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Tuesday 19 March 2019
Travelex partners CBN, holds agenda-setting seminar for BDCs, March 26 SEYI JOHN SALAU
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L-R: Stefan Traumann, consul general, Federal Republic of Germany, in a handshake with Cosmas Maduka, president, Coscharis Group, and Abiona Babarinde, general manager, marketing and corporate communications, Coscharis Group, when the consul general paid a courtesy visit to Coscharis Group head office in Lagos.
‘Healthcare should be accessible to indigent people’ MICHEAL ANI
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ccess to health care should be at little or no cost to the less-privileged in Nigeria, Godman Akinlabi, chairman, board of trustees of Pistis Foundation, says. Akinlabi said this at a press conference on Ubomi - an upcoming weeklong free medical and surgical outreach targeting up to 4,000 people in Lagos. According to Akinlabi, “It takes parents that are healthy to keep children in schools. Therefore, health should be at little or no cost to indigent people.” The programme is organised by Pistis Foundation, a faith-based non-governmental organisation set up by The Elevation Church (TEC), to help the economically challenged through education (formal and informal), healthcare and shelter. The Foundation has partnered other organisations on the outreach, including Pro-
Health International, St. Kizito Hospital, Amethyst Hospital, Paediatric Care Clinic, and the Lagos State Ministry of Health. The Ministry has also screened the medical personnel involved and will provide ambulances for the exercise, Akinlabi said. Speaking on the rationale for embarking on Ubomi, Akinlabi, who is also the Lead Pastor TEC, said the organisation’s primary goal was empowerment through education. However, in an attempt to do that, they realised it could only be successful if the people are in the right condition of health. Access is still the greatest challenge to healthcare delivery in Africa. According to McKinsey, Africa suffers about one-quarter of the world’s burden of disease yet has barely three percent of its health workers. Conservative estimates suggest that four in ten people in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to medical facilities or personnel. Ubomi, which is the first
of its kind in the Lekki-Epe area, started March 18 - 22 at Pistis Annex, 3 Remi Olowude Street, by Marwa Bus Stop, Lekki, Lagos. According to the chief operating officer of TEC, Tunji Iyiola, over 200 healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses and pharmacists from across the country will be volunteering for the programme. “We expect that at least 300 procedures, including surgeries will be carried out,” Iyiola said. Ubomi is a Xhosa word, meaning “life”. According to the head of communications for TEC, Chinny Ugorji, “It is designed to cater to indigent people who cannot afford medical/surgical fees for their health conditions.” As such, Pistis Foundation will be attending to everyone who fits this profile, irrespective of religious or ethnic background, within the 4,000 person-limit, during the outreach. Attention will be given on a first-come basis, except in emergency cases.”
Black boxes show similarities between Ethiopia, Indonesia plane crashes … as Boeing finalises development on software update, pilot training revision IFEOMA OKEKE
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ata retrieved from the black boxes of the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board last week show clear similarities with the crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia last October. Both crashes involved the same model of plane: the Boeing 737 Max 8. Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopian transport minister, who announced the findings on Sunday, said the government would release more detailed information within a month. France’s Bureau of En-
quiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) is working with US and Ethiopian investigators to determine what brought down the plane. The similarities involve an anti-stall system on both jets, designed to push the nose of the plane down if flight control systems sense a problem with low air speed. Both planes appeared to ascend and descend erratically, suggesting the pilots struggled to maintain control. However, this is just one aspect of what is expected to be a long and really lengthy investigation.
Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing chairman, president/CEO, issued a statement regarding the report from Moges, saying Boeing would continue to support the investigation, and was working with the authorities to evaluate new information as it becomes available, adding that safety was the company’s highest priority as it designed, built and supported its airplanes. “As part of our standard practice following any accident, we examine our aircraft design and operation, and when appropriate, institute product updates to further improve safety.”
n its continuing efforts to assist the CBN in strengthening the nation’s BDC sector, Travelex will hold its 2019 BDC seminar in Abuja on March 26. The timing of this year’s seminar is aimed at helping set an agenda for the BDC sector under the incoming administration. The place of Bureau De Change (BDC) industry in the economy of Nigeria cannot be overemphasised. For its important roles, whether in the past or now, government has always taken special interest in the activities of operators in the sub-sector. Determined to assist the operators make informed assessment of their activities in the foreign exchange market with a view to enhancing their performance going forward,
Travelex Nigeria Limited, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has concluded arrangements for a one-day seminar for practitioners in the BDC industry. The event tagged, ‘The BDC Industry in Nigeria: Retrospect and Prospect,’ holds at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja. A statement by Anthony Enwereji, general manager, Travelex Nigeria, said the seminar would have in attendance Godwin Emefiele, governor, CBN, as the keynote speaker. Enwereji added that Aisha Ahmad, deputy governor, Financial Systems Stability Directorate, CBN, would speak on ‘Review of CBN Forex policies and guidelines on BDC operations (2015-2018)’, while Ayo Teriba, CEO, Economic Associates, would address the audience on ‘Analysis and proposals for strengthening Nigeria’s end-user forex policy’.
FG nears privatisation of Afam, Yola plants as Transcorp Power, others make final bids ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja
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ureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) says it has received five bids for the privatisation of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) and Afam Electricity Generation Company (Afam Power plc & Afam Three Fast Power Limited) by prospective core investors. The bids were received last Friday - the deadline for the submission of technical and financial proposals for the acquisition of the two firms. Two firms - Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited and Sandstream Nigeria - submitted proposals to acquire the Yola Disco while DiamondStripes Consortium, Unicorn Power Generation Consortium and Transcorp Power, sought to acquire the Afam Genco. Sandstream submission was however found to be non-responsive as it failed to include a bank guarantee in line with
the requirements in the Requests for Proposal (RfPs). Consequently, the representative of the firm took back the bid. Alex Okoh, directorgeneral, BPE, assured the bidders that the evaluation of their bids would be subjected to the highest level of integrity culminating into the financial bids opening of the successful bidders. Okoh said the Evaluation Committee would meet immediately to discuss and finalise the scoring criteria before commencing the evaluation process between March 18 and 21, 2109. The Yola Distribution Company was successfully privatised and handed over to the core investor in 2013, but a force majeure was declared in 2015 by the core investor citing insecurity in the North-East region of the country. Following this, the company was duly repossessed by the Federal Government. The transaction for Afam Genco on the other hand failed to scale through due
to delay in signing the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) and the Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA). As a result, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) gave approval for a fresh transaction to privatise the two power companies in 2017. 19 firms had indicated interest to acquire the two power plants at the close of the submission of bids for the Expression of Interest (EOIs) on September 26, 2018. But Okoh had told BusinessDay in 2017 that the sale of those two power plants would be concluded by mid 2018 for Afam Genco and later same year for Yola Distribution Company, but this did not happen. He had however, said the government would be a little bit more creative in terms of how it approaches the privatization and that the plan was actually to break the plant into smaller manageable business units, to make it attractive to prospective investors.