BusinessDay 20 Aug 2020

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Lessons for Nigeria from Gatwick Airport as international flights resume August 29 s Nigeria prepares to resume international flights August 29, 2020, there are lessons Nigerian airport authorities and airline operators can learn from Gatwick Airport, London, on how it is implementing COVID-19 protocols to keep passengers safe while flying and passing through the terminal.

Hadi Sirika, Nigeria’s minister of aviation, had earlier in the week tweeted that the resumption of international flights would begin with Lagos and Abuja, as the ministry did with domestic flight resumption, Continues on page 31

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Stock market volatility fuelled by companies with locked-in shares Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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he current rate of volatility in Nigeria’s stock market will continue unless regulatory push is stronger to cause companies release most of their locked-in shares (smaller free float) into the hands of wiling investing public.

‘Free float’ is generally described as all shares held by investors, other than restricted Continues on page 31

Inside

L-R: Mohammed Bello, minister of FCT; Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, and Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday.

FC4S Lagos partners FMDQ, FSD Africa, CBI to engage on capacity building for sustainable finance P. 4

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Banking agents’ commissions make up 55% of customer charges … Charge above CBN stipulated fees HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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igerian banking agents’ commissions make up 55 percent of the customer charges as nearly 2 out of 5 agents charge above the maximum fees stipulated by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and report charging extra fees to make more money and on average, EFInA survey shows.

The CBN’s guide to charges by banks and other financial institutions stated that On-Us Agent (borne by customer) is to charge N100 for Cashin (Deposit into Mobile Money Operator Wallet).

For Off-Us Agent (borne by customer), the CBN stipulates minimum charge of N50 subject to 1.5 percent of transaction value or N500, whichever is lower.

Agents sending to account holder under intraScheme Money Transfer are to charge minimum of N50 subject to 1 percent of transaction value or N300, whichever is lower.

Sending to non-ac-

count holder, a charge of minimum of N50 subject to 1.5 percent of transaction value or N500, whichever is lower, is stipulated in the guide.

BusinessDay finds out that across Lagos State, the agents are charging N200 per N10,000 when a customer does transfer or withdraws, instead of N150.

Fi n a n c i a l S e r v i c e s Agents Survey 2020 report

by EFInA shows that the agents charge 27 percent or N190 for ‘on us’ transfer instead of N150 stipulated by the regulator. For ‘on us’ withdrawal the agents charge N173 or 15 percent instead of N150 directed by the CBN. Banking agents increased by 220 percent from 83,560 in December 2018 to 267,627 as at February 29, 2020, according to Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) as published by the CBN. The 2020 roll out plan was expected to bring additional 232,373 agents to close out the year with the 500,000 agents.

FBN, First City, Investment One funds are top performers so far in 2020 Endurance Okafor & Favour Olarewaju

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usinessDay’s yearto-date analysis of the performance of 100 funds distributed over six broad portfolio classes shows FBN Capital Asset Management, First City Asset Management Ltd and Investment One Funds Management topped the gainers’ chart.

Using the monthly data from January 3 to August 7, 2020, the analysis of the funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) evaluates the stock/ fixed income selection skills of the fund managers.

While some mutual funds were seen performing well, others were moving in southward trajectory.

A fund manager in an era of high uncertainty in Nigeria’s investment environment amid COVID-19 and the low-yielding instrument could offer several advantages to investors.

Despitearecord-inflationrate that has risen for 27 consecutive months to 12.82 percent in July, FBNCapitalAssetManagement, First City Asset Management Ltd and Investment One Funds Management topped the BusinessDay list of best performing mutual fund managers as they

recorded some of the highest returns on investments.

AIICO Capital and PAC Asset Management Limited were also part of the top performers as they surmounted the odds to report a good performance in several portfolio classes.

For instance, out of the seven funds across all fund types (with a majority – 3 in bond funds), FBN Capital Asset Management recorded positive growth for all except for its money market fund which had zero growth like all other money market funds in H1 2020.

First City Asset Management Ltd had two positive growths in fixed income and bond markets, zero growth in the money market and negative growth in equity-based funds with bonds accounting for its largest increase in H1 2020.

With five funds listed on the SecuritiesExchange,Investment OneFundsManagementrecorded positive growth in unit price for mixed funds (Vantage BalancedFund),negativeinequities market (Vantage Equity Income Fund) with no YTD change in its money market fund (Abacus Money Market Fund). Its two fundsinthefixedincomemarket (Vantage Guaranteed Income and Vantage Dollar Fund) had unchanged and positive growth, respectively. www.businessday.ng

Babajide Sanwo-Olu (2nd r), Lagos State governor; Obafemi Hamzat (2nd l), Lagos State deputy governor; Solape Hammond (l), special adviser to the Lagos State governor on SDG and Lagos Global, and Olatubosun Alake (r), special adviser to the governor on innovation and technology, at the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC) grant award ceremony in Lagos.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

FC4S Lagos partners FMDQ, FSD Africa, CBI to engage on capacity building for sustainable finance … signs Declaration with state government

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ollowing the successful launch of the Financial Centre for Sustainability (FC4S) Lagos, an initiative set on inspiring a greener Nigeria through sustainability principles, in collaboration with market stakeholders, a Declaration was co-signed by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor, Lagos State, and Bola Onadele. Koko, chairman, FC4S Lagos.

This Declaration, a crucial step towards operationalising FC4S Lagos, conveys the commitment of the Lagos State government and FC4S Lagos as well as other key stakeholders to advance green and sustainable finance in the Nigerian financial markets, in

line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.

To further support the entrenchment of sustainable finance in the Nigerian financial markets, FC4S Lagos, in partnership with the implementing partners of the Nigeria Green Bond Market Development Programme (NGBMDP) - FMDQ Group (FMDQ), Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) UK, and Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa - organised a capacity building roundtable webinar (Roundtable) for the Executive Council of Lagos State government, themed “The Role of Sustainable Fi-

nance Instruments in Driving Economic Development” on Wednesday, August 5, 2020.

The closed Roundtable, which brought together members of the Lagos State Executive Council, including commissioners, special advisers and permanent secretaries of Lagos State MDA, was delivered as part of the advocacy efforts of FC4S Lagos in driving the entrenchment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in institutions at the subnational and sovereign level in Nigeria.

The Roundtable highlighted the sustainable finance opportunities and dimensioned how the state government could leverage the debt capital

markets to finance its huge infrastructure projects.

Lagos State, which has continued to experience an exponential growth in population due to rural-urban migration among other factors, remains limited by land mass and therefore continues to seek innovative ways to address sustainable development and infrastructure growth in the state.

This has become more pertinent as the State seeks to flatten the curve of the global COVID-19 pandemic for which it is unsurprisingly the epicentre of the nation.

Bola Onadele. Koko, CEO,

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Oil workers fight government’s effort to plug loopholes in personnel payroll DIPO OLADEHINDE

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he threat by oil workers of a nationwide strike over their enrolment on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is a subtle blackmail to frustrate the Federal Government’s scheme, the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Ahmed Idris, has said.

AccordingtoIdris,IPPIS,one of the public finance reform initiatives, is an information communicationstechnologyproject initiated by the government to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of payroll administration for its ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

President Muhammadu Buhari had directed during the presentation of his 2018 budget speech that all MDAs drawing their personnel cost from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) must enrol on IPPIS by October 2019.

Most of the MDAs have enrolled including the tertiary institutions, though with some resistance. However, the Agencies under the Ministry that have refused to come on board are namely: Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR); Petroleum Products Pricing RegulatoryAgency(PPPRA);Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), and Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA). Efforts to get these agencies to enrol on the IPPIS platform have failed.

“Workers across board in the country owe it a responsibility to work with government to plug loopholes by adhering to all laws, rules and guidelines set by the government for such purposes of collective interest. The oil workers cannot pull in opposite direction, not at this time,” Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, advised.

Previously, the salaries

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of workers in the petroleum industry were stopped in April 2020 for non-compliance with president’s directive and refusal to join the IPPIS, even after the government has been able to cover sensitive institutions like the military, the police, the universities (with resistance), among others.

Also, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, held a virtual meeting with these Agencies on July 15, 2020, and a resolution was reached with them to submit their nominal roll to the IPPIS office, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) latest July 17, 2020.

In a related development, the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) met twice with the chief executive of Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA)andsomeunionleaders inhisofficeanddirectedimmediate payment of their salaries on submission of their nominal roll. @Businessdayng

However, this was not done until Tuesday, August 11, 2020, when the NNRA submitted, while Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) only submitted theirs on Friday, August 14, 2020, after their notification of the warning strike.

Meanwhile, in three years, the implementation of IPPIS has saved the country over N230 billion, according to Idris.

Idris had disclosed that Nigeria gained over N50 billion, N100 billion and N80 billion in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively, which would have been lost to fictitious payment of salaries and pensions.

Members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), the country’s secondbiggest labour group in the industry, had last Wednesday, declared a three-day warning strike and planned to commence a total strike afterwards, if their demands were not met.

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COVID-19 lockdown lowers CBN’s FX sales by 82.2% in one month HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he impact of Covid-19 lockdown reflected in the foreign exchange sale by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as the total amount of forex sold to authorised dealers decreased by 82.2 percent to $0.84 billion in April from $4.70 billion in March 2020.

The low demand for foreign exchange was majorly linked to the closure of factories and businesses.

Foreign exchange sales at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window declined by 78.5 per cent to $0.78 billion, relative to the preceding month’s level of $3.61 billion, the CBN’s monthly economic report for April 2020, indicated.

However, interbank sales rose significantly by 2,900 per cent to $0.06 billion, above the $0.002 billion sales in March 2020. The development was to ensure adequate foreign exchange liquidity in the market.

Sales to Bureau De Change (BDCs) were suspended on request by the BDC operators, effective March 27, 2020,

because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The monthly average turnover at the I&E FX market, which represented 70-80 per cent of the total transactions in the foreign exchange market, had been on the decline persistently since February 2020, following the lull in economic activities, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The monthly average turnover at the I&E decreased notably by 87.0 per cent, from $0.34 billion in March 2020 to $0.04 billion in April 2020, making it a second consecutive monthly decrease since February 2020.

Daily FX turnover at the I&E forex window declined further by 9.92 percent to $18.44 million on Tuesday from $20.27 million on Monday, data from FMDQ show.

At the same time, the average exchange rate of the naira vis-à-vis the US dollar, at N384.99/$, depreciated by 3.1 percent and 2.2 per cent compared with N373.04/$ and N364.79/$ in March 2020 and February 2020, respectively.

This reflected increased demand pressure for investment in safe haven arising from the

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Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the unimpressive outlook on Nigeria by the rating agency.

Naira has further depreciated in value as the dollar was sold at N477 on the black market on Tuesday but later strengthened to N476 on Wednesday. In the same manner it was sold at N478 at the retail bureau on Tuesday but strengthened to N476 on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, the FX market remained supply constrained as the I&E window continued to trade leanly due to lower trade volumes. Naira weakened marginally by 0.05 percent as the dollar was quoted at N385.98 compared to N385.78 as on the previous day.

Analysts as FSDH research said most participants maintained bids between N380.00 and N386.00 per dollar on Tuesday.

Most emerging market currencies, including the naira, were negatively impacted by the pandemic and the slump in commodity prices. The average exchange value of the naira at the interbank segment of the foreign exchange market depreciated by 15.0 per cent, from N305.99/$ in January 2020 to N360.00/$ in April 2020.

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NIMC, identity management crisis in Nigeria and the way forward (1) Gbenga Odegbami

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dentity management is important and cannot be overemphasised.

It is so strategic that almost all the past government administrations in Nigeria since 1976 have considered it a critical space for development.

Recently, the Presidency, via the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), inaugurated a Steering Committee for the Nigeria Digital Identity, to develop the Ecosystem Project to ensure that issues of identity management stay at the forefront and ensure that the government achieves its objectives.

Considering that my company, Youverify, is a key player in the Nigerian identity management ecosystem, some stakeholders have repeatedly sought my opinion on developments in this industry. Here are my thoughts on how Nigeria arrived at where we are presently, lessons learned from history and steps to achieve the nation’s identity management objectives.

So far, we have spent some much, with little results The World Bank has estimated that Nigeria is on track to spend about $4.3 billion on identification and addressing programmes. This figure seems realistic when you consider the fact that Nigeria spends an average of over $500m on each voter registration cycle before an election.

To ensure that the thrust of this article is not missed, I will refrain from focusing on the two major factors that affect every public initiative in Nigeria; the first being corruption (the bogeyman of all problems in Nigeria, according to popular perception), while the second is lack of continuity after the change of regime.

So, let’s examine the issues that re-

ally count.

Citizens’ identity management is beyond the BVN A review of the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) exercise conducted within 18 months less that the time frame prescribed by the Banker’s Committee (led by the CBN) agreed to show it was a successful initiative. However, some stakeholders believe that it is focused only on the financially included, thus, excluding more than 60 percent of the population. For this reason, the BVN cannot be used for voter registration or economic intervention in Nigeria i.e.

National Social Register (NSR). Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the gains from adopting the BVN, especially within the Fintech space and the resultant economic value and security we enjoy today. I believe that if we galvanise the identity system to cover for almost all Nigerians, the economic impact will be widespread.

NIMC has its challenges As humans in a democratic society, we are quick to blame the government agencies for failed systems without really considering the requirements and realities of operating such systems in our polity. Perhaps you are among those who applied for the National ID 4 years ago and have not received it. Statistically, transformational projects such as a National ID scheme have an average of 30 percent success rate of meeting their objectives across the globe. Nigeria is not an exception. I have analysed four factors, from my perspective, responsible for the failure of the National ID scheme.

Value to citizens The bottom line is ID compliance is largely driven by the perceived value to citizens. For many years, we have repeatedly failed to emphasise this point, and people only wilfully submit to an identification process when they appreciate the benefit or need for them.

For instance, the success attributable to the adoption of the Permanent Voters

Card is largely due to the desire of people to vote during elections. Even still, INEC has registered just above 80m Nigerians in 2 years. For the BVN, you cannot partake in the financial ecosystem without one, therefore you must enrol to participate.

The success of all National identification efforts in other countries is because the citizens are required to use it to access social intervention/ insurance/ retirement packages and to file personal income taxes.

In Nigeria, this never existed until the creation of the National Social Investment Office (NSIO) (now Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs). However, this ministry is focused on the vulnerable and poor for now and it therefore excludes some section of the populace.

I believe we don’t have an enrollment problem but a value one.

Funding Like all non-revenue generating agencies, NIMC struggles with obtaining timely funding to achieve its stated objectives. We perpetually run a budget deficit, and the focus seems to be on capital-intensive infrastructure projects for the real sector, while other projects, like citizen identification, are neglected and pushed to compete with other projects designed to provide basic services like food, jobs etc. The balance is grossly uneven and agencies like NIMC are forced to halt or delay in delivering on their objectives.

I doubt if NIMC has gotten $200m combined from inception and they have enrolled more than 40m Nigerians, which is significantly productive based on the data from other climes. As important as NIMC’s mandate is, it has struggled to get the funding it required because we have so many competing priorities.

Silos in government Although we have had presidential committee(s) to ensure harmonisation of identity management efforts, often

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In the same vein, not too long ago, you needed: a physical location with an agent, a digital camera with specific background, a desktop computer, 4-42 fingerprint scanner, a printer, electrical power and internet connection, to conduct an enrolment exercise

such committees stymie the effort in the long run. This issue is not unique to Nigeria. Government agencies led by political appointees and career civil servants naturally protect their empire or try to increase it. Considering that political powers and organisational influence are at play here, the silos in Nigeria can be as complex as it gets. Even though NIMC operates an open-door policy with other agencies, it takes more than open-door policy to tango in government even with direct presidential oversight.

Technology appropriateness The technology deployed for identity biometrics has evolved significantly over the years, making this the process more accessible, efficient and affordable.

NIMC ought to stay updated with developments in technology. Considerable time is required to identify the technology and complete the procurement process, which will be hampered by government bureaucracies. I will illustrate this malaise When the project commenced execution, there were cheaper alternatives in the market. For instance, the NIMC smart card was ahead of the game and probably the most forwardthinking ID approach. Today, the tech space has moved on to digital identity apps on smartphones and blockchainbased platforms.

In the same vein, not too long ago, you needed: a physical location with an agent, a digital camera with specific background, a desktop computer, 4-4-2 fingerprint scanner, a printer, electrical power and internet connection, to conduct an enrollment exercise. Presently, these processes can be replaced with an app on a smartphone and executed at the fraction of the cost and with the same or higher data quality.

Dr. Odegbami is a co-founder and the CEO at Youverify Inc. Youverify is a Lagos-based digital identity firm that facilitates the automation due diligence and compliance by using data-driven initiatives and related-technology

Learning to think analytically is the only immunity during an infodemic

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e live in infodemic times. Misinformation, “fake” news, financial scams and hate speech are examples of harmful online content infecting millions. Broadly categorised as information disorder disease propagated through social media. Many are infected, some recovered and sadly many literally died. The World Economic Forum rated “massive digital misinformation” as a main threat to civilised society. The World Health Organisation: “we’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic [that] spreads faster and more easily than this [covid-19] virus.”

Infodemics occur when populations are bombarded with excess information about an issue or problem that obscures solutions, disrespects facts and clouds the truth. Gullible consumers of content are the victims in this information war, the only weapons in the counter offensive are facts aligned with logical and critical thinking (analytical thinking). The Economist magazine described cyberspace as “the world’s most lawless battlefield.”

Populations could be segmented into “educated” and “uneducated”. The ability to think clearly and critically, to look for facts (or establish the facts) and think for oneself in logical transparent steps: these are the defining traits of the genuinely educated. The memorisation of information and obtaining a certificate confirming that achievement do not make a person truly educated. Thinking

critically, logically, with respect for and a bias for facts, an understanding for example of the difference between correlation and causation. This is not just the domain of lawyers, philosophers or news analysts on television.

In my online content research analysis work and interventions to help consumers of internet content, I use a system of online content classification that broadly (with subcategories) divides content in cyberspace in two categories: 1. Analytical content; 2. NonAnalytical (ordinary) content. All analytical content in cyberspace has passed through the filter of critical and logical thinking.

Claims, hypothesis or speculations made in analytical content are supported with some form of credible evidence. Non-analytical content does not provide credible evidence to support claims and does not display critical or logical thinking, this is unverified content. Most non-analytical content is generally harmless when the content does not make important claims.

In a 2015 paper, Simon Cullen of Princeton University and his co-authors concluded that “the ability to analyse arguments is critical for high-level reasoning, yet previous research suggests that standard university education provides only modest improvements in students’ analytical-reasoning abilities.” David Epstein’s book released last year, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World” reveals some fascinating information. Epstein describes a study of students from depart-

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ments as different as the English department is from the Neuroscience department of a top American university.

Students were given 20 questions that tested conceptual/analytical thinking ability applicable in the real world. Results showed students with high great point average (GPA) in academics did not necessarily perform well: there was no correlation between GPA and broad conceptual/analytical thinking.

The conclusion: “…traits that earn good grades at the university do not include critical ability of any broad significance.”

Most students confuse value judgements for scientific conclusions. In one particular question testing students’ ability to separate correlation from evidence of causation, the students performed poorly. Epstein notes, “almost none of the students in any major [academic subject] showed a consistent understanding of how to apply methods of evaluating truth learned in their own discipline to other areas.”

During interviews of candidates for analyst positions in prestigious consultancy firms, a typical test would contain a statement and a question with answer options.

For example: the statement “the USA has 150,000 COVID related deaths and the UK has 50,000 COVID related deaths,” which of the following is a logical conclusion from the preceding statement? Answer options could include (a) a person is more likely to die from COVID in the US than in the UK (b) the UK has the pandemic in control better than the

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Uyiosa Omoregie USA (c) the USA has a greater population than the UK (d) the USA carries out more COVID tests than the UK. Thinking analytically reveals none of the conclusions (answers a,b,c or d) can be logically drawn from the statement preceding. All answers from (a) to (d) are facts that can be confirmed when more information is provided. However, only two conclusions can be drawn: (1) Both the USA and UK populations have thousands of COVID related deaths (2) the USA has more deaths from COVID than the UK: the absolute number of deaths is greater in the USA. No other conclusion can be supported solely by the preceding statement. To conclude, for example, that the situation with COVID in the USA is worse than in the UK, we need to move from absolute numbers to relative numbers: number of deaths per entire population or deaths per million population. This is analytical thinking.

Omoregie is an independent research analyst and a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants. uyiosaomoregie@yahoo.co.uk, @UyiosaOM (Twitter)

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Sales coaching – a panacea for sustainable market growth Positive Growth with Babs

Babs OlugbemI

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he role of sales and marketing in any organisation cannot be over-emphasised; be it in a service or productionoriented entity. Selling is the life wire of any business endeavour. Just as customers deposit (cash or liquidity) is essential to the survival, profitability, solvency of financial institutions, the sales of stock in trade or the enlistment of customers for a service business is the sine qua non to business sustainability.

Sales have not been more critical to business leaders than in a difficult time like this. The pandemic has changed the terrain and aggravates customers’ consciousness for failed products or services. Spending is becoming more of a long-time investment due to the uncertainty created by the equal-opportunity virus, which affects the rich, the affluent and poor in the same dimension.

For organisations that want to survive and stay afloat in 2020, the focus should be more on their sales enlistment processes. It is dangerous for a business owner or a top decision-maker to assume customers will buy like before or they would not buy. Efforts should be re-energised into defining the value propositions, re-aligning the routes to the market, improving the sales supporting processes, the after sales services, and strategies to make your company’s brand known, widely patronised and remembered beyond the era of the pandemic.

Some CEOs or companies will not survive the effects of the pandemic

except they radically change their sales philosophies and approaches to align with the changing orientations of their customers or consumers. We are in another era; an era of change that happened in the late 1990s led to the preference of salespersons to the other subject matter experts in the race of the CEOs’ positions. After COVID-19, the new terrain will not be for sales leaders, but creative sales leaders that can navigate their organisations through trouble waters and still deliver more than reasonable returns on investment to the shareholders irrespective of changes in the consumers’ behaviours or capacity to spend.

The question is, how can a sales leader maintain sustainability and consistent market growth in the number of customers and sales volume or value in a difficult business terrain. How can the customers’ loyalty be retained and expanded during and after COVID-19?

As a sales coach and leadership expert, I have led a team of consultants to support our clients, focusing on the sales organisations, the composition of their streams of income and clients as responses to the changing business landscapes. We have engaged sales professionals and leaders from the emotional and psychological perspectives to raise their performance bar during and after COVID-19.

Selling is a skill. The skill is a continuum. Like, my Indian friend and mentor will say, sales is like riding on the back of a tiger. When you find yourself riding at the back of the tiger, what will you do? If you stop riding, you will become a breakfast or lunch for the tiger depending on the time of the day. You will observe that sales figures are always on the increase irrespective of the change in the economic parameters. Whether the country’s growth rate of GDP or the disposable income is shrinking or not, sales budgets and targets are always on the increase year-on-year. I have not come across a company that wants to achieve fewer sales revenue than it did in the previous years. Investors want more from management. The customer wants more value with less cash than

they are currently paying. It is a tug of war, and only a tough mindset and approach will win the game.

Sales skills are more of management of emotions, attitude, relationships and understanding of the different performance perspectives and less of running up and down with static strategy. At the end of the day, it boils down to individuality. A company with a collection of result-oriented sales lions or marines (according to one of my clients) will go on the same frequency and take territories than a company with ‘’business as usual’’ salespeople. Perspective is critical in making your sales teams deliver on their numbers, and as leaders, you have an enormous role than ever. You must have a sales coach who inspires others and an experienced deal maker who can make it happen when the chips are down. The approach of pushing sales staff without showing your deal or contribution is fast exposing sales leaders to ridicule. It is now what you say I cannot hear but what you do I can see and hear loudly.

In one of my previous articles titled, “For Sales Leaders Only,” I admonish sales leaders to think and act like the owners. Sales leaders are to behave like football coaches who need the support and the collaboration of their players to win games and trophies. The orientation of a football manager is that he will be first to be fired if his players fail to lift him. It is a game of result or exits the position.

“Sales coaching is, therefore, an effective panacea to deepening the existing business, to winning the heart, money, and loyalty of your customers with a high return on the capacity of your team” The main thing to focus on to maintain and sustain the market share of your business as a leader is your sales force.

Now is the time to identify the goose that could lay the golden eggs, inspire them to put the eggs in the budget tray and reward their efforts in the incubation process. It is time to leave behind you the usual harassment and threatening. The staff are aware they could lose their jobs like their friends in the current situation.

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The main thing to focus on to maintain and sustain the market share of your business as a leader is your sales force.

Now is the time to identify the goose that could lay the golden eggs, inspire them to put the eggs in the budget tray and reward their efforts in the incubation process

So, your threat is just a confirmation of what is visible. Rather than a threat, collaborate. Collaborating is more than working with your team in the traditional way. It is coaching them like a football coach with a different mindset- their victory is your medal, and their failure is your exit pedal. The investment I am referring to is beyond training. In sales, training of staff has its limitations.

At times, giving knowledge-based information to a traumatised salesperson is like distracting his or her focus towards his sales metrics. Coaching, on the other hand, is an alliance relationship with a coach who always asks probing questions to generate answers from the clients. In coaching, we believe the clients have all the answers to turn around their performance within them. Sales coaching questions are to expand belief, refocus actions and sustainably deliver results through improved self-awareness supported with value-creating actions. The BAR of performance cannot be uplifted by training but through a coaching perspective to performance improvement.

In my book, the value chain bankinga practical guide to winning customers’ business and loyalty, I emphasised on what the customers want before selling of products or services can happen.

The customers wish for a relationship which is only possible if the sales person crosses the trust and respect quadrants.

Can your customer trust you? Can your customer respect you? Trust is the perception of your ability to work with the customer in a progressive way, including building a relationship with his team, both in an official and private capacity.

Respect is the salesperson’s competence and ability to solve the customers’ problems before or after the sales.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @ https://businessday.ng Babs Olugbemi FCCA, the Chief Responsibility Officer at Mentoras Leadership Limited and Founder, Positive Growth Africa. He can be reached on babs@babsolugbemi.org or 08025489396.

Time for a new FDI model

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outh Africa’s supermarket retailer, Shoprite, recently announced that following a re-evaluation of its operating model in Nigeria, it had started a formal process to consider the sale of all or a majority stake in its retail supermarket business in the Nigerian market. In Kenya, Shoprite has also closed seventy percent of its stores within a year of entry into the market. This is part of Shoprite’s review of its long-term opportunities in Africa as several challenges including currency devaluations, supply issues and low consumer spending in several countries have negatively impacted its earnings from its African operations outside South Africa.

Even though other foreign-owned businesses like Woolworths, Mr. Price and Nando’s had previously exited their operations in Nigeria completely, the news about Shoprite story was much more of a big deal. Shoprite is a well-known brand that has played a key role in making an organised retail shopping experience available to more Nigerians across the country.

Also, Shoprite has operated for 15 years with 26 outlets across the country and is reported to have 2000 employees in its employment.

Understandably, the news was greeted with an uproar in the media. Shoprite clarified its position that it is not completely exiting the market but rather considering offers from Nigerian investors who share in their vision and in the process, create a truly Nigerian business run and owned by Nigerians for the Nigerian

market. No one can honestly blame Shoprite for taking what it considers to be an informed business decision. Interestingly, in this same challenging market, more locally-owned brands like Hubmart and Ebeano Supermarkets appear to be thriving. It does seem like Shoprite’s decision is a candid admission that it’s operating model is ill-suited to the realities of the market and that more local knowledge; expertise and management will be more relevant in its operations at this point in time.

The United Nations Conference for Trade and Investment (UNCTAD) in its World Investment Report predicts that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Africa will fall in 2020 by between 25 percent to 40 percent on account of COVID-19. Opportunities may exist for intra-African investments but this will be carefully considered in the face of the economic challenges across the Continent. At this time, more local businesses with deep local expertise and a much more nuanced understanding of consumer needs will be much better positioned to serve local markets.

Some traditional multinational FMCG companies in Nigeria structured to service the depleting middle class are struggling to compete with nimble local unknown brands who have effectively leveraged unique market knowledge, lower costs and targeted propositions to the widening lower rung of the economic class.

The seeming lethargy of FDI into Africa at this time, presents an auspicious opportunity for

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stimulating local domestic investments (LDI) to grow local companies more adept to the economic realities of the time.

To do this, we have to start by addressing an African self-perception problem that denigrates anything local. We generally have more confidence in foreign than local products or services. Governments appear less supportive to local investors as they would be to foreign investors. Even though we have excellent World class African companies, it was quite telling that African brands accounted for an all-time low of only 13 percent of the top 100 African brands in 2020 as reported in the well-respected Annual Brand Africa Report. We need to start with reengineering our mindset to respect our local African businesses as capable value creators and socio-economic growth vehicles comparable to any other business anywhere in the World.

Generally, we must rewire our economies, policy and regulatory structures to be more deliberately supportive of local investments in these challenging times. As a matter of priority, policy support including targeted incentives can be extended to stimulate bespoke local businesses in identified sectors of the economy.

To this end, progressive Governments can engage with Africa Venture Capital players to explore what, if any, support can be provided to support specific investments in particular companies/sectors. All relevant investment capital available in the African Continent must be optimally deployed at this challenging time.

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Michael Ikpoki Time to think without a box.

Shoprite has reminded us that wholesale application of operating models and best practices across African markets is challenged at this time. While we still need the right quantum of FDI to grow significant businesses in Africa, this is likely to be at risk without in-depth local market knowledge. We need a new African growth model which emphasises the right combination of external capital with local market knowledge, value chain development expertise and market building capabilities.

More foreign capital investment into promising domestic companies instead of the traditional FDI model that comes with operating models and structures not aligned to the operational realities on ground. A win-win partnership of foreign capital, governance systems into building well-structured local businesses more culturally-attuned to the needs of our respective markets.

This is how we build bigger bolder African businesses ahead of the post COVID-19 global economic recovery. Time to reset.

Michael Ikpoki is CEO of Africa Context Advisory Partners, an ICT, Africa Market Entry and Growth Advisory Company. He was previously CEO of MTN in Ghana and Nigeria.

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BUSINESS DAY

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The Young King and Bigpersonism

Remi Adekoya

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he Young King ” is one of my favourite Oscar Wilde stories. It is about a young monarch aged 16 who has a dream a few days before a big ceremony planned in his honour. In the dream, the king wanders into the streets of his kingdom and sees his subjects suffering, dressed wretchedly in filthy rags. Not recognising him, they start complaining loudly that their king, though a mere man like them, lives in opulence while they struggle. “We grow the grapes, but another drinks the wine. We sow the corn, but our own table is bare.

We are slaves though men call us free,” they said.

Moved by his dream, on waking up, the young king decides he will no longer wear the lavish robes and crown his aides prepared him for the ceremony. “Sell them and give the proceeds given to the poor,” he orders.

Instead of luxurious linen and a jewelled crown, he chose instead to wear

simple clothes and a crown of shrubs.

But to his surprise, when he appeared before his subjects, they laughed and said surely this could not be their king.

“But I am,” said the young ruler, telling them of his dream to explain why he did away with his expensive garments and crown. The people shook their head disapprovingly. “To toil for a master is bitter but to have no master to toil for is more bitter still. Go back to thy palace and put on thy fine linen. What hast thou to do with us and what we suffer?” they responded. The young king went back to his palace, depressed and confused by this reaction.

The story reminds me of an observation by Remi Fani-Kayode, once deputy premier of Western Nigeria, who in the early 1960s said of Nigerian politicians like himself: “We know it is wrong to drive about in big American cars, but the people expect it of us. If we did not conform to their expectations, we would lose their respect.”

Even back then, you had to be seen as wealthy to be taken seriously as a Nigerian leader. Today’s history books emphasise Nnamdi Azikiwe’s charisma and eloquence, but aside these qualities, Zik’s authority also stemmed from the fact he was a wealthy man for his time. He owned successful media businesses and used his political influence to gain a foothold in Nigeria’s colonial banking sector.

Meanwhile, after an early attempt at politics, Obafemi Awolowo decided to take a break from it, vowing not to

return until he had made some real money. Awo had noticed Nigerian crowds didn’t pay much attention to what a man of moderate means said, however brilliant his utterances. But when an affluent person spoke, people listened attentively.

In any democracy, power is reliant on crowd support. The easiest way to emerging leader of a crowd is by conforming to its expectations of how a leader is supposed to look, speak, and act. If you do not conform to those expectations, then, as FaniKayode suggested, you risk the crowd not respecting you. And if the crowd does not respect you, how can you lead it? The main problem here is not the would-be leader’s need to win people’s respect, the main problem is that, as a rule of thumb, Nigerian crowds won’t respect you if you’re not wealthy.

President Buhari is probably the only Nigerian politician today who is not rich yet enjoys sizeable crowd support. But these are mostly northern crowds; generally speaking, northern Nigeria has not yet been penetrated by materialistic worldviews anywhere close to southern Nigeria. Moreover, right from 2003 when Buhari first ran for president, he enjoyed the status of being a former Head-of-State, which of itself confers an unparalleled prestige in Nigerian society.

So even though Buhari is not rich, he has still been seen as a Big Person since the 1980s, which is the key to him ever having being treated seriously as a leader in Nigeria. I cannot

‘

So even though Buhari is not rich, he has still been seen as a Big Person since the 1980s, which is the key to him ever having being treated seriously as a leader in Nigeria. I cannot think of a single significant political leader in southern Nigeria that is not a wealthy person

think of a single significant political leader in southern Nigeria that is not a wealthy person. Because while Nigerians complain about their leaders’ corruption, nothing quite impresses the Nigerian as much as wealth. And despite all protestations to the contrary, Nigerian society, even at its highest echelons, really doesn’t care how you came about your money. What matters is having it and not getting caught if you got it illegally.

In such a reality, it is difficult to see what exactly the incentive is for the Nigerian in power not to loot the public treasury and help perpetuate a rigged system. Especially when today’s Nigeria, unlike in the era of Awolowo and Azikiwe, is rarely a place you can honestly make the kind of money you need to be treated seriously as a leader. Perhaps if you’re a supertalented musician or entertainer. But those are far and few between.

Which leaves most potential Nigerian would-be leaders with an awful choice: make serious money by any means necessary and command the attention and respect of Nigerian crowds or, like Oscar Wilde’s young king, believe noble intentions and empathy are what really matter, and get laughed away. It is hardly rocket science to figure out which option most would-be leaders will go for.

Dr Adekoya is a journalist and political scientist. He has written for the UK Guardian, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post and Politico among others. He tweets @ RemiAdekoya1

Lai Mohammed, your phone will eventually stop ringing

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hortly after being appointed minister of information late in 2015, Lai Mohammed went round the country meeting with members of the media, bloggers and social media influencers to thank them for the roles they played in the election of his principal and to seek their continued support. In one of such meetings with selected newspaper columnists and opinion-writers at the Zen garden in Ikeja, Mr Muhammed pleaded with us to take it easy on the government and refrain from harshly criticising the new administration. He also advised us to respect the office and person of the President and refrain from personal attacks on the president.

The background to the meeting was the harsh criticisms that greeted Mr Buhari’s slow and disinterested approach to governance which saw the government fritter away all the goodwill and market enthusiasm that greeted the election and assumption of power of the president.

Of course, Mr Mohammed tried to justify the president’s legendary ‘go-slow’ approach by pointing to the level of supposed rot the administration met on assumption of office and the huge effort it will take to clear the mess before setting the country on the path to sustainable growth and development. Crucially, Mr Mohammed also tried to defend the extra-legal actions of the government arguing that it was virtually impossible to effectively fight corruption and recover looted funds within the ambits of the law.

If I recall correctly, I was about the only person at the meeting that vehemently disagreed with the minister, reminding him how he, as spokesman of the opposition, harassed, criticised and even insulted President Jonathan on several occasions. “What is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander,” I reminded the minister. He never liked my

argument and called me ‘nasty.’

I was baffled that in a democracy the minister of information will be directing senior members of the media and opinion moulders to censor themselves and I – a newcomer to the industry – was the only one openly disagreeing with the minister. Well, as a senior colleague was to later make me realise, you do not embarrass your host publicly even if you disagree with him. Besides, I was later to understand why the meeting was called in the first place. Haven used the media to devastating effect against the previous administration, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Lai Mohammed, as the head of its information machinery, wanted to ensure the media is not equally used against the new government and that they have them on their side.

Well, it didn’t take long for Mr Mohammed to begin to unfurl the agenda of the government in terms of limiting free speech and the rights of citizens to criticise the government. Before long, various bills mimicking the infamous Decree 4 of 1984 which sought to criminalise criticism of the government both in traditional and social media began appearing in the National Assembly. The government even went further this time to clandestinely sponsor a phony and obnoxious bill before the 8th Assembly seeking to create a new federal agency that will be responsible for the supervision, coordination and monitoring of Non-Government Organisation and Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria. Although presented as a bill that sought to “ensure transparency and accountability in the ways and manners the NGOs collect moneys and use them for Nigerians,” it’s thinly veiled motive, as Senator Shehu Sani described it then, was to “reinforce those with tyrannical tendencies and further stifle rights to freedom of speech and assembly.”

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Strident opposition to the bills by Nigerians, but most importantly, the falling out of the executive and the leadership of the 8th Assembly put paid to the efforts to pass the obnoxious bill.

Now that the executive has the exact kind of leadership it desired for the 9th National Assembly, those bills are reappearing or being skilfully tucked into other bills that will not easily raise suspicion of Nigerians. This was what happened with the recently signed Companies and Matters Allied Act 2020. The CAMA act was passed by the 8th National Assembly but the president refused assent due to some contentious sections of the bill.

Suddenly and without any fanfare, we were informed the president had signed the bill into law after a revised version was passed by the National Assembly. But a cursory look at the bill shows that the obnoxious provisions of the stillbirth NGO bill was smuggled wholesale into the revised CAMA. Particularly, section 839 of the revised bill empowers the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to suspend the trustees of any NonGovernmental or Civil Society Organisation and appoint interim manager(s) to run the NGO/CSO at will. It also empowers the CAC, without recourse to the courts, to dissolve any NGO/CSO, seize all its money in the bank in collaboration with the banks for whatever reason it can cook up.

The APC, having successfully politicised most civil societies and recruited them to join its effort to defeat the then incumbent government in 2015, had never hidden its dislike for and intolerance of independent CSOs who are determined to perform their functions of mobilising society for collective action. The constant altercations between the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian government on one hand and Amnesty International, Transparency International and Human

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CHRISTOPHER AKOR

Rights Watch on the other are cases in point.

The government is therefore determined to crush the last vestiges of independence and vibrancy in the domestic civil society space to prevent any form of mobilisation, criticism or actions against bad governance.

Some months before now, the government successfully amended the broadcasting code to practically outlaw criticism of the government in the media, destroy Nigeria’s free press and slow its market-led economic growth. Following heavy criticisms of the revised code, the Chairman of the Board of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Ikra Bilbis, has distanced the board from the review code, describing it as “an illegality perpetrated” by the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, and the acting Director-General of the Commission, Armstrong Idachaba. He also accused the minister of usurping the powers of the commission to illegally amend the code.

Lai Mohammed, like all power-drunk officials, forgets easily where he came from.

Without a free press and without freedom of expression and association, his party would never have been able to dislodge an incumbent government from power. But now that they have gotten to power, they want to criminalise dissent and free speech. But he fails to realise that he won’t be there for life.

Sooner than he expects, his phone will stop ringing and the laws he helped enthrone may come to haunt him.

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BUSINESS DAY

Thursday 20 August 2020

Editorial Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Frank Aigbogun editor Patrick Atuanya

Double trouble: Job losses and inflation hit Nigeria FG must create an economy where businesses can thrive and create jobs

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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

T

he National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) painted a miserable picture of the state of the Nigerian economy with its recently released unemployment figures. It is, indeed, an ugly picture and double shock for an economy where citizens are losing jobs and inflation is rising.

According to the report, the number of jobless Nigerians accounts for 27.1 percent in Q2 2020 of Nigeria’s total labour force population of about 80.29 million while those in jobs that underutilised skills, time, or education accounted for 28.6 percent.

Given that this is the most recent unemployment data since 2018, we believe this is at best a reflection and does not ultimately capture the reality of things. The data implies that unemployed Nigerians have only increased by 4 percent in the last 2 years despite a large number of graduates flooding into the labour market amid slower business activities and economic growth.

The grimmer outlook for this important economic indicator raises concern given the COVID-19 induced upheavals in Nigeria and the inability of

its policy makers to make market informed and stimulating decisions to address challenges. Nigerians are losing their jobs. Those who had no jobs before the pandemic face a slimmer chance of getting one as most businesses are more committed to staying afloat than incurring extra costs in this trying time.

It is quite disturbing that Nigeria’s unemployment rate is increasing at a time inflation is ticking northwards towards 13 percent. The NBS also revealed on Monday that inflation rose to 12.8 percent. Beyond the fact that every percentage increase in the general price level of goods – without a corresponding increase in income – will see purchasing power of households decline by the same percentage, it deepens the misery of unemployed individuals.

Nigeria, with a misery index of 39.9 percent, is not only reeling from rising unemployment but also a stubbornly high inflation rate.

This provides an indication that there is a mismatch between the earning capacity of people and the cost of living in Nigeria.

We must not be quick to blame these expositions on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has basically brought

to light the effects of myopic and deteriorating economic policies of Nigerian policy makers over the years.

The recent data on Nigeria’s unemployment and inflation rate respectively should give policy makers a sense of direction on what must be focused on to fix the economy. To boost employment, the FG must be willing to create an economy where businesses can thrive and create jobs. This means putting an end to regulations that stifle business activities, and prevent private and foreign capital.

Also, the FG may want to rework the Economic Sustainability Plan to be more realistic and not overly ambitious, else we risk another dead plan aimed to spur economic recovery. The Mass Housing Strategy, for examples, envisages the creation of 1.8 million jobs starting with the construction of 300,000 homes in the next 12 months. Though this is doable, it needs a well-funded, well-structured plan with wholly private sector direction and execution strategy.

Also, the FG plans a Solar Power Strategy that will support 250,000 jobs and impact up to 25 million beneficiaries through the instal-

lation of 5 million Solar Home systems and mini-grids which will cost N240 billion. Across SubSaharan Africa, Asia and small island nations, with some in Latin America, there are about 5,000 mini-grids already installed. Five million solar home system is rather too ambitious.

A report estimates that 238 million households will need to gain electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and island nations by 2030 for the achievement of universal access. This is aimed to serve almost half of this total. This will require capital investment of an estimated $128 billion (N49 trillion) between 2020 and 2030. These, to a large extent, have capacity to create jobs in great multiples.

As it is at the moment, we see hope in fixing Nigeria’s unemployment and inflation pressures only in complementary efforts of the CBN and the government. Such efforts would require well thought out policies and strategies around creating jobs, boosting household income and lowering cost of essential commodities.

All these, in our view, will come in handy at times like this if the efforts are well coordinated, sincere and fit-for-purpose.

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

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Research&INSIGHT A WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH & INTELLIGENCE UNIT(BRIU)

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Trend in sectoral value added tax (VAT) at half year 2020 NAOMI MUNACHISO MBAMA

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alue Added Tax (VAT) is fast becoming a significant source of revenue to the federal government of Nigeria.

The overreliance on the volatile earnings from crude oil is making government at all levels to go the extra mile. So, with VAT, government aims to raise the contribution of non-oil revenue to the national revenue pool. The latest information in town on government’s revenue is VAT. Based on the data gathered by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which was made public recently, it could be observed that VAT has shown a new trend different from what we have known it for in the past five years.

A simple analysis of the VAT trend from 2015 to date shows that the first quarter of each year’s VAT has always been less than the second quarter. However, for the year 2020, the first quarter of 2020 VAT at N172,67 billion is more than the VAT, N163.15billion, generated in the second quarter of 2020. This shows that unlike the trend which has been observed from the past five years, in 2020 the first quarter is greater than the second quarter.

One of the reasons for the new trend is the coronavirus lockdown which affected the general economic activities more particularly in the second quarter of 2020. In an attempt to curtail the covid 19 pandemic in Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria, in collaboration with states, locked major Nigerian cities since April. As VAT depends on the level of buying and selling going on in a country, the decline noticeable in Q2 2020 VAT is attributable to the non-pharmaceutical measures taken by the FG. Apart from that, the rising unemployment is another factor. According to the NBS, the number of unemployed Nigerians is now at 22 million individuals with unemployment rate at 27.1 percent, thus putting Nigeria among countries with serious economic crisis.

Taking a deeper dive into the VAT analysis for the first two quarters of 2020, the leading five sectors that generated the most VAT in first quarter were Professional Ser-

vices, Other manufacturing, Commercial trading, Breweries, Bottling and Beverages, and States’ ministries and parastatals. In the first quarter of 2020, Professional services generated N38.3billion VAT; Other manufacturing generated N37.37 billion; Commercial trading, N17.19 billion; Breweries, Bottling and Beverages, N14.34 billion and States’ ministries and parastatals, N10.66billion.

These are what the nation generated as VAT through different sectors in the second quarter of 2020. It was N37.63billion that was generated from the Professional Service’s sector; Other manufacturing, N30.26 billion; Commercial Trading, N13.92 billion; State ministries and parastatals; N11.84 billion, as well as Transport and

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Haulage Services; N12.63billion.

In general, professional services contributed 11.65 percent to the overall pool; Other manufacturing contributed 10.38 percent; Commercial and Trading accounted for 4.77 percent just as other sectors which include Breweries, Bottling and Beverages contributed 3.80 percent; States’ ministries and parastatals, 3.45 percent, while Transport and Haulage Services was responsible for 3.11 percent, and thus established the rankings of the major sectors contributing to VAT as at the end of half year.

In comparison to the previous year’s analysis, that is, H1 2019, Breweries, Bottling and beverages grew by 12.03 percent; commercial and trading reduced by

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0.29 percent, other manufacturing grew by 2.7 percent; professional services increased by 40.87 percent; states’ ministries and parastatals grew by 21.68 percent, and transport and haulage grew by 105.73 percent. This growth shows an increase in VAT amount collected across some sectors. With the lockdown implemented in Q2 2020, the observed increase in VAT could be attributed to the directive given by the government which led to the increase in VAT from 5 percent to 7.5 percent On a quarter on quarter basis, it could be seen that though some of the sectors grew or reduced in value, in terms of degree, some sectors grew more significantly, while some decreased significantly.

The highest recorded quarter on quarter growth for the year 2020 was Transport and Haulage services. In comparison to its value as of quarter two of 2019, it grew by 153.73 percent. This could be attributed to the increase in transport fares by the second quarter.

The average transport fare paid by commuters for bus journey within the city increased by 3.36 percent month-on-month and by 25.76 percent year-onyear to N229.94 in June 2020 from N222.46 in May 2020, according to NBS. While the highest recorded decline was by the federal ministries and parastatals, which went down by 22.90 percent.

Other than Transportation and Haulage Services, another sector

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that grew significantly was Pharmaceuticals, Soaps and Toiletries.

This sector grew by 43.64 percent and this growth could be attributed to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The lockdown which lasted for a period of four months led to increased consumption of basic necessities such soaps and toiletries as individuals made attempts to reduce getting infected, while the fear of COVID 19 led to an increase in drug usage.

But when a comparison was made on the VAT generated from professional services between first and second quarters of 2020, we saw a decrease in value of 1.75 percent in Q2 2020 as compared to its first quarter value. This could be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic as during the first quarter the lockdown hadn’t started and so people and businesses were not under any restrictions.

However, in the second quarter, the lockdown had started, offices were shut down and so demand for stationery, consumables and associated services decreased significantly.

Other manufacturing saw a decrease of 19.03 percent in value as compared to its value at first quarter, and this also could be attributed to the compulsory lockdown that was enforced in the second quarter. Commercial trading decreased by 19.01 percent as compared to its value in the first quarter. This was due to the decrease in economic activities during the lockdown, as for a long period of time, the lockdown did not permit movement of goods, services and people.

States’ ministries and parastatals increased by 11.05 percent compared to its value in first quarter. Breweries, Bottling and Beverages decreased by 27.25 percent as compared to its value in the first quarter of the year, but transport and haulages increased by 64.84 percent as compared to its value in the first quarter of the year.

It can therefore be seen that the increase in VAT from 5 percent to 7.5 percent led to an increase in half year 2020 VAT revenue, but then due to factors such as the coronavirus pandemic and the measures taken to curtail it, some sectors experienced a decline in growth.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS WAPIC posts N9.3bn gross written premium half year 2020 MODESTUS ANAESORONYE

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APIC Insurance Plc, a multi-line i n s u ra n c e company has announced its unaudited financial results for the period ended 30 June 2020, recording an 8 percent growth in gross written premium to N9.3 billion compared to N8.7 billion in 2019.

The Company, which will be having a conference call on Thursday tom share this with its teaming investors, said it was able to sustain this consistent growth in premium by the attainment of leadership status on some major accounts and enhanced underwriting capabilities.

WAPIC also paid a total of N1.6 billion in gross claims for the year. The Gross claims to GWP ratio closed at 17 percent as at half year 2020, a reduction when compared

with the 28 percent recorded in first half of 2019.

The Group’s total underwriting profit grew to N1.99 billion as at Jun’20, a 58 percent year-on-year growth from the N1.26 billion recorded in the preceding period of 2019.

The growth in premiums income and fees and commission income and decrease in claims expense during the review period had a positive impact on this position.

The Group closed with a Profit Before Tax of N825 million representing a YoY growth of 106 percent. The key driver of this position, it stated includes the increases recorded in underwriting profit and total investment and other income within the period.

Yinka Adekoya, managing director , WAPIC Insurance Plc commenting on the result said “The Nigerian economy was on lockdown for a major part of the second quarter of this year, following

the emergence of the novel COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted business activities both globally and locally.

Notwithstanding, the company delivered a commendable performance in the first half of 2020 despite the prevailing conditions in the economy that may have impacted sign on of new business, renewal rate, installment payment of premium.

She said that following the expected impact of the pandemic on business operations, the company activated its business continuity plan to effectively guard against business disruptions. With this, along with an intensified underwriting capacity, the Group grew its premium position for the period by 8 percent year-on-year to close at N9.34 billion.

“Our underwriting profit position grew by 58 percent to N2billion compared with the N1.3 billion recorded in the previous period of 2019,

driven by the growth in our premium position and fees and commission income.”

The Group closed with a profit before tax of N825 million representing a YoY growth of 106 percent. Some of the key drivers of this position include the increases recorded in underwriting profit and total investment and other income within the period. Total asset grew by N9.9bn representing a 32 percent growth for the Group up from Dec. 2019 to N40.6 billion, while Shareholders’ Funds stood at N24 billion for the period from N19 billion as at Dec 2019.

“We remain relentless in our GWP growth drive this year in line with our revised growth expectations following the impact of the global pandemic on insurance operations. With the success of our digital transformation, we would constructively harness the opportunities that abound during this period with the aid of technology.”

L-R: Muftau Oyegunle,nonexecutive director, Prestige Assurance Plc; Diekola Onaolapo, CEO, Ezcellon Capital ; Sarbeswar Sahoo, managing director; Raja Vadlamudi, executive director, technical, during the investors/Shareholders’ Forum of the company on the ongoing rights issue held recently in Lagos.

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igeria’s leading corporate paper packaging company with focus on envelope manufacturing and customisation, FAE Limited, has renewed its commitment to innovation as a key driver to staying relevant in the 21st century.

The company which commands a sizable percent of market share in the paper manufacturing and customisation industry in Nigeria says through its unwavering commitment to innovation, technology and design, it has remained relevant for over 40 years.

Funmilayo Okeowo Bakare, managing director and chief executive officer, FAE Limited, while speaking during a virtual meeting with

BUNMI BAILEY

S

avannah Energy plc has announced its unaudited preliminary results for the 2019 financial year, which include approximately six weeks of operations in Nigeria, following the successful acquisition of Nigerian assets in November 2019, together with a financial and operational update for the first half of 2020.

The company recorded full year 2019 maiden revenues of $17.8 million comprising $16.9 million of gas sales and $0.9 million of liquids sales. Production from the company’s Nigerian assets for 2019 rose 32 percent to 17.2Kboepd from 13.0Kboepd in 2018.

Andrew Knott, CEO of Savannah Energy, speaking about the financial results, said: “2019 was a pivotal year for our company. We completed the Nigerian Asset acquisition in November 2019, which transformed Savannah into a highly cash flow generative full cycle energy company.

“Since acquiring the Nigerian Assets, we have made

significant strides in terms of operational and financial progress, as seen with the strong production figures and robust cash collections in H1 2020, further strengthened our leadership team and stand poised to capitalise on the numerous opportunities that our asset portfolio in Nigeria and Niger presents us with.’’

In the first half of 2020, cash collections from the Nigerian assets stood at $82.1 million compared to $55.3 million within the same period in 2019. Average gross daily production, of which 89 percent was gas, increased 18 percent during the first half of 2020 to 21.3Kboepd compared to 18.1Kboepd in 2018.

Savannah Energy’s operations in Nigeria have seen it make significant contribution to power supply in the country.

Accugas’ customers achieved an all-time record peak contribution of 11.5 percent of Nigeria’s electricity generation or 486MW on May 23, 2020, with the contributed electricity being exclusively generated from Accugas sales gas.

Jumia records 38% profit increase, as active users near 7million in Q2, 2020 JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

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FAE limited renews commitment to revolutionising envelope manufacturing, customisation business in Nigeria KELECHI EWUZIE

Savannah Energy records $17.8m 2019 maiden revenues

Journalists on Tuesday said with over 40 years’ experience, FAE Limited combines basic local knowledge and international expertise with state-of-the-art, high-quality printing technology for the production of our envelopes which are second to none, According to Bakare, “Our customers are our first point of reference. We listen, we pay attention to their needs and we let this drive the designs of our products.”

With a distribution network that extends to several African countries including; Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, Liberia, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Niger Republic, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leonne, Cote D’Ivoire, The Gambia, Mauritania, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau

amongst others, FAE Limited boasts of being the largest envelope manufacturer, making over one hundred thousand premium products daily.

Bakare further opines that FAE envelopes and customised letterheads are in the market to guarantee confidentiality and security for correspondence of organisations and individuals especially with her latest First Class and Tamper Proof brands widely accepted in the market.

“First Class Envelopes and letterhead to match with security centered watermark was manufactured to covey style, professionalism and uniqueness of brand; while Tamperproof is the solution to the challenge of theft, fraud, and insecurity of valuable documents in Nigeria.

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The tear resistance envelope with a red mark that reads opened once flap has been tampered with has helped to curb the abuse of trust that has taken over most organisations”,Bakare said.

Adeleke Adeleye, chief operating officer, FAE Limited, on his part stated that the company is consistent on its path of continuous improvement, timely performance and customer satisfaction.

“While FAE can boast of servicing 80 percent of all Nigerian banks, several government agencies bodies and parastatals, examination bodies and even INEC amongst others, we continue to grow thanks to the confidence our wonderful clients and distributors have invested into our business,” Adeleye said.

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umia’s second quarter (Q2) financial financial results shows improvement with increase in gross profit and decrease in operating loss compared to the same period last year, signifying it’s progress in efforts to becoming a profitable e-commerce business.

In its results for the quarter ended June, 30, 2020, Jumia increased its gross profit by 38 percent to €23.3 million from €16.8 million in the second quarter of 2019, while its operating loss reduced to €37.6 million in the second quarter of 2020, decreasing 44 percent on a year-over-year basis.

The increase in profit according to the company, was a result of the increase in marketplace revenue, which reached €23.6 million in the second quarter of 2020, up 38 percent from the same period last year.

During the second quarter of 2020, Gross profit after fulfilment expense reached a record €6.0 million compared to a loss of €0.7 million in the second quarter of 2019, demonstrating continued unit economics improvement as Jumia grows usage on its platform possibly with the help of the Covid-19 pandemic which pushed more people to online shopping. @Businessdayng

“We have made significant progress on our path to profitability in the second quarter of 2020, with operating loss decreasing 44 percent yearover-year to €37.6 million.

This was achieved thanks to an all-time high gross profit after fulfilment expense of €6.0 million and record levels of marketing efficiency with sales and advertising expense decreasing by 51 percent yearover-year. We are navigating these uncertain times of COVID-19 pandemic with strong financial discipline and operational agility which positions us to emerge from this crisis stronger and even more relevant to our consumers, sellers and communities,” Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, Co-chief executive officers of Jumia, said.

The e-commerce company also made progress in usage growth, as number of active customers, orders placed and Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) showed significant increase for the quarter. The report showed that annual active consumers reached 6.8 million, a year-over-year increase of 40 percent, while orders one the platform grossed 6.8 million, a year-over-year increase of 8 percent. GMV was €228 million, a year-over-year decrease of 13 percent compared to GMV in the second quarter of 2019.

Thursday 20 August 2020

Innovation

Apps

BUSINESS DAY

Fin-Tech

Start-up

Gadgets

Ecommerce

IOTs

15

TECHTALK

Broadband Infrastructure

Bank IT Security

Exchange rate crisis keeps investors wary of Nigerian tech startups FRANK ELEANYA

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ictor Anaele (not real n a m e s ) founder of a fintech company based in Lagos had planned to complete a funding round before January 2020 but for some reason, it was postponed till March.

Little did he know that fate had a different plan for him and the barely oneyear-old startup which he has built on personal savings and family support.

In March, the number of COVID-19 cases rose sharply forcing different states to shut down and culminating in the national lockdown in three major states. The foreign investors he was talking to packed up and promised to return when things calmed down.

With the spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths, came a crushing blow to the Nigerian economy which was already hanging by a few threads before the lockdown. Then the naira started heading southward against the dollar, a situation that mirrored the recession of 2016 when the dollar traded at N500.

As of Monday, August 17, 2020, the dollar is trading at between N470 to N475 in the parallel market and financial analysts say it could head to N480 before the end of the week.

“We have spoken to different investors who are willing to fund us but they are always turned off by the monetary policies and the exchange rate,” Anaele told BusinessDay. “They say to me, ‘that your country’s exchange rate is too risky,” I usually don’t have anything to respond.”

Nigeria has for years maintained a multiple exchange rate system. Apart from the official exchange rate used mainly for government transactions and the budget, Nigeria maintains a number of other rates.

The rate for investors and exporters, known as Nafex, also acts as a spot rate for the naira. This rate has averaged N388 per dollar since March.

There is a rate for small businesses that want to import raw materials. This rate is now N380 per dollar after the central bank devalued it from N360 on July 3.

There are different rates for Bureau de Change (BDCs) operators, mainly to allow Nigerians to access foreign currency to pay school fees for their wards abroad, or for travel. There have been no

sales of foreign currency to BDCS since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Then there is the black market or parallel market rate, where the dollar sells for above N470 to those who cannot access any of the official windows.

The CBN has now devalued the naira on two separate occasions this year amid lower oil prices, a slowdown in foreign p or tfolio inflows, and a fast-rising foreign exchange backlog. First, it moved the official rate from N306 to N360 and recently followed it up by

moving the rate at the Special Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) to N380 per US dollar from N360.

While the pandemic has affected the economy of just about every country in the world, investors are still willing and in many cases eager to stake capital in startups.

L a s t y e a r, Ni g e r i a n tech startups took the lion share of investment coming into Africa. Nigerian tech startups raised $377 million, more than twice what they did in 2018.

Startups like OPay and Interswitch hauled in record

investments from China and the United States.

According to the latest TechPoint Africa report, Nigerian startups have raised $28.35 million as in the second quarter of 2020 when matched with the $55.37 million received in the first week, the startups are on their way to about $90 million in investment.

But experts have said the momentum of 2019 may not be surpassed because of the impact of the virus.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a report about the impact on COVID-19 on tech startups had said that it would be disproportionate depending on the segment of operations. It predicted that fintech firms - especially those in payment and digital lending - would likely be the most affected because the majority of the companies operate in the segment. It also predicted that early-stage fintech startups would feel the most impact as the would have to comp ete w ith larger-sized fintech firms and traditional banks to survive.

Tech investment into the African continent as a whole in the second quarter was at $153 million from 102 deals according to Baobab Insights Report.

Nigeria is already losing grounds to South African startups and may lose to Kenya and Egypt as well if nothing is done about the exchange rate.

Tek Experts, Microsoft partner to mint 10 women software engineers in 16 weeks FRANK ELEANYA

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ver the course of 16 weeks starting from 11 August, ten women will have the opportunity of a lifetime at becoming software engineers thanks to a renewed partnership between Tek Experts and Microsoft.

The ten-women software engineering cohort is in its second edition and provides immersive experiences for

the trainees learning project management and development courses. It also helps Microsoft Leap to recruit, and train non-traditional talent for employability in the technology industry worldwide.

Microsoft Leap combines traditional classroom learning with hands-on projects for its ten-women software engineering cohort in Nigeria. During this 16-week timeframe, the participants will be mentored by the Tek Experts and Microsoft engi-

neering teams in Lagos, Nigeria, and Redmond, Washington, USA. “We are excited to partner with Microsoft again on the second cohort of the Leap program,” said Ashim Egunjobi, Head of Business Development at Tek Experts.

“Tek Experts is committed to delivering high-quality services to our clients and the best way to do that is by investing in female talent and equipping them with hands-on experience that

makes for long and successful careers in the IT field.”

In the first cohort, the trainees received 4 weeks of classroom training on Software Support Engineering and 12 weeks of hands-on project training involving real-life scenarios at Tek Experts’ premises in Victoria Island, Lagos. Since the program ended, some graduates of the first cohort have gone on to take up full-time employment at Tek Experts as Technical Support Engineers.

Chun Lu, co-founder of the Microsoft Leap Apprenticeship Program said the program is part of the company’s mission to empower every person and every organisation in the world to achieve more.

“With 100% employability on Tek Experts for the first cohort, we are excited to partner with Tek Experts again on the second cohort to recruit and develop women engineers to serve communities in Nigeria and

Team: Frank Eleanya, frank.eleanya@businessdayonline.com; Caleb Ojewale, caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com www.businessday.ng

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@Businessdayng

beyond. Microsoft Leap is committed to upskilling talent with the connectivity of employability not only to Microsoft but also to Microsoft enterprise partners,” Lu said.

The Microsoft Leap Apprenticeship Program (Microsoft Leap) is led by the Talent, Learning, and Insights organization at Microsoft (Redmond, USA), and is sponsored by Kevin Scott, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

LegalBusiness BD Business Law Industry Report Practice Intelligence Partnerships

interview

Lawyers condemn inclusion of El-Rufai in NBA AGC 2020 programme …Call for boycott of AGC …Accuse El-Rufai of blatant disregard for rule of law

future of the critical state of our democracy and the dying rule of law.

“We should come together to discuss how judicial activism will help resuscitate due process and the rule of law. Instead we are yet again committing our legal system to the same bash we did when the President of the Country gallantly spoke to a body of Lawyers that he will strangle the rule of law in the name of national security. And has his administration not been true to his words?

She reiterated that this was not the time for political endorsements and acceptance.

“We must hold Mallam accountable for the theatre of murder that has persisted in the State.

Let’s call him to order not give him a platform that will be misconstrued by the public who have

LB CORRESPONDENTS

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INSIDE

The group added that if this request was not met, that Meanwhile, he stated that failure to accede to this request would make them call for a boycott of the forthcoming conference.

Onu added, “Again, when you factor in the politically motivated disappearance of Dadiyata from Kaduna State as a result of his criticism of El’rufai and the draconian persecution of Audu Maikori for speaking truth to power, then you will agree that the conference organisers have taken our platform for granted by even considering

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El’rufai as a speaker.”

Also speaking on the issue, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), professor Chidi Odinkalu, who is also a legal practitioner, took to his twitter handle to share these same sentiments.

He said, “If you are a Nigerian Lawyer and you believe El Rufai’s credentials are fit for purpose, please say so. But If you don’t think Governor El Rufai is a good advertisement for Promoting the rule of law, please speak up and ask the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)

We are yet again committing our legal system to the same bash we did when the President of the Country gallantly spoke to a body of Lawyers that he will strangle the rule of law in the name of national security. And has his administration not been true to his words?

NYSBA, NBA Women Forum sign MOU to empower women in legal profession

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awyers in Nigeria have called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to suspend its plan to include the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir ElRufai as a speaker at the forthcoming NBA Virtual Annual General Conference (AGC).

In a statement issued by a group of lawyers known as the Open Bar Initiative (OBI) the convener of the group, Silas Joseph Onu, condemned the choice of El Rufai as a speaker at the forthcoming conference, “at a time when the governor is unable to restore peace in the southern part of his state, he should not have been picked by the NBA as a speaker.”

The statement titled, “NBA 2020 Annual Conference – Say No To El’Rufa” read in part: “We have observed, with grave disappointment, the inclusion of Governor Nasir El’rufai as one of the speakers in the 2020 Annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association. It is sad that at a time when El’rufai is playing ostrich with the senseless killings in Kaduna, the Bar Association is giving him our collective platform to speak. One can be sure that he will also use the given platform to advance his conflated narrative, designed to deceive and confuse the nation on the real causes of the killings.”

According to them, the killings in Kaduna cannot be justified as a reprisal by the Governor, using the NBA platform. “Reprisal killing is also a criminal offence. However, this Governor makes it appear like a justified cause.” Silas Onu said on behalf of the group.

Members of the Open Bar Initiative therefore, called on the organisers of the NBA conference to immediately remove El’rufai from the list of speakers as not doing so would mean that the NBA was condoning his tactics of wilful maladministration regarding Kaduna South security situation.

17

Fayemi assures incoming NBA administration of governors’ commitment to judicial autonomy

to cancel El Rufai as a speaker, or better still, u can de-register from the NBA AGC 2020.

Yet another lawyer, Mojirayo Ogunlana-Nkanga, described the invitation as a needless distraction. “Governor Mallam Nasiru ElRufai does not need the platform of the Nigerian Bar Association to come and explain the crisis happening in Southern Kaduna. The AGC is not a political conference!

It is a conference where Lawyers should gather and think of the

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daily questioned the integrity of the bar. Mallam is responsible for the security of the people of Kaduna. If he is not providing that then it is important that a body of lawyers should not give him a platform for any reason,” Ogunlana-Nkanga said.

In the same vein, several lawyers across the country have continued to call for the removal of El-Rufai from the conference programme, with the hashtag #CancelElRufai2020.

Fostering business rescue – the new insolvency regime in CAMA 2020

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www.legal.businessday.ng legalbusiness@businessday.ng

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

INDUSTRYFILE

BD

17

LegalBusiness

NYSBA, NBA Women Forum sign MOU to empower women in legal profession IFEOMA OKEKE

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he New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) through its Women-inLaw Section and Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA) through the NBA Women Forum has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU) in a bid to achieve its common goal of empowering women in the profession by exchanging information as it relates to women’s rights and mentoring women lawyers amongst others.

The alliance with the NBA Women Forum – evidenced by a Memorandum of understanding (MOU) – will involve the joint implementation of initiatives to advance and empower women in the legal profession and all women under the law, for success. The MOU between the two associations was signed on Thursday during a virtual ceremony.

“It is my honour to continue to expand upon NYSBA’s ambitious plan to connect and create relationships with bar associations and legal organizations around the world,” said NYSBA President Scott Karson. “During these uncertain times, I believe that alliances such as this are more important and meaningful than ever.

“The NBA Women Forum and NYSBA’s Women in Law Section will work together to advance women in the profession, recognize the importance of women’s issues around the world, and exchange information and materials as they relate to women’s legal rights,” Karson said.

He said the NYSBA is the largest voluntary state bar association in the nation, adding that since 1876, NYSBA has helped shape the development of law, educated and informed the legal profession and the public, and championed the rights of New Yorkers through advocacy and guidance in our communities.

Paul Usoro, President Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) congratulated Chairperson, NBAWF, Oluyemisi Bamgbose and her team for making the occasion happen.

Usoro explained that Nigeria, which has the largest economy and population in Africa is a good place to have the collaboration, especially as it has population of women and children.

He assured that the prospects for commercial and transactional law practice are great and the collaboration will benefit the two associations.

“Nigerian lawyers number over 125,000. The profession used to be largely male dominated but that has changed now. In recent years, Nigeria has had a female Chief Justice and is one of the best the country has produced. The federal court of Appeal is preceded over by a female justice and she took over from another female justice.

“The profession has continued to encourage gender balance. O luyemisi Bamgbose, the chairperson of NBAWF is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. She has the intellect and drive. In the past

L-R: President-Elect of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata flanked by Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose, SAN, Chairperson, NBA Women Forum; and Chinyere Okorocha, Vice Chair of the forum.

L-R, Nsidibe Aideyan, Secretary, NBA Women Forum, Chinyere Okorocha, Vice Chair, President-Elect of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose, SAN, Chairperson, Safiya Balarabe, Treasurer, and Ayotola Jagun, Head, External Relations Committee of the NBAWF.

President of the New York Bar Association (NYSBA) speaking during the virtual signing, while other members of the NBAWF and NYSBA look on.

NBAWF Chairperson, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose, SAN, Chairperson, signing the MOU

The ExCo of the Nigerian Bar Association Women Forum (NBAWF) at the signing ceremony of the MOU with the New York Bar Association Women in Law Section.

L-R, Busayo Balogun-Agusto, L-R, Nsidibe Aideyan, Secretary, NBA Women Forum, Chinyere Okorocha, Vice Chair, President-Elect of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose, SAN, Chairperson, Safiya Balarabe, Treasurer, Ayotola Jagun, Head, External Relations Committee of the NBAWF

couple of months, she has proved that women are not only behind the men to support them but are also in front of them. She has piloted the forum to a point where we are all signing the MOU today.

“The NBAWF was domant for some years but when I came into office, I revived the the it because I know women play a viral role in productivity and efficiency. The NBAWF look forward to learning a lot from the Women in Law NYSBA,” he said.

Terri Mazur, chairperson Women in Law, NYSBA said it was such a honour to participate in the MOU signing, adding that NYSBA is excited and proud about this.

Mazur said the collaboration the association expects from the MOU is quite exciting as it looks forward to working with NBAWF. “ Issues affecting women are www.businessday.ng

discussed here. Gender equality issues, domestic voilence and several other issues have been addressed over the years. We have grown tremendously in a space of two years.

We are pleased to add Nigeria to our International membership.

“We wish you advance women issues all over the world. We also develop educational and informative programmes for women. Some of these programmes are educational advancement programmes in legal profession, programmes for women mediators, arbitrators and women judiciaries. We have several awards which recognises women lawyers that are exceptional and women who have made contributions in addressing issues around women,” she said.

Oluyemisi Bamgbose, Chairperson, NBAWF said NBAWF is one of the fora inaugurated by NBA in

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December 2006 to empower female lawyers but sadly the forum had not been active for some years.

Bamgbose however disclosed that the forum was revived by Paul Usoro, the current NBA president who in September 2019 inaugurated the new leadership of the NBAWF. She said the resuscitation of the forum was done along with Usoro’s vision to increase active participation of women in NBA and to empower and equip women in the legal profession.

She said the aim of the forum is also in line with the sustainability development goal to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls globally.

“With this forum, we have been able to establish a working group to tackle domestic voilence and worklife balance as it partains to female lawyers. We promote mentorship @Businessdayng

programmes for female lawyers.

Today is a very significant day and we believe the outcome of this MOU will be very impactful and long lasting,” Bamgbose said.

The incoming NBA president of the association Olumide Akpata, gave credit to Paul Usoro and his team for reviving this very important forum.

Akpata said the opportunities of such great collaborations potend a lot.

He assured that under his watch everything must be done to ensure his women colleagues take centre stage.

“This is also important for me.

I will support the NBAWF and I am sure those elected with me will ensure this is done. One thing that is important for our women is capacity building and we will achieve this,” Akpata said.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

INDUSTRYFILE

Fayemi assures incoming NBA administration of governors’ commitment to judicial autonomy …Promises compliance to executive order 10

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kiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi has given the commitment of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to the incoming leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association, towards guaranteeing judicial autonomy in the country, as contained in the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order number 10.

Fayemi who made this promise to a delegation of the new NBA leadership, led by the president-elect, Olumide Akpata in his office, stated that Ekiti State and the NGF would partner with the new leadership of the Bar on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and various other objectives critical to national development.

He said, “Let me assure you of not just the cooperation of Ekiti government but also the cooperation of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. I know that in this position there are many issues you’ll need to deal with, one of the issues we’ve been grappling with which should be of interest to you is the Executive Order 10 which relates to judicial autonomy as you know, and let me state for the record that governors all over Nigeria are for judicial autonomy.

“The bone of contention has been the modality of implementation, especially giving a level of endowment from state to state, and I have had cause to meet with the Chief Justice of Nigeria over this on behalf of governors and I’m also meeting the President of the Court of Appeal on it and there is a committee comprising of governors as well as Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation working out the modalities in a way that would be mutually acceptable to both government and the judiciary.

“I want to say that for us, we consider that as a very critical component of our democratic process and we should do everything within our own power as governors to ensure that this happens. And as you may

President Elect of the NBA, Olumide Akpata with Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State at his office in Ado Ekiti.

Governor of Ekiti State with the delegation from the NBA.

also be aware, some of our states are already implementing judicial autonomy to a large extent.

According to him, the governors’ forum was already working out the modalities in a way that would be most acceptable to all, as some states were in the process of implementing judicial autonomy to a large extent with a view to ensuring the realization of matters of justice sector reforms.

He thus, congratulated the incoming president for his success at the just concluded bar elections,

expressing his anticipation towards the dynamism of a youthful leadership with fresh ideas that the Akpata presidency was bound to bring on board in the development of the bar nationally, adding that he was hopeful that his tenure would witness transformation in many areas.

He further congratulated the newly elected executive members of the NBA in the state and assured them of the state government’s continued support and collaboration through constructive engagement with its leadership.

L-R, Newly elected general secretary, Joyce Oduah, governor Kayode Fayemi, President-elect, Olumide Akpata and Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ekiti State, Olawale Fapohunda.

On matters of justice sector reform, Governor Fayemi said, “This is a matter that is very dear to our hearts in Ekiti and it’s something that we believe without working with the leaders of the bar, it would be an exercise in futility.”

The Governor decried the adverse effect on gender inequality in the society and how the privileges of patriarchy would always make women susceptible to manipulation of all sorts.

“An aspect of it that is very dear to us in the state is the gender based violence, for us in Ekiti, we consider this a sore point, a huge crime against humanity and one that we believe all of our governors should also be active in.

“To this extent, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum declared a state of emergency on gender-based violence and we’ve been working with Lawyers and police on what this really means. For us, it means all states must enact or domesticate the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act. It means enforcement and effective level of the provision of the VAPP act, it means empowerment to our girls and women”.

“To this end, if you do not empower girls by ensuring that they are kept in school and they are supported when they are out of school, you will always have power relations dynamics determining what happens between boys and girls. And it also means providing the survival support, we have a sexual assault referral Centre here in this state, we also have a shelter for women who encountered domestic violence and we feel it should be applicable across board”, he said.

Earlier, the President-elect, Olumide Akpata, who was accompanied by the newly elected general secretary, Joyce Oduah and other members of his ExCo, said he was in the state on a thank-you visit to the state chapter of the NBA for its support during the election sought the support of government concerning the welfare of his members in the state by building their capacity.

He noted that despite the fact that Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa, the legal structure was still trying to catch up with the development in the economy, hence need to build capacity in the legal profession.

LEGALINSIGHT

Has the national industrial court declared open season on termination of employment with reason?

S

ection 7(6) of the National Industrial Court Act 2006 (the “NIC Act”) and Sections 254C (1)(f), (h) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Third Alteration) Act 2010 (the “Third Alteration Act”) provide the National Industrial Court (the “NIC”) with legal basis to apply international best practice in labour and industrial relations; and conventions, treaties, recommendations and protocols that have been ratified by Nigeria.

This amendment to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (“CFRN 1999”) has addressed the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in The Registered Trustees of National Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria & 2 Ors. v. Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria & Ors. [2008] 37 WRN 1 in which the apex court held that inter-

national conventions which have been ratified by Nigeria are not automatically applicable in Nigeria until they are dowww.businessday.ng

mesticated by an Act of the National Assembly in accordance with Section 12(1) of the CFRN 1999.

Further, the President of the NIC, pursuant to powers conferred by Section 254F (1) of the CFRN 1999 (as amended by the Third Alteration Act) and Section 36 of the NIC Act, made the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (Civil Procedure) Rules 2017 (the “Rules”). The Rules allow the NIC to apply conventions and protocols which have been ratified by Nigeria including international best practices in labour, all of which are rooted in the rules of equity. By Section 15 of the NIC Act, the NIC is enjoined to apply the rules of equity where same is at variance with the rules of common law with reference to the same subject matter.

In the recent past, the NIC has consistently applied relevant international

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labour standards to the effect that an employer ought not to terminate an employment relationship without adducing valid reasons for so doing. However, in Ifeadi v. Zenith Bank Plc. (Unreported Suit No. NICN/LA/184/2017, the judgment of which was delivered January 13, 2020), the NIC appeared to revert to the strict common law position that an employer could validly terminate an employment for reason (good or bad) or no reason at all.

The question which the writer seeks to illuminate in this piece is whether the decision of the NIC in Ifeadi v.

Zenith Bank Plc. amounts to the application of the rules of common law in disregard of Section 15 of the NIC Act and whether, consequently, this jeopardizes the security of tenure afforded employees under the relevant international conventions and labour @Businessdayng

standards. In doing this, there is the need to first state what the common law position is in more detail.

What is the Strict Common Law Position?

At common law, the employer can terminate at will, with or without reason. This position was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Fakuade v. OAUTH Complex Management Board (1993)

Continues on page 19 Mayowa Arokodare, ACITN is Senior Counsel at a leading commercial law firm in Lagos, Nigeria. He is a Finance, Corporate & Commercial Law specialist.

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

BD

19

LegalBusiness

Fostering business rescue – the new insolvency regime in CAMA 2020

By Olanipekun Orewale, Perenami Momodu, Oluwasemiloore Atewologun and Odinaka Okoye

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t is no longer news that on 7 August 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Companies Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA 2020) which repealed the Companies and Allied Matters Act Cap. C20 LFN 2004. CAMA 2020 provides an insolvency regime which mirrors international best practices and provides a tripartite objective of promoting business rescue, creating enabling conditions for investment and improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

Some of the new insolvency provisions include the following: Business rescue mechanisms such as Administration and Company Voluntary Arrangement – CAMA 2020 creates an avenue for business rescue options to first be prioritised and explored before receivership and involuntary liquidation. i) Company Voluntary Arrangement (C VA) is recommended for financially distressed companies (or companies on the verge of financial distress). The directors of a company may make a proposal to its creditors for a composition in satisfaction of its debts or a scheme of arrangement. The proposal to rescue a company may be made, where an administration order is in force in relation to the company, or where the company is being

wound up. ii) Administration is also recommended for financially distressed companies or companies on the verge of financial distress.

The objectives of administration are (1) rescuing the company, the whole or any part of its undertaking, as a going concern; (2) to achieve a better result for the company’s creditors as a whole than would be likely, if the company were wound up, without first being in administration; and (3) to realize property in order to make a distribution to one or more secured or preferential creditors. A company enters administration when the appointment of the administrator takes effect, and an administrator may be appointed by the court, the holder of a floating charge, the company, or its directors. Where a company is in administration, a resolution cannot be passed for the winding up of the company, neither can an order be made for winding up of the company, except on the grounds of public interest, or where the application for winding up is made for regulated entities in the financial industry.

Moratorium during Administration - Where a company is in administration, enforcement steps, legal proceedings, execution, distress, exercise of the right of peaceable re-entry amongst

others, may not be commenced or instituted against the company without the consent of the administrator, or permission of the court as the case may be.

Moratorium during compulsory liquidation – any attachment, sequestration, distress or execution put in force against the estate or effects of the company after the commencement of liquidation by the creditors, is void. However, holders of fixed charge are excluded from the application of this provision.

Supply of Essential Contracts - Section 665 of CAMA ensures that companies undergoing insolvency are able to continue to receive supply of essential services such as water, electricity and gas despite their financial difficulties. The supplier of such essential services may make it a condition of the supply that it receives from an office -holder of the company, a personal guarantee for the payment of any charges in respect of the services. By specifically permitting the supply of essential services in any of the insolvency options, the new insolvency regime seeks to ensure that the companies in financial distress are able to continue operations ultimately for the benefit of the business rescue.

Has the national industrial court declared open season on termination of employment with reason?

Continued from page 18 LPELR-1233(SC). Indeed, the reason or motive of the employer for the termination is irrelevant - it may be spiteful, punitive of petty (although, as held by the Supreme Court in Institute of Health ABU Hospital Management Board v. Anyip [2011] LPELR-1517(SC), if the employer terminates an employment and gives a reason for such termination, the employee is entitled to challenge the reason).

This common law position (under which the employer need not provide a reason for termination) appears unfair as it permits the employer to act maliciously perhaps with the sole purpose of bringing the employee to disrepute and possibly limiting the near future employment and career

prospects of the employee.

This is because termination without reason suggests some wrongdoing on the part of the employee. Arguably, therefore, the uncertainty caused by this common law practice could potentially result in a brain drain from Nigeria.

It is in light of the harshness of the common law position that the NIC, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred on it by the CFRN 1999 (as amended by the Third Alteration Act), has favoured termination of employment with reason in line with international best practice in labour.

The International Labour Organisation’s Convention on Termination of Employment The International Labour Organisation came up with the Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 (No. 158) (the

“Convention”) and the Termination of Employment Recommendation, 1982 (No.166) (the “Recommendation”) both of which represent the minimum international labour standards designed to guard against unfair dismissal and guarantee employment security. Article 4 of the Convention prohibits the termination of the employment of an employee unless there is a valid reason for such termination connected with the capacity or conduct of the worker or based on the operational requirements of the undertaking, establishment or service (that is, the employer).

In 2016, the NIC in Duru v.

Skye Bank Plc [2015] 59 N.N.L.R (Pt.207) 680 held that the law has now gone beyond termination without reason under the common law concept of hire and fire without reason as

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Ranking of Secured Creditors - CAMA 2020 now specifically provides that claims of secured creditors ranks in priority to other claims including preferential (or statutory) payments, and winding up expenses.

Increase in threshold for companies deemed unable to pay debts – The financial threshold for deeming that a company is unable to pay its debt has been increased from the sum N2000 to a sum exceeding N200,000.

Similarly, for unregistered companies, a company is deemed unable to pay its debts where such company is indebted in the sum of N100,000, instead of the sum of N100 previously provided under the repealed CAMA. Striking out of defunct companies: – One of the provisions under CAMA 2020 is that a company that has not commenced business operations can, upon passing a special resolution, make an application to the Corporate Affairs Commission (“CAC”) for the company’s name be struck out from the register of the CAC, where it can satisfy that: i) the reasons given for the application are sufficient to justify the striking off; ii) the company has not commenced business and has no undischarged obligations; and iii) no reasonable objection has been received within 28 days of the publication of advertisements in three national daily newspapers.

The implication of the above, is that companies that are yet to commence business operations may explore the option of hav-

ing their names struck out of the CAC’s register instead of undergoing voluntary liquidation.

Insolvency Practitioner – CAMA 2020 now categorises liquidator, provisional liquidator or official receiver; administrator or administrative receiver; or receiver and manager, or a nominee or supervisor of a company’s voluntary arrangement as insolvency practitioners, and prescribes qualifications for such persons to act in this capacity. These qualifications include: i) having a degree in law, accountancy or any other recognized discipline from either a university or polytechnic; ii) at least five year’s post qualification experience in insolvency matters; and iii) membership of Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (“BRIPAN”) or any other professional body recognized by the CAC. The inclusion of these qualifications for insolvency practitioners, will ensure best practices in business rescue and insolvency proceedings.

The inclusion of the above highlighted provisions in CAMA is a laudable step towards establishing an insolvency regime that balances the interest of creditors and debtors. As the focus of the new insolvency regime is business rescue and protection of investments, it is anticipated that there will be a boost in foreign investment as there are now enabling statutory provisions for promotion of business interests despite financial difficulties and insolvency.

photo file

AARE Afe Babalola, SAN Receives Akpata at his home town in Ekiti State. Congratulates him on his victory.

it is no longer fashionable. To support its decision, the Court referred to Article 4 of the Convention and the Recommendation. Although Nigeria was yet to ratify the Convention (as to make it automatically applicable in virtue of section 254C (2) of the Third Alteration Act), the NIC proceeded to apply same

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in furtherance of its powers to apply international best practice and international labour standards. As recently as 2019, the NIC reiterated its position on termination with reason in Bello Ibrahim v. Ecobank Plc (Unreported Suit No. NICN/ ABJ/144/2018, the judgement of which was delivered on De@Businessdayng

cember 19, 2019). The consensus among industry practitioners is that the position of the NIC promotes fairness in industrial relations in accordance with global labour standards.

To be continued next week

20

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

GREYMATTER Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020: Reforming provisions that impact the Nigerian business community Continued from last week (ii) Arrangement or compromise between two or more companies ection 711 of CAMA 2020 provides for the power of the Court to order separate meetings of companies on the application in summary of any of the companies to be affected, where under a scheme proposed for a compromise, arrangement or reconstruction between two or more companies or the merger of any two or more companies, the whole or any part of the undertaking or the property of any company concerned in the scheme is to be transferred to another company.

Members of the companies representing at least three quarter in value of the share of members being present and voting either in person or by proxy at each of the separate meetings must agree to the scheme before the Court can sanction same.

The repeal by the FCCP Act of Sections 118 - 128 of the Investments and Securities Act (“ISA”), (which are the sections which hitherto provided a legal framework for conducting mergers) created a gap in the procedure for conducting same. This gap has now been plugged with Section 711 of CAMA 2020 which provides a legal framework for mergers. (iii) Provisions applicable to scheme or contract involving transfer of shares in a company By virtue of Section 712 of CAMA 2020, where a scheme or contract, not being a take-over bid under the ISA involving the transfer of shares or any class of shares in a company to another company, has, within four months after the making of the offer in that behalf by the transferee company, been approved by the holders of at least nine-tenth in value of the shares of the company (other than shares already held at the date

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of the offer by a nominee for the transferee company, or its subsidiary), the transferee company may at any time within two months after the expiration of the said four months give notice in the prescribed manner to any dissenting shareholder that it desires to acquire its shares.

This section, which was hitherto absent in the Repealed Act, replicates the existing provisions of Section 129 of the ISA. (iv) Moratorium on creditors voluntary winding up in a scheme of arrangement Under Section 717 of CAMA 2020, no winding up petition or enforcement action by a creditor (secured or unsecured) shall be entertained against any company or its assets that has commenced a process of arrangement and compromise with its creditors for six months, from the time that the relevant company, by way of affidavit, provides all the requisite documents for such arrangement or compromise, to the Court However, a secured creditor may, by application to the court, filed within 30 days of notice of the arrangement and compromise, discharge the six months’ moratorium period if certain conditions set out in section 717(2) of CAMA 2020 are met; and provided that the company, upon the approval or consent shall file a further affidavit updating the court of the dissipation of the said asset. (v) Netting CAMA 2020 under Sections 718 - 721 introduces the concept of “Netting”. Specifically, Section 721 of CAMA 2020 states that the provi-

sions of a netting agreement are enforceable in accordance with their terms, including against an insolvent party, and, where applicable, against a guarantor or other person providing security for a party and shall not be stayed, avoided or otherwise limited by: (a) the action of a liquidator; (b) any other provision of law relating to bankruptcy, reorganisation, composition with creditors, receivership or any other insolvency proceeding an insolvent party may be subject to; or (c) any other provision of law that may be applicable to an insolvent party, subject to the conditions contained in the applicable netting agreement. (vi) Disclosure of significant control and beneficial ownership Whilst under the Repealed Act, the obligations to disclose beneficial interest was limited to where such interest was acquired in a public company, CAMA 2020 does not make a distinction between disclosure required by a public company and a private company.

Specifically, Sections 119 and 120 of CAMA 2020, provide that persons who hold significant control in any type of company are required to disclose particulars of such control to the relevant companies within seven days of acquiring such significant control. All affected companies must inform the Commission within one month of receipt of the information, disclose the information in their annual returns to the Commission and update their registers of members with the appropriate details.

These amendments are targeted at increasing transparency and

combatting asset shielding, and are particularly significant because they may mandate the disclosure of beneficial interests in a company, even where such interests are held through nominal holders or in trust.

Accordingly, it would appear that holding of shares by way of trust arrangements is now permissible under CAMA 2020 and the Commission may be notified of such trusts. (vii) Threshold of substantial interest Section 120 (2) of CAMA 2020 now provides that a person is deemed a substantial shareholder in a public company if he holds under his name or by his nominee, shares in the company which entitle him to exercise at least 5% of the unrestricted voting rights at any general meeting of the company.

The relevant company is mandatorily obligated to give notice to the Commission, where (i) any person becomes a substantial shareholder, within 14 days of receipt of the notice from the substantial shareholder or upon becoming aware that a person is a substantial holder; and (ii) any person ceases to be a substantial shareholder, within 14 days of becoming aware of such cessation.

GRANDFATHERED/SAVINGS PROVISIONS - STATUS OF COMPLETED TRANSACTIONS & OUTSTANDING OBLIGATIONS Section 869 (2) of CAMA 2020 contains saving provisions validating all matters either completed or on-going under the Repealed Act. To this extent, all orders, rules, regulations, appointments, conveyances, mortgages, deed or agreements made, as well as resolutions passed, directions given, proceedings taken, instruments issued, and anything done under the old regime which was in force immediately before the commencement of the CAMA 2020; shall continue to have effect as if made, passed, given, taken, issued or

done under the new regime.

Whilst, the CAMA 2020 does not contain express provisions on ongoing transactions or outstanding obligations, it could be argued that the logical sequence would be for such transactions, which have been commenced but not completed, to be continued and indeed completed, in strict compliance with the provisions of the Repealed Act, to the extent none of the required actions are not ultra vires CAMA 2020. Nonetheless, in order to prevent any bottlenecks at the point of closing any transaction which will require seeking approvals and/or filling relevant transaction documents at the Commission, it will be prudent for advisers on ongoing transactions to transition such on-going transactions such that they come within the purview of CAMA 2020 to assure that same is not red flagged at the point of filing the transactional documents with the Commission.

Finally, Section 869 (7) of the CAMA 2020 provides that any individual, firm or company registered under the Repealed Act, immediately before the coming into operation of the new legislation, shall be deemed to be registered under and in accordance with the Repealed Act.

The Grey Matter Concept is an initiative of the law firm, Banwo & Ighodalo DISCLAIMER: This article is only intended to provide general information on the subject matter and does not by itself create a client/attorney relationship between readers and our Law Firm or serve as legal advice. Specialist legal advice should be sought about the readers’ specific circumstances when they arise.

LBPERSPECTIVE Allen & Brooks Partner, Mobolaji Oriola emphasizes need for Business Savvy Lawyers In this edition, Lawyer & Humanitarian, ‘Bolaji Oriola speaks to LEGAL BUSINESS about the rapid change in the business environment across Africa and the why Lawyers must re-invent themselves to stay relevant in the business circles.

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tell anyone who cares to listen that only Lawyers skilled at closing deals, lawyers who possess cutting edge business savvy will do extremely well in the future African business climate. We must understand and come to the realization that the hunger for solving Africa’s unique challenges is on a scale we’ve never seen before and the evidence shows it’s going to get more intense. Within the next decade, the race will be a fierce one attracting participation from within and outside Africa and it will eventually lead to the rise of new businesses and entrepreneurs.

As a Lawyer who wants to succeed and do extremely well in the commercial space, your objective should be to help imagine, create and develop businesses. Lawyers have to strategically position themselves if they want to be a part of making history and as such need to go beyond reciting what is contained in Legislation and Policy

Documents, to understanding how the day-day human behavior and future projections will affect the businesses they serve. We must understand that the goal for most businesses is to increase their bottom line (and for some, that is in addition to making impact).

So if you are advising a client who’s about to raise millions of dollars in funding for the business, you have to look at the factual matrix and put on two caps. The cap of protecting his interest by mitigating risk and the cap that ensures he makes a sound business decision.

The only way Lawyers can effectively play this role is by acquiring a true understanding of the business, including how it operates, how it makes money, who its competitors are, what its key relationships are and what its goals for growth are.

Clients are more comfortable and even willing to pay you handsomely when they realize that while formulating your legal advise you have a www.businessday.ng

holistic view of the business case and your opinion or thoughts will eventually have a significant impact on their bottom line.

Anytime clients reach out to me, I realized they look to me beyond providing solutions to a legal problem, but how to approach a problem that will affect the company’s overall business strategy. Rather than deciding solely on the merits of the law, the overall strategy of the company and demonstrating an understanding of the business case is considered.

Some Lawyers get it twisted and think they are business savvy because they can suggest how to legitimately maneuver the legal system, they fail to understand that what the business people think is how policy and regulation affects economic posture and its impact on their income. To be valuable in this global economy, one must make a paradigm shift from being legalcentric to being busines- centric.

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As a Corporate & Commercial lawyer or as a Business Lawyer (whichever term you want to call it), one of the most important things to consider is relationship with clients.

Lawyers have a very unique role in corporate life and they must bring to the table, a very sound understanding of what is called Business Judgment, so that you are not just giving legal advice, but also saying this is what the market looks like, this is what exists in this market, operations in the country and even provide advice on how to chart the course of the businesses.

As a Lawyer to a business person or entity, you must demonstrate an understanding of the business case and also show that you have a conviction, a belief that the business will do well and then help to pursue it to its logical extent. If you look at the leading Nigerian Lawyers or even the top tier law firms, they are run by business savvy Lawyers. Most of them in addition to running the @Businessdayng

leading law firms of our time, have also being at the forefront of driving the most successful companies across various sectors.

Every Business/Corporate/ Commercial Lawyer must have such a complete Mastery of the subject matter, the business case, strong local knowledge, domain command & control.

Your ability to make striking contributions to the business and help provide transformational solutions is what will set you apart.

Mobolaji is a Partner and Head of Business Advisory Practice at Allen & Brooks, Victoria Island, Lagos.

To learn more about Mobolaji Oriola, visit: www.allenandbrooks. com Mobolaji is also the Founder & President of The Riverwood Switch Foundation, a developmental organization focused on education across Africa. To learn more about the work he does with his team, visit: www.riverwoodswitch.org

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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FEATURE Sanwo-Olu: Showing leadership during COVID-19 pandemic Gboyega Akosile

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agos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s performance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos is exemplary, considering what his administration has done in the last six months to ensure that the Centre of Excellence remains on top of the situation.

Looking at the success rate of the state in addressing the pandemic, there is no doubt that Governor Sanwo-Olu has become a shining light and a beacon of hope by providing exceptional leadership in public office in the management of COVID-19 pandemic, not only in Lagos but throughout Nigeria.

Lagos remains the epicenter of the pandemic in Nigeria but the methodical handling of the virus by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is exemplary.

There seems to be a consensus among political pundits and public commentators that if not for Governor Sanwo-Olu’s leadership in managing the COVID-19 index case and several other earlier cases in Nigeria, the incident rates of the coronavirus may have overwhelmed the nation.

Thankfully, Governor Sanwo-Olu and his team’s action has helped the country in no small measure to stem what may have resulted into a crisis of monumental proportions.

Since the first confirmed coronavirus case in Nigeria was announced on February 27, when an Italian citizen in Lagos tested positive for the virus, Governor Sanwo-Olu has been up to the task in managing the pandemic. The governor apart from taking right decisions as incident commander also ensured that other sectors in the state did not suffer as he steered the ship of the state successfully during moments of crisis.

Despite the increasing number of confirmed cases recorded daily by the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu moved five steps ahead by putting in place some measures to mitigate the effects of the rise in numbers. It is of note that the governor did not wait for Lagos to record any case of the virus before putting several measures in place in preparation for the pandemic.

It would be recalled that almost a month before the pandemic broke out in Nigeria, Sanwo-Olu inaugurated the Incident Command Committee for coronavirus and made himself the incident commander.

He also gave approval for the urgent rehabilitation and upgrading of the necessary facilities to serve as isolation centres in the state.

After Lagos State recorded its index case, Sanwo-Olu administration didn’t rest on its oars, by ensuring that necessary measures were put in place to address the situation and curtail spread of the virus in Lagos. To strengthen protocol and check possible increase in the cases occasioned by the continued influx of travelers into Nigeria through Lagos from some COVID-19 ravaged countries, Governor Sanwo-Olu on March 17 led some members of the State Executive Council to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, to carry out an assessment of what was being done to screen travellers coming into

Sanwo-Olu

the country through the state. The visit, according to the governor, who had earlier deployed the Lagos State health workers to the airport to assist in the screening of travellers, was meant to sensitise protocol officers in ensuring that no one is spared in the thorough screening and profiling of travelers.

The Lagos State government in its quest to check the spread of the coronavirus at the early stage of the pandemic in Nigeria also put in place a strategy to identify, trace and isolate all individuals that had come into contact with confirmed cases in Lagos. It is also of note that long before the Federal Government began to spell out guidelines on prevention of coronavirus; Governor Sanwo-Olu took proactive steps to curtail the spread of the virus through different means.

Worried by the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in Lagos State a few days after the state recorded its first case, Governor Sanwo-Olu took some decisions to strike the balance between health, economy and security during the pandemic. The governor immediately ordered closure of religious centres and banned public gatherings.

He also limited gatherings at events to not more than 20 people.

Schools were also closed down and all Lagos State civil servants from grade level 1-12 were instructed to work from home. Public parks and markets, except for sellers of food, medicines, medical equipment and other essential life-saving products, also closed down for some weeks. Lagos State government also embarked on grassroots sensitisation on print, electronic, online media and other communication channels. All the steps were taken in a bid to protect residents from physical and other potential threats.

To ensure that lives and properties of Lagosians were secured during the lockdown period, the state government in conjunction with security agencies beefed up security apparatus to forestall hoodlums taking advantage of the lockdown situation to rob the residents and dispossess them of their personal belongings.

The governor approved funds for the www.businessday.ng

cleaning up of the entire public spaces in the state. Disinfectant equipment was deployed with professional handlers to fumigate the entire state.

As an empathetic governor, the place of the vulnerable and people at the lowest level of the economic ladder is very dear to Sanwo-Olu’s heart.

Governor Sanwo-Olu put smiles on the faces of millions of people who fall in this category during the lockdown period by providing relief packages (first of its kind), comprising rice, beans, garri, bread, dry pepper, drinking water and vitamins to cushion the effects of the lockdown on them.

In preparation for an eventual spike in the number of confirmed cases in the state, Lagos State Government, in conjunction with private partners, completed a 110-bed fully equipped isolation centre at Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson Arena. One hundred and eighteen-bed isolation centres in Gbagada; 150-bed isolation centre at the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba; 80-bed, 10 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) isolation centre at Landmark Convention Centre and 60-bed isolation centre at LUTH were also activated while the Agidingbi Isolation Centre was dedicated to the treatment of the frontline health workers who became infected while treating the COVID-19 patients.

To ensure the well-being of Lagos residents during the lockdown period, especially with effect to medical services, Governor Sanwo-Olu declared that all emergencies including accidents, surgeries, deliveries by pregnant women and admission in any of the 27 state-owned general hospitals and other public health facilities should be handled free of charge.

Sanwo-Olu also preached social distance and mandated wearing of facemasks and use of hand sanitisers in the state. The state government also ensured reduction in the number of passengers by public transport. To ensure that some of the measures put in place by state government were effective, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed into law the Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law, 2020, with the aim of giving the governor the power to carry out some functions in relation to addressing the

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COVID-19 pandemic.

To assist people economically during COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Sanwo-Olu on June 18 launched HelpNow, a social intervention platform deployed to support at least two million Lagosians through a crowdfunding model that rallies support of well-meaning individuals and corporates. It is geared towards mitigating the debilitating effects of COVID-19 on the income and livelihood of millions of households in Nigeria.

Though Lagos still remains the epicenter of the pandemic with highest confirmed cases in Nigeria, there is no doubt that Governor Sanwo-Olu’s pragmatic handling of COVID-19 pandemic has continued to earn him the people’s trust and the support of the private sector.

Sanwo-Olu’s administration has enjoyed more support from the private sector and individuals than any other state in Nigeria during the pandemic. The goodwill and relationship contributed to Lagos State cash donations, equipment and facilities such as isolation centers donated by organisations and philanthropists.

The support was kick-started by President Muhammadu Buhari who provided some cash relief for Lagos to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the state’s economy.

Some of the back-end approaches that gave Governor Sanwo-Olu the resounding success over the coronavirus pandemic in Lagos State is the creation of structure and super structure with multi-level components for easy and smooth coordination.

Apart from the centrally controlled incident command structure, which he heads as the incident commander, Governor Sanwo-Olu set up what we call the “War Room Cabinet”, comprising few executive council members saddled with different responsibilities during the lockdown.

He also set up an inter-ministerial committee for the management of the COVID-19 fund. There is an outer leg known as the COVID-19 Volunteer Corps, which is coordinated by another cabinet member. Everyone reports to the incident commander.

Effective communication is key in war situations. Governor SanwoOlu effectively communicated to the residents. He was clear about every piece of information he dished out on a regular basis, he was emotive, he was assuring and he carried every citizen along.

One of the major wins for Governor Sanwo-Olu is leading from the front and from behind, where necessary. When he announced an executive decision, such as wearing facemasks, he would lead from the front by wearing it. He also demonstrated how to wash our hands with soap and running water at some public functions. It also applies to keeping social distancing protocols.

Increase in the allowance of health workers and payment of special covid-19 allowance for frontline workers.

This move has earned the governor some accolades from far and near.

He has motivated and boosted the morale of the State health workers, giving them reasons to do more to save people that have been infected with COVID-19.

Governor Sanwo-Olu’s effort has been commended by millions @Businessdayng

of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. Many elder statesmen, captains of industries, professionals, politicians and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, who said the governor has shown leadership in managing the COVID-19 outbreak.

Speaking during a private meeting with Governor Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday March 24, Tinubu threw his weight behind the preventive measures taken by the governor to stop the spread of coronavirus within the state.

Tinubu said Governor SanwoOlu had shown leadership in the implementation of the response strategy to manage confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and tracing of suspected cases, even beyond the borders of the state.

“I congratulate the government of Lagos State for what has been done so far and the regular information that the government is sharing with the public. This is the essence of leadership. Nigerians need a lot of education in this challenge period,” he said.”

Tinubu said.

Mustapha, who is the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, commended Sanwo-Olu for setting up a world-class facility to assist in managing people affected by the COVID-19 disease.

The SGF, who gave the commendation on Tuesday April 7 during a tour by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to the facility set up by the state government in Lagos, said that the state government had been on course.

The Lagos State House of Assembly also described the efforts of Governor Sanwo-Olu and his team in the fight against the spread COVID-19 pandemic as worthwhile.

The House, which commended the executive arm for its cooperation and unity of purpose, said at this period of a major health crisis, it could only take a passionate person like Governor Sanwo-Olu, with the needed support of the state’s lawmakers, to keep things running.

This support, the House said, necessitated the introduction of the Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law, 2020, by the Lagos Assembly with the aim of giving the governor the power to carry out some functions in this case.

As the world continues to find solutions to the virus, Governor Sanwo-Olu is not relenting in his efforts to ensure that Lagosians are kept safe and healthy. He also believes that the residents should complement what the government is doing in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic.

He has advised people to start taking responsibility for themselves and their loved ones, adding that “Self-regulation is the order of the day, and you should not wait for the government to regulate you or your conduct, even though we will be doing so, you must ensure as matter of responsibility, that you are selfregulating yourself in the interests of yourself and loved ones.” …Akosile is the Chief Press Secretary to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Investor Helping you to build wealth & make wise decisions

Market capitalisation

NSE Premium Index

The NSE-Main Board

N13.063 trillion

2,205.73

N13.146 trillion

2,203.61

NSE All Share Index

Week open (07 -08–20)

25,041.89

Week close (14- 08–20)

25,199.84

Percentage change (WoW)

0.63

Percentage change (YTD)

-6.12

- 1.27 4.13

NSE ASeM Index

NSE 30 Index

NSE Banking Index

NSE Insurance Index NSE Consumer Goods Index NSE Oil/Gas Index

1,031.11

740.58

122.00

405.36

178.53

1,847.16

1,147.87

956.89

1,056.41

1,070.58 1,067.29

292.37

740.58

123.37

414.47

189.10

1,834.18

1,116.82

963.71

2.45 -8.28

0.00 0.00

0.31 9.39

292.28

0.03 -18.09

1.12

2.25

-1.95

-30.09

5.92 -27.97

NSE Lotus II

NSE Ind. Goods Index

-0.70 -0.03

-2.71 3.83

NSE Pension Index

0.71 -8.57

Dangote Cement: Analysts say stock still a good ‘buy’ with upside potential

United Capital research analysts stated.

“The management attributed the decline in volume from the Nigerian market to the restriction in movement implemented by the Nigerian government from the end of March-2020 and highlighted that the relaxation of lockdown in May and June-2020 had since paved way for the management to push volumes.

As expected, the company launched its maiden shipment of clinker with about 27.8tonnes exported from Nigeria to Senegal through the now commissioned Apapa Export Terminal”, the analysts further noted.

Following the commissioning of the export jetty in Apapa, Dangote Cement resumed exports of clinkers (a solid material produced in the

manufacture of cement as an intermediary product) to West African markets in second quarter (Q2), with a first clinker shipment of 27,800 metric tonnes to Senegal in June.

The company is looking to build on this and expand its shipping routes to cover several West and Central African countries including Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Ghana.

The expansion will focus on shipping clinkers to countries without commercial quantities of limestone, which currently import clinkers from Asia and Europe. Dangote Cement management has identified a possible 15 target countries with a combined population of over 350 million people.

Also, Vetiva research analysts said they still expect a decent performance from Dangote Cement despite economic challenges. “After taking into account the strongerthan-expected performance in the first half of the year, we have adjusted our group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) expectation to N423.5billion (margin: 46percent), supported by improved Pan-African EBITDA. Finally, we adjust our full year (FY) 2020 PAT expectation to N209.8 billion,” said Vetiva analysts.

After updating their model, Vetiva analysts revised their target price (TP) for Dangote Cement stock to N198.15, “reflecting stronger medium-tolong term prospects on account of the export strategy, an expected reduction in Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) due to the debt strategy and an overall low-interest

environment.”

Dangote Industries Limited owns 85.1percent of Dangote Cement Plc 17.04billion shares outstanding while Others own 14.7percent. Dangote Cement is the largest stock by value (N2.3trillion on Monday August 17) on The NSE Industrial index and one of the giant stocks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“It makes up 58.37percent of the Industrial index, and 17.65percent of the total market cap respectively”, said research analysts at Lagos-based Capital Bancorp Plc. “Dangote Cement is a very volatile stock in the market and currently trading at N136. We recommend a strong buy for this stock not undermining other factors such as continues growth in earnings per share, N7.45 (H1’19: N7.01), a higher return on equity at 17.06percent and a dividend yield at 11.76percent”, Capital Bancorp analysts added.

“During COVID-19 pandemic, companies need not to be told to work more efficiently in order to boost growth. Dangote Cement’s result in the past 6 months however was quite decent, considering the very difficult business environment that trespassed - lockdown in South Africa, Congo, Ghana and Nigeria for most of April. The strategy adopted to boost revenue was to increase unit price per ton of cement and to reduce sales volume to 12.11million tones from 12.29million tones .This went a long way to grow revenue to N476billion (1.95percent increase)”, Capital Bancorp noted in its August 17 note.

Money Market : CRR debit pressures liquidity The liquidity position at the interbank window remained buoyant for most of the prior week, thanks to c. N347.50bn inflow from OMO maturities which spurred average interbank funding rates to within the lower single digit. However, a substantial CRR debit combined with FX retail auction funding at the end of the week pressured system liquidity and spurred average interbank funding rates to end the week at 18.7percent.

At the primary NTB market, like the prior auction, stop rates declined across all the tenors offered as the DMO through the CBN rolled over a total of N56.8bn NTB maturities.

The stop rates came in at 1.2percent, 1.4percent and 3.2percent for the 91-day, 182- day and 364- day bills, respectively. This was as demand for the government bills remained strong, with bid-to-cover ratio for the

91-day at 1.5x, 182-day at 3.1x and the 364-day at 2.1x. Elsewhere, CBN offered N50billion worth of bills at the primary OMO market but sold circa 91percent (N45.4billion) of the total amount offered across the 3 tenors on auction following healthy demand (total subscription 1.89x offer amount), while dropping the stop rates in comparison with the last auction by an average of circa 4basis points (bps).

Elsewhere, sentiment was mildly bullish at the secondary market, thanks to the improvement in financial system liquidity. Accordingly, average NTB and OMO yield declined by 14bps and 4bps to close at 1.6percent and 4.01percent, respectively. This week, in the absence of another discretionary CRR debit by the CBN, we expect rates at the interbank window to trade lower as funding pressure is anticipated to subsides on the back of the scheduled OMO maturity of c. N181.4billion. Also, this should boost activities at the

secondary market in the early part of the week Bond Market: Stable oil price spur interest in Nigeria’s Eurobonds Sentiments at the domestic secondary bond market remained bearish last week as market players anticipates new issuances at the August bond auction scheduled for this week. Notably, average yield on the benchmark bonds inched higher, up 4bps w/w to close at 7.85percent.

At the secondary Eurobond market, the recent stability witnessed at the global crude oil market continued to spur interest in Nigerian issued Eurobonds. Notably, average yield on sovereign and corporate Eurobond fell by 35bps and 23bps w/w to 6.6percent and 7.2percent respectively.

This week, the Debt Management Office is set to offer a total of N150billion across 10 years, 15 years, 25 years and 30 years tenor with an average coupon rate of 11.94percent.

Storeis by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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ecently, Africa’s leading c e m e n t p r o d u c e r, Dangote Cement Plc released its interim financial statements for the three months and six months ended June 30, 2020. The unaudited result for half year (H1) to June 30 shows revenue of N476.85billion as against N467.73billion recorded in H1’19, up 2 percent. The company’s cost of sales went up to N202.42billion in H1’20 from H1’19 level of N193.17billion, up 4.8 percent.

The cement maker’s gross profit stood flat at N274.43billion; while Profit Before Tax in H1’20 increased to N162.85billion from N155.48billion in H1’19, up 4.7 percent. Profit After Tax rose to N126.14billion in H1’20 from H1’19 level of N119.24billion, up 5.8percent.

At N136 per share the stock closed last week, it represents year-to-date (ytd) decline of -4.2percent. Research analysts have after the company’s H1’20 results maintained their buy rating for the stock, noting that it still has upside potentials.

For instance, analysts at United Capital in their July 29 note maintained their Buy rating on Dangote Cement but revised their target price (TP) to reflect recent volatilities in the equity market.

“We maintain our BUY rating on the ticker. However, factoring the current volatilities in the Nigerian equity market, we revise our Target Price

(TP) to N175/share which gives an upside potential of 23.4percent at the current price of N141.8 (as at July 29). Again, we insist that the planned 10percent share Buy-Back will remain positive for market valuation,” the analysts added.

“Dangote Cement defied the whirlwind of COVID-19 pandemic by printing a year-on-year (y/y) improvement in revenue in Q2-2020, despite restrictions on movement its markets across Africa. Taking a deeper look into the Group’s revenue, we observed that there was a decline in volume sold for the period under review as the overall volume declined by 1.5percent y/y dragged solely by the 2.8percent decline from the Nigerian market that accounted for over 60percent of the Group’s sales”,

United Capital Research:

Domestic financial markets review and outlook Equity Market: On the path of recovery n the previous week, the performance of the local bourse was positive, as the NSE-ASI gained 0.6percent week-on-week (w/w) to close at 25,199.84 points.

Accordingly, year-to-date (YtD) loss improved to -6.1percent (previous week close: -6.7percent). In terms of activity levels, average value and volumes traded advance by 29percent and 24.6percent w/w, to N2.8billion and 265.5million units, respectively.

Notably, sectoral performance was broadly mixed as three sector indices closed the week on a positive note and two closed the week in the red territory. The Oil and Gas (+5.9percent) sector was the largest gainer fueled by SEPLAT (+10percent), OANDO (+5.53percent) and ARDOVA (+4.94percent). Also, the Consumer Goods (+2.25percent) and Insurance (+1.1percent) sector indices ended the week in the green territory, thanks

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to price appreciation in CADBURY (+12.88percent), GUINNE S S (+9.22percent), NB (+2.5percent), LINKASSURE (+2.63percent), and MANSARD (+0.63percent).

Inversely, the Industrial Goods (-2.7percent) sector led the losers camp, dragged by price decline in DANGCEM (-4.09percent). Also, the Banking (-0.03percent) sector trended southwards amid losses in ZENITHBANK (-1.18percent), ACCESS (-1.54percent) and WEMA (-3.85percent).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth declined to 0.93x (previously 2.7x) as 27 stocks advanced while 29 declined w/w.

This week, we expect a mixed performance as short-term players take profit while seeking bargain hunting opportunities. Also, we believe a bullish catalyst could be triggered by the publication of a strong earnings report from the outstanding tier-1 banking names. www.businessday.ng

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@Businessdayng

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

23

ENERGYREPORT Oil & Gas

Power

Renewables

Environment

The imperative of removing myriad obstacles in power sector olusola Bello

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lectricity is a commodity or product that requires cost recovery returns on Investments. This is the reason why power business value chain must be viewed purely from commercial perspectives. Doing this would ensure steady supply of electricity and create an enabling environment for investors.

But with the current situation in the industry in which stakeholders are faced with fixed tariff or over bloated tariff creating viable and harmonious atmosphere for both the investors and consumers may be an uphill task. It is therefore important that such an obstacle is removed for the benefit of everybody.

Nigerians and by extension electricity consumers have been reduced to bargaining chips and Instruments of collateral used by

successive governments to secure foreign loans, all in an effort to improve supply to the citizens.

Another thing that should be looked into if stakeholders are to ensure an efficient power supply in the country is the review of the framework of the presently discriminatory gas pricing

methodology and over Dollarisation of the gas market.

This essence of this is to ensure an equitable distribution of gas produced for domestic obligations and bulk users of gas for industrial, manufacturing and productive activities in high intensity employment generation companies.

The Nigerian economy would remain under developed and will be at the mercy of global exchange rates volatility and global economic uncertainty and instability unless the government take a bold step towards having progressive growth in the Power Sector.

Nigerian Economy is ma-

NNPC aims at increasing transparency as it becomes EITI Partner Company olusola Bello

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etermined to shed the toga of opaqueness, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has now teamed up with Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) as partner company, joining a group of over 65 extractives companies, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), commodity traders, financial institutions and industry partners who commit to observing the EITI’s supporting company expectations.

By becoming partner with EITI the NNPC would now be expected to do the following • Publicly declare support for the EITI Principles and, by promoting transparency throughout the extractive industries, help public debate

and provide opportunities for sustainable development.

• Publicly disclose taxes and payments.

• Ensure comprehensive disclosure of taxes and payments made to all EITI implementing countries.

• Publicly disclose beneficial owners and take steps to identify the beneficial owners of direct business partners, including Joint Ventures and contractors.

• Engage in rigorous procurement processes, including due diligence in respect to partners and vendors.

• Deliver natural resources in a manner that benefits societies and communities.

Ensure that company processes are appropriate to deliver the data required for high standards of accountability.

In his remark,Helen Clark, EITI board Chair, said he wel-

comed the company’s commitment to the EITI: “NNPC plays a vital role in Nigeria’s economy. Joining the EITI as a supporting company is a welcome step in the NNPC’s journey towards achieving greater transparency and to help ensure that Nigeria’s citizens benefit from their natural resource wealth.”

Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and former EITI Board member, also stressed the importance of ensuring that natural resource wealth contributes to sustainable development, saying that: “Increased transparency of Nigeria’s national oil company revenues is contributing to improvements in our country’s domestic resource mobilisation efforts.”

Established in 1977, NNPC has grown to become the largest asset holder

across Nigeria’s oil and gas industry value chain. Traditionally an oil and gas entity, it is transitioning towards becoming an integrated energy company with an interest in power generation and transmission.

The state-owned company has recently taken measures to become more transparent.

In June 2020, it published audited account for 20 of its subsidiaries. NNPC also publishes its financial and operations report every month on its website, national dailies and online media to keep the public informed about its activities as part of efforts to be accountable to Nigerians.

It is working with Nigeria EITI (NEITI) on an action plan to routinely disclose information and it currently publishes some of the data required by the 2019 EITI Standard on its website.

Ikeja Electric Launches WhatsApp Chatbot to optimise service delivery, complaints resolution

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keja Electric has unveiled a WhatsApp messaging solution, which offers real-time customers complaints resolution and 24-hour customer support service.

The IE WhatsApp Chatbot works like regular WhatsApp platform and enables seamless two-way communication between customer and the DisCo through the chat Olusola Bello, Team lead,

interface.

Ikeja Electric, while explaining the functionality, noted that through the dedicated WhatsApp Chatbot number 09088951626, customers can get their account details, check and pay bills, confirm payments, report faults, make complaints and request for prepaid meter.

In addition, customers can check supply availabil-

Graphics: Joel Samson.

ity, report case of energy theft or vandalism, request for new connection and get answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), among other services. Customers can also speak with Customer Care Representative via the IE WhatsApp Chatbot if required.

Speaking on the initiative, Head of Corporate Communications for Ikeja Electric,

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Felix Ofulue, explained the decision to deploy the service is part of its major push to deliver an optimum quality customer experience through technology.

According to him, this commitment continues to elicit a passion for service excellence and new thinking on how to empower lives and businesses across the IE network.

jorly an import dependent one and with 90percent of good and services coming from abroad.

Nigerian economy is the largest market in Africa and going into various Free Trade Protocols hook line and sinker without a productive economic base and getting it right with the Nigerian Power Sector would be a disservice to national sovereignty and Nigerians / Nigerian State.

According to Kola Olubiyo President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, he said, more than ever before, the time to get the power sector right is now as a people and a sovereign State.

He said the power sector challenges has assumed a state of national emergency that requires surgical intervention and pragmatic treatment.

Every year, the country send out several thousands of graduates from our Ivory Towers without space to engaged and employed them.

SPE laments effect of COVID-19 on oil workers olusola Bello

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he Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria council has lamented the ravaging effect of COVID 19 on its petroleum industry workers globally, saying that impact is huge and negative.

He said pandemic shut down the world economy and this has spiral effect on everybody.

With the pandemic it stated that there is a reduction in demand for crude oil and gas and the appetite for the commodities basically disappear.

The association said: “Reduction in prices has resulted in low prices. This means fewer jobs, people being laid off, even though this may not be so much in Nigeria. But if you go the United Kingdom and United States of America ,oil and gas companies have folded up, some went into liquidation thereby by resulting in loss of jobs.”

According to Jeo Nwakwue , chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council stated that many projects may have been sanctioned , may be those that would break prices in the region of $50 and $60 rate but they can no longer go forward, you cannot employ people for those projects. So it has had negative impact on the

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If the country can get it right with the Power Sector then she can be rest assured of up scaling her absorptive capacity for employment.

Abdullahi Saidu, a business consultant said that fixing the power sector myriads of crises will take away hopelessness and bring back the jobs, stating that what Nigeria has been doing by not fixing the power sector is tantamount to exporting jobs.

He said Nigeria can only be Independent if and when she is economically independent which comes with fixing the Power Sector and getting it right with the Nigerian Power Sector.

“At the moment, we are progressing in error and travelling at speed in reverse mood,” he said.

Other stakeholders however believe that all hopes are not lost yet if only there could be a holistic appraisal of key performing indicators as well as rejig and reconfigure the power sector now.

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industry especially petroleum engineers.

If the outlook for prices are not rosy, people may not be thinking that price of crude oil would recover in the near future because, he said.

In terms of growth we are in a turbulence period because at $45 nobody knows how long the price would be in this range. At this price many projects would not be economical and if they are not economical you can’t hire and you can’t grow. So it is not good petroleum Engineers globally.

Jeo Nwakwu who also spoke about the association’s upcoming event with a theme: Managing Global Energy Landscape: Strategies for Industry Sustainability said various industry stakeholders across the world would contribute towards steps that would help sustain the industry.

The industry, regulators, policy makers academia every other stakeholders will look at specific challenges that the industry is facing and address them One of the preliminary sessions he said would be talking about “our industry and its sustainability” which is a topical issue. Everybody understands that we talk about energy transition, so there is push globally towards cleaner fuels and Nigeria is fossil fuel dependent nations.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Garden City Business Digest NDDC vs Joi Nunieh again over the legal officer and N1.96Bn Lassa Fever contract Ignatius Chukwu

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t appears the curve of the war of attrition in the Niger Delta oozing from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is yet to flatten. Now, another can of worms has been opened in the matter of employment of a legal officer and later the promotion to a director of legal department.

The Director, Peter Claver Okoro, wrote to Joi Nunieh, former acting MD and dauther of first Ogoni lawyer, to refund N1.96Bn she allegedly spent without authorization as acting CEO of the Commission. Nunieh fired back saying she transferred Okoro (when she was CEO) to Bayelsa office based on security reports on some of his activities. She said Okoro was to be brought back and illegally promoted by the present Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by the professor, Daniel Pondei; and that he is now witchhunting her..

The NDDC countered this on Monday, August 17, 2020, giving details of due process in both employment and promotion of Okoro. The matter now seems to shift from validity of the demand for refund to validity of Okoro’s appointment.

Daniel Pondei

Joi Nunieh

Nunieh had painstakingly stated how the process of the Lassa Fever contract took place and how some of the present members of the IMC 0especially Cairo Ojougboh) was part of the inspection and processes. She said it is rather the Pondei-led IMC that ought to refund over N4Bn as per the National Assembly probe report.

On the letter by Okoro, she accused the director of legals of being promoted in contravention of the Public Service Rules (PSR). “It was part of the illegal promotions made by the present IMC, which was described by the representative of the Head of Service of the Federation (whilst giving evidence before the Senate Committee) as being

“strange” and in clear contravention of S. 020701 (diii) of the PSR, which provides that only the Federal Civil Service Commission (or a Governing Board as stated in the NDDC Establishment Act, 2000) has the responsibility to promote officers from SGL 15-17 on the recommendation of the Head of the MDA and not the EIMC. “Okoro was imposed on and illegally employed by the NDDC, as a Deputy Director without an application letter, advertisement for vacancy, examination, nor interview for his employment only few years ago, and in clear contravention of S. 020102 of the PSR which, provide that, only the Federal Civil Service Commission can make such

an appointments to positions of SGL 12-17 based on the needs and availability of vacancies, after due advertisements have been published.

He has showed in his letter that he is not conversant with the sections of the NDDC Establishment Act, 2000, as he usurped the powers of the MD to write an external letter on behalf of the commission.”

She did not explain if the MD has no right to delegate any of his functions to a director.

Reacting, the director of corporate affairs, Charles Odili, issued a statement on August 18, 2020, saying due process was followed in employing Okoro and all others.

“The NDDC Management, wishes to state that Okoro’s employment was approved

Two biggest markets in PH remain closed as governor opens all others

by the Tarila Tebepah-led board, while his promotion was approved by the Victor Ndoma-Egba-led board.

“We also wish to state that at the time Okoro joined the NDDC, the position of Deputy Director Legal Services was vacant. Hence, it was advertised prompting interested candidates, including Okoro, to apply.

He wrote the appropriate examination, passed and was subsequently interviewed before his employment. It is important to note that the entire exercise was backed by a board resolution. The process was transparent as the exams took place at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RUST) while the oral interview was held at Protea Hotel, Port Harcourt.

“Before joining the NDDC, Okoro was an Assistant Director in the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and he was adjudged the best candidate in the tests for the Deputy Director category. It is, therefore, diversionary to resort to attacking the credulity of our recruitment and promotion system.

“The management led by Pondei operates with laid down rules and procedures.

Our stakeholders should be rest assured that all our promotion exercises comply with the statutes establishing the commission and extant Public Service Rules.”

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he two biggest markets in Rivers State, Oil Mill at Rumukwurushe and Slaughter markets did not get the grace of the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who ordered the reopening of all others.

Traders in both markets did not participate in the jubilation that spread through all other markets in the state.

In a broadcast on Monday, August 17, 2020, the governor insisted that Oil Mill and Slaughter must not reopen. Oil Mill attracts traders from across the Niger Delta while Slaughter is dominated by northerners who sell livestock and northern foods such as onions and veggies.

Rumours have been rife that someone had bought some of the lands hosting the markets.

Soon, Ikokwu spare parts traders began to get quit notices saying one investor had bought up the lands. Now, the failure to reopen the two markets has fired more speculations.

Apparently noticing the attitude of the traders in the two clamped down markets, the governor, through the Commissioner of Information and Communications, Paulinus Msirim, issued a late night stern statement thus: “Rivers State Government hereby reiterates that Oginiba (Slaughter Market) and Rumukwurushe (Oil Mill) Market still remain closed despite the lifting of the ban on markets in the State.

FG must step in Afam power plant crisis; that’s what governance is about Port Harcourt

by Boat

IGNATIUS CHUKWU

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ost people wonder what our governments understand as governance; just to appropriate funds and award contracts? In between, there are countless actions and decisions begging for attention and numerous gaps waiting to be closed. It is the ability of the government to address these that create governance flow.

In our clime, this concern seems to be severely absent. Decline will set in (in a govt programme or project) and end decay without intervention.

All funds pumped into it will go to waste, and nobody would care. Inaction seems to be govt’s most important action.

Worst: If a community raises complaint/ alarm to appropriate govt agencies, even if it is about threat to life and property, the memo will lie on their tables till doom comes or the community decides to take the law into their hands.

That is how today many community armies emerged all over; government now comes with disarmament, amnesty, special operations, etc. These are signs of failed governance over the years.

Unfortunately, what they put forward to the masses as agenda at elections is project, project, project, and no programmes. Brother, its programmes that solve problems. Programmes are the software of governance while projects are hardware. The two go together because computer (hardware) is nothing without the software and programmes that run in it.

Afam power plant with community crisis has been in the news for decades. From no light at all while they lighted up the nation; to now that its about whether or not they should pay bills; and their seeming fight-back through violence. They were in Imo and thus classless as all easterners seem to be; then in 1976 were carved into old Rivers. Has anything changed? Many more power plants were later built in Afam by Shell. Afam was later connected to power.

Now, the new phase of the crisis is that every now and then, the state will be thrown into total darkness. PHED would accuse the Afam community who may deny. The crisis is real.

The House of Reps from Abuja once visited to intervene in host communities demanding for free power supply as a right. The chairman of that committee had pleaded with the host communities and Afam in particular not to expect

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free light as corporate social responsibility (CSR) like oil communities because power has been sold. He advised them on the way forward. Of course, Nigeria is not a place of continuity. The effort died with end of his tenure.

This dispute has become a festering one for the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) which inherited it as ‘half of a yellow moon’. The dispute has dragged to Abuja where the Afam people were said to have insisted they were exempted from paying bills by Obj. PHED is said to have asked for exemption document (which I guess they would use to file for discount at NERC) but none was produced.

So, PHED claims the place owes billions of naira in bills unpaid. The spokespeople for Afam say all is a lie, that they do not disrupt power and that they pay N120m a month without seeing the light. Independent sources say most cold rooms and other heavy consumers relocate to Afam to escape bills. The community boys allegedly

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charge them peanuts. So, PHED disconnects the place, and crisis erupts. Nobody knows the truth here but fact is that Rivers State is thrown into total darkness from time to time, the latest being last weekend.

It is sad that the FG and its super agencies have allowed the matter with PHED, a hapless power distributor that has no power to resolve such matter. Is Afam host community to PHED or to TCN or GENCO? PHED has poles and wires everywhere, so, who is their host community?

Everybody is quiet looking at a Disco to roast while we easily rise to blame them for every little light out. We forget it’s a chain and what you get is summation of the inefficiencies and failures from gas supply, generation, transmission to distribution. The money you pay is split along this line too, but when it is trouble, its only for a Disco. Sad, poor brainy nation! Besides, Afam is not the only power plant host community and so, whatever goes for others should go for Afam.

The FG and its agencies must wake up and set up a panel on Afam Power Plant crisis. Give them what they deserve and explain to them the ones they don’t deserve. Its not a PHED matter, we must stress this. This was how the FG left Shell with Kula community for years and oil stopped flowing until 2019 when the FG mandated the NNPC to handle it. Now, peace and oil have returned there. The FG can resolve Afam matter, if Afam lives matter. State govt can also play some roles.

@Businessdayng

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

25

BUSINESS TRAVEL Quarantine rules threaten to leave travel firms and their staff stranded IFEOMA OKEKE

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he coronavirus pandemic has thrown the travel industry into a tailspin. In the latest blow for the sector, the government last week imposed quarantine measures on people arriving in Britain from France and several other countries.

Even before that move, the outlook was bleak. Tui, Europe’s biggest holiday company, warned last week that it had lost €2bn (£1.8bn) in the nine months to the end of June. Revenues had collapsed by 98 percent between April and June – the period during which lockdown measures effectively grounded international flights around the world.

Official figures show that a fifth of British holidaymakers have already scrapped plans to travel abroad this summer because of quarantine issues. In a survey by the Office for National Statistics after the imposition of quarantine rules for Spain – but before France was added to the list – as many as six in 10 UK adults said they would be put off travelling abroad if they had to self-isolate for two weeks on their return.

The loss of British tourists will have a heavy impact on the big economies of Europe. France and Spain are the top two destinations for British tourists, who make as many as 18 million visits to Spain each year, mainly for holidays,

and more than 10 million to France.

For sectors such as tourism and the arts, the removal of support at this early stage is a death sentence But although quarantine rules may prove damaging for Disneyland Paris, small towns in the Dordogne and hotels on the Costa del Sol, British companies and jobs will also be heavily affected.

Airlines and travel operators, which between them employ hundreds of thousands of people across the country, are on the frontline of the economic meltdown triggered by quarantine. Ministers need to urgently wake up to the risks facing these businesses.

The first remedy the government should consider is an extension of the furlough scheme and a higher level of support for one of the hardest-hit

sectors of the economy.

The wage subsidy programme – which has supported a total of more than 9 million jobs since its launch in March – is being scaled down from this month and is due to close completely by the end of October.

This may be appropriate in sectors that have reopened after lockdown, but for those with restrictions – such as tourism and the arts – the removal of support at this early stage is a death sentence.

So far the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has resisted the idea of sectoral furloughs – saying it would be too difficult to determine which companies are in which sectors when there is a high degree of overlap. But as the rapidly evolving response to the pandemic has shown, such challenges should no longer be considered

Nigerian Skyward members get 1500 new ways to earn miles

insurmountable.

The other argument is that the longer the pandemic goes on, the more important it is for the economy to adjust to the “new normal” of physical distancing. This view has spread from the Treasury to the Bank of England, where Andrew Bailey has publicly backed the ending of furlough for this reason.

Without a lasting vaccine to eradicate the risk of Covid-19 entirely, the economy will have to adjust over time. The aviation sector in particular is in any case facing a need for fundamental change to its models, as the climate emergency threatens an even deadlier reckoning than the pandemic. While serving as a catalyst for decarbonising the economy, the quarantine measures could also encourage staycations, to the benefit of other parts of the UK economy.

However, to make such a transition overnight would cause untold harm to firms and workers whose livelihoods still depend on overseas travel. Britain’s aviation sector alone has issued almost 20,000 redundancy notices since the beginning of lockdown, with a severe knock-on impact for jobs in the wider supply chain.

Communities around airports – such as Crawley, near Gatwick – could be left with mounting unemployment.

After scrapping the holiday plans of millions, the government must now fly into action to support businesses and workers whose livelihoods are now at risk through no fault of their own.

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mirates Skywards members in Nigeria amongst other travellers world-wide can now enjoy over 1500 new ways to earn miles, as the awardwinning loyalty programme of Emirates and flydubai, has introduced a thousand new ways to earn Miles while shopping online with popular UK and US brands.

Members can now visit skywardsmilesmall.com, choose from more than 1,500 brands and splurge on shopping, while racking up Miles that can be used for discounted flight tickets and other rewards.

In order to start earning Miles, the skyward member will have to shop online through the website which can be accessed on the Emirates app.

Members can then browse through a list of fantastic offers across fashion, lifestyle and other retail stores. To shop from participating brands, log in using Emirates Skywards account details and continue to the partner brand’s website to complete the purchase.

Emirates Skywards’ 27 million members worldwide can earn and spend Miles for an extensive range of rewards, including flight tickets on partner airlines, flight upgrades, hotel stays, tickets, hospitality at sporting and cultural events, tours and moneycan’t-buy experiences.

Emirates Skywards, the awardwinning loyalty programme of Emirates and flydubai offers four tiers of membership: Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum, with each tier earning exclusive privileges.

NCAA approves resumption of physical classes to LAA

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n line with the gradual ease of lockdown and the resumption of businesses across the country, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has approved the resumption of physical classes at Lagos Aviation Academy (LAA) effective August 4, 2020.

The approval to restart operations at LAA came on the heels of meeting the required standards set by the NCAA. The Academy has also carried out COVID-19 facility disinfection and has been certified safe to operate.

Speaking on some of the measures in place to ensure the safety of students and staff, Chinasa Mbene, the General Manager, Lagos Aviation Academy, says: “We are pleased to announce that the NCAA has approved the resumption of physical classes at Lagos Aviation Academy upon the inspection of our facility. To ensure the safety of staff and students, we have put biosecurity measures in place, which include a ‘No mask, no entry’ policy. Likewise, all students, staff, and visitors will be required to wash

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their hands, and do a temperature check before entering into our facility.

“We have stationed hand sanitizers at key areas within the school, and have also put measures in place to ensure social distancing in the classrooms, kitchenette, and other public areas. We understand that adjusting to the new normal is relatively new to everyone, but we promise to guide our students all the way,” Mbene adds.

In a related manner, LAA is set to commence virtual classes for students, as announced in the first

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quarter of 2020. This is in line with the Academy’s vision to make learning easy and flexible for its students.

To launch this, the academy will be hosting free online masterclasses for interested participants on August 15 & 19, 2020.

Explaining further about the online classes, Chinasa Mbene, the general manager at Lagos Aviation Academy, says: “As we have announced earlier, some courses would not be made available online due to the technicalities and practicals that

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are involved. However, we have made preparations for courses like the Basic Ticketing and Reservation Course, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Managing the Travel Business Course, IATA Foundation Course, and others.

“We have also made provision for students who would prefer to opt-in for the weekend classes to ensure ease and flexibility in learning. We assure all our students of our unrivaled commitment to delivering our best at all times.”

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Corporate Social Impact

Onuwa Lucky Joseph Editor, (08023314782)

LBS SUSTAINABILITY WEBINAR

Sustainable Plastic Waste Management in Nigeria: How to Harness PPP Onuwa Lucky Joseph

J

uly 30th, 2020, the Lagos Business School (LBS) Sustainability Centre organised a webinar with the support of the Dow Impact Fund. It was an engaging session that saw the very prepared faculty give enlightenment on how the public and private sectors can both work together to ensure that plastic waste is better managed but even more to go beyond merely seeing it as waste to looking at it as a resource or raw material for greater productivity and wealth creation.

Bankole Oloruntoba, the lead facilitator, quickly set the tone by saying that even as the UN was predicting that by 2050 an estimated 12billion tonnes of plastic would have been generated and deposited in different parts of the world, including the oceans, there was another 2017 study that said the world was missing out on about $80 to $120billion worth of revenue that can be generated from plastic.

Miranda Amachree, Director of Inspection and Enforcement at National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, (NESREA), quickly chimed in her sup-

Bedsheets increasingly are made from plastics

port saying that plastics were now considered a resource material with lots of jobs being provided up and down the value chain.

While believing that the industry will be an even bigger producer of jobs, she noted that young Nigerians were already weighing in with ownership of collection centres (that have their own registered pickers and an incentive based system that requires ownership of bank accounts); some collection centres go ahead to pre-process by having their grinding machines make pellets out of the collected plastics; the recycling facility reprocesses using the pellets, run it into yarns with some processed into bed sheets and bedcovers.

Speaking in the same vein, Amina Abdusalam, the Country Representative for

Water proof bricks from recycled plastic bottles.

African Circular Economy Network believes that circularity is a viable model that needs to be further developed. She as well gave kudos to the young men who she says are coming up with innovative ideas structured around plastic waste, recycling and reuse. She gave the example of a guy in Abuja producing face shields from pellets obtained from a recycling plant while others are producing trash bags, interlocking tiles, etc.

The point is all well taken. Enormous wealth can be generated from plastic waste. But who should be responsible for the waste disposal or management?

The private sector is now being forced, so it seems, to take responsibility for something they seemed content to outsource to government. Government’s

position, however, as channeled through Mrs. Amachree, is, “We are happy to support you, but please take your plastics back and make something out of them.

Whatever support you need by way of enabling environment, tax breaks, etc., can be discussed and provided. But government won’t pack the wastes anymore. In any case, you guys claim to be the creative ones. We won’t dispute that with you. Now, put your creativity to use. Of course, we’ll be happy to share the booty with you as the good partners that we are”.

The particulars of the partnership is where there is some bone of contention. Mrs. Amachree did an excellent job of presenting government’s position on the matter. Listening to her, you would come away with a strong impression of the

Nigerian government as being on top of the matter, engaging as much as possible while wielding the big stick whenever need be.

And the big stick just for so that the wealth can properly cascade through all levels of society and also for so that the dangers of plastic waste unattended to would not seep into the food chain thereby affecting citizens; the same citizens who, if properly mobilised by the emerging circularity industry can become wealthier and healthier.

Amina Abdusalam did lay out some of the position of the private sector. Her position on the PPP is that government or other international institutions should incentivize by providing space for sorting, storing, processing, arguing that investors see a major con-

straint in lack of availability of land proximate to their source of raw materials. Secondly, she believes there are no off taker arrangements which would make the investment more attractive.

She believes the incentives must come from the government or other international institutions.

But maybe the big gap in the webinar was the lack of a representative from the Food and Beverage Sector, highest users of plastics and therefore highest producers of plastic waste. Their insight would have helped give more balance to the session. However, Amina and Bankole did a good job, being private sector players themselves.

Government side had an outstanding advocate in Miranda Amachree who volunteered that there was a National Plastic Policy being hashed out which would take care of plastic management all through its life cycle, from production to use and then management of the waste that will arise therefrom. It would also involve taxation which would not be done by fiat.

So government is engaging with the private sector with no decision reached yet.

But ultimately, she said, it’s about “protecting the environment and the health of our people”.

EMPLOYABILITY:

Nestle Nigeria helps Youth Build capability Onuwa Lucky Joseph

stakeholders including the Lagos State Government, Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and various tertiary institutions including Lagos Business School, LBS.

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mployability is an important piece of social development, particularly for younger generations. However, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), two out of every five young people are either unemployed or have a job that keeps them in poverty.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than one in six young people are out of work while those who remain employed have seen their working hours greatly reduced. The impact of the global pandemic is greater in low and middleincome countries where up to 75% of young people work in the informal economy with no job security and little to no social protection.

Nigeria, with one of the youngest populations globally, falls into the category of middleand low income economies. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s youth unemployment rate rose from 25.5% in 2017, to 29.7% in 2018. With the additional burden of the COVID-19 crisis, youth employment and employability are challenges that must be addressed urgently. It

Mrs Victoria Uwadoka, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Nestle Nigeria with Mr. Wasiu Adeyeye, beneficiary of Nestlé’s My Own Business (MYOWBU) initiative.

is imperative that all hands be on deck to ensure that the youth are future-fit with relevant skills for the workplace and for enterprise.

In the past two years, the Nestlé Needs YOUth initiative has reached over 13, 000 young Nigerians through career fairs, entrepreneurship training and mentorship, as well as technical skills training, all towards equipping young people to find decent employment or profitable enterprise.

According to the Managing Director, Nestlé Nigeria, Mr. Mauricio Alarcon, “Through Nestlé needs YOUth, we aim to help young people access www.businessday.ng

TTC 2020 graduating class (Agbara).

economic opportunities. We also want to help equip the next generation of employees, and entrepreneurs, regardless of their field or level of expertise.”

“This is important for us as a business, because young people are the employees who will keep our company dynamic and competitive in the future, they are the future farmers who will grow the crops we need, and the future entrepreneurs who will help us reach new markets. This is one of the ways we create shared value.”

To coincide with the worldwide commemoration of International Youth Day 2020, Nestlé has announced its newly established virtual internship programme in line with

Nestlé Needs YOUth’s focus on reducing youth unemployment across the globe. The programme which is open to qualified youth from any higher education institution seeks to transfer required international skills for the workplace. Registration is via the company’s website.

Nestlé Needs YOUth initiatives are focused on three areas of action - Employment and Employability, Agripreneurship and Entrepreneurship.

These initiatives comprise Technical Training, My Own Business (MYOWBU), Youth Agripreneurship Development Program(YADIS), and Employability Skills Building programs in collaboration with other

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Equipping Youth for PostCovid economic recovery: To alleviate the additional impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods, Nestlé Nigeria recently collaborated with NECA and Redwood consulting on the programme NECApreneur, to offer online entrepreneurial skills training to over 1,000 youth during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Equipping Youth with technical skills In the new realities, technical skills are more essential than ever, and so since 2011, Nestlé Nigeria has invested in helping young people build technical skills in machining, mechanical fitting operations, electrical operations, instrumentation operations and automation at its Technical Training Centres located in the company’s Agbara and Abaji factories.

The 18-month multi-skilled, vocational training program prepares beneficiaries for the @Businessdayng

prestigious London City and Guilds technical certification.

Mr. Sola Akinyosoye, the Country Human Resources Manager for Nestlé Nigeria said, “Nestlé’s Technical Training program has benefitted over 100 students so far, with over 90% of them directly employed by the company. One person lifted out of poverty translates to positive impact on the whole family and on whole communities.

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) joined forces with Nestlé Nigeria in 2019 to extend the reach of the Abaji Technical Training Centre. This initiative is in addition to the company’s internship and graduate trainee programs to help young school leavers build the skills required to find gainful employment. For four years, Nestlé collaborated with the Lagos State Government on the Ready, Set, Work (RSW), which aims to build employability skills.

(Kindly send feedback to 08023314782 / csrmomentum@gmail.com)

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Wednesday 19 August 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Wednesday 19 August 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

CAP

N17

N15.3

-1.7

PZ

N4.25

N3.85

-0.4

N5.2

N4.85

-0.35

N15.5

N15.2

-0.3

N4.4

N4.28

-0.12

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

GUARANTY

N24.9

N25.2

0.3

INTBREW

N2.8

N3

0.2

STUDPRESS

N1.8

N1.98

0.18

GLAXOSMITH

ZENITHBANK

N16.75

N16.9

0.15

GUINNESS

N6.65

N6.7

0.05

AFRIPRUD

UBA

ASI (Points) DEALS (Numbers) VOLUME (Numbers) VALUE (N billion) MARKET CAP (N Trn)

25,171.32 3,108.00 180,010,447.00 1.536

Iheanyi Nwachukwu

N

the value of listed stocks on the Bourse rose to N13.130billion, as against preceding trading day low of 25,136.49 points and N13.112trillion respectively.

The market’s negative return year-to date (ytd) decreased to -6.22percent.

GTBank stock price increased most from N24.9 to N25.2, adding 30kobo or 1.20percent.

International Breweries Plc increased from N2.8 to N3, adding 20kobo or

7.14percent. Studio Press increased from N1.8 to N1.98, up by 18kobo or 10percent.

Zenith Bank advanced from N16.75 to N16.9, up by 15kobo or 0.90percent; while UBA rallied from N6.65 to N6.7, adding 5kobo or 0.75percent.

Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Transcorp, UBA and FBN Holdings were actively traded stocks. In 3,108 deals, equity dealers exchanged 180,010,447 units valued at N1.536billion.

“The consistent dominance we have seen in the Banking space in recent sessions can be attributed to bargain hunting activities by savvy investors taking positions ahead of the publication of earnings results by the Tier 1 Banking stocks, as well as the declaration of interim-dividends”, said market analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva research. They expect the market to maintain its positive performance on Thursday.

Prestige Assurance urges investors to take advantage of its N6.82bn rights issue Modestus Anaesoronye

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restige Assurance Plc, one of the oldest insurance companies in Nigeria has called on investors to take advantage of its ongoing N6.82 billion Rights Issue to invest in the company even as it encouraged existing shareholders of the company to increase their right in the company by taking more shares.

Adedoyin Salami, chairman of the Company’s Board of Directors, made the call at the company’s Investors Forum in Lagos He said the rights issue was in compliance with a new recapitalization and increased minimum capital requirement for all insurance companies in Nigeria across the various categories as mandated by National Insurance Com-

mission (NAICOM) via its circular of May 2019.

The Circular mandated that General Insurance Business should have a minimum paid up capital of N10 billion by September 30, 2021.

The Chairman said “in line with the above, Prestige Assurance Plc, having a current admissible issued and paid up capital of about N3.8 billion (as defined by NAICOM), embarked on a recapitalization exercise to raise N6.8 billion via Rights Issue to meet up with the new industry requirement.

“The recapitalization directive of NAICOM ties with the strategic plans of our Company to continue on its growth trend which it has maintained over the recent past. Our Gross Premium Written (GPW) grew by 152 percent between 2015 and 2019, which has culminated in growth in the Premium Income and Net Income www.businessday.ng

earned by the Company.

“The proceeds of this Rights Issue will be deployed to strategic initiatives that will expand the Company’s business through increase in underwriting capacity, expansion of branch network, investment in new technology as drivers of insurance business, and engagement in keen research and development for new products relevant to the market.

He said the company, with shareholder’s fund in excess of N8.4 Billion as at December 31, 2019, has remained a reputable insurer in the nation’s landscape and has maintained its pedigree of performance even under the most difficult circumstances, adding that the firm’s plan is to build on this track record and then leapfrog into even greater growth and performance.

Salami noted that insurance industry is fast evolv-

ing on global scale as well as nationally and regionally (within our home continent of Africa), adding that “this evolution has necessitated the need for our Company to begin to execute strategies that will enable us achieve our ambition of being a leading player in our industry, attaining a top 5 position in the industry over the medium term period.”

In his Introductory Remarks,. Sarbeswar Sahoo, managing director of the firm said Prestige Assurance Plc has continued to improve in all its business operations.

He said in the 2019 financial year, the company recorded a growth of 27.88 percent in its Gross Premium Written; a 13.56 percent growth in Net Underwriting Profit and a 1.9 percent growth in Net Profit from N0.423 billion in 2018 to N0.431 billion in 2019.

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Global market indicators FTSE 100 Index 6,111.98GBP +35.36+0.58%

Nikkei 225 23,110.61JPY +59.53+0.26%

S&P 500 Index 3,399.09USD +9.31+0.27%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 12,977.33EUR +95.57+0.74%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 27,781.00USD +64.00+0.23%

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 3,408.13CNY -42.96-1.24%

13.130

Market sustains gain as investors buy banking stocks igeria’s banking stocks were on demand in remote trading at the local Bourse on Wednesday August 19, which helped the market to sustain record gain at the close of trading session.

Cumulatively, stocks gained N18billion as investors continued their positioning in the banking counters ahead of interim dividend payments which often come from the tier-1 lenders.

For instance, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) benchmark performance indicator –the All Share Index (ASI) – closed higher by 0.14 percent as investors bought stocks like GTBank, Zenith Bank and UBA. The NSEASI increased to 25,171.32 points while

27

CHI rights issue records 100% subscription Modestus Anaesoronye

T

he recent Rights Issue embarked upon by Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc was fully taken up by its shareholders.

The company offered by way of Rights Issue 2,032,500,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 52 kobo per share.

The result of the offer which closed on June 8, 2020 and has just been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows a 100percent subscription.

The success recorded by the company inspite of the prevailing tough economic environment from the COVID-19 pandemic is a demonstration of high confidence of the shareholders in the company.

Details of the basis of allotment as approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows

that 99 shareholders who were provisionally allotted 681,465,926 ordinary shares accepted their rights in full and were fully allotted accordingly.

Additionally, out of those that accepted their rights in full, 68 shareholders applied for additional shares totaling 1,289,699,021 ordinary shares and were allotted 1,289,699,021 from the renounced rights, making the offer 100% allotted.

The successful outcome of this rights issue is a significant boost to the company’s quest to meet the new capital regime announced by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). The new minimum capital requirement to operate as a General Insurance Business in Nigeria was raised from N3b to N5b by end of 31, December 2020 and to further increase to N10b by 30, September 2021.

MTN Group names 48-year old Mupita as new CEO …effective September 1 Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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alph Mupita, 48, who is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of MTN Group Limited, has been appointed the chief executive officer (CEO).

Mupita will take over the CEO role from September 1, according to the Johannesburg-based MTN in a statement on Wednesday. Rob Shuter, the current CEO will remain available until the end of his fixed-term contract early next year, when he leaves to join British operator BT Group Plc as head of the enterprise division.

MTN Group, the parent company of MTN Nigeria Plc sticks with an internal candidate to replace the departing Shuter as head of Africa’s biggest wireless carrier.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Mupita became MTN CFO in 2017 after nearly two decades at South African insurer Old Mutual Ltd. Alongside Shuter, he has helped lead a strategy that has seen the carrier dispose of assets such as telecom towers and concentrate on fewer markets,

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with a plan to pull out of the Middle East announced earlier this month. The company expects to dispose of its Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria businesses first, with others to follow in a phased manner.

Mupita is “very much a continuity candidate -- seems to be a safe pair of hands and unlikely to make any major changes to strategic direction,” said John Davies, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “He’s a good communicator and has had time to get the telecom-specific experience while he has been CFO.” Then-Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko named Shuter, 53, for the top job in 2016, luring him from Vodafone Group Plc. When he took up the post the following year, a key task was to revive the carrier following a battle with authorities over undocumented subscribers in Nigeria, which resulted in a $1 billion fine.

However, MTN went on to have further clashes in the company’s biggest market, including over claims the firm illegally moved $8.1 billion out of the country and owed $2 billion in back taxes.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Markets + Finance

‘Providing proprietary research, commentary, analysis and financial news coverage unmatched in today’s market. Published weekly, Markets & Finance provides all the key intelligence you need.’

How FirstBank use tech to reach the ‘unbanked’ BALA AUGIE

C

Adesola Adeduntan, chief executive officer, FirstBank

Monetary Fund (IMF), the Nigerian informal sector accounted for 65 percent of Nigeria’s 2017 GDP. In a country where 35 percent of its populace are illiterate, with no form of education, meeting banks’ requirements for opening an account is insurmountable herculean task for farmers in the rural areas.

Consequently, the rustics prefer to starch cash at their backyards, to pave the way for them to have access to money whenever they it to pay suppliers or meet their immediate obligations.

Yet traditional Nigerian institutions such as FirstBank of Nigeria, through its FirstMonie (Money Mobile Service), are removing barriers in an effort to lure previously overlooked customers.

With over 50,000 agent locations in 754 local government areas across all states in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, FirstBank’s FirstMonie processes over 1.4 million transactions daily, according to Fintech Africa.

With more than 50,000 agent locations, FirstMonie has eclipsed the leadership of Equity Bank of Kenya, which has 40,000 agents countrywide.

Interestingly, FirstMonie is an effective platform that is pivotal to Central of Nigeria (CBN)’s cashless policy, as the last resory has said it will achieve 80 percent financial

inclusion by 2020.

The Firstmonie Agents are bringing financial services closer to the unbanked and underbanked segment of the society by empowering exiting businesses with the communities to deliver these services.

The Firstmonie Agent is the FirstBank ‘Human ATM’ empow-

‘

It’s about layering additional products on the current agency banking network – services such as micro-credit, micro-insurance and micropension

‘

eyla Pazarbasioglu, Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions at World Bank, once said that there can’t be a world free of poverty without having financial inclusion.

Pazarbasioglu added that unless finance is expanded in such a way that it reaches those at the bottom of the pyramid, it has the potentials to back fire.

In 2017, 1.7 billion adults in the world were without an account at a financial institution or a mobile money provider, according to the latest Global Findex database published by the World Bank.

While this has improved since 2014, when 2 billion people were classified as “unbanked”, it still represents a huge mountain to climb.

According to a 2018 report by EFINA Access to Financial Services survey, 36.8 pecent of the adult population in Nigeria are financially excluded or unbanked.

This translates to a population of 36.6 million adult Nigerians who are excluded at the moment, with 44.1 percent male and 55.9 percent female.

Also adding to the gloomy numbers is that less than 6 percent of people use their handsets to transact using mobile money, compared with 73 percent of Kenyans, where more than two-thirds of adults have a bank account, according to the World Bank.

The term “underbanked” generally refers to people that rely on cash to manage their finances rather than bank accounts or credit cards.

Experts have attributed the financial exclusion gap in Nigeria to low income as over 60 percent of a population of 200 million live on less than 1.90 percent a day.

Expectedly, unemployment rate spiked to 27.10 percent in the second quarter of 2020 from 23.10 percent in the third quarter of 20018, according to a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

A lot of artisans and farmers, who form the large chunk of the informal sector, are disillusioned that they queue up for an indeterminate period of time, and most times, they leave the banking halls disgruntly disappointed.

According to the International

ered to reduce the reliance on over-the counter transactions while providing convenient personalized services. The Firstmonie agent is equipped to carry out the following services – Account Opening, Cash Deposit, Airtime Purchase, Bills Payment, Withdrawals and Money Transfer.

Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank, who was a keynote speaker at the 2019 University of Edinburgh’s Sustainable Business in Africa Forum, shared insights on the future of financial inclusion in Africa and how financial institutions can steer the continent to achieve greater inclusion.

With the United Nations (UN) forecasting that between 2015 and 2050, Africa will add 1.3 billion people, more than doubling its current population of 1.2 billion, Adeduntan opined that the future is African and gave a positive message for an easy financial inclusion penetration in Africa; which is a catalyst for equitable development and sustainable inclusive economic growth.

Adeduntan prefers to use the phrase ‘financial deepening’ when talking about the unbanked, ‘financial deepening’ occurs when financial inclusion starts playing an important role in economic development.

“It’s about layering additional products on the current agency banking network – services such as micro-credit, micro-insurance and micro-pension,” said Adeduntan.

The central bank is also in the forefront of narrowing the financial inclusion gap, as it has formulated and supported policies that will help bring those outside the financial ecosystem into the banking net.

The apex bank has introduced the non-interest credit facilities, a system whereby banks do not charge interest on loans given to customers. It has also mandated banks to lower or reduce charges on transition so that customers are encouraged to deposit their money.

Experts have identify ways of deepening financial inclusion in the county, as they warn that a country without an effective financial system that accommodates all customers of eligible age may find it difficult to attain the desired economic growth.

Managing Director/CEO of

BD MARKETS + FINANCE Analyst: BALA AUGIE ; Grahphic Fifen Famous www.businessday.ng

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@Businessdayng

Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF), Ronke Kuye, identified the following major service areas that are required in order to deepen financial inclusion in the country.

These are the provision of sustainable job opportunities, stronger bank operation, reduction of inequality, creation of empowerment programmes, reduction of formal financial services and a boost in financial security and operation.

Some Sub-Saharan African countries are also using mobile banking and the proliferation of mobile phones to bring financial services to the doorsteps of people living in the remote areas.

For instance, Kenya has successfully used M-Pesa- a mobile banking application owned by Safaricom- to reduce unemployment and spur economic growth as farmers in the rural areas have seamless access to the market just by dialling their phones.

More than 80 per cent of Kenyans now have access to financial services — defined to include those offered by banks, microfinance providers and mobile money providers — up from 27 per cent in 2006, according to a survey published this month by Kenya’s central bank. In the capital Nairobi, financial inclusion is as high as 96 per cent.

Morroco, a east African country, is also shrinking the financial exclusion gap.

Interestingly, approximately 41 percent of Moroccan adults use a formal financial product or service.This places Morocco well above the average level of financial inclusion in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as above the average level in lower middle income countries (18 percent and 28 percent, respectively).

Bu the coronavirus pandemic could widen the financial exclusion gap in Nigeria as some workers could lose their jobs since the lockdown imposed by government disrupted the demand and supply side of the market.

Also, analysts have warned that the country could slip into another recession in just less than five years.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that the Nigerian economy would witness a deeper contraction of 5.40 percent and not the 3.4 percent it projected in April 2020.

Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

31

News Stock market volatility fuelled by...

Continued from page 1

shares held by company

every few minutes 24/7 and has a transfer time of just two minutes.

Valet parking The airport is operating a new COVID-secure process for Valet parking, which has been specifically designed to keep passengers and staff safe and healthy, and to follow government guidelines on social distancing. This includes the following new measures: Gatwick is specifically managing the check-in area to allow for social distancing; passengers will be asked to wait inside their vehicles while it carries out the necessary checks to keep contact to a minimum; every vehicle will be sanitised before they are moved to secure storage and keys and vehicles will be sanitised before they are picked up.

Long stay parking The North Terminal Long Stay car park is opened at 3am and remains open with a 24/7 busying service to the North Terminal building.

Official Gatwick Airport Long Stay parking is a convenient and cost-effective option for those longer trips away. In response to the Covid-19, the airport has implemented new special measures in the long stay car parks and shuttle buses, which include: Hand sanitiser dispensers are located on each bus; shuttle buses will be limited to 50 percent capacity to allow for social distancing; buses will be cleaned after every journey and buses are completely sanitised at regular intervals.

insiders. In stock investing, a company’s free float is important to potential investors because it offers insight into the company’s stock volatility.

Though, the Nigerian Bourse requires free float deficient companies to provide quarterly reports on their compliance plans with this important post-listing requirements, BusinessDay checks reveal that the number of companies with smaller free float increased by eight in two years, from a low 15 in August 2018 to 23 as at August 14, 2020.

The big names that have joined this growing list and the percent of their shares in the hands of the investing public are BUA Cement plc (1.15%), Transcorp Hotels plc (6%), Notore Chemical Industries plc (10.02%), Union Bank of Nigeria plc (8.41%), Medview Airline plc (14.16%), Lafarge Africa plc (16.13%), and Caverton Offshore Support Group plc (17.89%).

Stocks with small free float tend to be more volatile because there are only a limited number of shares that can be bought or sold in the event of major trading news. For the same reason, companies with larger free floats are generally less volatile. In all, investors prefer to invest in stocks with a large free float, as they can purchase or sell a significant number of shares without heavily impacting the share price.

As shown in their associated Compliance Status Indicator (CSI) codes, these listed free float deficient companies are already stigmatised with either BLS (Below Listing Standard), Delisting in Process (DIP), Below Regulatory Standard (BRS) or BMR (Below Listing Standard, Missed Regulatory Filing and Restructuring).

There is free float requirement for every company listed on the various Board of the Exchange. For entry into the Growth Board segment, company requires a minimum free float of 10 percent of the issued and fully paid up shares, or the value of its free float is equal to or above N50 million; while for the standard segment of the Growth Board, company requires a minimum free float of 15 percent of the issued and fully paid

of the “THEMES” Agenda which cuts across six strategic development focus areas namely; Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Entertainment and Tourism as well as Security and Governance, making Lagos a 21st Century economy.”

He reiterated, “FC4S La-

gos, in collaboration with the implementing partners of the NGBMDP; FMDQ, FSD Africa and CBI UK, will continue to support the Lagos State Government to expand its capital pool by leveraging on private sector investments through the wide array of available sustainable finance instruments within the debt capital markets.”

L-R: Alaribe Linus, zonal coordinator, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Imo/Abia State; Bertran Nwosu of Benchukus Ventures; John Nwaocha of J.C. Nwaocha Services, Dangote Cement distributors; Abua Peter, one of the winners; Funmi Sanni, marketing director, Dangote Cement plc, South-East; Bankole George, regional director, Dangote Cement plc, and Adeyemi Fajobi, national sales director, Dangote Cement plc, during the winner’s prize presentation of N1 million in Owerri, Imo State.

Lessons for Nigeria from Gatwick...

Continued from page 1

adding that protocols and procedures would be announced in due course.

For frequent air travellers who travel through Gatwick Airport, they will notice a number of differences as they go through the airport.

For the time being, all arrivals and departures operate from the North Terminal and Gatwick has added new measures to ensure passengers are protected as much as possible.

The airport has appealed to passengers to follow its social distancing and hand hygiene guidance so as to have a safe and pleasant journey, adding that they will need to wear a face covering at the airport.

In an email sent to its customers, it stated, “Wear a face covering while travelling through Gatwick - following government legislation, this is now compulsory in all enclosed transport hubs, including airports; maintain social distancing; wash your hands regularly and keep your hands clean on the go by using hand sanitiser.

“Face coverings will not be mandatory for anyone under the age of 11 or those with disabilities or certain health conditions, such as respiratory or cognitive impairments that make it difficult for them to wear a face covering.”

The entire airport’s staff will also be wearing face masks in passengers’ areas of the airport.

The airport’s North Terminal is open for flight arrivals and departures and all flights to and from Gatwick are temporarily operating only from this terminal. Passengers who arrive by train are required to take the free shuttle between terminals. Passengers who drive are to book one of the parking options.

Passengers who arrive the UK must complete a Government form up to 48 hours be-

fore arrival. They are to download the completed form on their phone or print it, as they may be required to show it at Border Control. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also has the latest guidance for people travelling overseas.

Advice for travelling through Gatwick Passengers travelling through the airport will see protective screens in place at many places, including checkin, boarding and gates. This is to protect both passengers and those working at the airport. There are also additional cleaning measures in place to help passengers feel reassured.

These include dedicated staff to clean common use surfaces, touchscreens, handrails, etc.

Gatwick has also installed special ‘PPE bins’ in the terminals, which are clearly marked for the disposal of face coverings and gloves only.

Passengers hear in-terminal announcements and see plenty of signage and digital reminders about keeping to social distancing rules and to wash or sanitiser their hands regularly throughout their journey.

Gatwick has installed a large number of hand sanitiser stations throughout the terminals, and other places where passengers can wash their hands are clearly marked.

The seating arrangements have been changed to ensure social distancing measures can be observed. Families and groups travelling together will,

however, be able to sit together.

In some areas of the airport, one-way flows will be in place.

The airport has compiled some additional answers to some of your most frequently asked questions with regards to coronavirus and travel.

Making new booking Passengers can make new bookings for Official Gatwick Parking with confidence as its flexible cancellation policy allows passengers to cancel free of charge up to 24 hours prior to travel.

Passengers can also view and amend their booking details quickly and conveniently.

Short stay parking Gatwick’s short stay car parks are located next to the terminal, providing quick and convenient direct access.

There is no maximum stay duration, and in addition to advance bookings the short stay North car parks remain open for drive-up customers who are intending to pick-up/ drop-off travelling passengers.

As part of its Covid-19 special measures, the main touch points within the car parks, including lifts, trolley bays and payment machines, are sanitised at regular intervals.

The airport has encouraged customers to make any payments by credit/debit cards at the exit barriers rather than queue at payment machines.

Customers parking in the South Terminal multi-storey car park can simply take the inter-terminal shuttle service to the North Terminal. It runs

FC4S Lagos partners FMDQ, FSD Africa...

Continued from page 4

FMDQ, and chairman, FC4S Lagos, during his opening address, said, “Finance plays a pivotal role in attaining the United Nations 2030 SDGs, especially through the creation of alternative sources of investment, mitigation of risks www.businessday.ng

and the transversal effects of ethical investments.”

He further stated, “Through the issuance of sustainable finance instruments, the Lagos State Government would be able to fund projects that attract the right pools of foreign investors, as it strives towards the actualisation

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@Businessdayng

up shares or the value of its free float is equal to or above N50 million.

For the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM), company requires a minimum free float of 15 percent of issued and fully paid up shares or the value of its free float is equal to or above N50 million.

The Main Board requires a minimum free float of 20 percent of the issued and fully paid up shares or the value of its free float is equal to or above N20 billion. For Premium Board listed stocks, there is a minimum free float of 20 percent of issued and fully paid up shares or the value of their free float is equal to or above N40 billion.

Other companies with smaller free float are: Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank plc (0.93%), The Tourist Company of Nigeria plc (1.75%), Capital Hotels plc (2.99%), Golden Guinea Breweries plc (16.72%), Ellah Lakes plc (13.85%), Ekocorp plc (12.64%), Portland Paints & Products Nigeria plc (14.57%), CWG plc (15.97%), etc.

In line with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) listings requirement, companies listed on the Exchange are required to maintain a minimum “free float” for the set standards under which they are listed in order to ensure that there is an orderly and liquid market for their securities.

Other deficient companies are: Aluminium Extrusion Industries plc (16.51%), Union Dicon Salt plc (18%), eTranzact International plc (18.22%), Champion Breweries plc (17.26%), Prestige Assurance plc (18.95%), Austin Laz & Company plc (19.36%), Arbico plc (19.96%), and Skyway Aviation Handling Company plc (7.6%).

The NSE said the deficient companies that applied for waivers from the Regulation Committee of the National Council of The Exchange (RegCom), “have specifically provided compliance plans with tentative timelines to support their requests.”

Most of the deficient companies have compliance due date ranging from 2020 to 2023, according to NSE report.

“The RegCom considered and approved an extended timeframe for the companies to regain compliance with the listings requirement. The companies are however required to also provide quarterly disclosure reports to The Exchange detailing their level of implementation of the compliance plans,” the Exchange said in its recent X-Compliance Report.

The X-Compliance Report is a transparency initiative of the NSE, which is designed to maintain market integrity and protect investors by providing compliance related information on all listed companies.

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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ThursdayDAY 20 August 2020 BUSINESS

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Thursday 20 August 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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NEWS

Youths protest at police headquarters over escape of suspected serial killer …as IGP deploys detectives to Oyo REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

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ouths on Wednesday stormed the headquarters of Oyo Police Command, in Ibadan, to protest the escape of Sunday Sodipo, prime suspect in the serial killings in Akinyele local government area of the state.

This is as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu has deployed detectives to Oyo State to fish out the escaped suspect.

Sodipo, who confessed to killing five persons in the local government area, escaped from the custody of the Nigeria in police on Sunday. The youths carrying placards with different inscriptions, created panic and tension as they thronged the police headquarters, located at the Eleyele area of the state capital.

The state Commissioner of Police (CP), Nwachukwu Enwonwu, who addressed the youths, assured them of the preparedness of the law enforcement agency to rearrest the suspect and bring him to justice.

However, the state police public relations officer, Olugbenga Fadeyi, who confirmed the incident, said it was true some students protested at the command headquarters.

“The CP and other senior police officers attended to

them and answered all their questions. You know students; some of them got out of control. But we were able to handle the situation professionally. They have since gone back,” he said.

Meanwhile, Adamu (IGP) has ordered the deployment of additional investigative team to Oyo to complement the efforts of the state police command in the ongoing manhunt for the suspected serial killer.

In a statement posted on its twitter handle, the police said the additional deployment comprised crack detectives from the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), and the Special Tactical Squad (STS), of the Force Intelligence Bureau, Abuja.

“The team is expected to bring their vast operational, technical and investigative experience to bear in supporting ongoing efforts aimed at re-arresting and bringing the fugitive to book.

“The IGP, who condemned the unfortunate escape from lawful custody of the suspect, has directed the Oyo CP to intensify efforts and ensure the prompt rearrest of the fleeing suspect.

“The CP has also been directed to speedup investigations into the circumstances that led to the escape of the suspect. All persons indicted in the escape are to be identified and made to face the wrath of the law.

Mele Kyari (r), group managing director, NNPC, being conducted round the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s installations in Benin City, during his tour of oil and gas facilities and installations at the corporation’s upstream sector, yesterday -NAN

Domestic gas consumption gets a boost as NNPC completes 100m scf gas facility in Edo IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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igerian National Pet r o l e u m C or p oration (NNPC), on Wednesday, says it will reduce importation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) into the country when the 100 million standard cubic feet of gas capacity facility at Oredo flow station in Benin City is commissioned.

The Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) project built by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) will be unveiled on October 31, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Group managing director of NNPC, Mele Kyari during an inspection of the facility

Conoil in advanced talks for Chevron’s shares in 2 Nigerian offshore blocks DIPO OLADEHINDE

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igeria’s indigenous oil firm Conoil is in advanced discussion to purchase 40 percent equity held by US oil major Chevron Corp. in shallow-water Oil Mining Lease (OML) 86 and OML 88.

Both fields contain 55 million barrels of yet-to-be exploited (2P) oil barrels and 2.8 trillion cubic feet of undeveloped gas reserves.

Africa Oil & Gas Report, an energy intelligence publication by a respected analyst, Toyin Akinosho, said Conoil is currently in discussion with the California-headquartered major, although it wasn’t clear, as of the time of this writing, how much the Lagos-based firm is betting on the assets which lie in contiguity with some of its own producing properties.

To run the sale process, Chevron has hired one of Canada’s big five banks and third-largest Canadian bank by deposits and market capi-

talisation, Scotiabank.

This is not the first time Chevron will try to sell some of its Nigerian oil blocks. In 2015, it had attempted to sell these same blocks to local company First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company Limited, which was, however, unsuccessful.

Technically, selling the blocks will put further strain on the turbulent 116-yearold relationship between the company and Nigeria, a partnership older than the British amalgamation of Nigeria itself.

The sale is part of a broader retreat by international oil companies from Nigerian oil and gas fields that have been plagued by pipeline theft as well as uncertainty over tax regime.

Foreign oil companies including Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil have retreated in recent years from onshore and shallowwater production in Nigeria due to oil theft, selling assets mostly to local companies.

located at Ologbo in Ikpoba Okha local government area of Edo, on Wednesday, said the plant has an estimated product streams of 330 tons, 345 tons and 2600 barrels daily of liquefied petroleum gas, industrial grade propane and condensate respectively.

The plant, he said, when commissioned would deliver 260,000 metric tons of LPG and component, representing 40 percent of Nigeria’s LPG current domestic gas requirement.

“This is a monumental project compared to the current levels where all the supply except those from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) are coming from imports and we are trying to contain importation because this is a gas resource the

country is blessed with.

We cannot be importing LPG from when we have the resources,” he said.

Kyari informed that no fewer than 30 trucks would be turning out from the facility daily into domestic market when it becomes operational.

“Completing this project is a monumental feat for this country and we know that there are other efforts that are going on and we are supporting all of them. But ultimately, what is important is that this country will be sufficient in LPG within a short period of time.

“Today we are making about 5 billion standard cubic feet of gas into the entire domestic market which includes the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) supply of about 3.5 billion.

The balance of 1.5 billion or a little more that comes to the domestic market is shared between power and industries.

“The contribution of that gas from NPDC is at least 500 million standard cubic feet of gas. So NPDC is a critical stakeholder in the supply of gas into the domestic market”, he said.

The NNPC boss, who commended the management of the NPDC for the speedy completion of the project, added that NPDC targets a production of 500,000 barrels of petroleum products per day.

Managing director of NPDC, Mansur Sambo, said NPDC was the current largest contributor of gas to the domestic market and power sector in the country.

Accountant-general directs NNPC to refund N52bn to government’s coffers JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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www.businessday.ng

he accountant-general of the federation has directed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to refund N52 billion it deducted from the federations account to the government treasury as operating surplus for 2018.

The directive comes as the House of Representatives has decried huge revenue loss to the government due to under remittances of internally generated revenue (IGR) by government agencies.

According to the house, if there were adequate remittances of revenue, the Federal Government would not be borrowing to finance its annual budgets.

Accordingly, the house

…as Reps lament revenue loss to under remittances has directed the budget office of the federation to deduct the balance of such under remittances from allocations to such defaulting agencies.

Chairman of the house committee on finance, James Faleke made the position of the house known during an interactive session with government agencies on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fisical Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) on Tuesday.

Faleke frowned at the loss of over N7 billion to under remittances from the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), insisting that there was no law that permits any agency of

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government to spend the money it generates without the approval of the National Assembly.

The committee had found that a revenue of about N10 billion in the revenue of the agency from which nothing was remitted to the government treasury on the premise that the money was spent by the agency on inspection of factories of clients who want to either establish a factory or wants to import products.

Director of administration and human resources of NAFDAC, who represented the director-general, Joseph Aina claimed that they obtained the permission of the budget office to spend the money generated through its User Fee platform. @Businessdayng

But Faleke responded that: “you are talking about user fees and that you use it to travel either local or overseas. Don’t you have your overhead budget? Don’t you know that under your activities, you are going to travel and that you will present your overhead budget?

“When you are bringing your budget, you know your activities. Every agency is aware of their activities and one of your activities is that you need to go and carry out inspection which should have formed part of your overhead expenses and government will release the money to you. The fact that you have a shortfall in releases does not empower you to spend your IGR,” Faleke said.

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NEWS

Nigeria risks losing assets as Enron seeks to exact $22m judgment ANTHONY NLEBEM

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igeria is at risk of losing $22 million as Enron Nigeria Power Holding (ENPH), an incorporation of the defunct Enron International, is seeking to enforce a $22 million arbitration award that could make Nigeria lose its assets in the United States, according to a report from TheCable.

ENPH is seeking a turnover of Nigeria’s claim to proceeds from an $80 million mega yacht that was sold in the US. A US federal court in 2019 gave Nigeria approval to sell the yacht, named “Galactica Star”, as part of an ongoing corruption case against Kola Aluko, Nigerian businessman who allegedly acquired it with diverted profits from oil sales in Nigeria.

The yacht has been sold

for $37 million and ENPH is trying to lay claim to part of the proceeds in enforcing its $22 million arbitration award.

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, is now seeking approval from President Muhammadu Buhari to negotiate the award to protect the country’s assets.

He told the president that ENPH could further target the country’s assets in California, New York and other states in America.

On December 6, 1999, ENPH entered a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Lagos state government, guaranteed by the federal government through the now-defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), later named Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

ENPH was to build, arrange, finance and run electricity generating plants and natural

gas pipelines in Lagos state.

NEPA suspended the PPA on December 15, 1999 for renegotiation. However, construction continued on the different phases of the project.

By September 30, 2000, phases one and three of the contract were completed while negotiation for phase two of the construction failed.

At the time, Enron International had gone bankrupt, but it wrote to the federal government that this would not affect ENPH, the Nigeria arm, in carrying out its own part under the contract.

After several failed attempts at negotiating, ENPH commenced an arbitration against Nigeria on June 13, 2006 at the international chambers of commerce court of arbitration in London, accusing the government of breach of contractual agreement.

Six years later, on November 12, 2012, a final

award (“Quantum”) was given against Nigeria in the sum of $11.22 million, with 2 per cent interest from June 13, 2006, and also expenses for legal services.

Attempts by the Nigerian government to negotiate the settlement failed.

On July 19, 2013, ENPH, under the convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards which Nigeria is also a signatory, approached the US court in the southern district of Texas to seek enforcement of the award.

The court granted ENPH the motion for confirmation of the award on October 16, 2015, prompting Nigeria government to appeal the judgement at the US district of Columbia circuit.

ENPH had also argued that Nigeria, following the contract, had waived its rights to challenge the award.

Lagos supports 23 innovators, tech firms with N100m grant JOSHUA BASSEY

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wenty-three young innovators and tech firms have been awarded a total grant of N100 million by the Lagos State government to pursue various technology-driven innovations across the six pillars of the development agenda of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration.

The recipients are the first set of beneficiaries to be picked to benefit from the N250 million seed capital earmarked, last year, as Research and Innovation Fund by the state government.

The awardees were selected through highly competitive process overseen by the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC) established in 2019

by Governor Sanwo-Olu, with the mandate to facilitate and encourage the development of innovative solutions to solve local problems, using cutting-edge technology.

The governor, who congratulated the successful

awardees of the research funds, urged them to apply the grant judiciously and use it to transform their ideas into reality.

Sanwo-Olu said his administration was interested in solving contemporary challenges facing the state, stressing that the innovation grant was initiated with the objective to empower local innovators and thinkers with knowledge of context and peculiarities to create specific solutions for local challenges.

He said: “Last December, we inaugurated the Research and Innovation Council with a seed fund of N250 million in demonstration of our commitment to transform Lagos into a 21st century digital economy and smart city. The body has a mandate to facilitate investment in science research, innovation, and STEM education throughout the State, and to encourage the development of innovative solutions to problems, using cuttingedge technology.”

Finance professionals to host webinar BALA AUGIE

F L-R: Olanrewaju Finni, member, Lagos State House of Assembly; Abisola Olusanya, Lagos State acting commissioner for agriculture; Kehinde Joseph, chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Olayiwole Onasanya, permanent secretary, ministry of agriculture, and Sanni Okanlawon, member of the House of Assembly, during legislative inspection visit to Imota Rice Mill in Lagos, yesterday.

N500m debt: AMCON takes over assets of Northrich Technologies DIPO OLADEHINDE Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice A.I. Chikere, on Wednesday, gave a nod to Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and its appointed law firm, Mildred & Patriarch Attorneys, to take over assets of Northrich Technologies Limited.

AMCON and Northrich Technologies have been in court in Suit No FHC/ABJ/ CS/258/14, over an alleged N500 million indebtedness.

The court ordered AMCON to take over Plot 5, Zaria road, Damba Gusau local government area in Zamfara State, measuring about 11 hectares with C of O number GS/G/1443 and SOK 1501, residential plot on Shinkafi road Sokoto State, belonging to the defendants, as well as all the equipment that were pur-

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chased with the facility.

The court also granted an order freezing every account belonging to the Northrich and its promoters. AMCON as directed by the court has effectively taken over the assets through its appointed law firm.

The case of Northrich Technologies Limited and its promoters has been interminable because the loan was purchased by AMCON during the first phase of Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) purchases from Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank) since 2011.

According to AMCON in a statement, Northrich Technologies had been offered various repayment proposals by AMCON since April 2012 but unable to meet any of the terms.

“Having shown a clear inability to settle its indebtedness, the corporation had no other option but to seek justice in court.”

UNIUYO empowers youths with vocational skills ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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he management of University of Uyo (UNIYO) says it has youths from its host communities on different skills as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The youths drawn from a selection process determined by the community heads and youth leaders in the host communities were trained between six months and one year on catering, plumbing, electrical installation, fashion design, welding, and fabrication.

Speaking in Uyo during the graduation ceremony on Wednesday, the vicechancellor, Enefiok Essien said the essence of the welfare scheme was to reduce unemployment and make the youths self-reliant.

According to Essien, the training was supervised by the community relations

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office in the office of the vice-chancellor and the state director of National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

“The university was responsible for all the funding required for the training, including monthly transport allowance to the trainees throughout the period.

“The next phase is to empower the trainees to establish their businesses and be on their own. The trainees have submitted the list of basic required tools and equipment with estimated cost based on the current market prices,” he said.

Essien, who stated that N10 million was required to empower the beneficiaries with the necessary tools for them to set up their businesses called on the federal and state governments and other prominent indigenes of the state to support the graduands.

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inance Professionals Network (FPN), a community of finance professionals with membership in Nigeria and beyond, has announced the largest virtual gathering of finance professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa to help participants accelerate their careers.

The webinar themed “Thriving in finance: Learning from the industry leaders” seeks to explore how aspiring leaders in the finance industry can navigate through their career journeys.

At the webinar, industry professionals and enthusiasts will be provided with an opportunity to leverage decades of experience of the

seasoned panel to exploit opportunities amid Covid-19 in advancing their careers.

Dayo Obisan, executive commissioner (operations), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the keynote speaker for the webinar which holds at 5:00 pm on Saturday, August 29, 2020 while Aruoture “Rotus” Oddiri of Smooth FM will host the event.

A panel discussion about climbing to the top within the financial services industry will include leading experts such as Fola Fagbule, head, Financial Advisory at African Finance Corporation (AFC); Odiri Oginni, CFA, MD/CEO of United Capital Asset Management Limited, and Akin Oyebode, special adviser, Investment Trade and Innovation, Ekiti State government.

COVID 19: BEDC distributes 100 hand washing machines to promote hygiene

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enin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has commenced the distribution of 100 specialised hand washing machines to federal and state government hospitals and other public institutions in its franchise states of Delta, Edo, Ondo and Ekiti.

The donation is to promote safety practices among communities in the affected states.

According to BEDC management, the gesture is a further demonstration of its sensitivity to residents @Businessdayng

of its coverage areas over the hardship occasioned by the pandemic by promoting hygiene habits which is one the major safety protocols for managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The donation which commenced in Benin, Edo State comprised of 30 pieces of automatic and manual hand washing machines to Edo, 30 to Delta and 40 to Ondo and Ekiti States respectively and was in addition to the earlier food palliatives donated to the franchise states to cushion the effect of the global pandemic.

Thursday 20 August 2020

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PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 227,489.44 6.40 0.78 198 29,078,795 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 229,136.12 6.70 0.75 152 12,489,776 ZENITH BANK PLC 530,600.74 16.90 0.90 332 35,942,914 682 77,511,485 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 179,476.46 5.00 -1.00 184 10,532,256 184 10,532,256 866 88,043,741 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,397,761.64 117.80 - 77 126,229 77 126,229 77 126,229 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,300,468.50 135.00 - 48 53,473 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 188,461.21 11.70 - 63 1,079,773 111 1,133,246 111 1,133,246 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 226,551.16 385.00 - 10 1,456 10 1,456 10 1,456 1,064 89,304,672 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SFS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 1,386.00 69.30 - 1 127 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 10,139.42 3.80 - 0 0 1 127 1 127 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,692.74 115.05 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 127 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 76,312.80 80.00 - 16 2,956 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. PRESCO PLC 51,500.00 51.50 - 27 74,708 43 77,664 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,500.00 4.25 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,650.00 0.55 1.82 24 662,430 24 662,430 67 740,094 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES JOHN HOLT PLC. 202.36 0.52 - 0 0 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 S C O A NIG. PLC. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 24,795.27 0.61 1.67 47 16,488,807 U A C N PLC. 16,711.52 5.80 -0.85 82 2,378,212 129 18,867,019 129 18,867,019 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 187.11 1.26 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 26,136.00 16.50 - 18 134,110 ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 18 134,110 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 17,631.97 0.95 - 0 0 0 0 18 134,110 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 5,558.94 0.71 - 10 170,000 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 829.98 0.81 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 33,293.82 15.20 -1.94 92 1,035,945 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 80,586.21 3.00 7.14 53 2,216,319 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 279,891.57 35.00 - 39 280,792 194 3,703,056 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 151,200.00 12.60 - 55 213,570 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 75,857.02 18.50 - 40 227,687 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 7,295.78 0.92 -1.08 34 582,440 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 757.35 4.25 - 5 7,450 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 26,494.38 10.00 - 16 4,056,403 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 2,993.06 10.95 - 0 0 150 5,087,550 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 14,649.98 7.80 - 22 73,091 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 931,371.10 1,175.00 - 47 54,783 69 127,874 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 6,817.10 5.45 - 29 545,081 29 545,081 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 15,286.34 3.85 -9.41 38 2,008,701 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 78,993.82 13.75 - 20 30,973 58 2,039,674 500 11,503,235 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 73,398.20 4.00 - 64 1,640,236 FIDELITY BANK PLC 52,444.38 1.81 0.56 61 5,662,961 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 741,665.72 25.20 1.20 262 8,028,667 JAIZ BANK PLC 17,383.91 0.59 5.36 16 534,113 STERLING BANK PLC. 33,972.69 1.18 0.85 23 1,772,381 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 157,252.07 5.40 - 20 69,630 UNITY BANK PLC 6,078.46 0.52 -3.70 7 500,796 WEMA BANK PLC. 19,672.98 0.51 2.00 16 931,316 469 19,140,100 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 10,537.09 0.93 2.20 31 3,132,576 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 17,955.00 1.71 - 5 19,402 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 3,035.20 0.35 - 0 0 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 10,536.51 0.58 - 4 42,000 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 0 0 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 0 0 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 2,197.03 0.30 3.33 43 7,765,057 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 4,296.33 1.00 - 5 148,264 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 3,900.00 0.39 - 3 13,046 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,346.27 0.21 5.00 8 1,517,990 NEM INSURANCE PLC 9,874.54 1.87 - 15 471,500 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 0 0 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 3,371.43 0.53 - 1 10,000 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,533.81 0.23 - 0 0 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,272.89 0.20 - 0 0 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 - 0 0 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 7,917.25 0.33 - 26 673,511 141 13,793,346 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,881.16 1.26 - 3 18,368 3 18,368

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MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 6,784.62 1.05 - 1 600 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,671.82 1.36 - 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 1 600 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 8,560.00 4.28 -2.73 53 1,149,077 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 29,115.23 4.95 - 8 100,323 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 450.00 0.30 - 0 0 FCMB GROUP PLC. 39,605.42 2.00 - 42 1,779,591 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,440.70 0.28 -9.68 3 199,500 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 357,168.89 34.00 - 14 67,263 UNITED CAPITAL PLC 19,380.00 3.23 0.94 86 4,692,066 206 7,987,820 820 40,940,234 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 2,991.61 6.00 - 0 0 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 852.75 0.24 - 0 0 0 0 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 593.50 0.60 - 0 0 0 0 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 7,740.40 3.71 -2.11 34 671,820 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 5,800.00 4.85 -6.73 46 4,705,381 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 5,227.46 3.03 - 7 15,850 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 3,380.50 1.78 - 16 142,408 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 103 5,535,459 103 5,535,459 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 710.40 0.20 - 2 42,500 2 42,500 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 764.87 0.26 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 216.00 2.00 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 247.48 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 939.21 0.20 -4.76 10 2,737,651 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 10,962.00 2.61 - 0 0 10 2,737,651 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,428,097.57 380.00 - 23 5,044 23 5,044 35 2,785,195 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,753.43 6.05 - 7 33,238 BUA CEMENT PLC 1,317,323.37 38.90 - 23 22,919 CAP PLC 10,710.00 15.30 -10.00 98 5,746,067 MEYER PLC. 265.62 0.50 - 0 0 1,769.32 2.23 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 128 5,802,224 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,192.12 2.03 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 3,082.31 1.75 - 8 131,000 8 131,000 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 30,773.28 61.55 - 0 0 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 1 2 1 2 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 137 5,933,226 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,877.26 4.51 - 4 5,480 4 5,480 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,781.64 8.10 - 0 0 0 0 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 77.00 0.35 - 0 0 0 0 4 5,480 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,315.17 0.21 5.00 24 1,216,325 24 1,216,325 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 27,846.36 2.24 - 22 117,499 22 117,499 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 63,104.17 175.00 - 20 13,043 ARDOVA PLC 16,411.26 12.60 - 50 514,745 CONOIL PLC 10,582.77 15.25 - 21 27,194 ETERNA PLC. 2,477.87 1.90 - 16 221,888 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 3,794.59 12.45 - 1 30,000 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 27,161.75 80.00 - 13 8,224 121 815,094 167 2,148,918 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 887.81 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 15,796.05 1.62 - 0 0 0 0 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 235.27 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3,473.82 3.75 - 9 72,682 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 361.01 0.77 - 0 0 9 72,682 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 3,763.54 2.43 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 1,746.19 0.84 - 0 0 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,076.28 3.15 - 1 100 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 30,401.62 4.00 - 0 0 1 100 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 3,960.00 0.33 - 0 0 0 0 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 181.44 0.30 - 2 1,700 LEARN AFRICA PLC 810.02 1.05 - 4 52,591 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,177.87 1.98 10.00 2 108,857 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 487.49 1.13 -7.38 20 1,493,979 28 1,657,127 ROAD TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 779.12 0.47 - 0 0 0 0 SPECIALTY INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 688.80 2.91 - 0 0 SECURE ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY PLC 1,126.31 0.20 - 1 100,000

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Insight

BUSINESS DAY Thursday 20 August 2020 www.businessday.ng

Youth Education: A catalytic trigger for Nigeria’s sustainable development Prince Julius Adewale Adelusi-Adeluyi

I

n the last fifty years, the number of children in school across the globe has increased by leaps and bounds. Education as a fundamental human right for both boys and girls has become a widespread belief and, has been enshrined in mainstream governance policies in most countries. This increased focus on education has led to improved economic outcomes and greater levels of productivity. It is no secret that education is a crucial driver of economic development. The top two most educated countries in the world, Canada and South Korea have some of the most advanced and productive economies. The economic discrepancy between the global North and the global South is largely predicated on the education divide between both regions. When it comes to access to education and overall literacy, Africa is largely behind and sub-Saharan Africa fares worse where over a fifth of school-age children in the region are out of school. According to UNICEF, more than 13 million children in Nigeria are out of school. With over 43% of Nigeria’s population under the age of 15, the country’s young and dynamic human resource is paradoxically one of its greatest assets and also a looming disaster. In the absence of the prioritization of education, the country will be home to millions of uneducated and unskilled members of the labour force.

This potential reality is grim and a large threat to the attainment of sustainable development as the links between education and poverty are obvious. We cannot overemphasize the importance of education as a critical step in building socio-economic capital.

My life experience shows that education opens up to you many windows of opportunities.

Because of this, I have spent a substantial part of my life, advocating for increased investment in education across Nigeria.

Through the MTN Foundation, we have invested 1.5 billion naira into various youth oriented projects with the sole purpose of bridging the illiteracy gap.

So far, Nigeria has been unable to deliver widespread quality education. Moreover, where quality education does exist,

affordability becomes a barrier.

This was true for Akpologun Jude Oyime who is now an engineering graduate from the University of Benin. For Jude, higher education had always been an aspiration however; his family faced several financial challenges. He applied and was successfully awarded a scholarship through the MTN Scholarship Schemes (Science & Technology and Blind Students). Jude’s family was able to watch him graduate, a reality that seemed so far off before he received the grant from MTN. Now, Jude has completed his NYSC and joined Nigeria’s dynamic workforce. Jude’s story, and that of many others like him remind me that for many of our youths, all they require is an op-

portunity to succeed. Access to quality education provides them with that opportunity.

Beyond this, I have recognized also that as society evolves, the methods and measures of learning also evolve.

Some twenty-five years ago, it did not matter much if one could operate a computer ; the need and prevalence of information technology were not as interwoven in our society then, as it is now. With the advent of digital platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to mention a few – knowledge and learning has been democratized – our mantra should be ‘No Youth Left Behind’. Ensuring that Nigeria’s youth are valuable and produc-

‘‘

Through the MTN Foundation, we have invested 1.5 billion naira into various youth oriented projects with the sole purpose of bridging the illiteracy gap. So far, Nigeria has been unable to deliver widespread quality education. Moreover, where quality education does exist, affordability becomes a barrier

tive in the present and future means that we cannot neglect digital education. The rise of technology as a major driver of sustainable growth for future economies is a viewpoint that must influence our attitude toward the future of education. In alignment with the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) 8, 9 and 4 which are focused on ensuring Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry Innovation and Infrastructure and Reduced Inequalities, the MTN Foundation prioritizes digital education in its philanthropic efforts. By building the technological capacity of Nigeria’s youths, we can position them to develop problem-solving and entrepreneurial capacities leading to innovative solutions and technological advancements.

Investment in digital education enables the Nigerian youth to be competitive on a global scale.

Education plays a very crucial role in securing the economic, political and social progress of communities and nations. One of my favourite quotes by Obafemi Awolowo, the father of free education in Nigeria reads “In order to attain to the goals of economic freedom and prosperity, Nigeria must do certain things as a matter of urgency and priority. It must provide free education at all levels and free health facilities for the masses of its citizens.” Building a sustainable future is not solely making declarations about that future. It is in the conscious and

consistent investment in those who will live in that future and those who are capable of building it. Stripped down to its core, the most meaningful investment a country can make in its citizens is an investment in their education.

This education reaches beyond the four walls of a classroom; it is an active process of imparting skills in the youth. Skills that will inform how they see life.

There is a lot to be done, while the MTN Foundation has impacted more than 3,500 students through its scholarship schemes and over 1,900 youths through its digital literacy programs I lay awake some nights thinking about the thousands more who have not been able to access any form of education. As such, we must not rest on our laurels. In order for us to catch up with the rest of the world, there is a continued need for heavy investment in education both from the government and from the private sector. We recognize that the government alone cannot deliver on this huge task and so, this is a clarion call to the private sector and wellmeaning Nigerians to join us in birthing the desired future for our Youths through investments in the educational sector. To ensure that generations of our youth stand a chance of having a purposedriven education, it is imperative that as a nation, we prioritize the funding of education.

• Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi is chairman of MTN Nigeria Foundation

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Advert Hotline: 08033225506. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Patrick Atuanya. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.