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Five things businesses must prepare for in 2019 LOLADE AKINMURELE

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he New Year is upon us and there are five things corporate boardrooms in Nigeria must critically examine in preparing for the year.

Naira downside The first thing and probably the most important is what the New Year holds for the naira.

With the naira set to buckle under the weight of lower oil prices and an OPEC-induced production cut, businesses must put foreign exchange hedging strategies in place.

That simply means converting a good chunk of cash currently denominated in naira to dollars.

That way, in the event of a naira devaluation or depreciation due to a drop in the supply of foreign exchange into Nigeria on the back of lower oil prices and production, businesses are sufficiently shielded from revaluation losses.

Brent crude, the benchmark grade for Nigerian oil, ended the year at $53.8 per barrel, the lowest since July 2017. That’s lower than the $60 benchmark price in the 2019 budget. This year has only begun, but this could be an early sign of a bumpy ride for oil

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CCNN tops market gainers in 2018 ahead expanded listing from merger C LOLADE AKINMURELE

e m e nt Co mpa ny of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) emerged the top gainer among listed equities on the Nigerian Stock Ex-

change in 2018, after advancing 104 percent.

There is optimism going into the New Year for the cement maker after regulators, shareholders and a court gave approval to a planned merger between the company and BUA Cement.

Approvals came from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, and the shareholders, the companies said in an emailed statement made available to BusinessDay

Monday.

With this, the shares of the expanded entity are expected to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, they said.

The merger raises the total Continues on page 34

Continues on page 34

Inside Nigerian students, business people stranded after US Embassy’s indefinite shutdown P. 2

R-L: Akinwunmi Ambode, governor, Lagos State; Hakeem Muri-Okunola, new Head of Service, and Bola Tinubu, national leader, APC, during the swearing-in ceremony of the new Head of Service, at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, yesterday.

Buhari has a history of smuggling in looted funds – Atiku INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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ormer Vice President and Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has a history of smuggling in looted funds into the country to serve his nefarious interests.

The former Vice President said this in reaction to the accusation against him by President

Muhammadu Buhari that he is planning to smuggle in looted funds into the country just before the February 2019 election.

Atiku in a statement he personally signed and made available to BusinessDay on Sunday, said this new accusation against him like their previous allegations, is another infantile outburst that tells more about the accuser than Atiku Abubakar.

The statement said further that for the avoidance of doubt,

history shows that rather than smuggle in looted cash, the Waziri Atiku Abubakar has a record of preventing looted funds from being smuggled into Nigeria.

“In 1984, it was Atiku Abubakar, as head of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command of the Nigerian Customs and Excise Department, that stopped the ADC of the then Military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, from smuggling in 53 suitcases of looted money into

the country.

“Young Nigerians and Millennials who may not be aware of this incident will do well to Google it. Only the guilty are afraid. It is President Muhammadu Buhari who has a history of smuggling in looted funds and not Waziri Atiku Abubakar,” the statement said.

Atiku quoted Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, a favourite of the President and a chieftain of the All Progressives

Congress, as saying on October 4, 2010, that “in 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new.”

The PDP flag bearer noted that only recently, his plane was searched, his accounts have been perused and his businesses have been thoroughly investigated with a fine tooth and nothing Continues on page 34

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Muster emerges winner of BusinessDay’s Business Idea of the Year Award

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uster, which describes itself as Africa’s first shared housing market place, has emerged as BusinessDay Business Idea of the Year 2018. Muster beat two other nominees, Go Kada and Kobo360 in a twitter poll to emerge winner with 50% of more than 2000 votes cast.

Muster tackles a unique problem in a fast growing mega city like Lagos, especially for millennials who are faced with rising rent prices, and scarcity of affordable accommodation.

Millennials struggling to find their feet in fast growing urban cities, usually do not have the income to rent accommodation in preferred areas. Besides, increasingly, because of the instability in their incomes, millennials have an increasing preference for flexible nomadic lifestyles.

As Africa’s first shared housing market place, Muster enables young people in African megacities to access affordable housing by unlocking available rooms in these cities through a peer-to-peer shared housing marketplace.

Muster is democratising the housing market by removing friction, injecting trust and increasing affordability. By renting rooms through Muster, verified people are able to pay for just the space they occupy, thereby saving on rent and bills whilst people with spare rooms are able to make extra income. The platform is built in a way that the users have total control of their experience and they are part of a Muster community.

Amongst others, Muster solves the problems of inflexible rental terms, upfront annual rent prepayment requirement as well as not fit for purpose developments.

Muster.ng was started by three young Nigerian visionaries, Ibraheem Babalola, Ugo Okoro and Akinola Adeola, with one singular aim to revolutionise the housing market so that people (especially young people) will have undisrupted access to good, clean and affordable housing.

According to one of its founders Ibrahim Babalola “Muster.ng is Nigeria’s first rent-share platform.

Muster connects people looking for other people to rent properties with, people that already have

properties and want to sublet part of it, agents with properties that can be shared by two or more people, and co-working locations.

With Muster.ng, we are hoping to create an ecosystem where sharing is enabled and encouraged by disrupting the traditional property lettings space”.

Muster is a glimmer hope for cities that are being saturated with rising population. In crowded African cities it is not unusual to find rent prices to be more than salaries made by young people.

As a result of this, young people find it very difficult to get affordable housing. This is one of the problems that Muster.ng aims to check. It offers a digital platform that houses a peer-peer shared housing marketplace that unlocks available rooms in crowded cities.

Muster basically breaks down high exorbitant rent prices.

With Muster.ng you find verified people to share rent with so that clean, exclusive neighbourhood wouldn’t be years down the line.

Muster adds a new flare to the traditional housing market that is valued at $137b, it makes this market more accessible to young people.

It guarantees control, wealth creation, affordability, flexibility, bill management and fraud prevention within the housing market. It also opens the market to endless possibilities that are beyond its financial value. Muster offers social interaction possibilities, bringing together people of diverse language, religion and tribal identity. These people are brought together under the common bane of the need to have to access affordable housing.

“We have been bootstrapping but are currently in talks with a number of investors who believe in the potentials of Muster.ng and are willing to partner with us as we provide Nigerians with a new way to rent”.

One of the founders Ugo Okoro was recently interviewed on Fidelity Bank’s SME forum. On the show Okoro shared expert insights on the ways he and his team have managed to a monetize a social initiative such as Muster.ng; “Our fundamental focus at Muster.ng is to create value and cater to the need of people look-

Continues on page 34

Nigerian students, business people stranded after US Embassy’s indefinite shutdown IFEOMA OKEKE

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housands of Nigerians, from students to business people, who need to obtain visas to travel to the United States anytime from now may find it difficult to do so after the US Embassy in Abuja and its consulate in Lagos were shut down with no specific timelines for re-opening.

The US Embassy in Nigeria said in a Facebook post that the development was caused by the government shutdown in the US.

“Due to the current US government shutdown, the American centres located in the embassy, Abuja and Consulate-General, Lagos are unfortunately closed.

They will re-open once the US government shutdown is resolved.

Sorry for any inconvenience to our valued patrons,” the Embassy said in the post.

Students who had come back to renew their visas are currently stranded in Nigeria over inability to get visa appointment dates.

Continues on page 34

L-R: Abiodun Oshode, zonal head, Zenith Bank plc; Kayode Fayemi, governor, Ekiti State, and Tope Fasoranti, executive director, Zenith Bank, during a courtesy visit by the bank’s management to the governor in Ado-Ekiti.

NNPC, Total fail to deliver on 200,000 barrels first target date from Egina field OLUSOLA BELLO

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otal Upstream has failed to deliver on the muchexpected 200,000 barrels first oil from the $16-billion Egina, a deep-water field, which was expected to happen in December 2018.

There are possibilities that the first oil would be pumped soon, but this could not be confirmed, as there has been no official explanation from Total Upstream Nigeria the operator of the field and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with regards to the reason for the failure of the field to pump first oil by the December deadline.

Emails and phone calls put across to officials of the company by BusinessDay were not responded to.

The implication of this is that there is a delay in the additional volume of crude oil Nigeria had hoped to get by the end of last year. Nigeria’s

budget for 2019 is premised on daily production of 2.3 million barrels at an average price of $60 per barrel.

Some industry operators however told BusinessDay that the first production could not have been achieved because of what they described as some “slight technical issues” encountered on the field shortly after the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) was moved to site from Lagos.

They explained there was not enough pressure to pump crude oil and because of this another project close to the field had to be quickly embarked upon to raise the pressure high enough to bring forth oil from the field.

Egina is the deepest offshore development carried out so far in Nigeria, with water depths over 1,500 meters, according to the management of the company. Its operations will generate significant activities for local contractors in various sectors and continue to provide avenues

for the training and development of Nigerians in various domains.

The project is being operated

by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) on behalf of it partners, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, Sapetro and Petrobras.

The Egina FPSO is the first of such projects ever installed in Nigeria and is about 330 metres long. It was anchored at the newly built 500-metre FPSO integration quayside at the SHI-MCI Yard, LADOL Island, Lagos, where the integration of six locally fabricated modules took place over a period of six months in 2018.

Nicola Terrez, managing director of Total had at the anchoring of the FPSO said: “We have taken a unique position to continue to invest significantly in Nigeria especially when things are difficult, for example two years when oil prices was below $50 per barrel, we were on the few private firm who still remain committed to Nigeria.”

Staple, export crops may remain stable in 2019 H1 – AFEX TEMITAYO AYETOTO

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rices of staple and export crops such as rice, yam and cocoa beans are likely to remain stable within the first half of this year, on high output recorded in 2018.

The prices will also be sustained by current stability prevailing in the international markets, according to Ayodeji Balogun, country manager at AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, an e-trading platform for agricultural commodities.

The Commodities began last year on low prices, but rose quickly to peak at about the end of the first half, and then began to drop, trend that continued till the end of the year. For instance, maize and soybeans started with average prices of N94.67 and N133.31 respectively per kilogramme, but ended the first half higher at N101.95 and N181.78.

Paddy rice made an exception on the AFEX commodity price report by ending the first six months lower at N125.88 per kilogramme after beginning at N133.20.

At the end of the second half, maize and soybeans had fallen by 18.9 percent to N82.59 and 30.8

percent, respectively. Paddy rice lost just 6.24 percent to end the second half. “There is a lot of supply already,” Balogun noted.

Generally, Nigeria’s foremost agricultural commodities e-trading platform, AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, traded over 40,000 metric tonnes of these produce and injected inputs worth $3.8 million into farming activities across eight states during the 2018 wet season farming, according to Balogun.

The financial support, which came as an offshoot of partnerships with corporate clients including LAPO Microfinance Bank, Dangote Rice, Thrive Agric and Farmcrowdy, among others, enabled over 20,000 farmers to access alternative financing to boost their productivity and yield.

The AFEX has kicked off input disbursement for the 2019 dry season input programmme in Kebbi state, with plans afoot for Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano and Jigawa, according to Balogun. Its target is to reach an additional 10,000 farmers for the dry season to shore up the total number of recipients for the 2018 period.

Trading of agricultural com-

modities recorded some improvement in 2018 as the platform expanded the aggregation and trading of cocoa, Balogun explained.

AFEX is poised to ramp up the volume of trading under its partnership with Binkabi and Sterling Bank to incorporate blockchain technology in solving the challenge of financing while facilitating international trade.

Through it, farmers would now be linked directly to consumers and retailers, creating security for off-taking and minimising postharvest losses. The blockchain technology is also expected to solve the issue of lack of price transparency in the supply chain, helping farmers obtain fair prices for their produce and leading to increased income.

“The platform will bring price discovery as buyers and sellers will be able to trade and settle their transactions remotely. It will also allow both retail and institutional investors to be able to invest in Agriculture through the exchange,” Balogun said.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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Nigeria to have 25,685 babies on New Year day - UNICEF MICHEAL ANI

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igeria is expected to have an estimated 25,685 new born babies added to its existing population on New Year day, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says.

This figure makes up 6.5 percent of the estimated 395,072 babies born globally on New Year day, and about 40 percent and 23 percent of those born in West/Central Africa, and in sub-Saharan Africa, respectively.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put the country’s population at 198 million people. If this estimate falls through, the country’s population may hit over 207 million by yearend 2019, according to BusinessDay estimate, depending on the number of deaths recorded in the year.

“Globally, over half of the world’s births are estimated to take place in just eight countries, including Nigeria,” Pernille Ironside,

UNICEF Nigeria’s acting representative, said on Monday in a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria.

“At current life expectancy rate, a child born in Nigeria today is likely to live only to the year 2074, which is 55 years of age, while those born in Denmark are likely to live until the 22nd century,” Ironside said.

The statement noted also that only children born in three countries today have a lower life expectancy than that of Nigerian children, including Central African Republic, Chad and Sierra Leone In October this year, Nigeria’s acting finance minister, Zainab Ahmed had said the country’s increasing population growth is one of the greatest challenges confronting the successful implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

According to Ahmed, the Federal Government has been engaging critical stakeholders like traditional and religious leaders to advise

their members on child spacing … a measure she said will help curb the country’s escalating population growth.

This statement however sparked up criticisms among analysts who spoke with BusinessDay, as they claimed that an increasing population if checked properly could serve as a plus to a nation.

“We do not think the rising population should pose a threat to the growth of the economy considering the vast amount of natural and mineral resources that the country is endowed with, majority of which are still untapped,” analysts at CSL Stockbrokers, a subsidiary of First City Monument Bank Group, said.

“In fact, a growing population provides a nation with robust human capital needed for productive purposes as well as a large market for goods and services produced.

However, where it is not harnessed or utilised effectively, as is the case of Nigeria, it becomes detrimental to the growth and development of the nation,” the stock broking

firm said.

According to UNICEF, about one million babies died the day they were born in 2017 globally, while 2.5 million died in just their first month of life.

It said that in Nigeria, about 262,000 babies die at birth each year, the world’s second highest national total; while 257 babies die within their first month of life.

“Among these children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections such as sepsis and pneumonia, a violation of their basic right to survival”, However, more could be done to ensure children born in Nigeria survive their first day of life. “In Nigeria today, only one out of every three babies is delivered in a health centre, decreasing a newborn baby’s chance of survival and this is just one of the issues that need to be addressed in order to improve the chances of survival of those babies born today and every day”.

L-R: Elisha Attai, founder, African Women in Leadership Organisation; Ezinne Kufre Ekanem, chief executive officer, Rosemary’s, The Soft Furnishing Company; Kufre Ekanem, managing director, Philosoville Limited, initiator of Hymnodia, and John Senaya, chief executive officer, J S and Associates, during the flag-off of Hymnodia, a reality TV programme, at Ikeja City Mall, Lagos.

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Tuesday 01 January 2019

2019: Okowa urges Edo residents Deltans to remain upbeat for 2019, as united, peaceful city wears new look FRANCIS SADHERE, Warri

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overnor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has called on the people of the state to remain united to the cause of developing the state, irrespective of ethnic or party differences.

Okowa, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu, felicitated with all Deltans as they stepped into 2019 and expressed gratitude to God for the grace granted Delta and its citizens in 2018.

Praying for the unity and peace in the state, which, he noted “is the bedrock of meaningful development in any given society,” he expressed the hope that 2019 will be a year of fulfilling a greater and stronger Delta.

He said, “Given our success story in the past three and half years in office, I have no doubt that with the same level of cooperation from the good people of Delta State, our government will achieve more in all facets of governance.

“Our optimism is driven by the support we enjoy from our Youths, leaders, the legislature, the judiciary, the civil service, my team of political appointees, agencies of government, both at the federal and the state levels, as well multilateral donor agencies.”

Governor Okowa noted, “As one of the first states to sign the 2019 budget, our government was prepared for the task of governance and provision of key infrastructure which made us to hit the ground running from day one.

“I must emphasise that the consistent early passage of our state budget has given me and indeed the state the advantage of early starters, both in the appreciation of what Deltans expect from their government and in the development of solutions to meet such expectations.”

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esidents of Edo State are filled with high hopes for the New Year, as churches and public buildings, including event centres wear new look in Benin City, the state capital, to usher in 2019.

A cross-section of residents who spoke with journalists in Benin City yesterday said they hope the New Year would usher in new opportunities for prosperity, and that managers of the country would expertly navigate the numerous economic and political events that would shape the New Year.

When asked about how he intends to celebrate the New Year, John Ojehomon, said, “I will be in my church for the cross-over service to thank God for the blessings and gift of life in the year 2018. I am happy to be alive and to be celebrating 2019 in good health.

I believe there is a lot to look forward to in the New Year.

We hope that Nigeria will overcome the numerous hurdles in 2019.”

Victor Lax, who operates an event centre, said, “We are set to host customers who will be visiting the centre to celebrate cross-over into the New Year. We are expecting customers after the end of the crossover church service. We will be open for business all through the night as fun seekers will be around to celebrate the New Year.

Joy Idehen said, “The new year celebration is a perfect opportunity to go out with the children. My husband and I will visit an event centre to mark the day. As God has blessed us with life and good health, nothing stops us from celebrating together as a family.”

Pastor Monday Osazee said members of his congregation would be holding a thanksgiving crossover service to thank God for his blessings and protection in the year 2018, and pray for a successful year 2019.

Federal, State, LGs shared N788.14bn in November 2018 USPF organises hackathon, incubation event for tech enthusiasts ISRAEL ODUBOLA

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ederal Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed N788.14 billion to Federal, State and Local Governments in November 2018 from the revenue generated in October 2018, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The amount disbursed comprised N682.16 billion from statutory account, N105.17 billion from valueadded tax and N806.39 billion from exchange gain allocation.

Allocation to the Federal Government was N299.19 billion. States government received N194.92 billion, and N146.69 billion was shared between the 774 local governments. Oil producing states

shared N58.19 billion as 13% derivation funds and N70 billion was kept in Excess Crude Account.

The breakdown of the gross revenue allocation of Federal Government is as follows – N284.395 billion from statutory account, N371.663 million from exchange gain allocation and N15.144 billion from VAT. For the 36 State governments, N144.249 billion from statutory account, N188.512 million from exchange gain allocation and N50.482 billion from VAT. For the 774 local governments, N111.210 billion from statutory account, N145.335 million from exchange gain allocation and N35.337 billion from VAT. Revenue-generating agen-

cies also benefited from the funds. Nigerians Customs Service (NCS) received N4.99 billion as cost of collection, while Federal Inland Revenue Service as well as Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) received N7.59 billion and N5.82 billion, respectively.

According to the report, out of N299.19 billion disbursed to the Federal Government, N243.96 billion was transferred to the consolidated revenue account of the Federal Government, N5.41 billion was shared as share of derivation and ecology, N2.70 billion as stabilisation fund, N9.08 billion for natural resource development and N6.38 billion was allocated to Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

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niversal Service Provision Fund (USPF), an arm of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is organising the ‘Change maker challenge,’ a hackathon and incubation event where people with technology background and business vision come together, form teams around a problem or idea, and collaboratively code a unique solution from scratch.

The competition, scheduled to hold from January 25 to 27, 2019, will have bright, creative minds between ages 18 and 45 years old competing to win over N3.5 million for creating an in-

novative solution, usually in the form of websites, mobile apps, IOT and robotics.

Interested persons below 18 years would require their parents/guardians to fill out a permission slip and accompany their ward to the event.

According to the event organisers, the innovative ICT solution and entrepreneurship development project would provide an avenue for self-expression and creativity among technology start-ups, through the use of modern technologies.

The theme for the third edition of the Changemaker challenge is “The Future is here: Disrupting legacy ecosystem with technology”, USPF said in a statement, while encouraging Nigerians with relevant

solutions that could address specific challenges, to apply at www.uspfchangemaker18.ng and stand a chance to develop their idea.

“The USPF Changemaker challenge event is the perfect place to network and connect with brilliant, software developers, UX designers, data scientists, ICT experts, budding entrepreneurs, strategists, angel investors, idea funders, public policy experts, incubation experts and technology enthusiasts. It will be a weekend of freedom to create a new product, learn new techniques for your future development, and be part of a community of new ideas and ventures thus ideas festival, investors delight,” the organisers said in a statement.

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8 BUSINESS DAY NEWS Unreliability besets key economic statistics as different agencies report conflicting data www.businessday.ng

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ata on vital economic indices released by different (national and international) agencies are most times inconsistent, and users of those data such as analysts, investors, policymakers and stakeholders are confused, as they do not know the one to hold true.

Experts and analysts sometimes question the authenticity of data on key economic statistics given the conflicting figures published by different statistical bodies like National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), World Bank, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and International Labour Organisation (ILO), to mention a few.

“Most of them got their data from different sources and it is needful for them to always disclose the source(s) where those data are gotten from,” Olusola Arawomo, an economics lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, told BusinessDay. The ILO in partnership with the World Bank report-

ed that Nigeria’s unemployment rate was 7.04 percent.

Meanwhile, BusinessDay analysis of the average unemployment rates released by the NBS from the first to fourth quarter of 2017, which is equally the annual average unemployment rate, settled at 17.46 percent, a sharp contrast of 10.42 percent.

UNCTAD and World Bank’s data on FDI inflows to Nigeria in 2016 and 2017 conflicted. While UNCTAD reported that Nigeria attracted FDI worth of $4,487.7 million in 2016, World Bank’s figure was $4, 445.1 million, indicating a variance of $42,600.

FDI inflows to Nigeria in 2017 equally differed by $580,000. World Bank put FDI inflows to Nigeria in 2017 at $3,497.2 million, and UNCTAD - $3,503.0 million.

Information on Nigeria’s crude oil production for first and second quarter of 2018 reported by the NBS and Energy Information Administration (EIA) slightly contrasted. According to the NBS, daily oil production averaged 2.00 million and 1.84 million barrels in first and second quarter of 2018, different from 2.11 million and 1.92 million barrels reported

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by the EIA. The report of NBS disagreed with that of World Bank on the country’s annual average inflation rate (consumer prices) for the previous year, 2017. While the World Bank put Nigeria’s annual average inflation rate at 16.5%, the annual average inflation rate of NBS for that year settled at 16.54%, a paltry divergence of 0.04%.

“The divergence could also have emanated from the methodologies these agencies employ to collect and collate data. Using different methodologies to collect and collate data will definitely produce different results,” Olusola said.

To Paul Afolayan, a data scientist and analyst, disparity in data reported by different agencies is largely connected to the fact that the sub-indicators used to compute these metrics are different.

The demand for goodquality statistical data has continued to be on the upward trend over the years.

Reliable data are needed to set baselines, identify private and public actions, set goals and targets, monitor progress and evaluate impacts.

Akeredolu proposes N190bn as fiscal estimates for 2019 YOMI AYELESO, Akure

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overnor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, on Monday presented a total sum of N190.023 billion budget for the 2019 fiscal year to the Ondo State House of Assembly.

BusinessDay reports that the proposed 2019 budget - N190. 023 billion exceeded that of 2018 fiscal year - N171 billion with N19 billion in size.

In the 2019 budget, Governor Akeredolu earmarked N82.179 billion for recurrent expenditure, representing 43.2 percent and N87.906 for capital expenditure representing 46.3 percent.

According to the governor who tagged the proposed budget as ‘Budget of Advancement’, the budget has been prepared based on the projections of the 2019-2021 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

“Mr. Speaker, MTEF is one of the statutory provisions of the Ondo State Fiscal Responsibility Law (FRL) which this Honourable House passed in 2017.

“The Law makes it mandatory that every yearly budget must be prepared on the basis of the next three years projections of MTEF.

Consequently, 2019 Budget is an offshoot of the 20192021 MTEF. “We have used the 2018 Fiscal year to lay the foundation of the economic trajectory designed for the State.

Most of the programmes and projects will crystallise in the 2019 Fiscal year.

“In the same vein, most of the major MoUs orchestrated through ONDIPA, inclusive of the Deep Sea Port are expected to fully blossom in 2019. It is in view of this that the 2019 Budget has been aptly tagged “the Budget of Advancement.”

He affirmed that the budget presentation, the second since he assumed office in February 2017, captured the essence of his administration’s blueprint.

“Mr Speaker, you will recall I informed this honourable House here last year that we had engaged some

revenue consultants to complement the existing efforts in revenue generation and to overcome the challenges posed by inadequate revenue.

“I am happy to inform you that the effort has been yielding a positive result ranging from appreciable blockade of some revenue leakages to increase our revenue base, a situation which has led to the State generating an average monthly IGR of N1.263 billion as against N905 million monthly average recorded in 2017.

“Yes, we are not there yet, but with the combined efforts of the consultants and the vibrant autonomous Board of Internal Revenue, as well as the various financial reforms being carried out by this Administration, we shall achieve the desired result in no distant time.

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comment 2019: Nigeria’s true year of destiny comment is free

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com

Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa OFR, FPSN sam@starteamconsult.com

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elcome to 2019.

Let us thank God for granting us the grace of entering into the new year. Thank God we are not in the statistics of those killed by Boko Haram insurgents, militant cattle herdsmen, kidnappers, armed robbers, police/ military stray bullets and sundr y marauders who combined to turn Nigeria into a killing field in 2018 particularly. We thank God that we did not die on the road, on the sea, or in the air. We really must thank God that there was no fatal air crash, despite several reported near misses, including air craft doors opening in mid flight or cabins being decompressed in flight. I am starting this way, because it is normally necessary to thank God for crossing from one year to another but every Nigerian, including the military must

give more thanks for surviving 2018. It was a bloody year from the first week of January starting in Benue State and concluding in the last week of December in Zamfara State.

Importantly also, we must continue to pray, first for the comfort of the family of the bereaved. Except you have been through similar experience, it is difficult to truly understand how it feels to lose a family member through brutal human violence.

It is extremely distressing to go to sleep and wake up in the morning to see your home ablaze and sometimes watch family members who are running away from danger being cut down with guns and knives as happened in several parts of the middle belt during the outgoing year. What is worse, is when no meaningful effort is made by the authorities to arrest and punish the perpetrators of the heinous crimes. Then some busybodies arrive to preach peace to you asking you to live at peace with your neighbors, only for them to depart and the attackers return, sometimes under the watch of security agents, to kill and destroy what was left from the earlier attack. That is the burden, some of our country men and women are carrying today and largely everyone else gets on with their lives, oblivious of the

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I truly believe that Nigerians have never had a better opportunity to make rational decisions as to who governs them at state and federal levels this time than they ever did in the past

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deep pains in the hearts of these victims. Secondly we need to pray with greater intensity for the mercy of God on Nigeria and its leaders.

The blood of the innocent shed all over Nigeria continues to cry for judgement, justice and appeasement. Unless God shows mercy, there will neither be sleep nor rest for the perpetrators of the crime, their agents, collaborators or those who failed to exercise the duty of protection over the innocent.

Thus we arrive 2019, a year that is already pregnant. What shall it deliver? A child of destiny or a child of perdition? Me I think a child of destiny, though the signs indicate it will be otherwise. In 2015, the world predicted that Nigeria would walk down the road of

perdition. It was widely predicted that Nigeria would split. But Nigeria disappointed the world.

That was essentially because the church prayed. Is the church praying for 2019? True, the church is praying hard. In addition, 2019 elections is not between the North and South, neither is it a contest between Islam and Christianity.

For the real first time in Nigerian political history, religion and region will play very minimal role influencing voting preferences at national level. And for me that is a good thing. For instance, the two principal contestants for the presidency are from the North and they are both Muslims. Thus other critical criteria will play significant roles in determining who wins. The first criterion in my view is believability. Which of the principal candidates do Nigerians believe most? Making promises is the forte of politicians, but living up to promises is what differentiates one politician from another. I am persuaded that most Nigerians can differentiate between facts and propaganda. Luckily both leading candidates have been in the public space and Nigerians can assess who is best able to fulfil promises or political campaign manifestos. I believe that Nigerians have been disappointed too many times that they must be wise enough to interrogate all political promises. They must now be wise enough to separate propaganda

from reality. I will like to believe that Nigerians can predict what a politician can do in the future from what he did in the past. If you promise buoyant economy, is there evidence that the economy was buoyant when last you were in power? If you promise a secure and safe nation, what was the situation last time you influenced national security. If you promise employment, how much jobs did you create at the last opportunity. If you promise democratic freedom, how much freedom did we see at your last opportunity?

If you promise a nation free from corruption, what was the situation the last time? If you promise peace and unity, how peaceful and how united was Nigeria when last you were in position to influence both?

I truly believe that Nigerians have never had a better opportunity to make rational decisions as to who governs them at state and federal levels this time than they ever did in the past. That is what gives me hope that 2019 will be truly a year of destiny. My prayer therefore is that Nigerians must take the opportunity and responsibility with both arms. If we miss it, then we must blame ourselves not ethnicity or religion. 2019 is our year of manifest destiny.

Happy New Year Nigerians!

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Adopting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as political party manifesto

Francis Iyoha

Professor Iyoha is of the Department of Accounting, Covenant University and Research Fellow, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He wrote viafoiyoha@ican.org.ng

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hat Nigeria failed lamentably in all aspects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is now history whose sad melody lingers on. As has been noted by a commentator, the implementation of the MDGs in Nigeria “lacked the high-mindedness of the Millennium Declaration and the ambitiousness of some leaders because despite the availability of funds the required political commitment never arrived.” I guess the country cannot afford a repeat of that sordid performance in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in which Nigeria is already three years in arrears of any tangible commitment. The quality of the current electoral campaigns does not suggest that issues of SDGs are known to the political parties and their flag bearers. As opined by Chris Akor in his article “why Buhari, Atiku’s job promises are unrealistic” published in the Business Day of

Thursday December 13, 2018, “the main challengers for the presidency, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar have continued, like in the past, to make bogus promises of creating millions of jobs in their manifestoes and policy documents without going into specifics of exactly how those jobs are going to be provided and by whom.”

This is not surprising because the main presidential candidates do not know what they should be talking about. All that we hear about the next four years is a bunch of razzmatazz. Instead of properly articulating their party manifestoes, they are busy throwing tantrums here and there. They seem unaware that we are tired of moderating our displeasure. Because they don’t know what they are expected to do in the next four years, the SDGs provide a ‘soft landing.’ They should simply adopt the SDGs as their party manifestoes. The goals are clear and the indicators well defined. There is no issue or programme of essence that they would want to pursue and implement in the next four years and beyond in their wisdom or lack of it that is not embedded in the SDGs. Issues around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become extremely critical in Nigeria and no political party should pretend about it. The issues require a synergy of uncommon kind and political commitment to tackle.

Many countries have devised road

maps for localizing, implementing and monitoring developments around the goals because of the enormous potential to transform all aspects of national endeavours. The 17 SDGs and 169 targets present opportunities for the political parties to take advantage of to create significant value in the political, economic, social and cultural order in Nigeria. We must take a cue from many African countries where SDGs have become a flagship issue and serious steps articulated and taken to ensure maximum delivery by 2030.

This is evident from the African SDG Index Report of 2018. The report was prepared and presented by the Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa and Sustainable Development Solution Network and provides a snapshot of the progress made so far by African countries ranked on the SDGs. The result of the ranking indicates that the ‘giant of Africa’ with a score of 48 is only ahead of some ten impoverished countries in Africa while Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Algeria, Cape Verde, Ghana, and Egypt are blazing the trail. Besides, some countries have fully achieved at least one of the goals such as: The Gambia and Sao Tome and Principe (SDG 12, Responsible consumption and Production); Comoros, DRC, Guinea, South Sudan and Uganda (SDG 13, Climate action); and Burundi, Gabon and Sierra Leone (SDG 15, Life on land).

While these countries are making progress, the Federal government of Nigeria through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President

(OSSAP) on SDGs, has ‘formulated’ and ‘adopted’ a number of policies aimed at achieving the goals. But it is claimed that a number of challenges including paucity of and late release of funds, Lack of legal framework to institutionalize SDGs, lack of political will at some government levels, securities issues, ownership issues around the SDGs, data collection and integrity of same, among others, are constraining the efforts of the government in achieving the required mileage on the goals.

In spite of the challenges, however, the government says it has achieved a lot on the platform of the SDGs and wants to convince us that the feats are evident in the following- construction of minor irrigation system, building of VIP latrines in schools and hospitals, training of health workers, provision of insecticide treatment nets, maternal /child health centres, classroom blocks, school desks, benches, including health advocacy. Others include construction of teachers’ quarters, fencing of schools, and provision of First Aid Boxes among others. These are no mean achievements anyway; but how significant are they in the context of the SDGs? To which of the targets do these activities relate?

Have we not been fencing schools, providing VIP toilets and so on?

What difference do these make in the context of the SDGs that we are prematurely celebrating? In-spite of the ‘feat’, Nigeria still lags behind many less endowed Africa countries.

It would appear that those charged with implementing and monitoring the SDGs need more knowledge of the targets and indicators and thus, the government needs to redefine its understanding of the SDGs. Though the challenges identified are acknowledged but what is lacking is insights into the targets that make up each of the goals. If the whole national budget is released and the activities are off the targets, no goals would be achieved. If the presidential candidates at a loss in terms of what to do in the next four years, let them adopt or adapt the Road Map for localizing SDGs which was drawn up by the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, UNDP and UN Habitat to support cities and regions to deliver the 2030 agenda. The road map is non-prescriptive but a portfolio of strategies that could be adapted to the specific contexts and needs of different environments. Time is of the essence. Let’s pursue the 2030 agenda in the truest sense of political responsibility and commitment.

The time for government to hide and the citizens to bide is over and no matter how slow we are in our political development, let us never walk back. The SDGs represent the strength, direction and commitment required never to disown the poor or bend the rules for the insolent political profiteers.

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The experience of female Uber drivers in Lagos Rafiq Raji “Dr Raji is chief economist at Macroafricaintel. He was previously an Africa Economist at Standard Chartered Bank, London, UK. (Twitter: @ DrRafiqRaji)”

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he odds that you would happen on a female Uber driver in Lagos are slim. Still, Nigeria is not Saudi Arabia; women are free to do whatever they like here. Well, mostly. And if you make the error of thinking they could not drive any better than their male counterparts, kindly try fighting for right of way with a woman in Lagos traffic. Needless to say, you may hesitate to do so next time. There are probably as many women as there are men on Lagos roads. Women at the wheel of public transport vehicles are not as many. It is not the norm. So even as there are many of them driving all sorts of vehicles in their private capacity, from those with little engines to the ubiquitous sport utility vehicles (SUVs), it is still a novelty to find female chauffeurs.

If there are, they would certainly be reluctant to work for men. And their fellow women are not likely to hire them. Wives would certainly shudder at the thought in these parts.

And even Uber itself found out all too quickly how difficult it was to secure cars from “partners” (car owners) for their few female drivers. That is, when the firm used to facilitate the connection. Now, it does not.

At least, that is what Blessing Onuh, one of the ride-sharing firm’s first

female drivers in Lagos says.

“I was actually the first female Uber [driver] that went for the exams…there were more than hundred guys and I was the only lady…they actually thought I was one of the officials.”A few years ago, having just arrived from Abuja, after being let go at a government job over there, Blessing took an interest in being an Uber driver after taking a ride with one. She applied, did the training and eventually got a car.

That last bit did not come about easily. Many of the car owners she approached turned her down for no other reason than she was a woman.

“Women have issues”, was the typical refrain. As Blessing herself admits, many potential riders would cancel their trips the moment they see her picture. When asked how she knew this, she says since she is able to tell from the app if she is the only driver in an area, if a potential rider cancels a trip persistently, there could be only one reason why. Turns out a couple of those who did choose to take a ride with her sometimes did so for mischievous reasons. One was “laughing and touching my lap” during a trip, she vouchsafes. Even as she stood firm against his advances, he persisted. Eventually, she stopped the car and confronted him. He got the message. Even then, the male rider was furious. He wondered how she could be indifferent to the “dollars” he was flashing, his long custom that day already and so on.“If you don’t want it, you say you don’t want it”, was his final remonstration. Turns out male drivers also get sexually harrassed. Some female riders, upon reaching their destinations, would instead of paying the fare, offer to pay in kind, Blessing reveals, confirming views from an earlier interview with one of her male colleagues, who says he never took anyone of them up on

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I have been harrassed, they blocked me.

But they didn’t take anything because I fought back. I lost a fingernail…We got to Yaba, an isolated area, so I told him the price, 2000 something, he was like ‘give me your phone,’ I laughed, I thought maybe now, maybe he is trying to crack me up or scare me

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the offer.

But surely she must have liked some of the riders who made advances at her, and perhaps dated one?

After a while, she admits to having dated one. He was not like the others who would say “come to my house!” at the slightest chance, she says with a chuckle.“That ‘come to my house’ is so annoying”, she adds. Let us just say she thought this one was a gentleman and was vindicated afterwards by how he treated her; going on interesting dates and so on. It did not last, though. What happened?“I did not have time for that relationship” On a date one time, while watching a movie at the cinema, Blessing glanced at her phone and understandably, perused an ongoing chat in the Uber group

(there are many) on Whatsapp she was a member of. Something caught her attention: a driver announced he had just made a huge sum from a trip. She stood up and left for the door.“I just told him I’m coming I want to use the restroom”. She did not go to the bathroom. Blessing went back to work. Of course, she lost the gentleman. Like her male colleagues, she has mouths to feed, school fees to pay for siblings and so on. And like everybody else, her fixation on her economic goals have come at a personal cost. But how safe is it for a female Uber driver in Lagos? Has she been attacked before? “I have been harrassed, they blocked me. But they didn’t take anything because I fought back. I lost a fingernail…We got to Yaba, an isolated area, so I told him the price, 2000 something, he was like ‘give me your phone,’ I laughed, I thought maybe now, maybe he is trying to crack me up or scare me”.

No, he was not. Her friends told her she should give up her phone next time. Blessing insists “anything that has to do with my money, I have to fight for it.”

Apart from driving for Uber, Blessing also drives clients to locations outside Lagos. Asked if she is ever worried about the risks. She takes precautions, working only with people she has known for a while or referred to by trusted acquaintances. And at the destination, she lodges at a different hotel from the client. As many females would admit, most men in Lagos would make advances at women they find attractive; especially one whose details they already have via the Uber app. Harassment is rare, however. But with their phone numbers in hand, Blessing and the other few female drivers get a barrage of calls. Solution? She keeps two phones. And for the business

line, she blocks the errant male callers. Ironically, it is the female riders that tend to be more problematic. “I don’t talk to drivers”, goes one. And when making requests, some do so at the top of their voice, barely hiding their disdain. “Transferred aggression” is what Blessing calls it. Cash in hand afterwards, Blessing could care less. It is a hustle. It must be a lucrative venture, then. Not as much as before, she admits. Uber used to take a lower cut of their earnings before. But yes, it still pays the bills. In a good week, she could earn as much as 100 thousand naira. A bad week is when she earns half as much. Out of that amount, she makes a weekly payment of 30 thousand naira to fulfil her hire purchase agreement obligations. The car would be hers after she completes the payments.

Any future plans? Wouldn’t she rather do something else? Does she not want to settle down? And clearly there are not many Nigerian men, if any, that would allow her continue as an Uber driver after taking their vows. Most female Uber drivers are single or divorced with kids. She would not mind being a housewife if she finds a good husband, Blessing admits. As the retail business interests her, a supermarket might be something she would try her hands on. She could also buy cars for drivers to make payments to her, become a “partner”, that is. Does Uber provide any support for its female drivers? There is a “Woman week”, Blessing says. But she believes they could do much more.

likely to prefer gradual deceleration, which fosters stability, over more abrupt slowing growth, which is perceived as disruptive.

Finally, China’s potential growth continues to indicate that a growth rate that exceeds 6.0% is achievable and viable, though certainly not an easy task in the current international environment.

Fiscal, monetary accommodation, and rebalancing The government is likely to prefer supportive fiscal policy as the primary tool to ensure stable growth. In this quest, fixed investment, particularly infrastructure, is expected to play a key role as consumption and export growth are likely to slow – the former due to increasing consumer caution, the latter due to the trade wars.

China’s monetary stance is likely to remain accommodative, which implies mild, but manageable rise in inflation (closer to 2.5% rather than 2.2% in 2018). Consequently, Chinese yuan is likely to soften against the U.S. dollar up to 7.0, as long as the current tensions overshadow the bilateral U.S.-Sino relations.

While Washington is pushing for abrupt changes in Chinese economic policies, Beijing will stay the course, as President Xi Jinping said in the recent 40-year anniversary of Chinese economic reforms.

In practice, policy focus will continue to shift from cyclical stimu-

lus and debt-fueled growth toward structural reforms, higher-quality growth and the rebalancing of Chinese economy from investment and exports toward consumption and innovation by 2030.

Elusive international headwinds If, in the course of 2019, U.S. trade wars broaden disruptively from exports to investment and intellectual property, international environment may require substantial downgrading of economic prospects in many major economies.

Even in a benign scenario, the global recovery that began in the advanced West in the aftermath of the global crisis of 2008, thanks in great part to China’s dramatic growth through those years, is set to slow down in 2019-20.

The major advanced economies are heading toward a complicated, economically challenging and politically divisive stagnation. Unfortunately, much of these downside risks remain under-valued in the West.

The greater the gap between misguided perceptions and economic realities, the more challenging will be the awakening.

• An edited version was published by New African magazine in December 2018

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China’s 2019 growth outlook

DAN STEINBOCK Steinbock is the founder of Difference Group and has served at the India, China and America Institute (US), Shanghai Institute for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more, see http://www.differencegroup.net/

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mid the Christmas meltdown, the Dow Jones plunged to less than 22,000, the lowest since September 2017. Thereafter, it soared over 1,000 points; the biggest single-day point gain ever. Nevertheless, it has declined 4,000 points in two months.

It is this historical market volatility associated with the Trump administration that now overshadows world economy and China. In recent weeks, the U.S. economy has become increasingly exposed to policy mistakes and drastic market fluctuations.

In 2019, Chinese economy will have to cope with great international uncertainty and even more extraordinary market volatility.

Short-term fluctuations versus longer-term trends

Recently, New York Times reported that China was amid “a steep downturn.” Indeed, since the U.S. trade wars last spring, there has been much chatter in the West about the “China’s economic slowdown.”

Once again, the not-so-informed observers have focused on quarterly growth, at the expense of annualized growth. In this regard, 2018 was an exceptional year in China and elsewhere. In the first half, global recovery was still gaining ground.

In the second half, Trump’s trade wars caused substantial collateral damage that will be felt even more in 2019, in the absence of a constructive reconciliation.

Yet, China’s growth forecast for 2018 remains 6.5- 6.6%, after a strong first half. Moderation will ensue in the second half and especially in 2019, depending on U.S. tariffs and slower demand worldwide.

For 2019, Chinese GDP growth could eventually achieve around 6.2% in full-year growth, assuming policymakers succeed in the challenging balancing act to sustain higher-quality growth while suppressing faster debt accumulation.

The government’s GDP growth target, which may be formally announced only next March, is likely to reflect steady deceleration, due to international headwinds, particularly the trade wars, and more secular pressures, such as demographics,

slowing cyclical growth, and other environmental, debt and real estate market issues Overall, such deceleration is normal after years of rapid industrialization and growth acceleration, however.

Decelerating growth, but rising incomes If Chinese government would ignore its commitment to poverty eradication, higher living standards and sustainability, it could achieve more rapid growth, but only at the cost of people’s livelihood, living standards and environment.

On the other hand, policymakers cannot accept too much deceleration either. While the country’s economic growth is decelerating, Chinese living standards should continue to rise. The effort to double average incomes – as measured by GDP per capita, with purchasing power parity – between 2010 and 2020 requires growth to remain around 6.1% in 2019-2020.

In international comparison, Chinese growth rate is currently positioned to decelerate from 9.6% to 5.6% between 2008 and 2023. Despite this deceleration, living standards will almost double. In 2008, Chinese GDP per capita was less than $7,900. By 2023, it could increase to more than $21,200.

That would indicate that Chinese living standards would almost double in 2010-20.

Furthermore, since current growth is around 6.5%, policy authorities are

• The original briefing was published

by Chinaorg - China’s official government portal - on December 28, 2018.

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Editorial Publisher/CEO

Frank Aigbogun editor Anthony Osae-Brown DEPUTY EDITORS John Osadolor, Abuja Bill Okonedo NEWS EDITOR Patrick Atuanya EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SERVICES Oghenevwoke Ighure GENERAL MANAGER, ADVERT Adeola Ajewole ADVERT MANAGER Ijeoma Ude FINANCE MANAGER Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Patrick Ijegbai CIRCULATION MANAGER John Okpaire DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan

Tuesday 01 January 2019

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Hoping for a better year in 2019

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018 is a year to forget for many Nigerians. The year began with punishing fuel queues and gruesome killings by herdsmen and cult gangs that are yet to be identified and brought to justice. If Nigerians thought the authorities will act to stop the killings, they were wrong. One senior member of the government after another weighed in on the side of the killer herdsmen with one advising those being killed that it was better for them to surrender their lands to the killers rather than be killed. Sadly, the year is ending with a resurgence of the Boko Haram and ISIS attacks in Borno state putting a lie to the often repeated claim by the government that the Boko Haram insurgency has been technically defeated.

Many brave Nigerian soldiers in their thousands have lost their lives in recent months to bold attacks of the insurgents.

Rather than concentrating their attacks on soft targets, the insurgents have taken the initiative and are on a major offensive against Nigerian troops across the various areas of operations. That is not the tactics of a defeated or even weakened enemy. It is

the tactics of a reinvigorated and determined foe singularly committed to winning the war.

Sadly, the Nigerian government and military authorities took so much delight in the early successes against the insurgent groups and thought all was over and returned to business as usual. Although billions of dollars were allocated to security both in the budget and via special request by the presidency, stories from the fronts show a dispirited, confused, badly equipped and under-fed army taking a beating from a determined, highly equipped and mobile insurgent group(s).

As we suspected, a Defence and Foreign Affairs report published by the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA) – a Washington-based non government organization - have identified massive corruption among the military chiefs as one of the reasons Nigeria is losing the war against the insurgent group(s). The ISSA report was categorical that the government has lost control of the engagement with Boko Haram and could show no instance when the government presently had tactical, theatre, strategic, or information dominance of any aspect of the conflict. According to its assessment, while the insurgent

groups grow stronger, the Nigerian military grows weaker and beset by morale collapse.

Like we all suspect, the report avers that the top brass of the military is more interested in stopping the leakage of information about massive corruption in the military in the name of fighting Boko Haram than actually fighting the insurgent group.

On the economy, nothing has really changed. Although the economy exited recession, it is still growing far below population growth meaning Nigerians are still getting poorer by the day. It is no wonder the World Poverty Clock ranks Nigeria as the country with the most people living in extreme poverty in the world; and that the figure will continue to rise as 8, 000 people slide into the extreme poverty hole in a day.

No doubt, the policies of the administration are largely to blame. Haven inherited an economy in danger due to falling oil prices, the administration wrongly decided on a raft of policies meant to shrink the private sector and restore the primacy of the state in the economy. This had the effect of crowding out the private sector, resulting in huge job loses and de-industrialisation in such massive scale that Nigeria is

now grappling with unemployment in such a scale that the number of its unemployed and hopeless citizens is more than the populations of many countries on the African continent.

This is a waiting and ticking time bomb the government has no clue as to how to handle.

On the final piece of policy so dear to the heart of the president – fighting corruption, we have seen how the whole concept has been turned into a joke and the anti-corruption agencies, especially the EFCC being turned into an agency of the All Progressives Party (APC) harassing and persecuting only opposition politicians while APC stalwarts credibly accused of corruption with ample evidences continue to exercise untrammelled powers and bestrides the polity as great political colossus. The names of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, Kano state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje readily comes to mind.

We hope this year, the governance of the country will experience a rebirth and whoever wins the forthcoming elections will put machinery in motion to rebuild trust and begin to tackle the myriad problems bedevilling the country. We wish you all a happy new year!

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Dick Kramer - Chairman Imo Itsueli Mohammed Hayatudeen Afolabi Oladele Vincent Maduka Keith Richards Opeyemi Agbaje Amina Oyagbola Bolanle Onagoruwa Fola Laoye Chuka Mordi Mezuo Nwuneli Charles Anudu Tunji Adegbesan Eyo Ekpo

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Marketers’ body says Ease-of-Doing business under threat over harassment of companies by NLRC Stories by Daniel Obi Media Business Editor

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ational Institute of Marketing of Nigeria has assessed the already low level of Ease of Doing business in Nigeria and believes that the hostile engagement by National Lottery Regulatory Commission, NLRC with some corporate organisations can compound the situation and dissuade investors from Nigeria.

The Institute said the Commission has been engaging corporate organisations demanding for payment of certain percentage of their budgets on consumer and sales promotion to the commission because of the Commission’s understanding that consumer and sales promotions are in relation to its roles in the management of lotteries in Nigeria.

According to the Institute, nowhere else in the world are consumer and sales promotions defined and classified as lottery. It clarified that consumer and sales promotions are recognised globally as integral part of the marketing function designed to offer additional incentives of a temporary nature to consumers.

It therefore said that “the harassment of our corporate members by the Commission is not helping the nation’s business environment; particularly now that the federal government is promoting the ‘ease of doing business’ campaign to ensure that Nigeria is the preferred destination for investors”.

Stating the Institute’s position at its fellows forum in Lagos recently, its President Tony Agenmonmen said NIMN has examined the regulations setting up the Commission and believes that it was patently clear that it was set up to regulate the activities of companies that have been

established for the sole purpose of lotteries . “Our corporate member companies are not established for lottery purposes and their memorandum and Articles of Association do not cover such activities” He said the marketing and investment world is watching the drama being enacted by NRLC in shutting down a very serious and responsible organisation like Nigerian Breweries that has been doing business in Nigeria for over 70 years.

The body therefore implored the Vice President and Minister of trade and investment to call NRLC to order before the Commission creates negative image for the achievement in the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

Also speaking at the forum, Chris Ogbechie, immediate past chairman, Board of Directors, Diamond

Bank Plc underscored the turbulent environment occasioned by changing consumer needs and expectations and therefore said marketers need to understand this and adjust accordingly.

“Even where consumer disposable income is dropping, can marketers give them what they can afford to pay. That affordability becomes important. If consumers don’t buy, that means manufacturers are not selling. If consumers are not buying what we are selling now, what else can we produce for them” Ogbechie who is also on the board of other private and public companies including Red Star Express Plc and National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc further challenged marketers and manufacturers to be more creative and innovative to give consumers what they can

afford. For instance, a consumer does not need a cow to drink milk, therefore a marketer can give consumers milk without compelling them to buy cow.

On what is limiting marketers to move ahead, Ogbechie said it depends on creativity to achieve a reasonable course. “The bottom line is that if a marketer cannot get customers to buy his products, then the creativity is not working. For instance, how come many people are not buying insurance products, if you make insurance simple, build trust, then there will be market” He said what grows any business are customers and if marketers cannot bring customers to buy the products, then the business will not grow. The rule therefore is how to understand the customer and serve him or her.

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9mobile gains second highest on ‘Top 50 Brands Nigeria’ Ranking

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mobile, Nigeria’s youth-focused telecommunication company, has emerged one of the highest year-on-year gainers on the list of ‘Top 50 Brands Nigeria’ 2018 ranking.

According to the ‘Top 50 Brands Nigeria’ 2018 report, also codenamed #IAMBRANDNIGERIA, which was unveiled in Lagos recently, the telco moved 12 spots up this year, a significant leap from the position it occupied in 2017.

The report also stated that 9mobile was ranked among the top 50 brands for its innovation, customer-centricity, youth empowerment and impactful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Speaking at the ceremony, the Editor in Chief of Brand Nigeria, Taiwo Oluboyede, said, “9mobile is also a socially responsible brand, and its CSR is based on platforms of Education, Health and the Environment.

Apple exudes luxury, affordability, launches iPhone XR in Lagos BATA JEREMIAH

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L -R: Mayokun Fadeyibi, head, commercial operations Cars45; Mohammed Iyamu, VP Trading Cars45; Etop Ikpe, Ceo/ co-founder Cars45; Julius Lawal Adenuga, national chairman, Nata and Adebayo Rasheed at the signing of the Cars45 - Nata Partnership Deal.

utting luxury and affordability at the front burner, Apple, the world’s leading smart phone maker, has, unveiled its largest smart phone device, iPhone XR at it’s store in Ikeja City Mall, Lagos.

The iPhone XR, which is now available in all iPone outlets, is said to be brilliant in every way as it possesses an A12 bionic shape which allows processing to be very fast.

It also has a Liquid Retina Screen Display, making it one of the best screen every done by Apple on an

Nigeria’s re-branding responsibility rests on citizens

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oth federal and state governments in Nigeria have over the years not paid serious attention to nation re-branding efforts. Some of the initiatives in this direction were not enduring and did not yield measurable impact as the

country continues to stand on poor image rating in the global market with its socio-economic consequences.

With government lethargy in this course, the private sector which deeply understands the significance of branding among comity of nations, is taking the responsibility of image building to the citizens. This is because the value of the Nigeria brand directly affects Nigerians personally.

A project, IAMBRANDNIGRIA focusing on Nigerians has therefore begun with the aim of devising various means of getting the attention of the critical mass and “getting them to see the need for us to protect, promote and jealously guide our most valuable asset, our national brand”, says Taiwo Oluboyede, CEO of Top

50 Brands Nigeria, the initiator of the project.

“It is a private sector driven initiative towards enhancing the value of the Nigeria brand, a clarion call to 190 million stakeholders of the brand for open endorsement and enhanced association as we use the stories of tenacity, resilience and the entrepreneurial spirit of many individuals and corporate brands that have been able to achieve success against all odds as a positive and better narrative to enhance the brand Nigeria. This is called the Nigeria spirit” Taiwo said Nigerians have compelling stories of achieving success against all odds. “We are a very tenacious people, we are aspirational.

These are undeniable qualities that always differentiate a Nigerian and a

sellable value too. We are using this positive attribute as a better narrative and how we should be perceived by people”.

According to him, one of the main activities in the project is the annual #IAMBRANIGERIA Award where the project will specially recognise and celebrate certain individual and corporate brands who have become proponents of value addition to the Nigeria brand through their endeavour, putting the brand on the global map for the right reasons.

The award is recognising Nigerians and Nigerian brands in Humanitarian, Journalism, Entertainment, Academic, Political Office, Governance, Sport, youth influencing, New Initiative, Innovative Product among others.

iPhone.

Speaking to Businessday, Kolawole Ogunwumi, the assistant marketing manager Redington Nigeria, said that the iPhone is beautiful in every way as it possesses features that are amazing.

He also expounded on the affordability of the product. “The product is more affordable than some other iPhone products which include the iPhone 10x and 10x Max.

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BRANDING PR practitioners tasked to be innovative, professional to grow, survive competition Stories by Daniel Obi

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ublic Relations professionals in the country have been urged to be awake to innovative ideas that could resolve issues relating to the profession and their clients in order to attain the needed growth required as well as respectable position among their counterparts.

This was the submission of the Chief Consultant of TPT International, Adetokunbo Modupe, who was guest speaker at the December 2018 edition of the Lagos PR Clinic of the state chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) under the theme: Ideapreneurship: The Nature of our Trade.

He postulated that PR practitioners are ideapreneurs who should be driven by intellectual ideas that are well tailored towards clients’ needs and their target publics for desired results, and not be inundated with business gains in the manner of entrepreneurs.

Modupe, a Har vard-

trained ideapreneur with over two decades experience in PR, affirmed that since the profession is dynamic, practitioners should re-examine their business modules as ideapreneurs, think and develop ideas that would invariably translate to income generation.

“Don’t let the world drive you, drive the world with your ideas. This keeps us in a more respectable position before our clients who should not think that we are in the business just to make money. We should not see ourselves as

entrepreneurs but there is nothing wrong in thinking about wealth” he explained.

Modupe described ideapreneurs as deep thinkers who create jobs, have a mind of their own; explore alternatives to the norms by fostering ideas and are not motivated by pedestrian or temporary success but enduring legacies.

He further stated that PR is about thinking and managing thought processes for the benefit of other people’s reputation, and likened it to innovation pentathlon, a structured process that re-

moves the risk of failure as ideas progress.

According to him, great men like Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple; Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Motors; and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon who have all made global impact in their various endeavours were driven by creative ideas.

“It is time we sit down and say to ourselves, what do we really do? If you do not know you are an ideapreneur, you will let yourself down. So let’s change the way we do our business, as we need to conquer our fears,” Modupe challenges his fellow practitioners.

He noted that the PR industry is hardly recognised, and it is partly responsible for the way clients rate practitioners.One of the reasons he identified as responsible for this is the proliferation of quacks, which is fallout of the porous entry barrier into the profession. “This has earned the profession a depressing image,” he added.

The TPT boss however called on the NIPR to take bold steps in checkmating the activities of these quacks in order to attain development in the industry.

Marketing expert gives Nigerian states brand positioning strategies

I

t is estimated that more than US$2 billion is spent every day on international tourism and this figure is increasing. Many nations and cities including some African countries such as Rwanda are seriously embarking on destination branding and marketing as a lucrative product to tap into the opportunities this offers as next industry.

Recently, Lolu Akinwunmi, the CEO of Prima Garnet therefore offered some suggestions to sleepy Nigerian states, using Lagos as a case study to shirk off lethargy, induced by easy oil money and key into international tourist destinations with the objective to generate sufficient earnings to ensure economic growth.

Recognising that there is no perfect brand, as nations and cities have their strengths and weaknesses, Lolu who spoke at Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria annual lecture in Lagos strongly advised Lagos State in addition to other states to set up a structure as part of PPP arrangement for their branding project, a trending global scenario.

Under the structure, he

suggested for an ad hoc committee made up of seasoned professionals and experienced civil servants to determine the strategy and scope of the branding project. “On approval of its recommendation, the committee will hand over to a special purpose vehicle set up by the government to be known as the Lagos Branding Project Business Support Group (LBPBSG).

“The mandate of the group would be to implement the agreed strategy of the Committee by putting a structure and strategy in place to run the project. It will also generate the funds and goodwill needed for the implementation through the agreed PPP process, but especially from the private sector, showing them opportunities and benefits for

involvement”.

Lolu further said that for reasons of probity and accountability, and to assure prospective sponsors and the Nigerian public, “we propose the setting up of the Lagos State Branding Project Fund (LBPF) which will be managed under the supervision of whomever the governor designates, the CEO and the LBPBSG Advisory Board. The LBPF will be independent of direct government control and be open to regular audit from a properly appointed independent audit firm. The board and management will also ensure that quarterly reports are generated which will be made available to all sponsors and donors and all stakeholders to the Fund.

We expect this to further engender believability and trust from stake holders. The state government should be prepared to add its own counterpart fund for every Naira generated through this source”.

He said what states like Lagos need is a strategic brand management plan which goes beyond the traditional approach of brand promotion. “This way, the startup point is a holistic audit of

Brand Lagos through the eyes of all its stakeholders” However, Lolu, former chairman of Advertising Practitioners Council however said the government needs to “live the brand”.

“What you are saying must not be any different from what you are projecting”.

During the panel discussion, Mar y Ikoku, a media expert encouraged marketing professionals to help states by projecting positive aspects of Nigeria.

Shola Fajobi of Brooks and Blake PR, challenged government to put infrastructure in place and citizens will be the first marketers of Nigeria.

Odion Olebua, a PR expert regretted that the state of international airport in Lagos, first entry point of most foreigners is not in good condition and should be addressed by the government, while Joe Onuorah of APCON called for the strengthening of law and order as a strategy to achieve state branding.

Speaking earlier, former chairman of BJAN, Goddie Ofose said the discussion on destination branding was aimed at eliciting stakeholders’ awareness on tourism.

BD Brand Talk

Why are integrated media campaigns so challenging?

Mike Umogun

T

he latest Getting Media Right finds that marketers globally continue to struggle to assess their marketing performance due to disconnects in strategies for reaching consumers. So why are integrated media campaigns so challenging Now in its fifth year, Getting Media Right examines the current state of marketing in a connected world and it is based on input from 468 senior marketers spanning advertiser brands, media companies and agencies globally. It reveals an industry that continues to diversify its media usage and increasingly requires better understanding of how ideas, content, and media need to be activated in tandem to create holistic marketing that drives brand growth.

Disconnects between growth strategies mean that many marketers are missing opportunities for growth, with 40 percent still using ROI measurement approaches that are primarily focused on short-term sales. This, despite an overwhelming majority of respondents, 85 percent, saying that the most important approach to ROI is a blend of both short and long-term measures.

Key findings include: While confidence has

grown from last year, less than half of advertisers are sure of their ability to create insights from data. Even within agencies and media companies, fewer than 20 percent are very confident, indicating the industry is struggling to manage all the data that is available.

Creating insights is dependent upon pulling together the right information and tools to monitor and optimize campaigns, yet marketers are struggling to connect the dots on performance across channels. 78 percent strongly or somewhat agree that it is difficult to assess how well brands perform across channels.

An even greater 84 percent say a contributing factor is the blind spots in digital measurement.

Advertiser confidence in their media mix has grown slightly from last year, but 45 percent are still not confident that their organization has the optimal media mix, of which only 13 percent say they have very integrated media strategies.

82 percent of marketers believe they have integrated marketing strategies, but the ir efforts are not translating fully to consumers. Conversely, our recent AdReaction: The Art of Integration study found only 58 percent of consumers see campaigns as being integrated.

Michael. Umogun @kantarmillwardbrown.com

“33” Export rewards 33 friends with Boxing Day gifts “33” Export last week rewarded 33 friends with Boxing Day gifts.

This initiative was borne out of the desire to remind its consumers on the reason for the season and the true essence of Boxing Day. The beer brand took to its Facebook page to announce the competition on Christmas Eve, Facebook users were asked to simply

nominate a special friend they would like to gift a Boxing Day surprise.

The selected 33 winners were so delighted, taking to social media to share their excitement, whilst thanking the beer brand for making the festive season extra special and rewarding.

One of the lucky winners who preferred to remain anonymous spoke of his excitement.“I felt really special. Knowing that my friend nominated me to get a Boxing Day gift makes me feel really proud and thankful. “33” Export has really put a smile on my face this season.”

“33” Export is a quality lager beer brewed to the highest standards for a crisp and refreshing taste.

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Leadway Pensure looks to 2019 with new Lagos branch

Pg. 16

C O M PA N Y N E W S A N A LY S I S A N D I N S I G H T

OIL & GAS

What to expect, as Otedola divests holdings in Forte Oil GUEST WRITER

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orte Oil Plc, a major downstream oil and gas player has taken major decisions in 2018 that will change the structure, operations and management of the company in 2019.

In May 2018, the company announced plans to divest from its power generating (Amperion Power Distribution Company), upstream servicing (Forte Upstream Services Limited, FUS) businesses, along with its downstream operations in Ghana (AP Oil & Gas Ghana), to focus its core operations around the marketing and distribution of petroleum products and lubricants. This was approved by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held during the year.

On the 24th of December 2018, the management also notified the public of the decision by the majority shareholder, Mr Femi Otedola, to divest his entire holdings, of 75%, in order to focus on opportunities in refinery and petrochemicals. This includes his 186.26mn units of direct shares and 838.47mn shares in indirect holdings. The holdings are to be sold to the Prudent Energy Team, through Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited.

Due to the liquidity issues in the power sector, the company’s decision to focus on the downstream segment can be a good strategy to fully harness the opportunities within the downstream value chain. The company’s effort in expanding its retail footprint alongside the introduction of new higher margin products, like Havoline and Solar, should support the company’s bottom-line going forward. Asides the positive long term performance of the company, the corporate governance of FO might also be strengthened further given the institutional ownership of majority of the shares, in the aftermath of the divestment.

However, the major downside is the sentiment surrounding the proposed exit of the majority shareholder, as this decision raises varying questions as to the long term outlook of the company. We believe the company could have expanded its portfolio by raising capital to go into refin-

ing and petroleum chemicals, hence, the question therefore remains why this option was not explored. Also, the dearth of information on the Prudent Energy Team and Ignite Investments and Commodities

Limited raises concern over the proposed transaction, as we are not able to further access the strength of the stated firms.

On the back of this, we advise a SELL for investors

with short-term investment horizon as the current rally on the stock is temporary because it is neither supported by the current state of operations of the company nor the outlook based on the recently

announced 75% divestment.

For investors seeking long term value, we do not foresee the price staying above NGN40.00, hence, we also advise a SELL for investors that currently have the stock.

Edited by LOLADE AKINMURELE (loladeakinmurele@gmail.com) Graphics: CHINEDUM ONYEMA

A re-entry at a lower price, possibly between NGN21.00 - NGN25.00, with an exit range between NGN35.00 – NGN41.00 should however yield more benefit over the long-term.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS PENSION FUNDS

Leadway Pensure looks to 2019 with new Lagos branch FRANK ELEANYA

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s 2019 beckons, Leadway Pensure has expanded its services to customers living within Victoria Island, a major business hub for Nigeria’s commercial capital. The new branch which the company unveiled in December has a mandate to offer unparalleled customer experience.

“We have come a long way from where we began in 2005 and we are determined to continually grow with our customers who have entrusted us with their financial future,” Ronke Adedeji, managing director, Leadway Pensure PFA said at the launch cocktail that took place at the new branch’s vicinity.

“This branch has been put together with care and attention fit for a branch such as ours.

If you look around I am certain you will agree we are in the process of creating an ambience which will be welcoming to both clients and staff.”

The branch unveiling event which brings the total to 13 branches across Nigeria, also provided an opportunity for attendees to network and celebrate the new milestone with the organization.

Adedeji described the clients as “the reason we exist and the reason we will never cease to innovate and expand our delivery of value. On behalf of our board, management and members of staff, I say thank you for sharing our dream, for giving us the opportunity to serve you and for joining us in celebrating the opening of our new branch office.

Aside 13 branches, Leadway Pensure also has 20 service centers nationwide. A state-

BANKING

L-R: Tajudeen Quadri, senior special assistant to the Lagos State governor on community affairs; Akeem Omoyele Sulaimon, special adviser to the Lagos State governor oncommunities and communication; Fola Padonu, permanent secretary, Lagos State Ministry of local government and communication affairs, and Sherifat Ewumi-Dosumu, director, community development department, Lagos State Ministry of local government and communication affairs, during the 2018 community day celebration and end of the year Get-Together by the ministry in Lagos. Pic by Olawale Amoo

commitment to providing customers with memorable and excellent services.

“It is worthy of note that Leadway Pensure PFA

INSURANCE

CONSUMER GOODS

HEALTHCARE

Vitafoam emerges sole gainer

Fidson beats Neimeth, Morison to top spot

Unity emerges best performing NEM is top dog for third year bank stock in 2018 running

T

he banking space has been active, flooded by material trading information; delisting, retirement of board members, divestments and even mergers. It is little wonder why the stocks from the sector continued to rank on the top traded volume chart week on week.

Market tensions and political uncertainties, however, weighed as the sector’s performance.

Similarly, the sector breadth at 0.78x, was in favour of the laggards, as nine (9) bears outpaced seven (7) bulls apiece.

Unity Bank ranked as the top performing counter this year with a share price increase of 84.91% to close at NGN0.98.

Trailing the counter were Sterling bank(+71.30%), defunct Skye bank (+54.00%), Diamond bank (+32.67%), and First City Monument Bank (+31.08%).

However, on the los-

ers’ end was Access bank (-34.93%), Union bank (-28.21%), United Bank of Africa (-23.79%), Jaiz bank (-19.05%) and Fidelity bank (-18.70%).

At the end of the year, the sector closes with seven (7) gainers and nine (9) losers with the top gainers being the Tier 2 banks and penny stocks in the sector. With the Tier 2 banks holding more potential for stronger gains, given their relatively low prices, we saw bargain hunting activities pervade these counters.

However, all gains were offset by the losses on the heavyweight counters in the sector.

In the coming year, expectations are thatTier 1 banking stocks will improve, supporting the expected gains on Tier 2 banking stocks.

However, the possibility of political uncertainties, emerging market tensions and strong capital outflows, could snuff out any gains.

T

he sector underperformed this year with the 9.62% YoY decline in the NSEINS10 Index. Five (5) gainers and twenty (20) losers settled the sector breadth at 0.25x.

NEM Insurance closed the year at the top of the gainers’ chart for the third consecutive year. The stock gained 54.22% YoY to close at NGN2.56.

The counter was followed by Continental Reinsurance, Custodian, AIICO, and PRESTIGE, which gained 36.43%, 34.96%, 32.69% and 2.00%.

However, AFRINSURE, Cornerstone Insurance , SUNU Assuarnce, Mutual Benefits, REGALINS, STDINSURE, UNIC, and UNIVINSURE were the worst performing stocks in the sector, with a loss of 60.00% each.

The price of most counters slid this year, following the implementation of the par value rule in January 2018. The performance of the sector also reflected the bearish trend in the market for the most parts of the year. However, stocks like NEM, CUSTODIAN, and AIICO had impressive outings in 2018.

T

he consumer goods started the year on the back of bullish investor sentiments, but at the close of the year the sector closed in the red zone.

The year-to-date ret u r n a s i n d i cat e d by the NSEFBT10 stood at -24.35%, as the sector b re a d t h f o r t h e y e a r stood at 0.06x, reflecting one (1) gainer and Seventeen (17) losers.

Vitafoam Plc was the only gainer this year, with its share price advancing 33.33%, to close at NGN4.00.

On the other hand, Dunlop shed -60.00% o f i t s s h a re p r i c e t o top the losers’ chart, closing at NGN0.20.

PZ Cussons (-44.42%),

is one of Nigeria’s most capitalized Pensions Funds Administrator and a member of the Leadway Group, one of the country’s big-

ges financial groups with investments in insurance, pensions, asset management amongst others,” the statement noted.

ment from the company sent to BusinessDay noted that this is in response to clients’ needs and a step in furtherance of the brand’s

International Breweries (-44.04%), Dangote Flour (-43.62%) and Nigerian Breweries (-39.21%) were the other laggards for the year.

With stiff competit i o n a m o n g b re w e ries and declining sales revenue across board, unimpressive earnings triggered sell-offs leading to lower valuations save for sector heavy weight like NESTLE and UNILEVER. Analysts at Lagosbased Meristem do not envisage an upturn in the near term considering the inflationary risks due to the forthcoming election spending which may dampen cost inputs thereby putting pressure on earnings.

F

idson (+33.78%) emerged as the top gainer in 2018, closing at NGN4.95. Neimeth Pharmaceuticals and Morison were also gainers in the year, with respective price advancements of 14.67% and 3.77%.

In contrast, Union Dac (-46.00%) was the top laggard in the year. Other losers were Pharmadeko Plc (-36.44%), GlaxosmithKline (-32.90%), Meyer (-15.71%) and May & Baker (-5.77%).

Healthcare stocks under the coverage of Meristem closed the year in the negative zone, as the index shed -18.83% in the year.

With three (3) gainers and five (5) losers, the sector breadth settled at 0.60x.

The unimpressive performance of many counters in the sector affected investor sentiment. In the coming year, there are expectations for a modest improvement in earnings performance. The relatively low valuations of the counters should also drive the share price performance of the players in the sector.

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INDUSTRIAL GOODS

CCNN advances by 110.00%

T

he industrial goods sector closed the year in the red zone, in line with the general market.

The sector index has returned -37.73% this year. However, seven (7) gainers and four (4) losers emerged, pegging the sector breadth at 1.75x.

Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) emerged as the year’s top gainer, following a 110.00% advancement of its share price to close the year at

NGN19.95.

Beta Glass (33.11%), Portland Paint (14.55%), CAP (2.50%) and Berger (1.30%) also featured on the top gainers’ chart for the year.

On the other hand, Lafarge WAPCO emerged as the year’s worse performing counter, shedding -72.15%, to close the year at NG12.50. First Aluminium (-28.00%), Dangote Cement (-20.43%) and CUTIX (-11.44%) were the other losers in the sector.

The sector’s weak perfor-

mance can be attributed to the decline in the prices of heavyweights; Dangote Cement and WAPCO, which was largely driven by unimpressive earnings and debt burden on WAPCO. Although the Company has since proposed a rights issue of NGN89.21 billion, analysts still hold a bleak outlook on its performance. The market will be on hand for impressive financial scorecards from Dangote Cement and CCNN that have the potential to drive prices north.

L-R: Friday Momoh, area sales manager, NB Plc, Owerr; Austine Okweni, regional trade marketing manager, NB Plc; Flavour Nabania, Life Continental Lager Beer brand ambassador; Chidi Egwu, brand manager, Life Continental Lager Beer, NB Plc, and Idowu Adeshina, regional business manager, NB Plc, at the recently concluded Bridge Of Progress Party in Owerri, Imo State.

OIL AND GAS

Oil companies endure bearish year

I

n the course of 2018, bearish sentiment prevailed in the oil & gas sector as the NSEOILG5 index declined by 11.89%.

One (1) gainer and eight (8) losers settled the sector breadth at 0.13x.

ETERNA emerged as the only gainer in the sector this year, after advancing by 15.76% to close at NGN4.70.

On the losers’ list were J A PAU L O I L ( - 6 0 . 0 0 % ) , FO (-26.75%), OANDO (-18.20%), CONOIL (-16.96%) and TOTAL (-14.76) to close at NGN0.20, NGN31.85, NGN4.90, NGN23.25, NGN196.00 respectively.

Geopolitical tensions such as the withdrawal of US from Iran’s nuclear deal, supply

disruptions in Libya, Angola and Venezuela and improved demand supported crude prices in most parts of 2018; thus, driving the Brent crude oil price to a 4-year high of USD84pb in October 2018.

The increased shale oil production, rising US crude inventories, higher production data from major oil producing countries, alongside the temporary waivers granted on some Iranian exports dragged prices below USD60.00pb towards the end of the year. Brent crude price settled at USD52.03pb as at Friday, the 28th of December 2018.

The current downstream cost structure which impacted margins of most downstream players fueled the

negative investor mood towards counters in the space.

The better performance of companies in the upstream sector was evident in the upward movement of SEPLAT’s price at the beginning of the year.

The general market mood, however, dragged investor’s appetite, hence the price decline and there may be no major improvement in sentiment surrounding the sector.

Operations of most downstream players may generally remain the same, hence no enticing news to significantly drive prices.

Analysts however expect improved investor sentiment on counters like SEPLAT and MOBIL to drive the sector’s performance in 2019.

L-R: Bemigho Awala, consultant, XLR8; Calixthus Okoruwa, chief executive officer, XLR8, and Mukhtar Sirajo, president/Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, during the award presentation to XLR8 as PR Consultancy of the year, at the LaPRIGA Hattrick edition in Lagos

SERVICES

Weak investor sentiment pulls sector underwater

T

he ser vices sector m ov e d i n t a n d e m with the general market, getting dominated by the bears this year. This performance was reflected by the 5.59% decline in the MERISER U index this year.

Five (5) counters gained while fourteen (14) others declined to settle the sector breadth at 0.36x.

LEARNAFRCA outperfor me d other counters, gaining 54.55% to close at

NGN1.36. Other counters featured on the gainers’ list include C AVERTON (+47.29%), CILEASING (+37.98%), AIRSERVICE (+21.85%), and MEDV I E WA I R ( + 0 . 5 0 % ) . I n c o n t r a s t , N S LT E C H alongside TAN TAL IZER was the worst performing stock in the sector, as they shed 60.00% each to close at NGN0.20.

Other laggards in the year include ABCTRANS

(-42.00%), RTBRISCOE ( - 2 4 . 0 0 % ) a n d D A A RCOMM (-20.00%).

The performance of t h e s e c t o r w a s c h a r a cterised by negative sentiment, in line with the bearish mood of the equities market in general.

In the coming year, the sentiment towards the sector will continue to be reflective of the earnings performance of players in the sector.

L-R: Uaboi Agbebaku, company secretary/legal adviser, NB Plc.; Onyebuchi Nwangwu, Brand Manager, Star Lager Beer, and Emmanuel Oriakhi, marketing director NB Plc., at Warri again concert powered By Star Lager Beer.

AGRICULTURE

Okomu emerges sole gainer

T

here was only one gainer and three losers in the agricultural sector for the year. Hence, the sector breadth closed at 0.33x.

Okomu was the sole gainer in the sector this year, having gained by 12.57%

to close the year at NGN76.20.

FTNCOCOA on the other hand was the worst performing stock in the sector, having lost 60.00% of its price to close at NGN0.20.

LIVESTOCK and PRESCO lost 39.76% and 6.57%, prevailing as

the other under-performers in the sector.

The performance of the counters in the sector was driven by corporate earnings performance during the year, with investors penalizing players with unimpressive outings.

L-R: Grace Omo-Lamai, human resource director, Nigerian Breweries; Aniekwe Onyinye Jessica, winner, Star You Too Can Shine Competition, and Oludare Olateju, senior brand manager, Star Lager Beer, at the One Lagos Fiesta sponsored by Star Lager.

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C002D5556

Tuesday 01 January 2019

in association with

How Ethiopian Airlines is connecting Africa to the world - Nakasone Ethiopian Airline (ET) recently commenced its inaugural flight through Lome to Los Angeles. This is after the carrier had flown from Addis Ababa via Dublin to Los Angeles since 2015. Lome has therefore become the only and first to connect non-stop the West Coast of USA with West Africa. Connections to major West Africa cities: Lagos, Abuja, Accra, Dakar, Abidjan. This therefore implies that Los Angeles Airport (LAX) is only one of two airports in the world to service six continents with nonstop flights and the only U.S. West Coast gateway airport with nonstop service to Africa. This new air service is part of ET’s plans to connect more African countries to the United States of America and the rest of the world. Los Angeles no doubt is one of the most visited cities across the world, little wonder why ET is helping make travel experience seamless for passengers who would love to visit the city. In this interview with Ifeoma Okeke, Stephanie Nakasone, senior director, Tourism for Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board speaks on the Board’s partnership with ET and how this partnership will benefit passengers.

What are the benefits of this new air service by Ethiopian Airlines through Lome to Los Angeles? e are very excited that Ethiopian Airlines has commenced service from Lome to Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and this does not just include this new air service but it goes back to 2015 when they first started their service from Addis Ababa via Dublin. This particular new air service is of interest to us too because it actually connects West Africa to LAX. We feel there are a lot of potentials because there is a large Ethiopian community from the perspective of Ethiopia but there is also a large Nigerian community from Los Angeles. So I think there are a lot of opportunities for growth for Ethiopian Airlines and we are so excited to be working with them. Like I said, we have had this relationship since 2015 and at the same time, we work very closely with LAX in encouraging new air services especially from parts of the world where there is not a lot of services at this particular time.

In terms of figures, from 2015 till now, have you observed growth in passenger movement through Ethiopian Airlines to Los Angeles?

As far as passenger move-

W

ment and growth is concerned, obviously, the more new air service we get, the more increase in visitations we get. Right now what is key with Ethiopian Airlines as a partner with Los Angeles is that it connects Africa to LAX. The numbers may be smaller compared to our other key markets but that is where we find a challenge for us into making sure that there is respectable growth from this area of the world.

What is your projection on passenger movement for the next ten years?

It is difficult to project but it is also a matter of supply and demand. I think working with Ethiopian Airlines and working very closely with the travel trade in providing online training capabilities, so as to train them and give them additional information about Los Angeles as a destination will increase the numbers. We tell them things like how we sell it, what we have to offer, what to see, what to do and how to get around, amongst others. Once we are not there physically, we have our very large online presence where we can make up for not being present at any location.

Nigeria, which as a very big market has some colonial attachments with Britain. In Egypt and Ethiopia, there are lots of artefacts and historical locations.

Stephanie Nakasone, senior director, Tourism for Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board

What do you think will make an average African prefer coming to Los Angeles, than other places?

From an international visitation perspective, Los Angeles is a diverse city and community. For visitations all over the world and globally, we are very fortunate.

We are very active in promoting tourism to Los Angeles with all of our partners and from that perspective; we are the entertainment capital of the world. We have a large arts and cultural scene, we have things to see and do from every budget level. We have something for every-

one, whether from a small budget all the way up to the most luxurious visitor to Los Angeles. Whether you want to do a helicopter tour or a bike tour of Los Angeles and everything in between, there is something for everyone here in Los Angeles and we are very welcoming. So, that is our mantra and we look forward to welcoming more visitors from Africa.

In your partnership with Ethiopian airline, what are you both doing together to make LA a tourism destination you desire?

Sponsoring a familiarisation trip like this shows that

we want to showcase Los Angeles as a destination so that when you go back to your cities, you can pass the information of Los Angeles as a destination and how attractive it is that everyone should visit. We also work with Ethiopian airline on a travel trade side. So, we are hoping to operate with them on more travel trade business. On the travel trade side, we will be welcoming tour operators and travel agents who have the potentials to sell our destinations and are also supporters of Ethiopian airlines. We try to match all of it together and work together as one team. On a broader perspective, we also work with the state tourism board in California as well as our national tourism in USA. We work collectively as a tourism component to ensure we are successful in what we do. We are all interested in increasing the numbers no matter where in the world. We find this particular new air service interesting and we are excited about it.

You said the propose modernisation of LAX will cost about 14billion dollars.

What does this modernisation entails and how do you think other airports can emulate from this?

This is modernising the passenger experience. So, upon arrival, that is your first

key experience in the destination. So Los Angeles World Airport in the tourism board perspective also wants to provide the most perfect passenger experience upon arrival or departure, whether it means getting them through security quickly, providing amazing dining or shopping and not just the regular average airport retail shop or restaurant.

So, what we are looking at is bringing Los Angeles as a city and a destination to the overall experience of LAX as well. So, a lot of our local restaurants have set up shops at LAX. So, we are also looking at LAX and working with them in making LAX a destination as well.

In terms of passenger facilitation, how do you compare LAX and other major airports across the world?

Each airport is different and unique. For us, in working with our partners at LAX, we ensure that the passenger experience is a very positive one. We have got programmes where we have volunteers with dogs and puppies for passengers who may be a little bit on edge, to also help put a smile on your face when you are working with dogs. It helps also with families travelling with children. Just little things like these that we hope is really big in these small little ways I just mentioned helps ease the travel experience.

BDTECH

BUSINESS DAY

Tuesday 01 January 2019

19

In association with

9mobile plans to break new grounds in IoT, data services, mobile money in 2019 Stories by Jumoke Akiyode Lawanson

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mobile, has expressed gratitude to its customers and indeed all Nigerians for their steadfast support and loyalty in 2018, and assured them of continuous delivery of excellent services in the New Year.

Stephane Beuvelet, acting managing director of 9mobile, in an end-of-year message, said the new management of the telecommunications company is deeply grateful to customers and other stakeholders for their unwavering support and confidence 9mobile amidst the operating challenges in the outgoing year.

The acting MD said, in furtherance of its commitment to delivering superior customer experience, 9mobile is set to break many new grounds in 2019 by kick-starting a new strategic direction with bold

initiatives that guarantee optimum value to customers.

“From an aggressive enhancement of network capacity and innovative features to boost HD

voice and video/data services, LTE network coverage expansion to 15 new cities, more innovative data offerings including triple play and streaming service, to digital

services that support your everyday needs such as our 9Pay payment service, we are set to break fallow grounds in emerging areas like Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning capabilities to drive superior customer experience,” Beuvelet said.

He assured further that 9mobile would continue “to expand our 3G and 4G networks to bridge mobile broadband service gap, deliver cloud-enabled services to support SMEs and financial inclusion capabilities, and deploy an array of innovative brand loyalty reward programmes.”

He said the successful recapitalisation of the company which outcome includes a seamless change in shareholding structure and the inauguration of a new board and management, was dedicated to the customers, employees and other stakeholders for believing in the 9mobile brand.

“In the spirit of the season, I would like to take a moment to

express our deepest gratitude to you all our stakeholders, for keeping faith with us in the globally challenging and a uniquely blustery year. We have come this far only because we had you standing strong with us every bit of the way; and it is not just this year, but indeed, since our inception”, he said.

Beuvelet added that 9mobile management sincerely appreciates both the commitment of its internal stakeholders and encouragement from external stakeholders.

“Our key stakeholders in one way or the other provided the critical lifeline that we needed to thrive. Most importantly, as our valued customers, you stayed with us, demonstrating unalloyed loyalty and confidence in 9mobile.

As a result, today, we are here standing, and we are grateful”, he asserted.

Buevelet urged all Nigerians to enjoy the holidays and wished everyone a Happy New Year!

video on the card without worrying about running out of space for the videos, photos, music, movies and other files you want to shoot, save and share.

SanDisk external SSDs SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD – This ruggedized portable SSD delivers high-speed transfers of up to 550MB/s making it perfect for saving and editing hi-res photos and videos. With an IP55 rating and a solid state core, it also stands up to rain, spills, dust and drops. It comes in 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB capacities.

Western Digital internal SSDs A wide range of Western Digital internal SSDs which bolster your PC with upgraded speed and reliability.

WD Green™ SSD - The WD Green SSDs are meant for a quintessential level of performance.

These can be best suited for dayto-day functionality and can reach read and write speeds of 540 MB

per sec and 405 MB per sec respectively while using ultra-low power draw mode.

WD Blue™ SSD– It is the best option for those who are looking for a performance that excels in SATA standards and reaches read and write speeds of up to 545 MB per sec and 525 MB per sec respectively.

WD Black™ PCIe SSD - WD Black PCIe SSDs are equipped with sequential read speeds up to 2050MB/s, unlocking a new level of performance for high-performance PC users.

WD external hard drives My Passport™ - The My Passport portable drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. Available in an array of vibrant, fun colours, the sleek style fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you can easily take your treasured content everywhere you go. It comes in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB capacities.

Western Digital expands product range in Nigeria

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estern Digital Corporation, a global data technology company, has expanded its portfolio of data storage devices in Nigeria. The expansion will allow Nigerian consumers to access a wide range of WD®- and SanDisk®brand products.

As part of the expansion, Western Digital has introduced products catered to mobile storage solutions, which includes the iXpand™ flash drive, SanDisk Ultra™ Dual Drive m3.0, microSD™ and SD™ cards (SanDisk Extreme™ and SanDisk Extreme PRO™); in addition to SanDisk external SSDs; WD internal SSDs, and a range of internal and external hard drives, while offering after-sales support for consumers across Nigeria.

Speaking on the expansion,Ghassan Azzi, Senior Sales Manager for Africa Western Digital said, “At Western Digital we offer high-performance, high-

capacity and high-quality storage solutions to fit theincreasingly digital lifestyles of consumers. More and more Nigerians are capturing moments and creating and sharing memories with their smartphones, high-resolution cameras, drones and action cams. We want everyone to know that Western Digital and its consumer brands have the right storage solutions for their needs.”

SanDisk Mobile Storage Solutions iXpand– The iXpand flash drive is ideal for the iPhone or iPad that enables you to free up space, back up your camera roll and even watch videos straight from the drive. iXpand flash drives are equipped with a lightning connector and a USB 3.0 connector so users can move files between iPhone, iPad, and Mac or PC computers. Users can also set the iXpand mobile app to automatically back up their iPhone or iPad camera roll anytime the product is connected. It comes

in 32, 64, 128, 256 GB capacities.

Dual Drive– The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive m3.0 is for Android™ devices and enables the movement of content from your OTG-enabled Android smartphones to your computer. Quickly free up space on your Android smartphone or tablet so you can take more pictures and videos. It comes in 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 GB capacities.

400GB micro SD card –The SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card is perfect for recording and watching Full HD video, with space for hours of video. Ideal for Android based smartphones and tablets, this card’s A1 rating means that you can load apps faster too.

This card racks up transfer speeds of 100MB/s and can move 1,200 photos per minute. It meets the A1 App Performance Class specification which allows it to load apps faster. With a breakthrough capacity of up to 400GB, you can store even more hours of Full HD

20

BUSINESS DAY

Tuesday 01 January 2019

BDTECH

E-mail: jumoke.akiyode@businessdayonline.com

We need to save Nigeria Computer Society from extinction - Austin Okere

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ust 17 years ago, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide.

Within just a few years, their business model disappeared, and they were bankrupt.

This may happen to the Computer Society of Nigeria in the next 10 years - even if we don’t see it coming. Kodak was not the only casualty.

There were also Sony and Fuji who made tons of money selling Cameras and films; especially films. We have always loved our pictures ask Facebook and Instagram what their successful business model is based upon.

Indeed, who is not excited by the flash of the camera lights in their faces? Today you are sure that the flash of the mobile phone signals a picture, but in those days the photographer just continued flashing away even when he ran out of a film, just to keep the crowd happy.

It is rather ironic that the geometric growth in photography was negatively correlated to the fortunes of these photography giants. As we tend more towards a knowledge-based economy led by technology, the fortunes of the NCS seem ironical to be negatively correlated. The issue seems to be an ardent aversion to embracing change and innovation.

When the destructive Polaroid technology was invented to bypass the paper film, these industry leaders ensured its swift death by studiously ignoring the innovation.

What they did not see coming were the tech companies

Austin Okere

who would eat not only their breakfast but also their lunch and dinner as well.

The likes of Apple and Samsung who neither used paper films nor Polaroid paper. Just seamlessly click away and take as many pictures as you like, and you can even customize the pictures to look much more beautiful or handsome. Sometimes you have to disrupt yourself to emerge a better and more effective you.

We have to learn to unlearn and relearn.

What worked perfectly many years ago may not work today and certainly not tomorrow; that is the inevitability of innovation and change.

The camera and paper film industry is by no means the only casualty of disruption.

Look no further than Uber and AirBnB to see how the taxi and hotel industries have been disrupted. And more

significant disruption is certainly coming by way of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Cognitive Computing.

Think of all the drivers that will lose their jobs to driverless cars and many of us that may lose our jobs to IBM’s Watson. Our beloved NCS is in danger of becoming irrelevant...

Did Mark Zuckerberg visit or even acknowledge us when he visited Nigeria? When Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on June 11, 2017, named 28 Tech Entrepreneurs into the Advisory Group on Technology and Creativity, was NCS consulted?

I remember as a student being a very proud Student member of the Computer Association of Nigeria and attending many insightful conferences. While we have gone through two name changes from CAN to COAN to NCS,

nothing more seems to have changed. Are we in touch with our millennials today?

Do we have any connection with Government technology Agencies such as NITDA and NIGCOMSAT? Do we make any inputs or contribution into Government technology strategy policy? I ask these questions because it seems that a myriad of other groups has emerged that are filling out relevant vacancies.

Take for instance a WhatsApp Group called Fintech 1000, to which I belong. They have a crisp and clear vision and purpose. It seems that all the leading technology leaders are on that platform because they identify with the vision and want to contribute to achieving it. They have very meaningful interaction, and some of their initiatives and input into Fintech policy documents will make us green with envy.

Her members include the CEOs of budding young innovative companies such as Paystack, Paga, flutterwave and established ones such as CWG, Interswitch, Chams etc. Many banks and telecoms leaders across Africa regularly make contributions. People join an Organization because they identify with the vision, which should be inspirational and aspirational enough to attract them.

They want their presence and contribution to meaningfully impact their society...

How many people still remember the vision of the NCS? It is possible that the old vision has run its course and we need to craft a new direction for ourselves, in these

rapidly changing times.

Is our foundation vision robust enough to stand the test of this fourth industrial revolution? We used to be a very large association and found comfort in our numbers. Things have changed, neither age nor size guarantees relevance; in those days we used to say that the big fish will eat the small fish. Today, it is the fast fish that eats the slow fish.

Perhaps some of the advocacy that could make the NCS more relevant would be championing the campaign for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Partners of our local companies to shoulder their own tax burden than leaving it all onto the local partner, even though the major part of the deal goes to the OEM. The local Partner is therefore left with a huge withholding tax burden on his meagre margin and is chronically cash-strapped, leading to anaemic growth if at all.

Another advocacy point could be campaigning for the OEMs to accept their portion of payments in local currency, as currently happens in Kenya; so that the local company is not left alone to bear the exchange risk.

I charge us to recommit and re-imagine our beloved Association, the NCS. Posterity will judge us harshly if the NCS becomes extinct under our watch. The best time to act was 10 years ago. The next best time is now.

Austin Okere is the Founder of CWG Plc and the Ausso Leadership Academy.

Olufuye steps down as AfICTA Chairman, Elgamal takes position Jumoke AkiyodeLawanson

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fter founding and successfully stirring the affairs of the Africa Information and Communication Technologies Alliance (AfICTA) for six years running, Jimson Olufuye has stepped down as its founding Chairman.

This is as AfICTA at its 6th Annual General Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya recently and in line with its constitution, elected its second Chairman, Hossam Elgamal of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

AfICTA is a concerned private sector led alliance of ICT Associations, multi-

national corporations, companies, organisations and individuals in the ICT sector in Africa.

Olufuye, who has been in the vanguard of African digital inclusion in his farewell speech while narrating his success story outlined seventeen achievements recorded during his tenure.

Some of his achievements included the articulation of the constitution of the Alliance. Development of the AfICTA strategy document; development and hosting of the website and successful migration from .org to .africa, registration of the alliance in Nigeria, registration in Nigeria of the trademarks: Africa ICT Champion and Africa ICT

Personality Awards, setting up of a self-sustaining AfICTA secretariat with 2 staff, unbroken organisation of the Alliance summit for the past 6 years, among others.

Olufuye listed other achievements to include, signing of memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with Software Engineering Competency Centre (SECC), IT Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), Egypt, National IT Development Agency (NITDA) Nigeria and Asian-Oceania Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO), World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), enhancing links between business

and governments across Africa, boosting intra-African Business Match-making for trade and wealth creation across Africa, initiating the “1m Jobs Initiative by 2025” powered by EITESAL, continuous engagement with the African Union especially on IGF and the growth of member countries from six to thirty with twenty four African countries to go.

Meanwhile, current members are from Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Cote d’Ivore, Ghana, Tunisia, The Gambia, Niger, Mali, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Chad, Benin, DRC, Senegal, Uganda, Mauritius, Camer-

oon, Gabon and Lesotho.

In his acceptance speech, Elgamal thanked Olufuye for all the good works he had done and promised to take the Alliance to greater heights in collaboration with his colleagues on the board and members in general.

AfICTA says its vision is to fulfil the promise of the digital age for everyone in Africa while its mission is to encourage multi-stakeholder dialogue fostering accelerated and ICT enabled development in Africa and the use of cutting-edge innovative technologies including mobile, computing and satellite technologies to achieve an Information society in Africa.

MTN Nigeria launches business survey tool

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t has been estimated that by 2023 governments will begin to explore replacing census with big-data technologies.

That is the rate at which technology is constantly changing our realities and forcing more organisations - start-ups or establishments- to get on board, leveraging data to drive revenue growth.

Leading this technology charge in Nigeria, telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria in partnership with Communication and Marketing Research Group Limited (CMRG) launched a first of its kind business tool for customer insight, focusing on delivering a better business experience.

Called MTN Smart Survey, the service offers survey delivery through the USSD channel to MTN subscribers that have been profiled based on specific attributes, such as age, gender, location, etc. The tool has also been designed in a way that rewards customers with N100 MTN airtime upon completion of questions administered through the survey.

Speaking at the launch event, Lynda Saint- Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria, explained that businesses and organisations who subscribe to the service are provided with analysis, reports and recommendations based on the feedback of the respondents through an accredited research agency.

Lynda also reiterated MTN’s commitment to providing tailor made solutions for everyday business challenges.

“We are excited to know how this platform will help in sharpening business ideas and directions in the Nigerian market and MTN Nigeria remains committed in providing platforms to provide seamless business flow, the MTN Smart Survey is not just a tool but a strategic driver and a real enabler of business performance.”

Guests in attendance from different business sectors in Nigeria were opportune to test the survey platform beforehand to know how this business tool can interest their customers and business at large.

MTN says it is committed to continuously seek ways to contribute to the Nigerian economy by extending its partnership capabilities to brighten the lives of small business owners within the country.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

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EDUCATION

Weekly insight on current and future trends in education

Primary/Secondary

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21

Human Capital

‘Policy implementation to drive investment in education sector in 2019’ KELECHI EWUZIE

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o v e r n m e n t ’s early resolution of issues such as funding, high rate of out of school children, teacher quality, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike among others challenges that bedeviled the education sector in 2018 would bring the much needed investments, industry watchers in education say.

Also there is the need for government to address the current situation where the Nations education system struggles to meet all the fourkey school-level ingredients for learning: prepared learners, effective teaching, learning focused inputs, and the skilled management and governance that pulls them all together.

Educationists observe that in 2018 as in previous years, budgetary allocation to the sector has consistently fallen short of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO)

recommended 26 percent.

The fallout is that lecturers demand higher pay on a regular basis and grind academic activities to a halt with strikes, most tertiary institutions are dilapidated, libraries are poorly stocked with relevant materials, examinations like WAEC, NECO and JAMB record mass failures and the best brains in academia are constrained to look for greener pastures

abroad.

Assessing the performance of the education sector in 2018, Hakeem Subair, founder/ CEO, 1 Million Teachers said although there were pockets of excellence across the country, especially among the high-end private schools that represent less than 0.5% of students, but the majority are falling behind, and no society thrives where the majority are falling behind.

Bridge Schools among the best in Kenyan National Primary Exams

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ridge International Academies, leader in the provision of affordable education through cutting edge technology in underserved communities have achieved impressive success in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams; for the fourth consecutive year.

This is following the publication of a DFID report in Lagos by the UK Government, revealing equity of learning in Bridge schools.

Bridge runs over 60 schools in Lagos and Osun, but has yet to sit the National Common Entrance Exams. As such, education stakeholders are closely watching the learning outcomes being achieved in other countries across Africa where the social enterprise is working.

In Kenya, over a million children took the KCPE exam this year and for the first time there was no passing or failing.

Following sweeping policy changes, all children are now eligible to attend secondary school. The KCPE score simply determines which type of secondary school.

Rhoda Odigboh, Academic director at Bridge, said, “In four consecutive years, Bridge pupils have performed excel-

lently well in the Kenya Primary school exit (KPCE) exams, and shown significant learning gains in Nigeria, Uganda and Liberia. We are delighted that the evidence of learning gains Bridge provides gets stronger each year. At Bridge Nigeria, Equity is the buzzword. Regardless of parental income, education background or language ability, our students perform above level in Literacy and Numeracy.”

For the fourth consecutive year, Bridge pupils have outperformed their peers; cementing the trend that Bridge pupils do better.

Thousands of Bridge pupils sat the exam and excelled, despite coming from disadvantaged communities.

The performance of girls in Bridge schools is also noteworthy. The individual performances of top scorers Stacy Linda Achieng from Bridge Getembe (409 marks) and Victoria Juarez from Bridge Lamu (403 marks) have paved the way for local and national celebration. Group results are also promising. For the fourth consecutive year, girls attending Bridge for five or more years were the highest performing cohort, averaging 281 marks.

The average score for

Bridge pupils increases for each year they study in the school. Pupils who have spent the majority of their primary education at Bridge (five or more years) averaged almost 30 points higher than the national average and are 43% more likely to score at least 250 marks than the average Kenyan pupil.

Bridge pupils are often the first in their families to complete primary school or have access to secondary education, demonstrating how Bridge is a springboard for social mobility. The results have proved, once again, that poverty isn’t destiny. It has demonstrated that children from impoverished communities can successfully compete with the wealthiest sections of Kenyan society; all they need is opportunity.

This is not only true in Kenya but, as has been seen through the DFID study, it is true in Lagos.

As the Nigerian Government remains focused on improving education outcomes across the country they should look at results being achieved in other countries across Africa and ensure that these approaches are effectively adopted for the benefit of Nigerian children.

Subair says that to get out of the education crisis, managers of the education system not only need to increase enrolment and access, but need to go beyond schooling to prioritise learning because schooling is not the same as learning.

To him, “Our education system should equip students with the skills they need to lead healthy, productive, and

meaningful lives”.

“Our education system should equip students with foundational cognitive skills as well as higher-order cognitive skills such as reasoning, creativity and problem-solving”.

“Our education system should equip students with socio-emotional skills, sometimes called soft or non-cognitive skills such as conscientiousness, perseverance and the ability to work on teams that help them acquire and apply the foundational and other skills”, he said.

Isaac Adeyemi, former vice chancellor, Bells University, Ota Ogun State observes that Nigeria has never had a good history when it comes to policy implementation.

“I would advocate that in 2019 there should be a policy implementation monitoring committee of some sort which should consist of industry professional, government and ministry personnel to follow up on these policies”.

“These policies have time table which is a good intent.

It should show the time frame

when each policy should be achieved. They need to monitor the implementation of these policies. When this is done, I think we will see an appreciable improvement in the education sector in the coming years. But we got to have commitment from government by all of the stakeholders”, Adeyemi said.

Peter Okebukola, former executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) told BusinessDay that the National Policy on Education in Nigeria is one of the finest documents on education in Africa.

According to him, “It virtually covers all angles in the delivery of education. It is not working as envisioned in some areas because many are satisfied with flouting its provisions since the penalty for transgression is weak”.

Pai Obanya, Emeritus Professor in the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan said strategic planning of Education is an antidote to most of the ills we have experienced in recent times with the sector.

POISE NIGERIA deepens Nigerian graduates employability prospect with certification programme relaunch DIPO OLADEHINDE

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hrough its transformational curriculum called Poise Graduate Finishing Academy (PGFA), Poise Nigeria, an etiquette training firm, has relaunch the PSENSE certification programme structured not only to make the Nigerian graduates employable in the labour market but also more globally competitive.

Asher Adeniyi, chief marketing officer at Poise Nigeria said the decision to re-launch the programme was as a result of the firm desires to transfer knowledge that will not only enhance the soft skills of young executives but also improve their dexterity, knowledge and attitude to excel in the work place.

Adeniyi explained that PSENSE advance certification will now be run for 10 weeks. “The first five weeks will be basically be targeted at developing soft skills program while the remaining five weeks will be use to develop other global skills that are targeted at employment such as ICT, sales and management, business development, business

analysis and human resources which will significantly improve the performance of the young executive in the work place.”

“All this sections will be facilitated through experiential learning exercise,” Adeniyi said at the event.

Adeniyi noted that one of the root problems of Nigeria’s high unemployment rate is lack of technical skills.

“Although an average young Nigeria graduates are willing to work, however they lack the required technical skills to excel in the work environment.”

“Our previous success rate was 87 percent right now we have even we have take a step closer to 90 percent,” Adeniyi said.

Nonye CallyBechi, chief operating officer at Poise Nigeria said the firm remains committed in helping young executive better which is why they are increasing passionate about training people from all works of life in technical and soft skills.

“Eight years ago we identified a gap, we noticed although there are so many graduates around however majority of them are not employable,”

“They don’t have essential skills which is employ-ability skills or competency that are essential in every work place.

Such as problems solving skills, self management, initiatives and other soft skills that are required in the work place,” CallyBechi said.

Deborah Ameh, business development manager at Poise Nigeria said beyond the training, we also link young executive actively to job opportunities through job fairs, recruitment methods and employer engagement programs so they can have the desired job in the labour market.

At its last graduation ceremony, over 20 graduates were offered immediate employment and are currently making good progress in their careers.

The Project Lead, EkoBits & EdoBits, Innih Ikhide stated that the management of Poise Nigeria took conscious steps to monitor the progress of its young executives to ensure that they are making significant impact in their place of work and would do the same for graduates that will gain employment through the initiative.

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Tuesday 01 January 2019

EDUCATION Focus on special education: Inclusive classrooms

Isaac Osae-Brown

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he term inclusion according to education researchers captu re s, i n o n e word, an all-embracing societal ideology. Inclusion secures opportunities for students with disabilities to learn alongside with their non-disabled peers in general education classrooms.

An inclusive classroom is a general education environment in which students with and without disabilities learns together. It is essentially the opposite of a special education classroom, where students with disabilities learn with only other students with disabilities. Honestly establishing a successful inclusive classroom varies in complexity,

based upon the challenges created by the disability at hand. A knowledgeable approach and positive attitude toward inclusion begins by understanding the concept and the theory behind it.

Why integrate children with special needs into a general education classroom? Who benefits? What results?

Inclusion is important because through our diversity we certainly add to our creativity. If you don’t have a diverse classroom or a diverse world, you don’t have the same creative levels and I think our strength lies in our diversity.

If inclusive classrooms are going to be successful, there must be changes in the traditional general education classroom of students in rolls sitting quietly, reading and taking notes with their tablets. Research reveals that students with disabilities could benefit from the classroom if two basic changes in the classroom practice are made: Modifying the school curriculum to enhance relevance for each student and modifying instructional techniques.

These modifications of instructional techniques are often in keeping with what

is characterized as good teaching. Here, teachers use more hands-on- activities through blended learning with fewer worksheets, more oral interaction, reteaching of critical skills using computer technology supports as students need them for desirable results.

How different are inclusive classrooms from the traditional classrooms in general? The essential assumption is that all children can learn and can be successful in the traditional general classrooms but research reveals that in inclusive classrooms, expectations for all students are high.

Students with disabilities have the opportunities to be exposed to much of the materials and academic and functional resources presented in the classroom.

In short, teachers in successful inclusive classrooms assume that every child should be there and that every child can be successful in the classroom. Teachers in inclusive classrooms are responsible for creating learning opportunities and removing barriers to learning and participation in their classrooms. Here, both the general educator’s

and special educator’s role and responsibilities shift in inclusive setting. These teachers are responsible to assess and accommodate individual academic, behavior and emotional needs. Special education teachers are facilitators and collaborators. Both general and special educators need to clarify their roles, responsibilities and beliefs about the inclusion of students with disabilities with a stance of purpose and commitment. Flexibility allows interactions between teachers and students and provides the opportunity to participate within the social context of the classroom in many different ways. Research describes the principles that clarify the general considerations of inclusive classrooms as follows: Development of foundational skills: This includes successful interaction with all students, solving and contributing to the classroom activities. Individualisation: This means that the priorities for every student in the classroom may not be the same since there is a reason one student is participating in an activity from another.

Opportunity to experience

Greensprings deepens extra-curricular aspect of learning for students KELECHI EWUZIE

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ust when we thought we had seen it all, the secondary school students at Greensprings School Lekki astonished the audience with their breathtaking performance of the “Africanized’ version of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.

The students also performed a memorable Zulu dance to the epic song ‘vulindlela’ by Brenda Fassie.

One would have thought they were professional dancers from South Africa.

The show took place at the soon to be completed centre for performing arts theatre in the Lekki campus, a venue that will serve as a world-class location for training upcoming music and performing artists in the near future.

Over 400 attendees, comprising parents, teachers and students couldn’t stop clapping at the end of almost every drama scene, unable to hold back their cheers because of the excellent delivery of this classic masterpiece. It was a phenomenal

display of several months of hard work and preparation on stage, which ended with the much anticipated fireworks!

“I think this epic performance should be re-staged for a fee at Muson centre, Royal arts academy or Terraculture”; said Captain Fred, CEO PGK Studios and parent of Greensprings School student, who witnessed the performance.

Feyisara Ojugo, Secondary School Principal, Lekki Campus said “I am

very proud of my students for deliver ing such an amazing per for mance.

They worked super hard and therefore deserve all the accolades” The other campuses of Greensprings School in Anthony and Ikoyi also delivered incredible Christmas show stage performances.

This consistency across all 3 campuses is an indication of the high number of talented students in Greensprings School.

Greensprings has always

been deliberate towards delivering well-rounded education to its students, with a strong focus on sports, music and performing arts alongside ensuring academic excellence. Over the years Greensprings has produced superstars like of Dayo Okeniyi who featured the world-acclaimed Hunger Games movie and Jimi Odukoya who played a major role in Nollywood’s Okafor’s Law, amongst other alumni engaged in performing arts around the world.

mastery and accomplishment: This would mean that teachers would ensure that students learn and master lesson objectives. Quality of each student’s different educational experience: The classroom should be a place where activities are designed for the benefit of all students.

Inclusive classrooms build normalisation; this means that a person with a disability has the opportunity to live as similarly to others as possible. In this case, everyone is welcome at assemblies, presentations and extracurricular activities like community field trips. Many challenges confront teachers striving for inclusive classrooms for their students in Nigeria and other African countries.

Classroom composition, lesson planning, teacher collaboration and assistive technology needed to implement blended learning remain a task. School principals tend to place students who are challenging with teachers who are incapable to attend to the needs of these students. If our school leaders and all stakeholders embrace the principles that clarify the

general considerations of inclusive classrooms as highlighted in this article, there will be much growth in adopting inclusive classrooms where every child, both typical and atypical can coexist in the same classroom using technology and co-teaching strategies from the special education and regular education teachers to enhance all students’ learning. Implementation of inclusive classrooms in Nigeria schools will no doubt breed normalization, self-determination and self-esteem for all children. When this is achieved, added behavioral problems that confront our children like bullying, physical and emotional abuse will be obliterated from our school sites and communities.

Isaac Osae-Brown works for the Compton Unified School District in California as an Education Specialist and a beginning Teacher Mentor. He is a resource person, an advocate and a speaker for Special Education services in the United States and abroad. www. facebook.com/inclusivemindset/

LAUTECH alumni hail appointment of new vice chancellor designate

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he Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Alumni Association Abuja Chapter has congratulated the new vice chancellor designate, Michael Olufisayo Ologunde of the Department of Food Science and Engineering in the University who will succeed the incumbent Vice Chancellor, Adeniyi Suleiman Gbadegesin.

The Chapter represented

by Toyin Ajenifujah-Solebo, the Chairperson, and the Secretary, Kunle Adigun made it known that it is a new dawn for the University as a new Vice Chancellor Designate alongside other Principal Officers that have been selected to lead the affairs of the institution.

According the duo, “Being a foundation member of staff of the institution, we believe that the new vice chancellor designate have a full understanding of the institution and he will reposition the institution to an enviable status which it belonged to in the comity of tertiary institutions in the country.”

“We are proud alumni of LAUTECH and we have gladly represented the institution across the globe. We would want the younger generation

to also be confident in representing the institution. We want to urge the state governments and the VC-Designate to evolve strategies that will put an end to the perennial strikes that the institution has been lately renowned for,” they added.

They also commended Isiaka Ajimobi and Gboyega Oyetola governors of Oyo and Osun States and the Governing Council for the transparent way in which the new officers were selected.

Ologunde born in 1954 hails from Ajagunlase-Iwo in Ola-Oluwa local government, Osun state. He had his first degree from the University of Nsukka; his Masters’ degree at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and his PhD at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. He is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology and a member of the World Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Other appointments that have been made are Kayode Ogunleye as the new Registrar and Abayomi Okediji as the new Bursar. All these new officers are expected to assume office on February 14, 2019.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

Oil & Gas

Power

Renewables

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Energy Report C002D5556

BUSINESS DAY

Environment

Power sector: little achievement after so much noise in 2018 OLUSOLA BELLO

I

n what looks like admission of failure the Minster of Power Works and Housing, Babtunde Raji Fashola publicly told Nigerians to hold the private sector responsible for not getting adequate supply of electricity.

The minister said, businessmen operating in the sector should be blamed for the poor state of electricity supply to Nigerians.

He made the declaration while speaking at the Nextier Power Dialogue on recently in Abuja.

The minister argued that since the sector had been privatised, it was not the Nigerian government’s fault if citizens fail to enjoy to stable electricity supply.

“There are problems without a doubt and we must deal with them,” the minister said.

“But let me remind you, all of the assets that the Ministry of Power used to control were sold by the last administration before I came. And so if you don’t have power, it is not the government’s problem. Let us be honest,” he was quoted by the media as saying.

“The people who are operating the power sector, generation and distribution are now privately owned companies. I am here because I am concerned. If your telephone is not working, it is not the minister of communication that you go to.

Let us be very clear.”

The minister explained that in other sectors of the economy, the blame of poor services do not necessarily go to the government but those operating in the sector.

He said, “For those of you

who want to weaponise electricity, face the businessmen who have taken it up.

“My role is regulatory, oversight and policy, but I have a problem which is the fact that I can’t see a problem and turn my back; so I ’m getting involved. So the people you should be talking to about transformers is not me, the ministry doesn’t supply transformers anymore.”

Really, the power sector has made very little impact on the socio economic lives of Nigerians from where the last administration of President Goodluck left it.

Inspite the huge hues and cries about the efforts the current government has put in place to improving the power sector the impact has not been much.

The present administration met the power sector that was hugely deficient in terms of generations, distribution and transmission. All these it promised to address when it came to power. The generation level when it assumed power was about 3,000 megawatts while the transmission capacity was 5,000megawatts. This has however been increased to7, 000 megawatts. The distribution networks which were already in the hands of private investors before the advent of this government have also been faced by sundry challenges which have incapacitated them.

However it must be mentioned that significant investments have been made but this has had very little impact on power supply as it still remains largely unsteady. For instance, there was the launch of the N701 billionPayment Assurance Programme designed to resolve the liquidity challenges in the Power Sector by guar-

Babatunde Fashola

anteeing payments to generating companies and gas suppliers. But this has made little impact as gas suppliers maintain that they are being owed huge amount of debt by generating companies.

The generating companies on the other hand are saying that the Discos are not paying them for the electricity they supply.

The worse thing that has ever happened to the privatised power sector in Nigeria is the inability of the government to implement reflective cost tariff regime which was one of the cardinal points both government and investors agreed upon before the exercise. This coupled with the capping of investments that each of the distribution companies has messed up the power sector.

While the government is attributing the current epileptic power supply to lack of gas supply, Austin Avuru, managing director of Seplat Petroleum Development Company, at a recently held conference in Lagos debunked this claim when

he said say that it was the generating companies that are not picking gas instead.

Als o Chukwueloka Umeh, managing director of Century Power some of the challenges in the power sector have to do with accessing funds.

“The people, the banks and investors that we are going to borrow money from wants to know how much we are making and the percentage return and what is the guarantee that when the power is produced and sold the investors would get paid for it. That is a big problem, is a big lacuna, that question is not been answered but when we talk to NBET, it expresses real concern. we produce power we sell to NBET and they buy it and sell to the Discos, the Discos are not able to collect the money for the power that they sell to people. Number one, the Tariff is too low. Number two, the ATC&T losses are way too high, so they are collecting about 35percent money for the power that they distribute. That’s never going to

work and that is part of the real problem”, he said.

The federal government inability to takes urgent measures to stem the tide of illiquidity currently confronting the electricity distribution companies, has deemed the hope of a stable power supply in the near future .

The Nigerian power sector has been plagued with structural issues in all key areas that include generation, gas supply, transmission, and distribution.

Sadly, the operational capacity of the country’s power plants is less than a third of their installed capacity.

Transmission Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme has resulted in a 50 percent expansion in Grid Capacity since 2015, from 5,000MW to 7,125MW as at December 2017.

This is yet to be tested as the generating capacities have not gone beyond 4000mw.

The government claimed it would have added more than 2,000MW to power generating capacity by the end of 2018. Nigerians are waiting for that to happen – some of it via publicly owned plants (Afam Fast Power, 240MW); others through private sector investment supported by the Federal Government.

Nigerians are waiting for that to happen.

Policy in consistency confused investors Under this administration there has been series of policy inconsistencies which has left investors more confused.

They are seen as dis -incentive by the Discos and other major stakeholders that want to invest in the sector.

The eligible customer’s policy was one thing that has

put the distribution companies at loggerhead with the government. The Discos feared that their customers, some of which form the bulk of their revenues are being taking away from them through this policy.

Then the Embedded Power which some of the discos had also keyed into earlier but became stunted because most of the promoters don’t have the financial muscle to do because the bank’s exposure to the sector is huge and the banks are not ready to finance their projects to the bank.

The launch of Energizing Economic Programme aimed at bringing reliable and efficient power to economic clusters / markets around the country.

Again,the Discos have been hit below the belly as their market shares are being reduced.

Even though these are parts of the efforts at making power get to critical areas of the economy but implementation is seen in some quarters as attempt by the federal government to frustrate serious investment in the sector. Despite the fact that the sector is privatised.

The worse of them all is the inability of the government to implement reflective tariff regime which was one of the cardinal points for the investors that bought the power assets, this coupled with the capping of investments that each of the distribution companies can make.

The government also introduced Meter Asset Provider (MAP) regulations to which it has even deployed a fund of N37 billion toward supplying meters through private sector. Nigeria is yet to see the result of this development.

director who unveiled the office as saying that the company plans to open nine customer complaints unit’s in 2019 with the next one scheduled for Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos State.

The EKDC boss said: “The goal remains the same, to be the leading customer

centric utility company in Africa, we plan to use this initiative to get closer to customers and listen to all their complaints. Be it outrageous billing or faulty equipment. Feedback is important to us because it is needed for us to improve the quality of our services.”

Eko Disco opens customers complaints unit at Lekki

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ko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) in a bid to meet its strategic direction of ensuring quality customer satisfaction commissioned a new customer complaint unit at Lekki in Lagos.

In a statement issued

by Godwin Idemudia, the company’s general manager, Corporate Communications, he said the new customer complaint unit is part of several efforts made by the company to improve its services and accomplish 100 per cent customer resolution.

He said: Residents in the area often complained about the proximity of the Lekki district office and how it discourages them from laying complaints.

“Our reaction to this was to bring our services closer to them, so this New CCU is a symbol of our commit-

Olusola Bello, Team lead, Analysts: Isaac Anyaogu, Stephen Onyekwelu, Graphics: Joel Samson.

ment to our customers and to the improvement of our services.

The EkEDC’s spokesman said the office was unveiled by Adeoye Fadeyibi, managing director of the company.

Idemudia quoted Adeoye Fadeyibi, managing

Email: energyreport@businessdayonline.com, Tel: +234-8023020011; +234-7037817378

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Tuesday 01 January 2019

Lagos eyes LNG imports to launch private power plan Olusola Bello

N

igeria’s most economically successful state wants to go it alone, improving gas feedstock supply in a bid to woo private power project investors According to Petroleum Economist, Lagos State is attempting to rewrite the rules of Nigeria’s power sector by developing an independent power project (IPP) programme, based on both pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), that would also lead to the creation of its own mini grid within the national grid structure. The state envisages some 3 gigawatts (GW) of new gas-fired power capacity being deployed in the next three-to-five years, building on the 900

megawatts it already takes from the national grid. To achieve this, it wants to sanction the construction of 10 IPPs at strategic locations around the state, selling on the power at what will be cost-reflective tariffs, Overtime, other inventors have come up with sundry forms of electric light bulbs which have become quite useful in all facets of human lives.

Today, across the world, even in the most concealed village, electric lights are integral part of human existence. In our clime, one of the most fundamental ways that any government could actually touch the lives of the citizenry is through provision of basic light infrastructure.

It is this realization that prompted the Akinwunmi Ambode administration in Lagos State to embark on the Light up Lagos project.

Akinwunmi Ambode

The project is conceived to light up major highways and streets in the Lagos metropolis with the ultimate goal of boosting commercial activities, enhancing security, improving the citizenry’s

standard of living as well as boost the aesthetics of the City-State.

The ultimate target of the project is the development of a Lagos that is safe and secured Lagos, that operates

a 24/7 economy.

In a bustling African mega city like Lagos, there are a number of benefits to be derived from highway/ street lightning. For one, it promotes security as hoodlums and criminals who hitherto hide in the dark to perpetrate evil would no longer have the leeway to operate.

Street lighting also improves safety for drivers, commuters, riders and pedestrians. It is a common knowledge that pedestrians and vulnerable road users suffer from decreased visibility at nights. For these reason, one sure way of reducing the risk to all road users during the night hours is to light up the highways and streets.

Research has shown that driving outside of daylight hours is more dangerous as only very few people could actually drive well at nights.

Though quite a few people are on the road at nights, yet it has been discovered that this period accounts for 30% of most fatal road crashes in our country.

Improved night economy is one other major benefit of the Light up project.

In most major cities of the world, socio-economic activities take place 24 hours around the clock.

This is especially true of developed countries where a 24 hour socio-economic system is in operation. A 24 hour economy is one in which socio-economic activities do not halt at night.

New research from across the world has indicated that many cities, over the past two decades, have deliberately put in place a strategy to run a 24 hour economy.

The hospitality and entertainment industries, in particular, thrive better in a 24/7 economy.

$48million pipe coating plants of Solewant Group receives national assembly blessing

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he Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Local Content have given their nods to the $48 million pipe coating plants of Solewant Group as standard model under the Nigerian Content Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act for domestication of works previously being executed outside the country by projects owners.

The NOGICD Act is designed to enhance the level of participation of Nigerians and Nigerian companies in the country’s oil and gas industry.

Highlight of the visit was tour of the facilities of Solewant Group by the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Local Content. The facilities inspected by the delegates include, Anti-Corrosion Pipe Coating Plant and Concrete Weight Coating Plant Others include Solewant Field Joint Mobile Coating Equipment as well as the state of the art Laboratory.

Sen Adeola Olamilekan Solomon, chairman Senate Committee on Local Content, who led the delegation during a facility visit to the company said the National Assembly Committee in the Senate and House of Representatives are satisfied with the standard of facilities at the pipe coating plant of Solewant Group.

He said with their visitation they have been able to confirm the competencies of Solewant Group as an indigenous company. The company is truly 100% Nige-

rian Content compliant and not a commissioned agent.

“With the huge investment in modern facilities under local content requirement in each plant visited and local manpower, the assurance we are giving to them today is that we are with them all the way,” the Local Content Committee Chairman assured.

He said the government needs to support Solewant to sustain service delivery considering huge investment in anti-corrosion plant with over 250 Nigerian staff fully skilled in their employment.

“We are here today on a fact finding visit, to access their competence and with what we have seen, the allegations or claims that the company lacks the capacity to carry out its Local Content obligation are false.”

The Senator promised that the Upper Chamber will amend the Local Content Act to accommodate other sectors such as, construction, Information Communication Technology(ICT) ,Communication and even Technology to the benefit of Nigerians.

“As far as we are concerned with Solewant, we are satisfied with what we saw today. Even for those Nigerian companies who cannot meet up with the provision of the Local Content Law, they should upgrade their equipment to meet up with the guideline of the NOGIC Act and as for us in the National Assembly, we will continue to give them the needed support,” Solomon said.

Also speaking during the visit, Emmanuel Ekon, Chairman House Committee on Local Content, Federal House of Representatives described Solewant as pride of Local Content in Nigeria. According to him, the delegation is satisfied with what they saw. “I started something in the House of Representatives to amend the Local Content Act to cover other areas such as construction and communication. The process is on course, so there is no reason why Nigerian Government will go to China to borrow money to fund Local Content. We shall therefore expand the Act to accommodate other sectors so that the IOCs will not continue to dominate Nigerian Companies,” the lawmaker explained.

Earlier in his speech, Solomon Ewanehi, managing director/CEO of Solewant Group, described Solewant as a product of Local Content.

He said Solewant Group business is built on expert knowledge, outstanding client service and the highest quality work for each client that they serve. He said that they started with the acquisition of mobile coating plants and have since expanded their scope of services and competencies to include, Pipe Coating Services; anti-corrossion pipe coating services, 3LPP to 5LPP coating solutions and Conrete weight Coating Services.

“In order to further build capacity and take opportunity of the existing gap in the

Nigeria line pipes milling and production industry, Solewant Group, in 2013 acquired 139,000square meters of land for the purpose of building a world class pipe coating and pipe milling/production plant facilities in Nigeria” The strategic plan he said, is to provide end to end Pipeline (manufacturing, Coating and Protection) construction services to the Oil, Gas, Manufacturing, Chemical and other Industries in Nigeria.

The company he stated is strategically positioned to provide oil and gas companies the unique pipes and pipe coating solutions that help deliver projects on schedule and within budgets, stressing further that, apart from it state of the art pipe coating Laboratory, the Solewant multi-layer pipe coating plant was designed, produced to also provide pipe double joint coating solution for deep offshore locations and that the plant equipment are First class EU 3D manufactured.

“We are determined and very focus in provision of the state of the art pipe/metals coating solutions to oil and gas industry. Solewant is work in progress and we are moving on as you all will agree with me today that the high operations and the speed of our Concrete weight coating plant centre, is a further testimony of our value creation to the industry. We are pipe/metals coating company and we will continue to deliver quality projects to the country and beyond,” he said.

Oil prices will rebound in 2019

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ost major investment banks are forecasting a rebound in oil prices in 2019. Price forecasts vary widely, but most have both West Texas Intermediary (WTI) and Brent above current spot prices.

Bank of America Merrill Lync, for instance, sees WTI averaging $59 per barrel in 2019. Citi is at the bearish end with a $49 price target.

For Brent, Barclays says the benchmark will average $72, and a half dozen other investment banks have price estimates within a few dollars of that price.

However the volume of LNG shipments heading to Northeast Asia hit a record high in December, driven by demand from China and cold weather. LNG imports into the region – including China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan – hit 20.5 million tonnes so far in December, or 5 percent higher than the previous monthly record.

U.S. shale is hitting major oil exporters from the Middle East on multiple fronts. For one, soaring production is lowering prices.

But also, U.S. shipments of light crude to Asia are undercutting Saudi exports to the region. Moreover, U.S. exports of refined gasoline and naptha is creating a glut of those products in Asia, forcing prices lower.

However, analysts now believe that oil could experience a recovery in 2019.

Fresh production curbs from OPEC and its allies will begin to have an impact on crude supplies, aided by Canada. Pipeline bottlenecks are also likely to impede U.S. production.

With oil prices on the rise heading into 2018, shale drillers in the U.S. were on pace to generate a significant amount of cash flow.

Many analysts anticipated that they would use this money to ramp up their drilling activities and boost production.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

Harvard Business Review

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Tips & Talking Points How to manage a boss with a zillion ideas

TALKING POINTS Help Wanted 23%: Korn Ferry, a consulting firm, found that about 23% of U.S. retailers were unable to hire all the temporary workers they sought for the 2017 holiday season.

Stuck in the Middle 26%: Twenty-six percent of American workers are employed at midsize companies. + Failure to Launch

+ Automation Forecast 47%: According to a University of Oxford study, 47% of U.S. jobs are predicted to be automated in the future. + Change in the Air 69%: Duarte’s survey of company executives found that 69% of respondents are planning organizational change projects.

V

isionary bosses can be fun to work for. But they can also be overwhelming if they seem to have an endless supply of ideas. How can you possibly implement everything they come up with? First of all, don’t assume your boss expects you to do something every time they have a brilliant thought. It’s OK to just listen and respond with a simple, “That’s a great idea” or “I’ll take a look,” and then wait to see if it comes up again. That way you’ll be able to tell whether the idea is actually important to

your boss. If your manager does expect you to take action, shape and contain the idea by asking where it fits into the team’s goals and how your boss wants you to prioritize it. By connecting the idea to other, ongoing projects, you can help your boss assess it from a strategic perspective.

(Adapted from “How to Work for a Boss Who Has a New Idea Every 5 Minutes,” by Elizabeth Grace Saunders.)

Create ways for your employees to learn from each other Covering for a colleague without drowning in work

P

eer to peer learning can be a powerful (and free) development tool.

Research shows that when people want to learn a skill, turning to colleagues for help is often the first thing they do.

You can encourage this kind of learning in your organization by setting up a formal program for it. Start by appointing a facilitator to oversee the program. It’s important to have a neutral party — who is not the team’s manager — to organize sessions, keep everyone on topic and maintain a positive atmosphere. You also need to build a safe environment so that people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, experiences and questions. Setting ground

When offering your team training is a bad idea

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+

One-third: CIO, an American-based magazine, wrote that about one-third of customer relationship management, or CRM, projects end up failing.

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very good manager wants their team to have the skills to succeed. So it makes sense to invest in training, right? Not so fast.

Training can be powerful when it addresses an underdeveloped skill or knowledge deficit. But too often managers turn to training or formal learning when it won’t actually solve the problem it’s meant to. When is training worth trying? First, be sure your internal systems support the newly desired behavior. For example, training in proactive decision making won’t help employees if senior leaders make all the decisions in your company. Second, there needs to be a commitment to change. If your team isn’t willing to address a problem’s root cause, training won’t have the intended benefit. Third, the training needs to be connected to strategic priorities. If employees can’t see how what they’re learning relates to where the company is headed, you’ll waste your money — and their time.

(Adapted from “When Companies Should Invest in Training Their Employees — and When They Shouldn’t,” by Ron Carucci.)

Know your idea, audience and objective before giving a speech

Y rules around honoring confidentiality and accepting feedback graciously can help. During sessions, be sure that learning is tied to real-world situations and problems so that participants can apply the skills they’ve learned quickly.

And encourage employees to network, whether online, at networking events, or through another method, so that anyone in the company can get involved.

(Adapted from “How to Help Your Employees Learn From Each Other,” by Kelly Palmer and David Blake.)

W

hen you’re covering for a coworker who is out of the office, it can be difficult to keep up. To maintain your sanity and stay productive, put the onus on your colleague to do a clear handoff of responsibilities. Ask for a plan with details on the status of projects, next steps, deadlines and key contacts. Once the colleague leaves, focus on deadlines and what’s critical to accomplish each day; less-urgent tasks will have to wait. But keep an eye on what’s coming up

next. You may need to work further ahead than usual, because there’s a greater chance that something unexpected will happen, or that multiple deadlines will be clustered together. And you may be tempted to spend extra time in the office, but don’t overdo it. Putting in long hours can make you resentful and lessen your productivity. There’s only so much you can do each day — and that’s OK.

(Adapted from “What to Do When You’re Covering for Colleagues — and Can’t Keep Up,” by Elizabeth Grace Saunders.)

ou need to have three things clear in your mind before giving a speech: your main idea, your audience, and your objective. Start preparing by focusing on your idea: Why are you the right person to deliver this talk? What unique perspective can you offer? Then, consider who will be in your audience and craft your talk with them in mind. For example, if you’re speaking on a small panel, you can frame your remarks in more intimate, personal terms. If you’re at a conference for professionals, you can use technical terms. Speaking the same language as your listeners increases the odds that they will understand and be inspired by you. And finally, make sure you’ve pinpointed your

c 2017 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate

objective. Maybe you want to get the audience to donate to a worthy cause, or spread the word about the importance of your topic. Whatever your goal is, it will inform your preparation and delivery.

(Adapted from “To Give a Great Presentation, Distill Your Message to Just 15 Words,” by Tricia Brouk.)

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Politics, technology to shape real estate investment in 2019, experts say …2019 looks to be another challenging year for landlords Stories By CHUKA UROKO

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esides urbanisation, demographic shifts, sustainability and competition from emerging markets which will play disruptive role, politics and technology are two major factors that will shape real estate investment and development in 2019, experts have said.

It follows that these are the two main issues that investors would watch as they make their investment decisions and projections into the New Year.

To ignore them may turn out a wrong step forward.

Politics is a dominant activity in Nigeria today ahead of the February 2019 general elections. The implication of this to the various sectors of the economy including real estate is that investments will have to be put on hold till after the contest, the result and the emergence of a new government.

It is expected that business activities will slow down, demand for new space, especially for offices or business premises, will drop significantly while investors will adopt ‘sit-don-look’ attitude, waiting to see policy direction of the new government.

“If Buhari the sitting president wins, that means the president economic condition slowdown will persist, but if Atiku or any of the presidential candidate emerges as president, there will be a change of perception, leading to new investment in the economy”, argues Johnson Chukwuma, a structural engineer, insisting that whichever way the result of the election turns, no meaningful activity will take place in the real estate space before June next year.

Technology has been described as the new face and future of real estate. Already, as seen in the financial sector where Fintect (financial technology) is dictating and pointing

the way, proptech (property technology) is, increasingly) assuming the new backbone of real estate transactions.

The forecast by PwC for 2019 in Europe also presents an interesting perspective. According to research carried out, there needs to be a widening of traditional meanings of real estate to accommodate real asset related services businesses going into the future.

For this reason, experts advise that investing in infrastructure should go beyond traditional assets such as railways or utilities to include a whole new investable asset classes to service the digital economy, including 5G infrastructure, data centres and charging points for electric and, increasingly, autonomous vehicles, all of which provide a social return to consumers through better connectivity or the environment in terms of lowering carbon emissions.

“In Africa, for instance, the private sector has to start thinking of the big picture, seeing the gaps in government infrastructure, step in and invest not only in traditional real estate but in relevant assets related services such as co-work spaces, studio

homes within central business districts to reduce the home-towork commute and child care facilities within work metropolis; whether individually or through collaborative efforts”,Udo Okonjo, CEO, Fine and Country West Africa, told BusinessDay. Udo’s submission responds to the changing real estate landscape and PwC’s forecast on the immediate future for Africa which shows that by 2020, investable real estate will have grown by more than 55 percent compared to 2012. By 2025, there will be 37 ‘megacities’, up from 23 today, and 12 of these will be in emerging markets while by 2025, emerging markets will host 60 percent of global construction activity.

The potential for not just profit (for the investors) but the development of the society is immense because, as Okonjo explained, at the end of the day, the efforts are all geared towards developing a more sophisticated and well-rounded society that is at par with the rest of the world.

Globally, the New Year looks another challenging year for landlords whether it is the ones in the commercial and retail segments of the market or those playing in the up-market resi-

dential real estate space who are already contending with issues around policies, fees and costs in Europe and economic downturn as in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

“On the face of it, the lettings market in the UK has been flat in 2018 with not much prospect of growth this year with policy changes relating to fees and costs due to kick in”, notes PropertyWire, an online platform which tracks residential housing markets in over 100 countries of the world.

Ray Clancy, the editor of the online platform, believes that is likely to be the case in London with the latest reports suggesting a slow outlook. The November lettings index from Hamptons International shows that rents increased just 0.1 percent yearon-year in Greater London.

Clancy quotes the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) as saying it is certain that this year will be a challenging one for landlords and lettings agents acknowledge this. Rent costs in the UK’s private rented sector will rise in line with increased demand from prospective tenants and the impacts of the expected tenant fees ban in 2019.

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Tuesday 01 January 2019

Concerns as mortgage industry ends 2018 low despite FG’s interventions

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igerian mortgage industry in the last 12 months could not rise to impact-level despite interventions by the federal government in the mortgage and housing sector, raising concerns among stakeholders that the industry may continue to lag for too long which leads to mortgage being inaccessible and unaffordable.

After the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the National Housing Fund (NHF), the next biggest intervention by the federal government in the mortgage industry is the establishment of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) with a mission ‘to break down barriers to home ownership by providing liquidity, affordability, accessibility and stability to the housing market in Nigeria which has the mandate of increasing’.

In addition to these, there have been other initiatives such as the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) which created the Family Homes Fund (FHF) and voted N1 trillion for affordable housing for Nigerians with potential capacity to generate upto1.5 percent increase in GDP by 2023.

This was followed by the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme of the federal civil service to enhance affordable mass housing delivery just as the Mortgage Warehouse Funding Limited (MWFL) also came on board as a special purpose vehicle that serves to provide short term funding for financing primary mortgage originations.

Experts explain that there are problems with the country’s mortgage industry which, in their view, are fundamental.

One of such problems is ac-

cessibility and the second one is clarity. Accessibility is a big issue because when a borrower approaches a mortgage bank for loan, the bank will begin to ask for things that he cannot provide. And these are things he cannot really provide in his life, meaning that, for such a person, mortgage is not accessible.

In terms of clarity, there is no unified system. Paul Onwuanibe, CEO, Landmark Group, explained to BusinessDay that there is no where government has published a mortgage rate which the mortgage banks have to buy into or a mortgage standard or process which the banks have to fit into.

“I don’t really know. It is obvious that there is no clarity in the mortgage system here and if there is any such thing, it is not yet published and so people don’t know and if people don’t know, it means such a process does not exist”, he posited.

Besides accessibility and clarity, there is also the problem of interest rate which is hard to take because a borrower with low income cannot take a long term mortgage loan with double interest rate. It is simply not viable. This is because if the loan seeker borrows at 20 percent rate, it means that every year, he owes twice as much, and that is how bad it is.

The implication of this is that if someone who has taken a mortgage loan is using it to build a house and he is building at a slow pace because his salary remains the same over the period, he will be in trouble because the rate will be rising whereas his income is static. His salary needs to rise at the same geometric progression with the rate for him to be able to cope. This is why experts advocate a legislation towards this process which, of course, depends on how the legislation is applied.

What developers do differently providing homes for mid-low income buyers

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n spite of the lull in the Nigerian real estate market, many developers have been on the vanguard of providing homes for Nigerians and have been doing this in ways that are remarkably different from those of other developers.

For many of them, it has been a fulfilling experience helping people achieve one of their major dreams of owning homes through their roles as advisors. This means that home buyers are properly advised on how to buy property for residential or investment purposes.

“We advise clients on how best to buy their homes or hold property for investment purposes. We segment the market, look at buyers based on their type of job

and income level. We structure payments for people according to their cash flow and they are always excited to see what we are able to do”, Oladipo Idowu Agida, CEO, Dradrock Real Estate, explained to BusinessDay. Dradrock is a frontline real estate investment and development company in Nigeria. Besides its advisory role, Dradrock also offers structured payment that makes it possible for buyers, especially Nigerians in Diaspora who want to have houses back home, to key into their schemes.

In terms of numbers, Dradrock has been able to help about 500 people to own property. These are mainly those in high income class, the mid-income earners

and not many low income earners.

But they have started offering something for the low income. In terms of percentage, the distribution is 10 percent for low income, 40 for the high income and 50 for mid-income earners.

“We have also contributed to the growth of the economy by providing jobs for people.

We have all classes of workers on our employ—skilled and unskilled labour, professionals, artisans and others.

The company’s Annapolis brand of our products are located in the burgeoning Lekki peninsular. “We have Annapolis Garden at Lakowe where we have ser viced plots and 30 units of 2-bedroom apartments. We have another Annapolis Resi-

dence at Sangotedo where also we have serviced plots, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom and terraces of 4-bedroom.We also have Annapolis Court at Ibeju Lekki where we have about 1000 serviced plots and developments for low income earners”, the CEO disclosed.

He explained that the objective of the Annapolis brand is to create a place for people where they can live and have the kind of lifestyle they desire. This is for all classes of people including the upper class, middle class and the lower class. For the Sangotedo scheme, their serviced plots are going for N10million -N20 million per plot. This caters for the upper middle class.

The scheme in Lakowe

caters for the lower middle class where a plot sells for N5 million. The Ibeju scheme caters specifically for the middle class. “We expect that in the next 10 years, that area will explode because of the kind of developments coming to that area. But one of the challenges we have in the housing industry is that even when you cater for the lower class, they cannot still afford.

“This is why we are coming up with an initiative where anybody that earns $200 dollars will be able to buy our plot. This is why too we are working with a lot of partnerships and creating mortgage systems whereby people will be able to finance their housing purchase”, the CEO assured.

Idowu Agida assured that

the rate on the mortgage system they offer is much better than what is on offer in the market at the moment. He, however, identified a problem with the mortgage industry in, in his view, was cultural.

“People borrow from microfinance banks and don’t pay.

This also happens in mortgage banks and that is why operators complain of huge non-performing loans in their books”, he said.

The Nigerian mortgage industry is tottering today because its huge non-performing loans valued at over N1trillion. This, according to the CEO, underscores the need for a good credit system in the country, arguing that if Nigeria had a good credit system that captures people’s credit history, it would help.

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BUSINESS DAY

27

Now is good time to buy real estate in Nigeria

NMRC boosts liquidity in mortgage market, refinances N18bn housing loans

Endurance Okafor

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survey by BusinessDay revealed that now is a good time to be buying home, land, office and mall from Nigeria’s property market as less competition has reduced demand’s power to influence the price.

The unattractiveness of the country’s property market to investors due to uncertainties of the forthcoming elections, declining income on the part of its citizens, property glut and the aftershock of economic recession are the reasons why there is plunge in property demand.

Olurogba Orimalade, Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) Lagos State Branch said one cannot get property in Nigeria real estate market at a better time than now.

“It is a good time to buy because, unfortunately, the episode from last two years, in term of economic recession have led to a situation where a lot of property owners and developers are being flexible and are easing up, as they are ready to just get what you can call ‘any profit’,” Orimalade said.

Figures by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria real estate sector has been in recession for the 11th consecutive quarter through to Q3 2018 since the first quarter of 2016.

Nigeria’s GDP growth rate of 1.81 percent in the review quarter could not rub off the

country’s property market as it reported -2.68 percent growth in the quarter under review. Although it was 1.21 percentage point better than the -3.88 percent reported in the previous quarter.

Ibraheem Babalola, CoFounder/CEO of Muster, a shared housing marketplace said a lot of politicians want to sell their real estate investments to generate funds for campaign and this has impacted property prices in the country.

“Now is a good time to buy properties because prices are actually lower resulting from the fact that a lot of empty properties owned by politicians in major cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, which were vacant are now been be put up for sale because they want election campaign and they want to quickly turn these properties into cash,” Babalola said.

He concluded by giving an instance that a friend of his wants to buy a property in one of the most expen-

sive property hubs in Lagos, not because she planned to acquire the property but “because she heard of a very attractive deal in the market.”

According to Association of Housing Corporation of Nigeria (AHCN), more than 90 percent of new homes utilise funds from personal savings for incremental construction which as a result of underdevelopment of Nigeria Mortgage sector in driving home ownership and AHCN says it is “worrisome.”

Yemi Stephens, Partner at Estate Links Limited said power to negotiate on the side of the buyer has more than doubled.

“The property market is not buoyant as we speak, as there are very few buyers. As a buyer, you are able to negotiate well now because very few people are buying,” Stephens explained.

He however painted a picture of the current state of the property market and he said it is like a situation where a property that four

people used to struggle for is now left with just one person.

“With the ability to buy now, you can sit down with the landlord and negotiate to a very good price,” Stephens mentioned.

Nigeria with about 20 million units housing deficit has one of the lowest mortgage to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate at about 0.5 percent, which obviously lags Ghana’s 2 percent, South Africa’s 30 percent, the U.S rate at 60 percent and that of the UK at 70 percent.

Rafiq Raji, chief economist at Macroafricaintel explained that mass housing, for which there is huge demand, is probably not attractive because incomes are low and credit is dear.

“More high-end property, plenty of which are empty in places like Abuja, have not enjoyed much custom because the rent economy, fuelled by political patronage, has been in dire straits for the past 3 or more years,” Raji said.

Nigeria’s real estate performance in 2019 dependent on election outcome …as investors adopt watch and see technique Endurance Okafor

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t a time when Nigeria’s property market showed signs of rebound, election uncertainties morphed into what the industry experts refer to as a ‘nightmare’.

The country’s real estate sector has responded differently to the last two presidential elections, as such industry experts imagine the forth coming general election will follow suit.

Jide Ogunleye, CEO of Denaro properties Ltd, a business and investment strategies expert with emphasis on real estate said the 2019 general election will have a lot of impact in the direction the real estate will take.

“As a developer, I have already started getting feedback as regards the forth coming election. If the election goes on peacefully, and regardless of the political party that wins and there a peaceful transition, it is going to hold well for the real estate sector, Ogunleye told BusinessDay.

Figures by the state funded bureau revealed that Nigeria real estate sector showed pointer of upbeat note for the second consecutive quarter in Q3 2018.

Although still in contraction mood, the sector did better than the -3.88 percent growth rate recorded for Q2 by 1.21 percentage points.

However, Nigeria’s GDP growth rate of 1.81 percent in the third quarter of this year could not rub off on the country’s property market. This is now couple with the fact that the road ahead for the sector appears bleak owing to the uncertainty around the 2019 elections.

“If the 2019 presidential election becomes toxic, the real estate sector is one of those that will suffer the most,” an industry expert who preferred not to be quoted said.

Nigeria with about 20 million units housing deficit has reported 11 consecutive quarter recession for its property market since the first quarter of 2016 when BusinessDay started tracking the data.

“If the whole process does not go well and there is unrest in the system, the recession will are seeing in the real estate sector will continue,” Ogunleye said by phone.

The real estate performance under different leaders showed that the real GDP growth recorded in the sector in Q2 of 2011, the same quarter former president, Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in, stood at 10.48 percent- the sector positively welcomed the leader.

This is compared to the 2.97 percent recorded for the same quarter in 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president was given the baton.

The sector didn’t quite smile at the president’s victory, as the figure reported was less than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2014, and marginally lower than growth reported for Q1 2015 by 1.98 percentage points and 0.10 percentages points respectively, as compiled from NBS figures analysed by BusinessDay.

The third and fourth quarter growth for the property market under Jonathan followed in appreciation trajectory while Buhari’s went in opposite direction.

Meanwhile, Jonathan whose primary goal was to achieve stable electricity supply in Nigeria earned the dubious distinction of being the first president in Nigerian history to lose an election.

The former president conceded the election to challenger Muhammadu Buhari, who was sworn in to succeed him on 29 May 2015. Jonathan said in a statement he issued on 31 March 2015 that “nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”

O lurogba Orimalade, Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) Lagos State Branch said the real estate sector is going to drag because of the political uncertainties. Although he mentioned the sector will eventually bounce back regardless of whether the present government remains or not.

he Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC ) has refinanced mortgage loans totaling N18billion as at December 2018.

This is in line with the company’s mandate to promote affordable home ownership in the country by leveraging funding from the capital market to deepen liquidity in the primary and secondary mortgage markets.

NMRC refinances mortgage loan portfolios of its member primary mortgage lending and commercial banks that comply with its uniform underwriting standards.

The deployment of the N18billion to refinance mortgage loan portfolios of member lending institutions has helped to boost liquidity in the Nigerian housing market, thus enabling mortgage lenders to provide more housing loans and encouraging longterm mortgage loan creation.

Speaking on the development, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NMRC, Kehinde Ogundimu stated that the company is working hard to further boost its refinancing operations.

In the quest to providing liquidity to Nigeria’s mortgage industry, NMRC carried out Series 2 Bond issuance at the end of H1 2018. The issuance was carried out at a lower cost compared to the initial issue in 2015.

Speaking on the impact the issuance will have on the country property market, an expert who asked not to be quoted said going forward NMRC will be able to lend at a cheaper cost.

“Because if they borrow at a cheaper cost it means they will be able to refinance mortgage lenders at a cheaper cost, which the ultimate beneficiary are the individuals that are taking the mortgages,” an industry expert who ask to be quoted on the condition of anonymity said.

The opinion of another analyst was not different as he said generally, the impact of the issuance would mean that the cost of mortgage lending will come down.

“This means that people that are trying to get mortgage will be able to access the loan at a lower interest rate,” the analyst said on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the mortgage interest rates in Nigeria range between 7-10 percent for the Federal Mortgage Bank 0f Nigeria (NHF) and between 15-25 percent for commercial mortgage institutions, this analysts have said is one of the highest in the world, as compiled from BusinessDay survey.

NMRC said it has completed its N11billion 13.80 per cent Series 2 Bond Issuance under its N440 billion Medium Term Note Programme.

It said it is part of its primary mandate of providing liquidity to the country’s mortgage market.

The net proceeds of the exercise will be used to refinance eligible mortgage loans originated by the participating mortgage lending banks.

Ogundimu said in a statement that the bond issuance reinforces NMRC’s commitment to “encourage and promote homeownership in Nigeria by linking the capital markets with the housing sector and establishing an operating and viable secondary mortgage market to support the primary mortgage market.”

This is coming after its inaugural N8 billion 14.9 per cent Series 1 Bond issue in July 2015 – which was fully deployed towards refinancing legacy mortgage loan portfolios of the participating eligible member-mortgage lending banks.

The Series 2 Bonds are unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and thus ascribed an ‘AAA’ rating by both Global Credit Rating Co. and Agusto & Co. The order book was subscribed by over 200per cent.

The bonds were subscribed to by domestic investors with the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) representing over 70 per cent of the investors.

Africa’s most populous nation however require bout 20 million units to meet its housing needs and industry experts say effectors by NMRC are directed at bridging the country’s huge housing gap.

The government of Africa’s largest economy has however disclosed plans to inject 500 billion naira ($1.4 billion) to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) for over the next five years in an effort to spur home ownership that has failed to take off in Africa’s largest oil producing nation.

NMRC is a CBN-licensed mortgage liquidity facility with the core mandate of developing the primary and secondary mortgage markets by raising long-term funds from the capital market, and thereby promoting affordable home ownership in Nigeria.

NMRC was incorporated on 24th June 2013 and obtained its final license to operate as a non-deposit taking financial institution from the CBN on 18th February 2015.

28

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LegalPerspectives

With

Writ of fiery facias

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t is also called the Writ of Fifa.

It is often used for the purpose of debt recovery. Under this procedure, a sheriff is instructed to seize and sell the properties of a judgement debtor in order to sell and apply the proceeds of the sale to satisfy the debt being owed the judgement creditor.

In a situation where the proceeds of sale from the moveable properties that were seized does not satisfy the debt, then an application can be brought to levy execution on the debtor’s immovable properties too. The application to court for this is usually by way of motion on notice supported by affidavit evidence. This shows that the party whose properties are to be attached (judgement debtor)

The Criticism Anti-dumping as a trade defence measure have come under heavy criticism based on the ambiguity in the wordings of the law which has subjected its implementation to the discretion of member states. Basically, the wordings that have introduced complexities into anti-dumping law are‘normal value’ and ‘material injury’.

Due to the lacuna created by the ambiguity in the wordings of the law, anti-dumping duties are often imposed on very unreasonable grounds. In essence, this boils down to the fact that the success rate of an anti-dumping investigation will be high due to the loopholes in the law. In the United States of America for example, dumping has a conviction rate of 96%. To further buttress the foregoing point, most appeal against anti-dumping duties before the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ends in favour of the complainant.

The requirement to prove that a good is being sold at a price below its normal value is a complex one. There is no straightforward way to decide what a normal price or normal value is. Often times, normal value means the value of the product in its home market. Therefore, a company that fixes a lower price for its product overseas than what it sells locally can be accused of dumping.

Another huge lacuna in the anti-dumping law is in the fact that the law permits the country alleging dumping not to use the domestic price of the exporting country to determine the normal value of the product. Hence, the country alleging dumping is free to use the export price of a third country. China is a typical example of a country whose domestic price is usually not used to determine the normal value of a product having been classified as a non-market economy i.e. the domestic prices of Chinese products are not true reflections

Duties of a customer to a bank

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ank customers have duties which they need to comply with from time to time in the course of relating with a bank.

It is not a one sided relationship, so there are some duties that the relationship imposes on them too.

Some of the duties a customer owes a bank are identified below 1. Duty of care- there is an implied duty on a customer to operate his or her account with the bank in a way that fraud or loss is not attributed to such a customer.

So the customer is to take reasonable steps to prevent fraud. In the case of Salawa v Union Bank (1986) 4 NWLR (Pt 38) 701, 707 the court noted that “ a customer has a duty to take reasonable and ordinary precaution against fraud and if as a direct result of the neglect of such precaution loss is sustained, he must bear the loss as between himself and the bank”. The process of determining whether there has been a breach of this duty depends on the peculiarities of each case.

2. Duty to give unambiguous

instructions- The bank is under an obligation to carry out the instructions of a customer. The foregoing places a burden on the customer while instructing the bank to always give clear instructions that will not mislead the bank. A bank can only be held liable in a situation where the customer gives a clear and unambiguous instruction to the bank.

3. Duty to repay- The customer owes the bank the duty to repay

Tuesday 01 January 2019

Odunayo Oyasiji

Anti-dumping in international trade Meaning of dumping umping is the importation of the products of a country into another country ‘at less than the normal value of the products.’ Dumping is regarded as an unfair practice aimed at causing injury to domestic companies. Therefore, anti-dumping frowns at the selling of foreign goods in another economy at a price that will cause injury to a domestic industry. Anti-dumping laws permit the imposition of temporary duties on goods that are guilty of dumping.

Anti-dumping is usually employed as a tool to combat the adverse consequence of trade liberalization as local industries are open to competition from foreign products. Officially, antidumping laws are meant to guard against “predatory pricing.” Antidumping is the most used trade defence instrument in modern time.

Elements to establish dumping When trying to establish that dumping exists and, as a result, invoke the provisions of antidumping laws, some important elements/features must be present. The elements that must be established are – i.That the price of the foreign product is lesser than the normal value. ii.Show that material injury is being inflicted on the domestic market. iii.There should be a causal link between the dumping and the injury.

As simple as these three elements seem to look, they have been the subject of heavy criticism due to their unascertainable nature. More details will be given on the criticisms under a different subhead.

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whatever debt he or she owes the bank.

It must be noted that a breach of any of the above duties will either give the bank a good defence against any accusation of breach of contract or the right to institute an action against the customer. Therefore, there is need for a customer to always give clear and unambiguous instruction to the bank. Also, a customer needs to manage the account in a responsible way.

is aware of what the judgement creditor wants to do. Also, the judgement debtor has the right to file processes opposing the application.

It must be noted that there is an established or identified process of disposing the money realized from sale of the debtor’s property.

The proceeds of sale is disposed as follows1. The sheriff is paid for any amount and expenses due.

2. Payment to the auctioneer (if any) of the prescribed fees and expenses of sale.

3. Payment to the judgement creditor of the amount to be levied together with costs (if any).

4. Payment to the judgement debtor.

LOCUS CLASSICUS

Cooper v Phibbs (1867) lr 2 hl 149 Fact: Mr Cooper who is the plaintiff is a nephew to the person that owns Salmon Fishery. He leased the fishery from his uncle. His uncle later died before the expiration of the lease and he had to renew the lease from his aunt. It was later discovered in the uncle’s will that the uncle already granted life tenancy of the fishery to Mr Cooper. Therefore, there was no need to renew the lease with the aunt in the first place. A dispute arose when it was time for payment of the next rent. The issue

that came up for determination was whether Mr Cooper was the owner of the fishery and whether the lease was void.

Judgement: The court held that the contract and lease that existed between Mr Cooper and the defendant was voidable. This is because he (Mr Cooper) was already the beneficial owner of the Salmon fishery and there could not be a lease. It was held that the agreement would be set aside for common mistake by both parties as to the ownership of the fishery.

Legal functions and attributes of money

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he phrase ‘your money or your life’ is a language commonly used by men of the underworld. This shows the importance attached to money as some people even put their life at risk to protect it.

Money is usually the yardstick to measure wealth. It also indicates the economic status of a person or society. Economic yardsticks like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Per Capita Income (PCI) are represented in monetary terms.

The functions of money can be inferred from its economic definition. Money works as a medium of exchange, means of payment, unit of account and store of value. RM Goode in his book on Commercial Law identifies five important characteristics of physical money.

They are- “1. Its value in law is not its intrinsic value as paper or metal but the sum or unit of account in which the note or coin is denominated 2. Money is not bought for exchange. It

is either borrowed or received.

It comes to the holder by way of gift or in discharge of an obligation 3.money is fully negotiable 4. Unless otherwise agreed a creditor is not entitled to demand or obliged to accept anything other than money in discharge of a debt owed 5.

Money is a fungible so that any unit is legally interchangeable with any other unit or combination of units of the same denominated value.”

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29 NEWS

BUSINESS DAY

Stakeholders list conditions to boost education sector in 2019

Nigeria risks weak investor confidence over political uncertainty - Moody

KELECHI EWUZIE

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head 2019 calendar year, industry experts in the education sector have listed character building, political will, resolution of bottleneck with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), among others, as conditions necessary to boost education sector.

They observe that the education sector in Nigeria in 2018 faced numerous challenges that affected it general performance, adding that discipline is very important in attaining any significant achievement in human capital development.

According to them, at the moment, Nigeria is at a cross road, instead of our present educational system helping to propel us forward in development, we face a gloomy picture of decay because of wrong ideas and teachings that made “self”

instead of the “society” as a centre of development.

Tolu Odugbemi, former vice chancellor, Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUTECH), says, “Education is a tool for development if properly handled from childhood to adulthood through various systems - primary, secondary and tertiary levels.”

Odugbemi notes that in 2019 character building must accompany any form of learning in the various levels of education so that products of these institutions will to be relevant to society development.

He calls on managers of the economy to reassess their strategies to rebuild our societies by refocusing our values on positive and virtuous traits, which a robust education sector provides.

According to Odugbemi, “In 2019, I desire to see a Nigeria that is in the forefront of scientific and technologi-

cal achievements that will advance the standard of living of Nigerians.

“I want to see a country with proud and cohesive people and where appropriate values and attention are placed on key sectors such as education, health, human rights and security by government.”

To him, “The investment in these key areas and in particular, the educational sector, will go a long way in bringing a future and a hope for this generation and future generations.”

Isaac Adeyemi, an educationist and former vice chancellor, Bells University of Technology, Otta, Ogun State, observes that the issue of leadership in our education sector needs to be reassessed and reappraised in Nigeria.

He is worried that successive governments have failed in providing good and effective leadership and ap-

propriate policy directions for the relevant sectors, education inclusive.

Adeyemi points out that there are supervisory bodies (School Boards, Governing Councils, Committees on education, set up to monitor growth and development of education in our schools and institutions of higher education.

He is worried that in the past years, some members of such supervisory bodies are generally uninformed of their duties, and responsibilities attached to their offices. Some work very hard for excellence while some see being in such bodies as opportunities to ‘make it.’

“Projects meant to be supervised by their supervisory bodies become ‘projects’ they execute with nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Even the funds for execution of projects are usually thought to be ‘money for sharing,’” he notes.

OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN

oody’s investors service, a leading credit rating and research agency, said Nigeria could risk weak investor and consumer confidence over political uncertainty and social unrest.

The global rating agency, in its 2019 outlook on Africa - banks and sovereigns, identified Nigeria alongside South Africa and Tanzania as one of the African countries bedevilled with such “an ever-present” challenge.

As a result, Moody’s said Nigeria’s growth would be more subdued at 2.3 percent as “more stable oil prices will drive economic acceleration” in the country.

Nigeria goes to the polls next February to decide its President among ruling President Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential flag bearer of the opposition party and 57 other aspirants.

The country is also expected to conduct elections for governors as well as state and federal lawmakers.

Growth in Africa’s largest economy stood at 1.81 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018, according to data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and has been projected to hit 1.9 percent in 2018 and 2.3 percent

in 2019 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In spite of these, the rating agency sees banks showing strong financial resilience in 2019 but warned that tightening global financial conditions are a key downside risk.

It said although its outlook for African banks was stable, risks are tilted to the downside even though external shocks such as falling commodity prices, drought, or an escalation of global trade wars, could hurt African corporates and their ability to repay debt.

According to the outlook, rising US interest rates leading to capital outflows across emerging markets, in conjunction with rising government debt and currency depreciation could significantly harm banks’ loan quality and access to foreign currency.

Higher oil prices and partial liberalisation of the foreign-exchange market have eased pressures on “unhedged” borrowers and normalised foreign-currency liquidity, according to the credit agency.

“Capital buffers are strong for the bigger banks, but weaker for smaller banks,” Moody’s forecasted adding that it expects most rated banks to maintain stable profitability, build up their capital buffers and retain ample local currency funding in 2019.

ECA hails continental free trade pact as Africa’s milestone policy

U L-R: Motunrayo Ade-Famoti, CEO, MoneyStewards; Aderemi Banjoko, CEO, dkbMARKETS Limited; Gbenga Shobo, deputy managing director, FirstBank, and Ibukun Awosika, chairman, FirstBank, at the FirstBank Youth Empowerment Programme in Lagos.

Ambode swears in new HoS, 6 perm secretaries JOSHUA BASSEY

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overnor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Monday swore in Hakeem Muri-Okunola as the 21st Head of Service (HoS) of the state, with a charge on him to inject fresh ideas that will take the public service to new heights as well as make Lagos a globally recognised city-state.

The governor also swore in six new permanent secretaries already deployed to various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The new permanent secretaries, include Titilayo Goncalves (ministry of health); Adeyemi Kosoko (Education District IV); Sherifat Balo-

gun (ministry of youth and social development); Segun Adeniji (Health Service Commission); Abosede Adelaja (ministry of tourism, arts and culture); and Lateef Lawal (Primary Healthcare Board).

Describing the appointments as thoroughly deserving, Ambode said a new chapter has been opened in the state public service, and particularly urged the appointees to justify the elevation by working harder to satisfy the expectations of the people.

While expressing strong optimism in the ability of Muri-Okunola to effectively take charge on account of his capacity, knowledge, exposure, experience and youthful energy, Governor Ambode nonetheless said it was impor-

tant for him to lead by example and encourage accountability and professionalism.

“Following the swearing in of the new Head of Service, a new chapter has just been opened in the history of the Lagos State Public Service. It is a new chapter with high expectations for the injection of new energy and vibrancy that will move our public service to new heights.

“As the number one civil servant in Lagos State, you must demonstrate leadership and lead by example for others, including the Body of Permanent Secretaries, to follow. You have a responsibility to provide direction and encourage accountability, transparency, professionalism and high sense of discipline.

N Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was one of Africa’s milestone trade policy. ECA noted that the policy would serve as imputes toward transforming Africa’s future development.

“The AfCFTA is one of the milestone trade policy developments in Africa which is

expected to change the way Africa does trade and catalyse transformation in a way trade policy has not done before,’’ the ECA said in a statement on Monday.

Noting the vital significance of continental free trade agreement, ECA also urged its member countries to commit themselves through the inclusion of the major pillars of the agreement in their national policies.

Amosun assents to N400.3bn Ogun fiscal estimates for 2019 RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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overnor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State on Monday assented to N400.3 billion 2019 Appropriation Bill earlier passed by the Ogun State House of Assembly into law, making it approved fiscal estimates for the new year.

Recall that Governor Amosun, in November 2018 presented a N402.63 billion Appropriation Bill before the State House, which was made up of N254.055 billion capital expenditure, representing 63.1 percent and recurrent expenditure of N148.5 billion, representing 36.9 percent of the total budget.

But, the State House, after much deliberation and

consideration of the whole estimates, slashed the Appropriation Bill to N400.3 billion, taking off a total sum of N2.6 billion as part of fiscal review made on the total size of the fiscal estimates proposed for the new year.

After signing the Appropriation Bill at the conference room, Governor’s office, Abeokuta, Governor Amosun commended the speaker and the Honourable members of the House for doing the needful by passing the bill on time.

The governor appreciated the Ministries of Budget and Planning and Finance for a job well done, assuring that the budget would be adequately funded for the betterment of the people.

According to Amosun,

‘’throughout the eight years of our administration, our budgets have always been presented and considered by the House and signed into law on time. This shows that we have not taken our people for granted.”

The governor while reviewing how his administration had faired in budget preparation and implementation, expressed optimism that the next government would improve on it.

Speaker, Suraju Ishola Adekunmbi, who had earlier presented the clean copy of the budget to the Governor in the company of other honourables, disclosed that, after taking a critical look at the proposed budget, the House decided to approve the sum of N400.3bn.

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Tuesday 01 January 2019

Southern Middle-belt leaders allege plans to rig 2019 polls had come under pressure to delete the electronic transmission of results from the Polling Units (PU) to a central server and the pasting of results at the polling units in the proposed guidelines for the 2019 elections.

“Our attention has been drawn to media reports on Sunday that the commission has come under pressure to delete the electronic transmission of results from the Polling Units (PU) to a central server and the pasting of results at the polling units in the proposed guidelines for the 2019 elections in sync with the refusal to sign the Electoral Bill passed by the National Assembly.

Iniobong Iwok

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igeria’s Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum has raised alarm over alleged plans to rig the 2019 general election, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resist pressures from those bent on sabotaging the poll, asking the commission not to compromise the general election.

In a statement to journalists in Lagos, Monday, signed on behalf of the leaders of the forum, by Yinka Odumakin, Bassey Henshaw and Isuwa Dogo, the group noted that there were reports that INEC

Buhari’s ineffective leadership responsible for incessant killings of soldiers - Ezekwesili Iniobong Iwok

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biageli Ezekwesili, presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has blamed incessant killings of Nigerian soldiers during confrontation with insurgent group, BokoHaram in the Northeast on the failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

In a statement to journalists in Lagos, Monday, Ezekwesili frowned at the unabated killings in Zamfara State, saying that the once most peaceful state of the Northwest region had been turned into a theatre of terrorism.

According to her, the security situation in the country shows a lack of effective leadership by President Muhammadu Buhari, this is demonstrated in the very troubling inertia to decisively confront and end the frequent killings of our citizens; especially our sol-

diers on the frontline of battle.

She added, “The killings have tragically earned Nigeria the designation of the 16th most dangerous country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index. Nigeria is also the 15th most fragile country in the 2018 Fragile States Index by the United States Fund for Peace.”

The presidential candidate, expressed concern over reports of 700 Nigerian soldiers killed in Baga by Boko Haram terrorists, lamenting that the unconfirmed report also alleged that over 2,000 of the country’s soldiers are missing.

“Although the military and the Presidency have denied the reports, the serial credibility challenges of the Buhari administration and the security team he leads as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces have created public distrust of any rebuttal by government. And that is gravely worrisome.

According to her, “The only

way to ensure accuracy of the casualty that Nigeria is suffering as a result of counter-terrorism at this stage is to inaugurate a citizens-led independent investigation panel. Such an initiative would go a long way to eliminate the opaqueness of the counterterrorism war and restore public confidence, as the case may be.

Ezekwesili further stated that the constitutional mandate of the government to ensure the security of life and property of all Nigerians had been poorly handled, especially within the last decade.

“Tackling this will require commencing a security discourse and planning away from a narrow focus on military responses, to a more collective and participative conversation of the structure of the Nigerian state and our security architecture. Our ACPN administration would without fail prioritise this.”

2019: Okowa urges Deltans to remain united, peaceful Francis Sadhere, Warri

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overnor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has called on the people of the state to remain united to the cause of developing the state irrespective of ethnic or party differences.

Okowa, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu, felicitated with all Deltans as they stepped into 2019 and expressed gratitude to God for the grace granted Delta and its citizens in 2018.

Praying for the unity and peace in the state, which, he

noted “is the bedrock of meaningful development in any given society,” he expressed the hope that 2019 will be a year of fulfilling a greater and stronger Delta.

He said, “Given our success story in the past three and half years in office, I have no doubt that with the same level of cooperation from the good people of Delta State, our government will achieve more in all facets of governance”.

“Our optimism is driven by the support we enjoy from our Youths, leaders, the legislature, the judiciary, the civil service, my team of political appointees, agencies of government,

both at the federal and the state levels, as well multilateral donor agencies.”

Governor Okowa noted that, “as one of the first states to sign the 2019 budget, our government was prepared for the task of governance and provision of key infrastructure which made us to hit the ground running from day one“. “I must emphasise that the consistent early passage of our state budget has given me and indeed the state the advantage of early starters, both in the appreciation of what Deltans expect from their government and in the development of solutions to meet such expectations”.

“If these reports are true, it may just confirm the fears that the perpetual boast by the ruling party and its allies of assurance of victory in the 2019 presidential poll even before it holds is not based on winning the hearts of the people but through underhand means “ The group stressed that rigging often starts with the changing of results announced by the Polling Officers as party agents are expected to countersign results but the refusal of any agent to sign does not invalidate the results, while often allowing compromised polling officers to change figures between the Polling Units and the Ward Collation centres.

The group advised INEC to be mindful that the credibility of the conduct of the 2019 elections depended much with the continued existence of Nigeria as a country and therefore, must be above board.

According to the Forum, “INEC must use form EC 60 E which will contain the scores of every candidate at every Polling Unit (PU) which must be pasted at every PU and transmitted to a central server by the presiding officer in the presence of agents.”

The group urged Nigerians to be on the alert as it may be possible that some forces are already in talks with some foreign mercenaries to interfere with next year’s elections.

SDP: Jerry Gana campaign group faults Falae on court judgment Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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he G19, the Presidential Campaign team of former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, has faulted the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Samuel OluFalae, over his position on the court judgment that declaredGana as the right presidential candidate of the party in the 2019 election instead of former governor of Cross River state, Donald Duke, earlier picked by the party.

The Group in a statement issued at the weekend by its Director General Dr. Ike Neliaku, noted that the group after numerous enquiries and calls from esteemed Party supporters and concerned members of the public from within and outside Nigeria, was constrained to respond to the Press Statement reportedly issued by the National Chairman of SDP, which suggests his unwillingness to obey the valid court order.

Dr. Neliaku stressed in the statement that the group had waited for any denial of the authorship of the said statement, especially in the light of earlier directive of the National Chairman that only Prof Tunde Adeniran is authorised to issue further statements on the matter under reference.

“Following an FCT High

Gana

Court Judgment of 14th December 2018 in favour of Prof.

Jerry Gana as the 2019 Presidential Candidate of the SDP, and in the spirit of our avowed commitment to Party Constitution, Prof. Gana wrote the National Chairman on December 17th to inform him of the judgment and sought audience on December 19th to brief the National Working Committee (NWC) on the agenda and roadmap of his campaign thrust. The National Chairman through the Deputy National Chairman South, Prof. Tunde Adeniran responded on December 18, conveying his inability to be in Abuja as requested.

“On December 19, Prof Gana personally submitted his nomination form to the Party which was received by the Deputy National Chairman (North) Dr Abdul Isiaq and other members of the NWC on behalf of the Party; for onward transmission to INEC in line with the court Judgment and Order. DrIsiaq announced at the public occasion that the Party will obey the court order. To our surprise, we understand that the National Chairman at the last minute instructed the Party not to proceed with the form to INEC, which is a flagrant disobedience to the court judgment,” the Director General said.

The group pointed out that after waiting for about 10 days without any information from the National Chairman on moving forward, and being under tremendous pressure to commence campaigns in the light of limited available time, Prof Gana wrote a second letter dated December 27 notifying the National Chairman of his intention to unveil his campaign vision to the Media on December 29 2018 and meet with Stakeholders on January 5, 2019.

“While expecting the Na-

tional Chairman’s response to the letter, our attention was drawn to a Press Statement reportedly issued by the National Chairman, Chief OluFalae on the subject matter of our letter, even to the extent of threatening Party members not to attend the events.

“To say the least, we are shocked at the National Chairman’s sudden shift of position, after making commitment to both our Candidate and other legitimate stakeholders, that as Social Democrats he and by extension, the Party, are obliged to obey the court judgment and orders; and would expectedly work with the position of the court,” the group said.

The statement said further that for the avoidance of doubt, the reliefs granted in consequence of the case by the FCT High Court are all DECLARATORY, which could ONLY be vitiated by a contrary judgment of an appeal court. It added that it speaks volumes that the National Chairman would prefer an Appeal process, yet to commence and determined, in total disregard to a subsisting valid judgment and order by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“We have consulted with other leaders of the Party who represent about 90% of both the National Working Committee and National Executive Committee of the Party, and arrived at the conclusion that the views of the National Chairman are not in tandem with the majority.

“For record purposes and ensuring that Party members are well informed of the facts, may it be known that up till the last time I checked before issuing this statement, Prof. Jerry Gana has not been served of any Court of Appeal process, and as such has not engaged any counsel to prosecute any imaginary appeal on his behalf.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

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Nigeria’s next president must unveil new industrial strategy ODINAKA ANUDU

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ith the 2019 gene ra l e l e c t i o n s few weeks away, anybody who becomes President must unveil a new industrial strategy that will determine Nigeria’s manufacturing trajectory.

Over the years, the country’s industrial strategy has been obfuscating as it is difficult to determine whether the country is trending towards import- substitution or export- orientation.

Import-substitution is a strategy in which local industries are established with a view to producing goods that replace imported ones.

It requires imposition of tariffs, quotas and exchange controls to protect local industries from foreign competitors and make foreign goods expensive.

Export- oriented or substitution industrialisation, on the other hand, is a strategy of exporting goods for which a country has a comparative advantage. This strategy has worked miracles for the Asian Tigers.

Some countries have also adopted foreign private investment strategy, whereby incentives are put in place to attract multinationals and foreign direct investors. A typical example of a country with this policy is Ethiopia, even though it may be argued that the East African country is export-oriented or a mix of export-orientation and foreign private investment strategies.

Nigeria has adopted what is called ‘resource-based industrialisation’, whereby firms use locally available resources, such as raw materials, man power and natural resources, to grow domestic production.

This has seen some success with local input sourcing reaching 57 percent in the first half of 2018, according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). Despite adopting this strategy, local manufacturers remain the heaviest importers of inputs, machines and packaging materials. This is why any scarcity of dollars hurts the industrial sector most.

Muda Yusuf, director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), pointed out recently that the country needs a new industrial strategy targeted at shoring up non-oil export.

He, however, explained that import- substitution and export promotion could go together, adding that resource-based industrial is more competitive because local resources are utilised, citing an ex-

ample with the bright performance of food and beverage sub-sector which gets most of its inputs locally as a case study.

Nevertheless, facts on ground show that the country’s industrial strategy is not clear.

In 2013, for instance, the National Automotive Policy imposed 35 percent levy and 35 percent duty on imported vehicles, amounting to a total of 70 percent. This was meant to protect local vehicle assemblers.

At the same time, importers of damaged or ‘accidented’ vehicles officially enjoy a rebate of 30 percent. What this has done is to encourage the importation of rickety vehicles, which make up 70 percent of imported cars today.

“If you want to develop a market for 54 companies that have got licenses with 410,000 capacity plants and you import a huge number of used vehicles, how are you going to support vehicles being assembled, since the ones assembled locally will be more expensive?” Bambo Adebowale, chairman, Auto and Allied Sector group of the LCCI, asked in a recent interview with BusinessDay. A new industrial strategy has become imperaitive, as local industries are increasingly becoming a shadow of themselves.

What is happening to Ajaokuta Steel Complex today? The complex has gulped $8 billion public funds without producing one sheet of steel. Recently, the Senate approved $1 billion from public funds to revive Ajaokuta even when there is a good case for its privatisation.

The next President must not waste the country’s scarce resources on this behemoth.

Since 1994, successive governments have claimed that the complex is 98 percent completed, but the remaining two percent has become a hard nut to crack for successive administrations. Muhammadu Buhari’s government budgeted N3.9 billion in 2016 and N4.27 billion in 2017 for the resuscitation of the steel, despite an earlier business case in the last administration showing that the complex could only work if properly privatised.

BusinessDay checks show that Ajaokuta Complex has the capacity to produce one million metric tonnes of steel, one million metric tonnes of coal , manganese and limestone, among others.

Due to lack of operations at Ajaokuta Steel, Nigeria today imports steel valued at $3.3 billion every year.

Frank Udemba Jacobs, immediate past president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said over 50 percent of raw materials used in the sector would have been locally available had Ajaokuta been working.

Similarly, the Aluminium Smelter Company, located in Akwa Ibom State, is not in operation due to a tussle between Bancorp Financial Investment Group Divino Corporation (BFIG), a consortium of U.S.-based Nigerian investors led

by Reuben Jaja, and the United Company RUSAL, a Russian firm.

Nigeria has three paper mills that are not working. These include: Nigeria Paper Mill (NPM)Limited located in Jebba, Kwara State; Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC)Limited, OkuIboku, Akwa Ibom State; and Nige-

rian National Paper Manufacturing Company (NNPMC) Limited in Ogun State.

Studies show that Nigeria loses N180 billion annually from nonperformance of these paper mills.

Nigeria spends N50 billion on the import of papers annually, according to a research done by Abimbola Ogunwusi and Peter Onwualu, director and former director-general of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Newspapers and publishing firms are struggling to import papers with limited foreign exchange, leading to very high cost of paper products.

“The co-investor that bought the NigeriaPaper Mill (NPM) Limited did not buy it to help Nigeria,” said Samson Ololade Ogundele, ex-senior manager, NigeriaPaper Mill Limited, Jebba, Kwara State in Lagos, said at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos in 2016.

“I know it was valued at about N30 billion in Nigeria as at 1995, but this same mill was given to the investor at N334 million in 2008.

The aim of the government in handing over the mill was to create jobs and improve the economy. The majority of Nigerians working in Nigeria Paper Mill –both junior and senior—are all casual,” Ogundele disclosed, adding that the Federal Government must re-visit the privatisation in spite of the fact that it is the only paper mill working at the moment.

As of today, many private companies are either shut down or mired in intractable legal tussles.

Vita Malt in Agbara, Ogun State, is shut down. Multi Trex, a 65,000 metric-tonne cocoa processing factory, the largest in the country,

has been taken over by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).

In 2015, the only surviving brake pads and lining maker, Star Auto Industries, collapsed as it was unable to compete with cheap Chinese products and could not pay back loan borrowed from the Bank of Industry.

“It is difficult to compete with Asia, with substandard, cheap brake pads. I am not happy that import duty on brake pads fell from 25 percent to 10 percent. This is the situation since 2004 and government has done nothing about it,” CEO of the firm Chidi Ukachukwu, told BusinessDay in early 2014.

Today, only three textile firms out of over 120 in the 1980s are in operation.

“What we need is the enabling environment. We cannot compete with the level of smuggling and counterfeiting going on now. We used to have about 127 textile firms in Nigeria but that has come down to two or three now,” said Grace Adereti, president of the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA) in Lagos at a Made-inNigeria stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos.

“We had the revival loans but this didn’t work because our biggest problem has never been money,” Adereti said.

Similarly, public firms such as Federal Superphosphate Fertilizer Company and National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency are also moribund and need a blueprint.

Fifty-four manufacturing firms closed down 12 months preceding August 2016 due to their inability to access dollars to import raw materials, according to a survey carried out by NOI Polls and Centre for Economic Research in late 2016.

Speaking at last year’s Manufacturing & Equipment Expo organised by MAN and Clarion Event West Africa, Aliyu Suleiman of the Dangote Group, said that an industrial strategy has become important for Nigeria as new governments spend half of their tenures devising plans, with little room for implementation.

“Last year, the United Kingdom produced a revised manufacturing strategy— a definitive roadmap. We can do that in Nigeria and MAN is in the best position to do this,” he stated.

According to him, the industrial strategy should include the aspiration of industry in terms of how much GDP contribution targeted; where to play, with regard to areas of priority, and how to win, in terms of becoming competitive.

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CCNN tops market gainers in 2018 ahead...

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installed capacity of the merged

entity to two million metric tonnes per annum, according to the statement.

CCNN’s expansion heats up competition in the cement sector which expanded 8 percent in the third quarter of 2018, the highest sectorial growth in the period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The dearth of infrastructure in

Africa’s most populous nation means that there are opportunities for cement makers to boost revenues riding on the expected upsurge in demand.

The merger also brings the total capacity of BUA’s cement operations to eight million tonnes per annum, following the group’s recent completion of its three million MTP Obu II Cement Plant in Okpella, Edo State, it said.

The expanded CCNN will remain the market leader in its regional market of North West Nigeria, the third largest market for cement in

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Nigeria by consumption, the statement quoted Abdul Samad Rabiu, Founder/Executive Chairman of BUA Group, as saying. The company will also continue its exploration of opportunities in the export markets of Niger, Burkina Faso and the west African region, he Rabiu added.

“Traditionally, the huge cost of transportation to CCNN’s home region from other cement plants in Nigeria – the nearest being about 900 km away – has always given us a strategic advantage in that region over competing cement companies and brands,” Rabiu said.

New Year, new wears, new looks... Consumers, doing last minute shopping for New Year celebration in Lagos. Pic by David Apara

Buhari has a history of smuggling in looted...

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remotely corrupt or illegal has

been found.

“In desperation, the Buhari administration released this statement to cover their shame on a day that the US based International Strategic Studies Association reported that it is the unprecedented corruption around President Buhari that has

led to the recent setbacks in the war on terrorism in the Northeast and the heavy loss of lives amongst the military rank and file. May God save Nigeria from a government that values money over lives.

“We therefore urge Nigerians to note that it is Muhammadu Buhari who has a history and a record of smuggling in looted funds and it is Wa-

Muster emerges winner of BusinessDay...

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ing to rent properties in an affordable way. Muster.ng does not charge users to create accounts, have a sharer’s contact card or list properties. However, in a bid to maintain the integrity and security of users on the platform, users can only communicate through the messaging feature on Muster.ng.

We overwhelmingly advise users to keep the conversations on the platform and not share phone numbers or email address till they are “Mustered.” Muster.ng charges for initiating new conversations.

There’s a 11% service fee that’s charged on the rent of every room on Muster. Seven percent of that fee is paid by the renter and 4% is paid by the host (room owner)” How is Muster.ng different other online house hunting platforms you ask? Ibrahim Babalola puts it rightly: “Muster.ng is tailored to a niche market. The reason why the properties on those other platforms rarely get rented is that majority of them are unaffordable. Muster.ng

helps agents give property seekers the flexibility to split rent, thereby making the property more affordable and closing the listing faster than on any of the other traditional property lettings platforms” “A unique challenge for Muster. ng is the trust deficit in the Nation.

The most frequently asked question that our 24-hour customer support team gets is, “I want to share but how secured will I be in the property with someone I meet on Muster.ng”. So whilst people are open to sharing, they want to be assured that they will have a good living experience.

“To address this, we get KYC documents from every sharer that creates an account on muster. ng and use that for background checks. We will also keep in contact with sharers to find out how they are getting on. In the unlikely event that a sharer wants to move out, all the person needs to do is put the property back up on muster.ng.

Nonetheless, we also have tips on Muster.ng for what to look out for in choosing the perfect sharer”.

ziri Atiku Abubakar who has a history of preventing such from happening.

“And while they are at it, we urge them to tell Nigerians those behind Etisalat, now 9Mobile and Keystone Bank, now Polaris and how they suddenlypossessedsuchwealthovernight.

“Finally, Nigerians should note that the Buhari administration cannot defend their record on jobs and poverty - the things of most concern to voters- thus, their only resort is slander,” the statement said.

Since launch in July 2017, the company has facilitated over 600 rented rooms and people with rooms on Muster have earned over N100,000,000 in rental income.

Muster prioritised going live in Nigeria in H2:2017 over other African countries due to a larger addressable market (Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country) and has continued to make impressive strides, recording a week-on-week surge across measurable metrics.

In December, the Cross River State Ministry of Culture & Tourism announced Muster as the Official Accommodation Partner for the 2018 Calabar Carnival, enabling people in Cross River to earn money on the spare rooms in their houses.

Muster was founded on a belief in the possibility of a world without homelessness where every young person has access to affordable housing and “The plan is to do for African megacities, what AirBnB did for hospitality.”

The company is backed by local and US investors, with support from Amazon Web Services amongst others and has been featured on local and international media.

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Five things businesses must prepare for...

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revenues and dollar inflows.

Worse still is that Nigeria cant pump more than 1.6 million barrels of oil daily this year, a limit imposed by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to rid the market of a supply glut and lift oil prices.

Speculative activities will also be rife in the New Year, as dollar demand by investors betting on the naira to weaken will only add to pressure on the exchange rate.

Besides, this could also be the year the naira starts to yield to rising interest rates in the US and most developed markets, which have hammered emerging market currencies from the South African rand to the Mexican Peso.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did a good job fighting off any material depreciation in 2018, but that was a CBN that had close to $50 billion in external reserves at the peak of its powers.

Given the outlook for oil revenues, this year holds new prospects for the apex bank whose constant dollar supply last year to defend the naira cost it as much as $7 billion.

Higher cost of production The second thing businesses must brace for in the new year is higher cost of production. If the naira weakens, it becomes more expensive for businesses to import raw materials and other inputs, thereby stoking production costs.

Businesses must therefore consider looking for local alternatives, where possible, for the raw materials needed for their production process.

They should also limit or out rightly eliminate foreign debt, particularly if they do not have foreign exchange receivables to mitigate the possible foreign exchange risk.

The borrowing burden Another thing every business must know going into 2019 is that borrowing costs will rise. It would become more difficult to get credit, at least from the banks, at affordable rates as the government could be set to crowd out the private sector for the third year running.

The 2019 budget has a deficit of N1.859 trillion and the government plans to borrow about N1.65 trillion from a mix of foreign and local creditors.

However, the outlook for oil earnings puts the government’s revenue target of N6.9 trillion at risk.

In the event that revenues underperform, as they have done in the last three successive budgets, then the government will be forced to borrow more which will drive

yields on government securities higher and make it more expensive for the private sector to raise capital.

While fixed income investors may enjoy higher yields in 2019 than in 2018, businesses may suffer under rising interest costs.

Bearish stock market The fourth thing businesses should prepare for in 2019 is a possible bearish stock market.

The Nigerian stock market shivers when oil prices catch a cold.

When oil prices decline, investor sentiments take a hit and appetite for stocks wane and vice-versa.

After a torrid 2018, where stocks succumbed to a loss of 18 percent, 2019 may hold little bright prospects for one of Africa’s worst- performing stock market.

For businesses looking to go public in 2019, there might be need for a rethink as it is never a good time to face investors when sentiments are sour. It could see the company undervalued because buyers are scarce.

In a reflection of how undervalued Nigerian stocks currently are, the average Price to Earnings ratio, which is a measure of listed companies’ valuations, is at a record low of 9 times, as foreign portfolio outflows and political uncertainty deals a tough blow on stocks.

At the most recent market peak in 2014, stocks were valued at 15 times earnings. That means investors paid N15 for each naira earned by listed companies.

Possible petrol price increase An increase in retail petrol prices cannot be ruled out this year as the subsidy burden on the government grows.

At N145 per litre, the amount Nigerians are paying for fuel is heavily subsidised by the government.

The political cost of hiking petrol prices has often deterred the current administration from moving to hike petrol prices like Saudi Arabia and Mexico have done recently.

However, after the election in February, that excuse fades.

In the event that there is a hike in petrol prices, it would trigger inflation and reduce purchasing power of households. Add the expected naira depreciation this year and the picture is worse.

Businesses could begin to soften the expected blow from reduced consumer purchasing power to create affordable products and services that moderate the strain on consumer wallets. Goods with elastic demand could also suffer but those with inelastic demand will be in good stead.

Nigerian students, business people...

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“I have fulfilled almost everything needed to process my admission into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston except my visa. I had been scheduled to attend a visa interview early next month. However, with this recent development, I do not know what to do, especially as school resumes soon,” a graduate of University of Ibadan, who gave his name simply as Chike, told BusinessDay. A travel expert who craved anonymity told BusinessDay that the development was not good for the economy and business because a lot of businesses would

be put on hold as a result of this development.

The travel expert further wondered how those with serious health challenges who had been referred to hospitals abroad would cope with the situation.

BusinessDay’s checks show that some Nigerians who had applied for visas in October 2018 were yet to get appointments and those who had gotten will now be delayed as a result of the indefinite shutdown.

The executive arm of government and the legislative arm have been at loggerheads for nearly two month over President Trump’s attempt to build a wall along the Mexican border.

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Naira ends year strong helped by CBN, BDCs collaboration HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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oreign exchange maintained stability as the local currency ended the year 2018 strong against the US dollar, helped by the collaboration between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators.

Aminu Gwadabe, president, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), who disclosed this to newsmen at the end of year briefing in Lagos, said both the apex bank and ABCON worked together in the course of the year to achieve exchange rate stability, one of the agenda set by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the beginning of his tenure.

Gwadabe said the partnership between both institutions would continue in the New Year to make the naira sovereign in the forex market.

“The strategic partnership

between the Central Bank and ABCON continued to make the naira sovereign in the foreign exchange market. The opening market rate N360/361 to dollar on the two-way quote has been stable. This sustained stability made the Bureaux De Change (BDCs) to continue to be the potent monetary policy tool of CBN exchange rate managements,” he said.

According to Gwadabe, the market distortions by forex speculators, rent seekers, currency hoarders and frivolous demand that usually endangered naira stability have been successfully checkmated. He said it was no longer profitable to attack naira in the market.

The foreign exchange rates collected across different markets and released yesterday by ABCON showed that last year’s closing rates in Lagos were buying/selling rates for dollar stood at N358/359.5; Pounds

Sterling, N452/N457 and Euro N404/N409.5, respectively.

In Port Harcourt, dollar buying/selling rates closed the year were at N359/361; Pounds Sterling, N457/N464 and Euro N405/N408, respectively.

In Abuja, dollar buying/ selling rates closed last year at N359/360; Pounds Sterling, N464/N467 and Euro N407/N410 respectively. In Kano, dollar buying/selling rates for last year were at N359/360; Pounds Sterling, N465/N472and Euro N407/ N411 respectively.

Gwadabe said that ABCON last year created Naijabdcs.com, a live rate engine room created to provide uniform rate for all BDCs across the country.

The Naijabdcs App displays live exchange rates for different currencies against the naira. “It was created by ABCON to bring about price discovery and transparency in

the foreign exchange market.

The portal has the support of the CBN, commercial banks, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, Travelex, over 4,000 BDC operators among others,” he said.

He said the App can now be downloaded from the Google Play Store adding that being on the Google Play puts Niajabdcs.com in front of people using billions of active Android devices, in more than 190 countries and territories around the world.

Gwadabe said the local currency stability has also been achieved in the official market, where the exchange rate closed the year at N307 to dollar despite huge campaign spendings by political parties.

He disclosed that both the CBN and ABCON have continually ensured that foreign exchange demands at the retail end of the market were met.

L-R: Hassan Gbemisola, managing director, Fatgbems Group; Kabir Gbemisola, chairman; Yomi Kuku, executive director, Search and Groom, and Shamsudeen Gbemisola, executive director, Fatgbems Group, at the presentation of tropy to the winners of Fatgbems Group Football Competition in Lagos.

Aviation workers to go on strike over trade dispute IFEOMA OKEKE

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ollowing a long ranging trade dispute between the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and two aviation unions comprising Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), the unions have vowed to declare a state of emergency in the agency by January 2, if their demands for staff promotion are not met.

The unions disclosed their plans at the weekend in Lagos, claiming that the management of NCAA had taken them for granted with regards to the issues of promotion of NCAA staff.

Speaking on the issue, Lucky Izebhokun, chairman, Joint Action Commit-

tee, NCAA, and chairman, NUATE, NCAA branch, made it clear that NCAA management would be looking for trouble if they do not promote the staff of NCAA by the end of this year.

Izebhokun, who said the anxiety was so high while a lot of people had been highly discouraged in the system, said there was the possibility that the aggrieved workers would pour out their mind on January 2, 2019.

Izebhokun said, “Now the Management has so much relegated the staff of NCAA so much so that they will be employing, doing secondment and transfer of people from other organizations to come and boss us, we have had issues with people being transferred from NAMA especially, because there is no promotion in NCAA, you will see

now bossing the people in NCAA, we have told Management that we can no longer accept that.

“We wrote them and told that within the next three weeks if you do not give our people promotion, we are talking about promotion from level 14 to 15 and 16 that is senior management cadre, if you don’t promote them there will be serious issues.”

He said if the union fails to curtail this excesses for this senior cadre, it will start spiralling down to the lower cadre, and time may come when they will be no vacancy for levels 12 and 13.

On his own part, Ayodele Sofolayan, chairman, ATSSSAN NCAA branch, confirmed that the issue of staff promotion in NCAA is already generating a lot of anxiety and that the issue has been delayed for long.

@Businessdayng

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BUSINESS DAY

Dangote Flour re-launches Semolina, wheatmeal products

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angote Flour Mills in its desire to put tasty meals on the tables of Nigerians has rolled into the market two products, Dangote Semolina and whole wheatmeal. The unveiling of the two products took place in Kano and Ibadan.

Speaking at the unveiling of both products, executive director, Dangote Flour Mills, Halima Aliko Dangote, said the new products come with ‘a taste to treasure’ as granules are better and fortified with micro granules for superior taste.

She stated that the two products have been fortified with micronutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Niacin, Zinc, Iron, Folic acid and many more, which makes it beneficial to nutri-

tional health. Giving more insight into the features of the new products, she said, ‘Our Dangote Wheatmeal contains 100 per cent wheat for 100 per cent nourishment which gives it the additional benefit of being rich in fibre for easy digestion.”

Adding that delighting consumers remain the focus of the flour miller, she said, “Everything we do starts with an understanding of the consumers and their desires. Here, we engage regularly with the consumers, users and potential adopters of our brands to understand and appreciate their points of view on product needs and aspirations.

This openness has helped in getting good and invaluable feedback on product performance and improvements.”

Obasanjo urges Nigerians to learn from late Shagari’s forgiveness spirit, lifestyle

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ormer President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on Nigerians to imbibe the good habits of forgiveness, simplicity and integrity of late former President Shehu Shagari.

He made the call on Monday when he condoled with the family of late President Shagari who died at the age of 93 on December 28, at the National Hospital Abuja.

Obasanjo, who arrived Shagari’s resident in Sokoto at about 9:50am and was received by Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, described the deceased as an epitome of integrity with deep commitment to Nigeria.

He recalled that they both served as Federal Commissioners during Yakubu Gowon regime, noting that the deceased was honest and transparent.

“Late Shagari should not be mourned, but be celebrated as a true, honest and sincere leader who was a nationalist to the core. Nigerians has lost a gem,” he said, saying, “Shagari is a true friend not fair weather friend, his life is embodiment of truths to celebrate. “If we learn lessons from his habits of forgiveness which he taught us, Nigeria will be a good country.”

Responding on behalf of the family, the late President eldest son, Bala Shagari appreciated Obasanjo for the visit and recalled that Obasanjo assisted his father to own a house in Abuja.

Meanwhile, the Emir of Jema’a in Kaduna State, Muhammadu Isa, and the Chief Medical Director Usmanu Danfodio University Teaching Hospital Sokoto, Anas Sabir, also condoled with the Shagari family on Monday.

Huge debt profile: MFB threatens debtors with EFCC IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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orried by its huge debt profile, the management of Afemai Microfinance Bank (AFMB) Limited has threatened to drag customers to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Pius Akpaibor, chairman, board of directors of the financial institution, disclosed this at the 23rd annual general meeting of the bank that took place at his corporate headquarters at Uzuaire, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.

Akpaibor said about 16 high profile debtors of the bank were leaders and members of the community, and they owed the bank about N150 million.

According to Akpaibor, the huge debt profile is a

big challenge to the bank; Afemai MFB is one of the very few successful microfinance banks in the country, and, we are very proud to be able to establish such a microfinance bank in our community.

“We have made extra efforts to support the businesses and the activities of people of Uzuaire origin or Afemai origin because we believe that this is their bank. But unfortunately, high profile members of our community that we have supported have failed to pay back this money. If they don’t have the means to pay one will appreciate but they have the means to pay and that is why we feel very bad.

“They are clear threats and dangers to our business operations. Your bank has exhausted the normal pro-

cedure for enforcing repayment to no avail, which has compelled, as a last resort, to take legal and other recovery actions against these customers. These measures include recourse to EFCC as non- repayment of bank loans which is classified as economic sabotage,” he said.

Akpaibor further added that the management in compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive had set aside the sum of N150 million of its profit in the 2017 financial year to repay the debts.

He explained that the development has made it impossible for the bank to pay dividend to shareholders.

He however, appealed to the debtors to do everything possible to repay loans so that the bank will have more fund to disburse to the customers.

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Tuesday 01 January 2019

deemed to be going against the electoral law. This means, even if security personnel are present, the presiding officer acts as their ‘commanding officer’.

According to a police document detailing the duties of the police during election days, made available to BusinessDay, police are to provide security of lives and properties, and maintain general peace at the polling stations during accreditation, counting and collation of results.

The security agents, particularly the Police, have critical roles to play to ensure smooth running of the 2019 elections.

Having free, fair and credible elections largely depends on the roles of the police in the coming elections. The role of the police in championing the rule of law in the 2019 electoral process determines the legitimacy of whoever emerges as the president and credibility of the police to the public.

Instead of allowing itself to be used as a tool to rig elections, the police has a duty to the Nigerian public to ensure that Nigerian votes count towards the direction of the will of the people.

Participating in electoral fraud to the advantage of a particular candidate, is a crime against democracy, which undermines the voice of the people.

Speaking at a public forum, the former Director General of Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Epiphany Azinge, a professor, said that the use of instruments of force to coerce people against their democratic preference is the worst crime against the rule of law.

Azinge said, “Another brazen affront to the concept of the rule of law is the ignoble role of law enforcement agencies to wit, police, state security services, the armed forces in the affairs of democratic norms and principles.

“Law enforcement agencies continue to be used as veritable tools for perpetration of election rigging in our polity. It is a notorious fact that has been on since independence. However, since 1999, it has now assumed a disturbing dimension. To use forces of coercion to undermine the wishes of the electorate in an election is simply the highest form of debasement of the concept of Rule of Law”.

As we match towards 2019 general elections, the police and other security agencies should adhere strictly to the rules of engagement, which are to promote peace and security of the electorate, electoral officers and electoral materials, which generally promote free, fair and legitimate elections.

The role of security agencies on election day JOSEPH MAURICE OGU

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rdinarily, Nigerians did not have to worry about the intimidating presence of security agencies during elections until the Ekiti and Osun state elections were held in July 14 and September 22 (2018) respectively.

This calls for a re-examination of the role of security agencies as general elections approach next year. The heavy presence of security personnel is synonymous with the era of military juntas in Nigeria.

However, the role of security personnel became a national concern after what Nigerians witnessed during Ekiti and Osun elections.

In advanced democracies elections are held almost without the presence of security personnel and the economy is

not shutdown. To the contrary, Nigeria still uses intimidating security presence and public holidays are being declared during elections. Admittedly, this notion emanated from years of military rule in Nigeria where it was almost seen as a norm for huge military presence during the junta’s era of unending transition programmes.

As the 2019 elections draw closer, people are seriously paying attention to the roles of the security personnel. The cases of Ekiti and Osun elections are always key reference points.

In Ekiti state, both All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) accused each other of using security personnel to intimidate party members and supporters by giving undue advantage to the other party.

In Osun State, the heavy presence of the police was such that it called to question the priorities of the police force in Nigeria: instituted to fight crime or to monitor elections.

According to reports, the Osun state election had in presence a Deputy Inspector-General of Police, eight Commissioners of Police and 40,000 personnel. The Police hierarchy also dispatched two helicopters, 30 armoured personnel carriers and 300 patrol vehicles for the

Osun governorship election that was held September 22. These personnel included Police Mobile Force, Counter-Terrorism Unit ; the Special Protection Unit ; the Anti Bomb Squad; conventional policemen; the Armament Unit, personnel of the Federal Investigation and Intelligence Department, IGP Monitoring, IGP Intelligence Response teams, the sniffer dogs section and the mounted troop. All these apparatuses of coercion gave the impression that something was to go amiss during the election.

In a country like Nigeria where elections are still done with bitterness and with a ‘do or die’ mentality, election days could be violent. In this regard, one could join with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which has insisted that it needs the presence of security personnel for the safety of its staff and ballot materials, and general peaceful atmosphere around polling areas.

According to the electoral process, the presiding officer of a station is recognised as the chief security officer of his station.

He/she is empowered to oversee the general security of the station. The security personnel are answerable to the presiding officer. Only him/her can request for the arrest of anyone

NEWS

Healthy environment, job creation potential seen in waste recycling CHUKA UROKO

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ecycling, which is one of the many ways of disposing waste, has the potential to create jobs, wealth and healthy environment, environmental activists say.

In Nigeria, waste management is still not effective due, largely, to inadequate investment and lack of capacity. Again, at local, state and federal government levels, institutions that are specifically established for waste management are still lacking.

Unknown to many, wastes are a huge economic resource, especially the plastic waste, which is scattered all over the place.

This has a huge economic value and income potential. According to Ola Oresanya, managing director, Globetech Remedial

Limited, “plastic collection in Lagos State as of 2015 was at 40 percent; 1kilogram of plastic flakes sells for N187; Lagos generates about 1,048.7 tons daily and this has economic value of about N71.6 billion annually.”

Oresanya, who is a former managing director of Lagos State Waste management Agency (LAWMA), says waste management in Nigeria needs not just investment but also enlightenment and awareness creation.

This is exactly what Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) has been doing since its creation a couple of years ago.

Adekunle Olusuyi, FBRA vice chairman, disclosed recently that the alliance has been intensifying awareness on separation of waste and environmental pollution, especially on postconsumer polyethylene tere-

phthalate (PET) bottles which can further be recycled to other useful products.

Olusuyi, who spoke at the two-day 12th National Stakeholders’ Forum of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in Abuja, explained that FBRA’s participation in the summit was in line with its commitment to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy of government, to help build a sustainable healthy environment that leads to business growth.

“We are looking at the entire packaging lifecycle – from how bottles and cans are designed and made, to how they are recycled and repurposed. We want to reduce the waste we generate as much as possible, encourage recycling, and our initiatives in this regard has been well tailored

to achieving tangible results along with our partners,” he said.

The stakeholders’ forum, which had the theme, ‘Circular Economy and Environmental Governance’, provided a platform for an in-depth discussion and array of issues focusing on the theme as well as critical factors in attaining sustainable development in the national development plan.

It also enabled stakeholders to highlight waste-to-wealth initiatives, review progress in the implementation of the EPR programme, strengthen policies and regulations to enable the recycling of food grade packaging waste materials by establishing a national standards for recycled PET and determine how Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO) can support waste management for a

healthy environment, recycling roles, among others.

The FBRA vice chairman explained further that in a circular economy, proper waste management, which involves different stages, leads to job and wealth creation along the value chain.

He pointed out that recent survey indicates that the volume of post-consumer PET waste was over 800,000 tons, requiring participation of all stakeholders at the different stages to drive a robust circular economy.

“The various roles in waste management start from waste separation, collection which our partner, RecyclePoints, takes care of, to separation, transportation, shredding at the recycling plants, production of other products and re-use. At these stages, different jobs are created, whether directly or indirectly,” Olusuyi said.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

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World Business Newspaper

Stock market rout in 2018 leaves investors bruised and wary Nervous sentiment after worst annual sell-off since 2008 financial crisis Emma Dunkley

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lobal stock markets suffered the worst annual selloff in 2018 since the financial crisis, leaving investors bruised and braced for further volatility in the coming months.

The equity market rout of the past year has been stoked by concerns of a slowing global economy, tightening monetary policy, and a string of weaker-than-expected corporate earnings in the US. Mounting geopolitical tensions, from the escalating trade war between the US and China to Brexit, have also rattled investors and weighed heavily on equities.

The widespread nervous sentiment has dragged the FTSE All World index down 12 per cent, representing its worst annual performance since the crisis of 2008.

Although most markets in Asia were closed on Monday, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 1.3 per cent, the region has had a torrid year, with China faring the worst.

China’s CSI 300 index has lost about a quarter of its value after plunging into bear market territory in the first half of 2018, as the trade tension with the US took root. The fall marks China as the worst-performing equity market of the year. The sell-off comes despite a landmark move to include mainland-listed stocks — called A-shares — into the flagship MSCI Emerging Markets index.

Elsewhere, sleepy trading conditions on the last trading day of the year on Monday delivered a small lift to markets, but 2018 remains on track to be the worst year for the benchmark US, London and European indices since 2008.

Uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the EU has cast a cloud over sterling and the UK’s stock market, with the FTSE 100 finishing the year down more than 12 per cent. Europe has not been immune to the weak sentiment, with the Euro Stoxx 50 index lower by 15 per cent.

Investors are bracing for headwinds in 2019 from geopolitical risks and tighter financial conditions as the US continues

US banks to cut London-EU commuting support for staff after Brexit Employees must cover own costs if they want to keep London connections Laura Noonan

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our big US banks have warned staff that commuting from London to European cities is “not a long-term option” after Brexit and that financial support for travel and accommodation costs will be withdrawn within months of their jobs being transferred.

International banks are planning to move thousands of people from London to Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and other locations in the first quarter of 2019 so they can continue to service EU clients after the UK leaves the bloc.

Daunted by the prospect of quitting London’s cultural and shopping attractions, many bankers, traders and executives had hoped they could keep their families in the UK capital and commute weekly to wherever their job was moved.

“It’s dawning on people that commuting isn’t a long-term option,” said one executive at a large US bank, adding that his colleagues had been told they would only receive support to commute for a maximum of six months.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Bank of America — which are set to relocate up to several hundred staff each in the first phase of Brexit — all declined to comment.

The numbers moving are well

below the tens of thousands of jobs some had warned would be lost from the City, though banks are prepared to move more people later, depending on the terms of Brexit and clients’ reaction.

A person familiar with Morgan Stanley’s plans said the bank would offer “short-term support” for those who wanted to commute “but we want them to live in Frankfurt, Paris etc”. Staff would be able to commute for longer “if they’re paying for it”, he added.

A second person said the policy was aligned with EU regulators’ desire that the individuals in control of large EU entities would be fully present in those countries.

Financial support for shortterm commuters is intended to help people who do not want to move their children in the middle of the school year, or have other logistical reasons for not being able to move immediately.

At JPMorgan, these benefits, which include smoothing tax differences between two countries, and housing and travel, would typically be phased out six months after an employee transfers, two people familiar with the plans said.

Citi is taking a tougher line; one person with knowledge of the bank’s planning said there would be no commuting support Continues on page 38

China’s CSI 300 index has lost about a quarter of its value after plunging into bear market territory © AFP

to raise rates and as Europe ends its post-crisis monetary stimulus.

“For the first time in many years, markets are now pricing in pessimism instead of optimism,” said Michael Cembalest, chairman of market and investment strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management.

The sell-off in Asia has been

particularly pronounced, in part because of the strong US dollar that has drawn money out of riskier emerging markets, and as investors take profits from a stellar run in 2017.

Fund managers at Schroders said that although “a tumultuous 2018 has left Asian equities significantly cheaper and presenting selective opportunities”,

investors must “tread carefully”.

“Asian equities in aggregate now trade close to the levels seen during the last period when regional markets experienced a downdraft in late 2015 and early 2016,” said Matthew Dobbs, an Asian equities fund manager at Schroders. “At this level, they are beginning to offer some value.”

The Federal Reserve versus the markets: who has it wrong?

Central bank optimism about the global economy stands in contrast to investor outlook Sam Fleming and Chris Giles

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he message sent by investors in stormy financial markets is clear: the global economic expansion could be in trouble. But the Federal Reserve remains optimistic, publishing strong growth forecasts for the US and plotting out more interest rate rises.

So are investors right to be worried? World output growth for this year was projected at a healthy 3.7 per cent by the IMF in October, but the fund’s outgoing chief economist Maurice Obstfeld acknowledged more recently that there is now “some air coming out of the balloon”.

Five advanced economies — Japan, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland — all experienced contractions in the third quarter of this year.

While the declines were spurred in part by one-off factors, including more stringent car emissions standards in Europe, together the economies affected represent a hefty 15 per cent of world gross domestic product, according to Oxford Economics.

Many economists expect stronger growth in the fourth quarter, but worries remain significant enough for Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, to speak of “downside risks” to the eurozone at this month’s monetary policy meeting.

Leading indicators have turned downwards, with the OECD this month noting “easing momentum”

across Europe, Canada and now the US. Growth could be set to slow simultaneously in the US, China, Europe and Japan next year compared with this year.

In the US, where the economy is on course for a 3 per cent expansion in 2018, corporate executives are getting nervous.

A total of 48.6 per cent of US chief financial officers surveyed by Duke University now believe the US will be in recession by the end of 2019, and 82 per cent think a recession will have started by the end of 2020.

Erik Nielsen, chief economist at Italy’s UniCredit bank, said he was picking up signs of anxiety in Europe as well, as global trade tensions damaged companies’ willingness to invest. “I worry more and more every day,” he said.

According to data compiled by UniCredit, global trade has slowed sharply, down to 2.25 per cent growth compared with a long-term average of 4.5 per cent.

Mr Nielsen is particularly concerned by the slowdown in China, where retail sales grew at the slowest pace in 15 years in November and factory output was the weakest in nearly three years.

A renewed escalation of the trade battles between the US and Beijing would do further damage to growth and investment in China and elsewhere.

The IMF estimates that, if all of the tariffs threatened to date were actually imposed, as much as threequarters of 1 per cent of global GDP

would be lost by 2020.

“The uncertainties have reduced investment pace,” said Laurence Boone, chief economist at the OECD. “This transition is also coming at a time of political risks in many countries and at a time when the normalisation of US monetary policy is starting to have more significant impact.”

Whether the declining confidence in markets accelerates, feeding into economic outcomes, will depend in part on how deftly central banks respond.

Stephen King, economic adviser to HSBC, noted that the Fed was “not great at delivering soft landings” in the US economy. “Things have a habit of going wrong, particularly when the economic cycle looks relatively mature,” he said.

The Fed has lifted rates nine times in three years, and is set on a balance sheet reduction programme that will contract its asset holdings by hundreds of billions of dollars next year.

This will combine with a waning US fiscal stimulus in the second half of next year. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics expects the stimulus from US tax cuts and public spending increases to have evaporated entirely by 2020.

But US inflation is quiescent despite unemployment hovering at half-century lows, meaning that the Fed can afford to be patient with policy — and that is a message the central bank is likely to hammer home in the coming weeks.

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US banks to cut London-EU commuting support...

Tokyo court extends Carlos Ghosn’s detention again

Continued from page 37

for the 63 people who are due to move in the first quarter, though they would receive the standard relocation package to cover the cost of moving their belongings and setting up home.

At Goldman, executives want staff who are moving to understand that once they go “they’re gone for good” and not on a temporary or commuter assignment, one person familiar with the plans said. To that end, commuter supports would be limited. A second person said Goldman’s plans were still “in flux”.

A person familiar with Bank of America’s plans said the bank had not decided to discourage commuting. BofA has already moved 100 staff from London to Dublin for its main EU banking entity. It is also moving traders to Paris.

Life continental beer ends year with a bang

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ife Lager is ending the year with a bang following its successful yuletide festivities in Owerri on the 28 December, after successfully hosting the “Bridge of Progress” party in Ekwulobia, Anambra state.

Headlining the Ekwulobia edition of the party was Life Beer ambassador, Phyno who thrilled the audience with his signature indigenous rap verses. Also performing on the night were the likes of Obiligbo Brothers, HiLife Fest King 2018, Dons Ifeanyi, and Indigenous upcoming acts.

Flavour was on ground to grace the stage at Owerri with less than 72 hours between both parties, consumers in the East are loving every bit of the non-stop entertainment being provided by Life beer.

Omotunde Adenusi, the portfolio manager, mainstream brands, Nigerian Breweries Plc, said since its emergence in the local market, Life Continental Beer has taken pride in being firmly rooted in the culture and tradition of the Igbo people. “We at Life Beer have had a very strong connection with our consumers in Anambra, Owerri and other parts of Eastern Nigeria.

We wanted to celebrate the year’s end with our ever loyal consumers and also give them a taste of the things to expect from Life Beer in the New Year,” said Adenusi.

After an eventful year that has seen the beer brand engage in two remarkable initiatives; the HiLife fest and Life Progress booster, Life Continental appears to be pulling no stops in giving its consumers an exciting festive season celebration.

After the party in Owerri, Life will also be sponsoring the Flavour of Africa concert as the beer brand seeks to end the year in style.

“Bridge of Progress” party, Owerri edition, was held at Shoprite, featuring acts like HiLife Fest King 2017, Chibest David and others.

Life Continental Lager Beer is the fine quality lager beer from the stables of Nigerian Breweries Plc., made from the choicest grains, hops and the purest of waters.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

Former Nissan chairman to remain in jail until at least January 11 Leo Lewis

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From left, Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler and Elijah Cummings are likely to press the Trump administration on a range of issues © Reuters/Getty

The US Democrats preparing to wield power in the House New committee chairs poised to have a big impact on Trump’s remaining time in office Courtney Weaver

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n January 3 Democrats will officially take control of the US House of Representatives, giving them authority over the chamber’s committees and the power of subpoena — a new tool in their quest to take on Donald Trump.

The new Democratic committee chairs are likely to press the Trump administration on issues ranging from the personal behaviour of administration officials, to the actions of the president — both during his time in office and before. Ultimately, the Democratic-controlled House could have the power to impeach Mr Trump, a path many in the party would prefer not to take at the moment, but one that exists within the realm of possibility.

Below are the three incoming Democratic House committee chairs who are likely to have the biggest impact on the White House and the president’s future in office.

A Democratic congressman representing Manhattan’s West Side, Jerrold Nadler has been a foe of the president’s since the 1980s and 1990s when the two locked horns over the then-property developer’s plans for multiple high-rise buildings in Mr Nadler’s congressional district. While Mr Trump prevailed back then, this time Mr Nadler has the upper hand.

As the incoming chairman of the

House Judiciary Committee, Mr Nadler, a 71-year-old trained lawyer and life-long politician, will have the power to launch impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump.

So far, Mr Nadler has given little hint over whether the committee is considering looking at impeachment articles, insisting that the discussion is premature. That could change, however, in the coming months. In the meantime, Mr Nadler has said he will focus on immigration — drilling down into the administration’s policy of separating families that arrive illegally in the US and taking a tough questioning line against Kirstjen Nielsen, the Department of Homeland Security secretary. Expect him to also keep a close eye on Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation, particularly with regards to the Justice Department and its new acting attorney-general, Matthew Whitaker.

A 67-year-old lawyer from Baltimore, Elijah Cummings has served in the House of Representatives for more than two decades as a member, and former chair, of the Congressional Black Caucus. In January, Mr Cummings will take over as chair of the House Oversight Committee.

In the run-up to his appointment, the longtime congressman has sent dozens of letters to government agencies, officials, as well as the Trump Organization, asking for more details on a number controversies that have dogged the administration.

Mr Cummings plans to investigate whether certain Trump administration officials used government services and personnel for non-official business. He will also probe cabinet members’ travel spending habits; and whether any officials, including Mr Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, have used personal email accounts to conduct official business.

He also plans to look into the Trump Organization’s business dealings and how much business has come in from foreign governments to Trump hotels and properties since the president took office. Like Mr Nadler, Mr Cummings has been concerned about the family separation policy, and said he would demand further details from government agencies about the remaining separated children.

For the past two years, Adam Schiff has railed against his Republican colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, alleging that they had worked in co-ordination with the White House to prevent a real congressional investigation into Russian interference in the presidential 2016 election and any possible links between Mr Trump and Moscow.

In January, Mr Schiff will have the authority to drive the investigation, as the committee’s new chair.

It is a big moment for him. A 58-year-old Harvard-educated prosecutor, Mr Schiff has served in Congress since 2001, representing the California district just north of Los Angeles.

Angela Merkel vows more German international ‘responsibility’ Chancellor takes on Trump isolationism in New Year message with focus on co-operation Guy Chazan

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ngela Merkel promised that Germany would “take on more responsibility” internationally in 2019, after a year in which Donald Trump’s vocal demands that Berlin spend more on defence have badly strained US-German relations.

In her New Year’s address, the chancellor said, without mentioning Mr Trump by name, that old certainties on the importance of international co-operation had “come under pressure”.

“In such a situation, we must once again stand up, argue and fight for our convictions — more than we have in the past,” she said. “And we must — in our own interests — take on more responsibility.”

She said Germany would take up a temporary seat on the UN Security Council in 2019, and also increase its spending on humanitarian aid and defence.

In addition, the chancellor said

Germany would fight to make the EU more robust and would also strive for a “close partnership” with the UK, even after it leaves the EU. Germany emerged this year as Mr Trump’s favourite punch bag, frequently coming under attack over its large current account surplus with the US, its relatively low defence spending and its support for a gas pipeline that Washington says will increase Europe’s dependence on Russian energy exports.

Germany, whose export success has been built on open borders and free trade, has also observed Mr Trump’s embrace of protectionist “America First” trade policies with increasing alarm.

But in her address, Ms Merkel stressed her continued commitment to the kind of multilateralism now scorned by the White House, saying only international co-operation could solve the global problems of climate change, migration and international terrorism.

“It’s in our own interests to resolve

these issues and we can only do that when we take into account the interests of others,” she said.

Ms Merkel acknowledged that 2018 had been an “extremely difficult year politically”. It had taken nearly six months to form a government, following inconclusive elections to the Bundestag in 2017, and her “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats had been plagued by infighting. “We argued a lot and were too preoccupied with ourselves,” she said.

After a dismal performance by her conservative bloc in two regional elections in the autumn, Ms Merkel shocked the nation by announcing she was standing down as leader of the Christian Democratic Union, a party she has led for 18 years.

That triggered a succession race that pitted the CDU’s secretary-general Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a moderate who was widely seen as Ms Merkel’s favoured successor, against two conservatives, Friedrich Merz, an old rival of Ms Merkel, and Jens Spahn, the federal health minister.

arlos Ghosn will spend at least 10 more days imprisoned and under interrogation without the presence of his lawyers after a Tokyo court approved a further extension of his detention.

The former Nissan chairman and current Renault chief executive will now be detained until at least January 11, and could remain behind bars even longer if prosecutors re-arrest him a second time.

Monday’s extension, which was largely a routine decision by the court, was requested ahead of the January 1 deadline — which is a national holiday — by prosecutors who are investigating allegations of financial misconduct by Mr Ghosn.

The extension of Mr Ghosn’s detention came as Nissan has widened its own internal investigation into his financial affairs. The probe, say people familiar with the details, is now examining Mr Ghosn’s dealings with business associates in India, the Middle East and Latin America and could provide prosecutors with fresh lines of investigation in coming months.

Mr Ghosn was first arrested on November 19 over his alleged role in submitting financial statements that understated the true scale of his salary at Nissan — charges that have also been brought against Greg Kelly, Mr Ghosn’s close aide, and which the Japanese company itself will also face.

After more than 20 days in detention and a cour t r uling that his arrest on suspicion of violating securities law could not be extended further on the original charges, Mr Ghosn was re-arrested on new allegations of aggravated breach of trust. The back-to-back arrests and seemingly indefinite period of detention available to prosecutors have spotlighted a tactic that, while standard practice in Japan, has attracted both domestic and international criticism.

Mr Kelly was released on bail on Christmas Day after five weeks in detention, and said in a statement that he believed he would be found innocent in court.

The breach of trust investigation is looking at two strands of allegations: the transfer to Nissan of a derivatives contract struck between Mr Ghosn’s personal asset management company and Shinsei Bank; and the background to a series of $14.7m in payments to Khaled al-Juffali, a prominent Saudi businessman, that were made after that person provided Mr Ghosn with letters of credit.

A person familiar with Mr Ghosn and his family said they did not believe there was anything suspicious or incriminating about the alleged payments to Mr Juffali.

Mr Ghosn’s lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment but according to a person familiar with Mr Ghosn’s legal defence, he maintains his innocence on both the charges related to the understatement of pay and to the allegations of breach of trust.

Tuesday 01 January 2019

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I TUESDAY 01 JANUARY 2019

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INSIGHT/INNOVATION PROPHYLAXIS

AYULI JEMIDE Ayuli Jemide is Founder and Lead Partner of Detail Commercial Solicitors. An entrepreneur, public speaker and writer.

Email: AJ@ayulijemide.org Twitter: @JemideAyuli

A

s 2018 closed its curtains and 2019 opened what we hope will be new beginnings in many ways, it is typical for people to look at the events of 2018 and ask if there is reason to be happy. We ask ourselves if 2018 was a good year! As a nation it also behooves us to do the same and this is my own little contribution to that process.

On the 2nd of December 2018 I read an article published by the Vanguard Newspapers written by Clifford Ndujihe titled ‘’Nigeria’s killing fields’’ where the author tried to track the number of reported deaths caused by Boko Haram insurgency, herdsmen and farmers’ clashes, cult clashes, sectarian and communal clashes, kidnapping, ritual killings, and armed robbery and the toll came to 6,562 deaths in 11 months ( January to November 2018). Should

Should we be happy about 2018? we be happy?

I read a report published by The World Poverty Clock as at June 2018 that shows Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the most extreme poor people in the world.

India has a population seven times larger than Nigeria’s but has 71 million people living in extreme poverty. Nigeria according to this report now has 86.9 Million people living in extreme poverty. Should we be happy?

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics shows that our unemployment data (whether by new entrants in the job marketor existing unemployed persons) headed south in 2018. The country’s unemployment rate worsened in the third quarter of 2018 (Q3,2018), rising from 18.8 per cent in Q3 2017 to 23.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2018. Should we be happy?

2018 brought news of a fair number of suicides. Some reports state that as at June 2018 there were 80 suicides for the 12 months preceding. World Health Organization has placed Nigeria as 15th highest suicide rate in the world. Should we be happy?

Displaced population tracked by DTM in Nigeria shows that 1,702,680 were displaced as of December 2017. The same Displaced population tracked as at October 2018 shows that the figure is now 2,026,602. This means in 10 months Nigerian displaced population increased by 323922 – approximately 32,000 per month. Should we be happy?

According to TradingEconomic.com, the Nigerian Consumer Price Index (CPI) moved from 246.4 in January 2018 to 272.6 Index Points as at November 2018. In Nigeria, the Consumer Price Index or CPI measures changes in the prices paid by consumers for a basket of goods and services on a periodic basis. So,

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Whilst I wish us all a happy new year, I must say that 2019 is a defining moment for Nigeria and the pen is actually held by the 84,271,832 Nigerians who hold their voters card.

These citizens are the ones ready to write or rewrite our history as a country. I urge everyone to come out and vote

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this shows that cost of living has grown higher month on month in 2018. Should we be happy?

Quartz Africa produced a report that shows that in 2016 about 1500 Nigerians sought asylum in Canada based on alleged persecution.

By the end of 2017 this number has increased to over 5000. Interestingly, around 60% of Nigerians seeking asylum claimed to be bisexual and persecuted on the basis of their sexual orientation. By 2018, the Canadian Government is working on how to reduce the number of Nigerian illegal immigrants into Canada.

Canada believes that most of them get US visa and then head to Quebec through a forest trail from New York. Should we be happy?

Despite all that has been said, in our typical resilience and happy go lucky nature, Nigerians look forward to 2019 with new hope and renewed vigour. As a people who never give up and as a deeply religious people we always look to God in faith that tomorrow will be better.

Nigerians often say that God loves Nigeria and we believe it firmly. It is not all dark and gloomy and some good things happened in Nigeria in year 2018 that should help to renew our hope.

One of them and perhaps the most important is the civic consciousness that as enveloped Nigerians in 2018. People are now more than ever interested in the 2019 elections. How do I know this? We currently have 84,271,832 Nigerians registered to cast their votes in the upcoming 2019 general elections. This is 14,551,482 more registered voters from the total of 67,422,005 in 2015. In 2015 there were 14 Presidential candidates, in 2018 October INEC announced that 79 Presidential candidates filed their papers for the 2019 elections. In my view, 79 Presidential candidates shows the audacity of hope that Nigerians are known for. Interestingly, some of the candidates are in their 30’s and 40’s, and that increases the audacity.

Whilst I wish us all a happy new year, I must say that 2019 is a defining moment for Nigeriaand the pen is actually held by the 84,271,832 Nigerians who hold their voters card. These citizens are the ones ready to write or rewrite our history as a country. I urge everyone to come out and vote – voting is a very simple process that has far reaching consequences. Voting is not optional, it is a civic responsibility. Many things in life you cannot control, however the voting system allows you to control who rules and governs you for the next 4 years. I urge you not to take this responsibility lightly!

2019 budget: concerns, nuts and bolts

UCHE UWALEKE Uche Uwaleke of Nasarawa State University Keffi is Nigeria’s first Professor of Capital Market and the President of the Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria

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egarding the 2019 budget proposals recently presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the National Assembly, a major concern stems from the fact that it is already running behind schedule. Given the preoccupation of the Lawmakers with political activities, it is unlikely that the proposals will receive urgent attention despite the President’s plea to members of the National Assembly to ‘’commit to an early passage of this budget in the larger interest of our people and the national economy’’. This would not be the first time. Tabling the 2018 budget proposals to a joint session of the National Assembly on 7th November 2017, the President had also appealed for a swift passage of the Appropriation Bill. Unfortunately, it was not passed until 16th May 2018, seven months after it was submitted for legislative review.

In recent times, the performance of the capital component of annual budgets has been severely constrained due to several factors ranging from shortfall in expected revenue to cumbersome procurement process. These challenges were aggravated by late passage of Appropriation Bills into law. The negative effect of late passage of the 2019 budget will, like the previous budget cycles, mani-

fest in sub-optimal implementation of the capital component. For instance, by the President’s own admission, capital releases with respect to the 2018 budget only commenced after the signing of the 2018 budget on 20th June 2018 and ‘’of the total appropriation of N9.12 trillion, only N4.59 trillion had been spent by 30th September 2018 against the prorated expenditure target of N6.84 trillion’’. This adverse variance fell more on capital spending in view of the fact that debt service and the implementation of non-debt recurrent expenditure notably payment of workers’ salaries and pensions were largely met. It is not an accident that annual budget performances were a lot better when the country ran a predictable January to December financial year. Much as the federal government’s budget represents less than 10 per cent of aggregate expenditures in the economy, it has a very significant accelerator effect on the financial plans of sub-national governments including the private sector. It goes without saying therefore that the present slow pace of economic growth is due, in part, to avoidable delays in the budget process.

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To see the shortcomings in this presentation, these same projects also featured in the 2018 budget breakdown where a provision of N162 billion counterpart funding was made. Even the PortHarcourt-Maiduguri railway listed as a ‘new’ project in 2018 budget is also appearing as ‘new’ in the 2019 budget

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Besides the concern which the delayed budget process raises, there are equally other weighty issues. The 2019 budget is predicated on a benchmark oil price of US$60 per barrel, oil production estimate of 2.3 million barrels per day and an exchange rate of N305 to one US dollar. Based on these assumptions, total revenue of N6.97 trillion is projected to fund aggregate expenditure of N8.83 trillion. The oil price benchmark, seen as too optimistic, is a source of worry. The President had justified this by stating that ‘’notwithstanding the recent softening in international oil prices, the considered view of most reputable analysts is that the downward trend in oil prices in recent months is not necessarily reflective of the outlook for 2019’’.

It will be recalled however, that the sudden collapse of oil price in 2014 caught many reputable energy analysts gaping. Therefore, it is important to approach the oil revenue projection with caution bearing in mind that the international crude oil market is highly volatile. As a corollary, the 2019 budget appears to lean more on oil revenue projected at N3.73 trillion than non-oil revenue estimated at N1.39 trillion. This leaves the economy vulnerable to external shocks and poses a major budget risk.

Further, there is the concern that the 2019 budget will most likely witness a high level of off-budget funds masking the true picture of government fiscal position. Although recurrent (non-debt) spending of N4.72 trillion has made provision for the implementation of a new minimum wage, it is doubtful if this amount will be sufficient to accommodate the attendant bail-outs to state governments by the federal government in support of the implementation of not only the new national wage floor but also agreements with various labour unions including those of Universities and Polytechnics given the paltry balance in the Excess Crude account. Not a few also think that the conduct of the general elections in 2019 and the oil subsidy regime (in respect of which US$1 billion has been earmarked as under-recovery by the NNPC) represent a source of off-budget spending in 2019. These potential off budget funds will undermine government’s plan to ‘’pro-

gressively reduce deficit and borrowings over the medium term”. For the 2019 budget not to run into a major hitch, it is important that, as much as possible, all claims on public financial resources are identified and reconciled within the framework of the budget possibly incorporating tax proposals to fund such claims in the event that the oil revenue projections do not materialize. It should equally entail obtaining approvals for the plan to borrow N1.649 trillion for the purpose of financing the budget deficit. This is vital in the light of the 2018 budget experience where the implementation of the capital component of the budget did not commence nearly two months after the signing of the Appropriation Bill by the President chiefly because the government’s borrowing plan did not receive timely approval by the National Assembly.

The budget breakdown is meant to provide the nuts and bolts that will facilitate budget implementation and control. With respect to capital spending, the breakdown lists some projects as ‘’ongoing’’ but fails to state the completion targets expected in 2019. For example, under ‘Transport’, it says N80.22 billion counterpart funding has been provisioned for railway projects including ‘’Lagos-Kano (ongoing), Calabar-Lagos (ongoing), Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Aladja (Warri) (ongoing)’’ while N13 billion has been earmarked for construction of second run-way at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.

To see the shortcomings in this presentation, these same projects also featured in the 2018 budget breakdown where a provision of N162 billion counterpart funding was made. Even the PortHarcourt-Maiduguri railway listed as a ‘new’ project in 2018 budget is also appearing as ‘new’ in the 2019 budget. This sort of narrative does not allow for a correct assessment of progress made in the execution of these projects. The same presentation flaw is observed with respect to projects listed under ‘works’ in the 2019 budget where about N280 billion is meant for the construction and rehabilitation of roads including counterpart funding for the dualization of Makurdi-Enugu road, Akwanga–Jos-Bauchi-Gombe road among others.

Continues online: @www.businessday.ng

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