Market Digest Nigeria JAN 2018

The Opus, Hong Kong | Impact of IFF| Gifts For Her| Temie Giwa-Tubosun|Mobile Banking & Millenials

MARKET D IGEST N IGERIA FINANCE & LIFESTYLE

VOL 3 No 1

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RANKINGS Top Women Performers FINANCE Retail Banking Trends & Predictions for 2018

Africa’s Worthy Winner The most prestigious leadership award goes to the continent’s first elected female president

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EDITOR’S NOTE Dear Reader, Hello and welcome to “ The Women issue”, in this issue we identify Nigeria’s top performing women, as it is the time of the year to celebrate and appreciate the women in our lives and those shaping Nigeria. Increasingly, many of their companies have more in common than simply turning in great financial results and providing innovative and effective products and services. More and more, they are focusing their attention on the impact they are having on the communities in which they operate. Whether this is a consequence of the “mothers touch” or is a contributing factor to their success, the moral is the same: Acting responsibly pays off in the long term.

Our cover person for this issue is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Liberian politician who served as the 24th President of Liberia from 2006 to 2017. She was the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country. In Nigeria, not so much has changed under Buhari’s government with regards to opportunities for women. But it is fair to say women are more politically engaged than ever, with a record number running for office across the country. And they’re finding strength in their collective voice. But where is this all going? How are women taking their place at the table in the public and private sectors and what difference can they make there?

Our Magazine is built on the commitment to deliver educative and inspirational insights into business news from unexpected places, and we have a lot of exciting information in this issue. We’re also proud to offer two deep reports about IFF from Africa and TPI index on corruption relating to Nigeria. In preparing this issue, it was a challenge to imagine just how to convey the historic sweep of the change we’re seeing, and also the historic sense of alarm that some people feel at Buhari taking his place in the pantheon of Nigerian presidents in the upcoming election.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank current editorial board members for their ongoing commitment to the standards to which the magazine aspires.

We look forward to work with all stakeholders as we continue to make the magazine a success and we welcome your submissions, as well as feedback as authors, readers, and reviewers. We hope you enjoy this issue. We look forward to bringing you more news and insight! In the meantime, please visit our website www.marketdigestng.com go to stay up-to-date on industry news as it happens.

We hope you find this edition a rewarding read.

With warmest thanks

Esele Walter Odion

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Esele Walter Odion MANAGING EDITOR Ailsa Callum FINANCE MANAGER Muhammad Asoloko CREATIVE DIRECTOR MDN Graphics ADVERTISING MANAGER Ade Kayode BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Amanda Akah DISTRIBUTION Tunde Balogun

For advertising opportunities Please contact +234(0) 705 957 0580 Market Digest Nigeria magazine is published four times yearly.

Unauthorized reproduction is strictlyforbidden.

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CONTENT REGULARS

Editors Letter 8 Business News 12

LUXURY LIVING

Top 10 Best Electronics Gifts For Her 38 Hong Kong’s $66 million apartments 43 Lexus reveals ‘Black Panther’ inspired LC models 52

FEATURES

Kingsley Moghalu announces candidacy for president. 28 Africa Prefers Fair Trade to Marshall Plans – VP Osinbajo 30 Growth and innovation in African retail banking 40 Temie Giwa-Tubosun of LifeBank 57 Is corruption getting worse under Buhari? 63 Top Women Performers 2018 73

FINANCE

Impact of IFF & Poverty Reduction in Nigeria 47 Peak Global Wealth 52 Retail Banking Trends & Predictions for 2018 58 Millennials, their Mobiles and the Banking experience 77 African banks & their cross-border subsidiaries 84 Business Cash Flow Woes & Finding People Who Will Invest 88 Business Accounting Tasks to Perform Every Month 90

COVER STORY

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Africa’s First Female President Wins $5 Million Leadership Prize 63

Womens’s Issue 9

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NEWS

BUSINESS NEWS Nigerian banks lose 2million customers in 2 years – NIBSS

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ccording to statistics from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigerian banks lost over 2 million customers between 2016 and 2017, the number of active bank accounts also reduced by 1.5 million, dropping from 65 million to 63.5 million.

The statistics obtained from the NIBSS website, showed that the total number of bank customers dropped from 61 million in 2016 to 59

million in 2017. According to NIBSS, the banking sector, however, made great strides in linking customers’ account using the Bank Verification Number (BVN). The report showed that linked BVN accounts grew from 26 million in 2016, to 41.3 million in 2017. According to a banking industry source, the reduction in banking customers is not unconnected to the Federal Government’s declaration to fight against corruption.

Investors lose N506b, stakeholders blame harsh policies

Expectations that improved corporate performance and dividend yield by listed firms would spur activities in the stock market and trigger price appreciation was dashed this earnings’ season, as investors lost N506 billion in March. At the end of the transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), both market indicators- market capitalization and index closed in red as the market dipped, defying robust dividends declared by some quoted companies like Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank.

Zenith Bank and GTBank had announced dividend of N2.45 and N2.40 kobo per share respectively for the financial year ended December 31, 2017. However, both market indicators sustained sliding profile despite the corporate actions. Specifically, market capitalization of quoted companies plunged by N506 billion or 3.4 per cent to N15.001 trillion from N15.507 trillion achieved as at Friday, March 9, 2018, while the All-Share Index, which measures the performance of listed firms plummeted by 1,231.93 points or three per cent from 43,167 to 41,935.93.

During this period, prices of 60 equities nosedived. Some of the companies that depreciated in price include Japaul Oil and maritime Services Plc, Fidelity Bank plc, Unity Bank Plc, Africa Prudential Plc and Regency Alliance Insurance Company Plc among others. As a result, the equities market halted its two previous consecutive weeks of gains, with the All Share Index, ASI, plunging by 2.85 percent to

settle at 41,935.90 points from 43,167.86 points.

Similarly, the equities market capitalisation, declined by 3.26 percent to N15.002 trillion from n15.508 trillion. Further analysis shows that the banking sector posted the highest losses at 9.79 percent. On the flip side, the Insurance sector rose marginally by 0.25 percent. Japaul Oil, which led the losers, depreciated by 30.93 percent to close at N0.67 from N0.97. Fidelity Bank declined by 22.48 percent to close at N2.31 from N2.98, followed by Unity Bank Plc, which fell by 21.51 percent to close at N1.35 from N1.72 per share.

We must jail culprits to curb building collapse – Fashola

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he Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has said that jailing any professional responsible for collapsed building would serve as deterrent and prevent reoccurrence.

Fashola made this assertion in Abuja when he appeared on the NAN Forum.

“How many professionals have been jailed for collapsed building? “Once you jail a professional in the same way you sanction a medical officer for negligence of conduct with regard to his patients, then you have sent the clearest message that those who build houses for people owe a duty of care to ensure that they build according to approved design and specifications.

“And that the approved design standard are also followed to the letter, you Photos: (Top) NSE. (Bottom) Tiwa Balogun

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Facebook deletes at least 270 pages to prevent a reoccurence of the Cambridge Analytica scandal

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ccording to him the pages and accounts were removed because they were controlled by the IRA, not based on the content they shared. This particular set of pages and accounts was used to target people in Russia and people speaking Russian in neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In this case, some of the pages they removed belonged to Russian news organizations that they determined were controlled by the IRA. About one million people followed at least one of their Facebook pages and about 500,000 followed at least one of their Instagram accounts.

In the next few weeks, they will release a tool so people can check if they liked or followed an IRA-controlled According to Zuckerberg, ‘today we’re taking an important step account. Organizations like the IRA are sophisticated to protect the integrity of elections around the world by taking adversaries who are constantly evolving, but facebook down more than 270 pages and accounts operated by a Russian has said they will keep improving their techniques to organization called the Internet Research Agency (IRA). Most of stay ahead, especially when it comes to protecting the our actions against the IRA to date have been to prevent them integrity of elections. from interfering in foreign elections. This update is about taking down their pages targeting people living in Russia. This Russian agency has repeatedly acted deceptively and tried to manipulate people in the US, Europe, and Russia, and we don’t want them on Facebook anywhere in the world’.

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Zuma faces corruption charge over $2.5b arms deal

ormer South African president Jacob Zuma is to face corruption charges over a $2.5 billion arms deal, prosecutors said, as years-old scandal returned to haunt him

“After consideration of the matter, I am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of successful prosecution of Mr Zuma on the charges listed in the indictment,” Abrahams said. “I am of the view that a trial court would be the most appropriate forum for these issues to be ventilated and to be decided upon.”

Zuma will face 16 counts relating to 783 instances of alleged wrongdoing, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said. Twelve are of fraud, one of racketeering, two of corruption and one of money laundering. There was no immediate comment from Zuma and it was not immediately clear when the former leader might go to trial. Zuma was deputy president at the time of the arms deal. Schabir Shaikh, his former financial adviser, was found guilty and jailed in 2005 for trying to within weeks of his fall from power. It was a stunning judi- solicit bribes for Zuma from a French arms company. The cial development on a continent where political “Big Men” 16 counts were filed against Zuma but then dropped by rarely have to face their accusers in court. Zuma, who was the NPA shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009. Since his election nine years ago, his opponents have forced to resign by his ruling African National Congress fought a lengthy legal battle to have the charges reinstated.

(ANC), was at the centre of a 1990s deal to buy European Zuma countered with his own legal challenges. military kit that has cast a shadow over politics in South The ANC said it had confidence in the country’s criminal Africa for years. Chief state prosecutor Shaun Abrahams justice system and the independence of the judiciary. told a media conference that Zuma’s attempts to head off the charges hanging over him for more than a decade had failed. The 75-year-old denied all the allegations against him, Abrahams added.

Photos: (Top) Michael Fenn. (Bottom) S.A.Times

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NEWS Milost to invest $1b in Unity Bank, Targets 30% Stake years, provided Unity Bank has sufficient shares to issue to Milost, one of the people said. Some small- and mid-sized Nigerian lenders are battling to rebuild capital levels after a slump in oil prices triggered a foreign-currency shortage and a contraction in the country’s economy in 2016 made it difficult for businesses to repay loans.

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n American private equity firm, Milost Global Inc, is looking to inject as much as $1 billion to recapitalize Nigeria’s Unity Bank Plc, which is struggling to build buffers after a slowdown in Africa’s biggest economy, Bloomberg reported that the US-based company will get an initial stake of about 30 percent in Unity Bank, which is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in exchange for its first equity investment of $250 million. Bloomberg reports that Milost plans to invest $700 million in equity and $300 million in five-year bonds that can be converted into shares in the Nigerian lender.

However, the transaction is still subject to a due diligence as well as regulatory approvals, but the first part of the deal may be completed in the second quarter. The rest of the cash will be drawn down in intervals over a period of four

An investment in Unity Bank will be Milost’s third in a publicly traded Nigerian company since it agreed to pump $350 million into oil-services company Japaul Oil & Maritime Services Plc in February and to provide a $250 million financing facility to Resort Savings & Loans Plc. The private-equity firm is targeting companies that trade at less than half of their intrinsic value using a facility combining debt and equity that it calls the Milost Equity Subscription Agreement, it said in an emailed statement. Milost buys shares of a company at a minimum 50 percent premium to its market value, and then pegs this price over the next 90 days. If the stock fails to exceed this threshold, the target company will pay the difference to Milost in the form of extra stock, and a penalty of 10 percent to 20 percent of the discount that the share is trading at over a five-day period, it said.

“The Milost Equity Subscription Agreement is a growth instrument that creates and builds confidence in the stock of the companies in which it invests,” the company said. The targeted company cannot draw down the full committed facility in one tranche and is only allowed to use it from time-to-time over a three- to five-year period, with Milost eyeing a seven- to nine-year horizon for an exit, it said.

Milost is taking a bet on Unity Bank as the economy of Africa’s largest oil producer shows signs of recovering from a recession after three straight quarters of expansion in gross domestic product, which the International Monetary Fund estimates will grow 2.1 percent this year.

Net income at Unity Bank slid almost 54 percent to N2.18 billion ($6.1 million) in the 12 months through December 2016, with assets of N493 billion, according to the company’s latest annual report.

MTN Targets Double-Digit Sales Growth from Nigeria run-ins with the Nigerian government, which led to it being fined $1 billion for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered users. The telco said it expects double-digit Nigeria sales growth in the medium term, above an overall average of high-single digits, as economic conditions improve and it gains subscribers from troubled competitors.

To achieve this, MTN is planning to use spectrum gained from its acquisition of Visafone in 2016 and talks are ongoing with the nation’s regulatory agency on achieving this. “Our strategy is to grow our network and we need all the spectrum we can,” frica’s biggest mobile phone operator, MTN Group, has expressed its intention to double its Mr Mupita disclosed in the interview. Also, MTN is planning to list its $500 million shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock sales in Nigeria as it plans to review its operations Exchange (NSE). in all 22 of its markets across Africa and the Middle East. MTN’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Ralph Mupita, disclosed in an interview that it has no plan Image (BOTTOM): Ralph Mupita, Group CFO, MTN to leave Nigeria, its biggest market, despite having Image (TOP): Kim Freeman Managing Partner and CEO. Credit: Milost Global inc.

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Lagos Needs $50b to Bridge Infrastructural Deficit—Ambode

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overnor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has disclosed that the state needs at least $50 billion over the next five years to bridge the gap of infrastructural deficit.

Mr Ambode made this disclosure when he spoke at a forum with the Organised Private Sector tagged ‘Lagos Means Business.’ The Governor said, “Assuming the entire budget for 2018 (N1.04 trillion) is spent only on infrastructure development, Lagos will be left with a deficit of about N14.47 trillion and an additional 19 years of similar expenditure to bridge the infrastructure deficit.” However, Mr Ambode disclosed that to solve this issue, a special infrastructure fund driven by the private sector to address social challenges would be created. The Governor said apart from the special infrastructure fund, residents of the metropolis would also have to contribute their quota by paying their taxes.

Mr Ambode expressed concerns that out of the eight million taxable adults in the state, only about two million submitted their tax returns while only 700,000 actually paid their taxes last year. “We are 24 million; taxable adults in Lagos are 8 million. The number of people that actually submitted tax returns in 2017 is 2 million and then only 700,000 people paid their taxes,” he said. He said the current tax returns were not enough to cater for the capital projects ongoing across the metropolis, adding that major cities across the world with thriving economies are sustained by the taxes paid by residents.

Thanking the business community for their support over the years, Mr Ambode said his administration was committed to creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, adding that concerted efforts have been made to encourage investors to set up their businesses in the State, which according to him would have multiplying effects on the State’s economy.

Osinbajo Suggests Regular Forensic Audit of Banks matter and there was the need for all to pay attention to his suggestions and adapt those that could propel the economy.

The Vice President said banking supervision was crucial as regulation was at the heart of the financial system. “Regulation is at the heart of our whole financial and economic system. “One thing that we have learnt from the last decade is that more often than not it is these ordinary citizens who pay for the misadventures of the financial services sector and the failures of government regulation.

“Not only do they lose their homes and moneys, sometimes even their live savings they also shoulder igeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has the cost of the bail outs in the banks. “This is why, it advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to regularly is my view that independence governance of the CBN conduct a forensic audit of banks operating in the country. and closer and more regular forensic scrutiny of banks According to the Vice President, this will go a long way in is fundamental,” he said. According to Mr Osinbajo, boosting the confidence of investors and Nigerians in the “It is holding our bankers to account; it is insisting banking sector. Mr Osinbajo made this call on Monday in that they keep their books honestly and transparently Abuja at the public presentation and launching of the book and to sanction effectively those who so often step out ‘Banking Reform in Nigeria: the Law, the Prospects and the of line.” He expressed gratitude on the conversation Challenges’ written by a doctor of Law, former lecturer in the of the book on the financial sector and the economy University of Ife and a member House of Representative, Mr adding that it would be a worthwhile contribution Bode Ayorinde. The number two citizen of the country decried on what needed to be done in the regulation of the the low impact of commercial banks on the citizenry with no financial system. fewer than 40 percent of the people under-banked. He commended the Mr Ayorinde for coming up with the book, noting Photos: (Top) LagosGovt (Bottom) NYtimes.com that the author had stirred intellectual discourse on the subject 15

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NEWS IMF Raises Alarm Over Survival of Nigerian Tier 2 Banks

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n recent times, there have been concerns raised about the status of midsized banks operating in Nigeria. Last month, Fitch Ratings disclosed that a number of Nigeria’s tier-2 banks (banks with total assets less than N2 trillion) will fall below the capital adequacy ratio of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should the Naira depreciate to N450 per Dollar.

showed that the banking system’s capital vulnerability is driven by midsize banks’ weaker capital conditions. According to Moody’s Investors Service, these trends are credit negative for Nigeria’s midsize banks because they limit their loss-absorption capacity against unexpected losses and will restrain their asset growth and revenue generation. It further said lower capital also would constrain Nigeria’s midsize banks’ capacity to grow their business, harming their revenue and delaying capital recovery through profit retention.

In its recent Credit Outlook, Moody’s said Nigeria’s midsize banks face greater risk of losing business to financial technology (fintech) companies because they tend to provide retail banking and payment services to individuals and small and midsize enterprises, a key entry target market for upcoming Nigerian fintechs. Nevertheless, the CBN issued a directive in January this year limiting the amount of dividend payout ratios for banks with nonperforming loans and capital ratios beyond certain thresholds.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its Nigeria country report, noting that banks’ tier 1 capital ratio had declined to 10.8 percent in September 2017 from 16.3 percent in December 2016 and 17.1 percent in 2013, and is now at its lowest level in the past five years. Also last month, the CBN released its bank stress test results, which

“We expect most banks to retain a large portion of their profits this year and build up capital cushions, although we believe profits will be small. “Also, the improving Nigerian economy (we expect economy to grow 3.3 percent this year), following a contraction in 2016 and a slower growth of 1.7 percent in 2017, will ease the formation of new nonperforming loans in the next 12-18 months,” the report said.

320 Bank Employees Defraud Customers in 2017 Money Banks (DMBs) to submit monthly information/returns on forgeries and other forms of fraud to the corporation. According to him, the planned investigation followed the discovery from the corporation’s most recent report on its off-site supervision of the DMBs that the number of fraud cases attributed to internal abuse by staff of banks increased 38.53 percent above the figure reported for the previous year. He said the report relied on a total of 286 responses received from 26 banks during the period under he number of employees of banks operating in Nireview. geria involved in malpractices in the financial sector “The 286 responses received from banks in 2017 cited increased in 2017 to 320 from 231 in 2016, a new report 26,182 cases of fraud and forgeries which is 56.30% higher by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) compared to 16,751 cases reported in 2016. “Similarly, the has revealed. Head of Communications and Public Afamount involved in the fraudulent activities documented fairs Unit of NDIC, Mr Mohammed Kudu Ibrahim, in a increased by N3.33 billion from the N8.68 billion reported statement, lamented that the cases of fraud in the banking in 2016 to N12.01 billion in 2017 or 38%. “However, the industry was rising and a panel would be set up to probe Expected/Actual loss slightly decreased by N24.42 million the affected banks. According to him, the number of cases or 1.03% from N2.39 billion in 2016 to N2.37 billion in rose by 56.3 percent last year to 26,132 compared with 2017,” Mr Ibrahim said. On fraudulent activities in the on16,751 recorded in 2016, resulting in the loss of N2.37 line-banking and ATM/card-related fraud-types, Ibrahim billion during the period under review. said it constituted 24,266 or 92.68% of all the reported cases, resulting in N1.51 billion or 63.66% loss in the industry He said in 2017, some banks failed to file returns reportin 2017. ing their officials involved in the fraudulent practices to NDIC. Mr Ibrahim said Sections 35 and 36 of the NDIC Photos: (Top) tope dungan. (Bottom) NDIC.com Act No. 16 of 2006 (as amended) requires all Deposit

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Dividend Payment: IMF Backs CBN Decision on Weak Banks

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he International Monetary Fund (IMF) has thrown its full weight behind the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop banks in the country with capital base and huge bad loans from paying dividends to its shareholders. The apex bank had last month in a circular directed weak lenders not to pay dividends to its shareholders, though this has generated mixed reactions.

Some aggrieved shareholders had berated the central bank for this directive and has threatened to

challenge this decision in court if it is not reversed. Most of the banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are expected to release their financial statements for the 2017 fiscal year to the public this month.

In its report released, the IMF supported the CBN decision, saying it was good for the banking sector. On March 5, 2018, the Executive Board of the IMF concluded its Article IV consultation with Nigeria and at the end of the exercise, the directors of the world lender stressed that rising banking sector risks should be contained.

“They welcomed the central bank’s commitment to help increase capital buffers by stopping dividend payments by weak banks.

“They called for an asset quality review to identify any potential capital need. They noted that an enhanced risk‑based banking supervision, strict enforcement of prudential requirements, and a revamped resolution framework would help contain risks,” a statement issued by the IMF said. Also, the IMF commended the central bank’s tightening bias in 2017, which it advised should continue until inflation is within the single digit target range.

UBA Obtains $100m Loan from Chinese Bank to Fund SMEs

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$100 million seven-year loan agreement to finance the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa has been sealed by United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and China Development Bank (CDB). The credit facility is expected

to complement the recovery of economic activities in the country and also further encourage African entrepreneurship. The loan is expected to enhance UBA’s capacity to provide access to finance to small businesses across the 19 African countries the lender currently operates.

Commenting on the development, the Group Managing Director/ CEO of UBA Mr Kennedy Uzoka, said, “We are excited to partner with China Development Bank (CDB), the Development Financial Institution of the Chinese government, on this historic trans-

action, as we strongly believe that the facility will serve as a catalyst to the sustainable development of commerce and industry in Africa through provision of critical financial interventions to SMEs across our presence countries.” On his part, Chairman of UBA, Mr Tony Elumelu, noted that the fund will boost small and medium scale enterprises across Africa, noting that CDB’s interest in supporting SMEs aligns with UBA’s vision in growing business across Africa. “In UBA, CDB would have an enduring partner in reaching out to Africans as UBA provides banking services to over 14 million people across 20 African countries, and like CDB, UBA funds critical infrastructural projects on the continent,” Mr Elumelu said.

Also commenting, President of CDB, Mr Zheng Zhijie, described the deal as the beginning of cooperation between UBA and CDB that would translate into an enduring business relationship between China and Africa and Nigeria in particular.

“UBA is a leading and dependable bank not only in Nigeria but Africa, and this partnership will help our Bank to accelerate its business objectives in Africa, more importantly as we deepen our investment in energy, road and rail constructions, infrastructure in Africa,” Mr Zhije said.

Image(BOTTOM): Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka and Group Chairman. Credit:UBAGROUP

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NEWS 24-Year-Old Nigerian Author Gets Hollywood Deal for New Book

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omi Adeyemi, a Nigerian-American author, has released her critically acclaimed Young-Adult Fantasy book, titled ‘Children of Blood and Bone.’ Adeyemi, who released the novel on March 6, landed a seven

figure book-and-movie deal with Hollywood Fox studios for ‘Children of Blood and Bone,’ her first novel, also described as a “Black Lives Matter-inspired fantasy novel,” a year ago.

Fox 2000, which purchased the film rights before the novel was released, was so impressed by the 24-yearold’s writing style that they tagged the project as being as successful as its other YA franchises, Twilight and Maze Runner. Almost a year before it hit shelves, the novel was making headlines. In March 2017, it was reported that Adeyemi had earned a seven-figure book deal for her young-adult trilogy. Ms Adeyemi, the daughter of a Nigerian medical doctor and hospice trader, was born in the U.S. and currently lives in San Diego.

Adeyemi, who has been referred to as the next J.K. Rowling (writer of the successful Harry Potter series), created an epic tale of an oppressive world that a lot of black people can relate with. She hinged her characters, their conversations and habitats on the rich culture and traditions of her indigenous Yoruba culture.

The book follows the protagonist ‘Zelie’, who at six years old watched the king’s guards hang her mother on a tree outside her home. She never 18 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

forgot it. In the beginning, every Orïshan was a magi: born with dark skin, stark white hair and the blessing of the god’s magic once they reached adulthood. Yet over time, their population dwindled and they became Orïsha’s minority. Magic became a thing to loathe, dark skin transformed into a thing to hate. Ten years after the raid that killed her mother and took away magic forever, Zélie Adebola has one chance to bring magic back.

Fox Studios noted that it was so impressed with the 24-year-old’s writing that it decided to obtain the film rights before the novel was even released. The film company hopes it will be as successful as its other young adult franchises ‘Twilight’ and ‘Maze Runner’. Adeyemi who is based in San

Diego, California, is also a creative writing coach. An elated Adeyemi took to her twitter handle @tomi_adeyemi to write: “The wait is over!!!

Children of Blood and Bone finally out in the world. After graduating from Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology

“ A Black Lives Matter-inspired fantasy novel....”

Black Panther’s Dora Milaje are getting their own comic series written by Nnedi Okorafor

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mid the cocktail of characters and cultures in Marvel’s Black

Panther movie, Dora Milaje, the all-female bodyguards of the king of

fictional Wakanda, have won themselves enough fans to strike out on their own. Marvel has announced Wakanda Forever, a three-part comic series focused on the Dora Milaje, including characters like Okoye (played

by Danai Gurira in the Black Panther movie). The comic series will be written by Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor and will start in June.

It’s Okorafor’s latest engagement with Marvel after co-writing Black Panther: Long Live the King, a six-part series with the first issue released last December. Last year, Okorafor also wrote “Blessing in Disguise,” an eightpage comic set in Lagos, Nigeria for Marvel’s Venomverse anthology.

Okorafor’s work has also attracted attention from other Hollywood heavyweights: in July 2017, HBO announced that her novel, Who Fears

Death, will be turned into a television series with Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin as executive producer.

The Dora Milaje first appeared in Black Panther comics in November 1998 but have become more popular since they were brought to life on the big screen in the Black Panther movie. The characters are believed to have been inspired by an all-female military unit in ancient Dahomey, present-day Republic of Benin in West Africa. The unit was known for fighting colonial French forces in the 1600s but also for warring with neighboring kingdoms and participating in slave raids around West Africa. Lupita Nyong’o and Viola Davis are also working on a new movie, The Woman King based on the true story of the Dora Milaje.

3 Nigerian Sisters Launch ‘Afreekmoji’ to Celebrate African Culture

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ooking for ways to express emotions through keyboard expressions? AfreekMoji is a medium these sisters and entrepreneurs hope to share and educate the world about their beautiful African culture.

In store display, the app carries the following caption: “Featuring over 60 African inspired emojis! Celebrate your Afro-centric or African culture with Afrikmoji! Brighten up your conversations, with our wonderful emoji designs and share your individuality with your family and friends.

Happy AfrikMojing!!”

“We, as Africans, definitely have an idiosyncratic way of communicating with one another, and Afro Emoji is really a fun, accessible graphic depiction of that. We are building a modern African hieroglyph that represents us,” Ayoola Daramola, the app’s team leader told Okay Africa.

At first the emojis and expressions seemed more Nigerian, but Washington D.C.-based company updated the app in February, and now offers characters from different parts of Africa in an effort to “give it a pan-African feel.” Afro Emoji costs $1.99 at

the Apple App Store and works on Android and Apple devices.

The sisters are also the founders of Danshikipride, an international African clothing business. This business displays and celebrates African Fash-

ion Creatvitity The sisters, aged 22 and 21 years old (Mirian and Lilian are twins), were born and raised in Aba, Nigeria, but they presently live in the US. With parents who are entrepreneurs, these siblings had always wanted to be entrepreneurs too, so, when they moved to the United States in June 2007, they decided to keep their African upbringing alive. A quick peek into

their website info page displayed…

“DashikiPride was started by three sisters; Mirian Chinyere Ugokwe, MarySonia Chizoba Ugokwe, and Lilian Chioma Ugokwe. Aged 20 and 21 year old (Mirian and Lilian are twins), these three siblings were born and raised in Aba, Nigeria.

Entrepreneurship has always been an avenue, which they sought after, as their parents are avid entrepreneurs.

Moving to the United States in June 2007, they sought to always keep their African upbringing alive. Starting DashikiPride in the summer of 2014, these entrepreneurs hoped to share and educate the world about their beautiful African culture.

Knowing the importance of giving back to their community, proceeds from DashikiPride have gone to building various charitable works.

Stating their company’s mission, the founders quote “DashikiPride stands for unity and freedom and we invite everyone from all culture and work of life to share this emancipation through our clothes and product”.

Photos: (Top) kla. (Bottom) Black Times

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NEWS African Women Take the Lead to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM/C) & Early Child Marriage (ECM) in Africa through the Strategic Launch of the Big Sister Movement

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he BIG SISTER MOVEMENT (BSM) is the largest grassroots coalition of Local NGOs led by women survivors of FGM/C’s from The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia with the aim of giving back the testimonies and scope of actions to survivors, to enable them to tell their own stories, advocate and find grassroots solutions to the issue of FGM/C in Africa.

Nominee. “African women tend to be perceived as women who need to be saved. They are never considered as the actual saviors. This is what the Big Sister Movement is about. This is the reason for us choosing the International Women’s day to launch our movement, precisely to empower this vision”, added Augustine Abu, a BSM

Coalition member.

In Africa 6000 girls are mutilated everyday, 200 million women live with the effects of FGM/C, and 30 million girls are still at risk over the next decades. The Big Sister Movement is connected by the common goal to ban FGM/C in Africa and to ensure that the ban is implemented across all AU Member Countries where the practice

“For too long, international organizations have been leading the campaign in Africa, implementing programs together with local activists in our communities. The time has come for Africans across the Continent and the world to be at the forefront of the campaign to end female genital mutilation and early child marriage in Africa by 2030”, according to Jaha Dukureh, a Founding Coalition Member & 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

is still dominant through the strategic training and empowerment of grassroots leaders and campaigners. #BANFGM2030.

Nigerian Stock Exchange approves delisting of 7-Up after buyout by majority shareholders

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he Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has approved the voluntary delisting of Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc (NGSE: 7UP) after it received a takeover bid from its majority shareholder, Affelka, aimed at restructuring the soft drinks bottler. The Exchange’s approval, which came into force last month, followed suspension of trading in the company’s shares last month following the planned delisting.

In January, 7-Up’s minority shareholders backed a $70 million buyout bid by majority investor Affelka, the investment firm of the Lebanese ElKhalil family. The bottler received the takeover proposal last August after posting losses, in a deal aimed at restructuring the 7-Up, Pepsi and Mirinda product lines. Seven-Up Bottling Company last traded at N101.97 per share, valuing the company at N65.32 billion naira ($214 million). The Seven up Bottling Company held a court ordered meeting in January, where shareholders ratified the scheme of arrangement for the buy out. Under 20 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

the scheme, shareholders are to be paid a cash consideration of N125 per share as modified at the court ordered meeting.

its main rival Coca-Cola delisted its local bottling unit from the NSE.

The soft drinks bottling industry has been hit by slow demand arising from

weak economic growth in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which recently emerged from a recession and a currency crisis that stifled raw material imports. The Seven-Up Bottling takeover comes six years after

Photos(TOP): Jaha Dukureh, founding member CREDIT: ellecitoyenne.com

The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) urges Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) in Southeast and Delta States to Access N550 Billion Export Facilities “…NEXIM Bank is determined to ensure these funds achieve the desired impacts of triggering non-oil export development, growth and economic progress in line with its mandate as the Trade Policy Bank of the Federal Government, and in line with the applicable CBN guidelines for the implementation of the facilities.” - Abba Bello

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he Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) has called on export-oriented Small and Medium Entrepreneurs in the Southeast and Delta States to access the N500 billion Export Stimulation Facility (ESF), and the N50 billion Export Development Fund being managed by the Bank to boost their businesses, create more jobs, and contribute to the foreign exchange revenue earnings of the country.

at a maximum of 9% interest rate.

The funds were designed to redress the declining export credit to SMEs and reposition the non-oil sector to increase its contribution to the country’s revenue generation and economic development. The improved export financing for non-oil exporters will enable them to upscale and expand their businesses and improve their competitiveness.

Speaking on behalf of the Bank’s MD/ CEO, the Head of the Bank’s Enugu Regional Office, Mr. Chinedu Moghalu stated that the funds are being made available to the NEXIM by the Central Bank of Nigeria at a time the Bank has decentralized its operations to all the regions of the country for easier accessibility of its products and services to maximize their impacts.

This call was made in a statement by the Managing Director and CEO of NEXIM, Mr. Abba Bello, and made available by the Bank’s Enugu Regional Office after a one-day seminar on “LEVERAGING NEXIM BANK FACILITIES TO UNLEASH YOUR EXPORT POTENTIAL.” The seminar held at the Oaklands Centre, Enugu, organized by the Bank and the SME Centre, Enugu. The facilities were made available to NEXIM Bank last December and will lend

Nigeria battles its largest Lassa fever outbreak on record

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igeria’s Lassa fever outbreak has reached record highs with 317 laboratory confirmed cases, according to figures released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) this week.

Although endemic to the West African nation, Lassa fever has never reached this case count in Nigeria before. The number of confirmed cases during the past two months exceeds the total number of confirmed cases reported in 2017. The outbreak has affected 18 states since the first case was detected on 1 January 2018, resulting in 72 deaths caused by the acute viral haemorrhagic fever. A total of 2,845 people who have come into contact with patients have been identified and are being monitored.

The World Health Organization is supporting the NCDC-led response

with a focus on strengthening coordination (including through the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network), surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing, clinical management of patients, and community engagement. State health authorities are mobilizing doctors and nurses to work in Lassa fever treatment centers.

“The ability to rapidly detect cases of

infection in the community and refer

them early for treatment improves patients’ chances of survival and is critical to this response,” said Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, WHO Representative to Nigeria. Health facilities are particularly overstretched in the southern states of Edo, Ondo and Ebonyi.

Photos: NFIM.com

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NEWS

NBS latest report says Nigeria’s GDP records 0.82% growth rate in 2017

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he National Bureau of Statistics released the full year 2017 Gross Domestic Product growth rate for the country with the economy growing by 0.82 per cent in 2017. The 0.82 per cent growth in GDP is an improvement over the contraction of -1.58 per cent which the economy recorded in 2016 during the period of recession.

The bureau in the report which was made available to our correspondent said the economy further consolidated it’s recovery from recession with GDP growing by 1.92 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017, as against 1.4 per cent in the third quarter.

The NBS report said GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 was driven by growth in crop production, crude production and natural gas, metal

ores, construction, transportation and storage, trade, electricity and gas production. For instance, the report said crop production grew by 4.58 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to 3.19 per cent in the third quarter 2017. Crude production, it noted grew by 8.38 per cent in

the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to 25.89 per cent in the third quarter of 2017. It added that Metal Ore grew by 31.86 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to 10.70 per cent in the third quarter of 2017.

Crude oil accounts for 83% of Nigeria’s export earnings

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n a report by Ezekiel Enejeta, Nigeria’s economic diversification maybe paying dividends as export earnings from crude oil export fell to 83.2 per cent in 4th quarter of 2017 up from 95 percent of total export earnings recorded in 4th quarter of 2016. There has been emphasis on economic diversification by the current administration, which is tilting towards agriculture, manufacturing as well as boom for small businesses.

Nigeria realized N3.254trillion from crude oil export in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2017, representing 83.2 per cent of the highest proportion of the country’s total exports during the period under review. Besides, the country spent N380.4billion on importation of mineral fuel in the same period. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, crude oil exports grew by 9.51 per cent over Q3 and by 34.2 percent when compared to the same quarter of 2016.Dwelling on the total revenue generated in 2017, NBS said crude exports stood at N11.026trillion, representing 81.1 per cent of total exports in 2017, compared to N6.996trillion or 82 per cent of total exports in 2016.

22 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

This, it noted, indicates a marginal decline in the share of crude exports between 2016 and 2017.Non-crude oil exports at N656.0billion in Q4 2017, also grew by 8.6 per cent over

the last quarter, and 18.5 per cent Year-on-year; although not as rapidly as crude oil exports.NBS explained: “Nigeria’s import trade stood at N2.112.3trillion at the end of fourth quarter, 2017, the highest components of which were Machinery & transport equipment at N684.9 billion; Mineral fuel at N380.4billion and Chemical and selected products at N347.9billon.

Photos: The National Bureau of Statistics

United Nations Allocates $9 Million to Support Life-Saving Aid in North-East Nigeria

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he United Nations, through the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, has allocated US$9 million to provide life-saving aid to some 60,000 children, women and men recently displaced by ongoing hostilities in Borno State, including $2 million in support of the UN Humanitarian Air Service for frontline responders in north-east Nigeria. The humanitarian crisis in the region remains one of the most severe in the world today, with at least 7.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2018 in the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. About 80% of them, 6.1 million, are targeted for humanitarian assistance.

This $9 million allocation will help fund 15 projects. It will support humanitarian rapid response in areas recently affected by largescale conflict-related displacements, particularly in the northern parts of Borno, along the Maiduguri-Monguno axis. In just three months, close to 30,000 persons have fled the violence in areas that are hard to reach for

international humanitarian organizations. These persons are in dire need of food, water, shelter, blankets, clothes and medical services. Additionally, the funds will help scale up the response near the border with Cameroon in eastern Borno (Gwoza, Bama, Dikwa, Kala/Balge, Monguno,

are crucial for aid workers to be able to reach and deliver aid in remote areas of the north-east, especially areas where roads cannot be used.

“The crisis continues to displace thousands of vulnerable women, children and men every week. Many have gone through unspeakable

Askira/Uba) and northern Adamawa (Madagali), where another 30,000 persons approximately have arrived in just three months following military operations. Finally, the funds will also help maintain UN Humanitarian Air Service operations, which

hardship and the UN and its partners remain committed to help alleviate their suffering,” said Edward Kallon, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria.

Adesina Urges America to Support African Agriculture as a Business I do not seek aid for Africa. I seek

investments in Africa – Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank

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he President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has made a strong case for increased American and global investments to help unlock Africa’s agriculture potential. He made the remarks as the Distinguished Guest Speaker, at the USDA’s 94th Agriculture Outlook Forum in Virginia early this month, on the theme The Roots of Prosperity. According to Adesina, “For too long, Agriculture has been associated with what I call the three Ps - pain, penury, and poverty. The fact though is that agriculture is a huge wealth-creating sector that is primed to unleash new economic opportunities that will lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.”Participants at the Forum included

the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue; Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Stephen Censky; President of the World Food Prize Foundation, Kenneth Quinn; Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Robert Johansson; Deputy Chief Economist, Warren Preston; and several top level government officials and private sector operators.

Adesina appealed to the US private sector to fundamentally change the way it views African agriculture. “Think about it, the size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will rise to US $ 1 trillion by 2030. This is the time for US agri-businesses to invest in Africa,” he said. ‘’And for good reason: Think of a continent where McKinsey projects household consumption is expected to reach nearly $2.1

trillion and business-to-business expenditure will reach $3.5 trillion by 2025. Think of a continent brimming with 840 million youth, the youngest population in the world,

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NEWS

Barclays Africa Group set to dominate Nigerian banking sector

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fter dominating Nigeria’s telecom and pay-TV sectors, South African leading lender, the Barclays Africa Group, has announced plans to make a grand entry into Nigeria’s banking industry seeking to increase her market share in Africa.

The planned entry which was made public last week by Barclays Africa group has been described by industry watchers as a welcome development. During a presentation in South Africa, Maria Ramos, the chief executive of Barclays Africa, said the lender aims to enter Nigeria as a new market, as it seeks to raise its share of the African banking market to 12 per cent from 6 per cent over the medium term.

The south African bank currently

seating on number two spot by market value reported a 4 per cent rise in annual profit, thanks to a substantial decline in impairments, normalized diluted headline EPS, the primary measure of profit in South Africa that strips out one-off items, came in at

Johannesburg Stock Exchange with

current operations in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

1,837.7 cents in the year end-

ed December, compared with 1,769.4 a year earlier. Barclays Africa Group Limited is 14.9 percent owned

by Barclays Bank PLC and is listed on the

Zenith Bank Partners Mastercard to Pioneer QR Payments on Facebook

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enith Bank Plc has confirmed that it is in a strategic partnership with Facebook and Twitter to launch a Masterpass QR bot for Facebook messenger, that will enable Nigerian businesses set up digital accounts and accept QR payments.QR Payments (Quick Response Payments) will allow individuals and small business make and receive payments in real time via Facebook Messenger.

“Our Bank is partnering with Facebook and Mastercard to introduce Masterpass QR as a means of driving financial inclusion and creating a new payment ecosystem for MSMEs and consumers,” said Mr. Peter Amangbo, MD/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc. “This initiative will help us encourage financial inclusion within the country in line with the strategic thrust of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Buyers and sellers now meet and conclude transactions in-store, online and on social media, so we are ensuring payments can also be made on these platforms via QR codes, without having to log onto other solutions or even take a break from what you are doing on Facebook.”

The Bank CEO further stated that Ze-

24 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

nith Bank is focused on digital collaborations and innovations that will enable it’s audiences to fit banking into their lifestyles, make payments more seamless and promote business growth. The Bank plans to roll out the new QR Payments offering to its customers in Nigeria and other African countries where it has business footprints.

Photos: (Top) BarclaysAfrica. (Bottom) ZenithBank

Fidelity Bank receives BCMS certification to mitigate risk

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IDELITY Bank Plc has achieved another feat with Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) and ISMS certifications to improve resilience capabilities and risk management. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given all commercial banks operating in Nigeria Sept. 2018 deadline for BCMS certification.

Mr Ben Ainsley, the Head, Trade & Investment, Nigerian Department for International Trade, British High Commission, commended the bank for the achievement that would set it apart from its competitors. Ainsley said that the certification would enable the bank to militate against unnecessary risks in its business environment. He assured that the United Kingdom would continue to

support Nigeria in achieving the desired growth and development. “We are helping Nigeria’s agriculture exporters to meet the United Kingdom standard, as well as in capacity building and skills,’’ Ainsley said. Mr Dipo Fatokun, CBN Director of Banking Supervision, lauded the bank for achieving the feat ahead of Sept. 2018 deadline.

Photos: Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank , Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo (2nd right) receiving the British Standards Institution (BSI) certification for Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) from UK High Commissions’ Dep. Director International Trade & Investment, Mr. Ben Ainsley in Lagos

FirstBank Records N1trn Transactions On Mobile Banking Channel

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irst Bank of Nigeria Limited said its 894 quick banking, a USSDbased mobile telephony channel that enables customers to access banking services using any type of phone and without data or internet, recorded transactions worth N1 trillion done by 4.5 million customers in 2017, a 250 per cent increase compared to what it recorded in 2016. The bank said it plans to increase its customer base on the USSD platform to over 6.5 million before the end of this year, with over N3 trillion worth of transactions projected to be processed this year. According to FirstBank’s group head, e-business, Chuma Ezirim, over 60% of its customers currently use the bank’s digital platforms (FirstMobile, Firstonline and 894 Banking) to transact accounting for about 21 per cent of transactions on the NIBSS Instant Payment platform.

Ezirim noted that a major element of the bank’s strategy is to make payments and collections easier for businesses around the country. Digitizing payment and collections processes not only improves transparency and efficiency, but also helps a business to grow. “That is why our 894 service

is very useful for our Corporate and SME customers because every Nigerian can pay using 894 irrespective of the type of phone he/she uses, and without the barrier of internet access.” Speaking on the impact of the bank’s financial inclusion services on customers and the economy, Ezirim said, the 894 banking service has led to the creation of over 500 new jobs for young Nigerians who assist customers to adopt digital platforms at the various branches of the bank nationwide.

Photos: (Top) FidelityBank (Bottom) John/FistBank

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NEWS US Retailers Urge Trump Against China Tariffs Wal-Mart, Target Corp and Macy’s sent a letter urging Donald Trump not to impose $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods ranging from electronics to apparel.

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everal large US retail companies, including Wal-Mart Inc, Target Corp, Best Buy Co Inc and Macy’s Inc, sent President Donald Trump a letter urging him not to impose massive tariffs on goods imported from China. The Trump administration is said to be preparing tariffs against Chinese information technology, telecommunications and consumer products in an attempt to force changes in Beijing’s intellectual property and investment practices. Washington could impose more than $60 billion in tariffs on goods ranging from electronics to apparel, footwear and toys.

“At the same time, we are concerned about the negative impact as you consider remedial actions under Section 301 of the Trade Act could have on America’s working families,” the letter stated. “Applying any additional broad-based tariff as part of a Section 301 action would worsen this inequity and punish American working families with higher prices on household basics like clothing, shoes, electronics, and home goods.” The Section 301 would allow Trump to impose unilateral tariffs on China in response to a conclusion by the US government that the Chinese had violated intellectual property rules. The tariffs would not need approval from Congress. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.

The letter is the latest example of the growing division between the Trump administration and many in the business community over trade policy. On Sunday, a group of trade associations that represent most of the United States’ large businesses sent a letter echoing concerns about the economic ramifications of tariffs. Trade associations publicly pushing back include the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the Information Technology Industry Council. Sandy Kennedy, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which organized the letter, argued that tariffs would eliminate any benefit the recent tax overhaul provided the economy. “This is not American industries crying wolf,” she said in a statement.

The letter was signed by 24 companies, which also included Abercrombie & Fitch Co, American Eagle Outfitters Inc., Big Lots Inc, Chico’s FAS Inc, Columbia Sportswear Co, Costco Wholesale Corp, Gap Inc, Havertys Furniture Cos Inc , J.C. Penney Co Inc, Jo-Ann Stores Llc, Kohl’s Corp, Ikea North America Services Llc, Levi Strauss & Co, Qurate Retail Group, Sears Holdings Corp, The Michaels Companies Inc, VF Corp, and Wolverine World Wide Inc.

Chinese smartphone makers go global despite US blockade

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hina’s Huawei is now the world’s largest telecom equipment maker, making headway in developing countries despite blockades from Western countries such as the US on grounds of security concerns. The Chinese company has now surpassed Sweden’s Ericsson AB, reported Caixin, citing research that it was the only major equipment maker to gain market share in 2017.

Huawei has suffered its share of setbacks in entering developed markets such as the US, which banned domestic carriers from buying its equipment in 2012. A year later, Australia blocked it from supplying equipment

26 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

to its broadband network. Both countries had labeled Huawei a potential security threat, claiming that it had unclear ties to the Chinese government.

These efforts, however, have not deterred some of China’s telecom giants from going international. The country’s smartphone makers are instead taking up significant market share in developing countries.

Huawei is currently selling its smartphone brand Honor in India, the

world’s second largest smartphone market. In fact, a majority of its smartphones is produced in India in light of high consumer demand, Honor’s product director Allen Wang told the Hindu Business Line.

Photos: (Top) MTDN. (Bottom) Huawei.com

The former deputy governor of CBN, Kingsley Moghalu announces candidacy for president.

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he former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and founder of the Institute of Governance and Economic Transformation, Professor Kingsley Moghalu has declared his intention to run as a candidate in the Nigerian presidential elections in 2019. This was announced during a press conference held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on Wednesday, 28 February 2018. Stating his vision, one laid out extensively in his recently launched book, ‘Build, Innovate and Grow: My Vision for Our Country’, Moghalu explained that he is taking a stand to unify Nigeria beyond ethnicity to break the stranglehold that the current political class has on leadership, to put the country on the right path and move it forward.

Professor Moghalu also explained that although he has been approached by a number of political parties, he would still focus on the people of Nigeria rather than parties that have been vehicles for capturing power.

He stated that his decision to join any political party would be based on commonality of vision and the importance of a generational shift in political leadership, as he promised that his decision will soon be announced. As Deputy Governor of the CBN from 2009 – 2014, he also led the execution of extensive reforms in the Nigerian banking system after the global financial crisis. He has also had extensive experience working for the United Nations from 1992 – 2008, where he retired from in the highest career bracket as a Director.

“We must stop recycling failed politicians and regenerate our leadership ranks with competent and experienced young men or women. Youths who have prepared themselves with the relevant qualifications must take over the mantle of leadership because this struggle is about the future of Nigeria, not its past. Strong, knowledgeable guidance is needed, and I offer myself for service with a solid track record of leadership,” he said.

Emphasizing the importance to modernize Nigeria, the candidate also stated that competence, capacity, and character are required to reorient Nigeria into a strong and capable country – qualities that citizens should demand their president should possess. “If it is about competence, my work as a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria who played a leadership role in rescuing and stabilizing the Nigerian banking system after the global financial crisis speaks for itself. In capacity, working in the United Nations to reconstruct countries torn by civil war or internal reform of the world body is there for everyone to see. About character, my colleagues, mentors, friends, and of course, my family are there to answer anyone,” he stated.

Photos: Moghalupage.com

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Africa’s population explosion is a ticking time bomb — African Development Bank Governors

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he African Development 2010-2017 indicates that 27 million Africans gained access to new electricity connecBank and its East and tions. 899,000 small businesses were provided with financial services. 35 million have North African Governors have benefitted from improved access to water and sanitation. stressed the need for urgent measures to match the continent’s growing population and youth unemployment, which they likened to a “ticking time bomb.”

The meeting described the continent’s growing young population as a potential growth engine for the world.

“The good news is that the solution is within our reach and will require investments,” said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank. At the end of a two-day consultation at the headquarters of the Bank in Abidjan, CÕte d’Ivoire, the Bank and the Governors discussed strategizes for closing Africa’s $170 billion infrastructure investment gap.

To bridge the investment gap, ensure inclusive growth, and create employment for the continent’s population, the meeting endorsed the African Development Bank-led African Investment Forum and described it as a timely opportunity to catalyze investments into projects and attract social impact financing to Africa. According to Adesina, “We have 12 years left to the SDGs. It is an alarm bell because if Africa does not achieve the SDGs, the world won’t achieve them.

The African Development Bank is accelerating development across Africa through the High 5s. We are deepening our reforms. We deepened our disbursements to the highest levels ever last year and we are leveraging more resources for Africa.”

An analysis of the African Development Bank’s impact from 28 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

The African Development Bank and its East and North African Governors have stressed the need for urgent measures to match the continent’s growing population and youth unemployment

The African Development Bank and its East and North African Governors have stressed the need for urgent measures to match the continent’s growing population and youth unemployment Photos: ADB

INTERVIEW

Africa Prefers Fair Trade to Marshall Plans – VP Osinbajo

Remarks by His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, The Vice President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, at an Interactive Session Titled “Stabilizing the Mediterranean” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Q: How realistic is Africa replacing China as the factory of the world, how realistic is that? How do you look at the Marshall plan for Africa, is it something you think is credible?

Vice President: Let me begin with the Africa Rising narrative and all of the possibilities around Africa replacing China as the factory of the world. I think that probably is in the natural cause of things. Even now, we see that as wage costs go up in China, Africa is becoming the obvious choice for some certain industries, so it is clear that will happen and there are quite a few initiatives in that direction already; there are a few countries like Ivory Coast, Nigeria, with the development of Special Economic Zones, with partnerships coming from China.

I think those sorts of arrangements will very quickly absorb labour because obviously, you are looking at growing populations in Africa, the projections as you know are in the next 20 years or so, we are looking at the youth population... probably 70% of Africa’s population would be young people and Africa would probably be the third largest population.

I think that the critical thing is to see that we cannot deal with this in any

quick way, there are no quick fixes to this, we have got to look at this long term, because clearly there’s no way that African economies will ramp off quickly enough to be able to meet all of the expectations, especially all of the projections around population. So this is going to be a long walk and I think that it is important for all of us to see this as such.

The idea of the Marshall Plan is to me, in some sense, bringing old solutions to what really is a dynamic problem. I think that what Africa needs and what a lot of the southern neighbours of the Europeans need are fairer trade policies and a cocktail of policies that centre on job creation in those locations, more investments, but I think more thinking through those ideas and policies that creates more opportunities, partnership between Europe and Africa.

I don’t think that aid has worked through the years. I think that there’s a need for possibly just much more commitment to the whole process.

I mean there have been multi-processes, several of them, but I certainly think that if we look at this as a major global problem and when you look around and look at extremism, terrorism and all of the various things that are exported along with illegal migration, it is a global problem and really does deserve a global solution and the way to look at that is by coming together to reason these things through, but frankly it is not by those Marshal Plans off the shelf, I think it is more nuanced than that.

Q: Do you feel that values of human rights are being compromised in order for Europe to have tactical immediate solutions?

Vice President: I certainly agree that it was a great shock to see actual slave

dealings in this century; it was absolutely horrifying to see that. What we are seeing is a degeneration of criminal activities where you find that state capacity is unable to maintain international human rights norms.

One of the crucial things is to encourage repatriation. Nigerian government for example is working with the Libyan government in repatriating everyone who is in the camps. It is a slow process because there are those who claim nationalities because they see a way out of the camps. There is also a great deal of willingness on the part of those who are in the camps to go back because it is entirely voluntary. There is pressure where there is no state capacity or inadequate state capacity to maintain law and order and international human rights norms. The pressure is a bit too much for the Libyan authorities, so what you find is that the criminal gangs and all of these asymmetric type organizations dominate the space and we may not be able to do much without relieving the Libyan authorities of a lot of the illegal migrants in their custody or their country.

Q: With a Yes or No, 5 years from now, are we still going to be seating here having the same discussion?

Vice President: Would you give us a chance to say, “I hope not?” (Laughter). I really suspect yes.

Released by Laolu Akande Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) Office of the Vice President

29

From Blog To Film:

This Woman Is Telling The Story Of Successful Black Women Entrepreneurs

by Kandia Johnson

The traditional view of women as homemakers, completely dependent on their spouses for a living is gradually changing especially in Nigeria. According to a World-Bank report, the rate of female entrepreneurship in Africa is higher than any other region in the world. Another report published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, states that Africa also leads the world in the number of women starting businesses, male and female entrepreneurs going head to head in numbers.

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n fact in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, female entrepreneurs outnumber the men. A 2017 Nielsen report shows that black women are not only the fastest growing group of female entrepreneurs, but they’re also increasingly influencing the economy, media, and politics. So, who are these new age pioneers unapologetically breaking barriers? What propelled them to turn their obstacles into opportunities and passions into profit?

Well, meet Renae Bluitt, the founder of Crush Media and creator and executive producer behind the film: She Did That, a cinematic project, featuring the story behind New York Times best-selling author, Luvvie Ajayi; Tonya Rapley, a millennial entreprethe project to light, Bluitt has partnered with General Motors, neur and financial educator; and Melissa Butler, the world’s third-largest automaker. founder of the beauty startup The Lip Bar. To bring

Luvvie Ajayi

Melissa Butler

Tonya Rapley

On what inspired the film.

Believe it or not, the idea for the film derived from her award-winning blog ‘In Her Shoes.’ “I’ve been creating content centered around black women entrepreneurs on In Her Shoes for nine years now, said Bluitt. On a personal level, I was ready for a new challenge. It was time to dig deeper and explore a different medium to elevate the conversation. Capturing these women on film, in their homes, in their workspaces, and having people close to them weigh in on their stories is so much more impactful.”

On the biggest lesson Bluitt wants viewers to take away from the film.

She Did That was created to inspire our peers and offer jewels of wisdom for the next generation of change agents—but anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit will be able to see themselves in the women on screen.

I want the men in our community— and everyone, for that matter—to be inspired and see what’s possible when you’re committed to excellence. The path to personal success looks different for everyone. Your journey won’t look like anyone else’s, but the beauty of your story is what makes you, you.

It’s your special sauce and no one can duplicate that.

On the importance of receiving support.

My grandfather worked on the assembly line for General Motors back in the 70s while building his business and my dad did the same until he also became an entrepreneur in the 80s. As a little brown girl growing up in Indiana, I learned so much about the importance of working hard and having a strong work ethic, no matter what position you’re in. These men took pride in their jobs and built their personal brands long before becoming their own bosses. I carry this lesson with me every single day so when the opportunity to partner with General Motors was presented, it was truly a no-brainer for me.

Photos: Shauna Williams/BlackwomenBiz 30 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

NSE Celebrates Global Money Week to Further Promote Financial Literacy

The Nigerian Stock Exchange commemorated the 2018 Global Money Week themed, Money Matters Matter, between Monday, March 12, 2018 and Friday, March 16, 2018, with a series of educational programs aimed at teaching children and youths about the importance of financial literacy.

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he week-long event, organized in collaboration with Access Bank Plc and AIESEC Nigeria, included interactive sessions with the executive management of NSE, school outreach programmes in Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Abuja, Onitsha and Port Harcourt, and excursions to the trading floor. The Exchange also joined other stock exchanges around the globe in the “Ring Around the World” initiative, using its Closing Gong ceremony to further draw attention to the importance of financial literacy among youths.

L – R: Shows Mrs. Temitayo Ade-Peters, Lead, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), NSE; Mr. Bola Adeeko, Head, Shared Services Division, NSE; Mr. Abimbola Babalola, Head, Market Surveillance and Investigation, NSE; Mrs. Simi Nwogugu, Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN)

In his welcome remarks, Bola Adeeko, Head, Shared Services Division, NSE, noted that “As a sustainable Exchange championing Africa’s growth, NSE takes the issue of providing young people with the tools they need to make sound financial decisions very seriously. We are constantly implementing and supporting initiatives that encourage our youths to develop sustainable spending habits and to become financially savvy”. “Since celebrating the Global Money Week in 2014, The Exchange has been able to reach over 12,507 students from 118 schools. This year alone, NSE impacted 5,337 students from over 25 secondary schools and institutions of higher learning, L – R shows Chinelo Okafor, Children Banking, Access Bank Plc; Ms. Busola Ogundipe, Segment Managthrough various financial literacy pro- er, Access Bank Plc; Mr. Abimbola Babalola, Head, Market Surveillance and Investigation, NSE; Mr. Bola Adeeko, Head, Shared Services Division, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). grammes during the week”.

“To end its series of financial literacy activities for the 2018 Global Money Week, the Exchange in collaboration with Bestman Games Limited and Ediye Limited, held a Monopoly Open Competition for children between the ages of seven (7) and fifteen (15). The competition, which was designed to help children learn and show their basic financial planning skills, took place on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at Ediye Restaurant, 1, Fola Osibo Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.

Photos:NSE

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EVENTS

NSE Calls for the Acceleration of

Gender Equality

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, in partnership with the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, United Nations Women, United Nations Global Compact, International Finance Corporation, the World Federation of Exchanges, WIMBIZ, and Women in ETFs, organized a symposium to celebrate International Women’s Day 2018, on Thursday, March 8, 2018, at the Stock Exchange House in Lagos.

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n line with the global theme for this year’s celebration, “press for progress”, the NSE symposium was designed to motivate and unite everyone to think, act and be gender inclusive. The event which brought together over 200 women and men from the NSE, listed companies, Dealing Member firms, media, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil societies and Government, to discuss how to help women realize their dreams; had Laure Beaufils, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria and Dame Abimbola Fashola, Former First Lady of Lagos State & Chairman LEARN NGO/Ella Cares as headline speakers.

The Exchange also joined other stock exchanges around the world that rang the bell for gender equality to raise awareness on the importance of gender equality to capital markets. The Exchange used its Closing Gong ceremony to highlight the business case for women’s economic empowerment, as well as opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality

Photos: NSE

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and sustainable development. In his welcome address, Mr. Oscar N. Onyema OON, Chief Executive Officer, NSE, stated that, “this year’s theme is not just another theme for another edition of the International women’s day. It is a call to action to spur women and men into taking bold steps towards closing the gender gap”.

To close the day a raffle draw was held with gifts from the event sponsors, Olori Cosmetics, Zaron Cosmetics Limited, Shredder Gang, A Thousand Reasons Confectionaries, Bodyline Fitness & Gym Limited, Kinabuti, ShugaPlum Concepts.

How NAPTIP rescued 13,000, trafficked persons

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n a report by Prudence Arobani, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), said no fewer than 13,000 trafficked persons have been rescued by the agency. Okah-Donli disclosed this in an interview in New York at the premiere of a movie about human trafficking in Nigeria.

The movie, ‘Mrs Adams’, which premiered at the Nigeria House, came at a time Nigerians and Africans were taking the perilous Mediterranean Sea route to Europe, and was produced by Queen Blessing Itua. “So far, we’ve rescued over 13,000 victims, we’ve prosecuted about 339 traffickers and we’ve rehabilitated about 8,000 victims as well,” she said. According to her, the prostitution trade, which draws its recruits mainly from human trafficking, is estimated at roughly 150 billion dollars business. She, however, cautioned Nigerians against referring to trafficked persons as prostitutes, saying they are victims, not criminals adding, “A prostitute works for herself and cuts the shots”.

“But somebody who is sexually exploited does not work for herself, she works for someone else; she does not even have the freedom or access to the money”.

She said many victims were scared to talk because most traffickers were known to them – family friends, boyfriends, brothers, fear of reprisals or death because of sworn oath.

“Some of them came back with all sorts of conditions – some treatable, some untreatable, some with hepatitis, HIV, some with full-blown AIDS,” she said, adding many of the victims has psychological problems. “A lot of them come back mentally sick and so we have to refer them to the mental hospitals because they were traumatized, they’ve been beaten, raped and used.”

Okah-Donli regretted that while NAPTIP tried to arrest the perpetrators, they sometimes connived with some law enforcement officers, who were supposed to protect the victims, and allowed them to escape. According to her, NAPTIP is making a case to ensure that NAPTIP officials are at the airports and borders to check such abuses. She said human trafficking involved recruitment, transport- R-L: Dr Hajo Sani, Senior Special Assistant to the Wife of the President, Hajia Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s Ambassador ing and harboring of human beings to the UN Prof. Tijjani Bande to exploit them sexually, for forced labor or for the purpose of organ harvesting through force, deceit, abduction, or fraud. She added: “For us, ‘prevention is better than cure’. We try to prevent by sensitizing everyone and of course we are trying to change the mindset of our youth who think that anything outside Nigeria is the best. “They think when they go abroad, there’s work waiting for them, there’s money everywhere.

So we’re trying to make them believe, first of all, in their country and in Dame Julie Okah-Donli, Director-General, National themselves.”

Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) premiering a movie on human trafficking in Nigeria ‘Mrs Adams’ at Nigeria house, New York

Some guests at the premiere of an anti-human trafficking movie on Nigeria and a book on changing the perspectives about Africa, at Nigeria house, New York

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EVENTS

Nigeria, Global Bodies Move To Stop Illicit Financial Flows in Africa Africa loses $80bn annually through IFF, Nigeria accounts for significant percentage – Adeosun

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igeria and global organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank Group, have agreed on high-level collaborations with Nigeria and other African countries to stop Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) in Africa. This was a major resolution reached at the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) Conference at the United Nations in New York. The Head of OECD Global Forum on Exchange of Information, Ms. Monica Bhatia, who disclosed this on Thursday at the PCT Conference, stated that automatic information sharing had been adopted as part of proactive steps to curtail the IFFs from the African continent to developed countries.

“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically says that we must significantly reduce illicit financial flows by the year 2030. A lot of efforts are ongoing to achieve this and support developing countries to end the IFFs,” Bhatia said. Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in her address at the conference, affirmed that the IFF was a problem that urgently requires global focus and actions towards the realization of significant developmental progress for Nigeria and other developing countries.

Adeosun said, “The IFFs are driven by the desire to hide illicit wealth, hide the proceeds away from the public eye and law enforcement agencies and also conceal the ways and means 34 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

by which illicit wealth was created.

This makes it difficult to trace the associated money flow.

“Developing countries, including Nigeria, collect significantly lower levels of tax, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), than wealthier States. This is partly because the income and wealth being created, is taken out of the country illegally, without being taxed.”

Quoting the report of former South African President Mbeki’s High-Level Panel on IFFs, the Minister said Africa loses US$80 billion annually to IFFs, with a significant percentage of the loss coming from Nigeria.

She disclosed that the Nigerian Government had engaged a leading international Asset Tracing and Investigation Agency (Kroll), to trace and track illicit flows and assets.

In addition, she said Nigeria had signed the Multilateral Competent Authority on Common Reporting Standards, which allows for exchange of financial account information. The country, according to her, is expected to effect the first exchange by 2019 as soon as the domestic legal framework was completed.

She added, “Nigeria has adopted the Common Reporting Standards and the Addis Tax initiative aimed at improving the fairness, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the tax system.

“Furthermore, as part of open government partnership Nigeria has

included in the national action plan, a commitment to establish a public register of beneficial owners. To this end, the Corporate Affairs Commission, the custodian of Nigeria’s company registry, is pursuing relevant amendments to the Companies and Allied Matters Act to comply with global standards.”

As part of measures to tackle IFFs, Adeosun called for the tightening of Nigeria’s tax codes and tax laws that encourage tax avoidance as well as strengthening of the tax system to make it more efficient.

Advocating more responsibility on the part of destination countries of illicit financial flows, the Minister advised that beneficial ownership registers should be established to allow authorities track money in financial investigations involving suspect accounts/assets held by corporate vehicles.

She further called for the elimination of safe havens that provide incentives for transfer of stolen assets and illicit financial flows abroad, and also the development of a supportive, efficient and speedy process for returning assets to originating countries.

Photos: oecd.com>>>

Th Ch on

The Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun discussing with the Chairperson of the Illicit Financial Flows Panel of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT), Grace Navarro

IOTA President, Mr Alexander Trepelkov, Mr Victor Gaspar

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; Head of OECD Global Forum on Exchange of Information, Ms. Monica Bhatia and Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, William Babatunde Fowler

IOTA President addressing the Session “DRM and State Building: Taxation for Better Governance�

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EVENTS

Dangote Donates N1.2 Billion to The First Business School in the North to Bayero University, Kano

The business educational development of Northern Nigeria took a new turn at the weekend when the renowned businessman, Aliko DANGOTE donated a N1.2 billion ultra-modern business school edifice to the Bayero University, Kano, (BUK), first of such in the northern part of the country.

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hristened Dangote Business School, the business mogul disclosed that talks are on to affiliate the school with the popular Harvard Business School, in the United States of America. At the opening of the School at the new site of the University, Dangote stated that no effort was spared to ensure that the school was up to international standard and one of the biggest in the sub-Saharan Africa. Dangote said the Business School, which was commissioned by the Kano State Governor, Abdulzhi Umar Ganduje, was conceived as part of the contributions of the Nigeria’s business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote towards encouraging world-class entrepreneurship education at the highest level in Nigeria. He described the School as best of its kind in northern Nigeria, adding that the School, as accredited by the Nigerian University Commission, will be the first business school to offer Doctor of Business Administration PhD. program in Nigeria.

Dangote added that the business school would ease sharing of business information globally and how future African leaders could advance their businesses as well as building capacity, which would translate to boosting the continent’s economy. Dangote traced the journey of the construction of the school to the days of Prof Attahir Jigawa as the Vice Chancellor of the University when he pleaded with him to help in the establishment of a business school that can accelerate entrepreneurship in the country. He said he agreed to build the edifice because of his conviction that good quality education is the bedrock of meaningful development 36 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

in the country and only a sound mind can facilitate development. The school, according to him, will train African Business leaders by carrying out research on how Nigerians can do business in the very particular kind of environment and succeed.

On his part, the Vice Chancellor of

the University, Prof. Muhammed Yahuza Bello said with the new business school, the university is now poised to serve the society better through training, research and services.

Donor of the building, Aliko Dangote; Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru

(L-R) Donor of the School, Aliko Dangote; Vice-chancellor of BUK, Prof Mohammadu Yahuza Bello; Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru; and Kano State Deputy Governor, Prof. Hafeez Abubakar at the commissioning ceremony

Donor of the School Aliko Dangote,; Vice-chancellor of BUK, Prof Mohammadu Yahuza Bello, holding the award plague; Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru; Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Kano State Deputy Governor, Prof. Hafeez Abubakar

Top 10 Best Electronics Gifts For

Her

Whether its your mom, sister, significant other, friend, or any other woman in your life, When it comes to picking the perfect gadget gift for her, it’s time to think beyond pink. You can give her the tech-centric gift that truly stands out.

Style and function is what matters here. With so many electronics gifts to choose from, finding the right one for her can be challenging. If you’re not sure where to begin, consider these gifts listed below.

Kate Spade Mother of Pearl Scallop Bangle Activity Tracker Price: $128.00

The mother-of-pearl activity tracker tracks not just exercise but other fitness goals like water consumption, too. It’s as chic as it is functional.

QBracelet Price: $ 149.00

Aside from charging your smartphone, it also charges your other gadgets; it features built-in rechargeable polymer lithium ion batteries with Apple iPhone lightning connector or micro-USB for most Android smartphones.

Raden A22 Carry Price: $295.00 It is a carry-on that is packed with a proximity sensor, weighs itself, is super strong, waterproof, and can charge a phone four times over.

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LIFESTYLE Supersonic Hair Dryer Price: $400.00

The beauty world flipped this year for the new noiseless hair dryer from Dyson. It dries hair in record time and shields hair from heat damage.

5 HP Sprocket Photo Printer Price: $129.00 You can now print photos directly from your phone or tablet into colorful, sharable prints with the new HP Sprocket Photo Printer.

Stelle Audio Price: $299.00$349.00

The StellĂŠ Audio Pillar is the perfect union of stunning sound and chic style for the home, office or anywhere life takes you.

38 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Native Union Price: £39.99-$50.00

Designed to look like one of those weird tags you get on new handbags. TAG hangs innocently on your bag, hiding a charging cable for emergencies.

Roku Streaming Stick Price: $34.99

The stick provides access to Netflix, Hulu, Google Play, Amazon, and more.

Stelle Audio Mini-Clutch Speaker Price: $159.00-$199.00 All my party girls, where y’at? Technology is all about the multi-task feature. Stelle Audio’s Mini-Clutch Speaker is a small handbag that incorporates a wireless speaker, built-in speakerphone, built-in mirror and still leaves room for make up.

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ARTICLE

Roaring to life:

Growth and innovation in African retail banking The McKinsey Global report on African Retail Banking

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he report finds that Africa’s banking markets are among the most exciting in the world. The continent’s overall banking market is the second fastest growing and second most profitable of any global region, and a hotbed of innovation. Nearly 300 million Africans are banked today, a number that could rise to 450 million in 5 years. The report illustrates four segments of African markets – from the advanced markets like South Africa and Egypt, to fast-growing transition markets such as

Kenya, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, to sleeping giants like Algeria, Nigeria and Angola, to nascent banking markets like DRC and Ethiopia. .The report finds that Africa’s top quintile banks – the so-called “winners” - are simultaneously 4 times more profitable and over 2 times faster growing than bottom quintile banks. The report’s key findings are that these “winners” are defined by employing one or more of five winning practices below:

1.Draw the right map.

In Africa, geography matters. About 65% of African banks’ profitability (measured by RoE) and 94% of their revenue growth are attributable to their geographic footprint. Importantly, the report highlights a shift in exchange-rate adjusted revenue pools North Africa, East Africa and West Africa, and away from South Africa.

2. Right segments, compelling offers. We find that 70% of revenue

pool growth will occur in the middle segments, defined as earning between US$ 6,000 and US$ 36,000 in annual income. The mass market – individuals earning less than US$6,000 per annum – accounts for 13% of the growth, but is the fastest growing segment. Whichever segment banks choose, having the right proposition is key. Our survey of 2,500 banking customers in 6 African countries finds that 25% of customers choose price as the most important factors in choosing banks. Equally important is convenience, also cited by 25% of customers. Service is the third most important factor, selected by 12% of customers. We also find huge crosssell opportunities – while 95% of Africans have transaction products, fewer than 20 percent have lending, insurance, investment or deposit products.

3. Leaner, simpler banking.

While African banks’ cost: income has been falling, we find that this is due to rising margins for banks, and their cost-to-assets ratio has actually been worsening. At 3.6%, Africa has 40 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

the 2nd highest cost-to-assets ratio in the world. However, rapid efficiency gains are possible, and we spotlight eight African banks that have made strides in efficiency in the last fiveyears, through a combination of three

levers – end-to-end digitization; sales productivity improvements fuelled by advanced analytics; back- and middle-office optimization.

4. Digital first.

40% of Africans prefer to use digital channels for transactions. In four major African countries – South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Angola – a higher proportion of Africans prefer the digital channel for transactions to the branch channel. Given low branch density in Africa, banks need to employ a digital first approach. The report hones in on four themes of innovation emerging in Africa on digital – end-to-end digital transformations (e.g. Equity Bank); partnering with Telco companies (e.g.

CBA in Kenya or Diamond Bank in Nigeria); building a digital bank (e.g.

ALAT in Nigeria); and building an ecosystem (e.g. Alipay in China).

5. Innovate on risk.

African banking still has the second highest cost of risk in the world. Poor data availability is part of the problem: 11% of Africans are on credit bureaus, compared to in excess of 90% in advanced markets. However, we are seeing innovations such as banks partnering with data and analytics fintechs like Jumo to improve credit underwriting; banks partnering with Telco’s to leverage Telco data to issue small-ticket loans on mobile; and players employing payroll lending across countries.

This new report draws on the experience of McKinsey’s partners and colleagues serving banks across Africa; McKinsey’s Global Banking Pools research; a proprietary database of the financial performance of 35 of Africa’s leading banks; a survey of executives from 20 banks and financial institutions across Africa; and a broad-based survey of 2,500 banking customers from 6 African countries – South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Angola and Kenya.

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The Opus is

KING!

Hong Kong’s $66 million apartments

42 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

LUXURY LIVING The Opus in Hong Kong is a $66 million per apartment, 12-story residential block at 53 Stubbs Road, and will provide tenants with panoramic views of Hong Kong Island. Visionary architect Frank Gehry drew inspiration from Hong Kong’s breath-taking scenery to design a stunning flower-inspired building.

The Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect initially took some persuading to design this building, but soon became fascinated with the idea of working in Hong Kong.

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nchored against the sublime hillside of the Peak, OPUS HONG KONG draws its inspiration from the breathtaking scenery surrounding the site. “I thought the building in such a beautiful spot should have an organic feel to it,” says Gehry. Finely tuned glass-enclosed columns form the structure, twisting up around the building like reeds swaying in the breeze. “It gives a delicacy to the façade,” Gehry adds.

The building consists of 12 luxury residential units. It is one of the world’s most expensive residential properties, and the most expensive in Hong Kong. There are two double-level garden apartments with private swimming pools on the lower levels, and 10 unique apartments above, each of some 6,000 to 6,900 sq ft (560 to 640 m) – one per floor and offering access to roof-top swimming pools. The building’s helical external structure also reduces the need for load-bearing walls, which allows the open-plan apartments to flow around a central core and the sinuous façade of the building to be composed almost entirely of glass - even the columns are encased in it. As a result the interiors are light and airy with minimal interruptions to the view.

The Opus’ floor-to-ceiling glass walls provide both stunning views of the city and natural ventilation and lighting. Energy efficient water pumping is also installed, a motion detection CCTV system, and the building is fully equipped for battery electric vehicles, all of which help to reduce the building’s annual electricity consumption by 31%. The building turns as it rises giving each apartment a unique floor plan and its own spectacular outlook to the city below and the hills around. Each apartment has a series of balconies conceived as ‘boat decks’ that are carefully orientated to make the most of the dramatic panorama. Views of the building from the city are equally striking, as the tower’s distinctive silhouette stands out against the lush green landscape of The Peak.

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IMAGES:ARUP

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Impact of Illicit Financial Flows &

Poverty Reduction in

Nigeria

Carlos Lopes & John Chigozie Over the last decade, the economic performance narrative for Nigeria has been increasingly optimistic in light of its sustained impressive growth rates. However, this narrative continues to be tainted by several challenges, which continue to hinder the continent’s sustainable and inclusive development. Indeed, there are growing concerns with respect to the colossal amounts of financial resources, which illicitly flow out of Nigeria every year. It is obvious that such Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) reduce the levels of resources available to Nigeria to finance its development objectives.

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o make its voice heard within the international community on stemming IFF in its wide ramifications, late last year, the Federal Government, through the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) and the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice, hosted a three-day conference on Promoting international cooperation in combating illicit financial flows and enhancing asset recovery to foster sustainable development. Tagged “Abuja IFF/ AR”, which held at the State House Banquet Hall, it was organized in collaboration with some development partners, including the Government of the Kingdom of Norway, and the Ford Foundation.

At the conference, Osinbajo said financial institutions that aid the perpetration of corruption should be made to face the consequences.

“Banks and financial institutions that actually engage in this must be called out and made to face the consequences of engaging in criminal practices.

If that is not done, we are not likely to go very far. “In the agreement and conventions we will be signing, we must ensure that financial institutions

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are not given a free run and to hold them accountable,” he said. PACAC Executive Secretary Prof Bolaji Owasanoye said the committee was pushing for the prosecution of “middlemen”, such as accountants, lawyers and customs officials who aid looting.

“When you pick up the politically-exposed person, you must also pick

“In the agreement and conventions we will be signing, we must ensure that financial institutions are not given a free run and to hold them accountable,”

up the middleman – the accountant, the lawyer, the Customs official who looks the other way. Let them suffer the consequences together. That is what we are pushing for at PACAC,” he said.

Former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman Mallam Nuhu Ribadu said IFF

and money laundering could not take place without the connivance of banks. There was, therefore, the need to hold culpable officials to account to serve as a deterrence To successfully tackle IFF, there is the need to end secrecy in financial transactions, according to the keynote speaker and chairperson, International Anti-corruption Conference Council, Akere Muna.

Some analysts argue that Nigerians involved in illicit financial flows are motivated by portfolio considerations as they seek abroad for higher returns on their assets. Even though this justification makes sense from a theoretical standpoint, it is hard to convincingly justify Nigeria’s illicit financial flows on the basis of the portfolio argument only. The average investor in Nigeria has a limited capacity to access the knowledge, information, and technology required to engage in financial market operations across continents. In contrast, given the history of weak governance characterizing Nigeria, a more plausible reason behind Nigeria’s high illicit outflows is the illicit appropriation of resources in the form of theft, corruption, mismanagement of public resources,

FINANCE and trade mispricing. For example, ongoing investigations in France and USA into fraudulent acquisition of assets by some Nigerian political elites have revealed that they have embezzled large sums of money used to buy mansions costing hundreds of millions of dollars apiece, luxury goods such as expensive cars, jewelry, paintings, memorabilia, private jets, yachts, etc., mostly in Western countries.

In a groundbreaking report, which uses World Bank and IMF data to estimate the quantity and patterns of illicit financial flows coming out of developing countries, the Global Financial Integrity (GFI, 2010) documented Nigeria as the leading source of illicit financial outflow from sub-Sahara Africa. While IFFs occur in many countries around the world, their social and economic impact in Nigeria is far more severe given its smaller financial resource base and markets. IFFs impact adversely on both public and private domestic expenditure and investment. In concrete terms, this implies fewer hospitals and schools, less roads and bridges and fewer power plants.

Furthermore, many of the activities, which generate the illicit funds, are criminal. Whilst financial crimes such as money laundering, corruption and tax evasion are damaging to all countries, the effects on developing countries like Nigeria is particularly corrosive. By some estimates, illicit flows from Africa could be as high as USD 50 billion per annum.

In fact, conservative estimates have shown that without IFF from the continent, Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would have been at least 16% higher.

What Is IFF?

IFFs are funds that are illegally earned, transferred, or utilized and cover all unrecorded private financial outflows that drive the accumulation of foreign assets by residents in contravention of applicable laws and regulatory frameworks. It can be classified into three groups: illegal (or criminal), individual illicit, or corporate (commercial) illicit. IFF flows

could be further distinguished related to legal commercial activities according to the three channels through which they leave poor countries: (a) mis-pricing of goods traded between independent parties, (b) distortion of transfer prices charged on goods traded within a multinational firm, and (c) fake transactions.

IFFs includes corrupt practices such as transfer mispricing, falsified invoicing and round tripping. Tax abuse by Multinational Corporations (MNCs) places a disproportionate burden on smaller domestic firms. A large proportion of IFF comes from Corporations that strive to maximize profit and avoid/evade taxes.

There are motivations other than tax avoidance/evasion in shifting income abroad, such as the threat of expropriation or confiscation of private property, economic and political uncertainty, financial repression, or devaluation. Thus far, no African country has independently defined IFF for practical application in the oil or in other sectors.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the loss of funds through IFF reduces revenues as well as the fiscal and other benefits from the oil, mineral sector and other economic sectors. In addition, it also considerably weakens Nigeria’s ability to mobilize resources generated to fund development plans for the structural transformations of its economy. The opportunity for companies in the oil sector in particular to minimize their tax costs through IFF practices is an incentive for them to move their profits out of Nigeria, where they operate. This in turn reduces the extent to which oil companies in Nigeria will re-invest their profits through greater value-adding linkages on the continent.

The most obvious effects are the loss of investment capital and revenues that could be used to finance public services including infrastructure, education and health.

Oil-exporting African countries have been the main drivers of the continent’s growth. In spite of strong growth rates, many African countries are afflicted by the paradox of plenty,

whereby mineral-rich economies perform worse than mineral-poor countries in terms of social development.

The dichotomy between the wealth of nations, in terms of resources and the poverty of the people in Africa has been the subject of many debates. According to the literature, the paradox of countries endowed with mineral resources is that they demonstrate lower development outcomes - the so-called ‘resource curse’. The resource curse also manifests itself in terms of the Dutch disease

“... While IFFs occur in many countries around the world, their social and economic impact in Nigeria is far more severe given its smaller financial resource base and markets..”

Financial Institutions In Nigeria And Their Challenges In Combating Illicit Financial Flows

In many African countries, regulatory agencies and institutions have been established with responsibilities that cut across various dimensions of IFFs. In Nigeria, for example, some of the related institutions include: Nigerian Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Custom Service, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Bureau, Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Nigeria Police Service Despite the various institutions and their efforts aimed at curbing IFFs and related problems, the magnitude of the challenges experienced by these institutions overwhelms their implementation capacities. Most of these institutions face problems such 47

as inadequate capacity (including equipment, adequate and relevant skills); shortages of funding (requiring them to rely on unpredictable foreign assistance); and in some cases, inadequate support from the judicial system. In addition to these constraints, the situation is further complicated by a lack of coherence between the institutions, the duplication of responsibilities among the different agencies, ineffective coordination between them, and insufficient expertise to deal decisively with the IFF phenomenon. In some instances, therefore, tax authorities may not report tax crimes to law enforcement authorities even after they have reclaimed stolen tax funds from the perpetrator.

Angola is the second largest producer

of oil in Africa. Oil has the largest share in the country’s export and accounts for 85% of GDP. Moreover, in 2011 oil and gas revenues contributed to 79% of government revenues. It is interesting to note that most people are employed in subsistence agriculture while half of the country’s food is imported. In the presence of real exchange rate appreciation, the country is also confronted with a challenge to create competitive manufacturing and industry products vis-à-vis cheaper imports.

turing and industrial sectors as well as to diversify the economy away from its reliance on oil export.

Mineral rich economies experience frequent boom and bust cycles, due to revenue volatility, which caused the recent Nigeria recession. Revenues from natural resources are unsustainable due to fluctuations in global commodity prices. This volatility can further lead to imprudent fiscal policies as shown by the widening of fiscal deficit of oil rich African economies. Growth in oilrich African countries remains highly vulnerable to external shocks. It is

Dutch Disease Effects In Resource Rich African Countries

The term “Dutch disease” was coined to describe the appreciation of the Guilder, following the discovery of natural gas in 1959. The subsequent increase in petroleum exports resulted in a significant crowding out of other exports. This created a disincentive to expand the domestic manufacturing sector and reduced its overall contribution to economic growth. The phenomenon has affected several mineral rich African countries, especially in their first decade of exploration and export of minerals. Algeria, Angola, Chad, Gabon, Guinea and Nigeria are some examples of countries that have been afflicted by the Dutch Disease.

Nigeria is the largest oil producing

country in Africa. Before 1970, agriculture accounted for over 50% of the country’s total exports. The country was the largest exporter of groundnuts and second largest exporter of cocoa. However, since 1974, crude oil export accounts for over 96% of its exports. Nigeria has been suffering from the Dutch disease and the challenge is still present. Yet it is important to note that Nigeria is striving to diversify its economy.

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IMAGE: Identified IFF practices

Equatorial Guinea has been confronted with the Dutch disease since the country started exporting hydrocarbons. Before the exploration and export of oil, the agricultural sector, especially cocoa and coffee, accounted for 60% of GDP. However, since 2001 cocoa and coffee account for less than 9% of the GDP. Current trends show that the country is not bereft of the Dutch disease as the contribution of minerals represents 87.3% of GDP, while agriculture stands at 4.6% and services at 8.1%.

Algeria is the world’s sixth largest exporter of natural gas. Oil has been the backbone of the country’s economy, accounting for 97% of total exports, 70% of government revenues and 30% of GDP. The country continues to struggle to develop the manufac-

imperative for mineral-rich African states to change the sectoral composition of their economies such that labor is absorbed in sectors with high productivity. Equally important to diversify their tax base and reduce their overdependence on the highly volatile oil prices for revenues. It is therefore, evident that oil revenues need to be allocated in order to develop other economic sectors like agriculture.

Individuals and institutions that engage in IFF make use of the laws in different countries, which allow for the secret/confidential movement and receipt of resources. These flows are facilitated mainly through the principle of bank secrecy, which allows the movements to take place without knowledge of the different

FINANCE governments where the resources may either be criminally acquired and may include undeclared income and profits.

Money laundering: Money laun-

dering is a process to disguise the source of criminally derived proceeds to make them appear legal. Money laundering is a specific legal concept that includes only the proceeds of a set of predicate criminal offences, which are defined by the laws of a given country.

Transfer mis-pricing: Multinational groups of companies are often complex structures with hundreds of subsidiaries, a substantial number of which may be located in tax havens where no or very low taxes are paid and secrecy is applied. Profits are allocated between subsidiaries through internal trading, a complicated process which is hard for tax authorities to police. It is estimated that 60% of international trade is now intra-firm trade between subsidiaries of the same multinational. Transfer pricing involves determining the sales prices between different entities within the multinational. In most countries this must be done using the ‘arm’s-length principle’ i.e. the price must be equivalent to the open market price that would apply between unrelated and independent companies. Normally, trading parties want the best price for themselves. But when two companies that trade belong to the same MNC, they do not want the best price for the individual company, but a price that creates the best overall result for the MNC. The companies may therefore allocate the profit between the two subsidiary companies in such a way that a minimal amount of tax has to be paid. When a MNC is deliberately manipulating its prices in order to shift profits to low tax jurisdictions, this is known as transfer mispricing.

Falsified invoicing: Falsified in-

voicing can be carried out in several ways, all of which have a common feature in that the import or export of goods are not reported honestly

or are even completely falsified. A company in a developing country that is importing goods can inflate the price it declares that it has to pay to the foreign supplier, so that it can report lower profits and therefore pay less tax. The reverse can also happen.

A person exporting goods from a developing country could deliberately undervalue what is being sold, at least in official documents, so that profits are once again hidden. Since it is often based on verbal agreements between buyers and sellers, falsified invoicing is difficult to detect and is widespread. It is, for example, estimated that 60 % of trade transactions in Africa are mispriced by an average of more than 11%.

Round-tripping: Round-tripping means that a company that has shifted profits from a developing country towards a tax haven reinvests part

“...Corrupt members of governments and administrations will make every effort to enact regulations and channel public investments towards sectors that offer the best opportunities for bribery.” of the profits in the same developing country. This time it is being considered as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and thus it can benefit from favorable fiscal conditions like tax holidays offered by the host country.

Round tripping allows not only for tax evasion and avoidance, but also takes advantage of the tax exemptions that many developing countries grant to incoming investment. Similar ways are also used to recycle money coming from criminal activities into the legal economy.

In spite of these significant variations, consensus exists for Africa on the magnitude of IFF, namely that they are high; have increased over time; and oil-exporting countries tend to top the list of African net creditors to the world. Africa lost about USD

854 billion in IFF over 1970–2008, a yearly average of about USD 22 billion. From a different perspective, only one-third of the loss associated with IFF would have been enough to fully cover the continent’s external debt, which reached USD 279 billion ten years ago.

Impact of IFF

IFF from African countries represents a higher burden, as a percentage of GDP, than in other developing regions. Researchers and economists argue that Nigeria’s staggering loss of financial resources through IFF seriously obstructs the country’s efforts at poverty alleviation. Illicit financial flows increase risk and uncertainty in the domestic economy, discouraging investment and its potential negative effect on economic growth. Moreover, in countries where corruption allows the elites to unlawfully appropriate resources and transfer them abroad, the incentive to put in place economic and social measures that reduce poverty is weakened. Illicit financial flows allow the elites to easily access foreign services such as healthcare and education, leaving the poor to fend for themselves.

In terms of a secondary effect, the opportunity to transfer assets from illicit sources abroad also leads to distorted public and private investment decisions. Corrupt members of governments and administrations will make every effort to enact regulations and channel public investments towards sectors that offer the best opportunities for bribery. Corrupt governments channel public funds with above-average frequency into massive infrastructure projects, but hardly invest in the upkeep of that infrastructure, upkeep that offers far less opportunity for corruption. With companies on the other hand, the danger is that rather than promoting economically productive activities, they could devote considerable amounts of money to maintaining good political relations with a view to obtaining economic privileges. The consequence of the corruption that goes hand in hand with massive IFFs 49

is therefore perhaps the emergence of a veritable rent-seeking economy.

IFF through transfer pricing causes brutal tax base erosion through profit shifting, loss of revenue for public expenditure programs, reduction of investment in social capital, switching of tax burden between factors of production and increased tax administration costs. The basic challenge for many African countries is to map the transactional relationships relevant to the business activities of the subsidiary of a MNE. Without being familiar with the extent of the group within which suspect transactions may occur, it is difficult to detect transfer pricing. Modern MNEs have established corporate structures that are complex and are quite difficult to understand without studying its detailed organograms.

IFF undermines the maximization of government revenues through Money laundering, tax evasion practices, including transfer mis-pricing and mis-invoicing. African governments have been particularly vulnerable to this, in part because of “inadequate institutional capacity. IFF is also likely to increase inequalities of income in Africa. Individuals who engage in IFF are generally members of economic and political elites, who take advantage of their privileged positions to acquire and channel funds abroad. Both the acquisition and the transfer of funds often involve legally questionable practices like the falsification of trade documents as well as the embezzlement of export revenues and kickbacks on public and private sector contracts. The shortages of revenue and foreign exchange resulting from this affect the less wealthy members of society hardest.

As long as IFF continues to flow out of poor African countries at a rapid pace, efforts to reduce poverty and boost economic growth will be undermined as income distribution becomes ever more skewed. In Nigeria, the resources lost through fraud, and tax evasion have contributed to the exacerbation of poverty, violations of fundamental human rights, relocation of local residents in the oil sites 50 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

without compensation, pollution of rivers and bad working conditions for employees and their families. In Nigeria poverty is counted as one of the country’s triple threats, the other two being unemployment and inequality.

“.... African governments have been particularly vulnerable to this, in part because of “inadequate institutional capacity....”

General Policy Recommendations It is critical for Nigeria to address the economic and financial governance deficiencies urgently since poor governance will result in IFF practices and a significant loss of domestic revenues. Specifically, there is need for policy-makers to formulate policies, which are anchored on best practices, transparency and accountability especially in oil resources management. In addition, it is essential to reduce banking secrecy, and improve cooperation with current continental initiatives driven by the African Union. It is also necessary to revise existing international- wide initiatives to accelerate efforts to recover money illegally transferred from Nigeria to tax havens. Government officials and Multinational corporations involved in bribery and corruption scandals should be exposed and blacklisted.

Bilateral treaties, which regulate foreign investments and Double Taxation Arrangements (DTA), should be carefully scrutinized. In order to address revenue loses in the oil sector, Nigeria should pay close attention to certain provisions of treaties which exacerbate revenue loses, which are generally the ‘stabilization clauses’.

This clause implies that the range of tax incentives provided in the Agree-

ments will still apply irrespective of changes in tax regimes. Countries should find the right balance between the need to attract investments and the objective to mobilize domestic resources for development. Agreements that provide for short term and periodical review enhance fiscal flexibility, which is necessary for resource mobilization. Ultimately the negotiation of bilateral investment treaties should be informed by countries’ overall development strategy.

Watchdog agencies in Nigeria including NEITI have lamented that many of the names contained in the register of companies operating in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry are not the real owners. A host of them are just fronts that have chosen to represent the actual owners, whose identities are often concealed. Others exist only in briefcases or “shells”. Although it is a legal requirement to submit the names and details of directors of a company before it can be registered, this is regarded as a mere formality.

The truth is that many of those who are regularly listed, as directors are not the ‘real’ owners of the companies. The identities of the real owners are left out in the documentation process even though they have controlling powers over the activities and assets of such companies.

Nigeria should build and strengthen their institutional and technical capacities to better understand and address IFF practices. All revenue authorities should establish and build-up the capacity of their dedicated ‘transfer pricing units’. Training of human resources, local banks and revenue officials to detect abusive practices by MNCs is paramount in addressing IFFs. A well-resourced tax administration authority, both technically and financially, is essential to the effective implementation of the tax regime.

This study was prepared under the leadership of Carlos Lopes and edited by John Chigozie. The paper benefited from guidance and supervision of Adam Elhiraika.

Peak Global Wealth

There are now 16.5m individuals worth

$63.5tn total

According to Sophie Christie at Telegraph UK, there are presently more high net worth people in the world than ever with the world’s richest individuals up by 7.5%, bringing the total numbers of the world’s wealthiest to 16.5 million persons. High net worth individuals, defined by assets (excluding place of residence) of over $1 million, were said to have had their ranks swell by an extra 1.15 million people, rose on the backs of a booming stock market

C

ollectively, these 16.5 million high net worth individuals have assets totalling $63.5 trillion dollars.

Impressively, it’s not just the number of wealthy individuals which have increased, their assets and wealth have also risen 8.2% in 2017, double that of 2016. If rate of wealth accumulation holds, these high net worth individuals will eventually exceed $100 trillion worth of assets collectively by 2025.

The Capgemini World Wealth Report 2017 finds the biggest leaps in high wealth individuals came from three regions- North America, Europe and

Asia, with each market growing by an average 7.5% last year with wealth gains above 8%. That said, while growth of HWNI remained healthy even in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), it actually slipped from 9%, not a concern, more a reflection as developing economies (where opportunities for wealth are more abundant) become developed economies. Overall, the United States continues to be the nation with the most number of millionaires in the world, followed

by Japan, Germany and China with France pipping the United Kingdom to take fifth place. Meanwhile, Russia

and emerging market, Brazil, have recorded double-digit increases in both their population of wealthy individuals and their assets, after slightly more than a year of declines since 2015.

According to Bloomberg, millionaires are multiplying the fastest in Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, Thailand, Sweden, Taiwan and Canada with France following just Brazil, leading them to edge UK out of the top 5 countries with the most millionaires.

51

FINANCE How the World’s Richest are becoming Richer

Stock market equities were the largest and fastest growing asset class, responsible for Russia hitting double digit HWNI growth figures.

On average, most HWNI had wealth portfolios with over 31.1% in stocks, up 24.8% from 2016; 2017 marks a five year high. After stocks, HWNIs hold 27.3% of their wealth in liquid assets while real estate holdings have lost their lustre, shrinking to 14% of their wealth portfolios, down from 18%. That said, exemplifying the “money makes money” maxim, astute Fund Managers played a major role in helping the world’s richest generate more wealth.

African Billionaire Fortunes Rise

A quick look at Forbes’ Africa’s Billionaire List shows that none of them made their wealth from investing in stock markets. In comparison, a scan of the Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List shows over 40 US billionaires made their fortune by investing in the stock markets through hedge funds. In Forbes Africa report, Africa’s billionaires are collectively wealthier than a year ago. The 23 billionaires that Forbes found in Africa – up from 21 billionaires last year – are worth a combined $75.4 billion, compared to $70 billion in January 2017.

The richest African, for the seventh year in a row, is Nigerian cement and commodities tycoon Aliko Dangote, with a net worth that Forbes pegs at $12.2 billion. That’s up $100 million from a year ago. Dangote is looking beyond cement – his most valuable asset – and has been investing in a fertilizer production company and a large oil refinery. Number two on the list is diamond-mining heir Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, with a net worth of $7.7 billion, up $700 million from last year. Oppenheimer is one of eight South Africans on the list, making it the African country with the most billionaires.

Last year, South Africa and Egypt tied with six billionaires each. Boosting the South African ranks this year: newcomer Michiel le Roux, the founder and former chairman of 52 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Johannesburg-listed Capitec Bank Holdings, whose stock has climbed more than 50% in the past year, making Le Roux a new billionaire worth $1.2 billion. South African mining tycoon Desmond Sacco, chairman of listed Assore Group, returns to the list following a stock price surge of some 60% in the past 12 months.

Sacco last appeared as a billionaire on the Africa’s Richest list in 2012 with a $1.4 billion fortune. (He also appeared on the 2014 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires, worth $1.3 billion.) Zimbabwe gets its first billionaire this year: telecom magnate Strive Masiyiwa, who chairs the Econet Group. Shares of Zimbabwe-listed mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe have surged in value over the past year; Masiyiwa owns more than half of that company. He also has a majority stake in fiber optic firm Liquid Telecom, which raised $700 million in a bond offering in July 2017.

Forbes estimates Masiyiwa’s net worth at $1.7 billion.

Just two of the 23 list members are women, unchanged from last year. Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s longtime former president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is worth an estimated $2.7 billion this year, down from $3.2 billion a year ago.

Her net worth dropped in part due to a lower value for Banco BIC, an Angolan bank; its book value plunged in 2016 amid a tough year for the oil producing country. The other woman is Nigeria’s Folorunsho Alakija, whose estimated $1.6 billion fortune lies in oil exploration firm Famfa Oil, which is partnered with Chevron and Petrobras on a lucrative offshore oil field.

Mohammed Dewji of Tanzania is the youngest on the list, at age 42. He inherited a textile and edible oils group from his father and has expanded its operations. Forbes puts his net worth at $1.5 billion. The oldest list member is Onsi Sawiris of Egypt, age 88; he started Orascom Construction in 1950. It was nationalized by the government of Abdel Nasser and Sawiris created another construction firm from scratch. Two of his three sons are also billionaires, including Nassef Sawiris, who at $6.8 billion is Egypt’s richest man. That’s an increase from $5.3 billion a year ago thanks to upticks in the share price of several of his holdings: shoemaker Adidas, cement giant LaFargeHolcim, and fertilizer maker OCI. Fortunes rose since last year for 13 of the 23 list members, fell for four people and stayed the same for three people. The list members hail from a total of eight countries: eight from South Africa, six from Egypt, three from Nigeria, two from Morocco and one list member each from Algeria, Angola, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

AUTOMOBILE

Lexus reveals ‘Black Panther’ inspired LC models

Discover the two new 2018 ‘Black Panther’ inspired LC models by Lexus

W

hen a Super Hero is your muse, the results can be amazing. And Lexus is proving just that with two new vehicles inspired by its team-up with Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther”—a 2018 LC Inspiration Series production car and a concept coupe dubbed the Black Panther Inspired LC. As previously announced, Lexus and Marvel have collaborated to pair the 2018 Lexus LC 500 with Marvel’s dynamic Black Panther character in the film. The limited edition 2018 Lexus LC Inspiration Series features an exclusive deeply saturated, iridescent Structural Blue color. This vehicle is the first in a succession of Inspiration Series vehicles Lexus plans to create for each of its flagship models. The 2018 Lexus LC Inspiration Series is limited to100 pieces only.

of the Black Panther and Wakanda itself—complete with a powertrain that gets an extra boost from vibranium, the mythical ore found only in the Black Panther’s home of Wakanda. “This is what it’s all about,” said Mindy Hamilton, Marvel’s senior vice president of global partnerships and marketing. “We’re bringing our two worlds together by letting our imaginations run wild like there are no limits to what’s possible. That’s what Black Panther and the nation of Wakanda represent in the film, and it’s been incredible to work with Lexus as we attempt to re-create that ideology here in our own corner of Photos: LexusEurope the universe.”

“The Inspiration Series takes our flagship products and makes them even more exclusive and distinguished,” said Brian Bolain, general manager, Lexus marketing. “Our collaboration with Marvel Studios’ ‘Black Panther’ features a technologically advanced blue LC and was the perfect inspiration for the first car in the Series.”

Separately, the Black Panther Inspired LC concept coupe is a celebration 53

54 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Helping Nigeria’s Blood Shortage!

Temie Giwa-Tubosun of LifeBank

Temie Giwa-Tubosun is one of the young ladies in Nigeria working hard to change things in our health sector. Two years ago, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, officially launched LifeBank, the health startup that provides hospitals with the blood and blood products they need. LifeBank makes blood available when and where it is needed in Nigeria to save lives by mobilizing blood donations, taking inventory of all blood available in the country, and delivering blood in the right condition to the point of need.

Who is Temie?

Temie Giwa-Tubosun is a Nigerian-American health manager, founder of LifeBank (formerly One Percent Project), a business enterprise in Nigeria working to improve access to blood transfusions in the country.

Temie was born in Ila Orangun in Osun State Nigeria to a university professor and schoolteacher. Temie attended the Minnesota State University Moorhead and graduated in 2007. In 2008, she went to graduate school at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey from where she graduated in July 2010.

L

ast year Temie, published a report card on how the company fared in 2016, a year she described as “an incredible year of tough lessons for our young team”. The post revealed that in about 9 months of operations, the young company had moved 1,968 pints of blood and blood products to 65 hospitals around Lagos (including the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and Reddington Hospital), built a blood discovery and delivery app for hospitals, helped over 300 Nigerians give blood through a huge blood drive, saved up to 900 lives in the process...

In 2009, after her first year in graduate school, she returned to Nigeria for the first time since 2001 to intern for Department for International Development at Paths2 in Abuja, Nigeria. The internship lasted three months during which she had an encounter with a poor mother called Aisha whose protracted labor convinced Giwa of the problem of maternal mortality among Nigerians. She worked briefly at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota in 2010. In August 2011, she began a fellowship with the Global Health Corps, and spent the next year at Mbarara, Uganda, working with the Millennium Villages Project a project of the United Nations Development Programme and Millennium Promise.

In August 2012, Giwa returned to Nigeria. From December January 2013 to January 2014, Giwa worked with the Lagos State Office of Facility Management whose work included upgrading schools, monuments, hospitals, and other facilities managed by the State.

On May 21, 2012, Temie founded a non-governmental organization called “One Percent Blood Donation Enlightenment Foundation” or One Percent Project with the aim of ending blood shortage, educating people “I started this work because of a simple conviction, that Afrion the importance of blood donation for anyone in cans deserve access to good health care. I believe that health need of blood, to overcome fears, prejudice, myths and care is both a fundamental basic need and that it is an inapathy of people on blood donation, and to increase an alienable human right.” “Over the next 2 years, we will move efficient distribution network of blood in blood banks 100,000 products to 2,000 hospitals and save 100,000 lives. in Nigeria In January 2016, Temie founded LifeBank, We are also building a movement of a million Nigerians ready a business organization set up to tackle the problem of and willing to give blood to save lives.” And shortly after the blood shortage in Nigeria. The founding was inspired post was published, Temie shared that the startup had crossed by the birth of her first child and the complications the 2,000-pint milestone.

55

INTERVIEW from that experience. The technology and logistics company is based in Lagos, and incubated at Co-Creation Hub in Yaba. As at January 2017, the company has helped deliver over 2000 pints of blood to patients across the state.

She would like to see her concept become a reality for all of Nigeria’s hospitals, but that will take time.

The country’s population is almost 200 million; Lagos State, the base for LifeBank’s operations, has almost 18 million residents. The numbers seem daunting, but in its first two years and with less than $50,000 USD in funding, Life Bank signed up 94 hospitals, delivered more than 8,000 units of blood—and saved 1,800 lives.

This past January, investors pledged another $200,000 to LifeBank, and Giwa-Tubosun now plans to expand operations to the Nigerian capital of Abuja and the northern state of Kaduna. Quite an accomplishment in a country where simply being a woman—let alone a woman entrepreneur—can be a daily challenge.

The CEO, Temie Giwa-Tubosun has been described as a “breakthrough female innovator” by the World Economic Forum, and has appeared on many lists of innovators. She shares her start-up and business story with CP-Africa.

In 2014 Giwa was listed as one of the BBC 100 Women. Speaking on the topic, “Healthcare is a Right” at a TEDx Talk she gave in 2016, Temie said, “Here’s one thing I know for sure, that every mother deserves a chance to watch her kid grow. It has been a fact that has pushed me in the direction of what I do today. I really believe that the process of giving birth and raising children should be a happy event for a mother and the idea that thousands of women in our continent do not get the chance to watch their children grow affects me in a deep way.”

Photo Credit: LifeBank

56 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Top 8 Retail Banking Trends & Predictions for 2018

By Jim Marous

For the seventh consecutive year, we have surveyed a panel of over 100 global financial services leaders for their thoughts on retail banking and credit union trends and predictions. The crowdsource panel includes bankers, credit union executives, industry analysts, advisors, authors and fintech followers from Asia, Africa, North America, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. We used the findings from our panel as the foundation to develop a global survey of executives involved in the financial services industry, which provided a prioritization of our trends. Our global survey also provided an opportunity to do an end-of-year review of last year’s projections. Finally, the survey collected insight into strategic priorities for 2018 and the fintech players that the industry believes will have the greatest impact in the upcoming year.

T

he fact that the list of trends identified by the financial services industry has remained relatively consistent could be a symptom of a greater problem. The banking industry is moving much too slow, and legacy firms are failing to differentiate themselves. According to Forrester, “In a market where one-third of all customers say ‘all banks are basically the same,’ it would make sense for executives and their teams to obsess over how to differentiate. Unfortunately, 2018 will look more like a digital arms race between warring incumbents than a year in which firms find new ways to specialize and create value for customers.”

research. While the order of the top three priorities remained the same as last year, the priority of reducing operating costs dropped from 41% last year to only 32% for 2018. At the same time, the priority of investment in innovation dropped from the 4th position to 7th, with the number of firms mentioning inno-

Regarding changes in emphasis for this year’s trends, removing friction from the customer journey increased in importance from last year, with 61% of organizations placing this trend in the top three, compared to 54% last year. The trend around the use and application of data also increased in importance from last year, with 57% of those surveyed placing this in the top 3 for 2018, compared to 53% in predictions for 2017. Other notable shifts of importance included a greater belief that open banking APIs would be important, less emphasis on regulatory changes and a greater belief that advanced technology would have an impact in 2018.

vation falling from 26% to 22%.

The biggest jumps in strategic priority in 2018 were seen with the emphasis on automating core business processes (up 13%) and recruiting talent (up 8%). These shifts illustrate the growing importance of becoming a digital bank and the impact of this transformation on the types of employees required to address new challenges.

When we asked financial services organizations worldwide about their top three strategic priorities for 2018, there was a significant change in priorities compared to last year’s

57

FINANCE 1. Removing Friction from the Customer Journey

While the banking industry has talked about ‘customer-centricity’ and ‘improving the customer experience’ for decades, most organizations have had difficulty breaking down product silos or leveraging internal data to deliver a contextual digital experience.

For financial organizations to change this dynamic, and meet the evolving needs of today’s customers, there are five areas that have emerged as crucial priorities: -Move focus of digital engagement from cost reduction to experience enhancement.

-Leverage advanced analytics, machine learning and contextual engagement to provide a highly personalized experience.

-Allow the consumer to engage with their bank on the channels they prefer at the times they want to engage.

-Transition advisory and sales activities from being reactive to being proactive.

-Engage end-to-end throughout the customer journey, from shopping to account opening, to onboarding and through relationship expansion.

A positive customer experience is channel sensitive, with customers placing a higher weight on digital customer experiences more than physical or call center channels.

2. Expanding Use of Data and Advanced Analytics

Over the past 18 months, the Digital Banking Report has seen a growing gap between the organizations that are embracing the power of contextual insights and the potential of digital transformation vs. those that continue doing things the same way they have in the past. There is no reason to see this gap narrowing in 2018.

Best-in-class financial institutions will apply advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to increase automation, improve personalization, reduce costs, enhance the customer experience and even assist with com-

pliance. The potential of advanced analytics grows exponentially over 58 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

time. Each iteration, additional data source and performance measurement results in learning that enhances the accuracy of the predictive models. It also allows organizations to refine data sources as opposed to simply adding more and more data.

3. Improving Multichannel Delivery

Banks and credit unions will see less than half their customers face to face in 2018. Instead, an increasingly digital customer base will use self-service touch points as a first point of contact, only reaching out to contact-center agents or branches for the most complex engagements. This movement of transactional interactions to digital channels will mean that branch and contact-center interactions are more important than ever in building human relationships with customers. Winning financial services organizations will provide all customer contact personnel with the digital tools required to access answers quicker, and will invest higher trained personnel who are better equipped to use these tools and present high value responses to inquiries.

The traditional definition of convenience in banking has revolved around the proximity of the branch. With the growth in digital technology and the increased acceptance of online and mobile banking, access to banking products and transactions is no longer tethered to a physical location, resulting in a redefinition of convenience. Today, while convenience is still the primary driver of initial consideration, the importance of branches in that definition has gone down.

Novantas found the correlation between ‘perceived convenience’ and ‘consideration’ to be slightly stronger than the correlations between ‘perceived convenience’ and ‘purchase’, with both being very strong. >>>>>>

The biggest news is that the drivers of ‘perceived convenience’ start with an organization’s digital capabilities. In fact, the importance of branch-centric factors has dropped in each of the past three years of the study. This is especially true for consumers aged 18-54.

Aligned with the preference to shop digitally, there has been a corresponding increase in the preference to open accounts digitally, according to Novantas. Over a third of consumers prefer to open their account digitally, with the number being significantly higher (46%) if the consumer shopped using digital channels exclusively. In fact, the mobile channel has replaced other channels as the centerpiece of the banking relationship.

4. Embracing PSD2 and Open API Banking

While APIs are not new to banking and are nothing more than a structure for how software applications should interact, they provide the gateway for innovative, contextual solutions that would be difficult to offer without Open Banking. As outlined by the World Retail Banking Report 2017, published by Capgemini in conjunction with Efma, there are three types of APIs: -Private APIs: These are APIs that are used within the traditional banking organization, reducing friction and enhancing operational efficiency. A vast majority (88%) of banks viewed private APIs as essential in 2015.

-Partner APIs: These are usually between a bank and specific third-party partners, enabling the expansion of product lines, channels, etc.

-Open APIs: In this scenario, business data is made available to third parties that may not have a formal relationship with the bank. Because of the structure of open APIs, many banks have a greater concern around security.

Most banks ease into the use of APIs, moving from private, to partner and sometimes to open APIs. It is believed that, over time, APIs will evolve to the more extensive options in response to the consumer desire for greater digital solutions not currently provided by legacy organizations. This will also occur as both fintechs and traditional banking organizations understand that they need each others strengths. This collaboration will enable both banking organizations and fintech firms to offer more to customers than previously possible. zations stated a plan to increase collaboration with fintech companies in the next three to five years.

Similarly, almost 50% of financial services firms are 5. Building Fintech Partnerships planning to acquire fintech startups over the same In the past, many traditional banking organizations looked at period. Fintech startups realize that it takes more than fintech start-ups as more of a nuisance than a threat. Today, a great solution to attract a scalable customer base. To many are viewing these non-traditional providers as a threat reach beyond early adopters and the tech-savvy takes as well as either a partner or potential acquisition. In its latest massive amounts of capital for promotion and prodGlobal Fintech Report, PwC found that 88% of legacy bankuct support. Partnering with an established banking ing organizations fear losing revenue to financial technology organization who will support the expansion of users companies in areas such as payments, money transfers and personal loans. The amount of business at risk has grown to an among their client base seems like a logical means to estimated 24% of revenues. In related DeNovo’s research from an end.

PwC, it was found that 30% of consumers plan to increase their Alternatively, legacy-banking organizations, strugusage of nontraditional financial services providers, with only gle to keep up with consumer expectations. Size, 39% planning to continue using solely traditional service orga- organizational structure (silos) and even traditional nizations. This is an additional wake-up call to legacy organiza- leadership styles hamper the ability to deliver the new tions to determine how they will retain the key components of digital solutions consumers receive from other industries. Partnering with a fintech startup alleviates some an existing banking relationship. of these issues, allowing the established organization In response to this threat, 82% of traditional financial organi59

FINANCE an opportunity to keep pace with marketplace demands.

6. Expansion of Digital Payments

Despite increased adoption of digital payments, cash remains a primary form of payment for many, especially for low-value transactions and by certain demographic groups. Attributes of cash contributing to continued use include speed, universal acceptance, anonymity, lack of fees, etc. Some emerging markets also still lack a modern payments infrastructure while certain cultures don’t have trust in the banking system. In other words, the reports of the death of cash are still exaggerated. While e-payments are expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% from 2015 – 2019, the yearly growth rate is expected to decrease, as more transactions move to mobile payments (m-payments).

Mobile payments are expected to have a CAGR of 21.8% from 2015 – 2019, helped by an increased proliferation of mobile devices. As with many of the payment trends, the impact of China on growth numbers is significant. The integration of customer analytics, improved fraud management, dynamic wallet solutions and other value-added services will have a positive impact on both the consumer and the merchant. It is expected that ongoing improvement in biometrics and secure payments will become mandatory in the future, while integration real-time financial management solutions will become commonplace. Finally, as fintech firms continue to bypass traditional value chain components, traditional financial services organizations will need to determine if they should partner with, buy or ignore these new competitors.

7. Navigating Compliance and Regulatory Changes

Similar to what we saw in 2017, most banks and credit unions worldwide are continuing to do business under a cloud of regulatory uncertainty that is expected to a challenge for the foreseeable future. Even though lawmakers and regulators aren’t expected to make many definitive changes, most financial institutions continue to do their best to meet risk and compliance parameters and supervisory expectations.

Since most institutions realize that they don’t have the ability to wait to see how things will eventually end up, many banking organizations are making progress, trying to keep in alignment with what is anticipated from a risk and business perspective.

As one banker stated this past year, we are in a position to ‘beg for forgiveness’ rather than ‘asking for permission.’

8. Exploring Advanced Technologies

At a time when most organizations are still playing catch-up, a new wave of digital technology has the potential to change the way organizations deliver banking services even further.

These new technologies include artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), blockchain, open banking platforms with application program interfaces (APIs) and robotic process automation (RPA). With the potential to increase efficiency, decrease costs and enhance the customer experience, these digital-enabled technologies will result in disruption of the way people do their banking and potentially what organizations deliver these services.

Jim Marous is the Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand and Owner/Publisher of the Digital Banking Report 60 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Africa’s First Female President Wins $5 Million Leadership Prize

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been awarded Africa’s most prestigious leadership prize. The former Liberian president was awarded the $5 million Ibrahim Prize in recognition of her leadership in office after serving two terms from 2006 through 2017. Sirleaf, who was the first ever-African female head of state, is the first woman to win the award and the fifth recipient of the prize since it was launched in 2006. The 79-year-old Nobel laureate came to power in 2006, just two years after the end of a 14-year civil war that saw more than 250,000 people killed and another million displaced.

D

uring her two terms in office, Sirleaf tackled the spread of Ebola in the West African nation, developed the economy and championed the cause of women. Despite her popularity and global recognition, Sirleaf left office with a mixed record and trailed by criticism. Despite breaking the “glass ceiling,” she was criticized for not doing enough for women to win seats in government. Her administration’s tackling of the Ebola crisis was also called into question, and Sirleaf herself recently admitted to underestimating the low capacity of skills in government and “the cultural roots of corruption.” These, and other problems, including weak economic growth, unemployment, and the escalating illicit financial outflows are some of the issues her successor, George Weah, will have to deal with in coming years.

The Ibrahim Prize

The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership is an annual prize awarded to a former African executive Head of State or Government.

The prestigious award is named after Sudanese-British billionaire Mohammed Ibrahim. Established by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in 2007, the Ibrahim Prize celebrates excellence in African leadership it is awarded by an independent Prize Committee composed of eminent figures, including two Nobel Laureates. The Ibrahim Prize recognizes and celebrates African leaders who have developed their countries, lifted people out of poverty and paved the way for sustainable and equitable prosperity.

With a US$5 million initial payment, plus $200,000 a year for life, the prize is believed to be the world’s largest,

exceeding the $1.3m Nobel Peace Prize. Former South African President Nelson Mandela, former United States President Bill Clinton, and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan are among those who have welcomed the initiative. The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership has been awarded in 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2017. Former South African president Nelson Mandela was an honorary laureate.

Photos: John Petrowski

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COVER STORY

Festus Mogae/2008

“President Mogae’s outstanding leadership has ensured Botswana’s continued stability and prosperity in the face of an HIV/AIDS pandemic which threatened the future of his country and people.”

Nelson Mandela (Honorary)/2007

Laureates

Hifikepunye Pohamba/2014

“During the decade of Hifikepunye Pohamba’s Presidency, Namibia’s reputation has been cemented as a well-governed, stable and inclusive democracy with strong media freedom and respect for human rights.”

Pedro Pires/2011

President Pires was awarded the 2011 Ibrahim Prize for his role in transforming Cape Verde into a model of democracy, stability and increased prosperity.

Joaquim Chissano/ 2007 for “his role in leading Mozambique from conflict to peace and democracy.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf/2017-2018 ”In very difficult circumstances, she helped guide her nation towards a peaceful and democratic future, paving the way for her successor to follow.”

Since it was first presented in 2007, the award has proved a tall order for many leaders in Africa. In a continent where leaders tend to hold on to power through questionable elections and extend their stay through unpopular constitutional amendments, the prize has been left with a small pool of possible candidates. While taking into account the unique challenges facing political leadership in Africa, the prize’s committee has refused to lower the bar and stuck to its mandate of recognizing only “truly exceptional figures,” skipping awarding the honor in many years.

“Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took the helm of Liberia when it was completely destroyed by civil war and led a process of reconciliation that focused on building a nation and its democratic institutions. Throughout her two terms in office, she worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of Liberia. Such a journey cannot be without some shortcomings and, today, Liberia continues to face many challenges. Nevertheless, during her twelve years in office, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf laid the foundations on which Liberia can now build.”

– Salim Ahmed Salim – Chair, Prize Committee 62 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — “Ma Ellen” to many Liberians The first woman to be elected head of state in Africa when she took over 11 years ago, and, at 77, a dogged survivor of her country’s brutal past.

Younger Years

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born on October 29, 1938, in Monrovia, Liberia. A graduate of the College of West Africa at Monrovia, she went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Madison Business College in Madison, Wisconsin, a degree in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University.

Early life and career

Sirleaf married James Sirleaf when she was seventeen years old. The couple had four sons together, and she was primarily occupied as a homemaker. Early on in their marriage, James worked for the Department of Agriculture, and Sirleaf worked as a bookkeeper for an auto-repair shop.

She traveled with her husband to the United States in 1961 to continue her education. When they returned to Liberia, James continued his work in the Agriculture Department and Sirleaf pursued a career in the Treasury Department (Ministry of Finance).

They divorced in 1961 because of James’ abuse.

Sirleaf returned to college, after college she returned to her native Liberia to work in the administration of William Tolbert, where she was appointed as Assistant Minister of Finance. Whilst in that position, she attracted attention with a “bombshell” speech to the Liberian Chamber of Commerce that claimed that the country’s corporations were harming the economy by hoarding or sending their profits overseas. Sirleaf served as Assistant Minister from 1972 to 1973 in the Tolbert administration. She resigned after a disagreement about government spending. Subsequently, she was appointed as Minister of Finance a few years later, serving from 1979 to April 1980.

Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, a

L-R: Tawakkul Karman, Leymah Gbowee, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf display their awards during the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize, 10 December 2011 (Photo:Harry Wad).

member of the indigenous Krahn ethnic group, seized power in a military coup on 12 April 1980; he ordered the assassination of Tolbert and execution by firing squad of all but four members of his Cabinet. The People’s Redemption Council took control of the country and led a purge against the previous government.

Sirleaf initially accepted a post in the new government as President of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment. She fled the country in November 1980 after publicly criticizing Doe and the People’s Redemption Council for their management of the country. Sirleaf initially moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for the World Bank. In 1981, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya to serve as Vice President of the African Regional Office of Citibank. She resigned from Citibank in 1985 following her involvement at the 1985 general election in Liberia.

She went to work for Equator Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC. In 1992, Sirleaf was appointed as the Director of the United Nations Development Programme’s Regional Bureau for Africa at the rank of Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General (ASG). She resigned from this role in 1997 in order to run for the presidency of Liberia. During her time at the UN, she was one of

the seven internationally eminent persons designated in 1999 by the Organization of African Unity to investigate the Rwandan genocide, one of the five Commission Chairs for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, and one of two international experts selected

by UNIFEM to investigate and report on the effect of conflict on women and women’s roles in peace building.

She was the initial Chairperson of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and a visiting Professor of Governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Political career

1985 general election While working at Citibank, Sirleaf returned to Liberia in 1985 to run for Vice President under Jackson Doe on the ticket of the Liberian Action Party in the 1985 elections. However, Sirleaf was placed under house arrest in August 1985 and soon after sentenced to ten years in prison for sedition, as a consequence of a speech in which she insulted the members of the Samuel Doe regime. Following international calls for her release, Samuel Doe pardoned and released her in September.

Due to government pressure, she was removed from the presidential ticket and instead ran for a Senate seat in Montserrado County.

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In the 1985 elections, Samuel Doe and the National Democratic Party won the presidency and large majorities in both house. The elections were widely condemned as neither free nor fair. Sirleaf was declared the winner of her Senate race, but she refused to accept the seat in protest of the election fraud. After an attempted coup against the Doe government by Thomas Quiwonkpa on 12 November 1985, Sirleaf was arrested and imprisoned again on 13 November by Doe’s forces. Despite continuing to refuse to accept her seat in the Senate, she was released in July 1986. She secretly fled the country to the United States later that year.

Sirleaf served as head of the Governance Reform Commission. Sirleaf stood for president as the candidate of the Unity Party in the 2005 general election. She placed second in the first round of voting behind footballer Power to the people: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addresses supporters afGeorge Weah. In ter she was released from prison following quiwonkpa’s failed coup.

1997 presidential campaign Sirleaf campaigning in Monrovia in 2005, shortly before she was elected.

At the beginning of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, Sirleaf supported Charles Taylor’s rebellion against Doe. She helped raise money for the war and founded the National Patriotic Front of Liberia with Taylor and Tom Woewiyu. Because of this, Doe’s government recommended that Sirleaf be banned from politics in Liberia for 30 years. But, she later opposed Taylor’s handling of the war and his treatment of rival opposition leaders such as Jackson Doe. By 1996, the presence of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeepers led to a cessation of hostilities. The nation held the 1997 general election, which Sirleaf returned to Liberia to contest. She ran as the presidential candidate for the Unity Party and placed second in a controversial election, getting 25% of the vote to Charles Taylor’s 75%.

After controversy about the results and being accused of treason, Sirleaf left Liberia and went into exile in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

leezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush, took place on 16 January 2006.

2005 presidential campaign

After the end of the Second Liberian Civil War and the establishment of a transitional government, Sirleaf was proposed as a possible candidate for chairman of the government. Ultimately, Gyude Bryant, a political neutral, was chosen as chairman, while 64 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

the subsequent run-off election, Sirleaf earned 59% of the vote versus 40% for Weah, though Weah disputed the results. The announcement of the new leader was postponed until further election investigations were carried out. On 23 November 2005, Sirleaf was declared the winner of the Liberian election and confirmed as the country’s next president. Her inauguration, attended by many foreign dignitaries, including United States Secretary of State Condo-

2011 presidential campaign In January 2010, Sirleaf announced that she would run for a second term in office in the 2011 presidential election

Presidential candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf arrives at Moulton corner displaced center on the outskirts of Monrovia 16 July, as she winds up her campaign for the July 19 national polls

while speaking to a joint session of the Legislature. Opposition leaders noted that in doing so, she had broken a promise made during her 2005 campaign to only serve one term if elected. Sirleaf was renominated as the Unity Party’s presidential candidate at the party’s national convention on 31 October 2010.

That same day, Vice President Joseph Boakai was nominated by Sirleaf and confirmed by the delegates as Sirleaf ’s running mate.

Sirleaf garnered 43.9% of the vote in the first round, more than any other candidate but short of the 50% needed to avoid a run-off. Tubman came in second with 32.7%, pitting him against Sirleaf in the second round. Tubman called for a boycott of the run-off, claiming that the results of the first round had been fraudulent. Sirleaf denied the allegations, and international observers reported that the first round election had been free, fair and transparent. As a result of the boycott, Sirleaf won the second round with 90.7% of the vote, though voter turnout significantly declined from the first round. Following the election, Sirleaf announced the creation of a “national peace and reconciliation initiative,” led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee, to address the country’s divisions and begin “a national dialogue that would bring us together.” She took presidential oath for her second presidency on 16 January 2012.

2017 presidential campaign

Sirleaf crossed party lines to support George Weah in the 2017 presidential campaign. In the late evening hours of January 13, 2018, she along with some officials of the Unity Party were expelled by the National Executive Committee of the party, for failing to support Unity’s presidential candidate, Joseph Boakai.

Debt relief

From the beginning of her presidency, Sirleaf vowed to make reduction of the national debt, which stood at approximately US$4.9 billion in 2006, a top priority for her administration. The United States became the first to grant debt relief to Liberia, waiving the full $391 million owed to it by Liberia in early 2007. In September of that year, the G-8 headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel provided $324.5 million to paying off 60% of Liberia’s debt to the International Monetary Fund, crediting their decision to the macroeconomic policies pursued by the Sirleaf administration.

In April 2009, the government successfully wrote off an additional $1.2 billion in foreign commercial debt in a deal that saw the government buy back the debt at a 97% discounted rate through financing provided by the International Development Association, Germany, Norway, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The discounted rate was the largest ever for a developing country.

The country was deemed eligible to participate in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in 2008. In June 2010, the country reached the completion point of the HIPC initiative, qualifying it

Quick Facts Nick Name: Iron Lady Of Africa Famous As: Africa’s First Elected Female Head Of State Nationality: Liberian Birth Date: October 29, 1938 Age: 79 Years Sun Sign: Scorpio Born In: Monrovia Father: Jahmale Carney Johnson Spouse/Ex-Spouse: James Sirleaf Children: Charles Sirleaf, Fombah Sirleaf, Robert Sirleaf Religion: Methodism, Christianity Founder/Co-Founder: Truth And Reconciliation Commission Net Worth: $1.2 Billion As Of Feb 5, 2017 Education: 1971 - Harvard University, 1970 - University Of Colorado Boulder, College Of West Africa, 1964 - University Of Wisconsin-Madison, John F. Kennedy School Of Government, Wisconsin School Of Business Awards: 2011 - Nobel Prize For Peace

More than 1000 female activists demonstrating, on hunger and sex strike in Monrovia, Liberia for 10 months. They staged demonstrations to get the rebels to stop the war. They succeeded.

for relief from its entire external debt. That same month, the World Bank and IMF agreed to fund $1.5 billion in writing off the Liberia’s multilateral debt. On 16 September, the Paris Club agreed to cancel $1.26 billion, with independent bilateral creditors canceling an additional $107 million, essentially writing off Liberia’s remaining external debt. Sirleaf vowed to prevent unsustainable borrowing in the future by restricting annual borrowing to 3% of GDP and limiting expenditure of all borrowed funds to one-off infrastructure projects.

Statement by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Receipt of the 2017 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership 14 February 2018 “It is an honor to have been selected for the Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership. By choice, I have led a life of service and sacrifice on behalf of the Liberian people, and I will remain forever grateful to them for the privilege to serve. As the first woman to receive the award, it is my hope that women and girls across Africa will be inspired to reach for their true potential, to navigate the challenges, break through barriers, and to pursue their dreams. Where there is a first, there comes a second, and a third, and a fourth.

I am thankful that the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, in granting me this honor, has sought to emphasize the consolidation of Liberia as a democratic state under my two terms in office. Indeed, my most proud accomplishment is that after 30 years of conflict, the power in Liberia now rests where it should – with the people, grounded in rule of law, and in strong institutions. And I note with pride that Liberia was the only country on the continent to improve in every category and sub-category of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance – a testament to all those who served in my government.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation continues to be a transformative force on the continent. They have changed the conversation about leadership. This is a discussion that I will continue to carry forward in my post-presidency years.”

“My sisters, my daughters, my friends - find your voice,” Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said after collecting her Nobel diploma and medal at a ceremony in Oslo.

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Is corruption getting worse under Buhari?

The recently released Transparency International 2017 index indicates corruption is getting worse in Nigeria, how true is this?

First of all, what is corruption? Generally speaking corruption is “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Corruption can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs.

Grand corruption consists of acts committed at a high level of government that distort policies or the central functioning of the state, enabling leaders to benefit at the expense of the public good. Petty corruption refers to everyday abuse of entrusted power by low- and mid-level public officials in their interactions with ordinary citizens, who often are trying to access basic goods or services in places like hospitals, schools, police departments and other agencies. Political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power, status and wealth.

About the Corruptions Perceptions Index Since its inception in 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International’s flagship publication, is the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries from all over the globe.

Analysis of Transparency International results.

The index released by Transparency International, marks its 25th anniversary this year, it revealed some disturbing information despite attempts to combat corruption around the world, the majority of countries are moving too slowly in their efforts. While stemming the tide against corruption takes time, in the last six years many countries have still made little to no progress. Even 66 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

more alarming, further analysis of the index results indicates that countries with the lowest protections for press and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rates of corruption. The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Over the last six years, several countries significantly improved their CPI score, including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and the United Kingdom, while several countries declined, including Syria, Yemen and Australia.

88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).

This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and

out against corruption,” said Patricia Moreira, managing director

Journalists are killed in a highly corrupt country Analysis of the index results by

Transparency International further examined the relationship between corruption levels, the protection of journalistic freedoms and engagement of civil society. It found that almost all journalists killed since 2012 were killed in corrupt countries.

“No activist or reporter should have to fear for their lives when speaking

ANALYSIS of Transparency International. “Given current crackdowns on both civil society and the media worldwide, we need to do more to protect those who speak up.” The analysis, which incorporates data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, shows that in the last six years, more than 9 out of 10 journalists were killed in countries that score 45 or less on the Corruption Perceptions Index. This means that, on average, every week at least one journalist is killed in a country that is highly corrupt. In addition, one in five journalists that died were covering a story about corruption.

Sadly, justice was never served in the majority of these cases.

The efforts of Transparency International and its first-hand experience working with more than 100 chapters worldwide confirm close linkages between corruption and freedom of the press. For example, in Brazil, which scored 37 on this year’s index, 20 journalists died in the last six years.

Targeted for their investigations into local-government corruption and drug-related crime, among other issues, reporters in Brazil risk their lives everyday by simply doing their jobs.

Rubio, chair of Transparency International. “High levels of corruption also correlate with weak rule of law, lack of access to information, governmental control over social media and reduced citizens’ participation. In fact, what is at stake is the very essence of democracy and freedom.”

Nigeria’s Rankings

While the country scored 27/100 and was ranked 136th in 2016, the latest CPI scores Nigeria 28/100 but with a rank of No. 148 out of 180 countries surveyed — a significant 12 places below where it was the previous year.

It came as a blow to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration that came into office on the strength of his anti-corruption credential.

In West Africa, Nigeria is the second worst country out of 17 countries leaving only Guinea Bissau behind.

According Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a non-governmental, non- profit, advocacy, information sharing, research, and capacity building organization: “This fresh setback in the fight against corruption confirms that grand-corruption, political corruption, nepotism, favoritism and bribery persist in Nigeria at all levels.

It is CISLAC’s view that the negative perception is mainly a consequence of the inability to combat grand corruption and astronomical plundering of public coffers costing the Nigerian taxpayers around 25% of annual GDP.

Corruption linked to shrinking space for civil society

Transparency International also looked at the relationship between corruption levels and the freedom with which civic organizations are able to operate and influence public policy. The analysis, which incorporates data from the World Justice Project, shows that most countries that score low for civil liberties also tend to score high for corruption. “Smear campaigns, harassment, lawsuits and bureaucratic red tape are all tools used by certain governments in an effort to quiet those who drive anti-corruption efforts,” said Moreira. “We’re calling on those governments that hide behind restrictive laws to roll them back immediately and allow for greater civic participation.”

“CPI results correlate not only with the attacks on press freedom and the reduction of space for civil society organizations,” said Delia Ferreira

Although the administration has put many suspects on trial and seized assets of politicians and government officials, it has also been accused of condoning corrupt practices by top government officials.

Kenya, which was rated more corrupt than Nigeria in 2016, has now overtaken Nigeria, climbing to 143 from 145. Other sub Saharan African countries ranked higher than Nigeria are Botswana whose joint 34 rank is the best in Africa — as well as Rwanda (joint 48) and Namibia (joint 53). Nigeria is ranked 148 along with Guinea and Comoros. In 2015, Nigeria scored 26/100 and was ranked 136 — although only 168 countries and territories were surveyed then.

Since the current administration has come to power on the anti-corruption ticket, no significant politically exposed person has been duly sentenced on anti-corruption charges,” it added. Although the anti-corruption agencies have accelerated the rate of convictions on anti-corruption charges. Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for example has brought 286 cases.” Majority are rather insufficient cases with little impact of returned assets into the state budget and no effect on unfavorable public opinion.

According Ken Henshaw, The Executive Director of the Centre for Social Studies and Development. Transpar67

ency International notes the correlation between the shrinking civil space and corruption. With attempts and threats to regulate Civil Society Organizations, restrict social media and curtail freedom of speech under the guise of checking ‘hate speech’, it is evident that Nigeria is fast falling into the category of a repressive state. Similarly, the fight against corruption in the last two and half years has failed to produce any high profile conviction of any politically exposed person. Indeed, the majority of Nigerians perceive that while making a show of prosecuting cases of corruption involving members of the opposition political parties, the government is shielding members of its own party from prosecution even when there are widespread complaints about corruption involving officials as high up as the Presidency.

Perhaps nothing demonstrates the failure of the government in its fight against corruption than the fact that it is still unable to curb endemic corruption in the Police force. Despite the many promises of the government, it has been utterly powerless in sanitizing the police force of corruption, or bringing corrupt officers to justice. The frustrations of Nigerians recently manifested in a series of actions under the banner #endsars aimed at forcing reforms of the Nigerian Police. As is typical with this government, that citizens’ campaign was dismissed as ‘politically motivated’.

While Nigeria has made numerous international commitments toward fighting corruption, the majority of the commitments stay unfulfilled.

The National Assembly still continues to politically boycott key appointments and passes much needed legislation and there is still no tangible strategy of the government to control shocking plundering of public resources.

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The FG rejects Transparency International report

Perhaps more disheartening than the worsening corruption perception score is the response of the federal government. According to a statement released by the Presidency in response to Transparency International, the criteria and methodology used in arriving at the ranking is questioned; the government goes ahead to describe the ranking as fictional and unfortunate. The response from the Presidency is regrettable.

While the government happily celebrates international rankings, which seem to favor it on the one hand, it condemns those that are critical of its performance on the other. A recent example is the report by Amnesty International on human rights in Nigeria, which was heavily criticized by the Nigerian government for detailing the atrocities of Nigeria’s security forces, versus the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, which was celebrated for indicating key improvements in the Nigerian business climate. In that instance, the methodology or criteria used was not questioned.

The presidency revealed that an internal government review of the report indicated that, although TI gave Nigeria an overall lower ranking, the country did well in majority of the areas reviewed by TI, and remained stable in others, but fell back in only one aspect. It explained that, contrary to TI’s report, the country actually waxed stronger, according to other reports turned in by other organizations. The presidency official pointed out: “In the 2016 Index, the

country was ranked 136th out of 176 countries with a score of 28. Nigeria’s score also slightly improved from 26 to 28 between 2015 and 2016. “It must also be pointed out that compared to the 2016 Index, Nigeria either improved or remained stable in all, but one of the Indexes,” the source said. “For instance, Nigeria improved significantly in key indexes between 2016 and 2017: the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, a 5-point improvement; African Development Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, a 2-point improvement; a 1-point improvement in the World Justice Project Rule of law Index Expert Survey and World Economic Forum Executive Opinion respectively. “ The official boasted: “President Muhammadu Buhari remains fully committed to combating corruption, despite the challenges, and this administration will not relent in doing so in all areas. He said, “With hundreds of convictions secured by the EFCC alone in 2016 and 2017, and assets worth billions of Naira recovered, it is evident that the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) under the Buhari administration has made significant strides in the fight against corruption,” adding that the administration believes in the rule of law and the sanctity of the judiciary in ensuring that these cases are duly prosecuted.

ANALYSIS The FG Achievements

Mr Laolu Akande, a Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity in the Presidency confirmed the outcome of an internal review of the TI report. For instance, he noted that the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by this administration has also helped the country to save billions of naira. In addition, through the TSA and other interventions, the Federal Government has made sweeping reforms to block several leakages of public funds, he explained. In 2016, for instance, the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Auditing (PICA) discovered discrepancies in the payroll of several MDAs to the tune of N5.7 billion monthly.

Also, over 50,000 ghost workers have been uncovered by the audit team, as a result, over N120bn has been reportedly saved. He added that in a similar vein, “leakages of unremitted funds have been blocked in many of country’s Revenue Generating Agencies, which have seen an increase in their revenues in recent times. “The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, remitted N1 trillion into the Federation account, the highest ever remittance by the agency, despite the country being in recession half of the year.”

Akande also disclosed that just like the Customs agency, the revenue generated by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has also increased. The exams body remitted about N7.8 billion to the FG in 2017, a stark contrast to the paltry N3 million that was the highest remitted by the agency before.

Following leadership reforms under this administration, the agency has also been able stop massive fraud.

In the same vein, the 2017 half-year remittance of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was more than its 2015 and 2016 combined. “You can see that these developments are indicators that demonstrate public confidence in the administration and the steady success in tackling corruption in the public sector. “The administration’s whistle-blower policy which was introduced in December 2016 by

the Federal Government to tackle corruption – a first of its kind government initiative in the country – has also helped in the area of accountability in the use of public funds in different sectors of national life. “Out of the about 5,000 reports made, about 365 were actionable as at July 2017. While 39% of these reports were related to the diversion of funds, 15% related to violation of TSA,” according to Akande.

Freedom Of Association And Expression In The Fight Against Corruption

TI explored how four leading measurements of press freedom and civil society space relate to its index of public sector corruption. In doing so, it found evidence to suggest that those countries that respect press freedom, encourage open dialogue, and allow for full participation of CSOs in the public arena tend to be more successful at controlling corruption. Conversely, countries that repress journalists, restrict civil liberties and seek to stifle civil society organizations typically score lower on the CPI.

“No activist or reporter should have to fear for their lives when speaking out against corruption. Given current crackdowns on both civil society and the media worldwide, we need to do more to protect those who speak up.”

-Patricia Moreira, Managing Director, Transparency International

The relationship between civil liberties and corruption cuts both ways.

Academic research points to a vicious cycle, where widespread corruption chips away at remaining civic space and targets groups that pose a challenge to authority. At the same time, the inability of citizens to hold their governments accountable contributes to even greater abuse. Our experience of working with more than 100 chapters around the world shows that CSOs, grassroots movements and journalists are vital for improving the quality of governance. However, respect for civil liberties, such as freedom of expression and association, is only one component of an effective anti-corruption agenda. These elements prove all the more powerful when combined with genuine political will on the part of governments to tackle problems at their root.

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The Data Used For The Ranking

After reeling off its own facts on fighting corruption, the presidency concluded that “in the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TI’s patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration”. Therefore, Buhari believed that critics of his administration, who are associated with TI, must have influenced the ranking. Transparency International used nine sources to score Nigeria. No one of the sources is an individual.

The average score from the nine sources is 26.6, which TI rounded up to 27 in the Corruption Perceptions Index. For a country to be scored and ranked, at least three sources must have been used. Overall, TI used 13 sources in the 2017 ranking, nine of which were used to assess Nigeria. Since 2012, Nigeria has scored an average of 26.6 in the corruption perceptions index.

Scores range from 0 to 100, where a 0 equals the highest level of perceived corruption and 100 equals the lowest level of perceived corruption.

Recommendations

Curbing corruption requires more than just introducing well-designed laws. Corrupt individuals have proven very adept at finding ways to get around formal constraints, which is why grassroots and bottom-up approaches to fighting corruption tend to be more sustainable in the long run than isolated institutional and legal reform. Often, well-intentioned laws are poorly enforced and institutions lack the ‘teeth’ to make anti-corruption efforts truly effective. Civil society and media are essential in applying pressure and keeping governments honest and accountable. Specifically, freedom of association, including the ability of people to form groups and influence public policy, is vital to anti-corruption. CSOs play a key role in denouncing violations of rights or speaking out against breaches of law. Similarly, a free and independent media serves an important function in investigating and reporting incidences of corruption. The voices of both civil society and journalists put a spotlight on bad actors and can help trigger action by law enforcement and the court system.

The Federal government needs to make the 2018 anti-corruption strategy known to the grass-root level; prioritize anti-corruption courts and nominate judges with proven record of high integrity and no controversies; prioritize international cooperation and usage of international agreements to repatriate Nigerian assets abroad; and use foreign jurisdictions’ legal instruments such as recently passed, among 70 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Nigeria has consistently maintained low ranking in the corruption perceptions index due to its persistently low score.

The data used in scoring and ranking countries are not generated by TI. Therefore, it is unlikely that TI staff or associates can influence the position of a country in the corruption perceptions index.

others. We strongly recommend that the federal government takes a closer look at the indicators used in arriving at the Corruption Perceptions Index and examine ways it can fix the gaps that so urgently need fixing. Continuing to deny the failure of the government’s current anti-corruption strategy amounts to denying the truth.

RANKINGS

TOP WOMEN PERFORMERS 2018 Since time immemorial, the definition of success has kept evolving. We have compiled a list of the top 10 most successful women entrepreneurs in Nigeria for this year. They have created magic either through their work or their auras. Although, we must not forget that there is definitely more to success than just the financial attributes of an entrepreneur. It’s something that comes from the drive and guts from a persons drive. It’s the people and the chosen industry that they affect through their actions. Women in Nigeria, for centuries have owned businesses, so to list a few as a top female Performer is a difficult task. However, Our 2018 women ranking is comprised of 10 CEOs controlling a fair share of their market cap, two newcomers, three returnee, and five women in the tech industry. Here are the names behind the success.

1

Ibukun Awosika

Ibukun Awosika is a Nigerian business mogul, author and motivational speaker. Ibukun first worked as an audit trainee at Akintola Williams & Co and then went on to Alibert Nigeria Ltd to work as a showroom manager. She founded her own furniture manufacturing companyQuebees Limited in 1989. Quebees Limited eventually evolved into The Chair Centre Limited and later on changed name in 2004 to SOKOA Chair Centre Limited after merging with SOKOA S.A and Guaranty Trust Bank.

Ibukun Awosika is also enjoys membership of many internationally recognised organisations. She is a fellow of the African Leadership

Initiative and Aspen Global Leadership Network, she is a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, she is on the board of Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund and is the chairman Board of Trustees of Women in Management, Business and Public Service. She co-founded the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre and on the 7th of September 2015 she became the first woman to be made the Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She succeeded Prince Ajibola Afonja.

Mrs. Ibukun Awosika charged women to become assets at the one-year anniversary of FirstGem on the 5th of December 2017. She spoke at the anniversary about the

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importance of women in building the economy of a nation. Mrs. Awosika said: “I have been married for the past 27 years and I intend to be married until the last day of my life. My biggest successes in life has been as a wife in my husband’s home which means that being married or single should not be a factor that affects your ability to create personal wealth; It’s about your mindset, your commitment to the goal, the course to work in the interest of your family”.

She also charged women to become assets to their husbands. She said: “The time and the age we are in; no man can support his family by himself.

It takes a lot to send a child to the right school. For you to earn respect in your household, you must be an asset.”

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connectivity in Nigeria and decided to do something about it. In 2008, she started MainOne, West Africa’s leading communications services, and network solutions provider.

Funke Opeke grew up Ibadan, attended Queens School, before proceeding to electrical engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state, Nigeria. When asked what is like being a woman doing business in a male-dominated industry, she said “I am not overly sensitive, I just do what needs to get done…I cannot apologize for being a woman, it is who I am”.

3 Kofo Akinkugbe

Funke Opeke

She is an experienced telecommunications executive who founded Main Street Technologies; Funke is the C.E.O. of MainOne Cable. The idea of running a 7,000-kilometer undersea high capacity cable submarine from Portugal to Lagos, in Nigeria seemed unachievable, too ambitious and maybe utterly ridiculous but Funke Opeke had a vision and she was willing to give her all to make it happen.

In 2005, after moving back to Nigeria to take on the role of Chief Technology Officer of MTN Nigeria, Funke Opeke noticed the low Internet 72 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

She is the founder of Interface Technologies (1998), SecureID Limited (2005) and SecureCard Manufacturing (2012). She currently serves as the Managing Director/CEO of SecureID Group (comprising of SecureID and SecureCard Manufacturing). SecureID is a MasterCard, VISA and Verve certified Smartcard Personalization bureau and digital technology company whilst SecureCard Manufacturing is the first polycarbonate Smartcard manufacturing plant producing high security identity cards and documents for the Banks, Telecoms and Public sectors. Mrs. Akinkugbe is a passionate and bold entrepreneur as both companies are the first of its kind in Africa.

SecureID has the only smart card production plant in West Africa and one of only six on the continent. Her company serves 16 countries across Africa and is fully certified by VISA, Verve and MasterCard. Both companies, recognized and respected in the global Smartcard industry, provide high-end digital security solutions to organizations and governments across Africa and beyond. As a passionate and innovative real sector entrepreneur, Mrs. Akinkugbe has taken both companies through a number of strategic partnerships into the international market by attaining the most pre-requisite International certifications. In 2012, Kofo won the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship Mature Business Award.

After serving in the Nigerian Youth Service Corps, Kofo started her career in the banking industry, working with International Merchant Bank Plc and Chartered Bank Limited. She remained in the financial sector for over 12 years until 1997 when she left to start Interface Technologies, a security management and biometrics technologies company. With a mathematics major University of Lagos, and an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, she successfully ran Interface Technologies Ltd. (ITL) for nine years, before establishing SecureID Nigeria Ltd., an offshoot from a small department in Interface Technologies and the first VISA certified plant in sub-Saharan Africa.

She possesses a rare combination of entrepreneurship, manufacturing & technology acumen and also sits on the board of a number of local and multinational corporate, philanthropic and humanitarian organizations.

According to her: “SecureID SIM Card Manufacturing Lines’ commissioning and its strategic location in Lagos, portends great opportunities for local manufacturing such as vast export potential, significant curtailment of foreign exchange outflows, in addition to higher level job creation

and in-country technology and know-how transfer.”

4 Hajara Adeola

Hajara Adeola is the Managing Director of Lotus Capital Limited, a Nigerian pioneer in Shari’ah compliant Asset Management, Private Wealth Management Advisory Services and Financial Advisory Services. Lotus Capital is a Nigerian pioneer in the emerging financial niche of Islamic finance with a unique equitable interest-free solution. Lotus Capital was founded in June 2004 with the specific objective of meeting the investment needs of ethical individuals, businesses, and organizations across West Africa.

She began her career as a consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). From there she joined ARM Investment Managers as a pioneer staff and rose to Vice-President and Head of the Research and Financial Advisory Units. In all, she has over 20 years of international experience in research and analysis, investment management and corporate finance.

Prior to founding Lotus Capital, she previously worked with Arthur Anderson Consulting (now Accenture).

UBS Warburg, BNP Paribas and ARM Investment Managers. Hajara is regarded as the top industry expert in Islamic fund management in Nigeria.

Her company is also the first to successfully raise a Halal fund in Nigeria.

Mrs. Adeola is the former President of the Fund Manager’s Association of Nigeria and a West African Fellow of the Aspen Leadership Initiative.

She is also the Chairperson of the

Securities & Exchange Commission’s non-interest capital market 10-year master plan committee and a Director of the Aliko Dangote Foundation.

She is married to billionaire businessman Tajudeen Afolabi Adeola, former Managing Director Guaranty Trust Bank and Chairman of the FATE Foundation. She is a first class graduate of Finance; she holds a BSc in Pharmacology (King’s College, London), MSc Finance (Durham University) and an MBA in International Management (Exeter University).

She said, “At Lotus Capital, we adhere strictly to a code of ethics that does not patronise usury. Our operations are open and transparent and are reviewed by a Shari’ah Advisory Board.

This and many other checks and balances ensure that our funds are not used for prohibited activities.”

5

Nkemdilim Begho (nee Uwaje)

She is the Founder & Managing Director of Future Software Resources Nigeria Limited. Her company is also winner of the 2012 Etisalat Nigeria Prize for Innovation. Nkem’s company created the iConnect project, focused on making ICT and education more accessible to youths in Nigeria.

Respected and recognized as a leader in her industry, Nkem is regularly

featured in newspaper and magazine publications and as an expert speaker on ICT in Africa. She’s a recipient of many awards including the Jim Ovia Prize for Software Excel­lence, and the Etisalat Prize for Innovation. She regularly volunteers for mentoring and empowerment programmes often sharing her experiences with young Nigerians and less privileged children.

She began her professional career in Germany where she worked on high profile research projects at the Max Planck Institute-MPI for Psychiatric Research and then Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG where she worked on the development of software solutions for complex biological as well as chemical calculations and simulations, database design, administration and statistical analysis. before returning to Nigeria. She graduated from the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) & Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany, where she received a BSc. Hons in Bioinformatics. Her entrepreneurial journey really started with her company Future Software Resources, which was a business initially incorporated by her father, Chris Uwaje, Nigeria’s foremost IT policy maker, on her behalf with the intention that when she was ready, she would take it over. In 2008, she fulfilled that vision when she not only took over the reins of the company, but rebranded it and refocused it to concentrate on online solutions, e-learning and IT security. She has been at the helm of the business ever since.

Nkem‘s Advice “I always say there is a market share for everybody, no matter how big or small you are. There are always people who need your services and will patronize you. All you need do is be at the right place.”

“Be prepared to sacrifice, and to work harder than you’ve ever thought possible, Be prepared to work around the clock, to be laughed at and called a dreamer, and to be told several times that your ideas will not work.”

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6 Nimi Akinkugbe

She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bestman Games Ltd, the African distributor of customized editions of Hasbro’s Monopoly board game. The City of Lagos Edition of Monopoly, the first African city edition of Monopoly, was launched in December 2012. A special commemorative edition of Monopoly, the Nigerian Centenary was launched in February 2014.

Achieving financial security ranks as a major source of anxiety and Nimi seeks to empower people regarding their finances. Through the Monopoly board game, speaking engagements, television and radio appearances and social media, and her new book, “A – Z of Personal Finance” she offers frank, practical insights and advice to create a greater awareness and understanding of personal finance and wealth management issues.

She was born in Port Harcourt and lived in Lagos until she was 7 years old when her family moved to East Africa. Nimi grew up in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and attended the International School of Tanganyika, and later Limuru Girls School, Limuru, Kenya before returning to Nigeria for her O’ Levels at the International School, Ibadan. She holds a Bachelors Degree from The London School of Economics (LSE) and an MBA from Lagos Business School (IESE). After which she formalized her interest in 74 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Music by obtaining a piano teaching diploma from the Royal College of Music in London before returning to Nigeria. She enjoyed a distinguished banking career spanning over 2 decades first at Stanbic IBTC Bank plc where she was General Manager and Head Private Client Services with responsibility for the bank’s high net worth business and a director of Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd. She subsequently joined Barclays Bank where she spent two and a half years as Regional Director (International Private Bank) for West Africa. In September 2012 she established Bestman Games Ltd. She is a Director at The Play Pen (Child Development Centre), The Daisy Management Centre and Bestman Games Ltd. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Ajumogobia Science Foundation, Women in Management & Business (WIMBIZ) and the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Artistes Committee. In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano, writing, travel, boating and orchid gardening.

According to Nimi: “I never thought of living anywhere else. It was always my plan to come back to Nigeria. I never contemplated living or working abroad.”

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game-changer, building a software house, iBez, that creates not only proprietary software products that help to solve local challenges, but also develops and showcases local tech talent. As a software house, iBez provides bespoke application development services and proprietary software products to businesses, and has a number of innovative Internet based businesses offering various services to consumers.

She is a qualified IT Practitioner, entrepreneur and public speaker with many years of experience gained from working for a string of well-known investment banks and software companies both in the UK and Nigeria. Some of the company’s products include: Schools Network Integrated Programme (SNIP), Project Management Integrated System (PMIS), Hotel Motel Solution, Handy Jacks, Lets Share, Exchange BBPin, and so on.

After returning to Nigeria from the UK, she got a job with a software solutions company. She realized that they didn’t really build anything; they were simply resellers of foreign developed software applications. She was amazed that Nigerian businesses didn’t appreciate locally developed software applications, and also that many IT professionals did not properly understand the end-to-end process of software development, or indeed how to build robust, scalable software. There seemed to be a misconception that software development is limited to ‘programming/ coding’ so the vast majority of Nigerians that go into software development were focusing on learning coding.

Other disciplines like analysis, design, architecture and testing that are essential to building robust applica-

tions were often neglected. So she

Ommo Clark If there is one thing that women in tech love to do, it is to shake up the industry and to genuinely create things that are both entrepreneurial and innovative. Nigerian techpreneur, Ommo Clark, is one such industry

decided to form her own company.

Ommo is a qualified IT Practitioner and an Alumnae of London Guildhall University UK with BA (Hons) Business Admin, and Brunel University UK with MSc Information Systems.

She is a GWEI Fellow. She graduated from the university in the top five of her class both for her first and second

RANKING degrees especially as she worked fulltime throughout her studies to fund my education.

According to Ommo: “ I do not believe women should be treated as second class citizens, restricted in what they are ‘allowed’ to do or objectified because of their gender. Women should be judged / appraised based on their competence, intellect, skills and performance, and not because of their anatomy.”

8

Esther Agbarakwe

Climate change is as important an issue to the world, as it is to the bright, vivacious and young Esther.

An environmental sustainability advocate, Esther brings to light policy issues on how our planet can be safer… and greener. Esther has represented Nigeria and Africa at over ten high-level global governance meetings on sustainable development talking about climate change and actively discussing policy issues around a theme (Climate Change) that is probably one the most vital concerns of the 21st century.

She is one of the Youngers of the Elders+Youngers initiative involving notable leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Gro Harlem Brundtland. She is also a Commonwealth Youth Climate fellow, Atlas Corps international fellow and Dekeyser & Friends Foundation

Academy awardee. As part of her commitment to Voluntary community service, she was elected chair Actionaid General Assembly and 2014 Convener, supporting their advocacy to fight for human rights and work for the poor and excluded across Nigeria and appointed Country Activator for IUCN Commission on Education and Communication. She was selected as ‘Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders’ for her strong interest in women’s issues and was invited to attend the “Women Deliver” Global Conference in DC in June 2010 and in 2013, She was invited as a Speake at the 3rd Women Deliver Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur. She has served as the African coordinator of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) Youth and Children Major Group.

She is currently leading the Youth Advocacy efforts on RH/Family Planning and climate Change in Nigeria and currently works as a communication advisor for the Association for Reproductive and Family Health.

According to Esther: “My major concern is that many Nigerians do not fully understand what Climate Change is and how their actions and/or inaction can contribute to the effects/ impact of climate change. Yes some have heard the term “climate change” on TV and Radio but still they are yet to fully understand the concept. I am very concern that our Nigerian local farmers do not have the incentives to protect their crops and farmland from flood; most of them do not fully understand the impact of climate change on agriculture. We need more climate change education in rural areas.”

9

Arese Ugwu

She is the founder of Smart Money Africa which is a personal finance platform tailored to the African millennial. The platform that provides high quality content and action tools tailored to Africans. She makes finance easy to understand and less complicated. She is also the author of a book called The Smart Money Woman: An African Girl’s Journey to Financial Freedom. Using the best of traditional and new media, Arese’s work appears in newspapers, on television, websites, social media, online videos, and through her book—all to reach her audience with accessible content that explains and navigates Africa’s unique financial landscape, delivering practical knowledge.

Arese also holds an MSc in Economic Development from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Business and Management from Aston Business School, Birmingham.

She is also an alumna of the of the Lagos Business School, INSEAD Abu Dhabi, and The London School of Business executive education programs. Her work in ensuring financial literacy for Africa’s youth has not gone unnoticed. In 2015 she was a finalist for Access Bank’s W Awards for Young Professional of the Year; in 2016, she won Rémy Martin’s Pacesetter award and was nominated for The Future Awards Africa Prize for Education. She serves on several boards including House of Tara, and the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation as a non-executive director, and is also an associate member of WIMBIZ, serving on its planning committee since 2015.

She sits with the host to The Guardian TV’s personal finance show “Your Life Your Money”, and a co-host for “Analyse This” on Ndani TV, we enter the world of Smart Money, Africa, talk challenges faced by young adults and the responsibilities that come with being a role model of the African youth for financial independence.

According to her: “If I were to do anything differently, it would be to stop second guessing myself and trust that everything would work out in the end.”

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Millennials, their Mobiles and the Banking experience Today, there are roughly 58 million consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 in the Nigeria. This represents one in four of those with a checking account. Defined as those reaching young adulthood around the year 2000, Millennials are known as the hyper-connected and technology-savvy crowds that interact on social media. For others, Millennials represent the middleclass protesters of the Occupy movement, the new generations of highly indebted professionals, or the narcissists that made “selfie” the most famous word of 2013. Despite these labels, Millennials’ attitudes and preferences are touching upon many aspects of social and economic life with significant implications for the banking industry.

4

3% of Nigerians in the so-called millennium generation believe they will no longer need banks in coming years. In view of these data, capturing customers from among this new generation is shaping up to be a major challenge. “71% of Nigerian millennials would rather go to the dentist than listen to what banks are saying”. This phrase from The Millennial Disruption Index shows how little love is lost between banks and a generation that numbers 60 million people in the Nigeria and a little over 51 million in Europe and which in 2025 will represent 75% of the global workforce.

The study of 10,000 millennials (that is, anyone born between 1981 and 2000) carried out in the United States highlights that 53% don’t think their bank offers anything different than other banks, and that one out of every three millennials is willing to switch banks. “This generation can see they don’t really need the financial sector –they’ve lived through the financial 76 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

crisis and they believe that part of the blame for this crisis can be laid at the door of the banks. But this is not the only idea that distances them from banks. There is also the fact that they have been born with technology and demand a very good user experience from any company”, says Rodrigo García de la Cruz, professor at the Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles.

The Era Of Mobile Banking

In the early days of online banking, customers logged into their accounts on their desktop computers, made regular visits to physical branch locations to make deposits and withdrawals, and called contact centers when they needed assistance.

Today, according to Salesforce’s 2017 Connected Banking Customer Report, “Nearly one-third of Millennials with a checking or savings account stated that they leverage their bank’s mobile app for most routine transactions such as deposits and transfers,

compared to just 17% of Gen-Xers and 6% of Baby Boomers.”

While Boomers and Gen-Xers use mobile banking as an occasional resource, the Millennial cohort considers it essential. “This is a very special demographic that’s never not known the internet or mobile,” says Peggy Anne Salz, chief analyst and content strategist at research and consulting firm MobileGroove. “They’ve only known convenience. Think about how that colors your life and what you expect from companies.”

According to the professor, “millennials are digital natives, and they look for absolute simplicity with technology, they’re used to accessing everything with the minimum number of clicks, and companies have to work hard to overcome the technological complexity involved in making a transfer or browsing websites. They must offer their products with the utmost simplicity; if Konga allows you to buy things with a couple of clicks,

FINANCE the banks should also make sure the user feels completely at home”. 68% of the millennium generation believes that in five years the way of accessing money is going to change, and 70% think that payment methods will be totally different. 33% think they will no longer need a bank. The professor points out that in order to approach this segment, the banks should take into account that they are “fans of certain companies. If Apple opened a bank in Nigeria today, it would have 37 million customers on the first day.

Apple doesn’t have customers, it has admirers, and that doesn’t happen in the financial sector”. The Millennial Disruption Index points out that 73% of the respondents would be more receptive to any financial services that might be offered by Google, konga, Apple, PayPal or jumia than by their own banks.

Ynab

newly wed, and from first-time homeowners to first-time parents. “Millennials want to do the same things their parents did, but they have less money in the bank and are getting paid less than their parents were at their age,” explains Schultz. “Millennials tend to marry later and, because of this, they think of their money as their own. In fact, two-thirds of couples keep their finances partially or totally separate,” notes Schultz.

New Fintech Frontiers

A new crop of digital, personal-finance utilities has emerged to simultaneously capitalize on Millennials’ desire to budget, save and invest; their willingness to use the financial tech tools at their disposal; and their desire for a slick, authentic and user-friendly experience. For example, apps like You Need a Budget (YNAB) help users learn to budget efficiently and responsibly. “There are new behaviors that Millennials don’t know, but they are being educated,” says Salz of MobileGroove. “Apps [like YNAB] are doing a great job of that because they are introducing it in a way that’s relevant but not overwhelming. An app shouldn’t scold you like your parents.”

Like YNAB, Honeyfi is a budgeting app that aims to take the stress out of saving — but there’s a twist: It’s designed for couples. It allows them to add bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments from thousands of institutions. From there, couples can create a budget and divvy up expenses without having to merge bank accounts. Sam Schultz, co-founder of Honeyfi, and his colleagues designed their app as a solution for couples at all stages, from new roommates to

Honeyfi

Honeyfi doesn’t aim to correct this tendency, but instead embraces it. It helps couples create a household budget and be more mindful of where their money is going, while offering the option to keep some things separate or even private. While some services guide Millennials through milestones, others aim to help them tackle the financial hurdles that obstruct their goals. Those who carry student debt (60 percent of Millennials) can use peer-to-peer lenders, like CommonBond, to refinance their loans. CommonBond matches borrowers with investors, providing thousands in savings to the former, and a return on investment to the latter. Given their upbringing in a sharing economy, it’s not surprising that Millennials are up to 10 times more likely to use peer-topeer lenders than the over-50 demographic.

The Disappointed and Disillusioned Generation

Almost half of all Millennials say they are politically independent, and a third report no religious affiliation. These are the highest rates of political and religious disassociation in the last 25 years. You can take a que from the recent tithe controversy led by DaddyFreeze and millennials apathy towards their political leaders ion Nigeria. When the first Millennials reached 30 years old back in 2010, the unemployment rate was approximately 32.7%, significantly 77

higher than the unemployment rate experienced by both Baby Boomers and Gen X when they reached the same age. Today, few months after the end of the 2016 recession, the unemployment rate for Millennials has not shown any signs of declining, it is more than three percentage points higher than the 2004-2007 average.

Millennials skepticism about political and religious institutions also extends to banks. Recent surveys indicate that half of Millennials consider their bank no different than other banks. In addition, Millennials expect innovation in banking to come from outside the industry, either from high-tech startups or well-established names. Surprisingly, ALAT by Wema is the first of such innovation to come within the Nigerian banking space.

The financial crisis that started in 2007–2008 and the recent recession has had a lasting negative impact on banks’ reputation.

The advantages of the millennial customer Data

But not everything about this generation means bad news for the financial sector. Banks should “exploit the fact that millennials are used to surrendering their data without any resistance without a second thought, and have a much lower perception of risk than other generations, which benefits companies and banks by making it easier to learn about their preferences. This information is very important for designing strategies for capturing new customers”.

Commitment to mobile banking

Another important point for banks is the role of mobile devices in the lives of millennials –these are digital natives who have grown up in the age of the Internet, smartphones and social networks and are looking for a simple and easy relationship with the bank using these tools. PwC’s Global Digital Banking Survey points out that mobile banking users will increase by 64% through to 2018; and those who bank through social networks and online banking will also rise by 78 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

56% and 37% respectively. Users of traditional channels such as branch offices or telephone banking will fall by 25% and 13%.

Even though most financial institutions have launched their mobile app and started social media pages, many are still failing to connect with the Millennial lifestyle, and to communicate with them effectively.

Financial marketers need to revamp their mindset and start thinking more “outside of the bank”. They should go beyond the basic “save for the rainy day” messaging, which is currently prevalent in the Nigerian industry.

Instead, they could focus on content and experiences that are more meaningful, and inspire Millennials to take control of their financial lives.

Tethered to Tech

Millennials rely on the Internet, mobile technologies and social media, and almost 80% have a smartphone.

This is critical for brands as positive feedback on blogs, Twitter, You Tube and Facebook can go viral in a matter of minutes, influencing the behavior of existing and potential customers with long-lasting effects.

Millennials’ strong dependency on connectivity and mobile devices can turn a positive opinion into a referral with the potential to reach hundreds or thousands of other Millennials.

However, the opposite can also be true with disastrous consequences for an industry that is painfully rebuilding its reputation. Therefore, seeking Millennials’ feedback, listening carefully and responding promptly on a personalized basis, could attract them to banks at a relatively low cost.

Knowledge-seeking

Millennials prefer to make decisions on their own, but they are deeply worried about money management; they realize how much they don’t know. As the Bank of America/USA Today Better Money Habits 2015 Report showed, 41% of Millennials are chronically stressed about their finances. More than half of them felt they have no one to turn to for money related guidance, based on research from Facebook IQ.

Financial marketers have a clear opportunity to become financial mentors to Millennials. This generation is hungry for knowledge, is ready to learn online, and would appreciate easy-to-digest content to make better decisions about their lives.

Marketing “experiences”

Millennials are the experiential generation. They focus on today’s needs and take on debt for vacations, relocation or education. Research from Facebook IQ also found that Millennials tend to show off not through the ownership of things but through experiences. Financial marketers using this knowledge can focus on bringing new experiences beyond the money area to their clientele.

Brands can challenge themselves more around other kinds of partnerships – with writers, photographers, designers, business leaders, and other influencers. Such collaborations could result in storytelling initiatives with advice on different experiential topics in connection with financial matters behind them. Communications should be built not so much around a transaction, but rather all the exciting things you can do with it.

Personalized Offering Brand loyalty is never guaranteed.

But if you can earn it from Millennials, it can likely last longer than from other groups. This can be achieved by applying the personalized approach that Millennials seek. Financial services companies that are taking the time to understand customer needs are the ones that will truly differentiate themselves and attract customers.

More than previous generations, Millennials demand their customer experience to be tailored to their needs. In fact, if their current financial services company isn’t providing a personalized experience, Millennials are more than willing to switch providers.

Data is key to predicting customer preferences and needs while providing more personalized experience.

Honeyfi, for example, uses the personal information shared in the app to make product offers relevant to the customer’s individual situation.

Three Ways Small Businesses Compete in the New Age of Email Marketing Automation. Artificial intelligence. Personalization.

John Orlando

E

mail marketing isn’t what it used to be. Which is not to say that it’s become any less effective. Quite the opposite, actually: Email continues to offer the best return on investment around outperforming other digital marketing channels substantially. In fact, according to the Data & Marketing Association and Demand Metric, email has a median ROI of 122 percent.

that inbox. The only difference is that large corporations have the benefit of big marketing budgets that can afford talent and advanced marketing tools. So, how can small businesses continue to compete in the inbox?

They need to embrace three emerging trends in the email marketing industry: automation, artificial intelligence and personalization.

So, all I’m saying here is that email marketing has changed immensely since the first email marketing tool for small businesses was introduced way back in 1998. Today, email newsletters are no longer a novelty, and when it comes to personal email, most of us navigate through our inboxes at lightning speed. We quickly decide which messages are worth our time and which will get trashed or ignored.

Small businesses and huge corporations alike are vying for attention in

Many small businesses still see automation as a dirty word. They fear automation will hurt the authenticity of their customer interactions. But putting more faith in automation is the best way to drive action. Something as simple as an automated welcome email ensures that small businesses can strike when the iron’s hot and reach new subscribers at the exact time that they’re highly engaged with a business.

For example, gourmet coffee retailer Door County Coffee & Tea Co. uses

Automation leads to easy action.

its automated welcome email to deliver a coupon for all first-time customers driving sales from new customers on an ongoing basis.

Similarly, when a business foregoes pen and paper sign-up sheets in favor of tablet apps and “text-to-join” tools, they’re able to add new contacts to their email lists immediately. Another benefit? More advanced automation, like triggered emails, can be the secret to effective follow-up based on audience action and behavior.

A 2014 Raab Report found that 60% of companies with revenues exceeding $500 million had already implemented marketing automation, but just 3% of small businesses with less than $5 million in revenue had actually invested in it. A lot has changed in the almost four years since, but one thing has stayed the same: Aautomation is still being underutilized by small and mid-sized businesses.

That’s not smart: Automation is like 79

the personal assistant most business owners could never afford. And it’s time small businesses embraced it.

Artificial intelligence is the next best thing to face-to-face.

What’s the easiest way to turn subscribers off? Send them a message that has nothing to do with them.

Consider: People have high expectations for businesses. They want to receive experiences that are perfectly tailored to their interests. In person, that’s pretty simple. You have a quick, one-on-one conversation to hear about what they’re looking for and then explain what you have to offer that could be a good fit. The inbox is different: Delivering engaging experiences is a lot harder when all you have to go on is a name and email address.

That’s why artificial intelligence (AI) can be your secret to getting a fuller picture of your email subscribers and how to best reach them. A recent Salesforce report found that 57 percent of marketing leaders surveyed called AI absolutely or very essential in helping them deliver an optimal, one-to-one communications experience. Separately, 64 percent said their companies had become more focused on providing a consistent experience across every channel as a result of changing customer expectations.

With data now available across multiple devices and marketing channels, AI has the power to unlock information, such as which products a specific email subscriber has looked at on your website. And that advancement can potentially boost the effectiveness of a company’s marketing automation efforts, allowing it to follow up with targeted email campaigns that will push prospective buyers toward a purchase.

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Ultimately, it all comes down to personalization.

The Salesforce survey found that more than half of consumers and 65 percent of B2B buyers surveyed were likely to switch brands if a company didn’t make an effort to personalize its communications to them. And this is exactly the advantage small business have that larger companies just can’t touch. Small businesses know their customers better than anyone, so they already have a big leg up in the personalization game. But making marketing messages “feel” personal relies on more than knowledge and data alone. Personalization also means continuing to get to know people, asking thoughtful questions, and showing them that their opinions matter.

One great example is Sheena McDeavitt’s strategy as marketing director for the Hajoca Corporation.

McDeavitt personalizes emails and gathers feedback by adding quick one-question polls to her emails.

“.. found that 60% of companies with revenues exceeding $500 million had already implemented marketing automation, but just 3% of small businesses with less than $5 million in revenue had actually invested in it..”

When planning events, she takes the time to ask her subscribers what timing is best for them. She also regularly asks if her messages are relevant to their interests. Adding polls the way McDeavitt does makes her company’s emails more interactive and boosts her click-through rates to an enviable 30 percent.

So, how can small businesses tackle these emerging, sometimes daunting trends?

1. First off, remember that no one has all the answers.

Most small businesses have enough on their plate just keeping their business running. They’d rather not have to worry about learning the latest technology or keeping up with every marketing trend. If this describes your business, start small, experiment and find the tactics and technology that work best for you.

2. Get to know your subscribers better, and increase personalization by including polls in your emails.

Not only is this an easy way for small businesses to learn more about their subscribers, it leads to more engaging emails and gives subscribers a chance to voice their preferences proactively.

3. Another option is to find a service that offers the features you need to succeed.

Options include customizable mobile-responsive email templates, contact-management and reporting tools that makes things like automation and AI simple and accessible.

4. Set up automated annual date-based reminders, like birthday coupons or membership renewals.

These are a nice, personalized touch and an efficient way to build customer relationships without your having to create a new email every month.

Global First - You Can Now Buy Tec-

nomar Luxury Yachts with Crypto-currencies Through Aditus

Aditus and The Italian Sea Group Asia Limited embark on a partnership that marks the first time crypto-currency users will be able to buy new yachts directly.

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ditus, the world’s first luxury access platform for crypto-affluents, has signed a partnership to enable the purchase of Tecnomar and Admiral luxury yachts using Aditus tokens and other cryptocurrencies.

This partnership, signed between Aditus and The Italian Sea Group Asia limited, marks the first time crypto-currency users will be able to buy new yachts directly.

The shipyard behind Tecnomar and Admiral yachts is leading Tuscany-based The Italian Sea Group.

The Italian Sea Group is one of the largest conglomerates in international yachting, constructing yachts and mega-yachts up to 145 m in length, all designed with the highest quality Italian craftsmanship. The headquarters boasts the largest private dry dock in the Mediterranean, which is commonly used for the refitting and

repair of the mega yachts of many celebrities. Under this partnership, firstly, Aditus Pay will be the exclusive crypto-payment gateway and crypto-payment concierge for The Italian Sea Group Asia. This allows crypto-users to purchase Tecnomar and Admiral yachts using Aditus tokens as well as other crypto-currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. If the purchase is made with Aditus Tokens, not only will the transaction fees will be waived, the users will also get a reward “token-back” in Aditus tokens.

Secondly, Aditus VIP users will get special access to events celebrating the launch of their stunning new yacht the Tecnomar Evo 120 ICE WHITE EDITION, which makes its debut in July 2018. Many exciting events and parties are planned around this launch.

Thirdly, in a pilot project with the Aditus Access, potential buyers would

get invitations to visit The Italian Sea Group headquarters as well as a tour of the historic Forte de Marmi, a favorite destination of discerning and affluent Europeans.

Remarking on the partnership, Traugott Kaminski, CEO of The Italian Sea Group Asia, said “Crypto-currencies have created a new group of wealth, and we are eager to provide seamless solutions for them. Julian Peh, CEO Aditus added, “The Italian Sea Group produces some of the most stunning and well engineered yachts. We are confident their striking combination of looks, design and power will be a hit with our crypto-affluent users. ” The first Tecnomar Evo 120 ICE WHITE EDITION will be launched in July 2018. Two yachts have already been sold to Asia.

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82 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

African banks & their cross-border subsidiaries Alexandra Born, Paul Mathieu & Chibuike Oguh Africa-based banks, once largely domestic, are expanding across the continent and now dominate the banking sector in many countries. These so-called pan-African banks are establishing cross-border networks and overtaking the European and U.S. banks, which traditionally dominated banking on the continent. The new pan-African players are driving the expansion of financial services and economic integration in Africa, helping unlock the huge potential of a fast-growing region.

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an-African banks originate mainly in the largest economies of Africa, such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco, and from countries of influence within a region, such as Kenya. But one of the major pan-African institutions, Ecobank, is headquartered in tiny Togo. Ecobank emerged in the mid-1980s in the context of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, and although not the largest of the pan-African banks in terms of assets, it surpasses them all in geographic reach.

Nigerian cross-border banks The thirst for cross-border expansion of Nigerian banks started after the 2004 banking sector capital reform of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which raised minimum capital requirements of banks from N2 billion to N25 billion. The 25 banks that emerged through the programme were said to be cash-awashed, having raised further billions of naira above the regulatory requirement. A number of the local banks then turned to cross-border banking to diversify their risk assets, access wider opportunities for maximizing profit, and

enhance their brand recognition as regional or Pan-African banks.

By the end of 2008, over 10 Nigerian banks had launched subsidiaries in at least one other African country, compared to only two of such banks in 2002. The United Bank for Africa and Access Bank combined had subsidiaries in over 20 African countries at the end of 2016. Outside Africa, about nine banks had branches or representative offices in London, Paris, New

financial system to threats from other countries. This created fresh oversight challenges for the CBN. The apex bank was faced with differences in financial infrastructure development, differing accounting and reporting standards, national secrecy laws and constraints on information flow amongst other issues. But CBN has been responding to these challenges.

It has signed a number of joint-supervisory agreements with the central banks of a number of African coun-

York, Dublin, and Beijing, according to a paper written

by Sarah Alade, the Deputy Governor (Economic Policy) at the CBN. The rapid expansion of cross-border banking amongst Nigerian banks exposed the country’s

Chart 1. Spreading fast

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Taking off

South Africa’s Standard Bank has been active across borders for a number of years. But other banks began to grow their regional operations in earnest in the mid-2000s. The number of subsidiaries almost doubled between 2006 and 2010 (see Chart 1), from 48 to 88, as the cross-border expansion of banks from Morocco and Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa gained traction. This rapid cross-border expansion was aided by improved political and macroeconomic stability and robust economic growth as well as the following specific factors: -The end of apartheid in the mid-1990s, which opened the door for banks headquartered in South Africa to extend their expertise abroad; -Increased trade linkages among African countries—inducing, in particular, banks in South Africa and Kenya to follow their customers abroad; -Decisions by banks in Morocco to establish a regional presence to the south because of more limited opportunities at home and in Europe—including by buying the local operations of retrenching European banks; -The large increase in minimum capital requirements in Nigeria that followed a banking crisis in the mid-2000s, which motivated banks to consider expanding abroad to make use of their new larger capital bases; and -Ecobank’s long-standing social ambition, dating to its establishment in the mid-1980s, to become Africa’s leading pan-African bank.

For pan-African banks, two basic business structures have emerged (see Chart 2). One is a traditional model of expansion from a dominant home base; the other was designed to be a diversified network structure from the get-go.

See Chart2

Africa, founded and headquartered first in Mali, with the holding company later moved to Luxembourg and eventually acquired by Moroccan Banque Marocaine de Commerce Extérieur. There are a number of banks whose structures fall between the two models.

Moreover, as cross-border operations grow, the dominance of the home presence in the group diminishes.

Servicing the underbanked

The economies of both host and home countries receive numerous benefits from cross-border banking. The rise of pan-African banks has increased competition and efficiency, introduced product innovation and more modern management and information systems, and brought higher skills and expertise to host banking Banks in the traditional model have expanded sectors. A number of pan-African banks have exported innovative from a large home base, which continues to play the dominant role in the group’s activities. In these business models and delivery channels, such as mobile banking by Kenyan institutions, to host countries. These advances have helped cases, cross-border subsidiaries contribute less than 20 percent to total assets, with the contribu- expand the availability of banking services and products (often tion of any individual subsidiary a lot less. In this called financial deepening). group are South African and Moroccan banks and Pan-African banks have also extended banking services to people to a lesser extent Nigerian banks. with inadequate access to bank services, the so-called underbanked. For example, when Kenyan banks started operations in For banks in the second group, none of which other member countries of the East African Community, they has a dominant home base, the network is most important. Although a bank holding company cen- leveraged their expertise in agent and mobile banking to service trally manages the subsidiaries, the bank subsidi- underbanked portions of the population. Similarly, Moroccan ary in the nominal home country is but one among banks expanded microfinance operations in francophone west many, and the largest subsidiary might be located Africa while their subsidiaries introduced a focus on lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. Nigerian banks have been in a different country. Examples of this arrangeinstrumental in increasing the number of branches in west Africa, ment are Ecobank—headquartered in Togo but with its biggest subsidiary in Nigeria—and Bank of especially in rural areas.

84 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

FINANCE The pan-African bank phenomenon can also help host countries raise their financial standards. Banks from more advanced African economies use higher home-country standards in their subsidiaries, and host authorities are exposed to more sophisticated reporting and supervisory practices—such as capital standards recommended by the Basel Committee (an international group of bank regulators) and the International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee. This peer-to-peer learning effect is further reinforced as host regulators benefit through joint on-site supervisory visits of foreign subsidiaries with home authorities and as they participate in supervisory colleges, which bring together regulators for individual banking groups.

The expansion of pan-African banks also benefits the home country banks because they increase their diversification and improve growth opportunities.

Supervisory capacity is already constrained and underresourced in most of Africa, and cross-border banks put additional pressure on home supervisors to ensure that these groups are adequately supervised. The recent global financial crisis made it clear that cross-border cooperation on supervision and resolution is essential to handling risks to financial stability, and inadequate cross-border cooperation can have serious repercussions.

If there is no effective cooperation and planning of cross-border bank resolution, tools employed to resolve cross-border institutions tend to be last-minute, ad-hoc interventions that involve public support. Even long-standing relationships between supervisory authorities can break down in a crisis.

Home and host supervisors’ mismatched interests are exacerbated by the considerable difference in the size of institutions and economies and are serious impediments to cross-border cooperation. Some subsidiaries of pan-African banks are systemically important in their host countries, but they may represent only a small

Chart 3. Dominant banks

portion of the overall operations of the parent banking group. This can have implications for financial stability in host jurisdictions if home authorities or parent institutions take unilateral action—for example, putting restraints on the home country institution to recapitalize a foreign subsidiary (that is, ring-fencing).

The greater the asymmetry in economic size between

home and host, all else equal, the less likely a financial institution’s overall strategy will specifically take into account the host country’s needs and the greater the threat to financial stability in the host country if problems emerge at home. In Europe, for example, western European banks cut back lending to eastern Europe during the global financial crisis—a relatively small move in the West with serious implications in the East. The Vienna Initiative in 2009 and 2011 was a response to promote closer coordination to safeguard financial stability and take into account systemic risk concerns in emerging Europe.

Securing the benefits of cross-border banking

It is noteworthy that following the banking consolidation in 2004, Nigerian banks chose to channel a significant portion of their liquidity surfeit to the expansion of cross-border operations across Sub-Saharan Africa. This suggests that the banks considered the Nigerian economy to be limited in terms of investing their capital and maximizing profit. This is true to the extent that the banks concentrated on a narrow pipeline of trade finance, in which petroleum product importation was dominant.

Risk appetites for SMEs, agriculture, technology, manufacturing and healthcare financing were weak among the local banks. A number of factors – including high cost of raising financing, absence of credit information infrastructure and poorly organized businesses fostered the vicious cycle in which the banks avoided financing for these growth sectors which continued to lock up investment opportunities.

Cross-border expansion of Nigerian banks has brought several benefits to the financial systems of their host countries. The recipient banking systems have benefited from improved technology, greater competition, increased financial intermediation, and strengthening of the regulatory and supervision framework. But Nigerian banks have not significantly benefited from their presence in 85

other countries beyond prestige and branding. Given this situation, it behooves Nigerian banks to reconsider their cross-border strategies in order for their expansion to benefit not just investors but also the country’s economy.

To ensure that the gains from African cross-border banking networks are sustained, the pan-African bank phenomenon must include upgraded consolidated supervision buttressed by enhanced cross-border cooperation. International best practices call for a consolidated view of owner operations and risks faced by banking groups, which typically involves establishment of individual supervisory colleges and continuous exchange of information that are outlined in memorandums of understanding between regulators and supervisors.

This cooperative framework must be established in quiet times rather than when a crisis occurs.

The spread of pan-African banks increases vulnerability to, and the strength of, spillovers of financial problems across African countries.

Without understandings on how the problems of a troubled bank would be resolved, supervision alone may have limited effectiveness. Individual regulators may revert to ring-fencing during a crisis, with less than optimal results. The global financial crisis demonstrated that a lack of workable cross-border operational frameworks extracts a high cost—and drove home just how difficult it is to construct those frameworks.

Regulatory and accounting norms across Africa must be upgraded to international standards to improve transparency and foster integration.

In pursuing these reforms, international institutions such as the IMF can play a useful role in continuing to provide extensive technical assistance.

86 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

Small Business Cash Flow Woes & Finding People Who Will Invest Money Into Your Business Starting a business can be very expensive. As you know, there are many costs that you will occur from the day you come up with the idea, until the day you are actually open for business. It doesn’t matter whether you’re opening a pet store, starting a restaurant, building a tech company or creating an e-commerce site. They all take money. Challenging times are par for the course for small business owners, but when the unexpected happens, like an economic downturn or unforeseen expenses, a shortfall could prove difficult to weather without a buffer. Half of all small businesses hold enough cash to last them only less than a month in the case of an unexpected shortfall, according to a recent study by the JPMorgan Chase Institute.

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etting money is easier said than done. Most banks and lending institutions are not great options for two main reasons.

First, they often don’t hand out money to businesses that have zero track record. Just finding a bank to lend you money could be impossible.

Second, if they do lend to you, they’ll offer high-interest rates and a strict repayment schedule. This can kill your cash flow and doom you before you even open the doors.The best way to fund your business is an investment. It involves giving up a piece of equity in exchange for cash. This is preferable because there is no repayment schedule. The investor only gets a return as you become successful. It’s also a risk for them, which can make it tough for them to invest.

Some people are reluctant to give up equity. Don’t be. Both of you need to take the risk for this to work. Zuckerberg gave up more than 70% of Facebook to fund the growth. His equity alone is worth 24 Billion. Not too shabby.

Here are a few strategies to help you find people who will invest money into your business.

Write Down Everyone in your Network A key element to gaining investors is having them believe you’ll be able to achieve what you’re suggesting you’ll achieve. If an investor doesn’t think you can do it, they won’t invest.

They want to see a return on their money, so they’re really investing in you – not the business. Who better to start with than those that know you best. Friends and family are way more likely to invest in someone they know than a stranger. These are the people most likely to believe in you.

Write down everyone you know, and cross off those you know won’t invest.

Write down a number beside everyone’s name. That number should be a realistic number that you think they’ll want to/could invest. Now work on the pitch.

This list should just be about people you don’t know, that you think could be interested. Once you have that list,

FINANCE find ways to pitch them. Don’t stalk them, but track them down on social media, connect with people that know them, etc. You need to have a 5-minute pitch for them. If they want to hear more, they will, but get your pitch to 5 minutes or less. It’s much easier to ask for 5 minutes of their time than an hour presentation. You may need to be persistent. These people hear a lot of pleas for their time.

They need to know you’re serious.

Have A (Business) Plan If you haven’t created one already, now is the time to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and solidify your business plan. This is an excellent way to show investors you’ve set realistic goals, that your company is financially stable, and that you understand your place in the market.

A business plan will also help you demonstrate how much of an investment you’ll need and how you plan to repay it Know Your Business Plan Inside and Out Be prepared to answer investor’s questions by committing your business plan to memory. You’ll look and sound more confident in your business if you can be responsive to questions or comments without relying on a PowerPoint presentation or notes. You know your business and what you need to succeed. The more confident you are in your pitch, the more investors will see you and your company as a worthwhile venture.

Write Down Possible Outside Investors Much like your own network, these are people in your community that you think might be interested in investing in your business. These are people you may not know, or know well, but they have a track record of being involved in the community, investing in other ventures, charity work, or are just well-known figures.

I don’t like to use the word “wealthy” here. It’s really hard to judge whether someone has money, and money they’re willing to invest

Attract Investors to You If you have a great idea, start putting it out there. Make a website, get active on social media, and be newsworthy.

If you can create a little buzz, you’d be surprised at the people that will come along for the ride. This strategy just involves being public. Letting people know what you’re up to, keeping people informed, holding events, showing up at networking functions, and being involved in the community. The more you’re out there, the more likely you’ll be able to attract the attention from someone that’s interested.

Don’t Take Money From Just Anyone Your relationship with investors is crucial to your company’s longterm success. Spend time talking to other entrepreneurs and searching to identify investors that align with your business goals and style. The last thing you want to happen is to lose control of the company you created, especially to those whose strategy and ideals don’t align with your own.

Join and Incubator or Accelerator Group Most communities have groups built for helping small businesses and startups. One major benefit of these groups is that you’ll have access to many people that could potentially invest. This isn’t the only reason you should get involved in these groups, though. These groups will offer a ton of support and resources for actually getting your business off the ground and running smoothly. They can help you with staffing, product sourcing, office space, and even help you become a better leader. They might be able to help you find money in other ways, like community and government grants. They can give you access to local governments if you need approvals or permits.

Crowdfunding There are many stories, good and bad, about using this platform. One thing to remember is that it’s not just easy money. You’ll need to generate attention and publicity in order to get your crowdfunding project the attention it needs to gain actual funding.

Although the rules are changing, this method often means you don’t need to give up equity – but you will need to offer some type of reward to your backers. These are just a few strategies for getting an investment in your company. Success will vary depending on the type of business you’re in, and how great of a pitch artist you are. The biggest part is just asking.

The worst that can happen is people say no.

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Small Business Accounting Tasks to Perform Every Month Plenty of small business owners wonder how they should tactically tackle their accounting. They also posit this question to their peers, their advisors, their mentors, Google, the internet at-large, small business forums, Meetup groups, email listservs... there are probably even a few accounting-themed prayers uttered every now and then. And while every business is going to require a slightly custom approach (because all businesses and business owners are different), there are a few tactics that every entrepreneur can implement to go about their books confidently. Strong bookkeeping and financial accounting records are essential for the success of any business, big or small. Some of the largest businesses in the world have ultimately failed because their accounting practices were disorganized -- or worse, deceptive.

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mall businesses may be even more susceptible to poor accounting practices. Even though a small business is heavily reliant on cash flow, most entrepreneurs simply know very little about accounting. They believe accounting is better suited for larger companies with more assets.

They run their business like they run their personal finances, checking the bank account balance occasionally and paying bills when they have the funds. Even worse, some small businesses hire a bookkeeper not an accountant who knows very little about proper accounting methods, and trust them completely with all the finances.

How do you make sure you’re not one of these businesses? First, you need to know the basics of accounting. Here are four tasks you should be doing each and every week.

88 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

- Bank Account Reconciliation Your bank account really can’t be reconciled too often. A proper bank reconciliation means that you have the cash that you think you have, which is obviously very important for any business. Many small businesses make the common mistake of waiting for a bank statement to reconcile their accounts, but bank statements are only mailed monthly. That means you have roughly 30 days between reconciliations, and a lot can happen in 30 days. You should at least reconcile all of your cash accounts weekly.

If you have the time, daily is an even better option.

-Vendor Payments You need a system for vendor payments. This is vital for keeping track of your debts, and it’s also important

for establishing a good reputation and credit history with your vendors.

Your payment terms will vary from one vendor to the next, so you can’t get by with paying bills only once a month. Some vendors may give you 30 days to pay, but others require payment on receipt. If you only pay bills on the first of the month and receive a “due on receipt” invoice on the second, the vendor will most likely freeze your account or cancel your service for nonpayment.

However, this is one task that shouldn’t happen daily either. It’s confusing and time-consuming for your bookkeeper, and there’s no real benefit to paying bills every day. Once a week is the best time frame because it’s most efficient. Your bills are promptly paid, and your bookkeeper i

FINANCE -Customer Receipts The only thing worse than an unhappy vendor is an unhappy customer.

No one likes to pay a bill, then receive a “past due” notice a week later. To avoid this situation, make sure your customer receipts are recorded in a timely fashion. Daily would be ideal, but weekly should be sufficient, too.

Whichever time frame you choose, make sure you mark the actual date the payment was received not the postmark date or the current date.

Obviously, you should also never mail statements without posting all your receipts first, unless you want to field calls from frustrated customers.

-Other Transaction Entries Vendor payments and customer receipts will make up the bulk of your transactions, but you probably have others, too. Auto-debits, interest payments and bank fees are some common transactions that you’ll need to record weekly. Most bookkeepers choose to record these before a bank reconciliation to make the process as smooth as possible.

As you grow, you’ll likely develop your own system for each aspect of the accounting cycle, but this guide should give you a good start. Remember: Whether you’re the bookkeeper or the business owner, it’s important that you stay on top of the business finances. Ultimately, they’re key for the company’s survival.

Accounting Tasks 1. Open a Bank Account After you’ve legally registered your business, you’ll need somewhere to stash your business income. Having a separate bank account keeps records distinct and will make life easier come tax time. Note that LLCs, partnerships, and corporations are legally required to have a separate bank account for business. Sole proprietors don’t legally need a separate account, but it’s definitely recommended.

Start by opening up a business checking account, and then any savings accounts that will help you organize funds and plan for taxes.

For instance, set up a savings account and squirrel away a percentage of each payment as your self-employed tax withholding. Next you’ll want to consider a business credit card to start building business credit. Corporations and LLCs are required to use a separate credit card to avoid commingling personal and business assets.

Before you talk to a bank about opening an account, do your homework.

Shop around for business accounts and compare fee structures. Most business checking accounts have fees that are higher than personal banking, so pay close attention to what you’ll owe.,In order to open a business bank account, you’re required to have a business name, and usually be registered with your state or province. Check with the individual bank for what documents to bring to the appointment.

2. Track Your Expenses The foundation of solid business record keeping is learning to track your expenses effectively. It’s a crucial step that allows you to monitor the growth of your business, build financial statements, keep track of deductible expenses, prepare tax returns, and support what you report on your tax return. Right from the beginning, you should establish a system for organizing receipts and other important records. This process can be simple and old school (bring on the FiloFax), or you can use a service like ShoeBoxed.

There are five types of receipts that you should pay extra attention to: Meals and Entertainment: Conducting a business meeting in a cafe or restaurant is a great option, just be sure to document it well. On the back of the receipt, record who attended and the purpose of the meal or outing.

Out of Town Business Travel: The IRS and CRA are wary of people claiming personal activities as business expenses. Thankfully, your receipts also provide a paper trail of your business activities while away.

Vehicle Related Expenses: Record where, when, and why you used the vehicle for business, and then apply

the percentage of use to vehicle related expenses.

Receipts for Gifts: For gifts like tickets to a concert, it matters whether the gift giver goes to the event with the recipient. If they do, then the expense would be categorized as entertainment, rather than a gift. Note these details on the receipt.

Home Office Receipts: Similar to the vehicle expenses, you need to calculate what percentage of your home is used for business and then apply that percentage to home related expenses.

Starting your business at home is a great way to keep overhead low, plus you’ll qualify for some unique tax breaks. You’re able to deduct the portion of your home that’s used for business, as well as your internet connection, cell phone, and transportation to and from work sites and for business errands. Any expense that’s used partly for personal life and partly for business must reflect the mixed use. For instance, if you have one cell phone, you can deduct the percentage you use the device for business. Gas mileage costs are 100% deductible, just be sure to hold on to all records and keep a log of your business miles (where you’re going and the purpose of the trip).

3. Develop a Bookkeeping System Before we jump into establishing a bookkeeping system, it’s helpful to understand exactly what bookkeeping is, and how it differs from accounting. Bookkeeping is the day-to-day process of recording transactions, categorizing them, and reconciling bank statements. Accounting is a high level process that looks at business progress and makes sense of the data compiled by the bookkeeper by building financial statements. As a new business owner, you’ll need to determine which bookkeeping method to use: You can choose to go the DIY route and use software like Quickbooks or Wave. Alternatively, you could use a simple Excel spreadsheet. You have the option of using an outsourced or part-time bookkeeper that’s either local or cloud-based like Bench 89

Accounting. When your business is big enough you can opt to hire an in-house bookkeeper and/or accountant. With so many options out there, you’re sure to find a bookkeeping solution that will suit your needs.

Nigerian business owners need to determine whether they’ll use the cash or accrual method of accounting. Let’s take a look at the difference between the two methods here: Cash Method: Revenues and expenses are recognized at the time they are actually received or paid.

Accrual Method: Revenues and expenses are recognized when the transaction occurs (even if the cash isn’t in or out of the bank yet) and requires tracking receivables and payables.

4. Set up a Payroll System As a new business owner, you’ll likely be a one-person show. However, maybe you’ll hire a part-time employee to help you out, or a freelancer to design your logo. Right away, you need to establish whether that individual is an employee or an independent contractor. For employees, you’ll need to decide on a payroll schedule and ensure that you’re withholding the correct taxes; there are lots of services that can help with this. For independent contractors, be sure to track how much you’re paying each person.

American business owners may be required to file 1099s for each contractor at year end (you’ll also need to keep their name and address on file for this!).

need a way to accept the payments.

You can use different Payments platforms to accept credit card payments (Visa, Verve, and Mastercard). This saves you the hassle of setting up a merchant account or third party payment gateway. If you want to accept credit card payments without Payments, you’ll either need a merchant account or you can use a third party payment processor like PayPal. A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows your business to accept credit card payments from customers. If you use a third party payment processor, the fees are generally around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

7. Establish Sales Tax Procedures The world of eCommerce has shaken up sales tax regulations and they are admittedly a bit confusing due to location issues. When a customer walks into a brick and mortar retail shop, they pay the sales tax of whatever state or province they make the purchase in, no matter if they live in that city, or they’re visiting from across the world. However, when you sell online, you’re often selling to customers who live in different states/provinces, and even countries.

Selling to international customers can be easier than domestic sales because you often don’t need to charge sales tax when selling to out-of-country customers.

5. Investigate Import Tax Depending on your business model, you may be planning to purchase and import goods from other countries to sell in your store. When importing products, you’ll likely be subject to taxes and duties. These are fees that your country imposes on incoming goods. Take the time to learn about importing goods Nigeria, and the associated taxes, so that you know the rules from the get-go.

8. Determine Your Tax Obligations Tax obligations vary depending on the legal structure of the business. If you’re self-employed (sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership), you’ll claim business income on your personal tax return. Corporations, on the other hand, are separate tax entities and are taxed independently from owners.

Your income from the corporation is taxed as an employee. Self-employed people need to withhold taxes from their income, and remit these to the government in lieu of the withholding that an employer would normally conduct

6. Determine How You’ll Get Paid When sales start rolling in, you’ll

9. Calculate Gross Margins Improving your store’s gross margin

90 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine

is the first step towards earning more income overall. In order to calculate gross margin, you need to know the costs incurred to produce your product. To understand this better, let’s quickly define both Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) and gross margin.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): These are the direct costs incurred in producing products sold by a company. This includes both materials and direct labor costs.

Gross Margin: This number represents the total sales revenue that’s kept after the business incurs all direct costs to produce the product or service.

Here’s how you can go about calculating gross margin: Gross Margin (%) = (Revenue COGS) / Revenue The difference between how much you sell a product for, and how much the business actually takes home at the end of the day is what truly determines your ability to keep the doors open.

10. Constantly Re-evaluate Your Methods

When you first start out you may opt to use a simple spreadsheet to manage your books but as you grow you’ll want to consider more advanced methods like Quickbooks or the Bench app. As you keep growing, it’s good to continually reassess the amount of time you’re spending on your books, and how much that time is costing your business. The right bookkeeping solution means you can invest more time in the business with bookkeeping no longer on your plate, and potentially save the business money. Win-win!

Starting a business can be an overwhelming process, but if you follow this list, you’ll have your new store’s finances in order from the beginning.

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92 Market Digest Nigeria Magazine