Thursday 01 August 2019
BUSINESS DAY
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news Spotlight Africa partners LAWMA, rewards 150 street sweepers for community service ENDURANCE OKOAFOR & ISRAEL ODUBOLA
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t was an exciting moment for some street sweepers at the weekend as Spotlight Africa, a Lagos-based non-profit organisation, in partnership with Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), rewarded 150 of those sweepers in recognition of their efforts to make Lagos clean. The event with the theme, ‘LAWMA Women Making a Difference Community Awards Ceremony’ and described as the first of its kind, was held in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital. In her remarks, Nonye MikeNnaji, president of the NGO and managing partner at HSPG Realtors, extolled the virtues of the street sweepers for their exceptional delivery, saying that despite the risk associated with the job and low remuneration, they still remained dedicated to duty. According to Nnaji, the objective of the event was to celebrate the women who were making a difference by keeping the highways and communities clean. “What these women are doing is incredible. Some of them wake up as early as 4am to sweep the streets of Lagos. What they did during the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria was magnifi-
cent,’ Nnaji said. She posited that their good work prompted her team to be the first to celebrate them. “The day I saw one of them working tirelessly, I began to think what it meant to clean the dirt in Lagos. I met some corporates to come and support us to celebrate them, and the turnout is overwhelming,” she said. She said plans were underway to organise a Yuletide party for them, and called on coporates to partner with them to make it successful. In his address, Oladimeji Oresanya, CEO of LAWMA, urged the street sweepers to maintain the tempo, saying it gladdened his heart to see them making impact in the community. “The last four years was tough for them. But we are happy that the glow in their eyes and faces has been restored,” he said. “You can recall, 10 years back, we did celebrate them annually. They had a handshake with the state governor to boost their morale, but all of a sudden, that stopped. But now, these ones are back on the streets, interestingly, Lagos is getting cleaner,” Oresanya enthused. The LAWMA boss maintained that the event went
beyond celebration of refuse collection, to devising ways to enable them have access to cheap loans, so they can do other things for themselves considering the job is part time. Amaka Onyemelukwe, head of public affairs and communication, Coca-Cola, said her company was glad to partner Spotlight Africa to champion the course of women in the society. “For us as a company, we are deeply passionate about women. If you look around, there is always a woman on the street selling Coca Cola and as such any initiative that impacts women, we are proud to always be part of it,” she disclosed. One of the awardees, Stella Oluku, urged Lagos State government authorities to look into reckless driving in the state, which is a big challenge to her work. “You know in Lagos, there are many reckless drivers, even when they sight you with safety pole, they will still want to climb on it. We want the government to checkmate this, and build more mechanisms to protect our lives,” she said. Spotlight Africa has said it is poised to enhance the continent where every individual can live out to his or her fullest potential through a power network of varied human investment.
Nigeria’s lagging oil, gas reforms continue to shut out potential investors STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
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oreign investors recognise the potential in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, butarestayingawaybecause clarity still eludes them as to how to recoup investments into the country’s oil and gas sector. Last week, a United States of America’s official said the country could attract more investments from US firms if the oil and gas sector becomes less opaque and a petrol price peg is removed. A reduction in opacity means clearer and more competitive fiscal terms. Unpegging retail pump price frees up the downstream oil and gas sector, making it more attractive for investors and takingoutasubsidyregimethatcosts the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation close to $1 billion annually, since 2017. “Nigeria needs to think strategically about what is going to make it a more attractive destination,” Brent Omdahl,thecommercialcounsellor attheUSDepartmentofCommerce, said in an interview in Lagos. “Our investors are willing to compete on fairtermsfornewinvestmentsifthere is a transparent process to try to win new oil opportunities.” Industry watchers have said the existing fiscal terms in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector are not strong enough to attract investors into the country. The petroleum fiscal regime of a
country is a set of laws, regulations and agreements, which governs the economic benefits derived from petroleumexplorationandproduction. The regime regulates transactions between the political entity and the legal entities involved. “Onfiscalterms,theregimeisnot strong enough to attract investors, as compared with other African countriesespeciallyintheareaofdeep-sea exploration. The fiscal regime in the sector is not flexible enough to respondtodynamiclevelsofproduction and profitability,” Tengi GeorgeIkoli, the programme coordinator, Nigerian Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) had said in 2017. In a report of July 8, BusinessDay showed how failure to review the fiscal policies governing the exploration of oil in deep, offshore waters is costingthecountryenormouslosses in oil revenue amounting to trillions of naira. Nigeria’sroyaltyratesaretypically set as a percentage of the value of oil producedandthesizeofthelicensed area of production. Royalty rates rangefromzeropercentto20percent inonshoreareasunderJointVenture (JV) arrangements while under Production Sharing Arrangements (PSCs) ranges from zero to 12 percent.Royaltyratesforgasproduction range from 5 percent for operations in offshore areas to seven percent for operations in onshore areas. The situation is not the same for
other big oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia that collects 85 percent royalty on commercial oil production and 30 percent on natural gas. The United Arab Emirates have no fixed royalty rate as taxes are currently imposed at the Emirate level on companies based on actual oil production in accordance with specific (but confidential) concession agreements while Kuwait collects 50 percent royalty on commercial oil production. In Russia, Mineral extraction tax also known as royalty is charged on a fixed amount of $11 per ton, multiplied by coefficients that vary by depletion of reserves and other factors. Adeola Adenikinju, director, Centre for Petroleum Energy Economics and member of Nigeria Monetary Policy Committee believes the current oil contractual agreement most especially the offshoreproductionarrangementisnot in favour of Nigeria. “In the past when the oil price was very low a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed toencourageInternationalOilCompanies (IOCs). But this is supposed to have been revised over 20 years ago to encourage investment into offshore production since oil prices are now higher. Otherwise, Nigeria is being short-changed,” Adenikinju told BusinessDay.
HDI urged FG to prioritise funding for basic education SEYI JOHN SALAU
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he Human Development Initiatives (HDI) has urged the Federal Government to increase funding to the educational sector as a means of cutting down the current 13.5 million out-ofschools children in the country. “It is therefore not out of place to state that poor funding is one of thegreatestproblemsconfronting the education sector in Nigeria. We sincerely believe that Nigeria will get there by prioritising education, especially by committing moreresourcestofundingeducation,” said Olufunso Owasanoye, the executive director of HDI. She stated this at the recent publicpresentationofthereportof monitoring the implementation of year 2016 and 2017 Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB)ActionPlansinselected local government areas in Lagos. According to Owasanoye, the meagre resources being devoted to financing education, especiallybasiceducation,usually gets frittered away as proceeds of corruption through retail corruption, project cost inflation, use of substandard materials and kickbacks, hence the need for independent monitoring exercise. “HDI believes that Education is the only legacy that safeguards the future of children across board, cutting across socio-economic, ethnic and religious lines. Education is the way to go in a globalized world where technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over the fight against graft, national and trans-national impunity. “While several civil society organisations (CSOs) beam their
searchlights on national level occurrences of graft, corruption has dwarfed most of the efforts put into improving the standard of basic education in Nigeria, often resulting in decaying infrastructure, low educational outcomes, dearth of qualified and well trained personnel among others,” Owasanoye said. Ganiyu Remi Sopeyin, chairman of LSUBEB, said the report would help Lagos SUBEB to understand how far it has performed with the fund made available to it and the quality of the job carried out by contractors, saying, “It will enable us to know where we still have to put in more efforts.” Omololu Soyombo, member of board, HDI, said private spirited organisations should be engaged to monitor the implementation of awarded contracts for better outcomes. According to Soyombo, the monitoring exercise will ensure projects are implemented according to plan. “The supervising agency or commission may not be able to visit or monitor all projects; hence it is better for an independent body to carry out the monitoring process,” Soyombo stated. HDI with the support of MacArthur Foundation has been tracking the utilisation of basic education funds in selected states for quite sometimes. However, experiencehasshownthatproject contractors may likely compromise standard when there is no third party monitoring or awareness of prying eyes of committed community members and Civil SocietyOrganisations(CSOs)who religiouslyandpassionatelyfollow up on projects. www.businessday.ng
L-R: Kehinde Olugbenle, Olu of Ilaro/paramount ruler of Yewaland; Babatunde Ajayi, paramount ruler of Remoland/president, Remo Traditional Council, Ogun State; Adeyeye Ogunwusi, O’oni of Ife; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and President Muhammadu Buhari, during the visit of South West Traditional Rulers to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday. NAN
Tenants, homebuyers advised to avoid pseudo practitioners in real estate sector CHUKA UROKO
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rospective tenants and homebuyers in Lagos State have been advised to avoid people the state has described as pseudo or practitioners who parade themselves as estate agents and developers in the state’s real estate mark. With a very active rental market and over three million housing market, real estate business in Lagos is very lucrative and that has led to the development of quackery and unwholesome activities by fraudulent elements that take advantage of the high demand to defraud home seekers.
The state government has therefore enjoined residents seeking for accommodation to engage the services of only registered developers and agents across the state. Wasiu Adedamola Akewusola, permanent secretary, Ministry of Housing, gave this advice during a site visit in Ketu area of the state where a fraudulent property developer collected money from over 262 prospective home buyers for only 15 units of studio apartments. “Residents of should desist from patronising quacks and criminals when scouting for accommodation and homes to buy,” Akewusola counselled,
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decrying rate of fraudulent activities by illegal estate agents and developers who, through their nefarious activities, are swindling innocent people of their hard earned money. “We are greatly concerned about the rise in the criminal and callous activities of some dubious estate agents who lure unwary individuals to purchase non-existent parcels of land or rent one flat out to hundreds of prospective tenants,” he said. He disclosed that it was the responsibility of Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD), a directorate under the Ministry of Housing, to register, monitor and regulate @Businessdayng
activities of genuine estate agents and developers. The permanent secretary advised intending tenants to ensure that they transacted business with only registered agents who could be recognized by the state government’s estate agents registration banner. He seized the opportunity to enjoin the people to continue to have confidence in government’s ability to fulfil the mandate of providing accessible, affordable and qualitative housing. “Lagos State is a responsible government and will not relent in its efforts at ensuring that the well-being of the people is upheld,” he said