Stock Watch

MultiChoice to support INEC’s PVC collection drive through BBTitans reality show

Abubakar Yunus Abuja

MultiChoice Nigeria, says it will fully support the nationwide campaign by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the collection of the permanent voters’ card (PVC).

MultiChoice Nigeria, the subsidiary of MultiChoice Africa, owner of DStv and GOtv, said this in a statement on Monday.

The PVC is a measure to improve the credibility of the electoral process through identity theft elimination and is a prerequisite for participation in the coming general elections.

The elections are expected to kick off on February 25, 2023, with the presidential and national assembly elections, while that of the governorship and states houses of assembly elections will hold on March 11.

MultiChoice Nigeria said it aims to support the collection of PVC “in the shape of regular and free broadcast of INEC’s messages on PVC collection by registered eligible voters on channels on its DStv and GOtv platforms.”

According to the company, the broadcast will (in particular) be targeted at youth, the country’s biggest voting demographic category, through DStv channel 198 and GOtv channel 29, as that the two channels are dedicated to the round-the-clock broadcast of BB Titans — the new edition of the Big Brother Nigeria reality TV show.

Speaking on its decision to support INEC’s PVC collection drive, John Ugbe, chief executive officer, MultiChoice Nigeria, said the company is committed to country’s democratic development, especially the credibility of electoral processes and procedures.

This, Ugbe said, can only be accelerated through mass participation, especially by the youth, and begins with the possession of valid means of voting, which is the PVC.

“As a Nigerian company, we are invested in the country’s democratic advancement through mass participation and highfidelity electoral procedures and

Oando issues update on release of audited financial statements

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Oando Plc has issued an update on publication of its outstanding audited earnings reports for the financial years 2020 and 2021 as well as its financial statements for the first, second and third quarters of 2022.

The energy firm said in a statement it conducted its 43rd annual general meeting last August when shareholders endorsed its 2019 audited accounts and appointed new independent auditors BDO Professional Services to audit its books for 2020 and 2021.

“Unfortunately, due to the lengthy onboarding process required for new external auditors and the complexity of auditing the several companies that make up the Oando Group, we wish to notify the market that the conclusion of the audit has been slightly delayed”, Oando said.

It expects its 2020 audited financials to reach the public by 28 February and those for 2021 to be released by 31 May.

Unaudited earnings reports for Q1 to Q4 have been scheduled for release on 30 June while the 2022 audited financial statements are due on 31 August.

“The Company sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to our esteemed stakeholders by this further delay and can confirm that concerted efforts are being made to finalize the above-stated accounts as soon as possible so as to ensure that the Company is in full compliance with its regulatory obligations”, the document said.

FCCPC probes ‘sharp practices’ by importers, sellers of generators

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says it has discovered antifree market practices such as price-fixing being perpetrated by importers and sellers of generating sets in Nigeria.

Babatunde Irukera, chief executive officer (CEO), FCCPC, said this in an interview on Arise TV.

He said through intelligence gathering, FCCPC also saw that some of the companies were equally shortchanging the government in payment of duties for imported spare parts.

Irukera said some of the companies importing and selling generators took “undue advantage” of the opportunity provided by government through exemption of duty payment on imported completely knocked down parts (CKDs) intended to boost alternative energy and increase affordability of alternative power sources for consumers.

The FCCPC boss explained that the policy is part of the government’s efforts to address power generation, transmission and distribution deficits in the country for the people to access supply at an affordable price.

“The least that a society should experience is that the candle doesn’t burn from both ends and is not shortchanged even with respect to the cost of providing alternative power, typically referred to as renewable energy,” he said.

“So, we got credible intelligence that in the generator sector, there were a few things that were going wrong.

“Number one, in order to address generation, transmission and distribution deficits, one of the things the government has done is to relax certain rules with getting your alternative power.

“One of them is reducing or even eliminating duties with respect to CKDs to build a generator and so, most generator importers bring in these CKDs and then assemble.

“That does two things: The lack of duties makes it more affordable for consumers, and then, it also promotes local industry in the sense that, at least, it brings the value-adding process to be done domestically, which is the assembling.”

On the alleged price fixing by the companies, Irukera explained that the council also discovered that there was some level of coordination where some companies were talking with themselves and agreeing by signaling on how the prices moved.

“So, with all that information that we had, we presented that to the judge of the federal high court and when the judge was convinced, the judge issued a search warrant, an order for us to execute and that’s what we did.

“We executed a search warrant simultaneously on multiple operators in the industry at the end of last year.

“Usually, an investigation of this nature takes quite a while because you now have to start slicing the information that you have got.

“Certain terabytes of information was downloaded from their computers, their emails and telephones and so, we are analysing that information”.

Irukera also said the enactment of the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 has limited the council’s powers over the Nigerian banking industry, especially in dealing with complaints by customers.

The FCCPC boss explained that the law excluded the FCCPC act from the banking industry.

This, according to Irukera, meant that the oversight work that FCCPC does with resolving complaints in financial institutions became limited.

“So, essentially, the real statutory platform for resolving banking complaints is now the central bank exclusively,” he said.

“However, because banking constitutes the second largest complaints we receive, what we have done at the FCCPC is to continue to do the work in the banking sector based on an understanding that withdrawing that channel would absolutely be chaotic.

“And so, we’re struggling with having the statutory tools to deal with the banking sector as we used to.

“And one of the results of this is that we don’t have the visibility that we would have to be able to contribute to policy and execution of policy in a way that would truly and fully capture what we know based on our experience in dealing with banking customers and what we understand the landscape of the