2q BUSINESS
mE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, March 8,20ll
Rising fuel prices assailing cocoa business, say operators By Ros.lln. Ok....
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of Cocoa J.VlProcessors Association of Nigeria (COPAN) has threatened to relocate their factories to neighbouring countries over high cost of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), and rising cost of cocoa beans. According to COPAN, AGO increased from NllO per litre as at December 2010, to N152 per litre, adding that members may cornmence full shutting down of their operations in Nigeria as a last resort towards SUrvival, if government failed to intervene. Speaking at a media briefing recently in Lagos, COPAN's Executive Chainnan, Akin Oluseyi, said that the high cost AGO has unreasonably increased cost of their production. AGO is used to power generators since dependence on the national electricity grid or network is unreliable. BeSides, COPAN also lamented the rising cost of raw cocoa beans, which they said stood at NS80, 000 per tonnes as at the time. Oluseyi feared that with the mounting international pressures, which would focus in Nigerian beans this year following crisis in Cote D Ivoire-the
leading world producer, prices of raw beans would be out of reach of local processors and this would result in total inactivityto most, if not all the local factories. "We are mal<ing this noise for the last time. We are ready to pack our things to any neigh· boring nation where the busi· ness environment has human face. We have suffered enough and so could not continue this way," Oluseyi lamented. He added that even with the current trend in price of raw beans, it is not profitable to do business in Nigeria. "1. did my calculations and found out that after processing a tonne of beans, the total revenue realizable is 'N438, 000 per tonne while the tonne of beans cost N580, 000 excluding other sundry costs of processing, he added. COPAN called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene by setting up a subsidy package to cushion the adverse effects of the riSing price ofAGO for the entire manufacturing industry. Also, the cocoa processors are calling on the government to reduce export of raw beans to only when the local processors are saturated with raw beans
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just as it is being done in Ghana currently. Nigerian cocoa processing industry has an installed proceSSing capacit)' of 150,000 metric tonnes per annum but due to myriads of unfiiendly business and government s"lv-
able problems, the industry is operating at less than 15 per cent capacity utilization. Speaking also at the conference, National Secretary, Mr. Felix Oladunjoye said that while the cocoa industry was saddled by the recent high fue~
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ing costs and that of raw cocoa, the industry is still facing other older problems of obvious lack of infrastructure, multiple taxation, delayed and sometimes non payment of the export expansion grant (EEG) amongst others.
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He called on the government to fast-track attention to the call otherwise his members would be forced to consider relocating to other nations, thereby taking away economic lives of the people hosting these factoties in Nigeria.
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Low rate facility for MSMEs undelWay CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 launched today (yesterday), with a N5 billion capital, is intended to be the first phase of our support for funding MSMEs. We are committed to further investing aqditional N5 billion in subsequent phases based on the successful take-off of this first phase that we are launching today, bringing the Fund to NIO billion. We expect the fund to grow to N20 billion when it gains momentum. Our expectation is that our intervention will create a minimum of one million direct jobs." BOl's managing director, Ms. Evelyn Oputu, lauded Dangote Foundation's determination to bail out some Nigerians out of the high unemployment logjam, with an assurance that the development bank will partner with the private sector, to revive the real sector of the economy. ''Today is very important to us in BOI and I must express our sincere appreciation to Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a shining light in Africa, who has positively responded to our calls by putting so much resource down for us to channel to the micro, small and medium scale enterprises. Incidentally, he was not the first person to be contacted by us, but he is the first to respond to us." She assured that the funding
would be disbursed with high level of diScipline, reassuring that BOI will ensure that the real sector of the economy is revived again. Martins-Kuye, who also commended Dangote Foundation for being a trail-blazer, challenged other private sector operators to follow suit and also partner with BOI, with a view to alleviating the poverty level in the country. Aganga revealed that the Federal Government has been wotried about the high unemployment rate in the country and that realistic strategies are being evolved to curtail the rate and drastically reduce the unemployment level in the country. Sanusi told the audience that though he was aware of BOl's collaDo ration with various state governments, targeted at job and wealth creation through the industrial and entrepreneurial development of the respective states, saying that he would however, "like to place on record that this is the first private sector initiative in support of one of the Federal Government's cardinal goals of job creation. It is also in alignment with the CBN's developmental thrust of growing the economy, by using the real sector as its pivot." He stressed that he was very happy with the nationalistic
bent of the Dangote Foundation to collaborate with BOI in fostering development and growth of entrepreneurship in Nigeria. "It further goes to confinn the Patron of the Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as a rarebreed Nigerian, whose passion for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial development knows no bounds and thus not restricted or guided by class or
creed." He said Dangote, through his foundation, has demonstrated his desire to give back to society, what he has benefitted from the country. "It is therefore an initiative by a major player in the real sector, championing the cause of that sector, using an entrepreneur-centric approach, thereby qualifYing him as a great mentor of entrepreneurial development"
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 Indian National Congress-led government Gulf Stocks Fighting increased between Ubyan rebels and troops loyal to Muarnmar Qaddafi, reducing the nation's crude-oil output by as much as 1million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency. Saudi Arabia released a leading Shiite cleric as websites called fora "Day of Rage," according to two activists and Human Rights Watch. Bulgari surged after LVMH agreed to buy the world's third-largest jeweler for about 3.7 billion euros ($5.2 billion). "A swift return to normality is unlikely" a team of analysts led by Eugen Weinberg, the Frankfurt-based head of commodities research at
Commerzbank AG, wrote in a report. "It is essentially the fear of the unrest spreading across the entire region which is pushing oil prices up." More than two stocks rose for each one that decl ined in Europe's Stoxx 600. Tognum AG jumped 22 per cent as Daimler AG said that, with Rolls-Royce Group Pic, it's in discussions a bout the possibility of buying a majority of the German manufacturer of diesel engines for ships and tanl". Intertek Group Pic, the world's largest consumer goods testing company, gained 6.9 per cent after full-year revenue topped estimates. Inmarsat Pic, the biggest provider of satellite services to the matitime indus· try, retreated 11 per cent as fourth-quarter sales missed estimates.
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