BusinessDay 04 Jan 2010

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arassment at market centres has grown to become one of the foremost perils to the safety of womenfolk in public spaces. Women are twice as

FEATURE

vulnerable as male counterparts to verbal and physical intimidations.

Sheltering wallets and mobile gadgets, adjusting hand baggage for easy glimpse and

tuning one’s sensitivity to a highly conscious degree like a soldier equipped for war are not some of the things women zealously want to do while shopping at open market squares. But it’s the safest thing to do in this unique situation.

Precautionary as the mea-

0.12

NGUS JUN 26 2019 365.34

10 Y 0.09

20 Y 0.00

15.67

15.54

NGUS DEC 24 2019 366.24

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Wriggling through the prowling hands of ‘Lagos hustlers’ H

TEMITAYO AYETOTO

FGN BONDS

TREASURY BILLS

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Download e-copy of Women’s Hub from www.businessday.ng

sures are, they cannot buy women freedom of harassment from the prowling hands of ‘Lagos hustlers’. They have their trademark as ‘we must touch’ – that is, any potential female customer walking through the market with Continues on page 34

COMMODITIES

Nigeria’s sugar production drags as backward integration stutters

…weak infrastructure, lack of monitoring challenging policy

JOSEPHINE OKOJIE

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igeria has seen its sugar production remain relatively constant in recent years despite the introduction of the backward integration policy aimed at boosting local producContinues on page 34

Inside Illustration by Toju Akapa

Zenith Bank, GTBank set to beat earnings guidance as analysts await FY 2018 results P. 2

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Friday 04 January 2019

Why Nigeria ranks low on latest Forbes ease of doing business LOLADE AKINMURELE & ADAMS SEGUN

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nly in 50 other countries globally is it harder to start and manage a business than in Nigeria according to Forbes, in what is a grim reflection of the steep hurdles lined up for businesses operating in Africa’s most populous nation, which also ranked 146 of 190 countries in a similar business index by the World Bank.

Despite showing progress by moving five notches to 110 of 160 countries in the Forbes global ease of doing business index, there is still much to be desired at a time when countries engage in a stiff battle for private investment.

A difficult business climate puts Nigeria on the back foot in that tussle for capital and threatens to cost Abuja’s oil-dependent economy in terms of inclusive growth and job creation.

South Africa, in 59th place globally, led the pack in Africa according to Forbes, while Morocco (62) and Seychelles (66) ranked second and third respectively.

Nigeria was also bettered by Kenya (93), Ghana (94), Egypt (95) and much smaller economies from Rwanda to Cape Verde.

Forbes did not state the criteria for the ranking, but the World Bank’s 2019 ease of doing business index, cited access to finance and a costly infrastructural deficit as the biggest hindrances to businesses.

From frequent power outages to dilapidated roads, rail systems and multiple taxes, most small business owners say doing business in Nigeria is a nightmare and they are keenly watching the progress being made in neighbouring countries.

The head of one of the advocacy groups for SMEs said members were already relocating to neighbouring countries like Ghana and Rwanda.

Rwanda’s journey to 28th on the World Bank ease of business index is one of the most intriguing success stories.

In 2009, when Nigeria was the 118th easiest place to do business, Rwanda ranked 139.

However, a decade later in 2019, Rwanda sits in 28th spot while Nigeria has fallen to 146. ‘’Nigeria’s ranking in most global business assessment has been week owing to the huge infrastructure deficit in the country, as well as issues in the legal environment,’’ Johnson Chukwu, CEO of Cowry Asset Management Limited told BusinessDay. “Asides difficulties in processing contracts and receiving entitlements to properties, the ease of obtaining credit has also played a role in Nigeria’s poor ranking,’’ Chukwu added.

The pressure on Abuja to tackle the constraints to business is much more intense in a period of low economic growth and contracting average incomes.

However, with general elections barely a month away, 2019 may be a lost year for reforms as politicking takes centre stage.

Gbolahan Ologunro, a Lagosbased analyst at CSL stockbrokers explained that the Government has relaxed its efforts in improving business environment in the country. ‘’Unlike in 2017 when we saw government adopting different policies in reducing the number of days in registering your business, that momentum was not sustained in 2018 as the government shifted focus to the upcoming elections,” Ologunro said.

Analysts have varying views on whether the ranking would have significant effects on the business climate in 2019.

According to Johnson Chukwu, the current ranking has no significance as investors are already aware of the poor business clime in the country.

Gbolahan on the other hand believes the ranking puts the country at a disadvantage as Foreign Direct Investments would reduce.

The Forbes global ease of business index, similar to that of the World Bank, gauges which countries have the best business climates and are most hospitable for capital investment.

Mahmood Yakubu (m), chairman, INEC, during the inauguration/swearing in ceremony of the Inter Departmental Logistic Committee members for 2019 general elections in Abuja, yesterday.

Pic by Tunde Adeniyi

Zenith Bank, GTBank set to beat earnings guidance as analysts await FY 2018 results IFEANYI JOHN

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anks may be bleeding badly on the equities market but that hasn’t stopped profitability from soaring in the past year, especially the Tier 1 banks. According to analysts forecast, Nigeria’s largest lender by assets, Zenith bank is set to beat its own profit after tax guidance of around N182 billion by around N10 billion, with an annualized PAT of N192 billion using its 9 months profit performance. GTBank, Nigeria’s most cost-efficient bank, in similar manner could also surpass its earnings guidance on PAT of N174.3 billion with an estimated N189.6 billion in profit after tax.

In financial reporting, earnings

guidance or simply guidance is a publicly traded corporation’s official prediction of its own near-future profits or loss, stated as an amount of money per share. Earnings guidance is usually given in annual and quarterly presentations to forecast the corporation’s performance in the next accounting period. Guidance statements can include a variety of information typically based on the firms’ objectives towards sales projections, markets conditions and company spending.

As at the third quarter of the year, companies are expected to have achieved at least 75 percent of their full year target. Zenith bank and GTBank have crossed this hurdle easily, achieving 79 percent and 86 percent of their target profit after tax respectively.

Cumulatively,Tier1bankshavefore-

cast earnings of N624.3 billion in 2018.

On a year to year basis though, all banks are expected to post higher profits for FY 2018 than was reported in FY 2017. FBNH will see the highest year on year growth by around 50 percent, Access bank follows behind with 35 percent expected year on year growth in profitability based on full year estimated earnings of around N59.9 billion and N83.9 billion respectively for the banks versus 2017 achieved PAT of N40 billion and N62 billion respectively.

All figures are based on annualized profits using the 9 months actual profit performance and could differ materially from the actual full year forecasts based on reporting method and business performance in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Nigeria’s POS transactions rose by 95% in 2018 – NIBSS BUNMI BAILEY

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he volume of Point of Sales (POS) activities via mobile devices in Nigeria rose by 95.4 percent in 2018, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) has said.

Volume of the transactions increased to 285.9 million in full year 2018 from 146.3 million in 2017, figures by NIBSS said in a report released Thursday.

The report also showed that the value of POS transactions rose by 64.3 percent to N2.3 trillion during the year, from N1.4 trillion in 2017.

Gbolahan Ologunro, an equity research analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers attributed the rise to the increased digitalisation of traditional banking services.

“We see banks now shifting to digital channels in the form of online banking transactions and that has enabled customers to carry out their day-to-day transactions off those

channels,” Ologunro said. “It is consistent with the general growth in noninterest revenue that banks recorded as at the first nine months of 2018.”

Additionally, the value of mobile transfers rose by 48.3 per cent to N291.6 billion in 2018, from N196.6 billion in the previous year.

Similarly, the volume of transactions of mobile transfers increased by 43.1 per cent from 5.1 million in 2017 to 7.3 million in 2018.

Nigerian banks are trying to catch up with their counterparts in other parts of Africa in the provision of online and mobile banking facilities as part of efforts to deepen financial inclusion in the continent’s most populous country. The Central Bank of Nigeria has set a target of 80 percent inclusion to be achieved by year 2020.

Bismarck Rewane , M.D, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, said that the rise in volume of online transactions is a good thing to the economy.

“People are shifting from cash transactions to online transactions

for safety and convenience reasons and it has increased the circulation of the velocity of money which has as an impact on the number of transactions,” Rewane said.

Also, the volume of transactions on NIBSS instant payment (NIP) platform rose by 96 percent to 729.3 million in 2018 from 371.0 million in the previous year, while its value increased by 40.2 percent from N40.5 trillion in 2017 to N56.8 trillion in 2018.

The increased penetration of online banking services is already having an impact on the volume of cheque transactions as it reduced (year-on-year) by 16.7 percent.

Ayodele Teriba, CEO, Economic Associates said this trend implied that more people are catching up with mobile transfers than before.

“In the past, before you could do any transfer, you would have to go to the bank. But now you can use a token at home to do your mobile transfer anywhere,” he said.

2019: PDP rejects Zakari’s appointment as head, National Collation Centre OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja

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he People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation has rejected the appointment of Amina Zakari, as head of the Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee for the 2019 election.

The campaign organisation ex-

plained that it rejected the appointment because Zakari would use her position to favour President Muhammadu Buhari, who is her uncle.

The party was responding to Thursday inauguration of the National Collation Centre Committee and that of Electoral Logistics by the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.

While saying that the develop-

ment would pave the way for the self-succession of President Buhari if not reversed, the organisation expressed concern that the 2019 election may be catastrophic if Zakari superintends over the National Collation Centre Committee.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Kola Ologbondiyan, Director, Media & Publicity, PDP

Presidential Campaign Organization, emphasised that for the country to have to have a peaceful election, the INEC National Commissioner ‘should not be seen anywhere near any of the 2019 election processes, not to talk of being involved in the collation of Presidential results’.

Ologbondiyan alleged that Zakari was instrumental in the rigging of the

2018 governorship election in Osun State in favour of the APC. He noted that as head of ICT Department of INEC, she was the brain behind the manipulation of INEC voter register,beforeherrecentredeployment to Health and Welfare Committee after vehement protests from the party.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

Friday 04 January 2019

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Lagos 2019 N852.3bn budget trapped in House of Assembly

… confirms BusinessDay’s exclusive story of December 18 JOSHUA BASSEY

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wo weeks after, the Lagos State government has confirmed an exclusive story done by BusinessDay that the state’s 2019 budget was caught in the web of high political intrigues.

Olusegun Banjo, the state commissioner for economic planning and budget, finally opened up on Wednesday that the power play was within the Lagos State House of Assembly that received the draft bill from Governor Akinwunmi Ambode before now, but was yet to create the opportunity for the governor to physically present the budget.

BusinessDay gathered from resources within the government that the lawmakers had been arm-twisting Ambode to skew the N852.317 billion budget to favour their electioneering spending, a request the governor was said to have not fully complied with.

The delay in the presentation of the budget, therefore, a source added, was to allow time for negotiations.

BusinessDay had exclu-

sively reported on December 18, 2018, the state’s 2019 budget was caught in the web of politics, aggravated by the outcomes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) October 2, 2018, governorship primaries in which Ambode lost his second term bid to Babajide Sanwo-Olu. With the loss, Ambode has till May 29, 2019, to stay in power.

Banjo, in a statement he signed on Wednesday, said the 2019 budget had been with the House of Assembly and was intended to be read by Ambode on December 24, 2018.

According to Banjo, the governor had notified the House of his intention to present the budget on Monday, December 24, 2018, after the State Executive Council approval on December 19, 2018, but the ceremony was postponed as the House was on recess and thereby could not form a quorum.

He said in order to meet the traditional presentation, a formal letter was sent to the House on Friday, December 28, 2018, forwarding the contents of the budget.

“It is expected that when

the House reconvenes, the speaker would inform members of the content of the budget proposal sent by the governor and take necessary action,” he said.

Governance in Nigeria’s commercial state has ebbed significantly, as the vibrancy associated with Lagos and which has been the attraction for other states of the federation seems to have been lost.

With the 2019 budget still not presented four days into the New Year, Lagos has broken its long held tradition of unveiling its annual budgetary estimate within the fiscal year.

Ambode’s predecessor in office, Babatunde Fashola presented the 2015 budget of N489.69 on November 25, 2014. Ambode presented his first full circle budget of N666 billion for 2016 on December 17, 2015.

The budget presentation improved significantly the following year, as the 2017 budget of N813 billion was tabled before the House of Assembly on November 29, 2016, while the 2018 budget of N1.04 trillion was presented on December 11, 2017.

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Friday 04 January 2019

Monarch, citizens commend BEDC over Ode Aye power supply restoration ENDURANCE OKAFOR

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ollowing the restoration of power to Ode Aye town in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo South, after a long while, the traditional ruler of Ode Aye, Ondo State, Oba William Akinmusayo Akinlade, the Halu of Ode-Aye kingdom, has commended the staff and management of BEDC Electricity plc (BEDC) for the restoration of electricity to the town.

Flanked by his subjects all in jubilant move after being reconnected, Oba Akinlade said: “We thank God after a long while light is now on. We thank BEDC. We thank the staff, management and everybody working in BEDC God will bless you all. You will not be put into blackout.”

The citizens who rejoiced along with the Oba equally praised BEDC over the restoration and sang that darkness would no longer be their portion again with the restoration, adding, “after all

there is now light at the end of the tunnel.”

On Monday, the management of BEDC led by the chief state head, Ondo/Ekiti states, Kunbi Labiyi, had charged the company’s field staff to leave no stone unturned in ensuring that Ode-Aye people enjoy electricity beginning from the 2018 Christmas celebration.

BEDC has announced its plan for the ancient town of Ode-Aye, one of the major communities that have suffered electricity deprivation in Southern senatorial district of Ondo State, with Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu issuing a stern directive through his Technical Committee on Power that everything must be done to end the unacceptable darkness that had enveloped the region in the past 12 years In the same vein and in fulfilment of its pledge to Ekiti State government, BEDC had on Wednesday also restored electricity supply to some communities in

Ekiti State - Erinijiyan, Ipole- Iloro and Ikogosi.

The BEDC had recently during a meeting with the Ekiti governor, Kayode Fayemi, assured that power would be restored to the tourism corridor of the state before end of December. Communities in the tourism hub, which have been out of supply included Ikogosi-Ekiti host of the Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort, Ipole-Iloro, base of Ariata Waterfalls and Erinijiyan Ekiti.

The CEO had at a press briefing hinted that there was ongoing rehabilitation of Ikogosi/ Erinijiyan/Ipole Iloro on Aramoko 33kv feeder, adding that communities in these areas should have more stable power soon.

BEDC is presently partnering Ekiti government on an arrangement for a more improved power supply to enable it power its streetlights for about 10hours a day as against the present situation where streetlights were powered for about three hours daily.

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Analysts unoptimistic about Nigeria’s business environment improving in 2019 ISRAEL ODUBOLA

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he year 2019 will be notable in the history of Nigeria as citizens elect those that would steer the wheel of leadership for the next four years. The first quarter of the year is filled with so many uncertainties of how political decisions and activities will affect the business environment.

Nigeria’s performance in key business environment indices published last year is not really good enough.

The World Economic Forum in its 2018 global competitiveness report ranked Nigeria 115 out of 140 countries, scoring 48 percent. In institutions, infrastructure and ICT adoption that constitute enabling environment criterion, the country ranked 127th, 124th and 123rd, respectively.

In the World’s Bank ease of doing business index, the country went down by

a spot to 146 in 2018 from 145 in 2017. Last Wednesday, Forbes announced that Nigeria was the best 110th country for business and the 15th in Africa, beneath South Africa, Tunisia, Kenya and Namibia.

“Almost everyone is waiting to see how the 2019 polls go. Whichever party wins would be likely focused on the politics of settling down, appointing ministers, and getting them confirmed. So, active governance may not be achieved until the latter part of the year,” Rafiq Raji, chief economist at Macroafricaintel, told BusinessDay. “If the polls are largely peaceful and the transition is smooth, there would likely be optimism in the aftermath. If not, the dampened mood would likely linger for the rest of the year,” Raji said.

A research analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbro-

kers, Gbolahan Ologunro, told BusinessDay that business environment might not record any tangible improvement this year.

His words, “We did not see structural reforms that will improve the operating environment for businesses. Heading into 2019, I do not envisage a significant improvement in implementation of structural reforms, and removal of structural barriers that will improve the business and operating environment and enabling businesses outperform their peers in other countries.

“For the first half of the year, fiscal authorities that are saddled with the responsibility of implementing such reforms would be concerned with transition of power. Even after elections, issues such as petitions, protests and demonstrations would elongate the lag involved in implementing those reforms.”

Naira weakens at investors’ window by 0.24% HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he Nigerian currency on Thursday depreciated against the US dollars by 0.24 percent on the second day of trading in the year.

After trading on Thursday, naira closed at N365.30k per dollar as against N364.41k/$ traded the previous day at the investors and exporters foreign exchange window, data from FMDQ revealed.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened last in the interbank sector of the foreign exchange market on December 12, 2018, where it injected $210 million in the wholesale segment and other sectors of the market.

At the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market, nai-

ra appreciated by N1.00k to close at N359/$ on Thursday from N360 per dollar, traded previously.

Aminu Gwadabe, president of Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), attributed the naira appreciation at the market segment to increased supply of dollar, adding that demand was low, as market activities had not fully resumed. On November 30, 2018, the CBN introduced a special intervention of cash dollar sales to the tune of $15,000 to each BDC operator.

Gwadabe told BusinessDay that if the collaboration between the CBN and the BDC operators was maintained, naira would remain stronger in the year.

At the parallel market, naira closed at N362 per dollar,

gaining about N1.00k compared with N363 traded on Monday.

The local currency traded stable at the CBN official forex window, closing at the rate of N306.95k per dollar.

The breakdown of the last intervention indicated that the Wholesale sector of the market got another injection of $100 million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles sectors each received $55 million.

Isaac Okorafor, director, corporate communications department at the CBN, said the forex interventions, in continuation of the bank’s resolve, were aimed at sustaining the high level of stability in the forex market and continually ease access to the currency by customers in the different sectors.

TEXEM awards Dangote, Kachikwu, Okonkwo, Ahmad, others for leadership, professionalism BUNMI BAILEY

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hile Nigeria is going through a turbulent, challenging, complex and difficult socioeconomic phase, the silver lining is that some venerable individuals are contributing immensely to the progress of the nation and her citizens.

TEXEM UK believes that it is essential to appreciate these trailblazers with the hope that it would encourage and spur them to continue to add value and positively impact society.

These Executive Minds (TEXEM) is one of UK’s preeminent consulting firms.

They offer organisations actionable frameworks in the

areas of consulting, executive development and recruitment. Through their services, they have partnered with hundreds of organisations in the UK as well as in Africa and helped organizations to achieve their goals efficiently and effectively. Their programmes are delivered by some of the world’s top thought leaders from citadels of learning such as London Business School, IMD, Harvard and MIT, etc.

TEXEM develops a series of open and customised programmes that address the challenges facing individuals and organizations. While TEXEM, UK usually delivers her executive development programmes outside

the shores of Nigeria, lately, many of their programs are now being delivered in Nigeria to reflect the challenging socio-economic landscape of the nation and help their clients to achieve their strategic goals while saving travel cost and time.

This award promotes effective leadership as part of TEXEM’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of reducing poor leadership which is the bane of many African nations with the aim of improving Nigeria’s fragile socio-economic environment, strengthening institutions, enhancing human capital and ultimately achieving prosperity that endures.

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Funding, competition from China hurting Nigeria’s hardware community SEGUN ADAMS

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ardware development is critical to Nigeria’s technological advancement, but this cannot be achieved until the country addresses the twin challenge of funding and competition from China.

Nigeria’s hardware community, a hidden gem encompassing innovators, thinkers, designers and manufacturers involved in the design and production of tools, machinery, firmware development, and aspects of branding is largely underdeveloped despite the heavy demand for hardware products especially machinery and electronics in Nigeria.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirms the position of industry practitioners that hardware in Nigeria needs to be improved to unlock the country’s true potential as giant in Africa.

According to Odunlade Emmanuel, CEO of Devdistrict, a Lagos-based tech firm,

hardware in Nigeria is not developing and has failed to achieve the level of visibility that software has.

“While software has gone big, hardware is still at the base level with only a few hardware companies like Tranos, VNTS, Rensources, GRIT, Byte Hub who have products in the market. A lot more firms like Devdistrict, which I run offer services as it does not require the heavy capital needed in manufacturing, hence is relatively risk free,” he explained.

China, one of Nigeria’s biggest trading partners which provide the country with most of its electronic products, from phone accessories to heavy machinery, rose to become a global industrial hub by virtue of synergy between suppliers, component manufacturers, distributors, government and consumers who worked together to fast-track industrialisation in the country.

The story of Shenzhen, an ordinary fishing Chinese village some 30 years ago, which has grown to become the

world’s capital for electronics, supplying 90 percent of the world’s demand, should challenge Nigeria which can potentially become Africa’s China for electronics and hardware.

So far, hardware in Nigeria suffers largely from lack of co-operation within the space, high preference of Nigerian consumers for foreign products, government’s negligence, lack of supporting infrastructure and neglect of technical education in Nigeria.

“Investors are wary of making commitments in hardware and this has resulted in the paucity of funds to develop the tech-space.

Compounding issues, there is a lack of co-operation within the ecosystem.’’ Emmanuel pointed out, adding: “There is also severe competition from China, which offers cheaper products to Nigerian users making little of our efforts to develop hardware.”

In 2018 Q3, Nigeria’s All commodities terms of trade which rose 0.52 percent was

never up to 100 in all three months of the quarter as Motor Spirit (ordinary) and Motorcycles made up the country’s largest imports, data from National Bureau of statistics show.

The figures, which speak volumes of the unhealthy trade structure created by the country’s over-dependence on foreign economies, also indicate that the hardware ecosystem has potential to generate value for the economy as domestic demands remains strong.

For instance, the NBS foreign trade statistics for 2018 Q3 showed that Nigeria in 2016 spent N2.07 trillion on the importation of boilers, machines and appliances which made up 23.5 percent of total exports, the largest for the year while N1.8 trillion and N1.52 trillion were spent in 2017 and the first three quarters of 2018, respectively.

The NBS foreign trade statistics (SITC classification) furthered reported an outflow of over N5 trillion on machinery and transport equipment from 2017 to Q3 2018.

Godwin Obaseki, governor, Edo State (m); Uwa Igiehon, director, CCETC Clean Energy/Ossiomo Power Plant, (l), and Di Xiaohui, plant administrator, during the governor’s inspection of ongoing construction work at the power plant site in Ologbo, Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, Edo State

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residential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has noted with deep concern, reports that contrary to the promise the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made in 2018, at different times and in multiple locations, that it would not use the controversial incident forms, the Commission had backtracked and decided to allow the use of the unreliable incident forms.

The former Vice President in a statement issued on Thursday by his media aide, Paul Ibe, said INEC’s decision was “unacceptable to the PDP and Atiku

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Edo issues fresh Lassa fever alert on bush burning, harmattan season

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do State government has issued fresh alert to residents following report of outbreak of Lassa fever in other parts of the country, exacerbated by bush burning and other activities that drive rats from the wild into people’s homes.

In a statement, Crusoe Osagie, special adviser to the governor on media and communication strategy, said: “We want residents in the state to take extra precaution against Lassa Fever disease.

The disease is prevalent during dry season as burning of surrounding bushes is common practice. The rats which spread the diseases may find shelter in human habitation as a result of bush burning.”

He called on residents in the state especially those residing in endemic areas to adopt preventive measures in order to ward off the disease.

“Governor Godwin Obaseki has made efforts to halt the spread of Lassa fever in the state. If residents ignore this warning, it may expose them to the disease, as experts have linked the dry season when bush burning is rampant to the resurgence of the disease,” the governor’s

aide said.

He noted, “It is important for residents in the state to be cautious to guard against the resurgence of the disease.”

He identified the preventative steps to include, “People should protect their foodstuffs and water from rats through storage in well covered containers. Avoid bush burning that can drive rats into people’s homes from the surrounding bush.

The environment should be clean always.”

He urged residents to ensure that they report suspected cases of the disease by calling the following numbers: 08033380188; 08023345987; and 08084096723.

According to him, “People should ensure that they wash their hands frequently in addition to avoiding contact with infected persons. Any person with fever should go the hospital promptly. Eliminate rats from your homes and communities. Cook your food thoroughly.

“Residents in the state should avoid eating raw food that are not properly stored in covered containers. If possible, people should suspend the drinking of garri.”

Ekiti speaker seeks speedy passage of N129.9bn budget

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peaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Adeniran Alagbada, has urged the House Committee on Appropriation and Finance to speed up work on the 2019 Appropriation Bill passage.

Alagbada made the plea following the decision unanimously taken at plenary in Ado-Ekiti to commit the N129.9 billion budget proposal to the relevant committee.

Speaking after the debate on the general principles of the budget, the Speaker said “one will see that the executive led

by Kayode Fayemi meant well for the people of the state.’’

Atiku decries INEC’s volt face over incident forms, insists on Smart Card Readers, PVCs INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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Abubakar. Any decision to use incident forms in the February 16, 2019 elections is an attempt to toe the line of President Muhammadu Buhari, who thrice refused to sign the amended Electoral Act, for fear of the use of card readers, which would prevent rigging by desperate power mongers.”

Atiku noted that data from the 2015 elections show that 75% of the almost 14 million people who voted without biometric accreditation in 2015, were linked to Muhammadu Buhari.

There are no reliable and accurate means of knowing who those voters were and whether they were genuine voters or sham voters. “This disproportionate number of voters who voted without

biometric accreditation in 2015 affected the integrity of those elections and we hold the INEC to its oft-repeated promise not to use anything but the Smart Card Readers and PVCs for the 2019 elections,” the statement said.

He accused the Muhammadu Buhari administration of being desperate to avoid the use of Smart Card Readers and PVCs for the 2019 elections adding that the reported volte face by the INEC can only raise concerns about the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau.

He reminded the INEC that the world is watching and Nigerians are alert to see if the present Chairman and board of INEC would place national interests above narrow oligarchic interest.

Atiku further reminded the Chairman of the INEC, Mahmood Yakubu of his promise to Nigerians at the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room National Stakeholders’ Forum on Elections which held in Abuja on December 10, 2018, where he said as follows: “The commission assures Nigerians that the smart card reader has become an integral part of the electoral process and will be deployed for the conduct of the 2019 general elections. The commission has taken onboard the challenges and glitches faced in the use and deployment of smart card readers in 2015 and has made significant improvements and upgrade to the said smart card readers.”

In their contributions at plenary, the Rules and Business Committee chairman, Gboyega Aribisogan, Anifowose Badejo and Fajana OjoAde further stressed the need for the speedy consideration and passage of the bill.

Badejo, the chairman of the Committee on Appropriation and Finance, urged the executive to ensure the full implementation of the bill if eventually passed so as to boost the state’s economy.

Fayemi on Dec. 21, 2018 presented the 2019 Appropriation Bill of N129.9 billion tagged, “Budget of Recovery” to the House of Assembly.

New Edo CP promises tougher approach to crime fighting

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do State commissioner of police, Hakeem Olusegun Odumosun, has assured residents of his resolve to give a harder bite to crime fighting with the deployment of operatives, equipment and other components of the new security architecture to improve security in the state.

Odumosun gave the assurance during a handover ceremony at the State Police Command headquarters in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

The police commissioner, the 39th in the state, took over 10 Area Commands and 55 Divisions from Johnson Kokumo. “The people of the state should expect improved security under my watch. I will ensure citizens are protected in the state, which will be unsafe for criminals. I seek the cooperation and support of the

people,” he said.

Urging Edo people to extend the support he enjoined from them to his successor, Kokumo thanked residents for their support and cooperation.

“I call on Edo people to support and cooperate with the new CP who has the capacity to police the state. He has the experience and will surely deliver and make the state safer than I left it,” the former CP assured.

He maintained that the new CP can’t afford to fail especially as the state occupies a strategic position and a gateway to the North, South, East and West. He noted that under his watch, the Police Command in the state has been able to curb cultism, kidnapping, robbery, illegal trade in babies and safeguarding the waterways in the state.

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2019 growth structure: A practical alternative to new year resolutions EIZU UWAOMA Uwaoma is a start-up, corporate restructuring and strategy consultant. He writes via contacteizu@gmail.com

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e love the Christmas lights, the smell, the sound and the feelings. And now 208 is over. . We hope for a better 2019. But hope is not a strategy.

I mean, more importantly, how are you planning for 2019?

Here’s following through on my promise, that I will be sharing my confidential steps (steps I have successfully used over the years to generate amazing results. And I definitely will use it for 2019). It’s on: How I plan to achieve my own theme for 2019.

First of all, I don’t do New Year resolutions. I do themes; it refers to one or at most 2 central word(s) that guide my year and then with a mind map all around it. I apply the Be-DoHave model to it (The Be-Do-Have is called the Triad of Manifestation – Things to be, what to do, and what I should have to be those things. Mixing the sequence up gives a different result. It is also metaphorical to the BSQ Pyramid- Think Big (Be), 2. Act Small (Do), and then 3. Move Quick

Charles Onunaiju Mr. Onunaiju is research director, Centre for China Studies, an independent Think Tank based in Abuja.

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y the groundswell of popular support and grand expectations that swept President Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015, his performance in office is mediocre even as his governance style has been timid. But to assess President Buhari’s performance in the nearly past four years of his tenure without taking into account the depth of abyss, he had to struggle to climb out would be grossly unfair.

Those who dispute the mileage he has reached in tackling security challenges and even mock his claim of not only technically subduing the terrorist Boko Haram but putting the bandits in disarray, yet go to the church, mosque, motor parks, even shopping malls without worrying about the next blasts are living in denials of the reality of our recent past. Today especially, in the federal capital territory of Abuja and the Northern and north-central regions, it is now taken for granted to stay in long traffic jams and worry only about when to get home and not whether one would get home at all.

Just about four years ago, to stay in any queue at all, whether in a traffic or at ATM (Automated teller Machine) is almost a suicidal act but not anymore.

In the hey days of the Boko Haram dastardly romps, police headquarters, Army barracks, Secret Service headquarters were fair games let alone, such soft targets as churches, mosques, shopping malls, media houses and other places where the dare -devil

(list out the measurable Haves) layers. And please let it be guided by a theme, one central word for a year).

So, about the theme (2015 was Synergy (the most relationships/ alliances was created that year, even our powerful community HBC was formed that year). Well, 2016 was –growth, and 2017 was consistency, 2018 was new chapter (in 2018, I started three new companies. I sat on a few more boards. I proposed and got married that same last year.

I moved houses, had new inner circles of friends, signed a bi-weekly radio show agreement, and became a contributing columnist on Business Day. In other words, I opened a set of new chapters in my life I will be building on) and 2019 is the year of Acceleration through Serial Leaps.

You can read, steal some ideas and tag along on this journey of acceleration (which refers to a hybrid of 2016 and 2017 themes, growth (2016) and consistency (2017). So, I will be combining both to birth acceleration-on serial leaps.

Steps to achieving my theme • Read a book/audio/visuals on your chosen theme *for example since mine is on Acceleration, I am reading a John Maxwell book on Growth, definitely to be completed before the year ends.

• Go on a 3 days fast to commit the theme; in my case’ acceleration’ into his hands.

• In that deep realm, ask for light,

‘

The truth is that growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together. Growth is painful. Change is painful.

But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong. The consequence can be being busy

’

discipline, insights and the spirit of follow through. Then, come back to the physical and begin to talk about it, first to yourself and to others (to yourself, it dips it deeper into the realms of consciousness and unconsciousness, and to others, it puts you on the spot to deliver #accountability).

• Re- align the 2018 mind map from new chapter to acceleration. And then create touch points based on your own wheels of life (Say 1.Family: Things you want to be, broken down into sets of things to do and have. You can loop the same process for 2.Spirituality, 3.Health, Business, 4.Finance, 5. So-

cials, 6. etc).

These wheels of life refers to things you should be (Be better in, be better with). And then create measurable to ‘do’ and have per touch points/ Wheels of life. The high point of these exercises is that you create things you’d do differently. And then create consistent reminders to self as many times as you can remember. I suggest at every quadrant of a daily clock (three hours intervals of a 12 hour clock. It actually does have a spiritual meaning too). To make it effective, try at those points to practice stillness and meditation (not just as a spiritual exercise but as a mental exercise).

Each time the process is done, comes as a self-reminder too. Ensure that you practice meditations, affirmations and pausing in between the day through stillness to allow your themes, growth mind maps and the component task catch up with you. After a while the loop becomes automatic and subconscious to you. That’s a great place to be; for 2019.

The secret sauce is in the process of writing down your themes, creating a wheel of focus and then detailing the measurable goals, reviewing them constantly, and making incremental progress on them. I suggest you recite them last thing at night and first thing in the morning as a ritual, habit or part of your prayers.

• Other side hacks may include having daily to do lists as a support to them. Stay on a task or thought/ thought process till you’re sure it is

done. Consciously, do not allow your mind travel off by any distractions.

An example is, if it’s not time to social media or calls, don’t go there and keep a mental timer: stop watch of each activity.

• Find a partner (an accountability partner) that share similar theme.

• Find a quote that summarizes your theme and use it as a DP, wall paper and on the door, and mirror where the sticky notes are.

The truth is that growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.Growth is painful.

Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong. The consequence can be being busy. In other words, being busy and traffic are side effects of growth.

Another thing you need is focus.

See what happens when you focus on what excites you. Sacrifice and discipline is the synonym for consistency. Following through even when you don’t feel like is how you break barriers of procrastination and in creating a brand for being consistent.

I am glad I have come realize that if I keep doing what is easy, my life may be hard. But I do what is hard, my life will be easy. Focus creates blindness.

I mean, it blinds you away from all other distractions.

You can create success or you create excuse, you can’t do both.

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Why President Buhari should be re-elected mass-murderers can perpetrate their heinous acts with maximum damage.

If today, the terrorist group mostly confront the military and other armed security forces and whether they overwhelm them or were overwhelmed, is an improvement, to the previous situation, when they roam free among civilians, perpetrating mass murders and leaving in their wake, highly traumatized civilian populations.

President Buhari security architecture still reeks of serious intelligence deficit which leaves the terrorist group with significant supply lines that fuels some of their daring confrontations with the military and other security forces and while it would remain a major worry that the highest echelon of the terrorist leadership has not been infiltrated despite the capture of its high-value operatives, it is beyond doubt that the terror group has lost key essentials of a thriving terrorist organization – surprise, speed and secured base. The days of driving in a long convoy of hilux trucks as they did in Buni Yadi, where they slaughtered school boys, warned the girls to stay off schools and returned to base without challenge is certainly gone for good.

However, despite that Boko Haram dark flag is not hoisted in any Nigeria’s territory anymore, President Buhari’s job of securing Nigeria’s territorial integrity is not done yet.

The open sore of the Bakassi Peninsula sold out on the alter of the criminal third term ambition of former President Obasanjo need to be revisited. Along with the lost of that territory, the lingering travails

of Nigerians who were uprooted from their ancestral land and dumped at a squalid refugee camp for more than a decade now is a national scandal that must be urgently revisited especially in the second and last term of President Buhari tenure. Nigeria should establish a bilateral mechanism to re-engage Cameroon on the Bakassi Peninsula issue, leveraging the political crisis of the country’s Southern Anglophone region to nudge Yaoundé to a negotiated political settlement of the Bakassi Peninsula, while completely putting aside the controversial outcome of the world court ruling.

Surely, Nigeria’s security challenge have not all, vanished in the past four years but is not as porous as when a seating governor was kidnapped and hidden away without consequence to the perpetrators or when soldiers throw their guns at pregnant women urging them to defend themselves and then change into mufti dress and melt into the thin air.

As the Boko Haram terrorist millipede-like feet, by which it sows death and destruction among civilian population are badly cut off, it still wag the tails and rears its ugly head, both of which requires a grand strategy of deadly blows.

President Buhari most serious challenge in his re-election bid has been the economy and it is not because he has not done much or even well, but because the effort has not reflected yet in the improved living standards for Nigerians. To be fair to him, no measure by anyone else could have delivered visible improvement in the quality of life of the people of an economy that was recovering from the intensive care unit of a disastrous crash in the more than a

decade; it was pilloried, pillaged and plunged into a coma.

In a more than decade, a rent economy was meticulously fostered, which while delivering high returns to speculators, middlemen and deal makers of all sorts, were punishing workers with stagnant wages and layoffs, professionals, artisans, peasants and even manufacturers with distorted home market and free- plunging currency.

Huge foreign exchange receipt accruing from high oil price were burnt in an over bloated head cost of parasitic elite, while others were brazen stolen and poured into mind-boggling luxuries. The national festival of corruption soaked in, all the sectors of the parasitic elite, including the religious establishment that invoked vacuous miracles and fatalistic rhetoric while feeding fat and smooching in an unfathomable luxury.

President Buhari correctly focused on financing massive infrastructure regeneration, the basic pillar for an inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development. Unfortunately for him, investment in key infrastructures, though of enormous importance for growth and development, do not yield quick results and its effects cannot be felt immediately on the quality of food on the table. But the experience of thriving Asia which includes Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and many others is that, if you want get rich, build roads, a metaphor for all the critical infrastructures that makes for sustainable growth and inclusive development.

Any meaningful campaign against Buhari re-election would have to be premised on improving on what he is doing

and not to reverse or cast away what he has been doing, because that would simply mean returning the economy to the intensive care unit from where it is struggling to hop out. President Buhari State-led development strategy to create the critical fundamentals on which the market and private sector can anchor and flourish without the pitfalls of the distortion and dis-articulation implicit in the misguided ideological fundamentalism of the market and the private sector is in the right direction To build an economically unviable border wall, the high priest of free market and private sector fundamentalism, the government of the United States of America is shutting down itself to arm-twist an unwilling Congress to appropriate public fund to build wall.

President Buhari should seek to extend the role of the state in more strategic sectors of the economy, while endeavouring to improve efficiency of public service and fostering the integrity and credibility of state institutions.

President Buhari’s war on corruption stands accused of been selective but it must be targeted at only those who latched their itchy fingers at our common till. For an epileptic anti-corruption drive, the returns have been massive and the former public office juggernauts whose families regale in opulence are re-learning how to be modest.

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Peter Obi: A quintessential vice presidential material Tochukwu Ezukanma Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria macilin18@yahoo.com 0803 529 2908

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here is an Igbo saying, “Nkali a di adi anya nma”, which loosely translates to - the eyes resent superiority – meaning that people will always resent those that are better or superior to them. One of the greatest minds in history, Albert Einstein, subliminally restated this Igbo adage when he stated, “Great minds have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds”. The perplexing but unyielding opposition to Peter Obi’s vice presidential candidacy by a section of the Igbo political elite is a typical case of “Nkali adi anya nma” and a “Great mind encountering violent oppositions from mediocre minds”.

I once met Peter Obi at a reception for visiting All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) leaders in Laurel, Maryland, outside of Washington, DC. Then, he was not a governor. He was still in court contesting the rigged election that made Chris Ngige the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor of Anambra State. In a short speech, he talked about why he got into politics, the need to purse his court case to a conclusive end and his vision and planned programs for Anambra State. His vision for the state centred on transparency, probity and accountability in government. Some of his planned programs were too

Kenneth Adejumoh Adejumoh writes from, Lekki, Lagos via kenadejumoh1@gmail.com 08140363593 @kenadejumoh

D

uty call is often a privilege to serve because out of the multitude, you are singled out to occupy a position with a title and other incentives possibly attached. One could be called to serve in any capacity cutting across public service, religion, politics, corporate and voluntary service. Beyond the title, the primary objective of being appointed or elected or nominated or selected is to serve the people by way of coordinating their affairs.

Every office has its peculiar title, which depends on the organisational structure. There are titles such as Excellency, Senator, Honourable, Bishop, Reverend, Imam, Manager, Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer, Colonel, Superintendent, Sergeant, Chief of Staff, Special

anti-establishment, anti-elitism and too pro-the common man. Despite my ingrained skepticism for Nigerian politicians, I was exceptionally impressed by him.

I asked him, “How can you implement your planned programs knowing that even your party leaders will oppose many of them”. After all, APGA members and leaders, like most other Nigerian politicians, are fixated on advancing personal interests and reinforcing the status quo. He partially answered my question, and promised to give me additional information in private, as he did not want it to be for public consumption. At the end of the event, he came straight to me, and we walked towards the elevator. He was beginning to provide me with the additional information when the crowd surged towards him. It was not possible for him to continue in the ensuing clangor.

With time, he won the court case, and became the governor of Anambara State. It was a tempestuous gubernatorial ride. Twice, he was removed as governor, and twice, he was reinstated by court verdicts.

First, he was impeached by the PDPdominated state House of Assembly.

He successfully challenged the wrongful impeachment in court and was re-instated. Although his tenure had not ended, the Obasinjo presidency in concert with Maurice Iwuran Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) again removed him to make way for an Obasinjo protégé, Andy Uba. He went back to court, won the case and was again reinstalled as governor.

However, after eight years as governor, he had transformed Anambra State. Evidently, he successfully

implemented those vision and policies he espoused at the reception in Laurel, Maryland. His achievements were palpable in every facet of life in Anambra State: education, health, infrastructural development, fiscal responsibility, erosion control and security. Obi’s distinguished performance as governor was attributable to, among other things, his incorruptibility and fiscal discipline.

The number one problem of the Nigerian society is the corruption of the political class. Not surprising, most former public officials, including governors are laden with corruption cases. Some have already been jailed, and many others are on bail awaiting trial. Interestingly, after eight years as governor, Peter Obi has no corruption case to answer. The other daunting problem of Nigeria is waste in government. Obi’s tenure as governor was marked by fiscal discipline and remarkable reduction in government profligacy. Not surprisingly, under Obi’s watch, the Nigerian Senate rated Anambra State as the most financially stable state in the country. Secondly, at the time many other state governors were leaving huge debts for their states, as he left office, Peter Obi had paid all the state’s outstanding debts, and left the equivalent of $500 million in investment, including $156million in dollar denominated bonds.

In her recently published book, Fighting Corruption is Dangerous, the former Nigerian finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala, wrote: the Jonathan administration wanted to “rebuild the country’s fiscal buffer” by saving the funds accruing to the Excess Crude Account (ECA). While most of the governors were firmly opposed it, “only Governor Peter Obi of Anambra supported the idea”. The

‘

Unlike most Igbo politicians, Peter Obi is presidential material.

He is one of the likely candidates for Igbo president in the very near future. It is therefore splendid that he, first of all, as vice president understudies the job of the president, and also, further endears himself to the Nigerian electorate

’

other governors insisted on the immediate sharing of the ECA funds because they needed to splurge the money on their wasteful programs.

Is it not then obvious that Nigeria needs the services of this man that, as governor, successfully dealt with the two most potent shackles of good governance in Nigeria (corruption and extravagance)?

Unlike most Igbo politicians, Peter Obi is presidential material.

He is one of the likely candidates for Igbo president in the very near future. It is therefore splendid that he, first of all, as vice president understudies the job of the president, and also, further endears himself to the Nigerian electorate. The Igbo should collectively vote for the Atiku/

Obi presidential ticket for a victorious Atiku/Obi ticket will be magnificent for the Igbo. For once, since 1999, it will de-marginalize the Igbo. It will elevate the Igbo to an office no Igbo has held in the last 35 years. It will also prepare and position an Igbo for the office of the president in the very near future.

Most Igbo politicians that are opposed to Obi’s emergence as vice presidential candidate are mediocre, even, petty minds. Some are present governors that have failed to improve the welfare of the peoples of their states in any appreciable way. Some of them, in their ineptitude, avarice and fiscal irresponsibility, can neither pay pensions nor civil servants. In the senate is another implacable opponent of Peter Obi. Although he is trailed by allegations of corruption and other improprieties, he had expected to be Atiku Abubakar’s running mate, not because he is qualified but because he trusted in his arsenal of political intrigues. However, his intrigues failed him because, for a running mate, Atiku needed an achiever not an intriguer.

The recent vice presidential debate provided Nigerians the opportunity to appreciate the man Obi: the stuff he is made of and what he represents. Nigerians were awed by his brilliance, articulation and mastery of facts and figures. He earned the grudging respect of his co-debaters, especially, his main political opponent, the vice president, Yemi Osibanjo. The erudite, professor of law was frazzled and flustered by Obi’s dazzling performance. He must have, in private, doffed his hat for Peter Obi. Send reactions to: comment@businessdayonline.com

A clarion call for visionary leaders Adviser, Chief Protocol Officer among others. All these are human ideologies give a distinction.

In all these, irrespective of the title, one thing that is demanded or required is the effective discharge of duties and responsibilities popularly called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in the corporate world. So, anyone with a mandate to serve is perceived to be credible, intelligent, faithful and diligent to achieve the desired results.

Leadership thus requires being a ‘servant’. That means no matter the position, you should remember that you owe allegiance to the people who have called you to serve or whom you have been called to serve. In our clime as we mostly observe, instead of servant leadership, we see a bulk of ‘bossy’ leadership where the common man is belittled and made insignificant.

We are faced with leaders who have lose the vision of what true leadership entails and the call is now on a fresh breath of vision-

ary leaders into our systems.

The political leadership space has been dominated by a recycling process not giving hope people with vision and even the youths to emerge. ‘Youths are the leaders of tomorrow’ has become a cliché. Repeatedly, I have asked; ‘will this tomorrow ever come’?

For me, the tomorrow is now but how can we get the youths into core leadership positions without any sort of compromise? We have recycled leaders from the period of independence to the extent that leadershiphas become the property ofsome egocentric and rigid grandparents who have refused to take a bow. In the event of stepping aside, they pick a successor who is more or less a relation. The place of merit and the people’s mandate has been thrown into the air resulting to increased non participation among people with visions for a better society.

Another election year is here; the time might be too short to take action but we can use the power in our hands to reshape the society to

what we want. If we indeed hope to go into the future with the expectation of a better Nigeria, we have to rejuvenate a new vision and hope for the land. From independence, we have been riding on experience, which has resulted to the recycling of old heads in governance who have abused positions of authority. It appears to me that these recycled leaders have lose their visions and hence unable to figure out that we need a positive transformation.

Everyone needs to brace up to become a major stakeholder in the politics of the land. The time to tag politics a dirty game is long over. A dirty environment is like darkness that if no one puts on the light, it remains dark. We need everyone to joins hands to clean the dirt in the system. If we don’t begin to participate in the political affairs of the country, we may not have a nation to bequeath to our upcoming generation.

There are young men and women who have excelled in

the private sector but they have expressed nonchalance in the public sector or national politics because of its peculiarity. But note that while you are busy with your private sector live, remember that the governance of the land is left to suffer in the hands of clueless people who have no idea of what it takes to lead. For them, there is a vacuum which exist and needs to be filled.

This narrative can be changed if we all team up to get into the dirty and dark road of our politics.

This road needs to be salvaged my men and women of vision. The politics of Nigeria may be embroiled in violence, greed, thuggery, fraud, etc, but let’s not forget that the nothing good comes easy.

The time to be involved is now, no more seating on the fence to watch while it deteriorates per second. Only by participation can we influence true and positive change.

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Friday 04 January 2019

The many unfinished projects of governor Ambode

B

y an unfortunate political twist, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode will not be on the ballot in February as candidates contest for the seat of Governor of Lagos State 2019-2023. His party denied him the opportunity to run for a second term. We empathise with the gentleman. However, we request on behalf of citizens and residents of Lagos that he should brace up and deliver on all outstanding deliverables.

Lagos State failed to deliver no fewer than three critical infrastructure projects at the end of the year. It was unusual.

Moreover, the failure is exacting a huge toll on citizens in lost time and inconvenience that ought to have ended for at least two of them. The state must urgently remedy the situation.

Akinwunmi Ambode showed a capacity for execution uncommon with many of his colleagues. He undertook projects with clear timelines and specifications and delivered on them. He earned respect and trust of citizens for this project management capability.

Projects delivered in this way by the Ambode administration included the Jubilee

Bridge at Ajah and Abule Egba, the modern and enhanced pedestrian walkways at notably Ojodu-Berger, Ojota and the bus terminals at Race Course and other parts of the city. The projects were utilitarian and improved mobility and access.

The pedestrian walkway and bus stop at Ojodu-Berger spoke to a Lagos capable of envisioning a better landscape and delivering on that vision. Citizens imagine possibilities as they use that multi-point walkway and terminus.

With these projects completed and working, many in the nation’s commercial capital looked forward eagerly to the completion of at least two more priority projects of the Ambode government of Lagos State. These are the much-hyped expansion of the access road from Oshodi to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the bridge at Pen Cinema, Agege. Both had a completion deadline of December 2018. Then there is the expansion of the Agege Motor Road.

The Oshodi to Airport project is audacious. It measures 5.7kilometres. The key feature is the expansion of the existing carriage to ten lanes including a three-lane expressway in both directions. There would be 20 laybys, two service lanes, two flyovers, three pedestrian bridges

and walkways. There would be a flyover at NAHCO/Toll Gate and slip road to access Ajao Estate.

Street lights would be standard.

It had a 15-month timeline to end December 2018. In February 2018, Ambode approved an extension of the work to the Ladipo International Market as well as the construction of a pedestrian walkway at the Toyota Bus Stop on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.

Equally ambitious and desirable is the construction of a flyover and interchange at Pen Cinema, Agege. A 1.43m long bridge with service lane of 2.256m, the bridge design includes a pedestrian bridge across the railway track.

The project aimed to reduce the perennial traffic gridlock in that axis, reduce cost on vehicle maintenance and travel time for users as well as enhance safety and socio-economic activities.

It was due for December 2018.

We are now in January 2019.

Unlike the process with the other bridges and major infrastructure projects, the Lagos State Government of Ambode did not keep to the timelines for these projects.

It has also failed to grant citizens the courtesy of an explanation.

Lagosians are left to guess and conjecture.

Until Monday, December 24.

Speaking at the Christmas Eve

parties of the Island Club and the Yoruba Tennis Club, Ambode made an oblique reference and commitment. He assured that Lagos would dedicate its Year 2019 budget “towards the completion of ongoing infrastructural projects, the creation of more jobs, supporting businesses to thrive, as well as strengthening the security architecture of the State,” according to the Lagos State official website.

We submit that the Governor and the Lagos State Government need to do more by way of explanation to citizens. They carefully planned these projects, budgeted and a project schedule laid out.

If they failed to meet the agreed schedules, someone should be offering cogent explanations. It is safe to assume that the Lagos State Government made adequate provisions for completion of the projects, the reason it boldly advertised a delivery date of December 2018 for them.

Are they now part of the projects for which completion the Year 2019 project is implicated? Why? How? Above all, BusinessDay reminds of the need to get back quickly on ensuring delivery of these projects. They are critical and desirable infrastructure for the needs of Lagosians. Deliver on them, please.

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Obi of Onitsha wants empowerment of widows EMMANUEL NDUKUBA, Awka

Sanusi Rikiji, speaker of Zamfara State House of Assembly, (2nd r), and other dignitaries, sympathising with wounded soldiers who were ambushed by armed bandits at Dumburum forest in an joint military operation between Nigerian Army and Niger Republic Soldiers, at Federal Medical Center in Gusau. NAN

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bi of Onitsha, Alfred Nn’emeka Achebe has appealed to government and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to adopt the training of widows and the indigent on skills acquisition and empowerment rather than share money and gift items.

According to Achebe, skills acquisition is a more enduring way to support the widows. And in response to the call, Lilyford Foundation has offered to train over 5,000 widows on skills acquisition and empowerment.

Achebe made the call at Ime Obi Palace, Awka, when Lilyford Foundation stormed Onitsha with healthcare facilities and gift items for widows, the elderly and the less privileged.

The monarch urged the government, organisations and philanthropists to ``teach a man how to fish rather than give him fish’. He praised Lilyford Foundation for their generosity.

Founder of the foundation, Uju Ifejika-Ikpeze, explained that the idea was conceived and started at Ogidi. She said she decided to extend it to Onitsha and would reach more places, in order to help the government to fill the gaps, where it cannot reach.

Ifejika-Ikpeze said that her foundation would give help to widows, indigent and displaced persons in holding centres in partnership with some pharmaceutical industries and foreign donor agencies.

She said that, this year alone they had helped 5,000 people in Ogidi and Onitsha.

They also had 50-man medical team on ground at the palace that attended to the sick and dispensing free drugs as well as giving out free lens to those who needed them.

Ifejika-Ikpeze said they would soon commence training of widows on different skills in partnership with `Mother of Benedetta School of Skills Acquisition, Onitsha’.

One of the beneficiaries of healthcare services, Ebele Ebo expressed gratitude to Lilyford Foundation.

Another male beneficiary, Eugene Okogba from Delta State was happy at the response and attention paid to him by the medical team.

Benue-Taraba border towns seek peace BENJAMIN AGESAN, Makurdi

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he Ucha community comprising Tsaad, Lumbur, in Ukum and Wukari in Benue and Taraba States respectively during the yuletide celebrated peaceful co-existence backed by the representative of Katsina-ala, Ukum, Logo in federal constituency, Emmanuel Undende.

The annual festival was aimed at fostering peace and unity towards sustainable development in the constituency.

Addressing the people, the lawmaker expressed gratitude to the organisers of the festival and promised to always assist the initiators to improve in subsequent editions. “ I appreciate Ucha people for always standing by me in all the elections I have contested, I urge you all to extend such to other people”, he stated.

Father poisons 3 children with sniper

... 2 die as one survives SAMUEL ESE, Bayelsa he police in Bayelsa have arrested one Samuel Sunday, for allegedly poisoning his three children with sniper.

Aminu Saleh, the Commissioner of Police (CP) in Bayelsa, told newsmen at the crime scene in Bayelsa that two of the children died after drinking sniper while the third survived.

The surviving son told newsmen that their father and his brother gave them the

T

sniper to drink.

“Our father and his brother tied three of us and gave us sniper to drink. I was told that my brothers are dead, and that I am the only one that survived,” the boy said in tears on his hospital bed on Wednesday.

The police chief said that the suspect and his brother, Aya Preye, were being charged for the murder of the two children. He identified the deceased boys as Miracle (12) and God’s time (10).

It was gathered that Sunday and his

wife had divorced but the three children were living with their grandmother before the incident occurred.

The CP said that the suspect had alleged that his sons were wizards who were responsible for his sickness.

Moses Emeka of Hillem Medical Centre, who attended to the only survivor, said the boy was brought to the hospital unconscious by an NDLEA official.

The doctor confirmed that the survivor was responding to treatment and recovering fast.

Kano: Fire service saves 155 lives in December

K

ano State Fire Service has said it saved 155 lives and goods worth N137 million from 82 fire outbreaks in the state in December

2018.

Spokesperson of the service, Saidu Mohammed disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Kano.

According to Mohammed, 10 lives

were lost, while 32 houses and 50 shops were razed in the fire outbreaks. He said that property valued at N48 million was destroyed during the period, while the service received 77 distress calls and 25 false alarms from residents during the month.

He attributed the high rate of fire outbreaks in the state to the installation

of substandard electrical materials, use of water boiling rings as well as poor handling of electrical appliances and cooking gas.

Mohammed therefore called on the public to exercise care while handling fire and inflammable objects and to desist from storing petroleum products in their homes.

Security: Edo emergency centre ready in 3 months - Obaseki IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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overnor Godwin Obaseki of Edo says the emergency response centre being built to coordinate all operations under the newly inaugurated state security architecture will be ready in three months.

Obaseki stated this on Wednesday while receiving the new Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Hakeem Odumosun.

The governor commended the out-gone

Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, for his cooperation and support in the birth of the security architecture and trust fund in the state.

Obaseki stated the determination of the government to manage the security trust fund in a transparent manner and urged citizens of the residents to support and contribute to the initiative.

He assured the new CP of the support of his administration while also acknowledging the former as diligent, resourceful and incorruptible.

Speaking, Odumosun said his mission was to protect lives and property and fight crimes. The CP promised to improve on what he met on ground, saying that he would police the state with international best practices using community policing as a pivot.

“I will publish the names of all the Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) and Area Commanders in the state, to enable the people of the state reach them in emergency situations.

“This will enable us evaluate their response time to crime,’’ he said.

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MoneyInsight

Nigeria uses less than 10% of its five submarine cables’ capacity - ASCON Ifeloju Alakija, president of the Association of Submarine Cable Operators of Nigeria (ASCON)/Head, Regulatory Services, MainOne and Bolaji Mudashiru, ASCON’s General Secretary/Technical Manager, ACE/Dolphin Telecom, in this interview with Frank Eleanya speaks on the new association, its objectives and focus on broadband penetration across Nigeria.

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hat is the Association of Submarine Cable Operators of Nigeria (ASCON)

all about?

ASCON is the Association of Submarine Cable Operators of Nigeria. It is an advocacy group of submarine operators in Nigeria that was birthed on the 10th of December, 2018. It was formed in recognition of the fact that over 95% of internet and communication traffic into Nigeria is carried over the five submarine cables that land in the country. We have realized that subsea communication assets have to be protected at all costs, because as a nation, we cannot afford to have any disruption to communication flow in and out of the country. These submarine cables are the arteries and gateways to Nigeria.

Our objectives are to create awareness of what submarine cables are and their importance to broadband penetration and the digital transformation of Nigeria.

We also create awareness on the various marine activities that challenge and put these submarine cables at risk and how we protect against them. ASCON would serve to facilitate collaboration and multistakeholder engagements among the various seabed and maritime stakeholders on how we can peacefully co-exist and share the seabed in harmony. Our focus is on how we can work together such that in the exercising of our respective rights of to the seabed we do not conflict and negatively impact on each other’s operations. ASCON would in addition, support and manage dialogue with government and other public – private engagement towards ensuring that the protection these assets are enshrined in relevant legal and regulatory frameworks in the country. Finally, ASCON will be a forum for the exchange of legal and technical and environmental information and best practices towards the optimal protection and operation of the various subsea cables landing in Nigeria.

Prior to the advent of submarine cables, what was there and how did we get here?

Back in the analogue stages, a satellite communication was the primary medium for the transmission of communication and internet traffic and this caused significant delays in terms of delivering data due to the limitation of this technology. Today, satellite communication role in this regard has reduced to less than 5%. Before submarine cable there were copper and coaxial cables. These varieties of cables were very limited in connectivity capacity. If you consider operators like MainOne, it has over 7000 kilometers of fiber optic submarine cable running all the way from Portugal down to Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. Other submarine cables cover about 14,000 kilometers of distance, thus they cross long distances.

When you talk about capacity, it has very huge capacity to carry untold volumes of data which helps in terms of the businesses’ communication service. Advocacy on the utilization of this capacity is another area where ASCON comes into play.

It is called submarine cables because these are extensive cables which lie on the floor of the ocean connecting countries and continents of the world. There are about 1.5 million kilometres of optic subsea cables globally, connecting almost all the countries of the world for the purpose of transmitting communication signals, whether it is internet traffic, voice or data.

A single submarine cable has capacity of 30 million voice channels which means it can take minimum of 30 million telephone calls simultaneously; if you multiply that by the number of submarine cables in existence that is huge. It is superfast, it is more reliable, very economical and it is resilient. The cables we have today are responsible for over 95% of the internet, communications and broadband connectivity we enjoy in Nigeria today. This covers activities ranging from sending & receiving emails, surfing the internet, streaming and downloading of music, videos and other digital content, teleconferencing, social media engagements, banking and financial market transactions, various electronic commerce activities, phone calls & international communications, telemedicine, long distance education, etc.

The first submarine cable was laid in 1858, a telegraphic cable connecting Britain to the USA. The next generation of submarine cables in terms of technology, were the coaxial and copper cables which were used by telephone companies. The TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system, and it was laid in 1956.

What is the capacity of the five submarine cables in Nigeria and utilization rate?

Cumulatively we have over 40TBPS international connectivity capacity landing at our shores in Lagos. In terms of utilization, across all cables we are using less than 10% because we do not have the requisite terrestrial infrastructure to transmit

this capacity from the shores across the country, particularly to the unserved and underserved areas. The relevant national backbone is not available. That is the challenge we are currently facing with broadband penetration. Thus, the connectivity and speed people will experience in Lagos will be totally different from what they find in their villages. In this regard, we would collaborate with other telecommunication stakeholders in seeking for government intervention.

What are the threats?

70% of the threats to submarine cables are external aggression – man-made factors.

This falls into two categories: threats from fishing activities and threats from shipping activities. Fishing activities include harmful practices like bottom trawling.

This category of fishing gear are dragged on the seabed by the fishing vessel above, and when they come in contact with submarine fiber optic cables in the process of going over them, they damage the cables by either cutting them or snagging at them causing a shunt. For shipping activities, you are looking at anchorage. When ships drop their anchors in areas where there are submarine cables and it lands on them, there will be damage. In 2008, a ship dragged its anchor for 300km and damaged 6 subsea cables in water depths down to 180meters. There are also direct threats like dredging activities and offshore activities in the oil and gas industry; where oil and gas installation, production and maintenance activities occur near or along cable paths it could result in damage to the subsea optic fiber infrastructure.

Likewise, dredging operations near cable routes jeopardizes the safety of the cables.

The last category is the natural disasters such as; submarine earthquakes and landslides, waves & ocean currents, Tsunami and storm surges, extreme weather (e.g. hurricanes), icebergs or volcanic activity, climate change etc. These natural disasters have the capacity to break submarine ca-

bles on the ocean floor where they occur.

For instance, in 2006, of the southwest coast of Taiwan, an earthquake triggered submarine landslides near junction of 2 tectonic plates, resulting in turbidity current that flowed over 330 km & broke 9 cables in sequence.

Which of these threats stand out for Nigeria?

It is a 50-50; shipping activities happen every day. The ntel SAT3 has suffered damages a lot based on anchorage. Another major issue is the fishing activity that goes on everyday but thankfully most of our systems have AIS – a surveillance tool that monitors vessel movement along the cables. Regardless, cable operators have been very vigilant.

What quality of engagement are you looking forward to having with the authorities?

The Nigerian Navy is one of the agencies ASCON would collaborate with because of the role they play in the maritime affairs of the nation. There is also the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) which has begun to recognize the five submarine operators in the country. These agencies have been helpful in terms of their support to our advocacy and warding off erring vessels that attempt to anchor along the path of submarine cables. The Department of Petroleum Resources is also a partner.

They are regulators of on-shore and offshore petroleum activities including the installation subsea oil and gas assets e.g.

Pipelines.

A few of the things we will be looking at is to get the federal government through the relevant legislative process to designate submarine cables as critical national infrastructure. The criticality of submarine cables to the economy, socio-political life, broadband penetration and national security cannot be overemphasized. It is about time the government begins to pay atten-

tion to submarine cables first by knowing what they are; understanding their importance; knowing the dangers that they face; and putting measures in place to protect them. Starting with designating them as critical national infrastructure will be a very good place to begin. The Cyber Crime Act of 2015 under section 3 says that: “The President may on the recommendation of the National Security Adviser, by order published in the federal gazette designating certain computing systems and all networks whether physical or virtual and all computer program, computer data and all traffic data vital to this country that incapacitates or destroys or interface with any such system and assets of would have a debilitating impact on national and economic security, national public health and safety or a combination of this matter as constituting critical national information infrastructure security.”

This designation of telecommunication infrastructure as CNI is yet to be actualized. There have been moves in time past to ensure that telecommunication assets are designated as critical national infrastructure. One of the things ASCON is going to do is to ensure that subsea cables, specifically because of the roles they play as arteries of our nation are designated as critical national infrastructure.

ASCON would also engage relevant authorities in government to create policies to promote the unrestricted installation, operation and maintenance of submarine cable assets, specifically with reference to the operation of cable vessels. For example, we would have engagements to ensure that no, cabotage restrictions are implemented by government, in other words cable vessels should not be prohibited from operating in our exclusive economic zones on the grounds of national content. Cable vessels because of the nature of their sophistication and complexities are currently not Nigerian flagged. They are foreign vessels and foreign manned. There about 60 of them in the world today and none of them is Nigerian or even African owned. Imagine a situation whereby there is a cabotage restriction that mandates that only Nigerian manned vessels can operate in Nigerian waters, would you be able to install new cables or maintain or repair existing cable, especially where there is a cable fault?

Another engagement is maritime spatial planning. We are taking a forwardlooking stance into the future. There will be an increased demand for the sea resources and for the seabed. There will be competing interest from oil and gas operators, telcos, fishing activities, offshore wind-farming for electricity generation.

In this regard we will need a framework that ensures that we co-exist without interfering with our respective rights and that we are all able to share the seabed in harmony. ASCON will advocate for the creation of a spatial planning framework to accommodate existing stakeholders and future stakeholders to ensure that submarine cables are protected. Other avenues that would be explored towards the protection of our assets would be cable protection corridors, and the expansion of the existing no anchorage zones.

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DAY

15

Egina first oil euphoria muted

by OPEC cap

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

MARKETS

Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund delivers 22.2% return in 2018 LOLADE AKINMURELE

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nvestors who parked their cash in the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF), managed

by Lagos-based investment bank, Chapel Hill Denham, just saw off a 2018 to remember for good.

In a year when investors were hurt by negative returns on several asset classes from equities to mutual funds, the NIDF returned 22 percent, which is probably the best performing asset class for the year.

The NIFD’s return is some 700 basis points above the risk-free rate of 15 percent and betters the stock market’s negative 17 percent return.

Since inception in June 2017, the Fund has delivered a total return of 42 percent (assuming distributions were reinvested), as investors continue to enjoy consistent, attractive and predictable real returns real returns (above inflation), along with low volatility and principal preservation.

Despite being considerably riskier, equities haven’t matched that return in the period under review.

Besides delivering attractive returns, the NIDF is also at the core of Nigeria’s economic transformation by adding to the country’s infrastructure stock, channelling institutional capital into productive assets, and supporting sustainable economic growth. This makes the Fund an impact investor’s delight.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the weighted average interest rate for the Fund’s portfolio of infrastructure loans was 19.3 percent, which is 470 basis points premium to the prevailing average yield on the 10-year Federal Government bond.

The Fund announced a quarterly distribution of N4.20 per Unit for the fourth quarter of 2018, the sixth consecutive quarterly distribution.

With this quarterly distribution, the total cash distributions made by the Fund in the year ending December 2018 aggregated to N16.70 per Unit. This translates to a full year cash yield of 17.8 percent.

Qualification date for the Q4 2018 distribution is on January 2, 2019 and payment date will be on January 4, 2019.

L-R: Atobalo Ayotola, regional event manager, International Breweries Plc,; Adeyemi Oluwabusola, winner, Honourable Millionaire promo, and Olayinka Ikotun, sales manager, Osun and Ekiti state, International Breweries, at the presentation of prizes to winners of the promo by International Breweries Plc in Ilesa, Osun State recently.

The Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund is the first and only infrastructure debt fund dedicated to and domiciled

in Nigeria.

The Fund is an Infrastructure Fund under the rules and regulations of the Securities & Exchange

Commission, Nigeria and the National Pension Commission, Nigeria.

The Fund’s Units are listed on the FMDQ OTC

Securities Exchange, Nigeria.

The Fund has registered a programme for issuance of up to two billion Units with par value of N200 billion.

MARKETS

Stanbic tops deal activity as FMDQ OTC market records N165trn in market turnover IFEANYI JOHN

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midst sell offs and the predominant rout in the equities market, the Financial Markets Dealers Quotations Over-theCounter (FMDQ OTC) Securities exchange recorded thrilling volumes, as transaction turnover was about N165.1 trillion.

The FMDQ OTC Market Turnover Report shows the turnover on all products traded on the FMDQ secondary market – Foreign Exchange (FX), Treasury Bills (T.bills), Bonds (FGN Bonds, other Bonds (Agency, Sub-

national, Corporate & Supranational) & Eurobonds)) Commercial Papers and Money Market (Repos/Buy-Backs and Unsecured Placements/ Takings). These figures exclude primary market auctions in Treasury Bills and Bonds.

This figure was an improvement of last year’s turnover of N142 trillion which and represents a 16.3 percent growth in the business transacted by the largest financial market in the country.

In the last two years, the turnover of FMDQ OTC has grown by almost half with no sign of slowing down.

Treasury Bills dominated the volumes of transactions made 2018 accounting for 39.7 percent of total turnover while Foreign Exchange and Buy Backs followed with 24.2 percent and 16.2 percent of the total turnover respectively.

The top 3 transactions represents over 80 percent of the entire market turnover leaving bonds, commercial papers, unsecured placements and money market derivatives with the remaining 20 percent.

Stanbic IBTC Bank was the leading dealer member by overall market turnover with

Access Bank and United Bank for Africa completing the list. The top ten (10) Dealing Member (Banks) accounted for 75.77% (125.14 trillion) of the overall turnover in the market, with the above top three (3) accounting for 58.44% (73.13 trillion) of this sub-section of the market.

On bind listings, the newsletter stated that “A review of market participation for bond listings revealed that of the thirty (30) FMDQ RMLs, only eight (8) were sponsors to bonds listed on the OTC Exchange in the period.

FBNQuest Merchant

Bank Ltd., Lotus Financial Services Ltd. and Chapel Hill Advisory Partners Ltd. came 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in this category, with FBNQuest Merchant Bank Ltd. and Lotus Financial Services Ltd. co-sponsoring the Federal Roads Sukuk Company, 1 PLC bond and Chapel Hill Advisory Partners Ltd. sponsoring the 85.14 billion Lagos State Government of Nigeria bond.”

“The CP market saw the participation of four (4) RMQs out of thirty- two (32) FMDQ RMQs in this category.

The top three (3) positions were occupied by

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

Stanbic IBTC Capital Ltd., Coronation Merchant Bank Ltd. and Chapel Hill Advisory Partners Ltd. with market participation of 61.30% 31.34% and 27.52% respectively, of the total value of the CPs quoted within the period.” as stated in the document The data, collated from the weekly trade data submissions by FMDQ Dealing Member (Banks), represents trades executed amongst the Dealing Member (Banks), Dealing Member (Banks) & Clients, and Dealing Member (Banks) & the CBN.

16

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Business Event

OIL & GAS

Egina first oil euphoria muted by OPEC cap ISAAC ANYAOGU

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igeria’s daily crude oil production will rise by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Februarywhenthefirstcargoesfrom Total’s newly producing offshore Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) which hit firstoilonDecember29,2018,comes intothemarket,liftingoutputabove2 million bpd, and pushing the country’s output past the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota.

On December 7, 2018 in Vienna, Austria, OPEC committed to cutting 800,000 bpd from global output, and 10 non-OPEC producers led by Russia agreed to further slash another 400,000 bpd from their production for six months, beginning January this year, under a preliminary deal reached after two days of intense negotiations.

Nigeria, who had enjoyed exemptions in 2016 when OPEC and its allies first agreed to cut 1.6m bpd from global production is now required to cut 52,530 bpd, which represents 3% of its October productionof1.751millionbpdaccordingto OPEC rules.

Basedontheagreement,exemption was granted to Iran, Libya and Venezuela while the rest countries will cut up to 3% from their production using October output levels as the baseline. Kuwait, was granted an exemption to use September production volume as baseline, due to bad weather which affected its production in October.

This effectively caps Nigeria’s production at 1.7million bpd and creates the problem of what to do with spare capacity. One analyst says the cuts are a good thing.

“The choice is between having increased production with low oil prices or to implement cuts which can boost oil prices and increase bigger revenue for Nigeria and other oil producers.” Chuks Nwani, an energy lawyer said.

But Rafiq Raji, chief economist at Macroafricaintel says he doubts thatNigeriawouldcapitsproduction since the government desperately needs revenue.

“Production fluctuates, so an average over a period might be within range of the cap,” he said, insisting that “there would be no punitive measures” even in the event of Nigeria exceeding the cap.

This prospect will gladden the Federal Government whose 2019 budget benchmark is premised on the production of N2.3million bpd and that average oil price of $60 per barrel.

Brent crude, the benchmark price used for Nigeria’s output still hovers around $53.25 on Wednesday, remnants of a quiet rally that started during the last week of December.

“I am almost certain Nigeria would be able to easily persuade other OPEC members about its desperate need for revenue in the aftermath,” Raji argues.

Nigeria secured exemption in 2016 based on the sabotage of its oil and gas infrastructure by militants who blew out the Forcados terminal,

the country’s biggest export line, thereby cutting a third of output.

Dwindling oil prices further pushed the economy into a recession.

The argument for an exemption would be harder to make this time considering that the country has almost recovered previously lost capacity as well as most of its market share.

OPEC cuts are designed to shore up oil prices and countries granted exemptions have had significant shocks to their economy. Venezuela is suffering its worst recession, Iran is facing the prospect of a US sanction which could shut-in 1million bpd to its production and Libya, has been in crises mode since the ouster of its former leader.

Raji also avers that an OPEC without as much influence may be unwilling to quickly sanction defaulters. The cartel in 2018 reported significant compliance with the supplycapagreementamongmembers.

“Bear in mind OPEC is not likely to be aggressive with its members so soon after Qatar left the cartel.”

Raji said.

However,SaadSheridaal-Kaabi, Qatar’sministerofstateforenergyaffairs and president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said Qatar’s exit from OPEC “is not political, it was purely a business decision for Qatar’s future strategy towards the energy sector.”

Qatar with only 2 percent of OPEC production but with the world’s biggest LNG production saw a future linked with gas, rather thananoilmarketwhereevenOPEC needsnon-member’sinputtocounter the threat of US shale production.

AGRO-ALLIED

L-R: Naveen Mehta, financial controller, Lucky Fibres Limited; Jitesh Pamnani, general manager, Lucky Fibres Limited; Parth Shah, area sales manager, Lush Hair and Laxmipat Sethia, area sales manager Lush Hair, during Lush Hair Road Show in Lagos recently.

L-R: Chinyelu Onochie, senior manager, Go-To-Market, MTN Nigeria; Leke Yusuf (3SixtyWorld), Winner, best local content category on the MTN Shortz platform; Aisha Umar Mumuni, general manager, Value Added Services, MTN Nigeria, and Mophethe Moletsane, group general manager, Commercial Management, MTN Group, at the award ceremony of the MTN Digital Content Conference in Lagos.

Notore announces exit of 3 Non-Executive Directors OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN

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arely a week after Notore Chemical Industries Plc, a major fertilizer producing company in Nigeria, released its financial statements for the year ended September 2018 which saw the firm recording N2 billion loss, three Non-Executive Directors have bowed out of the company’s Board.

In a notice filed at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Wednesday, the agro-allied and chemicals company announced the resignation of Geoffroy Dedieu and Bernard Longe, and the retirement of Odoliyi Lolomari with effect from December 14, 2018.

Both Dedieu and Longe served on the company’s Board as Non-Executive Directors for over 7 years after joining the Board on February 8, 2011 and November 17, 2011 respectively, while Odoliyi, who joined the Board of the firm on April 27, 2007, retired after serving for a period of 11 years.

“The Board would like to express its appreciation to the above Directors for their commitments, leadership and extensive contributions to the company and wish them all the very best in their future endeavours,” Notore said.

BusinessDay analysis shows that Notore Chemical, which was incorporated on November 30, 2005 and listed on NSE on August 2, 2018, posted a loss of N2.01 billion in the 2018 finan-

cial year largely driven by huge tax liabilities.

The company’s unimpressive financial performance for the year came despite receiving N6.8 billion as deferred tax credit which helped in cushioning the effect of N3.6 billion loss before tax reported for the year.

The manufacturing firm paid N20.6 million as education tax in 2018 as against N94.3 million paid in the 2017. Deferred tax charge surged significantly to N5.2 billion in the review year compared with a meagre N56.4 million expended in 2017, bringing the total tax liability for the period to N5.2 billion up from N150.8 million in 2017.

But with the introduction of deferred tax credit of N6.8 billion which Gbolahan Ologunro, an equity research analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers, said manufacturing companies get from tax authorities to offset their tax liabilities, the company’s loss for the year which could have hit N8.8 billion in 2018 from post-tax profit of N8.65 billion in 2017 waned to N2.01 billion.

“Deferred tax credit by definition is an asset to a company that they can use to reduce tax liabilities,” Ologunro told Business Day. “It is something that should be positive and that positive is what effectively offset the income tax, so that is why at the end of the day they have a positive income tax of N1.6 billion.”

Ologunro further explained that tax authorities could find

companies eligible to tax credit based on the magnitude of loss made which could in turn trigger increase in tax credit they get.

Notore’s audited financial statements for the year which ended in September 2018 show that the company’s revenue fell by 25.2 percent to N26.8 billion in 2018 from N35.9 billion in the previous year.

Similarly, in spite of a 32.4 percent reduction in the company’s cost of sales to N17.2 billion in the review period, its profits were greatly battered as gross profit dropped by 7.91 percent to N9.6 billion at the end of the year ended September 30, 2018 from N10.4 billion posted in the same period in 2017.

The N6.21 billion and N530.83 million expended on administrative expenses as well as selling and distribution expenses in the review year as against N4.42 billion and N320.44 million spent in the 2017, were moderated by 611 percent increase to N4.01 billion the company received on its investment property.

Notore shares have neither gained nor depreciated since they were listed by introduction on the NSE at N62.50 per share in 2018.

Notore Chemical Industries Plc, which is based in Onne, Rivers State, Nigeria, manufactures and sells fertilizers and substances to enhance the fertility of soil and water in Nigeria and internationally.

L-R: Danladi Inuwa, group general manager, Information Technology Department, NNPC; Tega Agofure, head, Projects, Globacom; Bello Rabiu, chief operating officer, Upstream, NNPC; Sarafa Kolawole, regional head, SME, North Central, Abuja Zone, Globacom; Isa Inuwa, chief operating officer, Corporate Services, NNPC; and Olayiwola Akinwunmi, acting zonal head, Abuja Zone, Globacom at the Globacom Exhibition stand at the NNPC CS-Connect Exhibition organized by NNPC to showcase partners who collaborated on the intelligent information system recently.

L-R: Mario Russo, head of commercial, Promasidor Nigeria Limited; Yomi Adenson, senior finance manager, Promasidor; DanAzumi Ibrahim, director general, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP); Per Kristensen, financial director, Promasidor, and , Olumide Bello, head of ICT, Promasidor during NOTAP’s assessment of Promasidor’s factory in Lagos recently.

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Investments

BUSINESS DAY

Market

Insight

17

Influencers

FUNDING

How Nigeria’s offgrid market ramped up funding in 2018 ISAAC ANYAOGU

N

igeria’s offgrid sector saw significant funding both from local and international sources in the past year. One of the biggest funds came to Rubitec Solar who built an 85kw solar hybrid mini-grid in Gbamu Gbamu, Oyo state, with 500 million euros financing from GIZ, a German development agency.

With an off-grid market estimated at over $9.2billion, there are vast opportunities for companies willing to take a risk in a market where over 75million Nigerians are without access to reliable electricity.

The opportunities are huge. According to the World Bank’s Off-grid Solar Market Trends Report for 2017, Nigeria is the second largest market in the world for offgrid electricity with 8% of global off-grid households

and the Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency (REA) says solar home systems can save Nigerians $4.4bn a year in energy cost.

In the last three years, organisations like the United States Africa Development Foundation, (USADF) African Development Bank (AfDB), GIZ and Heinrich Boell Foundation, have ramped funding and advocacy about the prospect of off grid to deliver energy access for millions of Nigerians without power.

According to BusinessDay calculations, close to N300bn worth of funding has come into the Nigerian off grid space last year alone, backed by technical and governance support.

The World Bank has provided the Nigerian government, a $350 million loan for the development of rural electrification projects in the country. In October, Shell-seeded, All On, announced partnership with

the African Development Bank (AfDB); the Nordic Development Fund (NDF); Global Environment Facility (GEF); and Calvert Impact Capital (CIC) towards a $58 million first close for the Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (OGEF).

CD Glin, the CEO and President of USADF told BusinessDay that his organ-

isation has provided about $10million dollars in funding to different activities in Nigeria including off grid energy sector.

In Nigeria, All On headed

by Wiebe Boer, is the only local investor focused solely on Nigeria’s off grid energy sector. All On has actively championed local investment through grants, seed funding

and energy challenges where the most innovative ideas receive funding.

In July it gave four early stage energy companies $40,000 in funding for innovative renewable energy solutions ranging from a generator powered by water to an air conditioner that does not require electricity.

Last month, All On and

USADF announced winners of another round of energy challenge, awarding $100,000 grant, half in the form of low interest loan between 7 and 10 percent over five years and half as grant to support 10 different companies providing energy solutions for productive use in agro processing to a solar power assembling plant.

“All On is working hard to encourage other local investors as well as local commercial banks to invest in the sector,” Boer, company CEO told BusinessDay. He further said, “However, as it is a nascent sector with mostly unproven businesses, off grid energy companies are beyond the risk of appetite of most local investors, We are confident though that as All On and other investors derisk off grid business and help them scale, we will see substantial local investment pouring in,” Boer said.

INSIGHT

6 Renewable energy trends to watch in 2019

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s more countries, companies and regions are embracing sustainable energy generation and the landscape is rapidly evolving, and these trend will shape the sector in 2019.

Energy Storage Energy storage plays an important role in balancing power supply and demand, and is key to tackling the intermittency issues of renewable energy. Pairing a storage system with a renewable energy source ensures a smooth and steady power supply, even when weather conditions are not optimal for energy generation.

Batteries are the most common storage devices used in renewable energy systems and their use is increasing on both the residential and gridwide scale. Energy storage technologies are expected to continue to improve, making their use more viable and affordable. It is projected that storage will represent a core component of all new energy technologies moving into the future, as both utility-scale and domestic energy storage solutions become more price competitive, eroding the advantages of traditional energy

sources.

Microgrids and Artificial Intelligence Microgrids are local energy grids that can operate either autonomously or while connected to a larger traditional grid. They provide energy independence, efficiency and protection during emergencies. Using the machine learning capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with microgrid controllers allows for continuous adaptation and improvement of operation.

Deployment of microgrids is becoming significantly quicker, with new software allowing for designs to be completed in a single day. San

Diego tech company XENDEE is rolling out an advanced toolkit for microgrid design in partnership with the WorleyParsons Group to make available turnkey solutions in up to a 90% less time and cost than conventional methods.

3. Energy Blockchain and IoT Originally developed to record cryptocurrency transactions, blockchain technology is being adapted for use in the energy market. Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger that conducts and records transactions through a peerto-peer network. The lack of centralization in blockchain leaves it as ideal for eliminat-

ing the middlemen of electricity suppliers. It reduces energy inequality and inefficiency and empowers consumers to buy and sell energy from other consumers directly.

Pairing the distributed ledger technology of blockchain with the everyday devices that we use to receive and convey information, now commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT), stands to have a profound impact on energy systems. With the correct applications, devices can autonomously buy and sell energy at the optimal times, optimize energy system settings in a real-time context and monitor and analyze performance

Analyst: Isaac Anyaogu, Email: isaac.anyaogu@businessdayonline.com, 07037817378,

of energy-consuming devices.

Grid Parity and Falling Costs Grid parity occurs when an alternative energy can generate power at a cost and performance level equal to or less than electricity generated from conventional methods.

Solar and wind have reached parity in both price and performance in many regions, and new technologies continue to hone their competitive edge.

The traditional model of large, top-down and centrally distributed energy production is being replaced by modular, consumer-driven and evenly distributed power generation.

Once thought to be difficult to integrate into the grid, renewables are now serving to strengthen grid reliability and resilience. The utilization of blockchain, AI and other automation technologies make renewables self-optimizing, increasing their efficiency.

Big Commitments An increasing number of corporations, cities and countries are embracing emissions reduction targets and climate action plans to meet the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature.

To date, over 100 cities

worldwide report that at least 70 percent of their energy production is from renewables, and more than 40 are currently operating on 100 percent renewable electricity.

Hundreds more have pledged to work towards the goal of energy generation that is 100 percent based on renewables.

Recognizing their impact on climate change, 158 companies have also committed to transitioning to 100 percent renewables.

Energy Access Advances In Developing Countries Achieving universal access to energy is a critical component of addressing global development challenges. The changes that are occurring in the energy market offer a solution to the problem of energy access. Community-based microgrids could represent the most cost-effective way of delivering affordable and reliable power to those currently living without it.

Clean, modular and renewable energy systems are ideal for many of the communities that have been unable to benefit from conventional centralized forms of energy generation and delivery.

Culled from forbes

Graphics: Fifen Famous

18

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

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Ndubuisi Ekekwe

A

swarming animals, like ants, can teach humans a lot about planning,

military strategy and business management. They make decisions as a

Forethought separates the good from the great Jeffrey M. Stibel HAPPINESS hat distinguishes truly great people from those who are merely considered successful? Often people think intelligence, passion, knowledge or education make a difference. But none of these factors have been accurate predictors of greatness: There is no reliable data that shows a link between intelligence — or its cousin, IQ — and the odds of becoming great. Einstein aside, many individuals who have historically been considered truly great actually had average IQs. Passion seems to help some people succeed, but it leads many others down lonely roads of false confidence. To be fair, knowledge and education positively correlate to a number of metrics for success, but they, too, stop short of predicting greatness.

What distinguishes the good from the great is the ability to constantly think about the future. I am not talking about obsessive worry or concern over what is to come.

Nor am I talking about psychic pre-

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dictions, forecasting or fortunetelling. I am talking about forethought.

In its simplest form, the ability to predict the future is one of the characteristics that makes humans unique. Early humans didn’t need

to see their prey to know whether or not an animal they were hunting was near. They could predict its progress through its paw prints and droppings. In fact, without this ability to forecast the imminent future,

group and depend on one another to survive.

As I watched, my thesis archival project came to mind. “Wouldn’t it be good to trust others to help you?”

I asked myself. Right then, I made these decisions about the project: — The ants worked as a team. I would form a team, bringing professionals together.

— The ants trusted one another. I would do away with the notion that working alone was the only way to ensure quality.

— The ants maintained open lines of communication, so they could help one another and share the bounty. I would share my ideas with like-minded people.

— Ants of all different sizes worked as partners. I would reach out to others and make the task our project, not mine alone. As much as possible, each team member would receive assignments based on his individual capabilities.

— The ants were diligent and focused. I would encourage my team to keep working, even when it was slow-going. Deadlines would give us focus.

— The ants regrouped after crisis.

early humans would have been consumed by whatever beast was lying in wait.

Forethought should not be confused with intuition. Intuition rests on the ability of the brain to read patterns and react accordingly. A human who sees a coiled object in his path knows immediately to jump out of the way because the brain can decide it’s a snake without needing to first accumulate hundreds of details about it. The object may merely have been a coiled rope — and that person may have jumped into the air needlessly — but that is because the brain is built to react quickly. It doesn’t wait for all the details.

Unlike intuition, forethought requires an abundance of details that must be carefully examined.

The future consists of an endless number of possible scenarios. To attempt to pinpoint what will actually unfold involves what the Stanford economist Thomas Sowell calls “long-range thinking.” Forward thinking — forethought — is the brain’s method of chipping away at the edges of uncertainty and making good bets based on past experience. Those who are truly great do

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

We stand behind

YOU from your

Friday 04 January 2019

ManagementDigest

The leadership lessons of ants CONNECTING few years ago, I had the idea to build a digital database for theses written by students at African universities. I wanted to make their work visible to the greater academic community. The project took weeks, then months, then years. Finally, I gave up: I simply didn’t have the time.

Then, at a roadside rest stop in Connecticut, I found some motivation.

I was driving to a leadership workshop and had pulled over to rest when I noticed some ants in action.

I observed that when one ant found food, others immediately gathered to help pull the food to their storage area.

I accidentally wounded one of them.

Quickly, they all came together and evacuated the wounded ant. Then they reorganized and continued on the line they had created. I didn’t observe any formal supervision or ant hierarchy, yet they were accomplishing tremendous tasks, such as moving pieces of food that were about 30 times their individual sizes.

Researchers have told us that

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Rather than quitting as I had before, I would be open to trying new ideas if the old ones did not work.

For small business owners, especially, there is a major lesson here: Success is much more easily achieved by engaging everyone in the organization and trusting workers at all levels. You must not think that you alone are capable of closing the sales, installing the products and fine-tuning the design.

Give others the opportunity to fail or succeed, and never hesitate to ask for help. I have learned to forward emails about the project to others. I also share progress reports and challenges with all team members. The more people know about where we stand, the more they come up with solutions. You never know which member of your staff has the information or networks that can unlock future growth opportunities unless you communicate with the team. This means understanding that anthills are not built by elephants, but by the collective efforts of tiny ants.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe is a founder of the nonprofit African Institution of Technology and the chairman of the Fasmicro Group.

this incessantly.

Do not mistake forethought with rote practice: Greatness is achieved with practice, but only when the labor enables someone to look forward and consider different scenarios. In his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” Malcolm Gladwell argued that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to gain expertise, but that practice alone will not make someone great. There are many experts who lack greatness. For every Bill Gates and John Lennon there are countless unknowns who practiced equally hard. It is the difference between a good chess player who studies each move as it is made and a grandmaster who studies several strategies before the game even begins.

Forethought is how good people become great and how great people stay a step ahead.

Jeffrey M. Stibel is a brain scientist and entrepreneur, having started numerous technology and marketing companies, and a venture capital investor, as cofounder (with Kobe Bryant) of Bryant Stibel.

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In Association With

How development funds can drive sustainable agriculture and improve rural livelihood ADEMOLA ASUNLOYE

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griculture has been the backbone of the Nigerian economy providing employment and means of livelihood for the increasing population as it contributed 25.08 percent to the GDP of Nigeria as at 2017. As a major source of livelihood for rural dwellers, a strong and efficient agricultural sector has the capacity to enable a country feed its growing population, generate employment, gain foreign exchange, and improve the standard of living.

The agricultural sector also has the potential to be the industrial and economic pedestal from which a country can experience speedy development. Through agriculture, environmental benefits such as sustainable management and renewal of natural resources, preservation of biodiversity, land conservation over and above contribution to the development and viability of rural areas can be derived. At micro and macro levels, the agricultural sector is strategically positioned to have a high multiplier effect on the nation’s quest for socio- economic and industrial development as it creates employment opportunities.

While the majority of Nigeria’s population live in the rural areas and depends on agricultural production, the supply of financial services to the sector is inadequate, which on the average, accounts for a mere 5 percent of domestic resources being allocated to the agricultural sector.

There are development funds that exist in Nigeria like the Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS) managed by the CBN, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) and Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF)which are the initiatives of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria; with the aim of fast tracking the development of the agricultural sector in Nigeria by giving loans and support to agricultural business owners.

The primary objectives of these schemes are to fast-track the development of the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy by providing credit facilities to large-scale commercial farmers at a single digit interest rate; enhance national food security by increasing food supply and effecting lower agricultural produce and products prices, thereby promoting low food inflation; reduce the cost of credit in agricultural

production to enable farmers exploit the untapped potentials of the sector; and increase output, generate employment, diversify Nigeria’s revenue base, raise the level of foreign exchange earnings and provide input for manufacturing and processing on a sustainable basis.

A case study of Root Capital and Serendipalm in Ghana shows how development funds schemes can drive sustainable agriculture and impact livelihood in the rural community.

Root Capital is a social investment fund that uses agriculture to improve rural livelihoods in poor, environmentally vulnerable places in Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia.

The fund seeks to reduce poverty by increasing access to agricultural markets.To do this, Root Capital provides loans and technical assistance to small agribusinesses that operate as aggregators and buy from small-scale producers in theircommunities. Increasing credit to these enterprises means that they can buy more products from the farmers as well as invest in community services like health clinics, schools, and electricity.

Serendipalm is the world’s first and largest fair trade and organic palmoil farm. Located in Ghana, the company was started in 2006 by the personal care product company Dr. Bronner’s, which uses sustainable palm oil in its soaps. The trees are cultivated by 670 farmer members who, by learning organic practices,

are able to achieve higher yields and premium prices for their goods.

Serendipalm also operates a processing mill, which employs over 240 people at wages 25 percent higher than comparable local wages. Root Capital became the company’s first external lender in 2014, and continues to provide financing to pay farmers in a timely fashion and grow Serendipalm’s operations. Together, they are demonstrating that palm oil production can, in fact,be done in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, rather than through land grabbing.

Through funds from Root Capital, Serendipalm which started by persuading a group of 200 small farmers to switch to organic cultivation was able to grow its business and at the same time improve the livelihood.

Serendipalm’s success with the production and sale of organic palm oil, and their useful local impact show that responsibly-run trade and production can indeed be at the heart of sustainable rural development: by getting small farmers to switch to more sustainable and more profitable cultivation, and by realizing fair trade development projects that motivate local communities.

Food and agricultural systems therefore provide numerous entry points for financing much more sustainable, long-term solutions to feed a crowded planet while generating community health and wealth within ecological limits.Taking a total portfolio approach to sustainable

agriculture provides investors with a constructive way to grapple with the widest array of investment opportunities because each asset class presents its own specific opportunity set related to food and agriculture — whether financing small-scale local food systems or intervening in largescale global supply chains.

As interest in sustainable food systems and agricultural value chains grows, increasing numbers of investors are beginning to explore highimpact investing opportunities in food, farming, and forestry across asset classes.

Equity investment can help finance sustainable agricultural technology (AgTech) companies and other businesses in the food and agriculture sector. Private equity and venture capital investors can provide critical seed and growth equity financing to private companies in the sector, and they can often become highly engaged with management to ensure that positive social and environmental impact is being measured, managed, and maximized. As for public equity managers, they can invest in small and midcap companies working on AgTech innovations, assess their portfolios for climate, water, and other sustainability risks, or use shareholder engagement strategies to hold companies accountable for their often large-scale social and environmental impacts across the value chain.

Some investors may choose to invest in small- and mid-cap com-

panies that provide exposure to innovative AgTech, ranging from efficient water irrigation to smart transportation that reduces food waste through increased efficiency in distribution. Other investors may seek exposure to large-cap food and beverage companies, either as a pro-active investment or as a target for shareholder engagement on environmental and social issues.

Real assets provide some of the most direct forms of investing in agriculture through ownership of farmland, forests, and fisheries. They can give portfolio additional stability while offering a hedge against inflation. Real assets can also provide investors with revenues from two sources: capital appreciation and income from active land management.

Several real asset managers run strategies focused specifically on sustainable farmland and ranchland management, both in the United States and around the world. These funds tend to utilize practices such as regenerative agriculture and holistic planned grazing in order to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration and building healthier soil with greater resilience to erosion and extreme weather.

These funds generally have strong environmental impacts, and varying degrees of social impact, for example, investing in sustainable, pasture-raised beef and dairy farms.

In addition to farmland and ranchland, sustainable forests also offer compelling social and environmental impact investment opportunities. When managed responsibly, timber, a renewable resource can provide a source of income for generations.

From conventional asset classes such as cash, fixed income, and public equity to alternatives such as private equity, venture capital, and real assets, opportunities to invest in sustainable agriculture with positive impact now extend across diversified portfolios. The nature of impact investment opportunities is by no means equally developed across all asset classes. In some cases, such as farmland and ranchland, investors can get very direct exposure to sustainable agricultural production trends, like the growing market for certified organic crops or pastured livestock. In other cases, investors can focus on financing sustainable AgTech innovations or engaging with publicly traded companies that drive social and environmental impact trends across global value chains.

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Health Sector in 2019: Nigeria to witness big initiatives, improved cancer care – UHC supporting warehouse infrastructural upgrade of 31 states Central Medical Stores (CMS) in Nigeria.

“Setting up a visibility platform in the Ministry of Health’s office will provide real-time online status and performance of CMSs across Nigeria through a monitoring dashboard and institute a stakeholder engagement forum to foster ownership and advocate for fund allocation to the states warehouse improvement and measure progress,” he outlined.

Vaccination drives ensure preventable infectious diseases and protects the mother’s and children’s’ health.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH

I

n 2019, Nigeria’s health sector is set to witness major strides in terms of access to affordable healthcare service delivery. This outlook provides a bird’s eye view of progress to be made in Nigeria’s Healthcare delivery space which has remained a critical driver for productivity and targets of establishments.

As Nigeria’s health sector gears towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and continues its quest to increase the number of Nigerians covered by health insurance, reduce high maternal and child mortality, a number of bespoke practices and innovations are been implemented by states and Private-Public Partnerships to address challenges. The challenges include inadequate infrastructure, poor primary health facilities, malnutrition, poor health emergency response and brain drain in the health sector, to mention but a few.

The country’s progress in this regard can be determined by a majority of stakeholders in the health industry taken actions to adopt and implement principles and approaches. Key to this include spurring Private-Public Partnerships to improve the health and well-being of citizens which is intended to shape the sector in 2019 experts say.

Budgetary The 2019 recurrent budget increased from N269.34billion to N315.62billion, which amounts to a N46.3 billion increase from the 2018 Recurrent Expenditure.

It is expected that additional funds will address issues in the sector in terms of Human Resource for Health, staff welfare in the Federal Ministry of Health, analysts believe.

The Federal Government Strategic Document that reels out the budget for 2019 reads: “Health is an important part of our aspirations for human capital development and we will continue to strive to make our people healthy and happy,” President Muhammadu Buhari stated while presenting a total expenditure of N8.83 trillion in 2019 Budget Proposal tagged “Budget of Continuity,” to the National Assembly recently.

“In addition to building world class treatment centres, including for cancer, we will be establishing a health system that prioritises primary health care, so that millions of our people can be insured for a minimum package of services with the poorest exempt from co-payments. In so doing, we will reduce the stress, strains and costs that the Nigerian people face in accessing decent health care,” the President added.

Currently, Nigeria has not met with the minimum requirement of allocating 15 percent of the Total Annual Budget to improve the health sector, despite being a signatory to the 2001 African Union Abuja Declaration “the performance of this 2019 budget will basically depend on how good

the budget is executed and public financial supervision,” analyst say.

Cancer care in Nigeria According to the latest estimates on the global burden of cancer, in September 2018, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), there will be an estimated 18.1million new cancer cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths in 2018. In Nigeria, 115,950 new cases and 70,327 deaths are predicted.

It is important that we continue to build public health awareness regarding the rising prevalence of cancer cases in Nigeria. The country needs to arrive at innovative financing models for better cancer healthcare outcomes.

The Federal Government 2019 budget proposes to spend N780 million for the establishment Of chemotherapy centres in UBTH, UITH, ABUTH, UMTH, OAUTH, UNTH, UPTH, FMC Owerri, FMC Abeokuta in 2019, BusinessDay can reveal.

“This will help deal with all the different aspects of the prevention, early detection, acute diagnosis, treatment and palliative care that are important,” said Chukwumere Nwogu, a Cancer Epidemiologist; Thoracic surgical oncologist and chief executive officer, Lakeshore Cancer Centre.

Uche Orji, managing director and CEO, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) while speaking on the status of Nigeria’s wealth fund and the second Niger Bridge said the shortest thing the organisation has done with the infrastructure fund is the healthcare project.

“In healthcare by January 15, 2019 we are commissioning of cancer care centres at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) as part of private public partnership programme and also commissioning a diagnostic centre in Kano and Umuahia.”

Orji further said that is the 13th phase of project across in healthcare in Nigeria. “There is huge account of opportunities that we are wasting in this country; People still go to Ghana for cancer screening which can be done locally.

“What we are doing is not social responsibility but commercial investment, so we are expecting to make about 8-12% profit in healthcare. At the moment it is owned by the NSIA in seven years to earn our return and over time transfer will

be made to LUTH,” he said.

Francis Abayomi DurosinmiEtti, consultant clinical oncologist and chairman, National Programme on Cancer Management, emphases that the government is aware of the need of cancer care and is trying to increase the number of machines and facilities of treating cancer, including training of staff. This entire projects on-going means that in the next 2-3 years cancer treatment would have been a lot better than it is now,” Durosinmi- Etti, said.

Vaccinations One of the most important interventions for the prevention of disease outbreaks from lifethreatening conditions such as polio, measles, pneumonia, lassa fever, cholera, Ebola, Yellow Fever has been working successfully by providing vaccination.

Steps have been taken to scaleup the immunisation efforts for maternal and child healthcare.

Most of the non-communicable diseases can be reduced or prevented if we further invest and strengthen our public health education system.

For vaccines in the 2019 health budget, N7.63 billion is earmarked for procurement of Routine Immunisation (RI) vaccines and devices; N21.25 billion provided for GAVI/Immunisation; N1.26 billion for the procurement Of non-Polio Supplementary Immunisation Activity (SIA) Vaccine; and N1.12 Billion for the procurement Of Kits and Commodities for Community Health Influencers.

With SIAs considered as opportunities to strengthen routine immunisation and other health programmes, Africa Resource Centre for Supply Chain (ARC), serves as an independent advisor to the Government to help strengthen public health supply chain strategies by providing partnerships in the adoption of transformation agendas for supply chain improvement.

An effective supply chain reduces the direct cost of providing patient care, reduces counterfeit drugs and waste, including the availability of medicines, family planning choice and vaccines. Recently, Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health, said access to this leads to

Universal Health Coverage The world is moving towards attaining Universal Health Coverage. A report by the Nigerian Government on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), indicates government’s quest to increase the pool of Nigerians covered by health insurance to cover about 198 million people with access to a collective set of comprehensive health services of adequate quality. This quest is in tandem as financial protection is achieved when direct payments made to obtain health services do not expose people to financial hardship and do not threaten living standards.

The National Health Act 2014 set aside 1% consolidated revenue for the health sector and consequently laid the foundation for Nigeria towards achieving Universal Health Coverage. The 2019 health budget has proposed N51.22 billion for the implementation of the National Health Act, BusinessDay can reveal.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the Universal Health Coverage is a political choice for countries themselves to make. A study released recently by WHO showed that 85 percent of the funding gap to achieve universal health coverage could be met by countries themselves, although up to 32 of the poorest countries will require development assistance.

As part of efforts to achieve UHC, Nigeria has set of guidelines defining the basis for Administration, Disbursement, Monitoring and Financial Management (ADMFM) through the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF, “The Fund”). The guidelines address urgent interventions put in place to tackle persistent and emerging causes of population mortality in Nigeria including Maternal Mortality, Perinatal Mortality and Road Traffic Injuries (RTIs).

The guidelines process is also to be applied, the responsibilities of various stakeholders including (but not limited to) participating healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, Federal Government parastatals such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the National Primary Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), State Governments, Local Governments and their participating agencies including State Primary Health Care Development Agencies (SPHCDAs)

and the accompanying accountability expectations contingent on these responsibilities.

At the moment both the NHIS and the HMOs have covered less than 5 per cent of the population.

Newborn and maternal mortality Nigeria’s abysmal position, rating as the country with the second highest maternal mortality rate is a sad foretaste of the nation’s primary healthcare system. Nigeria’s newborn death rate (neonatal mortality) – 528 per day– is one of the highest in the world.

“Newborn mortality is one of Nigeria’s worst health problems, compared to interventions in other health sectors; there has been minimal progress in efforts to reduce newborn deaths in Nigeria,” said Ezeaka.

For Nigeria to drastically reduce maternal mortality and newborn death rate to attain the sustainable development goal SDG BY 2030, leadership is highly critical, finance, technology and capacity building.

Chinyere Ezeaka, Professor of Paediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, emphases on solutions in 2019 expectations to reduce the death rate of newborn and maternal mortality in Nigeria.

“Until the country address the gaps of policy implementation, we will still continue to have the gaps in maternal and new- born mortality rate in Nigeria. The county really needs to work to increase in its capacity building and include a lot of trainings in respect of maternity care. Also improve on critical issues which have to do with services, emergency reserves and increase budgetary allocation for health sector,” Ezeaka explained.

She added, “We have the integrated new- born and maternal policies, adolescent health policy; a lot of policies are documented notwithstanding the amount of deaths, but what we are encouraging is for shared commitment from the federal to state and local government level. We have to strengthen the system, have access to service delivery, increase the health insurance coverage so that these mothers will come to the hospital and access care.”

“For technology, a lot of deaths in the country relate to equipment not being available or going bad and not being repaired.

These equipment are live saving and need to be available always.

Having the following equipment will go a long way to reduce the number of new born deaths, diagnosis equipment, treatment equipment, monitoring equipment and then availability to repair these equipment as at when due,” Ezeaka added.

In conclusion, analyst say to determine the impact of these commitments constitutes a crucial part of the evidence-informed health policy-making cycle in the county.

“It reflects the importance of setting goals and using monitoring frameworks to focus the invention of support, and enables capacity of change in health and well-being and impact of policy over time,” analysts say.

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Executive Travel Health

Travellers Diarrhoea

Ade Alakija

Alakija, medical director Q-Life Family Clinic, Victoria Island, Lagos.

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elcome to 2019. As you read this article some of your visiting friends and family (Locally and from abroad) would have already had their bouts of diarrhoea and possibly your good self. Traveller’s diarrhoea (TD), also called Montezuma’s Revenge , Delhi Belly, Aztec two- step, Hong Kong dog, Tourists trot, Turista or Rangoon runs, affects more than 30% of travellers from the developed to the developing world.(The reverse statistics are sparse.) It is caused by spread of organisms through the Faecal/Oral route. Though most cases are mild and self-limiting, some cases can go on to be very problematic, and due to the nature of the travellers business may need urgent attention. (Remember loose motions can also result from a change in diet including, for example, spicy or oily foods, excess alcohol and the stress associated with travel.) If as in most cases the traveller does not have immediate access to reliable emergency services, they will need to carry along a traveller’s diarrhoea’s kit.

The kit must be carried as Hand luggage in a secure preferably waterproof container, with detailed (flow chart) instructions for use as to when, how and quantity. Cost could be a Factor. TD is the most common symptom experienced during travel, although overall the incidence is declining, it still affects 10 to 40% of travellers to certain regions. TD is more common in travellers who are immunocompromised, those that have reduced gastric acid i.e are on drugs reducing gastric acidity, children less than 6 years of age and younger adults and also those undertaking extreme/adventure travel. A wide variety of organisms cause TD examples of which are Bacteria (about 80% of all TD) eg Enterotoxigenic E. Coli, Viruses (between 5-10%) eg Norovirus ‘more common’ on cruises , Parasites (2-10%) eg Giardia Intestinalis and Ent-

amoeba Histolytica. Parasitic infections are usually associated with symptoms lasting longer than 1 week. Underlying organisms may not be identified in 20-40% of cases and mixed infections are common.

The Epidemiology for TD varies with destination country and you have low risk, moderate risk and high-risk countries. The fact is that you can get TD in all countries.

The aetiology also varies for different world regions. Eg E. Coli is more common with travel to Latin America and Campylobacter is more common in travel to South East Asia. Clinical signs and symptoms: TD can be defined as 3 or more loose/watery stools in a 24 hour period or sudden onset of abnormally loose/watery stools accompanied by any of fever, abdominal cramps, faecal urgency, nausea or vomiting and most occur in the 1st week of travel. Its severity can be graded as Mild-most cases and may not disrupt normal activities, Moderate- which is distressing and leads to interruption of normal activities and Severe- this is incapacitating and prevents all planned activities. Infection with an invasive organism can result in Dysentery where frank blood and mucous occur in stool. This is considered severe. Medical attention is required. On average most TD symptoms last for 3-5 days and majority of cases self-resolve without any specific treatment. Persistent diarrhoea is defined as symptoms lasting more than 14 days and life long sequelae may arise eg Post Infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Reactive Arthritis. Prevention depends upon practising good hygiene and effective food and water precautions. Wash hands properly before eating and after using the toilet. Have standby Sanitising alcohol hand gel or wipes as an alternative to unavailable washing facilities. TD can still occur despite all hygiene precautions and depending on risk in certain situations prophylactic medication or vaccinations may be considered. The priority in treatment is adequate Rehydration especially in young children eg oral rehydrating solutions. The next line of treatment is Antidiarrhoeal Agents but

over use can cause rebound constipation and for moderate to severe TD Antibiotics may be considered. The management of moderate to severe TD should be by a Physician especially the bloody mucous type.

Antibiotic use prophylactically is still very controversial especially with regards to development of resistant strains of bacteria and placing travellers at risk of potential fatal complications for what in the majority is a mild self limiting illness (TD). They can be used prophylactically only for quick visits or extreme important occasions. General rule: less than 1week prophylaxis and greater than 1 week standby. Side effects include photosensitivity, allergy and rare complications like Steven-Johnson Syndrome and antibiotic associated diarrhoea (Clostridium Dificile). Antibiotic treatment should be for severe cases, that is six stools in 24hrs or confinement to a place. They should be carried along because of their proven efficacy and uncertainty of the quality of antibiotics in the host country. Due to emerging resistant strains, the antibiotic of choice is important. Azithromycin & Augmentin (Amoxicillin + Clavulanic acid) are still very effective across a broad spectrum especially Azythromycin, whilst resistance to the quinolones ( up to 84% in some cases) is increasing rapidly especially Compylobacter species. Antiemetics, may be necessary to carry along in case of vomiting.

Unless water purity is certain don’t drink it without boiling, chemical disinfection or using a reliable filter. This also applies to water used for making ice cubes and cleaning teeth. Bottled water is usually safe, as are hot tea and coffee, beer and wine. Buy cheese and ice-cream from well established companies. Meat should be thoroughly cooked and eaten hot whenever possible. Avoid leftovers.

Fish and shellfish can be hazardous at certain times of year, even if well cooked.

Take local advice about seafood, but when in doubt it is best to avoid them. Make sure milk has been pasteurised, if not, it should

be boiled. Vegetables should only be eaten when thoroughly cooked. Green salads should be avoided. Fruit should be peeled, including tomatoes.

Personal hygiene when eating and drinking is important including hand washing prior to eating and using sterile plates, cups and utensils. Always have good hygiene practices and watch what you eat especially in dirty hot and humid environments. There are vaccines that could be prescribed for TD but please consult your doctor.

Note: Please do not self medicate.

Consult your Travel consultant, General Practice Physician or Family Doctor. Don’t let diarrhoea ruin the perfect Holiday, Business trip or Family reunion. Practice common sense hygiene processes. Always have an active fully loaded and roaming mobile phone. Dial 112 in any country in an emergency.

Travellers Diarrhoea Kit (Available at Travel Clinics.)

The item’s to be included in the kit will be divided into 5 Groups.

• Oral rehydration salts: This is the first line, and life line for treatment.

Fluid and electrolyte loss needs to be replaced because of possible severe consequences of dehydration and acidosis which causes morbidity and mortality, and should be commenced as soon as possible especially in the young and elderly. Hypotonic solutions with lower sodium concentrations should be given because they are thought to be safer and more effective. Examples: Dioralyte & Cereal based ORT in children.e.g Dioralyte relief. You can also learn to make your own solution with safe water, salt and sugar and in some cases use fizzy drinks eg sprite/7up that the gas has been removed (seek professional advise) • Anti diarrhoeal Agents: These agents are safe and moderately effective in reducing stool frequency and they act better in modifying the duration and severity of illness when combined with an antimicrobial agent. They are not for use in infants and young children.

Loperamide is a common drug of choice because of its popularity and safety. It is not recommended in bloody diarrhoea.

Anti microbial medication: Antibiotics are known to reduce the average duration and severity of travellers’ diarrhoea from 4.5 days to 1.5 days and about 50% respectively, and more so when combined with anti diarrhoeal agents.

The drug of choice is Azithromycin (amongst many including Ciprofloxacin) because of it’s broad spectrum, rare cases of resistance and safety in all age groups. It is effective against Compylobacter Jejuni which is probably the most common cause of Guillain-Barre syndrome in some countries. Rifaximin is the only drug currently recommended for prophylaxis for TD but must be used only on the doctors recommendation..

• Non-Antibiotic Therapy: Example. Bismuth subsalicylate. This is less effective than antibiotics and antidiarrhoeal agents and reduce the choices to the traveller and can be bulky. Flaggyl (metronidazole), can be included because of protozoa that can cause persistent diarrhoea. It also has some antibacterial activity. Protozoa account for a significant percent of TD and easily treatable.

• Essential non treatment items: Water purification: Iodine and heating coil. Iodine destroys bacteria, viruses and cysts and is thus better than Chlorine.

8mgs/litre at 20degreesC for 10mins will destroy all pathogens, whilst boiling water for 1 minute at all altitudes should kill majority of harmful pathogens. Brushing of teeth with purified water. Taste restorers like lime juice can be added after purification process to make the water palatable.

Thermometer. For temperature recording Toilet paper/ sterile wipes, hand sanitizers.

1% hydrocortisone cream for diaper rash in infants and even toilet paper irritation ‘rash’ in adults.

Boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it.

Strengthening supply chain leaders through Gavi step training in Nigeria ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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he supply chain (SC) for immunisation comprises all individuals, activities, structure, resources and planning relevant for facilitating effective and safe delivery of vaccines to those that need them. In developing countries, such as Nigeria, SC capacity is inadequate to meet the ever-increasing population needs.

To improve immunisation coverage and subsequently reduce infant and child mortality, a strong SC system is essential, requiring advanced technology to be applied to all aspects of the SCsystem; from planning to cold chain equipment, data management and distribution of commodities.

At the heart of this at all levels of the health system is the need for SC leadershipwhich requires skilled and competent individuals who are empowered to deal with the present and future challenges.

“One of the key areas of focus of the STEP training in Nigeria is building strong leaderships at national and state government levels that will drive ownership of health programs beyond Vaccines Management. ARC led the adoption of the STEP by the Nigerian government through providing insight on the relevance of the program

HBL Team

L-R: Magloire Achidi, Supply Chain Consultant for Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) and Pharm Azuka Okeke, Regional Director, Africa Resource Centre for Supply Chain (ARC) during the GAI STEP training in Nigeria.

to the decision-makers in immunisation,” Azuka Okeke, regional director, Africa Resource Centre for Supply Chain (ARC).

According to Okeke, in a bid to strengthen the SC leadership in governments, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), in collaboration with United Parcel Services (UPS) (a private global logistics company), developed the Strategic Training Executive Programme (STEP) to present a unique opportunity for countries like Nigeria to develop supply chain leaders who will advance transformation in ef-

fective and efficient immunisation delivery.

“National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) through the advocacy support of ARC made a formal request to GAVI to implement the STEP strategy in Nigeria.

“The ARC, a collaboration between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Private Sector HealthAlliance of Nigeria, (PHN) serves as an advisor to the government on public health supply chain strategies provides thought

partnerships in the adoption of transformation agendas for supply chain improvement. ARC facilitated the adoption of the STEP by the agency and is currently facilitating the implementation of the program in the country,” she explained.

Magloire Achidi, Supply Chain Consultant for GAVI explained that GAVI recognises the critical importance of investing in skill development for global supply chain leaders as a result GAVI partnered with UPS to provide health supply chain management professionals and decision makers in various countries across the globe with leadership and management skills at all levels of the health system to enable them to overcome existing and emerging challenges.

The STEP training, which is based on an academic framework of professional competencies for supply chain managers, combines traditional learning with on-the-job training, thereby assisting supply chain leaders to develop their problem-solving skills and foster effective team-building approaches.

“Leaders bring people together to tap their collective wisdom. When doing so, you must be prepared for differences of opinion and conflict.

Becoming an effective negotiator can reveal new opportunities, sharpen your focus, satisfy your needs and

improve your relationships” George Bray, Vice President, Member Engagement, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (one of the sponsors of GAVI STEP training)” Achidi explained.

Kevin Etter, director, Public Health and Safety/Humanitarian, United Parcel Service (UPS), explained that the importance of leadership rings within every industry with leadership seen as a critical driver for success.

“Leadership is getting the work done through people. A leader sets direction, motivates and builds an inspiring vision, as well as creates something new. Leaders inspire others, possess decision-making capabilities, and should be focused on the vision to inspire others to the overall goal” Etter stated.

Participants at the GAVI STEP training re-echoed how this training has reshaped their thinking in how strategic and efficient they will be in discharging their duties as supply chain leaders in Nigeria.

“The GAVI STEP training has exposed us to what leadership is all about right from team building, success and sustaining success. I have gained useful insights on how to become more strategic, efficient and accountable for my actions in my organisation” Chinenye Ekpemauzor, deputy director, NPHCDA.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH and ANI MICHAEL / Reporters. Email: obokoh.anthonia@businessdayonline.com I David Ogar, Graphics

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Company Review

10 predictions for Nigeria’s digital payment landscape in 2019 the cost of interbank transfer down to N20 or even zero for transactions of N1,000 and below, micropayments will explode. Now you can pay for Agege bread with N50, and you won’t get charged.

Adedeji Olowe

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018 was an exciting year for payments in Nigeria.

Tons of cash came in as international investments, interbank transfer crossed 700 million transactions, even mCash had a little showing. Of course, the bitcoin bubble made a loud burst with many licking their wounds.

As usual, the following are my 10 predictions for 2019. They are mostly influenced by my understanding of the industry, discussion with various stakeholders, and my penchant for foolery. While these 10 predictions could be a guide for you, rely on them at your own risk.

Interbank transfers overtake ATM cash transactions Come April 2019, for the first time ever and every month forever after, Nigerians will do more interbank transfers (using USSD, mobile, and online banking) than they collect money from ATM machines. Interbank has seen a steady 100% annual growth over the last few years and is poised to eclipse other payment methods as more bank customers gravitate towards USSD or can afford smartphones.

Payment Service Banking flops The euphoria around Payment Service Banks (PSB) is unfounded as it is more about financial inclusion than fancy mobile or digital banking. Nevertheless, the poison pill of 22% CRR

International players go big Whatsapp finally figures out how to connect your bank account (for some banks) to your app to enable you transfer funds instantly to anyone. And guess what; they will do it so well and so seamlessly that you wonder if our banks have been playing.

and 75% deposit with CBN as Treasury Bills is marking this as dead-on-departure.

While a lot have applied, only a few will launch. MTN will find that it’s a different kettle of fish and would struggle significantly.

SANEF becomes a surprising success Shared Agency Network Expansion Facility is a massive N32 billion undertaking by banks and NIBSS to haul in 30 million financially unserved Nigerians into the financial ecosystem. While it has been on for months with little to show apart from daily adverts by NIBSS, there appears to be unseen moves to make it a success.

For example, adoption of

a common API standard for account opening would help the super agents get to the market faster. The appointment of Ronke Kuye, a veteran of payments and a co-founder of CeBIH, to run SANEF is a significant step in the right direction.

matter of time that a Nigerian bank, a fintech, or government agency is walloped.

This time around, it would be a hit so hard they cannot sweep the stories under the carpet. By the way, some of these frauds would be done by internal teams.

A massive data breach or fraud hits some fintechs Some months ago, someone found exposed data about Arik customers which included card details, phones, and emails. This discovery underscores how pervasive the security lapses have been for technology companies worldwide. When you hear about likes of Google, Facebook, and Yahoo having breaches, you know it’s a

CBN clamps down on errant fintechs After the embarrassing frauds and data breaches, CBN will go into a knee-jerk reaction and go after banks and/or fintechs who do not have licenses. A lot of apps will disappear with many investors’ dollars following the pipe into the drain.

Interbank transfer becomes N20

CBN will update its rules to force banks to reduce their interbank transfer payments to N20 a pop. Bill payments and others will not change though.

Micropayments become free Part of the CBN rule would say that transfers below N1,000 should not be charged subject to a maximum of N2,000 per day to engender financial inclusion and cashless payments.

Customers will rejoice, and I will throw a party. Before you think it is impossible, just remember that CBN made ATM withdrawal free in 2013 and only put a cap of 3 free transactions when banks went begging. With

CBN does about turn on the new licensing regime The Central Bank of Nigeria recently threw some gasoline into the fintech fire when it proposed to create 3 licensing bands of up to N5B capital requirements. Since then, everyone has been snipping at CBN’s heels.

Someone hacks AI for banking A smart bank finally figures out what to do with the mess that is Whatsapp banking.

Instead of the boring flow, you will now be able to chat using natural language.

I mean, if you can talk to Alexa in Ijesha accent with all the glory of “H factor” and it recognizes your voice, why can’t you chat with your bank Whatsapp and say “transfer N15,000 to Silifa” and it gets done?

Adedeji Olowe, is the CEO of Trium Limited and an open banking enthusiast.

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collapse of industries and loss of jobs. To put it briefly, trade defence measures are meant to provide a level of sanity despite the removal of barriers to trade. b. Why haven’t there been any significant amendments especially to the more popularly used Anti-dumping AgreementDespite all the criticisms, it is surprising that no tangible steps have been taken towards the amendment of these trade defence instruments. For example, all efforts aimed at amending anti-dumping being the most used and criticised have not seen the light of the day because it enjoys huge political support as the most potent weapon for the protection of domestic industries.

There has been opposition to the call for reforms in the rules by the likes of United States because the rules as it is favours them and any form of reform is considered not to be in their best interest. Anti-dumping law for example was drafted by Americans and Europeans and they were the first to take advantage of the rules. Therefore, the United States and the EU are considered as the greatest opposition to reforms.

Trade defence measures are further seen as the basis for more

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Odunayo Oyasiji

Why countries are still allowed to impose anti-dumping duties and apply safeguard measures he reasoning behind this is that since the aim of GATT/WTO is the liberalization/ globalization of trade by removing barriers to trade, why then do countries of the world still use anti-dumping and safeguard measures. They are also forms of barriers to trade. In essence, why do we still have Safeguard Agreement and Anti-dumping Agreement? Why are these measures still being preserved by GATT/WTO? The reasons are addressed in subsequent paragraphs. a.

Why the two measures have not been scrapped considering the aim of WTO and the criticism that have accompanied their operationFirst, the existence of trade defence instruments like Antidumping and Safeguard measures were the necessary evils that made trade liberalization possible as many countries agreed to trade liberalization because of the existence of trade defence measures they can fall back on.

Second, the measures are still being used because of the huge support they enjoy from developed nations. These developed countries are considered as traditional users of these trade measures as they all have been using them before the introduction of GATT/WTO. Third, the trade defence instruments were designed to combat the problems that may arise from the liberalization of trade. Therefore, the negative effects they have on trade weren’t part of the initial reasons for their introduction.

Fourth, there have been arguments that without trade defence instruments like safeguard measure and anti-dumping the protection needed for the survival of domestic industries will be absent and as a result, liberalization that is meant to boost trade would have resulted into the

BUSINESS DAY

Locus Classicus Ecay v Godfrey (1947) 80 Lloyd’s Rep 286

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act: The claimant (Ecay) entered into a contract with the defendant (Godfrey) to purchase a sail boat for 750 pounds from him. The defendant has good knowledge and expertise about boats. The defendant told the claimant that the boat is in good condition.

However, he advised the claimant to have the boat surveyed so as to ascertain the condition of the boat. The claimant proceeded to buy the boat and it turned out that the boat was seriously defective. The claimant then brought the action against the defendant for sale of a defective boat. One of the grounds for the matter was that the defendant represented to the claimant that the boat is in

good condition.

The issue for determination in this matter was “Whether the defendant’s remarks regarding the sound nature of the boat ought to be considered definitive and thus an enforceable contractual term or whether his suggestion of a survey served to render his assessment merely a representation.”

The court held that the defendant’s comments on the state of the boat are mere representations that do not form part of the contract. Therefore, the defendant cannot be held liable on the basis of the statement. This was further buttressed by the fact that the defendant advised the claimant to have the boat surveyed.

discussions on the liberalization of trade as they are sources of escape route from the obligations created under GATT/WTO. A developing country like Nigeria serves as a dumping ground for foreign goods as no proper measure is in place to curb same. This goes a long way to impact local industries negatively. Therefore, there is need for developing countries trying to open up to trade to also take steps to protect local industries from predatory activities.

CONCLUSION Liberalization/globalization of trade being the main focus of GATT/WTO has been hampered greatly by the use of anti-dumping and safeguard measures.

This is because these trade defence instruments are often used as protectionist instruments. Although, there have been calls for the reforms but no success has been achieved so far. These trade defence measures are meant to remedy the problems that might be occasioned by the removal of trade barriers. Therefore, no matter the level of criticisms, trade defence measures are still necessary evils.

There is need for reforms especially in the area of the wordings of the two trade defence instruments under consideration so as to remove the ambiguities occasioned by the wordings that have been identified in the body of this work. It is also essential that capacity should be built to empower countries to challenge unfavourable anti-dumping decisions as it has been established that countries that lack the capacity to challenge the decisions are often the main targets of the investigations. This will go to a great extent to reduce the initiation of needless investigations.

What are your rights when your flight is cancelled in nigeria?

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he law makes provision for compensation when your flight is cancelled – both local and international flights.

Sadly, most Nigerians do not know or do not even bother to enforce their rights. Sections 19.5.1, 19.6, 19.7, 19.8 and 20.1.7 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2012 provides that – 1. For a cancelled local flight, the passenger is entitled to be paid the 25% of the ticket price as compensation. For international flight, the passenger is entitled to 30% of the ticket price as compensation. The mode of payment is to be agreed with the passenger.

2. Furthermore, the passenger is entitled to refreshments,

meals, transportation and hotel accommodation, free two phone calls and SMS/email. The foregoing is where passengers are offered re-routing alternative flight. However, this benefit will not be accessible to passenger if the cancellation was communicated at least 24 hours before the scheduled time of departure in case of local flight and 7 days notice in respect of international flight.

No claims can be initiated or brought against an airline for compensation or benefits if the reason for the cancellation is based on unavoidable extraordinary circumstances. The burden of proving the foregoing is placed on the airline.

Do you know?

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t is illegal not to accept Naira as means of payment in Nigeria. It is only the Central Bank of Nigeria that has the right to determine when other currencies can be used as medium of payment. Section 20(5) of Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 states that – “(5) A person who refuses to accept the Naira as a

means of payment is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N50,000 or 6 months imprisonment: Provided that the Bank shall have powers to prescribe the circumstances and conditions under which other currencies may be used as medium of exchange in Nigeria.”

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Hotels Seattle Residence Apartments set to open the year with chic offering OBINNA EMELIKE

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he burgeoning Lagos hospitality market is set to welcome a new entrant this January. Aptly called Seattle Residence Apartment, the new hotel is chic.

The upscale residence, which is also an architectural masterpiece, features breathtaking views of the Lagos skyline across the Lagoon and is the perfect home away from home offering in 2019.

It is also debuting with exciting offerings.

The first offering is its serenity, which comes from its exclusive location on Walter Carrington Crescent in Victoria Island, Lagos; one of the most secured areas in Lagos and Nigeria because of the many foreign embassies it hosts including the United States of America and United Kingdom.

Top of the offerings are 24 elegantly and timeless designed apartments with two room categories.

The categories are; 20 apartments each offering three en-suite bedrooms with stand-alone showers, mahogany wooden floors and wardrobes, living room with private balcony and

a magnificent view of the Lagoon, dining area, and fully equipped kitchen with fridge, microwave, and dish washer.

The second category offers four penthouses. The penthouses feature four en-suite bedrooms with stand-alone glass shower, mahogany wooden floors and wardrobes, master bedrooms with mahogany walk-in wardrobes, tastefully fitted with porcelainosa Jacuzzi, and stand-alone glass shower with glass doors leading to a private balcony, which creates an utter enchantment ambiance.

Others features of the penthouses include; living room with a spacious private balcony with a view of the lagoon, fully equipped kitchen

with fridge, microwave, washing machine, dish washer and a mahogany wine rake.

As well, all the apartments have LCD satellite TV, safe deposit box, individually controlled AC and other amenities. Guests at the new hospitality outfit will also enjoy butler services, WIFI, laundry, housekeeper, airport transfer, a chef and apartment prestocking on request.

During turn down guests can also visit Oriki Spa, a wellness oasis, to rejuvenate, unwind or keep up with their fitness at the gym and swimming pool overlooking the Lagoon.

Dining is also an experience for guest at the upscale residence on Walter Carrington Crescent. The inhouse café serves continental

breakfast, as well as, deliciously grilled local cuisine menu.

It is intriguing that the serene apartments are secluded yet close to the vibrant local activities in the city. The hotel genuinely believes in giving exception customer service to each and every guest beyond its 8300sq size that offers ample space for outdoor relaxation.

For the more adventurous guests, there is excitement beyond the comfort of the rooms and serenity of the location.

Moreover, Seattle Residence Apartment heightens guests’ experience with good opportunity for a cruise on a luxury yacht or a beach house escape along the Atlantic Ocean from its jetty.

While Seattle Residence Apartments prepares for formal opening on January 26, 2019, Pakiwe Zyambo, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing, described the hotel as a home away from home, and insisted, “We are proud to host people from all over the world.”

With the world-class facilities, products offerings, welltrained staff that uphold high quality service culture among others, Seattle Residence Apartments, according to Zyambo, is the new address of hospitality offering in Lagos in 2019 and going forward.

Top BusinessDay Partner Hotels Four Point Hotels (Oniru Chiefatancy Estate,Lekki)

Transcorp Hilton Abuja 1 Aguiyi Ironsi Street Maitama, Abuja Tel: +234-708-060-3000

The Wheatbaker #4 Onitolo(Lawrence Road), Ikoyi, Lagos.

Tel: 01 277 3560

Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Abuja 1 Uke St, Garki, Abuja.

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

InterContinental Lagos Plot 52, Kofo Abayomi St, Lagos Tel: 01 236 6666

Radisson Blu Hotel Ikeja #38/40 Isaac John St, Ikeja GRA100271, Ikeja Tel: +234-908-780 5555

Hotel security for the guests in the new year

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he sad truth is that criminals target travelers, especially in and around hotels.

The abundance of literature on the topic of hotel security does not seem to have deterred criminals from using hotels as a target of their trade.

An informal survey of hotel security staff reveals old patterns of crime repeated and new tricks (or new variations of old tricks) continue as before. There are, however, some practices which can reduce your risk of being the target of crime or other hazards in a hotel, especially this new year.

The starting point The starting point for hotel

security consideration begins well before you have checked into the hotel. If you drive to a hotel and park in their garage or parking lot, auto security, luggage protection, and personal safety will be your starting point. If you arrive by cab, your safety in the taxi and care of your luggage will be your starting point. In fact, unless you have visited a particular hotel fairly recently, your starting point should be a telephone call from home to ask a few questions. If the hotel is in a foreign country, the list of questions to ask in advance will be more extensive. Call to confirm your reservations; get a fax of confirmation and

note the name of the person you spoke to.

Questions to ask and where to ask them There are three questions to ask for selecting a secure hotel: Are there electronic door locks? Is there good key control? And is there a fire alarm and water sprinkler system? Generally, the only way to find this out is calling the hotel directly. The number one security issue is controlling who has access to a guest’s hotel room. While we can install electronic locks and keep a closely controlled system of key control, it is the guests themselves who often let down their guard and fail to lock their door when they go out to get ice at the end of the hall, or open their door to an uninvited intruder. It is important to remember that a hotel is a public place and criminals are attracted to places where outsiders are vulnerable.

What room to reserve?

If possible, avoid staying in a room located on the first floor of a hotel. Since first floor rooms often have sliding doors or windows that are accessible from ground

level, they are a greater security risk than rooms on higher floors. Second floor to fifth floor rooms are usually good choice in the event of a fire, as they are more easily accessible for rescue purposes than rooms on higher levels.

But rarely is room selection so simple. If you are attending a convention or visiting during the busy season, your choice of rooms may be limited. And a more expensive room will not guarantee you greater fire security, since the most luxurious suites are usually located on the top floors, and can therefore be more difficult to escape in a fire. Rooms away from the ice machine or utility area will minimize your exposure to the noise of hallway traffic, and a room near a stairwell will provide an alternative to endless waiting for crowded elevators.

However, women traveling alone may wish to choose a room near hall or stairwell surveillance cameras for added security. Before you get settled into your assigned room, verify that there is a reasonably quick access to a fire escape route by window or stairway.

Best Western Hotel Hotels 12, Allen Avenue C/O Funmi (Front Office Manager)

Protea Hotel (GRA Ikeja) GRA Ikeja

Protea Hotel (V/Island) Off Ajose Adeogun Street, V/ Island

Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel 1A,Ozumba Mbadiwe,Victoria Island.

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Sports

X-raying transfer fees of top European clubs …. Premier League clubs spent 37.4% of the total transfer fees for the top five leagues … 2.4% drop in 2018 transfer fees compared to 2017 … €5.82bn spent on transfer fees in 2018 as against €5.96bn paid in 2017 Stories by Anthony Nlebem

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very season big clubs from top European leagues spend huge sum of money to sign players in a bid to re-enforce the team and boost their financial status.

According to a report by CIES Football Observatory on transfer of players from 2010 till 2018, analyses the paid transactions involving teams from the five major European championships: the English Premier League, Spanish Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and the French Ligue 1.

The report shows the sums paid in transfer fees, what the clubs and leagues have benefitted from these investments, and the financial balance sheets for both teams and leagues over the period stretching from 2010 to 2018. The figures published in this report include fixed transfer fees, eventual add-ons, as well as sums paid in the context of paying loans.

The sums involved in the case of loans with an obligation to buy are included in the figures for the year in which the agreement was concluded. Within the limits of the available information, the data on recipients take into account the resale percentages negotiated by former clubs.

For the first time since 2012, transfer fees paid out by big five league clubs were less than for the previous year. In 2018, a drop of 2.4% was recorded in comparison to 2017: €5.82 billion instead of €5.96.

The strong increase observed during the 2018 winter transfer window did not continue through to the summer one. However, over the whole year, the amounts invested were clearly above those paid out in 2016, an increase of €1.59 billion (+37.6%) in the big five leagues (2010-2018) Throughout the period studied, the investments of Premier League clubs represented 37.4% of the total

Net monetary flows for international transfers by clubs in the top five league from 2010 to 2018

measured for the big-5 leagues. A slightly lower proportion was measured in 2018 (36.5%). Since 2010, the English top division teams have spent 1.6 times more than the Italian clubs, 2.1 times more than the Spanish, 2.8 times more than the German and 3.1 times more than the French.

In 2018, a new spending record was established in two leagues: the English Premier League and the Spanish LaLiga. In the first case, the increase was rather limited to 2.1%. In the second, the increment in comparison to 2017 was very marked 80.4%.

Thanks to a better distribution of television rights and international success, the LaLiga is now established as the second force of world football.

The rankings of clubs having invested the most in transfer fees since 2010 highlights the incredible financial power of a handful of teams.

The top three comprises Manchester City, Chelsea and Barcelona. Four other teams have spent over a billion € over the eight-year period analysed.

Among the heavy hitters of European football, only Real Madrid (€912 million) and Bayern Munich (€554 million) spent less.

As for 2018, Barcelona piped Liverpool and Juventus in the rankings of the clubs who spent the most. Ten English teams are in the top twenty places. Borussia Dortmund and Monaco are the only representatives of the German and French championships. This result is largely related to the financial gaps existing between leagues of the big-5.

The teams that benefited from transfer indemnities invested by these league clubs between 2010 and 2018 shows that most of the money stays within these championships: 66.6% of the total. This percentage reached 69.9% in 2018. This increase indicates that the most expensive transfers involve more than ever players who have already proved themselves in the five major leagues.

AS Monaco top the rankings of teams that received the most indemnities for transfers between 2010 and 2018. The team of the principality earned almost one billion in eight years. Many wealthy clubs also figure in the top twenty, while Benfica and Porto are the only two teams outside the five major championships in the top positions of this ranking.

To have an optimum understanding of the economics of the transfer market, aside from sums spent and recipients, it is essential to study the net balance sheet for operations at both league and club level. Between 2010 and 2018, these big league clubs recorded an accumulated deficit of €7.29 billion. The Premier League is single-handedly responsible for 78.3% of this deficit. This percentage was 85.7% in 2018.

Despite the considerable investments made by Paris St-Germain during the period studied (accumulated deficit of €874 million), Ligue 1 was the only big 5 championship with a positive balance (€199 million).

In 2018, the net balance sheet of transfer operations concerning teams from the French top division reached a historic record of €333 million.

The rankings of teams with the most positive balance on the transfer market between 2010 and 2018 highlights Monaco’s exceptional case of €289 million increase and €66 million in 2018.

Manchester City with €1.03 billion and Paris St-Germain, €874 million were among teams with the most negative net balance sheets for transfer operations between 2010 and 2018. Five Premier League teams are in the top ten places, as well as two Italians clubs; Juventus and Milan, two Spanish clubs; Barcelona and Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain.

The English top division occupies a central position, more than any other championship. Between 2010 and 2018, the six international relations with the greatest net monetary flows involve the English top division: -€905 million with France, -€831 million with Spain, -€645 million with Italy, -€582 million with Germany, -€412 million with Portugal and -€369 million with the Netherlands.

Despite the slight drop in spending observed in 2018 compared to 2017, the economic development of the top of the professional football pyramid suggests that a renewed increase of sums invested in transfer fees will happen in the near future.

Transfer fee investments by club in € million from 2010 to 2018

Salah, Mane, Aubameyang battle for Aiteo/ CAF Men’s Player of the Year … Ordega, Oshoala, Kgatlana make final list for Women’s Player of the Year

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gyptian striker and reigning CAF Player of the Year, Mohamed Salah, Liverpool club-mate Sadio Mane and 2015 winner, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, are set to battle for the most prestigious individual accolade in African football, the Men’s African Player of the Year Award.

The three players made the top

three finalists for 2017 and will be hoping to begin the year with the crown of Player of the Year for their exploits in 2018. The winner will be unveiled at the Awards Gala on 8 January 2019 in Dakar, Senegal.

Gabonese and Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, maintains his familiar status amongst the top three finalists since 2014, thus five

times in a row and equaling the record of Ivorian legend Yaya Toure and Ghanaian midfield supremo Michael Essien. Four-time Player of the Year, Toure, achieved the feat (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) and Essien (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009). The 29-year old will be hoping to lay his hands on the enviable crown a second time.

Reigning African Player of the Year, Mohamed Salah, made history becoming the first Egyptian to be decorated African Player of the Year since the inception of the awards scheme in 1992. It is the second time, he has made the final three and the 26-year-old has his eyes set on joining the elite league of players to win the honour back-to-back. Senegalese El Hadji Diouf (2001, 2002), Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon (2003, 2004) and Toure (2011, 2012) are the only three

to win successive titles.

It is a hat-trick for 26-year old Sadio Mane in the top three, coming third in 2016 and second in 2017. He will be hoping to be third time lucky and become the second Senegalese to win the topmost individual honour after Diouf.

Also, Nigerian duo Asisat Oshoala and Francisca Ordega, and South African Chrestinah Thembi Kgatlana have made the final three for the Women’s Player of the Year 2018.

The three made the cut after a performance-filled year, which saw them, make headlines at both club and national levels.

Oshoala, winner for the past two years with three titles overall (2014, 2016, 2017) has her sights on a fourth title, to equal the feat of compatriot Perpetua Nkwocha (2004, 2005,

2010, 2011). The 24-year old helped Nigeria to successively defend their title during the Total Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Ghana December, 2018.

Ordega earned herself cult status following her exploits at the AWCON and in the USA, where she plies her trade with Washington Spirit. The 25-year old wowed fans with her skillful and pacy runs from the wings as Nigeria cruised to the title.

South African forward Kgatlana was the star of the last AWCON, scooping the Most Valuable Player and Top scorer accolades as Banyana Banyana reached the final. Her second nomination at this level and hoping to become the second South African after Noko Matlou (2008) to be crowned ‘Queen’ of African football.

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Friday 04 January 2019

Queen Moremi The Musical still thrills at Terra Kulture this New Year OBINNA EMELIKE

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t has been exciting holiday for theatre lovers in Lagos who throng the Terra Arena at Terra Kulture in Victoria Island, Lagos to see Queen Moremi The Musical.

The musical, which has been throwing the audience into frenzy of excitement since December 22, 2018 when it opened, is still running until January 5, 2019.

At every show time, the 400-seater capacity theatre thrills the discerning audience with an enthralling stage performance of the legendary Queen Moremi Ajasore’s story. The musical is a fusion of drama and ‘batta’ genre of dance on stage to showcase the rich Yoruba cultural heritage.

At the first show of the stage play, the stellar cast offered a superlative performance amid a stunning setting that depicted the original location in the then ancient Ile-Ife, Osun State.

From the awesome rocks, fearful forest and cultural themes, the setting made the play more natural and authentic to the audience.

As well, the make-up and costume worn by the cast revealed precision tailoring by the designers.

Queen Moremi is story of selfless sacrifice and leadership. She was a queen who over a thousand years ago offered everything she had to Ile-Ife people by sacrificing her only son (Ila) to save her kingdom from destruction by the neigbhouring cities and towns.

Though a queen, Moremi was also a married woman and mother. She was a woman that believed that her kingdom deserved any great sacrifice to salvage it from their enemies.

The ancient Ile-Ife was subjected to captivity as the young men and women were taken away by their enemies and mothers were deeply troubled weeping at the king’s palace and sought an end to the menace.

Tension arising from insecurity threw great panic to the kingdom that even the Kabiesi was overwhelmed with the situation.

The Kabiesi consulted the Ifa-priest to enquire from the spirit a solution to the lingering threats. Four virgins were sacrificed based on the mes-

sage of the Ifa-priest from the deity, but all to no avail.

As the insecurity increased, some warriors were sent on rescue mission of the land by the Ifa-priest.

They were given very difficult conditions; to capture alive a tiger, elephant and leopard.

But they returned home to king’s palace unsuccessful.

Challenged by unwarranted deaths of young people of Ife, Moremi decided to confront the reality in order to put an end to the menace.

She asked her husband for permission to fight to rescue Ife Kingdom; a mission the men were scared of. She was

required to go to land of the spirits to find out the conditions for restoring peace to the kingdom.

However, it was more exciting seeing the performance than hearing the story.

Speaking on the musical, Princess Runke Ademiloye, global ambassador for Queen Moremi Ajeshiru brand and chairman, House of Oduduwa Foundation, said the concept of the musical was developed by the House of Oduduwa Foundation; a brain-child of the Ooni of Ife. “The foundation has three initiatives: pageant, book

The Unicyclists counts gains at Lagos Grows Talents 2018

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he curtain has finally been drawn to a close for Lagos Grows Talent 2018 as the Unicyclists group takes home the ultimate prize.

Lagos Grows Talents, the talent scouting competition of the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode led Lagos State have toured numerous cities across the states giving opportunities for thousands of young people to showcase their skills with the opportunity of winning financial prizes, performance platforms, and other consolatory prizes.

The just concluded 2018 edition of the popular talent show Lagos Grows Talent saw 3 talented individuals win the ultimate cash prize. The audition for “Lagos Grows Talents” witnessed thousands of individuals troop in en mass to showcase their various talents at the biggest talent show organized by the Lagos State Government.

The grand finale took place at the One Lagos Fiesta on December 31, 2018, which culminated into the New Year. The three winners scaled through auditions and different stages to clinch the top prizes after satisfying all requirements and

got the most votes from the audience and judges alike; The Unicyclists clinched the top prize of N1 million, the first runner-up, Brighttizzy who dazzled with his rap went away with N500,000 while the second runner-up, Johnkay, rap group will walk away with N250,000.

Lagos Grows Talent is an initiative of the Lagos State Government as part of the activities of the yearly, One Lagos Fiesta. This is where talents are sourced and given a platform to showcase themselves across different areas in Lagos State such as Epe, Ikorodu, Agege, Lagos

Island, Badagry, and Ikeja.

Winners are selected across these districts for a final performance and selection at the finale where the top winners are announced.

The talent hunt is an initiative which was instituted

by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in order to promote Lagos State as a hub for entertainment and to source and promote talents from all across the nook and cranny of the state.

The joy and excitement of the group could not be contained when the group’s name was announced as the winner and invited to the

stage to get their cheque. The Unicyclists are a bunch of kids who have mastered the art of cycling. They continuously thrilled the audience and judges all through the stages until they clinched the top prize.

The three winners expressed gratitude to Lagos State Government and particularly the art-loving Governor of the State, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for birthing such a noble idea which not only provided them with a platform to showcase their talents to millions of people but also reward them financially.

and the musical. The foundation is in collaboration with Rejuvenie, a health and wellness brand that celebrate beauty and pageantry, as main sponsors of the Moremi the Musical”, she said.

Princess Ademiloye said the musical is worth watching because Moremi who lived over a millennium was a woman that paid the ultimate sacrifice with the life of her son to save Ile-Ife from further bloodsheds by their enemies and deserved to be celebrated by the present generation for her selfless sacrifice to her people.

“Moremi presents an

epitome of role-model that should be emulated by today’s youths and the Nigerian society at large to give their all for a greater country”, she said.

Also commenting on the play, Lilian Ama Aluko, representative of Rejuvenie and a collaborator with House of Oduduwa Foundation, said her organisation was proud to invest in Queen Moremi’s theatre production because it celebrates womanhood, courage and selfless sacrifice by a woman.

She stressed that her organisation, in line with the nation’s coming 2019 general elections, has obligation to propagate the Yoruba culture in a story with a message hope for the people to make sacrifice for the nation.

Aluka assured that Rejuvenie would support the art by propagating arts and culture of the Yorubas, as well as, future partnership with the House of Oduduwa on other projects.

Queen Moremi the Musical stage play is open to the general public from December 22, 2018 to January 5, 2019, with a fee. Individuals and families are invited to come and enjoy the show at Terra Kulture Lagos.

Music funfair as ITEL Mobile X Google shuts down computer village for carnival Modestus Anaesoronye

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f you were in the environs of Ikeja this December, then you would attest to the fact that the streets of computer village were buzzing, full of life with colorful parades and banners floating high up in the air, people dressed in bright costumes, dancing joyously and celebrating in exuberant fashion.

This is the reason for the glamorous celebration, as Africa’s customer-centric smartphone maker, itel Mobile in partnership with innovative tech company, Google, hosted the Ikeja community and its shoppers to a day of fun, excitement and throwback thrills in the 2018 edition of the annual computer village carnival with massive discounts on all itel smartphones, fantastic freebies, mega raffle draw and live performances from Nigeria’s legendary musicians, Danfo driver.

Over 2,000 spectators and shoppers went en masse to the carnival first to participate in the itel promo of buying any itel smartphone of their choice within authorized retail stores and getting one free in return, as there was enough smartphone for ev-

eryone to go round. Also, itel Mobile doled out amazing gifts such as the latest itel P32 smartphones, goodie bags, home appliances like electric kettle, pressing iron, toasting machine, blender and many more.

Besides, shoppers couldn’t miss out on the electrifying performances of Nigeria’s top-notch artistes- Danfo drivers as they thrilled the crowd to their popular oldschool hit songs. It was truly amazing to watch the crowd shaku shaku and zanku to these songs.

Speaking at the event, Oke Umurhohwo, itel’s marketing communications manager said “We are a fun youthful brand and this is our way of showing loyalty within the community we operate. It goes beyond just selling our products and providing a smartphone for everyone.

We seek to build a solid networking system between our existing customers and prospective ones. Nevertheless, we never forget to entertain and infuse the fun factor in everything we do.”

If you missed out on this spectacular event, here are pictures to recap all the fun moments at the itel X Google computer village carnival.

Friday 04 January 2019

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The best and the worst of 2018 movies and their gross earnings Linda Ochugbua

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018 have being fantastic, we have seen the best and the worst of both side of the industry and I am super excited to give you my 2018 countdown, you definitely will agree with me again this year that both the Nollywood and Hollywood have seen tremendous growth in output and revenues. We saw the excitement go up and go down, but in all it was a very good year for majority of the producers and most of which went to the bank smiling. It was quiet a daunting task keeping up with most of the new movies during the 3rd and 4th quarter of the year, at which I had to publish 2 movie reviews weekly to keep the readers as current and informed as possible, but I must say that it has being so much fun for me and I am definitely looking forward to a better 2019. I must commend most of the good producers who take out time, money and skills to release very good movies back to back, and I am certain that the producers who didn’t do well, have learnt a few lessons that they can work on come 2019, I super thrilled to take you on this beautiful journey sharing with you how the best and the worst movie faired in the cinemas and why.

This year sure did start on a very good note as most of us were expecting a lot from the producers and directors, they just couldn’t produce anything less than topnotch, and they did for most of the time. The viewers this year were yearning for better stories, script, production, cast, cinematography, thrill, suspense, action and unique contents. They wanted more compelling stories that will blow their minds away and they got it. Reviewing the movies for 2018 keeps me smiling and happy as I flash back and reminisce over all the good movies, while I frown at the very bad ones, but it’s amazing how beautiful stories keep playing in your head and never go away, hence my passion for good movies. It is obvious that yearly social media is playing a more integral part in influencing the choice of movies by the fans, we saw that with ‘Black Panther” as most people went all out to dress in African Attires to the cinema to show their solidarity for the new movie, we also witnessed that trend with “Ay’s” new movie

“Merry Men” and the Agabada challenge, we are seeing the huge and positive impact of social media and the revenue generated from the movie producers, seeing that again this Christmas with “Chief Daddy” the new movie from Ebony life.

Fans also went on social media to discuss, deliberate and analyze who was right or wrong about different movies, one of such controversial movie this year was “Acrimony”.

I will take you down memory lane, as I bring to you the movies that made it big out of the cinema and those that barely broke even, but the truth is that this industry is never really 100% predictable, what you think might be great might turn out terrible to the viewers and what you think might be terrible, become very appealing and interesting to majority, one thing is for sure that everyone leaves the old year into the new year a better producer or director, this year we are ending the Nigerian movie Industry with a well-publicized movie from the producers of “Wedding party” called “Chief Daddy” another funny movie added to their collections and the Hollywood scenes with “Spiderman”, “Aquaman” and “Bumblebee”

Let us start with the Hollywood movies and their gross earnings in 2018 starting with the grossing movies- it will be impossible to start this year’s countdown without mentioning the great “Black Panther” movie, the first of its kind with a Black Producer to hit about $1.273b in less than one year, making over $80m in the first weekend of release against a production budget of only $30m, it was a fantastic experience and profit for everyone and they are still cashing out till date, taking them to one of the top 10 highest ever grossing movie in the world. People couldn’t just stop talking about this beautiful movie and the black cast, attires, rich culture and strong storyline, no one expected this movie to do this well, but a few lessons have being learnt of how massive the black fold have grown to be and can’t be undermined anymore. Then we had “Mission Impossible” that made over $50m in the first opening weekend, so far Cruise has the franchise trend as the face of the “Mission Impossible” movies, which has made about $3b since 1996. “Jumanji” was an-

other fantastic movie this year and they raked in over $768m as against a production budget of $90m.

One other good movie was “Avengers Infinity war”- the movie made about $630m in the first week and about $2.049b in total against a production budget of about $400m making the movie of the top 10 highest movie ever.

“Hotel Transylvania” grossed $358m worldwide as against a production budget of $104m, which wasn’t so bad. We also had a very good Asian movie that performed very well this year called “Crazy Rich Asians” they got loads of followers and fan base giving them a whooping sum of about $174m compared to their production budget of $30m, I am sure they were happy with this, I totally enjoyed this movie, with it’s beautiful end. “A Simple Favor” was another beautiful movie that performed so well with $53.3m against a budget of $20m. I totally adored “A Star is Born” loved the musical aspect and the perfect storyline, it was absolutely a beautiful touching story, most people loved it. Although I loved “Widows” and “Den of Thieves” they didn’t really do well in the Box Office grossing only $41m against a budget of $42m which is a loss and $80m against $30m production budget respectively. It will be unheard of to end this year without talking about one of the most controversial movie, which kept people talking and commenting on for months, taking sides and fighting for either the husband or the wife, I really enjoyed the storyline and it was no other movie but “Acrimony” although they didn’t make so much globally with about $46.3m against a budget of $20m, this was a movie most people wanted to talk about.

To the not so good movies of the year for me, I had “Darkest Mind”, “Mile 22”, which at the end of the movie no one could actually tell what really happened. Then there was “Predator”, “A Girl in the Spiders Web”, “5 Weddings” and “Nobody’s Fool”.

The Nigerian movie industry has seen quantum leaps and we all can attest to that, I will be starting this year, with a well sort after movie, one that had a perfect storyline and a fantastic ending, it’s no other than the Kemi Adetiba’s movie “King of the Boys”. This movie has so far made N105m across the country since it was released; she is the first producer to hit the

N100m bench mark from twice and the first ever non comedy movie to cross the mark. The next okay movie for me was “Merry Men- The real Yoruba Demons”, they made N230m so far, next will be “Hotel Hibiscus” with N59m in revenue and “Moms at War” with 65m in revenue. It will be difficult to end the year without mentioning “Chief Daddy” a movie by the Ebony lifeTv, the movie was extremely well publicized, hence the positive impact on their revenues, giving them N115.7m in 10days of being in the cinema. We also had “From Lagos with Love”, “Bound” and “New Money”, which also had good storyline.

Although I didn’t really enjoy the storyline for this movie called “The Ghost and the Tout” they made revenue of N80m, which was achieved by her huge social media followers. They were some other

movies which didn’t give us value for our money like “Seven and a half Dates” and “Lagos Real Fake Life”.

Criticizing and analyzing various movies both locally and internationally have being very insightful for me and I am sure that I have learnt a few lessons through this year. Although some individuals have made profits, some have made losses, but that wouldn’t stop us in any way from going back to the drawing board to see what can be done better, as the years go by we see the producers and directors putting in huge efforts to make sure that the viewers are constantly satisfied and we must commend them for their immerse efforts and contributions. As the year draws to an end I must say that it has being an insightful and interesting journey for me, watching various kinds of movies weekly to make sure I bring you insights on why you must watch or not bother at all, to save you time.

I have enjoyed every bit of reviewing these movies and telling you my verdicts and stand and I looked forward to a better 2019, as we draw the curtains to 2018, I usher you into 2019 and I look forward to reviewing more movies in better engaging ways to make sure you all get value for your money.

I want to say a big thank you again this year to all our ardent readers, for your support and comments on both the website and social media. I am hopeful that 2019 will definitely be better as the game is constantly changing and I look forward to keep you constantly informed and entertained in this Newyear.

Happy New year all.

Linda Ochugbua @lindaochugbua

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Business Etiquette

with Janet Adetu Creating a great first impression Welcome to the New Year 2019!

A time for Reflecting on the past, Re-evaluating the present and Reviving the future. What will you be doing differently? ust as I settled in my seat ready for the plane to take off, I heard a voice saying ‘Hello’ asking me a question. I turned and saw a woman smiling at me, very welcoming.

Interestingly we kicked off a very educative, and informative conversation, I find her young at heart, friendly, a leader indeed. In her cool sophisticated way, I could not believe when she told me her title, the President of her organization, her age 67years and the fact that she was a grandmother of five. I was pleasantly surprised as my first impression was that we were age mates. As we disembarked the plane we exchanged pleasantries, leaving me with an impressive lasting impression, so much so I can talk to her today, needless to say we built a great business relationship.

What impression are you leaving in the minds of those who meet you for the first time?

It takes seconds to create an impression, it may take 20 years to build a reputation but if care is not taken the same time it takes to make an impression can be used to kill your reputation. I find that in business this is taken for granted most especially among those who feel quite successful in business.

No matter what you have been doing in the past, there will always be room for improvement.

Confidence and knowledge will grow with etiquette and protocol intelligence.

Going by the famous saying, “good manners open doors that position and money cannot”. In a bid to leaving a good or positive first impression, you will need to consider the relationship you want to build, the message your appearance sends, the impact of your behaviour and how you communicate.

Are you one who is very particular about how you are viewed and the perception people have of you or is it a case of you just do not care? Beyond having a vast knowledge in your business or products, the extent of your first and last impression can make or break your business.

Steps to creating your impressive impression Your self awareness: You are your own ambassador should know yourself better than anyone else. Do you portray the right attitude to work, to life, to people or to your business? Everything is not just about you alone; your attitude has a huge significant impact on everything you do. What you do or say and how you conduct yourself should be significant to you, with the right mindset and your attitude in check, your attention to detail and personal self-awareness can open good business opportunities in a bid to creating that great first impression.

Your greeting stlye: Greeting does not come so easily or readily for a few,

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whether they call it sizing up first or forming an opinion before the greeting it immediately impacts ones first impression.

I also discovered that many adults just do not feel comfortable approaching an unknown person first, they would rather someone else initiates the conversation.

Manners is a skill that is learnt and practiced, it takes a level of discipline, confidence.

In stepping up your greeting style practice a quick introduction of yourself, include your name, what you do and where. Be quick to greet with a handshake where necessary.

Be the first to greet, be warm in connecting to others. Introduce yourself loud and clear try to remember names of those you have been introduced to. After your greeting requires small talk of pleasantries, you may end your meeting there or strike up a more meaningful intellectual conversation based on the impression you have given. All these create the cornerstone of a great first and lasting impression.

Body language: If you follow the new 80:20 rule you will understand how 20% of your actions explains 80%of your unspoken words.

What are you communicating without knowing? Your body language can easily ward off others who ordinarily would have come over to say hello.

Your expressionless face may just be uninviting, instantly you are deemed unapproachable whether for business or otherwise. Simply you will need to smile more often, hold youPosir head straight, hold your posture in precision, walk with charm and grace, watch your gestures and uphold good eye contact.

Your grooming graces Beyond what wear your day begins with your style of grooming. Your great clothing can be sabotaged with scruffy hair or the famous unpleasant body odour. Grooming is the small detail that makes the big difference, most times you may be in a hurry to leave the house, you then jump into your vehicle this certainly allows for one to overlook your grooming graces.

Before every meeting or gathering a personal audit should be conducted. This is a simple routine that directly impacts both first and lastng impressions. A simple case of stepping into any office or attending an interview can only be meaningful and advantageous with time spent on the attention to detail as seen in well - groomed hands and nails, clean breath, pleasant body aroma, cleaan shave where necessary, healthy end wellr looked after clothing and much more. You execute presence in dependant on your grooming style too. style. Your business success ultimately is directed by how you are perceived. This perception is the outcome of a good and last impression.

Wishing you all the best.

Follow me @Janetadetu Janet.adetu@jsketiquetteconsortium.com

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Why APC and PDP should not take Nigerians for granted TELIAT ABIODUN SULE

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ith just a few w e e k s t o Ni geria’s general elections, it seems nothing is happening. The only time it appears we have political parties is when the political office holders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)accuse one another of wrong doing.

Believing that such accusations could affect their gains at the polls, you then see party officials coming up with several rejoinders. Thereafter, everything becomes quite again.

I initially thought things would be different this time around, as I was expecting that immediately after their primary elections; political parties would chart a new course in a way that would enrich the polity. For instance, what stops the APC and PDP from publishing the names of the candidates for the Presidential, Senate, House of Reps, Governorship and state houses of assembly on their websites?

Consider a scenario where an average voter has all the names of the governorship candidates of either APC or PDP, this will give him the ability to assess the quality of members that the each party has assembled to manage the Nigerian economy at the national and state levels come June 2019. This will go a long way to win electorates to the party that has the best team as our interactions with some electorates have shown.

At this stage of the electioneering period, Nigerians need more than the short speeches made by candidates at the campaign grounds. Based my findings, what the candidates of different parties are saying at the different campaign grounds are not exactly what the electorate need. At most, a candidate would speak for about ten minutes, and most times, the background noises prevent even the people present at the campaign grounds from hearing and understanding the message being relayed. This approach hardly gets the message across.

For how long will the APC and PDP keep saying, “we will give you schools, roads, boreholes, etc?” First, who are those making all these promises? Do they have the pedigree to carry through on such promises? What have they achieved in the past and where were those feats made?

Why should Nigerians trust them when they know little or nothing about these individuals? Why are their comprehensive biographies and manifestoes not on each party’s official website?

For instance, if the Rwanda national team coach or captain boastfully says they will beat Brazil or Germany at the World Cup, at least nine out of ten football enthusiasts will not take them serious. This is because football fans all over the world have comprehensive information of the national football teams in the world and the quality of their individual players and cohesiveness of their teams. Even in Africa, their national team is not among the top 20.

Now coming back to the candidates vying for different elective offices, mostly unknown to the electorate until either the PDP or APC published their names. It is very hard for the majority of Nigerians to trust that these candidates have the competence to deliver on their promises, especially given the history of monumental failure of politicians to deliver on their promises over the decades in Nigeria and the backwardness and pain that these failures have cost the electorate. And the two leading parties in Nigeria- the APC and PDP are not helping matters.

A visit to the official websites of the two major parties will lend credence to our observation. For instance, on the APC website when this write-up was being prepared, the scanty information therein was on President Muhammadu Buhari, and the gubernatorial candidates of Lagos, Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Plateau, Bauchi and Kaduna states, out of about 29 states where governorship elections will be held.

The PDP wanted Nigerians to know what their presidential candidate looks like, which explains the Atiku Abubakar’s picture they placed on their website, and nothing thereafter.

All the information their presidential candidate has released so far, like the Atiku plan is conspicuously missing on the PDP website. No information on any of their governorship candidates in all the states where elections will take place.

It is not too late to make amends.

Political parties should see Nigerians as the real stakeholders in the political processes and as such deserving of having as much information on all these candidates as possible. If they can’t do this perhaps they can contact agencies which offer relevant consulting services What does this mean to a discerning Nigerian? It only shows that political parties are seen as platforms to win elections and thereafter, their relevance ceases. The political parties have realised this, which is why they collect so much money from prospective candidates under various tags and headings. And at the slightest provocation, these politicians jump to another party.

It is not too late to make amends. Political parties should see Nigerians as the real stakeholders in the political processes and as such deserving of having as much information on all these candidates as possible. If they can’t do this perhaps they can contact agencies which offer relevant consulting services.

With just a few weeks to Nigeria’s general elections, it seems nothing is happening.

The only time it appears we have political parties is when the political office holders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic

Party (PDP)accuse one another of wrong doing. Believing that such accusations could affect their gains at the polls, you then see party officials coming up with several rejoinders.

Thereafter, everything becomes quite again.

I initially thought things would be different this time around, as I was expecting that immediately after their primary elections; political parties would chart a new course in a way that would enrich the polity. For instance, what stops the APC and PDP from publishing the names of the candidates for the Presidential, Senate, House of Reps, Governorship and state houses of assembly on their websites?

Consider a scenario where an average voter has all the names of the governorship candidates of either APC or PDP, this will give him the ability to assess the quality of members that the each party has assembled to manage the Nigerian economy at the national and state levels come June 2019. This will go a long way to win electorates to the party that has the best team as our interactions with some electorates have shown.

At this stage of the electioneering period, Nigerians need more than the short speeches made by candidates at the campaign grounds. Based my findings, what the candidates of different parties are saying at the different campaign grounds are not exactly what the electorate need. At most, a candidate would speak for about ten minutes, and most times, the background noises prevent even the people present at the campaign grounds from hearing and understanding the message being relayed. This approach hardly gets the message across.

For how long will the APC and PDP keep saying, “we will give you schools, roads, boreholes, etc?” First, who are those making all these promises? Do they have the pedigree to carry through on such promises?

What have they achieved in the past and where were those feats made? Why should Nigerians trust them when they know little or nothing about these individuals? Why are their comprehensive biographies and manifestoes not on each party’s official website?

For instance, if the Rwanda national team coach or captain boastfully says they will beat Brazil or Germany at the World Cup, at least nine out of ten football enthusiasts will not take them serious. This is because football fans all over the world have

comprehensive information of the national football teams in the world and the quality of their individual players and cohesiveness of their teams. Even in Africa, their national team is not among the top 20.

Now coming back to the candidates vying for different elective offices, mostly unknown to the electorate until either the PDP or APC published their names. It is very hard for the majority of Nigerians to trust that these candidates have the competence to deliver on their promises, especially given the history of monumental failure of politicians to deliver on their promises over the decades in Nigeria and the backwardness and pain that these failures have cost the electorate. And the two leading parties in Nigeria- the APC and PDP are not helping matters.

A visit to the official websites of the two major parties will lend credence to our observation. For instance, on the APC website when this write-up was being prepared, the scanty information therein was on President Muhammadu Buhari, and the gubernatorial candidates of Lagos, Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Plateau, Bauchi and Kaduna states, out of about 29 states where governorship elections will be held.

The PDP wanted Nigerians to know what their presidential candidate looks like, which explains the Atiku Abubakar’s picture they placed on their website, and nothing thereafter.

All the information their presidential candidate has released so far, like the Atiku plan is conspicuously missing on the PDP website. No information on any of their governorship candidates in all the states where elections will take place.

What does this mean to a discerning Nigerian? It only shows that political parties are seen as platforms to win elections and thereafter, their relevance ceases. The political parties have realised this, which is why they collect so much money from prospective candidates under various tags and headings. And at the slightest provocation, these politicians jump to another party.

It is not too late to make amends. Political parties should see Nigerians as the real stakeholders in the political processes and as such deserving of having as much information on all these candidates as possible. If they can’t do this perhaps they can contact agencies which offer relevant consulting services.

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Friday 04 January 2019

How APC guber candidate plans to tackle gridlock, traffic management in Lagos CHUKA UROKO

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f population is all that defines a megacity, Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre and Africa’s most populous city with a population that is over 20 million, qualifies as one.

But unlike other megacities of the world such as Kolkata, India; Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Delhi, India; Shanghai in China, among others, Lagos is a complex city with peculiar characteristics.

Lagos is the smallest state in Nigeria with a land area of 3,577 square kilometers which is about 0.4 percent of total land area of Nigeria estimated at 923,768 square kilometers.

This is the area inhabited by the over 20 million population with a projected figure of close to 30 million in the next decade.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report says about 260,000 people come into Lagos daily while only about 20-25 percent goes back to their original places.

Existing infrastructure and facilities, especially roads, are overstretched, leading to congestion and gridlock that have become major features of the city-state.

Lagos is Africa’s 7th largest economy. Its internally generated revenue (IGR), which comes mainly from taxes, stood at $1.3 billion in 2015 and this is three times more

L-R: Lola Adetona, chairman, Nigerian Institution of Civil of Engineers (NICE), Lagos State chapter; Obafemi Hamzat, guest speaker and APC deputy guber candidate; James Akanmu, keynote speaker; Robbie James Owivry, representative of the national chairman, and Asimiyu Amobi during NICE dinner and award ceremony in Lagos.

than the state with the second largest IGR and 39 percent of the total IGR by Nigeria’s 36 states.

But, as a megacity, Lagos is not fluid because transportation, which is a major aid to trade, is impaired. Worried about this and determined to make the state a 21st century economy, Babajide SanwoOlu says he has plans to tackle the problems of gridlock and improve traffic management in the state if elected governor in March this year.

Sanwo-Olu, who is a governorship candidate in the state on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), says his government will build

an inter-modal transport system by integrating road, rail and water transportation in Lagos to solve the problem of commuting within the metropolis.

“We will move very fast to complete the ongoing Blue Line rail project from Okokomaiko-Marina and in the process aggressively prosecute the rehabilitation of Lagos Badagry Expressway; we will also explore the realization of the Red line from Agbado to Marina. In preparing for rehabilating various inner roads, the three Asphalt plants will be turned around and made ready to put people to work in order to make our roads motorable throughout the year”,

he disclosed.

The guber candidate who spoke at the annual end of the year dinner and award night, organised by the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers, Lagos Chapter, where he was represented by his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, added that as part of improving on the traffic experience of Lagosians, he had identified about 51 gridlock points in Lagos, each requiring different solutions.

These points include Adeniji Adele-Sura-ObadenleMuson Centre-TBS; Apongbon-Eko Bridge; MarylandIkorodu Road junction; LekkiIkoyi Bridge-Admiralty Way and Lekki toll plaza; Ikorodu

Roadabout; Oba Ogunji-Agindigbi-Awolowo Road -Allen Avenue; Oko Oba-Abule Egba; Ipaja Road Egbeda; Awolowo Road Ikoyi; Mile 12-Ketu; Ikeja – Oba Akran; Ijora-Apapa, etc.

According to him, each of these points would require different solutions, but he assured that they would all be resolved. He assured further that they would connect more communities through link roads and bridges in order to relieve traffic on existing road networks, and open up emerging communities.

These communities include Agege-Alimosho- Somorin Village-Valley Stream EstateShasha; Alimosho- IjegunIjedodo-Ile Zik to Alimosho.

He would also expand IyanaIpaja bridge to relieve traffic going towards Egbeda.

The plan is also to commence the construction of coastal roads to relieve traffic on Lekki Epe Expressway; commence the development of Agric-Isawo Road linking Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and expand Ikotun Egbe bridge.

“I must stress the issue of 4th mainland bridge. Experts have warned that we must review it in order not to cause more traffic issues. The Lekki-Epe Expressway is already at level A6; therefore, discharging traffic onto it might cause more discomfort”, he noted.

Continuing, he said, “we are particularly committed to reducing travel time within Lagos. We are going to work

with the federal government to complete the Lagos-Apapa road. Lagos has identified a 5000-capacity trailer park and will work with the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) for a strict callup system that notifies trailers when to pick-up containers to avoid the indefinite waiting period”.

In addition to road transportation, Sanwo-Olu also pledged to improve navigation on the state’s water-ways to facilitate water transportation and promote private investment. To achieve that, he said, his government would expand major water transportation routes from 6 to 10 by 2021.

Additionally, they would scale up passenger operations at Ijede, Ijegun- Egba, Ipakodo, Osborne, Apapa and Badore and Mile 2; create economically viable routes and terminals at Epe, Marina, and invest in additional water transportation infrastructure in partnership with the private sector.

“We will expand and improve network of buses by developing quality bus corridors on 10 major existing bus routes for better commuting experience; extend the bus rapid transit network to include Oworonshoki to Apapa and Abule Egba to Sango Toll gate, and increase our bus fleet from 800 to 2000 in collaboration with private sector by sustainably developing facilities to assemble and maintain buses”, he assured.

Group accuses APC of bribing first lady with campaign appointment …Fault DG customs inclusion Iniobong Iwok

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he Atiku-Agbaje Media Engagement Network (AAMEN) has described the drafting of Aisha Buhari into the President’s campaign team as a bribe by the APC administration which is meant to silence the outspoken First Lady.

AAMEN also faulted the inclusion of the ComptrollerGeneral of Customs, Hameed Ali, who was on Wednesday, announced as a member of the Aisha Buhari-chaired All Progressives Congress (APC) Women and Youths Presidential Campaign team, the campaign team also have the wife of the Vice-President, Dolapo Osinbajo, as Co-Chairman.

In a statement to journalists in Lagos, signed by its Execu-

tive Secretary, Felix Oboagwina, the group alleged that the only rationale for bringing Alli on board was to make him funnel Customs revenue into the President’s re-election project.

“In addition, a national paramilitary institution whose personnel bear arms cannot be headed by a man neck-deep in partisanship. It is dangerous for everybody,” AAMEN warned.

The group further dismissed Buhari’s appointment as APC’s usual style of blackmailing, arm-twisting or corrupting opposition voices, stressing that the issues the President’s wife raised were too pertinent to be swept under the carpet and should be given urgent attention.

“If the APC goons feel they can make Mrs, Buhari’s objective voice to disappear, let them know that it will be a lot more

difficult making her allegations go away,” AAMEN said.

According to the group, in the past, the president wife had accused the administration of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians.

“Apart from revealing at a public forum the absence of basic drugs in the Aso Rock Presidential Clinic, despite huge budgets yearly allocated to the facility, the President’s wife also accused two unnamed powerful men of being behind the President’s lacklustre performance, tagging them “retrogressive elements.”

“In October 2016, Aisha Buhari openly criticised the President for appointing people unconnected with his 2015 election, and threatened: “…

If things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any

woman to vote like I did before.

I will never do it again.”

“She also criticised the last APC primaries, charging the party leadership with impunity and imposition of candidates after collecting bribes.”

Aisha Buhari

AAMEN, however, added that the onus lay on Aisha Buhari to prove to the world that the appointment had not bought over her conscience and that she remained as credible as her outbursts had made

her in the eyes of Nigerians and the entire world.

“They have discovered that she would not bend to barks and bites, so they used the appointment to bribe her.

But Aisha must prove that she did not make those damning allegations just to draw attention and get settled like so many other people that the administration has succeeded in capturing and silencing with its usual if you cannot beat them you must join them and carrot and stick method.”

“With the bribing of the President wife, APC has lost its last redeeming feature. She represented the last shred of decency in this regime, a regime that has spent its entire life flying propaganda and falsehood. Successfully silencing her dims all hope that this government is redeemable.”

Friday 04 January 2019

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Nigeria’s healthcare system needs new lease of life after 2019 election ODINAKA ANUDU& ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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igeria is facing a healthcare crisis even though many government officials in charge of the sector may not admit it.

From 1st January to 23rd December 2018, a total of 3441 suspected cases of lassa fever were reported.

Of these, 611 were confirmed positive, 19 probables, 2811 negative (not a case), according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

Nigeria recorded 1,110 deaths in 2018 from cholera outbreaks in 29 states across the country between January and November 2018.

This was many times higher than 84 recorded within the same period of 2017, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said.

The country has only seven radiotherapy machines for cancer patients, but only two are working. Yet cancer is responsible for the deaths of 72,000 Nigerians yearly, according to Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA)’s 2019 research.

Less than 10 percent wealthy Nigerians spend $1 billion annually treating themselves abroad when they are ill. Politicians who dip their hands in public tills are also part of this game. So, the game is on for the rich but off for the poor.

Nigeria has allocated only 2.9 percent of its total budget on health in the last three years, as against South Africa’s 13 to 15 percent over the same period, according to BusinessDay calculations.

The hospitals have become glorified morgues while many private health centres in cannot conduct tests.

The year before last, 2017, had also been marred by outbreaks of diseases such Lassa fever, which occurred in 718 cases wherein 68 persons died. Between January and July 2018, there have been 115 deaths in confirmed cases and 10 in probable cases. Cerebrospinal meningitis was suspected in 14,518 cases across 181 local government councils, with 1,166 people reported death. Other outbreaks last year included monkey pox and cholera.

Records show that 42 days after

the Ebola epidemic ravaged parts of Nigeria in 2014, the country recorded 19 cases, which led to 10 deaths.

“The World Health Organisation has a standard benchmark that should be followed by developing countries with high rates of diseases. Compare that ratio with what we have in Nigeria and you will see why we still struggle with health issues,” Okey Akpa, chairman of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), told BusinessDay on the phone.

“This is a global benchmark, which is a product of research,” Akpa added.

Experts are asking for innovative preventive measures, investment and public-private partnership to save the citizens from dying every day in the hospitals.

They say unless surveillance is strengthened and infrastructure provided, the country will continue to lag peers in the area of disease prevention.

“Strengthening Nigeria’s epidemic preparedness and response will require bold innovative approaches and complementary public private partnerships,” Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, chief executive officer, Private Sector

Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) recently.

Muntaqa said Nigeria’s epidemic preparedness and response capacity highlight six priority gaps required to enhance detection, prevention and management of an outbreak.

“Priority gaps include infrastructure, logistics, commodities, technology, human resource and communication.

“With more outbreaks on the horizon, Nigeria can’t afford to repeat this cycle of uncertain priorities, wasted time and investments. We need strong and clear leadership; effective deployment of new innovations,” he stressed.

He pointed out that the state of health in Nigeria is characterised by poor health outcomes and suboptimal health care systems vulnerable to the threat of future epidemics and outbreaks, which threaten global health security.

“There is a compelling opportunity to engage the private sector and other non-state actors to complement government in advancing its health security agenda,” said Muntaqa.

Public health experts say the next government must invest heavily in tackling disease outbreaks, stressing that Nigeria must

do more to improve health infrastructure, logistics, commodities, technology, human resource and communication.

However, there are important lessons to learn around partnership, leadership, communication and innovation.

Chikwe Ihekweazu, chief executive officer, NCDC, recently reiterated the need to develop the Nigerian healthcare system to effectively prevent, protect, and respond to disease emergencies, saying it is as important as, or more important than, an emergency response.

“It costs less to invest in advance and to be ready,” Ihekweazu said.

“Infectious diseases do not respect borders or class. There is an urgent need for investment in preparedness and the time to prepare is now,” he added.

Oladoyin Odubanjo, chair, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), Lagos chapter, added that Nigeria needs to be more proactive in preventing diseases, stressing that the country must begin to apply the lessons learnt.

Odubanjo said key success factors of the past should be applied in order to prepare the country against other outbreaks.

“Effective surveillance is clearly important. Containment and general precaution measures will minimise risk of transmission of the viral disease coming into the county,” said Odubanjo.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on coming to power, had barred civil servants from seeking medical treatment abroad, promising to visit local hospitals himself.

Incidentally, he became the first to visit a London hospital when he fell sick.

In March last year, Bill Gates, co- chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had pointed out that Nigeria was one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth and 4th country with the worst maternal mortality rate ahead of Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Chad.

According to World Bank estimates, Nigeria’s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is still as high as 821 per 100,000 live births. Of the 303,000 women that died globally due to complications of pregnancy and child births in 2015, 58,000 women were Nigerians.

At the 18th General Membership Meeting on Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC) in Brussels, experts reeled out numbers that should bother anyone who becomes President in May. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, Africa’s most populous country has a modelled estimate Maternal Mortality Ratio of 821 per 100,000 live births. The closest was Kenya with 540 per 100,000 live births and 8,000 maternal deaths in 2015. Kenya was followed by Tanzania and Uganda. Nigeria has a life time risk of maternal death of 4.62 percent, fertility rate of 5.71, and annual births of almost 7 percent. These are worrying statistics.

“A child whose mother dies in childbirth is three to 10 times more likely to die before his or her second birthday,” Fiona Theunissen, programme manager in-charge of Maternal Health, Concept Foundation, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC) in Brussels, said at the event.

Health sector watchers believe that deaths are happening in hospitals and clinics every day but nobody cares because they occur mainly dominantly among the poor, adding that unless certain measures are put in place to revivify the healthcare system, many more epidemics will occur in 2019.

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Friday 04 January 2018

BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST

NPDC cooperative constructs N20bn housing estate …as power plant begins building 2MW facility IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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he Nigerian Petroleum Development C o m p a n y (NPD C ) Staff Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited (NPD C-SMP C S) located in Benin-City, Edo State has commenced the construction of a modern housing estate for its members.

The housing estate is estimated to cost about N20 billion, is part of the cooperative’s polic y to provide affordable and qualitative housing to its members, as well as interested individuals with reputable character.

Amos Mabur, president of NPDC-SMPCS gave the hint in his address during the site re-opening and ground-breaking ceremony for construction of the 2-megawatts captive p ow er plant in B eninCity, Edo State.

Ma b u r s a i d t h e e s tate christened, “NPDC Golden City” would be equipped with state-ofthe-art facilities comparable to those obtainable in the developed world. He added that the estate will feature modern residential areas, hotels, tourism, entertainment and other 21st century and beyond facilities which will be found in the developed world.

“The estate is also planned as a self-sustaining mini city where occupants can live, work and play and enjoy all the

amenities and ser vices essential for safe and comfortable modern living.

“Some of the state-ofthe-art facilities include 24-hour dedicated electricity and water, nursery and primary schools, as well as a crèche, clinic, pharmac y, fire department, musical water fountain, international 5-star hotel, among others,” he said.

He said the housing project will be executed

in partnership with three d e v e l o p m e nt p a r t n e r s that would provide funding and technical expertise while the cooperative provides the land. He listed the development partners to include, Dreamcity Property and Investments Limited, Citiprops Limited and Landscape Transformers Limited.

The NPD C-SMP C S president also added that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been

signed with Highland Energy S olution S er vices limited for the provision of a 2-MW power plant in the estate for an affordable 24-hour power supply.

In h i s re m a rk , d u ring the ground-breaking ceremony for the 2-MW power plant, Akinpelu Shogunke, managing director of High Land Energy S olution S er vices Limited (HESSL), managers of the project, said the

initiative for the power project was taken by the NPDC-SMPCS. Shogunle said the power company and consortium partners which include VTT LNG (West Africa) limited, the fuel supplier and gas aggregator is partnering NPD C-SMP C S and others to provide a sustainable electrical energy supply strategy implementing a Captive Independent E l e c t r i ca l Pow e r C o n -

c e s s i o n In f ra s t r u c tu re Scheme at the site.

He said the estimate d $ 3 . 5 m i l l i o n p ow e r plant become necessary following the perennial epileptic power supply in the state and Nigeria in general with a view to ensure that a clean and stable supply of electricity is available on a 24 hours basis weekly.

He further said that in the Estate, HESSL Consortium shall generate and distribute electric power within the estate to serve all the industries, commercial businesses, recreation centres, educational centres and residents in the estate.

“Excess energy generated in the estate shall be made available, particularly to the existing satellite towns and communities that would develop around the estate, through the national electric grid to which the estate grid shall be connected. “ This connection to the PHCN grid may also serve as a backup for electricity generated within the estate as and when required. “ To t h i s e n d H E S SL Consortium shall establish a sound working relationship with PHCN or its approved representative to achieve this purpose”, he stated.

The Golden City Estate is located at Utesi near Benin, in the IkpobaOkha Local Government Area.

Over 300 widows benefit from deputy Senate president’s wife’s reach-out REGIS ANUKWUOJI, Enugu

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ke Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, has promised not to stop assisting the less-privileged in the society, particularly the widows, as far as he and his wife live.

Ekweremadu stated this at a Christ-

mas party organised for over 300 widows from Enugu West senatorial zone by his wife, Nwanneka Ekweremadu.

He said he would always support his wife to ensure that widows were well treated and assisted from time to time noted that the assistance has nothing to

do with politic but purely on humanitarian ground.

He called on the women to always call on him when they have some challenges they think he can be of assistance to them.

“We will continue to assist you people and ensure that you did not suffer be-

cause your husbands are no more, this has nothing to do with politic when the time comes, we will do it,” he said.

He advised them to make sure their children must go to school and that they should contact him where they think he should be of assistance to them.

In her own words Nwanneka Ekweremadu promised to continue assisting the widows in her own little capacity some of the items given to each widow was a bag o f R i c e , R a p p e r, N10,000 and many other condiments.

The side attrac-

tion was when the deputy senate president stepped down to eat rice and dance music with widows.

The women expressed joy and happiness with Ekweremadu and his wife, asking that God should guide them to overcome their enemies in their chosen fields.

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Real estate investors seen walking tight rope in 2019 CHUKA UROKO

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esides macroeconomic issues that have kept the Nigerian real estate sector in negative growth territory since the last quarter of 2016, political risk is one significant factor that will make investors in this sector walk a tight rope in 2019.

All things being equal, Nigeria will be holding its general elections in February and March this year, and the frenzied preparation for the elections has not only sent governance on holiday, but has also put most business and economic activities on hold. This means that consumers of real estate products and services are also on holiday.

Already, the uncertainties and risk factors around these elections have forced investors to adopt watchand-see attitude to investment, believing that if the

electoral process does not go well and there is unrest in the system, the recession in the real estate sector will continue.

Expectation is that the slowdown in business activities will lead to a drop in demand for new space, especially for offices or business premises. What this means is that new investments are not advisable while ongoing and completed projects will have increased shelf life, piling pressure on investors who may be exposed to bank credit.

Politics and elections have always impacted investments in real estate sector. MKO Balogun, CEO, Global PFI, is of the view that the sector will not record any meaningful activities before June this year, explaining that until a new president is sworn in and government’s policy direction known, no investor, local or foreign, would make any fresh investment.

“It is going to be a tough time for all players in this sector, particularly developers and service providers, because I don’t foresee any meaningful activity happening before the end of the first half of this year,” Balogun said in an interview.

Jide Ogunleye, CEO, Denaro Properties, affirms, saying, “as a developer, I have already started getting feedback as regards the forthcoming 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.”

The real estate sector has always responded one way or another to politics and elections in the country and Ogunleye reasons that the 2019 general elections will have much impact on the direction the real estate will take.

Since Nigeria slipped into recession in 2016, real estate

has been in recession even after the wider economy exited recession in the second quarter of 2017. Though still in the negative growth territory, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the sector was upbeat in the last two quarters of 2018. This does not, however, give investors enough comfort for fresh investments.

Technology is another major factor that investors have to grapple with in this New Year. 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.

What this means is that traditional real estate investors, particularly developers, have the challenge of being both creative and innovative as necessary steps to transiting to the technological way of doing things.

Gboyega Oyetola, governor, Osun State, being welcome by the crowd during the governor’s thank you visit/town hall meeting with Osogbo/Olorunda/Irepodun/Orolu Federal Constituency, held at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, yesterday.

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Nigerians react over IGP’s looming tenure extension INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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s the Nigerian public waits the much anticipated tenure extension for the out-going Inspector General of Police (IGP), Idris Ibrahim, by President Muhammadu Buhari, the political and social landscape is already suffused with predictably mixed reactions.

Idris clocked 35 years in service on Thursday, January 3, having enlisted into the police on January 3, 1984. According to the service rule, civil servants are to retire on completion of 35 years in service or on attainment of 60 years of age.

The out-going IGP will however be 60 years of age on January 15, having been born on January 15, 1959.

So, whichever rule applies, the IGP will retire officially this January.

The reactions are elicited by the strong indications from the Presidency that the IGP tenure will be extended by six months.

Speaking with BusinessDay on Thursday, member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Buba Galadima, expressed certainty that President Buhari would retain the IGP allegedly for nefarious reasons during the elections.

He said, “Buhari just want to use the IGP as an attack dog during the elections and that is why we are saying that we must come and ensure Buhari goes in 2019. It is not in the interest of this country that this man (Buhari) continues; he will destroy the small success that we have made in this democracy.”

Although Galadima admitted that President Buhari had the right to extend the tenure of the IGP, he noted it was not for any political exigencies.

“For example, the next person in rank is a woman from the South East and Buhari does not want to entrust her with the running of the election.

Now this is a message to the South Easterners who believe that Buhari will hand over to them in 2023.

“If he cannot entrust you with the IGP how can he give you president in 2023? I am just calling on my Igbo brothers, those who are saying that Buhari will give them Presidency in 2023 let them first secure the position of the IGP, and then we know that he is serious,” he said.

Also speaking with BusinessDay on Thursday, public affairs analyst, Katch Ononuju, expressed no doubts that Buhari would retain all the Service Chiefs including the IGP. “Buhari is keeping all the Service Chiefs and he is keeping them because of these elections. The IG will stay and do the job for Buhari because Buhari is so frightened about the 2019 election that he will never entrust another person with the IGP, especially from the South East,” he said.

Contributing, security expert, Majeed Dahiru, alleged that the anticipated tenure elongation for the IGP was simply because of his over partisan loyalty to the President.

“The major political players in the system will tell you that he is very partisan, so the anticipated extension of his tenure will just be a reward for his partisanship,” he said.

However, former Commissioner of Police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lawrence Alobi, during a current affairs programme on Channels Television (Sunrise Daily) said it was necessary for the IG’s tenure to be extended, arguing that retiring him at this critical time of election would not augur well for the system.

Kwara governor makes case for economic diversification Obasanjo outlines steps toward a successful 2019 SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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or internally generated resources to be equitably allocated towards development of the country, there is need for robust commitment by the leadership.

Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed of Kwara State stated this in his speech delivered at the public presentation of a book titled “Taxpreneurship” launched in his honour to mark his 55th birthday, held in Ilorin, the state capital.

The book was written by Muritala Awodun, the executive chairman of Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS).

According to the governor, the biggest challenge Nigeria has is optimal resources allocation, saying, “We must learn how to earnestly har-

ness resources that we have internally and it should be optimally allocated.”

On way forward, the Governor said: “If we have a very good and robust internal revenue programme on paper, it only requires a strong leadership to convert the statement on paper into action.

“We must realise the fact that our thought and actions must be articulated; put into writing so that the incoming generation will build on such information and by learning from history, our environment will continue to be better and progress,” he said.

The governor lamented that Nigeria was where it was today because “we didn’t learn our lessons.

“We must recognise that taking our destiny into our hands. Indians developed their country themselves, Eu-

ropeans developed Europe and Americans did as such.

We must articulate these facts and develop Africa, Nigeria.”

He pointed out that development of a given society centred on taxes and the ability to raise taxes, deploy taxes appropriately and utilise revenue efficiently.

Governance, he said, is about social commitment between government and the people, adding, “Government should ensure responsibility of articulating resources effectively for the betterment of people’s lives.

“We need better schools, better roads, better health care services and security. To fill this gap, we need to redouble our efforts in economic diversification, rediscover ourselves through serious research and ability to convert speech into writing.”

CHINYERE OKEKE & MICHEAL ANI

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ormer Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has outlined steps towards achieving an efficient year for the country in 2019.

Speaking during the New Year’s Eve, at the Love World Arena, Ikeja, Obasanjo said the country’s success for 2019 was dependent on 5ps, which would serve as the pillar of growth and development for Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

According to Obasanjo, the 5 pillars are politics, population, protection, prosperity and partnership. “If these 5ps are deliberately and carefully practised it will cause a remarkable progress in the country,” he said.

The former President noted that of these 5ps, politics

was the most crucial of them all, saying, “If we get this right then, it is the beginning of getting other things right.

“Politics entails good governance which is imperative for development in Nigeria.

This can be done through democracy, which should be a popular demonstration of getting the people involved in governance and making them feel like a part of the community.”

He noted also that population was another factor that must be looked at. “At independence, our population was 45 million, presently we are heading towards 200 million and by 2050 we will be about 400 million. Apparently, our population is growing rapidly. We can’t do anything about it, but we can make life worth living for them,”

he said.

To him, education is a key factor to achieving this end and “if there is no education, the people will keep wallowing in poverty.

Education is just the best tool to manage poverty. The people must be educated, and on order to be gainfully employed. This is the best way to make our population productive, he stressed.

He further buttressed on the aspect of population as the third “P” which according to him, is maximum security in all ramifications. He said, “Security of property is a major problem in Africa.

There is nowhere in Africa, where security is the way it should be. This boils down to security of jobs, human Rights, and life. If all these are well taken care of, the fourth “P”can come to view.”

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Wriggling through the prowling hands of...

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or without the intent to buy should at least be jabbed for attention.

In the sacred laws of hustlers in Yaba, an epicentre infamous for harassment of women for instance, it is a crime against the hustle to make money when women resist being led to stores by coarse palms. It is also a misconduct for a lady not to give an affirmative response, when asked whether she needs either a second-hand or new pair of trousers, tops, shoes or bags. But Mary Sharon, a National Youth Service Corp member from Abia state flouted the law and earned the denigrating consequences of so doing.

“I had a really horrible experience,” said the young lady. “People were dragging me from left to right trying to interfere in what I wanted to buy.”

She had alighted from a bus coming from Maryland at the Yaba busstop adjacent Jibowu bus-stop, aiming to buy a good pair of shoes and a nice Denim shirt to keep her white Tshirt immaculate through her journey to Obalende where her community development service was based.

Sharon was certain she could get relative quality at an affordable rate at Yaba. But as she got off the bus, she was immediately swarmed by a group of men with various offerings. In her sudden entourage were dealers in clothing items, curtain materials and

foreign currencies. Unyielding Sharon knew better than to concede to being spoon-fed and focused on locating a proper clothing outlet. This sparked the ire of her predators and they gave her a verbal lashing.

“These are people that will want to hikepricesandtakeyoutoashopwhere theywillpretendtobetheownerandincrease the price and make much profit out of it not even minding whether you have the money or not. There were many of them who came at me. The situation is over everywhere in Lagos but I believe it’s too much here and terrible,” Sharon groaned after a heated exchangeofinsultswiththehustlersshe had just disappointed.

Her experience could be described as a subtle form of the typical nature of harassment suffered by females in the market. Worse cases do play out in instances where teenage girls, ladies and in fact women get assaulted and embarrassed in the hustlers’ bid to coerce them into buying. Consequently, young ladies especially find it terrifying visiting markets like Yaba. It is not that attempts are not made at luring young boys or men into buying, but hardly are they harassed for resisting.

A week before Sharon’s ordeal, Damilola Marcus, founder of #MarketMarch, organised a protest at the heart of Yaba market to end what has been perceived as an acceptable ha-

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rassment and bullying of women. The protest was tagged ‘MarketMarch’ with the aim of raising a red flag against the perception that harassment was normal and that women must embrace it without objections. With placards reading ‘No be by Force to Buy’, ‘Stop Touching us’, ‘We are against Street Harassment’,‘Not your Colour’ among other lines, the protesters marched through an army of hustlers who were equally jeering, pelting and screaming back at them ‘we must touch.’

According to a tweet by @MarketMarch, “They threw water at us and called us prostitutes, sluts (ashawo).

They said it was our fault that we got harassed. They claimed it was because of our clothing and asked us to stay home if we didn’t want to be harassed. They tried to shame us because they were ashamed.”

Most of the hustlers apparently found it audacious for a group of women to get escorted by the Police to challenge their actions. Even with the presence of the police, the hustlers promised never to stop.

Marcus believes that a very strong sense of entitlement mainly fuels this kind of harassment and the expression of that entitlement depends on how ingrained it is in whoever is encountered.

Many Nigerian feminists, she explains, unite over the fact that passing through most of the major markets in the cities has been a traumatising experience right from their childhood and remains part of their adulthood. It is something

L-R: Pierre-Louis de Guillebon, CEO, Orange International Carriers; Funke Opeke, CEO, MainOne, and Jean-Luc Vuillemin, senior vice president, International Networks, Infrastructures and Services, Orange, during the Orange SAWAS Africa-Middle East. Orange and MainOne recently signed an agreement allowing for a major investment by Orange in MainOne’s submarine cable system with joint investments in new landing stations in Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire.

Nigeria’s sugar production drags as...

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tion of the sweetener, while whit-

tling down importation.

The policy was initiated in 2013 as a way of harnessing Nigeria’s sugarcane resources, creating jobs and a ready market through the value chain, while bridging the country’s estimated 1.7 million metric tons of sugar demand and supply gap.

Under the initiative, the Nigerian government entered into an agreement with local investors in the sugar industry that the later must make sizeable investments in the subsector within a specified period in order to guarantee self-sufficiency in the production of the sweetener.

Also, operators with backward integration plans were given import quotas to import raw sugar. But with the progress recorded thus far, the country will be unable to achieve the 2020 target of self-sufficiency of the backward integration policy which is a critical part of the Nigerian National Sugar Master Plan.

Industry players have attrib-

uted the slow progress made to poor monitoring of the policy, which has resulted to some local companies flouting the agreement by importing more of the products, rather than making the agreed investments.

“The government has not been sincere in monitoring the backward integration policy. Certain companies have not been quite diligent in adhering to the rules,” Sadiq Usman, head- corporate business development, Flour Mills said in a telephone response to questions.

“Also, documentation, planting issues, weak infrastructures and land rights are still a big problem for us and these factors have continued to slow the pace of our development in boosting sugar production,” Usman said.

He said that Flour Mills – Nigeria’s second largest maker of the sweetener lost 75 percent of its sugarcane plantation owing to floods that ravaged their farmlands in 2018.

“Last year, the floods wiped away a significant proportion of our sugarcane production. It affected

close to 2,000 hectares of the 3,000 hectares we planted and now we are replanting again.”

Despite the policy helping in attracting investments into the industry, it is still unable to impact production positively.

Similarly, data from the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) shows that production has only increased marginally in the last four previous years to an average of 15,208MT, while decreasing to 14,918MT in 2017 from 25,000MT in 2016.

This indicates a 40 percent year on year decrease in production.

“Even though there have been a lot of efforts from major sugar companies like Flour Mills of Nigeria, BUA Group, and Dangote Group trying to cultivate huge expanse of land for sugar production, they are yet to fully produce the sugar that we need, so importation is still high,” Ayo Akinwunmi, head of Research, FSDH Merchant Bank told BusinessDay. The country’s sugar consumption has been on decline since 2016 mainly driven by low consumer purchasing power despite the economy has rebounded from recession.

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to expect and get up in arms with.

“I decided that something needed to be done about it and every citizen has a right to protest. They really do not believe that we should resist them touching us. There is a very strong sense of entitlement. In any way possible that you can think of, they will express it,” Marcus said.

However for majority of the hustlers, harassment in the language of the protesters is just an aggressive strategy for marketing and increasing sales for their proprietors. The role of hustlers’ services to most shop owners within Yaba market could be compared to the importance of oxygen to man. Because some of these shops are located in hidden corners, traders depend a lot on hustlers to drive sales and hustlers massively leverage the opportunity to pad price and fatten their reward. Hence, being in the face of a potential customer and deploying whichever means possible to convince him or her to buy is key to the survival of their personal economies.

Although some of the hustlers who spoke with BusinessDay berated the culture of harassment, they also built a defence around the excuse that most of them were desperate unemployed youths looking to make ends meet.

Among them are secondary school dropouts, vocationally trained, hinterland arrivals seeking greener pastures in Lagos and some deportees. With unstable accommodation plans, many live from day to day, uncertain about how the next day will unfold. Consequently, every customer they are able to convince counts.

“It is not everyone here that knows how to approach a customer.

Some are touts or illiterates. It is not until you touch the person before they will follow you,” explained Frank a 32-year-old hustler.

He for instance was deported from Dubai in 2015 for having hard drugs in his possession. At 10, he lost his father and was thrust into adulthood at a much tender age. His father bequeathedsomelandedpropertywhich Frank and his siblings couldn’t take charge of because of their age. In his quest to arrive early at being financially comfortable,hejoinedafriendinDubai in 2010. There, he was introduced to ‘YahooYahoo’,aninternetfraudventure for youths inclined to amassing wealth quick. Unfortunately for him, he fell out of favour with his friend by failing to oblige him the lion share of a successful deal he struck. Frank was almost assassinated before getting deported.

“He set me up and wanted to kill me. It was a Lebanese lady that saved me by hiding me in her room. He sent some assassins after me. They planted cocaine in my bag and called the police. I was arrested and deported.

That was how I founded myself back here in Yaba. I sold all my property and nothing was left,” he explained.

Frank, who now appears to see the sense in toeing a legitimate path currently hustles on the streets of Yaba market with pencil-shaped jeans trousers neatly arranged on his arms. He hopes to raise enough funds to rent an apartment of his own and move out of his friend’s place.

According to him, he is only trying to bridge the gap between customers and sellers in Tejuosho market while making his ends meet.

In spite of the protest, Samuel Ogbonna’s perspective to the matter remains that customers must be coerced for their attention. “You must force them before they will know you are talking. You must talk to the person more than five or six times before they will agree to buy what you are selling,” he uttered in defence.

The Imo state indigene is an equally frustrated man, apprehensive of being condemned to the pangs of poverty. In his 20 years’ stay in Lagos, he has migrated from sell-

Friday 04 January 2019

ing motorcycle spare parts to selling ladies’ wears, phones and phone accessories at Computer Village Ikeja before settling with sewing and fixing of curtain and bed-sheet materials.

He became a full-time hustler after his small shop was demolished by the Lagos state government to give way to the construction of the Yaba Bus Terminal. And since curtain and bed sheets are not daily needs, he would have to poke at least 10 potential customers to arrive at a real buyer.

“We have to find the customers because when you wait in the shop, they might not locate you there. When we find one or two, we take them to our shop. If it is wears, one might have five to 10 customers a day but for curtain, you might come a day and you won’t see any customer. If I see one, I’ll thank God,” Ogbonna explained.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women defines harassment as any inappropriate conduct that might reasonably be expected or perceived to cause offence or humiliationtoanother person. It may take the form of words, gestures or actions which tend to annoy, alarm, abuse, demean, intimidate, belittle,humiliateorembarrassanother.

The alarming rate of the menace around the world and particularly in developing countries topped the list of concerns for UN executives three years ago when they converged to discuss improving access to public spaces and making them safe for women and girls underthetheme“PublicSpacesforAll.” The organisation established that although violence against women in the private domain had become widely recognised as a human rights violation, the scourge, especially sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence in public spaces, remains a largely neglected issue with few laws or policies to tame it.

Revelations from UN Women study show that women in urban areas are twice as likely as men to experience violence, especially in developing countries. Twenty-five to 100 percent of women and girls around the world have experienced some form of sexual violence in public spaces in their lifetime and according to a similar Gallup data from surveys in 143 countries, men are more likely than women to assert that they feel safe walking alone at night in their communities.

The case made by Lakshmi Puri, the former deputy executive director, UN Women was that freedom of harassment in public spaces is pivotal to fostering gender equality.

Hence, continuance of such violence limits women and girls’ movement, participation in education, access to essential services, and negatively impacts their health and well-being.

Impact of poor legal support Out of 667 cases of abuse recorded between July to September by the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), none of them came from any market squares. Owing to the fact that harassment is perceived as a usual challenge that must be put up with, many victims do not think it merits being reported to authorities.

They simply live with it and move on.

Sexual harassment in most modern legal context is branded illegal but those laws hardly prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents. The nearest to punitive measure and most effective law in the country is section 262 of the Criminal Law of Lagos state. It regards sexual harassment as a felony capable of attracting 3 years imprisonment.

But the questions haunting the minds of an average female shopper is what manner of justice could accompany such suffering.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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Failing dam threatens hundreds of rice farmers in Kwara Stories by CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

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he Duku-Lade irrigation scheme that serves farmlands cultivated by an estimated 2,000 smallholder farmers, in and around Lade community in Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State is failing. The problem is not with flooded farms as may be expected, but the opposite.

The Dam collapsed on the opposite side of channels where water should flow out to the farms. In essence, the farmlands where water is required lost their supply of water in an area where it is direly needed. This lasted for over 40 days before a temporary fix was put in place, but even that cannot hold up much longer.

“Some farmers were supposed to harvest about 20 or 25 sacks (of paddy rice) but they realized only 5 or 4 because of this failure of the

The Duku-Lade Dam in August, before it overflowed two months later.

dam,” said Lehle Ibrahim, a local chief in Lade. Since the required water could not go to the farms, the volume of expected harvests was significantly affected; the impact varying from one farmer to the other.

The farmers in Lade are

mainly into rice cultivation, a n d f ro m a c c ou nt s o f different sources, at least 50 percent of farmers had their production affected this year. Rice is a crop that requires a lot of water for it to grow, much less, give optimum yields. The collapse

Picture by Caleb Ojewale

of this dam for over 40 days, spanning midway through the production cycle, made it difficult for many crops to survive across the irrigationdependent landscape.

Bala Ibrahim, one of the farmers in the area, told Agribusiness Insight, that

EU’s €€ 45mn impact fund targets Africa, young people in special focus

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he €45 million being c o m m i t t e d by t h e European Union to the establishment of a new impact fund that will boost investments in small rural agribusinesses across emerging markets, may contribute significantly in reducing unemployment, poverty, and improving rural livelihoods across Africa.

With a special focus on Africa and young people, the Agribusiness Capital Fund (ABC Fund) will target small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), f a r m e r s’ o r g a n i z a t i o n s and ‘agripreneurs’ across emerging markets, to spur economic and social development in rural areas and create jobs.

The International Fund for Agricultural

Development (IFAD) and EU signed an agreement in December 2018 at the HighLevel Political Forum Africa -Europe in Vienna, in respect of the fund. Luxembourg and the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) are also reported to have already committed €5 million and €4.3 million respectively to the new fund.

“I would like to thank the European Commission for its commitment of €45 million, alongside Luxembourg and the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Their contributions underscore their commitment to improving access to capital for smallholders,” said Gilbert Houngbo, IFAD President.

The ABC Fund will be established as a private

sector fund incorporated in Luxembourg in early 2019.

IFAD has selected Bamboo Capital Partners and Injaro Investments to set-up and manage the ABC Fund.

The ABC Fund will provide loans to owners of rural, agricultural SMEs that fall into the “missing middle” between large-scale farmers served by commercial banks and subsistence farmers relying on micro-credit.

The demand for loans of this size is estimated at US$200 billion in subSaharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, and Latin America alone.

The ABC Fund will place a particular focus on incubating new enterprises led by young people. This will not only improve the income of this vulnerable

group, but expected to also create broader employment opportunities in rural communities, particularly in Africa, to offer an alternative to migration. An estimated 440 million young people will enter the rural labor market by 2030 in Africa alone.

Impactful investments in smallholder farming and offfarm activities are required to end poverty and hunger, and produce food sustainably.

For example, reaching the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be possible without the private s e c t o r ’s i n v o l v e m e n t .

Estimates show that incremental investments of US$210 billion per year for agriculture and US$38 billion per year for food security are required to achieve the SDGs.

the incident occurred on October 1, 2018 and it was not until about November 15 that a temporary fix could be deployed through individual contributions by members of the community.

The temporary fix, which was seen during a visit to the Dam in December, according to community leaders and residents, will not hold up when the rainy season starts again. At this time, the devastating losses of last year may be repeated.

According to Ibrahim, “rice requires water until the very last day,” and the interruption for almost 45 days severely affected the productivity of farmers in the area.

Abubakar Haruna, the village head of Duku-Lade, said the dam’s failure is the most devastating experience the community has recorded in a long time. According to him, some years ago, the community experienced shortage of rainfall, which affected its rice production

output. This year, the dam, which should be a buffer against nature’s occurrences that are often beyond man’s control, has also failed them. “ The water is being diverted to another side, where the dam should be blocked. Where water was supposed to go, it did not flow there this year,” Haruna complained.

The water did not flow through the main channel where farmlands would have been irrigated, as it destroyed the barriers on the opposite side and flowed there. Members of the largely agrarian community say the temporary fix they put in place needs to be properly done. They expressed fears that if nothing is done to properly fix the broken dam before the rainy season starts this year; farmers will not only suffer shortage of water on their farms, but the water will once again overflow to the other side where it is not needed, and potentially causing damage there.

WTO trade ministers move to eliminate agriculture export subsidies

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he FAO says it has welcomed an agreement

by World Trade Organization (WTO) member states through the recently adopted “Nairobi Package” to move towards eliminating export subsidies involving agricultural products. However, it also noted that differences remain over other measures aimed at creating fairer global trading conditions, in particular for developing countries.

A declaration issued on 19 December at the conclusion of the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya includes a number of decisions in relation to the Agreement on Agriculture.

In particular, four ministerial decisions were adopted, addressing the following: • Export competitiveness

through the elimination of many export subsidies by all countries by 2018 • Allowing developing countries to continue, for the time being, public stockpiling for food security • The Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries to make recourse to when facing a surge of imports, and; • A c o m m i t m e n t by developed countries to provide duty-free and quota-free access to cotton exporters from less developed countries from 2016, provided that this is compatible with existing agreements.

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New DFID-FAO agreement paves way for stronger, easier collaboration

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h e D e p a r t m e nt for International Development of the United Kingdom (DfID) and FAO are strengthening their partnership with a new agreement that will benefit future collaborations on a multitude of fronts.

“FAO and DFID share a vision for a world where communities are food secure, their productive assets are protected and the world’s natural resources are managed sustainably,” said José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General.

“Thanks to the UK’s ongoing support to many areas of FAO’s work, we have been able to build toward that vision together and will now be able to do so more strategically and efficiently moving forward,” he added.

T h e n e w FA O - D F I D framework agreement serves as an overarching legal umbrella for collaboration between both partners that will cover all future projects for at least ten years. By eliminating the need to negotiate individual trust fund agreements for each new project, the new arrangement will save costs and time and make collaboration easier.

Between 2012 and 2015, the UK government has been the third largest overall donor to FAO with contributions exceeding $360 million. It has also been one of the few global resource partners able to increase its overall development assistance funding despite financing constraints.

DFID has supported a diverse set of FAO projects over a number of years, targeting problems ranging from the illegal timber trade to a lack of comprehensive agricultural data in many parts of the world.

Supporting food security in Zimbabwe FAO has played a key role in supporting the country’s most vulnerable people to produce more food, access new markets and expand into new agricultural enterprises To support these efforts, DfID is contributing $48 million to an FAO project under the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Program (LFSP) that aims to raise smallholder farm productivity. The project introduces farmers to climatesmart agricultural practices, increases their access to finance and markets, and encourages communities to grow and consume more nutritious foods.

Helping countries implement the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure DfID is currently supporting the effective implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forestry (VGGT), with a $7.5 million contribution (£4.9 million) for research and participatory activities in China, Nigeria and Uganda.

Secure land and property rights are essential to support

sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. But in most developing countries land tenure rights are illdefined and ill-enforced, land administration systems are corrupt and markets lack transparency.

The three-year project supports activities to increase transparency in the land sector in Nigeria, design a tenurereform roadmap in Uganda, and raise awareness about the VGGT among Chinese investors seeking to make land purchase abroad, particularly in rural areas in Africa.

Strengthening food security information and resilience building in crisis DFID has also shown continued commitment to strengthening information for action in crisis situations, including contributions of close to $10 million(£5.4 million) to improve and expand the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) used for food security assessments.

Between 2012 and 2015, some 1900 national experts were trained as IPC analysts to assess and classify food

Friday 04 January 2019

insecurity based on common international standards. The DFID project has strengthened the way governments in 20 countries apply the IPC and helped develop and apply new protocols for analysing chronic food insecurity and acute malnutrition. This, in turn, has increased demand for the IPC tools among decision-makers working on emergency and development programming.

DFID has also been a steady contributor to FAO’s emergency operations that help communities rebuild and strengthen their livelihoods during or directly after conflict and natural disasters with close to $100 million over the last decade. These funds have supported crucial resiliencebuilding efforts in countries such as the Central African Republic, Pakistan, the Philippines, , Somalia and South Sudan.

Strengthening forest governance to counter illegal timber trading Recognizing the serious risks that the trade of illegal timber poses to forest landscapes, the environment and the economic health of international markets, DfID in 2014 joined other donors in supporting the FAOEU Forest Law Enforcement, G ove r na n c e a n d T ra d e Programme (FLEGT) that seeks to bring about sustainable forest management and ensure wood imported into the EU is legally sourced.

The UK’s contribution of over $2.1 million (£1.4 million) supports a dozen projects in timber-producing developing countries such as the Congo, Ghana and Indonesia to s t re ng t h e n l o ca l f o re s t governance and build wide buy-in across the industry

WTO trade ministers ….

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osé Graziano da Silva, FAO Director General, while welcoming the Nairobi agreement, stressed t h e n e e d f o r a g l o ba l trade framework in which countries can balance the pursuit of their national food security and development objectives without harming their trading partners.

“The continued uncertainty on how to negotiate such a framework is worrying in a world in which global agricultural trade is likely to grow in importance in the coming decades as patterns of consumption and production continue to evolve,” the FAO DirectorGeneral said.

“Greater participation in global trade is therefore inevitable for most countries, however, the process of opening further to trade, and its consequences, will need to be well managed if trade is to improve food security,” he added.

Trade and food security Graziano da Silva also referred to FAO’s recently re l e a s e d T h e St at e o f Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO), which stresses how trade affects all four dimensions of food security: food availability, access, utilization and stability.

It also notes how trade and related policies affect the different dimensions of food security in ways that vary across and even within countries, and how these change over time as countries develop. Balancing

short-run and long-run objectives is becoming vitally important considering that the nature of disruptions varies enormously and that market shocks will likely become more frequent due to geopolitical, weather and policy-induced uncertainties.

While efforts to intervene and shield domestic markets from global price volatility could in fact lead to increased domestic price volatility, agricultural incentives play an important role in in boosting agricultural production and efficiency and fostering broader economic growth, the report said.

Strengthening trade governance Trade and food security concerns can be better reconciled in the multilateral trading system by improving the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture.

Striking the right balance between better trade policy disciplines and the policy space sought by developing countries has however proved difficult.

In the new edition of SOCO, FAO argues that stepping back to resolve underlying national concerns and priorities may well offer the best way forward. It notes how policy coherence for food security needs to be strengthened, thus enabling governments to better design trade policies, while improving compliance with regional and global trade frameworks.

FAO, WFO to help farmers drive global agricultural agenda

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he World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture O r g a n i z a t i o n ( FA O ) have reaffirmed their commitment to help farmers become the dr ivers of the global agricultural agenda.

The new FAO-WFO agreement will focus on supporting and promoting the key role that farmers and their organizations play in efficient, inclusive and sustainable ag r i cu l tu re a n d f o o d systems; reducing rural poverty; reaching food and nutrition security; and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It will do so by building f a r m e r s’ c a p a c i t y t o lead decision-making

processes on agricultural policies at all levels, based on best sustainable agricultural practices that farmers are already applying.

“This agreement will help build a farmers-driven agricultural agenda to bolster global Zero Hunger efforts, and better support the interests of millions of farmers worldwide.

Farmers can bring a range of innovative solutions to the complex challenges we face today,” said Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources.

“We, as farmers, rely very much on the support of FAO for the creation of a global political environment in agriculture, which is favourable to

our farming systems, our families and our communities. As economic actors, our expectation is to increase productivity, tackling climate change, and contribute to global sustainable development.

We are ready to do our part and we are deeply grateful to organizations

like FAO that support us in this ambitious agenda,” said Theo De Jager, WFO President.

The agreement will support joint initiatives aimed at: Strengthening collaboration on tackling climate change, responsible management of natural

resources, sustainable livestock production, and safe and effective use of antimicrobials; Enhancing the capacities of farmers’ organizations that are inclusive of women and youth to deliver quality services to their members; Increasing farmers’ technical capacity and s ha r i n g o f p ra c t i c a l , workable solutions on climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable agriculture and responsible natural resource management; Enhancing farmers’ advocacy capacity and impact on global political dialogues on agriculture; Supporting family farmers and their organizations to have better access to markets and

services; and implement guidelines and principles s u c h a s Vo l u n t a r y Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries a n d Fo re st s ( V G GT ) , Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI) and Small-scale Fisheries (VGSSF).

FAO and WFO have a strong history of collaboration, and share common goals to support sustainable agricultural development, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and food and nutrition security.

FAO and WFO are also working closely together for the preparation and implementation of the UN Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028).

Friday 04 January 2019

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Donald Trump and Democrats fail to reach funding breakthrough US government shutdown stand-off continues with next meeting set for Friday James Politi

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onald Trump and congressional Democrats failed to reach a breakthrough on border security funding after a summit at the White House on Wednesday, as the US government shutdown looked set to enter its third week.

The session marked the first face-to-face encounter between the US president and top lawmakers since before the partial shutdown, which has left as many as 800,000 federal workers without pay, closed national parks and curtailed the release of some economic data.

Despite the rising economic and social costs of the budgetary stand-off, the meeting ended with both sides digging into their positions amid continued acrimony, offering little hope of a quick resolution to the impasse.

As she exited the White House, Nancy Pelosi — who is poised to become speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday as Democrats take control of the lower chamber of Congress — reiterated that she would immediately move to pass legislation reopening the government with no funding

for a wall at the southern border with Mexico, one of Mr Trump’s signature demands.

But both the White House and Republicans in the Senate, where Mr Trump’s party still holds a majority, said this solution was unacceptable, offering no clear path to a deal. Earlier in the day Mr Trump said at a meeting with his cabinet that the shutdown would last as “long as it takes” to address border security concerns, suggesting he was prepared for a protracted fight.

However, he did ask senior lawmakers to return to the White House again on Friday for another round of talks, offering a new window for compromise.

Many congressional Democrats believe they have the upper hand in the negotiations, and Mr Trump will be the one to eventually cave-in with Americans blaming him primarily for the shutdown.

“They are now feeling the heat.

It is not helping the president, it is not helping the Republicans, to be the owners of the shutdown,” said Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, after the White House meeting.

Mr Trump had set up Wednesday’s gathering with top lawmakers in the White House’s situation

Tesla’s mass-market promise is disappearing over the horizon Elon Musk’s electric carmaker faces stiff challenge to cut prices and keep high valuation Richard Waters

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ast year, with his back to the wall, Elon Musk finally proved that Tesla could ramp up production levels for its new Model 3 significantly — even if it came later and in lower volumes than he once promised.

This year, he will have to go one better. Producing at scale is no longer enough. Mr Musk is finally reaching the moment of truth for his would-be mass market electric car: Can he get the price to a low enough point to generate truly widespread demand, while still generating the sort of profit to justify his company’s valuation?

After all, Tesla is still worth more than General Motors, which sold about 40 times as many cars last year.

Based on the evidence released on Wall Street’s first trading day of the new year, the signs are hardly encouraging. By rights, Tesla should have had a blowout quarter at the end of last year. It has finally been producing enough Model 3s to start eating into its demand backlog, and has sorted out the worst of its delivery bottlenecks.

Potential customers in the US, which accounts for almost all the company’s sales at the moment, also had a powerful motivation to complete their purchases. At the end of the year, the federal tax credit they could claim for buying an electric car from Tesla was due to be cut in half, to $3,750.

Fourth-quarter sales figures released on Wednesday showed that Tesla had raised its vehicle deliveries by a factor of three compared with

the year before. But that was still lower than some estimates, and it failed to impress the bulls who have protected Tesla from the stock market rout of recent weeks.

Adding to the discomfort for investors, Tesla also said that it was shaving $2,000 off the price of all its vehicles in the US to compensate for some of the lost tax benefit. To put that in perspective: It only made a net profit of about $3,000 for each vehicle delivered in what was widely seen as a stellar third quarter.

The pressure will not let up as the year goes on. The federal tax credit will halve again in the second six months, before disappearing altogether in 2019. As the incentives evaporate, there is a risk that the dream of a true mass-market electric car will recede ever further into the distance.

Nearly three years ago, when Tesla first opened it doors to potential customers for a car that was still a long way from production, Mr Musk talked of a starting price for the vehicle of $35,000. After taking account of the federal tax credit and the extra incentives offered by many US states, like a $2,500 rebate in California, many would-be customers came to believe they would be able to buy one of the most technologically advanced vehicles on the market for a net price of only $25,000.

Mr Musk boasted at the time of the “orders” that were flooding in.

But in reality, they were only $1,000 fully-refundable deposits that gave potential buyers a place in line. As it turns out, they were queueing up Continues on page 38

Top congressional Democrats Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi met Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the president’s demand for border wall funding © EPA

room — where senior officials meet in moments of crisis — to dramatise conditions on the US southern border. But in advance of the session, Democratic aides on Capitol Hill were already dismissing it as a stunt.

“It is not a meeting, it is a briefing. We expect a one-sided, non-factual presentation. Expect Democrats to again have to correct the record in the meeting and afterward,” a senior Democratic

aide said.

Trump administration officials have accused Democrats of failing to give an inch in the negotiations, forcing the shutdown. “[We] presented a good-faith offer to resolve this issue and achieve a principled compromise — only to find out after Christmas that the Dems stopped negotiations altogether,” Mike Pence, the vice-president, wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.

The shutdown comes at a dif-

ficult moment in Mr Trump’s presidency, as he faces criticism for the hollowing-out of the most experienced members of his team with the departures of Jim Mattis as defence secretary and John Kelly as chief of staff.

In addition, there are growing concerns about volatility in the stock market, trade tensions with China and the possibility of a significant slowdown in the global economy.

Apple cuts sales forecast on China weakness

Company flags disappointing iPhone upgrades in rare warning that shocks Wall Street Richard Waters

A

pple shocked Wall Street with an extremely rare revenue warning late on Wednesday, blaming economic weakness in China and disappointing iPhone upgrades in the developed world for a shortfall of as much as 10 per cent from its previous expectations.

The news wiped more than 7 per cent from the company’s shares in after-market trading and stoked investor concerns over the outlook for the global economy.

The warning sparked share price falls among Apple suppliers in Asia and Europe and saw the Japanese yen, seen as a safe haven currency in times of uncertainty, rise as much as 3 per cent against the dollar.

The scale of the disappointment was striking after Apple had appeared to rebut some recent suggestions of weakening demand for the iPhone. The company has been dogged in recent weeks by reports of falling orders among its suppliers and questions about the strength of demand for the new, lower-priced iPhone XR. Only two months ago Apple said it expected revenue of $89bn$93bn for the final three months of 2018, the most important period of its fiscal year. That would have represented revenue growth of as much as 5 per cent from the same period the year before.

On Wednesday, however, it

said that revenue for the period was likely to come in at approximately $84bn, pointing to a decline of some 5 per cent instead.

In an open letter to investors, Tim Cook, chief executive, tried to minimise the extent of the shortfall, writing that Apple had predicted only “slight revenue growth” from the previous year’s $88.3bn.

Almost all of the disappointment could be attributed to the economic slowdown in China, the company said. It also said that “more than 100 per cent” of its revenue decline from the previous year could be attributed to lower Chinese demand for iPhones, Macs and iPads.

“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” Mr Cook said. The economic environment had been impacted by rising trade tensions, he claimed.

By pinning the blame mainly on economic factors, Mr Cook hit a nerve for investors who are still reeling from a big equity sell-off in December, which reflected growing doubts over the global economy. Stock markets had also begun 2019 on a negative note, after Chinese data on Wednesday showed manufacturing activity contracting for the first time since May 2017.

Separately, Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu, the Chinese search engine, warned employ-

ees on Wednesday that “winter is coming” as the Chinese economy weakens. In a new year letter to staff, he said that shifts in the economy were “as cold and real as winter to every company”.

However, Apple also pointed to weaker than expected demand for the iPhone in developed countries, with fewer people than expected upgrading to new handsets. It blamed this shortfall on weaker economies, a decline in subsidies offered by mobile carriers, and its own recent subsidised battery replacement offer, which had led more people to hold on to their existing phones.

Mr Cook pointed to strength in other parts of Apple’s business as evidence that the company is not as dependent on short-term iPhone sales as it once was. Revenue from other businesses rose by 19 per cent in the quarter, he said, with services generating $10.8bn of revenue in the three months to December 29.

As a result, he said that Apple still expected to report record quarterly earnings per share for the quarter.

Even though the weakness was blamed in large part on a slowdown in China, Wall Street fretted that the update also signalled trouble for domestic US electronics retailers.

Apple products account for 15 to 20 per cent of sales at Best Buy, estimated UBS analyst Michael Lasser. Shares in Best Buy were down 2.3 per cent in after hours trading.

38

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Tesla’s mass-market promise is disappearing...

Volatility specialists face year of rewards and reckoning

Continued from page 37

for a low-priced electric car that has yet to arrive.

Tesla’s strong performance in last year’s third quarter came at a time when the minimum list price for a Model 3 was $49,000. Many customers were paying much more on top for extra features like Autopilot software.

Closing the gap between the promise and reality presents Mr Musk with a difficult choice. Maintain prices at a level where Tesla can prove itself a sustainable company — a goal he has set a high store by in recent months — and the Model 3 may never break out of the premium part of the market. Fewer than a quarter of the orders Tesla received in the fourth quarter came from people already on its reservation list — a sign of how far the Model 3 still has to go to realise its promise.

Cut prices much further, however, and Tesla could find itself trapped in the same low-margin position as other big producers — with a stock market valuation to match. Production costs should decline as volumes rise and Tesla works out cheaper ways to make its vehicles. But finding sufficient savings to bring down the sticker price while also making up for the lost tax incentives will be a stretch.

At a new base price in the US of $43,000, the Model 3 electric car is still a phenomenon. Tesla bragged this week that it became the bestselling premium car in its home market last year, with roughly double the sales of its nearest competitor.

But the risk for Mr Musk is that this will not be enough to turn it into the world-changing car he has always aspired to build. And it may struggle to ever produce the returns that the Tesla bulls hope for.

Bristol-Myers Squibb to acquire Celgene for $74bn Cash and stock offer will rank as one of the biggest pharmaceutical deals in history

Eric Platt and James Fontanella-

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ristol-Myers Squibb, the US drugmaker, has agreed to acquire biotech group Celgene for $74bn, in one of the largest pharmaceutical deals in history.

Celgene shares will be valued at $102.43 per share at the $74bn price tag, a 51 per cent premium on the 30-day volume weighted average closing, the two companies said in a release on Thursday.

Under the terms of the agreement, Celgene stockholders will receive one share of Bristol-Myers Squibb, which closed on Wednesday at $52.43, and $50 in cash. Investors in Celgene will also receive rights to shares, which will payout in the future based on the companies passing certain regulatory milestones.

The boards of both companies approved the deal, which will create a pharmaceutical leader in cancer and immunologic disease treatments.

Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb fell 14 per cent in pre-market trading to $45.19, while Celgene advanced 31 per cent to $87.

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Some funds say markets are not prepared for unwinding of the ‘low vol’ regime Robin Wigglesworth

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Heather Nauert at a state department briefing. The former co-presenter of ‘Fox & Friends’ is Donald Trump’s nominee as US ambassador to the UN © Getty

Former Fox News host faces questions over UN role Secretary of state Mike Pompeo defends nomination of Heather Nauert as US ambassador Aime Williams

W

hen Fox News presenter Heather Nauert joined the US state department in 2017, she was hardly the first journalist to move into government communications, nor the first employee of the right-leaning TV news channel to take a post in Donald Trump’s administration. Given his avowed love for her morning show Fox & Friends, her appointment was not one of the more surprising the US president had made.

Not so for the new job Mr Trump has picked her to do.

If she is confirmed by Congress, Ms Nauert will be catapulted from chastising reporters for their “fake news” in a windowless briefing room at the Department of State to channelling Mr Trump’s “America First” worldview to foreign diplomats as US ambassador to the UN. Her nomination for that job — “the second most important foreign policy position in the country” after secretary of state, according to Stephen Schlesinger, author of a book on the UN — has divided opinion.

Critics have raised questions over the depth and breadth of her experience in the diplomatic world, after a near-20 year career at Fox News and ABC as a correspondent and latterly as a co-host of Fox & Friends.

Moreover, her appointment comes at a tumultuous time for US foreign policy. Mr Trump’s recent decision to pull troops from Syria,

against the advice of some of his closest advisers, startled US partners across the globe and shook their faith in the country’s promises to its allies.

Proponents describe her as hardworking, unafraid to ask questions and able to pick up skills quickly, who has taken on additional responsibilities since joining the state department.

“She has an enormous capacity to learn quickly, and that’s what people underestimate,” said Samantha CarlYoder, a former department official who worked closely with Ms Nauert.

Both her critics and her advocates, including those currently working at the state department, characterise her as a Trump loyalist who intuitively understands the president’s foreign policy positions, and is close to secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

That marks her out from Nikki Haley, the departing UN ambassador, who was previously the Republican governor of South Carolina. Ms Haley had emerged as an outspoken mainstream conservative voice in a non-traditional administration who often diverged from official policy.

While Ms Nauert was kept at arms length by Mr Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, she enjoys a high level of access to Mr Pompeo, frequently travelling overseas and attending meetings alongside him.

Mr Pompeo has been keen to praise Ms Nauert ahead of an as-yet unscheduled congressional confirmation hearing for her ambassadorship. He told the Financial Times that she was a “vital” member of his team and a “critical voice” in shaping state

department strategy.

“She manages a staff of nearly 1,000, and more than a $1bn budget and has spearheaded our department’s efforts to combat disinformation abroad,” he said. “There is no question that she has the experience to lead the US mission to the United Nations.”

Ms Carl-Yoder said the close relationship between Ms Nauert, Mr Pompeo and Mr Trump would bring “cohesiveness” between the UN mission and the state department. “She will get on the phone to Pompeo,” Ms Carl-Yoder said. “She also has a strong relationship with the president, which can’t be underestimated.”

Critics have contrasted Ms Nauert with the august roll-call of previous UN ambassadors — typically career diplomats, academics or politicians — that includes George HW Bush, who was widely praised as a talented diplomat, along with Richard Holbrooke, Susan Rice and Samantha Power.

Nicholas Burns, a former state department spokesperson and now a Harvard professor, said that while her time at the department would be “good preparation”, Ms Nauert would now need to go beyond simply delivering Mr Trump’s script.

“The UN is a boxing ring, and you are boxing and jousting with the Russian and Chinese ambassadors,” Mr Burns said. “The Russian and Chinese ambassadors are career diplomats, and they have black belts in diplomacy. She is going to have to be able to debate them unscripted, and win, and I hope she can do that.”

Trial of those accused of Khashoggi killing begins in Saudi Arabia 11 unnamed individuals have requested more time to respond to the charges against them Ahmed Al Omran

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he first hearing in the trial of those accused of killing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was held on Thursday in Riyadh, the kingdom’s attorneygeneral has said.

The public prosecution is seeking punishment for 11 suspects in the case, including the death penalty for five of them. The accused and their lawyers, who attended the hearing, have requested more time to respond to the charges against them.

The investigation is ongoing and there are a number of other suspects, according to a statement by the attorney-general published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement added that Saudi

Arabia was still waiting for Turkey to provide evidence and information related to the case after having made five requests to authorities there, most recently on December 17.

Mr Khashoggi was a prominent writer and commentator who is alleged to have been killed by Saudi agents after entering the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul last August.

He had been living in exile in the United States and wrote columns for the Washington Post, in which he had criticised Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s policies. Saudi officials have said the operation to kill Mr Khashoggi was carried out by rogue elements and that the crown prince had not been aware of the plan.

Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed

Assiri, two senior aides to the crown prince, were previously identified by the attorney-general as having been involved in the killing, but it is unclear if they are among the suspects facing trial.

The names of the suspects have not been published, in accordance with the Saudi law of criminal procedures. However, officials said in November Mr Qahtani was banned from travel and remained under investigation, at the same time as they announced the indictments against the 11 suspects.

Mr Qahtani has not spoken publicly since November and could not be reached for comment. Under the Saudi judicial system defendants are not required to present a plea at the start of their trial.

olatility returned with a bang last year, wrongfooting many investors but leaving traders that specialise in surfing the undulations of financial markets eagerly awaiting a new era of turbulence in 2019.

January started with a market melt-up that unravelled in dramatic fashion, when “ short-volatility” bets that everything would remain calm came unstuck in spectacular fashion. Two popular short-volatility funds were shredded, exacerbating the stock market turmoil and shaking investors from their torpor.

Markets regained their footing, but since October stocks have seesawed lower, at one point sending the S&P 500 into an intraday bear market. The Vix volatility index jumped by 20 per cent or more a dozen times last year, something it had only done 24 times in the previous five, and 71 times in total since the “fear gauge” was born in 1990.

More intriguingly for volatility specialists, the turbulence has started to bleed out from equities and into other asset classes that until later in 2018 were relatively subdued.

“It’s been an interesting year from start to finish,” says Federico Gilly, a volatility fund manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “As we’ve transitioned to a higher volatility environment it has affected different markets differently.”

Volatility traders like Mr Gilly typically use derivatives to profit from trends in turbulence itself, rather than traditional stocks or bonds. There are many ways to try to exploit volatility, from straightforward, systematic bets on turbulence or tranquility, to more tactical “relative value” strategies where traders buy protection in markets where risks are under-appreciated or sell it where other investors are too fearful.

Last year was not a banner year for volatility funds, as the periodic spikes of choppiness wrongfooted even many of the specialists — especially the “Volmageddon” spasm in February.

HFR’s index of relative-value volatility hedge funds was down 0.1 per cent in the year to November, while EurekaHedge’s equivalent fell 1.1 per cent. Volatility hedge funds with a bias towards betting on turbulence failed to profit from its outbreak, losing 4.4 per cent, while those with a tendency towards tranquility lost 8.1 per cent, according to EurekaHedge’s indices.

But many in the industry hope that 2019 will be the year when volatility traders — as opposed to those that simply sell insurance against it and pocket the steady premium from those buying it — will truly shine. For the expectations that this year will be even more turbulent are widespread.

“After years of relatively smooth sailing in the financial markets, heightened volatility is rocking the boat once again,” Capital Group, the $1.9tn mutual fund manager, noted to clients. “There are many factors, but the three Ts are among the most impactful: tightening monetary policy, trade tensions and too much debt.”

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COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Apple shares set to open 9% down after revenue warning

Suppliers and luxury groups hit by fears of slowing Chinese economy

Tim Bradshaw and Richard Waters

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pple’s share price was set to begin trading nearly 9 per cent down on Thursday after it cut its revenue expectations for the first time in 16 years, blaming poor iPhone sales in China.

Apple was down 8.8 per cent at $143.97 in pre-market trading in New York while tech and luxury stocks across the world fell heavily as investors fretted over the state of the Chinese market and the broader outlook for the global economy.

“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, on Wednesday, in a letter explaining why he was cutting the company’s revenue guidance for the fourth quarter. China accounts for around 15 per cent of Apple’s revenues.

Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu, the Chinese search engine, also warned his employees on Wednesday that “winter is coming” as the Chinese economy weakens.

In a new year letter to staff, he said that shifts in the economy were “as cold and real as winter to every company”. In pre-market trading in New York, Baidu’s share price was down 1.6 per cent.

Only two months ago Apple said it expected revenue of $89bn-$93bn for the final three months of 2018, the most important period of its fiscal year. That would have represented revenue growth of as much as 5 per cent from the same period the year before.

The company now believes revenues will come in at approximately $84bn, pointing to a decline of 5 per cent instead.

In Asia, Foxconn, the main manufacturer of the iPhone, fell 1.7 per cent while smaller suppliers such as AAC Technologies and Sunny Optical dropped 5.4 per cent and 6.7 per cent.

UK-based chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor, which is listed in Frankfurt, dived more than 8 per cent.

Samsung, a rival phonemaker, fell

3 per cent, while luxury companies Burberry and Kering, the owner of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, both slid around 3 per cent.

The scale of the disappointment for Apple was striking after the company had appeared to rebut some recent suggestions of weakening demand for the iPhone. The company has been dogged in recent weeks by reports of falling orders among its suppliers and questions about the strength of demand for the new, lower-priced iPhone XR. It also said that “more than 100 per cent” of its revenue decline from the previous year could be attributed to lower Chinese demand for iPhones, Macs and iPads.

By pinning the blame mainly on economic factors, Mr Cook hit a nerve for investors still reeling from a big equity sell-off in December, which reflected growing doubts over the global economy. Stock markets had also begun 2019 on a negative note, after Chinese data on Wednesday showed manufacturing activity contracting for the first time since May 2017.

However, Apple also pointed to weaker than expected demand for the iPhone in developed countries, with fewer people than anticipated upgrading to new handsets. It blamed this shortfall on weaker economies, a decline in subsidies offered by mobile carriers, and its own recent subsidised battery replacement offer, which had led more people to hold on to their existing phones.

Mr Cook pointed to strength in other parts of Apple’s business as evidence that the company was not as dependent on short-term iPhone sales as it was. Revenue from other businesses rose 19 per cent in the quarter, he said, with services generating $10.8bn of revenue in the three months to December 29.

As a result, he said that Apple still expected to report record quarterly earnings per share for the quarter.

Even though the weakness was blamed in large part on a slowdown in China, Wall Street fretted that the update also signalled trouble for domestic US electronics retailers.

Wall St braces for heavy losses as Apple tumble rattles investors Nasdaq futures sink close to 3% while S&P 500 futures drop 1.7% Cat Rutter Pooley

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all Street traders were poised for a volatile session on Thursday after ultimately steering clear of feared losses on the first trading day of the year, as a rare sales warning from Apple threatened to upend US stock markets.

Futures for the Nasdaq 100 pointed to a 2.7 per cent decline for the tech-heavy index with four hours to go until the opening bell.

Those for the S&P 500 meanwhile were 1.7 per cent lower. Apple is among the biggest weight on the two US stock market indices.

Investors have been struggling to assess the impact of deteriorating Chinese data for months, wary of calling the end of the bull market too soon but alert to the risk of a sharp downturn. On Wednesday, underwhelming data from China’s manufacturing sector had looked

set to pull markets lower, but trading calmed and declines dissipated during the course of the US trading day.

Apple’s after-market update on its crucial fourth quarter sales has since dragged down its global suppliers and weighed on semiconductor stocks in particular.

But an emphasis on a faster than anticipated slowdown in Chinese demand has spooked investors in other stocks heavily reliant on consumer growth in the world’s second-largest economy, in particular luxury stocks.

On the London markets, the gabardine trenchcoat house Burberry fell close to 5 per cent, while Swiss-listed Swatch, which owns the more upmarket brand Omega, was down close to 4 per cent and in Paris Kering slipped by a similar amount.

Apple dropped 8 per cent in pre-market trading in New York.

Apple was down 8.8 per cent at $143.97 in pre-market trading in New York © AP

Stock markets shudder as Apple adds to slowdown fears Technology stocks fall as iPhone maker points to China market weakness Edward White and Michael Hunter

S

hares in Apple suppliers lost ground across the world on Thursday after a rare revenue warning from the US tech group stoked fears over a slowing Chinese economy and weak smartphone demand.

Apple shares sank almost 9 per cent in pre-market US trade after the company blamed lower than expected sales on an unexpectedly sharp slowdown in China. Its Frankfurt-listed shares fell by a similar margin.

There was also turbulence in the currencies market as worries about the outlook for global growth deepened, lifting the haven appeal of the yen, which at one point gained over 3 per cent against the dollar.

“In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 per cent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in an open letter to investors.

ING China economist Iris Pang said despite the slowdown in China, smartphone manufacturers were struggling for sales amid a lack of new features.

“It is true that the Chinese economy is slowing but if there is a big marginal value-add in a new phone then demand is still there,” Ms Pang said, adding that demand should pick up again once new 5G technology is available in smartphones.

The moves also came after global

financial markets started 2019 on a shaky footing amid concerns about a global economic slowdown.

European stock markets fell, with Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 down 1.4 per cent. The region-wide Stoxx 600 lost 0.9 per cent. London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4 per cent.

Equities In Europe, chipmaker AMS down 18 per cent, and the Stoxx index tracking the technology sector down almost 3 per cent. Dialog Semiconductor fell 8 per cent.

In Taipei, Apple assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, dropped 2.1 per cent while chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co fell 2.1 per cent. The Taiex was down 0.8 per cent.

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix slipped 3.6 per cent and Samsung Electronics was down 1.8 per cent.

The Kospi index in Seoul was off 0.2 per cent.

AAC Technologies fell 5 per cent and Sunny Optical was down 4.9 per cent, putting the Hong Konglisted Apple suppliers among the Hang Seng’s worst performers for the day.

The Hang Seng was 0.3 per cent lower.

The CSI 300 of major companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen was down 0.1 per cent after earlier gains.

Australian stocks fared better with the S&P/ASX 200 up 1.3 per cent as the hit to the country’s currency boosted exporters.

“Alongside a drop for Apple shares in after-hours trade, the plunge in

US futures forms a cloud above Asia markets into Thursday’s trade,” said IG analyst Jingyi Pan. Japanese markets were closed for a national holiday.

Forex The Japanese yen, seen as a haven during market uncertainty, was 1.5 per cent higher at ¥107.20 having earlier surged more than 3 per cent to ¥104.96, according to Refinitiv data.

The yen’s rally — its biggest gain in two years — reverberated across foreign exchange markets with the UK pound down 0.5 per cent at $1.2549, the Korean currency weakening by 0.8 per cent to Won1,128 and the New Zealand dollar 0.4 per cent lower at $0.6627.

The Australian currency, sensitive to the outlook for China, the main market for Sydney-listed metals miners, was 0.5 per cent lower at $0.6946 against the dollar. In a flash plunge after the Apple announcement, the currency earlier touched $0.6776, its lowest since early 2009.

The dollar index was 0.3 per cent weaker after closing 0.7 per cent higher on Wednesday.

China’s onshore renminbi, which moves within a trading band set by central bankers in Beijing, was 0.2 per cent weaker at Rmb6.8754.

Commodities Brent crude was up 0.8 per cent at $55.34 a barrel.

Gold was 0.2 per cent higher at $1,288 an ounce.

Slowdown fears stalk global stock markets Trump says December sell-off was just a ‘glitch’ as Asian currencies fluctuate wildly FT reporters

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lobal financial markets started remained on a nervous footing and Asian currencies fluctuated wildly, as deepening concerns about a global economic slowdown spooked investors still shaken by the worst year for equities in a decade in 2018.

Apple shocked Wall Street with a warning that it would fall short on revenues in the fourth quarter, undershooting a previous forecast by as much as 10 per cent, as the company blamed economic weakness in China.

That came a day after data indicated that China’s manufacturing sector is contracting for the first time in 19 months, sending Asian equities sliding and triggering a renewed jolt of global market volatility on the first trading day of the year.

The Australian dollar dropped as

much as 3.5 per cent on Thursday to hit a 10-year low, while the Japanese yen, viewed as a haven, jumped by as much as 3.7 per cent to 104.87 against the US dollar.

With investors already on edge over signs the global economy is decelerating and nerves frayed by a volatile December, the data release snapped the FTSE All-World’s fourday bounce and sent the index down 0.5 per cent on Wednesday. That was despite an oil price bounce that helped US and UK equities claw back some initial losses.

“Everyone is returning from holidays and refocusing on markets, and when the first data point they see is a bad one, that’s bad for sentiment,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco.

The S&P 500 fluctuated between gains and losses through the day, but ended with a narrow 0.1 per cent gain

thanks to US energy stocks jumping over 2 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite rallied from an initial slump to gain 0.5 per cent, while the industry-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average only edged up 0.1 per cent.

The FTSE 100 also recovered from an initial fall on Wednesday, ending the day slightly higher as the 2.4 per cent rise in the price of crude oil supported the shares of London-listed oil majors.

According to opening calls, it was expected to fall 0.5 per cent on Thursday.

Traders warned that the economic backdrop remained a concern. Even as most major economies slow, concerns are rising in particular over the impact of trade sanctions on China, with the official index of manufacturing activity showing the first contraction since July 2016, and the private Caixin manufacturing index falling to its lowest level since May 2017, according to data released on Wednesday.

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Opinion Security, nationhood and development

A

s we enter the year 2019 – into another electoral-political cycle -- our country today stands at the crossroads of history. Never before have the Nigerian people become as divided as they are today, with possible exception of the crises of the first republic and the war years 1966-1970. Nigerians have become deeply divided along ethnic, religious and regional fault lines.

The insurgency and murderous armed rural militias have exacerbated our deepest national divisions.

Although we thought the serpent was on its death-bed, it has risen Phoenixlike to occupy almost halve of Borno state today. Many of my friends from Sokoto told me they could not go home during the Christmas break because Zamfara, which they must traverse en route to Sokoto, is a nogo area.

Throughout our country, thousands have been killed and well over 3 million defenceless people and families are concentrated in rag-tag internally displaced persons (IDP) camps within and outside our borders. Insecurity has undermined food security across the country. Insecurity has driven out investors and has destroyed the prospects of long-term development. Our country has become a vicious vortex of poverty and despair rather than virtuous haven of peace, solidarity and prosperity.

The acts of genocidal violence committed by various armed bandits in our country have the backing of foreign interests working in connivance with local power and business elites. The government seems culpable in the ongoing genocide and de facto land dispossession. People are killed and driven out of their land.

Foreigners occupy those lands and the authorities never send in security agencies to reverse the forcible dis-

possession. Nobody is arrested.

I make bold to say that without peace there can be no social progress. Peace is everything. We must therefore actively pursue it. Peace in our context is constituted by four elements: tackling insecurity, restructuring and nation building and wrestling down the monster of corruption.

Underpinning the peace agenda is the necessity of reinventing our country as a just, peaceful and progressive democracy anchored on the rule of law, social justice and solidarity. At the heart of it is the forgotten agenda of nation building.

The great Swiss historian Jacob Burkhart, in his epochal studies of the early modern state in renaissance Italy, famously described the political state as “a work of art”. The metaphor is very apt. It captures the understanding that nation states do not evolve by sheer chance or sheer historical accident. They are created and nurtured by statesmen. A state, like a piece of art, must be built with vision, creativity, patience and dexterity. Franz Fanon also declared that the task of every generation is to discover its mission and to fulfil or betray it.

The mission of our generation is to re-imagine and reinvent Nigeria as a country that is both forward-looking and democratic; a progressive country anchored on the foundations of the peace, positive science, the rule of law, freedom and social justice.

We believe that the first duty of civil government is to secure the commonwealth. This has been the first dictum of public administration since Aristotle and Plato. A government that cannot secure the lives and properties of its citizens has failed in its most elementary duties. We on our part are staunchly committed to securing the common peace by tackling the insurgency and demobilising the armed bandits to ensure that our

people live in peace and without fear.

To enhance the security of our people we must modernise the police service in Nigeria; giving them better equipment and enhanced training in detecting, countering and prosecuting crime. We plan to decentralise the police service and develop a state police service so as to bring them closer to the people for more effective law-enforcement. We must dig deep into the roots and causes of crime. We are particularly committed to the model that has worked so well in Tunisia, where greater emphasis is placed on intelligence gathering to nip crime in the bud before it rears its ugly head.

We must also commit to building a virile and modern army. We see the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as a model some of whose elements can be applied to our situation. We need a better trained, more disciplined and better equipped military that will defend our people and secure our sovereign territorial integrity as a nation. We need to create a military-

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We need not only a strong union; we need a decentralised union that allows our diverse peoples and regions to enjoy autonomy, self-determination and internal government. We have nothing to fear except fear itself

, HumanAngle

FEMI OLUGBILE Physician, psycho-profiler and essayist

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t is only fit and proper to start the new year on a feel-good note. A way to do that is to recount the pleasure of watching ‘Legends’ – a dance-drama production that ran at the Shell Hall, Muson Centre from 22nd to 26th December 2018.

It played to a packed audience every day. On the night you went to see the play, the last night of its run, it struck you that the audience was like a cross-section of society, with old and young, rich and not-so-rich in the vast auditorium.

Dance drama was coming home to roost, you reflected, as you thought yet again of how easy it seemed to be for the art form to communicate with Nigerians, how they were drawn into the drama and needed no permission to cheer or jeer as the occasion arose.

The reason, you surmised, was that it was a living art that came naturally to the people in these parts. You were reminded of the Yoruba travelling theatre culture of your youth – Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola. Others.

The story line of ‘Legends’ is a peculiar one, and, on the surface a simple one. But under the surface are layers upon layers of nuance.

A pretty young lady feels herself drawn to a higher inner call as a priestess in contemporary times and is convinced she has a mission to save

industrial complex whereby the armed forces work with industry in developing our defence capability and doing research and innovation that brings value-add not only to the task of national defence but also to our technological development and capability as a country.

We must also create a new security architecture for our country.

The first step is to create a National Security Council empowering the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Coordinator for all the intelligence agencies. Agencies such as State Security Services (SSS), Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) must be streamlined and rationalised to ensure that they work in concert and in a coordinated fashion rather than in their current anarchic and rivalrous manner. We must also decentralise the police to ensure that law-enforcement officers can leverage on local knowledge and local social capital to develop effective tools of policing at the local level.

In addition, we should create a new force of Forest Guards, to be largely recruited from local communities. Their role will be to patrol rural communities and ensure that rural bandits are apprehended and brought to justice. We shall patrol our borders more actively to ensure that criminal armed bandits will not gain untrammelled access across our borders.

Ultimately, tackling the security challenge requires re-visiting the arduous task of nation building. This entails mobilising all the youth and people of this country – men and women, rich and poor. We need a new coalition of Nigerians who genuinely believe in democracy and social justice. We must fight to take our country back. Nation building

entails symbolic as well as substantive commitments to ensuring that the country is governed in a fair and representative manner. The government and leadership must reflect our diversity while the task of economic development must embrace every region and every section of our country; giving people a sense of belonging and hope.

Ultimately, tackling the security challenge requires the restructuring of our federation in a manner that allows genuine federalism to flourish.

We need not only a strong union; we need a decentralised union that allows our diverse peoples and regions to enjoy autonomy, self-determination and internal government. We have nothing to fear except fear itself.

Those who fear restructuring are mainly those who have enjoyed unjustified privileges as a result of the illegitimate military-inspired constitution that has given them financial and other privileges at the expense of the rest of our country.

Despite all this, the North remains the most impoverished region in our country. The incidence of poverty is as high as 92 percent in Zamfara, compared to 35 percent in Lagos State. Youth unemployment is as high as 70 percent in Sokoto state as compared to 10 percent in Ogun state. Disease, illiteracy and youth drug addiction define the anatomy of poverty in Northern Nigeria. Redesigning the structure of our federation cannot be to make some regions worse off than they are already. This is what my Northern brethren fear.

Rather, we must build effective affirmative systems that enable them overcome poverty, disease, illiteracy and destitution. We must reinvent Nigeria as a conscionable and compassionate country that is genuinely committed to progress

be angry to unleash the fire, and when the fire was unleashed, it was apt to consume all in its path – friend and foe, without discrimination.

‘Legends’ is produced by Gbenga Yusuf and Ayo Ajayi. Segun Adefile plays the role of Sango. The Asante Queen is played by Mojisola Kadiri.

Shaka the Zulu King is Kelvin Mary.

The young priestess who summons the kings of old from ‘Kumbayah’

tor Dejumo Lewis features as Shaka’s progenitor, who tries, without success, to get him to be more of a human being and less of a killing machine by taking a wife. Singer Yinka Davies also stars in the cast.

One way to look at the message of ‘Legends’ is that ‘strong men’ (and ‘strong women’) are not necessarily the solution to everything. There is a tendency in Africa to think that powerful leaders, able to cow other people – including the masses, into silence, by killing a few and whipping the majority into line, are the real solution to society’s problems. ‘Modaland’ is Africa, though it could be anywhere else in the third world, by simply changing to a local cast of ‘Legends’. There is a lot of despair in the land on account of the failures in the social and political systems and their operators – the politicians. There is a tendency to despair, and in desperation there is a tendency to hanker after the past where ‘strong men’ ruled the roost and mischief makers were brusquely brought to heel without any worry about ‘human rights’ or the rituals of a modern legal system which could be easily corrupted. The modern example of the Ghanaian leader Jerry Rawlings who lined up a host of his predecessors and shot them dead is often cited in a positive light in such discussions. The first coming of General Muhammadu Buhari as a stern-faced, taciturn soldier-ruler who cancelled everything he met on ground, sentenced his predecessors to long prison terms and regimentally forced people to stand in orderly queues on the streets is also cited in this regard.

The cautionary tale, in ‘Legends’ is that there is a limit to what strong men can achieve by brute force, and people need to manage their expec-

Legends: Kings and kingdoms -A review of a dance-drama that had the Lagos audience agog ‘Modaland’ from the impending catastrophe of attack by a nebulous evil entity known as ‘The Shadow’. She is at the same time playfully fending off the attentions of a love-struck ‘toaster’ who is pestering her for a kiss, and much else besides. The exertions of the ‘toaster’ and the playful fending off of his attentions by the object of his desire find resonance with the many young in the audience, and they applaud at every turn of phrase.

So titanic is this impending battle and so important is its outcome for ‘Modaland’ that a host of powerful warrior-leaders from the past are invoked and brought to life in order to recruit them into the fight. Shaka the Zulu. Nana Yaa Asatenwa, the redoubtable queen mother Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire. Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt. Queen Amina of Zazzau.

Sango, god of thunder, a man who became god and could reduce his enemies to ashes by the fire that issued from his mouth when his fiery temper was stoked.

But the heroes of the past were human beings too, and deeply flawed in their individual lives, as it quickly

to defend ‘Modaland’ against ‘The Shadow’ is Oluchi Odii. There is a twist in the tale concerning the character of the paramour who is seeking to divert her from her lofty concern to more earthly issues of love and sex.

The complex role is carried off with aplomb by Floyd Igbo. Nefertiti is Edem Attai, and Amina of Zazzau is played by Uche Elumelu. Veteran ac-

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emerges. Shaka reveled in the battle. Nothing pleased him more than hundreds of his enemies lying dead on the battle field. To achieve that he was ready to foreswear everything that made him human, including the attentions of a loving wife. Amina was rumoured to have killed the men who had the dubious honour of sharing her bed. And Sango – he needed to

The cautionary tale, in ‘Legends’ is that there is a limit to what strong men can achieve by brute force, and people need to manage their expectations in this regard in order not to end up in terrible disappointment.The ‘heroes’ and ‘strong men’ themselves are limited by their human attributes

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THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

OBADIAH MAILAFIA Dr. Mailafia is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a development economist and public finance expert with a DPhil from Oxford obmailafia@gmail.com; 08036590990 (text messages only)

and happiness of all its citizens.

We are persuaded that the battle for a New Nigeria can only be won if we reinvent our country as a forward-looking, progressive democracy that is at peace with itself and its neighbours. It is evident that our life-chances and our survival as a corporate political community cannot be guaranteed under the current structure of our federation, with its nearly bankrupt states and non-functioning, egregious 774 local governments. It is clear that our country will survive and flourish only when we are at peace within our homeland – with institutions that are anchored on integrity, justice and the genuine will of the people.

Happy New Year to all my gentle readers! I count it an honour to be read by you. Blessings and peace.

Shalom! tations in this regard in order not to end up in terrible disappointment.

The ‘heroes’ and ‘strong men’ themselves are limited by their human attributes. Sometimes like Shaka, they lack the finer refinements that a balanced upbringing with motherly love might have infused. Often, like the Buhari military interregnum, they lack knowledge and base drastic measures on an insufficiency of information. Sometimes they are just plain wrong, and with passionate, even self-less zeal, they lead their people to disaster, and the medicine turns out to be worse than the disease.

So, what according to the writers of ‘Legends’ is the solution for ‘Modaland’ – which may read Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, or any of the countless African countries mired conflict and corruption and an inability to lift their people out of poverty or give them a decent life? How do they escape the impending attack of ‘The Shadow’ – the cataclysmic evil affliction that will bring the people’s lives to a horrendous nadir where war, death and famine will reign supreme in the land?

The solution, in ‘Legends’, is love.

The people should love themselves and love their fellow men. People should make love, not war. The importunate ‘toaster’ of the priestess is also the devil incarnate, but he cannot be both at the same time. He has to renounce one nature in order to embrace the other. In the end he chooses love.

‘Legends’ is a tall tale, told with vigour and passion, and beautiful song and dance. Perhaps its ‘solution’ is simplistic, and the Zulu singers don’t quite bring off the ‘click’ to perfection. But it is a compelling work of art, well worth the watching, and deserving of celebration.

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