BusinessDay 27 Mar 2020

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news you can trust I ** friDAY 27 march 2020 I vol. 19, no 529

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second recession in five years could upend President Muhammadu Buhari’s legacy and become the enduring symbol of his twoconsecutive tenures as demo-

cratic leader of the country now with a 50-50 chance of repeating 2016’s downturn this year.

The COVID-19 outbreak has dampened growth outlook for Nigeria’s economy, informing economists’ projections that the country could slip into another recession by the end of June after

an initial contraction in the first quarter.

“There is now a near 50-50 percent chance Nigeria’s economy will again slip into a recession at the end of June after an initial contraction in the first quarter on the back of the adverse impact of the coronavirus

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outbreak on economic activity and lower oil prices,” said a leading economist who did not want to be named.

“If this happens, it will be the second time during the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari and would be perhaps the most Continues on page 38

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Buhari’s legacy in jeopardy as Nigeria risks second recession in 5yrs lolade akinmurele & SEGUN ADAMS

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CBN suspends FX sales to BDCs till further notice … to revert to 9% interest rate March 2021 for N100bn health intervention fund HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has suspended foreign exchange sales to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators until further notice.

The CBN said this in a March 25, 2020 letter to the president of Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON).

The BDCs had in a letter dated March 24, 2020 recommended that the CBN declare market holiday on its weekly bidding pending the re-opening of the nation’s borders and until the ravaging Covid-19 is put under check.

This followed government’s restriction of gatherings to not more than 20 persons aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus by reducing person-toperson contact.

The letter, signed by Jibrin A.S., said the concentration of the BDC encashers at disbursement centres would pose health challenges.

The outbreak of the coronaContinues on page 38

Inside An isolation centre being constructed by GTBank in partnership with the Lagos State government at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (formerly Onikan Pic by Olawale Amoo Stadium), Lagos.

Coronavirus: UBA Foundation donates N5bn to Nigeria, 19 others P. 2

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news Coronavirus: UBA Foundation donates N5bn to Nigeria, 19 others

... Lagos to get N1bn OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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ier-1 lender, United Bank for Africa, through its UBA Foundation has announced the donation of $14 million (N5 billion) to provide the much-needed support to Nigeria and other 19 African countries in the fight against the deadly coronavirus scourge.

Tony Elumelu, chair-

man of UBA Group, said the global pandemic must bring citizens, governments, and business leaders together and quickly.

“As we see a rapidly increasing number of cases of the coronavirus in Nigeria and Africa, the private sector has to work hand in hand with various governments in stemming the spread of the global pandemic,” he said.

Of the N5 billion, Lagos State would get N1 billion, Abuja would get N500 million, and N1 billion would go to the remaining 35 states of the federation.

Furthermore, N1.5 billion would go to UBA’s presence countries in Africa, and N1 billion for medical centres with equipment & supplies with free telemedical centre facility.

“We’ll fund a medical

facility centre immediately in Lagos with beds for isolation & ICU facilities managed and operated in partnership with Heirs Holdings’ health-care subsidiary, Avon Medical Hospital,” the bank said.

The bank joins a growing list of financial institutions that have made financial pledges towards the support of the coronavirus fight.

Presidency confirms BusinessDay story, says Buhari still in self-isolation, not on life support ... SGF, PTF COVID-19 team, ministers stay at home … as Buhari’s office undergoes fumigation TONY AILEMEN, Abuja

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resident Muhammadu Buhari is in self-isolation and not on life support, the Presidency has confirmed.

Lauretta Onochie, senior special assistant to the president on social media, confirmed this via twitter handle.

“We insist that President @ MBuhari tested negative to the coronavirus. He’s not on life support. The war on corruption continues,” Onochie tweeted via her handle @Laurestar.

“VP @ProfOsinbajo has tested negative too. He is in self-isolation only as a precaution. The world is facing a difficult time, not just Nigeria,” she tweeted.

BusinessDay had reported yesterday that President Buhari

has been completely isolated despite reports that he tested negative to the coronavirus, while Vice President Osinbajo, who also tested negative, has continued his self-isolation.

The Presidential Intensive Care Unit inside Aso Villa remains activated and placed on standby.

Meanwhile, environmental and disease control experts on Thursday commenced the fumigation of President Buhari’s office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The fumigation became necessary after Abba Kyari, the president’s chief of staff, tested positive to the pandemic virus.

Villa sources told BusinessDay the presidency is

Continues on page 38

Hotel occupancy falls below 30% on coronavirus ... revenue dips, hoteliers consider shutdown Obinna Emelike

L-R: Motunrayo Babalola, brand manager, beauty and hygiene, Unilever Nigeria; Taiwo Akinoso, medical adviser, Unilever Nigeria; Aina Olugbemiga, permanent secretary, primary healthcare board, Lagos State; Olusegun Ogboye, permanent secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health; Soromidayo George, director, corporate affairs and sustainable business, Unilever Ghana and Nigeria; Eniayewun Ademuyiwa, permanent secretary, Lagos State Health Service Commission, and Bilqees Odewale, brand manager, Sunlight, at the donation of Unilever hygiene products to Lagos State Government in response to COVID-19 case in the state.

Landlords edgy over house rents as coronavirus shuts down workplaces CHUKA UROKO

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andlords in Nigeria, unlike their counterparts in advanced economies, are anxious over what may be their fate in the hands of their tenants in the days and months ahead, especially tenants who are workers that have been forced home from their workplaces by the rampaging coronavirus.

As a way of cushioning the impact of COVID-19 on their citizens, some governments in the advanced countries of the world have suspended rent payment while the crisis lasts.

France is one such country.

In Nigeria, there are indications that many tenants whose house rents are due this March or will be due in the coming months will struggle to pay considering that workers and traders alike are now cooling off at home on government directives to prevent the spread of the dreaded COVID-19.

What will happen after this pandemic in terms of income loss and job losses is better left to the imagination.

“But it is going to be tough;

it will test our attitude to shared humanity and prosperity,” Joseph Nfon, a social commentator, said.

In Lagos State, for instance, where there are already 32 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 infection out of 51 cases in the country, the state government is taking stringent and far-reaching decisions aimed at containing and preventing the spread of the virus.

Besides shutting down all public and private schools, the state has also directed all its civil and public servants from Grade Level 1-12 to stay at home for the next 14 days beginning from Monday, March 23.

All social gatherings have also been banned, leading to the cancellation of many conferences and social events that had been scheduled for this month and the next. All markets for non-essential commodities have been shut down for seven days beginning from March 26.

“However we look at, or think about all that, what they mean is loss of income. Many companies may not be able to pay salaries immediately after this crisis. The traders’ income comes from what www.businessday.ng

they sell in a day. So, you don’t expect somebody who has no income to be thinking of paying house rents,” Iyabode Oludare, a landlady in Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, told BusinessDay. Oludare, whose house is occupied mainly by Lagos State civil servants and a few traders, lamented that the loss of rental income would also affect her family.

“As a widow, nobody provides for me. I depend on the house rents I collect to live and train my children,” she said.

Williams Adekoya is a retired civil servant who owns a six-flat building in one of the middle-class settlements in Lagos. All his tenants, except one, are civil and public servants.

Apart from the one who is selfemployed, the rest of the tenants are “working from home”.

Adekoya’s worry is that the rents from these tenants will be due in May and June.

“Nobody knows when this trouble will be over. Even if it is over next month, it will not be morally right to start asking for house rent, more so when all of us are in it together. But I have no other source of income,” he said resignedly.

But an estate surveyor and valuer, who did not want to be named, said what is paramount in the mind of everyone now is survival.

“There is no economic activity anywhere now; even those paying rent will have to generate economic activity to have the capacity to pay,” the person said.

He affirmed that the present situation was going to affect the ability of some tenants to pay and would pose a further challenge of rent collection as at when due.

“Some people may even lose their jobs as things are going. But they’ll still live in a house,” he noted.

The estate surveyor pointed out that it was going to be “wide landlord lamentations” because both the residential and commercial property – office space, retail malls, sundry shops and warehouses – will be affected.

Already, events centre operators are counting their losses arising from the ban on social gatherings. The social distancing rule is also affecting offices where most workers have been asked by their employers to work from home.

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he Nigerian hospitality sector, which is still recovering from the traditional lull in business between January and early February of every year, is facing an even more difficult challenge occasioned by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic that is ravaging the world and stifling economies amid rising death toll.

Many hotels across Nigeria, both local and international brands, are facing a lull in business in a proportion worse than was seen during the Ebola outbreak or even the 2016 economic recession.

From occupancy rate of between 50-60 percent in late January, hotels are now recording below 30 percent, the worst in the history of the sector. The occupancy is expected to fall further if and when Nigeria implements total lockdown.

Hotel experts think the industry is losing over N500 million daily from scaling down operations, and would record zero revenue when total shutdown is in place.

Ikechi Uko, a hospitality expert and CEO, Akwaaba African Travel Market, said occupancy in Abuja and Lagos would disappear next week once domestic flights stop on Saturday.

“Until the shutdown, the market will shrink to record numbers with some layoffs,” Uko said.

To cope with the dwindling fortunes, many hotels are scaling down their op@Businessdayng

erations to only the essential services as occupancy keeps falling every day.

Over the week, Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos announced the scaling down of its operations to essential services only, in compliance with government directive on public gatherings. But the hotel is losing huge revenue from many of the closed facilities, especially the Eko Convention Centre, which earns a big chunk of its revenue.

In the same vein, Transcorp Hilton Abuja and all international brands in the country have scaled down their services to only essentials.

The sad situation, according to Mark Odion, a hotel sales director, has made all revenue targets for the first quarter of 2020 unattainable and halfyear results unimaginable as hoteliers are considering shutting down to avert incurring further losses as operation cost remains same even with very low occupancy.

“Hoteliers are in dilemma of taking the harshest business decision in the history of Nigeria’s hospitality industry.

If the situation gets worse than 20 percent occupancy, many hotels will shut down because thatratewillnotsustaineventhe essential services,” Odion said.

Shola Adeyemo, public relations and marketing manager at Transcorp Hilton Abuja, said hotels are sustained for now by some guests who are trapped in the country and cannot travel due to travel restrictions across the world, as well as long staying guests who have been around for a while.

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NEWS

Coronavirus: Lagos extends filing deadline for annual tax returns

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he Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has extended the deadline for filing annual tax returns for employees and self-employed persons by two months from 31 March 2020.

Consequently, the new filing deadline for the returns will now be 31 May 2020.

Wole Obayomi, tax partner at KPMG, described the extension of filing deadline by the LIRS as “a step in the right direction, as it would be difficult for taxpayers to file their returns timely following the mandatory closure of non-essential businesses by the Lagos State Government in response to COVID-19 pandemic”.

However, he said “the LIRS did not extend this palliative to other compliance obligations, such as filing and payment of monthly withholding tax and Pay-AsYou-Earn (PAYE) tax”.

“As businesses grap-

ple with loss of revenue, reduced productivity, lockdowns, cashflow challenges, etc., it is imperative for the LIRS to introduce measures that would mitigate the inevitable financial burden on taxpayers as is the case in other climes.

“For instance, Denmark extended the timeline for payment of PAYE taxes by 4 months while the Netherlands has decided not to impose penalty for nonpayment or late payment of taxes,” Obayomi said.

According to him, it is expected that the LIRS will continue to review the COVID-19 situation and introduce additional palliative measures for business survival.

The announcement by the Lagos State tax authorities follows measures introduced by the Federal Government to ameliorate the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Tremendoc on-boards more medical doctors COVID-19: FirstBank concludes plans to to provide Telemedicine support to Nigerians help children access e-learning HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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remendoc, Africa’s leading telemedicine platform, has announced the expansion of its operation team providing a pool of 200 doctors available round the clock to provide medical assistance to Nigerians.

This expansion has come at an opportune time in light of the current battle Nigeria and the rest of the world is currently facing against the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Tremendoc app is a platform that connects patients with licensed doctors who can consult, diagnose, prescribe medication and make recommendations on medical conditions and treatments. The app – which is available on both the iOS and Google Play Store – was re-launched last year and has completed over 5,000 consultations in 2020 alone, with capacity to do more in the coming months.

In today’s dynamic and technology-driven world, it has become important for patients to have access to health care regardless of their geographical location. This has

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become even more crucial in light of growing public fears around visiting health care centres and possible exposure to COVID-19. With the telemedicine support that Tremendoc provides, patients can gain access to quality healthcare services and professionals from the comfort of their homes and limit hospital visits to cases of absolute necessity. Little wonder different companies like banks and multinationals are partnering with Tremendous to provide free access to their customers and employees.

Speaking on this expansion, Ugochukwu ‘Jay’ Chikezie, founder of Tremendoc, said, “According to the World Health Organization, Nigeria’s doctor to patient ratio is 1 medical Doctor to 6,000 Nigerians, where the WHO approved ratio is 1 Doctor to 600 patients. With the growing spread of COVID-19, the health sector may become overwhelmed leaving patients with other health issues at risk of neglect. Tremendoc will, therefore, mitigate this risk by providing instant access to medical advice for Nigerians with varied health issues.

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irstBank, in partnership with government and other stakeholders, is extending its attention to immediate needs in the society in the face of the widespread COVID-19 by putting in place complementary efforts in education to support students and minimise the disruption to education resulting from schools’ closure.

This is following the activation of the bank’s Business Continuity Process and subsequent deployment of safety initiatives and measures implemented across its business outlets nationwide, to help flatten the curve and ensure the safety and wellbeing of staff customers and other stakeholders.

Adesola Adeduntan, FirstBank CEO, who announced this initiative explained that many parents are concerned about children and wards whose education is truncated by the current crisis and are particularly worried about keeping children at home idle as all schools from primary through to tertiary institutions are closed across the nation.

Emphasising the urgent need to ensure that children are not disadvantaged, remain engaged and stay safe during

@Businessdayng

this period, he announced the bank has concluded plans with the necessary authorities to enable as many children as possible access e-learning.

“We are warmed by the fact that different organisations have risen to the various challenges and are supporting in areas such as health and welfare, and we feel the peculiar needs of our children and youths must not be left out and have therefore elected to focus on contributing to solving the current education challenge,” Adeduntan said.

“Education remains the bedrock of any society and we believe that when we educate our children we enable our nation and produce global citizens who provide ground breaking solutions for the continent and the world at large.

So, building educational partnerships is an avenue to support our children to remain resourceful and fully engaged at this time so they can compete favourably with their peers internationally. It’s a responsible approach to empower them given that they are our future and the foundation to build our country to greatness. By partnering on this we are solving a problem for families and for our future,” he said.

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Friday 27 March 2020

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IMPACT INVESTING

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In Association With

Addressing infrastructure challenges in Africa: Views of Impact Investors The role of infrastructure in economic development cannot be overemphasised. This is why many African countries still lag behind in terms of development because of inadequate infrastructure. Impact investors have played key roles in revamping infrastructure across the world. For Africa to catch up, certain provisions must be made. In this regard, BusinessDay Research & Intelligence Unit (BRIU) culled the views of leading impact investors from a report published jointly in 2018 by Mercer, NASP, MiDA and USAID.

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he need and opportunity for private investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) infrastructure are great.

But significant barriers to scaling up such investment must be surmounted to support economic and, ideally, sustainable development in the region. Through interviews with 11 leading infrastructure investors globally — seven asset owners and four asset managers controlling more than US$1 trillion in assets — we have identified the following key issues that need to be considered by mobilizers, such as Mobilizing Institutional Investors to Develop Africa’s Infrastructure (MiDA), and development finance institutions (DFIs) in trying to crowd in private investment.

The Role of Infrastructure in Asset Owner Portfolios Diversification — Some investors indicated that SSA infrastructure and real assets constitute “true” diversifiers offering uncorrelated returns. But others felt they could achieve adequate diversification by investing in infrastructure in other emerging markets, such as Latin America and South Asia, achieving a similar outcome with greater comfort around the local regulatory/operating environment.

Risk/Return Profile — For many asset owners, infrastructure is positioned in portfolios as an inflationhedging asset and is biased toward “core”- or “core plus”-type assets (for example, completed and revenuegenerating brownfield assets). The risk/return profile of African infrastructure investments, however, is often more aligned with a growthoriented opportunistic allocation.

(Largely because most of the current demand for infrastructure financing in SSA is for debt and equity for new greenfield projects, which can present considerable construction risks.)2 This mismatch means African infrastructure opportunities may have no obvious role within an asset owner’s portfolio.

Aligning With Climate and Sustainability Targets: Increasingly, DFIs and a growing number of asset owners are voicing concerns about the economic consequences of unmitigated climate change and support for successful implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving the necessary emissions reductions requires the urgent development of new, low-carbon infrastructure in emerging markets rather than highcarbon alternatives. Focusing on positive, measurable progress toward

achieving global environmental and social goals — alongside attractive financial and diversification benefits — will be increasingly important in attracting long-term capital to the SSA infrastructure market.

Patience and Long-Term Commitment: Most of the investments in infrastructure in SSA are in unlisted assets, due to the relatively underdeveloped capital markets in most of the countries in this region. Unlike most developed market countries, and a few emerging market countries, there are few opportunities for investing in African infrastructure by purchasing liquid stocks and bonds of infrastructure companies, municipalities or projects via public exchanges. In SSA, most infrastructure investments are made directly, in the debt or equity of projects, or indirectly, via unlisted and typically illiquid infrastructure funds run by general partners with the necessary expertise and contacts.

Infrastructure project design and development is typically a long-term endeavour irrespective of the market in which it takes place. However, in SSA, due to relatively weak institutional frameworks and capacity, projects can take even longer.

Developing a robust private African infrastructure portfolio that is focused on greenfield opportunities and pays distributions regularly can take many years, requiring both significant patience and conviction in the strategy.

Risk Perception and Reality Gap: Although African infrastructure projects may take longer to complete construction than projects in other regions, these delays don’t typically www.businessday.ng

result in greater default risk. On the contrary, African infrastructure project debt has a lower default rate than similar debt in many developed market regions (for example, North America) and a significantly lower default rate than many other emerging market regions (such as Latin America and the Caribbean).

There is also an improving exit environment. Despite these factors, many investors appear to be dismissive of Africa on the basis of its perceived riskiness, or the returns offered appearing to be inadequate.

Evidence suggests investors that have allocated to SSA infrastructure are considerably more positive about the risk/ reward balance than those not already invested.

Regulatory Inhibitors: Although, this challenge primarily impacts a certain type of asset owner — namely, insurers — regulation is notable because of the central role infrastructure assets could increasingly play as liability-matching instruments, especially in life insurer portfolios. At present in the United States, National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and state-level regulations apply significant regulatory capital charges to assets invested in private equity or to unrated debt.

These charges can be as high as 30%.

Since very little greenfield African infrastructure is financed using rated debt instruments, the ability for insurers to invest in this asset class is constrained.

Gaps in Financing: The African infrastructure investment ecosystem is currently being hindered by several gaps in the capital structure.

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Commercial debt providers are relatively few in number, resulting in a correspondingly high cost of debt in the market. Moreover, commercial debt providers (apart from DFIs) are typically not willing to provide the long-tenor commitments that are often needed. Interviewees also cited a lack of venture capital-type equity to kick start the development of earlystage/ smaller projects, a lack of truly concessional blended capital from DFIs that could be used to crowd in more private investment and a lack of project refinancing certainty (linked to the relatively small debt market).

Contractor Challenges: In many SSA countries, there is a shortage of creditworthy contractors available to develop infrastructure projects. This increases risks during the development and construction phase.

Asset Owner Bandwidth: Many large asset owners with infrastructure allocations have small internal teams attempting to deploy large amounts of capital. This is especially true in the United States. With limited bandwidth, their ability to perform due diligence for opportunities that might be considered off centre from their mandate is constrained.

Key Opportunities To address the above issues, a number of potential solutions were suggested by interviewees that could be readily implemented by MiDA, USAID or similar organizations in conjunction with various investment value chain participants. Some of the potential solutions suggested follow: Collaborative Investing or Club Deals: To address asset owner capacity constraints and to increase capital @Businessdayng

flows into the region, arranging asset owner “clubs” could help. In a club deal, a syndication protocol is established wherein one investor leads underwriting of a fund or coinvestment for the group, and other, typically smaller investors, follow along with voluntary investments of their own. This structure simplifies the due diligence of following investors and minimizes overall costs, which are shared pari passu between all investors. Such arrangements can be set up either for the financing of a single infrastructure project or on a portfolio basis.

Education on Risk Mitigation: Although perceptions of risk in the African market frequently appears to be elevated above reality, many risk mitigation instruments exist and are regularly deployed by DFIs in SSA. Yet awareness and usage of these tools appeared to be quite low among the asset owners interviewed, including those investing in infrastructure directly. Even where asset owners were familiar with such instruments, scepticism regarding their utility was often expressed. More education around the types and uses of risk mitigants could be beneficial to getting over the risk-perception hurdle. But this education must be coupled with an effort to minimize the time typically required by DFIs to underwrite risk mitigation instruments.

Engaging Local Investors: Facilitating partnerships and co-investment between non-African asset owners and their African counterparts — particularly local pension funds — could aid in overcoming certain infrastructure investment risks by better aligning with the interests of the local government.

DFI Investment Partnerships: DFIs are experts in investing across emerging markets. By partnering with DFIs in African infrastructure funds or deals, uninitiated investors might gain comfort with the region and asset class. Such partnerships can be structured in a variety of ways: with the DFI serving as an anchor LP in a fund, as the GP for a fund or as the lead in a co-investment. Private investors participating in projects alongside DFIs benefit from a “halo effect,” as projects with DFI participation are likely to be treated well by local governments. Moreover, DFIs are, for the most part, seen as “honest brokers” that structure transactions to achieve a positive developmental impact and are not driven solely by commercial interests. This perception also helps DFIs in resolving any disputes that may arise.

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A destiny among the nations (1) THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

Obadiah Mailafia

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am delighted to be Guest Speaker at this colloquium to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Honourable Kudla Satumari and the great humanitarian work he has been doing with his Haske Foundation. The people of his native Southern Borno have suffered a harrowing tragedy from the murderous insurgency that is looking more and more like a genocide. It is becoming crystal clear that Christian communities in the north are the principal targets of the Jihad being waged by Boko Haram and the herdsmen of the apocalypse. It is a fact that our dishonest and jaundiced power elites prefer not to acknowledge.

Our brother Kudla has lost 19 members of his own blood relations in the conflagration. And yet, I see a man with a forgiving heart; a champion of peace -- a true lover of humanity.

He has made a great success of his aviation business. But he has never allowed success to go into his head.

Instead, his greatest hunger is to win souls for the Lord and to touch lives in a positive way. He has used his personal resources to help the downtrodden among his people.

I prophesy a great destiny for this hero of our time!

According to my dictionary, destiny is a noun referring to “what happens to someone or what will happen to them in the future, especially things that they cannot change or avoid”. Destiny is thought to be synonymous with fate or a man’s portion in life. It implies, according to Merriam-Webster, “something foreordained and often suggests a great or noble course or end”.

Many of our traditional cultures believe that every human being has his or her own unique path in life. The ancient

Greeks often consulted the Oracle of Delphi to know what destiny held in store for them. Among the Yoruba, the oracles of Ifa are central to the making of kingship and to shaping decisionmaking among the rulers.

At one extreme are the Christian Calvinists, who believe in pre-destination – in the community of the elect that are predestined for salvation; at the other, are the existentialist philosophers such as Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus who believe that man is the sole architect of his own destiny.

The post-war French existentialists thinkers were, of course, anti-religious in temperament; belonging to a long tradition of French anti-clericalism that goes back to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment – from Rousseau and Voltaire up to the leaders of the 1789 French Revolution.

Nelson Mandela was apparently a believer in this concept of self-determination. His favourite poem while imprisoned in Robben Island was said to be Invictus, by the Victorian English poet William Ernest Henley: “Out of the night that covers me, / Black as the pit from pole to pole, / I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul…. / It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll, / I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.”

None of us chose the circumstances of our birth. We had no choice about our parentage, religion, community and even the country into which we were born. But it is also clear that life is ultimately what we make of it. Man is a creature of choice. We are born with conscience and with a sense of moral responsibility.

The greatest tragedy that can befall a young man or woman is to go through this life without having discovered their life-purpose or vocation. And happy is the young man or woman who knows early enough what they were born to do.

When a person discovers early enough his or her life-purpose, nothing can keep them down. The Renaissance Italian artist and genius Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate child of a Florentine nobleman who never

acknowledged his son. He never went to school because of his illegitimate status. But nothing could stop him.

Through communing with nature and the sheer power of his imagination Leonardo became a universal genius.

His paintings and sculptures are immortal and priceless. His engineering designs prefigured modern aviation and aerospace engineering. He is arguably the greatest genius who ever lived.

There is a noble line of men and women who overcame seemingly impossible odds to fulfil their life-purpose and destiny. They are the heroes and heroines of civilisation. Without their courage, our world would be a much poorer place.

Like human beings, every nation has a destiny under the earth.

The French have always defined their place in the world as custodians of the universal values of civilisation. I went to school there and I should know.

It is only in France that the greatest scientists and intellectuals are arrogated the same status as royalty. In the 1960s, so the story goes, the great philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was arrested by the police around the Quartier Latin district of Paris for drinking under the influence. The law required that he spend some days in prison. President Charles de Gaulle, however, invoked his own right to exercise the prerogative of mercy. He gave the reprieve in full glare of national television. Sartre, he declared, is France. And France could not, under any stretch of the imagination, be imprisoned. Case closed!

Britain has always prided herself in being the mother of liberty. Magna Carta is the writ that enshrined the constitutional principle of the supremacy of parliament and representative democracy. Only in Britain could an English judge such as Lord Mansfield declare, as in the famous case of Somerset v Stewart (1772), that every slave who sets his foot on English soil is a free man. Britain defines herself as “the Land of Hope and Glory”.

Brexit has entered the modern political lexicon today because the British voted to leave Europe. At the heart of this historic decision is the conviction that British liberties are non-negotiable and cannot be usurped by a suprana-

‘

None of us chose the circumstances of our birth.

We had no choice about our parentage, religion, community and even the country into which we were born. But it is also clear that life is ultimately what we make of it. Man is a creature of choice. We are born with conscience and with a sense of moral responsibility

tional body, however enlightened.

Nowhere has this sense of manifest destiny been so deeply rooted in the national psyche as in the United States.

There is no denying that many of the Founding Fathers were slave-owners.

And yet, they crafted a Declaration of Independence that is timeless in its universal appeal: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.”

Race unfortunately remains an enduring blot on the American character. And yet, America managed to elect a black man, Barrack Obama, as its president. The American Dream resonates among all its inhabitants as the quintessential land of infinite opportunities for all peoples and races.

Because of its commitment to the rule of law, liberty of thought and respect for property rights, however, American grandeur will endure. America will remain unsurpassed in the dominant fields that matter: science and technology, inventiveness, creativity and sheer entrepreneurial energy.

Does Nigeria have a destiny? What are our national ideals and collective purpose as we enter the second decade of our twenty-first century?

(Being the Summarised Text of a Speech at the Haske Foundation Colloquium Held at Yar’Adua Conference Centre, Abuja, Saturday 21 March, 2020).

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

Grapevine aka gossip

H

ello out there. To say we are living in interesting times must be the world’s greatest understatement.

The “suddenly” principle has been in operation and yet what we are reacting to suddenly has actually been staring us in the face for a while. However, you know what they say… hind sight is 20/20 vision.

The last pandemic was the Spanish flu of 1918. Don’t you wonder how they coped at that time? We are more advanced technologically, medically and in general ‘know-how’ and we still seem to be finding it so difficult. One thing that we have much more of now is information.

Communication is at our finger tips all the time.

Usually when there is correct information, that is clear, succinct and timely, the situation is supposed to be good. Unfortunately, the worst part of this pandemic we have found ourselves in is the communication around it. So much fake news that people’s lives are actually at risk.

This brings me to today’s topic which is the “The grapevine” better known as office gossip.

Gossip is defined as “idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others”. Gossipers share unverified information with others who are neither part of the problem nor part of the solution. Furthermore, meanspirited gossip is detrimental to the person or

organisation that is the topic of conversation.

Gossip can be viewed as a form of workplace harassment and organisations have an obligation to address it.

The impact of gossip at work includes but is not limited to loss of productivity, wasted time, decreased morale and motivation, increased staff turnover and an overall culture of negativity. One of the main reasons for gossip is poor communication within an organisation.

Gossip can occur when the exchange of information from leadership to management and on to front-line workers is insufficient and not properly managed. Gossip can also occur when staff lack the skill to tackle their concerns directly.

There has to be a path for open, honest and direct dialogue especially among leadership since they influence the entire organisation through their values, actions and priorities.

Leadership should not communicate with each other only via emails, with minimal face to face communication, each person doing their own thing. This will become a culture that will permeate the organisation. The office staff will take sides and be lack lustre without any team spirit.

There will be minimal interaction.

This kind of atmosphere would breed misunderstandings, gossip and conflict that may never

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be resolved through open and honest dialogue.

Any organisation without the practice of transparency and clear communication guidelines will struggle internally. Leadership entertaining gossip and collecting information through unauthorised channels don’t help.

Transparency is key. Employees expect you, their supervisors to communicate frequently and honestly about what is going on within the organisation. When relevant information is not shared or not shared in a timely fashion, staff are left to fill in the blanks to make sense of what is going on. When in addition there is insufficient exchange of information and an employee’s needs to belong, be valued and be important are missing, you have created the formula for the grapevine.

In present times leaders can no longer operate in isolation and expect staff to comply without question. Employees must be kept informed especially because of easy accessibility to information through technology. Great leaders respond to questions quickly and give the opportunity for staff to express their fears and concerns without judgment or defensiveness.

They work hard at building a strong team of informed staff who are encouraged to contribute.

They are role models and aren’t afraid of sharing information, even though it might result in an

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Olamide Balogun unfavourable response.

As an organisation you should define transparency and add it to your corporate values.

Facilitate the conversation on its definition, importance and what it means regarding decisionmaking and internal /external communication.

You must develop a clear and concise statement on how transparency is honoured in the organisation, and communicate this to your team. You must practise it consistently as You cannot maintain trust if you selectively apply it.

You, leadership must be accountable

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

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Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 years

Friday 27 March 2020

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The story of the Yoruba - A review of ‘Gods and Heroes’ by Oladele Olusanya HumanAngle

Femi olugbile

O

n Thursday 19th March, a book launch with a difference took place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

Oladele Olusanya was in the class ahead of yours at Government College, Ibadan, and in Medical School. Clearly endowed with slack capacity, he would sit in class sketching images of the lecturer even as he took in the lecture, and yet he would breeze effortlessly through the prescribed examinations.

Dele is today a physician practicing in Dallas Texas. He draws and paints and holds the occasional exhibition.

He is unveiling his opus major, an ambitious work that is nothing less than an attempt to tell the story of his people, the Yoruba, using a genre of literature that may be described as “faction”. It is a tour de force.

Dele hails from a family with a tradition of storytelling. From a mythical “Old Woman” down to his own biological mother, the story of the Yoruba is given active life through the personal drama of the Olusanyas and Odusanyas who have ended up, over centuries of migration, as citizens of Ijebu land and Remo.

It all begins with the departure of Lamurudu from Nubia in North Africa,

and proceeds to the arrival of his son Oduduwa in the land that would be known as Ile Ife. Dele is doing what his mother and all his storytelling forebears did before him but putting the story on paper instead of oral tradition and enlarging the ambit.

The product is three volumes of work, totaling some one thousand pages, with the broad title “ITAN – LEGENDS OF THE GOLDEN AGE”.

“Gods and Heroes” is the first of those three volumes.

Wale Babalakin, Chairman of the event, is mildly apologetic that he, a “junior boy” from the 1971 set of GCI, is being asked to preside over a book launch where the author is a ‘senior boy’ from the 1965 set, and where many in the audience are “senior boys”. Beyond the jokes, he goes on to speak eloquently, as is his wont. He announces he is purchasing of copies the book for every university in Nigeria.

Trawling through the book takes the reader through the epic journey of Oduduwa. He has inherited the mantle of leadership over a people who call themselves “Our People”, or “Inago”, and who would only be known as “Yoruba” much later. His arrival in Ile Ife. The intermingling with the aboriginal “Igbo”. The rebellion of the aborigines.

Oduduwa’s sons spreading out to found the seven original kingdoms.

The heroic sacrifice of Moremi. Oranmiyan and the founding of Oyo Empire.

Eweka, Oranminyan’s son and the creation the new royal lineage in the Benin empire. The ascendancy of great Oyo Empire. The titanic struggles of great men of valour, and the women who inspired and often controlled them.

The overweening cultural emphasis on “omoluabi” – the imperative to do

the right thing for the individual and the collective.

In the raconteur’s recollections, one of his ancestors, a man named Osogbesan, is sent by the Alafin and his “cabinet” - the “Oyo Mesi”, on a mission to Afonja – the estranged Aare Ona Kankanfo in Ilorin, to reconcile him with the Oyo Empire and rescue him from the impending treachery by his erstwhile friend Alimi and his fighters – the al majiri, who they have discovered to have a hidden agenda through some intercepted communication.

Oyo is sacked, and its people are dispersed to the new centres of Yoruba power – to Ibadan, to Ijaiye. The advance of the rampaging jihadists is halted.

The founding of Ago d’Oyo. The debate over whether Prince Atiba should become Alafin in this new, much lesser homeland of the Yoruba.

The reader meets with Hugh Clapperton and the Lander brothers, as the outside world insidiously intrudes upon the Yoruba world. There is the story of how the Scotsman Mungo Park goes to his end gun in hand, confronting hostile locals at a waterfall.

Dele’s work introduces Yoruba life and mythology to the world, intermingled. Gods become men, and men become gods. There is a central kernel of recorded truth.

In 1796, when Alafin Aole is directed to “go to sleep” at the behest of his Oyo Mesi and Afonja, his rebellious Aare Ona Kankanfo, he angrily swallows the poison, but with his last bit of strength, he stands tall, reaches into his pouch and fires arrows to the four winds, uttering what has become known through the ages as Aole’s Curse: “…May this curse of I, Aole, Alafin

‘

Trawling through the book takes the reader through the epic journey of Oduduwa. He has inherited the mantle of leadership over a people who call themselves “Our People”, or “Inago”, and who would only be known as “Yoruba” much later

Fall on the house of Oyo… The rulers of Yorubaland shall be divided…

The old unity of the Yorubas Will be lost…

The ancient house and legacy of Oduduwa Unloved and unattended Will be overthrown by a foreign people…”

Some authorities would aver that Aole’s curse haunts his people to this day.

In the book, Afonja, the Aare Ona Kankanfo himself is eventually discovered by Osogbesan, the emissary sent by the new Alafin and Oyo Mesi to warn him. He is freshly impaled on the spear of Abdulsalam – the son of his treacherous friend Alimi. The spear was driven in so hard that it has gone right through his body and into the body of one of the al majiri who was holding him from behind, joining them together in death. Abdulsalam would become the first Emir of Ilorin, a land newly excised from Yorubaland. To some, Afonja’s fate is held to be just deserts for treachery to the Yoruba.

Gods and Heroes, as well as the entire trilogy of “ITAN LEGENDS OF THE GOLDEN AGE”, is recommended reading as engaging literature, as a treasure trove of Yoruba history and as resource material for anyone interested in getting an insight into the nuanced and complicated Psychology of the Yoruba.

“Gods and Heroes” is published by Maven Publishing, Ibadan.

It is available in bookshops and online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Okada Books.

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

Panic, pandemics and the theory of Learned Helplessness

A

s I sat with a bottle of Heineken during the last World Cup to watch the Nigerian match against Argentina, a day after 200 people were killed in cold blood by Boko Haram, I felt no form of panic or empathy for those affected, no one around me in the hall did too; also not a single player in the Nigerian match we watched wore any black ribbon to commensurate, not me too!

How did we get here?

Whether it’s a bombast tragedy or an infectious disease outbreak, it’s the psychology of panic. It’s the same way Wuhan and Italy got here with the Covid-19.

Beyond pandemics, in other panic cases as war, it’s the same way Syria, South Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia and the Gaza Strip got here.

They don’t flee, they just adopt. As the coefficient of trauma and actual effects kicks in, first we get caught up in pandemonium and then it cools off. And after a while we create immunity and resistance to the effect of that event. It’ll be the ultimate solution to the Corona pandemics too.

It’s a Theory Called Learned Helplessness.

Learned Helplessness – an eventual feeling of numbness, immunity, mute or of low expectation as a result of its frequent occurrence around us. In business or life in general, it occurs from repeated experiences of near misses to us, or past experiences of defeat, past occurrence and repeated failure.

In business, it’s the same reason why badly behaved staffs are still in our organisation. In Kano Model in MBA School, I am thought that it’s how the high-performance curve drops to MVP (Minimum Value Proposition) till bad customer experience becomes normal. It’s how bad leadership also became normal in Africa. It’s how the universe resets us after a prolonged panic.

This is why every time you cover your nose after a smelly garbage truck passes you or your car, if you open your eyes alongside your closed nose,

you’d always find people who work with those trucks on top of that smelly truck unconcerned.

They are sometimes eating or having a gist on top of what is grossly smelling to you. They just seem to not smell it anymore. Nigeria is turning to that.

Canadian psychiatrist, J. T. MacCurdy, in his book The Structure of Morale postulated this using the effect of the consistent bombing of Britain during the Second World War and the cushion effect on the psychology of the British People.

Let me break it down: years running up to the beginning of the second world war the British government was extremely concerned that in the event of hostilities breaking out, the German Luftwaffe would launch significant attacks against Britain and especially London. With an estimated 250,000 casualties in the first week alone, the consensus was that millions of Londoners would either riot or flee, leaving the industrial war engine to grind to a halt. Several crowd and trauma control mechanisms and psychiatric hospitals were even set up on the outskirts of London to handle the huge numbers of casualties psychologically affected by the bombing.

History tells us this was not the case. People took it better than envisioned when the bombs started hitting, despite horrific numbers of casualties and extensive damage to homes, property and businesses throughout London.

It’s the Theory of Learned Helplessness at play!

Naturally in psychology, frequency of abnormality takes away shock. It makes us immune.

The side effect is that it takes away a degree of empathy and humanity. This will eventually happen, especially around healthcare specialist in the coming days. It replaces a sense of urgency with a culture of cushion.

People would react the same to pandemics eventually the same way people in war torn area react to news of death and bomb blasts. This is why people still live close to Sambisa Forest or the Gaza Strips. They have subconsciously built

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a culture. And culture in social studies is defined as the way things are done around here.

People are bombed and killed every day, and having, seeing or being aware of it more becomes inversely proportional to shock. It’s a very strange place to be as a nation. It takes an effort to get off that trap. And we are getting deeper in it, especially in this world where Twitter helps us find a new topic or hashtag that trends to distract our woes.

We have to consciously prioritize what should trend in our hearts, a call for change.

Whenever we hear of a killing, a pandemic, a massacre or a bomb blast, we have empathy.

But the more we hear of it more often, the less we begin to feel that way. We begin to feel less concerned. Learned Helplessness begins to creep in.

Strangely, the more the blast, the more we feel more invincible! We don’t need to do anything different at all, because we are survivors!

It’s a strange phenomenon. How does these massacres get to you; as a Direct Hit, Near Miss or Remote Miss? Why you are less concerned and more confident it won’t hit you than you should be. Every time we are not breached, we become more confident that we will not be breached and become over confident and convinced we are having the time of our lives doing great stuff in this cold world and not being breached.

Although this phenomenon if applied in medical science makes us develop a measurable immune response after our first effect of a disease that makes the chances of being re-infected lower and that resistance even last long, still Learned Helplessness is a trap. It reduces our view of the world to self. If it doesn’t concern us directly, then we care less. And then it reduces self eventually to death. In the words of Marie Curie, “each of us must work for self and his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity”. This is the real life. Anything else is death while still alive. We begin that death when we begin to lose our sense to feel. In the

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EIZU UWAOMA words of Horace Mann “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity”. What victory for it are we winning in Nigeria when we lose our senses of feel.

Learned helplessness isn’t always a negative thing. It can also be induced to create hope from panic. The same way panic has a coefficient, calm also does. If there’s turbulence in a plane, we tremble quietly or loudly based on the number of people we feel that feels same way. Also, the library is usually a quiet place because the dominant cultural narrative in the library is to be quiet.

Because it’s dominant, the coefficient of its spread is sufficient to keep it that way. What we can learn from this effect is that we have to expend effort to create environments of calm, because calm has a coefficient that can’t compete with panic when it comes to spreading. As a nation, we have to get off it. It takes inertia, a conscious and intentional force to get off our current state. We should do much more to find our humanity by inducing it.

We should demand for order.

Learned Helplessness by the effect of a negative occurring frequently makes things like order, humanity, compassion and a call for personal excellence look differently. Without them humanity cannot survive. Humanity, excellence, peace and a sense of protection through accountability should concern us all beyond any season or event.

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

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Editorial Frank Aigbogun

As GTB leads in giving for Corona

editor Patrick Atuanya

A spirit of community is critical and essential to managing in these coronavirus times

Publisher/Editor-in-chief

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu

G

TBank scores a major positive for corporate Nigeria today with the opening of a new 100-bed hospital it has built for the management of the growing cases of coronavirus disease.

The Onikan facility exemplifies Corporate Social Investment and the ability of the company to rise to the needs of society. It is commendable.

We expect many more of similar gestures from the corporate world. Globally, corporate and individual citizens are responding with gestures of goodwill and citizenship that speak to commitment and bonding with their societies.

There are many examples.

Access Bank announced just as the ink was drying on the GTB one that it is building four units of 1000-bed tents equipped to serve as testing, isolation, treatment and training centres. The tents would have medical equipment, supplies and personnel to cater to anyone who may be affected by the coronavirus.

The Redeemed Christian

Church of God donated a suite of ventilators to the Lagos State Government for its hospitals. Dunamis International Gospel Centre donated precautionary kits to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). The items include 20 cartons of hand sanitizers, four cartons of hand gloves and seven packets of face masks. In Abia State, two-time governorship candidate Alex Otti through a foundation in his name announced on Wednesday generous donations of items to enable better prevention and management of the scourge whenever it shows up in the state.

Donations from the Alex Otti Foundation went to the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia and the Living Word Hospital in Aba. They include 25, 000 pairs of hand gloves, 2, 500 units of facial masks, 2500 units of personal protection robes, 2, 500 pairs of medical glasses and 2, 500 pairs of medical booths. The Living Word Hospital also got a set of these items as well as a six-room duplex to serve as isolation centre.

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer donated three million doses

of chloroquine to the US government as an aid in the fight against COVID-19. Novartis, number three in the global ranking, donated 130million doses of hydroxychloroquine. Israeli firm Teva similarly donated 16 million doses of hydroxychloroquine. Mylan Pharmaceuticals reopened its closed West Virginia, USA factory to produce hydroxychloroquine Celebrities in various fields are showcasing good corporate citizenship in various parts of the world.

They are donating resources of money, materials and their time to assist their communities and society. Arsenal FC pledged 100, 000 pounds sterling and the use of their company cars to transport National Health Service workers and help deliver supplies.

We call for activation of the spirit of community. Community involvement is critical in Nigeria because of the many citizens who struggle for daily bread and who would be affected adversely by the lockdowns that many states are imposing. The coronavirus-induced shutdowns offer an opportunity for Nigerians to show the colour of

their hearts.

Community and Mutual Aid Groups should work together with corporate citizens to ensure that those in need get the support that they deserve. There is also an opportunity for us to audit our societal structures in the area of giving and mutual support. Where are the national, state and local branches of the Boys Scouts, the Red Cross Society, the Boys’ Brigade, the Girls’ Guides and similar organisations that taught young people skills in community involvement, sacrificial giving, service and leadership? It is time for them to show up and stand for the count.

Corporate bodies should be rolling out CSR/CSI schemes. The best practice is that such schemes should have an element of stake holding or ownership to ensure they do not go to waste. NGOs and mutual aid societies including our elite clubs -Rotary, Lions, etc- should rise to serve as credible agents to ensure the aid is well managed.

A spirit of community is critical and essential to managing in these coronavirus times. Activate it, please.

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan

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

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If Covid-19 is not beaten in Africa, it will return to haunt us all

Only a global victory can end this pandemic, not a temporary rich countries’ win

Abiy Ahmed

B

e the first to know about every new Coronavirus story There is a major flaw in the strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Advanced economies are unveiling unprecedented economic stimulus packages. African countries, by contrast, lack the wherewithal to make similarly meaningful interventions. Yet if the virus is not defeated in Africa, it will only bounce back to the rest of the world.

That is why the current strategy of unco-ordinated country-specific measures, while understandable, is myopic, unsustainable and potentially counter-productive. A virus

that ignores borders cannot be tackled successfully like this.

We can defeat this invisible and vicious adversary — but only with global leadership. Without that, Africa may suffer the worst, yet it will not be the last. We are all in this together, and we must work together to the end.

Fragile and vulnerable at the best of times, African economies are staring at an abyss. Let me illustrate this with the situation in my own country.

Ethiopia has made steady progress in the provision of health services over the past two decades.

But nothing has prepared us for threats posed by Covid-19. Access to basic health services remains the exception rather than the norm.

Even taking such common-sense precautions as washing hands is often an unaffordable luxury to the half of the population who lack access to clean water.

Even seemingly costless social distancing is hard to implement.

Our lifestyle is deeply communal, with extended families traditionally sharing the burdens and bounties of life together, eating meals from the same plate. Our traditional and rain-dependent agriculture is dictated by the fixed timeframes of weather cycles in which planting, weeding and harvesting must happen. The slightest disruption to that chain, even for a brief period, can spell disaster, further jeopardising already tenuous food supply and food security.

Take Ethiopian Airlines, the

country’s largest company, which accounts for 3 per cent of national output and is a major source of hard currency. It will be pushed to the brink as its business is upended by the pandemic. Shortage of hard currency will then make it all but impossible to source essential medical supplies and equipment from abroad. The cost of servicing our debts is already often more than our annual health budgets. The list continues.

This grim reality is not unique to Ethiopia. It is shared by most African countries. But if they do not take appropriate measures to tackle the pandemic, no country in the world is safe.

Momentary victory by a rich country in controlling the virus at a national level, coupled with travel bans and border closures, may give a semblance of accomplishment.

But we all know this is a stopgap.

Only global victory can bring this pandemic to an end.

Covid-19 teaches us that we are all global citizens connected by a single virus that recognises none of our natural or man-made diversity: not the colour of our skin, nor our passports, or the gods we worship.

For the virus, what matters is the fact of our common humanity.

That is why the strategy to tackle the human and economic cost of this global scourge must be global in design and application. Health is a worldwide public good. It requires global action guided by a sense of global solidarity.

But Covid-19 has also exposed

‘

Our traditional and raindependent agriculture is dictated by the fixed timeframes of weather cycles in which planting, weeding and harvesting must happen

our dark underbelly. The world community desperately needs global-level leadership to tackle swiftly pandemics such as this, and in a way that is institutionalised rather than ad hoc.

A good place to start is with the World Health Organization.

As countries with the necessary resources focus on fighting the pandemic through their national institutions, the WHO must be empowered and resourced sufficiently to co-ordinate responses globally and directly to assist governments in developing countries.

In the meantime, the G20 must provide collective leadership for a co-ordinated global response. There is no time to waste: millions of lives are at risk.

Building on what has been announced by international financial institutions, the G20 must launch a global fund to prevent the collapse of health systems in Africa. The institutions need to establish a facility to provide budgetary support to African countries. The issue of resolving Africa’s debt burden also needs to be put back on the table as a matter of urgency.

Finally, all of Africa’s development partners must ensure that their development aid budgets remain ringfenced and are not diverted to domestic priorities. This is where true humanity and solidarity must be demonstrated. If such aid were ever necessary in Africa, it is now more than ever before.

FT

Don’t start your CEO’s journey wrongly

T

he journey of a CEO is not always an easy journey. The journey is even made more difficult and seemed to be started wrongly when CEOs starts from what I call the “status side of leadership.”

Why is it wrong to start from the status side? It is wrong because the status does not make the CEO. The CEO makes the status. Most times, CEOs are appointed and not anointed, and those that appointed them - especially the boards are not looking for someone who has a prestigious position, but rather someone who can bring about the wind of progress in difficult situations. The status sticks more when a CEO has outstanding results to show for his or her stewardship. In my suggestion, it is in the best interest of every CEO to be driven by two major things: responsibility and accountability.

It is also imperative for CEOs to see themselves to be on a journey as most CEO positions are tenured. One of the advices I give to CEOs especially those that just took up the CEO’s role is to close their eyes, and assume they have come to the end of their tenure, and then ask themselves three or four things they will be remembered for. Let those four things guide and drive everything you do as a CEO. Never mind, if you did not do this at the beginning of your tenure, you can still do it now. It is important to know that you will not just choose four areas to be remembered for choosing sake. Those four areas must impact the organization’s vision, organization’s culture, organization’s performance and

employees’ engagement.

I have been asked severally during board strategic thinking programs, what is the major thing that will make the CEO’s journey more difficult? In providing my answer to this question, I am always mindful and respectful of other people’s views. I always answer by letting them know first and foremost that “people support what they help create”. The CEO does not do the creating alone and cannot, everyone in the organization does. So, the CEO’s journey will be on the wrong side if he or she is driven by what is called D.A.D Syndrome (all thanks to late Steve Haines, who exposed me to the concept in my days with Haines Centre for Strategic Management, USA). So, D.A.D means Decide, Announce and Defend. The D stands for Decide. The CEO alone decides on a matter that requires other people’s input or concern. The A stands for Announce. The CEO, having decided on the matter without involving others, now announces it. The D stands for Defend. Because the CEO did not involve the right people or key stake holders from the onset, he or she will now have a hard time defending his or her decisions. As a CEO, do not be deceived, when that happens some people will deliberately sabotage or frustrate your effort whether good or bad. Many CEOs who have learnt and avoided this syndrome after attending our leadership development programs had wished they knew about it earlier.

In order to avoid the D.A.D Syndrome suffered by some CEOs and executives, we www.businessday.ng

always recommend a “Parallel Involvement Process” in which real-time meetings are held with key stakeholders after each phase of the Strategic Planning and Change Management process. The purpose is twofold: (1) to share information and provide feedback to the core leadership team in order to troubleshoot and improve the plans, and (2) to gain understanding, acceptance (i.e., buy-in + stay in), and commitment to the overall direction and implementation of the plan. Every CEO and leader should know that in decision making, “People want input into decisions that affect them prior to those decisions being finalized.”

This is based on a truism of life: People support what they help create.

Like we all know, the journey of the CEO is not an easy one, but it behoves every CEO to try as much as possible to make the journey easier and more productive. And one of the ways to make the journey easier and more productive is to create a connection culture so you can breakthrough to new levels of engagement and performance with your people. Remember; unless, your people in your organization have a strong sense of connection – a bond that promotes trust, cooperation and esprit de corps – they will never reach their potentials as individuals and the organization will never reach its potential. People that work in organizations where there is a high degree of connection are more engaged, more productive in their jobs, and less likely to leave the organization for a competitor. So, building a connection culture in an organization should

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Uju Onwuzulike be a key priority for any CEO that wants to succeed.

Final notes Indeed, CEOs should avoid starting their journey wrongly. They should ensure that they don’t make the journey alone. It is difficult and lonely to ride alone. They should not also force people to join them, rather they should invite the right people to be part of the journey and ensure they contribute their parts in making the journey more interesting.

Above all the CEO should ensure everyone in the organization understands and runs with the vision – then again, this is why building a culture of connection is very critical.

Finally, remember, for the CEOs journey to be successful, they would need people who are fired up, engaged, committed, willing and eager to go the extra mile – without having these kinds of people – even the best of strategy or technology may not come to the rescue.

Please feel free to share your thoughts or views.

Onwuzulike is Nigeria’s leading authority on Systems Thinking and Strategic Management.

He can be reached on 09091142093 or uju.onwuzulike@ mclgroup.net.

@Businessdayng

14

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

MoneyInsight

Aella partners Hygeia to include 95% Nigerians outside health insurance FRANK ELEANYA

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igerian fintech firm, Aella has partnered with Hygeia HMO, a health insurance provider to include millions of Nigerians that have no access to health insurance.

The partnership is giving birth to AellaCare, a health insurance product that offers a comprehensive and accessible micro-health insurance service to millions of people.

The continued spread of coronavirus in Nigeria and around the world has thrown Nigeria’s health system into the spotlight.

It has for once shown how nearly broken the system and why there is an urgent need to fix it.

“The one thing I hope we realise with this crisis is how criminally underfunded our healthcare infrastructure is, both public and private,” said Akin Oyebode, special adviser to Ekiti State governor said.

Among the problems plaguing the system are scarce public resources and limited health infrastructure which contribute to denying access to quality healthcare delivery to the country’s bottom of the pyramid.

About 95 percent of Nigerian adults do not have insurance and 77.2 percent of the nation’s population barely know what insurance is about. Traditional financial institutions with their brick and mortar set up have been unable to provide inclusive health insurance to the millions of people excluded by the system that places a priority on profitability.

Aella which recently secured a $10 million funding round, said

the AellaCare has a goal to tackle the gap in health insurance with affordable coverage for as low as N2,000 ($5) per month.

Affordability will make it easier for people to seek and receive health services such as general consultation, pharmacy benefits, ante-natal care, and delivery services; accidents and emergencies; surgeries; outpatient and specialist consultations; HIV/AIDS Care and treatment; dental care; pre-

scription glasses; family planning services among others.

“With AellaCare, we are not only reducing the financial barriers that prevent people from protecting their health with decent health insurance; we are also transforming the unbanked and supporting economic growth for all West Africans,” Akin Jones, CEO Aella said in a statement. “This milestone is another validation of our commitment to lifting many

out of poverty and transition emerging markets into the digital economy through accessible financial solutions.”

Speaking on the partnership, Obinna Abajue, CEO of Hygeia HMO said access to quality and affordable care should never be seen as a luxury, hence the partnership with Aella. With the partnership, the HMO is able to scale the provision of healthcare services to millions of Nigerians and West Africans previously

outside the healthcare system.

“With quality healthcare insurance coverage, AellaCare is giving people the convenience of providing preventive and primary care services for them and their loved ones, which reduces the financial risk of illhealth,” Abajue said. “All lives matter and AellaCare has made it easier to access healthcare through Aella’s fast, simple and affordable monthly subscription services.”

Here is what your credit score says about your financial health STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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redit score is coming into everyday usage thanks to the proliferation of financial technology (fintech) start-ups such as Carbon (formerly Paylater), Mamamoni and Renmoney that advance micro-credit to customers. This has necessitated the need for quicker assessment of the creditworthiness of potential borrowers.

A poor credit score could mean paying higher interest rates on credit facilities or loans if even approved at all. While a high credit score means borrowing money at a much lower rate because you appear more financially responsible.

The knowledge that both financial and non-financial

institutions are using a number to determine if people living in Nigeria can access loans, credit facilities or post-paid services or not is not common knowledge. It is until they need credit facilities like loans or post-paid products that they are made aware of its existence and how important it is, to their financial lives and access to finance for both personal and business needs.

There is still a perception that loan granting is based on ‘Man know Man’ which for the most part, is no longer the case at least for the average Nigerian.

Credit scores are provided by credit bureaus. The CRC Credit Bureau provides this service at N400 (four hundred naira). The CRC score is www.businessday.ng

a three-digit number ranging from 300-850 that summarises a borrower’s history of borrowing and paying back loans or post-paid services by allocating a 3-digit number that represents how risky it is to do business with such an individual.

“It is also a credit grading system, with 300 being the lowest grade like an ‘F’ in a report card and 850 being the highest which would be an ‘A’ or distinction in your report card,” said Tunde Popoola, managing director and chief executive officer of Lagosbased CRC Credit Bureau.

“The CRC Score powered by FICO is easily accessible to everyone and can be bought via the CRC Credit Bureau website.”

The Fair Isaac Corpora-

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tion (FICO) is an American company with over 50 years’ experience in data and analytics. CRC Credit Bureau in partnership with FICO developed a unique credit rating system for the Nigerian market that helps lenders make quick and informed credit decisions and for individuals the knowledge of what their credit status is.

It is also used amongst other criteria to determine the interest rate, a borrower will be charged if a lender decides to approve the credit line or loan. It is a numerical expression based on a level of analysis of an individual’s Credit Report and is used to represent how risky it is for lenders or creditors to do business with said individual.

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is normal practice for creditors to consider credit scores and reports before advancing loans, goods or services to another party with the understanding that payments are to be made in the future. This practice is catching up in Nigeria, as there are more credit activities taking place in the financial and non-financial sectors.

Knowing your CRC Score, makes you better prepared before applying for a loan and is the first step in taking control of your financial reputation.

To request for your CRC score visit the CRC website pagehttps://www.crccreditbureau.com/product/crcscore-individualto register and pay for Credit Score and have it delivered to your email address in a matter of minutes

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

15

AgriBusinessInsight Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

‘Nigeria’s food supply not yet at risk over coronavirus’ With restrictions and lockdowns following the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, ensuring there is little or no disruption to food supply, an essential part of human existence has been top on the agenda. AYODEJI BALOGUN, country manager for AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited in a skype interview with CALEB OJEWALE, spoke on expectations in the commodities market, also giving insights into ComX, a novel trading platform recently launched. Excerpts:

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orona is on the lips of everyone so I have to start with this.

How exactly is this pandemic affecting the commodities market?

The prices of commodities are still stable. We have not had an impact on prices (in Nigeria).

Demand has been bearish, so I think a number of buyers are sceptical about how things will look like and how foreign prices may decline and transmitted to us here. We also understand that demand is high and increasing; we expect that a number of millers would (soon) be out of stock and will be coming to the market to start buying.

Our expectation is that by early April prices will start climbing up because when people start buying will coincide with when farmers want to also sell to start buying fertilizer and prepare for the new season.

So we expect that demand and Supply will balance out over the next four to six weeks.

Does this mean outlook for the year remains the same?

It remains the same, except for slight but moderate increase in price in the next four to six weeks. This is expected to be led by maize and paddy rice with price increments between five and seven percent.

Since Corona is not doing any damage in the market for now, can you summarize what the major expectations are for this year?

Generally, from our market outlook, we estimated a fairly stable outlook. We expected about 13 to 15 percent price-increase across the staple crops. We projected higher ones for the export crops, which we have seen.

The export crops may have a higher than forecasted increase because of some speculations that are trying to hedge against the dollar, this may increase the demand for certain export crops being targeted at that market and that may swell up demand to the extent that dollar remains stable till the end of the year.

On the staples I think the market will stay within the normal range; demand and supply are balancing out.

With the restriction on movement of people to

warehouse receipts and that would be lent against the borrower, serving as guarantee for the investor that is investing against the assets. Therefore, in our warehouse system, besides the company’s repayment capacity, you also have the custody of the product you are financing but the issue will still be rated by standard rating agencies. They would be approved by SEC and then they would go through the normal process.

Sangodele with a basket of tomatoes on a pilot farm in Jigawa.

and from some countries, don’t you think it will be a matter of time before this affects the movement of goods like commodities in the end?

Nigeria is self-sufficient for a lot of our products particularly the staple crops, so we don’t see a major issue there. We are deficit on soybeans so there may be a spike in soybeans somewhere in Q3, based on demand exceeding supply.

What of wheat, which is about the largest agrocommodity imported every year?

While we understand that the flights have been restricted, there is no indication that Shipping Lines have been restricted as of now.

Coming to your new offering, the ComX that was recently launched, what exactly is it about?

What the ComX platform does is bringing ease of trade in the commodities space. On one hand it allows fair, transparent transactions between processors and producers and allows price discovery because people can compete to buy and sell.

It means farmers can deliver www.businessday.ng

at our warehouses and other partner-accredited warehouses across the country and then these trades can be marched with buyers wherever they are and settlements happen seamlessly.

On the other hand, it also allows retail and institutional investors to come in and transact by investing against fixedincome products that are listed on the platform towards either financing the producer or the processor. It also allows them to invest against the asset-backed products so they are investing against the products and as the prices change they gain from capital appreciation of the underlying products.

If we are able to mainstream ComX as the core commodities trading platform for the country, we will be able to plan and understand the demandand-supply dynamics. We will be able to have fixed prices for our food products and export products. Then we will be able to plan accordingly as a country.

Can you break down how this could work?

The asset-backed commercial paper allows issuers that are agricultural companies such as processors that may not meet

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standard commercial paper issue to be able to still issue Triple A-plus commercial papers.

This is because through ComX, when they issue the instrument it is backed by the warehouse receipt representing what they are purchasing. This gives the issue a higher rating and through our warehouse receipt system they are able to protect the integrity of the underlying assets that will give the investors confidence.

We think it is investors that can drive financing for agriculture and create agricultural instruments that will meet pension fund investment grade.

What would a typical example look like?

Let us say a rice company in Ogun state, for instance, wants to buy rice of a thousand tons.

Now, they need 1 billion naira to buy that one thousand tons.

Remember, the Rice Mill, most of the time when they buy these products, they are not going to use it immediately. It is about nine months before they use it but they want to buy it when the prices are best and to assure that they are secured to produce for the year.

They would then get this

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One key thing here, you mentioned the warehouse receipts a lot, with the warehouse receipts bill yet to become law, is there any impact?

Even though it was passed by the last assembly, it was rejected by the presidency on the grounds that there shouldn’t be a need for a new regulator. The investment and securities act already assigns the regulatory power for warehouse receipts to the Security and Exchange Commission. This was also mentioned at the international conference for commodities exchange, where the Securities and Exchange Commission said they are working on a draft policy document that would regulate the operations of warehouse receipt system in the country.

If you look at South Africa which has the most developed commodity exchanged system in the continent, it actually does not have a warehouse receipt law. What is of importance is the existence of a contract law that covers transactions in the first place and secondly, having a regulator that regulates how actors in the market play and who has a right to play. So we actually do have more than enough protection.

Can individuals trade?

You could go on ComX today and you could buy Maize or Soya Bean on the spot market.

When you buy those products you buy it at a price. The prices change daily based on demand and supply. So, in three months time, you sell that product.

When you sell it, you then make or lose money based on the price changes. That works exactly like the stock market.

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

ManagementDigest

How insider CEOs succeed Andrew P. Chastain and Michael D. Watkins ADVICE FROM THOSE WHO’VE DONE IT. hen an organization taps one of its current executives to be its new CEO, the transition might seem straightforward.

The promotion is often the culmination of years — maybe decades — of hard work. They know the organization, its history and its culture. You’d think, then, that they’d have an easier time adjusting to and excelling in the job than external hires would.

In reality, chief executives who have advanced from within face hurdles that are comparable in magnitude, albeit different in character, from those that externally hired leaders confront. Through our research and our experience working with newly promoted CEOs, we have identified insiders’ five key challenges: operating in the shadow of their own past; making early decisions that surprise and disappoint supporters; overseeing former peers; pacing change; and managing the outgoing CEO.

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FIVE CHALLENGES In 2018, a PwC study of CEO turnover at 2,500 of the world’s largest companies found, 83% of successions involved internal candidates. The implication: While external hires tend to get more attention, most companies still typically promote CEOs from within. Internal executives are known commodities, theoretically carrying less risk. Yet because they’re “safe bets,” the specific challenges associated with their ascension can be overlooked.

— OPERATING IN THE SHADOW OF THEIR PAST: One assumed advantage internally promoted CEOs have is that people in the organization know them. They come with established track records, relationships, and leadership and operating styles. But that can mean that employees, direct reports and board members have built-in expectations of them. To head off assumptions, internally appointed CEOs need to adopt different attitudes toward key

business drivers and managing risk than they had in their previous roles.

— MAKING TOUGH CALLS THAT DISAPPOINT SUPPORTERS: Once in office, promotees quickly realize they will have to make decisions and trade-offs that displease some of the people who helped them advance.

Situations can be particularly tricky when new CEOs let down or are at odds with allies who backed them for the role and expected to benefit from their promotion. But CEOs can’t represent a narrow set of interests or favor friends and must avoid any perceptions that they do. Wise new CEOs set up in-depth, objective business-review processes and engage with people who can give them honest, thoughtful assessments of the organization, warts and all.

— LEADING FORMER PEERS AND BEING LESS ACCESSIBLE TO FORMER REPORTS: In nearly all cases, CEOs who rose from within have to lead people who were formerly their equals (and on rare occasions, their superiors). The upside of that is knowing team members’ styles and capabilities well. In an ideal situation, everyone might also be fully supportive of the promotion.

But it’s not always so easy.

New leaders might be confronted with would-be competitors who lost out on the top job or executives with whom they’ve clashed in the

past. If you’ve been promoted to CEO, you must take this a step further, rapidly assessing all direct reports and other key stakeholders and beginning to build “your” team. This means “reenlisting” the people you really want to keep through early, direct conversations and figuring out as quickly as possible if there are some with whom you can’t work.

— ESTABLISHING THE RIGHT PACE OF CHANGE: CEOs appointed from within often have a long list of things they want to do now that they (finally!) are in charge. They’ve usually had years to learn all about the organization, examine its flaws and make mental notes about what they would do differently if given the chance. These leaders want to attack issues and plant a flag early in their tenure. However, it’s important to think about priorities and timing before acting on pent-up desires.

Why? Because the business might not be ready for the level of change the new CEO wants to drive. This is especially true if the board and the executive team think the company is in a “sustaining success” situation or in need of only minor realignment — the most likely scenarios when an insider is elevated to the top job. There also is the risk of change fatigue (and failure) if a CEO tries to do too much at once.

— MANAGING THE DEPARTURE OF THE OUTGOING CEO: When the previous

chief executive is leaving on good terms, as often happens when an insider replaces him or her, there are benefits: The transition can be carefully planned and executed with no discontinuity or confusion. But any transfer of power presents challenges, especially if there is overlap between the outgoing and incoming leaders.

Insiders who are named CEO have to devote significant effort to ensuring that their predecessors’ exits are as clear-cut and smooth as possible — especially if the outgoing leader expresses any ambivalence about the transition or is struggling to let go.

Otherwise, people will be uncertain about who’s in charge, which undercuts what should be a celebration of the old CEO’s accomplishments and the rapid consolidation of the new CEO’s leadership.

HOW THE ORGANIZATION CAN HELP The primary responsibility for making a successful transition rests with the new CEO, of course. But the organization can and should do a lot to provide support. As happens when most executive posts are filled, external hires tend to get much more onboarding than internal ones.

Far too often, insider CEOs are left to sink or swim in their new roles, regardless of how ready they are or the size of the leap they’re making. Externally hired CEOs, in contrast, usually get a lot of assistance,

including briefing books, detailed transition plans and supporting transition teams.

There’s no reason why chief executives promoted from within shouldn’t get the same opportunity to succeed and to accelerate their ability to quickly create value.

The board, the senior management team and top executives in human resources and communications all have important roles to play. The board should offer coaching or counseling. Members of the leadership team need to understand the challenges and the stress facing the new CEO and, where possible, offer both professional and personal support. HR and communications executives can help internally promoted CEOs “reintroduce” themselves to their organizations and cement their stature at the top of the hierarchy.

THE SUCCESS OF internal CEO transitions cannot be taken for granted. The sooner a newly promoted chief executive appreciates the challenges involved — and, with organizational support, develops a plan to overcome them — the sooner he or she can get on with the business of leading.

Andrew P. Chastain is the president and CEO of the executive search firm WittKieffer. Michael D. Watkins is a cofounder of Genesis Advisers, a professor at IMD Business School and the author of “The First 90 Days” and “Master Your Next Move.”

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS Coronavirus tailwind drives gain in these tech stocks as firms adopt remote working

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COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

download more than doubled this year, and recent gains coming on signs of higher usage.

Last week, Kelly Steckelberg, Zoom’s chief financial officer said it is has bolstered its network capacity in order to manage unprecedented demand. The surge comes as more and more people work from home or use the videoconferencing software to keep in touch rather than meet in person.

Zoom went public on April 18 2019. Since, it has skyrocketed from its $36 initial offering price to $146 on Wednesday.

A n o t h e r s t o c k t hat seems to be on a steroid is Slack technology, a collaborative communications software company which has reported a massive surge in downloads and paid subscription.

The share has gained 17.17percent since the beginning of the year. Shares of the company, however plummeted as much as

OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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s the global markets continue to grapple with the effect of deadly coronavirus, investor appetite is shifting towards stocks of companies that are perceived to benefit from the growing number of people around the world working from home and social distancing.

Shares of Zoom Communications, a video conferencing company gained 7.19percent on Wednesday as investors continued to bet that the teleconferencing company would be one of the rare winners from the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, its shares ballooned 22%percent, while, trading almost twice its daily average volume, in their biggest one-day percentage gain since June 2019.

The stock is up more than 100percent since the beginning of the year, with

20percent on Friday, its biggest intraday loss and lowest level since the company’s June 2019 trading debut following a lower than expected full-year forecast.

Microsoft which has seen soaring use of its Teams software, which competes with Slack. Shares gained 9percent on Tuesday, although it has shed 6.09percent year to date.

According to Microsoft, Teams has surpassed 44 million daily active users, more than double the 20 million it reported in November 2019, with users generating over 900 million meeting and calling minutes on Teams each day this week. The jump in users comes as Microsoft and Slack continue to battle for market share in the office collaboration market Undoubtedly, the recent surge in usage is the result of the spread of coronavirus, as millions of people have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

AVIATION

Airlines to see deeper revenue hit from COVID-19 – IATA IFEOMA OKEKE

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he International Air Transport Association (IATA) updated its analysis of the revenue impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global air transport industry.

Owing to the severity of travel restrictions and the expected global recession, IATA now estimates that industry passenger revenues could plummet $252 billion or 44 percent below 2019’s figure. This is in a scenario in which severe travel restrictions last for up to three months, followed by a gradual economic recovery later this year.

IATA’s previous analysis of up to a $113 billion revenue loss was made on 5 March 2020, before the countries around the

world introduced sweeping travel restrictions that largely eliminated the international air travel market.

“The airline industry faces its gravest crisis.

Within a matter of a few weeks, our previous worst case scenario is looking

better than our latest estimates. But without immediate government relief measures, there will not be an industry left standing.

Airlines need $200 billion in liquidity support simply to make it through. Some governments have already stepped forward, but many

L-R: Allwell Umunnaechilla, head, operation, Lagos Commodities and Futures Exchange, (LCFE); Rotimi Solomon Omowale, chief financial officer; Akin Akeredolu-Ale, managing director; Fatima Lawal, company secretary; Rasheed Yusuf, director, and Samuel Onukwue, director, at the breakfast meeting organized By LCFE to introduce the company to senior stockbrokers, in Lagos www.businessday.ng

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@Businessdayng

more need to follow suit,” IATA’s Director General and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac said.

Slower recovery The latest analysis envisions that under this scenario, severe restrictions on travel are lifted after 3 months. The recovery in travel demand later this year is weakened by the impact of global recession on jobs and confidence.

Full year passenger demand (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) declines 38 percent compared to 2019.

Industry capacity (available seat kilometer or ASKs) in domestic and international markets declines 65 percent during the second quarter ended 30 June compared to a year-ago period, but in this scenario recovers to a 10 percent decline in the fourth quarter.

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Thursday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

FINANCIAL SERVICES

ARRHENN in partnership with Chorus Call provides remote working support for businesses amid COVID-19 pandemic SEGUN ADAMS

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rrhenn Limited, a Nigerian-based Investor Relations Advisory firm, is partnering with global teleconferencing solutions company, Chorus Call to enable businesses adopt work-fromhome as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to shut down economic activities in Nigeria.

The partnership will allow businesses access industryleading technology through a host of audio, video and web conferencing solutions, Arrhenn Ltd said.

“These platforms are company branded and allow you to meet, work, learn, communicate and collaborate virtually,” said Abayomi Ogunjobi, Chief Executive Officer of Arrhenn Ltd. “We believe these tools are of great service in the current conditions, and broadly within the context of the future of work.”

Ogunjobi said the outbreak of the Coronavirus

pandemic is expected to have significant economic impact on businesses as the country implements policies aimed at curbing the spread of the disease through socialdistancing.

States across Nigeria as of Wednesday had begun implementing wider measures to limit public gathering including a directive for civil servants to work from home, while some private organizations have similarly shut down their operations temporarily.

Economists have warned that businesses could be forced to lay-off some of their workforce in the face of a significant slowdown in revenue resulting from the disruption to their activities.

According to Ogunjobi, companies can however minimize loss and even increase their productivity by taking advantage of digital technology to ensure that business activities continue without putting the lives of their employees at risk.

“We can keep on engaging with each other, working

for a better tomorrow whilst staying healthy and strong,” he said.

Arrhenn Ltd provides conferencing solutions for Annual General Meetings, All Parties Meetings, Sales meetings, Investor calls, Press briefings, Training and education, Telemedicine, Webcasts and Webinars, among other services.

The company has core expertise in Investor Relations, Stakeholder Engagement and Training with over thirty (30) years combined specialized experience in the financial services industry as a part of the Prosperis Holdings Group Ltd. Clients of Arrhenn Ltd include Quoted Companies and Private Companies.

Chorus Call, on the other hand, provides premium international Audio Conferencing, Video Conferencing, Audio & Video Media Streaming, and Collaboration Tools (including iPresent and Data Presenter).

Arrhenn Ltd is in partnership with the South African business of Chorus Call, which is headquartered is the United States.

L-R: Magnus Nnoka, president of Risk Management Association of Nigeria and Mobola Faloye, executive director/chief risk officer, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, at a a courtesy visit by RIMAN executive council to Standard Chartered Bank’s head office in Lagos recently

L-R: Kelechi Nwaobi, group head, transaction and corporate solutions, corporate and investment, Starling Bank; Fola Tinubu, managing director, Primero Transport Service Ltd; Mark Redguard, brand and marketing consultant, Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Ganapathi Rao, technical manager, Infinity Group, and Segun Anako, general manager, Primero Transport Service Lt, at the Primero Transport Service Ltd Demonstration Of Buses Disinfection, In Lagos.

COMPANY RELEASE

Ausso Leadership Academy empowers entrepreneurs MODESTUS ANAESORONYE

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ustin Okere, founder and entrepreneur-in-residence, the Ausso Leadership Academy (ALA), has charged entrepreneurs and business professionals to ensure that their business visions are driven and sustained by the “3 powers of success” (3Ws).

These, he said are; Way power (speaking to Aptitude), Will power (speaking to Attitude) and Waitpower (speaking to patience).

He made this known while speaking with delegates of the Global Shapers Community, Lagos Hub (an initiative of the World Economic Forum) at a Meet the Leader (MLT) Session hosted at the ALA Entrepreneurs’ hub in Lagos.

According to him, “The 3Ws are the secrets that will keep every entrepreneur going”. He added that “These principles that I have called the 3Ws have been my guiding mantra through my over 25 years of running one of Africa’s largest technology companies, CWG Plc.” He explained the 3Ws thus: “These three powers include the Way power,

which is the competence you possess to run your business. As a business leader you must constantly learn, unlearn and re-learn. This is how you will glean the critical knowledge you need to run the enterprise”.

“Many people typically start a business, create solutions then go about looking for the problems. And when people don’t find buyers, they become disappointed.

You first ought to be finding out peoples’ problems and pain points and then proceed to create solutions that ameliorate the pain.

Following from there, you go and acquire the appropriate competences to solve these problems.”

The Will power, according to Okere is “the resolve to keep going when everyone is saying you should give up.

Without commitment you will not start, and without consistency you will not complete”.

“Sometimes people close to you will advise you to dump your venture and seek a proper job. But, what should keep you going at such times is your passion. It is the passion of a footballer that makes him complain when he is benched, despite the fact that he will still www.businessday.ng

receive his pay at the end of the day. Your will power makes you go the extra mile, while your passion makes you persist in your venture while waiting for pay day.”

He explained.

“Most businesses fail because the proprietors abandon them as soon as they face challenges, because it is not yielding as much as they want or quickly enough.

After you have put so much effort into your business, you need to patiently wait for the benefits that will accrue from it.”

This is the essence of the third power; the Wait power, which takes you eventually to the light at the end of a dark tunnel.” He concluded.

Speaking on how entrepreneurs and business professionals can leverage mentoring and learning to improve their capacity to maximize results, Okere explored the opportunities that the ALA affords.

According to him, he had set up the Ausso Leadership Academy to provide an opportunity for young entrepreneurs and business leaders to get the opportunity to learn from Champions who have walked the path ahead and can point out the pitfalls to avoid.

L-R: Seyi Olusore (a.k.a Shedams), fitness instructor; Abigeal Itunu Oluwasegun, winner, Three Crowns Mum of the Year 2019; Femi, Ogunsanwo, CEO, Blueprint360, and Omolara Banjoko, marketing manager, Three Crowns during the ongoing Three Crowns fitness challenge in Lagos.

L-R Stephen Shofu, marketing communications manager, Rosabon Financial Services; Chidinma Ezeani, CEO, Classy Glam Make-up; Taiwo Temitope, CEO, Naomi Apparels Fashion; Nkechi Njoku, CEO, Josypat Affairs, and Vivian Chiokwa, lead, financial product development, Rosabon Financial Services during the presentation of the Rosabon One Million naira Grant cheque to MamaMoni Empowerment Foundation in Lagos.

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

19

cityfile LAWMA drive scavengers from landfills to stop spread of Coronavirus JOSHUA BASSEY agos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has dislodged scavengers from landfills across the state as a precautionary measure against further spread of Corona virus and other dangerous diseases.

The enforcement unit of the agency mobilised to the dumpsites on Wednesday and chased away the scavengers who prowl the sites for valuable items.

Chief operating officer of LAWMA, Ibrahim Odumboni said the action was necessitated by the need to comply with the state government’s directive that all necessary steps be taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and other dangerous diseases in the state.

He noted that the prevailing situation required that no opportunity be created for the virus to spread further through any outlet.

“This action is a measure to prevent any possible hazard in Lagos.

We know that there are a couple of scavengers on the landfills and the nature of their work pre-disposes them to danger, and we do not want a situation where a problem breaks out and go round the city. It is a pro-active step to prevent any untoward development”.

Odumboni further noted that LAWMA will work round the clock to ensure clean homes and environment, which are essential to curbing the further spread of the virus.

“Our PSP operators will be operating throughout the sit-athome period, to ensure that waste is promptly evacuated and properly disposed. I urge everyone to properly sort their waste and containerize it for easy evacuation and disposal by assigned PSP operators”, he added.

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Scene of an accident at Costain Road in Lagos on Wednesday.

Lagos raises alarm over illegal activities along waterfront … mandates team to begin enforcement JOSHUA BASSEY

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he Lagos State government has decried an upsurge in illegal activities hampering development of infrastructure along the waterfront in Lagos.

Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Ahmed Kabiru Abdullahi, who made the observation, said the

Explosion: Lagos commends donors, seeks more support for victims JOSHUA BASSEY

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he Lagos State government has commended individuals and organisations that have so far donated to support victims of the Abule-Ado-Soba explosion. No fewer than 20 people died and property worth billions of naira were destroyed in the March 15 disaster.

The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had during a visit to the explosion site to assess the extent of carnage, set up a N2 billion emergency relief fund to ameliorate the pains of the victims. The governor also an immediate release of N250 million to support the relief fund and called on public spirited individuals and organisations to donate.

The Dangote Group and Zenith Bank have donated N100 mil-

lion each to the fund. The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) also announced N200 million donation.

The fact-finding committee constituted by Governor Sanwo-Olu to determine the cause of the explosion and recommend ways to prevent a re-occurrence is expected to submit its findings soon.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State government has solicited further support from wealthy and wellmeaning individuals as well as private and public institutions to rebuild the community in view of the huge financial resources required.

The Abule-Ado emergency relief fund accounts are domiciled in three banks: Polaris Bank – 4030017510; Zenith Bank – 1017184516; and Guaranty Trust Bank – 0568615688. www.businessday.ng

government was out to stop such illegal activities He said there was an illegal land reclamation which commenced without necessary government approvals behind NICON Estate, Lekki and was being rushed due to the low activity period caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This development, which is blocking a drainage canal, commenced without observing the

minimum setback and is also obstructing the right of way of an existing road, thereby preventing future development of the road infrastructure,” he said.

While noting that the illegal work has been issued a ‘stop work order’, Abdullahi stated that the compliance team of the ministry had since been mandated to monitor all activities the state waterfront, enforce and apply when necessary, ap-

propriate sanctions according to the laws guiding the state waterfront infrastructure development.

The commissioner urged all stakeholders to maintain compliance, adding that enforcement efforts would be sustained against all odds.

“There will be life after Covid-19 and as such we will not allow the destruction of our environment and infrastructure”.

FCTA installs 300-bed Coronavirus isolation centre James Kwen, Abuja

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he Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has installed a 300-bed Coronavirus isolation and treatment centre in Abuja.

Minister of the FCT, Muhammad Bello while inspecting the five-storey building facility on Wednesday, said it would help in stabilising persons infected by the deadly virus.

The building, located at the Idu area of the FCT is a new training facility that can be modified to suit the purpose of treatment and isolation as required by the health authorities.

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Bello said the building was an ideal isolation and treatment facility as it has a lot of space with constant power and adequate water supply.

Stating that the relevant health authorities would further inspect the facility to determine its suitability, he said: “I leave it now for the officials of the federal ministry of health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and of course our public health officials.

“Jointly, they will decide what needs to be done here and we have a lot of commitment from private sector organisations who are willing to support the efforts to fight this disease. @Businessdayng

Once they all agree, I’m sure that within a very short period of time, this place can be made functional”.

Acting secretary, FCTA Health and Human Services Secretariat, Muhammed Kawu described the facility as being adequate.

FCTA director of public health, Josephine Okechukwu said the structure was ideal and would serve the purpose of a treatment centre.

“This is a perfect place that we have been looking for and it’s quite good. It’s a new structure with available rooms that we can fix up for now as a holding centre or a treatment centre if need be”.

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Friday 27 March 2020

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Is Nigeria’s payment system ready for a coronavirus lockdown?

FRANK ELEANYA

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hile the possibility of a lockdown is becoming a closer reality as the number of coronavirus cases rise in Nigeria but for many Nigerians who may have to depend on the electronic payment channels to get basic necessities, there are no guarantees the infrastructure is going to run as efficiently when more people are forced to use it instead of cash.

On Wednesday the country had confirmed 46 cases of the pandemic coronavirus and many more are still expected as contact tracing continues. With the rise in the number of cases, states like Lagos which accounts for the most cases with 25 confirmed have gone as far as shutting down non-essential markets, public gatherings, and sending its workers home. Many believe the next step is a lockdown.

Lockdown is an emergency protocol that requires citizens of a country to stay at home except for essential purposes. The lockdown order by the South African government, the first of any African country, on Monday gave a glimpse of what to expect.

According to the 21 days order, only grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, and other essential industries will be allowed to remain open.

“Banks cannot shut down, it will be total chaos for families,” said Temi Osunderin, a Telecom expert.

Although banks are not

expected to be part of a lockdown, the restriction of movement would also mean that the various modes of transport become scarce, unlike a normal day. Hence, banks are likely to run skeletal services pushing more customers to use their digital banking services.

Chuba Ezekwesili, cofounder and partner at Future Africa, said what will determine efficiency is the ability for the banks or financial institutions like NIBSS or Interswitch to operate and respond to issues while they run a skeletal system during this period of remote work. It might mean slower responses as these institutions adjust their system towards a different way of working.

“However, even in the

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absence of the pandemic, the payment system is rather notorious for experiencing issues, so these issues will still be experienced by those who decide to make payments online in the coming months,” Ezekwesili said.

In Lagos, queues are starting to grow longer than usual at ATMs. There are less than 18,000 (precisely 17,518) ATMs across the country servicing over 70 million people with active bank accounts according to NIBSS. In the coming days, these machines will be put to a severe test by more people hoping to withdraw money for necessities.

Early pressure is already causing some machines to breakdown. Dennice Emejiaka, a legal practitioner, told BusinessDay she had to forgo

using ATMs on Tuesday because queues on several terminals she visited stretched to the roads. There is also the danger of contracting the virus from touching ATM surfaces or being in crowded places.

Cash remains the king of payment and transactions in Nigeria as more than 70 percent of people still depend on it to get around.

But digital payment adoption has been on the increase in recent times fuelled by increased mobile phone penetration. In January, electronic transactions reached N10.89 trillion nationwide representing a rise of 29 percent compared to N8.41 trillion recorded in January 2019, according to data from Nigeria Interbank Settlement System

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(NIBSS).

The figure covers transactions carried out on Point of Sale terminals, mobile interbank transfers, NIBSS’ Instant Payments (NIP), e-bill payments and central pay across the country.

Adedeji Olowe, CEO of Trium Networks, said the coronavirus presents an opportunity for Nigeria to deepen electronic payment.

Some science reports identify cash as one of the vectors of the virus. Coronavirus may be able to survive on notes or improperly cleaned ATM and POS surfaces.

While Olowe believes that the payment systems are prepared for the lockdown, he says a long time lockdown could be a problem.

“Where we could get into

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trouble if this continues for a long time that the national diesel supplies get disrupted, Cell sites could go down and we won’t have access to phones or the internet; Bank networks would go down and ATMs won’t work,” he said.

Despite its promise, Nigeria’s payment system is yet to get the complete buy-in of merchants. The many failures in transactions, delay in reconciling transactions and the various levels of fees it attracts.

Olowe says this is when the CBN needs lead and also be communicating daily to assure everyone that the payments infrastructure would work irrespective of what happens.

“We need that assurance,” he said.

At the moment the assurance has come from telecom operators who own the internet that the payment systems are going to rely on. MTN and 9Mobile had in a statement BusinessDay received pledged that they would ensure that services are not interrupted throughout the period of the coronavirus crisis.

Ezekwesili said there is a silver lining for payment companies during the period.

“While it’s clear that people who are home will have to pay with cards and mobile payments, which might increase pressure, this might be offset by a number of businesses who will have to either close or who have experienced a reduced number of customers, example airlines, restaurants, cinemas, bars, clubs, etc. this will reduce pressure on the system.”

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Health Business&Life Coronavirus: Nigeria’s updates on what States are doing to contain spread

Oyo plans 100-bed spaces in five isolation centres

n this article, we highlight some of the coronavirus-related news from the week of March 23–27, 2020.

To date, Nigeria is now having evidence of the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) and its recording new cases and records keep counting.

In this short feature, we provide a snapshot with brief updates from some states on how they are taking the proactive measure in other to contain spread and increase awareness of the virus.

Kwara strengthening measures, equips isolation centre

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

...as ex-finance commissioner sensitises, distribute sanitisers at five markets

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overnor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State has hinted that more sweeping measures to curtail the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state and nationwide have been taken.

He says Kwara state currently has no confirmed case of the virus but the government has set up various preventive and safety mechanisms, including establishing and equipping an isolation centre, to tackle the virus as Nigeria records more confirmed cases in at least four states and the capital city Abuja.

Abdulrazaq, who stated this recently while speaking with journalists shortly after the inspection of Kwara State Infectious Disease Centre at Sobi Specialist Hospital, Alagbado, Ilorin, posits that COVID-19 may be treated as a national security issue which re-

quires the support and understanding of every citizen to stamp out.

According to Abdulrazaq, the newly created isolation centre would be extended in the coming weeks to accommodate around 100 patients at a go while Kwara works with Abuja on the ongoing efforts to establish zonal test centres with the capacity to screen blood samples for COVID-19.

He, however, commended the Commissioner for Health, Raji Razaq and his team for the efforts to prepare Kwara for any outbreak, saying the state is also strengthening the capacity of its personnel to deal with the emergency.

“Work is going on to extend this (isolation) centre.

We are looking at extending it to accommodate about 100 patients and that should be ready in the next couple of weeks.

“At the last National Economic Council meeting in Abuja, state governors proposed that each state should have one (laboratory to test samples of patients for any outbreak of diseases).

“But there are challenges with the resources. So first of

Health workers want urgent steps taken to prevent in Akwa-Ibom ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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ealth personnel in A kw a I b o m h av e called on the state government to take urgent steps including a total lockdown of the state to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19.

They are advocating the closure of entertainment and relaxation spots, as well as night clubs and bars.In a communiqué at end of the meeting of the State Healthcare Professionals, comprising the Nigerian Medical Association, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria they called on the State Government to immediately set up surveillance screening posts at all points of entry into Akwa Ibom State with isolation

centres fully equipped.

The meeting had in attendance, the leadership of the professional associations, chaired by the NMA Chairman, Nsikak Nyoyoko with Akwaowoh Akpabio of PSN, Comrade Patrick Odu, NANNM and Emilia Eliezer AMLSN, as CoChairs.

The medical experts expressed “shock that while passengers traveling through the Victor Attah International Airport are being subjected to screening, no screening of any kind is being conducted at our land and sea borders with Cross River State, Rivers State, Abia State, Cameroun and Equitorial Guinea where the majority of travelers pass into Akwa Ibom State.”

It advised that Civil Servants from Salary Grade Level 12 and below should be directed to stay at home except for those on essential duties. www.businessday.ng

all, let’s look at having zonal centres before state centres.

It is not just (about) doing an ordinary blood test. Yes, you can have the equipment but the reagents are not easy to come by.

“They are very expensive.

So, we are waiting for the Federal Ministry of Health to see what they can accommodate. Right now we send blood samples to Lagos.

“We are hoping that capacity will be built by the federal government so that we can first have zonal centres before we have state centres which will surely come,” the governor said.

Speaking further, Abdulrazaq promised that “We will be announcing further measures this week in containing the spread of the virus. We also expect the federal government to come up with further measures. This may entail further restrictions on the movement of people in the interest of public health and security.

It is a national security situation now which everybody should understand.

We will take more measures next week to make sure our people sit at home. The civil servants will sit at home;

their children will be at home. Please take care of your kids; don’t roam about.

It is also the time to clean your environment and ensure that your community is clean.”

The Governor assured the civil servants of prompt payment of salaries despite the work-from-home directive, as he thanks the traditional and religious leaders for their cooperation so far in the campaign to fight the virus.

“At present, we have no cases in Kwara. So far so good, let us keep on praying (and acting right). I will also like to use this opportunity to thank the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, for calling the (Muslim community) together and suspending Jum’ah prayers in Kwara State.

So, we thank His royal highness for being proactive. We also thank the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for taking similar measures. We are all in this together. Everyone should please standby for further directives from the government,” Abdulrazaq added.

Raji Razaq, state Health Commissioner and the Director of Public Health Oluwatosin Fakayode had earlier taken the Governor round the newly equipped a facility designated to handle infectious diseases in the state.

The ministry of health has built the capacity of some officials to handle any case of Coronavirus while simulation/drilling exercise would begin immediately for the health officials to be on high alert, according to Fakayode.

REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan.

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yo State government is planning to create hundred-bed spaces for isolation of coronavirus suspects in five special centres.

The five centres are located at University College Hospital Ibadan, second Division, Nigeria Army, Odogbo, Ibadan, Jericho Chest Hospital, Ibadan, Ladoke Akintoka Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho, and Maternity Centre, Olodo, Ibadan.

Governor Seyi Makinde who disclosed this during his inspection visit to one of the centres located at the Jericho Chest Hospital in Ibadan said the present administration remained committed to curtailing the spread of the virus in the state.

While saying the isolation centre at Jericho Chest Hospital has 10-bed spaces while University College Hospital, Ibadan and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) centres have fivebed spaces each, the governor said that the state would have over 100-bed spaces for isolation after putting necessary facilities in place at the Maternity Centre in Olodo, Ibadan.

Conducted around the hospital, Makinde noted said his administration had released funds for procurement of necessary facilities in all the centres.

Appealing to residents of the state to remain calm, he promised that his government was on top of the situation.

Taiwo Ladipupo, a medical doctor and member of the State Covid-19 Taskforce set up by the state government, revealed that the centres had necessary facilities for quarantine of suspected cases of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, former Oyo state commissioner for Finance and Budget Bimbo Adekanmbi, through his foundation, stormed Ibadan major markets to sensitize and distribute sanitizers to market men and women in the state capital.

The sensitization and distribution were done at Bus Stop Gate, Oje Orita Aperin, Amuloko, Bere, Agbeni, Ogunpa, Dugbe, Gbagi and Ojoo The initiative is one of the ways adopted to curb the spread of coronavirus in the state in order to prevent many lives from the deadly virus.

Akeem Ishola, coordinator of the initiative said the sensitization and distribution of the materials was a genuine concern for the health and total well being of the people.

According to him, Abimbola Adekanmbi will not relent in his effort to build a strong perspective on strengthening preventive measures and enhancing community and markets surveillance against all epidemic-prone diseases in the state”.

“There is no better time to conduct market sensitization with surveillance than a time like this; our people need education and prevention against the spread of coronavirus”.

Ishola said that we should start practicing alternative ways of greeting each other that do not involve handshakes and reduce unnecessary social and family gatherings.

“We should also be careful about the information we spread especially on social media since unverified information can lead to panic which might cause unwarranted stigmatization against health workers, people of a certain ethnicity or patients.

Ogun moves against rip-off offers free distribution of sanitisers, others RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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oing by the perceived rip-off and hoarding of clinical consumables used against the spread of Coronavirus such as hand gloves and sanitisers, face masks, among others, Ogun state government has produced hand sanitizers for free and massive distribution across the state.

Recall that Ogun State Executive Council being chaired by Governor Dapo Abiodun had on Monday rolled out further directives on containing the spread of COVID-19 which include restriction of movement and visits to State Government Secretariat, 20% daily attendance of workers of all cadres, 20 customers at once in banking premises, telecoms and similar service providers’ offices, supermarkets and gated markets,

among others.

The Ogun state government directives also include social spacing in public transports and prohibition of overloading among the operators of commercial cabs, bicycles, buses, and tricycles within then state, just as all Government offices, banks, financial houses, supermarkets must provide hand sanitizers, hand washing equipment and wipes at

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the entrance of their offices, ATM points and others.

But to guard against artificial scarcity and deliberate rip-off as being experienced by the residents of the state in the hands of manufacturers, distributors and marketers of clinical consumables, the Ogun state government has begun talks with investors and manufacturers of pharmaceutical and clinical consumables based in the @Businessdayng

state with a view to producing required clinical and pharmaceutical consumables at highly subsidized rates.

This move has been kickstarted by Ogun State Ministry of Health and Ogun State Hospitals Management Board by massively producing and distributing freely the hand sanitizers to residents of the state as part of measures and preparedness for containment of COVID-19 in the state and the country at large.

The Twitter handle of Ogun State Ministry of Health and State Hospitals Management Board @healthogun reads, ”As part of the Ogun State Government’s measures and preparedness for containment of #COVID-19 the Ministry of Health and Hospitals Management Board has produced “Not for Sale” Hand Sanitizers for massive distribution across the state.”

Friday 27 March 2020

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Health Business&Life Nigeria launches first National life science competition for secondary schools

Tips for women travellers (2) Executive Travel Health

ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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igeria schools are faced with numerous challenges including the lack of science role models and mentors, among others, the process of natural science education in comprehensive school is one of those not adequate for the present day and achievement of sciences.

In this bid, the first National Life Science Competition for Secondary Schools (NLSC) is been launched in Niger ia against the backdrop when many students particularly girls become discouraged to go into taking up career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) leading to severe reduction in the enrolment of students into life science.

The maiden NLSC in Nigeria is an initiative of Science Communication Hub Nigeria (SciComNigeria) and TReND in Africa, supported by the Physiological Society United Kingdom.

“With this initiative we hope to inspire and encourage young secondar y school students through stories and debates that will engender positive conversations about opportunities in the life sciences,’ said Mahmoud Bukar Maina, founder and director of SciComNigeria.

Maina said that inspiring and motivating Nigerian secondary school students will make them develop genuine interests in life science courses and take up

Adeniyi Bukola

R career paths in science.

“Moreover, through our network of scientists, we hope to provide mentorship to selected secondary school students in Nigeria who intend to take up career paths in the life sciences,” he added.

However, the NLSC initiative is focused on promoting the understanding of life science courses such as Physiology, Anatomy, Biochemistry, Biology, Botany, and Zoology, among secondary school students to inspire the next generation of scientists in Nigeria.

According to Maina, the competition has timelines between the months of March to July noting that within these timelines it entails the submission of essays of interested participants across schools in Nigeria shall submit a 300- 500 words easy describing their interest in any life science course and its importance to the society.

He added that the best ten essays will be selected and re-

viewed of application begins in April and selected students will be notified in the month of May. “Authors of the ten select winning essays will be invited to represent their respective schools in a National Life Science debate organized via an online platform. To apply, follow this link tiny.cc/z1fnlz. Deadline for submission of application: Friday, 10 April, 2020,” said Maina.

The founder explained that the debate will be open for all interested viewers across Nigeria and the audience will be invited to vote at the end of the debate.

“The first, second, and third positions would be selected by Science Communication Hub Nigeria, visit the school of the first prize recipient to organize an outreach activity aimed at inspiring the students about physiological sciences and present certificates to the winner.”

“The second and third position will also receive cash prizes, respectively,” he said.

Q-life Family Clinic

emember Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) HIV/Aids, is more transmissible from men to women than vice versa and other sexually transmitted disease (STD’s) , inclusive of the Zika Viruses can cause increased transmission of the virus. Remember, if not your partner, then abstinence is best.

Personal safety and security are very important, especially if travelling alone. Leave an itinerary of your trip with a responsible person contacting the person at pre arranged times and dates. Be careful in ostentatious display of jewellery, money, luggage and dress, to avoid the wrong type of attention. Be aware of your luggage and hand bags at all times. Do not leave them unattended or hanging on the back of chairs in restaurants, even in the so called safest places. If confronted by a potential physical attack, avoid getting into a dangerous situation and hand over your bag.

Don’t try to fight. If you are forced to strike, make sure it is a crippling blow that gives you a chance to escape.

You may join a women’s self defence course before travelling if you are worried of your ability to gauge dangerous situations.

Generally, don’t panic or show fear or let the person confronting you get the upper hand, try to gain psychological advantage throwing him/ her of balance that is compliance.

When choosing accommodation, look for safe areas, Avoid red light districts, Request a room near the lift or stairwell not on the ground floor.

Keep your money and valuables close by you at night. Inspect door locks and window fasteners and never

open your room door until you have properly identified the caller. Identify yourself on the phone only after the caller has identified himself or herself.

If you have inspected your room and you are not happy with it request a change or move to another hotel.

Listen to advice of the locals and fellow travellers. Try to develop a street sense and be alert at all times, and make sure you are not in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When in a confrontational situation, a woman is rarely a physical match for a man. Try as much as possible to always be with someone you know and trust.

A woman travelling alone will generate interest from locals and tourists alike. Dressing is important as codes differ from country to country. Tight and skimpy clothes are generally inappropriate in most countries outside Europe and North America. Clothing may have to be conservative, presentable, loose fitting and comfortable. Arms and legs may need to be covered especially in certain religious places and landmarks. Head scarfs may need to be worn. Try to be inconspicuous yet confident avoiding confrontational challenging situations by adopting an assertive, dismissive manner.

Small tips: - Pack light, avoid flirting if you did not set out to do so, wear a wedding ring if necessary, carry a can of mace if allowed. High heels except for business meetings and official social functions can be “Wahalla”. Always carry a mobile phone with your ICE (In case of emergency) numbers on it. Sanitisers, tissue paper, small hand bag and maps may be useful. Maids do steal from hotel rooms, so don’t carry anything valuable you do not need. Always have a functional fully roaming fully loaded mobile phone.

Remember the worldwide emergency number even if your phone has no credit is 112. It is free of charge and it works. Have a pleasant and safe trip.

Consultant Family Physician and Travel Medicine Physician Q –Life Family Clinic. qlifeadvisory@outlook.com.

Well-being foundation intensify awareness campaign against TB, Coronavirus GODSGIFT ONYEDINEFU

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s part of efforts to curb the spread of Tuberculosis and the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, Wellbeing foundation has intensified its awareness campaign on prevention and treatment through sensitisation programmes in FCT environs and with the launch of a new challenge tagged SafeSurfaceScience.

Well being Foundation Africa said proper Sensitization was key to effectively tackle the diseases. Otun Adewale, State Team led, Well-being, noted that TB is the world’s deadliest infections killer disease, adding that Nigeria Ranks 1st in Africa.

Otun, speaking, during a sensitization programme organised by the foundation

HBL Team

in collaboration with Divine Jubilation College Of Health and Technology, Masaka Nasarawa State for enlightenment campaign on prevention and treatment of Tuberculosis, stressed the need for all to get involved in the fight against TB in Nigeria.

On preventive measures against Coronavirus, Otun noted that not many people

actually know how to wash hands properly, so it became necessary to teach students how to wash their hands using clean water and soap.

Kemi Oshola, the founder of the College, expressed her joy with the initiative by Wellbeing Foundation Africa, she promised to implement all that was said in the day to day running of the Collage so as to prevent the

spread of TB. The highlight of the event is the practical illustration of preventive measure using the handwashing method. Students were thought on ways of contracting TB and the risk factors which includes; weak immune system, overcrowding, IDP camps and Hotels.

Meanwhile, Founder, Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Toyin Saraki launched the #SafeSurfaceScience Challenge with Professor Wendy Graham and a team of scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The move, launched to coincide with World Water Day, comes as part of the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and focuses on the importance of cleaning surfaces, including mobile phones, in addition to

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

cleaning hands.

“Many germs are spread by our hands. We have known this for centuries. We have also known that surfaces that are touched by many people, like door handles, taps or taxi seats, can also harbour germs, sometimes for days.

“In the fight against coronavirus, we must put this knowledge to good use and take action keep hands and surfaces clean and safe. And if we do this for our families and community, we will also reduce the spread of other germs which make us sick,” Saraki said.

She urged Nigerians to join the #SafeSurfaceScience Challenge and post-challenge videos on social media.

“Together we can improve hygiene and help to beat COVID-19,” she said.

I David Ogar, Graphics

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

LEADINGWOMAN

Covid-19, the women speak Kemi Ajumobi

Oby Ezekwesili Senior Economic Advisor, Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative, Open Society Foundation

Dr. Maymunah Kadiri

Consultant Neuro-Psychiatrist

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ow that the children are at home, create a routine that will work and is sustainable. Be flexible to amend this as things and time change. Create an enabling school-like environment for them. Have school time, play time, siesta, TV time and so on. Don’t forget, it’s still a pandemic period of Covid 19, teach the basic preventive measures. You cannot take them to malls, movies, sleep overs. Practice social distancing, it’s key. If you have a community and you want me to help educate your tribe on ways to create a healthy home climate in difficult times , manage anxiety , stress and panic among others online, feel free to get across to me, let us help one another because together, we are stronger.

Dr Sylvia Cole Consultant Anaesthetist/ Intensive care Physician

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or the virus, everyone does not have to have the severe case, so some people have a mild case and get better while some people get the severe case.

The only way we are going to know if they have the virus at all is if we test them for the virus. There are test kits out there. The test kits are available to the public hospitals but not available in the private sector. I am calling out to wealthy Nigerians to support the private sector to help combat such epidemics when they occur and to be ready before they occur.

The Doctors and nurses in the front line are vulnerable.

Personally, as a private sector doctor, I am concerned about the health givers in this sector. Lagos state has stood up and is doing what they can for the public sector so the public sector is fine but what about the private sector? Truth is, in Nigeria, private people do not donate to health ventures enough. There are people who need to help support and donate to the private health sector because that is the way the private sector can deal with this issue and others.

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e are in this together. We shall triumph over #CoronaVirusInNigeria #CoronavirusPandemic together. Let’s all continue to #TakeResponsibility as demanded by @NCDCgov @Fmohnigeria @ followlasg and other experts. Let’s also keep the Faith all the way. We’ll win. We shall win. I urge all who have had contact with anyone tested Positive to #CoronaVirusNigeria to do right and refuse to become #EliteDistributors of this deadly pandemic. Please take the self-isolation instruction of @NCDCgov today and reach out to them as necessary. A vital piece of data from @NCDCgov is that as of now, 82% of our #COVID19NIGERIA cases are either ‘imported’ or contacts of the imported cases.

They “are escalating testing but are expertly guided by this current epidemiology.” Please #TakeResponsibility, maintain distance.

NDIDI NWUNELI Co-Founder of Sahel Consulting

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INI AMIMBOLA CEO/Lead Consultant – ThistlePraxis Consulting

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e are all concerned about corona virus and the schools have sent messages to pick children and people are panic buying but we need to calm down. This message is really about our children.

The children will be home, do know that they are scared and confused as you are, anxiety level for the children will increase as they stay more at home. They may not necessarily understand what it is but try as much as possible to explain it to them, let them understand that you are there for them and teach them the basic things to know about hygiene. If you still have to go out and come in, please pay attention to your children, this is the time abuse increases and most importantly, talk to your domestic staff because most of them do not really understand, so take time to explain to them what it means particularly if you have domestic staff that are not living with you. www.businessday.ng

KATE HENSHAW Veteran Nollywood Actress

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or all of you who say you never have time for exercise, isolation is here so there is no excuse. Try and stay safe, wash your hands, sanitize, talk to your staff, spare a thought for people in your neighbourhood who cannot afford what you can, generally let’s be human to each other. As you can see, the world is not such a big place anymore. The things that connect us are very glaring. We are fighting a common enemy and it is only when we do it together that we can win. Let’s not be selfish, stay committed to you, be true to yourself and be happy. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

ith the global spread of the COVID-19, and gradual lock downs in cities and countries across Africa, I have new fears – that starvation and hunger may kill more people than the virus.

These fears are hinged on the realization that it is planting season in most parts of the continent, and yet farmers are being asked to sit at home, the movement of seasonal workers is restricted, research institutes that provide seeds, fertilizer blending companies and agrodealers, processors and markets are all being shut down.

Our regional and national borders are closed, and trading is being restricted. These realities, if pro-longed and not urgently addressed, will lead to short term consequences of food shortages, price hikes, and medium to long term consequences of under-nutrition, mass starvation and eventually death, especially among our most vulnerable populations.

As an eternal optimist, I am hopeful that as a people we will survive the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging with some critical lessons and a more resilient, united, and efficient food ecosystem. Now is the time for governments, stakeholders in the food ecosystem and citizens to act! Every minute counts! @Businessdayng

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism launches $2.2 m project in

Production of bitumen in Ondo to commence before close of 2020 Femi Akarakiri 26

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Coronavirus, the economy and issue of diversification 28

Ugly side of exploitation of bitumen, other solid minerals

Nigeria has an estimated 38 billion barrels of extra-heavy oil and bitumen reserves. It is the sixth largest deposit in the world. Though this volume is significant, it pales behind Canada’s 2.4 trillion barrels and Venezuela’s 2.1 trillion barrels who occupy the first and second positions. Others in the league of top 10 world countries with bitumen and extra heavy oil reserves include Kazakhstan( at number 3 position), Russia(4), USA(5), Madagascar(7), UK(8),China(9), and Azerbaijan(10). Geologists and engineers predict that Nigeria would use similar methods to extract bitumen as Canada, because he reserves are geologically similar. Bitumen exploration is sweet business but it has an ugly side going by Nigeria’s experience with oil and gas exploration. Should Nigeria go for it in spite of its threatening flip side? SIAKA MOMOH digs into the archives to find out and reports. This issue is open to debate and your reactions are welcome for publication.

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isting land uses would be threatened.”

he sweet side of bitumen exploitation in Nigeria which is billed to take off, all things being equal (that is when you take the life and economy threatening issue of Coronavirus into consideration) was passionately expressed by Femi Akarakiri, Ondo State Senior Special Adviser for Energy and Mineral Resources to the Ondo State Governor in an interview with this writer in Lekki Lagos. The ugly side of this solid mineral resource and others in Nigeria that are crying for full exploitation need to be looked at critically.

Environmental impacts According to a paper titled ‘Bitumen in Nigeria - Weighing the True Costs of Extraction’ authored and illustrated

by Christina Milos for Heinrich Böll Foundation, though the social and environmental impacts of bitumen exploitation are anticipated to be serious and widespread, there is limited public understanding of what exactly Nigerians can expect during and after development. She argues the development of Nigeria’s bitumen poses two important questions for resource governance – (1) Is it truly in the best future interests of Nigeria to exploit bitumen? (2) If so, can Nigeria avoid repeating the mistakes made during oil development in the Niger Delta?

For her, bitumen and extra-heavy oils are unconventional oils that generally require additional processing to extract, transport, and refine into petroleum products than lighter, conventional oils. These additional steps, she says, typically incur additional costs - including investment costs as well as environmental and social costs.

Estimated volume

Nigeria has an estimated 38 billion barrels of extra-heavy oil and bitumen reserves, the Christina Milos’ paper says: “While this amount is significant, and roughly equivalent to its present conventional oil reserves, it is much smaller than Canada’s 2.4 trillion barrels and Venezuela’s 2.1 trillion barrels. Geologists and engineers predict that Nigeria would use similar methods to extract bitumen as Canada, as the reserves are geologically similar.

On present-day landscapes of Nigeria’s Bitumen Belt, she has this to say: “All land near or on top of Nigeria’s bitumen belt is likely to be affected by the soil, water, and air pollution associated with extraction. On sites where bitumen is located near the

surface, all topsoil would be removed, making farming impossible.

As bitumen lies beneath land with existing productive, incomegenerating uses, these other productive uses would need to be relocated in the event of bitumen production.

This section features some of the present-day landscapes in Ondo State near Okitipupa, in the heart of the bitumen belt.”

Community awareness Quoting High Chief Adesanya of Agbabu in Odigbo Local Government, as quoted in ‘Before the Earth Bleeds’ (Ojo et al, 2004), she says: “Our people are predominantly farmers and fishermen. They plant cocoa and food crops like cassava. We know that when they

start the exploration it will affect our crops. It will affect both cash crops and food crops. It will kill the fishes in the rivers. It will affect our sources of livelihood.”

For Milos, the future landscapes of Nigeria’s Bitumen Belt will look like Canada’s. She states: “Though Nigeria has a very different climate and a much larger population than Canada, Canada’s extraction sites are anticipated to look very similar to those Nigeria would have.

“In Canada, many of the areas used for bitumen were formerly public lands with few people living on them that are leased to companies for bitumen exploitation. In Nigeria, the area is much more densely populated and actively used, and thus many ex-

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Niger Delta Oil Industry experience Drawing from the Niger Delta Oil Industry experience, Christiana Milos recalls: “Coated in the oil extracted from beneath the delta, the people who live in the watery landscapes of the Niger Delta have paid a terrible price for the oil extracted from their lands”.

She goes on to pose some questions: “The devastation wrought by the oil industry begs a critical question of decision makers looking to develop bitumen - is it possible to avoid the mistakes Nigeria has made in the Niger Delta? Is it possible for bitumen extraction, an industry with an arguably larger footprint than conventional oil, to have a less deadly impact?”

For her, “The legacy of the Niger Delta oil industry is one of pollution, corruption, and unfulfilled promises.

Oil producing communities continue to struggle with widespread pollution, poor health, poverty, and conflict cycle.

She cites High Chief Kayode Iwakun Chairman, Organisation of Bitumen Producing Areas (OBPA) as quoted in ‘Before the Earth Bleeds’ (Ojo et al, 2004) as saying, “The inability of the Federal Government to formulate proactive policies regarding the socio-economic condition of the bitumen area will inevitably lead to a replication of the avoidable violence in the Niger Delta” Resource governance failure She argues that historically, the Nigerian government has failed to manage oil revenues well and also failed to

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Interview

Production of bitumen in Ondo to commence Femi Akarakiri is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Ondo State on Energy and Mineral Resources as well as the Director for Business Development and Investment Management for Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency. Bitumen is typically found surrounding sand grains encased in water and clay, which is where it gets its alternative name, oil sands. The bitumen must be removed from the sands and processed before it can be refined like conventional oil. Unlike the light, sweet crude found in the Niger Delta, extra-heavy oil and bitumen are viscous and dense. Talk about bitumen deposit in Nigeria, principally in Ondo State, has been on for a long time. The deposit, according to available records, has its core volume in Ondo State but can be found also in Edo, Ogun and Lagos States. Femi Akarakiri, Special Assistant to Ondo State Governor on matters concerning bitumen, gave an update on the bitumen economy in Ondo State in this conversation with SIAKA MOMOH in Lekki, Lagos recently..

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hat volume of bitumen deposit do we

have in Nigeria A lot of people go about to say that we have about 40 billion barrels of bitumen deposit in the country, but from my own professional background, we don’t measure volumes as such with what we have on ground. The information and the data available does not justify that we have 40 billion barrels. Do we have bitumen in large quantities?

Absolutely yes. In Africa, we probably have the largest.

We have not done enough data gathering to be able to quantify what we have. And I will be surprised if we do not have more than what we think we have. We wouldn’t be able to determine all that until we go out and do a thorough data gathering, geological data mapping of what we have got, and then we would be able to tell the world, this is exactly what we have in place. It is not going to be something that will be done over a year or two years.

It is something that will take a long time to do because as we start producing at some point, additional funds will be coming in to do more exploration, and then we will know more and more what on the geological formations that we have. It is a best guess we have. until we now go and dig more What is the source of holes and do a lot of seismic information that makes activities and be able to inteus belief we have the grate all those formations tolargest deposit in Af- gether, then we will be able to say this is what we have got. rica?

In terms of the outcrop that we have seen so far, we have What is your take on the to give credit to a lot of sci- often talked-about reentists – professors that have source curse associated worked on determining what with mineral resources? we have in place in the past. Resource curse depends on I will say let us make refer- the people and personally I ence to Professor Sylvester do not believe in it but it is Adegoke especially as well as a theory that is always being his several other junior col- propounded and the way leagues who have done quite we have managed our oil a lot of job. But have they resources has given credence covered the entire place? to the theory. But if I draw No. And what we have done on the example of oil and so far is extrapolating based gas, if Nigeria had no oil, will

we have the infrastructure we have in place now? The education I have today was made possible by oil money.

While some talk of oil curse, Nigeria has benefitted immensely from it. With oil and gas, Nigeria is all over the place. If it was not there, we wouldn’t have been where we are today; we wouldn’t have been able to build the human capacity that we have today.

Agreed many complain we do not have enough impact of oil on infrastructure, but it has impacted largely on education. People have access to training. They are well developed mentally. Wherever we go, we prove ourselves as seasoned Nigerians. But

people who talk of resource curse will not look at this.

Coming home to bitumen, we have learnt some lessons from the way the oil and gas has impacted communities in Ondo State. We are working on a document that will guide relationship between t h e h o m e c o m mu n i t i e s and the bitumen operators.

When that is completed, we will share it with both sides so that we get their inputs, review; everybody will come to the table and agree on how it is going to be. We want to ensure that the communities enjoy from the benefits that will be coming from the mining of bitumen. As much as possible, we want to ensure that money does not change

hands like it is done elsewhere that we know of.

The funding will be in critical infrastructural development, human capital development – things that will impact on the community; not for somebody to be somewhere and become ‘Alaiye’ and be riding Jeep without doing anything. We have seen how that degrades people.

We don’t want that.

Our motto in Ondo State is ‘Ise loogun ise’ - labour is the antidote to poverty. If you do not work, you will remain poor.

We are glad that the Kabieyesis that we have spoken to buy well into this because they are in charge of their communities, and buy God’s grace, when the benefits of the bitumen mining starts coming into the communi-

Friday 27 March 2020

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before close of 2020 - Femi Akarakiri ties, in the form of infrastructural development, they will outshine jeeps, number of days spent in hotels, etc. We do not want that in Ondo State.

What ancillary industries will come with investment in bitumen?

Beyond mining, we are looking at haulage. It is going to create a huge haulage industry.First, the mined materials are going to be moved, to the processing area, and the products will need to be moved somewhere else – to the end users across the country.

So it is going to be huge. Again, in the coming years, we are going to build a port – the Port of Ondo because what we have in Ondo will not be fully consumed in Nigeria; we will need to export.

It will feed into the deep sea port operation. Of course, we will now need to look into secondary jobs. People working will need housing. This means that houses will have to be built. Schools will need to be built. With truck going everywhere, it means that service stations have to come up. So this is the kind of thing that the bitumen economy will generate.

When we look at it, I and some of my colleagues, when we talk about it, we say the bitumen industry can rival the oil and gas industry. And imagine that those who are in the oil and gas industry may be 70,000. Like in oil and gas, another set of 70,000 jobs will be created directly from bitumen exploitation and then more from the derivatives that will also come from it. And by the time those companies start operating, banks will want to come around them.

So there will be showers of jobs.

The country’s revenue will soar.

Import substitution will come into play. We import everything today. It means we will be saving a lot of our foreign. We will create jobs locally. Second, I believe we will be able to produce bitumen at a much cheaper rate than the imported one today. It means that with the same amount of money, you can get more bitumen; you can do more roads at the same cost. And with more roads, you make life easier for our people.

And that is just on one aspect of bitumen usage.

There are 64 other uses that are derived from bitumen. You can get synthetic diesel, felt, and paint mixtures, depending on the nature. You can get sulphur, you can get oil but since we have oil already, we may not go into that. So there will be ancillary industries that will spring up. Bitumen deposit in Ondo State can be found in Irele, Ilubirin, Kajola and part of Okitipupa also.

We also have the Ore Industrial Park which is in a different area and a highway will run along the coast from Ondo State to Lagos. By the time all these projects are in place, the local economy will be highly transformed. Ore is going to be a big city and that is why we are encouraging people to come and take a stake now and enjoy the first comer advantage. We did an estimate for the first three years of activities in bitumen development ; we believe that there will be 9000 to 10,000 direct jobs and about 30,000 indirect jobs. As the operation increases in scope, more jobs will be created.

Exploration of bitumen like we have experienced with oil and gas, will come with environmental pollution.

How prepared are you to handle this problem?

The companies that will operate will go about that. I always say that there is no way that you will eat egg, that you will eat omelet that you will not crack the shell. It is just a case of managing it very well. And with technology, that is becoming easier now, this can be appropriately handled. Bitumen is a little better than oil because it does not flow well with water. Where the bitumen exists today, water is flowing over it. There are many areas where the bitumen is. It is

sticky – it sticks to the soil, so water flow over it. It does not go a long distance before it gets stuck.

In the immediate area where there will be operation, there might be some environmental disturbances.

But further down, you will not experience that kind of thing. It will be a bit better to manage than oil-related disturbance. In the case of bitumen, there is not much of spillage. It can spill on the ground but it really will not go far. And so it can be contained and fully evacuated. In any case what we have today is bitumen mixed with the soil. The soil is so naturally contaminated. This is tar sand. Sometimes it is fully caked; sometimes it is mixed with sand. You take your digger and strike it on it, it bounces back. And you go to some places when it is sunny, you press digger into it, it goes down. We have them in different forms like that.

So what we have already is bitumen contaminated soil.

What the miners will do is to excavate the soil, separate the bitumen from the soil.

They clean the sand a bit and return the sand to where it came from. So what you have actually done is that you have helped to decontaminate contaminated soil. So that is one of the areas where the bitumen production is a bit different from that of oil and

gas; but it all depends on the technology. We wouldn’t know until we start. We would have taken time to intimate the people; we will take the demo to them so that we do not create another mess.

Where are we now with bitumen exploration in Ondo State?

For a state that used to earn quite a lot from oil in the past, and whose earnings has now reduced significantly because of the price of oil, we are looking for other means of augmenting our revenue.

Bitumen is going to be a key one. We are a host state to virtually all the companies that have obtained licences and these include Aspect Limited, Dangote Industries Limited, Lebara Limited, Southwest Bitumen Limited, and Bitumen Exploration and Exploitation Company Nigeria Limited (BEECON). Many of them still don’t understand that they need to come to the State to come and make us understand that they need to come and operate in our state. This is one of the areas getting licences without letting the state know what is going on constitute a problem.

It is a community issue. It is not the Federal Government that is going to be involved; it is the state.We use this opportunity to tell those who have licences to let us know them.

The ones listed are those that we know. Southwest Bitumen has brought equipment to the country to com-

mence a pilot test. Their equipment has been in Lagos for about six months now.

They are close to Irele. They have a yard that is close to completion. Once they complete it in about a month or so, they will move to site.

What delayed them is the security issue in the country.

Aspect is gearing up to start its pilot operation. I have met with the Dangote team as well. They also want to start their operation activities.

All these are private sector players. For government, Ondo State has gotten licences too – two licences.

We have a company called Bitumen Exploration and Exploitation Company of Nigeria. What we are now doing (because we know the state will not be able to fund the project alone) is that we are calling on partners. We have actually carried out a bid of which we have 26 people responding. We are close to completing the bid process so that in the next couple of weeks, we should be able to announce the names that are going to partner with us.

We have done the work plan.

We have commissioned the project for exploration. When we sign the agreements, we will move to field for exploration in the next 6 or 7 months.

I can tell you that with the progress we have made with the private sector and on our side, before the end of this year bitumen production in Nigeria will commence in Ondo State.

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Ugly side of exploitation...

Continued from page 27 mitigate social and environmental impacts in the places where oil is extracted. Therefore, “there is little evidence that this lack of governing capacity has significantly changed”.

Currently, according to Milos, many people living in the bitumen belt claim to welcome bitumen development, but this may be due to a lack of knowledge of the full extent of potential impacts. “Understanding the true costs of development requires better knowledge of exactly how bitumen would transform the massive landscape of the bitumen belt,” she argues.

Alternative investments She pointedly advises that the Nigeria should not touch bitumen, that it is not cost-effective when the costs and benefits are weighed. She explains: “With such a high risk for potentially devastating impacts, it would be wise for residents of the bitumen belt to consider other potential investment paths. Much of the bitumen belt features rich farmland with great potential for agriculture. Investing in farming implements, inputs, infrastructure, and agroprocessing could help improve yields and increase profits in the existing agricultural industry.

“In addition, the area boasts rich forest resources which could be sustainably harvested for timber production. Finally, the bitumen belt features other minerals with a much smaller extraction footprint, including ball clay, kaolin, salt, and silica.

Silica is a critical material needed for the production of solar panels. While silica mining is still an extractive industry with environmental impacts, the footprint is significantly smaller than bitumen extraction, and it could potentially support the emergence of a solar panel industry and Nigeria’s transition to renewable energy.”

Ondo State’s stand But Femi Akarakiri, the expert on bitumen economy in Ondo State thinks differently. For him, the State is taking advantage of the benefit of hindsight that the Niger Delta experience provides; Ondo State therefore is good to go. For him that failure of governance that the Niger Delta is bereft with in respect of oil and gas exploration will not rear its ugly head in Ondo State.

He finds support in the lawmaker representing the Irele-Agbabu State Constituency in Ondo State House

of Assembly, Honourable Afolabi Iwalewa who thinks that the shaky situation of Nigeria’s oil is a wakeup call for the exploitation of bitumen.

According to Iwalewa, “Any moment from now, crude oil will fade off. Look at what is happening now with the talk of oil theft. Every state is crying now, even the Federal Government is crying that it is not getting what it used to get from oil. What is the Federal Government doing, and why can’t we find an alternative? If crude oil is not going to fetch us what we project (in terms of revenue), why can’t we switch over to bitumen?”

Other solid minerals E.D. Oruonye/Y.M.Ahmed’s research article titled ‘Challenges and prospects of mining of solid mineral resources in Taraba State, Nigeria’ is a clear representation of the state of health of the solid mineral industry in Nigeria. These academics are of the Department of Geography, Taraba State University, Jalingo,Taraba State.

They stated in their abstract to the research: “Taraba state is one of the states in Nigeria that is well endowed with different kinds of solid mineral resources that is untouched and yet to be prospected. Some of these mineral resources have been explored and worked on in the past decades.

Mining in Taraba state is dominated by artisanal and small scale miners…The findings of the study show that large quantities of this mineral ore deposits have been mined out in the state resulting in large numbers of abandoned mine sites as a result of past mineral exploration /exploitation in the form of test pits, lotos and open ponds.

According to these dons, the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development reported 192 titles issued out from Taraba state in 2012 and 77 in 2015. Some of the challenges, they said, include the fact that most of the mineral occurrences were just reported and that the real evaluation of the grade of mineral ore or the reserve estimates were never carried out.

They further stated that most of the mining operations were illegal and not known to government officials.

For them, “This makes it difficult for the government to monitor their operations and also to enforce environmental regulations on them.” Other challenges, according to the abstract, include lack of mining equipment, predominance of artisanal and small scale miners, poor technical capac-

ity, lack of capital, poor database, poor infrastructures and accessibility among others.

Lastly, the academics said “The Federal government is working hard to simplify the process of acquiring mining licence by creating an online web portal to facilitate the application and payment process. It is expected that with improvement in the mining policy in the country, more companies and individuals would apply for mining licence in the state. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made; provision of capital by way of soft loan, tax holidays for mining firm and synergy between Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel and the State Bureau of Solid Mineral Resources.”

The problem in the solid mineral mining is of public knowledge. Small scale artisanal miners dominate solid mineral mining. They account for between 90 and 95 percent of the output of the Nigerian solid minerals sector.

They are often unlicensed, illegal operators. According to reports, lead poisonings in Zamfara State, led to the deaths of at least 163 people between March and June 2010, including 111 children. Health ministry figures state the discovery of 355 cases, with 46 percent proving fatal.

An annual immunization programme in northern part of Nigeria led to the discovery of a high number of child deaths in the area. An investigation showed that they had been digging for gold at the times of their deaths, in an area where lead is prevalent. It was thought by the villagers that all the children had contracted malaria but Médecins Sans Frontières found unusually high levels of lead in the blood during tests. The BBC suggested the contamination of water may have contributed to the high mortality rate. Blacksmith Institute was called in by the Nigerian authorities to assist in the removal of toxic lead.

It is believed that the poisonings are caused by the illegal extraction of ore by villagers, who take crushed rock home with them to extract. This results in the soil being contaminated from lead which then poisons people through hand-to-mouth contamination. Others have been contaminated by contact with contaminated tools and water.

This again manifests the ugly face of Nigerian hidden treasures exploitation. In all, it is the problem of governance.

Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism launches $2.2 m project in

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he trade credit guarantee project is AFFM’s first in the West African nation and will involve 10 fertilizer suppliers, 12 hub agrodealers and 120 retail agro-dealers The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) has kick-started a $2.2 million project to provide fertilizer suppliers in Nigeria with financial support to improve supply for 200,000 smallholder farmers.

The trade credit guarantee project is AFFM’s first in the West African nation and will involve 10 fertilizer suppliers, 12 hub agrodealers and 120 retail agro-dealers.

The project will also train farmers in proper fertilizer use and other agricultural best practices.

A project launch held on March 3 in the capital Abuja, was attended by senior director of African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Nigeria Regional Office, Ebrima Faal and government and industry

partners.

Participants discussed the project and its implementation with AFFM’s local partner, the Africa Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership, or AFAP. “We will leverage on existing networks and look for creative solutions to increase the availability of fertilizer in the country,” said Nana-Aisha Mohammed, AFAP’s representative at the ceremony.

Umar Musa, Assistant Director of FMARD’s Farm Inputs Support Services Department who represented the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) said AFAP should work with the Nigerian government and other actors in the fertilizer value chain to ensure that the project complies with Nigeria’s policies and sector strategies.

“We expect this project to support smallholder farmers and im-

prove their productivity in order to help the country increase its local production and consumption of fertilizer,” he said.

“We are confident that the project will increase access to quality and affordable fertilizer by smallholder farmers and hence contribute to the transformation of the agriculture sector in Nigeria,” said Marie Claire Kalihangabo, AFFM Coordinator.

Kalihangabo expressed her gratitude to the Government of Nigeria for their financial support to the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism.

The Bank’s Nigeria Regional Office Faal said the National Fertilizer Quality Control Act 2019 further serves to reinforce the government’s commitment to the sector.

“This programme is timely because the government has placed measures to encourage local production of fertilizer,” he said.

Coronavirus, the economy and issue of diversification

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e have never stopped reminding ourselves about the futility of running a monoculture economy. In fact, this was why this platform - Non-Oil Digest and its sister online platform - www.realsectornow.com, were created. It is therefore interesting news that the coronavirus pandemic is reminding us of the urgent need for us to diversify our economy and free ourselves from the prison that our largely one-product economy has put us.

The monoculture economy that we run is one that is largely dependent on revenue earned from the oil sector. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the sector accounts for over 95 percent of export earnings and about 40 percent of government revenues.

The tag ‘major exporter of oil’ placed on Nigeria, one that is making us giddy and which has given rise to corrupt government officials and business barons, amounts to nothing since Nigeria produces only about 2.7 percent of the world’s supply. Though ranked as 15th in production at 2.2 million barrels per day (mbpd), the top three producers Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States produce 10.7 mbpd (11.8 percent), 9.8 mbpd (12.0 percent), and 8.5 mbpd (11.1 percent) respectively, collectively accounting for 63.6 mbpd (44 percent ) of the world’s total production. These are 2013 figures. Latest figures have not changed significantly. Currently, these three produce 12.0, 15.0 and 10.8 mbpd respectively (US is now leading producer) whilst Nigeria’s is 1.9 mbpd, down from 2.2 mbpd.

These numbers change by the day but the trend remains the same.

In total, oil revenues, put at an estimated export rate of 1.9, with a projected sales price of $65 per barrel in 2011, Nigeria’s anticipated revenue from petroleum was about $52.2 billion. This accounted for less than 14 percent of official GDP figures (and dropped to 10 percent when the informal economy is included in these calculations). What this means in effect is that though the petroleum sector is important, it is an infinitesimal part of the country’s economy whose other constituents are agriculture, solid minerals, and services (the non-oil sector).

These figures are now changing steeply on the heels of the scourge of coronavirus. According to Quartz Africa report, as oil prices sank while global demand drops drastically in the wake of the outbreak, Nigeria’s economy is being caught in the cross-hairs. Essentially, with oil being Nigeria’s biggest export, the government relies heavily on the resource for dollar earnings to fund its national budget. And with this year’s $37 billion budget passed with a benchmark oil price of $57 per barrel—nearly double its current price of around $31 to $33, Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, cannot cur-

rently fund its budget. As at the time of writing this piece, it has fallen to $29. And will most likely fall further.

One unfolding effect, the report says, is a US dollar shortage that is already manifesting on parallel forex markets with the informal dollar dealers who often operate just in front or across the road from airports and top hotels in the business districts of Lagos and Abuja.

It notes that with Nigeria’s naira official exchange rates fixed by the country’s Central Bank, these black market operators often deliver a more accurate verdict on the levels of supply, demand and prices; “that over the past two days”, naira to dollar exchange rates—which have stayed quite stable at around 360 naira to the dollar since mid-2017—have reached 430 naira.

According to a NAN report, the International Energy Agency in its latest forecast also stated that global oil demand was expected to decline in 2020 as the impact of the new COVID-19 spreads around the world, constricting travel and broader economic activity. It states that Nigeria, among others, has cause to be concerned, as the global spread of coronavirus, and the continuous drop in the price of crude oil in the international market would take a heavy toll on the nation’s economy as oil and gas account for over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and more than 60 per cent of the country’s earnings.

The report states that currently, with developments in the international oil and gas market, Nigeria’s major revenue earner, the country’s economy is under threat and that the National Bureau of Statistics in its Foreign Trade Statistics Report for the Fourth Quarter of 2019, had stated that the major buyers of Nigeria’s crude oil are India, Spain, Netherlands, France and South Africa, among others.

These countries have recorded cases of the coronavirus and the disease had impacted negatively on their economies. To reaffirm its impact on the oil and gas sector in Nigeria, the reports states the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, said that the coronavirus pandemic was taking its toll on the Nigerian economy. He said that currently, the country is having difficulties finding buyers for about 50 cargoes of crude oil and 12 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes.

And according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), “The world will take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.”

Angel Gurría, OECD secretary general, said the economic shock was already bigger than the financial crisis.

Do will need to know more to get us kicking? Do we need to know more to make us commence steadfast exploitation of our bitumen deposit and other solid minerals and fully give the right focus to agribusiness?

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Hotels

Nigerian hospitality sector groans under coronavirus impact OBINNA EMELIKE

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ith the growing impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19), the Nigerian hospitality sector, which is sill recovering from the traditional lull in business between January and early February of every year, is facing a more difficult challenge, never experienced in the history of the sector.

Since the implementation of travel restrictions on countries hard-hit by Covid-19, a measure aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus, hotel guest numbers have dwindled unimaginably, leaving hotels around the world with many empty rooms.

In Nigeria, the situation is now getting out of hand as many governments are enforcing total shutdown as limitation of public gatherings from 50 to 25 people did not stop the rapid spread of the virus.

When the law allowed 50 to 25 people gathering, some guests still find comfort in hotel rooms, and some hotels scaled down their operations.

At the moment, hoteliers are considering shutting down as occupancy rate, which is below 30 percent has not been good enough to sustain the business.

Moreover, with the total shutdown on the way, movements would be restricted, leaving guests and even hotel staff with no option than to stay away.

Ethel Atoki, a rooms division manager of a foreign

hotel brand in Lagos, decried that room occupancy rate has never been as low as it is now since his over two decades experience in the hotel industry.

“We are running below 25 percent occupancy, which is loss on our part already and shutting down will be a wise business decision now”, he explained.

In line with Atoki, Raphael Steven, a hotel manager, decried that the current lull in business is worse than the Ebola, election years, and recession experience.

“During recession, we managed to be afloat, but the shutdown that is on the way will kill and bury hospitality business in Nigeria because even when normalcy returns, it will be take long to get the rooms filled with guests”, Steven lamented.

With the expectations that the country would be lockdown from this weekend, internationally brands are encouraging some of their staff to proceed on leave, considering laying off and ultimately closing down.

For now, scaling down operations is out of it as zero patronage looms.

“We are going to shutdown, but will not lay off staff.

We believe that a nationwide shutdown will help in curtailing the spread of the virus”, a hotel manager said.

But in the event of the shutdown, the manager noted that it would take huge resources to put the hotels in good shape, depending on how long they are shutdown.

Looking at revenue loss, the manager said the industry would lose close to N500 million a week. But Uche Ohai, an economist, said the loss would be double that amount if you add losses from direct and indirect businesses in the industry.

Across the world, the impact is hugely felt as well.

European hotels, which reported improvements on rooms revenue at a higher year-over-year pace for the last quarter of 2019, are almost shutting down due to exodus of guests from hotels as Europe becomes the epicenter of coronavirus spread.

Erstwhile in China, international hotel brands are closing hotels and counting losses as well.

Hilton has closed about 150 hotels totaling 33,000

rooms in China. The brands, according to Ahmed Mahmoud, founder, revenueyourhotel.com, is anticipating a $25 million to $50 million impact to full-year 2020 adjusted EBITDA and a 1 percent drop in RevPAR - that is if the outbreak lasts around three to six months with an additional three- to six-month recovery period.

Also, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts closed 1,000 hotels in China, while openings scheduled for the first quarter will likely be postponed, causing flat to negative room growth for the first quarter of 2020. With these factors in mind, Wyndham is estimating a potential adverse impact of approximately $5 million to first-quarter 2020 adjusted EBITDA and a potential adverse impact of approximately $8 million to $12 million to full-year 2020 adjusted EBITDA. Hyatt also closed 26 hotels in Greater China (mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) with many others that remain open running at very low occupancies.

For the Radisson Hospitality Group, the negative impact would be negligible due to the limited impact of Chinese and Asian travelers on the client base.

Moreover, the impact is expected to reach everyone and every brand as brands like Marriott International, IHG group, Accor Hotels, and many others are now waiving cancellation fees, recording and tracking cancellations from around the globe to measure the real financial impact.

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

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

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

Tel: 01 277 3560

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

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

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

206 Exclusive Hotel Plot 206 Oladipo Diya Road Opposite Olympia Estate

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Eko Hotels & Suites still opens for business, scales down services to minimize coronavirus risk OBINNA EMELIKE

I

n reaction to the misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the statement, which it put out earlier, Eko Hotels & Suites has assured guests that it is still open for business, but is scaling down operations.

According to the hotel, the decision to only keep open Eko Signature Hotel, Eko Hotel, 1415 Seafood/ Steakhouse, Kuramo Sports Cafe, Lagoon Breeze and Calabash Bar, was to adhere to the government’s instructions of having not more than 20 people gathered in the same space. “A significant number of our administrative staff have been advised to work from home. This is because we strongly concur with the precautionary measure of

social distancing, in order to eliminate the spread of the COVID-19 virus”, the hotel said.

However, in order to prioritize the safety of its guests, staff and community, the hotel is taking extensive precautionary mea-

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sures in fighting COVID-19.

The measures include: educating staff and providing visible information to guests about COVID-19 around all four hotel buildings, providing hand gloves and face masks to every security

guard, especially those who check the temperature of everyone that uses any of the entrance gates into the hotels premises and mounting up hand sanitizer dispensers near elevators, every entry way to the halls and meeting rooms, and other public spaces around the hotels premises.

Others are making sure that housekeeping team is continually disinfecting all surfaces around the hotels premises at intervals.

Providing hand gloves and face masks to all staff who have direct contact with guests within the hotels premises, encouraging our staff to properly wash their hands with soap and water at 20 minute intervals, and minimizing the movement of staff by housing the staff servicing its operations in the premises.

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

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

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

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

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

entertainment

Tough time for Nigerian entertainment sector as Coronavirus grounds activities Obinna Emelike

W

hile countries issued travel restrictions with the hope of curtailing the spread of Coronavirus, most activities, including entertainment are being carried out on the domestic front and on low scale. With that, people still go to cinema, theatre, and venues offering live music.

However, as the virus spreads and governments introduce stiffer restrictions, especially total lockdown, the entertainment sector in Nigeria is grounded.

The restriction on gathering from initially 50 people, to 25 now, is a hard blow for the sector, but good for safety as people need to save their lives now in order to enjoy music, cinema, concerts and other entertainment offerings tomorrow. But the hardest blow seems to be the lockdown implemented across many states in the country today.

Of course, owners of night clubs, cinemas, theatre, open bars among others are counting their losses already.

Many movie premieres slated at various cinemas across the country have been cancelled after all arrangements have been made.

Cinemas are also closed as ban on public gatherings took effect, followed by the lockdown.

Filmhouse Cinema, one of the most vibrant cinema companies in Nigeria, is hard hit as all its cinemas are empty, same also for Silverbird Cinemas as fun seekers are hiding at home.

A staff of Silverbird Cinemas who pleaded for anonymity, noted that the company has never witnessed the level of downturn since inception and that it would take long after the virus is over to get cinema goers back to their seats.

“Even before the restrictions on public gatherings, our customers have already started enjoying movies on pay TV as option”, the anonymous staff said.

Also, a visit to any of the outlets of FIlmhouse across Lagos reveals no activities as customers are held back by government restrictions and most importantly, the fear of coming in contact with a person who is Coronavirus positive.

“The current situation is expected as people run for safety”, a cinema goer said. He thinks that cinema houses, especially Filmhouse will bounce back when the virus is over because of their world class facilities and offerings.

But small businesses that supply drinks, pop corn and other items to cinemas are out of business as well.

All the night clubs are locked too with the DJs out of business,

while patrons have to rock their own music at home for now. But most DJs are supportinrg the restrictions as nightclubs host huge number of patrons and are potential points for the spread of the virus. “There is no way you will visit a nightclub without having contact with other fun seekers even if you do not want to dance. So, nightclubs are better shutdown than open now”, a patron said.

Macaulay Enuma, a movie producer, said the situation is going to get worse because of the frightening death toll of Coronavirus victims across the world and the first death case in Nigeria, which has made governments to wake up and people to see the reality of the situation.

“We are almost in a war situation, life is paramount to anything now including entertainment.

People will hide to safeguard their lives, especially now we have recorded the first death case and more people are testing positive”, Enuma said.

As well, public spaces, bars and restaurants where people are entertained with live music are counting losses as their outfits are practically shutdown due to restrictions on gatherings.

Freedom Park, in Lagos Island, which is a melting pot of entertainment and cultural shows, is a shadow of itself now as shows are suspended until normalcy returns.

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Temi Akande, a show promoter at the park, lamented that he is in a tight corner because the bank will soon come after him for the loan he obtained for producing a stage play due to premiere in four cities in April starting from Freedom Park. The promoter, who is popularly known as ‘TA for Sure’, was at Freedom Park on Wednesday to renegotiate payment for the venue but could not as all public activities are suspended at the park for now.

Mark Ikpeme, a regular at the park, lamented that the negative impact of coronavirus is beginning to be felt by even those who doubt the reality of the virus.

“Our park is empty because of Coronavirus. Initially, some of us who doubted the reality of the virus, argued that it cannot make impact in Africa and Nigeria, but the empty stages and seats tell how serious the virus is and how bad it has affected entertainment businesses here in Lagos”, Ikpeme said.

The virus is also bad news for Akintunde Omilani, leader of a live band, who is lamenting huge revenue loss from live performances at occasions that were cancelled due to ban on public gatherings to curtail the spread of the virus.

“We usually have at least one performance in a weekend, especially weddings and birthdays. But our clients have called to cancel about 80 percent of our shows for Easter because their guests will

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not attend events until Coronavirus is addressed. Nobody wants to die and our families are also urging us to stay back until normalcy returns”, he decried.

Members of the live band, cast and crew of cancelled stage plays, among other entertainers who depend on the shows are cursing Coronavirus for the pains it is bringing to them at the first quarter of the year when there are many bills to pay.

Ezenna Uzoechi, a choreographer, decried that the virus outbreak has ruined his plans and revenue target.

The choreographer, who performs regularly with dance companies at the National Theatre Lagos, lamented that all the sustained campaigns to woo Lagos theatre audience back to the stages at the National Theatre are now in vain as over five stage plays, two movie premieres and concerts billed at the theatre this Easter cannot hold because of the efforts at curtailing the spread of coronavirus. “ If thes e e vents hold as planned, I will be smiling to the bank and also able to repay loan I took from a relative. With the look of things, they will not hold and I will be indebted the more”, Uzoechi lamented.

Moreover, major music fiestas that hold during Easter period cannot hold again this year. Artistes who are billed to perform will lose huge earnings, while their fans will miss their enthralling performances.

One of the artistes is Asa, who cancelled the Nigerian leg of her music tour billed for the Easter period.

Also, globally, all music events and concerts slated for Easter this year cannot hold as the world battles to curtail the spread of coronavirus and April, the Easter month, is very crucial in the battle.

But some people think coronavirus has brought sanity in their neighborhood.

Nathaniel Amuka, a 65 years old retiree who lives in his house at Ejogbo in Lagos, is happy that the ban on public gatherings and now lockdown, has brought back peaceful night rest to him as a popular open bar that disturbs

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the peace of the neighborhood with loud music across the night is now shutdown.

“Our residents association has severally complained to the police and insisted that the open bar be shutdown or lower the volume of the music at night, but the bar thrived because money keep exchanging hands. There is peace at night now and I wish this continues”, Pa Amuka said.

For Olajuwon Balogun, another resident, it is total tranquility in the estate. “With this peace, we can rightly say we live in an estate now, and even noise from aircraft that are taking off is hardly heard now because of the travel ban. But we should join hands in fighting and not spreading coronavirus”, the excited resident said.

But some taxi drivers who wait late in the night to drop some customers of the open bar, and probably, their female accomplice at high fees, regret the clampdown on public gatherings because it has closed a lucrative source of income for them.

The sad thing is that most of the night taxi drivers do not care about the spread of the virus as long as there are customers willing to pay for their services at night.

As the situation graduates from ban on public gatherings to total lockdown, most people who are forced to stay at home are falling back on their pay TV as alternative entertainment, while those who cannot afford pay TV subscriptions are watching local stations, home videos and on their phones as well.

The social media is also offering alternative as most people take to the platforms for news updates, chats, comic relief and communication as well.

“It seems we are going to be at home longer than the lockdown.

Bearing that in mind, I have recharged my account and renewed my data package to enable me work from home, chat with my family members and fiends and get updates on the virus pandemic”, Steve Ajulo, an auditor, said.

Already, Mercy Eneh, a university undergraduate, connects often with her classmates on their WhatsApp group and hopes to submit assignments on the platform as directed by one of her lecturers before the emergency vacation.

Many others are also finding alternative entertainment within their homes as the shutdown takes effect, especially in Lagos.

Though entertainment outfits and entertainers are already counting huge losses, and missed opportunities, revenue loss is expected to increase daily, every sacrifice is worth curtailing the spread of coronavirus as human existence is threatened.

Friday 27 March 2020

Business etiquette

BUSINESS DAY

Social distancing

entertainment

Covid – 19 Etiquette Janet Adetu

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ow this Pandemic is on the uprise and truth be told there is a lot of anxiety and fear in the minds of people. It is a time to love, be loved and keep on loving. In the midst of all that is happening globally and locally just keep a positive mindset. Yes we can see that businesses, schools, activities and economic functions are almost grinding to a halt. We have seen panic buying simply stocking up in preparation for a total lock down which a number of countries are already experiencing. Sadly the medical officials are battling this COVID 19 Corona Virus as best they can, given that there is no real proven medical cure. It is one of those viruses that will run its course and act on the individual own immune system.

Today the fear is mounting based on the number of confirmed deaths worldwide, meaning it is so contagious, spreading widely and unfortiunately with drstic consequences.

The world Health Organization have given a number of measures to curb the spread and if adhered to strictly the pandemic will reduce.

Social Distancing is one of the major instructions meaning where and when you see someone coughing or sneezing especially you will need to keep a distance of at least one to two metres as a safety precaution. Suddenly the social distancing is now for everyone, everywhere and everytime. instructions given to all to reduce the the spread.

There are a number of things to be done to maintain social distancing:

No hand shaking Corona Virus we understand spreads very fast from the hands from touching people surfaces and the face. This is an activity that is easily taken for granted and must be learned to gradually getout of the habit. In keeping your distance this applies to touching in any form, so no shaking hands.

Greet people as best you can verbally and avoid any form of touching of the body, Social events In very social settings this attracts large crowds of people like weddings, birthday parties, funerals, and networking events. There has been an urgent need to compulsorily ban these gatherings, first restricted to a minimum or maximum number to now an outright restriction as a major way to enforce people staying away from each other.

Postpone any upcoming social events and keep listening and watching as events unfold to make the right decisions. Put a hold on invites, ask for new developments concerning the event.

Entertainment social gatherings Keeping busy at a time like this is a way to be productive and alleviate fear having fun with friends and family. Unfortunately these type of gatherings from the entertainment sector including cinemas, concerts, pub houses, club houses, restaurants, malls and leisure centres again draw in a large crowd and are at high risk of spreading the virus. All thses have been stppoed and are used to enforce social distancing Avoid tight enclosed places that confine you to small areas Exercise & gym clubs Exercise is great but are best prone to virus spread due to sweating and close proximity. Many gyms have been closed till further notice.

Do your own exercise in your estate but keep a fine distance between

D

Asa

November 2019, has visited major cities in Europe and was scheduled to visit London on March 29, 2020 and come back home to Lagos and Abuja on April 11 and 13, 2020 respectively. However, the tour has now been halted for the safety and wellbeing of crew members and ultimately, her fans.

Expressing her regret, Asa says: “Due to the developing Covid-19 situation, and for your health and safety, I am sad to announce that I will be rescheduling my shows in London on March 29th, in Lagos on April 11th and in Abuja April 13th. All purchased tickets will be duly refunded and a new date will be announced as soon as possible. Please follow all health and safety precautions as advised. All my love”.

New tour dates are expected to be announced as soon as the pandemic’s spread reduces and the ban on large gatherings is lifted. www.businessday.ng

‘

you and others.

Medical appointments Many people have regular medical appointments with the dentist, or specialist that have been scheduled weeks ago. The hospitals in many countries are an almost no go area.

The advice given is only when you have the Corona Virus symptoms that you can call a special number or stay home be hydrated and boost your immune system. If you have an appointment with your dentist it may be a good time to call your doctor and reschedule or keep abreast of any new information they are giving all patients.

Reduced crowds There will always be a time when you will find yourself among a crowd of people, either while in a queue at the supermarket, on a plane, in a bus, at the bank you name it. Watch your proximity. If someone shows signs as indicated keep your distance. When conversing with others keep you 1 – 2 metre distance and take all precautions seriously.

Be positive when you are near people avoid acting lile it is a plague not to send wrong mesaages.

Religious place of worship If you are spiritually inclined you will be dedicated to pray in your place of worship. Many times this attracts huge crowds and a mighty risk for this pandemic. Resolve to virtual group prauers, streaming online sermons or personal spiritual time with you and or your close family. Devise other clever means to stay connected with your maker and

Social Distancing is one of the major instructions meaning where and when you see someone coughing or sneezing especially you will need to keep a distance of at least one to two metres as a safety precaution

keep being focused.

Virtual living This is a call for desperate measures to keep on living regardless of the challenges faced now and beyond.

As a large number of companies are asking employees to work from home this is where virtual communication is used best. Selling and buying online has increased to avoid bodily contact from outside purchases. New TV and radio programs are airing to educate people on the Virus, new updates and global decisions.

This is a time to educate yourself with online courses,, webinars, and video education. Change is good when made best use of the opportunities.

Stay positive Social distancing can lead to loneliness, isolation, sudden fear, anxiety and lost connection. If you are home alone mentally it can impact your state of mind if for too long. As a family confined to one space it can also have its repercussions. Listen to music Play board games Watch Movies together Wathch your favourire series Watch your favorite sport Create new meals and dishes with your kids Keep your kids productivelactive by online schooling Do the most desired house Chores Embark on total spring cleaning Do some great gardening Read or Write a book or some poems Restructure your business Devise new strategies for your life and reflect.

Stay blessed, stay focused, stay knowledgeable, stay fit.

It is all well!

Share your experience.

Janet.adetu@gmail.com @janetadetu @jsketiquette

Producers postpone premiere of ‘2 Weeks In Lagos’ today

Asa postpones All Lucid Tour dates in March, April and June ue to the recent updates concerning the impact and continued spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Asa, a multi-platinum selling recording artiste, has announced the postponement of the “Lucid Album Tour”.

The tour, which kicked off late

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ue to the prevalent epidemic challenge facing the world, the producers of ‘2 Weeks In Lagos’ will not be releasing the highly anticipated movie as planned today March 27, 2020.

Speaking on the postponement, the producers said that the safety of humanity is much more important to them than any possible profit.

“Though we have invested so much in the release of this film, our investment and sacrifice cannot take precedence over those who are battling to survive Covid19, those who have lost their lives and those who are tirelessly working to ensure that humanity is preserved by finding a solution to this scourge. We firmly believe that profit should never take precedence over the wellbeing of humanity”, they explained.

They promised to work with their distributors including Siverbird Distributions and other cinema houses for a new date which would be communicated as soon

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as the Corona Virus scourge is over.

“We are optimistic that God will help us find a solution to this plague and we advise business owners to please take it easy on their staff and the drive to make profit at all cost at this difficult point in time. We are fighting for our survival and against possible extinction. It is only after our survival and the peace of mind that comes with it that we can turn @Businessdayng

our minds to our entertainment and business as usual. We pray that God will see us through this difficult time.

“Please be safe and take necessary precautions and this is also a time to be kind to those among us who need help. Many did not prepare for this, but together we will come through it stronger”, the pleaded.

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FEATURE

Versatility in financial services through technology …The case of Octopus by Heritage Bank Hope Moses-Ashike

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Ifie Sekibo

and consolidated; embedded in the same social media platforms where they are such as Facebook and Telegram, with access via apps and multiple devices according to the consumer’s choice.

Beyond converging the customer’s needs in one place, Octopus also allows the customer to start and complete transactions or activities across several devices. So it is now possible to see a single transaction commence on a platform like a chatbot, continue on another platform like an app and conclude on the web seamlessly and fluidly. This is a unique feature on Octopus, which the promoters call omnichannel. The multiplicity of the platform just makes its name apt; alluding to the many tentacles of the octopus and the metaphorical attribution of the organism to handle several tasks at the same time because of its tentacles.

The attendant benefits of Octopus to its users is therefore numerous, including keying into electronic payment systems, creating efficient collection systems, social integration, customer retention strategies, bills payment, virtual mobile top-up, funds transfer, balance inquiry, movie www.businessday.ng

show time and news, engaging customers, sending messages, advertisements, auto reminders for due payments, sell products and services, automatic product recommendation, create any kind of community and engage freely.

Another angle of the digital bank’s versatility is the freedom of the customer to make any transaction using any bank of choice.

So while most other digital bank models try to retain or direct the consumer to the mother bank, Octopus gives liberty to the consumer, allowing the user to utilize the platform regardless of the bank. It doesn’t have to be Heritage Bank. It thus has the capability to consolidate and connect all the

customer’s bank accounts in one place, delivering ease of access to the customer. This is a smart move. History has shown that constrictive strategies often fail where liberty is given, so it will be interesting to see how the banks evolve into this mode in this very competitive environment.

Driven by the need to improve performance and gain market share in the face of intense competition, most banks have restructured their organisation, made their operations simplified through automation and tailored their products and services to attract customers. The need to continue innovating with new technologies or upgrade exist-

“

Beyond converging the customer’s needs in one place, Octopus also allows the customer to start and complete transactions or activities across several devices

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“

layers in the financial services sector have increasingly seen the need to converge the customer’s needs into one place. As such, there has been a proliferation of products with the capability of offering several services at the same time. A typical example is the ATM and the smart card, which started with the capability to make simple transactions such as balance check and withdrawals, and this was what they could mostly do in the beginning.

Today, with the continuous evolution of technology and increasing understanding of the customer’s needs, ATMs have been upgraded with the capacity to handle inter-bank transfers, air time purchase, deposits, merchant transactions, bills payment and so on.

So it is, with most technologies that have been introduced in the financial services sphere. Artificial Intelligence based products like chatbots started with solving customer issues, but were quickly upgraded to handle simple banking transactions, open bank accounts and resolve customer issues among other things. Same can be observed for digital banks that have been increasing in capability to handle more tasks. Now it is common to do banking transactions, buy airtime, pay bills, buy movie tickets, update toll gate accounts, pay for TV subscriptions, make group collections and many more. All of these give versatility to the customer, converging the customer’s needs in one place.

The latest of this brings the artificial intelligence technology, digital banking and social platform into one place. That is the innovative thinking behind Octopus, the digital bank introduced by Heritage Bank. It provides a strong opportunity for the consumer to build their own digital world and perform digital transactions the way the want it. So in a nutshell, the consumer’s daily activities like banking, cinemas, stock markets, social interactions, churches, universities, meetings, restaurants, utility - DSTV, PHCN – fans clubs, associations and any other communities have been digitized

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ing ones is apparent and the financial institutions understand this because beyond the rapidly advancing technology, there are also other considerations regarding globalization, consolidation, deregulation, the spate of fintech startups and customer adaptation.

Financial service operations have been upgraded internally using technology in areas like price optimization, loss forecasting, fraud detection and compliance monitoring among others.

The main area of interest for the consumer however relates to services and products that help them have better experiences with their financial institutions and every innovative technology in the finance sector for the customer’s use aims to achieve this.

Technological innovation is built on identifying people’s problems and creating a solution that people can easily adapt to. This is a common trend that was noticed with most technology solutions consumers had to directly interact with in the financial sector in Nigeria. The uptake is often a bit slow at the start, but at some point, it gains acceptance and usage quickly.

Largely because it follows a simple buying principle: consumers see the product enough to become likeable; friends have it and talk about it; then they feel they need it as well. The pathway may differ at times, but from the introduction of the Electronic Fund Transfer (ETF) to internet banking at home and in the office to the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) to Smart Cards to Point of Sales system (PoS) to mobile phone banking and computerized credit rating, this principle has played out to a large extent.

Today the uptake of innovative financial products tend to be taken up faster, as consumers get more used to digital technology and trust them better, even as the banks improve the performances of their technological solutions by solving the attendant glitches or hitches and upgrading their features as they continue to gain more insight on their customers.

As banks continue to move towards the complete automation of their operations and services, more convergence of consumer needs and versatility of platforms is expected.

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 27 March 2020

33

MADE in aba

The Footwear Academy to introduce online shoemaking course GODFREY OFURU Aba

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he Footwear Academy, a shoe manufacturing and training outfit, based i n Ab a, Ab i a St at e, i s to introduce online shoemaking course to cater for people who are unable to travel to Aba to learn shoemaking at the academy.

Chidinma Chukwuemeka, co-founder, The Footwear Academy, who revealed this exclusively to BusinesDay in Aba, also stated that the firm is working on an e-commerce website that would enable people order for their shoemaking materials online.

The Footwear Academy, won the ‘Aba Hackathon Challenge’, an Information technology (IT) and idea development-based competition organised b y T B WA C o n c e p t , a public relations outfit and sponsored by the Ford Foundation, in continuation of the ‘Proudly Made-in Aba campaign’, geared towards promoting goods made in Aba. Footwear Academy has a plan to upgrade the skills of Aba shoemakers to enable them to improve the quality of their products, using

modern equipment and technology.

Th e ou t f i t a l s o ha s plans to introduce Aba shoemakers to modern technology to enable them speed up production, as well as reduce apprenticeship period from five years to six months.

“Wining the Aba Hackaton challenge, the maiden edition, has been interesting,” says Chidinma.

“We received a lot of m e d i a p u b l i c i t y f ro m winning the competition, which helped our brand equity. We moved fully to Aba from Lagos in December 2018.

“In addition to training, we now offer job matching opportunities for trained shoemakers, access to affordable raw materials/ machines and shoe production,” she explains.

She said that funding and support from Ford Foundation enabled the team to travel to learn shoemaking in Italy, which they concluded in May, 2019.

The fund from Ford Foundation also enabled them to get an office and student apartment in Aba. “We also bought some industrial sewing machines, skiving machines, sole press, among other items,” she said.

On training, she said, “When we got back from Italy in July, 2019, we ran a N35,000 training promo that ended in December, 2019. We currently offer four training programs that range from two weeks (N50,000) to 3 months (N300,000).

“Next week, we will be training 30 youths in a local government in Anambra

state for 1 month. The training is sponsored by the local government.

She, however, decried lack of infrastructure in Aba, which, according to her, has made it unattractive for people from other states to come and train in the industrial city.

“Lack of infrastructure in Aba, bad road network,

power, among others, makes it unattractive for people to visit to learn shoemaking.

It’s interesting how people imagine the worse when they think of coming to Aba. So, we generate a lot of training enquiries that isn’t converted to sales, because people are skeptical about coming to Aba. Fo r p e o p l e i n Ab a,

N35,000 seems like a lot of money to pay to learn shoemaking. Consequently, she appealed to government, corporate organisations and well-meaning individuals in the society to partner with them in providing free or discounted training programmes for young people in Abia State and beyond.w

Aba industrialists need support to scale - Nigerians GBEMI FAMINU Lagos

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ome Nigerians say players in the leather and fabrics industries in Aba need support to scale and bring foreign exchange into the country.

T h e y a d d t h a t Ab a made products are good enough and can compete with their foreign counterparts if given adequate support.

Speaking with BusinessDay, some of the respondents applauded Ab a e nt re p re n e u r s f o r their hard work and artistry, but urged them to improve their finishing.

O l o r o g u n To p e , a resident of Lagos, said he always bought Aba-made products and urged the entrepreneurs to produce more quality products.

“With the reputation of made-in-Nigeria p ro d u c t s, Ab a manufacturers actually p ro d uc e g o o d , q ua lit y and affordable products.

Wi t h a l i t t l e h e l p a n d training, I expect Abamade products to become s ought-after globally,” Tope said.

Isaac Loveth, a trader in Lagos, said as a true Nigerian he would always buy products from Aba because of the artistry of the entrepreneurs.

“Whatever the case is, Aba-made products will be my choice. They are always up to the task when we talk of durability, affordability and quality. Even some foreign products are not as good as our indigenous products here. From travel bags to shoes to handbags, Aba products www.businessday.ng

Okezie Ikpeazu, governor, Abia State

are the best,” Loveth said.

Another respondent, Tobi Joseph, said he loved made-in-Aba products any time, any day.

“I love Aba-made p ro d u c t s a l l t h e t i m e.

Mo s t o f m y s h o e s a re Aba-made and they have

served their purpose well,” he said.

He said some of the products manufactured i n A b a w e re e x p o r t e d abroad, rebranded and sent back into the market at high prices. “ Mo s t Ni g e r i a n s d o

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@Businessdayng

not appreciate our homemade pro ducts, which is wrong. Nigerians need to appreciate Aba made products. This will encourage more products from the industr y with all the specifications of f o r e i g n p r o d u c t s ,” h e noted.

O s h i n o w o Ta i w o, a Lagos-based professional, said most Aba products were easy to get and could also be very beautiful.

“I even prefer them to foreign products. Some believe that Aba- made p ro d u c t s a re i n f e r i o r, but we also have foreign products that are substandard. It revolves around what you can afford. The major point is to get value for your money.”

Onyeka Iheoma, an Enugu-based civil servant, said Aba products @Businessdayng

had good standards. “ Eve n i f you d o n o t have much money, they w i l l p ro d u c e s h o e s o r bags or trunk boxes that fit the amount you have.

That is flexibility.”

H o w e v e r, s o m e stressed the need for Aba artisans to improve the quality of their products, especially finishing.

Wunmi Alabi, a Lagosbased businessman, said he preferred foreign products because he believed they had better quality.

“I will not waste my money. Foreign products have better designs and innovations that always make the products loveable. Most Aba products that I know have m e d i o c re d e s i g n s a n d unpalatable colours,” he said.

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ABC Transport shuts down passenger, cargo operations nationwide over Covid-19

L-R: Peter Kaka, chief of Gafere Community in Kuje Area Council; Tayo Erinle, executive director, Tabitha Cumi Foundation (TCF), and Wunmi Tewobola, program officer, TCF, during a sensitization for Covid-19 by TCF, at Kapagye Village in Kuje Area Council in Abuja, yesterday. Pic by Tunde Adeniyi

MIKE OCHONMA

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Lagos records partial shutdown of commercial, economic activities OLUSOLA BELLO

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ommercial activities and movement of people in Lagos State were partially shut down in some parts of the state following the state government directive that some markets should close Thursday in order to checkmate the spread of coronavirus in the state.

The government had advocated social distance among the people as one the steps that should be taken to reduce the spread of the disease.

Activities in motor parks from Ketu to Berger and Ogba, BusinessDay observed, were very minimal as a lot of commercial vehicles were parked without passenger in them. This is not because the drivers are not ready to pick passengers but because the passengers

stayed away.

Long queues of empty yellow and other assorted busses plying different routes in Lagos from these parks were seen even, though some of their conductors were shouting for passengers. This is unlike the normal situation when passenger rush to enter the buses at will.

One of the officials of the motor park at Berger, Musiliu Adekoya, told BusinessDay that though the government policy was good he however stated that people should not be made to suffer because they depend on daily earnings.

Also, there was little or no activities in respect of interstate travelling in many of these motor parks. On LagosIbadan Expressway there were very few inter-state vehicles seen, especially those mini buses that usually transport commuters out of Lagos to Ibadan or Ogun State.

Activities at the filling stations from the stretch of Alapere to Berger and to Ogba in Lagos suburb were almost nil, as many of the attendants in those areas were idle. They complained that motorist were not coming to buy petrol.

Over 20 filling stations were visited along this route

by BusinessDay, but the attendants on duty said there was no market as customers did not turn up to buy petrol.

MRS, Total, Mobil, Capital Oil, Conoil along with other independent filling stations recorded very low activities.

At the fruits market in Ketu and the popular Mile 12 Market some level of business activities were ongoing when they were visited. This is because many people went there to buy food items to stock their homes.

It must however be noted that the food markets were

not among those the Lagos State government asked to shut. A lot of small shops that are not even closed to the markets observed the shutdown, as this is evident in areas around Ogba and MKO Abiola Garden at Alausa very close to state secretariat.

Some medium size shopping complex such as Super Savings were also not left out as they closed shops.

The situation was not the same at Grand Square, a very large supermarket located along Tollgate- Berger road on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as it opened to the public.

However, only very scanty customers were seen in the store and a few other queuing outside the store to buy bread.

Long queues were witnessed outside the various bank branches where people clustered to withdraw money through the ATMs.

COVID-19: Domestic airlines in Nigeria suspend operations IFEOMA OKEKE

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lmost all domestic airlines in Nigeria will be suspending all scheduled commercial flight operations by Friday.

While Air Peace, Azman and Arik Air will suspend operations by Friday, midnight, March 27, 2020, Dana suspended operations on Wednesday and Aero Contractors will suspend operations on Thursday midnight, March 26, 2020.

Although Ibom Air has reduced capacity but stakeholders say the airline may likely suspend operations with others. The management of Arik said the airline took this decision in order to mitigate the risk of the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) to its valued customers and staff, and hoped to resume services as soon as feasible.

The airline said customers who had confirmed tickets had been advised that they could still use their tickets when the airline resumed flight operations. Such tickets could also be modified at no extra charge.

Roy Ilegbodu, CEO of Arik Air, stressed: “The safety and well-being of our valued customers is paramount at this period of health emergency.

We implore everyone to keep safe and abide by all directives issued by governmental authorities.”

In a statement signed by Toyin Olajide, its chief operating officer, Air Peace, said, “It is with a great sense of responsibility that we have decided, in the best interest of our nation, our passengers and workforce, to suspend scheduled flight operations for 23 days effective 23.00hrs on Friday (an hour before midnight on Friday) the 27th day of March, 2020 as

a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This difficult decision was reached in order to, not only, support the efforts of the Federal Government and other stakeholders in curbing the spread of this virus in our nation but also to protect our teeming passengers and our staff from becoming victims of the pandemic,” she said.

The airline said that it has to be equally noted that passenger traffic in the last three weeks has slumped drastically as a result of this pandemic, so it is therefore very unwise to continue raking up avoidable costs that the airline could ill afford.

In the same vein, the management of Aero Contractors has said it will be suspending flight operations for 14 days due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In a statement issues by the company, it stated that “In cognizance of the commend-

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able efforts of the Federal Government to stop the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, we at Aero Contractors have decided to suspend flight services in support of initiatives and precaution to ensure that there is no community infection in the country.

“This is also in line with the decision of the Lagos State Government, which has prohibited any gathering that is more than 20 persons.

“Coronavirus, known as COVID-19 is a global threat to our humanity and considering its devastating effect on many countries where it has led to death of thousands of people, we have decided to make this onerous sacrifice by suspending our flight operations for two weeks, effective Midnight 26 March, 2020. After the two week duration, we will review the progress made and take a decision on resumption of operations.”

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BC Transport plc will from Friday, March 27, shut down passenger and cargo and terminal operations nationwide including its movement to other neighbouring West African countries as a result of the border closure by the Federal Government to stem the tide of the ravaging coronavirus disease that has triggered global lockdown.

In a telephone interview with BusinessDay on Thursday, Frank Nneji, managing director/chief executive of ABC Transport, said the shutdown, which begins Friday, would last for 14 days in the first instance after which the company management would review the situation

and know the next line of action to follow.

Nneji said the leading local and cross-border transport company had to take the decision to close its doors to the travelling public as no profitmaking in whatever guise was worth the life of any Nigerian in this trying times in the country. He called on all Nigerians to be safety conscious through thorough personal hygiene at all times.

With several intercity bus coaches and mini-buses on its fleet running passenger and cargo services across the country and the ECOWAS route, ABC Transport daily basis conveys thousands of passengers and several tonnage of bulk cargo to private and fleet customers including charter services.

Mitsubishi Motors welcomes Mike Edwards as ambassador with brand new car at ‘Role Swap Day’ 2020

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itsubishi Motors, one of the world’s automotive heritage brands and ardent pioneer of technologies, officially welcomed ex-BBNaija housemate, Mike Edwards, as its new brand ambassador with an Eclipse Cross at the just concluded ‘Role Swap Day,’ which took place at Mitsubishi Motors showroom in Ijora, Lagos.

The Role Swap Day is an initiative that involves members of the Mitsubishi Motors management team taking up roles of subordinates to enable them further understand other departments within the organisation.

As part of his welcome, Edwards was assigned to the workshop where he was tasked with servicing cars and changing tyres alongside other mechanics at the workshop.

Speaking on his role as brand ambassador, Edwards

expressed his excitement to be part of the Mitsubishi Motors family as he looks forward to inspiring other young Nigerians to drive their ambition.

Managing director/country delegate CFAO Nigeria, Thomas Pelletier, while handing Edwards the key to his brand new car, said, “We will like to officially welcome you to the Mitsubishi family and we’re counting on you to inspire ambitious Nigerian youths. We are very excited to share this year’s edition of the ‘Role Swap Day’ with you and we look forward to a great partnership with you on the team”.

Massilia Motors, a joint venture of CFAO and Chanrai Group, sole distributor of Mitsubishi Motors in Nigeria, is focused on delivering a range of exquisite cars – Mitsubishi ASX, Eclipse Cross, Outlander, Pajero, Pajero Sport and the award winning L200 pick-up – to the Nigerian market.

Air France/KLM lands in Lagos, evacuates 260 nationals to Paris IFEOMA OKEKE

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n empty Air France/ KLM flight from Amsterdam arrived Lagos on Thursday to pick some of its nationals.

Victoria Shinaba, manager, Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA), said all permissions were sought and approved by the Federal Government, saying the pilot and crew were not allowed to disembark, adding that after facilitation, the nationals were escorted to the aircraft to board.

In a letter dated March 23, 2020, from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) made available to BusinessDay, the NCAA gave clarification of flight @Businessdayng

operations that would be allowed into Nigeria due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In the letter, the NCAA confirmed essential flights to include aircraft in state of emergency, over flights, operations related to humanitarian aid, medical and relief flights, alternate aerodrome identified in the flight plan, technical stop where passengers do not disembark, cargo flights and other safety related operations.

Air France on Thursday afternoon airlifted 260 of its nationals to Paris via Lagos airport with the permission granted it by the Federal Government to operate essential flights to evacuate different nationals out of the country to Paris.

Friday 27 March 2020

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Coronavirus: Chaos for UK housing market as banks stop mortgage lending CHUKA UROKO

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t is not the best time now for the UK property market whose expected growth is being threatened by the global health emergency posed by coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike Nigeria where property buying is cash and carry, property buying in the UK is driven largely by mortgage. There, and in other economies too, including South Africa, people don’t save or use cash to buy homes. They simply take mortgage which they get once they apply to the banks.

Now, the whole world is under siege with the severe impact of coronavirus pandemic spreading. The UK banks are also catching the bug and have therefore stopped mortgage lending, throwing the entire housing market into confusion and chaos. Like other European countries, UK is locked down.

So, economic fears and a lack of staff because of self-isolation and the lockdown have led to lenders not giving out home loans to buyers.

Government is urging people not to move homes.

Danyal Hussain of the Daily Mail quotes cabinet office minister, Michael Gove, as saying amid a country-wide lockdown with restrictions on movement and socialising, that people should cancel plans to exchange house contracts or rent somewhere new and stay home.

Gove suggested that those who already have exchanged contracts should complete their moves to their new houses. But moving companies are cancelling jobs amid the pandemic, leaving people unable to move in.

“But one of the things I would stress, if at all possible, people should stay in their current homes.” Gove stressed.

Henry Pryor, a buying agent, agrees, saying,

“the easy advice is don’t go through with it; getting a survey will be impossible. Finding a removals company who can guarantee to be available in six weeks time will be harder still.”

Among lenders, Barclays have set a limit on how many applications it can deal with on a daily basis, due to staff shortages. Buy-to-let lender, Together, will not be lending during the crisis, while West Bromwich Building Society has limited its lending.

In a related development, Virgin Money has put all valuations on hold while Pepper Money said self-employed borrowers are now subject to underwriter review and discretion. Estate agents up and down the country are also feeling the effects of the government policy.

The good news however at a time like this is that homeowners who are facing financial difficulty because of the coronavirus pandemic have been offered a vital lifeline.

Investors shun FG bonds on coronavirus pandemic ...DMO reports just 39 successful bids, yield spike ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja

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ocal bonds issued by the Federal Government on Wednesday recorded low patronage as investor sentiment dampen on ravaging coronavirus pandemic, which has already infected some 487,000 persons globally with 22,000 deaths.

The DMO said it offered N50bn, 5-Year, 10-Year and 30-Year tenored bonds to investors at the auction held on Wednesday for March 2020. A total of 164 bids were received while only 39 were successful. But in February

428 bids were reported with 101 success.

As seen in the DMO report released on Thursday, 29 bids were received for the 5-year; 61 for 10-year; and 74 for 30- year bonds from investors who placed N21.07bn; N69.01bn and N91.18bn subscriptions across the three instruments, respectively. But only 7 bids were successful for the 5-year; 18 for the 10-year; and 14 for the 10-Year bonds.

Consequently, N70bn bids were allotted as against N160bn reported for last month’s auction and N411.822bn in January.

N5bn was allotted for the

5-year bond; N20n for the 10-year and N25bn for the 30-year bonds for the competitive bids.

In addition, the sum of N10bn was allotted through Non-Competitive Bid for the 5 - year Bond and another N10bn for the 10-year bond.

None was allotted for the 30year bond.

Consequently, bids were allotted at the rate of 10% for the 5-Year; 12.5% for the 10-Year; and 12.98% for the 30-Year Bonds. This indicates a significant jump from the 8.75%, 10.7%, and 12.15% rates obtained in February for the three tenors, respectively.

WHO warns against lifting social distancing measures too soon ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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he World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general, Adhanom Ghebreyesus, strongly warned against lifting social distancing measures too soon on Wednesday.

“The last thing any country needs is to open schools and businesses, only to be forced to close them again because of a resurgence,” he said.

Ghebreyesus said, “Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test, treat and trace are not only the best and fastest way out of extreme social and economic restrictions – but also to prevent them. This is especially relevant for many countries with vulnerable health systems.

“Although we’re especially concerned about vulnerable countries, all countries have vulnerable

populations, incl. older people. They carry the collective wisdom of our societies and we need to work together to protect them from the coronavirus and to ensure their needs are being met.”

According to Ghebreyesus, we understand that countries are trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measures; the answer depends on what countries do while these populationwide measures are in place.

“Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems, but on their own, these measures will not extinguish the epidemics,” he said.

He said the point of these actions is to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are www.businessday.ng

needed to stop transmission and save lives. “We call on all countries that have introduced so-called “lockdown” measures to use this time to attack the virus. You have created a second window of opportunity.”

He added that the question is: how will you use it?, noting that there are 6 key actions that we recommend: expand, train, and deploy your health care and public health workforce; implement a system to find every suspected case at the community level; ramp up production capacity and availability of testing; identify, adapt, and equip facilities you will use to treat patients; develop a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts, and refocus the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19 https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

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NEWS

CONVID-19 exposes government’s misplaced priorities for households, businesses Coronavirus: Traditional media remain BUNMI BAILEY

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he rapid spread of the Coronavirus (CONVID-19) pandemic has necessitated a lockdown in almost all parts of Nigeria, and concerns mount as to how the most vulnerable and low-income households will fare in this trying period, without adequate provision made by government to cater for their wellbeing.

While the monetary authorities have introduced various stimulus packages to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on affected businesses and households, and the organised private sector is ramping up efforts to intervene in the situation, the fiscal authorities is yet to come up with a holistic action plan to support affected parties whose means of livelihood have grounded to a halt due

to staying at home order.

The Nigerian government has failed to emulate its global counterparts who have been at the frontline in providing massive support to households, businesses and corporates hit hard by the virus.

For instance, the American government is planning to inject $2 trillion worth of stimulus package for their citizens, affected businesses and corporates to offset the economic impact of the pandemic. This complements the efforts of the US Federal Reserves with plans underway to provide up to $300 billion in new financing for employers, consumers and businesses.

Also, Canada set up an Emergency Response Benefit where its citizens who are out of a job or unable to work, will have access to $2,000 a month in support for four

months.

“Even the government that ought to support affected persons and businesses out, needs support,’ said Adeshina Adewale, an economic analyst.

“Summing the various interventions announced so far is less than six percent of GDP, hence it will not have much of an impact on the populace,” Adewale said.

Given the unprecedented disruption in commercial activities, businesses are finding it difficult to operate and may be forced to lay off workers to cut cost, thereby compounding the unemployment situation and crime rate Analysts say it will be increasingly difficult for the grassroots to benefit from the stimulus packages due to lack of a central database system that captures the biodata of the masses and the fact

that the country’s economy is largely informal.

“If you want to distribute money, do we have the database of people in Nigeria?

What should be the modality of the distribution of those funds,” said Ayodele Akinwumi of FSDH Merchant Bank.

Akinwumi harped on the need to build a foundation that will prepare the nation for subsequent crisis.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a blog article, unregistered household enterprises comprise a significant portion of Nigeria’s economy, accounting for as high as 65 percent of GDP. Last week, in a bid to ravage the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Nigerian economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced a N3.5 trillion stimulus package to individuals, businesses and industries.

‘trustworthy’ source, says Kantar latest survey

… as social media show loss of trust DANIEL OBI

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here is an increase in media consumption across channels as countries, including Nigeria, move deeper into the coronavirus pandemic. But among all the media news channels that have gained in usage, traditional nationwide broadcast and newspapers are the most trusted sources of information, says Kantar latest report.

The report said 52% of the 25,000 consumers across over 30 countries including Nigeria polled identified traditional media (broadcast and newspapers) as ‘Trustworthy’ source.

“Government agency websites are regarded as trustworthy by only 48% of people, suggesting that government measures are not providing citizens around the world with assurances and security,” while social media platforms are regarded by only 11% of people as a source of trustworthy information.

Kantar is the world’s foremost evidence-based insights and consulting

company. In its latest report, the global firm spoke to over 25,000 people in over 30 countries including Nigeria between 14th and 23rd March 2020, with 500 interviews per country.

In later stages of the pandemic, the report said web browsing increased by 70%, followed by (traditional) TV viewing increasing by 63%.

Social media engagement increased by 61% over normal usage rates.

According to the report, Whatsapp experienced the greatest gains in usage as people look to stay connected. In the early phase of the pandemic Whatsapp usage increased 27%, rising to 51% in the late phase of the pandemic. “Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram have all experienced a 40%+ increase in usage from under 35-year olds”.

In spite of usage increase in social media, the report said there is a crisis in trust as traditional nationwide news channels (broadcast and newspaper) remain the most trusted sources of information.

54gene, others launch $500,000 Covid-19 testing support fund ODINAKA ANUDU

5 L-R: Lovina Eneh, treasurer, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Enugu State branch; Anene Ojinta, chairman, NBA Enugu; Emelue Chiedu, controller of Correctional Service, Enugu Command, and Monday Emeka, public relations officer, Enugu State Command, during the presentation of the 2019 Correctional Service Act to the NBA Chairman at Nigerian Corrections Service Enugu state headquarters. NAN

‘ASUU should be generating bankable knowledge products, not strike’ KELECHI EWUZIE

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oncerned industry experts have called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to be at the forefront of generating bankable knowledge products that can address national challenges like the Covid-19 than embark on needless industrial actions.

ASUU, the umbrella body of lecturers in both Federal and State universities, commenced a nationwide strike following the inability of the Federal Government to address the issues raised even after several negotiations.

“Universities are supposed to be at the frontier of knowledge, they are supposed to be conducting policy-relevant research, they are supposed to be generating knowledge products

that are bankable”, says Olumide Ayodele, technical adviser to the director-general, Budget Office of the Federation.

Official figures from the National Universities Commission (NUC), a regulatory body and licensing body for the whole universities in Nigeria, show that Nigeria has 43 approved federal universities and 48 state universities which have the capacity to carry less than 500,000 students.

Ayodele observes that in developed climes universities attract funds from donor organisations for research works that are profitable to the general country, questioning why the same approach can’t be applied

by ASUU members rather than continue to play the strike trump card that does not favour the system.

The professor of eco-

nomics is worried that there continues to be a disconnect between the town and the gown, adding that universities are supposed to grooming products for the market of the future and not the market of now.

“Today as always, when we hear any statement from ASUU, we still see that orientation, that contestation to get as much of revenue from the budget for universities, rather than seek strategic avenues to deploy their knowledge to attract bankable investment for their universities,” Ayodele says.

Considering that thousands of undergraduates attend public universities, the incessant down tooling by lecturers, potentially leaves a sizeable percentage of productive Nigerians frustrated while many go into social vices

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Ayodele observes that the reason most of these ASUU members get away with their actions is because parents and students don’t demand for better service from lecturers of Federal universities in the country because they don’t high fees.

According to him, “I have come to know that when you pay, it gives you the right to demand for service. Parents and students should ensure they hold lecturers in universities to play it roles of grooming leaders.”

Niyi Sunmonu, national coordinator, and Ernest Nwoke, national publicity secretary, the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), describes the ongoing ASUU strike as “utterly insensitive, irresponsible and a betrayal of national trust”.

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4gene, an African genomics research and development company, has launched a $500,000 fund to tackle covid-19 testing challenges currently faced in Nigeria.

The fund, according to the start-up, is meant to support the ongoing efforts of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). 54gene opened the fund by donating $150,000.

Within 24 hours of launch, it has secured an additional $350,000 from partners including Union Bank. The money raised will help increase COVID-19 testing capacity in the country by up to 1,000 additional tests a day, by buying testing instruments and the required biosafety materials such as biosafety cabinets and personal protective equipment needed to keep frontline healthcare workers safe, the company says in a statement sent to BusinessDay. Ongoing discussions with other Nigerian institutions are currently taking place, as the company looks to raise enough to accelerate and expand to 5,000 tests per day.

By intensifying the testing process for Covid-19, 54gene and funding partners plan to help minimise the spread of the infection, which has had a devastating effect on populations around the world. The team is also making a call for a Covid-19 workforce trained in using qPCR instruments and @Businessdayng

other molecular diagnostics methods, with the expectation that money raised will be channelled towards recruiting these people for a period of time to support existing public laboratories.

Working in unison with the NCDC and other stakeholders, 54gene’s team expects to start deploying the fund within days, purchasing vital testing equipment to be used by medical professionals. All equipment will be installed in public hospitals and laboratories across Nigeria, and will remain in situ once the current Covid-19 pandemic subsides--to be used by medical researchers and clinicians in case of any future outbreaks. In addition, there will also be significant investment in providing training and support to medical professionals/ personnel and volunteers working in coronavirus testing sites across the country, ensuring the mass roll out of effective and robust testing for tens of thousands more Nigerians, the company further says.

Abasi Ene-Obong, CEO, 54gene, says his firm is working in collaboration with the NCDC to make Nigeria’s public health an absolute priority during this global pandemic, which has left thousands dead or fighting for their lives across the world. “We are extremely ambitious in our mission to expand the testing capacity for Nigeria, and expect to increase the present rate by at least 10X in the coming weeks,” he says.

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

news CBN suspends FX sales to BDCs till...

Continued from page 1

virus has disrupted socio-

The entrance to Wuse Market Abuja shut down in respect of the order of Federal Government on social gathering in public.

Pic by Tunde Adeniyi Only food item sellers and buyers were allowed into the market.

Buhari’s legacy in jeopardy as Nigeria...

Continued from page 1

enduring symbol of his

legacy when he leaves office,” the person said.

Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Lagos-based FDC Ltd, said the economy could contract by 0.5 percent in the first quarter and by 0.2 percent in the second quarter. FDC says the probability of a recession is 45 percent.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, at the second Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision announcement warned that available data on key macroeconomic variables indicate the likelihood of subdued output growth for the Nigerian economy in 2020.

A day after, data on manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed manufacturing sentiments in March at its lowest in almost three years, while non-manufacturing PMI entered “recession zone” or fell below 50 points or first time since 2017.

The PMI is considered by some analysts and economists to be a predictive tool for the output growth.

The implication is that two consecutive quarters of contraction would truncate President Buhari’s promise to “lay the foundation for lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty” and score him as one of the worst leaders for the country, by economic

measures.

The risk of a recession for Nigeria is directly linked to the COVID-19 outbreak which is roiling markets and economies around the world but the lack of preparedness of the economy only highlights how prone Nigeria (and its leaders are) is to repeating same mistakes.

In 2016, the country had dwindled reserves to $25.84bn from $52.6bn in 2008, its Excess Crude Account had fallen by two-thirds to $5bn while external debt spiked almost four-fold to $11.26bn – its buffers were too weak to withstand the slide in oil price and heavy dependence of the FG on windfall put sub-national governments as well in fiscal turbulence.

The full impact was felt two years after emergence from the recession. Nigeria had become the world poverty capital with nearly 90 million living below poverty line.

Just four years after the rare recession (second in 25 years), a second recession is now a likely scenario but worse is the country’s buffers are weaker than ever.

The COVID-19 outbreak has depressed price of crude oil and slowed demand for Nigeria’s cash cow. Its biggest buyers are either under lockdown or not in need for oil right now, while domestic manufacturing has also

Presidency confirms BusinessDay story...

Continued from page 2

using the period of partial lockdown to carry out the “cleansing”, even as the president continues his self-isolation in his official residence.

“Every area of the entire Villa will be fumigated. It is not a new thing, just that this is now attracting attention because of the coronavirus diseases. We do it regularly,” the source said.

Fumigation at the Villa is usually carried out by Julius Berger plc, main contractors

at the State House, but BusinessDay gathered that experts from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), officials from the Federal Ministry of Health and Julius Berger staff are jointly involved in the current operation.

Members of the Presidential Task Force on the Coronavirus pandemic, headed by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, have also suspended all briefings.

Several briefings listed since Tuesday to enlighten

slowed, setting the stage for another downturn.

Oil prices are forecast to average $28 in the first quarter and $40 in the second. The balance of trade for Africa’s largest oil producer is expected to swing to a deficit of $3 billion in the first quarter but narrow to $1.5 billion in the second quarter while the country’s fiscal deficit is tipped to nearly double from current figures to N4 trillion in both quarters.

External reserve has fallen to around $35bn, external debt is at a high of $26.94bn and Excess Crude Account has fallen to a record-low $71 million.

These are uninspiring numbers for Nigeria which has limited buffers to stave off another economic recession and continues to remain heavily dependent on crude oil exports. The country’s attempts at diversification are yet to yield the fruits required to weather the upcoming storm, economists say.

“There was always a chance that Nigeria could be back to where it was in 2016 but the prevailing realities all but confirm it if it was ever in doubt,” an Abuja-based economist said.

Now, President Buhari, touted “Baba go-slow”, and his economic team are faced with the daunting task of steering the country out of the imminent crisis with fewer policy

tools at their disposal.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has been carrying the weight of its fiscal counterpart, could be President Buhari’s hope of averting the crisis.

In 2019, a decision by the apex bank to force banks to lend helped boost growth to 2.3 percent, its fastest since 2015.

In the fight against the impact of the coronavirus, the CBN made moves to ease pressure on loan repayments by reducing interest rates from 9 percent to 5 percent on its existing intervention programmes over the next one year; created a N50 billion fund to support households and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) affected by COVID-19; introduced credit support for the healthcare sector; introduced regulatory forbearance to consider temporary and time-limited restructuring of loan terms and tenors to households and businesses affected by COVID-19, and strengthened the loan-todeposit ratio (LDR) policy.

The bank also announced an intervention fund of N1.1 trillion to cushion the adverse effects of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy.

The fiscal arm, on the other hand, cut 2020 budget by N1.5 trillion and reviewed fuel selling price lower.

It is on the former that the preservation of President Buhari’s legacy rests.

members of the public on the pandemic were cancelled without explanations.

But a source close to the team told BusinessDay that the decision to “cancel the briefings is not unconnected with the need for members who had contact with the president’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, to embark of self-isolation”.

Other members of the task force include ministers of health, interior, aviation, humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social services, education, information and culture, and environment.

The team also has as membersthedirector-general,DSS,director-general,NigeriaCentrefor Disease Control, and the World Health Organisation country representatives in Nigeria.

The SGF and ministers had attended the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting with Kyari before the results of the coronavirus test that came out positive for the CoS. Based on the above, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, is also reported to be observing self-isolation and has not made any public briefing in the last two days.

economic activities not only in Nigeria but across the world.

The situation is further worsened with the crash of crude oil prices in the international market with its attendant effect on economic activities.

Consequently, this has led several countries to take decisive measures to contain the spread of the outbreak with Nigeria inclusive. These measures include, among others, the total shutdown of air and land borders across the world leading to reduction in travels and demand for foreign exchange by travellers.

Part of the letter to BDCs said based on the recommendations of ABCON, “sales of foreign currency to members of ABCON are hereby suspended until further notice.

Meanwhile, you may wish to inform all your members accordingly of this development.

Please accept the assurance of the warmest regards of the governor, CBN”.

Aminu Gwadabe, acting president, national executive council, ABCON, said in a notice to all BDCs that the CBN has granted their request.

Effective Friday (today), there would be no market days henceforth for a tentative twoweek break.

“We also want to advise members to strictly comply with their regulatory obligations on their daily operation.

If you are trading be cautious not to fall under the hand of security agencies. Don’t be involved in giving black market rates, street trading as doing so might create regulatory breach,” Gwadabe said.

“Please, also note that both the CBN/NFIU are tracking large movements of funds within the financial sector and the need to be cautious,” he said.

Nigeria’s currency on Thursday deprecated by 1.39 percent to close at N385.53kobo per dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, data from FMDQ show. The naira weakened to 361 to the dollar on the official market, supported by the central bank.

The CBN also said on Thursday that interest rate on the health intervention facility for indigenous pharmaceutical companiesandhealthcarepractitioners intending to build or expand their capacity would revert to 9 percent per annum (all inclusive)asfromMarch1,2021.

The N100 billion credit support intervention was introduced by the CBN as part of proactive measures to cushion the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy.

On Thursday, the apex bank issued operational guidelines for the credit support.

The guideline, which was signed by Kevin Amugo, director, financial policy and regulation, stated that interest rate under the intervention would be at not more than 5.0 percent per annum, (all inclu-

sive) up to February 28, 2021.

In terms of working capital, the facility requires 20 percent of the average of three years of the company’s turnover subject to a maximum of N500 million per obligor. Where the enterprise is not up to three years in operation, 20 percent of the previous year’s turnover will suffice. The term loan is put at maximum of N2 billion per obligor.

The scheme is to be funded from the Real Sector Support Facility – Differentiated Cash Reserves Requirement (RSSFDCRR), the CBN said.

The objectives of the scheme include to reduce health tourism to conserve foreign exchange; provide long-term, low-cost finance for healthcare infrastructure development that would lead to the evolvement of worldclass healthcare facilities in the country, and; improve access to affordable credit by indigenous pharmaceutical companies to expand their operations and comply with the World Health Organisation’s Good Manufacturing Practices (WHO GMP), and to support the provision of shared services through one-stop healthcare solution to enhance competition and reduce the cost of healthcare delivery in the country.

Eligible participants under the scheme include healthcare product manufacturers – pharmaceutical drugs and medical equipment; healthcare service providers/medical facilities – hospitals/clinics, diagnostic centres/laboratories, fitness and wellness centres, rehabilitation centres, dialysis centres, blood banks, etc; pharmaceutical/medical products distribution and logistics services, and other human healthcare service providers as may be determined by the CBN from time to time.

The eligible financial institutions are Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).

According to the guidelines, the collateral to be pledged by borrowers under the programme would be as may be required under the RSSF-DCRR. The apex bank said periodic joint monitoring of activities financed under the scheme would be conducted by the PFI and the CBN. The CBN also issued guidelines for the implementation of the N50 billion targeted credit facility for households and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs that have been particularly hard hit by Covid-19.

The broad objectives of the CBN’s N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility include to cushion the adverse effects of COVID-19 on households and MSMEs; support households and MSMEs whose economic activities have been significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulate credit to MSMEs to expand their productive capacity through equipment upgrade, and research and development.

Friday 27 March 2020

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Sports Chinese club tempts Ighalo with £400k-a-week deal Ighalo’s current contract expires in December 2022 and Shanghai want to keep him until December 2024.

The new deal would see Ighalo earn £400,000 a week before tax, which is said to have flattered the striker.

His focus, though, is on United until his loan spell expires. He will wait to see if United offer him a permanent deal before making a final decision on his future.

Ighalo has always said it has been a dream playing for United, the club he supported as a boy.

Ighalo has made an impressive start to life at United, scoring four goals in eight games since signing on loan in May 31 from the Chinese Super League club.

Anthony Nlebem

M

anchester United loanee Odion Ighalo has been offered a two-year contract extension worth more than £400,000 per week by his parent club Shanghai Shenhua.

The Chinese club want to reward the Nigerian striker for his good form at United, where has scored four goals in his first three starts.

Ighalo’s loan deal expires in May 31, but reports in England say Man United are willing to be extend his loan until June 30 due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

Football stars donate in fight against coronavirus Anthony Nlebem

F

ootballers from around the world are joining forces together to help fight the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo donated €1 million each to help provide medical facilities for treatment of infected patients with coronavirus.

Clinic Barcelona confirmed that it had received a donation from the Argentine star, Lionel Messi, which will go towards both treating infected patients and researching COVID-19.

“Thank you very much Leo, for your commitment and your support,” the hospital said.

Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo reported that half of the €1 million will go to Clinic Barcelona and the other half to a medical center in Messi’s native Argentina.

Spain has become one of the countries most affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak with more than 47,000 confirmed cased and 3,334 deaths as the time of filling this report, putting the healthcare system under immense strain.

LaLiga has also been suspended indefinitely, with officials saying that it would only resume when the government confirms it is safe to do so.

Also, Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes’ donation will be divided between two hospitals in Lisbon and Porto.

The €1 million will fund two intensive care units for

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Lisbon’s Hospital de Santa Maria as it grapples with the COVID-19 outbreak. Those two units can cater for up to 20 patients at one time and will be named after Ronaldo and Mendes, the hospital said in a statement.

“They were absolutely unselfish and supportive,” said Santa Maria President Daniel Ferro in a statement. “They wanted to improve the conditions of their compatriots.

Therefore, we reinforced the critical care area, which is the one where the biggest fight will be fought.”

In Porto, the Santo Antonio hospital will have one ward equipped with 15 intensive care beds, ventilators and monitors, reported Reuters.

“We want to thank Ronaldo and Mendes for the initiative,

which is so useful at the time the country needs everyone so much,” Paulo Barbosa, president of Santo Antonio’s administrative council, said in a statement.

Portugal has just over 2,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 43 deaths.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has also made a €1 million donation, helping fund the Angel Soler Daniel Foundation and the Medical College of Barcelona.

The College said the donation would go towards the purchase and supply of medical and protective equipment for doctors fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response to the novel coronavirus outbreak in France, Paris Saint-Germain has donated €100,000 ($108,000) to the Secours Populaire Francais, an organization dedicated to fighting poverty.

The sum is in addition to the €400,000 ($433,000) three-year partnership PSG renewed with the SPF earlier this month.

The club says the money will go towards protective equipment for doctors, the training of 2,000 volunteers, paying for 5,000 education kits for schoolchildren in isolation and providing food and support for the elderly and homeless.

Last week, Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski also donated €1 million to help fight the outbreak in Germany.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics postponed over coronavirus scare Anthony Nlebem

O

rganisers of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have postponed the date for the event until 2021 due to the increasing spread of coronavirus pandemic.

The event, due to begin on 24 July, will now take place “no later than summer 2021”.

“I proposed to postpone for a year and [IOC] president Thomas Bach responded with 100% agreement,” said Shinzo Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister.

The event will still be called Tokyo 2020 despite taking place in 2021.

In a joint statement, the organisers of Tokyo 2020 and the IOC said: “The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating.

“On Monday, the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the Covid-19 pandemic is ‘accelerating’.

“There are more than 375,000 cases now recorded worldwide and in nearly every country, and their number is growing by the hour.

“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today [Tuesday], the IOC president and the prime minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”

The IOC had given itself a deadline of four weeks to consider delaying the Games but there had been mounting pressure from a host of Olympic committees and athletes demanding a @Businessdayng

quicker decision.

World Athletics president Lord Coe said: “The athletes have been under intolerable conditions, many of them are unable to train and many have been going through real emotional turmoil.

“The integrity of competition would have been seriously compromised if we had tried to force the Games into the remaining part of this year.”

Coe, who was chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, said World Athletics was looking at moving the 2021 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, to 2022.

The Olympics have never been delayed in their 124year modern history, though they were cancelled altogether in 1916, 1940 and 1944 during World War One and World War Two. Major Cold War boycotts disrupted the Moscow and Los Angeles summer Games in 1980 and 1984.

The Tokyo 2020-IO C statement continued: “The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.

“Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.”

On 22 January, Olympic qualifying events in boxing and women’s football that were due to be held in Wuhan, China - the centre of the coronavirus outbreak became the first to be moved or postponed.

There have now been over 450,000 recorded cases of the virus worldwide, with over 20,000 deaths.

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Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 26 March 2020 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) 4 135,100 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES BANKING ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 6,784.62 1.05 - 0 0 ACCESS BANK PLC. 202,607.79 5.70 -5.79 262 9,048,295 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 170,997.11 5.00 -6.54 378 30,754,353 5,671.82 1.36 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC ZENITH BANK PLC 381,467.40 12.15 -10.00 1,360 118,447,125 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 2,000 158,249,773 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 0 0 FBN HOLDINGS PLC 143,581.17 4.00 1.25 389 35,181,175 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 389 35,181,175 AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 7,100.00 3.55 9.91 84 2,238,125 2,389 193,430,948 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 30,585.69 5.20 - 0 0 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES 495.00 0.33 - 4 3,000 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,025,274.05 99.50 -4.78 104 705,552 FCMB GROUP PLC. 30,694.20 1.55 0.65 81 21,470,668 104 705,552 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,131.98 0.22 - 1 20,000 104 705,552 296,765.33 28.25 - 37 335,691 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC BUILDING MATERIALS UNITED CAPITAL PLC 14,040.00 2.34 -10.00 63 2,512,933 DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,198,225.46 129.00 -3.30 163 1,099,928 270 26,580,417 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 162,688.73 10.10 -6.48 96 1,147,831 1,680 279,829,271 259 2,247,759 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS 259 2,247,759 EKOCORP PLC. 2,991.61 6.00 - 2 217,863 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 710.63 0.20 - 0 0 SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 320,408.06 544.50 - 4 33 2 217,863 4 33 MEDICAL SUPPLIES 4 33 MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 494.58 0.50 - 0 0 2,756 196,384,292 0 0 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) PHARMACEUTICALS SFS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 1,386.00 69.30 - 0 0 EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 4,610.86 2.21 -9.80 3 173,032 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 8,538.46 3.20 - 1 3,000 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 4,125.77 3.45 - 11 59,535 1 3,000 3,415.97 1.98 -7.91 5 150,000 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 1 3,000 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 759.66 0.40 - 7 95,006 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 1 90 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 26 477,573 1 90 28 695,436 1 90 2 3,090 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 745.92 0.21 - 5 233,258 CROP PRODUCTION 5 233,258 FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 52,512.75 55.05 - 13 11,973 OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,000.21 0.34 - 0 0 PRESCO PLC 40,450.00 40.45 - 5 1,369 0 0 18 13,342 IT SERVICES FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,500.00 4.25 - 0 0 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 237.60 2.20 - 0 0 0 0 287.07 0.58 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES 0 0 LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,800.00 0.60 9.09 5 4,088,100 PROCESSING SYSTEMS 5 4,088,100 CHAMS PLC 939.21 0.20 - 10 6,511,800 23 4,101,442 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 10,962.00 2.61 - 0 0 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES 10 6,511,800 JOHN HOLT PLC. 217.92 0.56 - 0 0 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 S C O A NIG. PLC. AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,123,311.48 298.90 - 6 31 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 25,201.75 0.62 -8.82 93 12,852,457 6 31 U A C N PLC. 20,745.34 7.20 -2.78 62 2,448,616 21 6,745,089 155 15,301,073 BUILDING MATERIALS 155 15,301,073 BERGER PAINTS PLC 1,767.92 6.10 - 6 3,750 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION BUA CEMENT PLC 1,195,411.70 35.30 - 4 54,437 ARBICO PLC. 423.23 2.85 -9.81 1 105,200 CAP PLC 12,600.00 18.00 - 17 105,662 1 105,200 MEYER PLC. 244.37 0.46 - 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION 1,769.32 2.23 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 29,436.00 22.30 - 63 669,445 PLC. PREMIER PAINTS 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 ROADS NIG PLC. 27 163,849 63 669,445 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,192.12 2.03 - 0 0 UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 2,390.52 0.92 -3.16 10 422,696 2,043.13 1.16 - 7 143,000 CUTIX PLC. 10 422,696 7 143,000 74 1,197,341 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS BETA GLASS PLC. 34,998.04 70.00 - 0 0 DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 0 0

0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 5,558.94 0.71 - 9 101,100 NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 220.45 0.81 - 0 0 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 55,197.65 25.20 - 20 40,135 34 306,849 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 147,741.38 5.50 4.76 33 1,164,781 CHEMICALS NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 239,907.06 30.00 -3.33 72 822,515 B.O.C. GASES PLC. 1,685.79 4.05 - 0 0 134 2,128,531 0 0 FOOD PRODUCTS METALS DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 120,000.00 10.00 1.52 43 836,517 ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,781.64 8.10 - 0 0 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 87,748.12 21.40 -9.81 67 3,793,242 0 0 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 6,582.06 0.83 - 12 200,600 MINING SERVICES MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 22,652.70 8.55 - 4 6,200 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS UNION DICON SALT PLC. 2,993.06 10.95 - 0 0 THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 77.00 0.35 - 0 0 126 4,836,559 0 0 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED 0 0 CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 11,738.76 6.25 - 27 151,611

NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 673,757.81 850.00 -3.41 111 601,673 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES 138 753,284 JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,252.54 0.20 - 1 100 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES 1 100 NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 4,940.83 3.95 - 13 85,965 OANDO PLC 27,473.42 2.21 8.14 88 3,123,199 13 85,965 88 3,123,199 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 17,668.62 4.45 - 35 315,199 11 PLC 52,827.21 146.50 - 17 28,068 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 66,929.31 11.65 - 21 65,338 ARDOVA PLC 17,974.24 13.80 - 11 31,956 56 380,537 CONOIL PLC 10,131.70 14.60 - 24 87,469 467 8,184,876 ETERNA PLC. 2,895.20 2.22 - 11 154,990 BANKING MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 4,206.05 13.80 - 0 0 ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 89,912.80 4.90 -1.01 32 637,905 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 36,328.84 107.00 - 5 2,266 FIDELITY BANK PLC 49,257.15 1.70 -4.49 166 25,472,766 68 304,749 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 538,590.58 18.30 -0.54 909 100,708,788 157 3,428,048 JAIZ BANK PLC 13,258.91 0.45 9.76 23 1,723,290 ADVERTISING STERLING BANK PLC. 31,093.65 1.08 9.09 60 3,823,433 AFROMEDIA PLC 1,509.28 0.34 - 0 0 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 209,669.42 7.20 - 42 964,767 0 0 UNITY BANK PLC 5,377.10 0.46 -8.70 18 2,931,217 AIRLINES WEMA BANK PLC. 18,515.74 0.48 -2.04 40 5,091,495 MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 15,796.05 1.62 - 0 0 1,290 141,353,661 0 0 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 R T BRISCOE PLC. 235.27 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 8,837.56 0.78 -1.27 14 3,702,170 0 0 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 18,375.00 1.75 2.94 12 435,319 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,439.00 0.30 - 0 0 RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,779.06 3.00 - 0 0 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 8,543.11 0.58 9.43 5 368,640 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 421.96 0.90 - 1 18 909.99 0.20 - 0 0 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 1 18 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 1 200 HOSPITALITY INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 1,537.92 0.21 -4.55 10 889,400 0 0 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 4,296.33 1.00 4.17 17 1,656,129 HOTELS/LODGING LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 3,440.00 0.43 - 1 50,050 CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,259.15 2.75 - 0 0 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,234.55 0.20 - 2 1,324,530 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 2,058.01 0.99 - 0 0 NEM INSURANCE PLC 8,396.00 1.59 0.63 6 302,000 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,076.28 3.15 - 0 0 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 1 373,019 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 30,401.62 4.00 - 3 10,200 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,691.28 0.50 -9.09 1 100,000 3 10,200 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 - 1 115,000 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 2,272.89 0.20 - 0 0 DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 3,960.00 0.33 - 1 100 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STACO INSURANCE PLC 1 100 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 PRINTING/PUBLISHING SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 0 0 ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 223.78 0.37 - 1 2,702 LEARN AFRICA PLC 771.45 1.00 - 1 909 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 427.10 0.99 - 1 1,000 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 2 300 3 4,611 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 5,038.25 0.21 -4.55 43 102,443,336 ROAD TRANSPORTATION 116 111,760,093 ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 547.04 0.33 6.45 2 303,927 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS

2 303,927 NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,400.97 1.05 3.96 4 135,100

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Prudential Zenith Life deepens insurance penetration via mobile phone BALA AUGIE

D

Jim Ovia, chairman and founder, Zenith Bank

for consumption, Nigeria lags Ghana in mobile insurance.

Ghana’s smaller size gives it a geographical advantage over Nigeria in terms of selling insurance. But mobile money makes the last mile to the remote customer easier and economically viable even in larger countries.

By 2017, Ghana had over 11 million active mobilemoney accounts, mostly provided by South Africa’s MTN. Through these accounts, Ghanaians can open savings accounts or even buy government treasury bills by phone. Other international players have jumped on board. In September 2017, emerging markets insurance company BIMA partnered with Vodafone to provide life insurance to Ghana’s fishing communities.

Chairman and Founder

of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, is optimistic the payment service device can help Nigeria underwrite a million people through mobile phone every year.

“Some people think it will take 40 years to write traditional insurance for one person, but with this product it can be done in one year.

“We expect this to be the game changer and definitely it will be,” said Ovia.

The country’s insurance industry has been plague with sundry challenges inhibiting its growth, but the regulator has been formulating polices that will enable operators shore up their capital and take on more risk.

First, the population’s apathy to insurance stemming from cultural constraints, low per capital income and the low insurance literacy

‘

Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 (£0.63) a day, despite economic growth, according to a recent data by National Bureau of Statistics

‘

espite the proliferation of mobile phones in Africa’s largest economy, only less than 1 percent of population of 200 million have an insurance cover, an abysmally poor figure that shows a lot of people are alienated from the financial ecosystem.

More worrisome is that the country’s penetration is one of the lowest in Sub Saharan Africa.

South Africa, the continent most industrialized nation has a penetration rate of 16.9 percent, Namibia (6.69 percent); Lesotho, (4.76 percent); Mauritius, (4.18 percent), Zimbabawe (4.09 percent); Kenya (2.83 percent), and Swaziland, (2.44 percent).

To help deepen insurance penetration in the country and propel economic growth, Prudential Zenith Life Insurance has launched a payment service which allows mobile phone customers in Nigeria to buy protection policies wherever they are.

Customers who dial *5966# on their mobile phones will be able to purchase a life insurance or hospital cash plan policy in a matter of minutes.

The product, which industr y experts say is a game changer in the financial system, will definitely thrive because of the country’s copious mobile device user.

Nigeria currently has over 172 million mobile subscribers according to the Nigeria communications Commission (NCC) figures, as the commission added that the figure may rise to over 201 million by 2025.

D espite its grow ing young population that crave

in particular were identified by experts as inimical to growth.

Second, inadequate regulatory enforcement and some unfavourable government policies which resulted in fragmentation within the industry; Third, low capacity building and inability to attract specialised insurance skillset linked to inadequate funding and capitalisation; Fourth, poor governance structures ascribed to inefficiency present in owner managed institution; Fifth, unhealthy competition amongst the players in the market place which gives little consideration to insurance risk; And lastly, inadequate capitalisation which restricts underwriting capacity or the company’s ability to absorb insurance risk.

The launch of the payment service marks the first step forward in the actualization of financial inclusion in Nigeria, according to Ferdinand Moolman Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria Communications.

“Access to insurance is an important safety in the world full of perils. In many parts of the world insurance is considered paramount to economic growth,” said Moolman.

The country’s financial inclusion rate stood at 63.2 per cent in 2018, according to The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s 2018 Annual Report on the National Financial Inclusion Strategy Implementation.

The CBN said the figure showed a marginal increase of 4.8 per cent from 58.4 per cent in 2016 to 63.2 per cent in 2018.

Less than 6 percent of Nigerians use their handsets to transact using mobile money, compared with 73 percent of Kenyans, where more than two-thirds of adults have a bank account,

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

https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

@Businessdayng

according to the World Bank.

That’s even though there are more than two phones for every bank account in the West African nation.

“As we adopt digital technology, we are very optimistic millions of Nigeians will embrace the product,” said Keninde Aborishade, Chief Executive officer (CEO) of Zenith General Insurance Limited.

“It will help deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria. The new product called mobile insurance is a game changer,” said Aborishade.

Ovia said during the launch of the product that no country can develop without bringing banking service close to the people and that insurance is a powerful tool to pull people out of poverty.

Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 (£0.63) a day, despite economic growth, according to a recent data by National Bureau of Statistics.

Historical Background of Zenith Insurance Prudential Zenith Life Insurance Limited is part of Prudential Plc, one of the oldest and most strongly capitalised life insurance companies in the world. It provides a range of insurance and investment-linked savings products designed to suit corporate and individual customers’ budgets.

Prudential Zenith Life seeks to remove uncertainty from life’s big events, providing customers with the freedom to confront the future with greater confidence.

It is equally committed to meeting the long-term savings and protection needs of families and businesses in Nigeria. Whether someone is starting a family, saving for a child’s education or planning for old age, Prudential Zenith Life provides customers with financial peace of mind.

45

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

The wrong kind of American exceptionalism

Donald Trump’s ambivalence on coronavirus threatens both the US and its global power Edward Luce

W

ithin 48 hours, America’s coronavirus infections will surpass China’s total. The US will probably replace Italy as the centre of the pandemic. At just the moment Britain dropped its flirtation with “herd immunity”, Donald Trump is embracing it.

This makes America exceptional on two counts. First, it is the only nation whose leader explicitly questions the trade-off between economic growth and saving lives.

Second, America is unique in lacking a clear policy. Its federal system offers a menu of epidemiological options. Viruses pay no heed to democracy or autocracy. They do thrive on confusion.

Covid-19 has given Mr Trump licence to air his alt-science theories.

Every day he broadcasts homegrown ideas of how to defeat the disease.

This includes a cocktail of antimalaria drugs, the imminence of a “miracle” vaccine, predictions the virus will wash away by itself, changeof-season optimism and a drip drip of scepticism about social distancing.

The sight of experts around him is meant to reassure. Their look of strained reticence prompt thoughts of sappers navigating a minefield.

Muammer Gaddafi used to stage accompaniments like this. It takes some getting used to in America.

More than half the country says it approves of how Mr Trump is handling the epidemic. Such polls should come with a health warning. Ratings for leaders across the west have risen sharply — as tends

The virus has given Donald Trump a chance to broadcast his alt-science theories © AFP via Getty Images

to happen in the early stages of an external threat.

The virus originated in China.

But it will probably do more damage to the US Rumours of Mr Trump’s reelection are thus premature. Polls show Joe Biden beating him by an average of 7 percentage points in a presidential election. That lead has not narrowed in the past three weeks. But the gulf between the federal government and America’s largest states is widening.

Such mixed signalling poses two threats to the US. The first is an à la carte grade of seriousness. Some states, such as New York, California, Washington and Connecticut,

are enforcing lockdowns. Most are Democratic. Exceptions include Ohio and Maryland, whose governors are Republican.

Others, such as Texas and Florida, are taking a far more relaxed approach. This makes it easier for the virus to spread. The fact that Florida is packed with retirees from New York was until this week treated with remarkable insouciance.

Before Tuesday Florida put no barriers stopping the flow of people south, nor 14-day quarantines for those who have made the trip. One of America’s greatest strengths — its laboratories of democracy — is becoming a liability.

Mr Trump’s timing is menacing.

He wants to lift federal restrictions

by Easter, which is in about two weeks. That almost exactly coincides with the expected peak of the epidemic in New York, the centre of the US outbreak. No state, including New York, has to follow Mr Trump’s lead. Nor are the majority of Americans likely to cram on to aeroplanes against scientific advice.

But he is giving dissenters an alternative path. The battle against socially communicable disease is as strong as its weakest link.

America’s president is making it much weaker. He is also politicising social behaviour. Liberals want to shut down the economy to stop his re-election, he says. conservatives

must therefore do the opposite.

Mr Trump’s ambivalence is also hurting New York and other viral hubs. Under the Defense Production Act, he can direct the private sector to make what is lacking — ventilators, protective gear and surgical equipment — then send the materials to where they are most needed. Mr Trump is refusing on the grounds that he is not a “shipping clerk”.

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Sign up here Material is going to the highest bidders, who are not necessarily those most in need. Mr Trump’s passivity reflects what he is hearing from chief executives rather than governors, who know what their hospitals lack. States are competing with each other for scarce goods. Another of America’s great strengths, its vibrant private sector, is therefore becoming a weakness.

The second threat is to America’s global power. The virus originated in China. But it will probably do more damage to the US. It is China, not the US, which is shipping ventilators to Europe, Africa and central Asia. China’s “face mask” diplomacy is breathtakingly opportunistic. But it meets a need.

America’s abdication of leadership is an act of self harm, which threatens to make it an object of mockery. There are no do-overs on pandemics. Mr Trump’s response to the coronavirus is worse than a crime. It is a mistake.

US jobless claims surge to record 3.3m as America locks down

Data demonstrate toll of coronavirus-related closures on US labour force Brendan Greeley, Mamta Badkar and Colby Smith

M

ore than 3m Americans filed a claim for unemployment benefits last week, a record high that offers the first nationwide picture of the damage to the US economy from the coronavirus shutdown.

According to data released by the labour department on Thursday, claims rose to 3.3m for the week ending Saturday, from 282,000 the previous week. The data eclipsed consensus expectations of 1.7m, showing the staggering scale of job losses in the first full week of claims since cities and states began to restrict public gatherings and, in some cases, ordered residents to stay home.

“Nearly every state providing comments cited the Covid-19 virus impacts,” the labour depart-

ment said on Thursday. States reported hotels and restaurants had been hit particularly hard, as well as entertainment, transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare and social assistance.

“It’s just disastrous on so many levels,” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Securities. The claims data show the cost-cutting companies are doing already has serious consequences, both for growth and for the labour market, he added.

It is by far the largest singleweek rise in unemployment claims since the department began publishing records in 1967. The previous one-week highs came in October of 1982, at 695,000 claims, and March 2009, at 665,000.

According to state-level estimates that have not been adjusted for seasonal lay-offs, Pennsylvania reported the largest number of claims at 378,900, while California www.businessday.ng

claims jumped to 186,809. New York state, which has become the centre of the outbreak in the US, reported 80,300 claims.

This is an impossible-to-comprehend number. We just wiped out a year and a half of job growth Martha Gimbel, labour economist, Schmidt Futures Over the past week, new claims for unemployment assistance have overwhelmed the state systems that administer them, crashing websites and overloading labour agencies struggling to process claims.

“This is an impossible-to-comprehend number. We just wiped out a year and a half of job growth,” said Martha Gimbel, a labour economist at Schmidt Futures.

“The most important thing to remember is that this is an undercount of people suffering,” said Ms Gimbel.

The claims data only reflect

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people who were able to apply for an unemployment insurance benefit. Others may not qualify, had hours cut instead of getting laid off or could not get into state systems when labour agency websites crashed. Economists at Oxford Economics have predicted 15m to 20m job losses in coming weeks.

The US unemployment rate had been at 3.5 per cent prior to the outbreak, a half-century low. Mr Slok said this week’s job losses alone could add 2 percentage points to the unemployment rate. In an interview with NBC on Thursday, Jay Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that the US “may well” be in recession already.

The US Senate has approved a relief deal worth $2tn for businesses and people affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

It will add $600 per week to @Businessdayng

state jobless benefits, which averaged $368 per week in late 2019.

The Senate bill also provides for direct cash transfers outside of the state unemployment insurance systems to low-income and middle-class families through cheques worth up to $1,200 per adult earning less than $75,000 a year.

US stocks rallied for the third day on hopes of the boost from the stimulus package, with the S&P 500 gaining more than 4 per cent by mid-morning Thursday trading.

US Treasuries advanced, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down 5.6 basis points to 0.79 per cent. The yield on the more policy-sensitive two-year note steadied at 0.3 per cent.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, said Thursday’s data highlighted “the ferocity of the sudden stop hitting the US economy”.

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

46

FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

How the Fed helped bond ETFs meet their biggest challenge Central bank’s decision to buy the debt funds released pressure at a critical time Joe Rennison

T

he financial storm unleashed by coronavirus has ripped bond exchange traded funds from their moorings, providing the first big test of a market that has grown dramatically in recent years.

Investors have flocked into fixed-income ETFs, which sell shares underpinned by corporate debt to give simple, speedy ways to bet on a market that can otherwise be tricky to access and trade.

But a deep sell-off earlier this month created big dislocations between the prices of bond ETFs and the value of the bonds behind them. These discounts became so wide that some predicted investors would lose faith in the fund structure altogether, and dump their holdings — further damaging debt market conditions.

Then the US Federal Reserve stepped in. On Monday, the central bank announced it would begin to buy corporate debt to quell the crisis — including bond ETFs. And it picked BlackRock, one of the biggest providers in the $1.1tn market, to manage the purchases.

ETF prices surged.

So what went wrong?

Corporate bond prices tumbled in early March, but fixed income ETFs fell even further, resulting in extraordinary discrepancies between the price of ETFs and their assets.

For example, the price of BlackRock’s $35bn-in-assets investment grade bond ETF — known by its ticker LQD — has historically bounced around within 50 cents per share of its “net asset value”, or the value of the bonds it holds. But recently

a bond market dynamic, and the ETF is showing you in real time how conditions are evolving,” argued Steve Laipply, US head of BlackRock’s iShares fixed income ETFs. APs say that if they were to redeem shares and try to sell the bonds in the market, the price they would get would be the same as the ETF. They argue that the prices reflected by bond indices are inaccurate because they have become stale, reflecting assets that have seen little or no trading activity. “It’s a market structure problem,” said Reggie Browne, a principal at GTS, a market maker.

Investors complain that the ease of trading debt has drastically deteriorated in the midst of rapid outflows from bond funds. Instead, investors have used ETFs to conduct broad trading against the index, making them a better Markets have been bolstered by unprecedented stimulus measures from central banks and governments around the world in response gauge of the “true” market. to the coronavirus crisis What happens next?

The Fed will buy investmentit slid to more than $6 per share the movements of the underlying and the value of the debt it holds grade corporate bonds with a should be the same. So, if the ETF maturity of five years or less. below its NAV, the biggest dis- securities.

The biggest fear is that this value drops below the value of the The central bank’s decision to count since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis. A host of other could cause investors to lose trust underlying bonds, APs can buy the include ETFs in its purchases ETFs that track junk bonds, mu- in bond ETFs entirely, pouring cheaper ETF shares and exchange has been taken as a nod to the nicipal debt, bank loans and even fuel on the fire of a sell-off in the them for the underlying bonds. products’ widespread use among When conditions are reversed, fund managers. It has also been US government bonds have also underlying market.

What stops this from happen- they can buy the cheaper under- seen as a potential backdoor traded at extraordinary discounts ing? lying bonds and turn them into for the Fed to influence longer to their NAVs. When ETF prices drift from ETF shares. Most of the time, this dated corporate debt held by the As markets rebounded on Monday following the Fed’s move, the value of the underlying hold- arbitrage keeps an ETF’s price and ETFs — extending its sway over the price of LQD soared to more ings, market makers — known as its NAV in line. borrowing costs.

So when prices diverge, which than $5 per share above its NAV, “authorised participants” in the Some investors say the medithe biggest premium since the industry jargon — normally swoop one is correct? cine is already working. LQD has Fund proponents say that de- taken inflows of more than $1bn ETF’s creation in 2002. Others in to close the gap by creating or redeeming shares in the ETF. spite gaps displayed on trading each day this week, according to mirrored the move.

Creation is when an AP buys screens, the price of the ETF is Bloomberg data, while its price Why are big swings a problem?

ETFs are designed to mimic bonds and hands them over to not higher or lower than the true has rebounded. the markets they claim to track. the ETF provider in exchange for value of the debt. Instead, the ETFs ETFs are “likely moving faster Some analysts and investors argue a set amount of shares. Redemp- reflect the real value, and it is the than corporate bonds,” said Viktor that the product is fundamentally tion is when it gives back shares in bond market that is dysfunctional. Hjort, global head of credit strat“In our view, this is not an ETF egy at BNP Paribas. “I think we will flawed if it fails at that basic task, exchange for the bonds.

In theory, the price of the fund dynamic occurring right now but start to see some stability emerge.” and no longer accurately reflects

Coronavirus ‘medicine’ could trigger social breakdown Jacob Wallenberg tells governments to consider economic threat from crisis Richard Milne

J

acob Wallenberg has warned governments to weigh the economic threat from coronavirus more heavily or risk depression, social unrest and a potential lost generation.

The Swedish industrialist, whose family investment vehicle has controlling stakes in companies from telecoms equipment maker Ericsson to bank SEB, told the Financial Times that policymakers must protect the vulnerable but not lose sight of the impact of containment measures on businesses, from neighbourhood restaurants to multinationals.

If the crisis goes on for long, unemployment could hit 20-30 per cent while economies could contract by 20-30 per cent, he warned.

“There will be no recovery.

There will be social unrest. There will be violence. There will be

Jacob Wallenberg: “There will be no recovery. There will be social unrest. There will be violence. There will be socio-economic consequences: dramatic unemployment. Citizens will suffer; some will die” © AFP

socio-economic consequences: dramatic unemployment. Citizens will suffer dramatically: some will die, others will feel awful,” he added.

His warning comes as country after country has closed schools and locked down large parts of www.businessday.ng

society, leading to plummeting demand in industries from airlines to theatres and halted production in many manufacturers such as carmakers in Europe and the US. Donald Trump, the US president, has said the cure must not be worse than the problem and that

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the country needed to get back to work by Easter Sunday if possible.

Mr Wallenberg said he wanted to start a debate about the longterm consequences of the crisis. “I am dead scared of the consequences to society,” he said. “I want to put the view — what else can we do? Right now, we’re just going on one path . . . We have to weigh the risks of the medicine affecting the patient drastically.

“How does tomorrow look like?

One of these days there is a tomorrow. We have to prepare ourselves as well.”

His home country of Sweden is a global outlier in its response to coronavirus, keeping schools and borders open and making fewer restrictions than other European countries. There has also been a significant debate about whether the economic costs of certain restrictions outweigh the health benefits.

Mr Wallenberg said the Swed@Businessdayng

ish debate had been very much “business versus life” but he wanted to take a “life versus life” perspective. Elderly people should be protected more, perhaps by being placed in mandatory quarantine.

But there should be a parallel discussion on how to return to a vibrant society with a rich cultural offering and lively restaurants as well as think about the next generation.

Mr Wallenberg said his call for a debate on what happened after “the acute phase of the crisis” was backed by European Round Table for Industry, 50 leading industrialists who represent companies with revenues of €2tn.

“Authorities are all working very hard to help society. They are not looking around the corner as much. They are not taking the longer-term perspective. This is something that is very important for society and for the EU,” he added.

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

47

ANALYSIS

The global hunt for a coronavirus drug | Free to read With a vaccine up to 18 months away, drug companies are testing existing virus treatments Hannah Kuchler, Kana Inagaki and Sarah Neville

I

t was Friday March 13 when doctors at Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York City, decided to take the search for a coronavirus drug into their own hands. Many of their Covid-19 patients were not getting better — and some were getting worse.

Two of the hospitals’ scientists each called their contacts at US biotech companies Gilead Sciences and Regeneron to offer to test their potential treatments: an antiviral called remdesivir and an anti-inflammatory called Kevzara, developed for Ebola and rheumatoid arthritis respectively. Clinicians, researchers and regulators rushed to set up the clinical trials, which usually take months, and just four days later two patients took their first doses of the experimental drugs.

“The patients were very, very sick,” says Kevin Tracey, president of the Feinstein Institutes, the research arm of Northwell Health.

“Everybody just rolled up their sleeves and said we’re facing a crisis and the patients need this.

After 30 years of doing research, it was one of the proudest days of my life to know patients were getting treated with these drugs that may help them.”

The hospital hopes the drugs will stop the replication of the virus and reduce the inflammation in the lungs of the patients.

As the pandemic spreads — recorded cases have more than doubled over the past week to over 460,000 on Wednesday, with more than 20,000 deaths — no one can afford to wait the 18 months it might take to find a vaccine. Northwell is one of many hospitals across the globe running clinical trials on drugs that were developed for other diseases, from Ebola to malaria to arthritis, but that early studies suggest could offer some hope to Covid-19 patients.

Doctors are desperate for evidence of what works. In the next

month, they will learn more as some important trials in China are due to publish preliminary results.

Yet the desire from politicians and investors for a miracle cure has led to a maelstrom of misinformation about drugs to treat the virus. Just as Northwell was dosing its first patients, President Donald Trump said the US Food and Drug Administration had approved the antimalarials chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for use against Covid-19. This turned out to be not true, with fatal consequences for some. The FDA was actually just collecting evidence on whether they work.

Christos Kyratsous, vice-president of research in infectious diseases at Regeneron, says anecdotal evidence from China provides a reason to be “optimistic” that Kevzara, developed with Sanofi, will help Covid-19 patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome.

“The challenge now is finding the best and quickest way to see if it is effective in the clinic,” he adds. “That’s very, very important, because if you can get meaningful data, and if the data is positive, we can expand access to something like this, which is going to be life saving.”

Scientists are investigating three main types of drugs. The first are antivirals to stop the virus from replicating. Treatment guidelines compiled by the Chinese government during the outbreak include HIV drug combination Kaletra, which US biotech AbbVie recently waived its patents on so it can be made available as a generic; antimalarials such as chloroquine, which generic drugmakers are gearing up to manufacture at scale; and favipiravir, an anti-flu drug from Japan’s Fujifilm.

The second category is antiinflammatories that treat the lungs after the immune system is overwhelmed. Regeneron and Sanofi have partnered on Kevzara, while Roche has started a trial on Actemra, approved for use on rheumatoid arthritis in 100 countries. www.businessday.ng

The third group are antibodybased treatments, derived either from recovered Covid-19 patients or developed in labs, to be given to the seriously ill or as a temporary prophylactic for healthcare workers. Eli Lilly has paired up with Canadian start-up AbCellera to work on antibodies developed from one of the first US Covid-19 patients, while Japan’s Takeda is developing a new drug derived from the blood plasma of others who have survived the virus.

Analysts are eagerly awaiting data from early trials into remdesivir, an antiviral drug that the California-based biotech group developed for Ebola. It has also been shown to work against other coronaviruses in animal studies.

Umer Raffat, a biotech analyst at US bank advisory firm Evercore, says evidence could be published in the next couple of weeks.

“It has by far the best prospects,” Mr Raffat says. His optimism stems from the drug’s ability to disable the machinery that helps the virus replicate, which is similar to that found in Ebola. But he believes the early data may not be “spectacular”, if too many of the patients took it too late in the progression of their disease.

Editor’s note The Financial Times is making key coronavirus coverage free to read to help everyone stay informed.

Find the latest here.

Andre Kalil, an investigator in a large remdesivir trial, which plans to recruit 400 patients and is sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health, says they are making patients take the drug within 72 hours of diagnosis. Dr Kalil ran a clinical trial during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. He believes they moved too slowly to set up a trial then.

“This is a fight against time. We need to move as fast as possible,” he says. “We have no idea what works or does not at this point.

There are zero therapies specifically against coronavirus.”

Timing was also important in an early study published last week of the HIV drug combination which

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was dismissed as disappointing, although survival rates were better when patients had taken the antiviral drug earlier in the disease.

The antimalarial chloroquine does have two clear advantages over remdesivir: it is a generic, so is likely to be far cheaper; and it is a pill, when remdesivir is delivered by an intravenous infusion, so would probably need to be given in hospital. But studies in France and China, hailed by Mr Trump, are small and did not follow the recommended protocols of a randomised control trial, designed to prevent bias. A study in China released on Tuesday found the drug had no impact.

Early results from clinical trials in China fuelled enthusiasm for a second antiviral — favipiravir — after reports of faster recovery times for patients that took the drug. Junji Okada, president of Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, the unit that produces the branded version Avigan, says the company is responding to a flood of inquiries from across the world.

“Our sense of mission became bigger and bigger as it became clear that Avigan may be effective,” Mr Okada says. “We have made the preparations so that we can increase production if needed.”

Kimiyasu Shiraki, an emeritus professor at the University of Toyama who was involved in Avigan’s early development, says studies show that the drug does not generate an Avigan-resistant virus that could make it less effective in the long term: “This suggests Avigan could treat the first to the last patient with the same efficacy during the epidemic.”

Antibody-based treatments could be important for helping the hardest hit and those key workers that need to stay healthy.

New York — now the centre of the crisis in the US, with almost 200 deaths — is set to start testing plasma from recovered patients in a trial with the seriously ill. But most drugmakers are looking at refining the process to create a concentrated and purified product, or @Businessdayng

creating artificial antibodies, often developed in mice. Their products will have to go through clinical trials, likely to take many months.

AbCellera was working on a test project on influenza with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency when Covid-19 emerged — so it rapidly switched to preparing their antibody-finding platform for the new virus.

They took blood samples from one patient and generated almost 6m immune cells for antibodies, using an AI-based platform that can screen down to the individual cell and allows them to find more antibody-secreting cells. Researchers have narrowed it down to the 500 most potent against Covid-19 and partnered with Eli Lilly for the first human trials of the drug by July.

“Every day between now and the first human testing is mapped out and precious,” says Daniel Skovronsky, chief medical officer of Eli Lilly.

Takeda began looking at plasma-derived therapies after they proved effective in reducing mortality during the outbreaks of both severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2002-03 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) in 2009. But the treatment will not be widely available — the plasma will need to be donated by recovered patients. It is not yet known how many patients could be treated with the plasma from a single recovered patient.

Another obstacle is that all the drugs being tested have potentially serious side effects: remdesivir may cause liver damage, Avigan can cause birth defects, and Regeneron and Sanofi’s Kevzara works by suppressing the immune system — but it could potentially go too far.

Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda’s vaccine business, says the industry is facing a new challenge. “It is unprecedented,” he says. “[But] what is very different is the opportunity we have with the tools and technologies that can help us to address this in ways that

Continues on page 48

48

Thursday 26 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

FT

NATIONAL NEWS

US charges Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro with narco-terrorism State department offers $15m reward for information leading to capture and conviction Katrina Manson and Gideon Long

T

he US has charged Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan officials with participating in an alleged narco-terrorism scheme, in a major escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the Latin American leader even as the country faces a growing humanitarian crisis.

William Barr, the US attorneygeneral, said on Thursday that Mr Maduro, 57, and his associates conspired with a dissident faction of the Colombian terror group Farc to use Venezuela as a safe haven and “flood” the US with cocaine.

The US state department also offered a $15m reward on Thursday for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the Venezuelan leader.

Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, said that the Venezuelan regime had “deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon” to undermine health in the US. Mr Maduro faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted on charges that include participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspir-

The US says that Nicolás Maduro and his associates conspired with a dissident faction of Farc to use Venezuela as a safe haven and ‘flood’ the US with cocaine © AFP via Getty Images

ing to import cocaine into the US. More than a dozen other serving and former Venezuelan officials have also been charged with narco-terrorism, corruption, drug-trafficking and other criminal charges in New York, Washington and Miami.

“The scope and magnitude of the drug trafficking alleged was made possible only because Maduro and others corrupted the institutions of Venezuela and provided political and military

protection for the rampant narco-terrorism crimes described in our charges,” he said.

The charges come as Venezuela deals with a humanitarian crisis that could be exacerbated by an outbreak of coronavirus.

The government said there are fewer than 100 cases and no deaths so far, but health officials in the cash-strapped country warn the numbers may be much higher.

The Trump administration

has repeatedly promised to bring to bear an extraordinary campaign of maximum pressure against Mr Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, in an attempt to force him out of the presidency and bring about new elections.

The US and more than 50 others view opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate interim president of the country. Mr Guaidó has been trying to assert his authority during

the coronavirus outbreak but has no real power to import food and medicine, take measures to safeguard the economy or hold large rallies amid social distancing efforts.

When asked why the charges were being unsealed now, Mr Barr told reporters: “The best way to support the Venezuelan people during this period is to do all we can to rid the country of this corrupt cabal.”

Moises Rendon, Venezuela expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think-tank in Washington, said Mr Maduro would likely only consider leaving power if his inner circle including senior military generals abandoned him.

“The pressure is ramping up on Maduro and there’s some divisions in the military, but they are not at the highest level. The bottom line is if he convinces his inner circle to stay then he’s safe for now,” said Mr Rendon.

He said the charges would likely help Mr Guaidó, whose domestic opposition movement has been weakened by the lockdown that has accompanied the threat of coronavirus.

“He has limited operational capacity to do anything but this news is going to help put him back on centre stage,” he said.

The global hunt for a coronavirus drug | Free to read Continued from page 47 we didn’t have in the past.”

The main options Antivirals Drugs designed for treatment of Ebola, HIV, flu and malaria. They try to stop the replication of coronavirus by interfering with enzymes that help it copy itself and spread.

They are believed to be most useful in the earlier stages of the disease.

The virus uses similar machinery to copy itself as Ebola, giving some experts hope that Gilead’s Ebola drug remdesivir may help patients.

Anti-inflammatories Designed for conditions such as arthritis. Several groups are investigating the potential of IL6 inhibitors, which lower the production of inflammatory proteins called cytokines. They are most useful in the latter stages of the disease, when some patients suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome because their immune systems are overwhelmed.

Antibodies Drugs derived from Covid-19 patients’ immune response. They reproduce the antibodies of patients’ immune systems to support people with less robust responses.

Plasma from recovered patients is being infused into the seriously ill. But drugmakers aim to refine

the process, strengthening the potency of the antibodies or creating artificial ones that will be more effective.

Drugmakers face similar challenges to vaccine developers: by the time they have the evidence they need, the new virus may have disappeared. But at least it is now clear that Covid-19 is likely to be a longer-term problem.

“When it becomes a global health crisis, it is easy for companies like us to make decisions to invest . . . There is a concern for wellbeing, patients, society,” says Dr Skovronsky. “But when it first emerges and there are five or 10 patients, is it worth spinning out incredible resources and financial costs when you’ll never get repaid if the virus is successfully contained?”

Even if a drug succeeds, there will be political pressure to price it affordably. Rising Pharmaceuticals, a generic maker of chloroquine, almost doubled the price to $7.66 per 250mg pill in the US in January, as the coronavirus outbreak raged in China. This month, as the crisis hit the US, it cut the price to its previous level.

AbbVie, maker of the HIV drug combination, will allow generics makers to manufacture the drug, relinquishing its intellectual property claims, in a move that should make it cheaper. www.businessday.ng

But Gilead initially took a different approach: it won the right to extend its intellectual property rights for remdesivir by using an “orphan drug designation” in the US. The rule was designed to encourage drugmakers to make treatments for rare diseases, further fuelling criticism of the industry’s pricing policies. Ellen ’t Hoen, director at non-governmental organisation Medicines Law & Policy, called it “the most blatant abuse” of the act. But on Wednesday Gilead asked the FDA to rescind the application citing the “urgent public health needs posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Drugmakers will need to make large investments to increase production fast. Kenneth Kaixin, director of the Tufts Center for the study of drug development, says: “You don’t want to invest a lot in manufacturing before you know you are going to have a drug on the market. [Yet] you want to make sure you can manufacture as much as needed, perhaps hundreds of thousands of doses at the end of the day.”

Once a drug is ready to sell, governments are likely to compete to put their citizens first. Already, there are reports that the White House tried to buy German vaccine maker CureVac, with Berlin trying to find ways to keep it at

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home. The UK has banned the “parallel export” of three drugs: Kaletra, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

Some believe the pharmaceutical business model simply does not work for pandemics, because the diseases will always compete for resources with blockbuster drugs that people take for years.

Emergent Biosolutions takes a different approach: it specialises in making “rescue therapies” for unlikely events, selling the only antidotes to smallpox, anthrax and botulism to US and allied governments to stockpile in case of bioterrorism. It is now working on an antibody treatment for Covid-19.

“What differentiates us from just about any other pharma company is that they want an immediate return, very quickly within six to 12 months, and we take a little bit of a longer view,” says Robert Kramer, chief executive of the Maryland-based speciality pharmaceuticals company.

Despite the obstacles, finding drugs that can be repurposed to help coronavirus patients’ recovery is one of the only hopes for their health, their families — and ultimately, the economy.

Dennis DeBusschere, who leads Evercore’s portfolio strategy team, is closely watching when medications might be ready be@Businessdayng

cause he believes they are crucial to getting those people in lockdowns outside to spend again.

Even if the virus continues to spread, having medications available would take some of the fear out of infection.

Trump criticised for ‘reckless guesswork’ From the briefing room at the White House, President Donald Trump last week told the watching nation that the “beauty” of drugs like chloroquine is they can be taken safely. But while the drug has been approved to treat malaria, it can cause acute poisoning.

Within days, patients in Nigeria, Vietnam and the US were hospitalised after overdosing on chloroquine. One couple in Arizona imbibed the unsafe fish food version of the compound after seeing a Trump press conference — and the man died.

Mr Trump has persisted, tweeting charts from studies that scientific experts believe are inadequate to base such a crucial decision on.But a pandemic is not fought on anecdotes. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the US coronavirus task force, said the studies were not controlled clinical trials. “Anecdotal reports may be true, but they are anecdotal,” he said on March 21.

50

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Thursday 26 March 2020

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 26 March 2020 LOSERS

GAINERS Company GUARANTY

Closing

Change

NESTLE

N850

N765

-85

0.6

STANBIC

N26.1

N24.3

-1.8

N6.15

0.55

JBERGER

N23.7

N22

-1.7

VOLUME (Numbers)

N5.65

N6.2

0.55

GLAXOSMITH

N3.8

N3.5

-0.3

VALUE (N billion)

N4.8

N5.15

0.35

NB

N27

N26.8

-0.2

Closing

Change

N17.1

N18

0.9

N6

N6.6

N5.6

UBN ACCESS CADBURY UBA

Company

ASI (Points)

Opening

Opening

DEALS (Numbers)

MARKET CAP (N Trn)

21,757.47 3,542.00 172,163,723.00 1.887

Global market indicators FTSE 100 Index 5,750.81GBP +62.61+1.10%

Nikkei 225 18,664.60JPY -882.03-4.51%

S&P 500 Index 2,588.73USD +113.17+4.57%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 9,926.25EUR +51.99+0.53%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 22,181.00USD +1,155.00+5.49%

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 2,764.91CNY -16.68-0.60%

11.338

Nigeria stock market gains as investors buy GTBank, others ...NSE lists 752.5million units of Golden Guinea Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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igeria stock m a r k e t gained about N15billion on Thurs day March 26 as investors saw opportunities in mid to large cap stocks.

Some of the stocks that recorded increased bargains with positive impact on their prices are GTBank, Union Bank, Cadbury, Access Bank and Zenith Bank.

While economic activities near total shut down due to Coronavirus Pandemic, NSE dealing members in the third day of remote trading saw opportunities in some value

stocks that are currently trading at record lows.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.13 percent, from 21, 729.48 points to 21,757.47 points.

Also, the value of listed stocks increased to N11.338trillion, from preceding day low of N11.323trillion.

Equity dealers in 3,542 deals exchanged 172,163,723 units valued at N1.887billion. The stock ma rke t p o st e d n e gat i ve return of -18.94 percent year-to-date (YtD), while in this month of March its negative return printed at -17.01percent.

Zenith Bank, UBA, Sterling Bank, FCMB and Access Bank were actively traded stocks on Thursday.

GTBank rallied most after its share price moved from N17.1 to N18, adding 90kobo or 5.26percent while Nestle

Patronise illegal schemes at your risk –SEC warns Nigerians

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he Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has warned Nigerians against patronising fund managers that are not registered with the Commission.

The SEC said it has in recent times observed the proliferation of the operation of unlawful/unlicensed investment schemes, with promises of huge, but unjustifiable returns on investment.

“These activities are perpetrated by suspected promoters of Ponzi and other fraudulent schemes under the following identities: Loom Nigeria Money, Box Value Trading Company Limited, Now-Now Alert, Flip Cash Investment, Result Investment Nigeria Limited, Helping Hand and Investment and No Failure Development and Empowerment Nigeria Limited.

Others are “MBA Forex and Investment Ltd, Federate Investors Trading Company, Jamalife Helpers Global Limited, Flexus Global Solutions and Investment Limited, United

Capital Investment Company Limited”.

Members of the public are to note that by virtue of the provisions of Section 38(1) of the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2007, only persons registered with the Commission can engage in capital market activities, thus making the actions of these entities listed above unlawful.

“Consequently, the general public is hereby advised to refrain from investing in any scheme of the entities listed above, and WARNS that any person who invests in an unlicensed/unlawful scheme does so at his own peril The Acting Director-General of the SEC, Mary Uduk had in a recent statement, said such outfits are not registered to carry out fund management functions of any sort, stressing that those who stubbornly patronize them end up burning their fingers.

According to her, the capital market has been properly positioned to attract Nigerians and provide benefits to Nigerians www.businessday.ng

who invest therein.

She added that SEC has sustained its investor education programme to assist people understand whatever issues they have around the capital market.

“But besides that, there are new products coming up every day in the Nigerian capital market. We have a lot of ethical funds, one of the safest areas to invest in is in Mutual Funds, Collective Investments Schemes and we encourage Nigerians to be part of these and others”.

The Acting DG said the SEC is presently undertaking various initiatives to make the capital market more user-friendly such that people can participate in it with greater ease, comfort and convenience.

She added: “There is the added and all-important purpose of ensuring that the gains of your participation, be these dividends, proceeds from share sales/transfers, etc. accrue to you seamlessly, without sweat and in the shortest time possible.

led the losers league after its share price moved from N850 to N765, losing N85 or 10 percent.

In a related market development, dealing members w ere notified that additional 752,508,000

ordinary shares of Golden Guinea Breweries Plc were on Thursday March 26, 2020 listed on the Daily Official List of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (The Exchange).

The additional shares listed on The E xchange arose from the Placement of 752,508,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to Pan Marine Investment Limited at N1.60 per share.

With this listing of the additional 752,508,000 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid up shares of Golden Guinea Breweries Plc on the Daily Official List of The Exchange has increased from 272,160,000 to 1,024,668,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

Stanbic IBTC issues script dividend

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tanbic IBTC Holdings Plc has advised its esteemed shareholders that in line with the authority granted to directors by shareholders at the August 6, 2015 Extra Ordinary General Meeting, shareholders have a choice of receiving dividends declared by the Company, up to year 2020.

The shareholders can choose it either in cash or may elect to receive their dividends as new ordinary shares in the Company (scrip dividend).

Where a shareholder elects to receive the whole or a part of his or her dividends by way of new ordinary shares, then such scrip dividend shall only be allotted after receipt of any required regulatory approval and shall apply to shareholders whose names were on the Register of Members as at the qualification date for the payment of such dividends (Qualifying shareholders).

With respect to the N2 divi-

dend being recommended by Directors for approval at the 8th Annual General Meeting of the Company, scheduled to hold on Wednesday June 17, 2020, the qualification date as previously published was Wednesday March 18 2020.

The reference price to be used in determining any scrip dividend allotment shall be the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Company’s shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the five business days commencing on the day the ordinary shares are first quoted ex-dividend.

With respect to the N2 dividend indicated above, the reference price for determining the scrip dividend allotment is N24.79kobo.

Shareholders, who wish to receive their N2 dividend by way of new ordinary shares, can either download the Scrip Dividend Election form from the

company website, by clicking on the following link: http://reporting.stanbicibtc.com/resultsreports.php. In addition, the shareholders may also obtain a copy of the form by contacting either the Group Company Secretary – Email: chidi.okezie@stanbicibtc.com or Idris Toriola, Head Investor Relations – Email: idris.toriola@stanbicibtc.com; Tel +234 1 422 8501; or by contacting the Registrars: First Registrars and Investor Services Limited on Tel: +234 1 2701078-9. All completed forms must reach the Registrars on or before close of business on Friday May 29 2020.

Shareholders who however elect to receive their dividends in cash, are not required to take any action as they will have their bank accounts (in the case of shareholders with the appropriate e-dividend mandate) credited on the dividend payment date.

Securities regulators coordinate responses to COVID-19 through IOSCO

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embers of the International Organization of Securities Commissions, who regulate over 95percent of the world’s capital markets, are cooperating

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closely on their responses to the disruption in capital markets resulting from the macroeconomic impact of COVID-19 on the global economy.

The IOSCO Board is com@Businessdayng

mitted to ensuring that capital markets continue to function throughout this difficult period in an open and orderly manner to enable all participants to price and transfer risk across all traded asset classes.

Friday 27 March 2020

BUSINESS DAY

51

INTERVIEW ‘Nigerian women can contribute over 50% of GDP if provided equal opportunities’ Exactly 43 years after the United Nations ratified the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, corporate discrimination in terms of unequal earning potential, unbending societal norms and workplace harassment are some issues that continue to stare women in the face in a sluggish adjustment to gender equality. But MARILYN MADUKA, through her office as the People Director for West Africa, International Breweries plc, is at the forefront of advancing what women can offer if given equal chances. She explains to TEMITAYO AYETOTO in this interview about the business sense of diversity in the brewing workplace. Excerpts The world marked the 2020 International Women’s Day on March 8.

What’s the position of International Breweries Plc? ne interesting thing that we’ve done this year is that we have asked women to tell their stories and even men to talk openly or anonymously about some of the real issues that they face. Every day you wake up and go through things that often, nobody knows. But now, we want to open up the conversation that actually asks if you are aware that even in our workplace this is happening? So, I think this is one powerful thing we are doing, which is giving a voice to people who sometimes would be voiceless. Through that culture of secrecy and silence, you allow things to happen underneath the surface that you are not aware of. So that’s one of the things we are doing. We have also partnered with some people in the industry; I mean female leaders and female professionals we admire, one of whom is Bolanle Austen-Peters who came around and had a conversation with us. In fact, she was given a very exciting theme to speak on, called ‘The Collective Individualism for the Advancement of Women in the Workplace’. Now, we are saying to ourselves, what can we do to really harness that collective might and yet put a sense of individual responsibility to move the needle in gender related issues. We have something we call The ‘Women in Beer’ Network. It’s our internal network because we know that we don’t have too many women in beer.

And so internally, we had one of those sessions where once again, we came together as women to talk about issues that we face, to hold hands, to learn from each other, to grow through each other and just to draw strength from our collective journey. We had weeklong activities to buttress the theme for this year which is ‘Each for Equal’.

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Touching on economic parity, EFiNA in 2019 released a report saying that women in Nigeria are still laid back in terms of financial inclusion. How would you access the progress of economic parity? Are we growing, stagnant or dropping?

I hear it, but I have not really seen gender discrimination in earning potentials because I will be honest with you, I’ve had a very fortunate journey where I’ve never encountered that and I’m very pleased, excited and proud to say that at International Breweries, one thing that we as a company will never do is discriminate in terms of pay based on gender. We are very big on what we call meritocracy. We believe in what we call pay for performance and irrespective of your gender, if you do a great job, you get rewarded accordingly.

Now, having said that, if I look more broadly into the corporate

Marilyn Maduka

world, what I have seen is that sometimes there appears to be a ceiling whereby as a woman progresses in her carrier, it gets to a point where it’s harder to climb, possibly because the demands of the job may be at variance with where she is in her life at that time.So often, I’ve seen that as they go higher, several women take a step back.Their male counterparts don’t have as much of that barrier and they can go on.

I think any company that discriminates based on gender really has no business being in business if they are not willing to change it with immediate effect.It is totally wrong for you to have two people doing exactly the same job and just because of gender, you feel justified in compensating one person less. It should not be tolerated.

Those companies that have come from that traditional way of thinking need to wake up, insist that enough is enough and admit that they were less informed and now know better.

How well do you think the public sector is creating a free environment for women?

I think that people who struggle with gender equality don’t yet understand the impact and value of gender equality. Imagine, if you had only one hand, how effective would it be? It is better to advocate and practice having a balance that ensures you are better able to achieve the objectives. Again, I do believe that there may be some roles that are more suited to certain genders and there are some roles that are very gender neutral. There are also roles that women are more suited for by virtue of their nature and there are roles that men are more suited towards. When you bring all these together, you have a comprehensive whole that does not compromise your gender cum equality. We come from www.businessday.ng

a traditional view of putting a woman in a box. Now, seeing women in the workplace and seeing the value they bring on a daily basis, we should have realised that life is about evolution.

Women should be given more opportunities and in wanting to do that, we have to strike the balance but we have to be careful. 50 years from now, we may be in another situation where we have a different type of imbalance and that’s why I really like the theme, each for equal. It’s not about putting one person down in order to uplift the other. It is about ensuring that you are lifting everyone up together.

People often see gender equality as synonymous with advocacy for women? Can you clarify?

If you look globally, there were certain roles that women were cast for which was more in the homemaker role and men were cast for the provider role. If each were respected in those roles, maybe we won’t be in the problem that we are in today. What happened was that people started seeing the provider role to be more important and the homemaker role was seen as inferior. So, the dichotomies were being created by that paradigm, whereby we started marching on women and not respecting their contributions or seeing value in the job that they do.

And when any individual feels that they are being subjugated, it is only a matter of time before they start to shout. And that is the same reason why slaves get up and challenge their oppressors. Freedom is one of your integral human rights which you perceive internally. So if you add that to economics, a man only providing became inadequate. There are children to cater for and a single income could not always take care of the needs of the house. The need for a woman

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to also contribute then became more and more prominent. In addition, even in the roles that women did, they were not given an opportunity for selfrealisation. If you look at Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs, it is not a gender pyramid,it is a human pyramid whereby at the baseline you are more on physiological needs. But as you grow up the pyramid, you start desiring and come to self-actualization.

It’s the same thing for a woman. If a woman is playing the homemaker role and not being given the opportunity to express the fullness of her potential, she also starts longing for more. So when we put all of these together, we get to a situation where the woman realises she has all the gifts apart from being a homemaker which she wants to explore and with more and more education and exposure, it then becomes apparent that there is much more she can give and contribute.

But the man who has been so used to playing that role is not yet ready to understand the importance of sharing and opening the door wide. They see that as their power being usurped or challenged.

At International Breweries, what is diversity like?

I am very proud of what we have.

Even companies that are not in maledominated spaces like ours have not yet achieved the diversity numbers that we have. For example, we have female forklift drivers. It is typically viewed as a man’s role. Some of the women had never even driven a car before and we brought them in, trained them, and mentored them.

We found out that not only were they driving, but were also top performers in forklift driving. Not only have we opened our doors to women, but we also don’t restrict them to the work that is traditionally viewed as mainly a man’s job. One that really excited us last year was a female colleague that broke our record in brewing. In a team of five, she single-handedly was responsible for 40 percent of the results. Such a woman will become a trailblazer. And now the men are saying they want more women. Meanwhile, at the point we were moving her in they were doubtful.

Talking about the challenges that you have faced climbing the ladder of your career, how have you been able to tackle them?

One of the challenges I have faced is with men who are of the view that women should be in the home place or at least they have not yet come to the appreciation of equality. I don’t say it with any sense of judgement. Sometimes it might be through their family background and the roles they expect women to play. Sometimes people don’t yet know that you should have a voice and get affronted when you speak up,you have to learn to navigate @Businessdayng

that. I believe in respect. Then you realise as a woman, that you’re also a teacher and you need to help them on their own journey of appreciating that equality is critical and they need your perspective as a woman for collective good just as you need their perspectives too as men. So, sometimes in my journey, having to balance where you have ‘masculine’ men who would not hesitate to tell you who you are is part of the challenge. I have had friends tell me they walked into a room and were asked if they are there to serve tea or coffee. I have not experienced such. I will even offer you tea but I’ll do it because I want to. In my role as a woman, I have no problem playing the role of a nurturer. I once met one of my colleagues and I went to him to offer him some cream. I’m a woman, I will do that for my children. So I don’t think I need to separate my femininity from the job I do. So, for me, I am clear in my being and in my person. One of the things that have helped me is that I have grown to a point where I know I don’t need external validation. So I use my own internal moral compass.

What kind of support system should women have when climbing the ladder of their career?

I think you touched on a very critical point which is the support system.

For a woman who is active in her career life rather than in the home, it is absolutely critical. I have a quote I like that says “you have worked for your money; let your money work for you”. I’ve heard people say they can’t have house helps. That also means that you can’t have a job that makes you close by 7 pm. So you need to, first of all, be clear on your priorities and what phase you are in. And then you need to build a support system that you can trust. You also need a partner. I don’t know many women who have risen through the ranks and do not have supportive partners. You need a partner who is rooting for you, who is proud of you and encourages you. I know of women who have partners that said they need to quit their jobs. That the woman has to choose between the family and her job. It is hard for women to make those choices that by the virtue of their nature, their male counterparts will not have to make. So you need to set your priorities. Also, you must understand as a mother that there are times you will feel guilty. That guilt comes with being a mum in the workplace. So you need to know the things that will be noncompromisable for you even if you want your family life. You also need to be able to forgive yourself for not being there every time. As a mum, I have sometimes found myself singing to my children over the phone or reading a story over the phone or video calling.

So you find ways of ensuring that you connect and bond even when you cannot be there.

Women in Business

Anino Emuwa International Management Consultant and Founder of Avandis Consulting

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nino is the founder and managing director of Avandis Consulting in France which has a subsidiary in Nigeria. Her firm provides strategy and financial advisory services with expertise in SME finance. Avandis deals with the spectrum of businesses from

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haron Ikeazor (born August 28, 1961) is a Nigerian lawyer, politician and management consultant. She is the former executive secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate. On August 2019, Sharon was appointed the Minister of State for Environment.

She attended the Queen of The Rosary College, Onitsha and proceeded to the Godolphin School, Salisbury, England where she obtained her GCE A’ levels. She completed her Higher Studies at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1981 and graduated from the University of Benin with a Bachelor of Law degree (LL.B Hons.), in 1984. In 1985, she obtained her Certificate of Practice from the Nigerian Law School.

Ikeazor’s early legal experience spans counsel positions at a variety of national and international banks; the Nigerian Merchant Bank, Nerderlansce Middenstand Bank and Midas Merchant Bank, respectively. She then worked at Shell Petroleum as a company lawyer before establishing her own legal practice in 1994.

By 1999, she was the legal secretary and project coordinator for Fluor Daniel Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of the also-named US Engineering Firm. She was actively involved in the execution of the Atlas Cove Tank Farm Project which was a technical partnership between Fluor Daniel and the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO), as regulated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Subsequently, Ikeazor became the Vice President for Business Development and Government Relations for the United States Consulting firm, Good Works International (GWI) Consulting, from 2003 to

owner-managed businesses to large organisations. They work closely with business leaders and chief executives, harnessing their knowledge and expertise to provide wide-ranging individualised solutions for complex management challenges from advice on managing day to day operations, 2008. Whilst there, she provided consulting and advisory services to the Oil and Gas / Energy Sector stakeholders in Nigeria. In particular, she was the principal consultant for General Electric (GE) on the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) with the Federal Government of Nigeria. She also oversaw the development of other emergent business opportunities in Africa in her time at GWI. Ikeazor was eventually a legal representative for Aso Energy Resources, Ltd, Abuja for two years, 2008-2010, prior to her foray into politics.

In 2011, she contested and won the position of National Women leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Party. She used her platform to champion capacity building for women by partnering with the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to train women for leadership and political roles in Nigeria.

With the merger of three political parties in Nigeria in 2013, Sharon emerged the Interim National Women leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) until her appointment to the APC Board of Trustees in 2014, a position she holds till date.

During her tenure as the Women Leader, she established the APC Young Women’s Forum to mentor and sponsor young female politicians.

In 2016, she emerged APC Senatorial Candidate for Anambra Central Zone. On Wednesday, August 21, 2019, she was appointed by President Buhari as the Minister of State Environment.

Ikeazor has continued to organise and participate in leadership, training and mentoring of young women and other socially disadvantaged persons.

BUSINESS DAY Friday 27 March 2020 www.businessday.ng

By Kemi Ajumobi

to devising growth initiatives to optimise business performance.

A former banker with Citibank, Emuwa is an experienced non-executive director and most recently, she was a member of the board of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company PLC where she chaired the Audit committee and was appointed board strategy lead.

Dr. Anino is an advocate for women business leadership and her article on women entrepreneurs is published in Forbes and Entrepreneur. As an AACSB certified business school instructor, she runs programmes for women leading businesses and convenes the women CEOs and the women business owners networks in Nigeria.

She is also an international public speaker on entrepreneurship, women business leadership and international business.

Her recent speaking engagements include Institute of Directors (2019), Excellence in Leadership Conference (2019), and Women’s Economic Empowerment Summit (2018).

Anino graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. She also holds an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Nottingham Business School, where she is an alumni fellow.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute U.K. and a member of the Institute of Directors, London. She is a business mentor for women entrepreneurs for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Anino has lived and worked in six countries in Europe and Africa, and is bilingual in English and French.

Emuwa says her mission is to work towards the growth and development of a

class of entrepreneurial women business leaders in Africa. In particular, helping them to improve their management skills and to secure funding, as she believes the small businesses sector is the path to employment creation, innovation and economic growth which the continent needs.

She loves to contribute to the development and growth of entrepreneurial businesses, particularly those which are women owned and provide a platform where owners can develop their management skills and secure access to finance.

Coming from a developing country, Nigeria, the opportunity she had of a good education which is key to opportunities, is what she admits is not available to millions of women. To this end, she would like to pay it forward and play an instrumental role in helping African women access opportunities to economically empower themselves, their families and their communities.

Amino understands that for working mothers, balancing work and family is sometimes difficult, particularly for single mothers. She therefore admonishes them to not hesitate to ask people within their personal network to help out. According to her, the early years can be tough but will be over sooner than you realize, your children will be grown and you’ll be able to focus fully on your career.

She of the opinion that, if you do decide to work part-time or take a career break, make sure you keep your skills up-to-date.

“There is so much change happening and your skills can quickly become obsolete.

Take on-line short courses or listen to webinars, read up and engage with colleagues and professional contacts from time to time.

You can achieve your career goals, but you need to find out how to do it differently to suit you and your family.” She reveals.

Sharon Ikeazor Minister of State for Environment/Managing consultant

She has carried on the philanthropy work of her late father, Chimezie Ikeazor (SAN), founder of the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Free Legal Aid for the Poor in Nigeria. The organisation which she now oversees provides reimburse-

ments for legal services offered to underserved citizens living below the poverty line. Similarly, she runs a prison outreach program that pays the fines of those awaiting trial as well as providing free legal representation for some of the inmates.

For sponsorship and advert placement contact: kemi@businessdayonline.com Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Advert Hotline: 08033225506. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Patrick Atuanya. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.