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news you can trust I ** friDAY 22 may 2020 I vol. 19, no 569

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IMF support smoothens Nigeria’s path to investors as bond yields fall

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igeria’s early move to tap cheap loans has improved its risk perception among foreign investors, leading to a fall in the country’s borrowing costs.

Support from the IMF and other development institutions, along with a nascent recovery in oil prices, has boosted investor confidence, according to Edwin Gutierrez, London-based head of emerging-market sovereign debt at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

“Nigeria has been an outperformer of other sub-Saharan African credits during that time,” Gutierrez said.

Yields on Nigeria’s dollar bonds maturing in 2047 fell from an all-time high of 13.2 percent on March 19 to 9.1 percent on Wednesday.

Still, this doesn’t reduce Nigeria’s underlying weak fundaContinues on page 28

Inside

Row 1 (L-R): A. B. Mahmoud, member, AIG Panel of Advisors; Ken Ofori-Atta, member, AIG Panel of Advisors; Jeya Wilson, board member, AIG; Yemisi Ayeni, member, AIG Panel of Advisors; Row 2 (L-R): Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, board member, AIG; Olusegun Obasanjo, chairman, AIG Panel of Advisors; Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, founder & chairman, AIG; Ajoritsedere Awosika, member, AIG Panel of Advisors; Row 3 (L-R): Chienye Ogwo, chief executive officer, AIG; Enase Okonedo, member, AIG Panel of Advisors, and Olusegun Adeniyi, member, AIG Panel of Advisors, during the virtual Annual General Meeting, Board Meeting and Panel of Advisors’ Meeting of the Africa Initiative for Governance held May 15, 2020. ...See story on page 6

LEFT TO SUFFER (I):

Boko Haram rapists impregnated them. Now, they love and hate their children at the same time

Oil marketers ask FG to back downstream IBRAHIM ADEYEMI spent a month combing the length and breadth of Borno in search of children sired by Boko Haderegulation with law P. 26 ram rapists as well as the violated women. In this four-part series, he tells the love-hate story of women left to suffer Nigeria’s April inflation accelerates to 12.34%, highest in 2yrs P. 26

after the death of their rapist-husbands and do not know whether to love or hate the children born of the unholy affairs.

W

henever Alte Usman, 21, sets eyes on her only child, a smoldering anger

consumes her contorted face.

What usually follows the bouts of anger is a stream of tears.

Alte’s two-year-old daughter,

Umaymah Adamu, is a simultaneous prompter of her sorrowful past and her tearful present. On the one hand, Umaymah re-

minds her of her dreary days of slavery, torture and gang rapes Continues on page 27

2

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Monday 01 July 2019 Monday 01BUSINESS July 2019

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43 43

DAY BUSINESS Friday 22 May 2020 DAY BUSINESS

DAY

Government Government Enterprise Enterprise & Empowerment & Empowerment Program Program

Brought to you by Brought to you by

Africa’s most impactful inclusion programme: GEEP GEEP COVID-19: A LOOK AT THE IMPACT Why OF Africa’s& most impactful financial financial inclusion programme: WhyTHE GEEP works works RELIEF LOANS ON BENEFICIARIES

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EEP is beyond using technology and how all commercial banks in it has been for aEEP social good. beneficial the over 1600 marusing technology and how is beyond all country, commercial banks in Ita social is a matter ket beneficial itwomen. has been for good. empowering the leaderships, country, overover 16004000 marof economic cooperatives and stopped sincemarket the corona virus pandemic It is a matter empowering women. ket leaderships, over 4000 Since its inception in security.

It is a farming clusters, several of economic market cooperatives and started. She said “I have not and been able GEEPitshasserved and more directsecurity. effort ofIt the technology companies have Since inception in is a 2016 farming clusters, and several to restock myenabled small the plantain business 4,084 coopfederal break smooth imple2016 GEEP hasserved and more government direct efforttoof the strengthened technology companies have eratives with GEEP loans the multi-decade jinx of mentation ofsmooth the program. because nobody was making any federal government to break strengthened 4,084 coopenabled the implethe economic growth without Statr othe n g neighbourhood ov eprogram. rnance eratives withenabled GEEP loans the multi-decade jinx of nationwide, mentation ofgthe purchases. I was of over 1.4 million shared prosperity. framework, nationwide, enabled the economic growth without creation St r o n g goperational ov e r n a n c e shopping place whereand weops sell our goods mobile wallets, and According to studies, new control, embedded creation of over 1.4 million shared prosperity. framework, operational 350,000 new bank accounts, MSMEs (predominantly monitoring evaluation to people in the community and I noticed According to studies, new mobile wallets, and control, andand ops embedded over informal With a fully 350,000 newjob bankfor accounts, MSMEs microenterprises) (predominantly provided monitoring and the loan registration going on. functional Ievaluation registered who for are over now contribute 76 percent of Ni- 5000people operations control center provided job informal microenterprises) With a fully functional and I got the and alert mycontrol phone.

It was agentswho nationwide, geria’s GDP76 and 60 percent aonteam of analysts 5000people are now contribute percent of Ni- GEEP operations center a market day, so I was able to rush and and, thus, expanded agency of labour.

Yet 85 percent of and geria’s GDP and 60 percent GEEP agents nationwide, andbehavioural a team ofscientists, analysts Over 55.41 percent these enterprises cite ‘acGEEP embeds consistent and, thus, expanded agency of labour.

Yet 85 percent of banking. and behavioural scientists, buy plantain from the market. I am able beneficiaries are women, cess to enterprises finance’ in their monitoring and evaluabanking.

Over 55.41 percent these cite top ‘ac- of GEEP embeds consistent to sell to people ininto our its community andtoI the programme has three challenges, astheir only 0.4 tion operations of beneficiaries are women, cess to finance’ in top and monitoring and evaluawill repay the loan quickly because there footprint across all 774 local percent of banking loans in ensure full effithree challenges, as only 0.4 and the programme has tion into itsprogram operations to across the 36 2017 wereoflent to thisloans microciency, proactive issue footprint across all 774 local percent banking in governments ensureand full program effiis no interest attached to it. ” and the FCT. enterprise segment. resolution.

It also has a governments across the 36 2017 were lent to thisGEEP’s micro- states ciency, and proactive issue GEEP has beneficiaries are of this seg- states robust governance and theproven FCT. to be enterprise segment.

GEEP’s resolution.

It alsoframehas a Mrs Taiwo, a work petty trader said “we don modeltofor ment often-neglected by a sustainable that involves the MiGEEP has proven be beneficiaries are of this segrobust governance framechief operating officer, GEEP, Uzoma Nwagba, showing the programme’s live activity to the vice cro Enterprises Division of financialmodel inclusion traditional banks unwilling a sustainable for president, YemiOsinbajo, at the GEEP Command Centre Abuja. ment often-neglected by driving work that involves the Midey inside since and we no fit sell market chief operating officer, GEEP, Uzoma Nwagba, showing the programme’s live activity to the vice the ensuring easy inclusion access to or unable to handle scale and Bank of Industry, the driving financial traditional banks unwilling cro Enterprises Division of because we dey fear coro.Industry, As market dey president, YemiOsinbajo, at the GEEP Command Centre Abuja. capital Africa; and informality.

Theyscale are affordable Ministry Trade and ensuring easyin access to or unable to handle the Bankofof Industry, the Blessing Mohammed, a beneficiary of the Covid-19 relief loan for small, open small we come seethe message are a few reasons why registration and capture of every loan disbursed to be payment scratch-cards the forThey whom and Investment, judiciaffordable capital in Africa; andNigerians informality. are here Ministry of Industry, Trade data e.g.capture biodata, automatically onbe a beneficiaries much The Nigerians Federal Ministry of Humanitarian registration and of booked every loan disbursed to payment scratch-cards GEEP works: ₦10,000 to ₦300,000 represent the Central Bank, and here are a few reasons why applicant the for whom and Investment, the judicisay farther makeforweary, register for government on e.g. the biodata, market, core banking system that from banks. applicant data booked automatically onisa away beneficiaries muchBenefifarther the Lastworks: Mile a₦10,000 complete turnaround in GEEP presidency through the to ₦300,000 represent ary, the Central Bank, and Affairs, Disaster Management and Focus driven information loan weyin go help usoffor this coro period. of trade, GPSmarket, coor- plugged to allsystem commercial purchase the cards information on the core banking that is ciaries away from banks.

Benefiby largest agent network their businesses and livelioffice the Vicethrough President, Last2020 Mile Focus driven nature aSocial complete turnaround in the presidency the Development in April As I cards come dem tell mePresident, say I go trade in the country.

Con- their local markets and load nature of of the trade, GPSpoint, coor- banks plugged to all commercial ciaries purchase the inregister, hoods.

And with the and National Social byAfrica largest agent network dinate their businesses andpower liveli- in officethe of the Vice activated GEEP infrastructure for member and sequently, every loan given as they would a Telco dinate of the trade point, banks in the country.

Con- them their local markets load majority of GEEP association of biometrics, a BVN digiInvestments Office.

Consedeyand pay am small I say no wahala. in The Africa hoods.

Andthe with theaspower andsmall. the National Social other datamember that enables on the programme can recharge card.would This immeassociation and out sequently, every loan given them as they a Telco quently, beneficiaries have not used all tal collateral, GEEP’s operations Themicro majority of GEEP of asdata digi- urgent Investments Office.

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Also,when beneficredit assessment.

Data on be traced to a beneficiary diately credits their loan see going to the bank as very acapture, 4000-strong agent netreporting framework to mobile wallets, and financial services before; follow a well-structured cushion delivered to Bank of In- at a known take a loan pay wey captured beneficiary involved inlocation, a knownwithin trade, ciaries account.

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Recall that expensive work, GEEP has able to and enhance transparency and business, we don use am chop as we dey appraisals and tion, cooperative orassociafarming qualify for the next higher dustry real time to enable a known market back, they automatically to technology.

Bearing profile, deliver credit sion By choosing to invest and have a natural aver- verification, properly target, document, national character.

GEEP isand the Government Enterprise inside house. government una credit assessment.While cluster.GEEP works with amount.

Each new loan verification, appraisals and tion, cooperative or farming qualify for the next higher this in mind, GEEPuses to 2 million people in this inFederal Nigerians at thetobottom profile, and deliver credit sion to technology. Bearing By choosing invest and2 million Empowerment Programme, one beneficiary data mobile wallet operators and requires dialling afor of credit assessment.While cluster.GEEP works with amount.simply Eachwelldone new loan market and captured demographic. pyramid, federal this una support. go this in cooperatives mind, GEEPuses to people in this inthe Nigerians at the God bottom throughbeneficiary several points of all bankswallet to ensure seamless code.

Disbursements captured data mobile operators and USSD requires simply dialling a government, field agents as an acquirachievement – programmes, through GEEP of GEEP’s the social intervention market cooperatives and go demographic. of the pyramid, the federal bless una. ” within points the sysin Disbursements minutes into is go through several of disbursements. all banks to ensure seamless happen USSD code. structure.

Every single verification and continued mission –– ing charting athrough new course field agents as an acquirGEEP’s achievement government, GEEP comprising TraderMoni, MarketMoni and against connected Ubiquitous repayment their mobile or bank verification within the sys- disbursements. happen in wallets minutes into for over 5,000Every agents go tem remains to provide access– day, Nigeria: one where eveing structure. single and continued mission is charting a new course and FarmerMoni, and executed bymarkets the partyagainst data sources, the options and automatic tem and connected Ubiquitous repayment accounts their mobile wallets or bankOtodo to theover to finance, sustainable ry regardless of Mrs Isioma had words ofwhere gratitude day, 5,000across agentsthe go third remains toand provide access forNigerian Nigeria: one eveonly involverepay- accounts Partnerships third party data sources, the qualification options andafter automatic LGAs across Nigeria financial and tois a774 educational qualification, Bank of inclusion, Industry.

GEEP completely to the markets across the beneficiaries to finance, and sustainable ry Nigerian regardlessoil, of for the government.

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Thegood pro- their political class or economic traders are captured into ato database, confirm beneficiaries Committee, a body other You know we earn a GEEP’s 120 GEEPtocall center for GEEP makestoitrepay easy Bankers’ partnerships toand scale.

Thethings.

GEEP register on this agenda.

Recently, it enabled sue their entrepreneurial their point of trade.

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GEEP register over their on this agenda. it 7enabled suebuying their entrepreneurial living from and selling, but Mobile Wallet, Bank Ac- down into by weekly repay-it mercial banks inall Nigeria their profile details. the loans breaking that represents com- aspirations. over 2 million of whom have pactful financial This shouldn’t be done in 7 million MSMEs in Nigeria; was awarded theinclusion most im-disbursements technology, and receive have not beenshouldn’t able more to be come out count Disbursements (for marketmoni donated phones to proMrs Isioma Otodo, a provisions and household items trader Mobile Ac- ments down into weekly repaymercial bankspeople in the Nigeria from the GEEP programme in Africa at the benefitted Nigeria African Mrs Taiwo selling herWallet, foodstuffsBankand over 2 million of whom have pactful financial inclusion Thisalone; done in in mobile wallets. loan booking Tradermoni loans) gram.

These phones because of the corona virus.

We‘GEEP’. got a count Disbursements and and ments (for marketmoni donated phones to thehave proIt has also the automatic African Bankers’ Award.

It loans. countries need to do benefitted fromallowed the GEEP programme in Africa at the Nigeria alone; more African There is no for fur- or allowing been given to qualified benA number offarmermoni beneficiaries their These urgent micro loans reaching automatic loan booking and Tradermoni loans) shared gram.

These phones have program gain scale; visiting also gained recognition atIt are well loans.

It has also allowed the African Bankers’ Award. countries tomanaged do ‘GEEP’. during the lockdown, asneed movement message fromStructured, our localneed government to ther documentation; evebeneficiaries pay during eficiaries who didn’t have There is no need for furor allowing farmermoni been given to qualified over 1600 markets since the 63rd UN Commission affordable credit ismanaged not just program gain scale; visiting also gained recognition at Structured, well relief at getting these loans, just at a time registerben500,000 petty traders and artisans restrictions get eased nationwide. for this loan.

The loan will help verified applicant who season ofpay harduring vest. phones would ther documentation; eve- the beneficiaries eficiariesand whothus didn’t have the on Status of Women, inception. only way to is onboard 1600 markets since ry thethe 63rd UN Commission affordable credit not just whenseason they weren’t to been restart nationwide.

Small and microover enterprises have a bank account walk have unable to par- now traders benefitting from our business the lockdown has ry verified applicant who Beneficiaries the ofcan harsure vest.how phones and thus would Extensive All KYC500,000 and doesn’t where theStatus executive director these members the soinception. on the of Women, the that only way toofonboard immediately a account mobile bank businesses, in the inofunable thebeen program. theirany various to a loss atthe theMicro bottom of the economic pyramid doesn’t have ahas bank Beneficiaries cancounwalkdueticipate have been tolifted. par-The validation new via mobile of Enterprise Di- dataExtensive ciety, itmembers is also way KYC andloans where the executive director these theloan soGEEP nationwide, as well as into good part is the thatofonly the wallet created them. try and repayments Airtel alsoin donated free sim to immediately hasfor a mobile into anymake bankthe in the ticipate the program. vision the Bank Indusspur productivity at way the data validationall viaexisting mobilebeneficiaries of the of Micro Enterprise Di- byforms ciety, itcan is also the only income over pastcounmonths. have been hit ofhardest lockdown have a 3-month is interest free, so I pay back within same way repayments they make cards go with the phones. wallet created are for made them. the try and make Airtelto also donated free sim grassroots G E E P a g e n t s a r e Disbursements try, Toyin delivered a forms and to truly vision of Adeniji the Bank of Industo spur productivity at enthe Blessing a plantain seller restrictions.

These micro loans are to proprietary their loans, directed by utility into the bankasaccounts or billMohammed, payments.

Good partnerships 6 with months period.

We to thank the Disbursements are made the same way they make cards to go withthe the phones. presentation which showed able Africa and achieve its ecoG E E Pwith a g moratorium e n t s a r e on try, Toyin Adeniji delivered a equipped grassroots truly enmobile This allows GEEP also developed re- other ecosystem players: complained that business has literally cushion income losses application experienced into thewallets. bank accounts or utility bill payments.

Good partnerships with that President enables fullMuhammadu how GEEPthe is being deployed nomic potential. equipped with proprietary presentation which showed Buhari. able Africa achieve Federal government for this loan.”its ecoGEEP also developed re- other ecosystem players: nomic potential. how GEEP is being deployed application that enables full mobile wallets. This allows

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Africa Initiative for Governance holds virtual AGM, board meeting, panel of advisors’ meeting

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frica Initiative for Governance (AIG) on Friday, May 15, held virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM), board meeting and Panel of Advisors’ meeting which highlighted critical areas of impact during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other important updates.

Participants were briefed on AIG’s on-going partnership with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to implement its reform agenda.

The current focus is on the acceleration of its digitalisation and remote working policies, critical elements required for the public service to continue to work effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Head of Service was also commended for the transparency of the recent permanent secretary recruitment exercise, which was supported by AIG. Advisors were updated on the status of the AIG Scholarship Programme. Five new

AIG Scholars will attend the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government in the next academic year to undergo a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree. This will take the number of AIG Scholarships awarded since 2017 to 21.

Lastly, it was resolved that the next AIG Fellow would come from Ghana and that Ken Ofori-Atta, honourable minister of finance for Ghana and member, AIG Panel of Advisors, would coordinate the nomination process.

Edo guber: ‘Obaseki’s achievements will guarantee him second term’ CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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do State chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Anselm Ojezua, says the state governor, Godwin Obaseki’s remarkable achievements in the past three years in office will guarantee him victory in the forthcoming election slated for September 19, 2020.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed September 19, 2020, for the gubernatorial elec-

tion in Edo State.

In an interview with BusinessDay on Thursday, Anselm said the governor had taken a new approach to governance and demonstrated that he deserved a second term to consolidate on the developmental strides.

According to Ojezua, Obaseki has gone beyond trying to provide basic things that politicians talk about like road, schools and water; Obaseki is fighting to establish the foundation for Edo State to be independent of allocation from Abuja.

“To that extent, I think he has introduced innovation in governance and he has introduced reforms to a point where we are producing human capacity development which is the biggest reform any entity can have.

“So, I will score him excellent in his first term and certainly, his achievements so far will earn him the second term,” he said.

He further said despite having internal crisis in the party, the people of the state had resolved to give the governor the opportunity to lead for another four years in office.

PENCOM, NMRC partner on PRA implementation to ease homeownership pains CHUKA UROKO

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working relationship between Pension Commission (PenCom) and Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) towards implementing the provision of Section 89 (2) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) has raised hope for homeownership in Nigeria.

Section 89 sub-section 2 of the PRA provides that contributors to the pension fund could actually use part of their pension savings to pay their personal equity towards having a primary home and the authorities of the partnering organisations are saying the implementation of that section will help a great deal in assisting first home buyers.

The implementation of this Section of the PRA will be a major intervention in the housing sector coming on the heels

of the Mortgage Guarantee programme being championed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), all aimed at easing access to finance to buy homes by low income earners.

Mortgage Guarantee programme is planned to give mortgage access to persons who ordinarily do not qualify for mortgage loan by reason of their income, but can now access mortgage through a third party who guarantees the loan and offsets the loan in case of default.

This initiative became necessary given the high cost of funds which has made access to mortgage by low income earners pretty hard. Interest rate on mortgage loan ranges from 18 percent to 22 percent with very short repayment tenor.

Pension fund is a large pool of long-term fund that could be invested in real estate to supply housing to the market. But that is not happening because, ac-

cording to Umaru Farouk, head, research and strategy management department at PENCOM, “the Commission is committed to ensuring the safety of pension assets and also facilitating and fast tracking payments to retirees when due.”

Chudi Ubosi, principal partner at Ubosi Eleh + Co, had explained to BusinessDay that Pension Fund could not be invested in real estate because, apart from the risk involved, real estate, unlike other investible assets, is not liquid. “You cannot offload your investment easily whenever you want,” he said.

Farouk, who disclosed on the partnership with NMRC, corroborated Ubosi’s views, saying contrary to assumptions that PENCOM grants funds directly, the commission only granted funds when there were supporting instruments, either as a fund or a bond as contained in the commission’s existing regulations.

Edo flays misleading video on Dangote truck allegedly intercepted by NDLEA IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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do State government has disclaimed a viral video on social media allegedly depictinga Dangote Truck ashaving been caught in the state and impounded for conveying arms and ammunition.

Crusoe Osagie, special adviser to the governor on media and communication strategy, in a statement in Benin City on Thursday, said nothing of such ever happened in the state.

Besides, he said the state government had contacted the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) commander in the state, Peter Bisong, who denied his men ever arrested or impounded any Dangote truck

… as NDLEA corroborates

withinthestateasbeingcirculated in the social media.

The statement read: “There has been a video circulating on social media with a footnote that a Dangote Truck was impounded in Benin City recently by the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), for allegedly conveyingarmsandammunition and other contraband materials.

“Edo State government has since reached out to the NDLEA and can confirm that the video is completely misleading and that no Dangote Truck was at any time impoundedforcarryingammunition in Edo State.

“TheCommanderofNDLEA, EdoState,PeterBisong,statedthat www.businessday.ng

the truck in the said video was one impounded by his men in 2016, where the driver was found to haveconnivedwithsomepersons to transport cannabis. No arm or ammunition was impounded in that exercise in 2016.

“The driver involved in that incident has since been tried in the High Court in Benin and jailed. The company, Dangote Industries Limited, was found not to have played any role in the crime and the truck has since been returned to the company.

The company has also been consistent in issuing warnings that prohibit truck drivers from carrying any product other than Dangote products. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

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There are notes contained in the full Financial Statements which are integral part of the Audited Financial Statements.

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When a hug is not imminent Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

M

y friend, a South Afr ican w orking in Nigeria has had to close the hospitality space due to Coronavirus. In addition, she cannot travel home to see her family because she might not have a job when she returns.

Her employers love her as I do. I had not seen her in seven weeks due to the lockdown. I was be-

yond excited to see her. I am very fond of running off to her space when I have difficulty in finishing a chapter of the book I am currently writing. Wink. Wink! Or when I have a difficult proposal to crack or when I just want to get away. It is peaceful and well-kept and a two minutes’ walk from my home. My escape when I do not want to be found.

So, I run into her in a supermarket and I was so pleased to see her approaching until Snap!

I remembered Coronavirus, Social distancing. It was a crazy moment. My routine greeting for Ankia is a hug and both of us were left speechless in an awkward moment of no hugs. It is our new reality. We could hardly see each other’s faces because we were both wearing masks. She cradled both her hands in a faux baby rocking mode and burst into laughter. There you have your hug she said. It was hard but this is who we are now. It’s harder than we can imagine.

As a people, our default mode in our communities and in the cities for dear friends and family is a hug and a handshake. As an Igala woman, when I go home, I go round hugging Aunties and cousins and sister in-laws and Aunty in-laws. In most Nigerian societies, a hug is a sign of warmth and just camaraderie. Now I try to imagine a new brave world

without hugs.

Two weeks ago, a cousin called repeatedly at 1a.m but I was already asleep and missed her call.

When I woke up the following day and called, I could sense that she was feeling low. She missed her children; they were all abroad.

Her husband had travelled. Her staff were not coming to work.

She missed her mum who had long since passed. Just those moments when you feel vulnerable and just need someone to talk to. Add this to the mix of media overload on Coronavirus and she said she cried for two hours. This is us, brittle humans caving slowly under the weight of the Coronavirus fall outs.

Thankfully the luck down had been eased so I took time out to visit with her, mask on our faces and sitting metres away from each other. I took gifts to cheer her up and sat around for about thirty minutes. It did her a world of good. But we could not hug each other. If anyone needed a hug at this time, it was my cousin but the virus had forbidden it.

These are such strange times that we must be collectively strong to get through it. Who needs you now that you can help out of a hole? Who is suffering emotionally now? It’s time to make that phone call and help someone up.

It’s time to check your security guard and give him palliatives.

‘

I know what a hug does. We kind of dissolve into another person’s arms and it is beyond physical but also spiritual. It is as if we gave up ourselves, we passed on our burdens to a trusted significant other in a hug.

I know

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

The madness called English language

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nglish is, unquestionably, a global asset. It is one language used either as a first language (mother tongue), a second language (official language) or a foreign language by one-third of the world population. It is, especially, an instrument of unison in linguistically pluralistic and ethnically heterogenous countries like Nigeria. Besides, it is the language of upward mobility and social significance in our climes. Hit a Nigerian crowd with grandiloquence or high-sounding words (what you call BIG BIG ENGLISH) and, you may rest assured that you’ll attain momentary superstardom, whether or not your message is clear. Notwithstanding the reputation of the English language globally and in Nigeria specifically, it comes with a plethora of inherent inconsistencies which can best be described as “madness.”

You might be inclined to wonder which other language uses “went,” while you are still planning to head for/towards somewhere. It then follows that the grammar of the language orders you to say: “It is time/high time/about time I went,” when you mean to inform others that you hope to leave soon. In a similar vein, it is incumbent upon you to say “I would rather you prepared the food,” even when you might not have got the ingredients.

In what other language are you obliged

to say “how do you do?” when a person says ‘how do you do?” to you? In English, grammaticality could almost be tantamount to insanity. But for that, how do we justify having to admire a person’s glasses by saying, “Your glasses are nice.

Where did you buy them?” We are only safe from this kind of expression that can earn one a scornful look when one uses partitives, otherwise known as units of quantification. Hence, we say: “Your pair of glasses is nice. Where did you buy it?” Next to the foregoing, has it ever occurred to you that while “forecasted” enjoys currency and pervasive usage in English, “broadcasted” and “casted” are decidedly regarded as ungrammatical and inadmissible?

As though the wonderment that attends the aforementioned lexical realities won’t suffice, did you know that “fruit” is considered uncountable in the general sense, while “vegetable” is adjudged as countable? In the light of these contrasting nominal designations, you are expected to say, “Doctor Bamgbose eats a lot of fruit and vegetables at weekends;” not “Doctor Bamgbose eats a lot of fruits and vegetables at weekends.” Again, why is “thieves” the plural of “thief,” but “chiefs” the plural of “chief”? Meanwhile, I am duty bound to disclose to the general reader that a person who is duped is called a “dupe.” This is contrary to the erwww.businessday.ng

How is your house help doing, a friend, your cousin? Stretch out your hand to someone today. It may not be a hug but you would have made a difference.

I know what a hug does. We kind of dissolve into another person’s arms and it is beyond physical but also spiritual. It is as if we gave up ourselves, we passed on our burdens to a trusted significant other in a hug. I know.

Children understand it when a mum hugs them when they are hurting, lovers get it and friends yearns for it. When someone is grieving, you reach out with a hug, when they are happy, you celebrate with them with a hug. The simplest of things elude us now. A simple hug which I so badly need now but I am sensible enough to hold my fire. Tomorrow will come as sure as the sun shines. But that hug is not imminent. It will take time. Let’s find creative new ways to show our affection. As simple as a hug is that we miss, the things that make people happy now are also simple, a wave, a smile, a call, a note. We are an extension of each other. Humanity just needs kindness now. It’s not how important you are or how brilliant. It’s that simple smile at another. And this too shall pass. Amen.

The Gift of Gab

roneous perception of numerous people that it is the conman or fraudster that is labelled a “dupe.” And it gets even more dramatic! Have you ever felt confounded by the fact that a benefactor could reply to an individual who appreciates his/her generous or altruistic gestures by saying, “Don’t mention it” — even after the grateful party has “mentioned it”? With that being said, I presume that the readership are aware that a “rude” person comes across as “uncouth,” “impudent” and “discourteous.”

Bizarrely, however, when someone appears very healthy, such a person could be adjudged to be in “rude health.”

And this begs the question: what correlation does “rude” have with one’s “health”? Moreover, it beggars belief as to why one should request children’s wear (two words), ladies’ wear (two words) and menswear (one word without an apostrophe) — not mens’ wear — in a boutique or store. Before this slips my mind, I think we should also probe the rationale for saying, “I’m in a hurry” or “I’m in haste” — not “I’m in a haste.” Why was “a” expunged from the latter expression, in spite of the fact that “hurry” is synonymous with “haste”?

Only a linguistically mad language will have inflammable as another word for flammable, with both meaning that something could be easily set on fire.

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Ganiu Bamgbose

Comparatively, “invaluable” is, in point of fact, a higher degree of being “valuable” — they aren’t opposites! In a similar fashion, “loosen” is an alternative word for “unloosen.” Resignedly, we are so used to the madness that it bothers no one that there is no apple in pineapple, no dog in hot dog and, definitely, no egg in eggplant.

In sum, when Nigerians ask me why the language is “mad” and replete with a flurry of intrigue, I often inquire in return: is it your language?

Dr Bamgbose (Dr GAB) has a PhD in English and lectures at the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos. He is a social commentator who writes on different issues of national concern and the author of daily online English lessons titled “English for Today” with hundreds of lessons available on his website www.englishdietng.com.

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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The coming antichrist and the Africans THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

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his is an imaginary essay. I would urge my readers to take it with a grain of salt.

I was recently taken by dream-vision to the Infernal Kingdom. There, I beheld Satan sitting on a golden throne in all his resplendent glory -- with diadems and glittering pomp. The powers and principalities paid obeisance to the King of Darkness; lying prostrate before him like miserable slaves. There was light around him, but it was a dark light, radiating pure evil.

He of the cloven hoof gathered all his warlords, including the Horsemen of the Apocalypse; announcing that he had chosen a prince whom he is sending to “redeem” the world.

A tall, handsome young man with blonde hair and blue eyes and a naturally tanned skin (name withheld) was brought before the assembly. He appeared to be in his late forties, although looking much younger. He had an air of aristocratic authority about him, as befits a man used to issuing commands.

Satan solemnly declared him to be his emissary to the world. He was anointed with a golden staff and a signet onyx ring made of the purest blue diamond. Rumour has it that he was born of a Turkish-German father and an American mother whose bloodline goes back to the Rothschilds. He holds

Swiss, German, Turkish and American passports. He attended Philips Exeter Academy at Andover, the most prestigious boarding school in America.

He graduated Summa Cum Laude in Philosophy and Mathematics at MIT before proceeding to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Engineering.

Our man summed up his academic studies by enrolling at the highly demanding MBA-JD programme at Harvard; winning laurels for academic distinction and leadership. He was elected into membership of the superelite Harvard Society of Fellows.

From his days at Philips Exeter, he started dabbling in occultism. At first it was as innocent as playing with a Ouija board and reading Lobsang Rampa and the Six and Seven Books of Moses. He soon graduated into hexes and spells. In their final year at school, he and a friend placed a curse on their housemaster for his allegedly overbearing discipline. His marriage suddenly ended in a divorce while their only daughter went insane. The hapless man later had a stroke and died.

In his sophomore year in college, he was invited into membership of one ancient Mystery Schools said to be as old as the Egypt of the Pharaohs; becoming a grandmaster before age thirty. He got married to a strikingly beautiful heiress and graduate of Wellesley College, the prestigious women’s university in Massachusetts. Upon graduation, our man had a stint with investment bankers Goldman Sachs before starting his own private equity fund, currently with over US$500 billion under management.

He has been among the glitterati that feature at the World Economic Conference in Davos every January.

The list includes Bill Gates, Tony Blair, George Soros, Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia and lesser mortals such as the President of the African Development

Bank.

You will never find a more wellspoken cosmopolitan leader. Suave, svelte and debonair, he can easily switch conversation from English to French, German, Spanish, Italian or Arabic. He can hold his own on subjects as diverse as the Kabbalah, Tokugawa Japan, Islamic mysticism, quantum theory, the music of Wagner and the paintings of Vermeer. He is a member of both the Bilderberg Group and the Club of Rome. He also serves on the Board of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

The mission of the Anti-Christ, also known as Al-Masih ad-Dajjal in Islam, is to destroy the church of Jesus Christ and to gain world hegemony through deployment of fear, deceit, intimidation and ruthless cunning. He will work secretly to provoke wars while inflicting the world with strange viruses with no known cure.

His most potent weapon, will, surprisingly be religion. He will present himself as an urbane, highly cultured and liberal individual. He will befriend His Holiness the Pope; the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar; the Dalai Lama; the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the Chief Rabbi of Israel. He will convince them to form a one-world religion. Only the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the remnant monks of Holy Mount Athos will not buy into the fraud.

A principal agenda of the Antichrist is world government underpinned by a totalitarian ideology. He is also committed to a systematic programme of eugenics and world de-population. The secret elite belief that the optimal level of population to sustain civilisation on our planet should not be more than 1 billion. Today the world’s population is 7 billion. It is projected to be 10 billion in 2050, of which 2 billion will be in Africa alone.

The secret elite are consumed by a murderous racism which they able to

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The secret elite are consumed by a murderous racism which they able to conceal with great sophistication.

For decades, they have been obsessed with vaccinations in Africa, for which they have pumped humongous amounts Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, UNICEF and the like

conceal with great sophistication. For decades, they have been obsessed with vaccinations in Africa, for which they have pumped humongous amounts Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, UNICEF and the like.

What is even more sinister is that the secret elites have They have promoted conflicts, insurgencies and bacteriological warfare in Africa; believing that we Africans are mere tenants on this glorious continent in which divine Providence has placed us. This explains the multiple afflictions our continent has endured in terms of HIV/AIDS and Ebola. We were not surprised when Melinda Gates spoke of “dead bodies lying on the streets” throughout Africa. Our God has discomfited her evil prophecies.

The global elites have been behind violent strife in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and other parts of Africa. They fomented civil war in the Congo, leading to the death of more than 3 million.

Through satellite technology, they can detect where rare minerals are lodged and they sponsor rebels to go and kill, maim and rape; preparing the way for the vultures and hyenas to move in.

They know more about Boko Haram and the murderous Fulani herdsmen than they are prepared to let out. Their silence in the face of genocide speaks volumes.

They aim to destroy the very concept of statehood on our continent while using their global agencies to keep us impoverished. They have held our continent in chains for 400 years.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Dr. Mailafia is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a development economist and public finance expert with a DPhil from Oxford obmailafia@gmail.com; 08036590990 (text messages only)

Seasons and seasoning

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elcome to another Friday and these days for many people there are no differences between the week and the weekend. There have been very many theories, saying that we should not be under lock down because the economy will suffer immeasurably. Some say if we don’t lock down many people will die. Some say there are many more people dying from other things and ailments besides COVID-19.

Some say the virus is man-made. Some say it was naturally occurring in animals and when man ingested the animal it was passed to man.

Some say there is nothing like a virus. Some say it signifies the end of the world and Jesus is coming. One thing we can all agree is that the world is very noisy right now and we don’t know who to believe or rely on.

The one sure thing is that we can be sure about is that this is yet another season. Below is one of my blog posts from over three years ago. Other posts can be found at catapultbylb. wordpress.com.

The wisest man who ever lived once said that to everything there is a time and a season. I am not going to write yet again about what season of life you are in. (Even though we must always know what season of life we are in. Is it a time to rest, a time to train, a time to jump, a time to sleep etc)?

What is seasoning? When I looked it up, I got, “salt, herbs, or spices added to food to enhance the flavour and also the process of adjusting the moisture content of wood to make it more suitable for use as timber”. Wiki confirms that “to season and to flavour are not the same

thing”. This means some seasoning enhance the already existing flavour while some actually change the flavour (for the better usually but sometimes if not properly used, for the worse).

Today my short blog post is to say the seasons of our lives are like seasoning, both to add flavour, enhance flavour, change the flavour and could be a process of making us more suitable for use.

In a couple of weeks, we enter the final quarter of this year. Depending on the part of the world you are in. The physical season enhances our lives on many levels, some being from a planting and harvesting point of view. Planting is work and harvesting is work but they both lead to gain at the end of the day. Is your current season enhancing your life or more importantly the lives of those near or far from you?

When the season changes, again depending on what part of the world you are in, you need to change your wardrobe and that enhances the lives of many people up and down the food chain, be it cotton pickers, leather tanners, designers or shop owners.

Look back on the seasons you have been through this year. Were you at any time being prepared for use in any way, shape or manner? Did you recognise when the preparation was taking place or did you spend all the time moaning and complaining, totally oblivious to the workings of God? There is also what is called a season of response. A time when we need to respond to the seasoning of the seasons in our lives. A quick story here...., I am sure you have been waiting for the story. There was once a young

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boy who got up to no good with all the girls in town. Tsk tsk tsk not good at all. However, he got arrested by PP and completely turned his life around. (this happens when Prince of Peace enters your life).

That season of philandering was just a seasoning preparing him. The time when PP came into his life and turned it around and he accepted was a season of response. If he had not responded positively, he would have missed this season of response. His life is now impacting young men so they don’t walk the philandering road like he did.

I am not going to take up too much of your time today. Some key questions. Are your seasons enhancing flavour, actually adding flavour or preparing you for......... (fill in the gap) Also, how long have you been in this season?

Have you missed the season of response? If you miss a season of response, does that mean I lose out completely?

I have good news! You don’t completely lose out; it may just take you longer to get to your destination. Also, there is the possibility that you have missed the season of response as sometimes the season goes on for quite a while and it may seem to the undiscerning that one has missed the season of response.

Coming back to the fact that we will be entering the last three months of this year. Be discerning and end the year with a bang. Have fun also. Don’t let the seasons make you ill, no matter what it throws at you. What does not kill is supposed to make you stronger. Again, without repeating myself too often, it is either enhancing your life, adding flavour to your life

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Olamide Balogun

or preparing you for what is next.

By the way, if the season you are being prepared for is something great it may go on for longer than seems reasonable. Be patient and do the time, great things are around the corner Also, if you are not learning your lessons quickly, I am sure you know that the season may take some time. By the way, if you realise your season is not doing any of the above go back to the drawing board or should I say go back to Almighty.

I promised the post would be short and I hope it has been sweet.

On another note my company Box and Cedar are starting a career seminar series called TTBI, Talks That Break Inertia. It is titled “Down Sizing, Up Sizing, Right Sizing, are you a victim or victor”. Please ask your staff to attend. Please register at https://bit.ly/2T8d3wU. Have a great weekend.

Balogun is the founder of Box & Cedar Ltd a boutique Recruitment and HR Consulting firm Www.boxandcedar.com

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Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 years

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Re-reading Soyinka – a discovery in a hotel room, a chance meeting at Wimbledon, and a road not taken HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

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he recent furore in the public space concerning the appointment of the new Chief of Staff to the President was drama on a number of levels. Passions roiled hot enough to boil water. One of the incidents most widely quoted in the social media is from Wole Soyinka’s memoirs-after-a-fashion, titled “YOU MUST SET OUT AT DAWN”.

It is a good time to take down the volume from the shelf in the study and read it again.

General Sani Abacha, the strongman referred to by the literati as “the goggled one” has recently died. A large number of Nigerians in exile are still trying to wrap their minds around the reality in their home country. The new military Head of State, a man of calm demeanour and not a great profusion of words, is visiting the United States. The nation’s pointsman at the United Nations, a certain Ibrahim Gambari, has arranged a meeting with Wole Soyinka.

The Nobel Laureate is known to officialdom as an elusive, “moving target”. Just to be sure that he would not “disappear into thin air”, the UN pointsman requests him to stay in his own hotel room on the appointed day until the hour of the meeting. As the writer and a group of his fellows sit in the hotel room, killing time, one of them picks up a book from the coffee table. The cover carries a picture of the recently deceased strongman, it is a collection of his speeches, with a foreword purportedly written by the new Head of State.

The meeting takes place shortly afterwards. The Head of State entreats Soyinka to “come home.” At a point a copy of the book from the hotel-room is passed to him. Is he, the writer wants to know, a continuation of the legacy of Abacha?

Gambari’s surprise is clear. The Head of State avers he knows nothing about the Abacha book. It turns out it was done before the man died, ostensibly with the intention of presenting Nigeria’s leader as a world statesman at a time when the country was angling for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. A less charitable observer would label it a well-funded exercise in image laundry at a time in the heat of international disapproval.

The meeting ends on a pleasant note, with the request to “Come home- everybody wants you home” ringing in the air.

The writer would indeed go home, not long afterwards, to a rousing reception from the public.

But that is another story.

“Fast-forward” to another story, on another continent. Soyinka is with his son, Olaokun. They are in the crowd at the Wimbledon tennis

tournament. Soyinka is no great tennis fan, though he likes to watch the Williams sisters. A petite young lady, recognising her famous countryman comes gushing forth to greet him.

“I am Zainab” she introduces herself. She has just finished studying Law in a UK university. She is doing her attachment.

He shakes her hand. They converse genially. As they part, he remembers to ask “Zainab – who?”

“Zainab Abacha” comes the tentative response.

Later, the writer packs up the tennis and goes out to search for Zainab in the crowd. He is thinking he may have been rather brusque and wants to make amends. Sadly, he is unable to locate the young lady.

The final story of the piece concerns a meeting in a swank London apartment. An emissary, Tunde, has flown in from Abuja, bearing a secret, “for your ears only” message from “them”. It is a message of such import that it could alter the course of the life of the writer, and of Nigeria.

Tunde is a man you yourself have known for several decades. He once collected a signed copy of your badly-edited novel – BATOLICA – promising to give it to the man known to many in Nigeria as “Maradona”.

“Maradona” is one of the dramatis personae in BATOLICA, and he is not painted with a kindly brush.

Tunde is reputed to have spent several months, or was its years, ensconced in the Presidential Suite of a five-star hotel in Abuja with his beauty queen consort. He is a jolly good fellow. You still run into him occasionally at The Club and at social functions.

Back to the meeting in London,

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The final story of the piece concerns a meeting in a swank London apartment. An emissary, Tunde, has flown in from Abuja, bearing a secret, for your ears only message from them. It is a message of such import that it could alter the course of the life of the writer, and of Nigeria

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

The audacity of conviction

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onviction is a stimulant. Being convinced about a course, a mission; can be so strong it damns consequences, effects, and reactions. It knows no obstacles. It sees only possibilities.

Conviction is a genus of optimism; that it can be so passionately intense, its sheer forceful will, to the external observer can be frighteningly repelling. That was the story of Biafra.

Biafra’s audacious conviction was most frighteningly repelling; particularly because, before Biafra, and indeed after Biafra, the world has seen no such sheer drive of conviction from a single black entity of Africa; even in the face of imminent brutal annihilation. It was plain frightening.

It is in that sense that the story of Biafra is indeed the story of Africa. It is the telling of the size of Africa’s potency to define and invent herself within the cultures that define her identity. And for that one last time, Africa’s history; a history of distortions, of displacements, of disintegration, was set to be righted by an audacious Igbo tribe of black Africa; to rewrite their verisimilitude; their personhood. “Black” was the frightening dominant appellation. So, “In Biafra Africa died”. Yes, Emefiena Ezeani is right that “In Biafra Africa Died” not because the sun set even before dawn for the land of the rising sun, it died because the fall of Biafra

was the death of Africa’s audacious conviction to reinvent herself. A fact that is much more immediately true for Nigeria’s reality. So why did Biafra happen?

Nigeria’s historiography reveals the sad truth that there are foundational problems in the very political idea on which Nigeria has wrongly progressed till date. To correct this, there have been several conferences since the Ibadan conference of 1950; the last of which was the 2014 CONFAB. All in an effort to right a foundational wrong for which the British colonial government have been rightly held culpable. But like every other thing about Nigeria, these attempts became dominated by narrow-minded politics, and were consequently killed. One of such important conferences was the Aburi Conference, dubbed the “Aburi Accord”.

As a consequence, these foundational issues are at the core of why you have a Biafran movement five decades after the civil war. It is the reason for the Niger Delta militancy. It is why you have the chant for an ‘Ogoni republic’. It is why the OPC happened. It is why you have a sharia law in a secular Nigeria, and the underlining reason behind the emergence of Boko Haram, and why northern Nigeria for decades have continued to be a hotbed of ethno-religious crisis. To underscore this, on

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May 9 2014, speaking as a guest on BBC’s Hard Talk, Prof. Wole Soyinka situated the crisis in the north as resulting the moment there was the creation of a theocratic structure called sharia state within a federal secular entity.

These issues are at the core of the complexities holding down Nigeria.

Writing in her book “Patterns of Culture” the late American anthropologist Ruth Benedict stated that “no man ever looked at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probing (sic) he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs.” In those lines, Benedict advanced an anthropological truth consistent with the evolution of heterogeneous societies like Nigeria. Thus, she posits that many times, seeming pristine conceptions are in fact products of traditional patterns of thought. That cultural leanings and structures have overtime shaped much of people’s perceptions and response to social issues. And that progressive insights (the reason why progressive societies have moved on), have always been products of pristine thinking which have their roots firmly hinged on cultural mental formulations.

It is then of imperative concern to state

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as the Nobel laureate would recapture in “YOU MUST SET OUT AT DAWN”. Tunde goes straight to the point. The message from “them” is that they want Soyinka to run for President. Of course, “they” will support him. He will not have to spend a kobo of his own money. And so on.

Soyinka weighs the matter in his mind. Does he have the temperament for the hurly burly of Nigerian politics? And if “they” sponsor his election and “win” it for him, what would be the payback? At the back of his mind, perhaps, is a paranoid thought. Could this be someone’s ploy to finally put the nail in the coffin of the “Kongi” mystique?

In the end he declines.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“They” settle for Olusegun Obasanjo.

He has lived the drama of his people’s lives – savouring the joys and sweating through the agonies, unable and unwilling to detach himself even after becoming a global icon. “Captain Blood” of the founding band of high-minded youths in University of Ibadan who called themselves Pyrates Confraternity.

The “Lone Gunman” snatching the corrupt Premier’s tape from the radio station before broadcast and substituting a mocking parody, as only a dramatist would think to do. The activist braving roadblocks manned by rioting mobs and drunken trigger-happy policemen as he rides into Lagos from the Seme border during “June 12” riots, passing dead bodies lying on the streets.

What indeed might a Soyinka Presidency have been like?

It is a road not taken. No one will ever know, now.

Chike Nwodo

that like Biafra, Nigeria needs the conviction of converging belief in evolving a civilised federal political system that guarantees progress.

Because like the French philosopher Rousseau surmised, the peace of a nation (which is what guarantees progress), necessarily flows from the adherence to a single legislative document representing the will of the general people to which all is equal both in protection and punishment. The moment there is the enactment of a skewed legislation, there is then a foundation for the creation of a system that will not serve the interest of the collective will.

That is the message of May 30. The absence of such just system that guarantees development in a heterogeneous society as demanded in the call to restructure the polity, is instructively why Nigeria has failed to completely exorcise herself of the spirit of Biafra.

Chike is an academic and social analyst, wrote from Enugu..

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Frank Aigbogun

Support Nigeria’s informal sector to spur development

editor Patrick Atuanya

Aim at transparency, effectiveness and innovation while rendering support

Publisher/Editor-in-chief

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative economic consequences in the form of job losses, threatened the sustainability of firms and depressed growth in GDP. Nigeria has the challenge of a large informal sector that is most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. Nigeria’s informal sector is also the employer of the largest number of citizens. The federal government and other stakeholders must roll out measures to provide temporary support to the informal sector. Nigeria must design and roll out measures to support targeted groups and individuals in this sector.

It is a tall order. The context is that the informal sector is a significant contributor to the Nigerian economy, accounting for a substantial portion of employment and national GDP. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the informal sector accounts for approximately 65 percent of economic activities in Nigeria. In sub-Saharan Africa,

the informal sector contributes about 72 percent to employment, excluding agriculture. Including agriculture should put figures at around 90 percent.

According to the IMF, “Substantial and timely support is crucial.

Policies could include cash transfers or in-kind support to vulnerable households, including informal workers.”

Nigeria seems to have initiated such steps upon the commencement of lockdown measure. However, we have reasons to believe that the process was not transparent enough and lacked effectiveness, orderliness and innovation. It has been nothing short of bedlam.

Palliatives to the vulnerable seem to have ceased with the easing of the lockdown. We urge a reignition of these measures more transparently and effectively as this will go a long way to lessen the burdens of economic entities in the informal segment.

Failure to pay attention to the needs of the informal sector will worsen what is already a precarious economic situation for Nigeria grap-

pling with high unemployment and poverty rates. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 23.1 percent.

Also, half of Nigeria’s population currently live below the poverty line ($381.75) according to the NBS report in 2019.

The effect of the pandemic is not only limited to the informal sector.

According to the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), the umbrella organisation of employers in the Organised Private Sector, Nigerian employers are fighting to keep staff on their payrolls amid the financial pain inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some organisations can only afford to pay 50 percent of staff salaries while some have halted recruitment processes, dashing the hopes of graduates and other job seekers.

The IMF in its recent report, COVID-19: An unprecedented threat to development, stated that a more supportive monetary stance and injection of liquidity could also play an essential role in sustaining firms and jobs by enabling demand.

Financial sector supervision should

aim to maintain the balance between preserving financial stability and sustaining economic activity.

The depth of the impact and the speed of recovery would depend mainly on what the authorities do.

Central to this is support for the informal sector, given the size and significance of that sector.

Job losses pose an unimaginable threat to the security of the nation. We saw a snippet of such consequence when hoodlums called “one million boys” took to the streets disturbing the peace of neighbourhoods amid the lockdown imposed by the federal government. We must minimise job losses in the informal sector even as the big corporates contemplate a reduction in staff numbers.

The Nigerian federal government cannot afford to battle insecurity while trying to combat the pandemic effect on the economy and health fronts.

GDP measures economic activities. Households and firms in all forms drive these business activities.

Showing concern in their survival will positively impact on economic growth and development.

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

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

13

ADVERTORIAL

COVID-19: 250,000 Jobs at Stake in the Creative Industry - Over 5,000 Cinema Workers Furloughed - 50,000 Nollywood Professionals Risk Permanent Unemployment

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he creative industry in Nigeria is perhaps, the least considered when the nation’s economy is analyzed, with so much focus given to oil and gas, finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, agriculture, etc. Little wonder why the impact of the global pandemic on the industry is hardly recognized in important discussions. One may argue that the industry isn’t financially at par with the above-mentioned sectors in terms of revenue, hence its justified relegation. But the real questions should be; “has it enjoyed equal funding?”, “what percentage of the nation’s young population is employed by the sector?” Ironically, the creative industry boasts of enormous potentials that can provide permanent solutions to the nation’s unemployment challenges, with less investment when compared to other sectors.

Interestingly, with the almost non-existent financial support, or better put – “inadequate funding”, it keeps beaming hope to the younger generation and placing the country on the good side of the news on global stages. From cinematic films to music, stage plays, comedy, etc; whenever the Western media decides to portray the good side of Nigeria, the creative industry always shapes the narrative.

Discussing the various opportunities it provides may probably be a better fit for another article, but at the moment, the most urgent need is for authorities to understand the capacity of social infrastructure being neglected by not prioritizing the Nigerian creative industry in its plans to reopen the economy.

According to a report recently published on CNBC, scientists have predicted that it would take about 2 years to roll out vaccines for the disease, some other experts speculate that it may take 5 years. With no guarantee on the exact period of time needed to get a permanent remedy, the world has come to the point where it is certain that we have just discovered the newest addition to our long list of existing terminal ailments; a list which includes diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer. The only difference would be that COVID-19 is asymptotic, which makes its spread easy. Thus, extra caution must be driven by a functional public

health system while individuals adapt to health-conscious living. On the other hand, if news emanating from Madagascar is anything to hold on to, then the disease may just be in the class of the likes of malaria and typhoid. Considering these facts, the reopening of the nation’s economy is inevitable and must not be delayed any longer, especially with the surrounding circumstances of public welfare not being the same as what is currently obtainable in Europe and America, from where our leadership has drawn their inspiration in handling the pandemic.

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The creative industry in its multi-faceted structure has been heavily hit by the effect of this pandemic. For instance, the cinema sector which directly employs over 5,000 workers (of which 75% are youths between ages 18 to 25) has been shut down since the third week of March. Consequently, employees have been furloughed, losing their means of livelihood for the second month in a row. Indirectly, the services of dependent businesses such as retail vendors, logistic companies, film distributors, auxiliary services (security men, gardeners, housekeepers, etc), have all been suspended; a work-force estimated at 4,000 persons.

According to a report recently published on CNBC, scientists have predicted that it would take about 2 years to roll out vaccines for the disease, some other experts speculate that it may take 5 years.

With no guarantee on the exact period of time needed to get a permanent remedy, the world has come to the point where it is certain that we have just discovered the newest addition to our long list of existing terminal ailments; a list which includes diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.

Looking at film production, there is a huge backlog of projects that have been suspended because of the lockdown. Nollywood is reputed to be the second-largest film industry in the world in terms of the number of films produced annually. An average of 50 films is produced weekly across the country, employing the services of approximately 100 persons per project, which include actors, directors, producers, sound engineers, DOPs, costume designers, line producers, welfare coordinators, editors, continuity supervisors, etc; which estimates about 5000 jobs lost every week since the lockdown began, averaging at 40,000 jobs in the past 8 weeks.

For music, events and comedy, the case is not any different. Several shows have been suspended to curtail the spread of the virus. As much as that can be considered a very effective step taken by the government. It is important not to forget that artists, comedians, event planners, bouncers, graphic designers,

sound engineers, disc jockeys, ushers, caterers, online ticket persons, red carpet hosts, studio staff, band members, etc, have all been jobless afterward.

Events around the country create an average of 40,000 jobs weekly. Those in the know estimate the general loss in revenue from the creative industry at about 20 billion naira, with approximately 250,000 jobs at stake, in the past 2 months.

It is pertinent to recognize the ardent efforts of our health workers who have been at the frontline of this battle and the sleepless nights suffered by government officials who have been tasked to bring the rampage to a halt.

So far, their impact on the situation is undeniably perceptible. However, since we have ascertained that restarting the economy is the way forward, there is no

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better wisdom at this time than to give priority to establishments who have come up with a solid plan on how to run their businesses while maintaining the best possible precautionary measures to limit the spread of the disease.

It is not okay to assume that because certain businesses are footfall-dependent, they should be considered a weakness to the progress made in preventing the spread and hence, non-viable in the reopening process. Recently, the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) in conjunction with the Film and Motion Pictures Distributors Association of Nigeria (FDAN), through the social media platforms of their members, have consistently rolled out information on how they intend to manage social distancing in cinemas, as well as provide adequate resources to help in the prevention while they run their businesses. Some of the measures communicated include; limiting seating capacity of auditoriums by 50% to allow for spaced seating, mandatory admittance of only customers with face masks, ensuring the use of temperature checks and sanitizers, structured standing spaces on foyers, prioritized online ticket sales, to mention a few.

So, are we saying that open markets are better structured and equipped to limit the spread of the virus than cinemas would? Isn’t it more profitable to allow cinemas the opportunity to save the livelihoods of their staff who are mostly young adults, while the government monitors processes to ensure effectiveness than to have them wallow in hunger and resort to all kinds of evil devices? If the government can allow construction workers on their open fields, are we saying that actors, directors and other film professionals who would work in regulated spaces would be more exposed to the virus?

Certainly, someone in authority has to do more thinking than assuming. While they are at that, let us not forget that every day that passes without work for that young professional doesn’t just reduce the amount of money in his/her pocket, it draws he/she deeper into the well of idleness; and what do they say about idle minds? #WhenWillCinemasOpen

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Global Citizen partners NSIA on COVID-19 solidarity support fund OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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lobal Citizen and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) have jointly announced the establishment of a new funding vehicle named ‘Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund’ aimed at providing immediate and long-term support in the fight against Covid-19.

The announcement was made during an online joint press briefing which had in attendance vice president, Yemi Osinbajo and Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance.

Speaking vice president, Yemi Osinbajo expressed his delight with the new initiative noting that the Federal Government of Nigeria has instituted measures such as increasing access to testing, contact tracing and isolation and implementing social distancing to limit the potentially devastating impact of this deadly virus.

“This stakeholder led-andresourced mechanism will provide both flexible and rapid response resources to accelerate ongoing efforts to respond to COVID-19 in communities across Nigeria -as well as to strengthen health systems

in the aftermath of the acute pandemic response,” he said.

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, vice chairman, Global Citizen said the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund was established to provide immediate and long-term support in the fight against COVID-19.

The Fund he noted is created by Nigerians for Nigeria and will target four core COVID-19 responses, mitigation and recovery areas these include: supporting the most vulnerable; strengthening the domestic healthcare systems; expanding access to rural and

Government in funding Covid-19 response efforts and supply of the necessary, protective and treatment equipment and long term strengthening of healthcare system.

On his part, Michael Sheldrick, chief policy officer, Global Citizen said his organization’s involvement in establishing the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund alongside the NSIA directly aligns with its Nigeria policy direction for 2020 which seeks to mobilize funds and commitment to Nigeria’s most marginalised people.

“These investments will be aimed at the implementation of Universal Healthcare Coverage; and improvement of the health of the poorest women, children, and adolescents in Nigeria which the solidarity funds core response areas directly support the overarching goals for our Nigeria policy direction,” he said.

According to Sheldrick, the organization’s commitment to the African continent and, in particular, Nigeria is motivated by two key factors, these include, the shift in geopolitical power towards emerging markets, and the recognition that developing countries want and need to have agency over their own development.

TECHNOLOGY

COVID -19: May & Baker donates to police, prisons others

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care, thereby improving access, building capacity, and enhancing the resilience of the nation’s health delivery, especially in rural and underserved communities.

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance said the Solidarity Support Fund would help the

L-R - Volunteer, Slum Art Foundation, David shonowo; Commander, Rapid Response Squad, DCP Tunji Disu and Co-founder, SlumArt Foundation, Adetunwase Adenle during the presentation of Paintings done by slum art children in Ijora Badia in collaboration with the RRS Team in Lagos

COMPANY RELEASE

igeria’s pharmaceutical manufacturing giant, May & Baker Nigeria Plc has made donations of hand sanitizers to various institutions across the country including some Police commands in Lagos and Ogun states, the Nigerian Prisons and several other stakeholders. The donations were made on behalf of the company by Eugene Olewuenyi, Communications Consultant accompanied by Binta Yusuf, Personal Assistant to the Managing Director/ CEO. Olewuenyi said the donation is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility and one of the company’s ways to intervene against the Corona virus pandemic.

While receiving the hand sanitizers at the Nigerian Correctional Service, Deputy Controller of Prisons in charge of the Kirikiri Custodian Centre, Ben-Rabbi Freedman said the donation by May & Baker is unique because it touches directly on a highly vulner-

community focused universal healthcare; and re-skilling and re-tooling for Nigeria’s Renaissance post COVID-19 Uche Orji, managing director, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) said the Solidarity Fund will enable the expansion of primary health

able segment of the society.

He thanked May & Baker for the donation of cartons of the product and assured that the product will reach those for whom it was intended.

May & Baker is a leading local manufacturer of Hand Sanitizers in Nigeria with the brand name “Smartans”. In a separate statement, Nnamdi Okafor, managing director / CEO, May & Baker, said that the company re-activated its’ hand sanitizer production line within 72 hours of announcement of the COVID -19 index case in Nigeria.

He stated that the company’s major goal was to join in the battle against this invisible enemy called COVID-19 with a first objective of forcing down the criminally inflated pricing of hand sanitizers to a point where most Nigerians can afford them. He further stated that it was critical that the pandemic is contained in Nigeria before it goes out of control considering the poor state of our healthcare facilities

and opined that good personal hygiene is central to this strategy. This he said informed the company’s decision to donate this product direct to certain institutions that are central to this battle and also some vulnerable groups like the police and prisons/prisoners.

He said the company has also taken steps to ensure that “our stakeholders such as staff, visitors and customers have the product for their personal and family hygiene He said the company took steps to ensure compliance with World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines on personal hygiene including hand washing, use of hand sanitizers and social distancing among all staff and visitors to its premises.

In another unique contribution to the fight against COVID -19, the company has mass produced chloroquine tablets for clinical trials following the indication that chloroquine could be useful for the management of the Coronavirus disease.

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Thrive Agric leveraging technology to curb food insecurity post COVID-19 GBEMI FAMINU

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hrive Agric, a technologically inclined agricultural enterprise is making moves to combat the projected food scarcity and insecurity challenges post COVID-19 with the use of technology and digitalization in line with global best practices and through its “One farmer at a time” approach, Due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on all sectors of the economy, economic experts project that the downturn on agriculture will result to a surge in food scarcity and insecurity, rising from wasted harvest, labor limitation, restrictive market access among others.

For a country like Nigeria that lacks the necessary measures and basic infrastructure to evade or handle occurrences like this, implementing financial interventions and benefits packages introduced by more developed economies in their agricultural sector will

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pose a problem.

Uka Eje, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Thrive Agric said the startup is moving to provide a solution to sustainably match food production against a rising population and to foster a fast and effective demand and supply chain between the market and the local farmer.

“The goal of the business is to make Africa the food basket of the world by providing smallholder farmers with access to high-quality farm inputs, finance, data-driven advisory and premium markets for their produce.

By the end of 2020 the brand plans to leverage on Technology to connect over 250,000 farmers to finance, insight and distribution for their harvest, the brand infuses both digital technology (micro-loan platforms and datadriven advisory) and farming technologies (machinery, soil test, and precision extension farming systems) into agriculture.” Eje said.

He further said that Thrive @Businessdayng

Agric plans to channel credit facilities to its network of farmers along with its bank partners, providing for the farmers as input loans. In addition to the finance and insight, the organisation expects to significantly improve the local farmer’s yield by connecting them to existing premium markets which will double their income, adding that this would also help solve the impending challenge that would face food security during and post COVID-19.

Speaking on funding, he said the company has been a beneficiary of various investment platforms like Ycombinator, Jack Ma, Google, Berrywood and other angel investors, as a result, the company is able to develop a proprietary platform customized to the local needs of its target market. Eje added that Thrive Agric has been engaged by the World Bank and the World Food Program, charting the digital agricultural and economic conversation in Africa.

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

ENERGYREPORT Oil & Gas

Power

Renewables

Environment

Oilfield servicing companies lost half of their values to COVID-19 olusola Bello

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orld renowned oilfield servicing (OFS) companies that have huge presence in Nigeria are some of the worse hit by Covid 19 pandemic as their capital base have been seriously eroded.

Some of the companies, such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, Saipem, Transocean, Baker Hughes dominate the oil servicing industry in Nigeria.

The implication of this is that their investment portfolios in Nigeria are going to be severely affected. This situation might lead to cuts in the number of their employees in the country and this may increase the already high unemployment figure in the country.

Oil field servicing companies are very strategic in oil production and exploration as they engage in series of activities that culminated in the production of crude oil.

They are the ones contracted by oil companies to carry out seismic data activities drilling of oil wells and even construction of oil and gas pipelines among others A Rystad Energy analysis reveals that stocks in OFS

companies have collectively lost half their value since the beginning of 2020.

Analysing a representative group of 116 listed OFS companies, accounting for around 71percent of the traded equities in the sector in 2019, Rystad Energy found that the firms have lost approximately 49percentof their market capitalization since the beginning of this year.

The best performers among service companies were in the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) sector, which only saw

market capitalization drop by 27percentcompared to the value erosion of between 39percent and 54 per cent for most other service segments.

The most affected stocks were in offshore drilling, a segment that has nosedived by about 80percent since the beginning of this year.

“In a nutshell, our analysis indicates that companies with exposure to EPCI, facility leasing, maintenance and inspection services, SURF or subsea equipment have been less punished by investors, who have prioritized limiting their

NCDMB to Spur O&G Innovation with BrentPlus olusola Bello

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he Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has launched BrentPlus, a series of initiatives that will stimulate innovations in the oil and gas industry and ancillary sectors and create a platform for local creation of digital technologies.

Simbi Wabote, executive secretary of NCDMB, unveiled BrentPlus during a webinar titled “Innovating for the future of Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Industry and its Linkage Sectors.” He added that one of the strategic initiatives under the Nigerian Content 10-year roadmap is to promote the development of innovative in-country solutions in the oil and gas industry.

The webinar was the first by the Board since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and according to Wabote, it will form part of the new channels and technologies NCDMB will be using henceforth to engage stakeholders of the oil and gas industry.

He listed the processes of BrentPlus to include Problems Definition, Call for Innovation, Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology Hackathon, Incubation Olusola Bello, Team lead,

and Scale-Up. Providing details of the Problems Definition stage, the executive secretary said the Board will administer surveys to focus groups and stakeholders to understand the biggest challenges facing the sector.

He promised that the Board will soon hold a Webinar to get feedback on the opportunities for digital innovation.

“The problems must not be related to the oil and gas sector.

It can be daily life problems,” he clarified.

Subsequently, NCDMB will pick out the biggest challenges and call for innovations from interested teams with ideas, prototypes, solutions and relevant experiences, after which, the applications will be reviewed by judges and shortlisted, with a few selected.

He stated that the third stage of the BrentPlus process will be a Hackathon- a threeday residential camp where “participating teams will meet with industry stakeholders and further understand the challenges. Teams will revalidate their solutions and pitch at the end of bootcamp. Five winning teams will be selected.”

Wabote explained further that Hackathon enables crowd sourcing of digital innovations

Graphics: Joel Samson.

that will solve challenges. The idea is to provide a platform for individuals to get together for a short period of time to collaborate on a project, he added.

He hinted that during the incubation, which is the fourth stage of the process, ”five winning teams will get $10,000 equity-free grant each. They will also get work-space, expert mentors, global partners and unprecedented market access over three-months, ensuring they become commercial and investor-ready.”

He added that “at the end of the incubation, the teams will participate in a showcase day to demonstrate their progress.

This showcase will aim to connect them with investors and industry stakeholders where they can further amplify their market access.”

Specifying the criteria for eligibility, the Executive Secretary said participants ”must be a team/company of at least two or more members with at least 75 percent of the founding team as Nigerians. The team/ company must be a registered, or intending to register as a profit/business entity. The solution described in response to the challenge must be driven by digital technology- Software, Hardware or both.”

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exposure to well services, drillers, acquisition contract seismic and the North American market,“ says Rystad Energy senior energy service analyst Binny Bagga.

Another general trend is that share prices of companies that have consistently paid dividends/distributions over the past years have dropped less than non-dividend-paying companies.

One explanation for the EPCI performance is that a significant proportion of EPCI company revenues stems from industries outside of the oil and

gas sector. Another respite for the EPCI segment is that the average contract cycle time is longer than for most other segments, which means that these companies are more likely to be busy with existing projects even if new sanctioning activity is low.

The second-best-performing service segment consists of companies with multi-segment operations, and three elements stand out in particular here. First, this segment index is positively impacted by largecap companies, especially those with significant exposure to EPCI, facility leasing, inspection and maintenance services.

Most of the better-performing names also have diversified geographical exposure.

The index performance, in general, is negatively impacted by companies dependent on North American well services.

Lastly, about half of the companies in this service segment index have consistently paid dividends over the past three years. Most of these companies have been rewarded with a better share price performance or less market value erosion compared to non-dividend-paying companies.

In the seismic and G&G service segment index, around three-quarters of the companies have seen their market cap

erode by more than 60 per cent this year. This segment is highly vulnerable to exploration cost cuts by E&P operators, and to complicate matters further the segment’s average contract recycle duration is around two years.

The plight of well services companies with strong exposure to the North American (NAM) region is well known in the market. More than half of the companies in our NAM well services index have had market cap erosion of more than 60 per cent this year, with some players slumping more than 80percent. Overall this segment is plagued by little service differentiation, which is expected to have a profound impact on pricing and utilization as E&P operators continue to slash their budgets.

The story is much the same for onshore drillers. Many offshore drillers, the worstperforming service segment, are in the process of exploring financial restructuring options, while some of the others have engaged in share repurchase options to shore up stock prices.

For more analysis, insights and reports, clients and nonclients can apply for access to Rystad Energy’s Free Solutions and get a taste of our data and analytics universe.

Shell, ExxonMobil donate medical equipment to states to fight COVID-19 olusola Bello

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ivers State is set to start testing for COVID-19 in Port Harcourt with the receipt of the state’s first set of testing equipment from the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) among many other medical hardware and consumables presented to the state governor, Nyesom Wike .

Osagie Okunbor, managing director and Country chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, who presented two Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines, the main testing equipment, ventilators and other medical items at the government house in Port Harcourt, said SPDC and its joint venture partners were committed to supporting the state to stop the spread of COVID-19 or any disease outbreak in the state.

Okunbor, who was represented by the deputy managing director of SPDC, Simon Roddy, said, “While we remain committed to supporting the state government to deepen its efforts at managing the pandemic, we recognise inadequate testing capability in the

Niger Delta and it is in response to this that we are presenting the state with COVID-19 compatible PCR machines and kits, while further extending medical equipment support to the holding centre at the Eleme General Hospital.”

The SPDC boss said the donation, the third in a series, was aimed at further enhancing the clinical capacities and capabilities at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital.

Also Mobil Producing Nigeria, an ExxonMobil affiliate, and operator of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation/Mobil Producing Nigeria Joint Venture is donating two ambulances, 20 additional vehicles and medical supplies to various state governments and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to assist in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Akwa Ibom State Government is receiving two ambulances for emergency cases and 15 other vehicles, while Rivers State is receiving five vehicles.

Medical supplies, including World Health Organization certified COVID-19 test kits, sample collection kits and hospital beds valued at more than

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N90 million will be distributed to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, as well as Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.

“We are actively working with our partner, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and other stakeholders on ways to assist in halting the spread of the virus,” said Paul McGrath, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil companies in Nigeria.

McGrath said that the NNPC/MPN JV’s efforts are being guided by government agencies’ advice with regard to specific requirements and determining the areas of greatest need.

“Supporting Nigeria’s fight against COVID-19 requires a broad, collective effort that should follow the guidelines established by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, as well as the state and federal governments.”

ExxonMobil’s donations are part of an oil and gas industry effort coordinated by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to provide medical supplies, deploy additional equipment and to support medical infrastructure and in-patient treatment.

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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MONEYINSIGHT New Luno documentary highlights how costly payments drive crypto adoption in Africa Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

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lobal cryptocurrency exchange, Luno has released a new documentary that underscores the opportunity for countries in Africa to grow adoption of cryptocurrencies as a viable alternative to costly payment systems and failing fiat currencies.

The documentary which was made over a period of five years and will run on Amazon Prime from Friday captures explicitly how the cryptocurrency market is developing in Africa including as trading instruments, investment and contributing to community developments in remote parts of Africa.

The 45 minutes video titled “Banking on Africa: The Bitcoin Revolution” features some of the pioneering cryptocurrency personalities in Southern Africa including Riccardo Spagni (Fluffy Pony); Simon Dingle; Dawie Roodt and Sonya Kuhnel. It also trails the deeply moving stories of Lorien Gamaroff (founder of blockchain-based social outreach project, Uziso); and Alakanmi Itireleng (founder of SatoshiCentre, Botswana); with a glimpse at the spectrum of applications of Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

“While much of the focus elsewhere has been on investment, speculation and trading, Africa, more than any other continent, has a need for the utility of cryptocur-

rencies. Cryptocurrencies present an ideal antidote to many of the financial challenges in Africa and the current context presents fertile ground for an alternative to germinate,” says Marius Reitz, General Manager for Africa at Luno.

The document opens alongside The State of Crypto: Africa report, a joint effort between Luno and Arcane Report. The report among other things notes that high inflation rates, volatile currencies and lack of banking infrastructure, combined with a growing, young and mobile-native population make Africa ideal for rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies. However, the report also shows that lack of typical infrastructure seen in other regions such as nodes, mining

operations, supporting merchants, ATMs and exchanges present some obstacles that must be overcome for cryptocurrencies to reach their full potential in Africa.

According to recent Google Trends data Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa are ranked as 3rd, 8th and 13th on the topic of cryptocurrency respectively. Other surveys also highlight the growing appetite for cryptocurrencies on the continent, with one survey of internet users that owned cryptocurrency, placing South Africa as thirdhighest worldwide at 13 percent and Nigeria as 5th at 11 percent.

Another survey showed that 16 percent of South Africans had either used or owned cryptocurrency, ranking only behind Turkey,

Next wave of fintech investment in Africa to depend on quality of startups

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ith investors reassessing risks following heightened fear of the economic impact of the virus, experts say the fintech space should expect less capital as investors shy away from placing risky bets.

In that regard, fintech firms that are able to prove why they are relevant with products or services that are solving real-time problems would win in the post-COVID pandemic of investment.

The search for quality has been a growing trend in Africa. But a drop in investment is not such welcoming news for a continent that despite setting a record-breaking investment in 2019, still represents less than 1 percent of the overall global VC investment in tech startups worldwide and less than $2 per year per habitant of the continent, according to a report compiled by AfricArena. But the massive leap in risk means that venture capital firms will be looking to ensure the safety of their current portfolios, with expansion on the backfoot.

“Too many startups are content to argue that they haven’t been disrupted by the pandemic,” David Sacks, founder of Craft Ventures, an early-stage fund said on Tuesday. “What they should be explaining is why they’re essential in a post-COVID-19 world. And once they understand that proposition, they should focus their marketing and product roadmap around it.”

The AfricArena report

estimates that venture capital investment in Africa tech startups could fall by up to 40 percent in 2020.

The State of Tech Innovation in Africa report which used data from Maxime Bayen of Greentech Capital and other investment announcements from firms on the continent found that investments in 2020 could drop to between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion, compared to the over $2 billion recorded in 2019.

The report also suggests what investors may define as ‘quality’ or ‘safe investment’ as it found that around 90 percent of the investment in 2019 was concentrated on Series B and Series C deals, with many oversubscribed, leading valuation upwards.

Investment in early-stage startups from Seed to Series A is largely undersubscribed and unstructured, considerably slowing down the pace of startups development and the associated job creation potential.

“We expect deal activity to fall sharply in Q2 and www.businessday.ng

Q3 2020, primarily fuelled

by VC investors doing refinancing deals on their portfolio. In valuation metrics likely down by a 20 to 30 percent factor, new deals will be limited until the broad economy restarts,” the report noted.

While Fintech firms in Africa account for the most investments raised so far in 2020 by tech companies, they are not finding it very easy to reach the highs of the previous year. In 2019 alone, African fintech startups raised a combined USD 678.73 Mn in funding. In 2020, the COVID-19 has dropped the funding expectations of the landscape.

Global funding for fintech firms in the first quarter of the year declined by $6 billion due to the significant drop in VC-led investments.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a recent report said the impact on Nigerian fintech firms would be disproportionate depending on the segment of operations.

The payment and digital lending segments are likely

to be the most affected because the majority of fintech companies operate in the segment. PwC also expects early-stage fintech startups to feel the most impact as they would have to compete with larger-sized fintech firms and traditional banks to stay afloat. As of 2017, there were over 56 fintech companies enabling financial inclusion in Nigeria.

“The situation becomes particularly tough with the looming economic slowdown which will affect transaction volume and value across the economy. This would lead to a sharp drop in transaction fees and a decline in valuation and profit level of fintech firms,” the report noted.

The increase of large Africa focused VC funds such as TLcom Capital which closed a $71 million fund in February; Partech, which doubled its Africa fund to $143 million in 2019 and Novastar Ventures which in May closed $108 million to take its fund to $200 million, may give hope to the fintech segment. However, it is unlikely they would be throwing money at new ideas that are yet to prove relevance in their markets.

“We’re sector agnostic. I would describe us more as a segment fund than a sector fund,” said Steve Beck, cofounder of Novastar. “We really try to look for businesses called breakthrough businesses, [those] that are addressing the biggest problems in the largest markets.”

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Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina.

Reitz said while the challenges in Africa is significant, they, however, present opportunities to deliver the much-needed transformation of financial systems across many countries on the continent.

“The State of Crypto: Africa is the most comprehensive case for cryptocurrencies in Africa to date.

Africa is one of, if not the most promising region for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and it is vital that as much attention as possible is brought to this fact. The opportunity to transform financial services in Africa is a significant one and we are pleased to have worked with Luno to put this report together,” Tjoborn Bull Jenssen, CEO of Arcane research, said,

Visa’s Fast Track Program seen propelling growth of Fintech Industry CALEB OJEWALE

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midst the COVID-19 pandemic, Fintechs have launched further into the spotlight, reporting sizable upticks in the usage of their apps, as more people manage their money from their personal devices.

In growing this contribution of Fintechs as a central part of the global payments ecosystem, Visa has announced its continued support of the global Fintech community, having grown the Fast Track Program to over 140 Fintechs.

Since expanding globally in mid-2019, the Fast Track program has grown 280 percent, highlighting the surge in demand for digital payments worldwide, according to a statement by Visa.

The Fast Track, according to the company, allows both new and established businesses to leverage the speed, security, reliability and scale of the Visa network to get up and running quickly, taking the process from months to weeks. The program provides turnkey access to Visa’s ecosystem partners, online licensing, Visa’s APIs as well as extensive go-to-market toolkits, online education and expert advice to help Fintechs scale their business.

With new membersfrom Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America, these Fintechsare transforming how consumers and businesses manage money, invest, receive loans and send payments worldwide.

“Our goal is to bring cutting-edge Fintechs into the Visa ecosystem, to help them grow and scale their @Businessdayng

business in record time,” said Terry Angelos, senior vice president and global head of Fintech, Visa. “Through programs like Fast Track, Visa is committed to helping Fintechs, many of which are small businesses, advance their potential and get into market quickly so they are ready to provide innovations that move the world forward everyday – and especially in current times.”

Fast Track Fintechs Focus on Recovery Visa partners including Airwallex, Fundationand Rappihave used their ongoing focus on innovation and growth to be nimble in their reactions to COVID-19.Australia-foundedAirwallex has extended support to Australian and UK small businesses in need by offering to waive their international transactions fees andU.S.-based Fundation is helping small businesses quickly get the capital they need during these times.Rappi out of Colombia has begun piloting food delivery by robots, working to minimize the spread of the virus. In these videos,Airwallex and Rappi both talk about their experiences in working with Visa.

“During these challenging times, it’s more important than ever that we are able to support small businesses by getting them the funds they need as quickly as possible to stay afloat,” said Sam Graziano, chief executive officer, Fundation.

“Through our partnership with Visa, we will continue to innovate and develop strategies to aid in the relief and recovery of our customers’ businesses.”

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Corporate Social Impact

Onuwa Lucky Joseph (08023314782) Editor.

The Coming Gale: Inspirational Leadership as Social Responsibility ONUWA LUCKY JOSEPH

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f you’re privileged to chance a corporate leader’s bio, you are apt to find courses he/ she took on leadership at Ivy places such as INSEAD, Harvard, Yale and the rest. Sometimes, it would seem those are the courses that validate their place at the head of the table. As well, when you scan CVs of candidates seeking top jobs, they invariably have the leadership course pegged somewhere in there. If it’s not, you can be sure it would be one of their main answers for what they plan to tick off in the next few years, usually five.

Obviously, as with most other things, there are different schools of thought on the subject of leadership. But they are all agreed, be they of the servant leadership persuasion or the despotic leader inclined, leaders lead; full stop. And at no time is the role of leadership more critical as in this crisis period when people are in between every shaky thing and not sure where or how they stand. Leaders it is who give strength, spine, and a sense of direction.

But the real thing leaders do especially in a time like this is the ability to inspire, to help people see beyond the travails with which they are confronted and to make a beeline for the direction that keeps them grounded despite the shakings. It falls to the leader to point in that direction where hopefully, there’ll be salvation or the foundation to start all over.

Like John Maxwell never tires of saying, “Everything rises and falls on leadership”. It’s the same for nations as it is for organisations and for households. So, even as we all look to the national leadership, which has not been especially inspiring, it falls on the broad shoulders of organizational leaders to help inspire their men and women to see beyond the bleakness that all the indices of the day seem to portend.

The work of hope building must begin from within the organisations. The general who leads his troops into battle, (where some of them are most likely going to meet their end), still needs to keep them enthusiastic and focused with regards to the venture. What do they gain by winning? For those who do not make it out, what is their lot aside the keenly told stories of their valour in battle? Those promises must be made and with a mind to keeping them.

It’s not enough to want to cut your losses as most organisations are going to be doing shortly, or have already begun; what’s even more important to folks invested in

Segun Agbaje, MD GTBank

Herbert Wigwe

your leadership is that they not be left unanchored one way or another. The brutal decisions regarding staff retrenchment should not, as much as possible, be so ungloved as to leave the leaving battered and without after care. One of the major issues of the day, I believe, is for leaders to ask the searing questions: what’s going to happen to my men and women after now? What can I do for my men and women?

This might sound like unnecessary mushy sentiments to the hard charging characters who, having been served well throughout their career by the Machiavellian principle of survival of the fittest have bruised and bloodied their way to the top. And doubtless, many will have no time for such considerations. However, leadership best practices require that the leader feel the pulse of his people; that he/she wear their shoes and know where they pinch. That guidance be rendered for those to be let off.

We are not here asking that people not be let go. The realities are rather stark and that’s the only option open to many corporate leaders, worldwide, not just in Nigeria. But it can’t be done in the cavalier fashion of old where staff are cast in the mould of the negligible dispensable.

And whether there be precedence or none in business literature, leaders must engage with their staff, both those who are going to be retained and those who are being let go, at different levels but for the same purpose: to keep them inspired and to yet believe in the dream from which they are tragically been cut off. Attention to such delicate details can only come from leaders who believe that they are running a critical leg in the relay race to the overall corporate objective. Such a sentiment doesn’t always come layered in facts and figures; they come in dreams and the ability to persuade followers to buy into the dream.

Now if after having bought into it, management deems it fit to pencil down their names as surplus to requirement, what should be the pitch to them? That they just go www.businessday.ng

gently into the dark night? That the dream is too big for puny individuals like them to run with? That they slow down the rest of the team with their lack of pace? That they are better off as cheer leaders in the stands rather than the field of play?

How the message is couched might be of utmost importance even if a go is a go. A leader would know what chord to pull and that would resonate across board. One of these, no one being let go should leave without being dealt a good measure of hope. What can the company do for them in the short term? Say in the next two/three months as they struggle to find their feet? Is there some promise of reabsorption should things improve? Can there be some outsourcing opportunities for which they can consult for the company?

Ultimately, people tend to find their way at the end of the day, after the shock gives way and a man’s survival instinct kicks in. But a leader soulless and unsympathetic to the plight of his people is not a leader. They are his people. They should remain his people. The company should remain their company. The dream should remain their dream. That should be the goal. No way is everyone ever going to align with the same idea, but the effort must be made to keep as many people as possible enthusiastic. That just might be the competitive edge the company has in the long term over rivals

Mauricio Alarcon MD, Nestle Nigeria

not adept at deploying emotional intelligence in dealing with staff, severed and serving.

And in communicating this well, retrenched staff begin to see the world as it truly is; a place chock full of opportunities where in being let go they are being released from their tether and allowed a free range of advantages in stark contrast to the adversity they imagined.

Stepping outside of their respective businesses, Nigeria’s inspirational corporate leaders should keep weighing in on where we find ourselves as a nation. We are at a crossroads, clearly, but this is not the first time we’ll find ourselves here. Nigeria has been a lesson in crossroads. Whenever we have somehow managed to get back on track it’s only to quickly lose track again and wander off until we hit another cross roads.

Taking on the role of champion of ill-conceived government policies therefore does the country no good, although it needs be said, there are consequences for being considered adversarial by an allpowerful government capable of vindictiveness when it feels itself crossed. But leadership takes courage, doesn’t it?

Not courage that’s tactless, however. There’s a need to imbibe some diplomatese even while delivering unsavoury messages. Those who consider themselves influential need to keep speaking up: how

we got here, how we can escape it, what we can do as individuals, as a collective, etc.

And while we are at it, we can’t, for the life of us, forget that our young people are listening in.

What’s in this country for them?

Why are they going to school if the place is all messed up, if their patrimony is up for grabs by Chinese land grabbers and miners, amongst others? The leader’s first responsibility is to the next generation. Without their buy in he/she is an abysmal failure. Unfortunately, Nigeria has run all these years by trampling down on the hopes and aspiration of this critical group.

And that is why, until we rectify that bit, they will keep running away to everywhere else.

How is it so hard to convince young people to the wealth embedded in their country? That brings in foreigners in droves. Foreigners empowered by their own home countries, and ironically, by the Nigerian government. We know it is rarely by individual might or power that wealth is created. The strategy must be in place to empower the young folks so that even when government is talking about how young Nigerians can harness the potentials, they are also sufficiently empowered to do so. Until this happens, those who can pool greater funds together and supported by superior intel will keep getting away with the goods.

Inspirational corporate leaders need not join politics to have an outsize influence. They have a good enough niche already from their corporate pedestals and the accompanying mass media derivatives. And now, with Covid 19, coupled with a lack of predictably good revenue from oil, and a general tanking of the world economy, it’s a good time to deploy their acumen in giving a broad vision and a sense of direction pertaining the possibilities outside of the safety of a salaried job. Let’s hear it from them.

Jennifer Etuh, Still Giving Succour from the After Life

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arly this year, Jennifer Ramatu Etuh, succumbed to cancer, an ailment she had battled for years. She was known, alongside many other kind hearted Nigerian ladies, as a Florence Nightingale. She strove with her husband, Thomas Etuh, to cobble together an ever growing businesses empire that straddles agriculture, chemicals, real estate, amongst others. She was only 45 when she passed on, but she had made a mark especially in the FCT, where her family was domiciled; in

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Southern Kaduna, where she had her roots; and in Kogi where her quiet husband hails from.

Now though she’s gone, her eponymous Jennifer Etuh Foundation is giving succour to many whose livelihood and lives are being threatened by Covid 19. The Foundation shares basic foodstuff to thousands of families in the FCT and satellite towns, some of them in Nasarawa State to help them keep body and soul together and to avail them the basic tools for keeping alive so they can fight another day. @Businessdayng

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

19

Corporate Social Impact

Can any good thing come out of Madagascar?

ONUWA LUCKY JOSEPH

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hat better endorses a product than its proven efficac y? We can think of nothing else. The Madagascar Covid 19 herbal remedy, Covid Organics (CVO) has proven itself over and over again. As of 19/05/20, the island country had had 191 Covid 19 cases, with just a single death recorded. And that happened only recently. The country says it owes this to the herbal remedy that the WHO initially steadfastly refused to recognize until Madagascar started making a ruckus about it.

The country’s President, Andry Rajoelina was livid and didn’t hold back when it was clear the World Health Organisation had other things on its mind than endorsing CVO. ‘’The problem is that it comes from Africa. And they cannot accept that a country like Madagascar, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, has discovered this formula to save the world,” he said. We all know the man knows what he’s talking about.

Although the WHO finally caved in two weeks ago when it reluctantly requested clinical trials of CVO, one would have expected that this is the kind of development that a sincere WHO would have rushed down to the Island nation to see first-

President Andry Rajoelina sipping Covid Organics (CVO) as preventive.

hand; the solution described

by President Rajoelina as “a preventive and curative remedy against COVID-19” that’s doing the excellent job of keeping Madagascans from the death clutch of the virus.

Rajoelina’s claim that 105 Covid 19 patients recovered after taking the potion can be verified. But he’s not waiting for the naysayers. Hear him: “A marked improvement was observed in the health of the patients who received this remedy just 24 hours after they took the first dose. The cure was noted after seven days, even ten days.

This remedy is natural and nontoxic” he said.

Were CVO a western prod-

uct, the world would have been awash with news of the ‘breakthrough’, just like Redemsivir is being hailed everywhere despite there being nothing conclusive about its ability to cure those afflicted. In fact, doctors would tell you that in view of its potential side effects, it may not be for everybody. And don’t forget, while Redemsivir is being distributed in the West, we haven’t heard anything about Africans accessing it. The only thing being touted here are the unproven vaccines for which human guinea pigs are required for initial trials.

Our Africa, forever regarded as a place that produces nothing, only consuming whatever

is sent its way, should make a song and dance about the wonder drug from Madagascar which the kind hearted folks are sending to other countries in Africa. Last week, the president of Guinea Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embaló brought them with him on his visit to Aso Rock. Buhari’s response? They would not be distributed until tested in our laboratories. Fair enough as long as it’s not a ploy to effect delay even as the country records more Covid 19 related deaths Madagascar has donated CVO to several African countries, and the African Union has said it is talking with the country to obtain technical data regard-

Now is the time for Philanthropy to give more, not less (Part 1) AARON DORFMAN AND ELLEN DORSEY

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his week, amid global panic surrounding Covid-19, financial markets took the worst hit of any single day since 1987. Investors and portfolio managers began preparations for austerity and continued belt-tightening as governments grappled to respond to the growing crisis. Both publicly and privately, philanthropy began to wonder whether it should hold off on making grants or liquidating investments.

We will say this plainly: As markets collapse and nonprofits face drastic drops in government and private support, it is no time for philanthropy to think about cutting back. Instead, we must give more. We must give more to address the public-health crisis while continuing to fund existing social and systemic change efforts.

There is a real risk that philanthropy will be tempted to cut back on its investments and grant making. After the 2008 market collapse, for example, philanthropic gifts dropped by more than 15 percent. This left $30 billion sitting in private coffers instead of being used to further the public good.

Our tendency in philanthropy has been to continue www.businessday.ng

making the minimum legally required payout instead of thinking first about maximum impact to prevent long-term societal damage. In the midst of this crisis, too many foundations will be tempted to continue that practice — but this moment is both a mandate and an opportunity to fundamentally question that approach. The virus will even-

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tually dissipate, but its effects will be longstanding and will exacerbate the social inequalities we already face.

What’s more, we are already dealing with a number of existential threats that will not evaporate and that will require long-term changes. Philanthropy must use this moment as an opportunity to fundamentally rethink past practices and upend the status quo.

Nonprofits are already facing a drop in donations, and many are increasingly concerned about their ability to pay and support their staff, and have incurred losses from canceled fundraising events and program-related travel.

Within nonprofit organizations themselves, most lower-level employees — often the first to be let go when finances get dire — come from marginalized communities themselves. @Businessdayng

ing the safety and efficiency of the herbal remedy. And so it should. There should be no hold back. We should fast-track the process and have the product out there while working to ensure NIPRD quickly replicates it using other herbs with the same properties to deal with the scourge. We can’t keep looking at an ever upward moving graph of death that the NCDC regularly updates and which many are only too quick to publish.

If ever there was a time when South-South cooperation should play out, this is it.

Madagascar has done and is doing its part. The AU should frontline this for the benefit of Africa and mankind in general.

Covid 19 Corporate Donations Update • Lafarge Africa says its Donation of N500m to fight Covid-19 shows its commitment to Nigeria and Its People • Airtel Nigeria Employees Donate N20m to Lagos State in fight against COVID-19 • NADDC DG, Jelani Aliyu, commends Stallion Motors, Coscharis, CFAO, Mandilas and Weststar for backing FG’s COVID-19 fight. Also praises automotive stakeholders such as Innoson, Simba and others, for rising to the occasion and producing relevant health-related vehicles such as ambulances.

• Anambra PDP Leaders Pony up N125m to fight Covid in the state • Nigerian Fintech Startup, Truesaver, gives out First Tranche of Palliatives to low-income earners (Kindly send feedback to 08023314782 / csrmomentum@gmail.com)

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

LEADINGWOMAN Abimbola Banu-Ogundere, inspiring a generation of impactful education leaders KEMI AJUMOBI Abimbola Banu- Ogundere is an education advocate and education leadership expert whose life’s work is to create a generation of influential and impactful education leaders who identify and solve meaningful education problems at scale, all over the world.

She is a Medical doctor and Canadian certified Montessori teacher. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and a Master’s degree in Applied Educational Leadership and Management, both from the University of London, UK. She also holds a Women in Leadership certificate and a Leading Schools certificate from Harvard Business School.

She is the C.E.O of Kids’ Court School, a renowned nursery and primary school in Lagos, Nigeria. Due to her enthusiasm for improving the quality of education received by the African child, in 2018, she founded the Learning As I Teach (LAIT) Foundation, a non-for- profit organisation that seeks to bridge the access barrier to qualitative continuous professional development opportunities for the African teacher by providing opportunities for continuous professional development at minimal cost.

She is a thought leader and sought-after speaker on Education Leadership and the Business of Education. She founded the Succeeding at Leading a Learning Community Coaching program which empowers, equips and energises school leaders to lead self and their schools to success and sustainability.

She is a published author of books including the bestselling The Right Teacher, The ABC of Teacher Professionalism and The Complete Guide to Succeeding at School Leadership.

She is an Associate member of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) and a board member of The Dorcas Cancer Foundation, Melon Patch Farms and Schools Empowerment and support network SESN. She is a career, life and relationship mentor for several young women and an avid supporter of women and children’s rights and empowerment.

She is happily married with three children

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Childhood memories grew up in a positive and loving environment and my parents set high expectations for each of their children. This formed the foundation of who I am today as it gave me the discipline and confidence to pursue whatever I set my heart on.

Why the passion to be an education advocate?

It comes from a need for a voice to uphold best practices in an industry that has been neglected for far too many years. Having gone through the discipline and work ethic of medical school, I found it alarming how low the standards were for professionalism and continuous professional development in a field as crucial as education is in Nigeria. For me, it is an opportunity to lead the clarion call for educators to rise up to their responsibilities to our children and our nation at large.

Medicine and its link to your business I do not actively practice medicine though I sit on the board of several pediatric hospitals. My work as a teacher is influenced greatly by my background in medicine because it has given me a penchant for continuous learning and improvement. It has also driven me to institutionalize professionalism in the education sector.

Montessori schooling and its advantages Montessori education is advantageous because it embeds 21st century skills in the learning of the children. With this, children are future ready from an early age because they are able to approach problems with the right mindset and skills. The Montessori approach has helped us raise confident 21st century learners who can hold their own in any environment that they find themselves. It has helped us build the right foundation for our learners which gives them the confidence to thrive both locally and internationally.

Would you say Nigerians have fully embraced the significance of Montessori?

I think the awareness is growing and parents are embracing it more wholeheartedly as they see the multifaceted benefits of the approach to learning.

Learning As I Teach (LAIT) Foundation LAIT Foundation was set up to meet the need for qualitative and affordable continuous professional development for teaching professionals. Since inception in 2018, we have impacted over 3000 teachers through our stimulating onsite and online training sessions. We have been very fortunate to have very seasoned professionals from www.businessday.ng

within and outside the education sector speak to our teachers as they work actively towards developing their craft.

Succeeding at School Leadership This is a program that is very dear to my heart because leadership in many cases signals the rise and fall of a business. In my over 11 years of working through the sector, I can truly say that success cannot be over night at least not in the educational sector. It is a fine mix of several big and small decisions that rests on the shoulder of the leader to make. I have found that we as leaders do not also need to reinvent the wheel or make our own mistakes all the time. We can learn from each other, feed off of each other’s success stories, our near misses and of course our failures.

Research has proven that leadership is the single most important factor that influences teachers who go on to impact students and their learning outcomes.

Being an Author I have written two books namely ‘The ABCs of Teacher Professionalism’ and ‘The Right Teacher’. I

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would say that both books have afforded me the opportunity to reach out to a wider audience and leave a long lasting legacy that permeates through the prevailing patterns in the education sector. I am proud to say that the books have been distributed in the thousands to teachers all across Nigeria and feedback that we have received suggests that teachers use it as a handbook / guide that they refer to often as they aspire to be more impactful in their practice.

fruit of those decisions and investments. We are also coming out of this season with a lot of lessons learned. Barring the health restrictions and the economic effect on our community (and this affects us all), I would say our jobs have definitely gotten more recognition and admiration from the world and I foresee schools that would continue to place a high priority on technology integration which is consequently a win for the children who are themselves digital natives.

The effect of COVID 19 on your business The COVID 19 crises if anything, has helped our team build resilience to channel their creativity towards achieving the set goal which is: learning must continue. No one can boast of having foreseen such a scenario as we are currently experiencing, but I am thankful that as a school, we had made technology integration a priority even in our nursery school. Over the years, we have also invested heavily in the training and development of our teachers as well as carrying our parents along with the technological trends in education so this has been a season to reap some of the

What is the lesson this period has taught you?

It has taught me the value of continuous development. We must continue to learn, unlearn and relearn because we never know what the future might bring our way.

@Businessdayng

Advice to all We must keep going regardless of the difficulties that we are faced with. This is a season to think flexibly and be responsive to the needs of the people whose needs you serve.

Final words Keep your hope alive, your world needs you to draw strength from within.

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

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Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

‘Lack of financial identity limits access to credit for smallholder farmers’ Access to credit is perhaps the most common challenge farmers in Nigeria cite when asked of their major problems. UKA EJE, co-founder & CEO, Thrive Agric in a Zoom interview with CALEB OJEWALE, explained how the company, beyond being seen a crowdfunding platform, has been working to ensure individual farmers have the right profiles to access better credit, and market opportunities. Excerpts:

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id Thrive Agric start in response to a need or because there appeared to be a new trend in everyone trying to do crowdfunding?

Growing up in Benue state, I noticed a lot of agricultural activity and initially, it was not a case of “I want to participate”, rather I had questions running through my mind before the decision to participate in agriculture.

There was an incidence during the Tomato-Ebola crisis where Tomato was sold for as low as N500 (per basket) in Benue State, but going to Lagos, I noticed that tomato was sold at about N20000 per basket. It was really a shocker for me.

One of the questions I was asking was ‘how do you reconcile N500 naira per basket to N20,000?’ Then people will explain that it is scarcity, demand and supply, and all of those things in between and those are the things that influence prices to skyrocket.

For me, I couldn’t logically reconcile how that made sense, especially when you notice that these farmers have the potential of scaling more, of doing more and then that’s all that they had.

I noticed that there was a broken market-linkage chain that existed. You produce X and you’re trying to distribute that X and you notice that you don’t even know who the end user of that X you produced is going to be. The closest person you know to that X or the commodity is the person who comes in front of you and determines that price. So for me, I felt it was unfair. I felt there was a lot going on that needed to be corrected. Initially it was myself and then my co-founder.

We decided that what if we put these farmers in a cluster. So, we decided that let’s be that middleman, first, on an empathetic level. We moved these goods and then gave a percentage profit of whatever we make. We made them to want to do business.

We attracted a lot of people so we got overwhelmed. It got to a point where we couldn’t buy all of these things that the farmers had to give us. It was because our price was better than anywhere they could get it. At that point of being overly overwhelmed, we decided, what if we did something around production.

We decided to start farming, with a few friends, about four

especially from the ends of the government, is done in giving really single-digit loans to farmers. That is the best way to solve this problem.

There are quite a number of incentives or initiatives that the government has been able to put in place. One of the things that has made that to fail is the time it takes for the supposed beneficiaries of these loans to receive them. You can get low yield if you do not get credit at the time you are supposed to get it. It is very important that every financier structures Agric loans not only by loan interest but by time it must be disbursed. I think many financial institutions need to start putting things in place.

Uka Eje

of them who I knew from the University. So it wasn’t what we now know as crowdfunding. It was first from the empathy of the problems of the farmer in assessing market then it was now, guys we can expand this thing.

We started over a WhatsApp conversation and aggregated money then (about N1.2 million from all of us then) and worked with the farmers for maize and we aggregated soyabeans and moved to my friend whose Dad owns a processing company.

From there, my co-founder who is very technology inclined suggested that beside doing this the traditional way of speaking with clients, we can decide to expand our awareness of what we’re doing. We started with about 150 farmers then, to 500 within that year and then we started expanding. This is what has led to what we are doing at the moment to scale.

So far, how much have you been able to raise for farmers within this period and how many farmers have you been able to impact?

We have been able to raise about $7 million, which should be about N2.5 billion so far, since inception. We have been able to reach about 35,000 farmers; from 2017 to 2019 ending, in www.businessday.ng

terms of farmers we have been able to link to access to input, access to markets, all-inclusive.

35,000 Farmers, N2.5 billion what has this translated to in terms of output?

We have done about 150,000 tons of maize, rice, soyabeans and a little bit of sorghum, which are the major crops we do. Aside crops, we also work with poultry farmers. We have done about 3.7 million birds as at last year.

With all that you have done within the time of operating, what are the major challenges faced within the industry?

One of the biggest challenge we face is getting access to cheaper loans. As much as we are known for crowdfunding, it is not the best way of funding farmers.

Scaling can be a little bit impeded and especially when you have a large amount of farmers you want to reach. You cannot reach them if you limit it to crowdfunding.

In the same vein, getting access to credit facilities from the banks take a while considering that agriculture is seasonal. As much as these are problems that we hear every time, these are problems that should keep being said until something,

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Going by an earlier remark, I am wondering; are you taking bank loans to finance the farmers or why the emphasis on it?

Whatever loan amount we raise is on the farmer, and the farmer will be wary when he notices that interest rates are high and is going to affect rate of returns.

Our model is we get an amount of money, for instance, N100,000 to repay N120,000 so that interest is on the farmer because that’s the direct investment on that small holder farmer. If 20 percent of the 100k is N120,000, that is too heavy on that farmer especially if scale is the focus.

The N2.5 billion that has been raised so far, is this entirely from what you crowdfunded, or is this inclusive of the bank facilities?

It is a mix of both. When we started it was almost 100 percent.

As we kept growing, we started doing more like 90-10 percent, until towards the end of last year; it was 40 percent of the banks and institutional partners, and 60 percent crowdfunded.

What do you think can be done to make finance more available to smallholder farmers in Nigeria?

In answering this question, it is hard to separate entities like Thrive Agric. This is because there has to be an entity that profiles the farmer, and is ready to do the operations.

While some person could walk into a bank and get a loan, because there is a credit history that has been tracked over time, it is not the same experience with smallholder farmers. This @Businessdayng

makes it difficult for financial institutions to fund them. Trust has to built by financial records over time and data.

For the farmers, you cannot see that data, which is financial, record and should create trust to lend. Another thing is the banks do not have the time to build visibility for the operations. This creates the tendency to stick to dealing with organizations who can organize these farmers and then because of them are able to see the farmer as being credit worthy. And then, for financiers who want to dive even deeper, they ask questions like, how can I build a credit profile for a farmer?

So those are the kind of things technology helps us to achieve.

If we work with farmers for two years, we try to determine things like, how is the farm’s performance so far and how can we position this farmer as an entity by himself to get access to credit just like the average person with a credit profile that can be tracked.

Generally there’s a problem of database in Nigeria, which we are all aware of and perhaps gets worse for rural dwellers like farmers. So, how are you addressing that issue of creating ‘financial identity’ for these farmers?

Initially, it was difficult. Many people see our technology essentially as the Thrive Agric website but it is the most minute part of our operation. Our technology is primarily on farmer on boarding, farmer operations, sales of farmers’ products and then we’re able to express that technology through the agents that work with these farmers.

We spend weeks and months, deploying agents to hundreds of farmers in different communities.

They gather the information on these farmers; Profile data, BVN (many of them do not have it), sit down with them and conduct psychometric tests. By psychometric test, I mean they try to know how their responses are in terms of profits; if they are really business people as it pertains to their farming activities. For every farmer that we are able to interview, we filter out the farmers who did not qualify versus the farmers who qualify.

Then it is based on this that we would fund them.

Continues online at http://www. businessday.ng/

22

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

Spotlight on confronting sexual harassment: Why sexual harassment programs backfire only sensible solution is to fire the perpetrator.

The advantage of voluntary dispute resolution is that accusers can decide at key points in the process whether to proceed. Once the process is initiated, if they feel the accused isn’t engaging in good faith, or that the complaint needs to be handled in a more legalistic way, they can bow out and file a formal grievance.

FRANK DOBBIN AND ALEXANDRA KALEV

T

he watershed moment for the legal concept of “sexual harassment” came in 1991, during the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Clarence Thomas, when Anita Hill accused Thomas of having sexually harassed her while she was his assistant at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill’s televised testimony rocketed sexual harassment into public awareness and prompted many women to come forward with their own stories. Recognizing the extent of the problem — and growing increasingly worried about their legal and public-relations exposure — many companies decided they had to address it.

By 1997, 75% of American companies had developed mandatory training programs for all employees to explain what behaviors the law forbids and how to file a complaint, and 95% had put grievance procedures in place for reporting harassment and requesting hearings.

Training and grievance procedures seemed like good news for employees and companies, and in 1998 the Supreme Court ruled that companies could protect themselves from hostile-environment harassment suits by instituting both.

Most organizations and executives felt good about this: They were dealing with the problem. But sexual harassment is still with us, as the #MeToo movement has made clear. Today some 40% of women (and 16% of men) say they’ve been sexually harassed at work — a number that has not changed since the 1980s. Given how widespread grievance procedures and forbidden-behavior training have become, why are the numbers still so high?

We looked at what happened at more than 800 U.S. companies, with more than 8 million employees, between the early 1970s and the early 2000s. Did the programs and procedures that these companies introduced make their work environments more hospitable to women? We focused in particular on how those initiatives affected the number of women in the managerial ranks.

Our study revealed some uncomfortable truths. Neither the training programs that most companies put all workers through nor the grievance procedures that they have implemented are helping to solve the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. In fact, both tend to increase worker disaffection and turnover. To us the takeaway seems clear: The programs and procedures that the Supreme Court favored in 1998 are doing more harm than good.

We have to do better. The good news is that our study revealed ways in which we can.

THE TROUBLE WITH HARASS-

MENT TRAINING Does harassment training that focuses on forbidden behaviors reduce harassment? Apparently not.

We found that when companies create forbidden-behavior training programs, the representation of white women in management drops by more than 5% over the following few years. African American, Latina and Asian American women don’t tend to lose ground after such harassment training is instituted — but they don’t gain it either. White women make up three-quarters of all women in management and half of all women in the workforce, so as a group they bear most of the training backlash.

Why would training designed to educate employees about harassment create a backlash? The problem is with how the training is presented. Typically it’s mandatory, which sends the message that men have to be forced to pay attention to the issue. And it focuses on forbidden behaviors, which signals that men don’t know where the line is.

The message is that men need fixing.

Start any training by telling a group of people that they’re the problem, and they’ll get defensive and resist solutions. That’s what happens with harassment training: Research shows that it actually makes men more likely to blame the victims and to think that women who report harassment are making it up or overreacting. Does training help men, at least? No. Research shows that men who are inclined to harass women before training actually become more accepting of such behavior after training.

TRAINING ALTERNATIVES If the typical harassment training leads to the loss of female managers and makes the bad guys a little worse, it’s probably time to start thinking about more-effective types of training. We’ve identified two in our research: — BYSTANDER-INTERVENTION TRAINING: Sharyn Potter and her team at the University of New Hampshire’s Prevention Innovation Research Center have long www.businessday.ng

conducted interesting experiments with it on college campuses and military bases, where harassment and assault are rampant. A dozen years ago they piloted a college bystander-intervention program.

In their programs, Potter and her team start with the assumption that trainees are allies working to solve the problems of harassment and assault rather than potential perps.

Everybody’s job is to nip misbehavior in the bud. Properly trained bystanders interrupt the sexual joke.

The approach is surprisingly effective. Even months after the training, trainees are significantly more likely than others to report having intervened in real-life situations.

— MANAGER TRAINING: In our study, companies that adopted distinct manager-training programs saw significant gains in the percentage of women in their managerial ranks, with white women rising by more than 6%, African American and Asian American women by 5% and Latinas by 2%.

Manager training works because it presents harassment as a challenge that all managers must deal with. Participants, men and women alike, are encouraged to imagine what they might see other people doing wrong; the focus is deliberately not on what they themselves might do wrong. Trainers advise participants on how to recognize early signs of harassment and how to intervene swiftly and effectively to prevent escalation.

THE TROUBLE WITH GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES Every Fortune 500 company we’ve looked at has a grievance procedure. These procedures were first cooked up by lawyers to intercept victims who were planning to sue, and then were adapted to protect companies against suits by the accused. But they haven’t improved the situation for women.

After the companies in our study implemented them, in fact, the total number of women working in management declined.

But why do those procedures backfire? The answer, according to a variety of studies, is retaliation

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against victims who complain. One survey of federal workers found that two-thirds of women who had reported their harassers were subsequently assaulted, taunted, demoted or fired by their harassers or friends of their harassers.

Most procedures protect the accused better than they protect victims. Companies almost never actually transfer or fire the accused, because they worry that the accused will sue. Moreover, everybody knows that the system is rigged.

That’s why human resources officers often counsel victims against filing grievances. Accusers have only two real options: report harassment and suffer the consequences, or don’t report it.

ALTERNATIVE COMPLAINT SYSTEMS If the current system isn’t working, how can you and your organization do better? We’ve identified two good options.

— THE OMBUDS OFFICE: This is an entity that sits outside the organizational chain of command and works independently to resolve sexual harassment complaints. An ombuds (formerly ombudsman) system is informal, neutral and truly confidential — only the ombuds officer needs to know of the complaint. This approach has two advantages over the current system: It allows accusers to determine whether to make their complaints known to the accused, and it avoids legalistic hearings entirely.

— VOLUNTARY DISPUTE RESOLUTION: For an alternative that falls somewhere between a formal grievance procedure and an ombuds office, consider a dispute-resolution system that relies on mediation. In this model, mediators hear claims, notify the accused and try to find solutions that satisfy both sides.

Some employers use professional mediators; others train their own workers to do the job. The victim must feel comfortable being identified to the accused, and both parties must be committed to finding a solution. Obviously, this approach doesn’t work for the most egregious cases of harassment, for which the @Businessdayng

CHANGING THE CULTURE Reducing harassment will also require changing the culture of your organization so that fighting harassment becomes part of your mission.

You’ll need to engage as many people as possible in the effort and create systems of accountability that get everyone involved in oversight.

Three tools offer promising ways to do that: — TRAIN-THE-TRAINER PROGRAMS: Employees who volunteer to be trained as harassment trainers tend to become leaders committed to changing the culture. This approach is less expensive than using outside trainers, and it’s much more effective than tick-the-box online courses.

— HARASSMENT TASK FORCES: When we conducted research on diversity programs, we discovered that establishing a task force is the single best way to improve diversity in the workplace. It also promises to help curb harassment by engaging more people. A CEO might commission a harassment task force and ask department chiefs to join it or send a lieutenant.

The task force can look at HR data on harassment complaints, interview people across the company about their experiences, study company data on what kinds of workers are quitting, and more. Once the members have figured out what and where their company’s specific problems are, they can brainstorm solutions and take them back to their own departments.

— PUBLISHED NUMBERS: If you publish data that exposes a problem, managers will focus on it, and solving the problem will become part of the culture. Uber was acting on this principle when it published the number of sexual assaults that allegedly took place in its vehicles in 2018. Your ombuds office could post the number of complaints, broken down by department. An annual employee survey could surface problems by department and location. Most managers have no idea how their own departments are faring, because people rarely file formal complaints. Shining a light on where problems lie can change the culture.

Frank Dobbin is a professor of sociology at Harvard University.

Alexandra Kalev is an associate professor of sociology at Tel Aviv University.

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

23

Hotels Our hotel management software enables owners to run hotels remotely from the cloud, offers contactless service to guests amid the pandemic’ In the face of the challenges posed by coronavirus pandemic to the hospitality sector, particularly zero occupancy and no revenue, Horeca Cloud, a hospitality solution & software company, has created a homebased solution that enables hotels and restaurants to stay afloat while observing the safety measures. Ijeoma Ugamah and Israel Ifedayo, founders of the hospitality solution offering, speak to Obinna Emelike on the new product, its relevance now and post pandemic, among other related issues.

F

irst, what is your view on the challenges posed by Covid-19, especially in the Nigerian hospitality sector?

(Ijeoma) COVID-19 has impacted nearly every industry and everyone living and working in Nigeria. It is no secret that the hospitality and travel industry is among those who have been hit the hardest with real economic impact.

As a response to COVID 19 in Nigeria, the government has shutdown the airport as a way to curtail the virus spread. Nigeria is primarily a business destination with Meetings Incentives Conferences and Events (MICE) being the principal driver. PWC Hospitality Outlook Report revealed that Nigeria was projected to be among the fastest-growing markets in Africa with a 12 percent increase in room revenue.

Another factor is the decline in Food & Beverage (F&B) revenue, as majority of hotels sell their restaurant as a product under their hotel and not as a standalone product, hence contributing to the decline in overall revenue.

What is Horeca Cloud all about?

(Ijeoma) Horeca cloud is a hospitality solution & software company founded

by Ijeoma Ugamah and Israel Ifedayo. It was created to proffer a home-based solution to hotels and restaurants in Nigeria. The first product that was created was a hotel management software, which allows the owners to manage their hotel remotely from the cloud and gives hotel managers two-tiered access to Cloud and On – Premise combined. This implies that the software works online when there is internet and also offline during internet downtime.

Truly, the world is going digital and Nigeria should join now. We were looking at launching this at a later date but the emergence of COVID-19 made us to completely change the game plan and release this now. It is an exciting time and this is

Ijeoma Ugamah

Israel Ifedayo

what hotels and restaurants have been looking for and we are offering them to be on the waitlist and once approved they get complimentary access to the platform for 90 days.

What product are you offering to hotels and restaurants?

(Israel) Our products are My Guest and My Menu.

My Guest is a Contactless Guest Management Software. The name My Guest is synonymous with hotels.

How it works is that when hotels signup, they get customized dashboard and from the dashboard their guest can perform many activities including; mobile check-in and checkout,request room service (without touching the physical menu), request laundry pickup and housekeeping cleaning, on-time realtime live notifications and it sends guest welcome & departure emails with a link to review their stay.

On the other hand, My Menu is a Contactless Menu Ordering Solution for restaurants. With My Menu restaurants can list their menu online and link up with a delivery partner. We sat down and brainstormed on what a restaurant owner needs and what guests want.

M o r e o v e r, w i t h M y Menu solution, restaurant owners can create their menu online and manage in–dinning reservation, which allows guest to book reservation and allows the owner to plan properly to ensure the restaurant is not filled thus sticking to the social distancing rules. The solution also offers guest discount and signup customer in their point-based loyalty scheme.

Why are you launching it now and what is your target market?

(Ijeoma) We are launching now seeing how the future will be contactless and going digital and we are offering this to hotel and restaurants.

What are the benefits of the solutions to hoteliers, restaurants and guests?

(Israel) My Guest is for hotels and it allows; mobile check and out, in-room ordering for room service, housekeeping and laundry request, guest feedback, push notification and live chat.

While My Menu is for restaurants and it allows; restaurant order management, restaurant order taking app, online menu integration to a logistics company, home delivery management, live chat, live notification and customer discount and loyalty.

The idea of contactless order and pay seems innovative, how does it work?

(Ijeoma) It simple using our app. We aim to ensure the guest has less contact with the staff.

The first step is for the guest to download the app, make a reservation and pay online. Once check-in is available, they get a link to check-in online. On arrival in the hotel, live notification will be sent saying “Your room is ready pick up Key at the designated area”. Then the guest picks up the key and checks in. Guest orders room service from the app and gets a live notification saying your food is on the way. It is a fully interactive guest concierge app.

For My Menu; a customer downloads the app; goes online, chose restaurant,

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orders online and picks a courier company and the food is delivered.

For in–restaurant dining, guest will select the date they would wish to dine in the restaurant, the manager accepts and reserves a table.

On that day, they use the app to order their food and even pay on the app. Social distancing can be managed easily and furthermore, it eliminates the need to touch the menu in the restaurants.

It is revolutionary, it is the future and this is what millennials have been asking for.

I see technology playing a big role in the innovation, so what is the technology backbone of the new products?

(Israel) Our solution as mentioned is a cloud based solution that follows modern technological conventions. In the development of our product, we factored in multiple variables such as security and network availability among others things. All network communications are encrypted and secured, also network unavailability is not a major problem since our software works offline just, as well as, it does online.

Do you have technology partners?

(Israel) We are on the process of signing up but cannot release the information for now.

You mentioned 90 days free access, how is that possible?

(Ijeoma) As a give back to support the industry, we would like hotel and restaurants to use the platform for free for 90 days, make some sales and get their business on track.

How are you going to market the innovation to your target market?

(Israel) Direct marketing to hotels and restaurants, and taking advantage of existing hospitality networks.

Do you see the products being relevant long after Covid-19 is curtailed?

(Ijeoma) Yes the future is in technology and data .

With the software, you get access to data to understand your guest needs and curate individual experiences to suit their lifestyle.

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

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

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

Tel: 01 277 3560

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

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

206 Exclusive Hotel Plot 206 Oladipo Diya Road Opposite Olympia Estate

By Games Village Second Gate Durumi2 Abuja

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

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

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

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

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

All eyes on creative industry committee ...as stakeholders call for support Obinna Emelike

F

ew weeks ago when Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, announced that the federal government was going to set up a Post-Covid-19 Initiatives Committee for the Creative Industry, stakeholders in the industry were happy that the government is now reckoning with the contributions of the industry to the economy.

But the good mood was shortlived when members of the committee were unveiled. Many stakeholders frowned at the minister’s choice of representatives, saying they were not the best and that many sub-sectors of the creative were not included.

One of the sustained attacks on the proposed committee came from a coalition of 18 guilds and associations in the creative industry, which issued a statement saying that it was unfortunate that the government would take such action without considering the leadership structure of the industry.

However, the minister has increased the number of industry representatives in the committee to 22 from the initial 14. He has also gone ahead to inaugurate the committee.

At the virtual inauguration in his office in Abuja, the minister clarified that, ”While the committee cannot accommodate all members of the industry, it is certain that all members will benefit from its work. I therefore want to implore the entire industry to support this committee. This is

no time for division. All hands must be on deck so the industry can rebound”.

As well, Ali Baba, chairman of the committee, assured that members of the committee would work in unison to represent the entire creative industry and not just their respective sectors.

But most stakeholders argue that with the exclusion of some sectors, there is already bias and fear that when the anticipated palliative from government is released, it would not get to all the sub-sectors of the creative industry.

Looking at the committee’s term of reference, which include; assessing the expected impact of the pandemic on the industry; advise government on how to mitigate job and revenue losses in the sector, creating succour for the industry small businesses, suggest taxation and financing that is best

for the industry at this time among others, many stakeholders think most members of the committee are not grounded enough in the industry and may not come up with the required recommendations.

Jude Owajare, a music producer, noted that even the reconstituted committee of 22 people did not reflect the broader industry.

“Government hardly comes to the aid of the private sector, now it is trying to support us, I think that leadership of all the sectors in the creative industry should have been carried along instead of handpicking people”.

As well, Israel Eboh, president, National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), queried why government refused to get the stakeholders involved in such an issue of policy formulation.

With the inauguration of the

committee, Owajare said that the issue for now is not the committee but the quality of their recommendations and how they would be implemented by the government.

Ademola Coker, a movie director, noted that the selection did not reflect the wider industry, but hence the committee has been inaugurated, members of the different sectors in the industry should form think-tank, resolve on a solutions that would impact the industry positively and forward them to their representatives.

“I suggest that stakeholders should work together and support the committee because government can change its mind if we are not serious”, he said.

Coker further suggested that stakeholders should reserve their strength for the tough battle of pressurizing government to implement the recommenda-

tions. He also thinks that tourism and hospitality sector should be separated from the creative industry, while sectors that were not represented in committee take their place.

Toeing Coker’s line, Ezekiel Odun, a choreographer, warned that government has no money now and it is spending so much to curtail coronavirus. It is wise the creative industry speak with one voice now in order to get the anticipated support from government or sink when other industries are recovering.

But Odun queried how equitable the aid from government would be shared to stakeholders, especially the small and upcoming outfits.

“The trouble with the planned support from government will come during the implementation of the recommendations of the committee and not with the representation. So, I think the government should get a structure model or liaise with Bank of Industry in the disbursement”, Odun said.

Owajare also fears that those handpicked in the committee would influence things in their favour, their fiends and associates.

“People are fighting to get into the committee for selfish reasons.

They see it as opportunity to make money rather than to serve.

So, the minister should be mindful of that”, Owajare said.

While the committee has started work, stakeholders are urging aggrieved industry players to support the committee with sustainable recommendations as opportunity to get the needed support from government hardly comes.

Excitement as Big Brother Naija returns with Season 5 in July

F

ollowing the success of the fourth season of Big Brother Naija, the biggest and most viewed event on African television, MultiChoice Nigeria has announced that the fifth season of the show would premiere in July 2020.

For its fifth season, the BBNaija show will run an online audition process starting Wednesday, May 20 till Saturday, May 30, 2020. Potential contestants are expected to record a two-minute video of themselves stating why they should be picked to be a housemate in season 5 of Big Brother Naija. Following this, they are to log on to www.africamagic.tv/ BBAudition to fill out the online registration form and upload their videos. The online audition is free and open to Interested male and female participants who are of Nigerian nationality with a valid

Nigerian passport and must be 21 years of age by June 1, 2020.

Speaking on the return of BBNaija, John Ugbe, chief executive officer of MultiChoice Nigeria, said, “Big Brother Naija has been widely regarded as one of Africa’s biggest entertainment exports, being the biggest showcase of Nigeria’s diversity outside of core Nollywood. This fifth season promises to be more adventurous, exciting and entertaining, and will undoubtedly be the biggest thing on African television in 2020.”

With the Big Brother Naija reality show, MultiChoice Nigeria is committed to providing premium content and entertainment on its DStv and GOtv platforms. As the new edition draws near, fans and viewers can get ready for the excitement and entertainment this season will bring as they enjoy weeks of unending drama, www.businessday.ng

intrigue, romance, Friday night games, the famous Saturday night parties and an overall battle of wits as the Housemates vie for the

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ultimate prize.

Ugbe added: “The timing of the show is also particularly important, given the dominance of the

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COVID-19 pandemic; auditions for the fifth edition will now hold online and viewers and stakeholders alike can rest assured knowing that global best practices, precautions and preventive measures will be followed throughout the show, even as we guarantee the premium entertainment BBNaija is renowned for.”

The Big Brother Naija reality TV show continues to produce some of the country’s biggest TV personalities and pop culture influencers since its maiden edition in 2006. Some of these personalities include Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Gideon Okeke and more recently, Mercy Eke, Mike Edwards, Miracle Ikechukwu, Tobi Bakre, Cynthia “Cee-C” Nwadiora Bamike “BamBam” Olawunmi, Tunde “Teddy A” Adenibuyan, Efe Ejeba, Bisola Aiyeola and Tokunbo “Tboss” Idowu.

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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@Businessdayng

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news

Oil marketers ask FG to back downstream deregulation with law … as Nigeria spends $63bn on subsidies in 12 years ISAAC ANYAOGU & ENDURANCE OKAFOR

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he Nigerian government says it has deregulated the petroleum downstream sector since March to allow oil marketers resume importation and sale of petrol, but marketers say without the requisite legislation to back the policy, the sector cannot truly be deregulated.

At a virtual conference of the Nigerian Petroleum Downstream Consultative Summit held on Thursday, panellists said government pronouncements on deregulation may indicate intent but it must be backed by law to be effective, attract investments into the sector and this must be done quickly.

The continued existence of agencies that were created to support a regulated price environment, like the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) which tries to ensure uniform retail petroleum price across Nigeria

by subsidising distribution to remote locations, would need to be disbanded to indicate a seriousness to deregulate.

“In regulated deregulation, what should obtain is a regulation of technical standards and ensure quality control,” said Timothy Okon, managing director, Teno Energy Resources Ltd. Okon also said that monitoring and enforcement would become more effective.

The panellists said that a fully deregulated market would require tweaking the laws setting up the functions of government agencies like the PPPRA and price board, which is yet to be done.

Adetunji Oyebanji, managing director, 11plc and chairman of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), said one way to prevent a situation where a rise in crude oil prices puts the government under pressure to keep prices low is to back the intent to deregulate by a law.

While deregulation has

been touted as effective, it has not always yielded the best outcomes in the sector. Many argue that the diesel market which has been deregulated for several years does not see lower prices when oil prices fall, a major argument in favour of deregulation.

However, Huub Stokeman, managing director of OVH Energy Marketing Limited, said the reason is that diesel is mainly used in power production and only a small percentage, about 5 percent, is sold in retail outlets, hence the margins are low and it takes a longer time to be sold, sometimes over four months to clear stock, at which time any temporary gains from crude oil price decline would have been eroded.

Okon said that subsidies are not sustainable after Nigeria has spent over $63 billion from 2006 to 2018 on it, funds that could have been used to build thousands of kilometres of roads, or hundreds of hospitals and schools.

Some participants echoed the concerns of some government officials that a fully deregulated market could lead to bad behaviour by oil marketers, including price gouging and morphing into a cartel to exploit Nigerians.

In 2012, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies investigated corruption by oil marketers and found a huge discrepancy in the volume of oil they actually imported and how much subsidies were claimed. Some collected subsidies for petrol that was never delivered. They were accused of stealing over N2 trillion from government following which some of them were sanctioned and imprisoned.

Now the government is staring down a fiscal crisis as oil income dwindle and debts mount and can no longer afford wasteful subsidies, which is why it is even considering the proposal. Worse still, the

Continues on page 28

Lagos cuts 2020 budget by 21% to N920.5bn as COVID-19 takes toll JOSHUA BASSEY

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agos State Executive Council has approved a downward review of the state’s 2020 budget by 21 percent to help mitigate the economic and social headwinds precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sam Egube, the state commissioner for economic planning and budget, who made this known on Thursday at a briefing, said the review brings the budget from the initial N1.169 trillion passed by the State House of Assembly and signed by the governor to N920.5 billion.

Giving the proposed breakdown of the revised budget, Egube said total budget size is reduced by 21 percent from N1,168.562 billion to N920.469 billion with the financing deficit increasing slightly by 11 percent from N97.533 billion to N108.005 billion; recurrent expenditure (debt and non-debt) declines by 10 percent from the initial N457.529 billion to N411.608 billion, while total capital

Nigeria’s April inflation accelerates to 12.34%, highest in 2yrs … on back of lockdown, disrupted supply chains BUNMI BAILEY

N

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (r) presides over the first virtual National Economic Council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. With him is Zainab Ahmed (2nd r) minister of finance, budget and national planning, and others.

NAN

FirstBank provides free e-learning subscriptions, targets 1m students HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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irst Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s leading financial inclusion services provider, has announced that thousands of students have been signing up to access the e-learning solutions for free which it is providing in partnership with Roducate and Lagos State government.

This is in furtherance to the bank’s resolve to close the gap of the disruption in children’s education due to schools closure following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Roducate e-learning platform is structured in line with the government’s ac-

credited curriculum for primary, secondary and tertiary schools across various fields of academic endeavours, such as science, commercial and arts.

Also, it includes tutorial videos to reinforce the learning engagement as well as assignments and mock exams to test the students’ knowledge and progress in the course of studying. In addition, learning on the platform enables one to take notes for quick reference.

In view of the need to foster extra-curricular activities beyond academic pursuit, the Roducate e-learning platform is configured with exciting features to make learning exciting and fun. These features www.businessday.ng

include podcasts and various games such as brain pulse, monster munch, etc. which allow one to play with other students online thereby building relationships and promoting interactive learning.

“The partnership with Lagos State has seen us provide low-end devices for students preloaded with Roducate offline; content which include government-accredited curriculum for primary through secondary education and several university courses,” Adesola Adeduntan, CEO, FirstBank, said on the implementation of the initiative.

“This solution will see Lagos State offer children in the lower bracket, who may

not have access to devices or data from home, affordable smartphones preloaded with the curriculum. The phones have SIMs and limited data tied only to the Roducate learning product, which means the recipients cannot browse, encouraging safe learning but can still submit tests, mock exams etc,” Adeduntan said.

He further noted that the partnership currently offers students free online access to the education solutions.

“We encourage parents and guardians to have their children and wards registered in this initiative so their educational development is not held back,” he said.

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expenditure reduced by 28 percent from N711.33 billion to N508.861 billion.

The revised total revenue, according to the commissioner, represents a drop of 24 percent from the projected N1,107,029 billion to N812.464 billion.

Egube listed factors that necessitated the review to include fall in crude oil prices with deleterious effects on statutory allocation expectations, slide in internally generated revenue (IGR) and devaluation of the naira.

Others include reduced public and private investment, increased inflation, decline in demand for goods and services and reduction in manufacturing activities, which portends lower gross domestic product (GDP) growth and increased unemployment.

Egube stated that part of the state’s holistic approach to the COVID-19 shock already adopted by the government going forward include maintaining a strong pandemic response, restarting the economy and reimagining the way Lagos State operates.

igeria’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI), commonly known as inflation, accelerated by 12.34 percent in April 2020, marking the eighth-consecutive uptrend since September 2019 and the highest in two years, a BusinessDay analysis shows.

Data from the April 2020 inflation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Thursday show that inflation rose month-onmonth by 12.34 percent, which was 1.02 percentage points higher than the 12.26 percent recorded in March 2020. Also, the percentage difference of 1.02 is the highest recorded since November 2019.

Omotola Abimbola, a macro and fixed income analyst at Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham, said the major contributor to the increase was the lockdown of economic and business activities which disrupted supply chains, forcing prices to soar in the country.

“Historically, as the country moves deeper into the planting season, typically, you should expect to see a bit of price pressure but the lockdown in April affected a lot of supply chains all over the county. And we could also say that a bit of panic buying by consumers added to the rise,” @Businessdayng

Omotola said.

The lockdown which lasted for five weeks from March 31-May 3, 2020 was implemented to curtail the spread of COVID-19. From rice to garri and other key food staples, prices made rapid climbs in the country, fuelled by low supplies and panic buying.

According to NBS data, food inflation which constitutes more than 50 percent of CPI rose on month-on-month by 1.18 percentage points to 15.03 percent in April 2020, the highest in 25 months compared to 14.98 percent in the previous month. The rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of potatoes, yam and other tubers, bread and cereals, fish, oils and fats, meat, fruits and vegetables.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 9.98 percent in April 2020, up by 0.25 percent when compared with 9.73 percent recorded in March 2020.

“With inflation at yet another record high of 12.34 percent amid weak economic conditions, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is surely in a dilemma between accelerating growth and combating inflation. How they intend to achieve both concurrently is unknown. But we should expect more of unorthodox policy actions,” said Damilola Adewale, a research economist.

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news Boko Haram rapists impregnated them...

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in the captivity of Boko

Haram in Sambisa Forest. On the other hand, the daughter puts a smile on her face, being the only relative she can count on. Others — father, mother, sisters and brothers — vanished in the middle of the insurgency.

A GORY STORY OF TERROR — AND HORROR This is the first time, after many years in captivity, that Alte will tell her story to a journalist. This is also the first time that Umaymah, her only child, will hear the tales of how, when and where she was born — even though she is still too young to make any sense of her mother’s narrative of misery.

“I have been to hell on this earth,” Alte says, tears coursing down her wrinkled face.

Seconds into the conversation with Alte, she buries her head in her armpit, takes one long regretful look at her daughter, then looks away.

Silence.

She shakes her head pitifully before breaking the silence.

Anyone familiar with the level of havoc wreaked by Boko Haram on Borno, a state in Nigeria’s northeast, can recreate Alte’s pains as a mother in her prime age.

It was here in Borno that Boko Haram started visiting destruction on millions of people in the northeast, starting from 2009. Now, the armed group has gruesomely killed tens of thousands of people, abducted at least 2000 and forced more 2 million to flee their homes.

It was in this same Borno that the killer insurgents launched a tradition of killing kidnapping, bombing, looting and burning innocent civilians.

Towns and villages have been pillaged, and schools, churches, mosques and other public buildings demolished.

The terrorists continue to dehumanise civilians trapped in areas under their control, disrupting the provision of health, education and other public services by the Nigerian authorities.

A LIFE OF SORROW Alte is mad again. She is mad at her daughter for crying in her arms. Anyone who has watched closely can easily spot her despondency. Clad in a faded red-coloured purdah, Alte desires to return home — to reunite with her family members. But, for now, that prospect is suicidal. The family members are nowhere to be found, even.

And, oh, her daughter!

What saddens Alte about her is not only the siring of the girl by a terrorist-rapist but the bleakness of her future.

“Whenever I see my daughter, I see her as an orphan,” she says, tearily locking eyes with the girl. “She has no father and has no future. And even if she has her father’s relatives, they

will scorn him because he’s a killer; they don’t love him neither do they his daughter.”

Alte’s gestures depict the terrible condition she and her daughter have been subjected to since narrowly escaping from captivity. No good food. Mother and daughter live in austere plague and gnashing of teeth.

“I hate to see my daughter hungry but I have no choice,” she says. “Sometimes we go out in search of food. I want my daughter to go to school so she can become a doctor but I have no means to sponsor her education.”

Mother and daughter live their dire lives inside a boundless row of tarpaulin shelters, housing hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Bakassi camp — a makeshift accommodation set up for people ambushed by the terrorists — emplaced in the downtown of Borno.

Away from the fuzzy blue sky decking the red-and-blue aluminum roofs of the camp, Alte and many others endure the waspish stings of mosquitoes at night and the sweltering ray of the daytime sun that visits the doorless tarpaulin shelters.

There and then, as darkness of the dusk takes over the sunniness of the day, Umaymah’s mother sits on her tattered mat — to unveil, chapter-by-chapter, how she and her daughter live a life of sorrow. It is a tale of trial without any triumph in sight.

A DEADLY DAY IN GWOZA The day Alte lost contact with her family members was a deadly one in Gwoza, a town in southern Borno. Bloodblemished bodies rolled on the streets of Cikidea, behind Dutse Sau in Gwoza.

This was not the first time Gwoza would be turned to the hellhole of Boko Haram’s ambush.

In April, 2014, the insurgents caused the displacement of hundreds of civilians in Gwoza.

Later, in August, they declared the town their headquarters of terrorism. The brutality of these killings had ruined lots of lives before the Nigerian Army took over Gwoza from the terrorists in 2015.

“When they came to Gwoza, I ran to Madagali with my mother and others. There my mother got lost,” says Alte, recounting her ordeal. “So, one of our in-laws in Madagali, a man, told me to stay in his house… that he would go in search of my mother and older brothers. I stayed there with him but the money on him was not enough to get him to Yola.”

Up till this moment, six years after, Alte has no idea of the whereabouts of her mother, father, sisters and brothers. “It was once rumoured that they had all fled to Cameroon,” she says. “But no one knows if this is true, especially as they have never www.businessday.ng

L-R: Sunday Hamman, director of finance and accounts, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA); Akugbe Iyamu, director of search and rescue; Muhammadu Muhammed, director-general, NEMA; Musa Bungudu, representing minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, and James Akujobi, director, general services, NEMA, during the maiden meeting of the new NEMA director-general with directors of the agency and the media in Abuja, yesterday. NAN

been in touch since.”

One evening, Alte left Madagali — 280 kilometres north of the Adamawa State capital, Yola — and headed to Gwoza in search of her lost family members, only for her to discover the ruin of human wreckage. Therefore, she returned to Madagali emptyhanded, to seek refuge with an ally.This would only be the beginning of her doom.

SEEKING REFUGE IN A TERRORIST’S ABODE At Madagali, everybody was afraid of housing anybody, thus Alte had no choice when asked by her ally to take up an offer of temporary accommodation with a strange man — in a shallow, muddy room.

“I stayed there. But unfortunately for me, he was a Boko Haram member,” she says.

“So, when the Army came to repel the attacks in Gwoza, he became scared and asked us to flee. They took us to one thick forest in Sambisa.”

Alte has lost count of how many times she was gangraped in the forests by the terrorists but she vividly remembers how she was forced to marry one Abu Sufyan, who would later die during one of his suicidal insurgent missions in Borno. She was with him for more than a year.

After being severely and repeatedly violated by Abu Sufyan, what followed was another forced marriage to another killer-terrorist simply known as Adamu.

“I was divorced by my second husband but I didn’t know that I was already pregnant for him,” she says.

Meanwhile, the pregnancy gave rise to her only daughter, Umaymah, who is now two years old. She adds: “Immediately after I gave birth, another man forced me to become his sex slave; I fell ill and my breasts were hurting me.”

Abu Lukman, his name, was the third and the last man to engage Alte in sexual slavery and forced marriage. But the more brutal part was that

while the terrorists forced her and other sex slaves to farm, all the harvests went to their wives.The sex slaves were left to starve.

‘KILL YOUR PARENTS’ — THE MESSAGE OF HATE How and when Alte and her daughter escaped Boko Haram’s territory of terror is inexplicable. “It is quite mysterious and miraculous,” she says of her escape from Sambisa forest. “I can’t even explain how it happened; I just know I saw myself with soldiers who brought us here.”

But there was a significant occurrence while in captivity: the insurgents preached hatred of fatherland to them.

“Day and night, they urged us not to believe or love the people of Nigeria,” she recalls.

“This is because at that time, there were pictures of people being medically cared for by the Nigerian Army; pictures of children being treated at hospitals by soldiers and other aid workers. These pictures were poured into Sambisa by the Nigerian soldiers.

“If you’re caught looking at the pictures, you could be killed.

Sometimes they gathered these pictures and burnt them. They would say, ‘Don’t believe in what the people in Nigeria say.

Don’t think about going home.

Don’t reveal our secrets. And even if your parents are against this movement, kill them. Do not do anything out of the lines of Islam.”

AT BAKASSI CAMP, THERE IS HUNGER, THIRST AND DEATH At just 22, Aisha Hassan’s sight is fading. This is a plague that even a sexagenarian may deem too soon to happen.

“Look at me! Am I not looking too much older than my age?” she asks the journalist, teary-eyed, but without waiting for an answer.

Actually, she isn’t wrong.

Aisha looks at least twice her real age. Her face has wrinkles of old age. She’s dying of neglect after being dehumanised

by Boko Haram terrorists.

Those who witnessed her

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arrival at the Bakassi camp say she came almost naked, teetering on the brink of madness, her breasts flapping left and right as she rallied around the camp.Now, one year later, she is recovering from the acute neurological damage but hasn’t yet slipped out of the optical damage. When asked to describe the current situation in her temporary home, she says, in Hausa: “In this camp, there is dearth, hunger, thirst — and there is death.”

RAGED, CAGED, DERANGED Aisha’s rare love for her father is glaring, even as she speaks of her travails. This love was what stopped her from fleeing while her mother and two brothers ran for their dear lives during a bloody Boko Haram raid.

The mayhem masterminded by the insurgents in May 2015 caught the sick father and daughter in a village called Jayi Garin Sarki in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State.

“When they got me, I was alone with my father who was sick; his legs were hurting. My mother and others had escaped,” she recounts.

“People were running but I couldn’t leave without my dad. He had done so much for me; I couldn’t leave him when he needed help the most. I preferred dying with him to fleeing.

“The insurgents took us captive and I was with them for five years. They took my father and I to Sambisa. They asked me to get married to them but I refused. I told them I had my sick father to look after.

“I was taken with other ladies to a place called Handa; there, we were caged for a week. Every morning, they came to ask if we were ready to marry. Sometimes we were flogged 10 lashes. The caning was called tanzil (revelation).”

THE ‘MARRIAGE’, THE WRECKAGE Threats upon threats and frustration-inducing cruelty overwhelmed the forest. Those @Businessdayng

who resisted the rapists were threatened with death. Forced marriage ensued, swiftly followed by wreckage of the victims’ bodies and souls.

“We were threatened to get married or be slaughtered.

When I asked them what would become of my father, they said I must abandon him,” says Aisha, “We were forcefully married, just by word of mouth. I was taken away from my father and pronounced the wife of a Boko Haram man called ‘Baba Labba’.

“And even with Baba Labba, we did not stay in a place.

We were taken from one place to the other. They gave us a gown that was so long it dragged behind us when we walked. We were warned not to escape. We were taken to a place called Garin Abu Asmau. They kept us there and most times, they would go out for war and leave some men behind to guard us.

Aisha continued crying, as the terrorists promised to slaughter anybody who didn’t cooperate with them.

“I had to comply,” she says.

“I stayed there with other women. Whenever they returned from the battlefield, they brought us gifts if they had the upper hand over soldiers. But on days they were not successful, they brought us nothing.

“I tried to escape with my dad but it was impossible. He and other aged captives were later killed. My father and many others were killed in my presence. One day, the man who forcefully took me as his wife went to war but never returned.”

A MARCH TO ‘MADNESS’ Aisha can still remember how she became psychologically traumatised and how she slipped from trauma into insanity. As a 17-year-old, her virginity was stolen by the cruel Boko Haram rapists. But that is not all.

“I was psychologically damaged by my suffering and

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that of the people who were slaughtered in my presence,” she recalls.

“Even here in camp, I still think about everything. We were not well-fed when we were in captivity. And also we trekked hundreds of kilometres. You can see I am older than my actual age. There wasn’t good food, shelter or bedding. The rain beat us and the sun burnt us.

“I lost my dad and later fell ill; I could not walk for two months. Nobody cared for me.

I was alone in the bush with no hope of escaping. I could neither pray nor eat. There was a younger brother of mine who was abducted with us, I lost him too and I suddenly became mentally retarded.”

TRAINED TO KILL Baba Laba’s years of having illegal sex with Aisha were not fruitless. Even if the terrorist had died on the battlefield, he never died without having a kid who was to take up his mantle of terrorism in the future.

“My child was named Abubakar; he was two years old when I left him. But as young as he was, he was trained to kill. He was always joining their training sessions where children and women were taught to kill Nigerians,” reveals Aisha.

“I used to try to take care of my child even though I gave birth to him in tears and agony. Whenever I ate something good I would breastfeed him. He was an innocent boy.

It’s his father who wronged me; not him. I don’t know what became of him,” he says.

“When soldiers attacked us, most of us fled leaving our children behind.And because it was difficult to get good water to drink, most children died there. But I left my

son healthy, so, who knows, maybe he is still alive.”

‘ONLY THE TOP TERRORISTS MARRIED CHIBOK GIRLS’ Aisha beams a smile briefly for the first time in 35 minutes of the interview.

Something vital just struck her mind, she says. It is about her encounter with the abducted Chibok girls.

Chibok girls are first-class women in Sambisa Forest, she explains. They are treated differently, with soft hands.

Unlike other girls who receive daily beating from their captors, Chibok girls are kept in a more pleasant setting in the forest.

They are well-fed and clothed.

“And they don’t allow us to mingle with them,” she adds.

“I don’t know why, but only the bigwigs among the terrorists could marry the Chibok girls. Even at that, the men were warned not to marry them if they were not strong enough to protect them.”

What Aisha probably does not know is that the Chibok girls have since been used as negotiating pawns in exchange for huge ransom and some of their commanders in the government’s detention.This must have been a factor in preferential treatment the Chibok girls received from the insurgents.

April 14, 2014 was a regular day in Borno until the Boko Haram terrorists came in the dead of the night to kidnap 276 schoolgirls from their school dormitory in Chibok, a primarily Christian village with a Muslim minority. The insurgents had presented themselves as Nigerian soldiers seeking to protect the girls from a Boko Haram attack by asking them to leave the school. In the ensuing hours, the terrorists took the girls in a convoy toward the group’s base in Sambisa.

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mentals given the wide deficit and low foreign-exchange reserve buffers amidst low oil prices, said Mohamed Abou Basha, director and head of macroeconomic analysis at EFG-Hermes.

Investors seem unconcerned. The cost of protecting Nigeria’s debt against default has dropped by 520 basis points since March 18, an indication that creditors are feeling more secure holding the country’s debt.

Risks have also receded in the past few weeks after the IMF disbursed its loan to Nigeria. Despite the country’s public debt set to rise to 34.8 percent of GDP this year, from 29.1 percent in 2019, according to the IMF, it’s a relatively low level when compared with most emerging markets.

This is as the West African nation presented a revised $27 billionbudgettocabinetthatkept

spendingintact,withaproposed record deficit of N5.4 trillion ($13.9 billion), which will be financed mainly from new debt.

Nigeria’s economy has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the slump in the price of oil, the nation’s top export. The plunge in crude has forced the central bank to devalue the naira, while inflation has been above its target band for almost five years.

Africa’s largest economy has lined up ambitious borrowing plans in its domestic bond market and has secured $3.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

It expects $3.5 billion from other lenders and has used the collapse in oil prices to scrap fuel subsidies that cost the country at least $2 billion a year.

Africa’s largest crude producer,whichreliesonsalesfrom the commodity for about half of government revenue, projects that its oil earnings will drop by www.businessday.ng

Meanwhile, 57 of them immediately escaped from the group’s convoy when they suspected the “soldiers” were really Boko Haram. The remaining 219 were taken away.

The 57 girls who escaped in the days after the kidnapping, the 103 girls released in these two exchanges and three other girls who were found separately with infants outside of Sambisa Forest are the only Chibok girls to have regained freedom since the April 2014 abduction. About 10 girls are however believed to have died in airstrikes, from disease, or during childbirth; there are about 100 remaining in Boko Haram captivity.

A LONGWALK TO FREEDOM AND FREE DOOM After Aisha’s insurgent ‘husband’ Baba Labba went to the battlefield and never returned, she was forced to ‘marry’ another fighter by the name ‘Nijale’.

“It was at night when I was asked to go with Nijale,” she recalls.

One week after Nijale started forcefully sleeping with Aisha,

the Nigerian Army laid siege to the forest. Next was to run, Nijale told Aisha. So, that evening, they moved, trekking a long distance in order to settle elsewhere. But halfway into the journey while Nijale led the long walk in the bush, Aisha and some other women escaped.

“We found a way of taking another road with some of the women; we kept walking for three days before we met with soldiers, who took us to Chibok where we spent two months and then we came to this camp.”

But unfortunately, Aisha’s long walk to freedom led her to nothing but free doom.

Despite the torture she endures in Boko Haram detention, she’s had to put up with more suffering at the Bakassi camp, where she lives, with hundreds of other internally displaced persons.

“I used to run a business but now I’ve lost everything,” she laments.

“I can’t trace anybody that is related to me. I lost my dad, my child and my wealth. In the camp, I lost

my sight; I can no longer see well with these eyes. I slept here for two months unable to eat properly. I couldn’t even wear clothes. I became mentally ill.

“I don’t do anything here and the food is insufficient for us. Even the small we have still get stolen. My bag has been torn thrice here. It makes me sad. I go out to labour for peanuts at times. I farm for even N200. The people scare us with Boko Haram at times just to avoid paying us.”

In 2018, a farm some kilometres away from Bakassi IDP camp was quite a dangerous place but the farm owners didn’t notice on time, says Taminu Tahir, the Special Assistant on Media to Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum.

“The farmers shouting ‘Boko Haram are coming’ to IDPs working for them might not just be mischievously scaring them.

“We’ve heard cases of people being slaughtered in their farms. Some of the IDPs who have farms were living fine while some others were

battling with hunger. During that, the government had to strategise on how to distribute food for the masses. From then, things have been better concerning food.”

A PLEA FOR HELP “I am going blind and I don’t want to be blind,” says Aisha, wiping off the tears on her wrinkled face. For now, she needs not just good food or shelter, but regaining her lost sight.

“If you asked me, the first thing I would want the government or anybody to do for me, it’s my two eyes. If I can get medical care for my eyes, I will be very glad,” she says.

“Now, I can’t go back home anymore. Where will I go, and who will I meet? So, all I want now is my eyes.”

Alte, though, has other needs.

“I want my daughter to go to school,” she says.“Even though I hate to remember how I gave birth to her, I want her to become a medical doctor. I don’t want her to be like me and I don’t want her to go through what I have gone through in life.”

L-R: David Shonowo, volunteer, Slum Art Foundation; Tunji Disu, deputy commissioner of police,Lagos State/commander, Rapid Response Squad, and Adetunwase Adenle, co-founder, SlumArt Foundation, during the presentation of paintings done by Slum Art children in Ijora Badia in collaboration with the RRS Team in Lagos.

at least 80 percent this year.

The deficit could widen to 6.8 percent of gross domestic product from 4.8 percent in 2019, according to the IMF, and unless Nigeria gets a waiver from creditors, interest payments could eat up 96 percent of the Federal Government’s revenue, up from 58 percent in 2019.

“If secured, multilateral loans would cover around 21 percent of the general government deficit in 2020,” Fitch Ratings said in a report published Monday.

In a report last month, the IMFsaiditbelievesNigeria’sdebt is sustainable and there is adequatecapacitytorepaythefund.

“Nigerian authorities have done well to take the IMF loan, to unify the exchange rate and to suggest that the fuel subsidy is gone forever,” Renaissance capital analyst Charles Robertson said in a briefing last week.

“That is an improvement for Nigeria” in the medium term, he said.

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policy benefits only the elites who are basically in two of Nigerians important cities, Lagos and Abuja, who buy the most fuel, according to NBS report of petroleum products supply across Nigeria.

A fully deregulated market, the panellists said, would translate to healthy competition in the sector and attract badly needed investment.

Within the last decade, all the multinational oil companies have divested from the downstream sector and even those who bought their assets are fleeing the sector.

The NNPC which took on the role of the sole importer is now buckling under the weight of the bruising subsidies and is leading the charge to abolish them, as the subsidies continue to rubbish its finances and keep alive a robust fuel smuggling enterprise across Nigeria’s porous borders.

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”Our argument for moving for full deregulation is that it will benefit the industry and country by attracting the kind of investment that is needed,” Oyebanji said.

Yet, the marketers’ motivation is not only on account of the national loss subsidies represent, but Nigeria’s regulated downstream environment has also crippled their investments as they cannot recover the cost of N3-5 billion they spend building depots with the margins NNPC allocates to them to make a profit on N2 per litre.

Amina Maina, group COO, MRS Holdings Ltd, said the margins are too small to recoup their investments let alone make a profit. Poor returns in the midst of huge costs in maintaining depots, paying salaries, and keeping trucks on the road are the reasons only a quarter of the registered depots have managed to stay in opera@Businessdayng

tion in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Federal Government said in March that it has bowed to long-standing pressure to restructure the downstream oil sector and has as such removed oil subsidy after the country was hit by lower oil prices which placed more pressure on its reserves.

The Muhammadu Buhariled administration moved the petrol price peg of N145/litre to N125 in March 2020. It was the first time the price would be adjusted since it was reviewed from N86 per litre to N145 by President Buhari in 2016.

However, this is only a half-hearted attempt brought on by dire economic realities rather than pragmatic policy, hence it has kept the structures that aided a regulated petrol price environment and the PPPRA will continue to issue petrol prices at intervals.

“It is one thing to deregulate and it is another thing to have laws that back the deregulation,” said Maina.” “We have to really mean it.”

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FINANCIAL TIMES

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US jobless claims keep climbing to hit 38.6m since lockdowns began Data show there were 2.4m first-time benefit applications last week in line with forecasts MAMTA BADKAR AND JAMES POLITI

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nother 2.4m Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total number of firsttime applications to 38.6m since the pandemic hit the world’s largest economy nine weeks ago.

The data released on Thursday confirmed the enduring damage to the US labour market inflicted by lockdowns, raising pressure on the Federal Reserve, Congress and the Trump administration to take further monetary and fiscal action as the crisis drags on.

“Although it’s too soon to know now, the concern is that unemployment will continue to be an issue even after we begin the recovery,” said Jason Reed, a professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s college of business. “If the federal and state governments are not aggressive enough in combating unemployment, we might see permanently higher levels of unemployment and a second jobless recovery.”

The figures showed the level of weekly jobless applications dropping by 249,000 — marking the seventh consecutive fall.

But the overall tally remained high at 2.4m, in line with economists’ forecasts, heralding another increase in the total unemployment rate in May from the 14.7 per cent rate recorded in April.

Ernie Tedeschi, an economist

Murals in Austin, Texas. Concerns remain that US job cuts, which were expected to be temporary, will become permanent © Getty Images

at Evercore ISI, wrote on Twitter that the latest jobless claims figures were historically consistent with a real-time unemployment rate of 18.5 per cent.

In the latest week, California recorded the highest number of first-time applications with 246,115, followed by New York and Florida with 226,521 and 223,927 claims, respectively, according to preliminary state-level estimates that have not been seasonally adjusted.

The previous week’s figures had been revised lower to 2.69m,

down from 2.98m initially, reflecting a change to Connecticut’s data after officials reported an error had overstated the number of people seeking jobless benefits.

The number of people actually receiving benefits rose to 25.07m for the week ending May 9, and those receiving unemployment insurance comprised 17.2 per cent of all workers that week.

The report comes as hopes rise that lay-offs will peak soon as economies begin to gradually reopen and some furloughed employees resume work, while

others find new jobs. However, concerns remain that job cuts which were expected to be temporary will become permanent.

The pace at which rehiring outpaces job losses “will be the best barometer of how fast and how completely the economy is recovering”, said Joshua Shapiro, economist at MFR. “We expect that an initial burst as major population areas reopen will be followed by a longer period where improvement is slower and more uneven, with it taking many quarters for the

economy to claw its way back to pre-pandemic levels,” he said.

Other data released on Thursday suggest that the crisis is far from over, even while business conditions start to improve as the reopening process begins.

The preliminary IHS Markit composite purchasing managers’ index for the US, a survey of economic performance in manufacturing and services sectors, improved in May to 36.4, from 27 the previous month. A reading below 50 indicates a deterioration in conditions — although May’s figure suggests the decline was less severe than it was in April.

However, the report showed a substantial fall in output as manufacturers and service providers “indicated marked declines in client demand”. And a survey of manufacturing in the US midAtlantic region also improved, rising 13 points to minus 43.1 this month, but remained at historically weak levels, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve. A reading above zero indicates an expansion in activity, while below zero signals a contraction.

Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes in the US tumbled 17.8 per cent month on month in April during the key spring selling season, although it was less dire than the 18.9 per cent economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast. However, with a rebound in mortgage applications, economists expect home sales to pick up again.

Argentina on brink of default as it wrangles with bondholders Negotiations to restructure $65bn of foreign debt continue but both sides stand firm BENEDICT MANDER AND COLBY SMITH

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nvestors have abandoned hopes of a last-minute reprieve in negotiations with Argentina to restructure $65bn of foreign debt, as the country braces itself for a ninth sovereign debt default.

Both sides say talks will continue after Friday, when the 30day grace period for previously missed payments lapses. But simmering tensions over the failure to reach a deal remain, and there is still the danger of a chaotic fallout from a technical default.

Bondholders accuse Martín Guzmán, Argentina’s economy minister, of being too dogmatic, while the government complains some creditors have acted high-handedly. But some are optimistic of a settlement.

“The contours of a deal are clearly visible,” said a person familiar with the government’s thinking, who believed a deal must be reached within “days

to weeks”.

“It’s like when you’re far from a mountain summit,” the person said. “It’s not like they are about to sign something, but you can see where the scope for a deal is.”

An extension of Argentina’s offer is now widely expected after Mr Guzmán this week described the Friday deadline as “anecdotal”, admitting there was a “big chance” it would be extended.

But bondholders say negotiations so far have been frustrating.

“We still have no real idea what the government is thinking, and here we are [a day away] from a default,” said a person who is involved with a BlackRock-led group of creditors. The group counts Fidelity, Ashmore and T Rowe Price among its members.

“Frankly, the Argentine government has engaged virtually not at all with anyone for months in this whole process,” added the person. Nonetheless, the person believes the proposals from creditors and the government are “not a million miles away from each other. There is a www.businessday.ng

landing zone in there.”

Bondholders submitted three separate counter-proposals last week in response to the government’s original offer that included a 62 per cent “haircut” on interest payments. The counter-proposals are “a step in the right direction”, according to the person familiar with the government’s thinking, but remain too far from what the state is able to pay.

One particular flashpoint is the government ’s insistence that all bond payments should be suspended for three years — close to the end of President Alberto Fernández’s four-year term. Each of the bondholders’ counter offers proposed a grace period of just one year.

“What creditors have put forward here is pretty much the bottom line,” said a member of another bondholder group. “The ball is in their court. We have delivered a proposal.”

According to Siobhan Morden, head of Latin America fixed income at Amherst Pierpont, a

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securities firm, the government’s proposal suggests a recovery value of 39 cents on the dollar for the bonds issued after 2016, assuming that the new bonds trade at a yield of 10 per cent after the restructuring. The equivalent value is roughly 42 cents on the dollar for the so-called exchange bonds, which were previously restructured in 2005 and 2010.

Those figures are some way adrift of the bondholders’ proposals, according to Ms Morden’s calculations. The exchange bondholder group is seeking an average recovery value of 58 cents on the dollar, on a similar basis.

A proposal put forward by Gramercy Funds Management, Fintech Advisory and a creditor committee involving Greylock Capital Management and GMO asks for the same for the post2016 bonds. Meanwhile, the proposal from the BlackRock-led group, whose members hold both the exchange bonds and those issued since 2016, suggests an average recovery value of 60 cents on the dollar. @Businessdayng

A government official involved in the negotiations indicated that Argentina might be willing to make a counter offer if bondholders were to adjust their current proposals to reflect a recovery value in the low 50s.

According to a person familiar with the matter, BlackRock has discussed with other members of its group the prospect of accepting a recovery value of between 50 to 55 cents on the dollar.

Market prices of various bonds have rallied in recent days amid optimism that talks had not collapsed entirely, even as default looms. In a public statement released on Monday, the group involving BlackRock said it was “hopeful that a mutually acceptable solution can be reached”.

Mr Guzmán has said that the government is flexible, even though it is committed to staying within the constraints of its own forecasts. A study carried out earlier this year by the IMF concluded that Argentina’s debt was unsustainable.

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Thursday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Global stocks slip as US-China tensions add to economic concerns Investors cautious in wake of signs health of global economy is still fragile PHILIP GEORGIADIS AND HUDSON LOCKETT

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tock markets edged lower on Thursday, following an escalation in US-China tensions and signs that the health of the global economy was still fragile.

Shares on Wall Street slipped slightly in the first half-hour of trading, with the S&P 500 down 0.1 per cent and tech-weighted Nasdaq 0.2 per cent lower.

Earlier, futures had bounced off their worst levels following the release of US jobless data, which revealed that more than 2.4m people applied for unemployment benefits last week in America.

The number of first-time applications for unemployment benefits in the US has now hit 38.6m during the past nine weeks.

However, the pace of new job losses has been declining for seven consecutive weeks, spurring hopes that the worst level for unemployment may be nearing.

Widely watched surveys showed that business activity in the UK and eurozone has begun to tick higher in May, although the purchasing managers’ indices for the region remained deeply depressed.

The eurozone’s partial rebound “suggests that the economy is now on a slow road to recovery”, said Jessica Hinds, an economist at consultancy Capital Economics.

European stocks recovered most of their earlier losses as sentiment improved through the

Japanese stocks fell on worries over how the pandemic was undermining external demand for Asian exports © AFP via Getty Images

trading day, with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax slipping 0.6 per cent.

Rising tensions between Washington and Beijing was also on investors’ radars on Thursday. US president Donald Trump escalated his verbal attacks on China late on Wednesday, as he accused Beijing of “a massive disinformation campaign” around the origins of coronavirus. “ T h e y c o u l d hav e e a sily stopped the plague, but they didn’t!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the pandemic.

The National People’s Congress, China’s annual gathering of lawmakers, begins on Friday and will be watched for signs of new

stimulus, and a response to Mr Trump’s accusations.

Several strategists and economists expect tensions between the world’s two largest economies to rise further ahead of November’s general election.

“Tensions between China and the United States continue to ratchet up . . . following a slow path of escalation, as [has been] widely expected given the elections,” said Sebastien Galy, strategist at Nordea Asset Management. “It is in neither party’s interest to boil it over, especially in the United States given the feedback loop in the equity markets.”

Global equity markets have

rallied since late March on a combination of central bank support, hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine and a strong rebound in business activity as governments ease lockdowns.

David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, on Thursday said government and central bank interventions had “helped significantly in calming markets”, but cautioned that “very difficult decisions” lie ahead.

“We’ve got to find the right balance as we move forward between protecting people and keeping people healthy — being compassionate. But also being pragmatic about the fact that we need economic activity to also

keep people healthy,” he said.

Mo m e ntu m ha s st a l l e d throughout May despite some sharp daily swings, with economists keeping a close eye on the easing of lockdowns for signs of a new wave of infections.

Shares in Asia weakened.

Japan’s benchmark Topix fell 0.2 per cent while China’s CSI 300 of Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed stocks shed 0.5 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped by the same margin.

An early reading on exports from South Korea again highlighted the destruction to global demand that the disease has caused and the difficulties in restarting economies following lockdowns. Shipments from Asia’s fourth-largest economy for the first 20 days of May shrank more than 20 per cent year on year as imports fell almost 17 per cent, official data showed on Thursday.

Japanese trade data for April were also weak, with a near 22 per cent contraction in exports, marking the worst month since 2009.

Oil prices extended Wednesday’s rally, which came after an Energy Information Administration report showed that US crude inventories had fallen for a second straight week. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 2.3 per cent to $36.60 a barrel.

West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, rose 2.3 per cent to $34.25 a barrel.

The yield on US 10-year Treasuries slipped 0.01 percentage points to 0.6688 per cent, as investors moved into the debt.

Man Utd earnings slip into red as broadcast revenue slumps Club’s results offer insight into how world’s most popular sport is coping with disruption SAMUEL AGINI

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anchester United swung to a quarterly loss as its broadcasting revenue fell by more than half, pointing to the devastating impact of coronavirus on football clubs.

As one of the few major listed football clubs, Manchester United’s earnings offer a glimpse into how the world’s most popular sport is dealing with the huge disruption to fixtures caused by the pandemic.

This week, clubs in the English Premier League resumed training in the hope of restarting matches in June. Failure to complete the season could cost the League £1bn in lost revenue.

On Thursday, Manchester United said revenues were £123.7m in the third quarter —

Off pitch: The Premier League was postponed on March 13, but Old Trafford did not miss out on many matches in the first quarter © PA

spanning the three months to March 31 — down 19 per cent compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.

The decrease came as broadcasting revenue fell by more than 50 per cent to £26m. Match day revenue fell by 8.2 per cent to £29.1m, while commercial revenue rose 3 per cent to £68.6m. www.businessday.ng

The Premier League was postponed on March 13 but Manchester United did not miss out on many home matches in the quarter.

On a call with analysts, Cliff Baty, chief financial officer, provided a view on negotiations over the size of the rebate the Premier League and its clubs

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must pay to broadcast partners.

He said Manchester United was estimating that its own costs due to the rebate would amount to £20m for the full 38-game Premier League season, of which £15m was reflected in the third quarter results and the 29 games played so far.

The club, which has been controlled by the Glazer family since a £790m leveraged buyout in 2005, swung to a pre-tax loss of £28.6m, versus an £11.1m pre-tax profit a year earlier.

It also withdrew previous guidance that revenues would amount to £560m-£580m this financial year, citing the “ongoing uncertainty” related to the pandemic.

At the end of March, Manchester United had £90.3m in cash and an additional £150m @Businessdayng

available through its revolving credit facility, giving it “financial flexibility”.

E d Wo o d w a r d , e x e c u tive vice-chairman, said the club would show “resilience through adversity” as it looked to “weather” the pandemic.

Manchester United, which has won the Premier League more than any other, has been unable to reclaim the trophy since former manager Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down from the role in 2013 after winning 38 trophies in 26 years.

Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the club’s fourth manager since the Scot’s retirement, United sat in fifth place when the season was postponed, outside the lucrative qualification spots for the Champions League, the most prestigious club tournament in Europe.

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news

How Aella plans to save lives of millions of Nigerians Akin Jones

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s Nigeria battles the Covid-19 pandemic, it continues to reveal the cracks in the country’s healthcare sector. Nigeria faces several major challenges that delay its intended progress toward the attainment of Universal Healthcare Coverage.

One such challenge is the lack of financial protection for the healthcare needs of a vast majority of the population through an effective social health insurance scheme.

As the saying goes; government cannot do it alone. Fintech start-up, Aella has made significant strides in supporting this drive of the Federal Government through the launch of its own Health Insurance scheme in partnershipwithHygeia;aforemost HMO in Nigeria.

CEO of the company, Akin Jones said “we have a responsibility to our customers, employees and communities to build businesses that have a positive impact on daily life. We originally launched Aella as a micro-lending app, but we soon realisedthat25%ofloanswerebeing used to foot medical bills, second only to small business loans and other bill payments.”

Aella setouttoreversethisnegative trend by entering into a partnership with Hygeia, one of the HMO’s with the widest reach in the country, withnearly2000clinics,pharmacies and hospitals in its network. This formidable partnership aims to bring over 500,000 Nigerians under its Health Insurance coverage in the first year, protecting them from the rising costs of healthcare services in the Country.

Diseases such as cholera, malaria and typhoid are killing numerous Nigerians every day due to lack of access to prepaid healthcare and Aella wants to put a stop to it.

As of 2016, only 3% of Healthcare expenditure in Nigeria was paid for using Health Insurance. To bridge this gap, Aella is using a fourpronged approach, namely: Trust, Access, Pricing and Education. In a conversation with our correspondent, Jones explained, “We believe that the reason more Nigerians

aren’t obtaining Health Insurance is due to these four factors. (i) Trust: Customers do not trust that there are no hidden obligations and that insurance policies would effectively cover all that they are promising. (ii) Access: Customers do not believe that the hospital networks reach remote areas easily accessible to them in times of need. (iii) Pricing: Customers believe that low-cost insurance schemes do not provide adequate coverage. (iv) Education: Customers are not well educated about the costs and benefits of insurance.”

Aella’s mission therefore is to tackle these head-on by ensuring that Customers are aware of all chargesassociatedwiththeirchosen insurance plan and the differences between plans. Its partnership with Hygeia,Nigeria’smosttrustedHMO willalsoallaythefearsofmanyNigerians regarding access and pricing.

The company will also constantly engage the public on its support of the government’s declared goal of Universal Health Coverage through theexpansionofitshealthinsurance and financial inclusion services.

In its first week of launching, the Aella Health Insurance plans recordedalargenumberofsign-ups via its mobile app, which further confirmed its drive to insure half a million Nigerians before the end of theyear.Theappprovidesuserswith a super-fast medium to ensure your health, access loans and pay bills.

Its monthly subscription and credit payment model allows millions of underbanked users access services that have hitherto been inaccessible to them. As a direct response to the ravaging Covid-19 crisis, Aella has committed towards donating 2000 anti-microbial, Nano-coated copper masks and will also provide tele-medicine services to its users in partnership with Hygeia.

Technology continues to change the world as we know it, at an unprecedented pace, impact and reach. Today, at the push of a button, low-income individuals can be included with nominal costs.Thiscreatestheopportunityto connect millions of people to better healthcare.

Akin Jones is co-founder of Aella

22 businesses shortlisted for All On, USADF off-grid energy challenge ISAAC ANYAOGU

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wenty-two wholly Nigerian-owned enterprises have been shortlisted for the 2020 USADF – All On Nigeria Off-Grid Energy Challenge, the Shell-funded Nigerian impact investor All On said in a press release.

The third edition of the annual challenge, which is in partnership with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), will provide $50,000 in grant capital and $50,000 in convertible debt to each of the selected energy enterprises that makes it through the rigorous due diligence process.

A portion of the funding for the challenge awards is part of the support provided to entrepreneurs in the energy access sector by the All On Hub, an initiative supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

In addition to funding, the winners will receive technical

assistance from USADF and governance support from All On. The winners will be formally announced in Q4 2020.

“In spite of the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain committed to our mission to invest in off-grid energy solutions that will help bridge the significant energy gap in Nigeria,” said Sele Inegbedion, manager, All On Hub. “It’s exciting to see that even during this crisis, there are Nigerian entrepreneurs developing innovative solutions to address Nigeria’s access to energy gap.”

The USADF provides seed capital and local project management assistance that helps improve lives and impact livelihoods while addressing some of Africa’s biggest challenges, such as energy poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated how essential modern energy access is to healthcare, and how important it will be for economic recovery. www.businessday.ng

R-L: Patrick Okundia, commissioner for health, Edo State; Philip Shaibu, deputy governor, Edo State; Kemi Fadojutimi, representing Ooni of Ife Palace; Wale Olafare, media aide at the Ooni’s Palace, and others, during the presentation of two motorised modular fumigators to the Edo State government in Benin City.

Nigeria shut out of dollar liquidity measures as fundamental weakens BALA AUGIE

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igeria, Turkey and South Africa are all shut out of a scheme launched by the US Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lend dollars to countries struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Frontier and emerging market countries secure a dollar swap line from United States that would help them in the management of their external account and provide extra cushion in the event of an abrupt outflow of funds.

The Federal Reserve usually injects such liquidity to central banks of countries with strong economic fundamentals and independent central banks.

But lots of nations do not have the above criteria as they are struggling with deteriorating exports revenue, portfolio outflows, and a weak currency.

“I think shutting the country

out will further compound the woes of the central bank as we may see more outflow as there could be flight to safety,” Ayodeji Ebo, managing director/CEO of Afrinvest Securities, says.

Ebo says the central bank needs to act fast and adjust the naira so that the situation will not get out of hand.

Nigeria has been grappling to access foreign currency as it has $8.40 billion denominated sovereign and corporate bonds and loan repayment this year, according to a latest report by the Financial Times of London.

As a result of the precipitous drop in oil price brought on by coronavirus pandemic that paralysed business activities, the country’s ministry of finance and budget planning slashed the budget by 15 percent.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was forced to devalue to $360 from $306 so as to protect the foreign exchange reserve and stabilise the economy.

Nigeria’s foreign-currency reserves have dropped by just $5 billion over the first four months, according to a recent report by global ratings agent, Fitch.

The IMF has approved $3.40 billion in emergency financial assistance under the Rapid Financing Instrument to support Nigeria’s efforts in addressing the severe economic impact of the Covid-19 shock and the sharp fall in oil prices.

But the amount is only 0.8 percent of gross domestic product, and the central bank had launched a stimulus of $2.40 billion at the height of the pandemic.

Without enough stimulus or bailout from foreign financial institutions, analysts say the country could slip into another recession in the space of five years.

“They could believe that Nigeria has got its fair share of dollar liquidity as the country has just received energy financial assistance from the IMF. The country may have exhausted its borrowing

limits,” Johnson Chukwu, managing director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, states.

The IMF has said the economy is expected to shrink by 3.4 percent this year and the country could face a recession lasting until 2021.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 1.5 percent at $35.20 a barrel, after crashing below $18 in March.

West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, rose 0.7 percent at $32.20 a barrel, as it neared a negative territory last month.

The uptick in commodity price was largely driven by the gradual opening of business across Europe, Asia, and the United States after several weeks, while an output cut agreed by OPEC+ allies also added impetus to the rally.

However, Fitch has said in a recent report that Nigeria’ adherence to oil production cuts under OPEC+ agreement will lead to deeper economic contraction and fiscal deficits and compound pressures on external finances.

NIMASA begins investigation on cause of fire at wellhead offshore in Ondo

BDCs warn forex speculators of losses, set to resume full operations

… warns mariners to avoid impacted area

Hope Moses-Ashike

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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igerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said on Thursday in Lagos that it had sent a fact finding team to unravel the circumstances surrounding a recent fire incident at a wellhead offshore in Ondo State.

The incident, which involved a barge belonging to Michharry and Company Nigeria Limited, an offshore and onshore facilities provider for the oil and gas industry, occurred at the site of a Chevron platform sold to local investors.

A statement by Philip Kyanet, head, corporate communications of NIMASA, states that the officers from the Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standard Department (MSSSD) and Marine Environment Management (MEM) Department of the Agency would conduct both on the spot assessment and detailed analysis of the incident.

According to Kyanet, NIMASA also advises mariners and

other maritime stakeholders to steer clear of the areas affected by the fire for their own safety and to aid the investigative and remediation work at the location, Ororo1, in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 95.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that the barge, JUV Bellaton, a 300 Series SEWOP, owned by Michharry and operated by Guarantee Petroleum, had been working on the offshore oil rig, Grace 1 HWU, when it experienced leakages of gas and oil, which led to a fire outbreak at the wellhead location. Though, there was no reported pollution following degenerative status of the platform due to the fire,” Kyanet states.

He further states that all crew were evacuated safely, and fire fighters were engaged by the company to try to put out the fire.

He further states that NIMASA is working with the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) on the incident investigation, in line with an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two agencies.

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ssociation of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has warned its members and forex speculators putting pressure on the naira exchange rate to stop such activities or risk losing their money.

ABCON president, Aminu Gwadabe, who disclosed this Thursday in Lagos, said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)licenced Bureaux De Change (BDCs) would soon start full operations as the apex bank would soon reopen dollar sales to operators.

According to Gwadabe, with the CBN’s planned lifting of moratorium on dollar sales to BDCs, reopening of the airports for air travels, global ease on restriction of movement are positive indications that dollar flows to the economy will soon improve.

Gwadabe said the naira was yesterday evening exchanging at N461 to dollar at the parallel market but would be upbeat once dollar sales to BDCs commenced.

“The return of over 5,000 BDCs to the forex market will add great strength to the naira @Businessdayng

and lead to major capital losses for forex speculators. It happened in 2016 and will happen again in 2020. The return of the BDCs will immediately boost Naira recovery and put the enemies of the economy to shame. We are committed to the CBN’s exchange rate stability and will take all necessary steps within set rules and regulations to keep the naira stable,” Gwadabe assured.

The return of BDCs to the forex market will help chase away speculators, curb rising inflation, boost productivity and employment, enhance price discovery and market transparency and competitiveness, he said.

Continuing, the ABCON boss said uptick in activities in the Chinese economy had raised the country’s crude oil demand, which would impact positively on Nigeria’s crude oil sales to the Asian country and boost dollar earnings.

The CBN has created enhanced fiscal buffers with the $3.4 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) meant for Nigeria to meet its urgent balance of payment stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news

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COVID-19: Huawei ICT Academy hosts online training for students across Nigeria Seyi John Salau

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Bello Matawalle, governor, Zamfara State (3rd l), and other officials during the inauguration of the COVID-19 Sample Collection and Testing Centre in Gusau.

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Worries over economic fallout from COVID-19 cap gains in oil price Olusola Bello

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orries over the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic capped gains in crude oil prices. Oil prices held steady on Wednesday despite signs of improving demand and a drawdown in US crude inventories.

Brent crude futures for July delivery were up 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $34.75 per barrel at 0626 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for July were down 2 cents at $31.94 a barrel after closing up 1 percent in the previous session.

The June contract expired on Tuesday at $32.50 a barrel, up 2.1 percent, as the WTI futures market avoided the chaos of last

… Nigeria economic, growth recovery programme suffers setback month’s May expiry, when prices sank below zero.

Oil prices have mainly risen during the past three weeks, with both benchmarks climbing above $30 for the first time in more than a month on Monday, supported by massive output cuts by major oil producing countries and signs of improving demand.

US crude inventories fell by 4.8 million barrels to 521.3 million barrels in the week to May 15, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed on Tuesday.

Refinery runs rose by 229,000 barrels per day, the API said, indicating plants are trying to produce more fuel as the US eases its lockdowns.

Almajiri: ‘Nigeria sitting on timebomb, signs of failed government’ Iniobong Iwok

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alarabe Musa, second republic governor of Kaduna State, has faulted the Northern governors and Federal Government handling of the Almajiris since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, saying the country is sitting on a time-bomb, which must urgently be addressed.

Derived from the Arabic ‘alMuhajirun,’ an Almajiri is a person who leaves his home in search of Islamic knowledge.

Although the controversial system has enjoyed a popularity spanning centuries, however, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the country is causing a major interruption in its operations.

There has been growing controversy over the deportation of the Almajiri’s students in their domain in recent weeks by the state governors in the North to their states of origin, as the region battles growing cases of Covid-19.

In last few days, some states in the South have also rejected and barred the entry of Almajiris into their domain.

However, speaking in a telephone interview with BusinessDay, Wednesday, Musa said the way the Almajiris was being handled pose a threat to the unity of

the country, as they could easily be radicalised to take the form of the insurgent group Book Haram that had terrorised the country in last one decade.

Musa said that Alamjiri was a collective Nigeria’s problem that had thrived over the decades, mainly because of the failure of federal and state governments to adopt compulsory educational programmes to take the children off the streets.

“You would recall that the Boko Haram started this way, most of them were young except for their commanders who were above 25 years. Don’t the government realise the implications of what they are doing, they would turn against the system and the country and it would be problem for us all,” Musa said.

The elder statesman said Nigeria had not taken the Almajiri system serious in last the few decades, which had necessitated it to thrived, saying it was wrong for any state government to reject the Almajiri children from entering their domain.

“What is happening to the Almajiri is a sign of irresponsible federal and incompetence and failed state governments. Let government institute free and compulsory education from primary to secondary level, and the Almajiri system would end. www.businessday.ng

“Oil markets have worried about high crude inventories but yesterday the WTI June contract expired and rolled over to July smoothly as concerns over crude stocks ease and demand has improved in the short-term,” said Kim Kwang-rae, commodity analyst at Samsung Securities in Seoul.

Asia’s gasoline profit margins GL92-SIN-CRK turned positive on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two months, giving hope to global oil refiners.

But lingering concerns about the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, especially in the US, which is the world’s biggest oil consumer, kept a lid on prices.

US Federal Reserve chair

Jerome Powell said on Tuesday layoffs by state and local governments would slow the US economic recovery.

The slowdown in the global economy and lockdown in most countries as a result of COVID-19 have also taken its toll on the global demand for oil. The decline in oil demand is estimated to surpass the loss of nearly 1 million barrels per day during the 2007-08 recession. This is also coming at a time when two key players in the global oil industry – Russia and the OPEC cartel – are at loggerheads on the decision to cut output. The unequivocal oil price war started between these two global oil market giants has more dire consequences on oil prices.

ATCON commends Ekiti, Imo on harmonization of RoW charges Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson

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ssociation of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has commended the recent Executive Orders issued by Kayode Fayemi, governor, Ekiti State, and Hope Uzodinma, governor, Imo State, and their respective state houses of assembly for the implementation of the approved right of way (RoW) price from a very exorbitant price to an industry and investment friendly price of N145 per linear meter approved by the Federal Government.

In a press statement signed

by Ajibola Olude, executive secretary, ATCON, the association says it appreciates the two states for considering its letter, which was sent to them in the beginning of the year, recommending that telecom and ICT infrastructure must be seen and treated as a component of development in their respective states.

“With this move by the governors, their leadership have attested to the fact that the socio-economic development of their respective state is not mutually exclusive to broadband and ICT infrastructure development which has been one of the basis of our advocacy

initiatives,” ATCON states.

Olusola Teniola, president of ATCON, has urged other state governments to follow suit in adopting and implementing the harmonised RoW price of N145 per linear meter of fibre in order to enjoy benefits of unlocking the inherent digital potential of the states.

“These states are set to enjoy and maximise the opportunity that pervasive broadband penetration can offer as the people of these states can now leverage on uninterrupted telecommunications services which they have not been enjoying before now. The reason for this is that telecom infrastructure would give them the opportunity to express their gifts and talents,” he says.

“Also, the direct multiplier effect of this pragmatic executive order is that these States will experience a noticeable development both in the private and public sector which is expected to push the revenue of these states forward and it will also make companies that do not have presence in these states to consider opening a branch in the state which will lead to employment generation thereby reducing rural-urban migration,” he notes.

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uawei Technologies has not relented on its efforts to ensure Nigerian students registered under its Authorised Information and Network Academy where they will be trained in core ICT skills in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company moved its classes online, engaging hundreds of students across the country on their computer screens from the comfort of their homes.

The Huawei Authorised Information and Network Academy (HAINA) in collaboration with more than 70 universities in Nigeria was established to train students for free in the latest internationally relevant ICT skills in subjects such as Networks, Cloud Computing and Big Data.

As of today, over 10,000 Nigerian students have benefitted.

In an exclusive interview with some of the teachers and students, we got insights into the structure of the Huawei ICT Academy online training programme and its impact.

Lawal Ahmad Alassan, head of IT Technical Support Unit, Kastina State Institute of Technology and Management, who is also a Huawei Academy instructor in Routing, Switching,

Storage and Security, said his first batch of online classes held from May 10 – 15, 2020, and had between 75 and 50 students from different educational institutions from all over Nigeria.

He said classes were split into two of 40 students each.

The training was structured for three hours daily with breaks in between. The entire course was broken down into 4-5 topics daily.

Speaking about his experience teaching the students online, he said, “It was a wonderful experience coming from a virtual classroom organised

by Huawei. The students were so overwhelmed and as we speak now we have over 250 students waiting to be trained and still making enquiries and application for training. To some of the students it was a new experience and they never thought they could achieve such training process while staying at home.”

Excited about the regular participation of the students, he said, “The online training has made instructors and the students bother less about the lockdown because we have been made to acquire knowledge through Huawei’s training platform in the most incredible manner. With these trainings, the ICT industry in Nigeria would grow faster.

Operators express concern on OGFZS’ regulation of Snake Island FZ HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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ome oil and gas companies have expressed concern over alleged attempt by Oil and Gas Free zones Authority (OGFZA) to regulate the oil and gas operations within Snake Island Integrated Free Trade Zones (SIIFZ).

The concern of whether the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) or OGFZA has legal rights to regulate oil and gas entities located within the SIIFZ has been generating fuss in recent months.

Recently, OGFZA acting upon a directive of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment served letters on all oil and gas free zones informing them of its readiness to implement

the minister’s directive, which empowered the authority to assume full regulatory powers over the zones.

However, the oil and gas companies, through their counsel, Qudus Mumumey, had expressed their opposition to the Ministerial order.

In 2016, Simco Freezone Company and Nigerdock Nigeria plc had approached the court, seeking interpretations on the regulation of oil and gas operations in the SIIFZ. The case is still pending in court and as such the question of who is vested to regulate the Free Zones should be allowed to be included in court before any move to implement the ministerial directive can be legally justified, Mumumey said.

COVID-19: Lagos suspends 2020 entrance exams into model colleges, others MARK MAYAH

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agos State government on Thursday announced an indefinite postponement of the 2020 screening test into the state’s Model Colleges and upgraded Junior Secondary Schools.

The examinations were originally scheduled to commence from Monday, May 25 to Saturday, May 30, 2020.

The government, in a statement signed by Supo Gbadegeshin, director, Lagos State Examinations Board, said the postponement was in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation. @Businessdayng

He said, “Lagos State Examinations Board hereby informs the general public, especially all duly registered candidates for the year 2020 SCREENING TEST into Lagos State Model Colleges and Upgraded Junior Secondary Schools, that the conduct of the examination scheduled to commence from Monday, 25th to Saturday, 30th May, 2020 has been postponed till further notice.”

He, however, noted, “As soon as the situation improves for the conduct of the examination and approval is obtained from appropriate authorities, a new dates would be duly communicated to you all.”

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Friday 22 May 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FINTECH News

Products Review

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

Why Nigeria’s fintech space needs a more streamlined Tier licensing process FRANK ELEANYA

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he Nigerian fintech space has remained the most dominant s e g m e nt o f t h e evolving tech ecosystem in the country. While 2020 was a defining moment for fintech firms as they led the African continent in attracting the most investment in the entire tech ecosystem, regulations continue to evolve - often not living up to expectations of players in the space.

Fintech firms in the country operate with a mishmash of regulatory licenses including Mobile Money Operators (MMOs), Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs); Super Agents; and Microfinance Banks among others. As their names differ so does the process and the rules that govern them. The degree of impact on the firms also differ. Many of them also evolve much too quickly sometimes catching the firms unawares.

“Most micro-lenders have adopted the MFB licences and it seems to have been a good temporary solution, but now the government has increased the requirements making them so high that it’ll be very difficult for most to acquire as they are still startups,” said an executive of an online lending firm who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Also, because most of the licences are legacy licences there tend to be an overlap of functions. This allows some

firms who acquired the licences to do similar things to a certain extent with others with much costlier licences.

This has often led to the call for a single digital banking licence.

But some experts say the peculiarities of the fintech space makes the existence of different licences more practicable.

Adedeji Olowe, CEO of Trium, a venture capital firm, told BusinessDay that one licence would not be ideal because every firm in the space provides different products and services. For instance, Carbon is a full digital bank whereas Quickcheck offers micro-lending services.

“Fintech involves many

things: payments processing, settlements, savings and wallets services, investment advisory, foreign exchange services, remittance services, cryptocurrency processing, etc. It would be impracticable to create one single licensing regime to capture the intricate nuances of all these services,” Enyioma Madubuike, legal advisor at KoraPay told BusinessDay. The different licences still have something in common - payment processing. All the existing fintech product or technology has to be layered over some type of payment processing. Madubuike says this is possible because there is an elaborate licensing process with stringent requirements

for enabling payment processing services in Nigeria and for good reason.

“Payment processing is the backbone of any financial system especially in the digital age and the infrastructure built for payment processing should be closely guarded to avoid a collapse of the system,” he said.

But not every country agrees that the licences should be separate. The digital bank licence in Hong Kong, for instance, is exactly the same as for the commercial banks.

There are no different classes of licences or restriction on activities based on whether it is a fintech, commercial bank or consortium that holds the license. The licences banks are not subject to a test period

before they become fully operating banks. There is also no restriction and cap on taking deposits and banks can launch any retail banking products and services, even join the existing ATM networks.

Simon Loong, founder and group CEO of WeLab says the Hong Kong model benefits one of which is to allow banks, through an agreement between Hong Kong and Beijing to access the 70 million population of the Guangdong-Hong KongMacau Greater Bay Area, a megalopolis consisting of nine cities and two special administrative regions in south China.

Aside from Hong Kong, Canada and the UK have also created a payments services licence that captures all fintech and payment-related services which may include for example an eCommerce platform seeking to offer its users savings or wallet services.

“The advantage is that it allows for innovation in an environment of light-touch regulations. It should be noted however that this encompassing payments services license will not obviate the need for regulation on specific fintech services like investment advisory and crypto processing,” Enyioma said.

The Nigerian fintech space consists of about 210 startups that are mostly small in terms of size and valuation compared to startups in Hong Kong and China.

“I think the way they factor in ‘tiers’ in the regular banking

sector can also apply to the fintech sector, different tiers based on our offerings and capabilities, more tailored to our size and services offered, instead of lumping us all as fintech,” said a founder who pleaded anonymous to speak freely. “The government themselves have said the term is relatively broad, so why not break it down into groups.”

Currently, if you want to develop a consumer fintech product you must at least consider either obtaining a payment Solution Services Provider (PSSP) license from the CBN or you partner with a licensed party to bring your service to the customer.

“This means that one way or the other, Fintech services indirectly comply with minimum regulatory requirements.

On the other hand, this drives up the costs of business for Fintechs who either have to cough up huge amounts for the payments services license or share revenue with licensed providers,” Enyioma said.

Salami Abolore, founder and CEO of Riby Finance, a fintech platform for cooperatives and trade groups existing licencing has brought some structure into the fintech space. However, there is a need for faster and fully online regulatory clearance and licencing with less bureaucracy.

“Enforcement is where Regulators should do the work.

Licensing should be simpler and easier to encourage participation,” Abolore said.

South Africa, Nigeria dominate cryptocurrency market in Africa as insufficient internet dim prospects FRANK ELEANYA

S

outh Africa and Nigeria are the two dominant cryptocurrency markets on the Africa continent, according to a new report by Arcane Research in collaboration with Luno.

Two different surveys carried out by researchers showed that among internet users who owned cryptocurrency, South Africa ranked third-largest worldwide at 13 percent with Nigeria posting 5th at 11 percent. Another survey showed that 16 percent of South Africans with internet access had either used or owned cryptocurrency, ranking only behind Turkey, Brazil and Colombia.

Awareness of the market is also growing on the continent as the report noted that over the past 12 months, Google Trend

data has shown that Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana have all ranked in the top 10 on the topic of cryptocurrency.

Despite its potential, the market is still bogged down by challenges such as inadequate internet coverage. As of December 2019, internet penetration on the continent was at 39.3 percent less than the world average of 59 percent.

The internet inadequacy means that the continent lacks typical infrastructure that comes with a mature cryptocurrency market such as nodes, mining operations, supporting merchants, ATMs and exchanges.

For instance, of the 10,267 Bitcoin nodes in the world, Africa accounts for only 20 (0.2%).

The number is even smaller at 12 nodes for Ethereum, but the www.businessday.ng

percentage is about the same with Bitcoin at 0.2 percent.

South Africa is responsible for the vast majority of the existing nodes on the continent.

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network on the continent is similarly immature, the report says as Africa accounts for just 0.24 percent of BTC Lightning nodes, contributing just 0.07 percent of total network capacity, yet again with almost all contributions coming from South Africa.

The researchers, however, acknowledge that there might be more nodes as many people now operate nodes out of data centres like AWS. Nonetheless, there is low-level of adoption of blockchain technology on the continent.

Mining activities are also affected by poor access to quality internet couple with lack of electricity. Latest research

from CoinShares has found that there are no meaningful Bitcoin mining activity across Africa.

The legality of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is also a major problem as regulators on the continent often treat the market with hostility. Over 60 percent of African governments are yet to clarify their position on whether to legalise crypto assets or ban them. The market is also having to compete with mobile money services, it is a doubleedged sword. Mobile money has become incredibly popular in some African countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe.

“This uncertainty, while not an absolute barrier, is a drag on the speed of adoption,” the report noted.

But Luno and other exchanges on the continent have at various times reported increased adoption despite the

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challenges.

Launched in 2013, the Luno has offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos and has processed approximately $4.5 million per day on average in 2020. This is reflected in the overview of Luno’ fiat-to-crypto volume, where 75 percent of the trading volume has been in South African rand (ZAR) so far in 2020. Nigerian Naira (NGN) has accounted for 15 percent of Luno’s trading volume this year, and Malaysian ringgit (MYR) and the Euro (EUR) being used for 6 percent and 3 percent of the trades in 2020, respectively. Indonesian rupiah (IDR), Singapore dollar (SGD), Zambian kwacha and Ugandan shilling (UGX) accounts for less than 1 percent each.

Paxful, a P2P exchange is also highly popular across Africa, with 1,350,000 wallets, @Businessdayng

accounting for 45% of its global count. Adoption is being driven by high inflation and uncertainties in the economy, “Over the past 20 years, the majority of African nations have suffered from high inflation rates, robbing citizens of wealth and purchasing power. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that have limited supplies, disinflationary monetary models, and decentralized governance, offer protection against such effects,” the report said.

The growing demand for cryptocurrency has attracted the attention and investments of bigger international players like Binance and Huobi.

Binance has opened a new subsidiary in Uganda while offering NGN trading and ZAR deposits on its main exchange, in addition to KES deposits that just launched.

Friday 22 May, 2020

BUSINESS DAY

37

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Thursday 21 May, 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 21 May, 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS Company

Opening

Closing

Change

N176.9

N194.5

17.6

N32.4

N35.6

3.2

UNILEVER

N15.05

N16.45

1.4

GUINNESS

N17

N17.55

0.55

N16.5

N17

0.5

MOBIL BUACEMENT

ZENITHBANK

Company

ASI (Points)

Opening

Closing

Change

N21

N20

-1

ARBICO

N2.32

N2.09

-0.23

OANDO

N2.78

N2.62

-0.16

VOLUME (Numbers)

NPFMCRFBK

N1.97

N1.9

-0.07

VALUE (N billion)

N2.05

N2

-0.05

FLOURMILL

NEM

DEALS (Numbers)

MARKET CAP (N Trn)

24,758.39 5,239.00 350,765,865.00 3.706

Global market indicators FTSE 100 Index 6,015.25GBP -51.91-0.86%

Nikkei 225 20,552.31JPY -42.84-0.21%

S&P 500 Index 2,953.29USD -18.32-0.62%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 11,065.93EUR -157.78-1.41%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 24,434.00USD -85.00-0.35%

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 2,867.92CNY -15.81-0.55%

12.902

Four-day rally puts over N460bn in investors pockets Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

F

our days of rally on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has increased stock investors worth by about N461billion, the market’s trend watch shows.

Week-to-date (WtD), the stock market has in-

creased by 3.72 percent, while the month to date gain is 7.55 percent. Yearto-date (YtD) negative return has declined to -7.76 percent.

After another bullish outing (+1.25 percent) on Thursday May 21, equities value increased to N12.902trillion as against week-open low of 12.441trillion.

Also, the NSE All Share

Index (ASI) has risen to 24,758.39 points from week-open position of 23,871.33 points.

At the close of trading session on Thursday, investors in 5,239 deals exchanged 350,765,865 units valued at N3.706billion.

Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc rallied most from N176.9 to N194.5, adding N17.6 or 9.95 percent.

BUA Cement Plc N32.4

to N35.6, adding N3.2 or 9.88percent. Unilever share price rose from N15.05 to N16.45, adding N1.4 or 9.30 percent.

Guinness Nigeria Plc made the top advancers list after its share price moved from N17 to N17.55, adding 55kobo or 3.24 percent, while Zenith Bank rose from N16.5 to N17, adding 50kobo or 3.03percent.

MTS expands access to Mexican bond markets through Bondspro

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United Capital Daily insight: What is driving the rally in the equities market?

T

he equities market closed (Wednesday) on a bullish note for the third time in the week, up +1.3percent to close at 24,452.23 points. Notably, this brings year-to-date (YtD) return to -8.9percent. We recall that the market had earlier tumbled by over 20percent in March, following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic lockdown. However, the market has recovered by more than half the initial

downturn in not more than 9 weeks.

As of last trade, all sectors under our coverage closed higher with the banking sector (+2.8percent) leading the pack. 11 of 14 banking stocks advanced with ZENITH (+4.1percent), UBN (+4.7percent) and GUARANTY (+2.36percent) appreciating. Also, the industrial goods sector (+1.3percent) continued to recover on BUACEMENT (+1.9percent) and DANGCEM (+1.7percent). www.businessday.ng

Even the oil & gas (+0.1percent) sector saw buying interest amid gains in OANDO (+1.1percent). The consumer goods sector (+0.1percent) also gained due to interest in DANGSUGAR (+0.4percent), HONYFLOUR (+2percent) and PZ (+1.1percent).

The question on the mind of investors includes whether the uptrend is sustainable and what exactly is driving this recovery. In our opinion, the recovery in share prices is driven by: Rebalancing in the

oil market which has resulted in a 94percent rebound in oil prices from $18/barrel to about $35/barrel within a month; increasing indications that governments around the world will reopen their economies regardless of the anxiety around Covid-19; cheap market valuation of high quality stocks; sustained dividend declaration by corporates – translating into attractive dividend yield amid poor rates on T-bills; and sizable market liquidity.

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TS Markets International (MMI), part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), through its marketing a g re e m e n t w i t h Ma rc o Polo Securities (MPS), has expanded its client reach in Mexico. MPS will introduce the MTS BondsPro electronic trading platform to new and existing Mexican institutional clients in Latin America.

As part of this expansion, fixed income traders will have electronic order book access to Mexican pesodenominated corporate and treasury bonds, and will become part of the international B ondsPro trading community of more than 600 broker dealers and buy-side clients participating in the BondsPro all-to-all order book. Growing benefits of MTS BondsPro participation include liquidity from over 100 dedicated providers, access to over 20,000 corporate bonds with live prices daily, and a robust pre-trade data offering.

This move is part of a growing focus by MMI on the emerging markets trading community. In fact, MTS B o n d s P ro vo l u m e f ro m emerging markets more than doubled from 2018 to 2019, consistent with a growing interest in electronic trading @Businessdayng

of emerging market fixed income securities by global investors.

David Parker, Head of MTS Markets International said, “Given the heightened market volatility in recent months, it is more important than ever that fixed income traders globally have access to robust tools. We are delighted to extend access to our rapi dly grow i ng MTS BondsPro global fixed income community to a wider set of global market participants. This is a sign of growing global electronic volumes and a reflection of the increasing appeal of the all-to-all trading model for fixed income traders. We look forward to improving our access and service to our clients while welcoming new joiners to the BondsPro community.”

Chava Salvador Palma, Head of Sales Latin America, Marco Polo Securities said, “Marco Polo has a long history of innovation in the electronification of Latin American markets. MTS BondsPro is a new liquidity venue for Latin American fixed income institutional investors and we are excited to partner with a global brand and proven technology leader as we return to our mission of bringing efficiencies to Latin America’s capital markets.”

38

Friday 22 May, 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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@Businessdayng

Friday 22 May, 2020

BUSINESS DAY

39

Sports Deceased NFF Board member, Okenwa, for burial on June 10 Anthony Nlebem

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he Nigeria Football Federation has received notice from the Enugu State Football Association that Hon. Chidi Ofo Okenwa, a Member of the NFF Executive Committee who died on 5th May, will be buried on 10th June 2020.

The Enugu FA letter signed by the secretary, Francis Ugwu, read, inter alia: “We humbly wish to inform all the zonal chairmen that the family of Late Hon. Chidi Ofo Okenwa has scheduled the burial to hold on 10th June 2020 at his family compound. The family assured that the burial will be in accordance with the National/State conditions and directives for burial in the State.”

Ikem Okenwa, on behalf of the family and in a formal letter conveying the sad news to the NFF President, solicited for “your prayers and support during this trying period.”

Last week, before its meeting via video conferencing, Members of the NFF Executive

Anthony Nlebem

T Okenwa

Committee observed a minute silence in honour of the charismatic and eloquent Okenwa, who was part of the meeting held by the same provision on 24th April, before his death 11 days later.

The heartbroken board members, led by the President, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick, prayed fervently for the repose of the soul of the energetic and amiable former Chairman of the Nigeria National League and Chairman of the Enugu State Football Association.

LaLiga: Zidane hails fit and ready Real Madrid Anthony Nlebem

R

eal Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has expressed admiration at both the physical and mental form in which his players have returned from the coronavirus lockdown and vowed they would give everything to win a trophy.

“The players have worked well from home and that’s why they have come back on great form, this is going to be crucial,” Zidane said of their individual training plans.

“This week has been great because even working in small groups we can go further, work better, and next week will be even better.”

Coronavirus: FIFPro warns against punishing players who refuse to train

Real are two points behind Barcelona in Spain’s La Liga and the 12-time European champions also trail Manchester City after the first-leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

The Frenchman Zidane led Madrid to three Champions League titles in his first tenure at the helm of the club and hopes to win something in his first full season back in charge.

“After almost 60 days everyone is happy to get back here and catch up with each other, and to play some football, which is what they all love,” said Zidane.

“We’ll do everything to be ready for the restart and with eleven games to go we want to give it absolutely everything to win something.” www.businessday.ng

he head of global players’ union FIFPro has given his backing to footballers who do not want to return to training because of coronavirus fears and cautioned that it would be “inhumane and unacceptable” if they were to be punished for taking such a stance.

Jonas Baer-Hoffmann’s comments come after Troy Deeney of English Premier League side Watford refused to restart training ahead of a possible resumption of the season because he does not want to put his young child, who has breathing difficulties, at risk of catching the virus.

Deeney has also cited fears his family could be in danger because of figures that show black and ethnic minorities in the UK -- which has the highest recorded death toll in Europe -- are more likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19.

Deeney is “a player who has very legitimate concerns and wants to protect his family”, Baer-Hoffmann said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

“If these players are being pressured or potentially facing disciplinary actions, we feel that is very much unacceptable.

“The idea that somebody may be punished in a pandemic for trying to protect his family’s health is inhumane

and unacceptable.”

However, there is no suggestion that Watford are planning to take disciplinary action against Deeney.

Several players in England have voiced concerns about returning to training, even in small groups.

Watford were among the Premier League clubs affected by six positive tests for the virus out of a total of 748 tests conducted on Sunday and Monday.

England defender Danny Rose, on loan at Newcastle United from Tottenham Hotspur, said players were being treated like “lab rats” as the league attempts to get going again.

“No system can actually

exclude the risk of infection, so it is a question about the probability by which you minimise that risk and many of the systems that we are seeing and reading about -- not particularly England -- still leave many, many gaps and many risks,” Baer-Hoffmann said.

“If the players in England -of which Danny Rose is a part -- would like stricter rules then that needs to be discussed.”

Baer-Hoffmann admitted that plenty of players around the world were keen to get back playing despite the potential risks involved, but said FIFPro recommended that players undertake three to four weeks of training before beginning matches again due to the risk of injuries.

In England the Premier League has been suspended since March 13.

The financial consequences of not restarting would be potentially very serious for clubs, although players at the top level in England are in a better position than some of their counterparts around the globe.

Baer-Hoffmann highlighted the case of players in several Latin American countries, including Colombia and Uruguay, as well as in Botswana and Egypt, who are now relying on food packages from their local players’ union “because they cannot even provide for their own basic needs and are being stranded in terms of income”.

Qatar 2022 W/Cup: Organisers promise affordable tournament Anthony Nlebem

Q

atar has pledged to put on an affordable World Cup in two-anda-half years’ time with a postpandemic global recession looming.

The tournament is due to kick off in November 2022, something which was causing fixture schedulers of domestic leagues in Europe a headache even before the coronavirus crisis forced the suspension of their competitions.

Hassan Al Thawadi, the secretary general of the supreme committee for delivery and legacy of Qatar 2022, said his organisation plans to speak to others hosting sporting events, such as Tokyo 2020, to share ideas.

But he admits a recession

which inhibits the ability of football fans to travel to the Middle East is a concern for him and his colleagues.

Speaking at a conference, he said: “There are significant implications for employment, livelihoods, and the problem we have today is, what recovery is going to look like?

“It’s all right now unclear.

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We are entering into a recession, and there is no doubt there is a concern about the global economy and the ability of fans to afford travel and afford coming and celebrating the World Cup. “We have always said from day one this will be an affordable tournament; we want anyone who wants to be able to come to the World Cup to

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be able to come.

“We demonstrated that during the Club World Cup when we engaged with fans from all the different clubs, that the whole travel experience was affordable in terms of flights, in terms of accommodation.

“We are trying to understand what the recovery is going to look like, and we are still committed to a balance between an affordable World Cup and at the same time a price range which is functional for the industry and for service providers. That is one of the concerns that we have.”

Al Thawadi said the 2017 blockade of Qatar by other Middle East nations such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had not had an impact on preparations for the tournament, and had made the country “more resilient”

Women in Business

BUSINESS DAY Friday 22 May 2020 www.businessday.ng

By Kemi Ajumobi

Mofolusade Sonaike

Jane Amuta

MD/CEO Mumpreneur.ng, Trezorlandia Ltd. & Brand Ng

CEO, FIT Magodo & Creator, BodybyJane

M

ofolusade Sonaike is the MD/ CEO of Mumpreneur.ng. and Trezorlandia Limited. She is popularly referred to as the Mumpreneur, she is also a gift consultant, blogger, on air personality and an entrepreneurship advocate.

Mumpreneur.ng is a coaching platform for businesses owned by mothers. It hosts relevant information and offers training and support for mum owned businesses.

She has a background in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos with work experience spanning 4 years in the IT, Banking and Manufacturing sectors.

She exited the corporate world in 2010 to pursue her vision when she established Trezorlandia Limited, a gift consulting business. Her experiences with this transition have led her to become a strong voice for entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

Sonaike, who is also the CEO of Branded Ng, is an associate member of the Institute of Entrepreneurs, Nigeria, and the National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise. She is passionate about learning and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School (LBS) and a Techno Entrepreneur alumnus of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Techno Entrepreneurship Program.

Mofolusade worked in the banking sector for a while and got tired and bored because it was demanding and monotonous. She realized she wanted to change her career, so she left. She was working as a business analyst covering the cement manufacturing business.

Two years after she had her first son, it was like a turning point in her life. She had limited time to herself and realized she did not have the balance. Firstly, her work was far from home and was just never available as such to even attend important events for her son, so she resigned.

She began her business; she started it because she wanted to take control of her time. She wanted freedom to be able to be

what she wanted to be and get what she needed when she did.

On starting her gift company, being an Engineer and mostly surrounded by males who didn’t have a clue what to buy and wasn’t something fun thing to do (for them), she picked interest in it because but as a child, she did the shopping for her younger ones. So shopping had always been her ‘thing’. When her friends wanted to give out gifts, they would always come to ask her what to get. She did it for the fun of it. During this time, she was resigning from Dunwich and she thought to herself on the gift business, “I can do this”.

After several researches, she found some gift-consulting online. Apparently, somebody was doing it already, just not in Nigeria. So she immediately made a business from it and started her gift consulting business.

Analyzing why many women fall off the corporate ladder, Mofolusade says as you move up, the representation of women gets thinner and thinner. According to her, while some point to the patriarchy in society, others highlight the impostor syndrome that plagues a lot of women in the workplace. “Some publications have also pinpointed a confidence gap where women only push for roles that they feel they are at least 95 percent best fit for, whereas their male counterparts push anyway, even when they are only about 60 percent fit for it.” She said.

Sonaike through her consultations has heard women share stories of how they are sometimes skipped for promotions because of the demands of motherhood and as a result are made to make hard choices between attending to their homes versus the job.

As such, she helps organisations build a more inclusive work environment that encompasses the needs of working mothers in order to improve their productivity and at same time be of benefit to the organisation.

J

ane quit banking six years ago and ventured into private business as a fitness, health and beauty entrepreneur, currently teaching thousands of people around the world through her free online fitness programme, throughout the Covid-19 lockdown period on Instagram @bodybyjane Live at 7.15 every morning for 40-60 minutes.

The dream for the business started as far back as her NYSC days in Okene, Kogi state. She recalls that she used to assemble fellow corpers into fitness squads and take them for morning runs as a way of encouraging them to share her passion for fitness.

Her state of the art facility, located in upscale Magodo GRA in Ikeja, has grown in the last six years to become a leading brand in the industry. As she proudly says, “When you enjoy what you do for a living, the challenge becomes a pleasure ride”.

Jane has a holistic approach to fitness, health and wellness: ‘The essence of fitness is all what you do to avoid needing to see a doctor...If you keep fit through regular exercise and you maintain a healthy diet, your chances of living a healthy life are improved greatly’.

There is a social service dimension to Jane’s commitment and work in health and fitness. She is concerned about prevalent health problems like obesity especially among women and busy executives.

Working with clients in her weight loss programmes gives her great satisfaction when she sees previously obese women and men lose weight and regain health, self-confidence and improved physical appearance. She says: “Once they see the gains, they never want to go back to the old life style.”

As an entrepreneur in the small to medium enterprise bracket, her outfit employs over 30 young Nigerians ranging from certified gym trainers to hair stylists, nail technicians, spa therapists and

professional chefs.

She insists that the Nigerian work force can compete with their peers anywhere else if given the right incentives, work environment and necessary training.

She is quick to admit the challenges of entrepreneurship in the Nigerian business environment. For an industry that requires power supply 24/7, the energy cost can be a challenge.

“There is also the difficulty of capital support by the banking sector which is usually reluctant to extend support to new sectors.” She said.

Jane is able to sustain and expand her client base by insisting on best practices and international standards in an industry that prides itself in professionalism, hygiene and commitment to customer satisfaction.

On the effect of Covid-19 on her business, she says it has been both a challenge and an opportunity. With gyms and personal care facilities closed for over two months now, she has discovered the immense potentials of the digital world.

Although she has been delivering her workout and diet counseling sessions online at no charge through the lockdown period, she sees the digital medium as a new frontier for businesses that does not require constant physical contact. She is now able to reach a wider constituency in the areas of fitness training and nutritional counseling.

“People can avoid traffic hassles and still meet their fitness goals through our online training classes while those in proximity can come and use the gym.

Unfortunately, you cannot get a haircut, a pedicure or spa therapy through your smart phone” she stated.

For Jane, the joy of pursuing her passion into a thriving enterprise has been made possible by a supporting family life.

Married with two boys, she says she has struck the right balance between work and family life.

For sponsorship and advert placement contact: kemi@businessdayonline.com Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Advert Hotline: 08033225506. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Patrick Atuanya. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.