BusinessDay 24 Apr 2020

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news you can trust I ** friDAY 24 april 2020 I vol. 19, no 549

Foreign investor dollars in lockdown in Nigeria debt market

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oreign investors are trapped in Nigeria’s debt market as dollar liquidity dries up due to a lack of fresh inflows, reports Bloomberg.

Some bondholders who sold local-currency securities in March have been unable to repatriate their proceeds weeks after.

Dollar inflows in Africa’s largest oil-producing nation have taken a hit from a plunge in crude, which accounts for 90 percent of foreign-exchange earnings.

The investors and exporters market where foreigners buy dollars is trading $20 million a day on average compared with when it used to trade $300 million to $400 million per day two months ago, Akinbamidele Akintola, Stanbic IBTC equity analyst, said by phone.

“Everyone is a buyer of dollars but there is hardly any seller” after the central bank stopped

₦3,016,255.69 +3.63

N300

Sell

$-N 412.00 427.00 £-N 483.00 500.00 €-N 423.00 442.00

Crude Oil $ 22.11

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Buy

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Market

Spot ($/N)

3M 0.00 2.45

I&E FX Window CBN Official Rate

383.00 361.00

Currency Futures

NGUS mar 31 2021 393.03

($/N)

fgn bonds

Treasury bills

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6M

5Y 0.00

-0.15 2.79

9.67

NGUS mar 29 2023 402.11

@

10 Y -0.09

30 Y -0.16

11.77

12.47

NGUS mar 26 2025 412.41

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COVID-19: How essential workers battle odds to provide services ODINAKA ANUDU, BALA AUGIE, ISAAC ANYAOGU, ANTHONIA OBOKOH, DIPO OLADEHINDE, MICHAEL ANI , BUNMI BAILEY & OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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n a group photo taken last week, health workers at Lagos Teaching Hospital held placards which read: “We stay here for you.

Please stay home for us”.

In the raging battle to contain the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, health workers have

become the face of those at the frontline. Several others, though less visible, are working daily too to keep the light on, fuel in cars and generators, and steady supply of food and drugs.

Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, are together home to almost a third of the

population and account for a significant proportion of the economy. They are at the centre of partial lockdown Nigeria is implementing in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Africa’s most populous country.

The almost one month-long lockdown has halted move-

ments, except for those who provide essential services.

Health care workers in Nigeria, the most visible and directly involved in the battle, are putting their lives on the line in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, despite the dearth of personal protective equipment Continues on page 27

Continues on page 27

Inside

Over 40 health workers test positive for COVID-19 – Health minister P. 2 APM Terminals Apapa lifts port operations with N33.6bn investment P. 2 in upgrade

L-R: Cyril Okoro, commissioner of police, Port Authority Police, Western Command, Apapa, Lagos; David Skov, head of terminals, Africa and Middle East region, APM Terminals; Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); Onari Brown, executive director, marine and operations, NPA, and Martin Jacob, managing director, APM Terminals Apapa, at the commissioning of two new multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art Mobile Harbor Cranes acquired by APM Terminals Apapa, in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

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news All On completes solar-powered electrification of Rivers’ COVID-19 Isolation Centre … Project is part of N180m COVID-19 Relief Fund Ignatius Chukwu, Port Harcourt

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ll On says it has completed a solar-powered electrification project at the Rivers State COVID-19 Isolation Centre located in Eleme near Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.

The Shell-funded All On said it executed the project through one of the rising innovative firms in the off-grid sector, GVE. All On said it was pleased to pull off the project being the completion of a 9.6Kw solar and 30kWh battery storage solution at the Rivers State COVID-19 Isolation Facility at the General Hospital, Ogale, Nchia, near Port Harcourt.

BusinessDay gathered that the installation would provide uninterrupted power supply for medical and other appliances at the Eleme COVID-19 isolation facility.

All On was established

by Shell to contribute to addressing Nigeria’s access to energy gap through impactinvesting and the creation of an enabling environment for players in the off-grid sector

to thrive.

Through the COVID-19 Solar Relief (CSR) Fund, All On said it is contributing to interventions nationwide by providing a green power solution to aid in the containment and treatment of the virus, while also creating awareness of solar power for the development of the Nigerian economy.

Speaking, Wiebe Boer, CEO of All On, lauded GVE for the progress made thus far in Rivers State.

“In line with our mission, this project is another demonstration of our commitment to supporting relief efforts in the Niger Delta during these critical times and we commend GVE for its professional and timely execution,” Boer said.

He said GVE’s installation was executed from All On’s N180m COVID-19 Relief Fund (CSR) launched on March 31 aimed at supporting national efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic via four investee-companies – Auxano, Arnergy, GVE and Lumos. They are providing solar power for emergency health centres.

COVID19: DisCos lose 60% revenue as failure to meter customers haunts ISAAC ANYAOGU

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lectricity distribution companies (DisCos) are reporting an estimated 60 percent loss of revenue as customers hunkering down at home without prepaid meters are prioritising food over settling electricity bills.

Under normal circumstances, many customers reluctantly settle their bills due to the threat of disconnection, but with the hardship from the lockdown to check the spread of the coronavirus, many are not paying for power and DisCos are not disconnecting them as frequently as they did, resulting in a collapse of revenue.

“In this difficult time, a customer who has N20,000 will rather buy food than pay electricity bill, this was always going to happen,” said Adetayo Adegbimle, convener of PowerHub Nigeria, a customer energy sector advocacy group.

This means that only those on prepaid meters which make up about 40 percent of electricity customers in Nigeria are still settling their bills.

According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) data, of the 9,674,729 registered electricity customers, only 3,895,497 or 40.26 percent have been

metered.

“Thus, 59.74 percent of the registered electricity customers are still on estimated billing which has contributed to customer apathy towards payment for electricity,” NERC said.

Chuks Nwani, an energy lawyer, said the regulator, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) and the market operator would need to factor this in when they are making a request for debt settlement.

However, that does not seem to be the case.

Abdullahi Abdullazeez, spokesman of Kaduna DisCo, said the market operator is threatening to call the company’s Letter of Credit.

Apart from lower revenue, many businesses are not open on account of the lockdown leading to lower energy demand. Yet, the DisCos continue to take the same volumes of energy supplied prior to the lockdown which they would be required to pay for.

Last month, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company announced that it would stop disconnections for nonpaying customers within its franchise area during the lockdown announced on March 24 for two weeks. This has now stretched into a month and another period of two weeks is in the offing. www.businessday.ng

COVID-19 Isolation Centre, Eleme, near Port Harcourt, Rivers State, powered by All On through GVE.

Over 40 health workers test positive for COVID-19 – Health minister … As FG again appeals against stigmatisation of patients TONY AILEMEN, INNOCENT ODOH, HARRISON EDEH & JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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ver 40 health workers in the frontline of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic have tested positive to the killer virus while a good number have been quarantined in the last two weeks due to exposure, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, disclosed on Thursday at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.

Nigeria has 873 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 197 recoveries and 28 deaths as at 6:00pm on Thursday.

With the rising number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the country, the Federal Gov-

ernment once again appealed to Nigerians not to stigmatise patients.

Ehanire assured health workers that government would continue to provide them with the necessary PPEs but urged them to take all necessary precautions for their own safety, remain vigilant in the line of duty and maintain a high index of suspicion for COVID-19.

He warned health workers not to treat any patient without using adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and insisted that frontline health workers must undertake refresher course on continuous professional training.

The minister said the strategy adopted by Nigeria to treat COVID-19 is to admit all persons who test positive for the virus into designated accredited treatment facilities to contain its spread and ensure prompt management to forestall complications.

“I urge all individuals who test positive for COVID-19 to report at any of our designated isolation and treatment centres. The FMoH must be able to account for all infected persons and ascertain containment of the infection,” Ehanire said.

“States are strongly encouraged to ensure that all persons who test positive for COVID-19 are admitted at the designated centres and

ensure the public suffers no hazard from choices individuals make. The Federal Ministry of Health can assist all persons seeking privacy, security and anonymity to find the best treatment,” he said.

Ehanire said contact tracing is key to containing the infection, adding that as persons are confirmed positive for COVID-19, all contacts they had in the preceding 14 days are traced.

“This is a tedious and meticulous activity for which the cooperation of the public is always sought. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has finalised contact tracing guidelines with all states to actively aid case finding,” Ehanire said.

APM Terminals Apapa lifts port operations with N33.6bn investment in upgrade … commissions 2 new Mobile Harbor Cranes AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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anaging director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman, on Thursday commissioned two new multimillion-dollar stateof-the-art Mobile Harbor Cranes (MHCs) acquired

by APM Terminals to boost service delivery at the Apapa Port, Lagos.

The new cranes were acquired as part of APM Terminals’ additional investment of $80 million (N33.6 billion) for the year 2020-2021, bringing the total investment by the company in Apapa since

2006 to $438 million (about N184 billion), which is the highest by any private terminal operator in Nigeria.

While commending the management of APM Terminals for acquiring the new cranes, Bala-Usman said ports were concessioned by the Federal Government to private operators to improve service efficiency and free government resources for other developmental purposes.

According to her, cargo volumes at Nigerian ports have witnessed a steady rise due to favourable government policies.

Bala-Usman said NPA

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has and would continue to engage with private terminal operators at the port to rise up to the challenge of the increased cargo traffic.

“NPA’s engagement with terminal operators is yielding tangible results as evidenced by the commissioning of the two new Mobile Harbor Cranes, among others. As ports become more efficient, efforts must be made to enhance cargo delivery process and free the ports of longstanding cargoes,” she said.

The NPA boss, however, expressed worry over the growing volume of overtime container in the port, calling on cargo owners and their @Businessdayng

agents to utilise the period of the lockdown to take delivery of their consignments at the port.

She assured that the NPA was also engaging with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to remove overtime containers from the port in order to free vital space for incoming cargo.

“We are also working with terminal operators to increase the barging of containers to take pressure off the roads. We have noted a significant growth in barging capacity and operations with more containers moved daily by barges from the port,” she said.

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COVID-19: ECOWAS seeks debt relief for African countries Tony Ailemen, Abuja

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resident Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday advocated for total debt cancelation for African countries to enable the continent battle the current coronavirus pandemic.

President Buhari stated this on Thursday in Abuja as he participated via teleconference, in an extraordinary summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).

The Nigerien president, Mahamadou Issoufou, who spoke in French language, advocated for total debts cancellation for African countries to enable the African continent survive the post-coronavirus era.

ECOWAS had while commending the World Bank and Africa Development Bank (AfDB) for their contributions so far towards fighting the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, urged the

two financial institutions to do more for the African continent so as to save more lives.

The summit was conveyed by the regional leaders to deliberate on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has continued to ravage humanity worldwide.

In his remarks at the event, chairman of the ECOWAS and President of Niger Republic, Mahamadou Issoufou, raised alarm over the devastating effects of the deadly virus on human and economies of the member-states.

He, therefore, called for collaborative efforts among the member-states to combat the pandemic, which he said had already claimed many lives in the region and beyond.

Special representative of the United Nations Secretary General for West Africa and the Sahel (SRSG), Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who spoke at the event, reiterated the determination of

the UN to continue to partner the African Union the ECOWAS in fighting the deadly Coronavirus.

He also called for debt cancellation for African countries as part of palliatives to cushion the effects of the virus on their various economies.

President of ECOWAS, JeanClaude Kassi Brou, had earlier in April in a statement announced financial donations and equipment to its member states in support of their fight against the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kassi Brou reaffirmed the commission’s solidarity with member states as they battle to contain the COVID-19 scourge.

About 13 ECOWAS leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, are participating in the teleconference as at the time of filing this report. At the end of the meeting, President Buhari was made the head of ECOWAS Covid-19 response committee.

Diana Chen donates ambulance, face masks, N20m to fight COVID-19 in Nigeria GBEMI FAMINU

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he affordable luxury automobile brand GAC Motors is among several businesses that have donated to the cause of combating the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

Diana Chen, chairman, CIG Motors Co., promoter of the GAC Motor Brand in Nigeria, has joined the list of notable Nigerian heroes who are pushing the frontlines in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria.

Members of the Nigerian Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19, made up of business moguls like Aliko Dangote, Femi

Otedola, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Tony Elumelu, Herbert Wigwe, Segun Agbaje and Jim Ovia had earlier announced their contributions to the fight, and now to be recently joined by Chief Diana, who has continued to show commitment in phasing out this terrible dark period for the Nigerian people.

“Now more than ever”, she says, “we all need to show serious concern and commitment to eliminating the threat of this virus so that we can return to our daily lives before the outbreak.” She also emphasised that this cannot be achieved by the government alone, but by private organisations and individuals playing a

part in helping the government achieve its goal. Through her donations and efforts, Chief Diana and her foundation assured continued show of solidarity with the Nigerian people in the fight against COVID-19.

Her voice has been crucial in rallying the Chinese business community in the country to also support the government’s efforts in this pandemic. These efforts in helping the government fight the damaging pandemic has not only shown her deep community interest in Lagos state, but it also goes a long way to impact ordinary Nigerians for whom aid might have been otherwise out of reach.

COVID-19: NNPC, IPPG kick start support SEGUN ADAMS

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n line with its commitment to the Nigeria oil and gas industry intervention initiative on the COVID-19 pandemic, being championed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) in partnership with NNPC has made an initial donation of 5,000 protective suits and goggles/eyewear; 2,500 -FFP2/ N95 face masks, 500,000 protective surgical face masks and four brand new and fully-kitted Toyota Hiace ambulances to support the national effort at mitigating the impact and curbing the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

The donation, which was made at an event held in Lagos, is the first in a series of donations that will culminateintheprovisionofadditional medical equipment, grassroots sensitisationandmedicalinfrastructure as part of IPPG’s support of the Federal Government’s effort on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A healthy and prosperous Nigeria is an imperative for national growth and development making it important to support this laudable NNPC-led intervention which ensures the industry proactively and sustainably supports all those affected by this pandemic from patients to our first responders, frontline medics and caregivers, and every other impacted

person,” Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, chairman IPPG said.

“As a nation, we can only effectively address this pandemic through a widespread and concerted effort by all stakeholders.

IPPG is committed to working collaboratively to tackle this pandemic and believes in the resilience of the nation which will overcome this challenge,” he said.

The next set of donations will include other medical consumables, logistics and in-patient support systems such as facemasks, COVID-19 test kits, ventilators, hospital beds, additional ambulances and others medical equipment. There are also plans for the construction of a medical facility and a fully equipped molecular diagnostics laboratory.

In addition to these, IPPG is embarking on a large scale grassroots sensitisation campaign to further strengthen calls for social distancing, hand washing and other practices that promote good hygiene and limit the spread of COVID-19 – for maximum impact, this is being undertaken in partnership with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Also working in partnership with the NCDC, there are plans to deploy a web-based application for enhanced tracking of the spread of infectious diseases and providing critical data for optimised resource deployment nationwide. www.businessday.ng

Established in 2015, IPPG is an association of indigenous Exploration and Production (E&P) companies with a current membership of twenty-six (26) companies. The Group was set up to promote and advance the development of the Nigerianpetroleumindustry.Itconstructivelyengagesgovernmentand other stakeholders with the primary goal of maximising the contribution of the domestic oil and gas industry totheoverallsocio-economicdevelopment of Nigeria.

The current members of IPPG are - Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production, AMNI International Petroleum Development Company, Dansaki Petroleum, Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria, Eroton Exploration and Production Company, Energia, FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company, First Hydrocarbon Nigeria Company, Frontier Oil, Green Energy International, Lekoil Nigeria, Midwestern Oil and Gas Nigeria, ND Western, Newcross Exploration and Production, Network Exploration & Production Limited, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, Oando Oil, Oriental Energy Resources, Pillar Oil, Platform Petroleum, Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Shoreline Natural Resources, Suntrust Oil Company Nigeria, Vertex Energy, Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited and Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

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COVID-19: IMF creates short-term liquidity line to enhance financial safety net Hope Moses-Ashike

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n the context of intensified demand for liquidity and heightened global uncertainty, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board has approved a Short-term Liquidity Line (SLL) to enhance adequacy of financial safety net of its members.

Nigeria is a member country of IMF. TheCovid-19pandemichascreated severe disruption in the global financial system, with many emergingmarketanddevelopingcountries (EMDCs) facing liquidity shortages.

In a statement by the Washington based Fund released on Wednesday night, the SLL approval was made by the board on April 15, 2020.

The SLL is a special facility designed as a revolving and renew-

able backstop for members with very strong fundamentals and policy track records. It provides liquidity support for members facing potential short-term moderate balance of payments difficulties, reflected in pressures on the capital account and reserves, and resulting from volatility in international capital markets.

The SLL aims to reduce the impact of liquidity events and minimise the risk of shocks evolving into deeper crises and generating spillovers to other countries.

Executive Directors considered and approved the establishment of the Short‑term Liquidity Line (SLL), as part of the Fund’s COVID‑19 response. They noted that the SLL would fill a gap in the Fund’s toolkit and complement other layers of the global financial safety net.

Directors agreed that the SLL can provide important liquidity support to members with very strong policy frameworks and fundamentals facing potential short‑term moderate balance of payments (BOP) difficulties, as specified in the proposed decision.

They noted that this could help prevent liquidity pressures developing into solvency crises and avoid spillovers to the broader membership.

Despite some differences in views and preferences, Directors were willing to support the proposal in a spirit of compromise.

The directors supported the creation of the SLL for a period of 7 years, with an expectation that, by end‑2025, the Executive Board will decide whether to extend the facility beyond the 7‑year period.

They agreed that this compromise

approach would balance concerns about the innovative nature of the SLLandthepotentialimpactonFund resources.Directorslookedforwardto reviewing the initial experience with the SLL, as part of the next review of the Fund’s FCL and Precautionary and Liquidity Line in 2022.

Directors broadly supported the core design features of the SLL, built on the work done in 2017. They considered that the revolving access of up to 145 percent of quota should provide cover against most repeated moderate shocks that the SLL is designed to address, and that the availability of successor arrangements, subject to continued qualification and the presence of the special BOP need, would ensure that the SLL is a reliable backstop.

COVID-19: NASCO Group donates N20m products to Lagos Daniel Obi

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n line with its corporate commitment, to always provide quality life, NASCO Group has supported the fight against COVID-19 with the donation of products worth N20 million to Lagos State.

Speaking at the presentation to the Lagos State government representatives in Ikeja, Rotimi Oyesiji, general manager, marketing, representing Attia Nasreddin, executive chairman of NASCO Group, said in a statement made available to BusinessDay: “NASCO Group Nigeria is in many respects pleased to continue to be a part of the journey of Nigeria as a nation”.

According to Oyesiji, “This pandemic offers us all a chance to engage our today and tomorrow with a different type of energy.

Indeed, our economic and social life may never be the same again, but today, we have a definite choice to make: to become a more caring and engaged community, so that together, we shall always advocate for the realization of a better health care system, offering wider access to more of our people, ultimately”.

The items comprised NASCO products, and are made up of: One

trailer load of Action Detergent multipurpose, for hand washing, cleaning of surfaces and related hygiene practices in Lagos and Ogun states. One trailer load of NASCO Whole Flaked Cornflakes (to feed persons in COVID-19 isolation centres in Lagos and the Ogun states; to serve vulnerable and deserving communities including in Internally Displaced Peoples’ IDP - camps), the statement said.

Accepting the products on behalf of Lagos State government, PereiraSheteolu,programmemanager, Lagos State Ministry of Agric Development Authority, expressed gratitude to the NASCO Group for joining the fight against COVID-19.

It is a thing of gladness to have such a big brand in the status of NASCO to be part of this fight and the entire Lagos State executive appreciates and commends NASCO Group for stepping up to the challenge, Sheteolu said.

The presentation of the products is the third part of a series of the commitment of NASCO Group to the fight against COVID-19 with earlier presentation of products to Plateau State, Federal Capital Territory and cash donation to the Federal Government as “we believe in the Nigeria project” Rotimi said.

Yele Badamosi to lead Africa-focused payments app backed by Binance FRANK ELEANYA

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L-R: James Iwunze, national sales manager, Nasco Group; Olayiwola Onasanya, permanent secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, and Rotimi Oyesiji, general manager, NASCO Group, during the presentation of NASCO products in support of the fight against COVID-19.

Anxiety, depression take toll on 30% of Nigerians amid COVID-19 Kemi Ajumobi

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he outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on people’s mental stability across the globe as over 350 million people worldwide currentlysufferfromdepressionand other mental illnesses, according to experts.

In Nigeria, about 25-30 percent ofcitizenssufferanxietyanddepression, and there are predictions that the number of cases will spike.

The growing cases of mental instability arise from the fear, panic, stress and anxiety that have trailed the pandemic which has forced governments across the world to shut down social and economic activities in major cities.

“Approximately 25 to 30 percent

…experts suggest ways to ease burden of Nigerians suffer from one form of anxiety or depression in this period of COVID-19. Considering multiple sources of information available, where many are conduit of fake news, anxiety can easily be reinforced,” said Muideen Owolabi Bakare, chief consultant psychiatrist/head, child and adolescent unit, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Enugu.

The need to curb the spread of the virus led the Federal Government to impose a lockdown on Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State, and various state governors followed up with various levels of restrictions in their states.

Apart from consistent inflow of news (both fake and real) and the lockdown, fear of the unknown,

increasing numbers of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths, social distancing, lack or loss of jobs, rising insecurityandhungerhavecontributed to the increasing rate of anxiety and depression. said Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, psychiatrist/psychotherapist and MD, Pinnacle Medical Services, said lockdown fatigue, distorted sleep patterns, fear of the unknown, anxiety about the future, depression and suicidal thoughts top complaints by her patients in this time of COVID-19, while Steve Harris, management consultant and chief executive officer, EdgeEcution, said most of the people he is coaching in this season are concerned about howlongthelockdownisgoingtobe and when they can return to work.

“I have been telling them to use this lockdown as an opportunity to be more introspection and ask, ‘How can I come out of this better?’, ‘How can I keep the customers’ attention even if they’re not buying as they usually would?’,‘How can I add more value to them and make sure I build a stronger emotional connection with them?’,” Harris said.

“Just breathe. Be grateful. It could be a lot worse. You’re alive and hopefully haven’t been affected physically by this virus. We might never get this much free time ever again. Now is the time to love on yourself, accomplish some goals, bond with your family and loved ones and more importantly, create some beautiful memories with those around you,” he said.

The Daily Sun seeks IG’s intervention in abuse, life ban of Ebonyi correspondent Temitayo Ayetoto

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ne of Nigeria’s mainstream news media, The Daily Sun, has sought the intervention of the Inspector General of Police in a strain of human right abuse, life ban and harassment unleashed on ChijiokeAgwu,itsAbakalikireporter, fordischarginghislegalandconstitutional duty as a journalist.

With endorsement from Dave Umahi,Ebonyistategovernor,Agwu was threatened, harassed and arrested for the publication of an April 17, 2020 feature report on the level of Lassa fever outbreak, Onuoha Ukeh, the managing director of The Daily

Sun, claimed in a letter to the IGP. Agwu had written a report entitled “Anxiety, fear, as Lassa fever wreaks havoc in Ebonyi” based on data released by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), but it didn’t sit well with the governor who has since accused the reporter of a superfluous representation of the situation and an intent to incite fear among residents.

The governor on Monday, Wednesday, April 22, 2020 took the aggressive reaction a nudge higher by imposing a life ban on Agwu - by implication The Sun Newspaper as an organisation - from covering the state’s activities, accessing the www.businessday.ng

Government House and all facilities controlled by it.

“The initial plan of the Governor and the Commissioner of Police was to hurriedly arraign him before a Magistrate’s Court on trumped-up charges of violating the Ebonyi State Coronavirus and Other Dangerous (Infectious) Diseases and Related Matters Law (No. 005) 2020. However, it took the intervention of the Police High Command and well-meaning Nigerians before Mr. Agwu eventually regained his freedom after spending several hours in police custody with the associated ill-treatments, like intimidation, harassment and

denial of access to justice,” Ukeh stated in the letter.

“We are deeply concerned and worried over the above acts of infringement on human rights displayed by the Governor of Ebonyi State and the Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State. The ill-treatments metedouttoMr.ChijiokeAgwu(and by extension to our organisation) amountstoaviolationof rightstohuman dignity, freedom of movement, freedom of association and freedom of expression (including rights to gather, write, publish and circulate news), which are all guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).”

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ele Badamosi, director of Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the global cryptocurrency company, Binance, has on Thursday announced the launch of Bundle, a social payments app.

Bundle, which has been in the works for months, had since September closed a successful preseed fundraise — raising $450,000 from Binance.

A statement on Binance says while Bundle is the first of many projects incubated within the Binance ecosystem, Bundle operates as an independent entity from Binance. In the past, Binance has either invested in companies via Labs or given out grants via Binance X. Binance backs Bundle together with other African investors.

According to Badamosi, the new social payments app is on a mission to drive cryptocurrency adoption on the continent by making it easy and fun to use, bringing more economic freedom and prosperity to all Africans. Bundle is expected to evolve into a superapp with a native digital wallet that

supports crypto and cash. “We plan to bundle Social Media + Financial Technology into one seamless experience, this enables us to create a new category of delightful experiences and use cases for our community of users,” he said.

On Bundle, users can buy, sell, and store digital currencies such as BNB, BTC, and ETH, as well as deposit and withdraw digital currencies and local fiat starting with the Nigerian naira (NGN) and many more fiat currencies in the coming weeks. The transactions can be processed through existing payment channels such as cards, bank transfer, and mobile money as well as safety stored in Bunble’s smart wallet.

“We built Bundle with the digitally native African user in mind. They are social, online, and connected across geographical boundaries. They prefer their financial services delivered digitally via mobile apps as opposed to visiting brick and mortar bank branches. We decided to build a mobile wallet that supports cash and crypto, and makes using crypto feel like just another digital financial transaction done on a mobile app,” Bademosi said.

Coronavirus: Shell MD, UNIBEN VC back Edo fundraising drive …stress on strict enforcement of facemask policy

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anaging director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Osagie Okunbor, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Lilian Salami, have thrown their weight behind the Edo State government’s fundraising efforts, calling on Edo sons and daughters to join in collectively combating the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

They made the submission during the inaugural meeting of the Edo State COVID-19 Fundraising Committee held virtually, to mobilise resources to buffer government’s efforts at containing the spread of the deadly virus.

Okunbor, who maintained that there was a need for government to continue to drive communication @Businessdayng

for people to stay at home, said it was brilliant to balance the economic realities of the times with the challenge of coronavirus.

According to Okunbor, “We need to ensure that we deploy communication channels to reach more of our people. So, it is important to engage with them.

“Balancing the spread of the economic circumstances with the effects of the spread of the virus is important as well. Trying to get people to stay at home is important.

That is why getting workers from level 12 and below to work from home is a good idea. It has been done in Lagos and Abuja. The lower cadres of staff are working from home there. I also want to stress that it is important for people to comply with the usage of facemasks.”

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Coronavirus: The media is on the frontlines Tales from the main road

Eugenia Abu

F

or years as an active Broadcast Journalist, I hardly got time off and was on duty back to back as the news never ends. This state of things was daunting for my family and pretty stressful for me. While people took breaks at weekends, I would be on duty on a fine Sunday morning.

The profession had chosen me and I had also chosen it. This kind of schedule that I had meant that during many Christmas holidays I was either on an editorial team at work or I was in fact producer of the leading NTA network news at nine or I was a newsreader or in some circumstances all of the above. And these were mostly during normal times. The stress would become heightened in difficult circumstances and one could remain in the newsroom for three days running if the situation was serious and would not even go home. It’s a tough field.

The public wanted information and depended on you for it. Your job was not to disappoint them.

With the Coronavirus pandemic up in the air worldwide with no vac-

cine and no end in sight, the public is glued to their Televisions, newspapers and Radios to get authentic information about what in fact was going on.

The media has become where everyone is swimming now to get their voices heard above the din of politics, fights, disagreements between world leaders and the frustration of health organisations worldwide. All of this in the face of grim stories of death and ailments. For the reporter and those gathered in the newsroom day in day out, it can be suffocating and overwhelming. Journalists are first of all human beings and in the face of overwhelming ceaseless bad news, they can suffer anxiety attacks and depression being so close to the stories and having to cover them. It is reported that many newsreaders and reporters who covered the 9/11 tragedy in the United States ended up with mental health challenges especially those who were directly involved in the coverage. So much research is out there to prove that indeed this is the case.

With Coronavirus spreading at such an unbelievable rate and being so contagious, media persons report other persons and have no one to talk about their own stress. In the middle of all of this, they must continue to bring you statistics, updates and coverages non-stop. As one who has walked their path and still does, I can speak for my colleagues worldwide and know that they are on the frontline and are committed to bringing the

stories for as long as it takes. Together with health workers everywhere in the world, they are battling the virus as best as they can. While the health workers are working with patients in hospital and doing their very best everywhere, the journalist is bringing us the efforts of the health workers, breakthrough in science and general information and stories of hope.

Mid-march I spoke to my Editor, Amina Alhassan at the Trust newspapers and she was tired and already stressed out. Why are you sounding like that, I asked her? Work is overwhelming, she said. I know I told her.

You need to breathe and take snatches of breaks whenever you can find one.

No one knew how devastating this was going to be. And here we are.

An American Newsreader from MSNBC broke down when she announced the death of a colleague from Coronavirus. Rob Osbourne, a news correspondent from ITV writes that “This is a marathon, we are in it for the long haul.” BBC in the meantime says they will continue to provide support for their staff by providing structures to keep them covering the Pandemic for as long as they can.

That support is what employers need to provide across board across countries for media workers and journalists who have to continuously bring us the stories, the policies, the updates and the statistics. Media owners should protect their staff and insure them. They should also give palliatives, bonuses and provisions

‘

With Coronavirus spreading at such an unbelievable rate and being so contagious, media persons report other persons and have no one to talk about their own stress. In the middle of all of this, they must continue to bring you statistics, updates and coverages nonstop

to make their jobs easier. Journalists must also learn to take breaks and breathe and structures must not keep the same person exposed to this information for long without giving them short breaks to allow them refuel.

Journalists also have families and the work they do and their absence from home can affect their families and put them under pressure. Journalist are advised to speak to loved ones as often as they can, try to get enough sleep and eat healthy.

Let’s think about journalists and media persons on the frontline. They need our prayers and our support.

They are also heroes in these uncertain times.

I salute all our health workers worldwide who are doing amazing work. But I would also like us to raise our hands up for another set of persons in the frontline. Without the media we would never have known of the world war veteran in the UK, 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore who has raised Millions of pounds for NHS charities to help with the treatment of Coronavirus in the United Kingdom Salute to the Media and the workers therein worldwide. Cameramen, editors, reporters, editorial staff, writers, columnists, newsreaders and their management. Hands up for the Media!

Our prayers are with you all.

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

The big reset

T

hank you for those who know me personally and who got back to me after the last two posts. I actually wrote the posts way back in 2017. I had wanted to go back to write on what I had promised to write but feel constrained to be more topical because truth be told, things may have changed forever. Only time will tell. I therefore did some research and have come back here to bring some of the research back home.

Remote work is real and it’s big: Besides those in the food industry everybody else is either working remotely or not at all. If you work in Lagos, you are o the fourth week and so it is almost the new normal. By now most organisations are meeting via zoom, WhatsApp and many are using Microsoft teams. This is just a few of the methods.

The challenge with this is that of a lack of good infrastructure like electricity. Some people don’t live in areas where data is easily accessible. The level of sophistication of workers to work remotely is low as many need the constant supervision remote working does not allow. The problem of making time at home, with children, family members, and pets competing for attention is a huge issue.

Some people have learned to adjust their work-hours based on home conditions. For example, now taking meetings in the evenings, because they’re tutoring or caring for kids during the day.

Personal safety and health are paramount. There is now an overwhelming agreement that the human, health, and safety issues are number one. HR managers must understand this priority. There are subtle questions to ask. Should people shake hands anymore?

What are the new policies for vacation? When people come to the office for work where do they sit or stand? Should some employees receive hazard pay if they are interacting with the public a lot? Staff need to be taught to be good health role models. In order to do this,

they themselves must be taught about what good health practises are.

Going digital is imperative. Doing a digital transformation is now urgent, and that means tools, norms, culture, and behaviours. For example, do people know how to appear on video without looking like you need a shave? (lighting) Do you know how to onboard people virtually? What tools should you buy?

Every system, tool, and enablement platform must work now. This is so this sort of disruption does not catch you unawares ever again. Automation is not a job killer but essential in dealing with a crisis. It is important to get your digital transformation going and not wait any more.

Caring, listening, and empathy are priority. In many cities all over the world, people go outside their houses and ring a bell or play a musical instrument or just clap at 7pm to recognise and thank the healthcare and frontline workers. Many people in Lagos are distributing both cooked and raw food to the people in and outside their neighbourhoods. People are offering a helping hand where ever the can. We seem far more “connected” now than we were before the crisis. Trainers are offering free work place training. This is priority at this time.

Distributed authority is key. Apparently in military strategy, there is a big topic of “distributed authority with central coordination” taught during battle. This is what is recommended now. Companies need the same here.

In multinationals, local country managers, business partners, and HR administrators may have to deal with local country issues, store issues, or city issues that could never be coordinated in a central way. Every HR function must have a strategy for central coordination with local control, based on shared platforms, strategies, and values.

Do less with less. With all that is going on, especially with the lock down, most companies are budget-constrained to varying degrees. You www.businessday.ng

may need to turn maybe your intranet (if you have one) to your communication and on-line training school. You don’t have to go and reinvent the wheel. Some people will lose their jobs because this system will show they are no longer needed. The budget constraints will make sure we all begin to think out of the box with our spending. There is also the prediction that money will be in short supply so do less with less is the mantra.

Move fast and come together. What should have been part of your culture but that is now minimum requirement are courage, collaboration, and action. To a large extent, HR executives should be in the driving seat, building “priority teams” that meet every day, those that meet constantly, helping everyone shift from “project work” to “crisis work.”

Having said this they must ensure that work is going on and companies are running and not everyone is dealing with the crisis. the company running. The message is “assign a team to work on the crisis” but “don’t have everyone working on the crisis.”

Real-time data really matters. Data is really important and you need to ensure that your company has real time data. This may not be so difficult to achieve in a small company, however the bigger your organisation is the more difficult but the more important. This is however achievable with great digital connections even more than when everyone was working in the office. It would be great if the CEO knows when there is a problem anywhere in minutes. Getting your data house in order may be tedious but in times like this it is most important.

Continuity planning is vital. We may be in a global crisis, but your individual companies may have a crisis at any time and as such the organisation must always be prepared for a crisis. Crises can be a fire, the sudden death of a key position holder, even an embezzlement.

You have to plan for “things going wrong” as

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Olamide Balogun

part of your everyday life. The companies that had crises plans, were ready to respond. Going forward, make sure all your programs, designs, and people are designed for resiliency.

Cloud platforms, focus on employee experience, understanding employee journeys and implementing people analytics are all very important with what is going to be a new focus on crisis response and resilience moving forward.

We need all these programs in order to respond in a vigorous and local way to this crisis.

Leadership matters, more than ever At a time like this, HR executives really earn their pay. Not only are each one of the employees worried about their health and personal safety, these HR executives are worried about revenue, executive and workplace safety, continuity, and offering sound and ethical policies to employees. In all of this HR are the heroes of most companies.

There will be many difficult decisions to make. There will be layoffs, restructuring, and many difficult financial and human decisions ahead. The above points will help in moving forward and help in navigating some of these difficult decisions.

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

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The Chief of Staff in presidential government THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

D

uring late night of Friday 17 April, the world received the shocking news of the passing of Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.

He was age 67. A few weeks earlier, he had announced that he had tested positive for the virus and was taking himself to an undisclosed hospital.

Kyari succumbed to the dreaded novel coronavirus pandemic and was buried the following day at Gudu Cemetery in Abuja, in accordance with Muslim rites.

During last year, I had the honour of being received by him in Aso Villa. His office was neat and well-organised; the furnishing in the classic Nordic minimalist style. Taking a seat just beside me, he softly asked if I needed coffee or anything to drink. I politely declined.

Ours was a very warm tête-à-tête. After our meeting, he graciously walked with me to the gate and bade me farewell.

Kyari the private man was not quite the Machiavellian caricature that was often portrayed by the media. I found to be quite taciturn; thoughtful, alert, astute, and given to speaking in quiet, elliptic monosyllables. But his eyes had the gaze of a millenarian mystic. He had the gravitas of a Roman proconsul. His courtliness would have impressed the mandarins of imperial China. I was privileged to have met several world statesmen in the course of my career -- from former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Tony Blair, Benjamin Netanyahu and a gaggle of African strongmen. Abba Kyari had the presence and demeanour of the consummate man of power.

The COS position is of military origin. During the nineteenth century, the Prussian military high command was headed by a Chief of Staff. The tradition

later spread to government and even the private sector and international organisation. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt was the first incumbent of the White House to name a COS, in the person of Admiral William Leahy, a retired naval officer. The role has evolved in accordance with the needs and temperamentof succeeding presidents.

In the American tradition, the White House Chief of Staff is saddled with the main responsibility of managing the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including selection, supervision and management of the key staff of the presidential office. He is the principal gatekeeper in terms of controlling access to his boss and managing the flow of information and communications to and from the Oval Office. The COS negotiates with Congress and coordinates agencies such as the Office of the National Security Adviser, Council of Economic Advisers and the powerful Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo broke with tradition by appointing a COS in the person of Major-General Abdullahi Mohammed, a retired military intelligence officer. Mohammed was the quintessential insider who operated with a high level of discretion.

Obasanjo’s successor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, did away with that Office, preferring to operate through his kinsmen from Katsina. When Umaru succumbed to illness in May 2010, he was succeeded by his deputy Goodluck Jonathan, who reinstated the office of COS, naming Mike Ogadiomhe to the post. When Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election in 2015, he made Abba Kyari, a Shuwa Arab from Borno, his COS. He kept him when he won a second term in 2019.

A sociologist, lawyer, banker, journalist and seasoned boardroom player, the Cambridge and Harvard educated Kyari had the necessary training and background to serve as trusted adviser and jurisconsult to the incumbent of the high magistracy.

I have been a Chief of Staff myself, but in a different context. During 2010-2015, I was Chef de Cabinet of the 79-member intergovernmental organisation, the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States based

in Brussels. Being COS is not a dinner party – and certainly not a job for the fainthearted. You have to be a jack of all trades and a master of all; a hands-on economist, finance expert and administrator with a nose for power and diplomatic statecraft. It requires patience, high ability, energy, discretion and tact.

But you must also be tough -- ready to swim with the sharks and to graze with the bulls. Above all, your loyalty to the boss must be total and unassailable.

Abba Kyari was no doubt the most powerful Chief of Staff our country has ever known. Given the illness and prolonged absences of his principal, he quietly and assiduously accumulated considerable power to himself.

He became a de facto Prime Minister.

He undoubtedly stepped on many toes in the course of the performance of his duties, not least the formidable First Lady who fought her own battles against “the cabal”.

It is for posterity to judge whether he was an effective Chief of Staff or not.

One thing that cannot be taken away from him, though, is the fact that he was uncompromisingly loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari.

If he had had a more enlightened mind, we would have expected him to have used such enormous power to uplift our country from its current morass.

His friends and associates maintain that he had “socialist” leanings, whatever that means. Friends from his school days at St. Paul’s, an Anglican boarding school in Wusasa, Zaria, swear that he is a faithful and loyal friend – a completely detrabilised Nigerian.

For my part, I did not know him well enough and certainly do not have enough data to make a claim one way or the other. What I know for sure is that he mastered the dark arts of wielding power in a manner that would have impressed Kautilya, the realist political philosopher of Chandragupta India.

Power goes with responsibility. Abba Kyari cannot escape his own culpability in the downward spiral in our collective fortunes and the painful descent of our country into a lawless, violent and nihilistic Fourth World banana republic.

One of the cardinal laws of power as indeed of physics, is that nature abhors a vacuum. Abba Kyari identified many vacuums in our system of power and

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Kyari the private man was not quite the Machiavellian caricature that was often portrayed by the media. I found to be quite taciturn; thoughtful, alert, astute, and given to speaking in quiet, elliptic monosyllables

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)

COVID-19 and ‘HUNGER-20’: Another grammar intervention

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he ongoing global pandemic is so debilitating and disconcerting that it does not matter to many a person, whether the word is a separated compound (corona virus), a hyphenated compound (corona-virus) or a single-word compound (coronavirus). Coronavirus (Did I just tell which one it is?) is one scourge that has reared its ugly head with disastrous effects for third-world countries like Nigeria, given the alarming and disproportionate poverty rates in such economies. On account of this, scores of people are of the opinion that if they don’t die of the pandemic, they just might ultimately succumb to the pangs of hunger.

Unsurprisingly, this is not an appropriate time to enlighten anyone that, that plant of the mallow family is “okra,” and not okro.

They just need to make a low-cost soup with it and ingest same alongside fufu. I even told someone, in the wake of this pestilence, that fufu now enjoys currency in some English dictionaries of global repute. To my utter dismay, his response was that he needed the

dish in his house now; not in the dictionary.

Besides, when you tell Nigerians now that “foodstuff” should be written as a single word, as opposed to two words (food stuff), the next question you are likely to hear is: “Will I get some from you after writing it as one word?” Even when my niece said she needed grounded pepper to prepare noodles, and I educated her that it should be rendered as “ground pepper” — notwithstanding the fact that it might be different from the known English compound, black pepper — she remarked: “Uncle, does anything matter to you in this life aside from English? ‘Abeg,’ the populace are too hungry for your grammar.”

As if the aforementioned scenarios will not suffice, I have always found it hard to let go when people say bottle water instead of “bottled water,” cold ice water instead of “ice-cold water,” powder milk instead of “powdered milk,” and tin tomato, rather than correctly vocalising it as “tinned tomato.” But the extant state of the nation has constrained me from correcting anyone. Gone are the

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The Gift of Gab

days children requested “seconds;” I mean what people often call second round. In several households, it is only by God’s grace that the families therein have a square meal daily.

Further to this, those who still defy restriction measures to eat in restaurants wouldn’t dare to request “side order,” what the vast majority of Nigerians call extra plate. In a somewhat related development, if you wish to call it toast or toast bread, just one piece of it might be all some persons will munch in a day.

Mark you, it’s “toast,” not toast bread; and the machine that makes it is a “toaster,” not a toasting machine. Regardless of if you call it a deep freezer or a deep freeze, gone are the days that the domestic appliance is sufficiently stocked with varieties of staple, canned, bagged or frozen foods, in people’s homes. As a consequence, I won’t chance informing people, amid these troubling times, that what they have in their homes are “two dozen eggs,” which is converse to the incorrect version: two dozen of eggs. Chances are they will immediately presume that I need

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he quietly occupied them with the killer instincts of a chess grandmaster.

His obsession with power and control meant that everything in the wheel and machinery of government was centralised under his sole authority. He had, in effect, become a dreaded octopus; a figure that was bitterly loathed and feared in equal measure. Whenever he was absent or indisposed, almost everything grounded to a halt. Even the most powerful ministers were reduced to speaking in whispers.

Abba Kyari has been compared to the murderous Roman Emperor Caligula and the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu, first minister under the court of Louis XIII in France. Some of his critics point to the fact that it is a year almost to the day since he and Aliyu Umar SAN orchestrated the ouster of Chief Justice William Onnoghen from the Supreme Court. Onnoghen had resigned to his fate, observing prophetically that God is his hope and refuge. Both Kyari and Umar died on 17 April 2020, almost a year to the day.

No man is wholly a saint or wholly a villain. A professor from Maiduguri recently revealed that, for more than a decade, Abba Kyari had channeled his hard-earned savings for the care of 1,000 indigent citizens of Borno State, on condition of strict anonymity.

The priests used to exclaim, “Sic transit gloria mundi!” (thus passes away the glory of the world) during the medieval coronation of the popes.

Abba Kyari’s career and manner of death should teach us that all power is transient. And that it is only the good we do for others -- acts of lovingkindness and righteousness in service to God and humanity – that will outlive us.

It is crucial that the government acts swiftly in naming a successor. What is needed is a trusted technocrat with a hands-on approach that will assist the president in tackling the enormous challenges that lie before us in these dark times. The life-chances of millions of our people depend on that choice.

Ganiu Bamgbose one or two eggs to make an omelette.

You know “pickpockets,” right? They are, as often as not, erroneously referred to as picking pockets. They, too, can testify that the times are pretty challenging. “No be pocket wey money dey dem go thief from?”

Oh Lord, save us from the stranglehold of this menacing pandemic and, the attendant hunger that we are grappling with, no thanks to a battered economy.

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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Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 years

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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COVID-19 and its impact on human emotions and relationships HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

T

wo events in the past few days combined to bring into direct focus an aspect of the impact of the raging pandemic of COVID-19 that has received little attention to date.

One was an invitation to participate in an international “round-table” discussion on the Zoom platform. The topic was the vexed issue of Domestic Violence, with an emphasis on the impact of COVID-19. The event was hosted by a non-governmental organisation named Renewing the African Mindset (RAM), which operates out of the United Kingdom, and focusses on advocacy on important social issues.

As its name suggests, its activities are founded on a belief that the key to improving the lives of Africans is through improving the minds of the people and the way they deal with the challenges they are faced with day by day. In pursuit of this, the NGO organises periodic public meetings at which expert discussion on topical issues takes place.

At one previous such meeting, held at a venue in Lekki several months back, you had been on a panel to

discuss Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with a self-proclaimed survivor of countless traumatic incidents, the sometime pharmacist, stormy petrel and social media celebrity Kemi Olunloyo. It was an interesting engagement, in which the modest audience had interacted enthusiastically. It was easy therefore to reply in the affirmative when the new invitation came.

The roundtable would feature other contributors including a UK-based psychiatrist, a Venerable from the Church of England, an Imam from a mosque, a retired Detective Chief Inspector from the London Metropolitan Police, an Assistant Commissioner of Police and Area Commander from Ota, Ogun State, a Nigerian lady with a large law practice in England, and a Director in the Citizens Mediation Centre at the Lagos State Ministry of Justice. One easy illustration of the importance of the topic was the statistics in the UK press that twice as many men had murdered their spouses in a three week in March 2020, during the ongoing lockdown in the country, than in the same period in the previous year.

The second event concerned plans by the Employee Assistance Program Association of Nigeria – EAPAN, to commence the operation of a telephone helpline for victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the brainstorming stage of the assignment, the first hurdle was to decide who, in fact, qualified to be regarded as victims of COVID-19, and therefore eligible to benefit from the voluntary initiative.

As with all projects aspiring to make impact, it was important to delineate the borders sharply. In the bag would be anybody who has been in proximity with a “positive case” and is thus

subject to quarantine. There would be those awaiting results of confirmatory tests. Then the positively tested, with mild symptoms receiving treatment at home – or in Government House! – and also those with more significant symptoms receiving treatment in “Isolation” facilities. And the relations of all the previously described persons. And the relations of the sadly deceased.

One of the most distressing experiences conceivable to the human mind was captured in a Sky News documentary by ace correspondent Aaron Ramsey who visited the “hot zone” of corona virus infection in northern Italy at the height of the scourge. It was the helplessness of being unable to be with loved ones in their last moment, and the permanent guilty sense that they had been left alone by family to die.

Even after death, most relatives would not be able to attend the funeral. The emotional scars of such experiences would live with those people all the days of their lives.

COVID-19 was not going to leave behind just the body count and damaged economies. It would inflict indelible damage on the fabric of human experience and behaviour.

The Zoom conference got off to a roaring start. The Church of England priest, who incidentally was a Nigerian from the popular Roberts family of Ondo, outlined what the Church was doing to help victims of domestic violence. They were mostly women, but could also be men, or children.

In the United Kingdom generally, the law took a dim view of men assaulting their wives, and the Police were usually quick to intervene. Still, sixteen women had been killed by their “Intimate Partners” in the country in the first

‘

COVID-19 was not going to leave behind just the body count and damaged economies. It would inflict indelible damage on the fabric of human experience and behaviour

three weeks of March alone. The Imam chimed in to say that Islam forbade the use of violence against a spouse. For the Metropolitan Police detective, the law was quite clear, and the statistics only showed that suspicion needed to be high, and enforcement robust, with people’s nerves on edge due to frustrations around the lockdown, their jobs and their finances.

The ACP from Ota declared that the Nigeria Police was getting increasingly savvy in its investigation and prosecution of domestic violence, including rape. Lagos State especially was setting a standard, with shelters for victims and vigorous NGOs such as Mirabel offering medical, psychological and legal assistance to victims. The lady from the Citizens Mediation Centre Alausa amplified the points and mentioned the power and processes of the Family Court and the issue of Restriction Orders to protect victims.

It fell to you to contribute the observation that there was no uniform legislation across Nigeria to protect the rights of abused women. An earlier effort at law making apparently got stalled in the Senate. Lagos and a few other states have simply gone ahead to enact laws of their own.

The conclusion of the discourse was that all stakeholders had to anticipate and be ready to deal with an increased incidence of “intimate partner violence” as a result of COVID-19.

And the EAPAN telephone helpline to offer ‘Psychological First Aid’ to people traumatised by COVID-19 in Nigeria?

Work in progress. Almost there.

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

Leadership and the challenges of silo culture

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eaders do not bear the name because of position or titles. True leaders know they have two major roles to play. These are leadership and management. Built within these two roles is an essential and critical skill known as problem solving. Leaders are made and evolve because they have relevant knowledge: in strategy, vision casting, people leadership and direction.

Decision making is one of leaders’ functions. A leader who cannot take decisive actions based on proper understanding of situation, context, culture and people must be ready to step down.

In every organisation, decisions must be made in the interest of overall corporate goals. In our previous article we had already identified several reasons which can lead an organisation into running silo culture overtime. In most cases, this may not be planned but inability of leaders to pay close attention and details to the process and daily operation can be a cause.

Silo culture helps no one. Neither does it promote efficient running of a great organisation. To prevent this, the leader must be a cheerleader, great observer of people and actions as well as good relationship manager to be able to identify and correct attitudes which may not enhance corporate excellence irrespective of whether the outcome or output of such behaviour is delivering short term goals.

Every workplace consists of various departments with specific duties that contribute to its overall growth. However, each department is not meant to function as an isolated entity; there should be a culture of interwoven workspace relationships that cuts across every facet of the organisation to create work synergy and unity.

While silo culture is about raising individual or departmental champions, cross-silo culture is about democratising excellence and

making sure everyone is carried along and victory is more of a shared commitment. This combined productivity—which is the hallmark of every cross-silo leadership—cannot happen if there is no deliberate effort from leadership to break every silo barrier that may run within the organisation.

Silo barriers occur when the various arms that make up an establishment isolate themselves and focus on their unit growth rather than the overall growth of the system; where each sector of a workplace hoards information and seldom interacts with members of other departments.

This silo barrier is not built in a day; it is often as a result of accumulated isolation traits that have been left unchecked over time by the leadership. These traits are further transferred by existing employees to new additions and cemented through layer-upon-layer modelling.

When a department of a workplace is not concerned about the activities or growth of the other departments, this creates or reinforces a silo barrier. Suffice to say that the occurrence of silos is the beginning of unwarranted boundaries and closed communication that ultimately affects the smooth running of any organisation. Each sector of the workplace now becomes an island of knowledge with limited collaboration, leading to a dearth of communication.

As a leader, breaking silo barriers should be one of your primary goals, one that is unending as long as you continue to steer the ship.

Success here will influence the long-term wellbeing of the organisation.

What does a leader do when silo culture is gradually gaining upper hand?

First, leaders need to be sure they properly identify the reasons and barriers for this.

Identifying the elephant in the room begins with close observation of the management

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team. When the leadership team does not demonstrate a shared vision, it causes a ripple effect by spreading to every sector of the workplace and causing loopholes that may cost the company.

With this done, it becomes easy for leaders to make strategic adjustments to disrupt the silo system and effect sweeping or straightforward changes that will promote a thriving workplace relationship.

Two, there is a need for urgent and repeated communication of the vision and overall goals of the organisation. Sometimes, employees and heads of units get carried away with daily schedules and forget what matters most. Every progress-oriented leader must emphasise the preferred company’s culture relentlessly until it becomes ingrained in the daily habits of every staff or member.

Once the unifying purpose of the organisation has been clearly spelt out, it guides the dealings of the employees moving forward.

This gives everyone a paradigm shift and fresh perspective to see the critical positions they occupy as individuals and as a team, and how their actions affect the overall workplace performance. Most importantly, it will reinforce the message that an arm of the organisation cannot grow the company alone; it requires the active and unified contribution of every sector.

The above should be followed up with promotion of collaborative tools and attitudes.

Where there is a distance between the headquarters and the branches, online tools such as Slack, Asana, Google Keep, GoToMeeting, Trello and a lot more are highly recommended for breaking organisation silos and ensuring horizontal communication across every arm of the workplace. These tools foster cooperation, smooth spread of ideas, and everyone is kept in the loop of the various activities going on in every sector of the organization. This way,

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Toye Sobande

the company’s culture is preserved, and more bonding occurs among members of the different teams that make up the company.

The goal of the above is to ensure the leader aims for and creates cross-silo activities that will bind everyone together as a team. These cross-silo activities could also take the form of forming clusters that extend beyond members of the same team. When communication is not a barrier, silos are easily broken down and the workplace becomes a friendlier atmosphere to work in. Lunch meetings, special treats, team retreats, hangouts, and other fun activities that relieve the tension in the workplace should be introduced to encourage cross-silo behaviour across the organisation.

Lastly, the leadership must encourage the participation of every unit head, managers, supervisors, or coordinators. Sometimes, silo formation starts from the leadership team. When leaders exhibit a “silo mentality”, it is mirrored in the people they lead. Because modelling is one of the fastest ways to learn anything, leaders at the workplace should be conscious of their activities, values, body language, and interaction with team members to avoid passing down the wrong message or values.

Sobande is a doctoral candidate in strategic leadership at Regent University, Virginia Beach, USA

@Businessdayng

12

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Frank Aigbogun

Nigeria’s hard choice of health over economics

editor Patrick Atuanya

Nigeria chooses prevention rather than cure in managing the pandemic

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

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu

F

orced between the devil and the deep blue sea, President Muhammadu Buhari chose the path of further lockdowns as a containment measure against COVID-19 in Nigeria on Monday, 13 April when he ordered an extension of the lockdown on three territories.

With 71 percent of the infections, there is no doubt that Lagos and Abuja, FCT deserve the lockdown. The spread of infection has also grown to 19 states from 12 on March 29.

Nigeria chose the route of prevention of widespread of the coronavirus. The option would have been to open the economy ever so slightly to allow citizens to breathe and earn a living in a daily pay economy. The federal government made the hard choice of health over economics.

Further lockdown is borne out of evolving global best practice in the management of the pandemic.

Nigeria followed examples across Africa and the rest of the world.

The paradigm is that containment is the most effective measure to stop the spread of the coronavi-

rus; it is more so for countries such as ours where the capacity of the healthcare system is doubtful.

Two weeks after the first 14-day lockdown, the incidence number has risen to 323 cases. Experts say the number does not tell even a quarter of the story as testing remains very low even against the standards of other African countries. Nigeria has tested slightly over 5, 000 persons, while Ghana has done more than 15, 000 with a smaller population.

On the face of it, Nigeria is looking good. There are 323 cases in 19 states. Nigeria has lost ten persons to the virus. NCDC says there are 228 active cases while our hospitals have discharged 85 cases. Nigeria has survived the first two weeks of WHO-recommended shutdowns with the numbers still looking good.

It is significant to note, however, that beyond these figures our incident numbers have followed the trajectory elsewhere. They have been increasing rapidly.

Hold it there, though. If Nigeria has done well thus far from the available figures, why do we need an extension of the lockdown given the huge cost?

President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) admitted that the lockdown “will severely disrupt your livelihoods and bring undue hardship to you, your loved ones and your communities”. Knowing this, it is a surprise that the presidential address failed to acknowledge the evolving breakdown in the territories that he locked down. It was a significant lapse in the address.

The gains from the first 14 days?

PMB said they include implementation of “comprehensive health measures that intensified our case identification, testing, isolation and contact tracing capabilities.”

Nigeria “has identified 92 percent of all contacts while doubling the number of testing laboratories and raising testing capacity to 1, 500 tests a day”. The country has also trained “over 7,000” healthcare workers on infection prevention and control. NCDC has deployed to 19 states. Furthermore, Lagos and Abuja can “admit some 1,000 patients each across several treatment centres”.

PMB spoke of the palliative measures of the federal government involving “food distribution, cash transfers and loans repayment waiv-

ers” to ease the pains and assured that government would sustain them. That is good news.

The bad news is that the measures have failed to count where it should do so the most. Very few citizens in the three territories of the lockdown have seen or benefitted from these measures. It is evident in the growing hunger-fuelled anger, robbery, protests and citizen defence activism in parts of Lagos and Ogun States.

BusinessDay called for this extension as a social responsibility informed by our monitoring and reportage of the COVID-19 pandemic. After listening to PMB, we now make these calls The federal government must do more to reassure citizens in Lagos and Ogun States of their security and the ability of the government to protect them.

Rapidly increase the number of beneficiaries of the government’s welfare scheme. An increase by 1million from 2.6m to 3.6m does not even begin to scratch the surface.

Involve the private sector and coordinate efforts to extend assistance to the poorest of the poor.

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan

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

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Mission Statement To be a diversified provider of superior business, financial and management intelligence across platforms accessible to our customers anywhere in the world.

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

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

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FINTECH News

Products Review

13

In association with

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

Online lenders battle with defaults as lockdown bites borrowers FRANK ELEANYA

C

ollins Njoku (not real names), a 38-year-old freelance writer with a family of three, received two messages from two online creditors in February and March. He had borrowed N600,000 and N300,000 from each of them.

The two debts are due in September and November 2020 but Collins is unsure how he is going to keep up with the compulsory monthly repayment while at the same time cater for his growing family in the middle of a lockdown that has shut down his income source since March. Lagos where nearly 90 percent of his clients are, have been on lockdown - along with FCT and Ogun - since the beginning of April.

The first message took a conciliatory tone.

“Hi NJOKU, your next payment is due in 2 days. If you cannot pay, please email to tell me why. I’m here to help.”

The message in March from a different lender took a hard line with a familiar threat. “...failure to pay, we will be visiting your workplace to

report you to your employers.”

Njoku defaulted in March and is likely to do the same in April.

“I am not afraid of the threat, I am rather disappointed,” he told BusinessDay. “I am also impressed with the understanding shown by the other company. These are difficult times for everyone.”

On Monday, Carbon, one of the biggest online lenders in Nigeria, said it plans to reschedule loans for some of its borrowers. The announcement has many of Carbon’s customers excited as the tweet the company made received many responses within minutes of

posting it on the company’s timeline.

“I have this month to complete my 6-month tenure loan.

Kindly consider me for the repayment review,” said one of the customers. “The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Lagos affected my workplace which closed down as directed by the government since March 28. No salary for the staff this month.”

Loans (debt) rescheduling refers to restructuring the terms of an existing loan or bond in order to extend the repayment period. It may mean a delay in the due date(s) of required payments or reduc-

ing payment amounts by extending the payment period and increasing the number of payments.

Rescheduling loans allow keeping the same principal balance (or reduce it), but creates a new schedule for the loan and if needed, different loan terms.

“To reduce the financial burden on our customers in these difficult times, we are now rescheduling some loans,” Carbon tweeted on Monday.

“We will contact you if you’re eligible, so please, keep trying to pay back as much as you can.

Branch International and

Kiakia have also offered loan rescheduling to customers with a history of consistent positive performance.

“We are offering repayment extensions to customers who are facing challenges during this time. We are also adapting our operations in line with current realities but with our customers in mind,” Maria Rotilu, country manager of Branch International told BusinessDay. A global lender, Branch International, has a presence in many African countries.

Kiakia also increased moratorium for some special classes of borrowers, according to the projection of the extent of disruptions the lockdown will affect their operations and cash flows.

On the whole, Kiakia projects about a 1.7 percent increase in the default rate.

Abiola Olajide, co-founder of Kiakia told BusinessDay that it had moved early to insulate its operations from the economic disruptions occasions by COVID-19. One of the steps was extending credit to individuals and MSMEs in industries with higher cash flow resistances to economic turbulence.

“Part of responsible lending is to anticipate the impact a sudden change in the economic weather will have on the personal and business finance of our borrowers. We limit access to credit to those who portend threat of repayment risks,” Olajide said.

Kiakia has also positioned itself by increasing the loan portfolio to the agricultural and food sector. Interestingly, the sector has become the most resilient and essential in the face of the economic downturn.

“It is impossible to find the right MSMEs within this sector and get it wrong,” Olajide said.

The COVID-19 lockdown has impacted the operations of financial technology firms in general. For Social Lender, a platform that enables financial institutions to extend formal financial service to the underserved and unbanked, the best way to respond is by directing its agents to keep their social distance but can follow up with users via telephone.

Bade Adesemowo, co-founder of the firm told BusinessDay that Social Lender agents are leveraging heavily on the SMS and USSD channels to enable financial services.

for enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria,” Dozie said in a statement sent to BusinessDay. Open Banking Nigeria drives innovation and choice for customers, businesses, fintech companies and banks with the next generation API standards in partnership with a growing body of providers and partners helping to transform banking in Nigeria.

“We are more than excited to welcome Sparkle to the fold of pacesetting organisations championing a course for the entire industry and, more importantly, for our customers.

There is the certainty their participation would further help individuals and businesses to achieve their objectives,” said Ope Adeoye, a Trustee of Open Banking Nigeria.

Open Banking Nigeria swells membership as Sparkle joins FRANK ELEANYA

S

parkle, a digital bank for the retail sector, has become the latest stakeholder in Nigeria’s financial services industry to join other fintechs, banks and accounting firms in the cause for the attainment of unified Open Banking standards to transform Nigeria

and lead Africa into a future of enriched, customer-centric and personalised services.

Open Banking Nigeria is the foremost advocate of opening banking in the country. Open banking refers to the practice of sharing financial information electronically, securely, and only under conditions that customers approve of. Applica.

Application programming

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interfaces (APIs) allow thirdparties to access financial information efficiently, which promotes the development of new apps and services.

Founded in 2019 by Uzoma Dozie, the former Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Sparkle is a mobile-first, retail-focused platform which connects retailers and consumers in Nigeria using artificial

intelligence to influence purchasing decisions based on user-generated behavioural data.

“At Sparkle, we recognise the potential of Open Banking to transform banking as we know it today in dimensions that will create greater opportunities and result in a cross-industry boom as well as growth across the value chain, as we all work together to strive

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14

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

MoneyInsight

Stablecoins demand surge as investors seek safe landing FRANK ELEANYA

T

he demand for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable market price, has seen a delirious surge as investors running from high volatility in cryptocurrency and global markets look for safe assets for their money.

A weekly update from Luno showed that stablecoin balances on cryptocurrency exchanges have now surpassed all-time high. Investors have $2 billion on the sideline waiting for the buy signal.

The current surge in stablecoins is partly driven by the global economic crisis and renewed activities by Facebook to see Libra become a reality.

A stablecoin refers to a new class of cryptocurrencies that attempts to offer price stability and are backed by a reserve asset. There are a number of stable coins in circulation today, and a number more have been attempted in the past (with varying degrees of success).

Stablecoins came to limelight in 2018 with promises of improving financial access and creating a viable alternative for nations burdened by hyperin-

flation or experiencing friction in cross-border payments and remittance. As many as 120 stablecoin projects were created in 2018 according to data from Bloomberg.

Most of the stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar. However, some are pegged to the price of other cryptocurrencies or even commodities like silver or gold.

While tether and a few other coins were responsible for the popularity of stablecoins, Facebook’s Libra project announced in June 2019 signaled a surge in interest around stablecoins and the possibilities for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

“The global crisis brought on by COVID-19 is an opportunity for stablecoins to deliver on these promises and use cases, especially as governments try to deliver stimulus money quickly to large populations that desperately need it,” said Marek Olszewski, co-founder of cLabs the company behind Celo, a mobile-first permissionless platform that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. “The global economic and health crisis has reinvigorated the use of stablecoins, as well as the discussion of digital dollars and central bank digital currencies. With close to

six billion smartphones with active mobile subscriptions in the world, we are nearing a reality where an easy-to-use stablecoin can reach a significant portion of the world’s population.”

Facebook is looking to hire 50 people for its payments subsidiary Calibra – charged with creating a wallet for storing and sending Libra – to start work at its offices in Dublin by the end of 2020, according to the Irish Times on Monday.

The s o cial me dia giant founded Calibra in 2019 as part of its mission to develop a digital wallet for the Facebookbacked Libra cryptocurrency project. The team in Ireland has already assembled a small team in Dublin but now plans to expand this significantly.

Last week, Bloomberg also reported that Facebook and its partners will allow their Libra cryptocurrency project to support multiple versions of the digital coins, the majority of which will be backed by individual fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, as part of changes made to appease skeptical regulators worldwide.

Nevertheless, the rise in demand for stablecoins is yet to impact significantly on the price of bitcoin and other cryptocur-

rencies. The Luno weekly update showed that bitcoin price reached around $7,400 last week and is struggling to surpass the $7,000 area this week.

“It will be interesting to see if the price holds above the 50-day moving average and continues towards the $8,000 area where other important moving averages are found,” the cryptocurrency exchange noted.

Beyond prices, the futures market for bitcoin is also in the bear territory as some platforms still see negative premiums for their June contracts - so-called backwardation (a situation in which the spot or cash price of a commodity is higher than the forward price).

CME bitcoin traders, however, are still more bullish than retail, but the overall trend for futures premiums has been declining since February.

“There could be a sign of increased adoption, with addresses holding more than 0.01 bitcoin increasing rapidly. However, this could also have different explanations, i.e. whales moving coins through coin mixing services for security reasons.

Other metrics tell us that the demand on the Bitcoin network is dropping, which is a bearish signal,” Luno noted.

To stay secure when shopping online, follow these tips from Visa KEMI OKUSANYA

I

n light of the COVID-19 outbreak, with curfews and lockdowns, people’s lifestyle and shopping behaviours have changed dramatically.

And while the increased availability of online shopping is convenient, it makes it more lucrative for scammers to trick buyers into paying for goods they won’t receive or obtain their personal information for financial gain.

Visa, financial institutions, and payment providers work hard to keep consumers’ payments safe – using multiple layers of security to prevent fraud, protect data, and help them get their money back if someone uses their card without permission. Yet, fraudsters are counting on consumers to be distracted and let their guard down, so they can trick them into handing over their personal or financial information.

This is why we believe consumer education is key in the fight against fraud and we aim to help consumers understand how to spot fraudulent activity and how to protect their sensitive information, particularly now, when most of our payments have shifted to digital.

Here are five simple steps every consumer can follow

to stay safe when shopping online: Prior to making a purchase, check the merchant’s web page, privacy policies, as well www.businessday.ng

as any delivery and return policies, to make sure that the items can be returned if they are received in unsatisfactory condition or not delivered.

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1. Pay securely online – When paying online, use Visa Checkout that offers an extra layer of protection and always check the URL to ensure it begins with “https://”. The “s” at the end confirms a secure connection. You might find you are asked to provide a unique code (sent to your mobile or email), fingerprint, or voice recognition when making a payment.

This could be because something is unusual about your purchase, and your bank just wants to be certain you are the person using your card.

2. Pay securely in-app – Update your passwords with a strong password unique to each account or better yet, switch to fingerprint or facial recognition for account login and/or payments if it is an option.

3. Beware of phishing scams – Be careful of unsolicited and suspicious emails, SMS or phone calls. They may try to steal personal information like your account number, username and password. If in doubt, do not click on any links or download files.

4. Update system and application software – Install the latest software before shopping on your computer, tablet or phone. Technology companies work hard to keep you safe – @Businessdayng

updating your software helps them patch and protect you from vulnerabilities. Remember, if you pay with your Visa, you can also have help getting your money back if something you’ve ordered doesn’t arrive, or isn’t what you expected.

Speak to your bank for more information.

5. Keep a record of your transactions and review your account statements regularly - You can sign up for your bank’s alerts service to receive notices for each payment you make and quickly notify your issuer if there’s a transaction you did not authorize or do not recognize.

Now, more than ever, it is critical for all of us to take part in protecting payment security and stay ahead of fraud. While we are leveraging technological advancements to prevent, detect and decrease threats, we also need to drive further awareness and sustained consumer education.

Consumers are the first line of defence, and we believe these security tips and practices can help them keep their payments and personal data safe.

Kemi Okusanya, is vice president and country manager, Visa West Africa.

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

BANKING

FBN Holdings Q1 ’20 gross earnings hit N159.7bn, total assets up 13.2% OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

F

BNH released Q1 2020 unaudited numbers which showed it printed a gross earnings of N159.7billion, up 14.5percent year-on-year(y/y) The bank also posted a growth of 61.5percent yearon-year in Pre-tax profit to N28.7billion. Excluding N8.1bn in revaluation gains, Pre-tax profit will be up 16.1% FBNH’s Interest Income was down 4.2percent yearon-year while Interest Expense grew significantly, up 17.9percent year-on-year.

Overall, Net Interest Income (NIM) was down 15.9percent y/y, bringing NIMs down to 6.3percent in Q1 2020 compared with

7.7percent in Q1 2019.

The decline in Interest Income is caused by a decline in yields. The growth in Interest Expense was on the back of a significant growth in Interest Expense on deposits from banks.

W h i l e d e p o s i t s f ro m banks were up 66.5percent y/y, Interest Expense on such deposits grew 149percent y/y. The bank’s Net Loans are up 10.7percent in Q1.

Net Fee and Commission Income grew moderately, up 6.8percent y/y. The moderate y/y growth reflects the impact of the cut to fees particularly e-banking fees by the Central Bank which came into effect in January 2020.

Other Income (Foreign E x c h a n g e I n c o m e, Ne t Gains on Investment Se-

15

curities, Net Gains or Loss on Financial Instruments held at FVTPL, Dividend Income, Other Operating Income) was up 321percent y/y, mainly on the back of N13.5bn in Net Gains on Investment Securities(OCI) and revaluation gains of about N8.1bn. Dividend Income also showed significant growth, mainly from dividend from Airtel.

Impairment Charge declined 29.9percent y/y to N9.7bn in Q1 2020, compared with N13.8bn for Q1 2019, resulting in a decline in annualised Cost of Risk (COR) to 1.9percent compared to 2.6percent for FY 2019. The bank’s NPL ratio declined further to 9.2percent from 9.9percent for FY 2019.

OPEX increased moderately, up 7.9percent y/y.

This, coupled with only a moderate increase in total operating income led to an improvement in cost to income ratio (ex-provisions) to 65.1percent in Q1 2020 compared to 67.7percent in the same period of 2019 and 73.0percent for FY 2019. The group saw significant cost growth in 2019 but Management however noted that majority of the costs were one-off.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 15.3percent was reported for FBN Nigeria, almost at par with the regulatory limit of 15.0percent and slightly below 15.5percent reported in FY 2019. Without significant deterioration in asset quality,

COMPANY RELEASE

MMIL donates truck load of water to Lagos Food Bank in fight against COVID-19 IFEOMA OKEKE

M

ardi Mari Investment Ltd, (MMIL), the p ro d u c e rs o f Aquadana Premium Drinking Water, engaged in a laudable Corporate Social Responsibility outreach on Tuesday as it donated truck load of bottle water to several indigent families through the Lagos Food Bank.

Speaking during the donation in Lagos, Shadrach Yacim Mowo, general manager, Aquadana Premium Drinking Water said MMIL wants to identify with the ongoing war against COVID-19 and the management thought it as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to identify with the government of Lagos State and with the country at large and to show its own modest contribution through this gesture.

Yacim Mowo explained that what informed the choice of Lagos Food Bank as an agent of distribution is because of its reach to a wider range of people.

“We looked at the available parameters for the distribution of intervention materials and we looked for an organisation whereby a larger group of people can be reached and in our search, we located the Lagos Food Bank. We thought it wise to reach out to a wider range of people through the

Food Bank,” he said.

He assured that the partnership with the Lagos Food Bank will be continuous, adding that COVID-19, the unseen energy has caused Nigeria a lot.

In his remark, Micheal Sunbola, president of Lagos Food Bank Initiative commended MMIL for the donation, describing the gesture as a unique one.

According to Sunbola, “This donation is very unique because in most of our packages recieved, none of it has water and having this support means our beneficiaries will be having access to purified water.

“Most of the places we go to are slum communities and most of them don’t buy this kind of water. So this will really be a big deal for them and they will be really happy to have it. Aquadana is a very big and reputable brand and the partnership with Lagos Food Bank is something that we really find very commendable.

“Food and water are in sink. We should have started this partnership long before now and we hope to have further relationship to keep this going. We have more than 7,500 volunteers registered on our data base. Sometimes we are looking for water and everyone is dehydrated on the field. So with this donation, we don’t have to be looking around for water.”

TECHNOLOGY

L-R: Adeyemi Sanni, chartered, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) Lagos District Society; Oluwasike Ibiwoye, assistant general secretary; Adeyeye Asebayo Joel, chairman; Adesina Adedayo, vice president, CITN; Kunle Quadri, past president, CITN, and Zaynab Abdul Kareem, deputy vice chairman, CITN Lagos District Society, at the 2020 annual tax week organised by CITN Lagos District Society in Lagos.

PalmPay launches N100m Covid-19 support Fund, free money transfer package ENDURANCE OKAFOR

O

ne of Nigeria’s fastest-growing mobile payments companies, PalmPay, has announced the launch of PalmPay CARES, a N100 million humanitarian response plan to support the fight against the deadly Coronavirus in Nigeria.

According to the Fintech Company, the N100million support fund will be used to support relief organizations working to address the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, as well as to fund the provision of an innovative COVID-19 cover for its entire

customer base.

“We are proud to be launching this campaign to offer our support to our community of users and organizations on the front line of the response to the pandemic”, Greg Reeve, Global PalmPay CEO said.

As a result of the support fund, every transacting PalmPay customer can qualify for a N100,000 payout from PalmPay should they be diagnosed with COVID-19, the company said stating that the intention is to provide a financial cushion to its user base and while also helping Nigerians who are affected by the virus to get back on their feet.

“We want our customers to know that we are there for them through these uncertain times and that they can be a part of relief efforts too as we will add to the fund every time they transact on the PalmPay app,” Reeve said.

According to Palmpay, more money will be added to the fund every time a transaction is made on the app for the duration of the campaign, The PalmPayCares campaign is due to run for an initial month-long period.

Other key measures announced by the company that are designed to ease the financial burden on Nigerian consumers as they try to minimize

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their risk of exposure to the virus is the removal of money transfer charges from its service, making it free to transfer money from its wallet to other PalmPay users and to Nigerian bank accounts for any amount.

“Using digital payment methods is one of the ways people can protect themselves and others from the virus, which can attach itself to cash and other surfaces,” Palmpay CEO said adding that the aim of the company is to make financial transactions as easy and affordable as possible and offer Nigerians a rewarding way to make payments through its mobile app.

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Qaralax Nigeria launches converged digital entertainment play DIPO OLADEHINDE

C

EO of Qaralax Nigeria Vin Obieze has launched his mobile converged digital entertainment podcast app, StreamPluf, which is already on Android and IOS stores.

According to him, StreamPluf is part of its vision of making accessible digital entertainment with exciting applications available to Nigerians through technology.

Similarly to existing platforms, Streampluf delivers real-time music streaming on one platform, delivered across screens with different entertainment categorieslive streams of Church events, football, MMA, Boxing, WWE and other live shows. @Businessdayng

“The refreshed app has a new user interface and much sharper content discovery and recommendation engine with Data saver options.

“It enables customers to access all this content across the screen of their choice via Smart connect to TV, PC, and Smartphone with a unified user interface,” Obieze said.

“The app also comes with exciting features that include; Paid content providers, 24hour realtime streaming from Facebook or Youtube, and instant notifications.

“As part of our digital entertainment play, our vision is to truly massify digital entertainment and make it accessible to more and more customers through innovative platforms.

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

TECHNOLOGY

COVID-19: Uber withdraws 2020 guidance, to write down about $2bn OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

R

ide-hailing platform, Uber said it has withdrawn its financial guidance for 2020 and plans to write down about $2 billion in investments after the coronavirus pandemic upended the ridehailing business.

The San Franciscobased company said the writedown of its minority investments w ill rang e from $1.9 billion to $2.2 billion. A writedown is the accounting term used to describe a reduction in the book value of an asset, due to economic or fundamental changes in the asset.

Uber holds shares in various ride-hailing and food delivery businesses a rou n d t h e w o r l d . Th e company valued holdings in China’s Didi Chuxing and Southeast Asia’s Grab at a combined $10.3 bil-

lion at the end of last year.

It didn’t identify which investments were driving the charge.

A financial assistance program created by the company for drivers and deliver y people coping with the effects of the virus will have a marginal impact on revenue. The result will be a $17 million to $22 million reduction in that quarter and $60 million to $80 million in the second quarter, Uber said.

However, shares rose a s mu c h a s 8 . 5 p e rc e nt in extended trading after Uber’s statement Thursday. Investors had been bracing for much worse.

The stock took a nosedive in early March when the virus was spreading throughout the U.S. and Europe, but it has since recovered some of those l o s s e s. U b e r a s s u a g e d many shareholders last month in a call with analysts drawing attention to

its cash cushion of at least $4billion.

R ides have fallen by as much as 70percent in some of the hardest-hit cities, Uber has said. But the company could offset some of that shortfall with food deliver y, which is experiencing a surge in demand as people stay at home.

Uber suspended its operation in Nigeria as a result of the lockdown and restrictions that were announced by both the Federal Government and some State Governments.

Uber is scheduled to release its quarterly rep o r t o n May 7 . “G i v e n t h e e v o l v i n g n a t u re o f Covid-19 and the uncertainty it has caused for ever y industr y in ever y pa r t o f t h e w o rl d , i t i s impossible to predict with precision the pandemic’s cumulative impact on our future financial results,” t h e c o m p a ny s a i d i n a statement.

L-R: Affi Ibanga, Guest; Iyalode Alaba Lawson, global convener, Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals Development Networks; Thea Restovin, programme analyst, United Nations Women, and Chinny Stevens, chief executive officer, NextGen Media, during private screening of Chatroom Movie at residence of the Deputy British High Commissioner, at Ikoyi to celebrate the International Women›s 2020 in Lagos

L-R: Alain Assounga, head , Nephrology unit , Nelson Mandela Medical School, SA; Mohamed NasrAllah, from Cairo University; Sam Yenyi, state coordinator, WHO; Ibijoke Sowoolu, first lady , Lagos State; Gabriel Sowemimo, chairman of the occasion ; Ebun Bamgboye, consultant physician/ nephrologist , and Sola Aketi, representing , director of Nursing Services , Lagos State ministry

CONSUMER GOODS

Cadbury sees 26% profit growth despite revenue drop in first quarter SEGUN ADAMS

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ood maker Cadbury has announced that it made N638.936m in the first three months of 2020, 26 percent more than from the same period last year although its first quarterly revenue fell for first time in at least five years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company saw a decline in revenue to N8.55bn, a 7.87 percent drop due to a slowdown in domestic sales in the quarter.

As a result, gross profit dipped 3.66 percent yearon-year in the first quarter to N2.29bn although, for every N100 revenue, Cadbury made N26.76 compared to N25.58 last year, and indicative of greater cost efficiency.

Cadbury also recorded a 13.1 percent decline in operating expenses from N1.71bn to N1.48bn on a year-on-year basis in Q1.

Other income rose by as much as 69 percent to N78m leading to a 16.2 percent increase in EBITDA

(N1.28bn) for the quarter.

O p e ra t i n g p ro f i t f o r the consumer goods firm rose about 24 percent to N882m while net finance cost stood at N30m from 11m in the corresponding period of 2019.

To t a l A s s e t s i n ro s e 11.3 percent to N32.06bn on year-to-date basis in the quarter, total liabilities rose 17.2 percent to N17.86bn while total equity rose 4.7 percent to N14.21bn.

Analysts at Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham had in March projected that Cadbury’s business will be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria, as restrictions on economic activity impact consumer spending on confectioneries. “At the same time, we believe the export revenue d er ive d f rom t he intermediate cocoa will be dampened by weak global demand,” they said.

Meanwhile, in a more recent report the analysts explained that the shutdown of business activities could materially dampen the performance of FMCGs in the brewery and www.businessday.ng

home & personal care segments, they tip a win for food companies although Cadbury was left out of the winners’ list.

“We believe consumer spending on food, which is largely driven by consumer stockpiling, is positive for two coverage companies – Nestlé Nigeria Plc (Nestlé) and Flour mills of Nigeria Plc (FMN),” Chapel Hill Denham said in the report.

“Both companies have a diverse portfolio of brands that are considered as essential items by consumer.”

The impact of the month-long lockdown so far will see a 7.7 percent drop in 2020FY revenue says Chapel Hill Denham, with Earnings Per Share declining by 6.7 percent.

S h a re s o f Ca d b u r y re mained flat at N6.3 a unit Wednesday, according to Bloomberg data.

Cadbur y Nig er ia Plc manufactures and markets sugar confectionery, food drinks, and food products.

The Company also processes cocoa and exports cocoa products via its subsidiary Stanmark Cocoa Processing Company Ltd

L-R: Ademola Abiola, senior medical officer, General Hospital Ikorodu; Oyewole Oyeleye, business manager, Ikeja Electric Ikorodu Business Unit; Okudero Abimbola, deputy medical director, General Hospital Ikorodu; Enobong Ezekiel, chief commercial officer (CCO), Ikeja Electric, and Felix Ofulue, head, corporate communications, Ikeja Electric, at the Ikeja Electric’s donation of phototherapy machine and clinical items to children’s ward of General Hospital Ikorodu, as part of its CSR initiatives.

Temitope Jemerigbe (5th r), MD/CEO, DKK Nigeria; and Mr. Jenkins Alumona, MD/CEO, SOL Group, flanked by participants at the ongoing SOL PR Academy holding in Lagos.

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

17

LEADINGWOMAN

Jacqueline Suowari, using art as a tool of dialogue leading to change use a black ballpoint pen and the results were amazing. It solved all the problems; the details, the contrast, needless to say, I was hooked on the black ballpoint pen.

Kemi Ajumobi

Jacqueline Suowari is ballpoint pen artist and draughtswoman. Her foray into art started from the early age of five and for the past decade, she has stunned her ardent collectors with magnetic pieces which over time have grown larger than life. Jacqueline is motivated by the intriguing art of drawing. The thousands of ballpoint pen strokes which make up every single piece of her work reveals the countless hours which it takes to achieve perfection in her eyes, with a single piece sometimes taking several months to complete.

In each piece, she combines various elements of design to share her experiences and inspiration with the audience.

Jacqueline has participated in several group exhibitions and Art fairs locally and internationally. Her last solo exhibition was concluded in March 2020 at the Adrienne Arsht Centre for Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, in the United States of America.

Jacqueline has been featured in several publications including Chukwuemeka Ben Bosah’s book “The Art of Nigerian Women” which chronicles some of the best of Nigeria’s artists and most recently an international publication by Sandu Publishing “Ballpoint Art : Complexity in Simplicity” which features 30 (thirty) Ballpoint artists from around the world.

She is currently represented

by Avant Gallery in the United States of America.

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Early Years was born in Zaria, Kaduna State. My Dad was working at Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U) at the time and we lived on Campus.

I have a lot of fond memories from Christmas and Salah celebrations in our neighborhood when I was younger. Everyone knew each other, if you were walking down the road; they knew whose child you were and where your house was.

It was a very cordial and warm neighborhood despite the fact that we were from different tribes, countries and practiced different religions. This gave me an unbiased outlook on religious and tribal differences.

My parents were guardians to many young adults and students, a lot of them stayed with us, so I had more early interactions with older people and this continued throughout my formative years.

Being represented by American based Avant Gallery with spaces on NY and Miami The internet is a small world. We met online, started a conversation and began what has now blossomed into a beautiful relationship.

Being represented by Avant Gallery has been a very humbling and overwhelming experience for me. The ability to connect with new audiences and observe how my work makes impact in their lives, even though the stories I tell are inspired by my immediate environment (Nigeria), is simply amazing. Also, I have been participating in several art fairs and group shows in America. This has opened up my work to new audiences and experiences. Finally, I have a new and exciting international collector base and more collaborations on the way.

As a teenager, I began to notice the disparity in levels of consciousness and understanding between people.

I became fascinated with watching scenarios, how they played out, how they were interpreted and how interpretations varied from one individual to another.

When I was 16, we moved to Port Harcourt in Rivers State. I had just gotten the admission to study Fine Art at the University of Port Harcourt. Life was very different there. First of all, it was a very big city compared to Zaria. People went about their businesses differently and were very suspicious of overly nice strangers (laughs).

It was overwhelming for me at first, the many nuances that come with living in a big city but as time went by, I found new fascinations.

I began to notice the impact of growing up with a “single story”.

How stories influence people’s perception of life and of other people.

I began to observe the impacts of stories and how they can be used to sell real or tainted narratives.

With all these curiosities, I became very obsessed with understanding and exploring human expressions, emotional responses, body language and identity and how these factors affect the communication and receptivity of any given story. These are the themes I’ve been exploring with my work.

Through the work that I do, I am realizing that even though we www.businessday.ng

are different, we all have similar wants, experiences and stories and this was and is our unification.

Discovering your love for ballpoint pen artistry, being a draughtswoman I have always loved drawing. I began to really draw when I was 5. My mum would buy crayons, coloured pencils and paper, and I was pretty content with those materials.

When I got into secondary school, the readily available writing material was a ballpoint pen. I began to do a lot of sketches with the pen in my school books.

In University, while studying Fine Art, I abandoned the pen as it wasn’t a traditional medium for creating art.

The love for drawing was further ingrained in me during the months I spent at the Universal Studio of Art in Lagos doing industrial training in 2009. We practically drew every day for throughout the six months of my training. Drawing for me, had now become a way of life.

In 2011, while I was serving, my senior colleague Duke Asidere invited me to participate in a drawing-only art exhibition. I was very excited. As I began to create the pieces for the show, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the level of contrast the charcoals and pastels were giving. Also, the intricacies of my shading were always lost. One day, I decided to

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Do you feel artists are appreciated and well valued in Nigeria? What is your personal experience?

Art appreciation in Nigeria has grown over the years. I’ve been practicing professionally for over 10 years now and in that time, the Nigerian art scene has grown exponentially.

There was a time Artists were regarded as the crazy people of society, people who had nothing to offer or contribute to the grand scheme of things. That has long changed.

With the springing up of Art institutions, organisations and events like Art X, in the country, especially in Lagos, people in Nigeria have begun to see and respect Art as a tool of dialogue that leads to change, change of opinions and perceptions and ultimately, the birth of a new way of life.

This in itself is the duty of an Artist - to provide a lens through which one can see life differently.

What informs your choice of persons to draw and how do you know what method to use for which?

I am inspired by body language and expression. But recently, I’ve been inspired by identity; how identity plays a role in expression and how a person’s expression affects the way their communication is received by another.

From experience, I’ve realized it’s not about how people look, what they wear, how they talk but it’s about reading between the lines and finding the “Why”.

As to the method of portrayal, I can’t tell what design the figure would yield at the finished stage at the beginning; Sometimes, it’s a maze which I’m excited to follow, sometimes it’s pretty straight forward but in all, I just listen to the work and follow where it takes me. @Businessdayng

How long does it take you to finish a drawing and how do you pull it through?

It takes from two weeks to two months, depending on the size of the work. The small works, which are about 3 by 4 feet (I rarely do that size now), take two weeks.

My daily work routine is pretty much fixed. I’m in the studio by 10 am and I work till 5:30 pm on weekdays. Although, when I’m really fired up about a piece, I get engrossed in it. I would work throughout the day and sometimes at night to finish it.

Exhibitions you have participated in and your first experience at one My first exhibition was a group exhibition organized by The Department of Fine Art and Design at the University of Port Harcourt in 2007. I can remember feeling some anxiety before the show opened to the public. When the show opened, the feedback from the guests about my work was very exciting. From then on, I began to look forward to participating in exhibitions.

In the course of my career, I have participated in over 30 group exhibitions. The last one which was concluded in March was a solo exhibition at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida.

My experiences with exhibitions have always been very rewarding. It’s all always to get public feedback about your work.

One of the most memorable experiences for me was exhibiting during the Art Basel week in Miami.

There was a flood of feedback, it was really overwhelming.

What exhibition are you looking forward to?

The one exhibition I am happily looking forward to is my first Nigerian solo exhibition scheduled to hold sometime this year. Right now, there isn’t a definite date because of the current pandemic we’re fighting as a nation, but I’m excited about the new frontiers the exhibition will bring when it comes to life.

You studied Fine Arts in University of Port Harcourt and majored in Painting, how then did you end up in ball pen drawing?

After school, I was a painter for a while and my paintings sold pretty well but, I just wanted to draw. I found that I could express myself in an entirely different form with the ballpoint pen.

What gets me about ballpoint pen is the individuality of the strokes. I’ve never been a hyperrealist artist. I like art that offers new details each time you look at it. I like art that is complex; art that has intricacies. With the ballpoint pen, I’m able to create those intricacies. I actually tried it with charcoal, pastel and pencil.

With pencil, I drifted from normal pencil to 2b, 3b, 5b, but I didn’t get what I want. Somehow, the strokes always blur out.

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Health Business&Life Nigeria only needs to follow approved clinical protocols to prevent the spread of Coronavirus - Allison Like Ameyo Adadevoh, the patriotic Nigerian physician who was famous for curbing a wider spread of Ebola virus outbreak in Nigeria in 2014 by discovering and placing the patient, Patrick Sawyer, in quarantine at a hospital in Lagos despite pressures from the Liberian Government then, another nationalistic Nigerian medic, Amarachukwu Karen Allison, an Imo-born graduate of Medicine and Surgery from University of Port Harcourt is on the path of greatness as she discovered the first Italian index case of Coronavirus right there at Ewekoro Lafarge Africa’s Plant Clinic in Ogun State, Nigeria, on the 27th February, 2020 which marked the begining of novel COVID-19 in the country. Recently, Lafarge Africa media team took up young Dr Amarachukwu in expository, online interview on the discovery of the index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria and what Nigerians need to do contain and exterminate the deadly virus. She has continuously receiving avalanche of accolades from Nigerians; first from Ogun State Government that hosts cement plant where the first index case was recorded, Nigeria’s Government as well as local and international partners that are too numerous to mention. Although, the media chat was conducted online by the media team from Lafarge Africa PLC, a member of LafargeHolcim, RAZAQ AYINLA, Southwest Bureau Chief, monitored and reported the interview here. Excerpts:

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lot of people out there want to know more about you. Can you tell us more about Dr. Amarachukwu Allison, where are you from?

Where did you school and how long have you been in practice?

In addition to being a Medical doctor, I am also a fitness enthusiast and an entrepreneur.

I’m from Imo state. I graduated from the University of Port Harcourt in 2013. I have been practicing medicine for almost 7 years now.

The last couple of weeks must have been overwhelming for you. How has it felt receiving appreciation messages from Nigerians across the World?

Yes, you are very correct. What started as a normal day at the (Lafarge Africa) clinic turned out to be an important day in my career, the identification of the first case of Coronavirus disease in Nigeria. Thanks to the clear protocols in place at the clinic, we knew exactly what to do and worked closely with the public authorities.

Following the confirmation of the case, myself and my colleagues were quarantined for 14 days. It was a challenging experience, but I turned it into an opportunity to self-develop as much as possible through online courses. The support I received from my family and my employer, International SOS, contributed to my wellbeing. My teammates and I came out of quarantine in good health and the patient had also recovered. After the quarantine, I didn’t expect to be ac-

knowledged by the Ogun State Government for doing my job, it was very humbling. I take this opportunity to thank all those who sent me so many support messages.

Can you tell us what raised your suspicion about the patient’s condition when you encountered him?

Being a medical doctor, I had been following the evolution of what was then still the Coronavirus disease outbreak and now categorized as a pandemic. My organization, International SOS has also provided us training and up to date information on the virus. Therefore, considering the symptoms and the travel history of the patient I followed established protocols and escalated the case to my superiors as a potential COVID-19 case.

Can you give us some insight into your frame of mind and how you felt at the time you thought of escalating to the Government?

I was very concerned about my provisional diagnosis because the patient’s symptoms didn’t fully meet the case definition and he had no known exposure to COVID-19. However because of his recent travel history, It seemed prudent to maintain a high index of suspicion. He had traveled from a country that had already reported multiple COVID-19 cases. The protocols we have implemented for a suspected case are extremely robust so it was easy to have this escalated to make sure that all precautionary measures were taken as soon as possible. I was glad to be able to support the patient and help to

protect the other employees and wider community.

In a bid to educate people reading this, what steps did you take immediately you suspected he had Coronavirus? How were you able to protect yourself and others?

Like I earlier mentioned, we followed our protocols for a suspected case, I offered him a mask, I increased the distance between us to a safe distance, washed my hands for about 40 seconds and wore my personal protective equipment (PPE) and then I escalated and informed my teammates. We then decontaminated the clinic. The protocol has worked as none of the clinic staff got infected while providing care to this patient and transporting him to the government facilities.

The current pandemic is new to everyone and a lot of people don’t know what to do. What tips do you have for people reading this to protect themselves and their loved ones from the spread of coronavirus?

I would implore everyone to please follow all the outlined preventive measures. That is wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water using the proper technique or use an alcohol-based sanitizer.

Cough/sneeze into the flex of your elbow or tissue, discard properly and wash your hands.

Do not touch your face, particularly your eyes, nose or mouth to prevent the virus from entering your system. Practice social distancing, stand at least 1.5 meters from people, avoid crowded places. If you feel unwell, stay

home and inform your local health authorities.

Coincidentally, it’s Women’s month. Can you tell us how you’ve been able to succeed as a woman in your field? Also, what advice do you have other women who are starting out their careers in the medical field?

I have never been one to let being a woman deter me from setting goals and striving to achieve them. I believe wholly that every failed attempt brings me closer to my set goal.

That said, my advice to women starting out in the medical field would be ‘Do not entertain the thought that you deserve less for being a woman. Know that you would also rise by lifting others, and there is strength and dignity in asking for help’.

Is there any message you would like to pass to Nigerians during this time?

This is a very critical time for Nigeria. I would like to impress on us all the need and importance to strictly adhere to all outlined precautionary measures that have been put in place by the local health authorities and the World Health Organisation. We need to join the global effort to address the COVID-19 pandemic. To my fellow health workers, we are at the frontline and let us do all the best that we can to defend our nation in this fight against COVID-19, but always remember ‘Safety First!’.

My special prayers to the health workers all around the world who have paid the supreme sacrifice and to all the families who have lost loved ones.

Finally to all our unsung heroes, Thank you.

Why Nigeria, world must hasten COVID-19 battle, says expert SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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erturbed by the upsurge in cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic afflicting Nigeria and the world, the need for government at all levels to hasten efforts and pull resources together to find a vaccine that would provide citizens with adequate immunity to withstand the disease has been stressed.

A medical practitioner with ELA Memorial Medical centre, an orthopedic hospital in Ilorin, Kwara State, Ukoh Kalu, said this in an interview with BusinessDay correspondent.

“As we all know that COVID-19 is a pandemic affecting every www.businessday.ng

country of the world, not just that it affects the health of the people

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worldwide but also has economic effects on most countries.

“I think the most important way to address this is for the governments of the world to face this pandemic with vaccine; without the vaccine, I don’t see an end to the pandemic.

“To put an end to the dreaded disease, Governments really have to hasten efforts and pull resources in finding a vaccine that would, at least, provide some sort of immunity to the population in the country and the world at large.

In that way, people can go out and do their daily activities”, Kalu said.

Speaking on the total lockdown that had hampered movement of residents even when they have @Businessdayng

serious health challenge, the medical expert cautioned that there would be community transmission with the incessant rate of Coronavirus in the country.

He said, “I know, telling people to stay at home is not easy but that seems to be the best way for now.

We do not have any vaccine to treat COVID -19.

“The world is currently challenged with the pandemic, and it has to be addressed as fast as possible. Some scholars have recommended indigenous approach, prioritizing research development, political will, collaboration among research institutes to win war against Coronavirus pandemic”.

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

19

Health Business&Life COVID-19: Foundation tasks FG on strict measures to shield people with underlying conditions

What are the differences between COVID-19, Common Cold, Flu, and Allergies? close contact with those suffering from the common cold. There is no vaccine for the common cold. Albeit, to also prevent the common cold, we need to eat a good balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, take care of our physical health through regular physical exercises, learn to manage our stress levels, and get good quality sleep for at least 8 hours.

Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja

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roject Pink Blue, a cancer fighting foundation has called on the federal government to develop strict measures to protect people living with underlying conditions with concerns that they are extremely vulnerable to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Project PINK BLUE said cancer patients and other people with underlying conditions at a higher and increased risk of catching or dying from COVID-19 and urged government to urgently procure telemedicine to care for them.

The foundation identified other people with these conditions to include; people living with lung conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); heart diseases such as heart failure; chronic kidney disease, liver disease such as hepatitis, diabetes, people living with spleen problems like sickle cell disease or have their spleen removed, people with weakened immune system as the result of conditions as HIV and AIDS, steroid tablets or chemotherapy as

Coker A. Olurotimi

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well as people who are overweight (having BMI of 40 or more).

“Some cancer treatments including chemotherapy, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and radiation can weaken the immune system. People who have weakened immune systems have a much higher risk of complications if they become infected with this coronavirus.

“People with cancer that has metastasized (spread) to the lungs also can have lung problems that may get worse as a result of coronavirus infection. said Runcie Chidebe, Executive Director, Project PINK BLUE. Chidebe stressed that cancer

patients may have the worse outcome, higher risk of severe events than people without cancer”.

“Project PINK BLUE called on the Federal Government of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Health, Presidential Task Force on Covid19 andthe Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to take strict measures to protect and shield this extremely vulnerable people.

It also commends all oncology workforces across Nigeria taking extra measures to speak to cancer patients on phone and care for them in this moment of uncertainty.

IBEDC supports fight against COVID-19 in Kwara SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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equel to the spate of Coronavirus (COVID -19) ravaging the globe, people have been advised to adhere strictly to the safety measures both the medical practitioners and governments recommended to curtail the spread of the dreadful scourge.

Some of the recommendations include frequent hand washing, application of sanitizers, social distancing and adherence to personal hygiene.

In keeping faith with measures to contain the transmission of the deadly virus, governments at the centre and states were forced to impose total lockdown of activities, thus banning large congregations and restricting vehicular movements except those on essential services.

In Kwara State for instance, the state government announced full scale lockdown in view of the increase in number of people infected by the disease. The statistical analysis from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed that Kwara has nine confirmed cases of coronavirus with two patients discharged.

The development also compelled the state government to order civil servants in the state to henceforth work from home while schools, worship centres and markets were also shutdown indefinitely.

And ever since the stringent decision was taken, there has

HBL Team

been lull in the activities. The impact of the gloabal pandemic on the economy has been a tale of woes with palpable reduction in revenue due to the state.

The untoward development notwithstanding, the state government flagged off distribution of palliatives, including food stuff to residents in the bid to cushion the adverse effects of the lockdown on them.

Some private business owners and nongovernmental organizations have also extended support to the government as part of their corporate social responsibility.

One of the business organizations that donated to the state government is Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).

Musbau Ajisafe, Regional Head of IBEDC, led a team to present the company’s donation to the Kwara State government in Ilorin, the state capital.

While handing over the palliatives, the electricity company chief urged residents of the state to adhere strictly to the measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus.

He said the people would remain healthy and safe from contracting the virus if people abide by the government’s directive, adding that the dreaded disease claiming many lives requires collective responsibility to ward it off in the society.

Ajisafe applauded the proactive measures the Federal Government, States’ Governors and lieutenants have put in place in the fight against the Coronavirus

pandemic.

“As part of its corporate social responsibility and contributions towards mitigating the health hazards and hardships caused by the global pandemic COVID-19, IBEDC earmarked about Hundred Million Naira(N100,000,000) for the donation of relief items as part of our CSR support to the states we operate in - as we cover fully Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Kwara States and partly Niger, Kogi and Ekiti.

“We are also supporting one of the major medical facilities within our franchise, which has been designated as an apex care giver in the COVID-19 battlethe University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan with a donation of Five Million Naira(N5,000,000) for the purchase of critical medical supplies needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic”, he added.

This, according to him, is being done to support the various government initiatives and help reduce the hardship the lockdown occasioned on the citizens.

Food items such as 2,500 bags of 5kg rice, 1,500 cartoons of noodles and 3,000 of 1kg of semovita were donated by the company to support the Kwara State government palliatives for the poor during the lockdown.

Kayode Alabi, the state Deputy Governor and Chairman of Technical Committee on COVID-19, who received the items, appreciated the management of IBEDC for the kind gesture, saying that it would go a long way to assist the needy.

he rainy season will soon be with us in Nigeria and the rates of common cold also known as influenza flu will also be on the increase. The signs and symptoms of the common cold and some allergies such as coughing, sneezing, fever, and headache are relatively similar to those of the coronavirus. Therefore, it is expected that when some people get the flu, i.e., common cold or become allergic to some foodstuff or other substances and start to manifest symptoms similar to the coronavirus, they are likely to develop sudden fear, anxiety, panic, symptoms of depression such as low moods, sleep disturbances including fear of dying.

Due to the expected increase in panic situations and other mental health issues, there will also be an increased number of those that might want to be tested for the coronavirus. The local, state and the federal government should also be ready to increase the testing during the rainy season that is just around the corner. Nonetheless, I will try and compare the qualities that differentiate these three illnesses and how to quickly differentiate these three illnesses from one another.

What is the common cold?

The common cold is caused by the rhinoviruses, some viral infections that we catch during the rainy season that affects our upper respiratory tract (nose, throat, and chest). The signs and symptoms are headaches, fever, running nose, coughing, weakness of the body, sore throat, and sneezing; but these signs and symptoms are relatively mild compared to the flu or the coronavirus infections. This type of viral infection is harmless and seemingly healthy Nigerian adults are expectedto experience about three common colds in one year. Nonetheless, infected people who experience common cold are expected to recover within five to ten days. The main signs and symptoms of the common cold include mild cough, running or stuffy nose, body weakness, sore throat, sneezing, mild headaches, watery eyes, and mild fever.

The common cold virus, just like the coronavirus enters the body through the mouth, eyes, or nose. The common cold spreads by hand to hand contact with an infected person, through sharing of telephones, towels, and cooking utensils. Again, when an infected person coughs or sneezes, the virus can spread through droplets in the air.

The common cold can be prevented by taking precautionary measures such as washing your hands frequently with soap and water, and also by using alcohol-based hand sanitizers. One should cough and sneeze into one’s elbows or paper tissues. The paper tissue should be discardedimmediately into the dustbin. Physical and social distancing is also necessary to avoid

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

What is the Flu? Influenza is also called the flu. Just like the common cold, it is also caused by a virus known as the influenza virus. The virus causes infection of the nose, mouth, throat, and lungs just like the common cold. However, the signs and symptoms of flu are slightly more severe than the common cold because if not treated, it can lead to death. When infected, the flu lasts for five to seven days. The signs and symptoms of the flu include: high fever (above 38 degrees)that brings about chills and feverish feelings, higher than that of the common cold, dry unproductive cough, fatigue (tiredness), general body aches and pains, running or stuffy nose, sneezing (not severe like the common cold), sore throat, mild headaches and, shortness of breath; children may experience vomiting and diarrhoea.

The flu, unlike the common cold, starts suddenly with high fever, stuffy nose, dry cough, headache, body pains in the head, lower back and legs, loss of appetite, and tiredness during the first three days. By the fourth and fifth days, the fever and body pains will subside. All the symptoms will eventually subside by the eighth to the tenth day.

The flu has a vaccine and one can be vaccinated against the flu.

However, most infected people with the flu get well after using pain killer medications. Nonetheless, people suffering from the flu are advised to stay at home and get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids. The flu can be diagnosed through a rapid influenza test that can give results in fifteen minutes. The influenza test involves a nasal or throat culture to determine the presence of the influenza virus. You do not need to see your doctor when you catch the flu virus. Most healthy people have immunity that will assist them to fight the infection. Again, those experiencing the signs and symptoms of the influenza virus, need to eat a good diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and rest a lot to recover from the infection.

What is Coronavirus (Covid-19)?

The illness from Coronavirus is called the Covid-19illness. This form of viral infection is a new strain of coronavirus not previously seen in humans and has been found in every country of the world. The Covid-19 causes severe illness in vulnerable groups of people such as the elderly and those with severe underlying chronic health conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes. There is no vaccine yet for the treatment and management of the Covid-19. The signs and symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, dry and unproductive cough, chest pain, difficulty breathing, fatigue (tiredness), generalised aches and Dr Coker Ayodele Olurotimi is a Lagos-based Behavioural Medicine expert. Cokerrotimi@gmail.com

I David Ogar, Graphics

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FEATURE How Zainab Ahmed is steering Nigeria’s economy through turbulent times Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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Zainab Ahmed

Ahmed is determined to do her best and the good works are everywhere for all to see, notwithstanding the carefully orchestrated plan to deflect the credit from her to some highly placed individuals within the economic management circle of the federal government.

But, first, a glance at whom the minister is. Zainab Ahmed is an accountant by profession with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from ABU Zaria and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). She has served the public sector in her state of origin, Kaduna, and at the Federal level when she joined Nigeria’s telecommunication monopoly, NITEL. However, her flair for reform can be traced, perhaps, to her involvement with Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), having worked also with the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Zainab came into the inner caucus of Nigeria’s economic management circle when she was appointed as Minister of State for Budget and National Planning in 2015. Then, upon the resignation of the former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun on September 14, 2018, Zainab Ahmed was promoted as Finance Minister in September 2018.

After her re-election the two erstwhile ministries of Finance and Budget and Planning were merged and placed under one administration, making Zainab Ahmed the de facto chief manager of Nigeria’s Economy.

To appreciate what Zainab Ahmed is asked to grapple with, one needs to step back and look at what Nigeria’s economy represents today.

Nigeria is an emerging market www.businessday.ng

with its economy ranked as middleincome and mixed economy. Its expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology and entertainment sectors make it the 27th largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity. It produces a large proportion of goods and services for the West African subcontinent.

Zainab Ahmed is expected not only to maintain this preeminent economic position but to grow it more.

To further appreciate the achievements of the chief manager of our economy, one needs to look at the various policy frameworks and pronouncements that the ministry of finance is churning out to regulate and stabilize the economy.

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The most significant effect of the COVID 19 has been on our oil revenue, which plummeted due to lack of buyers abroad as the global pandemic has virtually shut down all industries that relied on oil to operate

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lot has happened in the Nigeria’s economy since 2019 when the incumbent President Buhari was re-elected.

The President came back for his second term with renewed vigour to turn around the economy. The economy has been struggling with growth put at 1.94 percent year-onyear in the second quarter of 2019, easing from an upwardly revised 2.10 percent expansion in the prior period.

He has placed the management of the economy in hands of Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, as the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

One of the major economic revival packages was the rolling out of Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) to boost revenue generation by government agencies. The SRGI predicated its success on its ability to increase Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5% to 7.5% effective from Q1 of 2020.

VAT collection in Nigeria has been on the increase -- N972 billion was collected in 2017, N1.1 trillion in 2018 but due to slow down of the economy, the estimated collection for 2019 was put at N229 billion.

Failure to meet even this projected revenue caused the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) Tsar, Mr. Fowler… his seat. The new rate was billed to come into effect in 2020.

Another policy announced to firm up the economy was the implementation of the cashless policy throughout the country, which sought to increase revenues generation through charges and levies. But the advent of COVID 19 late last year has come to change everything—belying projections and eventually shutting down economic activities.

The most significant effect of the COVID 19 has been on our oil revenue, which plummeted due to lack of buyers abroad as the global pandemic has virtually shut down all industries that relied on oil to operate.

Zainab Ahmed confirmed this when she spoke to members of the National Assembly recently. She noted: “Oil revenues have been significantly affected in that the oil production for 2020 year-to-date is 1.9mbpd against 2020 budget’s projection of 2.18mbpd; and Brent oil prices are US$30/b against 2020 budget’s US$57/b. Although similar challenges were experienced in 2015/2016, Nigeria now has considerably lower fiscal buffers,” There are turbulent days, if not years, in offing. These are the circumstances that are defining the hard work and achievements of Nigeria’s finance minister.

Despite the grim picture, Zainab

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On Monday, 9th March 2020, President Buhari set up the committee chaired by the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and comprising the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; and Group Managing Director of the NNPC as members. The Presidential Committee is to advice the President on the COVID 19 induced economic crisis that Nigeria is passing through.

A glimpse at the recommendations of the Presidential Crisis Committee shows the Finance minister has appreciated the root causes of the crisis and applicable solutions.

She highlighted some of the recommendations as follows.

“The crisis management committee recommends an integrated policy framework comprising critical and complementary measures to forestall a decline into another recession. This integrated policy framework comprises revenue measures against expenditure measures against other and administration measures” Speaking on revenue measures, she stated that there has to be increased revenues by reducing NNPC’s expenditures associated with oil revenues. According to her, the N457.5billion premium motor spirit (PMS) under-recovery has to be zero (as current oil prices below US$30/b imply that there currently is no PMS under-recovery); and there has to be a transitioning to a PMS price modulation process to be driven by underlying global oil and gas prices.

Ahmed posited to reduce other federally-funded upstream projects, such that aggregate NNPC deductible expenditures are cut by 53 percent; revise 2020 budget using a US$30/b price benchmark to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Production volume will be maintained at 2.18mb/per day; accelerate marginal fields and other licensing rounds; ramp up oil production on shut-down wells; budgeted customs revenues have been reduced from N1.5trillion to N943billion due to anticipated reduction in trade volumes; and privatisation proceeds to be cut by 50 percent, based on the adverse economic outlook on sales of the independent power projects (IPPs) and other assets.”

In the same vein, she also looked at the expenditure measures, stating that Mr. President had approved the following measures: • Reduction of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) capital expenditure (CAPEX) by 20 percent; • Reduction in CAPEX and overheads for the top 10 government own enterprises (GOEs) in FGN 2020 budget by 25 percent, @Businessdayng

80 percent of savings from these top 10 GOEs’ cuts will be applied to increase their operating surpluses; similar cost cutting measures will apply to all other GOEs; and consequently, independent revenues for the federal government will increase by N67billion (being 80 percent of the N84.1billion savings from cuts to both overheads and CAPEX).

Considering other fiscal and administrative measures, Ahmed stated further: “Control the fastgrowing personnel cost by efficiency measures such as nonessential recruitment; restructure social investment programmes (SIP); and design and launch other policy measures to be agreed with strategic MDAs.” Recently she gave insight into the social investment programme agreed with strategic MDAs, which aims to address the concerns of those Nigerians that might have lost their employment due to the COVID 19 induced crisis. The intervention is tag Special Public Works programme.

The programme will be implemented in all 36 States and the FCT from October 2020 to December 2020. The selected timeframe is to ensure that the Programme is implemented after the planting season is over, and it will result in the employment of about 774,000 Nigerians (that is, 1,000 people per each Local Government). The funding of the initiative will come from the 500 billion COVID 19 Crisis Intervention Fund set by the Federal Government.

Zainab Ahmed is also leading the ministry to explore how best to extend the Special Public Works Programme, to provide modest stipends for iterant workers to undertake Roads Rehabilitation, Social Housing Construction, Urban and Rural Sanitation, Health Extension and other critical services. The intervention will be undertaken in conjunction with the key Federal Ministries responsible for Agriculture, Environment, Health and Infrastructure, as well as the States, to financially empower individuals who lose their jobs due to the economic crisis.

These are fantastic fiscal stimulus measures in response to the hard times Nigerians are, without expectation, passing through. If effectively implemented, they will, without a doubt, cushion-up the severity of the fallout from reduced earnings from oil due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

These carefully thought-policies have the imprints of Zainab Ahmed, who must be given full credit for her leadership of an intellectual team to see Nigeria through very trying times.

Hassan contributed this piece from Abuja

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Markets + Finance

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

Lafarge Africa’s profit hits six year high on excellent strategic thinking

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he management and board of directors of Lafarge Africa Plc were proactively dexterous to have disposed off a subsidiary and carry out corporate restructuring three year ago, a strategic decision that spur the company to unprecedented growth.

If they had not taken made that crucial move, it would have been practically difficult to so now as the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging economies across the world.

Mobolaji Balogun, chairman of the second largest producer of the building material in Africa’s largest economy will be happy wherever he is that the company is thriving even amid a the tempest.

Of course, the fundamental obligation of a steward is to magnify shareholders’ earnings by rewarding them with bumper out of distributed profit, while ensuring that the entity has the requited financial strength to pursue its expansion plans.

Enough of accolades and let get back to the business of the day, which is an anatomy of Lafarge Africa’s 2019 audited financial statement.

For the year ended December 2019, Lafarge Africa posted a profit after tax of

N115.10 billion as against a loss of N8.80 billion the previous year. Also, the profit in the current period is the highest in six years.

The cement maker has utilize the resources of shareholders in generating higher profit even amid a tough and unpredictable macroeconomic environment as net profit margin increased to 54.04 percent in December 2019 as against a negative figure of -4.04 percent in 2018.

Lafarge Africa is financially stable and there are no threats to its going concerns as the proportion of debt in its capital structure has reduced, which means the asset side far exceeds the liability side Debt to equity ratio stood at 18.61 percent in the period under review, what this means is that for every Naira of Lafarge Africa owned by the shareholders, the company owes N0.18 to creditors.

The debt to equity ratio is a financial, liquidity ratio that compares a company’s total debt to total equity.

The cement maker can pay the interest on outstanding debt as interest coverage ratio stood at 1.73 times earnings in the period under review. Total debt stood at N64.15 billion as at December 2019, the lowest in five years.

The lower the ratio, the more the company is burdened by debt expense.

When a company’s interest

coverage ratio is only 1.5 or lower, its ability to meet interest expenses may be questionable.

Lafarge Africa has the financial ammunitions to surmount the coronavirus

headwinds as its cash flow from operating activities surged by 190.66 percent to N81.27 billion in the period under review from N27.96 billion as at December 2018.

Investors pay attention to the cash flow because the item tells them the extent to which a company can pay dividend, settle debt, and fund future expansion plans Lafarge Africa and other operators in the industry are operating in a tough and unpredictable macroeconomic environment.

The sudden drop in crude oil price of mid 2014 that tipped the country in its first recession in 25 years hit government revenue.

Consequently construction activities slowed on the back of reduced capital expendi-

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The cement maker can pay the interest on outstanding debt as interest coverage ratio stood at 1.73 times earnings in the period under review

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BALA AUGIE

ture by government.

In 2016 the construction sector declined by 5.9 per-

BD MARKETS + FINANCE Analysts: BALA AUGIE www.businessday.ng

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@Businessdayng

cent compared to the growth of 4.4 percent recorded in 2015. Subdued activities in the construction industry had a spill over effect on the cement sector, where growth slowed drastically from 22.1 percent in 2015 to a negative growth of 5.4 percent in 2016.

The construction sector is one sector will be badly hit owing to reduced CAPEX spending by the government given weaker earnings particularly oil revenue and the coronavirus pandemic that is crippling business activities across the globe.

Three weeks ago, the Federal Government reduced the amount budgeted for capital expenditure by 20 percent in the 2020 budget as construction activities will be weak owing to Covid-19 restrictions.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted a negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 3.4 percent for the country.

The Minister for Finance, Zanaib Ahmed, has already reduced the government’s projection of 2.10 million barrels a day of production to 1.70 million, and it working to Nigeria’s record $35bn budget for 2020.

Capitulating to pressure, the central bank devalued the official Naira rate to N360 to the dollar from N305.

Brent crude rose 11 percent to trade at $21.47 as markets opened in New York. Brent remains down around 3o percent so far this week as lockdowns and travel restrictions enacted by governments have caused oil demand to tumble by as much as third from precrises level.

West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, rose 25 percent to $14.43. It almost halved during the previous session and earlier in the week fell into negative territory for the first time as producers were forced to pay buyers to take oil off their hands ahead of expiry future contracts.

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment Covid-19: Entertainment now finds digital voice

Obinna Emelike

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ith the obvious impact of coronavir us (Covid-19), entertainment, like other businesses is shutdown. Worse still, the ban on social gatherings and lockdown have made live performances impossible, movie producers unable to produce films, music artistes and comedians unable to thrill their cheerful fans at their usual venues, while cinemas, art theatre, clubs and event centres are shutdown.

However, in the face of the virus pandemic, life still goes on, though at a slow pace. But the bad situation is offering the entertainment sector a huge opportunity to find its digital voice and redirect patrons to available alternatives, especially online.

Now, most entertainers and entertainment outfits are expanding their online presence, creating and uploading huge contents online and holding on to their fans/ market and even wining new ones.

There is truly a shift to online now more than ever. Of course, content streaming companies are making brisk business from the surge in patronage by the global audiences, who are forced to stay at home by the lockdown occasioned by efforts at curtailing the spread of coronavirus.

In Nigeria, one of the exciting online entertainment alternative platforms is Ogelle.com, Africa’s first user generated content platform with 100 percent focus on African content.

In the face of the pandemic, the platform has sustained a weekly release of fresh episodes of Aluko’s Residence, its flagship comedy series.

Aside its flagship comedy series, which is trending online now, Ogelle.com has released four exclusive shows to support the stay-at-home order. From 4Some, featuring six episodes; The Lounge, six episodes; Life on the Plus Side, six episodes, and Health Hup, seven episodes, fans on the platform enjoy more contents

Scene from Aluko’s Residence

online now than before.

Osita Oparaugo, CEO, Reddot Television Network, producers of the comedy series, is excited reaching out to even more audience online, as that is the only window to do so in the face of the stiff challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Some Nigerian movie makers are now releasing films and holding screenings online as the restriction on social gatherings and lockdown hold people back.

Last, week, Marcel Jato, a budding filmmaker, hosted a webinar where he screened his film and the invited critics were able to review the movie also without the usual physical appearance.

As well, Disney and Universal Pictures have recently made some movies available online for viewers at rental fees.

Meanwhile, a lot of musicians, who cannot host live shows again, have taken advantage of online platforms and social media to release their albums with target audience following more than before.

Sound Sultan is trending online with ‘8th Wondah’, his seventh studio album, which is available online, as well, Oxlade, another singer, is enthralling fans with Oxygene, his new EP, which is also

available online.

But the likes of Joeboy, Wurld, Tems, Fireboy, Rema, Chike, among other undoubtably emerging new tribe in the music industry, have also taken advantage of online platforms to chart a new course for the music industry.

They are no longer waiting for producers or ceremonial album release dates, they just unleash everything online, streaming music contents, wining fans and making money with less stress.

Theatre production companies such as Terra Kulture are offering reviews and short videos of their recent productions on their online platforms to keep guests seeking excitement entertained while at home.

However, the gainers are music and video online streaming companies who are offering several contents to their online patrons for fees.

Top among them are YouTube, Netflix, IROKOTv, DStv ShowMax, among others. The contents, according Mike Fatona, a music producer, is unprecedented with over 50 percent increase since the lockdown.

“In the last one month, there is no day you will not see a quality entertainment content online

because that is the only available channel to reach out to fans now.

The increase is about 60 percent”, Fatona explained.

For him, streaming of contents online offers a huge source of revenue for musicians, movie producers and content right owners, while the likes of Netflix are making it easy now for owners.

Currently, members on the Netflix platform in Nigeria can now pay in local currency, while IROKOTv is available from N3000.

The intrigue for Kachi Emelogu, a content producer, is that the likes of Netflix and IROKOTv are engaging in healthy rivalry that is creating unprecedented contents across Africa and Nigeria in particular. But with the lockdown, he noted that the volume has more than doubled.

“Content is no longer a YouTube or Instagram affair, they are on your face across all social media platforms. Streaming companies are now even in stiff competition with individual content creators who just create and host online for free. There is so much to watch now online”, Emelogu said.

For him, the enabler is the cheap internet subscription packages by the telecom companies.

“With our phones, we can create

any content and post on our social media handles and people will follow us. So, it is easier now and the lockdown is making many people more creative with their time, phone and computers”, he explained further.

Yet again, the payTV companies have proven to be formidable alternative for entertainment in the lockdown period.

Foremost of them is MultiChoice Africa, South African payTV giant, which has massively impacted and contributed to the growth and development of Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry.

With options on DStv and GOtv, its two outlets, the company has made entertainment seamless for subscribers even before the lockdown.

There are so much to watch and many are hooked this period, enjoying entertainment across Africa and the world.

Also, MultiChoice ShowMax, an on-demand video service with intentions to compete against Netflix, is also living up to expectations with several entertainment packages.

But beyond streaming, IROKOTv (dubbed the ‘Netflix’ of Africa) is living up to the huge task of creating quality content, especially since the Canal TV acquisition deal that offered it the needed funds to explore more quality content. IROKOTv, which is unarguably the world’s largest distributor of African movies, has continued to provide multiple distribution networks for Nollywood movies through its IrokoTV app, and its ROK channels on cable networks within and outside Africa, especially during this lockdown.

Truly, some much entertainment contents are being streamed online now than before. The development is also helping the entertainment industry to find its digital voice.

But many entertainers, especially those who are daily ripped off by content producers and marketers hope that the digital window will grow further after the virus is curtailed to give them the much needed financial freedom.

Hallelujah pop-up channel launches on DStv, GOtv for Church experience at home

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o cater to the spiritual needs of subscribers, following the restriction of religious gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a pop-up channel, Hallelujah Channel, has launched on Dstv and GOtv. Hallelujah Channel will run from 8 April 8 till May 7, 2020 and is available on DStv Premium, Compact Plus, Compact, Confam, Family, Yanga and Access packages, as well as, on GOtv Max, Jolli and Plus packages.

The channel will provide DStv and GOtv viewers the opportu-

Kornerstone, Salvation Ministries and more.

“The global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 is not only affecting the way we live and work but has also caused a disruption to the ways religious activities are conducted. We are staying in tune with our customers’ new realities and have expanded our religious programming to cater to the different denominational groups, keeping them connected during these challenging times,” said Martin Mabutho, chief customer officer of MultiChoice Nigeria.

nity to have a ‘church at home’ experience with praise and worship sessions, sermons, choir ministrations, prayers and other family programming from wellknown churches in Nigeria.

Viewers will enjoy ministrations from churches such as the City of David parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Daystar Christian Centre, Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM), Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), Harvesters International Christian Centre (HICC), The Elevation Church, Diplomats’ Assembly, www.businessday.ng

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Friday 24 April 2020

Business etiquette

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment Postponing an event during lockdown Steps to consider when postponing an event

Janet Adetu

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t ay i ng at h o m e d u ring lockdown has been one of the most unprecedented situations we have all witnessed this new decade. The storm of the pandemic caused by Covid 19 is one that has raised fear, anxiety, stress, depression, uncertainty, and emotional torment for many.

Amidst all the assumptions, presumptions, stories, and tales’ people are all looking for a way out, for this bad dream to end and for life to pick up again.

Just before the lock down I recall going through my diary taking stock of the number of events I had to attend, ranging from meetings to mini conferences, landmark birthdays, and a couple of weddings. My first thought was will these events hold given the situation? This was before the eventual lockdown, though I knew it would be inevitable that we would need to follow other nations. No sooner I began to receive notifications of the sudden postponement of many of these events. Given the circumstances, this was easily the right thing for any organization to do. I have seen this extend to events yet to occur all the way through to next month. The continuous lockdown has created a reshuffle in numerous corporate and business plans, unfortunately some have had to make the decision to cancel outright.

The issue here is the implications of the postponement or cancellation, as the case maybe. ta the company, organization, vendors and all other stakeholders.

Recognizing the date If the date has come and gone, then you have had no choice but to postpone. If the date of your proposed event is approaching within the next one to three months, you will also be considering postponing the event with the intention of waiting to see how things will evolve. Lockdown is still on for now with so much uncertainty in the air.

Once the reality of the situation has been determined you will need to make an informed decision to notify all attendees and invited guests. A poster or flier is simple communication indicating the postponement clearly. It is best not to fix any new date so soon but indicate till further notice, I have seen a couple of notices already suggesting the new month, I guess they are speculating that things will normalize by then, At this point it is important to go by the moment and manage expectations. Ensure your communication reaches far and wide and is clearly explanatory.

Venue rules If your event was to attract a large number of people, chances are you hired a venue to accommodate them. If a contract was signed to clarify the terms of agreement, this is the time to check if there are any underlining rules as regards cancellations or change of event date. This pandemic is unprecedented and born by natural causes and a natural disaster, chances are this is a very rare as well as unique situation. It is more than likely that payment in full has been incurred for this venue most especially to secure it for that event in advance. It is also likely that a no refund policy exists, this therefore requires you negotiating with the venue owners rebook a new date where possible. If your event is an annual one you may need to reconsider the logistics, and decide for the year ahead or possible alter-

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Burna Boy

when he ran through his 2017 track titled “Hallelujah.”

With a reawakening of the Burna Boy sound, his album ‘African Giant’ is back on the charts with traction in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and the United States. www.businessday.ng

native moving forward.

Vendor policy For many corporate events scheduled to hold within the next two months most expenses will have incurred at the very least deposits placed. Depending on the corporate plan you may be lucky to operate a 30 – 60-day credit policy thereby yet to incur the costs, however what is important is recognizing that some vendors are booked all year round. For social events you may have incurred almost all expenses as the vendor use this to secure appointments. If you have engaged the services of an events planner this may be secured by the events planner in advance as part of their service deliverables and payments made upfront. Events planners themselves being a vendor may have 90% work completed, you may be obliged to pay part even if the service is incomplete. It is better where a new date is set and the job deliverables are fully rendered, hoping the new dates are not clashing with anything else.

Invited attendees, speakers, guests Where the event is held by an association this may attract an entrance fee, being a ticket purchased in advance of the event. This is a choice made by the attendee based on the available date provided and their availability to attend. The dilemma will now be in choosing a new date if at all. You will need to be ready for a few declines, that is those who have decided that they no longer want to attend a large gathering and therefore may request a refund. In the same light planning with invited speakers may require you reaffirm availability and full logistics from the start. For social events you will need to consider new dates that will attract important guests or a favourable time that makes it convenient for many to attend. The last Easter holiday was a time packed with events due to the public holiday season, numerous

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The continuous lockdown has created a reshuffle in numerous corporate and business plans, unfortunately some have had to make the decision to cancel outright

events could not hold.

Future planning At the moment planning anything new should be done with caution, go by the day and manage expectations.

People are still apprehensive and skeptical, still very uncertain of what lies ahead. Even at the point when the lock down is lifted, and normalcy begins the new “NOW” will operate. Essentially a bit of distancing, more virtual ways of life and doing business, and safety will still be uppermost in the minds of people.

Venue dates will begin to clash from pre bookings, it will take going back to the drawing board and rethinking which way forward, who is to benefit and at what cost will this be.

Cost cutting is the name of the game today given the loss of income experienced in the last three week. It may just well be that you can achieve just as much from your proposed event by making your event fully virtual.

This takes care of issues regarding cost, physical presence, food, drink and the whole nine yards. So many events today have gone virtual from wedding anniversaries, to funeral remembrances, weddings themselves, cocktail parties, virtual happy hours you name it. This is indeed the “New Now”.

Insurance Finally, this is a huge wake up call for everyone, having to consider unforeseen circumstances. Seek insurance coverage where possible especially where your event involves large expenses and multiple stakeholders. Protection against eventualities must be explored to avoid total losses born by you alone. You are not alone in this pandemic the problems apply to us all.

Wishing you the best during these trying times. Be Safe, Stay Safe, Keep Safe.

Watch out for yourself and all your loved ones.

Janet.adetu@gmail.com @janetadetu @jsketiquette

Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund awards $115,000 to 10 African doc projects

Burna Boy thrills at Global Citizen’s ‘Together At Home’ concert rtistes from all parts of the world teamed up with Global Citizen to present the “One World: Together At Home” virtual concert series. Millions of viewers discovered new songs as they took to the Shazam app to identify the songs and artistes.

Nigerian Afrobeats singer, Burna Boy’s songs, ‘African giant’, and ‘Hallelujah’ were part of the searches which resulted in being the most-shazam-ed songs of the concert, currently standing at fourteen thousand four hundred and ninety-nine (14,499) shazams.

The 28-year-old Atlantic recording artiste performed his mega-hit “African Giant” off his 2019 album of the same name, which has gotten him massive global recognition and a Grammy nomination. He also took us back through the years

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ot D o cs Canadian International Docu m e nt a r y Fe st i va l and Blue Ice Group are pleased to announce that 10 African film projects have been chosen to receive a total of $115,000 CAD in development and production grants from the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund in its ninth round of disbursements. Selected from 80 submissions from 26 different African countries, six projects will receive development grants, one will receive a production grant, and three will receive completion grants.

Five of the grant recipients will also receive support to attend Hot Docs 2020, where they will take part in a creative filmmakers’ lab, attend Hot Docs screenings, conference sessions, the Hot Docs

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Forum and various networking events, and participate in a yearround peer-to-peer mentorship program. They will also receive support to attend a festival/market in Africa.

The $2.35-million Hot DocsBlue Ice Group Documentary Fund was created in 2011 to help enable more African documentary filmmakers to tell their own stories, and contribute to the African documentary community’s next generation. To date, the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund has awarded grants to 69 projects from 23 countries, as well as travel, accommodation and accreditation support to attend the Hot Docs Festival and Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Filmmakers Lab, Durban International Film Festival, Durban FilmMart, and Atlas Workshops. @Businessdayng

Eligible projects were considered by the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund Selection Committee: Hicham Falah (Artistic Director, SENTOO), Anjali Nayer (Ink & Pepper Productions), Elizabeth Radshaw (Industry Programs Director, Hot Docs), Heidi Tao Yang (Industry Funds Manager, Hot Docs), and Neiloe Whitehead (independent).

The projects that will receive Development Grants include: African Moot, Kongo Is Burning, Land Of Women, Soweto Spinning, Speaking Through Dreams and The Witness From The Shadow.

As well, Bomb Bay will receive Production Grant while Days of Cannibalism, Like Real Lovers and Wandering Stars will receive Completion Fund Grants

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

ManagementDigest

Case study: Pursue your dream or move on?

Sophus A. Reinert A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR CONSIDERS HOW SHE CAN HAVE THE MOST IMPACT. he sun gleamed through the window of Sonia Headlee’s office in the rural region of Kano, Nigeria. She tried to appreciate the blue sky, but she was desperate for the rainy season to begin. Her fields needed the water. This was just one of the hurdles she’d encountered since starting Inganci Tumatir three years earlier.

There had been successes too: She and her co-founder, Amanda Ibrahim, had bought land for a small farm, selected a processing factory and completed their first run of Inganci’s signature product: Nigerian-made tomato paste from locally grown fruit. But they had yet to make a sale under their own label. The company name had been misspelled on their packaging, giving them no choice but to sell their paste to a competitor.

Amanda had left the company a few months earlier to join a London-based consulting firm. That had always been the plan — but Sonia missed working with her, especially now.

The two liked to joke that Inganci was born in the parking lot of a grocery store. In two years as section mates at business school, they’d gotten into the habit of going food shopping together.

One Saturday they were talking about economic development in West Africa. Sonia had joined the Peace Corps in Liberia after college, and Amanda was half Nigerian, although she’d lived all over the world because her Nigerian father and Swedish mother worked for the U.N. Both women were excited about a West Africa market-sizing project they’d been assigned. Sonia remembered the conversation vividly.

“There are almost 1.5 million smallholder tomato growers in rural Nigeria, and most barely break even,” she’d told Amanda.

“Why?” her friend asked.

“Seasonality that leads to price volatility and market glut.

Insect infestation. Competition from China-subsidized exporters.

Greedy middlemen. Underinvestment in human capital.”

“Sounds like a perfect storm,” Amanda said.

“Or a perfect opportunity.”

Sonia then shared her idea for a tomato paste company that would control the whole value chain of its product, from seedling to sachet — all based in Nigeria. Amanda was immediately on board. If they could show that a Nigerian company could reduce postharvest loss and increase farmers’ yields, they could reduce what they calculated was a $900

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million production gap in tomatoes. They wrote a business plan, found investors in the United States and Nigeria, and moved to Kano after graduation.

They had anticipated difficulties, of course, but Sonia hadn’t been fully prepared for just how hard it would be. Nigeria ranked 131st of 189 in overall “ease of doing business,” according to the World Bank. There were infrastructure-related problems too: roads that had been poorly constructed and were even more poorly maintained; unpredictable spurts of power from the grid, which had to be supplemented with generators; and a lack of centralized waterworks. They also had to contend with the government’s rigid protocols and antiquated paper trail systems, second-guess every transaction with vendors and sometimes even their own employees — who were always looking to make a few extra naira — and navigate a mixed local reception to their idea.

Closing the shades in her office now, Sonia thought about her new plan to farm corn as a cover crop in the rainy months. It was hard to imagine mustering the energy to get through another season, but she wasn’t ready to give up.

“All startups face obstacles,” she said out loud. She’d been giving herself a lot of pep talks lately. “Especially ones in emerging markets.”

She wanted to see her vision for Inganci — and for transforming a piece of Nigeria’s food industry — through. But was that foolhardy?

She had alternatives, including a lucrative offer for an analyst job at LFM Capital, a Nairobi-based investment group focused on funding small businesses across several African countries. Could she have the same — or even a greater — impact from inside a firm like that? Or was she considering it only because it offered a way out of her current difficulties?

She shook her head to banish those thoughts. She could ponder her future later. Right now she had work to do.

‘WE NEED MORE LIKE YOU’ The following day Sonia met with Abdulsalam Sani, the commissioner of agriculture in Kano.

He’d been a supporter ever since Amanda and Sonia had first viswww.businessday.ng

ited the region to inquire about buying farmland. Today he welcomed Sonia into his office with a vigorous handshake.

“I hope you haven’t been scared off by the label issue,” he said. “These things happen.”

Sonia wasn’t sure how much he knew about the debacle, but she was familiar with how fast word traveled in the small region.

“It was a setback,” she replied.

“But we’re already preparing for next season.”

“And you’ll plant corn for the rainy months, yes?”

She nodded. He’d heard a lot.

“I want to know how we can support your work,” he said. He smiled. “That’s why I asked you here. We need more people like you — more Sonias in Nigeria.”

His attitude was a welcome contrast to that of some other Nigerians, who seemed suspicious of a white American woman who wanted to do business in Africa.

Those people would be happy if she shut down Inganci, left town and went to LFM, she mused.

“So tell me, Sonia: How can I help?” The question brought her back to the conversation at hand.

“You know as well as I do that there are major hurdles: logistical, political, cultural — ” she began.

“Welcome to doing business in Nigeria!” the commissioner interjected.

“The issue I’m most concerned about is pricing, especially given how low the importers have gone.

Unless we can get our costs down, we won’t be able to compete.”

“I have good news. I heard that the government is considering hiking tariffs on key foods by up to 50% to help domestic producers compete with Chinese imports.”

“That would help, though it could go even further.”

“I agree. Apparently the president was heard at a cabinet meeting calling for a total ban on tomato paste importation to encourage local manufacture and protect the health of Nigerians.”

This was indeed positive news, but it was just one piece of the puzzle. The informal “taxes” levied on companies by a seemingly endless string of local, state and federal organizations, along with the extremely high cost of moving goods within the country, made operational expenses much

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higher than they needed to be.

For Inganci to succeed, either the government would have to reduce all that bureaucracy or the margins on the product would have to dramatically increase. Sonia often wondered whether the company would ever do as well as she and Amanda had predicted in their spreadsheets.

Looking the commissioner in the eye, she had to believe that it would. He clearly did.

“The tide is changing in our favor, Sonia. Stick with us.”

THE BIG GUNS “Congrats on the offer!”

Sonia had called one of her business school friends, Tendai Park, for advice. Tendai had been working at LFM Capital since graduation. For the past year he’d been urging Sonia to consider the firm; he had even helped lay the groundwork for the offer she’d received. She was relieved to have an insider’s take on the company.

“Time to join the big guns,” Tendai joked. LFM was becoming well-known across the region; backed by several prominent impact investors, it had the resources to make a big difference for many African entrepreneurs. Sonia had been offered other chances to pursue a path beyond Inganci. She’d been approached about growing tomatoes for a large factory and courted to run the tomato paste brand of a multinational. Some investors had suggested she join forces with a large Nigerian incumbent to increase her production capacity more quickly, while local officials had advised her to engage only in processing, which would gain her big tax advantages.

She’d declined those opportunities, but the offer from LFM had her thinking twice.

“Yes, it’s tempting,” she said.

“They told me I’d need to relocate to Nairobi, but I could continue working in Nigeria and focus on the food sector across markets.”

“You’d close Inganci, though?”

“Yes, I think I’d have to.”

“But you’d be funding so many more startups. We missed out on investing in you, I know, but now we have all this money to put to work. Don’t you want to be part of that?” Sonia had suspected Tendai would push her to accept the offer, but she’d thought he would be a little more subtle. “Think about it. You’d have guaranteed financial security, a much nicer lifestyle, even a chance to get back to the States once in a while — and a position from which to influence African agriculture on a grander scale.”

“But I wouldn’t be an on-theground entrepreneur anymore. I’d be answering to higher-ups.”

“I get that. LFM is a good place to work, though, and I’m not sure that our bosses here are any more difficult to deal with than Nigerian bureaucrats. There’s always some degree of selling out. Your vision @Businessdayng

all along was to encourage food security and economic development. You’ll have a much bigger impact if you do that with LFM’s cash and influence. Our leaders meet regularly with Nigerian, Ghanaian and Kenyan policymakers. You could have a seat at those tables.”

“I wanted to achieve that by building Inganci to the point where I could leave it for greener pastures. We’re not there yet.”

“Will you ever get there?” Tendai asked, not unkindly. “You’ve said it yourself. Can any domestic producer truly compete with the Chinese importers? And if they can supply Nigeria with cheap tomato paste, is the average citizen really better off with more-expensive local products?”

“Theirs isn’t homegrown,” she said. “Nigerians deserve quality — and to benefit from the production of the food they eat.”

“You don’t have to be a martyr, Sonia. I know your investors and supporters have had your back, but they’ll understand your decision. You have to ask yourself: Am I the right person to take on this challenge? And is Inganci the right organization?”

‘WILL YOU BE DISAPPOINTED?’ After hanging up, Sonia switched to WhatsApp’s text function.

SONIA: You up?

AMANDA: Of course; it’s only 10. What’s going on?

SONIA: Just talked with Tendai.

He thinks I should go to LFM. AMANDA: Misery loves company?

SONIA: No, he seems really happy there. And thinks I would be too. Will you be disappointed if I pull the plug?

AMANDA: A little, of course.

But I’d understand. It would be a relief in some ways. For you, I mean.

SONIA: I’m just not sure I could live with myself.

AMANDA: Well, I sold out, and I haven’t been struck down by lightning, so don’t worry too much. :) SONIA: :) You’re doing important work, just in a different way, and that was always your plan.

Mine was to see this through.

AMANDA: Plans change. But FWIW it doesn’t sound like you’re dying to go to LFM. SONIA: Maybe I’m just not letting myself get excited about it.

The firm might have a bigger impact. But I’m torn.

AMANDA: Do you have to decide tonight?

SONIA: No. AMANDA: Then get some sleep. Tomatoes don’t grow themselves.

Sophus A. Reinert is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.

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ENERGYREPORT Oil & Gas

Power

Renewables

Environment

COVID 19: April to be bleakest month for oil and gas industry — IEA report olusola Bello

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pril is expected to be the bleakest month for the oil and gas industry, with demand set to plummet by 29 million barrels a day compared with the same month last year.

According to international Energy Agency in its monthly report for April ,it says the plunge in demand would be even more damaging for the industry and the millions of people it employs around the world without the historic recent steps announced by OPEC+ and G20 countries.

The resolutions at the meetings were measures expected to lower the peak of the supply overhang and lower stock build-up. If production falls sharply, some oil goes into strategic stocks and demand begins to recover, the second half of 2020 will see demand exceed supply.

At the extraordinary meeting of energy ministers from G20 and other countries that

took place on 10 April, those present offered their support for the efforts of OPEC+ countries to stabilise the oil market and, in some cases, discussed output cuts that would take place immediately or over time.

Organised by Saudi Arabia, which currently holds the G20 Presidency, the meeting was the result of a suggestion by the IEA.

The OPEC+ and G20 initiatives will impact the oil market in three ways. First, the OPEC+ production cut in May to reach the baseline will actually be 10.7 mb/d and not 9.7 mb/d, as April production was high. This will provide some immediate relief from the supply surplus in the coming weeks, lowering the peak of the build-up of stocks. Second, four countries

NCDMB cuts interest rate on NCI Fund loans, extends tenor olusola Bello

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n addition to earlier measures by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to spur business continuity, particularly in the oil and gas sector, NCDMB has again rolled out fresh palliatives for beneficiaries of loans under the Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) Fund. The palliatives include a huge reduction of the interest rate (from 8 to 6 percent per annum), extension of moratorium and tenor extension. These palliatives take effect from April 01, 2020.

The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Wabote explained that these palliatives seek to reinforce the various economic stimulus packages by the Federal Government to support businesses to overcome the difficulties created by the coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria. He reaffirmed the Board’s commitment to continue to provide impetus to businesses in the oil and gas industry to surmount emerging operating difficulties in line with the Federal GovernOlusola Bello, Team lead,

ment’s policy direction.

Under this palliative regime, all running loans with outstanding tenor within 3 years will be extended by 6 months, while all running loan facilities with a tenor above 3 years will get extra 12 months tenor. Similarly, there will be moratorium extension on all running loan facilities under manufacturing, asset acquisition and contract finance with outstanding tenor not exceeding 3 years by 6 months and by 12 months for all applicable running loan facilities, effective April 01, 2020 The five loan products under the NCI Fund are manufacturing, asset acquisition, contract finance, loan refinancing and community contractor financing. However, there have been no disbursements yet under Community Contractor Financing to date.

The Board also confirmed that about 91 percent of the US$200m NCI Fund had been disbursed to 26 beneficiaries and many of the borrowers have started repaying. It indicated that the current success rate of the Intervention Fund is above 95 percent.

Since the COVID 19 out-

Graphics: Joel Samson.

break and lockdown in Nigeria, NCDMB has continued to roll out measures to ensure resilience and business continuity in the oil and gas industry. Just last week, the Board offered business advisory to Project 100 companies and other oil and gas service companies in Nigeria on how to navigate through these precarious times and remain resilient. The Board also directed NLNG to give priority to Project 100 companies with proven capacities in the Train 7 project.

Much more than these, despite the lockdown, NCDMB also wrote to NLNG granting final clearance on Nigerian Content requirements and for the Train 7 contract to be signed and project to commence.

Even on the fight against COVID19, the Board also donated ambulances and medical equipment to some states.

Shell looks to become net zero energy company by 2050 Shell has announced its ambition to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 at the latest, joining other majors such as BP and Eni in unveiling plans to curb carbon emissions.

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(China, India, Korea and the United States) have either offered their strategic storage capacity to industry to temporarily park unwanted barrels or are considering increasing their strategic stocks to take advantage of lower prices. This will create extra headroom for the impending stock build-up, helping the market get past the hump.

Third, other producers, with

the United States and Canada likely to be the largest contributors, could see output fall by around 3.5 mb/d in the coming months due to the impact of lower prices, according to IEA estimates. The loss of this supply combined with the OPEC+ cuts will shift the market into a deficit in the second half of 2020, ensuring an end to the build-up of stocks and a return to more normal market conditions.

If production does fall sharply, some oil goes into strategic stocks, and demand begins to recover, the second half of 2020 will see demand exceed supply. This will enable the market to start reducing the massive stock overhang that is building up in the first half of the year.

Indeed, the current demand and supply estimates imply a stock draw of 4.7 mb/d in the second half.

The historic decisions taken by OPEC+ and the G20 should help bring the oil industry back from the brink of an even more serious situation than it currently

faces. Even so, the implied stock build-up of 12 mb/d in the first half of the year still threatens to overwhelm the logistics of the oil industry – ships, pipelines and storage tanks – in the coming weeks.

The report estimated that available capacity could be saturated in mid-year, based on market balances. However, this is a very broad-brush assumption and the situation varies from place to place.

There are already bottlenecks in other parts of the logistics chain, such as competition to buy space on pipeline systems that transport oil.

There are also quality issues: it is not possible to accommodate different qualities of crude oil at many sites, and special tanks are required for some products. Floating storage is becoming more expensive as traders compete for ships. Chartering costs for Very Large Crude Carriers have more than doubled since February. Never before has the oil industry come this close to testing its logistics capacity to the limit.

Benin Disco donates palliatives to franchise states ….suspend power rationing in isolation centers Olusola Bello

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EDC Electricity Plc (BEDC) has announced a donation of 6,000 bags of rice and 4,000 cartons of Indomie noodles to the State Governments of Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo, for distribution to vulnerable groups and households in these coverage states.

The breakdown is 1,500 bags of rice each per state and 1,000 cartons of Indomie noodles to each of the state, respectively.

The donation according to the company, is a demonstration of its sensitivity to residents of its franchise states with a view to cushioning the effect of lockdown over the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic.

Abu , executive director, Commercial, representing the managing director and chief executive officer made the announcement at a media briefing held at the BEDC Head Office in Benin He said that in addition, BEDC will be ensuring that the various government established COVID 19 centers and

related hospitals have good power supply of up to 24hours.

This Ejoor disclosed, has already commenced in Irrua Specialist Hospital in Uromi, Edo state, where “we also intend to look at other supports we can give in ensuring that some of their vehicle/ ambulances are fully operational. Also for the centers under preparation in Oba Adejuyigbe Specialist Hospital, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State and Warri in Delta State, BEDC has already commenced working with the government to ensure adequate electricity.”

The executive director also added that BEDC would also be donating 50 units of motorized hand washing gears to hospitals, strategic markets and some of communities in its coverage areas.

Ejoor announced that BEDC had in this trying time, suspended the rotational load management schedule for electricity distribution in several locations to enable customers enjoy more supply during the lockdown.

On the recent proposal by the House of Representatives to promote free electricity for two months, Ejoor said though

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BEDC aligns with the proposal, but pointed out that it was not yet signed into law hence electricity supplied to customers presently is not free.

At the presentation of the food items to Secretary to Edo State Government (SSG), Mr. Osarodion Ogie who received the 1,500 bags of rice and 1,000 cartons of indomie noodles donated to Edo state government thanked BEDC for the gesture.

“COVID 19 is the worst challenge we are dealing with at the moment. So many families life style have changed because of the pandemic.

“They can no longer go out to work. The vulnerable families are more than the ones on salaries. So we need to help them with food items” he stated.

Making the donation of 1,500 bags of rice and 1,000 cartons of noodles also to Ondo state government, Chief State Head, Ondo/Ekiti, BEDC, Mrs. Kunbi Labiyi while handing over the food items on behalf of the company said, the relief items were part of the company’s philanthropic gesture in catering for the vulnerable groups in the state.

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news Foreign investor dollars in lockdown in...

Continued from page 1

dollar supply since March 20, Akintola said in a separate

note earlier this month.

Trapped investors are reinvesting funds in high-yielding central bank bills while they await enough liquidity to get their funds out, said Samir Gadio, London-based head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered plc.

Yields on the long-dated papers now average 10 percent to 12 percent having rallied about 20 percent in March.

Some central bank debt auctions in late March and early April recorded zero bids across certain tenors. Subscription levels revived again in the past two weeks after foreigners started reinvesting stranded money, Akintola said by phone from Lagos.

Reserves have fallen 12 percent this year to $33.8 billion, raising concerns that the central bank would soon run out of firepower to defend the currency.

The naira has weakened 11 percent to 425 in the parallel market since March 20 when the Abuja-based regulator stopped foreign exchange interventions, according to abokifx.com, a website that collates street rates in Lagos.

The local currency unit traded for N389 per dollar on the interbank market as of 3:45 p.m. in Lagos.

Overseas traders are more bearish than locals since memories of 2015 capital controls are still fresh in their minds, Christine Phillpotts, senior vice-president at Alliance Bernstein, said by email.

“Foreign investors need to incorporate the risk and magnitude of potential naira devaluation when determining the relative attractiveness of naira yields compared to other emerging markets whose currencies more accurately reflect current macroeconomic realities,” she said.

Nigerian sovereign bonds have returned 5 percent this year, compared with the 4 percent drop in the Bloomberg

COVID-19: How essential workers battle...

Continued from page 1

(PPE) and measly hazard

allowance.

“Failure to cater properly for our health care personnel shows the extent to which we have neglected and belittled the health sector that even in the midst of a crisis, we do not know what it means to boost morale by providing them with special hazard allowance,” said Doyin Odubanjo, past chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians, Lagos State chapter.

Aside from the poor remuneration, the healthcare sector has been underfunded for years. Yet, Nigerian health care workers are working day and night to cover the loopholes of the country’s failed health care system as the virus spreads across 24 of the 36 states in the country.

In Lagos, the hotspot of the contagion, the government increased hazard allowance of state health workers from the current N5,000 to N25,000.

While only one doctor has diedfromthedisease,hundreds of health workers have in one way or the other been infected while in the forefront of treating coronavirus patients, either unknowingly or by negligence of protocols for treating patients.

Yesterday, three wards at FMC Umuahia were closed down and several health care practitioners went into isolation after they were exposed to treating two patients who were later reported to have been infected with the virus.

Sources who spoke to BusinessesDay said the closed ward is currently being fumigated, and members of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are expected

to carry out a risk assessment.

‘A matter of life and death’ When President Muhammadu Buhari extended the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, he said the fight against the virus was a “matter of life and death”.

For workers in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry, the lockdown has seen business stall with vehicular movement, including public transport, virtually grounded.

Attendants at several fuel stations in Lagos, with an estimated population of 20 million, told BusinessDay that most of their customers these days are individuals buying in jerry-cans to fuel generators.

Some petrol stations have adjusted their working hours from nearly 24 hours to 9am5pm due to insecurity and lower patronage; others have put stricter health measures in place ensuring their attendants use hand sanitisers and nose masks.

BusinessDay findings across some fuel stations showed a very low level of patronage at the stations of major and independent marketers.

Some fuel attendants who spoke to BusinessDay lamented the low level of patronage, saying sales recorded as at 4pm Wednesday did not in any way justify their coming to work.

They said, should the situation continue, they may be forced to shut down operations in a bid to minimise running cost.

“In a situation where there is no public power supply, we are forced to run on generators. But how do we continue to run on generators under a low patronage regime? It is www.businessday.ng

L-R: Bala Wunti, deputy general manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS); Olorunimbe Mamora, minister of state for health; Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor, Lagos State; Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources; Mele Kyari, group managing director, NNPC, and Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, chairman, Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), during NNPC/IPPG donation of 6 ambulances, sanitisers, face masks and other safety equipment to the South West states as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, at NAPIMS Office, Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday.

Barclays Global Emerging Market Local Currency index.

The Nigerian market’s outperformance is due to the lack of liquidity. The market is regulator-driven, which is having a lasting effect on interest rates, Omotola Abimbola,

analyst at Chapel Hill Denham, said.

Portfolio managers including Ayodele Salami of Duet Investment, Akintola of Stanbic and Samir Gadio of Standard Chartered expect foreign investors to decide

their next move based on how the central bank handles the foreign-exchange market after Nigeria lifts a four-week lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

“The investors who are sitting on naira liquidity be-

cause they exited positions and could not get dollars on the way out may wait until the central bank resumes foreigncurrency sales in the investors and exporters window, presumably at the end of the lockdown,” Gadio said.

simply not sustainable. We will monitor the situation till weekend, but if it does not improve, we may not open from next week,” said Adewole Martins, a manager at one of the major downstream firms in the Alapere area of Lagos.

For Chinwe Eze, getting to NIPCO plc along Ikorodu Road in Lagos, where she works, has been difficult. She and her family live in Ojota, about 10 kilometres away, in a face-me-I-face-you, so called because of the close proximity of the one-room buildings to each other.

“I expose my family and neighbourhood daily by going out but I don’t have a choice,” Eze said.

Her husband works at an oil rig in the southern city of Warri and is due to come home in a month. But several states – including Rivers, Delta, Kano and Bayelsa – have closed their borders, prohibiting inter-state movement. So if the lockdown is extended, it could be a while before she is reunited with her husband.

“It is hunger I am worried about, not the virus,” Eze said.

In the upstream sector, Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has already ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The restrictions came after the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said that six workers onboard an offshore rig support vessel tested positive for coronavirus last month.

The country is keen to protect oil production, which provides 90 percent of muchneeded foreign exchange. A coronavirus case on an offshore rig could spread quickly

among workers and have a potentially devastating impact on production.

Oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria have previously said that workers’ health and safety is their top priority.

Industry sources said that a number of upstream oil companies had already shifted from 14-day rotations to 28 days.

Some are also implementing a 14-day quarantine for workers before they leave for rigs.

Sarki Auwalu, director of DPR, said that only staff on essential duties would be allowed to travel to offshore or remote locations.

“Non-essential staff currently at offshore/remote locations should be withdrawn with immediate effect,” he said in a statement.

Lockdown logistics: Limits factories, food sellers and pharmacies Makers of food, beverage, medicines, sanitary and hygienic products are open, but distributing their products is proving difficult. Closure of interstate borders has made delivery to retail markets and consumers across the country a logistics nightmare.

Mansur Ahmed, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said manufacturers’ trucks are being interrupted in some states by security agencies who have little or no awareness about sectors classified as essential by the Federal Government.

Ahmed told BusinessDay that production among food, beverage, sanitary and drug firms has gone uninterrupted but many manufacturers are unable to distribute.

“In many areas, the problem has to do with the retail market because some states have closed down such mar-

kets,” Ahmed said. “Producers cannot get their products to the market when the retail markets are closed.”

He said the decision to lock down the entire country, though necessary, could cripple production, distribution and sales made by the companies.

Pharmaceuticals firms say they are not experiencing distribution gridlocks in Lagos and many states but are hard hit by value chain challenges.

Drug makers source some of their raw and packaging materials locally, but some of the firms they rely on for these materials are not considered essential services.

“Some of our suppliers are notpharmaceuticalcompanies, andaresult,theyarenotallowed to open or distribute openly,” Fidelis Ayabae, chairman of Fidson Healthcare plc, said.

“They are not moved until after certainextraordinaryprocesses.”

He regretted that drug supplies have dropped by 50 percent because the markets are not open and only few patients are visiting the hospitals for fear of contracting coronavirus.

“People are self-medicating, including those with preexisting conditions. Visit to hospitals is low, so drug sales have dropped by 50 percent,” he further said.

Most of the raw materials drug makers use are imported, many fear that their stocks may be fully depleted within two weeks. One senior manager at a drug manufacturing firm said the company no longer produces some of its newly launched products because the raw materials aren’t available or have been depleted.

For sellers of foodstuff and other essential household commodities, moving their

goods to the market has been a major challenge; public transportation has been restricted.

The governors of the 36 states have agreed on a 14-day interstate lockdown, a double whammy for food sellers who are grappling with disruption in the supply chain.

Joy Ihechiliru, a garri seller at the popular Mile 2 market, lamented how difficult it was moving her two bags of garri from her regular supplier in eastern Nigeria to the market in Lagos.

“Inormallygetsuppliesfrom my customers in the east but due to lockdown in Lagos and someotherstates,ithasbecome extremely difficult,” she said.

Ernest Obi, seller of phone and computer accessories at the popular Computer Village, said he has resorted to selling his goods by the roadside as the market is currently shut as result of the lockdown.

“Most of our shops in Otigba are locked, sellers are forced to bring some of their market to the roadside in the evening with the hope of making sales,” he said.

BusinessDay visit to an outlet of the popular Spar supermarket found how the management had adopted various strategies to ensure it continued operating despite the challenge.

Tunde Akinwunmi, an official at Spar, said the supermarket now opens from 10am-4pm noting that customers are following the safety precaution measures.

“The real challenge is that it is difficult for people to go out. We use a staff bus to get to work. We gave some of our staff compulsory leave for about two weeks and also the product promoters or merchandisers to reduce overcrowding,” he said.

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INSIGHT Disruption in payments and the future of super apps in Africa Osaze Omo-Ojo

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inancial modernization is no longer alien to Africa. Owing to digital technologies, a rise in new market entrants and solutions from neighboring industries are playing their roles in molding Africa’s payment space. These solutions, which also involve financial services, and which were previously considered to be only the domain of banks, are now resulting in convergence of categories within payments and other fiscal products. As a result,

• MNO-led partnerships A banking partner finances the MNOs in facilitating financial services. An example is M-Shwari in Kenya, which is a partnership between Safaricom and CBA. • Bank-led partnerships with MNOs With the help of this service, customers can send their money to any other bank account, maintain deposits and take out loans. Services beyond banking are provided to the customers. An example is Equitel, which is a partnership between Airtel and Equity Bank.

• Fintech solutions Fintech solutions model can be described as the innovative ideas that help in improving financial services using various technology solutions depending on the scenario.

the distribution of products related to financial services are expanding.

This can be most evidently seen in the merge of banking and telecommunications.

13 years after M-Pesa, a mobile phone-based money transfer, was launched in Kenya, almost 200 million people have subscribed to mobile money services. Currently, 80% of the total population possess a mobile device and it is predicted that by 2025, nearly two-thirds will own a smartphone according to CEO of DPO Group Eran Freinstein. Consumers in Africa are in many ways similar to the rest of the world. They want to use Netflix, order items from Amazon and be able to easily reach global brands. Consequently, this desire pulls them towards using their mobile money account in the form of a virtual card. On the other hand, many would want to use payment by cash only or possessing means to be able to pay using both modes.

The market has become heterogeneous as it has advanced As Africa’s mobile market begins to strengthen in growth, providers fall into one of the following models depending on the type of mobile value chain they cover. All these models play their role in disrupting the payment space in Africa.

• MNO-dominant MNOs, also called Mobile Network Operators, is responsible for

lion USD. With one swipe a user can avail any service related to the consumer services sector. Also, with their more than 2.8 million drivers, Grab has been able to manage numerous transportation services as required, bill payments, ordering of food and hotel bookings. A screenshot from Grab app is shown.

majority of the steps of a value chain. These include the physical agent and virtual network, issuing and processing of payments. Here, the bank is the deposit holder. Orange Money, with 17 million regular users in seventeen countries, is an example of a provider that has been successful in this category.

What are super apps?

As super app combines multiple services in one platform. It became a famous buzzword in Southeast Asia after the three biggest tech startups; WeChat, Gojek and Grab began describing themselves as such. A quick google search of the phrase “super apps” will reveal the top contenders are predominantly from the Asian market. The concept of super apps is still relatively new in the west. The closest app from the west which could be deemed a super app is Messenger from Facebook. Messenger has failed to gain traction for one very reason; convergence. It is this very notion which drives the super apps from Asia. The average smart phone owner has 26 apps installed on their device; however, reports show that only 4-6 are used regularly, or even required. The notion of app convergence starts to make more sense, taking this into account.

Companies such as: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft all provide multiple apps to users to serve different purposes. These companies would have a difficult time consolidating all their apps into one considering the sheer size and build of their individual apps.

Apps within an App!

WeChat The rise of super apps is being matured mostly in Asia. The most representative example of www.businessday.ng

a super app is WeChat. It was an instant messaging app launched

by Chinese tech giant Tencent and had more than 1.16 billion active users in the last quarter of 2019. It has become the go to app for everything in China.

The different functions that can be performed using the app are shown below.

The app is also becoming the official electronic ID for Chinese people. Other notable names are Alipay and Gojek.

In America, one would use different apps to accomplish different tasks; iMessage for communicating, Venmo to transfer money, Facebook for social media and so on. WeChat users can accomplish all these tasks within a single app space.

The user is signed into everything and his payment information is stored, thus eliminating the need to enter payment information separately. WeChat has grown from a simple messaging app to a Swiss army knife of incalculable proportions. The key to their great success is a mobile-first mentality.

Grab Grab is another app which is becoming increasingly popular in Southeast Asia. It is the leading player in shared transport space and has also taken to online

So, are super apps successful?

Definitely! Consumers have a tendency to gravitate towards solutions that reduce hassle and clutter, whilst also accomplishing their goals. These apps do just that! Nobody prefers going to multiple places to get the job done. So, it’s not just about convenience, but also about cost savings.

Future of Super Apps in Africa In Africa, the term Super App is still relatively new and has not made it into IT circles as an everyday lingo. Just like Asia, Africa has been a mobile-first continent. Their

smartphones have replaced personal computers as the main source of the Internet.

The Forbes article by Michelle Evans gives four reasons why WeChat would struggle in the USA; • Mobile-first mentality • Social commerce sophistication • New ways of saying “hello” • Breaking old habits

payments and food deliveries among other services. It recently secured 1.46 billion USD for its Series H round of funding in March 2020 from SoftBank Vision Fund. Bringing the total amount raised to over 4.5 bil-

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Fortunately, these four reasons would be the pillars of the success of super apps in Africa. Unlike the United States of America and Europe, where the ‘Super App’ concept has failed to take off, Africa offers a thriving and perfect environment for this business model for its mobilefirst consumers. @Businessdayng

With a population of more than 1.2 billion, Africa is one of the fastest growing consumers markets in the world. It draws numerous similarities with Asia. The most significant of these is the astounding growth of population and consumer segments, mobile-first approach and adoption of mobiles as previously mentioned.

Progressively, consumers in Africa are getting connected to the internet with an internet penetration rate of 35.2% and growing at 20% per annum.

This is not to say there haven’t been some problems. With recent security breach of Chinese owned conference calling app Zoom, along with other security concerns, a lot of doubt has been cast on Chinese owned products and services. At home the Chinese owned super app has recently suffered a major blow with the ban of commercial motorbikes. Now with the ongoing pandemic, it is uncertain just how far Chinese owned apps will go. There is hope as home grown solutions are gaining popularity and receiving a lot of attention

from the west.

GSMA claims there will be 690 million phones existing in Sub-Saharan Africa in the next eight years which is a growth of 440 million handsets. Over 57% of the world’s mobile money is located in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mobile money has proven to be a driving force for Africans and has pushed them towards a mobile-first approach to service delivery and consumer products. For Super Apps, the future looks quite bright in the continent of Africa.

Osaze Omo-Ojo, CEO SUENRO LTD, (BSc) Computer Science, (MSc) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer; from the University of South Wales, 08091703946 Email: osazeo@suenro.com

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Sports Chelsea may lose Champions League football to Arsenal and Spurs Anthony Nlebem

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rsenal and Tottenham could qualify for next season’s Champions L eague ahead of Chelsea if the Premier League campaign is unable to be finished, according to reports.

European football’s governing body Uefa continues to discuss options to conclude the league seasons, with a variety of calendar options being assessed.

On Tuesday, Uefa softened their stance on domestic leagues voiding their seasons after initially threatening a ban from European competition for those who did, such as Belgium’s top flight.

S h o u l d t h e P re m i e r League be unable to play the remaining 92 games of

the season, the Sun claims Uefa could use coefficient scores to decide who competes in both the Champions League and Europa League next season.

Arsenal (91.000), who currently sit ninth in the Premier League, have the

fourth-best coefficient in England behind Manchester City (112.000), Liverpool (99.000) and Manchester United (92.000).

Tottenham (85.000), who are eighth in the league, sit fifth and Chelsea (83.000), who are fourth, are sixth.

Leicester City (22.000), third in the league, are a distance seventh. They would have to settle for the Europa League.

However, should City’s two-year Champions League ban be upheld then Spurs would take the final Champions League spot.

Barca donate Camp Nou naming rights proceeds to combat Covid-19 Anthony Nlebem

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aLiga champions FC Barcelona will donate proceeds from the sale of the naming rights to its Camp Nou stadium to support the effort to combat the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The club’s charitable organisation, The Barça Foundation and the club’s commercial team will agree a one-year deal with an as-yet-unknown brand for the title sponsorship of the stadium.

A portion of the fee paid for the rights will go towards a Covid-19 project driven directly by the incoming sponsor with the remainder to be distributed among other key projects that will be developed in parallel. Barcelona has been conducting a long-term search for a naming rights sponsor the Camp Nou, but has been unsuccessful in this up to now.

The club had planned to wait until the 2023-24 season

to sell the naming rights. It was initially reported that Barcelona was looking for €300m ($325m) from a stadium naming rights deal of up to 25 years in length to help fund the redevelopment of the iconic venue and other facilities. It was reported last summer that the club was looking for at least €200m over two decades.

Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of the club and its foundation, said: “We are pleased to be able to offer up something as emblematic as the name of our stadium to contribute to the fight against Covid-19. The sponsorship investment will be used to finance research projects on the illness and other projects related to eradicating or lessening its effects.

Cardoner was reported to have tested positive with Covid-19 at the beginning of April.

“Right now, we can’t quantify the effects of this health crisis, but we know it will require all of our resources to defeat it and for that reason, it’s of upmost importance that we all work together to combat this.”

National League votes to end season amid Coronavirus crisis Anthony Nlebem

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he National League in England has announced all remaining league matches will be cancelled amid the coronavirus crisis, with clubs now having to vote on how best to decide the season.

Almost 90 per cent of clubs across the National League, the National League North and National League South have responded in favour of ending the current campaign - which was brought to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic on

March 16.

With no immediate end in sight to the Covid-19 pandemic and non-league football feeling the pinch, the 68 clubs have been voting on whether to end the league season.

A statement read: “National League clubs were asked to support an ordinary resolution on 9 April to end the playing season for all fixtures scheduled up to and including 25 April 2020.

“With almost 90% of responses returned, it is evident a clear majority of clubs are in favour, including a majority of clubs in each of the

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National League, National League North and National League South divisions.

“In the knowledge that the ordinary resolution has passed, the league’s board has chosen to communicate the decision now and before the last few responses are received, which will not change the outcome, to enable clubs to make business decisions with greater clarity as soon as possible.

“Clubs yet to respond still have an opportunity to do so, and the league wishes to include as many preferences as possible before the final voting result is declared.”

There is now the small matter of deciding how to end the season in the National League’s three divisions.

Barrow are four points clear at the top of the fifth tier, with York top of the National League North, albeit having played two more matches than King’s Lynn, and Wealdstone top of the National League South.

The league said: “The options concerning the sporting outcomes of the 2019-20 season remain under careful and timely consideration, and further updates will be given in due course.”

Decisions have to be made whether to determine the final standings by average points per game, declare the campaign null and void or implement an alternative solution such as play-offs.

It is four weeks since the National League asked the Football Association to help end its season “as soon as possible” due to the coronavirus.

The FA Council voted “overwhelmingly in favour” of ratifying the decision to cancel the season from step three and below of nonleague football and tiers three to seven of the women’s football pyramid.

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Bundesliga to resume May 9 behind closed doors Anthony Nlebem

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erman football authorities are set to announce plans for Bundesliga matches to restart on 9 May in empty stadiums.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is slowly easing nationwide restrictions and the resumption of the Bundesliga, which was halted on 13 March, would boost morale in football.

It would also make the Bundesliga the first top-flight European league to begin playing again.

Large public events are banned in Germany until 31 August, yet football could resume without spectators known as “ghost games” in German.

Germany has more testing capacity than other European countries and players could be tested regularly.

The 18 clubs have been @Businessdayng

back in training for three weeks, albeit in small groups with social distancing observed even on the pitch.

Having already been given signs of encouragement by politicians, the German Football League (DFL) is set to iron out details in Thursday’s video conference meeting of the clubs.

Final approval could be given by Merkel and regional state premiers at a meeting on 30 April.

The DFL is desperate for the league season to be completed by 30 June to ensure payment of the next installment of television money, worth around €300 million.

The cash could keep some clubs alive, with 13 of the 36 clubs in Germany’s top two tiers reportedly on the verge of insolvency.

With fans across Europe and the world deprived of football, the games are also likely to attract TV audiences far beyond Germany.

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news

NCDC, WHO applaud Ogun efforts on COVID-19 Razaq Ayinla

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he Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Health Organisation(WHO)havecommended the Ogun State government’s efforts at flattening the curve of coronavirus spread.

Both organisations say they were impressed with the quality of facilities on ground, the human capital and the willingness of the Dapo Abiodun’s government to go the extra mile at ensuring the state does not become a safe haven for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chike Ihekweazu, directorgeneral, NCDC, after inspecting the first state fully funded molecular laboratory at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, and the 128bed COVID-19 Isolation and Treatment Centre at Ikenne, lauded the leadership of the state in giving directions to other states on how to deal with the pandemic.

The NCDC boss said the Centre for Disease Control was proud of what the state had been able to do and promised to work with the state government in its quest to battle the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Centre believes the state deserves to benefit from some of the most stringent support that the Centre could offer.

“I think what I have seen in Ogun today and over the past few weeks in my engagement with the Commissioner (Dr. Tomi Coker) is a willingness to go the extra mile. For us, the job is half done, so on behalf of the National Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation; we are committed to supporting you. You have been on this jour-

ney longer than any other state in the country, so you deserve some of the most stringent support that we have,” he said.

Ihekweazu also noted that it was a bit difficult to put a stop to social gathering because the country was a social country, urged the state government to communicate with the people in a way that they would take ownership and responsibility for the changes in the lifestyle they would have to adopt.

“We are a social people, a social country. We love interactions, being close to each other, hugging each other, celebrating each other, our weddings, our social events, football...all these are things that define who we are and giving up on all of that for longer periods of time will come with some pain. That is really where your leadership skills will be so needed. Yourself and other leaders in the state, should do more to communicate with the people in a way that they would take ownership and responsibility for the changes in the lifestyle they will have to adopt,” he said.

In her remarks, Fiona Braka, country director, WHO, applauded the state government for having the capacity that could take in more patients, adding that the WHO was impressed with the state.

“We are so much impressed and would like to congratulate Your Excellency and your team that has been working very hard.

We could not join you for the launching of those isolation facilities...thank you for the invitation.

But we are here to see what you have done. We leave with a positive note that there is capacity in Ogun State to take more patients, so congratulations, Ogun State,” she said.

African Union Development Agency, Ecobank to establish framework to support African MSMEs Hope Moses-Ashike

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fricanUnionDevelopment Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and Ecobank Group have concluded plans to establish a Continental Framework to support African Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises.

Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, and Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO, have agreed to collaborate on a continentalinitiativetosupportAfrican MSMEsastheyfacetheeconomic andsocialchallengesposedbythe COVID-19 pandemic.

The objectives of the initiative are to: Create a one-stop platform which will address the issues, challenges and needs of MSMEs during and post COVID-19, and be an all-encompassing, flexible and comprehensive one-size-fitsall tool for MSMEs in the formal and informal sectors across the continent; Identify opportunities and innovative ways to support and protect MSMEs and job opportunities, especially in food and agribusinesses, technology startups, health specialized entities and those operating along with supply chain operations, noting that MSMEs account for an estimated 90% of businesses in most African economies, and Coordinate and harmonise initiatives and ongoing efforts that support MSMEs to gain access to information,

finance, and fiscal stimulus during the outbreak. The platform also aims to ensure that MSMEs have continuous access to national, regional and continental markets while recommending to policymakers, solutions regarding domestic debts as they are projected to face challenges due to the economic difficulties that the Member States will face.

Speaking on the initiative, Mayaki highlighted that “the COVID-19 pandemic while affecting global economies, will have a devastating effect on African economies and businesses.

“AUDA-NEPAD and Ecobank Group intend to jointly build a continental platform based on our initial ‘100,000 SMEs by 2020’ campaign which will provide an immediateresponsetothepotential impact of COVID-19 on SMEs andjobcreationonthecontinent”.

He added that AUDA-NEPAD would leverage its existing instruments, networks, and programmes to gather stakeholders around a digital platform that showcases and monitors the progress made.

However, according to Ade Ayeyemi, the fragility of some of the African economies is more pronounced with the impact of COVID-19 and therefore continental coordination is essential to support national measures by governmentstocurbthespreadof the virus on the continent. www.businessday.ng

Inuwa Yahaya, governor, Gombe State, meets with traditional rulers, religious leaders and secretaries to local government areas, as stakeholders in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, in Gombe.

NAN

COVID-19: Lockdown exposes further deficiencies in Nigeria’s education system GBEMI FAMINU

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he Nigerian education system among other sectors of the economy is home to several fundamental and structuralchallenges.Someofwhich hasbeenblamedonlowfundingand lackofconcentrationfromthefederal and state governments.

Above all, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed further the inadequacies of the Nigerian education system and holds lessons for theFederalGovernmentandprivate individuals playing in the space.

In response to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the Nigerian Federal Government thought it wise to impose a lockdown on Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states, which has lasted for about three weeks now.

Similarly, some states took preventive measures preventing travellers in and out of their states. Also, in a bid to promote social distances,

primary, secondary and tertiary institutions have been forced to shut down.

While this was a necessary action to contain the deadly virus, it is at a cost to schools, students, learning and the education sector of the Nigerian economy. To put it in context, the learning curve of students in various academic departments, especially in tertiary institutions, has been distorted.

Nigeria’s education sector lacks measures to beat the effect of the pandemic unlike other countries of the world where learning has not necessarily been distorted. For over a month now, academic activities in Nigeria have been put on hold disrupting the academic calendar as well as general and professional examinations. This reiterates the importance of leveraging technology in the sector.

John Yomi-Davies, a Nigerian schooling in the US, told Business-

Day, “The lockdown in the US has not halted our academic activities as we leverage technology. Lectures are delivered online. The only difference is that we aren’t physically interacting.”

This is a different story here in Nigeria. Ifeoluwa Abobade, a 400-level Babcock University student, told BusinessDay, “We were supposed to commence our exams when we were asked to leave; they later said we might have to write it online but we have not heard anything or seen any action regarding that.”

Similarly, Temilade Oyewunmi, a 300-level student of the University of Lagos, said since the lockdown, students had been at home and had not engaged in any academic exercise, in addition to this, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on another indefinite strike action to compel the Federal Government

to honour its initial agreement with the association.

While the developed countries have buffers in place to alleviate the impact of the pandemic, the emerging and frontier countries are not all lucky to have the same buffers to manage the spread and impact of the virus.

A lecturer in the department of Computer Science at Bells University of Technology who pleaded anonymity explained the challenge of conducting online lectures for students. “Having online lectures with students is data consuming.

Given low disposable income of households in Nigeria, a lot of students may not be able to afford it.

“Also, most federal university haven’t come to embrace technology in delivering lectures even before the pandemic. The sudden halt in academic activities due to the pandemic came as shock and most weren’t prepared for it,” he said.

Microsoft brings collaboration, communication to virtual classrooms BUNMI BAILEY

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icrosoft has announced that it has recently integrated its unified collaboration and communication platform, Teams, into a number of popular learning management systems (LMSs). This will enable Teams meetings for educators and their students from within their preferred LMSs, including Canvas, Blackboard, Schoology, Brightspace, and itsLearning.

Schools and universities make use of LSMs to manage and present learning content such as coursework, assignments, and tests through a virtual learning environment. But it can be quite challenging to effectively teach learners through the transfer of content alone.

With Teams, teachers will be able to talk students through the content they are teaching in much the same way they would within the physical classroom. Students will also be able to speak to educators to ask questions around a particular subject or idea they are struggling to understand or get clarification on an assignment.

“As we see many educational institutions move towards distance learning, we know that both educators and students are going to go through some difficult adjustments. Microsoft wanted to help ease this transition as much as possible while also supporting a truly connected environment that would enable quality learning. By partnering with these LSMs and bringing the collaborative power of Teams to their platforms, I be-

lieve we will be able to do so,” Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, says.

Africa will particularly have to make big leaps in adjustments as the continent has the fewest number of, and thus least experience in, virtual schools compared to the rest of the world according to a European Union funded report.

This means that making this mass shift to distance learning as easy as possible will be key to ensuring the continuation of quality education and learning.

“Maintaining the flow of communication between students and educators will be key to achieving a focusedlearningenvironmentinthe virtual classroom. As teachers adapt their learning material to be more engaging in the virtual world, we must also ensure that they have the

right tools to allow learners to participate and get involved in the subject matter,” Spataro notes, “Microsoft believes in the power of education to empower students to do and be more, and remain committed to supportingeducationinallitsforms.”

Educational institutions or educators who have Office 365 accounts will be able to create Teams meetings for free in Canvas, Blackboard, Schoology, and Brightspace by following a few quick and easy steps. Those who make use of its Learning will be able to create a Microsoft Teams meeting anywhere within the tool through its rich text editor.

Microsoft has also made it possible for other LSMs to install the Teams app inside their platform and has created a guide for developers to do so.

Dollar sells N437 at retail Bureaux as scarcity bites hard Hope Moses-Ashike

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he foreign exchange pressure occasioned by scarcity of dollar worsened on Thursday as one dollar sold at N437 at some Bureau De Change (BDC) outlets in Lagos.

This represents a N12 depreciation of the Nigerian currency compared to N425

traded on Wednesday at the black market.

On March 26, 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) suspended foreign exchange sales to the BDC operators until further notice due to the Covid-19 lockdown as requested by the operators. The suspension, notwithstanding, some BDCs are still active in

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the market.

The price of dollar remained unchanged at N425 at the black market on Thursday.

Operators attributed the high cost of dollar leading to weakness in naira to scarcity of the greenback.

At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, the foreign exchange market @Businessdayng

opened with an indicative rate of N385.61k on Thursday, data from FMDQ reveal.

This represents a depreciation of 0.14 percent or N0.54 kobo compared to N385.07k opened on the previous day.

The market closed on a positive note on Wednesday with naira gaining N2 against the dollar at the I&E forex window.

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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@Businessdayng

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

South Africa discusses lifting lockdown sector by sector

Ramaphosa administration wants phased reopening to limit damage to struggling economy JOSEPH COTTERILL

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outh Africa’s government has discussed lifting its coronavirus lockdown sector by sector as it looks to ease the impact of the quarantine measures on its struggling economy.

A draft government presentation, seen by the Financial Times, discussed a possible five level “alert system” that would enable President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration to gradually reopen sectors with a low risk of Covid-19 transmission, where the economic impact of a prolonged shutdown would be particularly severe.

Mr Ramaphosa was expected to reveal, later on Thursday, what he has called a “risk-adjusted” approach to reopen an economy that is currently forecast to contract by more than 6 per cent this year.

Mr Ramaphosa’s office did not immediately respond to a request to comment on whether or not the cabinet had decided to move forward with the proposed system, but a phased reopening has been widely discussed in South Africa.

The new proposal was first reported by local media.

South Africa has managed to slow down infections since order-

South Africa’s lockdown has been extended once and another has not been ruled out © Mike Hutchings/Reuters

ing all but essential workers to remain at home five weeks ago. It imposed the lockdown early, when the country had registered about 400 cases and zero deaths. The government has since conducted over 130,000 tests and about 3,600 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed.

At least 65 people have died.

Public health experts, however, have warned Mr Ramaphosa to be

cautious. “If we end the lockdown too soon or too abruptly, we risk a massive and uncontrollable resurgence of the disease,” Mr Ramaphosa has said.

The present nationwide lockdown has been extended once and experts have not ruled out a further extension.

In the proposed phased system, South Africa’s national com-

mand council, a body overseeing its pandemic response, would set the alert levels based on public health advice.

The fifth level of alert would be the highest and would effectively continue the current lockdown, with only essential services open and a ban on moving across provinces.

If South Africa moved to level

four, opencast mining pits could reopen and underground mines could operate at half capacity. Online food delivery and the sale of alcohol at limited times would be permitted if South Africa reached level three. Only at level two and level one would most and then all sectors reopen with free movement between provinces restored.

“Restrictions on economic activity need to be adapted to epidemiological trends and may need to be relaxed and tightened in different periods,” the proposal said.

Use of alerts “would allow for flexibility and responsiveness” and aid business planning. “Different levels could be imposed on specific provinces and areas based on the risk of transmission,” it added.

Under the proposal restrictions on restaurants, hotels, cinemas and sporting events would remain in place regardless of the level of alert.

The proposal said the continuation of the strict nationwide lockdown could ravage jobs and the ability to pay wages in critical sectors such as mining and tourism. Mr Ramaphosa has already announced fiscal measures worth $26bn (500bn rand) to relieve rising economic distress in the lockdown, at a time when South Africa’s state coffers were already strained.

Netflix secures its lowest-cost debt after ECB boost Junk-rated streaming service to issue euro bonds with record-low 3% coupon

ROBERT SMITH AND JOE RENNISON

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etflix secured its lowest cost of borrowing in the bond market on Thursday, as a decision by the European Central Bank to accept junk-rated collateral boosted one of the biggest winners of the lockdown economy.

The online video company — which has a market capitalisation of $185bn, up almost 30 per cent this year — announced plans to issue euro bonds alongside new dollar debt on Wednesday, a day after blowing past targets for adding new subscribers to its streaming service.

That decision to tap Europe’s debt markets was given extra impetus when the ECB on Wednesday evening relaxed its rules regarding acceptable collateral for commercial banks to obtain ultracheap loans from the central bank.

Financial institutions are now able to access these funding programmes using bonds from socalled “fallen angels” that recently lost their investment-grade rating.

While the ECB has not yet

Netflix has been one of the biggest winners of the lockdown economy © AFP via Getty Images

agreed to directly support riskier debt, as the US Federal Reserve did earlier this month, analysts at Bank of America said the rule changes “pave the way” for it to follow suit.

“Should this happen, this would alleviate indigestion risk in the consumer, utility, energy and real estate sectors in high-yield,” the analysts said.

Netflix is set to issue $1bnequivalent of debt split equally www.businessday.ng

between euros and dollars. The streaming service fixed the coupon on the euro bond at 3 per cent on Thursday afternoon and said that the dollar deal was “likely” to price at 3.625 per cent.

The California-based company has turned to the junk bond market to fuel a spending spree on content that has seen it dominate the so-called “streaming wars”, despite the entrance of heavy-

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weight rivals such as Disney and Amazon. Its recently launched docuseries — chronicling the lurid life of a zoo operator named Joe Exotic — has been a smash hit, with more than 34m Americans tuning in during its first 10 days, according to Nielsen.

Netflix has been a frequent visitor to the European high-yield bond market since first tapping the market three years ago. During that period the company has reduced the rate at which it burns through cash and has been rewarded with credit rating upgrades into the double B bracket — the upper tier of the junk-bond market.

Hunter Martin, an analyst at CreditSights, said that a promotion for the company to investmentgrade — or triple B and above — was possible “over a multiyear horizon”.

Europe’s high-yield bond market has seen very few new deals since lockdowns to contain coronavirus took hold across the continent. That marks a contrast to the US, which has seen a rush of racier deals in recent weeks from companies heavily affected by the @Businessdayng

outbreak.

Swedish alarm maker Verisure was the only non-investment grade company to venture into the euro bond markets before Netflix, with a small €200m offering.

A widely watched index of high-yield credit default swaps dipped 9 basis points on Thursday to 497bp, in a sign of reduced default risk for riskier European companies following the ECB’s announcement.

The central bank’s support suggests it is ready to step in if numerous companies rated triple B suffer downgrades into junk.

UBS analysts warned this month of risks to the €1.14tn of triple B rated debt in Europe — a sum that has ballooned from just €330bn in 2011. During the same period the growth in double B rated bonds has been much more moderate, rising from €74bn to €185bn.

UBS predicts as much as €110bn of fallen-angel debt resulting from coronavirus stress, and says fears of selling pressure from rating-sensitive investors could exacerbate a sell-off in corporate bond markets.

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Wall Street climbs despite mounting jobless claims Oil prices hold on to gains following Trump’s warning against Iran MYLES MCCORMICK AND HUDSON LOCKETT

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all Street opened higher despite another 4.4m Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits last week in the latest sign that Covid-19 lockdowns were taking a heavy toll on the US economy.

The S&P 500 added 0.9 per cent shortly after trading began in New York as investors looked past mounting unemployment in the US where 26m Americans have filed for jobless claims since the outbreak began in mid-March.

The latest claims figures were broadly in line with expectations. The prospect of renewed tension in the Middle East was enough to push international oil benchmark Brent crude back above $20 a “In spite of week 5 of employ- barrel © Bloomberg ment Armageddon, markets continue to look beyond the optimism over supply cuts of- $22.20 a barrel. That left the in- ily oversupplied, Brent crude economic damage that is being fered some respite to a market ternational benchmark $6 off its remains more than 20 per cent incurred,” said Ronald Temple, battered by a collapse in crude lows of the previous day, when it down this week and well off highs head of US equity at Lazard As- demand due to coronavirus. hit its weakest level since 1999. US of $60 a barrel at the beginning set Management. “Monetary and Oil has plunged to record lows marker West Texas Intermediate of the year. Analysts warned that fiscal stimulus have put a floor in recent days on concerns that rose 22 per cent to $16.69 a barrel. any lift in prices triggered by the under the economy, however there is not enough global capacAnalysts attributed the rise in president’s sabre-rattling could the unprecedented disruption to ity to store the growing supply part to Donald Trump readying be shortlived. business and household finances glut. Prices for the US benchmark US warships to attack any Iranian “The idea of tensions in the inflicted by Covid-19 will leave turned negative for the first time vessels in the Gulf if they posed Gulf sustainably pushing up lasting scars even after testing, on Monday, meaning producers a threat. The US president said prices is a little difficult to grasp therapeutics and a vaccine are were forced to pay buyers to take in a tweet on Wednesday that he at this stage,” said Paul Donovan, widely available.” oil off their hands. had “instructed the United States chief economist at UBS Global Wall Street was also buoyed by However, as trading began Navy to shoot down and destroy Wealth Management. a rally in oil prices, which extend- in New York on Thursday Brent any and all Iranian gunboats if “In a world awash with oil and ed a steady recovery as renewed crude built on the previous ses- they harass our ships at sea”. with global supply significantly tensions in the Middle East and sion’s gains, adding 9 per cent to But with the market heav- exceeding global demand, Presi-

dent Trump’s aggressive attitude is not likely to change the fundamentals of the oil market in the near term.”

Crude output has remained robust despite a collapse in global demand of up to a third, which has left the market massively oversupplied and storage facilities on the brink of capacity.

There is, however, optimism that forthcoming production curbs will help to ease the oversupply. A record output cut of 9.7m barrels a day, or roughly 10 per cent of global supply, by Opec and its allies is set to take effect from May 1 — though market participants worry this is nowhere near enough to offset the collapse in consumption.

Analysts at JBC Energy said the latest gains in the oil price suggested the market anticipated further reductions could be on the way. But as global lockdowns suppress demand and inventories continue to build, there is growing pressure on producers to do more. Storage at the key US delivery point at Cushing, Oklahoma is just weeks away from filling up.

European stocks climbed higher, with the continent-wide Stoxx 600 index adding 0.7 per cent, while London’s FTSE 100 and Frankfurt’s Dax rose 0.3 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

UK Treasury to quadruple borrowing to £180bn over next quarter Government grapples with severe contraction of economy following coronavirus lockdown CHRIS GILES AND TOMMY STUBBINGTON

T

he UK government has quadrupled its borrowing plans over the next three months as it grapples with the severe contraction of the economy during the coronavirus pandemic and additional pressure on the public finances.

In a statement to financial markets on Thursday morning, the Treasury said it would seek to raise £180bn over the next three months to allow it to meet its spending needs as tax revenues plunge.

As recently as the March 11 Budget, it thought it would need to raise only £156bn for the whole 2020-21 financial year, which would have implied raising £39bn between May and July — less than a quarter of the amount now planned.

In a statement, the Treasury blamed “the temporary and immediate nature of the unprecedented support announced for people and

businesses” for the change to its financing remit. “This higher volume of issuance is not expected to be required across the remainder of the financial year,” it added.

The new remit to the government’s Debt Management Office to go to the gilts market for much more funding followed a tripling of the remit for April when it raised £45bn rather than the £15bn originally planned.

It reflects the first signs of pain in the public finances which showed up in official figures for March, also released on Thursday by the Office for National Statistics. Most of the headline public finance measures had few Covid-19 effects because they are accrualsbased indicators that will take time to reflect the severe impact of the virus on economic activity.

But on the cash-based tax receipts and public spending, the first signs of a devastating impact on the public finances were evident in the March data as the lockdown began to take effect. www.businessday.ng

Central government cash receipts collected by HM Revenue & Customs were down 12 per cent compared with March 2019, with a particular hit to value added tax receipts from companies that were able to defer payments until the end of the year.

Cash receipts from income tax were also down 3.6 per cent compared with a year earlier, a sign of the pain to come for government finances.

Net cash spending by government departments in March was up 6 per cent on the same month the previous year.

This was before big spending items such as the job retention scheme had started. HM Revenue & Customs said on Thursday that employers had applied the previous day for grants to cover the wages of another million furloughed workers. The total at the end of Wednesday stood at 3.2m employees.

In total, the DMO also said that in the last month of the 2019-20 financial year, the government’s cash

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position was £13.4bn worse than predicted at the time of the March 11 Budget, a highly unusual shortfall so close to the end of the financial year.

That left the DMO with a cash deficit of £17.9bn when it likes to run the government’s debt financing operations with a small surplus.

John Hawksworth, chief economist at advisory firm PwC, said the public finances figures were out of date and were “rapidly being overtaken by events”, and estimated that the total budget deficit was likely to rise to £260bn this year.

The government is likely to find willing buyers for the avalanche of gilts it will place on the market in coming months because the Bank of England has pledged to snap up £200bn in the secondary market under its latest and largest quantitative easing programme.

Since the announcement last month, the BoE’s buying has outstripped the volume of new UK government bonds hitting the market and more than made up for reduced demand from other traditional buy@Businessdayng

ers, according to Daniela Russell, HSBC’s head of UK rates strategy.

“Right now the Bank of England is buying all the new gilts, and they have signalled they stand ready to do more,” she said. “Given the increased strains pension schemes are facing it’s a very good job the BoE is hoovering up the supply.”

Bond markets showed little reaction to Thursday’s announcement, with UK borrowing costs remaining close to all-time lows. The 10-year gilt yield was steady at 0.3 per cent.

Gilt sales should comfortably top the previous annual record, when the government raised £227.6bn from bond investors in the wake of the financial crisis in 2009-10.

Pooja Kumra of TD Securities said issuance for the full year could come to “at least £320bn-£350bn”.

Nevertheless, the government has shown its nervousness over financing by also saying this month that it would be willing to tap its overdraft at the central bank if its needs rise even further, using printed money to finance the deficit temporarily.

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Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

ANALYSIS FT Coronavirus: will call centre workers lose their ‘voice’ to AI?

The industry is already being transformed by the pandemic as a shift to automation accelerates, threatening jobs JOHN REED, MERCEDES RUEHL AND BENJAMIN PARKIN

W

hen Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte announced one of Asia’s strictest lockdowns on Luzon island in midMarch, Flat Planet, an outsourcing company, went through what Chris Moriarty, its Manila-based chief executive, describes as “hell for two weeks”.

While police checkpoints were going up around Manila, the capital, and Mr Duterte was threatening to “shoot” curfew violators, outsourcing companies like Flat Planet were racing to keep their call and data centres running. In an indication of the industry’s economic importance to the Philippines, outsourcing companies — alongside pharmacies and grocery stores — were allowed to remain open provided companies imposed social distancing rules and gave lodging to employees. Like much of the industry, Flat Planet asked staff to work from home apart from a skeleton crew on site.

“Public transport was shut down, we had to ship computers to people’s houses and get them installed and everyone set up,” says Mr Moriarty.

Like large swaths of industry across the world, the pandemic has thrown the Philippines’ $25bna-year outsourcing sector, which employs more than 1m people, into chaos: JPMorgan, Amazon, Google, and Facebook are among the companies whose back office operations have been hit.

The same is true in India’s Bangalore, a pioneer in business outsourcing. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown in late March, the millions of Indians working in the country’s $100bn-plus IT, data and call centre industry were forced to start working from home.

Despite the high-tech veneer, and a business model based on an image of seamless, 24-hour global work, the sector relies to a great extent on humans in large offices — “butts on seats”, as one industry locution has it.

Many industries have been dramatically disrupted by the pandemic, but the call centre sector is already being transformed by it. Even before the enforced lockdowns, it was witnessing the gradual introduction of new technology based on artificial intelligence that can do some of the tasks done by humans — and potentially replace millions of jobs.

Industry executives say that process of technological change is now accelerating as a result of coronavirus. The new innovations include the introduction of chatbots, some of which use the same voice recognition technology behind Amazon’s Alexa, and software that can replace repetitive

tasks done by humans.

The Philippine industry, which built its reputation on efficient and courteous voice communications in good English, is looking especially vulnerable.

“People are beginning to ask questions,” says Mohandas Pai, a tech investor in India and former executive at outsourcing groups Infosys. “Seeing as you’re working from home and there’s a lag in the service, we’ll use more AI, more chatbots, more automation. That is permanent change, automation will hit that sector very deeply.”

Indian executives say that the industry will be quicker now to cut jobs at call centres, not least if AI and automation allow a handful of human agents to do work that previously required dozens.

“You can’t have people on the payroll if they’re not coming to work,” says one. “Rationalisation — everybody is doing that.”

The Philippine outsourcing industry is, along with remittances, one of the country’s leading sources of foreign exchange and a key driver of an economy that was growing at an annual rate of 6 per cent before coronavirus hit.

Companies have had to move thousands of desktops to employees’ homes to keep them working.

But many Filipino and Indian outsourcing workers lack adequate internet connections or working space at home. Productivity has suffered, and not every job can be done at the kitchen table: for example, banking business that involves agents calling up client accounts can usually only be done on site for security reasons.

Outsourcing companies have tried to reassure clients that their employees are working on secure networks, but some western firms have nonetheless sought to reduce their dependence on them.

Virgin Media said last month it would recruit 500 call centre workers in the UK as a result of the disruption in Asia.

“Many business-continuity plans [look at] outages in one centre or one country at worst,” says Roger Beadle, founder of UK-based outsourcing platform Limitless. “What they’re unlikely www.businessday.ng

to have planned for is losing operations in a lot of countries at the same time.”

Employees who manage to get to work in places like metro Manila, a megacity of 12m, are worried about their health. Amazoncontracted workers at a call centre owned by the French outsourcing group Teleperformance, in Cebu City in the central Philippines, were recently filmed by colleagues sleeping on office floors because the company’s on-site dormitory was full and they were unable to get public transport home. The retailing giant is now investigating the incident.

“Most of these people are breadwinners, but if they can’t get to work, they can’t get paid,” says Mylene Cabalona, president of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry Employees’ Network (BIEN), an advocacy group. “It’s a choice between courting the virus and earning, or losing your livelihood.”

Many outsourcing companies are putting workers who cannot make it to the office or work effectively from home on “temporary” leave, which employees fear will become permanent. Although some are getting paid, those on “no work no pay” contracts are not. BIEN says it has received numerous reports from workers at outsourcing groups who have been furloughed. One of the companies, Ibex, said that it was “aggressively seeking” ways to get employees, unable to work at the moment, back into jobs.

Facebook, which employs an undisclosed number of content reviewers in the Philippines, says it was already increasing its use of automation before the lockdown, and has scaled up since.

The social media company uses AI, for example, to detect spam or pornography sites, or to identify duplicate reports that might tie up multiple reviewers’ time.

“The decision to send our contract workers home was not taken lightly; however, we believe this is the most appropriate measure to protect the health of the people who work for Facebook,” the company said in a statement.

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“Contract workers will be paid throughout the period they are at home, and we are scaling our use of technology to accommodate this shift in operations.”

Many companies describe their furloughing of Philippine staff as temporary. But many employees believe the shift to at least partial working from home will be permanent. And that the large call centres — the cornerstones of the Philippine industry — are unlikely to return in their current form.

KS Kumar, chief commercial officer of Sutherland Global the USbased outsourcer, which employs thousands in both the Philippines and India, says the move out of large call centres and back office operations will be permanent.

‘It’s a wake-up call for companies that have been doing a lot of business in the Philippines,”he says. “Right now there are concentrated large facilities with thousands of people working in one place. [But] they are going to have to find different locations and a smarter spread of places where they can outsource.”

The Philippines never managed to attract the kind of largescale foreign investment in manufacturing that fuelled economic take-off in countries like Thailand and Vietnam, in part because of its offshore location and archipelagic geography. But outsourcing — reliant on phone lines rather than shipping logistics — has allowed the country to overcome these disadvantages.

The outsourcing industry in the Philippines got its start in the 1990s, around the same time companies like Infosys were pioneering call centre and data outsourcing in India. Spurred by shocks like the 2008 financial crisis, some US and European companies began automating work in India and over time chunks of call centre business migrated to the Philippines as American companies moved jobs to the former US colony. By 2011 the Philippines was the world’s largest centre for call centre industry jobs, although India’s overall outsourcing sector remains bigger.

This outsourcing boom provided a boost to other sectors, in@Businessdayng

cluding real estate and the 24-hour businesses serving companies that do much of their work at night.

IT and outsourcing now employ 1.2m Filipinos directly at more than 1,000 companies, according to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, an industry body. Another 4.1m profit indirectly. The industry recorded $24.7bn of revenues in 2018, the latest year for which IBPAP has published figures.

However, the industry’s growth in the Philippines was slowing even before coronavirus hit, in part because of the prevalence of jobs in voice communications just as some companies were already moving towards AI. “The Philippines’ real advantage is that people speak English well,” says Greg Wyatt, director of Business Intelligence PSA Philippines, a consultancy. “But it matters a little bit less with automation.”

At a time when texting has been replacing voice communications, AI “chatbots” able to take over part or even most of the work of human agents are on the rise. New players disrupting old and costlier ways of serving customers include Amazon Connect, launched in 2017 by Amazon Web Services.

The product, underpinned by the same speech recognition technology used in Amazon’s “smart” voice assistant Alexa, began by offering voice support — conversing with customers — but has since expanded to chat via text.

“We definitely have seen customers who have saved money by automating certain scenarios,” says Pasquale DeMaio, Amazon Connect’s global general manager.

Some of the leading innovations are coming from India. [24]7. ai, which began two decades ago in traditional outsourcing, but has recently added AI-powered virtual agents that can juggle calls between its roughly 10,000 workers in the Philippines, India, and elsewhere. Since the pandemic began, the US-headquartered company says demand for some automated products has jumped as much as 50 per cent, far outstripping the rise in demand for human services.

Friday 24 April, 2020

BUSINESS DAY

37

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Thursday 23 April, 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 23 April, 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS Company

Opening

Closing

Change

STANBIC

N27.5

N28.5

1

CADBURY

N6.3

N6.9

0.6

N11.35

N11.7

0.35

GUARANTY

N18.6

N18.9

0.3

VITAFOAM

N4.25

N4.51

0.26

WAPCO

Company

ASI (Points)

Opening

Closing

Change

NESTLE

N975

N910

-65

DANGCEM

N136

N131.5

-4.5

N34.85

N33

-1.85

VOLUME (Numbers)

UACN

N7.5

N6.75

-0.75

VALUE (N billion)

ETI

N5

N4.5

-0.5

BUACEMENT

DEALS (Numbers)

MARKET CAP (N Trn)

22,470.79 3,381.00 201,475,387.00 3.358

Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

Bourse also decreased to N11.710trillion as against N11.872trillion on Wednesday, representing a decline of N162billion.

Nestle dipped most from N975 to N910, down N65 or 6.67percent. Dangote Cement Plc. Dangote Cement was also down from N136 to N131.5, losing N4.5 or 3.31percent.

BUA Cement joined the league of top laggards, from N34.85 to N33, losing N1.85 or 5.31percent.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc advanced most, from N27.5 to N28.5, adding N1 or 3.64 percent. Cadbury Nigeria Plc also increased from N6.3 to N6.9, rising by 60kobo or 9.52percent, while Lafarge Africa

Plc increased from N11.35 to N11.7, up by 35kobo or 3.08percent.

Access Bank Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, United Capital Plc and GTBank Plc were actively traded stocks on Thursday.

In 3,381 deals, equity dealers exchanged 201,475,387 units valued at N3.358billion.

Securities dealers foresee remote trading encouraging direct transactions by investors

T

Nikkei 225 19,429.44JPY +291.49+1.52%

S&P 500 Index 2,832.83USD +33.52+1.20%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 10,513.79EUR +98.76+0.95%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 23,680.00USD +324.00+1.39%

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 2,838.50CNY -5.48-0.19%

GTBank reports N58.2bn Q1 pretax profit ...share price down by -38.2% year-to-date

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N

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ongoing full remote trading may encourage direct transaction on the market by interested investors who must go through their stockbroking firms even as stockbrokers bemoan the impact of uncertainty on the market.

The Exchange’s dynamic trading configuration enables an investor to execute transaction by using access code, generated by his stockbroking firm.

But in order to prevent abuse, the stockbroker is responsible for the investor’s transaction in the event of any query from the market regulators.

The chairman Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria ( ASHON), Onyenwechukwu Ezeagu said the policy

FTSE 100 Index 5,826.61GBP +55.98+0.97%

11.710

Investors book N162bn loss as stock market fails to sustain gain igeria’s equities market failed to sustain preceding trading day’s gains as large cap stocks like Nestle Nigeria Plc, Dangote Cement Plc and BUA Cement Plc occupied led the basket of counters that contributed to the record 1.36percent dip seen on Thursday April 23.

This month, the market has yielded positive return of 5.49 percent, this week it has lost 1.97 percent of its value; while year-todate return is in negative of -16.29percent.

Analysts expect Thursday’s bearish pattern to filter into Friday trading session. Though, bargains in some of the heavyweight decliners might support a positive close to the week.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased to 22,470.79 points from preceding day high of 22, 780.30 points.

The value of listed stocks on the Nigerian

Global market indicators

of allowing clients to trade directly, through their stockbroking firms was expected to be more operational under the current trading regime whereby all stockbroking firms trade remotely.

Ezeagu noted that one of the benefits of full remote trading was that investors would no longer insist on seeing their stockbrokers physically. According to him, one of the rules of engagement for allowing an investor to trade is that such transaction must be routed through his stockbroking firm which is directly answerable to The Exchange. “ The full remote trading is normal as many of our dealing member firms had been trading remotely over the years before the sudden advent of www.businessday.ng

coronavirus. The current trading atmosphere is a learning curve for the clients. Many of them that enjoy dealing with stockbrokers physically may begin to trade themselves.

But they can do this through an arrangement with their stockbroking firm, being a member of The Exchange. “, said Ezeagu.

Also, Oluropo Dada, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Network Capital stated that it was a welcome development for a client to trade directly.

According to him, it will relieve the stockbroking firm of burden and the transaction will still go through the stockbroking firm. Dada who stated that the ongoing remote trading was an indication of The Exchange’s

global stature, however noted that the current situation had made opening of accounts for new clients difficult as Know Your Client (KYC) could not be fully conducted.

Appraising the market, the Registrar and Chief Executive, Chartered of Stockbrokers (CIS), Adedeji Ajadi explained that the recent rally on The Exchange was prompted by investors’ perception that concerted efforts were going on to contain COVID-19 and open up the economy.

“I believe the recent optimism came from what appears to be successes being achieved in several countries to contain Covid-19, as well as the massive stimulus packages being declared and implemented across the globe, including Nigeria.

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uaranty Trust Bank plc has released its unaudited financial results for the period ended March 31, 2020.

The results at both the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges show positive performance across all financial indices, reaffirming the Bank’sposition as one of the most profitable and well managed financial institutions in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, stock investors are not pricing in this positives lately as the share price remained at record low of N19.90 on Tuesday April 21 representing negative year to date return of about 38.2percent.

The share price went further down to N18.6 on Wednesday April 22 nearing is 52-week low of N16.70 as against its 52-week high of N34.65.

Profit before tax stood at N58.2billion, representing a growth of 2.1percent over N57.0billion recorded in the correspondingperiod of March 2019.

The Bank’s Loan Book grew by 8percent from N1.502trillion as at December 2019 to N1.622trillion in March 2020, while customers’ deposit increased by 9.3percent to N2.768trillion from N2.533trillion in the same period.

GTBank maintained a well-structured and diversified balance sheet with Total assets and Shareholders’Funds closing at N4.057trillion and N661.1Billion respectively. Full Impact Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR)remained very strong, closing at 23.5percent.

In terms of Assets quality, NPL ratio and Cost of Risk (COR)improved to 6percent and 0.1percent in March 2020 from 6.5percent and 0.3percent in December 2019 respectively.

Loan Loss coverage also improved to 130.5percent for Lifetime Credit Impaired Loans (NPLs) compared to 126.6percent in December 2019.

Commenting on the financial results, the Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank plc, SegunAgbaje, said; “These are very difficult and uncertain times, not just for the financial services sector and @Businessdayng

theeconomy as a whole, but also for hundreds of millions of people around the world whose lives andlivelihoods have been put at risk by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At GTBank, we know that the impact of thispandemic may sustain for months to come, but we remain positive that, by staying nimble and continuingto build on the strength of our businesses, we are appropriately positioned to cope with emergingeconomic realities, as reflected in our first quarter result.”

He further stated that, “As a platform for enriching lives, our focus is on safeguarding lives and livelihoods.That is why we are working round the clock to keep all our members of staff and customers safe,supporting the government in combatting the pandemic and being there for our customers in every waythat they may need our support at this time,”, the CEO said.

Over all, Guaranty Trust Bank plc continues to be best-in-class in the Nigerian banking industry in termsof financial ratios i.e. Post-Tax Return on Equity (ROAE) of 29.7percent, Post-Tax Return on Assets (ROAA) of 5.1percent, and Cost to Income ratio of 40.6percent.

These ratios reflect the Management stability and well-structured Balance sheet coupled with operational efficiency. In recognition of the Bank’s bias for world class corporate governance standards, excellent servicedelivery and innovation, GTBank has been a recipient of numerous awards over the years. Some of theawards include Best Bank in Africa and Best Bank in Nigeria, by the Euromoney Magazine (2019), BestBanking Group and Best Retail Bank Nigeria from World Finance Magazine (2019), Bank of the Year -Nigeria from the Banker Magazine (2018), Most Innovative Bank from the African Investor (2018), andBest Digital Banking Brand in Nigeria from the Global Brands Magazine (2018).

38

Friday 24 April, 2020

BUSINESS DAY

www.businessday.ng

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@Businessdayng

Friday 24 April 2020

BUSINESS DAY

39

Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 23 April, 2020 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 225,712.18 6.35 1.60 150 46,808,746 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 203,486.56 5.95 1.71 159 8,915,708 ZENITH BANK PLC 436,411.26 13.90 1.09 399 19,376,842 708 75,101,296 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 159,734.05 4.45 4.71 276 32,641,168 276 32,641,168 984 107,742,464 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,035,451.31 100.00 - 72 304,833 72 304,833 72 304,833 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,240,826.72 131.50 -3.31 186 2,289,798 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 188,461.21 11.70 3.08 199 9,099,468 385 11,389,266 385 11,389,266 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 290,926.99 494.40 - 12 3,231 12 3,231 12 3,231 1,453 119,439,794 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SFS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 1,386.00 69.30 - 1 65 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 8,271.64 3.10 - 0 0 1 65 1 65 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 65 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 52,512.75 55.05 - 13 3,273 PRESCO PLC 36,450.00 36.45 - 4 4,410 17 7,683 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,500.00 4.25 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,950.00 0.65 -7.14 9 297,076 9 297,076 26 304,759 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES JOHN HOLT PLC. 198.47 0.51 - 0 0 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 S C O A NIG. PLC. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 29,266.55 0.72 -1.37 37 3,139,956 U A C N PLC. 19,448.75 6.75 -10.00 27 697,164 64 3,837,120 64 3,837,120 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 381.65 2.57 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 34,056.00 25.80 - 60 530,249 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 ROADS NIG PLC. 60 530,249 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 2,130.68 0.82 - 4 24,999 4 24,999 64 555,248 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 6,341.89 0.81 - 7 122,000 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 829.98 0.81 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 41,398.24 18.90 -0.53 191 2,042,763 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 134,310.34 5.00 - 20 1,019,410 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 275,893.12 34.50 - 55 554,482 273 3,738,655 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 144,000.00 12.00 -2.83 49 1,809,541 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 86,107.97 21.00 - 19 164,669 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 7,930.20 1.00 - 18 412,171 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 26,626.86 10.05 - 26 225,083 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 2,993.06 10.95 - 0 0 112 2,611,464 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 12,959.59 6.90 9.52 31 481,405 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 721,317.19 910.00 -6.67 99 1,800,106 130 2,281,511 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 5,641.31 4.51 6.12 17 358,221 17 358,221 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 16,874.53 4.25 - 15 69,752 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 63,195.06 11.00 - 17 80,958 32 150,710 564 9,140,561 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 82,572.98 4.50 -10.00 60 7,474,404 FIDELITY BANK PLC 52,154.63 1.80 -1.10 42 2,208,476 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 556,249.29 18.90 1.61 359 13,562,340 JAIZ BANK PLC 16,205.34 0.55 10.00 13 596,195 STERLING BANK PLC. 36,275.93 1.26 -3.82 11 537,294 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 189,284.89 6.50 - 6 18,344 UNITY BANK PLC 5,260.20 0.45 2.27 14 1,103,424 WEMA BANK PLC. 23,144.68 0.60 9.09 69 9,155,109 574 34,655,586 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 9,404.07 0.83 1.22 18 2,345,399 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 16,590.00 1.58 - 1 4,400 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,439.00 0.30 - 0 0 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 7,953.93 0.54 - 1 60,000 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 0 0 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 0 0 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 1,830.86 0.25 - 5 75,000 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 4,296.33 1.00 - 2 4,781 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 4,240.00 0.53 -8.62 9 658,000 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,234.55 0.20 - 1 8,110 11,617.11 2.20 - 9 306,430 NEM INSURANCE PLC NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 3 2,727 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,960.40 0.55 - 0 0 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 - 0 0 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,272.89 0.20 - 0 0 STACO INSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 7 1,100,299 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 6,717.67 0.28 3.70 14 4,444,617 70 9,009,763 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,858.30 1.25 - 0 0 0 0

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MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 6,784.62 1.05 - 0 0 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,671.82 1.36 - 0 0 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 6,920.00 3.46 0.29 26 596,986 33,820.72 5.75 - 1 400 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 495.00 0.33 - 0 0 30,298.15 1.53 -4.37 35 1,567,642 FCMB GROUP PLC. ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,080.53 0.21 5.00 8 457,558 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 299,391.57 28.50 3.64 28 689,746 14,400.00 2.40 9.09 142 13,870,469 UNITED CAPITAL PLC 240 17,182,801 884 60,848,150 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 2,991.61 6.00 - 0 0 1,030.41 0.29 - 0 0 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 0 0 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 593.50 0.60 - 0 0 0 0 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 5,111.58 2.45 - 13 526,200 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 6,457.73 5.40 - 21 152,576 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 4,658.13 2.70 - 20 303,318 1,139.49 0.60 - 5 207,500 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 59 1,189,594 59 1,189,594 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 710.40 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 911.95 0.31 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 216.00 2.00 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 287.07 0.58 - 0 0 0 0 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 986.17 0.21 - 3 17,600 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 10,962.00 2.61 - 0 0 3 17,600 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,123,311.48 298.90 - 6 24 6 24 9 17,624 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,941.82 6.70 - 14 52,585 BUA CEMENT PLC 1,117,523.68 33.00 -5.31 27 430,689 CAP PLC 16,240.00 23.20 - 2 2,505 MEYER PLC. 265.62 0.50 - 1 588 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,769.32 2.23 - 0 0 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 44 486,367 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,192.12 2.03 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,113.59 1.20 - 6 40,345 6 40,345 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 34,998.04 70.00 - 3 258 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 3 258 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 53 526,970 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,519.29 3.65 - 1 2,380 1 2,380 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,781.64 8.10 - 0 0 0 0 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 77.00 0.35 - 0 0 0 0 1 2,380 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,252.54 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 28,592.25 2.30 -0.43 49 2,785,912 49 2,785,912 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 58,019.78 160.90 - 12 6,063 ARDOVA PLC 12,438.69 9.55 -4.50 36 1,285,934 CONOIL PLC 12,074.77 17.40 - 23 92,912 ETERNA PLC. 3,116.91 2.39 - 14 532,200 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 4,206.05 13.80 - 7 51,696 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 32,695.95 96.30 - 21 22,677 113 1,991,482 162 4,777,394 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,509.28 0.34 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 15,796.05 1.62 - 0 0 0 0 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 235.27 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,686.42 2.90 - 10 136,550 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 421.96 0.90 - 0 0 10 136,550 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,181.71 2.70 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 2,224.31 1.07 - 1 1,400 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,076.28 3.15 - 0 0 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 30,401.62 4.00 - 0 0 1 1,400 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 3,960.00 0.33 - 0 0 0 0 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 187.49 0.31 - 3 22,850 LEARN AFRICA PLC 794.59 1.03 - 2 3,000 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 0 0 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 414.15 0.96 - 1 9,999 6 35,849 ROAD TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 580.20 0.35 - 0 0 0 0 SPECIALTY INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 688.80 2.91 - 0 0 SECURE ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY PLC 1,126.31 0.20 - 0 0

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Women in Business

Sola Adesakin CEO, Smart Stewards

S C

ola Adesakin is an experienced and versatile Chartered Accountant with about 16 years hands-on experience on Personal and SME finance. She is a Personal Finance Coach, Author of 4 books and a conference/seminar speaker.

Through her blog and The Smart Stewards Academy, she has helped many people bounce back from stress to rest and from debt to wealth. She continues to influence women by her blogs and has been featured on a TV show that aired globally. In addi-

hioma is an Accounting guru with over 11 years of finance, bookkeeping and business consulting experience spanning over several industries of the economy. An expert in start-ups, she has been involved in starting up finance functions for several companies and projects. Trained in PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria, Chioma had further career stints in BankPHB, Jumia and a host of other companies where she headed the Finance/Accounting functions.

She is the Founder of Accountinghub. ng. Nigeria’s premier professional services online shop, focused on offering brilliant bookkeeping and tax support to startups and small businesses at super-affordable pricing. She presents virtual, retail and tech-accounting in Nigeria.

Ifeanyi-Eze holds a degree in Accounting and a Masters in Accounting and Finance. She is an Associate of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Taxation Of Nigeria. She recorded outstanding academic awards; graduating tops in her class and faculty in both her degree and masters programs and also bagging awards during her professional examinations.

She teaches young companies and people to embrace financial management in their personal lives, businesses and vocation. With a passion to improving SMEs, Chioma focuses on small business management, improving their book-keeping and accounting, ensuring that they have reliable financial information upon which they can take optimal business decisions.

Chioma is well respected in SME finance matters and is frequently asked to speak or serve in related committees

or events.

There are over 9,000 accounting firms in the country and each of these firms, especially the small ones, works for one to 10 businesses in Nigeria, where there are over 40 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This huge gap between the number of SMEs and the number of accounting firms that are servicing them is what her organisation is doing its best to fill through their services.

That is why Chioma will readily tell you that unless you use technology, you cannot work for many SMEs because, the old accounting practice was done in a way that required your physical presence, and as such, spending days upon days looking through your books.

However, using technology, IfeanyiEze says she does not need to come to you every day to carry out accounting services for you because, she can work for up to 100 SMEs and more businesses can have credible numbers to make their decisions.

She insists that these businesses need credible numbers for their taxes; for their business decisions and for their businesses to be sustainable.

For any one confused on how to start a business, she advises that you start with an entry offering for an entry market, take the very basic things you know how to do very well and weave it into a business.

“You will be shocked at how many people who do not think what you know or can do is ‘so basic’. Guess what? Even my nice handwriting has sold ‘market’. I arrived at a meeting and scribbled some processes as I spoke with the client. The woman offered to pay to take the sheet of paper from me after we finished the meeting.”

Also, for those who own businesses, if

BUSINESS DAY Friday 24 April 2020 www.businessday.ng

By Kemi Ajumobi

tion, she is very versed in developing of solid financial systems for SMEs. Sola holds a BSC in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. She is a Fellow of the Institute Of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) , a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of The United Kingdom (ACCA) and a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada(CPA) She also holds an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University) Scotland.

She holds a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management from the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos Nigeria being a recipient of the WomenX Scholarship (A collaboration of World Bank and EDC). She is happily married and a mother of three boys..

Sola says her journey to building wealth has been interesting; Not only has she learnt through certifications, she has grasped the secrets of wealth building through her personal experiences. Her passion is to help people; Men and women, young and old, maximise their resources, talents and gifts.

Financial freedom or independence is first of all, a journey and then, a destination. It can literally be explained as having enough income to fund your living expenses, for the rest of your life, without having to work full time. There is no one way to achieving this.

On achieving financial freedom, she revealed that for some, it is easy to achieve through investing and saving over a long period, while others just go ahead to build successful businesses that will generate income to fund all aspects of their lifestyle requirements. “Whichever way, financial freedom cannot be achieved without the

application of basic and sound financial rules. No one arrives ‘there’ just by chance; everyone has got to work their way into financial freedom or independence.” Said Adesakin.

Sola agrees many people make money mistakes because they sometimes invest wrongly, indulge unwisely and are helplessly indebted, but what she does, though her organisation is to teach people to become better managers and stewards on that journey towards financial liberation.

When she qualified as a Chartered Accountant years ago, she began working in managerial roles and after a while, she got a relatively good job and started to earn well.

Unfortunately, all the things she learnt in school as an Accounting student and in her professional certifications did not impact the way she spent money.

Being a Chartered Accountant didn’t amount to good personal finance management for Adesakin, as she probably fared worse than people who had little or no theoretical knowledge of finances. “My Finances were scattered.” She admitted.

Her finances were always out of shape and she was regularly in debt. her salary would not last beyond 3 days after receiving it, “I was a spendthrift I would draw down on my savings less than a week of keeping the money aside and I felt totally helpless.

When it dawned on me that I couldn’t continue that way, I made a commitment to making a change and things turned around for me.” She stated.

Coupled with the necessary knowledge and appropriate certifications, Sola embarked on that rewarding journey of helping and teaching people about managing their personal finances and today, she lives a fulfilling life with amazing testimonials.

Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze Founder, Accounting Hub

only you will commit to putting up a social media poster each day, you’ll notice an increase in your enquiries and sales up to 20% within 3 months. “The rate will keep growing and your skills at making the posts will keep improving” she advised.

Thinking of what business to do?

Ifeanyi-Eze has a piece of advice for you.

“My dear friend who is thinking of what business to do, are you noticing the huge inefficiencies around you? It could just be your license to ‘find your gold’. I found my gold from inefficiencies and I am still finding my gold.” She said.

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.