MDN June 2017 Issue

AGROFOOD

CASHLESS AFRICA

FINANCE & LIFESTYLE

WHAT YOUR PASSPORT COLOR MEANS

BENEFIT OF RAGE

NIGERIA Vol 2 No 1

Why the Recession is the 2nd best thing to happen to Nigeria since 1959

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Editor's Note - 11 News – 12 EVENT The Agrofood & Plastprintpack – 20 EVENT The CashlessAfrica Expo – 22 LUXURY LIVING Inside One57 - 24 LIFESTYLE The clothing relationship – 28

FINANCE Why Nigeria shouldn't have a budget surplus – 55 MANAGEMENT Attracting the new generation of wealthy clients – 59 How Do You Appraise a CEO's Performance? – 61 TRAVELS Top Free Things To Do In Sydney – 63 What Your Passport Color Really Means – 67

NEW RELEASES -32 FOOD Secrets From A Master Chef – 38

BLACK HISTORY The “Real McCoy” – 69

AUTOMOBILE The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 -40

INTERVIEW Venivici Health Club & Urban Spa Founder Arinola Adeniyi – 71

ARTICLE THE END OF MACRO MEDIOCRITY – 43 AUTOMOBILE Electric Cars Will Cause the Next Oil Crisis – 53

BUSINESS The Benefits Of Rage in Business – 77 MANAGEMENT How To Manage Investments In A Recession - 79

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Dear reader, Nigerian businesses have been through a period of extraordinary turbulence over the course of the recession, which has undermined confidence in the financial markets. Though the recession seems to be nearing its end, advisors, economists and ordinary Nigerians continue to debate why the recovery has been so tepid.

Some lay the blame at the different nature of the downturn. Some have suggested deleveraging. Others attribute the weak rebound to delay and excessive postcrisis regulation and misplaced policy priorities. For others, had the government focused more on growth and infrastructure and less on fighting corruption, business activity might have bounced back much faster. Our major article and theme of this quarters issue focuses on the economic crisis, government policies, recovery and projections.

Also, this year, with the devaluation of the Naira, although the Naira has started experiencing a recovery, the first baby boomers are turning 70 years old, a few are starting to retire. That means they will move from the accumulation phase to the decumulation phase. The lucky ones, if they are thrifty or have sufficient assets, will move to a more static world where they can live off their capital. But post recession, they won't have the same amount of new assets coming in like they did in their peak savings years.

This quarter's issue is filled with many excellent interviews and articles, we wrote on Arinola Adeniyi, Owner/Founder of Venivici Health Club, she left her Banking Career, which spanned 17 years to run her own brand. We had a one on one with Chef Steph Oberholzer of The Wheatbaker Hotel Ikoyi, Lagos. In an article, we examined the weakness of the fascination with a budget surplus and argue how it's a dangerous misconception today. Other exciting articles also include how to manage investments in a recession, content marketing in the financial services industry for millennials- an insightful guide on how to structure a company's website experience for the millennials citing examples from top African Banks.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our stakeholders, and our readership in particular. As part of our future strategy we have launched our online news platform. Please visit our website @www.marketdigestng.com to stay up-to-date on industry news as it happens, have your say via our online poll, and be part of our upcoming yearly events.

Thank you and enjoy the read!

With warmest thanks,

www.marketdigestng.com

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Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with 228 new members. Three other Nigerians were also elected into the revered Academy. They are: Nigerian geographer, Akin Mabogunje, from the University of Ibadan.

He was elected into the History section in the Academy; The President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede was elected into the Business, Corporate and Philanthropic leadership section of the Academy. Former Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Chairman, Attahiru Jega, was elected into the Public Affairs and Public Policy section of the Academy. Members of the 2017 class also includes winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the Wolf Prize; MacArthur Fellows; Fields Medalists; Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of Arts recipients; and Academy Award, Grammy Award, Emmy Award, and Tony Award winners.

In the announcement by the Academy of Arts and Science, Chimamanda was also listed among 40 Foreign Honorary Members from 19 countries elected by the Academy. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 7, 2017, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They will all form the 237th class of the academy. Among the people elected are some of the world's most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, as well as civic, business, and philanthropic leaders.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the country's oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing and opportunities available to the nation and the world. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies in science, engineering, and technology policy; global security and international affairs; the humanities, arts, and education; and American institutions and the public good.

Biogaran a French pharmaceutical company specialized in generic and biosimilar medicines, and a subsidiary of Servier, announced the takeover of all the activities of Swipha, a Nigerian company that manufactures and distributes pharmaceutical products known for their quality. Its portfolio is mainly focused on three families of products: anti-anxiety and tranquillizers, antimalarial drugs and antibiotics, which treat Nigeria's most widespread infections and health issues. This is an important step forward in the internationalization of the French company Biogaran. Swipha was the first Nigerian pharmaceutical company to obtain ISO 9001 certification in 2007. Approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, Swipha employs 300 people locally and generated record sales of NGN 4bn (approximately € 20 million) in 2012. Beyond its production unit, the company also has a wide distribution network covering most parts of Nigeria, Africa's most dynamic country, with more than 184 million inhabitants in 2016 according to the IMF. “Biogaran's international expansion strategy is to create synergies by bringing its expertise and investment capacity in production tools to existing structures”, commented Pascal Brière, President of Biogaran. “Swipha's know-how, network and reputation have immediately convinced us that it was the right partner for us.

Likewise, Nigeria quickly came out as the best entry point on the African continent with its strong population and solid economic fundamentals, including a very dynamic market economy”.

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The Nigerian Stock Exchange announced that its members have approved the demutualization scheme of the Exchange. This decision was reached at the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) of its members, which held on Thursday, March 30, 2017, at the Stock Exchange House, Lagos. Specifically, members of the Exchange authorized the National Council and Management of the Exchange to proceed with the process leading up to the demutualization of the Exchange subject to applicable laws and regulations and obtaining the approvals of members and the relevant regulatory authorities. They also ratified the engagement of financial advisers, legal advisers, tax advisers and any other adviser that may be required for the demutualization of the Exchange.

Speaking after the successful meeting, the President of National Council, NSE, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, CON noted that “the approval of the NSE demutualization plan marks the achievement of an important milestone towards completion of the exercise. The demutualization of the Exchange will bring the Nigerian capital market on a par with other international jurisdictions; result in enhanced governance, transparency and visibility whilst attracting strategic partners, investors and good quality issuers. These are historic times indeed”. Also commenting on development, the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Oscar N. Onyema, OON, noted that “the approval of the demutualization process will generate substantial motivation for the development of an agile Exchange thereby consolidating its innovativeness and strengthening its leadership both at local and international levels whilst also adding value to its stakeholders”.

Demutualization is the process through which any member owned organization becomes a shareholder-owned company. Basically, it refers to the conversion of a non-profit, mutually owned company to a for-profit entity limited by shares. Demutualization segregates ownership and management from the trading rights of the members of an exchange.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has announced that the Central Bank has approved a licence for the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN). The bank was conceived in 2014 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Adeosun said the approval for the licence was granted after the bank met the minimum capital requirement of $326 million, proceeded to the reconstitution of its board and reviewed the structure of its organization. She explained that DBN aims to support small-scale businesses in the country and has a commitment of $1.3 bn (N396.5 billion) jointly provided by the World Bank, German Development Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the French Development Agency. In this framework, it is also finalizing agreements with the European Investment Bank (EIB). According to the Minister, the development bank will provide loans at lower rates to actors of the economy's various sectors. These include Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are currently not supported by existing development banks.

It should be highlighted that 50% of Nigeria's GDP is made up of small companies. And with this in mind, Adeosun said the Federal Government believes that “the influx of additional capital from the DBN will lower borrowing rates and the longer tenure of the loans, will provide the required flexibility in the management of cash flows, giving businesses the opportunity to make capital improvements, and acquire equipment or supplies.”

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Lagos appears to be immune from the economic crisis, which perhaps is the most biting in the last 15 years. Despite the economic meltdown that threw many states into untold hardship in 2016, Lagos State under Governor Akinwunmi Ambode recorded historic improvement with a budget of N662.588 billion. And the state looks set for bigger progress with its 2017 governance outlook. The Lagos State House of Assembly recently passed the 2017 Budget proposal of N812.99 billion presented by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for the state into law.

The House passed the sum of N305.28 billion as total Recurrent Expenditure and N507.82 billion as the total Capital Expenditure for the Year ending Dec. 31, 2017. In the budget Capital expenditure far exceeds recurrent expenditure, which is in sharp contrast to Nigeria's 2017 budget of N7.298 trillion, where 2.24 trillion penciled for capital expenditure.

For Nigeria, 2016 was truly a nightmare, not only for the masses, but also virtually for all social classes across the federation. In the first quarter, for instance, the national economy slid slightly by 0.36 per cent. It shrank further by 2.06 per cent and 2.24 per cent in the second and third quarters, respectively, thereby plunging the country into recession. For Lagos state the story was different, the State recorded more Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2016 than what was recorded in 2015 despite economic recession in the country. As at December 16, 2016 the State had raked in N287billion IGR for the year under review as against N268.2billion generated in 2015.

During an event at the Lagos House, Ikeja, Ambode said, “The tax payers are the ones giving us the little energy that we have and even though when they say Nigeria is in recession, but somehow Lagos has been able to do it and it is because people are paying their taxes.” Like other states of the federation, federal transfers to the state historically declined by about 20 per cent in 2016 compared to what it received from the Federation Accounts in 2015. Under Ambode, however, the state's internally generated revenue rose by about 25 per cent. Before Ambode assumed office in 2015, Lagos had grown its IGR historically from N600 million in 1999 to N8.2 billion in 2007 and N20.5 billion in 2013. In 2016, it was N25 billion.

Another key driver of this growth is the massive infrastructure development. Recently, the State Government commenced the process of awarding contracts for the construction of 181 community roads across the 57 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the State. Through the project, a total of 114 roads were either constructed or rehabilitated, two per each of the 57 Council Areas, in 2016. Presently, the list of concluded and on-going infrastructure development projects in the State is endless. Indeed, the tale around town now is that Lagos has become one huge construction site. From Abule-Egba to Agege, from Ikorodu to Epe, from Yaba to Ajah, from Iyana Oworo to Ojodu Berger and all across the State, visible infrastructure projects are massively on going.

Nigeria are hoping to enter a bobsled team at the Winter Olympic Games for the first time in 2018 in a move that echoes the film Cool Runnings, the 1993 film loosely based on the first-ever Jamaican national bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Three women want to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as the first Nigerian bobsled team in history. Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga are also hoping to start a bobsled foundation for Africa.

Picture credit: Obi Grant But they might be hindered by a lack of funding. The three US-based women are raising funds to get together the equipment and training they need to be the first African bobsled team to compete in the Winter Olympics. The situation is similar to the 1993 film, starring John Candy, which was loosely based on the formation of the Jamaican bobsled team. In the film, the four athletes find various ways to raise money - arm wrestling, singing in the street and opening a kissing booth - before eventually selling a car to do so. And, in a more conventional way of raising money, the Nigerian trio have set up a GoFundMe page looking to raise $150,000 (£118,000) to pay for their expenses ahead of the Games. Driver Seun Adigun and brakewomen Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga aren't particularly well-versed yet in the noble sport of bobsledding. But they're hella determined to make it to the competition. All three of the women are runners based in the US and are clearly ready to bring some swagger to the Winter Games.

Adigun, who first had the idea to start the team, was born outside of Chicago and has represented Nigeria in international competition since 2009, winning gold at the All-Africa Games and Africa Championships, and even racing in the 2012 Olympics.

She met Dallas-born Onwumere at the University of Houston back in 2009, when Onwumere was joining the track and field team and Adigun was an assistant coach. Omeoga was the final piece to the puzzle, joining up with the others when she moved to Houston this summer.

Adigun is hopeful that Nigeria can find their way to South Korea, capture a gold medal and then popularise bobsledding across Africa. 'Together, we can demonstrate that nothing is impossible with a little faith, support, and willingness to persevere,' she said. Nigeria would join a select list of African nations if they competed at a Winter Olympic Games. Only eight countries from Africa - including Cameroon, Ghana and Zimbabwe - have been represented at the event.

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Picture Credit: The New York Times

An African-American billionaire has offered to sponsor the education of 24 girls from the Chibok community, including the 21 girls who were released from Boko Haram captivity in October, reports Forbes. Private equity titan Robert Smith will pay for the young women to attend American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, and will pay for tuition, room, board and other related expenses at a cost of $5,000 to $11,000 a year.

Forbes currently estimates the 54-year-old founder of Vista Equity Partners' net worth at $2.5 billion. Last October, Smith and Vista closed a fund nearing $6 billion, the firm's biggest ever.

Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Nigeria's President, announced the plans. “Smith has offered to pay for the education of the 21 released through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free,'' Shehu said. Radical Islamic militants from Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female high school students from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria, in April 2014. Since their capture, 57 of the young women have escaped or been freed, but there are still 219 girls believed to be in Boko Haram's custody.

In a report by Benoit Faucon, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has largely respected the pledge it made last year to reduce its oil output, the International Energy Agency reported. But growing production by member Libya and smaller-than-promised cuts

by Iraq, also an OPEC member, have partly offset hefty output reductions by Saudi Arabia. OPEC on Nov. 30 agreed to cut production from January by 1.2 million barrels a day to end a persistent oil glut. In December, Russia and other producers outside the group committed to take 558,000 b/d out of the market. In its monthly report, the IEA which advises industrialized nations on energy policies said the cartel's production fell to 32.06 million b/d in January, a decline of about 1 million b/d compared with OPEC's October baseline.

The cut "is certainly one of the deepest in the history of OPEC," the agency said.

OPEC members that pledged to cap or cut output (Libya and Nigeria were exempt from the reductions) reached 90% of their commitments in January. In contrast, it took OPEC two months to reach about 80% of their cut targets in 2009, the last time OPEC agreed to curtail output. The numbers reflect differing levels of compliance. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Angola cut more than they had pledged. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, reduced production by 560,000 b/d day from October, about 70,000 b/d above its targeted cut.

But Iraq made only about half the cut it agreed to, and Venezuela, which was; first to campaign for an output cap met just 18% of its targeted commitments. Baghdad says it needs funding to fight Islamic State terrorists, while Venezuela faces a financial crisis with its state-run oil company at risk of default, according to analysts. Production from Russia fell by 100,000 b/d, one-third of its committed cuts. Overall, global oil supplies plunged nearly 1.5 million b/d in January from a month earlier, the IEA said.

Lower production was partly offset by higher flows from Libya and Nigeria. Libyan production has ramped up by 180,000 b/d since October after militias allowed a giant oil field to reopen in the West of the country. Still, OPEC's current plan to cut output for only six months won't be enough to rebalance the market, the IEA said. And Saudi Arabia has said it would be reluctant to continue cutting in the second half of this year.

With oil in storage still high and future production uncertain, the "oil market is very much in a wait-and-see mode," the IEA said.

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In a report by Samara Lynn, on Black Enterprise, Nigerian fintech startup Paystack, announced that it has closed in on $1.3 million in seed investment. Co-founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, the funds will go to building out its engineering team in Lagos, Nigeria; grow sales and marketing operations; and accelerate product development and customer on boarding, according to the company's press release. Paystack offers a centralized way for African online merchants to accept online payments from a variety of methods a process that has been somewhat fragmented across the African continent.

“Having painstakingly identified the many barriers that merchants on the continent have when it comes to online payments, we have built and refined a product for Africa that we hope will act as a catalyst for the continent's online economy, be it on-demand services, e-commerce, travel and hospitality, financial services, or entertainment,” says Akinlade in a released statement. He adds: “We know Africa's digital economy has potential many billions of dollars of potential. We simply need to unlock it and make businesses work better, faster, and more effectively. Paystack will do this. Thanks to the backing from our investors with today's announcement, and our time spent with Y Combinator, we are now in the strongest position yet to resolve the disconnect between African businesses and accepting payments.”

Nigeria has a rapidly growing digital mobile economy. Online shopping and payments are expected to increase, with 400 million more smartphone connections in Nigeria by 2020. Africa now has the fastest growing middle class in the world. Some 313 million people, 34% of Africa's population, spend USD 2.20 a day, a 100% rise in less than 20 years, according to the African Development Bank.

Image: Paystack founders, Shola Akinlade (left) and Ezra Olubi (right). (Image: Techpoint.ng)

Coconut, guava, and tamarind are top ranking healthy fruit juices in most local stores but sugarcane? Entrepreneurs like Ganiu Ladejobi aspire to be at the top of the billion-dollar healthy beverage market. “Sweet juice from farm fresh sugarcane stalks” is how Ladejobi describes the juices his company, Sugarcane Island, makes and sells. Sugarcane Island “Raw Sugarcane juice” is a 100% raw sugarcane water beverage. Through a unique juicing method and the use of innovative technology the company produces raw sugarcane water with a refrigerated life of up to 60 days.

After a trip to Nigeria, which is where he is originally from, Ladejobi missed the taste of cold pressed sugarcane juice free from additives, preservatives, or added sugar. After looking to no avail, Ladejobi claims to have become frustrated in his search. So, he decided to make it himself for his family and friends. He not only quenched his thirst, but also vitalized his business acumen by spotting this opportunity. While living in New York, Ladejobi saw the city as solid ground for launching his company, with its diverse mix of Africans and the Caribbeans that would already be familiar with his product. Armed with only $5000 in savings and a small cane-pressing machine, Ladejobi wasted no time.

“We consider ourselves as a consumer products company that is focused on producing healthy and sustainable products from sugarcane. We also just started producing 100% pure cane syrup, which is an aromatic syrup that is great for many uses from sweetening smoothies, oatmeal, coffee, or tea to using it in cocktails or drizzling it on fresh fruit, pancakes, and waffles. We also have plans to produce a line of herbal teas, all natural sugarcane body soaps, sugarcane infused energy bars, and a few other things,” He said.

When German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet launched Jumia in 2012 as a would-be African Amazon, it was optimistic that a rapidly expanding middle class would quickly shift from street markets to shopping online. Four years on, falling sales for sites like Jumia and slower growth from Nigeria to Russia and Brazil is casting doubt on Rocket Internet's ambition to become the world's biggest Internet Company outside the United States and China.

Jumia made a loss of €17 million ($18.8 million) in the first three months of 2016 on sales that fell more than a third, the devaluation of Nigeria's naira also dealt a serious blow to Jumia's Nigeria operations.

But despite its problems in a report by Ingrid Lunden, Rocket Internet has raised a new $1 billion fund, the biggest tech fund of any VC firm to date in Europe, it claims. The Rocket Internet Capital Partners fund, as it is called, will focus both on early and later stage investments, and marks a shift of sorts for Rocket Internet. The company will put some of the investment into existing portfolio companies, the company is known for incubating and growing ecommerce businesses around the globe built on models usually pioneered by others ('clones' is the less charitable term you may have heard) but it will also start making more investments in startups beyond those Rocket Internet itself had a hand in starting. It surprisingly appears that investors still believe that in the long term, Rocket can provide decent returns. All it takes are a couple of big hits to shift the balance and Rocket has, over its history, had enough of these with large sales to Groupon, eBay and others to give it a good track record.

“RICP having reached the hard cap of $1 billion shows the strong interest of leading investors, who share the enthusiasm for the attractive investment opportunity RICP presents”, said Oliver Samwer, Rocket Internet's CEO, in a statement.

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Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer at Facebook, will be taking feedback and inspiration from the developer and content creator communities back to California following his visits to Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal earlier this year. Cox was in West Africa to find out how the region's creatives, developers and entrepreneurs are using Facebook and Instagram to bring their passions to life.

Chris said: “It's been an inspiring week meeting with some of the top artists, publishers, entrepreneurs, developers, and social media stars across the region. This is a region that creates some of the most interesting cultures in the world from food, to fashion, to music, to art. They are at the leading edge of using mobile technology to build communities in their cities, countries, and around the region, and in solving local problems with local solutions. We left inspired, and with insights on the real challenges we have to improve our services from Internet connectivity to more regional support and tools.” Chris started his trip on a high by seeing Femi Kuti live on stage at the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos. Chris, who is an accomplished pianist, was invited to play live on stage with Femi, an experience he will never forget.

The Shrine is one of the great institutions in music history and in the political history of the region. It was also the first time a concert has been live broadcast on Facebook from The Shrine. Whilst he was in Nigeria he spoke at Social Media Week Lagos the region's premier new media and social media conference Cox highlighted Nigeria's status as a hub for innovation and creativity because of its fast-growing mobile technology sector and its vibrant film and music industries. He focused on how the world is moving to digital video, with formats such as virtual reality, Live video broadcast and 360 video giving people new ways to tell their stories.

An agreement spear headed by the Dangote Rice Limited to create jobs for 16,000 outgrower rice farmers in Sokoto was signed earlier this year during the launch of the Dangote rice outgrower scheme in Goronyo, Goronyo Local government, Sokoto, which was witnessed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar.

Farmers were presented with rice seeds, fertilizers, nets, and agrochemicals. Chairman of Dangote Rice Limited, Aliko Dangote said he was moved to go into rice cultivation because of the genuine interest of the Federal government to revive agriculture as the mainstay of the economy, and reduce importation of foods that could be produced locally.

He also lamented that Nigeria consumes 6.5 Mtn of rice which costs the nation over 2 billion dollars annually, pointing out that it is heartening that the government now has a policy direction that encourages private sector's active participation in agriculture.

“In the next three years we want to produce one million tons of quality rice and make it available and affordable to the people. We hope to do 150, 000 ha and when we are done, Nigeria will not have anything to do with importation of rice,” Dangote added. The Dangote Rice Project Director, Robert Coleman, said the Sokoto operation was a demonstration phase to familiarize the farming community with the programme, train extension workers and lead farmers as well as test modern technologies. He noted that they would have 25,000 ha cultivated by nearly 50,000 outgrowers in 2017 in addition to hundreds of jobs expected to be created by the end of that year.

In his remarks, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal expressed delight at the event, saying the coming of Dangote to invest in the state was as a result of his sustained effort towards inviting prospective investors to the state. He said the state under the scheme, just as it had done with the federal government, would distribute nets, water pumping machines and fertilizers at subsidized prices to help the farmers have good yield. The National President of Rice Farmers Association, Alhaji Aminu Goronyo described the scheme as one of the potential means of making rice available and at low cost to the people because the farmers are encouraged to put all their best into it. He said he has no doubt the scheme would be a success because it is private sector driven and that given the pedigree of the Alhaji Dangote in business, he was sure there the scheme would be sustainable and sooner than later other states will key into it.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts will bring 20 new shops to Nigeria over the next five years in its latest global push to expand its brand since being acquired by a private holding company. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. is an American global doughnut company and coffeehouse chain based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On April 5, 2000, the corporation went public on the NASDAQ at $21 using the ticker symbol KREM. On May 17, 2001, Krispy Kreme switched to the New York Stock Exchange. The stock reached what would be its all-time high of $50 on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2003, a gain of 235 percent from its IPO price. For the fiscal year ending in February 2004, the company reported sales of $665.6 million and operating profits of $94.7 million from almost 400 stores (including international locations). The doughnut-maker made its African debut in South Africa in 2015, hoping to tap into consumer demand for popular US food brands such as Pizza Hut and Starbucks. Its move was quickly followed by rival Dunkin' Donuts in 2016.

“The joy of a Krispy Kreme doughnut and coffee is beloved all over the world, and we cannot wait to introduce that joy to the people of Nigeria over the next several years,” said Michael McGill, Krispy Kreme's international vice-president. He added they were “fortunate” to work with Quality Foods Africa, a quick-service restaurant business, in entering Africa's rapidly growing consumer market. JAB Beech, a part of a larger holding company owned by Germany's billionaire Reimann family, agreed to pay $1.35bn for Krispy Kreme last year following a series of acquisitions by the group in the coffee sector. After acquiring Keurig Green Mountain, Peet's Coffee, Stumptown and Caribou Coffee over the past few years, the holding company has made a credible challenge to Nestlé, the world's largest food company by sales, in the coffee sector.

“Nigeria is a huge market and we are truly excited about bringing the world's best doughnuts to one of Africa's biggest economies,” said Edmond Sassine, chief executive of Quality Foods Africa.

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According Mr Kelvin Amugo, Director, Financial Policy and Regulation department, CBN. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has barred deposit money banks and all other financial institutions from the operation of any form of virtual currency including Bitcoin, the ban was necessitated by money laundering and terrorism financing risks inherent in operations of virtual currencies.

According to Amugo who presented circulars to banks and other financial institutions on virtual currency operations in Nigeria, “The emergence of Virtual Currencies (VCs) has attracted investments in payments infrastructure that provides new methods of transmitting value over the Internet.

“Transactions in VCs are largely untraceable and anonymous making them susceptible to abuse by criminals, especially in money laundering and financing of terrorism. VCs are traded in exchange platforms that are unregulated, all over the world. Consumers may, therefore, lose their money without any legal redress in the event these exchanges collapse or close business.”

“The attention of banks and other financial institutions is hereby drawn to the above risks and you are required to take the following actions pending substantive regulation decision by the CBN. Ensure that you do not use, hold, trade, and/ or transact in anyway in virtual currencies; Ensure that existing customers, that are virtual customers exchangers, have effective AML/CFT controls that enables them to comply with customers' identification, verification and transaction monitoring requirements.” read the circular.

World's famous British toyshop, Hamleys, has officially announced the signing of the development agreement for the Hamleys franchise in Nigeria with Smartmark Limited. The first toy shop, which will open in Lagos this summer, will include thousands of quality approved toys and all the brand's iconic features including opportunities for children to play, engaging store design, expertise in service and amazing toy demonstration.

Chairman of Smartmark Limited (Hamleys Franchise Partner in Nigeria), Yakubu Gobir, said, “this is going to be the first real toy store in Nigeria. Smartmark are pioneers in new store launches in Nigeria and we are really excited about Hamleys and its unique experiential retailing.” He added that Nigeria represents one of the best growth opportunities to international brands on the African continent. Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Hamleys of London, Gudjon Reynisson, said: “I am really looking forward to bringing the Hamleys magic to the children and families of Nigeria. Smartark have extensive experience of international brands and retail in Nigeria. I am sure they will be successful and our stores well received. “We are looking forward to supporting Smartmark's team, as are our partners in the toy industry and those we work closely with on international relations at the Department of Industry,” Reynisson added.

Also at the event, the International Trade Minister for the UK, Mark Garnier, said: The UK is one of Nigeria's largest investors and the opening of this new Lagos store will add Hamleys to the list of nearly 120 UK companies already doing business in Nigeria. “Hamleys' expansion into the Nigerian market is more than just child's play – Lagos is a major financial center of Africa, with the highest GDP on the continent and an expanding middleclass market. For other British businesses looking to make the most of global demand for British goods and services, the government is committed to helping all UK companies fulfill their exporting potential”, he added.

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Rolls Royce the luxury automobile driven by very influential Africans, politicians, businessmen and religious leaders, notably from Nigeria and South Africa, has reported £4.6bn ($5.7bn) annual loss largely due to currency depreciation and payment of $808m fine to affected countries where it was involved in corrupt practices. According to a news agency, The Nerve, the motoring company had last month apologized for the corruption case that centered on allegations that the group hired middlemen to broker deals in a number of countries including Nigeria, South Africa and Angola. In 2016, Rolls-Royce and its agent company in Nigeria, PSL Engineering and Control, ordered to supply gas turbines to power plants in the oil states of Bayelsa and Delta, were accused of various projects, especially to Oghareki power plant in Delta that cost $100m but was never completed.

Findings from an investigation conducted by the Guardian and the British Broadcasting Corporation had uncovered leaked documents and testimony from insiders that suggested that Rolls-Royce might have benefited from the use of illicit payments to key officials and politicians to boost profits for years. The Guardian/BBC investigation, called Panorama, revealed that Nigeria, Angola and South Africa were part of the 11 countries the company had hired intermediaries.

The investigation also revealed Rolls Royce hired Fana Hlongwane, who is close to South Africa's ANC government, in 2008 to help broker deals in the country.

Although, Nigeria or South Africa have yet to get any amount from the agreement, the company revealed last month it had agreed to pay £671m to settle corruption cases with the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazilian authorities. The company's Chief Executive, Warren East, took the helm in 2015 and has been tasked with turning around the company. East said, “While we have made a steady start, more remains to be done. The addition of new management and a renewed focus within the business leadership teams, with clear goals and stronger accountabilities, should provide a strong platform for further progress in 2017.” He added he would reveal further plans about the firm's direction later this year.

The consolidated operational performance of Nigeria's three refineries based on their capacity utilization was below 15 per cent in 2016, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said. Nigeria's refineries are the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company located in Delta State, Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State, and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company in Kaduna State.

The facilities got 445,000 barrels of crude oil on a daily basis for the 12-month period, but refined less than 15 per cent of this volume on average. Specifically, the NNPC stated that the combined capacity utilization of the plants from January to December last year was 13.75 per cent. Their worst performance was recorded in February, after they recorded a capacity utilization of 1.72 per cent for the month, the national oil firm said. It stated that the refineries' best operational delivery with respect to crude refining was in October as they posted a capacity utilization of 23.53 per cent.

Analysis of the NNPC's latest report showed that the WRPC was dormant for five months last year as it did not refine or process a drop of crude oil in January, February, July, November and December. Similarly, the KRPC was dormant for six months in 2016; it failed to process any crude oil in February, March, June, July, November and December. Only the PHRC was able to process crude oil for 11 months in 2016. It did not process crude oil in September last year.

The NNPC stated that the total crude processed by the three local refineries for December 2016 was 141,998 metric tonnes (1,041,129 barrels). This, it said, translated to a combined yield efficiency of 82.44 per cent compared to crude processed in November 2016 of 232,768MT (1,706,655 barrels), which translated to a combined yield efficiency of 87.08 per cent. It said, “For the month of December 2016, the three refineries produced 121,555MT of finished petroleum products out of 141,998MT of crude processed at a combined capacity utilization of 7.55 per cent compared to 12.78 per cent combined capacity utilization achieved in the month of November 2016.

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The agrofood&plastprintpack Nigeria 2017 held at the Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, Nigeria from March 28th-30th, 2017. The 3rd international trade show was officially opened under the theme: “ADDING VALUE TO THE MODERNISATION OF THE NIGERIAN AGROFOOD INDUSTRY”. The event is organized by the German trade fair specialists in conjunction with plastprintpack Nigeria. The 2017 event closed on a very positive note as 1,958 visitors discussed their business with 110 exhibitors from 20 countries. The exhibitors came from Austria, Benin, Brazil, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The 3rd International Trade Show on Agriculture, Food, Beverage & Packaging enabled thousands of business meetings between professionals from all over Nigeria and global technology leaders and solution providers.

Great speakers, French live bakery demos, the VDMA Symposium and the record participation of the exhibitors made it an extraordinary event.

The French Pavillion (powered by adepta) and the German Pavillion (supported by VDMA) left a heavy footprint and also Italy and China for the first time both had a remarkable presence.

The CashlessAfrica expo 2017 held at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria from March 22 – 23, 2017. This year's theme for the Cashless Africa Conference was “The Future of Finance.” The expo brings top executives from Fintechs, Banks, regulators, card processors, switch providers, systems and application providers across the globe together. It also showcases case studies on digital financial services, next generation banking, mobile financial services, payments, microfinance and innovations in the financial service sector.

The event comprised the following components: (1) Traditional conference sessions; (2) A “hackathon,” during which teams attempted to create market-ready solutions to financial services challenges; and (3) The “CashlessAfrica Champion Awards.” This years conference focus areas was: The digital bank and evolution in a Competitive Market, The Future of banking, money and payments in Africa, Disruptive technologies and their impact on Financial Services in Africa, Balancing regulation against innovation and Financial inclusion in the digital age.

This conference is organized by MobileMoneyAfrica, which is owned by Go Mobile Nigeria, an online resource assisting with agency banking, mobile financial services, business development and new product management in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. Some speaker's organizations at the event includes: Helix institute, PWC Nigeria, Oradian, Millicom, Voguepay, Bayclays Bank, Musoni, Wallettec, Konga, Redcloud, TransferTo, Chamsmobile, ConnectAfrica, Hormuud Telecoms, Impala pay and M-paya.

New York real estate is soaring, and there's no better proof than One57. One57, formerly known as Carnegie 57 (nicknamed "The Billionaire Building"), is a 75-story super tall skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Upon completion in 2014, it stood at 1,005 feet (306 m) tall, making it the tallest residential building in the city for a few months until 432 Park Avenue was constructed. The building has 92 condominium units on top of a new Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms, which is set to become the flagship Hyatt property.

An undisclosed buyer paid $100.5 million for one of the penthouses in the 1,005-foot-tall residence, shattering the $88 million record set in 2012. Making it the most expensive apartment ever sold in NYC and the first to surpass $100 million. The buyer, listed in the records as P89-90 LLC, bought unit 90 in the One57 building overlooking Central Park. The luxury apartment spans the top two levels of the 306-metre tower; the penthouse has 11,000 square feet, six bedrooms, a steam room, a library, and an indoor movie theater. It sold two days before last years Christmas. Developers Extell Development Co. had originally marketed the apartment for $US98.5 million.

The residents of the penthouse will have access to the amenities in the Park Hyatt hotel, which takes up the first 39 floors of the building. But if they don't want to mix with the commoners, One57 owners can also use their own 20,000-square-foot amenities floor, complete with a pool, gym, library, and theater. The contractor is Lend Lease Project Management & Construction, and the developer is Extell Development Company.

Picture Credit: One57.com

In the Concise Oxford Dictionary, image is described as "the character or reputation of a person or thing as generally perceived". A first impression based on non-verbal communication goes a long way in influencing this perception. Within seconds of meeting you, based on a single observed physical trait or behavior, people will assume to know everything about you (as is explained in the book Social Psychology by H. Andrew Michener, John D. Delamater, and Daniel J. Myers).

Furthermore, according to research by Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, appearance and body language (visual image) accounts for fifty-five percent of an invaluable first impression.

In a 2016 national poll conducted by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College, "appearance" ranked second only to "communication skills" when respondents named qualities most often associated with professionalism. Your visual image says a multitude about you as an individual (your perceived level of intelligence, competence, affability, self-esteem, confidence, power, beliefs and success) and about the organization you represent (its philosophy, culture, and standard of service). You constantly send out silent messages providing clues to both existing and potential clients and colleagues. In short, your visual presentation has consequences.

Kathryn Ricker works in a field that is devoted to assessing people. "One of the concepts we talk about is known as the 'halo effect.' That means that if we know certain positive things about a person, we tend to have a generally positive impression of that person, sometimes even in spite of evidence to the contrary. What I'm realizing is that the halo effect also extends to a person's appearance. I think that is why a positive first visual impression is so important. If someone is nicely dressed and looks well put-together, we have greater confidence in his or her abilities even before he or she has said a word. If that is the case, why not always have your halo looking its shiniest?"

The Relationship Between Appearance and Interview Success Employers are severely irritated by inappropriate dress, mumbling and even poor handshakes by job applicants during interviews. A recent study, conducted by an employment law firm, Peninsula, asked businesses in the United Kingdom what interview habit they found most annoying and found that over a quarter were upset by unsuitable clothing or appearance.

Pamela, a Senior Recruiter for global Banks, believes, "Especially in the financial industry, which tends to be a more conservative environment, what a lot of the younger people don't understand is that we are looking for someone to represent the company. So your appearance is not just representative of you; you will also be representing the company the way we want it to be represented."

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Meghan, a Human Resources Manager adds, "A comprehensive and well designed resume will get you to the phone screening process. An articulate person, who speaks confidently about his or her skill sets, will land an interview. But it is how you are perceived during the interview that will leave the lasting impression."

The Relationship Between Clothing and How you Perceive Yourself Besides being an external cue affecting the response of others toward you, clothing is also an inner cue affecting your selfimage. Feeling good about how you look can make you feel good about yourself, thereby increasing your personal presence.

At some time or the other we have all experienced the emotional high of a successful clothing purchase, and when met with validating compliments and supportive attitudes from colleagues, our overall energy level is given an even bigger boost adding to that "feel good" factor.

The Relationship Between Clothing and Behavior Jackson Lewis, a law firm that specializes in personnel issues, polled more than 1000 human resource executives who had implemented a dress down policy. They reported a thirty percent increase in flirtatious behavior, contributing to an increase in sexual harassment lawsuits.

When you wear more powerful looking clothing (e.g. professional business attire, a suit, darker colors, etc.) and clothing that is appropriate for your profession, it changes your mindset -- switching from "relaxed mode" to "professional mode." This positive change in attitude is reflected in body language and behavior (e.g. better posture, firmer handshake, maintaining eye contact, sticking to business, etc.), giving you greater visual power.

The Relationship Between How You Dress and Your Professional Goals An indifferent professional image (which spells an indifferent attitude) can cost you valuable clients, adversely affecting your professional goals and your organization's bottom line. However, a well-defined and consistent professional image can improve the perception of your professional abilities, which will increase your potential to attract and hold on to clients. When you to aim to bridge gaps between your personal image and corporate image, there is a positive impact on business relationships plus, you increase your ability to build rapport and fit with the team.

Turn over for guides of making your halo looking its shiniest.

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The G650 Landaulet, Mercedes first open-top G-Class off-roader The Mercedes premiered officially at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The open-air off-roader follows the dramatic debut of the Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet last fall and is the first off-roader and second royal ragtop from the swanky sub-brand. Since 2015, over 15,000 Mercedes-Maybachs have been made.

Jaguar and Bremont's new MKII Chronograph After its successful collaboration in 2014, Jaguar and Bremont are back with a new MKII Chronograph timepiece inspired by the Jaguar Lightweight E-Type model. The watch comes with an internal tachymeter dial ring that measures speed.

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Christian Louboutin our-product eye Makeup Range Christian Louboutin has launched a four-product eye collection called Les Yeux Noirs. The line features amplifying mascara, velvet eye definer, brow definer, and ink eyeliner.

Chanel to unveil mini perfumes called the 'Les Exclusifs de Chanel' On 17th February Chanel unveiled a limited edition box of mini perfumes called the 'Les Exclusifs de Chanel'. The box comprises 15 4ml eau de parfums and one eau de cologne.

Bentley New Momentum Perfume It is the third and latest addition to the car manufacturer's masculine fragrance range, after Bentley for Men (2013) and Bentley Infinite (2015). This latest composition is the brainchild of master perfumer Nathalie Lorson.

Hermès upgraded Cape Cod The brand has upgraded the watches to bring out a range exclusively for men. This 'exclusively for men' range comprises four new styles Manufacture, Bicolore, Cadran laque and Bracelet de force.

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Dior's New Poison Girl EDT This eau de toilette boasts of a sugary-sweet scent that is created using notes like Sicilian sweet oranges, Calabrian bitter oranges, neroli, Grasse rose, vanilla, and tonka bean.

Adidas Originals OG NMD sneakers Adidas Originals is relaunched the Original NMD sneakers on popular demand. NMD is the brand's original pair sneakers in a black, red, blue, and white color scheme. The sneakers will be relaunched worldwide on 14th January 2017.

Clinique's new Silk Makeup SPF 15 Clinique has introduced the all-new Super balanced Silk Makeup SPF 15, an oil-free liquid foundation that offers matte ďŹ nishing. With SPF15, once applied, its hydrating properties are said to control natural oils without leaving dry patches.

The Origin 1874 by Louis XIII Intricately handcrafted using crystal by Saint-Louis, this decanter comes with 13 spikes as opposed to the 10 used in today's designs. The stopper of the vessel is uniquely shaped as an upturned mini decanter with spikes. As for the cognac inside, it is the brand's classic blend brimming with notes of honeysuckle, leather, fruits and spices.

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Tiffany & Co. launches new collection: Paloma Picasso The younger daughter of famed artist Pablo Picasso has established herself as a designer in her own right, away from her father's spotlight. Known for her jewelry designs, the style star of the 70s even has an entire collection named after her by Tiffany & Co. This year, the luxury jeweler revisits Picasso's most successful collections, called 'Calife' to produce the Paloma's Melody.

Swarovski Fine Jewelry Launched On Oscars 2017 Red Carpet At the 89th Academy Awards, Swarovski raised a toast to ten sparkling years of association by premiering a fine jewelry collection on the most sensational stage of the 2017 Academy Awards.

Alexander Wang's New Beats by Dr. Dre Studio Wireless Headphone Wang team up for the second time to design a special edition Beats Studio Wireless headphone highlighting the beauty of Dove Gray.

Louis Vuitton's New Poinçon de Genève Watch With the debut of this new timepiece, Louis Vuitton joins the league of watch manufactures that have the Poinçon de Genève, or Geneva Seal, a certification reserved for watch movements made in the Canton of Geneva and bearing the highest levels of finishing and decoration.

Louis Vuitton Monogram Macassar Regatta Steamer Leading the race of style is the Monogram Macassar Regatta Steamer bag which is the most expensive piece in the collection. Boasting a distinctive shape it takes its cue from the original, a laundry bag for sailors, it is designed to fit within the steamer trunks that Louis Vuitton had been producing since its launch in 1854.

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Christian Louboutin Shoepeaks Gold Minaudière Bringing together two iconic So Kate shoes into one seamless objet d'art, this extraordinary sculpture is actually a functional clutch aunting the signature red soles.

Bugaboo by Diesel Rock Collection Rolls Out A Rocking Stroller

Crush by Rihanna Pop star and designer Rihanna's Crush perfume, is the latest in her RiRi line.

The Crush bottle, complements the design of the original RiRi perfume bottle. The elegant lines of the golden bottle converge at the top in an intricately textured, jewelry-inspired cap.

Bugaboo by Diesel Rock, is a complete city stroller that allows parents to explore the urban jungle with ease.. Effortlessly bringing the worlds of parenting and fashion under its hood, it rolls in with an easy-tocarry lightweight bassinet for newborns and a unique seat that grows with the child.

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W

e sat down with Chef Steph Oberholzer, in a candid one on one interview. He is as outspoken as he is talented in the kitchen. His keen eye for detail and focus on the quality of food itself, and the way the ingredients work together to form a seamless partnership are some of the key factors that makes the Wheatbaker Hotel Ikoyi dining experience so exciting.

Chef Steph Oberholzer, is a well-travelled chef with 13 years' cooking experience. He started his career in Scotland under the training of Steven Martin. After which He travelled through Europe as to gain knowledge in different types of cuisine. As a young training chef gaining as much experience and knowledge was a very important step in his career. After Europe he travelled to Australasia and the islands, there he was spoilt in the new cultures and broadened his skills with new development methods, training and cooking methods. From the beautiful fresh seafood from New Zealand to the tropical fruits of Niue island. After spending several years away from his family in South Africa He went back to lecture in a large culinary school. He spent two years as a lecturer and at the same time doing consulting and food development.

His inspiration comes from his late great grandmother and grandfather; they were both in hospitality and he watched them cook as a child. From marmalades to roasts, seeing what a person can do with ingredients was an eye opener for him as a child.

For this issue, he will walk us through the preparation of braised pork belly; this dish has all the textures, avors and more to satisfy your senses.

Method 1.Sprinkle both sides of pork chops with seasoning. Place a large nonstick skillet over high heat until hot; add oil. Add pork chops, and cook 4 minutes on each side or just until done. Remove pork from pan; set aside, and keep warm.

Braised pork belly With Potato rosti, Beetroot, butternut, wasabi macaroon, kiwi and spinach jell, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese and a coffee jus Ingredients Braised Pork Belly Ingredients: 2 KG Slab of pork belly rind on 2 Carrots diced roughly 1 Leek diced roughly 4 Pepper Corns 2 x 340 ml cans dry cider 10 fresh sage leafs Chicken stock to cover Method:

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2.Combine water and remaining ingredients. Add soy sauce mixture to hot pan, and cook over medium-high heat 45 seconds until mixture reduces to 1/4 cup, scraping sides and bottom of pan to remove browned bits. Serve over pork Potato rosti 5 large potatoes, peeled 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more 1 onions, thinly sliced 5 ml distilled white vinegar Freshly ground black pepper Flaky sea salt

Cook to enjoy your company and fulfill your passion, creating dishes is an expression of what you feel, we as chefs imagine food as a passion and trust you will do the same around your kitchen at your home, happy creating and live your food.

1. Start by making a sugar salt cure at a 50/50 ratio and sprinkle generously over both sides of the pork, leave the cure on for up to 4 hours and rinse.

2. Line a deep baking tray with baking paper and place your chopped vegetables at the bottom.

3. Place your pork on top of this and add the rest of the ingredients, ensure the pork is well covered.

4. Cover with another sheet of baking paper and close the top of the tray using tin foil.

5. Braise in the oven at 145 degrees for 3 and a half to 4 hours depending how thick the belly is but the flesh should feel like it would like to fall apart but still be firm.

6. Remove pork belly from hot liquid and place onto a tray with baking paper in between and press with another tray and some weight on top of that in the fridge overnight.

7. This will set your pork to have a uniform flat skin.

8. Cut your pork into 150 gram portions and lightly score the skin, rub a little salt on top and place skin side down in a non-stick frying pan with a brush of oil in it.

9. Cook the pork in the pan skin side down on a low to medium heat till the skin is golden brown and crispy, flip over and place in the oven till hot all the way through and that skin is crunchy Coffee jus 4 (4-ounce) boneless pork loin chops 1 teaspoon blackened seasoning 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 1/4 cup water 1 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium Worcestershire sauce 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 3 tablespoon coffee (powder)

Preparation 1.Parboil potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water just until a paring knife slides into the center with some resistance, 15–20 minutes. Drain; transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and chill uncovered until cold, at least 30 minutes.

2.Place racks in highest and lowest positions in oven; preheat to 425°. Line a tray with parchment; brush with 2 Tbsp. oil.

Toss onions, vinegar, and 1 Tbsp. kosher salt in a large bowl. Let sit until onions are softened, 5–10 minutes (massage gently to speed up process).

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3.Meanwhile, grate parboiled potatoes. Place prepared pans on lower rack and heat 5 minutes.

4.Add potatoes to onion mixture and toss to combine; season with kosher salt and pepper. Divide potato mixture between hot pans and press down as firmly as possible to compact (a thin flexible spatula works well). Place on lower rack and bake until potatoes are very brown around the edges, 45–60 minutes. Remove rösti from oven; let cool slightly.

5.Before serving place the rosti on a hot pan with butter and oil for maximum color and flavor You can add any other elements on the plate as you desire, instead of using the beetroot you can make use of sautéed red cabbage, with some wine to add flavor that will complement the pork as well.

Instead of the butternut you can use paw-paw , orange segments or grilled apple, fruit always goes well with pork as it is a natural sweet flavor and pairs well with the dish.

The two flavored cheeses I have on the dish are for texture as well as for flavor, enjoying this light delight will add to your culinary experience. I leave you with this as cooking is for enjoying, passion and creative exploration.

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A

s the name of the car implies, it is almost 6 meters in length (5.7m to be precise) and provides a look at a potential second body style for the Maybach range. It also debuts a much sleeker and more stylish design than the existing Maybach sedans, incorporating slim LED headlights and taillights and a monstrous chrome-finished front grille.

Unimpeded by having to follow any regulations for road use, Mercedes designers have been given free reign to make the Maybach 6 unlike any car on the market. The elongated hood immediately catches the eye as do the 24-inch wheels, inspired by those that debuted on the IAA Concept in September last year.

It has an electric motor and impressive performance 0-62mph takes fewer than 4 seconds and it will keep accelerating until it reaches a limited 155mph. Relative to the machine's external dimensions, the Mercedes-Maybach seems to have little space for either people or their luggage, but it does include a bespoke bottle chiller designed to carry two bottles of wine, which suggests that wine is the ultimate travel accessory even more important than a set of golf clubs… This upmarket drinks cabinet will set you back around $500,000, according to insideevs.com, that is, should it ever make it to production.

Power for the Mercedes-Maybach 6 comes courtesy of four permanent magnet synchronous electric motors each driving a single wheel. When combined with a battery pack installed into the floor that output 80 kWh, the total drive system equates to around 750 hp. One particularly important element of this electric powertrain is its utilization of a quick-charge function. The German company says that through its 350 kWh charging system, up to 100 km of range can be added to the Maybach 6 in just five minutes of charging. The concept can also be charged via more traditional power outlets or wirelessly, courtesy of a setup using an electromagnetic field. The exterior and powertrain of the concept aren't the only headlines; the interior too is worthy of attention. Most notably, the dashboard, door trim and seats are all connected in a flowing design to create what's dubbed a '360° lounge'. Adding to the vehicle's luxury, numerous wooden accents have been fitted, including elm across the floor area.

“Our glamorous coupé, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, represents the ultimate in contemporary luxury. It is hot and cool”, states Gorden Wagener, Head of Design at Daimler AG “With its intelligent appeal and reduced, technoid look, it perfectly embodies our design philosophy of sensual purity and our pursuit of aerodynamic efficiency.”

Much of it is fantasy at the moment of course, typical of futuristic concept cars. But, if this is where Mercedes is going with its flagship Maybach line, it's going to give Rolls Royce a run for its money and we'll all be better off for it.

T

his article investigates the Causes, Consequences and Policy Responses of the current Nigerian government in putting an end to the Recession. The article begins by examining the interest of the Europeans in Nigeria, with a view to prove that it was and is still indeed purely for economic reasons only. Which laid the foundations for a myriad of problems Nigeria is facing today, but is by no means passing the blame in its entirety to the West. The article concludes that the Recession is a normal business cycle contraction, although a blunt tool, but necessary to readjust the Nigerian economy. This article is divided into two parts. The first section summarizes five “foundational” factors that led to the Recession. The second section presents a quick overview of the actions of two past presidents as well as the current President as it relates to the crisis. Before concluding on the positive aspects of the Recession.

Colonial Mercantilist Policy Mercantilism can be called "imperialism on steroids”. The most powerful European countries between the 16th and 18th centuries espoused the mercantilist trade policy.

This policy sped up the economic move away from the feudal economy and the guild crafts production system. It helped push Europe from a land-based economy to a monetary economy. Economist Adam Smith coined the term mercantile system. Its goal is to enrich and empower the nation and state to the maximum degree, by acquiring and retaining as much economic activity as possible within the nation's borders. Manufacturing and industry, particularly of goods with military applications, were prioritized. Under this policy Colonies send raw materials (harvested by cheap local labor) back to the mother country. The raw materials are turned into manufactured goods in the mother country's factories and are sold back to the colonies at a large profit. Also under this policy the economic efforts and products of a colony must supplement, rather than compete with or undermine, the economic efforts and products of the mother country.

The British economic policy for Africa was founded on this policy during the colonial times and, sadly is still in use today. Today, Europeans makes less than 1% of the population but owns more than 80% of the Nigerian economy. Almost 60 years after the fictitious independence declaration, Nigeria is still controlled by European expatriates, oil companies, Banks, etc. Most of the crude which accounts for over 95% of export earnings is exported and sold back many times the price in its refined state, with little incentive by the multinationals to establish facilities in Nigeria despite Nigeria's market size. Therefore, the coals of Enugu, tin of Jos, hides and skins of Hadejia and Maiduguri, Cotton from Gusau, cocoa and oil palm from Ibadan and Benin were all carted to Europe.

Nigeria itself was amalgamated on the belief that if its peoples were brought to embrace European civilization with its emphasis on law and order its economic resources would be more effectively and thoroughly exploited. It was optimistically and simplistically believed that once the slave trade was suppressed the chaos and anarchy believed to be the bane of life in Africa would disappear and African endeavor would be channeled to the collection of the national produce of the tropical forest for the satisfaction of European needs.

Corruption The World Bank website cites corruption as the single most important obstacle to development. It defines corruption as “the abuse of public office for private gains. Corruption in Nigeria, as it presently manifests can be appropriately termed endemic or systemic. Transparency International has consistently rated Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

During the first and second republics, government officials were in the habit of collecting 10% from contract funds, today it is much worse. The first Republic witnessed unprecedented level of venality by high- ranking politicians. Corrupt practices were also manifested in the manipulation of the electoral process, politicization of the judiciary and resort to false accusation charges to intimidate political opponents of the government. Thus, pervading culture of corruption was one of the reasons given by the armed forces when they sacked elected governments in January 1966 and December 1983. Hence, forever destroying Nigeria's democratic foundations. Corruption in Nigeria became legitimized especially during Babaginda and Abacha regimes (1985-1998). During these regimes, there were high but wasteful spending and nothing to show in terms of physical developments. During this period, the culture of corruption through which Nigerians have come to know, as a settlement syndrome became part of the country's political culture.

The law in Nigeria is meant for the poor as the public officials are immunized from prosecution even if found culpable of corrupt enrichment. Constitution provides protection for state governors and president while still in office from being prosecuted. In the military era, decree No. 11 of 1976 (Public Officers Protection Against False Accusation) for example, was a ploy to prevent alleged fraud against Late General Muritala Muhammad. By implication these categories of public officials are not answerable for their misdeeds as they are favored and protected by law. In 2012, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since independence.

However, some analyst believes that roots of pervasive corruption could be blamed on colonialism itself. Throughout the colonial period, most Nigerians were stuck in ignorance and poverty. A view commonly held during the colonial days was that the colonist's property (cars, houses, farms etc.) is not our property. Thus vandalism and looting of public property was not seen as a crime against society. This view is what has degenerated into the more recent disregard for public property and lack of public trust and concern for public goods as a collective national property. This attitude has also promoted the existence of underground/illegal economy and the possibility of bribes.

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Oil Oil was discovered in 1958 and has since the early 1970s dominated the economy. Today, Nigeria is the largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa and since 1971 a member of OPEC, with an estimated production volume of 2.413 million barrel/day (2005). This makes it the world's sixth largest producer. Since 1960, Nigeria has reaped an estimated US$600 billion in oil revenue. According to Irina Romanova, The sale of this resource would seem to offer attractive opportunities to generate national income and raise living standards but it has proven to be extremely difficult to convert natural resource wealth into broad based improvements in economic performance and human development. The absence of a downstream sector and consequent dependence on oil multinationals and their infrastructure fuelled by corrupt government officials has put Nigeria in a dire situation. In line with the British mercantilist policy Nigeria exports crude and pays heavily for it when refined. With the discovery of oil, the agricultural sector was neglected, leading to an impoverishment of the rural population.

The contribution of agriculture as a percentage of GDP was 63% in 1960, it declined to 34% in 1988, not because the industrial sector increased its share but due to neglect of the agricultural sector. It was therefore not surprising that by 1975, the economy had become a net importer of basic food items. The oil revenues displaced more stable and sustainable revenue flows. For example, as a result of the huge oil revenue flows, Nigeria de-emphasized income taxes as a source of government revenue. Low tax ratios and high consumption expenditures (typically on imported goods) reinforce inflationary tendencies. With regard to expenditure, no use was made of openings for diversifying the economy by previous administrations, enhancing infrastructure or expanding education systems.

There was also the problem of the “Dutch disease” effect of mineral resource production: on the one hand, resource booms tend to cause real exchange rates to rise due to the large inflows of foreign exchange generated by the increased resource exports; on the other hand, labor and capital tend to migrate to the booming resource sector from other productive sectors. Together, these two effects result in higher costs and reduced competitiveness for domestically produced goods and services, thereby reducing agricultural and manufacturing exports.

The Western Banks No banking legislation existed until 1952, British colonial officials established the West African Currency Board in 1912 to help finance the export trade of foreign firms in West Africa and to issue a West African currency convertible to British pounds sterling. But colonial policies in line with mercantilism, barred local investment of reserves, discouraged deposit expansion, precluded discretion for monetary management, and did nothing to train Africans in developing indigenous financial institutions. In 1957 the Colonial Office sponsored a study that resulted in the establishment of a Nigerian central bank and the introduction of a Nigerian currency. The Nigerian pound was on a par with the pound sterling until the British currency's devaluation in 1967. In January 1973 the Naira, exchanged for US$1.52 and in March 1982 it exchanged for N0.67 = US$1. Today the Naira is exchanging for N370 =US$1 (Previously N495 =US$1, January, 2017). None of the major Western bank till date really established in Nigeria. But most of them in conjunction with local banks started fanning the flames of corruption in Nigeria. Corruption became rife in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular because banking institutions in Europe, especially Switzerland, France, Jersey Island, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria and US, among others, started accepting money from Nigerian leaders without questioning its source.

According to the UN and the AU, around $148 billion is stolen from the continent annually by political leaders, multinational corporations, the business elite and civil servants with complicity of banking and property industries in Europe and North America.

What is most surprising is the medias silence on the roles of this bank play in aiding and abating corruption. The enthusiasm with which the Western media, television producers portray Africa as poor, backward, least developed and corrupt is not displayed when they report on the role play by Western institutions in perpetuating the aforementioned. They fail to tell the world that the looted funds that make Africans poor are sitting in their banks. They fail to show the involvement of Western capitalist institutions in fanning the poverty. Corruption involves a giver and recipient, it is always the giver who is reported in the media. In many instances bribes are offered in order to secure contracts, secure official favor or to induce officials in order to influence the out come of a government decision. In other instances people become

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A report, “Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes,” by Global Witness, demanded an end to the acceptance of 'dirty money' by UK banks.

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“The same lax regulation that created the credit crunch has let some of the world's biggest banks facilitate the looting of natural resource wealth from poor countries,” said Gavin Hayman, Global Witness campaigns director. “If resources like oil, gas and minerals are to truly help lift Africa and other poor regions out of poverty, then governments must take responsibility to stop banks doing business with corrupt dictators and their families,” he said.

Without access to the international financial system, it would be much harder for corrupt politicians from the developing world to loot their national treasuries or accept bribes.

By taking money from such customers, British banks are fuelling corruption, entrenching poverty and undermining international

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corrupt because of the existence of favoring conditions as can be seen in most western countries with their banking secrecy laws.

IMF & World Bank The World Bank and the international monetary fund (IMF), were created in 1944 by leaders of the 44 nations at the Bretton woods conference during the end of the Second World War to rebuild the economies of Europe. The IMF and World Bank are far from democratic they both follow a “one dollar, one vote” system. Washington alone has a veto over decisions about the mandates and structure of the organizations. This is because the U.S. voting share is 17.16% in the IMF and 16.41% in the World Bank. Japan holds the next highest voting shares with 6.27% and 7.87% respectively. The World Bank is supposed to be both a bank and a development agency focused on poverty alleviation whereas the IMF is only a financial institution.

The debt crisis in the 1980s gave Washington the opportunity to “blast open” and fully subordinates Third World economies through World Bank-IMF structural adjustment programs (SAPs). To qualify for the loans countries accept certain conditions (structural adjustment).

Reduction of government deficit through cuts in public spending (cost recovery programs); higher interest rates; liberalization of foreign exchange rules and trade (deregulation); rationalization and privatization of public and parastatal companies; deregulation of the economy, for example: liberalization of foreign investment regulations, deregulation of the labor market, e.g. wage 'flexibility', abolishing price controls and food subsidies and a shift from import substitution to export production The Babangida government, which came to power in August 1985 at a time of depressed oil prices, undertook its structural adjustment program, which was originally meant to last for only two years, between 1986 and 1988. The government introduced a second-tier foreign exchange market (SFEM), sold on auction for a near equilibrium price and used for export earnings and import trade requirements. Under SFEM, the naira depreciated 66% to N1=US$0.64 (N1.56=US$1), and declined further in value through July 1987, when the first and second tiers were merged. When adopting the SFEM, Nigeria abolished the ex-factory price controls set by the Prices, Productivity, and Incomes Board, as well as the 30% import surcharge and import licensing system. It reduced its import prohibition list substantially and promoted exports through fiscal and credit incentives and by allowing those selling abroad to retain foreign currency. Although this action opened the way for an IMF agreement and debt rescheduling, the military government declined to use an allocation of Special Drawing Rights on the IMF standby funds. Meanwhile, the naira continued depreciating, especially after the relaxation of fiscal policy early in 1988.

The effect of the SFEM in breaking bottlenecks, together with the slowing of food price increases, dampened inflation in 1986, but the easing of domestic restrictions in 1988 reignited it. Real interest rates were negative, and capital flight and speculative imports resumed.

The Structural adjustment was accompanied by falling real wages, the redistribution of income from urban to rural areas, and reduced health, education, and social spending. The Tax reforms under SAPs (like VAT) placed a greater tax burden on middle and low-income groups while foreign capital received generous tax holidays.

Deregulation of the banking system lead to high interest rates. Elimination of subsidies and prize controls, covered with devaluation lead to price increases and reduced real earnings in the formal and informal sectors. Free movement of foreign exchange allowed foreign companies to repatriate their profits. It also allowed the 'laundering' of 'dirty money' from offshore banking accounts. Cost-recovery programs in the health sector increased the inequality in health care delivery, reduced health coverage and increased the number of people without access to health care. Diseases like cholera, malaria and yellow fever were on the increase. Various NGOs funded by international aid agencies have gradually taken over government functions in the social sector. Cuts in public sector employment thousands of civil servants were retrenched, coupled with bankruptcies of local companies has led to large increases in unemployment.

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A recession is when the economy declines significantly for at least six months with a drop in the following five economic indicators: real GDP, income, employment, manufacturing, and retail sales. In Nigeria, The National Bureau of Statistics reported that in the first Quarter of 2016, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by -0.36% in real terms. This was lower by 2.47 points from growth recorded in the preceding quarter and also lower by 4.32% points from growth recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015, quarter on quarter real GDP slowed by 13.71%. Officially launching Nigeria into a recession. We will begin our analysis by first taking a deeper look at the past most recent administrations

Olusegun Obasanjo When Obasanjo took over office in May 1999, Foreign Reserve was about $4 billion, FDI into Nigeria that year was $1 billion, and Crude oil price as at May 1999 was $24.5, and overall 8 years at an average of $58. Obasanjo privatized most government agencies and companies and the administration racked in billions of dollars from both non-refundable bidding prices and outright purchase. He launched the “GSM”. And increased Nigeria's reserves to $102 (Foreign reserve and Excess Crude Account) Having a large foreign currency reserve is an important indicator of a country's ability to repay foreign debt, for currency defense, and also used for credit ratings which ultimately attracted Foreign Investors. The increased foreign reserve in turn defended the local currency (Naira) and the naira started to appreciate, when Prof. Soludo became governor of Central Bank in 2004, Naira was N147 to a dollar and by the time he was leaving in 2009, the Naira had appreciated to N117 to a dollar.

In 2006, seeing Nigeria's economic progress Standard and Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's started credit ratings on Nigeria. A credit rating is used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the credit worthiness of a country thus having a big impact on the country's borrowing costs and investments through FDI's, Nigeria's S&P credit rating was BB- (stable outlook), by August 2009 S&P moved Nigeria up to B+ (Stable outlook) With a reduced external debt, increased foreign reserve and external earning of 43% of a GDP of $169.5 billion, Nigeria's balance sheet was looking good, and investors flooded Nigeria. The late President Musa Yar'Adua's then increased Nigeria's reserve to an all-time high of $62 billion.

Economically he performed well, but it wasn't all rosy with Obasanjo.

He squandered an opportunity to improve the Nigerian economy by resuscitating the near-dead power sector. He was involved in a $16 Billion dollars power corruption. Parliamentary hearing, which took place between 11 and 12 March, 2008, revealed that Mr. Bernerd Mensen, the Chief Executive Officer of a German firm, Lameyer, was paid N370 million just for a feasibility study on a power station which was expected to generate 2,600 megawatts of electricity. He also confessed that he had never visited the site of the Mambilla Hydro-Electric Power Project in Taraba State. N200million from the sum was spent on building a bungalow at Gembu, about 25kilometers from the Mambilla, apparently to create the impression that work was in progress, but the project was later abandoned. The only headway that seems to have been made so far was the discovery of about 2,500 containers of imported power equipment worth about $5 billion at the Lagos ports. The containers had been abandoned for long and the demurrage generated by the abandoned equipment was been put at over N 4 billion.

Ebele Jonathan When Jonathan assumed office he decreased the Assets (Foreign Reserve), increasing debt (Liabilities) and at the same time External Revenue (Revenue Income) was decreasing which was largely due to insecurity in the North and brazen corruption fuelled by tribalism.

This greatly affected the economy. As the US produced more oil they started cutting down on oil import from Nigeria. Nigeria started to take the hit Amidst the growing believe that the economy was healthy, the economy had been in a steady decline since 2011,

Foreign Direct Investment had been reducing, and most of the companies must have been following the country's balance sheet and security situations, and in-house economists and consultants warning of the dangers ahead.

An analysis done by hearsay in an article titled: “the long and interesting truth”, In 2012 while Nigeria was rebasing its economy, showcasing that it was now the biggest economy in Africa, investors were staying away, by 2012 FDI had reduced from a yearly inflow of $8.841 billion in 2011 down to $7 billion in 2012 by 2013 FDI net inflow had further reduced to $5.6 billion, by 2014 with a foreign reserve of $37.5 billion FDI net inflow further reduced to $4.6 billion, and by 2015 with a foreign reserve of $31.3 billion, FDI net inflow had reduced to $3.1 billion. All time low since 2004. It was simple investors had seen the recession coming.

Foreign Reserve was being depleted, debt was increasing, external earnings was decreasing, the US which is Nigeria's biggest oil customer was now producing oil and buying less quantities from Nigeria. From 2009 to 2015, Nigeria's foreign reserve had reduced by about $31 billion (50%), ECA reduced by about 95% and Foreign Direct Investments net inflows reduced by a marginal of $5.712 billion (65%).

By 2012 Jonathan's government had started borrowing which further compounded Nigeria problems and the country's balance sheet, by the time Jonathan was leaving External Reserve (Assets) had been reduced to $31 billion, Excess Crude Oil Account (Assets) was empty, he had increased Nigeria's debt (Liability) as confirmed by OkonjoIweala by $21.8 billion to reach $63.7 billion, External Earnings as a Percentage of GDP (Revenue Income) was 18%. Excess crude oil sales were diverted into private pockets that eventually to foreign banks. The borrowing of dollars was used for re-current expenditures (salaries and travels) and they also ended up in people's pockets and flooded the economy.

However Jonathan had arguably one of the best economic policy directions compared to previous administrations, which includes: Signing into law the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Bill 2010 (Local Content Bill) which has increased Local Content in the Oil and Gas sector; Nigeria's banking industry was rescued and stabilized by the establishment of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) in the year 2010; Goodluck Jonathan administration was behind the revival of the almost dead automotive industry in Nigeria; He was also behind the Revival of the comatose railway system, he Introduced the Almajiri system of education in the academically disadvantaged Northern parts of the country as well as the Introduction of the cashless policy.

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I President Muhammadu Buhari When Buhari initially came into power he met and compounded an already bad situation just by his inaction or rather a lack of clarity on his policy direction. Stock markets, FDI and commerce rely to a large degree on information. Also Research shows that FDI and stock prices appear to drift after important events. This suggests that investors may react (or overreact) to unobserved stimuli; meaning appearing to do nothing is a stimulus itself. According to Economists, there is an attitude to invest gap between present realities and future expectations. This gap can be greatly influenced by a “perceived” well thought Macro economic and development plan. Such a situation was evidenced just hours after President Trump's most popular speech to date, U.S. equities went through the roof. The Dow Jones industrial average soared above 21,000 for the first time in history, boosting the stock market to nearly $3 trillion.

Before the President Buhari's led government came on board, inflation level was 9%; today, inflation has doubled to more than 18%.

Nigerian economist argue that Nigeria's Forex policy, especially its decision not to adjust the exchange rate in line with the forces of demand and supply, led to acute shortage of foreign currencies in the country. The CBN had kept the exchange rate at N199/dollar for 16 months from February 2015 to June 2016. Some argue that the ban on the 41 items and the resulting scarcity of forex generally have made many companies to visit the parallel market for their forex needs. This, they explain, was the foundation of the huge gap between the official market and parallel market exchange rates. This huge gap, they argue, has created myriad of arbitrage problems that the CBN is struggling to curtail.

Protectionist policies tend to only work in specific economic contexts, which support sufficient local production. For an economy like Nigeria's, that is dependent on imports, protectionism can do more harm than good. Hence, protectionism should be approached with caution and implemented at the appropriate time to avoid retaliation and public back lash. Let us look at the devaluation argument:

Deregulation of the banking system lead to high interest rates. Elimination of subsidies and prize controls, covered with devaluation lead to price increases and reduced real earnings in the formal and informal sectors. Free movement of foreign exchange allowed foreign companies to repatriate their profits. It also allowed the 'laundering' of 'dirty money' from offshore banking accounts. Cost-recovery programs in the health sector increased the inequality in health care delivery, reduced health coverage and increased the number of people without access to health care. Diseases like cholera, malaria and yellow fever were on the increase. Various NGOs funded by international aid agencies have gradually taken over government functions in the social sector. Cuts in public sector employment thousands of civil servants were retrenched, coupled with bankruptcies of local companies has led to large increases in unemployment.

The Devaluation Argument Certainly, devaluations amid crisis can contribute to and are very often associated with significant economic contractions. History is quite clear on this point. Certainly not painlessly, no matter how one proceeds. But the argument for devaluation is that the pain can occur relatively quickly. A big currency depreciation instantly hits consumer purchasing power and reduces wages.

Purchases of foreign goods quickly fall because prices of foreign goods quickly soar. The pace of adjustment will depend on how quickly domestic industries pivot toward import replacement and exporting.

But without devaluation (Absent devaluation), the path is slower. When the party ends, domestic firms and households can no longer afford to buy domestic goods and services, and foreigners aren't interested in buying overpriced goods and labor. So firms go bust and unemployment rises. With lots of unused industrial capacity and crowds of unemployed workers, prices and wages slowly decline. More flexible labor markets with lots of room for productivity growth will adjust faster than stodgier economies. But the pace of adjustment is likely to be slow. You get the steep side of the drop on the way down, and then you get a few years of sideways movement while unemployment drags down wages, and then you get the lift as exports pull the economy back toward potential. The worry, of course, is that the slower route will result in a lot of needless pain: that there are risks to devaluation, but they're likely to be worth the faster adjustment, and that the pain of the slower route might be bad enough that the economy gives up on the hard road and devalues anyway. Or worse; long, grinding depressions have been known to produce nastier things than high unemployment.

So again, the argument is not that when a country faces a balance-of-payments crisis and devalues it somehow gets off scot-free. Rather, it's that adjustment is typically much faster and easier and carries less political economy risk (including the possibility that devaluation may ultimately be necessary anyway).

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The Good side of the Recession Nigerians have being optimistically expecting successive government policies to avoid the unavoidable.

However, economically speaking, at a certain point, the disconnection between reality and expectation becomes too great, and there is a need for a readjustment. Politicians may pretend they can break the “cycle of boom and bust”, but when they try, they postpone the inevitable and probably make things worse. It is the same principle as paying for everything on credit. At the time, one feels prosperous. Yet the day will come when one has to repay the debts. The longer one postpones that day, the worse the debts will be and the harder they will be to repay.

This Recession may in fact be the wake-up call that forces Nigerians to take the necessary measures, that will not only correct and preserve the economic foundations but may turn out to be the making of its fortunes.

Business is Darwinian.

The only problem with the recession as a “readjustment” process is that it can take years and some industry sectors may be left behind by it.

Company profits and productivity fall.

Federal and state governments, with less revenue coming in, cut back on the very programs that might cushion the economic blow, the weakening of the currency, Real Estate and stock prices, which can linger for years. But to see recessions in such exclusively negative terms suggests a misunderstanding of what a recession is.

The great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter thought of recessions the way a naturalist might think of forest fires: periodic purges that burn off dead wood and make room for new growth. It was in recessions that Schumpeter famously termed capitalism's "creative destruction" was at its most ferocious: Lean times sped up the process by which more adaptable companies and new industries pushed aside the less fit. The Nigerian music industry is a great example. Recessions not only cull unhealthy companies, they expose financial gimmickry. They punish groundless optimism and the rampant speculation it feeds. Recessions help to right economies that have lost touch with reality, for Nigeria it is the belief that it can rely on oil revenue alone forever. The recession has reduced inefficiencies, imbalances, and dangerous levels of risk out of the market. It has reduced the trade deficit, and created a window to rebuild infrastructure.

Nigeria imports far more than it exports, creating an imbalance that has worried experts for a generation. But as the economy weakens in a recession, the value of the Naira drops and household budgets shrink, so we buy less from abroad, and the deficit narrows. At the same time, the weak Naira helps our exports, further shrinking the gap. It has provided a chance to buy stock and Real Estate for Nigerians without the resources to make significant investments in boom times.

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Positive policies influenced by the Recession Recovery of Nigeria's USD Billions And Poor borrowing Appetite: The Federal government has taken the decision not to borrow money from The IMF & World Bank. As we have earlier espoused borrowing from these organizations, has no long-term benefit.

Rather it has decided to face alternations source of funds i.e. Asia & corruption. There has also being the enactment of whistleblower law to recover proceeds from corruption.

Nigeria recession has dealt a blow to smuggling hub Benin: Benin is known as a "warehouse state" because it acts as a smuggling hub for goods bound for Nigeria. Import bans and high tariffs in protectionist Nigeria on everything from used cars to cigarettes have encouraged trade across the border with Benin, which maintains low tariffs on goods it imports. But the recession in Nigeria, which began last year, followed by the central bank's decision to keep the naira at an artificially high rate, has choked off dollar supplies through official channels, forcing importers to pay a huge premium on the black market. This has driven up prices for goods paid for in West African CFA francs and crushed cross-border trade.

Import substitution: In line with the government's diversification focus, import substitution measures have been implemented largely across agriculture and manufacturing in an attempt to replicate the success of the cement sector which is now reported as in excess of domestic consumption. Consequently, there have been duties imposed on certain agriculture commodities since 2012, specifically wheat, rice and sugar. This has prompted a state-led push to improve local staple crop production and sustainability. To that end, the government plans Implement Measures to Achieve Self-Sufficiency & Become Net Exporters of certain agricultural Items: rice-2018, tomato paste-2016, wheat-2019. The government also plans to ban all rice imports by the end of 2017, saving some N360bn ($1.9bn) a year.

Fiscal diversification: Fiscal diversification involves increasing tax revenues from non-oil sector to reduce the reliance on oil revenues for financing spending. Oil related receipts continue to dominate budget revenues (80% of total revenue in 2014). Non-oil revenue remained largely unchanged as a share of non-oil GDP at about 3.3% over the past 4 years to 2014. This has occurred despite a flourishing non-oil sector due largely to the existing tax system, which comes across as cumbersome and ambiguous for taxpayers to comply with. Nigeria is a low-taxed economy compared to its peers; we estimate tax to GDP at 8% is the second lowest in Africa and fourth lowest in the world. Compared to an average of 16% for emerging markets and 18% for Sub-Saharan African economies, there is massive room to improve tax receipts by improving compliance and broadening the tax base to include the informal sector which is estimated at 58% of GDP. Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS): The TSA provides one view of the government's account, providing an effective monitoring of receipts and payments thus promoting transparency, accountability and proper cash management. Full implementation commenced at the Federal level since 2015 and it is gradually being extended to the states. Similarly, the IPPIS is aimed at creating a centralized database system for the public service with a single, accurate source of employee information. In terms of impact, the then Finance Minister reported that about N185.4 billion had been saved through the implementation of IPPIS. Recent reports also point to some success in implementation as 60,450 ghost workers were reportedly removed across MDAs. Anti corruption drive: The present government aims to reduce corruption and retrieve embezzled funds through the reorganization of anti-corruption bodies to a singular agency, introduction of a plea bargain system that enables officials to return stolen funds to avoid prosecution and a structural reform programme for the oil and gas sector. Following closely from this are the reforms at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Over the years, there have been unsuccessful attempts to restructure the NNPC. Recently, the government has taken more deliberate steps to reform this institution in view of cost savings that could accrue from running a more efficient public institution.

Agriculture: The most impactful has been the Agriculture Transformation Agenda, which implemented a set of initiatives in 2011 to improve competitiveness in the agriculture sector and reduce reliance on imports. The major accomplishment of this initiative has been the liberation of seed and fertilizer supply and the development of the Staple Crop Processing Zone (SPCZ) as well as the channeling of more financing to the agriculture sector. For this quarter, the agricultural sector grew 4.53%, an astonishing 246% increase from the previous quarter. These figures, if sustained over the next few years, will mark the start of a concerted shift away from oil to non-oil sectors of the economy.

Capital expenditure: Investment in capital expenditure is at a record 30% of GDP compared to 10% or less in previous years. The government says it will complete the on-going Lagos-Kano rail line within two years. It also expects to complete the Calabar-Port Harcourt railway project within the same period. With the inauguration of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line, the rail network is growing.

Petroleum, Chemical And Non-Metallic Mineral Products: The government has designed a comprehensive national oil & gas master plan ('NOGM') as the roadmap for the Petroleum Industry's Development, Diversification, Privatization and Governance. It has also set a deadline to be Self-Sufficient in Refined Petroleum Products & become a Net Exporter, as well as investments across the downstream sector to develop petrochemicals, fertilizers, methanol and consumer products which Nigeria currently imports.

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“Adios gas-powered cars.” That was the reaction of Barclay’s analyst Brian Johnston last month, Tesla Motors had received orders for nearly 200,000 of its Model 3 electric vehicle in less than two days. By nightfall that same day, that order tally had jumped to 276,000.

That’s more than $280 million in zero-cost capital to Tesla. It is by a long shot the fastest growing customer order book in the history of the automobile industry. And for a car that will not even enter production for 18 months with a price tag of $35, 000.

According to Tom Randall, with all good technologies, there comes a time when buying the alternative no longer makes sense. Think smartphones in the past decade; color TVs in the 1970s, or even gasoline cars in the early 20th century. Predicting the timing of these shifts is difficult, but when it happens, the whole world changes. It’s looking like the 2020s will be the decade of the electric car. Battery prices fell 35% last year and are on a trajectory to make unsubsidized electric vehicles as affordable as their gasoline counterparts in the next six years, according to a new analysis of the electric-vehicle market by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). That will be the start of a real mass-market liftoff for electric cars. By 2040, long-range electric cars will cost less than $22,000, according to the projections. 35% of new cars worldwide will have a plug.

This isn’t something oil markets are planning for, and it’s easy to see why. Plug-in cars make up just one-tenth of 1% of the global car market today. They’re a rarity on the streets of most countries and still cost significantly more than similar gasoline burners. OPEC maintains that electric vehicles (EVs) will make up just 1% of cars in 2040. Last year ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance said EVs won’t have a material impact for another 50 years, probably not in his lifetime. But here’s what we know: In the next few years, Tesla, Chevy, and Nissan plan to start selling long-range electric cars in the $30,000 range. Other carmakers and tech companies are investing billions on dozens of new models. By 2020, some of these will cost less and perform better than their gasoline counterparts.

The aim would be to match the success of Tesla’s Model S, which now outsells its competitors in the large luxury class in the U.S. The question then is how much oil demand will these cars displace? And when will the reduced demand be enough to tip the scales and cause the next oil crisis? First we need an estimate for how quickly sales will grow.

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Last year EV sales grew by about 60% worldwide. That’s an interesting number, because it’s also roughly the annual growth rate that Tesla forecasts for sales through 2020, and it’s the same growth rate that helped the Ford Model T cruise past the horse and buggy in the 1910s. For comparison, solar panels are following a similar curve at around 50% growth each year, while LED lightbulb sales are soaring by about 140 percent each year. On the first episode of Bloomberg’s new animated series Sooner Than You Think, they calculated the effect of continued 60% growth. And they found that electric vehicles could displace oil demand of 2 million barrels a day as early as 2023. That would create a glut of oil equivalent to what triggered the 2014 oil crisis.

Analysts View Barclay’s Johnston says the huge recent Tesla’s order numbers, which is more than the monthly sales of General Motors, suggests the tide is turning away from the internal combustion engine. Other analysts agreed. “Tesla has changed the game again,” said Andrea James, an analyst with Dougherty & Co. Alliance Bernstein’s Mark Jones also called it a “game changer”, and so too did Evercore ISI analyst George Galliers. “To us the vehicle is ‘the game changer’ and will likely play a critical role in scientists desire to expedite the auto industry’s transition from internal combustion engine to electric,” This is not just a Tesla thing, as alluring as the brand might be. It is a sign, noted Johnston and the other analysts, that the days of the internal combustion engine are numbered.

Some say it may be over by 2025. The German automaker VW managed to kill the future of the diesel car when it was forced to admit that its emissions claims were completely bogus, a development that forced it and other carmakers to throw all their efforts into electric vehicles. Then there are technology developments and environmental concerns. China and other countries are trying to kick petrol and diesel cars off the road to try to make their cities more livable. China’s BYD tripled EV sales to 150,000 in 2015, and expects that number to double each year for the next three years. India’s roads minister was quoted as saying he wanted all cars to be electric by 2030 Norway intends to do this by 2025, and the Netherlands has said it will ban sales of new petrol cars from that date. And just to add to the mega-themes, Saudi Arabia said it is planning to establish a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund by selling off its state petroleum assets in preparation for a world beyond oil. This, of course, represents a massive disruption to several industries that have dominated world economies and politics over recent decades.

Tesla: Changing The Car Paradigm After almost a decade of teases, promises, and back-ofthe-envelope calculations from journalists and fans the world afar, Tesla Motors has finally unveiled the Model 3, a $35,000 product that aims to bring high-end electric cars to the masses. We’ve had lower-priced EVs before, including the Nissan Leaf, the dowdy Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and the sort-of-kind-of Chevy Volt. What makes the Model 3 special is the Tesla pedigree–which should mean BMW 3 Series-like performance, and certainly does mean striking styling, as is evidenced by the final reveal. The base model car seats five comfortably, and should be good for 0-60 in less than six seconds, CEO Elon Musk says: “At Tesla, we don’t make slow cars. And of course, there will be versions that go much faster.”

Initially sold to ‘environmentalists’ and consumers looking to save on petrol bills, Tesla cars are now sold on looks, features, space and performance. The top of the line Tesla Model S P90D develops 90kW and takes you from 0-100 km in 2.8sec. Yes, that’s faster than the Porsche 911. Some car companies are hedging their bets, trying to adopt existing platforms for the EV; others, like Tesla, are pushing the envelope in design and performance. More change will come. Tesla founder Elon Musk has been in a four-year battle with US regulators as he wants to replace the external side rear mirrors with a camera and in-vehicle display! When this is allowed, there will be one less supplier to deal with! What will happen to the ‘world before midnight’ carmakers? Well they won’t go out of business soon, but they will … eventually.

And when they go, they will take with them most of their supply chain because the electric car does not need fuel tanks and lines, gearboxes, engine control systems, exhausts, emission controls, drive trains, starter motors, timing belts, oil pumps, radiators, etc.

The list is very long. What about the oil and gas establishments, the refineries, engineers, gas station owners, transporters of fuel, the income to Nigeria? It will all be gone. Whilst we won’t see the change occur overnight, it will happen in stages and will leave Nigeria in crisis, if we do not take the current diversification agenda seriously!

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Tony & Kevin Tunde

The fascination with a budget surplus is a relic of the '90s economics. It's a dangerous misconception today

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othing can shake Nigeria's political class from its obsession with a budget surplus not even the current recession. As the collapse in oil prices prompted the central Bank of Nigeria to cut interest rates, a lot of Nigerian economists and finance experts remained under the spell of fiscal prudence. Those who were plunged into red ink promised to get back in the black as quickly as possible. Those who remained on solid ground carried on as if nothing had happened. Conversely, and correctly so, The Minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, said that the current Budget is targeted at the financing of capital projects to address the infrastructure deficit, create jobs and build the platform for optimization of the non-oil economy. Not necessarily a budget surplus. In an interview, she said, “This budget is meant to fund capital projects. We've got lots of projects ready to go. We've got rail projects where we need to pay counterpart funding. We have road projects, we have power projects, we have water resources projects, interior projects, and defense projects. So I've got a huge pile of files waiting for capital spend. That's what this is for” It's been almost 20 years since the 1999–2003 President Olusegun Obasanjo led Cabinet had such belief. The world has changed a lot since then. Economic thinking has evolved. Yet Nigeria's politicians carry on like it is the 1990s, convinced there is a binary relationship between a surplus budget and economic growth. The International Monetary Fund was at one time the intellectual force behind fiscal probity, but lately it has adopted a more nuanced view. New IMF research shows that what matters most is a country's “fiscal space” the amount of debt a jurisdiction can easily finance. Greece, for example, has no fiscal space, nor does Italy or Japan, whose debts exceed the size of their economies.

The argument in favor of a permanent and ongoing budget surplus is also the same argument in favor of austerity and shrinking the state. It is based upon a completely fallacious narrative that equates what is best for managing household finances with what is best for managing a national economy.

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The national economy does not work the same way household finances do It is easy to confuse the way household budgets work with the way national and international economies work. We often and mistakenly think of nations as if they were simply very large households. Because we know that the more a household saves out of current income the better prepared it is for the future, and that the more a household saves the more wealth it accumulates, we assume the same must be true for a whole country. But how savings work at an individual household level and how they work at the level of an entire economy, or the global economy, are very different. What makes a lot of sense at an individual level, such as being prudent and building up a good level of personal savings, is not necessarily good or prudent at the scale of whole economies. At the level of an entire economy savings can be the cause of problems rather than a solution, and a government surplus is actually just another form of national savings.

To understand how something like savings can be so different at the level of an entire economy compared to a single household consider this imaginary scenario. You want to save up some money and so you decide to reduce your spending for several months and stuff the money under your mattress. As your stash of saved money gets bigger you get wealthier. That may make a lot of sense at an individual level but consider what happens if everybody were to do this at once. Everybody simultaneously decides to stop spending a big chunk of their income and instead saves it by stuffing it under their mattress. Suddenly because people everywhere are spending less and saving more the sales of goods across the entire economy drops. As a result businesses start to contract or go bust. This means workers are sacked, causing their spending to drop, causing more businesses to go bust. The economy starts to get smaller. As you can see at the level of the entire economy increasing savings can actually cause a lot of problems. Too much savings can reduce economic activity and reduce wealth.

What a country needs to get wealthier is not more savings but rather more productive investment. To be wealthier, to have more stuff, the real economy has to grow, and growing the economy means growing businesses, and that requires investment. Domestic savings matter, of course, but only because they are one of the ways, and probably the safest, to fund domestic investment. Saving in itself, however, does not create wealth. It is productive investment that creates wealth. Domestic savings simply represent a postponement of consumption.

Why a continuous government budget surplus is a bad idea Since the 'Great Recession' growth has been very low by historical standards, unemployment has been high and levels of investment have remained well below pre-recession levels. The reasons for this are complex, part of the reason is because of the sheer scale of debt and bad debt that had built up inside the financial system prior to the crash which means deleveraging (paying off the debt) is going to take a long while and in the meantime credit remains tight, but another reason why growth has been so low is because the Eurozone and in the UK (together the biggest economic bloc in the world) have been committed to austerity and to containing, and actually shrinking, public expenditure.

So why has austerity failed? Because the whole premise behind it—that governments should strive to run balanced budgets—is false. And it's easy to explain why with a simple thought experiment. Divide a country into two sectors: the private sector and the government sector (ignoring the external trade sector for now). in order for the economy to work at full capacity, and therefore to grow and for unemployment to fall, the private sector and the government sector between them has to buy the entire output of the economy.

In a balanced economy private sector spending and government spending will pay for 100% of goods produced and thus allow the economy to operate at full capacity

Imagine that the government decides to run a surplus so that government taxes on the private sector exceed the money spent by the government. What is happening is that the government is taking money from the private sector, in the form of taxes, and – to use the metaphor from the earlier description of savings stuffing it under the mattress. A government budget surplus is just another form of savings so if a government chooses to run a surplus over time it is actually raising the national rate of savings, which in turn contracts demand in the economy.

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If the government runs a surplus it is taking demand out of the economy - 'stuffing money under the mattress' and unless extra demand can be found from elsewhere the economy will contract

Where is the private sector going to get the money needed to finance the government surplus? It could run down its existing stock of money, but that means a shrinking private sector—which is the opposite of why governments choose to run surpluses, since they believe that running a surplus is “good economic management”.

So for the economy to continue to operate at full capacity while running a surplus, the private sector has to somehow produce not only enough money to finance the government surplus, but also enough to allow the economy to grow at the same time. How can it do this?

Leaving foreign trade out of the equation for the moment there is only one method: the private sector has to borrow money from the financial system. So for the government to run a surplus, and for the private non-bank sector to grow at the same time, the banking sector has to run a deficit meaning that new lending (money going out of the banking sector) has to exceed loan repayments and interest (money coming into the banking sector). In other words whilst a government surplus exists, and if the economy is to grow and not contract, there has to be a continuous flow of new credit (matching the size of the 'missing demand removed by the surplus) from the financial system into the private sector. This means that for the government to run a continuous surplus without shrinking the economy private sector debt has to also grow continuously.

When the government runs a surplus in order to sustain demand and keep the economy running at full capacity the private sector must continually borrow money creating ever-growing debt

This situation is obviously not sustainable forever. In order for the economy to grow the private sector the part of the economy that produces GDP is forced by the government surplus to grow its cumulative indebtedness to the banks. In other words, running a government surplus in not a “good economic management”. Instead, it is a way to set up a future economic crisis when the ever increasing quantity of debt reaches a size that means the private sector can longer sustain debt repayments and the private sector has to stop borrowing.

When the private sector borrowing slows or stops what happen? At some point the mountain of growing debt, which is being continuously increased by the continuing government budget surplus, reaches the limits of what the private sector can sustain, debts cannot be repaid when due and interest on loans can no longer be paid. At that point private sector borrowing shrinks, growth slows, the economy contracts and there is a debt-fuelled recession. Faced with a recession the government can of course shrink the surplus or even go into deficit but its previous policy of running a surplus has actually made the economy unstable, it has actually caused, and deepened, a damaging debt fuelled recession. And the more debt that has built up the deeper the recession will be and the longer the recovery will take.

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Where does money the banks lend come from?

Where does the banking system find all this money to lend out as private debt? The neo-classical school of economics views banks and the financial system in general as basically just an intermediary, merely connecting savers with investors.

This view of banks as merely financial intermediaries is common in the media and amongst politicians. In this view banks collect up savings and then lend a proportion as loans whilst keeping a proportion as reserves, and if they are prudent, don't lend too recklessly and get their calculations right their reserves will be large enough to cope with any situation that might arise. This is actually not really how most banks operate. In fact most banks create money out of thin air. They create it by just typing figures into their computers. When a bank makes a loan or gives a customer an overdraft facility what the bank actually does is change entries in their computerized accounts system and this creates new money which in turn increases the supply of money in the economy. The total quantity of money created in the economy is not planned but is the result of the aggregate behavior of the banking system. Governments and the central bank of Nigeria, under the modern liberalized and unregulated financial system, only have very weak and indirect tools for managing the process and scale of money creation.

It is important to realize that as the banks create new money, they are also creating new credit and loans, which means they are also increasing debt levels. So under the modern financial system there is no regulated limit to how much debt the banking system can create and gigantic credit/debt booms are possible, this is what happened before the 2008 crisis when a huge global credit bubble inflated. And a bust follows every boom or bubble. The bad debt appears sound right up until the eruption of the crisis at which point it is transmuted into bad debt as asset prices crash.

Running a trade surplus to compensate for a budget surplus The only way that a prolonged government budget surplus and austerity can avoid shrinking the economy is if the external trade balance which we've ignored till now is in surplus, which obviously is not the case with Nigeria. If a government insists on running a persistent budget surplus it is removing demand from the domestic economy, and if the economy is to continue to operate at full capacity and not contract, the only alternative to using domestic debt to sustain demand is to import demand from abroad. That is what happens when a country sells exports, it is utilizing demand from other countries in order to sell part of its GDP, and if it is running a trade surplus then that means it is selling more abroad than it is buying abroad which means the trade surplus is acting to import extra demand into the domestic economy.

Running a permanent budget surplus and then using exports and a trade surplus to make up for the resulting missing demand in the economy is almost as risky as coping by running up private debt because the system only works so long as other countries are willing and able to absorb the exports and continue to run a trade deficit. Depending on a permanent and significant trade surplus to balance the economy is risky because other countries could, out of choice or because their own economies are in trouble, just stop running a trade deficit and the market for the surplus countries exports would dry and their economies would shrink. The large trade surpluses created by countries such as Germany and China, and the matching deficits in countries like the USA and the UK, are a very significant factor in creating instability in the global economy and were a key cause of the 2008 crisis.

Conclusion: This is not just a hypothetical exercise: it is what austerity in Europe has achieved. Insisting on a government surplus while the private sector is reducing its debts can only work if the economy shrinks. And the economies of Spain and Greece in particular have shrunk as both government surpluses and private sector deleveraging have taken money out of the economy. In contrast, government deficits and net lending in America are injecting money into the economy, enabling it to grow.

Running a permanent surplus is a bad idea because it results in either, or both, rising private debt and a shrinking economy. Running a permanent surplus actually destabilizes the economy and it is therefore anything but prudent.

Nigeria doesn't have a Balance of Payments problem per say. Nigeria has a fiscal problem, which is that its major revenue source has lost so much of its value. What Nigeria needs is to increase investments in the non-oil sectors. As long as the debt is manageable, economic growth should be the priority. An expanding economy will reduce the debt burden organically.

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Every business wants to attract more clients. But it's even more important to set your sights on attracting high-end clients.

For many financial advisors, the goal is to find clients with assets between ₦100 million and ₦500 million, which is somewhat of a sweet spot. But many older high-net-worth individuals are already set in their ways; they live by the motto “If it isn't broke, don't fix it” — even if it's broke.

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new generation has emerged following the baby-boomers. These young entrepreneurs are a unique bunch who need wealth management much earlier in life than the Nigerian industry is used to. So what are some things to pay attention to and how can wealth managers address this issue? The upcoming generation is very different from the previous generation.

There is an attitudinal shift. From a younger age they are pushing to get ahead. Also since the under-45s have grown up with technology featuring significantly in their professional lives, if these tools cannot be accessed in a wealth management context, there will be challenges.

They may have a greater appetite for risk. This generation would be looking to invest in hedge funds and commodities, and wants more exposure to global investments to fulfill their greater risk appetite. They also want their managers to be more proactive and offer them new ideas. Wealth managers have to be prepared to address these needs, otherwise they may miss out on attracting the new generation of high net worth (HNW) clients who will soon dominate the market.

The new generation of wealth management customers wants to get richer faster. The younger generation demands more transparency so both the services and communication need to be improved. They want the ability to log on the Internet and see how much they pay and what they own. Stuart Rutherford, research director at Ledbury Research, suggested that although there may be complications in servicing the under-45s because of generational differences, connecting with them would be well rewarded. He says the key lies in personal relationships.

'Given the demands of their time, flexible servicing options are a must. A strong online offering or smartphone applications will help cater to this need, but don't fall in to the trap of assuming that younger clients want to do everything online,' he said.Size Isn't Everything, Service Is the larger advisory firms may be better able to cater to the needs of the new generation of ultra-high-networth investors than smaller, boutique firms, because they have a variety of departments that they can draw on when catering to their clients' needs. But bigger doesn't always mean better. What's more important to this new wealthy generation is the services these firms are able to offer and the access they can provide to wealth management solutions.

These days, clients are also demanding more advice-driven relationships with their wealth advisors, and they want more risk management counseling. The current financial crisis we are experiencing in Nigeria has made many ultra high-net-worth clients more focused on preserving their wealth than creating more of it. Nonetheless, they are still opportunistic when it comes to investing. In response, some firms have focused on creating investment models that are both quick to respond to new trends and developments in the market and that also meet the needs of the firm's most sophisticated clients.

Having a target demographic is a good idea, but you don't want to close any doors. The no. 1 goal should always be to act in your client's best interest. This alone will lead to the most long-term business. So how do you get the ball rolling?

Build Your Network Wealthy customers tend to buy services from people they know or businesses that have been recommended to them. So, get out there and start planting the seed by attending charity dinners, golf tournaments, and the like. Chatting with people and being seen at these types of events will build your trust and credibility. Think of networking as a long-term investment, rather than a short-term project. You may not see results immediately, but it can pay off months or even years into the future.

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Let Price Reflect the Quality Providing economical or budget-friendly solutions is great, but if a business wants to appear thoroughly competitive and professional, the price it charges should always reflect quality like no other. Every marketing expert says this: “High end clients do not care much for cheap provisions they do not trust them.”

If the business is using prime equipment or technology and has the best professionals or experts in the business, in the mind of the wealthy and powerful, there's no reason for the products or services to be cheap.

Establish a Top Quality Brand Mahatma Gandhi once said, “It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.” It is the quality that will attract high-end clients too. It's the small attention to details that they notice. Things like a well-designed site, quality photos, even the quality of the paper on your printed materials are all very important details.

Use Social Networking Using Facebook Inc. (FB), LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD), and Twitter Inc. (TWTR) to market yourself as an expert and find potential clients isn't as effective as often advertised, but any financial advisor not using these tools will appear archaic or not up to date with today's technology. That's a turn-off to young investors, especially.

Provide Special Perks for Premium Clients Put a lot of thought into the bonuses and special privileges for big accounts holders. These perks are great manifestations of the business's fine taste and effort to take care of big money clients.

The key is to add things of high-perceived value, which acts as a “sandwich” to your main offer. Think of your main product as the “meat” of the sandwich. To complete your sandwich, you want to include bonuses that become the “bread” of your sandwich — one for below your meat, and another that goes above it. The “bread on the bottom” is a bonus that addresses something that may be preventing your ideal client from using your service. The “bread on the top” is a bonus that you create related to your main offer that your clients use after you deliver it, to enhance the results.

Offer Consistent and Superior “VIP” Customer Service The kind of clients who are willing to pay top dollar are used to being treated extremely well. Customer support or service is a clear reflection of quality operations; be classy, eloquent and consistently ready to help because high-end clients are used to being put first they do not like to wait.

A famous quote by Sam Walton reads, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” And since they have the resources to pay for any service provider, no matter how high the charges are, it's a big advantage to provide them the support or services when they need and want them to get them to stay.

Do your research so you can customize your interactions to that client. When you're talking to an affluent client, they should feel as if they're your first priority. They should never feel rushed to finish a transaction or pressured to sign on the dotted line.

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It is very difficult for a CEO to get objective feedback from anyone within his or her organization. For this reason, it is critical that the board whose primary role is to provide oversight and assistance to the CEO provide a clear feedback mechanism.

By Simone P. Joyaux

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any boards don't know how to do this. The reason most boards are not particularly strong in giving formal feedback is because there is no clear agreement on what the CEO should actually be doing. While everyone agrees he or she should deliver a return to shareholders, the next level of detail is usually missing. The trend towards a more diverse board composition often means few board members have experience in the chief executive role; they may not have even given much thought to the question of what the CEO's job really is versus what others in the organization should handle.

It should normally include a mix of qualitative and quantitative metrics when evaluating a CEO's performance. The top five most common primary categories for evaluating a CEO's performance are financial performance, Strategy development/execution, Operating performance, Leadership skills, and Succession planning/internal talent development.

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Why conduct an appraisal?

The board and the CEO share the responsibility of ensuring that the organization meets its objectives. The board's expectations of the CEO's performance should be communicated to the CEO in advance that is, in the CEO's letter of appointment or employment contract and thereafter progressively as the prioritization or emphasis of those expectations change in response to the changing dynamic environment and circumstances of the organization.

The benefits of evaluating the CEO include: Promotion of good CEO and board relations; Clarification of the strategic direction and to ensure that the board and CEO are moving in the same direction; Provision of early warnings of potential problems; To focus the CEO's attention on the CEO's accountability for performance; Encouragement of the development of the CEO's skills and attributes.

However, a poorly done performance appraisal can demotivate and cause disharmony between the board and CEO. Care should be taken to ensure that the appraisal does not become a governance box-ticking exercise.

CEO performance appraisal process A committee or ad hoc task for of the Board of Directors manages the performance appraisal process of the CEO and conducts the performance appraisal interview. Typically, the Chair of the Board establishes this task force or committee. Considerations for the task force include: experience with the CEO including chairing a committee, working on a project; someone with HR expertise. Oftentimes the Board Chair serves on the task. It's also useful to include the incoming Board chair, if that person has been identified.

To assure continuity, at least two members of the task force who participated in the immediate prior year review should participate in the process in the subsequent year. To assure new perspective, at least two of the members of the task force should change every year or two.

The task force must remember that it works on behalf of the Board. The task force can neither assume nor can the Board delegate its authority regarding the CEO. The total Board serves as the evaluator and final arbiter of any issues related to performance of the Executive Director.

Task force responsibilities Draft and secure Board approval for the CEO job description. Design the CEO Performance Appraisal Process, including the various tools. Then recommend to the Board for discussion and action. The Board formally approves the process and tools.

Initiate the formal Performance Appraisal Process, typically 2 – 3 months prior to the start of the new fiscal year. This time period allows completion of the appraisal process, format review and action by the Board of Directors, meeting with the CEO, and then budget action.

Recommend a merit increase to the Board in concert with the Finance Committee following the annual performance appraisal.

Review and endorse the CEO's Annual Goals and Professional Development Plan and inform the full BoaBased on periodic compensation analyses, recommend (in concert with the Finance Committee) a salary and benefits adjustment to the Board for action.

Regularly review the job description, any relevant policies, and the appraisal process and recommend enhancements for review and action by the Board as necessary.

Steps in the CEO performance appraisal process Task Force reviews Performance Appraisal Process, informs the Board of the process start, and invites Board members to provide any comments to the task force.

CEO completes same tool and submits to task force.

Task force meets and conducts appraisal process, comparing results to CEO Self-appraisal.

Task force prepares final forms and then drafts a cover memo for Board review and action. The task force memo summarizes strengths and weaknesses, goals, improvement and development plans, and recommends the overall performance status.

The task force sends the confidential memo to each Board member and convenes an executive session of the Board to discuss the results and recommendations. The Board discusses the appraisal memo and merit recommendation and makes changes as it desires.

The Board then acts and minutes reflect action and are filed in the permanent record.

The task force (or a representative thereof) then meets with the CEO to discuss the results of the appraisal process, and the resulting Board decision. The CEO comments on the Goals for the New Year, may suggest modifications, and then helps outline the Performance Improvement and Development Plans.

Performance appraisal ratings Exceeds expectations – The individual is making an exceptional, significant contribution to the Organization. This person constantly accepts responsibilities beyond those of the job held and continuously exceeds expectations regarding completion of work assignments. There are few areas regarding performance of job responsibilities in which she/he could improve.

Meets expectations – The individual is a steady, consistent, dependable performer and carries out duties in a fully responsible and effective manner. Meets and occasionally exceeds expectations regarding job responsibilities and completion of work assignments.

Even though present performance is acceptable, there may be areas regarding performance of job responsibilities in which the person should improve.

Needs improvement – The individual falls below standards or expectations. It is expected that with the appropriate improvement plan, performance will reach a fully satisfactory level within a specified time period.

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Built by convict labor in Sydney Cove, bustling Circular Quay is now home to the city's main ferry terminal. Thousands of commuters flood the area at peak hours, cafés abound, and street performers entertain locals and visitors along the sunny walkways. For tourists, this is a launching point for the popular harbor cruises, one of the best ways to appreciate Sydney's sparkling waterfront setting

One of the most spectacular walks and coastlines you could hope to see, this route takes in some of Sydney's most iconic beaches. This 6km walk features stunning views of cliffs, bays and rock pools and passes the beaches of Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly and Gordon's Bay.

Just a short walk separates two of Sydney's loveliest churches across Hyde Park. St Mary's is a prime example of English Neo-Gothic style with some interesting local touches in its crypt (free tours after Sunday Mass), while the elegant St James' was designed by a convict architect, James Greenway.

A newer addition to Sydney's art scene, The White Rabbit Collection has one of the largest collections of contemporary Chinese art in the world. The teahouse downstairs is a spot of zen in the city. Entry is free. Address: 30 Balfour Street, Chippendale NSW 2008

These weekly markets are found in the laneways of the Rocks every Saturday and Sunday. Wander down to the Rocks on any weekend day and you'll find 200 stalls stretching from George Street to Playfair Street and Jack Mundey Place selling arts and crafts, locally manufactured clothing, handmade jewellery and many gifts and trinkets MARKET DIGEST NIGERIA

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One of the most well recognized landmarks in Sydney; the Opera House is an internationally recognized Australian icon and is one of the most popular attractions in Sydney city.

Located on the edge of the harbour, the Sydney Opera House is a stunning tourist attraction, architectural marvel, historically significant landmark and home to some of Sydney's best culture and theatre.

You cannot beat the serenity of the city and Sydney Harbour views from the Botanical Gardens. Spending half a day in the Gardens is a relaxing and free way to enjoy one of Sydney's top spots. These beautifully kept and appointed gardens have everything from succulents to herbs, as well as a tropical greenhouse.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a vital part of the city's downtown skyline. It is an iconic structure on a beautiful harbour with breathtaking views at any time of day or night. Climb it, walk it, photograph it or just stand back and admire it. The bridge is also a key part of Sydney's New Year's celebrations, taking Centre stage of the fireworks extravaganza based around its structure.

With two locations in the heart of Sydney, Paddy's Market is quickly becoming a must-visit for visitors to Sydney. The Haymarket market near Chinatown has a flea market vibe with clothes, souvenirs, jewellery, flowers and more. The Flemington Paddy's Market is the place to go for local produce.

Located in the Domain and overlooking the Royal Botanical Gardens, why not check out Government House, which is the most sophisticated example of a Gothic Revival building in NSW. The House is open Friday – Sunday 10.30am-3.00pm and on public holidays, with viewing by guided tour only.

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ccording to Melanie Lieberman of Travelt & Leisure, Depending on where you're from, your passport can say a lot about your country. Travelers don't have a lot of say in how their passports look. It's hard to take a flattering picture, you can't choose which inspiration quotes frame your stamped pages, and you can't choose the color of your passport cover. Passports only come in shades of red, blue, green, and black. Somewhat surprisingly, the color of your passport follows no strict system of country categorization though that's not to say the colors are totally random, either.

“Most passports in the world are based on blue and red primary colors,” said Passports Index Vice President of Marketing Hrant Boghossian, though there's an enormous degree of variation in hues. And while geography, politics, and even religion come into play when a country selects its passport cover, there are no guidelines or regulations dictating the color of these national documents. So what can we infer about passport color? Boghossian says it's a matter of national identity.

Red Passports Burgundy passports are used by members of the European Union (sans Croatia), and countries interested in joining (think: Turkey) have changed their passport colors to match. The Economist called this a “branding exercise.” The Andean Community (also known for past EU-ambitions) of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru also has burgundy passports. The Swiss passport, in effortless and famously Swiss-fashion, matches their flag.

Blue Passports Caribbean, or Caricom states, typically use blue, though it's common in the “New World,” as well. The customs union of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguya, Uruguay, and Venezuela, known as Mercosur, all boast blue passports (except Venezuela, which still sports a red passport from its time in the Andean Community) The United States' passport, however, only became navy blue in 1976 to match the shade found in the American Flag. Beforethat? The first travel documents in the U.S. were red. Green passports were used in the 1930s, followed by burgundy ones AND black passports in the 1970s.”

Black Passports Here's another, far more practical, interpretation for selecting passport colors. Dark colors (even deep shades of blue and red) show less dirt and tend to look more official. Examples include the Republic of Botswana, Zambia, and New Zealand though for the latter; black is also considered one of the country's national colors.

Green Passports Most Islamic states use green passports because of the importance of the color in their religion. Variations of the green color are also used by members of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). The ECOWAS itself does not issue passports, but the passports issued by its 15 members share certain design features. These include the green colored cover for ordinary passports, blue colored cover for service passports, and burgundy colored cover for diplomatic passports.

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There are 44 countries in the world Nigerians can travel to without a visa or get a visa on arrival. When former President Goodluck Jonathan launched the new 64 page e-passports, the presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati said:“ The new 64-page e-passport helps frequent travellers, its gender friendly, forestalls identity theft, cheaper for the aged and low-income earners, conforms with international best practices.� See the Visa-Free Countries Below: 1. Bangladesh (Visa on arrival) 2. Barbados (Visa free for 6 months) 3. Benin Republic (Visa free) 4. Burkina Faso (Visa free) 5. Burundi (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 6. Cameroon (Visa free) 7. Cape Verde (Visa on arrival) 8. Chad (Visa free) 9. Comoros Island (Visa on arrival) 10. Cote d'Ivoire (Visa free) 11.

Djibouti (Visa on arrival) 12. Dominican (Visa free for 21 days) 13. Fiji Island (Visa free for 4 months) 14. Gambia (Visa free for 90 days) 15. Georgia (Visa on arrival) 16. Ghana (Visa free) 17. Guinea (Visa free) 18. Guinea Bissau (Visa free for 90 days) 19. Haiti (Visa free for 90 days) 20. Iran (Visa on arrival) 21. Kenya (Visa on arrival for 90 days) 22. Liberia (Visa free) 23. Madagascar (Visa on arrival for 90 days) 24. Maldives (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 25. Mali (Visa free) 26. Mauritania (Visa on arrival) 27. Mauritius (Visa free for 90 days) 28. Micronesia (Visa free for 30 days) 29. Mozambique (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 30. Nauru (Visa on arrival) 31. Niger Republic (Visa free) 32. Palau (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 33. Samoa (Visa on arrival for 60 days ) 34. Senegal (Visa free ) 35. Seychelles (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 36. Sierra Leone (Visa free) 37. Somalia (Visa on arrival) 38. Sri Lanka (Electronic travel authorization) 39.Tanzania (Visa on arrival) 40. Timor-Leste (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 41. Togo (Visa free) 42. Tuvalu (Visa on arrival for 30 days) 43. Uganda (Visa on arrival) 44. Vanuatu (Visa free for 30 days) A passport from the United States allows its citizens free access to well over 100 other countries. But not all travelers have such an overwhelming spread of choices: Residents of Iraq, for example, can access only 31 countries with their passports. Venturing away from Afghanistan? Your options dwindle to 28 countries, according to the infographic below. This infographic offers a glimpse into the power of the world's passports ranked by the travel freedom a passport holder enjoys.

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The “Real McCoy” McCoy, Elijah (1843-1929) "The real McCoy" is an idiom and metaphor used in much of the English-speaking world to mean "the real thing" or "the genuine article", or to describe any instrument or process that is flawless in quality and performance. The phrase has been the subject of numerous false etymologies. The idiom actually originated from a 19th century African-American inventor best known for inventing lubrication devices used to make trains travel more efficient.

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lijah J. McCoy was born on May 2, 1844 and died on October 10, 1929; he was a Canadian-American inventor and engineer, he was notable for his 57 U.S. patents, most having to do with the lubrication of steam engines. Born free in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, to George and Mildred McCoy. His parents were fugitive slaves who had escaped from Kentucky to Canada via helpers through the Underground Railroad. In 1847, the family returned to the US, settling in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He had eleven siblings. Once the McCoy family settled in Canada, they were extremely poor. Nonetheless they saved money for their son to get an education. When Elijah was 15 years old, he was sent to a boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland to study mechanical engineering.

Career Once he returned to the United States, McCoy had a difficult time in finding a job because of his race despite his numerous credentials. He spent many long and frustrating months searching for a job in engineering before finally resigning himself to the menial job of a railroad fireman. In those days, Klein noted, “Engineering was regarded as white men's work.”

At the Michigan Central Railroad he shoveled coal and lubricated engine parts with a handheld oil can, when he realized that there must be a better, more efficient way of delivering oil to the vital gears, screws, and cylinders that kept the mighty locomotive engine running. He wondered if a mechanical device existed that could automatically drip the proper amount of oil into the moving parts of the engine whenever and wherever needed so that a train would no longer have to be stopped every few miles to be manually lubricated.

From this, he became interested in the challenges of self-lubrication for machines and began to test various ideas for automatic lubrication in his homebased machine shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan. At the age of twenty-six, he sold half interest in his patents to finance the McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit. The Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company opened in 1870 in Detroit. On July 2, 1872, McCoy had his first patent guaranteed invention, the “lubricator cup.”

The automatic lubricator The automatic lubricator was a metal or glass drip cup, which released a trickle of lubricant. The mechanism proved valuable to the industry because it allowed lubrication to take place on slides, valves, pumps, brakes, levers, and cylinders while an engine was in motion, thereby silencing noisy parts, stopping wasteful friction, and avoiding loss of time and money from idle machinery. Other innovations made lubrication cleaner, less wasteful, and applicable to all weights of lubricants, including graphite. These lubricating dispensers were widely used on ocean liners, steamships, locomotives, MARKET DIGEST NIGERIA

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IMAGES Picture credit: Wikimedia

and factory engines. This invention also earned McCoy worldwide recognition and created a new phrase, “Real McCoy” to describe any instrument or process that is flawless in quality and performance.

Not satisfied with his first creation, McCoy used the proceeds from his first patent to develop a sophisticated self-lubricator containing a stopcock, which times the application of oil to metal parts. Later modifications netted him over fifty patents for the same concept and for steam and air brakes for locomotives. He also branched out with the invention of the lawn sprinkler, vehicle tire, buggy top support, scaffold support, tire treads, and ironing table and began lecturing and consulting for the Michigan Central Railroad and other mechanical engineering firms.

Legend has it that prospective buyers, wary of purchasing machinery with an inferior lubrication system, would ask, “Is it the real McCoy?” before agreeing to the sale. Thus, wrote Klein in The Hidden Contributors, “a new expression became part of our language, as the 'Real McCoy' came to mean whatever was the best and genuine article as applied to all things.”

Marriage and family McCoy married Ann Elizabeth Stewart in 1868; she died four years later. He married for the second time in 1873 to Mary Eleanor Delaney. The couple moved to Detroit when McCoy found work there. Mary McCoy helped found the Phillis Wheatley Home for Aged Colored Men in 1898. Elijah McCoy died in the Eloise Infirmary in Nankin Township, now Westland, Michigan, on October 10, 1929, at the age of 85, after suffering injuries from a car accident seven years earlier in which his wife Mary died. He was buried at Detroit Memorial Park East in Warren, Michigan.

Recognition Because of his race, He was often the victim of ostracism particularly when the party inviting him to speak, conduct seminars, or consult discovered his color, rejected him at the door. Others cancelled orders for lubricating devices made and distributed by a black man. Historians till date have still not agreed on the importance of McCoy's contribution to the field of lubrication. He is credited in some biographical sketches with revolutionizing the railroad or machine industries with his devices.

Early twentieth-century lubrication literature barely mentions him; for example, his name is absent from E. L. Ahrons Lubrication of Locomotives (1922), which does identify several other early pioneers and companies of the field. Yet, as Wendy Towle pointed out in The Real McCoy: The Life of an African-American Inventor, McCoy's legacy of genius “lives on in American technology and innovation.” Versions of his original lubricating cup are still used in factories, in mining machinery, in construction equipment, in naval boats, and even in space exploration vehicles.

After the turn of the century, he attracted notice among his black contemporaries. Booker T. Washington in Story of the Negro (1909) recognized him as having produced more patents than any other black inventor up to that time. “McCoy's invention was a small thing,” wrote Aaron E. Klein in The Hidden Contributors: Black Scientists and Inventors in America, “but it sped up the railroads, and faster railroad deliveries spurred the economic growth of a nation.”

In 1975, 46 years after his death, the city of Detroit honored his life and work by placing a historic marker at the site of his home and by naming a nearby street Elijah McCoy Drive. McCoy, Klein wrote in The Hidden Contributors, “never became very well known during his lifetime. Most of the men who insisted on the 'Real McCoy' may indeed have been factory owners or railroad owners who discriminated against blacks in employment, and who never knew that the perfection they sought was the product of the genius of a black man.”

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Arinola Adeniyi (Ms) is a Corporate Wellness Coach & the Spa Director of Venivici Health Club & Urban Spa. She's doing what a lot of us dream of doing, in running her own brand and selling her own quality service. I'm thrilled she let us pick her brain about what it's like to be a true professional in the wellness and spa business.

Madam, what is your Background?

I

have a BSc (Hons) in Economics from The University of Ife and an MBA from University of Lagos; I embarked on my Banking Career, which

spanned 17 years. I was an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, and was also the Secretary to the Association of

Professionals Women Bankers for several years and was 2nd Vice Chairman up till 2002. I left Banking as a Deputy General Manager to

pursue my vision, Venivici Health Club and Urban Spa full time in 2002.

I am now a Corporate Wellness Coach, Diet & Nutrition Specialist, Colon Therapist, Esthetician and I am presently undergoing various courses with The Institute of Lifestyle Medicine.

What is your Passion?

I turned my Passion into my Profession. My foray into the world of entrepreneurship is one that can be described as Disruptive Influence.

Disruption is about taking risks, trusting your intuition, and rejecting the way things are supposed to be.

When did Venivici start operations and where is it located?

Venivici Health Club And Urban Spa began operations in the Spa and Wellness Industry in June 1999 in Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. We recently relocated to a bigger facility in the new hub of Lagos, Lekki Phase 1,to make room for our Academy to train new Therapists.

What services does Venivici offer?

We are a multi-service/therapy facility, so there's something for everybody. All treatments are therapeutic, natural and non invasive. They can also be custom-made to suit the needs of individual customers. Our Treatments include: Weight and Stress Therapy; Aromatherapy; Stone and G5 Massage; Facials; Body Polish, Mud Wrap; Waxing; Foot and Hand treatments; Colon Hydrotherapy and Corporate Wellness Coaching How does this service benefit customers?

Our treatments enhance physical and emotional well being, Increase circulation and Detoxifies, Reduce stress hormones in the body and Induce relaxation, Ease bloating caused by water retention, Weight Loss: Help breakdown fatty tissues and tones muscles, Stimulate immune system, Visible improvement in condition of skin- cellulite (body), acne (face) etc.

What is your Daily Routine like?

I am directly involved in the daily operations of Venivici. As Rector of Venivici Academy, I am also involved in putting together the Beauty Syllabus and framework of the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Board's (LASTVEB) Graduate Vocational Employability Skill Training Program. As you well know, Venivici Academy is a LASTVEB Certified Training Center.

What else do you do with your spare time besides vevinici?

I write in various Lifestyle Publications and Magazines on Spa and Wellness Issues. Venivici Signature Treatment has been featured in International Publication. I also take on Professional Speaking Engagements at Seminars, Corporate Retreats, Schools, Universities, Women's fora, Churches, etc. I had had a weekly Wellness Column in Sunday Punch for several years, a platform through which I was able to reach a wider audience in creating a healthier nation. I have also served on the Board of Covenant University from 2005-2010, as well as Secretary of Covenant University Endowment Fund.

Are there any Charities that you are involved in?

I am involved in several charities and actively involved in the support of widows, orphans and the less privileged including Saidia for Children of Africa, Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria and VENIVICI for Christ (a benevolence for the less privileged, orphans and widows).

Any award or recognition?

My contributions to society have been appreciated with some of the following awards: Market-Driven Health Club of the year 2000 Chartered Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, 10 Distinguished Women of Excellence – Tell Magazine, Beautician of the Year 2004 – National Awards for Professional Excellence, West African Students' Union— 2005-- Mother Of Epitome.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah African Leadership Awards—2007 Outstanding Merit Award, INRI WIDOWS FOUNDATION- IWF HUMANITARIAN SERVICES AWARD. 2007.

Health Care & Social Development, Global Leadership Award for Excellence 2010, African Order of Merit in the Provision of Spa & Health Services 2011 –Institute for Government Research & Leadership Technology.

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Content marketing has always been personalized and dynamic. In a world of static, unchanging websites, it stood out by offering new, regularly updated, audience-targeted content. It was a step above the landscape in terms of interactivity, and it worked. Heck, it still works but as more and more brands take that step up, it becomes harder to stand out by doing the same old thing.

Who Are Millennials?

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ccording to Brafton, Born between 1980 and 2000, and thus having spent much of their working life in the 'Great Recession,' millennials are, by and large, money-pinchers. Having been advertised to their whole lives, millennials tend to be skeptical of pitches, preferring to either, research and figure things out for themselves, or take the advice of a friend. Nowhere is the skepticism more pronounced than in regards to investing their money, about which 81% of millennials are either cautious or averse. 49% say they prefer to do their own research on financial matters, without the help of an advisor, while 91% would use a social network to obtain opinions or commentary on financial matters.

Despite this skepticism, millennials are very brand-loyal, with 70% of them describing themselves as such. An impressive 80% claim they take action purchase, share, or reach-out – on behalf of their trusted brands! And while 81% of millennials say they trust their bank, 53% don't trust it any more than any other bank. Trusting, yet skeptical not such a contradiction when you think about it.

Closing this trust gap is crucial half of this generation is entering their peak saving years with an unconvinced attitude for banks and the financial services they can offer. The good news is that overcoming their skepticism and earning their trust is doable you just have to reach them on their level, and find them where they 'live'.

Millennials are sometimes called digital natives the Internet has been around for most or all of their lives. They spend more time online than any other generation smartphones mean that they are nearly constantly online and naturally, they respond to a strong online presence: 66% of those who trust their bank say they would trust it more if it offered more helpful and useful online content.

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What Are We Talking About?

'Interactivity' and 'personalization' are great words to say, but what are we really talking about? We're talking about rich online experiences tailored to individual users. Experiences they help build, that relate to them more than a static experience ever could. Think interactive video, where a user's choices create a video just for them. Think of polls and quizzes that output information tailored just to the person that fills it out. Think of calculators that let users experiment and discover for themselves, instead of just being told. Think of infographics that come to life and highlight the information a user is particularly interested in.

In an industry where consumers and business owners are looking for experts they can trust, content marketing has massive potential to establish a baseline of expertise and authority.

HOW TO MARKET FINANCIALS TO THEM: In general, millennials are frugal, skeptical, brand-loyal, and above all, online. So, what to make of it all?

1. Being Online Is Good, But Being On Social Media Is Even Better.

Millennials use them all Facebook and Instagram, is the most popular, in Nigeria. These platforms are where millennials joke, share links, form opinions, and interact with brands.

2. Online Interactions Is The Premier Way To Reach Millennials.

Websites, videos and apps are all great ways to interact with millennials daily, building trust and brand loyalty in the long term. They may claim to not like advertisements, but they love brands 3. When Building A Site To Be Shared, Make Sure its Mobile-First.

21% of millennials accessed the Internet through mobile (tablets and phones) exclusively in 2016, up from 18% in 2015. Make it rich but simple, engaging but not distracting. You want to leave an impression that your brand 'gets us'.

4 . Provide Them The Tools They Need To Do Their Own Research, And Share Their Findings.

Millennials are used to things being online and free. Encourage their inquisitiveness with calculators, and other informational web app like every generation, millennials like to have enough knowledge to make an informed decision.

5. Enrich Their Experience.

Informational videos are a growing force in marketing online video consumption increases every year, especially among millennials.

Making quiz results or calculator outputs shareable, rankable, or awards-based, are great ways to increase its likelihood of being passed around social circles.

Here are seven impressive examples of some banks across Africa with an excellent online footprints – and do it really well:

Standard Bank, SOUTH AFRICA The standard bank of South Africa, has one of the leading interactive website for millenials in Africa. It has an online share-trading platform fully equipped with Real-time price streaming and charting. It provides investors with the tools and technology to conduct real-time trading in shares, derivatives and other investment instruments.

The website, also has a lot of educational resources from general education on investing in shares to specialized product training and courses on how to master derivatives. Others are: 1) BizConnect: It is an online business portal developed specifically to support entrepreneurs as well as small and medium enterprise owners in South Africa, it gives customers access to products, services, tools and templates to help them grow their business 2) Calculators: The website has a range of calculators to help them choose the products that best meet your needs. Some of the calculators are Vehicle Finance Calculators, Home Loan Calculators & General loan repayment.

3) Market rates & tools: The bank has an exchange rate portal for all foreign exchange information requirements. Complete with an education center, that includes historical FOREX rates, economic research and a “Spot & forward” calculator.

4) Standard Bank Properties page: It consists of Standard Repossessed Auctions and 3rd party Real Estate. The page comes complete with a property filter, where customers can select price, property type and location like a standard real estate website.

5) Telephone & Speech Banking: Customers have the choice of using its automated service or speaking to one of our consultants 24/7. Its Speech-enabled telephone banking means that customers voice is the key to doing their banking.

6) Eco2Fleet: Standard Bank Fleet Management developed ECO2Fleet, a web-based fleet management data collection and reporting service that measures the carbon emissions of vehicles and is aligned to the principles of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, a globally recognized accounting tool used to measure carbon emissions.

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Access bank, NIGERIA For being such a monolithic brand, Access Bank dispels the idea that it's a faceless corporation. While positioning itself as an expert in personal financial management, the content makes the information accessible to readers who need simple tips or ideas to manage their finances. The main page displays pictures and video content focused on individual stakeholders, including the banks CEO's video, Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe explaining its core lending services. Others includes: 1) Flows: “Flows” is an acronym that stands for: Finance Logistics Worldwide Scheme. It is for those desirous of a simple way to carry out their business. It is an effective cost finance scheme targeted at SME importers for logistics, warehousing and finance services.

2) Social Media Community: You can also join “My access community”, by clicking on a tab at the bottom of the homepage, to get live feeds and join its online community.

3) Persona: Allow customers to create a customized bank verve or MasterCard. Customers can send images to be bank, which will be printed on the banking cards 4) Customers can Live chart on its home page as well as being able to give a feedback on its services 5) Tailored Information: At the bottom right of the homepage the bank, groups tailored information for each specific market groups.

Tailored as: An Individual, A Woman, A Teenager, A Company, An Entrepreneur, An Investor, A Job Applicant and A Journalist.

Commercial International Bank (CIB), EGYPT The CIB website is one of the most advanced in Africa, it has an innovative online trading platform called “CIB Trade Online”. CIB Trade Online enables customers to Initiate, review, amend and receive your trade transactions online; Access a wide array of reporting features; Benefit from faster turn-around times and greater efficiency, Experience greater transparency and real-time status updates on your transactions.

Others are: 1) CIB has a Mobile banking services like other banks. The website page goes further with an addition of a LIVE Mobile Simulator. The simulator enables customers to try a live demo of the mobile banking application before downloading it, if they decide to.

2) CIB has what it calls 'Heya' Credit Card. It comes in different categories. This premium card “categories” grants customers a vast bouquet of highly selected offers, privileges and services, to enrich your lifestyle. From exciting shopping experience and exclusive offers like Unlimited complimentary access to airport lounges at select airports across the Middle East, regardless your ticket category.

3) An auto loan calculator to calculate monthly installments.

4) Cash online: Its online banking module called CIB Cash Online, gives customers control and visibility over their banking activities through its automated processes and elimination of paperwork.

5) Stock information Platform: CIB has a stock information platform on its website, complete with a graph to enable customers choose dates to see stock performance during certain period.

GTBank, NIGERIA GTbank is willing to go to a place most marketers in the financial services space are afraid to go– having fun with the subject matter, GTBank has an SME market Hub. The GTBank SME MarketHub is a free online platform that allows small businesses sell to audiences near and far as well as NDANI TV. It shows consumers that Bank of America understands its audience's desire to find creative money-saving solutions. Others are: 1) iRequire, you can now pre-order online the collection of your Token, Card, Cheque-Book or Bank Statement at select GTBank branches 2) Gtcollections, where clients can pay for anything online ranging from shipping line payments, airline tickets to school fees 3) Media center complete with a regularly updated news, videos, audio and pictures

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EFG-Hermes, EGYPT EFG-Hermes “how-to do” guide videos pack a punch with a take-home tips from experts and a product promo. EFG-Hermes banks website has a first class online trading services, Hermes website provide a range of functionality at customers fingertips in a coherent and user-friendly web application; thus, customers get the value they expect from a 21st century banking platform.

1) Hermes trading Online offers customers a variety of services that enables them to place buy and sell orders, access timely information about their portfolio, stay abreast of the market, and make well-informed investment decisions.

2) EFG Hermes Research: is the Only MENA Research House to Rank on Industry-Leading Institutional Investor Ranking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It comes with all research reports, macro economic strategy, fair values, estimates and initiations.

3) Media tab: Comes complete with videos of the Banks top management. The video archive consists of business meetings and conferences, policy reviews and interviews in media houses.

4) Equity Investments: The bank offers a range of diverse equity investment options, from index, capital guaranteed and shariacompliant funds to country-specific, sector-specific and regional-specific mandates, each tailored to an investor's targeted objectives and risk appetite.

MCB - The Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd, MAURITIUS MCB has a growing suite of online resources for its customer's convenience.

1) MCB Campus Loan Simulator: MCB has a loan simulator on its website, which enables customers to calculate monthly repayment and how much they can borrow. MCB Campus gives loans to customers to finance their studies for undergraduate, postgraduate or professional course/training.

2) Demo: A Prepaid Card interface that allows customers to monitor their expenses associated with their card. It also comes with a tutorial on YouTube to help them manage the process.

3) Juice: Lifestyle banking downloadable application for mobile. It enables instant money transfer within Mauritius and abroad as well as cash withdrawal without a card.

4) Premium banking education Plan: It has an interactive simulator that aids parents to plan for their children's future.

5) FOREX Converter and treasury market update

UBA, NIGERIA The website has so much personality, making complex information approachable. The entire bottom corner of UBA's homepage is dedicated to social media. Live feeds from twitter and Facebook as well as regularly update news on the bottom right corner.

1) UBA Business direct. An online interactive solution that keeps business owners in control of their business. It comes complete. It supports forecasting, liquidity management, receivables management, payables and many more.

2) Tools and Resources: Mortgage calculator, asset loan calculator and Maximum loan calculator U-Social which is an innovative social media banking solution and U-Pay which is a world class Human resource, payroll processing and salary administration solution.

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W

e've all been there: Banging the kitchen cupboard and bawling like the end is near because we are stuck at home and Mom or Dad won't let us hang out with friends or Break-up of a friendship. Okay, so maybe that was at least 20-plus years ago. We may have developed slightly better methods for coping with our anger. But those feelings of frustration, injustice, and rage still have a way of rearing their heads, even if it's directed towards a political figure, an asinine staff, or a romantic partner. Anger can makes us feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and out of control, so is there anything redeeming about it?

The surprising answer is yes! But it all depends on how we cope with it, when and where we use it.

Typically, anger consists of three components: thinking (negative thoughts), feeling (disappointment, frustration, contempt, rage), and acting (shaking a fist, yelling, violence). Acknowledging anger can help lower stress on the heart and manage pain, at least in laboratory studies. And expressing anger as it arises (instead of bottling it up and letting it all come out in one explosive fight) has also been found to benefit interpersonal relationships. Perhaps more than anything else, anger benefits us by alerting us that something is wrong on an individual, interpersonal, or societal scale. Happy isn't always good and angry isn't always bad (although it may feel that way). An unhappy person is also more likely to spot mistakes and an angry person is highly motivated to act. We need to be reminded that even scary and dangerous emotions have their upsides, as long as they are used for the correct purpose.

The likely features of constructive anger are: That the person who caused the anger is present, That it is justified and proportionate to the wrongdoing, And it is expressed as the first step in trying to solve a problem rather than just venting bad feeling.

Managing Anger There's a difference between anger and mismanaged anger and the key to reaping anger's benefits lies in learning how to cope with it in a healthy way. The basic steps for coping apply across the board, whether at school, at the office, or at home. One of the most popular anger management strategies goes by the acronym STAR-R, short for Stop, Think, Ask, Reduce, Reward. The steps look something like this: Stop. Pause. Count to 10 if you're having trouble being still, and don't forget to breath! Notice that you're getting angry. Look for signs like muscles tensing, face getting hot, hands shaking, breath shortening, voice rising, and a desire to run away.

Think. Picture the consequences if you lose control, for both you and the person with whom you're angry (e.g. I'll feel worse; I'll be embarrassed in front of my coworkers; I'll hurt my loved one).

Ask. Ask yourself what you're really angry about. What need do you have that isn't being met? Are you acting out of a knee-jerk desire for self-protection? Are you really angry at the current situation, or are you still bothered by something that happened days ago? We usually feel safer taking out our anger on people close to us, but it's important not to misdirect feelings especially in a business environment. Instead, focus on identifying your needs (after all, the definition of anger is all about unmet expectations). Work to figure out how these needs can be met in a healthy way.

What's important is that you return to the situation with a level head and the ability to communicate your needs and negotiate conflicts in a calm manner. Remember, to be in control when angry, whenever it's time to have a conversation, use “I” statements (“I felt hurt by your words” instead of “You always hurt me”) and listen to the other person's feelings to minimize the chances of triggering another round of fighting.

Reward. Appreciate yourself for managing your anger. It's hard work, and it's quite likely that we won't get it right every time.

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Benefits in the work place 1. Anger to motivate You sometimes hear people talking about using anger as a motivating force by 'turning anger into positive energy'. In fact anger itself is a kind of positive energy and a powerful motivating force. Research has shown that anger can make us push on towards our goals in the face of problems and barriers.

When we see something as beneficial, we want it more when we're angry. So, when used right, constructive anger can make you feel strong and powerful and help push you on to get what you want.

2. Angry people are more optimistic in the office It may sound like an odd thing to say, but angry people have something in common with happy people. That's because both tend to be more optimistic. Take one study of fear of terrorism, carried out by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. Those experiencing anger expected fewer attacks in the future. In contrast those experiencing more fear were more pessimistic about the future and expected further attacks.

3. Anger can benefit business relationships Anger is a natural reaction to being wronged by someone else and it's a way of communicating that sense of injustice. But society tells us anger is dangerous and we should hide it. What does this do to our personal relationships?

Oddly enough research has shown that hiding anger in relationships can be detrimental. The problem is that when you hide your anger, your partner or colleague doesn't know they've done something wrong. And so they keep doing it. The expression of anger, if justifiable and aimed at finding a solution rather than just venting, can actually benefit and strengthen relationships.

4. Anger provides self-insight Anger can also provide insight into ourselves, if we allow it. If we can notice when we get angry and why, then we can learn what to do to improve our lives. Anger can motivate self-change.

5. Anger reduces violence Although anger often precedes physical violence, it can also be a way of reducing violence. That's because it's a very strong social signal that a situation needs to be resolved. When others see the signal they are more motivated to try and placate the angry party. If you're still not convinced that anger might reduce violence, imagine a world without anger where people had no method for showing how they felt about injustice. Should they jump straight to violence?

6. Anger as negotiation strategy Anger can be a legitimate way to get what you want. In one study of negotiation participants made larger concessions and fewer demands of an angry person than one who was happy.

So there's some evidence that anger can be used as a negotiation strategy, but it's more complicated than that. You can't just lose your anger and expect to win everything you want. Anger is likely to work best when it's justified, if you appear powerful and when the other side's options are limited. In the right circumstances, then, it's possible to both get mad and get even.

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HOW TO MANAGE INVESTMENTS IN A RECESSION R

ecessions are a natural consequence of an over-heated economy and part of the business cycle. While investments may drop in value, the important thing to realize is that the stock market will recover in time. By taking time to make rational investment decisions in the face of a recession, an investor can come out of it better off than before.

Keep an Eye on the Horizon According to Eric Petroff, The real key to investing before, during and after a recession is to keep an eye on the big picture, as opposed to trying to time your way in and out of various market sectors, niches and individual stocks. To begin with, consider the macroeconomic issues of a recession and how they affect capital markets. When a recession hits, companies slow down business investment, consumers slow down their spending, and people's perceptions shift from being optimistic and expecting a continuation of recent good times to becoming pessimistic and uncertain about the future. As such, people get understandably frightened, become worried about prospective investment returns and rationally scale back risk in their portfolios. The results of these psychological factors manifest themselves in a few broad capital market trends.

Within equity markets, the results are pretty obvious. As people become uncertain about prospective earnings, they perceive a greater amount of risk in their investments, which broadly leads investors to require a higher potential rate of return for holding equities. Of course, for expected returns to go higher, current prices need to drop, which occurs as investors sell their higher risk investments and move into safer securities including government debt. This is why equity markets tend to fall, often precipitously, prior to recessions as investors shift their investments.

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FACTS Investing in Stocks in a Recession When investing in stocks during recessionary periods, the relatively safest places to invest are in high-quality companies with long business histories, as these should be companies that can handle prolonged periods of weakness in the market.

Also, traditionally, one of the safe places in the equity market is a consumer staple. Consumer staples are essential products, such as food, beverages, tobacco and household items. These are typically the last products to be removed from a budget. In contrast, electronic retailers and other consumer discretionary companies can suffer, as consumers hold off on these higher end purchases Investing in Fixed Income in a Recession Fixed-income markets are no exception to this line of reasoning. Again, as investors become more concerned about risk, they tend to shy away from it. Practically speaking, this means investors steer clear of credit risk, meaning all corporate bonds (especially high-yield bond) because these investments have higher default rates than government securities. Again, as the economy weakens, businesses have a more difficult time generating revenues and earnings, which can make debt repayment more difficult and could lead to bankruptcy as a worst-case scenario.

Investing in Commodities in a Recession Another area of investing you may want to consider in the context of a recession is commodity markets. Some traditional examples of commodities include grains, gold, beef, oil and natural gas. The general rule to understand about these investments is to keep in mind that growing economies need inputs, or natural resources. As economies grow, the need for natural resources grows, and the prices for those resources rise. Conversely, as economies slow, demand slows and prices go down. So, if investors believe a recession is forthcoming, they will sell commodities, driving prices lower.

During a recession, positioning your portfolio is quite simple. Shift assets away from equities, especially the riskiest equities like small stocks. You should also move away from credit risk in fixed-income markets and into Treasuries.

WHAT TO DO? Don't immediately sell your assets. When stock prices begin to fall, it can be frightening to see your money slipping away from you. It may be tempting to sell these stocks, but most financial advisors agree that selling at the first sign of recession is a bad idea. For one, stock markets move several months ahead of the economy as a whole, so by the time you know there is a recession, your assets will likely have already decreased considerably in value. Additionally, trying to systematically sell off and buy assets at just the right time, while advantageous in theory, is well outside of the ability of most individual investors.

Decide which investments to keep. Usually, large and established companies will have the know-how and capital reserves to weather a recession. Any investments in these companies are best left untouched, as they will likely rebound. The same is true for any high quality bonds, especially government bonds. These will likely increase in value due to decreased interest rates intended to boost the economy out of the recession.

Buy reliable government bonds. These investments are not only incredibly reliable and safe, but will also likely increase in value of the course of a recession. Certain foreign bonds may also be reliable enough to weather recessions.

Invest in precious metals. Precious metals, particularly gold, are a good investment in a recession. During times of stability, investors are more likely to take chances on speculative investments and the price of gold will fall. However, when there is a recession, gold prices tend to rise, making them a good investment during a recession Don't leverage your investments. Leveraged investing, or buying assets with borrowed money, is an incredibly risky strategy in any market. During a recession however, that practice becomes even riskier, as companies that an investor chooses to invest in may unexpectedly experience a drop in stock price or, even worse, fail completely. In short, leveraging can magnify your losses as much as it can potentially magnify your gains and in the end you could lose everything by making the wrong call Reintroduce risk. As a recession draws to a close, you will begin to see stock prices returning to their pre-recession levels. This is the time to invest (or reinvest) in those highly-leveraged companies or cyclical companies that survived the recession. Like all investments though, these stocks will still carry risk and may not increase in value just because the stock market as a whole does.

Learn from your experience. If you were hit particularly hard by the recession, whether in the stock market or in your professional life, consider planning better for the next recession. For example, it's generally a good idea to keep about six month worth of expenses (mortgage, utilities, food costs, etc.) in a separate account in case you find yourself in hard times again

MARKET DIGEST NIGERIA

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