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news you can trust I ** friDAY 21 february 2020 I vol. 19, no 504

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Health industry awaits speedy completion of 300-bed Kaduna ultra-modern hospital … project backed by $48m IDB fund ABDULWAHEED ADUBI (Kaduna), ANTHONIA OBOKOH (Lagos) & GODSGIFT ONYEDINEFU (Abuja)

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L-R: Ijeoma Ude, general manager, adverts, BusinessDay; Matthew Azoji, managing director/CEO, Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals plc, and Patrick Atuanya, editor, BusinessDay, at the presentation of the Top 25 CEO 2019 award in recognition of stellar performance by Neimeth on the Nigerian Stock Exchange at Neimeth headquarters in Lagos.

Excess Crude Account slides to $70m as fiscal buffers disappear DIPO OLADEHINDE & SEGUN ADAMS

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78 percent decline in savings from oil sales created to stabilise the Nigerian economy in case of a shock is the latest crack in the country’s line of defence amid rising global uncertainties.

The Excess Crude Account (ECA) declined by $254.98m to a record low of $70m between January and February, latest data from the accountant-general of the federation show.

The ECA is the proceeds from oil sales in excess of budgeted benchmark price kept aside to supply funds for the country

whenever oil price downturn leads to shortfall in government revenue.

Considering Nigeria’s reliance on the oil and gas industry, one would expect that the Federal Government would do everything to ensure better productivity in the sector. However, the reverse has been the case,

with the situation getting worse with each passing year.

Experts blamed it on profound revenue challenges and lack of rules governing deposits and withdrawals from the special account.

“Save for the [Olusegun] Continues on page 35

overnor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State is working to complete Nigeria’s most modern public hospital in Kaduna, the state capital, BusinessDay has learnt.

The hospital, which was initiated in 2009 during the Namadi Sambo administration in the state, is being supported by a significant $48 million fund from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) which is eager to prove that hospitals in Nigeria do not have to be where people wait to die.

The entire support from the bank will be ploughed into providing the best equipment for the hospital and already, some of the world’s leading medical equipment suppliers are being assembled to equip the facility.

The 300-bed facility located at the New Millennium City in Kaduna should be ready by the second quarter of next year, according to healthcare professionals in the city who are familiar with the ground-breaking Continues on page 35

Inside

Border closure boom turns bust as manufacturers, farmers feel squeeze P. 34

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USAID, InfraCredit sign N13bn first-ever bond guarantee to boost power in Nigeria Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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he United States government through its Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company Limited (InfraCredit) on Thursday signed a Declaration of Partnership for first-ever bond guarantee to provide increased access to electricity to consumers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The N13 billion ($36.1m) co-guarantee for a 15-year bond, represents a partnership with InfraCredit, a Nigeriabased private infrastructure guarantee company and a Power Africa partner that seeks

to facilitate private investment in infrastructure to support sustained economic growth in Nigeria.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Stephen Haykin, USAID mission director to Nigeria, said the country was important to the US government’s global development strategy, and boosting its economic growth could only be fully realised through a healthy power sector.

He, however, noted that despite having the largest population and largest economy in Africa, Nigeria suffered poor electricity supply.

“The lack of a reliable and affordable electric supply in Nigeria impedes every facet of life – from local markets to large

industries and schools, hospitals, and impacts the everyday lives of the people.

“Today’s event highlights ground breaking collaboration between USAID, InfraCredit and GEL Utility Limited to increase access to power consumers in Port Harcourt. This coguarantee marks the first-ever risk sharing arrangement between USAID and InfraCredit, and emphasizes both institutions dedication to supporting the development of Nigeria’s power sectors,” Haykin said.

Chinua Azubike, CEO, InfraCredit, said the company was committed to facilitating investments in the power sector by providing guarantees in collaboration with strategic partners such as Power Africa.

DMO allays fears over Chinese loans OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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irector-general, Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, has allayed fears of Nigerians around the new borrowings from the Chinese government.

Speaking on the side-lines of a workshop on borrowing guidelines for state governments and the FCT in Lagos, yesterday, Oniha said the loans from China were not different from loans from other concessional borrow-

...says loan is 11% of external debt ings, and were usually vetted by the Ministry of Justice and tied to capital projects.

Loans between countries to countries, and loans from international donor agencies such as the World Bank, African Development Bank are referred to as concessional and semi-concessional borrowings, while Eurobonds and other sovereign bonds are commercial borrowing as they are priced at market interest rate.

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“The loan from China falls in the concessional loan category and are usually tied to projects such as the Lagos-Kano railway lines, airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Enugu,” she said.

According to Oniha, concessional loans come at a very low cost, at most 3 percent with longer tenor from 13-40 years, and the loans from China constitute only 11 percent of total external debt stock as at June 2019.

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Senate seeks law to back rehabilitation of repentant Boko Haram insurgents SOLOMON AYADO, Abuja

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Bill seeking a law to back the rehabilitation of repentant members of the Boko Haram sect was passed for first reading in the Senate on Thursday.

The Bill, sponsored by Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe East), seeks the establishment of National Agency for the Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria.

According to a copy of the Bill exclusively obtained by BusinessDay, it has six main aims.

The aims include to provide avenue for rehabilitating, de-radicalising, educating and reintegrating the defectors, repentant and detained members of the insurgent group Boko Haram to make them useful members of the society; provide avenue for reconciliation and promote national security, and provide an open door and encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in

the insurgency to abandon the group, especially in the face of the military pressure.

The Bill also aims to give the government an opportunity to derive insider-information about the insurgency group for greater understanding of the group and its inner workings; gain greater understanding of the insurgents so as to be able to address the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalisation effort to improve the process of de-radicalisation, and help disintegrate the violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream politics, religion and society.

When the Bill was introduced during plenary on Thursday, senators expressed concern that the rehabilitation of insurgents would rather make insurgency attractive and cause more insecurity.

Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege who presided over the plenary announced approval of the Bill for first reading.

As the bill was read in Senate, the chamber became rowdy as the lawmakers formed cleavages discussing the essence of the Bill.

The Bill is coming few weeks after the Senate inaugurated a 57-man committee to review the security architecture of the country.

Meanwhile, internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to Boko Haram attacks have not been properly rehabilitated and are still left hopeless in refugee camps.

This has further heightened criticisms that have trailed release of some Boko Haram insurgents by the Federal Government.

A lawmaker, who spoke to BusinessDay after plenary, said the Bill may be seeking legal backing to provide livelihood for repentant insurgents so as to dissuade them from banditry but same can also make the business lucrative and encourage more to join the ugly trend.

$500m loan for 3 major projects, not NTA alone - Lai Mohammed Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja

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inister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has stated that contrary to reports, the proposed $500 million loan being sought from China is for three major projects and not for the upgrade of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) alone.

The minister’s plan to secure the loan, which he said would be used to digitise NTA to enable it compete with America’s CNN, has since attracted wide criticism from Nigerians who described the plan as a waste of money.

But Mohammed, addressing a press conference on Thursday in Abuja, said the loan would be used to construct a headquarters complex and transmission network for Integrated Television Services (ITS), a FG-owned signal distributor that is a major component of the country’s Digital Switch Over (DSO).

The second project, according to Mohammed, is the construction of an ultra-modern Media City in Ikorodu, and a Media City Training Academy, he described as the second of its type in Africa and first in Egypt, that would train Nigerian broadcasters and filmmakers in the production of high quality media content programmes and make Nigeria a hub for digital movie production in sub-Saharan Africa.

The third project will be the digitisation of all NTA headquarters, 12 zonal stations, 36 state capital NTA stations and 76 community stations as well as the upgrade, purchase and installation of relevant digital TV broadcasting equipment

compatible with DSO products and accessories that are necessary for the production and broadcast of digital programme contents, in addition to provision of power system and manpower training, he said.

The minister regretted that

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there had been a spike in the dissemination of fake news and the use of disinformation in recent times, saying fake news, disinformation and hate speech had become the weapons of choice to create tension in the polity and destabilise the country.

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A conversation with Chief Obafemi Awolowo THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia Chief, you are looking resplendent in your heavenly regalia. The aura around you is radiant and glorious. I am overwhelmed Sir! miling triumphantly, the avatar replies: “Well, thank you much for your kind compliments. But my appearance should not surprise you. Jesus told the Apostles that in His Father’s house there are many mansions; were it not so He would have told them. I am here with Hannah Idowu Dideolu, my priceless jewel of inestimable value. It is joy inexpressible to be reunited with her and with Segun, Wole, and Ayo.” Chief, why did you appear to me in a vision on the eve of your departure from this earthly plane on 9 May 1987? I was just a young lad in my twenties, newly married and recently appointed a Fellow of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. I never was part of the Awo cult. But you have always been my model of what a leader and statesman should be.

“Obadiah, my son, you still have a long way to go to understand some of these mysteries. Only deep calls on to deep. In the spiritual realm we are all electrical transmission stations. Those who radiate similar vibrations will find each other. Distance has no meaning in our intergalactic universe. When the prophet Elijah was caught up by the chariots of fire, he had to let go his mantle. The Creator sent me to Nigeria on a mission to help the country fulfil her destiny as one of the greatest nations on the earth. Unfortunately, my enemies thwarted me at every turn.

That mission has been passed to people like you. I can only wish you well.”

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But I feel unworthy Sir. “God is no respecter of persons. He can raise even donkeys to do his work if they workmen are unwilling. I see that you are making progress. But there is room for improvement. Always remember that only the pure in heart shall see God. And only those who conquer the fear of death can begin truly to live. The only thing to fear is fear itself. Without moral courage you cannot achieve greatness. I recommend to you my philosophy of mental magnitude. You must learn to be master of your brief” Sir, Nigeria is dying. The drums of war have filled the air while vultures circle over an overcast sky. Is there any hope?

Looking visibly troubled, the Orisa sighed: “Yes, some people seem hellbent on plunging the country into another civil war. No country can survive two civil wars. Biafra was a tragedy that consumed 2 million souls. I was General Yakubu Gowon’s deputy and finance minister. We had to keep this country together because of our innate conviction about its high and noble destiny. What is happening today, however, is unprecedented in the annals of our republic.

The state has become a Leviathan that sucks the blood of its citizens. And they are using the murderous herdsmen to provoke a religious war. No country could endure that kind of trauma for long without something giving in.”

But, Sir, how did we get to this sorry state of affairs?

“The roots of the current crisis go back a long way – as far back as 1960.

The perfidious British bequeathed us a monstrous behemoth that was programmed to fail. And they handed over power to people that patently never believed in the very concept of Nigerian nationhood. They were planted there as agents of informal empire. Many of our so-called leaders have actually been agents of foreign powers. It may surprise you to know that the real masterminds of the assassination of Murtala Mohammed were neither Dimka nor Bisalla.

Murtala was killed by his inner circles on the orders of foreign powers. They came to power as renegades and they continue to this day is Fifth Columnists

lording it over our benighted peoples.

The Jihadist tendencies of these brigands have gained the upper hand and it is these people that want to drive our country into the abyss.”

Sir, who are the enemies of our people today?

“The enemies of Nigeria are both internal and external. The internal are the financiers and backers of Boko Haram and the herdsmen militia bandits.

They are to be found in government, the armed forces, security services and the private sector. Their aim is to reinvent our country in the image of the Caliphate and to destroy the secular ethos that defines our constitutional federalism. The 1999 constitution that they forged through the backdoor is an illegitimate contraption. It has neither moral nor political legitimacy because it never emanated from the collective will of “We, the people”. Let me make it abundantly clear: Muslims are not our enemies. They are our brothers and sisters. They too have been victims of the genocidal violence visited on an unarmed and defenceless people. You must reach out to them and, together, build a new coalition against the evil that struts the land like the old whore of Babylon. Nigeria’s foreign enemies include international terrorist organisations such as the Islamic Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Al-Qaida and ISWA. They also include foreign powers such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. France is one of our deadliest foes. The country thrives in being a parasite and scavenger on our continent. They see Nigeria as the big elephant standing on their path to conquest and hegemony. And they are using our neighbours as staging posts for armed bandits that are seeking to destroy our country. The USA is also not a friend. Their game plan under the New American Century is to dismember large countries such as Russia, Iraq, Iran, DRC and Nigeria; countries with vast natural resources which they covet. This military doctrine largely informs current NATO thinking and strategic action. They will stop at nothing, including deployment of bacteriological warfare. I prophesy that the century we are in will prove to

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The roots of the current crisis go back a long way – as far back as 1960.

The perfidious British bequeathed us a monstrous behemoth that was programmed to fail. And they handed over power to people that patently never believed in the very concept of Nigerian nationhood

be a Century of anti-Humanism and anti-Enlightenment. To be forewarned is to be fore-armed!”

So, what can we do?

“You see, what you call your leader today is a holographic counterfeit that is a hostage to fortune. He is no longer in-charge. Our best hope is for a new constitutional settlement where power is devolved to the regions. We need no more than 5 regions: North, Middle Belt, West, East and South-South.

We need a decentralised federation in which the regions have relative autonomy to develop according to their pace and temperament and on the basis of ethno-religious self-determination.

Meanwhile, communities that face an existential threat must be allowed to put in place security arrangements to protect themselves. This is why we the ancient Orishas from Obatala and Yemowo to Erinle, Olokun and Yemoja fully endorse Amotekun.

The shedding of innocent blood is an abomination for our ancestors and the immortal deities. Both municipal and international law give people who face a threat to their very survival the right – and duty – to defend themselves. It is also a sacrosanct principle of natural justice and universal ethics.

You know that I am a patriot and a nationalist at heart. But if the forces of reaction totally resist political reforms to redress our egregious inequities, then we have no choice but to end the fraud entirely. If all else fails, we would insist on an independent Oduduwa Republic for the Yoruba. All who desire to leave the contraption must be allowed to go.

A forced marriage has never worked in real life. It will not work in the 21st century. Forcing couples to remain together is the surest path to tragedy.

On your frail shoulders lies the lifechances of 200 million people. Get to work at once, before darkness eclipses the land!”

Dr. Mailafia is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a development economist and public finance expert with a DPhil from Oxford obmailafia@gmail.com; 08036590990 (text messages only)

Wellness in the work place continued

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o far this year there have been quite a few deaths from disease, chronic ailment and medical mistakes. There are many ailments that crop up on us when we are not looking. Why should an HR Column harp on wellness? This is because when the workforce is unwell the quality of the output becomes very poor and the return on investment dwindles and changes are made to the workforce or business flow that will end up being of no effect very quickly.

Many of the workplaces of the future so to speak, the goggles and Facebooks of this world have keyed into wellness to such a large extent that it may sound ridiculous to employers from the last century.

There was a time where organisations did not care about health or wellbeing but now you don’t want to spend so much money recruiting training and equipping a member of staff only to either lose the person to ill health or even death. Besides the trauma for colleagues it has also been a waste of money.

I have known two people in the last one month whose backs have completely given out and mobility and sleep have become chores. I was speaking with the founder of a prominent chair company in Nigeria who was talking about ergonomic furniture in the work place. She was explaining that there are some specific measurements that chairs have to be at for them to

not only be comfortable but also do things like support the spine.

Many times when we are shopping for office furniture we are either concerned with cost or with beauty but never about how truest comfortable and supportive the furniture will be. She was saying there are companies who hire physiotherapists who come and inspect the chairs before they buy them.

There are chronic back pain sufferers whose problems started with poor work chairs or the problems are aggravated by poor work chairs and other furniture in the work place they need to use.

The paint that is used in offices, again many people just use any paint as long as it is cheap.

Paints can be toxic and inhalation of those toxins over time can lead to being unwell. I guess an underlying factor is that going with the cheapest is not always the best thing. On the other hand it is not always about cost. Knowing components involved also helps. Something may not be expensive but be of the best component for that thing.

When companies are purchasing things I suggest that a member of the HR team be involved just to help with looking out for the wellness of the staff. There should be a laid down policy about how the quality of purchases should be agreed upon taken into consideration how it will impact wellness.

This may in the long run force manufactures

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into producing better quality things or else their products will be left on the shelf.

Fumigating the offices on time with good quality products and also them putting in place good practices that will reduce the infestation of critters and rodents. The HR department needs to come up with policies that will ensure this happens. For example there should be no food brought into the work areas. There should be a place where staff can eat. No food including biscuits and snacks that should be left in desks and in the work area. This clearly means that there should be an area where people can go to eat at least besides their desks.

This clearly shows that when you are negotiating to take an office space should need to be sure that you can have the space you need for the well ness of staff. In the very modern work places not only are they ergonomic and have relaxation spaces where they can sleep if they want them also take into consideration the harshness of lighting and the colour schemes of the environment.

Last article alluded to mental health challenges and about how this is on the increase.

Many may come directly from the work environment but not all. Some emanates from outside the work environment. HR has to set up ways and means of detecting some of these issues either by teaching staff about the importance of emotional intelligence so they can be on the

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Olamide Balogun alert with their colleagues. Training generally also helps because sometimes even people with mental health issues don’t realise it because they don’t know what it is.

Training in the organisation should not just be on work place issues alone. There should be training on how to keep healthy and how to choose a healthy lifestyle.

The organisation needs to take health issues seriously and institute periodic health checks to help with early detection of ailments that do not have to be life threatening but end up being so because of a lack of detection plans. Also there has to be training on how to manage chronic ailments that already exist.

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

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Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 years

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The quality journey in Nigerian healthcare HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

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ast week, a little-trumpeted piece of news was received.

The International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) has accredited the quality standards set by the Society for Quality Health in Nigeria for the purpose of evaluating healthcare facilities in Nigeria.

ISQua is a body that was set up in 1985 “to promote quality and safety in healthcare through international cooperation and collaboration”. It is based in Ireland, and it serves as the global hub for Quality Improvement in Healthcare. Through partnerships with various organizations, such as the WHO, the World Bank, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), International Hospital Federation (IHF), Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS), Joint Commission International, and the UK’s National Health Service, among others, it has established itself as the reference point for definition, pursuit and training in Quality in the healthcare workspace.

In securing accreditation from ISQua, Nigeria, through SQHN, has become the second country in subSaharan Africa, after South Africa, to acquire the capability to independently assess and accredit healthcare facilities on Quality, with a brand that is internationally recognised.

It is a development that is fully deserving of celebration by all persons and entities who aspire to see healthcare facilities in Nigeria rise in people’s esteem, as well as improving in their outcomes.

Health facilities in Nigeria are bedevilled by many problems and are not held in great esteem by the citizens. As evidence of this lack of confidence, billions of naira is spent every year on what has been euphemistically labelled “Medical Tourism”.

A steady song-and-dance has been made about how this is a drain on the nation’s all-too-scarce resources.

Some people have gone so far as to say “Medical Tourism” should be banned entirely.

Of course, even in a nominal democracy such as Nigeria, the authorities cannot just go about ‘banning’ things. People who use their private means to go abroad for medical treatment are exercising their fundamental human right to seek what they believe to be the best medical care possible for themselves.

The real challenge is how to objectively decide what “best medical care” is. Government often sees it in terms of purchasing expensive equipment such as linear accelerators and installing them with fanfare in a Teaching Hospital somewhere. Then officialdom would say, with a straight face, that it has a “Centre of Excellence”.

It is a nonsensical statement, of course. Taking “Excellence” as a description of accreditable Quality, there is no “Centre of Excellence” in any government health facility in Nigeria – Teaching Hospital or General Hospital. Not one.

Many things are missing in the healthcare landscape. There are not enough doctors or nurses, or pharmacists or scientists or any of the many

other categories required to complete the health team. There are not enough facilities sufficiently close to the end user. Where it is available, the service may not be accessible to the citizen because seventy percent of medical service received by Nigerians is still paid for out-of-pocket as we speak.

And, finally, the quality of the service itself is poor, meaning processes and procedures are not standardised and repeatable, not documented in the appropriate way, not in accordance with state of knowledge and best practice, and not guaranteed to produce predictable outcomes. In the UK one woman dies in labour in some obscure hospital in Leeds and the news and the noise and recriminations are all over the newspapers and national television for several days.

In Nigeria fifty women could die in hospitals in one state in one day, and not a whimper would be raised.

And yet Nigeria is a prodigiously blessed nation. Seventy percent of all black doctors in the USA are Nigerians. They man the most advanced facilities and are at the head of teams carrying out cutting edge procedures.

At least part of the reason they are not working in in the USA, and not in Lagos or Ibadan is the paucity of quality institutions locally that are able to deliver to them a controlled, quality environment where they can practice their skills and be sure of good outcomes.

Quality has been a big missing link in Nigerian healthcare over the years.

One major figure who got up to do something about it was Professor Adeyemo Elebute of blessed memory.

He worked with others to set up the Society for Quality Health in Nigeria.

He also founded a hospital-group, the Lagoon Hospitals, in which Quality Improvement was entrenched as a

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It is a development that is fully deserving of celebration by all persons and entities who aspire to see healthcare facilities in Nigeria rise in people’s esteem, as well as improving in their outcomes

core concept. Lagoon Hospitals would go on to become the first hospital in Nigeria to be internationally accredited for Quality by Joint Commission International – the international goldstandard. And the Society, which he carefully nurtured, has just received certification to do for other Nigerian hospitals what JCI did for Lagoon Hospitals, domesticating the ‘surveying’ competence, and making it more accessible for Nigerian health managers.

Nigerian Health is in a pivotal place at this time, with the private sector belatedly beginning to see the value in “the business of Medicine”, with the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund and compulsory Health Insurance in several states all bringing the prospects of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) closer to the citizenry, and making medical care marketable and bankable.

Quality Improvement, with a local process of Accreditation now made available by SQHN should drive the quality up in facilities from primary health centres to kidney transplant units, and make the citizens begin to have confidence in their own facilities.

It could ultimately help to staunch the bleeding of resources through “Medical Tourism”.

It is to be hoped that the government and the healthcare industry will see the value proposition in the development, grasp it with both hands, and be ready to run with it.

The first anniversary of Professor Elebute’s death is to be celebrated in a few days. But the real celebration of his life, and the value he brought to Nigerian health, is already beginning, with the announcement that came from ISQua last week.

Olugbile is a writer and psychiatrist. synthesiz@gmail.com

SEC’s new rules on central counterparty: Highlights

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he Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved rules to regulate Central Counterparties alongside Derivatives trading rules. The new rules were approved on the 23rd of December, 2019. The rules define a Central Counterparty (CCP) as an entity registered by the Commission that interposes itself between counterparties to a securities’ transaction traded on one or more financial markets, becoming the buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer.

CCPs play an essential role in derivatives trading. Hence, the need to have adequate rules to regulate their operations.

Highlights of the new rules are as follows; Registration requirements Rule 3 lays down the registration requirements for a CCP. One of such registration requirements is evidence of minimum capitalisation of N5 billion, which shall be in the ratio of 90 percent cash and 10 percent fixed and other assets. The 90 percent cash is to be escrowed in an interest-yielding account with the CBN until approval is granted. Other requirements include fidelity bond representing 25 percent of minimum required capital as well as Bank Verification Number and Credit Bureau Report of the directors of the company.

Some other additional requirements were listed in rule 4 and the include: Sufficient assets and resources, which include financial, management and human resources with appropriate experience, to

perform its functions as set out in these Rules; An effective and reliable infrastructure to facilitate its clearing operations or services; A comprehensive risk management process; Appropriate systems, controls and procedures that are reliable and secure and have adequate scalable capacity.

Functions Rule 5 categorically states that a CCP shall not carry out any business, activity or function that is not related or incidental to clearing. Rule 6 lists the functions of a registered CCP as follows: Interpose itself between counterparties to contracts traded in one or more financial markets through the process of novation, legally binding agreement or open offer system; Facilitate post trade management functions; Implement a margin system that establishes margin levels commensurate with the risks and particular attributes of each product, portfolio and the market; Collect and manage collateral held for the due performance of the obligations of Clearing Members; Establish and maintain a Default Fund to mitigate the risk of default by a Clearing Member and to ensure, where possible, that the obligations of that Clearing Member continue to be fulfilled; Have a clearly defined default management system and waterfall where the obligations of the defaulting Clearing Member, other Clearing Members and the CCP are legally and clearly managed; Provide for portability in the case of default of a Clearing Member; Perform any other function as may be determined by

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the Commission from time to time.

Governance A CCP is required to have rules and procedure that support financial stability, safety and efficiency of its clearing activities. - Rule 7(1) (a). It is essential for the Board and Management of a CCP to have the required mix of skills and competence to discharge their duties in line with the explanatory guidelines issued by the SEC from time to time. Rule 7(2). Appointment of members of the Board will be subject to SEC’s approval- Rule 8(2). SEC will also approve appointment of its Chief Executive Officer and Principal Officers-Rule 9(2) CCP rules on derivatives trading Rule 10 (1) provides that CCPs shall develop rules pursuant to the Investments and Securities, Act (ISA) and the CCP Rules to govern its operations and Clearing Members. The rules are to be clear, transparent, understandable and enforceable for all its operations; ensure that its activities are consistent with relevant laws and regulations, have a high level of certainty. - Rule 10(2) (a-e) Outsourcing Rule 12 indicates that a CCP may outsource some of its functions. However, where a CCP outsources any of its functions, services or activities, it shall take full responsibility for the functions, services and activities outsourced. It shall also ensure that the outsourcing does not affect the discharge of its obligations to Clearing

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ULOAKU EKWEGH

Members and Clients.

Efficiency and transparency A CCP is to design its operations and processes to meet the need of the market. – Rule 13 (1) (a) the design shall include: Specific clearing and settlement arrangements; operating structure; Scope of products cleared; Use of technology A CCP is also required to carry out a review of the efficiency of its operations and processes at least once in a year.

There are other noteworthy sections of the rules that will be highlighted in the concluding part of this article.

Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 years legal experience in law firms and as in-house counsel.

She is also a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants.

Email: uloekwegh@yahoo.com

@Businessdayng

12

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Frank Aigbogun

Wrong-headed policies, current global realities put Nigeria in tight spot Delaying bold reforms worsen an already weak economy

editor Patrick Atuanya DEPUTY EDITOR John Osadolor, Abuja NEWS EDITOR Chuks Oluigbo MANAGING DIRECTOR Dr. Ogho Okiti EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STRATEGY, INNOVATION & PARTNERSHIPS Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Ijeoma Ude FINANCE MANAGER Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (South East, South South) Patrick Ijegbai COPY SALES MANAGER Florence Kadiri DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua

T

he economic policies under the administration of President Buhari have caused more harm than good. A command and control-style management of the economy worked for as long as the condition of the global economy was benign.

Not anymore. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised downwards its forecast of the growth rate of Nigeria in 2020 from 2.5 percent to 2 percent due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China on crude oil prices. A drop in the demand for crude oil from China, one of the biggest importers, will result in a supply glut and drive down crude oil prices. In addition, the outbreak has increased the prices of phones, pharmaceuticals and other goods and services supplied directly or indirectly

by China.

This isn’t good news for Nigeria’s foreign reserves. Stable

oil prices have been too much of a good thing for CBN, it made the unorthodox and wrong-headed policies seem affordable. Dollars earned from crude oil built cushioned it from taking hard decisions.

For as long Nigeria doesn’t break its dependence on crude oil and develop strong buffers that mitigate the effect of oil price shocks, global events with direct negative impacts on the crude oil market will always hit the economy hard. According to the international lender, deteriorating terms of trade and capital outflows will weaken the external position of Nigeria. With a challenging outlook under current policies, IMF said Nigeria needs policy reforms to withstand growing weaknesses.

Fixing the Customs rather than keep the borders closed is a good place to start. The unyielding decision to keep the borders shut is the sustained rise in general prices. Headline inflation – a measure of the prices of goods and

services including commodities such as food and energy – rose by 12.13 percent in January 2020, up from 11.98 percent in December 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This unbending stance has caused a sustained shortfall in domestic food supply relative to demand, The food inflation sub-index increased by 14.85 percent in January 2020 against 14.67 percent in December 2019.

Every percentage increase in inflation rate shrinks the purchasing power of consumers whose pockets are already stretched with little or no income left after deduction of taxes to be spend or save as they wish.

Coupled with the border closure are directives by the central bank such as the restriction of individuals and non-banking institutions from taking part in its open market operations and the increase in lending to the private sector of the economy which has increased liquidity in the system.

As we have reiterated, the

border closure has caused pain on both sides and taught many lessons. Those lessons are instructive about the nature of the relationship between Nigeria and her neighbours, the structure of the economies of West Africa and the gaping holes in the management of our systems. Nigeria should take the many lessons from the closure and open the border in line with our commitments to various treaties and agreements.

Lessons from Buharinomics 101, however, suggest the president will wait until the last moment rather than respond fast and early. A bad habit of reacting slowly and a stupefying indifference to the consequent hardship is a regular trademark of his administration. It need not be.

President Buhari and his economic advisers – the central bank governor, the minister of finance and members of the economic advisory council can’t afford to dilly-dally on critical reforms.

Bold reforms are the way out and this isn’t be debatable.

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

comment Beyond appraisals, how promotion happens

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Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng

EIZU UWAOMA

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he easiest way to get to the next level is to begin to do things that only fit people at that level. Let me tell you a true story that buttresses this. I had a mentee who graduated with a good grade, a university degree.

But he couldn’t get a good job so he took up the role of an official driver to a team of sales people who he felt he could do better than. My advice to him was quite simple; don’t compete. Don’t dress or act like just a driver, give more value than an average drive will do. It was just a matter of time; there was an opening for a role in that organisation, even above that of sales. And everyone was quick to recommend him. The MD approved because he had also been watching him impressively. He didn’t just ask for his next position, he demonstrated it! That’s what we all should do.

Promotion should be a demonstration of your next position.

In the words of the former American president, Theodore Roosevelt, “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, “Certainly, I can!” Then get busy and find out how to do it.” That’s how promotion happens. A major part of promotion is in Kaizen, continuous improvement around your knowledge, skill, ability and attitude fit for that next position. It’s about knowing your purpose even if where you are contradicts it. It’s in recalibrating your scale and readjusting your sail to your intended destination with what you have by where you are. To outline these steps, it’s first about building up yourself to the desired abilities fit for the job. And then leading yourself through it. After

that, you then lead others. Life abilities come in different levels starting from being capable, then working well with capable people then making others capable. Generally, there are 5 Levels.

Level 1 - this refers to a Highly Capable Individual. He makes contributions through talent, Knowledge, skills and habits. He is fit for the role he/she applied for. But note that nobody is promoted for the role they are currently paid to do. But from demonstrating that they have abilities beyond what they are paid for. As a matter of fact that beyond their cognitive intelligence, they have more capabilities and social skills to also work well with others, even if it’s beyond their roles. Which brings us to the second level.

Level 2 - this refers to a Contributing Team Member. As you start up your career, it’s really about competence. But to grow up that ladder, it requires more about attitude, personality, sponsorship and referral from someone up there. You need to have special skills to attract people like that to bring you in first. And then pull you up to level 5 if you show even more abilities to not just manage your work but that of others.

Level 3. This refers to a Competent Manager. He organizes people as resources towards the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.

Level 4: this is an Effective Leader: he catalyzes commitment to the pursuit of clear and compelling vision.

Level 5: Let’s call a person in this stage, the executive: he builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. He builds a sustainable firm by duplicating more of his greatness through others.

But climbing this ladder has to be intentional. Though anyone can fall off a ladder by accident, no one climbs a ladder by accident. To be able to climb the ladder is to follow these steps. I usually like to call it the 7Ps. It’s about finding your (P)urpose, try to(P)ackage it, then create a (P)roduct from it. After that, find a (P)latform, to (P)

erform, then perform (P)erfectly on this platform till you begin to attract the (P) eople that will promote you.

The blunt fact is that not everyone will succeed, not everyone can make it for lack of “knowledge”, the mentality and the network. And in making it, some will be victors and others will be victims. The difference between the victors and the victims is nothing but the thought patterns, our reactions to situations, processes, influences and the people we have.

Understanding the principles behind promotion is key. If you don’t you’d perhaps watch people who are less deserving that you get promoted and the most you’d do is to conclude that life isn’t fair. Yes, it isn’t. Whether or not you think life or your organisation’s way of stirring promotion is shitty, always remember the words of – John Imhoff, “Any organisation is like a septic tank. The really big chunks rise to the top.”

There is this story of a young graduate who joined a bank as a graduate trainee whilst knowing he could qualify for a higher position. After joining the bank, he clearly became a highflyer except that his boss was not as good as he was. He realised his boss was not as bright but decided not to outshine his boss but respectfully work under him and let his boss shine through him.

Whenever there was a challenge, he would do the work of his boss, attach his boss’s name and get his boss to sign. At the end of the day, the boss was not doing much and became quite dependent on him. The boss had an amazing socio political influence on the bank. SO it seemed that while his boss played the politics, he played the competence on his behalf, ying-yang style. As a result of his competence, the boss was promoted. The boss on the other hand had heavily depended on him and would never leave him behind after each promotion. So the boss used his political influence to also influence his own promotion for the self-interest of having him do most of his work.

But there came a time when the

‘

The blunt fact is that not everyone will succeed, not everyone can make it for lack of “knowledge”, the mentality and the network. And in making it, some will be victors and others will be victims

bank had a huge challenge during the mergers and acquisition that nobody in the bank or industry could solve. A lot of people’s jobs were on the line including this book. The bank heads looked to the boss since he had always come forward with results in the past, or so they thought. The boss then threw the challenge to his dependable and loyal subordinate. As usual, he solved the challenge but halfway. He submitted the half-done report to his boss who then had to present it to the board.

While presenting, the boss could proceed beyond what was submitted to him and he had to open up to the board and tell them about the brain behind the solution report. At that time, the young man wanted to resign from the bank.

The directors requested to know what it would take for the brilliant young man to stay. His request was to be a director on the board. And because they needed his solution so badly, that was how he became a bank director!

As you get higher, you will realise that social skills become more important than cognitive abilities. The point of the story is to build the kind of competence where you are irreplaceable while you’re also likeable and pleasant with your attitude. It’s also about never outshining the master and showing loyalty and respect even when there seems to be no need. It’s about not caring who gets the credit and respecting those ahead of you, even if you think you’re smarter. On a lighter note, if you think your boss is stupid remember; you wouldn’t have a job if he was smarter Like I love to say, whenever you decide to resign from your job, you would be asked just two questions: WHY or WHEN. WHY signifies that they do not want you to leave and it has an undertone of how much value you have brought your workplace. But WHEN means that they really don’t mind. Would they ask you why or when?

Uwaoma is a start-up, corporate restructuring and strategy consultant. He writes via contacteizu@gmail.com

Vat increase and Nigeria’s GDP: Borrowing a leaf from Djibouti’s strides

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s part of his effort to lay a solid foundation towards economic prosperity, president Buhari, on January 13, signed into law the hitherto Finance Bill, which basically, came as a child of necessity, and which among other things, focuses on generating revenue for the government, facilitate the ease of doing business and raise Nigeria’s tax base with a view to meeting global best practice. In another stroke of economic rejuvenation, on January 20, the president; converged in London in a maiden program tagged UK-Africa Investments Summit, basically to showcase and promote the breadth and quality of investment opportunities across Africa.

Chief among the subjects of discourse was the assessment of 2019 performance on countries’ economies and how best the UK government can assist in charting course for Africa’s development. This gathering, however, is not unusual, conferences in form of such had been held at both intra-region, regional and at global levels.

In Nigeria, even at state level, being components of a nation, it is not a novel scene seeing political candidates, at every level, selling, their economic plans and how they intend to transform the economies of their respective states, from languishing from a vicariously dead state to an economic posterity. I could recall vividly, some candidates (now governors or opposition voices) reeling out their proposed plans for the economies of their respective states in the wake

of the 2019 general elections. Probing questions like: how would you grow the GDP of your state?

How do you intend to optimise a perfect budget implementation? Expectedly, some of them managed to muffle their proposed economic agenda to their politically despair viewers.

The kernel of this piece, as a magnum opus, is on how governments grapple with the decision on how to strike a balance between the growths of GDP, by either expansion of areas of coverage of goods that are taxable on one hand or an increase in the percentage of existing taxable goods on the other hand. Whether the government should imbibe the idea of increasing VAT rate or tax rate generally so that it can generate more money for infrastructural financing, which in most cases meets with criticisms from the poor masses or increase in the number of goods and services that are taxable which would definitely have a resultant effect on the perception of ease of doing business, and at large the nation’s economy.

According to the index of doing business report, released for year 2020, which provides objectives measures of business regulations and their implementation across 190 economies both at national, regional, subnational and global levels, Nigeria jerked up on the ladder of ease of doing business from 151, 146 and 131 positions in years 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively. The parameters which were used in assessing countries in terms of this are availability of infrastructure, registration of properties, tax systems, legal compliance, www.businessday.ng

enforcement of trade rights, resolving insolvency and resolution of disputes. Decayed infrastructural development is one of the major reasons while multinational companies as well as small and medium scale enterprises go on extinction in Nigeria.

Faced with inept and indecisiveness in solving its economic crisis, the Nigerian government appears to be politically inclined and convinced that, with increase in tax Value Added Tax percentage, general effective system of taxation and proper utilisation of tax money in returns for investment growth, the economy of a country gets a progressive, though, steady economic turnaround. It in its bid to achieving these economic objectives, the approach that has always been resorted to, is the increase in the percentage of amount paid on taxes, especial VAT. This is done with a view to generating more revenue for the government.

However, there is another school of thought in economic development that posits that instead of increasing the percentage of the amount paid on taxes, what should be done, instead, is propagation of a system of increase in the array of things that are taxable. While the former remains a tested and verifiable economy strategy that has been utilised by some of the developed countries, I choose to align with the latter which takes into cognizance that there are other lacunae or factors that can been inculcated into the system without necessarily stifling the investors with outrageous increase in the percentage amount paid on tax-

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RILWAN BALOGUN able goods.

Summarily, the point we are driving at here is that, from the political perspective, a good public relation strategy needs be cobbled together between the gap of raising the Internal Generated Revenue, IGR of a state, by means of raising the percentage amount paid on taxes on one hand and the expansion of the area of coverage of the goods and services that are taxable on the other hand. Where the government takes to the former, that is, by raising the percentage of tax on every taxable goods and services, the consequential effect would be an albatross of stifling the growth of business sector, and particularly, worse affected is the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises; SMEs, which is a key driver of every progressive economy. The economic blunder could further be exacerbated, where there is no tell-tale infrastructural development emanating as a result of such increase in the percentage of the amount of tax.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https:// businessday.ng Balogun, a legal practitioner and economics enthusiast, wrote in from Lagos. rilwanbalogun60@yahoo.com, 08038234989

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

cityfile

DSS re-arrest escaped suspected kidnapper in Kano

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peratives of the Department of St at e S e c u r i t y (DSS) and Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) have re-arrested one Mercy Paul, a suspected kidnapper who escaped from custody in Kano.

Ahmad Magaji, the controller, Kano Correctional Centre, disclosed while briefing newsmen on Wednesday in Kano.

Paul was said to have escaped in Kano after being arrested for alleged kidnapping of many children in Kano and sold them in Anambra.

She was arrested along others for allegedly committing the offence sometimes in 2019.

Magaji said that the suspect escaped from the hands of their officers who took her to Murtala Muhammad Hospital for medical checks at about 12:05 p.m. on January 31.

“On January 31, 2020, Mercy Paul was said to have escaped from the hospital where she was taken for medication after falling sick

at Kano Kurmawa Central Correctional Centre where she is currently awaiting trial,” he said.

He said on hearing the news, he quickly went to the scene where he conducted some investigation and found that the culprit was bleeding and had requested to visit the toilet from where she maneuvered her way to escape.

“Immediately after realising the unfortunate incidence we organised a stop and search by condoning all the entrances of Kano in collaboration with the DSS’’.

Magaji said the DSS assisted in tracking down the suspect on Monday February 17, where she was hiding at a particular place.

He added that the suspect was still taken to hospital by the DSS operatives where they gave her all necessary medical attention to help her fully recover.

The controller commended the DSS and other security agencies for helping them to track down the fleeing suspected kidnapper. NAN

Umahi insists on relocating Abakpa market traders OGINYI NKECHINYERE, Abakaliki

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overnor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has said that the March 1, 2020 deadline given to traders at Abakpa market would not be changed.

The traders are expected to relocate to the newly constructed international market along Tran-Saharan Highway in Abakaliki, the state capital.

Umahi, who addressed the traders and their leaders during a meeting at old Government House, Abakaliki, said that every trader would be given a shop so long as they

have the money to pay.

According to him, by March 1, every trader in the market must relocate to the new market.

The state government had shifted the deadline for traders’ relocation to the international market two times to enable the traders prepare and give the government ample time to put in place social amenities.

The governor, however, promised to offer free land space to female traders willing to construct their own shops in the new market if existing shops in the market can’t accommodate them.

Kogi devises strategies to curb kidnapping

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mid rising cases of kidnapping and armed robbery, the Kogi government said it had devised new strategies to flush out the perpetrators and their collaborators.

The state commissioner for information and communication strategy, Kingsley Fanwo, disclosed this to newsmen in Lokoja on Wednesday.

Fanwo , who spoke shortly after the state executive council meeting, said that the special adviser to the state governor on security, Jerry Omodara, would coordinate the implementation of the new strategies.

He also said that Omodara had been directed to ensure the successful implementation of the new plans.

The commissioner did not disclose the details of the new security plans, but said that the people would soon heave a sigh of relief from the activities of kidnappers and armed robbers.

According to him, Governor Yahaya Bello who presided over the meeting described the present crime situation in the state as unacceptable.

“The governor said that he is determined to ensure that the state is safe and secure for all, including people travelling through the state,” Fanwo said. www.businessday.ng

Work in progress at the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway in Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State, during the inspection tour by the Director of Highway Projects, North Central, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Bola Aganaba.

NAN

Edo communities cry out over wanton killings by suspected herders IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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esidents of Owan, Agbanikaka , Uhiere, Odiguetie and Odighi communities in Ovia North East local government area of Edo State, have cried out to the state government and security agencies to put an end to wanton killings in their land by suspected herdsmen.

The outcry has been triggered by the latest murder of a palm wine tapper, simply identified as Owoh and Samuel Imonkhai, a farmer, in the early hours of Wednesday, February 19, by persons suspected to be herders.

Owoh, 45 and Imonkhai

were allegedly attacked and killed in Owan community by the suspects.

In a ‘Save Our Soul’ message to Edo State government, residents of the affected communities, appealed to the state governor, Godwin Obaseki and the security agencies to take measures that would end incessant killings in their communities.

According to the residents, Owoh, the palm wine tapper was shot by the bandits where he was tapping palm wine in the farm while Samuel Imonkhai was murdered in his farm by the herders.

The traditional ruler of Owan, Ifiabor Michael told newsmen that their communities were under siege from suspected herdsmen.

According to him, the herdsmen have not only ravaged the people’s farmland but have also embarked on a killing spree.

He further noted that no fewer than eight persons; predominantly farmers have been killed across these communities since the start of February, 2020.

Two indigenes of Owan village have been killed. A palm wine tapper, Owoh aged 45 was shot at by the bandits where he was tapping his palm while another man named Samuel Imonkhai was brutally murdered by these same bandits,” he said.

Also speaking, one of the residents, who pleaded anonymity, said all efforts to draw government’s attention to their plight have

not received favourable response.

“Recently a policeman was killed while another policeman and several other indigenes of Owan community notably vigilante members sustained various degrees of bullet injury from an ambush from these same bandits when they attempted to go to the bush to retrieve the corpse of a member of the community that was also killed in the farm by herdsmen. Owan community has become a flashpoint for herders,” he said.

Calls made to the sp okesp ers on of Edo police command, Chidi Nwabuzor for confirmation of the incident were not answered.

FCT gridlock: Task team to resist military intimidation JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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he Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ministerial task team on traffic management has vowed to ensure route compliance notwithstanding the continued intimidation of its members by military and paramilitary personnel.

The team took this stance following last Sunday’s action of a Nigerian Army General who reportedly pulled his gun at a personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) who had flagged him down for driving against traffic along the NyanyaMararaba route.

Ikharo Attah, chairman of the task team, at a news conference in Abuja, said the work of his team would have been made easier with the cooperation from the civilian population, but lamented that armed uniform operatives have become a law unto themselves.

Attah said the task team was collaborating with the military police to assist in meting out appropriate sanctions on erring military personnel. He recalled that the FCT minister, Muhammadu Bello had recently approved a “name and shame” policy for traffic offenders notwithstanding their status.

He also regretted how

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some personnel of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) assaulted the divisional police officer (DPO) of Karu Division for stopping their official bus from parking wrongly on the expressway.

“We have the problem of roadside trading which we have almost successfully tackled. The other problem now which I know that the DPO of Karu and the DPO of Nyanya as well as the Kugbo and Karu component of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) are battling is the issue of those driving against traffic. And we have agreed among us that they are largely done by uniform personnel. @Businessdayng

“Last Sunday when we had a problem at Kugbo, we had a very rough encounter with some uniform personnel. We were there when the Corps Marshall of the FRS C arrived at the scene to monitor his men and a General in the Nigerian Army brought out a gun to threaten a road safety official and the Corps Marshall had to advise that the road safety official should consider his safety first.

“But we are pushing hard. The beauty of it is that we are getting the military police, Col. Madaki and his men who can punish their own and we know that is going to help us greatly,” he said.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

OIL&GAS

NCDMB boss impressed with Falck Prime Atlantic training facility .... 80% of Nigerian content intervention fund disbursed OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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h e Nig e r i a n content development and monitoring board (NCDMB) would continue to promote the utilization of in-country capacities for the country’s industrialization as contained in the Nigerian Content Act. Speaking during an inspection to Falck Prime Atlantic training facility in Ipara, OgunSt at e, Si mb i Wab o t e, executive secretar y, NCDMB expressed delight with the level of investment in the training facility which was commissioned ten years ago.

Wabote said Nigeria is making tremendous progress in terms of human capital development in the oil and gas industry, noting that the facility an international standard. “ The onus is on us at NCDMB to give them max imum suppor t so that the y w ould reap the benefit of their huge investment in the coun-

L-R: Janet Adetu, founder/CEO, JSK Consortium and Convener Viser X; Lanre Olusola, life coach and wellness mentor, and Dzigbodi Dosoo, founder/CEO, Dzigbordi Consulting Group, during a coaching master class organised by ViserX in Lagos.

try,” he said.

Speaking on Nigerian content intervention fund Wabote said it has been successful so far noting that 80percent of the fund

has been disbursed to contributors to the fund and they are yearning for more of the funds to Nigerian businesses.

Speaking on gaps in

BANKING SERVICES FINANCIAL

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hares of United Capital jumped by the most in nearly a week Wednesday to lead gainers on NSE after proposing N3bn dividend for shareholders.

United Capital shares gained 9.9 percent in the day to N3.22 per share.

T h e i m p rov e m e n t followed a 2019 performance that saw revenue dropped 7percent to N8.59bn from N9.26bn in full year 2018 amid declining interest income, net trading income and other income.

According to the management, this is

culprits and we have an internal mechanism to deal with this,” he said.

Wab ote note d that with such training centres such as Falke At-

BANKING SERVICES

United Capital leads NSE gainers after proposing N3bn dividend to shareholders OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

the Nigerian Content Act, Wabote notes that the Act is not foolproof.

“In every society, no matter what you do there would always be

lantic Training facility Nigerians do not need to pay a lot of money to acquire training.

“The facility here is international standards with all the facilities.

As you know the oil and gas industry thrives on well-trained expertise,” he added.

Ayo Otuyalo, man aging director, Pr ime Atlantic said the facility is meant to build capacity for the various value chain in the oil and gas industry in safety, fire fighting techniques.

“Interestingly, this would not only ser ve the oil and gas industry but state governments for the training of firefighters,” he said.

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) was established by the Niger ian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act which came into effect on April 22, 2010, with a vision to be the catalyst for the industr ialization of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry and its linkage sectors.

due to drop in economic activities in the capital and money market during the year.

It however turned in a 3 percent increase in fees and commissions income which reduced the impact of declining gross earnings.

The group’s net operating income dropped slightly by 2percent to N7.05bn from N7.21billion in 2018.

Profit after tax ballooned 15percent to N4.97billion from N4.34bn in 2018.

Total assets of the company increased 1.2percent to N150.46bn from N148.70billion in 2018 on the back of a 7percent increase in group’s www.businessday.ng

investment in financial assets and 4percent surge in trade and receivables. Shareholders’ fund grew 23.7percent to N19.59billion from N15.83billion in 2018.

A total dividend of N2billion was approved to be paid at N50kobo per share subject to approval by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting slated for March 6 Commenting on the result, Peter Ashade, group CEO said in 2020 the company would scale activities across all subsidiaries, aggressively driving its AUM growth to sustainably increase annual fee income.

C&I profit jumps 50% to N1.7bn in 2019 SEGUN ADAMS

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&I Leasing made N1.75bn in profit for 2019, the company announced Monday, an increase of nearly 50 percent year-on-year after gross earnings rose double digits in the year.

The improvement in performance followed a 29 percent increase in gross earnings to nearly N36bn, C&I unaudited financial report shows.

C&I Leasing provides both operating and finance leases and other services.

The Company’s principal activities include the extension of structured operating and finance leases to the productive and other sectors of the economy.

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C&I leasing in the year saw a 34 percent surge in net lease income to N11.81bn, fuelled by about 46 percent jump in rental income which to N25.49bn, a growth faster than lease expenses which stood at N13.68bn in 2019.

Net outsourcing income for C&I leasing also rose 25 percent in the year on the back of stronger inflows while net tracking income declined by 14 percent owing to a faster rise in tracking expense while income dipped.

Finance cost increased year-on-year by almost a million to N5.65bn in 2019 and income from Join Venture fell to almost a quarter.

H o w e v e r, g a i n s from net interest income which rose from N134.49m in 2018 to @Businessdayng

N174.15m, a 27 percent increase in other operating income to N989.57m were enough to help support income.

C&I Leasing noted an increase in expense items including impairment charges but was able to report an increase in its profit before tax by 31.8 percent to N1.86bn.

Owing to the company’s performance in the year, earnings per share rose to N4.26 in 2019 compared to 67k in 2018.

Shares of the company gained 9.48 percent to N6.35 a unit on Wednesday to emerge among NSE’s best-performing stocks in the day.

On a year-to-date basis, C&I leasing has returned 7.63 percent to investors compared to 2.54 percent gains in the broad market.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

17

COMPANIES&MARKETS OIL & GAS

Asharami Synergy unveils new range of lubricants products DANIEL OBI & DIPO OLADEHINDE

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sharami Synergy, a Sahara Group company, has raised the bar of quality and top performance with the launch of Asha Engine Oil, its new range of lubricants in the Nigerian market.

The investment landscape is changing with major oil marketers taking advantage of the fact that the lubricants market is deregulated and with little government interference, a development Asharami Synergy plans to take full advantage off.

According to Moroti Adedoyin-Adeyinka, Managing Director, Asharami Synergy, the new products have been specifically designed to offer the highest standard of quality, safety, durability, affordability and exceptional performance.

“The engine oil we are presenting today is a product of Asharami Synergy’s passion for providing solutions through innovation. We are introducing the gold standard of quality among lubricants and we are delighted that Nigerians can now turn

to the Asha Engine Oil as their preferred engine oil across the nation,” she said.

The lubricants products which can be used for all lubricants for cars, motorcycles and other multipurpose vehicles include Asha crest, Asha HD40, Asha HD Xtra, AshaHD premium, Asha Xtra, and Asha Trans.

The lubricants market in Nigeria has grown over the years from 2012 to 2017 with the growth in the number of second hand and new passenger and commercial vehicles in the country.

Penetration of used cars and the requirement of more frequent lubricant changes in older vehicles as compared to newer models have contributed to the volume demand of automotive lubricants in Nigeria.

“In a market contending with quackery, consumers can now move with Asha to safeguard and optimise the performance of their engines. The Asha Engine Oil range can be applied to all manner of engines in generators, light and heavy-duty machines, cars, trucks, motorcycles, among others.

We are delighted to give Nigerians the ultimate choice of engine oil that is pocket-friendly and outstanding by all parameters,” she added.

The Asha Engine Oil Marketing and Sales Manager, Seun Yussuf disclosed at the launch of the lubricants that Asharami Synergy was working with top distributors and other stakeholders to ensure seamless access to the engine oil across the nation.

“Asha Engine oil is here to give all consumers peace of mind whenever they are looking to buy lubricants for their engines.

We urge everyone to move with Asha for ultimate protection of their engines.”

Asharami Synergy’s operations and processes have earned the company several ISO certifications for quality and safety.

Experts say increasing favourable regulations in Nigeria’s lubricants market, collaboration with transportation companies, increasing knowledge of consumers and providing better quality lubricants at lower costs will aid the manufacturers of lubricants in Nigeria to grow and achieve higher profits.

L-R: Konyenasom Ikuni, learning and development manager, Inlaks; Alabi Ramon, technical resource operations manager, Inlaks; Oguntoye Ridwan, class governor, Inlaks ATM Academy; Aderounmu Ademola, team lead, ATM Software, Inlaks, and Adeoye Kazeem, project manager, Inlaks, during the 2020 Inlaks ATM Academy Induction Programme.

L-R: Cynthia Nwuka, group head, creative industry, Bank of industry (BoI); Odunayo Sanya, executive secretary, MTN Foundation; Taiwo Oyenola, group head, SME credit, BoI; Omolara Aromolaran, MD/CEO Crown Nature Nigeria Plc; Josephine sarouk, regional general manager, Lagos southwest MTN Nigeria, and Emmanuel Faleti, Minuel Designs, at the business Pitch competition of the youth Enterpreneurship Development Programme by MTN foundation in Partnership with BoI held in Lagos.

CSR

Dufil commits investment to improve lives in elderly, Orphanage Homes KELECHI EWUZIE

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anufacturer and distr ibutor of instant noodles, Dufil Prima Foods Plc as part of its commitment to improve the lives of less privileged persons in Nigeria has donated food items, educational materials and several cartons of its products to selected orphanages and homes for the aged to commemorate valentine with the children and the senior citizens.

Tope Ashiwaju, Group Public Relations and Events Manager for Dufil, says the company believes in giving a reasonable proportion of profit earned back to the soci-

ety, which it does through various corporate social responsibility initiatives and which he noted have far-reaching effect on the lives of Nigerians.

Ashiwaju while speaking after the visit of the company to the Heart of Gold Children’s Hospice in Sur ulere, Holy Family Home for the elderly, Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Mushin, Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment School, Akoka said the visit is a continuous endeavour for management of the company to put smiles on the faces of children and the senior citizens of the country.

According to Ashiwaju, “The donation is an avenue for the company to show love to

the less privileged in the society including the orphans by putting a smile on their faces.

In the spirit of this season, the management and staff of Dufil Prima Foods Plc want everyone to have something to cheer about during this season of love.”

Ashiwaju further stated that “In the past, we have donated medical equipment to hospitals to take care of children and mothers, refurbished t ow n ha l l s, d o nat e d laboratory equipment in schools and granted scholarship funds at different levels of education.”

He added that Indomie w ill continue to seek ways to make life better for people in various areas of human endeavour. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Aderogba Taiwo, head, strategic transformation, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria (SCBN); David Idoru, head retail banking Nigeria (SCBN); Alex Onyia, CEO, Educare, and Benjamin Dike, head, business banking (SCBN) at the signing ceremony of the Bank’s partnership with Educare recently.

L-R: Mohammed Magu, consular director; Mustapha Sulaiman, permanent secretary, ministry of foreign affairs, and Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman, Nigerian Diaspora Commission (NDC), during the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora’s investigative hearing over Sulaiman Olufemi, a Nigerian on death row in Saudi Arabia, at the National Assembly in Abuja.

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18

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FINTECH News

Products Review

In association with

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

Carbon wants a piece of African startups with $100,000 fund FRANK ELEANYA

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arbon, formerly Paylater, is making a powerful stake in the African startup ecosystem by creating a $100,000 fund that guarantees the company a total of 50 percent equity in ten fintech startups across the continent.

The digital banking firm said in a statement BusinessDay received, that the panAfrican fund tagged ‘Disrupt Fund’, is to address the lack of funding and support holding back budding tech entrepreneurs on the continent.

The Disrupt Fund will invest up to $10,000 per startup for five percent equity and access to Carbon’s API, allowing investors to leverage the company’s growing customer base and innovative technology platform, to get to market faster.

The fund which is targeting start-ups mostly in healthcare, education, health, and insurance and expected to spark more collaboration and further

investment that should drive growth across the ecosystem, is not “altruistic, unfortunately” as the company noted in the statement.

That fund could, among other things, put Carbon, a local company controlled almost exclusively by local investors, in the league of fintech leaders on the continent presently dominated by foreign-backed firms.

Chijioke Dozie, CEO and co-founder of Carbon also makes no secret of the com-

pany’s ambitions.

“Common investor wisdom is to stay in your market and dominate,” Dozie said.

The path to dominance, for him, however, is through deliberate collaboration and partnership. Carbon and other tech companies can scale faster and build more enduring platforms this way.

It would be recalled that in 2019, two weeks after it secured a $5 million debt facility from Lancaster, Carbon had made its first notable power

move with the acquisition of Amplify, a Nigerian payment solutions company. The acquisition gave Carbon access to Amplify’s IP, team, product transfer and client network of over 1000 merchants.

It also eased the way for Carbon to become a full digital bank offering services beyond its traditional lending.

Today, Carbon’s service portfolios range from loans to savings, bill payments, credit reporting and investment.

Since it was launched, Car-

bon has amassed 2.1 million users, deployed $63.7 million across 750,000 loans, approving over 1,500 loans a day with an average of $80 per loan, and processed over $140 million in transactions.

It was the first fintech company in Nigeria to make its audited financials public, an act of transparency that is uncommon in the country’s tech ecosystem.

Beyond loans, re-branding and transparency, it has also grown it’s physical presence to three African countries including Nigeria, Ghana and recently Kenya.

But the company says it is eager to expand to other countries. It just might have found the best way with the ten start-ups that will eventually emerge recipients of the funding. Apart from Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, applications are also being expected from startups in Uganda, Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire. Start-ups hoping to be selected must have a functioning product, post revenue and they must be looking to operate in multiple countries.

“The investing environment for early-stage start-ups has improved in recent years.

However, a key issue for most start-ups that has not been addressed is the cost of customer acquisition,” said Ngozi Dozie, co-founder of Carbon.

“A lot of money is spent on acquiring customers, mainly via social media, when a more collaborative approach among tech companies could be more efficient.”

The second Dozie sees the fund creating a mutually beneficial relationship in which selected start-ups are able to tap into Carbon’s customer base to market their products.

“As the saying goes, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” he said.

While $100,000 may seem like a long stretch for an ecosystem that is recently attracting investors with milliondollar wallets, it is certainly a proud beginning for Carbon.

Perhaps one day soon, one of the ten start-ups will hit the big times and Carbon will be there to clean out.

Fear of Coronavirus pushes up mobile payments, cryptocurrency in China

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ollowing some research that Coronavirus or COVID-19 can stay alive on surfaces for 5-20 days, banks in China are now spraying disinfectants on money to prevent circulation spreading the virus.

With physical money no longer exchanging hands, this has led to a rise in the adoption of mobile payment in the country. The cryptocurrency market is also seeing a lot of activities as a result. The price of Bitcoin has risen by 35 percent between January and February and managed to cross $10,000 last week

the first time in five months.

A report by South China Morning Post noted that banks, insurers and an online lending platform in Hong Kong are seeing a surge in transactions as the city’s biggest health scare in almost two decades puts the Asian financial hub’s online financial channels on trial.

The Chinese central bank in a press statement recently said banks within the country was ordered to withdraw potentially infected cash from circulation and disinfect it using ultraviolet or heat treatments.

The infected cash is most-

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ly those from high-risk sites like hospitals and markets.

There are different reports of which animal may have caused the current outbreak of novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China.

Pangolins and bats have been projected as the likely sources of the virus.

The share of cash in broad money supply has dropped steadily in recent years in China, with the rise of mobile payments largely replacing bank notes in daily life. Older people still tend to prefer using bank notes for day-to-day transactions.

Fan Yifei, deputy governor,

People’s Bank of China said the Chinese government cut off the transfer and allocation of old bank notes across provinces, and between cities most affected by the deadly outbreak.

“The central bank also ramped up measures to sanitize old money to reduce contagion risks and added 600 billion yuan ($85.9 billion) of new cash for Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus,” he said.

Money circulated in less riskier areas is subject to a week of quarantine and commercial lenders have been asked to separate cash from hospitals

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and food markets, he said. And in the central bank’s Guangzhou branch, these high-risk banknotes may be destroyed instead of merely disinfected, according to state-run tabloid Global Times.

In the meantime, mobile banking platforms have become the preferred means of transacting business. Yifei said that the Chinese state would accelerate work in the field of mobile payments in a bid to prevent human contact through cash exchanges.

“It should be said that China’s electronic payment system is relatively advanced,” he said.

@Businessdayng

“Recently, there have been some new developments in various places — people pay for their orders on their mobile phones, and they can buy fresh and affordable meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruits without going out, which has solved a major problem in people’s lives during the outbreak.”

Investors are also turning to cryptocurrencies despite reports of bitcoin mining firms shutting down in the wake of the outbreak. Thanks to a mixture of cheap electricity and resources, China dominates as much as 65% of bitcoin mining.

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE Possible ways Nigeria can curb Lassa fever outbreaks ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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here are many things Nigeria can do to halt the spread of the deadly Lassa fever. The fever has caused devastations in the lives of Nigerians for 51 years, with the virus not prompting changes in the way and manner Africa’s largest economy responds to outbreaks and other health emergencies.

Many years down the line, the virus has continued to stage a comeback, with outbreaks already reported in different states of the country. In 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported 327 cases of the disease (324 confirmed cases and three probable cases) across 20 states of the federation and the FCT. The disease killed 72 people the same year.

According to the Lassa Fever Weekly Situation Report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), a total of 109 cases were confirmed out of 482 suspected cases, from 3rd to 9th February (week 06). This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 472 in 2020.

“Death toll from Lassa fever has risen to 70 while confirmed number of cases ‘significantly’ increased across 26 states in Nigeria,” said the agency, recently.

Nigeria seems yet to find a lasting solution to the scourge either in the cure or in vaccines to prevent its spread. This raises serious questions on the capacity of the Federal government to find a mechanism in putting an end to the widespread outbreak of the virus that has plagued its citizens as reported cases of those affected with the virus keep resurfacing each year since its discovery.

Experts say the outbreaks and infectious disease threat indices may be substantially addressed as advocacy mounts for the country to advance preparedness and establish a public-private coalition on health security and build a resilient health system for all citizens.

Improving research on the response The World Health Organisation (WHO) incorporates research into

its lifesaving emergency responses in order to enhance readiness for the next disease outbreak.

No vaccine has been developed to tackle Lassa fever, also known as viral haemorrhagic illness, 51 years after it was discovered in Nigeria. The disease is relatively common in West Africa, including the countries of Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

“It is important to set up a mechanism for improving environmental sanitation. Funds should be provided for research into finding new drugs for Lassa fever treatment and the development of a Lassa fever vaccine,” said Oladoyin Odubanjo chair, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), Lagos Chapter.

“There is a need to establish functional isolation wards for the treatment,” he further said.

Taking advantage of investigation results Rapid laboratory testing can make or break Lassa fever response. Faster test results mean faster access to care, which increases the chances of survival for confirmed patients.

A rapid diagnosis helps prevent the spread of the disease among the family, friends, and others in the social network of a person confirmed to have the virus.

Quick testing is important for monitoring outbreak control activities and the clinical management of

infected patient. The earlier the cases are identified, the faster they can be isolated and be treated.

“Surveillance for Lassa fever is not standardised. Therefore, these continuous reoccurrence in some areas of states in Nigeria demonstrates the serious impact of the disease has on these states and people admitted to hospitals annually having Lassa fever,” said Odubanjo.

According to the public health expert, making a quick diagnosis also eases the anxiety felt by families and communities as their loved ones await results. Importantly, there is a need for the government to enhance the capacity of the national laboratory network for reliable and efficient diagnosis of suspected cases. This is because only about 20 percent of suspected Lassa fever cases are usually diagnosed.

“Government should also provide adequate funds for a sensitive disease surveillance and response system. This is a system that ensures disease outbreaks (not just Lassa fever) are quickly noticed, diagnosed and appropriate responses or containment measures are started in the shortest possible time,” he said.

Changing NCDC emergency response structure In 2011, the federal government established the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in response to the challenges of public

Teva Pharmaceutical partners others to boost drugs availability in Nigeria ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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eva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, an Israeli based drug maker has made a move to partner with other firms to increase availability of drugs in the country.

Teva Pharmaceutical has collaborated with Imperial Logistics limited (formerly known as Worldwide Commercial Ventures) and Savante Consulting limited to boost drugs supply in the country.

Imperial Logistics limited will act as the logistics and marketing partners while Savante Consulting limited will serve as regulatory affairs consultants as the company submitted application to NAFDAC for four (4) of its very popular products for

marketing authorization in December 2019.

Teva’s move is significant because, despite her success in other markets, it has resisted formal entry into The Middle-East and SubSaharan Africa.

The company’s product somehow finds its way into the Nigerian market informally and it is well patronized because of its quality image and affordability.

Speaking on the collaboration Sola Solarin, managing partner of Savante consultancy limited said that Teva can only be successful and big if it gives careful thoughts to the companies it works with in different markets.

Solarin stated that Imperial Logistics and Savante Consulting are probably the best choice for the Nigerian www.businessday.ng

market currently.

Teva is by far Israel’s most successful pharmaceutical company with focus on generics and biologics.

The company posted turnover of $18.9 billion in 2018 from its operations in 60 markets and 70 manufacturing sites. It sign posts its ambition for Nigeria by her choice of partners.

Imperial Logistic is a behemoth in pharma logistics and marketing in Nigeria, responsible for direct distribution of almost one-third of medicines consumed in the country.

While, Savante Consulting on the other hand is Nigeria’s biggest Regulatory Affairs Consultancy, providing cutting edge solutions to the needs of some of the world’s biggest healthcare brands.

health emergencies and to enhance the countries preparedness and response to epidemics through prevention, detection, and control of communicable diseases.

Its core mandate as a disease control agency was to detect, investigate, prevent and control diseases of national and international public health importance in the next five years ending 2021.

The agency has been able to achieve, through the support of the government, the creation of three main treatment centres at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo; Federal Medical Centre, Owo and Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.

While the agency must have received thumbs up in educating the populace on steps to take in preventing the diseases, it hasn’t done much in slowing or ending the disease since it is in the third year of its aforementioned mandate.

Industry experts see that there is a need for emphasise critical importance of preparedness and adjustment in closing gaps include infrastructure, logistics, commodities, technology, human resource and communication.

“Lessons learned from global strategies like how China has been managing the Covid19 ( Corona virus) will help indicate that the roles of multi-sectoral partnerships, particularly the private sector at country level, is a critical precursor to accelerating progress towards set objectives,” said Lanre Yusuf, a medical doctor in Lagos.

Engaging communities to increase awareness on hygiene and symptoms Engaging with communities is critical to mounting an effective response of the epidemics. Nigeria can apply lessons learnt during the outbreak of Ebola, be proactive and get feedbacks and information.

This will help improve and shape communication with the affected states, contact tracing and giving the patients care.

The outbreaks of Lassa fever remains heavy in Nigeria as it has historically occurred up till now.

The virus was first described from a case in the town of Lassa in Borno

State, Nigeria.

According to Yusuf, there is no vaccine yet to protect persons against this virus as the country is measuring on precautions. Experts stress the need to encourage proper sanitation, good personal hygiene while standard care precautions must be taken by health workers to prevent the spread.

“More awareness needs created and individuals are expected to play their roles in personal responsibility of hygiene,” he explained.

Similarly Odubanjo said to effectively revolve the tide, governments at state and federal level need to mount an extensive and sustained public Lassa fever prevention and control awareness programme.

“States of the federation also need to establish functional isolation wards for the treatment of Lassa fever patients. It is also important to set up a mechanism for improving environmental sanitation in a sustained way throughout the country to reduce rodent population as well as rodent – human contact,” he said.

Finding an effective treatment for Lassa fever and creating a funding mechanism Experts say that trial steps should be taken towards finding an effective treatment for Lassa fever and there should be efforts in the research of possible treatment in the context of an infectious diseases outbreak.

According to Yusuf, Nigeria can improve on effective treatment by optimising supportive care and access centres to reduce complications of the virus. The country can learn from the Wuhan in China in the development of an emergency facility within ten days.

“What the Nigeria government should pick from this is to learn how make available resources, creating funds for health emergencies and be prepared for outbreaks,” he said.

However, more can be learnt from the WHO strategy setting up a rapid response funding mechanism called the Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) so that money is immediately available to jump-start an outbreak response.

WHO has used the CFE to respond to some 70 separate events in 48 countries.

Akwa Ibom VVF centre receives support from AIWA ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, UYO

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kwa Ibom Women Initiative (AIWA) based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, has presented medical equipment to two health facilities in the state.

Benefiting health facilities are Cottage Hospital, Okoroete in Eastern Obolo local government area which received medical facilities worth over N2 million to equip the Maternity Unit of the Hospital and Visco-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) hospital group also made a cash donation of N350,000 to Visco-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) Hospital, Uyo, the state capital.

Presenting the cash to the VVF hospital, a founding member of AIWA, Umo Ekanem, said the women were delighted to be associated with the humanitarian work done at the Centre.

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Ekanem said that the group would continue to support the Centre to meet the needs of the less privileged especially women facing life threatening condition like Visco-Vaginal Fistula and Recto-Vaginal Fistula.

She commended the management of the VVF centre for the care and specialised treatment given to the women, whose organs had been damaged during prolonged obstructed labour in childbirth leading to leakage of urine and faeces.

Responding, the Matron in-Charge of the Family Life Centre/VVF Hospital, Sylvia Ndubuaka, thanked the women group for supporting the centre in the care for the less privileged.

She noted that the gesture was the second time the Centre had received the support from the group.

“We are happy, when we @Businessdayng

get help, we are faith-based organisation (FBO). In 2019, the Akwa Ibom State Government pulled out its staff members that used to work here.

“We treat people free of charge especially those who do not have any help, sometimes these women are abandoned because of leakage of urine and faeces,” Ndubuaka said.

Ndubuaka said that the Centre usually carried out surgeries and reconstructed damaged vaginal tracts and bladder in women in addition to provision of skills for them after treatment.

At the Cottage Hospital, Okoroete, the AIWA representative, Nsekpong Udoh, said that the medical facilities donated were items identified as lacking in the Maternity Unit during need assessment carried by AIWA some time ago in the hospital.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

21

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE

Pesticides exposes male to low sperm count, expert says

Tips for traveller survival guide Executive Travel Health

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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uleiman Ambali, professor of environmental and toxicology of the Department of Veterinary Pharmacology, University of Ilorin has said that continuous exposure of humans to pesticides causes decline in male sperm counts.

Ambali, disclosed this in his paper presented recently, at the 192nd Inaugural Lecture of the University, entitled: “Preventing pesticides from poisoning away our health and future- the oxidative approach”.

According to him, there are evidences suggesting human species is approaching a fertility crisis based on tends in male reproductive health.

He says it is obvious that the world will witness fertility crisis based on the troubling data from laboratory and clinical epidemiology studies.

Corroborating his reports, he explains that some Danish scientists’ research has also indicated that sperm counts of men have declined by about 50 percent since 1940 worldwide.

“The researchers analysed the result of sperm counts between 1938 and 1991. Since then several other studies have confirmed the decline.

“Environmental causes including pesticides especially those that

Dr Ade Alakija Q-life Family Clinic

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cause endocrine changes in foetal and prepuberty life prior to birth or during childhood or during breastfeeding, are involved in the decline of semen quality,” he said.

The Veterinarian observed that going by the troubling data from laboratory, clinical and epidemiological studies, it is obvious that the world will soon witness fertility crisis if we do not act.

According to him, the effect of chemical pesticides on birth sex ratio is in favour of more females than males, adding that the use of pesticides by people have led to reduction in quantity and quality of food available for the well-being.

The expert in Toxicology who quoted WHO, says about three million workers in agriculture in developing world experience pes-

ticides poisoning annually with about 18,000 deaths.

He also disclosed that there is an estimated 250,000 deaths annually from pesticides selfpoisoning world-wide, accounting for about 30 percent of the suicide rates globally.

Ambali, therefore called on government and non-governmental organisations to sensitize the populace against indoor use of pesticides.

He says: “Policies aimed at reducing the use of pesticides in the agriculture should be put in place.

“Farmers should be encouraged to use an integrated approach in controlling pests and develop alternative cropping systems less dependent on pesticides.”

Ikeja Electric donates medical equipment to Ikorodu General Hospital

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keja Electric Plc (IE), Nigeria’s electricity distribution company has donated an ultramodern phototherapy machine and clinical supplies to General Hospital, Ikorodu, as part of its CSR activities towards improvement of healthcare.

At the presentation held at the hospital, Ikeja Electric team comprising staff from the Headquarters in Ikeja and Ikorodu Business Unit presented the items to management of the Hospital in Ikorodu. Enobong Ezekiel, company’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), expressed the Disco’s unwavering commitment to positively impact on lives and give back to the society.

“Ikeja Electric is a customer centric organization and it means that we are also committed to ensuring that we make impact on communities where we operate; that are why we are here. Today is significant to us too, as the entire world is celebrating love. For us at Ikeja Electric, our theme this year is ‘Clean Love.’ So, we are celebrating pure love and saying ‘no to drugs’, as well,” he said.

According to him, donating the phototherapy equipment

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and clinical items to the Paediatric Unit is something significant that will add value to what already exist in the hospital.

“Ikeja Electric has also come to appreciate the management and staff for providing healthcare services to the neighbourhood and residents of Ikorodu town.

We love the fact that you are our customer. And we have come to do our community service.”

While commending Ikeja Electric, Olufunmilayo Bankole, the Medical Director, General Hospital Ikorodu said: “Ikeja Electric today gave us a donation of a phototherapy machine. As a hospital we are really elated to receive them, we are very happy that we have other organizations who like to partner with government to make healthcare service in Lagos State much better than it is currently”.

“That phototherapy machine given us today is going to serve a lot of children in treating Jaundice. And we believe that if we are able to treat more people, we will be able to have a better health in our population in Lagos State. This phototherapy machine is going to go a long way in making a difference in the lives of these children.

“We want to say congratulations to Ikeja Electric. This is a noble cause. We know if they continue to do this as well as other agencies or individuals, who would like to partner with government to improve healthcare services in Lagos state, we will really welcome them to Ikorodu General Hospital.,” she added.

Speaking on the PCSR initiatives, Felix Ofulue, Head of Corporate Communications, Ikeja Electric, said: As a business, we are very passionate about giving back to the society in which we operate. A lot of people know us as power distribution company, but beyond that there are many other things we do.

“One of them is CSR, which is predicated on three pillars – education, empowerment and health. This is one of the interventions for us to give back to the society. The selection of today is very deliberate because it is a day when love is expressed all over the world and we felt that this is another way of demonstrating love especially to children in Ikorodu,” he explained.

The presentation of the medical equipment and clinical supplies was done at children’s ward of the hospital.

he number of people travelling internationally continues to grow. According to the World Tourism Organization, there were 1.33 billion worldwide international tourist arrivals in 2017, an increase of 88% from 2015. International arrivals increased 6% in January–April 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.

The importance of protecting the health of individual travellers, as well as safeguarding the health of the communities to which they return, cannot be overstated. People travel internationally for many reasons, including tourism, business, study abroad, research, visiting friends and relatives, ecotourism, adventure, medical tourism, mission work, and international disaster response.

Travellers are as unique as their itineraries, covering all age ranges and having a variety of pre-existing health concerns and conditions.

The infectious disease risks that travellers face are dynamic—some travel destinations have become safer, while in other areas new diseases have emerged, and other diseases have re-emerged. The risk of becoming ill or injured during international travel depends on many factors, such as the region of the world visited, a traveller’s age and health status, the length of the trip, and the diversity of planned activities.

Whatever your reason for travelling, these 3 P’s will help safeguard your health: Being proactive, prepared, and protected.

Be Proactive!

Take steps to anticipate any issues that could arise during your trip. This include knowing your health status.

Work with your doctor to evaluate your health. In general, you should not travel by plane if you: Have recently had any type of surgery, especially stomach, brain, eye, or orthopaedic (bone or joint) surgery.

Have had a recent heart attack or stroke. Are suffering from: chest pain, pneumothorax, or a severe chronic respiratory disease, severe sinus, ear, or nose infection, any disease that you can easily spread to other people, a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater, swelling of the brain caused by bleeding, injury, or infection, sickle cell disease, uncontrolled psychotic illness.

If you’re travelling with disability, a weakened immune system, or a chronic illness, make sure you talk to your doctor and take extra steps to ensure a safe and healthy trip. If you’re pregnant, be sure to talk with your doctor before making any travel decisions. Pregnant women over 36 weeks may not be able to travel by plane.

Talk to your doctor if you have blood clots, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Airplane travel, especially flights longer than 4 hours, may increase the risk for DVT or PE. Check your destinations for concerns

ANTHONIA OBOKOH / Reporters. Email: obokoh.anthonia@businessdayonline.com

to be aware of before you leave.

Depending on where you’re going and what you’ll be doing, you may need vaccinations, medicines, and destination-specific advice before your trip.

Recommendations for vaccines and medicines depend on many factors that are specific to each person.

You should let your doctor know that you are planning a trip at least 4 weeks before departure to be sure you can get the vaccines and medications you need. Be sure to give your doctor the following information about your trip so they can assess your risks: Where you are travelling to, when you are leaving, the length of your trip, what types of activities you might do, other personal matters such as your age, allergies, medical and vaccine history, and prior travel experience.

Follow the advice of your doctor by getting the vaccines and medicines that are recommended for you.

Make sure that you are up to date with all your routine vaccinations, including measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and a seasonal flu vaccine.

Consider any recommended travel vaccines for your destination.

Plan for injuries. Consider insurance and know the different types.

Travellers are responsible for hospital and other medical expenses incurred during their trip. Be prepared to pay out of pocket at the time you receive any medical services while abroad or if you cancel plans while travelling, even if you do have insurance.

Trip Cancellation Insurance: Trip cancellation insurance covers your financial investment in your trip, such as flights, cruises, and/or train tickets.

Carefully examine the policy to make sure it covers your needs, including cancellation if you or a close family member gets sick.

Travel Health Insurance: If you need to go to a hospital or clinic overseas, you may need to pay out of pocket for any services, which could be very expensive. Check your health insurance plan to see if it covers potential health needs abroad. If your insurance doesn’t cover you while you’re travelling, consider purchasing additional insurance. If you plan to participate in adventure activities, such as scuba diving or hang gliding, you may need additional extreme sports insurance.

Medical Evacuation Insurance: If you are travelling to a remote destination or to a place with limited medical capabilities or accessibility, consider buying medical evacuation insurance. This kind of insurance will cover the cost of transporting you to other parts of a country or outside the country if you are seriously ill or injured. It can be purchased separately or as part of your travel health insurance policy. It will pay for emergency transportation from a remote area to a hospital. Ensure that the policy provides a 24-hour physician support centre for you to contact in an emergency. Check your destination for concerns to be aware of before you leave. Find a travel health clinic or any other clinic at your destination.

To be continued next week.

Ade Alakija, medical director Q-Life Family Clinic & Bukola Adeniyi, Consultant Family physician and travel medicine physician Q-Life Family Clinic.

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

LEADINGWOMAN Nonny Ugboma, enthusiastic about future opportunities, charting her path to actualisation

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onny Ugboma has shown how much difference a single individual can make. She has spent the last 17 years at MTN Nigeria, ending up as Executive Secretary of the MTN Foundation (MTNF), an organisation committed to serving and executing sustainable projects under mother and child health, youth empowerment and arts and culture causes.

As the Executive Secretary of MTNF, she has strategic oversight over MTNF activities and investments of over N120 billion in Education, Health and Economic Empowerment nationwide in 850 sites across 36 states and the FCT, leading the team to receiving over 80 awards and endorsements.

She aligns CSR objectives with business’ strategic objectives and implements interventions that benefit both the organisation and the host communities. She leads diverse teams and manages stakeholders at different levels of businesses, society, government, beneficiaries, customers, media & civil society. She developed several tools to guide project selection as well as processes, procedures and policies for selection of beneficiaries including the Cost effectiveness, Relevance, Impact, Visibility and Marketability (CRIVM) model. She also develops multi-platform communication plans for all projects for maximum media leveraging of MTNF projects.

Nonny is a shared value enabler. She is passionate about finding creative solutions to societal problems, contributing to public policy, and empowering young people to build their skills, towards social development and prosperity globally; with clear implications for the future of the African Continent.

Her dynamic professional and personal career of over two decades cut across financial services, telecommunications, technology and social enterprise, including work in audit and financial advisory, and with hi-tech firms in Silicon Valley before joining MTN Nigeria’s business intelligence.

Apart from her work with MTN Foundation, she was a non-executive director, Asharami Energy (A Sahara Group Company) from Dec 2014 To November 2019 and member and Chairman, Board Audit & Risk Committee and member, Remuneration and Governance Committee on the board of R.A.K Unity PLC, a subsidiary of the Sahara Energy Group.

She is a public speaker, panel moderator and guest lecturer at the Lagos Business School. Nonny is a mother of two young men, a fitness buff, and an active volunteer with the youth ministry at her local church.

Now, on a sabbatical, pursuing a Master of Public Administration (MPA), Innovation, Public Policy and Public value, at the University College, London, Nonny is keen to see an end to societal decay and inequality through enactment of mission-oriented policies, publicprivate partnerships and creation of public value across all geography and class towards a sustainable future.

She has an MSC in International Management, Kings College, University of London; BSC (HONS) in Accounting and Financial Analysis, University of Warwick, Coventry, England and attended Our Lady’s Convent Senior School, Abingdon, Oxford, England for her O’ and A’ Levels.

KEMI AJUMOBI

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uh? Leaving your job and going away for a year?” I asked her over breakfast as she dropped the ‘bomb’ on me. I have known her for some years and if there is one thing I know, it is that she is intentional about her every move. This move just came as a shock but hearing from her recently, after reaching out to her to find out how she is faring and she said “Kemi, school is great and tough at the same time. It is interesting going back to school 25 years after my last Masters”, I could tell she had quickly adjusted.

Nonny Ugboma is gracing the cover of Women’s Hub for this week and is also our Leading Lady for the week. She is the Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation.

MTN Foundation was incorporated in 2004 to drive MTN Nigeria’s (MTNN) various CSR initiatives commissioned in May 2005. It is funded by up to 1% Profit After Tax from MTNN for projects, over N21bn has been committed to MTNF projects to date, over 550 MTNF project sites in 36 States including the FCT, key focal areas

developed in response to wide stakeholder engagement, and they are in partnership with Government/multilateral agencies.

When Nonny joined MTN Nigeria in April 2003 as Business Planner and Financial Analyst in the Business Intelligence unit of the Marketing division, before moving to the Foundation as a pioneer staff responsible for the Education and Health portfolio (a portfolio manager in 2004/2005), she certainly knew she was destined for great things and was clear about her desired trajectory.

By 2009, she became the Executive Secretary of the MTNF Foundation. “MTN is an amazing company that truly cares about the various communities where it does business because every country where MTN operates has a Foundation.

We started off focussing on three main portfolios including: education, health and economic empowerment in response to wide stakeholder engagement and recently the focus areas have morphed into causes: Youth Empowerment, Arts & Culture, and Child Health and National Priorities initiatives.” She said.

On finding fulfilment with her job, Nonny said “The most www.businessday.ng

fulfilling part of the job is seeing the spread of activities and the number of people the Foundation was able to affect. One of the key success factors of the Foundation is the public private partnership model used in implementing over 800 initiatives across the country.”

Interestingly, working with different stakeholders across the country and listening to different views on possible ways to address different societal issues got Nonny thinking about going back to school to review and reassess the concept of public value especially in the developing world context. “I started on this ‘rethinking devel-

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opment’ path back in 2015 when MTN Foundation celebrated its 10-year anniversary. I decided that I had to remove myself from my familiar territory and routine to be in a study environment in order to learn new things and uncover new insights about old things.” She told me.

No n n y l a t e r s h a re d h e r thoughts with her mentors “Two very inspiring human beings” she calls them, who over the years have encouraged and helped her put her plans in motion, which she timed to align with those of her sons, and voila, exactly 25 years after she completed her @Businessdayng

first Master’s programme from King’s College, London, she began another Masters programme at a rival school, University College London, where she is now studying Master of Public Administration in Innovation, Public Policy and Public Value.

“MTN, as a company that supports personal development, graciously approved my one-year study leave/sabbatical to build myself. Truly amazing, wouldn’t you agree?” she asked me and continued “This one-year leave of absence from work is essentially to renew my knowledge base and prepare me for the future ahead. I have always been an advocate for self-development and improvement. I moved from finance and numbers into the corporate social investment space by selfdevelopment and by curiously learning from experts in the field.”

Ugboma said.

I asked her what keeps her going daily and her response was truly motivating. “One of the things that keeps me going every day is my resolve to always look out for solutions to socio-economic challenges, so everything I am learning involves me deep diving into historical analysis of problems because context matters especially when it comes to development.

Interestingly, I am part of the first cohort of the course at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose and the Director of the course is renowned Economist, Dr. Mariana Mazzucato.”

Ugboma calls Mariana a rock star “Mariana is a rock star. She is also an author of two amazing books, which I strongly recommend called ‘The Entrepreneurial State’ and ‘The Value of Everything’. The course has an innovative curriculum that fundamentally challenges the dominant free market economics thinking, which predominantly focuses on cost in assessing the activities of the public sector and it presents a case for using value instead. In other words, it assesses contribution of the public sector from a public value perspective and not from cost incurred point of view.” she revealed.

For Nonny, “The bottom line is that the state is responsible for the development of advanced economies so for me, I am interested in learning how this can be translated into the developing world context. If the advanced countries implemented certain policies to insulate their economies at critical times of their development, so what do we need to do to leapfrog or catch up? How do we organise our public sector to attract the best brains and avoid brain drain into the private sector as well as avoid brain drain into other advanced countries? So many questions and lots of possible answers.”

Read the concluding inspiring story about NONNY UGBOMA on our website www.businessday.ng as she graces our Women’s Hub magazine cover for this week. You are just a click away!

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

MONEYINSIGHT

23

Digital transformation in financial services (3) Pilot projects – Often a small rollout to test a product and its effectiveness.

Proofs of concepts (POC’s) – The process to demonstrate how a fintech solution will benefit a bigger corporation. The overall aim is for the fintech company to show how they can help to improve or solve issues using the client’s real data and connecting to its existing IT infrastructure if required.

SUSANNE CHISHTI

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Innovation team nnovation Teams are normally focused on developing relationships with outside innovation partners and introducing those outside partner to the relevant internal divisions which might benefit.

The responsibilities of an innovation team are to investigate what academia, external fintech startups, external innovation partners etc can offer, and how they could benefit the corporation. Innovation teams often scout fintech companies, listen to their pitches, getting to know their management teams and business models and where appropriate, organize paid pilot projects to investigate closer collaboration.

An innovation outpost An innovation outpost can be the next step for the innovation team to make. By establishing an outpost, or a base in a different geographical area, they can seek-out other clients, partners and startups.

Successful innovation outposts are often located in cities or regions that offer the greatest opportunities for identifying advancements in the industry.

Investment and acquisition By using Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), financial services companies use their own venture funds to invest minority stakes into fintech companies, which can often result in a long-term and ongoing investment and opening up important distribution channels for the fintech firms.

In 2018 a third of all global fintech investments included a CVC. CVCs often want to place strategic bets and co-invest with other institutional investors such a private equity and venture capital investors.

Fintech Accelerators These Accelerators can be internal or external: Internal Accelerator – Startups are

offered the opportunity to physically be part of or embed themselves at the corporation’s offices for a certain period of time. This can be a useful option because it provides financial support and physical proximity to the customer to engage. The corporation benefits by working closely with startups which are purely selected to meet its own corporate objectives.

External Accelerator Programs – These 3-6 months programs are normally co-sponsored by several financial services companies and headed by an external accelerator third party. With external accelerators, the corporation can place one of its professionals into an accelerator third-party office where they can build necessary relationships with startups and knowledge about the fintech ecosystem.

This can be a huge benefit to the corporation, because they don’t have to carry the whole cost, and they have easier access to the vast startup community. However, these programs are not customized for their specific needs as the companies are selected by all sponsors.

Assuming that a bank, asset manager or insurance company has selected a fintech company to work with, often initial methods for assessing the right fit include:

Role of the Board & Leadership Team Digital Transformation is so complex that it requires great leadership from the top of the organization.

Innovation is a human activity – people make all important decisions about innovation which is often driven by the culture of the organization.

Culture determines the way people think and how they behave, which problems are selected as top priorities, which products & solutions are being rolled out at scale and which customer segments to target. Leaders have a strong impact on the culture of any financial institution. As Board Members we should encourage: Clear communication of the Digital Innovation Strategy and reinforcing the message with the leaders’ own behaviour as role models.

Strengthening the Innovation Capabilities investing into both open and closed innovation models (as previously described).Willingness to Experiment & tolerance for failure – innovative companies experience a lot. Finance companies need experiments to learn what customers respond best to. It requires risk taking in an organization and failure of experiments should not be punished but seen as part of the innovation cycle of testing more unknown and uncertain areas and assumptions about new product and solutions features or new business models overall.

Collaboration – a good innovation culture is open for new ideas getting input from stakeholders

inside the whole organization (junior employees or customer facing employees can often have excellent ideas and they must be heard) and also from outside the organization – customers, suppliers, partners and competitors.

We also speak of “co-option” – a term referred to the activity of collaborating with an organization which might compete in other areas.

This is a difficult task and requires open and clear communication where organizations collaborate and which other areas they individually focus on to gain a competitive advantage.

Examples are global Blockchain consortia in this area which many banks participate in for joint learning, exploration and collaboration of industry wide use cases, while at the same time keeping their own inhouse Blockchain research efforts confidential.

Becoming an innovation leader As we discussed above, for innovation to be successful, leadership inside the organisation is required.

These are traits that we spot in successful innovators: Continual development – leading banks are the vanguard of hiring people who have a variety of skills and capabilities. This new talent falls outside the traditional remit of recruitment types by requiring more digital skills. In addition to hiring innovative staff, they are forming partnerships and working collaboratively with other organisations to pool new skills and continually enhance capabilities.

Customer focused – It is important to remember that innovation should be centred around the customer. Thereis no point capitalising on new technology if it does not benefit the customer base. To be fully customer focused, there needs to be a greater shift to look at the customer’s expectations, needs and desires.

Innovation is a top priority – To be fully innovative, and welcome

change; financial services need to deliver holistic strategies. This means that the innovative strategy is supported by the whole organization and not just the leadership team which of course needs to be the one that champions innovation in order to drive innovation programs forward in an urgent fashion.

Over the last 10 years since the global financial crisis two goals dominated many corporate strategies across financial services – one objective focused on regulation and the other on cost-cutting/operational efficiency. So during these last years leading financial services companies were focused on regulation, internal cost-cutting initiatives, and most IT investments were spent on incrementally improving legacy technology.

During this time the fintech sector developed strongly and tech giants globally moved into finance – from payments, to savings to insurance. This megatrend will continue and there is no doubt that tech companies which often initially focused on niche segments of small companies (SMEs), freelancers etc are moving into the main stream finance market offeringfull service solutions using both mobile and voice technologies as the new interface – developing new ways how people engage with their finances going forward.

Financial technology and new business models will completely change the way we bank, invest, save money and insure ourselves and our businesses. Financial services firmsshould not end up as museums as the beautiful UK sailing ship Cutty Shark did but reposition themselves as fintech empowered organization providing superior customer services and integrating financial services into the lives of both individual and corporate customers in a seamless way. Digital Transformation is not easy, but it can be done well!

Susanne Chishti, CEO FINTECH Circle

Three things to expect from Bitcoin halving FRANK ELEANYA

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n about three months’ time, the third network change nicknamed Bitcoin Halving event will take place. This is done to keep inflation in the cryptocurrency market under control.

After the halving between 14 and 18 May 2020, the number of bitcoins left to be mined will be 2,625,000.

There are currently around 18 million bitcoins in circulation, which is roughly 85 percent of the total capitalisation. The last Bitcoin should be mined around the year 2140.

Bitcoin halving refers to a process of reducing the rate at which new cryptocurrency units are generated.

For instance, the halving in May would see the block reward fall from 12.5 to 6.25 bitcoins. Essentially, halving ensures that miners have to spend more time to mine each of the cryptocurrency. Invariably, the miners would likely push up the price of the cryptocurrency to compensate for the extra effort.

The bitcoin community consid-

ers it as the most important date in the calendar primarily because of expectations that price will soar.

Already anticipation of the halving event is said to be playing a big role to the bull run the price of bitcoin has seen in 2020. The price of bitcoin on Sunday 9 February rose past $10,000 for the first time since October 26. As at the time of writing this article the price was at $10,391.

Here are the three things to look forward to from the bitcoin halving.

Miners to take less reward Miners are responsible for the existence of bitcoin. Mining is also a complicated and expensive business. It demands a lot of electricity and specialised which is why there are only a few countries capable of supporting the mining activities. The reward is arguably the only reason the miners are dedicated to it. For every ten minutes, a “block” of bitcoin transactions is solved by miners and added to the bitcoin blockchain, the reward comes back in form of new bitcoins, which are generated www.businessday.ng

and added to the circulating supply every ten minutes. This is also known as the block reward.

For miners, bitcoin halving involves slashing in two of the rewards they get. Currently, miners get 12.5 Bitcoin when a block is mined on the blockchain. But the halving means that the number will drop to 6.25 Bitcoins.

“The halving in 2020 will have great impacts on Bitcoin miners: 1) Miners with low mining efficiency will be forced to pause and reevaluate their business operations.

2) Digital mining is becoming the racetrack for giant international companies because they have more advanced machines and cheaper sources of electricity.” said Global CEO of the RRMine Bitcoin cloud mining platform Steve Tsou.

Soaring prices?

Price upsurge is the biggest expectation of most consumers. In a Twitter poll, 61.4 percent of respondents said they think the price will go on a long bull run soon after the halving.

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But it is not exactly so.

The price of bitcoin comes down to demand and supply. While the scarcity that could happen as a result of the halving will make existing bitcoins more valuable thereby shooting up prices, in the previous bitcoin halvings (2012 and 2016) the prices crashed one year after a surge. Why does this happen? Some experts have pointed to the history of previous halvings in which high volatility occurred after 12-18 months of a bull run and predicted that history could repeat itself.

“The cryptocurrency space is different now though, and the impact of the halving harder to predict,” said Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of Luno. “It is a more mature space, with institutional investors and products such as futures meaning that the cut to supply is more likely to be more priced in than previously.

There are also other cryptocurrencies such as ETH and XRP to take into account, offering competition for users.” @Businessdayng

Bitcoin hash rate could be affected A hash rate is a general measure of the processing power of the bitcoin network. As bitcoins are mined, blocks of verified transactions have to be hashed before being added to the persistently growing blockchain.

Hashes are created by successfully completing an intentionally difficult mathematical puzzle. The hash rate is a measure of how many times the network can attempt to complete this puzzle every second.

In recent times the hash rate has been hitting all-time-highs. A rising hash rate signals continued growth and stability.

Simon Harmon, CEO of Loki sees the hash rate dropping steeply if the reward halves.

“However, because there is less supply being created over time, the halving may cause the price of bitcoin to rise, thereby increasing the value of the now smaller reward.

This means that in the long run, the halving will probably not have a major impact on hash rate,” he said.

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

In early signs of success, Olam to scale tomato production to 500ha

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Opportunity to invest in milk value chain as import restriction takes off CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

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n July 2019, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said “The era of forex restriction on milk importation is coming sooner than expected”.

This month, the end of that area was set in motion when the apex bank wielded its big stick on milk importers with the announcement that only six milk makers in the country can process form ‘M’ to access foreign exchange to import the dairy product.

As reported seven months ago when the news first filtered out, while there is a dearth of capacity to fill the country’s 1.4 million metric tonne deficit, it also presents an opportunity for individuals to take up this challenge and contribute to a new market opportunity. To achieve this, however, Nigeria and those intending to take up this opportunity would have to learn from countries that have made successes out of milk production.

Two main factors limit milk production in Nigeria; very low output from cows and a poor collection system. If these two are fixed, adding to this, an increase in the population of dairy cows, the country might stand a chance of achieving sufficiency.

For the Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria (CODARAN), the body claims there is adequate production of milk by cows in Nigeria, but the problem has been collection.

“There is a lot of available (milk) output but nobody is investing in collecting it. Collection is the problem,” said Abimbola Daniyan, General Secretary of CODARAN when interviewed last year. He explained there is a lack of collection system, which includes special tanks for collection, preservation and transport because an unbroken cold chain is required to collect milk so that it does not go bad.

Soji Apampa, CEO, the Convention on Business Integrity, an organisation that has been involved in the dairy value chain, emphasised milk production in Nigeria is constrained by vari-

ous factors which include lack of machinery for milk collection and milk preservation, lack of adequate transport systems for large volumes of milk, lack of innovative technological innovations, and structural value chain problems.

As backward integration is now being aggressively pushed it has been observed that Nigeria is not currently structured to competitively run local milk production in comparison with some other African countries, much less those outside the continent.

These disadvantages could now be fixed and turned into a revenue stream by those desirous of dairy production A research by Lagos-based Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Limited, showed Nigeria can borrow a leaf from India and Kenya in laying a solid foundation to ensure a successful take-off of backward integration in the milk industry.

Kenya is Africa’s leading diary manufacturer with an annual milk production of 5.2 million MT. This is 8.7 times Nigeria’s output.

Kenya’s diary sector boasts of 1.8 million smallholder dairy farmers, 600 million litres of formally marketed milk per year, and 1.2 million jobs created directly and indirectly.

The establishment of a diary board, the Kenya Diary Board (KDB) in 1958 paved the way for a public-private partnership, which allowed for a synergy between private capital and conducive government policies. The partnership increased the attractiveness of the East African nation’s diary sector, opening access to fund from financial institutions, developmental organizations and the government.

India, which is the world’s second largest milk producer, organized its dairy farmers into more than 130,000 cooperative societies at the rural level. These cooperatives aggregate the milk and sell to district cooperative unions who in turn sell to statelevel milk-marketing federations.

This process of coordinating the market is currently lacking in Nigeria, giving some credence to the position of dairy ranchers, that www.businessday.ng

lack of a structured system for milk collection is the problem.

Nevertheless, the quantity of milk produced by cows remains very important. Even though Daniyan, CODARAN’s General Secretary insists the total consumption in Nigeria can be met by the 6 million cows producing an average of one litre of milk per day, other experts think Nigeria should be concerned about improving productivity if local production is to be sustained in the long term.

“There is no single breed of cow in Nigeria that compares with the production levels of exotic species,” said Chryss Onwuka, a professor of Ruminant Animal Nutrition at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) when interviewed last year. For Nigeria to go into the right production of milk, there is a need for cross breeding with the species that deliver high output.

According to him, breeding is a long-term project that takes between 5 and 10 years or more to get an appropriate, competent breed.

This however does not rule out conventional cross breeding (such as through mating) in the interim.

CRV, the Arnhem based Dutch breeding company, which is described as one of the leading herd improvement companies in the world, in an emailed response to some questions by BusinessDay, stated it has some Nigerian customers who have already used semen of some of its hybrid cattle such as the Fleckvieh breed and the Holstein breed. It would not disclose the exact identities of these customers, but BusinessDay findings indicated one of those customers is based in the country’s northern region, and is known for Yoghurt production.

Cows owned by this Nigerian company are said to produce up to 20 litres of milk per cow every day, whereas the average cows produce barely 2 litres.

In the end, investment in technology remains key, as for instance, there is a need for “milking parlours” for the extraction of milk from cows. Squeezing by hand as currently done particular for the local cows, will only keep their milk output perpetually limited.

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he pilot for a tomato farming project by Olam in Kano and Jigawa states is showing early signs of progress that could offer solutions to the challenge of abysmal yields in the country. At an estimated 30 tons per hectare yield, Agribusiness Insight during a visit to some of the farm locations this week, saw an approach to tomato farming that could ramp up production from an estimated national average of 4 metric tonnes.

The pilot project, which started in September 2019, is currently running on about 20 hectares and is to be expanded to 500 hectares by September this year (one year after). It will also see the commencement of a larger out growers programme to engage 1000 farmers to be trained and provided with seeds that will deliver the same kind of output the pilot farms are recording.

“We wanted to start something on the backward integration for tomato, and we decided to start by testing out good varieties that would be suitable in Nigeria,” said Reji George, Olam’s vice president in charge of farming programs in Nigeria.

According to him, the major problem for the Nigerian tomato is that there are lack of good varieties to plant, subsequently, farm yields are extremely poor, making farmers have to place high prices on tomatoes to compensate for their low production volume. However, if yields were higher, farmers would have been able to sell lower, thereby incentivising processors to purchase from them in bulk, reduce wastage, and create more employment. Currently, Nigeria’s records up to 40 percent postharvest losses in tomato, losing 700 thousand metric tonnes out of 1.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) produced. Yet, the country has a deficit of 1.4 MMT since demand is 2.2 MMT. “When a farmer produces (less than) 10 metric tonnes per hectare, it does not make economic sense either for the farmer of the processors who are willing to buy,” said George.

This he said is because when a farmer produces less quantity, prices will be higher and processors will not be able to buy at that price and make their processing viable also.

Even though the pilot projects are currently running in Kano and Jigawa, there appears to be a preference to settle for @Businessdayng

Jigawa when the processing facility will be installed. This derives from the existence of a processing plant in Kano already (owned by the Dangote Group) albeit not operational.

According to George, Jigawa offers higher table waters, more land expanse for utilisation in a stretch, but final selection will be done after a final evaluation of yields from the project later this year.

A small out grower program that currently exists, is supporting farmers to start developing best practices in tomato cultivation so that they can contribute to the company’s

processing requirements when the production unit is eventually installed. It is expected by that time, farmers yields would have gone up several folds, so that they are able to supply at favourable price points for processing. Importantly also, that the right varieties of tomatoes would start getting produced, that will deliver more pulpy content, less water, and the right colour.

While direct cultivation by Olam and engagement of outgrower farmers form two legs of how the company intends to source its raw material when production of tomato paste starts, the third source will be through the open market. However, in order for the open market to offer quality products and at the right prices, knowledge on best practices to improve productivity need to be disseminated widely among farmers.

Not just for the benefit of Olam but the industry at large.

The lack of raw materials through inconsistent supply of tomatoes has seen a number of tomato processing companies shutting down their operations in the country. This lack of raw materials occurs through highly priced tomatoes that do not make economic sense for processors to buy enough and process, as well as issues around qualities of tomatoes being supplied.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

25

Hotels

‘2020 is a year of acceleration for Radisson Hotel Group’

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

The last four years have recorded strong growth for the Radisson Hotel Group in Africa. Within the period, the leading global hotel group doubled its African portfolio, opening a new hotel every 60 days and signing a new hotel deal every 40 days. The growth has spiked the group’s portfolio in Africa to almost 100 hotels and over 17,000 rooms in operation and under development across 32 African countries. Projecting a robust outlook for the group this year, Andrew McLachlan, senior vice president, development, Sub Sahara Africa, Radisson Hotel Group, tells Obinna Emelike in this interview that the group is firmly on track to reach 130+ hotels and 23,000 rooms by 2022, among feats, and related issues.

How impressive was 2019 for Radisson Group Hotel in Africa and what are the majors milestones? e had a busy 2019 in development, concluding 13 new hotel deals, and all these would not have been possible without our hotel owners and partners. Highlights include the groundbreaking of the second Radisson RED hotel in South Africa, which is in Rosebank, Johannesburg. We are entering Madagascar, a new country, with a portfolio of three hotels in the capital city, Antananarivo.

We achieved the fasting hotel construction in Africa with the opening the Radisson Blu Hotel & Conference Center Niamey in Niger in record beating time. From the ground breaking to the hotel opening was a mere 11 months and this including the construction of a 15 storey 5-star hotel tower with 189 rooms and 2,600m2 conference center.

Africa’s Leading Conference Hotel for 2019 was awarded to the Radisson Blu Hotel & Convention Centre Kigali in Rwanda by World Travel Awards, Africa. Our operational hotels continued to grow in market share and we enrolled a record number of Radisson Rewards members, significantly growing our loyalty base.

In addition to the opening of Radisson Blu Hotel & Conference Centre Niamey, we also opened three more Radisson Blu hotels, namely in Algiers, Casablanca, and Nairobi.

In your projection, where is Radisson Hotel Group’s operation in Africa heading in 2020, are there feats to achieve, new signing and expansion to drive?

2020 is a year of acceleration for Radisson Hotel Group. In addition to growing in select countries, we also plan to introduce the right hotel products and we see a growing demand

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Andrew McLachlan

for hotel apartments. Our reaction to this demand is to offer a brand extension.

With vibrant and distinctive designs, our serviced apartment concepts are an extension of our Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson and Park Inn

by Radisson brands. These properties offer long-stay guests contemporary design, beautiful living areas and magnetic social spaces.

It is already proving to be a successful model in our hotel and residence properties in Cape Town, Maputo and Nairobi.

Radisson Hotel group unveiled a five-year strategy in 2018. How far have you gone with the strategy?

2020 is the third year of our five- year strategy and I am happy to report we have already achieved 56 percent of our target with 24 signing in 2018/19. So, we are right on track. During 2019 we had a change in shareholder and Jin Jiang, our new majority shareholder, is committed to growth. So, future for the Radisson Hotel Group looks bright. There www.businessday.ng

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

Are you still making effort at growing serviced apartments within countries in Africa?

In the fourth quarter of 2019 (Q4 2019), we opened another fantastic hotel and apartment product in Nairobi. This is our third serviced apartment product in sub Saharan Africa. In addition we are working on a few more serviced apartment products in the region. Markets like Ghana and Nigeria differently require this type of product across the midscale to luxury segments of the market.

What are your key markets in Africa and why do you consider them key markets?

The three key markets for RHG are Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco. In ad-

dition to these three country focuses, we are also focused on growing aggressively in three clusters (Francophone Senegal & Ivory Coast cluster), (Anglophone Kenya, Ethiopia & Tanzania) and Arab Maghreb cluster.

Which of your market segments or brands is patronized the most by the African guests and why?

Radisson Hotel Group’s priority brand for Africa is Radisson. It is a full service upscale brand perfectly positioned between a Radisson Blu and Park Inn by Radisson. We launched the brand in Africa in 2018 and already have 13 hotels opened and under development. We expect 60 percent of our new signings will be under this brand and market position.

How has the relationship with your African investors been and what are you doing to engage more of them, especially in markets with growth potential?

Without our hotel owners Radisson Hotel Group will have no hotels as the business model is to operate hotels on behalf of hotel owners under our brands in the form of a management agreement. Our owners, guests and staff are the cornerstone to our business. In Africa most of our owners are first time hotel investors and owners, so we need to engage with them differently to the way we may deal with a REIT or experienced multi hotel owner who already has years of experience owning hotels. We have a clear owner value proposition to deal with this.

Do you think African hospitality industry is growing at the right pace, if not suggest what should be done to make the industry more robust and attract more investments?

Africa is a dynamic and ever-changing continent and the growth in new hotels over the last decade is testament that the industry is nimble enough to accelerate the growth when there are right demand generators in place.

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

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

Tel: 01 277 3560

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

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

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

206 Exclusive Hotel Plot 206 Oladipo Diya Road Opposite Olympia Estate

By Games Village Second Gate Durumi2 Abuja

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

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

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

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

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26

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

Man Enough, x-raying realities of today’s man on stage OBINNA EMLEIKE

T

heatre lovers across Nigeria were excited when Bolanle AustenPeters Productions (BAP) premiered yet another enthralling play on select stages across the country, especially at Terra Kulture Arena, its ultramodern theatre in Victoria Island, Lagos.

At the premiere and several shows of the stage play in the last quarter of 2019, the audiences were not disappointed as BAP lived up to their expectations.

Of course, they expected more going by the many successful world-class plays to the credit of the production company, including SARO The Musical, Wakaa The Musical, Fela & The Kalakuta Queens, Moremi The Musical, among others.

As well, movies such as 93 Days and The Bling Lagosians, which were also produced by BAP, made impacts at box office.

However, Man Enough is worth seeing because of the many life experiences the cast superbly deliver effortlessly on stage. From Tana Adelana, Gideon Okeke, Juliana Olayode, Ayo Ayoola, Moshood Fattah, Ralph Okoro, Josephine Ewuru, to Iyke Okechukwu, the cast members are committed to offering quality theatrical experience for the audience with their stage craft.

As well, Bolanle Austen-Peters, the producer and director of the play, once again displayed her creative ingenuity.

From the storyline, the message and reality captured on stage, Bolanle took stage play to a higher,

Cast members taking a bow after an enthralling stage performance

Scene from the play

yet exciting level, enlightening and entertaining the audiences in a way that they would never forget in a hurry.

According to Austen-Peters, “Man Enough is a monologue in three voices. It is the voice of the man crying to be heard, yelling to be saved from a world that thinks he is ‘Super Man’; it is the story of man and the fear to speak; it is the story of man speaking for the first time”.

The play, according to her, xrays the reality of today’s man, as he tries to create his world in an upwardly mobile society. “More than ever before, man’s vulnerability becomes glaring. We see his fear, and most of all, the choices he has to make for self, family and society as he tries to maintain the traditional masculinity,” AustenPeters said.

Man Enough truly mirrors the pressure men face every day.

Ironically, most people think men do not cry; but they are wrong go-

deny the existence of your reality by putting on the religious cloak; a typical example of religion being the opium. But the opium soon wears off and he is faced with the reality of the choices he has to make.

Through the lives of these three ever yday men, Man Enough x-rays the reality of today’s man as he tries to create his world in today’s upwardly mobile society. In the stage play, more than ever before you see man’s vulnerability; you see his fear and most of all, you see the choices he has to make for self, family and society as he tries to maintain the traditional masculinity.

For the first time on stage, we are faced with the various pressure the man has to struggle with; financial pressure, pressure of being rejected or accepted by the women folk, pressure from the extended family and the general pressure society puts on the man

in his quest to prove that he is man enough.

The stage play is timely, especially in this era of ‘Me too’ when all attention are focused on the impact the social role of the man have on the women. It tries to make the world see also the impact such role also have on the men themselves.

Yes, ‘boys are not smiling’ and it cannot be truer in a society that has no pity for the men; it is time to see how stereotypical narratives hurt not just the women alone; they hurt the men too. Man Enough is not the story of three men; it is the story of every man – from Africa to Asia, to Europe and America – everyman who must prove to the world that he is man enough.

Man Enough has been showing at Terra Kulture every Sunday since this February. The cast and crew await your visit this Sunday February 23, 2020 to treat you to a special dose of excitement.

tures production, is a powerful, consciousness-raising love story that confronts the staggering human toll of racism and the lifeshattering price of violence. The film, which was directed by Melina

Matsoukas and written by Lena Waithe, tells an emotional story of a black man (Daniel Kaluuya) and a black woman (Jodie Turner-Smith), whose first date takes a dramatic turn of events that affects their lives in unthinkable ways.

Embedded in the movie is the overarching message of love, grief, survival, pain and fear. It is one of discovery, desperation and humanity, which is also strongly represented in its soundtrack.

Showcasing the range of talent across Black artistes with a compelling blend of genres, the soundtrack features a 16-song EP with tracks

by Burna Boy, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Lil Baby, Vince Staples featuring 6lack X Mereba, Tiana Major 9 & Earthgang, Coast Contra featuring BJ The Chicago Kid and Syd, plus classic songs by Roy Ayers, Bilal, Mike Jones and others.

Queen & Slim now shows on cinemas nationwide.

ing by what the cast displayed on stage. Every day, men all over the world buckle under the burden of trying to be ‘man enough’ as the pressure of trying to meet up with the ever increasing demands of an insensitive and over demanding society continues to weigh them down.

Going by the synopsis, Bruno, a cast member, is your everyday alpha male; old, egoistic, rich, full of himself and ready to play.

But under the puffed underbelly is a morbid fear he is desperately trying to hide.

Yet, Owoisho, another man, comes to you as a regular guy who is trying to run a more-thanregular studio. But to achieve the more-than-regular-dream, he has to choose to do the morethan-regular or not. But with his world trying to explode before his very eyes, time may not be on his side.

Thino, the last of the three men, lives in a world where it is better to

Queen & Slim excites audience at Lagos premiere

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n February 16, 2020, Queen & Slim, the highly anticipated dramathriller, premiered in Filmhouse Cinemas, Lekki, Lagos.

The event, which was hosted by UMG Nigeria in conjunction with Fimhouse Cinemas, welcomed Alisters including Daniel Kaluuya, English actor, Oscar nominee and lead actor of the movie, as well as, Melina Matsoukas, Grammywinning director and director of the movie.

The star guests were also joined

by Sipho Dlamini, managing director, Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa and Marc Byers, general manager, Motown Records. For the promotion of the movie fondly described as “a love story to Africa ‘’, the powerful duo, Daniel and Melina, have embarked on an African world-tour, visiting other African countries including South Africa among others and

now, Nigeria.

Addressing the guests at the event, Sipho Dlamini, managing director, Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, expressed gratitude for the support received saying, “Handling a project this delicate is not an easy one and would not have been possible without everyone who has shown support, either by telling people about it, honoring our invitation to this exclusive screening or generally spreading awareness about the movie. We are so glad to finally be sharing the result of this journey with you and hope it leaves a remarkable impact on how you currently perceive life.

Thank you all for showing up and showing out.”

Kene Okwuosa, group chief executive officer, Filmhouse Cinemas, said “ It is an honor to partner with Universal Music Africa, Daniel, Melina and the entire team www.businessday.ng

on bringing Queen and Slim to Nigeria. It is a powerful story that handles its themes of resistance and joy with as much care and entanglement. “ Queen & Slim, a Universal Pic-

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

A fresh blast in jazz

entertainment

OBINNA EMLEIKE

T

ruly, Etuk Ubong is one of the fast-rising jazz trumpeters who are making waves at home and at the global scene.

Born and raised in Lagos, the Akwa-Ibom State indigene is a trumpeter and flugelhorn player who started playing music at the age of 14. Since then, he has honed his craft for over a decade with eyes on stardom.

Etuk started his music coaching under the guidance of Etop Adolphors and Victor Ademofe.

He later went to Peter King College of Music and MUSON School of Music in Lagos to study jazz and classical music respectively.

He a;so enrolled for jazz studies at South African College of Music, University of Cape Town and had earlier completed the Berklee Online Specialist Certificate in Improvisation. Moreover, he holds certificates from Trinity College London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Apart from his formal studies, Etuk gained invaluable experience playing with worldrenowned musicians such as Victor Olaiya, Femi Kuti, the Gangbé Brass Band, Pat Harbison, Nduduzo Makhathini and many others. In 2012, Victor Ademofe, Etuk’s former teacher/ top Nigerian trumpeter, invited him to play with him at the Lagos Jazz Series. Following that collaboration, Ubong who was 21 years then, was handpicked by Femi Kuti to join his band, and played

Etuk Ubong

regularly for two years with Kuti at the African Shrine, at festivals, venues around Nigeria and music tours in Ghana. A highlight for him was meeting Hugh Masekela, South African jazz legend, at the Bayelsa International Jazz Festival produced by Inspiro Productions in 2013. Moving on from Kuti’s band, Etuk then played with the Gangbé Brass Band, touring with them for a while to Benin, the Art Ensemble of Lagos and then he played with various local ensembles and bands in Nigeria.

In 2015, Etuk played with his Nigerian Quartet, made up of Ita Samson on bass, Timothy Ogunbiyi on piano/keyboards and Tombrapade Robert on drums, at

the Lagos International Jazz Festival, the Abuja Jazz Festival and the MUSON Jazz Festival. Cleveland Watkiss, a British vocalist, was impressed by the band that he invited Etuk’s Quartet to play with him at the Satchmo Jazz Festival, where he was a headline act.

As a member of the International Trumpet Guild, the young Etuk represented Nigeria and Africa at its conference in Ohio, USA in August 2015 and rounded off the year playing in the On Mass project headed by Jamie Cullum as part of the London Jazz Festival.

In 2016, Etuk relocated to South Africa to further his jazz studies at the University of Cape Town. A smart move which saw

Accelerate Studios, Inkblot Productions present Who’s The Boss, their first feature film

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ccelerate Studios joined forces with Inkblot Productions to present their 12th feature film “Who’s The Boss”.The movie is centered on the life of an over worked advertising executive who comes up with crazy plans to prevent her mean boss from finding out about her side-hustle startup agency. Things go from bad to worse as she gets increasingly successful.

“Who’s the Boss” is Accelerate’s

first move into the world of feature length productions. The content creation hub has a long history of producing short films through its Accelerate Filmmaker Project initiative. With the latest film, Accelerate is branching into production of more feature films.

“This is the first of many. A key mission for us at Accelerate is to empower and this is what we have strived to do with our continuous supportof the Nigerian movie

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industry and the Accelerate Filmmaker Project. Joining forces with Inkblot for “Who’s The Boss” is definitely a step towards the right direction, the essence of this collaboration is to promote the excellent talent and movies coming out of Nigeria and put it on the global stage.”, says Colette Otusheso, head of Accelerate. Buttressing the point that Accelerate is all about doing things together to strengthen the positive narrative of the Nigerian film industry.

For the director of “Who’s The Boss”; Chinaza Onuzo, “Teaming up with Accelerate for Who’s The Boss was a no brainer, this partnership is about us taking our productions to the next level and doing things differently to push Nollywood content to the world.”

Who’s the Boss, which premiered on Sunday features some of Nigeria’s biggest talents from Funke Akindele- Bello, Segun Arinze, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Sharon Ooja, Ini Dinma-Okojie. The movie is set to be released in cinemas nationwide on February 28, 2020.

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27

him rapidly starting to make a name for himself in the local jazz scene, having formed a South African Etuk Ubong Quartet with three rising talents; Ludwe Danxa on piano, Shakeel Cullis on double bass and Keno Carelse on drums. The Quartet have performed at top live jazz venues in South Africa such as The Orbit Jazz Club, African Freedom Station, The Crypt Jazz club, SophiaTown Heritage Centre, The Piano Bar, Straight No chaser Jazz club and also the Artscape Youth Jazz Festival and are developing a name with jazz lovers and the media alike. Etuk has also performed with various other musicians and bands by invitation and

in South Africa has played with Nduduzo Makhathini, Benjamin Jephta, Justin Bellairs and Ayanda Sikade among others. He featured as soloist in the Artscape Youth Jazz Festival 2016.

Etuk has also achieved some album feats. He recorded ‘Miracle’, his debut EP, with his Nigerian Quartet in March 2016, and released the album in June. It features original jazz compositions that reflect his Nigerian heritage, as well as, life philosophy of goodwill, peace and love to humanity. His current and upcoming performances in South Africa and Nigeria are focused on promoting the EP. They include the Jazz in the Native Yards Heritage Festival with the SA and in Nigeria, headlining the Abuja Jazz festival and the Satchmo Jazz Festival both with the Nigerian Quartet. Engagements are underway for touring in 2017 to the USA and Europe.

No wonder in her reviews, Gwen Ansell, acclaimed South African music industry writer, trainer and researcher who writes for Businessday South Africa and BDLIVE South Africa, said: “Etuk’s playing approach offers irresistible reminders of Miles Davis in the late ‘50s quartet recordings: a velvet tone and quiet inventiveness rather than brash grandstanding, but underpinned by quick fingers and an even quicker mind...But there’s clearly more, and more that’s intriguing, to Etuk’s music...when the trumpet begins, the note sequence is distinctively Nigerian, not American, and it’s further in that African direction that Etuk’s intelligent improvisation takes it.”

Bimbo Manuel’s Alhaji addresses rare issues

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lhaji, a stage play by Nollywood veteran, B i m b o Ma n u e l , i s themed around the rarely discussed issue of how erectile dysfunction affects men.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is defined as the persistent difficulty in achieving and maintaining an erection sufficient to have sex. Organic causes are usually the result of an underlying medical condition affecting the blood vessels or nerves supplying the penis.

In the play, Alhaji, the main character, played by Yinka Akanbi, finds he suffers from this ailment and is unable to discuss his medical problem with his three wives or anybody at all for fear of losing face.

Bimbo Manuel, the writer of the play, says Alhaji is a conversation about a serious matter, inviting enthusiasts to come and have a good time at the Terra Kulture @Businessdayng

Arena in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The play, starring Monalisa Chinda-Coker, Hilda Dokubo, Funmi Awelewa, Yinka AKanbi and Bimbo Manuel himself, will show on Sunday March 1, 2020, and will run every Sunday until March 29th.

Alhaji is produced by Joseph Umoibon with Bolanle Austen Peters as executive producer.

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Feature

When Delta LG chairmen, PharmAccess, others meet on scaling up access to finance scheme gbemi faminu

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t a symbolic event held in Lagos State on 6 February, the Delta State Government, led by the chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Delta State Chapter, Itiako Ikpokpo, met with several stakeholders in the healthcare delivery value chain including PharmAccess Foundation, private providers, potential investors and the Bank of Industry to discuss on the state of primary healthcare in Delta State. Other delegations of the Delta State Government included five other Local Government Chairmen, Ben Nkechika, the director general of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission, and Alphonsus Ojo, the executive assistant to Delta State governor on Primary Healthcare.

Ikpokpo in his opening speech said it was imperative for the state government to consider new and innovative frameworks that would see all Deltans, irrespective of their socioeconomic status or geographical location, have access to quality healthcare services.

According to him, government no longer has the required funds to solely carry out this responsibility and must begin to consider a constructive partnership with the private sector.

Quoting the ‘Access to Finance Scheme’ championed by the Delta State Contribut o r y He a l t h C o m m i s s i o n , PharmAccess and the Bank of Industry as one of such frameworks that should be scaled up to spread across the entire state for all residents to benefit equally. Ikpokpo opined that, although there were already enough buildings for primary healthcare, it was important to see how government could collaborate effectively with the private sector to ensure that the sector were functional and able to deliver quality healthcare services. He further stressed the need for stakeholders to reconvene and see how the private sector can co-inhabit with existing structures and staff to mitigate the resistance against such schemes.

However, the Delta State ALGON chairman iterated governments’ commitment to partnering with the private sector and committed at least one more facility per ward to the Access to Finance Scheme. While Nkechika acknowledged the Local Government chairmen for their initiative in improving the Primary Health System in Delta State.

Ben Nkechika, the DG of Delta State Health Scheme, in his presentation on the progress of the scheme said almost 700,000

“

We have now performed several surgeries and delivered several babies through this innovative framework in partnership with the PharmAccess Foundation and the Bank of Industry. We also have men of 20 years and above coming for circumcision because they did not have any facilities to offer this previously. If we are able to continuously partner with the private sector to drive expertise and investments into primary healthcare, very soon Delta State would be the first state to achieve UHC in Nigeria

”

residents in the state has been registered, with the registrations of the informal sector being the least at 8,000 residents. He stated that there was a need to incentivize the informal sector to get on the scheme and one of the ways in doing this is to build their trust by revitalizing the primary healthcare centers.

According to Nkechika, till date the commission has paid over N1 billion to secondary and tertiary hospitals for the provision of healthcare services which could have been paid to the primary healthcare centers, if they were functional and available. Shockingly, only a paltry N18 million has gone into the Primary Healthcare Centers so far.

Nkechika further described the social impact of the Access to Finance Scheme that saw 25 healthcare facilities handed over to private provid-

ers under a PPP arrangement as a huge success, iterating that over 500,000 residents who, before now, never had access to healthcare for over 20 years are now benefitting from the Okowa-led Delta State Health Scheme.

“We have now performed several surgeries and delivered several babies through this innovative framework in partnership with the PharmAccess Foundation and the Bank of Industry. We also have men of 20 years and above coming for circumcision because they did not have any facilities to offer this previously. If we are able to continuously partner with the private sector to drive expertise and investments into primary healthcare, very soon Delta State would be the first state to achieve UHC in Nigeria,” said Nkechika.

Olufisayo Okunsanya, the

business development director of the Medical Credit Fund, while describing the Access to Finance Scheme said it was borne out of the need to provide equitable healthcare services by facilitating funding to private providers to revitalise and comanage Primary Healthcare Centres in a PPP arrangement to deliver healthcare services under the Delta State Health Scheme.

The funding provided through a co-mingling of funds by the State Government, the Bank of Industry and guaranteed by the Medical Credit Fund of PharmAccess Foundation, will then be loaned to the private providers at concessionary rates. Okunsanya stated that the funds that government provides can be seen as investments, as the private providers would repay the loans at agreed interest rates. These interests can be used to facilitate more indigents unto the scheme.

Okunsanya said that out of the nine providers that have taken up 25 facilities in Delta State under the pilot scheme, those that have accessed the loan have a repayment rate of 100%, which further supports the viability of the scheme.

Njide Ndili, the country director of PharmAccess Foundation, in a presentation said the success recorded already in Delta State is a result of continuous corporation with all stakeholders and the unique leadership provided by the director general of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission.

She iterated that the program would have seen some degree of stagnation if the DG had not stepped in to untangle some of the knots that were identified

during the process.

Ndili also appreciated the Delta State Government for the consultative forum, citing that this was the very first time the owners of the primary healthcare system in the country would engage the private sector in a dialogue to pave the way for qualitative and quantitative primary care services in the State.

One of the beneficiaries of the first round of Access to Finance Scheme, Ngozi Onyia, the MD/CEO of Paelon Memorial Clinic, in her testimonial said the initiative has paved a way for her to give back to the society, and she feels much fulfilled partaking in the program. Onyia, who now oversees the Health Facility in Amai Local Government, said her experience in Amai shows that children were chronically ill with malaria and she has now encountered severe malnutrition she last saw during the Biafra war.

Onyia advocates for a more inclusive approach involving several facets such as malnutrition eradication if the scheme was to show the real impact it has the potential to. Emeka Eze, another beneficiary and the managing director of Toronto Hospital, added that the partnership with PharmAccess’ Access to Finance scheme has assisted beneficiaries in delivering healthcare services to underserved communities in Delta State. “The opportunity has been one of full-filling part of my career in hospital practice,” said Eze. The Access to Finance framework seeks to increase the availability of quality healthcare by supporting private healthcare providers to revitalise and manage defunct public primary healthcare facilities. Private operators can access affordable loans which then enable them to invest in the business. The loans are combined with technical assistance and a healthcare quality improvement program called SafeCare.

Medical Credit Fund was established in 2009 as part of the PharmAccess Group to increase access to better healthcare services in sub-Saharan Africa for low-income patients. It remains the only dedicated fund to finance and support small and medium-sized healthcare enterprises in Africa. So far, the fund has extended over 3,500 loans totaling US$ 62 million.

The PharmAccess Foundation is a not for profit Dutchbased NGO interested in making health markets work. It does this through several interventions focused on both demand and supply side interventions layered onto a digital platform to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of qualitative and quantitative healthcare services.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

29

FEATURE Fashola and the race against rainy season John Osadolor

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etween Monday and Friday last week, Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, toured eight states comprising Edo, Delta, Anambra, Imo, Abia, Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom with a three-pronged message of comfort for commuters during the rainy season, provision of infrastructure as a catalyst for uplifting the people from poverty, and roads as vehicle for economic empowerment.

Fashola, who had inspection tour of all the bad spots on the federal highways in the states where commuters were stranded during the last rainy season, demanded from the management of the various construction companies handling rehabilitation, construction and dualisation of the roads to ensure that between now and March all the failed sections of the roads are made motorable. He went on the tour with all the federal controllers of highways and housing in the states.

“Try and repair the bad portions first before the rains come, so that these people will know that their government care about them. Even if you do not finish the construction of the road, they will know the road is getting better,” Fashola said at Ehor section of the Lokoja-Auchi-Benin road during the tour. This statement was constantly repeated at every bad spot on all the federal roads in the states he visited: Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene; Aba-Ikot Ekpene; OdukpaniAkpet-Alesi-Ugep; Onitsha-Enugu Expressway; Amansea-Enugu (full rehabilitation of Umunya section) in Anambra State, among others.

His charge to the contractors is very simple and clear: ensure that road users are not subjected to hardship while construction work is on-going. Fashola urged the contractors and the highway controllers to prepare for the rainy season the way people and governments in Europe prepare for winter.

“The rainy season is like winter, everywhere in Europe they prepare for it, we must also prepare for the rains. We must not be caught unprepared,” he warned.

Babatunde Fashola (r), minister of Works & Housing, being briefed by Friedrich Josef Wieser (l), project director, 2nd Niger Bridge, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, during the inspection of the progress of work on the bridge in Anambra and Delta States.

In fact, Fashola told the regional federal controller of roads (SouthSouth) that he would hand him over to the public to account for the roads during the rainy season if commuters are stranded like they were during the last rainy season.

Besides making sure that the failed sections are fixed before the rains start, the minister also asked them to liaise with appropriate authorities like the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to provide removal vehicles at strategic spots on the highways to ensure that broken-down vehicles are immediately removed from the roads to ensure free flow of traffic.

The minister said government strategy of immediate removal of broken-down trucks along Nigerian highways is to ensure commuters’ comfort and to avoid being delayed as they move around across the country. Commuters spent over 48 hours on various roads across the country last year following breakdown of trucks along highways which led to obstruction of free flow of traffic.

This strategy, he said, would apply to all the highways where trucks get stuck like the Numan road, CalabarItu road and Abeokuta-Ota road in Taraba, Cross River and Ogun States, respectively.

“We want to ensure that this time our contractors are better prepared for the rainy season, so we need to evolve a strategy where our contractors are mindful that yes we have the construction work ongoing but the roads must remain motorable during the rainy season,” Fashola said.

He advised vehicle owners to ensure that their vehicles were well maintained in preparation for the rains, this he said is to prevent break down of vehicles on the roads and hardship for travelers.

Fashola charged his road controllers to ensure that the road shoulders were free of refuse and the drainages were cleared of debris before, during and after the rains. It is also their duty to ensure that traders are removed from trading on the highways particularly in the urban communities.

In places like Benin City, Onitsha and Uyo, traders have converted the service lane of the dual carriage ways into trading spots thereby putting their lives in danger, blocking the drainage system and disrupting free flow of traffic.

The roads under rehabilitation, dualisation and reconstruction were not chosen by luck. Fashola showed editors on the tour with him a strategic document detailing reasons for selecting the roads for immediate

attention. The roads are been givingpriority because they are catalysts for economic empowerment of the communities and states they link together, lead to federal tertiary institution, the volume of traffic, and create wealth, among others.

According to him, the goal to lift 100 million Nigerians from poverty as envisioned by President Muhammadu Buhari is a task for all.

He said President Buhari has continued to emphasise commitment to provision of infrastructure as the quickest way to creating jobs for the people.

“Policies have very diverse and extensive impact on the people, so when Mr. President says he wants to lift a 100 millon people out of poverty, he knows what he is saying and he knows some of the right buttons, like infrastructure, to press,” he said.

The minister who interacted with workers at various construction sites, whether for roads or houses, said the end product may be constructing a road or building a housing estate but human capacity is enhanced through drains being laid, electric fittings being installed, foundations being dug, blocks being molded and foods being supplied, thereby providing employment and boosting the economy as well as the

A section of the 2nd Niger Bridge in Anambra and Delta States showing the pile caps, piers and the first span of the bridge deck during an inspection of the progress of work on the bridge by Babatunde Fashola,, Minister of Works & Housing, on Tuesday, 11th February 2020.

A section of the bridge under construction www.businessday.ng

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living standard of the community and its environs.

“It is the initial value chain of the economy which is the first impact you feel when it comes to infrastructure,” he said.

Sunday Etikwu, a mason at one of the National Housing Programme sites who was apparently excited, said he receives a daily pay of N4,500 and works all through the week.

A female food vendor, Ebelechukwu, also expressed happiness for the opportunity to cook and sell alongside her husband who works as a labourer at one of the National Housing Programme sites, adding that she goes home with at least N5,000 daily.

Julius Berger says it has 1,300 workers working on the Second Niger Bridge, while hundreds of others work on the rehabilitation and dualisation of federal roads across the country.

Bassey Nsentip, federal controller of works for Cross River State, told Fashola that some communities had benefitted economically from the construction of roads by the federal government, adding that one of the contractors employed 176 skilled and unskilled workers in executing its projects.

“You are aware of the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to recover money that was stolen out of the country. This is one of the projects in the benefit of that money. This is one of the yesterday missed-opportunities that have become today’s responsibility for infrastructure. Again, I reiterate that this is front and centre issue for this government under President Buhari to deliver infrastructure to grow the economy,” Fashola said.

The minister noted that while the construction works on the bridge last, hundreds and thousands will be employed including machines, meaning also that lubricant are being purchased.

“I think the total consumption of diesel throughout the life circle of this project is about 19 million litres of diesel; Julius Berger does not make diesel, so people who supply and distribute diesel will impact the petroleum sector of the economy. Cements are supplied in multiple thousand tonnes, iron rods and others; so people will see first the economic, employment and productivity impact of actually funding the project,” he said.

The minister also inspected the National Housing Programme in the states he visited. Thirty-four states are benefitting from the National Housing Programme of the Federal Government. The houses are near completion. Fashola said that a sustainable and transparent process was being put in place for the sale of the houses to deserving Nigerians.

The minister also visited the 2nd Niger Bridge under construction after several years of abandonment. The bridge will be completed in February 2022 and would help to decongest the massive traffic on the Onitsha Bridge.

Friedrich Wieser, project director of Julius Berger said that the project was 33 percent completed, pointing out that the company had mobilised 1,300 workers and 425 equipment to the site to meet deadline.

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

INTERVIEW ‘Data Analytics to catalyse wide-scale development across Africa’

Nigeria, and the rest of Africa, is confronted with the challenge of collecting and interpreting data for informed governmental and corporate decision making. To resolve this issue and set afoot the economic rejuvenation of the continent, several non-profit organisations have set up conferences and summits to enlighten stakeholders about the limitless potential the sector offers. One such organisation is an international conglomerate of project managers and think-tank, The Leadership Project, expected to play host to business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers at the upcoming West African Business Leaders’ Summit in Lagos.

The event which is themed ‘’Leadership. Innovation. Profitability’’ is billed to provide participants with tools to engender all-round growth. In this interview with BusinessDay journalist Segun Adams, key speaker at the event and former CEO Nielsen Holdings, a Fortune 500 company, Mitch Barns, elucidates on the imperativeness of the advancement of the nation and why he is on a mission to develop economies and leaders across Africa.

I

Mitch Barns

in a zero-sum game. But it was good while it lasted! With an efficiency gain, it is different. Instead of zero-sum, efficiency gains are often a non-zero-sum game. Our gain in efficiency is no one’s loss. Instead, our operation is better, and in fact, the entire market gets a little better. And when our competitor copies our efficiency gain, our gain doesn’t go away. Instead, we both are better off, and the efficiency of the entire market got better two times.

Therefore, I like efficiency gains so much, and the role data plays is crucial to most efficiency gains.

In addition to insights relevant to the topic Leadership, Innovation, and Profitability; what should attendees expect from the upcoming conference?

The most obvious reason we attend a conference like this is to hear the featured speakers. The second reason is to have a “shared experience” with like-minded individuals, an experience that is almost always richer than if we take in the same content alone. One of the biggest reasons to attend a conference like this is the tremendous value you gain from the chance encounters at a break or the impromptu discussion with the person who happened to sit next to you. Give serendipity a chance and it will often surprise you in a good way!

In your experience, what are some of the issues that businesses face in developing countries and what do you think can resolve them?

Developing countries generally enjoy faster growth but have less infrastructure. Both are challenging.

Fast growth typically means a comwww.businessday.ng

petitive market for talent and prices are often less stable. Business leaders like high transparency and low uncertainty, but developing markets often have lower transparency and higher uncertainty. Infrastructure develops with time, but sometimes the timeline for infrastructure doesn’t align with the timeline for your business or your market. That presents a difficult choice. Do you just tolerate it, or do you take on the very large added burden of trying to do something about it?

Over the course of your career, what would you describe as the one thing you have witnessed organisations incorporate in order to experience a leap in their operations?

In my experience, there are several ways to accomplish this, but there are three common elements most seem to have: 1. The rules are relaxed.

I don’t mean that ethics or legality are set aside; I simply mean that the normal corporate bureaucracy is dialled back somewhat to allow more degrees of freedom for the team who are driving the leap forward. 2.

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Higher risk tolerance is accepted.

This doesn’t mean that less rigour is applied or that there is not as much discipline in things like financials or quality. It’s more about being willing to figure things out inflight rather than requiring all of the answers before take-off. And 3. Less fear. If people are going to be expected to take on more risk, they need to be able to count on an environment of safety (career safety, mostly) in the wake of those risks. Trust of and among the leadership team is the critical ingredient here.

From your experience, what differentiates a good organisation from a great one?

Two factors that differentiate a great organization from a good one are sustainability and a “despite, not because” mentality.

Sustainability refers to the ability of the organization to repeat success repeatedly through various ups and downs and changes in the market over the long term. Great organizations do this by continuously remaking themselves over and over, adapting and innovating to remain contemporary. By doing so, they not only survive the changes in the market, they thrive by being propelled by the changes in the market.

A “despite, not because” mentality means that the business leaders are fully expecting challenges to appear at some point in the future and they are preparing for those challenges even though those challenges are as yet unknown. The best leaders know that “unknown” doesn’t mean “unexpected”. So, when the challenges arise, instead of having to say, “We fell short of our objectives BECAUSE of these challenges,” they are able to say, “We achieved our objectives DESPITE these challenges”. The first statement is consoling, but the second one is inspiring. This is a big part of what leadership is about: Finding a way forward despite it all.

What one piece of advice would you offer individuals in critical leadership positions of businesses in the country?

Leaders need to do two things simultaneously, and the two things will feel somewhat contradictory. The first

One of my greatest learnings as CEO is that my jokes were funnier when I was CEO than both before and after I was CEO! And in that little piece of humour is also contained a little wisdom and warning for all of us as leaders, which is that we have to resist the artificial bubble of leadership and stay grounded in reality, truth, and authenticity

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“

What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your various leadership positions and what role did innovation, technological advancement or data and analytics play in resolving them? nnovation, technology, and analytics are all important to an organization’s success, but most of the time, any advantage they bring will eventually be copied by a competitor. The bigger challenge, and the bigger opportunity, is the role that people play.

Does the organization have capable leaders who the organization trusts to lead with integrity? Is the business culture strong and positive, enabling the organization to govern and guide itself to a large degree, without too much of the heavy hand of excessive rules, controls, and policies? If those things are true, the innovation, technology, and analytics required for success almost always follow. If those things are not true, then no amount of innovation, technology, or analytics will be sufficient.

You have a plethora of experience involving data and analytics from the different roles you played in Nielsen, what promises do you think this discipline holds for Nigeria?

From a leadership perspective, data and analytics often elevate our decisions and outcomes beyond what we can do based only on our personal experience or by following conventional wisdom. This is because data brings undeniable objectivity and a lack of emotion that often is a counterbalance to our very human, more emotionally driven approach to forming our judgments. Both (data and experience) are good sources, and they complement one another. Smart leaders want data that sometimes disagree with them because that is, in fact, the type of data that provides the most incremental value. This has been true for me in every location I have lived and worked, including the USA, Europe, and China, and I am confident that it is just as true in Nigeria.

Another thing I like about data is the powerful role it so often plays in helping us to improve the efficiency of our business operations. We commonly leverage data at every step in our operational processes to improve quality, shorten cycle times, increase reliability, and trim waste. All these ultimately contribute to greater efficiency. And efficiency gains are gold!

Why? Let’s compare them to gains in market share. When we do something that increases market share (e.g., launch a new product), that’s great, but it often is short-lived. Our gain is usually our competitor’s loss in a zero-sum game. Soon the competitor fights back and some or all our gain goes away, still

@Businessdayng

thing a leader must do is create clarity for the organization. This requires a very clear, consistent, and confident communication of the mission (what we do), purpose (why it is valuable to the world), and strategies (the changes and improvements we intend to make). The organization needs to be able to count on the leader for this clarity and consistency. However, at the same time leaders are projecting a picture of clarity and consistency, they also need to remain fully open, constantly learning, and always ready to change, at least as fast as the world around them is changing. According to Singularity University, the pace of change in the world today requires us to be in “learning mode” for at least 100 days per year! So that’s the challenge: On the one hand, the team needs the leader to provide stability and clarity, but leaders can never afford to become still, and they must constantly be entertaining new ideas. Balancing these two competing interests well is one of the most critical skills for a successful leader.

As a former CEO of a multinational organisation with operations in over 100 countries and an employer of approximately 45,000 people worldwide, what is your greatest learning?

One of my greatest learnings as CEO is that my jokes were funnier when I was CEO than both before and after I was CEO! And in that little piece of humour is also contained a little wisdom and warning for all of us as leaders, which is that we have to resist the artificial bubble of leadership and stay grounded in reality, truth, and authenticity.

Another of my most important learnings is that the role luck plays in our success is larger than most of us realize or are otherwise willing to admit. Recognizing the role luck plays in our success carries at least two big benefits: 1. It keeps us humble, and humility is an essential trait for a good leader; and 2. It keeps us resilient. If some of our successes are a result of luck (vs. only our hard work and brilliance), then the same is true of some of our failures, and when they occur, this recognition encourages us to pick ourselves up, keep moving forward, and try again.

Finally, my most important learning of all was that while the world will judge us by our outcomes, we will ultimately judge ourselves by the quality of our motives, the quality of our decisions, and the wake we create for the people around us. When I force myself to be quiet and still and I take a long look in the mirror, I see the truth. Do I like what I see? This ultimately will be more important to me and the people I care most about than anything else.

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 21 February 2020

31

MADE in aba

Aba fashion designers can clothe entire country if given adequate support—Onwukwe Innocent Orji Onwukwe, president, Modern Garment Makers Association (MOGMA), in this interview, said the fashion industry has capacity to create jobs and boost the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). He spoke with GODFREY OFURUM in Aba.

H

ow long have you been in t h e ta i l o r i n g industry?

I hav e b e e n in th e fashion industry for 19 years now.

How did you get into tailoring?

I started as an apprentice.

I also did what we call ‘job man’ for three different people before setting up mine in 2007. I used that period of working for people to build capacity.

What is your area of specialisation as a fashion designer?

I specialise in men’s trousers when I started and subsequently added senator clothes. I am doing well in both at the moment.

How has the Aba fashion industry evolved?

I started learning tailoring in 1999. It was nothing to write home about then, because there was no patronage for our products.

Our markets were flooded with foreign finished wears, especially finished garments from China. The foreign products were cheap and people patronised it more than locally made ones.

It really discouraged a lot of young people who wanted to learn the skill. Even those who were already into it saw it as part-time. As an apprentice too, sometimes I get discouraged. But I got my inspiration from Presidential Tailors and ICI Garments— two outfits that succeeded against all odds.

My boss and his friends will always mention these two names whenever they discuss. They will always talk on how successful these outfits are. So, when I heard about these two names, I said to myself that since some people had made it in this industry, I would also be part of the success story.

So, I encouraged myself and kept working and along the line, when it became difficult for my boss, I left him for another tailor. He ended up shutting down his workshop and started selling petroleum products at a filling station owned by one of his friends.

When I left him, I worked for two different tailors before I met Picaso,

a designer and also a tailor.

I learnt so much from him.

Each time he made a little profit, he would use the proceeds to buy textile materials in large quantity.

So, anytime his clients make requests, he will take materials from his stock to produce for them.

He also produces for people outside Aba, like Lagos and other areas. It was from him that I saw the real business in tailoring.

He was the last person that I worked for before establishing mine.

I started with two tailors before I opened a showroom at 187 Market road, Aba. We started mass production and our client base also went up, and that was when I knew that I had a future in the business.

The maiden made-in Aba trade fair, organised b y E n y i n a y a A b a r i b e, Senate minority leader and senator representing Abia South senatorial zone, in Abuja, was another event that launched me into the fashion industry.

I represented the Association of Tailors and Fashion Designers (ATFAD) at the ten days fair and I made a lot of money from that fair. I sold off all the goods that I took to the fair in two days and came back to Aba and used another two days to produce additional 20, which I took back to Abuja and sold off also before the end of the fair.

That experience propelled me to redouble my efforts to ensure that I succeeded in the industry.

I have attended many trade fairs after that maiden edition of Made-in-Aba Trade Fair in Abuja.

How did you develop interest in fasgion designer or did you come into it by accident?

I completed my secondary school education in 1987 and subsequently secured a job with Bende Local Government.

However, I had a little problem and I lost that job.

Becoming a tailor or fashion designer was not in my plan.

I wanted to be a graduate and work in a big firm. The little problem we had then made me leave the village www.businessday.ng

Onwukwe to join my friend who is a tailor in Aba. Since I was not doing anything, he urged me to join him in his workshop and that was how I dabbled into tailoring.

And I have no regrets whatsoever in coming into this sector. If there is anything like reincarnation, I will still like to be a tailor, but in a reasonable country, not Nigeria. I will like to be a tailor in a country where I will have access to loans and grants to grow my business.

I said this because with the little experience I have garnered in this business over the years, tailoring should not be for the poor. It is a business that requires a lot of capital for you to have

a standard factory.

I like this business, honestly. I don’t think I can do any other business other than tailoring.

How has the Made-inAba campaign impacted the fashion segment?

The current campaign has changed a lot of things.

Bu t t h e p e r s o n I ow e gratitude is former President Olusegun Obasanjo. His administration banned the importation of finished foreign wears in the country and that policy improved the fortunes of tailors in Aba and Nigeria, and no other administration after him has improved on his policy.

We expected that by now, there would have been complete ban on

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importation of already made clothing into Nigeria.

What else do you want federal government to do, to improve tailoring industry in Nigeria?

We want access to loans because most of our pieces of equipment are capital intensive. We are currently on manual production, while the tailoring industry has passed that level. We need monogramming machines, modern b u t t o n h o l e m a c h i n e s.

The one in use here at the moment is dated. We are still using the one made in the 70s. Most of us cannot afford the newest model, which is about N4 million.

So, how many tailors can provide such fund. @Businessdayng

Thes e are the areas government should i n t e r v e n e i n . We a r e ready to clothe the entire country if they give us the opportunity, which is a big market, before we will start talking about our neighbours in West Africa.

We are exporting our products to Ghana, South Africa and so many other African countries. I also have clients outside Africa, but we do all these unofficially.

The tailoring industry in Aba is one of the biggest industries that are employing people.

You cannot see any tailor without one or two people working with them. It is a business that has to do with division of labour and so you must engage hands.

I have 30 people working for me. This is an industry that can take people out of the streets. I want federal government to support us. A report published in 2019, revealed that the tailoring industry generated about N6.2 billion.

I heard that the Jonathans administration released N25 billion for the fashion industry. We applied as group for the loan through the Bank of Industr y (BoI), but the condition was so stiff that most of the tailors could not access it.

Don’t forget that most people in this industry are from poor backgrounds.

Mo s t o f u s c a m e i n t o it because we had no oppor tunity to fur ther our studies.

Can you mention some these difficult conditions?

To access the loan, you are expected to provide two guarantors that are worth two times the sum you are requesting. And they must present evidence in the form of cash or property. For instance, if I am requesting a loan of N5 million, then one of my guarantors must have asset worth N10 million.

Where will I find such a person? We want the federal government to allow associations to stand in for members because we know ourselves.

32

Friday 21 February 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.’

Increased investment income, cost cut adds impetus to AIICO Insurance’s profit BALA AUGIE

A

mid the harsh regulatory and u n p re d i c t a b l e macroeconomic environment, AIICO Insurance Nigeria Plc delivered strong earnings, as it continues to maintain an efficient underwriting capacity.

The largest insurer by assets just released its 2019 audited financial statement that showed it utilized the resources of shareholders in generating higher profit.

Non-life revenue drives premium income For the year ended December 2019, AIICO’s gross premium written (GPW) increased by 33.11 percent to N50.15 billion from N37.66 billion as at December 2018.

The growth in GPW was largely driven by a 26.21 peercent increase in life (individual and group) to N30.28 billion and a 167.04 percent surge in annuity to N6.21 billion in the period under review.

Gross premium income and net premium income followed the same growth trajectory as they spiked by 35.0 percent and 37.47 percent to N50.02 billion and N43.80 billion in 2019 from N37.04 billion and 31.86 billion the previous year.

A cursory look at the charts show that revenues have been growing steadily in the last six years, but the Nigerian

insurance industry is beset by apathy towards insurance, poor regulations, low consumer purchasing power, rising inflation and interest rates, and low penetration.

Despite a population of 200 million people, Nigeria has an insurance penetration of 0.30 percent, which compares with South Africa (14.7%), Kenya (2.8 percent), Angola (0.8 percent) and Egypt (0.6 percent).

Similarly, the sector’s insurance density (a measure of industry gross premium per capita) is still one of the lowest when compared to peers

– South Africa ($762.5), Egypt ($22.8), Kenya ($40.5) Angola ($30.5) and Nigeria ($6.2).

Analysts say the removal of pension and employee compensation for health from insurance portfolio is disservice to a beleaguered industry, and a stuttering economy makes it practically difficult for companies to thrive.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut down its 2020 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for Nigeria to two percent, from the 2.5 per cent it had predicted earlier.

Increased revenue, cost cuts underpin profit AIICO Insurance earns more in premiums than it pays out in claims as its combined ratio fell to 99.26 percent in December 2019 from 117.21 percent as at December 2018.

The combined ratio, a measure of profitability used by an insurance company to gauge how well it is performing in its daily operations, is calculated by taking the sum of incurred losses and expenses and then dividing them by the earned premium.

Aiico insurance is spending less to generate each unit of premium income as claims ratio fell to 57.82 percent in the period under review from 74.91 percent the previous year.

The charts show claims ratio were very high in between 2015/2016 financial years, a period that coincided with the precipitous drop in crude oil

price that stoked a severe dollar scarcity that tipped the country into its first recession.

During these periods, obligations to policy holders mounted due to foreign exchange rate risk. The devaluation of the currency due to dwindling external reserves resulted in huge claims for insurers who had insured properties based on the old exchange rate.

AIICO insurance’s management expenses ratio was down to 14.33 percent in December 2019 from 13.88 percent the previous year, and from a high of 54.23 percent in 2015.

A lower ratio means the insurer is spending less on operating expenses to generate each unit of premium income, even amid rising inflation and energy cost as companies use diesel oil to run office operations at branch offices and the head office.

AIICO Insurance’s profit after tax spiked by 86.23 percent to N5.86 billion in December 2019 from N3.15 billion the previous year; but lower than 2016 figure.

The insurer has turned each Naira invested in revenue into higher profit as net profit margin increased to 13.40 percent in December 2019 from 9.89 percent the previous year.

Return on average equity increased to 21.76 percent in the period under review as against 21.69 percent the previous year, which means the insurer has utilized the resources of its owners in generating higher profit.

The management and

boards of director of Aiico Insurance are investing the company’s float in investment securities such as bonds and short term government securities as investment income increased by 16.54 percent to N10.53 billion in December 2019 from N9.05 billion the previous year.

Float, or available reserve, is

BD MARKETS + FINANCE Analysts: BALA AUGIE www.businessday.ng

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the amount of money on hand at any given moment that an insurer has collected in insurance premiums but has not paid out in claims.

Insurers start investing insurance premiums as soon as they are collected and continue to earn interest or other income on them until claims are paid out.

Strong Balance Sheet validates risk management strategy AIICO Insurance’s shareholders’ funds otherwise known as policy holder’s funds increased by 83.33 percent to N28 billion in December 2019 from N15.27 billion the previous year.

What this means is that the insurer has the financial strength to take on more risk and grow revenue, which will pave the way for the company to magnify shareholder value.

Total assets were up 45 percent to N159.47 billion in December 2019 from N109.98 billion the previous year.

A breakdown of total asset shows financial assets was up 41.01 percent to N125.84 billion in December 2019 from N89.24 billion as at December 2018.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

33

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Thursday 13 February 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 13 February 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS

Opening

Closing

Change

SFSREIT

N85.5

N76.95

-8.55

GUARANTY

N28.4

N28

-0.4

0.32

OANDO

N3.49

N3.26

-0.23

N5.25

0.13

ZENITHBANK

N19.5

N19.4

-0.1

N1.21

0.11

CHAMPION

N0.97

N0.88

-0.09

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

BUACEMENT

N35

N36.05

1.05

CILEASING

N6.35

N6.85

0.5

UCAP

N3.22

N3.54

AFRIPRUD

N5.12

IKEJAHOTEL

N1.1

Company

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

27,568.91 4,187.00 484,991,629.00 3.589

…NSE ASI gains 0.17%; investors raise bet on value stocks

N

igeria’s stock m a r k e t successfully stopped its record fiveday loss path, evidenced in Thursday’s gain of 0.17percent

by the All Share Index (ASI).

Investors on Custom Street in the nation’s biggest commercial city decided to hunt for bargains in some value stocks.

Most of these value counters recently reached record lows following dearth of any major positive events and significant earnings surprises.

Only this month of February, the stock market has decreased by -4.42percent, rubbing off negatively on positive returns seen this year which had moderated to +2.71percent.

Some of investors picks on February 20, 2020 are BUA Cement Plc, C&I Leasing Plc, United Capital Plc, Africa

L – R: Kunle Osilaja, Non-executive Director, UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc; Bolarin Okunowo, head Corporate Finance, UPDC Plc; Bola Adeeko, head, Corporate Services Division, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Fola Aiyesimoju, chief executive officer, UPDC Plc; Deborah Nicol-Omeruah, deputy CEO, UPDC Plc and Folakemi Fadahunsi, chief finance officer, UPDC Plc during the Facts Behind the Right Issue presentation at the Exchange in Lagos.

United Capital grows full year after-tax profit by 15%

U

nited Capital Plc recently announced its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019.

The results show revenue of N8.59 billion and Profit After Tax (PAT) of N4.97 billion, while delivering an Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 83 Kobo.

United Capital Plc remains a leader in the financial and investment services space, with a mission to provide bespoke and innovative value-added services to its clients. The group aims to transform the African continent by providing innovative and creative investment banking solutions to governments, companies and individuals.

The group is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and is at the forefront of becoming the financial and investment role model across Africa by leveraging on innovation, technology and specialist skills to exceed client expectations, while creating more value for

all stakeholders.

Year-on-year (yoy) analysis of the just released result reveals the following: revenue of N8.59 billion in FY 2019, compared to N9.26 billion in 2018 (7percent YoY decline); net operating income: N7.05 billion in FY 2019, compared to N7.21billion in FY 2018 (2percent YoY decline).

Profit Before Tax: N4.95 billion in FY 2019, compared to N6.22 billion in FY 2018 (20percent YoY decline).

Profit After Tax: N4.97 billion in FY 2019, compared to N4.34 billion in FY 2018 (15percent YoY Increase). Earnings Per Share: 83 Kobo (up by 15percent YoY).Total Assets: N150.46 billion, compared to N148.70 billion as at FY 2018 (1.2percent YoY growth).

Total liabilities: N130.88billion, compared to N132.86 billion as at FY 2018 (1.5percent YoY decline). Shareholders’ Fund: N19.59 billion compared to N15.83 billion as at FY 2018 (23.7percent YoY growth). www.businessday.ng

While commenting on the group’s performance the Group CEO, Peter Ashade said: “In spite of the challenging operating environment that was experienced in 2019, United Capital Plc group have been able to consistently improve in its performance recording a 15percent increase in Profit after tax and Earnings per share.

“This increase was driven majorly by the growth in our net interest margin, fees and commission as well as an efficient tax management s t rat e g y . We e x p e c t a n appreciable growth in our revenue as we roll out our various strategic initiatives for the year 2020. Although, the revenue from Investment income, which is made up of income from fixed deposit and investment securities, reduced during the year under review, as a result of the persistent decline in interest rate experienced in 2019, we recorded an impressive performance in our businesses.”

FTSE 100 Index 7,479.26GBP +22.24+0.30%

Nikkei 225 23,479.15JPY +78.45+0.34%

S&P 500 Index 3,386.79USD +0.64+0.02%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 13,777.70EUR -11.30-0.08%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 29,289.00USD -48.00-0.16%

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 3,030.15CNY +54.75+1.84%

14.362

Nigeria stock market halts 5 days loss route Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

Global market indicators

Prudential Plc, and Ikeja Hotel Plc. The share price of BUA Cement Plc increased most, from N35 to N36.05, adding N1.05 or 3percent, followed

by C&I Leasing Plc which increased from N6.35 to N6.85, adding 5kobo or 7.87percent.

Also, United Capital Plc went up from N3.22 to N3.54, adding 32kobo or 9.94percent.

On the decliners’ league, SFS REIT decreased most, from N85.5 to N76.95, losing N8.55 or 10percent.

GTBank Plc followed from N28.4 to N28, losing 40kobo or 1.41percent; while Oando Plc dipped from N3.49 to N3.26, losing 23kobo or 6.59percent.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index increased from 27,523.08 points to 27,568.91 points; while the value of listed equities increased to N14.362trillion.

In 4,187 deals, equity investors exchanged 484,991,629 units valued at N3.589billion.

Banking stocks were actively traded stocks on the Nigerian Bourse.

NSE promotes financial literacy with ‘StockTown’

T

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has published the maiden edition of StockTown, a comic book aimed at promoting financial literacy in Nigeria. StockTown is available in both print and digital formats.

StockTown makes use of illustrated characters story to educate readers of all ages about the importance of savings and investment. In its first issue, readers are introduced to Mora Johnson and her middle-class family who are experiencing financial hardship that pushes Mora to want to learn more about investment and financial independence.

Commenting on the comic book, Oscar N. Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, NSE said, “StockTown is the product of a passionate idea long held by the Exchange to empower individuals across all levels to make good financial decisions and better their lives now and in the future. In a drastically evolving financial landscape, The Exchange continues to find new ways to communicate the

ideas of saving and investment using products available on its platform. We hope this comic, which demonstrates the idea of buy and selling securities in simple terms, can crowd-in the financially excluded, millennial and all lovers of comics.”

The launch of StockTown builds on the Exchange’s strong commitment to promoting financial literacy in Nigeria.

Annually, the Exchange implements initiatives targeted at children and youths, aimed at building a financially savvy generation.

Oscar N. Onyema, chief executive officer, NSE

CSL Stockbrokers appointed as new stockbroker to Federal Government

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SL Sto ckb roke rs Limited, a subsidiary o f FC M B G rou p Plc, has emerged as the new stockbroker to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The appointment of the firm, as announced by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on February 18, 2020, followed an open competitive bidding process in which other Stockbrokers participated.

With the appointment, CSL Stockbrokers now has the mandate to execute all transactions of the Federal Government on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE). This includes, posting bid and offer prices of government securities, supporting the DMO’s objective of promoting trading of Federal Government securities on the Exchange and attracting more retail investors to the domestic capital market.

CSL Stockbrokers, rated as one of the top five stockbroking firms in Nigeria, provides institutional and corporate brokerage services to investors

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and select issuers. At the heart of the firm is a robust research platform which supports local and international investors who desire in-depth coverage of the Nigerian capital market and the economy.

In a statement, the DMO said as Government S t o c k b r o k e r, C S L Stockbrokers is mandated to build upon the achievements already recorded by increasing the participation of retail investors in all Federal Government Securities, such as Bonds, Sukuk, Savings Bond and Green Bonds listed and trading on the NSE. The DMO added that, ‘’the appointment of CSL as the Government Stockbroker is a further demonstration of the commitment of the DMO to the development of the domestic market, in particular, promoting liquidity, as well as, growing and diversifying the investor base’’.

Commenting on the appointment, the Chief Executive Officer of CSL @Businessdayng

St o c k b ro k e r s, Ab i o d u n Fagbulu, described the development as another milestone in the commitment of the firm to be the investment management services provider of choice in sub-Saharan Africa, driven by deep market knowledge and global standard investment management expertise.

According to him, ‘’CSL Stockbrokers consider this appointment as an opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of the domestic capital market in a way that is sustainable and profitable to investors’’.

Analysts are of the opinion that CSL Stockbrokers, which has over 30 years operating history in the capital market with consistent impressive performance, is well positioned to support the DMO, with regards to meeting the Government’s financing needs in a prudent manner that supports economic development while proactively managing the associated risks.

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news Shift in global patterns leaves Nigeria empty-handed as peers hit jackpot SEGUN ADAMS

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oreign Direct Investment-starved Nigeria is still stuck in an old way of thinking two decades after peers have adjusted to new globalisation and struck gold in massive capital inflow into their economies, leading economist Ayo Teriba says.

The new globalisation is driven by cross-border movements of technology, not just more trade in goods. Technological progress has reduced gains in commodity exports and facilitated financial flows.

Nigeria in the early 1990s accounted for a higher portion of FDI inflow into the developing world, outstripping Egypt, South Africa, India and Saudi Arabia. Today, the country attracts $1bn less FDI than Ghana ($2.9bn), an economy equivalent to Lagos State.

“Everybody now gets more than we do,” said Teriba, CEO of Economic Associates, at the firm’s quarterly Nigerian Outlook conference in Lagos on Wednesday.

He explained that a

shift in globalisation focused on commodity trade to financial flows changed the game but Nigeria remains unaware.

In the early 1990s, developing countries either relied on export revenue or foreign aid for foreign capital inflow.

But FDI overtook donor funding by 1994 and remained the largest type of inflow until 2016 when remittances became the largest source of inflow into the developing world, Teriba said.

The change in trend coupled with improvements in technology eventually led to a commodity bust in 2014 and adversely impacted oil-dependent Nigeria.

Downturns in oil price led to the 2016 recession and forced currency devaluation then.

Today, the country still relies on oil exports for up to 90 percent of its foreign currency earnings and income from the commodity accounts for more than 70 percent of the government’s revenue.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

Border closure boom turns bust as manufacturers, farmers feel squeeze ODINAKA ANUDU& GBEMI FAMINU

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hen President Muhammadu Buhari announced the closure of the NigeriaBenin border in August 2019, many manufacturers and farmers saw increased margins and productivity.

But the polic y has turned to hit them hard as many manufacturers struggle to import inputs and machinery and farmers who rely on imports count losses. The price of poultry feeds has risen by 15 to 20 percent since August 2019.

“It is not a sustainable policy,” Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director-general, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said at a Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industryorganised stakeholders’ forum on border closure.

“While it has curtailed smuggling, it is not sustainable because many local manufacturers that export products to neighbouring countries now spend eight weeks as against eight days before because they have to take it through a longer route with great cost implications,” Ajayi-Kadir,

represented by Ambrose Oruche, director of public affairs at MAN, said on Tuesday.

He said this would make local manufacturers less competitive as the exercise would stifle trade which was necessary for economic growth and development.

Inflation has risen for the fifth straight month, hitting 12.13 percent in January 2020 from 11.98 percent in December 2019, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

Food inflation accelerated to 14.85 percent from 14.67 percent.

Trade accounts for 18 to 20 percent of Nigeria’s GDP, but it has been subdued by border closure, putting many outwardlooking manufacturers in peril.

“For us in the brewery industry, cash has been trapped by border closure,” Baker Magunda, managing director, Guinness Nigeria plc, said in an interactive session in Lagos on Tuesday.

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

L-R: Tunde Lawanson, head, marketing & corporate communications, FBNHoldings; Bukunmi Ogunwale, chairman, Shareholders Association, Oyo State; Seye Kosoko, company secretary, FBNHoldings; Eric Akinduro, zonal chairman, Shareholders Association, South/ West, and Tolu Oluwole, head, investor relations, FBNHoldings, following the visit of a delegation from FBN Holdings plc to members of South/ West Shareholders Association in Ibadan, yesterday.

NIRSAL grows balance sheet to N100bn, facilitates N102bn agric credit … says NPLs less than 1% of guaranteed loans ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja

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he Nigerian Incentive-Based R i s k Sha r i n g System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has grown its balance sheet to N100 billion, Aliyu Abdulhameed, its managing director/CEO, has confirmed.

A wholly-owned nonbank financial institution of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NIRSAL plc was set up with N72.5 billion capital and runs specifically to redefine, measure, re-price and share agribusinessrelated credit risk.

So far, it has facilitated over N102 billion loans from commercial lenders across the various agricultural value chains in Nigeria, creating over 40,000 jobs, according to figures seen by BusinessDay. The N102 billion represents total financing facili-

tated from lenders for agribusiness since its inception some three years ago.

A breakdown shows that under its credit risk guarantees and other agricultural risk management tools & products, NIRSAL leveraged some N6.7 billion for agricultural inputs, N1.7 billion for mechanisation, and N18.6 billion for primary production.

It facilitated N34.4 billion for processing, N580 million for logistics, N39.4 billion for Growth Enhancement Scheme, and N940 million for rural financial institution.

In a bid to further derisk Nigeria’s agriculture industry for investors and financiers, NIRSAL as the Agricultural Finance Risk Management Corporation of the CBN has dimensioned the entire agricultural value chain into the pre-upstream, upstream,

midstream and downstream.

Abdulhameed pointed out that even at the maximum cover of 75 percent credit-risk guarantee on agricultural loans, NIRSAL has maintained a crystallised guarantee ratio of about 1 percent only, against the financial industry average ratio of 7.9 percent.

He also mentioned that NIRSAL has paid out a total of N4.6 billion as claims to Deposit Money Banks on credit risk guarantees that crystallised.

An additional N1.2 billion, he said, has been paid as interest drawbacks to prudent borrowers who have found their cost of funds and businesses boosted as a result.

“It is important to state that through NIRSAL’s facilitation, over 400,000 jobs have been created and

2 million lives positively impacted in the pre-upstream, upstream, midstream and downstream segments of the agricultural value chain, specifically in the areas of mechanisation, input supply, primary production and processing,” Abdulhameed said at a press meeting Abuja.

The CEO further explained that insurance was a critical measure deployed

by NIRSAL in managing and mitigating risk and an essential component of its five pillars to reduce credit risk and increase lending across the agricultural value chain.

“NIRSAL’s goal is to expand insurance uptake by primary producers from 0.5 million to 3.8 million by 2026 and continually develop insurance products that will give financial institutions and agriculContinues on page 35

9mobile pushes 4G expansion to 16 Nigerian cities with $230m AFC loan Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson

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elecommunications service provider, 9mobile, has revealed that part of the $230 million loan facility got from the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in August 2019 will be used to expand its fourth generation, long-term evolution (4G LTE) network to reach 16 cities in Nigeria and improve network quality.

As part of the telco’s longterm growth plans, 9mobile on Thursday announced that it has added 10 new cities and towns across Nigeria to its 4G network, and has upgraded LTE services in the six cities where the service previously

existed, increasing the number of 4G-covered cities and towns to 16 in total.

The 4G LTE expansion drive will be implemented in Aba, Abuja, Nasarawa, Calabar, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Niger, Onitsha, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Uyo, Aba and Ogun.

Speaking at the company’s head office in Lagos during a press conference to announce the expansion, Stephane Beuvelet, acting managing director, 9mobile, identified the unique benefits available to customers with the 9mobile 4G LTE, including a low latency rate for high-speed connectivity and planned redundancy to

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minimize downtime impact.

“Apart from bringing 4G to these new cities, our 4G internet comes with the lowest latency rate in the market that guarantees the best speed results. The 9mobile network is purposely set up with adequate redundancies to neutralise the impact of shocks during downtime situations like the recent West-Africa fiber cuts experienced across the industry,” Beuvelet said.

He further assured of sustained investments into the network’s general infrastructure base to guarantee bestin-class experience for its customers.

Layi Onafowokan, acting director, marketing, 9mobile, @Businessdayng

said that the implementation of 4G in additional locations would ensure customers enjoy high-quality services. He said this was possible because 9mobile had earlier enhanced its RAN technologies to address network congestions and improve user experience across the country.

“Access to 4G LTE will further enable millions of our customers to make clear and crisp calls as well as have access to faster internet for browsing and online experience at all times,” he said.

Onafowokan said that as an innovative and customerfriendly telco, 9mobile would

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news Health industry awaits speedy completion...

Continued from page 1

health intervention.

When completed and fully operational, the facility would bring about significant improvement in Nigeria’s health services, especially in the northern region, provide training opportunities for doctors in the country, and help to stem the tide of medical tourism which costs Nigerians over $1bn annually, said Debo Odulana, co-founder and chief executive officer, Doctoora.

“The North especially has suffered a lot because of the lack of access to healthcare.

While we focus on primary health care, there is also the need to improve tertiary health care for the benefit of Nigerians,” Odulana said.

BusinessDay gathered that the hospital is designed to have a fertility clinic, a Cath lab, physiotherapy ward, renal dialysis centre, oncology centre, intensive care unit, high care unit, operating theatre, orthopaedic ward, maternity ward, medical ward, and accident and emergency ward.

Hadiza Balarabe, Kaduna State deputy governor, who oversees the state Ministry of Health, had said the hospital was being built to have the best solutions in handling the three deadliest diseases in Nigeria – cardiovascular

disease, cancer and diabetes.

“When completed, it would be one of the largest hospitals in Kaduna metropolis. And being a specialist hospital, oncology and research units would be incorporated for the treatment of cancer as well as research of complex health cases,” Balarabe told journalists in Kaduna shortly after an inspection tour of the hospital project site in July last year.

It would have 10 theatres that will be technologyready and equipped with live streaming of high-resolution images digitally to any location so clinical students do not have to be inside the theatre itself to learn.

Balarabe said equipment for the hospital are already on ground as government awaits completion of the project, adding that the hospital would be handling cases that are beyond general hospitals in the state as doctors specialised in different fields would be invited to attend to patients. The doctors would be providing answers to some disease conditions that might not be commonly seen within the general hospitals, she said.

Olayinka Oladimeji, an official at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said a 300-bed space is quite huge and would be very useful in

addressing some of the healthcare problems in Nigeria.

Oladimeji said the facility would help reduce medical tourism as it plans to handle cases that take people abroad for treatment, especially cancer.

“This kind of facility will also create employment opportunities and reduce brain drain.

When it is completed, Nigerians will be employed because Nigerian medical personnel are doing well outside the country.

We will have medical personnel like oncologits, and it will also encourage the study of genetics,” Oladimeji said.

“It will also attract patients from other countries. Remember, once upon a time in this country in the 60’s Saudi Arabians used to seek medical care in Nigeria at the University College Hospital Ibadan, so this kind of facility can restore this kind of confidence foreigners had in our health care,” he said.

Chris Chibuike, public health expert at Nigerian Health Watch, said the facility would make a huge difference because it is targeted at those ailments that lead to medical tourism.

He, however, said beyond building the facility, it was also important to fit it with adequate equipment for it to meet the goals it is built for.

“Also beyond building it and equipping it with the right facilities, it is important to ensure that Nigerians are able to access

The 300-bed specialist hospital being built by Governor El-Rufai in Kaduna.

NIRSAL grows balance sheet to N100bn...

Continued from page 34

tural value chain players the comfort to lend to the agricultural sector while building the capacities of underwriters,” he said.

Prior to NIRSAL’s intervention, agricultural insurance in Nigeria was indemnity-based which only provided compensation equivalent to farmers’ cost of production and the uptake of this insurance product was very low.

Working with its technical partner, NIRSAL collaborated with National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (which led a

consortium of four underwriters) to provide innovative and index-based insurance to protect investments in the upstream segment of the agricultural value chain, particularly those of smallholder farmers.

Abdulhameed announced that NIRSAL is in the final stages of developing the proprietary NIRSAL Comprehensive Index Insurance (NCII) product.

“In this regard, NIRSAL is leading a consortium of agricultural insurance underwriters to strategically transition their product focus from indemnity-based insurance to Area Yield www.businessday.ng

Index, Revenue Index, Hybrid Index and finally to the NIRSAL Comprehensive Index Insurance product,” Abdulhameed said.

“This suite of innovative products does not only provide compensation to farmers based on the cost incurred but also covers projected earnings,” he said.

As at end December 2019, a total of 35,160 farmers cultivating 36,347 hectares have used the NIRSAL Area Yield Insurance Index product to protect a total harvest value of over N4.77 billion, he said.

Insured farmers who suffered low area yields during the 2019 wet season have received appropriate

to the facility, because it won’t make sense if you have that kind of facility and Nigerians especially those at the grassroots who have these ailments cannot access it because of the burden of cost,” he said.

BusinessDay learnt that the hospital was initially scheduled for completion in 2012, but was delayed and rescheduled for completion in 2014.

After a tour of the facility in February 2017, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, then state commissioner for planning and budget, had tweeted that Governor Nasir el-Rufai was committed to completing the project before 2019 “for the overriding benefit of the good people of Kaduna State” and that contractors handling the project had been “remobilised to the site with work on-going”.

BusinessDay’s tour of the hospital site last weekend, however, showed that the project is still far from being completed as no contractor was spotted at the site.

Health experts and Kaduna residents have urged the state government to double its efforts in ensuring the completion of the project within the shortest possible time in the interest of the citizens.

“With the structure I see on ground, I am very optimistic that if completed, it will be of great value to the state,” said a resident who does not want to be named.

Pic Abdulwaheed Adubi

compensation, he added.

Ab d u l ha m e e d s a i d more importantly, NIRSAL’s business model has shown remarkable resilience and sustainability, having proven to be an astute agricultural finance risk management institution that has demonstrably sustained its operations and preserved and expanded its capital base and as such, its future sustainability is strongly assured.

“With agriculture contributing over 29.25 percent to Nigeria’s GDP, it is safe to say that organisations like NIRSAL are positively driving the transformation of the economy through agribusiness,” he said.

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Excess Crude Account slides to $70m as...

Continued from page 1

Obasanjo administration,

the abuse of the ECA has become serial. It is deeply disturbing that the [Muhammadu] Buhari government has not demonstrated a better way of handling Nigeria’s ECA,” Charles Akinbobola, a financial analyst at Creditville Limited, told BusinessDay. Others stakeholders also said Nigeria’s inability to judiciously manage its ECA is one of the reasons it currently has the indices of a poor nation.

“The main focus now would be on the foreign reserves, not the ECA which has been declining for a while now,” said Oluwatosin Ayanfalu, analyst at Lagos-based Zedcrest Capital.

Since a little accretion in January, Nigeria’s gross reserves have declined to $36.93bn, prompting debates about possible devaluation, although the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it was not inclined to devalue unless the reserves dip under $30bn and oil price falls below $45.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, reiterated the need to save at the just-concluded Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the CBN. Emefiele underscored risks associated with not building buffers with oil receipts.

His advice came on the heels of what the economy is facing vis-à-vis spending spree pattern of the three tiers of government.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019,Nigeria’sECAistheworld’s second least-governed fund.

The buffer grew from $5.1 billion to over $20 billion between 2005 and 2009, but today is less than 1 percent of its 2009 balance.

Combined with Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, the country’s oil savings is not more than $2bn, meanwhile oil-rich countries like United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran and Libya have at least 20 times more.

In its Nigeria Economic Update (NEU) report released in Abuja, the World Bank warned that a ‘moderate’ decline in oil price could trigger another recession, noting that the exhaustion of the ECA had made the country more

vulnerable.

The bank said fiscal buffers in the Excess Crude Account have been exhausted, rendering Nigeria more vulnerable to shocks.

No thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak which has dampened global oil outlook, the IMF on Monday lowered Nigeria’s growth outlook to 2 percent from 2.5 percent, citing increasing vulnerabilities, among other things.

Poor levels of transparency exhibited by various agencies and officials of government charged with managing the funds over the years have compounded the problems faced by this fund even further, Akinbobola said.

Established in 2004, the ECA demonstrates how to normalise an aberration.

Without constitutional backing, the ECA was created to protect Nigeria’s planned budgets against shortfalls caused by the volatility of crude oil prices. In this way, it would insulate the economy from external shocks.

Unfortunately, Nigeria has failed to transform decades of oil earnings into sustainable development, despite being the largest producer and exporter of petroleum in Africa and one of the 10 largest producers in the world.

While Nigeria seems to be nonchalant about saving for the rainy day, other countries seem to be preparing earnestly for it. Norges Bank Investment Management oversees Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund while United Arab Emirates has nearly $1 trillion capital pool in two SWFs, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Mubadala, funded by excess oil and gas income.

United States’ Alaska Permanent Fund has one of the savviest SWFs in the world.

The $65.3 billion fund is financed by oil and gas revenue for the benefit of future generations of Alaskans.

Singapore has two accounts called Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Temasek splitting over $800 billion between them.

Each has its own goals and ways of operating, but both invest in the future with an expectation of paying out in the near term.

9mobile pushes 4G expansion to 16 ...

Continued from page 34

continue to deepen 4G penetration across Nigeria as well as empower its customers to be able to do more. To this end, he stated that over the next three months, 9mobile customers stand a chance to win fantastic prizes including sewing machines, power generating sets, grindingmachines,refrigerators, pressing irons and free airtime amongotherfreebiesintheraffle draws that will be held as part of activities to create awareness of the 4G LTE deployment.

Apart from Network expansion, the loan facility divided in two tranches would, among others, has been used to pay repay some historic vendor obligation, finance costs and @Businessdayng

an interest reserve account, as well as payment towards quick win capex initiatives.

9mobile is the only Nigerian network that provides its customers with 4G-enabled SIM cards right from the point of purchase; therefore, customers do not need to request a SIM swap or upgrade to enjoy 4G LTE services.

The company recently increased investment in the deployment of cutting-edge technology across its value chain to deliver improved quality of service. The availability of a 4G network in these communities will open a whole new world of experience and possibilities for new and existing 9mobile subscribers.

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Friday 21 February 2020

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BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 21 February 2020

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news

No multiple taxation in Nigeria but multiplicity of interface among taxable entities - LIRS MICHAEL ANI

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L-R: Iniobong Obinna-Okonkwo, founder/CEO, Little Weavers; Maureen Ogbonna, group head, research and strategy, C&I Leasing plc; Ademola Oduwole, global business strategist and international trade advisor; Zuriel Oduwole, global education advocate and film-maker; Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor, Lagos State; Mercy Suess, president, Frau Suss Children Empowerment Foundation; Ufuoma Ilesanmi, general manager, Haven Homes, and Oluwatoyin Bayagbon, team lead, corporate communications and CSR, C&I Leasing plc, during a courtesy visit to the Lagos State governor, recently.

FG develops policy, incentives to deepen private sector partnership in sports ... pledges to create 10m jobs in 10 years Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja

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he Federal Government through the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development says the development of policies, incentives and legal framework is underway to reposition the sports industry as a sustainable private sector-led social, economic and community sector.

Sunday Dare, minister, youths and sports development, said this while inaugurating a Steering Committee Sports Industry Working Group (SIWG) in Abuja on Thursday. He said concrete steps were being taken to reposition the sector through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model from participatory and

recreational to business.

The inauguration of the SIWG is one of such steps, Dare said, explaining that the Committee has been mandated to develop policies, incentives capable of attracting private sector investments, improving revenue, creating jobs (direct and indirect) and localising the industry.

The minister noted that SIWG was the outcome of Sports Industry Business Roundtable Session during the 25th Nigerian Economic Summit, and their mandate was anchored on 3Is and 1P, which included; Infrastructure, Investments, Incentives and Policy.

He pointed out that the steering committee was expected to address the huge infrastruc-

tural gaps that would trigger development, drive investment to achieve the annual revenue target of N2 trillion, which will amount to 1.5 percent - 3 percent of the GDP contribution and create 10 million jobs in the next 10 years.

Udeme Ufot, co-chairman of the Committee and managing director, SO&U, in his acceptance speech, said the Committee would first ensure the incentives, policies and legal framework to deepen private sector partnership and revitalise the sports industry and create incentives for investment.

The co-chair explained that the private sector was committed to playing its own part in sports industrialisation agenda through investments that would

trigger the development of the ancillary sectors of the industry.

He assured that the SIWG would ensure a continuous dialogue and cooperation between the public, private and social sectors to deliver a sports viable industry.

The SIWG is a 14-man committee made up of representatives from the Federal Ministry of Youth amd Sports Development, Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

Others are Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Health, members of the organised public sector and the Nigerian sport sector.

Cultism, possession of hard drugs, exams malpractice Re-appraise approach to security, health, attract outright expulsion, VC tells students economic development, APBN tells FG IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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he Vice Chancellor, Edo University Iyamho, Emmanuel Aluyor, has threatened outright expulsion of student found wanting of gangsterism, smoking or in possession of hard drugs, and examination malpractice from the school.

Aluyor read the riot act during the 2019/2020 matriculation ceremony of the university at the school’s premises at Iyamho in Etsako West Local Government Area, Edo State.

The 2019/2020 matriculation made it the fifth matriculation ceremony of the institution.

The Vice Chancellor said the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) offered provisional admission to 689 candidates to study in the university, but only 503 candidates were cleared and qualified to study in their chosen fields.

While congratulating the new students for the admission, he said the university pride itself a model for the 21st Century university in Nigeria with its world-class technologically

enhanced teaching and learning facilities.

He however advised parents to partner the management in the training of their children to be leaders of tomorrow by always monitoring their activities and performance in terms of class attendance, test, assignment and examination results through the CANVAS LMS available in the university.

According to Aluyor, such technological tools are the CANVAS Learning Management System and the robust Academic Information System (AIS), and the adoption of the Competency Based curriculum in medicine.

“The Outcome Based Education (OBE) learning system for the faculty of Engineering, Power Laboratories for Physiology students, fully equipped Engineering workshop for teaching multi-scale manufacturing, among others,” he said.

He however urged the newly admitted students to make the best use of the facilities provided by the school to enhance their academic pursuit, as they obey all the institution’s rules and regulations. www.businessday.ng

KELECHI EWUZIE

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ssociation of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) has urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to thoroughly re-appraise its approach to solving the hydraheaded problem of insecurity in Nigeria.

APBN says there is the need for the Federal Government to address the issue with commensurate sense of urgency it deserves.

Olumuyiwa Ajibola, APBN’s president, disclosed this in a communiqué issued in Lagos recently at the fifth press briefing at the board meeting of the association hosted by Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

APBN is the umbrella body of all recognised and chartered professional institutes, institutions, associations and societies in Nigeria.

Speaking on the economy, Ajibola observes that the operation of Nigeria’s economy does not reflect the market economy that we seem to be

running, and called for Public Private Partnership (PPP) as the way to go if the government will have enough funds to provide enabling environment for the much needed growth.

The APBN’s president, while commenting on the health situation in the country, says there is the need to sensitise and educate Nigerians on the available information on the ravaging Coronavirus in China and other affected countries, and Lassa fever in Nigeria, adding that facilities should be enhanced for timely diagnoses and adequate management of the diseases.

Ajibola implore Federal and State governments to turn their attention to engaging Nigerian professionals in the most beneficial way for the rapid development of our great nation, Nigeria.

Nnamdi A. Okwuadigbo, 55th president of ICAN in his welcome address, states that every forward-looking nation places high premium on a multi-disciplinary model to addressing its social and economic issues.

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he Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) says there is multiplicity in the interface between taxable entities, as opposed to the perceived notion of the country having multiple taxation.

In differentiating between both, the Lagos tax regulator said multiple taxation would happen when a tax base (or a single taxable income) was subjected to tax more than once, either by the same tax authority or more than one tax authority. However, agencies of the different tiers of government often taxed a business on separate items that were in line with the laws backing them, the LIRS said.

“We do not have multiple taxation in Nigeria and, by extension, Lagos State. What we have is multiplicity of interface between taxable entities (business inclusive) and tax authorities,” Tola Seriki, assistant director, informal sector, LIRS, said while presenting a paper in a breakfast meeting organised by the NigerianAmerican Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

Seriki, who presented the paper on behalf of his executive chairman, LIRS, Ayodele Subair, noted that local governments in the state were empowered by law to collect levies, dues and rates, stressing that those should never be misconstrued as taxes.

Companies operating in Nigeria have overtime raised the alarm over a harsh operating environment, with about 60 percent of top CEOs who were respondents in a Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) survey citing tax multiplicity as the big-

gest threat hurting growth of business.

This was one of the many reasons the Federal Government in February signed the Finance Bill into law, to relapse some of the stringent conditions in the country’s tax system and bring more people into the tax net.

LIRS said the lack of credible data was some of the numerous challenges hurting the whole spectrum of tax administration in Nigeria. It, however, believed that the Joint Tax Board’s Tax Identity Number (TIN) project, done in collaboration with existing biometric-based identity management database, especially the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the National Identity Number (NIN), should substantially address this challenge.

At the state level, Seriki explained that the tax agency had so far adopted the accelerated tax audits of back years by engaging over 1,000 professional accountants and tax practitioners to collate tax audit data and assist in tax payers’ enumeration; direct bank lodgements by linking over 1200 branches of banks on-line, and also automating revenue receipt process.

Oluwatoyin Akomolafe, president, Nigerian-American Chamber (NACC), said the LIRS had increased the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by executing various pioneering programmes and implementing strategies, impacting positively on revenue generation and collection.

“Governments all over the world require revenue to augment the spending needs to maintain an adequate level of public investment and social services.

Sanofi announces AfricaTech 2020 challenges, calls for entries

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anofi, a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of people worldwide, is calling on technology entrepreneurs and startups in Nigeria to participate in its 2020 AfricaTech Challenge.

AfricaTech is a lab dedicated by Sanofi at VivaTech to encourage open innovation by African technology startups.

VivaTechnology (VivaTech) is the biggest tech event in Europe. It gathers under one roof the brightest entrepreneurs, executives, investors, students and academics to collaborate, network, pitch, get inspired and showcase their innovations.

In the past four years, this three-day annual event has become the biggest gateway in Europe for innovation actors worldwide.

The AfricaTech Challenge initiative is part of Sanofi’s strategy to promote entrepreneurship and development in the health sector in Africa.

This year, AfricaTech has announced four health challenges: how to support pa@Businessdayng

tients with a digital health book in order to access information and make decision; how to help healthcare systems leapfrog from manual to smart logistics solution at the point of care; how to improve financing and impact of innovative health solutions in Africa, and Sanofi Espoir Foundation’s challenge on how to improve maternal and neonatal health in subSaharan Africa.

“We are in search of affordable and user-friendly solutions from African startups, with at least a proof of concept with positive results, in at least one country in Africa. This initiative provides a unique opportunity for aspiring tech-preneurs in Nigeria to showcase their talent and provide real solutions to some of the issues currently plaguing the health sector,” said Oladimeji Agbolade, director, external affairs at Sanofi Nigeria. “We invite startups from Nigeria to submit their solutions towards these challenges. This call for projects is free and open to all.”

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news CSOs, judiciary want police stripped of prosecution’s rights IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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takeholders in the administration of justice in Nigeria have called on Edo State government to strip the Police of the right to prosecute suspects facing criminal charges in court.

The stakeholders, who made the call on Wednesday at a day working group meeting on accountable governance, justice and security project organised by CLEEN Foundation in partnership with Edo Civil Society Organisation (EDOCSO) in Benin City, noted that stripping the police the right to prosecute suspects would help prevent violation and human rights abuses in the society.

The stakeholders at the event include Edo State Ministry of Justice, Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), and EDOCSO. According to them, when the prosecutorial rights are divested from the police it will go a long way in addressing the challenges impeding the implementation of Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2015 (ACJL) in the state.

Speaking on the topic, “Challenges in the implementation of administration of

criminal justice, law of Edo state and way forward,” the assistant chief state counsel, Ministry of Justice, Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Edo State, Odihirin Justina, recommended a review of the ACJL, 2015 that would strip the police of prosecution rights.

Justina said the prosecution roles played by the police had led to unlawful detentions in their custody.

She however urged the state government to take a cue from Kano State where the police were not allowed to prosecute.

“In Ministry of Justice today, we discovered that 70 percent of the files on our table brought in by the police, are those who don’t have anything to do in detention at all.

“I believed that this is happening because the police want to assume the role of arrest, investigation and prosecutions.

“So, I will suggest that their roles should be narrowed to arrest and investigation of criminal suspect while the prosecutions should be left with the DPP,” she said.

In his remarks, Austin Ozigbu, principal detective superintendent of the EFCC, Benin zonal office, pleaded with the government to take a look at the Criminal Code of the Defunct Bendel State 1976 and amend it.

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NIMASA tackles marine pollution with action plans AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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etermined to reduce the economic impact of Marine Litter and Plastics on Nigerian waters, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has launched a Maritime Action Plan on Marine Litter and Plastics aimed at setting a national roadmap towards tackling marine waste pollution.

Speaking at the launch held in Lagos on Thursday, Dakuku Peterside, director-general of NIMASA, expressed optimism that the Action Plan would trigger the needed behavioural change in Nigeria by improving development and enabling the enforcement of new initiatives to tackle Marine Litters and Plastics.

According to Peterside, the presence of marine litters and plastics is impacting negatively on the drive to make Nigeria a greener, safer and healthier nation. “With the launch of the

action plan, we are taking a stand with the coastal communities, industries and other stakeholders by pledging that we shall no longer ignore the effects of Marine Litter and Plastics on biodiversity, marine life, navigation and human health,” he said.

The director-general also warned that the agency would not continue to ignore the negative impacts of marine activities like fishing, oil and gas drilling, shipping and ecotourism.

On the impact, he stated that a report by the World Economic Forum projected that by the year 2050, plastics in the oceans would outweigh fish if not mitigated.

Of the 260 million tons of plastic produced in the world each year, about 10 percent ends up in the ocean and 70 percent of the mass eventually sinks, damaging life on the seabed, he said.

The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) study says that 83 percent of the 4.8 million – 12.7 million tons of land-based

plastic waste that ends up in the ocean from the 192 coastal countries originate from 20 countries, including Nigeria, he said.

A study by Africa Impact Sustainable Initiative also reports that approximately 500 shipping containers of waste are dumped in Africa every month.

These occurrences, Peterside said, are not only evident globally or continentally, but also in Nigeria, which is among top 20 nations that contribute 83 percent of total volume of landbased plastic waste that end up in the oceans and seas.

“It is estimated that over 200,000 metric tons of plastic waste from land-based sources in Nigeria, is discharged into the Atlantic Ocean each year,” he stated.

Emphasising that this poses a great danger to the environment and marine ecosystem, he said an immeasurable number of coastal communities in Nigeria had no official waste collection service, meaning that most of

the waste generated in these communities ends up in the seas and oceans.

Sharon Ikeazor, minister of state for environment, who stated that government agencies and ministries cannot work in isolation if they were to succeed in the business of protecting the environment, pointed out the need for collaboration.

Nigeria does not lack in putting laws and policies in place, but the country is lacking a great deal in the area of enforcement, she said.

“We are going to reposition the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) an environmental agency to deliver on its mandate,” she said.

According to Ikeazor, the ministry is at the verge of amending the NESREA Act to draw a clear line for the agency to take note of its responsibilities without interference and duplication of functions.

Strike: Power sector workers buckle as labour minister intervenes JOSHUA BASSEY

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orkers in the power sector of the Nigerian economy have shelved an earlier plan to shut down the system in protest against the non-payment of severance package (among other demands) to about 2000 workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) seven years after the company was privatised.

The strike would have again led to the shutting down of the national grid, as a similar action in December 11, 2019, left the entire country in darkness for one day, with huge losses recorded to the national economy.

Aside the non-full payment of the ex-workers of PHCN, the employee union in the power sector has also accused the Federal Ministry of Power as well as the management of Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) of reneging agreement signed with the union in December 2019.

The decision to shelve the strike that would have commenced this week, followed the intervention of minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige. Ngige on Monday met with the leadership of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) in Abuja, and prevailed on them to give the Federal Government 60 days to work around their demands.

The union had on January

29, 2020 issued a 14-day ultimatum to the federal ministry of power to pay more than 2,000 workers that were disengaged from PHCN or risk industrial action from electricity workers.

The union alleged that the ministry failed to implement the agreement arrived at between members of NUEE, the ministry and other government agencies on December 11, 2019.

At the recent conciliatory meeting with NUEE in Abuja, Ngige persuaded the workers to drop their planned strike. After the closed-door meeting that lasted about five hours, the minister said all parties agreed to settle all issues within 60 days.

“We have reviewed the agreement reached in December 2019. We have given ourselves terminal date of 60 days within which to process the remaining persons that have not gotten their severance pay.

“The number is not as what NUEE is saying but at the same time, we expect that payment should be effected latest at the end of 60 days. We are going to reach out to power generating companies and power distribution companies so that the issue of casualisation should not be happening again,” the minister said.

However, Joe Ajaero, the general secretary of NUEE, said although the union was ready to wait for the 60 days, it was not comfortable with a lengthy period agreed to. www.businessday.ng

Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Shimon Ben-Shoshan, and Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, during a business meeting at the Israeli Embassy in Abuja, yesterday.

Edo revokes C of O of Ibori’s property in Benin City IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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do State government Thursday revoked the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of a landed property belonging to former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori.

The revocation order was contained in an advertorial in the state-owned newspaper, the Nigerian Observer, by the state government.

The advertorial, published Thursday, was backed by a letter signed by the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, dated February 10, 2020, came few hours after the management of Daily Independent Newspaper Limited, owned by the former governor, James Ibori, presented the governor with a notification of the newspaper’s Governor of the Year Award, 2019, in Benin City.

Obaseki said the revocation of the land measuring approximately 1985.950 square metres located at plot 103A, Aguobasimwin Crescent, old GRA, Benin City in Oredo Local Government Area, was in pursuant to Section 28 and 38

of the Land Use Decree of 1978.

The statement for the revocation was titled, “Revocation of Statutory Rights of Occupancy Pursuant to sections 28 and 38”.

According to Obaseki, “Notice is hereby given that in exercise of the powers conferred upon me by sections (28) 1 and 38 of the Land Use Decree No. 6 of 1978 and by virtue of all other laws enabling me on that behalf, I, Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, the governor of Edo State of Nigeria, hereby revoke the Statutory Rights of Occupancy granted to James O. Ibori in respect of.

“All that parcel of land known and referred to as plot 103A, Aiguobasimwin Crescent, old GRA, Benin City in Oredo local government area of Edo State of Nigeria containing an area of approximately 1985.950 square metres, the boundaries of which are described in detailed survey plan No.BDSR 14420 dated 24th October, 2003 registered as 40 at page 40 in volume 214 of the land’s registry, Benin City in favour of James O. Ibori.”

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CBN choses Q1 as account opening week HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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entral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has chosen the first quarter of this year as the commencement for the account opening week, saying it will be conducted on quarterly basis in 2020.

Account Opening Week is positioned to support improved access to financial products and services. This is also part of the initiatives deployed going forward in order to achieve the 80% financial inclusion target set for 2020.

The Steering Committee, which meets biannually to provide policy direction for financial inclusion in Nigeria, approved the implementation of the account opening week, saying it should be titled ‘Financial Inclusion Week’ to make it all encompassing.

Also, the committee approved that the National Peer Group Education Programme (NAPGEP) Strategy be implemented with effect from the first quarter of 2020.

The financial inclusion news letter released by the @Businessdayng

CBN on Wednesday showed that the 9th meeting of the National Financial Inclusion Steering Committee held on December 6, 2019, and was chaired by Aishah Ahmad, deputy governor, Financial System Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria.

An update on the progress of the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) was presented to the committee, which revealed that the number of agents increased by 127% from 83,560 in December 2018 to 189,767 as at October 31, 2019.

Banks and Super Agents have deployed agents in all 774 LGAs. Super Agents alone have agents in 773 of the 774 (i.e. 99.9% penetration rate), 34 LGAs (4.4%) have above 1,000 agents each. 129 LGAs (16.7%) however have at least 100 agents per 100,000 population.

After the deliberations, the following decisions were reached; Framework for Access to Finance for women: A framework is being developed to provide guidance to stakeholders involved in the improvement of access to finance for women in Nigeria.

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY Alleged N1.35b fraud: Witness tenders more evidences against ex-Gov Lamido

Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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prosecution witness, who is also an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Michael Wetkas, on Thursday, February 20, 2020, furnished the court with more details of how the former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido allegedly diverted funds meant for projects in the state to his private use through a company, Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company.

According to a statement issued on Thursday by the Acting Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Tony

Orilade, at the resumed trial on Thursday, Wetkas told the court that EFCC’s investigation reveale d how Lamido’s companies: Speeds International Limited and Bamaina Holding Company, received several payments running into hundreds of millions into their bank accounts via cheques raised by Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company between 2007 and 2013.

Wetkas, who was led in evidence by prosecution counsel, M. S. Abubakar disclosed that there were payments through cheques for N7,408,000 and 7,425,000 from Zenith Bank account of Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company in fa-

Sule Lamido

Lagos Assembly receives ‘Amotekun’ bill; begins debate Iniobong Iwok

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h e L ag o s St at e House of Assembly has begun the process of creating a law to back the South West Security outfit, known as Amotekun.

The House began the debate on the bill at its emergency plenary on Thursday; the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps Agency (Amendment) Bill 2020 was read for the first and second times.

The Bill seeks to create a Unit to be known as ‘Amotekun unit in the existing Neighbourhood

Safety Corps’.

The Bill also seeks to ensure that the new agency will collaborate with sister agencies in the Southwest.

Spokesman of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Tunde Buraimoh, in an interview with BusinessDay had said the House was still awaiting the bill from the executive, while promising that it was ready to give it the necessary attention toward its speedy passage.

Buraimoh had said there was the possibility that the House would harmonise the bill so that the regional security outfit would be fashioned to work with

vour of Bamaina Holding Company on March 5, 2013, the statement said.

Also, the witness further revealed that on April 23, 2013, there were two cheques of N7,228,900 from Zenith Bank account that were raised in favour of Speeds International Limited which was paid.

Furthermore, Wetkas told the court that a sum of N9,450,000 was paid to Speeds International Limited on October 19, 2010 as well as several payments that were made from the UBA and the former Intercontinental Bank, (now Access Bank) accounts of Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company to the

the Lagos State Neighbourhood watch towards optimum delivery.

Recall that the governors of the region reached an agreement with the Federal Government to set up the security network with a law after the controversy which greeted its establishment.

Several states’ Houses of Assembly in the region have begun debate into the bill and are in the process of passing it into law.

Similarly, other regions have since mooted the idea of floating their own regional security networks as the security situation in the country degenerates.

companies owned by Alhaji Lamido.

The witness tendered the payment cheques as exhibits.

Ju s t i c e O j u kw u a d journed the matter until April 27, 28, 29, 30 and May 4, 5, 6, and 7, 2020 for continuation of trial.

Recall that the EFCC rearraigned Lamido, his two sons: Aminu Sule Lamido and Mustapha Sule Lamido and others that include: Aminu Wada Abubakar, Batholomew Darlington Agoha, Bamaina Holdings Ltd and Speeds International Ltd on an amended 43-count charge for allegedly defrauding the state to the tune of N1.35billion.

Economic injustice: Politicians will not escape judgment - Sanusi Tony Ailemen, Abuja

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he Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi on Thursday, charged the political class to deliver justice to the poor, or face the wrath of natural justice.

Sanusi, speaking at a National Conference organised

by First Lady, Aisha Buhari’s Future Assured Initiative and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs at State House Conference Centre, Abuja, blamed the political elite for refusing to enact law to protect the poor and weak for the pervasive economic challenges in Nigeria.

He described the Almajiri system that allows young children to throng the streets

begging for daily sustenance on the absence of genuine social safety nets and laws that deliver economic justice in the land.

The royal father who also kicked against “criminalising the Almajiri” or street urchins, blamed the system on the failed family system where fathers are expected to be responsible for their children’s upkeeps “We do know, for those of us who deal with communities every day, parents forcing young daughters into loveless marriages, with arbitrary divorce, lack of care within and after marriage.

“We speak of the Almajiri problems as if the Almajiri is the problem when in fact the problem is the irresponsible

fathers who leave their children on the streets.

“The political power does not just have the oppressive powers of the state, the courts, the Police and the Prisons, the citizens should also have benefits, the social safety nets, economic empowerment, incentives. Your role is to ensure that justice is established and you will be asked “For all those women who are crying in your state, and you have not protected them, Wallahi, Allah will ask you; for every child who is left uncared for , begging on the streets and you have not held the father responsible, Wallahi, Allah will ask you.

Allah is going to mark those who helped Him,” he said.

and punishable under section 322 of the same Penal Code.”

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge but Prosecuting Counsel, A.A. Adebayo, asked the Court for a trial date.

“In view of the plea of not guilty entered by the defendant, the prosecution shall be asking for a trial day to enable us prove our case against the defendant,” he said, and urged the Court to remand the defendant at the Nigerian Correctional Facility.

Lead counsel to the defendant, A.O. Adelodun, while not objecting to the

application seeking for adjournment for prosecution to open its case, prayed the Court to allow the defence move an oral application for the bail of his client.

Adedayo, however, opposed the oral application for the bail.

Justice Abdulgafar, after listening to the arguments, turned down the oral application for bail and ordered the defendant to be remanded in the custody of the EFCC. The case has been adjourned till February 21, 2020 for hearing of the bail application, the statement added.

EFCC arrests ex-Kogi governor’s son, Audu, for alleged fraud Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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he operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested Muhammed Audu, son of the late Abubakar Audu, a former governor of Kogi State, for his alleged involvement in an alleged fraud.

The suspect, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Acting Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Tony Orilade, was arrested on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 for allegedly diverting the funds to the tune of several

millions of US Dollars and billions of Naira, which were donated to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), to his personal use.

Investigations revealed that the suspect allegedly used two of his companies, Mediterranean Hotels Limited and Mediterranean Sports, to divert the funds, which he could not account for. The suspect will soon be charged to court as soon investigations are concluded, the statement added.

Meanwhile, the EFCC, I l o r i n Z o na l O f f i c e o n Thursday, Februar y 20, 2020 arraigned a 66-yearold contractor, Chief Joseph www.businessday.ng

Oluwole Komolafe, before Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar of a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on a one-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N30million.

He was alleged to have diverted the said money from the fund meant to supply laboratory equipment for the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.

The charge against him reads: “That you, Oluwole Kamolafe being the alter ego of Destiny Work Limited, sometime in July 2015, in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did cheat

Femimat Concepet Limited the sum of N31,500,000.00 (Thirty One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira), when you intentionally induced Femimat Concept Limited to supply laboratory equipment in respect of a contract worth N128,199,968.00 (One Hundred and Twenty Eight Million One Hundred and Ninety-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and SixtyEight Naira) to University of Ilorin in your stead, which he would not supply, but for your inducement and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 320 of the Penal Code

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

Democratic rivals tear into Michael Bloomberg during TV debate Billionaire former New York mayor’s record on women and race under fire in Las Vegas LAUREN FEDOR AND COURTNEY WEAVER

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ichael Bloomberg came under sustained attack from all sides on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, as his Democratic rivals tore into the billionaire’s record on women and race, and accused him of trying to buy the election in the most combative presidential debate to date.

But the former New York mayor was not the only candidate under fire. In a marked departure from the eight previous, relatively staid, televised debates, the Democrats used Wednesday night to stake their claims ahead of Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, regularly shouting over and interrupting one another.

“I’d like to talk about who we are running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians,” said Elizabeth Warren, the US senator from Massachusetts. “And no I am not talking about Donald Trump. I am talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

Mr Bloomberg, who is worth an estimated $62bn, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money on advertising, leading many of his rivals to say he is trying to buy the Democratic party’s presidential nomination.

“I think we need something different than Donald Trump,” said Amy Klobuchar, the US senator from Minnesota. “I don’t think you look at Donald Trump and say, ‘We need someone richer in the White House.’”

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, went after both Mr Bloomberg and US senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont who is currently leading the field in

Presidential candidates Michael Bloomberg, left, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders during Wednesday’s Democratic TV debate in Las Vegas, Nevada © Getty

national opinion polls.

“Let’s put forward someone who’s actually a Democrat,” Mr Buttigieg said, in a reference to Mr Bloomberg, who first ran for mayor of New York City as a Republican, and Mr Sanders, who is the longest-serving independent in US congressional history. “We shouldn’t have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and one who want to buy this party out.”

I don’t think you look at Donald Trump and say, ‘We need someone richer in the White House Amy Klobuchar, US senator Mr Sanders is widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner after three national polls this week showed him with a double-digit lead among the party’s presidential candidates, who also include former US vice-president Joe Biden.

While he avoided some of the

more pugnacious exchanges on Wednesday’s debate stage, Mr Sanders, 78, was criticised for saying that he would not release more medical records. He briefly suspended his campaign last autumn after suffering a heart attack.

The other candidates also went after Mr Bloomberg for not immediately releasing his tax records.

“We do business around the world,” the billionaire said. “The document will be thousands of pages. I can’t go to TurboTax.” In one particularly fiery exchange, Ms Warren attacked Mr Bloomberg over non-disclosure agreements involving women he worked with who alleged sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Despite repeated questioning from Ms Warren, Mr Bloomberg refused to say how many NDAs had been signed, saying: “None of

them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told.”

Ms Warren and Mr Biden both pressed Mr Bloomberg to release the women from the agreements, but the former New York mayor refused, saying: “They signed the agreements and that’s what we’re going to live with.”

Ms Warren and Mr Sanders also tore into Mr Bloomberg’s policy of “stop and frisk” as New York mayor, which they said disproportionately targeted people of colour.

Mr Bloomberg apologised for the policy, saying: “I’ve asked for forgiveness, but the bottom line is that we stopped too many people.”

Both Ms Warren and Mr Sanders said the apology did not go far enough.

Mr Buttigieg and Ms Klobuchar, who are competing over many of the same moderate voters, also

locked horns repeatedly in the debate, with the former mayor going after the senator over everything from her record on Capitol Hill to a recent television appearance in Nevada, where she failed to correctly identify the president of Mexico.

At one point, Ms Klobuchar retorted: “I wish everyone was as perfect as you Pete.”

Mr Sanders won last week’s New Hampshire primary by a razor-thin margin, and Mr Buttigieg narrowly secured more delegates in the Iowa caucuses the week before.

The candidate who wins the most delegates is expected to be named the Democratic nominee at the party’s convention in Milwaukee this summer.

But Mr Sanders — who is currently polling at 27.8 per cent among Democrats nationwide, according to an average compiled by the website Real Clear Politics — was the only candidate on Wednesday’s debate stage to say that the Democrat with the most delegates heading into the convention should be the party’s nominee, regardless of whether they secure a majority of delegates.

The others raised the possibility of a contested convention, where delegates would vote in rounds and so-called super delegates of party grandees would participate from the second round.

“I think the will of the people should prevail,” Mr Sanders said, adding: “The person with the most votes should become the nominee.”

Mr Sanders’ critics were quick to note that this was a change from the Vermont senator’s position in 2016, when he raised the possibility of a contested convention, despite his opponent Hillary Clinton securing both more votes and more delegates.

Bill Gates-backed fund leads $20m investment into lithium start-up Breakthrough Energy Ventures promises a more efficient way to extract the mineral

HENRY SANDERSON

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he Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund has led a $20m investment into a start-up promising a more efficient way to extract lithium for batteries.

Oakland-based Lilac Solutions says its ion exchange technology will enable a “massive increase in lithium supply needed for electric vehicles” from brinebased deposits.

The investment comes amid growing concerns about the en-

vironmental impacts of lithium extraction from brine beneath the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the driest deserts in the world.

In Chile, which supplies about one-third of the world’s lithium, the mineral is evaporated from brine in large ponds using the sunlight. But in addition to using brine, the process also uses local freshwater resources.

It takes around 70,000 litres of water to produce one tonne of lithium, a similar amount to copper mining, according to Bloomberg New Energy Fiwww.businessday.ng

nance.

“It’s clear that lithium production cannot expand in the Atacama based on new evaporation ponds,” Dave Snydacker, chief executive of Lilac Solutions, said. “They need new technology to produce lithium without expanding their ponds otherwise the water impacts will become too severe.”

Lilac’s technology uses ion exchange beads placed in tanks that can extract lithium from brine, allowing the brine to be pumped back beneath the desert.

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Hydrochloric acid is then used to produce lithium chloride.

The company says its technology can boost the lithium recovery rate from brines to 80 per cent from 40 per cent. It can also be used on brines that have low-concentrations of lithium such as geothermal brines, it said.

Lilac is also working with a company called Controlled Thermal Resources on extracting lithium from geothermal brines in the Salton Sea in California, Mr Snydacker said.

Carmichael Roberts of the @Businessdayng

$1bn Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund said the company would allow lithium producers to extract much larger quantities of lithium at significantly lower cost.

“We can’t push for faster EV adoption without the resources to support production,” he said.

This is the type of industrial innovation required to support a transition to EVs at scale.”

The other investors in the Series A round were The Engine, an investment fund set up by MIT; Lowercarbon Capital; and the Grantham Foundation.

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Erdogan’s mission to defend lira unsettles overseas investors Measures to fight speculation have helped push foreign money out of Turkey’s markets LAURA PITEL, TOMMY STUBBINGTON AND ANNA GROSS

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hen the Turkish lira was struck by a bout of selling nearly a year ago, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that speculators would pay a heavy price for their “provocations”. He warned: “Our currency is the Turkish lira, and we will protect it.”

Some dismissed the remarks as bluster. But over the past 12 months, Turkish authorities have backed up the president’s words with measures designed to support the currency — and offset interest rate cuts aimed at rebooting economic growth.

On Wednesday, Turkey cut its benchmark rate for the sixth time in a row, with the one-week repo rate moving to 10.75 per cent, from 24 per cent last July. The falling interest rate — together with a general emergingmarket sell-off and concerns over the conflict in Syria — has piled pressure on the currency. Rising inflation means that real interest rates have turned negative.

In response, state banks have sold billions of dollars in a bid to prop up the lira, according to traders, while the banking regulator has taken further steps to curb short selling of the currency.

The stakes are high. A stable lira is vital both for Turkish companies, which are saddled with large amounts of foreign-currency debt, and to keep consumer prices stable.

The exchange rate is seen in Turkey as a barometer of Mr Erdogan’s management of the economy.

But the intervention has come at a cost, helping to push foreign

Analysts are looking at everything from passenger numbers and delivery app data to changes in emissions to see how the Chinese economy is being affected by Covid-19 © FT montage; Getty Images; Wu Hong/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

money out of Turkey’s capital markets. “The market doesn’t like these kinds of measures,” said Yerlan Syzdykov, global head of emerging markets at Amundi, the asset manager.

Overall foreign investment in Turkish stocks has fallen $1.6bn year-on-year, according to the latest Bloomberg figures. Meanwhile, about $3bn was pulled from bond markets in the year to January, reducing foreign investors’ share of local-currency debt to a record low 11 per cent.

“Government efforts to control financial markets are clearly a deterrent for investors like us,” said Gilles Seurat, a fund manager at the Paris-based asset manager, La Française.

Mr Seurat said his fund had been directly affected by controls imposed by the banking regulator, which limit the amount of swaps, forward contracts and other derivative transactions that Turkish banks can carry out with foreign counterparties. “Short selling is still possible, it is just more expensive,” he said.

Government efforts to control financial markets are clearly a deterrent for investors like us Gilles Seurat, Paris asset manager Julian Rimmer, a trader at Investec Bank, added that a ban imposed last year by Turkey’s capital markets regulator on betting against bank stocks had made it impossible to “pair” them — a

common way of hedging bets.

The heavy management of the currency makes it difficult to “hop in and out of positions”, said Mr Syzdykov. That is one of the reasons why Amundi is neutral on local bonds and on the lira, he said — though he is still drawn to Turkey’s high-yielding foreign currency-denominated debt, and bought into a recent $4bn eurobond syndication.

The measures have fed into broader concerns in the minds of investors. “Economic policy is just so unpredictable,” said Viktor Szabo, a fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “It’s hard to have a strong conviction.”

Another portfolio manager, who asked not to be named, described Turkey’s policy mix as “completely

incoherent”. He cited rising inflation and the lack of an interest-rate premium as reasons for sitting on the sidelines when it came to Turkey’s local-currency debt.

Still, some analysts and foreign investors accept that the measures appear to have helped to keep the lira steady. Piotr Matys, a currency strategist at Rabobank, said last week that the currency seemed to be on an “invisible string” attaching it to the level of six to the dollar. The rating agency Standard & Poor’s has described the FX regime as a “managed float”.

Orkun Saka, an assistant professor in finance at the University of Sussex, said it was “quite common” for governments to adopt more illiberal measures in the wake of a crisis. He said there could be benefits for financial stability, provided that restrictions were temporary.

But not everyone is convinced that the government’s efforts are working. Among the sceptics is Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Washington-based Institute of International Finance. He said there was little evidence that the measures had supported the lira, pointing to its weak performance compared to other emerging market currencies in recent months. “That doesn’t look to me at first glance like a managed float,” he said.

Erik Meyersson, a senior economist at the Swedish bank Handelsbanken, said Mr Erdogan would “most likely get what he wants,” with interest rates falling even further in the months ahead — but warned that would risk more currency weakness and rising inflation.

“The question is: how long can they do this?” he asked. “How long can they keep this up before the lira goes off again?”

Morgan Stanley agrees $13bn deal to buy ETrade Online trading platform purchase intensifies battle over US wealth management market LAURA NOONAN

M

organ Stanley has become the latest elite Wall Street bank to turn to Main Street for its future growth, adding millions of stock trading millennials to its customer base with the $13bn acquisition of online trading platform ETrade.

The deal — the largest by a global bank since the financial crisis and the second biggest by Morgan Stanley — comes as rival Goldman Sachs chases American consumers with its mass market wealth management business and online bank.

It also comes at a time of consolidation in the US wealth management market, most notably November’s $26bn merger between ETrade’s rivals Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade, in the wake of falling fees from stock trading.

“This was our preferred partner always,” James Gorman, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, told the Financial Times.

ETrade has more than 5.2m clients with assets totalling around $360bn on the platform, and Morgan Stanley described those clients as a “pipeline of emerging wealth”.

The bank’s existing wealth management business, formed through decades of acquisitions including a $13.5bn deal to buy Smith Barney in 2009, manages around $2.7tn of assets for 3m typically wealthy clients.

After the deal, Morgan Stanley will make 57 per cent of its pre-tax profits from wealth management and investment management — less cyclical businesses that, since the financial crisis, investors have been valuing more highly than investment banking.

Analysts and investors have long pointed to the need for consolidation in financial services, so that institutions can achieve economies of scale and diversify.

Mr Gorman insisted that deal was “not about being bigger, it’s about strategy”. He also gave short shrift to suggestions that the deal was a reaction to the Schwab Ameritrade merger. “I first called and spoke to ETrade in 2002 when I was at Merrill Lynch,” he told analysts.

The company said the all share deal would: deliver $400m of cost savings within three years, including efficiencies in infrastructure and real estate and some job cuts cut Morgan Stanley’s funding costs by $150bn within two years, thanks to the $57bn of low interest rate deposits from ETrade customers and take Morgan Stanley into retail banking through ETrade’s

digital high yield savings accounts and checking accounts make Morgan Stanley a leading workplace stock plan administrator by merging its $280bn stock plan balances with the $300bn held by ETrade’s Equity Edge platform accelerate the growth of Morgan Stanley’s fledgling retail bank Chief financial officer Jon Pruzan told analysts that the deal would “modestly” hurt earnings per share in 2021, before breaking even in 2022 and improving earnings in 2023.

“The break-even period is long, but that’s not really the way we looked on it,” he said.

Under the terms of the all-stock deal, investors will receive 1.0432 Morgan Stanley shares for each that they own in ETrade. Shares in ETrade surged 24 per cent in mid-morning trading in New York,

while Morgan Stanley, fell almost 4 per cent.

Analysts drew attention to the fact that the deal would reduce Morgan Stanley’s tangible book value per share by 10 per cent since the deal was struck at 16 times ETrade’s earnings and the bank only trades at 10 times earnings.

Still, commentary was largely supportive. Glenn Schorr, analyst at Evercore ISI, told clients it had “plenty of strategic positives”, including putting Morgan Stanley in a position to service “the full wealth spectrum” and giving them “consumerfacing tech platforms”.

Brennan Hawken, analyst at UBS, said the deal indicated that Morgan Stanley’s $900m acquisition of employee stock plans provider Solium a year ago was “going very well” and “is strong channel for customer acquisition”.

Friday 21 February 2020

FT

BUSINESS DAY

43

ANALYSIS

Why Sweden ditched its negative rate experiment Results of the Riksbank’s 5-year trial are being scrutinised by the world’s leading central banks RICHARD MILNE AND MARTIN ARNOLD

I

t is the biggest monetary policy experiment of modern times. One that has divided economists, central bankers and politicians.

But now that Sweden has called a halt to its five-year trial with negative interest rates the serious work has begun on looking at whether it worked.

Sweden’s Riksbank, the world’s oldest central bank, was the first to take its main repurchase rate — at which commercial banks can both borrow or deposit money — negative in early 2015, to fend off deflation, only returning to zero in December.

The end of the Swedish experiment is being watched with intense fascination, not just by those central banks that still have negative rates such as the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan, but also by authorities and economists worldwide pondering how to respond to the next downturn with limited ammunition to stimulate the economy.

For many, it is still too early to judge whether negative rates have worked or caused lasting damage to the economy and finance sector. But, Jakob Carlsson, chief executive of the Swedish life insurer Lansforsakringar Liv, is in no doubt. He calls subzero rates “a mistake”, arguing that they force people to save more and spend less. “Sooner or later, we will have to pay the bill for this experiment of artificially created negative rates,” he says.

Eurozone banks say they have paid €25bn in negative rates to the ECB since it cut rates below zero in June 2014, eating into their already weak profits.

Other areas of finance have also felt the strain — Dutch pension funds, only narrowly avoided cutting payouts to pensioners last year after the government intervened to loosen rules.

“The ECB, the US Federal Reserve and the entire central bank community are watching very closely what is happening in Sweden, it is an interesting empirical example,” says Guntram Wolff, director of the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels.

“The real question is whether a change in interest rates from negative to zero has an impact on inflation and economic growth.”

Negative rates turn the principles of finance on their head by forcing commercial banks to pay to store money at the central bank rather than earn interest on it. At the same time, some countries and companies have been paid to borrow. Most recently, some individuals across Europe

have begun paying to deposit large sums of money in banks, while mortgage borrowers in Denmark have received money from their house loans rather than having to pay interest.

The idea behind the topsyturvy policy is to encourage banks to lend more money instead of holding it at the central bank, thus stimulating the economy by also lowering financing costs for companies and households. Denmark, the eurozone, Japan and Switzerland still have negative rates but the evidence on whether they work — and with what side-effects — is still being collected.

The ECB, which last year cut its deposit rate to a new low of minus 0.5 per cent, argues that without its actions the eurozone economy would today be almost 3 per cent smaller and have 2m fewer jobs. “Clearly everybody is going to look at what conclusions are drawn from that monetary policy reversal . . . in Sweden, but I wouldn’t draw any conclusions as far as our policies are concerned,” Christine Lagarde, president of the ECB, said in February.

Ms Lagarde has, however, promised to study the sideeffects of negative rates, as part of a strategic review of monetary policy. “The longer our accommodative measures remain in place, the greater the risk that side-effects will become more pronounced,” she told the European Parliament.

Negative rates A brief history of extreme monetary policy Jun 2014 The European Central Bank cuts its deposit rate below zero for the first time to -0.1 per cent Jan 2015 The Swiss National Bank cuts its deposit rate into negative territory for the first time to -0.75 per cent Feb 2015 The Riksbank becomes first central bank to cut its repo rate below zero while Danish deposit rates hit a world-record low of -0.75 per cent

Jan 2016 Japan introduces a negative interest rate for the first time of -0.1 per cent Mar 2016 Norway cuts rates to a record low of 0.5 per cent, but never goes negative and starts hiking again in 2018 Aug 2019 The total amount of negative yielding debt peaks at $17tn Aug 2019 Denmark’s Jyske Bank offers a 10-year mortgage at -0.5 per cent but also imposes negative rates on some rich individuals’ deposits Sep 2019 US president Donald Trump calls on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to zero or below to enable the country to refinance its debts more cheaply Stefan Ingves, governor of the Riksbank, argues that negative rates have been a success in Sweden. But he accepts that had they continued indefinitely they could have had a detrimental impact, raising questions about their future value to policymakers.

The Riksbank introduced sub-zero rates in 2015, not due to weak growth — gross domestic product increased that year by 4.4 per cent in the EU member state — but because of the risk of deflation. Inflation dipped briefly below zero in 2014 and only returned to the Riksbank’s 2 per cent target at the end of 2017 when Sweden’s repo rate stood at a record low of minus 0.5 per cent.

“Inflation actually came back. So in that respect, going negative made the whole thing work,” Mr Ingves says, stressing that quantitative easing — government bond-buying — also helped. “The issue for us hasn’t been to stay negative for longer than we needed to”.

The Riksbank has been here before. Its 2010-11 decision to raise interest rates after the financial crisis was closely scrutinised. On that occasion it reversed course and cut rates again soon afterwards, drawing charg-

es of “sadomonetarism” from Nobel-prize winning economists and inspiring the Fed to slow its monetary tightening.

Now, there are questions being asked again after the Riksbank raised rates while the Swedish economy is slowing and inflation falling. Mr Ingves is clear that in a world wracked by economic uncertainty, “if the choice were to be at zero or slightly negative, to be at zero is a good place to be”. He argues that as Swedish growth has been stronger in recent years than the eurozone’s “it is not all that strange that we slightly distance ourselves from the eurozone”.

Yet, some economists argue that the Riksbank may be forced to return to negative territory if the economy weakens or the sharp drop in inflation — the annual rate fell from 1.7 per cent to 1.2 per cent in January on the back of low energy prices — intensifies.

After five years of running a negative rates policy the Riksbank governor identifies several areas where, he believes, they could cause long-term problems. Top of the list is the banking system, where critics claim negative rates could weaken already struggling institutions, discouraging lending and prompting savers and companies to hoard cash.

As a byproduct, Dietmar Schake, sales director of BurgWächter, says Germany’s largest safe manufacturer has benefited from a one-third increase in sales since the deposit rate at the ECB went below zero. “Customers prefer to keep their money at home rather than in their bank accounts, where negative interest rates are threatening,” he adds.

Mr Ingves says Sweden’s banks have coped better than those in the eurozone because a lack of bad loans and lower costs mean their return on equity has stayed relatively high. But even here there is now relief. Johan Torgeby, chief executive of one of Sweden’s largest banks SEB, says lenders involved in fixed income

“struggled for years” and calls the end of sub-zero rates “good news”. He adds: “We have never really understood what effect negative yields have on [boosting] consumption.”

He is not alone. One of the reasons the Riksbank gave for its decision to end negative rates was that the public struggled to understand the policy and thought it “strange”.

Banks provide 80 per cent of loans to European companies and households, making them the main channel to transmit interest rate policy into the wider economy. The Association of German Banks said in a recent report that negative rates had cost eurozone lenders a total of €25bn since they were introduced. “This burden is depressing the profitability of the banks and will ultimately even constrain their lending capacity,” it warned.

Much of the debate about negative rates hinges on the idea of a “reversal rate” below which lending activity by banks is subdued and starts to fall.

Research published last year

by Princeton University economists Markus Brunnermeier and Yann Koby found that many of the benefits of negative rates are front-loaded — such as gains in asset prices on bank balance sheets — while the corrosive side-effects last longer.

Bank lending in the eurozone was, however, shrinking when the ECB first cut rates below zero in 2014 and has since rebounded. Household lending is up more than 12 per cent since negative rates started, while corporate lending has grown 3 per cent. The ECB has also taken action to soften the blow for the banking sector, including a “two-tier” deposit system that exempts some of the money it holds for banks from negative rates, while also offering them loans at sub-zero levels to stimulate lending.

Among the big losers have been savers. With more than Continues on page 44

44

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

NATIONAL NEWS

UBS names ING’s Ralph Hamers as next chief executive Replacement lined up for Sergio Ermotti at Switzerland’s largest bank STEPHEN MORRIS, NICHOLAS MEGAW AND ROBERT SMITH

U

B S h a s a p p o i n ted ING boss Ralph Hamers as its next chief executive, replacing Sergio Ermotti at Switzerland’s largest bank.

Mr Hamers will take over on November 1 from Mr Ermotti, who has spent almost nine years turning round the Swiss lender after it was bailed out during the financial crisis.

The 59-year-old won plaudits for reviving earnings, cleaning up the bank’s balance sheet and making UBS the world’s largest wealth manager with $2.6tn in assets. Insiders and investors at both banks had not expected a succession to be announced so soon.

UBS and ING confirmed the appointment late on Wednesday evening, after the Financial Times first reported the plan. Mr Hamers, an ING veteran, will step down at the end of June and join UBS in September for a transition period alongside Mr Ermotti.

The Dutchman is a bold choice for UBS and his appointment comes less than a month after rival Credit Suisse replaced its chief executive.

Since taking the helm of ING in 2013, Mr Hamers has steered the bank through its post-financial crisis restructuring, repaid the money it received from the Dutch government and resumed dividend payments. The bank has also invested heavily in digital services and slashed the size of its traditional branch network.

Shares in UBS rose 1.4 per cent on Thursday morning, while ING shares gained 2.8 per cent.

Mr Hamers had overseen a “fundamental shift in ING’s operating

Ralph Hamers joined ING more than 28 years ago and has been chief executive of the Dutch lender since 2013 © Bloomberg

model”, analysts at Vontobel noted.

“ING is now considered one of the best examples of digital innovation in the banking sector.”

However, his tenure has more recently been marred by compliance failings. The bank received a record €775m penalty from Dutch prosecutors in 2018 and has been banned from taking on new customers in Italy for more than a year. “[Ralph] is a seasoned and wellrespected banker with proven expertise in digital transformation . . . [with] an impressive record,” Axel Weber, UBS chairman, said.

“As the industry undergoes fundamental change, Ralph is the person to lead UBS’s continued transformation.”

Late on Wednesday, ING had been forced to pull an additional

tier 1 (AT1) bond deal, cryptically saying that “information has come to the issuer, that needs to be studied”. The Dutch bank’s shares fell 4 per cent after the puzzling decision, which was made after Mr Hamers notified his board he was leaving, the FT reported.

Mr Hamers said he was “honoured by the opportunity to lead this great institution” that he had “long admired”. His appointment leaves the Zurich-based lender in the rare position of having a nonSwiss chairman and chief executive.

Mr Weber approached Mr Hamers months ago after it was mutually decided that Mr Ermotti’s tenure would not be extended, people familiar with the process told the FT. After an internal and external search, Mr Weber offered him the

job after concluding that he was the most capable and experienced candidate.

The 53-year-old was relatively unknown outside of ING when he took charge seven years ago but he has grown to become one of the continent’s most outspoken senior banking executives, publicly attacking measures ranging from the European Central Bank’s negative interest rate policy to bonus caps.

However, analysts at Barclays cautioned that Mr Hamers “does not have experience in running a global investment bank or wealth manager”. They added that “whilst he may be viewed as a leader in digital innovation, much of the investor concern for UBS is on the ability to right-size the cost base”.

Hans Wijers, chairman of ING’s

supervisory board, said: “Ralph has done an exemplary job in preparing our bank for the future . . . we will continue to build on the foundations Ralph has laid and we have strong confidence in our strategic direction.”

Mr Hamers is likely to receive a significant boost to his pay. Mr Ermotti earned SFr13.8m ($14m) in 2018, more than seven times the €1.75m received by his counterpart because of a Dutch law that limits bonuses for bankers to 20 per cent of their fixed pay.

ING was forced to scrap plans to give Mr Hamers a 50 per cent pay rise in 2018 after a political uproar, including intervention by the Dutch prime minister.

The departing Mr Ermotti is one of the longest-serving European bank chiefs, having taken over in November 2011. He rebuilt the lender after its damaging $60bn bailout in 2008 when the state took a 10 per cent stake and wrote down the value of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of toxic assets.

Since then, Mr Ermotti has pivoted the bank away from risky investment bank trading and pioneered a strategy to expand the wealth management unit — with a particular focus on Asia, ultra-wealthy clients and family offices.

Despite a recent downturn in performance at the investment and private banking units, and a €4.5bn tax-evasion scandal in France, UBS is still one of the more consistently profitable and bestvalued banks in Europe.

“There is never a right moment to step away from what is a dream job, but even dreams come to an end . . . the time has come for a new chapter for the bank,” Mr Ermotti said in a late-night memo to staff, seen by the FT.

Why Sweden ditched its negative rate experiment Continued from page 43 $13tn of bonds trading at negative yields, a growing number of pension funds, insurance companies, and banks are struggling to generate sufficient returns, raising doubts over some business models.

Mr Ingves acknowledges that Swedish insurance companies are heavily exposed to stock markets, unlike many of their European rivals. While shares have gone up, that has been good news. “But if the stock market is down at some time in the future, then risks are going up, and that increases risk in the system as a whole,” he adds.

Isabel Schnabel, a German economist who recently joined the ECB board, says that criticism of its monetary easing policies in her country “is all too often combined with claims and accusations that have no basis in fact”. While the average German saver is €500 out of pocket be-

cause of negative rates, Ms Schnabel says an average borrower is €2,000 better off and the overall gains outweigh the losses, with Berlin saving billions of euros on interest payments.

Another risk from negative rates is that they inflate asset price bubbles, while also keeping alive zombie companies that without cheap money would collapse. In Sweden, the big concern has been the housing market, with Mr Ingves repeatedly issuing warnings about record levels of household debt.

A series of measures to make mortgages harder to access have eased Swedish fears. The Riksbank recently changed its outlook on rates. Even when they were in negative territory, it always forecast increases.

But in December, it said rates would remain at zero for years until, in the words of Mr Ingves, “the fog lifts” and there is a clearer view of the global economy. www.businessday.ng

Gabriel Blir, an estate agent in central Stockholm, talks of the struggle he had to sell a flat bought near the peak of the market in 2016 for SKr4.5m. Two earlier attempts failed when bids went no higher than SKr4.2m but this month, after the Riksbank’s comments on rates, the flat was snapped up for SKr4.45m (€420,000). “When you hear that interest rates will stay low for years, it is a big safety net for buyers,” he says.

Such anxieties feed into the larger debate over the efficacy of negative rates. “There is an increasing realisation that the negative side-effects of these policies are becoming more apparent . . . while the benefits in terms of raising inflation to central banks’ targets have not been achieved,” says Danae Kyriakopoulou, chief economist at central banking think-tank OMFIF. Policymakers at the ECB seem

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committed to sub-zero rates in their quest to lift inflation. “The overall macroeconomic effect of unconventional measures remains positive . . . there may be diminishing returns from negative rates, though we are not yet close to the reversal rate,” says Olli Rehn, head of Finland’s central bank and a member of the ECB governing council. “If needed, we have capacity to cut further.”

Mr Ingves appears less sure of the use of negative rates in the future. He underscores that they could indeed go below zero in Sweden again if the economy deteriorates, but he stresses that in a sharp downturn additional policies would have to take more of the strain.

“I think there actually is a lower bound for the policy rate,” he says, adding that he finds it difficult to envisage a rate of, say, minus 5 per cent. Instead he argues the central bank would @Businessdayng

have to use its balance sheet more. So too would the government, whose debt is forecast to fall to close to 30 per cent of GDP this year, low by European standards.

His comments echo those of Ms Lagarde, who said in February: “Monetary policy cannot, and should not, be the only game in town”.

Central bankers are closely monitoring how Sweden fares in its move to zero rates as the outlook for growth and inflation both there and in the rest of the world remains uncertain.

“We look forward to a day when we can get out of negative rates,” says Philip Lane, chief economist of the ECB. “At some point, the comparison of benefits and costs is going to change . . . It is a lot easier to make that decision when inflation is closer to 2 per cent, as in Sweden, than when it is still too far away, as it is here [in the eurozone].”

Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 21 February 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 20 February 2020 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 344,788.69 9.70 0.52 120 7,097,472 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 261,625.57 7.65 0.66 332 32,362,776 ZENITH BANK PLC 609,091.98 19.40 -0.51 487 36,714,958 939 76,175,206 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 206,397.93 5.75 -0.87 329 31,185,614 329 31,185,614 1,268 107,360,820 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,361,123.51 116.00 - 49 268,832 49 268,832 49 268,832 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,896,886.26 170.00 - 193 712,194 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 252,892.39 15.70 0.64 127 2,732,911 320 3,445,105 320 3,445,105 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 356,008.96 605.00 - 5 28,280 5 28,280 5 28,280 1,642 111,103,037 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SFS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 1,539.00 76.95 -10.00 1 992,084 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 9,205.53 3.45 - 10 254,868 11 1,246,952 11 1,246,952 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 1,246,952 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 1 5,000 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 64,865.88 68.00 - 9 6,712 PRESCO PLC 49,850.00 49.85 - 8 20,338 18 32,050 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,500.00 4.25 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,860.00 0.62 -1.59 12 295,430 12 295,430 30 327,480 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES JOHN HOLT PLC. 217.92 0.56 - 0 0 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 S C O A NIG. PLC. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 38,615.59 0.95 1.05 41 4,102,565 U A C N PLC. 25,931.67 9.00 - 33 348,906 74 4,451,471 74 4,451,471 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 469.26 3.16 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 29,700.00 22.50 - 26 386,150 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 ROADS NIG PLC. 26 386,150 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 2,572.41 0.99 - 15 217,050 15 217,050 41 603,200 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 6,889.96 0.88 -9.28 13 345,891 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 220.45 0.81 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 55,197.65 25.20 - 28 300,531 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 189,377.58 7.05 - 16 203,930 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 411,840.46 51.50 - 36 134,723 93 985,075 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 145,200.00 12.10 - 89 454,029 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 94,308.73 23.00 -3.26 50 1,108,225 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 8,168.10 1.03 - 19 541,674 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 34,442.70 13.00 - 15 79,965 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 2,993.06 10.95 - 0 0 173 2,183,893 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 17,091.64 9.10 - 26 179,127 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 984,479.06 1,242.00 - 37 8,170 63 187,297 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 5,691.34 4.55 - 12 81,711 12 81,711 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 19,852.39 5.00 - 8 16,006 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 86,175.08 15.00 - 35 51,099 43 67,105 384 3,505,081 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 117,437.13 6.40 - 25 42,624 FIDELITY BANK PLC 61,716.32 2.13 0.47 51 4,205,600 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 824,073.02 28.00 -1.41 549 56,299,342 JAIZ BANK PLC 18,562.48 0.63 -7.35 20 2,335,590 STERLING BANK PLC. 43,185.63 1.50 -3.85 28 1,498,061 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 206,757.34 7.10 1.43 54 817,709 UNITY BANK PLC 6,896.71 0.59 - 9 178,782 WEMA BANK PLC. 25,459.15 0.66 1.54 22 886,514 758 66,264,222 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 11,216.90 0.99 10.00 47 3,979,295 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 18,900.00 1.80 - 9 122,966 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,601.60 0.32 - 1 6,000 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 8,248.52 0.56 - 5 92,500 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. 1,904.09 0.26 - 10 360,000 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 3,480.03 0.81 -10.00 10 560,984 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 3,440.00 0.43 -6.52 43 2,334,028 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,234.55 0.20 - 3 2,264,000 NEM INSURANCE PLC 10,983.45 2.08 1.96 12 518,241 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 0 0 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 3,283.36 0.61 - 14 1,020,239 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 - 4 502,000 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,272.89 0.20 - 2 200,000,022 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 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 4 2,940,000 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 4,550.13 0.34 9.68 18 250,992 182 214,951,267 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,835.43 1.24 7.83 4 150,000

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4 150,000 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 6,784.62 1.05 - 1 700 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 5,796.93 1.39 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 1 700 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 10,500.00 5.25 2.54 282 20,099,687 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 32,056.16 5.45 - 28 824,572 540.00 0.36 - 0 0 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC FCMB GROUP PLC. 37,625.15 1.90 1.60 52 11,466,552 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,183.44 0.23 - 1 20,000 404,441.24 38.50 - 29 2,164,265 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC UNITED CAPITAL PLC 21,240.00 3.54 9.94 167 23,953,757 559 58,528,833 1,504 339,895,022 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 2,592.72 5.20 - 6 103,725 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 710.63 0.20 - 0 0 6 103,725 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 494.58 0.50 - 2 842 2 842 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 5,299.36 2.54 - 6 99,504 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 5,979.38 5.00 - 18 102,587 3,484.97 2.02 - 4 34,000 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 911.60 0.48 - 9 153,620 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 37 389,711 45 494,278 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 781.44 0.22 4.76 3 122,000 3 122,000 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,206.13 0.41 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 2 700 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 291.60 2.70 - 0 0 287.07 0.58 - 4 2,062 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 6 2,762 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,408.82 0.30 7.14 18 1,805,751 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 10,962.00 2.61 - 0 0 18 1,805,751 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,123,311.48 298.90 - 1 10 1 10 28 1,930,523 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,956.31 6.75 - 4 21,614 BUA CEMENT PLC 1,220,809.96 36.05 3.00 49 1,177,869 CAP PLC 17,220.00 24.60 - 13 63,028 MEYER PLC. 244.37 0.46 - 0 0 1,769.32 2.23 - 1 2,222 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 67 1,264,733 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,192.12 2.03 - 0 0 2,465.85 1.40 - 4 213,000 CUTIX PLC. 4 213,000 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 34,998.04 70.00 - 0 0 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 0 0 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 71 1,477,733 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,873.10 4.50 - 1 352 1 352 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 - 2 20,500 2 20,500 3 20,852 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,252.54 0.20 - 39 8,798,929 39 8,798,929 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 40,526.40 3.26 -6.59 82 2,183,811 82 2,183,811 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 48,031.29 133.20 - 22 9,997 CONOIL PLC 12,491.14 18.00 - 19 54,545 ETERNA PLC. 2,803.91 2.15 - 7 40,657 FORTE OIL PLC. 21,751.43 16.70 - 63 283,806 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 4,206.05 13.80 - 2 220 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 36,328.84 107.00 - 10 14,442 123 403,667 244 11,386,407 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,509.28 0.34 - 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 - 1 2,000 1 2,000 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,623.26 4.45 - 3 13,500 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 421.96 0.90 - 0 0 3 13,500 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,259.15 2.75 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 2,515.34 1.21 10.00 3 346,304 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,076.28 3.15 - 0 0 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 30,781.64 4.05 - 3 4,110 6 350,414 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 3,960.00 0.33 - 0 0 0 0 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 223.78 0.37 - 0 0 LEARN AFRICA PLC 956.60 1.24 - 4 88,277 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 0 0 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 539.26 1.25 - 6 61,200 10 149,477 ROAD TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 580.20 0.35 9.38 9 166,600 9 166,600 SPECIALTY INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 688.80 2.91 - 0 0

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Women in Business

Hadiza Bala Usman Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)

H Y

adiza Bala Usman (born January 2, 1976) is a Nigerian politician who since 2016 is serving as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority. She was previously the chief of staff to the Governor of

Kaduna State from 2015 to 2016.

She is one of the co-founders of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, and is also a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Usman was born in Zaria to a Fulani

vonne Ike is a managing director and head of Sub Saharan Africa (Ex-RSA) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individuals, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company serves approximately 56 million U.S. consumer and small business relationships. It is among the world’s leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading.

Yvonne says, as an organisation, globally, Bank Of America is one of the top three banks in the world, and they operate in more than 150 countries. “Our primary services are commercial banking, investment banking and asset management. We leverage our global networks for commerce and important initiatives, which spans across arts, education and a number of other initiatives like health care and AIDS in Africa, and even when we shape our businesses, we are very thoughtful about what we do and why we do it.

Our Sub-Saharan Africa strategy revolves around servicing the key sectors in the economy like telecoms, financial services, retail services and advising the government” Since joining in September 2014, Yvonne has established the Bank as a leader in providing international financial services in the sub-Saharan Africa region.

She is an executive sponsor of BofAML Inter-Generational (iGEN) Employee Network which provides a platform for young talent to network, improve their broader understanding of the banking sector and navigate their career opportunities within the bank. She is also a sponsor of the Africa

Recruitment Programme.

Prior to joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch in September 2014, Yvonne was a chief executive officer at West Africa at Renaissance Capital, where she was responsible for the firm’s West Africa franchise covering Investment Banking and Securities Trading. From 1984 to 2009, Yvonne was a managing director at JP Morgan.

She also worked as a partner at Africapital Management Limited from 2009 to 2011.

Yvonne started her career as an auditor with Ernst and Young International and has been an FSAregistered representative since 1994.

Ike has more than 20 years experience in the financial services, including capital markets operations and fixed income, derivatives and equities products. Over the course of her career, Yvonne has led senior teams in New York, Geneva, Hong Kong, Nigeria, India and South Africa.

Yvonne is a trustee of The Bridge Leadership Academy, Christopher Kolade Foundation and The Dangote Foundation.

She is passionate about actively contributing to Africa’s development and is involved in several initiatives including African Gifted Foundation and Women for Women International.

She has received many international awards including being recognized by the Queen of England as one of the top 200 business women in the UK to make a significant impact in society.

Ike is an internationally regarded investment banker credited with pioneering a number of ground breaking transactions which significantly deepened the Nigerian market. She gained exposure to all capital market operations and products including fixed income, derivatives, and equities.

Being Managing Director at JP Morgan, trusted with the responsibility for West Africa, was her reason for working mainly in Nigeria. In this role, Yvonne was instru-

BUSINESS DAY Friday 21 February 2020 www.businessday.ng

By Kemi Ajumobi

ruling class family of the Sullubawa clan.

Her father, Yusufu Bala Usman, was a prominent academic and historian. He later founded the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training in Zaria. Her maternal great grandfather, Abdullahi Bayero, was the 10th Emir of Kano from 1926 to 1953.

She grew up on the campus of Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where her father worked. She started her education at the university staff primary school and went ahead to complete her secondary education. In 1996, she enrolled at the university and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2000.

She later received a Masters degree in Development Studies from the University of Leeds in 2009.

In 1999, she spent a year at the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training in Zaria as a research assistant.

Hadiza then worked at the Bureau of Public Enterprises from July 2000 to August 2004 as an enterprise officer. From October 2004 to January 2008, she was then hired by the UNDP for the Federal Capital Territory Administration as a special assistant to the Minister on project implementation.

In 2011, she campaigned and lost for the federal constituency of Musawa/ Matazu as a candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change. She then joined the Good Governance Group in Nigeria, a nongovernmental organisation, as the country director of strategy from 2011 to July 2015.

In 2014, following the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping by Boko Haram, Hadiza Bala Usman co-founded the Bring Back

Our Girls campaign group to advocate the rescue of the abducted schoolgirls.

Hadiza Bala Usman has helped coordinate meetings with the parents of the kidnapped girls and members of the Nigerian government.

In 2015, following his election, Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai appointed her as Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State. She was appointed as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari. Her appointment generated a lot of controversies as many saw her nomination as ethnically based and questioned her qualification for the specific role.

Hadiza is from the Northern part of Nigeria where there are not enough women involved in politics and there are some not even allowed at all in most cases. Nevertheless, she chose to be different. According to her, “Where I come from in the north, women are conditioned to think that they’re not meant to be out there. But I’m a woman who will take what’s mine. I serve as an inspiration to young women out there. So I encourage all of us, young women, older women to just think of who we are and what we want to achieve and push the boundaries and refuse to be defined by anyone else.”

“We refuse to allow ourselves to fit into a box. There’s a particular narrative that’s around who you are as an African woman.

For me as a northern woman, the case is that you’re required to stay in that nice ‘happy box’ that they’ve put you in, and I refused to do that. I wouldn’t stay in that place they put me in and what happened is that I turned out to be the MD of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).”

Yvonne Ike Managing director, head of Sub Saharan Africa (Ex-RSA) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch mental in raising the profile of Nigeria as IBTC. In an advisory capacity, she provided an investment destination for international financial and ratings advise to the Federal investors and was involved in 28 transac- Government of Nigeria, the Ghanaian Govtions across Africa. ernment and The Lagos State Government.

She led innovative transactions includ- She led a team that built a cross product ing GT Bank’s Global Depositary Receipt business that exceeded revenues of $100m.

(GDR) a US750M listing on the London In 2008, she was a member of the special Stock Exchange, the US$300M UBA GDR, Technical Committee for the Review of Yvonne led on the merger of Stanbic and Capital Market Structure.

For sponsorship and advert placement contact: kemi@businessdayonline.com 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.