Friday 21 December 2018
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35 NEWS
BUSINESS DAY
89% of Nigerians believe job creation has not improved in 2018 – NOIPolls Apapa: NPA reacts to BusinessDay Editorial, BUNMI BAILEY
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bout 89 percent of Nigerians believes that job creation has not improved in 2018, according to a recent released public opinion survey about 2018 in review by NOIPolls. The report, conducted by NOI Limited, Nigeria’s leading public opinion polling and research organisation, was carried out in the week of December 10, 2018. And it involved telephone interviews of a random nationwide sample. 1,000 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed. The report stated, “Respondents’ opinions were assessed on how Nigeria has fared in 2018 on eight
specific areas and the poll revealed that 89 percent of Nigerians reported that job creation has not improved in the year. “This is followed by respondents (65%) who indicated that the country has not fared well in term of infrastructural development, which is key to industrial and economic growth of any nation. “On the economy, 63 percent of respondents stated that the nation has not fared well in this area despite the marginal increase in the county’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in first quarter of 2018 as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics. Other areas Nigerians believed have not improved in 2018 were electricity supply (52%), security (51%) and Healthcare (51%). On the other hand, 69 percent of Nigerians admitted that the country has fared well in the
area of agriculture in 2018,” the report further stated The 89 percent of Nigerians that believe that job creation has not improved corresponds with the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) labour report, which shows that unemployment rates rose to 23.1 percent in the third quarter of 2018 from 18.8 percent in the same corresponding period of 2017. Johnson Chukwu, CEO, Cowry Asset Management Limited, said, “Our misery index has increased further so Nigerians are actually going very difficult economic times. No wonder we have seen a lot of social issues in country like suicides, increased level of crimes in the regions is not associated to crimes. This should be a wakeup call for the government.” NOIPolls conducted the
poll to gauge the perceptions of Nigerians on how the nation has fared in 2018, focusing on some key socioeconomic areas. NOI advises that the government and concerned stakeholders must synergise to address these critical challenges as another year approaches. “For instance, fixing these infrastructural challenges will attract more foreign direct investments, create millions of jobs, help to create new markets, foster competition, spur innovation, lower prices, raise productivity and in turn leads to increase in standard of living. Due to the high cost of infrastructural development, it is advisable that a public private partnership should be adopted to make needed funds available to tackle these challenges,” the report advised
L-R: Hakeem Ogunniran, MD/ CEO, Eximia Realty Company Limited; Omole Imosemi, founder, BrandLee, and Caleb Usoh, country manager, OCP Africa, at the Effective Negotiation Skills Bookbased Workshop organised by BrandLee Learning & Development Academy in Lagos.
Yellow Fever: Obaseki gets vaccinated, leads campaign against disease
Phillips Consulting releases 2019 calendar for digital tech learning
do State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has charged residents of the state, aged between nine months and 59 years, to ensure they take the yellow fever vaccine, to inoculate themselves against the disease. The state government has also taken delivery of three million doses of vaccine from the Federal Ministry of Health in response to the yellow fever outbreak in the state. The governor gave the charge when he led members of the State Executive Council (EXCO) on a vaccination campaign in Benin City, at the end of the weekly EXCO meeting at the Government House, in Benin City. Addressing journalists after taking a shot of the vaccine, he said the yellow fever vaccination campaign was ongoing across
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the 18 local government areas of the state. He urged residents in the state to ensure that they were vaccinated against the ailment, and commended the Federal Ministry of Health for the prompt response to the disease outbreak in the state. He said the state government had provided logistics to get the vaccine to every part of the state, especially where outbreak of the disease was recorded. “We had the unfortunate incident of yellow fever outbreak in some parts of the state a couple of weeks ago. It is a deadly aliment. Within a short period, we lost a number of persons. It is highly preventable; all you need is to be vaccinated against the virus,” he said. “I just got vaccinated; it doesn’t hurt. Once you take a dose, you are vaccinated for life,” he assured.
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hillips Consulting, an indigenous management and consulting firm, has announced the launch of its 2019 Calendar for Digital Technology Learning and Classroom Training that will help empower clients to perform at their highest level. The calendar highlights the best, up-to-date and most relevant training courses essential to all professionals and companies to meet expected goals and outcomes, the foremost consulting firm said. “The 2019 calendar gives a full view of our wide range of learning interventions which includes: Instructor Led Facilitation courses, held at our training facilities with programmes covering Leadership and Management, Workforce Management, Infotech and Bespoke
Learning Courses,” head of Classroom Learning, Nwaji Jibunoh explained. “Our specialised solutions which include Knowledge Management, Strategic and Managerial Competency Development Solutions guide those who seek to build strong, sustainable establishments through the documentation and sharing of organisational intelligence.” In addition, Phillips Consulting also has Online Learning Solutions that are either customized digital courses or curated off-theshelf content, designed to help organizations embed learning into the workflow. “With the wave of Digital Disruptions taking place in the global market place; there is an urgent need to rapidly upskill all employees on the various frameworks and technologies being adopted.
clarifies on efforts in addressing gridlock AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
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n reaction to BusinessDay Editorial of Monday, December 3, 2018, management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has made clarifications on some of the efforts made by the authority in ameliorating the plight of commuters and port users as a result of the Apapa gridlock. A rejoinder signed by Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of NPA, and sent to BusinessDay on Wednesday, stated that the traffic situation in Apapa was an age-long problem that had worsened and defied solutions over the past two decades as a result of lack of foresight in deploying intermodal transportation system (rail, inland waters and pipelines) for cargo evacuation. Usman said the current management of the Authority had taken the bull by the horns by spearheading the reconstruction of the dilapidated Wharf Road in conjunction with Dangote Group and Flour Mills plc. “Although the repair of roads is not the statutory responsibility of the Authority, we committed the sum of N1.8 billion to this road which has now been completed and put into use. “Due to the importance of the Oshodi/ Apapa/Creek Road to effective management of traffic in Apapa, the NPA has since 2016 mobilised support for the rehabilitation of this road. We have even written to the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing requesting that the road be handed over to the NPA. Gratefully, the contract for the reconstruction of this road has now been awarded. “The Authority has a standing committee which worked with terminal operators, millers and other stakeholders to fashion out ways of fixing the Tin-Can axis route with enduring palliatives works and provide a bleeder route,” Usman said. On inland waters, she said a number of companies had also been licensed to operate barges for the evacuation of cargo through the inland waterways, aimed at ensuring that there was less pressure on the roads. According to Usman,
the NPA is working towards the maximum utilisation of other ports to facilitate the reconstruction of roads connecting the Eastern Ports with the North Central, North East and South East. She further made it clear that NPA cannot dictate destination as cargo owners have the right to a destination of choice. “As a result, a portion of the cargoes that come into the Lagos Ports are meant for the industrial clusters within Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and sometimes Kwara State. There is no amount of investments in other ports that would encourage cargo owners whose final destination is within the Lagos axis to patronise the Eastern Ports. “In April, the Federal Executive Council approved the proposal for the dredging of WarriEscravos seaport to 9metres at the cost of N13 billion. This would ensure safe navigation of vessels into the Warri Ports and ensure that vessels that require deeper draughts can arrive and depart the port. “While the proposal for the dredging of Calabar Ports is on the table, the NPA is encouraging shipping companies to deploy flat bottom vessels to Calabar. The Onne Ports is functioning at optimal capacity and remains a first choose for many operators in the oil and gas sector, while Rivers Port is also functional,” she said. She said insecurity in the Niger Delta region has diminished the confidence of cargo owners and affected chances that cargoes would be directed to some of the locations in the Eastern Ports, such that vessels calling into these ports take war insurance due to insecurity. The NPA is procuring an electronic call up system along with other stakeholders to ensure that trucks without any business around the port area do not trawl and compound the traffic in Apapa, she said. “The NPA has issued firm directives to shipping companies and terminal operators on the importance of deploying holding bays for empty containers in Apapa and appropriate sanctions has been meted out when any of these operators was found wanting,” she said.