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Shifting patterns as rich Nigerians embrace old people’s homes for aged relatives

...but apathy persists TEMITAYO AYETOTO

bd investigative series

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igerians with the means are increasingly entrusting their elderly relatives in the hands of professional caregivers in assisted-living facilities, otherwise known as old people’s homes. This is amid Continues on page 34

L-R: Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, former president, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Oscar Onyema, CEO, NSE; Ferdi Moolman, CEO, MTN Nigeria Communications plc; Pascal Dozie, chairman, MTN Nigeria Communications plc; Abubakar Mahmoud, first vice president, NSE, and Gbenga Oyebode, non-executive director, MTN Nigeria Communications plc, at the closing gong ceremony commemorating MTN Nigeria Communications plc’s listing by introduction on the NSE in Lagos, yesterday.

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

New minimum wage to cost N1trn exposing Nigeria’s ugly fiscal state A MICHAEL ANI, DIPO OLADEHINDE & DAVID IBIDAPO

frica’s biggest oil producing country is heading into a more perilous fiscal position if the new minimum wage of N30,000 is implemented except strict reforms are swiftly undertaken.

“With implementation of the new wage, the Federal Govern-

Security wages to balloon by N250bn, NYSC N68bn Fuel subsidy removal, VAT, FX rate adjustments on the table Inside

ment would be taking into its cost obligation an additional N1 trillion,” senior officers in government disclosed to BusinessDay in Abuja.

This excludes the extra re-

current expenses that would be borne by the 36 states in the federation some of which have failed to meet payment of salaries at current levels, according to sources familiar with

the matter.

BusinessDay gathered that a large chunk of the N1 trillion in costs would stem from additionContinues on page 34

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news At N23trn, Nigeria’s high debt profile deliberate, says finance minister

. . FG readies to disburse N649bn Paris Club fund to states ....working out modalities to fund the new minimum wage Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja

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igeria’s finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, said on Thursday that the government deliberately grew the country’s debt profile, which has almost doubled from N12.2 trillion to N23 trillion in order to foster a more stronger economy which is yet to be seen though.

While Nigeria still struggles with a very weak economy, high unemployment and poverty levels after a difficult recession, debt service to the country’s revenue ballooned to 60 percent by 2018 from 27 percent in 2014, according to numbers from Bloomberg and now raises concerns.

“The debt increase from N12.2 trillion to N23.0 trillion is by design,” Ahmed told journalists in Abuja on Thursday while addressing her possible last press conference on the state of the economy before the cabinet winds down anytime from now.

Ahmed argued that the Federal Government had “designed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to reflate the economy, to take us out of recession. When we came on board and we made an assessment, it was clear that our country was going

into recession. When we did a research on the best way to reverse the recession was to reflate the economy and that means putting resources in the economy so that consumption will increase.”

“Based on government’s findings, it designed the ERGP to borrow in the first, second and third years and in the fourth year the borrowing was supposed to start reducing.

That is exactly what we have done.”

In an attempt to defend the heightened borrowing, she said government “made sure that we borrowed to finance capital projects. At the same time we went into recession there were other countries similar to Nigeria that went into recession. Some of them are still not out of recession. But the consequence of course is the increase in debt and that is why the ministry of finance and all its agencies are working to make sure that we increase revenues.”

She further argued that “at 19.09% Debt to GDP ratio we still are the lowest comparative to countries like Brazil, South Africa that all have an average of 56% debt to GDP ratio.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

FG employees’ group life cover in 12-month lapse over non-payment of premium

…taxpayers’ money used for benefits payment Modestus Anaesoronye

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he failure of the Federal Governmenttoprocure group life insurance cover for its employees almost oneyearrunningmeans it has taken to self-insurance, according to experts’ analysis.

This means that in the event of loss occurring, particularly death, the government will pay compensation from taxpayers’ money, a burden that could have been transferred to insurance companies who are experts in risk management.

Federal Government’s group life insurance, which is domiciled in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, was effective up to April 2018 when premium was paid.

Since that time, insurance companies that had hitherto provided the group life cover as enshrined in the Pension Reform Act 2004 as amended in 2014 have not picked up new claims in line with the ‘No Premium No Cover’ law.

Dependants of employees (workers) who died in the last

one year had nothing to claim frominsurancecompanies,and so the Federal Government has been falling back on taxpayers’ money that should have gone intoinfrastructuredevelopment to pay for these compensations.

According to a CEO of an insurance firm, the industry had to comply with the ‘No Premium No Cover’ policy of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) which stipulates that insurance cover could only commence when the premium had been paid.

“We had given government a deadline upon which we could not admit claims and when that period expired, we pulled out,” the CEO said.

Section 9 (3) of the Pension Reform Act 2004 as amended in 2014 stipulates that every employer, both in the public and private sector where the Act applies, must maintain life insurance policy in favour of the employee for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employee.

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

L-R: Gabriel Ogunjemilusi, director, tax policy and advisory, Federal Inland Revenue Service; Teju Somorin, former CITN president; Taiwo Oyedele, head of tax and corporate advisory services at PwC Nigeria; Yemi Adamolekun, executive director, Enough Is Enough Nigeria, and Onyi Sunday, moderator, at the launch of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group’s Fiscal Policy Roundtable Citizen Perception Reporting in Lagos.

MTN gains on strong demand as market breaks 8- days losing streak

...200m units on bid, 5m traded …Stock up 10% to N99 IHEANYI NWACHUKWU

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n what appears to be the start of a bullish run for MTN Nigeria plc, shares of the newly-listed company rallied by 10 percent to N99 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

MTN listed on the NSE on May 16, the same day the telco entered Nigeria in 2001.

The listing helped the bourse to end an eightstraight-day losing streak as the broad market closed the day up 0.5 percent, the biggest gains in a month.

MTN Nigeria pushed market capitalisation to N12.46 trillion and reduced losses so far this year to single digit at 9.52 percent.

The NSE listed by introduction 20.35 billion (20,354,513,050)ordinaryshares of MTN Nigeria Communications plc at N90 per share.

It was listed on the NSE

Premium Board, a listing segment for the elite group of issuers that meet the Exchange’s most stringent corporate governance and listing standards.

Toast of investors currently in the domestic equity market that has remained largely bearish year-long, the listing of MTN leaves many investors in a desperate search for existing stakeholders willing to part with their holdings in MTN Nigeria.

“Despite increasing interest by the investing community to take advantage of the historic listing, we note that liquidity could be a concern as the listing by introduction implies that demand can only be filled by existing shareholders looking to exit,’’ analysts at Lagosbased United Capital noted.

However, in what may be a glimmer of hope for many investors eager to take position in the telco’s stock, there are indications that more units of its shares might be available for the public in the coming days.

“Snippets from recent releases suggest that free float may be pegged at 20 percent.

However, management has hinted on a potential public offer which can buoy free float to approximately 35 percent subsequently,” analysts at United Capital said.

“We will soon come back for the IPO,” MTN Nigeria Chairman Pascal Dozie told a full house of reporters, brokers and dignitaries on the 9th floor of the NSE yesterday.

According to United Capital, strong earnings and growth potential of the telecommunications sector in Nigeria make MTN Nigeria a strong buy.

MTN Nigeria attracted a bid of 200 million units on the first trading day, which works out to N20 billion at a N99 per share, but only 5 million shares were on offer.

“It is a promising development in the country’s telecommunications sector and we encourage other players in the sector to explore the

different opportunities in the capital markets for raising long-term capital,” Oscar Onyema, CEO of NSE, said.

“This listing will promote liquidity for MTN Nigeria, enhance its value and increase transparency, as our platform remains one of the best avenues for raising capital and enabling sustainable growth for national development,” Onyema added.

He further pointed out that MTN Nigeria listing in the market is a testament of the Exchange’s commitment to building a dynamic and inclusive market and creating channels for sustainable investment.

Bolaji Balogun, CEO, Chapel Hill Denham, which acted as a joint financial adviser with Stanbic IBTC Capital for the historic listing, said, “There are very few companies in Africa today that generate $1 billion of free cash flow and this is one of those special companies and I’m really pleased we have it on the stock exchange.

Booming local rice industry attracts successful professionals to the farm CALEB OJEWALE

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rom a sitting high court judge to a recently retired chief magistrate, accountants, university lecturersandbusinessmen,professionals across different fields in rice producing states are finding their way to the farms and, in particular, for rice farming.

Those who were hitherto ‘professional’ politicians are not left out, and now have something concrete to identify with.

Interactions during a recent trip to Kebbi State in the North West and Ebonyi State in the South East of the country revealed a rapidly growing momentum and enthusiasm to get involved in rice farm-

ing, as prices become more favourable for local farmers.

Spurred largely by the 70 percent tariff imposed on rice imports through the ports, and an outright ban through land borders, rice farmers say they are finally cashing in on an opportunity to make money through agriculture.

A snag: smuggling of foreign rice persists through the banned land borders, and the cost of rice is generally considered high in the markets.

However, the volume of local rice being produced is steadily increasing even though government data is tricky to be relied on exclusively, and not even officially available.

According to the Food

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and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria’s rice production reached 7 million tonnes (4.2 million tonnes, milled basis) in 2017, up 12 percent from 6.3 million tonnes (3.8 million tonnes, milled basis) in 2015. The growth, according to FAO, was encouraged by high local prices and inputs assistance programmes under the country’s self-sufficiency drive.

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

“The price was so low before.”

Now that there are many @Businessdayng

rice mills, which also have to purchase paddy from local farmers, “the value of rice has drastically increased, and that is why it is more profitable than before”, said Ambursa, who was once secretary of the Judicial Service Commission and chief registrar of Kebbi State Judiciary.

Another member of the bench now finding the farm profitable, Abubakar Umar, was a chief magistrate in Kebbi until his retirement last year and has cultivated rice for 32 years. The difference now is that he is making more money from rice than ever before.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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Friday 17 May 2019

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NEWS

Lack of financial disclosure by parastatals fuels suspicion of fraudulent activities MICHAEL ANI

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he incessant failure by government agencies to publicly disclose their financial positions could be one of the obvious reasons why misinformation about them is believed when they arise.

Over the weekend, a leaked tape recording released by an online media platform on a conversation between the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele and some senior executives of the apex bank around an alleged sum of N500 billion stolen from the bank’s coffers and discussions on how to get around disclosing it in the bank’s 2018 financials made news and getting enough traction from the public.

In a swift response to correctly inform the public, the apex bank in a statement released by its director, corporate communications, Isaac Okorafor,claimedthetapedconversation was a mix and match of several conversations between the CBN governor and some of the bank’s officials.

According to the bank, the discussions in the tape bordered around a misunderstanding that affected the bank’s balance sheet rather than an attempt to cover a fraudulent transaction.

The CBN noted that its auditors had erroneously classified N150 billion of the sum of N650 billion disbursed to state governments (to

help them meet salary obligations following a slump in FAAC allocations as a result of a downturn in oil prices in 2015) as bad debt, and that the conversations were around ways to account for this. The CBN claimed such position was erroneous given that the states still “exist” and “receive FAAC allocations.”

The CBN also claimed in the statement that it had since clarified its position with the auditors in a meeting with the Ministry of Finance who had assured the auditors the loans would be repaid.

While the claim by the central bank might seems plausible and seen as sabotage since it was released a few days after the news of Emefiele’s reappointment as governor of the bank, but it casts some suspicious belief in the minds of Nigerians. Those who might in some ways take the news as indeed true due to a lack of public disclosure of the firm’s financial position to ascertain the veracity of the bank’s claim.

The last time the apex bank released a financial statement was in 2015, when its shareholders’ equity stood at N565 billion.

“It is because the central bank does not have an up-to-date financials, which is why a misinformed allegation about it could be made to the public,” one financial analyst who does not want to be named said.

“If the financial position of the

bank was made public, it would be possible for Nigerians to thoroughly check the veracity of its claims,” the person said.

It is not only the central bank that has defaulted in this regard as similar government agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) do not have up-to-date record of their financials available to the public, yet they penalise companies that default in cooperate governance. For SEC, the commission attributed the reason to lack of a constituted board.

Besides the government agencies, many Nigerian states over time do not make known to the public their financial positions.

This is contrary to what the law provides in Section 125, subsection (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which stipulates that “the public accounts of a State and of all offices and courts of the State shall be audited by the Auditor-General for the State who shall submit his reports to the House of Assembly of the State.”

Analysts say the deliberate action by the states not to publish their financial statement questions the integrity of the state’s AuditorGeneral and casts doubt on the accountability that these governors swore to the people they govern to uphold.

CBN’s FX transactions rise by 62.34% to $25.7bn in 2018 HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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oreign exchange transaction (spot sales) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rose by 62.34 percent to a total of $25.7 billion in 2018 from $15.8 billion in the preceding year.

The spot sales comprised $3.4 billion at the inter-bank, $1.6 billion for invisibles, $1.3 billion for Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) and $8.3 billion at the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window.

On the other hand, the CBN purchased a total of $7.8 billion at the inter-bank market in 2018, which was 27.9 percent lower than $6.1 billion purchased in 2017.

The CBN’s annual activity report for 2018 released on Tuesday indicated that net sales by the bank amounted to $17.9 billion in the year under review compared with $9.7 billion in the previous year of 2017.

In 2018, the CBN maintained its direct intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market to cushion demand pressure and ensure exchange rate stability.

Meanwhile, forwards sales amounted to $11.1 billion in 2018 as against $11.2 billion in 2017. The sum of $10.4 billion matured at the forwards segment, while $2.8 billion remained outstanding at the end of December 2018.

This show a decline as the sum of $10.7 billion matured at the forwards, while $1.9billionremained outstanding at the end of December 2017.

The increased volume of transactions in 2018 was attributable largely to the bank’s foreign exchange policy and its management, coupled with the improvement in the levels of foreign reserves during the year.

“Nigeria’s foreign exchange policies are not popular with devotees of the free market (if such exists) but should be viewed in context.

The country’s voracious appetite for imports has contributed to placing FX related policies on the FGN’s front burner,” said analysts at FBNQuest.

According to a report by FBNQuest, turnover at the window amounted to $60 billion in 2018, with the CBN supplying 28.3 percent of the total. But year-to-date, total forex inflowsviatheI&Ewindowstandat$14.8 billion, with foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) accounting for 62 percent.

“We note that exits by FPIs recorded in Q4 were mainly due to the US policy normalisation at the time as opposed to macroeconomic slippage or potential political risks,” the analysts said.

At the Naira-Settled Over the Counter Foreign Exchange Futures, the CBN’s report revealed that a total of $7.9 billion was traded at the futures market at the end of Decem-

ber 2018, as against $5.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2017.

Similarly, $6.4 billion matured, while $4.8 billion remained outstanding in 2018, whereas $5.8 billion matured, while $3.3 billion was outstanding in the preceding year.

The increased level of activities at the futures market was due to improved confidence in the economy, as investors’ perception about future exchange rates remained optimistic.

The exchange rate at the interbank market remained relatively stable in 2018 due to the improved liquidity in the market. At the interbank segment, the rate opened at N306/$ on January 2, 2018 and closed at N307/$ at end-December 2018. The monthly average exchange rate opened at N305.78/$ in January, marginally appreciated to N305.61/$ in April and depreciated to N306.92/$ in December 2018.

The direct sale of foreign exchange to BDC’s continued in 2018.

However, the bank increased the volume and frequency of its weekly sales to three times per week in May and subsequently to four times per week in November.

This was to manage the demand pressure, which emerged due to capital flight as the market reacted to normalisation of rates by the US Federal Reserve, dwindling crude oil price levels and ensure exchange.

LCCI leads discussions on fourth industrial revolution with ICTEL expo Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson

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L-R: Uzoma Dozie, former CEO, Diamond Bank; Sam Okojere, director, payments system management department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Roosevelt Ogbonna, group deputy managing director, Access Bank plc; Brett King, chief executive officer, Moven, United Kingdom, and Herbert Wigwe, GMD/CEO, Access Bank plc, during the 2019 Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) Digital Gold Rush conference “Building a Sustainable Tech Economy” in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

FG opens section of Ibadan-Sagamu Interchange road … cautions road users to obey traffic rules JOSEPH MAURICE OGU

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ederal Government has declared open a section of the Lagos-Sagamu Interchange road for motorists, Wednesday.

Speaking with newsmen at the road site, Adedamola Kuti, Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, said the mission was to explain to Nigerians the situation of things on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, specifically at kilometre 15, which is also known as Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) Junction.

Kuti explained that a couple of days ago up to Saturday, a serious work was ongoing. A trailer broke down but before traf-

fic officials could evacuate the truck, some motorists had driven against the traffic, which resulted in a very serious traffic gridlock, which was duly uncalled for.

He encouraged people to appreciate what was happening in Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as statistics show that the stretch from Lagos-Sagamu Interchange was the busiest in Africa. This is because the road carries the whole traffic vehicles from Lagos to other parts of the country.

He noted that, of all the traffics from Lagos, only 30 percent continue to Ibadan. According to him, from Lagos to Sagamu interchange, 40 percent of the traffic would have dropped off. This datum comprises of people who www.businessday.ng

live around the axis and various people accessing religious bodies who have their campgrounds along the road.

According to Kuti, of the 60 percent vehicles that make it to Sagamu Interchange, 30 percent divert towards Sagamu-Ore-Benin road, leaving only 30 percent traffic moving towards Ibadan.

“This section of the road is the busiest”, he emphasised, adding, “It is already under construction.”

Kuti, who acknowledged that a lot of hard-working Nigerians use the road daily, strongly advised road users not to drive against the traffic but be patient and drive normally. “People should not drive against the traf-

fic,” he reiterated.

Kuti said if people had not driven against the traffic, the incident that happened last weekend would have been better managed. But because people drove against the traffic, it created a lot of backlog and everywhere was shutdown.

Clement Oladele, sector commander, FRSC, reiterated that old vehicles and indiscipline of some Nigerians were responsible for the accidents that occur on that road, especially at the construction site.

He said half of the death recorded last year on the Ogun State axis of the road was due to road accidents mostly occurring at the construction sites.

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agos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) through its information, communication, technology and telecommunications (ICTEL) expo, is leading the conversation on the prospects of the fourth industrial revolution in Nigeria.

According to the chamber, the 2019 ICTEL expo, with the theme, “Fourth industrial revolution: The Nigerian story,” is appropriate and timely, not just because it is contemporary and topical, but because Nigeria and Africa seem to be slow in coming to terms with the farreaching implications of the fourth industrial revolution - characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres, collectively referred to as cyber-physical systems.

This year’s ICTEL Expo 2019 will focus majorly on inspiring and providing aspiring entrepreneurs, tech start-ups and thousands of unemployed Nigerians with unique opportunities in line with the realities and implications of the fourth industrial revolution.

Briefing the press on plans for the upcoming expo, Babatunde Ruwase, president, LCCI, said the 2019 ICTEL Expo was providing another great opportunity to @Businessdayng

influence national discourse on the culture of enterprise in Nigeria from an ICT positive perspective.

“We must celebrate our achievers. This Expo will therefore provide the required inspiration, which many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) need in their quest for improved performance. It is providing aspiring entrepreneurs, tech start-ups, and thousands of unemployed Nigerians another unique opportunity for an enriching learning experience, capacity building, mentoring, connecting with investors and employers of labour,” Ruwase said.

The fourth industrial revolution is a topical issue Nigerians and Africans as a whole is not taking seriously, which may have far-reaching implications in the country and Africa in general, he said.

The LCCI president urged governments at all levels to rise up to the challenges of increasing technological revolution “if our dream for a truly great nation can be realised.”

Gabriel Idahosa, vice president/chairman, trade promotion board, LCCI, decried the slow pace of technological advancement in Nigeria and Africa, saying we were at the risk of being left behind by the fourth industrial revolution if these challenges are not addressed.

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news Edo 2020: Gowon endorses Obaseki for second term … says he is doing exceptionally well

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ormer Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has endorsed G overnor Godwin Obaseki for a second term in office, noting that the governor has done exceptionally well in infrastructure and economic development in the state.

Gowon, who is in the state with his wife, Victoria Gown, to attend the Founder’s Day celebration of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), urged the governor to continue the good work he has started.

According to Gowon, “I was in Edo when he was elected governor of the state.

I know the efforts he has contributed in the state. He should continue the good works he is doing as governor. He is doing exceptionally well.”

He described Edo State as his second home, and that he was happy to be in the state, adding, “I am in Benin

to chair the 46th Founders’ Day anniversary of the UBTH and to launch the endowment fund to improve the institution’s service delivery.

My wife is also here. She unveiled the institution 46 years ago.”

Governor Obaseki commended Gowon for taking a special interest in the development of Edo State, noting that the establishment of UBTH and the University of Benin (UNIBEN) during his time as Head of State brought immense development to the state.

“As far back as 40 years ago, he took a special interest in Edo State. He came with his wife and unveiled federal institutions in the state. That passion and commitment is still there and he decided to come again to add more value to what he started. It is something we should be proud of and thankful about,” the governor said.

UK-based Yinka Macaulay gives back to the needy Seyi John Salau

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rrangements are being concluded by Ibiyinka Macaulay, the UK-based businessman and brain behind the Ibiyinka Macaulay Foundation (IBMAC) to return to Lagos and give back to the needy members of society.

The events will be kicked off with a press conference on Saturday, May 18, 2019, at the Civic Event Centre, 39, Modele Street, by Barracks Bus Stop, Surulere, at 12 noon.

Immediately after this, he, along with family members and friends will pay visits and make donations to selected orphanages also at the Surulere axis of the state.

The second phase of the donations will be held on Monday, May 20 2019. Specifically, this will involve the commissioning of boreholes, refurbishment of toilets, as well as the presentation of generators and television

sets to three lucky schools. The beneficiaries include Ajigbeda Girls High School, Salvation Army Primary School and Adebola Gibson Memorial Primary School, all in Surulere, Lagos.

Furthermore, the round of donations will be concluded on May 21, with the feeding of the homeless people at the EbuteMetta area of the state.

According to the philanthropist, he is compelled to assist the needy to show gratitude to God for sustaining his life, after surviving some serious health challenges which he has faced in the UK. For instance, in October 2011, he developed an infection called septicaemia. This resulted in septic shock. He woke up only to find himself at the Liver Intensive Care Unit of Kings College Hospital, London, after he had been in a state of coma for 14 weeks! But that was not all to his health challenge.

Police uncover plots to attack, destroy oil facilities … warn of dire consequences for law breakers Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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he Nigeria Police Force say they uncovered specific plots by some subversive elements who would be masquerading as climate and environmental activists to commence massive and coordinated attacks on oil installations across the country, especially in the Niger-Delta region and adjoining states.

This was disclosed on Wednesday by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, stressing that these plots, which are politically motivated, are aimed at sabotaging oil instal-

lations with intended negative consequences on national security, economic development and global oil market.

Consequently, he said the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, had ordered Commissioners of Police nationwide, and particularly in designated states, to intensify their surveillance missions around oil facilities and other critical national infrastructure.

The Commissioners of Police and other field Commanders had also been directed to put in place proactive measures aimed at neutralising these subversive threats and bringing the plotters to book, Mba said. www.businessday.ng

Collaborating to power Nigeria: L-R: M. K. Balaji, off grid sector lead, Power Africa Nigeria; Bamidele Faparusi, Ekiti State commissioner of infrastructure and public utilities; Ifunanya Nwandu-Dozie, SHS lead, Rural Electrification Agency/World Bank Nigeria Electrification Project; Wiebe Boer, CEO, All On; Olalere Odusote, Energy Lead, Lagos State Transition Team; Dozie Okpalaobieri, senior energy advisor, African Development Bank, at the quarterly Nigerian off grid energy sector donor/investor coordination meeting in Lagos.

Global energy investment stabilises at $1.8trn in 2018 MIKE OCHONMA

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new report on global energy investment in 2018 points to an ongoing misalignment between approved expenditure on new fuel and power projects and meeting the twin goals of security of supply and decarbonisation.

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) ‘World Energy Investment 2019’ report, released this week, states that global energy investment stabilised at $1.8 trillion in 2018, following three consecutive years of decline.

Power investments, at $775 billion, continued to outpace fuel investments for the third year in a row.

The gap narrowed, however, as a result of a 4 percent rise in upstream oil and gas investment to $505 billion.

Expenditure on renewable energy declined, while energy efficiency

investment remained flat.

The report attributes the fall in renewables investment partly to a flattening in net capacity additions, but also to a fall in the costs of technologies such as solar photovoltaic, onshore wind and battery storage.

After adjusting for cost declines, renewables investment activity is up by 55 percent since 2010.

Nevertheless, the IEA cautions that output from low-carbon power investment is failing to keep pace with demand and that a doubling of renewables spending is needed to align spending with climate commitments made as part of the Paris Agreement.

Meeting the climate targets would also require more investment in nuclear and a rising level of spending on electricity networks, the IEA states.

In fact, the report points to a marked divergence between the investment decisions in 2018 – which

NIMASA commences process to end gas emission on vessels AMAKA ANAGOR-

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s part of efforts to end greenhouse gas emissions from vessels, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on May 10 had an inaugural installation of a fuel consumption data collection device, known as the Thorium-X tablet, on board a Nigerian-flagged fuel tanker vessel, named MT KINGIS. The pilot project came as fallout of the Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (MTCC) conference held in Kenya in March, aimed at reducing fuel consumption by vessels. It was also targeted at developing countries, and Nigeria was made a priority and nominated for the pilot project.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dakuku Peterside, director-general of NIMASA, reiterated the Agency’s commitment to global best practices in the execution of its mandate of regulating the maritime industry.

Peterside, who was represented by Felicia Mogo, head of the Marine Environment Management Unit at NIMASA, said the agency was ensuring that Nigeria

kept to global best practices with a commendable track record in administration and regulation in the maritime sector.

“NIMASA was chosen to lead the project in Nigeria, being the chosen country in the West and Central Africa region. This pilot project will last a year but the data will be reported to the Kenyan portal, then it goes to the IMO global portal after every voyage,” he said.

“Reports will be collated and sent after a three-month period.

The findings and analysis are then recorded and reported at the end of the year to inform the country the amount of fuel being consumed annually on each voyage and how much GHG is being emitted,” he said.

The launch of the fuel consumption data collection device is in line with the decision of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to reduce fuel consumption by vessels as well as Green House Gases (GHG) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emission on voyages.

NIMASA was nominated to operate the project in Nigeria, which has become a focal point and so nominated as a country of interest in Africa for the pilot project.

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included continued growth in global coal power fleet, despite a 3% fall in overall coal power investment to $60-billion – and the investments required to remain consistent with the climate commitments made in the Paris Agreement.

In addition, new conventional oil and gas projects fall short of what would be needed to meet continued robust demand growth.

“The bottom line is that the world is not investing enough in traditional elements of supply to maintain today’s consumption patterns, nor is it investing enough in cleaner energy technologies to change course, IEA executive director Fatih Birol says.

“Whichever way you look, we are storing up risks for the future.”

The report also highlights an ongoing imbalance in the geographical spread of energy investments, with nearly 90% of energy investment in 2018 concentrated in high- and upper-middle income countries

and regions.

“High-income countries, with just over 15% of the global population, accounted for over 40% of energy investment in 2018.”

In sub-Saharan Africa, energy investments declined 15% compared with three years ago, owing to the fall in oil and gas spending offsetting a small increase in renewables.

Power investment in the region grew 8% in 2018 and has grown by over 80% since 2010. This growth has all come from generation, over 65% of which was in renewables.

Spending on grids – critical for electrifying a large part of the population without access and connecting new generation – has stagnated.

“In many countries, investment is hampered by weak regulatory frameworks, lengthy project timelines, persistent financial strains on utilities and limited public finance,” the report states.

Special Olympics Nigeria commemorates World Malaria Day Anthony Nlebem

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pecial Olympics Nigeria, through its ExxonMobil Foundation sponsored Skillz for Life initiative, celebrated the 2019 World Malaria Day in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently at the Home School for Handicapped, Ijokodo, Ibadan.

The event themed “Zero Malaria Starts with Me,” witnessed a series of activities such as the Family Health Forum (FHF), where Health Talks on Malaria and HIV with demonstrations, Voluntary Counselling and Testing on Malaria and HIV, distribution of mosquito nets and a Unified soccer tournament.

In an opening remark by Sylvester Oboh, project coordinator, Special Olympics Nigeria Skillz for Life Programme, stated that, despite the availability of a cure for malaria, it has remained a killer disease across the country.

Hence, the need for a continued awareness creation and provision of necessary support to communities prone to malaria especially for people with intellectual disabilities. “We also @Businessdayng

express our profound gratitude to our partners like ExxonMobil for their support, we have achieved a lot over the years in helping parents of children with special needs” he added.

Sylvester also noted that, the delay in this year’s celebration was to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities PWID’s in the state’s education system had the chance to participate in the celebration following the Easter holidays.

The event also recorded a huge turn out with over 350 People with Intellectual Disabilities and their family members from all over Ibadan and its surrounding environs in attendance. Also, in attendance were community members from around the Ijokodo community who were truly amazed at the great work Special Olympics Nigeria is doing with PWIDs in the state.

Also addressing guests at the event on malaria infection, causes, prevention and treatment was Olusegun Ralph of Royal Heritage Health Foundation, who stated that, Malaria infection is transmitted when bitten by a female anopheles mosquito.

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Support for pregnant women, and matters arising HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

I

t is a Saturday, early in the month of May, and the Postpartum Support Network is holding its annual public event to raise awareness on the mental health of pregnant and recently delivered women.

Gathered at the Oriental Hotel venue are a well-dressed crowd of mostly young people, many of whom are clearly drawn to the event by social concern. In an adjoining room books, bags and other items related to mental health and maternity are on display.

The Postpartum Support Network is a Lagos-based NGO which is passionate about achieving good mental health for women in the period surrounding pregnancy and delivery. According to its pamphlet, the work is focused on five simple steps - education and the creation of awareness in pregnant women and new mothers about postpartum depression, training nurses who work in maternity facilities on emotional intelligence, conducting screening among pregnant women and the recently delivered, offering therapy and home visits to patients, and offering support groups and a road to recovery (R2R)n to victims.

The realities surrounding mental health in the generality of the Nigerian population remain very grim indeed.

The period of pregnancy and the months after it is a time of especial

vulnerability to mental health problems – most commonly depression.

More than one out of every ten, perhaps up to one in seven mothers will experience such symptoms. The most common symptoms include a feeling of sadness, tearfulness, unusual anxiety and worry, excessive crankiness or irritability, eating or sleeping more or less than usual, difficulty in concentrating or making decisions. Other, more serious developments, may include loss interest in self-care and grooming, a feeling of not being up to everyday tasks, withdrawing from the baby and from loved ones, fear of hurting the baby, loss of interest in caring for the baby, and a feeling of guilt in the woman about her ability to care for her baby.

For many mothers experiencing ‘Baby Blues’, the symptoms are transient, disappearing within a few days.

The real problem is with mothers who suffer symptoms that are severe and long-lasting. Anyone whose symptoms last for two weeks or more is suffering from depression and should be recognized and treated.

In Nigeria, currently, almost invariably, they are not.

It is a situation that causes much pain and suffering to individuals, and to loved ones. Ignorance about the condition puts a strain on families and relationships.

The illness is much misunderstood. Although some episodes follow pregnancies that are attended by the stress of disturbing life events or physical difficulties, illness can occur following even the most normal and uneventful of pregnancies.

On this day, the first major offering is a lecture delivered by Dr Gbenga Okulate, a Psychiatrist and retired General in the Nigerian Army. His topic is ‘Navigating the risk of perinatal mood disorders in a setting of pregnancy loss and stillbirth’.

At the heart of the general fail-

ure in the Nigerian environment to recognize and help women with perinatal mood disorders is a cultural reluctance to accept that he problem even exists. Pregnancy is supposed to be a happy, longed-for experience, and to feel a sense of inability to look after one’s baby in an ambience where a woman’s mother in law is apt to make critical, disparaging, even threatening comments about the ‘laziness’ of her daughter in law must be double jeopardy for the affected person. Husbands, not understanding that it is illness, are often unable to sympathize or assist beyond a certain point andwould usually urge their ailing partner to ‘pull yourself together’. This, of course, just makes matters worse.

The medical community are not as aware of the condition as they ought to be. Nurses, mostly women themselves - who are the ones who interact often with women during pregnancy, are unable to recognize the condition, not to speak of participating in its treatment.

The youthful volunteers of the PSN, some of whom have themselves experienced Postpartum Depression, inform the audience that, in the past year, they have helped in treating almost two thousand women suffering from depression in various maternity facilities in Lagos, and have trained more than one hundred nurses on how to be sensitive to the emotions of women in their charge.

It is a lot of work, deserving applause.However, in reality, it is a drop in the ocean, given the scale of the problem out there in society.

A lively discussion ensues,focused on pregnancy loss, grief, and the special challenges they pose for the woman’s emotional wellness.

You are invited, with others, to hold a panel discussion on how to improve maternal mental health in Nigeria, and to make a pronouncement on who owns the responsibility to bring about that improvement.

‘

The medical community are not as aware of the condition as they ought to be

It is a crunch topic. Beyond the enthusiasm of the volunteers who have cobbled together a field force of Psychologists, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Life Coaches and an assortment of other enthusiasts, powered by generous support from sponsors such as Tonye Cole, who is sitting self-effacingly in the back of the crowd, along with his wife Sylvia, it is necessary to figure out how the human resources on the ground could be most efficiently utilized.

The responsibility belongs to everybody – government, private sector, concerned individuals, you aver. A system of task-shifting, with good training, would help to activate the hidden potential of the staff who deal with pregnant women. Nurses and other staff could be trained to work with protocols to recognize women who need help. Some of them could also be trained to offer basic counselling to the patient and her family. For many sufferers, that might be all they would ever require. Those who are seen to have deeper symptoms, needing the care of specialists, would be identified and referred ‘upwards’ by them. It is a similar journey, you tell the panel, and the audience, to the ongoing effort to make mental health care available at the primary care centre, close to the citizens, as a way of maximizing the effectiveness of the few psychiatrists in the country.

On a final note, you advise the PSN ‘warriors’ to put most of their effort and limited resources into public enlightenment and training on ‘task shifting’, run by competent trainers, as a way to achieve scale and impact.

Many new ‘converts’ are eager to volunteer, you observe as you depart.

It is a sign, you reason, that there is hope, yet, at least for the Nigerian woman.

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

The tragic suicide of a Lagos hairdresser Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

K

enile Nwabuzor was 26-year-old when she took her own life in her home in Lagos after what seemed like a depressive bout. Reports in the press and online indicate that she had become agitated over what she considered a betrayal of her trust by her boyfriend, David.

She seemed anxiety stricken and threatened to take her life via a WhatsApp message which David did not see on time. In an interview with the press, David, a photographer, explained that they had been in a relationship since 2017 when she lost her mother and always complained that he was having an affair whenever she saw him in the company of girls with whom he worked. He added that

because she was pretty, she also had some male friends but he trusted her and wanted her to trust him. He said she was not confident because while he had a degree, she did not, but he had assured her that it was her he wanted to be with.

The interview was difficult for me to read because there were missed opportunities to save her and I felt sorry for David who had been managing Kenile but who is now left with the unfortunate stigma of having his girlfriend commit suicide on his account.

His interview gave several hints as to the mental state of Kenile. He said she easily got angry and went on to add, “If we had a misunderstanding, I could be in her house for hours begging her and she would not say anything. If I decided to go, that would be another fight, at times, this… would last for days.” David said for the best part of the week when the tragic incident happened, she had started the accusations again and ended the relationship, at which point, he told her she could go ahead and find her peace wherever suited her. He said he visited her on Tuesday to return her charger and Kenile returned everything he had bought for her. In the same www.businessday.ng

week, she had met his father for the first time who tried to counsel her after she reported David to him. In all of this there was a lot of crying which David felt was emotional but a lot more was going on.

Before people get to suicide, there would have been many signs to indicate something is wrong. Workmates, relations and friends of Kenile would have noticed. David was right when he said she was depressed and he was always encouraging her. At the salon where she worked, her mood swings would have been apparent and her neighbours and friends would also have seen many changes.

In today’s modern world, we tend to move on with our lives and hardly stop long enough to know how people are actually doing. We ask, how are you but we don’t pay attention to the answers. David had borne the burden of grief, the mood swings, the crying, the anger, the suspicions, the accusations and other disruptive behaviour in between. It is difficult to manage someone with anxiety, depression and other forms of mental illness and David probably thought it will all go away someday. By the time he asked her to move on if she wanted, he was tired of what he

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probably thought was his girlfriend’s drama.

He had reached breaking point and she had reached the point of no return.

It is sad that compounding all of these was Kenile’s loneliness and low self- esteem. Her brothers were in Ghana and David was the only family she had. There is nothing more important than a support base when someone is lonely and family and friends often provide that. With her mum gone and on the verge of losing David everything simply crashed upon her.

Help could have come if David understood what was going on better and sought help for her with a Psychologist or someone in the field. Resilience is not easy. Talk therapy could also have helped. A relationship expert could have helped. David himself was overwhelmed. We do not have enough of these resources in Nigeria and we do not understand depression.

Let us pause a little and pay more attention. There are too many needless suicides.

We can do more.

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

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comment Victims and drivers of innovation EIZU UWAOMA

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o many things have changed so much that our children would never know the relationship between cassette tapes and pens. Once upon a time Sony moved us from gramophones to the stereo decks. And they showed us it could be smaller with the Walkmans. It was a big deal. And then the Compact Discman. But then Apple swung in and gave us the iPods with the Itunes that digitalized the global music industry. These are products of innovations and technology. The main aim of technology is to make jobs faster, and make work easier while we have a better life.

Today, apples and blackberries mean much more to our lives than just the names of fruits. I remember how tablets used to be a form of drug prescriptions, now it’s a device. I remember when an office used to be nothing but a place, but now it’s the software. Today most mails are not in your post office anymore, but in your inbox. Organizations and people are a 24-hour click away as we’ve become wireless, paperless and cashless with the most important files, cash, papers and folders leaving the good old wooden cabinets for your tiny siliconmade computer hard drives, chips and memory cards.

It’s human instinct to be better.

The biggest trigger for globalization is industrialization. Industrialization can be traced to the likes of Carnegie, JP Morgan and most importantly Henry Ford. Inspired by Henry Ford’s efficiency boom driven by assembly line production that ushered in industrialization in the 1920s, and then the postwar gigantism of the 1940s, the rationalization of government and rise of marketing in the 1950s, the age of corporate influence in the 1960s, the restructuring of America and rise of strategy in the 1970s, the massive growth in information technology in the 1980s, the globalization of the 1990s, and the boom-bust-and-cleanup of the 2000s.

Every generation seems to come with its own drive but certain fundamentals remain the same; innovation driven by competition.

Locally, we’ve had our fair share of Innovation driven by competition; from heavy duty sectors to fast consumer moving goods. Take for example, Jik bleach used to be one of the most popular brand names for years in Nigeria. And then Hypo bleach took out a big part of that market share by making cheaper units in sachet as against the large bottles that Jik used to make. These were driven by market feedback and survey which clearly showed that the largest chunks of Nigerians are low income earners that will rather buy the sachets for their laundry, innovation. We saw Cowbell do similar thing to Peak Milk too.

Innovation happens every day but not the disruptive ones. Yes, not all innovations are disruptive. But when disruptive innovation strikes an industry, today’s success can be the greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success. Disruptive innovation is a strategic type of innovation.

Disruptive innovation happens

when at least two of the three basic economic questions are for the first time in its industry answered differently.

Naturally, due to the nature of man (unlimited wants, limited resources), enterprise are born to tackle the three basic economic questions, which are 1. What to produce 2. How to produce and 3. For whom to produce Every business should identify and answer these questions. But once in a while your business should attempt to answer it differently from how your competitors do using market and consumer feedback. This is the only way that disruptive innovation can be born.

Every disruptive innovation always makes majority of that industry obsolete while underdogs all of a sudden become market leaders. You can disrupt your industry, just try answering the three questions differently.

About 15 years ago (back when screens were greyscale, ringtones were beepy, batteries lasted over a week, and I rocked a Nokia 3310), Nokia’s market civilization (value) was somewhere around a staggering $245 billion. About 3 years later, Blackberry came through to hit an all-time high of $144.5Billion. Today Nokia is worth barely 23.9Billion and Blackberry 2.6Billion with both kicked out of the top 500s. Brands rise and fall. Anyone can fall.

We all make errors at times; we make mistakes too. However, an error does not become a mistake till you avoid to correct it. Just like empires, people and brands fall and rise. Listen. Don’t be caught sleeping. Welcome to life, where tables turn. When you’re on top, the aerial view is the ‘wrongest’ view to the world. Majority of enterprise problems is traceable to customer experience and corporate

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‘

To stay relevant in the market, you have to be innovative.

People get bored easily, you have to keep them captivated, else competition will

culture. Take for example, how could blackberry not sought out their Bold 5 hanging problems for years, and their battery life issues. How did they fall from being the inventors of smart phones and pop emails into not being mentioned on top apps. What did they do with all our feedback? Why did they not listen?

For big businesses, it’s so easy to forget to look at what you do in the eyes of the customer or any other stakeholder at that. It’s a Golden Rule of life and business people forget.

Once this happens, you begin to lose intimacy and value, and eventually the market!

Failure isn’t always an enemy but the down payment for school fees on how to succeed better next time when you learn from it. On the other hand, as you win, congratulations sometimes becomes the main enemy, “nice job” most times is a phrase you should be afraid because to me, success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking that they cannot lose.

Keep your head and heart working and you wouldn’t have to worry about the direction of your feet. And, even after you stand on your feet, stay on your toes. In the words of David Ben Gurion, “it’s not enough to be up to date. You have to be up to tomorrow”.

As you grow, never outgrow feedback, its zero payment on research. Be a future manager for it is only he that sees the future that can seize the future. For what you currently do, what steps have you taken for the future?

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

The elephant in Nigeria’s workplace environment

Tony Monye

O

f all, the workplace environment is arguably one of the most intriguing, especially the Nigerian scenario.

Obviously, the workplace is chiefly designed to have man at his most productive.

In the workplace, many hard and soft phenomena are pooled to drive its pre-conceptual lofty arguments of high productivity whilst ensuring the predominating existence of peace and orderliness. Oftentimes, these consciously arranged essentials include extremely detailed mix of plants, machineries, materials and humans in the form of labour – mental or physical.

It doesn’t stop right there. On the other hand, like unwanted wildflowers in a treasured orchard, so many undesirable elements unconsciously develop in the workplace, hurting its laudable intentions. Interestingly, the larger arc of the adverse phenomena belongs with the soft aspects. Machines are machines; programmed, doing their jobs until breakdowns, obsolescence or moved. For the workplace to keep tight its original intents, of the two sets, the former must continuously and sweetly preponderate over the latter, some would argue. To this set,

numbers are just numbers and targets are the main object of the production process.

Without a puff of doubt, the soft aspects hold ‘brilliant’ accommodation for much of the undesirable elements. Perhaps, as progenitors of the soft elements, humans are, without argument, the bearers of the workplace many objectionable phenomena. Humans aren’t machines; they are humans. They are quite kinetic in all of moods, beliefs, values and temperament etc, impacting production outcomes, be it negatively or the reverse. Nevertheless, others have, with consistency, voiced the over-arching contributions of the soft phenomena. What soft forces are at play in the workplace? They are many, though countable. They include the conundrum of cultures, moods, attitudes and belief systems etc, intermingling at the workplace. When the mix is quite concise, for it is rarely the norm, the outcomes give elation. This piece mildly attempts a discussion on the rising tribal variegation, especially in the Nigerian workplace environment.

The Nigerian workplace environment stands out. It easily calls the ‘erudite’ sight to itself.

Its strengths and its pains are, somewhat in the extent of its tribal variegation, which is of the extreme. Steadily, over the years, the mix keeps growing, as a result of many factors, one of which is internal migration. As more people drift about locally, they carry along their tribal cultures, with fewer embracing tinier space for imbibing or entertaining new ones. The tribes, each with their individual cultures, are quite many. Often bandied, there are presumably 250 tribes in the Nigerian geo-space. This number is no joke. Some have argued Nigeria has the

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most tribally diversified workforce in the world.

Strangely, these tribes and their individual cultures are similar to the extent of their dissimilarities. The differentiation, though exciting, should wake up each and every one of us to its many realities and subtleties. No longer is it the ant in the room; the diverse tribal identities have grown to be the elephant. This diversity implies many things: some of them, good; some, bad.

The charge of the diversity largely depends on how it’s deliberately harnessed. Let’s be upfront about this: it’s delusional to think if nothing is purposely done to coupling this unusual but great mix, much good will be exposed.

Tribal culture and practices, though as aged as man, still suffer in complete understanding across the plain. But their grip is quite clamplike. Culture isn’t just a seven-lettered word.

It’s a lot more. Each of the individual tribal cultures is a complete set in terms of worldviews, infusing even segregated definitions to very identical phenomena, including many at the workplace. Culture presents, amongst others, not so easy views to work, shapes attitude and to some extent, can help determine whether work is rejected or embraced. Besides, in today’s workplace, votes, decisions and contributions, strangely and unfortunately, are given tribal bent, connotations and even interpretations, with less given to profit considerations. Even at critical moments, their standalone strengths are sadly ignored. Tribal culture defines relationship between peers, between subordinates and superiors. Without any pretensions, culture therefore, can debatably be said to encapsulate all of a worker’s needs for his everyday survival treks through

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the work-floor, as in life.

Over time, the typical Nigerian workplace, like other aspects of our lives, has morphed.

Deepening multiculturalism is the new trend.

Unfortunately, culture doesn’t track well with time. The soundlessness of time undoes it. To survive, it must evolve along with this noise-free element. With over 250 tribes in the country’s space, one might argue that condensing all of these highly individuated cultures into its most productive workplace culture challenges many Nigerian organisations today. Yoruba culture, like the Igbo and the Hausa, is not the workplace culture. Workplace culture isn’t the prevalence of a particular tribal culture. The workplace, as a socio-production group, determines its own culture, which is the aggregate of the various individual cultures.

Generally, cultures, oftentimes, counterview one another. Close by are countless cases of what one culture abhors another cuddles.

Cultures only stretch out in friendship to one another through the route of tolerance. Sending distinct messages on tolerance, therefore, should be the new vogue in the workplace given growth in diversity. Let’s not miss this – diversity, in itself, holds little. It isn’t the same as tolerance. In fact, if effort to promote tolerance is held back in a workplace of many tribes, diversity easily morphs into intolerance, harming the party. With backs at a less tolerant past we set the tone for unfolding and strengthening a more tolerant future. Let’s hug the peaceful elephant in the room. Not its counterparty.

Monye is Managing Partner, Rham Durham Consulting Ltd

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Culture this!

Olamide Balogun

H

ope you have been well in the last two weeks and that you are learning a few things whenever you read my column.Today we are looking at culture, a thing that différentiâtes Human Resources from équipement.

Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Every organization should develop and maintain a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the people in it. In other words Culture is the self-sustaining pattern of behavior that determines how things are done Many organizations start business without clearly articulating exactly the kind of culture they want. In what areas they want things done in a particular way. When you don’t plan your culture from the beginning you end up with just anything that is just called culture for want of a better word and that is very difficult to change.

Your organizational culture “defines for you and for all others, how your organization does business, how your organization interacts with one another and how the team interacts with the outside world, specifically your customers, employees, partners, suppliers, media and all other stakeholders”. This is a well worn quote.

A strong organizational culture keeps your company’s core values front and center in all aspects of its day-to-day operations and organizational structure.

Obviously you must have worked out. The value of doing so is incalculable. In short, your culture is the sum of your company’s beliefs in action.

One of the greatest advantages of a strong organizational culture is that it has the power to turn employees into advocates or critics A strong organizational culture attracts and helps you keep the best people.

A well functioning culture assists with on-boarding. People fail in new jobs because of poor fit, poor delivery or poor adjustment to changes down the road. Assuming you’ve aligned the organization around the need for your new employees and acquired them in the right way, your on-boarding program should accommodate their needs (so they can do real work), assimilate them into the organization (so they fit culturally) and accelerate their progress (so they can deliver and adjust).

A successful organizational culture brings together the people in the organization and keeps them aligned. When your culture is clear, different perspectives can gather behind it with common purpose. The culture at your organization sets expectations for how people behave and work together, and how well they

function as a team.

In this way, culture can break down the boundaries between siloed teams, guide decision-making, and improve workflow overall. On the flip side, a toxic organizational culture has the capacity to do just the opposite. Thereby doing permanent damage.

Reports show that organizational culture has a direct impact on performance and, more importantly, your employees’ wellbeing. A healthy culture addresses both of these areas by finding an appropriate balance based on company values.

Frost (2000), asserted that the culture of an organisation is influenced by four other dimensions, (1) the national culture in which it operates or from which it draws its employees; (2) functional or professional culture , based on the professional, technical and vocational groups which make up the workforce in the organisation; (3) ethnic culture comprising the norms drawn from the mix of the ethnicity of the employees; and (4) industrial culture , based on the general cultural influences prevailing in a particular industry.

Thereare a few elements in building culture. Some are,Purpose : Going back to the premise that we should have a greater sense of ethics and empathy. We should be less selfish, and want to be a part of solving a problem greater than ourselves.

We need to understand the why of what we do as I keep saying.Organisations now need to have a strong mission statement where they can share the why with their team members. A great example that comes to mind is Cokes mission which is bigger than any one person. It is to refresh the world in mind body soul and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through their brands and actions.

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A strong organizational culture attracts and helps you keep the best people

Ownership: The second element in building a great organizational culture is ownership. Ownership is about giving people the opportunity to be accountable for their results without being micromanaged. Giving people the autonomy over their time to accomplish their goals.

Basecamp is a company that builds software for project management. There are modern organizations that just set expectations and give people the opportunity to build their own schedules around their projects. But how do you keep people engaged with a sense of purpose? Well, you do that through the third element, community.

Community: Community is that sense of belonging to a group of people that shares the same or similar principles, goals, and values. Community is a place where there is camaraderie. Modern organizations rely more on having company standards instead of just values. Their argument is that you can’t change a person’s values when they walk into your company, but you can uphold everyone to specific standards. Some of their standards are: work to live, ask more questions, and never stop learning. These organizations ensure that their culture of their breaths these standards through their work. Building community is something as simple as having lunch and hangout times on Fridays, and company trips. It varies from company to company. Community, is unique to each organization.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Balogun is the founder of Box & Cedar Ltd a boutique Recruitment and HR Consulting firm Www.boxandcedar.com

How not to represent Nigeria

OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA

I

t has been suggested in different fora that one of the best ways to achieve even development may be for all entrepreneurs to start by investing each in their own state. Employ all the able-bodied in the state. Saturate their own state with agricultural or manufactured products (and make all the profit), before exporting to other states or nations.

All the official fuss over “state of origin” ought to mean something beyond the need to identify citizens for purposes of “cake sharing,” according to Professor Jamie Onwuchekwa, BusinessDay’s former Editor-in-Chief. It should also identify citizens for productivity and service.

Isn’t it a shame that any state should lag far behind the rest in education, health care, clean water, good roads or public transport—all modern indices of development?

A commitment to helping your state win the friendly competition of “best state” by every measure is therefore a very healthy and worthwhile thing. Beauty (or charity) begins (and ought to begin) at home. You start being well groomed, smartly dressed and attractive from inside your house or compound before stepping out, not the other way round. This is even, if you like, a law of nature, he says.

However, when these basic necessities a state is supposed to provide the citizenry are lacking, disillusionment can set in – leading, most often, to forced migration (this is what you hear when

you meet Nigerians and some other Africans in South Africa).

Remember in the recent past, when the Senate moved to salute Nigeria on her 53rd Independence Anniversary, ravings and rantings, lamentations and wailings filled the Chamber.

To quote one media source, speaker after speaker “berated both past and present leaders for failing to alleviate all the woes bedevilling the nation. . . . Most of the senators who spoke . . . lamented on the poor living conditions of many Nigerians and decay in infrastructure.”

“Many of the senators,” according the source, “attributed the slow pace of development to sentimental and parochial inclination of the nation’s leaders both past and present, while others blamed the nation’s lack of development on corruption.”

Well, as the saying goes, when you point one finger at someone else, at least three of your fingers point back at you. The supreme irony is that every member of the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) is part of the leadership in question.

So, in the recent tweets by Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, suggesting that South African companies operating in Nigeria take responsibility of compensating Nigerians who were victims of xenophobic attacks in South Africa generated the kind of condemnation that could be regarded as sensible.

Though Sani did not specifically mention any South African companies operating in Nigeria, he was wise enough to drop the idea immediately he sensed that it was a fight that would go nowhere.

The fact is, there are more than four dozens of South Africa firms operating in Nigeria, and if they are held responsible for a sin they did not commit, or maybe otherwise forced to close shop, the effect would be more devastating than imagined on Nigeria, especially this time the unemployment figure is soaring.

Sani tweeted: “South African companies based in Nigeria should take up the moral challenge of modestly compensating the families of

www.businessday.ng

Nigerians killed or injured in South Africa.”

His reason: “This would help in calming nerves resulting from ceaseless xenophobic attacks against our innocent citizens.”

From records, some of South Africa’s leading companies in Nigeria include MTN, Power Giant, Eskom Nigeria, South African Airways, South African Breweries (SAB Miller), MultiChoice and Umgeni Water.

Others include Refresh Products, PEP Retail Stores, Shoprite, LTA Construction, Protea Hotels, Critical Rescue International, South AfricanNigeria Communications, Global Outdoor Semces, Oracle, etc.

An analysis of Nigerians under their employ shows that MTN has about 18,931 globally, and MTN Nigeria has the largest part in this figure.

Eskom Nigeria has about 47,658 globally, and Nigeria is one of the biggest market and has nothing less than between 10,000 and 15,000 Nigerians in its employment.

South African Airways has about 10,500 workers globally, and Nigeria being it major market in sub-Saharan Africa has about 2,000 of its nationals under its employ. Also, South African Breweries (SAB Miller) has about 70,000 employees globally, 9,400 in South Africa and about 7,000+ in Nigeria.

On the other hand, MultiChoice has about 6,963 Nigerians as employees, and Umgeni Water about 1,046 Nigerians working with it.

PEP Retail Stores has about 15,000 workforce globally, over 3,000 staff in Africa, and 327 employees in South Africa, and added to this is Shoprite, which has 44,000 globally, 23,500 work outside South Africa, and majority of this in Nigeria.

Oracle on its own has about 138,000+ globally, and proportionate number of this in Nigeria.

The figure goes on, but these are just those under direct employment. Imagine the figure the indirect employment will bring up. So also other numerous South African companies we can capture here. Imagine also the numbers of Nigerians under the employment of LTA Construction, Protea Hotels, Critical Rescue International,

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South African-Nigeria Communications, Global Outdoor Semces, etc.

Nigerians’ reaction: “Nope, I don’t key into this idea @ShehuSani. Companies are run by private individuals. Yes, they might be South Africans but one should not pay for a crime he didn’t commit. There’s nonsense or whatsoever in this. Let’s devise another means but not this one,” Aminu Saleh said.

Another Twitter user simply identified as NDK said since the companies do not have hands in such attack they should not be held responsible.

“The companies are already creating jobs here and they have no hand in the attacks, why bring them into this? If anyone should be compensating, it should be the government of NGR that has frustrated so many to emigrate due to terrible state of the Nation.”

“It is saddening that many countries of the world are taking Nigerians for a ride yet our leaders are adopting the ‘sidon look’ approach as of we are incapacitated. We can do something by severing diplomatic relations and imposing sanctions on such nations,” Nnamdi Abana tweeted.

Maaji Idris, who opposed the suggestion, tweeted, “Wrong suggestion!! Do not create problem for them. The innocent and business concerns should not asked to bear it rather the South African govt MUST adequately compensate the families and perpetrators brought to book.”

My brother Sani, as said earlier, we have all contributed in one way or the other to force some of our youths to migrate, especially you and your colleagues in the National Assembly.

In few days time, the eighth National Assembly will come to an end, and many of your colleagues have been there for four years without any significant contribution to their constituency – why will the youths from such environment not jump at the slightest opportunity to travel, whether he or she has anything to offer the country they go. A stitch in time saves nine, as the saying goes.

Osa Victor Obayagbona is assistant News Editor, BusinessDay

@Businessdayng

12

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Publisher/CEO

Making DisCos franchises work with limited rancour

editor Patrick Atuanya

he decision of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the electricity sector regulator, to allow third-party investors to distribute power within a franchise area earlier ceded to an electricity distribution company (DisCo), though belated, is commendable, even though it is ambiguous and leaves room for conflicts in the future.

One of the flaws of the 2013 power privatisation exercise was the poorly conceived geographical franchise areas allocated to DisCos. They were unwieldy and unsustainable.

Apart from Eko and Ikeja DisCos managing Lagos, other DisCos cover at least four states. Enugu DISCO operations cover the five states of the South-East and Ibadan DisCO cover seven states. A more pragmatic approach would have been unbundling PHCN assets along states. The proposed rules will even out coverage in neglected parts of a DisCos franchise areas.

According to the 2017 Power Sector Recovery Plan, the national economy is losing

Frank Aigbogun

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

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$29.3 billion annually due to the lack of adequate power. It also estimates that the sector will require approximately $1.5 billion annually for the next five years (2017 to 2021) to achieve sector viability. In view of this, grasping at any flotsam in this sinking sector is a critical necessity.

According to the proposed Franchising Regulation, Discos could grant a franchise to third parties (Franchisees) to undertake specific roles in the supply of electricity including procurement of additional electricity from embedded generators, management of metering, billing and collection activities, maintenance, upgrade and strengthening of the distribution system within the respective licensed coverage areas of the Discos. The franchisee will retain a portion of the revenue collected from consumers after deducting amounts payable to the Disco.

The proposed rules also allow any unserved or underserved community the option of exploring the provisions of NERC’s Regulation on Independent Electricity Distribution Network (IEDN) in ending their supply challenges as may

be applicable.

The proposed rules vest ownership of all distribution networks in the DisCo without explicitly including the fate of upgraded assets through investments made by a franchisee on the network. NERC needs to be explicit about this. Perhaps, it could assign some stakes to the Franchisee in the asset they help to upgrade to avoid litigation between the DisCos and sub-franchisees in future.

The proposed regulation is not also clear on what kind of relationship DisCos and the franchisee would maintain with the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and what becomes of the obligation of DisCos under their Performance Agreements.

What becomes of the obligation of DisCos to NERC, under the Distribution Licence; and to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. (NBET) under the Vesting Contracts? Will the sub-franchisee be allowed to invest in off-grid power? This is important.

The proposed regulation also does not provide clarity on whether a sub-franchisee would need to cut Aggregate Technical and Commercial Losses (ATC&C) losses as it is in India

where the rules were copied from. For this to work, it cannot just be about DisCos improving collections, It should also be about cutting losses, gathering data, metering and upgrading dilapidated assets.

Maharashtra’s distribution utility (MSEDCL) tried it in India in 2006. It chose Bhiwandi, a power loom town close to Mumbai with a population of 1 million, for appointing franchisee. Prior to these, MSEDCL had technical and distribution losses of 45% and collection efficiency of 68%.

It assigned Torrent Power as the franchisee for 10 years mandating it to perform its functions in the town. Torrent Power collected tariffs charged

by MSED CL , upgraded the networks and assets it created were taken back by MSEDCL at their depreciated value at the end of the contract. One year later, Torrent Power has been able to reduce losses by 30 percent, invested more than the minimum required and has replaced old mechanical meters with electronic meters outside the premise and in a sealed box.

This too can work in Nigeria but it starts with getting the policy right.

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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

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

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

13

cityfile Ebonyi: Drug dealer bags 6 months

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Tricycle as a means of transportation in Yenagoa Bayelsa State on Wednesday.

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More suspects nabbed over murder of bureau de change operators in Ikorodu JOSHUA BASSEY with agency report ight more suspects have been arrested by the police in Lagos in connection with the recent killing of a police sergeant and two bureau de change operators in Ikorodu area of the state.

The suspects, according to a police source, were arrested at an abandoned construction company in Odogunyan area of Ikorodu, where they allegedly used as their base.

“They were arrested at about 10a.m. on Tuesday at AKS construction company abandoned build-

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ing. One of the suspects escaped, while his locally made pistol was recovered,” the source said.

Bala Elkana, spokesman of the Lagos police command, had on May 9 said three suspects were arrested in connection with the murder of three persons in Ikorodu. Two bodies of the victims were dumped inside a septic tank.

According to Elkana, the command on March 14 received a complaint from Ikorodu area that some unidentified persons approached one Yakubu Musa and Hassan Umaru, both operators of bureau

de change at Benson area, Ikorodu.

He said the suspects informed them that they have a relation who returned from overseas and needed to sell $10,000 (about N3.5 million), stressing that they initially requested that payment will be made in a bank at Ikorodu.

Elkana said on getting to the bank, the suspects moved the operators to an unknown destination and started demanding for ransom from their friends and relatives.

He said despite paying the sum of N1.6 million as ransom, the abductors refused to release the

victims and nothing more was heard from them.

“The victims phones remained switched off. The Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu detailed the Commander, Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) to carry out an investigation into the matter with a view of rescuing the victims and apprehending the suspects.

“Operatives from SARS Ipakodo, led by Godfrey Soriwei arrested three suspects. The suspects confessed to the commission of the crime and led operatives to their den at Ikorodu where they dumped the corpses in a septic tank,” he said.

NDLEA intercepts N20m worth of drugs in Lagos

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agos State command of the Nigeria Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a truck load of 150 bags of prohibited drugs worth over N20 million.

Frederick Ezeorah, acting commander of the agency in Lagos, said the truck with registration number JJJ959XN, was intercepted on May 3 at about 1:30pm conveying cannabis sativa weighing 2.139 tons concealed in fake compartment of the truck.

“Two male suspects, Monday Michael, 46; the driver and Alex Adieli his conductor aged 43 years were also apprehended on their way from Ondo State

to Lagos.’’

According to Ezeorah, the seizure was a result of intelligence gathered over a period of time on the alleged criminal activities of the suspects, believed to have specialised in bringing such illicit substances into Lagos.

“The suspect during interrogation by NDLEA officers said he has been in the illicit dealings for years without being caught.

“He appealed to NDLEA to be left off the hook as he will desist from the business.

The consequences of trafficking in illicit drugs and abuse of dangerous substances must be the concern of every well-meaning Nigerian.

“The effect knows no bound and anybody can www.businessday.ng

be a victim of its dangerous health and mental implications, violence and its associated crimes,’’ he said.

The commander, who commended the operatives for arresting the suspects, described the seizure as a panacea for peace and positive step towards eradicating drugs from circulation.

“The NDLEA will continue to work assiduously by consolidating on the gains recorded in the fight against insurgency and other crimes.

“Over 2.139 tons of cannabis would have been taken to Lagos if not for the timely interception by men of this command.

“Several crimes are perpetrated under the influence

of drugs like cannabis and the agency will not rest until the problem of cannabis cultivation, trafficking and usage are drastically reduced.

“NDLEA has declared a total war against illicit drugs and promised to deploy adequate resources towards monitoring, interception and arrest of dealers and consumers.

“The NDLEA Lagos State command is hereby soliciting the cooperation of the general public and other security agencies to provide the command with such confidential and reliable information about those merchants of death. This is so as to make Lagos State a crime free state for the good of all,” he said.

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Fe d e ra l Hi g h Court sitting in Abakaliki has sentenced 32year Chukwuma Amadi to six months imprisonment for illegal possession of 23.8 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa.

Justice Akintayo Aluko in his judgment said that the sentence commenced from the date of the convict’s arrest. Aluko said that the court was satisfied that the convict pleaded guilty to the charges levelled against him, which ultimately facilitated the quick dispensation of the matter.

“The defendant agreed to the testimony of the prosecution witness and confessed to have committed the offence at AmikeEzzamgbo, Ohaukwu local government area of Ebonyi.

“I considered the fact that the prosecutor confirmed that the defendant is a ‘first offender’ with no previous record in such case,” he said.

The judge also said that he considered that the defendant “is the breadwinner of his family with two wives and nine children and has shown enough remorse over the offence.

“The huge quantity of the illegal drug in his possession was also considered as the defendant is therefore sentenced to six months in imprisonment,” he said.

Aluko said that the court was satisfied that the prosecution proved the case beyond doubt and duly sent samples of the substance for tests in Lagos.

Amadi admitted committing the offence and pleaded for clemency from the court, saying that he indulged in the crime to cater for his family.

“I have two wives and nine children and I beg the court to do whatever it wishes to me if I am brought before it again over the crime,” the convict pleaded.

Ganduje donates to victims of drug conspiracy

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overnor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has presented N3 million cash gift to Zainab Aliyu and Ibrahim Abubakar, who were recently released from Saudi Arabia prison.

Ganduje announced the donation when a Federal Government delegation presented Zainab Aliyu and Ibrahim Abubakar, to the governor at the Government House, Kano.

He said that Aliyu, who traveled for lesser hajj with her mother, was arrested

by Saudi security officials in December 2018, in a hotel in Madinah,” he said.

According to the governor, the girl was accused of possessing a bag containing illicit drugs purportedly bearing a tag with her name.

He added that an other passenger, Ibrahim Abubakar, unrelated to @Businessdayng

Aliyu, who also traveled on the same aircraft, was also arrested on the same day.

The governor, who announced the donation of N3 million gift to each of them commended the Federal Government for the timely intervention that saved the lives of the two victims.

Chairman of Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said that they were at the Government House, to officially hand over two indigenes of the state to the governor.

She explained that investigations conducted by the Airport Authorities and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kano, discovered a drug cartel at the Kano International Airport, Kano, that specialises in planting illicit drugs on innocent travelers without their knowledge.

14

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

MONEYINSIGHT

Bitcoin gains as US big retail stores move to accept cryptocurrency FRANK ELEANYA

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itcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world by valuation could finally be heading mainstream as big name retailers such as Nordstrom, Gamestop, Regal Cinemas, Crate and Barrel and Amazon-owned Whole Foods will now accept bitcoin and three other cryptocurrencies – Gemini, Ether and Bitcoin Cash.

The development is coming as a result of a partnership between Flexa, a global cryptocurrency payment network that enables major retailers to accept cryptocurrency payments in stores, and Gemini, a cryptocurrency company owned by the Winklevoss twins.

As a result of the initiative, consumers will be able to easily spend any of the four cryptocurrencies using the SPEDN mobile wallet which is available in the iOS Apple Store. Essentially, Flexa convinced the retailers to configure their scanners to recognize payments from its cryptocurrency app called SPEDN. The cryptocurrency consumers’ deposit on the wallet will be in the custody of Gemini providing security for those using the new payment technology.

“Together, by providing Flexa

with trusted custody and infrastructure, we hope to profoundly improve the payment experience; and merchants who are currently subject to overly complex, expensive legacy systems of credit and debit cards stand to benefit significantly,” said Tyler Winklevoss in a statement.

He further noted that with Flexa merchants get significantly less expensive and fraud-resistant transactions; can use the same payment hardware they currently use and receive payment in fiat currency, not crypto.

“We believe that not only will this result in cost-savings to the merchant, but to the consumer in the long-term as well,” he said.

News of the initiative is said to partly responsible for the jump the cryptocurrency market experienced on Tuesday. Bitcoin hit a 10 month high of $8,335 in the late hours of Tuesday only to retreat to near $7,600 on Wednesday morning. As at the time of writing this article, the price had appreciated to $7,994 on the Coindesk Price Index.

Bitcoin accounts for around 60 per cent of the $240 billion cryptocurrency market, down from nearly 90 per cent just over two years ago.

It has however doubled in value in 2019, rallying nearly 30 per cent in recent days to touch its highest level in ten months.

Ether – the second largest cryptocurrency by market value – also rose to $235, its highest level since October 1, 2018. It had however retreated to $233 as at time of writing.

The price of Ripple (XRP) rose to $0.45 on Wednesday morning, the highest since December 24 according to Coindesk. It dropped slightly to $0.44 later in the day.

Institutional investment in cryptocurrencies is on the rise as Facebook, Microsoft, HTC, Samsung and many other organisations are known to have one or two blockchain projects.

“The idea of living on crypto is now a reality,” said Winklevoss.

“For the consumer, it amounts to being crypto conscious. It is like

being green.”

Iqbal V. Graham, UK managing director of eToro also pointed out that the price of bitcoin has hit a base value and now individual stories such as Samsung and HTC phones carrying bitcoin or Amazon marketplaces accepting the cryptocurrency are starting to take effect on consumer acceptance.

Considering a credit card? Think about this first STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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t was a particularly stressful month financially for Musa and Ebele who have been married for three years, recently moved to Aguda, Surelere, 30 and 27 years old respectively.

They had their first baby barely a month after moving into their new apartment, where they paid N450, 000 for a year. Musa works for a commercial bank as customer relationship officer and Ebele works for a manufacturing company as operations officer.

Their family budget was strained because they spent over N500, 000 refitting and furnishing the new apartment, then a new baby came along. They were cash trapped and had no egg nests to fall back on.

It was during this month that Ebele got a call from her account’s officer pitching the benefits of credit cards. Ebele was not sure she needed one but with the backdrop of their current budget deficits and the need to take care of the newly born she was really enticed and sought advice to help her make an informed decision.

“With a credit card you are never cash trapped. You get 50 percent of your monthly salary loaded into it and you never have to borrow from anyone. You simply spend and pay later. The interest rate is only 2.5 percent” a bank worker explained to a customer.

According to people familiar with the matter, credit card is one of the most misunderstood and divisive products among all the financial tools available. Most Nigerians are not knowledgeable www.businessday.ng

regarding the workings of a credit card.

In more advanced economies you are sure to find people who pay all their expenses using credit cards as well as others who swear the products are the embodiment of pure evil. Opinions among financial experts and thought leaders are just as mixed.

A credit card is nothing but a tool. Whether its effects are helpful or harmful depends on the skills and knowledge of the

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user, a person with the power to choose how to use the tool. Here is everything you need to know in order to make the most out of this particular financial tool, taking advantage of its benefits without falling into any traps. Here are some of the common traps for dealing with credit card rewards.

These insights were influenced by a Forbes article.

Credit cards are not for everyone. Like tools, in the wrong hands, they can be dangerous. If you have personality traits like a tendency to lack self-control, if you are in the process of repairing your finances, or if you are not ready for personal responsibility, avoid credit cards until you are mentally and emotionally prepared.

What is a credit card?

Physically, a modern credit card is a rectangular piece of plastic, graphite, or a metallic alloy, that identifies a financial account.

All contain a magnetic strip on the back, and some contain a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip. An account number and the owner’s name or business name may be imprinted on the front. @Businessdayng

Behind the scenes, the credit card represents a type of financial account. By using credit cards, customers can offers a bank’s money instead of their own to pay for a product or service today, and over time, they repay the bank.

For the benefit of using someone else’s money, customers will often need to pay interest, as expected with other types of loans.

This is where problems can arise. Using other people’s money is often preferable than using your own because it lets you keep your own money available for other purposes, but if you buy something with someone else’s money while not being able to repay that type of loan, the results can destroy your own financial future.

Credit cards are like Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) for money. Digital video recorders allow users to “time-shift.” Television channels, at least for now, have regular schedules during which they air programs, but if you’re not free at 8:00 PM to watch The Big Bang Theory, your DVR allows you to watch the program from the beginning at your convenience.

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

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NSE30 stocks worsen as market rout persists

Pg. 16

Only market forces will deliver stable power, not govt interference – Century Power CEO (part1) When Century Power Generation (CPG) was birthed, it had its gaze on scaling up electricity generating capacity at utility scale, backing government’s drive at privatisation. Maintaining focus, it is currently developing a 1500MW gas-fired power plant in Okija, Anambra State. CHUKWUELOKA UMEH, its chief executive officer says Nigeria’s ambition to generate sufficient power for its economy will be realised quicker if the government allows market forces prevail. TEMITAYO AYETOTO brings his excerpts from an interview with journalists at Nestoil office in Lagos.

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hat spurred your in Nigeria’s power industry as a local

company?

It’s painful to see that we’re literally sitting by the banks of a river and we are dying of thirst literally. A man lives on the banks of the river that produces water but then every day, he travels 20 to 30 kilometers to go and buy water from someone else who takes water from the same river, puts it in bottles and then sells it back to him. That’s the tragedy of our situation and this is the reason we decided to get involved in the industry as a Nigerian company.

This is the only home we have. This company is owned by Nigerians and is run by Nigerians. We’re not running anywhere. So if we’re going to live here, going to do business here, then we should fix our own home.

We go overseas all the time; we travel to many different countries to buy things that we use in our business and when we go to those countries, we see that things work and things work there because they use the resources they have. They also use the resources they buy from other places including Nigeria to make their countries work. You go to a place like China. Twenty years ago, the economy of China was small compared to the economy of Japan, though by land mass and by population size, China is much bigger than Japan. China’s GDP at the time was tiny compared to Japan. What did China do? It invested in energy.

It invested in power. And within 20 years it turned its economy around.

Today, China has moved from a country that is seen as the low-cost manufacturing plant of the world to a technology leader. Indeed, China is now a global superpower. It has speed rails, good roads, massive buildings and massive industries.

Today people in China are able to spend money on locally produced goods. A lot of millionaires have been made in just few years but look at Nigeria. We are still talking about Nigeria’s potential when our contemporaries 30 years ago have become first world nations. For as long as many of us in this room have been alive, we’ve been talking about the potential in Nigeria.

Some of us remember those days when we used to produce tires here.

I remember those days I remember the days when we used to export a lot of products, timber rubber

palm produce. I remember those days when we had an exchange rate of one naira to one pound, 80 Kobo to one dollar. Those days are burned into our memories. We mourn those days when if NEPA was going halt power supply, they announced it weeks in advance so that people would be ready. The roads were good even though they were not too many. Lecturers were seen as middle-class people and at every vacation every summer, they could send their children overseas. We remember those days.

I remember that very well but what happened to Nigeria? We stopped investing in infrastructure. At one stage we didn’t build new ones and when you look at the heart of the issue, I argue that the height of the problem is energy. We did not keep up our investment in the energy industry, so as a local company we decided that we need to participate in fixing the problem.

The sector is fraught with many hiccups. How will Century Power approach these?

Since its inception, Century Power realised that for it to achieve its goal of helping to develop the country, we need to get involved in not just generation of power but also several other parts of the value chain in the power industry. Our focus is on gas-fired power plants.

There are many others we could talk about – nuclear. We could talk about coal-fired, and we can talk about hydroelectricity. We can talk

about renewables like wind and solar but I’m going to focus only on gas-fired today because Nigeria has the world’s ninth largest proven reserve of natural gas.

So the value chain for this starts with gas production, if we produce gas then it goes to gas transportation through the pipelines that we have today. And then you get on to generating the electricity. You’ve got to transmit the electricity over the transmission lines currently owned by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). TCN then transmits the power to the respective distribution companies that eventually deliver the power to our homes. So you’ve seen that energy flows from gas producers all the way to the electricity distributor and then the money flows from this distribution backwards. They collect the money and then they pay the gas transporter and pay the gas producer.

The entire value chain must work for the energy industry to work. And Nigeria has been blessed. So again when you think of the family living by the river, the river, in this case, the water, in this case, is natural gas. Natural gas is one of the cleanest fossil fuels that you can use to produce electricity and other countries use this to develop themselves. We have it in abundance but we’re not using it.

This has to change and that’s why I said it is by getting involved in several aspects of the value chain so as the CEO of Century power, we

know we have to get involved in the transmission, so we’re upgrading the transmission line from Century Power to the closer substation. We have an agreement with the government to do this upgrade. We are also now involved in developing a gas pipeline that would transport gas to send to you and we are going back even further to work with a company that will produce the gas to make sure that they produce the gas in the quantity needed and then the timeline that is needed.

So as you can see I wear several hats and we’re very busy but the whole idea is that this industry must work. You can move away from danger and go elsewhere but it’s the wrong thing to do. I lived in America for many years. I worked for General Electric in the US for many years developing gas turbine engines both for airplanes and for power generation. But this is my home, the easy thing for me to do would have been to stay in America and keep enjoying the infrastructure and keep enjoying the dollars. The hard thing to do was to come back here and help fix the problem and that’s why a lot of us are here.

The installed capacity in Nigeria today to surpasses distributed electricity. What are the persisting problems?

So remember I spoke about the value chain at the beginning of the conversation. The reason we are not distributing as much as the installed capacity is because the value chain is broken. So when we have over twelve gigawatts of installed capacity. That just means the capacity of all the power plants that currently exist in the country. However, some of those pipelines are so old that installed capacity is not really there.

Then you have plants that were built by the government but do you have gas coming to them? How do you run a plant without gas? You have plants that were built by the government that has gas but don’t have enough transmission infrastructure to evacuate the power. You can’t evacuate the power that’s part of the problem. And then you have distribution networks that were sold to private investors. You know these investors put in their money to buy these networks from the government however at the time that they were sold, the government gave numbers that they thought was the Aggregated Technical Commercial and Collection Losses (ATCCL). So imagine this, someone buys a dis-

tribution network and they tell you that the ATCC losses are 80 percent.

What that means is that from all the power coming into your plant, you can collect money for 80 percent of the power that you get but in reality you see losses of some of these networks which is about 80 percent which means you can only collect money for about 20 percent of the bar you’re given. How can you pay your loans when there are many things like metering still unsolved?

A lot of the networks are not properly metered, a lot of the networks have lines and transformers that are so old. You also have a lot of networks where people are stealing power from them. So if you’re collecting money for only 30 percent of the power you’re given, how can you pay for the part that you’re supplying? So at the end of each month, the regulators expect you to remit a certain amount of money that you cannot give because you’re not collecting. So you cannot pay the generating company that supplied power to the grid for you to take the power. Now because you cannot pay them, the generating companies also cannot pay the transmission companies. So it’s a vicious cycle of failure. And they also can’t pay because would you sir? So guess what, everything is broken. This is the real problem. So what needs to happen in this case and you find that starting to happen in some of the networks, the DISCO owners are trying to play catch up in metering.

The government needs to support them to enforce. If I sell power to you through your meter, you need to pay for that power.

Two years ago, the chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) said that only about 30 percent of the households are metered. Under this scenario, how can the Distribution Companies make money? So we need to find a way that the Discos can provide meters to every household, every business that needs power. So at least that they start paying for the electricity that they take and then see that this money is collected.

They need to be allowed to raise the tariff so that they can start to cover their costs. Right now the government is enforcing a set tariffs that don’t make economic sense for the DISCOs. For them to optimally serve us, they need to be allowed to come up with their own tariffs which is what we call cost reflective tariff that will cover their costs.

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

Friday 17 May 2019

COMPANIES&MARKETS

BUSINESS DAY

17

Business Event

MARKET

NSE30 stocks worsen as market rout persists DAVID IBIDAPO & SEGUN ADAMS

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he thir ty most capitalised and liquid stocks are at the receiving end of the severe downturn of the Nigerian stocks market, which has failed to respond to any form of stimulus that had been hoped would see the market turn the corner in 2019.

Listed companies on the Nigerian NSE30 index worsened in terms of return to investors, leaving only four of total listed firms on the NSE 30 index with positive return so far in the year, as hopes of a dovish Federal Reserve, successful conclusion of 2019 elections, oil price rally, and expectations that earning seasonings would convince the lethargic market turn to dust.

Analysis revealed that at the end of the first quarter of 2019, 12 out of 30 most capitalized companies on the exchange showed positive returns to investors as their share prices weathered bearish pressure in the market.

However with the market remaining negative, only four of the NSE 30 stocks show positive returns in what would be testament to the strong sell-offs in the space.

As the end of trading on Wednesday, year to date performance of the equity market plunged to -10 percent, a double digit decline for the first time in 2019.

Consequently, average year to date performance of companies listed in the NSE30 sub-index deteriorated to about -6 percent against -0.15 percent at the end of Q1 2019.

Of the 30 stocks considered, Dangote flour has appreciated the most, gaining 137.22 percent since trading commenced for 2019.

Sterling Bank (31.57%) and Union Bank (20.53%) remained the only other NSE 30 stocks with double digit growth while Forte Oil has gained 9.75 percent on year to date.

The grim performance of the Lagos bourse raises questions as to the possibility of seeing more stock slump-even currently appreciating stocks- in the wave of pessimism flooding the market.

Although, analysts anticipates the possible impact MTN listing would have on the performance of the equity market.

“The listing of MTN won’t necessarily slow down the bearish trend of the market instead investor in the bid to balance their portfolio would sell off some of their existing holdings to purchase the shares of MTN,”

Paul Uzum, a Lagos based stock broker on the NSE explained.

Slight contrast to this above view, “The impact of this listing on the equity market will be short term as general excitement of the listing may see investors shift attention from other stocks to focus on MTN in the short term, hence slowing down bearish trend in the market,” Gbolahan Ologunro, analyst at CSL stockbrokers explained.

Regardless of the outcome, the low price of many stocks may present a good entry points into those with good fundamentals and growth prospects as many stocks are currently cheap.

Across sectorial index, the industrial goods sector recorded the worst hit YTD, underperforming grossly the all share index at -14.07 percent after index closed on Wednesday at 1063.71 points.

The oil and gas sector came closely behind with a year to date performance of -13.55 percent, whereas Consumer goods sector followed as index plunged by -11.99 percent, underperforming the entire market.

Although all sectorial indexes have experienced a bearish trend year to date, the banking sector however outperformed the ASI by 70 basis points only at the close of mid-week’s trading.

Cross-section of participants and facilitators at the Nestle/NUJ Photojournalism workshop in Lagos.

L-R: Oge Kasie-Nwachukwu, head, events and sponsorships, Access Bank Plc; Ayona Aguele-Trimnell, Access Bank W initiative coordinator; Neku Atawodi-Edun, renowned female polo player and W Ambassador, and Amaechi Okobi, group head, corporate communications, Access Bank Plc, at a Press Conference to announce the partnership between Neku and W - Access Bank Women initiative in Lagos

ICT

Chams sees biggest gain on NSE to end 5-day losing streak OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN hams Plc, a Lagosbased information and communication technology company, gained the most among traded equities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, marking an end to its five-day bear run.

The stock appreciated by 9.09 percent to close at 36 kobo, its biggest gain since the release of its financial results for the first quarter of this year.

This placed the stock above 10 other stocks that rose in value at the Lagos bourse.

BusinessDay had reported the bearish performance in the company’s stock despite an impressive outing in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019.

The bear run had triggered Chams Plc’s dividend yield from 6 percent to 9 percent.

Turnover of the ICT firm stood at N208.7 million in the first quarter of the year, this represents a percentage increase when compared with N206.5 million achieved in the correspond-

C

ing quarter a year earlier.

The company’s pre-tax earnings jumped 108 percent to N11.44 million from N5.54 million as the firm’s zero income tax expense for the period bolstered its net income by 125 percent to N11.44 million compared with N5.1 million recorded in Q1 2018.

Total assets of Chams Plc fell by 8.96 percent to N5.34 billion. However, the company cut its liabilities by a wider margin of 36 percent to N1.6 billion, propping up its shareholder’s fund by 11.7 percent to N3.74 billion from N3.35 billion a year earlier.

Chams Plc was more profitable in the period as its net income margin soared from 2.5 percent in Q1 2018 to 5.5 percent in the first three months of this year.

A further analysis reveals that the company’s management was efficient at using its assets to generate earnings as return on assets, which stood at 0.09 percent as at end-March 2018, surged to 0.21 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2019. www.businessday.ng

Similarly, the company was able better utilise the equity investments of its shareholders to generate income as return on equity rose to 0.31 percent in the first three months of 2019 from 0.15 percent in the same period a year earlier.

In a statement filed at the NSE on Wednesday, Chams Plc clarified that Chams Group was not listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). This indicates that while Chams Group recorded a negative retained earnings of N1.76 billion as at end-March 2019, Chams Plc recorded N397 million positive retained earnings in the review period.

Chams Plc was incorporated as a limited liability Company on September 10, 1985, and became a public company on September 4, 2008. It was listed on the floor of the NSE on September 8, 2008. The firm offers services which include identity management, payment collections and transactional systems.

R-L: Olasupo Shasore, partner, ALP Legal, chairman of the Nigeria International Advisory Council, CWEIC; Yemi Osinbajo, vice president of Nigeria, Alan Gemmell, OBE chief executive, CWEIC, Obinna Anyanwu, country head, CWEIC Nigeria on a visit to the office of the vice president and chairman, National Economic Council.

L-R: Emeka Okonkwo, executive director, corporate banking, Union Bank; Leke Ogunlewe, executive director, Standard Chartered; Ofon Udofia, executive secretary/CEO, Institute of Export Operations and Management Nigeria, and Mohammed Abdulsalam, senior vice -president, Sales, West Africa, GE Healthcare, at the Global trade Review Conference, West Africa co-sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank in Lagos.

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

17

FINTECH News

Products Review

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

Technology Review

Inside Nigeria’s first ever fintech company Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

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igerian financial technology (fintech) space has made remarkable strides in recent times with investors’ interest peaking enabling the segment to dominate funding in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem for nearly four years in a row. There are tens of businesses operating in the segment now with more opening shops every other week, despite the challenges the existing ones are facing.

Prior to 1997, the segment looked very different from what it is now. First, there was no segment known as “fintech”.

Second, banking services and technology used in financial services were controlled by banks. However, as the gaps in the sector continued to become apparent, there was a need for to think out of the box.

A consortium of Nigerian banks came together to set up the country’s first electronic payment company, SmartCard Nigeria Plc (now Unified Payment).

“Because it was formed by the banks, it was to serve the interest of the banks and the banking community in Nigeria,” said Agada Apochi, the fourth CEO of the company and the first to be appointed internally. The three previous CEOs of SmartCard

Nigeria which was later renamed ValueCard were executive professionals from other global organisations. Before his appointment, Apochi had joined the new company in 2005 as a lawyer handling legal services, company secretariat and administration.

SmartCard Nigeria Limited was born at a period banking in Nigeria was at its rudimentary stage. What was considered innovation in those days included branchless banking in which a customer could open an account in a particular branch and can carry out transactions in another branch of the same bank he or she opened his account. The only means of retail payment was cash.

The mandate the banks gave the company was primarily to drive electronic payments and lead the way in cashless economy in Nigeria.

With that focus in sight, the company pioneered electronic payments for goods and services in the country.

It created a payment scheme with its own branded plastic card called ValueCard. Following the payment scheme, the company as ValueCard deployed the first Point of Sale terminal (PoS) in Nigeria.

“The company was not driven by profit motive,” Apochi told BusinessDay. “The reason is obvious, we are set up by banks – though not for loss making – but more

about facilitating businesses and making life easier for the banking community which include the banks as operators and their customers.”

The first card technology however had some challenges. At the time it was launched, customers who were issued it, could only use it within Nigeria. Similarly, when a foreigner visits Nigeria, the person could not make payment electronically because the cards issued outside the country could not be used in Nigeria. There was no platform for doing that.

To solve the problem, Unified Payment (UP) made the decision to go into talks with international schemes. There

were discussions with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Eventually, the company forged a relationship with Visa which became a shareholder in UP. “Visa became a shareholder in UP for the purpose of connecting Nigeria to the rest of the world in terms of financial technology or electronic payments,” Agada explained.

As a result of the relationship with Visa, UP became the first non-bank entity in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa to become a principal member of a global payment scheme.

The arrangement with Visa also meant that UP will go on to pioneer other solutions such as making it possible for cards issued by Nigerian banks to be used outside the country and also to hold a naira account and be able to use the cards out of Nigeria. It also became possible for foreigners who visit Nigeria to be paid in naira even though they are carrying cards denominated in other currencies.

As the payment market began to evolve, in 2011 the company decided it was time to open up to other schemes and not just one - Visa. Visa went ahead to divest and ceased to be a shareholder, thereby enabling UP to work with other international schemes. It subsequently became a principal member of Mastercard, China Union Pay and in 2018 for the first time; it launched Ameri-

can Express in Nigeria.

“This made us the first non-bank entity to be a principal member of four global payment schemes. It is not just non-banks, as of today no Nigerian bank is a principal member of all. We hope that Nigerian banks and more of Nigerian companies will be able to become principal members of all the leading global payment schemes because we will be proud of that.

Our pride is not in remaining the only entity. We want more Nigerian entities to qualify that means that Nigeria is a country that international organizations want to do business with,” said Apochi.

Despite the many first solutions the company created, adoption rate was very low initially. Cash was still the most preferred by merchants given that the infrastructure needed to efficiently drive electronic payment was largely unavailable. Only few Nigerians were carrying plastic cards as a means of payment. When adoption of card began to grow, it was being used to collect cash at the ATM. But a lot has changed since then.

“The ultimate end for us is to make life easier, make it possible for people to transact without carrying cash because of the several disadvantages or risk of going around the cash.

It increases the cost of banking service which is passed to customers,” Apochi said.

Luno kicks-off cryptocurrency literacy tour in Unilag, 5 others later

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s the cr yptocurrency market makes a dramatic comeback, Luno is not taking its foot off the pedal in its efforts to educate Nigerians about cryptocurrencies. Last week at the University of Lagos, the company kicked-off the first leg of what is to be a six university literacy tour before the end of 2019.

The company which in January predicted a positive cryptocurrency market in 2019 driven by mass institutional adoption said the literacy of potential investors in the market is critical to driving increased adoption and confidence in the market.

Luno operates in 40 mar-

kets across Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa and has seen nearly 3 million people registered on its platform.

“We are committed to educating our customers given the nature of the market and the tendency for people to fall into the wrong hands while online,” Owenize Odia, Country manager of Luno said in a media interview.

The literacy tour in university of Lagos had over 300 students participating.

Odia reiterated that the market volatility requires users staying ahead of the curve.

Odia noted that the existing financial system was built for a non-digital age, ignoring the needs of the modern individual. Unlike fiat money, bitcoin is www.businessday.ng

decentralised, meaning it does not rely on any central body, government, financial institution or executive body

to operate.

It is peer-to-peer network which relies on blockchain technology, cryptography

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and advanced mathematics.

“We are contributing by investing heavily into our Luno Learning Portal, which

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helps the public, the media, and other stakeholders educate themselves about the facts, opportunities, and risks in the cryptocurrency market,” Odia said.

Over 2.5 million people use Luno’s platform to carry out activities like buying and selling of bitcoin and Ethereum. Importantly the company’s learning portal provides valuable informative materials for end-users ensuring they have all the knowledge they need to make informed decisions and also protect their investments. Luno has also carried out Webinars, Meetups and cryptocurrency events to bridge the learning gap both in Nigeria and across Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

INTERVIEW

We are client-centric and dedicated to enabling each investor grow their wealth real time - Hassan Damilola Hassan is the Head of Health Management, Meristem. As part of its commitment to bond with its clients and meticulously cater to their needs, Meristem is introducing the Meristem Green Fest- a convergence point for businesses in the organic and healthy-living sector, health and fitness enthusiasts, and individuals who are interested in natural consumables in terms of foods, drinks, hair & skin care products and much more. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE, she speaks about Meristem’s goals and objectives. Excerpts.

Meristem has been in operation in Nigeria for about 15 years, expertly providing bespoke services in Wealth Management, Stockbroking, Registrar Services, Trustees Services and Corporate Financing. How has the brand been able to thrive in such a highly competitive space? t Meristem, our core focus is the client because they are the reason why we are in business. The services we offer are tailored specifically to meet the needs of each investor and clearly from inception, our mission has been to bond with our clients and meticulously cater to their needs through cutting-edge technologies and custom-made solutions that simplify investments for them. By committing to this, we have been able to not only thrive in the industry but most importantly, earn the trust of our clients through quality service delivery.

organic cooking class on the day where attendees can learn how to cook organic Nigerian meals. There is, in fact, something for everyone who attends this festival.

In recent times, there has been a revolution in the fitness space, with an increasing number of health and wellness events. What sets the Meristem Green Fest apart from similar initiatives?

There have been health and wellness events but there has never been a Meristem Green Fest. This event is the first of its kind in Nigeria in the sense that its focal point is not limited to weight management, exercise and fitness alone but also bringing together all the different facets of healthy and organic living under one umbrella event. The Meristem Green Fest is not just an event but a representation of the beginning of a new and improved lifestyle. The event will also serve as an avenue for small and medium enterprises in the organic nutrition sector to take the centre stage and showcase their products directly to their consumers. The master classes will also strengthen and equip them, and other attendees, to become more financially accountable and make smart financial decisions.

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Meristem’s strategy is hinged on Wealth Creation and Relationship Management. How are you able to differentiate from what your competitors are doing?

We stand out from our competitors because we are particularly clientcentric and dedicated to enabling each investor to grow their wealth real time. Our success is heavily dependent on the fulfilment of our clients’ needs, so we put ourselves in their place and serve them as we would serve ourselves. We are dedicated to understanding clients’ goals and employing the appropriate investment tools to help achieve them.

As a leading bespoke investment firm and capital market conglomerate, what’s the genesis of your foray into investing in health and wellness?

We have come to understand the singular truth that health is wealth; we also know that individuals will be unable to grow their wealth if their health is lacking. As we are committed to growing wealth for people, we must also be committed to sustaining the health that will allow them to enjoy this wealth.

For this reason, we have embarked on a sojourn to educate our clients on the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Meristem recently announced Green Fest, its inaugural health and organic festival. Can you tell us more about this event and what

Damilola Hassan

you intend to achieve with it?

Meristem Green Fest is a reflection of us going the extra mile for not only our clients, but also the general public. The festival is a convergence point for businesses in the organic and healthy-living sector, health and fitness enthusiasts, and individuals who are interested in natural consumables in terms of foods, drinks, hair and skin care products and much more. We will be promoting the importance of a healthy lifestyle and re-affirming the fact that achieving and growing wealth is dependent on the maintenance of a healthy body and a sound mind.

With the Meristem green fest, we hope to achieve a positive turnaround in each individual’s attitude towards healthy living.

The event is slated to hold on June 01, 2019. Can you highlight some of the exciting activities you have lined up?

The line-up of activities is truly exciting; there will be aerobics, yoga, outdoor games, musical performances, cooking classes, and www.businessday.ng

master classes on health, fitness and financial literacy. It is indeed a festival of all things natural and organic; the perfect blend of fitness, education and entertainment. The festival also offers the opportunity for natural and organic vendors to showcase their products. So, attendees can unwind to great music and enjoy the pleasure of amazing healthy foods.

tion that every individual has the capacity to learn and unlearn habits that could be detrimental to them.

To ‘Unjunk’ means to discard old and unhealthy habits and embrace new and healthy ones. With this theme, we are encouraging people to adopt better and healthier lifestyle options in all areas of their lives including nutrition, fitness, and finance.

The theme of the event is ‘Unjunk’, what does this mean and what is the inspiration behind this theme?

Unjunk was borne out of the no-

Can you tell us some of the major benefits attendees stand to gain by being a part of the Green Fest event?

The Meristem Green Fest is the largest convergence of health, fitness and wellness lovers in Nigeria.

Therefore attendees can expect nothing short of the best in terms of entertainment, education and fitness. In terms of education, there are master classes on nutrition, weight management, and financial literacy. For entertainment, there are outdoor fun games and musical performances and for fitness, there will be aerobics, exercise, and yoga. In addition, there will be a live

‘

In terms of education, there are master classes on nutrition, weight management, and financial literacy

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@Businessdayng

The idea behind Green Fest is to encourage the practice of organic nutrition, fitness activities, and overall health consciousness in order to foster personal growth and increased productivity. Who is the event targeted at and how impactful do you envisage this event to be?

Meristem Green Fest is an event for everyone. We are inviting lovers of healthy nutrition, fitness, natural skin and hair care, and anyone who is interested in kick-starting a new and improved lifestyle. It is a family-friendly event so attendees can bring their kids along to enjoy fun kids’ games and more. We sincerely believe that the festival will be highly impactful in conveying the benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle as a pre-emptive step towards living a long life to enjoy their wealth.

Going forward, are there any plans of making Green Fest an annual event?

Definitely. We intend to make this an annual event and possibly explore other aspects of green living in the nearest future.

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

19

FEATURE NLNG’s USP propels Nigeria’s quest for innovation, technological excellence FRANK UZUEGBUNAM

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he Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited clocked 30 years this week from the day it was officially incorporated on May 17, 1989.

From its inception, the NLNG has strived to live up to its vision of being a global liquefied natural gas company renowned for its operational excellence while at the same time helping to build a better Nigeria.

In the pursuit of building a better Nigeria, NLNG through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria has spent over N25 billion on community projects over the years; committed N120 billion on the construction of Bonny-Bodo Road in Rivers State; signed an MOU with the Bonny Island community to provide N3 billion each year for 25 years for the overall development of the Kingdom.

In all of its CSR endeavours, the premium it placed on education in Nigeria has been legendary as it considers education as a key development factor with unique potentials to stimulate development and growth.

The company administers a scholarship programme that covers post primary, undergraduate, overseas postgraduate and maritime studies. Over N500 million has been spent on undergraduate scholarship for Nigerian students in various universities. In partnership with the Nigerian Academy of Science and the Nigerian Academy of Letters, the company instituted the Nigeria Prize for Science and the Nigeria Prize for Literature to honour and encourage excellent innovators and writers.

Apart from formal education, the company has also bridged the gap in technical education in the country through the establishment of Bonny Vocational Centre, an accredited London City & Guilds centre in Nigeria, which produces world class technicians to fill the skills gap in Nigeria.

But the University Support Programme (USP), an intervention in the nation’s tertiary education sector where it spent $12 million on six Nigerian universities to develop engineering education, compliment government’s efforts and propel Nigeria’s quest for innovation and technological advancement.

The project entailed building modern engineering laboratories and procuring engineering equipment to aid teaching and research in the six universities; University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin, University of Port-Harcourt, University of Maiduguri, Ah-

madu Bello University, Zaria and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, were selected based on rankings by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other international bodies.

Other parameters used in selecting the universities included long standing contributions to the development of local capacity in Nigeria and their outstanding performance within each of the six geopolitical zones in the country, especially in the area of engineering and technical education and the grooming of notable engineering luminaries who have contributed to national development.

The project began in October 2014 and was completed in 2016.

Beside the key objective of supporting teaching and research, the USP, according to the company, was also aimed at training the next generation of engineers for the nation’s development.

The oil and gas sector has a track record of innovation. As it is becoming harder and farther to discover new reserves, it has become imperative to adapt universities’ curriculum for expanded skills sets and technologies.

“We believe that one result is certain from these processes: the laboratories will be world-class and it will spur the development of engineering education and help bring the universities at par with their peers world-wide,” Babs Omotowa, then Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, NLNG, said during the signing ceremony of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the six universities

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which effectively flagged off the project implementation phase on June 20, 2014.

On the 21st of November 2015, Ahmadu Bello University successfully commissioned their multi-user laboratory, becoming the first of the six USP projects to go live. Professor Ibrahim Garba, Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, at the commissioning ceremony said the multi-user laboratories was the first of its kind since the inception of the institution adding that the facility would avail students and lecturers of the institution the opportunity to conduct their research in the field of engineering technology.

The University of Ibadan and University of Port Harcourt respectively commissioned the NLNG/UI Engineering Complex and the NLNG Centre for Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Engineering on the 21st of March 2016 and the 1st of April 2016, while on July 8, 2016, University of Ilorin opened its NLNG Engineering Research Centre.

“It is impressive to note that the company, which is headquartered in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and doing its business globally, should commit to such an inspiring Corporate Social Responsibility initiative on a national scale, to benefit six tertiary institutions across the geopolitical zones in the country, including our very own University of Ilorin,” Abdulfatah Ahmed, governor of Kwara state said at the commissioning of University of Ilorin NLNG Engineering Research Centre.

“This act distinguishes Nigeria LNG as a

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unifying corporate organisation in the face of the diverse interests plaguing the unity of the country, evidenced by the intense clamour for regional autonomy and resource control in the respective zones,” Ahmed added, while expressing appreciation to the board, management and staff of Nigeria LNG for the “honour done to University of Ilorin and the people of Kwara State”.

On November 29, 2016, the NLNG/University of Nigeria, Nsukka Engineering Laboratory was commissioned.

“The University Support Programme was set up to provide structured support for the development of research and scholarship in higher institutions”, Tony Attah, NLNG managing director/chief executive officer said during the commissioning of the NLNG/University of Nigeria, Nsukka Engineering Laboratory.

In his address, Osobonye LongJohn, Chairman, Board of Directors of NLNG, said the USP “is a reinforcement of Nigeria LNG’s belief that science and technology, as well as research which directly impacts society and human lives, is a must have for Nigeria as we are to make the desired move from a developing country to a developed one.”

The NLNG USP was brought to successful closure with the commissioning of the NLNG/ University of Maiduguri Faculty of Engineering laboratories on December 6, 2016.

“I am impressed with NLNG’s contribution to national development. Your interest in the development of education has led to the actualisation of this project. This construction is a welcome development which could assist in the proposed exploration of crude oil in the Lake Chad Basin area and taking off of the North East Development Commission.

Let me appeal to companies, philanthropists, non-governmental organisation and old students of UNIMAID to emulate NLNG,” Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno state said in his address at the event.

It is noteworthy that the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry awarded NLNG the 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Excellence Award in recognition of the impact of the $12million pan-Nigeria University Support Programme. The award is given to companies which CSR projects impacts society without direct benefit to the company.

In this age of disruptive technology and Artificial Intelligence, the NLNG University Support Programme is providing the right platform to cultivate a culture of innovation that will strategically propel Nigeria to lead other African countries while sustaining global competitiveness.

As companies in oil and gas diversify to expand their portfolios into other energy alternatives, there would be a desire for employees who can move more fluidly across board and help to address these gaps. The new skills strategy would ensure that the industry responds effectively to securing future talent requirements would be honed in these universities.

In 10 to 15 years’ time, it is believed that the best scientific and engineering minds in areas such as robotics, subsea, engineering, decommissioning and skills development in Nigeria would be produced through the longterm, collaborative relationships birthed by the NLNG USP. Over time this initiative will demonstrate the potential of being at the forefront of producing the kind of graduates needed for innovation and job roles to drive Nigeria into the emerging age of Artificial Intelligence.

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20

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE

Lagos hospital performs liver bypass surgery without open surgery ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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wenty-year-old Tosin Ojelabi became ill in 2015, she was diagnosed of Budd–Chiari which she had been suffering from for three years. In the past, the only way to treat Budd-Chiari syndrome was a large operation with surgery creating “a mesocaval shunt”, a shunt from the big veins in the belly to the inferior vena cava.

Tosin suffered a significant amount of fluid build-up in the abdomen with up to 33 litres drained from the belly monthly and had significant muscle wasting. She simply lived a life none of us want to live. It was then the test revealed that not only did Tosin have the rare disease, but that she badly needed a surgery.

Budd–Chiari syndrome is a disease where there is obstruction of the venous outflow from the liver either at the level of the hepatic veins (blood vessels that carry blood black to the heart).

When this obstruction occurs, all the blood coming from the abdominal organs and bowels into the liver have nowhere to go. This results in congestion of the liver and backflow of blood into the abdomen. This pressure results in massive fluid build-up in the abdomen called Ascites.

“We successfully performed the TIPS shunt. The procedure was technically challenging and required modified techniques with thinking outside the box, but the expertise was available to tackle all of this which ensured success,” said the team of surgeons, led by Hammed Ninalowo, Vascular and Interventional Radiologist, at Euracare Multi-Specialist

What to know about dehydration risks

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he symptoms of dehydration can appear quickly. If the body starts to lose water, it may send signals to the brain to trigger a response that the person will notice.

Most people are familiar with minor symptoms of dehydration, such as having a very dry mouth or feeling very thirsty.

A review posted to the journal Nutrients notes that thirst is the first sign that a person does not have enough water in their body.

For most people, drinking when they feel thirsty will provide them with more than enough OJelabi, parent of the patient, Tosin Ojelabi Patient, the team of surgeons, led by Hammed Ninalowo, Vascular water to function and and Interventional Radiologist, at Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital, in Lagos. thrive.

Listening to these sigHospital, in Lagos. techniques such as angiog- wide variety of conditions According to the team raphy, angioplasty, stenting, like blocked fallopian tubes, nals and getting water of surgeons, Budd–Chiari thrombolysis, embolisation, malignant tumours in lung into the body is crucial. syndrome cause is largely un- ablation, we are happy to and liver cancer, fibroids and As a study in BioMed Cenknown, but is usually attribut- provide an alternative proce- non-healing ulcers on dia- tral (BMC) Public Health ed to a hyper thrombotic state dure for patients, one that is betic patients. Interventional notes, water makes up or a web. “Our patient did well favourable for the patient,” Radiology treatments do not 60 percent of a person’s and was discharged home the Ninalowo said. involve open surgery allowing body weight, and losing next morning. This procedure Also speaking on the for small to no incisions, short as little as 3 percent of this was only previously done breakthrough, Tosin Ma- hospital stay, quick recovery weight through water loss with a major operation, which jekodunmi medical director time, less scarring, reduced may lead to dehydration. would have required time in at Euracare, stressed that blood loss and reduced apIf a person ignores the intensive care unit and the success of the proce- prehension. these signs or cannot get significant hospitalization dure is testament to Eura Commenting on improvwater, their body will retime after surgery,” Ninalowo care’s innovation and pro- ing Public Private Partnership spond.

The brain will send explained. fessionalism, stressing the (PPP) in Nigeria’s health sec However, the first liver hospital’s commitment to tor, Baiyewu Lateef Ayodele, signals to the body to conbypass surgery without cut- reducing medical tourism a Surgeon – Cardiothoracic, serve water and urinate ting the patient open was by Nigerians. “As the lead- said it is a new way to go to less. This will also slow the performed at Euracare Multi- ing multi-specialist hospital drive this new innovation in function of the kidneys.

Dehydration may Specialist Hospital Lagos. in Nigeria, we are commit- the county’s healthcare delivcause other notable The procedure called a Trans ted to providing excellent ery services generally. jugular intrahepatic Proto- care for our patients and “There is no way the gov- changes in the body, such systemic shunt (TIPS) is one procedures like TIPS, which ernment can fund every- as: sluggishness or lack of that uses imaging guidance to require complex interven- thing in healthcare alone energy, headache, dizziconnect the portal vein to the tional radiology, allow us to because the demands are not ness and confusion, heathepatic vein in the liver was showcase our expertise espe- full taken care of by the supply stroke and heat cramps, the first of its kind performed cially to people who normally by the government , so there stiff joints that may evenin Nigeria or sub- Saharan would prefer to travel abroad is a definite need for collabo- tually stick and not work Africa. for procedures.” rations and partnerships with properly, raised or oth “It’s exciting to be able to Interventional radiol- private arm of investment in erwise unregulated body perform the first TIPS proce- ogy treatments can be the healthcare to strengthen and temperature, swelling in dure in Nigeria. With various

first-line care option for a

fill gaps in the sector,” he said.

80 percent of blindness in children avoidable - Expert SIKIRAT SHEHU

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upe Ademola-Popoola, an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin has disclosed that eighty percent of blindness in children are avoidable.

Ademola-Popoola who gave the disclosure in an interview with journalists in Ilorin, explained that “80 percent of learning comes from vision and that once any young one loses his sight, everything regarding his earthly existence, will be negatively impacted”.

The don, who is also a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, revealed that research has shown that most of the cases of childhood

blindness are caused by communal and parental neglect before and upon pregnancy as a result of omission of certain precautionary procedure, most especially on the part of mothers.

She said that “when vision is good, your future will be good” as she expressed the belief that anyone with perfectly working eyes is more likely to live a more accomplished life than someone who does not, saying that was why 90 percent of the blind neither go to school nor acquire any skillful knowledge that can make them to be economically productive.

Ademola-Popoola therefore urged parents and guardians not to spare any effort at ensuring that their children and wards do not suffer sight www.businessday.ng

challenges, adding that training a blind is six times more costly than raising a normal child.

She equally stressed the need for parents and guardians to give greater consideration to efforts that may lead to the prevention and discovery of vision inadequacies in their children and wards even before pregnancy.

However, she has been granted patent on a device, Teacher Led Vision Screener (TELVIS), she developed for the detection of sight challenges in children.

The device, according to her aims at ensuring that younger persons are prevented from going blind and could be used by non-professionals, particularly teachers, to detect sight inadequacies among pupils.

The other device developed by her is VISION SAVE, which is particularly useful in the course of immunisation of children between the ages of 0 and 2 and also for Schools for Special Needs to address further complications that are usually suffered by blind pupils.

The medical expert commended the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for granting her the financial supports used in the production and deployment of the two devices as well as training non-professionals simple rules of how to use those devices effectively.

She also appreciated the authorities of the University of Ilorin and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TET-

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FUND) for assisting her research team with a grant to further train key informants in various communities with a view to finding out those who have eye problems.

Ademola-Popoola, who said that the UITH Eye Clinic is among the leading centres offering quality services in Nigeria, explained that the latest effort is expected to cover over 200,000 children of the University’s primary catchment areas as it is intended to enable ordinary people benefit more from experts in order to bridge the gap between the town and gown.

She explained that “every available platform in the University will be used to reach as many members of our various communities as possible” While enumerating some of the challenges facing the

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the brain, sharp changes in blood pressure and seizures The person may also go into shock and become unresponsive.

Drinking water regularly helps keep the cells healthy, but when a person’s body rapidly loses water, the body’s cells will start to shrink as water leaves them.

Summary Hydration is essential for human life. While some people may be able to survive for weeks without food, they can only survive a few days at most without water. Drinking water and eating foods that contain a lot of water may help prevent dehydration.

Without water, dehydration can affect the body rapidly. Depending on the person’s environment and exertion levels, they may notice changes in their body after just a few hours. If a person has diarrhoea or vomiting, their body may lose water faster.

In general, a person who drinks when they feel thirsty should not be at risk of dehydration.

war against blindness in children as including ignorance, paucity of funds, non-adherence to legislation on child health, limited number of experts and logistics, she opined that it is important for professionals of related disciplines to develop inter-disciplinary approaches in the development of skills, devices and technologies that can be used to address human challenges.

She added that doing so will certainly help in stimulating prompt treatment of such early discoveries to prevent eventual blindness in children, which may cause them life-time discomfort.

The medical scholar added that a lot of efforts are currently being exerted by her team to building the capacity of non-professionals towards reversing avoidable blindness.

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

21

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE Ramadan Travel Tips - your Journey by Air, Sea or Land

Q-LIFE FAMILY CLINIC

ADE ALAKIJA Continued from Last week

B

y Boat: This is probably the most unsafe and treacherous mode of transportation depending on your route.

Life jackets must be worn at all times. Inspect your boat before departure; if not sure wait for the next best available boat. The creeks and rivers are not well charted and attacks by armed groups may be likely. Carry water, snacks and a torchlight.

Motor bikes, bicycles etc are other travel modes. Take all necessary precautions on the trip. Don’t get fatigued and fall asleep while driving.

Plan to visit your family Doctor or Travel Clinic nearby to discuss your travel health needs. If vaccinations are compulsory for your destination, your vaccine card should be attached to your passport if possible so as not to loose it. (Rubber band or staple).

Remember to get your Nigerian passports in good time for your

children or visas in time for those children that have only foreign passports(Non Nigerian) Insect bite prevention These days it would seem, as the planet gets warmer insect born disease are on the increase and because insects cause all the types of diseases like, Malaria, Dengue, various forms of encephalitis for example Japanese B encephalitis, Yellow Fever, Filariasis , plague , insect bite avoidance should be practiced both day and night in certain destinations.

Please consult your travel consultant. You can use Insect repellents, Mosquito nets (Impregnated with insecticides), air-conditioned rooms; knock down sprays, Long sleeved light coloured shirts/ blouses and long dresses/trousers protecting your body from bites especially at night. Besides, insect bites can result in unpleasant and occasionally serious local reactions. The bite can be sore, itchy or give nasty swellings, cellulites and abscesses.

Malaria Prevention: Nigerians visiting home may have variable levels of immunity to malaria, but it may still be advisable depending on the type of activity you are going to do to take effective anti- malarial

therapy. A day or more lost due to illness may ruin your trip. Also practice mosquito bite prevention methods using repellents, clothing, this also helps prevent other insect borne diseases.

On returning back home always be alert to fever or malaise in the family especially the children. All pregnant women should reconsider travel until after delivery, also babies less than 1 year unless it is absolutely necessary. Bugs that bite, such as mosquitoes, ticks, and some flies, can spread Zika, dengue, malaria, yellow fever, Lyme disease, and more. Reduce your risk! Use The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) registered insect repellent.

Protect yourself and your family from tick and mosquito bites use insect repellent.

First Aid Kits: It is wise to carry along a properly stocked first aid kit for small emergencies.

Small tips: Pack light, always carry a mobile phone with your ICE (In case of emergency) numbers on it. Sanitizers, tissue paper, Google maps may be useful.

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Poor diagnosis, lack of equipment limit positive outcomes for patients in Nigeria ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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oor diagnosis due to the lack of modern health equipment have limited chances of early detection of medical conditions in order to provide measures that make way for patients’ positive outcomes in Nigeria.

In this light, some experts from Me Cure Healthcare Limited are promising to increase contributions towards the growth of Nigeria’s health system by increasing quality service in diagnostics, optometry, pharmaceutical and oncology for improved and better patients’ outcome.

The management of the healthcare complex made the pledge as the company celebrated 10 years (one decade) of operation in the Nigerian healthcare space May 10, offering free glaucoma screening and launching an innovative product “Me Cure Smart Buy” to ensure Nigerians access healthcare easily at their convenience; part of activities to mark the anniversary.

Jide Fadirepo, the Chief Operating Officer, Me Cure Healthcare Limited, Oshodi Diagnostic centre said lack of state-of-the-art equipment for treatment has limited positive outcomes for patients in Nigeria.

“Government should partner with the private health facilities to provide an enabling environment for improved healthcare delivery, by ensuring reduced tariffs in the

HBL TEAM

importation of lifesaving equipment and consumables, as well as eliminating the long and worrisome process of clearing the commodities from the ports”.

He also urged the government to enter into an agreement with healthcare institutions in the country, noting that while it performs the role of providing infrastructure and subsidising basic amenities such as power, water among others, the health institutions would in turn provide healthcare services at a free or cheaper cost, according the government’s directives.

This, Fadirepo, who is also the Medical Diagnostic Radiographer, said would boost the country’s health outcomes to meet international standards and reduce the number of avoidable deaths in the country.

MeCure started as a diagnostic centre in May, 2009 strive to provide innovative healthcare solutions. Speaking on the milestone, Obiefuna Ajie, the Chief Medical Office and Consultant Pathologist, Me Cure diagnostics centre, said the diagnostics arm of the health facility, which was borne out of the need to bridge the challenges patients’ face in carrying out investigations and examinations, has helped many Nigerians access proper treatment and reduce avoidable deaths.

“Diagnostics is part of health management of patients, it is quite

difficult for healthcare providers to have all the diagnostic tools in one setting, so patients were having problem to get their investigations done to the point that patients had to travel out for that purpose.

“Quite a number of people lost their lives unavoidably because of lack of those investigative tools and part of what Me cure has been able to achieve in the past 10 years is that it has been able to bridge that gap and contribute physically in helping our healthcare professionals, hospitals and clinics save many lives through its diagnostic centre,” he said.

While speaking on the new product launched into the Nigeria healthcare space, Adil shaiku the chief Technology Officer, said the company has introduced an eCommerce platform, “MeCure Smart Buy”, which is a form of telemedicine, where Nigerians can communicate with pharmacists and doctors at no cost through their phones at their convenience and get healthcare services at an affordable price.

“Telemedicine is what we have brought into our primary healthcare. The offering we have is called the Me Cure Smart Buy. This product is to make healthcare convenient and affordable to the general population in Lagos.

We are providing access to a qualified panel of doctors completely free, Shaiku added.

‘

You should be prepared, so bring a few Dates or acceptable small snacks with you when you go somewhere new and pack a small bottle for water, so that you have something to break your fast no matter where you are

(other good apps exist) which gives you most accurate prayer time amongst other features. Eat the right type of food like Dates which are packed with minerals and proteins. You can use Apps to help you find Halal food if you are in a foreign country.

Be prepared: Nowadays, as travellers, things are easier. Religion is not a burden. When it comes to fasting as a traveller, you just have to do a little pre-planning.

You should be prepared, so bring a few Dates or acceptable small snacks with you when you go somewhere new and pack a small bottle for water, so that you have something to break your fast no matter where you are.

Always have a functional fully roaming and topped up mobile phone and can roam at the destination country. Remember the worldwide emergency number even if your phone has no credit is 112. It is free of charge and it works.

Have a pleasant and safe trip and a pleasant family Ramadan Holiday.

Don’t spoil a great holiday. Boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it. May this period be filled with peace, love understanding and harmony in all communities in Nigeria, Ramadam Kareem to all Nigerian Muslims.

PharmAccess wins award as ‘Best Corporate Body Supporting Health in Lagos’ IFEOMA OKEKE

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n an elaborate event, the Lagos State Health Family 2018 Merit Award, held on the 6th of May 2019, the Lagos State Ministry of Health recognized several staff that performed outstandingly during the Year 2018.

The event, organized by the Directorate of Occupational Health and Staff Health Services of the Ministry of Health, which held at the Balmoral Event Centre on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja saw several staff going home with accolades and plaques.

Partners to the Ministry were also not left out as the PharmAccess Foundation was nominated and won the award for Best Corporate Body supporting the Health sector in Lagos State.

Delivering her goodwill message, Njide Ndili, the Country Director of the PharmAccess Foundation, recognized and appreciated the Lagos State health workforce, which according to her, “has shown great

dedication in improving health service delivery in the State”. The other runner-ups for the award include the Global Fund, Clinton Health Foundation and MamaYe Nigeria.

PharmAccess is a not-for-profit organisation of Dutch origin dedicated to improving access to quality health care and making the health market work for people in subSaharan Africa.

PharmAccess aims to support the development of inclusive health markets to increase access to affordable and quality healthcare for lowand middle-income populations of sub-Saharan Africa.

To this end, PharmAccess has introduced innovative financing mechanisms such as health insurance and standards to assess and stimulate improvement of the quality of care delivered (SafeCare).

The Medical Credit Fund (MCF), also part of the PharmAccess Group, collaborates with local financial institutions to stimulate investments in the private health sector and the CarePay mobile digital platform.

L-R Olamide Okulaja, Njide Ndili, Ibironke Dada and Emeka Ajanwachuku after the event

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

22

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

Spotlight on recruiting: Your approach to hiring is all wrong PETER CAPPELLI

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usinesses have never done as much hiring as they do today.

They’ve never spent as much money doing it. And they’ve never done a worse job of it.

For most of the post-World War II era, large corporations went about hiring this way: Human resources experts prepared a detailed job analysis to determine what tasks the job required and what attributes a good candidate should have.

Ads were posted, and applicants applied. Then came the task of sorting through the applicants. That included skills tests, reference checks and extensive interviews.

Today’s approach couldn’t be more different. The recruiting and hiring function has been eviscerated. Many U.S. companies have outsourced much if not all of the hiring process to “recruitment process outsourcers,” which in turn often use subcontractors. At companies that still do their own recruitment and hiring, managers trying to fill open positions are largely left to figure out what the jobs require and what the ads should say. When applications come, applicant-tracking software sifts through them for keywords that the hiring managers want to see. And a new industry of vendors offers an astonishing array of smart-sounding tools that claim to predict who will be a good hire. They use voice recognition, body language, clues on social media and especially machine learning algorithms — everything but tea leaves.

The big problem with all these new practices is that we don’t know whether they actually produce satisfactory hires.

Only about a third of U.S. companies report that they monitor whether their hiring practices lead to good employees. Obsessed with new technologies and driving down costs, employers are largely ignoring the ultimate goal — making the

best possible hires.

Here’s how the process should be revamped: — DON’T POST ‘PHANTOM JOBS’: It costs nothing to post job openings on a company website. Thus it may be unsurprising that some of these jobs don’t really exist. Employers may simply be fishing for candidates. Often job ads stay up even after positions have been filled, to keep collecting candidates for future vacancies.

Because these phantom jobs make the labor market look tighter than it really is, they are a problem for economic policymakers as well as for frustrated job seekers. Companies should take ads down when jobs are filled.

— DESIGN JOBS WITH REALISTIC REQUIREMENTS: Figuring out what the requirements of a job should be is a bigger challenge now, because so many companies have reduced the number of internal recruiters whose function, in part, is to push back on hiring managers’ wish lists. My earlier research found that companies piled on job requirements, baked them into the applicanttracking software that sorted résumés according to binary decisions, and then found that virtually no applicants met all the criteria.

— RECONSIDER YOUR FOCUS ON PASSIVE CAN-

DIDATES: Of the more than 20,000 talent professionals who responded to a LinkedIn survey in 2015, 86% said their recruiting organizations focused “very much so” or “to some extent” on passive candidates. The same survey shows that for selfidentified “passive” job seekers the No. 1 factor that would encourage them to move is more money. For active candidates the top factor is better work and career opportunities. If you focus on passive candidates, think carefully about what that actually gets you.

— UNDERSTAND THE LIMITS OF REFERRALS: The most popular channel for finding new hires is through employee referrals. It seems like a cheap way to go, but does it produce better hires? Many employers think so. Research by Emilio Castilla and colleagues suggests otherwise: They find that when referrals work out better than other hires, it’s because their referrers look after them and essentially onboard them. If a referrer leaves before the new hire begins, the latter’s performance is no better than that of nonreferrals.

— MEASURE THE RESULTS: Few employers know which channel produces the best candidates at the lowest cost because they don’t track the outcomes.

Tata is an exception: For col-

lege recruiting, for example, it calculates which schools send it employees who perform the best, stay the longest and are paid the lowest starting wage.

Other employers should follow suit.

— PERSUADE FEWER PEOPLE TO APPLY: The hiring industry pays a great deal of attention to “the funnel,” whereby readers of a company’s job postings become applicants, are interviewed and ultimately are offered jobs. And these days the main effort to improve hiring — virtually always aimed at making it faster and cheaper — is to shovel more applicants into the funnel. But it’s much better to go in the other direction, creating a smaller but better-qualified applicant pool to improve the yield. Collecting lots of applicants in a wide funnel means that a great many of them won’t fit the job or the company, so employers have to rely on the next step of the hiring process — selection — to weed them out. And employers aren’t good at that.

— TEST CANDIDATES’ STANDARD SKILLS: Since it can be difficult to glean sufficient information about an outside applicant’s past performance, what other predictors are good? There is remarkably little consensus even among experts. That’s mainly because a typical job can have many tasks

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

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and aspects, and different factors predict success at different tasks. There is general agreement, however, that testing to see whether individuals have standard skills is about the best we can do. Can the candidate speak French? Can she do simple programming tasks? And so forth.

— BE WARY OF VENDORS BEARING HIGH-TECH GIFTS: John Sumser, of HRExaminer, an online newsletter that focuses on HR technology, estimates that companies get five to seven pitches every day from vendors using data science to address HR issues. These vendors have all sorts of cool-sounding assessments, such as computer games that can be scored to predict who will be a good hire.

But we don’t know whether any of these actually lead to better hires, because few of them are validated against actual job performance.

— REVAMP YOUR INTERVIEWING PROCESS: Interviews are arguably the most difficult technique to get right, because interviewers should stick to questions that predict good hires and ask them consistently across candidates. Just winging it and asking whatever comes to mind is next to useless. Think hard about whether your interviewing protocols make any sense.

It’s impossible to get better at hiring if you can’t tell whether the candidates you select become good employees. Organizations that don’t check to see how well their practices predict the quality of their hires are lacking in one of the most consequential aspects of modern business.

Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor professor of management at the Wharton School and a director of its Center for Human Resources. He is the author of several books, including “Will College Pay Off? A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You’ll Ever Make.”

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

Kebbi enjoys more security, less crime in North over rice success Stories by CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

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he success of Kebbi state in rice production is not only creating more wealth for erstwhile peasant farmers, but the state is also recording fewer crimes and enjoying better security than any other part of the country, particularly in the North. These were some of the claims made by stakeholders in the agriculture value chain and even ordinary farmers during a recent visit to the state.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics is also backing these claims. The NBS in its 2017 report, “Crime Statistics: Reported Offences by Type and State”,stated that Kebbi State has the lowest percentage share of total cases reported in Nigeria, with 205, which is 0.2 per cent of all cases reported throughout the country. “ The success in r ice farming is evidenced even in the level of security we have in Kebbi state,” noted Muhammed Augie, chairman, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Kebbi State Chapter during a recent visit to the state. According to him, in other parts of the country, especially in the North, the youths are not engaged (productively) like in Kebbi state, making it more likely they turn to crime.

“Under the rice industry, we have youths, retired civil servants, we have those in service, businessmen and politicians all going to produce rice, which shows you there is something good in that industry,” said Augie. “You can

Labourers work on a rice farm during harvest

produce rice, you can sell, you can make profits and take care of your financial obligations.”

When President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on November 17, 2015 in Kebbi state, 78,000 farmers were said to have been captured. Many more farmers still cultivated rice even though they did not participate in the ABP. Kebbi had in 2016, declared that it recorded over 40,000 “rice millionaires”, following the planting season, a claim that attracted understandable scepticism.

However, the arithmetic seems quite simple. With the improvement in farm practices through trainings, and provision of farm inputs under the ABP, farmers

Photo By: Caleb Ojewale

reported one hectare gave an average yield of 90 bags of rice paddy on optimally performing land. The least was about 75 bags. Cultivating only one hectare and a bag of rice paddy selling for an average price of N12,000 (at the time) implied returns of between N900,000 to N1,080,000 for most farmers. However, many either cultivated more than one hectare or realised more than the average number of bags, conveniently hitting the million-naira mark after one planting season.

With more rice mills springing up in different parts of the country, ultimately driving up demand for paddy rice, the business appears to be even more lucrative.

“Whoever wants to know whether Kebbi is producing rice or we are only talking about rice, this is the right

time to visit, and let us take them round,” said Muhammed Sh e hu A rgu ngu , a c t i ng Permanent Secretary, Kebbi State Ministry Of Agriculture a n d Nat u ra l R e s o u rc e s during an interview. “We have an endowment for rice production which no other state in this country has,” he bragged.

According to Argungu, no other sector can employ as much people as agriculture, and it is how the state intends to keep the youths engaged so they do not embrace crime.

As it was observed many young people “do not want tedious jobs,” as he put it, the state government is trying to modernize agricultural production (acquiring tractors, threshers, reapers, and power tillers), to attract and ensure young people are productively engaged.

Ondo eyes $345b Cannabis market, advocates legalisation

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he government of Ondo State is making a bold call for legalisation of Cannabis cultivation in Nigeria, as the state wants to benefit from the Cannabis industry, which has been valued at $345 billion in a new report

by Ne w F ro nt i e r Dat a (NFD) exclusively made available to BusinessDay. T h e s t at e ha s b e e n a frequent spot for raids by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), where Cannabis farms are regularly set on fire, and the products - mar ijuana, hemp, cannabis frequently mixed up because of confusion and low enlightenment to differentiate - are seized and said to be destroyed. “ We a l l k n o w t h a t Ondo State is the hot bed of cannabis cultivation in Nigeria,” read a tweet from G overnor Rotimi Akeredolu’s verified Twitter

handle @RotimiAkeredolu.

“We know how to grow it and it thrives well in the Sunshine State. With an estimated value of $145 Billion in 2025, we would be shortchanging ourselves if we failed to tap into the Legal Marijuana Market.”

The market is however much larger than the $145 billion the governor estimates, going by the new report by NFD. In another tweet, he stated “Our focus now i s M e d i c a l Ma r i j u a n a cultivation in controlled plantations under the full supervision of the @ndlea_ nigeria. I strongly implore the FG to take this seriously as it is a thriving industry that will create 1000’s of Jobs for our youth & spur Economic Diversification.”

In a three part series, BusinessDay’s Agribusiness Insight page explored the need for Nigeria to rethink www.businessday.ng

its hard stance on Cannabis, highlighting the many legal ways the stigmatized crop can be put to productive use in the country.

“Three of the world’s top 10 cannabis-consuming nat i o n s a re i n A f r i c a, highlighting both the importance of cannabis reform and related business opportunities throughout the region,” said Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, CEO & founder, New Frontier Data, in an emailed comment to BusinessDay. NFD states on its website that it takes no stance on the legalization of cannabis, rather, to provide data that will be used to make informed decisions in the growing industry.

In healthcare, Medical cannabis is used to reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy for cancer patients, to improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS, and to treat chronic pain and

muscle spasms.

In Industrial Use (which applies strictly to hemp), Cannabis sativa cultivars are used for fibres due to their long stems.

It refers to any industrial or foodstuff product that is not intended for use as a drug. Many countries regulate limits for the psychoactive compound (THC) concentrations in products labelled as hemp, making its industrial usage possible.

Cannabis for industrial uses is valuable in numerous commercial products, especially as fibre ranging from paper, c o rd ag e, c o n s t r u c t i o n material and textiles in general, to clothing. Hemp is described as stronger and longer-lasting than cotton.

It is also a useful source of foodstuffs (hemp milk, hemp seed, hemp oil) and biofuels.

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23

World food prices increase in April

G

lobal food prices ro s e i n A p r i l t o their highest level in almost a year, led up by meat and dairy prices, according to the FAO Food Price Index.

The index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly traded food commodities, averaged 170 points in April, up 1.5 percent from March while still 2.3 percent below its level a year-ago.

The increase spanned all the covered food commodities except cereals, where large export availabilities spurred a fourth consecutive monthly decline.

The FAO Cereal Price Index dipped 2.8 percent, led by wheat and maize for which the production outlooks are positive while rice quotations were broadly stable.

The FAO Dairy Price Index rose 5.2 percent from March, its fourth consecutive monthly increase, amid robust global import demand combined

with supply concerns linked to dry weather in Oceania.

The FAO Meat Price Index increased by 3.0 percent, led by a sharp jump in international price quotations of pig meat due to a surge in import demand in Asia - primarily in China, where the rapid spread of African Swine Fever has triggered a sharp fall in domestic production. Also bovine, poultry and ovine meat prices all firmed.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Index also rose, by 0.9 percent. Palm oil quotations rebounded somewhat due to rising global demand and inventory drawdowns in the major exporting countries, while soy oil prices notched up due primarily to robust domestic demand in the United States from both the biodiesel and food sectors.

The FAO Sugar Price Index rose 0.8 percent.

The increase was largely driven by firmer crude oil prices, as higher energy prices encourage the use of sugarcane in Brazil to produce ethanol for local sale.

How farmers can create more wealth through ‘disaster risk reduction’

I

mplementing modified farm practices, some of which have been highlighted

by FAO in a new study, can help mostly poor farmers in achieving significant economic gains and other benefits.

According to FAO, many of the “disaster resistant” farming innovations it assessed through multi-year trials on over 900 farms in 10 different countries, are within easy reach of poor farmers and do not require substantial investment. What is more, these innovations did not merely act as a buffer against disaster damages - in most cases, they significantly improved farm yields and financial gains even in the absence of any natural disasters.

Examples include a range of low cost options for disaster risk reduction that range from nature-based solutions, such as planting mangrove to protect coastal areas from floods, to the use of flood resistant rice varieties, to shifting to the installation of rooftop water collection and irrigation systems.

“The study makes clear that in most cases, disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts on the farm make good economic sense: that investing in DDR early can save many dollars that would otherwise be spent on post-disaster rehabilitation,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO Emergency and Resilience Division, in the foreword to the report.

“Moreover, farm-level DRR good practices are often “noregret” measures - meaning that they prove effective in @Businessdayng

providing added benefits even in the absence of hazards”.

The FAO study is intended to guide farmers in making choices to manage risk as well as to inform policymakers. It reveals that the good practices assessed have considerable potential to reduce the damages wrought on developing world agriculture by smaller-scale, lower-intensity disasters. While capturing less attention than large-scale disasters, hazards like dry spells or cold spells recur more frequently and represent a constant and significant problem for the 2.5 billion people on the planet who rely on small-scale agriculture.

On average, the DRR practices analysed in the study generated benefits 2.2 times higher than practices previously used by farmers, the report said. Benefits included both increases in agricultural production as well as avoided hazard-associated risks.

The average benefit-cost ratio for DRR practices was 3.7 in hazard scenarios, meaning that for every dollar invested in DRR the farmer achieved $3.7 in terms of avoided loss or return. Under non-hazard conditions, this indicator rose even further- up to $4.5 returned.

Such practices can prevent economic losses at household level, with immediate and palpable benefits to the lives of billions of people, and can also deliver economic benefits at the regional and national levels, the report says.

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Hotels

‘We pride in offering intimate services’ On May 27th, the burgeoning Lagos hotel market will officially welcome Joy Gate Hotel, a new entrant. In this Interview, Charles Ukaumune, general manager of the hotel, which had a soft opening last Friday, speaks with Obinna Emelike on the difference the hotel brings to the table, offerings, among other issues. Excerpt: What difference is Joy Gate bringing to the table in the Lagos hotel market? oy Gate Hotel is a business hotel that will give guests what other hotels in this axis will not offer them. We have positioned the hotel as the best on the Airport Road axis; offering quick and affordable service.

The hotel is dedicated to surpassing the expectations of discerning guests; enabling them to enjoy intimate services, as well as, home-away-from-home experience. We pride in offering customized service. We are not for mass offerings but customised to meet guests’ specifications. We offer our guests rooms, food and wine menus the exact way guests want them.

Moreover, our proximity to the Nigerian gatewayabout five minutes drive to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport- is an added advantage. In all these, we take customers requests and feedback very important in order to continually satisfy them.

What are your key offerings?

We have 51 tastefully furnished rooms. Our five categories of rooms are; standard, superior, deluxe, ambassador suite and diplomatic suite. All the room categories offer comfort and good rest to guests amid other world-class leisure enabling room facilities.

They are also functional for the business traveler, who needs to connect to the world or run his business while on a trip. The rooms come with different views, especially airport runway and city views of Ajao Estate, Oshodi and Ikeja.

I urge intending guests to take advantage of our opening promotional rate for a standard room for 28,000 instead of 36,000 and diplomatic suite, our highest room, for N110,000.

We also have four wellstock bars. From the Fountains Bar at the swimming pool, Executive Lounge and the Runway or Rooftop Bar, among others, Joy Gate Hotel carters to quality unwinding amid choice drinks.

The exciting thing is that our Runway or Rooftop Bar offers panoramic views of airplane taking off from the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Ikeja.

J

Charles Ukaumune

You will also be impressed with the aerial views of Ajao Estate, Oshodi and Ikeja from the rooftop bar.

We also have a banquet hall that can take up to 120 guests depending on the style; 60-68 for classroom style and 120 guests for theatre style. There is a swimming pool on the ground floor.

Do you think the quality of your food offerings will impress guests?

Our restaurant is world class and takes up to 40 guests at a time, while our meals are African, and intercontinental. We have one of the best chefs in Nigeria, including South African and Cotonou chefs.

As well, our food and beverage manager is coming from an international brand in Lagos here, so we are equipped and ready to host the world with the best of food and wine menus.

Who are the pioneering team members of Joy Gate Hotel?

The team is led by Charles Ukaumune, my humble self.

I am the general manager with almost 28 years experience in the hospitality industry.

I have managed many properties in Lagos including Planet One, Sweat Sensation, and Sumerset Court. I have also managed faculties for Airtel in the north west of Nigeria, and their base stations in 18 states. For me, managing Joy Gate Hotel afwww.businessday.ng

ter many years in the hospitality industry is something I can do with my eyes closed.

Having the best team around me, from the food and beverage manager, front office manager, the chef and other staff, we are good to deliver the best quality possible to the guests.

Are you aware of some international brands that are already in your area?

We are not competing with anyone; we come with our intimate service, which is different. Though Joy Gate Hotel is indigenously branded, people managing it have international experience spanning years in branded hotels such as Accor Group, Radisson, Hilton and Marriott, they are all here. For me, what matters is not the type or name of the airplane, but the experienced captain in the cockpit.

What about facility maintenance, which has been issue for most indigenous Nigerian hotels?

O wners of the hotel believe in return on investment. Also, return on investment does not just means opening new hotels and outlets, it is also means maintaining the ones you have and improving on facilities you have.

If you come today and see a curve TV of 37’’ or 42’’ in the room, when you come next time, you will see a new model with better entertainment offerings. That is what we are here to do.

We are going after facility maintenance at its best. We have scheduled our maintenance even to the cleaning of cobweb. The housekeepers know when to do the various cleanings, fumigation among others and do not fail.

We also have automated facility maintenance that pops up when the time comes, so you have a notice of a week or two weeks window before it is due for maintenance including our two generators. We have every reason to succeed because we are determined to do so and focused on our goals.

While your focus is on intimate service, how do you equip staff to deliver on your standard?

Before the hotel came to this point, we had and still have on board Ijeoma Ugamah, a hospitality expert.

She has spent six months training, grooming staff and managers and equipping them with the right skills. At present, we have done almost 18 trainings for line staff and managers on management, customer service and even phone etiquette.

Our staff can tell of your countenance and the kind of service you will need even from the phone interaction.

Obviously, with all the impactful training and grooming, the staff know what to do at any point in time to meet and satisfy guests’ expectations.

We recognize training as key; hence it is an ongoing thing despite the 18 trainings the staff have already undergone. We even have external trainers coming in.

Also, the calendar is already filled for trainings from now till December.

What is your target market?

We are hoping to get our share of the Airport Road/ Ajao Estate axis hotel market.

It is not all about making money, but also making friends and engaging in partnerships.

How has patronage been since the soft opening?

We are officially opening on May 27, 2019, but we are already over booked in our online requests and walk-in bookings by both individual and corporate clients. We are even looking at partnering with some hotels around this axis to push our overflow to them. For May 27th and May 29th Democracy Day, we are overbooked.

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

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

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

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

25

CULINARY DELIGHTS

Maison Kayser a taste of Paris, in Lagos

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ounded by Eric Kayser in Paris in 1996, Maison Kayser is an authentic artisanal French Boulangerie, meaning that bread and other baked goods are mixed and baked on-site all day long. Recognized as one of the most talented artisan bakers of his generation, Eric Kayser built his reputation on his passion for bread, the quality of his products and his incredible skill to combine authenticity and innovation in the world of French artisanal bakeries in cities like

vibe at Maison Kayser exudes modernity, bright lights, and a lot of space. The ceilings are large and have a very inviting feel about it. The restaurant is separated into 3 sections, an indoor seating area, a terrace seating area and bar located in the center of the restaurant. To the right of the main entrance, you will see an impressive selection of pastry and bread options as well gelato. As we made our way our waitress brought over the menu. There are so many delicious and healthy options, so I decided to help my friend

tender, juicy chicken breast served with a side of penne pasta. The food tasted very fresh and was equally as easy on the eye. My guest opted for the fillet de poisson which French is grilled fish.

His food was beautiful and tasted very nice too.

I love the effort and detail they put into the food at Maison Kayser. It is beautifully made and is very picture-worthy. The entire aesthetic of the restaurant makes you want to snap snap snap!

The food came out in a timely manner and the service was excellent. The waitress was

@lehlelalumiere Lehle works at BusinessDay in Strategy Innovation and Partnerships, she is also a financial inclusion advocate and radio anchor.

Originally from Senegal Lehle has a passion for food and culinary experiences and enjoys discovering new restaurants in Lagos.

Paris, London, Dakar and now Lagos. Eric Kayser Lagos opened it’s doors late last year and was a welcome addition to the budding Lagos restaurant scene. Located in Victoria Island, on Bishop Aboyade, a street in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Victoria Island, the new bakery/ bistro seems to be the new hot spot for pastry and gourmet lovers around town. Having visited the well-known French bakery/bistro in Dakar and Paris, I was excited to see what the Lagos franchise had to offer. Maison Kayser is known around the world for delicious and authentic French pastries and gourmet food.

As a Senegalese I appreciate pastries, as it is a part of most people’s daily food back home.

Some people’s breakfast is often a croissant and some tea or coffee. This is due to French influence during colonisation, and I must say it’s one of the few good things they left behind.

While there are many bakeries/boulangerie’s around town that have attempted to replicate an authentic French croissant, in my croissant hunt around Lagos... most have fallen short. In fact, I have only found two places in Lagos to buy an authentic croissant and Maison Kayser is one of the two places.

For this edition of Culinary Delights’, I visited Maison Kayser with a friend of mine who works in broadcast media. Brunch is my favorite meal of the day, so naturally, I was really excited to catch up over delicious food. Upon entry, the

out and order for the both of us. As I was going through squeezed orange juice while I made up my mind. The menu is Is easy to read and the options are clearly laid out. I find the menu simple, classic and not too busy and the great things is that there is something for everyone.

After some serious deliberation, I opted for the quiche as my starter which is a savory dish consisting of a pastry crust filled with eggs, milk or cream, and cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables. Quiche can be served hot or cold.

It is part of French cuisine but is also popular in other countries.

My guest and I shared the quiche which was very filling. I almost could have left my order at just the quiche but for the purpose of this column I decided to have the Chicken Milanese as my main meal which is crunchy panko bread crumbs, salty parmesan cheese and a

courteous and knowledgeable on the various options.

We also loved the fresh juice options and kept ordering more. Maison Kayser is the perfect weekend brunch or lunch spot in Victoria Island, you can come here during the week for a quiet meal by yourself or for a business meeting, or even for a birthday lunch. You can also pop in and order your pastries and gelato to go, specifically for your home parties or events. I often pick up pastries for weekend breakfasts at home.

At Maison Kayser, the management and staff are visible and hands on, which is what I find makes the place work so well. I definitely recommend Maison Kayser.

Let me know about your experience, when you visit.

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RATING 4.5 Chicken Milanese N4500 Poisson Grillé N7000 2 Orange juice N 1800 Pineapple juice N1800 Total N16 900

Contact: Follow us on Instagram @bdculinarydelights

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

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26

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

African Union unveils 6th All Africa Music Awards calendar of events …as submission of songs and videos to commence globally May 15, 2019 OBINNA EMELIKE

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he African Un i o n C o m mission (AUC), has formally unveiled calendar of events for the 2019 All Africa Music Awards tagged ‘6th AFRIMA’ at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 13, 2019.

In a press release signed

by Machacha Shepande, acting director, Social Affairs Department, African Union Commission, the first activity on the continental awards event calendar is submission of entries, which opened globally on www.afrima.org to African music professionals either living on the continent or in the diaspora from May 15 and closes on August 2, 2019. Further details on entry submission guidelines are available on the AFRIMA website.

The submission of songs and videos must be produced or released under

Wizkid, winner, Artiste of the Year at 2017 AFRIMA Awards

the year in review i.e. August 1, 2018 to August 2, 2019.

African music artistes, managers, producers, record label owners, recording companies, video directors, disc jockeys, choreographers/dancers, publicists and entertainment/music journalist are eligible to submit their works or submit on behalf of their clients in any of the 36 AFRIMA award categories.

Other activities on the event calendar are; the 13-man jury adjudication process and nominees selection from August 6 to August 12. A ‘World Media Announcement of 6th AFRIMA Nominees’ List’ will take place on August 13 to publicly unveil African artistes and/or works that have been nominated in the regional and continental categories leading to win-

Daenerys turns villain as King’s Landing falls in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5

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o doubt, DStv is home for all the GoT drama.

In episode 5 of the 8th season of Game of Thrones, titled ‘The Bells’, viewers saw one of our greatest heroes through the course of the entire saga, Daenerys Targaryen, turn full villain as she laid waste to King’s Landing and viciously executed her enemies.

The Targaryens are renowned for fire, fury and cruelty in GOT lore, but the ‘Mother of Dragons’ was supposed to be different: a leader with compassion, who stood against cruelty and slavery. However, riven by the death of two of her closest counsels, Ser Jorah Mormont and Missandei, Daenerys allowed her base instincts to take over.

While the torching of the Iron Fleet and the Golden Company was fully justified, the slaughter of soldiers and civilians after the city had been surrendered brought to life the worst fears of Varys, who was executed earlier in the episode for the treason of trying to convince Jon Snow that he should ascend the Iron Throne ahead of Daenerys.

Tyrion had such faith in Daenerys that he informed her of Varys’ betrayal and convinced her not to burn down King’s Landing at daybreak, as he has a plan to end the siege peacefully.

He then meets with Jaime after learning he was caught sneaking into the city, telling him that he must convince Cersei to surrender while making arrangements for them to be smuggled to

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Pentos.

The next day sees the battle play out in all its fire and fury, and around Arya and Sandor Clegane, who had snuck into King’s Landing for their own ends. ‘The Hound’ fulfills his deepest wish by killing his brother Gregor Clegane, though it is at the cost of his own life. Before his fight against ‘The Mountain’, Sandor convinces Arya not to kill Cersei. The Stark woman witnesses the destruction of the city first-hand while barely escaping with her life.

The episode ends with Jamie, having killed Euron, entering the Red Keep and reuniting with Cersei. However, the Lannister siblings meet a grim end together when the cellars collapse upon them, bringing to an end Cersei’s reign of terror – though, as this episode demonstrates, she and Daenerys have more in common than either would care to admit.

To see the very last episode in the Game of Thrones saga, simulcast live from the United States on the morning of Monday May 20, 2019, secure your subscription to DStv today!

ners of the AFRIMA 23.9 carat gold plated trophy.

On August 19, ‘AFRIMA Public Voting’ process will open to academy of voters, African music fans and followers around the globe, which closes 24 hours before the main awards ceremony, and would be monitored and audited by a reputable international auditing firm.

According to the press

statement, the main awards ceremony, a four-day fiesta of music, glamour, Afrocentricism and entertainment, holds from November 6 -9, 2019 in the official awards host city. It will be preceded by welcome soiree, AFRIMA music village, the host city tour, the Africa music business summit, and the exclusive nominees’ party.

Other build up activities leading up to the main awards ceremony include conferences, stakeholders meetings, festivals, speaking engagements, university campus concert and courtesy visits to heads of governments and leaders of institutions in corporate and government sectors across the five regions of Africa to achieve an allround engagement with all relevant AFRIMA stakeholders.

AFRIMA, in partnership with the African Union, is a music property that recognises and rewards the work and talent of a myriad

of African artistes from the old to the new generation of musicians. It also stimulates conversations among Africans and between Africa and the rest of the world about the potential of the creative arts for real humanizing enterprise on the continent, contributing significantly to social cohesion, national, regional and continental integration, as well as, sustainable development in Africa. The live awards show is broadcast to over 80 countries around the world.

The 2018 edition of AFRIMA awards ceremony was hosted by the Republic of Ghana, through the partnership of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Fans of African music globally can follow along and take part in the AFRIMA 2019 events on social media, live stream on the AFRIMA website, the AFRIMA App and by tuning to over 84 television stations, which are AFRIMA partners.

Nollywood to get more expertise as School of Media & Communication commence MSc in Film Production IFEOMA OKEKE

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target of 30-60 students would commence studies for the MSc Film Production in October 2019 as the School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University sets to produce industry-ready graduates for the “new Nollywood of global standards”.

The course starts amid renewed global interest in the study of Nollywood sparked by its mention as one of three market-creating innovations in an essay in the January-February 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review. Harvard scholars Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon (2019) in “Cracking Frontier Markets”, analysed Nollywood from the perspective of market-leading innovation.

Ikechukwu Obiaya, the dean, announced the commencement of admissions for the new programme at a media briefing Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Obiaya said the SMC MSc in Film Production will cover four key knowledge areas of Scripting and Directing for

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the Screen; Cinematography; Editing for the Screen and Sound Design for the Screen.

He added, “The course offers specialisation options in seven major film production areas of short film; documentary; interview and feature film. Others are serial drama, commercial filmlet and the music video”.

Obiaya said SMC would run the programme on the back of its deep interest in the industry including its Nollywood Studies Centre with a stock of over 10, 000 films, and its ongoing collaboration with the industry serving as curriculum guide for the DSTV Multichoice Talent Factory Academy.

The Dean said SMC has first-rate facilities for the study of film including four studios for audio-visual, sound and audio engineer@Businessdayng

ing, four editing suites and 50 units each of Apple and Windows workstations graphics and animation suite.

Players in Nollywood lent their support, including Okechukwu Ogunjiofor, who acted Paulo in the trailblazing ‘Living in Bondage’ and Femi Odugbemi, anchor of the DSTV MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy for West Africa.

There were also Kene Mkparu, founder of the FilmHouse Cinemas and Dapo Adeniyi, who is inviting the world to the new Lekki Film Festival starting in July.

Students have option of full or part time study. The course would cover five semesters or seven depending on the stream the student enters. The school targets Nigeria and Africa.

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

Your civil workplace Business etiquette

Janet Adetu

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ave you assessed your workplace?

Is there incivility in your workplace?

Is the ambience conducive that it impacts your mood and your daily performance?

Labor Day recently marked is a celebration of all workers, it is that day set aside in honor of you being a worker and your contribution to your place of work or your business. For any organization to function effectively team spirit, bonding and unity must exist, and that is the bane of civility that sets the tone.

Sadly, many workplaces due to many factors in life, most especially the combination of a multigenerational workforce are experiencing the good, the bad and the ugly with regards to a smooth flow of work ethics and civility within the work environment. I have seen may leaders and executives overlook the impact of incivility in the workplace as if it is nonexistent, too trivial to worry about or inconsequential to the business of the day. How wrong they are when it comes to overall productivity, performance and the bottom-line. Incivility in and around the work environment unfortunately has huge consequences Signs of Incivility at Work Incivility at work can be subtle but escalate if not handled well. It stems from simple acts of rudeness to, dis-

courtesy, lack of respect and deviant behavior towards others. It may not be so evident projecting the signs of incivility however, when poor behavior and poor attitude continues to grow you begin to see disunity, employee disengagement or an eminent disregard for others regardless of who the person may be.

In one of my recent speaking engagements I was approached by a young professional woman who was struggling to manage one of her junior subordinates. The subordinate is apparently constantly been rude and disrespectful towards her on a daily basis while on the job. With numerous reprimands and warnings the subordinate still refuses to change her ways.

The young woman decided to escalate this problem to her immediate her boss to hopefully put everything under control. Sadly her boss did nothing to address the issue; and the problem continued. Well I immediately asked her to document the entire incident, including her complaint to her superior. Her next move would be to take the incidences to a higher level if only to curb the spread of such and to let others know the standard expected

behavior of staff.

What I really want to emphasize here is the attitude of a leader or boss when things are glaringly wrong in the workplace. As a boss or a leader these are not scenarios to brush aside and

27

do nothing about. You are literally setting the tone for the pack of cards to come crashing down the potential for disaster. This indicates a level of incompetence and poor leadership traits. Then as you reflect a bit more the question to you again is: How do you manage uncivility in the workplace?

Managing Uncivility in the Workplace Identify all Acts of Uncivil Behavior The first assignment is to be aware of what incivility in the workplace looks like. Some will show up and may easily be over looked it can be as easy as the lack of common courtesies. To stress further simply the absence of “thank you” ”please” and the likes. Though this may sound inconsequential and may not require any immediate action the consistency of poor common courtesies as a ripple effect on the business.

The accumulation of uncivil behavior begins to affect employees emotionally, physically and mentally this then becomes a huge cause for action and must be stopped immediately.

Civility Policy Devise a civility policy that is given to all staff upon arrival that spells out acceptable behavior. What we tend to see is that overtime You will be surprised what some people consider as acceptable behavior, They suddenly become a part of the school of thought that says that the frequent wrong is now the acceptable norm.

Incivility Triggers It is paramount that as a leader or a professional executive or an entrepreneur that you study your environment, the mood, the energy and the vibe of your employees. You may find unusually a bubbly active staff feeling low and acting extremely quiet one day, do not ignore it, seek for a little explanation. The state of mind

‘

Well I immediately asked her to document the entire incident, including her complaint to her superior

of your employee or colleague can trigger signs of depression, excessive stress or bigger problems. Incidents that have happened the week before, or that morning can spark a change of tone that is not normal. Be sensitive to what you hear around, when an argument has occurred seek to get to the bottom of the argument by soliciting for a detailed investigation.

Create a Winning Team.

Are you building a winning team?

That winning team is energized, forward thinking, excited to contribute, full of ideas, determined and willing to succeed. It does not happen overnight, they are groomed and nutured to fit your current space. Anything to boost the mood of staff is always welcoming.

You will need to build a tiny social climate within the office which helps change the tempo, from the presentation of birthday cakes, to pizza and suya afternoons once in a while which can kick start excitement. This triggers a sense of value and self-worth in employees. Occasional retreats, team workshops, lunch and learn sessions will also provide more opportunities for bonding as well as team unity. See what works for you start with smaller groups, units or a department before you get to the bigger body.

Run With the Vision Let everyone “RUN” with the vision of the company. It is amazing how many employees do not know the corporate vision or goals. Workplace incivility occurs when there is no care in the world, no purpose, no drive. Ensure to align individual goals with corporate goals, have a plan for your staff and a steady roadmap for them to journey on as that ultimately leads to growth.

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

Movie Review – “AVENGERS; THE END GAME”

Linda Ochugbua

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F you haven’t seen the latest blockbuster movie breaking all ever set records, then I wonder what you are waiting for to see this new amazing movie from the Marvel family. So if you read my review a few weeks ago, about the new movie “Captain Marvel” and how they needed to introduce her to us, because we were going to be seeing her at work here in the new Avengers; End Game, she did appear in a few roles, but played a strategic role in aiding the destruction of the bad guys. She is probably the strongest superhero there is on earth now. The excitement and eagerness for Avengers was extremely out of this world, as usual you know the Marvel Group do spend a lot on publicity and marketing and the trailers have being on every blog, site and social media handle, just like the coming of the new season of Game of Thrones.

Everyone was waiting patiently for this new edition and end as they kind of told us and which doesn’t really seem so at all. I am great fan and follower of the Avengers family, I have loved every single character and superhero introduced and somehow you can’t just help but love them all, they sincerely do have a way of getting into your life and sticking there. I remember how they introduced the first

ever black superhero to appease the black fold, and they cashed out in over a billion dollars in revenues surpassing every imagination or expectation.

So for all of us we deep down knew that this new one would definitely be a work over for them and it surely was, grossing over a billion dollars in four days, yes you heard me four days.

I have being thinking for a few days now, wondering how they had told the “Avengers” stories for years and preparing that one day the whole series would come to an end and they would have to be a link to all past editions and all the ever created different characters, sincerely the directors Anthony Russo, Joe Russo and the writers Christopher Markus and Stephen Mcfeely, – I must say are geniuses. I must commend them for the outstanding job carried out in making this movie a huge success, making it one of the greatest movie ever in history. I will give you a few stats on how well this movie has done In just 6 days and still counting comparing it to some others. So far the movie has made over 1.2b dollars in the cinema making over 357m dollars on its opening day , making it the highest ever in the movie industry world history. It is now obvious that they will make it into the world’s highest grossing movies of our time beating the 2b dollar bench mark. Presently only four films have made it into the 2b dollar ranking, they are ‘Avatar’ of 2009 they made 2.7b dollars, then we had ‘Titanic’ of 1997, followed by Star Wars; the Forces awakens (2015) and then finally ‘Infinity War’.

For you to get a clear understanding of this movie, its paramount that you have seen the other Marvel group movies and the previous ‘Avenger” movies, because this movie brought previous characters to life and all editions had a critical role in this final one called End Game. So remember the last edition of the Avengers Infinity war, where at the end half of

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the population disappeared, I knew there was definitely going to be another one, which I told you to watch out for, and the introduction of the last superhero “Captain Marvel” made us understand that she would be essential in putting an end to Thanos. In this new movie, the super heros alive had to seek a way to save all their loved ones that were trapped in time. In the process of thinking, ‘Ant Man” who had disappeared in his last movie, through the time machine came back and told them, that they could use the new Time machine to go back in time, reverse things and change all that Thanos had done, After much deliberations and with a few heros volunteering to go on the mission, they started the race back in time to save the world and destroy Thanos for good.

There were loads of flash back and time travel, and in this process they started to retrace their lives back to undo Thanos’ snapped fingers. Tragedy is must say was rocked this Avengers boat hard. For me, there were some fighting scenes that dragged longer than normal but I couldn’t complain. If you are not careful and alert you might take a few naps, and miss the crucial parts of the movie. The best part of these movie for me was towards the end, when every super hero that ever lived in the Marvel group had to return to fight and destroy Thanos and his evil men, hence saving the world. Oh and you all must love how Captain America commanded lightening with Thor’s famous hammer.

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadie, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillian, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin & Winston Duke Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, ScienceFiction & Fantasy Director; Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Written by: Christopher Markus, Stephen

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Mcfeely Ratings: P13 (For Sequences of Sci-fi Violence and action and some languages) Runtime: 182minutes Studio: Marvel Studios Release Date: April 26th 2019 It’s obvious that a lot of sacrifices had to be made in the production of this fantastic new movie. Although, I had a bit of reservations here and there with the movie being over rated, over hyped and some scenes unnecessarily too long, I must confess that it was a very good movie after all, hence my score of 9.5/10. I am a huge fan of the Marvel group and the Avengers movie, having followed them from ‘The Incredible hulk” of 2008 till date with this new movie called ‘The Anengers; The End game”. They have produced a total of 22 movies till date having an average of 2 movies every year, and they have certainly gone from being good to being one of the greatest, allowing them to become one of the most successful studios in history, with having almost every movie as a hit. Wssse couldn’t have asked for more as they have continuously set the bench mark of super hero movies so high. I am definitely recommending this movie, especially to my action movie lovers out there, I am quite sure you will enjoy this movie and you would understand why each previous edition had to end the way they did, the link and the connectivity in this final one was just impeccable, and I can’t take it away from them.

Feel free to review any movie of your choice in not more than 200 words, please send us a mail to linda@businessdayonline.com , also please do answer the question of the week on social media and stand a chance to win a free movie ticket.

Linda Ochugbua @lindaochugbua

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Sports Rohr names 25-man squad for 2019 AFCON camp Stories by Anthony Nlebem

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uper Eagles head coach, Gernot Rohr, has listed midfield enforcer Mikel John Obi, Ahmed Musa, Kenneth Omeruo and Abdullahi Shehu in a 25-man squad to prepare for the 32nd Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Egypt this summer. Six other players are on standby.

Mikel Obi, who captained the team at the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia last year summer, has not been with the group since Nigeria’s elimination from the finals after a 1-2 defeat

by Argentina in Saint Petersburg. However, a recent meeting with Coach Rohr in the United Kingdom sealed his return to the three –time African champions, with the possibility of adding to his 85 international caps.

Rohr has largely kept faith with the Trojans who earned a ticket to the AFCON finals with a match to spare, with goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, defenders Leon Balogun and William Ekong, midfielders Oghenekaro Etebo and Wilfred Ndidi and forwards Odion Ighalo, Alex Iwobi and Moses Simon also on the roll-call.

He has put on standby six players, among them defenders Ikouwem Utin and Valentine Ozornwafor who have also been named in Nigeria’s final 21 for the FIFA U20 World Cup starting in Poland next week. The Franco-German

tactician explained to thenff.com that he has included the two players knowing the FIFA U20 World Cup will end on 15th June, six days before the first match will be played at the AFCON. 2018 FIFA World Cup defender Bryan Idowu is also on standby, alongside Portugal –based Mikel Agu and Egypt –based Junior Ajayi, and home –based goalkeeper Theophilus Afelokhai.

All invited players and officials are to report at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Asaba on Sunday, 2nd June, ahead of the friendly with the Warriors of

Zimbabwe at the Stephen Keshi Stadium on Saturday, 8th June.

The team will depart for Egypt on Sunday, 9th June aboard a chartered aircraft, set up a final training camp in the city of Ismailia and tackle Africa’s number one –ranked team, Senegal in their final pre-AFCON friendly on Sunday, 16th June.

Nigeria confront Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar in that order in Group B of the 32nd Africa Cup of Nations taking place in four

Egyptian cities 21st June – 19th July.

Goalkeepers: Francis Uzoho (Anorthosis Famagusta, Cyprus); Ikechukwu Ezenwa (Katsina United); Daniel Akpeyi (Kaizer Chiefs, South Africa) Defenders: Olaoluwa Aina (Torino FC, Italy); Abdullahi Shehu (Bursaspor FC, Turkey); Chidozie Awaziem (Caykur Rizespor, Turkey); William Ekong (Udinese FC, Italy); Leon Balogun (Brighton & Hove Albion, England); Kenneth Omeruo (CD Leganes, Spain); Jamilu Collins (SC Padeborn 07, Germany); Semi Ajayi (Rotherham United, England) Midfielders: Mikel John Obi (Middlesbrough FC, England); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); Oghenekaro Etebo (Stoke City FC, England); John Ogu (Hapoel Be’er Sheva, Israel) Forwards: Ahmed Musa (Al Nassar FC, Saudi Arabia); Victor Osimhen (Royal Charleroi SC, Belgium); Moses Simon (Levante FC, Spain); Henry Onyekuru (Galatasaray SK, Turkey); Odion Ighalo (Shanghai Shenhua, China); Alexander Iwobi (Arsenal FC, England); Samuel Kalu (Girondins Bordeaux, France); Paul Onuachu (FC Midtjyland, Denmark); Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England); Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal FC, Spain) Standby: Theophilus Afelokhai (Enyimba FC); Bryan Idowu (Lokomotiv Moscow, Russia); Ikouwem Utin (Enyimba FC); Mikel Agu (Vitoria Setubal, Portugal); Junior Ajayi (Al Ahly, Egypt); Valentine Ozornwafor (Enyimba FC).

Scope FC wins maiden edition of Trophy 5-A-Side

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fter 11 weeks of a keenly contested tournament amongst 1, 080 teams, Scope FC emerged winner at the maiden edition of Trophy 5-a-side grassroots tournament tagged, “Field of Honour”.

The third place and finale matches took place on Saturday, May 11 at the Campos MiniStadium, Lagos Island where Amsterdam FC of Obalende, Lagos beat Rovers FC, Oyo 6-0 to emerge as bronze winners.

In an intensely contested final between Scope FC of Lagos and Ifayemi FC of Ile-Ife, Scope put up a good fight, getting a well deserved 2-0 win over Ifayemi FC in the second half after both teams failed to score in the first half.

In her remarks, Managing Director, International Breweries, Annabelle Degroot, appreciated the winning team saying: “International Breweries is very proud of Scope FC as they embodied the true Trophy values by tackling each challenge with panache, tenacity and zeal to win. With this tournament International Breweries has created an avenue for our consumers to talk about their favorite sport and be a part of it. With former Super Eagles Captain, Joseph Yobo as the tournament ambassador, Trophy continues to be associated with football, a sport most acknowledged for encouraging team spirit.”

Scope FC, were presented their cash prize of N3 million. They will also be given the opportunity to meet Samuel Eto’o, renowned

African football superstar and participate in the continental finals taking place in Tanzania later this year. Third placed team, Amsterdam FC and second place Ifayemi FC were also presented their cash prizes of N500,000 and N1,000,000 respectively.

Four super fans have been selected to accompany the winning team on an-all expense paid trip to Tanzania.

Marketing Director, International Breweries Plc, Tolulope Adedeji, said that the tournament had shown the best of Nigeria’s grassroots football.

“In these 11 weeks of the best of 5-a-side football, we have witnessed grassroots football development that is second to none. This maiden edition had teams drawn from Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Lagos States,” she said.

Scope FC Captain, Folorunsho Sunday, expressed his gratitude to International Breweries for providing such a platform for youths to showcase their skills. “We are super happy to have emerged the final winners and confident that we will win the overall tournament in Tanzania, bringing the Trophy home.”

“The Trophy 5-a-side Field of Honour campaign has showcased the strength of the Nigerian spirit. All the teams exhibited great sportsmanship, looking out for one another on and off the field. Our consumers love football, and now, just by being loyal to the brand they have jump-started what might eventually blossom into a long career in the game,” Tolulope added

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L-R: Oge KasieNwachukwu, Head, Events and Sponsorships, Access Bank Plc; Ayona AgueleTrimnell, Access Bank W Initiative Coordinator; Neku Atawodi-Edun, renowned female polo player and W Ambassador, and Amaechi Okobi, Group Head, Corporate Communications, Access Bank Plc, at a Press Conference to announce the partnership between Neku and W - Access Bank Women initiative in Lagos.

Access Bank names polo player Neku as W brand ambassador

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frica’s biggest banking group, Access Bank Plc, has scored another first, with the unveiling of the Face of African polo, Neku Atawodi-Edun as its Access Bank W brand ambassador.

Access Bank Coordinator, Women Banking Initiative, Ayona Aguele-Trimnell who unveiled the new ambassador at a media event in Lagos, described Neku as a Nigerian polo player, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and an investor.

Access Bank Group Head, Corporate Communications, Amaechi Okobi, described the W Ambassador as a consummate brand who champions healthy lifestyle and promotes the development of women polo in Nigeria and beyond.

Neku Atawodi-Edun, who accepted the endorsement, said she is thrilled at the opportunity offered by Access Bank to carry through her passion for promotion of women empowerment and encouraging women polo in Nigeria to an acceptable international level.

She told media executives in an interactive session that as Access Bank ambassador, she hopes to be playing more in the European season that recently galloped off after the climax of the US season in April.

Neku listed some of the countries she would be flying the flag of Access Bank, to include United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany.

Neku hopes to play more in Africa, with the forthcoming 2019 Access bank UNICEF Charity Shield tournament billed for Kaduna in June.

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Highly revered as one of the few black female polo players in the world, and the first to play professionally, Neku Atawodi-Edun is an equine sports scientist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and investor.

Neku grew up in Kaduna and her childhood revolved around a local polo club in Kaduna, northern Nigeria. At age 16, Neku told her parents she wanted to play polo professionally, at a time when the “sport of kings” was only synonymous with men and royalty.

Her parents tried to deter her and at a point, stopped paying for the upkeep of her horses but she was able to convince a polo club in England to give her a job basically to protect her passion for the noble game.

About a decade later, Neku followed up her passion and today, she had played polo professionally in 14 cities professionally, bagged a degree in Equine Sport Science, an MA in International Business, and the first woman of color to play the game of polo professionally.

Neku is also the founder of Ride to shine – a self-funded non-profit organization that teaches African Orphans about Equestrian Sports. She is an Associate fellow of the Royal Commonwealth society and was a Clinton Global Initiative Lead mentor.

In 2016, Neku was named in Forbes Africa’s 30 under 30: Africa’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs list. She is also a Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum and has represented Nigeria at the WEF in Davos.

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LEADINGWOMAN

Feyishara Kuku, the outstanding medic doing Nigeria proud home and away KEMI AJUMOBI

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eyishara Kuku, MD, popularly referred to as ‘’DFK’’ is a young impeccable surgeon in the United States.

Her specialities are Obstetrics and Gynaecology, cervical and ovarian oncology, fertility and orthopaedics.

Kind, generous, wise, bravura, tenacious and beautiful are few words that best describes her. She is a philanthropist, and sponsor of the yearly ‘single parent with no income investment’ where she randomly selects people in the category, giving N100,000 to each struggling single parent with no source of income to invest in a business of their choice. She however has no charity organisation in her name yet and when asked, she responds ‘I’d be too busy to run one’.

She studied in the UK, attended royal college of surgeon, rose to a consultant at an earlier age, before moving back to Nigeria as an expatriate because of her marriage.

She was appointed Director of government healthcare facilities in Lagos state during Babatunde Fashola’s tenure, supervising the medical practitioners in all government owned hospitals. There, she paid random visits to these hospitals unannounced to monitor the quality of healthcare being provided to patients.

She is popularly known for her voluntarily and personally funded contribution providing health care to clinics in the rural areas on the mainland. She invited some of her fellow Physicians to Nigeria to work alongside her and some local physicians. She also volunteered 6 months in Port Harcourt for World Health Organisation.

Subsequently, she worked at Ava Maria Hospital Oniru branch VI, where she attended to her clientele.

Feyi is one of the top 20 black female physicians from all around the USA traveling to the ‘Projects’ in the United States to offer health care to the less privileged. The 20 black women physicians gained popularity on the Lifestyle TV show and subsequently other news channels.

She recently appeared on CNN speaking about her life in medicine and marriage. She’s a life coach and mentor. She has been recognized locally and internationally.

She was honoured by Lagos state with the official title and recognition of ‘mother of the universe’.

She is a mother and grandmother to so many children she has shown love and care to. She is always willing to help. She will be returning permanently to Nigeria soon.

Growing up I spent my primitive years in board-

ing school, as well as my second level education. I became very independent as a result of early boarding at age 2. I come from a polygamous family. I might say that influenced me to always wanting to help people. There was always one conflict or the other growing up usually when I visit home from school, and I never enjoyed conflict amongst the siblings. At a very young age, I was always the peace maker and buffer resolution despite being a middle child, that has followed me throughout my years till present.

Choice of career I grew up in a family of physicians, some of them famous and successful physicians. In recent times, that I went back to using my maiden name(Kuku) I have been asked if I am related with the same Kuku of Eko hospital. But, that was not why I became a doctor. At a young age of 9-10 years, ( this is the first time I will be publicly speaking about my accident), I had gone to visit my paternal grandma for the holidays, she had sent her domestic staff on an errand, unknowingly to my late grandma of blessed memories, I had followed the domestic staff out on her errand, I was happy to go with her, I was shielded as a child, I did not get out much, it was boarding and home. So, on her way, she wanted to cross the street, she assumed I knew how to, little did she know that it was my first time out and trying to cross any type of road, the popular Lagos yellow bus called danfo, approached from the right while I was crossing, hit me, and I went straight under the bus, both feet. That was all I remembered until days later I woke up in at the hospital. I had spent about 1 year hospitalized. I went through series of surgeries, skin grafting, my left toes veins were gone, no sensation, months of therapy, part of my surgeons was my mom’s friend, the last surgery I had (skin graft) unknown to my mom, they were classmates from high school.

I can never forget that lady’s face, my surgery had brought my mom’s high school mate reunion. Few years later, In the UK, I saw foreign medical officers, hoping they might be able to get rid of the ugly looking conspicuous scars I have on my both feet( I have always seen my scar as ugly at this point) but, surprisingly to the surgeon, he told me the best job was done on my feet. I saw many physicians after that and I was told same, one mentioned to me, I could have been amputated, that I was real lucky. After this, I stopped trying for a while. But, my situation, and my mom’s old school mate who had operated on me are my inspiration to becoming a surgeon. I have always worried I would never www.businessday.ng

really get a man of my dreams, or trouble dating, I was wrong. People don’t see the scar on my feet, even back in medical school. I never had difficulties getting dates prior to marriage. I always wear footwear that compliments my scar, my husband is the contrary, he would buy me open footwear to expose the scar, he helped me carry my scar proudly. So, my specialties are obgyn, and cervical and ovarian oncology, both goes in handy; women’s health. I don’t practice much in orthopaedic, I only took interest in orthopaedic because of my experience with my accident. I have only done few bones surgeries.

The major one being a male patient who fell installing an elevator from a 14 story building, I happened to be the only surgeon on duty, I had no

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choice but to save his life. So, you could say I am an obgyn but also an orthopaedic when the need arises.

‘Single parent with no income investment’ initiative Single parent with no income investment initiative started 4 years ago.

The idea came from multiple experiences. I had employees who were single parents. In the western world, there are resources for single parents who were unemployed but same isn’t the case for Nigeria. The major one I got involved with was a common response from working with the under privileged in the rural areas on educating them on prenatal health.

When asked why they have multiple children that they cannot cater for, their response would be ‘Because we @Businessdayng

don’t know which of them could get lucky to be wealthy’. In essence, they have as many children as 5 to 7, not being able to care for the children at a tender age, hoping one of them will be successful, leading the children to hunger and crimes at tender age.

So, my team and I came up with the idea of focusing my empowerment on single parents. We started with 20 the first year, now we are at 50 recipients. The selection is random and happens on the Nigerian calendar mother’s day.

Read the concluding part of Feyi’s story online by downloading at www.businessday.ng as she graces our cover for Women’s Hub Magazine for this week

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Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 16 May 2019 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 231,043.97 6.50 -3.70 240 23,540,337 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 205,196.53 6.00 0.83 289 19,739,479 ZENITH BANK PLC 613,801.45 19.55 -2.25 455 16,411,424 984 59,691,240 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 251,267.05 7.00 -3.45 150 5,347,152 150 5,347,152 1,134 65,038,392 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA PLC 2,015,096.79 99.00 - 15 5,541,400 15 5,541,400 15 5,541,400 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,999,129.30 176.00 -1.12 75 234,071 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 169,131.85 10.50 -1.87 43 626,139 118 860,210 118 860,210 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 305,991.17 520.00 - 16 22,072 16 22,072 16 22,072 1,283 71,462,074 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,710.00 85.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 14,408.66 5.40 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 2 150,000 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 70,589.34 74.00 - 13 13,918 PRESCO PLC 58,000.00 58.00 - 3 1,875 18 165,793 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 511.20 4.26 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,800.00 0.60 - 4 152,500 4 152,500 22 318,293

DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 741.24 0.28 - 2 4,460 JOHN HOLT PLC. 182.90 0.47 - 5 10,111 S C O A NIG. PLC. 1,903.99 2.93 - 1 2,500 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 46,338.71 1.14 -1.72 96 105,494,221 U A C N PLC. 21,321.59 7.40 -1.99 114 3,730,844 218 109,242,136 218 109,242,136 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 30,360.00 23.00 - 19 68,986 ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 19 68,986 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 3,897.59 1.50 - 3 6,000 3 6,000 22 74,986 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 10,100.05 1.29 - 5 102,877 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 107,438.28 49.05 -1.90 31 197,956 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 171,917.24 20.00 - 33 2,035,871 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 499,806.38 62.50 -3.85 71 7,776,881 140 10,113,585 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 80,500.00 16.10 -0.92 131 4,077,874 DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 162,600.00 13.55 -2.17 46 494,296 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 64,991.02 15.85 -0.94 37 277,197 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 8,723.22 1.10 - 23 669,026 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 47,557.42 17.95 -5.29 29 795,999 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,321.07 12.15 - 0 0 266 6,314,392 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 19,721.12 10.50 - 27 219,261 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,133,498.44 1,430.00 - 37 4,812 64 224,073 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 1 10 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 4,940.83 3.95 - 44 1,182,338 45 1,182,348 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 33,749.05 8.50 - 8 15,485 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 183,840.17 32.00 3.23 21 1,865,430 29 1,880,915 544 19,715,313 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 183,495.51 10.00 -1.96 30 4,340,211 FIDELITY BANK PLC 51,864.89 1.79 -1.10 60 2,075,409 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 912,366.56 31.00 -1.90 260 16,289,343 JAIZ BANK PLC 14,142.84 0.48 - 11 509,265 SKYE BANK PLC 10,687.83 0.77 - 0 0 STERLING BANK PLC. 71,976.05 2.50 - 450 8,427,940 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 199,477.16 6.85 1.48 55 1,779,820 UNITY BANK PLC 7,598.07 0.65 -9.72 11 588,109 WEMA BANK PLC. 23,916.17 0.62 -6.06 88 6,117,175 965 40,127,272 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,504.63 0.65 -4.41 44 1,252,442 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 18,900.00 1.80 - 5 5,027 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,357.70 0.29 - 5 19,100 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 19,811.94 1.91 - 0 0 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 2,945.90 0.20 - 5 111,978 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 1 200 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 1 80,000 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 2,197.03 0.30 3.45 9 1,998,398 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 1,890.39 0.44 - 1 100 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 3,520.00 0.44 - 4 54,641 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,458.00 0.22 - 7 304,250 NEM INSURANCE PLC 11,617.11 2.20 - 14 861,875 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 4 61,638 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,691.28 0.50 - 6 6,009,680 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 5.00 28 10,495,308 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 1,918.39 0.23 -8.00 4 1,031,000 STACO INSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 6 141,900 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,912.00 0.21 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 5,085.44 0.38 5.56 27 1,066,038

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171 23,493,575 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 11,799.67 2.58 - 0 0 NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 3,361.36 1.47 9.70 18 726,635 18 726,635 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 3,780.00 0.90 - 0 0 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,796.93 1.39 - 0 0 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 7,200.00 3.60 -5.76 56 603,141 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 38,232.12 6.50 - 7 62,381 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 660.00 0.44 - 0 0 FCMB GROUP PLC. 33,664.61 1.70 -0.58 111 23,165,071 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,131.98 0.22 - 2 14,422 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 451,096.36 44.05 - 25 48,118 UNITED CAPITAL PLC 14,760.00 2.46 0.41 81 1,742,683 282 25,635,816 1,436 89,983,298 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 1,680.29 3.37 - 0 0 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 852.75 0.24 4.35 19 9,410,000 19 9,410,000 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 544.04 0.55 - 2 1,170 2 1,170 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 6,900.00 4.60 - 1 20 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 10,762.89 9.00 - 6 34,852 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 3,968.04 2.30 -0.86 12 424,453 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,158.49 0.61 - 5 19,800 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 24 479,125 45 9,890,295 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 888.00 0.25 4.17 17 515,808 17 515,808 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 1 1,000 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 648.00 6.00 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 346.47 0.70 - 3 17,471 4 18,471 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,596.66 0.34 -5.56 25 4,324,550 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 11,088.00 2.64 - 0 0 25 4,324,550 46 4,858,829 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 2,130.20 7.35 - 2 1,100 CAP PLC 23,800.00 34.00 - 10 9,063 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 182,694.66 13.90 - 36 379,124 FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 844.14 0.40 - 0 0 MEYER PLC. 313.43 0.59 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,959.74 2.47 - 0 0 PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 48 389,287 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,906.18 1.65 -8.33 11 450,864 11 450,864 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 34,473.07 68.95 - 4 236 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 4 236 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 63 840,387

CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,731.58 4.16 - 0 0 0 0 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,803.64 8.20 - 0 0 0 0 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 1 10,300 1 10,300 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 63.80 0.29 - 0 0 0 0 1 10,300 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,753.56 0.28 -7.14 31 1,671,286 31 1,671,286 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 55,941.36 4.50 -4.26 67 1,655,828 67 1,655,828 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 62,743.58 174.00 - 41 69,831 CONOIL PLC 13,948.44 20.10 - 7 10,271 ETERNA PLC. 4,890.54 3.75 - 10 35,400 FORTE OIL PLC. 41,028.15 31.50 - 14 117,550 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 6,354.80 20.85 - 2 1,636 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 55,002.54 162.00 - 15 18,502 89 253,190 187 3,580,304 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,997.57 0.45 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 17,551.17 1.80 - 0 0 0 0 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 376.43 0.32 - 0 0 0 0 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3,242.23 5.50 - 1 554 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 361.01 0.77 - 1 1,300 2 1,854 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,723.78 3.05 - 1 20 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 3,014.25 1.45 - 4 49,011 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,862.53 3.50 - 1 100 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 41,042.18 5.40 - 0 0 6 49,131 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 4,800.00 0.40 - 3 25,410 3 25,410 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 181.44 0.30 - 2 5,000 LEARN AFRICA PLC 941.17 1.22 - 4 10,510 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 0 0 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 720.45 1.67 - 8 100,136 14 115,646

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The Exchanges LOSERS

GAINERS Company

Opening

Closing

Change

UNILEVER

N31

N32

1

NPFMCRFBK

N1.34

N1.47

0.13

UBN

N6.75

N6.85

NAHCO

N3.13

ABCTRANS

N0.27

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

N65

N62.5

-2.5

DANGCEM

N178

N176

-2

0.1

GUINNESS

N50

N49.05

-0.95

N3.18

0.05

GUARANTY

N31.6

N31

-0.6

ZENITHBANK

N20

N19.55

-0.45

N0.29

0.02

NB

Global market indicators

Market Statistics as at Thursday 16 May 2019

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 16 May 2019

ASI (Points)

28,438.19

DEALS (Numbers) VOLUME (Numbers)

3,933.00 312,356,615.00

VALUE (N billion) MARKET CAP (N Trn

2.811 12.525

FTSE 100 Index 7,353.51GBP +56.56+0.78% S&P 500 Index 2,891.63USD +40.67+1.43% Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 25,943.00USD +269.00+1.04%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 12,310.37EUR +210.80+1.74% Nikkei 225 21,062.98JPY -125.58-0.59% Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 2,955.71CNY +17.03+0.58%

Asset Custodians reiterates optimism on Nigeria’s economic potential Modestus Anaesoronye

S

takeholders at the 8thAnnual Nigerian Investors Day in London, organized by theAssociation of Assets Custodians of Nigeria (AACN) have reiterated their optimism about Nigeria’s economic potential and its capacity to attract foreign investments.

At the end of the oneday conference, with the theme, ‘Nigeria: The Economics of the Capital Market,’ participants were positive that Nigeria could lead the rest of Africa as an investment destination.

The mood at the London event on Thursday, May 9, 2019, took a bullish mode when news filtered in that Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central

Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who was present at the event had been re-nominated for a second term in office.

Setting the ball rolling, AACN president, Taiwo Sonola, emphasized that the Association is committed to the promotion of portfolio investments in Nigeria, noting that “The potentials of the Nigerian economy are enormous and it is important that the opportunities are showcased globally.”

She assured that the Association would maintain the reputation of the Annual Nigerian Investors Day as a veritable platform to promote the Nigerian economy, adding that the next edition would be reinvigorated and focused on a salient issue on Africa’s biggest oil producer, with the pur-

pose of unlocking opportunities in such an area.

The 2019 conference focused on investor confidence, processes, infrastructure, products, governance, regulations and

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eading indigenous Nigerian oil and gas company, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc has posted N73 billion profit for the period ended, December 31st, 2018, with an assurance to grow production, drive increased shareholder yield and capital appreciation.

The Company reiterated its commitment to stronger growth in the oil and gas sector as it holds its sixth Annual General Meeting in Lagos.

Seplat also announced N228 billion revenue in its full year 2018 financial result ended 31 December 2018. The figure represents an increase of 65 per cent from the N137billion the company made in the 2017. Seplat, listed on both the Nigerian Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange, also recorded N73 billion profit before differed tax,

indicating 480 per cent increase from N13 billion which the company made over the same period in 2017.

A review of Seplat 2018 results indicates positive performance across all financial indices, confirming the Company’s position as one of the well managed indigenous oil firms in Nigeria. The gross profit for the period grew by 84percent to N120billion from N65billion reported in December 2017. Operating profit stood at N95billion, representing a growth of 177percent over N34billion recorded in the corresponding period of December 2017.

Seplat’s net profit after tax dipped by 45percent from N81billion recorded as at December 2017 to N45 billion in December 2018.

In his address to shareholders, the Chairman, Seplat Petroleum, A.B.C. Orjiako, said the company’s 2018 operational and www.businessday.ng

operators with particular focus on custodians, fund managers, broker dealers, and regulators and also provide a forum for the promotion of custody business in Nigeria.It also pro-

L-R: Isyaku Tilde, representative, acting director general, Securities and Exchange Commission; Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, and Hameed Ali(rtd) , comptroller general of Customs during a World Press Conference on the Activities of Ministry of Finance in Abuja .

Seplat assures shareholders of capital appreciation, production growth Iheanyi Nwachukwu

market developments.

“The aim is to build foreign investor confidence and provide a platform for foreign investors to network with the Nigerian capital market regulators,

financial performance reflected the significantly higher year-on-year levels of production uptime at its core oil producing assets combined with a firmer, albeit still volatile, oil price and increased contribution from the company’s gas business.

He added: “As you are aware, our results from the previous two years were characterised by the extended period of force majeure at the Forcados terminal from February 2016 to June 2017.

“As we enter 2019, our reliable production base, low unit cost of production and discretion over capital commitments will allow the business to remain highly free cash flow generative and profitable.

In the absence of any major interruption or force majeure event, this will enable Seplat to honour its dividend policy and provide an attractive yield to our shareholders in addition to the potential for capital appreciation.”

vided opportunities for participants to air their views and challenges,” Sonola said.

Godwin Emefiele at the event commended AACN for organizing the forum, which he said fits into the apex bank and the Federal Government’s goal of making Nigeria Africa’s top investment destination.

He assured that the CBN would be unrelenting in driving policies that ensure macroeconomic stability while enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria, which would be instrumental in attracting and sustaining investments in the country. The Governor equally assured investors that the monetary policy objectives of the CBN will remain consistent.

WAPIC grows full year gross written premium by 42% Modestus Anaesoronye

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APIC Insurance Plc (group) a multi-line insurance company with headquarters in Lagos has released its audited financial results for the period ended December 31, 2018, posting a gross written premium of (GWP) of N13.9 billion, a 42 percent increase from N9.81 billion in 2017.

This performance the company said was buoyed by attainment of leadership status in some major accounts and enhanced underwriting capabilities.

The group also achieved an underwriting profit of N2.2 billion, a 40 percent growth from N1.54 billion achieved in 2017.

According to the company, the Group experienced an 88 percent decline in profit before tax (PBT) to close at N187 million, negatively impacted by the drop in investment and other income, and

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the growth in underwriting and operating expenses for the period. Profit After tax during the review year is N351.2 million.

During the year under review, the company paid claims amounting to N4.96 billion, a 30 percent increase from N3.82 billion payout in 2017. Gross claims ratio was relatively flat year on year at 41 percent as at December 2018, against 40 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, Wapic Insurance Plc yesterday held a teleconference call for investors and analysts on today at 2pm Lagos time with its senior management, to announce the audited financial results for the year ended December 31st, 2018 and highlights of the unaudited Q1 2019 results. There will also be an opportunity at the end of the call for management to take questions from investors and analysts.

Commenting on the results, Yinka Adekoya, managing director, WAPIC Insurance Plc, said: “With a combination of an intensified underwriting capacity @Businessdayng

expansion, accelerated and focused execution of our business strategies and continuous efficiency improvement, we grew our Group GWP figures by an impressive 42 percent year on year to close at N13.9 billion surpassing our annual growth rate target of 20 percent.

“This positively influenced our underwriting profit position, which followed in the same stead with a 40 percent annual growth rate to N2.15 billion from N1.54 billion in 2017. We expect that the disciplined execution of our growth strategy will continue to yield the desired dividends.”

Adekoya said , as we continue to position the company for long-term success, we trust that our ongoing digitisation efforts and best-in-class customer experience offerings will open up new opportunities, which we believe will ensure the continued creation of sustainable value to all our stakeholders.”

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news New minimum wage to cost N1trn...

Continued from page 1

al expenses in catering for

the segment of the population employed in the civil service sector (N256 billion), security agencies (N250 billion), as well as over 400,000 of its youthful population embarking on the compulsory yearly National Youth Service Corps (N68 billion).

The additional expenses would mean blowing up the Federal Government recurrent expenditure by 21.2 percent from the N4.7 trillion estimated in the 2019 budget to as much as N5.71 trillion.

Senior government sources tell BusinessDay that the Federal Government set up another committee this week to examine modalities for meeting the new obligations, bearing in mind the stark fiscal realities the government faces.

This follows the submission of the report from the earlier minimum wage committee inaugurated almost one month after Buhari signed the bill into law, to negotiate the consequential adjustment in salaries arising from the new National Minimum Wage, with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, as chairman.

Nigeria has never met its revenue estimated in the budget since the 2014 collapse in global oil prices.

“The Federal Government

might consider taking some revenue actions like reducing petroleum subsidy or could probably increase VAT rate to spur some improvement in the fiscal account and to fund the minimum wage,” said Abimbola Omotola, a macro and fixed income analyst at Chapel Hill Denham.

Suggested ways of funding the new minimum wage Sources confirmed to BusinessDay that the FG may be considering three possible ways of bearing the minimum wage burden. These range from moving FX rates from official rate of N305/$1 to market-determined rate at N360/$1, reducing or totally eliminating fuel subsidies, and increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5 percent to 7.5 percent.

The sale of government assets, a perennial budget revenue line item, is also seriously on the table now, sources say.

Data gathered from the 2018 budget implementation report of the Budget Office shows that the FG earned N1.433 trillion in oil revenues as at the third quarter of 2018, using the official exchange rate of N305 and average oil price of $64.90.

BusinessDay estimates that moving the official FX rates to N360 could have unlocked an extra N252 billion in federally collected oil revenue in the three quarters.

Eliminating the government subsidy on fuel or reduc-

ing subsidy levels could also help fill the fiscal hole.

According to NNPC’s under-recovery cost report in 2018, amount spent on petrol subsidy by the Federal Government totalled N730.9 billion with fuel price fixed at N145 per litre.

Totally eliminating fuel subsidy may, however, push petrol prices to N250 per litre, at par with international petrol prices. However, if the Federal Government considers a 38 percent increase in fuel price to N200, it will save the Nigerian treasury about N277.23 billion in expenditure directed into fuel subsidy.

A consideration of VAT increase by 2.5 percentage points may add an additional N54 billion to the FG revenue, according to BusinessDay calculations.

Calculations by Taiwo Oyedele, senior tax partner at PwC, put the average VAT collection in the past six years at about N900 billion. The revenue is shared 15 percent to the Federal Government, 50 percent to states and 35 percent to local governments net of 4 percent cost of collection to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

“If the rate is increased by 50 percent (all things being equal) we will generate on average an additional N450 billion annually. Less 4 percent cost of collection to FIRS, all 36 states will get N18 billion per month translating to an average of N500 million per state,” Oyedele said.

Finally, in solving the minimum wage dilemma, opportunities abound in selling moribund FG assets, like the Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi or National Theatre, both in Lagos, or some stake in DisCos’ assets, power assets, or state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) like Saudi Arabia plans to do by selling 5 percent of Saudi Aramco.

Tough times warning With elections season over, expectations rest on Nigeria’s President MuhammaduBuhari whosecuredasecondtermafter defeating his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, by a margin many had predicted to be slim but turned out quite significant.

While Buhari’s supporters say his intentions are good, his critics contend that his statist economic policies are stumbling blocks and are doing the economy, and the same poor he is desperate to protect, more harm than good.

Buhari himself and other senior government officials have given warning signals lately of what to expect in the next four years threatening it will be “tough”.

Also, chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, in April advised both the returning and newly-elected state chief executive officers to prepare for tough times in governing their domains, warning that there may be another cycle of recession from mid-2020 to the third quarter of 2021.

While appearing before Senate’s Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions for screening for his second term, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele told Nigerians to prepare for a challenging time, saying the road ahead would be tough.

“I thank you for praying for me because we need it. I say this because the road ahead is still rough and very tough,” Emefiele said.

Warning signals on fiscal position Budget approved by the National Assembly showed that the FG plans a N1.91 trillion fiscal deficit which would be financed largely by tapping debt offshore.

Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio since President Buhari came into office has surged from 22 percent in 2014 to as high as 60 percent in 2018, with total debt standing at N24.4 trillion as at 31 December, 2018.

Last year, Nigeria’s Foreign Direct Investments plunged to its lowest level of $2.2 billion since at least 2005. Also, since the Nigeria exited recession in the second quarter of 2017, GDP growth has barely struggled to hit 2 percent per annum which is below 6 percent recorded in 2014.

Data from last apex’s bank annual report showed the CBN is battling to stabilise the foreign exchange markets and lower inflation which is becoming increasingly costly as interest expense (interest

Shifting patterns as rich Nigerians embrace...

Continued from page 1

rising acknowledgement

that busy children cannot by themselves give the adequate healthcare and close monitoring that ageing requires.

Geriatric care management focuses on planning and coordination of care for the elderly and others with physical or mental weaknesses to meet their long-term care needs, improve their quality of life, and maintain their independence for as long as possible.

This is because ageing often comes with vulnerability.

Except in extremely difficult situations, Nigerians before now hardly transferred the care of their aged to public residential care centres. Such act was adjudged to be devoid of love for parents or relatives as it was thought to be akin to utter abandonment of these relatives to complete strangers in strange environments, exposing them to risks of ill treatment.

But all that is changing. As is the practice in the west where senior citizens are placed on a supportive social structure, there has been a noticeable shift in Nigerians’ attitude towards patronising old people’s home. But apathy still persists, said Agboola Dabiri, Lagos State commissioner for Youth and Social Development.

“We must try and change the thinking of our people for more private players to invest in it. In places like South Africa, Canada and the US, people save towards it so that at the age of 60,

they go there,” Dabiri said.

“People don’t have time for their old parents and we don’t want to leave them to the mercy of domestic helps. The next remedy is to bring them to the old people’s home where you have various activities for them and specialised people that take care of them. There’s nothing bad about that,” he said.

BusinessDay checks showed a number of old people’s homes have sprung up in major cities across Nigeria, though only a few of the available centres possess the capacity to deliver near excellent quality care.

Lagos has the highest number of homes for the elderly, with over eight registered homes, followed by Ibadan (Oyo) and Edo State, where pockets of them exist.

In Lagos, these homes distributed across Yaba, Ikorodu, Lekki, Ogudu, Mushin, among others, are largely private sector-led initiatives. They include, prominently, Rockgardens Homes and Winiseph Care Home, with bills running into over N1 million yearly.

Lagos State government, which regulates the homes, has established only one in 40 years. The home, nestled on Lancaster Road, Sabo, Yaba, currently looks after 80 people under the watch of 15 medical experts and social workers.

There has been an approval to build three new ones at Epe and Ikorodu at the moment, Dabiri told BusinessDay. The Yaba Home officially www.businessday.ng

payable on any borrowings – bonds, loans, convertible debt or lines of credit) jumped significantly by 192.8 percent to N1.3 trillion in the financial year ended December 2017 compared to N459.3 billion recorded in the corresponding year of 2016.

The rise in the interest expense was as a result of increasedOpenMarketOperation (OMO) auctions carried out by the CBN in the review period.

“The bank adopted farreaching strategies to stabilise the exchange rate and eliminate pressures from speculators, bettors, round trippers and rent-seekers. During the year, special foreign exchange windows for small and medium enterprises and for investors-exporters were established to increase market transparency, stabilise the rates, improve investment sentiments in Nigeria and bolster foreign exchange supply,” Emefiele said in the report.

The draft annual report released by the apex bank showed that OMO issuances, a liquidity tool for CBN to control the amount of money in circulation, rose by 44.7 percent to N11.3 trillion in 2017 from N7.8 trillion in 2016.

The average monthly OMO issuance stood at N945.5 trillion in 2017 from N654.9 trillion in 2016 and the average yield also increased to 19.43 percent in 2017 as against 14.60 percent, feeding directly into the higher interest expenses.

L-R: Fitzgerald Umah, chairman, Nigeria Insititute of Architects, Lagos State Chapter; Yemi Odubiyi, executive director, corporate and investment banking, Sterling Bank; Daniel Osuala, 2nd Student Competition Winner; and Garba Mohammed, group head, noninterest banking sales and strategy, Sterling Bank, at the closing ceremony of Lagos 10.0 Architects Forum 2019 in Lagos.

sets 60 years as the minimum benchmark and will accept people with conditions such as stroke, blindness, amputation, deafness and even high blood pressure.

But it will neither consider those with severe life-threatening conditions nor anyone who has, at least, a relative residing in Lagos.

Dabiri, who admitted that the quality of care was yet to be perfected, said the home depends a lot on manpower to support the elders where it should install structures that encourage independence.

It’s the reverse at Rockgardens Homes, the largest private home for the elderly by facility in the state. Rockgardens runs a multidisciplinary geriatric care approach that

encourages the elderly to be as independent as possible. It uses clinical support system with physiotherapy, healthy nutrition, pampering, karaoke and music therapy to rehabilitate elders, helping them to regain lost functions.

Rockgardens has a maximum capacity of about 45 persons but it currently services only 30 old persons, the oldest among them being 93-year-old Saliu.

Saliu and his peers are categorised into three: independent, semi-independent and very-dependent. The independent are those who can still do a lot of things without assistance, while the independent are those who are bed-bound and can’t move at all and need 100 percent assistance.

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The aged at Rockgardens are roofed under 13 bungalow blocks of 52 flats, two residents to each two-bedroom flat. The bulk of these cheerful elders who get excited at the sight of a new visiting face are from settings where families have tight schedules, where children live abroad or where children are leaving the country briefly on vacation. While some are on permanent stay, others are in for retirement.

When Rockgardens started in 2016, only two families believed in them. But its client base grew from two to 18 in 2017, over 20 in 2018 and 30 so far in 2019.

“For some people, they are still in that old school of thought. The awareness is growing and people are @Businessdayng

beginning to appreciate and embrace the issue of a nursing home in families,” Eda Aitalegbe, the facility manager, said when BusinessDay visited.

SpeakingontheRockgardens model, the UK-trained public health expert said the home, first of all, assesses the individual before he or she is admitted.

“We have two residents to a flat; all rooms en-suite. The flat is furnished with set of chairs, dining set, TV and bed.

They get three square meals and in between snacks. The doctor comes in to see them twice a week. Three nurses are on duty daily. Nurses check their blood pressure, prompt medication, bath, medication,” Aitalegbe said.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

35

INTERVIEW MTN’s listing creates opportunity for broader investors’ participation

At MTN Nigeria’s Facts Behind the Listing meeting yesterday, BusinessDay had an interview with Ferdi Moolman, MTN CEO on the sideline of the event. Excerpt:

W

hat is the significance of what is happening today?

MTN’s listing creates an opportunity for much broader investor participation in the telecommunications sector of the Nigerian economy.

Nigeria’s largest telecom’s company participating on the NSE increases the depth of the market, as investors now have a new equity segment they can allocate capital to.

As with any stock, the volumes to be traded are determined by three factors - price, demand and supply.

The intersection of those factors will determine the liquidity of the stock, and so its availability.

Explain how a listing by introduction is different from initially broader planned IPO? An IPO by definition means Initial Public Offering. This means the company makes shares available for sale to investors, either by a primary sale or secondary sale or a combination of the two. This offer to the public of shares is done before listing a company on an Exchange.

A listing by introduction means the company lists on

exchange without making a public shares available for sales to investors.

In an IPO, the sale of shares by existing shareholders is usually coordinated, whereas in a Listing By Introduction, the process is not coordinated.

How will this affect the telecoms sector in general and other GSM companies in particular? Does potential access to equity capital mean an edge for MTN and would this force others to list?

We expect this to enhance the credibility of the sectors as investors get to see the performance of the sector using MTN as proxy. The listing paves the way for other operators to list on the Exchange and to the extent they require to raise the necessary capital to grow the telecoms sector.

MTNN in the short term has not expressed an intention to raise primary capital, however, to the extent that it required new capital in future for investment accessing equity capital markets could be beneficial it.

How widely available are the shares expected to be? MTNN may become the second largest listed firm in

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the country. Do you expect to pay a dividend anytime soon?

The shares will be made available to the general public so they will be available to all people that meet the requirements to buy shares on the NSE. As soon as the listing is completed MTN Nigeria shareholders will be able to trade their shares on the NSE. As with any investor, their decision to do so will be driven by the price available, which is a function of supply and demand. The listing enables existing MTNN shareholders to price discover and once the market finds what is regarded as a fair price, we expect our shares to become more readily available.

As disclosed in our Listing Memorandum, our dividend policy is a dividend payout ratio of 80 percent of distributable profits, subject to the capital requirements of the business and subject to directors ‘discretion.’

What percentage of MTNN would you expect to be eventually owned by Nigerians? How would this positively affect relationship with regulators and other stakeholders?

Ferdi Moolman, MTN CEO

Post listing by introduction, and when the markets conditions will allow for better valuation of the business, it is the intention of MTN to do a public offer that will result in an increased freefloat of the business with the strong preference that this free-float is in local hands.

The free-float for multinationals of similar structure to MTN is around 35 percent.

MTN Nigeria’s free-float is currently approximately 20 percent. Over time, it is anticipated that this will increase towards 35 percent in line with the market. As previously mentioned, this

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is subject to market conditions for fair valuation of the business.

We already consistently engage with the regulators and all our stakeholders and will continue to do so intentionally and with the aim of collective value for all.

While we believe that having more Nigerian shareholders is important and deepens our relationship with the nation, we believe the quality of our operations and customer service is the benchmark that regulators will use to assess us, and remain absolutely committed to ensuring optimal service delivery.

@Businessdayng

This is all part of the clear strategy driving the future of MTN-best customer experience, returns and efficiency, commercial performance, focus on date and digital and technological excellence. We recognise that our success is based on the support of and partnerships with our various stakeholders. Corporate governance is a key priority for MTN. We will be focusing on nurturing existing stakeholder relationships, while also engaging regulators and government stakeholders proactively in order to strengthen those relationships.

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

NEWS EY tasks banks’ audit committee on increased cyber security, improved governance

GBEMI FAMINU

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ithincreasedadoptionofdigitalisation and inclusion of third parties into companies privacy, stakeholders in the corporate space, especially board members and banks/company auditors, have been advised to heighten their sense of security and also improve their method ofcorporategovernanceinordernotto become victims of cyber-crime.

Experts from Ernst & Young West Africa (EY), a global leader in assurance,tax,transactionandadvisoryservices, gave the advice on Wednesday at a forum for banks’ audit committee membersandotherstakeholders,with the theme, “Innovating the audit to drive quality and value,” organised by EY in Lagos.

Dapo Adewole, technology advisory leader, EY West Africa, advised stakeholders in the corporate world to ensureadequatesecurityofcompany’s profile. He mentioned that since the advent of digitalisation, companies

had moved from the traditional mode of operations to the digital mode of operationsandaseachcompanyadopted digitalisation, the risk of cyber-crime had increased.

He said there were basically 29 billionentrypointspenetrablebyhackers and data get stolen in hundreds by the second, saying, “The cost of cyber crime in Nigeria cannot be accurately determined but according to survey respondents, Nigeria loses over N70 billion to cyber crime annually. Also, EY estimated the annual losses due to cyber crime to the Nigerian economy to about $200 million (N44bn).”

He stated that major emerging threats include increased social engineering risks and attacks, hacking (vulnerability exploits, penetration, low and slow attacks), internal threat, among many others. He advised participants to heighten their security in operating digitally, ensure tight security for company data as well as incorporating third parties into company matters.

AAU: Obaseki lifts embargo on employment, tasks Governing Council on reforms

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do State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has tasked the Governing Council of the Ambrose Alli University (AAU) to initiate reforms that will reposition the institution into a world-class centre of excellence in learning and research.

The governor has also lifted the embargo on employment at the institution but maintained that the school must not employ people it cannot pay or who are unqualified.

Obaseki disclosed this when members of the Governing Council of AAU paid a courtesy visit to the Government House, in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

He urged the governing council to ensure discipline was maintained among staff and students in the school, noting, “People have to be prosecuted if found wanting. People who steal must be prosecuted and funds returned.”

He urged the council to be innovative in generating funds to run the institution, noting that this could be done through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and donations from alumni, tasking the council to source

for private investors to augment the school’s funding.

He noted that the state government could not increase the institution’s budget due to financial constraints, noting: “I want to work with you to streamline your system, processes and extract the value that exists in the university.”

On employment, he said, “Sort out what you have to do before you employ. Check the quality of people you want to employ also.”

Heassuredmembersofthecouncilofcontinuedsupportfromthestate government, urging the board not to relent in its efforts to change the narrative of the institution.

Chairman of the Governing Council, Lawson Omokhodion, said the council had resolved to promote productivity in the institution in line with recommendations of the due diligence exercise earlier carried out.

He thanked the governor for regular monthly subvention for payment of salaries and pension, noting that the council is working to make the institution one of the best five universities in the country within the next five years.

Law firm seeks to drive investment in tech sector at annual business series IFEOMA OKEKE

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uale, Ovia & Alex-Adedipe, a commercial law firm, says it intends to drive investment in Nigeria technology space through its 2nd annual business series, which will be held at Wheatbaker Hotel May 20, 2019.

The event, themed ‘Investment in Nigeria’s Telecommunication Media and Technology Market,’ will bring stakeholders together to have conversations around means to develop the sector,driveinvestmentsandseekways to grow the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through technology.

Speaking at a press conference to announce the event, Adeleke Alex Adedipe, a partner at the law firm, said the breakfast session was another avenue to engage with the ideas and the innovators, discuss and create room of opportunities for the investors and seek to find common working ground with the regulators with a purpose of making all stakeholders realise that we are all part of a budding ecosystem that requires consistent effort to make it work and grow beyond scale.

On why the business series is focusedontechnology,hesaid,“Tech-

nologyhastransformedtheapproach, comfort, swiftness and period with which business activities are conducted. Technology has important effects on business operations. No matter the size of your enterprise, technology has both tangible and intangible benefits that increase your productivity and ease of doing business.

“Whereas, the legal profession is known for its conservatism and traditionalism which many believe must be preserved in order to maintain the prestige of the profession, the Firm has totally embraced technology in aiding the business of law and realise that there is a burning need for conversations and thought leadership that can drive technological advancement and investment in Nigeria.”

The law fir believes that the Telecommunication,MediaandTechnologylandscapeisquitebroadandthere is a lot of room for growth, innovation andinvestmentinthevaryingtechnology sectors such as FinTech, Adtech, AgriTech, InsureTech, EduTech and alsoRegTechwhichpromisesnotonly tocutthecostofcomplianceprocesses but also to improve effectiveness to make them quicker and more reliable. www.businessday.ng

Abraham Nwankwo says sustainable debt financing, bankability of infrastructure key in addressing deficit … as N/Assembly says Road Fund Bill to address over N4trn road liabilities HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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braham Nwankwo, a former director-general, Debt Management Office (DMO), says Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit can be addressed with debt financing, making Nigeria’s infrastructure bankable for investors, while also urging the Federal Government tie borrowed funds to specific projects.

Nwankwo, who was the lead presenter at the 2019 annual lecture of Just Friends Club of Nigeria, held on Thursday in Abuja, however called on the nation’s economic managers to ensure a debt sustainable framework with good macroeconomic indices that would ensure funded projects were bankable to attract more funding commitments from private sector investors.

The lead speaker admittedly noted that Nigeria was the biggest infrastructural market in the continent, but unfortunately had a complex investment climate, as he called for struc-

tured bankability of Nigeria’s infrastructure to attract sectoral funding from pool of funds from various parts of the world.

He noted that assessment of debt sustainability in the latter case should focus on whether and how, the additional debt would be effectively applied to the development of infrastructure, to pull the economy out of backwardness; how it would enable the economy establish a growth trajectory that would enable it re-gain or enhance debt sustainability and more stable growth, by a forecasted time.

According to Nwankwo, “The secret is that it is feasible to articulate a bold plan for the transformation of the economy, the Transformation Plan, financed with new debt towards one that is more diversified, more competitive, more exportcapable and less vulnerable to external shocks.

“Specifically, the new debt will generate adequate output and cash-flow to cover its servicing and amortisation and

create surplus, while avoiding, by design, foreign exchange risk. The net impact of the new debt on debt sustainability, therefore, is that by creating value added, it even helps to reduce the pre-programme debt burden, rather than exacerbate it.”

Nwankwo, who made case for a structured macroeconomic model in ensuring debt sustainability, also called on the economic managers to prioritise it before going for borrowing, whether domestic or internationally.

He said, “A robust macroeconomic model with detailed financial programming is perhaps the most important component of the plan documents; it will elicit the trajectory of transformation, breakthrough and self-sustaining growth that would result from the capital injection in big infrastructure development. It will demonstrate how exchange rate risk will be neutralised.”

The former DMO boss expressed firm belief in the

Federal Government’s ability to use sustained debt in closing the infrastructure deficit gap, explaining that in spite of the country’s problematic debt profile, a plan-based, project-tied, output-driven, and commercially-modelled and private-sector-managed debt programme remained a “robust option for financing Nigeria’s infrastructure development.

Also, Toby Okechukwu, chairman, House Committee of Housing and Infrastructure, at the event made case for Road Fund Bill, at the verge of being submitted to the President for assent.

According to the lawmaker, “The annual budget is not complete, and never enough. The seed capital for road development and maintenance would be through the road fund. It is meant to have some road user charges like having tolls, some fees from consumed petrol, and weighing charges, that would be warehoused for those who manage and maintain the roads.

L-R: Adetunji Oyebanji, MD/CEO; Ramesh Kansagra, chairman; Abdulkabir Aminu, director; Danladi Ochekpe, company secretary; Paul Obi, director, and Rishi Kansagra, director, all of 11Plc, at the annual general meeting of the company in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Pius Okeosisi

More communities seek to join OML 29 suit against Aiteo Samuel Ese, Yenagoa

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ore communities are seeking to join the suit to halt the OML 29 lease pending before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa over the abdication of social obligations to host communities.

When the case came up for hearing on Thursday, May 16, the trial judge, Awogboro Abimbola, adjourned the case till June 24 to hear the applications of the other communities within the OML 29 area seeking to join the suit.

The applicants representing the host communities of Nembe in Bayelsa State are asking the court to halt the lease of OML 29 to Aiteo Exploration and Production Limited.

The development is as a result of plans by the Minister of Petroleum Resources to renew the lease of OML 29 oil bloc to Aiteo for $82 million without regard to the position of the community in Suit No. FHC/YNG/ CS/62/2015.

With the present lease ending on June 30, the applicants told the court that Aiteo had already made payments totalling $82 million to the Department of Petroleum Resources for the renewal of the oil mining licence.

At the resumed hearing, counsel to the plaintiffs, Iniruo Wills reported that some progress had been made in the out of court settlement and required an adjournment for further discussions between the parties.

Wills also informed the

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court that the plaintiffs would also use the period of the adjournment to study the applications of the other communities that are seeking to join the suit.

Wills stated: “Between March and now, we have made some progress at settling out of court and we will require a short adjournment to be able to update the court on the outcome of ongoing talks amongst the parties.

“A l s o w e h a v e b e e n served with batteries of applications by several groups seeking to be joined in the suit, the adjournment will enable us to study them.”

In 2015, Shell Petroleum D e ve l o p m e nt C o mp a ny Limited (SPDC) divested its equity in OML 29 and transferred its interest in the oil bloc, including NCTL @Businessdayng

to Aiteo for $1.7 billion, but the host communities said the divestment was done “without resolving the untold negative impact of their operations on the people.”

The plaintiffs are Ikaonaworio Eferebo-Igoma, Iyerite Chiefson Awululu-Atubu, Ayebaesin Edoghotu-Omoh, Markson Amaegbe-Orutari, B.C. Benwari-Yousuo and Doibo Evans representing OML 29 host communities.

The defendants are Attorney-General of the Federation, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Federal Ministry of Environment and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.

Others are Aiteo Exploration and Production, Attorney-General of Bayelsa State and The Deeds Registrar, Bayelsa State Ministry of Lands.

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news Steady import level fails to impress farmers in local wheat production Temitayo Ayetoto

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igeria is one of African countries that will not make significant contributiontotheforecastofanall-time high of 49.3 million tons in total wheat imports to Africa between 2019 and 2020, yet stakeholders in local wheat production are unimpressed, saying it will not amount to better demand.

Nearly all of the projected increase in Africa’s import will be concentratedintwocountriesfacingreducedproductionprospects this year – Algeria and Morocco, the Food and Agricultural Organisation’s Biannual Report on Global Food Market notes.

ImportsbyAlgeriaareforecast to rise by 10 percent to 7.7 million tons while Morocco’s imports could surge by as much as 42 percent to reach 4.7 million tons based on an anticipated 25 percentdropindomesticproduction.

“Wheat shipments to most other major destinations in Africa are likely to remain steady at around the 2018/19 levels,” FAO

says,butfarmersinwheatproductionconsideritinconsequentialas a combination of uncompetitive pricing, poor production conditions and quality variation constitute setback.

They believe current times are notthebesttoinvestinlocalwheat productionbecausethelocalmarket hardly benefited from huge industrial demand. Producers have had to rely on open markets to recoup their investments.

“Until it is reduced, nothing will come out of a steady level of import.Wewantitreduceddrastically before the year 2030,” Salim Saleh, president, Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, told BusinessDay. “Agriculture needs a thorough team that can drive it. If we don’t have this team and we just allow the ministry to be under the leadership of a minister alone can determine the fate of over 200 million people,” he said.

Nigeria’swheatimportswithin 2018 to 2019 marketing year were forecast at 5.4 million metric tons, up 4 percent from the import figure of 5.2 million metric tons.

Inthesameyear,wheataccounted for N362.4 billion, marking 42.5 percentoftheN852billionagricultural goods imported into Nigeria.

Demand for wheat in Nigeria is 4.7 million metric tons but local production drags at 60,000 metric tons, leaving a deficit of 4.64 million metric tons.

Wheat is an important commodity that is essential in flour, whichisusedinprocessingbread, biscuit and other food items generally consumed.

Nigeria’s wheat production yield has been a struggle between 2.1 and 2.5 tons per hectare.

A generally upward movement in international prices of wheat in 2018 has given way to a declining trend since March 2019. At the start of this year, wheat prices were affected by less than ideal weather during harvesting in Argentina and Australia. Wheat woes were further compounded by reports of historically low winter wheat seeding in the United States of America and rising concerns over tightening exportable supplies in the Russian Federation.

Second intra-African trade fair to generate $40bn - Afreximbank HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he second Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2020) scheduled for Kigali, Rwanda, from September 1 - 7, 2020, will target the execution of intra-African trade deals worth more than$40billion, Benedict Oramah, president, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said on Wednesday.

Oramah was speaking in Kigali at the signing of the hosting agreement for IATF2020 by the Government of Rwanda, Afreximbank and the African Union.

Soraya Hakuziyaremye, minister of trade and industry of Rwanda, signed for the Government while Oramah signed for Afreximbank and Albert Muchanga, commissioner for trade and industry of the African Union, signed for the organisation

during the ceremony held at the Transform Africa Summit taking place in Kigali Oramah said for IATF2020, being organised by Afreximbank in collaboration with the African Union and hosted by Rwanda, the partners had set themselves the ambitious target of attracting more than 1,000 exhibitors and hosting over 10,000 buyers and conferenceparticipantsfromover 50 countries.

According to Oramah, the tradefairwillbuildontheprogress made in the first Intra-African Trade Fair held in Cairo in 2018 to achieve more far-reaching results in terms of impact in promoting Intra-African trade.

Oramah, who noted that “52 countries have signed the AfCFTA and 22 have ratified it, paving the way for the agreement to enter into force,” said IAATF2020 would include an IATF Trade and Invest-

ment Forum, which will look at the practical challenges affecting AfCFTAimplementationandprovide solutions on how to address them and exploit the benefits offered by the Agreement.

Afreximbank will showcase some practical solutions, including the pan-African Payments and Settlement System, which will be launched at the AU ExtraOrdinary Summit of Heads of StateandGovernmentinNiamey, Niger Republic, in July 2019, he said. That system will facilitate trade settlement in local currencies, providing a vital boost to intra-regional trade.

Also speaking, Muchanga said the partners in the IATF had succeededincreatingabrandand that the trade fair was a platform for sharing trade information. It brought together buyers and sellersandcreatedaccesstofinancing for businesses.

Apapa: NPA signs MoU with APM Capital to begin cargo evacuation to Epe by barges AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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etermined to find lasting solution to the problem of Apapa gridlock, the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with APM Capital to begin the use of barges to evacuate containers from the ports in Apapa to Epe. Speaking when she hosted a team from AP Moller Capital in her office in Lagos on Wednesday, Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the NPA, said the problem of Apapa access road seemed intractable because of decade long decadence in infrastructure, which was caused by multiplicity of problems.

According to Usman, the

NPA had made several efforts including committing N1.8 billion to rehabilitate the road, and develop manual call up system, which would soon be upgraded, to be issued electronically.

She said the NPA would continue to consult with stakeholders across all levels in area of providing the needed infrastructure, since the provision of infrastructure was crucial for sustainable ports operations.

“NPA will build on the synergies that exist with stakeholders to ensure there is Ease of Doing Business at ports,” she assured.

In his response, Fleming Dalgaard, senior investment adviser of APM Capital, assured that the company would ensure the construction of a jetty and truck park to facilitate the movement of cargo with barges from the port.

He added that the company www.businessday.ng

would provide technical capital, competence experience, financial capacity and other required resources.

Dalgaard, who commended the management of the NPA for its openness in doing business, said such transparency and efficiency were part of the quality that excite the company to come forward for the signing of the MoU. The MoU read: “The NPA and APMC entered discussions and have agreed to find a lasting solution to the traffic situation in and around the ports, there is a need to provide the level of required infrastructure. APMC has indicated interest, technical capacity, competence, experience, financial capacity and other required resources to execute or cause the project required. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news

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Better Tax: NESG launches Citizen Report as stakeholders chart new path for non-oil revenue

IMF asks policy makers to consider central banks’ digital currencies

igeria Economic Summit Group’s Fiscal Policy Roundtable (NESG) has launched its Citizen Perception Report, a first of several research pieces to be published in support of its tax reform and advocacy vehicle “Better Tax”.

Better Tax seeks to close knowledge gaps in fiscal policy and create a sustainable framework to actualise the Federal Government’s inclusive economic agenda.

Launched in Lagos Wednesday, the citizens perceptions report, which is the product of a nationwide perception survey cutting across households and small businesses in the tax value chain, tasked government to establish an Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) among other recommendations targeted at demystifying complex provisions in the nation’s tax laws and boosting dwindling revenues from the non-oil sector of the economy.

Sarah Alade, chairman, NESG Fiscal Policy Roundtable, said, “The core concept of the Roundtable was to reflect the needs and

… says Less than one quarter of world central banks exploring DCs

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objectives that forms the basis of a robust fiscal reform platform focused on mobilising and growing the country’s tax revenue.”

The IMF estimates that revenue collected in 2016 across all tiers of Government was only about 6% of GDP. Historically, more than 70% of those revenues have come from the oil sector while the non-oil sectors, which account for more than 90% of GDP, have historically contributed about 30% to revenues.

“This limits Nigeria’s ability to credibly execute its development plan and fund critical social sector programmes. It also leaves Nigeria very vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks from low oil prices. The most recent fall in oil prices threw Nigeria into a fiscal crisis with spillover effects on the economy resulting in a recession in 2016.

“Building a strong revenue base that is balanced between the oil and non-oil sector is therefore critical to sustainably financing Nigeria’s development programme and long-term macro-economic stability.”

According to Alade, data from the Citizen Perception Survey reinforces the appalling level of fiscal responsibility in taxpayer education, which fuels apathy and low morale among taxpayers.

She said: “beyond the general clamour for increasing revenues and the correlation with higher tax rates, there are other issues around taxpaying in Nigeria. There is the presumption that the Nigerian citizenry is apathetic to the payment of taxes, which makes the findings of the Citizen Perception Survey crucial.

“The findings show that Nigerians are not averse to taxpaying given proper education and expenditure transparency on the allocation and application of resources by the government.”

Fiscal Policy Roundtable cochair, Doyin Salami, represented

by Taiwo Oyedele - PWC West Africa Tax leader, and Research Director NESG Fiscal Policy Roundtable said the government had been unable to meet recurrent and capital expenditures following a budget deficit of N3.8 billion and debt profile of N22.7 billion.

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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nternational Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) is one of the significant issues deserving consideration by policy makers.

Digitalcurrency(DC)isatypeof currency available in digital form. It can be used to purchase goods and services but can also be restricted to certain online communities.

This is coming as the Fund said less than one-quarter of central banks around the world are actively exploring the possibility of issuing CBDC and that so far, only four pilot projects have been reported.

Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF, stated this in his remarks titled, ‘Paving the Way for Fintech’, on Thursday in Belize City, Belize.

“Despite the challenge of achieving the right balance, every country — including the countries of the Caribbean — would be wise to prepare for and embrace the fintech revolution, in the hope of realising its far-reaching social and economic benefits”, Adrian said.

“It seems clear that the case for CBDC adoption depends on country-specific circumstances.

There doesn’t seem to be a “one size fits all” policy prescription.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on February 28, 2018 warned members of the public that virtual currencies are not legal tender in Nigeria “We wish to caution all and sundry on the risks inherent in such activities”, Isaac Okorafor, director, corporate communications said.

Further to the circular issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on January 12, 2017, to Banks and other financial institutions on virtual currency

FG commits to affordable digital financial services to the unbanked SEGUN ADAMS

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enior special adviser to the President on Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Lanre Osibona, reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to bring affordable digital financial services closer to Nigerians who were unbanked or under-banked.

Osibona said this while delivering a keynote address at the Lagos Fintech Week.

Digital financial services are critical to building a robust digital economy and government is determined in using it to make financial services affordable to everyone irrespective of their status and gender, he said.

He added that part of the efforts by the government to embark on the digital financial services was the rollout of digital identity to register all

Nigerians and legal residents with a digital identity – the National Identity Number (NIN).

Lagos Fintech Week is an invigorating week of distinct Fintech events that deliver exciting discussions, stimulating demos and insightful debates.

“For those who have registered, they can verify their NIN by typing *346# from their registered phone number. We have inherited the record of five million registered Nigerians when we assumed office and we have grown the number to over 37 million registered Nigerians,” he said.

He also pointed out that the government has put in place a number of initiatives that include FEC’s approval of the Strategic Roadmap for Harmonisation of all silo identity agencies developed Data Protection and Privacy Bill to ensure trust between the government and citizens.

Nestlé, LBS partner to advance nutrition, others through reportage JOSEPH MAURICE OGU

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estlé Nigeria and the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre collaborated to host a four-day workshop to advance understanding and inclusion of sustainable development concerns in media coverage for journalists in Nigeria.

Facilitated by LBS faculty, Nestlé Nigeria resource persons and health and nutrition experts, the workshop engaged and empowered media personnel with the knowledge of Creating Shared Value (CSV), Nutrition Health and Wellness (NHW), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainability, climate change, and food sufficiency, particularly in the Nigerian and African context.

The sessions, which took place from April 9 – 12, 2019, highlighted Creating Shared Value (CSV) as a sustainability advancement approach.

It also focused on Nutrition, Health and Wellness (NHW) and their

importance to the Nigerian media.

Sustainable development issues suchasnutrition,foodsecurity,health, and wellness affect everyone in society. Since the media has the responsibility of educating the public, it is importantthattheyunderstandthese issuesandareequippedtocommunicate the same to various stakeholders and demographic groups.

Participants gained an understanding of how to integrate Nutrition, Health and Wellness (NHW) in media narratives and national discourse. The expected outcome is to enhance their ability to interpret and report stories with proper priority for Nutrition, Health, and Wellness (NHW). This in turn will provide individuals and families with the information needed to make the best nutritional choices for their needs.

LBS alumnus and pioneer Professor of Food Science and Technology, Bells University of Technology, Olugbenga Ogunmoyela, used several case studies to explain journalism and the health of a nation. www.businessday.ng

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operations in Nigeria, the Bank reiterated that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Onecoin, etc and Exchanges such as NairaEx are not licensed or regulated by the CBN. There are surely some positive aspects of adopting CBDC, said IMF. The Fund said it could reduce the costs associated with the use of cash, and it may improve financial inclusion in cases where there have been unsuccessful privatesector initiatives and unsuccessful policy efforts.

It could also help central banks strengthen the security of, and trust in, the payment system — and it could protect consumers where regulation does not adequately limit private monopolies.

Moreover, issuing CBDC could also facilitate the “contestability” of the payments market, and could reduce the risk of having a few large providers dominating the system.

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY

Okowa receives Transition Committee Report ...Says report will be useful for stronger Delta Mercy Enoch, Asaba

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he Delta State Transition Committee has presented its committee to the Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa who assured the committee that his next tenure would be more fruitful to the people of the state.

Receiving the report of the 20-man committee which was presented in volumes by its Chairman, Sam Oyovbaire, in the presence of all the members of the committee and some members of the state executive council yesterday May 16, in Asaba, the governor thanked members of the committee for their commitment to the affairs of the state which led

Gov Okowa receives report on Transition Committe

to the speedy delivery of the report.

“On behalf of the government, the people of Delta

Kwara: Tribunal asks INEC to produce documents submitted by governor-elect May 22 SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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he governorship election petitions tribunal sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday adjourned to May 22, 2019 to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) produce before it documents in its custody about the educational qualifications of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9 election in Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Th e t r i bu na l ha d o n Wednesday commenced pretrial hearing on two petitions from the People’s Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Razak Atunwa; and Action Alliance (AA) challenging the electoral victory of the APC’s candidate in the election.

At the resumed pre-trial hearing yesterday, the tribunal after listening to argument and counter argument by counsels on the authenticity of the WAEC certificate submitted to INEC by the APC’s candidate fixed May 22, 2019 for continuation of pre-trial hearing and to enable INEC produce documents in its custody before it.

Counsel to PDP candidate in the elections, Kingsley Odeh, continued his argument over authenticity of the WAEC certificate presented to INEC by the governor-elect for the election.

However, Salman Jawondo, counsel to the second respondent, who is the governor-elect, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, had tendered photocopy of

WAEC certificate of another person to the tribunal to show that names or initials of candidates can be abbreviated.

The PDP’s counsel argued that West African Examination Council (WAEC) does not abbreviate surname, even if it were to abbreviate first names.

Odeh, who identified “conflict” in the documents tendered by Jawondo, said that the governor-elect submitted a WAEC certificate with Razaq A.P in 2019 and a document which reads Razaq A.R. in 2014.

“That’s the conflict”, he said, adding that the photocopy of WAEC certificate tendered by Jawondo was General Education certificate of WAEC and not that of the Senior Secondary School Examination Certificate of WAEC. Speaking with journalists after the tribunal’s sitting, counsel to the INEC, Rowland Otaru SAN, said that the petitioner got it wrong to put initials of the governor-elect as A.P. “What the petitioners were saying in their pleadings is that Abdulrazaq A.P., but initials of the governor-elect is not even A.P. It is A.R. So, even from the body of their petition, they are even wrong. We now want to show that the certificate of the governor elect is genuine, valid and issued by WAEC. With due respect, they are just playing to the gallery. The photocopy brought was to show the court that it’s not wrong for names of candidates to have initials.

The court then asked for the original of the certificate to be brought in order to compare it with the photocopy tendered.

And so be it”, he said. www.businessday.ng

Otaru, who said that he did not give consent to declaration of results documents presented by the petitioner on Thursday, said that the onus was on them to prove. “In the fullness of time, we are going to canvass very strong argument in respect of documents which they seemed to tender”, he said.

However, counsel to the PDP’s candidate and the PDP, Kingsley Odeh, said that it was actually the governor-elect’s counsel that tendered bundle of evidences containing second respondent’s certificate that was submitted alongside other documents.

“The photocopy of certificate actually submitted for 2019 elections reads Razaq AP. Now, in their response, they have annexed another document, a certificate he actually submitted in 2014 general elections. That document reads Razaq A.R. So, they’ve actually aided our case. They’ve made everything simple. It shows clearly that in 2019 they submitted a document with Razaq A.P. and in 2014 they submitted a document which reads Razaq A.R. That’s the conflict.

“For the purpose of clarity, WAEC does not abbreviate surname, even if it were to abbreviate first names. Razaq A.P. and Razaq A.R. can mean that any other person can claim the abbreviation. In his age declaration that was attached to the documents like INEC voters card, testimonial from secondary school in Kaduna, all those documents bear his full names, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. There was no where his name was abbreviated.

State, I want to thank the chairman of the committee

and its members for putting up this report within six weeks of inaugurating this committee”, he said.

He went on: “I believe that most of the things we did in the first tenure were as a result of the implementation of the report of the transition committee which we acted on and as such, the report of this committee will be very useful to us as we work for a stronger Delta in the next four years.”

“S o m e p e r s o n s hav e asked me why we are setting up transition committee bearing in mind that I am continuing as Governor till 2023 and I have told them that the committee need to assess what we did in the first tenure independently and advise

us on what to do in the areas we need to improve on and also, applaud us in the areas we need to sustain because, I will like to be remembered at the end of my tenure as a Governor who has done very well,” Governor Okowa stated.

Oyovbaire, a professor, had while presenting the report, commended Governor Okowa for setting up the transition committee.

He disclosed that the committee considered a lot of issues before arriving at the report and urged Okowa to make the report available to ministries, departments and agencies when approved so as to ensure synergy in the delivery of democratic dividends to the benefits of Deltans.

Tribunal frowns at INEC for disobeying order Solomon Attah, Lafia

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he G overnorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State has expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state.

The tribunal frowned at INEC for disobeying its order to allow counsels of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) inspect election materials.

Abba Mohammed, chairman of the Tribunal, expressed dismay at INEC during the pre-hearing session in

Lafia yesterday.

He however, re-directed INEC to allow the PDM and its governorship candidate Musa Nagogo to inspect the materials used in the March 9th governorship election.

According to him, since the tribunal discovered that counsels are yet to complete examination and exchange of documents, the sitting is adjourned to Saturday, May 18 to enable them complete all pre-hearing session.

The Chairman therefore, said that INEC should ensure implementation of its order before the next adjourned date.

Earlier, Mohammed Ada-

mu, counsel to Nagogo, told the tribunal that his client was denied access to materials used during the election despite an order from the tribunal.

He therefore, appealed that the tribunal should compel INEC to obey its order.

On his part, Ibrahim Adamu, counsel to INEC, had promised to advise his client appropriately on the order of the tribunal.

Musa Nagogo of the PDM, the petitioner, is challenging the conduct of 2019 governorship election and alleged omission of his name and the logo of his party ballot in the March 9 election.

Ogunlewe’s son, Moyosore, formally dumps PDP for APC Iniobong Iwok

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oyosore Ogunlewe, candidate of the main opposition the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the Lagos State House of Assembly for Kosofe constituency 1 in the just concluded general election, Thursday formally defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State.

Moyosore, a trained lawyer, is the son of Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former minister of works, during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

He had informed the PDP chairman in Lagos State shortly after losing election to the State Assembly in March about his resignation from the party.

In 2015, he had also lost

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the state Assembly election in the constituency to Bayo Osinowo of the APC. However, speaking in an elaborate ceremony to welcome him to the party held at his ward in Ogudu High School, Kosofe, GRA, he said his decision to join the APC was because he realised that the party was the only party popular among the people in the state.

Moyosore promised to mobilise his supporters and contribute positively towards the APC victory in the constituency in the 2023 general election.

According to him, “I thank the party for the opportunity; the grassroots is where I have always been; I would be adding more to the vote of APC in this constituency.

“I have large youth supporters ; because we are @Businessdayng

bringing young people into politics and majority of the state Assembly members are youths.

“In 2023, we are going to win under the APC; I am promising to add value to the party in the coming years.

“My supporters are not members of the PDP; they have always been with me, I am moving with several number of people who were in PDP and who contested with me in the last election,” Moyosore said.

Speaking at the event, a member of the state House of Assembly, Tunde Buraimoh, said APC was happy that he had finally decided to return home.

Buraimoh further said that his personality would further help the APC consolidate on recent victories in the constituency.

Friday 17 May 2019

FT

BUSINESS DAY

FINANCIAL TIMES

43

World Business Newspaper

Theresa May begins countdown to resignation as UK prime minister Boris Johnson confirms he will run to replace her as Conservative leader GEORGE PARKER AND LAURA HUGHES

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heresa May has started the countdown to her departure as prime minister, telling senior Conservative MPs she will next month set out a timetable for her resignation and the election of a new party leader.

Mrs May has been under immense pressure to quit and on Thursday she finally bowed to the inevitable, agreeing that she would confirm details of her departure in early June, regardless of whether she secures her Brexit deal.

Hours before Mrs May’s decision, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson confirmed that he would run for the Conservative party leadership; a contest is now expected to take place over the summer with a “coronation” of the new leader at the autumn party conference.

Mrs May told Tory grandees on the backbench 1922 committee in a meeting lasting 90 minutes that she was focused on delivering Brexit and that she was determined to win a crunch vote on the withdrawal agreement bill in the week starting June 3.

But crucially Mrs May told the 1922 executive that whatever happens in that vote — most MPs expect the deal to be rejected for

a fourth time — she would immediately set out a timetable for her departure.

A statement issued by Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee, on behalf of the executive and Mrs May, said the prime minister was “devoting her efforts” to securing the crucial second reading of the Brexit bill.

But he added: “We have agreed that she and I will meet following the second reading of the bill to agree a timetable for the election of a new leader of the Conservative and Unionist party.”

The outline of the final weeks of Mrs May’s premiership has now become clearer. Tory sources confirmed that if Mrs May loses the vote, now expected on Friday, June 7, she would announce her resignation and instigate a leadership contest.

If she wins a second reading for the withdrawal agreement bill — which will depend on Labour help — Mrs May would try to take the contentious legislation through the Commons with a view to getting it on to the statute book by the end of July.

Mrs May has said she would resign once Brexit legislation was enacted, so the Conservative party now knows that it will be looking for a new leader, and a new prime minister for Britain, over

Jens Weidmann says critics of Germany’s trade surplus ‘justified’

J

ens Weidmann, the head of the Bundesbank, has said criticism of Germany’s massive current account surplus is “justified” and suggested that the tax burden on German companies was too high.

Mr Weidmann, a leading candidate to become the next president of the European Central Bank, made the comments in a speech at a banking congress in Hamburg on Thursday, in what some saw as an attempt to soften his image as the race to succeed Mario Draghi intensifies.

Germany’s balance of trade between exports and imports amounted to 7.25 per cent of gross domestic product last year, way above the European Commission’s recommended upper level of 6 per cent. It has frequently been criticised by US president Donald Trump, who has also repeatedly attacked Berlin for its failure to fulfil to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence, as it committed to doing in 2014.

Brussels said in 2017 that the exporting surplus was “not healthy” for Germany and “creates significant economic and political distortion for the whole of the eurozone”.

“The question as to whether

edented no confidence vote in her.

Mr Johnson confirmed what MPs at Westminster have known for a long time when he said that he would make his second run for the Tory leadership.

Asked at a business event in Manchester if he would be a candidate, Mr Johnson replied: “Of course I’m going to go for it.”

Mr Johnson previously ran for the Tory leadership in 2016, but his campaign self-destructed amid claims that he was not focused on

the job in hand.

Environment secretary Michael Gove, who had been running the Johnson campaign, announced his own candidacy on the day his friend was supposed to formally launch his own bid.

If Mrs May does resign before the Commons summer break, starting in July, a leadership contest could run through the summer with a new leader in place for the Tory conference in Manchester starting on September 29.

Traders at RBS, Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan and MUFG used chat rooms to rig foreign exchange spot trading ROCHELLE TOPLENSKY, STEPHEN MORRIS AND EVA SZALAY

such a balance is sustainable in the long-term is therefore justified,” Mr Weidmann said on Thursday.

The Bundesbank head said a major factor in the surplus was rising corporate net saving, the causes for which were “not completely clear”. A Bundesbank study has found that a “smaller share of profits” is being distributed to the shareholders of German companies, he said, possibly as a way to reduce their high debt burden.

Economists have frequently blamed German companies that invest too little and save too much as the chief culprit behind the large external surplus.

Authorities should also ensure that Germany’s corporate tax burden did not become “too high”, Mr Weidmann said, adding that the country’s relative attractiveness as a place to do business had “deteriorated” since Mr Trump’s sweeping corporate tax reform and tax cuts carried out by “several of our European neighbours”.

The comment echoed calls from the business-friendly wing of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, which has long demanded tax cuts for German companies. Finance minister Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, has so far resisted the calls. www.businessday.ng

the summer.

The agreement between Mrs May and Sir Graham is intended to remove the prospect of MPs having to prise the prime minister out of Downing Street, possibly by changing party rules to allow a vote of no confidence in her.

It should also head off the humiliation awaiting the prime minister on June 15, when about 800 activists who sit on the party’s national convention were due to hold a non-binding but unprec-

EU fines five banks €1.1bn over foreign exchange cartel

Bundesbank head blames companies’ savings for driving current account imbalance GUY CHAZAN

Prime minister Theresa May has been under huge pressure to resign © Ben Stansall/AFP

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russels has fined Barclays, RBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan and MUFG €1.07bn for participating in cartels to manipulate the foreign exchange market for 11 currencies.

EU officials found that two separate cartels used chat rooms, dubbed the “Three Way Banana Split”, “Essex Express” and “Semi-Grumpy Old Men”, to share information about customers’ orders, prices and other trading activities in order to manipulate the spot markets.

Citigroup was hit with the biggest fine of €311m, followed by RBS with €249m, JPMorgan at €229m, Barclays at €210m and Japan’s MUFG with about €70m.

UBS participated in the cartels but was not fined because it alerted EU officials to the two cartels. The other banks chose to settle the charges with EU regulators and their fines were reduced by 10 per cent.

The EU is the last major regulatory authority to conclude its investigation into collusion among traders to manipulate major currency benchmarks and exchange rates — allegations that first surfaced in 2013.

But the end of the probe will now clear the way for civil suits in the region, with law firm Scott and Scott poised to launch the European leg of a US class action lawsuit that resulted in a $2.3bn settlement with 15 banks.

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The anti-competitive activity took place between 2007 and 2013 for the euro, pound, yen and Swiss franc, the US, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian dollars, and the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian crowns.

The information shared “enabled them to make informed market decisions on whether to sell or buy the currencies they had in their portfolios and when. Occasionally, these information exchanges also allowed the traders to identify opportunities for co-ordination,” according to the EU. Authorities in the UK, US, Switzerland and Singapore have already hit 15 banks with more than $10bn in fines since 2014 relating to currency collusion, while investigations have also led to multibillion-dollar settlements in civil cases.

There are still lawsuits filed in the US and UK against some banks to recover damages on behalf of several investment managers.

“Foreign exchange spot trading activities are one of the largest markets in the world, worth billions of euros every day,” said Margrethe Vestager, European competition commissioner. “Today we have fined Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup, JPMorgan and MUFG Bank and these cartel decisions send a clear message that the commission will not tolerate collusive behaviour in any sector of the financial markets.”

“We are pleased to resolve this historical matter, which relates to the conduct of one former em@Businessdayng

ployee. We have since made significant control improvements,” said a spokesman for JPMorgan.

A spokesman for Barclays declined to comment. The British bank took a £240m provision related to the forex probe at the end of 2017, according to a filing.

RBS acknowledged the conclusion of the investigation and said in a statement that its €249m fine was “fully covered by existing provisions”. It added that it was co-operating with other unnamed authorities on further, similar probes into past misconduct in currency trading and could face more “material” penalties and consequences.

The EU said there was another investigation involving Credit Suisse, regarding “an alleged infringement which may have taken place in another chatroom” but it declined to provide any further details on this case.

Credit Suisse said it “does not believe that its employees engaged in any conduct in the FX markets which violated the European Union’s competition rules”. It added that it was co-operating with the EU investigation “but intends to vigorously contest the substance of the allegations”.

Lawyers for investors in the US civil case have been waiting for the ruling to launch the European leg of claims. David Scott, managing partner of Scott and Scott, the colead on the US class action claim, said European investors remained uncompensated.

44 BUSINESS DAY

Friday 17 May 2019

FT

NATIONAL NEWS

Women-led hedge funds try to crack the boys’ club Female asset managers struggle to attract investments even as they outperform their male peers

LINDSAY FORTADO

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hen she launched an event for female hedge fund managers seven years ago, Tracy Castle-Newman, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, struggled to find any.

“I ended up with about 10 people,” she said.

The ratio of women to men working in the industry is one of the most lopsided in all of finance. Last year, 19.3 per cent of hedge fund employees were women, up from 18.6 per cent in 2017, according to the data provider Preqin.

That conceals an even greater imbalance when it comes to people making investment decisions: 48 per cent of the funds’ investor relations teams are women but in portfolio management it is only 10 per cent.

And among those actually running funds, women are even rarer.

Jamie Zimmerman has been running her event-driven fund since 2000, though its current assets — about $169m, according to regulatory filings — are down from a peak of $3.4bn in 2014, according to Bloomberg. Leda Braga has overseen Systematica, which trades using computer algorithms and manages about $8.6bn, since the start of 2015, when she spun out from BlueCrest Capital. One of the more high-profile women in the industry, Samantha Greenberg, closed her fund, Margate Capital, earlier this year to join Citadel.

Yet finally there are signs of an infusion of women at the top. Six years after Morgan Stanley’s inaugural event, the number of female managers attending the bank’s Women’s Investment Roundtable had tripled.

For the first time ever, many of the highest-profile hedge fund launches this year are led by women.

They include: Impactive Capital, an activist investing fund run by Lauren Taylor Wolfe; Snowcat Capital, an alternative risk premia fund run by Rebecca Pacholder; Bayberry

Capital, a long-short equities fund run by Angela Aldrich; and Martlet Asset Management, an alternative risk premia fund run by Jane Buchan.

The latest batch of new launches comes at a time when most portfolio managers are struggling to strike out on their own. The number of new hedge fund start-ups fell to their lowest level since 2000 last year, according to HFR. To get to launch, women have to overcome a higher hurdle than men even though they tend to perform better, according to a 2015 study by Northeastern University.

“I think all the evidence is really solid on the fact that, for women, you have to outperform by more to build the same kind of business,” said Ms Buchan, who was most recently the co-chief executive of Paamco Prisma, one of the largest fund of hedge funds in the world. “And the outperformance can be as much as 100 basis points . . . That’s saying that something’s wrong with the capital allocation process.”

“One of the problems is there are a lot of biases that people have in their head,” she added. “The issue is going to be, are [allocators] willing to do this or not? There’s a lot of talk, but not a lot of action.”

Ms Buchan has attracted $100m of assets for her fund. Ms Taylor Wolfe launched Impactive Capital alongside Christian Asmar with an anchor investment of $250m from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. Ms Pacholder raised $100m and her former boss Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors has said he would be a “substantial” investor*. All four funds are currently fundraising.

Yet the amount being raised by the female fund managers is still markedly lower than some of the recent headline launches led by men, who often start with more than $1bn in capital.

In the largest hedge fund launch ever, Michael Gelband, the former head of fixed income at Millennium Management, started ExodusPoint with $8bn last year.

US sets course for its next Middle Eastern war of choice Dick Cheney’s heirs are laying the groundwork for an Iran conflict

EDWARD LUCE

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ick Cheney, the former US vice-president, said that if there was a 1 per cent threat of something happening, America should act as if it were a certainty. By that yardstick, the chances of a US war with Iran are now flashing red. Any such conflict could induce a geopolitical earthquake to exceed what followed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

That war unleashed Isis, empowered Russia and China, and left a bitterly divided America roughly $3tn worse off. In the first Gulf war in 1991, the US led a broad international coalition. By the second one in 2003, the “coalition of the willing” had shrunk to Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland and a handful of Pacific islands.

This time, the US would be fighting without any non-Middle Eastern allies.

In the spirit of Mr Cheney, the US should bear in mind parallels between the build up to the Iraq war in 2003 and what is happening today. Much like then,

today’s case is led by two highly skilled insiders. John Bolton, the national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, are worthy heirs to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. They know how to marshal intelligence for their ends.

Each claims that Iran is stoking its proxies in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon for imminent attacks on the US and its allies. They have withdrawn non-essential US personnel from Baghdad and ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a bunch of B52 bombers to the region. America would respond with “unrelenting force” to any Iranian attack, said Mr Bolton. US retaliation would be “swift and decisive” says Mr Pompeo.

All that is lacking is clear intelligence to back them up. Chris Ghika, the British major-general who is second-in-command of the US-led anti-Isis coalition, said on Tuesday there was no evidence of an increased Iranian threat.

He was slapped down by a US spokesman. www.businessday.ng

Protesters outside military headquarters in Khartoum after clashing with security forces on Wednesday night © AFP

Sudan talks suspended after further clashes with security

Alleged attacks on democracy protesters disrupt efforts to secure final deal on civilian rule STEVE JOHNSON

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ilitary leaders in Sudan halted talks on a final deal for a return to civilian rule after parts of the security forces clashed with protesters in the capital Khartoum for the second time in a week.

“We decided to suspend the negotiations over civilian rule for 72 hours to help prepare an atmosphere for completing the deal,” Lieutenant General said in a televised address in the early hours of Thursday morning. Lt Gen Burhan’s transitional military council has run the country since ousting President Omar al-Bashir in April after four months of demonstrations against the ageing autocrat’s 30-year rule.

On Wednesday, the military council and the opposition movement that spearheaded the protests, the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), said they had reached an agreement for a three-year transition to a fully civilian administration and that they hoped to sign a deal within 24 hours.

The DFCF said the suspension of the talks was “regrettable.” The decision was taken after security forces clearing barricades in parts of Khartoum clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators on Wednesday evening. Protesters said the military fired live ammunition, injuring at least 14 civilians, but that figure could not be verified.

Despite the talks’ progress, the violence has continued because the Sudanese armed forces are fragmented and different factions have different agendas, experts said.

“The transition is going to be a bumpy road,” said Ahmed Soliman, an expert on Sudan at Chatham House, a UK think-tank.

On Monday, at least four people were killed in what the opposition movement said was an attack on protesters by members of the Rapid Support Forces, a former militia headed by the military council’s second-in-command, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Integrated into the armed forces

by President Bashir in 2013, the RSF

has since vied with the army and the intelligence services for power and influence. Protesters also blamed Wednesday’s violence on members of the RSF, according to local press reports.

Lt Gen Burhan tried to shift blame away from the military, accusing demonstrators of “provoking” security forces and disrupting life in the capital.

There was an “infiltration of armed elements among demonstrators who were shooting at security forces”, he said, according to Al Jazeera.

The military council instructed the protest movement to dismantle all roadblocks before the talks could resume, although the demonstration outside the Ministry of Defense — now in its fifth week — will be allowed to remain “We will continue our sit-in at the leadership headquarters and all other sit-in fields across the country,” the DFCF said in a statement. “Our peaceful protests will continue until we expose and isolate the forces of anti-revolution”

Airbnb appoints former Burberry boss Angela

Former Burberry chief left Apple in February after 5 years running its retail stores SHANNON BOND

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irbnb has appointed Angela Ahrendts, the former Apple retail head and Burberry chief executive, to its board, as the company best known for short-term rentals seeks to become a fully fledged travel brand.

This is the first new corporate position for Ms Ahrendts since she left Apple in February after running its retail stores for five years. The tech group had hired her at a time when it was trying to reposition itself as a luxury brand with the launch of the Apple Watch and establishment of partnerships with Hermes to sell its wearable device.

Ms Ahrendts touted Apple stores as “town squares”, emphasising community events, and expanded the iPhone maker’s footprint to new cities and countries — although the changes left some Apple customers unhappy about wait times and customer service quality.

She previously ran Burberry for eight years, where she was credited with reviving the British fashion brand by winning over younger consumers through digital marketing and improving the in-store experience.

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“Angela has a reputation for pushing brands to dream big, and she told me that’s exactly what she hopes to bring to Airbnb’s board,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb chief executive and co-founder. “She has led global brands through transformation, completely redefined the retail experience, and done it all while putting customers and communities first.”

Her appointment as a non-executive director comes as Airbnb is seeking to become a full-service travel provider, and gearing up for an eventual initial public offering. In recent years, Airbnb has been expanding beyond its original business of connecting people with rooms to rent in homes. The site now also offers travellers luxury listings, boutique hotels, sightseeing activities and transport.

“I am elated by the opportunity to join Airbnb’s board of directors at this important phase on the incredible journey of the company and its community of hosts and guests,” Ms Ahrendts said, noting that she has known its co-founders — Mr Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk — for years.

Airbnb is hoping her experience building global brands will be a boon @Businessdayng

as it eyes international growth, and new sources of revenue and customers.

The San Francisco-based company made its biggest acquisition to date in March, with the purchase of the hotel booking site HotelTonight. It also recently invested at least $100m in Oyo Rooms, the SoftBank-backed Indian hotel franchise, and has announced plans to develop luxury apartments in partnership with one of New York’s biggest real estate groups.

At the same time, Airbnb is seeing increased competition to its core business from publicly listed rivals Bookings Holdings and Expedia. Last month, Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel operator, launched a “Homes & Villas” platform promising to offer more than 2,000 homes in 100 destinations across Europe, the US and the Caribbean.

Ms Ahrendts, who also sits on the board of Ralph Lauren, becomes Airbnb’s third independent director alongside Ken Chenault, the former American Express chief executive, and Ann Mather, a former executive at Walt Disney and Pixar. She is the second woman on the board, following a pledge by Mr Chesky last year to add more female directors.

Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

45

FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Lloyds Bank chairman defends executives’ pay despite criticism Norman Blackwell said not many people would do the ‘arduous tasks’ of its executives NICHOLAS MEGAW

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loyds Banking Group’s chairman defended the lender’s generous pay policies on Thursday, arguing they were essential to hold on to top executives after MPs accused the bank of “boundless greed”.

“Not many people would do the arduous hours and arduous tasks they do for free”, Norman Blackwell told Lloyds shareholders in Edinburgh.

Earlier this week two parliamentary committees had called on investors to vote against Lloyds’ remuneration report, criticising the size of pension payouts for chief executive António Horta-Osório and incoming finance director William Chalmers.

However, Lloyds’ largest shareholders were unmoved by the criticism on Thursday, with 90 per cent of voters supporting the bank’s pay report. Only 7.9 per cent of votes were cast against the policy, with a further 2.1 per cent abstaining.

The protest was significantly smaller than last year, when more than a fifth of shareholders refused to back the bank. The Investment Association, which advises large investors, had criticised Lloyds in a report ahead of the AGM, but the two most influential proxy advisers were both supportive.

David Herro, chief investment officer at Harris Associates, Lloyds’ second-largest shareholder, said “we are deeply supportive of the successful efforts that António and his team have made to deliver a better, more efficient, effective and valuable Lloyds.”

Banks’ pension policies have

been under particular scrutiny this year due to new corporate governance guidelines. Earlier this month, Standard Chartered suffered a significant shareholder rebellion when almost 40 per cent of investors declined to back its policy.

Although the majority of investors backed Lloyds, some small shareholders did criticise it at the AGM, arguing that the gap between highly paid executives and average workers was bad for society.

Lord Blackwell countered that “we should and need to pay for performance”, and said a better way to address imbalances was to increase rewards for its less well-paid staff.

Mr Horta-Osório’s total pay last year was £6.3m, including a payment in lieu of pension contributions worth £573,000, or 46 per cent of his base salary. His pension payment will be cut this year to 33 per cent of base salary, which is still more than the 13 per cent maximum available to most Lloyds employees.

New corporate governance guidelines say executive pension contributions should be in line with the majority of employees. Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said Lloyds’ policy was “the latest example of a damaging narrative for UK business — there being one rule for the bosses, another for the workers”.

However, Lloyds’ remuneration committee told MPs that the recent cut to Mr Horta-Osório’s pension was “an important step” that was in line with recommendations that payments be reduced “over time”.

S&P 500 eyes three-day winning streak UK currency tracks investors’ unease over cross-party talks in London PETER WELLS, MICHAEL HUNTER AND ALICE WOODHOUSE

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he S&P 500 was eyeing its first three-day winning streak this month as investors retained a sense of calm towards the state of trade relations between the US and China.

Sovereign debt markets were slightly weaker, with yields rising from their notable lows touched in the previous session, when worries about the outlook for global growth as the dispute rumbled on stoked demand for haven assets.

The S&P 500 was up 0.9 per cent, but the moves since Tuesday have not yet been enough to recoup the 2.4 per cent tumble at the start of the week, which was the biggest one-day drop since early January. Week-to-date, the benchmark is down 0.1 per cent.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 1 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.9 per cent.

The yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury was up 3 basis points at 2.4086 per cent, having yesterday reached its lowest intraday level since March’s 15-month low.

As sentiment improved, the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 rose 0.9 per cent, with investors refining their response to the latest White House rhetoric on tariffs. Washington’s decision to effectively ban China’s Huawei, the telecoms equipment maker, from US markets contrasted with the earlier move to to delay the application of import taxes on Europeanmade cars.

The Stoxx index tracking Europe’s technology stocks rose 1.7 per cent. The equivalent benchmark for miners rose 1.3 per cent.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose up 0.5 per cent overall, leaving it flat for the week. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ticked up 0.1 per cent.

London’s FTSE 100 added 0.4 per cent. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 gained 1.4 per cent www.businessday.ng

Lloyds has defended its decision to keep the pension allowances of chief executive António Horta-Osório and other executives well above most staff © Reuters

The dollar will dominate for a while yet And when a challenge to its supremacy comes, it might be from an unexpected quarter GILLIAN TETT

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his week, a frisson passed through Treasury markets when it emerged that China has been selling US government bonds. These sales were not huge — a mere $20.5bn in March — nor were they made with accompanying public threats. But in the current protectionist climate, the news left investors pondering two unnerving questions. Could the current trade war turn into a capital and currency war? And if so, might that undermine the dominance of the US dollar?

The answer to the first question is, “one hopes not”. And to the second, “almost certainly no”.

The reasons for this were neatly laid out at a meeting of central bankers earlier this week in Zurich, organised by the IMF and Swiss National Bank. This started with a paper from Barry Eichengreen, the American economist, outlining a split among

academics in the US about the way the dollar has in effect anchored the international monetary system (it accounts for about 60 per cent of foreign exchange reserves, foreign currency liabilities and bank deposits).

Prof Eichengreen noted that at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches, economists tend to assume that dollar dominance will eventually end. Other currencies (or metals) have been dominant in the past — sterling in the 19th century, say. However, a little-noticed feature of these earlier eras was that dominance almost always occurred within a multipolar global system.

The Berkeley economists assume that the world will eventually become multipolar again, particularly as the current status quo does not serve anybody well. Most notably, emerging markets are laden with alarmingly large levels of dollardenominated debt. And while US leaders like the political status and power associated with the dollar’s

dominant role, it has some negative consequences for America’s domestic economy too. It fosters an excessively strong currency and artificially low levels of market interest rates.

But “eventually” is the keyword here. Even Prof Eichengreen does not predict that the dollar will lose its dominance in the near future.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the US at Harvard University, a group of economists, including Gita Gopinath (now chief economist at the IMF), have recently developed some powerful empirical arguments for why dollar supremacy is “sticky”.

Currently, the dollar is the dominant currency for trade invoices (if you exclude euro-denominated payments inside the eurozone) and that encourages debt issuance in dollars too. Taken together, these factors create an overwhelming dollar tilt that is difficult to shift, particularly since the Chinese currency is not yet liberalised and markets in the eurozone remain disunited.

M&A bonanza poses an impairment threat for investors Huge amounts of goodwill sit on companies’ balance sheets as global growth looks shaky NICHOLAS KORDOWSKI

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lobal merger and acquisition volumes reached their third-highest year on record in 2018, continuing a trend that has seen dealmaking steadily increase since the financial crisis. All this M&A means that there are huge amounts of goodwill sitting on companies’ balance sheets — which bring the potential of similarly large impairments with them. We think investors should be paying this more attention.

So far, the scale of impairments has not been a big concern. With interest rates still at historically low levels and the global economy growing strongly in recent years, investors have largely been content to assume that firms have paid fair prices for the acquisitions they have made.

Today, however, the sustainability of global growth appears far from certain. So the rosy assumptions on which many balance sheets rest look less assured. And that could have serious implications for corporate profitability in the future.

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Curtailed profits have obvious implications for share prices. But impairments are not only a concern for equity investors. They can also trigger bond covenants — entailing new equity raises, renegotiation of covenants or ratings downgrades.

Accordingly, all investors should take them seriously.

Recently, we have started to see some eye-catching — indeed, eyewatering — impairments. General Electric (GE) is an obvious example.

In October, the company wrote off $23bn from the acquisition of Alstom.

This acquisition had cost GE just $10.1bn, but Alstom’s hefty liabilities resulted in a negative book value even before the impairment.

Then there’s the case of Kraft Heinz. In February, the company recorded a $7.3bn goodwill impairment. The impact on its share price was immediate; its stock lost more than a quarter of its value on the day of the announcement.

What is interesting is that the main cause of the GE and Kraft impairments related to large acquisitions conducted in 2015. Indeed @Businessdayng

there is some evidence inferring that impairment charges are perhaps more likely two to three years post transaction.

So, do these high-profile examples herald a wave of significant impairments elsewhere? We think they might. For one thing, the size of the recent M&A boom means there’s a much higher proportion of goodwill on balance sheets than in the past.

In the recent buying bonanza, the premium paid above a target’s book value was typically well above 20 per cent. If GDP growth slows and cost pressures rise, justifying such large asset values is going to prove more difficult.

Impairments are not always bad news in themselves. Sometimes they occur because incoming management teams are keen to write off goodwill so that they can start with a clean slate — as was the case with GE. Conversely, though, incumbent managements can be reluctant to recognise impairments, because this is tantamount to admitting that they have overpaid for assets. And who wants to admit to a mistake?

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FT

ANALYSIS

Tennis star Naomi Osaka: ‘I let it get to my head a little bit’ As she aims to win a third Grand Slam, the 21-year-old talks success and beating Serena MURAD AHMED

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aomi Osaka is contemplating the nature of greatness. Of the tens of millions on the planet who play tennis, the Japanese athlete is the top-ranked female, designated the World Number One. She earned the title earlier this year after winning the past two Grand Slam tournaments, the most prestigious events in the sport.

Statistically, objectively, in this snapshot of time, Osaka is the best. That doesn’t make her one of the greats, she says — not yet. Osaka has witnessed the effect of true greatness during her five years on the gruelling international tour for professional tennis. Year in, year out, dozens trudge into the same locker rooms, in the same stadiums, competing for the same

upwards. She wants to emulate her idols; Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic. Like them, Osaka aims to become a multiple Grand Slam victor, an alpha winner, an uber champion.

She is right about one thing.

Osaka is not the sport’s dominant force. Her “Elo rating”, a measure of performance that takes into account the quality of opponents faced, currently puts her several places off the number one spot, behind the likes of Petra Kvitova, who she beat earlier this year to win her second Grand Slam title, and other less-hyped young talents such as Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.

Since winning her second Grand Slam, the Australian Open in January, Osaka has yet to triumph in one of the lesser WTA tournaments this year. (If results go against her in Rome this week

US oil: Occidental’s $56bn gamble on finding value in shale Vicki Hollub’s pursuit of Anadarko will be a test of industry profitability ED CROOKS

W trophies. Only a few individuals truly stand out from the crowd.

“I feel like all the great players have this aura where you go to a Grand Slam or a tournament and literally everyone sort of clears a path,” she says. “I’m not even joking. Everyone knows their team members, so even the team members get a path. And I just think it would be kind of cool to have that later on in my life.”

Osaka’s confessional tone at times gives our interview the feel of a therapy session. “My thing in general is: I don’t want to be cocky, but then people are like, ‘You’re Number One, so you should at least be a little bit more ‘oomph’”, she says. “I feel like all the Number Ones — there’s like this oomph with their character. I don’t know how to describe it but if you’re comparing a teddy bear and, like, the sleek . . . ” she says before trailing off for a second. “I don’t know what I’m saying. But, do you know what I mean? I don’t feel like people are scared of me.”

At just 21, it’s hardly surprising that Osaka is still getting used to life at the top of world tennis.

We are chatting in a room overlooking a clay court in Stuttgart.

In a dark indoor arena below, two little-known players are battling one another in the qualification stages of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, one of more than 50 competitions on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour.

As the event’s number one seed, Osaka was granted a bye past the first round of matches.

She sits in black training gear above those desperate for the right to play against her, who dream of ascending to the heights she has reached. Osaka’s habit is already to look further

— after FT Weekend Magazine went to press — she could even lose her Number One ranking.)

This could simply be a regression to the mean. But an analysis of Osaka’s record leads to a different proposition: uniquely suited to serving up her best performances under the strain of the sport’s toughest challenges, she is a biggame player.

Osaka’s father, Leonard Maxime Francois, is Haitian by birth, and moved to Sapporo in Japan in 1990, becoming one of the few black men to live in the northern city. There he met Tamaki Osaka but, in a racially homogeneous nation, the couple kept their relationship a secret. When they decided to marry, it was over the objections of Tamaki’s father.

The couple moved south to the city of Osaka, where they had two daughters, Mari and Naomi.

In 1999, Leonard watched on television as two young sisters, Serena and Venus Williams, began their domination of tennis under the tutelage of their father, Richard. Leonard envisaged a similar future for his daughters. A year later, when Naomi was aged three, the family moved to Long Island in New York City. Both girls would follow a strict regime of school and relentless tennis.

“I didn’t know anything else,” says Osaka. “During summer vacation all the kids would be talking about the places that they went but I just remember I was practising all day, the entire vacation. So, I would be kind of sad. I was like, ‘I want to go to the pool too.’” Such resentment did not last long though, “because I really wanted to be good when I grew up”, she says. www.businessday.ng

hen Vicki Hollub stood up to speak at Occidental Petroleum’s annual meeting last Friday, she knew she was facing a sceptical audience. After three years as chief executive, she had just agreed the most ambitious move of her career, the $56bn acquisition of rival Anadarko Petroleum, and many investors feared she was overreaching.

Buying Anadarko, one of the largest US independent oil and gas groups, with assets around the world from Texas to Mozambique, will double the size of Occidental. It will also saddle the company with debts of around $50bn, in return for a business that has been failing to cover its capital spending from its operating cash flows. Ms Hollub promised billions of dollars worth of cost savings and productivity gains from the deal, but many investors remain sceptical that she can deliver.

“It is simply outrageous,” said one top 10 shareholder before the meeting. The deal poses several operational risks as well as putting enormous pressure on Occidental’s balance sheet, he warned. Investors’ lack of enthusiasm for the deal was reflected in Occidental’s share price, which dropped to a 10-year low as Anadarko accepted its offer.

Addressing around 100 shareholders in a windowless conference room in the basement of the company’s Houston headquarters, Ms Hollub insisted that the deal was “a unique transformative opportunity” for Occidental. “We will get those synergies” from Anadarko’s assets, she said. “We can operate them better than anybody else. We are the rightful owner.”

Although investors had no opportunity to vote directly on the deal, their votes on other issues, including the appointment of Occidental directors, showed clear signs of discontent. The message was clear: if Ms Hollub was so determined to do this deal, she had better make sure it works.

There was a bigger lesson: 15 years into the shale revolution, investors across the US oil and gas industry want it to start paying off for them.

The surge in US oil and gas production, created by the shale boom, has changed the world. The US acts like a “swing producer”: a source of supply that can respond within months to higher prices by increasing output. As tensions rise between

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the US and Iran, it provides a reassuring buffer against the threat of an oil crisis. But from its earliest days there have been suspicions that the industry is built on unstable financial foundations.

The small and midsized companies that pioneered the advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing that unlocked previously unyielding shale rocks have relied on bank borrowing, and equity and bond sales, to finance growth. A sample of leading exploration and production companies compiled by Bloomberg revealed that total capital spending has exceeded total cash from operations in every year since 2010.

That persistent failure to be financially self-sustaining has weighed heavily on the share prices of US oil and gas companies. Since the start of 2017, the benchmark Brent crude price has risen by about 40 per cent, but the S&P 500 exploration and production sector index has dropped by 16 per cent.

Spine chart comparing Anadarko against Occidental using various values such as Net debt, revenues, reserves, net income, production and market capitalisation Ms Hollub says she can do better. Through economies of scale, efficient logistics management and superior geological understanding, Occidental aims to improve the performance of Anadarko’s assets and generate sustained free cash flows for investors.

If it can deliver on these promises, it will show the world that the shale industry can have a financially sustainable, long-term future. If it fails, it will sound a warning that shale remains a trap for unwary investors.

To win Anadarko, Occidental had to see off its larger rival Chevron, which took some swift manoeuvring, while the two companies had competing bids on the table. Ms Hollub flew to Omaha, Nebraska for a 90-minute meeting with Warren Buffett on April 28, securing a $10bn investment from Berkshire Hathaway that allowed her to rejig Occidental’s offer to include more cash, avoiding the need to put the deal to a vote of her own shareholders.

“To get the deal done, we had to have those funds. The timing was critical for us,” she told investors. “I am very happy and grateful to Warren Buffett for being there when we needed him.”

In the end, however, winning was relatively straightforward. Occidental made a bid worth around 20 per cent more to Anadarko’s shareholders, and Chevron chief executive Michael @Businessdayng

Wirth declined to match it. “This was an excellent opportunity for us, but it was not a necessity at any price,” Mr Wirth told the Financial Times. “We simply are not desperate to do a deal.”

For Occidental, the hard part is just beginning. It must now prove that its higher bid was justified.

The key to making the deal work lies about 500 miles west of Houston, in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the hottest spot in the US shale oil boom. The sparsely-populated landscape of scrubby mesquite bushes has become a maelstrom of activity, as companies have rushed to exploit what are some of the world’s lowest-cost oil reserves. Production doubled in the three years up to 2019, hitting an estimated 4.1m barrels a day of oil in May. It has accounted for about half of the total increase in US oil production since 2016 and the Permian alone produces more oil than any member of Opec except Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Var chart showing a halving of Occidental ’s operating cost o from 2014 to 2018 Anadarko’s portfolio includes a range of operations, from deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico to an LNG export plant under development in Mozambique. Many of those assets are up for sale, and a deal to raise $8bn has already been agreed with France’s Total for the LNG project and other operations in Africa. Ms Hollub has made it clear that the real prize is Anadarko’s drilling rights on around 250,000 acres of the Permian. Those assets are worth about $17bn, according to Rystad Energy, a research firm.

Ms Hollub told the annual meeting that applying Occidental’s knowhow could add $10bn to their value.

Already one of the largest producers in the Permian region, Occidental is also one of the biggest holders of drilling rights. Jeff Bennett, senior vice-president in charge of its shale operations, says that three years ago it was “probably at the bottom” in terms of performance. Since then, however, he says the business has been transformed.

The company spent a couple of years focused on acquiring and analysing seismic surveys and other data, working out ways to drill wells more precisely. It has since published impressive-looking statistics, purporting to show how that applied science delivers superior performance.

The wells it has been drilling in the Delaware Basin, the western section of the Permian, have on average produced 74 per cent more oil and gas than those of Anadarko in their first six months in production.

Friday 17 May 2019

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Friday 17 May 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Women in Business

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jeoma Ndukwe is a Business Strategist and the MD of Bubez Foods, a competitive player in Nigeria’s food processing & packaging industry, which was established in August 2012.

Her passion for business began in her university undergrad days with the sales of products such as Mary Kay and Senegalese outfits and subsequently, the operation of a luxurious lifestyle store called Bubez Plaiz. Ijeoma was in fashion retail business which looking back was more of a hobby than an actual business.

She knew nothing about cash flow and the basic essentials of running a business so she wasn’t growing financially. She did this for 8years and in 2012, trying to earn more income for financial stability, she thought about pap in her quiet time with God. Ijeoma has 3 kids and until they were 2years of age their staple was pap. She realised there were families who weren’t taking pap anymore because of the processing hassle and would not buy from the road side sellers for hygiene reasons.

She decided to bridge the gap by selling pap in a hygienic and convenient way.

This began the Bubez Foods journey.

Her unique approach to this product has rebranded public opinion of pap and introduced a new business line in the market with more people packaging and selling pap as a result.

Bubez Food (www.bubezfoods.com) began on a low scale from the home of its MD with N200 and her blackberry contacts but opened its doors to its factory in 2015 with sales offices in 2 states.

Bubez pap is sold in major stores across Nigeria and is also been exported and sold in stores in the US. The variants include Bubez Pap Mixed Grains Paste Strawberry Flavour, Bubez

Friday 17 May 2019

By Kemi Ajumobi

www.businessday.ng

Achenyo Idachaba

Ijeoma Ndukwe MD, Bubez foods

BUSINESS DAY

Pap Mixed Grains Paste with Ginger, Bubez Pap Mixed Grains Paste with Vanilla Flavour, Bubez Pap mixed Grains Paste with Groundnut, Bubez Pap Mixed Grains Paste with Soybeans, Bubez Pap Mixed Grains Paste and Bubez Pap Yellow Corn Paste.

Seeking to make more impact and share with other Entrepreneurs, the skills she had learnt in growing her own business, Ijeoma has gone on to create an online community called Bubez Centre (www.bubezcenter.org), where she runs an online course, teaching women and men alike, through her own experiences, how to harness their potentials and grow their dream businesses. This online community which has people from across the globe has become a space for Business and Life Clarity and Development.

Ijeoma Ndukwe is also the author of the Business Inspirational book called Your Dream, Your Seed. This palm book was written with the goal of teaching its audience how to harness the power of their mind and passion into profits.

Ijeoma’s passion for business, clarity and knowledge has also made her a soughtafter speaker at business events organised by different communities across the country, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). She has also been a guest on multiple Television platforms such as CNBC Africa, EbonyLife TV, Channels TV, AIT, Plus TV Africa and more.

Her Ministry arm, The White lilies is a faith based organisation whose mission is ‘Restoring Hope’.

She is the convener of a mega conference ‘My best Life Conference’ and her goal is to create a widespread impact that teaches people especially women to unlock the fullest of their potentials and move to the next phase of their life through clarity and hard work.

Founder & Creative Director, was employing seven staff. The weeds are harvested, dried and then made into rope MitiMeth

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dachaba came to notice after she moved to Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2009 to set up an environmental consultancy.

Idachaba had an affinity with Nigeria as her parents had been born there and she had spent some time visiting when she was younger although she was born (in about 1969) and educated in America.

She realised that Water Hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) which was recognised as an invasive weed could be harvested as she had read of this happening in Asia. In collaboration with local craftspeople she set up a range of products that were woven from the dried plants. The company was called Mitimeth. She developed products such as a waste basket and a table tidy which were made from plants that are usually only known for being invasive. These plants were originally from South America and can be seen as attractive in a domestic garden; however they have been called the “worst aquatic plant” as they grow so abundantly that they create large floating mats of plants that quickly reproduce. By 2013, she had won a grant from the government and she

Comment Support for pregnant women, and matters arising – Femi Olugbile P. 9 The tragic suicide of a Lagos hairdresser – Eugenia Abu P. 9

which can then be made into products.

In 2014, her efforts were recognised when she was given the Cartier award.

This was the women’s initiative award for sub-Saharan Africa, which had also been won the year before by another Nigerian, Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola. She has been featured on CNN and her TED talk in 2015 achieved over a million hits.

Achenyo is a computer scientistturned-social entrepreneur. She is the Founder and Creative Director of MitiMeth, an award-winning social enterprise based in Nigeria. MitiMeth’s unique handmade products have featured in several domestic and international exhibitions. Achenyo was nominated the 2015 Emerging Female Entrepreneur of the Year by the Creative Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (CEAN), and is a 2015 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) awardee. She is the 2014 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Laureate for Sub-Saharan Africa, and a 2013 YouWIN!Women Awardee. MitiMeth also received the 2013 Local Raw Materials Content Award from the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) for its innovative use of water hyacinth. Achenyo has spoken at TED as well as Harvard University. She has been featured on Deutsche Welle TV, CNBC Africa, CNN’s African Start-Up, The Nation and BusinessDay Newspapers, Inc., BusinessLife Magazine and on BusinessAfrica TV. Her work has also been published in the Nigerian Field Journal. Prior to founding MitiMeth and Greennovative Chain Consulting, Achenyo spent 11 years with ExxonMobil in Fairfax, Virginia where she held a variety of regional and global positions. She has a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Economics from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, an M.S. in Applied Computer Science from Illinois State University and a M.B.A from Cornell University.

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