BusinessDay 22 Jul 2020

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news you can trust I ** wednesDAY 22 july 2020 I vol. 19, no 611

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How to replicate Benin City gaspowered vehicle model across Nigeria ISAAC ANYAOGU, Lagos, IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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he model used in Benin City to covert thousands of taxis and private vehicles from petrol-powered to run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) offers Nigeria the best way to ramp up the plan to shift towards gas-powered vehicles.

In January 2010, the management of NIPCO plc commissioned its first CNG plant and filing station in Benin City with a promised that the new initiative will not only reduce the cost motorists spent on powering their vehicles but also get value for their money.

One of the factors accounting for its success is that it was implemented in a closed system.

This means that rather than general adoption, it was started among cab operators and filling stations within a closed loop, which makes it easier to provide support.

A major impediment to adoption of Natural Gas Vehicles Continues on page 30

Inside

3rd Mainland Bridge: 132,406 road users to be affected P. 2

L-R: Abubakar Aliyu, minister of state for works and housing; Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, and Boboye Oyeyemi, corps marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, after a news conference on the closure of Lagos Third Mainland Bridge for rehabilitation/maintenance in Abuja, yesterday. See story on page 2

CBN’s benign economic outlook for Q2 deviates from consensus expectations N LOLADE AKINMURELE

igeria’s central bank had a more benign outlook for economic growth in the second quarter (Q2) 2020 than the expectations of many economists, and even the local finance ministry.

The Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) expects economic growth to decline by 1.03 percent in the second quarter, it said in a note published on its website. The forecast of 10 economists polled

by BusinessDay shows expectations for a 2.5 percent contraction in same period, which about doubles the CBN’s forecast.

“The CBN is significantly more optimistic about the economy than we are because Q2 was when we saw consumption spending eased considerably,” said Omotola Abimbola, an analyst at Chapel Hill Denham.

“The most brutal effects of the pandemic probably happened in Q2, so it is hard to find factors that could drive a different outcome,” Abimbola said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month downgraded its growth forecast for Nigeria to a contraction of 5.4 percent from 3.4 percent.

The economy is however tipped to exit recession in 2021, after growing by 2.6 percent.

The IMF said the forecast was influenced by the larger than expected storms to global value chains due to the coronavirus, affecting global demand for goods and services.

“Disruptions due to the pandemic as well as significantly

lower disposable income for oil exporters after the dramatic fuel price decline, imply sharp recessions in Russia (–6.6 percent), Saudi Arabia (–6.8 percent), and Nigeria (–5.4 percent), while South Africa’s performance (–8.0 percent) will be severely affected by the health crisis,” the IMF said.

The pandemic was at its peak during the second quarter and there are expectations for the worst of the pandemic to have

Continues on page 30

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news What CBN’s new mortgage guarantee company means for home buyers, mortgage lenders CHUKA UROKO

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s part of efforts to breathe life into Nigeria’s fledgling mortgage industry, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has initiated a move to float what it calls mortgage guarantee company (MGC) expected to change, significantly, Nigeria’s inaccessible and unaffordable mortgage loan story.

For reasons bordering on high interest rate, equity contribution and other stringent conditions, mortgage loans are inaccessible and unaffordable in Nigeria, especially by low-income earners who need mortgage the most to enable them buy, build or renovate existing properties.

But the new MGC is planned to change that narrative. The company, according to a CBN circular obtained by BusinessDay at the weekend, is expected to further deepen the mortgage market through increased access to mortgage finance and sharing of credit risk with mortgage lending institutions.

In specific terms, the company is to support mortgage originators such as

Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) and mortgage lending commercial banks to increase mortgage lending by guaranteeing or partially guaranteeing against losses resulting from borrowerdefaults on their residential mortgages.

It will also facilitate increased access to housing finance by reducing or replacing the requirement for equity contribution that would otherwise disqualify mortgagors from accessing mortgages, as required by the uniform underwriting standards.

The implication of this shared risks and reduced equity contribution is that it will encourage lenders to give loans to borrowers who, ordinarily, would not have qualified to take mortgage while, at the same time, encourage borrowers to take loans because both the risk and requirements are now less.

“The wider implication of this development is that it will not only bridge the housing demand-supply gap and increase homeownership level, but also catalyse the growth of the

Nigeria losing FX battle as banks limit dollar spending abroad LOLADE AKINMURELE

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igerian banks limiting how much dollar customers can spend abroad is the latest sign of Nigeria’s worsening foreign exchange (FX) crisis.

The banks are making moves last seen during the dark days of 2016, when an acute dollar scarcity hobbled the balance sheet of lenders and paved way for a big naira devaluation.

Like they did in 2016, lenders are again imposing customer spending limits to prevent a FX hole from growing too quickly to unmanageable levels on their balance sheets, and will only ease the limits as dollar

liquidity improves, according to Adesoji Solanke, a banking analyst at Renaissance Capital.

“The limit on debit card spending is reflective of the ongoing dollar liquidity squeeze on the ground as when you spend abroad, banks typically have to buy back the dollars from the CBN,” Solanke notes in an email.

“If the dollars are not forthcoming and the banks continue using their proprietary dollars with unabated customer spending limits, it could lead to a dollar liquidity mismatch on their balance sheets,” Solanke adds.

In another sign of the growing FX crisis, the CBN added maize to a list of items banned from buying dollars

from the banks last week as it battles a 19-percent slump in its dollar reserves in the last one year.

The actions by the banks and the CBN, coupled with an ever widening spread between the official rate and black market rate, are signs the country is losing the battle to revive its ailing FX market, according to some senior bankers.

The naira’s black market rate fell to N470 per dollar Monday, according to Aboki FX, which collates rates from street traders.

That is the weakest since February 2017, according to Bloomberg data.

While the CBN continues to publish an official N360/$ rate on its website, trading platform, FMDQ,

quoted N388/$ Monday.

That means the spread between the official and black market rate is anywhere between N82 and N110/$.

Sources say some heavyweights from bank treasurers to manufacturers with dollar obligations are fast resorting to buying dollars from the black market, as liquidity dries up in the official market.

The CBN, which announced monetary policy decisions Monday, was mute on the country’s acute dollar shortage and how its management of the FX market was evolving.

Investors and analysts are hoping the CBN would provide some clarity on why Continues on page 30

Continues on page 30

International flight resumption date uncertain IFEOMA OKEKE

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ontrary to Nigeria’s aviation regulator, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), extending closure of international airspace till October, Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, has stated that flight resumption date will be announced in an agreed date.

In his tweeter handle yesterday, Sirika stated, “International flight resumption date is not October. NAMA just issued a routine 90-day Notices to Airmen (NOTAM).

“In liaison with Health, Foreign Affairs & PTF COVID-19, we will announce the agreed date, regardless of the ban by Europe, UAE, etc. May be earlier than October,” Sirika said.

However, the NCAA had issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stating that it was extending closure of international airspace until October 15, instead ofAugust19aspreviouslystated.

A source at NCAA confirmed this development in a telephone interview with BusinessDay, saying international airports would remain closed until October.

He said there was never a time the Federal Government gave a specific date for reopening the airspace for international flight operations,

but that the government had previously said the airports would be closed until August.

The Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) however said its attention had been drawn to insinuations making theroundsthatNigerianAirports had been shut to international flightsuntilthemiddleofOctober 2020.Theagencysaidsuchspeculations were entirely untrue.

InastatementsentbyNAMA and signed by Khalid Emele, corporate communications person of the agency, it stated: “Following the receipt of an All Operators Letter (NCAA/DG/ AIR/11/16/152)fromNCAA,the agency issued an Aeronautical InformationCircular(AIC)titled ‘PhasedResumptionofDomestic Flights’ on 7th July 2020 to the effect that Lagos and Abuja airports will open for domestic flight operations on 8th July, Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Maiduguri and Uyo opens on 11th July and all other airports on 15th July 2020.”

The agency recalled that on July 15, 2020, in line with international standards, it issued a three-month duration NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) (from July 15 to October 15, 2020), stating that the Federal Government of Nigeriahadextendedtheclosure ofthenation’sairportstoallinternationalflightswiththeexception ofaircraftinastateofemergency. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Eddie Efekoha, immediate past president; Muftau Oyegunle, new president, with his wife Elizabeth, and Ladipo Ajayi, past president/administrator of Oath, at the investiture ceremony of Muftau Oyegunle as the 50th president of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, held in Lagos.

3rd Mainland Bridge: 132,406 road users to be affected … as Lagos increase trips on waterways JOSHUA BASSEY, Lagos & HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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t least 132, 406 road users plying the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge on a daily basis would be affected, as the Federal Government embarks on its partial closure for maintenance with effect from July 24 to January 23, 2021.

But Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, said at a media briefing on Tuesday that the repair work was about prioritising safety of the populace who commute daily on the road.

However, as part of the efforts to cushion the effect og the partial closure, the Lagos Ferry Services (LAGFERRY) would be increasing its daily trips on most of the routes it currently operates.

Abdoulbaq Ladi Balogun, managing director of LAGFERRY, listed some of

the water routes to include Ilaje-Bariga terminal; situated at the beginning of the Third Mainland Bridge from Oworonsoki to Victoria Island to Falomo-Ikoyi to CMS-Marina and terminates at EbuteEro and Bayeku to Oke ra nla to Badore.

Describing the bridge as the busiest route in the country averaging 132,406 road users according to traffic count of 2019, Fashola said a combined selected team from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Federal Ministry of Works would continuously brief people on alternative routes to follow as the partial maintenance last.

The bridge is 12.8km, we are closing 3.5km so it is partial and not a total closure, Fashola said.

He said Hyginus Omeje from the FRSC and an engineer from the works and housing would be our spokes-

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persons on ground and we have directed them to liaise with Lagos Traffic radio and engage on the social media space communicating with the people on alternative roads,”Fashola said.

Fashola said the Federal Government was also undertaking the survey for all the bridges across the country to determine their urgency and their repair needs.

He said: “At a time, we estimated that we would need about N227 billion for such maintenance to do all of that work for over a period of four years. We didn’t get what we requested, but started off with what we got.

As we speak, we’ve intervened on 37 bridges across Nigeria’in respect to maintenance work, Fashola said.

The minister also stated that work has started in Eko Bridge and Obalande Bridge which was damaged by fire @Businessdayng

tanker that exploded a month ago.

Boboye Oyeyemi, the corps marshal of FRSC, who described the road as the busiest in the country, said the corps was ready to manage the traffic situation as the government diverts traffic for the partial closure.

“It is common practice all over the world to make periodic maintenance a priority.

Historically, the bridge started its life in the 70’s and got finished in the 90’s. It was built as a response to the rapid urbanisation of Lagos with its increasing population and traffic problems.

Meanwhile, as part of the efforts to cushion the effect the partial closure of the bridge, the Lagos State government has said that Lagos Ferry Services (LAGFERRY) would be increasing its daily trip operations on most of the routes it currently operates.

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COVID-19 crisis: To your tents O Nigerians!

Franklin Ngwu

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ith relaxation of COVID 19 restrictions particularly inter-state travel, there has been an exponential increase in infections and fatalities. As at Monday 20th July 2020, Nigeria has recorded 36,663 cases and 789 deaths with the sudden increase attributed to relaxation of interstate movements. And as a result, many states are emerging as new epicenters of COVID-19. While there is no doubt of the need to relax some of the restrictions for economic activities, the challenge is the unpreparedness of most states in Nigeria to manage the consequences of lifting the lockdowns and the wider COVID-19 challenges.

Through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Federal Government has been trying to coordinate the fight against COVID-19 but most of our governors from the beginning of the crisis have continued to exhibit lamentable unpreparedness and irresponsibility in their task to curtail the pandemic in their respective states. Even with the increasing infection including some governors and state government officials, there seems to be a flawed perception that COVID-19 is a Federal Government problem with no properly equipped isolation centers in most states and the wider health sector in very poor and shocking states.

As if they are oblivious of what to do, all the actions so far have been very reactive and limited with no detailed examination of the health and socio-economic implications to their states. With the way

COVID-19 is spreading and the unserious disposition of our governors, it seems that we have been told, “To your Tents O Nigerians”!

This is even more so with the embarrassing infighting and seeming lack of proper coordination of the PMB’s government. With open fights and disagreements in many ministries and parastatals, the question on many lips is who will save Nigeria from the emerging health and socio-economic crisis under a disorganised Federal Government, unserious and unprepared State Governments, and unseen and absent Local Governments.

Just as we thought that the forensic audit of NDDC will help sanitise the place, it is becoming clear that the Interim Management Committee might have been constituted for a different agenda other than to enhance the forensic audit.

While Nigerians are bewildered with the shameful altercations and revelations between the Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio and former Managing Director of NDDC, Joi Nunieh, the shock is exacerbated with the detention, suspension and probing of EFFC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu with some claiming that it is a manifestation of an incoherent government. If presidential directive through the Minister of Labour and productivity, Chris Ngige is not being disobeyed by the management of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), the Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman seems to be in an unending power tussle with Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed over the management of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) with both claiming to have directives of Mr President, the same and only one President!

Imagine the management of NSITF countering the directive of Mr President and showing their supervising Minister unprecedented insubordination. If Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo is not fighting with the National Assembly, Abike Dabiri- Erewa’s Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) is accusing

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As Nigeria is ranked as the poverty capital of the world with over 100 million Nigerians described as extremely poor, the appropriate question and focus of every governor and local government chairman/ lady should be on how these vulnerable Nigerians will survive during and after COVID-19

the Minister of Communication, Isa Ali Patani of eviction from Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) building.

Interestingly and embarrassingly, all the combatants are members of the same party but as a friend said, the Centre seems unable to hold evident in both APC and the Federal government.

Across the states and local governments, the story is the same. While most of the second term governors are mainly focused on how they will become the president or senator in 2023, the first term ones are completely fixated on how to secure their second term irrespective of their performance. For local government, there is really nothing to say as most exist mainly to share money among respective political elites. With such disorganisation, unpreparedness and ineffectiveness in all levels of our government, the fate of Nigerians is in serious jeopardy with COVID-19 and related socio-economic crises.

As Nigeria is ranked as the poverty capital of the world with over 100 million Nigerians described as extremely poor, the appropriate question and focus of every governor and local government chairman/lady should be on how these vulnerable Nigerians will survive during and after COVID-19. But alas, this is Nigeria!

While the Federal Government has launched the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan, a critical examination reveals that it neither has the requisite details nor the inclusive formulation required for sustainable and effective implementation. For instance, while it is stated that about N635 billion will be used for agricultural development with the 36 states encouraged to provide 20,000- 100,000 hectares of land for farming, nothing is said about what each state will focus on or the implementation procedures.

Moreover, placing the execution and coordination of the plan in the hands of ministers erodes the sense of ownership needed for such a plan to succeed. In the same vein, if it is in a well governed environment, an informed and skilled team

The sociology of Nigerian ‘Hushpuppism’

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he arrest of Nigerian-born Ramoni Abass, with “Hushpuppi” social media identity and his gang in DUBAI over alleged transnational cybercrime during which nearly 2 million were ripped off, unveils how deceitful living is ubiquitous, celebrated and elevated above moral uprightness in Nigeria. “Hushpuppism” is a survivalist strategy which deliberately distorted reality in relation to what is earned, how it is earned and the revealed identity. The revealed identity has two parts: the actual and the framed identity.

In relation to the former, only the acting individual and the gang keep this close to their heart. The framed identity is that part of human life that is portrayed to outsiders as the actual. To break this down, there are many contemporary politicians in Nigeria who portray themselves as followers of late Sage, Obafemi Awolowo’s ideology but their actual realities have betrayed them. Just as the followers of Awolowo’s political ideology call themselves “Awoists” and dress alike those who believe in “hushpuppism” as ideology of living are “hushpuppies”. How can sociology help to unpack how our collective negligence birthed and nurture “hushpuppism” from pre-colonial to a more daring and endemic dimension in 2020 Nigeria?

I had gone to Bodija market in Ibadan to buy beans. The woman bean seller fixed her price per kongo (the measuring container) at N400 and was not ready to reduce my offer of N350.

As I made to leave to try my luck elsewhere, she called me that I should come and pay. While she was measuring, I realised she changed the

kongo to a smaller one that would make me lose some cups. I challenged her for using a fraudulent measurement for me. She said that she would not allow me to go and buy it elsewhere since I insisted on paying N350.

She then said in Yoruba “mo jewo otito fun yin nitori Jesu o nii pe de” (I confessed to you because Jesus will soon come). This ‘heavenly’ candidate rips customers off every day but wanted me to see her as a child of God through confession yet, she failed to change the measuring plastic. On another day at Eleyele, I had packed to buy vegetables from the road side sold for fifty naira. I deliberately gave the seller hundred naira and waited for balance.

She pretended as if she was waiting for me to ask for another item.

I strolled away but she failed to call me back for my balance. She made extra N50 through deceit. We complain about those leading the country as wicked but the masses are wickeder.

These are people on the lowest rung of the ladder victimising another person to enrich themselves. This is the character of the Nigerian social institutions which nurture variants of “hushpuppic” norms and values.

From the family, parents nurture their children to lie. When driving with children inside the car, they drive against traffic while the wife smiles that her husband is smart. They go ahead to arrange special centres for exams, pay for examination questions, buy admission space in the universities and continue to lobby for their children to graduate. The person who has never been socialised to follow normative standards

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cannot get to the position of authority and behave well against others. This births the corruption relay race where the next is waiting for the baton holder to handover to him/her to continue the looting. In the school, money rules how the teacher relates with pupils. No sound moral teachings. Parents won’t allow punishment of their children. They induce poorly paid teachers to tinker with marks. Their kids progress in life in error. They are socialised to take shortcuts to achieve their goals. After all, Falz song says “eni to mo way lomo iwe” (those who understand how to scheme their ways to success in school are the bookworm). In the University they can’t be different. They arrange with their corrupt lecturers in a transactional dealing to award marks instead of reading to pass.

The political institution inherits these bad apples. Their campaigns are founded and erected on lies. Since they are in a familiar terrain, they buy their way to power. Once in power, they begin to run a government of the few, for the few, enthroned by the deceived majority. They award fat salaries and allowances to themselves and watch the civil servants’ dwell in the dungeon of hopelessness. It does not matter the slogan, whether change begins with me, or rebranding, fleecing of the common patrimony is a shared norm.

They would deceive labour Unions into signing agreements that would not be honoured yet they expect the youth to behave honourably. The doctors, nurses, scientists and researchers who are being called upon to rescue the nation from COVID-19 are among the neo-colonial slaves

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of experts should have been set up by each state governor since January 2020 to strategise and plan on how to effectively manage the COVID-19 crisis. With the spread and duration of the virus likely to be wide and prolonged, we should have seen and read properly thought and detailed COVID-19 policy paper of every state in Nigeria with convincing plans of how to mitigate and manage the crisis in terms of health challenges, revenue, unemployment, poverty, insecurity and business environment.

The above is how to respond to crises such as COVID-19 and not the unplanned and unprepared ways we are seeing from our government. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly further exposed the precarious state of our health sector. Of the 36 states and FCT, it seems that it is only Lagos and possibly two other states that can be said to have a reasonable public health sector. The remaining states can only be described as below standards and unserious.

With the global exposure of pandemics such as COVID-19, it should be clear to our leaders that the sustainable solution to our health challenges is in proper development of our health sector as the alternative of travelling abroad might not be feasible in certain situations such as this. Under normal circumstances, there is no reason why every senatorial zone should not have a well equipped general hospital with specialisation in two or three areas of medicine. On this demand, while some governors will argue that it is due to lack of resources, the truth is that it is not. There is no state in Nigeria that is not very viable. What is lacking from our governors is lack of focused leadership and vision to use the abundant resources of their respective states to lead and sustainably develop Nigeria!

Dr. Ngwu, is an Economist/Associate Professor of Strategy, Risk Management & Corporate Governance, Lagos Business School and a Member, Expert Network, World Economic Forum. E-mail- fngwu@ lbs.edu.ng,

Oludayo Tade battling for independence. You then wonder why the best would leave our system while those who lack interest in the system are emplaced. This again nurtures “hushpuppic” culture.

Religious institutions also get their leadership from this structure. Not many wait for God to call them again; they would rather pick their phone to call God. After all, did Adekunle Gold not sing Baba God pick up the call? As a product of a deceptive foundation, they nurture accumulation of wealth by deception through their preaching and use the proceeds of deceit and looting to erect cathedrals and Mosques and acquire conspicuous consumption.

Religious leaders have lost their voices to fight ills in the society; rather, they encourage cutting corners through their unending levies on members. They provide special seats for fraudsters. A ‘philanthropist’ receives greater attention while the source of money does not matter to them. They pray that the source will not run dry yet we wonder why corruption is becoming endemic. The congregation also wants to dress and ride luxury cars used by clergymen.

They also go into the world, con people, shortchange the system and return to the spiritual centres with money from questionable sources.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Dr Tade, a sociologist sent this piece via dotad2003@ yahoo.com

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Recovery 106: Using policy actions to protect Microfinance Banks Small Business handbook

Emeka Osuji

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here is no debate that a pandemic has damaged the world economy. The only possible issue of debate is the extent of the damage and where the impact will end. Undoubtedly, the damage is still unfolding and may even be selfreinforcing. As companies shut down and bankruptcies trend across the world, following the pandemic, the financial system is going through one of its deepest convulsive experiences since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

In remediation, considerable focus has been placed on the corporate sector, by governments, with a view to restoring its productive health. The Nigerian microfinance sector has been fairly well organized and effective in supporting the war against poverty.

We must not allow this to change.

There has been coordinated efforts of public institutions, especially public banks, to support the banking industry in most jurisdictions, in order to ensure that it is stable and capable of delivering its services to the economy. These efforts, which reflect the critical role of the banking system in the economy, have manifested in prudential guidelines and rules that offer significant doses of forbearance

to deposit money banks, and some accommodation to their customers.

In all of this happening in different parts of the world, including Nigeria, it does appear however, that the microfinance sector is not receiving the same kind of attention. It may be useful here to look at some specific areas, policy action may be used to support that very important segment of the banking industry.

MFBs are very important but they are not considered to be Systemically Important as defined by central banks, in the sense having a very deep impact on the economy if they fail.

In regard to systemic importance, deposit money banks definitely have a far-reaching impact on the economy, relative to microfinance banks (MFBs). Although there may be some very big MFBs whose failure may have significant negative impact on the system, it will be nothing compared to what would happen if a major bank fails. By their balance sheet size, MFBs often fail to meet the level of assets and liabilities that would make them systemically important. To that extent, it is understandable why governments mostly focus on protecting the deposit money banking sector at times like these. However, it would be a major policy error not to take serious steps to protect the microfinance sector of the financial system, which has the most direct impact on the most vulnerable members of the society.

History has shown that operators in the informal sector, the domain of microfinance institutions, are the most seriously affected during major crises. This should not be a discovery if we consider that the MSMEs, who dominate the informal sector, form

the bulk of clients serviced by the microfinance industry. Accordingly, whenever these institutions are in serious crisis their benefactors, the MFBs, would surely be in trouble too. Therefore, policy action aimed at economic restoration must give relatively equal attention to microfinance banks. Besides, microfinance has grown beyond the provision of credit and capacity building support to the active poor and now extends to some critical human services that link it to other sectors in a more symbiotic fashion; for example; insurance and healthcare. These sectors must be part of any meaningful recovery envisaged post-COVID-19. Therefore, not properly providing for the MFBs to recover means the exclusion of these related sectors, which are critical to recovery.

So, a disruption of the microfinance sector may have more than an isolated impact on the economy.

Some people have wondered why microfinance banks, which are fairly well represented in all the local governments, couldn’t have been used to distribute the financial palliatives, which were so disgracefully mangled in nepotism and lack of transparency by the Ministry charged with it. In a country where financial inclusion and cashless economy is in the front burner, with agent banks, mobile money and electronic wallets, a public officer pulls out cash from the banks and races into villages to distribute on the basis of evidently unknown criteria. Such should have been the opportunity to engage microfinance banks. It would have helped them not only to reach more clients but to renew contacts with existing ones.

Public officers carrying physical

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Public officers carrying physical cash palliative and handing it out indiscriminately, where MFBs exist, robs the banks of survival opportunity. It is a classic case of the government creating useful institutions, pulling the rug under their feet and leaving them orphans

Dr Osuji is head of the department of Economics at Pan Atlantic University Lagos. eosuji@ pau.edu.ng @Emekaosujii

Your future starts today

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he promise of future benefit, as exciting and inspiring as it may sound when it’s being said, especially if you’re hearing it for the first time, seldom leads to sufficient motivation to act accordingly. At least, not in a way that’s sustainable. To children especially, the benefits are just too far away, somewhat abstract and for the present, intangible. It’s one of the reasons why we parents face so much frustration when trying to direct our children to do the right thing. Mummy and daddy’s vision may be fantastic and for the most part, the best thing for their child; and so, they find it difficult to understand why the child appears to be resisting their push. “Why does he refuse to take the most obvious steps towards what’s best for him? Why is he so stubborn?”

Simple answer, it’s just too far away to matter much at that precise time. If only they could be aware, their future actually starts today. But try this. Offer to give your child an instant reward if he successfully carries out a given task in the not too distant future.

Whether the reward is a temporary one or one of a more permanent nature, it may not matter.

The transformation will amaze you. You’ll witness a zeal you never knew he could muster.

As already implied, the reward may not be something that will endure but the benefit is immediate enough to make it irresistible.

Heck, it could even be one of those treats we use to induce good behaviour from our children sometimes.

The point is, it’s so close he can almost touch it. As far as incentives go, that is infinitely more enticing. That’s how the human mind works and I don’t think it ever totally changes. The benefit of improved reasoning over the years merely helps us appreciate

the profit inherent in delaying gratification at times. As adults, we may have wisened up enough to know our today reflects decisions we took yesterday, just as our tomorrow will hinge on what we do or don’t do today; but try telling your son that when a football match beckons on him outside and see if it will work!

Increases in understanding derivable from experience can also open our eyes to the fact that instant is not necessarily good but make no mistake, the temptation is always there. If you wish to nudge your children towards a distant goal, you would do well to offer them more immediate reward or incentives along the way. Ditto for your employees.

Contrary to what some say, choosing to reward deserving employees at intervals; or children who do that which pleases us, in order to nudge them in our desired direction is far from foolishness. Looking at its long term, it can often be the best move especially when we keep in mind that the future starts from today.

Permit me to say this too. It goes a long way in making your child feel it’s all about him; and not you. There’s no better way to make him feel loved and valued than to convince him, his interest always comes first. His cooperation from that point onwards becomes so much easier.

Your ultimate goal as a parent has always been to see him progress so he can be assured of a fulfilling and happy future, but it may not have always appeared this way to him. Once you adopt this strategy of offering tantalizing bonuses at intervals for meeting set goals, he’ll begin to see the two of you as being on the same side and become less resistant to your gentle leading. Gradually, he will release his gaze from what he sees as your vicarious interest and begin to see it as his own. By now, he has started to see himself an end in

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himself and not just a means to your end. The big picture may not have been close enough to prompt him to act but the subgoals can be. It’s interesting to note how educational exercises are “hidden” in children’s games too. The child gets instant reward by way of enjoyment while at the same time, learning that which he needs to know.

Nigerians were recently informed of one former Governor and a serving Governor who wilfully flouted the Federal government’s directives regarding airport protocols, introduced to protect Nigerians from this ravaging Coronavirus pandemic. True to type, when one considers the general behaviour of our political overlords, these two gentlemen who swore an oath during inauguration to serve their people the best way they could, decided they were now too big for the laws of the land. They took no time to remind the rest of us, just in case we had made the mistake of believing the “hype” that COVID-19 had become some sort of leveller in society, that in this country some people remained more equal than others.

Fully aware of the potential dangers their selfish actions might portend for their fellow countrymen, (even if they don’t care much for themselves) I feel constrained to put this question to you. Do you think these gentlemen see you and I as ends in ourselves? Or merely as means to their political end? I’ll leave you to answer that, as I’ve never laid a claim to having all the answers.

One thing that’s worth pointing out however is the need to ensure people always do the right thing; no matter who they are. Today, you may not care because it doesn’t directly affect you but tomorrow, it just might. FAAN made it a habit to treat such people as tin gods in the

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cash palliative and handing it out indiscriminately, where MFBs exist, robs the banks of survival opportunity.

It is a classic case of the government creating useful institutions, pulling the rug under their feet and leaving them orphans.

Still, there are a number of things, which the government, and indeed policymakers, could do to ensure that the microfinance industry does not become a drag in the effort to restore economic growth in the country.

First, it’s important to realise that the lockdown is hitting hard at high-touch customer interaction businesses, including microfinancing. Their ability to interact with clients, which is the hallmark of effective microfinancing, has been seriously impaired by the lockdown. That calls for policy action to reduce the effect. This reality has cash flow and repayment implications that could instigate loan delinquency.

One good way to protect the microfinance sector is to protect the micro and small enterprises they serve, because failure to do so will reflect in loan defaults that could damage the operators. Putting money in the hands of these clients will restore their cash flow and prevent or at least reduce missed repayments. Besides, it will reduce the pressure on MFB clients to deplete their savings. This will put the MFBs under pressure and this may lead to a run, when these savings cannot be accessed at the MFBs. We must prevent a run on the microfinance banks because that will worsen the impact of the pandemic beyond comprehension.

Character Matters with Daps

Dapo Akande

past and now they’re trying to rein in a horse which bolted long ago. I wish them all the luck but I beg them to remember one thing; the future starts today.

I would like to end with this though. I’ve always told my children that no matter how well they carry out a chore or an assignment, just because I instructed them to do so, the best anyone can classify that, is obedience.

But if they were to decide to do that same thing because they knew it ought to be done; not waiting to told, well, that’s something entirely different. That speaks of a high sense of responsibility, which goes far beyond mere obedience.

Evident from the above however, some are still struggling at the rudimentary stage of simple obedience. But we’ll leave that discussion for another day. Still, remember this, the future begins from today.

Changing the nation...one mind at a time.

Akande is a Surrey University graduate with a Masters in Professional Ethics. An alumnus of the institute for National Transformation and author of two books; The Last Flight and Shifting Anchors. Contact: dapsakande25@ gmail.com

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BUSINESS DAY

Wednesday 22 July 2020

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Oxford coronavirus vaccine shows promise in early trial

Injection developed with AstraZeneca generates ‘robust immune responses’ Anna Gross and Clive Cookson

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he coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford university and AstraZeneca has shown promising results in the first phase of its clinical trials.

The eagerly awaited study, published in The Lancet on Monday, showed that the AZD1222 vaccine generated “robust immune responses” and was tolerated by all patients.

The results raise hopes that the inoculation might prevent disease, but experts warned that there was a long way to go to prove its safety and effectiveness.

The trial, which involved 1,077 healthy adults aged between 18 and 55, induced two forms of human immune response — generating both antibodies and T-cells — for at least 56 days.

“The data is fantastic — as good as

it could have been at this stage,” said Kate Bingham, chair of the UK government’s Vaccine Taskforce. But she added that encouraging preliminary results did not guarantee success in more extensive trials.

Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s head of biopharmaceuticals R&D, said: “Today’s data increases our confidence that the vaccine will work and allows us to continue our plans to manufacture the vaccine at scale for broad and equitable access around the world.”

All participants had a T-cell response within 14 days of vaccination and 91 per cent developed antibodies within 28 days. That figure increased to 100 per cent after a booster jab.

Most coronavirus vaccines are likely to require two doses.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said: “There is a possibility, an assumption that is more and more supported by recent data, that the T-cell response may help the antibody response and produce more durability to the immune response.

“We’ve worked very hard to scale up the manufacturing,” he added, noting that the company now had capacity to supply 2bn doses at no profit during the pandemic, which it hopes to start distributing before the end of the year.

Phase-one vaccine trials conducted by Moderna of the US induced

positive antibody responses, while the vaccines developed by CanSino Biologics and Pfizer and BioNTech also showed good signs of provoking a dual T-cell response, according to new data released on Monday.

On the question of how the Oxford/AstraZeneca trial compares with other vaccines, Mr Soriot said that they had all shown positive results and it would be difficult to directly compare them until they had all been tested in the same lab.

“The hope is that we’ll have several vaccines,” he added.

Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said that, “whilst encouraging, there is still a long way to go before we can herald the arrival of a successful coronavirus vaccine”. He added that it was still unclear whether the level of immunity induced in the trial would protect against infection.

“At the very least a successful vaccine will either have to protect the elderly from serious disease or prevent less vulnerable people from becoming infected and spreading the virus,” he said. “And at the moment, we don’t know which if any of the many vaccine candidates being trialled will achieve that.”

The Oxford vaccine caused more minor side-effects than the control group of patients who received a

‘

At the very least a successful vaccine will either have to protect the elderly from serious disease or prevent less vulnerable people from becoming infected and spreading the virus,

placebo meningitis jab, but these adverse responses could be reduced by taking paracetamol, according to the paper.

The authors noted that further tests would need to be done as the phase-one trial demonstrated only the efficiency of the vaccine in laboratory conditions, and not during infection in the community.

AZD1222 is now being tested on tens of thousands of people in the UK, US, Brazil and South Africa to discover whether it prevents Covid-19 when compared with placebo.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter: “A huge well done to our brilliant, world-leading scientists & researchers. There are no guarantees, we’re not there yet & further trials will be necessary — but this is an important step in the right direction.”

AstraZeneca’s share price jumped more than 3 per cent on the news, then fell back to below where it started.

Adam Barker, an analyst at Shore Capital, said that it was “good to see the actual data lived up to the hype”.

He cautioned, however, that “the data don’t tell us whether it works or not yet. So it’s a good first step, good to see B- and T-cell responses, but we don’t know if it works yet.”

FT

Making a case for a second passport for global citizenship post COVID-19

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o doubt, coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on countries across the world, as the mortality rate increases daily, grounding economies and disrupting all normal systems.

Of course, one of the disruptions is in the ease of travel due to the many restrictions imposed by countries intended to curtail the spread of the virus.

This hints at the process of travel being more rigid post COVID-19, as countries introduce tougher measures and protocols to ensure safety. It is also likely to be more stringent to acquire travel documents, particularly with visas as countries make the process more cumbersome on safety concerns and discourage many potential visitors, investors, and tourists alike, from visiting.

However, some Caribbean countries are offering respite in the face of the anticipated travel challenge post COVID-19. They have been and are still offering citizenship by investment or dual citizenship to people who are interested to live, work or invest in the region.

The citizenship by investment, which is commonly called economic citizenship, is obtainable by making an investment in a country’s approved real estate project or towards a fund. It provides flexibility, mobility, security, as well as offering the investor more options and freedom to travel.

With citizenship by investment in countries including, St. Kitts & Nevis, Grenada, Commonwealth of Dominica, St. Lucia, An-

tigua & Barbuda, among others, interested parties will overcome travel challenges post COVID-19.

Enumerating the benefits of the dual citizenship programmes in the Caribbean, Privado Luxury, partnering AID Consultants (DMCC), an approved citizenship by investment marketing firm licensed by the various Caribbean governments represented, explains that a second strong citizenship and passport not only provides one with the freedom of visa free travel to over 120 countries, but also affords access to better healthcare services, higher education, career and business opportunities outside of their home country.

Furthermore, having a second citizenship brings peace of mind, securing current, future generations and allows for a peaceful retirement plan to many who choose to have a home away from home.

Moreover, it would also afford the dual passport carriers’ opportunity to avoid the challenges of visa processing, delays and refusals, especially for impromptu travel for business, medical emergencies among others.

Some individuals may have been refused visas multiple times even though they seem to meet all requirements, but with the well vetted process of dual citizenship, this puts rest to that negative experience.

Offering more details on how to acquire dual citizenship in the Caribbean, Privado Luxury and AID Consultants (DMCC) note that one can do so by investment, especially in real estate. In their own case, the

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investment is via signature hotel brand developments.

“It is the shares in the hotel that form the investment that entitles one to citizenship,” they explain further, while noting that some countries also have the contribution option for acquiring citizenship by contributing to a government fund.

Moreover, some Caribbean countries have a good standard of education, renowned medical schools translating to good alternative schooling opportunities for young adults. Good medical care is another bonus.

As expected, the Caribbean has a lot of tourism potential that draws global tourists and investors. An investment in the region now also implies positioning one’s self to benefit from the tourism potential expected from 2022/2023, when some form of normalcy would have returned to the world and people are expected to jet out to the Caribbean once again for sunshine and fresh air.

Going by the potential, citizenship by investment (CBI) in the Caribbean at this time is simply investing now for the future as the tourism industry will eventually peak in the area faster with possible higher return on investment.

Owning a passport from one of the five countries allows for visa free travel to numerous countries including the UK and Schengen states, hence reducing embassy visits, which affords clients a huge respite.

Existing developments as well as projects, which are expected to be completed

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KEMI OKOYA

F a

from 2022/2023, would be well positioned to cater for the needs of vacationers exploring such locations.

Privado Luxury and AID Consultants track record over the years has enabled them to provide the best possible advice to clients on obtaining a second citizenship and facilitate citizenship by investment in the Caribbean while adhering to strict due diligence based on accountability and credibility in performance with the various governments.

Privado Luxury and their partner have consistently offered the CBI since 2013, through signature hotel brands in St. Kitts, Grenada and Commonwealth of Dominica.

Okoya, is the managing partner, Privido Luxury

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Frank Aigbogun

Inflation worsening Nigeria’s precarious state Define strategic approaches to stop pressure on income

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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hen basic necessities needed for the survival of the common man in Nigeria become less affordable, then the country is really in a crisis. This is what defines Nigeria currently. The general increase in prices of goods and services without corresponding increase in income levels, which economists call inflation, is worsening the already precarious state of the Nigerian economy.

Reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in June, Headline inflation which measures the total rise in prices within an economy, including commodities such as food and energy prices, rose to 12.56 percent year-on-year, highest in 25 months. During this period, businesses suffered supply chain disruptions and subdued demand as major fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wholesale price index of essential food items, measured by food inflation, rose marginally to

15.18 percent. Food, as we know, is the primary need that every individual seeks to meet. Despite the subdued demand for goods due to lockdown measures, food prices have remained sticky, trended upwards as supply disruptions take its toll on businesses.

These numbers won’t make much sense without exploring the consequences. In an economy where 39.4 million people may lose their jobs, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher inflation rate will only make life more miserable for such people as it erodes their purchasing power amid low or no income.

For household investors, inflation rate above rate of return means negative real income. In the Nigeria Treasury Bill market, yields on 1-year bond has fallen from 14.9 percent in November 2019 to 5.91 percent. At 12.56 percent inflation rate, an investor’s inflation adjusted real return for the 364-day T-bill is -5.90 percent. This is the percentage by which, at a minimum, the value of his investment will decline.

It is pertinent to note that higher inflation means higher cost of living for households and will discourage private investments and savings.

For businesses, consistent rise in price levels will mean lower sales, especially for non-essential items, as consumers would rather focus the little they have on essential items such as food. Nigerian businesses will also struggle to raise capital for expansion in an inflationary economic environment as banks will be less willing to offer long term financing for capital formation and growth. Also, high cost of inputs could see businesses record contraction in profit margins.

Nigeria’s rising inflation rate also poses a risk to the government’s ability to implement its budget due to high and uncertain cost of inputs. On the revenue side, the FG may see tax revenue, especially from Company Income Tax and Value Added Tax, decline, worsening the country’s current fiscal crisis due to low oil prices.

Finally, high inflation levels will always discourage foreign inflow of funds.

It is, therefore, important that discourse around driving down inflation to reasonable levels should be encouraged. In line with a report

by PwC, we must define strategic approaches to put a lid on consistent upward-flexible commodity prices which impact negatively on household income and business.

We align with the report that one such way defining approaches is by supporting adequately the agricultural and food processing sectors to boost supply. The federal government must provide adequate supply-chain mechanisms to facilitate unrestricted supply of food and other essential incentives. Policies, both monetary and fiscal, that will foster stability on the supply side of the market, must be encouraged.

The Nigerian food prices have been a major factor pressuring Nigeria’s core and headline inflation numbers. We recommend that while measures to put money back to the hands of households are necessary to ease the suffering of the people, a complementary effort will be to improve supply of goods and services.

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

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

Enquiries NEWS ROOM 08169609331 08116759816 08033160837

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BusinessDay avidly thrives on the mainstay of our core values of being The Fourth Estate, Credible, Independent, Entrepreneurial and Purpose-Driven.

• The Fourth Estate: We take pride in being guarantors of liberal economic thought • Credible: We believe in the principle of being objective, fair and fact-based • Independent: Our quest for liberal economic thought means that we are independent of private and public interests.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

13

COMPANIES&MARKETS Our commitment to integrity and product quality is from production to delivery, NBC assures CHUKA UROKO

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igerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) has assured customers and consumers of its products that its commitment to integrity and product quality is from production to delivery, pledging that these would remain the gold standard of its operations.

The company’s country general manager, Matthieu Seguin, stated this at its 2020 stakeholders forum held virtually with the theme, ‘product quality and integrity: Challenges and opportunities’.

The event also featured key contributions from Zoltan Syposs, the company’s Vice President, Quality, Safety and Environment; Moji Adeyeye,

director general, National Agency for Foods, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and Babatunde Irukera, CEO, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

Seguin explained that quality remained the hallmark of the operations of the Coke System. “At NBC, we understand that only products and services valued and accepted by our customers and consumers will deliver and help our business to grow.

We are committed to driving our business forward by continually improving quality control across the organization and working together with Coca-Cola Nigeria, local authorities, partners, suppliers, customers and consumers,” he said.

Seguin disclosed that a survey NBC conducted earlier in the year showed that product quality and integrity ranked highest among the demands of its stakeholders, hence its decision to continue prioritising it.

“Our commitment to quality and integrity is from production to delivery. Everyone at NBC works hard to procure the finest ingredient, equipment and services from some of the industry’s most respected suppliers. We also complement this with our state of the art local production and distribution system,” Seguin said.

He added that the NBC achieves the highest product quality and integrity through compliance with local and international standards, certification

of its systems, auditing and regular feedback from customers.

“We keep the line of communication open to our consumers for regular feedback which we get a lot, and this also guarantees the prompt resolution of complaints they may have. As the world evolves and consumers’ preferences change, we believe in continuous improvement of our system,” he assured.

Syposs affirmed, explaining that the Coca-Cola System, comprising Coca-Cola and NBC, was vigilant about product quality and integrity because research has showed that about 200 different types of diseases are spread through contaminated food and beverages, with about 420,000 deaths recorded annually from contaminated food, 125,000 of them among children under the age of five.

L -R: Martins Umar, representing the Commissioner of Agriculture, Benue State; a female farmer beneficiary; Hon Anthony Ekuleno, Group Leader Agatu Rice Farmers and Deputy Chairman of Agatu LGA; Dr. Bala Garba, VCDP- AF1 National Programme Coordinator and Chief James Ocheje, ttraditional ruler of Obagaji; at the launch of the2020 Olam, IFAD-VCDP rice farming initiative and distribution of inputs to farmers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; at Agatu Local Government Area, Benue State, recently

OIL & GAS

Oando explains delay in FY ’19 & Q1 2020 result as SEC face-off linger OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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ando announced reasons behind the continued delay in the release of the company’s 2019 full year and its Q1 2020 management accounts within the due dates of May 29, and June 29, 2020 respectively as prescribed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rules on filing of accounts and treatment of default filing.

The indigenous energy group listed on both the Nigerian and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, through its upstream subsidiary, Oando Energy Resources, noted that following an ex-parte order of the Federal High Court Lagos in Suit No: FHC/L/ Cs/910/19 in Jubril Adewale Tinubu & Anor v Securities & Exchange Commission &

Anor, which suspended the Company’s 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM) till further notice, the company has been unable to appoint Auditors to commence the Company’s 2019 audit exercise.

“The mandate given to the Auditors at the 2018 Oando AGM, by the shareholders, was to audit the Company’s FYE 2018 financials and not any other year,” the company noted in a release.

This according to Oando has resulted in the inability of the directors to lay before the shareholders for approval, the company’s 2018 Audited Financial Statements; the shareholders’ inability to re-appoint the auditors of the company to hold office for the 2019 financial year; the inability of the company to meet its Full Year Earnings

2019 NSE Filing of Accounts obligation within the due date of March 31, 2020.

The battle over financial irregularities between Oando and Nigeria’s capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached a crescendo in May 2019, when the regulator ordered the firm’s entire board to resign.

Following the receipt of two petitions by the Commission in 2017, investigations were conducted into the activities of Oando Plc. According to SEC, forensic audit by Deloitte & Touche LLP revealed serious infractions such as false disclosure, market abuses, misstatement in financial results, internal control failures, corporate governance lapses stemming from poor board oversight.

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SEC also barred Wale Tinubu and Omamofe Boyo, the chief executive and his deputy respectively, from holding corporate office in Nigeria for a five-year period.

The company however claimed it was not given a chance to review the audit report and prepare its defence, saying its listing on the Johannesburg stock exchange, as well as in Lagos, is proof of its compliance with corporate governance standards.

The last time Oando released its result was in the third quarter 2019, posting N13.1 billion in Profit-AfterTax. During the nine months ended September 30, 2019, production increased by 8% at 43,045boe/day, compared with 40,039boe/day in the same period of 2018.

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COMPANY RELEASE

Dow Tackles Plastic Waste in Nigeria through Local Partnerships

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OW has announced Project ReflexNG, a pilot project aiming to collect and recycle plastic waste in Lagos, Nigeria. This project is aligned to Dow’s global STOP THE WASTE sustainability target which will enable the collection, reuse or recycling of one million metric tons of plastic globally by 2030.

The project in partnership with Omnik, RecylePoints and the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre will specifically recycle water sachets through a pilot program, designed to show that they can be collected and recycled to be utilized in new, quality packaging applications. The project aims to divert 600 MT of sachet water pouches (approximately 300 million sachets) which otherwise would have ended up in the environment or landfill, into recycling applications, while promoting education to engrain sustainability into a select group of small and medium waste entrepreneurs.

The pilot is set up to enable a viable business case for the use of recyclate (resins made from recycled plastics) in non-food primary packaging applications.

An estimated 19 percent of the Nigerian population still does not have access to clean, safe drinking water.[1] Though access to clean water has improved significantly over the last decade, it is cru-

cial that everyone has access to it. For many years, water sachets have provided an affordable and readily available source of drinking water for the masses, particularly in heavily populated urban environments like Lagos.

These pouches have become a fundamental part of life for millions of Nigerians every day. However, their widespread consumption has led to the unintended consequence of environmental pollution due to inadequate waste management infrastructure and poor waste disposal behavior.

As in many developing countries, there is an informal waste collection economy, but this favors rigid plastic in Nigeria and disregards low weight water sachets, because waste pickers are paid by weight.

The water sachets will be collected by RecyclePoints, a waste management company, which uses kiosks, a phone app and employs waste pickers in order to collect waste that can be recycled. The kiosks act as a bring-back focal point for the community to return waste in exchange for groceries, mobile phone credits, cash and other useful items.

The app can coordinate pick-ups from several points around the city. The collection part of the project is being funded by Dow’s Impact Fund and will expand to include additional collection partners in a later phase.

DCSL to hosts its flagship Annual Audit Committee Masterclass, 8th edition DAVID IBIDAPO

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C SL Corporate Services Limited (DCSL) will host the second stream of Audit Committee members, Internal and External Auditors and Chief Finance Officers from various sectors of the economy to its flagship Annual Audit Committee Masterclass on Thursday, July 16, 2020 themed, “Improving the Performance of the Audit Committee.”

The event is in pursuit of DCSL’s commitment to encouraging the adoption of good Corporate Governance practices by members of the Audit Committees. The global pandemic and its impact on economies around the world have brought to the fore the need for the Committee to be up-to-speed with emerging trends to improve @Businessdayng

effectiveness and also ensure business sustenance and continuity.

Year on year, the Masterclass has hosted distinguished subject matter experts and this year is no exception as sessions will be facilitated by Romeo Savage, Board member, Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA); Franklin Ugwu, Lagos Business School and Bisi Adeyemi, MD/CEO, DCSL Corporate Services Limited.

Discussions at the Masterclass will focus on business continuity in uncertain times, delivering remote audits, tips and challenges as well as crisis resilience and the role of the audit committee.

This edition will be delivered virtually using stateof-the-art technology for optimal classroom learning experience.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

COMPANY RELEASE

Building board dynamics in a time of crisis to take center-stage at FITC Programme JOSEPHINE OKOJIE

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ITC, a responsive knowledge-driven organisation, is set to deliver its Virtual Board Leadership Programme to equip board directors with new thinking, insights, and best practices to navigate challenges and complexities successfully.

The programme is an innovative initiative that is designed for directors, nonexecutive directors, board members of financial and non-financial institutions, as well as public and private sectors organisations across diverse industries and other industries in Sub-Sahara Africa.

It is tailored to provide in-depth knowledge of today’s rapidly changing business environment, leveraging FITC’s insight generation engine, to sharpen board directors competencies and equip them with the requisite skills, knowledge, and capabilities, to improve board oversight and performance.

The board leadership programme with the theme ‘Building Effective Board Dynamics in a Time of Crisis’ is

scheduled to hold on the 23rd and 24th of July, 2020.

According to experts, crisis threatens the viability of an organisation and erodes organisational value and reputation if not effectively mitigated.

At such times, board members who are at the front line must play critical roles in providing high-level strategic oversights and ensuring the organisation’s viability, operational resilience, and financial solvency, they say.

Armed with a faculty of world-class executives and governance experts, it promises to be two days of intense learning, unlearning, and knowledge building on how board executives can strengthen governance, relationships, collaboration, culture, and more, which are imperatives for sustainable organisations.

The programme will have an experience sharing session where well-acclaimed successful board directors will share practical insights on how boards can navigate through the crisis and build sustainable organisations.

The line-up of renowned faculty for this programme include; Aishah Ahmad,

deputy governor- financial system stability, Central Bank of Nigeria; Edward Olowo-Okere, global director governance -global practice at World Bank Group; Prof Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor, CBN; Ibukun Awosika, board chairman, First Bank of Nigeria and Bola Adesola, senior vice chairman, Standard Bank Group among others.

FITC is a world-class innovation-led knowledge and professional services firm providing cutting edge Learning, Consulting, and Research Services to clients within and outside Nigeria.

Established in 1981 as a non-profit organisation limited by guarantee to provide capacity building and serve as a knowledge hub for the Nigerian Financial Services Sector. FITC is owned by the Bankers Committee, i.e. CBN, NDIC, and all deposit money banks in Nigeria.

For over three decades FITC has been at the forefront of board leadership education, through its innovative knowledge offerings designed for directors of banks and other financial institutions.

L-R: Akeem Ojora, Bashorun of Ijora and Iganmu Kingdom; Joy Egolum, corporate affairs manager, Nigerian Breweries Plc; Utibe-Abasi Utuk, Lagos brewery manager, Nigerian Breweries Plc; Abdul Fatai Aremu Oyeyinka Aromire, Ojora of Ijora, and Iganmu Kingdom and Amuda Yusuf Ojora, Ashoju, Oba of Ijora and Iganmu Kingdom, at the presentation of food items and relief materials to indigenes of Iganmu and Ijora communities at the Oba of Ijora’s Palace, Ijora, Lagos.

L-R: Happiness Alabi, admin executive, ADVAN; Ediri Ose-Ediale, executive secretary ADVAN; Ademola Akinlabi, outgoing chairman, Photojournalist Association of Nigeria (PJAN), and Kehinde Shonola secretary electoral committee, PJAN, at the ‘Advertiser community support Initiative’ to specific associations affected by covid 19 hosted by Advertisers Association of Nigerian in Lagos.

Forex ban on maize/corn importation ‘ll increase cost of livestock feeds – Expert

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n Agricultural Economist, Mr Nnamdi Infenkwe, says the ban on access to foreign exchange (Forex) for importers and dealers of maize/corn will lead to unprecedented rise in the cost of livestock feeds.

Infenkwe, a Senior Manager with Nissi Agro-allied Services, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday that the development might be the bane of the sector.

“About 60 percent of the ingredients used in preparing livestock feed in the country are got from imported maize/

corn. “Sustaining this policy will put a lot of local producers of feeds out of business,’’ he said. Infenkwe said that the CBN should have given a specific timeline before coming out with the policy of restricting foreign exchange for maize imports.

“We expect the apex bank to have consulted widely with dealers before announcing the ban. “They ought to give us about two or more years before implementing this policy because the livestock sector is a fragile one,” he said.

He noted that the restriction on foreign exchange for dealers of maize could be an-

tithetical to the growth of livestock business in the country.

NAN reports the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had directed all authorised dealers to immediately discontinue the processing of ‘Form M’ for maize/corn importation into the country.

This directive was contained in a notice given to authorised dealers and signed

by Dr O. S. Nnaji, CBN’s Director in charge of Trade and Exchange Department.

In the notice made available to the public, the CBN gave some reasons for the directive to discontinue maize importation.

R-L- Motunrayo Fasasi; Rasaaq Adebayo, Region 9 chairperson, District 404B2 Nigeria; Adepeju Eluyemi; Abiodun Eluyemi, president; Morufat Adebayo, secretary; Ayoola Aransi, president-elect, and Suraj Ogunyemi, Zone 9A chairperson, at the directional signage commissioning held in Ile-Ife, Osun State recently.

SON, Police raid markets, seize fake shaving sticks in Lagos

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tandards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), in collaboration with the Nigeria Police have seized 504 cartons of substandard Bic brand shaving sticks.

This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Mr Bola Fashina, the Special Adviser to SON’s Director-General, Mr Osita Aboloma.

SON said the Divisional

Police Headquarters, Ebute Ero, Lagos, handed over the seized suspected substandard products to its representatives in Lagos.

SON officials had earlier evacuated 196 Cartons of the suspected substandard Bic brand of shaving sticks from the same Ebute Ero Market, bringing the total to 700 cartons worth more than N6.4 million.

The Divisional Crime Offiwww.businessday.ng

cer (DCO), Mr Bello Taofeek, while handing over the suspected substandard shaving sticks to SON, said they were seized from a truck waiting to be offloaded inside the Ebute Ero Market.

Taofeek said the seizure followed credible information provided by some patriotic Nigerians in response to the call by regulatory agencies for all hands to e on deck to ensure quality vanguard.

R-L: Nnaji Eneh Helen, matron, Enugu Isolation Centre; Chikezie Obasi, head, Diagnostics Isolation Centre, Enugu; Chinyere Ezeudu(East), Enugu State epidemiologist; Isaac Nwabuzor, corporate affairs manager, (East), Nigerian Breweries Plc, and others during the donation of drinks to Diagnostics Isolation Centre in Enugu recently.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

15

MARITIMEBUSINESS Shipping

Logistics

Maritime e-Commerce

Mammoet’s heavy lifting terminal crane now operational at LADOL Free Zone …Enables handling of project cargo amaka Anagor-Ewuzie

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he strategic partnership signed earlier in January 2020, between Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL) Base and Mammoet, which resulted in the installation of the heavy lifting terminal crane - MTC 15, has started yielding fruit as the installed crane has fully becomes operational at LADOL Free Trade Zone.

Installed at the LADOL quayside in May 2020, the crane is now the biggest installed shore crane of its kind in the region and it has turned LADOL’s quayside into a heavy lift terminal. To support LADOL’s quayside operations, Mammoet had earlier in the year, mobilised a 250-ton crawler crane in addition to the MTC-15. ​ Consequently, LADOL based has now gained the capacity to handle project cargo and other logistics jobs for industrial sectors in West Africa using Mammoet’s crane fleet and heavy lifting expertise along with

project management services to provide clients with more comprehensive and cost-effective solutions.​ Wi t h a l oa d m o m ent matching a 1,200 ton crawler crane or a large floating sheerleg, the crane enables loads up to 600 tons to be lifted to and from the quay

f ro m n o n - g e a re d ca rg o vessels. This lifting capacity is ideal for loading and offloading heavy items such as columns, vessels, reels, engines, and many other project cargoes. ​ Jide Jadesimi, executive director, Business Development of LADOL, said the

L-R: Bashir Jamoh, director general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Hadiza Bala-Usman, managing director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and Hassan Bello, executive secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council, during the Maiden Meeting of Heads of Government Parastatals in the Maritime Sector.

CMA Terminals agrees 45-year contract to manage Lekki Port’s container terminal amaka Anagor-Ewuzie

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MA CGM, the French shipping group, has officially agreed a 45-year contract to manage the container terminal at the new Lekki Deep Seaport facility.

According to a recent report by Container News report, an online news platform, the contract, which was agreed in late September 2019, was among the investment opportunities that the shipping giant hopes to actualise in Africa.

L ekki Port, which is scheduled to enter service in 2022, will ultimately have a total capacity of 2.5 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) at completion.

With a depth of 16 metres, it will be able to accommodate vessels with a capacity of up to 18,000TEUs, thereby helped to ease congestion at existing facilities serving Lagos (Apapa and Tin-Can) from which trucks face a

establishment of a longterm relationship between Mammoet and LADOL is an extremely exciting and significant development in terms of increasing local capacity.

“This will attract general fabrication and complex construction projects, which

journey of several days to reach the ports.

Recall that CMA CGM Group and Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise (LPLE), the promoters of Lekki Deep Seaport signed a Memorandum of Agreement to operate Lekki Port’s future container terminal.

CMA Terminals, according to the MoU, will be responsible for marketing, operations and maintenance of the container terminal at Lekki Deep Seaport.

Farid T. Salem, executive officer of the CMA CGM Group, said: “We are pleased to sign this MOU. Lekki Port will allow us to bring to Nigeria larger container ships from Europe and Asia to better serve our customers and pursue our commitment to the development of the entire region. Our presence in Lekki Port will benefit the entire Nigerian supply chain and market as well as neighboring countries.”

Eric Bonnemaison, vice president, head of Africa inwww.businessday.ng

land services development, CMA CGM Group, said CMA CGM Inland Services (CCIS) is to open up three new hubs in Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria—Africa’s three leading economies.

“Today, an African producer looking to export their production to another continent has to reckon with a shipping cost of €2 per kilometre for their containers. That puts it at a major disadvantage to other countries where overland transport costs are far lower,” he said.

Bonnemaison said the company needs to build facilities that will enable local producers to export their goods at a far lower cost because an economy that does not export will ultimately struggle to expand.

CMA’s strategy is to establish positions on trade corridors between the main port hubs and inland areas, while in parallel developing an extensive and integrated range of logistics services.

are increasing in frequency across West African subregion, to Nigeria,” he said.

He described the installation process as a combination of teamwork, and dedication from LADOL and Mammoet staff.​ “It was with great excitement that the MTC-15 arrived at LADOL in sections as a Meccano. LADOL and Mammoet personnel worked together and assembled the crane at the quayside,” he said. ​ ​​According to him, this was no simple task because it required precision in connecting and assembling each component but with the assistance of cranes, forklifts and a team of dedicated personnel, the MTC15 was assembled in no time. ​“ L AD OL’s business is driven by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and this partnership with Mammoet is in line with this dedication – bringing more partnerships, jobs, education and prosperity to Nigeria by taking Nigeria one step closer to being the industrial hub for Africa,”

he added. ​ Michel Bunnik, commercial director of Mammoet Middle East and Africa, said the combination of Mammoet’s MTC crane and L ADOL’s excellent infrastructure such as 200 meter quay with 8.5 meters draft, warehousing, fabrication and assembly yards, LADOL base can now be considered as a fully independent heavy lifting terminal.

“LADOL base can support the largest industrial projects in the world, solving cargo handling and logistics challenges of project owners, EPCs and freight forwarders, as they can get heavier things in and out of Lagos more efficiently than they could before,” Bunnik said. ​H e however described the MTC-15 crane as the ideal for loading and offloading heavy break bulk cargo, without having to reinforce the quay, making it possible to bypass other Apapa quays and to transport the cargo as well as materials directly to sites; this saving a considerable amount of time and resources.

WISTA calls on women to explore opportunities in export amid Covid-19 amaka Anagor-Ewuzie

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orried by the disruption on the global business community by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Nigeria, has called on women to leverage on several opportunities inherent in export to grow their businesses.

Speaking during the virtual conference held recently by the association, Chinwe Ezenwa, a former managing director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), said women need to explore automation and also restructure their businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ezenwa, who encouraged women to source for new markets by embracing the export drive of the Federal Government, pointed out the need for women to fight their competitors with innovation and better products and services.

Citing the African Growth

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and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as a viable tool to utilise in exporting to the United States of America (USA), she noted that the platform has existed for more than a decade yet many businesses are unaware of the opportunity.

“If you’re going to be successful in the post Covid-19 era, you must be innovative, reimage your businesses and reappraise yourself. Be responsible, train yourself and your members of staff to be conversant with global time zones and essential issues for global businesses,” she advised.

Dabney Shall-Holma, chairperson, Sealink Implementation Committee said there is need for Nigeria to balance its trade via export.

According to her, there are numerous opportunities for export of cashew nuts, ginger, and sesame seeds, among others.

She pointed out that products should be harnessed with added value that would enhance the quality of items while providing the much needed employment opportunities in the country. @Businessdayng

Shall-Holma however said that unless the nation attains better transport connectivity, it would be impossible to attain cheaper freight to make Nigerian products competitive in the global market.

Jean-Chiazor Anishere, co-chairperson, Nigeria Admiralty Law and Procedure Reform Committee, said the pandemic has reinforced the need for digital technology at the ports, adding that women should leverage on innovation to network with their customers and clients.

Stating that the pandemic has also increased the demand for items like hand sanitizers, face masks, hand wash, she advised WISTA members to explore opportunities in soap making, production of sanitizers and the textile industry for products to meet the new demands as well as export.

She however commended the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for taking the initiative to address policy issues for seafarers’ certification and remuneration.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

TRANSPORTation Motoring

RailBusiness

ModernTravel

Roads

Hyundai’s luxury Palisade tackles segment rivals ...Targeted at the upwardly mobile with taste of distinction

MIKE OCHONMA

MIKE OCHONMA Transport Editor

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espite the global threats of the ravaging coronavirus scourge, things are looking up in some local automotive dealer outlets and the first to lead the pack is Stallion Motors, following the arrival of the all new Hyundai luxury cross-over.

The robust and exciting to drive luxury cross-over is being offered by the local franchisee with an introductory retail price of N28 million which company sources say represents value for money.

The Korean automaker has taken a bold approach to crossover styling recently, and one of its most daring is the all-new Hyundai Palisade that debuted in the 2020 model year.

Palisade, a 5-door SUV with 8-speed automatic transmission is a mid-size sport utility vehicle manufactured by Hyundai Motor Company since late 2018. Like its predecessor, it features three rows of seating, with seating for up to eight passengers when equipped with a second-row bench seat.

Launched in 2018 at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the Palisade was Hyundai Motor company’s flag in the sand and the biggest SUV the

CFAO’s Mitsubishi Pajero Sport for virtual launch

Comes with an abundance of cool technology, plenty of seating space, and a comfortable ride

automaker ever built, as well as its most premium.

It also rounded out Hyundai’s SUV lineup, having a model for the most economical to the most baller, with the aim of keeping buyers within the Hyundai family.

In terms of conceptualisation, design and over all delivery in terms of finishing, every detail was considered and it made a massive impression on everyone who climbed into its cabin during the show, exactly what Hyundai hoped would happen.

Making a splash near the top of contemporary midsize SUV rank-

ings, the all-new 2020 Hyundai Palisade comes with an abundance of cool technology, plenty of seating space, and a comfortable ride. Additionally, the safety and predicted reliability ratings are above average for the class.

It may not be Hyundai’s first three-row SUV, but the latest Palisade certainly is its best and biggest that replaces the Hyundai Santa Fe XL, which suffered from a cramped third row fit for only occasional use.

Its silky ride quality and premium interior appointments teeter at the edge of luxury.

With the Palisade SUV targeted at the upwardly mobile young executives with a taste of distinction, the Korean manufacturer appears to be a direct rival to Japan’s Toyota and Honda in terms of fit, finish, and affordability longer than it has not.

Executives at Hyundai Motor Company clearly want more, though in terms of huge spending on research and development (R&D) as well as building something with equal parts versatility, practicality, affordability, and comfort, with the major objective of taking out every other available SUV at the knees.

assilia Motors, sole distributor of Mitsubishi Motors, is set to host the live premiere of the New Generation Pajero Sport, a first of its kind in Nigeria.

The launch, slated for Friday, July 31, 2020, will be a unique experience for attendees to witness a virtual unveiling of the new sport utility vehicle (SUV) and an immersive 360-degree virtual tour through public online registration by logging onto www.mitsubishi-motors.com. ng to be part of the event.

According to company sources, “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing measures; the brand opted for an innovative digital solution with a livestream of the anticipated SUV launch. The aim is to keep hope alive with entertainment during these difficult times.”

Redesigned with the theme ‘Elevate your Journey’ the new generation Pajero Sport was crafted to meet drivers’ desires for a perfect blend of comfort and functionality, while also possessing the off-road capability, reliability, and durability of the Pajero series, in a mid-size SUV. The launch event will start with a digital press conference after which guests will be invited to take a look at the Pajero Sport via a 360° virtual tour, followed by a live-stream music

Amber energy drink offers free ride to Lagosians MIKE OCHONMA

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ransportation from point A to B within Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital can be traumatising, hellish and nightmarish everyday for commuters in the metropolis with the ever increasing population on a daily basis.

With its traditional trademark of traffic jams and long queues and endless wait by commuters at bus terminals which often result in high transportation costs, neither the Lagos state government nor the Federal Government or any corporate organization have been able to offer a final panacea to the challenges of commuting in the City.

But the arrival of Amber Energy drink, a premium brand on the stable of Amber Energy Drinks Ltd appears to be taking the bull by the horns in relieving Lagos commuters of the high cost of transportation along popular and identified routes through its unique Amber BRT and conventional free Bus ride initiative launched recently in the state.

For once, in the annals of commuting amidst the hustle and bustle of the city, residents commuting within the metropolis can now at selected times enjoy smoother, easier and happier moments at no cost to their pockets courtesy of Amber Energy drink.

Amber Energy drink brand owners have put in place a well coordinated plan with the respective transport authorities such that all what is re-

L-R: Korede Omole, assistant head of sales; Lola Adedeji, GM; with Temitope Adetiba, head of sales, all of Amber Energy Drink Ltd, at the launch of Amber Energy drink during a trade parley in Lagos recently.

quired by members of the public is to buy Amber energy drinks at BRT bus terminals or yellow buses garages and parks in the City and get a BRT ticket for free.

The drink is the requirement that gives a commuter free access entrance into the BRT buses or the conventional popular Lagos yellow buses depending on destination for a between Mondays-Friday at week at close of work.

The initiative which is already creating excitement amongst commuters as the drink with its specially designed Can has become the cynosure of all eyes at approved buses terminals.

Selected bus terminals that have become the epicenter of Amber www.businessday.ng

Energy drink free bus ride with fanfare are Leventis, CMS, Oyingbo, Fadeyi, Maryland, and Ojota. (Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for BRT buses) while Oshodi, Obalende, Marina, Ojuelegba and CMS, (Wednesdays and Fridays) for the conventional Lagos yellow buses.

At these locations and on those days are Amber Energy drink brand ambassadors clad in the branded T-shirts uniforms interacting and sharing the tickets to consumers for a rewarding and enriching “Amber Experience”.

In the words of Lola Adedeji, general manager, Amber Energy Drink Ltd, “For us at Amber Energy Drinks Ltd, we have done everything possible,

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even what other companies cannot do to satisfy and meet our consumers’ needs and demands”.

She stated that the company have taken out time not just to study the market but also who our consumers are and what they will need, and have decided that at every step on the way, Amber will meet the needs of its consumers, so, it is so much fun and many wonders are still coming from the Amber Energy world!”.

Company’s head, sales and marketing; Temitope Adetiba also said, “We have embarked on this BRT Bus Ride initiative to make commuting in Lagos metropolis more fun and pleasure while meeting the physical, economic and emotional needs of our teeming consumers”.

She stated that, since it was launched into the market a few weeks ago, “Amber’s cardinal marketing objective is to always win with its consumers. “We identify the gap in the market, and we lapped on it to make life better, pleasant and nourishing for our consumers”.

Opeyemi Ojulari, a civil servant with the Lagos state government, who boarded the bus at the Oyingbo terminal after work at the Railway station, said “Commuting within Lagos metropolis has never been this fun, rich and exciting”.

He admitted that the Amber Energy drink BRT Bus Ride activation has changed the face of social life at bus terminals from the monotonous and long wait on long queues to buy tickets and board the buses. @Businessdayng

event and special guest appearances.CFAO’s Mitsubishi Pajero Sport for virtual launch Managing director/country delegate of CFAO Nigeria, Thomas Pelletier, highlighted that the company had to adapt rapidly to the new realities faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, putting in place measures to ensure the safety of customers and staff.

He stated: “The New Pajero Sport is tailored to suit the evolving needs of customers who desire advanced technology, more stylish and comfortable off-road SUVs. This virtual launch will be an exciting way to unveil the new model and above all, ensure all our guests are safe.”

Massilia Motors as the custodian of Mitsubishi franchise in Nigeria is also offering customers new valueadded packages, with the introduction of service plans to ensure lower cost of ownership of vehicles and fleet solutions for businesses.

Massilia Motors is the joint venture of the CFAO Group and the Chanrai Group uniting forces to deliver customer satisfaction, while offering such model line-up that includes the ASX, Eclipse Cross, Outlander, Pajero, Pajero Sport, and the award winning L200 Pick-up.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

17

BANKING CACOVID: CBN, banks sustaining lives, livelihoods with N32bn HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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ooking beyond profitability, Nigerian banks in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the private sector have focused on sustaining livelihoods impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic through Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).

CACOVID is a CBN-led private sector initiative that has contributed over N32 billion to fight Covid-19. Access Bank is at the centre of the project, helping to improve the livelihood of people badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is a further demonstration of the bank’s philosophy of looking beyond profits as the motive for its existence. The initiative, which has brought together the biggest players in Nigeria’s private sector, is a notch higher than the bank’s normal corporate social responsibility activities in such areas as women and youth empowerment, and sports.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Monday commended the CBN coordinated CA-COVID - Private sector intervention scheme - which had mobilized over N32 billion to support the economy, lives and livelihoods.

Since early 2020 when the Coronavirus became a global pandemic, countries around the world have been battling to contain the challenges of keeping people alive and safe, and also preserving livelihoods. The need to save livelihoods became an imperative in the early days of lockdowns that were imposed to slow down the spread of the virus, when it emerged that the exercise could trigger widespread hunger, as it forced abrupt closure of economies, in some cases bringing about outright job losses.

In Nigeria, the need to save lives and livelihoods was no less

Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank GMD

compelling. This is what spurred private sector organizations into forming a partnership with the federal government for the common objective of saving lives and preserving means of livelihood, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the virus from the country. The partnership, known as the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), involves about 50 corporate organizations and the government, including agencies such as the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The intervention of the private sector has been in the areas that touch the lives of Nigerians directly, as far as the fight against the pandemic is concerned, namely, building and donation of fully equipped isolation and treatment centres across the country, awareness campaign to get Nigerians to adhere to the safety guidelines as stipulated by WHO and NCDC, and distribution of palliatives

to poor families that have been worse affected by the lockdowns.

At a micro level, the initiative involving distribution of palliatives is aimed at providing food and other essentials to economically vulnerable Nigerians. The food items include rice, beans, vegetable oil, sugar, salt, bread, etc.

The huge impact of this exercise on the people of Nigeria could be seen from the fact that the coalition sees the whole country as its constituency, the reason the exercise is being carried out in all the 774 local government areas of the country. This has given Nigerians in all parts of the country a sense of belonging in a time of crisis such as the world is currently passing through, as no part is left out. The direct involvement of officials of the coalition in the exercise guarantees transparency and accountability, and ensures the items get to the people to whom it is intended.

The palliatives intervention is borne out of the need to ensure

economically disadvantaged Nigerians do not face hunger while staying at home during the lockdowns, especially those whose ability to put food on the table depends on the income they earn daily. This came as there was widespread fear that many people could die from what was generally referred to as hunger virus, even if they managed to stay safe and free of Coronavirus.

At macro level, the private sector intervention in the fight against COVID-19 has helped to keep the economy running, while preserving means of livelihood. It has, in some cases, created jobs, at a time thousands of jobs have been lost around the world. The exercise has impacted on some sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, agriculture, agro-allied and food processing, pharmaceuticals, packaging, transportation, fashion and apparels, etc. The end result is that organizations and individual workers are still paying tax to provide revenue to the government, even with partial re-opening of businesses, which means not operating at full capacity.

The regular distribution of rice has contributed in no small measure to keep the business of rice farmers going, while preserving the jobs of thousands of ancillary workers employed in the industry.

It has kept production lines running in factories where sugar, salt, vegetable oil are produced.

The addition of bread to the list of palliatives distributed by the coalition makes this exercise quite unique. It is the only one of several of such exercises throughout the country that includes this very important food item. The importance of bread on the list must be viewed against the background of the fact that it is made available to families that may not ordinarily be able to afford it in normal circumstances.

Apart from the health benefit to individual families, distribution

of 5, 000 loaves of bread on a daily has undoubtedly boosted the business of flour mills and bakeries across the country. A fresh angle to the distribution of bread is the business it creates for transporters who deliver the item to families.

Wearing of face masks is one of the safety guidelines for COVID-19. It is one of the surest ways of preventing the spread and contracting of the virus. But it has also opened a new line of business for people in the fashion industry, as the piece of clothing has become an important fashion accessory.

“Face mask is going to remain an integral part of everyday dressing for a long time”, says Felix Umofia, a public affairs commentator. “This is an area that will keep the business of those in the fashion industry going, at a time people are thinking less of buying new dresses. In any case, with the restrictions on mass gatherings like weddings, burials and other social engagements, the need for new and expensive dresses has drastically reduced”.

He said the involvement of the private sector in the fight against COVID-19 has helped to keep businesses going, apart from the social benefits of the intervention in the health sector. “These days you see people on the streets wearing branded face, with names and logos of manufacturing companies, banks and other service providers. This is going to sustain the business of fashion designers during this pandemic”.

The intervention has taken a huge burden off the shoulders of government in a fight that is bound to stretch resources to no end, especially as no one can predict its duration. It has raised the standard of healthcare delivery in the country in relation to the fight against the pandemic, with availability of treatment and care that is comparable to what obtains in other climes. It has helped to minimize the impact of the pandemic

text or email, split bill and request money”.

Demola-Adeniyi, who was speaking on the backdrop of the advantages of digital banking noted that e-banking or digital banking as it is commonly called, has become the order of the day for both the young and old, especially now, as our current reality encourages us to adopt social distancing. “To avoid non-essential contact and bank remotely,

all a customer needs is a mobile device.

It is also important to note that there is a need for customers to maintain online safety to avoid falling victim to fraudsters and scammers. Customers who need to make enquiries or register complaints can do so by following the bank’s verified social media pages and reaching out to our 24-hour contact centre by email, calls or live chat” she stated.

Ecobank sensitises customers on digital banking

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cobank advises its customers to utilise the bank’s digital banking platforms which include *326#, EcobankPay, Ecobank Online, Ecobank Mobile, Ecobank OmniLite and the Rapidtransfer App. One of the incentives being used by Ecobank, to enable customers embrace digital banking, is the free offer on transfers below N5,000. “This zero-charge

offer has been running for three months now and will continue till the 30th of September 2020” according to Olukorede DemolaAdeniyi, head, consumer banking, Ecobank Nigeria.

Further, she said “Ecobank’s USSD code, *326#, which is popularly known for its zero session fee can also be used for other transactions such as paying bills, sending money, buying airtime, checking BVN, applying www.businessday.ng

for an Xpress Loan, opening a bank account instantly and even generating an e-token for cardless withdrawals at any Ecobank ATM or Xpress Point.

Amazing features have been added to the updated Ecobank Mobile App to make the users’ banking experience not just simpler, but also safer and more rewarding. Some of these unique features include the ability to create a virtual card, send money via

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18

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

insurance today

E-mail: insurancetoday@businessdayonline.com

Covid-19 crisis could endanger long-term safety in shipping industry – Allianz report reveals

Modestus Anaesoronye

… as West African Coast is the third top hotspot losses

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Modestus Anaesoronye

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arge shipping losses are at a record low having fallen by over 20 percent year-on-year, according to marine insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE’s (AGCS)Safety & Shipping Review 2020. However, the coronavirus crisis could endanger the longterm safety improvements in the shipping industry for 2020 and beyond, as difficult operating conditions and a sharp economic downturn present a unique set of challenges.

According to the report released weekend, “Coronavirus has struck at a difficult time for the maritime industry as it seeks to reduce its emissions, navigates issues such as climate change, political risks and piracy, and deals with ongoing problems such as fires on vessels,” says Baptiste Ossena, global product leader, Hull Insurance, AGCS. “Now the sector also faces the task of operating in a very different world, with the uncertain public health and economic implications of the pandemic.”

The annual AGCS study analyzes reported shipping losses over 100 gross tons (GT) and also identifies 10 challenges of the coronavirus crisis for the shipping industry which could impact safety and risk management.

In2019, 41 total losses of vessels were reported around the world, down from 5312 months earlier.

This represents an approximate 70 percent decline over 10 years and is a result of sustained efforts in the areas of regulation, training and technological advancement, among others. More

than 950 shipping losses have been reported since the start of 2010.

Meanwhile, piracy remains a major risk for shipping. In 2019, there were 162 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships worldwide, down from 201 in 2018. This is despite the recent success in tackling Somali pirates. Somalia reported zero piracy incidents in 2019, a trend that continued through the beginning of 2020. However, Somali pirates continue to possess the capacity to carry out attacks in the Somali basin and wider Indian Ocean.

The Gulf of Guinea has reemerged as the global piracy hotspot accounting for 90 percent of global kidnappings reported at sea in 2019 with the number of crew taken increasing by more than 50 percent to 121 according to the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) . Given heightened political and economic uncertainty in the world today, piracy is a threat that is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

“Piracy remains an ongoing issue. We thought we had a handle on it but it has manifested yet again,” says

Rahul Khanna, global head of Marine Risk Consulting at AGCS. “Hijackings by Somalian pirates may have reduced for now, but incidents have been increasing in West Africa and parts of Asia, where we see a worrying pattern of violent attacks against crew, as well as kidnappings.”

Following an active 2019, there has been no let-up in piracy in 2020. There were 47 attacks reported to the IMB in the first three months of the year, up from 38 in the same period last year, mostly targeting tankers, as well as container ships and bulk carriers. Again, the Gulf of Guinea accounted for the highest number of attacks (21) although there were also (five) vessels boarded in the Singapore Strait and several incidents of armed robbery in Latin America.

The shipping industry has continued to operate through the pandemic, despite disruption at ports and to crew changes. While any reduction in sailings due to coronavirus restrictions could see loss activity fall in the interim, the report highlights 10 challenges that could heighten risks.

“Ship-owners also face additional cost pressures

PILA partners Lagos Ministry of Women Affairs on fight against rape

from a downturn in the economy and trade,” says Khanna. “We know from past downturns that crew and maintenance budgets are among the first areas that can be cut and this can impact the safe operations of vessels and machinery, potentially causing damage or breakdown, which in turn can lead to groundings or collisions. It is crucial that safety and maintenance standards are not impacted by any downturn.”

omen in insurance under the umbrella body of Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA) has partnered with the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to bolster fight against rape, which has become increasingly a concern in the society.

PILA believes that as professionals in insurance, and given their number, they could support government in creating awareness that protects the rights of women, as well as helping the vulnerable amongst them speak up when abused.

Joyce Ojemudia, new president of PILA who led a delegation of the Association’s Executive to the office of the Commissioner, Cecilia Bolaji Dada, said she was motivated to partner with the Commissioner after watching her closely and seeing the passion she shows in protecting the rights of women in Lagos State and Nigeria as a

whole.

Ojemudia said with the support of the Commissioner, PILA intends to deepen the advocacy on protection of women against rape and domestic violence.

According to her, PILA will be hosting a Webinar with the commissioner and some other powerful speakers, second week in August, to advocate and create awareness about protection of women, while urging for the support and collaboration of the ministry.

Dada, the commissioner in her response appreciated the partnership, while promising that the ministry will support all efforts by PILA to empower the vulnerable women in the state to overcome their little challenges.

Ojemudia who was elected the 13th President of PILA during her inauguration said a key pillar of her tenure will be to create strategic engagements and alliances with Federal and State Ministries of Women Affairs and other female Professional groups for mutually beneficial relationship.

L-R: Margaret Moore, deputy president, Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA); Joyce Ojemudia, president, PILA; Bolaji Dada, Lagos State Commissioner of Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation; Abimbola Onakomaiya, vice president, PILA and Adegoke Funmi, senior special asst. to the Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation during a courtesy visit to the office of the Commissioner recently

Leadway Assurance boosts cybersecurity awareness amidst increasing digital risk Modestus Anaesoronye

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eadway Assurance Company Limited, one of Nigeria’s foremost insurer has hosted global industry thought leaders and subject matter experts to an online discourse to x-ray the rising cyber-risks in local and international businesses, as well as the various ways to mitigate the threats and attacks.

The webinar, moderated

by Liz Booth, editor, Commercial Risk Africa, featured

Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); John Anyanwu, Partner, Technology Advisory Services, KPMG Nigeria,; Tariq Fadai, IT-Security expert, Africa and the Middle East, Munich Re,; Gilbert Flepp, Head, Cyber Risks and Technical lines, Chubb Eurasia and Africa, Adetola Adegbayi, Executive Director, General Insurance, Leadway Assurance Company Limited.

John Anyawu, speaking during the session, said: “Since the start of the pandemic,

there have been increased dependency on the internet and mobile apps, and more reliance on digital channels. This has brought about a noticeable increase in cyber-attacks globally, and it has posed potential risks to businesses.”

He added that every organization needed to implement prevention, detection, and responsive measures against the risks of cyber-driven attacks and fraud, noting that if organisations implemented the right cybersecurity measures, they would function with confidence regardless of the times.

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Tariq Fadai gave insight into how cyber attackers operated, recommending defense mechanisms organizations could adopt. He further opined that organizations with “…poor security hygiene need to change”. Tariq noted that, with the pandemic forcing corporates to deploy remote-work conditions and routines, systems have moved to cloud services with an increasing reliance on third party services. “There is a risk of unavailability of services due to overcrowding, and several organisations might

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experience data loss as well.

Every business owner should understand and make good use of important cyber-attack controls”, he added.

Corroborating Fadai, Gilbert Flepp, emphasized the urgent need for organisations to institute maintenance of cyber-security protocol, endpoint detection and response tactics like implementing robust anti-Malware control and learning how to administer a disaster recovery plan.

In the same vein, Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, expressed concerns over the recent in@Businessdayng

crease in daring cyber-attacks on businesses and individuals. “Never before has cyber threats been the way it is today. As the world is recovering, cyber-criminals are taking advantage of the pandemic to mask their activities.

It is important that we learn how to keep information safe, how to back up, how to secure email getaway regularly and to make sure everyone is vigilant, web-responsible and aware of emerging threats and use technology to prevent them from causing havoc,” he noted.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

19

FINANCIAL INCLUSION

& INNOVATION

COVID-19 accelerates drive for financial inclusion in Nigeria Ronke Kuye

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OV I D - 1 9 ha s changed the way billions of people live and work–and it has also impacted the way they spend and use their money.

The World Health Organisation announced in early March 2020 that banknotes may be able to carry and spread the virus, and social distancing means people are more likely to shop online, avoid physical outlets and make use of online and mobile payment facilities.

A recent Mastercard study shows that 79% of global consumers are using contactless payments for reasons of safety and hygiene.

This shift away from cash towards digital channels, products and services is providing a boost to initiatives to drive greater financial inclusion. And in Nigeria, where an estimated 45 million adult population are unbanked—meaning they have no bank account and no access to financial services (like loans or start-up capital), and operate almost exclusively with cash— this represents a significant untapped opportunity both to boost GDP and to drive progress towards the country’s development goals.

Financial inclusion makes managing finances easier—it helps individuals

to save money, make payments, get credit and obtain insurance, thereby reducing risks in business and to livelihoods. A World Bank study also links financial inclusion to improved development goals. Farmers with access to insurance have been shown to invest in riskier, higher-yielding crops, while families with savings opportunities may be able to save for school fees. The most noticeable economic and social benefits appear to be in digital payments and savings accounts.

Ensuring that these benefits can accrue to more Nigerians is the driving force behind the CBN and Banks inspired SANEF, which was started as a project in February 2018 and formally launched in January 2019.

Our vision is to bring financial services closer to every Nigerian and to collaborate with all stakeholders in the financial services ecosystem to increase financial access points and services across all geopolitical zones in the country.

SANEF is supporting the drive by the CBN and the financial institutions to ensure that up to 80% of the population is financially included by December 2020—as of December 2018, just ~63% percent of the population was banked. We are achieving this by rapidly driving the expansion of a network of registered

Ronke Kuye

agents or financial access points across the country.

Agents are individuals or local businesses, effectively financial retail outlets contracted to financial institutions or mobile network operators, that can offer basic financial services including Bank Verification Number (BVN) enrolment, Account opening, Cash deposit, Cash withdrawal, Funds transfer, Bills payment and Airtime vending etc.

To date, SANEF, through its partners, (Super Agents and Mobile money opera-

tors) has grown this agent network by 313 percent from over 85,000 in December 2018 to about 345,000 as of June 2020 in all the 774 local government areas, and the number of transactions they process continues to climb. In 2019, SANEF agents processed over 180 million transactions worth N1.8 trillion in 2019, and between January and June 2020 alone, 76 million transactions valued at N1.3 trillion took place at agent locations.

We aim to have 500, 000 agents across the country

in place by December 2020, and in this, we have found an unexpected ally in the COVID-19 pandemic. Agent banking use rose significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Nigeria when bank branches were not available. Agent transactions grew by 859% between March and April 2020 with agents able to provide money—including government aid—and perform various transactions to tide consumers over during this difficult time.

With the easing of regulations, we need to take advantage of this momentum to further empower and support agents and to streamline processes to enable more citizens to tap into the benefits that financial inclusion brings. If nothing else, the pandemic has demonstrated that there is a significant appetite amongst unbanked consumers to adopt digital technologies.

SANEF has a crucial role to play here. In helping agents to leverage on simple and effective technology platforms for the agent banking industry, we can continue to expand the availability of financial products and ensure the speedy resolution of all disputes at agent locations. By working closely with our partners: Banks, Super agents, Mobile money operators, regulators and other stakeholders both locally and globally, we can

continue to enhance the sustainability of agent banking through products, favourable policies and pricing.

We also need to continue to run financial literacy and campaign awareness projects to educate communities and informal settlements on the benefits of being part of the formal financial services sector.

Significant investments in financial literacy have been necessitated by COVID-19 and we can build on this and help people adjust to new financial norms.

A significant shift has been made towards a cashless society in Nigeria—as well as around the world—as people consciously reduce their opportunities for virus transmission and it is likely that this will continue. Nigeria is showing the way for other emerging economies on how informal communities and markets can be incorporated into the financial sector—for the benefit of individuals and communities, as well as an economy struggling to contain the fall-out from the virus.

Ronke Kuye is CEO of the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities (SANEF), partners with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and is supported by Deposit Money Banks, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) and licensed Super Agents/ Mobile Money Operators.

In expansion push, Access Bank completes acquisition of Kenya’s Translational Bank Endurance Okafor

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igeria’s top lender by assets, Access Bank has spread its wings to East Africa through the completion of the acquisition of Translational Bank (Kenya) Plc. Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank made this known in a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) while informing the regulator of the bank’s acquisition on Monday.

According to the tierone lender, its “entry into the Kenya market, a key getaway in East Africa, does not only brings us closer

to that vision but enables our customers to tap into our extensive global network that translates into immense business opportunities, robust and efficient digital solution, competitive products and unrivalled customer experience.”

The commercial bank also said in the notice seen by BusinessDay that it promises to build and support its wholesale and retail customers through the creation of a world-class payment system that would leverage on strong customer insights.

Sequel to its announcement on October 28, 2019, the Board of Access Bank Plc said in a notice seen

By BusinessDay that is it

pleased to inform the investing public and the Lagos bourse of the lender’s successful completion of the acquisition of Translational Bank (Kenya) Plc. “We are excited to make an entry into the vibrant Kenya market. We pledge to put our customers at the forefront of everything we do. Through the creation of a world-class payment system,” Wigwe said, adding that the bank said it build and support its wholesale and retail customers “using our strong customer insights to deliver beyond their expectations.”

The lender’s successful entrance into East Africa’s financial market follows the receipt of the full regulatory

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approval and fulfilment of all conditions precedent to completion.

According to the tier-one lender operating through a network of more than 600 branches and service outlets, spanning three continents, 12 countries and 36 million customers, it is grateful to the regulators for the conference reposed in the bank throughout the transaction.

“We acknowledge the support of our team of world-class advisors whose hard work made this deal possible,” Wigwe commended.

Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange since 1998, Access bank is a diversified financial institution

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which combines a strong retail customer franchise and digital platform with deep corporate banking expertise and proven risk management and capital management capabilities.

The Bank services its various markets through five business segments: Personal, Business, Operations and IT, Commercial and Corporate & Investment Bank Divisions.

The Bank which employs 28,000 people has its operations in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom, with representative offices in China, Lebanon, India and the UAE. The Bank has over 800,000 shareholders, in@Businessdayng

cluding several Nigerian and International Institutional Investors, and has enjoyed what is arguably Africa’s most successful banking growth trajectory in the last 18 years. Following its merger with Diamond Bank in March 2019, Access Bank became one of Africa’s largest retail banks.

As part of its continued growth strategy, Access Bank said it is focused on mainstreaming sustainable business practices into its operations. The Bank said it strives to deliver sustainable economic growth that is profitable, environmentally responsible and socially relevant while helping customers to access more and achieve dreams.

20

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

ManagementDigest

How hospitals can meet the needs of non-Covid patients during the pandemic Hummy Song and Ghideon Ezaz

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uring the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals worldwide diverted resources from routine inpatient critical care and outpatient clinics to meet the surge in demand.

Because of the resulting resource constraints and fear of infection, clinicians and non-COVID patients deferred “non-urgent” visits, evaluations, diagnostics, surgeries and therapeutics. Indeed, early in the pandemic physicians and leading public health officials noted a dramatic decline in non-COVID-related health emergencies.

While these postponements may have reduced the amount of unnecessary services used, they likely also caused a perilous deferral of needed services, which many believe will lead to later hospitalizations requiring higher levels of care, longer lengths of stay and increased hospital readmissions. It is critical that we not only focus on the acute care of COVID-19 patients but also proactively manage patients without COVID-19, particularly those with time-sensitive and medically complex conditions who are postponing their care.

Drawing on key principles from operations management and applying a health-systems perspective, we propose four strategies to facilitate care of non-COVID patients even as hospitals are stretched to absorb waves of patients with COVID-19.

1. INNOVATE OUTPATIENT MANAGEMENT TO REDUCE DEMAND AT DOWNSTREAM BOTTLENECKS. To reduce future bottlenecks in emergency departments (EDs) and hospitals, outpatient clinicians should expand their management of patients at high risk of needing acute or inpatient services, such as those with poorly managed hypertension or diabetes, and triage patients with acute needs to EDs now to reduce more serious complications later. This will help reduce potential future spikes in demand on EDs and inpatient beds from non-COVID patients.

While most clinicians have rapidly adopted some form of telemedicine, they will need to increase their digital engagement with high-risk patients in a more targeted fashion. Clinicians should evaluate their patient panels to identify high-risk

individuals and initiate telemedicine visits, rather than relying on patients to initiate contact, similar to the process for disease management used by several community health care organizations.

Although high-risk patients will vary by specialty, targeted populations may include patients recently discharged from the hospital and those at high risk for hospitalization, including those with uncontrolled heart failure or active malignancy. To facilitate remote patient monitoring of high-risk patients, clinicians may opt to send telehealth kits tailored to patients’ medical and technological needs. These kits may include connected health devices such as blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters and heart rate monitors. Clinicians must also promote multidisciplinary virtual collaboration among primary care clinicians, specialists, social workers, home health clinicians, administrative support, and patients and their caregivers.

2. COMBINE ESSENTIAL NON-COVID INPATIENT SERVICES ACROSS HOSPITALS. To balance demand across hospitals, public health officials should apply a version of the logistics strategy known as “location pooling,” combining demands from multiple locations.

Rather than each hospital in a region redundantly providing the full suite of essential inpatient non-COVID clinical services, each of these services should be concentrated at one location.

For example, each region should have a single designated cancer center, transplant cenwww.businessday.ng

ter, stroke center and trauma center. Implementing this strategy is fraught with challenges as hospitals compete with one another for patients and revenue.

Nevertheless, during the initial COVID-19 wave, several hospitals in Boston collaborated to share data on the availability of hospital beds to efficiently route patients based on their clinical need and the available capacity. And centralization of acute stroke care, in which patients are taken to central specialty hospitals rather than the nearest hospital, demonstrates both the feasibility and potential improved outcomes of utilizing this approach in several countries, including the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.

Crises require all possible realizations of economies of scale.

Location pooling mitigates variability in service-specific demand faced by each hospital. As demand falls for specific nonCOVID services at an individual hospital (e.g., for acute stroke care), hospital administrators can close those services and repurpose the specialty capacity to care of COVID-19 patients with underlying conditions, as discussed below. If all hospitals implement this strategy, not all nonCOVID services will be available at every hospital. However, location pooling draws demand from across hospitals, ensuring that as a given hospital loses some patients it gains others, allowing it to maintain sufficient census to remain fiscally viable.

Centrally coordinated regional organization, similar to mass casualty planning, is critical to ensure that each essential

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service remains fully operational for routine emergencies, while adapting to dynamic changes in the region’s hospital capacity.

The number of hospitals to include in location pooling should be determined by weighing the trade-off of efficiency gains from pooling across more locations versus inefficiencies from increased travel time incurred by patients and emergency medical services.

3. GROUP HOSPITALIZED COVID-19 PATIENTS BY THEIR UNDERLYING CLINICAL CONDITIONS. At the same time that hospitals should be location-pooling specialty services for non-COVID patients, to the extent possible they should place their COVID-19 patients who have serious underlying health issues (e.g., cardiac conditions) with other COVID-19 patients with the same condition. In each of these “cohorted wards,” redeployed clinical staff from the relevant specialty service, such as cardiology, can provide essential specialty care alongside clinicians addressing patients’ COVID-specific care needs.

While such cohorting limits efficiency gains from pooling all COVID-19 patients in one ward, it maintains specialty care for patients who still need it while reducing the additional inpatient capacity strain resulting from patients being dispersed across the hospital. Indeed, prior research demonstrates that displacing patients from cohorted specialty units is associated with prolonged hospital length of stay and more frequent readmissions. @Businessdayng

4. DISCHARGE PATIENTS INTO POST-ACUTE CARE BASED ON COVID-19 STATUS. Nursing home, rehabilitation hospital and long-term acute care facility leadership should collaborate to establish separate regional, specialized, post-acute care facilities for COVID-19 and non-COVID patients. Sending patients to specialized postacute care facilities based on their COVID-19 status will facilitate discharge planning, improving patient flow out of the hospital for COVID-19 and nonCOVID patients alike. This will relieve strain at ED and hospital bottlenecks while maintaining care quality. Furthermore, having dedicated post-acute care facilities for COVID-19 patients will preserve post-acute care capacity for those recovering from non-COVID illnesses, while lowering their risk of becoming infected.

Challenges to this model include ensuring timely access to COVID-19 testing and rapid test results to guide appropriate patient routing. To prevent discharge delays due to testing constraints, hospitals need to implement rapid tests more widely, and post-acute care facilities should designate quarantine areas for patients to receive care while awaiting results.

These strategies will undoubtedly be challenging to implement. But now is the time to rethink health care delivery and adopt operations management strategies with demonstrated success that are most promising.

This will allow us to be better prepared for future waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hummy Song is an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ghideon Ezaz is an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. S. Ryan Greysen is an associate professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where Scott D. Halpern is a professor and Rachel Kohn is an assistant professor.

Hummy Song is an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ghideon Ezaz is an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. S. Ryan Greysen is an associate professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where Scott D. Halpern is a professor and Rachel Kohn is an assistant professor.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESS

21

In association with

ag@businessdayonline.com

Nigeria’s poultry farmers output to drop as CBN bans FX for maize importers …as climate change cut 2019 maize production …Prices up 60% Josephine Okojie

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u t pu t i n t h e p o u l t r y industr y will likely drop this year owing to the recent FX ban imposed by the Central Bank on importers of maize.

The move came at a time the country is experiencing a shortage in maize supply owing to the intensifying effects of climate change experienced in 2019 and the 2020 COVID-19 disruption of the food supply chain.

As a result, there has been a sudden and speedy rise in the prices of maize – a key input in poultry feeds.

Poultr y far mers who spend 70percent of their production costs are already struggling to survive owing to the negative impact of the virus and the shortfall in maize supply.

“It has been a difficult moment for poultry farmers since the pandemic and with this action by the CBN to halt access to FX for maize importers, I do not think the poultry industry will survive,” Ibrahim Ezekiel, national president, Poultry A s s o c i a t i o n o f Ni g e r i a

(PAN) said in a response to questions.

“Our production output is already declining as many poultry farmers are still trying to recover from the initial loss owing to the pandemic,” he said.

He stated that the poultry association is only requesting for a short window to import maize due to the scarcity and sudden surge in prices.

Nigeria had since 2016

impose FX restriction on importers of some 41 items, which maize was included.

But the government in 2016 gave a window for the importation of maize owing to armyworm invasion that led to a sharp drop in the country’s production and since then importers have been importing the crop into the country especially through other West African countries.

Kwara set to launch Agricultural Masterplan SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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h e Kw a r a S t a t e G o v e r n o r , Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has said that the state is set to unveil its agricultural master plan as his administration puts a finishing touch to the document.

Abdulrazaq, who stated this recently during a virtual m e e ting w i th th e tea m working on the document, explained that the agricultural sector is crucial in revamping the Kwara’s economy.

He says that the Master Plan is the road map that will help in setting the foundation of agricultural development in the state.

“I have had a robust engagement with stakeholders and the team

reviewing the Kwara State Agricultural Masterplan -- an inclusive and holistic roadmap that will set Kwara on the path of economic prosperity,” he said.

“This masterplan is unique because it reflects the interests of all players in the agric subsector in the state, ranging from farmers’ cooperatives, agroallied industries, livestock farmers’ groups, and unions, regulators, and financial institutions among others,” he further said.

He added that the document evolved from a robust data gathering process that saw the government team consulting widely with various stakeholders.

He noted that data gathering involved the 16 local government areas in the state to ensure that all agro players in the state are www.businessday.ng

documented.

“With coherent programmes built on six c o m p re h e n s i v e p i l l a r s ; crop production, livestock production, value chain, access to market, finance and cross-cutting areas, we are confident that the masterplan will create jobs especially for youths and women, ensure food security and improve the livelihood for smallholder farmers among others,” he stated.

He said that the state is already aligning with global, regional. and local partners for the implementation of the masterplan when it is finally unveiled. “ I appre ciate all the government stakeholders and our partners for their relentless efforts in developing this inclusive plan,” he acknowledged.

Now, the country is faced with a similar situation as 2019 maize production has been estimated to decline by 25percent.

The apex bank says it is enforcing the ban to increase local production, stimulate a rapid economic recovery and safeguard rural livelihoods, which had been negatively impacted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But industry players in

the poultry subsector have criticized the decision saying that the industr y which is already on the brink of collapse will not survive the current market situation if the country fails to open a temporary window.

Alfred Mrakpor, chairman, Poultry Association of Nigeria – Delta State chapter said the poultry industry is in a dire situation as a result of the scarcity.

“The rising cost of maize is threatening livelihoods of small businesses in Nigeria. It is not only poultry farmers’ investments that are threatened but other players in the value chain, thus plunging the economy into deeper crisis,” Mrakpor said.

Nigeria, Africa’s secondlargest maize producer after South Africa, is churning out 10.5 million metric tons of maize per annum with a demand of 15 million m e t r i c t o n s , l e av i n g a supply-demand gap of 4.5 million MT annually, data from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture states.

Currently, a metric ton of maize in Africa’s most populous nation is currently sold for N160,000 as against N100,000 sold pre-COVID-19,

indication a 60 percent increase in price.

However, maize farmers are commending the CBN for the immediate ban on the importation of maize into the country.

“This is a good move by the apex bank as this will now create more market for maize farmers in the country,” said Tunji Adenola, former national president, Maize Association of Nigeria.

“It will spur investments in the maize value chain as more investors will focus on the subsector,” Adenola said.

Similarly, Ayo deji Balogun, country manager, AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, says that the situation will be tough for poultry farmers and the country at large but it is for a better tomorrow owing to the FX volatility.

“We cannot continue to export maize to the detriment of our own farmers. We know the situation is difficult at the moment but it will only be for a short term,” Balogun said.

“It is short term thing for a long term gain. We need to bear the pains now for the long term gain especially with the negative impact of the pandemic and FX volatility,” he added.

Kogi APPEALS Project earmarks N633m for agric value chain development Victoria Nnakaike, Lokoja

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he Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support, APPEALS, Kogi State chapter has earmarked N633 million for agricultural value chain investments in the state.

The state has also commenced the free distribution of agro-allied incentives for smallholder farmers in Kogi State.

Sani Ozomata , the state coordinator of the programme who disclosed this during the flag-off scheme in some communities in Lokoja recently said that about 697 rice farmers will benefit from the initiative.

Ozomata also pointed out that N633 million has been earmarked to benefit rice

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farmers who are spread over a 1780 hectares of land across the state.

He added that the current period of the farming season is the right time to reach out to farmers but lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic will make them to redouble their efforts to make sure that farmers return to their farmlands while ensuring food.

“APPE ALS project had development objectives of enhancing small and medium scale farmers and also support their value addition. We have identified the real farmers, mapped out their land and we want them to take advantage of this grant to support their farming,” he said.

“APPEALS in Kogi state is taking the lead because we want to make sure that farm inputs get to the farmers at the @Businessdayng

right time,” he further said.

He added that the project will ensure prompt delivery of the incentives to farmers, noting that the first phase will commence with rice farmers.

“For the rice farmers, we have mapped out 1780 hectares of land for rice production this farming season alone and will be used to fund the under the ‘Value Chain Investment Plan’ (VCIP),” he said.

Speaking also, Edward O n o ja, t h e s t at e d e pu t y governor, who doubles as the state steering committee chairman for the project said the state government refusal to lock down the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic has given leeway to farmers in the state.

He added that the state will soon overtake Benue to become the food basket of the country.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

INTERVIEW Concentrating 99% of fibre infrastructure investment in urban centres, a business decision - Opeke This year marks ten years since MainOne was founded in Lagos, Nigeria. The company’s milestones include being the first telecommunications company in the West African region to deploy a subsea cable into service on the West Coast. Funke Opeke, CEO of MainOne, spoke to BusinessDay’s Frank Eleanya on the lessons, milestones and hurdles it has faced doing business in Nigeria and Africa in the past ten years.

W

Funke Opeke

outcomes because there are so many barriers to progress in our environment.

MainOne is today one of the 6 operators of subsea cables in West Africa. How did you pull off that achievement, plus the financing?

We deployed the first private subsea cable into service on the West Coast and we pulled it off with a strong vision, superior governance and leadership, and relentless execution. There is a strong national business case for investments that close the infrastructure deficit in Africa. The challenge is that the environment makes it difficult for investments to succeed.

What, in your view, has been the factor holding Nigeria and West Africa back from deploying pervasive broadband infrastructure despite all the investments made?

Major improvements have been made in the region especially in the last couple of years. However there are still some lingering issues such as the lack of viable economic structures for the deployment of robust national and local access infrastructure which manifests in the absence of shared infrastructure, exorbitant costs to deploy services, multiple taxes, among others. As soon as we tackle these issues effectively, we will be able to realize our vision to diversify from oil and create a digital economy www.businessday.ng

Nearly 99 percent of fibre deployment has been to urban centres like Lagos and Abuja. Is this a business decision or policydriven decision?

This is a business decision. Businesses invest where they expect to make the most return. It is the role of government to implement policies that drive development and provide incentives to ensure development is even across the country and extends to rural areas. For us at MainOne, in addition to deploying fiber in Lagos, we have also built terrestrial fibre infrastructure in Edo and Ogun States. We have initiated a project with Cameroun to extend our submarine cable to the Niger Delta more than five years ago, but we have not been able to justify taking on more crippling bank loans to complete the project.

It has taken Nigerian states 7 years to finally come around to the idea of harmonising Right of Way. Do you think we took too long considering where our peers in Africa are on fibre deployment?

We would like to commend the State Governors for reducing the RoW charges for laying telecommunications infrastructure. We believe this move is a step in the right direction and will enable the deployment of fast and efficient infrastructure in the respective states which will ultimately improve broadband penetration, strengthen

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the technology ecosystem and drive innovation of these states.

Are there states that have stood out for you in this new drive for last mile broadband deployment?

The Chair of the National Governor’s Forum and the Governor of Ekiti State took some bold steps early and that is to be commended.

All of the Governors have done well and the Governor of Kaduna State took a leadership position in waiving those fees completely quite early. MainOne was also able to build in Ogun and Edo States because of the cooperation we received from Governors in those states.

What would you say is the biggest achievement of MainOne in the last ten year?

We have had several achievements over the last ten years. Our biggest achievement to date remains building the pioneering international backbone that reduced the cost of connecting our region to the Internet by orders of magnitude thus enabling access for our citizens. We have provided wholesale Internet services to over 10 West African countries and Internet penetration in our region has grown from less than 10% to approximately 40% today. Today, we have 6 cables landing in Nigeria and the country is ranked 7th globally in terms of Internet population. In addition, we have played a major role in enabling the start-up ecosystem which has relied on these critical technologies to deploy their business models.

Tell us about your project with

‘

In order to achieve the targets set in the National Broadband plan, we need private sector companies to increase investment in country and ensure the investments are deployed in areas where they achieve the plan objectives

‘

Ten years ago you came into the scene when Nigeria had less than 6% broadband penetration and the regulatory environment wasn’t as great as it is now. What was your dream and why did you think it was possible in this environment? h e n Ma i n O n e started, the vision was to bridge the digital divide and make Internet services more widely available across West Africa and promote adoption to accelerate the quality of life and pace of development in the region.

I thought it was possible because of my professional experience in the United States where I had witnessed the tremendous growth and indeed explosion of the Internet over twenty years. I saw no reason why we could not achieve the same here in Africa and viewed it as a necessity for Africans not to be left behind to gain access to technologies that were revolutionizing other parts of the world.

Looking back now, would you have changed anything about MainOne? I would not have changed anything. We are not where we want to be yet, but we are happy about the impact we have had on Internet penetration in the region and while we are still working for our investment to pay off, we have built a business that has diversified its portfolio of services and geographies and remains well-positioned to continue to add value going forward.

At the time of setting up MainOne, what was more important?

Addressing the gross infrastructure deficits or running a successful business in a very challenging environment?

I think addressing the infrastructure deficits in the region was most critical, but we did not think that was antithetical to running a successful business. I had limited business experience in the region, so I underestimated the challenges of our business environment and that the environment is such that innovation and value creation did not necessarily translate into successful business. Perhaps managing in this challenging business environment is one of the key lessons that I have learnt from this journey. We have had to work very hard to make our business successful despite the fact that we deployed infrastructure that results in positive socio-economic

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Edo State government and what other states can emulate from?

Edo state identified ICT and in particular Internet Access as critical for creating jobs and growing the digital economy of Edo State.

As a result, we partnered to deploy terrestrial fiber to connect points of interest across Benin City, while deploying infrastructure to connect our customers and grow our business. We believe that this partnership has been beneficial in improving the quality of internet access and accelerating digital transformation in Edo State. As the world continues to deal with the new realities (social distancing) caused by COVID-19, governments having access to this kind of broadband infrastructure has become even more crucial to enable online education, work from home, deliver government services andengage our communities We would like to encourage other states to follow the steps of Edo State to avoid getting left behind and ensuring that their citizens have improved access to a world of opportunities online.

12. What is your plan for the next decade?

We anticipate that the next ten years will be marked by opportunities for growth and market expansion as we continue to provide excellent services to our clients across the region and enable businesses to become even more efficient. As more of our businesses and citizens migrate online, we are expanding our footprint across West Africa, with additional data center investments with expansion of our MDXi facility in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria and development of a Tier III data center in Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. In addition to this, we are currently building a new data center facility in Appolonia City, Accra Ghana which will be ready for service in the first half of 2021. Finally, we continue to deepen our penetration into the Francophone region with our entry to Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire last year and extension to Burkina Faso earlier this year.

13. How can we ensure 100% implementation of the new National Broadband Plan?

In order to achieve the targets set in the National Broadband plan, we need private sector companies to increase investment in country and ensure the investments are deployed in areas where they achieve the plan objectives. This will require a greater degree of collaboration between the public and private sector and alignment between business and national developmental objectives.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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INTERVIEW ‘From weddings to virtual happy hours, more Nigerians, businesses go online’ Not many people would have imagined substituting most of the conventional physical meetings for virtual sessions, including conferences, religious meetings and even weddings. WebEx, the online meeting platform owned by Cisco recorded more than a three-fold increase in usage, and OLAKUNLE OLORUNTIMEHIN, general manager of Cisco in Nigeria, in this interview with CALEB OJEWALE, gives insights into emerging trends and future prospects. Excerpt:

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OVID-19 has created an unprecedented opportunity and demand for online meeting platforms.

How prepared was Cisco for what now appears to be an opportunity?

The pandemic is an unfortunate incident, and though it has caused a lot of pain globally, we can say it has created some opportunity for technology companies like us at Cisco. Loss of lives in any way is saddening, having said that we have been prepared for a long time with the Cisco WebEx, which has been our primary platform for video collaboration. Overtime, we have made the platform more resilient and more importantly strengthened security as the foundation and as a basic part of it.

Security in itself is inherent in everything that is done with Cisco WebEx, that is why compared to our peers, we are ready to provide these in an unprecedented time like this. Having said that, when the present traffic volume on WebEx is compared to what we had in February, we have seen close to three and the half times more traffic. So we have continued to make the platform resilient and available to customers, irrespective of the segment and more importantly, we have ensured that security is imperative with the delivery of the services on this platform.

Going forward, with more people embracing platforms like WebEx for meetings and the likes, what are your thoughts on the sustainability of these demands post COVID-19?

We have had a lot of feedback for instance from a survey done for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, where each of them came back to say their view of employee engagement, business continuity planning and how they engage with customers from a remote point of view will be sustained into the future.

Some of them were also bold to say that they expect only 50 percent of their workforce to return to traditional office spaces going forward, irrespective of how long the COVID-19 disruption lasts.

However, taking a look at the CEOs, there is a clear understanding of the need to embrace a platform like WebEx, not just as a complement to how they increase productivity within their employee workforce or customer engagement processes, but for it to be the primary tool going forward.

Leveraging remote connections, virtual meetings and engagements as a platform for productivity going forward would be a priority for them according to the survey.

What we have seen in terms of actual traffic provides evidence for this survey’s output.

Like I said, we have seen three and a half times more in terms of volume of usage from February 2020 to date and we expect the traffic volume to increase. We are proactively building more capacity to take on more volume growth as WebEx becomes more relevant across different segments – be it enterprise, small business and consumer level going forward.

A major concern for people is security and considering the fact

Olakunle Oloruntimehin

that more people are adopting the platform and it may be experiencing more volume, what is being put in place to ensure that people stay secure during meetings?

Cisco is the largest enterprise security company, and each of our products, solutions and architecture have security as a foundation inherent in the design process as well as in the product development process.

WebEx and our collaboration platforms are no different. WebEx was built inherently as an enterprise platform with all the security imperative that comes with that; privacy, security, and threat mitigation considerations from a security point of view are all part of the platform.

WebEx will not gather or sell user information. We have always treated the platform as an enterprise platform first and from there we use that to become relevant across all segments. In spite of this we continue to make security important, one area we do that is around our Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) integrations, a native cloud service to allow for protection within the cloud and in terms of the usage of the cloud service. That’s one of the many areas we are improving capabilities around security. In terms of integration with other devices as well as solutions from a Cisco point of view, security is also taken into consideration. We never have issues around eavesdropping or sessions being hijacked maliciously. Essentially, security is the bedrock and foundation of this platform.

What patterns have you noticed in the demography of users and those adopting the platform in recent months?

We have seen more small business users, even though they are the small business of today, our belief is that they become the enterprises of tomorrow. They also www.businessday.ng

have similar security requirements as well as similar multi-feature requirement as enterprises. We have seen a lot of small business companies reach out to become new users of the WebEx platform in addition to our enterprise customers, who have grown their license usage in multiple folds because they have more users working and engaging remotely. There are also cases, where WebEx was adopted for leisure usage instead of business, such as people having virtual happy hours and weddings. Lastly, there has been usage of WebEx in the education sector with schools taking content and activities online to WebEx because of the physical distancing requirements at this time. A school somewhere in the EMEA zone moved from physical lectures to online lectures using WebEx platform in 24hours. We are talking about thousands of students accessing lessons and classes using the platform.

Considering there are several platforms, what makes WebEx unique?

Is it better suited for certain types of users?

What makes WebEx unique is that, first is that it is a secure platform - security is a key part of its composition. Users irrespective of segment or type of usage should be reassured of its security and this is being tested by different third-party penetration agencies who have continued to work with Cisco to improve our level of security with WebEx. Second is the number of features that are continually updated. For instance, recently we launched the personal digital assistant that comes with WebEx, which can be used to take notes on one’s behalf and capture certain highlights based on the instructions that are set at any time during the meeting.

So in terms of feature, it is very rich.

Lastly, it is useful across different types of users. When the platform is resilient and

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secure with multiple features, it lends itself to being relevant to any type of use when it comes to collaboration and that is what we want people to know. For instance, those who explore the platform for their weddings do so probably because of the multi-feature capabilities and more importantly security.

How do you plan on sustaining the momentum and keeping people online (to host meetings)? Data seems to be a big deal in this part of the world, what are your strategies in ensuring that your target users get on this platform.

That is a good perspective because it is the kind of conversation we are having with multiple stakeholders in the private and public sector, including Government.

For bandwidth and broadband penetration to become pervasive and ubiquitous, it requires the participation of multiple stakeholders. Cisco is at the forefront of driving that discussion with multiple stakeholders.

The problem can be solved in two key ways, the first being technology which in itself can provide the democratization of outcomes going forward because technology should facilitate certain outcomes and, in this case, facilitate better broadband penetration and by extension, bandwidth quality and experience.

The second one is economics; demand and supply. The more people at the consumer level all the way up to enterprises level continue to put pressure and demand for improved quality of service, experience and better bandwidth capacity outcomes, the more players will be interested in the opportunity to provide the supply to meet this demand. The more people are interested, coupled with an awareness from the Government and regulatory point of view that there is a need to facilitate better outcomes for this, then eventually we may have a better adoption of these services.

This is because services would begin to come with better quality of experience as a result of all stakeholders coming together to make it happen.

How much do you think cost would impact adoption by small users with low budgets?

Cisco offers solutions that are segmented.

We have small business solutions that are tailored for small businesses and the likely features they may want to adopt. Cost is a consideration when that is examined; we look at what they will want, for instance, an enterprise user, we would cost it at a certain entry point. We take cognizance of the size when it comes to small business and we have specific offers and features we sell to them. In that case, Cisco is aware of the cost and the costs are competitive from that point of view. Specific to a broader context, the mobile industry is an example; when the services where offered initially the cost was higher than we have it now. It ties back to the economics; with more demand and more players on the scene willing to offer technology pervasiveness, then the cost would eventually come within reach of the different user segments, including the average individual consumer and not just the small businesses.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Garden City Business Digest Fintech firms hail global standing instruction that helps recover debts across bank accounts • Hopes rise that GSI would touch all registered lenders

Ignatius Chukwu

Ignatius Chukwu

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he Global Standing Instruction (GSI) just rolled out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been hailed as a muchawaited policy capsule capable of sanitizing Nigeria’s credit space and promote economic growth and stability flowing from borrower-lender credibility.

This is as financial technology (fintech) groups and other lenders not yet captured in the GSI have commended the policy, seeing much hope in the sanity of the lending market.

Push for a system that would spread the net to harvest debtors across the financial industry was made in February 2020 when the Bankers’ Committee approved what they called the ‘Go-Live’ on the GSI aimed at facilitating an improved credit repayment culture; reducing non-performing loans in the Nigerian banking system; and to do watchlisting of consistent loan defaulters.

The CBN in collaboration with stakeholders has just developed the necessary protocols to facilitate what many regard as a seamless implementation of the GSI process, including eligible loans granted from August 28, 2019.

One of the players in the

COVID-19 almost wiped off our businesses – Community women

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor

industry, Ife Ibitokun, founder and CEO of BizNurture Financial Services Limited, told BusinessDay in Port Harcourt Thursday July 16, 2020, in a telephone interview, said financial institutions and operators had looked up to this measure long ago, but said the unveiling of the protocol is a welcome development.

Ibitokun who hinted that some operators in the online lending sub-sector were groaning under bad loans said most borrowers move from bank to bank or from one lender to the other as they cause liquidation on their trail.

Now, she stated, it would be impossible for anyone to borrow and move to another bank to operate fat balances

Ife Ibitokun, CEO, BixNurture

while the first lender was in distressed caused by nonperforming loans from same borrowers.

Show however hoped that the measure would gradually move from the regulated institutions such as regular banks and micro finance banks to the licensed financial solutions operators such as fintechs.

She said: “It is going from known to unknown, so we believe it is in the right and positive direction. It may get to all sectors of the lending space as time goes on. It is going to impact seriously on the entire spectrum of the payment services sector”.

The ex-banker admitted that borrowers from even the fintechs and from other lend-

ing firms may imbibe the impression that loans owed in one firm would be recovered from any other bank account.

She said this impression alone would be capable of instilling sanity in the fintech sector that is not yet covered by the GSI. The CEO of BizNurture also agreed it is possible that through collaboration, the banks could help fintech and non-covered lenders to recover loans through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) system. Now, she said the firm has given out about N1Bn in loans, admitting that recovery rate is higher in Port Harcourt than in Lagos. Now, with GSI, she hopes that even the Lagos lending space would sit up.

omen from Rivers East senatorial district of Rivers State have disclosed that they nearly lost their small business ventures as a result of the COVID 19 lockdown imposed on the state by the government as a measure to contain the spread of the pandemic in the state. It was the lifting of the lockdown following public outcries that saved our businesses from being destroyed.

The women made the disclosure while sharing experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown during an entrepreneurship training session organized recently by Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) with support from the embassy of the Netherlands in Nigeria in the Ulakwo Etche area of Etche local council area of Rivers State for rural community women of Rivers East Senatorial District.

The women lamented that their petty trading, which helped to lessen the economic pressures resulting from how to take care of their family needs suffered serious setbacks during the lockdown.

Although goods were sold at higher prices which yielded high profit margins, thy admitted, they said their businesses were impacted negatively by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The women said it was difficult to re-stock due to restrictions on movement and

market lockdown. Cost of restocking became very high just as some of their commodities were either seized or destroyed by agents of the state. They had to look for capital to start afresh when the lockdown was eased as their goods and capital were almost gone.

Experts and resource persons thus pointed to these areas as where the governments and intervention agencies could pay some attention in the form of capital infusion and post-lockdown palliatives.

Declaring the training open, Styvn Obodoekwe, director of programmes at CEHRD pointed out that the training was aimed at equipping the participants with basic skills necessary to make them successful entrepreneurs. They were urged to open businesses of their choice to empower themselves economically in order to stop depending on their husbands.

It was noted that dependence of women on men may be part of the reasons for the increased violence against women recorded during the Covid-19 lockdowns as many families were put under immense economic pressures.

Such pressures were believed to have led to tension and anger. Facilitating the training, Joseph Oshi (PhD), an entrepreneurship theorist and university don noted that in addition to making wealth for the entrepreneur, entrepreneurship takes care of key issues of self-reliance, self-promotion, improvement of livelihood and improving community standards, among others.

Emma Wike, new NIESV president, to focus on advocacy; wants media collaboration • Says NIESV is far more than rent collection Port Harcourt

by Boat

IGNATIUS CHUKWU

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f you meet an estate management professional or agent, what truly would come you’re your mind. That he is about rent collection and rent hike, right? Wrong!.

Their newly elected president says their job is far more than collecting rent. In fact, that could be the least of the professional duties.

Just like many Nigerians restrict use of their smart phones to making calls and texts, o do they also habour narrow view of what the estate practitioner does and can do.

Now, the full truth of this situation would be the focus of the group in the coming years.

This is because the Rivers State-born Emma

Wike, who has mounted the saddle as national president of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), is to focus on advocacy in his tenure. He is a vibrant professional who occupies a towering edifice off Olu Obasanjo Road into the GRA 2.

The executive committee of the Rivers State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) rubbed mind with the new president last week where he wasted no time in flagging the press as a very important organ.

He said; “Advocacy is our focus in the next two years. We want to impress our value on members of the society because for now, most persons think that NIESV is all about rent collection. It is far more than that.”

On the duties of the practitioners, he said: “We are more about valuation and value preservation.” There is one sensitive property belonging to a very important professional body in the state which regrettably is deteriorating. They have been blamed for not handing it to a professional firm in NIESV who would have extracted all the values imbedded in that building and advised them on how to maximize this value.

The NIESV group wouldn’t have looked on as the building deteriorated.

He has advised all property owners or

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custodians to waste no further time in handing them over to experts to manage. They will not only earn income with the buildings to the owners but would give useful advice and tips to enhance value.

The new president unveiled his agenda to the Rivers media community, which may hinge on various advocacy programmes that would put the NIESV in the front burner so that members of the public would understand clearly what the institute stands for and what

EMMA WIKE, NIESV president

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it can do all over the country. In this task, he thinks the media would be strategically important. The Rivers media community would need to rally round their son to deliver on his national mandate.

He said: “The problem in the profession is quackery and invasion from other professionals. Some of them want to be doing filing or take over valuation jobs. You must have our certification before you do that. We are not trying to stop persons from joining the procession but we insist on certification and qualification. We are not closing our doors because we need each other. Collaboration is important.”

Earlier, the NUJ chairman, Stanley Job Stanley, said: “We came to felicitate with a son of Rivers State who has made the state and region proud by clinching the position of national president of NIESV. Such things break the tripod; the thinking that things must go to one of the three major tribes in Nigeria.

It is certainly your wealth of experience that must have moved this t your way and we hope that you deploy such wealth to pilot the affairs of the professional body that found you worthy. Please do not disappoint.” Both professional bodies agreed to work out areas of collaboration.

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Tuesday 21 July, 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Tuesday 21 July 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS Company

ASI (Points)

Opening

Closing

Change

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

NB

N30

N31

1

DANGCEM

N126

N122

-4

MTNN

N118

N119

1

CAP

N20.65

N18.95

-1.7

VITAFOAM

N5.33

N5.75

0.42

INTBREW

N3.8

N3.45

-0.35

AFRIPRUD

N4.01

N4.18

0.17

ETERNA

N2

N1.8

-0.2

VALUE (N billion)

UCAP

N2.72

N2.79

0.07

ZENITHBANK

N15.65

N15.55

-0.1

MARKET CAP (N Trn)

DEALS (Numbers) VOLUME (Numbers)

24,174.45 3,500.00 304,185,443.00 3.268

...driven by Dangote Cement, CAP, Zenith, others

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L-R : Adedeji Ajadi, Registrar and chief executive, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) , Dipo Odeyemi, managing director/CEO, Cavidel Limited;Olatunde Amolegbe, president and chairman, Governing Council CIS; Oluwole Adeosun, 1st vice president, CIS and Oluropo Dada, 2nd vice president, at signing of ceremony of MOU between CIS and Cavidel, in Lagos.

Unilever shares to see further pressure amid N567m H1 pre-tax loss

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he shares of Nigeria unit of British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, Unilever may stay longer on the offer radar at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) following its disappointing first half (H1) results released on the Bourse.

The company’s results for the half year to June 30 shows its revenue decreased by 35.9 percent to N27.33billion in H1’20 as against N42.65billion in H1’19. Gross profit of N6.15billion in H1’20 represents a decrease of 45.7percent as against N11.34billion in H1’19.

Unilever reported N567million pre-tax loss in H1’20 as against pretax profit of N4.69billion in half year of 2019, representing a decrease of -112.1 percent. It also recorded after tax loss of N519million, down by -114.8percent

compared to profit after tax of N3.51billion in H1’19.

Unilever Nigeria Plc is engaged in the manufacture and marketing of foods and food ingredients, and home and personal care products.

Its shares at N12.85 on shows it has lost -41.6percent of its year open price.

Market data showed it is one of the worst performing stocks this year on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The stock heads to its 52-week low of N9.90 having reached a 52-week high of N32.

The NSE Consumer Goods Index which warehouses stocks like Unilever Nigeria Plc is the worst performance sectoral index year-to-date (YtD), it has decreased by -31.55 percent this year. The Company’s segments are Food Products, Home Care and Personal Care products. Its Foods Products segment includes sale of tea, savory and spreads. www.businessday.ng

Nikkei 225 22,884.22JPY +166.74+0.73%

S&P 500 Index 3,270.38USD +18.54+0.57%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 13,171.83EUR +124.91+0.96%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 26,888.00USD

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 3,320.90CNY +6.75+0.20%

Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers signs MoU with Cavidel on automation business processes

T

Iheanyi Nwachukwu

International Breweries Plc was also down from N3.8 to N3.45, losing 35kobo or 9.21percent.

Eterna Plc dropped from N2 to N1.8, losing 20kobo or 10percent while Zenith Bank Plc share price moved from day open high of N15.65 to N15.55, losing 10kobo or 0.64percent.

“We expect investors to take advantage of bar-

FTSE 100 Index 6,269.73GBP +8.21+0.13%

12.610

Stock market falls further by 0.39 percent igeria’s market failed to record positive investors’ patronage on Tuesday July 21 despite cheap valuations of a number of fundamentally justified stocks.

The market’s negative close was driven by stocks like Dangote Cement Plc which led the laggards after its share price moved from N126 to N122, losing N4 or 3.17percent.

The stock market decreased further by about N50billion or 0.39percent at the close of trading session. Only this week it has dipped by 0.47percent; this month it has lost 1.24 percent of its value while this year its negative return increased to 9.94percent.

Other companies that made top losers’ list include CAP Plc which decreased from N20.65 to N18.95 after shedding N1.7 or 8.23 percent.

Global market indicators

gain hunting opportunities in fundamentally strong names and hold for the long term. Investors could gravitate towards stocks with track records of high profitability, low financial leverage, and less margin volatility amidst the current macro vulnerabilities”, said CardinalStone research analysts in their July 21 note.

The Nigerian Stock Ex-

change (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased to 24,174.45 points on Tuesday July 21 while the value of listed stocks decreased to N12.610trillion as against preceding trading day high 24,269.58 points and N12.660trillion respectively.

In 3,500 deals investors exchanged 304,185,443 units valued at N3.268billion.

Stanbic IBTC tasks Nigerians on homeownership

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tanbic IBTC Holdings plc, a member of Standard Bank Group, has urged Nigerians to explore the benefits of homeownership by taking advantage of untapped investment opportunities in mortgage offerings.

Ruby Onwudiwe, Head, Private Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, made this known at the Stanbic IBTC Blue Talks Webinar titled “All You Need to Know About Buying A House (Mortgage).” Citing the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Nigeria Report, Onwudiwe said homeownership rate in Nigeria is estimated at 25 percent of the total population, which implies that over 75 percent of the populace lives in either rented apartments or are homeless.

She noted that this presents a massive opportunity for prospective homeowners to consider owner-occupancy for shelter, investment and also as an asset to leverage for accessing financial facilities.

She reiterated that there is a need for conscious and deliberate plans as well as poli-

cies aimed at empowering Nigerians to become homeowners, especially in choice environments. “The COVID-19 pandemic has presented opportunities for investors and intending homeowners to explore structured and convenient mortgage offerings that fit their plans,” she said.

Citing the Stanbic IBTC Home Loan Products, Onwudiwe said the Mortgage package is designed to help Nigerians to acquire fully developed properties in any of the pre-approved locations in the country while the Equity Release allows access to over 80 percent of an existing property.

“With a track record of responsibility towards loan repayment reflected by bank statements presented, getting a home loan is easy. It’s about character, it’s about the seeker’s cash flow, having collateral and working in a reputable organisation for at least six months.

Also, we have a fiduciary responsibility of ensuring that the loan seeker is not under duress and the loan is not a burden.

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he Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), has signed a Memorandum of Understating (MoU) with a leading technology and Consulting Company, Cavidel Limited, to automate its business processes in line with the global best practices.

By the MOU, signed on Monday July 20 at a colourful ceremony, which attracted all the Institute’s Principal Officers, Cavidel’s activities will cover all aspects of the Institute’s operations.

Speaking at the ceremony, the CIS’ President and Chairman of Governing Council, Olatunde Amolegbe, who expressed delight that the MoU had become a necessary step towards efficiency and effectiveness of the Organisation, explained that it would enable Cavidel to showcase its strength in the area of automation.

“We at the Institute hope that Cavidel shall deploy its wealth of experience to do a thorough job that would align the Institute’s work with the global best practices. The MoU would enable Cavidel to showcase its competence in auto-

mation, add value and create a positive impact on the Institute’s business. The Institute would also be delighted to see additional contribution made

by Cavidel, especially, those that are not stated in the MOU. There will be a Committee of the Council to supervise Cavidel’s activities and report back regularly”, Amolegbe said.

Responding, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Cavidel, Dipo Odeyemi, said, the company could deliver the project beyond the Institute’s expectation.

“We promise to deploy our expertise and experience in delivering this project. We shall create more opportunities for the Institute to promote its services and have competitive advantage in Nigerian economy. Our goal is to make the Institute proud as a forbidable organization in the Nigerian capital market.”, Odeyemi said.

Present at the signing ceremony include the Institute’s First Vice President, Oluwole Adeosun, Second Vice President Oluropo Dada, and the Registrar and Chief Executive, Adedeji Ajadi.

Notore hits HSE milestone as FG validates record of 10 million man-hours without lost time incident

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eading Nigerian agribusiness company, Notore Chemical Industries Plc, has recorded ten million man-hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI).

The company, in a statement, said the feat has been validated by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, which acknowledged that the company’s plant has had ten million (10 million) man-hours of lost time injury (LTI) free safe work after three years of consistency at work.

Assistant Chief Inspector of Factories at the Ministry, Ononyaba Simon, in his inspection report, said: “I noted that Notore Chemical Industries Plc has achieved a milestone in maintaining absolute safety culture.

“The organization has achieved ten million (10 million) man-hours lost time injury (LTI) free safe work after three years of consistency at

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work.

“Our previous inspections and audit furthermore attest to this. I urge you to continue relentlessly to ensure that this record is not downgraded, putting in mind that production without life of the producer is useless.”

Simon congratulated Notore for recording the milestone, noting that they have become a reference point for Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) in Nigeria’s industrial sector.

Group Managing Director/GCEO of Notore, Onajite Okoloko, said the count towards the feat commenced after the last LTI that was reported to the Factory Inspectorate of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, adding, “This is an HSE milestone hardly recorded in any large manufacturing industry such as ours, where there are obvious risks ranging from minor tolerable to medium to high in all operations.”

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BUSINESS DAY

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Lagos to empower 2,743 farmers under 2020 agric programme

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agos State government says 2,743 farmers and other agric value chain operators will receive agricultural inputs and productive assets under its 2020 Agricultural Value Chains Empowerment Programme on July 28.

The state acting commissioner for agriculture, Abisola Olusanya made this known on Tuesday. Olusanya said that the inputs and productive assets would be made available to the beneficiaries at no cost.

According to her, only representatives of farmer associations will receive the inputs on behalf of other members on the July 28 event to observe the government social distancing rule on Covid-19.

“Thereafter, input redemption by other beneficiaries will take place in three other centres at Agege, Ikorodu and Epe,” she said.

She said the programme was to give the needed support to smallholder farmers who were actively engaged in the various agricultural value chains to create wealth and job opportunities.

She said the programme was designed to increase the state’s self-sufficiency in food production to 40 per cent by 2023.

The acting commissioner hoped that the programme would significantly improve the standard of living of

farmers, fishermen, marketers, butchers, marketers and agro-processors in the state through the expansion of their food production activities.

She noted that the programme was not only targeted at farmers who would be the direct beneficiaries, but also at service providers such as transporters, input manufacturers and suppliers within the system for the successful implementation of the project. “ The programme will further contribute to the achievement of the vision of making Lagos a 21st century economy and to attain the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs).

“It will address SDGs on poverty, zero hunger, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequality, responsible consumption and production.

“It will also contribute to SDGs on climate action, life below water, life on land and partnership to achieve the goal would be met,” she said.

Olusanya said that since the inception of the empowerment programme in 2014, a total of 11,233 farmers, fishermen, butchers, processors and marketers had been empowered. She said that as a result, food supply in Lagos had been raised from 18 per cent in 2014 to 25 per cent in 2019.

NIMASA goes tough on uncertified boat skippers to curb mishap AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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o reduce the rate of fatal boat mishaps on the nation’s inland waterways, Bashir Jamoh, director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has warned that the agency would be tough with untrained and uncertified boat skippers, who often ignore safety procedures and endanger the lives of passengers.

Jamoh, in a statement released by Philip Kyanet, head, corporate communications of NIMASA, stated this during a visit to the agency by Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, general manager of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA).

He called for the development of cohesive safety enforcement guidelines and regulations for implementation across the littoral states.

He said the harmonisation of standards and procedures for safety in the territorial waters would go a long way in minimising unsafe practices by operators of non-conventional vessels, which are not subject to international standards, but rely mainly on national regulations.

“We have a number of boat skippers that are not trained,

and not knowledgeable. They do not have certification but only know how to maneuver the boat. We will now start to check that. The issue is important, that is why I would start to take it more seriously,” he said Jamoh said the federal ministry of transportation was also in the process of building unified enforcement guidelines for safety in the nation’s waters, stressing that the synergy between NIMASA and the Lagos State government would help to fast track the process.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that we monitor and supervise the staffs that are given the responsibility of enforcing the issue of safety at sea. Safety procedures, such as availability of adequate lifejackets, good condition of the boat, and time of use, must be verified by enforcement officers before a boat sets sail,” he said.

Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, LASWA general manager promised to intensify information sharing between his agency and NIMASA as part of efforts to improve collaboration for maritime safety.

He also elaborated on the importance of uniform enforcement procedure in order to avoid overlapping of functions. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Bruno Zambrano, director, International Breweries plc (IB plc.); Michael Ajukwu, chairman, and Muyiwa Ayojimi, company secretary, during the 43rd annual general meeting of the company in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

PAN Nigeria diversifies into Chinese Higer buses assembly MIKE OCHONMA

…offers three variants at N16m starting price

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transportation of school children, and ambulance services, the roll out started off the company’s assembly lines in Kaduna in December 2019.

The partnership also enables the delivery of city buses for mass intra-city bus services. The Higer Bus comes with features such as Charging ports for all passengers/ occupants, park-assist, rear camera, DVD/15’ LCD Display for passengers as well as spacious leg and head room.

In addition, the Higer Ambulance is fitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment such as suction catheters, stretcher belts and anatomical mattress, silicon resuscitators with mask, pulse oximeter, digital thermometer, 2kg fire extinguisher, automatic loading stretcher, scoop stretcher, AC/DC electronic suction machine, and oxygen regulator, among others.

Established in 1998, Higer

ollowing the recent partnership between PAN Nigeria Limited and Higer Bus Company Limited of China, the legendary assembler of Peugeot vehicles in the country has commenced the production of the Higer bus in its assembly plant located at Kakuri Industrial Area, Kaduna.

The commencement of the Chinese bus range of commercial buses at the existing automobile assembly facility in Kaduna, according to BusinessDay’s findings, is the precursor to the diversification plans of PAN Nigeria in the quest to launch itself as one of the country’s foremost multibrand automobile manufacturer and assembler.

Higer models to be produced in Nigeria are the H5C 16-seater, H6C 19-seater and ambulances with a starting price of N16 million. Useful for mass transit,

More relief for tax payers as LIRS implements additional tax incentives JOSHUA BASSEY

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ax payers in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub and epicentre of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease are in for more relief, as the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has announced it is implementing additional incentives to cushion the harsh effects of the pandemic on businesses and residents, starting from July 16, 2020.

The tax agency had previously announced a three-month extension of the deadline for filing of annual returns from March 31 to June 30, 2020, also as a measure to lessen the burden of tax payers in the state.

According to the executive chairman of LIRS, Ayodele Subair, “the following measures are to be implemented to further ease the impact of the pandemic on our esteemed taxpayers in Lagos state: LIRS shall allow on a case by case basis, payment of outstanding liabilities in instalments to

ease cash flow challenges that may affect taxpayers.

Taxpayers are to enjoy a waiver of penalty for late payment of liabilities under PAYE (Pay As You Earn) that was due during the period of March-May, 2020 when the state was under Covid-19 lockdown.

In addition, a waiver of penalties due on late filing of 2020 annual tax returns known as ‘Form A’ will be granted. A remarkable waiver of interest and penalty on liabilities arising from 2009 to 2015 tax audit for taxpayers who can pay up on or before December 31, 2020 will be implemented.

Subair said on Tuesday that in appreciation of taxpayers that have supported the state government in the fight against the pandemic, the LIRS will be granting tax credit of 20% of all cash and kind donations made towards Covid-19 by individuals resident in the state for the 2021 year of assessment (subject to a cap of 35% of tax due).”

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Bus Company is China’s leading exporter of buses and coaches, whose vehicles are available in more than 100 countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

In a telephone conversation with BusinessDay on Monday, Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed, managing director of the company,said:“TheassemblyofHiger buses started in 2019 in a move to offer the best in terms of automobiles to the buying public. PAN Nigeria has a long rich history in the production of quality vehicles in Nigeria, which have proved to be durable and high performing’’.

The managing director explained that some of the station wagon ambulances that produced inside the assembly plant as far back as 1980s are still being operated by some hospitals in urban and rural communities throughout the country.

Mohammed explained that

Higer Ambulance and transport buses will follow the proud tradition of durability and quality that the assembly plant is known for over the years.

The assembly of the commercial bus range is coming on the recent coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria where hospitals and other health establishments, doctors, nursesandotherpersonnelarecurrently going through trying times.

According to him, ‘’there is a need for many more ambulances to be supplied to this sector, and we are responding to this national challenge by opening up a new production line in our factory dedicated to producing these emergency medical vehicles”.

Head of quality control, Ojo Oladapo, said that “PAN has enough capacity to meet all the country’s need for ambulances, school buses and mass transit vehicles. The bulk of the interior fittings in the buses are sourced locally from suppliers spread across the country.

Abia announces tax waiver to mitigate economic impact of Covid-19 GODFREY OFURUM, Aba

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mall scale industries and artisans in Abia State, are to enjoy tax wavers/discount on tax payments made between July and September, 2020, according to the state board of internal revenue (BIR).

The BIR in a statement issued on July 20, 2020, which is titled “Abia State Covid-19 Tax Palliatives”,stated that the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has approved tax reliefs to the residents of the state, to mitigate the economic impact of prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.

The statement signed by Agbara Celestine, acting chairman/ chief executive, Abia State board of internal revenue, stated that small scale Industries/artisans (PAYE and all forms of personal income taxes/ direct taxes), who make payment for past three years arrears, would enjoy 25 percent waiver/discount for payment from now to end of July, 20 percent waiver/discount for payments in August, and 15 @Businessdayng

percent waiver/discount for payments in September, 2020.

The state government also reduced tax clearance certificate (TCC) from a minimum of N60,000 to N30,000 for payments made in July 2020, N35,000 for payments made in August 2020: N40,000 for payments made in September, 2020, N50,000 for payments made in October 2020: while payments made in November 2020 has been reduced to N55,000.

Capital gains tax, which attracts 10 percent tax, has been reduced to 5 percent for payments made in July 2020; 6 percent for payments made in August, 2020; 7 percent for payments made in September, 2020 and 8 percent for payments made in October, 2020 while payments in November attracts 9 percent reduction.

Abia Property and Land Use Charge (AbiaPLUC) will enjoy a waiver of two of the three years for all arrears paid before end of July 2020 and one of three years for payment in August 2020.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Senate confirms Danbatta’s reappointment as CEO of NCC Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson

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he Senate has confirmed the nomination of Umar Garba Danbatta for reappointment as the executive vice chairman (EVC) and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The Senate confirmed Danbatta during a plenary on Tuesday in Abuja, following the consideration of the report of the Oluremi Tinubu-led Senate committee on communications.

Danbatta had, on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, appeared before the Senate screening committee, and gave account of his stewardship as the country’s chief telecoms regulator in the last five years.

The EVC’s appearance before the Senate followed his CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to notify the general public that John Onoja and John Buchi Ekere. refers to same and one person. All former documents remain valid. YabaTech and general public should take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly known and addressed as Opesanmi Oluwaseun Daniel now wish to be known and addressed as Opesanmi Seun Daniel. All former documents remain valid.

General public please take note.

nomination for reappointment as the umpire for the telecom industry for another five years

by President Muhammad Buhari on June 5, 2020.

Danbatta was appointed, in the first instance, for a fiveyear term in office as the NCC’s executive vice chairman and chief executive officer, on August 4, 2015 and was subsequently confirmed by the Senate on November 25, 2015.

With the Senate confirmation, Danbatta has received a vote confidence to continue to steer the regulatory activities of the country’s over $70 billion telecommunications industry for another five years towards fast-tracking Federal Government’s agenda on digital economy development.

Danbatta’s leadership has been hinged on NCC’ Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) for the fiscal years 2015-2020, focused on the 8-point agenda, the effective implementation of which has led to impressive broadband penetration which rose from a mere 6.0 percent in 2015 to 40.14 percent in May, 2020.

Active Internet subscriptions also increased from 93 million to over 141 million currently during the period.

Nigeria’s Q4 2019 budget implementation report shows persistent revenue shortfalls STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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he consolidated budget report from Nigeria’s Budget Office of the Federation for the three months ending December 2019 shows a combined oil and non-oil revenue shortfall of N1.67 trillion and an annual deficit of N2.26 trillion.

According to the Budget Office, the implementation of the budget in the 2019 fiscal year was affected by the poor revenue outturn as oil production and exports remained below the Budget estimates, while the low growth of the economy continued to limit non-oil revenue receipt.

Oil revenues were impacted by the trade tension between China and the United States of America, and the implementation of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) agreement to cut crude oil production to shore up fall-

ing oil prices. Domestic crude oil production lagged at an average of 2.02 million barrels per day in 2019 and 1.90mbd in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2019, below 2.30mbpd projected in the budget.

The price of crude oil at the international market averaged $60.50 per barrel in Q4 2019, a yearly average of $63.62 per barrel and an increase of $3.62 per barrel (6.03%) above the $60 per barrel crude oil price benchmark set for the 2019 Budget.

“Nigeria’s 2019 budget performance shows that oil and gas is decreasing as a percentage of total budget revenue. This is down from about 65 percent to about 50 percent. This was due to higher costs and lower revenues from operators and ancillary services in the oil and gas sector,” Austin Avuru, CEO, Seplat Petroleum plc, said at BusinessDay Digital Dialogues Series in June.

Gross oil revenues were N4.60 trillion in 2019, translat-

ing to N4.72 trillion (50.63%) and N941.13 billion (16.97%) shortfall below the annual budget and N5.55 trillion generated in the corresponding period of 2018, according to the Budget Office, but slightly higher than N4.1 trillion in 2017.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s projected revenue from oil sales in the 2020 budget may come under threats if the country’s crude production level continues in its current downward trend.

Nigeria’s crude oil production fell for the third month in a row in December 2019 to a new low of 1.5mbpd, against a target production level of 2.18mbpd at $57 per barrel, used in the budget.

In the 2020 budget, the government projected about N3.73 trillion as oil revenues out of total revenue of N8.1 trillion. The country’s output declined by 95,000bpd between November and December, according to the OPEC figures.

Nigeria’s crude production in December was in line with

its OPEC quota of 1.77mbpd. In the month of October, Nigeria recorded an oil production of 1.78mbpd, which decreased from 1.87mbpd in September.

“Its production decline and not restraint; we can’t do much more than that. The numbers will get worse pretty soon without new projects to compensate,” Charles Akinbobola, an energy analyst at Lagos-based Sofidam Capital said.

“Producing below the OPEC production quota and below the benchmark of 2.18mbpd is not good for Nigeria’s revenue,” Akinbobola said.

The non-oil revenues also took some nose dive in 2019.

The Federal Government collected gross non-oil revenue of N3.55 trillion in 2019. This signifies a shortfall of N731.87 billion (17.10%) below the annual estimate of N4.28 trillion.

Except for Customs & Excise Duties, all the other non-oil revenue items fell below their expected annual projections.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly known and addressed as Diala Chinomso Eberechukwuamaka now wish to be known and addressed as Diala Chinomso Daphne Ebere. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo chairs a virtual meeting of the National Council on Privatisation at the State House in Abuja, NAN yesterday.

World Bank to decide on Nigeria’s $1.5bn budget support August 6 Hope Moses-Ashike

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he executive board of the World Bank is set to decide on $1.5 billion budget support for Nigeria on August 6, Razia Khan, managing director/chief economist, Africa and Middle East Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank said in a note seen by BusinessDay. Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning had on June 2020 in a Citi Bank Investor update call with Nigerian government disclosed plans to raise a total of $3 billion for the Federal Government and the states.

“The amount we are raising in the first instance is $1.5 billion for the Federal Government and around September October, we are hoping to close out on the facility meant for states and the amount is meant to be $1.5 bil-

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lion,” Ahmed said.

Analysts at FSDH research said the support of the World Bank is part of the wider dialogue between the Federal Government and multilateral development banks and international financial institutions, including AfDB and the IMF to cushion the budget deficit and provide short term support to enable the Federal Government to continue to spend on priority programmes like healthcare and infrastructure development.

“It is therefore necessary and timely but should not be viewed as an alternative to sustainable development financing for economic growth.

The Federal Government will need to ensure adherence to fiscal discipline including improving tax administration,” the analysts said.

Khan said unlocking budget support will likely require

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faster foreign exchange (FX) harmonisation and greater FX flexibility. While Nigeria’s retail FX rate has recently re-priced higher, official appetite for more comprehensive reform remains uncertain for now.

For now, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says that it prefers to monitor the impact of earlier easing, having cut its MPR by 100bps in May. However, the more cautious stance (the committee voted 8-2 to be on hold) could reflect an intention to harmonise Nigeria’s different FX rates around the current Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate.

The CBN kept its monetary policy rate (MPR) unchanged at 12.5 percent in July. “Given our projection of an outright economic contraction for 2020 (we see -4.3 percent year on year; the authorities predict a shallower @Businessdayng

decline of about 1.0 percent in the second quarter of 2020 only), we had expected 50bps cuts at the July and September meetings. We now expect these cuts in November 2020 and May 2021, with potential FX harmonisation plans possibly arguing for a more cautious easing approach nearterm,” Khan said.

June 2020 Consumer Price Index (CPI) accelerated to 12.6 percent year on year, a two-year high.

“In our view, this likely reflected pressure on Nigeria’s parallel-market FX rate, where a faster pace of Nigerian naira depreciation may be causing more rapid pass through into inflation.

While the parallel market lends itself to overshooting, given its illiquidity and small transaction sizes, it has traditionally been used as a pricing reference at times of weak FX availability through official channels.”

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news CBN’s benign economic outlook for Q2 deviates...

Continued from page 1

taken a toll in this period,

especially as that was during a lockdown that lasted five weeks and crippled business activity in the commercial capital of Lagos, as well as in Abuja, the federal capital city, and Ogun, the south-western home of several industries.

The CBN’s outlook is also more optimistic than the finance ministry’s projection for a contraction of between 4 percent and 8.9 percent.

“The CBN’s forecast is a little too optimistic and fails to reflect the PMI data for the period between April and June, which shows a contraction in manufacturing and non-manufacturing activities in the period,” said Tajudeen Ibrahim, head of research at Chapel Hill Denham.

According to the CBN data, the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) reading for the Q2 period was below 50, which

signals contraction. A reading above 50 signals expansion.

PMIs are leading indicators for economic activity.

Economic growth has also been stifled by a foreign exchange scarcity that has raised business costs and hammered purchasing power. The lockdown had devastating effects on businesses, with many having to lay off staff and slash salaries.

The Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning made some downward projections in the annual budget for 2020, as the economic impact of the pandemic worsened.

Oil prices had declined and fell into negative territory in April and that was estimated to more than half oil revenues, which funds over 50 percent of the budget.

The total expected revenue was cut to N5.16 trillion from N8.42 trillion in the original budget.

What CBN’s new mortgage guarantee company...

Continued from page 2

country’s mortgage industry which, over the years, has suffered slow growth despite Nigeria’s large-size market,” according to Fredrick Ibidun, a mortgage market analyst, in an interview with BusinessDay. Despite its large-size population, Nigeria trails its peers in terms of homeownership level. Whereas, home ownership level is 84 percent in Indonesia, 75 percent in Kenya and 56 percent in South Africa, it is only 25 percent in Nigeria whose population is estimated at 200 million.

This explains why a report on ‘The State of Housing Market in Nigeria’ estimates the number of renters in the country at 60 percent of the population who, the report notes, spend over 50 percent of their income on paying house rents.

Besides mortgage, Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna State governor, says other major issues that continue to affect housing delivery in Nigeria, which also account for the wide demand-supply gap, include constraints related to high cost of securing and registering secure land title.

However, expectation is that the MGC will address all these gaps. Adedeji Adesemoye, a deputy director, other financial institutions supervision department (OFISD) at CBN, had at a forum in Abuja, explained that MGC would facilitate giving mortgage to a borrower by a lender where an identified third party would take responsibility for the loan if the borrower defaulted.

He hoped that this would push up housing affordability because, once a borrow-

er defaults, the third party receives a claim from the lender, pays the lender off, and assumes responsibility for the mortgage.

“A quality mortgage guarantee programme is used to provide credit loss protection to lenders in case of borrower default. The programme incentivises lenders to accept loans with lower down-payments, thus increasing affordability,” he explained further.

Ibidun notes that this was a good development because, according to him, borrowers who, ordinarily would not have qualified for mortgage loan by reason of their low income, could now obtain loans that enhance their affordability.

MGC is coming into limelight seven months after it was communicated to Nigerians. Though experts blame the delayed take-off on stringent measures for setting up one as no single application was received within this period, Adesemoye said the idea had been on course, only delayed by Covid-19.

The CBN circular notes thatthefinancialrequirements from a prospective company seeking licence is a minimum paid-up capital of N10 billion, non-refundable application N100,000, non-refundable licensing fee N1 million and change of name fee N50,000.

It also reveals that the CBN will be enabling the capitalisation of the proposed company with N7.5 billion, while the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) will be investing N2.5 billion to make up the N10 billion required minimum equity capital for the setting up of the company. www.businessday.ng

President Muhammadu Buhari (r), with former President Goodluck Jonathan, ECOWAS special envoy to Mali, during their meeting on the outcome of the ECOWAS delegation to Mali at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday.

NAN

How to replicate Benin City gas-powered...

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(NGVs) is the cost of conversion from petrol to gas, since the cars were built to run on fossil fuel. Experts

say this cost ranges anywhere between €1,000 and €1,500.

In Benin City, the taxi drivers were spared this initial capital investment, through a joint venture arrangement between NIPCO and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In 2012, they injected over N17 billion in the provision of CNG infrastructure in a joint venture scheme with the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the NNPC. The JV scheme, which resulted in the setting up Green Gas Limited, led to completion of eight CNG stations and three conversionworkshopsinthecity of Benin, the Edo State capital.

To support the project, the JV laid over 50km steel pipeline for gas distribution to the CNG stations across the city to guarantee access to gas.

A typical conversion process takes about five hours, and after the conversion, the vehicle can run both on petrol and natural gas, thus giving the motorist a tab switch between using CNG and petrol at will.

With this in place, the company converted vehicles of taxi drivers who agreed to sign without immediately paying the N200,000 conversion cost.

They only paid N10,000, and the rest of the cost spread over 10 years. This payment is deducted from each refuelling.

“To install the gas is now N200,000, but when I installed it was N150,000 and I started paying little by little. In the finance package, the amount is N120 per kg while they will deduct about N25 in each kg till you are able to finish payment. For me, I am in normal because I no longer them, and I pay N90 per kg,” Innocent Imoisili, a commercial bus driver in Benin City, says.

The cab operators interviewed say running on gas is cheaper than petrol. “I have been using fuel but gas is far better. I started using gas four months ago. When I was using fuel, I do buy N4,000 fuel daily, but since I started using gas I do not use half of that amount. If I want to fill N1,250 will take me for more than four hours. I make about N7,000, when I buy gas of N1,200 on a daily basis,” Godstime Osagie, a taxi driver states.

The drivers further say another huge benefit of using gas instead of petrol is that it reduces the cost of maintaining the vehicles significantly.

“The advantages are that there is no carburettor over floating, no plug soaking and the cost is cheaper,” Imoisili notes.

Experts say the experience in Benin City can be replicated across Nigeria. Clement Isong, chairman, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), says states like Lagos where some buses have been acquired already can run on CNG, making it easier to start off with a closed ecosystem wherein the buses can fill up from their terminals.

Nigeria losing FX battle as banks limit...

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it still quotes N360/$ as the official exchange rate on its website while the FMDQ is quoting the same official rate at a weaker rate of N388/$. The CBN also furnished the finance ministry with a N360/$ rate for the years through 2020 to 2023 in the Medium Term expenditure Framework (MTEF).

That is despite the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, saying efforts were being

made to merge the official rate with the Investors and Exporters window rate of N380/$.

Updates on the current FX backlog were also keenly anticipated.

The CBN was also expected to state whether it was behind the latest action by banks to suspend or reduce the amount their customers can spend abroad using debit cards in a bid to limit foreign currency settlement

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“The next phase I see is commercial vehicles including mini buses; if the commercial vehicles were encouraged to do this conversion, then you would have set up an ecosystem like you have in Benin,” Isong says.

Analysts say financing will be important. “A PPP structure where the Nigerian government provides take-off grants and generous fiscal incentives like tax and duty waivers on the importation of NGVs, refuelling infrastructure, and accessories to the private sector players will be more sustainable,” Frank Umole, director of Business Development, Axxela, notes.

Umole states that the cost of conversion can be funded by vehicle owners with instalment repayment plans as has been demonstrated in Egypt and this can be further aided by take-off grantsand/orsubsidiesfromNigeriangovernmentand DFIs for the initial conversion for major transporters and fleet operators.

The Federal Government seems keen to deepen the use of gas-powered gas in Nigeria.

Justice Derefaka says the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is taking this message to the grassroots to focus on triggering and initiating investment in CNG and LPG as alternative by giving the empowering conditions to organisations so they flourish and deliver the services needed.

CNG vehicles operate much like gasoline-powered vehicles with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. The engine functions the same way as a gasoline engine. Natural gas is stored

in a fuel tank, or cylinder, typically at the back of the vehicle. The CNG fuel system transfers high-pressure gas from the fuel tank through the fuel lines, where a pressure regulator reduces the pressure to a level compatible with the engine fuel injection system.

Finally, the fuel is introduced into the intake manifold or combustion chamber, where it is mixed with air and then compressed and ignited by a spark plug, Derefaka explains, adding that there are talks with investors on the project.

According to Umole, the project is feasible because other developing economies like Pakistan and India have achieved this feat. Nigeria has a proven natural gas reserve of 200tcf with extensive gas pipelines across the Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt and soon to be in the North with the AKK pipeline recently commenced.

There are also CNG compression stations across Nigeria, which ensures in-country availability, unlike the alternative fuels that need to be imported. Furthermore, natural gas as a fuel has clear cost advantages as it offers savings of about 30-45% when compared with conventional fuels.

More so, there are 27 million NGVs currently running globally, therefore the technology is well proven and already being applied in Nigeria.

The benefits of natural gas vehicles are enormous including helping to cut down carbon emissions from dirty fuels like petrol and saving billions of dollars Nigeria wastes annually on subsidising petrol.

risk. The last time banks took this action in 2016, it was ordered by the CBN. “Unsurprisingly, the CBN provided no clarity about the foreign exchange market and how it planned to clear the piling backlog at the MPC meeting even when that was what most people were looking forward to hear,” Omotola Abimbola, an analyst at Chapel Hill Denham, says.

“Clearly, the recent actions by the CBN and banks are reminiscent of 2016 and investors need clarity now

more than ever,” Abimbola states.

Hammered by the collapse in oil prices, Nigeria’s main FX earner, the CBN has responded to acute dollar shortage in the country by rationing dollar sales to maintain an artificial exchange rate like it did in 2016.

The CBN however lost that battle in 2016, devaluing the currency by over 50 percent from N199/$ to N306/$. Foreign investors were burned and some have not returned to Nigeria since then.

@Businessdayng

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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NAICOM tasks CIIN to develop curricular to match challenges of Coronavirus Modestus Anaesoronye

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he National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has charged the new leadership of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) to take into consideration challenges and disruptions posed by Covid-19 pandemic and come up with a suitable curricular that will drive development in the insurance profession.

Sunday Thomas, commissioner for Insurance/CEO NAICOM gave the charge at a virtual investiture of Muftau Oyegunle, as the 50th president and chairman of council of the CIIN. Thomas said insurance professionals and practitioners must be aware that the advent of the coronavirus pandemic has presented a new challenge to the insurance sector and this necessitated a paradigm shift from the usual way of practice has become inevitable. What this means in essence is that insurance practitioners must learn to inculcate the new world order brought about by the Covid-19 experience, he said.

According to him, the challenges before the institute during and post Covid-19 are enormous because how you do your marketing for new members, how you run your education seminars, where and how you conduct your examinations for prospective members will all be affected by the prevailing

circumstance, urging the new leadership to take these challenges into serious consideration in developing new curriculum for the Institute.

“More than ever before the Institute must embrace technology as one of its key drivers for development. The institute should be prepared to digitalise its processes, procedures and systems in order to make its operations seamless and real time.”

“As a professional institute, your communication and engagement with your stakeholders cannot be encumbered by disruption to physical interactions. I want to challenge the new leadership of the institute to make this a priority in its agenda.

Of course, training and deliberate exposure of existing members of the institute to new technology would also go a long way in reshaping their perspectives.”

Another issue the commissioner raised was the need to improve on the public perception of the industry.

According to him, “public perception of insurance business still remains very low largely due to the unacceptable professional conduct of very few of our members.”

Thomas stated further that Institute has a pivotal role to play in rebranding and reshaping the ethical behaviour of members in order to ensure that every member is a true representative of the core values the insurance profession stands for.

COVID-19 underscores urgent need to diversify govt’s earnings - NECA Seyi John Salau

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igeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has urged the Federal Government to diversify its earnings away from the volatility of crude oil, stating that Covid-19 has further underscored the urgent need to diversify government sources of foreign exchange earnings.

According to NECA, there must be a strong will to diversify the non-oil economy, as revenue from non-oil sector is more stable than the oil revenue.

However, in the quest to reduce the rising debt profile and conserve funds for developmental purposes, NECA has urged the Federal Government to sell-off or concession moribund assets.

It also believed that gov-

ernment should fast-track the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector (as there is no better time than now) and channel the proceeds into funding developmental projects and financing annual budget deficits.

“We solicit for a new dispensation, where the fiscal authorities would strive towards easing off deficit budgeting and endeavour to maintain deficit within the three percent level threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 over the coming years,” said Taiwo Adeniyi, the acting president of NECA. Adeniyi stated this at the 63rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of NECA in Lagos, Tuesday, where he opined that the year under review has been a uniquely challenging year due chiefly to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus with ravaging impact on the globe.

According to Adeniyi, the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic created a global economic, social, health, environmental and humanitarian challenges with devastating impact on businesses across the globe.

A sharp indicator of the economic impact of Covid-19 on businesses is the performance of the first quarter of 2020 which was the least growth rate in over a year.

The GDP grew by 1.87 percent (year-on-year) in real terms, while it witnessed an average growth of 1.9 percent and 2.2 percent in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

“Prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Nigerian economy had witnessed tepid domestic growth, constrained fiscal space, low foreign and domestic investments, declining foreign reserves, which, in addition to

other factors made the economy disproportionately vulnerable to the twin shocks of declining crude oil price and a health crisis,” Adeniyi stated.

According to him, the last decade has been the most challenging for businesses in Nigeria. “In the past three years, the operating environment in Nigeria has been variously described as -“challenging”, “unpredictable”, “unfriendly” “non-competitive” and “unstable” for businesses,” said Adeniyi.

The Nigerian economy continues to struggle in real GDP growth since coming out of recession in the second quarter of 2017. The GDP has remained below desirable targets (growing below population growth rate of 3.2 percent), despite 12 consecutive quarters of positive growth, averaging 1.87 percent from the second quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2020.

Lagos LSSTF, LSETF have become national models, says Sanwo-Olu …inaugurates new boards

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agos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu says the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) have become national models and being embraced by other states of the federation.

Sanwo-Olu stated this on Tuesday at the inauguration of the boards of the two agencies just as he assured that the new boards would be supported to efficiently steer the affairs of the agencies.

The governor said since the creation of the two agencies, Lagos has strengthened its capacity to provide security across the state, thereby witnessing improved business activities.

Sanwo-Olu said his administration would deploy instruments of law and resources to sustain the template by investing more in programmes specifically targeted at security, job creation and youth unemployment “The Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) were created at different times to address the two key challenges of insecurity and unemployment. The responsibilities of these two important bodies are inter-con-

nected and mutually reinforcing.

Their mandates are critical to ‘making Lagos a 21st century economy’ as outlined in the pillars of the T.H.E.M.E.S agenda.

“Today, Lagos has become safer and more secure because of the improved operational capacities of our security agencies. Individuals and corporate organisations have made this possible largely through the financial and material donations to the Lagos LSSTF. The effectiveness of these initiatives as a strategy to fight and prevent crime has been widely acknowledged, given its replication by other sub-national governments, and even at the national level.”

Since inception, the governor said his government had stuck to the vision that would position Lagos to efficiently deploy cutting-edge thinking and technology to prevent crime and criminality.

Sanwo-Olu reiterated that his administration’s commitment to securing lives and businesses remained nonnegotiable, stressing that LSSTF, from the outset, had been run like an arm of government, given the independence of the agency. www.businessday.ng

Security operatives arrest “No Face Mask” offenders who may be charged to court in line with Ekiti government’s COVID-19 Prevention Regulation, in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday.

NAN

Buhari submits 2021-2023 MTEF to NASS James Kwen, Abuja

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resident Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday submitted the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/ FSP) to the National Assembly.

The submission was conveyed in a letter personally signed by Buhari, addressed to the speaker of the House of Representatives and read at plenary.

The president in the letter said: “It is with pleasure that I forward the 2021 to 2023 MTEF/FSP for the kind consideration and approval of this honourable House.

“Let me seize this opportunity to express my deep gratitude for the cooperation and support of

the distinguished members of the House in our collective efforts to sustain the restoration of the January to December financial year.

“In line with our commitment, we have worked very hard to archive an earlier submission of the MTEF/FSP. “This is to allow the National Assembly to have time to perform its important constitutional duty of reviewing the framework.

“I herewith forward the 2021-2023 MTEL/FSP as the 2021 budget of the Federal Government will be prepared based on the parameters and fiscal assumptions of the approved 2021-2023 MTEL/FSP. “I seek the cooperation of the National Assembly for expeditious legislative action on the submission,” Buhari said in the letter.

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FG takes advantage of marginal bid round to reclaim debts HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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h e Ni g e r i a n g overnment has taken advantage of the bid round of the marginal fields to reclaim some of the debts owed to the state.

This is as the Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR) has issued a notification to companies that were prequalified for the bid round of marginal fields.

The DPR in a statement obtained from its portal also advised some of those it has not prequalified to take steps before Friday, July 24, 2020.

The agency explained that some of those who didn’t make it include companies who are in@Businessdayng

debted to the government in taxes, tariffs, and fees.

“A company may have fulfilled all obligations to the government, but a director on its board may be a director in other company that is delinquent in paying statutory fees.

Prequalification of such a c o m p a ny i s o n h o l d until the director clears himself.

Companies so affected have to comply by close of business before July 24, 2020, the agency said.

The remainder of the schedule of the bid round, on DPR’s website reads: (1) Data prying, leasing, purchase of reports, July 20-August 30, 2020; (2) submission of technical and financial bid, July 20-August, 2020.”

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news Nigeria receives $890m grant from Global Fund to tackle HIV, TB, malaria Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja

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igeria has received $890 million grant from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria and support health systems strengthening programmes over an implementation period of three years, beginning from 2021 to 2023.

The grant, according to the Federal Government is the single highest allocation to any country in this funding cycle and is sequel to a successful funding request made by the Nigeria Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) submitted on March 23, 2020.

Nigeria has contributed a cumulative sum of $28.62 million to the Global Fund since its inception in 2002. At the Fund’s last replenishment conference in Lyon, France, in October 2019, Nigeria increased its contribution by 20 percent with a pledge of $12 million for the period 2021-2023 Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, who disclosed in Abuja on Tuesday, informed that the implementation of the grant will support the access to malaria prevention, diagnostic and treatment

...$21.9M for COVID-19 response services in 13 states.

The minister listed the states to include Adamawa, Delta, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Taraba and Yobe States.

Ehanire said the grant will specially target the poor, the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and those at higher risk of the target diseases, to promote equity in access to health care services.

The minister added that the grant will support access to HIV/ AIDS and TB services across all 36 states and the FCT, particularly, provision of infrastructure for warehousing and distribution of health commodities, laboratory services, data management and capacity building for our healthcare providers, including support to community systems The minister further informed that the Global Fund also approved a grant of $21.9 million to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 response. He said the new grant is the result of a proposal Nigeria CCM submitted to The Global Fund few weeks ago.

Ehanire said the Global Fund

grants for COVID-19 will support testing for about 1 million Nigerians over the next 12 months.

“The new grant will be specifically used to procure test kits to support Covid-19 testing with the GeneXpert machine and other molecular laboratory equipment”, the minister said.

He added that the Fund gave approval to repurpose the sum of $6.2 million out of our on-going grants for HIV, TB and malaria, to support implementation of our initial Incident Action Plan (IAP) for Covid-19.

“This Fund was used to support rapid expansion of Nigeria’s diagnostics capacity for Covid-19 through decentralization of testing to all 36 states and FCT, using existing TB diagnostic instrument - the GeneXpert Machine and the procurement of Biosafety Cabinets for the GeneXpert Laboratories to be able to conduct COVID-19 tests, without exposing the laboratory scientists to risk of infection mass campaign of test kits and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for frontline health workers”, he said.

Reps to probe Correctional Service’s 10-year N613.5bn expenditure James Kwen, Abuja

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he House of Representatives has mandated its committee on reformatory institutions to investigate the Nigerian Correctional Service (formerly Nigerian Prisons Service) over N613.5 billion 10-year expenditure without commensurate welfare of inmates across the country.

This resolution followed the unamaimous adoption of a motion sponsored by the minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu at during on Tuesday.

Moving the motion, Elumelu noted that the Federal Government appropriated over N613.5 billion to the Nigerian Correctional Service in the last ten years, with N4 billion in 2015, N14 billion in 2016, N16.6

billion in 2017, addition to a higher budgetary allocations in 2018 and 2019, with each year having over 70 percent recurrent expenditure.

According to Elumelu, the Federal Government spends an average of N17 billion annually on feeding of convicts and awaiting trial inmates in the 244 correctional centres, nationwide.

The minority leader expressed worry that despite the huge and increasing annual budgetary allocations to the Nigerian Correctional Service in recent years, the situation of the service was characterised by poor feeding, widespread disease, poor medical attention, overcrowding and poor ventilation, thereby contributing to human rights violation of the inmates.

Elumelu said: “The inmates deserve good rehabilitation and reformation services in line with the United Nations Convention against torture which, in article 11, provides for treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment from any cases of torture, and Section 34 (1)(a) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution also emphasises on the right to dignity of the human persons.

“The correctional service centre, otherwise called a prison, is a public institution established by government to provide rehabilitation, reformation and correctional facility services for individual offenders who have breached the law, with the ultimate goal of re-orienting and re-integrating them into the society.

The Men’s Club season 3 set to screen on REDTV today

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espite the disruptions and prolonged lockdown occasioned by the global coronavirus pandemic, The Men’s Club season 3 (TMC3) series is set to premiere on July 22, 2020, with a firm promise to do much more than excite its teeming and sophisticated audience with the adventures of four Nigerian men and how they navigate their mainly drama-filled tumultuous love lives.

Commenting on the TMC season 3, Bola Atta, executive director, REDTV and group director, corporate communication at UBA plc, expressed delight in being

able to “wear several hats” in her role at UBA, one of them being an Executive Producer for REDTV; emphasising TV production as her passion.

Shedding light on the latest season, Atta said: “The Men’s Club is a series about 4 young men; Aminu, Tayo, Lanre and Louis, who are navigating life, winding through several relationships, breaking hearts and getting hearts broken. Now in its third season, completing filming which began pre -pandemic, was a learning process itself.

Cast and crew were tested for Covid-19 and when thankfully they all tested negative, were placed in residence (of www.businessday.ng

maximum 20 persons).

“Disinfecting every day; following strict protocols for sanitisation and distancing on set. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done! Here is a trailer of TMC3 which will be out on REDTV on July 22, 2020.”

The Men’s Club (TMC) is a series created by REDTv. The series centres on 4 young men from different Nigerian tribes and the problems they face in their life. The men in the TMC3 are played by Aminu, Tayo, Lanre and Louis, who are navigating life, winding through several relationships, breaking hearts and getting hearts. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

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34

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

EU leaders strike deal on€€750bn recovery fund after marathon summit Plan will help pay for the reconstruction of Europe after Covid-19 Sam Fleming, Mehreen Khan and Jim Brunsden

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U leaders have struck a deal on a landmark coronavirus recovery package that will involve the European Commission undertaking massive borrowing on the capital markets for the first time.

After days of sometimes bitter debate, the bloc’s heads of government agreed on a €750bn package aimed at funding post-pandemic relief efforts across the EU. The deal was announced in a tweet from Charles Michel, the European Council president, at 05.31am (CET) on Tuesday and was hailed

by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, as a “historic day for Europe”.

The recovery fund centres on a €390bn programme of grants to economically weakened member states — a significantly smaller sum than the €500bn package originally proposed by Berlin and Paris in May. Leaders also signed off on the EU’s next seven-year budget, which will be worth €1.074tn.

The deal, orchestrated by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Mr Michel, is the fruit of marathon negotiations which began in Brussels on Friday morning. The summit was the second longest in the bloc’s history, falling just shy of the record set at a meeting in Nice in 2000.

Ms Merkel hailed the agreement as setting “the financial foundations for the EU for the next seven years”. The chancellor added: “Europe has shown that it is able to break new ground in a very special situation such as this one.”

Leaders had struggled to settle

German chancellor Angela Merkel helped orchestrate the deal © Alexandros Michailidis/European Council/dpa

an agreement in part because “frugal” states — Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden — were opposed to the idea of permitting the EU to borrow money and hand it out as budgetary expenditure for member states.

Even after the summit began, they continued to insist on paring back the amount of grants that the commission would be permitted to hand out, before finally settling on the €390bn figure.

The price for this was a boost to the budget rebates that those frugal nations receive as a legacy of the UK’s membership of the EU. Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, won the prized payback mechanism in 1984, but recently countries led by France have pushed for the abolition of the

rebates after Brexit.

Instead they re-emerged during the discussions as an important bargaining tool to win over frugal countries in the debate over Europe’s unprecedented response to coronavirus. Austria’s annual reduction will be doubled to €565m a year compared with previous proposals, while the Netherlands’ rebate will jump from €1.57bn to €1.92bn.

Denmark and Sweden will also receive increases in comparison with earlier plans on the table. Germany’s discount will be unchanged.

Ms Merkel said the decision to raise the rebates was “painful” but necessary.

Mr Macron said retaining the rebates was the price of securing a deal. “This long negotiation was marked by difficulties. Sometimes

by disagreements — different conceptions of Europe,” he said.

To reach a deal, leaders signed up to cuts in top-up funding for EU programmes compared with earlier proposals, a decision that Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, described as “regrettable”.

A mooted solvency instrument that would have helped recapitalise struggling companies worth €26bn was scrapped. Proposed top-up spending intended to be added to the EU’s Horizon science programme was radically reduced compared with earlier proposals, and a “Just Transition Fund” to help poorer countries reduce their carbon emissions was cut from a mooted €30bn to €10bn.

The protracted negotiations laid

bare deep divisions over governments’ willingness to pool their financial firepower. Splits had to be overcome through a complex patchwork of compromises.

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, secured an emergency brake that would allow any country to raise concerns that another was not honouring promises to reform its economy, and temporarily halt transfers of EU recovery money by Brussels.

But, to accommodate the sensitivities of other governments, the mechanism is time limited. The final text said EU leaders should “as a rule” take no more than three months to address any complaint.

The final decision is formally left in the hands of the commission.

Another flashpoint during the talks was how to link the money to respect for the rule of law. Critics have claimed there have been violations of judicial independence in Poland, and have alleged that democratic norms have been undermined in Hungary. But a push for tough conditions led to threats from Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban to block the entire recovery package.

On this issue, a group of leaders led by Ms Merkel and Krisjanis Karins, the Latvian prime minister, worked on a compromise plan that would allow a weighted majority of EU governments to block payments to a country over rule-of-law violations.

After the summit, Ms Merkel said the rule of law mechanism would not “single out one or two countries” — a reference to objections from Poland and Hungary that the plan was designed to sanction their governments.

Top Senate Republican backs new round of stimulus cheques Mitch McConnell says direct payments could provide ‘shot of adrenaline’ to economy James Politi

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itch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, has backed a new round of direct payments to American families, paving the way for a possible compromise with Democrats over a new fiscal stimulus package.

Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, a day after meeting with senior Trump administration officials at the White House, Mr McConnell said the US jobs market needed another “shot of adrenaline” given the new spikes in coronavirus cases and enduring high unemployment.

“We want another round of direct payments to help American families keep driving our national comeback,” Mr McConnell said.

“Helping to create more American jobs is an urgent moral priority — and these are just some of the policies we are discussing that will help that happen.”

In the first $2.2tn stimulus bill approved in March, US adults earning as much as $99,000 per

Republicans and Democrats are in Washington to haggle over the next round of coronavirus relief legislation © JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

year received a payment of up to $1,200 from the Treasury department. The vast majority of those funds has since been paid out, and its impact has faded.

Democrats proposed another similar payment in their plans for a new round of stimulus. Mr McConnell did not specify the details of the Republican plan for the new cheques on Tuesday, but he had previously suggested the income threshold should be set www.businessday.ng

lower, at $40,000 per year.

The fate of the talks over a new fiscal stimulus bill is being closely watched by economists since the outcome will be pivotal for the US economy’s chances of sustaining its rebound from the depths of the coronavirus shock.

In May and early June, Republicans had been deeply sceptical of the need for a new round of direct payments, but doubts about the recovery appear to

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have caused a shift.

While Mr McConnell’s comment on direct payments will raise hopes for some convergence with Democrats on aid to households, there were no signals that the Kentucky Republican was willing to embrace an extension of enhanced jobless benefits.

Those payments, worth $600 per week, are due to expire at the end of the month, and Democrats are eager to renew them.

Instead, Mr McConnell said Republicans were considering “specific incentives to hire and retain workers”.

The Senate majority leader also failed to endorse a key demand from the White House for a cut in payroll taxes.

The talks on a new round of fiscal stimulus could yield a package worth more than $1tn if there is a compromise, although formal negotiations between the parties have not begun.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, told CNBC a deal may not be struck until the first week in August @Businessdayng

— after the enhanced jobless benefits are due to expire.

C hu ck S c hu m e r, t h e t o p Democrat in the Senate, said on Tuesday that it would be wrong to cut back the jobless benefits “when we have over 20m unemployed and we have the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression”.

Speaking to CNN, he said: “If we don’t renew it and renew it in a robust way, millions more will sink back into poverty and lose their homes, get kicked out of their apartments, and not be able to feed their families.”

As he laid out more details of the Republican bill, Mr McConnell said that it would include $105bn in funds for schools to reopen safely and a liability shield for businesses and charities to protect themselves from coronavirus-related lawsuits, which is staunchly opposed by Democrats.

The Republican lawmaker also said he would support another round of funding for small business loans as long as it was targeted to businesses that were particularly hard hit.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Coca-Cola quarterly sales suffer biggest drop in at least 25 years

Company to cut ‘zombie’ brands as part of efforts to support bottom line Alistair Gray

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oca-Cola has suffered its steepest quarterly sales drop in at least 25 years, in stark contrast to a resilient performance from its rival PepsiCo and raising questions about the drinks company’s defensive qualities.

The US multinational said it would axe “zombie” brands as part of efforts to protect its bottom line after the closure of bars, restaurants and other venues pushed second-quarter sales down 28 per cent year on year to $7.2bn.

The sharp turnround in CocaCola’s fortunes contrasts with its results during the global financial crisis and its aftermath, when the US multinational demonstrated it could outperform in recessions.

Revenues at Coca-Cola, whose biggest shareholder is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, rose 11 per cent in 2008 and lost only 3 per cent in 2009.

James Quincey, chief executive since 2017 who also became the company’s chairman in 2019, indicated that he expected demand to pick up in the months ahead, despite a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the US and other countries. Volumes globally had recovered from a 25 per cent slump in April to a 10 per cent

The gap between 10-year Italian and German bond yields narrowed to the lowest level since late March © AFP via Getty Images

Drinks company has been hit by the closure of bars, restaurants and cinemas © AP

decline in June, the company said.

There were “promising signs the most challenging period is indeed behind us in much of the world”, Mr Quincey said, adding that “there’s still a lot of work to do”.

He said Coca-Cola, which recently announced it would discontinue its Odwalla juices business, planned to further trim its product line-up. Of its 400 “master brands”, more than half were confined to a

single country and were growing slower than the group average.

Mr Quincey also said the Atlanta-based company would seek to become more efficient in innovation. Too many new products had struggled to grow, he said.

The recovery plans helped send shares in Coca-Cola up 3.3 per cent in early New York trading. They are down 13 per cent this year, whereas PepsiCo’s are unchanged.

Despite demand for its products in the home, Coca-Cola has been hurt by the closure of outof-home venues through which it normally generates about half its annual revenues. These include cinemas and stadiums.

While Coca-Cola has expanded beyond its eponymous drink and other brands, such as Fanta and Sprite, and into energy drinks and other beverages, it has avoided

food.

Mr Quincey struck a £3.9bn deal to acquire Britain’s Costa Coffee chain in 2018, whose cafés were closed for much of the second quarter.

Coca-Cola’s weak performance follows stronger numbers from rival PepsiCo, which has been supported by its snacks business.

PepsiCo’s organic sales were flat in the quarter year on year.

Organic revenues fell sharply at each of Coca-Cola’s six main divisions in the three months to June 26, pushing net income down a third from the same period last year to $1.76bn.

The Europe, Middle East and Africa business was particularly hard hit, down 26 per cent. Organic revenues in North America fell 18 per cent. Areas with less restrictive lockdown measures performed better, Mr Quincey noted.

Earnings per share declined 32 per cent to $0.41 and the company declined to give financial guidance for the year. The percentage decline in quarterly net revenues was the biggest since at least 1995 according to a Financial Times analysis of S&P Capital IQ data.

Coronavirus business update How is coronavirus taking its toll on markets, business, and our everyday lives and workplaces?

Stay briefed with our coronavirus newsletter.

Moody’s clashes with UN over G20 debt-relief efforts

Rating agency says debt suspension scheme raises risks of losses for private creditors Camilla Hodgson

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oody’s has clashed with the UN after putting five countries on review for a downgrade in recent weeks, saying that a G20-backed debt suspension scheme poses risks to private creditors.

The rating agency took action against Ethiopia, Pakistan, Cameroon, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, after the countries opted into a G20-backed initiative that allows them to freeze official bilateral debt repayments due this year to member nations and members of the Paris Club, a group representing major credit countries.

Moody’s said participation in the scheme — which has been endorsed by the World Bank — raises the risk of losses for investors in the countries’ bonds, because the G20 has called on private-sector creditors to offer “comparable” relief. Any such renegotiation with private lenders could constitute a default and cause investors to lose money, the agency said.

The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Af-

fairs has taken issue with Moody’s stance, saying the scheme “should improve countries’ debt sustainability, and therefore should not be a basis for credit downgrades”. It added: “Borrowing countries should come out of the programme with stronger credit than if they had not participated.”

Last weekend World Bank president David Malpass urged the G20 to extend the debt-relief scheme to the end of 2021, adding that commercial creditors of governments taking part in the scheme should “discontinue their collection” of principal and interest.

The scheme was launched in April as a way to help some of the world’s poorest countries manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It allows eligible borrowers to pause debt repayments to official bilateral creditors until the end of the year, and then to repay that money over a four-year period. None of the debt is cancelled.

The World Bank has estimated that up to $11.5bn in repayments could be postponed this year if all 73 eligible countries were to take part in the initiative. To date, www.businessday.ng

though, only 42 have applied for relief, according to the G20, and 18 have signed agreements with the Paris Club.

Analysts said that the lack of sign-ups could indicate some wariness among governments toward taking part in the programme. Some of those that have not yet signed up are at “high risk” of debt distress, including Ghana, Haiti and Kenya, while two — South Sudan and Somalia — are already in distress, according to the World Bank.

Charles Robertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital, said there could be a stigma attached to participation in the scheme, and that some governments want to “avoid being lumped in with countries that have borrowed excessively in recent years”.

The G20 said sign-ups to the programme had “significantly accelerated” since last month, when it clarified that opting in did not oblige countries to ask private creditors to renegotiate terms.

Moody’s said its reviews, which are open-ended, indicate that the agency was uncertain about whether private-sector creditors

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would incur losses as a result of countries signing up to the scheme. Matt Robinson, head of the sovereign risk group’s Middle East and Africa team at Moody’s, said that it would not be appropriate, in that context, to assign the usual “stable outlook” to the rating.

“We need to acknowledge there’s a risk,” he said. “The IMF and the World Bank are in a very influential position, [able] to exert pressure on sovereigns to implement measures that could ultimately be credit negative for the private sector.”

Moody’s acknowledged that the governments of Senegal and the Ivory Coast had committed to repaying private creditors, rather than asking them to renegotiate terms, but noted that those promises were at odds with the G20’s call for private-sector lenders “to participate in the initiative on comparable terms”.

Fitch, another major rating agency, said last week that relief from private-sector creditors could qualify as a default, but that it did not view this as “sufficiently likely” to affect its sovereign rat@Businessdayng

ings.

Neither it nor S&P Global, the third major agency, have put any countries on watch as a result of their participation in the scheme.

The Institute of International Finance, a trade group created in the wake of the Latin American debt crisis of the early 1980s, said last week that none of the banks and asset managers it had surveyed about the initiative — which together manage almost $25tn in assets — had received any formal requests for debt suspension from borrowers, though a few had received informal inquiries about the process.

Daniel Bradlow, professor of international development law and African economic relations at the University of Pretoria, said that it was sensible for borrowers to seek whatever flexibility is available to manage the Covid crisis.

Such nations will be “best positioned to get new lending” in future, he said, rather than those that have “carefully paid back their debts on time, all the way through the crisis — at the expense of people’s health”.

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BUSINESS DAY Wednesday 22 July 2020 www.businessday.ng

Clare Omatseye: A leading voice in Nigeria’s healthcare space MICHAEL ANI

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he call for all to join forces in revamping Nigeria’s healthcare system has been brought to the fore following the coronavirus pandemic, which has exposed the country’s frail health sector.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, is struggling hard to put its health sector in order, to meet up with the increasing infections rate of the deadly coronavirus which has so far infected more than 36,000 Nigerians, and over 780 deaths, according to data from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control.

At current infection levels, Nigeria’s health sector is already overwhelmed as the number of persons seeking medical support for the virus far outweighs the country’s health infrastructure.

But for the global pandemic, that has forced advanced countries with sophisticated technology-who are much higher risk countries and are also battling to contain the spread of the virus---to shut their borders from international visitors, the traction to jointly fix the country’s health system may probably not hold much water as was the case in the past.

Nigeria is estimated to spend over $1 billion annually on treatment abroad popularly known as medical tourism, making the country’s health sector suffer years of neglect, a double whammy of low budgetary funding and a lack of private sector investment.

The situation seems a bit different now with all hands forced on deck to revitalise the country’s neglected health sector, which leaders like Clare Omatseye have donkey years been at the forefront of pushing for solutions.

Clare Omatseye, is the founder and managing director of the international award-winning company, JNC International Limited (JNCI) and the current President of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria.

Omatseye is passionate about improving the quality and contributions of the Healthcare industry as she continues to offer her time to activities that promote the improvement of healthcare standards as well as Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria through the adoption of global best practices and building sustainable partnerships.

When it comes to issues around health care in Nigeria, Omatseye can be described as a titan who has for over 27 years of her career, given her time and lent her voice to seeing that the health of Nigerians is given priority in the country.

For Omatseye, her belief stems from the fact that only a healthy citizen can deliver the needed productivity that would in turn spur growth in an economy of over 200 million persons.

Whether it was through various

Omatseye

public engagements or her various papers on Nigeria’s health care system, Omatseye has continuously put the government on their toes with her recommendations on how the challenges of the Nigerian health sector could be remedied.

Sadly, not much attention was given by the government on her recommendations of thriving health sector through universal health coverage for all. In several public engagement and enlightenment forums, Omatseye has pushed for the achievement of universal health coverage for all.

For her, in a country as Nigeria, with a poverty rate of 40 percent and challenged with numerous infectious and communicable diseases, universal health care may be the better option in remedying the situation. With that, everyone would have health insurance and access to medical services with no one going bankrupt from medical fees.

In one of her statements, she described universal health coverage as a human right and every year, many people lose their lives unnecessarily because of the plethora of challenges confronting the nation’s health sector. She describes access to finance as a big issue as many

people are paying out of pocket when they fall sick. This vicious cycle of poverty makes people make tough choices, she said.

But with greater access to mobile technology and data, which have outpaced other forms of communications infrastructure in Africa, Omatsaye reiterated the need for Nigeria to harness opportunities in disruptive and converging technologies to promote access to quality healthcare for patients.

In a 2017 digital conference organised by the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN), where she is president, Omatseye described the rise of mobile technology is a new game-changer in healthcare as it plays many roles in ensuring access to quality healthcare both for patients and the professional.

According to her, with mobile Health (m-Health), which is the use of mobile phones and other wireless technology in medical care; consumers get first-hand information about preventive health care services.

She described it as innovative healthcare, which enables the patients to have access to affordable healthcare, insurance, and other payment platforms. It can help

‘‘

Nigeria is estimated to spend over $1 billion annually on treatment abroad popularly known as medical tourism, making the country’s health sector suffer years of neglect, a double whammy of low budgetary funding and a lack of private sector investment

even the health workers to be more empowered to take good medical decisions and help with diagnosis, data collection of patient, as it is attached to the mobile network they use, and also as a form of telemedicine for patient-doctor interaction without any barrier. “If harnessed, the 150 million mobile phone users would have access to healthcare,” she added.

And not just would it reduce the burden of improving the country’s health sector only on the government but also a shared responsibility between the private and public sector, according to Omatseye.

She explained that public-private partnership is one of the new methodologies governments around the world is using to improve their health sector, adding that the budget earmarked for the capital expenditure and infrastructure is not enough to push the countries health sector out of the doldrums.

“Healthcare in Nigeria can only be provided by the strategic partnership, we need the PPP to come together and create that dialogue, the private sector has a huge advantage in its efficiency and discipline for the public sector, which has patients, infrastructure to tap into and make a positive impact on the health sector,” she said.

Omatseye stressed that the country needs to be disruptive and think of new innovative ways of acquiring infrastructure and equipment to provide Nigerians with quality health care.

She said the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) require collaboration between both stakeholders to revamp its structure, which will lessen out-of-pocket payment that has impoverished most Nigerians.

She said healthcare insurance should be made mandatory to ensure every Nigerian has access to quality care, adding that with the enactment of Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), and the support of the private sector to ensure its implementation, Nigeria would improve on her health indices.

Business and professional trajectory of Clare Omatseye Omatseye is the founder and managing director of JNC International, a 15-year old Turnkey Medical Equipment Solutions company, which presently has 16 exclusive distributorship agreements with major Global medical equipment manufacturers.

These include Toshiba Medical -Japan, Olympus- Japan, ElektaSweden, Medtronic –USA and the Getinge Group-Sweden to name a few.

JNC’s competences are noticeable throughout the healthcare space in Nigeria as they constantly look to improve and provide quality and affordable solutions through their innovative strategies for service delivery.

In the span of her 27-year career, Omatseye has developed the required capabilities to effectively monitor and oversee installations/ turnkey projects from the budding

phase through execution to commissioning and post-commissioning. She is highly skilled in healthcare equipment consultancy, management of healthcare equipment Installation and turnkey projects, project planning, management and integration, project fund and resource sourcing and healthcare solutions consulting and advisory.

She graduated from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy with honours and holds an MBA from Universidad De Navarra, (IESE) Barcelona. She founded JNCI in 1994 on the need to make a difference in the medical infrastructure landscape in Nigeria through the delivery of cutting edge medical diagnostic and interventional technology solutions and after-sales service. Over the years, she has grown JNCI into a proudly ‘Nigerian National Corporate’ company receiving several International and Nigerian Awards/ recognitions such as the renowned Frost & Sullivan Award for Quality in Customer Service.

Clare started her career in 1990 with an internship stint at Sterling Health (now GlaxoSmithKline).

She later moved to May & Baker Nigeria, where she had a progressive career in several job roles – Sales Representative, Product Manager (Vaccines), Business Development Manager (Pasteur Merieux Connaught) and National Sales Development Manager.

She left May & Baker Nigeria to become an Executive Director, Business Development with Aventis Pasteur Nigeria, (a French Multinational Pharmaceutical Company) where she spent another two and a half years, before taking on a new frontier position as the Country Manager, Nigeria for Huntleigh Healthcare UK Plc – a British multinational quoted on the NYSE. After a year, Clare decided to follow her passion to make a difference in the Healthcare arena and left to set up JNC International (JNCI).

She is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), the Society of Quality in Healthcare in Nigeria (SQHN), Society for Corporate Governance (SCG), Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) and Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR) NGO. She sits on the Board for several organisations including Vaccipharm Limited, a cold chain vaccines and pharmaceutical distribution firm that she founded in 1999; Director, Society for Corporate Governance (SCG), as the first and only female director; Director, Advisory Board of the Entrepreneurial Development Centre (EDC) of the Lagos Business School. She is a Major Donor-Paul Harris Fellow and as an astute Rotarian, she chaired the 1st African Health Summit.

Three weeks ago, Omatseye completed her very successful tenure as President of the prestigious Lagos Business School Alumni Association during which she led several health and lifestyle initiatives.

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