BusinessDay 17 Aug 2018

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news you can trust I **FRIDAY 17 AUGUST 2018 I vol. 15, no 120 I N300

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Foreign Exchange

Market Spot ($/N) I&E FX Window 362.53 CBN Official Rate 306.10

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NGUS OCT. NGUS JAN. NGUS JUL. 30, 2019 24, 2019 31, 2018 0.00 362.23

0.00 362.68

0.00 363.58

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CBN’s liquidity-mopping efforts becoming increasingly costly H

Hope dims for passage of PIGB as NNPC picks hole in bill Olusola Bello

As 2017 interest expense jumps 192.8% to N1.3trn on OMO auctions Net income slides to N107.3bn

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE, ENDURANCE OKAFOR, CYNTHIA IKWUETOGHU

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he Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) battle to stabilize the foreign exchange markets and lower inflation expectations is becoming increasingly costly, data from its 2017 annual reports show.

The CBN’s interest expense (interest payable on any borrowings – bonds, loans, convertible debt or lines of credit) jumped significantly by 192.8 percent to N1.3 trillion in the financial year ended December 2017 com-

Atiku Abubakar (r), former vice president and frontline contender for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket, and Gbenga Daniel, director-general, Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization, at the commissioning of Enugu State office of the Organization, yesterday.

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Nigeria’s richest men lose N288.5bn to stock market plunge David Ibidapo & Emeka Ucheaga

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ive of the wealthiest men in Nigeria have cumulatively lost a whooping N288.5 billion in the stock market rout this year. The local bourse has returned -8.48 percent year to date (YTD), translating to a loss of N659 billion in market

Dangote

Elumelu

capitalization this year alone. In essence, up to 44 percent of total

market loss this year was suffered by just 5 wealthy Nigerians.

The Nigerian billionaires are majority shareholders in some of the largest companies in the country, they include: Jim Ovia, Oba Otudeko, Tony Elumelu, Femi Otedola and Aliko Dangote. According to Forbes 2018 wealthiest men ranking, these

five entrepreneurs are among the top 10 richest in Nigeria.

BusinessDay analysis was based on the billionaire’s current stock holdings in publicly traded companies and the changes in the stock prices at the beginning of the year and closing price as at yesterday.

Continues on page 34

opes that the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) would be passed before the tenure of the current administration has been dashed as the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday picked holes in the bill which is awaiting the assent of Continues on page 34

Profit margins pressured as cost of using Apapa ports jumps 200% CHUKA UROKO

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he gains of declining inflation rate in the country may about to be reversed as the chaos in Apapa has led to a tripling of the cost of transportation into and out of the nation’s premier port. Businesses have seen their profit margins suddenly come under significant pressure from a 200 percent in cost of transportation.

Continues on page 34

Inside Women’s Hub Friday 17 August 2018

BUSINESS DAY

Adaobi Frances Udegbunam, taking Ferago beyond Africa At the Politic-All event, awareness on voting was the focus

MoMs At WAr What a thrilling viewing experience

Because you don’t know tomorrow, be careful how you treat people

Dakore egbuson-akanDe Distinctively living a life of purpose

DakoreegbusonakanDe Distinctively living a life of purpose

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British American Tobacco, Olam, Indorama top 100 non-oil exporters in 2017 – CBN ODINAKA ANUDU

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ritish American Tobacco, Olam Nigeria and Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited were three top non-oil export performers in 2017, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) annual report released on Wednesday.

British American Tobacco was first on the list, exporting various forms of cigarette valued at $145.48 million to Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, Cameroun, Cote D’ivoire and Niger.

Second on the list is Olam Nigeria, which exported sesame seeds (Dhs) and fermented cocoa beans worth $110.892 million to India, Netherlands, Poland, Syria, United Kingdom, Singapore, Turkey, Jordan, Poland, and Japan.

Next is Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & ChemicalsLtd,whichexported$69.815 millionworthofgranularureainbulkto Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina.

Indorama Eleme Fertiliser & Chemicals Limited recently got $1 billion from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the construction of a new fertiliser plant in Nigeria.

That is not all as Atlantic Shrimpers Limited shipped out $38.397 million worth of sea frozen shrimps and crabs to the Netherlands, China (Taiwan), United States of America and Vietnam.

Tulip Cocoa Processing Limited is next, exporting cocoa cake, pure prime pressed and cocoa butter worth $32.60 million to Netherlands, Mexico and Spain.

De-United Foods Industries Limited gave a good account of itself, exporting $30.568 million worth of Indomie and Minimie noodles to Ghana, Cameroon and the United States of America.

As of 2013, De-United had been exporting Indomie noodles worth close to $30 million to the US, BusinessDay gathered.

The CBN report further shows that Dangote Cement Plc was also a top performer in 2017, exporting $21.496 million worth of grey ordinary Dangote Portland Limestone Cement (42.5R) to Niamey, Niger Republic, Togo and Ghana.

“Beside our continuous expansion, we also export to counties like Ghana, Benin and Togo. These are sources foreign exchange for our dear nation.

Where ever we operate we operate as economic partners because we add value to the economy by creating employment,” Joseph Makoju, group managing director of Dangote Cement Plc, said on July 4 during a plant facility tour by officials of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Dangote is followed by Rubber Estates Nigeria Limited, which exported technically specified natural rubber (tsnr) and processed renl 20 estimated at $20.392 million to Spain, France, Italy, Poland Spain and Singapore.

Guinness Nigeria Plc is 16th on the list, exporting Malta Guinness and Guinness FES valued at $15.06 million to the United Kingdom, Ghana and Cameroon.

Beta Glass also gave a good showing, shipping out bottles estimated at $14.134 million to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and Cape Verde.

Beta Glass’ 2016 financial statement showed that the company made N1.913 billion foreign exchange gain that year owing principally to its export sales focus to Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Friday 17 August 2018

SEC faces ‘time-to-market’ test over MTN IPO

... regulator promises ‘exceptional’ attention; approval within 72hrs on ‘complete documentation’

Iheanyi Nwachukwu & Cynthia Ikwuetoghu

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he proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) of MTN Nigeria will be another litmus test for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) particularly with respect to the time it will take the apex capital market regulator to approve the Offer.

Before now, many issuers had cause to complain about lengthy “time-to-market” in Nigeria and emphasised its negative impact on companies’ appetite to raise money from the capital market.

In a recent promise, which many market watchers sees as regulatory rhetoric, the SEC said the MTN IPO will receive exceptional attention that could result to the Issuer getting approval for the Offer with 72hours upon filing “complete documents”.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on July 8, 2018 said that neither MTN Nigeria Limited nor any of its advisers or representatives has filed any application with the SEC regarding the said IPO. This is contrary to what sources familiar with the matter tell BusinessDay. “MTN Nigeria Limited to the best of the Commission’s knowledge is a Private company limited by shares.

Given that there is no application

from MTN before the Commission, there could not have been a request

by MTN or any of its representatives or advisers requiring any form of regulatory review,” SEC said.

BusinessDay asked Mary Uduk, acting Director General, SEC the length of time it would take the Commission to approve MTN IPO in case the company decides to file for the IPO application today, she simple said: “Let MTN file first and the day they say they have filed, watch us and count it. I would make an exception.”

The SEC assured that “I will open the Commission to the press. Let them (MTN) file and leave the heat for the Commission”.

MTN Group said its Nigerian business will be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) this year by way of Initial Public Offering (IPO). MTN agreed to list the Nigerian unit on the Lagos Bourse as part of a June 2016 agreement to pay a $1 billion fine for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers amid a security crackdown.

Since then, many analysts established compelling investment case for MTN Nigeria, considering the company’s impressive track record which is supported by scaled market position and the first-mover advantage. This is in addition to the Telco’s new growth initiatives being implemented by a

sound management team –which could potentially propel earnings to new highs over the medium term.

One major impact from the listing of MTN Nigeria is that it will significantly dilute the dominance of the banking and cement sectors on the Nigerian bourse and give investors more options, which is important for the stock market, according to research analysts.

The MTN Group had in show of commitment to move ahead with the 2018 target, appointed Chapel Hill Denham as lead manager for the initial public offering (IPO). Other appointed advisers are South Africa’s Rand Merchant Bank, Renaissance Capital and Vetiva Capital. The telecoms firm is also working with Stanbic IBTC Capital, Standard Bank of South Africa, Standard Advisory London and Citigroup Global Markets, as joint advisors and global coordinators, with Stanbic acting as lead issuer.

“Public filing and getting a response depends on the quality of information they are sending as well. If the information is complete as required, then they would get a response. Within 48 hours when you file, whether your documentation is complete or not, you would surely get a response”, the SEC said.

•Continues online at www.businessdayonline.com

•Continues online at www.businessdayonline.com

2019 election budget: NASS meeting ends in stalemate OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja

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ttempts by the National Assembly joint committee on INEC to resolve conflicting figures in the 2019 election budget, was deadlocked on Thursday.

To this end, the joint committee has summoned the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmud Yakubu to appear before it on Friday to give further clarification on the N189 billion 2019 General Election budget.

The committee comprises the joint panels on INEC from both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Chairman of the joint committee, Suleiman Nazif, said the INEC chairman is expected to appear before the joint committee by 11am.

It would be recalled that at a budget defence session on Wednesday, the Senate Committee on INEC had queried the conflicting figures presented by the Commission and President Muhammadu Buhari on the 2019 elections budget.

While Yakubu had told the joint committee that the sum N189 billion should be approved in one fell swoop, Buhari on his letter dated July 17, 2018 had asked lawmakers to approve the amount in two tranches: N143,512,529,455 in 2018 and the balance of N45,695,015,438 for 2019.

Although the one-hour meeting was held behind closed doors, lawmakers were heard raising their voices at each other over whether to adopt

the President’s proposal or Yakubu’s.

It was gathered that while a PDP senator from Yobe State, Mohammed Hassan wanted the release in two tranches,anotherlegislator, Ovie OmoAgege (APC, Delta State), called for the adoption of Mahmud’s proposal.

But speaking to journalists after the session, chairman of the joint committee, Suleiman Nazif, said: “As we are all aware, yesterday (Wednesday) we invited the Chairman of INEC who was in the National Assembly who addressed the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. And today (Thursday) our duty and responsibility was to try to harmonise what transpired yesterday between both houses and ensure that we cross the t’s and dot the i’s.

“The whole meeting was called consequent upon the letter of the President requesting for supplementary and virement for the General Elections of 2019.

“We have done what we needed to have done. And we have realised that there are some differences. In view of that, it is the opinion of members of this joint committee that we invite the chairman of INEC for further clarifications on Friday at 11am.

“And from there, this committee will make a press statement and we will inform Nigerians of our position.”

On her part, Chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters, Aisha Dukku, said the INEC chairman is expected to appear before the committee to clear grey areas concerning the mode of approval.

L-R: Fola Adeyemi, permanent secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture; Aramide Giwanson, special adviser, arts and culture; Fred Amata, president, Directors’ Guild of Nigeria; Steve Ayorinde, commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Lagos State, and Mathias Obahiagbon, executive secretary, NollyInsured Initiative, during a courtesy call to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Ex interswitch executives enter RenMoney board for business transformation HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE & ENDURANCE OKAFOR

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n a dramatic turnaround move by the founder and board of Renmoney, Nigeria’s most capitalized and premier consumer finance company, some senior executives from Interswitch have been appointed to transform its businesses as it faced stagnated growth over the last two years.

The board of Renmoney, led by Kieran Donnelly, newly appointed chairman, a veteran of Rencap and close ally of Stephen Jennings, Rencap founder, took the drastic step of firing the leadership of Renmoney and then brought in new firepower from Interswitch.

Ian Abraham, old CEO, was summarily asked to depart last week.

Ian, a South African, was the former Chief Risk Officer of Renmoney but assumed leadership when the previous CEO departed. However, Ian was ill-prepared for the job which saw Renmoney lose market share rapidly.

It was also reported that Ian was not able to transform the business as he did not understand technology and eschewed risk, a big let-down for a CEO driving transformation.

Tobi Boshoro is the new CEO, an industry heavyweight within the Fintech community. Tobi, who has a diverse experience in oil and gas, tobacco, fintech and banking, is now saddled with transforming the flailing organization into the largest consumer finance organization in Africa within the next five years. Tobi is famed for building the Verve brand before her departure to the Stanbic Group where she led the turnaround of their digital business and grew profitability substantially.

Responding to the new development, Dolapo Ashiru, a Lagos-based financial analyst said it is a good move by Renmoney.

“It a good idea, first of all the new CEO understand the Nigeria market and the Fintech industry, which was different for the former Chief Execu-

tive. So because of her background it can serve as a leverage for the company as she will be able to adjust more easily and achieve the aim of the company,”Dolapo said.

Supporting Tobi is Peter O’Toole, who until his appointment to Renmoney as the CFO was the CFO of Interswitch Limited. Peter came with the takeover of Interswitch by the Helios Capital in 2011.

Other lower executive positions have been filled by Interswitch staff and with as many as five others awaiting resumption.

“I know the company to be into micro credit and they are using technology to drive it, so if you then have someone who have a Fintech background to drive it. This will help accelerate growth, perhaps that is what they want to use as their competitive advantage to reach demand,” Ayo Akinwunmi, Head of Research FSDH Merchant Bank.

•Continues online at www.businessdayonline.com

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Nigeria gets $11m USAID support for health survey OYIN AMINU, Abuja

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he United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID) is to support Nigeria with $11million to flag off the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.

Eze Duruiheoma, chairman, National Population Commission(NPC), disclosed this on in Thursday in Abuja at the joint press briefing of the federal ministry of health, and the National Population commission to commence the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).

The chairman further disclosed that, apart from the support from the USAID support to carry out NHS, the Federal Government would also provide $3million, bringing the available fund for the survey to a total of $14million.

Issac Adewole, minister of health, in his speech,

said the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, is the sixth in the series of NDHS conducted in Nigeria.

The minister noted that the survey which is scheduled to commence from August 15 to December 15, 2018 across the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT would enable the health sector to collect high-quality data for policy formulation, programme planning, monitoring and evaluation.

He also said the NDHS is equally aimed at fostering and reinforcing hostcountry ownership of data collection, analysis, presentation, and use, while it seeks to increase the capacity of host-country partners to collect and use data for policy and program implementation purposes.

“The sample size for the 2018 NDHS consists of a total of 1,400 clusters (small geographically defined areas) with each state and FCT having 37 clusters with

the exception of Lagos and Kano States which have 53clusters respectively. The clusters are made up of 580 (41 percent) urban clusters with 17,310 households and 820 (59 percent) rural clusters with 24,690 households with each cluster having 30 households each.”

“Expectedly, a total of 40,567 women and 12,056 men will be interviewed in this survey. The 2018 NDHS unlike the previous exercises has been designed with additional components on malaria and genotype testing,” he said.

Adewole urged states and local government councils, traditional institutions and communities in the affected areas to support the commission in carrying out the DHS by allowing field functionariesunfettered access to the selected clusters and also assist to sensitise the people on the essence of the project and solicit their cooperation.

CBN hints of reduction in MPR at Bankers Committee HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday hinted of the possibility to reduce the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) following the drop in inflation rate for 17th consecutive months.

Ahmed Abdullahi, CBN’s director, banking and supervision, said this at the end of the Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos.

Nigeria’s inflation rate dropped marginally to 11.14 percent in July from 11.23 percent the previous month, but still remains well above the 6-9 percent preferred band.

“Market expectation was that because of the 17 months of drop in inflation, there would be a reduction in MPR. The MPC has concerns regarding capital reversals and exchange rate stability, which was why we see MPC holding the rates”, Abdullahi said.

On the issue of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), he said the CBN can refund the CRR of a bank that has engaged in lending in a new project or an existing one in the agriculture or manufacturing sector as a way of utilising the CRR, adding that the CBN will release the guideline soon.

“So anytime a bank lends to manufacturing or agriculture at the rate the CBN has prescribed, it would have its CRR refunded up to the amount it has lent. The guidelines are coming up any moment from now and once they do it take off.”

Other banks chief executives who addressed the media after the meeting

… to release CRR guideline soon were Segun Agbaje managing director of Guaranty Trust Bank, and Yemisi Edun executive director, finance, FCMB. Agbaje said there is commercial paper or bonds that would be issued and that the guidelines would come out very soon.

The aim of this is to stimulate certain sectors which would start with agriculture and manufacturing. More so, it would allow people to do capital expenditure (CAPEX) which is more long term, and single digit interest rate loans where bonds could go as far as 10 years.

“It would probably be the first time in the history of this country where manufacturers would be able to take fixed interest rate loans for seven years which means they would be able to plan. The volatility that they fear for all kinds of risks would be taken out and I think these are very

laudable steps in improving and growing the economy,” he said.

According to Edun, the CRR taken from banks would be positively deployed to grow the real sector as well as the agriculture sector in the economy.

“This is very positive for the economy and also positive for banks because we would be able to access these funds and earn on it.

And because it would be coming at single digit rate, it would be positive for the economy,” she said.

“For now, it would be channelled to agric sector and manufacturing but it for growth expansions enhance creation of jobs. The focus is to ensure the economy grow now that we have achieved stability. We need to now see a positive trend of growth and that is what we are committed to do at this time,” she said.

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FG should stop the intimidation of journalists

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Premium Times reporter, Samuel Ogundipe, is currently in detention facing intimidation from the Nigeria Police to reveal the source of a public interest story. The police on August 14 detained Ogundipe after he refused to be intimidated into disclosing the source of a story he did concerning the sacked director general of the DSS, Lawal Daura.

The police went ahead to secretly arraign Ogundipe on 15 August in a court room that only had the four policemen and a magistrate present. The judge, surprisingly gave legality to this secret arraignment of a suspect whose lawyer was not present in court and went ahead to order that the journalist be detained for a further five days. If this can happen to a journalist whose detention is public knowledge, it is no surprise that the country’s cells and police detention centres are filled up with people awaiting trial. Hopefully, the National Judicial Council (NJC) has taken note of this behaviour of the unnamed judge for appropriate action.

Increasingly, the President Buhari administration is pushing the boundaries of the personal liberty in Nigeria. Just as Ogundipe was being detained, Jones Abiri, another journalist, detained illegally for two years without trial was being released on bail.

Abiri has been held incommunicado for two years by the Department of State Security (DSS). Only an international campaign by journalists for him to be produced dead or alive, forced the DSS to charge him to court. What kind of a country allows anyone to be held incommunicado for two years without trial? It is sad that any government would allow such injustice happen under their watch.

What is emerging from this trend is a clear attempt to intimidate the media. This intimidation attempts have been disguised under various pretexts, all in a bid to stop the media from reporting bad behaviour in government. The federal government should not fail to realise that where the media fails in its watch dog role in the society, the society also fails.

Governance is not just about those in government today because they would be out of government tomorrow. If those in government today fails to allow the media hold the government accountable because they are in government, they would be left vulnerable tomorrow when then they are out of government and have to live under a media that is too weak and afraid to hold public officials accountable.

A key part of any journalist job is the confidentiality of their sources. It is the golden rule in journalism. It is a journalism creed that is not broken even to the point of ‘death.’ There is a credible reason why the protection of sources is ‘sacred’ in journalism.

NNPC identifies fault lines in PIGB, wants clarity on them OLUSOLA BELLO & FRANK UZUEGBANUM

T As Wikipedia explains, “The protection of sources, sometimes also referred to as the confidentiality of sources or in the US as the reporter’s privilege is a right accorded to journalists under the laws of many countries, as well as under international law. It prohibits authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source for a story.”

“The right is based on a recognition that without a strong guarantee of anonymity, many would be deterred from coming forward and sharing information of public interests with journalists. As a result, problems such as corruption or crime might go undetected and unchallenged, to the ultimate detriment of society as a whole.”

As can be seen, there is a very strong reason why journalistic sources must be protected, especially under a government that claims to be fighting corruption. It is left for Police to find out how a supposedly secret document in its custody got into the hand of a journalist.

This should be done purely by discreet investigation.

It is also the duty of journalists to get ‘secret’ documents that are of public interest and make them public. Governance is not about secrets. Governance is about transparency.

It is only in transparency that the interest of the public is protected. Corruption and abuse of power tend to thrive in secrecy.

The police are not carrying out investigation when they illegally arrest journalists and compel them to divulge their ‘source’ for a story. It shows lack of intelligence, perhaps not a surprising conclusion, considering the rising level of insecurity in the country.

It must be stated here that the media would not allow itself to be intimidated. The Nigerian media has gone through many seasons of intimidation and survived. Our media friends in government will tell the government. The media will also outlive this new season of intimidation.

It is actually in the interest of the government to stop intimidating the media. The media should not be seen as the foe. It does not create the news; it only reports the news.

If the government does not like negative news, it should stop creating negative actions. We are reporters, not newsmakers.

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BUSINESS DAY

he Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has picked holes in the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill(PIGB), saying it would hurt oil industry reforms if certain clarifications are not made.

According to the Corporation, the split of NNPC into two entities, if not properly communicated to staff of the Corporation, is bound to generate tension between the unions. Maikanti Baru, group managing director of NNPC, said these issues must be clarified.

He spoke on emerging issues and concerns in respect of PIGB at a conference organised by National

Associate of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria in Lagos yesterday.

Maikanti Baru, who was represented by Roland Ewubare ,group general manager, National Petroleum Investment and Management Services ( NAPISMm), said the issue of divestment of 40 percent of Nigeria Petroleum Company shares to the Nigerian Stock Exchange needs clarity on the process of divestment and the steps should be clearly provided in the law.

He said the Corporation wants to know if the shares are going to be sold to Nigerian public or foreign portfolio investors. This, it says, is not stated in the law.

There is no clarity regarding the nature of NNPC liability to be transferred to the Lia-

bility Management Company (NPLMC), aside the outstanding pension obligations of the Department of Petroleum Resources, he said.

The bill, he said, does not provide adequate clarity on type and nature of liability to be inherited and the process for the settlement of such liability. He said adequate clarity should be provided on funding of NPAMC and the newly created NPLMC. The NNPC boss advocated that the NPAMC should be structured in the form of an agency rather than a company with limited role in the administration of production sharing contract assets.

He said similar institutions across the world are structured as agencies, citing Petition Norway as an example.

He said that even though

the PIGB has defined tenures for non-executive directors, there are currently no provisions for stable tenures for the executive directors, which should insulate them from changing dynamics of the political context.

“The issuance of welldefined contract terms to the executive director may address this issue,” he said.

He said the newly-established commercial entities are expected to be governed in line with the provisions of code of corporate governance by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But the bill does not include recommendations to address possible conflicts that may arise between its provisions and those of the SEC code, where such conflict arise, he added.

L-R Ferdi Moolman, CEO, MTN Nigeria; Emeka Okonkwo, executive director, Union Bank; Hamda Ambah, MD/ CEO, FSDH, and Peter Blenkinsop, executive director, Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria at the signing ceremony of MTN New Medium Term Loan Syndicated Facility in Lagos.

Nigeria, others urged to integrate technology into exam assessment KELECHI EWUZIE

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ndustry experts in the field of education have tasked Nigeria and other Africa countries to integrate technology in their examination assessment in order to cater for the needs of 21st century knowledge, skills and expertise.

Ntoi Rapapa, minister of education and training of the Kingdom of Lesotho, in a keynote address entitled ‘Reforming Educational Assessment : A Renewed Agenda’ at the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) in Maseru, Lesotho, said with the 21st century knowledge, skills and expertise, education practitioners need to have a re–look at their roles.

In his acceptance speech, Olu Isaac Adenipekun, head of the national office of West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in Nigeria, informed delegates that the 37th Annual AEAA Conference with the theme, ‘Innovations in Educational Assessment’ will be hosted

by WAEC Nigeria in Abuja this month.

He further stated that adequate efforts are being made to ensure a successful hosting of the 37th Annual AEAA Conference and used the opportunity to invite delegates to Abuja, Nigeria.

The Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) is a nonprofit making organisation established in 1982 to promote cooperation amongst examining and assessment bodies in Africa.

Fashola says land issues, court cases pose roadblocks to road construction HARRISON EDEH, Abuja

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abatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s minister for power, works and housing, has decried how land issues, compensation and court cases pose a persistent obstacle in construction of roads in Nigeria’s highways.

The minister made the assertion on Thursday in Kebbi State at the National Council of Works, where he also pointed out that conflicts and security breaches also pose other forms of risks to construction workers, which according to him, escalates budget of road construction through delays in project completion and other forms of insurance.

Fashola, at the council meeting also said that Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has a road infrastructure presence in

all the states.

“From rail to ports, power and roads, this administration is resolute in its determination to complete on-going or abandoned projects. Today, there is no state in Nigeria where the federal government of Nigeria is not executing one road project,” Fashola said.

“In 2015,when I took office,there were over 200 roads whose contracts values were in excess of N2 trillion and for which payments had only cumulated to about N500 billion,” he said.

Some of the roads Fashola said had been awarded for upwards of 10 years, even as pointed out that, Inadequate budget and funding have delayed their completion.

“Many sites had been abadoned,workers laid off,equipment grounded,” he said.

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COMMENT

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Friday 17 August 2018

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) SOJI APAMPA Olusoji Apampa is the CEO of The Convention on Business Integrity.

Twitter: @sojapa E-mail: aviga@ cbinigeria.com

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his regulation was agreed upon by the European Parliament and Council in April 2016 and came into effect at the end of May 2018. But what does it mean and how does that affect you all the way out here in Nigeria? Before I attempt to answer that question, let me paint a scenario: you use the VIP Lounge of an airport in Nigeria and you are told you can only pay via a POS machine. That sounds great doesn’t it, since it means government revenues will go straight to the bank with very little chance of leakage of sums paid by users of the lounge? Next, you put your card in the POS machine and instead of the usual “savings or current” question followed by an input of your PIN to close the transaction, the one used at the lounge asks you for your telephone number and other detail before you can pay. It means the provider of the POS can harvest non-encrypted information about users of the airport lounge service and start targeting that audience with various products and services.

What this faceless company has harvested is personal information

KEHINDE AKINFENWA Akinfenwa is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos

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he incessant invention and prevalent of digital artefacts that are inadvertently subjugating our lives aptly proclaim that there has been prodigious advancement in technology in the last few decades. As its irresistible dexterity continues to break boundaries and hypnotise all human exploration, the world is still in suspense of the nearest technological evolution.

In aspiring to become an eminent society, it is compelling to invest and equip future generations to think about the world in new ways. Ways that evince advancement in human ability and sustain economic and social development. This is why the Lagos State government is consistently exploring through arrays of inclusive projects throughout the state and with one of such initiative the “Code Lagos”, the state is inspiring a memory of significant breakthrough in societal existence.

Coding is the computer language used to develop applications, websites and software. It is basically an art of telling a computer how to perform complex tasks. Once you know how to code, you can create virtual worlds within the computer where the only limit on what is possible is your imagination. This is the power

manner of utilization of which the data owner will never know. The GDPR addresses data protection and privacy standards for all individuals in the European Union and the European Economic Area.

According to Linet Kwamboka in a blog titled, “After the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, can we talk about data privacy in Africa now?” … In Nigeria’s 2007 and 2015 elections, Cambridge Analytica worked alongside the then ruling party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Now, Nigeria’s current government—which was the opposition in 2015—is investigating whether that collaboration was illegal.

“Among those whose personal data was hacked into in 2015 was the then opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari,” Vanguard reported earlier this month. This investigation has in turn kicked off a political tempest: after the announcement, PDP called the investigation “desperate.”

Cambridge Analytica was able to harvest information about various Facebook users and develop algorithms about how they could be targeted and influenced. Is it okay to give your personal information for one purpose only to be harvested and used in ways you never imagined nor authorised for or against your interest? The need to have this debate in Nigeria has become all the more pertinent as we adopt business models that are based on data aggregation. Data Driven Business Models (DDBMs) according to Antoine Buteau of TMT Management Consultants rely on identifying data sources, performing value-addition opera-

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The new GDPR applies to all EU companies holding personal data on an individual in addition to those companies worldwide who hold personal data of EU residents.

Now, if you collect data in Nigeria and data of EU residents fall into your dragnet, you fall under this GDPR

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tions on the data (such as generation – aggregation-analysis-distribution), creating a market offering or value proposition for it, aimed at specific customer segments and sold based on revenue models developed for it.

The more the data collected by the aggregator, the more a valuable asset is built for creating products and services to markets.

The new GDPR applies to all EU companies holding personal data on an individual in addition to those companies worldwide who hold personal data of EU residents.

Now, if you collect data in Nigeria and data of EU residents fall into your dragnet, you fall under this GDPR. Also, no self-respecting global company with operations outside Nigeria will want access to data products and services that do not comply with GDPR. They fear breaches, which are defined

by WhatIs.com as “a confirmed incident in which sensitive, confidential or otherwise protected data has been accessed and/or disclosed in an unauthorized fashion. Data breaches may involve personal health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets or intellectual property.” The POS provider attempting to harvest your telephone details for undisclosed purposes would run afoul of this regulation.

Those who feel their personal information has been breached may sue for damage and/or distress caused by such a breach under the regulation and where big data is involved, involving millions of individuals, a class action by such complainants can spell the end of business for even very large firms.

So, around the end of May 2018, so many have sent you links to confirm that they can continue to hold your data otherwise they automatically destroy record of you to protect themselves.

In Nigeria, industrial food processors find it difficult to do local sourcing of raw materials as they cannot for instance tell how much maize will be available for indus-

trial use at a given time. They are unable to do this as there is no repository of information on the maize farmers, who they are and what kind of yields they have been achieving over the last three seasons for example. They are unable to plan their production with the kind of certitude they have, based on imported raw materials. Someone has to create a database of smallholder farmers who provide 80% of the maize crop and track what and how they do from one season to the next. GDPR says this cannot be done without their express knowledge and consent.

And the data so collected cannot be “diverted” to other use without their express knowledge and consent such as selling the info to politicians for them to build a grassroots campaign.

In other words, GDPR seeks to bring some ethical standards into the processes of generating, acquiring, processing, aggregating, analysing, visualizing and distributing personal data of individuals.

There are very sound business reasons why this data is needed and great benefit to the data owners of such applications but as from the Cambridge-Analytica debate in the US as well as Nigeria, there is a need to ensure it does not fall into the unauthorized hands for unauthorized applications. As Linet Kwamboka raised, “can we talk about data privacy in Africa now?”

If the answer is unclear, I hope you at least agree it is time to talk about data privacy in Nigeria now. What do you think?

Send reactions to: comment@businessdayonline.

Code Lagos: expanding the frontiers of knowledge that the state government is currently interning into the hands and hearts of its citizens, particularly the younger ones.

This innovative project, which presently holds in 275 public and private schools across the state including 10 public centres, has trained over 15,000 individuals on courses like Java and Python programming languages, HTML and CSS for web development. With an audacious plan to teach one million residents how to write code and creatively solve problems, the state government is already piloting the transition to a technology driven future.

The purpose is not primarily to equip the next generation to work as software engineers; it is about promoting computational thinking, which involves breaking larger tasks into a logical sequence of smaller steps, diagnosing errors and coming up with new approaches to solving real life challenges. It allows one to tackle complex problems in efficient ways that operate at huge scale by creating models of the real world with a suitable level of abstraction and focus on the most pertinent aspects.

Besides its existential value, coding supports early literacy development as it has a structured communication that complement logical thinking and shapes common sense. Thereby, addressing the deficiency in creative thinking at

early years among children helps consistency and acute memory. A coding class also helps in acquiring a greater understanding of how software serves as the medium of triggering all of a device’s capabilities to get more out of smart phones, tablets, computers and other devices that now populate our lives. This type of knowledge is important in working environment where it is required to use technology as part of the overall job.

Arguably, coding is the most valuable 21st century skill that is immune to different areas of lives as its benefits extend well beyond knowing how to create an app or website. It is a great way to prepare the younger generation for a strong transition into the workforce considering the fact that the greatest challenge of unemployment among Nigerian youths is their deficiency in skills required in the 21st century industry because thriving in today’s innovative-driven economy demands a technologically embroidered workforce.

What dominated the discussion at the recent Goggle for Nigeria event in Lagos was the need to create trusted contents that are relevant to trends of life and with the ability to solve problems. This reinforces the reality that Africa is yet to provide avenues to get the best out of its creative young minds that have shown great desire in unleashing the fortune of the black continent to the rest of the world.

As technology continue to trans-

form the way we live, the need for Africa to set an agenda and have a paradigm shift to accommodate the potentials of the evolving technology must be internalised in every discussions. This is because the revolutions that will surface in few years to come will far outweigh what is being experienced presently. Therefore, in congruence with the world order, Africa must passionately invest in human and social capacity to achieve a cosmopolitan digital transformation.

However, with its defining role in African developments, Lagos is fast becoming a fortress of digital enterprise, building a network of liberal opportunities around the existing formal and informal structures of the state and projecting it as a fertile market for imperial investment.

Behold, the city’s pronounced socioeconomic vitality epitomises the abundant of positivity inherent in every African state as it continues to ignite an irresistible and prosperous future for Africa’s humanity.

This giant stride in advancing human and social capacity acknowledges the sincerity of the state government in making Lagos a smart city. A smart society that is fastening on digital existence whose sociocultural and economic anatomy is induced by technology. With this honest intention of providing citizens the ability to navigate their ways in the brave new world of contemporary life, the state government is

brewing the culture of self-reliance and cognitive expression in its citizens in order to solve the complex challenges that have been enslaving individual and communal fortune.

On the account of this impeccable vision, the state was recently crowned the best performing state in ICT Development and best state in E-Government implementation in Nigeria. A narration of the visionary policies and programs of the state government in building a thriving ecosystem.

To further promote the ideals of digital economy, the state government is collaborating with the private sector to establish an ICT cluster and ecosystem at Yaba where thousands of youths all over Africa will have the freedom to create world-class innovative and creative contents that attract the investors’ community.

Perhaps, it is high time the federal government and other states realised that technology is now part of our lifestyle. It is hard to envision a progressive society without the many luxuries that technology provides and helping the younger ones to understand how it works at the ground level and how it can be used to its fullest potentials needs to be a building block of our educational policy.

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The least used critical driver of team effectiveness

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aying to leaders and managers that their organizations’ success is hinged upon having an effective team is like preaching to the choir. That means one is telling them what they already know – even before they started their careers.

Whenever I speak on driving results with teamwork, I usually ask: “Is it enough to know the value of team effectiveness in your organizations? Off course, to me and many others, it is not enough. In the same vein, one can value strategy but does not understand how to apply strategy to drive growth.

In reality, is it possible for someone to sabotage the growth of his or her organization after knowing the benefits of teamwork?

Yes, it is possible. This is based on the popular belief of how effective team is being created. I remembered years back speaking to a new CEO of an Oil and Gas company and his senior team members on how they can build their company’s synergy, I asked

RASAK MUSBAU Musbau is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos

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‘UJU ONWUZULIKE

Uju Onwuzulike is Nigeria’s leading authority on Systems Thinking and Strategic Management. He was a Steve Haines trained strategy and systems thinking expert and a former global partner of Haines Centre for Strategic Management, California, USA. He is the founder and Chief Results Officer of MCL – a strategy and outstanding performance specialist firm. He can be reached on 09091142093 or uju.onwuzulike@mclgroup.net.

oor performance of political leaders and governments in Nigeria is alarming. Leadership commitment and willpower to accelerate the progress of the country has time and again been blighted by politics without policies. Nigeria’s political landscapes have increasingly been dominated by rhetoric without willpower. This has prompted many to affirm “that our only or biggest problem in Nigeria is leadership”.

“Everything rises and falls on leadership”, says John Maxwell, the renowned business and leadership coach. This explains why world leaders have shifted from a purely political orientation to an entrepreneurial and economic management approach, making them political cum economic managers.

Presently, in Nigeria, it is not strange that better narratives of how government should function are mostly coming from Lagos State. Virtually all aspects of societal enterprise in Lagos are the object of policy, a dynamic and value-laden process through which government handles problems and challenges of the megacity.

The state has come up with such

them a key question, what do you think is most fundamental factor in building an effective team?

Well, it was really a great time hearing things like better communication, understanding the vision of the organization, cooperation and having good chemistry. The truth is, all these things mentioned are good ingredients let’s say for preparing a nice dish of “team effectiveness”, but that nice dish cannot be prepared if something is lacking – if there is no fire to heat up the food. The foundation for a great or an effective team goes much deeper than all the things mentioned above – the foundation is hinged on “genuine respect”. This means even with the other attributes, if genuine respect is lacking building an effective team or having team spirit will be difficult. Although many have learnt the art of pretending as if there is team cohesion when there is none.

The foundation for a cohesive and effective team is “genuine respect” for each other and what

If as leaders and managers we are looking for everyone on the team to agree perfectly with our viewpoints, it may not totally happen, and that might affect the team’s success. It is even dangerous to have someone’s idea as the best idea probably because of the person’s superior position

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each other brings to the table – a respect that goes beyond position, beyond educational qualification, beyond gender, beyond economic status, and importantly, beyond idiosyncrasies, ideologies and disagreements.

During a presentation I had with a particular board of a bank (not on team effectiveness though), we were discussing around being able to have the ability “to hold contradictions” especially on dissenting views, and I quickly mentioned the role of genuine respect in the equa-

tion, and someone said something that I think every organization should pay attention to. He asked, “How come most organizations that have genuine respect as part of their core values are not putting in into practice? I think organizations should move away from having “genuine respect” on papers and let it become a culture.

With this genuine respect comes communication, shared vision, cooperation, good chemistry, and ultimately team success.

Therefore, it means that without genuine respect for individuals in organizations, we might not be able to have better communication or cooperation that will lead to team success. There is also a misconception that some managers have about respect in organizations; they believe that for their subordinates to show genuine respect for them, they always have to be in total “agreement” with their viewpoints. If as leaders and managers we are looking for everyone on the team to agree perfectly with our viewpoints, it may not totally happen, and that might affect the team’s success. It is even dangerous to have someone’s idea as the best idea probably because of the person’s superior position. Let us not confuse respect to mean that we will blindly accept what is wrong or unethical just to ‘falsely’ show how respectful we are. Nobody has the whole answers; we all have a portion of the answers. This explains why we need to rely on the views of others where we fall

short – and that is even why effective team should exist.

Genuine respect is recognizing the gifts and value in others and utilizing those gifts and that value. The quest for superiority or who knows better should not be envisaged in a progressive team or organization. The good news is that every employee “sees in part”, so everyone sees, and everyone has a contribution. Building an organization that will thrive requires that CEOs and leaders should utilize everybody’s contributions. According to Doug Cartland, Leadership can be seen as the ability to unify a team, motivate it and head it in the right direction. It is also the ability to interpret the gifts and abilities of those with you to best utilize them.

The truth is that every employee has a significant role to play in driving growth in every organization, and being able to identify that ability is crucial for every leader and manager.

Final note: Building a positive climate for genuine respect where people will feel respected, heard, understood and valued should be taken seriously in every organization. Organizations that can achieve that will definitely have army of people who will want to go the extra mile to deliver result.

I would like to read your views or perspectives.

All the very best!

Send reactions to: comment@businessdayonline.com

Lagos, visionary leadership and political stability policy documents like Ehingheti Summit, Lagos State Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, Lagos State Development Plan 2012-2025 etc. These are based on long-term visions of where successive governments since 1999 want the state to be.

Unlike what obtains at the federal level and other states where every new administration comes up with new plans and policies, Lagos has a record of continuity in developmental plan implementation.

But then, with the impressive growth of Lagos comes challengesincluding a lack of coordination between nearby states. Development experts increasingly recognize that economies are more effective when states form clusters, coordinate their use of resources and share their risks. In Nigeria’s case, other states look obtuse and bland putting side by side with Lagos. Lack of coordination with other states and inclusive governance of Lagos State is what people without means of livelihood are exploiting by coming to the state in droves. This has made putting an end to influx of beggars, destitute and mentally challenged people into Lagos metropolis, an exercise yet to bring about desired result and for Lagos to continue bearing the cost. It is unlikely Lagos alone can really save Nigeria taking into cognizance that the country’s

population is expected to hit 400 million by mid-century — but Lagos can be the model for transferring more authority to other states.

The Federal and other tiers of government could learn commitment to success of public policies from Lagos State. The failure of public policies in Nigeria is partly responsible for the failure of the citizens to contribute meaningfully to the progress of the country. Politics and policies though inseparable, Nigerians have been fed with overdose of politics in national affairs at the detriment of implementation developmental policies.

A key secret of Lagos’ economic growth is infrastructure development which has been the hallmarks of succeeding administrations since 1999. This is premised on the principle that the better the infrastructure the more the likelihood of tax compliance. This is in sharp contrast with what obtains at the federal level where a large proportion of revenue projection has little to do with government’s performance, since about 75 percent of the national budget is projected in anticipation of oil receipt.

Lagos has a set budget designed to aid implementation of its programmes and activities based on available resources. The commitment is obvious in the steady increase of funds allocated to the Lagos health sector which has risen

to N92.6 billion in 2018. Lagos State indiscriminately provides health care services and drugs for Nigerians in Lagos from ages 0-12 and 60 and above. Free anti-natal care is also provided for pregnant women. These services are available at healthcare centres that transverse the state with additional Eko Free Health Mission which is carried out at intervals on a weekly basis with the Ministry of Health in taking care to the people in district offering test and treatments on eye care, blood pressure, diabetics and the dental care etc.

The LASTMA, LAGBUS, LAMATA, Traffic Radio, BRT system among others all came on board as part of efforts to ensure sanity and safety on Lagos roads. The current governor of the State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode understood everything about the public policy that birthed the agencies and other details contained in the Lagos Urban Transport Programme (LUTP). When he came on board and there were still traffic gridlock challenges, what the government did was to convene a traffic summit that evaluates the problems. He subsequently moves to the implementation of the phase 2 of the Lagos Urban Transport Programme (LUTP). It was this that led to the extension of the BRT corridor from Mile 12 to Ikorodu and the launch of 434 new Air Conditioned BRT

buses in November 2015.

Flowing from what Ambode met on ground, Lagos is currently pursuing an integrated affordable multi-modal transport system that will ensure that citizens arrive their destinations in the least possible time frame. Again, from the BRT success story on other corridors of its operations, the State has shifted attention to the Oshodi-Abule Egba corridor for the provision of high quality bus service for the teeming populace in the Alimosho Local Government Area, which arguably, is acknowledged as the most densely populated part of the state as well as being the largest Local Government Area in Africa.

There is no disagreement among public policy experts about the importance of road construction in improving businesses ability to provide goods and services and people’s ability to access education, employment and services.

Development of good and motorable roads enhance public safety and increase the road capacity to ease traffic congestion, vehicle maintenance and transportation cost leading to improve economy and higher standard of living.

Note: the rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessdayonline.com/ Send reactions to: comment@businessdayonline.com

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Editorial

Friday 17 August 2018

Impunity and lack of respect for the rule of law

PUBLISHER/CEO

Frank Aigbogun EDITOR Anthony Osae-Brown DEPUTY EDITORS John Osadolor, Abuja Bill Okonedo NEWS EDITOR Patrick Atuanya

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SERVICES Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Adeola Ajewole FINANCE MANAGER Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Patrick Ijegbai CIRCULATION MANAGER John Okpaire GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Dick Kramer - Chairman Imo Itsueli Mohammed Hayatudeen Albert Alos Funke Osibodu Afolabi Oladele Dayo Lawuyi Vincent Maduka Maneesh Garg Keith Richards Opeyemi Agbaje Amina Oyagbola Bolanle Onagoruwa Fola Laoye Chuka Mordi Sim Shagaya Mezuo Nwuneli Emeka Emuwa Charles Anudu Tunji Adegbesan Eyo Ekpo

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n insidious effort is afoot to pull the carpet on Nigeria’s democracy through a consistent pattern of the abuse of the rule of law. The rule of law is one of the pillars of democracy.

Despite this, the federal and some state governments are working hard to diminish this vital element without regard for the fearful consequences.

Top on the list of infamy on this matter is the man who should stand vanguard for the rule of law. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has through actions and utterances shown a careless disregard for what he should protect. Mr Malami has demonstrated a Janus face on the matter: he disobeys court orders and then sermonises on the imperative of the rule of law.

The Federal Government has consistently denied former National Security Adviser Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) his freedom despite five court orders. Malami issued a defence that confirmed the worst fears about the government’s attitude to the rule of law. “What I want you to know is that issues concerning law and order under Muhammadu Buhari are sacrosanct and obeying a court order is compulsory” he was

quoted as saying. Even so, the Federal Government would continue to disobey court orders on Dasuki. Malami’s justification?

The Federal Government can violate the rights of an individual for the broader public good.

“However you should also know that there is a consensus world over that where the dispute is only between individuals, then you can consider the issue based on the instant situation.

But if the dispute is about an issue that affects an entire nation, then you have to remember that government is about the people not for only an individual. So you have to look at it from this perspective. If the issue about an individual coincides with that which affects the people of a nation and you are now saying the government did not obey a court order that infringes on a single person’s rights. Remember we are talking about a person who was instrumental to the deaths of over one hundred thousand people. Are you saying that the rights of one person is more important than that of 100,000 who lost their lives?”

The Justice Minister, on the other hand, quickly ordered compliance with the order of the Supreme Court in the matter of the dispute over the chairmanship of the Nigerian Football Federation. The justification was the need to comply with the dictates

of the rule of law.

In Benue and Imo State, there are ongoing disregard for procedures and rules in the matter of impeachment of state officials.

The Federal Government deployed the police and security forces to enforce the closure of the Benue State House of Assembly. The plan is to get eight members of the Assembly, less than the statutory requirement, to impeach Governor Samuel Ortom. A similar abuse through the use of the security forces is unfolding in Imo State on the matter of the impeachment of the Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere.

For more than two years, the Federal Government locked up a journalist, Jones Abiri. In court on August 2, Government failed to provide evidence nor justification for this treatment of a citizen.

There are many other instances.

We reiterate. The rule of law is a cardinal principle of democracy. It demands that everyone observes the laws of the land.

Everyone!!! As the one with the foremost authority in the nation and the enforcer of laws, the onus is on the government to lead in the observance of the rule of law.

Nigeria is a signatory to various statutes of the United Nations. The United Nations General Assembly at a High-Level Meeting on the Rule of Law at the National and International

Levels on September 4, 2012 averred that “human rights, the rule of law and democracy are interlinked and mutually reinforcing and that they belong to the universal and indivisible core values and principles of the United Nations”.

The UN says defines the rule of law as “a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.”

Nigeria must avoid a regress to the rule of man where government officials have the discretion to choose which laws to obey, which statutes to follow and what rules with which to comply. Despite various shortcomings, Nigeria is better off under democratic governments than under military rule. Strengthening the rule of law is one sure way of ensuring we remain a democracy.

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MoneyInsight Personal Finance: Investing Retirement

Taxes

Credit Cards

Home Buying

Luno on knowledge drive to deepen Nigeria’s cryptocurrency market FRANK ELEANYA

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oncerns over consumers limited knowledge of the cryptocurrencies and how they work, has seen Luno, one of the leading global exchanges with presence in over 40 countries, to embrace a knowledge-driven approach to its services in Nigeria.

The cryptocurrency market in Nigeria made headlines globally in 2017 when it twice emerged second as the country that searched for bitcoin the most on Google, and peer-topeer transactions in digital currency globally. Since then a lot of investments and investors have come into the market leading to intensified scrutiny of the space by financial regulators.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which is responsible for regulating instruments like cryptocurrencies, said it is presently studying the market to enable it come up with a regulatory framework that will protect every player. In the meantime, it continues to warn the financial institutions to stay away until there is a policy for the market.

While the CBN position has not affected demand in the market it may have contributed to poor knowledge of consumers as many transact for the profit and not necessarily because

they understand.

“We welcome regulation of the cryptocurrency space in Nigeria,” Owenize Odia, Luno’s country manager in Nigeria said at a press conference that held in Lagos on Wednesday, 15 August 2018. “It is good for the entire market around the world, as it will build trust in both buyers and investors. We know it would eventually come, hence we self-regulate in order to protect our customers.”

Odia says that cryptocurrency education would also benefit the market because it will ensure people approach it with a knowledge driven mindset. Regulation will also reinforce collaboration in the space, as banks will be free to partner with exchanges and other stakeholders for growth of the market.

It would also go a long way to reduce increasing incidences of cyber criminality involving cryptocurrencies. Recently,

the market has been awashed with reports of consumers falling victims to internet scams that could have been avoided had the victims been better equipped with the right information.

“This is what sets us apart as a virtual currency platform.

Apart from providing our users with two-factor authentication (2FA) which ensures they are protected, we also take out time to educate them about how to avoid scams,” Odia said.

There are four different levels of verifications Luno has put in place to protect its varied income-level customers.

The company which recently reached a milestone of two million customers globally says it has it work cut out for it. Thus, it is has planned some programs targeted at its user-base in Nigeria particularly.

“We will be announcing these programs soon,” Odia said.

Small Business Shopping

Financing

Cartoon Network looks to Africa for fresh content, talents FRANK ELEANYA

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artoon Network, the home of popular kids’ cartoons such as Ben 10 and Teen Titans, is looking for African talents in a renewed drive to inject new innovative content from a local perspective in its programming.

As part of plans to achieve this, the network announced the Cartoon Network Africa Creative Lab, an African creative completion designed to bring innovative, local short form content to Africa through its channel and digital platforms.

A statement sent to BusinessDay on the announcement explained that the initiative will encourage African talents, creators, writers, graphic artists, animation students and anyone who loves kids’ content, to explore their creative, animation and production talents and have the chance to produce a short-form animated comedy.

“It is actually a big deal for Nigerian animators and studios having Cartoon Network invest in the local talent we have here,” Ayodele Eleba, CEO of Spoof Animation and Founder of Lagos Comic Con said.

Eleba said the investment acknowledges the mileage African animation has reached and the growth in demand.

“Cartoon Network’s involvement in Africa through the Cartoon Network Creative Lab initiative means more exposure and appreciation for African stories told by African animators and storytellers,” Mbuotidem Johnson,

CEO of Basement Animation and chief coordinator and founder of Animation Nigeria added.

Potential participants from the age of 18 and above or any Africanbased company can submit a oneminute to three-minute creative short project which must fall in the comedy genre and fit with Cartoon Network’s values of random, irreverent, smart and contemporary humour. Entries submission will end August 31, 2018.

Judges will short list ten projects in September and the selected local creators will get the opportunity to pitch their work to Cartoon Network Africa’s content programming team. A winner and two runners-up will be unveiled at DISCOP Johannesburg at the end of the year.

“We have been supporting the advancement of new and emerging local animation talent through activations like the DISCOP 2016 Animation Pitching Programme, where the winning project, Cloud Life, has been traveling through the Turner group and is now in a development process with the Turner Asia Pacific production team,” Ariane Suveg, head of programming and acquisition Turner Kids Africa said. “We are now looking for content that has the potential to be produced locally and are honoured to be supporting local African animation talent through the Cartoon Network Africa Creative Lab. We look forward to seeing the entries and hope to see the winners flourish in their career as content creators, following the footsteps of some of Cartoon Network’s greatest talents.”

Social enterprise provides breeding ground for budding entrepreneurs …SIP fellows meet to compare notes, measure impact STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

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ocial enterprises are gaining currency and creating a breeding for budding entrepreneurs who are desirous to make profit through businesses that generate social and economic impact.

A social enterprise is an organisation that applies commercial strategies to maximise improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being.

This may include maximising social impact alongside profits for external shareholders. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form (depending in which country the entity exists and the legal forms available) of a co-operative, mutual organisation, a disregarded entity.

One organisation driving social enterprise growth in Nigeria is the Leadership Effectiveness, Accountability and Professionalism (LEAP) Africa through its Social Innovators Programme (SIP), which convened

an alumni meet, August 14, to share experiences and compare notes about what it means to be social innovators.

Femi Balogun, executive director at LEAP Africa, in his opening remarks said “SIP meet is an opportunity to network and learn from others. Last year, an alumnus got the opportunity to meet with people who are helping him with the project he is pursuing concerning the future of work.”

The SIP has been supported by Union Bank in the bank’s bid to reinvent itself and drive social innovation.

“In the past five years we have been supporting social innovators programme and this is one of flagship corporate social responsibility projects. We facilitate partnerships and help scale up social impact. We want to help develop critical mass for social and economic development in order further the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Ogochukwu Ekezie, head, corporate affairs and communication at Union Bank said during the SIP meet in Lagos.

Among the SIP alumni who shared

their experiences was Seun Sangoleye, founder and chief executive officer of Baby Grubz.

“Five years ago, when I was about to wean my baby off breast milk and return to work, I did not know what to feed my baby and realised many other mothers were in my shoes. I started asking questions. I realised there was no local content on what to feed children in Nigeria” Sangoleye said as she shared her experiences.

The absence of local content led Sangoleye to start making food for her son and Baby Grubz was born. Thirtytwo percent of Nigerian children are stunted in growth yet Nigeria is the second largest producer of cereal after India.

“I thought this was a great opportunity realising many other Nigerian mothers were in my shoes. Our distributors are women and this serves as a form of economic empowerment for them. I am really an accidental social entrepreneur but LEAP Africa has helped us change our business model.

We now ship to the United Kingdom, Ghana and Benin Republic.”

Crystal Chigbu, founder and executive director of Irede Foundation shared experiences that led to her setting up a social enterprise that caters for children with disability, especially disabilities that lead to amputation.

“Nine years ago I gave birth to a daughter with congenital conditions, which required limb amputation. This was a painful experience. Overtime, I became a counselor for parents dealing with various situations that were similar. Irede Foundation was born and is 7 year old today. We provide education, support systems and artificial limbs for those who cannot afford them. We have distributed over a hundred prosthetic limbs in Nigeria” Chigbu said. “Our biggest challenges have been people and difficulties importing prosthetics but we are doing some local production of prosthetics.”

However, social entrepreneurs need strategies to help them maximise the creation of value.

“Social innovators are a specific kind of people and might not have resources to scale up. LEAP Africa is one of our trusted grantees and we

do this because we understand the impact of social enterprises. But social entrepreneurs need the media to help them communicate their initiatives and get people to help them scale up.

I am referring the use of new media.

With 22 million Facebook accounts in Nigeria you have a big market” Paul Nwulu, programme officer at Ford Foundation told the alumni gathering of SIP. Nwulu outlined the following, meant to enable social entrepreneurs make the most of media platforms, especially social or new media.

Nwulu said, be clear about what you want to accomplish, know who your audience is, choose the channel that is right for you, have a content strategy, understand your audience behaviour and solve their problems, be truthful, engage, track and measure you impact.

Temilade Denton, Alitheia Capital, fund managers, insisted social innovators must be intentional, purposeful and have cohesive impact strategy.

This means they have to use impact to drive their businesses

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Influencers

POLICY

World Bank’s funded hydropower project in Cameroon holds lessons for Nigeria ISAAC ANYAOGU

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he World Bank recently approved an investment package of $794.5million for the Nachtigal hydropower project in Cameroon to help the West African country achieve its goal of providing access to electricity for 88 percent of its people by 2022.

When the projected is completed, it will increase the country’s electricity generating capacity by 30 percent and provide greater opportunities for the poor, who are disproportionately excluded from economic activities due to inadequate power supply says the World Bank. Currently about 19 percent of population have access to power in rural areas while over 80 do in urban centres.

“This investment in clean energy is key to lowering

the cost of electricity and ensuring that Cameroon’s economy is competitive.

The Nachtigal project in Sub-Saharan Africa that will accelerate Cameroon’s realisation of its development goals, including poverty reduction,” said Elisabeth

Huybens, World Bank Director for Cameroon.

Funding To attract funding for this project as well as similar ones, the government said it was reforming the power sector to enhance financial

India’s Renewable Investments Near $20 Billion

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of around EUR 735 million ($ 859 million equivalent),” Oumar Seydi, IFC Director for Africa said.

Th i s f u n d i ng m o d e l provides a model that has higher chances for success.

Guarantees have become important for power projects in the region because of the high capital cost involved.

Perhaps what makes this unique is the multiplicity of guarantee options.

It is also important that the government show commitment by bringing its own money to the table and link the project to larger national development goals.

Nigeria has also secured guarantees for projects but government commitment has always been a high risk factor. This is why investors have also sought the comfort of a PCOA. While more commitment is always important, when the presence of multiple guarantees from reputable sources could assuage investors risk concern.

INSIGHT

MARKET

or the first time in history, investing in India’s renewable energy sector surpassed that of traditional fossil fuel-based power production. India achieved this groundbreaking feat in 2017 according to the recent numbers released in the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s World Energy Investment 2018 report.

Ringing in at nearly $20 billion, last year’s investment in Indian renewables accounted for over a third of investments in the power sector thanks to nearly double the money being poured into solar and wind projects. By comparison, in 2017 all investments in power projects based on coal, gas, and oil as fuel reached totaled just $16 billion altogether.

India’s rising investments in the renewable energy sector has dovetailed with a fall in coal power investments and thermal power generation. Investment for new coal plants plummeted to their lowest numbers in 15 years, ac-

viability and attract private sector investment. It ended up selling the state-owned utility to foreign investors.

The project developers decided on an integrated approach to maximise finance for development through private finance. It

got guarantees amounting to $300 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), guarantees worth $262.5 million from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and equity totaling $70 million, loans worth $152 million, and currency risk management swaps from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) were brought together in a package to bring sustainable private sector solutions to the infrastructure sector.

“By working for almost five years as co-developer of the project, the Nachtigal HPP is a great example of how IFC is using InfraVentures to help projects become reality in Africa. In addition, as Global Coordinator of the Project’s senior debt, IFC has mobilized the entire debt package, including senior loans from development finance institutions and local commercial banks

cording to the IEA report.

Leading the charge is the southern coastal state of Karnataka, home of the booming tech city Bengaluru and locus of the subcontinent’s renewable energy frontlines. Over the last 12 months the region be came India’s biggest renewable power producer, boasting an installed power capacity of 12.3 gigawatts (GW). This is comprised of 5 GW of solar energy, nearly 5 GW of wind energy, and 2.6 GW of other renewable power sources like hydro and biomass.

Reflecting the national trend, Karnataka’s renewable energy has far outstripped coal, which currently stands at around 9.8 GW of capacity in Karnataka. Another striking comparison can be found in the state’s production numbers just 5 years ago.

In 2013, Karnataka had a coal capacity of 6.8 GW, far less than the current capacity, but dwarfing the mere 4 GW of renewables capacity at the time.

This sweeping change is

thanks in large part to the recently decreasing prices of wind and solar power.

At the same time, India’s thermal power sector is collapsing, and coal prices are rising. For a nation that makes up a huge part of global power expenditures, it’s a no-brainer. In 2017 India, China, the United States and Europe together account for a whopping two thirds of worldwide electricity network investments.

By all accounts, this is just the beginning of the renewables revolution in India. A few years ago, the nation publicly set what was, at the time, an ambitious goal to reach 175 GW of wind and solar energy

by March of 2022. This was already a lofty plan, but in June India increased that target to 227 GW -- a staggering 28 percent bump.

In the time that the goal was originally announced, India has so far managed to add about 70 GW, and they’ve announced a plan to auction off 40 GW of renewables every year until 2028.

China sets up International Investment Alliance for Renewable Energy

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he announcement from Beijing at the end of May, detailing cuts to solar incentives, and the suspension of many PV projects, came as a surprise both inside and outside of China. Since then, the global solar energy industry has been in turmoil.

Manufacturers are trying to adapt to the new situation and counteract falling prices. EPC companies, meanwhile, are waiting to see how far prices will fall, to make their projects as cost-effective as possible.

It is undisputed that huge PV module overcapacities exist. In China alone, capacities have been massively built up in recent years. But the world market will shrink this year – probably the very first time ever. GTM Research recently downgraded its forecast to around 85 GW of newly installed capacity in 2018. In comparison, last year saw around 100 GW installed.

An eye to the future But China would not be China, if it did not try to help the domestic companies that have been supported financially, and with creating a large domestic market in recent years.

So while it is slowing down growth at home, it is looking to position Chinese companies

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

more strongly abroad.

The “One Belt One Road” initiative, and the “International Capacity Cooperation” have been actively promoting this goal for some time now.

And at the end of June, a new central element was added, focusing specifically on the areas of PV and wind power.

The National Development and Reform Commission of China NDRC, the National Energy Agency (NEA), and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce launched the International Investment Alliance for Renewable Energy, in coordination with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CCCME).

The alliance is part of the “One Belt One Road” initiative and the “International Capacity Cooperation”, according to the CCCME website. The latter is a combination of state and export funds of Chinese companies to promote China’s foreign trade and industrial policy.

On “International Capacity Cooperation,” the Global Policy Journalwrote last fall, “A top-down centrally planned industrial policy, it is quite an ingenious way to ‘solve’ China’s industrial overcapacity problem, restructure its domestic industry towards Industry 4.0 higher value-added advanced manufacturing, and

export capital factor productivity without opening the capital account.”

The whole thing, however, was designed only as a oneway lane, which means for Chinese sales abroad. Other media add that the “International Capacity Cooperation” is China’s “foreign direct investment strategy” abroad, in order to utilize its own capacities under the guise of development aid.

The political authorities in June called on key companies from the entire renewables industry in China to create the International Investment Alliance for Renewable Energy. According to the CCCME, which claims to be an advisory body, more than 120 participants, mainly from leading corporations and financial institutions, met at the founding ceremony in Beijing.

According to other reports from China Daily and Japanese business portal, Nikkei Asian Review, the alliance has been set up according to government guidelines. Part of the alliance includes module manufacturer, JinkoSolar and wind turbine producer, Goldwind, as well as China Energy Engineering Investment Corp. Ltd and China Gezhouba Group Overseas Investment Co. Ltd, writes China Daily.

Graphics: Joel Samson

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NNPC plans new 100,000bpd Brownfield Refinery for Port Harcourt, Warri

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Co m pa n y n e w s a n a ly s i s a n d i n s i g h t

Muti-Fund Structure benchmarks PFAs strategy for returns to contributors, retirees Oghogho Edosomwan

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h e n e w Mu t i Fund Structure recently introduced by the National Pension Commission has raised the bar for benchmarking Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) based on their returns on investment to contributors and retirees.

Prior to this multi fund structure, pension fund managers were judged not just based on their returns but also their expense ratio.

Having same expense ratio now pushes the focus to their returns. PFAs must deploy strategies to enhance returns for contributors and retires, experts told BusinessDay. A month ago PenCom released the Amended Regulation on Investment of Pension Fund Assets for the Pension Industry. The new investment guideline introduces a multi-fund structure; that replaced the existing “single-fund” structure that puts all contributors into one Retirement Savings Account (“RSA”) Fund without consideration for age or risk profile.

The Multi-Fund structure is a framework that aims to

align the age and risk profile of RSA holders by dividing the RSA Fund into three Fund types while retaining the single Retiree fund (four fund types in all 3 active funds and 1 Retiree fund).

Fund 1 is allowed a maxi-

mum exposure of 75 percent of portfolio value to variable income instruments, Fund 2 can only be exposed to such instruments to the maximum of 55 percent while Fund 3 and Fund 4 will be allowed a maximum exposure

of 20 percent and 10 percent respectively. In like manner, there are stipulations for minimum exposure as well.

Aside the multi fund structure, PenCom also specified the expense ratio to be charged by Pension Fund

Administrators for each fund.

1.6 percent for fund I, fund II (1.4 percent), fund III (1.3 percent) and fund IV (5.00 percent).

Fund II makes up a larger proportion of the RSA registration which is about 75

Chinedu Obidiegwu, marketing and customer succeed lead, Nigeria (l), with Owen Odia, country manager, Nigeria, both are Luno Nigeria, guring a press conference by Luno Nigeria in Lagos.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

percent. As at 15th august 2018, fund II price for Aiico Pensions was 3.0636, APT Pensions (2.8482), ARM Pension (3.8897), AXA Mansard (2.7341), Crusader Pension (3.9784), Fidelity Pension (2.00), First Guarantee (3.3089), IEI Anchor (2.3459), Investment One (2.4792), Leadway Pensure (3.0565), Legacy Pension (3.644), NLPC (3.4673), NPF pension (1.4718), OAK Pension (2.5805), Pal Pension (3.4572), Premium Pension (3.9797), Radix Pension (2.0235), Sigma Pensions (not available), Stanbic IBTC Pensions (3.7453), TrustFund (3.2750) and Veritas Pensions (2.6775) as complied from the website of each PFA. According to experts, one factor that determines the performance of a fund manager is the capacity of the managers to understand the market. Based on the National Pension Commission regulation, each fund manager is supposed to structure their portfolio in a way that it meets the guidelines, offering security of the fund and earnings returns. Also, their investment strategy is another factor, that is, the ability of the fund managers to understand the markets is an important factor.

Webercoin to invest $1.1bn investment in 2020

Miniso to employ 8,000 Nigerians in new expansion efforts

…provides 100million tokens supply

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

IFEOMA OKEKE

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e b e rc o i n a n ecosystem that is designed purely for business owners, marketers and advertisers to efficiently market their products, goods and services via blockchain is targeting 1.1billion dollar investment in year 2020.

Speaking during a press conference to announce the on-going Webercoin Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in Lagos, Sheneni Tukura, chief executive officer, Webercoin said the platform creates an avenue for all advertisers and regular users on the platform to be rewarded for posting contents, commenting or contributing.

“We have 100 million tokens supply of Webercoin to

reward users with. What we are doing now is that we are adding value to Webercoin.

So, when we give you Webercoin as a reward, you will know the value. We are currently selling a Webercoin at $0.5. When this amount gets into customers’ pockets, it will be more than 0.5d ollars, the equivalent will be given to customers in whatever currency they want.

“We project 1.1billion dollar worth of investment by year 2020 and that is based on what we have seen from different eco systems. Since the ICO opened three weeks ago, we have sold over 300thousand tokens already,” Tukura said.

He explained that the firm developed a system where the community also has a voice and a say in what happens and not what is preva-

lent in various social media platforms where the platform owners make all the money and nothing comes to the platform users.

“In our platform, we are creating a community that votes for what should be allowed and what shouldn’t be allowed. This is a social market place and we want people to define it as their own community. That is why we are not talking about how much we will get from the ICO but we are talking about the users’ slice of the cake and their investment in the future,” he added.

He further explained that Webercoin uses crypto currency, which can be used in any part of the world, adding that with crypto currency, the firm is able to give anyone in the world equal opportunities.

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iniso, a Japanese lifestyle designer retail brand says it will employ about 8,000 Nigerian by 2019 as it plans to open 200 retail shops across the country.

Also, by 2020 Miniso is committed to procure most of its raw materials locally. The firm from inception in 2013, has actively explored the international market and has opened more than 2,900 stores in over 60 countries within the years and is in the process of opening stores in 20 more countries. MINISO’s business turnover stands at $ 1.5 billion in 2016 and nearly $1.9 billion in 2017.

“From the sales figures of our existing stores in the past 11 months, Miniso is one of the most profitable businesses in Nigeria that yields returns on investment between 10 – 18 percent”, Jason Zhou, franchise

and investment manager said.

The firm has two investment models. These are the franchising model and the agent model.

The franchise model requires an investor to simply secure a store size of around 200M2 at any choice location, shopping mall or high street.

The agent model on the other hand, takes a slightly different dimension as an investors is required to secure a store size of around 200M2 at any location of choice, but an agent is required to pay a compliance deposit (refundable) which ensures the agents maintain Miniso operation standards, then the agent reserves the right to operate as a Miniso representative under the expert supervision from Miniso to ensure all standards are met.

With more than 60,000 SKUs, the firm bases high importance on giving quality materials, for its product manufacture, design and development.

Eze Igwe, minso franshise specialist, admitted that the

Nigerian retail sector is fast growing, and there are a lot of players coming into the Nigerian space to tap into opportunities in terms of returns and investments.

However, he said Miniso is offering a very huge opportunity to investors in Nigeria to sign up as franchises. “the difference with the regular franchises that you are used to, is that this is a brand that gives you the opportunity to earn from the total sales as against profit and this is important for every business man because that is what investment is”.

“We are talking about a situation where all sales made in the store, the investor is capable of giving 40 per cent of the turnover not 40 per cent of the profit, it is important that is emphasized so that those who are attracted to theses opportunity understand the huge benefit in it. What we have been doing for the past couple of months, is to establish a kind of trend with all of our stores”.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS NNPC plans new 100,000bpd Brownfield Refinery for Port Harcourt, Warri Olusola Bello

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bout 100,000 barrels per day brown refineries are being planned by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as part of its refinery collocation initiative designed to boost local refining capacity that will end the era of petroleum products importation.

The refineries are to be collocated in Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries. This was disclosed in the current NNPC News, the Corporation’s inhouse newsletter Speaking on efforts being made to achieve self-sufficiency in local refining besides the rehabilitation of the refineries, Maikanti Baru explained that a group of investors had commenced the process of relocating a refinery that used to be owned by BP from Turkey to Nigeria to be installed near the Port Harcourt Refinery under the NNPC refinery collocation initiative.

“Our collocation initiative aimed at getting private sector

investors to bring in Brownfield refineries so that they can share facilities is also yielding results.

“For example, there is one that is going to be brought in from Turkey to be located near the Port-Harcourt Refinery.

It’s not a modular refinery; it’s a normal refinery with about 100,00bpd capacity. It was owned by BP, but it has been sold off now to the companies that want to bring it over from Turkey to install it here”, he stated.

He further explained that a similar plan to establish a brownfield refinery near the Warri Refinery was also in the offing.

“There is another one of about the same size being looked at to be sited near the Warri Refinery. But the one for Port-Harcourt is at a more advanced stage. Our drive at the NNPC, as a leader in the industry, is to expand our local refining capacity and make Nigeria a global refining hub”, he said.

Nigeria has become a net importer of petroleum products despite the fact that she export an average of 2.1 million

barrels of crude oil per day.

The 450,000 barrels refineries located in Kaduna a Port Harcourt and Warri have remained comatose for several years thereby causing the country to depend almost 90 per cent on imported products The NNPC has consistently said it would not relent in its quest to get the nation’s four refineries back to their optimal, nameplate capacities.

The NNPC boss stated that as part of the ongoing reforms in the organisation, the corporation had been holding far-reaching discussions with some consortia to get the best funding options towards the refineries’ overhaul.

He added that the corporation, under his watch, had recorded remarkable progress in resuscitating some of the nation’s critical downstream infrastructure, a development which had ensured the seamless supply of products Nationwide, until the recent past hiccups which are now under control.

“Since coming on board, we have made the revamp of our

L-R: Chineze Amanfo, brand and marketing communications manager, Inlaks; Ikechukwu Nnamani, MD/CEO, Medallion Communications Ltd; Oladimeji Koyejo, director, Value Added Services, Inlaks, and Olusegun Ajakaiye, executive assistant, Inlaks, when Inlaks was presented with ICT Conglomerate of the Year award at the Nigerian ICT Impact CEO Forum and Africa Digital Award in Lagos recently.

abandoned assets and critical downstream infrastructure a key component of our corporate vision of 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFA),” he stated.

He said over the last few

Eagle toastmaster club help Nigerians improve leadership and communication skills Endurance Okafor

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agle Toastmasters Club, Nigeria’s premier Toastmasters International, has helped many Nigerians in developing themselves through self-pace training in communication and leadership skills.

Founded by Vincent Okobi in 2005, the club has paved way for the creation of about 46 other clubs spread across Nigeria and through the medium its guest and members have been taught the art of professional speaking and effective leadership.

This was disclosed to Busi-

nessDay in the swearing in ceremony of the new executives of Eagle Toastmasters Club at Eko Hotel on Saturday, 11th August, 2018. “Nigerians are among the about 4 million people world wide that Toastmasters has helped to conquer their fears of standing before an audience to speak which is called glossophobia. This is through the 46 clubs out of the total 16,900 that are spread across Africa’s most populous nation, Oladele Olunike, the division director, told BusinessDay. “In the past 12 years of its existence in Nigeria, it has brought about self-improvement in the area of communication and leadership,” Unekwu

Nwaezeapu, the immediate past president of the Eagle Toastmasters Club said.

Meanwhile, according to Forbes, only about 10 percent of the world population actually loves public speaking or standing in a group situation without feeling nausea, panic attacks and extreme anxiety.

The good news however is, even though that fear may be biologically ingrained in human, it is one that can be overcome flawlessly.

“In 21st century global business world of today that we live and work in, it has been found that regardless of one’s profession, vocation or occupation, two skills have been the most

sorted after skills in the world and they are the communication and leadership skills, which toast master has been offering in the last 94 years,” Oladele explained.

Meanwhile a survey by a U.S school of technology has however disclosed that communication and leadership skills are the most critical skills that account for a whopping 85 percent of a person’s personal, professional and public life success.

Oladele concluded by saying no matter how smart one is, until a person is able to develop the communication and leadership skills, one’s level of success would not be taken to the next level.

Youths in Ogun chart new course for ICT-dependent businesses IFEDAYO OGUNYEMI

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n a bid to drive innovation and wealth creation in Ogun state, a group of youths are charting a new course for ICT-dependent businesses with the creation of the first co-working space and ideation lab in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The co-working and ideation lab provides a community for social innovators, freelancers, creators, start-ups, entrepreneurs and techpreneurs.

This, they made known at the soft launch of RockStation Nigeria, a co-working space and ideation lab in Abeokuta, the state capital.

Communications Manager of RockStation Nigeria, Ibukun Olusola said that the coworking space would help foster a creative community and provide entrepreneurs in the state with an access to a shared workspace, internet, utilities and business services.

He said the idea was is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 9, which focuses on building resilient

infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation.

Olusola who berated the present ICT culture in the state said the coworking space and ideation lab will help improve the state’s technological ecosystem.

“The ICT culture of Ogun state cannot be said to have been developed just yet because despite the richness of talents and developers who thrive to create Solutions and/or products (with the very limited resources: power,

Internet and mentorship) in their closets.

“There hasn’t been any mapping, convergence or collaboration of these small groups around the state.

“We tend to foster and promote more of these communities, by availing them an innovative space for a convergence, take up the responsibility of mapping these groups and provide them adequate resources to develop, not just themselves but also put the tech community of Ogun State on the map of tech communities in Nigeria,” Olusola said.

months, several crude oils, petroleum products and natural gas pipelines were resuscitated while more than half of the nation’s 21 strategic depots were also upgraded.

He decried acts of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and sabotage which he noted had resulted in huge loss of revenue, lives and property as well as damage to the environment.,

Coca Cola Nigeria, LSETF sign deal to empower 1,000 women Daniel Obi

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he Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd and its bottling partner, Nigeria Bottling Company have signed a partnership agreement to empower 1,000 women in Lagos State.

Through this partnership framework, the selected women will receive training in financial literacy and business skills as well as start-up capital to integrate them into the Coca-Cola value chain as retailers of the Company’s beverage products.

This partnership is anchored on Coca-Cola’s 5by20 Programme, which is the company’s global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across the its value chain by 2020.

Representing the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund at the MoU signing ceremony, Akintunde Oyebode, executive secretary LSETF stated that the LSETF’s mandate is aimed at creating an enabling environment for Lagos residents to realize their business aspirations by providing access to finance for them to thrive, while ensuring employment and innovative opportunities for all residents of the state.

“A partnership with an organisation such as CocaCola assures us that we are

working in the right direction and strengthens our commitment to building entrepreneurs within the state. We understand that to empower a woman, is to empower a whole generation.

We will continue to provide accessible and affordable credit to support women as they seek to start or expand their businesses; because when we do, we create wealth and employment that alleviates poverty.”

In her comment, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, public relations director of Coca Cola Nigeria reiterated the company’s commitment saying, the multinational company is certain of its commitment to the well-being of communities, a critical part of which are women. “As pillars of their communities, women invest a sizable portion of the income they earn on the health and education of their children and in their local economies, creating a tremendous economic impact. Lagos State Employment Trust Fund is our partner of choice for this initiative considering our shared vision on women empowerment and its vast network across the State.”

She further stated that realizing the vision of enabling the economic empowerment of 5 million women by 2020 depends on building scalable models and powerful partnerships, across business, civil society and government, which is vital to maximizing the impact of their programs and making them more sustainable.

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COMPANIES & MARKETS Aero Contractors to increase current fleet size with return aircraft IFEOMA OKEKE

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here are strong indications that one of the aircraft of Aero Contractors, a Boeing 737-500, taken out for C-checks about a year ago would return to the country by this weekend.

It was gathered that another aircraft, a B737-400 with the registration number 5N-BOC would be rolled out from the maintenance facility of the airline in the next two weeks.

Also, it was gathered that the airline had paid about 30 staff declared redundant in late 2017 about N70 million their outstanding salaries and severance packages in the last one month.

A source close to the airline said the B737-500 aircraft, which was taken out for c—check maintenance in France by previous management could not return as planned due to paucity of funds.

But, the current management led by Ado Sanusi, took it upon itself to ensure the return

of the aircraft from the European country.

Sanusi, CEO of the airline, however, confirmed the developments.

At present, Aero Contractors has two aircraft; B737-500 and Dash 8 in its fleet, but with the impending arrival of the new aircraft, its fleet would increase to three.

Besides, it was gathered that another aircraft presently in its maintenance hangar facility at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos would be rolled out in the next two weeks.

The aircraft would be the second of its airplanes that would be maintained in its facility since January 2018 when it equally carried out a C-check in one of its aircraft at the same facility.

Sanusi posited that the B737-500 aircraft would arrive the country by this weekend while the other B737-400 currently under its maintenance facility at the Lagos Airport would join its fleet in the next two weeks.

This is apart from another helicopter that is scheduled to

arrive Nigeria from Malaysia on Thursday, thereby increasing its rotary wing fleet to three.

Commenting on the payment of severance packages and outstanding salaries to the staff declared redundant, Sanusi said the aim of the management was to disburse about N50m monthly to the affected staff and assured that some of them would be recalled as its fleet of aircraft increases.

He said: “It is true that our aircraft, which went out for maintenance in France would be returning to the country by this weekend. Apart from this, we are currently carrying out maintenance on another B737-400 aircraft, hopefully would be out of maintenance yard in the next two to three weeks.

“Also, on the payment of some of the redundant workers, about 30 of them have been paid so far since the beginning of this month, but what we are doing is payment from bottom to top.

Very soon, others would be paid.

Our intention is to disburse at least N50m to the affected workers monthly.”

Experts target greater contribution of insurance, pension sectors to economy

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xperts in insurance and pension industry will be deliberating on how to enhance insurance and pension sector contributions to the economy at the 5th Anniversary of ‘Businesstoday’ lecture and award slated to hold in Lagos this month.

Aisha Dahir-Umar, acting director general, PenCom, and Akin Ogunbiyi, chairman, Mutual Benefits Group will be among dignitaries that will speak at the event.

Nkechi Nnaeche, editor-inchief/CEO of Businesstoday

said that experts have been drawn from insurance and pension sectors would be on hand to speak on the Theme paper: “Repositioning the Nigerian Economy: Insurance And Pension Industry Perspective” She said efforts will be geared towards finding solutions on both sectors will be further strengthened for wealth creation for policy holders, contributors and retirees and as well as investors.

The event scheduled to hold Tuesday August 28th, 2018 at Sheraton Hotels & Towers,

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he board of the Resort Group has announced the appointment of Rodger Whittle as its new group executive director.

A statement by the spokesman of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), a member of the Resort Group and operators of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Steve Omolale, quoted the board as saying that “Whittle is coming with a rich experience in the aviation industry having been part of the foundation of Nationwide Airlines Limited in South Africa for more than a decade before leaving as

the Chief Operating Officer in 2008. He was until recently a Senior Vice-President, International Operations, for Arik Air International Limited”.

The board said “the new executive director will, among others, lead the expected turnaround efforts towards ensuring that the commercial objectives of MMA2 are met while maintaining the vision and mission of providing high standards and service delivery as the best operating terminal for passenger facilitation in Nigeria. He will also be expected to explore opportunities in the aviation industry for the benefit of the company”.

Whittle, a Canadian, says he looks forward to supporting the

L-R: Adekunle Akinremi, visual merchandizing executive, SPAR Nigeria; Salami Abdulmatin, silver medalist; Adedoyin Awal, gold medalist; Kika Chimoye, bronze medalist, and Emmanuel Isangediok, marketing manager, SPAR Nigeria, at the prize presentation to winners of the SprintStar 2018 sponsored by SPAR Nigeria held at Yaba College of Technology Sports Complex, Lagos recently.

L-R: Anselm Alokha, zonal business manager, Nigerian Breweries East Zone, and Wisdom Paul, winner Star United We Shine Millionaires Promo, at a regional presentation in Aba recently.

Ikeja, Lagos, according to her will also feature the launching of BusinessToday Magazine and award presentation in different category to insurance and pension companies as well as individuals that distinguished themselves in 2017 would be celebrated.

She said the yearly award was designed to celebrate creativity and excellent performances exhibited by individuals and organisation and by extension deepen insurance and pension awareness in the country.

Resort group appoints Rodger Whittle as executive director IFEOMA OKEKE

Business Event

team of professionals at MMA2, as they strive to sustain the quality services the terminal is known for.

Prior to becoming the senior vice-president in Arik Air, Whittle was also the vice-president, Southern and Central Africa of the same airline between 20092013; managing director, cabin safety and training incorporation (1996-1997); manager, training and development, Air Ontario, Canada (1987-1996); in-flight service manager, WadAir, Canada (1985-1987)and manager, cabin services and training, City Express Airlines (1983-1985).

He is bringing into the Resort Group an experience spanning over 35 years.

L-R: Chioma Okolie, CSR lead, Airtel Nigeria; Hauwa Ojeifo, beneficiary/founder, She Writes Woman, and Oladokun Oye, vice president, indirect sales, Airtel Nigeria, during the handing over of a rented and fully furnished apartment to She Writes Woman in Lagos, on Friday, as part of the on-going Airtel Touching Lives Season 4 prize presentation.

L-R: Ifeanyi Madubuike, representative of ARM Trustees Limited; Eddy Eguavoen, Chairman, Mixta Nigeria, and Kola Ashiru-Balogun, Managing Director, Mixta Nigeria, during the Annual General Meeting of Mixta Nigeria in Lagos.

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Friday 17 August 2018

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FINTECH News

Products Review

Technology Review

Personality Review

BUSINESS DAY

19

Company Review

COMPANY REVIEW

Mines ready for big game in credit service with $13m Series A round Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

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redit ser vices firm, Mines has announced a $13 million Series A round that will help it acquire new talents, sustain growth in Africa and expand its offerings to other emerging markets.

Series A round is used to describe a company’s first significant round of venture capital financing. Mines’ financing is led by The Rise Fund with participation from Velocity Capital, Western Technology Investments, First Ally Capital, X/Seed Capital, NYCA Partners, Persistent Capital, Singularity Investments, Trans Saharan Investments, and the Bank of Industry (BoI).

Founded in 2014 by Kunle Olukotun and Ekechi Nwokah in Palo Alto, California, Mines has grown to become a credit-as-a-service digital platform that enables institutions in emerging markets to offer credit products to their customers who do not need a smartphone to access them.

The company relies on data sets to serve loans to customers neglected by available credit systems thereby opening up entirely new revenue opportunities.

Some of its partners include 9Mobile, Airtel, Interswitch and NIBSS. With over three billion adults lacking access to credit worldwide, Mines has set an

ambitious target to reach every one of them in the next ten years, according to Ekechi Nwokah, CEO of the company. Part of its strategies is to collaborate with banks, retailers and mobile operators, “and power digital credit products tailored to their markets so they can create the customers of tomorrow, today.”

Mines said it can instantly access credit risk using high volume data like phone records, bank records, and payment transactions in realtime. The risk models are then integrated with identity, origination, payments, loan lifecycle management, and customer service to form a holistic platform. This produces a seamless user experience

where partners’ customers can apply for and receive a loan in less than 60 seconds or make instant purchases with virtual or physical credit cards.

Since launching in Nigeria in 2017, Mines’ services have been accessed by 1 million customers putting it in the league of top consumer credit providers in the country. However, in the coming months, the company will need to bring in more customers to truly be the leader in the Nigerian market over competitors like Branch International and Paylater, both of which services over one million customers each.

“What we have done differently is take Silicon Valley technology and built it into a product that is robust enough for emerging markets like Nigeria, Brazil, or Indonesia,” Kunle Olukotun, chief scientist for Mines said. “We can extend credit to all types of customers, including customers without smartphones or even bank accounts as these are the type of people who

need credit the most.”

Yemi Lalude from TPG Growth creators of The Rise Fund makes the point that what sets Mines apart from competition is the integration of artificial intelligence and extensive use of data with a strong focus on local partnerships to build financial inclusion.

“We are excited to partner with them to drive financial access across the world,” Lalude said.

Adia Sowho, who joined Mines as Vice President Commercial said the company’s success depends more on deep understanding of two things – distribution and partnerships.

“In Nigeria, Mines has demonstrated that its platform it is flexible enough to enable partners and consumers reach across the income pyramid, activate a wide swath of distribution channels, from rudimentary USSD to more advanced web-based ones,” Sowho said. “We look forward to building more partnerships in Nigeria and beyond.”

to be involved in the society,” Songwe said.

The collaboration indicates Alibaba’s seriousness in becoming a major player in Africa’s growing fintech space. At the time Jing was in Ethiopia sealing the agreement, Jack Ma, cofounder of Alibaba was in South Africa launching a $10 million Netpreneur Prize for startups in Africa. South Africa it should be noted was the first

country to run Alipay on the continent, but it would not be its last.

In June, 2018 Ant Financial entered a partnership with Equitel in Kenya to enable Alipay and WeChat payments in the country. While in Johannesburg, Jack Ma made no secret as to the direction of his investments on the continent as he kept referring to payments as among the big challenges facing the continent.

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Jack Ma’s $10m buys place on Africa’s fintech table

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ack Ma’s visit to Africa and his gift of $10 million to tech startups on the continent may be yielding results with the announcement by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) that it is collaborating with the International Financial Corporation (IFC) and Ant Financial (Ant) to promote digital financial inclusion in Africa, through investment and technical

capacity building.

Ant Financial is an affiliate company of Alibaba Group co-founded by Jack Ma. The company runs one of the world’s largest online payment platforms valued at $150 billion.

The collaboration which was sealed in a meeting that involved ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, Ant Financial’s CEO Eric Jing, IFC’s VP and Treasurer and President

Mulatu Teshome of Ethiopia, could see Ant become the financial bridge between small businesses in Africa and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063 say we should leave no one behind, and many people have been asking what happens to SMEs with the AfCFTA,” Vera Songwe said after the meeting. “So we are thinking about what platforms

we can together to ensure that not only big companies take advantage of the AfCFTA but also small companies.”

In signing the deal, Ant Financials will be expected to replicate its recent successes in countries like China, India, and the Philippines.

“We are bringing Ant Financial, which has the largest platform for financial inclusion and assists people with very small financial capacity

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Ondo set to establish five hospitals in three senatorial districts ...to offer free medical services to pregnant women, children below 5 years YOMI AYELESO, Akure

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he Ondo state government has approved extension of the mother and child hospital to three senatorial districts of the state.

The Akeredolu-led government has also approved the introduction of free health care service for pregnant women and children between zero and five years of age.

The mother and child hospital, which hitherto existed in Akure and Ondo towns only, has been extended to other towns and local governments in the Northern and Southern Senatorial districts of the state.

Addressing journalists after the weekly executive council meeting in Akure, the State capital, Wahab Adegbenro, commissioner for Health, flanked by the commissioner for information and orientation, Yemi Olowolabi and the Special Adviser on Education, Ilawole Olawumi, said that the Akeredolu-led administration is concerned about bringing effective health service delivery into the door steps of the

people.

Adegbenro hinted that the over 500 health centers in the state are to serve as mini centers for the free health care services for pregnant women and children between zero to five year.

“We have scaled up the mother and Child hospital. As part of the efforts of the government to ensure that the vulnerable group have unrestricted access to quality health care service, council has approved that the Mother and Child hospitals should be scaled up with five more centers,” he said.

According to Adegbenro “You will also recall that the governor, Oluwarotimi Ak-

eredolu signed into law the contributory health insurance Scheme which has also made provision for the vulnerable “The government has also approved the introduction of free health care service for pregnant women and children between zero to five year old “From the two mother and child hospitals that we currently have, we are moving up to seven. The council deliberated and approved that the state specialist hospital, Ikare Akoko will now become Mother and Child hospital, Ikare “The general hospital in Owo will also become mother and child hospital. Equally, the general hospitals in Ore,

Okitipupa and Igbokoda have been scaled to mother and child hospitals respectively,” he added The health commissioner stressed that the Akeredoluled administration had since inception paid a lot of attention to the health sector.

He said, “You will recall that the school of nursing and midwifery was absorbed by the University of Medical Science, Ondo (UNIMED) into a degree awarding institution. Also, with the new bill introduced today, when signed into law, the School of Health Technology in Akure will be upgraded into a College of Health Technology.

Earlier, the Special Adviser on Education, Olawumi said administrative activities will now commence at the Ondo State Public Service Training Institute, Ilara-Mokin.

She said civil servant in the state will now have a great opportunity of getting trained in the institute.

The information commissioner, Olowolabi said the council had also approved a new bill that upgrades the Ondo State School of Health Technology into a College of Health Technology.

Why Nigerian women should undergo cancer screening ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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any studies suggest that screening can help people detect disease and early presentation will save life.

Cancer is becoming an epidemic that is affecting all categories of people in the world with Nigerians not an exception.

“Cancer is responsible for 3 per cent of total mortality in Nigeria, leading to 72,000 deaths per annum. This number is set to increase given that there are 102,000 new cases of cancer every year,” say the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Data shows that the mortality incidence ratio for liver cancer is 97 per cent while cervical cancer is 58 per cent and breast cancer is 51 per cent.

Nevertheless, to gain understanding on why women need to be screened, and which type of screenings are best for different ages.

Most importantly, good news is early diagnosis of cancer generally increases the chances for successful treatment while delayed diagnosis causes lower likelihood of survival, higher costs of care, avoidable deaths and disability from cancer.

Fear of the outcome of diagnosis, religious beliefs, financial constraints and low awareness of cancer signs,

symptoms and facilities are some of the reasons for delays in cancer diagnosis.

“Apart from a healthy diet, exercise, de-stressing, stopping smoking, reducing alcohol intake to an acceptable level and more, one of the most important things we must do is SCREEN,” said Oge Ilegbune a general practitioner, head of strategy, development and outreach at Lakeshore Cancer Centre.

Ilegbune noted that there are many achievable preventive measures that can be taken to increase our chances, as we get more mature of having a good decent run with our health. “ It is understandable that there is no way to mention the word Cancer without the heart skipping a bit but it is a wonderful and thankful thing

to see indeed when people detect cancer early and are able to continue living after treatment, “Presenting late in an advanced stage becomes a more challenging journey with financial and emotional burdens on all involved,” she said.

According to the expert, at the age of 40 years plus this is the outline of what you MUST do unfailingly because you deserve every good thing in life as a woman.

Self-Breast Examination every month 5-7 days after a period. If you do not have a period anymore picks the same date every month to do so Annual Clinical Breast Examination that is once a year carried out by a Doctor or Nurse who can... please note not all doctors and nurses can do Breast Examination Mammogram every 2 years

which takes pictures to pick out any abnormal areas which the fingers are unable to palpate.

Studies have shown that the Mammogram can pick up a lump or abnormal cluster 2 years before the fingers can.

So imagine that by the time one can actually feel a lump, it has actually been present for a while.

Cervical Screening Gold Standard Liquid based Cytology to screen for Cervical Cancer She further pointed out that with many years of sexual activity taking the HPV vaccination as some clinics who wish to make money sell to unsuspecting women is really not that effective.

“We have all probably been exposed to the Human Papilloma virus from time to time over the years and by and large the body does deal with it effectively and gets rid-off it especially if one’s immune system is operating quite well,” However if one is concerned your doctor can test you for HPV and if you are negative then the vaccine could be considered. But you must have an in-depth discussion with your doctor before this.

“At this stage though you should be more concerned to have your teenage and young adult daughters get the vaccine. Age range is 9 years - 26 years. In some countries the HPV is now being licensed for use in boys of the same age,”

Friday 17 August 2018

Health benefits of walnuts ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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alnuts are exceptionally nutritious that may help improve your health.

Botanically called Tetracarpidium conophorum , African walnut belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae.

In Nigeria, the western part of Nigeria the African Walnuts is known as ausa or asala while in the southern part its called ukpa and in the northern part gyada.

A study by the British Journal of Nutrition found that those who consumed nuts more than four times a week reduced their risk of coronary heart disease by as much as 37 per cent Like all nuts, walnuts contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, but they are also a good source of the essential omega-3 fatty acids.

They also contain iron, selenium, calcium, zinc, vitamin E and vitamin B, which help the body maintain an optimum nutritional level.

Counted among the healthiest plants in the world, the possible health benefits of walnuts may in-

clude boosting the cardiovascular system and bone health, reducing the risk of gallbladder disease, and treating epilepsy.

Walnuts are available both raw or roasted, boiled and salted or unsalted. Some people may be very allergic to them.

However, the Journal of Nutrition reports that consumption of walnuts may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and that walnut oil provides more favourable benefits to endothelial function, which is the lining of the inside of our blood and lymphatic vessels.

There has also been research into whole walnuts and how they can improve cholesterol levels and markers for inflammation, which is also connected to a reduced risk of heart disease.

WHO to donate 31mn doses of yellow fever vaccines to Nigeria

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he World Health Organisation (WHO) has pledged to donate 12 million doses of Yellow fever vaccines in 2018 and 19 million in 2019 to support Nigeria’s campaign against the disease.

Charity Warigon, communications officer WHO, said in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday that the intervention would be carried out with the support of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance. “it would ensure all persons aged nine months to 45 years were vaccinated during the ongoing yellow fever campaign in Danja Local Government Area of Katsina State,” said Warigon.

She said the campaign, which was being carried out by the federal government with the support of the organisation, would run from August 9 to August 18 in the state.

According to Warigon, the campaign will protect at least 154,131 people from the disease.

She said that WHO’s support to Nigeria was aimed at complementing governments plan to eliminate the disease by 2026 as guided by the Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) strategy launched by the organisation in April.

She noted that the country has since September 2017 been experiencing outbreak of yellow fever

with confirmed cases reported in 22 local government areas across 11 states.

Warigon said from the onset of the outbreak, 2,400 suspected yellow fever cases including 47 deaths have been reported by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

“The campaign in Katsina is a reactive vaccination in response to confirmed yellow fever cases. WHO is committed to continuing this effort and supporting Nigeria to better protect its population against this disease and ensure better health and well-being.

“With one single injection, we can provide lifelong immunity against this disease at a cost of approximately one United States Dollar.

“Ensuring availability of adequate vaccine supply to reach all those at risk is a constant challenge; with the support of GAVI, however, WHO has pledged a donation of 12 million doses of yellow fever vaccines in 2018 and 19 million in 2019 to Nigeria.

“The assistance from WHO will ensure that all persons aged nine months to 45 years will be vaccinated during the ongoing campaign, bringing the overall number of states where the vaccination drive has been implemented to 10,” she said.

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‘Nigeria needs to address remuneration, work issues to prevent doctors’ migration’ Francis Faduyile is the president of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Faduyile tells OBOKOH ANTHONIA in this interview what Nigeria can do to deepen its universal health coverage and how the country can stop the high migration rate of doctors. Excerpts:

H

ow can you describe Nigeria’s health sector?

The Nigeria health sector is still in a terrible state, the country lacks political will to commit to developing sector. Nigeria has weak healthcare structures and the workers are disoriented. There is disorderliness in the sector, which all boils down to an inability to have a framework or guideline that monitors each of the various health bodies within the system in the country. The Federal Government must be able to do what is needful including increasing the budgetary allocation to health sector and also make sure that the country pursues the universal health coverage act judiciously.

As the new president of NMA, what are your prospects for the sector and the association?

As the president of the Nigerian Medical Association, my goal is to bring back sanity into the system. We want to see how all professionals can work as a team and in close ranks to move the sector forward. However, we are going to call other workers within the health system for us to sit down and chat a way forward for the sector.

We are as well going to see that the hospitals are working and to develop our activities to make sure that things are done normally in the hospitals across the country. Also, we want to see that the welfare of our doctors is taking care off, ensure proper training and remuneration in the system. These are the things that NMA wants to achieve in the health of Nigeria.

How can health insurance penetration be deepened to meet universal health coverage standard?

There are two things I think can be done. The government needs to show more interest in the national health insurance scheme.

Firstly, the national health act says that one per cent of consolidated revenue fund should be put into the national health act in which 50 per cent will go into national health insurance scheme and the other 50 per cent will go for primary health care development.

Today, the enrolee’s are so few, and it is just about Federal Governments staffs alone, we do not have other members.

The national health insurance

HBL Team

the amount budgeted for health in Nigeria.

Faduyile

scheme needs enough funding as well as more enrolees. Once this is done, I am sure that the national health insurance will help advance in achieving the universal health coverage.

However, apart from these, we know that health is in the concurrent list; and we expect all the state governments to have their own individual health insurance scheme. For example, Lagos state is having one, Delta has come and by the time we have more of these states having their own health insurance, it will also help in achieving universal health coverage. There is also a need to deepen the health coverage of enrolees. We want to invite private facilitations in such a way that it is truly deregulated. Then it means that these private institutions can have their own enrolees that they can now take care of health of people where ever they are. If the Federal Government, state government and the private sector gets involved, it will help in achieving the universal health coverage.

On the recent approval of one percent consolidated revenue, it is one of the greatest things that happened in the health sector and it will help strengthen the system. Once the fund are allocated to the key bodies, we now see that we have money, then the necessary equipment, machineries and drugs in the hospitals will be purchased and we can treat people and these will have a lot of benefit to Nigerians. So, I believe the one per

cent is a welcome development, it is one of the best things that have happened to Nigeria in recent past.

Secondly, to deepen health insurance in Nigeria, the key problems of the sector is at the level of the primary healthcare centres where about 70 per cent of Nigerians lives and there is a need for the government to hasten up their plans for the centre. We know the primary healthcare centres as the first point of contact for health care, which is into a lot of prevention of many of the disease stage that will cause more complications at the secondary as well as the tertiary institution.

However, on the side of the budgetary allocation, it is sad that the percentage amount allocated to health in this year’s budget 2018 is abysmally low which is about 3.5 per cent whereas we expect that we have nothing less than 15per cent and once you do not have enough funding for health, you see a lot of buildings that are dilapidated, a lot of things that are totally in the state of disrepair. All these things are what the money is expected to take care of and if we do not have this machinery in place, we will not have the optimal management that is needed to take care of patients. For instance, the issue of care for cancer patients.

It is difficult because today the government has no policy on the care of cancer patient. So we want the government to do everything possible to increase

What is your perspective on the doctor to patient ratio in Nigeria?

Well, we expected that we have a doctor to patient’s ratio of maybe 1-500,000 thousand but what we are having is abysmally low, maybe 1- 2million or 1- 2.5million and the doctor patient ratio is terrible.

However, most of the few doctors that are graduating are getting out of this country because we do not have placement of doctors and we do not have good working setting. We also have issues with our working place and it is really sad. Despite the fact that Nigeria is training medical profession to the barest minimum, many of our graduates are leaving to other developed countries. These fresh graduates leaving the country believe they will be better appreciated in other countries and better remunerated out there. So the doctor’s - patient’s ratio is terribly low and we have a lot to do in this regard. This is one of the reasons why we have a lot of characters as in quacks within the medical profession and a lot of Nigerians are dying in the hands of these quacks.

The country need to find a way to regain the doctors, because the list of doctors that are leaving keeps increasing and are highly skilled. The government needs to create spaces so we can take care of our people and also needs to improve in health institutions so that it can take more specialists who can also train doctors.

What are the main challenges in getting more doctors to stay back in Nigeria?

The challenges are numerous, but we are more concern with the work environment, placement of employment as well as appreciation, even though the economy situation is terrible.

One of the major things that start the frustration of these very young doctors is that immediately they finish medical school, they do not have placement to do house job.

Some of these doctors upward of six months, one year are still looking for house job placement and some close to two years. Many of them are unemployed or under employed and it is because we do not have spaces for house jobs.

Also, many of them are frustrated, they struggle to write examination to become specialists, the amount spent on exam is very expensive and the success rate is very poor and even if you pass, you may not have placement.

All these things are things that are militating against doctors wanting to stay. Meanwhile, they go for class and for USLMA ,they pass the exams, they get placement and starts work almost immediately and this are some of the things making doctors to leave, we need improve our work environment , we need to improve funding so that the doctors can remain in the country.

Most doctors will work for say five years before they can buy things that can make their life successful. We have many similar doctors who cannot afford to have vehicle or not to talk of paying a house rent at a good place and they know that if they transit to other places, they will be better off within a very short period of time.

So the challenges of poor remuneration, work environment and the need to improve the spaces for activities so we can have more spaces to get our doctors and also improve the economy status of the country, all these things will comminute to make doctors to stay.

Finally, on the side of doctors, we need to do a lot orientation to let them see that the government has spent a huge amount on them to train as doctors and they need to give back to the society.

With public official constantly going aboard for medical care, is there hope that the situation will get better in Nigeria?

The country is paying lip service with health; it cannot get better once the sector is not well funded. The country is yet to agree with the Abuja declaration, which says that at least 15 per cent must be budgeted for health from the annual budget.

It was just once in 2001 that Nigeria had gone beyond 5 per cent. These are some of the things militating against us being able to create a better health care system for Nigeria. Nigerian doctors are doing well, we have some Nigerian doctors who have some private clinics and they are doing very well.

In fulfilment to better Nigeria’s healthcare, all hands must continue to be on the deck.

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

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Harvard Business Review

Friday 17 August 2018

ManagementDigest

The marketing message that works with republicans but not democrats David Dubois

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uxury goods are instrumental to status signaling; we hope that people will recognize the insignia on a suitcase, or the stitching on a pair of jeans, and see us in a certain way.

For the $262 billion luxury market, tapping into consumers’ fundamental need for respect or admiration is a powerful tool. It’s no accident that Audi invites you to “update your status” by buying one of its cars. Or that Aston Martin promises to bring “value to your life.” Other luxury brands encourage you to consider status as an asset and speak to your desire to maintain it. Rolex reminds you, for instance, that “class is forever.”

For hundreds of years, the luxury, fashion and high-end industries have used these techniques. Since political views are also shaped by our assumptions about hierarchies, we wondered whether these two things — political beliefs and a preference for luxury goods — go together.

To explore this, we conducted research around a simple but critical question: Does political ideology affect the preference for luxury goods, and if so, how?

According to our findings, just published in the Journal of Marketing, political allegiances systematically predict consumers’ desire for luxury consumption, particularly among conservatives. We attribute this to conservatives’ greater desire to preserve socioeconomic order and maintain existing social hierarchies.

Across a range of studies, including analyses of data drawn from thousands of car buyers, we found that conservative shoppers are more likely to buy luxury goods when they believe the purchase will help them preserve, but not necessarily advance, their own status.

In other words, conservatives don’t buy the Rolex or the Patek Philippe to advance their

social standing, but rather out of a strong desire to maintain or conserve it.

STUDYING REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS We first aimed to establish a baseline link between political orientation and a greater or lesser desire for luxury goods.

We sifted through actual car purchase data from 21,999 buyers in 50 states between October 2011 and September 2012. In addition to the car brand and model purchased, the data included car buyers’ political beliefs. (In this study, participants were asked to reveal their party identification; we limited our sample to people who chose either Republican or Democrat, and excluded people who chose Libertarian, Independent, and so on. In other studies, we used established surveys for assessing a liberal or conservative orientation.) Finally, we also had information on their social status, which we measured as a joint product of income and education.

Our analyses revealed a strong difference among high- but not among low-status consumers.

Republicans with high social status were 9.8% more likely than high-status Democrats to buy a luxury car. Put differently, while high-status Democrats spent $29,022 on average on their car, their similarly wealthy Republican counterparts spent $33,216.

For luxury car sellers, that meant a median difference of a 14.45% increase in sales to conservative customers.

Working on the assumption that most people purchase luxury items to signal their social status to others, we further explored the difference between Republicans and Democrats. We wondered whether different political ideologies would unequally activate two distinct goals tied to the pursuit of status: the desire to maintain one’s status and the desire to advance one’s social standing vis-à-vis others. We predicted that because of conservatives’ proclivity to maintian the status quo, they would desire luxury goods more when seeking status maintenance, but not status advancement. This would also explain why, among highstatus consumers, Republicans purchased more luxury cars than Democrats.

To test this possibility, we randomly showed 403 participants (on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk survey platform) one of three advertisements for the same eyewear product, presented as part of an online survey. The first ad careful avoided any statusrelated association: “Eyewear for everyone.” The second was a call to maintain social status: “Keep your status with status.”

The third was an imperative to advance social standing: Update your status with status.(A pretest confirmed that each of these ads successfully activated the target status goal.)

Consistent with past work, across all participants the willingness to pay for the eyewear in the ad was greater in the status maintenance and the status ad-

vancement groups than with the non-status positioning. Novel to our work, and unique to this group of Republicans, these consumers were much more drawn to the product emphasizing status maintenance than the one emphasizing status advancement, or the one lacking status focus.

Building on these findings, we then asked another 300 participants how much they would be willing to pay for a set of luxury headphones, after identifying their political ideology and momentarily activating status maintenance or status advancement impulses through a short writing task.

After the status maintenance response was activated, consumers who identified as strong conservatives were willing to pay, on average, $109.80 for the headphones. By comparison, the desire for the headphones was 83% lower after the status advancement response was activated among consumers with strong conservative beliefs, amounting to a willingness to pay of $59.90. As another comparison, consumers’ willingness to pay among consumers with weak conservative beliefs (that is, leaning strongly Democratic), was just $65.10 — a stark difference of 65%, compared with the Republicans’ average of $109.80.

In other words, the dominant political ideology of the target market systematically affected consumers’ desire for luxury products, with consumers of strong conservative beliefs being much more responsive to luxury when their status-maintenance (but not status-advancement) goal had been activated.

IMPLICATIONS FOR LUXURY BRAND MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION These findings have implications for luxury brand management. Establishing a causal link between political ideology, status goals, and purchasing habits yields untapped opportunities to target, segment and market luxury goods and services to novel

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

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types of consumer groups.

Our work not only sheds light on why conservatives might be more inclined to buy the watch, the sunglasses, the car, or even the condo, but also will help luxury brands to identify the channels, the positioning and the messages to nudge these consumers more effectively along the customer journey.

Indeed, the political affiliation of a target group can easily be determined along geographical lines. We all know that Texas is more conservative than, say, Massachusetts, but brands can now go to a much more granular level in their segmentation strategies. There is a lot of finegrained data readily accessible that enables brands to segment based on political ideology in databases from Gallup, Pew Research Center and politicalmaps.org, among others.

In addition, marketers should pay attention to cues in the political or economic environment that might increase the desire to preserve status, particularly among conservative audiences.

External shocks like economic turbulence can also produce a surge in interest for conspicuous consumption, in particular beauty and appearance products — a phenomenon referred to as the lipstick effect. These findings suggest that the lipstick effect may be stronger among Republicans than Democrats.

In reality, connecting political ideology and the desire for luxury goods makes perfect sense — politics and the desire for status are both historical drivers of social stratification.

David Dubois is an assistant professor at INSEAD. Jeehye Christine Kim is an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Brian Park is an assistant professor of managerial sciences at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 17 August 2018

23

CityFile

Saraki donates transformer to Ilorin community SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin

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resident of the Senate, Bukola Saraki has donated a 500 by 11KVA transformer to Adanna community in Ajikobi ward in Ilorin West local government area of Kwara State.

The residents of the community had been plunged into total darkness for over 11 months when the transformer supplying electricity to the densely populated area packed up.

Saraki had about a month ago during a sympathy visit to victims of a devastating flood disaster in Abata- Asunkere- OdeAdanna area of Ilorin metropolis, upon request by the community, pledged to donate a new transformer to the community in order to improve the socio- economic life of the residents of the area.

The senate president equally funded the installation of the transformer which has more carrying capacity than the previous.

Musa Abdullahi, the director-general of the ABS Mandate Constituency Office, handed over the transformer to the representatives of the community at a brief ceremony at the constituency office complex in Ilorin.

Abdullahi said the presentation was in fulfillment of the pledge made

by Saraki, when he visited

Abata- Asunkere to commiserate with the flood victims.

“It would be recalled that during the sympathy visit to the flood victims in Abata- Asunkere and OdeAdanna community by the senate president, residents of the community sought his assistance on the provision of a new transformer for their community.

“In response to their request, the senate president mandated his constituency office to procure and install 500 by 11KVA transformer as a matter of urgency. It is on this note that I have the singular honour and privilege to present the transformer to Ode Adanna community. Our leader has also directed us to foot the bill for the installation of the transformer.”

Responding, Mashood Yakub, the Imam of Ode Adanna expressed joy over the donation of the transformer to their community just as he recalled the ordeal of been in total darkness for more than 11 months.

“We thank the senate president for fulfilling his promise not only by giving us a transformer but also installing it.”

Musa Alawuyan, the secretary of Ode Adanna community development association, also hailed Saraki “for fulfilling his pledge to the community in less than a month.”

Police nabbed 20 suspected bandits, recover arms

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he police in Zamfara State have captured 20 suspected bandits and recovered seven AK 47 rifles.

Kenneth Ebrimson, Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, said the suspects were captured by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) special tactical squad in collaboration with the command at various locations in the state.

Zamfara in Nigeria’s northwest, has turned to a hot spot in recent times because of the activities of bandits, who have been killing villagers and rustling cows.

“We will not disclose the locations where the bandits were arrested and their names and how the arms were recovered, due

to security reasons.

“But based on the measures put in place, we are hoping to record more success in subsequent days. As we all know, the IGP Special Tactical Squad in collaboration with the state police command embarked on intelligenceled coordination and bush combing.

“The operation is still ongoing. What we recorded today is part of its achievements,” he said.

According to him, the command has introduced patrol operations to reduce fear, rumour and apprehension in communities in the state. He advised residents to always give information to security operatives to help the operatives to tackle security challenges. NAN

A complete blockage inward Ijora-Apapa bridge, leading to commuters stranded for hours on the bridge on daily basis, as government

Pic by Olawale Amoo remain clueless on problem.

Ambode, others seek joint efforts to tackle insecurity ... harp on community policing

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overnor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has called for joint efforts in tackling insecurity, especially at grassroots.

Ambode made the call at a security round-table organised by the Yoruba Koya Movement in Lagos, Tuesday, with theme: “Protecting Yoruba land: Migrant incursion and threat topeace and security of Lagos State”.

The governor was represented by Kunle Ajanaku, his special adviser on security and intelligence. He said there was the need to close rank with law enforcement agencies, traditional institutions and religious bodies in policing the neighbourhood.

“The state government

has taken certain classified actions to insulate residents from any unforeseen situation.” He listed the actions to include liaison with the immigration service and other security agencies to monitor and profile the various cluster of settlers across the state.

“The immigration service at the moment has embarked on massive sensitisation for those with genuine documents to come forward for documentation.

“As a government, we need to enhance collective vigilance at the grassroots, using our security platforms, law enforcement agencies in conjunction with traditional institutions and religious bodies to police our neighbourhood closely. “

He assured that the state government would continue to strengthen the police and other law enforcement agencies by developing their capacity to enable them respond adequately to emergencies.

“Our security team in Lagos is also working with the security team of the south-west, established by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, to ensure security is at its top notch.”

Also speaking, Gani Adams, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, identified state policing, restructuring and running true federalism as some of the solutions to insecurity in the country.

Adam was represented

by Yinka Oguntimeyin,

National Secretary, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC).

Adams said that the group would continue to work with state governments and security agencies to ensure safety of lives and property.

“As an organisation, we have always provided state policing in the south-west.

“There is hardly any street in Yoruba land where you will not see our OPC members who believe strongly in the entrenchment of democracy and the propagation of Yoruba culture and values.

“With the proper synergy within the various groups we have in the south-west, movements like Yoruba Koya and others can ascertain the safety of lives and property in the south-west,” he said.

Babies now to enroll in National Identity Database, says NIMC

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bubakar Hassan, Kaduna State coordinator of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), says infants are now eligible for enrollment into National Identity Management System.

Hassan disclosed this during an awareness and sensitisation campaign on the benefits of National Identification Number (NIN) and National Identity Management System (NIMS) held in Kaduna.

The campaign was organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA)

in collaboration with NIMC. Although the NIN is mandatory for all citizens and legal residents of Nigeria, children before now, were not eligible to enroll into the system.

Hassan, however, confirmed that after a review of the policy, a day old baby can now be enrolled, and enjoined Nigerians to enroll into the NIN where “every registered person will be given a unique number which only he or she can use as means of identification.’’

He explained that the

new national identity card was an upgrade of the former card with facilities which enabled users load and withdraw money as well as perform other business transactions.

According to him, the system has room for modifications that allowed an enrollee change or update his or her data. “In a situation where a person loses his national identification slip which contains the NIN, one can retrieve the number by dialing *346#.”

Zubair Galadima-Soba, NOA state coordinator, said incidences of illegal

migrants who engaged in criminal acts necessitated Federal Government’s resolve to enroll her citizens and legal residents into NIN. “The registration will confirm the legitimacy and authenticity of your citizenship which will help the government to effectively plan developmental project that would be all inclusive,” he said.

The campaign witnessed a large turn of people including traditional rulers, religious leaders, security agencies, women associations, youths and other relevant stakeholders.

24

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 17 August 2018

AgriBusinessInsight Market Insights

Analysis

Commentaries

Experts/Industry Views

Commodities watch

Policy Reviews

Send in Commentaries to caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com

Tomato farmers lament N10 bn losses CALEB OJEWALE Twiiter: @calebtinolu

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omato farmers in the country are once again, complaining of huge losses (to the tune of N10 billion) as the commodity continues to perish in large volumes, without them being able to sell off or get them preserved. This is the second time the complaint will be made this year, as farmers allege sabotage by some entities that continue importation of tomato pastes into the country, without recourse to government’s policy on it.

This season alone, Abdulahi Ringim, national president, Tomato Growers Association Of Nigeria (TOGAN), said “members have lost N10 Billion due to poor market and lack of guaranteed off takers. The Open market cannot mop all the harvest.

Ringim further said that “Dangote Tomato Processing Company and Savannah Integrated Farm Limited who have offtake arrangements with farmers have remained handicapped, unable to produce and their factories shut down as these packers of triple concentrate in country rely heavily on importation at the detriment of Nigeria Farmers

and Industries.

“These Indigenous factories whom off-take tomatoes from farmers have shut down because of lack of buyers of their concentrate. These packers would rather import from China and other countries without duty or smuggle them through Republic of Benin,” he said.

The Federal Government’s policy on tomato which was released last year, stopped importation of tomato paste, powder or concentrate put up for retail sale, importation of tomatoes preserved otherwise by vinegar or acetic acid. It increased tariff on tomato concentrate to 50 percent with an additional levy of $1,500/metric tonne.

It also restricted importa-

tion of tomato concentrate to the seaports, to address the abuse of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).

However, tomato farmers are alleging that the Nigerian Customs Service has failed to enforce the policy, a claim BusinessDay is yet to independently verify. This according to the farmers has made it difficult for tomato processors in the country to be competitive, hence, their factories being redundant most of the time.

Nigeria’s tomato production which stands at 1.5 million metric tonnes, records post harvest losses and wastage of 40 percent, valued at N72 billion annually, between farm and market, according to BusinessDay estimates. The losses imply that

Nigeria only has 800,000 metric tonnes of tomato out of a 2.2 million metric tonne demand, at least according to data contained in the Agriculture Promotion Policy for 2016 to 2020.

If the situation does not improve, the farmers say government has a 40 day ultimatum, for its relevant Ministries & Agencies to act or witness a mass protest

by Tomato Farmers with Trailer Loads of Rotten Harvest to the Nigerian Senate, Customs Service, NAFDAC, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Finance.

Whether or not the threat will be carried out or taken for a joke remains to be seen, but as it stands, the losses in tomato production appear to be getting out of hand.

Agribusinesses to showcase ideas for funding from potential investors

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frican fertilizer and agribusiness projects seeking finance for their projects, can get an opportunity to showcase their ideas to investors next month, during an event in South Africa where fund seekers will be connected with potential investors.

CRU Events and the Afr ican Fer tilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) have announced that they are working with partners across Africa to offer brownfield projects seeking capital investment, the chance to make a showcase presentation to an audience of global investors and financiers.

This opportunity to raise finance, named the “Investment Showcase” will take place at the CRU Africa Fertilizer Agribusiness 2018 Conference. The conference, now in its 4th edition, will be held 24-26 September 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The event typically attracts more than 400 senior fertilizer executives and agribusiness stakeholders from across

What can Nigeria learn from the Netherlands? (2)

the global fertilizer and agribusiness supply chain.

Tom Willatt, portfolio director for Fertilizer Events at CRU said, “Through our unique partnership with AFAP, the conference provides unr ivalled networking opportunities with senior decision-makers from the biggest fertilizer buyers and manufacturers in some of the world’s fastest growing fertilizer markets. The event has gone from strength to strength, and CRU and AFAP are both delighted to be able to build on the success of the event by creating the opportunity for brownfield projects in Africa. This is to meet with and present to the investment community,

and increase their chance of securing funding.”

Qualified and categorised projects will be selected that are seeking investment of over US$1m in brownfield projects, and are focused on fertilizer, agri-inputs supply chain, agriculture, agro-processing and/or value addition sectors.

Projects will be selected on the strength of the proposal, with the intention to provide a diverse geographic range, and representation from across the fertilizer and agribusiness supply chain. Investors that attend the showcase will be provided with a full package of information, and will have the opportunity to meet and discuss with the project leaders seeking finance.

A statement by the organisers indicated submission forms need to be completed and returned by 25 August 2018. To request a copy of the submission form or to nominate a project, those interested are to email their name, project and a brief description of why they feel it is appropriate for a showcase position to Tom Willatt, through Tom.Willatt@ CRUGroup.com The CRU Africa Fertilizer Agribusiness 2018 Conference, according to organisers, is a comprehensive threeday event, centred on how partnership, investment and innovation can boost fertilizer trade and allow agribusiness to flourish in the African region.

It promises to deliver a firsthand understanding of the challenges and opportunities, and offers unrivalled access to high-level, hard-to-reach decision-makers, to facilitate business opportunities for delegates. Fur ther information can be found on the event website at; www.

AfricaFertilizerConference. com

n 1986, Flevoland became the newest province in the Netherlands.

Covering an area of 1,419 square kilometres, it is described as the largest land reclamation project in the world. To put this in context, Lagos state is 3,577 square kilometres, which makes Flevoland approximately 40 percent of Lagos’ size. Yet, Flevoland was reclaimed from the ocean, in what was an astonishing effort.

Flevoland has become an important agricultural zone in the Netherlands, a stark contrast to what would have happened in Nigeria for instance, where such reclaimed land more likely would have served ‘highly sought after residential purposes’.

The lesson here for Nigeria is the determination by the Dutch to make agricultural land available ‘regardless of the cost’. In Nigeria, where land is available in abundance, like most parts of Africa, land fragmentation remains a challenge. Worse still, laws on land usage remain a source of challenge for those requiring substantial acreage of land for cultivation.

A n o t h e r at t r i b ut e , which has contributed in no small measure to the Dutch success story, is the power of farmers’ cooperatives, which has b e en underutilize d in Nigeria. Farmers’ groups in the Netherlands have mobilized themselves to get industries established (for processing and value addition). Research and training centres have also been set up, with mandates of solving problems for farmers.

The importance of agricultural cooperatives simply cannot be ignored.

FrieslandCampina, which is one of the world’s largest dairy companies has a cooperative tradition stretching back more than 140 years. Via Zuivelcoöperatie FrieslandCampina U.A. the member dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium own 100 percent of Royal FrieslandCampina N.V. All member dairy farmers are independent entrepreneurs. Their expertise and professionalism helps FrieslandCampina guarantee quality, safety and sustainability. On behalf of its member dairy farmers, FrieslandCampina strives for sustainable growth and value creation.

Jos Bijman, in a paper on Agricultural Cooperatives in the Netherlands:

Key Success Factors, noted that while the number of farmers has gradually declined over the last 50 years, agricultural production has remained stable.

In 2015 only 60,000 farmers remained, while the total added value generated by agriculture, food processing and distribution continues to be 50 billion euro. Cooperatives take responsibility for a major share of this added value.

In Nigeria however, with millions of farmers, the power in these numbers is yet to be harnessed to drive agricultural growth to meet the country’s food security and economic empowerment needs.

Furthermore, the Wageningen University & Research, reputed as perhaps the best agriculture university in the world, has achieved this feat essentially on account of its active collaboration with farmers and agribusinesses in the Netherlands. The University has become a willing partner in developing solutions to advance agriculture in the country. More importantly, its research outputs have not ended as mere academic exercises. They have been applied for agricultural growth and industrial processes in value addition and processing; contributing to make the country’s agricultural output, what it is now known to be.

Nigeria’s agricultural research institutes and universities have however continued to lag. Most of the output from these centres, even when they could have been useful, have so far remained more of academic exercises with no visible practical applications.

In summary, access to agricultural land needs to be made a lot easier, with government creating the enabling environment for private sector to invest and thrive. Also, the several agricultural research institutes, universities of agriculture, and others with capacity to innovate solutions to Nigeria’s agricultural problems. They need to start working with farmers to achieve real, practical solutions that will not end as theoretical, academic expeditions.

Lastly, agricultural cooperatives need to take the lead in becoming a force to drive growth; relying less on government and, collectively harnessing the power of these farmers to drive productivity, and industrial processing.

BUSINESS DAY

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Hotels Gradually, local cuisines make their way to menu list ...as Southern Sun Ikoyi unveils ethnic nights Stories by OBINNA EMELIKE

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keptics who think that the more indigenous Nigerian cuisines cannot make the menu list of international branded hotels as continental and oriental cuisines have done over the years, only need to visit the main restaurant of Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotel on Saturdays for a change of mind.

If you were at the main restaurant of the Tsogo Sun branded hotel over the weekend, you will marvel at the variety and presentation of authentic Nigerian cuisines on parade at the Ethnic Saturday Night, a campaign, which hopes to discover and present many exciting and rarely eaten local cuisines from across different regions, sub-regions and dialects in Nigeria to the hotel’s guests.

The maiden edition of the Ethnic Saturday Night featured cuisines from the Igbo region and sub-regions amid matching presentations, complementary wine, cultural paraphernalia and performances.

Top on the menu list are delicacies such as; ‘ukwa’ breadfruit, ‘abacha’ local salad, ‘akidi’ local beans, ‘ugba’ salad made from African oil bean, roasted yam, cocoyam, nkwobi among others. As well, the soups on the menu ranged from the usual egusi, oha and bitter leaf to the very authentic achara soup, ofe

nsala, ofe ukazi and the very expensive ofe Owerri.

The ethnic night attracted high profile guests, especially from the Igbo extraction including former governors, top business executives and some families.

Of course, it witnessed some foreigners trying out some of the more local cuisines other than the usual pepper soup and egusi delicacy.

Among them were some Koreans who feasted on ‘abacha’; local salad made from cassava. The Koreans enjoyed the meal probably because of the presentation and its semblance of noodles.

On another table, some Kenyans were attacking ‘nkwobi’, a meat base delicacy, as if it was Nyama Choma, a popular delicacy in Nairobi.

Beyond the Koreans and Kenyans, Akadike Ugwu, a business executive, con-

fessed that he enjoyed ‘akidi’, a local beans cuisine, which he recalled eating last about 15 years when he visited his grandmother in the village.

“It is not only animals that are going into extinction, some plants and cuisines are also disappearing. You can hardly get ‘akidi’,’ usu’, some species of cocoyam, utazi and some rare species of vegetable in the market today. I am glad that Southern Sun is bringing the rare food back to the dining table”, Ugwu, who wondered where the hotel sourced the local ingredients, said.

Speaking on the rationale for the Ethnic Saturday Night, Alex Mwuara, executive chef of the hotel, noted that his team of culinary professionals wanted to showcase some top indigenous Igbo cuisines to people who are not from the

region and also to satisfy the cravings of people who want indigenous and authentic food.

“We are looking at bringing regional cuisines to the people, and we are doing it home style. We have started with the Igbo food menu.

Consequently, we are going to have Yoruba Night, Calabar Night, South South Night and Northerners Night”, the Kenyan-born chef explained.

On the choice of cuisines that made the menu list, the chef explained, “We have a lot of them to choose from.

But from the food perspective of it, we looked out for what each meal contains and how it is prepared. To balance the buffet, we chose meals that do not look alike.

Then, we went down to the sub regions, we picked two soups from each sub region so that every guest will have something to try and enjoy at the end of the day”.

The executive chef, who has been in the hotel since its inception, is impressed with the turnout of guests despite minimal awareness of the offering, saying, “We created limited awareness for the themed night because we did not want to be overwhelmed.

But we are impressed with what we have today in terms of patronage.

We are also looking at the big number. Currently, we are doing an average of 250 covers on Sundays. So, we are looking forward to doing an average of 150-200 guests every Saturday for the themed night”.

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Tel: 01 277 3560

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Tel: +234 9 4603900, +234 805 7522500

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

Beyond night rest, security matters in choice of accommodation this summer

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hile travelling for both business and leisure purposes this summer, one should be mindful of security especially in the hotels, the temporary abode of visitors.

Access to your hotel room by strangers, and protection of your belongings, are the basic issues of hotel security.

This is where the question of electronic door locks and key control comes into play.

It is a virtual certainty that people unknown to you such as the cleaning staff will enter your room when you are not present, and the door will be left open for a period of time each day. Hence, your safety matters.

Despite elaborate security procedures in place to control who is issued a key by some well-managed hotels, as a guest, you should make sure they are working and take further precaution.

Some hotels can monitor when and with which key a room is entered, and there are usually regulations about staff room cleaning proce-

dures to thwart intruders. Out of the way hotels in foreign countries, and hotels in less developed countries, often do not have secure door locks.

In some cases, the hotel staff may actually target you and your belongings. Your level of security awareness and the precautions you take must be adjusted for each city and area you visit, but there are standard minimal precautions that apply almost anywhere.

Here are some tips to protect yourself and your belongings in your hotel room when you travel: Do not leave valuables in your room when you are

absent. Use the hotel safe, and get a receipt for what you leave there. Professional thieves and hotel staffs are usually aware of every possible hiding place for valuables.

Some hotels provide a safe in each guest room for storing valuables. Be aware that there could be an insurance liability coverage issue if you use a guest room safe rather than using the main hotel safe (your credit card loss/ theft policy may not apply if you use the room safe). When you are in your room, lock the door, use the chain lock, and use your door peephole to identify people who knock at

your door. In countries where there may be no chain lock and no peephole, you should carry a good quality traveler’s door lock, a doorstop alarm that wedges against the base of the door, or a motion detector. Do not open the door for unexpected visitors. Call the front desk to verify that someone claiming to be making a service call is from the hotel.

Where a language barrier may complicate such a call, you should definitely carry your own interior door lock so that even someone with a key may be barred from entering when you are in the room. Some hotels and motels that do not have their own dining facilities allow food to be delivered to your room from outside the hotel. It is best to have such deliveries made to the lobby.

Delivery to your room allows an outsider to meet you, know your room number and determine whether you are alone. It is especially perilous for women traveling alone to have such details known by an outsider. Also, be careful about the leftovers you leave on a tray outside your door.

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

Protea Hotel (GRA Ikeja) GRA Ikeja

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

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

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Friday 17 August 2018

When mothers are truly at war Stories by OBINNA EMELIKE

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f you want to know what it means for mothers to be at war and not necessarily in a polygamous setting, then you need to visit the Imax Filmhouse in Lekki from today to see Moms at War, the latest movie project of Omoni Oboli.

The movie sees Omoni Oboli, the director, going head to head with Funke Akindele and nothing seems to stop them.

Beyond the war amid comedy, another reason to watch the movie is that it is written by Naz Onuzo, who also wrote world class movies such as; “Wedding Party 2”, “New Money”, “Arbitration” and “My Wife and I”.

The comedy movie sees Funke Akindele and Omoni Oboli slug it out on every front in a quest to better the lives of their children and claim superiority over the other.

From their residence, school, street, to pubs the war rages amid fun for the two mothers who live in the same neighbourhood but hated each other. While one felt that the other was a village girl

who just got into money and is not fit to be in society with them, the other thinks her so-called educated neighbour lives fake life.

Coincidentally their children attend the same school where a competition for further studies

Niniola lands 1mn listeners on Spotify

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iniola recently made history with over 1million listeners on Spotify, making her the first female Nigerian artiste ever to cross the 1million mark.

The AfroHouse singer released her debut album ‘This is me’ in November 2017 to critical acclaim and fan praises with Maradona leading the trend with over1.7 million streams on Spotify.

The music streaming platform, which measures artiste popularity with listenership,

Niniola

has solidified Niniola’s music as staple among music loverscrowning her with the coveted titleof the most popular Nigerian female artiste.

Niniola is a singer and songwriter with a vocal range that can break glass and has created a music genre for herself called AfroHouse- a blend of AfroBeat and House music.

Her debut album ‘This is me’ lists songs like Saro, Magun, Maradona and Sicker, which have been receiving a lot of airplay and topping charts.

was done for the students, and both were the top of their class.

It comes down to one of the children winning the competition and the mothers go crazy, employing all sorts of antics to outwit the other. It is a story of friendship,

sisterhood, and bonding in spite of everything.

B e yond Omoni O b oli and Funke Akindele, the new movie features stars such as Michelle Dede, Yul Edochie, Abayomi Alvin and Adebukola Oladipupo.

At an exclusive premiere held at Imax FilmHouse Lekki on August 12, 2018, Oboli commended the cast and crew for giving stellar performances in their various roles and especially Naz Onuzo for the beautiful crafting of the script.

She dedicated the movie to Nigerian mothers who against all odds, raise their families and responsible children who are impacting the society today.

Commenting on the movie, Moses Babatope, CEO of Film One, the distributors of the movie, said, “Having had many successful collaborations with Inkblot we were pleased to continue the partnership on Moms at War. “We have worked with Dioni Visions and Omoni Oboli for many years and are happy to announce our first collaboration with her.

Moms at War is the perfect film for women and everyone else as it cloaks in comedy the wars our mothers wittingly and unwittingly fight for us, everyday”, he said.

The movie, which is themed around humour, friendship, family and bonding, further takes viewers through fun-filled journey. It opens in cinemas today Friday August 17, 2018.

A bouquet of excitement from the stable of Atunda Entertainment

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lthough it started on a tentative note, 15 years down the line Atunda Entertainment has become a household name in the entertainment world and creative industry as it has remained focused on hunting and grooming young talents to stardom.

Founded by Wanle Akinboboye who is also the founder and president of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort and Motherland Beckons, with devotion to the Continent Building project of Motherland Beckons, it offers a veritable platform for talented Nigerian and African youths to be discovered, nurtured and equip before being exposed to the entertainment and creative industry.

What makes the outfit unique and commended by many is the fact that it provides such incentives as free locations for rehearsals, grooming, accommodation, feeding and monthly stipends, to all its protégées, as well as, recording facilities and exposure to a high network of people at its headquarters at La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Ikegun village, Lekki, Lagos.

A number of people have recently mistaken Atunda Entertainment for a recording label or music company, however, the company is a talent hunt and nurturing company, spending over N3 million

monthly in the development and upkeep of its wards as well as in promoting them to stardom.

But more importantly is the fact that Atunda Entertainment offers both nationally and internationally platforms for artistes under its tutelage to be actively engaged through live performances and in the process many of the artistes have hit it big and gained public acclaim.

One of the earliest Nigerian talents to have benefitted immensely from Atunda Entertainment is Ara (Wonder) otherwise known as Aralola Olumuyiwa. She is the first Nigerian female talking drummer and rose to both national and international stardom courtesy of the grooming she received from the group for over seven years.

But in 2007 she exited the group

following the expiration of her initial contract. However, the entertainment outfit has since then discovered and nurtured to public acclaim other notable young Nigerian artistes. The list include: Anu The Lady Ekwe, who is Nigeria’s first Ekwe (Igbo traditional percussion instrument) female player; Olo Omidan Bata, first Nigeria female bata player, Ara (Thunder), richly talented and versatile female talking drummer and Adigun Olohun Iyo, who is noted for his awesome vocal power.

These multi talented musicians have over time performed for presidents and heads of governments, international organisations like the African Union and multinational organisations all over the world.

They also have numbers of singles to their names.

Friday 17 August 2018

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BUSINESS DAY

27

Business Etiquette

with Janet Adetu

Film Review – LARA AND THE BEAT

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must commend the publicity and hype put into this new movie, they did create a lot of buzz and this made a lot of people anticipate this new movie “Lara and the Beat. It was a simple movie with a nice storyline, one of those movies with a lot of musical scenes. They did try to tell us how the Nigerian music industry works and how musicians get signed on to record labels. They did put out a good show by using real music artists in this movie and they all played their roles perfectly well, it was so nice to see Vector and Seyi Say act as a couple in this new movie, I enjoyed the movie and felt they did a good job.

The movie was directed by Tosin Coker, produced by Tolu Olusoga and written by Kay Jegede and Pearl Osibu, although we have had similar movies, there was something nice and unique about this one, I really can’t lay my hands on it, if it was the actors of this movie or the story, they did pay attention to details and the production was top notch. The actors did try to make the roles look as real as possible making it a nice movie to behold.

The cast, crew, choice of location, costumes, editing and script was really good.

Lara and the beat started by telling us the story of 2kids of a very wealthy family, who had just lost their parents and had to grow up and manage the family business. Lara was the elder of the two kids, but then she was the spoilt brat who wouldn’t want to work or get her fingers dirty, she could snap at anything and everything.

She wanted to build a musical career and was getting huge support from her parents, lara had all the designer shoes and bags, nice weaves and her clothes, it was never a dull moment with Lara as she always had something to complain about.

She had loads of friends who were there only for what they could get from her. She would invite her friends over to the house to drink and party. On the other hand her younger sister was known as Dara

Saying No!

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Cast: Somkele Iyamah-Idhalma, Ademola Adedoyin, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Saidi Balogun, Chioma Chukwuka, Shaffy Bello, Anne Icha, Uche Jumbo, Wale Ojo etc Director: Tosin Coker Producer: Biola Alabi, Temi Coker, Tosin Coker, Tolu Olusoga Written by: John-Arthur Ingram, Kay I. Jegede, Pearl Osibu Casting: 110mins Genre: Drama, Music & Romance Ratings: 12

was more responsible and calm, she wasn’t so interested in partying and have stocking loads of vain stuffs like her elder sister.

A few days to Lara extravagant party, the worse happens, the state comes to seize all their fathers wealth as a result of tax evasion, little did they know that their so called beloved uncle Tunde was trying to divert funds and bring the company down, their world came crumbling down and they lost it all, the houses, cars, affluence and the party was called off, and instead of Lara to think of how they would move forward she was more concerned about her designers bags.

The sad aspect of this incidence was that everyone turned their back on them, from her boyfriend, to her aunts and her dearly beloved friends, no one will take them in, till the case was resolved, they had to move in to their nanny’s house as the last and only hope. The honest truth was that she was so nice and caring to them all because of the love she

received from their parents when they were alive, she never even held anything against Lara who was so bitterly rude and nasty towards her. A simple nice story, you need to see how they fought hard to survive and it was nice to see them scale through.

To my verdict I score this movie a 6.5/ 10, the movie was nice, they had a very good production, costumes were on point, set, location and the cast tried their best, it was a simple nice story, but there was just something missing at the end, the knots didn’t quiet add, I felt something was missing at the end that would have made it a perfect story. For the lovers of music and romance, then you might want to try this out.

Feel free to review any movie of your choice in not more than 200 words, please send us a mail to linda@businessdayonline.com and stand a chance to win a free movie ticket.

Linda Ochugbua @lindaochugbua

hey say in life that it is important to get along with people every day, everywhere, every time.

“No man is an Island” we hear so often, meaning that we must endeavor to associate with others, create and maintain relationships. Given this way of life there is the challenge to please others no matter the cost. I guess in the corporate space the choices are limited you must please your boss, employees and colleagues. The office setting is where you are given duties which are influenced by your performance, equally tied to your appraisal, your promotion and your growth within the organization. At times you may be that individual who just likes to be simple and uncomplicated, you are considered respectful, easygoing and that “YES” person. Being a quiet person that introvert you may feel compelled to fit in and follow everything your peers do and say. Imagine you are sent an invite, you know you are tired but you feel bad about not attending, for the fear of being labelled anti-social. Has saying “No” been an easy or difficult task for you?

Growing up I have always been known to be a nice and simple person at times somewhat quite generous. I thought that saying No was rude, a little unbecoming and unfriendly.

At times it was a case of being the perfect people pleaser at my own detriment. Growing up I still felt that kindness and consideration was the way to be that brother and sister’s keeper.

Today I strongly feel that it is not about others but more about being yourself.

What are your values in life?

What makes you tick? What is right for you and what is wrong for you? Saying No should not gear up feelings of guilt, it should be justified without pride or prejudice. Saying No can be said in so many ways forcefully, aggressively, unwillingly, happily, regretfully, uncertainly and confidently. I have looked at my experiences and decided to write my etiquette strategies for saying “No” where it matters most. See what resonbates with you.

How should you say No when it really matters most.

Be Honest Today a lot of social functions are happening all over. The social life can be quite overwhelming with invites to weddings, birthdays, corporate events, funerals; launches you name it. At times there is the feeling that you must attend as

many events so that they can attend yours. You almost try to split yourself into two or four just to show your presence even when it means you can only barely spend 10 minutes before jumping off to the next event. If you know it is going to be very inconvenient, and awkward be sincere and honest with yourself. Let your No be genuine because you truly have to be somewhere else; in other words you are not available to be present. Better to say it now with an apology if necessary than not to say it at all or say it late.

Weigh it At times you have two obligations or more at the same time, same day and you are at loggerheads as to which event to attend. There is always an opportunity cost for every decision you make. Say No to the one that is less relevant to you depending on its importance.

What is in it for you? You will need to weigh your time, resources, your effort and your intellect. Without appearing rude

unless you have the ability to be at both places the clear answer is No. It may pay you to delegate and have a representative to attend on your behalf leaving you room to attend other important appointments.

Don’t Hold Back I found that some people delay saying No to a later date hoping that things may just change before the D-day. Say No now not later if you are clear that it may just be a challenge. Maybe your meeting will over shoot in time or the traffic to the venue has the potential to cause serious lateness or the distance is impossible for you to make it happen. It is easier to say No partially, meaning that you have a previously arranged event or appointment but might make it if you finish on time. Otherwise say it now that it looks like you will have to pass.

Thank You but No Thanks.

If you receive an invite and it requires an RSVP, once you are aware that you cannot attend the occasion, it is only polite to RSVP by thanking them for the invite and explaining briefly your unavailability. Always show that appreciation, so that

you will be valued when it comes to being invited again.

Refuse being Perpetual.

It may be a policy of yours to refuse to buy or pay for something like Aso-ebi. Be careful not to be known for your constant No’s as you will label yourself as one never to be invited again in the future. Remember there will always be a time you will need to invite others to celebrate with you too. Aso-ebi purchases are certainly not mandatory and is surely a personal choice, however at times you might opt for alternative options where available that are convenient, cheaper and more satisfactory.

In the same light you may say that you just do not go to events whether you are available or not. People do take note of this and may feel quite offended especially if you keep mute and disregard the host with no reason. It is a good way of driving friends away from you, when push comes to shove you may not see your nearest and dearest when it matters most.

Mean it.

Does your saying Yes really mean No? Does your No really mean saying Yes? In saying No, make up your mind fair and square, justify to yourself and stick to your decisions. Avoid any form of procrastination, say it once and don’t look back. Be confident in your choice and uphold your integrity.

Ask all the questions you need.

These are times when the information about an invite on the surface sounds great. When you look closer you see that it will involve travelling out of your locality amounting to some inconveniences. It is safe to ask as many questions before you make the final decision. If the invite requires your services there is the tendency to charge premium to net off all the logistical hitches that may occur. If it truly does not resonate with you all the way no harm in saying a big bold No. Once again be confident in the decision you make and stand by them.

Wishing you all the best of luck.

Janet.adetutu@jsketiquetteconsortium.com

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BUSINESS DAY

Friday 17 August 2018

FEATURE Nigeria’s Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri $200m rail project and its economic impact Upon taking over the mantle of leadership in 2015, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has demonstrated strong determination to rejuvenate the Nigeria’s erstwhile rail system, MIKE OCHONMA, BusinessDay’s transport editor and STELLA ENENCHE in Abuja takes a look at the on-going Itakpe- Ajaokuta-Warri $200m rail project

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ust last month, the federal government announced that the $200 million Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge rail line would be completed and opened to commercial activities by September 2018, which is a month away from now.

The 302-kilometre rail track is, arguably, the most prominent signature of rail transportation in Nigeria. In fact, it could best be described as the central economic belt of the country, owing largely to the huge solid mineral deposits within the axis, which connects states of Kogi, Edo and Delta.

The project was awarded to three construction firms - Julius Berger, China Civil Engineering construction Corporation (CCECC), and ZTE. In the new arrangement, 12 new stations were proposed between Itakpe and Warri, with two cited between Itakpe and Ajaokuta, while the remaining 10 stretch between Ajaokuta and Warri.

The rail track will extend to Lokoja and then Abuja. In that connection, the implication is that, it will travel through Warri in Delta State, to the FCT (Abuja) by rail.

The project has a total of 12 stations but the contractors are presently working on eight. The entire project is 302 kilometres, with rehabilitation on-going on 52kilometers, which is from Itakpe to Ajaokuta which involves changing the wooden sleepers to concrete sleepers ones.

Investigation has shown that the 34-year old project, upon completion, is expected to transport steel and other raw materials from Ajaokuta, as well as food items from the South to other parts of the country.

It is also hoped that when completed, all state capitals will be connected by rail, alongside agricultural and industrial clusters.

Expectedly, the project would further open up the areas to commercial activities, which were not possible due to the cost of moving goods from one place to the other, by other means of transportation.

With the over 18. 8 million unemployed and underemployed youths in the country, this ambitious project would not have come at a better time than now.

This is particularly with the promise of helping in closing the huge job gap in the country, thereby reducing the rate of crime and criminality currently ravaging many parts of the country like

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wild fire.

Furthermore, safety and affordability are some of the major critical factors to consider when sourcing for a means of transportation for either passengers or goods.

Authorities and other stakeholders say the Itakpe-AjaokutaWarri rail line would not only serve those purposes, but it will also reduce the pressure on the Nigerian roads thereby reducing cost of governance.

Interestingly, the project has received royal nod, as the Ohi Ihima of Ebira land , His Royal Highness, Ahmed Abdulraheem, who is elated by the huge economic impact of the project applauded government renewed commitment to it particularly as it will boost the economic activities in the state.

For the monarch, his community feel elated about the project because it will contribute immensely to the economic development, not only of this community, the state and country as a whole.

“As you know, this place passed through Ajaokuta; the hobnob of steel development of the country and we are sure, that the completion of this rail line will facilitate the completion of Ajaokuta steel

industry. This will ensure speedy progress of economic and welfare of the people not only of this country but Africa as a whole because somehow we are going to be the largest producers of steel and it will impact positively on the economy of the country.”

Ahmed Abdulraheem observed that, the challenges that stagnated the work is the frequent change of government and it appears that any government that comes in will feel it is not their business to continue from where the previous

Amaechi disclosed during the assessment tour, that the tracks were ready, noting, however, that only the stations were yet to be completed

government stopped and this is where the mistake came from.

“But by now I think that, there will be progress without hindrances from change of government or institutions of administrations of any kind and you will see that whenever we conceive of a project, we can continue with the deadline set so that whatever changes that occurs in between will not affect the progress of the project.”

During his recent inspection of the project, Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of transportation, maintained that, the rail line would be completed before the scheduled date.

Amaechi disclosed during the assessment tour, that the tracks were ready, noting, however, that only the stations were yet to be completed.

It is between 70 to 80 per cent completed and even though the project is meant to be completed in 2019, the Federal Government is compelling and pushing the contractors to work day and night to have it delivered this year.

In terms of time frame, the contractors are well ahead of schedule. It is meant to be com-

pleted in 2019 and what we are doing here is what we are doing in Lagos-Ibadan and that project is actually a three-year contract. But we are forcing them to complete it in one-year period.

Technically, with the level of work now, the train can run safely from Itakpe-Warri, but the next stage is to make the convenience for passengers available which is the stations building.

“It is possible to operate now with one train, as far as we have communication signals and for the stations, some will be completed in August, some September, but we are not going to wait for that or else the tracks will go bad, so as a train operator, we will not wait’’. So said Fidet Okhira, managing director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

Work is in progress on the Agenebode station, Itakpe, Eganyi, Ajaokuta, Itogbo, Uromi, IguebenEkhen, Igbanke and Agbor, which is the central station at the moment.

However, there are concerns that the progress of work is being affected by the rainy season, which may make the initial August delivery timeline not feasible.

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BUSINESS DAY

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Sports

With net worth of $220m, Alonso retires from F1

T Atletico squad worth more than Real Madrid Stories by Anthony Nlebem

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eal Madrid may still bring in much more revenue than Atletico Madrid, but Diego Simeone’s €858m squad for the 2018/19 season has a higher market value than Julen Lopetegui’s €775.7m squad.

Looking back over the past n i n e s e a s o n s, At l e t i c o hav e come a long way since 2010/11 when Quique Sanchez Flores’ squad was worth €205.8m, com-

pared to the €487m value of Jose Mourinho’s side.

In 2015/16 season, when the two Madrid teams met in the Champions League final, Real Madrid’s squad was worth much more, €761.6m vs €325.2m. But things have started to change.

Atletico have brought through valuable youth players, while they’ve also seen Antoine Griezmann become more and more of a hot property and have signed ready-made talents like Thomas Lemar or Diego Costa.

At the same time, Real Madrid have lost their main asset Cristiano Ronaldo, which means that this

year the Rojiblanco squad is worth €858m compared to the €775.7m of Los Blancos’.

The whole progression in squad market value is seen in the top row of graphic above, as is the club income per season - in the middle row - and the ratio of squad value to income - in the bottom row. For this study, Transfermarkt was used as the source for transfer market values of 22-man squads and the Deloitte Football Money League report was used to determine income, with constant prices - anchored to June 2018 - used.

As for the income data for 2018/19, this information is not yet published so values are based on a projection.

Remita Cup 2018: FCMB, First Bank, others make semi-finals

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he highly anticipated Remita Corporate Champions Cup 2018 (Remita Cup) finally kicked off on Sunday, August 12, 2018, with FCMB, Friesland Campina, Leadway Assurance and First Bank making it through to the semi-finals.

The Remita Cup is an annual football tourney for career professionals across various industries, sponsored by leading fintech firm and owners of Remita, SystemSpecs, to promote healthy living, work-life balance and networking among corporate organisations.

Setting the ball rolling at the Sports Pavilion in YabaTech, Lagos, were Friesland Campina, the producers of Peak Milk and 9Mobile, a leading telecoms service provider.

Friesland Campina defeated 9Mobile 2-1 to clinch the first semi-final ticket in the competition.

First Bank took a 4-2 victory against Unilever in a penalty shootout after a goalless draw in the first and second half, while Leadway Assurance mercilessly beat first time participants, Credit Direct 5-0. FCMB sent the defending Champions, IHS Towers packing, defeating them 1 goal to nil, to own the last semi-final

ticket.

Just as sounds of trumpets and drums from fans rented the air to support the corporate football champions, the fans were also thrilled with performance by top hip hop artiste, Reminisce. The Alaga Ibile had them on their feet with his major hit songs, Ponmile, Daddy Mi, Tesojue, Konsignment, and Problem.

Present at the event were the Managing Director of System-

Specs, John Obaro; the Remita Cup Tournament Ambassador, Peter Rufai; The Chief Operating Officer of MediaVision (organisers), Mr Jimi Sogbesan; the Executive Director, SystemSpecs, Mr. Deremi Atanda among others.

The semi-finals will hold on Sunday, August 19, 2018, at the same venue in YabaTech. FrieslandCampina will take on Leadway Assurance, while First Bank will battle FCMB.

he Spanish two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has announced he is to retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season.

At age 37, the McLaren’s Spanish driver F1 Racer is one of the richest with $220million net worth.

The McLaren driver will end a career that began with a debut for Minardi at the Australian Grand Prix of 2001.

Alonso is competing in his 17th F1 season, won the 2005 and 2006 championships when racing for Renault.

“After 17 wonderful years in this amazing sport it’s time for me to make a change and move on,” he said.

“I made this decision some months ago and it was a firm one.

There are still several grands prix to go this season, and I will take part in them with more commitment and passion than ever,” he added.

“Let’s see what the future brings; new exciting challenges are around

the corner. I’m having one of the happiest times ever in my life but I need to go on exploring new adventures.”

Alonso has in recent years branched out into other series and in June he won the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race at his first attempt.

He joined Toyota’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) programme this season with the aim of winning Le Mans, and has dovetailed it with F1.

In 2015, he earned $1.5 million from numerous endorsements. His contract with McLaren-Honda the same year got him a grand $36 million. Forbes estimated his 10-year earning amounted to a massive $289 million. He sits on #20 in the Forbes list of Highest Paid Athletes.

The 37-year-old roughly earns $30 million per annum on track and cashed $300,000 from his trip to Brickyard. In addition to his regular salary, he also earns bonuses from his wins.

He scored $29 million in 2014 from his salary plus winning bonuses.

In addition to that, Alonso has a massive car collection that consists of a Maserati and a Ferrari. He is also said to own an apartment in La Reve which is a 52-story complex in Dubai.

Fernando previously lived in Oxford before moving to his Swiss mansion.

After winning Euro-Open Movistar Series, in December 1999, Alonso had his first Formula One test in Jerez with Minardi, the team which gave him his Grand Pix debut. He became a test driver at Benetton in 2000.

He was the third youngest driver to start a Formula One race when he debuted at the Australian Grand Pix with Minardi.

France 2018: Spain beat Falconets to reach semi-finals

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pain booked their spot in the semi-finals of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018 after first-half goals from Aitana Bonmati and Patri Guijarro gave La Rojita a 2-1 victory over Nigeria’s Falconets in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

On an overcast afternoon at the Stade Guy-Piriou in Concarneau, it was Spain that made their early advantage count by breaking the deadlock before the quarter-hour mark through captain Bonmati. Her fine left-footed shot from the edge of the Nigeria box gave goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie little chance of preventing them falling behind.

Bonmati nearly had a second with a free-kick that struck the un-

derside of the Nigerian crossbar and bounced away to safety, while Eva Navarro forced a point blank save from Nnadozie moments later.

Spain eventually doubled their lead before the break, with Guijarro scoring her fifth goal of France 2018 after getting on the end of Maite Oroz’s free-kick into the West African side’s box and scoring from close range.

Having struggled to create much in the first half, the Super Falconets responded with a goal just before the hour mark. Peace Efih’s forward run saw her pick out Rasheedat Ajibabe on the left. Her low shot forced a diving Catalina Coll to direct the ball into the path of an unmarked Efih, who duly converted into an empty Spanish goal.

Arsenal, WorldRemit launch Future Stars training camp

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L-R: John Obaro, Managing Director, SystemSpecs Ltd, owners Of Remita; Achenyo Obaro, Creativ eDirector, Mitimeth; Peter Rufai, Tournament Ambassador and Jimi Shogbesan, Chief Operating Officer, Media vision Limited at the opening ceremony of 2018 Remita Corporate Champions Cup helt on Sunday, August 12th, 2018 at Yabatech, Lagos.

rsenal Football Club and digital money transfer experts, WorldRemit, are offering local coaches the chance to attend an exclusive new training camp with Arsenal’s top youth coaches in London – and 25 shortlisted coaches will be rewarded with Arsenal kit for their entire youth squad.

WorldRemit will arrange for the successful applicant to fly to London, where they will attend an exclusive training camp with Arsenal Soccer School’s coaches.

During the camp they will work on plans to use the training to build a

lasting legacy in their home country.

The camp will be free to apply for and open to youth team (under 16s) coaches from across Africa.

Coaches simply need to complete the short online application form at www.futurestars.worldremit.com

by August 27 explaining why they deserve to be granted this unique opportunity and the legacy they plan to build on their return home.

Speaking on the programme, the CEO of WorldRemit, Ismail Ahmed, said apart from the organisation making sending money easier, they also help their customers do more for those they care about.

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GARDEN CITY BUSINESS DIGEST NNEW, Shell train women on migration to formal business sector IGNATIUS CHUKWU & INNOCENT ETENG

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n collaboration with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), the NECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) has trained some business women on requisite principles for migration and success in the formal sector.

The four-day training, which took place in Port Harcourt was done using International Labour Organization (ILO)certified trainers and experienced business executives - all women.

The objectives include to guide entrepreneurs who are already running a business and would like to improve operations to increase sales and boost profitability. It is also to develop trainers on business managerial skills and entrepreneurship development, and train and mentor existing and potential entrepreneurs to properly package their ideas or reposition their already existing businesses for the several loans available for SMEs. It would also help participants understand all it takes to prepare a good business plan, understand the basics of managing business by learning how to undertake simple but appropriate record keeping, costing and pricing of goods & services.

Those that attended were all male and female entrepreneurs and their accounting/admin employees; aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners having issues with book-keeping and costing, entrepreneurs who

Ibim Semenitari (middle) being decorated as 2nd governor of Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Cosmopolitan 9141 Master Trainer, Fayo Williams, grooming female entrepreneurs in PH to take over the economic sector

needed to develop a business plan, and aspiring and existing business trainers.

Some of the trained 15 women have hitherto been in the informal sector, hence the need for the training to mirror how to formalise their businesses by first registering them and then writing a bankable and loan-attracting business plan.

According to the chairperson of the Rivers State chapter of NNEW, Tamitayo Ojesanmi, the essence of the training is because: “Growth doesn’t just belong to (only) the Dangotes.

It (also) belongs to anybody who dares to aspire, woman or man.”

Tagged “What every Entrepreneur must Know to Suc-

ceed”, the training, according to Ojesanmi, is the first of three sessions. While the just-concluded session is called “Start Your Business (SYB),” the two

future ones are called “Improve Your Business (IYB)“ and “Expand Your Business (EYB)”.

Fayo Williams, one of the trainers and CEO of Simply Ex-

NNEW team supporting the training

ponential Consult Limited, said the training was important for women because: “We have a lot of intervention funds now such as those from BIO and CBN. All these funds are available for SMEs to access only if they have proper planning in place and they can show evidence in a business plan, good record keeping and being bankable.”

Williams said empowering women through such trainings has a lot of multiplier effect on the economy, generally.

“We are familiar with the fact that SMEs provide up to 90 per cent of employment in the nation. Government cannot really give the teeming population that employment. But if we empower SMEs to start providing goods and services that are consumed by a nation of 180 million (193 million actually), we would have a greater number of people in gainful employment.

“The employment statistics right now is pretty worrisome.

We have up to about 30% unemployment rate and we believe that if more entrepreneurs are encouraged in this way to set up cottage industries and to provide services, we would have replacement for a lot of things we used to import.”

Williams said the problem with many SMEs is that they lose sight of indirect costs like depreciation of machinery, taxes and rents, hence their profit margins are meagre - if they make profit at all.

Another trainer and Lagosbased agro entrepreneur, Edobong Akpabio, said the training would save the participants some learned mistakes.

“A lot of the information that

is being given to them comes from our own experience. We have been in business for quite some time, so we can share with them certain of our experiences so they wouldn’t make the mistakes that we have already made, and so they can concentrate and focus on making their business a success,” she said.

Meanwhile, some of the trainees said they have garnered priceless and practical knowledge from the training to scale up their businesses.

“My business has not been profitable, we have been struggling. But I have already started applying the knowledge gained here. The training has opened my eyes to costing and all its entirety; being able to add all the things that go into our product and also being able to be visible and other thing we need to drive customers to our business,” said Siniru Okenabirhie, whose company, Freshedges Nigeria Limited, produces liquid wash products.

“I have learnt that you actually need to listen to what the market is saying first. So you are factoring, what does the customer want?

What are the things that they are not pleased with in a particular product or service? Then you go home and see how you can come up with answers to those questions,” said another trainee, Toyin Odobo, who owns Metro Universal Services Limited, a venture that deals on printing, branding, signage and packaging.

“The training is going to help my business a lot because we now have to go through our processes and even our business offerings. I have learnt how to do things better so we can maximize profit.”

Getting the Excess Crude Account and Sovereign Wealth Fund right

Port Harcourt by Boat With IGNATIUS CHUKWU

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his Monday, August 13, 2018, the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation visited the Garden City with their campaign to get the Excess Crude Account (ECA) right. The key message was on the need for transparency and importance of following due process in withdrawing from stabilization funds. Else, they would not stabilize anything. Experts such as Amara Nwankwo (political scientist), Aisha Haruna (economist), Andrew Onyeanakwe (financialist), and Jide Ojo (media analysts) tried hard to let NGOs and media groups understand

the tragedy of the ECA, a fund that would have helped to stabilize the budget and financial management of government business. Aisha in particular revealed figures that showed that unaccounted or unapproved withdrawals in the past 10 years amounted to $82.5Bn. This is sad because it would look like it was stolen but if due process was followed, every withdrawal would have been recorded and approved. It would save the stigma of looking like a thief.

The major observation was that some participants, like most other Nigerians, do not know the difference between ECA and the SWF. Understanding this would help. ECA was set up, not to save for the rainy day, but to stabilize the nation’s budgets or financials. This was due to the volatility of the oil industry or the ever-rising nature of oil prices in those days, which made the nation to gain more dollars per barrel over the benchmark.

The benchmark is the average or minimum price which the budget planners estimated oil

would sell at in a given period, say a budget year. If it sold more, the surplus would go to ECA and if it sold less, ECA would be approached to bring the shortfall.

That is the stabilizing role ECA is expected to play.

On the other hand, the SWF what is transferred from ECA to a final savings account. It is the fund set aside as final savings which is being managed by some foreign and local banks to fetch profit. It is the profit that can be withdrawn at some points and brought into FAAC for sharing to the three tiers of government. So, ECA cannot be a savings account per se. It can best be a holding account before decision is made on what to save out of what is in ECA. On this note, before we say moneys meant for savings were mismanaged, we would know that money in ECA is no savings. Until it gets to SWF, it is not saved fund.

Also, it is not every amount withdrawn without due process that is stolen. It could be withdrawn for good cause and

applied for the purpose, but that does not make it right. The principle, according to Nwankwo, is that you must follow a particular process to put money there, and you must follow a particular process to withdraw anything.

According to Aisha, whatever is withdrawn must be taken through FAAC because that is the meeting point of the owners of the funds that were saved in the first place. If you withdraw it unilaterally like Goodluck Jonathan was doing and Muhammadu Buhari is also seen to be doing, to say, fight Boko Haram, it is wrong because you have not given the due percentage to the other tiers (states and LGAs).

Why do presidents withdraw illegally? Many think it is due to corruption, but some of us think it is because of fierce disagreements between the centre and the states. There are many cases in court over ECA. The states want to share out all every month. When Chibuike Amaechi was governor, he particularly said his state had its own savings scheme and so,

FAAC must share out all (according to section 162 of the 1999 constitution) and let states save, if they wanted to. It is because of this disagreement that often, the FG goes through the back to withdraw, knowing that tabling it before the governors would be asking for cacophony. So, in trying to solve one problem, the FG causes another.

The bill by the NASS to pass the approving power to the lawmakers does not help section 162 in any way. Their power is only to appropriate what has been withdrawn. The solution is in getting the three tiers to agree to save in ECA and also to agree on withdrawal terms and any tier that breached it must be sanctioned. To achieve this, the withdrawal process must be made reasonable. Every amount withdrawn must be shared because the money in ECA belongs to three tiers. The SWF must remain what it is. Seeking to merge them up is not a viable solution because there must be a fund to hold excess earnings first before transferring them anywhere.

Also, do we think that marginal increase in oil while the budget is still in deficit means that we have gained anything? Is it correct to save in ECA or SWF while we also borrow at higher rates to support the budget? Buhari for instance stopped subsidy but higher import bills and fuel scarcity forced him to pay subsidy through the backdoor. Is this corruption or choice between due process and fuel stability?

Withdrawing without agreement with the three tiers or due process should be made an impeachable offence or if the president had left office, must be made to lose his retirement benefits. This will make them to obey the law of the ECA and SWF. Look, going through the parliament does not make withdrawing from ECA legitimate because the ECA does not belong to the NASS but to the three tiers of government. Getting the approval of the owners (three tiers) is what is legitimate. It is when you get your share that you now go to your own lawmakers (NASS in the case of the FG) for appropriation.

Friday 17 August 2018

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BUSINESS SOUTH-SOUTH

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST

NACCIMA Q-3 meeting in Port Harcourt throws up more challenges for a private sector-driven economy EFEGADIRIM MADU, Port Harcourt

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he 3rd quarterly council meeting of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), hosted by the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce (PHCCIMA) in Port Harcourt, is adjudged successful by executive and other council members of the nation’s second largest city chamber.

Firstly, the meeting came out with clear resolution by urging the various levels of government in the country to put in place enabling business policies and environment that will help businesses thrive.

There was massive attendance by chamber delegations across the country, followed with quality business meetings, strategic industry and government visits, a colourful corporate get-together and topped with presentation of land allocation document for PHCCIMA’s permanent trade fair site. The gesture was by Rivers State Government under Governor Nyesom Wike.

The trade fair land donation would lay to rest PHCCIMA’s over six decades quest for a permanent fair site, to bring it up to speed with its counterpart city chambers of commerce – Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu, among others. The trade fair site is located at the Greater Port Harcourt City area.

The quarterly meeting s t a r t e d o n We d n e s d a y 8 through Thursday 9 August, with a NACCIMA national executive committee and PHCCIMA council meeting, followed by a welcome dinner party organized for the NACCIMA delegates, sponsors, special guests and members of PHCCIMA executive members at the residence of the P H C C I M A p re s i d e nt, Em i Membere-Otaji.

On the second day, NACCIMA president, Alaba Laws on le d a delegation on a courtesy visit to Governor Wike, who was represented by his deputy, Ipalibo Harry Banigo, where the governor commended NACCIMA for tremendous support given to PHCCIMA, which according to him, has been instrumental to the achievements and progress recorded thus far.

He said his administration

(L-R) PHCCIMA president, Emi Membere-Otaji, presenting the Trade fair land allocation document to NACCIMA president, Alaba Lawson.

was committed to keeping its promises to PHCCIMA in 2015, by ensuring an enabling business environment.

A c c o rd i n g t o G ov e r n o r Wike, his government has fulfilled issues like harmonization of taxes to end double t a x at i o n , i ssu a n c e o f c e rtificate of occupancy (C of O), provision of massive infrastructure, among others; adding that all these are aimed at making Rivers an investors’ haven.

He quickly cited upcoming projects by some investors, which include Indorama’s $1.1 billion Second Fertilizer plant at Eleme, the GreenGas’ N140 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Rumuji, among others in the state.

Si m i l a r l y , t h e g ov e r n o r said, to show his administration’s commitment to stimulating the state economy, he was allocating a permanent trade fair ground strategically located land at the Greater Port Harcourt City.

Governor Wike urged the Federal Government to reva mp p o r t s i n t h e S ou t h South zone, complete the ongoing revitalization of the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa as this would improve the ease-of-doingbusiness in the zone, as well as decongest the Lagos ports.

He commended the NACC I M A nat i o na l p re s i d e nt,

Lawson, for what he described as her ‘special support’ for the PHCCIMA president, Membere-Otaji, which led to inauguration of the zone’s NACCIMA Business Women wing. He noted that women are now undergoing training, for ming co op eratives and making themselves useful in their homes and communities through the NAWORG. For the NACCIMA national president, she described NACCIMA as the voice of the organized private sector in Nigeria, expressing delight that the public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement was working in Rivers State because of the political will and commitment of Governor Wike.

Lawson, the first female and NACCIMA’s 19th president lauded the Rivers government for allocating a trade f a i r g rou n d i n a s t rat e g i c location to the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce; saying that when fully in use will stimulate the state economy and attract investors.

The NACCIMA delegation also visited the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED), where they met the MD/CEO, Naveen Kapoor, who highlighted the issues that have pervaded the electricity network, including the high spate of vandalism, nonpayment of bills, harassment

of its staff, and unyielding investments by the company. “ We a p p e a l t o N A C C IMA to use its good offices i n t h e v a r i o u s m i n i s t r i e s, departments and agencies (MDAs) to influence the Federal Government in settling the prolonged outstanding MDAs debts,” Kapoor said.

He urged the organized priv at e s e c t o r t o i m p re s s o n their members to equally pay up their debts.

The delegation also visited the First Independent Power Company at Port Harcourt’s high octane industrial layout, Trans Amadi, which hosts most of the multinational oil and gas based companies (IOCs), manufacturing industries, financial institutions and classic hotels.

At the Pabod Breweries, which now brews up to 1.5 million hectoliters, where global brewing giant, SABMiller acquired majority shares in 2008, the NACCIMA delegation was impressed with the effect of allowing business concerns in the private sector.

The former moribund Rivers government owned brewing company had tottered out of business in 1996, before it was put up for acquisition by the government. Today, it is fully privatized. The company is now upbeat, as its management recently increased p ro d u c t i o n c a p a c i t y f ro m

500 hectoliters to 1.5 million hectoliters. The Lawson led delegation said it beheld a fascinating and invaluable modern technology and facilities put in place to enhance efficiency and productivity.

The NACCIMA group equally praised the level of investment, when it visited the new Pr incess Me dical Hospital, an upscale multispecialty signature hospital with state-of-the-art facilities in the heart of Port Harcourt, promoting a new dynamism of medical tourism in the business of medicine.

Analysts are of the view the NACCIMA Q3 2018 meeting in Port Harcourt was the icing on the cake for PHCCIMA , as it brought to an end its 61-year old quest for a trade fair ground. The official presentation of land allocation document by Rivers government during the NACCIMA council meeting as hosted by PHCCIMA. Lawson described Membere-Otaji as a corporate entrepreneur who has relentlessly served the national and state chambers of commerce w ith an amazing s ens e of responsibility, commitment, passion, competence and courage; saying she was not surpr is e d at his ability to steer the PHCCIMA ship to make history by securing a permanent trade fair ground after 61 years.

32

BUSINESS DAY

Friday 17 August 2018

Live @ The Exchanges Top Gainers/Losers as at Thursday 16 August 2018 GAINERS Company

Market Statistics as at Thursday 16 August 2018

LOSERS Opening

Closing

Change

OKOMUOIL

N73.1

N74.55

1.45

Opening

Closing

Change

DANGCEM

OANDO

N4.55

N4.95

GUARANTY

N37.75

PORTPAINT MANSARD

Company

N214

N206

-8

0.4

TOTAL

N190

N183

-7

N38.05

0.3

UBA

N8.9

N8.35

-0.55

N2.25

N2.47

0.22

AIRSERVICE

N4.5

N4.05

-0.45

N2.38

N2.53

0.15

NASCON

N20.3

N20

-0.3

ASI (Points)

34,618.43

DEALS (Numbers) VOLUME (Numbers)

S

N50 after close of trading on Thursday at the Lagos Bourse.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc has nine direct subsidiaries, namely: Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Limited, Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited, Stanbic IBTC Investments Limited, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, Stanbic IBTC Ven-

tures Limited, Stanbic IBTC Insurance Brokers Limited and Stanbic IBTC Trustees Limited and two indirect subsidiaries, namely: Stanbic IBTC Bureau De Change Limited, Stanbic IBTC Nominees Limited.

The company’s profit after tax (PAT) increased by 78.7percent to N43.08billion against N24.11billion in H1’17. Earnings Per Share (EPS) in the first half of 2018

3.091

MARKET CAP (N Trn

increased by 80.9percent to 416kobo against 230kobo in the corresponding first half of 2017.

The interim dividend will be paid to shareholders of the financial institution whose names appear in the Register of Members as at the close of business on Tuesday 28 August 2018.

The Register of shareholders will be closed from Wednesday August 29, 2018 to Tuesday September 4, 2018.

In line with the authority granted by shareholders to the Board of Directors Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc at the Extra Ordinary General Meeting held on August 6, 2015, the Board has authorised that shareholders will have the option of electing to receive their Interim Dividends by way of New Ordinary Shares (Scrip Dividend).

In view of this, and in order to allow ample opportunity for shareholders

12.638

MTS Markets enhances BondsPro platform with list trading functionality

M

who may wish to exercise the option of receiving Scrip Dividend instead of Cash Dividend, the Dividend Payment date in respect of this Interim Dividend shall be on Wednesday September 26, 2018.

On the above payment date, shareholders who have not elected to receive their Interim Dividend by way of Scrip Dividend, will have their Cash Interim Dividend paid electronically (provided that they have completed the e-dividend registration and mandated the Registrar to pay their dividends directly into their Bank accounts), or have dividend warrants dispatched to them (for those without e-dividend mandates). This Interim Dividend (whether cash or scrip) is only applicable to shareholders whose names appear on the Register of Members as at close of business on Tuesday 28 August 2018.

TS Markets International, part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), has enhanced its MTS BondsPro corporate bond trading platform with list trading functionality, enabling participants to benefit from the efficiencies of executing many trades simultaneously. The tool will streamline traders’ ability to execute trades against more than $17 billion of real-time resting corporate bond liquidity on MTS BondsPro. After uploading a list of orders to MTS BondsPro, participants can connect with multiple liquidity sources in the platform’s anonymous all-to-all order book and execute on the best price for each trade. List trading delivers significant efficiency benefits to a trader’s workflow, particularly in the ability to enable execution of all trades with multiple liquidity sources at the same time.

has good board, management and staff. One good thing in any account is when retained earnings and shareholders fund are growing. With what I see in the account, I can only tell the company to keep it up. For the dividend, we will always ask for more.”

Another shareholder Anthony Omojola said “The company revenue increase is a welcome development to us, the shareholders.”

At the annual general meeting, the shareholders of RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc received and adopted the audited accounts of the company for the year ended December 31, 2017 together with the reports of the directors and the auditors thereon.

In the financial year ended December 31,

2017, the company grew revenue by 25.39percent to N10.37billion from N8.27billion revenue in the 2016 financial year; though profit after tax (PAT) dipped by 27.91percent from N42.09million in 2016 to N30.35million in 2017.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the review period stood at 54kobo compared to 74kobo for the 2016 financial year. Shareholders fund at the end of the 2017 financial year was N573.1million, up by 4.5percent from the 2016 balance of N548.4million.

In addition to the reelection of directors, the shareholders at the annual general meeting also approved for the Board to pay a dividend of 10kobo per share amounting to N15.9million for the financial year in review.

…declares N10.11bn interim dividend

tanbic IBTC Holdings Plc has released its first-half (H1) results for the period ended June 30, 2018. The results at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) show the group’s gross earnings increased by 17.5 percent to N114.2 billion against N97.19billion recorded in the corresponding H1 period of 2017. Profit Before Tax (PBT) increased by 73.9percent for the period ended June 30, 2018 to N50.73billion against N29.16billion in H1’17.

The Board also declared an Interim Dividend of N1 per ordinary share of 50 kobo each, which amounts to N10.113billion, subject to deduction of appropriate withholding tax and regulatory approval. The share price remained stable at

237,808,812.00

VALUE (N billion)

Stanbic IBTC Holdings grows firsthalf pre-tax profit by 73.9% Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu

3,162.00

RAK Unity Petroleum intensifies efforts to boost sales ...gets shareholders’ approval to pay N15.9million as dividend

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AK Unity Petroleum Company Plc is determined to achieve its strategic objectives by driving growth inorganically through a merger or acquisition; thereby enabling the company to respond competitively to the emerging changes and trends in the business operating environment.

As part of RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc five-year business plan that commenced in January 2016, the company aims to boost sales through the production of branded lubricants and increase profit margins by investment in direct importation of Diesel (AGO).

“There are currently ongoing plans to lease four new retail stations and refurbish the old retail stations. These plans will

be executed on the back of the merger or acquisition,” Edo-Abasi Bassey Ukpong, chairman, RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc told shareholders at the company’s 15th annual general meeting held in Lagos on Thursday August 16, 2018.

He assured that going forward, with the anticipated improvement in the Nigerian economy facilitated by increasing oil production and revenue, growth in trade and investment, a stable and transparent FX market, “we will position your company to take advantage of opportunities and offer value to you.”

“To continue to grow our business, despite the tough operating environment, RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc board has begun a stra-

tegic review process of our business to evaluate all the options open to us to significantly improve our company’s performance.

Once the board has fully evaluated these options, we intend to return to you, our shareholders, to report on our new strategic direction,” Ukpong further told shareholders.

At inception, the company had as its main object, the marketing of and distribution of petroleum products, purchased from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), within Nigeria and the

West Africa sub region.

The products distributed by the company include Petrol (PMS), AGO, Gas (LPG) and Kerosene (DPK).

The company also distributes Engine Oil, Brake Fluid and Distilled Water.

RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc is listed on the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and was the first indigenous petroleum company to be so listed.

Toparte Nigeria Limited currently holds 85percent of the 56,624,893 issued share capital of RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc and a diverse group of Nigerians hold the remaining 15 percent.

Robert Igwe, a shareholder said at the meeting that “the company

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2019 election budget: NASS meeting ends in stalemate OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja

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ttempts by the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC to resolve conflicting figures in the 2019 election budget ended in a deadlock on Thursday.

To this end, the joint committee has summoned Mahmud Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to appear before it on Friday to give further clarification on the N189 billion 2019 general election budget.

The committee comprises the joint panels on INEC from both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Suleiman Nazif, chairman of the joint committee, said the

INEC chairman is expected to appear before the joint committee by 11am.

It would be recalled that at a budget defence session on Wednesday, the Senate Committee on INEC had queried the conflicting figures presented by the Commission and President Muhammadu Buhari on the 2019 elections budget.

While Yakubu had told the joint committee that the sum N189 billion should be approved in one fell swoop, Buhari on his letter dated July 17, 2018, had asked lawmakers to approve the amount in two tranches: N143.512 billion in 2018 and the balance of N45.695 billion for 2019.

Although the one-hour meeting was held behind closed doors, lawmakers were heard raising their voices at each other over

whether to adopt the President’s proposal or Yakubu’s.

It was gathered that while Mohammed Hassan, a PDP senator from Yobe State, wanted the release in two tranches, another legislator, Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta State), called for the adoption of Mahmud’s proposal.

But speaking to journalists after the session, Suleiman Nazif, chairman of the joint committee, said: “As we are all aware, yesterday (Wednesday) we invited the chairman of INEC who was in the National Assembly who addressed the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. And today (Thursday), our duty and responsibility was to try to harmonise what transpired yesterday between both Houses and ensure that we cross the t’s and dot the i’s.

“The whole meeting was

called consequent upon the letter of Mr President requesting for supplementary and virement for the General Elections of 2019.

“We have done what we needed to have done.

And we have realised that there are little bit of differences. In view of that, it is the opinion of members of this joint committee that we invite the chairman of INEC for further clarifications tomorrow at 11am. “And from there, this committee will make a press statement and we will inform Nigerians of our position”.

On her part, Aisha Dukku, chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters, said the INEC chairman is expected to appear before the committee to clear grey areas concerning the mode of approval.

FG bonds oversubscribed by over N10bn ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja

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he federal government bonds offered on Wednesday were again oversubscribed by over N10bn as investors continue to show confidence in the Nigerian economy.

On behalf of the federal government, the Debt Management Office (DMO) offered N90 billion Bonds in three tenors – 5, 7 and 10 years in line with the country’s borrowing plan. The bonds were for the month of August, 2018.

“The total subscriptions received from bidders at the Auction were above N100 billion,” the DMO stated in a mailed statement. It said allotments were made to successful bidders at 14.39 per-

cent for the Five-year, 14.60 percent for the seven-year and 14.69 percent for the 10year Bond, which are consistent with the rates in the secondary market for the Bonds offered at the Auction.

“A total of N100.09 billion was allotted to competitive and non-competitive bidders at the Auction and the proceeds will provide additional financing for the implementation of the 2018 Appropriation Act,” the debt office added.

The federal government issues monthly bonds to raise cash for the over N9 trillion 2018 expansionary budget. With a projection of an overall N1.950 trillion budget deficit, government plans to borrow N1.643 trillion to fund it.

OSIWA appoints Ayisha Osori as new head JOSEPHINE OKOJIE

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L-R: Olukunle Iyanda, president/chairman of council, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM); Hafiz Bakare, former MD/CEO, Keystone Bank Limited; Lere Baale, CEO, Business School Netherlands, and Nelson Uwaga, past president, NIM, at the 2018 NIM Fellows’ day luncheon, with the theme ‘Leadership and the Changing Paradigm: Confronting the Dynamics of Change’ in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

Friday 17 August 2018

he Open Society Initiative for West Africa has appointed Ayisha Osori as the new head of the foundation.

In a statement made available to BusinessDay, Osori who is a lawyer, development consultant and communication strategist, is expected to resume as the new executive director of the foundation 4th of September, 2018.

“We are honoured to have the leadership of the next chapter of OSIWA’s work in Ayisha Osori’s capable hands,” Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations said in the statement.

“She has already built an impressive legacy of work on a wide variety of issues of concern to Open Society in the region, and she always puts the ad-

vancement of women’s rights at the fore. I look forward to partnering with her to advance our work and our values throughout West Africa,” Gaspard said.

Prior to the appointment, Osori served as board chair for OSIWA in the past three years.

With Osori’s appointment as executive director, Senegalese scholar, author, and OSIWA board member Felwine Sarr takes over as board chair. Board member Mariama Anthony-Williams, an accountant and public financial management advisor from Sierre Leone, becomes vice chair.

Osori has worked in both the public and private sectors in different capacities. She has worked with the World Bank, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the National Democratic Institute, and the Department of International Development.

Telcos invest in data, leverage digital revolution for sustainable growth I am most qualified to be elected JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON

… as new offerings, CAPEX, all geared toward increased data usage

elecommunications operators in Nigeria have started investing heavily in efficient, fast and wide spread data coverage, as they envisage higher percentage of total revenue growth coming from data services in the nearest future.

The rapid increase in smartphone ownership and usage, which has spiked up Nigeria’s internet penetration numbers to over 53 percent (97.2 million users) in 2017, up from the 46.1 percent (86.3 million users) in 2015, has caused telecommunications service providers to invest more critically into data infrastructure and service provision.

On Wednesday, August 15, Globacom, the only indigenous telecoms operator in the country, introduced

a new offering geared towards the provision of more affordable data in a bid increase data subscriptions on the network.

Its new ‘Oga SIM’ product is said to give subscribers an unrivalled 125 percent bonus on data subscriptions.

Ashok Israni, Globacom’s regional chief marketing officer, said that any new subscriber who buys N500 worth of data subscription will automatically get 1.8GB of data instead of the usual 800MB; one who buys N1000 data package gets 3.6GB instead of 1.6GB, N2000 fetches the subscriber 8.2GB instead of 3.6GB, while N2,500 gives a whopping 12.9GB instead of 5.7GB. Israni described the product as the biggest data offering in the country and

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asked telecommunications subscribers in the country to join the Glo family to get this ‘unmatchable offer’.

Israni said Globacom has invested millions of dollars into expanding and upgrading the network, boosting its capacity and giving its subscribers excellent experience on the network.

Globacom, with its wholly-owned submarine cable, Glo-1, linking Europe and America to West Africa, has the capacity to deliver a much faster and robust connectivity for voice, data and video to telecom consumers in West Africa.

Also, in a move to boost data revenues, MTN in addition to acquiring the previously auctioned 2.6GHz spectrum from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and buying Visafone, the only Code

Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network in the country, on Wednesday August 15, 2018, secured a N200 billion loan from 12 Nigerian banks, disclosing that the bulk of the funds will be pushed into network expansion and data services to reach the hinterlands.

Kunle Awobodu, MTN Nigeria’s chief financial officer, told BusinessDay that, “Although MTN has the most expansive fibre network in the country, there is an issue with fibre cuts and attack. Therefore, we need to protect our network in a way that even when we get attacks, our network doesn’t go down. We are going to invest in ring-fencing our coverage all over Nigeria and also invest in fibre infrastructure so that high speed data can reach the rural parts of the country.”

president in 2019 – Atiku INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja

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ormer Vice President Atiku Abubakar has restated the claim that he is most qualified to be elected president of the country in the 2019 elections.

Atiku was in Enugu State on Thursday, where he made the claim at a meeting with stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the presidential primary election of the party, a statement made available to BusinessDay by the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation on Thursday said.

The delegation that followed Atiku, led by Otunba Gbenga Daniel, director general of his presidential campaign Organisation, was received by a large crowd of supporters of the PDP and

notable bigwigs of the party in Enugu State.

Atiku, while addressing stakeholders of the party, restated the position that he is most qualified among the likely contestants for president in the 2019 based on his record of achievement when he was vice president and his credential as a creator of jobs.

According to him, “the 2019 election is not merely another presidential election. The 2019 is about an opportunity to restore vibrancy to the economy. It is an opportunity to get Nigeria working again. I present myself to be elected president based on my experience as vice president when our economy was creating more jobs, my experience as an entrepreneur of note and my credential as a detribalised Nigerian.

Friday 17 August 2018

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33 NEWS

BUSINESS DAY

NIPOST loses N3bn annually to Structural implementation plans will non-completion of training institute restructure maritime sector – NIMASA DG IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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imon Emeje, dir e c t o r- g e n e r a l , Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST), said the country loses about N3 billion annually to the non-completion of its training institute in Benin-City, Edo State.

Emeje made the disclosure when Maimuna Yahaya Abubakar, chairperson, governing council of the agency, led other board members on an inspection tour of the institute in Benin-City recently.

Abubakar called on the Edo State House Assembly to help the service in recovering the debt owed it by the state government.

Emeje said the institute needs infrastructure to function effectively, as most of the facilities started 20 years ago were not completed “We want to make the institute not just a training institute but a degree awarding institution and also have ancillary services for revenue generation.

“The institute has not generated money before the coming of the current

management, and if it is fully completed, it is capable of generating N3 billion yearly,” he said.

In her remark, Maimuna Yahaya Abubakar, chairperson of the agency, said the inspection was geared towards knowing the state of NIPOST, condition of infrastructure and condition of staff before taking a decision.

Abubakar said the board would revisit the issue of contract awarded that were not executed, issues of consultancy that were entered into before their tenure which are non-performing, among others, to make the agency work again.

“We are going to revisit the issue of contract awarded that were not executed , issue of consultancy that were entered into before us, which are non-performing we are going to revisit everything to make NIPOST work” he said.

“The state of infrastructure at the NIPOST’s training Institute is very bad. It seems like an abandoned project.

The institute is really a goldmine to the nation if serious attention is given to it. We are going to meet with the min-

ister of communication and the federal government to see what we can do about it.”

She however commended the State government for providing an enabling environment for social service to thrive in the state.

Responding, Kabiru Adjoto, Speaker of the House, assured that the legislature would partner with the establishment to carry out its courier services through the agency so as to help it serve the nation.

“On the issue of debt, your representative here should furnish us with the total debt so as to discuss with the state governor since it was not the house that incurred the debt and get back to you. The Assembly have adopted NIPOST as our national courier,” he said.

He explained that NIPOST has suffered a setback due to the improvement in technology and that it is the duty all stakeholders to help reposition it for the better.

Abubakar Usman, NIPOST Zonal manager, South South, Benin headquarters, , said the zonal office was ranked third across the country in terms of revenue generation of the service.

…Nigerian waters no longer conducive for substandard vessels ABIMBOLA HASSAN

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akuku Peterside, director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has expressed confidence that its Structural Implementation Plans (SIP) will advance and develop Nigeria maritime operations, which will have a positive effect on Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP).

During an Interactive section with the media on Thursday, Peterside said through SIP, the agency is pushing for a single data window system of all activities in the Nigerian maritime sector, stating that a maritime data bank will help boost the country’s economic growth.

“We are pushing for a single data window system in the maritime sector, whereby NIMASA, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and other relevant government agencies in the sector will share

a common platform for data on all vessels calling at our ports and the activities,” Peterside said. He said the initiative will make it easy for the National Bureau of Statistics to capture the contributions of the maritime sector to the country’s GDP and also enable those who make use of the figures to grow the economy achieve better results.

Speaking on the survey and inspection of vessels calling at Nigerian ports, the NIMASA DG said that the fast intervention vessels the agency leased last year have led to an increase in Port, Flag and Coastal State control inspections, which he noted has increased by over 10.3, 33.3 and 27 per cent respectively in 2018 than the same period in the previous year. This is just as the agency has taken drastic action to ensure that substandard vessels do not ply and endanger Nigerian waters.

“Nigeria is no longer conducive for substandard vessels, because they know that we are more vigilant and by this, we are ensuring the protection of our

environment. We are strict on enforcement of standards and the international fleet feels more comfortable with our maritime terrain,” Peterside said.

Commenting on the issue of placing beneficiaries of the agency’s Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) on-board ocean going vessels for their mandatory sea-time training, he disclosed that currently a total number of 289 cadets have commenced their training in Egypt and the United Kingdom on NIMASA full sponsorship. He also used the opportunity to assure all beneficiaries of the scheme that the agency will ensure they all complete their mandatory sea-time training in due course.

The director general of NIMASA pointed out further that the Agency is working with the IMO as technical partners to improve the quality of graduates from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron. This is to ensure that graduates from MAN, Oron and other maritime institutions are employable.

34 BUSINESS DAY NEWS

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CBN’s liquidity-mopping efforts becoming...

Continued from page 1

pared to N459.3 billion recorded

in the corresponding year of 2016.

The rise in the interest expense was as a result of increased Open Market Operation (OMO) auctions carried out by the CBN in the review period.

“The Bank adopted far-reaching strategies to stabilize the exchange rate and eliminate pressures from speculators, bettors, roundtrippers and rent-seekers. During the year, special foreign exchange windows for small and medium enterprises and for Investors-Exporters were established to increase market transparency, stabilise the rates, improve investment sentiments in Nigeria and bolster foreign exchange supply,” Godwin Emefiele, Governor of CBN said in the report.

Meanwhile, the jump in the apex bank’s interest expense contributed to the decline in the lender’s net income. CBN’s group net income for the year 2017 dropped by 13.7 percent to N107.3 billion from N124.4 billion in 2016 the previous year.

The draft annual report released by the apex bank on Wednesday 15th August 2018 showed that OMO issuances, which is a liquidity tool for CBN to control the amount of money in circulationroseby44.7percenttoN11.3 trillionin2017fromN7.8trillionin2016.

The average monthly OMO issu-

ance stood at N945.5 billion in 2017 from N654.9 billion in 2016 and the average yield also increased to 19.43 percent in 2017 as against 14.60 percent, feeding directly into the higher interest expenses.

Ayo Akinwunmi, Head of Research at FSDH Merchant Bank said the liquidity management strategy of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the face of high interest rate environment on the government securities in 2017 increased its expenses.

“The CBN adopted various strategies to manage the exchange rate to ensure stability and inspire investors’ confidence in the Nigerian economy.

All these efforts came with their associated costs,” Akinwunmi said.

Also the surge in the interest expenses could be attributable to an increase in outstanding Treasury bills by 9.2 percent to N3.58 trillion in 2017 from N3.28 trillion in 2016.

Loan impairment charge also known as write-downs for Non-Performing loans (NPLs) also increased by 375.8 percent to N347.01 billion in 2017 from N72.93 billion in the comparative period in 2016 causing a decline in the group’s net operating profit by 36.6 percent to N418.42 billion from N660.35 billion in the earlier period.

A further breakdown of the lender’s financial report revealed that the group made no financial sector intervention expense for the year 2017 but

for the comparable period of 2016, it recorded N226.4 billion expense for financial sector intervention, while the total operating expense in the period under review was down 32.1 percent from N548.8 billion in 2016 to N327.6 billion in 2017.

CBN had given out a lot of intervention funds to banks which as a result caused the huge growth of NPLs. The reduction in intervention expenses can be linked also to the drop in the total operating expenses by 40.3 percent to N327.64 billion in 2017 from N548.88 billion in 2016.

An insight of the group balance sheet showed an expansion in the total assets as it grew by 35.02 percent to N32.59 trillion in FY 2017 from N21.91 trillion in FY 2016.

The increase in assets resulted mainly from external reserves, loans and receivables, holdings of Special Drawing Right (SDR) and Quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The groups’ net operating income was therefore down 36.6 percent from N660.3 billion in 2016 to N418.4 billion in 2017.

Rafiq Raji, the Chief Economist at MacroAfrica Intel said the results suggest that the CBN’s liquidity-mopping efforts are increasingly costly.

“With cash-fuelled political activities likely intensifying from now till May next year, and the central bank reportedly even contemplating an interest rate hike at some point, the bank would likely bear even more costs,” Raji said.

Friday 17 August 2018

Hope dims for passage of PIGB as NNPC picks...

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President Muhammadu Buhari.

The harmonised version of the PIGB

was sent to President Buhari for his signature on July 3, six weeks later the bill remained unsigned without any explanation from the Presidency.

However, the NNPC’s statement yesterday could explain why the bill is still stuck in the Presidency.

Speaking at a conference organised by National Associate of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria in Lagos, yesterday Roland Ewubare, group general manager, National Petroleum Investment and Management Services (NAPIMs) faulted the bill sent to President Buhari for his signature.

Ewubare, who was representing Maikanti Baru, group general manager of the NNPC said that the proposal in the PIGB to split NNPC into two entities, if not properly communicated to staff of the corporation, is bound to generate tension between the unions.

He also said the issue of divestment of 40 percent of Nigeria Petroleum Company shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, needs clarity on the process of divestment and the steps should be clearly provided in the law.

Thecorporationwantstoknowifthe shares are going to be sold to Nigerian public or foreign portfolio investors.

This he says is not stated in the law.

There is no clarity regarding the nature of NNPC liability to be transferred to the Liability Management Company

NPLMC, asides the outstanding pension obligations of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The bill, he says, does not provide adequate clarity on type and nature of liability to be inherited and the process for the settlement of such liability.

He said adequate clarity should be provided on funding of Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Company (NPAMC) and the newly created NPLMC. The NNPC boss advocated that the NPAMC should to be structured in the form of an agency rather than a company with limited role in the administration of production sharing contract assets. He said similar institutions across the world are structured as agencies.

He said that even though the PIGB has defined tenures for non-executive directors, there are currently no provisions that provides for stable tenures for the executive directors and insulate them from the changing dynamic of the political environment.

“The issuance of well-defined contract terms to the executive director may address this issue,” he said.

He said the newly established commercial entities are expected to be governed in line with the provisions of code of corporate governance by the security and exchange Commission. But the bill does not include recommendations to address possible conflicts that may arise between its provisions and those of the SEC code, where such conflict arise.

Profit margins pressured as cost of using Apapa...

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Despite several promises, including a 72-hour ultimatum given by acting president Yemi Osin-

Dakuku Adol Peterside (m), directorgeneral, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Ibrahim Jibril (l), director, maritime labour services, NIMASA, and Isichei Osamgbi, head, corporate communication, NIMASA, during an interactive session with the media in Lagos, yesterday.

Nigeria’s richest men lose N288.5 bn to stock...

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Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s richest man, was the biggest loser as the value of his stockholdings in publicly traded Dangote Group of companies declined by N251.8 billion, representing about 87 percent of total losses among Nigeria richest shareholders.

Up to N248.4 billion of the loss suffered by Dangote was from the decline in the stock of Dangote Cement this year which is currently down 7 percent since the beginning of the year. Another N3.4 billion was lost from his stake in Dangote Sugar while the billionaire further lost N2.97 billion from his stake in Dangote Flourmills.

There was some relief for the selfmade billionaire as share price appreciation in Nascon helped increase his wealth by around N2.96 billion this year. As at market close yesterday, Dangote stake in his companies had declined from N3.6 trillion at the beginning of the year to N3.3 trillion.

Jim Ovia, Chairman of Zenith Bank, whose stake in Zenith bank as at yesterday was worth around N 103.68 billion, saw his wealth decline

by N11.95 billion this year as Zenith bank share price dropped -11.3 percent. Ovia directly and indirectly owns a stake of around 4.5 billion shares in Zenith bank, making him

the second richest shareholder in Nigeria after Aliko Dangote.

Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA and Transcorp, saw his shares in both companies decline in value by 15 percent and 25 percent respectively in the first eight months of the year. Elumelu’s owns about 2.3 billion shares in UBA and another two billion shares in Transcorp Inc. Elumelu suffered N3.7 billion capital loss in his UBA holdings as his stake declined from N23.66 billion in January to N20 billion yesterday. His stock market woes were further compounded by the poor performance of Transcorp this year.

The stock declined by 25 percent this year, causing his wealth to further drop by around N374 million as his Transcorp stake declined from N1.5 billion as at the beginning of the year to N1.12 billion yesterday.

Cumulatively, Elumelu’s holding in UBA and Transcorp is now N21.2 billion from N25.1 billion earlier in the year.

Oba Otudeko, Chairman of Honeywell group and FBN Holdings Plc, with a total shareholding of about 5.3 billion units in Honeywell group recorded a loss in share value of N2.73 billion as the stock declined 23.2 percent. As a result, Oba Otudeko’s Honeywell stake dropped from

N11.8 billion to N9.04 billion as at market close yesterday.

On the flip side, the share price rally in FBN holdings helped to compensate for losses suffered in Honeywell. The billionaires’ total shareholdings of 538 million units in FBN holdings appreciated in value by nine percent to stand at N408.9 million as share prices of FBNH rallied from N8.79 to N9.55 since the beginning of the year. Cumulatively, Oba Otudeko’s stake in FBNH and Honeywell dropped from N16.4 billion at beginning of the year to N14.1 billion yesterday.

Among the worst performing stocks in the market this year is Forte Oil which is down 43 percent.

Chairman of Forte Oil, Femi Otedola has seen his fortune decline

by N18.4 billion as the market rout eroded the value of his holdings in the oil company from N43.04 billion in January to N24.6 billion yesterday.

Otedola boasts a total holding of 1.02 billion units of shares in Forte oil plc.

The market sell-off appears to be far from over as macroeconomic headwinds such as political uncertainty and large capital outflows continue to pressure equity prices on a daily basis. If market dips further before the elections next year, these five billionaires could be short around a third of a trillion naira before Christmas.

bajo 25 days ago, Apapa remains in chaos and this is coming at a significant cost to commuters and business owners even as the Federal and state Governments continue to smile to the banks with billions of revenue collected from the businesses it was supposed to facilitate.

While the federal government is carried away with its ease of doing business rhetoric, businesses are suffering and collapsing from the federal government’s inability to bring sanity at the most critical trade point into and out of the country.

The quest to grow non-oil exports is already suffering as exporters now find it difficult to export their produce through the ports while the profit margins of businesses come under significant pressure from the rising cost of bringing in goods through the ports.

For the importers and exporters, bad roads, traffic gridlock, congestion in and outside the ports, extortion by security agencies among others, have increased their cost by over 300 percent, sources have told BusinessDay. An importer who has his business within Apapa told BusinessDay that his cost of moving a 20-foot container from the Sifax Group depot to his office, which is also within Apapa has risen from between N180,000 and N190,000 to between N295,000 and N300,000, representing almost 150 percent increase in his freight cost.

“It has been a big problem these days and the experience in getting to Apapa has become a nightmare,” said Tony Anakebe, a port operator and member of freight forwarders association of Nigeria, adding, “businesses continue to slide to their lowest level; it takes us almost two weeks to get our containers loaded after finishing with the customs.”

Yusu Gambo, a clearing agent explained that freight costs have gone so high because the turnaround time

of trucks has increased significantly due to the congestion and gridlock, which have made movement in and out of the ports extremely difficult.

“Before now, a truck driver could go on two to three trips a day within Lagos; now he can only do one trip.

Outside Lagos, he could do two times in a week, today he can only do once in a month,” Sambo explained.

He disclosed that transporting a 40-footer container from Lagos to Onitsha now costs an importer N1.3 million, up from between N320,000 and N340,000 before the congestion in Apapa. Moving the same container from Lagos to Shagamu which used to cost N120,000 to N150,000, is now N750,000 to N800,000.

For an importer to move his goods from Lagos to Ilorin now costs him between N860,000 and N900,000, up from N220,000 to N260,000 he or she used to pay, just as transportation of same size container to Abuja now costs N1.3 million to N1.4 million, up from N420,000.

All these increases are putting pressure on the businesses but, according to Sambo, the person at the receiving end is the consumer to whom the importer transfers the additional costs. Again, the implication of all these is that imported items will continue to be very expensive and unaffordable to many consumers.

“Until all these anomalies are addressed, Nigeria will continue to be too expensive a market for foreign direct investment which the country needs badly at the moment,” noted Emmanuel Ameke, a port operator.

“Ease of doing business which has remained a hoax, especially at the ports, must be seen as an economic necessity and not political tool for winning elections,” he added.

It is now almost one month since the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, gave an order for trailers and tankers to leave the roads and bridges which have become their loading bays, but instead of the situation improving, it is getting worse.

•Continues online at www.businessdayonline.com

Friday 17 August 2018

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The story of a table and a...

Market leaders in Anambra warned against diverting govt revenue

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EMMANUEL NDUKUBA, Awka

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he Anambra State government says it will continue to arrest and prosecute dubious market heads who siphon government funds into their private pockets, until sanity is brought into the system.

Christian Madubuko, commissioner for Trade, Commerce and Industry, stated this when he visited Stockfish International Market Onitsha on Thursday.

Madubuko said that diversion of public funds into private pockets by market leaders has seriously affected the state’s economy and government’s productivity negatively.

He warned market heads in the state to save themselves from consequences that awaits anybody found indulging in the act.

Madubuko during the visit rated the Stockfish International Market high in cleanliness, as well as in cooperation and unity amongst traders, urging other markets to emulate them.

Reacting to the complaint laid by the traders, that the state government has not been carrying them along in the scheme of things, Madubuko described Obiano-led administration as government for all.

He assured them that henceforth the government will always support them and ensure that they receive everything that is due to them as long as they remain law abiding.

L-R: Mujaheed Salisu Ahmad, national secretary Youth Party; Yakubu Mahood, chairman INEC, and Mohammed Nalado, chairman Inter party Advisory Council, during the presentation of certificate to newly registered political parties in Abuja.

Customs seizes 11,232 pieces of imported military outfit ... New comptroller takes over in Rivers IGNATIUS CHUKWU & INNOCENT ETENG

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ustoms officials in Onne, Rivers State, have impounded not less than 11,232 pieces of illegally imported military outfit and arrested an importer who was said to be under watch.

The 11,232 is the total of a combination of different types of military wears ranging from t-shirts to caps, jungle boots and others hidden in a container that also contained civilian wears and

other materials.

Sanusi Umar, assistant comptroller general, disclosed this on yesterday, while inspecting the seized materials at the Command’s office in Onne.

Umar emphasised that the materials were seized because private individuals, groups and companies are legally prohibited from importing such.

He said investigations into an earlier seized container of same materials imported by the same importer, in June, gave way to the recent seizure. The importer,

identified as Ongwatabo Jerry, has been arrested and is under investigation, Umar revealed further.

“After profiling the importer’s transactions, I am happy to inform you that we have arrested another container MRKU 4909151 (1×40ft) belonging to the same company, Ehigocho Nigeria Ltd, with Ogwatabo Jerry as the prime suspect.

“On examination, it was found to contain the following: 620 sets of complete sewn military camouflage uniforms

and caps, 10, 000 pieces of inner military t-shirts, 512 pairs of military jungle boots. The said Ongwatabo is the sole importer that opened the form M for the importation of these two containers,” Umar said.

“Let me use this opportunity to draw the attention of Nigerians (to the fact) that importation of any kind of military wears by any individual, company, or group is prohibited by Nigerian Law under the Customs and Exercise Management Acts (CEMA),” he explained.

He was interested in everything – in history, philosophy, politics, technology and culture.

Although well-trained in statistics, he avoided the kind of modelling that could only lead to perverse conclusions. He understood the idiom of power and how political struggles impact economic life and the life-chances of millions of people on our planet. He famously dismissed political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood in his native Egypt as a moral subterfuge to short-change the impoverished masses in the Arab world: “We should not just look at the Muslim Brotherhood as a political Islamist power but as a backward movement that rejects workers movements and social justice, preferring to talk about charity as a form to ensure their control over the people”.

Samir Amin was reputed to have coined the term “Eurocentrism”. He decried Europe’s obsessions with its own history, culture and values as being the universal standard of civilisation.

From his youth, he belonged to what the French term “l’homme de gauche”: “I considered myself a communist already at secondary school. Probably we did not know exactly what it meant, but we knew it meant two or three things: it meant equality between human beings and between nations, and it meant that this has been done by the Russian revolution, the Soviet Union”.

Samir Amin was prescient enough to see that the neoliberal international economic

order in our era of globalisation is reaching a crisis point. He foresaw the current retreat from globalisation as spearheaded by the Trump administration’s revocation of the Trans-Atlantic Trade Partnership (TPP) while launching a new trade war that could plunge the world into catastrophe. As far back as 2012, he had warned that the “neo-liberal phase is in state of collapse…It has to adapt, and whether the new system will be biased to the ruling class or the masses, is still to be revealed”.

He once quoted as saying: “We live the autumn of capitalism but not yet the spring of the peoples.”

He received several awards and distinctions during his lifetime, among them the prestigious 2009 Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought in Berlin, Germany.

Tributes have come from far and wide. President Macky Sall of Senegal lamented that the world and “contemporary economic thought had lost one of its illustrious figures”. The President of Bolivia, a statesman of the Left, regretted “the passing of our brother Samir Amin, great anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist Marxist intellectual…The legacy of his ideals of social justice will be eternally acknowledged. Immortal.”

The Secretary General of the Communist Party of France, Pierre Laurent, eulogised “the memory and intelligence, the actions, the generosity and the ever renewed energy (of a man) who dedicated his life to the

popular movements which seek to transform the world”.

The Indian Marxist economist Prabhat Patnaik of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi noted that, “His enthusiasm, his laughter, and his remarkable energy for getting people together and pushing them in the quest for revolutionary praxis, was heart-warming, and infectious”.

Samir Amin was the quintessential organic intellectual as classically understood by the Italian Marxist political philosopher Antonio Gramsci.

Gramsci defined the vocation of the intellectual as not only that of providing theoretical guidance; but also engagement in praxis that enables the people build a better life and a better future. Amilcar Cabral belonged in that company of elects, as did the immortal Franz Fanon, Eduardo Mondlane and Claude Ake of blessed memory.

We give the final word to the public intellectual Pierre Barbancey, who wrote recently in the Parisian newspaper, L’Humanité: “We will no longer see his frail silhouette, his white silver hair, walking the aisles of the Fête de l’Humanité, engaging in informal conversation with activists or participating in debates…like a fish in water, in the midst of hundreds of thousands of progressives from the four corners of France and from further afield, representing struggles that dot the planet.

Samir Amin believed in human emancipation, in the struggle for dignity and freedom…”

Samir Amin and the traditions of...

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its attendant imperialism that fostered ultra-right regimes in Latin America and other parts of the developing South.

Their research programme aimed to unravel the processes and mechanisms blocking economic development in the Third World while allowing the heartland of actually existing capitalism to flourish. Scholars such as Immanuel Wallerstein focused their analysis on a “world system” paradigm and the contradictions it generates in terms of centre-periphery inequities.

Within Latin America in particular, the Dependencia School flourished as an intellectual effort to explain why naturalresource exporting countries in the south were becoming more impoverished while the industrial north was flourishing. They also sought to understand the mechanisms whereby northsouth international economic relations worked to the detriment of the poorest countries.

Raul Prebisch at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) was one of the avant-garde intellectuals in that movement. Others included development economists Celso Furtado and Osvaldo Sunkel; and the sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso who later became President of Brazil.

Samir Amin was on the forefront of radical economists who called for “a humanist response” to globalisation by building new global institutions

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that ensure democracy, greater equity, improved livelihoods, social justice and solidarity. Several African scholars caught the bug, among them Daniel Wadada Nabudere in Uganda, Issa Shivji, Justinian Rweyemamu and Bonaventure Swai in Tanzania; Claude Ake, Eskor Toyo and the Madunagus in Nigeria.

An author of 30 books and over 60 journal articles, Samir Amin was the most influential leftist African economist of the twentieth century. More than any other scholar, he used his pen and his acute mental powers to unravel the machinations of imperialism and global hegemony and how they dominate our continent and undermine our development prospects. During his last years he fingered “American hegemony” and its unilateralist global tendencies as the single greatest challenge the world community is facing at present. He proposed a multipolar alliance comprising Europe, Russia, China and India as a counterforce to checkmate American military, economic and political expansionism.

He was not the narrowminded economist of the type churned out these days from Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Oxford and the London School of Economics. The late British political economist Susan Strange decried them as “one-eyed monsters”. Amin approached economics as a branch of the moral sciences and as a tool for liberation and human dignity.

ternationally ranked for ‘livability’, was near the bottom of the international list. Not to worry. Specific actions, it was concluded, would need to be taken to make the city more ‘livable’. Among these was a return of recreational spaces and neighborhood sports in every locality.

It has been exciting following the ebb and flow of world table tennis over a space of many years. Watching Jan Over Waldner – who is to table tennis what Roger Federer is to the other tennis – the consummate master artist. Watching Segun Toriola explode on the world scene, to the initial alarm of the Swedes and Belgians. Watching other talents emerge and then waste away, because they lacked the discipline of life, such as the great ‘Ofege’, or because, they lacked the work culture and technical support required to stay at the top of an international sport.

There is a frantic struggle among nations to reach the pinnacle. The Chinese seem to have a stranglehold for now. It hasn’t always been like this. The Japanese used to wipe them on the table.

Then the Swedes – Jan Over Waldner and his generation, used to wipe them on the floor. But they dug deep and honed their natural talent. When they took over championship of the male and female game, the Europeans snorted and said the sport would soon die for lack of spectatorship and sponsorship. Who wanted to watch ‘nameless’ Chinese play? And since they had no money how wouldthey make the sport pay?

They have been proved wrong. Chinese are producing new talent on an industrial scale. More and more people are watching table tennis. And – oh – the Chinese now have money.

There are more billionaires in China than the whole of Europe. And their stars are getting rich and living the super-star life. At a recent Championship in Qatar, rich Chinese fans -numbering in the hundreds, chartered whole aircraft to travel to Qatar and book in five-star hotels tocheer their superstar Fan Zhendong to victory.

The message is simple.

For the greater ‘livability’ of Lagos and other Nigerian cities, as well as the need to channel the energy of youth and develop their talents, and also for the need still to hold on to that fond dream that pioneers like Jack Farnsworth and Dr Adegboyega Efunkoya had – that Nigeria has the depth and the talent to face the Chinese down and rule the world someday, everyone would do well to take note of the table and the little ball and the world of possibilities the game of table tennis portends for Nigeria.

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Europopulism: Immigration provides opening for Sweden’s right wing Page A4

Brazil’s economy needs a dose of tough love Page A3

World Business Newspaper

Donald Trump’s scorched earth tactics break with midterm script

US president’s isolation would play to his strength: to campaign rather than to lead Edward Luce

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ny other president would be singing from the rooftops about rising US growth. In less than three months, Donald Trump’s Republicans could lose control of Congress. Yet Mr Trump is focusing on anything but the economy.

Whether he is fretting over the trial of his former campaign manager, branding the media as enemies of the people, or escalating his purge of the so-called deep state, Mr Trump cannot stick to the midterm script. The question is where this will lead him.

The end point is not a pretty one. Two events will dictate the second half of Mr Trump’s term.

The first is the conclusion of Robert Mueller’s investigation. Mr Trump’s lawyers fear he is in a dilemma: if he refuses to be questioned by Mr Mueller, that implies guilt; if he agrees, that entails a huge risk of perjury — both roads lead over a cliff.

The second is the likely Republican defeat in November. A Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, will push Mr Trump to where is most comfortable: running against the swamp.

Railing against Washington — whether it be a Democratic Congress, the growing band of disloyal former Trump loyalists or the federal bureaucracy — would offer a springboard for Mr Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.

Democrats crave a shellacking for the president in November. But Mr Trump’s isolation would also play to his strength, which is to campaign rather than to lead. At a minimum, Democrats would use their subpoena power to expose the Trump administration’s dizzying conflicts of interest. They could tie him up in knots for the rest of his term. At the most, they could embark on impeachment.

US politics has been trapped in the permanent campaign for decades. With every cycle, the next election appears to start earlier.

The outcome in 2020 will be more critical for the world’s future than any election in modern history.

Many people still attribute Mr Trump’s 2016 win to a series of accidents. Hillary Clinton was an uncommonly easy target. James Comey was an unusually inept FBI director. The country was unprepared for the fog of fake news, both Russian-supplied and homegrown. Moreover, Mr Trump lost the popular vote by more than 3m. The quirks of the electoral system twisted in his favour. More than anything, Mr Trump wishes to remove that stigma.

A second Trump victory would confirm the world’s worst fears.

It would signal that the US has permanently altered its character.

Having seen Mr Trump in action, America wanted more of it. The post-America world would hasten into being. Democrats know this.

They also know that the way Mr Trump thinks he can pull this off is by branding them as enemies of the people.

Party leaders also sense that Mr Trump could profit from impeachment much as Bill Clinton did in 1998. The deeper the toxic gridlock in Washington, the more Mr Trump would stoke demand for authoritarian leadership to smash through it. His rhetoric points to that kind of campaign.

Brace yourselves. It is already starting.

That brings us back to the economy. Why would Mr Trump distract from its success? The stock market is high. Growth could exceed 3 per cent in 2018. Unemployment is at near-historic lows.

But that is not enough. Much of today’s growth is the temporary result of last December’s tax cut.

Its effects will recede.

The chances of a recession before 2020 are rising. Besides, most Americans are not feeling today’s boom. The tax windfall has led to a surge in share buybacks and executive pay. It has not fed through into real wage increases.

Nor has it brought back serious manufacturing jobs. Most of the labour market’s growth is in the low end service sector.

China to send vice-ministerial trade delegation to US First formal talks to be held since tariffs imposed on $50bn of goods Lucy Hornby

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hina’s commerce ministry will send a delegation led by vice minister Wang Shouwen to the US for trade talks at the end of August, in the first formal attempt at negotiations since Washington imposed tar-

iffs on $50bn of Chinese goods.

The White House is threatening tariffs on a much larger range of goods, in a potential further blow to China’s export industry, as it tries to pressure US corporations into “reshorContinues on page A2

US president Donald Trump’s story is driven by betrayal; his politics lives by that narrative © AP

Turkey sets out swingeing cuts to respond to lira fall Currency rallies after Albayrak conference call but investors’ questions remain Laura Pitel, Andrew England and Adam Samson

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urkey has set out plans to cut spending to bolster the lira as it seeks to navigate a way out of the crisis that has hit the currency and shaken emerging markets.

In a much-anticipated conference call with 6,000 investors, Berat Albayrak, finance minister, indicated the country would largely use fiscal measures to slow down the economy and reduce a hefty current account deficit and inflation running at 16 per cent.

Mr Albayrak said the government would be asking ministries for expenditure cuts of 10-30 per cent and that it would be aiming at a primary surplus of TL6bn for the rest of this year — which analysts suggested could be Turkey’s biggest fiscal tightening this century.

His comments, in which he also ruled out capital controls, boosted the lira, which rose 1 per

cent against the dollar during the call. The currency was trading at TL5.7274 during late afternoon trading, up almost 4 per cent on the day. This compares with a low of TL7.2362 at the start of the week.

Mr Albayrak also saod that Turkey was working on a “fiscal rule” to enshrine budgetary discipline in primary legislation.

One fund manager on the call said that Mr Albayrak tried hard to reassure investors that Turkey was safe, the banking sector was sound and that recent volatility of the lira was not driven by fundamental factors. “[There were] all the positive noises, but nothing we haven’t heard many times in the past,” the fund manager said.

“The first question was on capital controls; it should have given the government a pulse of the investors’ sentiments and they should have heard the message loud and clear,” said Abhishek

Kumar, lead EMD manager at State Street Global Advisors, who added he was reassured that no such plans were on the agenda.

Turkey also has to deal with an intensifying dispute with Washington and is concerned about possible sanctions on Halkbank, a state-owned lender, for evasion of US sanctions on Iran. Mr Albayrak said that the government did not expect any sanctions on Halkbank, but that it was prepared to stand by its banks.

Trump administration sanctions on two Turkish cabinet ministers over Ankara’s detention of a US pastor sharply accelerated the lira’s fall last week, as did increased US tariffs on imports of Turkish steel and aluminium.

The lira has since rallied for three straight days as regulators clamped down on speculative selling. The currency is still down almost 15 per cent for August alone, with Turkey’s stock market and bonds also under pressure.

Walmart US sales rise at quickest clip in more than 10 years Shares jump almost 10% after strong second quarter Mamta Badkar

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almart on Thursday unveiled the strongest growth in a key sales metric in more than a decade and said its US online division accelerated in the second quarter, sparking a sharp rally in its share price.

The Arkansas-based retailer said comparable store sales in the US rose 4.5 per cent — the strongest growth in more than 10 years driven by grocery, clothing and seasonal items — supported by warmer weather and traffic growth of more than 2 per cent in stores.

Total revenues rose 3.8 per cent from a year ago to $128bn topping expectations of Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters of $125.97bn. Its online sales in the US rose 40 per cent, compared with 33 per cent in the first quarter but slower than the more than 50 per cent growth

recorded in the year ago period.

The upbeat results pushed shares in the retail heavyweight up 9.7 per cent in the opening minutes of trading in New York.

The company reported a net loss of $861m or 29 cents a share in the quarter ended in July, compared with a profit of $2.9bn or earnings of 96 cents a share in the year ago quarter. The company blamed a $4.5bn net loss from the sale of 80 per cent of Walmart Brazil, with a significant part of that loss tied to foreign currency translation. Earnings were also affected by an unrealised loss on equity investment in JD.com and US tax reform.

Adjusting for one-time items, earnings of $1.29 a share, topped analyst estimates of $1.22.

“We’re pleased with how customers are responding to the way we’re leveraging stores and ecommerce to make shopping faster and more

convenient,” said chief executive Doug McMillon.

The company has updated its website to lure in more shoppers and is also working on improving its store operations by expanding home delivery in the US and rolling out click-and-collect locations for online grocery pick-ups.

Walmart expanded its battleground with Amazon earlier this year by pouring $16bn into Indian e-commerce company Flipkart. India’s online sales market is worth nearly $30bn today, but is set to grow 27.8 per cent a year for the next five years, according to Euromonitor.

More broadly, Walmart has redrawn its international playbook. The company agreed to sell a majority stake of Asda in the UK for a combination of shares and cash, as part of a merger with J Sainsbury. It has also abandoned markets such as Germany and South Korea.

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FT China to send vice-ministerial trade...

Continued from page A1 ing” production.

China, in return, is attempting to appeal to Wall Street and US companies by rolling out longsought investment liberalisation measures, especially in the financial services sector. It has pointedly prioritised access for European and Asian companies, as a reminder to Americans of the opportunity costs of the trade tariffs.

“They are making the message clearer, and louder, on what China is doing to open the financial services sector, but I don’t know how much the west is buying that,” said Zhu Ning, a finance professor at Tsinghua University.

The trade tariffs have precipitated a broader debate within China about how the country’s economy should be steered.

There has been a marked reduction in references to the Made In China 2025 industrial policy or to the Belt and Road international investment push, both policies associated with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

The Chinese team will negotiate with a US delegation led by David Malpass, undersecretary for international affairs at the US Treasury department. China’s delegation received an invitation from the US, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.

China’s more senior officials overseeing the US relationship were noticeably absent from the working-level delegation, indicating Chinese caution over the ability of any American official to reach a binding deal.

Mr Wang has been the point person within the commerce ministry for the trade war that has dominated Sino-US relations this year. Mr Malpass oversees trade in financial services, among other briefs.

“Any negotiations would require a new measurable deliverable,” said Jake Parker, of the US-China Business Council in Beijing. “That would be an important barometer of future success in engagement.”

A series of trade talks between senior US and Chinese officials petered out earlier this summer after Beijing failed to meet Washington’s increasingly tough demands aimed at drastically reducing the imbalance in trade between the two countries.

China, which is challenging both US trade tariffs and domestic subsidies for industries like solar at the World Trade Organization, emphasised that it opposes “unilateral or protectionist” measures.

Earlier this month, it released a list of US imports worth $60bn a year to be hit with penalties after President Donald Trump instructed his officials to consider tariffs of 25 per cent on $200bn of Chinese goods.

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Tencent profit decline reflects China’s firmer state control Video game income hit by regulatory roadblocks in rare setback for ‘national champion’

Louise Lucas

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Demonstrators with placards at a march for agroecology and civil resistance against Monsanto in Bordeaux, France, last year © AFP

US legal woes drive Bayer shares to 5-year low California court declines to hear Monsanto appeal over chemical in Roundup weedkiller Tobias Buck and Camilla Hodgson

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ayer shares fell to their lowest level in five years on Thursday, after the German pharmaceutical and chemicals group was hit by another legal setback in the US linked to Monsanto’s widely used weedkiller Roundup.

The California supreme court on Wednesday declined to hear Monsanto’s appeal to have the main chemical in the product — which will become part of the Bayer portfolio in the wake of its $62.5bn acquisition of Monsanto — removed from an official list of carcinogenic substances.

The decision came just days after a separate California court ruling that awarded $289m in damages to a school groundskeeper with terminal cancer. The jury found that his illnesses were the direct result of his exposure to Roundup and RangerPro, two Monsanto weedkillers that include

the chemical glyphosate.

Bayer shares fell more than 6 per cent to €76 in afternoon trading on Thursday, amid heightened investor concern over the group’s exposure to glyphosate legal risks.

Analysts have pointed out that there are up to 5,000 cases awaiting trial in the US which make broadly the same allegations as the case of the California groundskeeper.

The shares have lost almost 19 per cent of their value since the first California verdict came out last Friday. Bayer’s losses have hit investors including David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, the struggling hedge fund which declared in a recent investor letter that the company was one of the firm’s biggest positions.

“Glyphosate litigation risk [is] likely to remain an overhang” for Bayer, said Ian Hilliker, analyst at Jefferies. “Until we have some initial outcomes from the appeals process and other early cases, the uncertainty created by the initial

damages ruling is now likely to act as a significant overhang on the stock.”

Wednesday’s court decision came after Monsanto had sued a division of California’s Environmental Protection Agency for its decision to add glyphosate to its list of hazardous chemicals. However, a California county court ruled last year against Monsanto.

The group then appealed against the lower court’s decision to side with California. It argued the initial ruling should not have relied on findings in 2015 from the International Agency for Research on Cancer that glyphosate was a “probable” carcinogen. The California Appeals Court in April rejected Monsanto’s argument and affirmed the county court’s decision. Monsanto then filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court, but on Wednesday justices declined to hear the case.

Justice Ming Chin thought the petition for the appeal should have been granted, according to the court’s docket.

Africa cannot count on a demographic dividend Population growth will not necessarily translate into rising living standards David Pilling

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n 1957, when Ghana became the first African country to win its independence, there were 6.05m Ghanaians and some 200m people living in sub-Saharan Africa. Today Ghana’s population has more than quadrupled to 29m and sub-Saharan Africa’s has nearly quintupled to 1bn. This is just the start. Africa is on the verge of an unprecedented population explosion.

If you asked people to identify the most important trends shaping the world, many would name climate change, the rise of China, the potential of artificial intelligence or the surge of nationalism.

Few would mention the dramatic increase of the population in a continent that to many is an afterthought.

That view will become harder to sustain. Populations in Europe and the Americas have stopped growing. The population of Asia will peak at around 5bn by 2050.

For the next century, most of the increase in the world’s population will happen in Africa.

The UN’s base case is that the number of Africans will double in 30 years to 2bn and at least double again, to 4bn, by the end of the century. If all those new people can find jobs and opportunity, global growth will gradually shift to Africa.

If, as seems equally plausible, they cannot, Africa could become a focus of instability and desperation. Food shortages could worsen, exacerbated by climate change. Clashes such as those between Nigeria’s Fulani herdsman and sedentary farmers that have claimed thousands of lives could intensify along with the struggle for land and resources.

The population of Nigeria alone, 45m at independence and 180m today, is expected to more than double again by 2050, surpassing that of the US. In African Exodus, Asfa-Wossen Asserate, an Ethiopian who has spent his adult life in Germany, says future waves of immigration to Europe could dwarf existing numbers. “Above all, it is a general lack of prospects that is driving Africans from their

homes,” he writes.

The median age in sub-Saharan Africa is 19.5. That compares with 38 in the US, 43 in the EU and 47 in Japan. Much population growth is baked into the existing demographic pie. In 1960, roughly one in 10 of the world’s population was African. By the end of the century that will be more than one in three.

Some argue that this is Africa’s demographic dividend. Just as Asia did before it, Africa will reap its rewards in terms of high growth and rising living standards. But this is to misunderstand what a demographic dividend is. If adding people were enough, then Africa would already be rich.

The true meaning of a demographic dividend is a drop in the dependency ratio, or a rise in the working-age population relative to young people and retirees. By this measure, Africa does not have a dividend at all. It has a deficit — one that is widening. In much of the world, the working age population (15-64) makes up 60-70 per cent of the total. In Africa, it makes up just 54 per cent.

encent’s disappointing second-quarter earnings rippled through markets from Hong Kong to Johannesburg, where major shareholder Naspers saw its shares plunge as much as 10 per cent and dragged down the entire index. But perhaps the bigger shock was that its status as a Chinese “national champion” could not protect it from the whim of Beijing.

China’s second most valuable company reported a 2 per cent drop in profits on Wednesday attributable to shareholders to Rmb17.87bn ($2.59bn). Shares in the company behind WeChat, China’s dominant social media platform, and the hugely popular Honour of Kings video game have been battered this year. Tencent’s market value has dropped about $170bn since January, and the stock fell a further 3 per cent on Thursday.

The hand of government was particularly visible in the 19 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in income from video games, with the company hit by a revamp at the state regulator that has effectively frozen the approval process for new games. Beijing even forced Tencent this week to pull Monster Hunter: World, a title that had already signed up more than 1m pre-orders, just days after it was launched for failing to pass content requirements.

The company is confident that this is about to change. Martin Lau, Tencent’s president, told analysts on the earnings call that it was a question of “when not if” licences for new games start to be approved.

“The administration is aware it’s now affecting the industry as a whole,” he said. He pointed out that the government had created a fasttrack process to grant temporary approvals to enable game publishers to make money — through in-house purchases of weapons and other in-game assets — for one month. As to the timing of more permanent licensing, however, Mr Lau admitted “we don’t have visibility”.

Tencent has been dealt government blows before, notably when Honour of Kings was attacked as an addictive “poison” last year.

A day after the company started limiting the amount of time children spent on the game, its market capitalisation fell by $15bn.

Duncan Clark, chairman of tech consultancy BDA, said Beijing’s move to take on the gaming industry fitted with a broader move by President Xi Jinping to tighten political control.

“If religion was the opium of the masses, maybe mobile games were the opium of the modern masses” in China, he said. “You can see how that shifts the previous consensus that [gaming] was a way of keeping people occupied.”

Now, Mr Clark added, the Chinese Communist party wanted to “take the remote control”.

Tencent had broadly been seen as enjoying good relations with Beijing. Pony Ma, its chairman and chief executive, is a member of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, and devotes substantial time to dealing with government officials, according to people close to the company.

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Brazil’s economy needs a dose of tough love Nation’s next leader must be able to see through comprehensive reforms Joe Leahy

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urkish strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed yet again this week that it is easier to dictate to one’s own people than to international markets, with disastrous results for the lira.

But now that campaigning has officially begun in Brazil for elections in October in which a far-right military captain Jair Bolsonaro is leading the early polls, investors are facing the question — could Latin America’s largest country soon have its own Erdogan and what might this mean for markets?

As with other emerging markets, Brazil’s real has felt shockwaves from the lira’s collapse, with the Latin American currency weakening against the dollar by 3.6 per cent since the start of the month. Brazil’s benchmark Ibovespa equities index also lost 5.6 per cent last week in the heat of the Turkish crisis, although it bounced back slightly on this week.

The emerging market jitters have come as Brazil is struggling to recover from the worst recession in its modern history. Economists in the latest weekly survey of analysts by the central bank are now forecasting 1.49 per cent growth this year, down from nearly 3 per cent expected in January.

Part of this weakness is post-“Great Recession” blues, according to UBS economist Tony Volpon. After enjoying a long boom in which credit to gross domestic product more than doubled, the economy is now suffering, with the recession of 2015-2016 still weighing on growth through high unemployment alongside high (and rising) public debt.

The weak economy and underfunded public services, particularly state police forces and hospitals, have boosted support for Mr Bolsonaro’s brand of politics. Once on the fringe of Brazilian statecraft, the member of congress-turned-presidential candidate has captivated some voters with his hard talk on gunning down criminals à la Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.

He yearns for Brazil’s former military dictatorship and has offended minority groups. His blunt political style recalls US president Donald Trump, and his nationalist tendencies Mr Erdogan.

On the economy and markets, however, rather than espousing unorthodox solutions such as Mr Erdogan, Mr Bolsonaro says he knows nothing about economics. Nor, he says, does he need to. “Am I going to a university entrance examination or a political campaign?” he said in an interview published by O Globo newspaper.

He says he defers to his economic adviser, University of Chicago-trained banker and investor Paulo Guedes.

Markets like Mr Guedes’ strongly liberal economic leanings, including his promises to privatise state-owned enterprises that are prone to corruption, pay down debt and fix a runaway budget deficit.

A dose of tough love is definitely what the economy needs. Public debt in Brazil is running at close to 80 per cent, well above other emerging markets with similar credit ratings. While this at least is mostly denominated in real, Brazil’s high interest rates mean the government wastes much of its tax revenue paying its creditors. This suits banks and wealthier Brazilians, who have savings, but is terrible for the economy and lower income earners, who would benefit from greater investment in infrastructure, education, public services and job creation.

The problem is whether he and Mr Guedes can deliver on their pledges.

Lacking any coalition in Brazil’s notoriously fractious congress, they will struggle to push through their controversial economic programme.

Some of the plans, such as urgently needed reform of Brazil’s overgenerous and unjust pension system, could run against Mr Bolsonaro’s own tendencies. It is unlikely, for instance, that he would back any pension reform affecting Brazil’s military and police.

Indeed, he said he would not vote for a pension reform proposed by the current president Michel Temer.

Emerging markets: Base wraith rise

Dip in MSCI index spooks bears, but it could be a flapping bedsheet

Peter Wells

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ear markets are like ghosts. They can hang around for a while before manifesting. Market strategists are the mediums who try to call them out. One ominous shred of ectoplasm is a 20 per cent drop in a stock benchmark. The MSCI Emerging Markets index dipped that much from its high on Wednesday.

The simplicity of that measure belies the complexity of the asset groups represented. Have bears spotted a spook, or a bedsheet flapping on a washing line?

Over the past 30 years, the emerging markets index has tumbled sharply nine times before. Of those, five presaged bear periods in the months that followed, with a sideways-todownward trajectory on the price chart. Not exactly a surefire indicator.

Look at EM stocks via the MSCI local currency index and the drop in 2018 is

just 14 per cent. Currency shifts often account for a fair portion of movement in the better known dollar-based benchmark.

The average price volatility of the EM index (around a 15-day moving average) has been 17 per cent in the past decade. That is several percentage points higher than for developed market equities. Volatility has hardly exploded recently, compared with what happened in 2015 and 2011 when world markets were in turmoil.

And not much compares with the global financial crisis.

This year, emerging market equities have trailed their developed peers by 12 percentage points — a wide margin. Fingers can be pointed at China, which represents almost a third of the MSCI index. Large internet-related companies such as Tencent and Alibaba are proxies whose price falls reflect tighter credit, nervousness over real estate and a trade war with the US.

The lira has lost more than 40% of its value against the dollar this year

Jair Bolsonaro has forged an early lead for elections taking place in October © Reuters

Seven out of 10 people in UK now bank online Proportion doubles in a decade as mobile use surges, ONS study reveals James Pickford

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hile email is still the most common reason people use the internet, online banking is the fastest-growing use.

According to a survey by the Office for National Statistics — looking at the UK population, not just internet users — 69 per cent said they banked online, almost double the proportion recorded 10 years ago (35 per cent).

The ONS began running its survey in 1998. In the case of internet usage, people were asked about their use in the January, February and April before the survey.

How does that compare with the figures on overall internet use?

It is more or less in line. Since 2006, the share of adults who use the internet every day has risen from 35 per cent to 86 per cent.

The percentage who had not used the internet in the three months of the survey dropped to 9 per cent this year. In 2006, it was 40 per cent.

How are people doing their banking online?

Increasingly they are checking balances and making payments on the move, favouring phones and tablets over desktop and laptop com-

puters. Research by consultancy CACI estimated that the number of bank customers using mobile apps will more than double between 2017 and 2022, while desktop or laptop banking activity will drop 63 per cent during the same period.

Banks continue to reduce their networks of branches, accelerating the shift online in rural or remote areas.

Is it reliable?

Online banking remains a relatively young development in the sector and public confidence in it has been knocked this year by some damaging incidents. In June, Visa’s payment system suffered an outage that meant many businesses and customers across Europe were temporarily unable to make or receive payments.

Though it was quickly fixed, it came on the heels of an IT meltdown at TSB that left customers unable to access their online accounts for weeks at a stretch. After the bank moved customer data on to a new IT platform in April, the resulting problems brought complaints from thousands of angry account holders and sparked regulatory and political investigations. TSB chalked up costs of £176m related to the incident.

What about fraud?

Identity fraud— which accounts for half of all fraud — happens overwhelmingly online, with 87 per cent of frauds occurring via the internet, according to Cifas, the UK fraud prevention service.

This type of fraud happens when a criminal opens an account or buys something in the victim’s name without their knowledge. To carry it out, they must have personal information such as name, date of birth, address and bank — details that a fraudster might obtain by stealing post, buying illicit data, tricking people into giving away their personal information or harvesting it from social media.

Sounds like I should steer clear!

You should take care but it is possible to avoid some of these risks. You can, for instance, avoid posting personal details on social media while being sure to use strong passwords. The benefits and convenience of online banking are likely to continue to drive the takeup. Encouragingly, the Cifas data also show that identity fraud overall has dropped for the first time since 2014, with a fall in fraud relating to bank accounts and mobile phone contracts (against a rise in plastic card and retail account fraud).

Amazon insurance talks push comparison sites lower Shares fall on reports online retailer in discussions to establish UK prices website Judith Evans

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hares in UK price comparison websites dropped on Wednesday after Amazon was revealed to be in talks with the insurance industry to establish its own such site.

Moneysupermarket.com shares were down 3.5 per cent to £2.89, while GoCompare fell 1.2 per cent to £1.13. Admiral, the FTSE 100 insurer that owns the comparison site Confused.com — covering car, home and travel insurance — was down 1.1 per cent to £20.38 by noon.

The online retail giant is in talks with insurers about establishing a UK price comparison website, Reuters reported. A person familiar with the discussions confirmed the plans.

The talks are at an early stage, but the service would represent a fresh push into financial services in the region, where Amazon already offers branded Mastercard credit cards and extended warranties.

There are no imminent plans for a launch but the talks have involved some of Europe’s top insurers. Amazon declined to comment.

Fellow technology group Google has already tried its hand and withdrawn from the same market.

Google ran its Compare service from 2012 to 2016, covering UK car and travel insurance, mortgages and credit cards, but said it had not “driven the success we hoped for”.

Kamran Hossain, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said Amazon could undercut other price comparison sites by charging insurers less for leads through its own service.

“Typically insurers will pay £50 to £60 for a car insurance policy if someone takes it out via a price comparison website. They could pitch to insurers by charging, say, half of that,” he said.

“There would be a natural flow [of consumers] towards an Amazon website. I imagine [insurers] would be really open to it.”

Other price comparison sites have spent heavily on consumer advertising to build their brands, using distinctive characters such as talking meerkats and mustachioed opera singers.

Any new Amazon service “would be a net negative for other price comparison websites — here’s some competition that has money to burn and a track record getting things done,” Mr Hossain added.

Amazon last year placed a job advertisement for a manager in EU product insurance to “take part in launching a new business”, sparking speculation in the industry over its plans. It has offered third-party product insurance and warranties since 2016, underwritten by The Warranty Group.

In the US, Amazon has moved into the healthcare business through a new joint venture with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway, with the stated aim of lowering costs.

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ANALYSIS Goldman agreed to support fund with Lars Windhorst ties German financier in spotlight after lawsuit against US investment bank Robert Smith

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Europopulism: Immigration provides opening for Sweden’s right wing Isolated by the political mainstream, the Sweden Democrats could become one of the biggest parties Richard Milne

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n Hassleholm, a small, drab city in southern Sweden, a minor political earthquake took place last year. The Sweden Democrats, an antiimmigration, populist rightwing party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, have long been ostracised by all other Swedish political groups. But last spring three centre-right parties in Hassleholm used the Sweden Democrats to oust the centre-left-led local council.

In return, the centre-right backed the Sweden Democrats to take the deputy chair of the city council, the first time the populists had received such support. For a brief period last autumn, Hassleholm’s council even recommended the Sweden Democrats’ budget for 2018 before the mainstream centre-right one was later adopted.

“All the time, my dream was to get to power. The legitimacy of the Sweden Democrats is higher if we show we can lead — lead a municipality, a country. This is the first step,” says Patrik Jonsson, deputy chair of Hassleholm city council and the Sweden Democrats’ regional head in Skane.

In national elections on September 9, the Sweden Democrats are hoping for a much bigger political earthquake. Opinion polls over the past two weeks have given them everything from 16.8 per cent to 25.5 per cent, placing them anywhere from third to first place.

At the very least, they are likely to become potential kingmakers and challengers to the centre-left and centre-right blocs that have ruled for decades. The centre-left Social Democrats have been the largest party in the Scandinavian country for more than a century.

A strong showing by the Sweden Democrats would bring its own pressures: it would have to decide whether it wants to be a mere party of protest or a party of influence.

Nordic neighbours have either seen rightwing populist parties enter government such as Norway and Finland or seen them gain considerable influence in parliament in Denmark.

But such an outcome would be a deep shock to consensus-driven Sweden, which has long prided itself on being perhaps the most open European country to immigrants at the same time as offering a generous welfare state.

It would put both Sweden’s traditional political system under immense strain and call into question

the long-term cordon sanitaire that the main parties have tried to place around the populist party. It would also bring to the centre of political debate the Sweden Democrats’ policies on immigration and of holding a referendum over whether Sweden should leave the EU. For all these reasons, the results will be watched closely across the rest of Europe. While the European mainstream survived a series of challenges from the far-right in 2017, the results this year in Italy and potentially now in Sweden have demonstrated that the region remains vulnerable to the populist message, especially on the topic of immigration.

Until now, the isolation of the Sweden Democrats has been a deliberate policy of the mainstream parties. When the current centre-left Swedish government called in all parliamentary parties to discuss immigration in 2015 at the peak of the migration crisis, it pointedly failed to invite the Sweden Democrats.

“The other parties have invested so much in the isolation of the Sweden Democrats,” says Ann-Cathrine Jungar, a leading researcher into the radical right at Sodertorn University.

The Sweden Democrats have in many ways benefited from their exclusion. The establishment political parties in Sweden long held similarly positive views on immigration. That meant that when Sweden received 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 — more relative to its population than almost any other European country — the Sweden Democrats initially stood alone in warning of the consequences.

“The other parties tied their hands behind their backs,” says Anders Sannerstedt, an expert on the Sweden Democrats at Lund University.

The party’s message over the decades has been remarkably consistent: Sweden’s generous welfare provisions for the elderly and unemployed are under threat from immigration. A party advert from 2010 shows a pensioner moving slowly towards the state budget, only to be outpaced by a group of burka-clad women pushing prams. Mr Jonsson says: “Immigration is costly: it takes resources from teachers, doctors, social workers. It affects everything else, and we can’t look away from that.”

Its surge in support was checked in 2016 and 2017 as the establishment parties, led by the governing Social Democrats, tightened up the rules on immigration. But in 2018 the Sweden Democrats have become ever more popular, topping several opinion polls and spreading

something close to panic among the other parties as to how to deal with them.

They are also benefiting from public concern about violent crime.

Just this week about 100 cars were set on fire by groups of youths in what appeared to be organised attacks centred on the western city of Gothenburg.

Faced by a suggestion from the Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson to send in troops to quell gang shootings and grenade attacks in the suburbs, prime minister Stefan Lofven initially was open to the idea, before later backtracking.

“It’s harder for other politicians to distance themselves from the Sweden Democrats as they themselves make policies that are close to the Sweden Democrats on immigration. They have become legitimised,” says Ms Jungar.

Paula Bieler, a senior MP and the Sweden Democrats’ spokesperson on immigration, says many voters have become disillusioned by the other parties’ inconsistent views on immigration.

“If you represent 20 per cent and the other parties don’t even want to negotiate or co-operate, the pettiness of it all makes people lose confidence in the other parties,” she adds. It is not just immigration that attracts people to the party; a survey

by Kantar Sifo suggested Sweden Democrats voters tend to feel that politicians do not listen to them or respect their way of life.

For the other parties, the reason for the Sweden Democrats’ isolation is simple: the party’s roots in the neo-Nazi movement. The party grew out of several fascist groups including one “Keep Sweden Swedish”, which also became an early slogan for the Sweden Democrats.

“Neo-fascists” is how Mr Lofven calls them, and there is a visceral dislike from left-wingers.

But the Sweden Democrats have become more moderate since they were founded in 1988. Mr Akesson, in charge since 2005, has led a purge of dozens of members for openly racist views. A new party — Alternative for Sweden — was started last year, drawing several of the Sweden Democrats’ most high-profile extreme members. Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former adviser, says the party is “perfect casting” for the movement of “right-wing, populist nationalists” he wants to encourage in Europe.

Controversies still surface, however, most recently when a senior Sweden Democrat MP said that Jews and Sami people were not Swedish.

oldman Sachs agreed to act as prime broker to a fund linked to Lars Windhorst, the European financier in the spotlight after a whistleblower complaint against the US investment bank.

In a lawsuit filed in the US last week, Christopher Rollins, a managing director and 16-year Goldman veteran, claimed he was fired in 2017 as part of an effort to avoid a compliance scandal stemming from multiple trades connected to a “notorious European businessman”.

The suit referred to Goldman arranging the sale of a “large stake” in a listed company on behalf of the unnamed financier in July 2016. That month Mr Windhorst’s investment firm, Sapinda, sold a more than €400m stake in Austrian property group Buwog through the US bank.

Mr Rollins was fired from Gold-

A well-known entrepreneur in his native Germany, Mr Windhorst suffered a personal bankruptcy, oversaw several company insolvencies and received a suspended jail sentence in 2009 but then reformed his businesses around holding company Sapinda.

Shard Capital has provided services to several businesses linked to Sapinda group. Deloitte last year claimed that Shard Capital Partners supplied confirmation letters that included “deliberately false” information in its role as custodian to Sapinda Invest, a special purpose vehicle created to invest in Mr Windhorst’s portfolio companies. Shard Capital last year “categorically” denied the audit firm’s allegations, saying they gave answers to Deloitte in good faith and believed them to be true.

When Goldman signed on as prime broker to Shard Capital Partners, Mr Windhorst was in talks to seed the new Luxembourg

Lars Windhorst

man after several trades linked to Mr Windhorst failed to settle in August 2016, leaving the bank facing an $85m exposure. But the former Goldman banker alleges in his suit that other senior executives had previously steered a series of transactions related to the financier past the bank’s risk controls.

Documents seen by the Financial Times show that, a year before Mr Rollins’s disputed trades, Goldman signed on as a prime broker to a new fund that a firm that Mr Windhorst was a client of was trying to launch.

Prime brokers offer securities lending, cash management, trading and other services to hedge funds.

London-based Shard Capital Partners LLP was in 2015 looking to raise money for a new series of Luxembourg funds called Shard Capital Funds. While the efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, company filings in Luxembourg show that the US investment bank agreed to act as prime broker to these funds in September 2015.

Marketing documents for Shard Capital Funds seen by the FT also refer to Goldman as its “London prime broker”.

Mr Windhorst denies he was the businessman referenced in the complaint from Mr Rollins. An exhibit to the suit is a letter from Mr Rollins to Goldman executives, referring to a 2015 article in the Financial Times profiling the German financier.

funds, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The fund’s annual report published in August 2015 said that “a seed investor is standing by with $30 million in specie seed capital”, although it did not specify who this investor was.

However, its next annual report from September 2016 said that by the time the fund was ready to launch “alas, our original seed investor had moved on”.

The statement added that the seed investor might still invest “through one of his portfolios” to launch a “Special Opportunities Fund”. The marketing documents seen by the FT said this Special Opportunities Fund would invest in “high yield illiquid bonds and stocks that are usually asset or story backed”.

A spokesman for Shard Capital said it does not comment on “speculation regarding clients or investors”. A spokesman for Mr Windhorst said he was not the seed investor referred to in the annual reports, nor was he involved in the launch of a Special Opportunities Fund. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Shard Capital also helped carry out several sale and repurchase agreements of illiquid bonds on behalf of Mr Windhorst and his Sapinda group, according to multiple traders and fund managers.

The German financier has had to fend off lawsuits in recent years due to his failure to settle several such agreements to repurchase bonds.

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I FRIDAY 17 AUGUST 2018

Opinion Samir Amin and the traditions of the organic intellectual

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t was with sadness that we learned of the passing, in a Paris hospital, of the Egyptian-French Marxist economist Samir Amin (19312018) on Sunday 12 August, age 87. He had been battling complications from a brain tumour that had crippled him and affected his memory. He was easily one of the most prolific Marxist scholars of the 20th century; a giant who leaves behind the legacy of a permanent influence.

I recall my first meeting with him in Dakar. It was on the occasion of the First Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and the Diaspora in October 2004.

The stars on my constellation seemed extraordinarily wellaligned during those days. We had lunch together at the Hotel le Meridien, overlooking the ancient lagoon leading to Gorée Island. Sitting with us at table were the great historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo of Burkina Faso and former UNESCO Director-General Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow. I felt like a highly privileged student in the company of those intellectual glitterati.

Samir Amin, as I remember him, was a humble, soft-spoken, witty and deeply thoughtful person; with penetrating blue eyes and a crown of slightly overgrown, dishevelled white hair. I found him to be a great raconteur and conversational-

ist. He regaled us with unforgettable anecdotes about some of the interesting people he had met in the course of a remarkable intellectual career.

A particular anecdote that I would not forget was the strange phone call he received one summer evening after he had retired back to his home in the suburbs of Dakar, following a long day in the office. With some palpable anxiety, the voice at the other end asked to confirm if it was Professor Samir Amin at the receiving end. He answered on the affirmative. Somewhat hesitantly, he on his part asked who was calling. The voice replied, “Thomas – Thomas from Ouagadougou”. He was puzzled.

Which Thomas could that be?

The voice replied, “Thomas Sankara”. He was overwhelmed!

He got up on his two feet and solemnly inquired what he could possibly do for the new President of Burkina Faso.

President Sankara replied, to this effect: “Professor, I have been one of your great admirers since my student days. I have read a lot of your works. I am fully in agreement with your diagnoses of imperialism, dependency and underdevelopment. I also subscribe to your prescriptions in terms of the policy of de-linking. Now that we are in power, we need you to urgently come and advise us

on how to de-link from world imperialism.”

He confessed to us that he had never been more bewildered in his entire life. He had a difficult time convincing the young president that theoretical discourses should not be taken too literally when it comes to the nitty-gritty of designing economic policies that involve the livelihoods and life-chances of real people in the real world.

Samir Amin was born in Cairo on 3 August 1931 to an

‘

He had a difficult time convincing the young president that theoretical discourses should not be taken too literally when it comes to the nitty-gritty of designing economic policies that involve the livelihoods and life-chances of real people in the real world.

,

Egyptian father and a French mother. Both parents were medical doctors. His has a privileged upper middle class upbringing. He spent his childhood and youth in Port Said, where he attended the local French Lycée. He later proceeded to Paris for his university studies; earning a degree in Political Science from the Institut d’Études Politiques (Sciences Po). He did a graduate degree

HumanAngle FEMI OLUGBILE Physician, psycho-profiler and essayist

T

he sporting news of the last weekend (never mind the resumption of the Premier League in the UK) is that for the first time in the six-year history of the ITTF Nigeria Open Table Tennis Championships, a Nigerian – Aruna Quadri has emerged as the winner of the prized Men’s Singles title.

The competition featured players from twenty-seven nations – the largest diversity of international players ever hosted by Nigeria.

Table tennis is a sport that is played by millions all over the world. It could actually stake a claim to be the most-played sport for recreation. Everybody somewhere somehow gets to play table tennis at some time.

The player could be Barack Obama whose weapon is a mean left-handed service, or David Cameron. Or Christian Ronaldo. Or busy executives, exchanging furious strokes on the table at Ikoyi Club.

To watch the celebration

in statistics and a doctorate in political economy. His dissertation was supervised by the eminent economist François Perroux who was himself deeply sympathetic to the cause of economic and social emancipation of Africa and other underdeveloped regions.

Samir Amin was a prominent student activist who also flirted with the French Communist Party. The Soviet version of communism did not suit his critical intellectual tempera-

ment. He left them in favour of a more Maoist and more independent leftism. The France of that epoch was a maelstrom of social and economic upheavals, labour unrest and students’ activism. He would no doubt have been influenced

by Quartier Latin intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Raymond Aron, Roger Garaudy, Régis Debray, Jacques

turned on a knife’s edge and kept spectators holding their breath until the very last stroke.

But the roots of organized table tennis in Nigeria go back much farther.

As far back as the 1940s and 1950s, there were table tennis playing ‘Boys and

The story of a table and a little round ball of the crowd in the hall, who included the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the observer would be forgiven for thinking an earth-shaking event has just taken place.

In a corner of the spectator stand hung a banner proclaiming ‘Aruna Fans Club’. They came with a talking drum. Every so often the drummer played a line, and the crowd picked up the refrain.

Aruna Quadri is ranked number 18 in the world - the highest ranking of any Nigerian player ever.

Many table tennis romantics would remember the days of Atanda Musa (‘Mansa Musa’), who was a superstar, and something of a cult-figure in Lagos sporting circles. His alter ego was Yomi Bankole, aka ‘Ofege’ – a highly skilled player with the build and mannerisms

Derrida, Michel Foucault, Nicos Poulantzas and Louis Althusser.

After completing his studies in France, he returned to Egypt in 1957 to serve as an economist in the government’s Institute for Economic Management in Cairo. The unfortunate political repression of communist sympathisers by the regime of Gamal Abdel Nassir forced him to leave his homeland in 1960. He left for Bamako where he was to serve as an Adviser in Economic Planning to the Government of Mali.

In 1963 he was appointed Fellow of the UN regional Institute for Development Planning (IDEP) in Dakar. In 1970 he was promoted to the position of Executive Director of IDEP. During those years he researched and wrote prolifically. In-between his work at the Institute, he co-founded and served as pioneer Executive Secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) during the years 1973-1975. In 1980 he retired from IDEP and took up the position of Director of the Third World Forum in Dakar. He also held concurrent professorships at the universities of Poitiers, Dakar and Paris Samir Amin belonged to the tradition of Radical Political Economy that flowered in the 1950s and 1960s, and associated with scholars such

competition.

And in 1951, the Nigeria Table Tennis Association was formed, headed by an Englishman – Jack Farnsworth.

The first ‘national’ competition was held in the same year, and the champion was Alaba Vaughan.

Table tennis was a popular participation sport all over the island and mainland of Lagos. Tables of various

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The disappearance of table tennis boards and the recreational culture from the streets and neighborhoods of Nigerian cities, especially Lagos, has gone in tandem with a ‘hardening’ of the soul of the Nigerian city

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of a pugilist. The epic battles between Musa and Bankole played out to standing room only crowds at the old Rowe Park and other venues, with supporters exchanging war songs and sometimes blows.

Almost always the game

Girls” clubs at Alakoro, Okoawo, Ijero, Olowogbowo, Obalende, Isalegangan, Lafiaji and Faji. On twenty-first November 1949, The Lagos and District Table Tennis Association was formed. It began a league competition among clubs. The Mayor of Lagos, Mr. Olorunnimbe, donated a trophy for the club

descriptions – not always ‘standard’, existed in most neighborhoods. The little children were not left out of the fun. Small wooden contraptions of various descriptions – they called them ‘Ti e da?’ – literally meaning ‘Where is your own’? – were all over – at the roadside, under the bridge, straddling

THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS

OBADIAH MAILAFIA Dr. Mailafia is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a development economist and public finance expert with a DPhil from Oxford obmailafia@gmail.com; 08036590990 (text messages only) as Paul Baran, Paul Sweezy, Arghiri Emmanuel, Giovanni Arrighi, André Gunder Frank and Immanuel Wallerstein.

The American Paul Baran at Stanford goes down in history as the only Marxist economist who ever held a tenured chair in the United States. His Harvard counterpart Paul Sweezy was not so lucky.

They all belonged to a small crop of critical intellectuals who sought to establish a critique of the capitalist system and Continues on page 35

a stagnant gutter. Club tournaments were avidly followed by large crowds, with songs being composed about famous victories of people such as Solomon Bamgbade, ‘Fireman’ “Ali and Olu Ayalanja.

In 1953, the chairman of the NTTA donated a trophy for a knock-out competition among Secondary Schools in Nigeria. The first edition was won by Eko Boys High School.

The disappearance of table tennis boards and the recreational culture from the streets and neighborhoods of Nigerian cities, especially Lagos, has gone in tandem with a ‘hardening’ of the soul of the Nigerian city. ‘Development’ over half a century has almost extinguished the sense of neighborliness. Recreational spaces have disappeared in many places, taken over by school buildings, commercial structures and places of worship.

Five years ago, Lagos State organized an international conference tagged ‘The Lagos Livable City Conference’ to assess the livability of the emerging megacity and take ideas on how to make living in the city a wholesome experience for its people.

Evidence emerged that Lagos - the only Nigerian city inContinues on page 35

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Women’s Hub Friday 17 August 2018

BUSINESS DAY

Adaobi Frances Udegbunam, taking Ferago beyond Africa At the Politic-All event, awareness on voting was the focus

Moms At War What a thrilling viewing experience

Because you don’t know tomorrow, be careful how you treat people

Dakore Egbuson-Akande Distinctively living a life of purpose

Editor’s note

W

elcome to another edition of Women’s Hub.

Our leading woman and cover personality for this week is Dakore Egbuson-Akande. Her remarkable feat in her career has taken her far and wide. She takes us through her journey, challenges and hope for the future.

Also, we share with you on United Nations Women, Nigeria committing to women agenda in 2019 elections, the culture of silence in Nigeria, and stakeholders holding talks to end SARS Adaobi Frances, Ude Udegbunam, the CEO of Ferago Shoes, a young and industrious lady is on a mission to make her shoes global.

We also share with you on the need to be careful how you treat people because you don’t know tomorrow. Betty Bassey’s story will inspire you.

These and more we have for your reading pleasure.

Enjoy!

Kemi Ajumobi kemi@businessdayonline.com

Graphics by David Ogar

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BUSINESS DAY

Women’s Hub 7 Friday 17 August 2018

Leading Woman

Dakore Egbuson-Akande Distinctively living a life of purpose

Kemi Ajumobi

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akore Egbuson-Akande is worth her weight in gold in the Nigerian and indeed African entertainment industry. In over 2 decades she has become a Multiple Award-winning Film/Stage Actor, TV personality, Vocalist/ Dancer and Humanitarian.

Dakore studied Mass Communication (Minor in PR & Advertising)(Print Media Major) at the prestigious University of Lagos.

She has been a Brand Ambassador for several major brands such as Pampers (P&G) Nigeria, Cow & Gate (Danone Nutricia), Amstel Malta (Nigerian Breweries) and most recently H2O (Pepsi).

She is the current Ambassador for ActionAid Nigeria an international N.G.O with the aim of sensitizing Nigerians to align with the poor and disadvantaged in society.

In her humanitarian work, she was the 1st Nigerian actor to be named Ambassador of Amnesty International and OxfamAmerica in the campaign for the control of arms and ammunition. She also partnered with the UN in the campaign for girl-child education and violence against women.

Dakore strongly believes in the arts and media’s ability to provoke, inspire and be a vehicle for change in the world while being no less entertaining.

She hails from Bayelsa state though born and bred in Lagos, Nigeria. Dakore is married to Olumide Akande and they are blessed with two beautiful little girls.

Since her 1999 lead debut in Nollywood classic “Silent Tears”, “The Playboy”, “Emotional Crack” Dakore has starred in over 100 films. Her recent blockbuster hit movies are “Fifty” (Netflix) Spinoff” Fifty the series” “Isoken”(2017)“New Money” (2018)she just wrapped on Nigeria’s 1st legal drama series “Castle & Castle” “Yemi’s dilemma” (LosAngeles2017) (short film) official selection Pan African film festival and recently announced at Festival international Pan-African at Cannes France.

She was recently nominated for Best Actress in a leading role for her work in ISOKEN at the AMVCA’s and AMAA 2018

Where it all began I grew up in a very close knit family that was always full of love, quite sheltered to say the least. As a firstborn, I was raised to set a good example for myself and my four siblings that came behind me. My parents really invested in our education in order to help us follow our dreams. It taught me to be selfless and to think of others and to this day, I strive to push myself to be my best in all I do. It’s a great motivator for me and I channel that through my humanitarian work and in my interaction with others.

Journey into acting Acting found me in 1998. I was at my second job in my work experience year at Whitewood Group which was a PR/Marketing firm. Prior to this, I was working opposite the street at Casers Advertising. I thought this was a good fit. I was a Client Service executive trainee and I really enjoyed it so I was fairly certain I was on my way in the Ad world. I was fresh out of my Diploma in Mass Communication where I majored in PR/ Advertising so that was to be my field of endeavour meanwhile God had other plans. I got fired from my 1st job because I became bored but hadn’t realized it fully yet. Then I got a job as a Sports TV presenter in their newly established TV production arm. They expanded into scripted TV and brought in Emem Isong who saw me running errands for the show and asked me to audition. I did something right and I got the part. The rest is history glory be to God. Not much has changed in my film making journey. I have always been very drawn to certain stories and with my Mass Communication training, I know film is a very powerful tool so I’m deliberate about my choices to always shine a light on issues that are hidden in the dark in order to start a conversation to change the narrative. What has changed is I have more on my plate as a married mother of two adorable angels while building my career in this social media age. It’s a lot to balance but it’s a huge blessing I don’t take for granted. I’m a very hands on Mom so I value quality time with them especially now that they’re still young (Ayomide, almost 7 and Dasola

4) so it’s really hard to be away from them sometimes when I’m out of the country on set but they understand that Mom has to work and I think it’s great for them to see that as an example.

Balancing work and family I’m able to balance it with the love and support of my husband Olu, my entire family stepping in at a moment’s notice, kind staff and close friends. It takes a village, your tribe so to speak to be able to step in with the unpredictability of my job and calling as an Actor.

Day you will never forget The day I lost my best friend at age 9. She died from sickle cell anaemia. I was devastated. It taught me about the brevity and futility of life. That time is precious and fleeting, not to be taken for granted.

Future of Nollywood I see a blinding bright future for Nollywood but in order for that to happen, we have to put our house in order in terms of creating a proper and lasting structure for the industry. We’ve come so far especially because of tech-

nology so technologically we have better sound, lighting, picture quality which was a huge problem back in the day. Now we have a thriving cinema culture, our films are seen all over the world

and it has been a huge boost to Nigeria’s image abroad.

The industry has created thousands of jobs and is feeding families although things can always be better.

I think we need to allow this industry grow at its own pace. We should work on building our own capacity for storytelling that is compelling and universal without losing our African flavour that makes us unique. Once we can master that, we can use the available technology with the support of the government through proper policies, legal support and enforcement, while also benefiting from private sector funding; we can build an industry Nigeria would be proud of.

Challenges in Nollywood I would say the lack of medical insurance and proper welfare for industry practitioners across the board.

Consistent in staying relevant It has been truly by the grace and sustenance of God. It has been a lot of hard work, divine inspiration and preparation, immense love and support from my fans, they really keep me going. I’m truly blessed and extremely grateful.

The Movie Isoken Isoken is such a special movie and I’m so honoured to have played her. It’s been a gift that keeps on giving as I’m nominated for Best Actress at the AMVCA’s and AMAA this year and several nominations for the film as a whole so it’s a joy to see how her journey blessed our lives. She is a picture of the struggles women go though in our society once they become adults but she also represents a shift in the acceptance of it. It was a joy to play her in all that complexity. I had experienced it in my life personally and the women around me as well.

I was able to do it through the brilliant directing and script by Jade Osiberu.

Castle & Castle In Castle & Castle, which is Nigeria’s 1st legal drama on Ebonylife TV, I play Mrs Remi Castle, who runs a legal practice with her husband Tega Castle played by Richard Mofe Damijo. It was an amazing experience working on it and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

What other things re you involved in?

I’m involved with my humanitarian work with ActionAid Nigeria also I’m working on some content creation projects and my 1st feature film.

Your views on gender equality Gender equality is important because of the extent of the social conditioning that heavily favours patriarchy. That old system cannot exist anymore so we have to find the middle ground. We have to raise our sons differently to see their sisters as equal not inferior. We need to teach our girls they can be powerful yet respectful of the boys. It’s not a competition but to find co-operation. Even our culture has lots of harmful practices against women that has to be eradicated to

level the playing field. I believe there should be a better balance and it is happening whether we like it or not.

What are you looking forward to?

I’m just looking to have and create better opportunities for my career personally and the industry in general. I want to partner more with people that have a similar vision to bring out the beauty of our culture to the rest of the world.

Advice to anyone who desires to be in Nollywood Don’t come into this industry looking for fame and fortune alone. Do it because you have a genuine talent, love and passion for it. You will experience lots of rejection so you need a strong back bone, Believe in yourself, Have faith in God, stay humble even at the top, stay hungry and keep evolving.

Final words I just want to thank God for everything and I want to appreciate the support of the media, my family, management and fans over the years and I will keep on pushing to use my art to make the world a better place.

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Friday 17 August 2018

Women’s Hub

Stakeholders hold talks to end SARS Stories by Desmond Okon

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n commemoration of the International Youth Day, Korede Bello Initiative organised a dialogue between stakeholders to address issues bordering on the reported brutality against youths by the officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, popularly known as SARS, and to map out ways to restore trust, and foster a healthy relationship between the police and the youth and the entire citizens at large.

SARS is a special unit in the Nigerian police charged with the responsibility of responding to heinous crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, murder, as well as cattle rustling.

However, much cries about their involvement in unwholesome activities like indiscriminate searching of citizen’s phones; harassing youths aggressively, battery (in some cases), arrests based on personal suspicions; and other acts violating human rights have erupted both in the past and in recent times. These have provoked a campaign #ENDSARS, calling for the scrapping of the unit.

Critical subjects like the responsibility and duties of SARS, the implications of ending the unit and if it should ended; police welfare and reforms; things to be done; the measures that will be taken to ensure that young people are safe; and cyber security were discussed both from the perspective of the police’s representatives and the people’s representatives making up the panelists.

Attending to journalist, singer, Korede Bello, who also doubles as the Nigerian Police Youth Ambassador, said the idea was as result of societal needs and that “it was a matter of urgency.”

“We needed to address security issues

D

espite an increase in the number of organisations and individuals with the goal of putting a stop or reducing the rate of sexual violence in Nigeria, the culture of silence is still a plague, although there is a glaring difference from what was obtainable in the past as more victims are speaking up, Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, Executive Director, Stand To End Rape, STER, initiative, told Women’s Hub in an exclusive interview.

“It is exciting that there are a number of organisations and individuals with the goal of putting an end to sexual violence. While there is a glaring difference from many years ago, as a society we have not yet completely overcome the culture of silence.

Today, more people are aware of what constitutes sexual violence/abuse; more people also seem to be speaking about it. And that spells progress,” she said.

However, according to her, this progress is not enough. She said that part of what will contribute significantly to curbing the culture of silence is a functioning legal system.

“For states like Lagos, with the involvement of government parastatals, non-governmental and faith-based organisations, this is slowly changing. Cases are taken up in court, and people are warming up to the idea of reporting abuse cases to security operatives.

But this needs to be replicated across.

In creating a strong legal system around prosecuting sexual

affecting young people of which this issue of SARS is one of them. It’s even a bigger discourse; it’s more of a societal responsibility. It’s beyond just the police; it’s beyond the security expert. It’s a collective responsibility from us all.

We needed to come together to address the issues. Some of the highranking officers don’t know about what is really going on in the streets, and that’s why this dialogue came about. We brought them and the people who have had bad experiences with police to come together and say to their faces that ‘this is what is going on and how do we go from here’”, he said.

Being one of many suchlike dialogues, Bello aims to achieve “a safe society, a crime-free society, improve the people and police relationships, ensure community policing, encourage the discussion on trust, foster relationship between the people and the police.”

He also said that there will be more series of the dialogue until the youths’ voices are heard, until institutional reforms are made and until there is a safer society for young people, and a police that works.

Also present at the event, Segun Awosanya, convener of ENDSARS Police Reform Advocacy said the event was very important because since dialogue began, they had never come to a juncture where high-ranking police officers sat down with advocates and agitators of change to discuss pertinent issues such as the SARS menace.

“The youths are the major component of our population, seventy percent and above, and in other countries when you have youths being that large, it shows how wealthy they will be because you are looking at the future of the world, the hope of a new generation, we are looking

at tomorrow’s people, a new inspiration.

And if our new inspiration, hope of the world, people of tomorrow are being killed, arrested, molested, afflicted on the streets by the men who are supposed to protect them, then there is a major problem.” He said.

He further added that “This is one of the reasons we are saying that the International Youth Day based on the theme is congruent with the advocacies that we’ve running and it is an opportunity for us to have a sit-down, a dialogue in order to help fix things, and we are glad that the police are now responding properly” Awosanya said.

While Bello advised the youths to always

stay on the right side of the law, Awosanya urged them to show responsibility in return so that they (the police) can begin to return the trust and then we can work amicably, even as he assured them that “nobody will harass you for wearing whatever you wear or for cutting your hair the way you like”, Awosanya stated.

All the police representatives unanimously agreed to look into the issues raised and provide remedies. They also acknowledged the incidences involving SARS officials and promised to sanction culprits in the unit.

Culture of silence: more work to be done

abuse cases, victims will feel comfortable opening up and perpetrators, knowing what the consequences of their actions mean, will take a step back,” she said.

Osowobi noted that legal prosecution of perpetrators, medical services, and others, are very key ways of addressing rape culture in Nigeria as a whole. She also

pointed out that new innovations capable of encouraging victims to speak up is not the exclusive work of NGOs alone, but a lot of it revolves around the partnership of stakeholders to make it happen.

“A fantastic start, for example, would be for organisations and schools to adopt a clear sexual harassment policy. Victims tend to

feel safer and are more inclined to talk when their environment has put in place methods that show no tolerance for perpetrators.

And of course, on the other hand, abusers think twice and are more informed on the effects of their actions. Again, things like this are not NGO based alone, employers, teachers and parents have to

make it happen too.”

She however averred that any organisation working on these things (responding to rape) are considerably of high importance, and contribute to breaking the culture of silence and help victims find justice and peace.

On her perception of the culture silence, Osowobi believes “the attitude that victims alone are responsible for their own assaults underlines the culture of silence, saying also that it is the attitude that makes sex jokes, that catcalls or accuses victims of lying.

“It is the attitude that equates masculinity to sexual dominance.

These things, regardless of how random they seem are contributing factors to the culture of silence. They give entitlement to the perpetrators of these crimes and again play a humongous role in the number of assaults that go unreported. Creating a stigma of shame for survivors who want to share their stories contributes to the number of victims who remain silenced and add a private and very misplaced shame to their suffering,” she further explains.

“The unfortunate reality is that we live in a society where sexual abuse has been normalised, it is important that collective voices against the culture of silence outweigh everyone else. As a society we must learn that anyone can be a victim and anyone can be a perpetrator, we must learn to stop condoning our own collective silence, which gives power to abusers,” she added.

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BUSINESS DAY

Adaobi Frances Udegbunam, taking Ferago beyond Africa

Nigeria’s first weight loss TV show FaSttest Shedder 2 begins Kemi Ajumobi

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eyi Olusore, popularly known as Shedams, has come up with the faSttest shedder in a bid to raise awareness against obesity and body shaming.

“Quite a number of individuals suffer a lot of emotional, social and physical abuse. The faSttest shedder, as a reality show is one that adds fun to losing weight in a serene, safe environment and will help restore confidence in plus sized individuals” he said.

The faSttest shedder is to enlighten individuals about the benefits of incorporating regular exercises and healthy diets into their daily lives with special attention to individuals who want to shed more kilograms.

The TV series is intended to be a life changing adventure with well-known fitness, nutrition and wellness experts set to ensure this is achieved in a careful and safe environment through their various Diet/Exercise routines.

The Objective of the faSttest shedder show is to help participants lose weight through tailored work-outs, team tasks, healthy diet and this will be achieved within 90day duration.

The Contestants are evicted

based on whoever has the lowest percentage weight loss. In Season 1, Debby emerged as the winner with a % weightloss of 19 and losing a total of 27.1kgs.

Season 2 Auditions held at Citilodge Hotel, for 2days - August 11th & 12th where Participants, dressed in SportsGears, were made to go through Health Checks and also get questioned by the Judges- Lepacious Bose, Askdamz, Joel and Shedams

‘Pregnancy and motherhood in general is not a disadvantage’ Rachel Morrison

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Friday 10 August 2018

here’s a common misconception that likens pregnancy to some kind of disability, the idea that women who are pregnant shouldn’t be active and can’t go about their normal lives. While no two pregnancies are the same, I just want to say that for many to most women this isn’t the case at all. I just wrapped a feature #againstallenemies at 8+ months pregnant. Now I’m on to a commercial and I plan to keep shooting for as long as anyone will hire me knowing in a few weeks I may have to replace myself if I go into labour on set. The point is I am not a superhero. I am just going about my life doing the thing that I love for as long as I can because the more I work before baby, the longer I can take off after. This should also be my choice and no one else’s. Physically speaking, I could have gone back to work within a week of having my son. At the time, I lost many jobs because people were nervous to hire me so soon after the birth but again, I say this should be left up to us. Pregnancy and motherhood in general is not a disadvantage and the craft doesn’t suffer as a result. If anything, the added experience and enhanced empathy has made me a better cinematographer and filmmaker. That’s all. Happy Friday!

The competition is open to ladies who are 18 years and above and also weighs at least 100kg (220lbs) or more.

The judges include Bose Ogunboye (Lepaciousbose), Damola Ladejobi (Askdamz), Joel Uzomare and Seyi Olusore. The host is BellaRose and the guest judges/trainers include Jane Amuta, Ihuoma Nwigwe, Regina Giwa, Ekemini Ekerette, Amara Kanu and Ifeoma Okoye.

Kemi Ajumobi

A

daobi Frances Udegbunam, is a young lady from Adazi Nnukwu in Anambra state. She is the last child and only girl from a family of 4 children. She graduated from Nnamdi Azikwe University with a B.Sc in Mass Communication though she has always had an inherent flare for entrepreneurship.

Ada’s admirable creative juice shows in the beauty of her shoes that can stand beside popular international designs. Interestingly, she was never a fashion savvy girl but as fate would have it, she is thriving in an area she never thought she could. In her words, “I grew up as a tomboy and wasn’t into fashion and getting all dressed up. When I got into the University, I developed a love for fashion in general but my specific flare was shoes because I believe a lovely pair of shoes can change a plain looking outfit into a show stopping outfit. I started out selling other brands of shoes but felt the designs were not creative and fashionable enough for my taste hence I decided to start FERAGO”. She tells me.

On starting off, she has this to say “I went to my hometown to spend the Christmas holiday, when the idea of starting my own brand of shoes took shape and I had to come with a name so I picked random letters from my name and kept mixing and matching letters till I came up with the name FERAGO Fer-Frances, AGUdegbunam, O- Adaobi”.

When Adaobi started creating her designs, sourcing the fabrics and making the shoes were all done in Nigeria however, along the line, she found it difficult to get the kind of materials she need to for her shoes and the local manufacturers could not meet up with the standards she needed for her brand so she had to outsource the production outside the shores of Nigeria.

She shares on where she sources her materials from “I get them from Turkey and China and I make use of genuine leather and synthetic leather” Adaobi stated.

Wondering how she comes up with her designs? Well, her response says it all “My designs are spontaneous, for instance, once I see a fabric I like, I just imagine what it would look like as a pair of

pumps and that’s it. So different things inspire me”.

Getting people to patronise her hasn’t been much of a hassle because her works speaks for itself however, she says she uses social media as a means of communication on various platforms and the response has been amazing.

I asked her what her desire for her brand is and she optimistically gives it away when she says “I want Ferago to be an affordable luxury shoe brand all over Africa and beyond”.

With every business come its challenges. Ada shares hers with me. “Starting up a business in Nigeria is not easy, there is no access to loans and you have to save up every penny you can get just to get your start-up capital. The lack of capital has limited the quantity of shoes designs that can be made readily available” Ada laments.

Perhaps you are one of those people who do not like to patronise the Nigerian brand, Ada has an advice for you “As a Nigerian, when you patronize an indigenous brand, you help its growth. The bigger a brand gets, the more it needs people to help with the day to day running and that creates employment.”

On the part of the government, she proposes that “The Nigerian Government needs to first make the environment conducive for production before requesting for made in Nigeria products because, the cost of production for small scale industries in Nigeria is overwhelming and it’s causing a lot of businesses to shut down. Basic amenities like electricity need to be provided first. Government also needs to make loans easily accessible for small scale industries as banks are not willing to give out loans”.

To any youth out there saying there is no job, Ada has this to say “As a Youth Corper, I had to work for my brother Stephen Udegbunam, CEO Sebuftech Ventures as a messenger for N25,000, which was a plus when added to my N19,800. He would send me on all sorts of errands and I won’t lie, I didn’t like the job but then my mum made me realise that it was an opportunity for me to learn vital information needed to be an entrepreneur. Sometimes, you need to earn a little to get the much needed experience that will take you to the next level.

Concluding the interview, she says “As humans, we are afraid to make mistakes. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand that mistakes are bound to happen; you should see mistakes as a ladder to success. Don’t give up persistence is needed to succeed”

UN women commit to women agenda in 2019 Desmond Okon

U

nited Nations Women, Nigeria and The European Union in Nigeria, the delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, held a meeting called “Thematic Breakfast Meeting on Women’s Participation in the 2019 Elections”, on Thursday, August 09, 2018.

The conversation aimed to push women agenda in political participation, in the hopes that 2019 would mark the beginning of more female representation in Nigeria’s political space, and the end of male dominance.

The European Union and UN Women was said to

be working with women candidates to advance women’s participation as Nigeria decides her set of leaders in 2019.

“In working with political parties, what we have done is looking at women who run for political office across the different political parties in Nigeria,” said Comfort Lamptey, UN

Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS as she delivers remarks at the meeting.

Speaking to pressmen, the ambassador of Denmark to Nigeria, Torben Getterman, said “as we mobilize towards the general elections as Nigeria decides, we want to see

women vote for women”.

Also speaking at the meeting, Joy Onyesoh, Coordinator, Women Situation Room, told participants; “we need to start looking at the reduction of violence against women in politics as a process and not just a project. Donors need to invest in the process in order to reduce intimidation and violence against women in politics”.

“We need to go back to the grassroots to mobilize support in the communities as we prepare towards elections. That’s the way forward in making sure we are well represented in politics in Nigeria”, said Dabota Jumbo, Aspirant Rivers State House of Assembly who also spoke at the meeting The meeting was attended by female aspirants across different political parties in Nigeria, and Civil Society Organisations, CSOs.

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Friday 17 August 2018

BUSINESS DAY

Moms At War, what a thrilling viewing experience Kemi Ajumobi

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hen I got the call to be at the premiere of the much awaited movie Moms at War, I knew it was a movie to watch. With a line up casts that include Funke Akindele, Omoni Oboli, Yul Edochie to mention a few, the movie certainly had it all, fun, laughter, enlightenment, tolerance and lessons to learn.

From the beginning to the end, there was not a dull moment. Let’s just say as you go to the cinemas to watch, trust me when I say you are in for a nice time.

Moms at War is about two mothers (acted by Funke Akindele and Omoni Oboli), who lived in the same neighbourhood, but hated each other. One felt that the other was a village girl who just got into money and is not fit to be in society with them. The rivalry was so strong that it was glaring to everyone. I found their fight in the swimming pool hilarious. I also loved the way they made up. I enjoyed the interpretation of roles including the children. This is one movie you will surely enjoy with friends and family!

Schooling abroad changes your mind-set, I am a witness Linda Ochugbua

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eturning to Nigeria was filled with mixed feelings, the thoughts of fitting in and starting all over again was strongly worrisome, but I was fortunate and lucky to have found a new job before coming back, also having family and friends around made it much easier to settle in again. Embarking on a new job was very challenging I must say and at that very young age, I thought I could take on the world; little did I know the huge expectations that was ahead. The pressures of having targets on a new marketing role was daunting, there were times I felt l was going to give up and quit, I totally felt I wouldn’t survive on the job, but along the line, there was a silver lining, as I found the courage and strength to move on and face every day as they came.

I recently heard someone say that most of the people who schooled abroad act and behave like they are more superior or smarter than their counterparts who schooled in Nigeria, well in as much as I hate to admit it, the fact is that it’s true. There are so many things wrong with our schooling system in Nigeria, we just hate to ad-

mit it and the difference is always crystal clear, even between the private university graduates and the federal university graduates, you can easily spot the difference.

This has got me thinking, the one thing missing here is confidence, we go to school coming out feeling shy and timid, not being so sure or confident of what we have learnt for 4 years, and we study abroad for one year and it looks like your whole world changes. They instil in you boldness to conquer the world, they make you strong, you

face other students head on in presentations, you learn different languages like I learnt Chinese Mandarin for one year, you go on field trips and excursions, you have extra discussions and Friday dance classes, nothing is left out in the plan for that one year, so please tell me why you shouldn’t come out more confident of yourself?

The school system is perfect and at the end of one year, you wish you could stay on, because despite the late nights in the library and learning to use “Turnitin” to avoid

plagiarism and copyrighting, the hard work and toil still seems like fun, because no one is scared or threatened at any point in time, you know that the system will be fair to all, because even your exam sheets have only your numbers with no names, so no one knows whose script is being marked. That fear or being biased or marked down is totally out of it, and if you do want to contest your score, its sent to another lecturer in another University to mark.

They were a few things I did totally enjoy about University of Surrey, firstly the environment was serene, with lakes everywhere and nice areas to read and relax.

I must say that our Universitiesin Nigeria have a long way to go and if we must produce youths with courage and confidence to face the labour market, we must go beyond just teaching them the normal school curriculum, to imbibing other important soft skills that would be useful to them in the working class world. I am a strong advocate of the total overhauling of our Nigerian school system if we

would have the right candidates to face the ever changing world that we live in.

Right now, each time I look back I smile at how far, I have gone and how strong I have become as the saying goes “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”, although the working style here is so different from the working style in the UK, where we all work as a team and you must make sure you all succeed or you all fail, it isn’t about you as an individual but you as a good team player. Over the years you can’t just help but try to adjust to the Nigerian working style, although I still strongly believe in being a good team player.

So far, my best quote has kept me thus far “in life whatever is worth doing is worth doing well”. I am glad that I have gone the extra mile by making a difference and I am looking forward to changing the New Media space as this is here to stay. I am confident that years from now I will be changing the world, because if we are going to change the world it has to start from us, and this consists of us improving our daily activities each day. I am already making my little daily differences because as the saying goes “What changes the world starts here”.

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BUSINESS DAY

Women’s Hub

Friday 10 August 2018

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he had heard derogatory words from the Mude’s family but this day, it was the peak.

“Useless girl, just to serve my guests with water became a difficult chore your deficient brain couldn’t coordinate, get out of my sight before I put you up for adoption” Rita Mude, her Aunt exclaimed.

Betty Bassey was the only surviving child of her parents. She had 2 other siblings who died in a fatal accident. The shock was too much for her mother, a petty trader trying to make ends meet, after six months, she died and 1 year later, Betty lost her father too. Betty’s father was a road side mechanic.

She was left to be at the mercy of her mother’s sister Ruth Mude who is a successful business woman and her husband an Engineer working at an oil company as one of the directors.

Easy to say Betty was in good hands right?

Well, so it seemed because she had to stay with them after she lost all her loved ones but she had fast become a house maid.

After embarrassing her in front of guests, Betty ran to her room, she cried and cried until she was exhausted. In her weak state, she looked up and said “God, please help me, this is too much, help me…I love you and I trust that one day, you will wipe my tears away and I will suffer no more”.

Despite the chores at home, Betty made sure her grades in school were intact. She would wake up at odd hours of the night to read. She wrote her WAEC exams and came out with distinctions, she wrote JAMB and chose Medicine, her result was one of the best. She was so happy she took the results to her Aunt, she congratulated her coldly and asked “hope this wasn’t because you cheated?” Her husband, Victor Mude wasn’t happy about the statement. He saw clearly that it affected Betty so he took the result from his wife and said “Congratulations Betty, we are proud of you, perhaps you will join Lilian in America when you are done with your first Degree in Medicine here”. Lilian is the only child of the Mude’s and she is a Neurologist in America.

“Thank you so much sir, I truly appreciate. You have been very kind to me. God bless you and your family sir”. By this time, Ruth wasn’t having it at all so she interjected “That’s ok for now, bring me my lunch” Betty went to the kitchen and served her.

Betty got admission to Obafemi Awolowo University to study Medicine. A part of her was happy she was leaving but another part of her was going to miss her uncle who always supported her.

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years, finally, Betty was done. As promised, her uncle supported her financially and she travelled to America. Ruth ensured that she was nowhere near where her child was practicing.

Betty got to America, furthered her education, continued working and studying and constantly

Because you don’t know tomorrow, be careful how you treat people Kemi Ajumobi

calling home and sending messages but only her Aunt’s husband was responding. Years passed and she became a Consultant Cardiologist.

Her Aunt was already in her 70s. Ruth had always been hypertensive but they managed it well. While in America with her husband for vacation, Ruth suffered a major heart attack. When Betty heard, she pleaded with her Aunt’s husband to bring her Aunt to the hospital she worked.

Lilian didn’t object because Cardiology wasn’t her area of speciality.

The flew her down to Betty and she made sure her Aunt received top notch attention. After carrying out tests, she informed her Aunt and uncle that she had to undergo a heart surgery but that she will be among the surgeons to carry it out so there was no need to worry.

While preparation was going on, Betty walked in to check on her

Aunt and met her in tears “Aunty, please don’t cry, you will be fine, I am here and I am going to do my best”.

Ruth stretched out her hand to Betty and pulled her to herself “Betty, I am so sorry, I have treated you badly over the years, now God has planned it in such a way that the heart where every wickedness I have shown you came from is the same heart you will be having a surgery on” “Hmn,” Betty breathed deeply and continued “Aunty, all of that is in the past. I am grateful to God that I can be of help. I have long forgiven you Aunty” she said in tears and they both hugged.

On the day of the surgery, Lilian and her dad were both around. While the surgery was going on, Betty became emotional, tears dropped from her eyes but she had to control it quickly. She remembered the years she suffered, the embarrassment that made her cry out to God that day when she spilled water in error came to her mind again but she knew she had to let go. Here she was, about to save the life of someone who hurt her deeply.

The surgery was a success and everyone was happy. Lilian and her father kept saying “Thank you” to Betty and all she said was “That is what family is all about”.

After staying a week in the hospital, she flew with her husband to Lilian’s place in Chicago, stayed there for three months and came back to Nigeria. Her relationship with Betty has grown impressively and her health is getting better by the day.

Moral of this story, be careful how you treat people you meet along the way, you might need them someday and your action towards them can either speak for you or against you. Be careful!

At the Politic-All event, awareness on voting was the focus Desmond Okon

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he agenda for August 11th, at the Politic-All concert held at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, was a fusion of education and entertainment to enlighten youths on the importance of registering to vote; selecting credible candidates; voting on election day without fighting; and protecting their votes, not only on election day but the four years in-between election cycles by holding public officials accountable. Simply put, it was a political call through music and comedy.

But things didn’t fire up as fans would have expected.

The buildup was insipid as attendees focused more on registering for PVCs or resolv-

ing one PVC-related issue or another. But two women brought life to it.

Kicking off a bit late, the MC, Gbenga Adeyinika asked those who were done with registration to assemble at the stage, as he introduced DJ Neptune to treat them to a great mix.

The atmosphere was breathing with a few “lizard nods” here and there, and before the next minute, arms stretched out, and feet moving sideways followed. It was a full-blown shaku-shaku!

But that was short-lived as more unfamiliar faces kept coming up stage.

Excitement returned when Omawumi’s new single’s intro was cued in by another DJ, and all the noise and almost sup-

pressed cheer broke out as she climbed the stage.

All were expecting her to sing as a musician, but no, she got something else –the Group Selfie Trick. Who rejects a good selfie with a celebrity? Just as she was about to push the button, shouts of “Omawumi” filled the air. She did the job.

She encouraged youths to get their voter cards because with it, they have a say in governance. “You have power

and you can use it decide who governs, as well as remove those who are not governing well,” she said.

Nollywood actress and The Johnsons’ star, Ada Ameh, was another guest artiste whose appearance the crowd loved.

Just before you guess what an actress would offer in an event like this, Ameh had started dancing to various tunes making more use of her lower body. It was even more inter-

esting as she spiced her moves with humour. This further left the crowd more elated as she charged youths to vote for their “choice, not party, but person, integrity”, and what they want.

Ameh’s appearance left much energy for the likes of Falz, Charles Okocha, Terry G, Tu Face Idibia, Ayo, and others to leverage on at a show organised by Alibaba, 2Baba Foundation, and Enough is Enough, EiE, Nigeria.