BusinessDay 06 Sep 2019

AMCON vs. Shebah E&P: Parties to litigation set for amicable resolution …Guarantor makes strong commitment to pay further P

DIPO OLADEHINDE

arties to the ongoing litigation betw e en Ass et Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and Shebah Exploration and Production (E&P) Company Limited met

on Tuesday September 3. The meeting opened discussions related to seeking an amicable resolution to the various issues that have arisen lately, Business-

Day has learnt.

It was further learnt that the meeting which held in the boardroom of AMCON had in attendance representatives of the

obligor company (Shebah Exploration and Production Limited), ABC Orjiako (the Guarantor of the loan), the representatives of the lenders Afrexim bank, Ac-

cess bank and Polaris bank of which is the subject of an Order of the Federal High Court made on August 15, 2019, representa-

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businessday market monitor

Biggest Loser

Biggest Gainer OKOMUOIL N44.15 6.13pc

WAPCO N14.50 27,252.09

-3.01pc

Foreign Reserve - $43.18bn Cross Rates - GBP-$:1.23 YUANY-N 50.71 Commodities Cocoa

US$2,245.00

Gold

$1,528.70

news you can trust I **FRIDAY 06 SEPTEMBER 2019 I vol. 19, no 388

₦3,728,268.72 -0.12pc

$61.00

N300

Foreign Exchange

Buy

Sell

$-N 357.00 360.00 £-N 438.00 450.00 €-N 390.00 399.00

Crude Oil

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FMDQ Close

Everdon Bureau De Change

Bitcoin

NSE

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www.

Market I&E FX Window CBN Official Rate Currency Futures

($/N)

fgn bonds

Treasury bills

Spot ($/N)

3M

362.19 306.90

0.00 13.22

NGUS NOV 27 2019 363.97

6M

5Y

-0.46

0.02

13.73

14.38

NGUS FEB 26 2020 364.42

10 Y 0.05

20 Y 0.00

14.36

14.56

NGUS SEP 30 2020 365.47

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Travel to South Africa declines on shutdowns, FG’s advisory

Businesses face delay, demurrage payment as 24-hour port operation collapses

OBINNA EMELIKE

wo years after the acting president Yemi Osinbajo signed Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business, which mandates government

UAE, East African destinations gain

T

ravel and tourism related businesses in Nigeria with huge outbound clientele to South Africa are beginning to witness a decline just some hours after the Nigerian government issued travel advisory on South Africa.

Most of the businesses, especially tour operators and travel agencies are seeing booking

T

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Inside Sanwo-Olu and the Greater P. 2 Lagos vision FG yet to recall High P. 2 Commissioner to SA - Presidency

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

L-R: Warren Cuyler, general manager, Symrise Nigeria; Rene Hemeier, vice president, Fragrance Division (Africa, Middle East and Turkey); Eberhard Süßle, vice president, Creation and Application Category Culinary EAME; Thomas Dressler, president, EAME Fragrances and Oral care; Alexander Lichter, vice president, Flavour sales EAME; Rudy McLean, managing director, Symrise Nigeria; Sofiane Berrahmoune, Sub Regional Flavour Director Africa and Middle East MD Symrise ME Flavour Division, and Daniel Ibarra, vice president EAME Cosmetic Ingredients Division, at the press conference to launch Symrise Application Laboratory, held at Radisson Blu Ikeja, Lagos.

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news XENOPHOBIA

FG yet to recall High Commissioner to SA - Presidency

...says govt. working to de- escalate tension ...as SA temporarily closes embassy Tony Ailemen, Abuja

I

African leaders including SA President Cyril Ramaphosa point the way to economic growth at WEF in Cape Town

World Bank says Nigeria’s $10bn losses on neglect of agric sector worrisome ....Sterling Bank commits N55bn to agric financing Onyinye Nwachukwu & Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja

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he World Bank on Thursday lamented Nigeria’s continued neglect of its agriculture sector which is costing the country as much as $10bn annual losses despite huge potential of jobs and wealth.

World Bank Senior Agriculture Economist, Adetunji Oredipe, who was the keynote speaker the at the Sterling Bank agriculture summit holding in Abuja said if Nigeria had held to its market share in palm oil, cocoa, groundnut and cotton, it would be earning at least $10 billion per year from these commodities and depend less on oil.

This year ’s summit, themed: “Agriculture- your piece of $ 1 trillion economy “ was inspired by the World

Banks’s projection that the agriculture would exceed one trillion dollars in market value within the next decade.

Oredipe raised concerns that Nigeria has now become one of the largest food importers in the world despite comparative advantage.

“In 2016 alone, Nigeria spent $965 Million on the importation of wheat, $39.7 Million to import rice and $100.2 Million on sugar imports. The decision to spend $655Million on fish importation seems financially indiscreet given all the marine resources, rivers, lakes, and creeks in Nigeria”. “ None of the above transactions is fiscally, economically, or politically sustainable,” he noted at the event well attended by government officials and private sector operators.

He explained that under capitalization has hindered

the sector over the years as bank lending to agriculture sector remain poor at 3 percent, coupled with perceived high risk of investment and demand for collateral.

“Nigeria has over the years lost its place in the agriculture sphere as it has in recent recorded a drop in it’s agriculture export activities. Nigeria is no longer listed among the first 50 Nations in agriculture export”. The World Bank specialist said failure of the country to maximize its potential in agriculture is responsible for poor quality life of majority of its citizens.

“This problem has greatly affected the quest for improved quality of life for Nigerians. Nigeria has huge agricultural potential evidenced by an arable land potential of 98 million ha, out of which 74 million ha is cultivatable.

Sadly, till to-date, Nigeria’s

agricultural potential remains untapped. Only 34 million ha (being 48%) is currently being cultivated for agricultural uses.”

Quoting the FAO report on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa, he expressed concerns that Africa, especially Nigeria and Mozambique, have vast areas of savannahs that can become the breadbasket for the rest of the world, if properly harnessed.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, the value of agriculture in Nigeria at constant 2010 dollars was 110 billion dollars (World Bank, 2016).

This is projected to grow to 256 billion dollars by 2030.

The growth is expected to come from yield expansion (44%), area expansion (33%) and diversification into high value crops (23%)” .

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

100 DAYS IN OFFICE

Sanwo-Olu and the Greater Lagos vision Gbenga Omotoso

W

e all saw it as a simple exercise to shake off that lethargic feeling that often visits after a heavy lunch or a short night rest. Or a physical exercise to keep us awake. It all turned out to be that and more – the power of dreams, sheer imagination, some deep thinking and a test of the fecundity of the human mind.

“Just close your eyes and imagine the Lagos of your dream, the Lagos you would like to see.” That was the directive from the instructor at one of the sessions during the three-day retreat for members of the Lagos State Executive Council and Permanent Secretaries.

The results were as exciting as they were imaginary. Some

dreamt of a Lagos at peace with nature – beautiful parks and gardens, with exotic flowers and lush green grass, clean air and seductive beaches on which coconut trees sprout freely.

Others saw a Lagos with smooth and wide roads, free of pestering street hawkers and traffic robbers. A Lagos where nobody goes to bed without food, where no kid misses the education train for lack of money, where the old are catered for, where all have access to good healthcare and where religious harmony thrives. A Lagos driven by technology, where investors will be willing to stake their cash and jobs will be more available.

Again, the power of dreams. “Are these possible?”

“Can we do it?” “Yes; we can!” we all screamed. www.businessday.ng

That has been the team spirit propelling the administration of Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat, which is 100 days old today, having been inaugurated on May 29 to lead the journey to that “Greater Lagos” we all dreamt of.

Driving the vision are the Six Pillars of Development, with the lyrical acronym, T.H.E.M.E.S, which stands for Traffic Management & Transportation, Health & Environment, Education & Technology, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy, Entertainment & Tourism as well as Security & Governance.

At the centre of it all are the people. That is the song that Mr. Sanwo-Olu sings, believing that a policy is most meaningful when it is immensely beneficial to the people. Has

the administration kept to this line of thought, considering its actions? Discerning members of the public, among who the good people of Lagos number, will surely testify to this.

An 110-bed Maternal and Childcare Centre (MCC), a four-storey edifice that is a piece of architectural delight, was opened on Tuesday at Eti Osa Local Government to boost the battle against infant and maternal mortality, with plans to upgrade the facility to a general hospital. A beautiful school, 12 blocks of classrooms, built in partnership with the state government and the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Tabernacle of David Parish in Alaguntan village, also in Eti Osa, was opened.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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n what appears to be a move to de-escalate tensions between Nigeria and South Africa, the Presidency on Thursday said Nigeria is yet to recall its High Commissioner in South Africa.

This is according to a Senior President Source at the Presidency who spoke to Journalists on Thursday.

“A recall at this time, even if not ruled out would be a short-sighted move. Not having diplomatic contact is not a good development for now. Our envoy will remain at his post,” the top Presidency aide who did not want his name in print, said.

“What President Muhammadu Buhari did was to request the foreign minister to speak to his counterpart in South Africa to convey the seriousness of the concerns of the government and people of Nigeria. This, he has already done.”

“The meaning of recall of Ambassador is an indication of extreme displeasure and disagreement, a sign of how grievous things have deteriorated between any two countries. It is the penultimate step before the breaking off of diplomatic relationship.

“Nigeria does not seek escalation of the on-going situation. We will work with South Africa to find solutions to their problems which have become our own problem.

We will work as brothers. That is the by the mission by the President’s Special Envoy to South Africa, is going ahead.”

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, also on Thursday urged African leaders to strive to protect the rights and businesses of fellow Africans within their domain.

Jonathan, against the backdrop of recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa, in a key note address at the ongoing International Peace Summit in Sao Tome and Principe, said that sustainable development is only possible in an atmosphere of peace and security.

According to him, “To make meaningful progress, Africans must be encouraged to treat one another as brothers and sisters, in love and unity. Relations within and between nations should never be allowed to degenerate to a level where citizens will resort to self-help by visiting violence on fellow Africans and their legitimate business interests.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

Nigerian second quarter corporate spending rises as GDP disappoints BALA AUGIE

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igerian companies raised spending on plant, property and equipment (PP&E) in January to June, underscoring the resilience of capital expenditure amid a slow growing economy and dampened business confidence.

Firms raised capital expenditure by 19.10 percent to N293.74 billion in the second quarter of 2019, data gathered

MARKETS

by BusinessDay shows.

The current figure is however lower than the N312.15 billion recorded in 2017 when the introduction of a new foreign exchange regime and a rebound in crude oil price paved the way for companies to access dollars for purpose of importing raw materials and equipment.

Analysts say capital investment by large corporates has been slow because the level of growth doesn’t encourage investment in productive assets.

When people buy homes, and spend more on food, then companies will acquired as@Businessdayng

sets to meet demand.

“There hasn’t been much investment in in physical asset as the country is yet to recover from the recession of 2016,” said Johnson Chukwu, managing director and CEO of Cowry Asset Management Limited.

“The economy is not optimising its resources so a lot of companies are not operating at full capacity,” said Chukwu.

The country’s gross domestic product expanded 1.94 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier, according to a recent data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

That compares with a revised expansion of 2.1 percent year on year and 2.38 percent in the first quarter (Q1) and the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2018.

After the aftermath of the 2016 recession, growth in the economy is still stuck below the pre-recession and pre-oil price shocks levels.

While there is a gradual recovery, many sectors are yet to recover from the clear downturn in the economy.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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news Rest of Africa fought with us in our darkest hour, Ramaphosa says in broadcast

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resident Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has called on South Africans to remain calm in the face of the xenophobic violence that has spread across parts of Gauteng over the past two weeks.

In a televised address to the nation on Thursday evening, Ramaphosa spoke out against recent incidents of gender-based violence and the “deeply traumatising” attacks on foreign nationals.

The reportedly co-ordinated attacks have seen residents going on the rampage, looting foreign-owned businesses in Tembisa, Alexandra, Hillbrow, Cleveland, Jeppestown, the Johannesburg CBD, and parts of the East Rand. Similar protests took place in the

Pretoria CBD last week.

“The debris of several days of violence and looting continues to litter many of the streets of our country. People have lost their lives ... families have been traumatised and livelihoods destroyed,” Ramaphosa said.

“At least, 10 people have been killed in violence, two of whom are foreign nationals.

No amount of anger, frustration and grievance can justify such acts. People from other countries on our continent stood with us in our darkest hours during the struggle of apartheid.”

He said people needed to stop disseminating fake videos and photographs.

“This misinformation is also being disseminated in neighbouring countries ...

causing panic. Let us not be provoked … this is a time for calm. It is a time for all of us who live in this beautiful country to confront our challenges directly and ... not through violence but dialogue.”

MTN and MultiChoice closed their stores in Nigeria on Wednesday after they came under attack, while Shoprite’s stores at home and in Zambia and Nigeria were shut after being damaged in retaliation for the xenophobic attacks in SA. The SA High Commission in Abuja and its consulate in Lagos, Nigeria, were also closed following threats of violence, the department of international relations confirmed on Thursday.

NAIP to establish Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industrial park ... to replicate Ethiopia’s model ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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ith an aim to transform the Nigeria’s health sector, the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) is set to establish the first pharmaceutical industrial park in Anambra State, therefore calls on the government to support the innovation for the growth of the country’s economy.

Despite the challenges facing manufacturers in the Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector and the difficult environment they operate, industry experts are still optimistic about the prospect.

The plan for the industrial park comes in line with Nigeria’s pharmaceutical manufacturing development strategy as a disruptive innovation capable of solving health problems, and expected to modernise the health management system and secure healthy pharmaceutical supply chain.

“The park would play a key role in availing the basic and essential medicines at local market, which is expected to attract the investors to join the park when

it comes to completion,” said Ignatius Anukwu, NAIP’s national chairman at 2019 CEOs’ forum held recently in Lagos.

“While we improve on the capacity of what we produce in Nigeria, let us innovate, because it is by innovation that we can earn moreandaddmorevalue,”hesaid.

The new pharmaceutical park is expected to meet the country’s demand for a continuous supply of required medicines for the citizens by adding value to the goal of a sustainable health reform for Nigerians.

Reflecting on Ethiopia’s pharmaceutical industrial park model, Chimezie Anyakora, a stakeholder in his presentation, said the government of Ethiopia considered pharmaceutical manufacturing a priority for its economic growth strategy.

“Kilinto Industrial Park is a state-of-the-art that has specialised pharmaceutical manufacturing, with all necessary infrastructures in Ethiopia; we have to make such happen here in Nigeria,” he said.

However, the Ethiopian pharmaceutical market is expected

to grow at 15 percent per year to reach nearly $1 billion by 2020.

One of the possible solutions to the problem is to develop local manufacturing capacity and ensure that quality medicines produced nationally are more affordable than imported ones.

Also speaking during the forum, Sam Ohuabunwa, president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), said NAIP had come in with it vision and plans even if the government was an issue, noting that the industry must also work with the government.

“Access to essential medicines is an integral component of universalhealthcoverage.By2025,the strategy aims to meet 50 percent of the local needs for essential medicines through local manufacturing,” Ohuabunwa said.

According to Ohuabunwa, it is important we keep moving in the pharm industry in proper value and direction, and we must have a change that is sustainable in the industry, because new things have been discovered and there is enough space to collaborate.

NDLEA arrests 64 drug smugglers at Lagos airport in nine months Ifeoma Okeke

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ational Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has carried out 54 seizures and arrested 64 drug smugglers in the last nine months.

Garba Ahmadu, the agency head for Lagos State command, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, who spoke at the Lagos office Thursday, said his command was determined to rid the country of drug smugglers putting the lives of others at risk by making them work as mules.

Ahmadu said the agency recently arrested a 55-yearold man, Kouassi Jean Paul, also known as Eze Ikechuwku, during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airline flight to Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ikechukwu had swallowed 80 wraps of methamphet-

amine and freely excreted 79 wraps with one trapped in his system.

“We are not relenting in our fight against drugs and so far, the amount of drugs seized from suspects from January 2019 to August 31, 2019 stand at 260.202kg of drugs. Among them are cocaine, 20.360, heroin, 15.040kg, cannabis sativa, 112.242, methamphetamine, 84.920 and ephedrine, 28.140kg.

“The suspect was referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) from NAF clinic and on June 18, 2019, a CT scan was carried out on him. He was examined by a team of top medical specialist led by the chief consultant surgeon and a senior resident doctor at LASUTH. “The specialist recommended an advance scan and on June 26, 2019, the endoscopy was carried out. Surgical www.businessday.ng

operation was carried out on the suspect and the remaining one wrap trapped in his system was extracted,” he said.

The suspect, Ikechuwkwu, confirmed to reporters that he ingested 80 pellets of meth but said he was saved when the doctors extracted them from his stomach.

He however expressed remorse for his actions, saying he would not advise anyone to undertake such a venture because of the risks involved.

“I was lured into the drug business because I was passing through financial difficulty. I met a man who promised to help me out of the difficulty and he introduced me to someone else who gave me the drugs to transport to Indonesia.

“I ingested them but I was caught at the airport and doctors had to open up my stomach to bring out all the 80 pellets,” Ikechuwku said. https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

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The Anglo-Irish $9.6 billion judicial swindle against Nigeria (1) THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

OBADIAH MAILAFIA

O

n Friday 16 August, Justice Butcher of the London Admiralty Court awarded a record-breaking $9.8 billion against the federal government of Nigeria for breach of contract involving a shadowy off-theshelf company, Process and Industrial Development Limited (PI&D).

Christopher Butcher QC is reputed to be among the most formidable judges in England today. A first class graduate of Magdalene College Cambridge; he is also a Vinerian Scholar and Prize Fellow of All Souls College Oxford, with a doctorate from King’s College University of London, to boot.

But his judgement is flawed.

The award grants the claimants leave to seize of Nigeria’s commercial assets at sea and on land; including ships and oil tankers, gold deposits, shares, bonds, securities, real estate and central bank reserves owned by our government.

This may well go down as one of our worst debacles ever, comparable only to the 2009 loss of the strategic Bakassi Peninsula at the World Court. The latter was presided over by a French jurist, Gilbert Guillaume, whose country had strategic neo-colonial interests in the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula. We stood no chance whatsoever.

The late Judge Taslim Olawale Elias, a former President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and by far our greatest jurist ever, warned us to avoid taking the matter to The Hague. But our

greedy lawyers only saw dollars and gave the wrong advice to the then military government. As a consequence, we lost forever the most strategic naval outpost on the south eastern corridor of our great country.

Today, the dogs are returning to their own vomit. Philosophers of history tell us that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce.

In 2010 PI&D signed a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in respect of the accelerated gas development project in Nigeria’s OMLs 67 and 123. The objective was to build a facility to process raw gas into lean gas to generate electricity. The company was to build a gas facility wholly at its own expense but was to export the by-products – methane, propane, hydrogen sulphides and nitrogen – for a profit. The government on its part would lay gas pipelines and other infrastructure while delivering gas to the processing plant.

After two years of no-show, in 2012 PI&D took the matter to a London arbitration tribunal, claiming damages for breach of contract. They argued that, in failing to build the required pipelines, the government failed to fulfil its part of the bargain. Meanwhile they had not begun building the plant. They claimed to have made several futile attempts to engage with the government in finding a practical way out of the impasse; it coincided with one the most difficult periods in our country.

President Umaru Yar’Adua was afflicted with life-threatening illness throughout his presidency from May 2007; dying in a Saudi hospital in March 2010, precisely around the time the contract was supposedly signed on his behalf by his petroleum Minister, Rilwan Lukman, who was himself a sick man.

In May 3, 2015, at the tail end of the Goodluck Jonathan administration the company wrote expressing willingness to accept a settlement of $850 million.

Note again the timing. According to a spokesman for the erstwhile ad-

ministration, Reno Omokri, President Jonathan did not feel comfortable making such a payment in the eve of his departure for fear that it might grossly be misunderstood. I imagine that he would have asterisked the issue in his hand-over notes to President Muhammadu Buhari when he took over on 29 May 2015.

Buhari is not a statesman who could master his own brief; being more of a latter-day Caliph who prefers to leave the tiresome business of governing to his grateful subalterns. And like his fellow kinsman from Katsina, he was and remains a sick man. It took him a good six months to form a cabinet, in November 2015. As a consequence there was no Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in place when, in July 2015, the tribunal awarded PI&D US$1.9 billion in damages. The three members of the tribunal were: Leonard Hubert Baron Hoffmann, Anthony Evans and Bayo Ojo, a former Attorney-General.

Hoffman, a QC, is a retired judge and a recognised London arbitrator.

A former Rhodes Scholar from South Africa, Hoffman was one of the most influential Law Lords on the British legal firmament. But he is also known to be controversial; occasionally prone to delivering judgements that raise eyebrows.

Would it also be fair to speculate that Lord Hoffmann might have been desirous of making a punitive award against Nigeria commensurate with the $5.2 billion (negotiated down to $3.2billion) that our NCC lumbered on South African telecoms giant MTN? Evans is a former Lord Justice of Appeal and also Chief Justice of the Dubai International Financial Centre Court. They are hardly the type to be sympathetic to Nigeria.

Bayo Ojo, a SAN, was said to have delivered a dissenting opinion, arguing that the award should never have exceeded $250 million. Being a former Attorney-General of Nigeria, he should have recused himself. They might have placed him there merely to give a semblance of fairness. I would have preferred someone like Fidelis Odita, a QC and SAN, and arguably the great-

‘

Ignored problems don’t go away automatically.

Under international law, governments may change, but the state continues. For better or worse, a government inherits the assets and liabilities of its predecessors

est financial and capital markets legal luminary in Britain.

On 31 January 2017, the tribunal rendered a final award of $6.597 billion against Nigeria. The figure was revised upwards based on calculation of 7 percent interest effective from 20 March 2013, leading to a total figure of $9.8 billion.

From the word go, the Buhari administration smelt a rat. The erstwhile PDP administration, if truth be told, was deeply mired in grand larceny such as we had never seen before in the oil sector. According to London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs, our treasury was losing something like $1 billion per month from oil theft. The excesses of people like Diezani AllisonMadueke stank to the high heavens.

Try as we may, we cannot deodorise the stench of those years. This explains why the current administration thought to distance itself from the case.

But it was a big mistake. Ignored problems don’t go away automatically.

Under international law, governments may change, but the state continues.

For better or worse, a government inherits the assets and liabilities of its predecessors.

The government rightly argues that the scale of the award is odious; ruinously extortionate. They are countersuing in the US; arguing that London is not the right jurisdiction on a case of this nature. The EFCC describes it as “daylight robbery” and is launching a forensic investigation. AttorneyGeneral Abubakar Malami predictably blamed the PDP administration for “conniving with local and international contractors in a bid to inflict grave economic adversity on the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the good people of Nigeria”. (To concluded next week) 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)

Invent a greener milk carton for the world

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he humble milk carton has been part of our lives for so long that it is easy to forget that it was a marvel when it first appeared in 1952. Tetra Pak’s technology made a billionaire of Hans Rausing, scion of the company’s Swedish founding family, who died last week at the age of 93.

The Tetra Pak cartons, made from layers of paperboard and polyethylene, soon displaced glass bottles because they were far lighter and could easily be stacked and distributed. Its aseptic carton, with a layer of aluminium foil that allowed heat-treated milk to remain fresh, followed in 1961.

But every technology has drawbacks and Rausing died at the moment when those of plastic are becoming distressingly obvious.

Landfills are stuffed with bottles and cartons, and trillions of pieces of plastic float in the world’s oceans. What happens to the 189bn Tetra Pak containers made last year as they are discarded?

Carton makers such as Tetra Pak and SIG Combibloc of Germany are far from the only contributors to the ballooning volumes of packaging waste. In some ways, they are encouraging recycling. But the rise of the carton shows how complex and difficult is the environmental challenge.

The case for cartons is simple: they may be better than the alternatives. They are easy to transport and a study for German carton

makers found that they have 78 per cent less climate impact than glass bottles. They also contain 75 per cent paper and only about 20 per cent plastic.

When collected and taken back to a specialist mill, they are also fairly recyclable.

Their various layers separate out into paper, plastic and aluminium fibres when pulped in liquid, allowing the paper fibre to be mixed with virgin wood pulp and turned into cardboard boxes, tissues and the like.

This is the good news; the rest is less hopeful. First, recycling is far from universal even in Europe, which has a better record than the US. Only 47 per cent of materials from the 37bn beverage cartons made for European countries in 2016 were recycled.

Cartons are also prone to a broader paradox — as economies advance, people tend to recycle more but also to consume more.

Croatia’s overall recycling rate for packaging in 2016 was 55 per cent, compared with Germany’s 71 per cent, but the average German generated four times as much packaging waste as the average Croatian.

This is a frightening prospect on a global scale. McKinsey & Co, the consultancy firm, estimates that China will comprise 28 per cent of the global packaging market by 2022 and emerging economies such as Vietnam suffer from widespread dumping not only of plastic bottles but of cartons.

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Second, paperboard is easier to recycle than the plastic, or the 4 per cent aluminium content of aseptic cartons. In theory, the plastic and aluminium fibres that emerge from the soup of old cartons can be turned to other uses — the metal can become material for roofing tiles, while the polymer can be melted into pellets for gas heating or steam.

In practice, this only happens patchily and, as one study put it, “complete recycling in the strict sense is currently not feasible for beverage cartons”. A carton is carefully bonded and constructed, often with a plastic lid and a straw fixed to the side; what Tetra Pak has joined together is not easily put asunder.

Consumer consciousness of plastic waste is rising sharply, thanks to campaigns against ocean pollution. But people still like the convenience of cartons and they offer many benefits, including access to fresh milk and juice in countries without sophisticated supply chains and refrigeration.

This means companies such as Tetra Pak need to do more to make their products not only useful but also sustainable. In the short term, that involves stronger links with recycling mills and waste companies to ensure that the containers they pump into the world are returned and reused.

Tetra Pak last year agreed a partnership with Veolia, the French waste management group, to recycle more polymer and alu-

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JOHN GAPPER

minium fibres from cartons for industrial use in Europe. Along with other carton makers, it is also increasing its use of recycled and environmentally approved raw materials, such as wood pulp from certified forests.

In the long term, the company faces a huge technological challenge to get to what it says is its ultimate aim — to construct cartons entirely out of renewable materials, including recycled plastic. Cartons would then no longer require fresh supplies of polymer from oil and gas refineries.

It sounds improbable but innovation in materials science was what originally enabled the milk carton. That also took a long time to perfect from the first idea of creating a tetrahedral paper carton in 1944 to the manufacture of aseptic containers 17 years later. As Hans Rausing’s father, Ruben, observed: “Doing something that nobody else has done before is actually quite hard.”

The multilayer carton turned out to be a far more useful invention than even the Rausings realised at the time. But, like plastic bottles and aluminium cans, it was imperfect.

Making it greener is a worthwhile project.

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The Johnson & Johnson judgement

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few days ago, a court in the state of Oklahoma gave a judgement that sent ripples through the health industry in the US, especially the rich, powerful and politically connected part of it euphemistically referred to as ‘Big Pharma’. The judge found the multinational company Johnson & Johnson guilty in a suit brought against it by the State of Oklahoma. He awarded damages of $572 million against the company.

Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world, with a market capitalisation of $346.1 billion. It has subsidiaries with brand names recognised all over the world, such as Janssen Pharmaceutical, Janssen Cilag, Neutrogena, DePuy Synthes, Ethicon, Actelion and several others.

Members of the board are not exactly going to be selling the shirt off their back to stave off bankruptcy.

The issues though, go much deeper and may represent the beginning of a fightback by mainstream society in a battle that is devastating and debilitating whole neighbourhoods in the US and some other countries.

For more than half a century, there

has been a growing problem concerning the use and misuse of opium and its derivatives. This has culminated in a situation in which the US – a country with 5 percent of the population of the world, was consuming 95 percent of the opiates in the world. Clearly the country had a problem, and it was not just about pain, but addiction.

The problem was already at its apogee by the time President Donald Trump got into office in 2017. To date, lives of countless young people have been wrecked by opiate addiction.

A culture of crime, indolence and disease has been fostered in an age demographic that was supposed to be the most productive in society.

The black community has been especially hard hit, but no segment of society has been spared. White collar professionals, high school dropouts, even doctors, nurses and other health professionals have been consumed in the epidemic.

The Oklahoma court case is really something of a test case as society seeks an answer to the question – “Who, or what, is to be held responsible for so many wrecked lives?”

In the 1980s Johnson & Johnson saw a business opportunity in scaling up production to meet the increasing prescriptions by doctors of powerful opium-based drugs for patients who were living with painful conditions such as arthritis, various cancers and sickle cell anaemia. The patients themselves were demanding powerful painkillers from their doctors. It was said that the pharmaceutical companies in subtle ways influenced both the demand and the readiness of doctors to prescribe the drugs.

The company decided that it needed a larger supply of opium in order to

increase the production of their popular painkiller – Tylenol with codeine.

They bought up a company that grew opium poppies in Tasmania, on the coast of Australia. By 2015, not only were they producing more Tylenol with codeine, but they also became the leading supplier of the raw ingredient for painkillers in the US. They developed a special strain of opium poppy that provided the core agent in Oxycontin, a product that became a blockbuster prescription drug for Purdue Pharma, a major drug company, raking in billions of dollars in revenue.

In singling out J&J for judgement last week, Judge Thad Balkman of Cleveland County District Court in Norman, Oklahoma averred that the company should be held at least partly responsible for decades of opioid addiction and thousands of overdose deaths in the State of Oklahoma. The judge cited the overly aggressive marketing tactics of the company.

Of course, Johnson & Johnson has denied culpability, and promised to appeal the judgement.

The Johnson & Johnson brand has been facing some perception challenges in the recent past. There have been a spate of lawsuits claiming its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, and there have been cases claiming harm from its pelvic mesh and its antistroke drug Xarelto.

The nervous anticipation concerning the Oklahoma court verdict turned out to have been exaggerated, as the price of the company’s stock actually rose following the court ruling. Perhaps the investors were exhaling in relief, because they had expected the judgement to be more severe!

However, the true effect of the Johnson & Johnson judgment may

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A culture of crime, indolence and disease has been fostered in an age demographic that was supposed to be the most productive in society.

The black community has been especially hard hit, but no segment of society has been spared

be to open up the pandora’s box and lead to new lawsuits, not just by governments now, but also individual and class-action suits by patients and families, suing to be compensated for wrecked lives.

Interestingly, some years ago, the Lagos state government of Babatunde Raji Fashola seriously mulled and elaborately prepared for a similar lawsuit. The Lagos case was going to be against tobacco companies, who were responsible for tobacco-related illnesses and deaths that were daily recorded in every one of the health facilities in the state. Doctors compiled and collated the costs of such treatments undertaken in the 26 or so secondary and tertiary health facilities owned by the Lagos State government.

As expected, the total came to a humongous sum.

The case did not get to court. Perhaps it is still work in progress. Fashola was probably working ahead of his time. Without a doubt, such laws suits will come up in Nigeria in the not-toodistant future.

Meanwhile, opiate addiction continues to ravage many nations, including Nigeria, as society struggles to balance the use of drugs that are necessary to make life bearable for an increasing population of human beings who live daily with pain, with the increasing misuse of the same drugs, which is wrecking lives in the inner cities of the US, as well as in the squalid dives of Ipodo, Lagos, and Kano, and Kaduna.

Femi Olugbile is a Writer and Psychiatrist. Comments to synthesiz@gmail.com’

Hate, business and African-style competition

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frica is such a beautiful and blessed continent and Africans its greatest resource.

This sounds clichéd but, why are we still poor, unsupportive and dysfunctional?

With the recent xenophobia-fuelled attacks in South Africa and the reprisal attacks in Nigeria on my mind, let’s explore the challenges, common grounds and likely solutions.

Typically, I am usually silent around political issues especially in public writing and on social media. When the war over heated issues are taken to social media, gory videos and unrelated posts are shared to make a point and end up fuelling more hate and violence.

Social media has made it easier than ever to propagate hate. But an eye for an eye leaves us all blind.

Xenophobia isn’t the main issue but misguided youths and misplaced anger and priorities. The same attacks we see on the streets take place diplomatically within industries and even between colleagues in boardrooms. The xenophobia in South Africa and tribalism in Nigeria have similar a cause. It’s the mentality of crabs in a bucket.

Put a crab in a bucket and it will claw and craw its way out.. Put a bunch of crabs in a bucket none will successfully climb out. You can travel and come back and you’ll meet all of them together. When crabs are in a group not one gets to leave; if any try to climb out the others will bring it down; this continues for as long as they are together.

Our ideology and disposition to competition is worrisome. It’s the highest level of dysfunctional thinking, mediocrity and poverty mentality. This poverty mindset is the common ground

of Africans. It’s our common enemy, alongside corruption.

This strange mentality of crabs in a bucket fuels jealousy, hate and invariably, xenophobia or racism and tribalism in Nigeria where we stereotype people and attack them too. In life and in business, there are systems and people with the crab mentality of “if I can’t have it, neither can you”. This is how Africans deal with competition and their peers. From our kindred, to villages, to cities, and boardrooms we see this mentality.

In the boardroom, our colleagues ideally shouldn’t be a threat, but most people think so and it fuels jealousy and unproductive politics. This is same with bilateral trade and international relations. Poverty, mediocrity and jealousy are the greatest threats of Africa not our fellow African brothers and sisters.

Note that about 10 percent of South Africa’s population owns 90 percent of the country’s wealth, according to the South African Human Rights Commission. The commission also reported in 2018 that 60 percent of black South Africans live in poverty, while just 1 percent of white South Africans are poor. So the real enemies are not foreigners in the same struggle as them.

Trevoh Noah, the South African comedian says, “When I hear South Africans claiming that other Africans are competing with them on dwindling/scarce resources, I say that our anger and outrage is misplaced.”

He continues “Yours is a complete misplaced anger, prejudice and xenophobia built up out of inferiority complex created by decades of apartheid and oppression. I don’t see fellow

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African as a competitor but a fellow compatriot who is struggling to feed his family and have some comfort in this short life-time”.

Our common enemy is poverty and the inability to think right. Black on black crime has always been a manifestation of hate. The white slave trader didn’t into the hinterlands to capture slaves, a black man like you and I did.

Then the hands of the enslaved were chained, today it’s our minds. Let’s not lose sight of our shared destiny while fighting ourselves offline and online.

I like to joke that, “the next world war will be started online”. Social media is a powerful invention. It’s a great place to tell the world what you’re thinking before you’ve had a chance to think about it. And that’s the problem. In a previous article I wrote that the African mindset of “I don’t have much because you do” is a witchcraft mentality and the root cause of our problem as Africans.

I think the most effective way to fight xenophobia is lies in applying diplomatic pressures on bilateral relationships. It will push South Africa to put it house in order.

Retaliating with violence affects those that have nothing to do with it. Boycotts of the goods and services of South African businesses in Nigeria is a mirage –neither you nor your wife will unsubscribe from DStv, or stop buying what you can get cheaply at Shoprite or Pep Store.

As a country we don’t have the grit or mental sophistication and discipline as a people to carry out boycotts. The likely solution may be business diplomacy. The US is good at this. In other words isolate the South African nation using trade agreements; fiscal and monetary

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policy that make it unfavorable for South African businesses to thrive outside their country while encouraging your people to come back home.

No nation is totally self-sufficient; South Africa is not even close. Everyone is in interdependent. Growth comes from the interdependence.

We can use subliminal business blacklisting, international diplomacy via AU, ECOWAS, UN, and other trade groups like World Economic Summits to get this done.

Whether in our families, businesses or across nations, Healthy competition should be allowed it spurs innovation and progress.

We should move from being competitive to complementary. When Competition grows into full-fledge jealousy then that’s backward integration into the cave age. Africans need to be progressive. We need to embrace rather than attack each other. We have to work together to uplift our continent. We must protect each other wherever we find ourselves.

Uwaoma is a start-up, corporate restructuring and strategy consultant. He writes via contacteizu@gmail.com

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

EDITORIAL PUBLISHER/CEO

Frank Aigbogun EDITOR Patrick Atuanya DEPUTY EDITOR John Osadolor, Abuja NEWS EDITOR Chuks Oluigbo EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STRATEGY, INNOVATION & PARTNERSHIPS Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Ijeoma Ude FINANCE MANAGER Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (South East, South South) Patrick Ijegbai COPY SALES MANAGER Florence Kadiri DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

Booming Bangladesh holds lessons for Nigeria

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angladesh, a former economic basket cas e renowned for poverty and famine, has turned the tide to become one of the five fastest-growing economies in the world. The South Asian country of 160 million people holds lessons for Nigeria on how a poor, populous, diverse and backward country can navigate poverty, unemployment and poor infrastructure to launch itself onto the path of growth and sustainable development.

Bangladesh which gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a fratricidal war has grown its GDP by more than 5 percent consistently since 2005. Last year, it recorded a GDP growth of 7.9 percent. In 209, the World Bank projects its GDP to grow by 7.3 percent, propelled by robust private consumption and the successes of its garment and pharmaceutical industries.

It’s the world’s secondlargest apparel exporter behind China; its ready-made

garment industry is worth over $33 billion. It also has a highly developed and vibrant pharmaceutical industry providing about 97 percent of total medicinal requirements of the local market and is also a leading drug exporter to the rest of the world.

From using carts as a means of transportation, Bangladesh now builds ships and depends less on foreign aid. It is also the largest jute producer in the world and is food sufficient.

This was not always the case.

In 1971, Bangladesh had the highest rural population density in the entire world, and an annual population growth rate between 2.5 and 3 percent, chronic malnutrition for perhaps the majority of the people, and the dislocation of between 8 million and 10 million people who had fled to India and returned to independent Bangladesh in 1972.

The new nation had few experienced entrepreneurs, managers, administrators, engineers, or technicians. There were critical shortages of essential food grains and other staples because

of wartime disruptions. External markets for jute had been lost because of the instability of supply and the increasing popularity of synthetic substitutes. Three out of four Bangladeshis lived in poverty and low economic growth throughout the 1980s suggested that a large number of households would remain trapped in chronic poverty.

Foreign exchange resources were minuscule, and the banking and monetary system was unreliable. Although Bangladesh had a large workforce, the vast reserves of undertrained and underpaid workers were largely illiterate, unskilled, and underemployed. Commercially exploitable industrial resources, except for natural gas, were lacking. Inflation, especially for essential consumer goods, ran between 300 and 400 percent.

But from the late 1990s the country began to reposition itself, educating and empowering its women (female enrolment in schools outnumber male). It promoted aggressive economic as well as financial inclusion for all its citizens especially the rural poor. It reformed its agri-

culture, garment and pharmaceutical industries to flourish.

According to the IMF, “Bangladesh has succeeded in fostering a dynamic and fast-growing economy with significant poverty reduction.”

However, challenges remain.

Bangladesh still has weak private sector investments, relatively low foreign direct investment (FDI) – less than 1 percent of GDP) –, a high non-performing loan ratio in the banking sector (a risk to financial stability), multiple taxes and lack of regulatory predictability.

Still, reforms are being made to encourage private sector investment and FDI inflows.

The country is also planning on issuance of National Savings Certificates, which is expected to deepen the capital market.

Certainly, Nigeria, which was in a far better position than Bangladesh at independence, but is now the poverty capital of the world with severe infrastructure deficit and a mono-product economy, has a lot to learn from the success of Bangladesh which has grown consistently for the past 14 years and counting.

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

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When women beg TALES FROM THE MAIN ROAD

EUGENIA ABU

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t has not always been like this but now we are reeling daily from sexfor-marks and all other related sex-for-everything issues.

Beyond the bad men and boys who compromise women daily and rape our teenagers, children and women across the world, there are those women who provide the ammunition for all manners of dastardly acts that put all women to shame.

Let me frontload my caveat, there is no excuse for rape or abuse of any form even if the woman turns up in her pant, you can run for your dear life. Where is your discipline, selfcontrol and faith?

All men must have that internal mechanism and a radar that says this one is trouble and head for the door, if an unsolicited pant is upon you and believe me, they abound. These days they are in car parks, are online and are stalking you on the phone. They take your number from the minutes of the church fund-raising committee and call you pretending to know you.

These viper women are all over the place, learn to spot and avoid.

Women seeking to destroy families and bring full grown men to tears and pain are running riot across the

world and, mark my words; some of them may even be your wife’s friends.

Watch your back.

So, let us return to the issue at hand. Women who beg. This is a special category of women whose stock in trade is to beg for everything, from contract, to lunch, to money, to tickets for an international travel and so on.

I don’t mean the type where one is fund raising for college or something like that from someone you know, an uncle, an aunty, an old friend, a senior colleague etc. I am talking about soliciting at airports and parties and offices, begging just about everyone whether you know them or not.

This type of begging which has taken over our nation and eaten deep into our moral fabric was actually started by men. You know those sick security men at different gates of offices who after giving you a parking card then proceed to ask you for money?

It has now been escalated to those stocky security men who wear pads on their knees and strong shoulder pads standing at wedding reception venues. As soon as you make to leave, they begin to beg. In the meantime, they have been paid by the organisers. Going to social events, you now dread security men harassing you when you are leaving and embarrassing their clients.

The shame is eternal. So, begging has been elevated to a national past time making us the laughing stock of our friends in the international community.

There are as many excuses as the stars in the sky by Nigerians who lay all our bad habits at the door of poverty but you go to our various villages, the poor persons out there are the most dignified. They are content, clean and are proud of their little earnings. In fact, their children

are taught not to solicit or give a rich man any reason to disrespect them.

They would prefer to earn whatever you give them by working for it.

So where are the women in this national begging ethos? Let me share a little story.

On my way to Accra, several years ago, I ran into a professional colleague who had offered me a spot on the queue, insisting that it was my due. With much appeal, I took the slot and expressed my gratitude to all those on the queue as I would have preferred to remain where I was.

But it had become a chanting request from all and I obliged.

As we inched forward, we met an airport official checking passports who spoke to a young man in front of me, a student, asking him in my mother’s language why he was always going to Accra without bringing something for the airport men and women. The young man barely 17 years old acted like he did not understand her and walked on.

Embarrassingly for the airport official, I was next. This airport official who was being silly was a woman.

She giggled uncomfortably and sensing I may have heard her asked me which of my parents was from her place. I told her she should please check my passport as I had a plane to catch. She continued smiling like a fool and waved me off. When a woman solicits, begs, she isn’t pretty.

She lays down some strange game boards including but not limited to the other relations of solicitation.

But I digress. So, as I made my way to the plane, I explained to my professional colleague what had just transpired and he burst into a raucous laughter. You know madam, when a woman begs, it isn’t pretty but let me share. Here are his words: Just last year on my way to the US after I had been searched and was ready

‘

There are as many excuses as the stars in the sky by Nigerians who lay all our bad habits at the door of poverty but you go to our various villages, the poor persons out there are the most dignified. They are content, clean and are proud of their little earnings

to go, a very beautiful airport official stepped out like a breath of sunshine but spoilt it when she started harassing me for money. Oga, anything for us? I pulled her to the side and asked her how much they made a day from soliciting. She said they made about N30,000 . So, I told her I would give her, personal to her, 100,000 naira.

She was giddy with joy, clapping and wringing her hand. Then I told her that the money was for sleeping with her. She became hostile and showed me her wedding ring. I told her it was irrelevant to me as her soliciting could lead to butt slapping, touching and plenty of smiling.

Why was she so angry? I advised her that her colleagues had positioned her as solicitor-in-chief because of her beauty. It was not an accident and she was a willing accomplice. When women beg, my colleague concluded, it sets them up for other things.

When men beg, it is tolerable although unacceptable but for women, it is shameful. Wedding ring my big foot my colleague said, when you wear your best smile wringing your hands and giggling like an idiot, what is the translation if you are a woman?

Women are already in too many vulnerable positions to add corporate and airport begging to their resume.

Begging is hard and demeaning, ask those who have to beg for a living.

But when a woman who should know better decides that she is the chief beggar at an airport, a security post, a ministry, or a hospital, the nation’s moral fabric is threatened.

When women beg, the nation takes a back seat and morality loses its meaning. I say no more.

Eugenia Abu is a broadcaster, writer, trainer, band and multimedia strategy expert and media consultant. Contact. abu_eugenia@yahoo.com

Another summer holiday interrupted by the threat of war

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n a summer holiday, disruption can take many forms: flight delays, airport overcrowding, unlucky weather — or maybe a resort that bears little resemblance to the sparkly brochure that lured you there. But, in my case, the list of potential intrusions also includes the prospect of war.

That is because I often spend my summer break in my home country of Lebanon, a nation in a perpetual state of turmoil.

Even as I enjoy family gatherings (and despite prevailing gloom, Beirut is a fun city), I also wish time would accelerate so I can leave before a full-blown crisis breaks out.

This summer, during the last two weeks of August, Israel stepped up its shadow war against Iran’s proxies. These allies are scattered all over the Middle East but the most potent is Hizbollah, the Shia militant group that controls the levers of power in Lebanon. Determined to undermine Iran’s alliances, Israel is believed to have hit Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in what looks like muscle flexing

by Benjamin Netanyahu, the embattled Israeli prime minister, who is fighting an election this month.

Just over a week ago, I woke up to the

news that two operatives from Hizbollah, which has helped prop up the Syrian regime and is trying to set up a base in Syria, had been killed in an Israeli attack.

The Israeli government confirmed it had struck an Iranian target, claiming it was pre-empting a drone attack against it.

The next 24 hours were more worrying still. The Beirut suburbs, a Hizbollah stronghold, were rocked by what the Lebanese authorities said was the explosion of an Israeli drone and the fall of another. Israel didn’t confirm that attack — nor did it admit to another one on Iraq’s Iran-backed Shia militias — but Israeli media suggested the target was an industrial machine, used to produce missiles. The Shia party vowed retaliation. The Lebanese president Michel Aoun, allied with Hizbollah, said the Israeli attack was a “declaration of war.”

On Sunday, as we listened to the radio during a family lunch, my father, hoping to comfort me, optimistically suggested that the bluster would take a while to translate into military retaliation. Within two hours, however, Hizbollah had responded by firing missiles at an Israeli border post and Israel rained down what it said were 100 artillery shells on the area from which the www.businessday.ng

missiles were fired.

As I watched the most serious cross-border clashes in years unfold on television, I had flashbacks to the summer of 2006 when I had dropped off my then 10-yearold son at my parents’ and travelled to the Gulf for work. The next day, Lebanon’s airport had shut down and Israel and Hizbollah were fighting an all-out war.

I flew from Dubai to Damascus in a panic and drove to Beirut under the bombs to take my son out (and to cover the news).

Now Syria too is at war and Lebanon has been flooded with Syrian refugees. The only way out of Beirut these days would be by boat to Cyprus.

Fortunately, by the evening, calm had been restored on the border, and military experts paraded on television stations confidently predicting that, at least for now, neither Israel nor Iran was interested in further escalation. Indeed, the Hizbollah response and the Israeli shelling appeared choreographed to ensure that each side might vent its anger sufficiently without causing casualties or provoking a longer conflict.

France, the US and Russia were said to have stepped in to contain the crisis.

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ROULA KHALAF

Israel’s expansion of its shadow war came as French president Emmanuel Macron is attempting to mediate between the US and Iran in a stand-off sparked by the withdrawal last year of US president Donald Trump’s administration from the Iran nuclear deal. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, made a surprise appearance at the G7 summit in Biarritz on August 25, at Mr Macron’s invitation.

On Monday, I safely boarded my flight to London, relieved that my holiday had been interrupted only by the anxiety of previous days. But I left Beirut knowing that, before long, a clash between Israel and Iran’s allies will not be as controllable as it turned out to be in the past week. Wars in the Middle East sometimes erupt by foolish design, but also, often, from reckless miscalculation.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

cityfile Residents ecstatic as Makinde fixes Adeoyo road REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

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Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Anambra office, led by Ignatius Anyanwu (r), sealing a Filling Station for underdispensing in Awka on Wednesday. NAN

Police arrest 137 suspected kidnappers, others in A/Ibom ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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he police in Akwa Ibom have arrested 137 suspects for various offences ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, cultism and child theft.

Zaki Ahmed, Commissioner of Police (CP) in Akwa Ibom, who paraded the suspects in Uyo, the state capital, said the arrests were made between June and August, 2019.

Among those arrested were suspected armed robbers that have been raiding pharmaceutical shops in the state capital almost on a weekly basis.

Ahmed said that the arrests were made possible by the cooperation of the people of the state, new security measures put in place by the com-

mand, support from the state government and sister- security agencies and the media.

He disclosed that 13 suspects were arrested for stealing eight transformers belonging to the state government, which have all been recovered from the suspects.

“O n assumption of d u t y , I p ro m i s e d t h e people of Akwa Ibom that I will interface with them on regular basis as we partner in the fight a ga i nt c r i m e. Wi t h i n the last few months, I have reapprais ed the security architecture of the command in order to effectively police the state and bring crime and criminalities to the barest minimum.

“I am happy about the progress made so far at the plaza, where a total of thirteen suspects

were arrested in connection with armed robbery, phone snatching, ‘once chance’ and assault on innocent citizens, the University of Uyo where normalcy has been restored and tight security put in place and other parts of the state.

“I am aware that more is desired of us hence, I am calling on the people to be more vigilant and utilise our hotlines in repor ting cr imes and criminalities promptly because we have further increased our response capacity and are now closer to the people. “ The achievements would not have been possible without the partnership we have so far enjoyed from Akwa Ibomites, who have not been economical with information. Let me assure you that, no river

will be too wide to cross, neither will any mountain be too high to climb in our quest to improve on the prevailing peaceful nature of Akwa Ibom State.”

Meanwhile, the state chapter of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has commended the police on the ongoing crackdown on criminals in the state, as their members have suffered great losses in recent times from robbery attacks.

Akwaowoh Akpabio, a member of the society said: ‘’This serial robbery of pharmacies started two months ago and our members have lost several millions. But we have put security measures in place and also liaised with security agencies to check the trend.”

Lagos targets 1,700 in agro entrepreneurial scheme JOSHUA BASSEY

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bout 1,700 persons mostly women and youth are targeted to benefit from the Lagos State small and medium scale agro entrepreneurial scheme, Gbolahan Lawal, the state commissioner for agriculture, has said.

The beneficiaries are being selected from over 2000 applications already received by the state government. The initiative aimed at raising agro entrepreneurs, is expected to boost the state’s agricul-

…women, youth prioritised tural economy in a multiphased process.

It is being executed under the Agro Processing, Productivity Enhancement and L ivelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project of the ministry of agriculture recently launched by Lawal.

The programme, according to Lawal, would not only upscale farmers in the state, but also link them to the markets for distribution of their produce.

“The governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu www.businessday.ng

is in full support of this initiative of employment and income generation through agricultural technology innovation for youth and women who are active and ready to improve their livelihoods through agriculture.

And for the next four years, Lagos will have the benefit of being funded in APPEALS project and we are focusing on the value chain where we have comparative economic advantage which is poultry, rice and aquaculture.

“We are promoting this project and supported by the World Bank to ensure that farmers, youth and women have a better livelihood under this project”, he said.

The commissioner explained that apart from youth and women who would be funded under the APPEALS project, the state has also made provision for 10 percent inclusion of Persons Living With Disabilities (PLWD) but active in farming activities.

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esidents of Ibadan have applauded Governor Seyi Makinde for the rehabilitation of the 2nd Gate road of Adeoyo Hospital on Ring road and for upgrading basic infrastructure within the hospital.

The rehabilitation of the road started on Monday, August 26, when men of the State Roads Maintenance Agency (OYSROMA) were deployed there with heavy machines.

Tijani Lawal, a retired civil servant, who spoke with journalists, said the governor has shown what the word ‘change’ is supposed to be and with the achievements of the new administration within its hundred days, there was hope for the people.

“This is not a camouflage change. This is real change and we have seen that the governor’s strive within his hundred days in the saddle is beyond party affiliation. He has made the people of the state proud because people from other states are wishing he is their own governor.

“This is a sign that we can

still have good leadership in our society like we did during the days of Awolowo.

Makinde has started well,” he said.

Ojelabi Tesleem, a generator repairer said the Adeoyo road has been abandoned since 1991 and the community around the hospital had not seen the kind of development it is witnessing under the Makinde’s administration.

“I have been living in this area since 1991 and I have never seen such a facelift in this hospital. You can see infrastructural changes and at night, the premises and the community around look so amazing,” he said.

Meanwhile, residents of Agbowo area in Ibadan, mostly students of the University of Ibadan have appealed to the state government to rehabilitate the Omotara bridge that connects the area with other communities.

The plea came when the general manager, OYSROMA, Modinat Oduola visited the area in the company of Adebayo Gabriel, the representative of Ibadan North state constituency in the State House of Assembly.

Flooding: Ondo to demolish houses on waterways

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ndo State government has said that it would soon begin demolition of houses blocking waterways to ensure a free flow of water and prevent flooding.

Agboola Ajayi, the acting governor of the state, disclosed this in Idanre on after inspecting the havoc wreaked by flood in Idanre local government area of the state.

A downpour on Sunday caused flooding in the town, damaging houses and property worth millions of naira.

Ajayi, who thanked God that no life was lost, advised people still living in the affected buildings to vacate to

prevent further disasters.

The acting governor promised that the government would do its best in terms of bringing relief to the affected victims soon.

“Some people built houses on the waterways; we will ensure that no matter how highly placed such people are, we will demolish their houses to have a free flow of water,” he said.

Aladeoku of Alade Idanre, Olusegun Akinbola, said it was the first time such level of flooding would be occur in the town and thanked the government for being responsive to the plight of the people.

Two domestic workers charged with stealing N50m jewellery

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he police have arraigned two domestic workers in an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate Court, Lagos, for allegedly stealing jewellery worth N50 million.

The police charged a cook, Janet Uwa 43, and Dennis Udoh, 23, with conspiracy and theft.

The prosecution counsel, Innocent Anyigor, told the court that the defendants committed the offence on July 24, at Victoria Garden @Businessdayng

City, Victoria Island.

He alleged that Uwa, a cook and Udoh, a domestic servant connived and stole Elizabeth Nkana’s jewellery worth N50 million and also stole 54,000 dollars.

The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of sections 287 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. Section 287 and 411 prescribes a three year jail term for offenders. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

15

COMPANY NEWS ANALYSIS INSIGHT

BANKING

Fidelity Bank to slow loan book growth as LDR stands tall at 95% ISRAEL ODUBOLA

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i g e r i a’s mid-tier l e n d e r, Fidelity Bank, said that it is contented with its current loan book position and not pressured to create new loans in subsequent periods.

The lender, which has the highest loan-to-deposit ratio (of 95%) in the banking industry, anticipates growth of its loan book to soften in coming quarters.

A dive into the company’s financials showed that loan and advances to customers jumped some 26 percent to N999 billion in the first half of 2019 from N795 billion in similar period of 2018.

Maj o r l o a n g row t h were recorded in manufacturing sector (51%), transport (21%), agriculture (14%) and oil & gas (13.5%), accounting for over 95% of gross loan growth.

Tw o m o n t h s b a c k , Fitch Ratings, one of the major credit ratings agencies globally based in New York, faulted the CBN’s minimum 60 per-

cent LDR directive, saying its credit negative for the banking industry.

Fitch believes the guideline effective September 30, will compel banks who are yet to recover from a surge in bad loans caused by the 2016 recession, to turn on their lending tap to riskier borrowers, putting their asset quality at risk.

“Due to the directive, we have raised our 2019

loan growth forecast to an average of 10 percent for Fitch rated banks from one percent in 2018,” it said in July.

Fidelity Bank saw asset quality improve as non-performing loan ratio trended downwards to 5.4 percent half-year 2019 from 5.7 percent in full year 2018, slightly above the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 5 percent regulatory threshold.

The lender’s net interest margin increased to 5.8 percent in the six months through June 2019, from 5.1 percent in first quarter thanks to betterment in asset yield.

According to analysts at Lagos-based investment firm, Cardinal Stone Partners, in a note to investors, noted that the bank’s funding costs remain sticky at 6.6 percent, despite moderation in

the yield environment in second quarter, due to increase in more expensive term deposits.

“Net interest margin, management is of the view that asset yields will likely be pressured in Q3’19 as banks compete on the pricing front to meet the regulatory guideline on LDR. In Q4’19, the bank anticipates an uptick in both funding cost and asset

yields on the back of expected influx of fixed income maturities.” They said.

Despite the low interest environment, Fidelity Bank grew interest income by 10 percent to N84.3 billion in the review period, from N76.7 billion a year before. Fees and commission income as well as other operating income surged 32 percent and 103 percent respectively.

The bank’s post-tax profit trended to N15.1 billion in the first six months of 2019, 16 percent more than N13 billion reported a year earlier.

The bank’s management says it will continue to pursue organic growth which aligns with its corporate strategy. It noted that it is receptive to other opportunities so far they correlate with business values and potential synergies.

Shares of Fidelity Bank advanced 1.27 percent to N1.60 Wednesday. But it has seen stock price erode 21 percent since January, slightly outperforming banking stock index that has shed 20 percent year-long.

ECONOMY

NIG to inject $50bn annually into Nigeria’s economy IFEOMA OKEKE

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igeria Investment Gateway (NIG), a United Kingdom (UK) based organisation focused on promoting Nigeria as a prime destination for business and investment has disclosed that about $50 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) would be injected annually into the nation’s economy through its exclusive funding partners.

Femi Omotuyi, Group Executive Director of NIG, stated this recently while speaking at the Second Edition of the Investment Destination Nigeria CEO business summit in Abuja.

Omotuyi said the or-

ganisation had from November last year to July this year attracted $4billion FDI through its group of funding partners.

“We deal with projects and businesses that require FDI. We help businesses facilitate funding because we have a group of funding partners. The kind of investment we are looking for are projects that must be bankable, credible and infrastructural based.

This year is targeted for CEOs who have businesses on ground already.

“Annually, we target to facilitate foreign direct portfolio of about $50 billion dollars into Nigeria economy. We have already gotten four billion dollars

into the agriculture, oil and power sector. For instance, in agriculture, we have a fertiliser company to be ready soon, a $1.5 billion solar power plant and we also funding six modular refineries.”

He said the organisation does not lend out funds but only serves as a platform that enables local entrepreneurs get access to foreign currency.

Also speaking at the event, Tonye Isokariari, an advisor with ACIOE advisory stressed the need to encourage FDI through positive projection of the country’s image.

According to him, negative perceptions affect the country’s stability and

quality of an investment potential.

“We need to clean up the image the country by setting the right priority.

We can do this by amplifying the good things Nigerians are doing instead of promoting bad news.

“To attract FDI, Nigerians must ensure that they adhere to all the necessary laws of the land by doing proper registration of their businesses, getting a legal representative and not cutting corners. We must therefore put our house in order because if an investor comes and sees that your home is not in order he or she mightrun away.”

Speaking in same vain, Kemi Areola, the managing

Director of Vivacity PR, observed that bad news have a direct impact on FDI as investors perceive corruption and insecurity as an impediment to investing in the host country.

“We all must stand up and project Nigeria in a good light. It is natural that bad news travels faster than good ones but we need not be quick in sharing negative news concerning our country because it has a direct impact on FDI. We can only convince investors to come to Nigeria through positive projection of our image”.

An entrepreneur development coach and the Chief Executive Officer of House of Merola, madame Merola said the current

system and structure in place is a great impediment in attracting FDI She said: “We need to change our mind-set on how we see things in the country by displaying high level of patience.

Most business do not have structure and we do not have good system in place to get investors in.

“We need to submit ourselves to people who can teach us on having the right structure. If you don’t have a system in place, businesses would not grow. Beside the economic issues which government plays major roles, we need to take personal responsibility of all what we do as a nation”.

Editor: LOLADE AKINMURELE (lolade.akinmurele@businessdayonline.com) Graphics: Samuel Iduh

16

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES&MARKETS

Business Event

MANUFACTURING

Symrise unveils Nigerian Application Laboratory SEGUN ADAMS

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ith the launch of its Nigeria laboratory facility, Symrise is expanding its business frontier in Nigeria, catering to the flavour and fragrance need of Africa’s most populous country by souring inputs locally whilst deepening its presence in the West African region.

Symrise, a global producer of fragrances, flavourings, cosmetic active ingredients, raw materials as well as functional ingredients on Wednesday unveiled its state-of-theart application laboratory in Nigeria, one of its three hubs in Africa.

A c c o rd i n g t o Ru d y McLean, Managing Director Symrise Nigeria, the new facility located in Lagos would help Nigerian manufacturers create affordable consumer brands including personal hygiene products, food and beverages. Many Nigerian manufacturers lack the capacity to carry out ingredient analysis and testing.

“We are here to add value to the lives of Nigerians and others in West African sub-region by helping busi-

nesses to develop affordable brands that give pleasant and possibly enriching experience in the daily lives of people,” McLean said. Affordability, he says, is critical considering the current economic realities in Nigeria.

For the German-based business with decades of sales presence in Nigeria, the laboratory represents a landmark and is part of the company’s EMEA expansion strategy.

Asides being a demonstration to fully cater to and grow in the Nigerian market, the facility would enable Symrise further understand local preferences and will help in the development, optimization, testing and delivery of consumer-preferred formulation.

To put in perspective, during a media tour around the application laboratory, media practitioners, experts in the food industry as well as regulators were introduced to a wide range of smell and taste. “Jollof” and “Zobo” flavours were among the innovations by Symrise for the local market.

The three-storeyed application laboratory is a replica of the facility in Germany and adheres to the same international health

standards, the company said.

In addition, the opening of the laboratory in Nigeria would create employment as the company’s technology and operations allow for an end-to-end integration the value-chain and open up job opportunities to Nigerians.

The laboratory would retain all the current team of Symrise Nigerian to work alongside new product application technologist for Food and Nutrition as well as Scent and Care Labs.

Technology transfer would be a benefit to Nigerians as Symrise would be engaging Nigerians in the art and science of fragrance and flavour. The company has a training facility in Germany where its employees can gain competence in the business of smell and taste.

In achieving its target of manufacturing certain food products locally Symrise would be partnering with Freddy Hirsch. The company would also be developing products for Nigerian and West Africa markets with manufacturers of perfume, cosmetics, food and beverage as well as players in the pharmaceutical and nutrition industry as customers.

L-R: Olukayode Pitan, assistant pastor, RCCG Region 20/pastor-in-charge, RCCG Tabernacle of David; Saheed Elegushi Oba of Ikate-Elegushi, and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor, at the unveiling of the Primary Health Care Centre in Resettlement Community, Eti Osa East LCDA, and commissioning of block of 14 classrooms donated by RCCG at Junior Secondary School, Alaguntan Village, Ajah, in Lagos.

L-R: Adewusi Oluwatosin, brand activation officer, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc; Chidinma Eke, human resources business partner; Akowonlehin Victoria Oluremi, camp director 2019 Batch B Stream 2, NYSC, Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos State, and Abosede Amusan, research and quality specialist, HFMP, at Honeywell Pasta cooking competition, at NYSC Camp, Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos

COMPANY RELEASE

MIPAD educates entrepreneurs on dynamics of accessing capital

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nderstanding the challenges faced by entrepreneurs especially small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in accessing fund in Nigeria, Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) recently organised an interactive section for entrepreneurs to educate them on the dynamics of accessing capital.

“It is true that investors look for those companies that can fill the gaps in the market but they also ensure that there is enough market in the gap to ensure good and timely returns on investment,” said Ola Brown, the CEO of Flying Doctors stating that ideas are not enough to attract investors, but the viability of the

ideas in the market. Brown however encouraged the entrepreneurs to enlarge their business and social circles to include people with clout and social stature in order to ease their search for investors.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Abayomi Awobokun informed the audience that MIPAD is focused on changing the narrative about Africa and he encouraged honourees worldwide to leverage global network to make major changes in the way Africa and Africans are seen by the world.

“Entrepreneurs looking for prospective investors must have a good story, a consistent story that shows their promises kept, and not just turning up at the investor’s door with a request for

investment,” said Bunmi Akinyemiju, emphasizing the need for entrepreneurs to tell consistent story about their company. According to Akinyemiju, investors invest in the novelty of the business, and just for returns.

The panelists, both past and current honourees of MIPAD, spoke on the theme, ‘Raising Capital in Africa.’ The panelists are Abayomi Awobokun, CEO, ENYO Retail and Supply; Ola Brown, Managing Director, Flying Doctors Nigeria; Obi Ozor, Managing Director, Kobo 360 (represented by Samuel Riou); Bunmi Akinyemiju, CEO, Venture Garden Group and Ukinebo Dare, Head, Edo State Skills Development Agency (EdoJobs), who moderated the session.

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L-R: Patrick Acho, programmes and membership manager; Obitunde Obiyemi, registrar/CEO, and Isaac Usung, deputy registrar, training, all of Institute of Strategic Management, Nigeria (ISMN), at the unveiling of the new registrar/CEO of the Institute in Lagos. Pic by David Apara

L-R: Mustapha Olanrewaju, Enyo MechTech 3.0 trainee; Anthonia Eke, representative, Automedics; Olanrewaju Mufutau, Enyo MechTech 3.0 trainee; Halima Abdul Salam, Enyo MechTech 3.0 trainee, at a training session of Enyo Retail and Supply third edition of its mechanics training in Lagos recently.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

AGRIBUSINESSINSIGHT Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

17

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

How to achieve optimal results in yam production through ‘recycled seeds’ Stories by CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

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ast week, one of our readers in an emailed feedback, raised an enquiry that other people may benefit from.

Following the article, “Inability of farmers to differentiate seeds from grains keeps farm productivity low”, the writer sought to know if efficacy concerns in farmer saved seeds could be a contributing factor to low yields in yam cultivation.

Agribusiness Insight reached out to a few experts, in order to provide a more informed response to this enquiry. The findings can be summarised thus; Saved seeds can be used for Yam cultivation and it will give good results, provided a farmer looks for the right varieties, and also does not use for more than three farm cycles. There are a few other conditions, of course.

As noted by Wanger Barnabas Akaazua, operations manager, Afri Agri, “There are some varieties (of yam) that no matter what you do,

they don’t give you good results.”

Ekum Ojogu, an agricultural development and food security expert at the National Agricultural Seeds

Council (NASC), also explained, “The protocol for yam assumes you can go for three cycles before you change.” When a farmer uses the

same yam seedlings repeatedly, with time, the quality in output will decline substantially. He emphasised that continuous recycling could be a reason for the low yields being recorded by a yam farmer.

When this reporter spoke with Ojogu, he revealed that a workshop was just being concluded (that same day), as part of efforts to develop a quality management protocol for Yam. “Before now, there was no quality protocol for yam (at all), and existing varieties were just being recycled by farmers,” he said.

According to him, the variety of yam being planted could also be responsible for the challenge of low yield. “From what we have discovered, most of the varieties in existence have a lot of viral diseases,” Ojogu said.

These viral diseases, as he explained, might be in the yam without manifesting physically. As a farmer keeps replanting, he/she will invariably be multiplying those viruses year in, year out, so it affects the yield.

Apart from the quality of yam seed

being used for planting, experts also told Agribusiness Insight, that the farm yields could also be attributed to the farmer’s agronomic practices, and how he/she applies fertilisers, for instance (if at all it is done).

One major advice that was given is for the farmer to conduct a soil analysis test. The farmer is advised to check the status of the soil, so as to know what major element is lacking, and from this, know the appropriate fertiliser to apply.

Akaazua in fact, stated the farmer needs a soil test to determine acidity, because if the soil is acidic, it will affect the result of whatever is grown in it. In the same vein, if the soil is also deficient in nutrients, the soil test will reveal this.

In conclusion, at present, it is ok to use saved seedlings for yam cultivation, but not for more than three farm cycles. Doing this should also be in strict adherence to good agronomic practises, and ensuring the soil is at its best in terms of nutrient composition and acidity/ alkalinity levels.

$10bn in agritech investments required More than imagined, small businesses are to feed 10bn people by 2050 – CABI driving growth in African agriculture - AGRA

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nvestments in agritech (alone) will need to double to at least $10bn a year if the world’s smallholder farmers are to help feed a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050.

The revelation during the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2019 that ends in Accra, Ghana today was the position of CABI, an international non-profit organisation, which says it improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

Dennis Rangi, CABI’s director general, Development, speaking as part of a panel discussion on the subject of digital innovations to strengthen the resilience for smallholders in African food systems, said the financial burden must be met by the private sector if global food security is to be ensured and world poverty and hunger eradicated.

CABI in a statement citing AgFunder, noted global investment in agritech – including technology such as farm robots to feed and weed, GPS and drones to map and monitor soil and satellite data to predict the spread of crop pests – was around $4.6bn in 2015.

However, Rangi believes the public sectorneedstomorethandoubleitsannualinvestmentindigitalinfrastructure and research – particularly in respect of making data open – to enable the

delivery of digital innovations which not only help feed Africa but the world.

According to Rangi, “Technological innovations in agriculture, in all its forms, present us with genuine answers to extremely difficult problems. However, unless we can encourage more investment from the public sector and innovation from the private sector to deliver these solutions at scale, no amount of digital agriculture will help solve the world’s food crisis.

“The message is simple: we need to more than double annual investment in agritech to $10bn if we are to feed the world’s growing population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050.”

Rangi told delegates at the forum that CABI’s Plantwise programme is just one example that is delivering impact at scale – having so far reached over 31 million farmers in 34 countries with plant health information, which, in respect of fighting crop pests and diseases, promotes adaptation and resilience.

He added that Plantwise’s open access Knowledge Bank, Factsheet App, e-plant clinics with data collection – which allows for real-time tracking of pests (plus linkage with the Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE) project) – are already putting data and knowledge in the hands of extension workers and farmers keen on growing more and losing less to crop pests and diseases.

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he private sector-led “hidden middle” of the agri-food supply chains has undergone, what has been described as a Quiet Revolution in the 2019 Africa Agricultural Status Report (AASR) from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Its rise has been largely unrecognized by policymakers (hence “hidden middle”), even as it has bridged gaps that previously separated most small-scale farmers from commercial markets, according to the report’s authors.

“SMEs are the biggest investors in building markets for farmers in Africa today, and will likely remain so for the next 10-to-20 years,” said Agnes Kalibata, president of AGRA. “They are not a ‘missing middle,’ as is thought, but the ‘hidden middle,’ ready for support and investment to thrive further. Today, we bring them out into the light.”

In terms of the actual value, AASR finds that traders, truckers and processors constitute about 40 percent of the total gross value of the agri-food system in the region – this is the same as the share coming from farms. Retailers constitute the remaining 20 percent.

The report published this week, finds that millions of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) source directly from millions more smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa. These SMEs, often women-led, include food processors, wholesal-

ers, and retailers. SMEs provide a range of services, from transport and logistics to the sale of inputs such as fertilizer and seed to farmers. Their activity is driving a “Quiet Revolution” across African agriculture, connecting smallholder farmers to commercial markets at an unprecedented rate.

The report finds that, overall, only about 20 percent of the volume of food consumed in Africa fits the conventional notion of subsistence agriculture—food consumed directly by the farming households that grow it. The majority of what Africans eat flows through what are known as privates sector “value chains” managed by SME businesses that purchase commodities directly from smallholder farmers and then process, package, transport and sell food products to the urban and rural consumer.

Examples of SME impact indicated include; Maize-feed-chicken system in Nigeria According to a press statement, the maize-feed-chicken system has developed rapidly in Nigeria, where consumer demand for chicken is strong. In 10 years, the volume of chicken feed increased by 600 percent from 300 thousand to 1.8 million tons.

Boosted by government investments in roads and wholesale markets, some tens of thousands of maize traders, truckers, feed and flourmills and warehouse operators get the maize

produced by roughly eight million farmers to end consumers. Some 85 percent of this work is carried out by SMEs, many women-led.

Flour milling and processed food variety in Tanzania An inventory of processed foods on sale in Dar es Salaam found 487 different items of processed maize and other flours, packaged rice, dairy products, juicesandpoultry.Eightypercentcame from Tanzania and other African countries; 20 percent from outside Africa. Of hundreds of maize flour milling SMEs surveyedinTanzania,85percentstarted inthepasttenyearsandtwo-thirdshave their own brands, showing a basic shift from buying maize flour loose from the markettopurchasingpackagedbrands.

Teff in Ethiopia In the past, consumers bought teff as a grain, cleaned and milled it and then prepared enjera (a type of bread) at home. Now, consumers buy teff flour or ready-made enjera, driving a nearly 50 percent increase in teff mills, enjera-making enterprises and retail outlets. This explosion of growth has involved farmers, wholesalers, truckers, retail shops and mills. Wholesale marketing of teff has surged, and the number of trucks transporting teff increased by 70-to-80 percent. Government investments in roads and cell phone coverage has helped fuel these changes, with cell phone coverage going from zero in 2005 to 100 percent coverage in wholesale markets today.

Agric investment opportunities on Nigerian Agritech platforms (September 2019)

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gribusiness Insight surfed through three digital agriculture platforms in Nigeria; Thrive Agric, Agrorite, and Farmcrowdy, for any open investment opportunities at the time of going to press.

Please note that this is not a recommendation to invest, rather, for

information purpose and individuals should carry out independent due diligence. All that is reproduced below has been extracted from information gleaned from each platform.

Thrive Agric • Maize farm in Kaduna Units left (at publication): 15,667 Cost per unit: N62,000 www.businessday.ng

Returns: 20 per cent after 9 Months Insured by Leadway Assurance • Soybean farms in Kebbi and Niger Units left (at publication): 2,508 Cost per unit: N47,600 Returns: 20 per cent after 9 Months

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Insured by Leadway Assurance Farmcrowdy did not have open farm cycles at the time of publication but it indicated four investment cycles to be opened soon; Yam Trading and Poultry Farm investments, both scheduled for September, as well as Moringa and a Ginger cycle scheduled for October. Last month, @Businessdayng

the Ginger cycle was scheduled for November, and the company may have brought the execution date forward by one month.

Agrorite also had no available sponsorship opportunity at the time of publication, but indicated a Cassava farm will be open for investment on September 20.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FINTECH News

Products Review

In association with

Technology Review

Personality Review

Company Review

Would MTN’s over 60m Nigerian subscribers ever exchange their Banks for MoMo? FRANK ELEANYA

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s Africa’s telecommunication giant, MTN Group gets closer to achieving its mobile money ambitions in Nigeria and on the continent with the official launch of its super-agent network service, MoMo Agent, analysts are beside themselves with projections of the telco becoming the largest bank in Africa.

MTN Nigeria is probably number one on the list of applicants that have been awaiting the Payment Service Bank (PSB) license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

On Monday, 29 July MTN announced that its Yello Digital Financial Services Limited (YDFS) unit had been granted a “full super-agent” license by the Central Bank of Nigeria, consequently the launch of the MoMo Agent service in August.

While announcing the launch of the service in Abuja amid pomp and pageantry, the director of YDFS, Usoro Usoro, explained that some of the services the telecommunication company will be able to provide through the MoMo Agent include: money transfer, purchase of data, airtime and payment of bills, a far cry from what it would be able to do with a PSB license.

“In a nutshell, the MoMo Agent is bringing banking to neighborhoods, taking away transportation cost, providing a safe, fast and efficient means of sending and re-

ceiving money,” Usoro said.

There is every reason to hope that by dominating the mobile money market in Africa leveraging it’s over 60 million subscribers in Nigeria, MTN would eventually supplant Nigerian banks.

The company’s listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), although it is still early days, has it vying for the most valuable stock position with incumbents such as Dangote. It even displaced Dangote as the most valuable stock albeit for one day.

But the reality is, MTN is not the largest mobile money provider in Africa, Safaricom already has that covered. However, as many have said, it is only a matter of time before it takes the place Safaricom has occupied for a while. YDFS plans to roll out around 500,000

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Agents spread across all states and the Federal Capital Territory who will provide safe money transfer services to under-banked and unbanked people across Nigeria.

A key question the banking industry has been asking is - if MTN has access to BVN, what banks paid $60m to build, are the banks going to be allowed to have access to MTN’s deep trove of data as well? If yes, what’s the modality? Would they give their own PSB extra leg up against CBN’s section 8 of the PSB licensing framework which prohibits preferential treatment?

Nonetheless, recruiting 500,000 to drive its mobile money does not immediately transform MTN into the bank of choice for the more than 60 million people who

use its service. If it indeed it wants to morph into a bank, MTN will discover that being a bank is more of a culture than it is about rolling out services. It is also about trust issues, people are not just going to just exchange their traditional Banks where they believe their money is very secure for MoMo, Nigerian fintech startups are currently facing this reality.

MTN itself has also experienced these pushbacks in various forms in markets where MoMo already exists.

Apart from South Africa where the company is struggling to grow the adoption of its mobile wallet, in Ghana where it appears to have the upper hand, enlisting merchants have proven a hard nut to crack. Paul Damalie, CEO of Appruve, a panAfrican financial data API,

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shared insights from a visit to multiple merchant points of different sizes in Ghana.

“One thing was clear, MTN and other MoMo players may get into space, but may not be able to drive adoption and provide support easily,” he explained.

“Merchants want simplicity.

The idea of having another merchant account different from their personal accounts creates a disincentive. Although a bad business practice, most merchants will push adoption easier if they had funds deposited immediately into their personal accounts.”

It is equally important to add that MTN’s 500,000 agents notwithstanding, the company would have to confront poor road network, the internet connection that have seen millions of Nigerians living in rural areas alienated from the digital age, growing insecurity which scares agents away from risk-prone areas and unstable policy environment.

Again, how does MTN play with SANEF? SANEF is the commercial banks’ attempt to do mobile money.

While they have recruited the much celebrated Ronke Kuye as the CEO, the reality remains that there is much gap and the partner commercial banks are not really interested in financial inclusion.

Also, key questions remain on how consumer credit would be driven. PSB licenses do not allow for lending. However, if the exclusivity to airtime lending done by MTN is anything to

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go by, it is likely the telecoms giant could run into trouble with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Analysts who expect MTN to replicate Safaricom’s results in Kenya may also be underestimating the capacity of Nigerian banks to respond to the threat the telco poses to their revenues. In Kenya, Safaricom capitalized on its first-mover advantage and the Kenyan banking sector’s poor participation in digitization. In Nigeria, most of the banks are as aggressive as fintech startups in pushing digital banking.

Already they have managed to gain the upper hand with the CBN mandating that telcos in mobile money do not participate in the lending and insurance side of the market.

A relatively well-developed financial services market in South Africa is largely the reason MTN has yet to make progress in that country. This has made the demand for mobile money platforms less robust than in places like Kenya. MTN, however, hopes to target rural and peri-urban poor who are largely reliant on cash payment. Again it might find itself having to share the spoils with entrenched platforms like Paga, Etranzact and the banks that already have agents physically present in some of those locations under the umbrella of SANEF. Irrespective of its more than 60 million subscribers, the road to becoming Africa’s largest bank looks perilous for MTN.

Thursday 05 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

19

CONSUMER INSIGHT

Nigerian consumers’ spending patterns are changing MACDONALD UKAH

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hat does the Nigerian consumer spend his money on? And how have these spending patterns evolved in recent times? Thinking comprehensively about consumer spending entails reflecting, in a broad-based manner, on the range of commitments to which income earners – and non-income earners (who, nonetheless, make expenditures) – are obliged, on account of what they receive periodically.

The first-line obligation that income earners generally meet is tax, which, in the case of salaried workers in the formal sector of the economy, is often deducted at source. Certain categories of income earners in Nigeria pay some form of ‘taxes’ or dues out of their earningsto various non-state actors –an example being the dues paid by commercialroad transport operators to representative unions like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Lagos. Some income earners maintain fidelity to institutions which levy them routinely or to which they make donations.

Prominent examples among these are religious institutions – churches, mosques, etc. And yet, despite all of these commitments, some income earners set aside a portion of their incomes, whatever the frequency of their receipt, as savings.

The foregoing helps us distinguish between the macroeconomic concept of disposable income (i.e. income less taxes) and the reality of commercially available disposable income, which is what is left to income earners in their wallets after a range of often routine and sometimes ironclad financial commitments have been met. It is out of this commercially available disposable income that households and consumers spend. Given that the aforementioned commitments do not apply to every individual income earner or income-earning household, including the possibility that some income earners do not pay taxes, it is possible for commercially available disposable

income may be as high as total income.

The patterns of spending arising out of Nigerian households’ commercially available income have been changing significantly over the past two decades. In 2003, Nigeria’s official consumer basket weighting structure (for the calculation of domestic price movements) indicated that household spending patterns were heavily skewed towards subsistence consumption. The weights assigned to the various items in the consumer basket available then indicated that the average Nigerian spent about 64.4% of his commercially available disposable income on food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Spending items such as communication (0.1%), education (0.2%), and health (1.4%) accounted for a small fraction of spending by that measure.

By 2009, the implied proportion of spending by Nigerian households on Food and NonAlcoholic Beverages, out of their commercially available disposable, income stood at 51.8%. Implied average spending on Communication had risen seven-fold to 0.7%; Edu-

cation, nearly twenty-fold, to 3.9%; whilst Health more than doubled from about 1.4% to 3%.

In light of these changes, the perception that spending patterns are increasingly moving away from subsistence could justifiably be formed, although the question of whether they were moving definitively towards lifestyle spending patterns might elicit a less certain response. The implied proportion of spending on Recreation and Culture tapered off a bit, to 0.7% from 0.9% six years earlier, as did spending on Restaurants and Hotels, to 1.2% from 1.3%.

Ten years on from 2009, the consumer basket has not changed to reflect more recent household spending patterns, creating a gap in how these patterns areassessed. One implication of this is a lack of understanding of the ways in which the recent recession, and the slow recovery from it, has affected the evolution of consumer spending patterns.

To be sure, there are some partial insights available out there. A survey of 1,500 online respondents, conducted in 2016 by Philips Consulting, places the proportion of ex-

penditure allocated to food

by Nigerian households at 58.7%. Data originating from the United States’ Department of Agriculture (USDA) which estimates the proportion of spending on food in Nigeria to be 56.4% (although the year to which the figure applies is unstated).

At issue is this: has the recent recession forced Nigerian consumers to adjust their spending in a manner that has strengthened spending on subsistence, reversing the apparent trend observed a decade ago? Given the sample size limitations of the Philips’ study and our inability to establish the precise timing of the USDA reference, we cannot say for sure that this is the case (assuming the criteria for determining the movement towards or away from subsistence depends on whether food expenditures, as a proportion of household expenditures, are rising or shrinking).

Establishing this with greater certainty is of immense value to commercial and noncommercial interests. KAINOS Edge Consulting has commissioned an ongoing survey of household income and expenditure patterns covering a sample of 25,000 households, drawn to cover each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The survey provides analysis across three levels – national, regional, and state. Furthermore, data will be decomposed by socioeconomic classification (SEC) – AB, B1, C1, C2 and DE, representing the upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, and lower classes respectively; and municipality – rural, semi-urban, and urban.

Thus far, results have come in from the field for Lagos and Rivers States. Regarding expenditure patterns specifically, the data indicate that, as of 2018, Lagos State households allocated23.8% of their spending budgets to Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages. In Rivers State, the figure is 32.1%.

The national picture cannot, of course, be painted until data from all states have been compiled and analysed. However, available data immediately suggest the following: 1. In at least two states in southern Nigeria, the move

away from subsistence appears to be continuing. This interpretation is offered with caution, given that there are no publicly available data on the consumer basket from the past, at the state level, with which to compare today’s conditions.

2. The disparities in conditions between states are as important – or perhaps more important – than the national picture itself. They reinforce the emergent perspective that Nigeriacannot be viewed, by corporates and other commercial interests, and even non-commercial interests, as a single market.

Given that the consumer basket as described presents a fairly exhaustive coverage of the spending items to which household budgets may be allocated, these insights in are useful to all commercial interests who are interested in scoping consumer demand for what they produce. The data is presented in such a manner that, even within states, it is granular enough to show differences in spending basket compositions across socioeconomic classes and municipalities.

Armed with such information, business strategists can begin to construct a comprehensive matrix of the demand for their goods and services, and align their market positioning strategies accordingly.

Insights emanating from analysis such as the foregoing – and more – will be the substance of KAINOS Edge’s Consumer Insights Series which, driven by primary data, aims to become the go-to source for comprehensive, granular consumer-related intelligence in the Nigerian market. At a time of heightened interest in the precise sizing of the Nigerian market, this series would place a veritable tool in the hands of decision markers. We invite you to join us on this journey.

MacDonald Ukah is an economist and research consultant at KAINOS Edge Consulting.

Enquiries to 08180703077, macdonaldukah@kainosedge.com.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE Nigerians groans over high cost of medical care despite new technologies ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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ola Ademola is a trader in Mushin Olosa market in Lagos state and a single mother of six.

Bola who struggles to provide for her family has just been informed that her second daughter has been diagnosed of xxx cancer.

She has been told by an oncologist at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in Idi- araba that her daughter will undergo six rounds of chemotherapy sessions.

Bola had no health insurance to pay for her daughter’s medical care she has to pay from her daily income. She needs at least N250,000 per session.

With support from family and friends as well as selling all she had, Bola popularly called Iya Bola was able to pay for the entire six sessions.

But the doctor has stated that the next stage is for a radiotherapy treatment.

Bola is left devastated by the news; she does not have the means of raising the amount needed.

“My daughter is on treatment, we have finished the chemotherapy. My worry now is to raise money for the radiotherapy treatment. Nobody is willing to lend me anymore because I haven’t even paid the loan I took before,” she says with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“I do not want my daughter to die; she is the most intelligent among all my children,” she pleads.

Her case gives an insight into the challenges low income earners face in making out of pocket payments for their medical care.

Currently, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, with 98 million living in multidimensional or extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Index.

Extreme poverty occurs when a person lives below $1.90 (N684) daily.

Unemployment is 23.1 percent while misery index is nearly 45 percent.

These numbers are an indication that over half of the Nigerian population cannot pay their medical bills from out of pocket.

A 2014 study by the World Bank

Who is at risk for pulmonary embolism?

FOLASADE ALLI

P

ulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening medical condition resulting from dislodged thrombi occluding the pulmonary vasculature. In simpler terms, it is a blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the lungs.

It is a thrombotic disorder.

It occurs when a blood clot breaks loose (usually from the leg, aka, deep vein thrombosis), and travels through the bloodstream of the lungs. When not treated aggressively and appropriately, it may result in: Right heart failure and cardiac arrest, permanent damage to the lungs and damage of other organs due to the non-supply of enough oxygen-rich blood Although PE can occur in anyone, persons with the following characteristics are at greater risk of developing PE: Family history of blood clots, PE or DVT and certain genetics changes.

Medical conditions such as blood clotting disorder, cancer, heart disease and lung disease.

Recent surgery (within the last 2 months) or hospitalisation.

Pregnancy and childbirth at about 6 weeks.

Increasing age especially over 60, Long flights, Immobility, Obesity, Estrogen supplements and inflammatory bowel disease.

Are there symptoms associated with PE? Most people with PE develop no symptoms, however, common symptoms amongst those who

have include: Coughing up blood or coughing up brown substance, Breathlessness, Rapid breathing, Chest pain: a sharp stabbing pain when you breathe in, Inability to lift your breast on the affected side, DVT, Rapid or irregular heart rate ,Fainting , Low blood pressure and Dizziness.

Diagnosis PE can be diagnosed via various medical investigations such as ECG, Chest x-ray, D-Dimer, CT scan, MRI, Pulmonary Angiogram, EKG, Doppler, and so on. The investigations are ordered and done based on the advice of the cardiologist examining the patient.

Treatment Patients that have been diagnosed with PE require immediate treatment with the goal to break up the clots and keep other clots from forming.

Varying treatments accompany different patients and varying degrees of PE alongside other medical conditions such as low blood pressure. For example, these treatments may involve the use of medications such as anticoagulants and/or catheter-assisted thrombus removal procedure, and/or the use of antiembolism compression stockings.

Nevertheless, our overall goal is to stop the clot from growing, prevent new ones and destroy existing ones.

With timely treatment, most patients with PE make full recovery and are able to live their lives as normal.

Nevertheless, the condition still has a very high risk of fatality hence the importance of early treatment.

In order to minimise the risk of PE, it is important to include physical activity into your routine, a healthy diet, and quit smoking. When travelling by flight or road, take 2 hour breaks to stretch and walk around.

• Folasade Alli, Consultant Cardiologist and Chief of Cardiology at Lagos Executive Cardiovascular Clinic www.businessday.ng

reveal huge health inequality gaps with 95 per cent of Nigerians accessing health care via out-of-pocket payment to meet their health needs.

This is not only left with less than 5 percent of Nigerians covered by National Health Insurance Scheme.

Investing in Nigeria health systems is an opportunity to accelerate economic development and growth, contribute to saving millions of lives and moving the country closer to achieving objectives of national poverty reduction strategies.

Even as the country is struggling with depicted infrastructural development, brain drain and low budget funding, earnest efforts by the government and private sector brought the introduction of new and emerging technologies, medi-

cine and services into the sector but medical costs for patients is showing signs in reducing.

The advancement are providing new treatment options and giving hope to people with cancer, chronic medical conditions, and rare, inherited disorders and other health issues. But the challenge of this is clear, patients are faces the challenges of affordability.

The average cost of treating an ailment is still high for an average Nigerian with no medical health insurance cover.

“The private sector has been working hard to help bring down costs while promoting high quality of care. But healthcare in Nigeria is not largely publicly funded, and there are out-of-pocket costs associated with diagnosis, treatment, and survival,” said Larne Yusuf a Lagos based medical Practitioner.

‘This has worsened the level of poverty because too many Nigerians have died due to lack of funds for medical treatment,” Yusuf said.

Speaking on the rise of noncommunicable diseases in the country, the experts attributed it to poor feeding pattern and lifestyle of individuals.

Speaking to doctor on duty, who pleaded anonymous, said many of his colleagues in different departments have patients queuing up and when you talk about the increasing

number of people coming up with different diagnosis especially the non- communicable disease such as cancer, diabetes and kidney diseases as well as hypertension.

“We see different cases every day, many Nigerians are sick with one illness or the other and the patterns or symptoms are similar,” he said.

“We need to raise more awareness and improve disease management through early detection and prevention. Build the Nigeria’s healthcare capacity and improve access to quality and equitable healthcare solutions,” he said.

BusinessDay investigations show that non- communicable diseases conditions are applying to the largest category of patients and the cost of treatment is paid out of pocket. This tells how much out- of- pocket expense people send in receiving care.

“When the kidney fails automatically, the end point will be to have kidney transplant and that come out to N13 million as at now in the country, so it is not an easy task,” said Tayo Lawal, medical director Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos said in an interview with BusinessDay. However, it was recently reported that Cardiac and Renal facility in Lagosworth N5bn has been abandoned. The number of dialysis patients in Nigeria is put at 50, 000 with 15, 000 patients developing kidney diseases annually.

Kwara launches campaign to tackle malaria scourge ...as 2,500 benefits from free medical outreach SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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overnor Abdulrahman Abdulfazaq of Kwara State has recently flagged a statewide campaign to curtail malaria scourge in the state.

The governor says the campaign is one of his administration interventions in the healthcare sector since assuming over three months ago.

He noted that the state has paid N82 million for the fight to tackle malaria as part of its counterpart funds.

The campaign, tagged ‘MalariaFree-Kwara’ qualifies indigenes to access free malaria treatments in any healthcare centres across the state.

According to the governor, the initiative is part of the Roll-BackMalaria Partnership, a donor-funded programme which Kwara has now keyed into after AbdulRazaq paid the required counterpart funds.

“One of the interventions we have made in the health sector was to pay N82m out of the total N232million counterpart funds to show commitment,” he said.

“The Malaria-Free-Kwara we are launching is a product of that timely intervention, which is to complement the humanitarian efforts of the Roll-Back-Malaria Partnership.

“No serious government, especially in Nigeria, should trivialise the global campaign against malaria. In 2018 alone, Nigeria recorded 100million malaria cases with at least 300,000 deaths resulting from such cases.

Such shameful data contributed to our recurring low rating in global development indices,” he further said.

Abdulrazaq, who is currently in the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari to Japan, was represented at the event by Saba Jibril, the Secretary to the State Government

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“As I flag off the Malaria Free Kwara campaign for year 2019, I request all Kwarans and caregivers in the state to visit the nearest health facility to them to access this service in the interest of everyone and overall well-being of our state,” he said.

Lamenting that the anti-malaria campaign had been purely donordriven since 2008 when it started, Abdulrazaq said the payment of the counterpart funds has qualified Kwara for such future interventions by donors in the global campaign against the deadly disease.

“I assure you that our administration will continue to do everything possible to reposition the health sector in line with our campaign promises of making sure that quality health care services are available and obtainable by all and sundry so as to brighten our chances of achieving Universal Health Coverage.

“It is our belief that with the planned sustainability of this project, Kwara State will witness a significant decline in malaria cases, which would in turn boost our standing in developmental ratings.

“I urge our religious and traditional leaders to support this project by giving their consent and creating awareness on the importance of these campaigns and its far-reaching effects on improving the health indices of the State. Let me make it clear that the interventions for eliminating malaria are ‘free for all’.

No fewer than 2,500 patients have benefitted from a three-day intensive medical intervention programme, organised by the US-based Kwara State Association of Nigerians (KSANG) and Sakinah Medical Outreach in conjunction with the Kwara State Government.

The free healthcare services, which cut across the three senatorial @Businessdayng

districts of the state, came up between 28th and 30th August at three different locations — Ajase Ipo, Tsaragi and Okelele primary healthcare centres.

Yusuf Adanlawo, president, KSANG says the gesture was aimed at complementing the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq-government’s good intention to responding to the medical needs of Kwarans.

“Shortly after the elections, the Governor came to US and we listened to his passionate agenda about improving the people’s access to healthcare services. We assured him of doing whatever we can to support his government. That is why we raised fund within ourselves and put up this programme,” said Adelanwo in Ilorin He expressed satisfaction about the turn-out of patients suffering from different ailments such as malaria, diabetes, hypertension, cataract and sickle cell in all the selected locations, adding that the project gulped about N20million for medications only while the government provided the facilities to carry out the surgical aspect and other logistics.

According to him, the surgical operation for at least 150 patients would be carried out at the General Hospital, Ilorin, and Sobi Specialist Hospital in the next two weeks’ time.

He praises the government for appointing one of them, Wale Suleiman, aprofessorasSpecialAdviseronHealth Matters. Adelanwo also acknowledged thegovernment’ssincerecommitment to engendering a healthy citizenry.

Taiye Ahmed, a beneficiary of the outreach who checked her blood pressure, gave government a pass mark for providing such a platform, lamenting that a lot of patients had died because of certain ailments that could have been treated if they enjoyed timely medical care.

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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HEALTH BUSINESS&LIFE 3.7 million lives could be saved by 2025 if health services increase in nutrition ANTHONIA OBOKOH

H

ealth services must integrate a stronger focus on ensuring optimum nutrition at each stage of a person’s life, according to a new report released by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is estimated that the right investment in nutrition could save 3.7 million lives by 2025 “In order to provide quality health services and achieve Universal Health Coverage, nutrition should be positioned as one of the cornerstones of essential health packages,” said Naoko Yamamoto, assistant director-general at WHO. “We also need better food environments which allow all people to consume healthy diets,” he added.

Essential health packages in all settings need to contain robust nutrition components but countries will need to decide which interventions best support their national health policies, strategies and plans.

Key interventions include: providing iron and folic acid supplements as part of antenatal care; delaying umbilical cord clamping to ensure babies receive important nutrients they need after birth; promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding; providing advice on diet such as limiting the intake of free sugars in adults and children and limiting salt intake to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Investment in nutrition actions will help countries get closer to their goal of achieving universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. It can also help the economy, with every

US$1 spent by donors on basic nutrition programmes returning US$ 16 to the local economy.

The world has made progress in nutrition but major challenges still exist. There has been a global decline in stunting (low heightfor-age ratio): between 1990 and 2018, the prevalence of stunting in children aged under 5 years declined from 39.2% to 21.9%, or from 252.5 million to 149.0 million children, though progress has been much slower in Africa and South-East Asia.

Obesity, however, is on the rise. The prevalence of children considered overweight rose from 4.8% to 5.9% between 1990 and 2018, an increase of over 9 million children. Adult overweight and obesity are also rising in nearly every region and country, with 1.3 billion people overweight in 2016, of which 650 million (13% of the world’s population) are obese.

Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes; cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke); musculoskeletal disorders (especially osteoarthritis – a highly disabling degenerative disease of the joints); and some cancers (including endometrial, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon).

An increased focus on nutrition by the health services is key to addressing both aspects of the “double-burden” of malnutrition.

The Essential Nutrition Actions publication is a compilation of nutrition actions to address this “double burden” of underweight and overweight and provide a tool for countries to integrate nutrition interventions into their national health and development policies.

Poor business structure, weak infrastructure hinder Nigeria’s healthcare sector - Experts ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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espite Nigeria’s rapid population growth rate that has helped in attracting investments into healthcare industry, system infrastructural gaps and poor business structure in the healthcare sector have continued to be a challenge hindering growth of the sector.

The experts opine that the problem in the health sector is not only inadequate funding but the country’s inefficiency to effectively implement policies, workforce brain drain, medical tourism, inability to capture larger percentage of the population under the health insurance scheme and counterfeit drugs among others.

“Human resources, affordability and proper structure are three critical issues that need to be in place before Nigeria’s health sector can grow the way it designed to be,” said Abubakar Suleiman, managing director, Sterling Bank, who spoke at the first E- health meeting held

recently in Lagos.

According to Suleiman, medical professionals in Nigeria are majorly one man’s business, so we have thousands of micro hospitals that cannot effectively and efficiently deliver healthcare services to Nigerians.

“Your skill as a doctor does not play an important role in good business. The problem with Nigeria is that, we combine practicing medicine profession with the business of healthcare because nobody is looking at the business of healthcare,” he said “When the talent that you need to succeed is individual, many of the private hospitals functioning are not sustainable as they lack the proper structure to run profitable healthcare businesses,” he added.

The aim of the ecosystem meetup series is to create a community of actors consisting of start- ups, investors, healthcare institute who are investing in the growth and developing policy that encourages collaboration and partner-

ship seeking to promote innovation in Nigeria’s health care.

Also speaking during the meet-up, Obinnia Abajue, chief executive officer of Hygeia Health Management Organisation’s says that poverty, mobility, culture, quality and policy are the financial barriers to effective healthcare delivery in the country, noting that Nigerians living in this circle are all behavioural driven.

Abajue added that health insurance is about removing payment as a consideration at the point of care for patient and physician. “Creating products for the specific needs of various Nigerians is one of the ways we are changing the healthcare system. We are ensuring every Nigerian is getting quality health coverage with our various plans,” he said.

Debo Odulana, co –founder and chief executive officer Doctoora, said that Nigeria need to increases access and quality of safety in the sector, by looking at the building blocks of governance, healthcare financing and information and technology.

NAF to provide free medical service to 15,000 persons in Edo CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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s part of its Social Corporate Responsibility, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has rolled out free medical service for 15,000 persons at Irhirhi community in Oredo local government area.

The two-day medical programme was geared towards ameliorating the health burden of the community as well as enhances the cordial relationship by ensuring availability of quality medical care to host communities.

The free medical service for the community are consultation, distribution of treated mosquito nets, conduct of surgeries were necessary, laboratory investigations, prescription and dispens-

ing of drugs and issuance of eye glasses among .

Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, the Chief of Air Staff, who flagged off the programmme said the medical outreach was designed to meet the general health needs of NAF host community in Edo. Abubakar, repreaented by the Air Officer Commanding, Tactical Air Command (TAC), Makurdi, AVM Charles Ohwo noted that the initiative was to provide immediate medical assistance to residents of Irhirhi community According to him, the objective of the medical outreach is to help ameliorate the health burden of the community and to further enhance cordial relationship by ensuring availability of quality

medical care to host communities.

“The efforts by NAF has endeared communities to freely and willingly provide useful intelligence that has helped NAF to record significant successes in all theatres of operations she is involved,” he said.

He urged the people of the benefitting community to avail themselves of the golden opportunity and participate in the 2-day free medical outreach programme.

Earlier, Group Captain Nasiru Saidu, Commander 107 Air Maritime Group, NAF, Benin said Irhirhi community which is one of the host communities to the 107 Air Maritime Group, has enjoyed a cordial relationship with NAF since the establishment of Air force Base in Oko.

THE TRAVEL CLINIC

Executive Travel Health: Tips for pregnant travellers

Dr Ade Alakija Medical director, Q-life Family Clinic & Member: Nigerian Society of Travel Medicine (NSTM) Continued from last week he shoulder belt should be worn between the breasts with the lap belt low across the upper thighs. When only a lap belt is available, it should be worn low, between the abdomen and the pelvis.Most commercial airlines allow pregnant travelers to fly until 36 weeks’ gestation.

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HBL TEAM

Some limit international travel earlier in pregnancy, and some require documentation of gestational age. Pregnant travellers should check with the airline for specific requirements or guidance.

Cabins of most commercial jetliners are pressurized to 6,000–8,000 ft (1,829–2,438 m) above sea level; the lower oxygen tension should not cause fetal problems in a normal pregnancy, but women with preexisting cardiovascular problems, sickle cell disease, or severe anemia (hemoglobin <8.0 g/dL) may experience the effects of low arterial oxygen saturation.

Risks of air travel include potential exposure to communicable diseases, immobility, and the common discomforts of flying. Abdominal distention and pedal edema frequently occur. The pregnant traveller may benefit from an upgrade in airline seating and should seek convenient and practical accommodations (such as proximity to the toilet) and aisle seating so she

can move about frequently. Loose clothing and comfortable shoes are recommended.

Some experts report that the risk of deep vein thrombosis in pregnancy is 5–10 times higher than for nonpregnant women. Preventive measures include frequent stretching, walking and isometric leg exercises, and wearing graduated compression stockings.

Cosmic radiation during air travel poses little threat but may be a consideration for pregnant travelers who are frequent fliers (such as aircrew). Older airport security machines are magnetometers and are not harmful to the fetus. Newer security machines use backscatter x-ray scanners, which emit low levels of radiation.

Most experts agree that the risk of complications from radiation exposure from these scanners is extremely low.Most cruise lines restrict travel beyond 28 weeks of pregnancy, and some as early as 24 weeks. Pregnant travellers

may be required to carry a physician’s note stating that they are fit to travel, including the estimated date of delivery. Pregnant women should check with the cruise line for specific requirements or guidance.

The pregnant traveler planning a cruise should be advised regarding motion sickness, gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, and the risk of falls on a moving vessel.Air pollution may cause more health problems during pregnancy, as ciliary clearance of the bronchial tree is slowed and mucus more abundant.

Body temperature regulation is not as efficient during pregnancy, and temperature extremes can cause more stress on the gravid woman.

In addition, an increase in core temperature, such as with heat prostration or heat stroke may harm the fetus. The vasodilatory effect of a hot environment might also cause fainting. For these reasons, accommodation should be sought in airconditioned quarters and activities restricted in hot environments.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH / Reporters. Email: obokoh.anthonia@businessdayonline.com

Pregnant women should avoid activities at high altitude unless trained for and accustomed to such activities; women unaccustomed to high altitudes may experience exaggerated breathlessness and palpitations. The common symptoms of acute mountain sickness (insomnia, headache, and nausea) are frequently also associated with pregnancy, and it may be difficult to distinguish the cause of the symptoms.

Most experts recommend a slower ascent with adequate time for acclimatization. No studies or case reports show harm to a fetus if the mother travels briefly to high altitudes during pregnancy.

However, it may be prudent to recommend that pregnant women not sleep at altitudes >12,000 ft (3,658 m), if possible. Probably the largest concern regarding highaltitude travel in pregnancy is that many such destinations are inaccessible and far from medical care.

Continue next week

I Samuel Iduh, Graphics

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

IMPACT INVESTING What should Nigeria do to attract more impact investments?

In Association With

TELIAT SULE

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mpact investment inflow into Africa is increasing, but the momentum could be better if certain hurdles are addressed. In the last few years, several billions of dollars on impact investments have come into the African continent, particularly, Sub Saharan African countries.

According to Rise Africa Rise, over 107 organisations have invested in Southern Africa with the global development institutions such as the Industrial Development Corporation, investing about $25 billion on over 7500 deals among South African companies.

In May 2019, LeapFrog Investment, with focus on Asian and African companies, announced plans to invest $700 million in institutions in the two continents which are into healthcare and financial services. In June 2018, the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved $15 million for agri-business and food security in Africa under the Africa Food Security Fund scheme.

And according to the report by the National Treasury of the Republic of Kenya, between 1998 and 2004, Kenya attracted $4.6 billion through impact investing , representing 46 percent of the impact investing inflows into East Africa.

In the same economic bloc during the period, Uganda attracted 13 percent while Tanzania received 12 percent. Then, Ethiopia and Rwanda got seven percent and four percent of the total impact investing inflows into East African economic bloc respectively.

In 2016, IFC invested $66.8 million in Hygeia Nigeria, which is one of the leading private healthcare companies in the country. The firm offers comprehensive health insurance to individuals, families and small businesses.

Impact investments could booster public spending and development assistance according to Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), through pooling together excess funds from the private sector and skills which will strengthen African countries’ vulnerability to external shocks, by providing solutions that would address environmental and social-economic needs.

Source is: UNDP

One may be carried away by the few successes some countries have recorded as itemised above, that Africa is now a top destination for impact investing projects. Alas, this is quite not true because the global impact investments are worth $502 billion, which means, impact investments into Africa only account for a small percentage of the global impact investments.

To gain more attention from the global impact investors, there are quite a number of hurdles African countries; especially Nigeria must overcome to attract the desired level of impact investments.

Paul Boynton, chief executive officer, Old Mutual Alternative Investments, which is one of the largest private investment managers in Africa overseeing over $4 billion in investment, identified some of the challenges facing impact investments in Africa.

“A big-ticket institutional investor trying to find a home in impact in Africa will be constrained in terms of how much capital it can put away. A $300bn pension fund, for instance, seeking to write a cheque for $300m into an impact fund in Africa will know that this is simply not viable, because underwww.businessday.ng

lying investment opportunities of that scale do not exist. Even the vast clean energy opportunity in Africa remains constrained because of heavy competition driving up prices and compressing returns”, Boynton said.

The reason for the above, according to Rachel Keeler, is because high impact companies in Africa do not have the same pace of growth as the number of impact investment funds. Put differently, there are more impact investment funds than there are investable social businesses.

Related to the above is the absence of high-quality investment opportunities with good track record in the country. Impact investors have their diverse criteria for selecting projects. So, failure to meet these criteria might deny a firm of impact investing alliance. Basically, impact investors are driven by two major criteria, which are to generate a financial return on the investment within a given period, and, to realise the stated impact objectives in its field of operations.

This suggests that for Nigerian companies and projects to attract the desired level of impact invest-

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ments, their promoters must be sure those two objectives must be present and sustainable.

Another hurdle firms in Nigeria must overcome to get the needed impact investment is to be able to state clearly the problems they are addressing. What exactly is the focus of your investment? Which problem are you trying to solve? The ability to pitch the project in clear terms will go a long way to attract impact investors in the appropriate areas.

Some firms’ mission statements make them unattractive to impact investors, according to Rise Africa Rise, an online guide to social entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa.

“This is the first question they ask as part of their impact framework. A company’s mission statement is usually closely linked to the problem it seeks to address. This reveals a lot about your company’s determination and ambition. As many investors are also expecting some form of financial return (except if you are getting a grant) they will want to ensure that the problem you are addressing has a sustainable commercial potential to generate the expected financial @Businessdayng

return”, Rise Africa Rise, stated.

Furthermore, impact investors in Nigeria are also having challenges in exiting investments across a broad spectrum of sectors. Many factors are responsible for this which include shallow financial markets for listed firms while a number of firms are not even listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Perception about a firm or project could either make or mar a project. Consequently, the firms in the country also need to change the perception that impact investments are not that too viable within the Sub Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria.

Infrastructure financing on the continent is yearning for support.

Presently, it is estimated that Sub Saharan Africa requires over $300 billion, to bridge infrastructure gap in the short to medium term.

Nigeria, as the biggest economy on the continent is yearning for much of the funding for infrastructure financing. The global impact investor ecosystem is ready only that countries in Africa needs to make the infrastructure financing attractive.

Another challenge, according to GIIN, is inadequate policy and regulatory environment. The impact investment ecosystem in Africa is desirous of stable and enabling regulatory policy environment.

This concerns the need to have a stable exchange rate regime and improve the ease of doing business for local businesses to thrive.

More so, there is a poor linkage between social enterprises, investors and innovation networks.

This perennial problem persists because most of the social enterprises do not belong to professional bodies or formal networks.

This creates a herculean task to investors trying to find investible enterprises.

Nigerian firms should also develop and standardise their capacity to understand and measure impact investment. According to GIIN, there is lack of consistency and standardised frameworks and metrics that sufficiently address impact information needs which could enhance comparison with prospective investment, and to be able to measure the performance of the impact investment against targets.

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

MONEYINSIGHT

23

Five reasons why most Nigerian businesses do not survive beyond a generation … Lessons for startups, small businesses STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

C

ompanies started by Nigerians in Nigeria have a tendency not to survive beyond a generation, especially not outliving their founder(s). One glaring example that springs to mind is the Concord conglomerate founded

by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola in the 80s and 90s.

On one side of the coin, Abiola’s Concord comprised Concord Press, Concord Airlines, Abiola Farms and Wonder Loaf Bakery, among others.

Today, nothing but faded memories of the once-internationally acclaimed entrepreneur and philanthropist has survived. This might not be particularly Nigerian problem though.

On the other side of the coin, names such as the International Business Machine (IBM), CocaCola, Ford Motors, Nestlé, Pepsi, General Electric, Procter & Gamble and Bacardi ring a bell. Apart from being large, highly successful global businesses, they also have something very interesting in common.

Smallstarter.com contends that all of them have been in existence for more than a century. Yes, started over 100 years ago, the entrepreneurs who started them are long dead, but these businesses have continued to exist, thrive and expand even after the minds that conceived them left this earth.

Some of these businesses, like Ford and Bacardi, have remained within family circles, and passed through successive generations.

Other businesses — like Coca-Cola, IBM, and General Electric — have changed hands several times but continue to exist and expand as very successful companies.

Do family-controlled businesses have a better chance of ‘multi-generational survival’ than non-familycontrolled businesses? Interestingly, there is some evidence in favour of family-controlled businesses. However, both types of businesses have a good chance of survival if some things are done right.

Across Africa, the situation is quite different. Apart from a handful of small familybusinesses,andafewotherswith colonial ties, it is often not the norm to find African businesses or brands that have survived beyond their founders.

For some strange reason, after the founder retires or dies, the business starts on a path of slow or accelerated death. At least five reasons or a combination these reasons could explain this phenomenon.

Poor Succession Planning Africans in general and Nigerians in particular typically do not like to think or talk about death, grave misfortune or permanent disability.

Nobody would wish for any of any of these, but they are some of life’s risks and realities. And we must always consider, and plan for them.

However, while human life is finite and vulnerable to death and misfortune, a business can ‘theoretically’ live forever.

The best time to find a successor with the right level of commitment, vision and zeal to lead a business beyond the lifetime of the founder is not when the founder retires or is on his/her deathbed.

Finding the right successor to take the reins of a business is a conscious,

deliberate and calculated process (or decision) that should not be left to chance, or emergency situations.

Actually, the earlier the process of succession planning is started in the life of a business, the better.

Death, misfortune, and accidents never give advance warnings. There is an intrinsic risk in every young business that it could cease to exist if the brain behind it suddenly disappears (probably due to death or illness) or is no longer available for some reason to nurture, drive and grow the business.

Actually, planning for succession does not have to be tough and complicated, like most entrepreneurs think. The secret is to make the conscious decision, and start the process early.

Successors could come from anywhere. They could come from within the family (children, siblings etcetera), or they could be business partners who share the risk and ownership of the business with you.

Successors could also be your most promising employee(s).

Once you have identified the likely candidate(s), it is important to get them more involved in the business and groom them for leadership. They need to understand the nuts and bolts of the business and share a strong interest and passion in growing it into a bigger and better organisation.

If you identify any skills or knowledge they may be missing, invest in their learning and training. Formal education, short courses, mentorship, coaching and exposure are critical to the nurture and grooming of successors.

Some Nigerian entrepreneurs constantly kickback with the question: “what if these potential successors know too much and become dangerous to the business?”

That is a valid concern, but the risk of the business going extinct due to poor succession planning is far more dangerous than this concern.

Small thinking There is no crime in starting small. Most businesses start small.

Often, the mistake is staying small and ignoring possibilities for growth.

Many African businesses remain small all through the lifetime of the founder. And I think one key reason for this is most founders think small. What stops that small corner shop from becoming a national or international franchise? Why can’t that popular neighborhood product or service that you provide become a global brand?

Did you know that Coca-Cola was initiallydevelopedasapatentmedicine; an elixir that claimed to cure morphine addiction and headaches? This darkcoloured drink, developed by a local www.businessday.ng

drugstore owner in 1885, has now become a hugely successful international brand – a casual drink that exemplifies fun, friendship and refreshment!

To my mind, small thinking undermines the possibilities and potential of many businesses in Africa.

If only we knew how truly big some of our local products and services could truly become, most African founders would test the limits of their vision and challenge themselves more.

By thinking big, the possible lifespan of your business automatically increases. Growth and expansion is an objective that could take several generations to accomplish, and embracing this fact can eliminate shortsightedness and increase your horizon of possibilities.

Lack of structure and business systems One key trait of successful businesses, especially those that have existed through several generations, is the existence of a clear structure and business systems that help the business to operate effectively.

Structure is essential to every wellrun business because it provides order, assigns responsibilities for key activities and improves accountability. Many African businesses cannot function independently of the founder.

For example, when they are out of town for any reason, or unavailable to sign cheques, suppliers and employees maynotgetpaidontime.Ifhe/shedoes not OK a deal, it is likely to fall through.

His/her involvement in the business is often so central and too personal that it gets in the way of everything.

Business systems are also very important. How many mediumsized businesses on the continent actually have policies and procedures that govern everything from recruitment, employee conduct, finance and accounting, among others?

How many businesses actually keep accurate and up-to-date records of their activities, including complete information about operations, finances, transactions, customers, suppliers, employees and everything else?

It is not surprising then that the most critical information and records concerning most businesses are housed in the heads of their founders. They seem to be the only ones who know where everything should be and how the business should run.

With this kind of ‘chaos’, it is almost impossible to carry on a business when the almighty founder is unavailable.

Blind to business trends and changes Another strong feature of businesses that last beyond a generation is their ability to adapt. In a world of con-

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stantly changing markets, consumer trends, socio-political influences and outright disruption, adaptation is a key strength of businesses that will survive today and in the future.

Adapt or die!

Many businesses seem to think that they have found a formula for success that will remain effective for a thousand years. A tale order.

Entrepreneurs are often too focused on running their businesses that they do not take the time to look into the distance to think, strategise or identify current and future threats or risks that could significantly affect their business, or worse still, kick them out of business.

In today’s globalised and interconnected world, one disruptive idea or business in a faraway country can totally change the landscape of your industry or market so fast you may never find the time to think or plan.

Looking into the future, changes and trends in both the local and international market place will be one of the biggest risks that African entrepreneurs and businesses are likely to face. With a growing number of foreign businesses and brands increasing their footprint in Africa, even small family-owned corner shops and neighborhood businesses may not be spared.

To survive in these times of rapid change, entrepreneurs need to be open-minded and must not take everything for granted. Unlike a few decades ago, no business is too big to fail these days. One little unknown startup could have your business for lunch if you’re not prepared to adapt.

Among several others, Über is one example of a foreign disruptive idea/business that is changing the landscape of business across Africa – urban transport, in this case.

My advice: stay in the know about developments in your market and industry, both locally and globally.

Seek out innovative ways and technologies to make your business run more efficiently; make your products and services more valuable; keep your employees committed and effective; and improve the satisfaction of your customers.

In today’s internet-obsessed world, it is cheaper and easier to find the information you need. You just need to know where to look, and how to find it.

Here is one of the most interesting places to get started: The Top 30 Most Powerful Websites for Entrepreneurs and Investors in Africa.

A dominant‘lifestyle’mentality I watched an interesting TEDx Talk by Visu Thembekwayo about some of the reasons why African businesses remain small.

He makes a strong point about the business philosophy of the average African entrepreneur. In this part of the world, the success of a business is often seen by many entrepreneurs as a mandate to shore up their lifestyle.

Fancy cars and homes, globetrotting, expensive clothing, extravagant spending, and lavish displays of wealth are often common. I guess prudence and moderation are hardly metrics to live by, especially when it comes to showcasing your success to friends, family and associates.

In my opinion, a dominant lifestyle mentality does two dangerous @Businessdayng

things to the longevity of a business.

The first is distraction. The funds you’re using to shore up your lifestyle can actually be dedicated to improving and expanding the business into a much bigger success.

Those funds could also be used for strategic investments that diversify or consolidate the business, making it stronger and more resilient. So, using proceeds from the business to celebrate your ‘success’ is really a sign of small thinking.

The second is you are sending the wrong signals to your employees and potential successors. People are watching. If you treat the business like an ATM, it is going to be really hard for anybody else to manage the business with diligence and prudence.

If we see a business as an asset that should be nurtured and expanded beyond our lifetime, maybe we would not do our best to suck the life out of it, or just see it as a tool to serve our lifestyle interests.

Funding tips for small businesses Obtaining funding should start with a solid business plan. When you write a convincing business plan, then your chances of obtaining funding are greatly enhanced.

Lenders and investors want to see proof that customers want your product or service and are willing to buy it for a price at which you can make a profit. The more tangible evidence you offer of this claim, the better chance you have.

Other factors that improve your chances to get funded are: Your plan should show good profit potential in a short period of time. The higher the rate of return you can offer investors and the faster you can produce it, the better your chances. Your plan should target a clearly defined market with enough size and purchasing power to produce a profit.

Investors tend prefer large markets with high growth potential. They avoid businesses that attempt to be “everything to everybody.” Your plan should clearly explain the “competitive edge” your product or service has over rivals.

You should show an ability to control both the delivery and the quality of the product or service.

Also, that managers and employees have the skills and the experience to make the company a success. Show that you have made a personal investment in this business venture.

If you do not believe in your own venture enough to invest at least some of your own money in it, how can you expect others to? “Sweat equity” unpaid personal time and hard work — can be important, but lenders and investors like to see an entrepreneur with an important financial stake in the business. It is a tremendous source of motivation.

Lay out a clear, well - conceived, workable strategy for getting this business up and running. Show realistic financial projections covering most likely, pessimistic, and optimistic scenarios. Potential lenders and investors want to be sure that the “dollars and cents” of the deal make sense, and that’s why realistic projections are important. Most entrepreneurs underestimate the amount of money needed for start - up. Do not get caught short!

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Hotels

Make the most of your stay at Ikoyi Sun

Four Points by Sheraton Hotel (Oniru Chiefatancy Estate,Lekki) Tel: +234 1 448 9444

OBINNA EMELIKE

I

f you are a discerning guest, you will agree that Lagos offers an array of hotel accommodation options fashioned to meet every guest’s need while on a trip.

Well, if you are the upbeat business traveller who is often in Lagos for meetings, business concerns and even for leisure, there is a place that caters to all your interests; a place to lay your head, rest the body, connect business, conference, get fit and do more.

Set on Alfred Rewane Road, in the highbrow Ikoyi area of Lagos, Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotel is the ideal place for business and leisure in Lagos. Beyond the warm welcome that awaits guests, the hotel offers exceptional convenience for guests.

A visit exposes guests to the hotel’s stylish sophistication, classic and contemporary design, which combine with discreet service to give guests a memorable experience.

From the tastefully decorated rooms with spacious living areas, pool, fitness centre with sauna and steam rooms, comprehensive business centre, executive lounge, to banqueting and meeting facilities, the hotel caters to travellers’ comfort on every level.

On offer are 195 beautifully furnished rooms and suites that guarantee utmost peace and privacy. Also, the warm and inviting rooms offer stylish finishes and modern amenities to ensure a practical and comfortable

Top BusinessDay Partner Hotels

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

stay for guests.

The uniqueness of the accommodation offerings are the huge space, private en-suite bathrooms, all luxuriously fitted and wheelchairaccessible rooms, which are available on request.

As well, you need a ‘Ninth Floor Lounge’ experience.

The lounge on the 9th floor is a small private area exclusively for long-stay and suite residents and discreetly positioned in the hotel for those in the know, with complimentary snacks and drinks, newspapers, and TV with 24-hour news and sports. It is a quiet place for making connections or for some out-of-the-office downtime.

If you want excitement beyond the hotel room, you can spend the day lounging on the sun deck at the swim-

ming pool, gym at the fitness centre or visit nearby facilities including beauty salon, casino entertainment centre, golf course, restaurants and shopping malls.

Also, dining is a special occasion with an extensive menu complemented by a fine selection of international wines. From Nigerian classics like egusi soup and pounded yam, to caprese salads and gourmet burger sliders, as well as, in-house bakery prepared desserts and sweet treats, the menu carters to all palates. Moreover, casual lunches and light dinners can be enjoyed on the outside terrace while the stylish cocktail bar is the ideal spot for meeting colleagues and friends.

For the corporates, conferencing at Southern Sun Ikoyi offers a full range of

services and facilities that are tailored to suit meeting requirements. With five venues offering space from 10 – 100 delegates, breakaway spaces and welcome areas, AV technology and business services support, screen plasma TV, wireless microphone, voice conferencing, flip charts, whiteboard, success is guaranteed for conference organisers.

As well, visiting conference delegates can benefit from highly competitive business/long-stay rates and group check- in preference.

But do not forget the Sunday Brunch and the Saturday Ethnic Night, which have become popular among both in-house and outside guests.

The cheerful team of hospitality professionals awaits your visit for a special treat.

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

Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

Lagos Continental Hotel 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

206 Exclusive Hotel Plot 206 Oladipo Diya Road Opposite Olympia Estate

By Games Village Second Gate Durumi2 Abuja

Novotel Port Harcourt Address: 3 Stadium Road Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt Rivers State, Tel: 0809 713 5734

Another five-star hotel set to rise after Skylight Hotel

M

onth after the opening of Skylight Hotel, the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Group has embarked on a second five-star hotel construction project.

The new hotel project, which is expected to cost of $ 150 million, is riding on the success of the Skylight Hotel, built at a cost of $65 million near the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, which opened in February.

Abraham Tesfaye, manager, Infrastructure Planning and Development, Ethiopian Airlines Group, said the second hotel is being built adjacent to the first hotel on 22,000sqm of land. On completion, the hotel will have 637 guest rooms, restaurants, bars, conference hall, swimming

pool, fitness center and a basement parking which can accommodate 550 cars.

According to him, AVIC, a Chinese construction firm, conducted the design work and would also undertake the construction of the second hotel.

Speaking further, Abraham said the new hotel will surpass the first one in all standards. The first Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, which has 373 guest rooms across eight floors with a total floor area of 42,000sqm, according to him, was built at a cost of $ 65 million and stretched on 20,000sqm plot of land in front of the Millennium Hall.

It also offers three restaurants, three bars including a jazz club, grand ballroom designed to accommodate 2000 persons and five meetwww.businessday.ng

ing rooms, among other facilities.

Busera Awel, Vice president, Strategic Planning and Alliances of the airline, said that Ethiopian Airlines is seeking to offer its passengers end-to-end travel experience and to contribute its share to the growth of the country’s tourism industry.

“Addis Ababa is the main gate way to Africa. The hotel will play a significant role in boosting the tourism sector and making Addis Ababa a conference hub,” Busera said.

“We are offering tour packages (air ticket and hotel service) through Ethiopian holidays and bringing tourists here,” he added.

Busera said that Ethiopian Skylight Hotel is catering for not only Ethiopian

Airlines passengers but also open for the public. “The hotel is hosting local, regional and international conferences. It is an ideal venue for company staff and management meetings, weddings and other events,” he said. When the second hotel is completed Ethiopian Skylight Hotel would have 1,000 guest rooms.

As well, the Ethiopian government is planning to make Ethiopia one of the top five tourist destinations in Africa and boost the number of tourists visiting the country to 10 million, hence need to provide befitting hotel infrastructure.

Ethiopian Skylight Hotel is managed by Grand Skylight Hotel Management Co. Ltd (GSHM), a Chinese hotel management company.

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Radisson Lagos Ikeja #42-44 Isaac John Street, GRA Ikeja, Lagos

Southern Sun IkoyI Hotel Address: 47 Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos Tel: +234 1 280 5200 / +234 1 280 0630 Email: ssikoyi.reservations@ tsogosun.com

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

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

ENTERTAINMENT

Challenging time for African music industry …as artistes show solidarity with continent under attack OBINNA EMELIKE

I

n 1993, Lucky Dube, late South African reggae maestro, released an album titled ‘Victims’. The 10-track album was a hit because of the track ‘Different colours, one people’. In the song, Dube called on people from different races across the world to love rather than hate, to keep and not kill, as well as, asked politicians not to divide the people as God created them in His image and not as Blacks and Whites.

“They were created in the image of God And who are you to seperate them Bible says, he made man in his image But it didn’ t say black or white Look at me you see BLACK I look at you I see WHITE Now is the time to kick that away And join me in my song”, Dube said in his lyrics.

If Dube, who was killed on October 18, 2007 by robbers at Kwa Thema, a Johannesburg township, were to be alive today, he would cry more for the despicable way people of Africa, people of same colour, same blood and situations are killings themselves and making mockery of African unity and the ‘Ubuntu’ spirit upheld by Nelson Mandela, which is essentially about togetherness, and how all of our actions have an impact on others and on society.

It is disgusting that after several years of fighting the apartheid regime, South Africans turn to their fellow black African brothers; forgetting the sacrifices of most African countries that aided their freedom from the infamous segregation by the white minorities.

Xenophobia, attacks on fellow black people from other Africa countries, have continued in recent time, but the worst is the ongoing one, which has made some African countries to react in manners they have not protested in the previous attacks.

Imagine Nigeria recalling her Ambassador to South Africa; imagine some countries calling off the World Economic Forum holding in Cape Town, South Africa in protest of xenophobia, which the South African government has not been able to curtail after promises of no recurrence whenever such attacks hap-

Phyno performing on stage

pened.

Well, it is now affecting African entertainment industry as well.

This month, South Africa has over 10 music concerts that feature top musicians and thousands of music fans across the continent.

One of such music concerts is this year’s edition of the annual DStv Delicious International Food and Music Festival, which is billed to hold from September 21-22, 2019 at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa.

But the impact of this September deadly xenophobia attacks is still felt and many are calling off visits to South Africa for the music concerts; all in protest of the continued attacks on fellow blacks. As well, the citizens may not be in the mood for party shortly after the attacks as the negative impacts are still unfolding.

Currently, Tiwa Savage, a Nigerian singer and songwriter, who was billed to perform at the DStv Delicious International Food and Music Festival this September, has called off the www.businessday.ng

concert in solidarity with the victims of the recent xenophobia attacks in South Africa.

The songstress, who was born as Tiwatope Savage joined the protest on twitter and gave reason for calling off the concert in South Africa on her twitter handle; @TiwaSavage, saying, “I refuse to watch the barbaric butchering of my people in SA. This is SICK. For this reason I will NOT be performing at the upcoming DSTV delicious Festival in Johannesburg on the 21st of September. My prayers are with all the victims and families affected by this”.

Aside the DStv Delicious festival, the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz (JOJ) is also taking place this month-September 26-28 at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

As well, Etuk Ubong (Nigeria) and Kyekyeku (Ghana) are two West African jazz artistes who are among the line-up of artistes for the jazz concert.

Already, fans of Etuk Ubong are calling on him to call off the

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event in South Africa as Tiwa Savage did, while Ghanaian fans of Kyekyeku are expected to do same in solidarity with the victims of the September xenophobia attack, especially fellow West Africans who lost properties and lives while the attacks lasted.

However, musicians from countries in the Southern African Region (SADEC), especially Zambia and Zimbabwe are also calling off jobs in South Africa for now.

This is a bad trend for the South African and African music industry as artistes begin to reject offers that ordinarily would have impacted their career, the industry and the African economy at large.

Others music events that are likely going to flop on account of poor turnout this September because of the impact of the attacks are; Cape Town Fringe, Festival Music Exchange 2019 #MEX19, among others.

While most Africa music artistes are likely going to shun events in South Africa, also artistes from the country would @Businessdayng

be scared stepping out to other African countries for fear of being mobbed.

Sadly, overshadowed by the fury of the xenophobia attacks, many music fans even those from the East of Nigeria, did not notice the new release of Phyno on September 4, 2019. The new release by Phyno, who is unarguably the ‘Best from the East’, is titled Deal With It, featuring 21 tracks and notable Nigerian artistes such as Davido, Runtown, Falz, Phenom, among others.

Dibem Orji, a fan of the rapper, expressed his anger saying, “I am really mad at the fact that Phyno dropped a whole 21-track album yesterday and there is not a single buzz about it because all attention was given to Xenophobia. It is sad”.

Despite the present challenge, now is the time to use music to bring Africans together as the likes of Lucky Dube, Fela, Miriam Makeba, among others did in the past and are still doing with their ever-green music; though late.

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

27

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS ETIQUETTE

JANET ADETU

H

ave you noticed bad habits among your staff lately?

The workplace is the beginning of where your career begins or what I would say an important point of your life journey and experience.

Whether this workplace is but for a temporary period or a place you plan to grow, develop and thrive on.

In the past getting a job was such a great deal because it meant that one was now an adult capable of being independent and capable of making responsible decisions. This significance is seen in some cultures where young adults would honour those who educated them by giving them part of their first salary as an appreciation for taking them to that level. Millennials today have changed the face of the workplace, some almost do not care if they get a job or not. Some feel so entitled at work that they stroll in late consistently, others are quite restless on the job and always demand a pay rise for being in the company for what they term a whole year.

The change on the flip side is good in many ways, as business owners and corporate executives are forced to wake up and go with certain new technological trends. The workplace is also where a large chunk of one’s active time is spent in the course of the week, some even add the weekends to their work schedule and almost barely get the chance to take

Bad Habits

‘In The Workplace’ time off. Spoken, written and face to face communication contact in the work space and certain like that month in month out.

With all this in mind the workplace is bound to experience an array of personalities, characters, attitudes, behaviour and above all habits, both good bad and at times the ugly. Habits are what employees pick up along the way, either from their lackadaisical behaviour, poor policy execution, limited repercussions, faulty management style and general poor attitude to work. It is important that when they are noticed they should not be overlooked as trivial but adhered immediately for impact.

Imagine: Tinuke has a habit of strolling into the office on average at 9:00am every day, at times almost at 9:30am, she claims the traffic from her distance residence is the reason for this habit of lateness each day. By the nature of her job she meets clients on a regular basis. On a couple of occasions the client has reported her impolite lateness with no apology. To date management have failed to address this as it is deemed, Tinuke is one of the senior long serving staff who has a decision making capacity. The junior staff have frowned at her poor habits of coming late to work, late for meetings and late for in house appointments. This is a true story of a professional her poor habit leading to negatively impacting company policy and standards, create of the company extremely away important clients and dampen to productive minds of subordinates.

The implication is a reputation damage to the company and a fall in the overall bottom line, if drastic measures are not implied.

There are so many habits that we

see daily in the office space; it is time to correct habits that are beyond the norm.

Habits Needed to be Addressed: Persistent Lateness This is major creating many problems in the business and corporate space today. Running a few minutes late is acceptable with an apology or advanced notice. Appearing one hour or more after the scheduled time is what is not acceptable, for many reasons it speaks to the lack of ability to organize ones schedule or manage ones time. It is disrespectful to those who have made that effort to be there on time who are more structured. Everybody is busy, time is truly of essence, if you are unable to make the meeting it is safer to express so. When circumstances prevail that are out of your control, communicate this to the necessary persons and let things move on. Discipline with time is a skill that must be practiced, it is a bad habit and an image saboteur to be labelled a persistent late comer.

Sloppy Dressing Have you ever thought of needing the services of an image consultant?

Are you stuck in a rut and always uncertain as to what to wear to work?

Are you in need of a huge image makeover?

Sloppy dressing cannot go unnoticed it speaks to an area that you are not conversant with. Slopping dressing is where you dress haphazardly regardless of the place, occasion, moment and time. You dress not to be included, accepted or recognised, your coordination is poor and sense of colour is doubtful. It is a bad habit to show up at work, a meeting or conference without considering the cause of the day. First impressions means a lot in business, the

‘

Some feel so entitled at work that they stroll in late consistently, others are quite restless on the job and always demand a pay rise for being in the company for what they term a whole year

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Nose Picking / Sneezing in the Hand To some people this may not be significant to many others it is clearly an act of indecency. Nose picking is an unconscious effort of many, it is commenced even before you are aware of it. It can be irritating more so when the act is seen and done in the public eye. Sneezing generally in the air with no regard for others in the office is generally considered a bad habit. It is also worse when the act of sneezing is done into ones hands especially without wiping immediately.

This for me is a complete No No, quite spontaneous but a health hazard all the same. These habits should be done discreetly with a handkerchief in hand.

O’Jerry, afro-pop new wave debuts with ‘Go Pay’

O

’Jerry, a multi-talented compere and vocalist, has debuted with a fresh hot single track titled ‘Go Pay’ produced by Suplia Beats. Presented in an ingenious blend of vernacular and Yoruba, the warm-hearted new act delivered a melodic Afro-pop rendition full of positivity, energy and goodwill. With Go Pay, O’Jerry fuses his astounding pop-fuji vocals with Afrobeat rhythms to convey a stimulating message of perseverance to Nigerians and the world at large.

O’Jerry is inspired by Adekunle Gold, LKT, Barry Jhay, Reekado Banks, Ibejii, Praiz, Rayce among other vocal giants in the Nigerian music sphere. The refreshing new single is available online on itunes, boomplay and all music download sites.

J

Chapman, Pineapple and Orijin Zero cocktail recipes.

The Johnnie Walker Highball cocktail is more than just spirit and soda. It is an uplifting infusion of Johnnie Walker whiskies with simple fruits notes in a highball glass to minimize the loss of bubbles, preserving the distinct flavour that

Failure to wash hands It is difficult to know how often one washes their hands in the workplace, however many reports have come in to say that it is not as often as expected. Whether this is in the office kitchen or convenience, washing of hands is majorly essential, It is a very bad habit not to recognize the importance of grooming for many health and safety reasons. I always say carry a bottle of hand sanitizer and hand wipes in every bag.

Please share your experience with me by sending an email to or janet.adetu@jsketiquetteconsortium.com. / jtadetu@gmail.com Follow and like @janetadetu @jsketiquetteconsortium I look forward to hearing from you.

Evening of jazz at JJW ohnnie, Jazz & Whisky (JJW), platform for live afro-jazz performances, turned on the style as Adekunle Gold, Wande Coal and Lagbaja, the africalypso icon, mesmerized Lagos fans and audience in a scintillating fusion of music with the great flavours of Johnnie Walker Black Label.

JJW guests were welcomed with cameras clicking away at the sensational ‘Johnnie Walker Lightbox’ for buzzworthy moments.

Adekunle Gold soon opened the evening with exciting performances of favourites Ire, By You and Orente; giving way to the hugely anticipated Lagbaja, who did not disappoint with his powerful renditions of Never Far Away, Nothing For You and Konko Below.

Wande Coal closed the extraordinary night with fine renditions of crowdpleasing hits, leaving the audience lingering on their feet in prolonged ovation.

The highlight of the exciting showcase was the unveiling of The Johnnie Walker Highball Cocktail Serve, a fascinating new and easy way to enjoy the smooth flavours of Johnnie Walker Black Label. Guests were immersed in the delicious Johnnie Walker Highball Collection, flagged by Cola, Apple,

workplace directly influences your appraisal, recognition, assignment, external representation, promotion and more. As the adage goes “Dress the way you want to be addressed “.

Do not sabotage your image or executive presence.

comes with each refreshing sip.

Whether you are a whisky lover or a complete novice, there is a Johnnie Walker highball for you.

The JJW evening of glitz and glamour, style and flavours, was another night of success for Johnnie, Jazz & Whisky – a truly unforgettable experience.

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@Businessdayng

28

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Harvard Business Review

MANAGEMENTDIGEST

Life’s work: An interview with Daniel Boulud — Part 1 ALISON BEARD

B

orn into a farming family in Lyon, France, Daniel Boulud knew at 14 that he wanted to be a chef. He trained as an apprentice, rose through the ranks of his home country’s best restaurants, did a stint in Copenhagen, and then emigrated to New York City, where he was hired at the famed Le Cirque. In 1993 he struck out on his own and opened Daniel, spawning a culinary empire that now includes 16 ventures.

Q: Why did you opt out of the family farm?

A: I had a lot of pleasure working there, cooking with my grandmother, making goat cheese. We had goats, cows, ducks, chickens, rabbits, turkeys, geese and all sorts of vegetables. Whatever we had on that table was 95% grown or raised or made by us. But then I would go with my father to the farmers market on Saturday and meet all kinds of wonderful people, including local chefs coming to buy from his stall, and I liked the relationships, the contact. As the oldest boy, I was supposed to take over the farm, but that life is lonely. So I decided I wanted to cook, and family friends helped me work in one of the best restaurants in Lyon.

Q: It was the social aspect of the chef’s life that steered you in that direction?

A: No, no, no. It was the food first and foremost. The passion for good ingredients.

Q: How did starting so young benefit you?

A: Well, I don’t think you can be an athlete in the Olympics without starting very young and having your family supporting you. For me, starting to cook at 14, with my parents’ backing, I was able to become a sous-chef at 21, which is pretty good.

Q: You trained under so many respected French chefs.

What were the key lessons you learned from them?

A: Everyone brought me something. I worked with Georges Blanc when he was about 26 and taking over his mother’s famous restaurant, and I was only 17 or 18.

To see this young chef leading the business — the abundant energy and willingness to make changes while respecting tradition — was inspiring. From Roger Vergé, in the south of France, I learned a real sense of hospitality. He embraced Provençal cuisine and elevated it in a perfect way, from home cooking to fine dining, and he was demanding, tough, but if you did well with him, he was also fun — a very happy man who made a lot of people happy. There is sometimes a little bit of that in me. Michel Guérard is a poet.

From him I got creativity and the need for perfection and complexity. I remember making a “salade gourmande” composed of three sweet little salads on a plate: one with duck, one crayfish and one foie gras and haricots verts. I once counted the ingredients, and there were 35, from the pickled ginger to the tiny piece of bacon to the herbs. We used tweezers before they were a kitchen tool.

But it was a symphony. Everything was separate in flavor and taste and composition and texture but also in harmony.

Q: How did you jump from private chef to restaurants?

A: Well, I came to New York and saw all the restaurateur-chefs and wanted to be successful like them, doing something of my own. I had no money, but I’ve always been a little bit of a control freak. I worked at two hotel restaurants and was then asked to be a chef at Lutèce and Le Cirque.

Both were top restaurants. I just felt that Le Cirque would be a better school for me to become a restaurateur.

Q: How did you know you were ready to start out on your own with Daniel?

A: My oldest daughter was born in 1989, and at that time, following the economic crash, things were not very good in New York. It was not easy. I wanted to go back to France. I felt that if I was going to start my own restaurant, I should do it in Lyon.

For two years I looked for a restaurant there, but I could see that it would be hard to raise money.

And in New York, I was on the full rise. I was a chef; I’d already done

a cookbook. So I decided to stay and open in America instead. By 1992 I had raised the money and signed the lease, and we opened in 1993.

Q: With that restaurant and many other early ones, you had the benefit of a single financial backer. How did you develop that relationship, and how did it influence the way you ran your restaurants?

A: I had three friends, all Harvard graduates. One was in real estate, one was in business and one was a lawyer. They were searching for a space and negotiating for me so that nobody would know I was looking. We found a space on 76th Street that we felt was right — I went by myself at night to peek through the window because I didn’t want anybody to see me visiting it — and then I needed financing. At first I was looking at 10 partners at $250,000 each. But then I met Joel Smilow, the uncle of one of the friends helping me. He was just retiring as CEO of Playtex, which owned a company in the food business at the time. He was not a customer of Le Cirque; he was more the 21 Club kind of man. But we had a long conver-

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

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sation, and he seemed to have an affinity for me and told me he’d like to be my only partner. This was a man who knew how to take risks and could help me grow.

He understood that a business is made of creativity, personality, people and a lot of hard work. He understood quickly the pros and cons of restaurants and was very present in financial and strategic meetings but also remote about the day-to-day operations. He let us run things. Now he’s emeritus, because he’d like to relax a little bit.

Q: How do you balance being an artistic, innovative chef with being a businessman who needs to worry about profit margins and payrolls?

A: I have a good sense of the business, but I’m not alone in it.

When I opened my first restaurant, my most important hire was a very good accountant, because I didn’t have time to check the bills and make sure we were out of the red. Marcel Doron became chief financial officer of the company and was with me for more than 20 years. He just retired, and we have a new CFO for what is now a different-level organization. But as we grew together, Marcel was a person I could trust and really communicate with and learn from. When you start, you also need a very good restaurant manager; then, after you open two or three places, a director of operations. Eventually you create human resources and public relations and buying departments. I’ve seen so many talented chefs who couldn’t figure out how to be in the black and so were never able to succeed. Maybe they didn’t have the right people around them. We are chefs, artists, dreamers ... but as you grow, you want to make sure you do it safely and maintain stability.

• Alison Beard is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review.

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

29

LEADINGWOMAN Olatowun Candide-Johnson, creating that suitable environment where women network, inspire like minds KEMI AJUMOBI

O

latowun CandideJohnson is a lawyer with thirty+ years’ experience in corporate and commercial law and in business development and governance of multinational corporations. During the course of her career, she worked in Law Practice, Shipping, & Oil and Gas. Whilst working with the Total Group, she worked in different divisions including three years in the New Business (Affaires Nouvelles) Division in the Paris HQ. Before taking early retirement, she held the roles of General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Executive General Manager, Management Services Division (incorporating Legal, Audit, Insurance and AntiCorruption Compliance) and for the Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria.

In 2016, she obtained a Global Executive MBA awarded by LSE, NYU Stern and HEC (Paris), known as the TRIUM Global Executive MBA. After many years in corporate life, she decided that it was time for her to fulfill her passion which is to open an exclusive space in Lagos to help bridge the business connections gap currently experienced by Women in Nigeria. This birthed “GAIA” (meaning “Mother Earth”), a Women-Only Members Club located in Victoria Island.

Olatowun is a Founder parent of Lagos Preparatory School, Ikoyi, one of Africa’s leading British curriculum preparatory schools in Lagos. Member of the board of directors of the Nigerian-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce, Advisory Board Member, African Women on Board (AWB) as well as a member of the Committee on Tourism and Hospitality of the Institute of Directors (IOD). She is also an angel investor and a member of Rising Tide Africa – a network of female business angels investing in entrepreneurs across the African continent.

She is Wines & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 certified, and Dame Chevalier de l’Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne (2017). She loves all forms of the Arts, Culture, food and wine, Pilates, spinning, yoga, books, and interesting places Olatowun is happily married to Yemi Candide-Johnson (SAN) and they have three bright and wonderful children.

Growing up and influence till date Growing up in Lagos in the late 60s and early 70s was wonderful and memorable. I still hold dear fondest childhood memories; bicycle races, going for neighborhood walks with my father, cinema on Saturday’s, swimming and arts & crafts at the Onikan art centre (I forget what it was actually called then) and simple things like that.

We knew who people were and it mattered where you came from. That a person had or did not have money was not a topic. It

was family and honor and keeping reputation unblemished. We knew the values upon which our civilization was based, and these values were paramount. I remember that my father would always ask our friends what their surnames were. A known name would lead to a further interrogation about which particular branch of the family they came from. There is a lot of intelligence in a simple name and though, at that time, we were embarrassed by this Q & A, it is also what we now do with our own children. Showing off wealth or acquisitions was an embarrassment and people were generally ‘called out’ or shunned if they ‘mis-stepped’. This type of value system lent itself to a wellregulated and orderly society. Today, I tend to flinch from anything and anyone that’s OTT (Over The Top) in behavior or outlook and instead look out for people who have the same value system that I do. All these influences remain with me today and I have passed them on to my children.

30 years experience in corporate & commercial Law, lessons learnt Gosh! That could take a long time. Suffice it to say that you’re never too old to learn, be confident enough to admit that you don’t know what you don’t know so that you can actually acquire the knowledge; constant selfimprovement is imperative. Seek www.businessday.ng

new skills and broaden your knowledge. When you manage people, be open, authentic and empathetic.

Being a member of Rising Tide Africa and reason for joining Well, RTA is an Angel network of women that seeks and invests in women led businesses and I am very pleased and proud to be a member. It has not only introduced a new asset class of investments, but it has also further exposed me and allowed me to meet fascinating authentic, brave and interesting fellow angels and learn about the brilliant tech and non-tech startups in Nigeria. I doff my hat to Yemi Keri and Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien who are the cofounders of RTA. Balancing work and family during active service in comparison to how you do it today.

What has changed?

What has changed? My children are all grown up. When they were younger, both my husband and I were very busy professionals leaving home early in the morning and coming back late at night; and so, we took the decision to send them to boarding school quite early. Having said that, we did everything in our power to attend school activities, parent teacher meetings, plays, recitals and so on. It is never easy, but you have no choice.

When they were still at home

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however, we had help from my late mother, my mother in-law my older sister and others. It does take a village to train a child as the saying goes and I was lucky to have a very strong support system. It’s either that or you leave your kids to be brought up by domestic help.

That was not acceptable to us.

GAIA GAIA started in March 2018 on the rebound from a project - Voltaire Arts Club which effectively was a Members only club for the arts, established to show case the work of emerging artistes in the Arts space - music, art, fashion and so on.

In trying to build that project, I found that I didn’t come across many women in the investment space. When that project couldn’t go further, due to lack of financing, wrong time for investors (as the economy was in recession (2017) as well as some issues with the project site and so on, I decided to turn my sights to women. Why weren’t there many women in the investment space, if there are, where are they? Why couldn’t I find them then? Why do women bond on so many levels but do not do much business together?

There are no real peculiarities with the club. We have criteria for membership and the minimum age is 30. We want real business owners as well as corporate csuite executives and other senior professionals. In short, we want @Businessdayng

women who are decision makers and who can connect and collaborate with others around the table or make it happen through their networks.

The club is NOT for show. The club is not for “big gals” without an identifiable and genuine source of income. The club is for serious women who want to do more not just for themselves and for their businesses but for society as a whole.

Challenges setting up First, I’m still in the process as we are renovating the club house even though we have been running activities for over a year. The club house is an absolute must for the business. One huge and real problem is funding!!!! funding!!! funding!!! I have managed to find a few investors who believe in me, but I need more!

The other problem is staff. But this isn’t peculiar to this business.

Finding intelligent, competent and dedicated employees who understand what it means to run a start-up can be very difficult to find. The search continues however.

Membership Membership is by referral or by application through the membership portal of our website www. gaiawomenclub.com.

It’s been very exciting so far even though we get a lot of people applying who are not qualified for the club membership. It shows that it is indeed aspirational which is good thing!

We have had a lot of interest from diverse women running diverse businesses (several from the “lifestyle” industry). I think however, that the more we connect collaborate and begin to create together we will begin to spread our wings into unchartered territory. I believe that more women would start more capital-intensive business if they were not limited to self-funding. This is certainly one of issues that GAIA would like to tackle in close collaboration with funding entities.

Do women truly support each other?

Okay so this is the loaded question but one that’s not so difficult to answer anymore. I’ve seen both sides. I have learned from both.

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I believe that it is probably still 50:50 but we’re moving the needle step by step and increasingly, I hope that women would support each other as we do at GAIA. Another objective for GAIA is to build an environment of trust.

A trust circle if you wish, where members grow to trust each other.

When you trust someone, you will find it easier to do business with that person. Where there’s no trust, it becomes difficult, sometimes impossible.

Read the concluding story of Olatowun’s inspiring story on our website www.businessday.ng as she graces our Women’s Hub cover for this week. You are just a click away!

30

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Thursday 05 September 2019 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 229,266.71 6.45 -2.27 128 4,402,659 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 210,326.44 6.15 -2.38 160 5,288,926 ZENITH BANK PLC 544,729.17 17.35 -0.86 222 8,964,734 510 18,656,319 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 161,528.82 4.50 -1.10 297 12,214,746 297 12,214,746 807 30,871,065 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,809,940.53 138.05 -0.32 86 4,195,810 86 4,195,810 86 4,195,810 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,687,288.02 157.70 - 39 27,415 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 233,563.03 14.50 -3.01 56 662,731 95 690,146 95 690,146 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 234,024.40 397.70 - 5 3,105 5 3,105 5 3,105 993 35,760,126 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,710.00 85.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 13,074.52 4.90 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 42,115.13 44.15 6.13 9 63,905 PRESCO PLC 44,800.00 44.80 - 8 19,715 17 83,620 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,520.00 4.26 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,260.00 0.42 - 4 46,042 4 46,042 21 129,662 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 688.30 0.26 - 4 510 JOHN HOLT PLC. 217.92 0.56 - 4 62,103 S C O A NIG. PLC. 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 41,460.95 1.02 0.99 46 6,227,337 U A C N PLC. 15,847.13 5.50 10.00 75 3,339,226 129 9,629,176 129 9,629,176 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 24,486.00 18.55 - 4 15,020 ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 4 15,020 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 2,572.41 0.99 10.00 5 660,075 5 660,075 9 675,095 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 10,804.71 1.38 - 1 1,000 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 81,701.28 37.30 - 41 10,129,082 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 103,150.34 12.00 0.84 22 518,872 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 404,243.40 50.55 - 17 33,535 81 10,682,489 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 100,000.00 20.00 - 114 2,089,748 DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 102,000.00 8.50 -3.41 128 1,236,247 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 55,355.12 13.50 - 26 229,833 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 7,295.78 0.92 -7.07 19 2,187,729 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 34,442.70 13.00 - 9 9,606 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,321.07 12.15 - 0 0 296 5,753,163 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 18,594.20 9.90 6.45 9 75,514 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 990,820.32 1,250.00 - 40 36,814 49 112,328 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 5,366.12 4.29 - 7 61,914 7 61,914 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 22,234.67 5.60 -5.08 26 637,897 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 169,190.41 29.45 - 21 115,646 47 753,543 480 17,363,437 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 141,291.54 7.70 - 23 73,369 FIDELITY BANK PLC 44,621.19 1.54 -3.75 65 3,162,312 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 779,926.25 26.50 1.34 141 35,001,565 JAIZ BANK PLC 11,196.41 0.38 - 13 1,219,394 STERLING BANK PLC. 68,233.29 2.37 3.04 16 4,961,213 203,845.27 7.00 - 29 228,453 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. UNITY BANK PLC 8,182.54 0.70 - 7 108,798 WEMA BANK PLC. 23,144.68 0.60 1.69 20 2,666,496 314 47,421,600 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 1 10 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,296.73 0.62 -3.12 19 533,426 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 18,375.00 1.75 1.16 5 102,310 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,439.00 0.30 - 1 5,000 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 16,907.57 1.63 - 2 1,135 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 3,682.38 0.25 - 5 87,000 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 0 0 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 0 0 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 1,977.33 0.27 -3.57 5 305,000 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 1,675.57 0.39 - 3 48,010 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 4,160.00 0.52 - 0 0 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,346.27 0.21 -4.76 7 1,100,151 NEM INSURANCE PLC 10,032.96 1.90 - 5 34,600 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 0 0 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,637.45 0.49 - 1 60,000 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,333.75 0.20 - 0 0 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 1,668.16 0.20 - 0 0 STACO INSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 0 0 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 2 20 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 4,817.79 0.36 - 31 1,124,913 87 3,401,575

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MICRO-FINANCE BANKS NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,583.90 1.13 - 6 120,702 6 120,702 MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 4,158.00 0.99 - 1 2,500 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,796.93 1.39 - 0 0 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 1 2,500 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 7,900.00 3.95 - 45 452,861 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 34,114.81 5.80 -3.33 13 501,350 660.00 0.44 - 0 0 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC FCMB GROUP PLC. 30,298.15 1.53 -1.29 45 3,668,600 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,029.07 0.20 - 7 107,889 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 378,900.46 37.00 - 24 13,740 UNITED CAPITAL PLC 12,000.00 2.00 -0.50 55 772,108 189 5,516,548 597 56,462,925 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 1,680.29 3.37 - 1 100 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 817.22 0.23 - 2 25,010 3 25,110 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 494.58 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 9,388.62 4.50 - 1 200 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 9,447.42 7.90 - 6 82,800 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 3,450.47 2.00 - 10 71,680 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 949.58 0.50 - 2 19,174 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 19 173,854 22 198,964 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 710.40 0.20 - 2 236,334 2 236,334 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 534.60 4.95 - 1 20,000 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 282.12 0.57 - 3 100 4 20,100 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,220.98 0.26 4.00 21 5,503,784 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 9,996.00 2.38 - 1 10 22 5,503,794 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,215,762.01 323.50 - 5 3,707 5 3,707 33 5,763,935 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 2,173.68 7.50 - 5 12,986 17,325.00 24.75 - 5 22,861 CAP PLC CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 228,696.92 17.40 - 3 6,010 MEYER PLC. 313.43 0.59 - 1 10 1,959.74 2.47 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 1 200 15 42,067 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,730.05 1.55 - 16 58,601 16 58,601 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 29,873.33 59.75 - 8 1,466 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 8 1,466 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 39 102,134 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 2,547.42 6.12 - 6 20,618 6 20,618 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,781.64 8.10 - 0 0 0 0 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 92.40 0.42 - 0 0 0 0 6 20,618 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,252.54 0.20 - 3 124,000 3 124,000 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 47,860.94 3.85 - 23 195,099 23 195,099 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 56,974.05 158.00 - 15 11,587 CONOIL PLC 11,658.40 16.80 - 17 32,829 ETERNA PLC. 3,455.98 2.65 - 4 13,648 FORTE OIL PLC. 19,602.34 15.05 1.35 75 323,317 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 5,729.98 18.80 - 1 10 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 33,952.18 100.00 - 23 25,048 135 406,439 161 725,538 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,820.01 0.41 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 17,551.17 1.80 - 1 200 1 200 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 341.14 0.29 - 0 0 0 0 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,387.46 4.05 - 3 5,832 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 328.19 0.70 - 0 0 3 5,832 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,723.78 3.05 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 2,432.19 1.17 -9.30 4 200,300 7,862.53 3.50 - 0 0 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 41,042.18 5.40 - 0 0 4 200,300 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 4,800.00 0.40 - 3 30,200 3 30,200 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 211.68 0.35 - 2 400 LEARN AFRICA PLC 1,072.32 1.39 - 10 76,368 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 0 0 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 487.49 1.13 - 4 50,608 16 127,376 ROAD TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 530.46 0.32 - 3 100,000 3 100,000

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The Exchanges Market Statistics as at Thursday 05 September 2019

Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 05 September 2019 Opening

Closing

Change

MTNN

N138.5

N138.05

-0.45

0.6

WAPCO

N14.95

N14.5

-0.45

N5.5

0.5

DANGSUGAR

N8.8

N8.5

-0.3

N26.15

N26.5

0.35

PZ

N5.9

N5.6

-0.3

N14.85

N15.05

0.2

N6

N5.8

-0.2

Company

Opening

Closing

Change

OKOMUOIL

N41.6

N44.15

2.55

CADBURY

N9.3

N9.9

N5

GUARANTY FO

Company

CUSTODIAN

ASI (Points) DEALS (Numbers)

VOLUME (Numbers) VALUE (N billion) MARKET CAP (N Trn)

27,252.09

Nikkei 225 21,085.94JPY +436.80+2.12%

2,561.00

S&P 500 Index 2,976.69USD +38.91+1.32%

Deutsche Boerse AG German Stock Index DAX 12,126.78EUR +101.74+0.85%

Generic 1st ‘DM’ Future 26,799.00USD +427.00+1.62%

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index 2,985.87CNY +28.45+0.96%

133,343,668.00 2.399 13.257

Investors lose additional N33bn as stocks fall further Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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igerian stock market depleted further on Thursday September 5, 2019 as more investors placed equities for sale without corresponding demand. As prices of many value stocks dropped, investors booked about N33billion as cumulative loss.

Worst hit are equities like Lafarge Africa Plc, MTNN Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, and Custodian Investment Plc. Some of the stocks valuations and technical analysis, analysts noted show that price levels remain attractive for medium and long term investors.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased by 0.25percent, while the Year-to-Date (YtD) return stood at -13.29percent.

At the sound of closing gong, 13 stocks gained as against 17 losers. Lafarge recorded the biggest loss, N14.95 to N14.5, losing 45kobo or 3.01percent, MTNN followed from N138.5 to N138.05, after losing 45kobo or 0.32percent, while Dangote Sug-

Global market indicators FTSE 100 Index 7,271.17GBP -40.09-0.55%

LOSERS

GAINERS

UACN

NNPC, NAOC, Oando Joint Venture makes significant gas discovery onshore Niger Delta

O L –R: Linda Ochugbua, BusinessDay Newspaper; Moejoh Oluwaseyi Peace, CEO Apprentice; Adewale Adeboye Boaz; Jesutunmise Lawanson, CEO Apprentice; Bola Adeeko, head, Shared Services Division, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Oluwatodimu Solomon Obidipe, CEO Apprentice; Ajoke Oluwanifise Ajayi, CEO Apprentice; Myles Ekong Etim, CEO Apprentice during Closing Gong Ceremony to commemorate BusinessDay CEO Apprentice programme at the Exchange.

ar dipped from N8.8 to N8.5, down by 30kobo or 3.41percent. On the gainers table, Okomu Oil Palm Plc advanced most from N41.6 to N44.15, adding N2.55 or 6.13percent; Cadbury rallied from N9.3 to N9.9, after adding 60kobo or 6.45percent, while UACN increased from N5 to N5.5, up 50kobo or 10percent.

Amid negative market breadth and waning market activity, market watchers expect Index to extend its bearish trend to the last

trading day of the week, with corresponding negative week-on-week (WoW) performance.

The All Share Index closed lower at 27,252.09 points as against the preceding day close of 27,319.64 points while Market Capitalisation declined to N13.258 trillion as against preceding day close of N13.291 trillion.

The volume of stocks traded decreased by 46.76percent, from 250.45million to

133.34million, while the total value of stocks traded decreased by 24.80percent, from N3.191 billion to N2.399 billion in 2,561 deals. GTBank, FBN Holdings, Guinness, Zenith Bank, and Transcorp were actively traded stocks.

The Financial Services sector led Thursday’s activity chart with 87.33million shares traded for N1.23billion, followed by Consumer Goods with 17.36million shares traded for N499million.

ando Plc has officially informed the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/ Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC)/OANDO Joint Venture (JV) made significant Gas & Condensates Discovery Onshore Niger Delta.

The significant gas and condensate find is in the deeper sequences of the Obiafu-Obrikom fields, in OML61, onshore Niger Delta.

Oando Plc through its Upstream subsidiary Oando Energy Resources (OER) owns 20percent in the Joint Venture while NNPC has 60percent and NAOC the operator (20percent).

“The Obiafu-41 Deep appraisal/exploration well has reached a total depth of 4.374m encountering an important gas and condensate accumulation within the deltaic sequence of Oligocene age comprising more than 130m of high quality hydrocarbonbear-

ing sands,” Oando Group told the Exchange.

The find amounts to about 1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 60 million barrels of associated condensate in the deep drilled sequences. The discovery has further potential that will be assessed with the next appraisal campaign. The well can deliver in excess of 100 million standard cubic feet/day of gas and 3,000 barrels/day of associated condensates.

The discovery is part of a drilling campaign planned by the Joint Venture aimed at exploring near-field and deep pool opportunities as immediate time to market opportunities. OER is positive that this discovery will have an impact on its gas reserves.

The impact will be determined and communicated to the market on conclusion of the next annual independent reserves and resources evaluation, Oando stated.

NSE reclassifies Oando as low price stock

24th Pearl Awards Nigeria to hold November in Lagos

…for trading below N5 in 4 out of last 6 months

OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has reclassified Oando Plc from Medium Priced Stock (MPS) to Low Priced Stock (LPS). This requalification became effective Thursday, September 5, 2019.

Low Priced Stocks are securities that have traded below N5 per share in four out of the last six months period.Oando stocks dropped below the N5 mark on April 30, 2019, and traded below N5 up till close of business on 30 August 2019.

The Exchange said this decision is in compliance to Rule 15.29: Pricing Methodology, Rule-

rganisers of Nigeria’s leading capital market awards ceremony “The Pearl Awards” have announced Sunday,

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book of The Exchange, 2015 (Dealing Members’ Rules).

For upward or downward movements in price to occur on any Low Priced

Stock that is priced at below N5 and listed on The NSE, stockbrokers are required to trade a minimum volume of 100,000 units and tick size of N0.01kobo.

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L-R: Oscar N. Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), strikes a pose with children of NSE employees, during their visit to the Exchange. www.businessday.ng

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November 24th 2019 as the date for the 24th edition of the annual awards at Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos with the theme ‘Celebrating sustainable leadership & resilience’ Tayo Onakoya, president and chief executive, Pearl awards Nigeria at a media press briefing said the award has in the last 24 years rewarded quoted companies that have displayed exemplary leadership and good corporate governance in their operations.

“This is the only awards in this part of the continent that identifies and rewards performance, earnings and returns leadership using empirical and clearly defined criteria and methodology,” he said.

Onakoya further noted that the awards process is based on verifiable facts and @Businessdayng

figures, assessed utilizing credible and acceptable parameters and tools of data evaluation.

This year’s edition will see crème-de-la-crème of Nigeria’s corporates come together to celebrate excellence and glamour. The awards would be in three categories namely The Main competitive Category; this has the sectoral leadership award, Market excellence award, and the overall highest (The Pearl) awards. Winners in this category will be determined using Turnover growth, Return on Equity, Earnings yield, share price appreciation, dividend cover, profit margin ratio, dividend growth Net Asset Ratio, and Dividend yield.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Sports Tokyo 2020 Qualifier: Sports minister cheers Falcons to victory over Algeria … promises to work peacefully with the NFF

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Xenophobic attacks: Zambia calls off friendly game with SA Anthony Nlebem

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mid the outbreak of Xenophobic attacks by South Africans to Africans living in South Africa, the Zambia Football Association has called off its friendly match against South Africa.

The Chipolopolo and Bafana Bafana were scheduled to square off on Saturday in Zambia.

In a statement released, the Football Association of Zambia wrote:

“The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) regrets to inform members of the public that the international friendly match between Zambia and South Africa that was scheduled for National Heroes Stadium on Saturday, 7 September 2019 has been called off in view of the prevailing security concerns in South Africa.

FAZ General Secretary Adrian Kashala has relayed the message to the South African Football Association (SAFA) about the decision.

The South African Football Association is now looking for a replacement for Saturday’s match.

he Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Akin Dare, had a positive first experience watching the Senior Women National Team, the Super Falcons since resuming office, as he saw the nine –time African champions pip their Algerian counterparts 1-0 in an Olympics qualifying match in Lagos.

The minister arrived the Agege Stadium in company with the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, and alongside the

Acting President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi who received the duo at the airport.

The Falcons secured a 1-0 win, courtesy of a 57th minute strike by captain Asisat Oshoala. The Algerians were ejected on a 3-0 aggregate defeat, and the Falcons progress to the second round of the Tokyo 2020 African race to play Cote d’Ivoire.

The minister congratulated the Super Falcons and charged them to continue winning in the race to

Tokyo 2020 in order to be one of the teams that will fly Africa’s flag at the women’s football tournament of next year’s Olympics.

He also assured that his tenure would focus on a template of providing the best training facilities for both men and women football players to excel, cater for their welfare and work peacefully and harmoniously with the NFF to guarantee adequate preparation for Nigerian national teams before international matches and championships.

Special Olympics Nigeria kicks off Sports For Hope initiative L- R: Ibiyemi Ayeni, Initiatives manager, Special Olympics Nigeria; Obianuju Asiodu, manager, Health Programs, Special Olympics Nigeria; Philip Fasanya, human resource analyst, Cordros Capital Limited; Adetayo Akiolu, manager human resources, Special Olympics Nigeria and Adeola Oludugba, manager Sports Programs, Special Olympics Nigeria with athletes and winners of the football competition at the launch of Special Olympics Sports for Hope Initiative in Lagos.

Anthony Nlebem

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n a bid to promote inclusion and health improvement, Special Olympics Nigeria kicked off the launch of the Sports For Hope initiative, held last Saturday, 31st August 2019 at Igbobi College, Lagos.

The initiative which is sponsored

by The Embassy of France in Nigeria through the Innovative Projects of Civil Societies and Coalitions of Actors (PISCCA) fund is a unified initiative that targets youth with intellectual disabilities (athletes) and youth without intellectual disabilities (partners), in eight communities across Lagos State: Agege, Ajegunle,

Bariga, Ikorodu, Isale Eko, Isolo, Mushin and Surulere, with a goal of promoting inclusion, health improvement, and empowerment amongst these youth and other members of their communities.

The friendly competition games between teams from Surulere and Bariga in football and volleyball commenced shortly after the speech. The ceremony ended successfully with games and a dance competition.

Blockbuster lightweight clash looms as Joe Boy defends title against Rilwan Anthony Nlebem

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n boxing circles, one is the king; the other, a prince. With the recent successful defence of his African Boxing Union (ABU) lightweight title at Gotv Boxing Night 18, the prevalent view is that Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph is one that merits the kingship of the lightweight category.

It is, however, a view the fastrising Rilwan “Real One” Oladosu, national and West African Boxing Union (WABU) champion, disagrees with. Vehemently. Thrice in the last one month, he has openly rejected the notion that Joe Boy is on a higher platform. The first open rebellion against the kingship was at the press conference announcing GOtv Boxing Night 18 at The Regent Suites, Ikeja in Lagos.

As Joe Boy was being asked about his expectations for his ABU title defence against Ghana’s Success “Brave Warrior” Tetteh, with cameras rolling, Real One leapt out of his seat like a dolphin, yelling at Joe Boy and announcing, with customary prize fighter’s rage, his intention to dethrone the ABU champion, who was yet to taste defeat in any of his 14 fights. With boxers not known for having the patience of a saint, Joe Boy responded in kind, yelling back and attempting to button up Real One’s lips with his fists, an action that compelled security personnel to pull them apart. Both remained implacable. Real One continued his rant, claiming that, as amateurs, he defeated Joe Boy for fun and he

is confident of reprising that in the professional cadre, a claim denied by the ABU champion.

Then came 21 April, the date of GOtv Boxing Night 18 at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, where Joe Boy knocked out Tetteh in the first round to retain the ABU title. As the ring announcer was proclaiming him the winner by technical knockout, Real One leapt into the ring, eyes blazing, to throw another challenge. The capacity crowd roared in approval, an indication of the fact that many consider him capable of ending the champion’s reign.

The crowd’s reaction was not exactly new. In the last two years, both boxers have stood out and boxing fans have salivated over the prospect of them going up against each other in a fight considered Nigerian boxing’s equivalent of the El Clasico. Real One’s sub-regional title puts him in line for a shot at the www.businessday.ng

continental title. The possibility of a clash between them now looms very large. That, naturally, has provoked a debate about who is better equipped between the two. Ardent Joe Boy fans cannot see beyond anything other than victory for their idol, who has seen off both local and international opponents with his superb offensive-defensive balance.

His preference for functionality, a reliance on his devastating punching power, is deemed business-like but inelegant. That has not affected fans’ affection for him. The first round of the national lightweight title bout against the then champion, Nurudeen “Prince” Fatai, at GOtv Boxing Night 7 in 2016, was eminently uneventful. In the second, scenting blood, he charged like a bull.

Fatai, who is of similar inclination, matched him until the fifth round, when Joe Boy’s raw power broke his resolve and was forced to throw

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in the towel. He followed that up with two other brutal victories over the same opponent and famously dismissed, with uncharacteristic panache, Lukman Hogan Jimoh in 30-seconds. He later added the WABU, Commonwealth Africa and ABU titles. So far, he has had 15 fights (six TKOs).

While having not clocked as many ring miles as Joe Boy, Real One, with eight fights (all won), considered the man most capable of ending that winning streak. A boxer of great elegance, marked by balletic movement, weaves, feints and bobs, he provides fans with enormous thrills and lot of despair for opponents. His elegance somehow promotes the view that he is more of style than substance. This view,

however, ignores the fact that he possesses an impressive punching capability, appetite to use it in volume and with impeccable timing.

Attack, for him, is defence; no sitting back to suddenly uncoil like a cobra.

At 5’7, he has a reach advantage over Joe Boy, who stands at 5’4, and carries no less menace despite his flamboyance.

These attributes have won him the best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night on two occasions, but still trails Joe Boy, who has claimed the award three times. So, who has the edge?

Neutrals think it’s a close call. The armies of supporters on either side, unsurprisingly, believe that the one they support has the edge. What, however, is not in contention is that bout is a potential blockbuster.

Sunday Akin Dare, (3rd right), minister of youth and sports; Dame Pauline Tallen (middle), minister of women affairs; Seyi Akinwunmi, (2nd right), NFF Ag. President; NFF Executive members; Ibrahim Gusau (2nd left) and Aisha Falode (left), with Asisat Oshoala (right), Super Falcons captain and Francisca Ordega (third left), before the match against Algeria in Lagos. @Businessdayng

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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news Africa gaming industry suffers setback as Kenya, Uganda ban business … Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania lead gaming markets in Africa Anthony Nlebem

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frica’s gaming industry is in for a big blow following recent steps by two countries - Kenya and Uganda to ban the business.

While the Kenyan ban has been temporarily suspended, legislators are currently considering policy amendments that would overhaul current state gambling laws by imposing significantly higher costs on licensed operators.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan decision to stop the gaming business remains in place.

With these actions, both jurisdictions have set a precedent that threatens to spread across the continent and bring to a halt the great signs of promise demonstrated by the continents gaming industry.

The gaming industry has continued to expand, benefiting from large and youthful population, improving internet accessibility, and the increasing access to internetenabled devices.

Sports betting have emerged as a lucrative business, leveraging on Nigeria’s huge football culture. Some of the big leagues, such as the English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga, German Bundesliga, Italian Seria A, French Ligue 1 have over 20 millions of fans in the country and betting provides them the opportunity to earn from the sport they love.

Poor economic growth coupled with high unemployment rates has activated the growth of gaming industry in Nigeria.

The gaming industry in Africa is also making wave especially in underdeveloped countries. Gaming

companies are gaining competitive advantage with innovate, and creative gaming contents that drives gaming experiences.

The burgeoning African gaming market has been spearheaded by a number of countries in recent years with South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania widely deemed as the leading gaming markets on the continent.

Technological hubs, increasing online access and digital penetrations rates, as well as viable payment solutions being in place for a mostly unbanked population has helped to grow the gaming industry.

In Kenya, mobile operators cover almost 90percent of the population with over 46 million people having access to the digital space.

These conditions, intertwined with a youthful and growing middle class that has a staunch passion for sports, has made the 2nd most populous continent on the globe an attractive opportunity for gaming operators looking to expand beyond existing mainstream and, often, saturated markets.

However, after consistent year on year growth in a number of markets in the sub-Saharan region, the problems affecting their European counterparts have emerged in the promising market.

With b etting activity sweeping across the continent, and East Africa in particular, Uganda was the first nation to act in 2019. According to local media, State Minister for Finance David Bahati “received a directive from President Yoweri Museveni to stop licensing sports betting, gaming and gambling companies.”

Mai Atafo, DFA prepare to crown new superstar designer

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eptember is starting off on a great note for fashion designers across Africa, as Design Fashion Africa (DFA) has launched its search for the next superstar designer from the continent.

The platform, which seeks to discover, inspire and empower existing and upcoming designers to commercialise their talents, is set to kick off its maiden edition.

The announcement event held at Eko Hotel and Suites, and attended by celebrities like Idia Aisien, Kelechi Amadi-Obi and Mai Atafo, outlined the goal the initiative hopes to achieve and the journey each designer is expected to undergo in their bid to become the next big thing in the budding fashion scene.

These stages include an online fashion challenge, a fashion training academy and a runway fashion show where finalists will be exhibiting their work to the public. There are also plans for a

marketplace where fashion lovers can pick up accessories and outfits that they fall in love with.

Idia Aisien, spokesperson for DFA said the project promises to get better judging by the reception it received from industry players. “We want the message to go as far as possible, and reach everyone interested in fashion so we can expose the very best designers to the rest of the world.”

“I’m so excited to be a part of this initiative as it is on the right path to changing the future of fashion design in Africa. We want to, with DFA, discover, inspire and empower young budding talents in fashion and also give them a platform to showcase and sell their wares.

Opportunities like this don’t come every day in the fashion industry and I’m happy I get to work with the guys at Jakaranda and Oracle to pull this off,” said Ohimai Atafo, a renowned fashion designer. www.businessday.ng

Childhood cancer costs Nigerian parents N2.5m in absence of insurance Temitayo Ayetoto

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ithout coverage of a governmentbacked insurance, Nigerian parents with a child suffering cancer need a minimum of N2.5 million to manage the deadly disease, while facing a pile of out-of-pocket non-medical expenses in the course of treatment, BusinessDay findings show.

The N2.5-million estimation would cost parents the equivalent of 83 months earnings or 7 years’ worth of salary if they earn Nigeria’s new minimum wage of N30,000 monthly.

In the United States, the average cost of a stay in a hospital for a child with cancer is $40,000, according to the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer (CACC). Taking the average work hours of 8.8 hours per day and a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, it would cost the American parent 29

months to offset medicals bills without insurance.

Like many diseases, paediatric cancer is blind to people’s economic classes and as such, lays unprecedented burden on many households, several of which in Nigeria already suffer low discretionary income. If everyone had to face the financial burden of childhood cancer, for instance, an SBM Intel study on the consumption pattern of Nigerian households shows less than 37 percent of the population would be up to the task, because the income left after settling basic needs is inconsequential.

Whereas, apart from early detection, the type of cancer and individual factors attributable to each child, the financial strength of parents or guardians determine a lot in getting access to quality care and saving a child from death.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that up to 30,000 children are

diagnosed with cancer yearly, with 80 percent of them living in low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria.

Chemotherapy, a common treatment, requires about N350,000 and a child might need at least six courses of this treatment for a period, which can last up to two years.

Diagnosis, drugs and platelets, a blood product that costs N7,500 also infuse unavoidable cost in managing cancer.

In the wake of a downplay on the use of chemotherapy and radiation due to their adverse impact on blood cell production, leading to a depressed immune system and increased chances of contracting deadly infections, blood transfusions are encouraged. This will replenish white and red blood cells damaged during chemotherapy, thus important in the treatment of cancers.

But it comes at a price. A child wrestling with Leukaemia, for instance, could be

administered platelets more than five times in a week on a cost running into N37,500, says Korede Akindele, Dorcas Cancer Foundation (DCF) programmes officer. The average cost of a pint of blood hovers around N12,000.

DCF has supported more than 40 children and currently has a waiting list of 15 children whose cases were sieved from a large pool of requests. DCF partners Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), University College Hospital, (UCH) Ibadan, and National Hospital, Abuja, where there are paediatric centres devoted to cancer.

The work of the foundation is aided by corporate firms, Life Bank, among them.

According to the blood distribution company, the inaccessibility of blood in Nigeria further jeopardises the prognosis of children being treated for cancer.

Continues on www.businessday.ng

L-R: Cecilia Ibru, co-founder/chancellor, Michael And Cecilia Ibru University; Joseph Yossie Shevel, president, Galilee International Management Institute/guest lecturer, and Ibiyinka Afuwape, vice chancellor, Michael And Cecilia Ibru University, at the Michael And Cecilia Ibru university 1st convocation ceremony and 3rd Founders annual memorial lecture of Olorogun Michael C.O Ibru, The Otota of Agbarha Kingdom, in Agbarha Otor, Delta State.

Achieving single currency project remains my priority - ECOWAS chair Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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hairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS), Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, has said that achieving the proposed single currency, to be known as ECO, for the region remains his priority, adding that he would strive hard to make it a reality before the 2020 deadline.

The Nigerien President, who was elected as chair of the regional bloc at the last Summit of Heads of State and Government on 29 June 2019, in Abuja, said this during his visit to the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja to meet the institutions responsible for the effective implementation

of the decisions taken at the ECOWAS Summits.

He said in his address that “harmonisation and strengthening of the regional macroeconomic framework, particularly with the ECOWAS single currency project, for which significant progress has recently been made, also remains a priority.”

He added that it was important to implement the roadmap for achieving the objective, which should facilitate and accelerate intra-Community trade by reducing the cost of financial transactions.

“The creation of the single currency in 2020 will be an important instrument for achieving the economic and political integration of our Region. All Member States are strongly committed to achieving macroeconomic convergence in order to ensure the viability

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and credibility of the future monetary zone,” he said.

For the Eco to be implemented, ten convergence criteria, set out by the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), must be met. These criteria are divided into four primary and six secondary criteria.

The four primary criteria to be achieved by each member country are: a single-digit inflation rate at the end of each year; a fiscal deficit of no more than 4% of the GDP; a central bank deficit-financing of no more than 10% of the previous year’s tax revenues, and gross external reserves that can give import cover for a minimum of three months.

The six secondary criteria to be achieved by each member country are: prohibition of new domestic default payments and liquidation of existing ones; tax revenue should @Businessdayng

be equal to or greater than 20 percent of the GDP; wage bill to tax revenue equal to or less than 35 percent; Public investment to tax revenue equal to or greater than 20 percent; A stable real exchange rate and A positive real interest rate.

It is however, instructive that the regional bloc faces a serious challenge to the objective, as most of the member states are yet to meet these criteria.

But the ECOWAS chair said that “while there are many challenges to achieving this, I would like, during this term of office, to see significant progress in at least three areas to which I will give high priority: the consolidation of democratic institutions, regional peace and security and the economic integration of our States, particularly infrastructure programmes and the common currency”.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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news Businesses face delay, demurrage payment...

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agencies and service providers involved in cargo clearance at seaports, to commence 24-hours operation, importers are still paying dearly for delay in taking delivery of their consignments due to the failure of the ports to operate round-the-clock.

According to the Order, government agencies especially the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and port service providers must be on ground 24-hours to carry out cargo examinations in order to fast track cargo delivery and reduce the cost of doing business for importers and manufacturers that depend on the ports for the importation of their critical inputs.

By operating 24-hours, the ports can eliminate delays and cost associated with nonclearing of cargo on weekends and public holidays, prune down the avoidable cost importers pay as demurrage and storage charges, to shipping companies and terminal operators for not taking delivery of their consignment as and when due, which is estimated at N1trillion annually.

A recent visit to Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports revealed that, two years after the order, the Customs has failed to operate 24-hours as it continued to operate within 9am to 5pm resumption and closing time with exception of weekends and public holidays.

Also, Customs, which is the lead agency in charge of cargo

clearance at ports, which in the wake of the order, came up with a roaster for its officers to do 12-hourly shifts has reverted to the normal business hours.

However, the marine side of port operations that involves discharging of vessels is the only aspect of the port operation that work round-the-clock while examination of cargo by agencies, payment of duties and cargo release, only works within the business hours.

“24-hours service is no longer obtainable in nation’s seaports and it failed because government failed to put implementation structure in place,” said Tony Anakebe, managing director, Gold-Link Investment Ltd, in a telephone interview with BusinessDay. Anakebe, who stated that cargo examination starts from 10am or 11am and ends around 3pm but in some cases it may stretch to 5pm for few agents that came late, said that scanning machines that are used to fast track cargo examination are no longer functional.

“At 5pm, officials of Nigeria Customs and other agencies will shut down operations for the day. Though, we, the port users empathise with the officers because it is risky to be around the port at night given the security situation in the country. There is no motorable access road in and out of the ports and Customs officers are going through hell due to the road issue,” he said.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

AMCON vs. Shebah E&P: Parties to litigation...

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tives of AMCON, and the Receiver/Manager.

No doubt with this development negotiations have begun.

Impressively, while negotiations commenced swiftly, ABC Orjiako, the guarantor of the Shebah loan who had previously paid the sum of $68million from his personal money to the creditors made firm commitment to pay further.

BusinessDay learnt that the respective parties were pleased with the outcome of the meeting. It was also learnt that the Defendant had in the pipeline plans to pay some money to the creditors prior to the AMCON intervention.

Sources at AMCON revealed that in line with the outcome of the meeting, the guarantor will be presenting comprehensive repayment plan for all outstanding loans which are due to the syndicate.

The agreed first tranche of payment is expected to be made latest by September 18, 2019.

In 2012 Shebah E and P obtained a $150million loan facility from a consortium of banks (AFREXIM/Diamond- now Access/Skye- now Polaris) led

by AFREXIM. The loan facility was meant for work over and drilling

campaign at the Ukpokiti field (OML 108) operated by Shebah E&P. In the offshore Niger Delta, Shebah drilled a successful horizontal well, the first of its kind and tested 4000 barrels per day of oil and condensate production but encountered large gas reserves.

Shebah required more funds to commercialise the gas to avoid excessive flaring while producing the discovered oil.

In 2014, Shebah approached Zenith Bank, which appraised the situation and provided a $200million loan facility fully approved by its board to rescue the situation.

Zenith proposed to pay the consortium of banks $50million to reduce their collective exposure, enhance the facility to $300million, provide Shebah with additional funds to monetize the gas and produce the discovered oil.

Unexpectedly, the AFREXIM consortium rejected the $50million offered by Zenith Bank on the grounds that Zenith should not lead the syndicate and they were not willing to extend the tenure of the facility which was remaining about two and half years as at the time of Zenith’s offer.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng www.businessday.ng

L-R: Belinda Odeneye, permanent secretary, environment, Lagos State; Olatunji Bello, commissioner of environment and water resources, Lagos State; Ibironke Sanwolu-Olu, first lady of Lagos State; Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor, Lagos State, and Muyiwa Gbadegesin, MD/CEO, Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), at the launch of Lagos Blue Box Programme in Lagos, yesterday. Pic by Olawale Amoo

Travel to South Africa declines on shutdowns, ...

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cancellations of almost 30 percent in matter of hours and are expecting the decline to reach 50 percent in a months’ time if the impasse continues.

The travel advisory signed

by Ferdinand Nwonye, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 4, 2019, was in response to the face-off between the Nigerian and South African governments over the recent xenophobic attacks that have resulted in an unprecedented loss of lives and properties of other Africans, especially Nigerians in some parts of South Africa since September 2, 2019.

Following the travel advisory, tour operators and travel agencies are receiving growing cancellation orders from clients on planed trips to South Africa, while clients already in South Africa are cutting short their trips to return for safety, as well, parents are concerned about the safety of their children across universities in South Africa and seeking their return.

According to some travel agencies and tour operators, the worst declines are from some Nigerian corporate organisations who are cancelling seminars, training workshops and retreats involving huge number of staff members, enormous logistics and funds, which would be difficult to refund as financial commitments have been made long ago to facilitators and commissions taken.

“Already, the short duration of visa is a big issue for selling South Africa. Now, with the travel advisory, most corporate organisations that want to be seen as responsible are cancelling their

engagements and looking elsewhere. For those of us who depend on these corporates that form over 70 percent of our outbound business to South Africa, it is a total decline and we are shutting down if the impasse continues,” Jane Onah, a travel agent said.

The situation is getting worse by the recent agreement by most tour operators in Nigeria in response to the xenophobia attacks to stop selling South Africa as tourism destination to their Nigerian clients until further notice.

A c c o rd i n g t o Ha j i a Bilkisu Abdul, national president, Nigeria Association Of Tour Operators (NATOP) and founder/CEO, BBOOG Travels and Tours, the tour operators cannot take clients to unsafe destinations.

“As for the tour operators we have agreed to stop selling South Africa for now till further notice,” the NATOP president said while advising Nigerians to stop going to South Africa on their own for now.

Recalling her sad experience, Olanma Ojukwu, CEO, GOTA, a Cotonou-based travel agency, said since the escalation of the xenophobia attacks, a South African company she is partnering for an exchange programme has put a stop to payment and further discussions on the trip. “I am sure that is the case with lots of other tour operators out there,”she said.

Also speaking on the decline, Efetobo Awhana, managing director, Avantgarde Tours Limited, noted that the travel and tour business, which is not booming again, is going to be hit hard by the shutdown between the two countries, especially busi-

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nesses that do more packages to South Africa.

Beyond tour operators and travel agencies, Awhana said that visa racketeers are also going to suffer as the South Africa Embassy is shut, hence no visa processing for intending travellers.

Sadly, according to him, some tour operators and travel agencies are involved in the visa racketeering business because of the quick money it offers.

“While you work hard to sell tours and tickets, some unscrupulous people make more money getting visas for would-be travellers, but in collaboration with the visa officers. So, those bunch of people and their collaborators at the embassies are losing out now,” Awhana said.

As well, VFS Global, an outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide, which collects and dispatches travel documents to the South African embassy and consulates in Nigeria will see no applicants at its South African visa centres because of the shutdown of the embassy in Nigeria.

With the development, VFS, which collects over N20, 000 from the total amount of N32, 000 Nigerian applicants pay for the processing of the South African visa, will be losing money until normalcy returns.

In the meantime, the NATOP president thinks that most tour operators would be selling some destinations such as Dubai, Qatar, Morocco, Kenyan, Mauritius and Rwanda to their Nigerian clients instead of South Africa.

“Some of these destinations like Dubai are cheaper, the visa is hassle-free, and @Businessdayng

there are many options as well,” she said.

But Onah thinks that The Gambia and Ghana are already positioning to woo Nigerian visitors as more Nigerians visitors are willing to travel to see other West African countries.

“With about 10 cancelations in a day, I am encouraging my clients to visit Ghana or Gambia instead of South Africa and they are beginning to do so. I am making more contacts across the two countries for partnerships in selling the destinations and also to stay in business,” she said.

All our neighbouring West African countries are beginning to see us as tourism source market like East African, South Africa, Dubai among other destinations have been doing. The Gambia is fully back now, Ghana has seen lots of infrastructural development in recent time all geared towards attracting more visitors including Nigerians, which everybody knows as big spenders,” she said.

On where to go instead of South Africa, Ojukwu said, “Other African destinations like Benin Republic are becoming peaceful destinations to visit in Africa. Benin Republic is just less than 30 minutes into Lagos, as well Togo and Ghana are also close.”

However, the tour operators think that the airlines would be impacted if the impasse continues as intending visitors shun South Africa and those who insist on visiting cannot get visas with the embassy still shutdown.

As well, South Africa may not meet her tourism grow targets of 15 million arrivals and R145 billion tourism revenue in 2019, while the 21 million international visitors by 2030 may not be actualised.

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Friday 06 September 2019

news

NASS, Health Ministry trade blames on removal of $11m for reproductive health in 2019 budget RAZAQ AYINLA, Abuja

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leading development partner on family planning and reproductive health in Nigeria - Pathfinder International, has revealed how $11 million, approximately N3.370 billion got missing in the recently passed 2019 budget, saying the removal of such a very important allocation can worsen the already precarious situation of reproductive health in the country.

Pathfinder International also explains that the inexplicable missing of such a fund had already skyrocketed the retail cost of family planning and reproductive health consumables in health facilities and pharmaceutical shops across the country, having had knowledge of zero allocation of fund to reproductive health in 2019 budget.

Speaking during the Advance Family Planning SMART Advocacy Refresher Workshop for Media Professionals held at Hawthorn Suites by WYNDHAM, Abuja on Thursday, Farouk Jega, country director, Pathfinder International, noted that President Muhammdu Buhari-led Federal Government reneged its pledge to international donors and partners on funding of reproductive health through the inexplicable removal of such a fund in the budget.

At Family Planning Advocacy Program organised by Pathfinder International in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Pub-

lic Health and Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Jega revealed that former President Goodluck Jonathan made provisions for Nigeria’s reproductive health through the defunct Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) in 2012.

He added that the cancellation of SURE-P which began in 2012, annual allocation for family planning and reproductive health in the country by President Buhari immediately he assumed presidency of Nigeria destabilized the whole process, hence, some unseen hands within the Federal Ministry of Health, Presidency and National Assembly removed the budgetary allocation for reproductive health out rightly.

He said, “There had been family planning services to Nigerians free of charge in our public hospitals, this, the government pledged they would do by funding the procurement of family planning commodities in the public sector.

“So, the commodities are those injectibles, pills, condoms, IUD, implants and all the various methods of family planning. The cost implication amounting to 11 million US Dollars every year, just to buy the commodities. And at the time we had a shortfall of close to $8 million, only $3 million was funded.

“For those of you (the media) who understand how this works, the government supposed to bring money and then our usually donors that help us to procure some of these com-

Investors scramble for longer tenure as CBN auctions N400bn OMO bill HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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entral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday mopped-up a total of N322.6 billion out of the initial N400 billion offered to investors via Open Market Operation (OMO) auction.

Investors scrambled for the longer tenure instrument, as the 364-day tenor OMO bill was oversubscribed 63.25 percent. The initial offer for this tenor was N250 billion while the total subscription stood at N408.12 billion.

The CBN sold a total of N321.48 billion (364-day) at a stop rate of 13.50 percent. The investors bided at a range bid of between 13.49 and 14.50 percent for the offer, which matures on September 3, 2020.

Ayodeji Ebo, managing director, Afrinvest Securities Limited, explained that the longterm bill offered attractive yield of about 15.6 percent, hence the high interest. The short- and medium-term OMO bills still look unattractive relative to the secondary market rates.

For the medium-term bill, a total of N100 billion was offered for 189-day tenor but the sum of N0.48 billion was sold at a stop rate of 11.79 percent. The offer, which matures on March 12, 2020, was undersubscribed at N23.04

billion with investors biding at the range of between 11.79 percent and 13.30 percent.

The CBN offered N50 billion for 84-day tenor but sold a total of N0.64 billion at a stop rate of 11.59 percent. Investors earlier demanded higher rate of between 11.59 and 12.75 percent.

The offer, which mature on November 28, 2019 recorded low subscription, as the Apex bank could not offer a rate higher than the 11.59 percent.

However, the overnight inter-bank rate, the rate at which banks use to borrow and lend from one another, declined by 4.36 percentage point to 5.14 percent on Thursday from 9.50 percent the previous day.

Also, Open Buy-Back (OBB), which is the money market instrument used to raise shortterm capital, decreased from 8.64 percent on Wednesday to 4.21 percent on Thursday, according to data from the FMDQ. Last week Thursday, CBN was able to sale N48.05 billion out of the total amount offered (N400bn) the stop rate of between 11.59 percent and 13.00 percent for the various tenor days of the instrument.

The CBN on Wednesday announced that it plans to issues the Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) worth N1,002 billion for various tenor buckets in the fourth quarter of this year. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Anurag Shukla, MD/CEO, Crown Flour Mills; Bunmi Oteju, director, SUBEB Lagos State; Omotunde Raji, chairman, Association of Master Bakers and Caterers Of Nigeria (AMBCON); Bolaji Anifowose, vice president, commercial, Crown Flour Mills, and Rohit Chugh, vice president, grains, Crown Flour Mills, at the food safety sensitisation programme for bakers, organised by Crown Flour Mills and AMBCON ahead of the school feeding initiative in Lagos.

Pic by David Apara

Nigeria’s border closure, FX restriction put consumers, exporters on brink ODINAKA ANUDU & MICHAEL ANI

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n outright closure of its land borders by Nigeria and a proposed exclusion of food items from the official foreign exchange market have put consumers in a precarious situation, with prices of food items on the brink of heading northwards.

The impacts of the measures are already escalating. Exporters have had their raw materials delayed at the border, paying high demurrages. They also cannot move out their goods, hurting their margins and the possibility of meeting the national non-oil export targets.

Ede Dafinone, chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Export Group (MANEG), said the losses that will be incurred by genuine exporters would further cut Nigeria’s nonoil export projections.

“Who will be responsible for the additional demurrage to be paid or on the perishables that have now spoilt? The government would not be closing all

banks because of the discovery of bank fraud and similarly should not close all land borders to catch those that are smuggling,” Dafinone reasoned.

Food inflation could exacerbate an already stubborn general inflation that has been above the upper band of the country’s target for almost four years.

That’s after President Muhammadu Buhari recently ordered the complete closure of Seme border, the country’s busiest border, to prohibit the fraudulent export of petroleum products and fight against the importation through land borders of second-hand vehicles, rice and some other products.

Analysts say the president did not carefully consider the menace such an order would have on companies and individuals carrying out legitimate exports and imports across the land border.

The country had placed an FX restriction on some food items, preventing them from accessing dollars from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official window

since 2015.

For Africa’s largest economy, the loss from these policies far outweighs the gains in an economy that lacks the production capacity to meet local demand, economists who spoke to BusinessDay said.

“We consider the decision to shut the borders for 28 days as not just an inappropriate mechanism to solve our border challenges as this would hurt legal exports and imports going out and coming into the country, but also a temporary solution to an endemic problem,” analysts at Lagos-based stockbroking firm, CSL said.

“Although policies like border closure are designed to engineer local industrial capacity development, structural and systemic bottlenecks in Nigeria’s operating environment would continue to hinder adequate investments in local production. This ultimately would lead to creation of artificial scarcity, and drive prices of life necessities higher, hurting an already depressed consumer base,” CSL said in a note to clients.

Since the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari, prices of major food items have headed north, with consumers bearing more of the burnt, according to BusinessDay investigation.

For example, the price of a bag of rice rose 16.7 percent to N18, 000 from the N15,500 at which it was previously sold.

This culminated in pushing up; the prices of chicken, fish, and tomatoes, since they are all complementary goods.

“The border closure directive by the government is likely to cause food prices to rise in the interim,” said Abimbola Omotola, Head of Research, Growth and Development Asset Management Limited. “The government claims that the reason for doing so is because of the smuggling of goods, especially rice, threatens our self-sufficiency. However, evidence shows that Nigeria barely produces enough rice to feed the nation resulting in the importation and prompting people to smuggle in goods to cover the deficit.”

Mortgage banks get boost, as MWFL steps in to support sector Endurance Okafor

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ortgage Warehouse Funding Limited (MWFL) under its N20 billion Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Programme has pre-financed its first series of mortgages to one of its member mortgage banks, Trustbond Mortgage Bank plc.

A total of four mortgages were pre-financed to the tune of N88.5 million, and funds have been disbursed to TrustBond Mortgage Bank; this short-term pre-financing vehicle will enable the mortgage bank begin to expand its origination capacity and ensure the availability of mortgages for intending home owners in Nigeria, while ensuring the steady growth of the mortgage subsector in the Nigerian housing market.

Commenting on this development, Sonnie Ayere, MWFL

chairman, said, “It is gratifying to finally see MWFL fund its first bank at a holding duration cost of 9.59 percent. Like everything else, proof of concept is most important and that hurdle has now been scaled. The conduit is now looking forward to funding more of its member banks and giving them the firepower to go out there with a 100 percent confidence to give mortgage financing to Nigerian citizens wishing to get on to the property ladder.”

Also reacting to the development, Niyi Akinlusi, president, Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN), stated, “Successful completion of Series 1 funding by MWFL with prefinance of TrustBond’s mortgages of over N88 million is very significant for the mortgage industry and the larger economy.

“It is the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in connecting the mortgage industry to the

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money market after linking the mortgage market to the capital market through the bond issuance activities of NMRC in the capital market. This signposts the beginning of continuous flow of liquidity from the money market to the mortgage industry and another major initiative in making Nigerians home owners and reducing the national housing deficit of over 20m units.”

MWFL is designed to complement the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), and as the NMRC is licensed to provide long-term funding to the mortgage sector via secondary refinancing, the MWFL serves to support the sector by providing short-term up-front funding. The primary mandate of MWFL is to provide shortterm liquidity to its Member Mortgage Banks (MMBs) in order to enable them originate new eligible mortgage loans strictly based on the Mortgage @Businessdayng

Subsector Uniform Underwriting Standards.

The following mortgage banks constitute the current membership of MWFL: Abbey Mortgage Bank plc, Brent Mortgage Bank Limited, Homebase Mortgage Bank Limited, Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Limited, Jubilee Life Mortgage Bank Limited, Lagos Building Investment Company Limited, Mayfresh Mortgage Bank Limited, TrustBond Mortgage Bank plc, CityCode Mortgage Bank Limited, and Infinity Trust Mortgate Bank Plc. MWFL is sponsored by several mortgage banks, the MBAN, NMRC, Lion’s Head Global Partners through the African Local Currency Bond Fund (as Initial Subordinated Note Subscribers), DLM Advisory Partners Limited and CitiHomes Finance Company Limited (CitiHoms), a CBNlicensed financial institution.

Friday 06 September 2019

FT

BUSINESS DAY

37

FINANCIAL TIMES

World Business Newspaper

SEBASTIAN PAYNE AND JIM PICKARD IN LONDON

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o Johnson, the universities minister and younger brother of UK prime minister Boris Johnson, announced he was quitting politics with a thinly veiled attack on his sibling, as the government set out plans to try again to call a general election.

Mr Johnson, who has served as the MP for Orpington in Kent since 2010, said in a tweet on Thursday that he would stand down from parliament at the next election.

The prime minister will attempt on Monday to dissolve parliament for a second time, following his unsuccessful attempt on Thursday.

The government’s motion to call an early election requires the backing of two-thirds of MPs for it to succeed. The opposition Labour party remains reluctant to endorse a poll until a no-deal Brexit has been averted.

Mr Johnson is the first minister to quit his brother’s government.

The timing of his announcement, as the prime minister has failed to bring about an election, is a severe blow to his authority.

“It’s been an honour to represent Orpington for nine years & to serve as a minister under three PMs. In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest — it’s an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP and Minister,” he said in a tweet.

In response to his resignation, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister would like to thank Jo Johnson for his service. He has been a brilliant, talented minister and a fantastic MP. The PM, as both a politician

Boris Johnson’s brother quits over Brexit in fresh blow to PM Jo Johnson resigns as government sets out plan to try again to call a general election

Jo Johnson, who has served as the MP for Orpington in Kent since 2010, said he would stand down from parliament at the next election © Ben Stansall/AFP

and brother, understands this will not have been an easy matter for Jo. The constituents of Orpington could not have asked for a better representative.”

Andrea Leadsom, business secretary, in effect confirmed he had resigned as a minister. “It has been

a pleasure to work with Jo Johnson, both in parliament for nine years and most recently as a Minister at BEIS; his expertise and knowledge of the area were a huge asset to the department. I wish him all the best,” she said.

Caroline Spelman, former Con-

servative party chair, also said on Thursday that she would stand down at the next election, a day after she joined rebel Tory MPs in voting against the government.

The resignations came just hours before Boris Johnson was due to use a speech to challenge

opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to “go back to the people” with a general election to break the Brexit deadlock in parliament.

The government announced earlier that a bill to stop a no-deal Brexit would complete its passage through the House of Lords by Friday afternoon. The proposed legislation, which compels the prime minister to seek a Brexit delay if he has not secured a deal with Brussels, passed through the House of Commons on Wednesday evening and is likely to return to the lower house on Monday.

The prime minister was defeated again on Wednesday in another Commons vote where he sought to dissolve the government and call an early general election, after Labour MPs were whipped to abstain.

Labour is refusing to back an election until it is confident that a no-deal Brexit has been averted.

A Downing Street spokesman said that if Mr Corbyn continued to avoid an election it would be a “cowardly insult to democracy”.

Boris Johnson, who is in effect trapped in 10 Downing Street by a hostile parliament, will say in Thursday’s speech that he will not accept the requirement in the bill to go to Brussels and “surrender to any demands they make”.

Samsung ready to relaunch folding Wall Street rallies as US-China smartphone after screen problems agree to trade talks

Galaxy Fold unveiled five months after broken displays marred launch SONG JUNG-A IN SEOUL

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amsung will start selling the world’s first foldable smartphone in South Korea on Friday, promising that the screen defects that marred its initial launch in April have been fixed.

The South Korean company hopes that the much-anticipated phone will become part of a family of folding devices and is betting that it can revive slowing smartphone sales with the design.

The luxury device, priced at just under $2,000, opens like a book to give users a screen that is the size of a small tablet.

Samsung has extended the smartphone’s protective layer beyond the bezel to stop users from removing it and added protection caps on the fold’s hinges to protect the device from external particles.

It said it had extensively tested the phone over the past five months to make sure that initial problems with breaking screens do not recur.

The world’s largest smartphone maker is keen to restore its tarnished brand image with the redesigned Galaxy Fold, hoping that the device would be a “driving force” for sales

growth in a sluggish global smartphone market, where most phones now look the same.

“Consumers have responded positively to larger screens, and the Galaxy Fold’s revolutionary form factor offers a bigger, more immersive screen without sacrificing portability,” said DJ Koh, chief executive of Samsung’s mobile division.

The phone was displayed at the IFA consumer electronics trade fair on Friday, ahead of its planned international launch later this month.

Samsung will relaunch the Galaxy Fold smartphone in the US on September 27, just days before Apple introduces its new iPhone.

Huawei Technologies last month delayed its planned September launch of its own first foldable phone in its second postponement this year amid US trade restrictions against the Chinese company.

Samsung’s foldable phone will feature a large 7.3-inch screen which, when open, will allow the continuity of an app’s display between the outside and inside screens. Samsung had planned to sell about 1m units of the product before the delayed launch, but analysts now estimate its production at about 40,000 units. www.businessday.ng

Optimism returns after weak data and bond market signals stir recession concerns MAMTA BADKAR IN NEW YORK

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all Street opened higher on Thursday, tracking gains in Europe and Asia, as investors cheered news the US and China will resume trade negotiations.

The S&P 500 climbed 1 per cent to 2,967.55 eyeing its second consecutive day of gains and edging back towards a record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2 per cent to 26,670.24, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.2 per cent to 8,075.37.

Days after a new round of tariffs imposed by the US and China took effect, the two countries agreed to hold meetings at the ministerial level in Washington in October. These will mark the first direct talks between the two countries since July.

The news offers some respite for investors after a key bond market indicator began flashing its most severe warning since the financial crisis last month amid growing fears about the economic

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fallout from the trade war.

That was further compounded by data this week showing the first contraction in the US manufacturing sector in three years in August.

The recent optimism in equity markets has also come against waning global geopolitical risks.

There was a more upbeat mood in Hong Kong’s stock market after the territory’s chief executive Carrie Lam said she would officially withdraw an extradition bill, raising hopes of a resolution to a months long political crisis.

Receding fears of a no-deal Brexit as British MPs voted to block Boris Johnson’s efforts to call a snap election have also boosted investor sentiment.

So-called haven assets fell out of favour, with Treasuries selling off on Thursday and erasing their gains for the week. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury rose 7.4 basis points to 1.5331 per cent, while that on the two-year climbed 6.4 basis points to 1.498 per cent.

Yields move inversely to price.

Meanwhile, gold prices slid 1 per cent to $1,537.46 a troy ounce. @Businessdayng

The dollar index, a gauge of the buck against a weighted basket of peers, slid 0.2 per cent to 98.23.

Investors are now looking to Friday’s non-farm payroll report for an update on the health of the US labour market even though a 25 basis point rate cut from the Federal Reserve later this month has been priced in, after the central bank moved to reduce rates in July.

While Fed chairman Jay Powell has said fitting trade uncertainty into its policy framework was “a new challenge” and that setting trade policy was “the business of Congress and the administration, not that of the Fed”, pressure has mounted on the central bank to help support the economy.

New York Fed president John Williams in a speech on Wednesday lamented sluggish inflation and acknowledged a “decline in exports and weakening manufacturing data, reflecting slowing global growth and uncertainty related to trade and geopolitical risks”. He added that an uncertain outlook called for “vigilance and flexibility”.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FT

NATIONAL NEWS

Will Italy’s new coalition flourish or succumb to resurgent Salvini?

Unlikely Five Star and Democratic party link-up faces a challenge just to survive MILES JOHNSON IN ROME

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oliticians in Brussels breathed a sign of relief this week when a new Italian coalition government came together, banishing into opposition the anti-migration and euro-antagonist Matteo Salvini and his League party.

The government was sworn into office on Thursday. But many questions remain about the future of a seemingly unlikely pact between the anti-establishment Five Star movement and its once sworn enemies, the centre-left Democratic party (PD).

Will the new coalition, led by the “people’s lawyer” Giuseppe Conte, who continues as prime minister, be able to navigate a painful adjustment to public finances this autumn without triggering another bitter row with the EU? And if the new coalition cannot hold together, will Mr Salvini’s popular League party be soon swept back into power through new elections?

Who are the main figures in the new government?

Mr Conte’s previous cabinet dubbed itself “the government of change”, but was seen by its opponents as a dangerous collection of financially reckless populists.

The composition of the “Conte 2” cabinet is likely to soothe the nerves of those in Brussels who had feared further confrontations with Mr Salvini.

The appointment of Roberto Gualtieri as economy minister, a longstanding PD member of the European Parliament and chair of its committee on economic and monetary affairs, has placed a Brussels veteran in a critical post ahead of Italy proposing its annual budget this autumn. Unlike his predecessor, the economics professor Giovanni Tria, Mr Gualtieri will not find his every move stalked by Mr Salvini, although he may yet face criticism from more radical Five Star figures.

The move by Luigi Di Maio, the Five Star leader, from joint-deputy prime minister to foreign minister may, however, have raised eyebrows among Italy’s European allies.

Last year he triggered the most serious diplomatic crisis between Italy and France in modern history by offering support to the gilets jaunes protesters, prompting Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, to temporarily recall his ambassador from Rome. Whether the 33-year-old chooses this time to stick with diplomatic convention remains to be seen.

Domestically, the appointment of the independent “technocrat” Luciana Lamorgese as the replacement for Mr Salvini at the interior ministry is an important signal that the government wants to calm the furious daily rhetoric on immigration of her predecessor.

Ms Lamorgese is a lawyer who, during a long career at the interior ministry, has dealt with the

technical aspects of implementing immigration policy. She will be expected to dramatically differ from Mr Salvini in political style.

What will the new government mean for the economy and relations with the EU? Investors in Italian government debt have already signalled that they believe the new government will be less immediately threatening to the economy than the last.

The rate Italy pays to borrow above Germany for 10 years this week fell to a lower level than at any time since the coalition took office in June last year.

Based on the personalities in the Conte 2 cabinet, many observers believe the government will take a far more conciliatory position when dealing with Brussels on issues such as public finances and immigration. Mr Conte had already served as a calmer intermediary with Brussels last year when Mr Salvini was launching blistering tirades against European interference in the Italian budget. Now, with Mr Gualtieri as economy minister, it appears compromise rather than conflict will be the new strategy.

A draft programme released earlier this week was thin on detail, but signalled the new coalition would attempt socially inclusive economic policies while keeping a strong emphasis on financial stability.

The document said the new government would promote an expansionary fiscal policy but “without undermining the balance of public finances”. It would also try to promote an agenda inside Europe that would overcome “excessive rigidity” in EU budgetary rules, and promote “not only stability but growth”.

Draft policies include a new minimum wage, lower taxes for workers, a “green new deal”, a reform to rules on conflicts of interest, and promoting a co-ordinated European response to managing migration. Notably absent were Mr Salvini’s calls for a “fiscal shock” through large, Trump-esque tax cuts.

On Thursday former PD prime minister Paolo Gentiloni was named as Italy’s next EU commissioner, a move taken as a further signal that the new coalition wants a more collaborative relationship with Brussels.

How long could the new government last, and what could cause it to fall?

The sudden mutual embrace of two parties that for years have been sworn enemies has already seen many, including Mr Salvini himself, predict that their differences will mean the new coalition cannot last for long.

Its most important immediate challenge will be to pass a budget for next year at a time when the economy remains stagnant, and to make enough adjustments to avoid a mandatory increase in VAT. www.businessday.ng

A foreign-owned store is looted in Johannesburg on Monday during a wave of violence directed at foreigners © AFP

Nigeria warns South Africa over wave of anti-foreigner violence Abuja pledges ‘definitive’ action after days of unrest in Pretoria and Johannesburg

NEIL MUNSHI IN LAGOS AND JOSEPH COTTERILL IN JOHANNESBURG

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igeria has threatened “definitive”action to protect its citizens in South Africa following a wave of attacks on foreigners and foreign-owned businesses in the country. The warning raises tensions between Africa’s two largest economies just as dignitaries from across the continent gather in Cape Town for an international conference.

“The continuing attacks on Nigerian nationals and businesses in South Africa are unacceptable,” Abuja said in a statement on Monday night.

“Enough is enough. Nigeria will take definitive measures to ensure [the] safety and protection of her citizens.”

The statement followed two days of unrest in Johannesburg, where authorities on Monday arrested dozens of people for looting foreignowned shops and torching buildings

and vehicles. The violence followed a similar incident in the capital Pretoria last week.

South African truck drivers also blocked roads and threatened violence this week in a wildcat strike against foreign counterparts.

On Tuesday, Nigeria’s foreign minister summoned the South African high commissioner to discuss the attacks.

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, also raised the matter with Cyril Ramaphosa, his South African counterpart, at a conference in Japan last week and would continue talks during an official visit to South Africa in October,theNigeriangovernmentsaid.

Zambia and Zimbabwe this week also warned their citizens in South Africa to take extra precautions amid the violence.

The growing tension threatens the strong business ties between Nigeria and South Africa. Thousands of Nigerian traders and small businesses operate in South Africa, while Nigeria, Africa’s most populous

country, is one of the most important markets for many South African companies.

A number of Nigerian civil society groups have called for a boycott of big South African companies with operations in the country, including telecoms group MTN, satellite TV provider MultiChoice and grocery store Shoprite.

Ferdi Moolman, chief executive of MTN Nigeria, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the group’s global revenues, on Tuesday said the company “strongly condemns hate, prejudice and xenophobia”.

By Tuesday, relative calm had returned to Johannesburg’s downtown, the site of some of the violence, but many businesses remained closed.

The headquarters of the Casual Workers Advice Office, a non-profit organisation that represents casual labourers, was among the premises looted. “A wave of violence is sweeping over South Africa, targeting first of all women and people perceived as foreigners,” the group said.

Home of Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher firebombed Attack comes as chief Carrie Lam withdraws extradition bill in effort to mollify protesters GEORGE HAMMOND AND NICOLLE LIU IN HONG KONG

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he home of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was firebombed in the early hours of Thursday, as Hong Kong’s leader attempted to pacify protests that have rocked the territory by withdrawing a controversial extradition bill.

Mr Lai, the publisher of Apple Daily, who was unharmed in the attack, is a vocal supporter of the democracy movement that has brought protesters on to the streets for 13 consecutive weeks.

He has been labelled a traitor by state media in mainland China.

Even as the Hong Kong government tried to turn down the temperature in the territory’s political

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crisis, the attack demonstrated the strength of opposition in some quarters towards supporters of the movement.

The sharp divide in public opinion has also seen action taken against companies and individuals seen as opponents of the protests. On Thursday morning, the MTR Corporation, the company that operates the city’s transit network, said one of its employees was taken to hospital after being attacked by anti-government protesters.

A spokesman for Mr Lai, Mark Simon, accused organised crime gangs known as triads of being involved in the attack. Mr Simon, often referred to as Mr Lai’s right-hand man, adding that “no more fire bombs” should be thrown by anyone. @Businessdayng

“That firebomb tossed at Jimmy’s house was as effective as the ones thrown at the cops during the protests, which means not at all,” Mr Simon said.

The attack on Mr Lai follows attempts by Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, to mollify protesters this week by withdrawing a controversial bill that would have allowed extradition of criminal suspects in Hong Kong to China for the first time.

Ms Lam also announced that international police complaints experts would advise an inquiry by the territory’s police watchdog into officer conduct. Protesters have accused the police of using excessive force and have called for an independent inquiry into their conduct.

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

39

FINANCIAL TIMES

COMPANIES & MARKETS

@ FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED

Investment banking revenues plunge to 13-year low Bleak start to 2019 exacerbates industry’s downward trend since crisis STEPHEN MORRIS IN LONDON AND LAURA NOONAN IN NEW YORK

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evenues at the world’s top investment banks plunged to a 13-year low in the first half of 2019 as geopolitical tensions, slowing growth and low interest rates compounded a structural decline that set in after the financial crisis.

The 12 biggest US and European investment banks generated $76.8bn in revenue from their trading and advisory operations during the six-month period, down 11 per cent from 2018. It was the slowest first half since 2006, according to the latest data from industry monitor Coalition.

The banks had individually reported poor second-quarter earnings for their markets and investment banking divisions, including an 18 per cent fall in fixed-income revenues at Morgan Stanley and a 32 per cent decline in equities revenues at Deutsche Bank, which is in the process of shutting its stock trading business.

Across the group, the most eyecatching fall was in equities, where revenue dropped 17 per cent year on year across all regions because of significant declines in client demand for derivatives and prime brokerage services, the business of lending to and trading for hedge funds.

The Mifid II European rules on investor protection have also made equities a more challenging business, prompting speculation that other European banks could follow Deutsche’s lead, leaving equities trading to Wall Street’s powerhouses.

Fixed-income and commodities trading also fared poorly in the

first half, falling 9 per cent, partly because of lower interest rates, while revenue from M&A advisory and capital markets declined 8 per cent as cautious companies sold fewer bonds and equity listings stagnated.

Christian Bolu, banks analyst at Autonomous, said that investment banks were seeing mixed fortunes so far in the third quarter. Equities volumes were up 5 per cent year on year in the US and down by low double digits elsewhere, while fixed-income volumes were up 6 per cent year on year globally and investment banking revenues were down 11 per cent.

Investment banks, particularly in Europe’s smaller and more fragmented markets, are coming under increasing pressure from investors as their profitability dwindles amid higher capital requirements, increasing digitisation and ultra-low or negative interest rates.

On average, the stocks of European banks have posted doubledigit falls every year since 2016, with many of the biggest drops at those that have maintained large trading operations.

France’s two largest banks, BNP Paribas and Société Générale, earlier this year slashed their financial targets and promised to cut a combined €850m of costs and thousands of jobs from their investment banks after a run of poor results.

Barclays, led by former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley, is the last European bank trying to compete as a “bulge-bracket” full-service global player. Nevertheless, Mr Staley has spent the past year fending off an attack from a prominent activist investor who is urging that Barclays’ investment bank be radically shrunk.

Facebook launches online dating service in US Social media platform’s entry into American market likely to raise questions about data privacy CAMILLA HODGSON IN SAN FRANCISCO

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acebook is launching its dating service in the US, betting that its in-depth knowledge of users’ likes and habits will help singles find love.

The world’s largest social media platform, on which more than 200m people list themselves as single, said Facebook Dating would launch in the US on Thursday to help daters start “meaningful relationships through things you have in common”.

The company said it hoped the opt-in service would give people “a more authentic look at who someone is”, by allowing users to integrate the interests, groups, events and photos linked to their Facebook profile.

The rollout of a Facebookcontrolled alternative to popular

dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble is likely to prompt debate, however, as the company struggles to combat rising concerns about the way it manages user data.

Facebook Dating, which was first launched in Colombia last year, asks users to create a separate dating profile, although the feature sits within the classic Facebook phone app. Users choose which photos and personal details from their Facebook profile to include, though their first name and age are mandatory and unchangeable.

Daters may also add individual Facebook groups and events to their profiles, allowing them to see other singles — who have done the same and who match their partner preferences — with the same plans. www.businessday.ng

Mauricio Macri, pictured here waving to supporters from the government house in Buenos Aires, is expected to lose Argentina’s presidential election in October © AP

Argentina’s creditors discuss Macri debt plan Bondholders agree restructuring deal would be dead on arrival without opposition buy-in COLBY SMITH IN NEW YORK

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ome of Argentina’s largest international creditors, including T Rowe Price, Eaton Vance and GMO, held informal discussions this week on how to respond to President Mauricio Macri’s plan to delay payment on $101bn of debts — concluding that negotiations with a lame duck government would be futile.

Mr Macri is seeking a “voluntary reprofiling” of $50bn of longerterm debt, held mostly by foreign investors, and $44bn of loans already disbursed by the IMF from its record-breaking $57bn bailout agreed just last year. The government has already postponed $7bn of payments on short-term local debt.

Argentina’s current crisis was triggered by a primary vote that indicated Mr Macri is likely to lose the upcoming election in October.

Bondholders convened a call on Tuesday and discussed strategies, reaching a consensus that any debt deal is likely to be defunct unless it gets buy-in from new presidential frontrunner Alberto Fernández, according to a participant on the call.

In addition, the Macri government

has not yet reached out with any kind of restructuring proposal.

The creditors determined it makes little sense to initiate negotiations just yet nor to band together in a formalised committee with legal representation.

Instead, during what one investor called a “wait-and-see” mode, bondholders are focusing on establishing channels of communication with the Fernández team and engaging directly with the IMF — all the while sharing notes among themselves.

“We have no clarity,” said one creditor who spoke under the condition of anonymity. “Taking a stance at this point is stupid.”

While the bondholders are not ready to organise at the moment, they stressed Mr Macri’s plan to deal with the country’s short-term local debt is unlikely to provide much more than fleeting relief.

“Pushing the bonds out six months doesn’t really solve anything,” said Mike Conelius, a portfolio manager at T Rowe Price who was on Tuesday’s call, adding that the ideal situation would be one in which the Macri and Fernández teams throw their support behind

a more sweeping plan. “What has been contemplated so far locally is very short-term and it needs to be much more comprehensive.”

GMO and Eaton Vance declined to comment.

In the weeks since Mr Macri had his presidential hopes dashed, Mr Fernández has been tight-lipped about his economic plan and what relationship he seeks to have with the IMF. Argentine assets have suffered under the weight of this uncertainty, with many of the country’s dollar-denominated bonds now trading about 40 cents on the dollar. A double-digit plunge in the peso against the US dollar forced the government to enact a series of emergency measures, including currency controls.

The market chaos and the government’s announcement of a debt “reprofiling” led the rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings to issue “selective default” and “restricted default” ratings, respectively. Those default designations were soon lifted, however, because the government immediately delayed by presidential decree the payments it owed on its short-term bonds.

Goldman Sachs braced for more top-level changes Chief information officer and research division head in departure talks LAURA NOONAN IN NEW YORK

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lisha Wiesel, Goldman Sachs’ chief information officer — and a central figure in the firm’s overhaul of its technology functions — is in talks about leaving to pursue a philanthropic project, a person familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.

Mr Wiesel heads the Wall Street firm’s engineering division, which has swelled to around a quarter of its 35,600-strong workforce in his two years at the helm, as technology has shifted centre stage in the company’s

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bid to boost efficiency in its trading businesses and gain a foothold in new areas such as consumer banking and transaction services.

The bank declined to comment on his potential departure, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, along with the potential departure of Steve Strongin, who heads Goldman’s research division.

Two people familiar with the situation confirmed that both men were in talks about potentially leaving the bank or stepping back from their day-to-day management duties, but stressed that no final decisions had @Businessdayng

been made.

The news comes the day after Goldman announced the departure of Marty Chavez, its one-time chief financial officer who preceded Mr Wiesel as technology chief and now co-heads the securities division.

“You normally see this [departure negotiations] in January,” one person familiar with the situation said, adding that some conversations had started a few months earlier this year as people contemplated whether they wanted to commit to the multiyear delivery of the strategy the bank will present in January.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FT

ANALYSIS

The US should not be doomed to lose the ‘new scramble for Africa’ New initiatives risk falling prey to pointless technicalities and politicking CAROLYN CAMPBELL

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nternational competition is fast heating up in global development finance, the first obvious target being Africa.

There has been much talk in the media about the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC), America’s new development finance body, whose strategy was recently unveiled. In July, the European Investment Bank floated the idea of creating a European Bank for Sustainable Development endowed with €60bn.

China, of course, has also intensified its courtship of Africa through its grandiose Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will benefit from huge financial backing. Last September, President Xi Jinping pledged no less than $60bn in financing for projects in Africa in the form of assistance, investment and loans. And there are smaller but significant efforts from India, Turkey, Russia, Japan . . .

All these initiatives are presented as development finance but make no mistake: this is actually a carefully planned effort on the part of global powers to gain influence in an increasingly strategic continent. Motivating this effort is the reality that Africa will be home to a quarter of humanity and half of the youth population worldwide by 2050. This renewed interest from the outside world has even been identified in some media as a “new scramble for Africa”.

On the face of it, the US seems to be doing things right in this development race. Its determination to reform its development finance strategy includes major

changes, most notably transforming its Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) into the DFC, with the nomination of Adam Boehler as its new chief executive. The restructuring will match the heft of the BRI with $60bn of international development funding, unite various US development agencies under one roof and refocus the country’s foreign economic strategy from passive aid and assistance to an active investment strategy.

This reform of America’s overseas development policy was both long overdue and unusually ambitious. It is a frustrating paradox indeed that, even though it has the deepest and most sophisticated financial market in the world, the US has not leaned on development finance in its foreign policy to the same extent as many European and Asian countries. Sadly, there are worrying signs that this farreaching plan risks falling prey to pointless technicalities and politicking, not to mention the president’s seeming aversion to global engagement. This would be a grave mistake, and an avoidable one at that.

The DFC’s liability limit of $60bn is a major increase over OPIC’s current limit of $29bn and is in line with those of Chinese and Europe government-backed development finance institutions (DFIs). But experts are warning that a third of this new financing capacity could already be used up by inherited sovereign loan guarantees currently funded through State Department-managed accounts, amounting to $21bn (mainly to Israel, Jordan and Ukraine).

Jim Mattis and the surrender of America’s adults Former staff may be critical of Donald Trump but they will not denounce him publicly EDWARD LUCE

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he thing about grown-ups is they are supposed to say when enough is enough.

Jim Mattis had obviously had enough when he resigned as Donald Trump’s secretary of defence in December. Now the retired general — and the former leading “adult” in Mr Trump’s administration — says he owes a “duty of silence” to the government in which he could no longer serve. Some attribute Mr Mattis’s coyness to the military code of honour — though he retired from the marines two years before Mr Trump picked him. Either way he joins a small army of people who could damage Mr Trump but have chosen not to.

Such self-effacement is only adding to America’s democratic crisis.

In the past three years westerners have discovered that their political systems rely less on the sanctity of the law than on the mettle of people in office. This applies as much to unelected officials in the judiciary, the military and the civil service as

to elected politicians. It includes democracies with a written constitution, such as the US, and ones that run by convention, such as Britain. It also applies to people who have quit government. The secret to a strong democracy is its norms, not its rules.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke, the only thing that is necessary for liberal democracy’s demise is for good people to do nothing.

Mr Mattis is in good company.

His recent memoir, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, was anticipated as a warning about the direction in which Mr Trump is taking the US. In the event, the only president Mr Mattis’s book criticises is Barack Obama (for letting politics trump military strategy). Mr Mattis thought it would be inappropriate to attack a “sitting president”. He also thought he had implied enough about Mr Trump by resigning as Pentagon chief last year.

The same applies to Rex Tillerson, Mr Trump’s first secretary of state, who privately described the president as a “f***ing moron” but has largely kept his counsel in public. www.businessday.ng

Neil found that the highest levels of pollution came from old trucks, minibuses and cars – this in a city where the average daily commute is four hours © Yagazie Emezi

How safe is the air we breathe?

FT reporters in five major cities monitored their exposure to pollution. The results were often surprising

LESLIE HOOK, NEIL MUNSHI, LUCY HORNBY, HANNAH KUCHLER, ANDRES SCHIPANI, STEVEN BERNARD AND MAX HARLOW

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s you read this sentence, your brain is telling your diaphragm to contract, your ribs to expand, air is passing through your trachea — you are breathing. Air is essential to human life, and yet the air we breathe can also be a source of great harm.

Globally, some seven million deaths each year are linked to the effects of air pollution, according to the World Health Organization, making it the biggest environmental killer. Pollution kills more people than car accidents, diabetes or dementia.

The effects are particularly pronounced for children, who can experience stunted lungs and lifelong cognitive impacts.

But how bad, really, is the air we breathe? What does air pollution, often presented in abstract statistics, feel like in daily life? Can people in cities wrest any control over the level of pollution they experience?

To answer these questions, the FT asked correspondents in five cities — Beijing, Lagos, London, New York and São Paulo — to carry a personal pollution monitor for one to two weeks and record the results.

The device, the Flow pollution monitor made by Plume Labs, takes measurements once a minute for four types of pollutants and uses location data to create a map of the user’s journey.

The device also identifies which types of pollution are worst at any given moment, recording the levels of small particulate matter (PM2.5), larger particulate matter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Air pollution is not a single substance — many types of molecules and particles combine to create unhealthy air, and generate new pollution through chemical reactions.

All five correspondents experienced “very high” pollution levels more than once. Our Beijing writer recorded the most severe pollution on average; São Paulo was the cleanest city in the set.

Sometimes pollution came from

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unexpected places — our New York reporter discovered that restaurant kitchens and indoor chemicals were a big source of contaminants.

Of course, people have lived with some degree of air pollution for a long time. Even indoor fires for cooking or warmth create hazardous pollution. But during the 20th century the rise of the car and the use of fossil fuels made outdoor pollution in cities an increasing concern.

In the 21st century, new technologies enable us to measure pollution more accurately than ever before, while a growing body of research shows the effects on the human body to be more extensive than previously believed.

The situation is not hopeless.

Increasing awareness and better data have spurred governments to take action. Large cities such as New York, Beijing and London have embarked on clean-up acts. More monitoring stations, air-quality apps and publichealth alerts are empowering us to dodge the worst pollution.

As our team learnt more about their own individual exposure, the results were at times depressing, often surprising — and highlighted how difficult it is to avoid the unseen contaminants in the air around us.

Hiking with my children along the Great Wall in late June, I was startled to see the tall towers of Beijing’s business district, poking like needles into a crystal blue sky.

It was a rare and magnificent sight, even after several years of improvement in Beijing’s air quality. When the kids were younger, 90km visibility would have been unthinkable.

Those were the “airpocalypse” days that turned the Chinese capital into a global poster child for polluted air.

Pollution policies were a litmus test for parenting style, just like “screen time” in some other places.

“What’s your air-quality limit for allowing the children outside?”

“Do you have air purifiers in each room of your home?” “Would you consider a school that doesn’t allow remote monitoring of the air quality in the classroom?”

These were the questions that concerned me and my parenting friends. @Businessdayng

But I also believed that the mental-health benefits of not being cooped up with toddlers outweighed whatever grime was working its way into their lungs. My kids went outside, even when we couldn’t see the building across the street. At the age of three, my son could accurately judge whether it was a red-flag day, yellow-flag day or green-flag day.

On “orange alert” days, my daughter’s pre-school closed, leaving parents to wonder if the school air was really worse than the air at home. We finally caved in and bought an air purifier. I hated the whirring noise and the strangely sweet smell it emitted, so rarely turned it on.

And then Beijing’s air noticeably improved. Should we credit the determination of a one-party state to address middle-class griping? Or did the officially unacknowledged economic slowdown of 2014-16 wipe out the factories with the dirtiest smokestacks? To be fair, it was probably both.

The improvement in family life is subtle but real. People don’t feel imprisoned in their homes any more. Children play outside in the golden evening light. Moods are better. Masks are fewer. Air has gone back to just being air.

When my colleague Leslie Hook came up with the idea for this project, I was certain it would show that air quality is no longer much of a concern in Beijing. The city might be the poster child for clean-up instead, I told her.

The first surprise was something I should have remembered: what passes for a good day here (AQI — air quality index — below 100) is still considered polluted by anyone else’s standards (in Los Angeles, a good day is AQI below 50). On days when I was congratulating Beijing on its renewed liveability, the Flow was tut-tutting over “moderate” or even “very high” pollution levels.

The second surprise was how much of a difference it makes to be inside, rather than out. The Flow’s monitor spiked when I biked to work or walked the kids to summer camp. My rough reckoning is that our exposure to air contaminants doubled when we were outside, on good days and grey days alike.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY Alaibe says Bayelsa PDP guber primary flawed …As Lyon emerges APC candidate SAMUEL ESE, Yenagoa

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imi Alaibe, a former Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) managing director, has described the just concluded People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in Bayelsa State as a sham, marred by irregularities.

While reacting to his loss in the Tuesday’s primary election in a statement titled, ‘We Must Move On’, Alaibe said a winner was declared with all the inherent flaws bordering on disrespect for legal procedures and party guidelines.

He questioned the independence of the delegates in their votes and that their choice may not represent the voice of the people.

“Even with all the inarguable inherent flaws bordering on crass disrespect for legal procedures and party guidelines, a winner has been declared. The delegates, whether coercively or voluntarily have spoken, even if their voices do not represent the voice of the people,” he stated.

Alaibe indicated that he would pursue his mandate, saying, “For us, therefore, this is simply a setback. We will remain focused, believing that very soon we would be able to realise our aspiration.”

He said his decision to seek election was based both on the collective opinion of respected stakeholders and a personal conviction that he has what it takes to make the difference in

Timi Alaibe

the economic development of the state.

Alaibe also took the opportunity to reiterate his mission and vision of seeing his Blue Economy Concept and Project Dolphin becoming household chants, especially among vibrant youths as he ran an idea-based campaign. “ We a r t i c u l at e d p ro grammes that would produce intellectual militants in place of violent militants. We thought of a booming economy based on sea-side industrialisation that would create jobs for our people,” he said.

He further stated: “We thought of extensive road networks and bridges, functional health facilities, among others. Drawing from my modest experience at the Niger Delta Development Commission, my vision was to assemble a team of experts that would conceive and ex-

ecute a 25-Year Development Plan for Bayelsa State; a plan that would outlive my administration, for the good of our people.

“From all indications, these lofty plans may have to be put on hold because the opportunity to execute them has been put on hold.”

On attacks against him, he said he had vowed not to respond to acts of violence and abuse and that he did not envisage the hurdles, including the depth of desperation and deadly manoeuvring he encountered such as namecalling and criminal tags.

He alleged that contrary to the provision of Section 50(1) of the PDP constitution that a delegates’ list was imposed on the aspirants, while the returning officers prepared by state chapter were members of the Restoration Team and that his protest was ignored.

“In the circumstances, we express our serious reservations about the process that led to the primary for its unconstitutionality and its outcome completely unacceptable because of its illegitimacy,” Alaibe said.

Meanwhile, David Lyon has emerged the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa State in the direct primary election conducted on Wednesday, August 4.

Announcing the results at the Aridolf Hotel in Yenagoa, the Chief Collating Officer, Emmanuel Dangana Ocheja said Lyon “who scored 42,138 votes has come out to be the candidate” of the party.

The election had six contestants including former Minister of State for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri who received 571 votes to emerge third.

Other aspirants include Preye Aganaba with 354 votes, Ebitimi Amgbare got 633 votes, Diseye Poweigha received 1,533 votes and Etebu Ongoebi got 564 votes.

The election was a peaceful process devoid of violence, one of the most peaceful internal party exercise in Bayelsa State in recent times.

By the result, Lyon would face Douye Diri who clinched the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket in the early hours of Wednesday for the November 16 guber election.

Agbedi bemoans lack of vision-driven election SAMUEL ESE, Yenagoa

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rederick Agbedi has bemoaned what he described as an absence of vision-driven election as he reacted to his loss at the just concluded People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election in Bayelsa State.

Reflecting on the outcome of the election, Agbedi who represents Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives told correspondents on Wednesday in his home in Yenagoa that it was not necessarily about service, popularity or vision.

“Maybe, I’m still not popular enough or there are certain things in our politics that are swaying people’s mind. I don’t want to talk about that. It is not necessarily service or how popular or your vision. I think the election was not driven by vision. If it was vision and popularity, I’m tops among them. We are yet to be driven by vision,” he stated.

Maintaining that his performance was not good

Frederick Agbedi

enough, he urged all other contestants to remain calm, steadfast and work to deliver the party and its candidate, Douye Diri in the November 16 governorship election.

“My appeal to all those who contested is that we should remain calm, be steadfast and ensure we work to deliver the party in the election,” he stated and congratulated Diri, while appreciating PDP for a transparent poll said one cannot win every election.

On the issue of alleged

intimidation of delegates, he pointed out that it was not perpetrated by the party and that the important issue was to do one’s best in an election and that “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”

He disagreed with those who believed that with Diri as the PDP candidate, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would emerge victorious in the forthcoming governorship election.

Agbedi stated: “No candidate is perfect; no one is overwhelmingly good. What

makes the victory is those behind that candidate to drive the process to victory. And for some of us, we are ready at all times to rally round our party men to ensure that we drive the process to victory.

“I don’t believe that any other party is going to produce a candidate that will be overwhelmingly better than our own candidate,” assuring that the PDP would collapse their strength into a pool to ensure Diri’s victory.

According to him, “Some people have electoral advantage. Assuming I was the candidate, I couldn’t have been all round advantageous to win the election. I’ll still need to muster people’s support, muster their advantages to win. By the time we speak to ourselves, victory will be sure.”

He described the tension during the election as unwarranted, blaming it on immature politicians as thugs have nothing to do in a delegates’ election. According to him, in his own case, he had to discourage such assistance, lamenting that it was due to lack of political development.

Xenophobic attacks: Youth Party urges FG to protect Nigerians JOSHUA BASSEY

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he Youth Party (YP), one of Nigeria’s registered political parties has condemned the recurring xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other African nationals living and doing business in South Africa, urging the Federal Government to take steps to protect and secure the lives of Nigerians home and abroad.

The party, in a statement issued by Helen Attah, its deputy national publicity and made available to the media, expressed its disappointment at the attacks, describing it as an unfortunate situation.

“This has been a recurring issue and yet the Federal Government has repeatedly failed to take definite steps towards protecting the lives of our citizens both home and abroad. The life of every Nigerian citizen matters and the first duty of any government is to protect lives and properties of its citizens.

The party also reacted to protests in Nigeria by youths, perceived as retaliatory actions, resulting in the loss of lives and livelihoods in Nigeria, and called on

aggrieved Nigerians to cease these attacks.

“It is against the very fabric of our country. We totally condemn these actions, and we must remember that these actions directly affect the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians.”

The party said the Federal Government must deploy security agencies to protect lives and properties across the country just as it appealed to all Nigerians to remain peaceful in this difficult period.

“We acknowledge that the distasteful actions of some of these South Africans do not represent the whole of South Africa and we must be cautious before reacting.

Given the ongoing violence in South Africa and the clear risk to civilian lives, especially that of foreigners, it is now more urgent than ever that the Federal Government places calculated sanctions against the South African Government until the South African Government restores security to every Nigerian life and property and actively arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous crime,” the party said.

Umahi dares IPOB, pooh-poohs alleged travel ban on S/East governors TONY AILEMEN, Abuja

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he Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, Thursday slammed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOD) over purported “travel ban” placed on politicians and governors of South East.

While briefing the State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Umahi dismissed the ban as “empty threats”, adding that no responsible government would allow a proscribed group to promote lawlessness.

The governor vowed to inform the IPOB members any time he planned to travel out of Nigeria.

“IPOB has no powers to place travel ban on governors or anyone. I will even tell IPOB any time I intend to travel,” he said.

He also dismissed the demand for an apology by IPOB, noting that it was not the governors who proscribed the group but the Federal Government.

“We have no apology for IPOB because we did not proscribe them.

“Yes; we are the leaders of the people and we had to speak against their activities.”

How Musa Wada emerges PDP standard bearer in Kogi VICTORIA NNAKAIKE, Lokoja

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usa Wada, has been declared winner of the Tuesday governorship primary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State, beating other twelve aspirants.

Wada scored a total of 748 votes to beat Abubakar Idris who polled a total of 710.

He defeated his elder brother, Capt. Idris Wada, who scored 345 votes, came third, and Senator Dino Mel-

aye came fourth with 70 votes.

Others are Abubakar Aminu Suleiman who scored 55 votes, Victor Adoji, 54 votes, Salihu Attawodi 11votes, Joseph Erico Ameh 4 votes, Emmanuel Omebije 9 votes, Mohammed Shaibu Tetes 4 votes and Bayo Michael who scored 2 votes.

Recall that the primary was disrupted by gunmen who had invaded the Confluence Stadium in Lokoja, shooting sporadically, and one person died in the process.

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Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news Guinness Nigeria commits to Sightsavers Initiative

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uinness Nigeria in collaboration with Sightsavers is actively driving the prevention of avoidable blindness caused by cataract. The project, which commenced in November 2018, has recorded 207 beneficiaries of free surgery programmes in Sokoto State.

Sightsavers is a leading organisation working to eliminate avoidable blindness by supporting cataract surgeries in women and girls in Sokoto and Kebbi states with funding from Guinness Nigeria Plc covering a period of 12 months. The project is building on the gains of the Coordinated Approach to Eye Health (CATCH) implemented in both states to increase access to eye services.

Speaking on Guinness Nigeria’s contribution, the CEO, Baker Magunda said the company was determined, in alignment with the United Nations’ Vision 2020, to turn the tide of preventable blindness in Africa.

“Good health and wellbeing is Goal 3 of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; and good sight is very essential to good health and well-being of every human.

Therefore, we are aware of the challenges caused when one loses his or her sight. In some instances, it may be life threatening because most of these victims experience a sense of loss, dejection and some even contemplate suicide.

“Unfortunately, reports showed that the world still has about 285 million visually impaired or blind persons and 80% of these cases could have been prevented. We are very touched by the stories of some of these individuals, hence our commitment to this project because we believe everyone has the right to sight,” Magunda said According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cataract is responsible for 51% of world blindness, which represents about 20 million people.

Although cataracts can be surgically removed, in many countries barriers exist that prevent patients to access surgery. Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness. As people in the world live longer, the number of people with cataract is anticipated to grow. Cataract is also an important cause of low vision in both developed and developing countries.

Nigeria’s slower oil sales, potential glut may further stress ailing economy … price of oil may crash in 2021 STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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igeria’s economy has posted sluggish growth in the six months ending June, with signs that rapid economic stimuli are needed to steer the country onto a path of a faster, inclusive growth.

Nigeria’s cargoes of oil being without buyers, a potential glut in the international market, and weakening oil prices due to the USA-China trade war may compound this weak economic growth.

Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the three months ending June (Q2 2019) expanded by 1.94 percent compared with 2.10 percent (revised from 2.01%) in the three months ending March (Q1 2019 and 1.50% in Q2 2018).

Experts have said Nigeria’s GDP needs to grow twice as fast as Africa’s most populous nation’s current population growth of 2.60 percent. A GDP growth rate of less than 2 percent shows an economy already under strain and failing to create jobs for its teeming youthful population. For young people aged 15 to 35, the figures are grim: 55.40 percent of them are without work. This set of people also comprises over 60 percent of Nigeria’s 200 million population.

Two other factors are now about to compound the effects of weak economic growth. Nigeria’s cargoes of oil are failing to find buyers. This is a consequence of shale oil from the US Permian Basin, Texas, flowing into traditional strongholds for Nigerian oil in Western Europe, India, and Indonesia. The two crude oil grades from Nige-

ria and the United States have similar properties of being light and are ideal for refining into premium motor spirit (PMS), petrol.

Nigerian oil suffered its slowest sales of the year in August, traders said, as the United States exports of competing light, sweet grades flooded Africa’s biggest oil producer’s traditional markets in Europe and Asia.

Crude from Africa’s top exporter has largely been pushed out of the US market in the last decade due to booming domestic output. Exports to the US slid to zero for three weeks in July, the US Energy Information Administration said.

Coupled with slower oil sales, the international oil market faces potential glut. A senior oil market watcher predicts that the oil price may crash in 2021 if the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) does not further cut production.

Jarand Rystad, founder of research consultancy Rystad Energy, told delegates at Offshore Europe Wednesday there was an oil surplus this year. There will likely be “an even bigger surplus next year,” Rystad said, envisaging oil price collapse if the oil cartel does not cut output.

Explaining why the cartel is “holding back” on a cut, he said it comes down to the planned initial public offering of Saudi Aramco shares and the Riyadh government’s need to “report solid numbers.” An initial public offer (IPO) could be launched in early 2020, according to reports.

Rystad said another factor keeping up the oil price into 2020 is the introduction by the International Maritime Organisation of a 0.50 percent global sulphur cap on shipping fuel from 1 January 2020, down from the present 3.50 percent limit.

L-R: Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, during the opening ceremony and panel discussions at the Africa Green Revolution Forum in Accra, Ghana.

NAN

Jim Ovia boycotts WEF as ‘Afrophobia’ taints South Africa SEGUN ADAMS

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ounder/chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, has withdrawn from the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF) currently holding in South Africa following a spate of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other nationals, which now shames South Africa at the conference.

Ovia was already in Cape Town where he was supposed to co-chair the 28th WEF slated to hold till September 6, but he is protesting out of safety concerns for Nigerians and other nationals affected by the attacks in South Africa.

“Following the hypersensitivity of the issues surrounding the lives and well-being of Nigerian citizens living in South Africa and to contribute his

voice against the poor state of security regarding foreign nationals living in Africa, the founder/chairman of Zenith Bank plc, Mr Jim Ovia has withdrawn from further activities at the World Economic Forum Africa 2019, taking place in Cape Town, South Africa,” a statement released on Thursday by Ovia read.

The statement also noted that before taking his exit, Ovia stressed the need for youth empowerment and better government policies to curb continual attacks on persons living within and outside Africa.

The Nigerian bank chairman belaboured that until positive change towards collective growth happens on this front, the continent would continue to operate below its potentials.

“Mr Ovia added that full

support should be rendered in vocational education of the young persons living in, not just Nigeria but Africa.

According to him, the Jim Ovia Foundation has taken up a stance on this issue, having empowered over 3,500 students and entrepreneurs since its inception. He called on other members of the private sector to join hands and solve this menace plaguing the African continent.”

Ovia’s exit adds to the growing list of boycotts that has followed violence against strangers in South Africa.

Meanwhile, South Africa on Thursday shut its Embassy and Consul in Nigeria over fears of retaliatory attacks while Foreign Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor admitted that prejudice against African countries was behind attacks that had destroyed foreign businesses

and cost the lives of at least seven people this week alone.

“There is Afrophobia, we are sensing that exists, there is resentment and we need to address that,” she told Reuters on the sidelines of the WEF. With countries like Nigeria, Malawi, Rwanda, among others shunning South Africa, fizzling chances at expanding trade and partnership across the continent put South Africa’s recent economy rebound at risk.

There have been reprisal attacks on South African businesses across Africa countries, including in Nigeria where MTN and Shoprite have closed outlets.

As a result, South Africa would likely put more effort towards managing fallouts with other African nations than availing itself of economic and trade prospects at the economic forum.

Founder of P&ID has history of corruption allegations, shady dealings in Nigeria – report FDIPO OLADEHINDE

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report from International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Bloomberg has revealed Michael “Mick” Quinn, founder of Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited, had a track record of involving in shading dealings and corruption allegations in previous transactions in Nigeria.

The report, based on a close examination of Michael Quinn’s career, drawn from public records, leaked documents and interviews with friends and former associates, showed that Quinn who died of cancer in 2015 had a record of projects that ended in disappointment, lawsuits and corruption allegations.

Last week, a UK court ruled that Nigeria must pay the firm $9.6 billion or have its assets to the tune of that amount seized by the firm. The Federal Government said it would appeal the UK court judgment.

Suggesting that the project was a sham ab initio, a quote

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in the Bloomberg report said: “A dying Irishman went for one last big score in Nigeria.

The project failed, but a London tribunal says his company’s owed $9 billion and counting.”

Detailing the genesis of the failed project, the report said in 2008 the Nigerian government said it would end flaring by using oilfield gas to generate electricity. The then minister of petroleum resources acknowledged that the challenge would be “enormous.”

“Officials struggled to persuade big multinationals to invest in the required infrastructure, so concessions were granted to 13 smaller companies, some virtually unknown. One was Process and Industrial Developments Ltd., or P&ID, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands but had no website or track record.

Its chairman was Michael “Mick” Quinn,” the report said.

The report noted that Quinn knew powerful people, including the petroleum minister, who guaranteed P&ID a 20-year supply of “wet,” or

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unrefined, gas for a plant the company would build as the raw material would be supplied for free, to be treated and returned at no cost while P&ID would instead profit from the byproducts, butane and propane. “Everyone stood to benefit, not least the villagers whose homes would be lit by electricity rather than the wan glow of flaming methane.”

“Then the plan fell apart.

The government failed to secure any waste gas from oil companies, let alone link up the necessary pipeline, and the plant was never built. In 2012, P&ID notified the oil ministry that it was suing for breach of contract in a London arbitration forum,” according to the report.

“It also revealed that in the summer of 2018, a man who had worked for Quinn contacted Joseph Pizzurro, a veteran New York lawyer hired

by Nigeria to lead its defence in United States, seeking to talk about the P&ID case.

“The caller was said to have told Pizzurro that Quinn had conspired with officials to profit from government proj@Businessdayng

ects that were doomed from the start and that P&ID was one of at least three such lawsuits involving Quinn.

“The caller couldn’t provide enough evidence to substantiate his claims, though, and he didn’t contact Pizzurro again,” the Bloomberg report said.

According to Bloomberg, throughout the 2000s, Quinn lived a kind of double life, divided between Nigeria and a comfortable suburban house near Dublin.

The report said Quinn befriended people in the corridors of power to put him in good stead in the country’s freewheeling capitalism.

“Q u i n n n e v e r t h e l e s s thrived, befriending presidents and civil servants alike.

He and Cahill used a company called Marshpearl to bid for lucrative military contracts, initially registering the name in Ireland, then in 1999 using the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. to create Marshpearl Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands.

Continues on www.businessday.ng

43

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 06 September 2019

BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST

Ebonyi set to boost IGR through harnessing solid minerals REGIS ANUKWUOJI, Abakaliki

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bonyi State government has planned to boost its internally generated revenue (IGR) by harnessing all its solid mineral deposits in the state to expand her economic scope, the government has said.

It believes that this would not only create employment opportunities, but also save the state from depending solely on the Federal monthly allocation for the massive developments ongoing in the state.

The state commissioner for Solid Mineral Deposit Development, Jonah Egba stated this in his office when he inaugurated a committee on the Blueprint on Solid Minerals in the state.

Egba noted that it was necessary to bring a team of experts together to develop a

210 Youth Graduate from oil and Gas Training

blueprint for the solid minerals development in the state, because since 2015 the ministry was created, it has been running a very shrink department; hence an urgent need to widen and expand the department to carry the full responsibilities of

the ministry.

The commissioner therefore, expressed his optimism that by the time the full responsibilities of the ministry were carried out, the state may no longer depend on the Federal allocations and Ebonyians will

be happy for it.

Also speaking, the special adviser to the Governor on solid minerals development, Edwin Onwe lauded the commissioner for his ingenuity in selecting the team of experts for the assignment, and the com-

mittee members for accepting to assist. He promised them to provide an enabling environment for their work.

In his acceptance speech, the chairman of the committee on solid minerals blueprint, Omari Omaka appreciated the Governor, David Umahi for appointing Jonah Egba as the commissioner for Solid Minerals Development, due to his wider knowledge of the environment and ideas to develop the solid minerals sector.

He however pleaded for an enabling environment, as they would not want any unnecessary interruptions that will constitute a set-back in their move to serve the government and reposition the solid minerals sector.

The committee members are: Omari Omaka as chairman; Joseph Afiaukwa; Chuka Abara and Emmanuel Egba, while Sunday Okike would server as secretary.

LG trains 210 youths in oil and gas industry skills ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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kpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State has trained 210 youths to equip them with skills required in the oil and gas industry.

The youths were trained at a facility run by the local government which has a capacity to provide various skills needed in the oil industry.

Speaking at the graduating ceremony, the participants commended Ekanem Brown, the local government chairman for his vision and commitment to human capacity development in Akwa Ibom State.

Represented by Ufot Ebong, a special assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on technical matters, he expressed confidence that the local administration in the area will meet the yearnings of the youths in providing them with skills for employment.

The governor who decried the absence of a petroleum

training institute in Akwa Ibom despite being the highest oil producing state in Nigeria, commended the council boss for making a move that could lead to the establishment of the first petroleum training institute in the state.

“Before coming here, I spoke with the chairmen and senior directors of multinational oil companies, and they have promised to visit this facility very soon and give their support,” he said.

He also applauded the graduands for seeking to learn lifetime skills, expressing confidence that in no distant time, they will form the major manpower for the industry across the country.

Earlier, the council chairman, Ekanem Brown applauded his predecessor, Ephraim Akpan for conceiving the idea of the academy. He added that knowing the value of the facility to Nigerian youths, he decided to continue with the www.businessday.ng

project.

He said the training of 210 youths in skills relevant to the oil and gas industry is aimed at creating a pool of young minds trained in technical skills to

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provide manpower for the oil and gas companies operating in the coastal areas in the state.

“The aim of this programme is to make the Oil and Gas academy Nya-Odiong a centre

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@Businessdayng

of excellence in technical and vocational skills training across Nigeria; and to create a pool of specialized skills relevant in the industry operating here in our coastal areas,” he said.

Women in Business

BUSINESS DAY Friday 06 September 2019 www.businessday.ng

By Kemi Ajumobi

Funke Abimbola (MBE)

Hannah Oyebanjo

Business Leader, Lawyer, Public speaker

Managing Consultant, Redwood Consulting Ltd

F

unke Abimbola, MBE is a multiaward-winning business leader, lawyer, public speaker, TV contributor, diversity leader, patron and board member. She is of Nigerian descent.

Abimbola attended Newcastle University to study law. She had a son while working with Campbell Hooper. As well as practising law and working as a business leader, she volunteers her time towards advancing diversity across UK society with a specific focus on the legal profession.

Abimbola comes from a family of medical doctors. She was educated at Burgess Hill Girls. She did not study medicine because of her fear for “pains and blood” (algophobia and hemophobia). She obtained her law degree from Newcastle University. She travelled to Nigeria in the mid-1990s to sit the Nigerian Bar examination. Abimbola became a mother at the age of 28 years while working with Campbell Hooper. In the year 2000, she qualified as an in-house solicitor. Her father passed away in 2012 after being diagnosed with cancer.

Abimbola became the most senior black solicitor for Roche’s pharmaceutical operations in the UK, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta. She qualified as a solicitor inhouse in 2000.

She went to Nigeria for the preparation for the Nigerian Bar examination. While there, she worked with F. O. Akinrele & Co. After her return to the UK from Nigeria in the mid-1990s, she worked with Wembley Plc where she qualified as a corporate/ commercial lawyer. She later moved to Campbell Hooper where she became a solicitor. In 2012, she joined Roche UK with the position of Managing Counsel (UK and Ireland). She also served as UK Data Protection Officer. In December 2015, she became the general counsel and company secretary of the same organisation and was promoted to general counsel and head of financial compliance in January 2017.

She encountered challenges securing an entry level job in the UK. According to

First 100 Years, “I found it extremely difficult to secure an entry-level position when I finished the QLTT (now QLTS) transfer test and needed to gain experience before qualification. To get my foot in the door, I drew up a list of the top 100 law firms specialising in corporate law and did the same with the top 50 in-house teams. I then proceeded to cold-call the heads of department at all 150 organisations. This led to several interviews, including one with a major, fully listed PLC. At that interview, the head of legal (who is English but whose partner is of Asian descent) asked me if I thought my race had been a factor in me not getting interviews with other organisations. That was, honestly, the first time I had even considered race as being something that could inhibit my progress. Thankfully, I was offered a role by her and was able to qualify as a solicitor in-house.” She said.

Abimbola is a strong advocate of corporate and social diversity. As a public speaker and legal practitioner, she was recognized and won many awards for her work. In 2013, she was featured in Diversity League Table publication as one of the Black Solicitors. In 2014, she was nominated for a National Diversity Award, and in the same year she was nominated for the Law Society Excellence Awards.

In 2015, she won a Positive Role Model Award. In 2010, she was appointed governor of Uxbridge College, London, on a four-year term.

She received a ‘Point of Light’ award from the UK Prime Minister in October 2016, recognising the impact of her voluntary diversity work in the UK. In June 2017, she was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to diversity in the legal profession and to young people.

“I have been honoured to receive several award nominations and other recognitions for my work which is truly humbling. I deeply cherish every single one and I am greatly encouraged and uplifted by them.” She said.

H

annah Oyebanjo (MCIM) is Managing Consultant of Redwood Consulting Ltd, a marketing consulting organisation.

Redwood is a marketing solutions company supporting organisations with Public Relations, Research and Marketing Advisory services amongst others. They bring to life the power of local market immersion with the rigour of data analytics, creating a deeper human insight that transforms the opinions, beliefs and behaviours of those who matter most to their clients.

She was Marketing Director at Colgate Palmolive; a global consumer marketing company for 2 years until Sept 2016.

She was also Marketing Director at GlaxoSmithKline, a multinational Pharmaceutical and Health Care Company for 4 years until 2011.

She has had close to three decade experience in brand management, sales, consulting and marketing communications.

She also has cognate experience in Advertising and Public Relations, having worked with TBWA/Concept and C&F Porter Novelli.

Hannah has both managed and led teams in special functions such as Medical & Expert Marketing and Trade/Channel Marketing.

Oyebanjo was responsible for healthy double digit growths across product categories through the launch and re-launch of many products within GSK stables; with 3 International Awards in 3 years.

She supported the re-entry of Colgate Palmolive into Nigeria and is a notable industry icon with impressive pedigree, a multi award winner at various levels spanning academics, business and social basis (GEM awards, Hadassah Awards, Institute of Strategic Studies to mention a few).

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry and a Master of Business Administration.

Oyebanjo is a registered member of many industry bodies like APCON (Advertising Council), NIMN (Marketing Institute), NIPR (Public Relations) and also an Alumnus of the prestigious Lagos Business School, Cape Town University School of Business etc. She had served on the executive committee of ADVAN

(Advertisers’ Asso.) and currently Vice Chairperson of ASP (Advertising Standards Panel is responsible for approvals of all advertising communications in Nigeria).

She has had diverse local and foreign trainings to equip and help her build a rounded career.

She is a conference speaker in different fora.

She is particularly passionate about marketing excellence and serves as marketing faculty for some Human Capacity Development outfits in Nigeria.

Hannah Oyebanjo, having herself been a victim of the vagaries of life, and having triumphed over it all by the power of education and an uncommon resoluteness to live a chaste life (all documented in her book), is resolved to help young people to develop the right attitude to life, hence the birth of Predictable Future Foundation (youth oriented) which she founded and serves as current Chairperson, Board of Trustees.

Predictable Future Foundation (PFF) takes its name from the book Predictable Future and is, in fact, a direct inspiration from the book. In the book, the author, Hannah Oyebanjo, shares her true life experiences and concludes that, without question, our future or our tomorrow is equal to the sum total of the choices we make today. In other words, “our future can be predicted from what we do, or do not do today”.

For Alphabet Media Academy, Hannah is CEO Nigeria, Managing Director. This concept was thought out by threesome Media Advertising professionals who met in 2014 to advance the profession to an enviable level and in a sustainable way, was to refine the quality of training available to their colleagues on the field with a commitment to continually upscale same in line with global standards.

AMA is therefore a project ‘For the Industry, by the industry’ as both the Board of Directors led by a veteran in the industry, Vincent Oyo, and the faculty members are all Advertising industry related people.

She is the convener of monthly Operation Moriah program and also Annual Worship Festival; both non-denominational musical programs.

Hannah is happily married and blessed with a set of twin boys.

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Advert Hotline: 08034743892. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: 08169609331 Editor: Patrick Atuanya. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.