Businessday 27 jun 2018

news you can trust I **WEDNESDAY 27 JUNE 2018 I vol. 15, no 84 I N300

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Editorial

n the morning of 25 June, Nigerians woke up to the sad news of another massacre, this time in three different local government areas of Plateau state. The affected local government areas include; Barkin Ladi, Mangu and Riyom Local Govern-

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These killings have gone too far Mr. President ment Areas of Plateau state. In a statement on Sunday evening, the police admitted “that 86 people were killed in the attacks, six people injured, fifty (50) houses burnt, fifteen (15) motorcycles burnt down; two (2)

motor vehicles burnt down.”

But an eye witness to the killings and a resident of the affected local government claims that as many as 120 people were killed in the attacks, which was said to have lasted several

hours from 1.00 pm in the afternoon to 8.00 pm in the evening.All throughout the attacks, which eye witnesses have blamed on herdsmen,the security agencies failed to intervene despite Plateau state being known to have a high level of security presence due to its history of communal violence.

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See commodities on page 2

Vitol-led group bids for Petrobras $2.5bn Nigerian assets

Every minute 6 Nigerians enter extreme poverty: here’s why A

ISAAC ANYAOGU & STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

consortium led by international oil trading house Vitol is in talks to buy stakes in the Nigerian offshore fields held

by Petrobras and its partners valued at $2.5billion according to a report

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igeria received yet another blow as the number of its citizens living in extreme poverty became higher than that of India in 2018, as com-

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Atiku may pick Peter Obi as running mate for PDP ticket

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Inside

Atlas Mara’s N1.65bn bet on Union bank moves it closer to takeover P. 35 World Cup Result Australia 0 - Peru 2 Denmark 0 - France 0 Iceland 1 - Croatia 2 Nigeria 1 - Argentina 2

Rivers woos UK investors to return to state ...But High Commissioner points to what must be done Ignatius Chukwu

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he Rivers State government has made a case for the return of investors from

UK and other western countries to the state.

The deputy governor of Rivers state, Ipallibo Harry Ibanigo, who represented Governor Nye-

som Wike made the appeal at the presentation of a documentary, ‘Defiant Embers’, sponsored by

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…flags off presidential campaign July 28 Iniobong Iwok

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ormer Vice president, Atiku Abubakar may be set to pick ex-Governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi as his running mate ahead of the

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businessday market monitor Commodities

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Brent Oil

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Cocoa

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37,953.64

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

GSK is getting set for a positive 2018 Global LNG demand to rise 66% by 2030

INSIGHT

DIPO OLADEHINDE

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fter a sweltering 2017, leading fast moving consumer goods firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) might have a positive turnaround in 2018 as the company gradually swings its pendulum from consumer health goods to pharmaceutical products.

2017 was a tough year for GSK Nigeria; despite an 11.8 percent increase in revenue from N14.3 billion in 2016 to N16 billion in 2017, its gross profits fell by 50 percent from N8.9 billion in 2016 to N4.4 billion in 2017, while Profit after tax fell sharply from N2.3 billion in 2016 to N486 million in 2017. Its gross margin reduced to 0.2 percent in 2017 from 0.6 percent in 2016 while net margin also shrank to 0.03 percent in 2017 compared to 0.3 percent in 2016.

GSK Nigeria has been divesting from its food and drinks segment, having sold Ribena and Lucozade to Japanese maker, Suntory last year. Further investigation also showed in 2017 the pharmaceutical subsidiary contributes 64 percent or N10.3 billion to the total revenue of N16 billion while the consumer healthcare contributes 35.6 percent with N5.7 billion.

In GSK Nigeria, Total assets reduced by 6 percent t0 N26.4 billion in 2017 from N28.1 billion in 2016;

however a large junk came from current asset which reduced by 5 percent from N25.4 billion in 2016 to N24.1 billion in 2017.

However further insight into its 2017 total asset showed its consumer health care subsidiary covers over 92 percent of N24.1 billion while its pharmaceutical subsidiary covers just 7.5 percent of N2 billion.

Also in 2017, cost of sales jumped massively by 114 percent from 5.4 billion in 2016 to 11.6 billion in 2017 while materials consumed jumped by 156 percent from 4.4 billion in 2016 to 11.3 billion in 2017.

For 2017 cost of sales of N11.6 billion, the pharmaceuticals subsidiary takes 64 percent or N7.5 billion while consumer healthcare takes 34 percent or N4 billion.

Despites its 2017 loses, GSK investment income rose from 171 million in 2016 to 1.1 billion in 2017. This was driven largely by interest on short-term deposits as Interest rates spiked in 2017 in line with rising inflation and an increase in government borrowing.

This led to the company’s operating segments of consumer healthcare and pharmaceuticals making losses of 701 million and 15.5 million respectively in 2017.

but Nigeria’s market share could dwindle … Egypt, Mozambique ramp up competition in Africa …US,Qatar,AustraliaslugitouttocapturebourgeoningChinesedemand ISAAC ANYAOGU

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y 2030, the world’s demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) could hit 500 million tonnes per year (mpta) by 2030 from a current demand of around 300 mtpa but Nigeria, which holds the 9th largest amount of natural gas in the world could see its market share dwindle.

Three years to the end of many Nigerian LNG long-term contracts, the company (NLNG) is yet to sign on new buyers of its cargoes even as development of new LNG trains remains uncertain. The units that freeze natural gas into liquid form for export on ships are known as trains in the natural gas industry.

Meanwhile, other countries are not slowing down. The International Energy Association sees Australia, Qatar and the United States supplying 60 per cent of the world’s LNG by 2023 and increasingly doing battle for a bigger share of the key market of

Asia. Nigeria started its LNG operations 24 months after Qatar but Qatar now produces 77 million tonnes per annum, while Nigeria has not moved the needle on 22 MTPA. The International Energy Association (IEA) says that the United States accounts for nearly threequarters of new LNG export growth.

In Africa, significant gas finds in excess of 127 trillion cubic feet in Mozambique have created the potential for another African super player. Mozambique is expected to become the second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by 2025, as the country steps up production from 10 million tonnes per annum in 2017 to an envisaged 50 Mtpa.

Egypt which could become selfsufficient in natural gas by the end of this year with the start of Eni SpA’s giant Zohr field has vast facilities to turn gas into LNG, which can be exported by ship.

“It is possible that gas imported under this agreement will be direct-

ed towards domestic consumption or to the LNG plants to be liquefied and re-exported,” El-Molla said on Egyptian CBC television. “We have LNG plants, we have capacity that is not being exploited, so why not have a third party bring good?”

Since the development of the NLNG, new projects have been too few and far between. Three LNG projects in Nigeria: Olokola LNG, Brass LNG and the NLNG’s Train 7 have been unable to reach final decision by the stakeholders.

The OK LNG project was stalled because all the international oil companies (BG, Shell and Chevron) withdrew from the project, with only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation left.

The Brass LNG project, which was designed to produce 10 million metric tonnes per annum, was to be built by the NNPC, Total, ConocoPhillips and Eni Group. But ConocoPhillips withdrew from the project in 2013.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

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Many stocks still outperform despite record sell-off …CCNN, Ikeja Hotel, NEM Insurance lead pack Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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here are still some stocks that have put smiles on some investors’ faces this year despite that the recent market sell-off which has resulted to value losses.

Though the general returns from Nigerian equities market remained negative at 0.66percent as at Monday, investors who held these identified stocks since this year have reaped from capital appreciation in excess of 70 percent.

Chief among the stocks tracked

by BusinessDay is Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) with price at N25.95 as at Monday June 25, 2018, representing 173.2 percent price gain this year.

Also, investors who took positions in Ikeja Hotel Plc have reasons to smile with price at N3.13 as at same day, representing 75.8percent in year-to-date (ytd) returns.

Investors in NEM Insurance Plc are not left out in the capital appreciation Ytd as its price at N3.04 represents 83.1percent gain.

Analysts advise investors to always take a long-term view of the stock market, especially at a period when the mucky political climate is causing stock prices to trend downwards, though creating an opportunity for long-term investors to take position at cheaper prices.

Despite weakening investor

sentiment at Custom Street, the shares of Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc which were priced at N2.28 per share as at Monday have increased by 76.7percent this year, while Learn Africa Plc share price at N1.51 has as well risen by 71.6percent this year.

“We see a market-wide bargain hunting as observed earlier in the month. Also, the outcome of OPEC’s meeting which ended with a deal to reduce compliance from 152percent to the 100percent initially agreed. Our view is that this should have a marginal impact on prices with an overall positive implication for the Nigerian market,” Kayode Tinuoye led team of research analysts at United Capital Plc said in their investment view for the week.

Nigeria’s financial markets are expected to be steered by the fallout of electoral activities and rising global interest rates despite improving macroeconomic environment and an impression of policy stability. Already, the pre-election year is having pronounced effect on Nigerian equities.

Olalekan Olabode, Head of Vetiva Research projects a market return ranging between minus 5percent and plus 5percent for 2018, but remains bullish on Nigerian equities in the long run.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

L-R: Frank Aigbogun, publisher/CEO, BusinessDay Media Limited; Babatunde Ruwase, president, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI); Mahmood Yakubu, chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Abubakar Suleiman, MD/CEO, Sterling Bank plc, during the LCCI-INEC private sector forum in Lagos, yesterday. Pic by Olawale Amoo

Nigeria Immigration Service suspends $110 visa fee Ifeoma Okeke

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he Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has suspended the collection of $110 biometric Visa-OnArrival policy it introduced about two weeks ago.

A source told BusinessDay that the service was not in charge of collection of charges at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos as that aspect has been concessioned out to private firms.

The source alleged that the biometric, which came on stream on June 12, was only implemented for two days, but was later suspended following complaints from some

of the travelers who claimed that there was not enough publicity on the new policy.

BusinessDay had reported on Monday that the command introduced the $90 biometric visa on arrival and additional $20 as processes for foreigners who were entering the country despite the fact that they had already paid for visas from their respective countries.

The introduction of the charges caused chaos at the terminal as some of the passengers delayed on arrival at the airport.

But, the source at immigration said some of the services initially handled by the service had been concessioned out to private firms.

He said that the biometric Visa-On Arrival charges was being handled by Online Integrated Service (OIS) while the process charges is handled by New Works.

However, it was gathered that the biometric charges was supposed to be a reciprocity as some countries around the world was already charging the citizens of Nigeria who travel into their countries.

Some the countries with biometric charges on Nigerian travelers according to investigations are United Kingdom, United States of America, South Africa, Kenya and China among others.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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Wednesday 27 June 2018 4 BUSINESS DAY NEWS INEC registers 79.42m voters as OPS Labour slams FG over failure to end killing of Nigerians pledges participation in 2019 C002D5556

JOSHUA BASSEY

ODINAKA ANUDU

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ight months to the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has registered 79.42 million voters that will decide that fate of candidates in 119,973 polling units across Nigeria.

Speaking at the INEC Private Sector Forum organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Lagos on Tuesday, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said 9.7 million new voters were registered between April and June 14, most of whom were young Nigerians.

“Since the Continuous Voter Registration is ongoing, clearly the number of voters will rise above 80 million,” Yakubu said, adding that 7 million permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) were lying on the tables of INEC without being collected, urging those that had registered to ensure they collect PVCs to exercise their voting right.

Nigeria is preparing for general elections that will be held on February 16 (presidential and National Assembly) and March 2 (governorship and state assembly). The presidential election will likely be torn between conservative Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and a more progressive candidate from the

Olusegun Obasanjo-backed African Democratic Party (ADP).

Yakubu recognises that the major challenge ahead of the election is trust on his electoral body and pledges that INEC will conduct a free and fair election.

He lamented that two byeelections conducted in Lagos witnessed voter apathy as only 2.9 percent of registered voters participated at Ifako-Ijaye Federal Constituency in December 2016 while 3.4 percent took part in EtiOsa in September 2017.

He charged the private sector to participate more in the electoral process rather than isolate themselves.

“The business community has seamlessly delivered goods and services to customers. You have, over time, perfected the capacity to deliver products to the remotest locations nationwide,” he said, adding that INEC needs such experience to deliver materials to the remotest parts of the country.

Yakubu said a bill has been sent to the National Assembly to ensure that Diaspora Nigerians participate in the electoral process.

Frank Aigbogun, publisher and CEO of BusinessDay, said he has observed that many of those that are critical of elections in Nigeria have nothing to do with such elections, urging the media to ensure that some of the misconceptions among the populace are properly dissected

and explained.

Aigbogun pointed out that the media sometimes attacks issues based on lack of information, urging INEC to engage the media the more, while calling on the Fourth Estate of the Realm to promote free and fair elections and hold elected representatives to account.

He announced that BusinessDay, as part of its contributions to free and fair elections, has published list of registration areas three times free of charge, asking other media organisations to follow suit.

Babatunde Paul Ruwase, president of LCCI, said the private sector must participate in elections the more as the future of generations to come depends on it. Ruwase said the private sector has a duty to ensure good governance.

Abubakar Suleiman, executive director in charge of finance and strategy for Sterling Bank, said the private sector has created a wrong dichotomy, urging the OPS to participate actively in elections as decisions taken thereafter can make or mar their enterprises.

Sulieman urged political office holders to pay more attention to wealth creation than wealth distribution, stating that the private sector has more capacity to disseminate information and should be taken more seriously in political decision-making process.

12,712 Oyo residents expand trade with GEEP MarketMoni no-interest loans

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ver 12,000 beneficiaries from Oyo State are now counting their gains from the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) MarketMoni interest-free loans.

The Federal Government disclosed this Tuesday at the state’s Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprise (MSME) Clinic, where Vice President Yemi Osinbajo interacted with over 2,500 of the beneficiaries in Ibadan.

Speaking at the event, Osinbajo said, “The President has directed the expansion of the GEEP MarketMoni loan to accommodate the least traders.”

According to Osinbajo, It is “the hope of Mr President to broaden opportunities to every Nigerian by providing such loans such as the MarketMoni loans, TraderMoni, and the latest being theFarmerMonitoaccommodate even the least trader.”

The loan is meant for every Nigerian who is willing to work, earn a living and at the same be a partner in the ongoing efforts at resuscitating the economy, the

Vice President said.

Also speaking, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State noted the importance of MSMEs to the economy and lauded the Federal Government for its initiatives geared at bolstering the economy by empowering MSMEs. Ajimobi said, “Small business is where prosperity begins because it is the live-wire of the economy,” saying the Federal Government must be commended not only for realising this, but also in reinforcing it through their great initiatives.

Atinuke Osunkoyo, commissioner for women affairs and focal person for Social Investment Programme in Oyo State, spoke on how the programme had helped women in the state.

“GEEPMarketMoniishelping women in Oyo State provide for themselves and family members, and the state government has been an inextricable partner to thisFederalgovernmentscheme,” Osunkoyo said.

Toyin Adeniji, executive director, Financial Inclusion in Bank of Industry (Bol), said the GEEP

MarketMoni was a self-sustaining programmethathadcometostay.

“We have given out loans to thousands of people across the country. Recently we were in Edo to interact with beneficiaries, and we are doing the same today in Oyo State with over 12,000 beneficiaries.

“Between N10,000 to N100,000 is being disbursed specially for market women, traders, farmers, who are in the lower cadre of financial inclusion in the country. We have even commenced another scheme known as TraderMoni which is targeted at those in the far remote ebb of financial inclusion,” she said.

GEEP MarketMoni loans are repayable in six months with 5 percent administrative charge. To ensure that the loan instalments are paid on time and conveniently, collections begin from the third week after loans are received. Beneficiaries also enjoy a two-week grace period.

The beneficiaries at the clinic, drawn from 169 market associations, lauded the government for the initiative.

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rganised labour has slammed the Federal Government and the nation’s security chiefs over failuretohaltthemassivekillings and destruction of properties across the country.

The labour also raised moral question as who will the politicians govern if and when they win the 2019 elections, which campaigns they are engrossed in as against drastic measures to end the killings.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and United Labour Congress (ULC) in separate statements on Tuesday, in which they firmly condemned the latest attacks in Plateau State by suspected herdsmen, which claimedover200lives,saiditwas high time government took proactive measures to stem the tide.

Ayuba Wabba, NLC president, said the congress was disturbed the killings had been allowed to go on unchecked for too long.

“We are disturbed by the range of targets, the duration of these attacks and the scope of casualties and destruction.

Even in a full-scale war with another country, the statistics are numbing. Therefore, for the umpteenth time we condemn these killings in their entirety.

They are senseless and barbaric andthreatentoshatteronceand for all the bonds of brotherhood and peaceful co-existence.

‘Accordingly, our security, though stretched, must be seen to do more to restore the confidence of the civil populace.

If the emerging allegations are true that the attacks went on unchecked for hours, then somethingneedstobedoneaboutthe

reaction time of our dedicated internal security operations in the state,” Wabba said.

Joe Ajaero, president of the ULC, questioned the relevance of continued existence of government if the citizens do not feel protected and secured in their country.

“The galling reports of the slaughtering of men, women and children and the sacking of whole communities in Plateau State have left us panting for breathe and wondering whether we still have a group of people whose duty it is to ensure that lives and properties are protected.

“This mindless butchering of Nigerians is the height of the exacerbated insecurity challenge threatening our nation. It isacleardemonstrationofatotal system failure in governance at all levels in Nigeria.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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6 BUSINESS DAY NEWS

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Lagos motorists groan as community policing weakens MIKE OCHONMA

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riving through some areas in Lagos is a nightmare. Almost on a daily basis, residents of Lagos wake up to the stark realities of a highly populated city with inadequate security presence.

The situation is worsened by the high level of poverty ravaging the country, which, in effect, constantly rears its ugly head in such a metropolitan city as Lagos.

Someoftheareasthatthreaten livesofresidentsareareaswitnessing slow pace of infrastructure developments, some of which seem to have been abandoned by the contractors.

A typical example of this scenario is the Lagos-Badagry Expressway(LBE)beingreconstructed by the Lagos State government and handled by Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC).

The expansion of the 27-kilometre stretch of road into 10 lanes on both sides with accompaniment of a rail line and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was inherited by the incumbent government of Akinwunmi Ambode from the former governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola.

From the progress of work

carried out so far, the present state administration appears committedtocompletingthemassiveand capital-intensiveproject,butatthe time of filing this report, CCECC has moved out of site.

This has resulted to untold hardship for road users with its negative effect on businesses and risks to human lives in the hands of criminal elements.

These have raised issues of protection of lives and the ability of the security agencies to up their game. Upon inception of the Ambode administration, a lot of emphasis and resources were invested in the security apparatus of the state.

However, the daily ugly experiences and loss of valuables to criminals on LBE have raised vital questions as to the impact of the purported attention given to security, especially in such areas as Ojo, Badagry, Mushin, Ajegunle, Oshodi, Abule Egba, Ajah, Ikorodu, Epe, just to mention a few.

One common denominator bonding these areas is that, they are areas where majority of the poorlive.Worriedbythenefarious activities of these restive segments of the city, efforts have been made by the government to refocus and retool the security outfit.

Among other strategic moves are the provisions of logistics and otherequipmentlikethepurchase of brand new vehicles of various types and applications, power bikes, other motorised vehicles and communication equipment for use by the well-trained members of the Lagos Neighbourhood Security Corps (LNSC).

In some areas, it is yet to be seen what all these efforts and huge commitment of resources have resulted to given the rate of both recorded and unrecorded criminal activities in the state.

For instance, between the Agboju or Festac Town 2nd Gate up to the International Trade Fair Complex and Okokomaiko where reports of smashing of windscreens by criminals in the night occurs whenever there is traffic at night, the axis houses the Militarycantonment,describedas the largest in West Africa, Onireke Police station, Ojo Police Station, Trade Fair Complex police division, the PPL police and the Okokomaiko police station are all located within that corridor.

Thisisapartfromtheexistence of the Lagos Neighbourhood Security Corps (LNSC) and yet travelling home at the end of the day’s stressful job remains a nightmare.

Bayelsa loan repayment index rises to 62% - BYMEDA SAMUEL ESE, Yenagoa

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ayelsa State Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency (BYMEDA) has disclosed that loan repayment index in the state has risen to 62 percent, up from near zero when the agency was established six years ago.

Director-general of BYMEDA, Ebiekure Eradiri, said this while briefing newsmen Tuesday in Yenagoa on activities being organisedbytheagencytomarkthe2018 World SMEs Day, which comes up on June 27 with the theme, Youth Dimension.

Eradiri said though loan repaymentremainedachallenge,“itisfar better than where we are coming from where we are coming from.

The repayment culture is now 62 percent. They go to the banks themselves to pay.”

He gave the credit to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson while noting that though repayment was slow, those empowered by the agencyarerepayingtheirloans,but it also depended on the duration of such loans.

The director-general pointed out that all systems have their challenges, but stressed that “we are surmountingourchallengessaying that the agency has worked to create businesses that many thought would not thrive in the state like

manufacturing of quality tissue paper making and fruit juices.

According to Eradiri, it has led to the creation of about 4,000 businessesand8,000directandindirect jobs while disclosing that four cardinalkeysthatdeterminegranting of loans include recoverability, profitgenerationandemployment creation.

He said though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) required an irrevocable standard payment order (ISPO) for its N2 billion facility, the agency provided measures to isolate the state allocation and that the bank was satisfied with remittances so far.

On the N2 billion facility from the Bank of Industry (BoI), the director-general said the state providedamatchingN1billionand that so far, N250 million has been remitted as the agreement was to remit the money in tranches.

He disclosed further that the agencyhasreceivedfundingfromthe CBN and BoI, but that in a bid to increaseitscapacity,theagencyismakingconcertedeffortstoreceivegrants frominternationaldonoragencies.

On the ongoing public sector reforms in the state, Eradiri said the agency was packaging programmes to assist those affected to give them short training and financial assistance, and that the governor has already been briefed on the development.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Afreximbank signs $1bn programme to promote African trade MIKE OCHONMA

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frican Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding for a $1 billion financing programme to promote and expand trade and investments between South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Under the terms of the South Africa–Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme (SATIPP), Afreximbank and ECIC will work together to identify, prepare and appraise trade transactions and projects; explore co-financing and risk-sharing opportunities; and share knowledge, with particular emphasis on intra-African trade matters, through technical cooperation, staff exchange, research and joint events.

Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, said the joint initiative would support businesses through capacity building and market information initiatives and would help small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to join regional supply chains.

Oramah added that it would also provide advisory services and guarantees to South African investors seeking trade and investment opportunities in Afreximbank African member countries.

Edo seeks strong partnership with IITA on agribusiness, revamp of agric colleges ... harps on robust engagement between state, academia

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Governor Nyeson Wike of Rivers State (r) and the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Awkwright, during the commissioning of Government Girls Secondary School, Rumuokwuta by the British High Commissioner last week.

Chartered Surveyors celebrate 150 years of impact

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he Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Nigeria Group) has announced that all is set to mark its 150th anniversary.

The group says the anniversary is part of events aimed at celebrating real estate in Nigeria, quest for qualitative and sustainable impact in surveying profession.

According to the organisers, the anniversary with the theme: ‘Global trends and challenges - the future of construction’ is aimed at bringing all chartered surveyors in Nigeria and in the Diaspora together to celebrate excellence in

surveying profession. The anniversary, which is celebrated around the world by all surveyors, will be held at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lagos, June 29, 2018.

Unveiling the programme for RICS 150th anniversary at a media parley in Lagos recently, chairman, RICS (Nigeria Group), Jimmy Olayinka Omotosho, said what the group was trying to achieve was to celebrate 150th anniversary, as well as the significant contribution the surveying profession had made to local communities and wider built environment over the past 150 years.

He said: “2018 marks the 150th anniversary of RICS. In order to celebrate this milestone, we have launched initiative to highlight the achievements of the profession and demonstrate its importance to society, both in the past and future.’’

A l s o s p e a k i ng at t h e media chat, the Chairman Organising Committee for RICS 150 Anniversary, Gbenga Ismail express that the pride in the profession initiative show cases the significant and positive impact surveyors have made to society. ‘‘The initiative is a great chance for all surveyors to

promote our profession by demonstrating how varied and rewarding a surveying career can be. We are now at the dawn of another revolution, this one driven by digitisation. But by maintaining our commitment to standard during this period of change. I have no doubt that RICS will be here to serve the public for another 150 years”.

Special guests expected at the event include the British High Commission to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright MBE, real estate professionals, estate surveyors and valuers, quantity and land surveyors.

do State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has made a strong case for strengthened partnership between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the state government to increase agribusiness investments in the state and revamp the staterun colleges of agriculture.

The governor said this at the International Workshop on Water-Energy-Food Systems in sub-Saharan Africa, held at the IITA International Conference Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Tuesday.

The workshop was organised by the IITA, University of Ibadan and the Pennsylvania State University.

The governor met with a delegation of the Pennsylvania State University, to discuss on how the state government can leverage the Water-EnergyFood Systems Nexus research for development of agricultural sector in the state.

In his address, Obaseki said that it is important to establish a strong nexus among research institutes like IITA, the academia and governments, in developing the agricultural sector to impact lives and grow economies.

Noting that the Edo State government is already prepared for a post-hydrocarbon economy with focus on developing agriculture in the state, he said, “A common ground is achieved when a workshop like this is held and governments are called upon to make input.”

Obaseki added: “I like the approach of this workshop, particularly how you dimensioned the issues. There is a session for government and institutional leaders to discuss concrete steps we need to take to move forward.

“I believe that we can address the challenge of water, energy and food through the concerted efforts of stakeholders.”

In a separate meeting with the director-general, IITA, Nteranya Sanginga, Obaseki said his state is desirous of strong, lasting partnership with IITA to develop the agricultural sector, noting, “We want a very strong partnership with you to grow the agricultural sector.

We have the land, but we need people with the expertise to bring their practical experience to bear in our efforts to reposition the sector.

“We have institutions like yours and want to partner with you; this is what you do, what you are here for.”

Declaring the state’s readiness to grow the partnership with IITA, the governor noted that the state government would like to develop not less than 50,000 hectares for crops production, which will be tied to off-takers in the state.

He added: “What we need now is an actionable plan to be developed with experts from the institute, with which we can stimulate growth and deepen agribusiness investment in the state.”

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8 BUSINESS DAY NEWS Manufacturers’ borrowing rate rose to 22.8% in 2017 ODINAKA ANUDU

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anks are consistently starving Nigerian manufacturers of funds needed to retool their factories, as data show that the average borrowing rate by real sector players in 2017 was 22.8 percent.

This represents 0.4 percentage point increase from 22.4 percent recorded in 2016, latest economic review by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) shows.

The review also shows that banks’ average lending rate to manufacturers was 22.65 percent in the first half (H1) of 2017 as against 21.4 percent charged in the corresponding half of 2016.

Similarly, banks lent to manufacturers at the rate of 23.05 percent in the second half of 2017, which was almost the same figure of 23.3 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2016.

“It is important to fast track the recapitalisation of the Bank of Industry (BoI) to enable it to meet up with huge credit demands of the industrial sector,” MAN says.

“It is critical to intensify the implementation of the Moveable Collateral Registry and Credit Reporting system which were recently passed into law,” MAN says.

According to the manufacturing body, government now needs to open up access to various development funds

created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) such as the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) and the N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) by relaxing stringent conditions denying manufacturers access to these funding windows.

Nigerian manufacturers are hard hit by high cost and short tenor of funds in the country, which are clogging the wheel of factory expansion across the country. The government-led DBN is yet to start operations several months after conception.

Development banks such as the BoI and the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) provide funds at nine percent interest rate to manufacturers and SMEs, but they are hobbled by shortage of funds in the face of high demand.

Frank Jacobs, president of MAN, believes that only a single-digit rate of five percent can revive the sector, which has been badly hit by policy flip-flops and poor infrastructure.

Financial experts, however, say that it is impossible for banks to lend at rates below the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) set by the CBN. MPR, which is the benchmarklending rate, is currently at 14 percent.

Manufacturers say no country can ever attain industrial development without having specialised funding schemes that make cheap finance easily available for industries.

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Dreamworks unveils special discounts for World Cup season

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o latch on the euphoria of the ongoing 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Dreamworks Integrated Systems, distributor and retailer of laptops, desktops, phones, accessories and a wide range of work, home, kitchen gadgets and electronics, has launched a World Cup sales discount of 40 percent off on selected items from manufacturers like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Apple, Samsung, Tecno, Infinix, Nokia, Philips, X touch and many more.

The company also plans to celebrate the World Cup on social media with free airtime for every correct match prediction, at its retail stores, DWStores, located in Ikeja, Surulere and Lekki.

According to Franklin Okere, the firm’s business manager, “For 14 years, we have consistently ensured we offer best-in-class service, access to original products, and return policy and an unbeatable one-year warranty. Our end of month clearance sales also give customers access to deep discounts on trusted brands. Going the extra mile is what we do best at Dreamworks.”

Customers can also shop online for the best deals and connect on social media for more special discounts and rewards for loyal customers, he said.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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COMMENT SMALL BUSINESS HANDBOOK

EMEKA OSUJI Dr Emeka Osuji School of Management and Social Sciences Pan Atlantic University Lagos. eosuji@pau.edu.ng @Emyosuji

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ast week, we discussed the very important issue of fund gap and fund gap ratio in microfinance, especially in economies like ours, where insecurity and uncertainty have increased the challenge of survival for clients. We centralized the fact that microfinance institutions have a hard time matching their assets with their liabilities. We continue that discussion today.

For microfinance institutions, the challenge of fund gap ia an enduring one. It is a problem that won’t go away in a hurry largely because of the nature and structure of the balance sheet of most microfinance institutions. Of course, this has been compounded by the limited ability of the microfinance industry as a whole to access and mobilize adequate deposits to fund their liabilities. To a reasonable extent one could say that the industry is doing its level best, within the limits of available resources and enablement, to discharge its function of financial intermediation. However, in the area of deposit mobilization,

MUHAMMAD AJAH Muhammad Ajah is an advocate of humanity, peace and good governance in Abuja. E-mail mobahawwah@yahoo.co.uk.

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s the 2019 presidential polls in Nigeria draw nearer, speculations are going round on the chances of the aspirants. That is why I had earlier taken time to explore the opportunities for the aspirants. I also surveyed the position of the incumbent and aspiring President, Muhammadu Buhari, in relation to the media, the Nigerian traditional institution and the Church. For this very important piece, I want to quickly recall a quote by a leading member of the G7 countries and President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, while expressing deep solidarity with his Nigerian counterpart who recently visited the USA. Trump declared: “I stand with you the number one African President. I support you my fellow President. Your integrity is second to none. I am at your back in spirit, physical and in faith. Go on with your anti corruption fight against crooks in your country. I support you President Muhammadu Buhari. God is also with you. God bless our two nations”.

If there is, in the history of Nigeria, a president who has enjoyed massive support from world leaders, the president is Muhammadu Buhari. The support is not born out of hypocrisy or political bait to score a goal. Most of the leaders are giving their support to Buhari because of the “person” he

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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Forecasting the future of MFBs as DMBs deepen microfinancing (2) a lot more need be done.

Let us restate that Gap to total Assets ratio, or simply the Gap position, is calculated by dividing assets maturing (or those eligible for reprising within one year minus liabilities maturing (or eligible for reprising) within one year by total assets. Whatever the outcome of this computation, three important factor come into play. These are the average term of the loan assets and those of the liabilities of the institution as well as its expectation regarding interest rate movement.

A positive fund gap at a time when interest rate is expected to rise is a good thing because the institution will gain from reprising its assets at a new higher interest rate. The reverse is the case if interest rate is expected to fall.

The important point is that the microfinance industry should step up its game in deposit mobilization. Negative fund gap, which is a characteristic of the industry is beginning to look like a second nature to the industry. Although interest rates have been relatively stable courtesy of the Monetary Policy Committee, there is no guarantee that this stability will be there for much longer. Operators, and in particular the microfinance banks, in the country are risking their existence and future by failing to take the deposit side of the business more seriously. There is no doubt that the environment of microfinance in Nigeria has worsened compared to 2005, when the modern industry was born in Nigeria, a lot more can be achieved in the area of deposit mobilization

The entire North-east is a no-go area for microlenders.

Nor are the adjoining states better in terms of security of microloans. The fear of the unknown will prevent, even the most ambitious of private lenders, from any “financial rascality” next door to the zone of attacks

if concerted effort is made to drive deposits, especially at community and grassroots levels.

The ongoing undeclared wars in several parts of the country have shut out large portions of the population from the services of the industry. How microfinance services is reaching the most deserving people in conflict areas should be a research activity of interest to scholars of the subject.

Microfinance may be the provision of financial services to the poor but it is not open to every kind of poor person. It is only for the economically active poor people. The bulk of our economically active people are daily being shoved into Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps. They are attacked and massacred by Fulani herdsmen from outside Nigeria, who overrun and often occupy villages across the country unchallenged. If that doesn’t happen, they are displaced by the Boko Haram fighters,

who have come back more fully after the military achievements in trying to dislodge them. Both groups of terrorists seem to have gained an upper hand in recent times such that everybody is at a loss as to what to do. Effective solutions have not yet been found for the herdsmen menace. Taking land from Nigerians and handing over to foreign invaders masquerading as herdsmen to settle them in the name of ranches looks like a national sabotage. It would have been better to first confirm the true identity of these invaders before we settle them in every part of our country.

The killing of over 80 persons and burning down of over 50 houses in Plateau State last weekend, according to reports on television monitored on Sunday evening, has made a big mockery of the Plateau State Governor. It may be recalled that he was in his elements blaming his counterpart in Benue State for legislating against open grazing, which he and people like him, claimed was the reason for the killings in Benue State. Nigeria is undoubtedly in dire straits and so is microfinancing.

What could be happening to microlenders in that part of Plateau now?

The entire North-east is a no-go area for microlenders. Nor are the adjoining states better in terms of security of microloans. The fear of the unknown will prevent, even the most ambitious of private lenders, from any “financial rascality” next door to the zone of attacks. Any microlender that granted loans to members of the villages sacked over the weekend knows that something has to be done urgently. What to do

immediately the attack happened and at such a large scale is to make serious provision for the loss of the funds. They are not likely to be repaid! Once a person has ended up in such an IDP camp, he immediately ceases to be economically active and becomes ineligible to enjoy the services of a microfinance institution. Microfinancing, stricto senso, does not cater for people merely because they are poor. Only those who have something doing for a living are supported by microfinance.

This situation not only jeopardizes the chances of any service provider dealing with such persons, it also signals the loss of any facility previously committed to such a person.

The failure of microfinance institutions to assume their natural role as financiers of microenterprises and the business of the economically active poor holds the seed of the decline of the industry. This niche of financing the economically active poor is like their God-given patrimony and area of comparative advantage. It arose from the failure of the banks to serve the poor. But the banks are coming to terms with the theory of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. They are stepping up microlending and learning the ropes fast. Microfinance institutions should do all that is necessary to dominate that space and establish themselves as the most dependable source of small credit and credit services for the poor. Failure to do so is to risk handing back their oil blocks to the banks.

for pleasure, but to redeem the shattered image of Nigeria aboard. Before 2015, Nigerians were undergoing high levels of torture and inhumanity outside the country. Nigerians refused to return home upon all the hard times in foreign lands. Such countries even refused to repatriate Nigerians to Nigeria because the government did not care about its citizens outside the country or the countries had some kind of sympathy and refused to return them to hopelessness. It is not so again.

The United Kingdom High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, once declared that neither his country nor any other Western nation was against a second term by President Buhari. This was in reaction to media speculations that the Western world had a deal to prevail on Buhari not to contest the 2019 presidential election.

“I am very happy to put that rumour to bed. The United Kingdom supports a process whereby the people of Nigeria can exercise their democratic right to vote,” he told Premium Times, insisting that UK will maintain neutrality but support credibility amongst the Presidential hopefuls. He wants Nigerians to play gainfully in the democratic process; so much that they should get their PVCs and vote with their conscience and not for the United Kingdom government.

However, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, praised Buhari on his effort in the global fight against terrorism, anti-corruption in Nigeria and sustenance of democracy.

What more! What this stands for will manifest at last. Imagine Buhari’s concern when he meets any of the world leaders. While politicians are preoccupied with the forthcoming general elections, his is about the security of Nigerians and the growth of the Nigerian economy. That is evident in his leadership style of not being interested in wasting public funds on campaign and buying of votes. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, campaigns for political offices have not heated up only six months to the 2019 general elections.

This is a credit to the Buhari’s good leadership. It has never been heard of in Nigeria.

As for the German Chancellor, Angela Markel, Buhari’s support and cooperation in addressing the migration crisis affecting the European Union was required. This requires stability of Nigeria’s government and a focused leadership.

State House correspondent Adamu Sambo reported that Markel’s position was made at a bilateral meeting between the two leaders on the margins of the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan, the Côte d’Ivoire capital.

This was reinforcement of the support received by Buhari during his visit to Germany.

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2019: Buhari and world leaders is. Yes, world leaders play politics of the highest order as they have played with Nigeria which they knew had been played with by the past Nigerian leaders and her political echelon. Now, they know Nigeria is led by a serious-minded, corrupt-free and highly-spirited patriotic citizen who wants to make great human and positive impact on Nigeria and Africa at large. In a modest expression, the difference is clear.

Moreover, no Nigerian president has received sincere worldwide accolade than Buhari. History is a record and can be recalled for verification. This is because of Buhari’s caliber and “self”. I need not say more here because the clarity between Buhari and other past leaders is simply remarkable.

World leaders, unlike those of Nigeria and by extension a lot of Africans, believe in integrity, humanity and freedom, amidst political gimmick and gambling. They believe in dedication to duty, public trust and general welfareism. Though theirs is to protect their sovereign security, economy and good governance, they detest to a large extent any governance that allows corruption, terrorism, inhumanity and callosity.

These were Nigeria’s attributes in the past. It is not the flow of free cash that determines the success of a good leadership or government, but the institutionalization of a workable system for posterity.

For instance, people were worried of President Trump’s declara-

tions against Muslims and Africans during his campaigns and after swearing-in. But he is changing, knowing the complexity of the world which cannot be claimed by one race, religion or political ideology. Leading the world of today, he is very comfortable with Buhari’s policies and grand-style of governance. Trump has promised to visit Nigeria, a very strong signal of support to Buhari’s administration. In addition, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, looks onto Nigeria administration with admiration. While receiving foreign envoys to his country recently including that of Nigeria, Professor Steve Davies Ugba, he expressed special interest in broadening ties with Nigeria. “We very much appreciate our relations with Nigeria, an important partner for us on the African continent. We support the expansion of mutually beneficial Russian-Nigerian ties”.

The world leaders know that Buhari cannot plan to kill his people whom he toils to protect and uplift. They know those behind the killings in Nigeria.

They know those creating confusion in order to derail Buhari from his laudable plans for Nigerians. Just like Femi Adesina puts it, there are the true herders and farmers who have been clashing from time immemorial and there have been hidden hostile hands who have crept in under that umbrella to play the most irresponsible politics. I call it politics of inferiority complex and acceptance of defeat.

Since he took-over the leadership of Nigeria, Buhari has traversed the length and breathe of the world, definitely not

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Let’s get involved

OMAGBITSE BARROW FCA Omagbitse is an Abuja-based Strategy and Innovation Consultant. gbitse@gmail.com @gbitsebarrow

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igeria’s literary icon Chinua Achebe in his classic book “An Image of Africa” written in 1983 shares these provoking thoughts on Nigeria “…

Whenever two Nigerians meet, their conversation will sooner or later slide into a litany of our national deficiencies. The “trouble with Nigeria” has become the subject of our small talk in much the same way that the “weather” is for the English. But there is a great danger in consigning a life and death issue to small talk.

National bad habits are a serious matter, we resign ourselves to them at our own peril”.

I have spent the last fifteen years of my adult life building organizations, building people and trying very hard to build a good life for myself and my family. In these years I have written over 100 newspaper articles, posted and made an uncountable number of comments on

INWALOMHE DONALD Inwalomhe Donald writes from Benin City inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com

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he African Development Bank (AfDB) has hailed the Rauf Aregbesola administration in Osun State for economically developing the state through the implementation of its people-oriented policies and programmes.

The AfDB scored the state high on its social investment programmes.

It described the programmes as most laudable, impactful and commendable in the democratic history of the country.

The leadership of the AfDB, led by its Country Director, Mr Ebrima Faal, gave the commendation during a visit to Governor Aregbesola at Government House in Osogbo, the state capital.

Faal lauded the state’s Six-ýPoint Integral Action Plan, which he said was in line with the organisation’s objectives.

He said: “We are here to commend the state government for being committed to human and capital development as we have seen the positive impacts made in the lives of the citizens.

“We have seen the wonderful works going on across the state, particularly the massive infrastructural development and the efforts the state is making to turn around the economic fortunes of the state.

“We are enthused to be here to express our commitment to support the state in some critical areas of interest, in line with our primary objective, to stimulate the economy of our people in the continent.

social media, spoken on scores of TV and radio programs, delivered seminars and workshops to tens of thousands of people, written books and engaged my fellow Nigerians on how we can all work together to make Nigeria better, but I have come to the awful conclusion that in all this time, my life and my businesses have prospered, but I cannot really say the same about Nigeria.

The problem of Nigeria still persists.

Ingo Walters, a Professor of Economics at New York University once commented about Nigeria and I para-phrase – The Nigerian people keep shooting themselves in the foot because of the type of leaders they have… The Nigerian renaissance will take place, but only when forward-thinking Nigerians decide to act and do something about their country. Rather than act, we talk, especially on social media, and with due respect, it seems that all we achieve most times is whining and complaining that doesn’t really move the needle of change.

Clearly the biggest challenge to the Nigerian renaissance lies in the fact that forward-thinking Nigerians are too busy trying to build their own private empires and get out of the cycle of poverty so that they can live a better life and are not interested in getting involved in the process of determining who leads them across all levels or even getting involved in vying for political office itself. The

My clarion call is to all Nigerians who believe that they are forward-thinking (regardless of their tribe, religion, social or economic status) and are truly desirous of a better nation and a better society for ourselves and our children result – we will continue to get the third-rate leaders that we deserve, and in spite of the personal progress we make, we will not make much progress as a society, because inevitably – the fish rots from the head.

Rev. Fr George Ehusani, in an article written in the build-up to the 2003 Elections asked the following critical questions which unfortunately are still relevant and remain largely unanswered by the forward-thinking people of Nigeria till today, a good 15 years later: Who are the aspirants to political office this time around? What are their antecedents? What kind of people were they in private life or public office? How have they performed in the various positions of responsibility they have held in the past? What measure of patriotism and sense of service have they demonstrated in their previous outings? What is their

understanding of the common good?

How do they hope to meet the challenge of national reconciliation and economic rejuvenation?

My clarion call is to all Nigerians who believe that they are forwardthinking (regardless of their tribe, religion, social or economic status) and are truly desirous of a better nation and a better society for ourselves and our children. To all those who are truly fed-up with the status quo, including those who have benefitted from the Nigerian-factor, and those who may have even been neck-deep in perpetuating it and have decided to turn over a new leaf. I am challenging us to be audacious and do something beyond complaining and allowing a handful of overexperienced politicians and their thugs to hold us to perpetual ransom.

It requires a number of philosophical paradigm shifts and specific actions including the following: Firstly, we must all recognize and believe that Nigeria can only get better when we the forwardthinking Nigerians decide to do things differently. Building on this we can’t just keep writing, talking, posting, on social media and then sleeping it out on election day because we do not care. We need to secondly – participate actively in the electoral and political process – join political parties of forward-thinking Nigerians who offer alternatives to the over-experienced establishment

parties and get involved in selecting and grooming leaders. Thirdly, we must, as Fr Ehusani has suggested, select candidates that are ready to be disruptive, make a difference and add value. Also, we must begin to focus and “play” politics on the real issues, and get beyond ethnicity, religion and money politics. We should stop getting impressed by candidates promising roads, power and hospitals (which my 12-year-old daughter can achieve) and begin to challenge our leaders to deal with the “soft” infrastructure issues of valuereorientation, human capital development and building strong institutions which Bill Gates spoke about in his last visit to the country. Finally, we should be audacious – do something and do the right thing. Kwame Nkrumah once said – “Seek ye first the Political Kingdom and Everything else will be added unto you”.

Forward-thinking Nigerians need to understand that until we have more Forward-Thinking politicians, all our efforts in social, business and even in our faith communities will never take us to the promised land. I have decided to get involved and I urge all forward-thinking Nigerians to take these steps I have outlined to get involved. It’s the only way that things will ever really change in this country of ours. #Let’sgetinvolved.

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Osun social security programmes: The verdict from African Development Bank Osun government has done so much to make life meaningful and abundant for the citizens just as we have made direct investment on the people to the tune of billions.

The social investment was done through initiatives such as Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O’YES), Osun School Feeding and Health Programme (O’MEAL), Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (O’REAP) and Osun Ambulance services.

Governor Aregbesola of Osun State has human-centric vision of the future of work that recognizes people’s knowledge, talents, creativity and skills as key drivers of a prosperous and inclusive economy.

The Governor has set aside not less than 26% of Osun budget for education and 16% for health according to United Nations mandate. The budget to GDP has not be less than 5%. Aregbesola has operated an investment budget in the past 7 years in Osun.

Aregbesola believes in investing in human capital which is necessary but not sufficient for sustainable development. Aregbesola has strengthened the two pillars of human capital — education and health — which turn populations into the skilled workforces needed to make them the greatest assets for their countries, these efforts mean little without a conducive policy framework for people to reach their full potential.

For instance, people living in fear for their lives, without access to the internet, or without freedoms to voice their opinions will not be able to take responsibility to shape their lives and impact their communities.

Aregbesola has at different for a highlighted the importance of in-

vesting in education and health with special focus on power structures.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Bill Gates and World Bank have highlighted the urgent and critical importance of investing more and more efficiently in people to prepare countries for the economy of the future. They have highlighted the powerful link between investments and economic growth, stability and security. Shining a spotlight on human capital as a project for the world, they have highlighted the need to propel investments in people to the forefront of national and global agenda.

UNICEF had led top government officials drawn from 17 states in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria to Osun for a four-day learning tour of its various social investment programmes and building human capital.

Consequently, Osun developmental programmes have also impacted on the socio-economic profile of the state as reported by reputable institutions. In 2015, The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) rated Osun 2nd Highest in Human Development Index among the 36 states in the Country.

Governor Aregbesola has maximized finance for development, build human capital, and promote stability and security around Osun State.

In Osun, Aregbesola has provided a unique opportunity to build on his new social security system as Osun takes the lead and responsibility for benefits that previously none existed.

Aregbesola has seized the opportunity and as Osun’s Social Security Governor, he is taking a fundamentally different approach to advance human capital development and revolutionalized social security in Nigeria. A land-

mark Social Security system has been enshrined in the principles of dignity and respect in law and with social security recognised as a basic human right. In line with World Bank advice, Aregbesola maintained that his administration focused on the sixpoint integral action plan which has over the years made his government to focus on social security areas through schemes such as the O-YES, O-MEALS,O-AMBULANCE the welfare scheme for the aged among others. He has provided succour to huge number of youths that hitherto had no hope. He set up Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) and under the scheme, he brought in volunteers to help their communities in social works such as clearing the drainages, removing refuse, feeding the pupils and directing traffic where such was necessary, among others. And he has engaged through this scheme 40,000 youths and from that, he was able to remove extreme poverty in Osun. It is through this that many programmes such as Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme emerged.

Thousands of pupils are fed on every school day while the state recruited thousands of young women as food vendors discharging the responsibility of cooking and serving the pupils in all the government elementary schools delicious and salubrious meals. He has also invested hugely on school infrastructure as this initiative brings about the successes with which he has recorded massive school infrastructure development.

Osun School Feeding and Health Programme, O’MEAL. Formerly known as Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFP),

OMEAL’s capacity has been strengthened under this administration to accommodate more beneficiaries. And, as at December 2016, the state government has spent more than N10billion to provide over-200 million plates of highly nutritious meals to pupils in its Elementary Schools across the state.

In Osun, there are varieties of activities on Social Protection that have galvanised and driven the administration more rigorously. Prominent among them is Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme. (OYES), which is a radical, robust, market-development and character-building programme put in place by the government to tackle the annoying scourge of unemployment among our youths. Apolitical in concept and all-embracing in process, the Omoluabi ethos-inclined scheme succeeded in mopping up more than 40,000 youths off our streets for productive engagement.

One major achievement of the scheme is the eradication of avoidable diseases among the school pupils.

For instance, before this administration came to power, it was discovered that eight out of every 10 students had scurvy, but that has disappeared with the advent of OMEAL. Also, the scheme has never recorded any incidence of contamination or food poisoning since inception. Added to this is the reduction in unemployment through the absorption and empowerment of over 3,000 community caterers.

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EDITORIAL PUBLISHER/CEO

Frank Aigbogun

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Prof. Onwuchekwa Jemie EDITOR Anthony Osae-Brown DEPUTY EDITORS John Osadolor, Abuja Bill Okonedo NEWS EDITOR Patrick Atuanya EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SALES AND MARKETING Kola Garuba EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SERVICES Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Adeola Ajewole MANAGER, SYSTEMS & CONTROL Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Patrick Ijegbai CIRCULATION MANAGER John Okpaire GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

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

These killings have gone too far Mr President Continued from front page

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he first question that easily comes to mind is where were the security agencies when up to 86 defenceless Nigerians were being killed in cold blood on a hot afternoon? How is it possible that a group of armed people could go around three different local government areas killing Nigerians without any of the security agencies intervening?

Instead, a day after the attacks, the police goes into the bush to pick up the dead of a massacre that they should have stopped from happening. What has happened to our intelligence services that they could not see this coming? Planning a massacre is not spontaneous?

As the ritual goes, President Buhari has issued the usual regrets about the killings and also issued the usual assurance that “no efforts will be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice, and prevent a recurrence/ reprisal attacks.” And that “The President and the entire Federal Government stand with the Government and people of Plateau at this sad time.”

It is important that Mr Presi-

dent knows that the dead do not care about “assurance.” What they needed was protection from untimely and painful death. The President should sit back a little and imagine how his fellow unarmed Nigerians who may have even voted for him in the last elections were hunted like animals and killed like animals. He should sit back and imagine that the number of children that were hunted and killed in the presence of their parents and guardians and then the parents themselves killed.

Then he should ask himself, where were the security men that he deployed to protect these people as ‘Commander in Chief” of Nigeria’s armed forces? No amount of assurance is good enough for those who are dead. No amount of presidential regrets is good enough for those who woke up this morning without their loved ones, many of whom were bread winners in their families.

President Buhari has failed and continues to fail in his responsibility to protect Nigerians.

And this is mainly because he has failed to hold the security agencies accountable for these killings which are becoming endless. Not one head of a security agency has lost his job because of these

killings. Instead the heads of the security agencies have been made secure in their incompetency.

Even when the Inspector-General of Police had the audacity to disobey presidential orders to move to Benue, he was never punished.

He moved on to disobey summons from the National Assembly and remain secure in his position.

The heads of the army have been rewarded with extension of their tenures despite the insecurity in the country. Not even the quarrel among the security agencies, which have led them to operate in silos, to the detriment of the country’s overall security architecture, has moved the president to act. The president has shown a high level of disinterest in getting the security architecture of the country to work for Nigerians. The country is paying a high price for this disinterest.

Now it is not clear how many more killings will wake up Mr President from his slumber.

Where is the fabled General Buhari who was supposed to end the country’s insecurity nightmares, Nigerians are asking? The killing of a single Nigerian is painful. But the killing of 86 in a single day is nightmare that should wake up our president.

Once more, as we have said

before, if the president cannot handle the responsibility of protecting Nigerians, he should do the honourable thing and resign from his position. In a situation like this, he should not even be seen talking about a second term.

We know these killings did not start today. But then President Buhari was voted in to stop them from ever happening again. And yes, three years is enough to have stopped these killings in the magnitudes that they are happening. Even more disheartening is the fact that there seems to be no clear strategy to ensure that these killings stop. The president has to take a second look at the security architecture of the country. Should the state governors be given more control over the security agents in their states?

He must take a look at those he has given direct responsibility to improve the security situation in the country and ask if they are doing their job? The president would be measured by his legacy at the end of the day. Right now the legacy on security is looking very RED with the blood of the hundreds of Nigerians dead today who should not be. And security was supposed to be one of President Buhari’s strongest points.

Sadly the record does not say so.

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

DAY

BUSINESS

COMPANIES & MARKETS

13

Dangote Flour’s return to profitability excites’ shareholders

Pg. 14

C O M PA N Y N E W S A N A LY S I S A N D I N S I G H T

NEM Insurance intensifies acquisition plan for life business …targets 2018 for conclusion MODESTUS ANAESORONYE

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on-life underwriting firm, NEM Insurance Plc is firming up arrangements to acquire a life insurance company, as part of plans to increase its market share in the nation’s insurance sector.

The company is also intensifying efforts to increase its capital by N1 billion to enable it accommodate more big ticket risks as a leader in the industry.

Fidelis Ayebae, chairman of the Company made the disclosure at its Annual General Meeting held in Ibadan, the Oyo State Capital.

Ayebae said “as mentioned in my report of last year, we intended acquiring a life business in 2017 but were unable to achieve same due to the huge liabilities of the various available life companies we assessed. Since NAICOM is yet to start issuance of life insurance business certificate, the search for the acquisition of a life insurance company, with less liability shall continue in year 2018. In addition, the quest for increased capital shall be intensified.”

On the financials for the year ended 31st December 2017, the Company recorded a gross premium of N13.4 billion against N10.8 billion in 2016 resulting to an increase of 24.7 percent. Net premium earned had an increase of 15.2 percent to N9.8 billion as against N8.5 billion the previous years.

The company also saw an increase of 48.1 percent in investment income to N709.9 million in 2017 over that of 2016 of N479.5 million.

Profits before Tax (PAT) for the period under review for the Group and Parent Company were N3.09 billion and N3.08 billion; with increases of 44.2% and 41.0% respectively. The PBT figures for 2016 for the Group and Parent Company were N2.15 billion and N2.19 billion respectively.

The insurer also recorded impressive performances in its financial assets and total assets as both appreciated 47.7 percent and 21.2 percent for both the group and parent company over the preceding year; while improvements of 31.6 percent and 31.3 percent were recorded in total equity for the group and parent company respectively.

Earnings per share for the

group during the year under review was 53 kobo; while that of the preceding year was 34 kobo; an increase of 52.7 percent. The EPS of the parent company was 52 kobo, an increase of 49. 5 percent, over that of the preceding year

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE & AGNES

B

anking industry reported more fraud cases as it lost a total of N12.30 billion to various frauds between 2014 and 2017. In terms of volume, the sector recoded 41,461 fraud cases during the year under review.

The breakdown of the fraud report shows that fraud volume stood at 1,461 in 2014, 10,743 in 2015, 19,531 in 2016 and 25,043 in 2017.

Attempted fraud in value terms was N7.75 billion in 2014, N4.37 billion in 2015, N4.36 billion in 2016 and N4.03 billion in 2017. Actual loss recorded was N6.21 billion in 2014, N2.25 billion in 2015, N2.19 billion in 2016 and N1.63 billion in 2017.

Adebisi Shonubi, managing director/CEO, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) disclosed this last

Tope Smart reaffirmed that despite the challenging competitive operating environment, the company’s focus on the industry leadership remained unwavering.

“One of the ways we are doing this is brand differen-

L-R: Folake Odegbami, safety health and environment manager, Unilever Ghana and Nigeria; Antonio Ayodele, general manager, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA); Ayodele Alabi, sustainable business manager, Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, and Olayinka Omotosho, head, ecology and conservation, LASEPA, at the presentation of LASEPA ‘Most Green Company’ award to Unilever Nigeria in commemoration of 2018 World Environment Day in Lagos.

Fraud in banking sector up 28% in four years week disclosed this at the third Annual Banking Security Summit organised by MAXUT Consulting in partnership with OneSpan, global data Security Company in Lagos.

Shonubi, who spoke on “Industry fraud overview with focus on mobile and payments related frauds”, said the industry lost N6.22 billion in 2014 on attempted fraud value of N7.76 billion.

Represented by Olufemi Fadairo, head, industry security services, he said that the sum of N2.26 billion was lost in 2015 on attempted fraud value of N4.37 billion in 2015.

According to Shonubi more fraud cases were reported in 2017, with an increase of 28 per cent when compared with 2016 but with less financial loss.

Gender fraud analysis during the period showed male accounted for 73 per cent, while female accounted for 23 per cent.

which was 35 kobo.

From the result, the shareholders got a dividend of 10 kobo, 25 percent increase from 8 kobo paid in the previous year.

Speaking further the Group Managing Director,

Automated Teller Machine (ATM) accounted for the highest fraud in 2017 with an actual loss of N497.64 million and a fraud volume of 9,823.

Speaking at the event Mike Odusami, CEO/President MAXUT consulting said that the summit was geared towards making the financial system safer for people to have trust in the system.

“Our solution as a technology company is really about fraud prevention and making sure that this is the person the bank authorizes because most of the transactions are not physical, they are done through electronic channels, and also in the background we are monitoring everything that is going on in the system”, he said.

He added that the company was committed to making the banking system safer for people to have confidence in the system.

tiation. We have continued to delight our numerous customers by providing them with unparalleled services and solutions thereby consolidating our position with them.”

“Our service delivery mechanism, which is anchored on our core values of humility, integrity, discipline, excellence, empathy and courage (HIDEEC) has helped us in no small measure in our brand differentiation initiative.

“Our associate in Ghana.

RegencyNem Insurance Ghana Limited is riding on the synergy of the merger as the company is presently making waves in the Ghanaian insurance industry, and is set to contribute significantly to our bottom line in the years ahead.”

On review of its performance, he said:”Our profit after tax increased from N1.8billion in 2016 to N2.8billion in 2017, an increase of 53percent. Our shareholders fund which stood at N7.4billion in 2016 appreciated to N9.7billion in 2017; representing 32 percent increase. Our balance sheet also has remained very healthy.”

Cameroon Airlines returns to Lagos-Douala route IFEOMA OKEKE

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ameroon Airlines Corporation (Camair-Co) has resumed flights to Lagos Nigeria, starting 23rd June 2018 when the Cameroonian flag carrier arrived from Douala after some years of absence from the route.

At welcoming ceremony at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ekorong Dong, the consul general of Cameroon in Lagos, expressed delight to see Camair-Co back to the economic route of Douala-Lagos, “Today we are witnessing together a new benchmark, a new landmark between Nigeria and Cameroon.”

Th e C o n su l G e n e ra l

added that the presence of Camair-Co in Nigeria would further enhance the relationship between the two countries, “this will boost the trade, commercial and social-cultural events between our countries.”

Agnes Ndikum, Camair-Co Nigeria Country Manager, reinstated the determination of the airline to continuously serve the Lagos-Doula route.

“Let me state here that Camair-Co is finally here to stay and provide quality air travel between Nigeria and Cameroon. We appreciate the efforts of APG Nigeria, our General Sales Agent (GSA) for their continuous support in making this relaunch of the Lagos-Doula route a reality,” Agnes emphasised.

According to Chike

Ohiagu, Nigeria General Manager, Camair-Co GSA, said, “the airline is here to stay. We are determined to make sure the airline seats are full and profitable.”

Also speaking at the event, Kono Bihina Constant, the aircraft pilot, mentioned he is delighted to return to Nigeria after a long while.

According to the Pilot, “We haven’t flown into Nigeria for a long time. Nigeria is so advance when it comes to aviation, and we are very pleased to be back here. Camair-Co is working so hard round the clock to ensure travellers rely on our airline and not to go elsewhere.”

Camair-Co is scheduled to operate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with a Boeing B737 between Douala and Lagos.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS Dangote Flour’s return to profitability excites’ shareholders

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hareholders of Dangote Flour Mills Plc has commended the company’s management for returning profitability and the subsequent payment of dividends.

Speaking in Lagos at the company’s annual general meeting for the financial year ended December 31 2017, they noted that the board and management performed creditably well within the period, which enhanced profitability and returned it to dividend paying.

Nona Awoh, a shareholder rights activist, in his remarks congratulated the board and management of Dangote Flour Mills for returning the company to dividend payment after years’ of no-dividend declaration as a result of losses.

He said that the management of Dangote Flour Mills in the review period achieved cost reduction through prudent and efficient use of resources which positively reflected in its earnings, profitability and dividend payment. Cost reductions, he opined impacted on the margins and tasked the management to continue with the trend.

Another shareholder, Adeleke Olajimeji impressed by the performance of the

company in the period under consideration described the financials as the best of its kind in many years.

He counseled the management to be more proactive in terms of marketing and branding by ensuring that the company’s brand is visible through the nation.

Sotunde Shopeju, a veteran shareholder activist, lauded the board and management for retuning the company to profitability and declaration of dividends, which he said will enhance the welfare and wellbeing of shareholders. He stated that with the declaration of dividends, shareholders’ hope and expectations have been met as they will now begin to gain from the proceeds of their investments.

Bisi Bakare, in her remakes said shareholders invest in shares with the expectation of receiving dividends, therefore the declaration and payment of dividends by Dangote Flour Mills is exciting and commendable.

Responding, Chairman, Board of Directors, Dangote Flour Mills, Asue Ighodalo thanked all the shareholders for appreciating the efforts of the company’s management towards producing better returns.

Advancing reasons for the impressive run in the

period under review, Ighodalo said the company management would not rest on its oars but “will continue to develop strategies to harness opportunities occasioned by improvements in economic indices while mitigating the adverse effective of the continued and emerging threats to the performance and growth of our business” He promised that the company will embark on aggressive marketing and branding campaign to ensure that the brand is visible throughout the nation.

A review of the company’s annual report and account presented at the AGM indicated that turnover rose by 18.6 percent from N102.7 billion to N125.4 billion.

Profit after tax was on the upward swing, increasing by 43.1 percent, from N10.5 billion to N15.1 billion. The company completely extinguished all of the accumulated losses of prior years which enabled to declare dividends.

According to the annual reports and account, the company’s flagship division, Dangote Flour, continued to leverage on the improved sales and operational capabilities during the period to deliver outstanding performance. Sales volumes increased by 29.2 percent.

Business Event

L-R: David Isiavwe, 2nd vice chairman , Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN); Yinka Tiamiyu, chairman, ACAEBIN; Charles Kie, managing director, Ecobank Nigeria, and Felix Igbinosa, treasurer, ACAEBIN/ chief auditor, Ecobank Nigeria, at the 39TH quarterly general meeting of ACAEBIN in Lagos

L-R: Abraham Ogbodo, editor, Guardian Newspapers; Victor Okoronkwo, senior vice president, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Limited receiving Guardian Oil and Gas Company of the Year award from Wale Omole, chairman, editorial board, Guardian Newspapers at the the Guardian Oil & Gas Roundtable and Awards 2018 in Lagos.

Hollandia Soya Milk unveils new sachet packs

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n an attempt to meet the needs of consumers, Hollandia Soya Milk from the stable of Chi Limited has introduced a new 100mL convenient pack which retails at N50. While offering the nutritious benefits of soya milk, the new Hollandia Soya Milk 100mL sachet pack, according to the company proves to be an innovative way to deliver value by making the product more affordable and accessible.

“Evident in the 100mL sachet pack design is the brand’s traditional strong blue colour combination along with an assortment of small icons that typify various sporting activities – an effort by the brand to resonate with health conscious

consumers keen on a daily nutritional soya milk drink for an active lifestyle and healthy hearts devoid of cholesterol build up”.

Endorsed by the Nutrition Society of Nigeria as a healthy drink, Hollandia Soya Milk, the company said is cholesterol free and a powerhouse of Protein, Calcium, Vitamins A, C & D. “At N50, the new Hollandia Soya Milk 100ml sachet pack offers competitive pricing and walks the fine line of making a high quality product, affordable and valuable”.

In a statement, a nutritionist, Temi Obiaya said soya milk comes recommended because it not only offers nourishment but naturally helps lower cholesterol levels in the

body to keep the heart healthy.

“Soya milk possesses a lot of nutritional benefits; hence, it is important that more and more people begin to embrace soya milk as a dairy alternative.

With very few brands seeing the value in providing soya milk as a product offering, I have come to cherish Hollandia Soya Milk not only for its zero cholesterol, but also its smooth texture and delicious taste,” she said.

Chi Limited’s Managing Director, Deepanjan Roy, stated that the rationale behind introducing the Hollandia Soya Milk 100mL sachet pack was to create a consumer culture of taking soya milk by making it more affordable and accessible.

L-R: Amina Abdulmalik, programme coordinator, Spelling Bee Competition; Ekuma Eze, regional public affairs manager, East and Central, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited; Bobbo Aishatu, overall winner, Spelling Bee Competition, and Zainab Haruna, chief executive officer, DACIPHER Solution, during the spelling bee competition held in Abuja.

L-R: Akin Doherty, member, board of director, Lasaco Assurance Plc; Gertrude Olutekunbi, company secretary; Aderinola Disu, chairman; Segun Balogun, managing director, and Akin Odusami at the 38th annual general meeting of Lasaco Assurance Plc in Lagos.

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

Leadership SHAPING PEOPLE INTO A TEAM

When did the US stop seeing teachers as professionals?

Robert Bruno is a professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is also director of the university’s Labor Education Program and of the Project for Middle-Class Renewal. merican teachers have had enough. Since March, schools in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina have either been shut down or turned into sites of resistance.

Poor pay, increased health care costs and diminished pension plans are certainly core issues — teachers in Oklahoma, for example, haven’t received a pay boost in a decade. But these problems alone aren’t driving the protests. In every state where teachers have recently gone on strike, demands for increased school funding have been made.

Teachers are seeing their own experience being devalued by policymakers and other officials with little experience in the education field, and it’s not improving the education of their students. In other words, teachers are balking at the erosion of their status as professionals. In fact, it’s precisely because of their sense of professionalism that teachers are driven to an agonizing decision to withhold their labor. Teachers see themselves and their students being treated as fungible costs of production, cogs in a bureaucratic machine.

To them, nothing less than the education profession is at risk.

fessionalism requires at a given moment in time.

This means that a teacher’s classroom experiences are what ultimately create the boundaries for what it means to be a professional.

This professionalism does not rely on consultant-developed tests to measure student competency, but instead uses teacher-constructed assessments oriented to the subjects being taught. Instead of standardized curricula and lesson plans, teachers have the freedom to determine the best course to help each child acquire the necessary learning abilities. The time needed to cover subject content corresponds to each learner’s capacity and not an arbitrary schedule demanding that every child masters everything at the same moment. A contextualized professionalism would have teachers teach children, not a curriculum.

A

WHAT IS PROFESSIONALISM EXACTLY? While there are varying definitions and disagreements among sociologists, a set of criteria put forth

by Mirko Noordegraaf, a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, is helpful. The starting point, he says, is “typically an emphasis on ‘good work’ and the social mechanisms for accomplishing this.” He further stresses that a “professional does not merely work; he/she has to be educated and trained, (socialized) as [a] member of an occupational domain, supervised by his/her peers and held accountable.” Noordegraaf then acknowledges an element of professionalism that serves as the

locus of historical and contemporary struggle for teachers: “Professionals succeed in realizing so-called professional control: They control themselves.”

Teaching, like pastoring, is often a “calling.” So it stands to reason that teachers themselves would be the appropriate people to define the best “educational practices, entrance routes, credentialing requirements, continuing training options, codes of conduct and methods of enforcement.”

Except today, they’re not. A form of the classical structural-functionalist theory of professionalism prevails. This sociological view, first formulated by Talcott Parsons, holds that a profession is a static thing with attributes that apply without exception. Here, professionalism is a skill that can be practiced and learned over time, by anyone, with success and failure measured based on an agreed-upon objective standard. The recent history of the teaching profession helps explain why this version has come to dominate.

WHEN TEACHING BECAME “AUTOMATED” In 1983, President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education published “A

Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform,” a much debated and often mischaracterized call to arms. The authors sent a clear distress signal: “We report to the American people that ... the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.”

It was then that a belief in external controls began influencing the industry. In this view, an independent and external body best regulates teachers, in which teachers are part of an accountable and efficient production system. Schools needed to function more like businesses and successfully compete for students. To this end, teachers’ work has subsequently been the subject of major restructuring over the past three decades.

Teachers are increasingly directed to follow a mandated curriculum, abide by grade-level or school-district units of study and follow predetermined lesson plans.

Teaching now looks more like automation then imagination. Creativity is squeezed out and autonomy suppressed. This all occurs in an environment where teachers need higher skills — many are required to have advanced degrees and numerous certifications — and are asked

to do more with less. In addition to being under pressure to meet or exceed standardized performance indicators, teachers suffer from an intensification of work. They work over 60 hours a week, are in near-constant communication with parents and must collect copious amounts of student data, among many other administrative and technological tasks.

Stagnant job growth in the industry has also led to increased class sizes.

In other words, teachers are asked to work harder and longer with a growing number of students, while also being told to adhere to an education plan that they have little control over.

ANOTHER THEORY OF PROFESSIONALISM Yes, teachers need to be paid more and have better health benefits. But U.S. policymakers need to understand the kind of professionalism that teachers are demanding, too.

The professionalism practiced by teachers recognizes and prioritizes contextuality. Professionalism is not merely a collection of traits or individual competencies that can be mastered — it can’t be, because these traits and skills are constantly changing depending on the context.

In other words, teachers recognize that the school environment and children’s needs dictate what pro-

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WHAT’S AT STAKE With today’s protests, public school teachers are pushing back harder than ever against rigid definitions of professionalism. They are offering their own student-centered approach, combining training, context, flexibility and a lifelong commitment to children and society.

But the failure of elected officials and school boards to recognize a teacher-constructed professionalism is an invitation to endless conflict. This battle has implications for who sets educational policy and who gets to decide the future of public education. The outcome of that struggle will assuredly determine the quality of America’s schools and, subsequently, the strength of the country’s democracy.

In the meantime, if the education profession continues to degrade, teachers will do what they know best and what their professional responsibility demands. Whether they’re in the classroom or picketing, they will protect their children. So while teachers have been forced to listen to the corporate version of professionalism for decades, they’re making their voices heard on the streets.

Why? Because the non-educators outside of the school have stopped listening to the version cherished by teachers.

Politics & Policy

I am ready to take the mantle of leadership - Balewa 18

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2019: Ex-Benue speaker, others endorse Markafi for President BENJAMIN AGESAN, Makurdi

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ormer Governor of Kaduna State and former chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, has garnered more political advantage as more people have thrown their weight behind his quest to become the president of Nigeria in 2019.

Former Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly Dave Iorhemba, a governorship aspirant has described Makarfi as a good non–Fulani man and a crisis manager who uses resources prudently.

“When Makarfi was finance commissioner in Kaduna state, he performed well and took care of all minorities in his state. When he became the Executive Governor of Kaduna state, he worked tremendously and resisted the temptation of sharia in Kaduna state”, he emphasized.

Based on the foregoing outstanding leadership qualities of

Makarfi

Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Iorhemba was optimistic that if given the mandate, he (Makarfi) would not disappoint the masses.

The former speaker added that Makarfi has been a friend of Benue

people for a long time having identified with them when the flood affected Benue state in 2012 by giving them relief materials.

“Also, when Benue was engulfed

by Fulani uprising, Makarfi came

to the aid of Benue people as such supporting him is unfailingly, he stated.

Speaking on behalf zone ‘A’ a political unit in Benue state, Aker Gajir stressed that, Makarfi stood still for the party not to die. “If PDP had died, some of its members in Benue state would have died with it. But Makarfi avoided it as such, our votes are for him”, he explained.

Cletus Upaa on behalf of PDP zone ‘B’ said, they needed a strong candidate like Makarfi so that his opponents would lack the credentials to compete with him.

Austine Owodi from zone ‘C’ said, Makarfi deserves their votes because he stood still for the survival of the Party.

Abeji Egwa, PDP woman leader in Benue state, who described Makarfi as a man of integrity, said women will continue to hold onto him in high esteem because he refused to sell PDP. Meanwhile the National Movement For Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi 2019 Presidential

Ambition has averred that Makarfi he is the “only solution” to Nigeria`s problems.

National Coordinator, Adamu Suleiman in a statement made available to newsmen in Dutse, the Jigawa state capital, noted that the choice of Makarfi for President is predicated on his vast political exposure and track records of transparency and accountability in governance. “The above youth support movement wish to make it public that we hereby endorsed His Excellency Senator Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Makarfi to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the PDP flag bearer come 2019,” The statement said.

Adamu Dutse in the statement explained that their quest to support his presidency ambition is as a result of his tremendous achievements in his Kaduna State and the country at large, adding that Makarfi is a great politician who has Nigeria on the palm of his hands and has served on various capacities even before he ventured into active politics.

INEC calls for increased women’s participation in electoral process INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called on stakeholders in the electoral process to come up with strategies that will promote increased participation of women in politics and governance the INEC news has reported.

National Commissioner in charge of Election Observation and Party Monitoring in INEC, Antonia Okoosi-Simbine made the call at the recent North Central Zonal Workshop on ‘Enhancing Women’s Participation in the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), the role of Civil Society Organisations’ held in Abuja.

The Commissioner said it has become imperative for the Commission to work with other stakeholders and come up with strategies to ensure that more women are reached and encouraged to register and collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

Simbine said that the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), mandates INEC to carry out CVR nationwide and pursuant to this requirement, the Commission commenced the CVR on Thursday, April 27, 2017 at the level of INEC Local Government Area offices nationwide.

She disclosed that over four million Nigerians have been registered across the country since the exercise commenced, adding that out of a total of 1,547,405 registered voters in the North Central Zone, 680,812 are females while 866,593 are males.

The National Commissioner observed that the gender distribution of fresh registrants for the first quarter 2018 shows that a total of 1,362,293 women and 1,560,823 men registered during the period.

She regretted that women were far behind their male counterparts.

“The registration of voters is an essential preparatory step in any election. It is a pre-requisite for exercising the right to vote and those whose names are not on the Register of Voters and do not have PVCs will not be allowed to vote on Election Day. It is, therefore, important for all women aged 18 and above to register and collect their PVCs so as to vote their preferred candidates,” she added.

Simbine said that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Media have been collaborating with the Commission to implement election activities adding, “it is in recognition of the enormous contributions of the media and CSOs in deepening the electoral process and expectations of greater collaboration working towards 2019, that INEC organised this meeting to ensure

that more women register and pick up their PVCs.” She explained that the Commission developed the INEC Gender Policy to ensure that its electoral functions and operations are gender sensitive and responsive and the policy is expected to foster gender balance in the Commission and to stimulate stakeholders in the electoral process to do the same.

She assured that the Commission will continue to engage with critical stakeholders at various levels to ensure support to incorporate gender issues into the electoral process in Nigeria, stating that the responsibility to build a gender balanced democracy for the Nigeria

Yakubu

of today and the future lies on the stakeholders.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) FCT, Yahaya Bello, while welcoming participants, noted that the timely workshop will also focus on the role of the CSOs in ensuring increased participation of women in the pre-election activities.

He said that since the CVR commenced in FCT last April, the exercise has been going on in the territory’s six Area Councils, with preferential attention given to pregnant women, nursing mothers and the elderly, adding that the turnout of women has been impressive.

While calling on CSOs to contribute in the area of sensitization to enhance the participation of women in the exercise, the REC also urged them to focus more on explaining the modalities and eligibility criteria for the exercise in their sensitization outreaches, especially at the grassroots.

In a goodwill message, the Project Director of European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), facilitator of the workshop, David Le Notre observed that women participation enriches democracy and makes it more responsive to the aspirations of the people, but regretted that women participation in the political process has been limited.

The Project Director, who was

represented by Gender and Inclusive Programme Officer, Cathy Latwa said that current CVR provides women with the opportunity to participate actively in the political process, not only by ensuring that more women are registered but also translating this numerical strength into electing more women into elective positions, INEC news reported.

Notre assured of ECES’ commitment towards equitable participation of women in the political process adding, “We will continue to mainstream gender issues in all our support to INEC in collaboration with the Gender Desk unit of INEC.” The Deputy Director in charge of Gender Division in INEC, Blessing Obidegwu said that the objectives of the workshop was to among others; encourage more women to register and collect their PVCs in readiness for the 2019 General Elections and beyond; sensitize women on their rights and the power of their votes and by registering to vote, more women will participate in the electoral process which is important for democracy to thrive in Nigeria.

Obidegwu said that it is important that women are made to understand the power of their PVCs which should be used to vote for their preferred candidates or vote out those they estimate are not delivering on their campaign promises.

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I am ready to take the mantle of leadership - Balewa Abdul Jhalil Tafawa Balewa is the son of Nigeria’s former Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He is a Physician with specialty in infectious diseases and also a Nuclear Chemist who holds a PhD in Nuclear Chemistry and a Masters in Enzynmology. Balewa was the only person that dared the powers that be and contested for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential ticket with former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.

In this exclusive interview with James Kwen, Balewa speaks on his Presidential ambition in 2019 and other issues of national interest. Excerpts: In 2014 you were the only person who had the courage to contest for PDP Presidential ticket against Goodluck Jonathan and thereafter you have become politically silent.

So are still in politics? am like everybody else, so long as you are still alive very much in politics. I have not been as silent as you may think. I have had several appearances on television, I have written several articles, I do deliver lectures in universities and to trade organizations often.

But you know news in Nigeria lasts about four days if it is very important it may last for a little bit longer than that, that is why it seems I have been quiet. And also the subjects that I talk on are not regular day to day subjects.

I

To be more specific, are you still a member of PDP? I am still in politics.

As you are still in politics, the 2019 is very important to every politician, thus, what do you intend doing or what is you ambition in 2019?

Well, there is no river without a source. If you look at the way Nigeria’s growth has been, we had our founding fathers who generally were better educated than the large majority of the citizenry fight with the colonists to be able to gain independence for us and immediately, just after that, I mean they were still trying to find their feet when the Military took over.

The military have never been trained in governing large population and they did not do well for the development of the country.

There were some things that were done but for the lack of a better thought you will say Nigeria was just surviving during those times. Now we came into this dispensation again, the democratic dispensation and the so called youths are now agitating that it is their turn. It looks more like a bane for Nigerian history because our founding fathers were very young when they all started that, when Nigeria gained independence and we were moving in the right direction. But even the military that took over then they were very young. They were not as educated as those founding fathers were when they became rulers of the nation but now the military is a lot better educated.

It is now that we have the military that says they want to remain in the barracks just to protect our territorial integrity and so on and so forth. The youths that are agitating to come on now just like youths of the past don’t have much experience. A lot of them have never even contested for councillorship, safe for local government chairman and so on and so forth, all the way to the presidency. So, it now behooves those youths of yesterday who are better seasoned, better educated and better exposed to strengthen the country up and strengthen it in the way that it can be where it can really grow properly. We have a lot of the youths. Not all the youths are uneducated and unexposed. There are a lot, a lot of intelligent manpower within and because of the times that

Balewa

they are born, science and technology have made improvements in the lives of everybody so it will be a lot easier to bring them into governance than before. In this case, I see myself as one of those not so old Nigerians that can actually mentor the new pathway.

Yes, I am very interested and if I have the opportunity, I am willing, I am able, I am ready to take the mantle of leadership!

Under which political party platform do you want to pursue your ambition?

That is like putting chains round my feet. One of the things happening right now is that we have a flow of political parties, I think over one hundred now which is good because it means that people are becoming more politically aware but they also need to understand that there has to be a coalition of thought by so of these groups, parties and movements so that we can have two or three parties of known ideologies so that people can actually be educated enough to choose which path they want to go.

At the moment we don’t have that. APC for instance, is a coalition of several parties of different ideologies if any. PDP, that’s another large party is almost just going around rudderless right now. We have the medium size parties like SDP, like Labour Party, like Accord, all limping and then we have a myriad of small parties. All of these parties may need to come together just as APC came together before to fight what was seen then as a behemoth, that’s the PDP to be able to gain power. We have to do that just right now, either to coalesce with APC and make the coalition bigger or get together and choose PDP and get a better coalition and the fight can be evenly handled.

But at the moment we are just consulting. So platforms are not yet as important as been on the same page.

What can you do for Nigeria differently from what the current and past leaderships have done?

Several things. Almost every single part of the country needs an overhaul.

One, our position in the comity of nations, we need to have the rough edges polished. We need much better security. We have to have both food and physical security. When these are there, we have to look closely to our educational system. The educational system right now is bad that even teachers in Edo, in Kaduna States cannot read their own certificates.

We don’t all have to go universities.

We need to create a middle class. We need trade schools. We need technical schools. We need to be able to allow our people, Nigerians are one of the most enterprising people in the world, we have to free them to be able to do that. Now, talk about trade there is absolutely no reason why the largest Black Country in Africa and in the world have such a poor trade mechanism as has been shown.

AGOA has never favoured us not because it isn’t there but because we have not had people that have an idea of how to best use it for our people. Our industries are all dying or are dead. We grow Kenaff and send it to Bangladesh, Bangladesh of all the poorest countries in the world and it comes back to us at a much higher rate. We grow cotton and now we don’t have any Cotton industry in the KKK pathways(Kaduna Kano, Kastina). Benue state is one of the most blessed state in the entire world not just in Nigeria it can produce enough food to feed all of Nigeria.

But there are other several states in Nigeria combined with Benue that canproduce adequatelyfor all of West Africa. We have different varieties of different food stuffs in adequate quantities. However, we don’t have good harvesting techniques or good preservation techniques. We need to

be able introduce technology into our lives but with limit.

We don’t want to genetically alter our food because the experimentation has never really been finalized. We need the empirical evidence but even without that we will produce enough be able to feed our people adequately so that rent, food, and most other things that are needed per month will not cost more than 27% of whatever wages one earns. Our tomatoes in the Benue trough like in Plateau, Gombe and Bauchi have such rich Zyntophins in them that is known to be cancer inhibitants, we are not doing much about them.

We have alluvia deposits throughout Nigeria. I don’t how many countries are as blessed as this country.

There is no part of this Country that has an alluvia deposit that can help either that part of the country or other parts of the country by itself.

In a few years most cars if not selfdriven will not be using petrol. Our economy is still largely dependent on petrol. However, Livia which is a major ingredient in most of these new technologies is abundant in Nigeria only next to Chile.

We have not done anything about that. Those other things we are mining will expose our young children both little girls and little boys of child bearing age to the mining environment usually sponsored by the Chinese, Senegalese, the Gambia, the Guinean.

Nobody is paying attention to that but we will end up with next generation of children with genetic defects. They may not have their hands complete they may have too many fingers, they may have either more eyes or fewer.

It will not be what we have now and we have culturally, a very bad attitude to people that don’t seem as normal as everybody else. We have not done anything to them. Nothing is wrong with their brains but because we use to be a polio endemic nation all of these people nothing is done for them that is why we have so many Almajeris and so many people that are physically challenged out there begging but there is nothing wrong with their brains just with their body habitats.

We need to do something to be able to pull all these people together in some work that can give them compensation. There are so many things to do in different parts of the nation and we will be ready to do them.

Can you tell us the experience you had in 2014 in relation to your present Presidential ambition?

Well in 2014, actually it started in 2013, there were few of us that got together and thought that the country was heading towards wrong direction. It was agreed by everybody; both foreign partners and most people of thought here in Nigeria that we should be for example driving towards Maiduguri but we were heading towards Lagos and the country was not heading in the right direction. It was unfortunate that the powers that be at time did not see the way we saw it and we made contacts with people in all the states.

Some states were not as welcom-

ing as the others but we kept going anyway. That was named Nakowa: for everybody and it was a fight that I never thought I will get into because the then President Jonathan was, and still is my very good friend of mine. We thought if things continue to go down so rapidly because our expenditure was rising and income was slowing down and we needed to rescue Nigeria somehow. We never knew that we were living in the fool’s paradise then because things were going down we thought we can put some brakes and drive Nigeria back to where it should be going.

However, we are tumbling now!

So, something really has to be done to put a stop to it. President Buhari is doing his best. You cannot ask of something someone does not have.

President Buhari’s ideas have been sidelined so that so many other people in governance now who wouldn’t have been considered socialists in the past when you had socialists and conservatives in governance are now hoarding national covers at much faster rate as it was ever done and it is one of the things that a friend of mine was talking to me about recently.

A friend called me from Norway and said that they try as much as possible not to put people in power who are terribly poor when they were growing up. Being poor is not having money. It’s a vision of how you see yourself in the world because people of this mindset will only take care of themselves and hoard and that is what is going on right now. They are hoarding because they have been in situations of want before and they think if they don’t hoard may be when they die just like in the time of Egyptians they need to be buried with golds and things like that. It is terrible, especially those leaders who professed to be strong Muslims and Christians do the most ungodly things.

What is your perception of the present administration’s anti -graft war especially as someone with the ambition to become President?

Well, the fight against corruption is okay but it is how you do it. It is important for people to know that when they do a wrong thing, there is a punitive result at the end of it. A lot of people that are said to be corrupt, may be they can get the money and property back from them but we hardly see anyone punished so that there is no way Nigerians are going to celebrate those who are corrupt. We need to make it very punitive, that is one. Going against corruption and running against corrupt methods alone will not win the hearts of men.

People are still very hungry you need to go the parallel way.

Start improving science and technology in the country by improving and focusing on research in universities, increase food production, preservation, improve security. All of these have to go in tandem when people are well rested, when they are sure of their security; they are more Continues on page 19

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Politics & Policy

2019: Why we fused NIM into ANN – Agbakoba INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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he Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), co-chaired by Olisa Agbakoba, and Abduljalil Tafawa Balewa, has disclosed that the movement decided to collapse into the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) one of the registered political parties because the party represents a new ideological platform that will rescue Nigeria from the stranglehold of mindless and corrupt elite.

Agbakoba disclosed this recently in Lagos in his declaration officially adopting ANN as “the Third Force, Fresh Breed Democratic Vehicle for NIM’s Ballot based, PVC-driven Revolution for 2019” to intensify the drive by NIM and other partners to mobilise Nigerians of varying backgrounds to save the country from corrupt an self-serving elite.

The statement made available to BusinessDay said: “It is trite, and even bordering on the obvious, to state that majority of Nigerians have been overwhelmed by the extant quality of politics going on in our dear country as manifested by reckless pursuits of self -serving and exploitative politics of the entrenched political class in our clime, which has continued to ensure that little or no governance, properly so called, is going on in our beloved country, Nigeria.

“What we continue to have instead is that recycled and spent forces who form the entrenched power in Nigeria continue to massage their over-bloated ego and greed for our common resources.

Agbakoba

But for us in NIM, the whole essence of political leadership and government is the welfare and wellbeing of the citizenry,” he said.

He added that it has become incumbent on all well- meaning Nigerians to rise and rescue the nation from current crises, saying “what has become notoriously self -evident in our circumstance instead, is the increasing impoverishment and pauperisation of the generality of our citizenry compounded by general insecurity, deepening ethno-religious animosity, which have continuously tended to push our fragile unity to the precipice, endangering our more resourceful and beneficial commonality.

“It is against this debilitating background and the need to restore hope back to Nigerians that the Nigeria Intervention Movement, NIM was birthed on 28th Novem-

ber 2017 in Abuja by a new breed leaders of conscience towards breathing a new life of sustainable popular constitutional democracy and good governance trajectory that will engender a new Nigeria that works for all Nigerians.

“Therefore, having come to the reasoned conclusion that Political Parties are crucial pillars for nurturing popular democracy and the good governance in any society and also the realisation that all the political parties that have had the rare privilege of superintending over our polity in recent memory have individually and collectively failed in delivering popular constitutional democracy as well as good governance, NIM as a mass movement of Nigerian people was faced with the option of either forming a new political party or adopting an untainted registered political party as a constitutional electoral vehicle

for bringing into manifest its most cherished new prosperous Nigeria that will work for all citizens,” he stressed.

He noted that NIM was compelled to scan the whole gamut of registered political parties in Nigeria, held very serious consultations and negotiating sessions with 17 political parties and found the Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN to be the appropriate vehicle to actualise the political vision and agenda of NIM on a credible democratic alternative platform for fresh breed political leaders and ideologues to deliver dividends of democracies to Nigerians and birthed “new Nigeria of our dreams.”

He pointed out that the decision to adopt the ANN as the preferred political party of choice on which NIM shall prosecute the ballot based, PVC driven Revolution for 2019, was predicated on the fact that ANN shares same philosophy, Ideology and vision with NIM in the movement’s dodged pursuit to change how politics is currently being played in Nigeria towards pure service and selflessness.

“As the third and indeed the emerging democratic force in Nigerian political configuration, we in NIM with our members armed with Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVC’s, are poised to join and support all the structures of the ANN and urge all Nigerians with shared ideals to promote this noble cause and platform on which we shall collectively engage the 2019 general elections in restoring the lost decorum and stability in our polity.

“NIM has come to the inalienable and unassailable conclusion that the most appropriate vehicle to

achieve its PVC based revolution is the Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN - A political party that espouses all the fine attributes of our envisaged New Nigeria, a new country that will take humane and productive care of all her citizens, while taking her a deserved place in the comity of nations.

“To this end, NIM has adopted ANN because ANN shares a common vision with NIM. The raison d’être for the adoption of ANN as our democratic alternative to the ongoing political harakiri in Nigeria is for pulling Nigeria back from the fringe of socio-political and economic hopelessness which it has been placed by successive selfcentered leaders and government, including the current one,” he said.

National Chairman of the ANN, Jay Osi Samuels, while welcoming the fusion, expressed the belief that a new Nigeria is possible, adding that the ANN has been a platform to nurture a political culture of transparency, devoid of godfatherism and in which everyone is an equal stakeholder.

“Most of those who are pushing the ANN ideology are those who are not tainted by the rent –seeking and destructive politicking that has kept us where we are today,” he said, adding that “ we are where we are today because our politics in Nigeria has never been ennobling. It is politics that does not add value” “With NIM joining ANN, it is a sign that our messages in the last one year have resonated with the kind of people we want to reach.

It is dignifying and a validation of the belief that this is not a journey to nowhere,” he said.

I am ready to take the mantle of leadership - Balewa Continued from page 18

productive. Right now, even though government seems to telling us it is doing all of these, and we see some roads and bridges being constructed, people have no money to eat, to send their children to school they cannot appreciate any of these things. We must be able to do them in tandem and some people have to be scapegoated so that it is known that when you take something that isn’t yours, you will be punished and punished heavily. That is a deterrent. Not what is happening now where people just defect to another party. Several politicians have done that. When they know they are going to have some problems they just defect into the ruling party and they are forgiven.

You talk so much about agriculture but zones that are known agricultural activities are engulfed in herders/ farmers crises. What is your take on this phenomenon as one who is willing to take over leadership of the country?

One, there is absolutely no reason why people should not have peace in their homes, their communities and in their states. How long have we had herding in Nigeria? From time immemorial, there are so many pathways created where herders usually follow but our herders used to carry sticks. They don’t carry guns. When didwe start introducing arms into

pasturing cows? So obviously there are people in charge of this that we never knew. Two, God gives everybody right to protect that life that He gave. When people are encouraged to protect their livelihoods, to protect their communities, not to be aggressive but to protect their own, I think we are going to get some serious solutions. The Sahara is constantly encroaching. We have governments that have proposed some solutions but we never up till today have government that is bold enough that want to do something about it.

We have the solution to that.

Mentioning or just asking for a green world to be created is not enough. It is admirable but it is not enough. But actually making it is critically important. If it is true that these herders are coming from different parts of Africa into our country and killing our nationals then the Exterior/Interior Ministry need to get together with government of the surrounding nations and make sure that our borders are less porous. And if some people need to be taken out for the safety of the people of country, so be it. That is what the military is there to do.

The Customs and Immigration services should make sure more people are employed and also train our citizens living close to the borders to be able to know which strangers live among them and there should be a ban on all these weaponry seeping into our country. Too many

excuses are been given but we need to do something firmly about that.

They need to know that the life of any Nigerian anywhere he or she comes from is extremely important to the government of Nigeria and they should know that by the way, our government protects our people.

There is perceived clamp down on opponents by the present administration and you are an opponent. So why do you take such risk?

The government is clamping down on perceived opponents. It is a normal pathway but it may just be the way other people see that. It’s terribly despicable that you will want to oppress or subdue you opponent.

I am not against the government. I am not against any government. I am not against any person per se. I am for the development of Nigeria. I am for seeing my people doing better. Nigerians outside Nigeria excel.

Nigerians inside Nigeria should be able to live comfortably in an orderly manner, have liberty and everything that every country other guarantees its citizenry. That is what this government wants to do and any government would do that. If I show you my manifestoes you will see that what is important in my heart is for Nigerians, all Nigerians to be the best that they can be, to be able to rise as far as they can. No glass ceilings. Every Nigerian, every ethnicity should be able to do well because he or she is

a Nigerian. That’s what is important so am not afraid.

As a medical expert how do you see health care delivery in Nigeria and what can you do about the sector as if you become president?

Health care delivery in Nigeria is not what it should be. I think it will be a lot better if primary health centres are strummed all over Nigeria. The reason is that there are so many diseases and injuries that can be protected earlier before they become something a lot more serious. When people go to emergencies hospitals it costs the hospitals a lot more to deal with and it cost the government a lot more and if it is a private place, it will cost the individual a lot more and if it is something preventable it can be treated much earlier.

You see that in advanced countries, preventive medicine is thought of the day. Now, there are centres of excellence in Nigeria in Medicine.

University of Ibadan, Lagos, Nsukka, Maiduguri, Aminu Kano, University of Ife, so on and so forth. However, we have not invested enough in these universities to let them grow really to a point where they can now distil and translate the knowledge to the population. We have much fewer health care providers than we need.

Most Nigerians are going abroad because the pay there is a lot better. The working conditions are a lot better.

We have the National Health

Insurance Scheme( NHIS) where a lot of monies are been heaped.

Some people are using it like a bank where they are making use of interest for their personal use. They don’t understand what insurance should do, what an insurance company especially medical insurance company should do. We need to expand it to be able to take care of Nigerian citizens even those that are not in the public sector or private sector. We have a lot of people that are not insurable; NURTW for instance. But these unions know their members. All of these, even people that are hawkers or people that sell provision all need to be included in this because they know themselves.

The rulers; the politicians or the traditional rulers in areas where they operate know them. So we can have these types of things packaged.

Also, the more we know our people and what they do, the better we can plan what we need to do for them for a better quality of life. So, when we go out of way to module, census and have very bad reporting and we cannot get all statistics we needed at a time statistics is available for us, may be at the beginning of last Century and things like that. All of these things need to be brought up because like a set of dominus once you tip one to fall, all the other ones will fall in. We just have to have good institutions and everything will work out better.

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Politics & Policy

2019: Tasks before Oshiomhole As Adams Oshiomhole-led national executive of the All Progressives Congress (APC), assumes office, Iniobong Iwok, examines the tasks before the new leadership of the APC ahead of the 2019 general election.

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ast Saturday the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) chose immediate past Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, as it national chairman in a national convention which was held at the eagle square, Abuja, and attended by party leaders, chieftains, members and delegates across the country.

The emergency of Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the APC did not come as a surprise to political observers in the country, considering that several weeks leading to the convention he had been unanimously endorsed for the position by president Muhammadu Buhari, the APC governors forum, party leaders including the national leaders of the APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is said to have favoured his candidacy.

However, Oshiomole’s emergence as the party chairman is coming at a critical period in which the APC is perhaps facing its greatest test of survival since its formation in 2014 in an alliance of major opposition parties.

Since 2015 when the APC wriggle power form the people’s Democratic Party (PDP), the party have been engulf in prolong internal crisis in several states chapters, which have over the last few months degenerated further and is threatening the party’s chances in the 2019 general election.

Perhaps, the first sign of turbulent years ahead for the party was the drama that led

Oshiomhole

to the emergence of the principal officers of the National Assembly, which include the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara which was against the interest of the presidency and the leader of the party.

Last month, several state chapters of the party namely; Lagos, Oyo, Kwara, Imo, Delta Rivers, Ondo, Enugu, Kogi, Bayelsa and Ebony held parallel state congresses which were a sign that the party was factionalised in these states.

These crises have deepened in these states over the last few weeks as the factions not recognised by the national leadership of the party had gone to court to

challenge the decision.

Also recently, a bloc within the APC, which merged to form the party in 2014 and led by a former Chairman of the PDP, Kawu Baraje, recently issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration accusing it of marginalising its members in the APC, while persecuting several others across the country in spite of the group’s contribution to the electoral victory of the party in 2015 general election.

“We therefore wish, with due respect, to re-state our expectation then and now that the APC we all laboured to build would be one united, inclusive, cohesive and progressive party devoid of

divisions, factions, cleavages and tendencies.

“It is an undeniable historical fact that the movement of the former New PDP bloc to form the APC contributed immensely to the victory of the APC in the elections. The former new PDP included five sitting Governors of Sokoto, Kano, Kwara, Adamawa and Rivers States and former Governors of Kebbi, Gombe, Osun, former Vice President of Nigeria, former acting National Chairman of PDP, sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives, many serving members of the National Assembly and many renowned politicians and PDP Elders.

It was a watershed moment in Nigeria’s political History.

“Most of these leaders not only delivered their states to the APC at the elections, some of the governors were also assigned specific responsibilities to ensure that other states were also delivered to the APC in the 2015 elections.

“It is a matter for grave concern that His Excellency, Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has never publicly acknowledged our efforts in the face of clear evidence that the total number of votes scored by the APC in States where leaders and members of the then NEW PDP block held sway made the difference.

However, it is pertinent to note that several weeks after the ultimatum the grievances of the group remain unresolved, while there have been report of impending their defection to the opposition parties.

There are also protracted crisis and division in several states chapters namely; Kano, Kaduna, Kogi, Sokoto, Adamawa, Oyo rivers which have pitched Chieftains of the party against governors of these states in a battle which is largely to control the structure of the party.

Perhaps, the failure of the Tinubu-led reconciliation committee of the party to resolve these issues, threw more challenges to the Oshiomhole-led leadership of the party to find a lasting solution to the crisis as the 2019 general election looms.

However, it is pertinent to note that several weeks after the ultimatum the grievances of the group remain

unresolved, while there have been report of impending their defection to the opposition parties.

A political analyst, Wale Ogunade, noted that based his capacity as a former labour leader who believes in the tenet of democracy Oshiomhole should add value to the APC, adding that his immediate task should be to bring to unity to APC. “He should bring value to the party as the national chairman. He was an activist and as former labour leader who believe in democratic ideas, he should promote democratic values in the party, accountability and reconcile all interest group who are aggrieved in the APC. You politicians often change, but I am speaking based on his antecedent but I am seeking based on what I know him for,” he said.

A Chieftain of the APC in Lagos state, Biodun Salami, disclosed that Oshiomhole was ready for reconciliation and was the best man to lead the party at this period, adding that there was the need for the party to embrace reconciliation as the 2019 general election approaches.

“The Chairman has said it that he would give all the youths fairness, which should be the focus of any Chairman. He also promises reconciliation within the party, and I think it is important that we settle our differences because the elections are here. But you know even if you want to reconcile some people may not be ready for it,” he said.

respective of incumbency at State level. I want to assure this Congress that the will of the Nigerian voter will continue to prevail. Nothing but the votes cast by citizens will determine the outcome of elections,” he noted.

Yakubu said further that the commission will deploy the use of technology in elections, stressing that the commission will continue to deepen its deployment until such a time when it can fully automate the entire process.

He however, reiterated that there will be no electronic balloting in 2019 but technology is already being used in many aspects of the processes. “Electronic voting should be the ultimate step in a chain involving five processes: electronic voter register, accreditation, balloting, collation and transmission of result.

“At present, the Commis-

sion has a more robust voter register than at any time in our history. Accreditation of voters (and storage of accreditation data) is also electronic while we are piloting the electronic collation and transmission of results. What remains is to bring these processes into a voting machine to complete the chain. I am confident that full automation of our electoral processes is only a matter of a short period of time.

“To enhance our transparency, we have been working very closely with stakeholders, including the media.

At the moment, INEC has accredited correspondents from 85 media organisations to cover our activities all-year round. The number is growing and our doors remain open to all. We hold regular quarterly meetings with the media and other stakeholders,’’ he added.

2019 general elections will involve largest voters in history-INEC chairman INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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he Chair man of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Ma h m o o d Ya ku b u ha s averred that the 2019 general elections will involve the largest number of voters so far in the history of Nigeria.

Yakubu said this while making his remarks at the 67th World Congress of the International Press Institute (IPI) in Abuja at the weekend, even as he expressed delight over the opportunity given to him by IPI to address theaudience especially as the preparations for the election in Nigeria get more intense.

“The 2019 general elections will involve the largest number of registered voters our history. We are currently inching closer to 80 million voters although the nation-

wide voter registration exercise is ongoing. The figure will certainly rise above 80 million registered voters.

“The largest number of political parties of political parties will field candidates in the election. There are 68 political parties at present.

However, with 138 applications from associations seeking registration as political parties, the number is set to rise higher. The political parties will contest in elections into 1,558 National, State as well as Local Constituencies in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).

“From the statistics of new voter registration nationwide, youths will play a far greater role in the election and processes thereof in 2019 than in previous elections.

“There is also increasing determination by marginalised groups such as women,

youths and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) for greater participation than ever before and we are working with these groups to facilitate their full participation in the electoral process,” he said.

He added that, the 2019 general election is the most deliberately well-planned election in Nigeria so far adding that the commission has formulated, validated and published the Strategic Plan (2016-2021), the Strategic Programme of Action and the Election Project Plan with the full participation of all stakeholders and support from the development partners.

“As we are planning, we are also test running our plans.

We have been fortunate to have conducted more offseason elections than any Commission in the history of our democracy: re-run elections (by court order following

successful litigations), byeelections and end-of-tenure elections. “ So far, we have conducted elections into 180 constituencies, the last one about three weeks ago (Ibarapa East State Constituency in Oyo State) and the next one in three weeks (Ekiti Governorship election scheduled for 14th July 2019). Each of the elections we have conducted so far is a remarkable improvement on the previous one in terms of preparations and outcome, ranging from the deployment of personnel, functionality of technology and the speedy collation, transmission and declaration of results. There is also a remarkable reduction in preand post-election litigations challenging the outcome of the elections.

“Most remarkably, elections are won and lost ir-

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a g @ bu s ines s dayo nl ine. co m

Export drive creates opportunity for jute production …as imports hits $2bn Stories by JOSEPHINE OKOJIE

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i g e r i a’s q u e s t t o diversify its economy and drive exports of agricultural products have created a huge opportunity for jute bag production in the country, as Nigeria currently spends a whopping $2 billion annually importing the sack.

Jute bag which is made from the fibre of Kenaf- a crop that is suitable for cultivation on over one million hectares of land and can be grown in over 20 states of the country, is the globally accepted sack for packaging of agro commodities, according to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIRO).

Despite the huge potential in jute sack production, the country is yet to fully harness the economic benefits from growing kenaf, as it spends billions of dollars yearly on the importation of the sack from neighboring West African countries.

According to experts the money spent on importing the sack could have been saved if the country could tap into the opportunities of growing kenaf and producing jute sack.

“There is a huge opportunity for investors that can go into jute bag

John Delano Akindelano, legal practitioners, ALP; Atiku Bagudu, Executive Governor of Kebbi State; Olusegun Awolowo managing director and CEO NEPC; Sadiq Usman, director, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc and Mudashir Olaitan, director-development finance, CBN at the th edition of the ALP serminar series on agriculture with the theme ‘Achieving Self-Sufficiency and a Thriving Export Industry Through Agriculture’.

production in Nigeria. The market is very huge because exporters and farmers buy over 10 million jute bag yearly for exporting and storing their commodities,” Lanre Olateru-Olagbegi, chairman, Kenaf Development Association of Nigeria

(KEDAN) told BusinessDay in a response to questions.

“The issue with Nigeria’s Kenaf production is that there is no market for the crop. This is because there are not processing factories in the country that can buy kenaf and

process jute bags from it.

“There is also no outreach from the government and this is why there is still no commercial production of the crop in the costry. Most of our members are even refusing to grow the crop anymore because there is no

market for it,” Olateru-Olagbegi said.

Kenaf has never been a major crop in Nigeria, but it provides the raw material for the manufacture of jute bags and for making high quality paper and newsprint; and the bark has been used for ropes.

Jute bag is the globally accepted sack for packaging of agricultural commodities such as cocoa, cotton, groundnuts, onions, kola nut, palm kernel, potatoes, grains, and coffee among others for export and storage.

Jute sack helps in reducing farmers’ post-harvest food losses, improve shelf life and help address environmental issues of waste.

“Currently, in the cashew value chain, we import a lot of jute bags from Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroun for packaging of our cashew for export,” Tola Faseru, national president, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) said.

“For cashew we need 15 jute sacks for every metric ton. This tells you the volume the country needs yearly for its export of agric commodities,” Faseru said.

Nigeria’s current jute sack requirement in the country is estimated at 28 million sacks. A jute sack sell for N500 per bag as at the time of writing in Lagos.

How Nigerian farmers can be winners in the US-China trade war

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igerian growers of sorghum can position itself to benefit from the trade war that is heating up between the United States (US) and China.

The US and China had moved to the brink of a trade war when the President Donald Trump of the US announced last week Friday that tariffs on Chinese imports would take effects in three weeks’ time while pledging an additional investment restrictions, prompting an immediate vow of retaliation from Beijing.

Trump had made a pledged of more tariffs if China follows through on the retaliation threats on US grains such as sorghum and soybeans and other farm produce.

This has prompted importers of US sorghum to China to commence search for other markets for the importation of the crop.

“Our farmers can be winners from the trade war if we position ourselves to benefit greatly from the trade war.

Most countries that grow these crops are already preparing themselves, so Nigeria needs to do same to be one of the winners,” said AfricanFarmer Mogaji, CEO, X-Ray Consulting Farms said.

Nigeria is a natural habitat for many varieties of sorghum and the world’s second largest producer and supplier of the crop, churning out 11 million metric tons per annum, according to data obtained from the Federal Ministry Agriculture.

“This is an opportunity for Nigerian growers and it will open up our agricultural export to China because the major export to China from the US are agricultural

c o m m o d i t i e s,” Mu d a Yu su f , director general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said in a telephone response to BusinessDay questions.

“Since China is now taking a retaliation action in terms of trade against the US, it is likely to affect more of agricultural export from US to China. This would create a gap in the Chinese market for agricultural imports, and this will

create opportunities for a country like Nigeria to take advantage to fill the gap that is being created.

“What is important for Nigeria now in all of this is to be able to deliver the right quality and price for the commodities since we would be competing with other producing nations also eyeing the Chinese market. We need to position ourselves properly to take advantage of the opportunity,” Yusuf said.

Experts urge farmers to scale up their sorghum production and position themselves for the opportunity, saying it takes only three months to grow any variety of sorghum in the country.

Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development while highlighting the opportunities in Nigeria’s agricultural sector during the recent BusinessDay’s Agribusiness conference held in Lagos, had already hinted that the China’s government is now making demand for Nigeria’s sorghum.

Like shea nuts, sorghum has the potential to be a huge export earner for the country, but years of low investment, lack of government support and natural vagaries has limited the huge potentials.

“Government must start now to

support sorghum farmers to boost their production. So that when the opportunity presents itself we would benefit hugely,” Mogaji who was earlier quoted said.

Sorghum an important cereal crop is fast booming in the Nigerian market already as brewers in the country are now using a larger percentage of the crop in place of barley for brewing beer and malt drinks.

As a result, brewers are making huge investment in sorghum plants in the country owing to their hunt for local substitutes.

Nigeria now grows sorghum variety with high malting properties.

“Nigeria Breweries funded a sorghum research at the institute and we developed a sorghum variety with high malting properties which can be used in place of barley as by-product for brewing beer and malt,” said Ibrahim Umar Abubakar, director, Institute for Agricultural Research, IAR Zaria.

Apart from it being use for production in the brewery industry, Sorghum is the 4th most important cereal after wheat, rice and maize and is used as a maize substitute for livestock feeds because of their similar nutritional values.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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ag@businessdayonline.com

‘Enhancing knowledge of Nigerian farmers key to agricultural revolution’ Antti Ritvonen is the chief executive officer of Dizengoff Nigeria, exclusive distributors of CASE tractors in the country. Ritvonen in this interview tells JOSEPHINE OKOJIE that despite various government mechanisation schemes, farmers still finds it difficult to get affordable finance for mechanisation investment.

What impact has Dizengoff had in increasing Nigeria’s ranking on global mechanisation scale? igeria ranks half on mechanisation scale in Africa and very far from the global average. The country is still at the very early stage of mechanisation and there is still so much tractors needed. We have a very long way to go but we need to start from somewhere. I believe the government renewed focus on agriculture will drive the country’s mechanisation process to make an impact on the sector and economy at large.

Whatever services Dizengoff provides to farmers be it tractors or greenhouses, we also provide after sales services. If farmers buy our tractors or greenhouses we provide them with after sales services where we train them on good agric practice and maintenance skills on the equipment obtained. Dizengoff is always looking for ways to improve our service and product offerings for the Nigeria farmer when it comes to mechanisation. We are the exclusive distributors of CASE tractors in Nigeria; we are very much into greenhouses and strong on irrigation solutions as well as supply of different kind of agro chemicals.

We sell CASE tractors which is one of the world’s leading tractor brands.

We have sold between 400 and 500 tractors in the last two years.

technology and knowledge. That is why we give a comprehensive training to our customers on how they can really get the full benefits from their investment. Increasing farmers’ knowledge on modern farming techniques is very important and this is how Nigeria can grow its agriculture.

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What are the problems slowing down the country’s mechanisation process?

There are two big problems in Nigeria slowing down mechanisation process. They are; the farm size and affordable finance for mechanisation investments. Most of the farm sizes in the country are small and this can be addressed when farmers come into cooperatives or clusters to create bigger units to make it easier to finance mechanisation. This

Antti Ritvonen

makes it possible for smallholder farmers to easily access tractors.

Despite governments supporting mechanisation schemes, it is still difficult to get affordable finance for mechanisation investments in the country. A good tractor cost about N10 million.

What is Dizengoff doing to assist the country in addressing these problems?

We have been cooperating very closely with other leading service providers in Nigeria and working with banks as well as different financial institutions to find finance solutions for farmers but we are yet to get some results on the financing area. Most commercial banks are talking about agriculture but there is no action. The demands the banks are making is too high for customers.

The banks want us to provide a 200 per cent credit guarantee and

another 200 guarantee from the farmers. The banks do not want to take any risks. Over all, despite schemes in place for farmers to get finance, there is still a lot to be done in that space and most existing schemes are very complicated for smallholder farmers who do not have a lawyer or a finance manager working for them to do all the complicated applications and processes on whatever the banks are asking.

Is Dizengoff looking at introducing two horse power tractors to the Nigerian market?

All the time we are looking at how we can improve our services and product offering to the Nigerian farmers when it comes to mechanisation. We are looking at how we can provide better solutions for Nigerian farmers and we are studying the possibilities of the two horse power tractors.

Most of the weather services we have in Nigeria are not farm specific and there are lots of applications helping farmers predict weather in other regions of the world. Is Dizengoff looking at bringing in such applications into the Nigerian market?

There is a knowledge gap of farmers in Nigeria and this is really a big problem and anything that improves the knowledge of the farmers is a plus because many farmers still use very old traditional methods. Dizengoff closely follow all the technical development that is in Nigeria and there is a lot of development which will improve the yields of farmers but we are not looking at them holistically because Nigeria is not ready for all of them. It is a step by step and we need to get some more basic things in place. There is a limited amount of big commercial farms that can really use all these

What impact does the current import traffic regime have on Nigeria’s food security?

There were problems in implementing the zero import tariffs on agricultural equipment. When the zero import tariffs were introduced for agricultural equipment, it took a year and half before it was implemented. This usually impacts the sector negatively and food security as well. For tractors, before now, the tariffs on fully built tractors are cheaper than the tariffs for semi knockdown tractors. This does not encourage tractors companies to build an assembly plant in the country that would have had a huge multiplier effect in terms of job creation, and economic growth and development.

Dizengoff is also a big player in the country’s greenhouse technology, what is the organisation doing to support exporters of fresh produce in Nigeria?

I think Nigeria’s focus should be the domestic market rather than exporting. There is still a huge gap between crop production and demand in the country.

Nigeria spends a lot importing agric commodities we can easily produce. We need to start feeding ourselves. Nigeria is the seventh country in the world with the most fertile farming land for agriculture but our yields is still far lower than the global average. Dizengoff is constantly training farmers on good farming techniques and providing an after sales service to them as well.

‘Recognise farmers as a proper entrepreneurship unity’

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tiku Bagudu, Executive Governor of Kebbi State has urged all money deposit banks in the country to recognise farmers as a proper entrepreneurship unity.

Bagudu made the call to the banks during the Akindelano Legal Practitioners (ALP) seminar series on agriculture with the theme ‘Transforming Nigeria’s Agricultural and Agro-Allied sector: Financing opportunities and challenges’ held recently in Lagos.

In his keynote address, the governor stated that lack of adequate

finance have limited farmers ability to boost their production in recent years, owing to their inability to easily access loans from money deposit banks.

Bagudu stressed the need for farmers to boost their productivity to be able to meet up with the countr y’s rising demand and ensure food security for its growing population.

The governor called on banks to assists farmers increase their production to achieve for security, which he noted is patriotic and nationalistic.

“I think our quest should be of national food security, which is a conscious effort to ensure that farmers increase their yields per hectare,” he said.

“We need to energize domestic production in a competitive manner which is harmonious with our obligations both regionally and internationally.

“I think what is even more compelling for an increasingly growing population. So the ability to figure out how to produce competitively and to maintain production competitively should be

our goal,” he added.

He commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for sponsoring the Anchor Borrowers scheme which he says has continued to support smallholder farmers get the much needed funds to expand their production areas.

He added that the scheme in Kebbi state has become so efficient to the extent that the state government no longer has any role to play in it.

Als o sp eaking dur ing the event, Olusegun Awolowo, CEO of the Nigerian Export Promotion

Council (NEPC), emphasized the importance of the agricultural sector in the economy.

“With a very large market, we must begin to look at products that have higher value at the international market which is well traded.

“If we can increase production to a level, we will get good quality products which would meet international standards and we would export agricultural products which would compete favourably with the export of crude oil, “ Awolowo said.

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BUSINESS DAY

Wednesday 27 June 2018

In Association with

BDCs, banks’ rate unification signals exchange rate convergence HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently took a proactive approach to ending multiple exchange rates tipped to permanently send currency speculators out of the market by unifying dollar buying rates for banks and Bureau de Change (BDC) operators. The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) and other stakeholders see this as positive development that promotes efficiency, transparency, price discovery and will help phase-out multiple exchange rates regime.

When the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) finally announced that Bureau De Change (BDC) operators and commercial banks will buy dollar at same rate and sell within same margin, market watchers saw it as a masterstroke needed to eliminate multiple exchange rates in the industry.

Over two weeks after the policy implementation, market response has been positive, with the local currency making massive gains against the greenback. The policy has equally put an end to frivolous dollar demand, exchange rate spikes, speculations, hoarding and rent seeking in the foreign exchange (forex) market.

Many financial experts believe the rate unification also captured CBN’s commitment and readiness to end the multiple exchange rates that have remained a plague to the industry, and in its place, entrench single exchange rate regime that serves the interest of all stakeholders.

Speaking on the development, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) President, Aminu Gwadabe, said the speed at which the naira recovered against the dollar after the CBN’s announcement, buttressed the BDCs’

massive influence in the market and economy.

He said the BDCs have so far stamped their role as key players in the forex market, where they remain major economic drivers creating employment and wealth for the people. These contributions, he said, require that the operations of BDCs be supported to sustain ongoing market rally and stability.

“We commend the CBN’s bold move in unifying the BDCs’, banks’ rates. We can safely say that the threat of distortions of market rate by election anxiety have been mitigated by the policy. And the BDCs are committed to supporting the CBN’s policy direction and actions to sustain ongoing market stability,” he said.

According to him, the impact of the rate unification is massive, including raising foreign investors’ confidence in the domestic economy, boosting the foreign exchange reserves position and creating opportunity for a better foreign reserve management by the apex bank. He assured that the BDCs will continue to meet the critical forex needs of the retail end-users and stick to allowable transactions limits as approved by the regulator.

The CBN had earlier in the month, approved an upward review of the trading margin available to BDCs. The approval allowed BDCs to buy dollar from the apex bank at N357/$1 and sell at N360, enabling them to earn a positive margin of N3 per dollar sold.

CBN Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, said the decision was aimed at giving BDCs a level playing field to enable them compete favourably with other authorised forex dealers.

Okorafor urged the BDC operators to abide by the new guidelines and not exploit eager customers by selling above the N360 band. He warned that erring BDCs

Godwin Emefiele. CBN, governor

would be sanctioned in any case of infraction established against them. Before the review, the BDCs were buying dollars at N360 to a dollar, while selling same to customers at no more than N361.5/$1 while banks were buying at N357/$1 and selling at N360/$1.

Speaking further on the new BDC rate, Gwadabe described the development as reflection of the apex bank’s commitment in achieving a single exchange rate regime. He said ABCON had earlier expressed concerns about rate disparity and is now pleased with the review which will ensure transparency and stability in the forex market.

New ABCON demands The ABCON has further put up new requests before the CBN, which are meant to further deepen liquidity in the market. Following the implementation of the $2.5 billion currency swap agreement between the CBN and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), ABCON had urged the CBN to approve disbursements of the Renminbi (Yuan) to its members to deepen the China-Nigeria

Aminu Gwadabe, Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) President

swap deal.

Gwadabe explained that the approval would enable BDCs sell Personal and Business Travelling Allowances (PTA/BTA) to its customers in Yuan. According to him, the sale of BTAs and PTAs to China-bound businessmen would make them get used to the authentic features of the Yuan to avoid being issued fake currencies for transactions.

The ABCON chief applauded the CBN for taking proactive measures in prosecuting the deal and the stability of the naira at the nation’s foreign exchange market. He said the currency swap deal was part of the CBN’s plan to keep the naira stable and protect the foreign reserves domiciled in dollars. He said the 15 billion Renminbi (RMB)/ Yuan or N720 billion deal would provide adequate local currency liquidity for Nigerian and Chinese industrialists and reduce difficulties they face in searching for the greenback.

The ABCON boss said BDCs would benefit from the swap deal given that a stable and strong naira is

good for the economy and operators. For him, the increased use of Yuan in trade deals will also open a new business opportunity for BDC operators.

According to Gwadabe, ABCON will continually support CBN in achieving its exchange rate stability mandate and promoting economic growth through increased global partnerships and collaborations. He said the association is taking strategic steps to ensure that it benchmarks global best practices in currency dealings as seen in the ABCON co-ordination, automation and digitization projects.

The tough regulatory policies and environment, including the N70 million licencing fee for BDCs being championed by CBN are also concerns to ABCON. This fee, Gwadabe said, is not only outrageous, but has reduced the funds available to BDCs to successfully run their operations.

The BDC sector is also facing other challenges such as multiple exchange rate, abnormal bank charges, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Commission on Turnover (COT),

parallel market operators and illegal International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs), porous international boarders, complex documentation requirements and poor capacity/ skills of operators.

Over-regulation stifling BDC operations The increasing difficulties arising from over regulation and complex documentation requirements that licensed BDCs are facing in carrying out their daily legitimate operation is disturbing.

These hitches have negative impact on BDCs’ ability to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements and have to be tackled by the apex bank.

For instance, six units within the CBN are involved with BDC regulations, supervision, licensing, monitoring.

For instance, a BDC operator is expected to render daily, monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annual returns to these various departments of the same corporate body, which could be very cumbersome, repetitive and time consuming for both the operator and the regulator.

The operators are also under obligation to render same returns to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) /Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), while at the same time reporting to other statutory government establishments, including the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Corporate Affairs Commission among others.

“These constitute multiple regulation of a unit of the financial sub-sector that is only involved as a small market player. Unfortunately, some operators have had to pay high penalties to different departments where instant regulations are violated. The result of this is heavy burden on the BDCs which have continued to challenge their operations. We urge the CBN to take critical look at these challenges and tackle them in the interest of the financial sector and economy,” he said.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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Pension Today

BUSINESS DAY

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In Association with

2018 Budget: N5bn cut on pensions to worsen plight of retirees, deceased families The N5 billion cut from the proposed allocation for Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Fund for settlement of accrued pension liabilities of the Federal Government employees as well as Public Service Wage Adjustment in the 2018 Budget, recently signed into law by the President is generating concern among stakeholders in the pension industry. Here expert, Ivor Takor, legal practitioner and executive director, Centre For Pension Right Advocacy says it will cause pain, anger and frustration to federal government retirees and families of deceased federal public servants.

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he failure to payretirement benefits including death claims as and when due, is at the heart of thepublic-sector pension crisis in Nigeria.

The causebeingthe irregular settlement of accrued pension liabilities of the Federal Government because of inadequate funding of the Federal Government Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Fund account with the Central Bank of Nigeria and death claims of deceased federal public servants. Payment ofretirement benefits to retired federal public servants and payment of death claims are being batched and payments made in batches only whenever funds are released for the purpose. This is contrary to the spirit behind the pension reform, whoseobjective is stated in section 1 (c) of the Pension Reform Act 2014, as toensure that every person who worked in either the Public Service of the Federation, Federal Capital Territory, States and Local Governments or the Private Sector receives his retirement benefits as and when due.

Consequently,the passing into law ofthe annual budget by the National Assembly and the signing of it into law,is something that is expected to bring relief and joy tothose who are on the line awaiting payment. It is therefore understandable, why the revelation by President Buhari during the 2018 budget signing ritual, on Wednesday 20 June 2018, that the sum of N5 billion was cut from the provisions of Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage adjustment by National Assembly before

passing the 2018 Appropriation Bill, brought pain, anger, sadness, frustration and disappointment to retired federal public servants, next of kins of deceased public servants and indeed stakeholders in the pension industry.

Section 15(1)(a) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 protects the pension rights of federal public servants who were in service before the commencement of the Contributory Pension Scheme in 2004. The section provides that as from 25 June, 2004, being the commencement of the Pension Reform Act 2004, the accrued pension right to retirement benefits of any employee who is already under any pension scheme existing before the commencement of that Act and has over 3 years to retire shall in the case of employees of the Public Service of the Federation where the scheme is unfunded, be recognised in the form of an amount acknowledged through the issuance of Federal Government Retirement Benefits Bonds by the Debt Manage-

ment Office in favour of the employees. The bond issued under this subsection shall be redeemed upon the retirement of the employee in accordance with Section 39 of the Pension Reform Act 2014 and the amount so redeemed shall be added to the balance of the retirement savings account of the employee and applied in accordance with the provisions of Section 7 of the Act. The Federal Government Retirement Benefits Bonds issued by the Debt Management Office in favour of employee, is an instrument of indebtedness of the Federal Government. It is a debt security, under which the Federal Government owes employees a debt and is obliged to pay the employees interest or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity date in the instance case the date of retirement of individual employees.

Section 39 of the Act empowers the Central Bank of Nigeria to establish, invest and manage a fund to be known as the Federal Gov-

RC634453

Diamond Pension Fund Custodian Limited 1A, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State.

Tel: 01-4613753, 2713680, 2713954 Fax: 01-2713955 Email: info@diamondpfc.com Website: www.diamondpfc.com

ernment Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Fund in respect of Federal Public Service.The Federal Government shall pay into the Redemption Fund an amount not less than 5 percent of the total monthly wage bill payable to employees in the Federal Public Service.

The Act further provides that by the end of every calendar year, the National Pension Commission shalldetermine the adequacyof the Redemption Fund against projected pension liabilities of Government arising from voluntary and mandatory retirements, death of employees in service and advise the Budget Office of the Federation of shortfall, if any.To accurately ascertain Federal Government Pension Liability for each coming year, the Commission annually conducts verification and electronic enrollment of Federal Government Employees slated for retirement within the next fiscal year and adds the cost of the redemption of the bonds of these employees with death claims for the year and forward same to the

Budget Office.

The Act also provides that the Budget Office of the Federation on receipt of the advice from the Commission shall ensure adequate appropriation for the shortfall and subsequent payment.

The amount in the Redemption Fund shall be used by the Central Bank of Nigeria, as prescribed by the Commission, to redeem any retirement benefit bonds issued in pursuant to section 15(1)(a) of the Act. Unfortunately, successive governments failed to adequately fund the Federal Government Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fundfrom where accrued pension rights of employees are redeemed. It is therefore sad for retirees and stakeholders in the pension industry, that the National Assembly, to whom retirees have always been complaining to for the non-payment of their benefits tobe the ones to cut off money meant for payment of retirees from the budget. The Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah was quoted to have said that Senators are not worried about the President’s observations because they were doing their jobs and that if they had allowed the budget to scale through the way the President submitted they would have been in trouble with those who elected them. He was further quoted as haven said that they had to balance between the six geopolitical zones.

We concede that the constitution gives the National Assembly powers to scrutinise and approve budget proposals laid before it by the Executive Arm of government and in that process, the

Assembly is not expected to rubber stamp whatever is laid before it and return same to the Executive Arm. However, in carrying out this Constitutional function, members should have at the back of their minds that some sub heads such as pension are actual liabilities of government and not just estimates, therefore they require little or no alterations.

The President did say that all the issues raised notwithstanding, he signed the 2018 budget in order not to further slowdown the pace of recovery of the economy, which has doubtlessly been affected by the delay in passing the budget. I quickly also add that it will help to reduce the suffering of retirees and relations of deceased public servant.

That is if the money so appropriated for the payment of their benefits will be released timely. It is also heartwarming, when the President said he intends to seek to remedy some of the issues he raised through a supplementary and/or amendment budget which he hope the National Assembly will expeditiously consider.

The President should therefore inline with the spirit of his pronouncement, cause to be laid before the National Assemblya supplementary and/or amendment budget, to remedy some of the issues he raised including the N5billion cut from the provisions of Federal Government Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment. In the interest of retirees and families of deceased public servants, the National Assembly should expeditiously consider the request.

This section is created to increase awarness and deepen knowledge about the contributory pension scheme.

If you have enquiries or contributions, send to this e-mail: diamondpfcbusday@yahoo.com

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E-mail: insurancetoday@businessdayonline.com

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major effort to enhance customer interaction in the nation’s non-banking financial service sector, particularly insurance with technological innovation through artificial intelligence is about to be witnessed with the launch of a first of its kind Chatbot

by Custodian Investment Group.

Custodian is taking advantage of this platform to present the first Chatbot AI for an insurance and non-banking financial services business in Nigerian (called Max), hoping to set a pace for the spread of this technology and its benefits in Nigeria locally and Africa at large.

Max will engage customers in dynamic conversation which enables greater levels of personalization to be archived and takes us down a path of performing automated underwriting and claims functions based on dynamic data rather than the rows and columns limitation of today’s actual spreadsheets.

Customers have something to be excited about in terms of engagement rather than just filling out a static web form online.

With Max, Custodian is positioned to exploit the rising role of machine learning technology (AI) in scaling for customer needs. Max operates on massager platforms like Facebook messenger, Telegram and its own web messenger platform to guide customers through a brief and simplify process to get insurance courage and other nonbanking financial services.

Esomchi Nwofor, chief technology officer alongside her team said

Artificial intelligence to drive customer interaction in insurance …as Custodian launches ‘Max’ Chatbot Stories by MODESTUS ANAESORONYE

Customer care is at the heart of custodian, stating that it is the first in the non-banking financial services sector to come up with Artificial Intelligence to enable customers interact conveniently.

“We are aware of the challenges customers face in interaction with financial services companies, so all of these are geared towards bringing convenience and trust in insurance services, she said.

These will help create awareness, increase penetration by providing customers with self driven mobile application that enables them interact freely.

According to the Company, Chatbots remain instrumental to growth and transformation in the service industry.

In an industry like the insurance industry for example, that already faces so many challenges in appealing to its customers, Chatbots helps to solve at least some of the bigger problems.

The Chatbot tech has been widely used in the global insurance industry for over a decade now. It has opened doors for the development of an automated

insurance agent, available 24/7 to meet customer needs and respond to queries.

It has allowed insurance firms deploy distribution, claims and

customer service straight into a messenger platform that has about 900 million users each month and supports about 60 billion messages every day.

L-R: Bola Omole, Controller, InfoTech, Research & Statistics, Nigerian Insurers’ Association (NIA); Yetunde Ilori, director general, NIA; and Eddie Efekoha, outgoing chairman, NIA during a press briefing in Lagos.

Insurers get N1bn tax refund on KPMG’s intervention

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fforts geared towards reducing unnecessary and multiple tax burdens placed on insurance companies operations by section 16(2)(a) of the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA), recently yielded result with refund of about N1 billion to insurers.

With KPMG professional servic-

es, the industry has begun to get the listening ear of the Federal Inland Revenue Services that have temporarily suspended that section of the law pending when a final amendment will be effected in the tax law.

This taxation analysts believe has undermined the insurance sectors capability to pay dividend to share-

holders, improve profitability and achieve expected growth.

They also believe that taxation on insurance premium, commission to brokers and agents, as well as claims and management expenses amounts to multiple taxation, and lacks merit when you consider what obtains in other market.

Eddie Efekoha, outgoing chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association said “we are delighted to report that through our strategic engagement initiatives and with the understanding reached, members are now a bit relieved from the heavy tax burden imposed on our memberinsurance companies by the law.”

In Section 16(2)(a) of the CITA, the profits of a life business insurance company are calculated by taking management expenses, including commission, subject to subsection (8)(b) of the Act from gross income (investment income and revaluation surplus).

For non-life businesses, section 16(1)(b) states that profits will be calculated for tax purposes by deducting the reinsurance cost and a reserve for unexpired risk (the premium corresponding to the time period remaining on an insurance policy), subject to subsection (8)(a) of the Act from a gross premium, interest and other income receivable in Nigeria.

The relevant subsections of CITA are listed below “(8) An insurance company, other than a life insurance company, shall be allowed as deductions from its premium the following reserves for tax purposes: (a) for unexpired risks, 45 percent of the total premium in case of genL-R; Richard Borokini, director-general, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria/member, 2018 National Insurance Conference eral insurance business other than Committee; Femi Hassan, chairman of Committee, and Muftau Oyegunle, member, during a press briefing on forth coming National marine insurance business and 25 Insurance Conference in Lagos percent of the total premium in case

of marine cargo insurance; (b) for other reserves, claims and outgoings of the company an amount equal to 25 percent of the total premium, so that, after allowance under the Second Schedule to this Act as may be restricted, has been allowed for in any year of assessment, not less than amount equal to 15 percent of the total profit of the company for tax purposes.

(9) An insurance company, in respect of its life insurance business shall be allowed the following deductions from its investment incomes and other incomes: (a) an amount which makes a general reserve and fund equal to the net liabilities on policies in force at the time of an actuarial valuation; (b) an amount which is equal to 1 percent of the gross premium or 10 percent of profits (whichever is greater) to a special reserve fund and accommodation until it becomes the amount of the statutory minimum paid-up capital; (c) all normal allowable business outgoing, except that after allowing for all the outgoing and allowance under the Second Schedule to this Act as may be restricted under the provisions of this Act for any year of assessment, not less than an amount equal to 20 percent of the gross incomes shall be available as ‘total profit’ of the company for tax purposes.”

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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E-mail: insurancetoday@businessdayonline.com

Harmonised market goals to address perceived gaps in micro insurance - Efekoha ...as NAICOM, operators continue engagement MODESTUS ANAESORONYE

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he insurance industry 10-year expected market goal being harmonised

by KPMG professional services will address perceived challenges in the recently released micro insurance guidelines.

“The harmonised market goal is looking at all facets of market development including market penetration, which micro insurance falls under”.

Eddie Efekoha, outgoing chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) who disclosed this during media interaction in Lagos said NAICOM is engaging with operators to get workable model for the micro insurance business.

He said the commission is committed to deepen penetration, which is the objective of micro insurance, hoping that the harmonised goal with streamline the processes.

Efekoha stated the Industry was working with KPMG to developed a 10-year transformation roadmap for the industry.

“This roadmap together with similar works by other arms of industry are undergoing harmonisation under the auspices of the Insurers Committee.”

He strongly believes that the implementation of this plan when concluded soon would bring about the muchawaited growth to the insurance industry.

NAICOM had on release of the Revised Microinsurance Guidelines which became effective 1st January, 2018 stated

that non-life conventional insurers operating Microinsurance as a window operation are given till June 2018 to wind up this operation, while the life operators has December 2018 as the deadline to do same.

The Guidelines stated that, “No person shall commence or carry on any class of Microinsurance business without being registered or authorized by the Commission.

According to the Commission, efforts to make existing insurance companies key into micro insurance products and reach the grassroot was not successful, so the new direction was strategically decided to drive penetration and increase access to insurance services.

Section 10, sub section 1 and 2 of the revised Microin-

L-R: Tope Smart, group managing director/CEO; Fidelis Ayebae, chairman of the Company and Olajumoke Philip-Akede, company secretary during its 48th Annual General Meeting held in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Industry moves to support govt financial inclusion project

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etermined to support government efforts towards financial inclusion, the Insurance Industry Consultative Council (IICC) is dedicating this year’s National Insurance Conference to campaign for financial inclusion.

The federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in October 2012 launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), which focuses on interventions that will increase access to: payments, savings, credit, remittances, pension, insurance; under affordable terms and conditions The overall aim is to empower people, promote savings, increase the level of investment by diverse economic groups, catalyse increased productivity, improve income,

reduce poverty and also promote a sound, safe, vibrant and stable financial system.

Femi Hassan, chairman planning committee , National Insurance Conference said in Lagos that the 2018 Conference is being organized to further underscore the commitment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry to continually upscale the knowledge of insurance operators, other professionals in the financial services sector as well as other stakeholders; about contemporary dynamics in the economic development of the country.

“The Conference would also highlight the enabling roles of the insurance industry in achieving financial inclusion and by so doing, accelerate its contributions to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.”

He said for the fact that

access to financial services is concentrated in urban areas has limited the people from the rural areas from contributing maximally to growth and development of the nation’s economy.

“It is therefore instructive to state that the theme of this year’s Conference: Insurance Industry and Financial Inclusion is quite apt, in view of the policy direction of government towards including all segments of the society within the financial safety net. “ The 2018 National Insurance Conference holding from Sunday July 8th - 10th 2018 in Abuja will be decalred open by the Yemi Osinbajo vice president while. Kemi Adeosun will give a keynote address, with the Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari as the chief host.

surance guidelines released recently to the public said “Existing Conventional microinsurers shall wind down their window operations for nonlife classes within 18 months from the effective date of this Guidelines and in not later than 24 months transfer the life classes to a dedicated microinsurance company.”

It added that, ‘no policy shall be renewed or new one issued with an expiry date beyond the date stated above.’

According to the guideline, the following capital requirement shall obtain for the different business structures: Unit Microinsurer: The Company’s Minimum Capital

Base is N40 million (General: N2S million & Life: NIS million). It is to operate only in anyone (1) location within a local community and the Company shall prove to the Commission through their business plan that they are going to access the low income earners spread across the location within a reasonable time frame.

Linkage Assurance names Daniel Braie acting MD/CEO

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he Board of Directors, Linkage Assurance Plc has named Daniel Braie acting managing director/chief executive officer of the Company. He takes over from Pius Apere whose appointment with the Company

ended 21st June 2018.

The decision follows an emergency board meeting held on the 21st June 2018.

In a statement made available to regulatory authorities, the decision was taken in line with the Articles of Association of the

Company and the employment contract of the managing director.

Braie will be in charge of the management of the Company pending the appointment and confirmation of substantive managing director.

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BUSINESS DAY

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Leading People Leadership

McKinsey’s Kevin Sneader on rebooting the consultancy The new global managing partner wants to dismantle a secretive culture MADISON MARRIAGE AND LIONEL BARBER, FT

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t is a rare sight: the head of the world’s most powerful consultancy walking alone, without any handlers, into a newspaper headquarters for his first media interview. This could be an overt display of selfconfidence by Kevin Sneader, the newly elected boss of McKinsey, or a move calculated to show he is not quite the conventional choice his initial critics presumed. Mr Sneader is McKinsey’s first Scottish, and its first Jewish, leader.

He speaks at warp speed, with a self-deprecating and disarmingly frank humour, joking about his Glaswegian accent, his hero Billy McNeill, the former Celtic football player and manager, and the deal with his wife never to discuss Donald Trump. Mr Sneader, 51, is just a week away from officially starting his role as McKinsey’s global managing partner. From July 1 he will be in charge of the world’s biggest partnership — a sprawling business with 2,000 partners and 28,000 staff across 65 countries that has registered breakneck growth over the past decade, doubling revenues to $10bn. Leading McKinsey, which advises the world’s biggest corporations and governments around the world, is a job requiring Olympic stamina and top class communication skills. In the next week alone, Mr Sneader will travel from London to Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dallas, San Francisco and back home to Hong Kong, where he lives with his wife, Amy, and their two daughters. “I’m five foot five, so I fit in an aeroplane seat,” he quips, “So for me, it’s actually quite easy.”

He has spent his entire career at the consultancy, which he joined as a business analyst straight from Glasgow university.

As the new boss, Mr Sneader is anxious to show he is not just “another white, middle-aged dude”, as a former partner commented after his election. “The reality is I’m a traditionalist when it comes to our values . . . but I’m an innovator when it comes to what we’re going to do,” he says. “We’re not broken, we’re in good shape, and I see myself as an innovator, not a consolidator.” His first big shift has been to overhaul McKinsey’s leadership team to ensure a better

Kevin Sneader

gender and geographical balance.

The new team of 15 McKinsey partners includes five women, whereas it previously had one.

It is also less heavily skewed towards partners from the western hemisphere, and includes the heads of six regions: Europe, Latin America, China, Asia exChina, North America, and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is the first time China has been treated as a standalone region — a strong indication of where Mr Sneader sees growth potential for the firm. McKinsey executives usually practise a Trappist-like silence when it comes to discussing the inner workings of their organisation. Mr Sneader wants to break tradition.

“It’s not a state secret,” he says of the new management structure. “ The days when we can hide from the outside world are over.

When it comes to our clients we

absolutely will continue to respect their confidentiality. When it comes to ourselves, I think we can be more open.” McKinsey’s conversion to glasnost has been partly forced by an embarrassing scandal in South Africa, where the firm, along with other international companies, became entangled in government corruption linked to the controversial Gupta family. Initially, McKinsey was aloof and unapologetic.

Mr Sneader acknowledges this was a mistake. “One of the things we are now very aware of is we failed to engage with civil society in a way that showed we took this as seriously as we do take it, and we failed to say sorry for the mistakes that we clearly made,” he says. The South Africa problems are far from over for the firm, and the affair raises serious questions about supervision of its local business — as it did with KPMG,

McKinsey is ranked as the best consulting firm to work for in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific (2018)

the Big Four accounting firm. The episode also points to the risks inherent in pursuing breakneck

750,000

The number of people who have applied to work for McKinsey in 2017 growth. Under Dominic Barton, his Canadian predecessor, McKinsey doubled revenues and the number of partners. The firm continues to be viewed as one of the most prestigious companies in the world to work for. Last year about 750,000 individuals applied to work there. Fewer than 1 per cent were successful. But Mr Sneader, a gym addict known for firing off emails from his iPad while on the treadmill at 6am, says there is no room for complacency. McKinsey

needs to adapt further.

Mr Sneader has no intention of retrenching, but is recalibrating.

“I joined a firm that had about 100 partners, and that was in 1989.

There were lots of advantages to that — everybody knew everybody, and it was a very intimate group. “On the other hand, when you’ve got this number of partners, there’s a lot more that you can do. It’s a far more interesting place in terms of the backgrounds of those people. And it might be nostalgic to turn the clock back, but I don’t believe that scale is the enemy of partnership. I just don’t buy that.”

Mr Sneader intends to continue the firm’s acquisition spree (it made 14 under Mr Barton) and is considering a “long list of opportunities” — largely in the area of data analytics, digital and the internet of things. But he intends to manage that growth differently. First, there are certain sectors he has ruled out, including headhunting, outsourcing and mainstream advertising. Second, he plans to forge more research partnerships with clients, and is particularly animated about the potential for teaming up with the world’s largest technology companies.

Another priority is to reshape the firm’s workforce so that it becomes less dependent on business school graduates and more diverse. Of current employees, 37 per cent have MBAs — a proportion that will fall to “less than a third” as McKinsey increasingly hires from the creative industries, according to Mr Sneader. He also wants to encourage greater interaction within McKinsey’s workforce and its network of almost 34,000 alumni — “a hugely important group”. Finally, there is the delicate question of governance.

He has already experienced the power of the partners, who decided to reduce the maximum term he can serve from nine years to six. “It makes a tonne of sense,” he says.

McKinsey’s 2,000 partners vote every 18 months or so on important decisions. A subcommittee of 30 senior partners, named the shareholders’ council, meets more frequently to vote on more routine matters such as a recent office opening in Sri Lanka.

Mr Sneader believes the entire partnership should be consulted more often. Technology has transformed McKinsey’s ability to communicate with current and former employees, and he plans to fully utilise that potential. “I’m very excited by what lies ahead, but I also feel there are some things that we need to adjust,” he says. “The way we participate in the running of the firm needs to change.”

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Germany’s unelectrified border crossings holding back rail freight, says APS Page 31

Business travels or holidays, keep moving

Lagos-Badagry rail infrastructural decay may lead to project review

Visa-free access continues to increase globally

Page 30

Page 30

Page 31

Honda bets big on new City in Nigeria Stories by MIKE OCHONMA

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onda Automobile Western Africa Limited last week in Lagos announced the arrival of the all-new Honda City for the 2019market year.

The introduction of the completely revamped passenger car is coming few months after the launch of the Honda CR-V in what could be described as a massive market comeback of the Japanese brand after nearly five years of market lull in Nigeria.

Comparatively, the new arrival builds on its predecessor’s exceptional safety, excellent dynamics, high fuel efficiency, cool design, comfortable spaces, advanced technology and practical equipment.

The new City which comes with low-gravity, wide stance and trend-setting styling with outstanding spaces. Totally upgraded to be a “4-door sedan with the best value” to catch consumers’ attention and open new horizons for the urban sedan.

Considering the Honda philosophy of “Man Maximum, Machine Minimum”, it retains the agility of the 1.5-liter even as the up-class concept was adopted to create a super-sized interior approaching that of medium sedans.

Outside, the model boasts of a completely restyled front fascia with the new honeycomb grille giving it a bold and aggressive look.

The external styling embraces a new design philosophy of “low center of gravity, wide stance” for a sportier and more innovative look.

Next Amarok, Ranger could share platform

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With starting price of N7.99 million Sleek lines on both sides of the body lend a unique look to the new City which comes with a starting price of N7.99 million, Inside, the car delivers cleverly generated interior space that exceeds its class by further evolving Honda’s “man maximum machine minimum” concept, which aims at maximizing the space available for people and minimizing the space required for mechanical components.

While maintaining compact dimensions and realizing longer wheelbase, efficient use of space have been made for both driver and occupants to create a spacious interior cabin with widest front seat space and rear seat space beyond its class.

The artistry that goes into the car creates thoughtful interiors, with a new colour of black; and

contains a grand cabin space, extensive legroom, rear a/c ducts and an ergonomically designed cockpit that delights all users.

It measures 4455 mm in length (20mm more than the outgoing model), 1695 mm in width (same as outgoing model), 1485 mm in height (10 mm more than the outgoing model) and 2600 mm as the wheelbase (extended by an additional 50 mm over outgoing model).

Powertrain: the latest entrant is powered by an improved 1.5-liter, 4 cylinder SOHC i-VTEC Petrol engine designed to offer the best balance of engine performance and fuel economy.

Designed to deliver outstanding fuel economy at a maximum power of 118 hp @ 6600 rpm followed by a maximum torque of 145 N-m @ 4600 rpm, the en-

gine is supported with the new generation continuous variable transmission (CVT) with a fuel consumption of 20 kilometer per litre.

In terms of safety, the car’s advanced compatibility engineering (ACE) body enhances self-protection while mitigating damage to other vehicles in the event of a collision hereby enhancing occupant protection.

Other safety features are the anti-lock brake system (ABS).

This ensures you have full steering control to avoid the danger ahead, dual front airbags that provides protection to occupants in case of an accident, the Iso Fix feature with three positions at the rear seat for adequate positioning of baby car seat including the front active headrest with pretension seatbelts.

olkswagen and Ford are exploring the prospect of a strategic alliance that would involve collaborating on several joint projects. Among these, says VW, would be the “joint development of a range of commercial vehicles to better serve the evolving needs on customers globally”.

Details are thin on the ground at this stage, but such an alliance could certainly have implications in the bakkie world. Assuming that work on the next-generation Amarok is not already at too advanced a stage, it could certainly make sense, from a cost perspective, to twin it with the next-generation Ford Ranger.

Much like the current Mazda BT-50, the Amarok would likely share its basic structure with the Ranger, but sporting different styling and a redesigned cabin. Incidentally, the BT-50’s replacement will be based on Isuzu’s next KB, in a deal struck after the Ford-Mazda divorce.

Could a VW-Ford deal also result in the German carmaker getting its own version of the larger F150 pick-up?

This is possibly more of a long shot, given that VW is expected to tackle the full-sized pick-up market in the US with a unibody vehicle inspired by the Tanoak concept. Either way it goes, VW desperately wants in on this lucrative segment in the US.

Elizade Autoland presents Mike Ade.Ojo N10.5 million, T6 Pick-Up @ 80

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n a what looked like presentation of a cultural display by a national troupe inside a musical theatre, the amangement of Elizade Autloland precisely on the early hours of Tuesday, June 12, 2018 which coincided with Nigeria’s now remaned ‘democracy day’ woke up the birthday chief with an emotional traditional music rendition right inside his ‘Founder’s House’ brickhouse residence to identify with hin on his 80 th birthday celebration two days ahead.

And to make it memorable, the management and staff of Elizade Autoland, owners of the JAC auto brand in Nigeria led by Demola Ade-Ojo, managing director of company presented the octogenarian with a T6, 4x4 double cabin Pickup vehicle valued at over N10 million to congratulate on his birthday and to appreciate him for bringing in the JAC brand into the market.

Before handing the celebrant

5th (L-R): Ademola Adewunmi, Head of Sales, Elizade Autoland, (JAC Motors), Taiwo Mike Ade.Ojo, Mike Ade.Ojo, Founder, Elizade conglomerate, Demola Ade-Ojo, managing director, Elizade Autoland, (JAC Motors) and Funke Demola Ade-Ojo during the presentation of JAC T6 Pick-Up vehicle to Mike Ade.Ojo to mark his 80th birthday in Lagos last week.

the key to the vehicle, the Demola Ade.Ojo stated that Elizade Nigeria Limited being the parent company founded by Mike Ade.Ojo, had provided the springboard needed for JAC’s take-off and success.

According to him, “Everyone acknowledges the fact that the name Elizade has opened doors for the

JAC in Nigeria. Daddy, it is your reputation that has really made us to sell this brand in Nigeria. We know that you love the brand and you likened it to what Toyota was about 40 years ago when it started in Nigeria.

“You’ve seen the T6 and you loved it. We thought about what we would give you as a present on your

80th birthday and we came up with the JAC T6 model.”

The JAC boss maintained that the brand owes the success of the brand in Nigeria largely to the doggedness and vision of Michael Ade Ojo, chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited and Founder, Elizade group of companies, and the brain behind Elizade University, IlaraMokin. ‘’We know that you love the brand and you likened it to what Toyota was about 40 years ago when it started in Nigeria.We are not ashamed to say that we wouldn’t have been what we are now, but for your pedigree and marketing skills”.

He added that JAC has become a respected Nigerian brand today owing to the good name that Elizade group has maintained over the years.

Presenting the gift, he said:

“You’ve seen the T6 and you loved it. We thought about what we would give you as a present on your 80th birthday and we came up with the JAC T6 model.We want to thank you and also appeal that you continue to wield your influence to ensure we get to our dream land” In response, the octogenarian said, he is delighted to receive the T6 JAC pickup as a surprise birthday gift, and expressed optimism that with hard work, the Chinese brand can compete with some of the best brands in the market including Toyota.

On his vision for JAC brands Ade Ojo said “To continue to be the number one auto company in Nigeria and make the JAC brand to become the number two or even overtake Toyota. I want to see a healthy rivalry between the two automobile brands that are connected to me in Nigeria.”

30 BUSINESS DAY

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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MTRAVEL odern

London voted Europe’s most business-friendly city …Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam follow

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Business travels or holidays, keep moving MIKE OCHONMA

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ometimes, business trips can be rough over the holidays, and most of travellers would rather prefer to be relaxed and enjoy the comfort of their homes than sitting on a cramped plane.

But for those trading the comforts of home for planes, trains, and conference rooms, there are some important quick tips for mastering travel during every hectic holiday season.

If possible, every traveller are to arrive in a city the night before the first meeting, as any extra night gives one a chance to explore since once my meetings start, there may be no time to enjoy the scenery before getting back on a plane.

For those traveling to Europe this time of year, they can enjoy the nightly colorful Christmas markets that are typically found in town centers.

Don’t underestimate jet lag, especially on frequent international trips.

The night before the trip, try to get to bed early or late, depending on the destination so that the body can start to adjust to the new time zone.

Whirlwind trips leave little time for relaxation, but sleep is a critical component of being able to play at the top

of your game. Instead of checking your phone in the back of that taxi, try closing your eyes and taking some deep breaths.

Resting, even for a few minutes, always makes one feel more relaxed, centred and ready to tackle the next meeting.

It is also advisable that before traveling abroad, download language lesson podcasts and listen to them on the plane. This habit helps the mind adjust to hearing the new language and enable you to pick up some useful phrases, which is always helpful when navigating foreign cities.

It pays to be a team player in the office environment especially when you are a frequent traveller. Rely on colleagues. In the office, it is necessary to have a team that covers for you as needed. This is necessary to allow one focus during any trip without worrying about what is happening back at the office.

And if you a very busy executive whose emails tend to pile up when traveling, and it takes hours clearing them out of the inbox, try to set aside blocks of time, like two hours before breakfast or two hours before going to bed to address important correspondence and delegate the rest.

Furthermore, always activate your e-mail auto-responder to let people

know that you are away from the office. This way you will not feel pressure to respond immediately, even as you can deal with other priorities while traveling.

Don’t forget to turn it off when you get back to the office, either, or clients might think you spend too much time away from your desk.

Stay hydrated by keeping bottled water with all the time. Few things, short of exercise, will dehydrate you faster than flying. And few things will make you feel worse than being dehydrated, and hangovers are one of them, by the way.

Being resilient, flexible, and fast on your feet is necessary for traveling at any time of year, but especially so during the holidays when airports are jammed, as snow storms delay flights in some countries, bags get crushed in overhead compartments, and fellow travellers are stressed out with screaming kids. Rather than getting agitated, I try to remember that I am exactly where I’m meant to be at that moment.

Keep particular items that may be needed at any time in my carry-on luggage like converters, laptop and cell phone power cords, as well as toiletries, such as toothpaste and deodorant including your keeping your back-ups in my checked bags, too.

Visa-free access continues to increase globally

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he latest Henley Passport Index has shown that despite a growing polarity in immigration discourse countries around the world continue to maintain or increase their visa free access.

Germany has maintained first place on the Henley Passport Index for the fifth year running, with its citizens enjoying visa-free access to 177 countries in total, up from 176 countries in 2017.

Singapore ranks second globally in the 2018 edition of the index, with visa-free access to 176 countries, while eight countries Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the UK share third place, offering passport-holders access to 175 countries.

Ranking jointly fourth on the index, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Spain all of which provide visa-free access to 174 countries.

The continuing movement towards greater visa-free access, potentially highlights a global desire of governments to increase global mobility and their access to foreign migration.

Christian H. Kälin, group chairman of Henley & Partners, said, “There is no

denying that a global mobility divide exists. We are also seeing a growing tendency towards a more isolationist, immigration-hostile policy among traditional migrant-receiving countries such as the US, and 2018 will bring further uncertainty, with the UK still in the grip of ongoing Brexit negotiations.

Nonetheless, only a small minority of countries on the Henley Passport Index lost visa-free access in 2018. By and large, countries either improved or maintained their access compared to 2017.

“These findings reflect the fact that, while certain countries are tightening their borders, most are in fact becoming more open, as they seek to tap into

the immense economic value that tourism, international commerce and migration can bring.”

The Henley Passport Index maintains historical data spanning 13 years.

The global ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The US is among the countries holding fifth place in the 2018 edition of the index, improving its visa-free score from 172 in 2017 to 173 in 2018.

The Russian Federation, meanwhile, climbed three places to 48th position.

China has shown the most growth in North Asia over the past year, moving up 10 places compared to 2017 and now ranking 75th globally.

hough London and other UK cities rank highly for business travel, the British hospitality industry need to capitalise on its position - so the UK doesn’t lose out post-Brexit.

London has pipped Paris and Berlin to be voted the most business-friendly city in Europe in a survey of more than 1,000 British business travellers.

Recently, a research commissioned by UK and Irish hotels group Jurys Inn found that client meetings were the most common reason for travel, closely followed by training sessions, conferences, intra-company discussions, and attending exhibitions and trade fairs.

A fifth of UK business travellers claimed that poor planning was their main grievance. As organisations across the UK refocus on national and international growth, travel is firmly back on the boardroom agenda as leaders plan on increasing the number of business trips for employees over the next 12 months (34 per cent) or keeping it similar to the previous 12 months (54 per cent),” the report said.

Jason Carruthers, managing director of Jurys Inn, commented: “It comes as no great surprise that London is the most frequently visited UK city for business purposes, but it is fantastic to see that our respondents

Amsterdam ranked fourth on the list of business-friendly cities among UK-based business travellers, with Manchester in fifth place.

In fact, when asked about the most frequented UK city for business, over half or 52 per cent of UK business travellers stated that London is also one of the three UK cities they most frequently visit, followed by Manchester 29 per cent and Liverpool 19 per cent.

“The research found that Cardiff, Aberdeen and Glasgow attract higher than average business travellers who work in the media, marketing, advertising and PR world, suggesting that these locations are fast becoming new creative hubs.

On the most common frustration with off-site meetings or conferences, 26 per cent of respondents complained that programmes or agendas were simply not of interest or ‘boring’.

consider London the most business friendly city in Europe, with Manchester and Liverpool also featuring highly in the ranking.”

It’s also extremely encouraging to see that Manchester ranked within the top five friendliest business destinations in Europe, ahead of Frankfurt and Brussels.

He stated that, as the environment for business in the UK and Europe continues to flourish, so too has the travel and hospitality industry as it serves the needs of businessmen and women travelling across the globe.

“However, if the UK hospitality industry fails to capitalise on its position as an established international destination for companies of all shapes and sizes, our European neighbours and cities further afield, will profit from business travellers seeking alternative venues.” He concluded.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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31

Local and global rail news as it breaks

Lagos-Badagry rail infrastructural decay may lead to project review

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Stories by MIKE OCHONMA

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here are very strong indications that it would cost the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CECC) more funds, men and material resources to fix back some of the wire barriers and non-functioning electrical installations that form part of expanded 10-lane LagosBadagry corridor.

City dwellers familiar with the corridor including motorists who use the axis on daily basis are worried that The construction had last year fixed the wire fences along short intervals within the corridor apparently to regulate movement of passers-by and to protect their equipment.

Unfortunately, some of the already installed wire fences are presently destroyed, used for spreading clothes, completely removed or over-grown with grasses. Few months ago, there was a test-run of the electrical installations along the corridor between the Orile-Iganmu axis up to the Festac 2nd gate end only, but as at the time of filing this report, some of the lightings are no longer functioning.

Road users attribute the destruction of the wire fences as the result of the activities of some criminal elements that come around to remove them for other personal uses, while some hangers-on and destitutes lay siege at behind the wire fences as their resting place all through the day.

A visit to the railway terminals reveals the occupants had fixed mosquito nets and curtains at their respective sleeping corners, while clothes were littered all over the

Wales’ “Global Centre of Rail Excellence” testing centre to cost £100m

floor. Occupants used stones and similar objects to carve out their spaces.

The Blue line starts at Marina station and runs along Ebute Ero and Iddo station same as the Red line that runs to Alagabdo. From Iddo, the Blue line running on an elevated platform moves along the National Theatre station and makes a descent at Iganmu to join the expanded Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

It is an expansion conceived to ease link between Nigeria and neighbouring West African states, Alaba, Mile 2, Festac, Alakija, Trade Fair station, Volkswagen station, LASU and finally reaches the Okokomaiko station where it ends.

One of the two bridges being built for the Blue line is at Mile 2.

Reacting to the menace of hoodlums living on the rail lines harassing motorists and other road users recently, Kola Ojelabi, LAMATA’s head of media and communica-

tions, explained that, it is illegal for anybody under any guise to live on the rail tracks, not to talk of turning themselves into criminals and causing a breach to public safety.

According to him, the state government is exploring the option of lighting up the entire stretch or highway and erecting a protective safety fence along the entire LagosBadagry rail corridor when completed.

“It is true that we have given different completion dates for the project but one of the challenges that we had was that the train was originally to go to the Iddo Railway Terminus, but the Railway Act did not allow us to do such.’’

Other infrastructure to be built as part of the project include stations; signalling, control and communications (SC&C) systems; supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems; depot and workshop facilities; an operations

control centre and a training facility for train drivers.

The Blue line is budgeted to cost $1.2bn and is being funded entirely by the Lagos state government. In May 2012, the state government commenced negotiations with potential investors for the operation and maintenance of the line.

The Blue line will be 27km long, connecting Okokomaiko to Marina.

In terms of signalling and communications, the light rail system when completed is expected to employ the latest train authorisation systems, automatic train protection (ATP) and in-cab signalling in all of its lines.

The wayside equipment will be minimised so that the drivers will not exceed the authorised movement limits, while the ATP will help to maintain the speed restrictions set on the lines. To ensure that the signalling is available even during power cuts, a backup power system will be fitted.

he Welsh government has announced plans to build a £100m “world-leading” rail testing centre which it says would offer facilities for an innovation accelerator, rolling stock and infrastructure testing, storage, decommissioning, maintenance and servicing.

A number of potential sites for the “Global Centre of Rail Excellence” are still being researched, but the mothballed open cast mine in Nant Helen, on the Powys and Neath Port Talbot border, and the adjacent and operational coalwashery site in Onllwyn, was looking likely as the preferred option.

“This area, at the top of the Dulais Valley, has been reliant on the coal industry for generations.

With this era drawing to a close, there is great potential for investment drawing on existing and new skills,” says transport secretary Ken Skates.

“I have therefore instructed Welsh Government officials to move to the next stage of business case development, which will involve continued and close partnership working. We estimate a bespoke facility like this will cost £100m to deliver, and it is not a project that can proceed without local support, private sector investment and the commitment of manufacturers, rolling stock companies, network operators and a range of other stakeholders to back it now and into the future.”

The move comes a year after CAF announced it was building a rolling stock plant near Newport in South Wales. CAF has been awarded a contract by KeolisAmey to supply 148 DMUs for the new Wales & Borders franchise.

Germany’s unelectrified border crossings holding back rail freight, says APS

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he station at Bayerisch Eisenstein in Bavaria, which connects Germany and the Czech Republic, is one of 13 unelectrified stations on the border. The station at Bayerisch Eisenstein in Bavaria, which connects Germany and the Czech Republic, is one of 13 unelectrified stations on the border.

A lack of electrification on German cross-border rail routes is making it difficult for rail to compete with heavy goods vehicles (HGV) for a bigger market share of international freight movements through the country, the Berlin-based Pro-Rail Alliance (APS) says.

According to an APS survey of the 57 border crossings that

connect Germany’s rail network to all of its neighbours, only 25 are electrified. The share of electrification of the lines that cross international borders is 44 percent, compared with 60 perecnt for the

rest of the German network.

Dirk Flege, managing director, APS said, out of the 24 crossings on Germany’s eastern border, only four are electrified, according to APS. “Long-distance freight

trains are hauled by electric locomotives but out of 10 border crossings with Poland, only one is electrified,” “And of the 14 rail routes to the Czech Republic, again only one is electrified. So it is no wonder that huge numbers of east European HGVs flood Germany’s motorways every day. Without the electrification of the rail freight network, the flood of HGVs cannot be stopped.”

APS says the economic viability of freight trains is at its highest when large volumes of goods are transported over long distances.

But with 50 percent of the freight on Germany’s railways heading for international destinations, it says the lack of electrification at border cross-

ings is forcing freight trains, particularly those from Eastern Europe, into bottlenecks which make it impossible to achieve any significant modal shift from road to rail.

In comparison with its neighbours, Germany has a lower overall level of electrification of its rail network. Poland has 64% of its network electrified, while Austria has electrified 71 percent, the Netherlands 76 percent, Belgium 86 percent, and Switzerland has 100 percent electrification.

While the German coalition government has not yet set a target for the electrification of border crossings, it has agreed a target of 70 percent of the national rail network to be electrified by 2025.

32 BUSINESS DAY Financial Inclusion

& INNOVATION

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Supported by:

IMF to Collaborates with Fintech Nigeria to Spur Financial Inclusion OLUWATOSIN DOKUNMU

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he International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is to engage Fintech Nigeria in ensuring an effective Financial Inclusion Strategy to help Africa’s largest economy achieve more financial inclusion.

The Fintech Nigeria Association is among the few selected organizations to meet the IMF mission team in the course of their visit to Nigeria on the 29th of June, 2018.

As part of the mission of the Federal Ministry of Finance and IMF mission team in Nigeria, an engagement with the Fintech Nigeria Asso-

ciation has been scheduled to start from the 27-29th of June, 2018 in Lagos where they expect to get updates on the Financial Inclusion strategy in the country, among other issues.

“This is a move in the right direction as IMF will bring in innovations and experience to improve financial inclusion in the country as this is a move they have always exhibited in other economies of the world,” an analyst who asked not to be quoted said.

Some of the other critical discussion points in the forth meeting agenda with Fintech Nigeria, include; Developments in Financial Access, Constraints to Mobile Money Development, Developments

in Microfinance, Doing Business (high financial acces rating; regulatory environment) and implications for firms, Investment promotion bill, Update on Financial Inclusion Strategy amongst others.

“The engagement with Fintech sounds like a positive news for financial inclusion in Nigeria, as the Fintechs already have the infrastructure which they can leverage to increase the banked in the country as most of their services have always been targeted towards making financial services seamless,” another financial analyst who preferred not to be quoted added.

Meanwhile, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has

plans to include 80 percent of its population by the year 2020.

The Apex bank said it would work aggressively towards increasing financial inclusion rate, by cutting down the number of people excluded from the financial system to 20 per cent in the same period under review.

Although financial analysts rather see the plans as too optimistic and may not be realisable, considering the conventional banking mechanism which Nigeria operates has not been doing justice in including the informal sector.

This also follows the World Bank’s Global Findex Database Report for 2017 which revealed a slump in

the level of financial inclusion in the population hub of Africa despite the global rising of financial inclusion as reported by the World Bank. “Financial inclusion is on the rise globally, accelerated by mobile phones and the internet, but gains have been uneven across countries,” the World Bank said in a statement.

As compiled from the World Bank’s Global Findex Database report released in April 2018, Nigerian adults who are 25 years and above with bank accounts declined by 5 percentage points to 44 percent in 2017 as compared to the preceding years’ figures.

This was not different with account holders over 15 years of

age, as the account was down 4 percentage points from 44 percent in 2014 to 40 percent in 2017.

This brought about 40 percent of the total adults in the country who have bank accounts, with 25 percent gap between the men and women in Africa’s largest economy. With the increasing clamor for financial inclusion, the Apex bank already has in issue, 21 mobile money licensed agents in a bid to achieve her 80 percent financial inclusion goal by 2020. This move is believed to have been informed from the benefits the platform has yielded to her peers in other sub-Saharan African Countries.

Much ado about digital payments; but is it worth It? IBUKUN TAIWO & OLAYINKA DAVID-WEST

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n the financial inclusion discourse, digital payments usually surface due to the penetration of mobile and its importance in granting financial access to the unbanked.

The trends and pace of technology today ensures that a cash-lite society is no longer a wishful dream but rather, a vision that countries are inching towards everyday.

However, the shift away from cash towards digital payments is difficult, expensive and sometimes confusing.

The infrastructure implications alone are significant - resources for building or enhancing payments infrastructure, the constant security upgrades necessary to ensure system integrity, developing comprehensive financial literacy curricula as well as public sensitisation, to name a few. And at the end of it all, there’s no guarantee of the desired change within the timeframe.

A significant proportion of literature has explored the cashlite journey of different economies. In a previous article, we even highlighted the role agent networks play towards the cashlite movement. So, let’s step back and re-evaluate. Is the call for digital payments a whim or a global good with reaching benefits for the unbanked and other stakeholders?

What are the gains of digital payments for an economy and her citizenry?

1. Digital payments power inclusive financial systems The emergence of digital money and the ability of financial institutions to digitize their services and deliver them through digital channels and devices has gal-

vanised the quest for more inclusive financial systems and financial inclusion. As the recent World Bank Findex reports, the magnitude of progress modern banking has made between 2011 and 2017 was only possible due to digital financial services.

But the good news doesn’t stop there. Access to a financial (transactional) account and the use of digital transactions/payments are just the beginning of the consumer’s financial journey. Furthermore, active use provides opportunities to other financial services such as credit, insurance etc.

2. Accountability and Social Benefits An inherent feature of digital money is that it leaves a footprint which can be traced. This is a useful feature for governance as it enables transparency, security and accountability.

In fact, several studies have suggested that digitising person to government payments (P2G), will enable governments curb corruption while increasing transparency and efficiency in payment flows. Same goes for government to person payments (G2P) - digital payments enhances government’s efforts to deliver social benefits to even the poorest of the poor and ensures that recipients receive the right amount.

Digital payments leave footprints and are easily traceable since the recipients have to fulfil KYC requirements requirements and all activity is captured in a database. For governments, this ability to trace transactions and payments provides a significant opportunity that can enhance tax collection efforts.

A 2016 report by McKinsey suggests that with improved and consistent adoption of digital financial services in

the country’s payment space, no less than $88 billion will be added to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025. In 2018, the Lagos state government announced its plans to fully digitise the collection of revenue (taxes, levies and other government payments). Hopefully, other states and the federal government will follow.

3. Gender Equality The quest for gender equality continues and is seeing positive results through empowering women via access to a financial account (either bank or mobile wallet) especially in developing markets.

For instance, in Niger, the increased privacy and control afforded women by digital financial services gives them more decision making power on how the proceeds from the social cash transfer program is used. As another example, the arrival of mobile money

in Kenya made it easier for women in rural areas to request remittances from their husbands who migrated to urban areas for work.

4. A cash-based economy is limiting These limitations of cash are even more pronounced today as the digital wave spreads across the world.

For one, cash is expensive. It costs money to print, costs money to distribute and is costly to keep secure.

Cash is also perishable as it wears out with use, which leads central banks to manage circulation, retrieve and destroy old notes and reprint new notes.. In fact, central banks are excited at the possibilities a digital economy affords. As cash payments are gradually replaced by electronic payments, central banks stand the chance of increasing the ‘seigniorage’ they earn. (Seigniorage refers

to the proceeds from creating money).

From the foregoing, it is obvious that digital payments offer significant benefits across the ecosystem.

From the customer to the entrepreneur and service provider down the street, to the financial services institution, to the central bank and the national economy as a whole, digital payments benefit everyone! The good news is fintech businesses in Africa are on the rise as the continent is seeing more and more financial service startups launching, while foreign investments in these fintechs are also growing.

However, to harness the full benefits of digital payments, especially in light of our financial inclusion targets which are also part of the countries payments systems vision, then we need to take the bull by the horn.

We need a coordinated effort that encompasses closing the gender gap with the Ministry of Women Affairs, fully digitising social investments payments currently managed by the Office of the President, building out the telecommunications and payments infrastructure and the agent networks to provide last mile access especially in rural locations. This vision is beyond one Central Bank and requires the coordination of the entire Government, in collaboration with the private sector, to build a truly inclusive Nigeria.

What other practical benefits does digital payments offer us? Send us your contributions to sustainabledfs@ lbs.edu.ng or Twitter: @SustainableDFS

Olayinka David-West and Ibukun Taiwo are members of the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services initiative of the Lagos Business School

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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Financial Inclusion

& INNOVATION

BUSINESS DAY

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Supported by:

BusinessDay Radio programme; Financial Inclusion Today Aired yesterday by 11:30am on Rhythm 93.7 FM ENDURANCE OKAFOR Theme: Financial literacy as a tool for deepening financial inclusion. ith special guest; Ugo Obi-Chukwu, founder o f Na i r a metrics. BusinessDay analysts; Patrick Atuanya, Bala Augie, Lolade Akinmurele and Endurance Okafor. Anchored by Lehle Balde Addressing issues around financial inclusion and financial literacy Ugo The type of financial inclusion growth expectation needed for a country cannot be achieved without commensurate financial literacy so, before getting someone to maybe want to do transactions on the internet they have to at least have a little bit of financial literacy or a bit of a financial background about why they have to do transactions on the internet.

“If you want to teach somebody how to probably save towards the future, that person has to have a little bit of financial literacy. So they have to go hand in hand and that is where the government has to take it a bit seriously, so you cannot do financial inclusion without financial literacy so, programs like what ‘Financial Inclusion Today’ is doing currently is quite great because what it means is that you are gradually getting people’s attention and then finding a way to introduce financial inclusion through financial literacy. So they really go hand in hand,” the guest explained.

When the CEO of Nairametrics was asked to share his views on the major bottlenecks to deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria, he said there are a number of them.

He cited trust issues, as although it may be surprising to many Nigerians, that there are still a lot of trust deficit when it comes to financial inclusion.

“When I say financial inclusion I mean adopting most of the financial products out there that can help them save better, I will give you an example, I was on one of my shows and we had this debate on whether to use one of the Fintechs apps you have to save money, and regular people like us, the 9-5 guys were calling in to say they will rather use the traditional “kolo” than use the Fintechs.

So, there is trust deficit, people want to jealously hold on to their wealth or cash, we need to break that down”.

On other barriers that are preventing the inclusion

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of many excluded Nigeria into the financial cycle the guest said there are also the structural issues, especially in the villages or the remote areas of Nigeria where they have issues of the internet, without very good internet access which makes it really difficult to get access to financial inclusive products.

“They have issues of transportation, we also have disposable income issues – people are really poor, a guy who earns by the day actually has nothing to save and does not have the need for financial inclusion,” he mentioned.

Other points deliberated on were how financial inclusive products are also not that cheap, people who are into financial inclusion also at some point have to recover some of their money.

Projects like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are seen to bridge and soften or help at least a lot of people in the remote areas get access to financial inclusion.

“There are regulatory issues as well, a lot of the startups and companies that have gone into and trying to help financial inclusion, they have also had challenges scaling, it is very difficult serving population in remote areas because you have to have infrastructure, people, training in those areas and also the ease of doing business issues around those areas, there has been a lot of challenges but so far so good, we are seeing progress, there is a lot more awareness and if you look at data from the CBN or NBS, ATM adoption is increasing, people rely less on cheques, internet penetration is doing better, people are doing a lot more transactions over the internet also the USSD applications that people use. So we are seeing a bit of progress

but then our challenges remain,” Ugo explained.

When Ugo was asked if Nigeria should follow in line of Kenya which has made tremendous success in the area of financial inclusion using the MPESA, He said “I am not one of the great converts because of MPESA, I mean, MPESA has done great things but that is for Kenya. Nigeria is totally different and our payment infrastructure gateway is completely different, in fact I actually think we are more advanced but what MPESA and Kenya has done is that they have been able to rely on telecommunication infrastructure like GSM to spur financial inclusion,” “Initially, the CBN felt like the best way to go about financial inclusion was to promote branch expansion so you had a lot of branches all over the country. There was a race to open branches from local banks and then at some point they realised that you are closer to the people but we are not seeing a lot more adoption and the world is changing as it is. We now had the internet boom, although was a bite difficult at the beginning , smartphones were expensive, but now we are seeing that smartphones are actually lot cheaper, a lot of people are a lot more into social media so you have social media financially inclusive products,” he said.

Ugo of Nairarmetrics said MPESA is good, as it showed that if one actually focuses on a particular area, it can actually have a lot of people adopt it so when building financial inclusive products, one have to build it to what they are actually used to.

“For example, if you are going to build a fintech product that people are going to

use, build it around what they are used to, so currently a lot of people are used to cheap smartphones or phones that are actually not smart (phones that you can buy at N2000, N2500, are you going to provide financially inclusive products that rely on the internet solely or are you going to use the USSD? So, you are going to have a plethora of all these products available to them for us to adopt,” he added.

He concluded his reply to the question by saying that Kenya is doing a good thing but personally he feels Nigeria is doing a lot better.

When the guest was asked tools or strategies players in the financial inclusion sector like stakeholder, financial institutions the Nigerian government can use to drive financial literacy in the informal sector, and particularly agriculture, he responded by saying; “I think one thing that is important is that we got to put things into perspective, so what exactly is the target, what do you expect from the participants of the agricultural sector. Do you want a particular percentage adoption; we need to have these bench marks to know how we measure them. To answer your question directly, financial literacy is not like you have people in a class then you start to preach to them, you have to find a way to get to them in a way or language that they can understand or in an area within their comfort zone. These guys also are a community like you and I,” “So there areas where they sit down together and have discussions about life, their business, so you can actually take financial literacy to them, look at what they listen to, maybe they listen

to radio, they watch TV I mean, they do something with their social life, you can actually get financial literacy to them through those means as well. On social media, a lot of these guys are on whatsapp groups that we belong to, or Facebook groups, so you can push financial literacy through those mediums as well,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Financial literacy according to the CBN may be defined as the possession of knowledge or skill by individuals to manage their financial resources effectively to enhance their economic wellbeing. It also enables financial service providers to better understand their products, the associated risks and the needs of their customers.

On who should drive financial literacy Ugo said “I think that everybody has a responsibility to play in driving financial literacy, however, you have people with primary responsibility and people with secondary responsibility. So I will always advocate for private sector driven initiatives especially when it is profit motivated. I feel you have no choice than to do it actually well. In terms of leading the fore front of financial literacy, I believe business news sites like BusinessDay and Nairametrics should be in the fore front of driving financial literacy because, by virtue of what you do, by reporting business news, you currently are in touch with the private sector, and the business world in general so you understand the language of business and you can communicate better with the people that we want to adopt financial literacy.

I think our schools also, we have to start from the foundation, we need to get our schools involved, let us get financial literature courses, within not just our tertiary and secondary schools but also from primary schools,” “In a nutshell financial literacy basically is just teaching you how to save, how to manage your expenses, how to invest and live a fulfilling life as you grow older. It sort of covers every facet of your life so you have to start from the schools as well”. He elaborated.

“In terms of secondary responsibility, now comes from the people that benefit from the wide adoption of financial literacy, we are talking about banks, quoted companies, governments as well, and of course medium like the media, religious institutions. Make no mistakes about it, you can’t have a developed economy without a population that

is not financially literate, it is not going to happen. In a financially literate economy, they are the kind of people that provide capital that the economy needs to grow. For example the Nigerian stock market as a percentage of our GDP, it is probably in the range of 8, 9 percent which is very paltry, so what it means is that a lot of people don’t even have enough capital to take Nigeria where it should be. They don’t have capital to do research and development, to hire the best people around, they don’t have capital to build, to innovate and to get that kind of capital you get to pull it from everyone, so if you and I are not financially literate you actually don’t see a reason to invest in a stock or any reason why you should put your money in the bank or any reason why you should actually save, have a pension fund. There is a spectrum of responsibility out there but as I said, I think it starts with the media then you now go to schools,” the guest stressed.

On the factors limiting women from the financial cycle, the founder of Nairametrics said “the irony is that women are going to be the easiest converts of financial literacy as compared to men, but the participation rate of women are low is also symptomatic on how we are in Nigeria in terms of the work place, you go to a regular work place, it is probably 8 to 2 or 7 to 3 at most in terms of male to female workers so that also transcends all the way to financial inclusion. I think if we continue to give women chances in terms of career and give equal opportunities if not better opportunities than men then you can start to see that filter into financial inclusion,” “So I think there is got to be a way we can key into turning that disadvantage into an advantage for financial inclusion so the fact that you don’t have a proper balance between men and women in terms of career as it is skewed towards men then it means that it is probably easier to convince a lot more women who are just about coming up to adopt financial inclusion and financial literacy from the get go or from the foundation. Once that is done, it is easier to get them, to get their kids to adopt financial literacy and financial inclusion and then to get their husbands as well so the multiplier effect of actually getting a woman is a lot more than converting a man.

Yes, it’s a disadvantage but I think it is something that we can easily turn into an advantage for us so,” he concluded.

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Tax Issues

Wednesday 27 June 2018

As Nigeria’s tax amnesty programme ends this week … EFCC, FIRS to unleash onslaught against tax defaulters IHEANYI NWACHUKWU

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y this time next week, the Voluntary Assets and Income Declarati o n S ch e m e (VAIDS) will be over. VAIDS, which is Nigeria’s tax amnesty programme will end on Saturday, June 30. The tax amnesty programme started on July 1, 2017 and it offers a twelve-month window of opportunity for tax payers to regularise their tax liabilities.

In the past twelve months, the taxman in Nigeria has been very busy! He has been looking at full time employee with multiple income sources, companies with understated revenues, and uncovering taxpayers using offshore tax shelters.

Tax evasion is now a serious global issue and the tools available to tax administrators to tackle tax evasion have undergone a step-change in recent years.

“June 30th is around the corner. The end is once again upon us. It is time to be serious about putting your tax status in order,” the taxman noted on the official twitter account for the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).

Others are taxpayers’ lifestyles that are inconsistent with tax payments, high net worth families with complex tax situation, and retiree with unexplained assets.

If you are considering schemes to avoid your tax obligations, that is definitely not a smart move because, there are already indications that after the expiration of the June 30 deadline, the Federal Government will establish special tax courts to prosecute those who fail to regularise their tax status under the VAIDS programme.

Should defaulters not take advantage of the amnesty, they are liable, if convicted, to imprisonment of up 5 years, as well as the payment of accrued interest at an annual rate of 21percent, penalties and possible confiscation of assets.

The permutation looks real as Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) works with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to achieve massive onslaught on tax defaulters who fail to take advantage of the twelve months tax amnesty window.

Cu r re nt l y , a t o t a l o f N30billion has been recovered from individuals and companies under VAIDS, of

which the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) collected 90 percent or N27billion.

Nigeria’s tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio at just 6percent is one of the lowest in the world compared to India (16percent), Ghana (15.9percent), and South Africa (27percent).

Most developed nations have tax-to-GDP ratios of between 32percent and 35percent.

Nigeria’s taxman has been collecting data from a number of sources including land registries of the Governments of Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and also has been able to request and receive data from a number of nations including traditional tax havens.

The data mining efforts of the Federal Ministry of Finance domiciled in ‘Project Lighthouse’ helped identify a new batch of more than 130,000 high net worth Nigerian individuals and companies that have potential tax underpayments.

For Nigeria, one thing is certain. In this case, it is that when it comes to tax, there is no political party sentiment and prosecutors of tax evaders are expected to have no allegiance to any political party.

The Federal Government had promised to waive penalties that should have been levied and also waive the interest that should have been paid on overdue taxes. Also, those who declared their tax obligations honestly are not to be subjected to any investigation or tax audit.

Nigeria had signed the Multilateral Competent Authority on Common Report-

ing Standards, which allows for exchange of financial account information. AsoRock also engaged a leading international Asset Tracing and Investigation Agency (Kroll) to trace and track illicit flows and assets.

In addition to data mining and matching between government departments and agencies, the Federal Government also employed a US household name in asset recovery to link land registry records and tax receipts.

Other areas of interest to the authorities include bureaux de change records, the whistle-blowing scheme, data held at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Wikileaks, the ‘Panama papers’, the registration of private jets and yachts, and bank verification numbers.

For the overseas data Federal Government has used exchange of information protocols. Under these protocols, information relating to bank records and financial filings for tax purposes is obtained from tax havens like British Virgin Islands and Mauritius that are signatories to information sharing agreements.

The Taxman has been unearthing tax payers data from using Bank Verification Number (BVN), foreign exchange (FX) application, land registry, company dividends, car registration, Corporate Affairs Commission, and foreign property ownership.

“The focus right now is on those that make substantive amount in Nigeria that have not declared or are underpaying their taxes,” according to Tunde Fowler, FIRS executive chairman.

With a record of N30bil-

lion revenue through VAIDS, Federal Government has only succeeded in realising only 8.3percent of the target $1billion (N360billion) expected tax revenue through the amnesty programme.

President Buhari had in April approved the extension of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme to June 30, making it easier for corporates and individuals that have been defaulting in tax payments to take advantage of this amnesty scheme so as to avoid reputational risk.

The national taxpayers’ database has now increased from 14 million in 2016 to over 19 million in 2018. Federal Government set out to bring in 4 million new tax payers into the tax net.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a most recent country report on Nigeria blamed the nation’s revenue administrators for the low tax collection records of Africa’s largest economy.

“The very low tax collection rates in Nigeria are a direct reflection of weaknesses in revenue administration systems and a high level of systemic noncompliance” IMF noted.

“Estimates of tax potential from the literature suggest that a non-oil tax capacity of 16 to 18 percent would be optimal for a country with Nigeria’s economic structure and per capita income levels.

This estimate implies space for additional tax collection of 12 percent of GDP”, IMF stated The Federal Government recently approved the issuance of Declaration Certificates to taxpayers under VAIDS. The Declaration Certificates, which was approved

by the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun are to be given to taxpayers who voluntarily declared their previously undisclosed assets and income.

“The robust implementation of VAIDS has seen an increase in the number of tax payers from 13 million before the assumption of office by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to 14 million in 2016 and 19.3 million in 2018,” Adeosun twitted recently.

Adeosun recently urged Companies and individuals in doubt as to the authenticity of their Tax Clearance Certificates (TCC) to take advantage of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) to regularise as all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) have been mandated to authenticate all Tax Clearance Certificates (TCCs) presented by companies and individuals engaged in public procurement processes.

A circular issued on Tuesday June 19 by the Minister of Finance requires the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to authenticate all TCCs prior to making any payment.

The Federal Government, it will be recalled, had in January 2018 directed vendors of MDAs to display their Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) on their invoices before payments are effected.

The non-presentation of a TIN by the vendors largely contributed to leakages in revenue remittances, particularly Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT), the finance ministry noted.

Many of the countries that had implemented the tax amnesty scheme had been able to improve on their level of tax compliance. For instance, the scheme had been successful in countries such as South Africa, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Russia and Spain among others.

Australia implemented in 2014, Belgium (2004), Germany (2004), Greece (2010), Italy (2003), and Portugal (2010). Also, Russia implemented tax amnesty in 2007, Spain (2012), United States (2012), India (2016), Turkey (2016), South Africa (2016) and Indonesia (2016).

The Nigerian taxman’s stepped up its role in the amnesty programme as a

result of increased desire by Federal Government to shore up tax revenue as Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio at 6percent is one of the lowest in the world, implying tax’s contribution to the economy is low.

“The Taxman derives no joy in closing businesses of tax defaulters. The Taxman’s only desire is to raise funds for the well-being of Nigeria and her citizens,” according to the VAIDS office at the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The Joint Tax Board (JTB) had in a communiqué issued at the end of its 140th meeting held from March 25 to 28, 2018 wants revenue authorities nationwide to ensure that all efforts are made to increase the ratio of national tax revenue to GDP to at least 20percent by December 31, 2018.

VAIDS is one of the key policies being used by the Fe d e ra l G ove r n m e nt to reposition the Niger ian economy and correct inherited underdevelopment.

This tax amnesty scheme is not to persecute individuals and companies but an opportunity for everyone to regularise all their tax irregularities, according to Federal Government which has also empowered the taxman who has been busy digging into the financial transactions and wealth structures of individuals and corporates.

As part of the implementation of VAIDS, many high net worth individuals (HNIs) and very important personalities (VIPs) have received letters from Ministry of Finance and various State Boards of Internal Revenue Services on their tax status, requesting them to take advantage of VAIDS to regularise their tax status.

As deadline for VAIDS gradually approaches, penalties for non-compliance include: liability to pay in full, the principal sum due, all interest and penalties due (10-100percent of the tax due or forfeiture of related asset); and criminal prosecution in accordance with relevant extant laws, including up to 5 years in jail.

Federal Government insists that tax evasion is one of the easiest cases to prosecute and has put in place a prosecution team including the Ministries of Finance and Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to follow through in the prosecution process.

PRIVATEEQUITY & FUNDRAISING People & Perspectives Page A7

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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Atlas Mara’s N1.65bn bet on Union bank moves it closer to takeover …raises stake to 49% …Union’s share price rises 0.85%

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tlas Mara is within a short crawl from snapping up majority stake in Union bank, after raising its stake in the tier-two lender to 49 percent.

This comes as the African investment vehicle of former Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, acquired an additional 1 percent stake or 280,956,166 shares of Union Bank.

Atlas Mara will issue 2,360,032 ordinary shares to fund the acquisition, the company said in a statement on its website, Tuesday.

Unity bank’s share price was up 0.85 percent to N5.90 Tuesday, according to Bloomberg data. The current share price values Atlas Mara’s 1 percent acquisition at N1.65 billion (USD $5 million).

At current market capitalisation of N241 billion, Atlas Mara’s total 49 percent shareholding in Union bank could be worth N118.2 billion (USD $386 million).

The deal also leaves Atlas Mara within about 2 percent of acquiring controlling stake in Union, at which point it could make a tender offer for the remaining shares not held by it.

The share price of Atlas Mara- listed on the London stock exchange- was down 2 percent to USD $2.45 Tuesday, valuing the company at $409.87 million.

“This is part of Atlas Mara’s strategy to fully takeover Union bank, which will give it more power to ring in changes at the bank,” a source familiar with the deal said.

Atlas Mara’s strategy with Union bank is similar to that

Source: Bloomberg

often expressed willingness to take over Union, which would serve as an example of its Africa focused strategy working.

Atlas Mara Limited (formerly known as Atlas Mara Co- Nvest Limited), founded on November 28, 2013 by Bob Diamond and Asish Thakkar.

Atlas has over 1600 employees, an asset base of $2.5 billion and operations in 7 African countries namely Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda and Nigeria.

Union Bank was founded in 1917 is one of Nigeria’s oldest commercial banks. The Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) injected N239 billion as capital into the bank in 2011.

Nigeria’s fragile economic recovery is showing up in the results of the country’s banks who are returning to profit after a torrid 2016, when the economy slipped into recession, its first in 25 years.

An improvement in unpaid loans, higher interest income from holding government debt and a rise in profit has helped

COMPANIES & MARKETS

GSK puts Horlicks on sale to fund $13bn Novartis deal

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Union bank inches up after Atlas Mara deal

employed by Standard Bank of South Africa which progressively increased its stake in Stanbic IBTC until it had acquired a commanding position.

Stanbic IBTC is a tier-one Nigerian lender that is majority owned by Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank of South Africa.

On 24 September 2007, IBTC Chartered Bank Plc merged with Stanbic Bank Nigeria Limited. Stanbic Africa Holdings Limited (SAHL) on behalf of Standard Bank tendered an offer to for the acquisition of additional IBTC shares in order to attain majority shares in the merged business.

This resulted in SAHL having a majority shareholding 50.75 percent up from 33.33 percent as at the merger date.

Atlas first bought a stake in Union from the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) in 2012, and has progressively increased its holdings.

The Africa focused financial services holding company has

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DIPO OLADEHINDE

Union bank

LOLADE AKINMURELE

BUSINESS DAY

lenders bolster their capital buffers.

The gross domestic product of Africa’s largest oil producer expanded 1.9 percent in the first three months of 2018, capping four straight quarters of expansion after a 1.6 percent full-year contraction in 2016.

An increase in crude prices and the introduction of a new foreign-exchange system that ended a crippling shortage of dollars helped attract more investment flows into the country, while improving liquidity for the nation’s lenders.

“Applications have been made for the New Shares to be admitted to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange (“Admission”). Admission is expected to become effective, and dealings in the New Shares are expected to commence on 27 June 2018,” Atlas Mara said in a statement on its website Tuesday.

The New Shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares, according to Atlas Mara.

laxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced plans to sell its health food drink brand Horlicks to fund a buyout of the residual stake in its consumer healthcare Joint Venture (JV) with Novartis worth $13 billion.

GSK said in an investors’ conference this year that it would buy Novartis’ 36.5 per cent stake in their consumer healthcare JV for $13 billion in cash.

The deal with Novartis will give GSK full control of a portfolio of products, including pain reliever Voltaren (available in India) and nasal decongestant Otrivin, which are all part of the JV. “The buyout of the Novartis stake means GSK’s shareholders will capture the full value of a business which we believe is well positioned to deliver future sales growth and continued operating margin improvements,” Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK said.

“To support the funding of the Novartis buyout, we are also announcing a strategic review of Horlicks and other Consumer Healthcare nutrition products,” Walmsley, said at an investor’s conference early this year.

Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Kraft Heinz are said to be among the companies bidding for Horlicks, with Coca-Cola said to be the front-runner with a $3.5 billion.

Recall that GSK Nigeria, in an attempt to re-align with the global strategy on pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products, had agreed to a non-binding offer from Suntory to purchase its drinks business (Lucozade and Ribena).

The Nigerian subsidiary entered into a 10-year agreement with Suntory to continue the drinks business such that Suntory provides the concentrates whilst GSK bottles, distributes and markets the drink products (Lucozade and Ribena).

The deal also involved the sale of two-thirds of the Agbara site, which holds the factory plants & machinery as well as distribution facilities directly in-use for the production of the drinks.

2017 was a tough year for GSK Nigeria; despite an 11.8 percent increase in revenue from N14.3 billion in 2016 to N16 billion its gross profits drop by 50 percent from ₦8.9 billion in 2016 to ₦4.4 billion in 2017 While Profit after tax fell sharply from ₦2.3 billion in 2016 to ₦486 million in 2017.

Also in its Q1 2018 financial statements for the period ended 31st March 2018, the company recorded a revenue growth from N3.8 billion in Q1 2017 to N4.2 billion in Q1 2018.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc was incorporated in 1971. 46.1 percent of its issued shares are held by GlaxoSmithKline United Kingdom and the rest by Nigerian shareholders. The principal activities of the company are manufacturing, marketing and distribution of consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical products.

Meet the investors in exclusive talks over $2.5 billion Petrobras assets MICHEAL ANI

V

itol, the world’s largest independent oil trader is said to have led two other oil companies in an N899.3 billion ($2.5 billion) deal to buy stakes in Nigerian offshore fields that are held by Brazil’s Petro bras and its partners, according to a Reuters report.

The sale, includes a 40 percent stake of Petrobras Africa held by a subsidiary of Grupo BTG Pactual SA and a 10 percent holding owned by Helios Investment Partners. Petrobras is leading this sale process.

The buying conglomerate comprises Vitol, Vancouverbased Africa Oil (AOI.TO) and Delonex Energy; an Africafocused oil company backed by private equity fund Warburg

PRIVATE EQUITY WORD FOR THE WEEK Inside round A round of financing in which the investors are the same investors as the​previous round; an inside round raises liability issues since the valuation of the company has no third party verification in the form of an outside investor.

Pincus and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Vitol is expected to shoulder the largest part of investment, spending an estimated $1 billion, according to unidentified sources that spoke to Reuters.

In January this year, Vitol showed interest to lead a $530m oil-for-loan deal with (Shoreline Energy) a Nigerian energy company.

The five year agreement with Shoreline Energy was aimed at giving Vitol preferential access to physical cargoes, amounting to at least 30,000 barrels a day of crude produced in the oil-rich Niger Delta The independent oil trader has had a long presence in Nigeria.

It has bought petrol stations through a joint venture with local producer company Oando and private equity fund Helios and participated in government swaps deals delivering refined fuels in exchange for crude.

Delonex Energy According to information on its website, Delonex Energy is a sub-Saharan Oil and gas company focused on exploration, development and production. It is currently active in Ethiopia, Kenya and Chad and seeks to expand its business further in East Africa and into West Africa.

Africa Oil Corp.

Africa Oil Corp. is a Canadian oil and gas company, listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange located in Frihamnen, Stockholm, Sweden, with assets in Kenya and Ethiopia, and an equity interest in Africa Energy Corp.

Africa Oil holds extensive exploration acreage in the East African Rift Basin system where several new significant oil discoveries have been announced in the Lokichar basin of Kenya in which the Company holds a 25 percent interest along with operator Tullow Oil plc.

POGBV owns interests in two world-class deepwater offshore blocks in Nigeria, which contain the producing fields Akpo and Agbami, the on-going oil development Egina, with first production expected in late 2018, as well as the Preowei discovery, which is currently being appraised.

The giant Akpo and Egina fields are operated by Total and Agbami by Chevron.

Petrobars’ net entitlement reserves amount to approximately 204 million barrels with current production of 48 thousand barrels per day and expectation to reach around 75 thousand barrels daily by 2019.

BusinessDay PRIVATE EQUITY & FUNDRAISING (Team lead: LOLADE AKINMURELE - Analysts: MICHEAL ANI, DIPO OLADEHINDE, ENDURANCE OKAFOR, DAVID IBEMERE ... Graphics: DAVID OGAR ) Businessday’s Private Equity and Fundraising section is a weekly publication that provides in-depth analysis on private equity trends and tracks deal activity in Nigeria.

Email the PE & F team loladeakinmurele@gmail.com

Continues on page 34

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SHIPPING

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

MARITIME e-COMMERCE

NLNG set to enhance Nigeria’s domestic LPG market with building of new vessel Stories by UZOAMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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etermined to enhance the volume of Domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the market, the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) is perfecting plans to build a new LPG vessel that will boost volume and increase product availability.

The new vessel, which is expected to consolidate the NLNG’s contributions to growing the domestic LPG industry and increase consumption of the clean gas, will be delivered in 2020 and will have 23,000 cubic metres.

It will be built by E.A Temile and Sons Company Limited, a wholly Nigerian company, under a contract with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, South Korea and chartered to NLNG. Speaking at the contract signing ceremony between E.A Temile and Sons Limited and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in London last week, Tony Attah, managing director/ CEO of NLNG, described the signing ceremony as groundbreaking for NLNG as it supports the company’s aspiration to help develop the DLPG market, promote the growth of indigenous companies and Nigeria’s economy in general.

L-R: Mohammed Balarabe, deputy MD, Fidelity Bank; Simbi Kesiye Wabote, executive secretary NCDMB; S.Y. Park, executive vice president, Hyundai Heavy Industries; Alfred Temile, MD/CEO Temile & Sons Development Company Limited; Tony Attah, MD/CEO NLNG, and Jay. H. Kang, MD, Hyundai Heavy Industries, London, during Temile & Sons, NLNG contractor, and Hyundai signing agreement to build a new 23, 000 cbm vessel for the LPG market in Nigeria

“NLNG remains the single largest supplier of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), estimated at over 50 percent, in Nigeria and looks to enable its expansion in future. We produce the LPG NLNG’s plant in Bonny, Rivers State, Nigeria, and transport it by sea to Lagos from where it is distributed to every part of the country. This assures the product availability, accessibility, and affordability which are central to us as a company,” Attah said.

According to him, NLNG’s domestic LPG intervention

scheme aligns with its business focus of bringing energy to the world and helping to build a better Nigeria.

“A World Health Organisation (WHO) Report on Household Air Pollution and Health published in May 2018, affirms that, about 4 million people die prematurely annually from illness attributable to air pollution from inefficient cooking practices using solid fuels and kerosene. And local data suggests that about 100,000 women and children die in Nigeria annually from the same causative factors.

We believe that the expansion and strengthening of the DLPG market can help to stem this tide in Nigeria,” he added.

On NLNG’s contribution to Nigerian Local Content, Attah disclosed that the company works closely with the Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), to ensure compliance with the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010, He further said that NLNG also signed a Business to Business Service Level Agreement

Customs CG’s strike force intercepts 5-trailer load of smuggled rice in Ogun

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he Comptroller General of Customs’ Strike Force on smuggling of foreign parboiled rice said it has intercepted 5-trailer load of rice from Ogun State.

The smuggled rice numbering about 3,000 bags of 50kg has a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of 42 million and was concealed inside containers and trucks belonging to corporate organisations.

This is coming barely a week after, Audu Ogbe, the minister of Agriculture, disclosed that plans are underway to close the nation’s border stations due to massive smuggling of rice into the country.

But, speaking at the weekend, Salisu Assababullah, the Zonal commander of the Strike Force in Zone A, said that the intercep-

tion was made at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

According to him, the Strike Force was able to make the seizure through intelligence gathering that revealed the new ways of smuggling parboiled rice into the country.

“The rice was intercepted along Ijebu Ode Expressway along with two suspects, who are currently in custody. We were able to get intelligence report that container laden trucks were taken to the border area, and that it was loaded with smuggled rice and sealed as if it was released from seaport,” he said.

Assababullah, who attributed the success recorded to the members of the team, also acknowledged the Federal Government approval of brand new pickup

for anti-smuggling, which he said, aided the interception.

Recall that on 7th of June 2016, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari approved the sum of N1,550,187,713.00 for the procurement of 68 brand new Ford Pickup operational vehicles for Customs.

Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, who briefed State House Correspondents alongside the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning and Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on Media and Publicity, said that the operational vehicles currently available for the service were inadequate for effective anti-smuggling activities.

She added that the need

(SLA) with NCDMB in June 2017, the first of its kind in the relationship between the oil and gas industry operators and NCDMB in Nigeria.

Citing example, he said that NLNG Nigeria Content initiatives implementation include BGT Plus Project where over 80,000 metres of cable, manufactured in Nigeria by Nexans Kabelmetal, as well as 9,000 pieces of anodes, produced by Metec WA, were exported to South Korea for utilisation in the construction of 6 new Dual Fuel Diesel Engines (DFDE) LNG carriers.

“PCMN/Berger Paints Nigeria Limited exported over 400,000 litres of paints and coatings and IO Furniture/ Vina produced and exported movable furniture to South Korea, all for the construction of the LNG carriers. In addition, Nigerians were involved in the project at the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyards in South Korea,” Attah added.

He further disclosed that the benefitting indigenous companies, some of whom were exporting their products for the very first time, earned revenues in excess of $10 million and international reputation as exporting companies.

“All these are testaments that great things can truly happen once we set our minds to

achieve them– same way we believe and are working assiduously towards achieving the FID for NLNG T7 which in addition to raising our LNG production capacity by 36 percent, from 22,000 million tonnes per annum to 30,000 million tonnes per annum, will also has capacity for 1.0 MTPA in the DLPG market,” he said.

Also speaking, Simbi Kesiye Wabote, executive secretary of NCDMB, who commended NLNG for the bold endorsement of its local capacities and capabilities, said that the signing ceremony was a manifestation of the local content journey in the LPG sector.

“This is certainly a confidence building move across board and I expect several operators and service providers to get inspiration from this milestone event and see the possibilities in our local content practice rather than the difficulties.”

NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which holds 49 percent; Shell Gas B.V. with 25.6 percent shares; Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France 15 percent, and Eni Internationa l that holds 10.4 shares.

Customs seeks help in arresting officers aiding illegal release of goods to effectively patrol the borders of the country, enhance Customs’ effort in suppressing smuggling and increase revenue collection, gave rise to the request to purchase 68 operational vehicles.

Adeosun further explained that having identified the need, the Service made provision for the purchase of 68 operational vehicles, Hilux, in its 2017 capital appropriation.

Assababullah stated that the Strike Force got nine vehicles from the 68 vehicles approved by FEC for anti-smuggling and in two weeks, the Force was able to intercept 3,000 bags of smuggled rice.

He however advised smugglers to engage in legitimate business as the adhoc body knows their antics and will surely caught them.

T

he Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has urged clearing agents under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Agents (ANLCA) to assist the Service in fishing out officers, who aid fraudsters to hack into its software in order to illegally release goods from the ports without paying duty.

Speaking at a meeting in Abuja between the Customs management and executive members of the association led by its President, Tony Iju Nwabunike, last weekend, Fatade Aderinle, assistant controller General of Customs, said the hackers recently gained access to TinCan Command, Processes Centre in connivance with some corrupt officers.

He disclosed that one of the hackers has been identified and his pictures posted at the enforcement unit of

the Tin-Can command.

“We have been in a relationship for a number of years and ANLCA needs to assist us in getting our foot right in terms of revenue.

Most of these boys are those who filter into the CPC at Tin-Can when they are not there and hack the software used in import duty collection.

“If you know any of our officers who participate in doing business with them, please expose them. If you know any who are equally working with them to siphon our revenue, oblige us with the information of the officers because these hackers cannot do it alone. How will they get to the CPC without the knowledge of an officer?

So, definitely, there will be insiders whom we want to fish out in order to eradicate the issue of hacking, otherwise it will continue,” he said.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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37 NEWS

BUSINESS DAY

Atiku may pick Peter Obi as running mate...

Continued from page 1

L-R: Dave Uduanu, MD/CEO, Sigma Pensions; Banji Fehintola, president, CFA Society Nigeria; Nechi Ezeako, executive director, IoD Nigeria; Paul Smith, CFA Institute president; Akintoye Akindele, CEO, Synergy Capital Partners; Chuka Maduabum, general secretary, CFA Society Nigeria, and Akinsowon Dawodu, CEO, Citibank Nigeria Limited, at the Corporate Governance & Financial Reporting Quality Conference 2018 organised by the CFA Society and IoD Centre for Corporate Governance in Lagos.

Every minute 6 Nigerians enter extreme...

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piled from World Data Lab, a predictive analytics social enterprise.

The number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty crossed the 83 million mark in 2018, surpassing India’s number of extremely poor at 73 million. This means that almost one out of every two persons living in Africa’s largest economy is now living in extreme poverty.

This is despite India having more population at 1.35 billion than Nigeria at about 200 million people.

Kristofer Hamel, Chief Operating Officer of World Data Lab said “At the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million.

What is more, extreme poverty in Nigeria is growing by six people every minute, while poverty in India continues to fall,” Hamel said in a statement.

Meanwhile, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs projects Nigeria to be the world’s third most populous country by the year 2050.

Ayodeji Ebo, MD of Afrinvest Securities limited said, “Currently, we are growing at 1.95 percent with a population growing at 2.6 percent per annum. Our growth rate is not exceeding the population growth rate. So as we progress, our standard of living will be impacted negatively.”

On the reasons why Nigeria now has the highest number of extremely poor people after India, analysts cited lack of social amenities, unemployment, high dependency rate, security challenges, lack of right economic policies and reforms.

“Nigerians becoming poorer could be as a result of key indicators like access to amenities; health, housing, food. These are the things you should look at and if we are not able to have access to these things, we can get poorer,” Ayo Akinwunmi, Head of Research FSDH Merchant Bank said in a telephone response.

Nigeria’s current housing deficit is estimated at17million, and the country is seeking to improve access to home loans in an economy that vies with South Africa as the continent’s biggest. A lack of proper land deeds, poverty and record high interest rates means there are only an estimated 50,000 registered mortgages, of which state-owned Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria accounts for 18,200, according to Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, Chief

Executive Officer of the bank. On the health sector, each Nigerian gets N1, 800 for medical provision as obtained from the N340 billion budgeted for the health sector in 2018.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) during the BAMACO initiative agreed that health care expenditure to GDP should be up to 15 percent. This Nigeria lags with estimated health budget allocation of 3.9 percent of its total budget.

This is far lower than South Africa’s 2018 estimated health expenditure of $14 billion, 12 percent of its total budget. The NBS latest report for conflict and food insecurity in Nigeria for the year ended 2017, revealed 79 percent of households in the North east region of the country had food insecurity.

In the North central region food insecurity of household was at 71 percent while 74 percent of households in the South south region were in the same situation for the period under review. Most analysts pointed to the insecurity issues resulting from the Fulani insurgency and the attacks

by Boko Haram as a major issue.

Since 2013, the Movement Against Fulani Occupation, MAFO, and the Benue state government has carefully documented over 60 attacks against farmers and residents of the state by Fulani pastoralists with over 1,800 people killed, thousands more injured and over 108, 500 displaced from their homes with more than 175, 000 registered in eight internally displaced people’s camps in the state.

“If you look at Nigeria today, between now and the last one year, it seems the proportion of people who do not have access to these things are increasing, unemployment rate is quite high, and dependency rate is also a bite higher. People are not able to send their children to school, people that were able to do that before are now withdrawing from schools. Farmers are being displaced day in and day out,” Johnson Chukwu, MD of Cowry Asset Limited said, explaining the reasons that could have led to Nigerians having more poor people than Indians.

The unemployment rate in Africa’s largest economy is one of the highest in the continent at 18.8 percent as at the third quarter of 2017. Also about 15.99 million of the inhabitants of Africa’s most populous nation are currently unemployed, as compiled from the nation’s bureau report.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

Vitol-led group bids for Petrobras $2.5bn...

Continued from page 1

by Reuters.

Vitol is expected to shoulder the largest part of the investment which could see the company shell out an estimated $1billion according to a source. The consortium includes Africa Oil and Delonex Energy which is backed by Warburg Pincus and the International Finance Corp.

The planned sale of Brazil’s Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) stakes in two Nigerian deepwater fields, Akpo (16%) and Agbami (13%) entered critical stage in March as investors were instructed to proceed with due diligence and to present the binding proposals.

But the Petrobras has kept its card close to its chest regarding whom it is dealing with. In January, Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest crude producer said it was in talks on potentially acquiring stakes in the fields from Petrobras along with other assets in Iran, Iraq and Mexico as it readies to expand its upstream portfolio and replace its reserves to maintain crude production levels.

Vagit Alekperov, the president of Lukoil told S&P Global Platts, an energy sector independent resource that discussions have just begun, and it is too early to give details or say whether that will happen.

Meanwhile, Nigerian oil companies especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) continue to ignore divestments in lucrative offshore fields.

Analysts say lack of funds may be the key factor behind their seeming disinterest. “First, does NPDC have the funds to make big ticket investments at this time?

Second, how attractive are these divestments?” Rafiq Raji, chief economist at Macroafricaintel told BusinessDay. According to information on its website, Delonex Energy is a sub-Saharan Oil and gas company focused on exploration, development and production. It is currently active in Ethiopia, Kenya and Chad and seeks to expand its business further in East Africa and into West Africa.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

2019 presidential election sources close to the Turaki of Adamawa revealed to BusinessDay. Atiku recently announced his intention to contest the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) a party he was a founding member, but left to join an alliance which formed the ruling the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2014.

However, the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Businessday yesterday that Atiku has settled for the choice of Peter Obi as his running mate based on Obi’s antecedent and performance while in office as the governor of Anambra state, adding that since the former Vice President has already decided to choose his Chief of staff from the North and his presidential campaign Director General, Gbenga Daniel, who hails from the southwest, it was logical that his running mate should be from the South-east.

The sources said that several names of prominent southeast politicians such as former Finance minister, Okonjo Iweala and the current Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu were considered for the position before peter Obi was picked.

“Atiku has settled for Peter Obi as his running mate in next year’s presidential election, I can tell you that. You know he as chosen someone from the North as his Chief of Staff and Gbenga Daniel who is his Campaign DG is from the Southwest. It is logical for true representation of the country that his running mate should be from the southeast where he already has so much good will and sup-

port,” the source said.

Meanwhile the former vice president will kick-start his campaign for the presidential elections on July 28, sources also revealed.

They hinted that Atiku had only been consulting with stakeholders in the PDP and the country over the last few months over his ambition, adding that it was now obvious that he would clinch the presidential ticket of his party and win the 2019 presidential election with the massive support he has received around the country. “ The flag-off would be July 28, what Atiku has been doing for long now is consultation with stakeholders in the PDP and those that matter in the country on his ambition; and it is now clear that he is the man to beat with the massive support he has received so far across the country. We have more than 1000 Atiku support groups all over the country waiting to campaign for him, so we are ready.”

Paul Ibe, director, Atiku Media Office, responding to the news, said such speculations were bound to trend until the time when the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will finally decide on its candidate.

According to Ibe, “It is the responsibility of the former Vice President and the presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to pick whoever he would want to run with. But that time has not come. You can’t jump the gun now and begin to talk about him picking and announcing a running mate.

No. Don’t forget that the party also has an input in determining whoever that may run with its presidential candidate at the fullness of time. So, first things first.”

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

Rivers woos UK investors to return...

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the British High Commission in Nigeria. The documentary, which was produced by Chioma Onyenwe highlights the diversity of opportunities in the oil region and the challenges.

Highlighting the fast pace development taking place in Rivers state, the deputy governor explained that Governor Wike has prioritised the opening up of many roads in the state which is aimed at opening up the urban and rural areas of the state. She also talked about the governor’s roads to farm initiative that will aid the movement of goods and people across the state and facilitate the ease of doing business.

“Rivers State, under Governor Nyesom Wike, has embarked on massive road infrastructure development which the state has undertaken to open up Port Harcourt and make it investorfriendly. Also rural road projects are opening up agriculture produce routes.”

The deputy governor also told the British High Commissioner that Governor Wike was delighted with the documentary that highlights the economic potential in the Niger Delta and the fact that it is sponsored by the British Council.

“We thank you for highlighting the diversity of opportunities

and the challenges in the region.

The Niger Delta region is an important zone that is worthy of national attention. Sadly, despite the regions huge oil wealth, 70 per cent of the people still live below $2 per day. Only huge investments in the region can change this.”

She identified some of the issues faced by the Niger Delta to include; poor road infrastructure like the East-West road, neglect of the sea ports, and a poor image which has led to investors fleeing the region. She cited the example of the US$18 billion Dangote Petrochemical project which was been located in Lagos instead of the Niger Delta.

The deputy governor however made it clear that democratic stability was important for economic growth and progress.

“So, we urge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies to ensure free and fair elections to boost this political stability needed for economic growth.”

Paul Awkright, the British High Commissioner, called for the clean-up of the oil region and the reduction of incidences of kidnapping and other violent acts to encourage UK investors to return to the Niger Delta.

Continues on wwwbusinessday online

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12TH ANNUAL BUSINESS LAW CONFERENCE

Osinbajo, Enelamah to speak at conference opening dinner Stories by CHUKS OLUIGBO

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igeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will today speak at the opening ceremony and dinner of the 12th Annual Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) holding at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

Osinbajo is attending the event as Special Guest of Honour, alongside Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, Chief Justice of Nigeria, who will chair the occasion, and Okey Enelamah, Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, who is attending as Special Guest.

The conference, slated for June 27-29 with the theme ‘Bringing Down the Barriers: The Law as a Vehicle for Intra-Africa Trade’, will focus on intra-Africa trade against the backdrop of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) recently signed by 44 countries.

Over the years, the annual NBA-SBL conference has continued to be a platform for business lawyers within and outside Nigeria to network and engage on issues relevant to their fields as well as to estab-

lish a thriving relationship between the business community and government institutions.

Ahead of the conference, the leadership of the NBA Section on Business Law and the conference planning committee said the annual conference, far from being a talk-shop, has produced far-reaching impact over the years, especially in the area of law reforms that lead to improved doing business environment.

“Nigeria has moved up in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking. That is directly the work of SBL in cooperation with the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Presidential Enabling Business Council (PEBEC),” Okey Egbuchu, chairman, 2018 conference planning committee, told journalists at recent press conference in Lagos.

Apart from the collaboration with the executive arm of government, Egbuchu said the SBL also cooperated with the federal legislature through the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER), which saw the emergence of the new Companies and Allied Matters (CAMA) Bill that was recently passed by the Senate. The new CAMA Bill is currently awaiting harmonisation and passage by the House of Representatives

before it goes for presidential assent.

“All these are direct results of activities of SBL as acknowledged by the Minister of Trade and Investment. These are outcomes from our conferences, as well as our stakeholder engagements outside our conferences. The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is a better place today as a result of cooperation with SBL, and CAC is also a member of the SBL council,” Egbuchu said.

This year’s conference will build on the successes of past conferences as it is expected to attract members of the legal profession, the business community, regulators, policymakers and other concerned stakeholders from across Nigeria and beyond.

“So, we do expect that after the 2018 conference, we will still engage with government and stakeholders to see that we get the best possible benefits from the AfCFTA. SBL and the legal profession will take a stand and liaise with all stakeholders to make sure that we benefit from AfCFTA. Forty-four countries have signed; so whether we like it or not, it is going to go on.

The question is whether we want to be part of it or we want to step out and watch free trade go by us,” he said.

Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president; rep of the CJN, and Asue Ighodalo, immediate past chairman, NBA Section on Business Law.

L-R: Bukola Saraki, Senate president, and George Etomi, pioneer chairman of the NBA-SBL, at the 11th Annual Business Law Conference of NBA-SBL in Lagos.

L-R: Justice Atilade, former chief judge of Lagos High Court; Gbenga Oyebode, SBL chair; Babatunde Raji Fashola, guest speaker; Lord Mark Malloch Brown, and Okey Wali, former NBA president, at the 9th Annual Business Law Conference.

Members of the NBA-SBL and the 2018 conference planning committee.

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12TH ANNUAL BUSINESS LAW CONFERENCE 12th annual NBA-SBL conference provides platform for further engagement on AfCTFA

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he 12th Annual Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) opening in Abuja today will serve as a platform for continued engagement on the workability or otherwise of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as well as whether or not Nigeria should sign the agreement. It will also examine the role of lawyers in the event of Africa emerging as a single trading bloc.

This is as Ambassador Chiedu Osakwe, Nigerian Chief Trade Negotiator and Director General, Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations, has been scheduled to be the lead speaker at the opening session of the conference on Thursday with the topic ‘Bringing down the Barriers: The Law as a Vehicle for Intra-Africa Trade’.

The opening session, to be chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, will examine the raison d’etre for the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which seeks to progressively eliminate trade restrictions and transform the African economy.

To join Ambassador Osakwe as panellists to discuss the topic are Ambassador Albert M. Muchanga, African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry; Dr. Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division, United Nations Economic Commis-

sion for Africa; Prof. Pat Utomi, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, and Prof. Bola A. Akinterinwa, former Director General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

Other topics to be discussed at the conference include ‘Financing IntraAfrican Trade and Development’, ‘Continental Trade and the Imperative of Unimpeded Movement of Goods, Labour and Services’, ‘Enhancing Transport Connectively in Africa’, ‘Marching in Lockstep – Building Sub-National Competitiveness for Global Investment’, ‘AfCFTA and Transformative Industrialization in Nigeria’, ‘Standardizing Continental Regulations on Consumer Protection and Competition Law’, ‘Enabling eCommerce across the African Continent’, ‘Institutionalizing Reforms in the Ease of Doing Business in Africa’, and ‘Establishing a Framework for Resolving Intra-African Commercial Disputes’.

Olumide Akpata, chairman, NBA Section on Business Law, said the theme of the conference was agreed at a time the signing of AfCFTA by the African Union (AU) member-countries was imminent.

“And so we thought that we needed to begin to imagine what doing business on the continent would be post signing of that agreement.

What we did not contemplate was that Nigeria would not sign. Nigeria has not signed, but the door is not closed on that yet,” Akpata said at the press briefing in

Lagos ahead of the conference.

It will be recalled that during the 10th Ordinary Session of African Union Heads of State summit in Kigali, Rwanda, 44 African countries on March 21, 2018 signed up to AfCFTA, a European Union-like agreement aimed at paving the way for a liberalised market for goods and services across the continent. Nigeria made a lastminute withdrawal and did not sign the agreement.

Akpata said though Nigeria has not signed, the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations, with President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval, was still holding consultations across the regions to get the buy-in of Nigerians to determine whether or not to sign that agreement. As such, the issue was still topical and it was germane to continue the conversation.

“The whole idea is to we a ve a c o n ve r s a t i o n around that agreement to find out how workable it is.

Basically, Africa will be transformed to EU-like setting and so we want to find out whether or not we have the infrastructure that is necessary to make that a reality.

That is from a general perspective, but also important will be us as lawyers checking whether we are ready for that eventuality of Africa as one trading bloc and the fact that we need to re-imagine our law firms in the new dispensation,” he said.

Okey Egbuchu, chairman, 2018 Conference Planning Committee, said

L-R: Seni Adio, vice chairman, Nigerian Bar Association-Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL); Olumide Akpata, chairman, NBA-SBL, and Okey Egbuchu, chairman, 2018 conference planning committee, at a press conference to announce the 12th annual business law conference in Lagos

platforms have been provided at the conference for the Federal Government, the AU, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and other African countries to dialogue with stakeholders on the AfCFTA and other issues arising therefrom.

“Africa does more business with other continents than within, thereby limiting her potential. Fears have been expressed by stakeholders not only in Nigeria but other countries in respect of the AfCFTA regarding issues of dumping, limitation of the ability to manage tariffs, loss of revenue, influx of persons and so on. In fact, Nigeria

tactically withdrew from signing the AfCFTA due to the concerns expressed by stakeholders like the Organised Labour and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria,” Egbuchu said.

“The Federal Government is currently engaging stakeholders and we have provided platforms at our conference for the Federal Government, the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and other African countries to dialogue with stakeholders on the AfCFTA and more,” he said.

He informed that conference speakers and panellists from all over the world, sourced from the govern-

ments, corporates, the regional bodies like ECOWAS, the law firms and law societies and other professions, would do justice to the many topics spanning 12 sessions.

Other speakers at the conference include Ambassador Ishmael Faizel, former South Africa Representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO); Dr. Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; David Ofosu-Dorte – Senior Partner, AB & David; George K. Lipimile, Chief Executive Officer, COMESA Competition Commission, among others.

‘The legal profession will derive immense benefit from conference’

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he organisers of the 12th Annual Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) have said that the conference will be of immense benefit to lawyers and law firms.

Even though the major discussions at the conference will revolve around intra-Africa trade against the backdrop of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) recently signed by 44 countries, the organisers say it will also

be a platform for lawyers and law firms to ruminate on their role in the event of Africa becoming one trading bloc.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos ahead of the conference, Okey Egbuchu, chairman, conference planning committee, said that a special plenary session, with the topic ‘Law Practice in the Time of the African Continental Free Trade Area: Reimagining African Lawyers’, would be devoted to examining the opportunities available to lawyers when the AfCFTA takes effect.

“This is a law conference, so you will imagine that we must have a session for us as lawyers to examine our position, our prospects and our future under the AfCFTA. How is law practice going to be when this agreement comes into force?

What are the barriers that are going to be left? How will we practice law? What are the new areas of law that will develop around the AfCFTA? And what tools do we need to be able to be prepared to benefit fully from it? There is a whole plenary session on the 29th of June which will deal with that,”

Egbuchu said.

“Professionally speaking, I think this is going to be the most important session of the conference for us lawyers. We have invited many law societies from across Africa; we have invited the Law Society of England and Wales; we have invited many resource persons from across the world to join us in dissecting the issues,” he said.

Egbuchu said David Ofosu-Dorte, senior partner, AB & David, a home-grown international law firm in Africa, would lead the session and would be joined

by many other discussants to give perspectives on the issue.

Scheduled for June 27-29 at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, the conference has the theme ‘Bringing Down the Barriers: The Law as a Vehicle for Intra-Africa Trade’.

Olumide Akpata, chairman, NBA Section on Business Law, said the conference would provide a platform for lawyers to assess their preparedness for the eventuality of Africa as one trading bloc and for law firms to re-imagine their roles in the new dispensation.

“Questions are already being asked, why are our law firms not extending their tentacles across Africa? Why is it easier for me to call a law firm in Portugal if I want to do business or if I have an issue in Mozambique or in Cape Verde or in Equatorial Guinea? That is the reality today, because with the exception of AB & David, which is a home-grown African law firm that has actually made it a deliberate strategy to expand its footprint on the continent, there are not many African law firms that have that kind of reach,” Akpata said.

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NEWS

Uncertainty over Libyan crude export pushes oil prices northward STEPHEN ONYEKWELU, with Agency report

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L-R: Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo State; Nteranya Sanginga, director-general, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and Joe Okogie, special adviser to the governor on agriculture and food security programme, after a meeting with the DG at IITA, Ibadan, Oyo State, on the side-line of the International Workshop on Water-Energy-Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, yesterday.

Nigeria, China lead in global refinery capacity growth DIPO OLADEHINDE

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recent report released by GlobalData, data and analytics company, mentions China, Nigeria and India to be at the front position of the global Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) capacity growth with highest planned and announced capacity additions and capital spending over the next four years.

The report under the theme, ‘Semi-Annual Global Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook for Refineries,’ forecasts that Nigeria will add 2,106 million barrels day (mbd) of CDU capacity through 25 refineries by 2022.

“Nigeria is expected to spend $49.3 billion in the next four years on the new refineries; India is expected to add 1,280mbd of CDU capacity by 2022, and Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of $72 billion is expected to be spent over the next four years,” GlobalData said in the report.

The report also forecasted the global CDU capacity to register an impressive 16.7 percent growth over the next four years, increasing from 101mbd in 2018 to 117mbd by 2022.

Anna Belova, senior oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, said, “Among countries, China, Nigeria and India lead with most planned and announced CDU capacity additions and capital spending by 2022.

“China is poised to add 3,100 thousand barrels per day of CDU capacity through 10 refineries, and is expected to have CAPEX of $54.6 billion on new refineries by 2022.”

Among regions, Asia is forecast to have the highest planned and announced CDU capacity of 6.8mbd in 2022, followed by Africa with 3.3mbd. In terms of global capital spending, Asia is ahead again with proposed CAPEX of $254 billion for planned and announced projects up to 2022. Africa and the Middle East follow with $117 billion and $88 billion, respectively.

In terms of planned refineries, the Dayushan Island refinery in China and the Ratnagiri refinery in India leads in CDU capacity additions by 2022, each with 800mbd, followed by the Lagos I refinery in Nigeria with a CDU capacity addition of 650mbd.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dangote Group and China Petrochemical Corporation are the key compa-

nies in terms of CDU capacity additions during the outlook period.

Also, Swiber Africa Limited (a subsidiary of the SLOK Group of Companies) signed a strategic partnership agreement with a Spanish services firm Servicios Globales Fimaisys S.L. and an American Firm Global Services Advisors LLC for the establishment of a refinery in Nigeria.

The partnership would lead to the construction of a modular refinery within the next one-year and a completion of a much bigger refinery of about 300,000 barrels per day production capacity in the next three years. SLOK Nigeria Ltd is a leading indigenous player in the upstream sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

The corporation operates in marine transport service involving offshore support and deep-sea transportation within the Nigerian coastal and inland waterways.

SLOK Nigeria Ltd is the largest indigenous company in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which owns, operates, and manages its own fleet. SLOK Nigeria Limited is chaired by Forbes rated Billionaire businessman, Orji Kalu.

lead to tangible actions and delivery.”

One of the major highlights of the summit was the emergence of Accounteer as the winner of $50,000 equity investment from the Meltwater Foundation. Other benefits include space and support in the MEST Incubator, Lagos.

Since it was founded in Ghana in 2008, MEST has expanded its footprints into other African countries such as Nigeria in 2015, Kenya in 2016, and South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire in 2017. The company plans to launch a fully-fledged incubator in Nairobi, Kenya later this year.

When MEST was founded a decade ago, the goal was to find a way to create wealth and jobs here in Africa, by nurturing the massive amount of talent that exists on the continent,” Jorn Lyseg-

gen, founder/CEO, Meltwater and MEST explained at the summit.

“By empowering people to become software entrepreneurs, I believe Africa can take their fair share of the value creation that we know is going to take place in technology and software over the next generation.”

ME ST statement disclosed that there have been four exits. These include exits from from digital insurance claims company, C l a i m s y n c ; e c o m m e rc e marketing tools, RetailTower; AdGeek and messaging app, Saya. The company have funded over 50 companies with nearly 300 entrepreneurs receiving training.

Its interventions in startups through MEST and providing funding support have also led to the creation of over 500 highly skilled jobs.

MEST stakes over $20m in African start-ups after 10 years FRANK ELEANYA

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hana-based incubator, MEST, said it had invested over $20 million in technology startups across Africa since its establishment in 2008, with portfolio companies going on to receive follow-up funding.

The company made this known at the MEST Africa Summit held in Cape Town, South Africa, where it also marked 10 years of investing and supporting African entrepreneurs.

In a statement sent to BusinessDay, Aaron Fu, managing director at MEST, described the summit as a meeting ground for Africa’s top ecosystem partners and enthusiasts. He also said it was a forum for “honest discussion about change on the continent which we hope will

FG to partner Cross River in agricultural production MIKE ABANG, Calabar

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resident Mohammadu Buhari on Tuesday said the FederalGovernmentwould partner any state that engaged in agriculture as a way of diversifying the economy.

PresidentBuhari,whoassured Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State that the Federal Government would partner the state governmentinitsefforttodevelop agriculture in the state.

The President directed the CentralBankofNigeria(CBN)and theFederalMinistryofAgriculture through its anchor Borrowers Programme to assist the state government develop agriculture, especially the Rice Seedling Factory, cocoa processing factory in Ikom,BananaplantationinOdukpaniLocalGovernmentArea,Rice Mill Factory in Ogoja, and Cotton Factory in Yala, among others agricultural value chain in the state.

President Buhari said this at the official commissioning ceremony of Cross River State Seed andSeedlingFactoryCalabarheld attheRiceCityandIndustrialPark.

ThePresidentpraisedthegovernor for taking a bold step in agricultural revolution as a way of moving the state forward and over dependent from statutory allocation.

“Two years ago, I was here in Calabar in my first official visit to flag off the 274km superhighway

by Governor Ayade, that was my first official visit to any state since I assume office. Today, I am here to commission the rice seed and seedling factory as a flagship in agricultural production.

I am very satisfied with the state government effort in agricultural revolution in the state as my agricultural policy is working and yielding fruit,” the President said.

Earlier, Governor Ayade and the commissioner for agriculture, Anthony Eneji, said the President was very clear when he came to the roadmap of agriculture as an alternativetooil,soifthePresidentcould makethatchoice,‘’itisourownduty as governors to drive it into reality.”

According to Ayade, Nigeria spends over N400 billion importing rice every year, and additional N60 billion in the months of Christmas, so averagely the governor disclosed translating to N460 billion annually.

il prices rose Tuesday on uncertainty over Libyan oil exports, although the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to raise production by 1 million barrels per day at its recent meeting in Vienna. However, Nigeria may miss out on this window of opportunity.

Brent sweet crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at 74.95 dollars per barrel at 01.04 GMT, up 22 cents, or 0.3 percent from their last close.

The United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $68.33 a barrel, up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent.

Traders said prices were mostly driven higher by uncertainty around oil exports by Libya, a member of the OPEC. Khalifa Haftar, Eastern Libyan commander’s forces have handed control of oil ports to a separate National Oil Corporation (NOC) based in the East of the country.

The official state-owned oil company based in the capital Tripoli, also called NOC, would not be allowed to handle that oil anymore, he said.

In comments later confirmed to the Media, Ahmed Mismari, spokesman of Haftar’s Libya National Army (LNA), said on television that no tanker would be allowed to dock at eastern ports without permission.

The permission must be from a NOC entity based in the main eastern city, Benghazi. Oil markets have tightened significantly since 2017 when OPEC and its partners started withholding supply to prop up slumping prices at the time.

“Despite the OPEC agreement (last week) we believe that tight supply is likely to drive oil prices higher during 2018,’’ Jason Gammel of US Investment Bank Jefferies said in a note.

Oil has been predicted to rise to $100 before the end of this year by an analyst.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer may benefit little from Libya’s quagmire because according to data obtained from the ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria’s production in the month of May stood at 1.8million barrels per day and this includes figures for condensate, against the target to produce 2.2 million barrels as provided for in the 2018 budget.

NGA unveils documentary film on Nigerian gas in Washington DC OLUSOLA BELLO

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igerian Gas Association (NGA) in a move to woo international investors into the Nigerian gas industry in support of the country’s economic diversification agenda unveiled a documentary film on the country’s gas sector at the ongoing 2018 World Gas Conference (WGC) holding in Washington DC, US. Maikanti Baru, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), unveiled the documentary titled: “The Nigerian Gas Industry – A new Dawn,” intended to present a timely update on strategic and commercial opportunities within the entire Nigeria gas value chain at this year’s most important gathering of influential leaders, policymakers, buyers, sellers and experts across the global gas industry.

“We believe in the NGA that a new dawn is upon us in the gas industry in Nigeria and we want people to be aware of that and come to participate in the opportunities that abound in the country,” Dada Thomas, president, NGA, said.

In its almost two decades of serving as the voice of the gas industry in Nigeria, the NGA, a chartered member of the International Gas Union (IGU), has rallied some of the industry’s most remarkable minds to discuss, debate and gain insights needed for a robust gas industry make gas pay (AJE2) in Nigeria.

Nigeria currently holds the World 9th largest and Africa biggest gas reserves, a natural endowment that should propel its industrialisation considering the vast potential to use gas in nearly all sectors of the of the economy from agriculture, power, pharmaceuticals, industrial solvents, LPG, plastics, manufacturing and transportation and of course, to shore up its foreign exchange earnings.

Beyond its proven reserves of 192 TCF, the country also has the potential of additional undiscovered 600TCF which would push its ranking to the World 4th largest in gas reserves.

The NGA is a non-partisan association that was formed in 1999 to promote the development of gas in Nigeria for the benefit of the nation, investors and the various stakeholders.

The Association’s membership consists of a variety of international and indigenous companies as corporate members and individual members across the various sub-sectors and disciplines that make up the vast gasvalue chain, starting from gas exploration and production companies (Upstream), to gas processing and transportation companies (Mid-stream), and including the various end consumers, ranging from power generation companies (Gencos), Gas Based Industries (Fertiliser, Methanol, Petrochemical, etc.), and Industrial and Commercial Consumers (Mini/Micro LNG, CNG/LPG, etc.).”

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CityFile

Deprived widows urged to seek help at Rivers’ justice ministry

Scene of an accident at the Oshodi Abuleegba BRT Road under construction in Mongoro Bus Stop, Lagos on Monday.

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IGNATIUS CHUKWU

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idows in Rivers State, who have been deprived of their late husbands’ properties and estates, have been advised to approach the state’s ministry of justice for help.

The advice came following tearful accounts by widows at the 2018 International Widows Day in Port Harcourt where several of them lamented that their late husbands’ properties have been taken from them and their children.

Cordelia Eke, secretary, Port Harcourt chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and women’s rights activist, speaking on ‘widowhood rights’, told the wailing widows to take their case to the ministry of justice, where a director would take up the matters.

“There is provision if you apply for an administrator who would review the matter and take over the estate for administration until the matters in dispute are resolved. This is how the children’s school fees would be paid and other basic things done to the late man’s mother, wife and children.”

As many more widows recounted their ordeals, Eke admitted that several harmful practices still exist against widows including sitting on broken coconut shells for days, shaving, forced wailing, etc.

The activist reminded the widows that a 2003 law exists in the state that outlawed all such harmful practices and traditions, saying it is the duty of deprived widows to seek help. “I am a lawyer but I cannot start the litigation without you coming forth to lodge a complaint.”

Eke made it clear that a volunteer group exists in every chapter of the NBA in Rivers State to take up such matters on behalf of widows and other oppressed women.

VIO wants FCT motorists to comply with vehicle test

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adata Bodinga, director, F C T Ve h i c l e I n s p e c t i o n Office (VIO), has urged motorists to comply with the computerised vehicle inspection test before issuance of the road worthiness certificate.

Bodinga noted that in most cases of renewal of vehicle documents after payment, motorists did not have patience to get the service they had paid for.

“After people make payment for renewal, they should be responsible to go on their own to do the test. This is your right and you should claim it,” he said.

The director said that some motorists pay more than the stipulated amount in order to avoid going to the computerised vehicle inspection test centres.

He noted that the test had averted a lot of road accidents that ordinarily should have occurred.

“We have detected faulty brake pads and loosed nuts that ought to hold the tyre rims; the test has helped detect bad tyres. The inspection has the capability to detect electrical faults which ordinarily you will pay for outside but we offer such service for free,” he said.

Bodinga advised Nigerians to stop compromising human safety because by so doing, they exposed their lives to danger. He urged motorists to assert their right by going to the test centres to access the services they paid for.

Killings: Agency wants communities to form joint task force …as Plateau beefs up security in affected areas

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s the killings continue unabated, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has called for the formation of community Joint Task Force (JTF), as a preventive measure.

The police in Plateau State confirmed the killing of 86 persons across three local government areas of the state last weekend.

About 11 communities were affected in the attacks, forcing several persons to flee their homes as no fewer than 50 houses were completely burnt down.

The massive killings and destruction of properties were carried out by suspected herdsmen as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the political class engaged in politics and party national convention in Abuja.

Bulus Dabit, the director of NOA in Plateau, said in Jos, the Plateau State capital, on Monday, that it was important for com-

munities to play role in ensuring peace by reporting early warning signals.

“Community JTF would be a panacea for the killings in Plateau. It can work within the regulations of the state security apparatus, ‘Operation Rainbow’.

“The organisation should train the youths and deploy them to communities to protect lives in their area of jurisdiction,” he said. The director said that countries like Afghanistan also adopted the measure to address insurgency and was yielding effective result.

Dabit expressed worry that insurgents attacked innocent children and women hiding under the pretense of farmers and herdsmen clashes.

President Muhammadu Buhari has, however, stated that his administration would not rest until the murderers and sponsors of the crime were brought to

justice.

Terna Tyopev, spokesperson of the police command in Plateau said 86 deaths were recorded while six persons were injured following which the state government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on the affected communites to restore peace and forestall reprisal attacks in Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Jos South areas of the state.

Meanwhile, Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong said that the government was reinforcing security in attack prone communities, following the latest killings “Government has taken decisive steps to reinforce security, particularly in communities prone to attacks. In the same vein, government is working to tackle the underlying causes of conflict,’’ Lalong while addressing the people of the state.

131 arrested in connection with illicit drugs …as NDLEA seizes 263 kg drugs in 12 months SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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ational Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kwara State says 131 persons have been arrested and 263.752kg of illicit drugs confiscated from suspects in 12 months.

The commander of the agency in Kwara, Ona Ogilegwu, released the figures on Monday to mark the 2018 United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking.

The commander, who said that the

suspects comprised of 115 males and 16 females, added that 18 persons were convicted and committed to prison. Ogilegwu noted that the drugs seized were 203.502kgs of cannabis sativa, 876 bottles of codeine and 60.25 kg of psychotropic substances.

He added that “our routine is to cut the chain of supply of illicit drugs to have a change of attitude. That is why we counsel and rehabilitate drug-dependent persons.”

According to him, 23 drug-dependent

persons were properly rehabilitated and reunited with their families while 70 who used drugs were counselled.

Risikat Lawal, thechairperson of drug control committee in Kwara, said the body would start visiting schools to educate students on the danger of drug abuse.

Lawal added that there would also be sensitisation campaign at Abidayo Clinic in Zango area of Ilorin to create awareness among mothers on the dangers of drug abuse.

Ogun: Police rescue baby dumped by mother

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he police in Ogun State have arrested a 21-year woman, Amudalat Taiwo for throwing her 12day baby into pit latrine.

Amudalat was arrest following a complaint from her landlord, one Oshunshina Olawale who reported that one of his tenants at No.28, Isheri Street, Ilaro woke up early in the morning of June 20, 2018 and went to the toilet to ease herself only to be hearing the cry of a baby inside the pit toilet.

On the strength of the complaint, the

DPO Ilaro Division, Opebiyi Sunday led detectives to the scene where the latrine was broken and the baby was rescued.

On investigation, it was discovered that the baby was given birth to by the suspect who was promptly arrested.

On interrogation, she claimed that she was an orphan married to one Taiwo Owolabi who was married to another woman with five children. She stated further that the husband was not taking care of her and the baby and since she has no means of catering for the baby, she

decided to do away with her.

The said husband has been arrested for failure to provide for the family while the case has been transferred to anti-human trafficking and child labour unit of state Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department on the order of the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu for further investigation and possible prosecution of the suspects.

Meanwhile, the baby is in a stable condition at Stella Obansanjo motherless baby home.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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World Business Newspaper

Trump-Putin summit looms but expectations low Face-to-face meeting seen as breakthrough and a substantive deal unlikely KATHRIN HILLE, HENRY FOY AND KATRINA MANSON

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he White House and Kremlin are making advanced preparations for a summit between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin, set to take place in a third country next month despite rock-bottom expectations on both sides.

John Bolton, Mr Trump’s hawkish national security adviser, is to flesh out the agenda for the planned meeting in talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and then with Mr Putin himself in Moscow on Wednesday.

According to a senior Russian official, the summit will be held after Mr Trump’s visit to the UK on July 13.

Contrary to earlier expectations that the leaders might meet in Austria, the two sides have reached a preliminary agreement on another host country that is logistically more convenient, the official said.

Although a summit with Mr Trump will be an achievement for Mr Putin, with Russia chasing such a meeting for 18 months, the Kremlin is hardly triumphant.

“With Trump, it is best to stay cautious. Just it taking place will mean progress, so finding even one point of agreement would be a victory,” said the senior Russian official.

“It’s useless forcing people to talk to each other when all they will do is bark. For both sides to see that the necessity [to talk] is there, then that is progress.”

But expectations for a breakthrough in the relationship are low, in Moscow and Washington.

Bilateral ties, shattered after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and the stoking of conflict in eastern Ukraine, have plunged to new depths as Washington issued its toughest sanctions yet against Russia in April over what it called Moscow’s “malign activity around the globe”, including in Ukraine, Syria, cyber space and an attempt to “subvert western democracies”.

A US investigation led by Robert Mueller, former FBI chief, is assessing whether Mr Trump’s campaign team colluded with the Russians to help

secure his election, an effort the president has derided as a “witch-hunt”.

US officials doubt the president can pull off any grand bargain with Russia, but some support the prospect of an effort to ease tensions that might come from the two leaders meeting face to face.

“Trump has consistently pulled his punches and been very, very reluctant to criticise Putin,” said Andrew Weiss, former Russia director at the National Security Council.

“The agenda here is I think to make a big splash rather than to push discrete parts of the Russia-US agenda forward.”

That assessment mirrors expectations in the Kremlin. “I don’t think we can reach an agreement that would be a breakthrough — it is more of a showcase,” said the senior Russian official.

While Kremlin officials expect the two leaders to discuss Ukraine, Syria, North Korea and arms control, they believe it will be impossible to hammer out even a minimum agreement in any of these areas that could be passed off as a success.

Russian officials said the two sides were more likely to pursue a cooperation deal on a less heavyweight, “secondary” issue, which could then be used as a building block to try to gradually convince them to re-engage.

“Trump may go for a faux grand bargain, in which we get vague Putin promises [about Ukraine] in return for unilateral stand-down on sanctions and/or some deliberate US blow-up of the Nato summit, or invitation to Putin to join a security arrangement to transcend Nato,” said Daniel Fried, a former senior state department official who led Russia sanctions policy.

Mr Fried suggested the other main area for potential co-operation where the leaders could claim some progress would be renewed efforts to co-ordinate military relations and limit the scale of military exercises.

“That would be worthy,” he said.

But Russian and US foreign policy experts have warned the erosion of trust and degradation of the arms control architecture has driven the relationship between the two nuclear powers into a territory possibly more dangerous than in Soviet times.

Austria to push hardline migration policy in EU presidency Plan shows some refugees would be required to file claims before entering the bloc MICHAEL PEEL AND JAMES POLITI

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yrians, Afghans and African nationals seeking refuge in the EU would have to file their asylum applications before entering the bloc under radical migration proposals put forward by Austria’s government.

The plan shows the hard line that Austria will champion when it takes over the bloc’s rotating presidency on July 1. It would also highlight a shift

away from the EU’s existing asylum system, where “frontline” Mediterranean states such as Italy, which receive most migrant arrivals, have long argued that they shoulder an unfair burden.

At a “mini-summit” of EU leaders on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called for “radical change” in how the EU deals with Continues on page A4

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin (R) and US president Donald Trump at the APEC summit last year © AFP

All eyes on oil supply after Opec deal to boost output Concern over spare capacity seen as helping keep crude prices firm ANJLI RAVAL AND DAVID SHEPPARD

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or the second half of the year, the focus shifts to supply figures in the wake of last week’s output deal between Opec and other major producers.

What does the supply picture look like?

The prospect of an extra 1m barrels per day of oil hitting the market would normally be considered uniformly bearish for prices.

But part of the Saudi-led decision to raise production stems from the risk of less global supplies later this year.

Venezuela’s economic and political crisis has already cut the Opec member’s output by 700,000 b/d in the past 12 months, taking producer curbs well over their initial targets and helping to propel prices above $80 a barrel last month.

Iran, the third-largest Opec producer, faces the reimposition of US sanctions on its oil exports after the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Meanwhile, Libya, another Opec member, has held output close to 1m b/d for much

of the past 18 months before renewed fighting knocked out 400,000 b/d of production last week and damaged one of its oil ports.

Paul Horsnell at Standard Chartered said there could be a further 1.5m to 2.3m b/d drop by the end of this year just from those three countries.

“Venezuela could certainly lose another 500,000 b/d from May production — that’s already started — and Iran could be 1m lower by the end of the year,” he said. “We could lose 2.3m b/d in a worst-case scenario if Libya went through a sustained period of supply insecurity.”

Meanwhile, the US shale industry, which has grown sharply during the past 18 months, is finding its top field — the Permian basin in Texas — starting to push up against pipeline constraints for getting the oil to market. That should see supply growth slow until more lines can be opened in 2019.

“Price risk is still very much to the upside,” said Mr Horsnell. “It’s much easier to see prices jumping $10-$15 a barrel than falling by that amount.”

Does the market have enough of a buffer?

The International Energy Agency

calculates spare production capacity as oil that can be pumped within 90 days and sustained for an extended period.

It estimated Opec had nearly 3.5m b/d in April, with Saudi Arabia accounting for about 60 per cent.

The kingdom’s energy minister Khalid Al Falih indicated that members of the new deal with spare capacity — predominantly Saudi Arabia, its Gulf allies and Russia — will increase output to make up for those that cannot produce enough.

This stokes worry about how much of a supply buffer the market has, particularly if, as Mr Falih said, producers do “whatever is necessary” to ease consumers’ concerns — particularly those of US President Donald Trump.

Bassam Fattouh at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said in a paper the announcement of a 1m b/d increase, which has already seen prices retreat below $75 a barrel, may be “shortlived”.

“In a rising market characterised by declining stocks and low availability of spare capacity, the ability of the oil market to absorb any unexpected disruptions in supply (or demand for that matter) is limited,” he said.

Besieged Merkel seeks escape as rebellion mounts Chancellor’s domestic problems and migration spat cast shadow over EU leaders’ summit GUY CHAZAN AND ALEX BARKER

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or most of the past 13 years, Angela Merkel dominated EU summits because of her strength. On Thursday she will again be centre stage in Brussels — this time by dint of her weakness.

The turnround in the fortunes of Ms Merkel, the EU’s political rainmaker for most of the 21st century, could hardly be more stark. She will enter her 75th gathering of EU heads of government with some predicting it could be her last.

Besieged at home by rebellious coalition partners and hemmed in abroad by truculent populists, Ms Merkel is hoping European allies will help her find an escape route. Yet even sympathisers wonder whether they can deliver enough to ensure her survival.

“I don’t want to predict how it ends,” said one adviser to an EU premier. “Some will say: let her suf-

fer and let her fall. She has tonnes of enemies around that table who would be happy to see her gone. They will have no pity.”

Yet “if we lose her we are in trouble,” the adviser added. “Real trouble.”

Seldom have Ms Merkel’s domestic political problems cast such a long shadow over an EU summit. A ferocious row over asylum between her CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, has brought their near 70-year alliance to the brink of collapse and threatens to blow up her government just three months after it was formed.

Horst Seehofer, the CSU interior minister, who wants refugees registered in other EU countries to be turned away at the German border — a demand Ms Merkel rejects — has given her until the end of the month to broker a pan-European solution to the issue.

But Europe’s shifting political sands do not augur well for the chan-

cellor. Italy, driven by its new deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League, has little incentive to help Ms Merkel out. And his hard line on immigration echoes that of other rightwing EU leaders such as Sebastian Kurz of Austria and Hungary’s Viktor Orban, both of whom strongly opposed Ms Merkel’s liberal, “everyone-welcome” policy at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015.

“What unites these politicians is not the refugee issue . . . but their common struggle against Angela Merkel,” said Gerald Knaus, head of the European Stability Initiative, a think-tank.

Yet some insist that Ms Merkel will survive, despite the forces arrayed against her. “Never underestimate her capacity to get out of difficult situations,” said Alex Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland. “I have never, ever seen anyone able to negotiate her way through difficult situations with such calmness.”

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BUSINESS DAY

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NATIONAL

FT

US Supreme Court delivers Trump victory on travel ban President has discretion to restrict visitors from Muslim-majority countries — ruling KADHIM SHUBBER AND

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resident Donald Trump scored a big victory on Tuesday after the Supreme Court upheld his controversial travel ban which critics had assailed as targeting Muslims.

The US high court ruled 5 to 4 in favour of the administration, which

introduced the ban on travel to the US by citizens from a list of mainly Middle East countries after two earlier versions had been blocked by lower courts.

Mr Trump quickly took to Twitter to hail what was the first major legal victory of his 17 months in office.

“Wow!” Mr Trump tweeted, before

later saying in a statement that it was a “moment of profound vindication”.

“The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the president to defend the national security of the US,” Mr Trump said. “In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly

vet those coming into our country.”

Mr Trump unveiled the first travel ban shortly after his inauguration, in a move that was slammed by critics as the imposition of an unconstitutional religious litmus test. But the administration argued that it was a crucial tool for national security reasons.

The administration updated the

ban in March 2017 and then again in September. It affected citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, until Chad was removed in April.

Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said there was “persuasive evidence that the entry suspension has a legitimate grounding in national security concerns” and that the order implementing the ban “says nothing about religion”.

Europe’s high-speed rail network ‘slow, expensive and ineffective’

Austria to push hardline migration policy in EU...

Continued from page A3 asylum claims. Sunday’s meeting, convened on the initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, failed to make headway. More clashes are expected at a full EU leaders’ summit in Brussels this week.

The Austrian document underscores how the government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, which includes the far-right Freedom party, wants to use the country’s six-month EU leadership to push for a tough response to the political crisis over migration.

Austrian officials said the paper was intended for discussion and was drawn up by the interior ministry of interior, which is headed by the Freedom party’s Herbert Kickl.

The paper decries “fundamental weaknesses” in the EU’s external border and floats proposals including the “development of a new, better protection system under which no applications for asylum are filed on EU territory”, with only limited exceptions.

It says action is needed to deal with the arrival of uneducated lone young men from regions “characterised by patriarchal, anti-freedom and/or backward-looking religious attitudes”.

The Austrian idea expands plans under discussion at EU level to build camps in north Africa to send migrants saved at sea, after Italy’s refusal this month to accept a rescue ship with more than 600 people on board.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s interior minister and the head of the far-right League who sets the country’s immigration policy, said on Monday that Rome would back EU plans to set up reception and identification centres for migrants on Libya’s southern border, on his first visit to Tripoli since taking power.

But Ahmed Maiteeq, Libya’s vicepremier, quashed the idea, saying it would be against domestic laws and “categorically rejected”, showing how difficult it can be to secure approval from source and transit countries in Africa for specific measures to curb migration to Europe.

Vienna’s strident approach to migration policy has rattled some EU officials, who fear it will be unwilling or unable to act as a broker when it chairs meetings of member states.

“The migration crisis of 2015 and its consequences left many people with the impression that political elites and the EU as a whole have lost control of the situation,” says the Austrian document, which has been prepared for an informal gathering of bloc internal security officials next month and seen by the FT. “Only by combining sound external border protection with an effective common asylum policy will it be possible to prevent illegal migration while granting protection to those in most urgent need of it.”

Wednesday 27 June 2018

EU spending watchdog hits out at costly projects often driven by politics rather than need JOSH SPERO AND ROCHELLE OPLENSKY

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Total chief Patrick Pouyanné said a trade war with China would be ‘very bad news’ for exports of liquefied natural gas © AFP

China trade dispute casts doubt over exports of LNG from US Industry executives warn of threat to new projects worth billions of dollars ED CROOKS

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lans to export increased volumes of liquefied natural gas from the US have been thrown into doubt because of the escalating trade dispute with China, industry executives have warned.

Patrick Pouyanné, chief executive of Total, the French oil and gas group, told reporters in Washington on Monday that a trade war with China would be “very bad news” for exports of liquefied natural gas.

LNG Ltd, an Australian company that is developing a new export project in Louisiana, said its talks with potential buyers in China had been put on hold until the issue had been resolved.

Greg Vesey, its chief executive, said: “We were in a meeting with a potential customer, who said they weren’t going to make a move until it has been clarified what is happening with these tariffs.”

The trade dispute has cast a shadow over companies’ plans to invest tens of billions of dollars and employ tens of thousands of workers in constructing a new wave of LNG

export capacity in Texas and Louisiana. China has so far excluded LNG from the list of imports from the US that are threatened with additional tariffs, even though other fuels including oil and coal are included.

But exporters of US LNG are worried that it could soon be targeted.

Total, which is one of the world’s largest LNG suppliers, has been building up its position in the US industry. It bought the LNG business of Engie, which includes a stake in the Cameron LNG project now under construction in Louisiana, and has invested in Tellurian, which is developing the Driftwood LNG project, also in Louisiana.

Mr Pouyanné said he hoped the US would not “lose the Chinese market” for LNG. “The US has a very good game to play in the LNG business, but the market is mainly driven by Asia, [particularly] by China,” he said.

The fundamentals in terms of the huge resource base of low-cost gas were very good in the US, he said, “then you have the up and downs, and the disruptions and all these elements, which could delay projects [and] have some negative impacts”.

He added that tariffs on steel imports into the US were also “not good” for project developers or for the world economy.

Many countries around the world are increasing their imports of LNG, but China is by far the largest growth market, as the government seeks to curb the use of coal. Last year it overtook South Korea to become the world’s second-largest buyer of LNG, after Japan, with a 42 per cent increase in imports. China alone accounted for 44 per cent of the entire worldwide increase in LNG imports last year.

Mr Vesey said LNG Ltd was talking to members of Congress to convey the scale of the problems caused by the trade dispute. “If you think it’s not having an impact, wake up: it is,” he said.

One encouraging sign was that as President Donald Trump’s positions changed so often, he might easily pull back from a damaging trade war, Mr Vesey added. With the midterm elections approaching in November, he thought Mr Trump would seek to reduce the harm done by his policies to his supporters. “He doesn’t want to hose all his folks,” Mr Vesey said.

University of Sussex, Future Project signed MoU to promote quality education for Nigerians

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he University of Sussex, one of the United Kingdom leading research-intensive universities, sealed a strategic partnership with the Future Project, Africa’s leading citizen empowerment platform.

The partnership is aimed at consolidating impact in Nigeria’s educational system. As a result of this, winners of The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) in the Education category will get a scholarship to attend courses run in the prestigious university.

Over the past two years, The Future Awards Africa Prize for Education has been endowed by the University of Sussex. The partnership is however being taken a notch higher with winners enjoying scholarship awards of up to £5,000 to study in

the Brighton-based institution.

Speaking on the partnership, vice chancellor of the University of Sussex, Adam Tickell emphasized on the strong relationship the university has established with Nigeria through the TFAA. According to him: “We believe The Future Project has a really strong commitment to youth development and empowerment in Nigeria, and that is exactly why Sussex University is delighted about this partnership. I have no doubt that this partnership will further strengthen our bond to genuinely inspire and empower the Nigerian youth. The University of Sussex has over the years produced some of the best professionals across the world, and we are happy to make our mark

in Nigeria.”

Commenting on the partnership, Adebola Williams, co-founder of The Future Project highlighted the importance of the partnership saying it “will create more opportunities for individuals and corporates doing great things and recording measurable impact in the Nigerian education ecosystem. The University of Sussex has set its footprint in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, and we are inspired by it.”

The University of Sussex is at the forefront of promoting quality education in Africa. It provides diverse opportunities for young people who desire to gain and share knowledge with a view to developing the continent and impacting future generations of Africans.

urope’s high-speed rail network is a slow, expensive and “ineffective patchwork”, according to a report from the EU’s spending watchdog that criticised costly projects often driven by politics rather than need.

The report by the European Court of Auditors found that trains rarely operated at full speed. They ran on average at 45 per cent of the line’s potential velocity and only two examined reached an average above 200km/h. None was above 250km/h.

“Average speed so far below the design speed raises questions as to sound financial management,” the ECA said.

The lines in question were in six EU countries and covered 5,000km.

The report predicts that member states will miss the EU target of having 31,000km of high-speed rail track by 2030, as part of the bloc’s effort to move travellers from road to rail. There was 9,100km of track at the end of 2017, with another 1,700km under construction.

“We found that the EU’s current longterm plan is not supported by credible analysis, is unlikely to be achieved and lacks a solid EU-wide strategic approach,” the report said.

The European Commission, in its official response to the report, did not dispute that the EU had a patchwork of high-speed rail services, but said it performed “rigorous” economic analysis and did have an EU-wide strategic plan — the Trans-European Network for Transport regulation. The new rules were approved by all 28 member states and the European Parliament late in 2013 and gave EU officials the power to partly fund projects and sanction those that failed to meet its requirements.

The projects examined in the ECA report started before 2013 so are not covered by the new rules. EU officials are evaluating the high-speed projects funded since 2014 and will report on those before the end of the year.

One of the problems in meeting the EU’s 2030 target is the time it takes for construction to be completed before trains can start running, on average 16 years.

The Munich-Verona line, which runs through Austria, would not be finished until 2040, 37 years after work started, because a lack of political interest in Germany had stymied it, the ECA found.

The parts of this line that were intended to run under the Brenner Pass in the eastern Alps were also the most expensive of those studied, costing €145m per km, against an average of €25m per km.

One reason for the “patchwork” system was that national governments, not the European Commission, decided on high-speed rail projects, which meant the lines did not often cross borders, the report said. In pursuing them as political projects, governments rarely considered their cost efficiency.

The report struck a frustrated note.

Despite the EU contribution of €23.7bn of funds from 2010 to 2017, and €29.7bn from the European Investment Bank, the ECA noted that the commission had no power to make governments plan transnational lines.

Wednesday 27 June 2018

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FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Wall St rebound led by techs and energy stocks China concerns mount as Shanghai Composite enters bear market DAVE SHELLOCK

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S equity indices recovered some of the previous day’s sharp falls as tech stocks rebounded, the energy sector got a lift from rising oil prices and General Electric shares headed for their best day in three years.

But the mood elsewhere remained more subdued as lingering worries about the potential impact of a global trade war kept participants cautious.

Indeed, the Shanghai Composite index in China suffered a 0.5 per cent fall that left it 20 per cent down from a two-year high hit in January — the usual definition of a bear market.

The renminbi also weakened to a fresh six-month low in the wake of the decision at the weekend by the country’s central bank to lower the reserve requirement ratio for most of its banks.

“Clearly, China’s growth outlook has turned gloomier due to weak domestic demand and rising trade tensions, and sentiment has become quite bearish as the market views that the RRR cut indicates that the authorities are worried about the downside risks facing the economy,” said Hao Zhou, analyst at Commerzbank.

Alan Ruskin at Deutsche Bank said: “Until now, China has appeared to take a view that the last thing it needs is to interject renminbi weakness into the equation and complicate trade negotiations with the US. The price action itself suggests this resolve to keep dollar/renminbi stable is weakening.”

The “risk-off” tone that enveloped global markets on Monday faded, with Treasury prices edging back slightly and the yen losing ground against the dollar. The dollar index headed back towards the 2018 high it hit last week, helping to push gold to a fresh six-month low.

The Turkish lira stood out as the

improvement in risk appetite helped a number of emerging markets currencies rally against the dollar. The lira was up 1.5 per cent although trading was volatile as participants continued to weigh up the monetary policy outlook for the country following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s re-election last weekend.

Energy was the best performing sector in the S&P 500 as Brent oil reversed an early fall to trade back above $76 a barrel for the first time in seven sessions. The rally followed reports that the US was pushing its allies to cut oil imports from Iran to zero by November. The Trump administration withdrew from a nuclear deal with Tehran last month.

Oil markets have been choppy since major producers agreed at the end of last week to raise production.

Equities By early afternoon in New York, the S&P 500 was up 0.6 per cent at 2,732 following a 1.4 per cent slide on Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite — which sank 2.1 per cent in the previous session — was 0.8 per cent higher.

GE shares were up more than 8 per cent after it said it would divest its healthcare division and a stake in Baker Hughes, the oil services company, Wall Street’s rally offered some support to European stock indices.

The region-wide Stoxx 600 ended fractionally higher, while London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 per cent, helped by a weaker pound. The Xetra Dax in Frankfurt, however, edged back 0.3 per cent.

Forex and fixed income The dollar index was up 0.5 per cent at 94.72 — putting it back in sight of last week’s 2018 intraday high of 95.53 — as the euro shed 0.5 per cent to $1.1646. The US currency was up 0.4 per cent versus the yen at ¥110.14.

Erdogan election honeymoon fades fast for Turkey’s assets Government yields rise and the lira remains weak just days after president’s victory ADAM SAMSON

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resident Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s re-election last weekend did instil a little stability in Turkey’s financial markets. Unfortunately, it lasted for all of a morning.

Despite the lira’s modest bump higher, the currency is still down almost a fifth for the year and the county’s bond market is flashing signs of investor angst.

The gap between the yield on Turkey’s government bonds against US Treasuries has widened, signalling higher perceived risk.

The spread on Turkey’s 10-year dollar-denominated paper that matures in October 2028 clocked in at 4.364 percentage points on Tuesday.

It is now up from 4.191 points at the end of last week, before Sunday’s elections, and much higher than the spread of 3.37 points at the issuance in April.

What troubles analysts are concerns that Mr Erdogan will destabilise an economy that is already showing signs of overheating. Inflation is running above 12 per cent — more than twice the central bank’s target — while the current account deficit has widened markedly in a sign of economic imbalances.

The broader emerging market environment has also turned bearish. High oil prices and the removal of stimulus from developed market central banks are weighing heavily on economies such as Turkey’s.

These factors have hit the lira this year, sending it slumping 18 per cent on the US dollar. The Borsa Istanbul 100 stock gauge is also down a similar margin since the end of 2017.

“The [Turkish] economy has been on an unsustainable path for too long, and imbalances have reached levels requiring swift action,” said Dan Bucsa, economist at UniCredit.

The quarterly survey of 214 asset allocators who manage $4.1tn of funds found that expectations of an improvement in global business confidence had declined sharply since the start of the year

A bigger Heathrow will help keep Britain global The MPs’ vote for a third runway is welcome news for business JIM BRUNSDEN, ALAN BEATTIE AND JAMIE SMYTH

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ritain’s MPs have cast a decisive vote in favour of expanding Heathrow airport.

The 415 to 119 result acknowledges two simple realities: the UK badly needs more aviation capacity, and Heathrow is the most sensible place to locate it. As Britain redefines its global role by leaving the EU, it must ensure that its infrastructure makes it an attractive destination for international commerce and investment. A third runway at Heathrow is a good place to start.

After years of delay and parliamentary back-and-forth — the first vote in favour of a third runway was cast in 2009 — the country must push ahead.

Britain’s unique geographical placement makes it a natural spot for a global aviation hub. But both Heathrow and Gatwick have reached full capacity. The southeast’s other airports are not far behind. This has been true for years: Heathrow was host to the same number of flights in 2016 as it was a decade earlier. That means that other regional airports are already winning business away from the UK. Amsterdam’s Schiphol has five main runways; the main airports in Paris and Frankfurt have four

apiece.

There are two good reasons for expanding Heathrow, rather than one of London’s smaller airports. It is served by superior transport links and, with the arrival of the Crossrail link late next year, that edge will increase. And, particularly in freight, one large hub airport remains more flexible and efficient than two mediumsized ones.

In a crowded country, no runway location is perfect. The third runway will mean more noise, pollution, and disruption for west London. Local councils have recourse to judicial review, and they will deploy it. Certainly, the burden is on Heathrow’s owners to demonstrate, in the course of the court challenges, that the project will not exceed legal pollution limits. Improving public transport links to the airport will play an essential role in making this possible.

The biggest concern is not whether a new runway is needed, where to put it, or whether environmental concerns can be met.

It is the high projected cost of the project. Heathrow itself estimates that the cost will run to £14bn.

The new public transport links to Heathrow may cost as much or more than the runway itself.

The key argument for building

the runway is that it will benefit business. It is crucial, therefore, that the burden not fall to the taxpayer if costs should overrun estimates. The Civil Aviation Authority, the industry regulator, must be vigilant, and it should keep a close eye on the amount and structure of the debt used to fund the project.

Heathrow’s balance sheet has only a thin layer of equity. Its owners should stump up more, rather than depending solely on debt funding.

In recent weeks it has become abundantly clear that global companies — Airbus is just one example — are concerned that Brexit will increase the costs of doing business in the UK. Other groups are voting with their feet. In a painful irony, the Spanish company that operates Heathrow, Ferrovial, announced on Tuesday that it was moving its holding company out of Britain because of Brexit.

The government’s response to companies voicing legitimate concerns has been, for the most part, to criticise them for talking out of turn. A more constructive approach is to do whatever it takes to make the UK as competitive as it can be. That means wise tax and regulatory policy, improved education for workers, and keeping the barriers to trade low. Infrastructure will be an essential part of this effort. Build the runway.

Crude rises on reports of US push for buyers to cut Iran A state department official says US will not offer any waivers to traditional buyers ANJLI RAVAL

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rude prices accelerated on Tuesday after reports that the US is pushing big oil consumer nations to cut their imports from Iran following the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May. A state department official said the US will not offer any waivers to traditional buyers of the country’s oil, after it reimposed sanctions on Iran’s energy sector and exports, which are due to kick in later this year.

US representatives are set to travel to India and China to persuade them to “go to zero”, Reuters and Bloomberg reported. This would be a change from previous years when Iran was under a previous round of sanctions and special allowances were made.

Brent crude, the international

benchmark, rose by $1.40 a barrel to $76.14, while West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, increased by $2.20 a barrel to $70.27. The price moves came despite reports that Saudi Arabia would ramp up output.

The kingdom and Russia said on Saturday global producers would increase output by 1m b/d in response to concerns from consumer countries — namely the US — that had protested the rise in crude prices above $80 a barrel last month.

Energy analysts have been briefed by the kingdom to expect its domestic output to increase to at least 10.6m b/d in the coming months, with Bloomberg reporting that production could surge to 10.8m b/d in July alone. Saudi Arabia pumped around 10m b/d in May. Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has pledged a “measurable” output raise in July and emphasised that

country-specific output allocations would not take priority over easing market concerns, which could pave the way for another clash with Opec rival Iran.

This has prompted questions from oil traders and analysts about the level of spare production capacity in the market should the kingdom — the biggest holder of this extra supply buffer of around 2m b/d — turn on the taps.

While Saudi Arabia has sought to talk the market down, following US disappointment the increases may not be enough to cool prices, bullish factors have taken centre stage.

Aside from the US state department’s remarks on Iran, there is rising uncertainty about oil exports from Libya. Eastern Libya, under commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces, has taken control of oil ports from the official state-owned oil company from the capital Tripoli.

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

Live @ The Stock Exchange International Breweries, CCNN, Mobil, others drag NSE ASI southward Stories by IHEANYI NWACHUKWU

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n Tuesday June 26, 2018, Nigerian stocks failed to sustained preceding day’s gains as investors took profit in stocks like that of International Breweries Plc, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc, and Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. Year-to-Date (YtD), the stock market returns stands at -0.67percent. Twenty-two (22) stocks gained as against 23 losers.

International Breweries Plc dipped most by N2.7

or 6.14percent, from N44 to N41.3; Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc declined from N25.95 to N24.7, down by N1.25 or 4.82percent. Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc also declined from N183 to N182, down by N1 or 0.55percent. Zenith Bank Plc declined from N25.95 to N25.5, down by 45kobo or 1.73percent. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc also recorded a dip, from N19.2 to N19, down by 20kobo or 1.04percent.

On the gainers list, Nestle Nigeria Plc recorded the highest gain, from N1490 to N1500, up by N10 or 0.67percent. Presco Plc followed after its share price advanced from N73.5 to N75, up by

N1.5 or 2.04percent.

Lafarge Africa Plc also increased from N38.1 to N39.05, up by 95kobo or 2.49percent. Nigerian Breweries Plc increased from N110 to N110.5, up by 50kobo or 0.45percent; while NEM Insurance Plc advanced from N3.04 to N3.34, up by 30kobo or 9.87percent.

In 4,202 deals, stock traders exchanged 539,665,335 units valued at N4.711billion. Union Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Transcorp Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc were actively traded stocks on Tuesday June 26, 2018. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) closed lower at 37,988.54 points as against 37,992.12 points the preceding trading day, down by 0.01percent.

The value of listed equities on Lagos bourse decreased from N13.762trillion to N13.761trillion, indicating capital depreciation of N1billion.

Stakeholders canvass for trust in Nigerian financial sector ... As Coronation Merchant Bank, others sponsor CFA in driving corporate governance MICHEAL ANI

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t was indeed a serene and educating environment at the corporate governance and financial reporting Quality conference organised by the chartered financial analysts (CFA), where stakeholders clamoured for trust in the Nigerian financial system.

“The most important thing that drives the Nigerian financial system is trust,” Banji Fehintola, President, CFA society Nigeria told BusinessDay “The capital market is supposed to bring people who have surplus capital to people who has deficit so that they can feel economic growth and devel-

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General Public please take note.

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opment. If the people who has capital for any reason, doubt the financial intermediary who stands between them and the investment they are trying to make, they stop providing that and ultimately the economy suffers, the society suffers”.

Banji noted that since the institute in a nonprofit organisation, it thus depended on financial sponsorship from Coronation Merchant bank, Citi Bank and Institute of director’s centre for corporate governance who are major sponsors of the programme.

Following the global financial crisis in 2008, there was a severe loss of confidence in the financial system over all as many retail and institutional inves-

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tors felt the financial market was not safe for them to invest.

Nearly two-thirds of the institutional investors believe the financial system is appropriately regulated, while only 10 percent of retail investors disagree with the statement “I have a fair opportunity to profit by investing in the financial market According to a 2018 global survey by the institute on the state of investors trust, 44 of the people surveyed said they trust the financial services industry. However, in Nigeria, the number is much less as industry players said showed less than 20 percent confidence level.

Industry experts have however raised concern

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

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BUSINESS DAY

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

BUSINESS DAY

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I WEDNESDAY 27 JUNE 2018

Opinion

The allies of Pharaoh OPEYEMI AGBAJE opeyemiagbaje@rtcadvisory.com

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his season I restore a tradition that wa s st ro ng l y established in this column-to reflect on theological questions around the period commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Easter) as well as his birth and ministry (Christmas).

U s u a l l y h o w e v e r, t h e real essence of those re f l e c t i o n s, a s a n y o n e who can read between the lines might observe, will usually be to draw contemporar y lessons from the scriptures.

I focus today first on a misunderstanding I obser ved since 2015 as many Christians used the example of Jos eph (who the Bible tells us rose to be a high minister of state, minister o f f i na n c e a n d i n d e e d prime minister) who served in Pharaoh’s gov-

ernment to justify or rationalize their political choices. The first misconception was that Joseph did not CHOOSE t o g o t o Eg y p t ! Jo s e p h was sold into slavery by h i s o w n b ro t h e r s w h o were envious of his favourite or preferred son position amongst his siblings. The y hate d h i m f o r re c o u nt i n g the dream in which his brothers bowed down b e f o re h i m a n d d e t e rmined to destroy his destiny in order to cut s h o r t h i s d r e a m s - “…

Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit…We shall see what will become of his dreams!”

In the event through a d i v i n e l y o rd e re d s e t of circumstances (including the intervention of Reuben, Joseph’s brother), he escaped death and was instead s o l d i n t o s l av e r y e n d ing up in Egypt. Joseph did not opt to go into Eg ypt in order to s e ek or consummate an unequal yoke of a political and economic alliance with Pharaoh!

He was not driven by

personal ambition or the quest for money or political power to travel t o E g y p t t o j o i n P ha ra o h’s p o l i t i c a l m o v e ment or government!

None of the events that culminated in Joseph’s journey to Egypt or his elevation therein were due to any scheming, self-positioning, sycophancy, struggle or muted voice-none of it was sought by Joseph or desired by him. It was all divinely arranged a n d t h e re f o re G o d re solved it all for Joseph’s good. Anyone who willingly constructs a journey to Egypt or alliance therein out of his or her own will, cannot rely o n Je h ov a h t o w o r k i t out for his or her good!

Indeed if things do not e n d t ra g i c a l l y i n s u c h circumstances, it will be evidence not of divine guidance, but mercy!

There is a second misapplication of the story of Joseph that I have noticed in the Church for ages-we end the story of Joseph at the happy ending of Prime Mi n i s t e r s h i p i n E g y p t and the tactical good fortune that came to Israel as Joseph’s posi-

tioning in Egypt enabled him to rescue his family when they came to seek food in Egypt during t h e f a m i n e. T h e re a re many good stories in b e t w e e n -Jo s e p h’s d i s cipline; his gifts of interpretation of dreams ; his industry and managerial skills ; refusal to yield to the many temptations in Egypt ; his foresight and financial insight that led to Egypt accumulating sovereign savings dur ing the ag r icultural boom which enabled Egypt and Pharaoh to benefit during the recession (unlike Nigeria!) etc. but in my reading of Joseph’s story, I have always noted t hat t h e sto r y a c tu a l ly reached a bad junction, not in Genesis but in E x o d u s , “… N o w t h e r e a ro s e a n e w k i n g ov e r Egypt, who did not know Joseph…”!

It is deliberate miseducation when we teach the story of Joseph and the great suffering of the children of Israel in Eg ypt that follow e d as though they were two d i f f e re nt st o r i e s ! Th e y a re o n e a n d t h e s a m e stor y and even though i n t h e c a s e o f Jo s e p h ,

it was Almighty God who took him and the Je w s i nt o Eg y p t, ye t i t required slavery, forced labour and great suffering; the great and mighty hand of God; and ten plagues to extract the Jews from the s t ro ng ha n d o f Pha raoh! If it was so difficult to get the Jews out of Egypt, how much more difficult might it b e for thos e who w illingly went into alliance w ith Pharaoh in Eg ypt out of their own human calculations? May G od show mercy!

The other point is the r isk, almost inevitably when you go into an alliance with the enemies of G od’s children, that sooner than later, your utility with Pharaoh might expire and there might arise a king who knew not Joseph! In our own case, the very Pharaoh with whom some in the Church constructed a congress, immediately turned against his “Josephs” and started appropriating the benefits of the state for him and his few only! And then turned on God’s congregation and started killing and pillaging them

and their lands, and putting them to waste!

Unlike in Joseph’s time, the contemporary allies of Pharaoh did not have to wait for a succeeding Pharaoh who knew not Joseph, before their sufferings and tribulations began! Again, may God have mercy!

There is a final point, and perhaps that is where the stor y truly e n d s - t h e e n d o f P h a raoh is certain from the beginning! The story will end with God overt h row i ng Pha ra o h a n d his Egyptians in the Red Sea and they would perish therein and the children of God would make a n e x o d u s f ro m E g y p t into their promised land. However Pharaoh did not meet his end alone-he perished along with his chariots, horsemen and all his army that came into the Red Sea after the children of God. In effect Pharaoh and all those who allied with him perished along with him.

•This article was first published April 4, 2018

Imperative of goodwill in lighting up Ariaria market

CHIDO NWAKANMA Nwakanma is a Visiting Member of the BusinessDay Editorial Board and serves on the Adjunct Faculty at the School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos. Email chidonwakanma@gmail.com.

H

ave you heard the news? Ariaria Market has been the source lately of excellentas well as disturbing news. Of the four markets in Nigeria for which the Federal Government plans to provide dedicated power solutions, Ariaria Market in Aba, Abia State is the only one with reported issues and challenges from the distribution company covering the area. Ariaria Market would ordinarily be the largest beneficiary because of the

size and scope of its project.

The famous Ariaria Market at the heart of the popularity of Aba, Abia State is one of four markets scheduled to benefit from a federal government scheme to provide power to ensure productivity. The Federal Government charged the Rural Electrification Agency with the task of delivering dedicated power to Ariaria, Sabon Gari market in Kano and two markets in Lagos, being the Somolu Printing Community and the Sura Shopping Complex.

Government’s policy direction indicated the need to use the markets as a test-case in weighing the impact of power on productive segments and locations in Nigeria. They proposed an Off-Grid Electrification Strategy that would see the use of Compressed Natural Gas in three markets and solar in Kano. The Rural Electrification Agency carried out a survey that showed that all four markets had within them 50,

900 shops and combined power demand of 32.27MW. Ariaria alone had 31, 100 shops in its 11 sections. REA estimated power demand in Ariaria Market at 6.62MW. It then proposed a 5MW compressed natural gas plant with a 2MW back up.

The government went a step further in support of the #PowerForAriariaMarket project. Sector regulator the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency earlier this month announced the grant of power generation and distribution licenses to two special purpose vehicles set up for the Ariaria Market Power project.

NERC empowered the Ariaria Market Independent Power Plant Limited to generate 9.5 megawatts embedded power for the market. It also enabled Ariaria Independent Energy Distribution Network Limited to distribute the generated power.

The NERC stated on June 12, 2018: “The licences, issued in line with Section

71(6) of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005 were granted after careful consideration of the applications in public interest to promote access to common goods and to promote commercialisation and industrialisation for which Ariaria, a leading commercial hub in the country, is reputed”.

It added, “Both licences granted to Ariaria were an affirmation of the Commission’s commitment and response to the long-time yearnings of the market for a stable, reliable and sustainable electricity supply to improve quality of goods and services by Nigerian enterprises and entrepreneurs.”

There is a fly in the ointment concerning this exciting development in Ariaria Market. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company has asked the court to stop the project and the licenses from taking effect for allegedly breaching its right over the territory as per its

authority from the same NERC. As stakeholders in the matter of power for Ariaria Market would recall, the EEDC’s latest court action is one of several. It dates back many years and involves two great sons of Igboland.

They are former minister for Power Prof Barth Nnaji and the promoter of EEDC Chief Emeka Offor.

Nnaji was the first to identify the need for providing an electricity solution that would unleash the full potential of Aba. His Geometrics Energy Limited got a license that sought to “ring-fence” Ariaria and Aba from the operational area of the power distribution firm. It did not play out that way. Geometrics and EEDC were locked in that dispute until the Federal Government’s REA proposal and now the NERC effort to break the deadlock.

Numerous issues spring up in the #PowerforAriariaMarket situation. They go beyond the legal. There are

issues of history, of sociology, and of business. There are concerns about revitalising a region and proving that it can indeed take on the world if given a place to stand.

The business concerns are valid. Luckily, as we noted last week, there lies within the NERC’s MiniGrid Regulation 2016 elbow room for a win-win. Parties should explore it. Meanwhile…

All Igboland must rise as one and appeal to our distinguished citizens, particularly Chief Emeka Offor, to do whatever is necessary to LightUpAriaria Market.

It could involve incurring losses in the short term, but it would be a sacrifice for which Ala Igbo would remain grateful. Take this matter off the courts. Please make this sacrifice for the betterment of a flagbearer of the energy and enterprise of Ndigbo. It is imperative to LightUpAriaria Market.

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Ghana Office: Business Day Ghana Ltd; ABC Junction, near Guinness Ghana Limited, Achimota – Accra, Ghana.

Tel: +233243226596: email: mail@businessdayonline.com Advert Hotline: 08116759801, 08082496194. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Anthony Osae-Brown. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.

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ENERGY intelligence oil

gas

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POWER

18 years after: Will privatisation improve WAGP energy efficiency?

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finance people appointments

L-R: Mohammed Balarabe, deputy MD, Fidelity Bank; Simbi Wabote, executive secretary NCDMB, executive vice president, Hyundai Heavy Industries, S.Y. Park; Alfred Temile, MD/CEO Temile & Sons Development Company Limited; Tony Attah, MD/CEO NLNG, and Jay. H. Kang, MD Hyundai Heavy Industries, London, during Temile & Sons, an NLNG contractor, at Hyundai signing agreement to build a new 23, 000 cbm vessel for the LPG market in Nigeria.

Debrief

Saudi-Russia’s OPEC+ plot thickens but oil market is much more than just high stake diplomacy Hogan Lovells launches in-depth review of African renewable energy Page 6 OPEC weekly basket price DAY

PRICE

22/6/18

71.83

15/6/18

73.85

8/6/18

73.45

1/6/18

74.02

25/5/18

76.26 Source: OPEC

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM

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t the end of the meeting in Vienna, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to an output increase, but provided no details on production allocations. The oil cartel called on a return to 100 percent compliance for the group, down from 152 percent in May but deferred countryspecific allocations which is an indication that they may not have agreed on the details.

The decision means that any country with spare capacity will be able to boost production, which favours Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Part of the plot could also be to make Russia’s role in managing global oil supply in conjunction with Saudi Arabia permanent,

bringing together the two largest oil exporters.

Though Russia is not a member of OPEC, for the past two years, it has led a group of non-OPEC producers lending support to the cartel which created a coalition of 24 oil producers that is now been dubbed OPEC+.

“We need to build upon our successful cooperation model and institutionalize its success through a broader and more permanent strategically focused framework”, Alexander Novak, Russian Oil Minister said.

As part of the declaration of cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC countries, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) was formed in 2016.

Its original task was to monitor producers’ compliance with quotas. It meets every two months.

Saudi Arabia and Russia are per-

manent members and may have provided the platform for a new plot.

As the plot thickens, it is believed that Russia and Saudi Arabia might be considering turning the 24 countries that make up OPEC+ to form a new body with its own constitution, secretariat and a different structure to OPEC’s principle of one member, one vote. In that situation, larger producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia might be given more weight.

The new body, if formed, would definitely not displace OPEC, though, in the short term it would create a rival for the cartel that has managed global oil market for six decades. Saudi Arabia and Russia together pump about 21 million barrels per day (bpd) or one fifth of global supply. However, without Saudi Arabia, the rest of OPEC pro-

duces about 20 million bpd.

But Russia should have known by now that oil and gas markets are much more than just high stake diplomacy. In 2008, Russia helped found the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GEECF), modeled after OPEC for the global gas market. Despite having a permanent secretariat and annual meetings, it has had little impact on natural gas market.

For now, let OPEC battle with resolving the ambiguous deal of managing about 2 million bpd of spare oil capacity emanating from unexpected outages in Venezuela, Libya and Angola. OPEC’s technical committee recommended a supply increase of about 1 million bpd but Emmanuel Kachikwu, Nigeria’s oil minister said the deal would result in the addition of 700,000 b/d in actual production among OPEC’s 14 members.

02 BUSINESS DAY WEST AFRICA Outlook Kenya: Kenya eyes $2 per barrel discount for waxy crude exports

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enya expects to sell its maiden crude exports mostly to buyers in China and India, with refiners attracted by a $2/b price discount for its waxy crude

relative to Brent crude, Andrew Kamau, the country’s principal secretary of the petroleum ministry said.

Kenya is hoping to join East Africa’s select club of oil exporters by year-end, when the first pilot flows from Tullow Oil’s South

Lokichar basin fields are expected to find buyers.

Given low production costs, the country expects to see a “profit” of between $34-50/b from its future oil exports, putting Kenya’s margins above other oilrich economies such as Saudi Arabia at $23.50/b, Kamau said.

Kenya’s Lokichar crude is relatively high quality, classified as light and sweet with an API of between 3238 and sulfur levels below 0.5 percent, broadly on par with the UK’s Brent Blend.

Light, sweet crudes usually demand a price premium as they require less processing to produce highervalue, clean products such as gasoline and jet. The crude also has a high wax content, of nearly 40 percent, which means it remains solid at up to 40 degrees Celsius and requires

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heated pipelines and tankers in order to transport.

Kenya believes its crude appeals more to large and complex refineries with the ability to import “high pour” or viscous crude.

Tullow and partners Africa Oil and Total have discovered 750 million barrels of recoverable oil to date in the South Lokichar basin following a string of finds since 2012. Tullow expects the Lokichar finds to pump between 80,000120,000 b/d when the export line is complete by 2022.

John Munyes, Kenya’s cabinet secretary said the planned $1.9 billion export pipeline from the Lokichar oil field in northwest Kenya to the port of Lamu is on track, with Tullow and its partners planning to reach a final investment decision next year.

West Africa: Frontier basins in West Africa could unlock reserves in excess of 30m barrels

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il prospects from frontier basins in West Africa could unlock reserves in excess of 30 million barrels, Savannah Petroleum announced.

The British company, focused on West Africa, said it completed its third well in a drilling campaign in Niger. Drilling in the well, dubbed Kunama-1, was aimed at assessing the potential oil payout from the landlocked country.

Savannah said it estimated the unrisked recoverable reserves at the Kunama prospect at 35 million barrels. Final results from Kunama-1 are pending.

Broader West Africa is

emerging as a lucrative frontier for oil and gas explorers. Offshore West Africa is gaining a reputation as an emerging producer and Senegal in particular could hold more than 1.5

billion barrels of oil off its coast.

Cairn Energy is leading the development of the SNE oil field off the coast of Senegal. Joint venture partners in March com-

Wednesday 27 June 2018

pleted a study of a 2,900 square mile permit area off the coast of Senegal that includes the flagship SNE oil discovery. The results revealed another 198 million barrels to the estimated 641 million barrels in the best estimate scenario of contingent reserves.

Oil and gas engineering services company Wood was awarded the initial phase of a front-end engineering design contract in May to help build momentum behind a proposed pipeline in Kenya. French supermajor Total, a partner in the Lokichar fields, committed to a single pipeline to the port city of Lamu as the only option for exports.

Libya: Libya looks to divert eastern crude export flows to other marine terminals

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ibya’s National Oil Corp. hopes to divert some of its stranded crude supplies to other oil export terminals after attacks forced the closure of two key eastern ports.

Libya’s crude output has halved from around 950,000 b/d in May after armed clashes between rival militia groups at key export terminals.

“Production is low, unfortunately. We lost 450,000 b/d just due to the crisis in Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, and we lost another huge quantity from the AGOCO fields due to technical issues”, Mustafa Sanalla, NOC chairman said.

Sanalla said the company was working to divert some of its crude to other eastern export terminals to make up for the losses, although that was expected to take some time.

The most likely alternative would be the nearby Brega and Zueitina terminals. Along with Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, these also serve the Sirte basin,

a collection of oil and gas fields in central and eastern Libya that account for around 650,000 b/d, roughly two-thirds of the country’s total production.

Libya had been exporting at just over 800,000 b/d in May, with around 200,000 b/d from Es Sider and 150,000 b/d from Ras Lanuf, according to estimates. Brega and Zueitina accounted for around 100,000 b/d combined.

Two storage tanks at Ras Lanuf were set on fire during the attacks, one of which collapsed. The terminal had five operational storage tanks storing up to 950,000 barrels. That figure has been cut to just 550,000 barrels, and there was a risk of further damage to other tanks if the fires spread.

While upstream production has not been directly impacted by fighting between rival militias, the lack of storage space has meant exports from the two main terminals cannot continue, even if security improves.

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ENERGY intelligence

Ghana: ENI ready to transport gas from Sankofa Gye-Nyame fields

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activities at ORF-Onshore Receiving Facility in Sanzule are ongoing,” the company said in a statement.

This assurance comes at the back of concerns raised

by Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and other industry players regarding the operator’s ability to meet the deadline while calling on the government to invest in the pipelines that will carry the gas to thermal plants in Tema.

Eni which has begun a test run of Sanzule’s Onshore Receiving Facilities (ORF) says they are on schedule to transport gas from the Sankofa Gy-Nyame fields to be compressed by the ORF and deliver the gas to Ghana’s national grid.

With regard to the Gas pricing, we also understand that an agreement has been reached with the GNPC on how each volume of the gas should be sold.

Nigeria: NLNG to boost domestic LPG supply with new LPG vessel

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igeria LNG Limited (NLNG) is planning to reinforce the Domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) market with a new LPG vessel which will boost volume and availability, as well as consolidate the company’s contributions to deepen the domestic LPG industry and increase consumption of the clean gas.

The new LPG vessel will be built by E.A Temile and Sons Company Limited, a wholly Nigerian company, under a contract with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, South Korea and chartered to NLNG. At a contract signing ceremony between E.A Temile and Sons Limited and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in London, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NLNG, Tony Attah, remarked that the signing ceremony was

03

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il exploration firm ENI has assured it would start exporting gas from the Sankofa Gye-Nyame field soon. According to the ENI, it is working with all its partners to ensure that they meet this deadline which is the end of the month of June.

“Gas production is scheduled by end of June 2018. We are working full speed, together with our partners and our institutional counterparts, to meet the deadline. Commissioning

BUSINESS DAY

ground-breaking for NLNG because it supports the company’s aspiration, firstly, to further help develop the DLPG market and to promote the growth of indigenous companies and Nigeria’s economy.

“NLNG remains the single largest supplier of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) (over 50 percent) in Nigeria and looks to enable its expansion in future.

We produce the LPG in our Plant in Bonny, Rivers State, Nigeria, and transport it by sea to Lagos from where it is distributed to every part of the country.

Lessons for Nigeria as Egypt ramps up gas production STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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gypt aims to increase production at its huge Zohr offshore gas field in the Mediterranean to 1.75 billion cubic feet per day in August; Tarek El Molla Egypt’s petroleum minister said June 14 as Nigeria struggles to optimise its use of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Nigeria has been proven to have the world’s ninth largest gas reserves, at 187 trillion cubic feet but notwithstanding, she has still for decades relied on its sufficient supplies of oil to power its economy. Russsia has the largest proven gas reserve followed by Iran, Qatar, Turkmenistan, the United States of America, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil exporter has successfully midwifed several notably gas projects like the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), West Africa Gas Pipelines, Greater Lagos Pipeline Project, and Eastern Gas Pipeline projects, amongst other gas related infrastructural developments in partnership with multinational and domestic investors.

In 2015, Egypt became a net gas importer. This unfortunate, but not unexpected, situation was the result of a decline in Egypt’s indigenous natural gas production combined with a rapidly rising domestic gas demand driven mainly by large energy price subsidies.

However, major changes are presently taking place on the gas supply side which is significantly impacting the country’s natural gas balance. The

Egyptian government is also carrying out energy price reform measures to reduce gas demand growth and the financial burden of price subsidies.

But, without the continued implementation of consistent and integrated energy demand-side management and reform measures, Egypt could again be exposed to an unpleasant gas supply surplus/deficit cycle.

There is considerable effort by all the relevant stakeholders in re-launching Egypt’s hydrocarbon sector.

In Nigeria, the inertia that has characterised President Mohammadu Buhari-led government towards the Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP) in Delta state may make Nigeria lose about $20 billion private sector investment opportunity.

Low level activities or lack of it currently on the side of the government are sending mixed signals to investors as to when the project will be set in motion, invariably delaying

investments and puts the country at a risk of losing over four million jobs and more than 150,000 direct and indirect jobs that could possibly come along with the project during construction.

Industry analysts are worried that if the government fails to act fast, the same fate that has befallen the oil and gas industry where international investors frustrated by government’s inaction over the handling of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) decided to turn their back against the country and invest their money in other climes that are more investment friendly.

The economic importance associated with the project made the former president Goodluck Jonathan to perform the ground breaking of the project on March 26, 2015 after securing the consent of a lot investors across the world that have agreed to set up businesses in the park. The cost of the project then was put at $16 billion.

The monetisation of

natural gas resources is fuelling the emphasis on the Nigeria Gas sector replete with enormous investment opportunities. The government’s aspirations to extract new gas-driven industries out of the existing crude oil based Hydro carbon industry is jumpstarting an industrialisation plan that captures multidimensional economic value to foreign exchange earnings.

Whilst notable achievement have been recorded, a sizable portion of the current gas production is flared, even though value mechanism has succeeded in rechanneling some flared gases into gas powered projects for rapid utilization and monetisation.

Domestic gas consumption is expanding thanks to the power sector reforms that culminated in the construction of several gas powered generating plants across the country and the industrial clusters adoption of the more convenient, cheaper and supply secured natural gas fuels.

04 BUSINESS DAY WEST AFRICA ENERGY intelligence

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GE hits 100th power plant milestone in Sub-Saharan Africa

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t the forefront of innovation and technology in energy while collaborating with power producers across the region, GE Power announced that it has reached its 100th power plant installation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This significant milestone was achieved with power plants in Angola powered by trailer-mounted aero gas turbine technology.

The company has now installed over 300 turbines in up to 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Leslie Nelson, CEO, GE’s Gas Power business, Sub-Saharan Africa said, “This milestone is a testimony of our commitment to providing power solu-

tions to meet the growing energy needs in many countries in the region ahead of other OEMs. Our regional operations are led by an expert African team. Our flexible and modular energy solutions respond to the everchanging needs of the communities where we work and live. Our ability to partner with independent power producers, EPCs, strategic investors and governments to deliver these power projects strengthens the trust and confidence that our customers place in us”.

Over 70 percent of the

thermal power in Ghana runs on GE technology with over 600MW added to the grid in the last 24 months, with an additional 900MW planned over the next 2 years. Leading examples include the 400MW Bridgepower project, in consortium with indigenous partners, Endeavour and Sage Petroleum, which will be the first LPG-fired power plant in Africa and the largest LPG fired power plant in the world. In partnership with Marinus Energy, the Atuabo Waste Gas-to-power project will be the first TM2500 plant to use otherwise flared Isopentane gas as a fuel source. The 200MW Amandi power plant which will come online in 2019,

will run on GE’s latest 9E technology offering superior fuel flexibility.

In Nigeria today, GE technology provides over 75 percent of the gaspowered on-grid generation, with more than 3GW of heavy duty and fuel-flexible gas turbines at nine power plants including the Omotosho I & II power plants as well as GE’s innovative trailermounted gas turbines currently being installed at the Afam III Fast Power plant. GE is committed to Nigeria’s Vision 2020; signing a Country to Company agreement with

the Nigerian government to support development of up to 10GW of power.

GE and the Angola Ministry of Energy and Water are set to achieve the country’s additional electric power generation capacity target of 2000MW. Today, about 80 percent of Angola’s gaspowered generation runs on GE technology providing energy for up to 2 million Angolan households. With over 20 trailer mounted gas turbines installed at fast power plants and the 750MW Soyo I combined cycle power plant under construction, Angola is well on its way to achieving its energy ambitions.

GE is a historical player and a pioneer in the pow-

er sector in Ivory Coast.

The first-ever gas turbines (Vridi, 1984), the first independent power production project (Ciprel, 1994) and the first combined-cycle power plants in the country (Azito and Ciprel, 2015) all run mainly on GE technology.

In 2015, GE committed to support the country’s infrastructure development goals, which includes adding 1GW of power to the Ivorian national grid.

The Azito Power plant produces more than a third of the electricity in the country and marks GE’s Power Services’ first

Wednesday 27 June 2018

power

Ghana: Government set to roll out 10-year energy master plan GT13E2 ML2 gas turbine upgrade in SSA. This upgrade will add an additional 30MW to the plant’s 450MW production capacity. In addition, GE is setting up an M&D (Monitoring and Diagnostic) center in Ivory Coast to provide the digital data and analytics service to improve performance and lower lifecycle costs of all GE equipment in the region.

Kenya needs a diverse energy mix to support its growth initiatives. The 1050MW Lamu power project will use GE’s ultra-super critical technology to deliver superior efficiency and lowest emissions. The project will guarantee that up to 30 percent of electricity produced in Kenya is reliable baseload power.

In South Africa, GE is deploying smarter, cleaner, steam technology at the Medupi and Kusile Power plants. Kusile is the first wet flue gas desulphurization plant in the continent and has 93 percent removal efficiency rate. Upon completion, Kusile and Medupi will provide up to 9600MW enough power to meet the electricity needs of about 7 million households in South Africa.

GE’s first turbine installation in Sub-Saharan Africa can be traced as far back as the early 1970s with its Frame 5 gas turbine technology. Since then, GE Power has been at the forefront of innovation in power technology with the most recent fuelflexible and highly efficient 9EMax gas turbines, superior ultra-super-critical steam technology as well as a broad range of hydro and wind turbines and generators.

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hana’s Ministry of Planning has hinted of Government’s plans to develop and implement a ten-year Power Sector Master Plan (PSMP) which would be reviewed to meet the medium-to-long term energy needs.

The intervention will target reduction in generation, transmission and distribution losses to promote demand management while reducing the operational inefficiencies in energy supply and distribution.

According to the government’s seven year development plan prepared by the Ministry of Planning, the initiative would significantly boost energy conservation. The operationalization of the energy strategy formed part of moves to reposition the country and develop the downstream petroleum

sector to become the regional hub of energy in the near future.

The creation of this hub will accelerate the growth of Ghana’s petroleum subsector and make it a major player in the economy.

To achieve that, government through the National Petroleum Commission (NPC) will continue to unearth and showcase Ghana’s hydrocarbon prospectively in the open onshore and offshore to Ghanaians and the international petroleum industry.

South Africa: South Africa set to restructure Eskom

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estructuring staterun power firm Eskom is “on top of the agenda” for South Africa, the country’s finance minister Nhlanhla Nene said, though he said recent outages likely had very little impact on the economy. Africa’s most industrialised economy suffered power outages earlier in June because of what

Eskom said was an “illegal protest action” by South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and two other unions.

The last time there were controlled power outages in 2015, economic output suffered.

“It should be very minimal this time round, because it also was related to the impasse in the industrial space,” Nene said.

“Beyond the discussions and the negotiations on the salaries, what is important is actually beginning to restructure Eskom,” he added. “It is on top of our agenda to get Eskom on a sustainable platform.”

Discussions on the issue of wages with unions were continuing, Nene said, but asked if the government had the funds to satisfy unions’ wage demands, he replied that the money “does not exist”.

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18 years after: Will privatisation improve WAGP energy efficiency?

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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t a recent roundtable of experts in Lagos, a big player in Nigeria’s natural gas upstream suggested it might well be worthwhile to think of privatising the West African Gas Pipeline.

This follows recent complaints of inefficiencies regarding how the pipeline is managed. Amid these complaints, Ghana has signed a 12-year deal with Russia’s Gazprom for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply.

Privatisation will lead to energy efficiencies in the West African sub-region one of the experts suggested.

Energy efficiency is key to ensuring a safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy system

for the future. It is the one energy resource that every country possesses in abundance and is the quickest and least costly way of addressing energy security, environmental and economic challenges. Nigeria has over 195 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas and experts have said this is probably an underestimation.

Boakye Agyarko, Ghana’s energy minister, and K K Sarpong, CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, said they saved West Africa’s second largest economy over $1 billion in the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) transaction with Gazprom that will allow for the addition of up to 1,000MW to Ghana’s power supply.

“The gas that will come from Russia to Ghana’s regasification plant will cost $12 per standard cubic feet (Scf). I can put gas at

$3 per Scf into the West African Gas Pipeline if it were efficiently managed and with an extra cost of $2 per Scf for transportation cost I can deliver gas to Ghana at $5 per Scf less than half of what the Russian gas will cost” Austin Avuru, CEO of Seplat, a Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company said at the roundtable of oil and gas experts.

The Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD), in its 2009 “Report on good practices” concerning privatisation in the 21st century, offers the following definition: “privatisation may be considered any material transaction by which the state’s ultimate ownership of corporate entities is reduced.”

This definition encompasses direct divestment by the state, divestment of corporate assets

by government-controlled investment vehicles and the dilution of state positions in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) by secondary share offerings to the non-state shareholders. Privatisation is used to refer to a transfer of assets to the private sector rather than a transfer of activities.

In the spirit of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), four West African countries, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo in February 2000, signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement to build a gas pipeline, which will supply Nigerian gas on West African markets.

The pipeline is owned by West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAGPCo), a consortium of Chevron (36.70 percent), Nigerian National Pe-

troleum Corporation (25 percent), Royal Dutch Shell (18 percent), Volta River Authority of Ghana (16.30 percent), Société Togolaise de Gaz (SoToGaz – 2 percent) and Société Beninoise de Gaz S.A. (SoBeGaz – 2 percent).

In July 2016, Walt Perez, managing director of West African Pipeline Company limited (WAPCo) stated that the company faced significant risks because of its financial health engendered by low gas volumes, huge indebtedness totalling about $179 million and dwindling cash flows.

Privatisation is clearly not a silver bullet that fixes every inefficiency, however, it is worth considering whether it will help to improve energy efficiencies along with the West African Gas Pipeline.

06 BUSINESS DAY WEST AFRICA

ENERGY intelligence

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World Bank approves $455m loan for Tanzania power projects

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finance people appointments

Hogan Lovells launches in-depth review of African renewable energy

Brief

he World Bank has approved a $455 million loan to Tanzania under its International Development Assistance (IDA) programme to support financing of power projects in the East African nation.

The financing from IDA, which gives grants or low-interest loans to the world’s poorest countries, will also fund construction of high voltage transmission infrastructure to connect Tanzania to regional power markets in southern and eastern Africa.

“The $455 million credit will finance construction of critical high voltage transmission infrastructure that will support the electrification of the southern and northwestern regions of Tanzania,” the World Bank said in a statement.

The government said it plans to raise 2 trillion Tanzanian shillings ($880 million) in its budget for

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fiscal year 2018/19 (JulyJune) from concessional loans and grants to finance development projects.

Tanzania boasts reserves of over 57 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, but faces periodic power shortages as it relies on hydro-power dams in a drought-prone region.

Last year President John Magufuli said the country needed to invest $46.2 billion over the next 20 years to revamp its ageing energy infrastructure and meet soaring electricity demand.

Investors have long complained that the lack of reliable power hurts business there.

Tanzania plans to boost power generation capacity from around 1,500 MW currently to 5,000 MW over the next three years by building new gas-fired and hydroelectric plants, according to the country’s energy ministry.

lobal law firm Hogan Lovells has published a new report, “Africa and Renewables: Wholesale Change or Short term surge?” which was launched at the African Energy Forum in Mauritius.

Compiled with input from the firm’s partners and many of its clients, spanning infrastructure, energy, finance, and private equity, the report highlights the challenges posed by producing and accessing renewable energy in Africa, and how these can be overcome to achieve potential and scale.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, approximately one-third of the population (approximately 600 million people) have no access to electricity, with demand outstripping supply due to increasing life expectancy driven by greater access to healthcare, increased urbanisation, and technological advances. The esti-

mated investment needed is approximately $50 billion per year.

The report also highlights the potential for renewable energy production to revolutionise access to energy throughout the continent. Africa has vast potential to tap into its natural abundance of hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources, while the technological and financial hurdles to achieve major energy breakthroughs are increasingly surmountable.

Commenting on the report, Dubai-based ENRG partner and co-author Sohail Barkatali, and member of Hogan Lovells Africa practice, said: “It is important to understand the unique challenges facing the African energy market; challenges like the physical geography of the continent and the rapid pace of change in its urban landscape. But it is also important to understand that this is a unique time for opportunity in African energy – creative

financing, technological advances, and scalability in renewable energy sources are creating opportunity the likes of which we have never seen before. It is an exciting time to be involved in the African energy market.”

The report is the first in a planned series of “African Power” thought leadership reports, in which Hogan Lovells will tap into its African and global resources to examine the barriers to power development across

the continent and real life success stories and innovative solutions breaking down these barriers, which could be tested and further deployed across the continent where priorities remain dominated by power and transport (road, rail and port infrastructure), telecommunications and water and sanitation projects; with commodity extraction still acting as a major catalyst for some of the largest infrastructure developments in Africa.

Schneider Electric, GIZ Promotes Solar Sector; Sponsors training Instructors to Germany

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lobal specialist in energy management and automation, Schneider Electric, in a partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, has selected three institu-

tions to create a solar training programme for young underprivileged Nigerians.

Schneider and GIZ joint forces in a development partnership under the develoPPP.de programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The beneficiary institutions will receive hands-on Training of Trainers in solar photo-voltaic installation supervision. They include Railway Technical Institute, the Yaba College of Technology and Etiwa Vocational School. The trainers will be exposed to an integrated curriculum developed by the Nigerian Energy Sup-

port Programme (NESP), co-funded by the European Union and the German Government and implemented by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. The selected trainers will attend a professional 4-week pedagogy training in Germany supported by GIZ and a 5-week technical training in Nigeria.

Announcing the training opportunities, Balaji Lenka, the Managing Director of Schneider Electric, stated that 11 trainers from each of the three selected institutions have been enrolled in a ‘Didactics and Teaching Methods for Adult Education’-Programme, organised by the Hessische

Landesstelle für Technologiefortbildung in collaboration with GIZ. The event in Germany started on May 27th and will end on the June 23rd, 2018.

Commenting on the training, Viviane Mike-Eze, Field Manager of Schneider Electric, stated that the training would cover modules like education and vocational systems, lesson planning, instructional media, instructional methods, photovoltaic systems and field trips. “The programme is intended to help increase opportunities for trainees to become entrepreneurs in the field, foster self-sustenance and community development,” Viviane said.

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marketinsight Oil jumps as OPEC agrees to modest output hikes

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il prices soared after oil producers agreed to modest crude output increases to compensate for losses in production at a time of rising global demand. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other top crude producers, in Vienna, agreed to raise output from July

by about 1 million barrels per day (bpd).

The real increase, however, will be around 770,000 bpd, according to Iraq, because several countries that recently suffered production declines will struggle to reach full quotas, while other producers may not be able to fill the gap.

The actual output increases set a bullish tone,

as they came in below some of the highest figures that had been discussed prior to the meeting.

Brent crude settled up $2.50, or 3.4 percent, to $75.55 a barrel. US crude rose $3.04, or 4.6 percent, to $68.58 a barrel.

For about three weeks ahead of the OPEC meeting, prices had retreated from 3-1/2-year highs on fears that larger production increases could lead to oversupply.

Ultimately, Saudi Arabia persuaded Iran to cooperate with the plan to cut output, following calls from major consumers to curb rising fuel costs.

OPEC’s decision confused some in the market as the producers gave opaque targets for the increase, making it difficult to understand precisely how much more it will pump. The expectation

that the increase will fall short of the 1 million bpd figure boosted the market.

International marker, Brent, traded above $100 a barrel for several years until 2014, dropping to almost $26 in 2016 and then recovering to over $80 last month.

The most recent price rally followed an OPEC decision to restrict supply in an effort to drain global inventories.

The group started withholding supply in 2017 and this year, amid strong demand, the market tightened significantly, triggering calls by consumers for higher supply.

Falling production in Venezuela and Libya, as well as the risk of lower output from Iran as a result of US sanctions, have all increased market worries of a supply shortage.

US asks Japan to halt purchase of Iran oil in harder stance

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he US has asked Japan to completely halt oil imports from Iran, going beyond the reductions that were demanded when sanctions were imposed earlier this decade, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

While American government officials made the request during talks with Japanese counterparts in Tokyo, no decision has been reached and discussions will continue later, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. When US President Donald Trump decided to renew sanctions against Iran last month, his administration gave its allies 180 days to reduce purchases from the OPEC producer.

The request to stop

imports entirely signals a tougher American stance than in 2012, when nations were allowed to continue buying at reduced levels in exchange for waivers from US financial restrictions.

Washington going after Tehran’s economic lifeline

spurred speculation that Iran’s crude exports will be curbed and helped boost prices to the highest in 3 1/2 years.

Japan, Asia’s fourthlargest buyer of Iranian supplies, received 5.3 percent of its oil requirements

BUSINESS DAY

OPEC Flakes OPEC approves Republic of Congo’s membership bid

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PEC has approved the Republic of Congo’s membership application “with immediate effect,” the organization said.

“The Conference considered Congo’s request to join the Organization and decided to approve its admission with immediate effect,” OPEC said in statement.

Congo, which produces about 250,000 to 300,000 b/d, becomes OPEC’s 15th member. Its production would rank 13th in OPEC, ahead of fellow African produc-

ers Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. With just one 20,000 b/d refinery currently operating at around half its capacity, Congo exports almost all of its oil.

Also known as CongoBrazzaville, the Republic of Congo is the smaller of two countries sharing similar names which border the Congo River in central western Africa.

Its larger neighbor to the south is the Democratic Republic of Congo, also referred to as DR Congo or Zaire.

OPEC has seen a recent boost in its African ranks, with Gabon reactivating its membership in July 2016 and Equatorial Guinea joining in May 2017. Angola and Nigeria are OPEC’s other subSaharan members, while Algeria and Libya make up its North African contingent.

Iran happy with OPEC’s decision to raise output

from Iran, or 172,000 bpd, in 2017, according to data from the Asian nation’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The nation’s government is probably still negotiating with the American administration to get exemptions from the sanctions, Takashi Tsukioka, chairman of the Petroleum Association of Japan, said.

The Asian country will likely decide by around early August if, and by how much, it should cut crude imports from Iran, Tsukioka, who is also chairman of refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co., had said last month.

Japan will likely take into consideration responses of nations including China, India and South Korea, where the share of Iranian crude in imports is higher, he said.

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espite storming out of the meeting, Iranian oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, said he was satisfied with OPEC’s decision to raise output to full compliance with its production cuts.

Full compliance without any increase in quotas was “what I wanted from the moment I arrived” in Vienna for talks with OPEC and its nonOPEC allies, Zanganeh said.

“We did not discuss about number of barrels,” he said. “We agreed to comply 100 percent of the resolution between the OPEC member countries.”

The Iranian minister, who had been opposed to raising quotas, had stormed out of an OPEC/

non-OPEC monitoring committee meeting saying talks had not gone well, but appeared to have cleared the air with Saudi counterpart Khalid al-Falih in a bilateral meeting.

The OPEC/nonOPEC output deal will add between 770,000 to 800,000 b/d of actual production, and be sufficient to prevent any price spikes, Iraqi oil minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said.

08 BUSINESS DAY WEST AFRICA ENERGY intelligence

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

talking points

In association with

Recurring national grid collapses, blackouts point to managerial fault lines STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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ecent collapses of Nigeria’s national power grid resulting in nationwide blackouts is pointing to managerial inefficiencies and has generated animated criticisms from consumers and other stakeholders.

Eight days into January, 2018 alone, the national grid collapsed six times and recorded another collapse February 1. There have been some other recorded cases of grid collapses.

However, the most recent one of June 15 was another that resulted in operational challenges, which many have referred to as system collapse because there was power outage between June 15 and 16 until the early hours of June 17.

Experts say the problem of the power sector is more than technical issues. It is also about how those entrusted with the management of the system govern it, reinforcing calls by concerned groups and individuals that the transmission company of Nigeria should not be left in the hands of the government officials.

For a private operator who understands the value of money and time, the type of situation consumers of power were put through recently would not have occurred, experts said.

If not, how does one explain the complete disregard of the notice of intention from the Nigeria Gas Company by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that it wanted to effect repairs on one of its gas pipelines that supply of gas to about five power stations before they were asked to ramp down on very short notice.

This raises a raft of questions one of which is about the ability of TCN to plan for emergency situations as there was no effective planning by TCN to forestall the current

crises, given the fact that the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) communicated the notice of its intention to carry out temporary repairs.

Due to the NGC pipeline incident, TCN said that six thermal power generating stations were unable to generate electricity and had therefore been shut down. The affected power stations included the Ihovbor, Azura, Omotosho gas, Geregu gas, Olorunsogo gas, Sapele and the Egbin Power Station which has managed to generate 60MW only on each of its units, losing a total of 211MW. Also, Afam VI power station was shut down so that Shell Oil Company can resolve its gas well issues to enable it commence gas supply to Afam VI power station.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria

hereby state that as a result of gas pipeline rupture on the 15th of June, 2018, as well as technical issues at the Shell gas wells on the 16th of June, there has been a sharp drop in generation into the grid by a total of 1,087.6MW, resulting in load-shedding nationwide, necessary to maintain stability of the grid” Ndidi Mbah, general manager, public affairs, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said in a press release.

Some experts have suggested a number of solutions to deal with this gas transportation challenge. For instance, one solution is to find alternative transport systems in addition to existing pipeline networks.

“We can take the gas offshore and bring it onshore, in shuttle tankers and regasification

makes this possible. If you can take gas from wherever it is, freeze and reconvert wherever it is needed, then we would have solved most of these problems” Ebi Omatsola, an international petroleum explorationist said at an event in Lagos, recently.

“Europe has about 35 regasification terminals. In terms of population, Europe is 192 million people, Nigeria is 195, yet we have none. So, we need to build clusters, this involves huge capital expenditure. In this context, shuttle tankers come in handy.

This requires a regasification plant onshore.

Every city with more than one million people should have a power plant, according the International Energy Agency’s guidelines” Omotsola said.