not overrule the place of profit taking”, said research analysts at Lagosbased United Capital.

Also in their recent note to investors, Meristem analysts said they “anticipate lingering bullish sentiments to fuel market performance this week.

Although we do not rule out profit taking activities which kicked in last week, we expect that the bulls would have the upper hand.”

“In making a case for buying interest in the equities market, we identify elevated system liquidity supported by incoming OMO maturities, depressed fixed income yields and a dearth of attractive alternative investment options to dictate market direction this week.

Ultimately, we expect that the market would close positive this week”, Meristem analysts said in an October 12 note to investors.

Stakeholders to deliberate on investment channels for insurance, pension assets Modestus Anaesoronye

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xperts as well as stakeholders in the financial service sector will converge to deliberate on how insurance and pension fund operators can build their investment portfolios to maximise profit.

The deliberation is taking place at the 2020 annual conference of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) billed for Wednesday November 4, 2020 at Four Points By Sheraton Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

While the theme for the conference is: “Promoting Bankable Investments Portfolio for Insurance and Pension Sectors,” investment stakeholders in the capital and money market instruments have equally been invited to grace the occasion To this end, the Chairman of the occasion is

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the Chairman, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Austin Enajemo-Isire while the Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, is the Keynote Speaker, even as the Chairman, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Akin Ogunbiyi will be the Special Guest of Honour and Chief Launcher of the new NAIPCO website.

The Commissioner for Insurance/CEO, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Sunday Thomas and the Acting @Businessdayng

Director General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Aisha DahirUmar, have confirmed their attendance for the conference.

Similarly, the Chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Ganiyu Musa; the CEO, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Agudah Oguche, among others, will also be present at the occasion to deliberate on ways operators can invest in the businesses of the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria(OPSN) and still maximise profit.

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Tuesday 13 October 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Insight

BUSINESS DAY Tuesday 13 October 2020 www.businessday.ng

NESG: Galvanising engagements to reform Nigerian economy ODINAKA ANUDU

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n 1993, an army of private sector leaders and patriots floated the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) to champion the reform of the Nigerian economy into an open, private sector-led, globally competitive economy.

As of the time of founding this noble group, many private and public sector leaders were sceptical about it, mainly because the country was still mired in the throes of a military interregnum.

However, 27 years down the line, the group has become the most important platform for public and private sector engagements, advocating for efficient and effective government policies that galvanise growth and jobs.

Since its establishment, NESG has been guided by fundamental principles such as free market, encouragement of private sector investment, creation of an enabling environment, establishment of an economic foundation for democracy, commitment to the rule of law and governance in the national interest. So far, the group has succeeded in fuelling discussions and policies that reflect these visions, missions and strategic targets.

It may not be totally correct to ascribe economic successes achieved in the last 27 years to any one organisation. However, the success of every organisation would be better measured by its visions, strategic targets and efforts put in place to achieve them.

It is, therefore, on record that the NESG has championed some of the biggest market-led reforms in Nigeria’s history through its consistent advocacy and participation in government committees.

The group’s advocacy is responsible for the Pension Reform Act of 2014, which has, for 16 years, instilled confidence in pensions management in Africa’s biggest economy. The Act replaced the unfunded and unsustainable Defined Benefits Scheme with the Contributory Pension Scheme, which is now fully funded and ensures that money contributed into individual employees’ Retirement Savings Account (RSA) gets to them as they retire. The benefits of the Contributory Pension Scheme enjoyed by most Nigerians today could be attributed to the many years of advocacy done

by NESG. The group had, before the pension reforms, advocated for an independent and sustainable scheme that would ensure that employees were not starved of funds at their retirement.

Asue Ighodalo, chairman, NESG.

Today, the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) manage and invest employees’ funds in the RSA, from where the contributors draw benefits on retirement, in line with the provisions of the Act. This is not the only major contribution of NESG. The reform of the telecoms industry today was due to advocacies and participation by the NESG and its key members. Before the reforms, Nigerians had been stuck with the anachronistic and regressive Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), a monopoly that made access to communications difficult and expensive. It was then an exclusive preserve of the rich who could afford to intimidate the poor with telephones. Though the government had enacted the Nigerian Communications Commission Act in 1992 which allowed new entrants into the telecommunications sector,

it did not happen until NESG and other private sector groups mounted pressure on government. NESG, in its characteristic manner, campaigned for free market and fair play that would allow competition and prices to allocate telecoms services.

Today, the results are here for everybody to see. The country has had MTN, Glo and other telecoms companies who have used communications services to improve lives, businesses and economy. When MTN berthed in Nigeria, a SIM pack cost over N25,000, but competition has brought it down to almost nothing today. It is now possible to get free SIM cards. The poor, the middle-class and the rich can afford recharge cards because they are now denominated in lower and higher currencies.

Moreover, the reforms Nigerians see in the petroleum and electricity industries today are products of NESG engagement

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It is, therefore, on record that the NESG has championed some of the biggest market-led reforms in Nigeria’s history through its consistent advocacy and participation in government committees

with Nigerian leaders over the years.

In one interview with BusinessDay in 2016, Laoye Jaiyeola, CEO, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), had argued that petroleum subsidy was a total waste of the country’s resources and that the country was only subsiding fuel for the rich with many cars and drivers. After many years of ignoring the calls for the removal of corruption-infested subsidies which supposedly cost Nigeria N1 trillion annually, the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has granted it. The removal of the subsidies is among the best things to happen to Nigeria since its return to democracy in 1999.

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in its recent statement confirmed NESG’s age-long position that Nigeria’s fiscal space can no longer sustain humongous, corruption-prone and opaque subsidies which are not in the best interest of the citizens, the economy and future generations.

In a statement by Muda Yusuf, director-general of the chamber, the LCCI also argued that attracting private capital in the electricity sector requires that pricing must be right to ensure that the economics of investment makes sense to the investors.

These have been the position of NESG over the years.

In 2003, NESG had a first-ever public debate on Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructural development with the support of UK Trade and Investment.

The discussions and resolutions resulted in the Infrastructure Master Plan of 2015-2043, which on paper is among the best infrastructure policies in Africa.

Furthermore, NESG contributed to the repeal and replacement of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Act of 1989 and Exchange Control Act of 1962 with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Act 1995 (later 2007) and Foreign Exchange Act 1995 (later 2007), respectively.

The FX market is not yet in its best form, but it is still a much better market than it was many years ago, thanks to NESG’s advocacies.

It is also on record that NESG championed a policy shift from state ownership and management of business to privatisation and competition across the economy to confine government to governance and leave business for the private sector.

This led to the privatisation of previously government-owned

enterprises such as paper mills, NITEL, steel plants, textile mills and many others. Some of the privatized firms are not performing as expected, but that is down to management, politics, policies and corruption, not basically privatisation. Only about 37 percent of 142 privatised enterprises were moribund as of 2018, according to Alex Okoh, director, Bureau for Public Enterprises.

The group has also called for the privatization or full concessioning of Ajaokuta Steel Complex and Aluminium Smelter Company to make them return to life. Moreover, the group is partly responsible for the establishment of Vision 2010 Committee which produced a comprehensive and well thought-out framework for economic development of the country.

It is also critical to note that NESG was part of Nigeria’s banking reforms which recapitalised deposit money banks, making them stronger and more responsible to their customers. Through the reforms, many backwardlooking financial institutions in the country began a step towards becoming 21st century institutions. It is now possible to carry out remote financial transactions, use the automated teller machines (ATMs) and even do agency banking.

The contributions of the NESG, no doubt, are enormous. Some of its remarks and researches are yet to be implemented, but the ones that have been actioned have contributed in no small to the transformation of the Nigerian economy. In the second quarter of 2020, for instance, the telecoms and information services contributed 14.30 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), amounting to about $57.2 billion, thanks to reforms in the telecoms industry. As of May 2020, pension assets in Nigeria stood at N10.8 trillion, up from N10.6 trillion in April this year, according to the National Pension Commission (PenCom). Nigerians can now discuss investing pension funds in other industries, an impossible phenomenon in the old pension scheme. Total assets of banks were N42.2trn as of the end of February 2020, thanks to reforms.

Technology is now driving businesses and is a focal point today due to COVID-19. But this is possible only due to the reforms implemented in the sector.

As the group plans its 26th Economic Summit in October entitled ‘Building Partnership for Resilience’, it is important to note that discussions and resolutions from the summit will be part of Nigeria’s growth journey.

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