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news you can trust I **THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2019 I vol. 19, no 445

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Nigeria’s low per capita growth driven by insufficient policy adjustment, infrastructure gap – IMF

…projects 2.5% growth in 2020 …government debt to reach 31.4% of GDP next year HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE & GBEMI FAMINU

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Firms find gold in Nigeria’s N457bn hair care market ’Oréal, Godrej, Solpia, NN Fems and other deep-pocket firms are outdoing each other to get a slice of Nigeria’s fast-growing hair care market, which is estimated at N457 billion.

Local carpet maker Lucky Fibres has joined the scramble, as it tests the waters and invests

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Kennedy Uzoka, group managing director/CEO, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Akinwunmi Adesina, president of African Development Bank (AfDB), at the signing ceremony of AfDB’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) in Kigali, Rwanda.

ODINAKA ANUDU & GBEMI FAMINU

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Lucky Fibres moves big into segment

in research and development to gauge the preferences of consumers. The firm manufacturers Noble Carpet and is one of the leaders in the textile industry.

“We are collating data from the consumers to find out their reactions about our products,” Kemi Ajibade, head of human resources at Lucky Fibres, told

BusinessDay in a telephone interview.

“We are looking at the first quarter of 2020 to launch fully into the market. At this stage, we are getting feedback,” she said.

At least 26 million Nigerian women use attachment, w i g s a n d w e av o n s ra n g i n g from N1,000 on the average to

N250,000, BusinessDay calculations show. They are popular among the youthful Nigerian population who prefer hair extensions to natural hair.

Chinese wigmakers are turning to Africa, which is the fastest-growing market for artificial hair, with West Africa, espe-

Continues on page 39

he International Monetar y Fund (IMF) on We d n e s day sa i d Ni geria’s low per capita growth is driven by insufficient policy adjustment, a large infrastructure gap, low private investment, and banking sector vulnerabilities.

This is coming as the Washington-based Fund projected Nigeria’s economy to expand at 2.5 percent in 2020, up from 2.3 percent in 2019, driven by both oil and non-oil sectors.

Medium-term growth is projected at slightly higher than 2.5 percent, implying no progress in per capita growth.

The Fund stated this in its

Continues on page 39

Inside

CBN budgets over N2trn for 2020 fiscal year P. 38

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Makinde presents first budget of N208bn to House, increases allocation to education, infrastructure REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

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overnor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State Wednesday presented the 2020 appropriation bill of N208 billion on the floor of the Oyo State House of Assembly.

The budget, which is N77 billion lower than the N285.2 billion 2019 budget presented in 2018 by his predecessor, Abiola Ajimobi, has N100,142 billion as capital expenditure, representing 47.9 percent of the total budget estimate.

This is an increase of 20 percent of capital expenditure compared with the 2019 bud-

... targets 70 budget implementation get, while the total recurrent expenditure for 2020 fiscal year is N108,660 billion, representing 52.1 percent of the budget.

Makinde, who arrived the Assembly complex in Ibadan, the state capital about 11.00am in company of his deputy, Rauf Olaniyan, members of the state executive council, traditional rulers and members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, said 22.37 percent of the total budget had been allocated to education and

5.18 percent for health.

The governor said works, infrastructure, education, health and agriculture were among the key areas the budget would focus on.

Stating reasons why the capital expenditure increased by about 20 percent compared with the 2019 budget, the governor stated, “Increased allocation to capital projects directly contributes to a more buoyant economy and sustainable development.”

According to Makinde, you will also note that our

capital expenditure increased by about 20 percent compared with the 2019 budget.

Total capital expenditure of N100,142,690,046 billion is 47.9 percent of the total budget estimate. The importance of this increase should not be lost on us. Increased allocation to capital projects directly contributes to a more buoyant economy and sustainable development. As stated earlier, we will not only be starting new projects but also completing all ongoing projects from the previous administration,

he said.

On internally generated revenue (IGR) the governor insisted that the sum of N3 billion was expected as monthly IGR from January, adding that this would be achieved without adding any burden on the citizens.

“This will be achieved without increasing tax burden on the people of Oyo State,” he said.

While saying that the government is aiming at least 70 percent budget implementation, he noted, “It is a budget

Hayat Kimya’s top brands win big at ADVAN Awards 2019

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t was a day of big harvest for Hayat Kimya Nigeria Limited last weekend at the 2019 Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards for Marketing Excellence where its flagship brand, MOLFIX baby diaper, and its new sanitary pads brand, MOLPED emerged winners in five categories.

The event, which is the most prestigious awards in the Nigerian marketing community, saw MOLFIX bagging back-to-back the biggest award of the night: Brand of the Year West Africa.

For the third time since 2017, MOLFIX also emerged winner, Experiential Marketing, while it also came top in the Corporate Social Responsibility category.

In the Digital Marketing category, MOLFIX came second, just like MOLPED, in the New Brand category.

Hakan Misri, managing director, Hayat Kimya Nigeria, maintained that the harvest of awards is a testimony to the quality of the top-range brands coming out of Hayat Kimya.

He added, for instance, that MOLPED Sanitary Pads brand, launched into the Nigerian market in April 2019, has changed the narrative of the feminine care category in Nigeria as it has enjoyed growing presence in traditional and modern trade channels.

In her remarks, Bridget Adeniba, ADVAN first vice president, affirmed that the award winners are acknowledged “as industry leaders and named the elite in their industry”.

She added that the ADVAN Awards have evolved over the years in response to new developments in marketing theory and practice, to reflect the growing appreciation of the critical role of marketing as the vital source of value creation for business.

According to her, the Awards also provide the opportunity for organisations to gain competitive advantage by having their projects, initiatives, contributions, products and services recognised and offer the ultimate platform for improving brand awareness and loyalty by increasing the respective recipients’ prestige. www.businessday.ng

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that every woman, man and child in Oyo State can be proud of.”

He however disclosed that Oyo State Road Maintenance Agency had been mandated to establish zonal offices in Oyo, Ogbomoso and Ibarapa.

He also revealed that the state was embarking on staff audit and creating a database for staff to curb ghost workers in the state.

Speaker of the House, Adebo Ogundoyin, explained that the House would pass the bill without wasting time.

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Nigeria + China: Till debts do us part! And…Tears for Salome Abuh ik MUO

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hina became independent in 1949, 11 years before Nigeria and for a while, both countries had a lot in common: they belonged to the league of underdeveloped countries, they housed the poorest of the poor, were regional powers in size and might, generally classified as economically backwards. But even though both were underdeveloped, Nigeria’s economy was more buoyant than that of China and as at 1964, the per capita income (PCI) for China was $84.4 but $113 for Nigeria.

October 1 also happens to be the Independence Day of both countries. That was purely coincidental. Over the years however, both countries have “parted ways” as they drifted apart, positively for China but negatively for Nigeria. The gap has so widened as those things that held them together are no more. China is now a global power while Nigeria, which was the force behind African liberation, is now begging Chad et al to liberate it from the clutches of Boko Haram et al.

Economically, China, with a PCI of $10,000 gets worried whenever its growth rate goes towards 10 percent while Nigeria, with a PCI of $2,033 is celebrating a mythical growth rate of 2 percent. Nigeria is now the poverty capital of the world with 47 percent of its population living in poverty (a number more than the poor in China & India), against 0.2 percent in Chana. Because birds of the same feather flock together and China now “flocks” with its fellow “big-men”, Nigeria, struggling on all dimensions is flocking with its fellow poor and distressed countries.

However, they still have October 1 as a rallying pointy and it appears that the two countries under their present leaderships, have resolved to go beyond the mere coincidence of October 1 to a relationship as deep as the Catholic Marriage, a covenantal relationship.

All legally binding relationships are contractual in nature and all or any of the parties can say easily “I no do again!” The only exception is the Catholic marriage, which spells “till death do us part”. That is why it is a covenant, not a contract.

While the marriage covenant is a union of equals and “till death do us part”, the China-Nigeria marriage is a union of unequal’s and it is Till DEBTS Do Us Part!

Nations, organisations and individuals do borrow, despite the injunction of neither a borrower nor a lender be. But the key issue in lending, beyond the bankers’ 3Cs (Character, Collateral and Competence) is that the loan be self-liquidating. Nigeria was battling with a suffocating debt burden until the Obasanjo led government achieved the miraculous feat of debt write-off. Debts have however returned to the front-burner of economic discourse in Nigeria. It has moved from N12.6 trillion in December 2015 to N25 trillion in June 2019 in June 2019; more than 25 percent of our GDP goes to debt servicing and greater than our capital expenditure, and China, with a debt-hold of $2.5 billion on Nigeria, is our highest country-creditor.

But while national debt has become a key issue of concern for Nigerians, our government is not worried, as it continuously assures us: “no cause for alarm”, comparing our debt records with other debt-harassed countries. The government is behaving like that pupil who was harassed by his father for coming 51st in a class of 53 and he retorted “at least I did better than 2 others and they are also peoples’ children!”

All this is happening as the IMF just warned that 40 percent of African countries are in debt crises; when some countries have had their critical assets

seized by China and when Chinese loans are becoming more toxic and addictive and encourage acute dependency using opaque contracts, predatory loan practices, and corrupt deals that mire nations in debt and undercut their sovereignty, denying them their longterm, self-sustaining growth. I recall in January, the CBN had warned the government about external borrowing even though I don’t know its stand on the current ballooning of our debt stock.

Why do Chinese loans hold such attraction to us and why are they so suspiciously generous with these loans even when repayment capability is being gradually impaired? What is the impact of these and other loans on our long-term economic growth and what do we do to escape the looming debt trap? Are we under China-debt stranglehold peonage or are people just crying wolves? What is Chinese agenda, hidden or open? Questions, questions and more questions… later.

‘

While the marriage covenant is a union of equals and till death do us part, the China-Nigeria marriage is a union of unequal’s and it is Till DEBTS Do Us Part

Other matters: Kogi; tears for Salome Abuh et al The national elections are almost over with the incisive judgment on Atiku’s appeal, which was delivered with automatic alacrity within 24 hours of the appointment of new supreme court justices. I decided not to make any direct political commentaries after my analysis of the last presidential elections. But now that the supreme court has ruled, I believe that the elections are over apart from a few cases hanging here and there.

I will get back to these election-related matters but certain things cannot wait and one of them is the superlative performance of our security forces during the Kogi elections as indicated by the gruesome roasting of Abuh by a crowd bloodthirsty celebratory thug. The woman who had earlier been battered was recuperating when the jubilant crowd set her house on fire, ensured that she did not escape and waited till the house was completely razed. Just imagine how long this deadly

Dr Muo is of the Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye

Philosophy of entrepreneurship development in Nigeria

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uring Nigeria’s colonization, developing entrepreneurial or vocational skills was not at the centre of the colonialist minds when they wanted to rule us and impose their form of civilization. Instead of trying to understand our traditional skills and natural potentials, the colonial masters concentrated more on what they viewed was of utmost importance, which was literary education. Although literary education has benefited Nigeria till date, some concentration towards entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation back then would have been useful to the Nigerian society today.

Before colonisation, men and women were taught traditional skills such as sculpting, fishing, blacksmithing, farming, dressmaking, these were skills passed on from their ancestors. These were skills that had been developed over time and traditional innovation had improved the techniques from generation to generation. When they had produced more than they could consume, they used the surplus in exchange for products they required, and this was the bedrock of entrepreneurship in Nigeria. However, these sorts of entrepreneurial skills were never institutionalised when Nigeria was colonized, leaving the society to believe that entrepreneurial/vocational skills, like the ones mentioned, are not of true value.

Unfortunately, this idea ingrained in us by the colonialist is still very apparent today.

Nigeria has a sizable number of small-scale enterprises who are employers of 75 percent of the labour force in the country, however, it is important to note that starting a small-scale enterprise does not always equate to entrepreneurship, al-

though, a small-scale enterprise can create a good platform for entrepreneurship. A more elaborate interpretation of entrepreneurship by Adidu and Olannye states that entrepreneurship could be described as a process that involves the transformation of innovative and creative ideas into profitable activities, especially outside an existing organization. Entrepreneurship is essentially about thinking out of the box and solving existing problems, it involves a passionate individual or group with the enthusiasm to identify a gap in the society or market as a business opportunity.

After conceiving the idea an entrepreneur would need to evaluate their business idea/plan, execute the plan, cultivate the business to grow to maturity, maintain the stability of the business growth, expand the business and improve standard/quality till business decline. In Nigeria today most of the individuals called “entrepreneurs” have been forced into starting a small-scale enterprise due to the pandemic unemployment issue in the country, not because they desired to start a new business or to be an entrepreneur. Most of them would have preferred a white-collar job that comes with a regular income and job security if given the opportunity. Bearing this in mind, it would be difficult for a person who has turned to their last resort, or their second-best option to be passionate or creative to undertake true entrepreneurship.

Some new-age entrepreneurs are starting trends in the market and exemplifying what true entrepreneurship is about such as pioneers of Lifebank, Gokada, FarmCrowdy, PiggyVest, Kobo360 to name a few. The concepts of each of

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the businesses mentioned have created new ways of doing business in Nigeria. For example, Gokada created a platform that allows its customers to order motorcycle taxi, fondly called “Okada”, to their exact location from their smartphone. It also allows Okada riders to connect with customers much easier, which increases their daily income stream.

Also, Lifebank has created a digital blood bank application that links hospitals to blood banks, all the hospital needs to do is enter the blood type that is needed and life bank delivers in under two hours, saving someone’s life. These are the entrepreneurial spirits we need in Nigeria to fill market gaps and institutional voids innovatively.

The major issue with innovation is the risk factor, which diminishes the enthusiasm of people to pursue new ideas, but this is where government influence is important.

The government has a huge role to play in entrepreneurial development. Although there are a number of institutions that have been set up to develop entrepreneurship in Nigeria such as Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS) and N-Power, but because of bureaucracy, nepotism and policy instability the impact of these programmes and initiatives are not noticed in the society.

To be innovative citizens need to be assured by the government that they can still live a decent life for themselves and their children even if their idea fails; if innovators have a soft platform to land on at a failed attempt they will still be determined to try again and again. Some people in Nigeria believe

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process would have lasted! Many others were also sacrificed on the altar of inordinate quest for political control.

The police had deployed 35000 personnel for Kogi, including Police Mobile Force, Special Protection Unit and Counter-terrorism Unit and other security outfits. I learnt that customs officers were included, probably to ensure that nobody was compromising voters with foreign rice. Where were these security men, who had been doing a “show of force” around town, when this gruesome act was being perpetrated? Sadly, our dear IGP told us that this intimidating, force supported by helicopters and attack dogs was overpowered by “fake policemen”.

How could he openly say that? Anyway, during the Rivers governorship elections, there were fake APCs, fake police dogs and fake police guns! Yes, PMB had ordered an investigation.

So, without a presidential order, the police were not planning to do anything?

I was not in Kogi but I believe the testimony of Rev. Fr Emehel Executive Director, Justice and Peace Development Initiative, JDPC, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, who said that “The election fell short of everything an election should stand for and should be considered an outright war.

The battle was not won with the ballot papers but by bullets. Bullets exchanged for ballots in many places” With security men like those assigned to Kogi (and even Bayelsa), we don’t need no security. However, with the sterling performance of thugs, starting with the show of shame at Okota, I move and it is hereby moved that our police force be disbanded and a new one constituted, made up of tested and trusted THUGS. Since it takes a thief to catch a thief and since the thugs have always overwhelmed the security forces, we cannot have any better security outfit. The new force, by whatever name, should be headed by the Thug-in-chief from Lagos!

SAMUEL T. WABARA that if they go through with their great idea and it does not work out, they have mortgaged their future and, their children’s future and this affects the level of creativity and innovation we have in our society.

In conclusion, what do we do to develop entrepreneurship? As the saying goes, charity begins at home. Parents need to encourage their children to think more creatively and explore new skills. By exposing youths to a variety of activities, it expands the mind and broadens their thinking techniques.

Some parents focus their children exclusively on conventional academics, and have a set plan on how their children will follow a specific career path that will align them to their idea of success, which is what our colonialist had taught us decades ago, but even they have evolved passed this way of thinking and we need to do the same.

Secondly, educational institutions need to encourage creative thinking and teach new skills to broaden their students’ abilities. Extracurricular activities are a great way for the youth to explore what they are passionate about. Schools need to introduce idea incubators and entrepreneurship hubs; this will help to evolve the thinking of students and get them into the attitude of thinking outside of the box to solve problems.

Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Wabara is the former Adviser to the governor of Abia State

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The revenge coup: What led to Nigeria’s civil war (2)

Remi Adekoya

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his series, we discuss events following the January 1966 coup which saw the army take power six years into independence. Following the coup’s failure in Lagos, Nigeria’s then-capital, power landed in the hands of Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as the country’s highest-ranking military officer. In his first months as Head of State, Ironsi couldn’t seem to decide what to do with Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and the other coup leaders. They were under detention but continued receiving army salaries. This fuelled rumours Ironsi wouldn’t touch them because they were (mostly) Igbos.

Inexperienced at governance, Ironsi came to rely on a small group of senior bureaucrats for guidance. These confidantes were Igbo. Grumblings started about an “Igbo clique” around the new Head of State. In April 1966, Ironsi promoted 21 majors to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel - 18 of who were Igbos. Rumours intensified he and his advisers wanted Igbos dominating the army. On May 24, Ironsi announced the abolition of federalism in Nigeria, meaning a switch to centralised government.

The response came five days later.

It started as a protest by university students in Zaria. Under a regional system, these students were virtually guaranteed jobs on graduation. Fearing de-regionalisation would diminish their employment prospects by opening the north’s job market to southerners, they took to the streets, not against Igbos per se, but against Ironsi’s unification policy.

However, their protest provided an opportunity for others to lash out against

a hated group. Many northerners considered Igbos economic exploiters of their region. “The Igbos desire to dominate everybody and monopolise everything wherever they go,” Ahmadu Bello once stated. With Ironsi now in power, northerners now perceived them as dominating the federal government as well. Finally, some northerners craved revenge for the killings of Bello and Balewa in the January “Igbo coup.” The student protest soon degenerated into an ethnic massacre in which hundreds of Igbos were killed.

The killings exposed Ironsi’s unpopularity in the north, emboldening northern officers opposed to his regime. They struck in July 1966. The “revenge coup” was not a classic coup in the sense of an organised plan to take control and install a specific individual as Head of State.

Perhaps originally intended that way, in practise, it turned out to be more of a mutiny by rank-and-file northern soldiers supported by some northern officers.

On July 28, northern soldiers started killing Igbo officers in their garrisons. By the next day, Igbo soldiers were being massacred across Nigeria. Ironsi was arrested and killed. Following his death, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, Nigeria’s next highest-ranking officer, tried to take control of the situation. But northern soldiers refused to take orders from him.

Major Murtala Muhammed eventually emerged as the spokesperson of the northern soldiers who were reportedly prepared to withdraw “back home” and secede from Nigeria. They were eventually persuaded otherwise by some key government officials as well as Britain and America’s ambassadors to Nigeria.

Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon was appointed head of state. Neither Hausa-Fulani nor Muslim, Gowon was presented as a unifier in a period of massive ethnic tension. He immediately repealed Decree 34, reverting Nigeria back to federalism. He also released Obafemi Awolowo from prison in a goodwill gesture to the Yorubas, appointing him Federal Commissioner for Finance.

However, Emeka Ojukwu, the military governor of the eastern region

since the January coup, never accepted Gowon’s leadership. Meanwhile, between May 1966 when Ironsi abolished federalism and September 1966, tens of thousands of Igbos were killed in the north. In revenge, northerners were killed in the east. The safety of Igbos outside eastern Nigeria became a key issue with Ojukwu questioning the ability and willingness of Gowon’s government to protect them.

The atmosphere was perhaps best summed up in a candid memorandum submitted by the northern delegation to the Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference which met in Lagos in September 1966 in an effort to resolve the crisis: “We have pretended for too long that there are no differences between the peoples of Nigeria. The hard fact which we must honestly accept as of paramount importance is that we are different peoples brought together by recent accidents of history. To pretend otherwise will be folly. We all have our fears of one another.

Some fear that opportunities in their own areas are limited and they would therefore wish to expand, and venture unhampered in other parts. Some fear the sheer weight of numbers of other parts which they feel could be used to the detriment of their own interest. Some fear the sheer weight of skills and the aggressive drive of other groups which they feel has to be regulated if they are not to be left as the economic, social and possibly political underdogs in their own areas of origin.

These fears may be real or imagined; they may be reasonable or petty. Whether they are genuine or not, they have to be taken account of because they influence to a considerable degree the actions of the groups towards one another, and more important perhaps, the daily actions of the individual in each group towards individuals from other groups.”

The key takeaway from this memorandum is fear and mistrust of the other.

The Igbos feared not being able to live safely outside the east. The Yorubas feared domination by the numericallysuperior northerners while the latter feared being left behind in an opencompetition scenario.

‘ The killings

exposed Ironsi’s unpopularity in the north, emboldening northern officers opposed to his regime.

They struck in July 1966.

The revenge coup was not a classic coup in the sense of an organised plan to take control and install a specific individual as Head of State

Dr Adekoya is a journalist and political scientist. He has written for the UK Guardian, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post and Politico among others. He tweets @ RemiAdekoya1

Why the Gulf states are betting on sport

Andrew England and Murad Ahmed

Saudi Arabia is following Qatar and the UAE in spending big on sporting events.

But the investments have increased scrutiny over human rights

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ddie Hearn was feeling emotional.

Flanked by boxers Anthony Joshua, a former heavyweight champion, and Andy Ruiz Jnr, a Mexican-American fighter who shocked the sport by winning their bout in June, the British sports promoter was in Diriyah, a historical site in the conservative heartland of Saudi Arabia, talking up the next championship bout.

In comparison to the usual pre-fight press conference, it was a polite affair. The fighters avoided trading insults and praised their hosts.

Interviews were conducted after prayers.

“Sometimes our sport is very narrow minded,” said Mr Hearn, the mud-brick remains of the ruling al-Saud family’s ancestral home providing the backdrop to the setting. “There’s Las Vegas, there’s New York, there’s London.

[But] there’s a whole world out there and now there’s Saudi Arabia for boxing.”

He acknowledged that some people think Saudi Arabia is a “strange destination” for a global sports event. But he boldly predicted that the December 7 title rematch, dubbed the “Clash on the Dunes”, would go down in the sport’s history alongside Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” with George Foreman in Zaire and the “Thrilla in Manila” against Joe Frazier.

Saudi officials will hope he is right. Riyadh

has spent about $50m to secure the rights to host the fight as sport becomes the latest platform through which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looks to deploy the kingdom’s financial muscle to project the country on to the global stage, reshape perceptions about the desert state and shake-up the nation’s conservative society — all part of his Vision 2030 programme of economic reform.

In doing so, Riyadh is following in the footsteps of neighbouring Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which have invested billions of dollars to make their mark on the international sports arena.

It is a trend that is rippling through the sporting world as the region’s absolute monarchies splash the petrodollars to lure superstars and top events.

Its impact has been most notable in football, from the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup to the hundreds of millions of dollars Abu Dhabi and Doha have spent transforming Manchester City and Paris SaintGermain football clubs, inflating wages and transfer fees in the English and French leagues respectively. But it is also having repercussions across motor racing, athletics, tennis, golf and, now, boxing.

Some grumble that Gulf states’ financial clout is distorting markets, while campaign-

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ers accuse autocratic regimes of using sports brands to deflect attention from poor human rights records. The Joshua-Ruiz bout comes as Saudi Arabia is desperate to repair its tarnished image a year on from the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Simon Chadwick, a professor of enterprise at the UK’s Salford Business School, says the phenomenon is changing the global sports industry “tangibly and intangibly”.

“It has changed the face of world sport,” he says. “There’s an expectation that the region is going to be a source of revenue . . . [and] it increases expectations about what it takes to bid for and organise an event.”

The entry of Saudi Arabia, which boasts the Middle East’s biggest economy and largest population, into the sports bidding market could have the most impact yet.

“The sky is the limit for us because it is the mandate within the 2030 Vision to host the best competitions, to promote Saudi in terms of tourism and to use sports, culture and entertainment as a tool,” says Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the kingdom’s General Sports Authority. “Literally, [Prince Mohammed] says: ‘Abdulaziz, you are doing this for your country. If it’s in the benefit of Saudi Arabia, go out and do it and we don’t have any limits.’”

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Gowon’s decision in May 1967 to divide Nigeria into 12 states was another crucial moment in the lead-up to the war. It was interpreted by Ojukwu and the people around him as a move intended to divide and weaken the east.

After last-ditch negotiations between him and Gowon failed, Ojukwu declared the secession of Biafra, thus triggering the Nigerian civil war.

Aside the obviously crucial issue of ethnically-targeted massacres, one cannot credibly point to any single isolated event that caused the war. Rather, it was the accumulated effect of political decisions, tragic events and psychological anxieties dating back to the colonial era.

In practise, Nigeria’s regional form of federalism never led to the key objective of a federal system: that the whole be as strong as the sum of its parts. Instead, the whole was as weak as the strength of its regional parts could ensure.

In many ways, this resulted from the political logic of the system. To matter at the centre, you needed to be dominant in your region. Hence, leaders like Awo, Zik and Bello were more or less compelled to focus their energies on securing their regional power bases rather than on thinking in national terms.

However, political realism aside, another factor played a major role in Nigeria’s descent into civil war: identity. Perceptions of who constituted a genuine “we.” Throughout the 1950s, the country’s political class had debated over what Nigeria was and who Nigerians were. They reached no conclusive consensus on this before independence.

Nor has such a consensus been reached today. It is high time this happens, for the answer to whether Nigeria is a multiethnic nation or a multinational state is necessary foundational information for its effective organisation. Next series, we shall discuss the answer to this question and its implications.

Days after Joshua and Ruiz exchange blows in a 20,000-capacity open-air stadium, with front-row seats selling for $13,000, Diriyah will host a $3m tennis tournament that promises to feature “eight of the finest men’s players on the planet”. In January, Saudi Arabia will stage the Paris-Dakar rally, an annual motor racing event, for the first time.

The same month, Spain’s top four football teams, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, will compete in the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah. The new version of the tournament will earn the Spanish football federation between €35m-€40m a year over three years, according to a Spanish newspaper report, and it is going ahead despite criticism from within Spain.

Rumours have also persisted that Prince Mohammed wants to buy Manchester United.

The kingdom is also hosting Formula E motor racing, the Italian football Super Cup and a round of the European golf tour, all for the second year, as well as its first cycling tour event. In February, the inaugural Saudi Cup will be run, which, with prize money of $20m, will be the world’s richest horse race.

“The idea is to host all kinds of sports . . . to have the kingdom as the hub of sports within the region,” says Prince Abdulaziz.

FT

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BUSINESS DAY

Thursday 28 November 2019

Editorial Publisher/CEO

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

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu

Stock market as economic barometer

I

t is no longer a newsflash that the challenges faced in Nigeria cut across all sectors of her economy and analysts have reiterated the need for “bold” reforms in the oil and gas, and power sectors to spur growth above current snail-paced growth of 2 percent on the average.

However, these reforms are looking more like rocket science with still no clear direction. Unorthodox fiscal and monetary policies, which should be the exception, don’t boost investors’ sentiment. Foreign investment in the equity market has declined faster compared to other asset classes, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Investors are being cautious as signs to boost confidence are missing. Domestic investors who are now more risk averse and yet to recover from 2008 market crash are also holding back.

Consequently, the bearish trend in the equity market since 2018 continued

into 2019; the All Share Index (ASI) a measure of stock market performance plunged -14.47 percent as at 26th November 2019. The amended NSE pricing methodology has kept prices somewhat stable and prevented faster deterioration of the market performance. Still the future remains bleak.

To put in the right context, economic performance mirrors businesses performance. Consumer goods firms are facing revenue strains as consumers’ wallets shrink resulting in negative stock performances; impressive results from other companies have had little or no impact in boosting general market sentiment.

Conventional economics states that stock market meltdowns are typically accompanied by a financial crisis and an economic recession. However, economic cycles don’t always mirror stock market cycles frequently enough to make it a norm. In fact, many economies have grown before and after a stock market price bust. For example, Nigeria’s

economy grew by 7 percent in 2007 and again in 2008 while the All Share Index fell over 40 percent between December, 2007 and December, 2008.

However, a poorly performing stock market means investors are losing value – hence we cannot fold our arms and watch the market gradually lose relevance as investors abandon in search for safer haven.

The recent US fed rate cut for the third consecutive time which has opened up opportunities for carry trade and foreign interest in high yielding emerging and frontier market may not be beneficial to the Nigeria equity market as foreign investors look beyond companies’ numbers when making investment decisions.

Unfortunately, the federal government is indifferent to how its statist policies and disdain for private capital affect the equity market.

The recent capital importation report released by the NBS clearly reveals how the Nigerian equity market is capital starved. Quarter on

quarter, foreign portfolio investment in the equity space slumped 27.91 percent to $358.19 million – lowest in the year – in the third quarter of 2019. However, this is not the case in other frontier market peers.

The Kenyan economy for example has shown the effect of good reforms on stock market performances as its 20 biggest companies went from $6 million worth of trades since January 2019 to $13 million in the last month after the removal of a controversial cap on interest rates first introduced in 2016 by the government to force bank lending.

The performance of the stock market is determined by the well-being of listed private companies which are largely affected by cycles in the economy. The equation is simple, introduce smart and bold reforms and the economy improves in the medium to long term; companies benefit, the confidence of investors is restored and ultimately stock price begins to reflect true worth based on fundamental.

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The revolution Nigeria need urgently Positive Growth with Babs

Babs OlugbemI

T

he video of the attacks on an innocent Nigerian woman along Lekki road during the protest for the Xenophobia attacks in South Africa is an indication that there is a need for a revolution in Nigeria. The video where a woman in a Toyota Prado was attacked in her own country in a protest meant to show discord for intolerance of Nigerians in South Africa was a wake-up call. There is xenophobia in Nigeria. The xenophobia is the massive gap between the wealthy elite and the poor majority. It could lead to an undesired revolution if we do not act now.

Revolution is a Latin word for a turnaround, a fundamental and sudden change of event in the economic and political environment of a nation triggered by people using a violent or non-violent means. The possibility of violent protests in Nigeria is high. The odd against the type of demonstrations during the Arab springs that led to change of governments in Tunisia and Egypt is high for Nigeria. Nigeria, as a country is an entity with different attributes. There is no unity of purpose or idea among the youth, unlike

13

those in Egypt, Tunisia and recently in Lebanon.

If the Sowores want a peaceful revolution protest against the Buhari regime for the obvious reasons, the youth in the North will use religion and ethnic factors as the basis for carrying placards in a sponsored antirevolution protest of the Sowores. The Niger Delta will abstain and would instead want to be in control of the oil.

My Ibolites will rather consolidate on the struggle to actualise Biafra. The only united force will be people who are in power and benefits from the largess of government-the elected officers and their contractors. When it comes to position, money and self-political power or influence, you will see a united front of elites using religion and ethnicity as the divide and rule strategy.

So, the potential revolution in Nigeria is the undesired attacks on the rich by the poor, including the rich who are not part of those wasting our resources. We have a lot of rich people who are doing their businesses, including employing others. But what best can they do when the government is focusing on self and their cronies?

The revolution will be devoid of religion or ethnic. The case will be like that of the bandits in the North who are the hungry lions tired of eating the crumbs from their masters’ tables and are now demanding for their share of the national cake.

The factors in favour of an unwanted revolution between the “have” and the “have-not”, between the “nothing to lose” including their lives and the “all to lose” including their business empires and mass wealth are the population of the unemployed, hungry, angry, idle youth and the faded interest in Nigeria

as an equitable society. These youths have been named as the citizens of the number one of poverty capital of the world. An award of penury amid endowed natural and human capital resources. What a shame and a legacy of leaving the effects of bad management of resources and leadership for the generation to come. I make bold to blame all the woes of this country on the bad administration, including our failure to have the right value system.

The revolution that will avert the unwanted breakdown of law and order as we are witnessing in some parts of the North is the revolution of idea and action.

Take the population demography of Nigeria, with an average median age of 18.4 years out of the over 203 million people as a yardstick. The percentage of people below 50 years is over 70 percent with one birth in every four seconds. The trend will leave Nigeria with a population of active youth with energy to be either used in creative activities or be deployed to violent activities if not catered for. The revolution our leaders should embrace is that of the ideals of good governance and equality.

Ideas on what can be done with the youthful population, how to alleviate poverty, ways to reducing oppression through unearned wealth by the children of the political class and how to create an equitable environment where anyone with excellent programme can win elections without being nominated by the cabal are urgently required for implementation to avert the war of the poor versus the rich who have nothing to lose if death knocks their doors.

Rather than playing the politics of APC versus PDP in the morning and mingling together as friends at the

‘

So, the potential revolution in Nigeria is the undesired attacks on the rich by the poor, including the rich who are not part of those wasting our resources

wedding of one of elites’ children, our leaders need to be mindful of the dangers of having idle youths in a country already divided by tribe and religion.

The revolution of an idea is not rocket science from the moon. It was what changed the third world countries like Brazil, South Korea, China and Japan to entities with economic and political power. The like of Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia are joining the race of countries revolutionising through ideas and desire of their ruling class to change.

Unfortunately, some of these countries have experienced the devastation of civil wars beyond Nigeria’s experience.

They are no match for us in terms of human and material resources.

The leaders in Nigeria are called to a reality. No matter the quality of education in the schools you sent your children abroad, they will always be at the mercy of the abandoned youth who are likely to be the armed robbers of the future. No matter your wealth as leaders, it cannot replace the joy of leaving a legacy the influence people and impact the society beyond your immediate family and cronies. The future you refuse to focus on as leaders will haunt your children and make the wealth you are leaving behind nothing but shameful legacies that cannot endure the test of time.

This is a clarion call for our leaders to start the revolution of ideas and action to arrest the menace of having idle youth who must eat and live anyhow if not led the right way.

Babs Olugbemi FCCA, the Chief Responsibility Officer at Mentoras Leadership Limited and Founder, Positive Growth Africa. He can be reached on babs@babsolugbemi.org or 08025489396.

Intelligent transport systems: Its benefits to Nigeria’s public transport sector

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ublic transport refers to the means by which larger proportions of urban and rural dwellers gain physical access to goods, services and activities they need for their livelihoods and well-being. It includes a variety of transit options such as buses, light rail, and subways.

Despite Nigeria’s population estimated at almost 200 million, GDP $397.30 billion in 2018 and blessed with abundant natural resources including being the world’s sixth largest oil producer and largest in Africa with proven oil and gas reserves of 37 billion barrels and 192 trillion cubic feet, over 300 square kilometres of arable land and significant deposits of largely untapped minerals, it is quite disheartening and a mystery why our nation still lacks modern transport infrastructures that can help boosts the living standard of our people.

Mega cities cannot fulfil their vision without providing new solutions for transportation within the cities and so needs intelligent transportation system (ITS) as a driving force to facilitate its initiatives that will help improve mobility and improve transport infrastructures.

ITS is one of the fundamental structures smart cities are using to improve the lives of its citizens and achieving sustainability. It includes tracking high pedestrian areas, traffic patterns, metro stations and coordinating bus times. It also enhances interoperability, general awareness of situations and has capacity to share information swiftly.

It also offers a comprehensive approach to risk management, putting emergency procedures and response capabilities in place, identifying dangers, including vandalism or violence, fare evasion, and medical emergencies. The Nigerian transport system is urgently in need

of modern infrastructures such as ITS because it would continue to suffer both in direct and indirect investments opportunities, unless urgent steps are taken by this government to address the status quo.

Smart city transport technology helps cities to function productively, while improving services for businesses and lives of is citizens.

This technology has the ability to improve travel across traditional modes of transport, such as cars and buses, with immediate benefits for city dwellers and also enhances traffic safety such as dangerous weather conditions, heavy traffic, and unsafe speeds which can result in accidents and loss of lives.

Real-time weather monitoring systems helps correlate information such as wind speed, visibility and road conditions, rainfall, providing traffic control and information on current driving conditions and it also limits infrastructure damages such as impacts of heavy vehicles which burden road networks, especially if they are overloaded.

Modern technology such as weight-in-motion systems in this regard, helps measure the size, type and weight of vehicles as they travel and transmits the collected data to a central server.

Intelligent transportation systems help in traffic control such as permitting traffic lights to react to changing traffic patterns, instead of working on a fixed schedule in traffic. Adaptive traffic light systems use smart intersections that help grant priority to certain vehicles such as public transit and emergency vehicles.

It also helps parking management such as illegal parking in hazardous city streets because conventional parking enforcement systems are not very effective and are costly. Smart parking violations systems also help scan parked vehicles and transmit information to the parking meter

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to document illegally parked vehicles and helps in acquiring traffic data, for instance electronic traffic counters can record the type and number of vehicles accessing a road or visiting a specific area of a city and can also measure peak traffic times, journey length and other data.

An efficient transportation system plays a very vital role in both the developed and developing world economies because it serves to reduce reliance on private car-ownership by providing an affordable alternative for commuters. The demand for public transport service is a direct consequence of the quality of the living environment, household, community and social networks of the nation, therefore is very important to understand the characteristics of the public transport demand of that nation. It is also very important to have a very good understanding of the nature of the public transport systems in order to make demand forecasts which plays a fundamental role for quality planning, operations and policy formulation.

Intermodal transportation network system is the backbone of economic security and competitiveness of any society, as well as help in the quality of life of the society, because it helps facilitates the movement of people, goods and links communities and states to each other. The failure of past and present governments to improve transport infrastructures is partly responsible for the reduction of both direct and indirect investments opportunities in our nation.

Intelligent transportation systems is very important in our nation’s transportation sector and so would require trained personnel to drive its efficiency to greater height because the purpose of introducing it is to add value and at the same time reduce motor vehicle miles and traffic congestion which is a major challenge around

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Festus Okotie Tin can island and Apapa Port.

It will interest you to note that despite the huge investments made by past governments of Lagos State the most developed state in Nigeria, 2019 global liveability index by economist intelligence unit recently released, ranked the state as one of the least cities to live in globally out of 140 major cities analysed, Lagos has consistently rocked the bottom for the third year in a row because of poor infrastructure, stability, health care, environment and culture. Its general rating stood at 38.5-20 percent on stability, 37.5 percent on healthcare, 53.5 percent on environment,33.3 percent on education and 46.4 percent on infrastructure.

The need for the federal government, state governments, houses of assembly to organise a national transportation workshop to begin the process of addressing the challenges in our nation’s transport sector is highly expedient and so bills that will facilitate the implementation of policies to promote intelligent transportation systems needs to be sponsored because of its potentials to create thousands of jobs for our citizens, provide farmers with better access to cities and a better living condition for Nigerians.

Okotie, a maritime transport specialist, writes via fokotie. bernardhall@gmail.com, Fokotie@bernardhallgroup.com

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Company news analysis insight

ECONOMICS

How each member voted at last Nigeria MPC meeting LOLADE AKINMURELE

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nflation had taken an unexpected upturn by rising to a 17 monthhigh while third quarter GDP expanded at the fastest rate in four quarters when the monetary policy met this week.

As widely expected, the verdict was a hold in key rates just as was the case when the MPC members met in September.

The members voted to keep benchmark interest rate at 13.5 per cent; Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 per cent, liquidity ratio at 30.0 per cent and the asymmetric corridor at +200/– 500 basis points.

While the communique from the September meeting, which revealed the voting pattern among members and the thinking behind their decisions, has been published, notes from the latest meeting have not.

The old notes could provide a glimpse into how members made up their mind this time.

AHMAD, AISHAH N. My decision to hold, like all other members, reflects the importance of balancing the price and monetary stability remit of the Committee with the pursuit of stronger growth. Rising global headwinds, policy uncertainty and persistent domestic vulnerabilities were other key considerations for my decision.

ASOGWA, ROBERT CHIKWENDU There is strong argument that the two successive interest rate cuts in the US and the easing stance in other major economies provides a welcome breathing space for Nigeria and indeed other developing and emerging economies to reduce their own policy interest rates as well. The uncertainties about the future stance of monetary policy may however require a wait and see approach on MPC decisions about the key policy rates for now. This seems appropriate especially given that the current CBN easing stimulus to key sectors look somewhat effective.

Besides, the emerging signs 20 of willingness to resolve the US-China trade conflict might lead a possible reversal of the yield curve sooner than anticipated. The 3rd quarter domestic output figures are not yet out but there are huge expectations of mild recovery as compared to the second quarter figures. As such, other supportive macro policies will be key to sustaining output growth in the near future.

My opinion therefore, is that policy parameters should remain largely unchanged at this September 2019 MPC meeting.

BALAMI, DAHIRU HASSAN Taking into consideration the Q2 growth rate at 1.9%, improvement in financial sector indicators and inflation at 11.02% in August

2019, I vote to hold because tightening will further slowdown growth, while loosening will be inflationary.

NNANNA, OKWU JOSEPH Growth remains muted amidst the bumpy road to economic recovery while the longstanding problems of high unemployment and infrastructure deficit persist.

Inflation is decelerating but remained outside the target corridor of 6-9%.

Financial conditions have remained tepid, and credit to the private sector remains largely below target.

External buffers (reserves) are more than adequate to finance Nigeria’s import needs in the medium-to-long term but fiscal buffers remain inadequate to finance capital expenditure.

Overall, the macro economy is at a cross road and the economy may witness a twin deficit.

Monetary policy has been overburdened and its limitations have become evident, as seen in the neutrality of the Monetary Policy rate. The critical pressure points that policy should address in the near term include; job creation through the implementation of a robust public works programme, encompassing infrastructure improvement and strengthening of key institutions.

In view of these developments, I vote to hold on all the policy metrics constant.

OBADAN, MIKE IDIAH The observed downward trend in inflation would have provided headroom to loosen the monetary policy stance in view of the need to stimulate growth and generate employment.

But the need to sustain a robust external reserves position, take advantage of the reversal of monetary policy normalisation by the major advanced countries, and hedge against weakening oil prices suggest caution in loosening monetary policy. At the same time, any tightening of monetary policy beyond the current stance will be at variance with the much-desired high inclusive economic growth that is employment-generating and poverty-reducing.

Therefore, I will support the option of holding policy parameters at the extant levels.

SANUSI, ALIYU RAFINDADI My decision to vote for a hold on all the policy parameters was informed by the increased uncertainties occasioned by domestic and global economic developments.

In considering the policy options, I was convinced that, while loosening the current monetary policy stance may complement the various heterodox policy interventions in raising credit, it could also raise inflationary pressure and jeopardize the downward trend in inflation. It may also raise pressure on the foreign exchange, the stability of which is important for

the current disinflationary process. Further tightening would further depress aggregate demand and hurt the fragile output recovery, thereby exacerbating the high unemployment situation. As the data shows, I am convinced that the several heterodox policy actions taken by the Bank are still working themselves out.

Therefore, I voted for a hold to appraise their effects.

SHONUBI, FOLASHODUN A. Overall, while there is no clear and urgent need for a tight monetary policy stance at this time, especially as inflation remain on downward trend, it is pertinent that we must continue to promote growth and enhance employment generation. Moreover, the strengthening dovish wave across central banks and relatively competitive domestic yield provides some respite. I am therefore persuaded that we must allow the present policy environment to mature for the full benefit to be realised.

GODWIN EMEFIELE, CBN Governor and MPC chairman In my consideration, I note that the prevailing macroeconomic stability and short-term prospects are threatened by global and domestic headwinds.

Though the trajectory of the economy remained generally positive, it is fragile and requires cautiousness.

Regardless of the desire

to spur growth, there remains the need to ensure that inflation and inflation expectations are not undermined. Though inflation rate is declining, it remains outside the tolerant range of the CBN. Easing at this time may resolve one problem while aggravating a bigger one.

Besides, given the tangential impact of interest rate on portfolio flow, this may inadvertently destabilise the FX market.

Given the need to avoid monetary policy actions that will worsen FDI outflows, destabilise the fragile recovery, and infringe on disinflation, I am inclined towards a more practical and wellbalanced decision with considerations for output, unemployment and poverty. Accordingly, altering the current levels of monetary policy instruments could stir indeterminate outcomes. Since the key mandate of the CBN remains price, monetary and exchange rate stability, I am committed to driving inflation to single-digit levels and building sufficient reserves buffers to defend the naira.

Today, my immediate predisposition is that the current level of real policy rate is appropriate to balance the objectives of exchange rate stability, price stability and output stabilisation without introducing disruptive policy shocks.

Therefore, I vote to retain key policy rates.

OIL & GAS

ConocoPhillips unveils 10-year plan, targets $50bn in free cash flow …boost production by 3% annually …to spend about $20 billion on dividends OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

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even years after selling its Nigerian assets for $1.79billion to Oando Energy Resources, ConocoPhillips has revealed a tenyear operational plan which includes free cash flow of $50 billion and an average yearly CAPEX of less than $7 billion.

The Houston-based oil and gas producer is targeting a free cash flow of approximately $50 billion based on a real West Texas intermediate price of $50 per barrel and annual capital expenditures averaging less than $7 billion over the decade.

ConocoPhillips expects several decades ahead of lackluster oil prices, with U.S. oil to average between $40 to $70 per barrel through the

2050s. Ride-sharing, electric vehicles and urbanization will impact demand for the company’s products, but Executive Vice President Matt Fox said oil and gas would remain an important part of the energy mix through 2050 According to the company, it will spend about $4 billion per year on shale, running about 20 drilling rigs across four fields, and boosting shale production from more than 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year to around 900,000 bpd by the end of the decade, it said.

The company projected ordinary dividends of approximately $20 billion, reflecting growth in the current dividend over the plan period; and a projected $30 billion in share buybacks over the 10-year period, representing

almost 50 percent of current market capitalization; The announcement comes as investors, frustrated by weak commodity prices for five years, have been pressuring oil and gas companies to cut back on drilling and shore up cash to return to shareholders.

“Over the past few years we have successfully transformed ConocoPhillips to position the company for consistent, predictable performance across the inevitable price cycles of our industry,” said Ryan Lance, chairman, and chief executive officer.

“We believe that we offer the market a compelling, longterm E&P investment that provides downside protection and full exposure to the upside.

Today’s plan demonstrates sustained value creation through significant free cash flow generation, distinctive returns of capital and

growing returns on capital.”

Lance continued, “We are committed to delivering superior returns to shareholders. Our plan provides a pow-

erful, multi-year outlook that combines a robust, scenariobased strategy framework, a diverse, low cost of supply resource base, a disciplined,

value-based investment approach, and a world-class workforce. We believe we are unique in being able to offer this formula to the market.”

L-R: Nuhu Yakubu, president, Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA); Nkechi Obi, founder and executive vice chairman/CEO, Tecno Oil Limited; Dayo Adeshina, programme manager, National LPG Expansion Plan, Office of the vice president, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Neasa Hapiak, director, LPG Summit, and Simbi Wabote, executive secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), at the Nigeria LPG Summit 2019 organised by the NLPGA in collaboration with Singapore’s LPG Summit, in Lagos

Thursday 28 November 2019

COMPANIES&MARKETS

BUSINESS DAY

15

Business Event

BANKING

Stanbic, Ecobank, Standard Chartered attract most capital to Nigeria in Q3 OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN

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id-tier lender Ecobank Nigeria and the local unit of Standard Chartered Bank have joined Stanbic IBTC Bank to become foreign investors’ favourites for investment deals.

This followed major declines in the capital flow through Citibank Nigeria Limited and Rand Merchant Bank in the third quarter of this year, paving ways for both Standard Chartered Bank and Ecobank Nigeria to join the toasts of investors.

While the total value of capital importation into the Nigerian economy fell by 7.78 percent to $5.36 billion in the third quarter of 2019 from the previous quarter, Standard Chartered Bank and Ecobank Nigeria attracted 53.22 percent and 55.41 percent more capital, according to a recent capital importation data by the National Bureau

of Statistics (NBS).

Specifically, out of 26 banks foreign investors used to deploy foreign capital into the country, the most investment came through Stanbic IBTC Bank. The bank attracted $1.63 billion worth of investment in the third quarter of this year, lower than $1.76 billion it had in the previous quarter.

Ec o b a n k t ra i l e d w i t h $754.38 million worth of foreign investment, while Standard Chartered Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Standard Chartered Bank occupied the third position by attracting $502.47 million inflows. Access Bank got $477.55 million; Rand Merchant Bank, $430.15 million; Citibank Nigeria Limited; $350.95 million; while First Bank of Nigeria had $307.94 million.

The banks with the least amount of investment were Providus Bank with $99,975 worth of investment; Suntrust Bank Nigeria, $6.72 million; Sterling Bank, $7.52 million;

Wema Bank, $7.52 million; FSDH Merchant Bank, $11.13 million; Nova Merchant Bank, $15.50 million; Fidelity Bank, $47.19 million; and First City Monument Bank with $39 million.

Furthermore, the capital importation data reveal that the total foreign investment in Nigeria in the third quarter of 2019 was channelled to only eight states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The data show that Lagos state was the most preferred destination for foreign investors, accounting for about 93 percent of the total offshore investment recorded in the country with more than $4.97 billion worth of investment.

Foreign investment inflow into the FCT, Abuja, slumped to $381.19 million, representing some three-quarters decline from the previous quarter. Ogun had $7 million; Oyo, $1.71 million; Edo, $830,000; Kaduna, $250,000; Kano, $160,000; while Rivers had $30,000.

L-R: Secretary, Association of Reporting Accountants and Auditors in the Capital Market, Sola Oyetayo, partner, and head, financial Services industry, KPMG, Ayodele Othihiwa; associate director, PWc, Chioma Obaro; Executive Secretary/CEO, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Daniel Asapokhai; Team Lead, Listing Analysis/Listing Regulation Department, NSE, Elizabeth Ekpo; and Acting Chairman, RT Briscoe, Sunny Nwosu at the 2019 Annual Conference of ARAACAM, in Lagos

NSURANCE

Allianz Nigeria settles motor insurance claims in 60 minutes Modestus Anaesoronye

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llianz Nigeria, local operating entity of global insurance giant, Allianz has again strengthened its position as a game changer in the Nigeria insurance industry.

The company has disclosed that since July 2019, it has been settling retail motor insurance claims in 60 minutes, on the average.

Tunji Oshiyoye, retail operations boss, highlighted that retail claims team had successfully paid claims to the tune of N150, 000 and below to customers in less than 24 hours, year to date.

In a bid to optimize the speed of settlement for small ticket retail claims, the company processed a total of 187 claims within an average period of 3hours and 55minutes.

This number represents all retail motor claims reported to the company with indi-

vidual pay-outs of N150, 000 and below. In total, the sum of N10.5million naira was paid out to settle 187 claims in the last 5months.

Still in line with process improvement, 71 claims received in September 2019 were settled in 60mins on the average, setting a new standard that represents global best practices in retail insurance delivery.

“Allianz recently emerged as the number 1 insurer in the world following the 2019 InterbrandBest Global Brands Ranking”, enthused Walter Bossman, marketing director at Allianz Nigeria. “This is a serious responsibility”, Walter continued. “We are determined to continue to optimize our service delivery to prove worthy of this enviable position”, concluded Walter.

The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers with more than 92 million retail

and corporate customers. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance.

Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 764 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, their asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage more than 1.6 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in their business processes and investment decisions, Allianz holds the leading position for insurers in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2018, over 142,000 employees in more than 80 countries achieved total revenues of 132 billion euros and an operating profit of 11.5 billion euros for the Group.

L-R: Liu Chang Ronne Liu, chairman, Chinese Investors Association; Olufemi Saibu, director, Institute of Nigeria-China Development Studies; Mathew Tsamenyi, executive director, China Europe International Business School; Segun Ajayi, director general, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and Maji Aileky, head of PR, Lagos, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), during the Nigeria-Chinese investors forum on doing business in Nigeria, in Lagos.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

L-R: Ndifreke Okwuegbunam, head of programmes, ACT Foundation; Basil Agboarumi, MD, SAHCOL; Osayi Alile, CEO, ACT Foundation, Funke Durodola, treasurer/GM, FRCN; Suileman Ibrahim, Access Bank sustainability; Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, head of sustainability, Access Bank; Esther Sunday, Access Bank PR, and Amaechi Okobi, group head, communications & external affairs, Access Bank, at the 2019 SERAS CSR Awards, in Lagos

L-R: Samuel Agbeluyi, deputy vice president, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN); Adesina Adedayo, vice president; Gladys Simplice, president/chairman of council; Udochukwu Ogbonna, special guest of honour; Benjamin Omonayajo, chairman, member and professional conduct committee, CITN, and Adefisayo Awogbade, registrar/ chief executive, CITN, at the CITN 41st induction ceremony in Lagos.

Pic by Olawale Amoo

L-R: Mustapha Raji, head of human resources; Ayobami Kalesanwo, assistant brand manager; Adeola Titiloye, head of supply chain; Hakan Misri, MD; Roseline Abaraonye, head of marketing; Motayo Latunji, sales director, and Onyinye Nwosu, brand manager, all of Hayat Kimya Nigeria, displaying the prizes won by the company, at the 2019 ADVAN Awards in Lagos.

16

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Research&INSIGHT

In association with

A WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH & INTELLIGENCE UNIT(BRIU)

briu@businessday.ng

08098710024

Custody services … a compass for a complex world

I

n a world where complexity is now the norm, a trusted partner is needed to help you navigate financial services, whether you’re doing business locally or internationally.

Custody services are part of a suite of offerings that aim to help you settle securities trades, invest cash, collect income on portfolio investments, price securities, process corporate actions and provide recordkeeping and reporting services.

Financial transactions can be both complicated and costly, especially if they are across borders and include multiple counterparties. Financial assets that may be held in custody include equities, bonds, Treasury bills, Eurobonds, commercial papers, promissory notes, depository receipts and cash.

As they are responsible for the safety of assets and securities that may be worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, custodians generally tend to be large and reputable firms. A custodian is sometimes referred to as a “custodian bank.”

Custodial services were first offered in Nigeria in 1994 and as our economy continues to modernise and expand, there is now growing demand for such services.

RMB’s team has the advantage of decades of proven experience,

a network across the continent and deep roots in South Africa, enabling our experts to provide the kind of custody services that safeguard your investments.

Our clients have recognised our unwavering commitment to constantly improving our services by voting us the market outperformer every year since 2016 in Global Custodian’s Surveys for Agent Banks in Emerging Markets.

The ability to gather assets, effectively employ technology, and efficiently process huge volumes of transactions is essential in the custody business. With the growth of the global investment industry over the past two decades, particularly in the mutual fund arena, the volume of assets under custody has increased significantly. Competition for custody of those assets has been fierce, causing profit margins to shrink. At the same time, the industry has focused on using technology to improve efficiency.

As a result, a handful of large banks now dominate the custody services industry, a trend that is reflected locally, where international banks lead the field.

In addition to holding securities for safekeeping, most custodians also offer other services, such as account administration, transaction settlements, collection of dividends, interest payments and

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maturity proceeds, proxy voting services, market information dissemination, tax support, and foreign exchange processing.

The fees charged by custodians vary, depending on the services provided. Most custodians in Nigeria charge monthly custody fees that are ad valorem, based on the aggregate value of a client’s portfolio investments in their custody – that is generally referred to as Assets under Custody (AUC) or flat fees.

At RMB Nigeria Custody Services we distinguish ourselves by providing an efficient, sustainable product and platform ecosystem, and market access. Through our approach of offering solutionist thinking, we do not just provide traditional custody services, but ensure that we are nimble enough to tailor bespoke offerings that meet our client’s individual needs at competitive pricing.

Settlements and the safekeeping of clients’ assets are two key aspects of custody services.

Settling trades after a securities transaction has been consummated, paying and receiving cash related to a settlement and inward or outward fund transfers are central to custody services.

Banks offer this service so as to minimise counterparty risk when the simultaneous exchange of cash and securities is needed.

Foreign exchange, credit facilities

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and the need to reduce manual intervention in transactions are other reasons for employing custody services.

Safekeeping of assets is another tenet of custody services. This involves the holding of assets for investors, servicing of those assets, reporting on the portfolio and providing market information on time. Complying with regulations is at the heart of this service.

In addition to satisfying regulatory requirements, banks ensure that they meet the minimum capital and operating requirements in order to be able to act as a custodian.

For clients, trustworthiness and market experience are generally the deciding factors.

At RMB, we share market information that is detailed and timely.

Furthermore, impact analysis is a critical component of our offering and encompasses relevant assessments of both current and upcoming market developments, ensuring that our clients, armed with the necessary information, are able to be proactive when taking steps to protect their assets.

With our deep experience and exposure to multiple markets, we are a key market influencer.

This we do by engaging with regulators, market infrastructures and other market participants on initiatives that are aimed at improving the experience of our clients.

@Businessdayng

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Investor

17

In association with

Helping you to build wealth & make wise decisions Market capitalisation

NSE All Share Index

NSE Premium Index

N11.721 trillion

Week open (15 – 11–19)

31,924.51 26,851.68

N13.071 trillion

2,233.12

Week close (22 – 11–19)

26,991.42

N13.027 trillion

2,222.19

Year Open

Percentage change (WoW) Percentage change (YTD)

0.52 -14.12

2,241.37

1.02 1.24

The NSE-Main Board

NSE ASeM Index

NSE 30 Index

NSE Banking Index

NSE Insurance Index NSE Consumer Goods Index NSE Oil/Gas Index

130.95

723.46

NSE Lotus II

NSE Ind. Goods Index

NSE Pension Index

291.84

2,272.45

1,254.54

1,212.79

801.09

1,438.19

426.64

1,086.67

756.26

1,009.65

488.07

230.99

1,681.12

1,103.83

1,009.65

757.63

1,117.23 1,136.34

366.76

1,105.05

363.61

120.28

517.43

235.99

1,712.85

1,079.00

1,019.95

-0.86

0.46

6.02

1,456.29

1.69 -23.25

0.18 -4.56

1.71 -19.82

-8.86

-4.90

-30.90

2.16

1.89

-2.25

1.02

-21.92

-23.33

-12.83

-15.53

Niger Insurance eyes N15bn additional capital

N L-R: Reginald Karawusa, acting executive commissioner, Legal & Enforcement, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Mary Uduk, acting director general, and Isyaku Tilde, acting executive commissioner, operations, during the third Capital Market Committee Meeting Press briefing, in Lagos.

Cordros targets N720m from initial offering of Dollar Fund Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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ordros Asset Management Limited, the fund manager of ‘Cordros Dollar Fund’ targets to raise about N720million ($2million) from the fund’s ongoing initial offering.

Cordros Asset Management Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cordros Capital Limited, currently licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a fund/ portfolio management company.

The fund manager is currently offering to investing public 20,000 units of the mutual fund at $100 each.

The fund is targeted at retail, mass affluent, high net worth individuals (HNIs), Africans in Diaspora, and

institutional investors who desire to meet future medium to long term liabilities.

The fund is structured to pay dividends annually, thereby giving investors a medium term investment horizon, liquidity and maximum capital appreciation.

The minimum initial investment for the offer is 5 units of the fund while additional/subsequent investments will be issued in multiples of 5 units and payable in full upon subscription.

The application list which opened on Monday November 25 closes on December 27, 2019.

The Cordros Dollar Fund is a mutual fund that allows investors to conveniently invest and earn returns in US Dollars. The Fund invests in US Dollar denominated securities like Sovereign Eurobonds,

Corporate Eurobonds, Money Market instruments and other quoted Corporate Eurobonds.

The objective is to offer investors competitive returns than is obtainable from an average domiciliary bank account, the fund managers said.

“The fund removes the high entrylevel barrier that has discouraged many investors from investing in USD denominated securities.

“The fund helps you diversify your portfolio and also helps you hedge against the risk of local currency devaluation.

“You can invest towards Dollar obligations such as education, trade, healthcare, or periodic foreign travels,” the fund manager stated.

The Fund is meant to manage the asset allocation in Sovereign Eurobonds, Corporate Eurobonds,

money market instruments and other quoted corporate Eurobonds.

Returns from Eurobonds will be accumulated as income and distributed periodically as stated in the Trust Deed. The income from investing this fund by way of dividends and cash would be accumulated and reflected in its unit price.

The minimum holding period of an investment in the fund is 180 days (6 months) from the date of subscription. However, an early redemption fee of 1.5percent on the redemptive value of the units to be redeemed applies before the expiration of the minimum investment period. Unit-holders can sell their units in the Fund after the initial 180-day holding period. The Fund, like all Unit Trust Schemes in Nigeria, will be regulated by the SEC.

iger Insurance Plc has the approval of its shareholders to take all necessary steps to raise additional capital of up to N15billion.

At 20kobo per share, the company has 7.739billion shares outstanding valued at N1.547billion.

Summary of its shareholding position as at December 31, 2018 shows that Management Alliance Company Limited accounts for 497.908million units (6.43percent) while Chrome Oil Services accounts for 2.122billion units or 27.42percent of the total shares outstanding.

Also, ETHA Ventures Limited accounts for 724.314million units or 9.36percent while other Nigerian individuals and associations account for 4.395billion units or 56.79percent.

In the third-quarter (Q3) ended September 30, 2019 Niger Insurance Plc reported gross premium written decreased to N1.497billion from a corresponding year high of N3.042billion.

Its Gross Premium income in the review Q3’19 decreased to N1.413billion as against N3.002billion in Q3’18. Underwriting profit decreased to N610.809million from N1.436billion in Q3’18.

The company reported net operating loss before tax (LBT) of N307.647million from net operating profit before tax (PBT) of N48.392million in Q3’18. The company recorded loss after tax (LAT) of N323.082million in Q3’19 as against profit after tax (PAT) of N15.764million in Q3’18.

The company’s net premium income of N1.228billion in Q3’19 represents a decline from N2.770billion recorded in Q3’18; while its net underwriting income of N1.266billion in Q3’19 is far less than N2.811billion in Q3’18.

C

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18

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Investor Helping you to build wealth & make wise decisions

Investor’s Square

United Capital Investment Views

Equity market: Bullish sentiments persist …NSE-ASI rises 0.5% in one week

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ullish sentiments were sustained in the equity market, as the Nigerian Stock Exchange ( N S E ) A l l S h a re I n d e x (ASI) recorded four days of uninterrupted gains during the prior week.

Accordingly, the NSE-ASI rose 0.5percent w/w to settle at 26,991.4 points and yearto-date (Ytd) return improved to -14.1percent (previously -14.6percent). Meanwhile, market capitalisation depreciated by 0.3percent to close the review week at N13trillion.

The decline in market capitalisation was due to the delisting of Dangote Flour Mills Plc from the exchange following its acquisition by Crown Flour Mills Limited.

Also, trading activity level was underwhelming as average volumes and value traded declined by 43.7percent and 56.3percent w/w, to settle at 207.4million units and N2.8billion respectively.

Sector performance was mixed as three out of the six sectors we track closed the week in the green territory.

The Consumer Goods

owing to profit-taking in CCNN (-5percent), Dangote Cement (-0.4percent), Access Bank (-4.3percent), ETI (-6percent), Sterling Bank (-8.5percent).

Also, the Telecoms sector trended southwards as MTNN (-0.8percent) and Airtel Africa (-3percent) recorded losses.

Investor sentiment weakened, though remained above the water, as market breadth declined to 1.7x (previous week: 3.5x). Notably, 40 stocks advanced while 23 stocks declined w/w.

This week, we expect investors to continue to look for investment outlets in stocks with attractive dividend yields amid growing liquidity in the money market space. Also, investors will be on the lookout for the outcome of the MPC to get a sense of the direction of policy stance going into 2020.

Money Market: First week without an OMO auction in 13-weeks The overall liquidity level in the system improved last week as naira inflows outweighed outflows. The major inflows for the week, though titled towards the last two days of the week, were in the form of OMO

index (+6percent) led the gainers campaign, owing to price appreciation in Flour Mill (+10percent), Dangote Sugar (+9percent), Guinness ( + 8 . 4 p e rc e nt ) , UAC N (+8.3percent) and Nestle (+8.7percent). The Oil & Gas (+2.2percent) and Insurance (+0.5percent) indices also ended the week in the green territory, on the back of gains in Forte Oil (+13.8percent), Oando (+8.1percent), Cornerstone (+35.5percent) and Law Union (+9.1percent).

However, the Industrial Goods (-2.2percent) and Banking (-0.9percent) sectors ended the week in the red territory,

maturities (N389.9billion) and Oct-19 FAAC credit to states as well as local governments (above N300billion), which outweighed outflows via Nov19 bond sales (N157.9billion) on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, sizable retail FX refunds to banks on Thursday were mopped up the following day as banks submitted quotes at the retail FX auction on Friday. In all, average interbank funding rates open buy back (OBB) and overnight (O/N) rates crashed to 4.1percent (previous Friday: 13.6percent).

Elsewhere, improvement in the overall liquidity levels

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and lack of primary market activities spurred buying interest at the secondary market. Notably, the absence of an OMO auction (the first time in thirteen weeks) drove the secondary market demand for OMO bills by eligible investors. However, average OMO bills stayed unchanged at 13.37percent compared to average yield on NTB which fell by 2.24percent w/w to close the week at 8.65percent.

This week, we expect the CBN to float at least one OMO auction to mop up some of the liquidity from the prior week as well as new inflows from OMO (N352.7billion) maturities on Thursday.

Meanwhile, we expect the FG to successfully rollover N150.6billion matur ing treasury bills on Wednesday, at a lower stop rate. Accordingly, we anticipate some cautious trading in the secondary market as players concentrate interest in the primary market space.

Bond Market: Auction stop rates, crash to 3-year low In the bonds space, the Debt Management Office (DMO) conducted its Nov19 bond auction during the week, offering N150billion – shared between re-opened 5-year (N50billion), 10-year (N50billion), and 30-year (N50billion) notes. Similar to the October 19 auction, investors’ demand remained strong, as total bids worth 1.7x of the offered amount turned up at the auction (same in October 2019). The DMO allotted more notes than it had initially planned to raise, as it took advantage of the strong demand and wide bid rate spread to allot 105.3percent (N157.9billion) of the offered amount via competitive bids while also allotting another N 95b i lli on to t h e noncompetitive bidders, taking total allotment at the auction to N252.9billion. Notably, most of the competitive demand was for the 30-year notes (Bid to cover ratio: 5-year: 0.9x; 10-year: 1.9x and 30-year: 2.3x). Accordingly, marginal rates at the auction crashed compared to the last auction in Oct-19; 5-year note down from 14.05percent to 12percent, 10-year note down from 14.23percent to 12.93percent and 30-year note down from 14.60percent to 13.39percent.

•Have you been shabbily treated by your registrar, stockbroke r or other capital market operators?

Let us know and investor will help you investigate and report back.

E-mail: iheanyi.nwachukwu@businessdayonline.com

Economy & markets

T.bills, FX still major drivers of fixed income, currency market turnover …stood at N16.63trn in October …decreased by N2.57trn month-on-month …increased by N3.28trn year-on-year Iheanyi Nwachukwu

T

urnover in the Fixed Income and Currency (FIC) markets for the month ended October 31, 2019 was N16.63trillion, according to FMDQ FIC Market Summary.

The FIC market turnover in October represents month-on-month (MoM) decrease of 13.39percent (N2.57trillion) on the turnover recorded in September 2019 (N19.20trillion) despite representing a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 24.57percent (N3.28trillion) in comparison to the turnover recorded in October 2018 (N13.35trillion).

The report shows that Treasury bills (T.bills) and Foreig n E xchang e (F X) product segments persisted as the major drivers of turnover, jointly accounting for 71.41percent of the total FIC market turnover recorded in October 2019 but representing a MoM decrease of 701basis points (bps) compared to their joint contribution as recorded in September 2019 (78.42percent).

FX Market Total FX market turnover in October 2019 was $13.97billion (N5.06trilion), representing a 22.90percent ($4.15billion) MoM decrease from the turnover recorded in September 2019. Analysis of FX market turnover by trade type indicated MoM decreases across all trade type categories, with MemberCBN trades recording the highest percentage MoM decrease at 30.85percent ($1.13billion), while MemberClient trades recorded the highest MoM decrease in dollar (nominal) terms, at $2.81billion (24.97percent).

Additionally, analysis by product type indicates that the MoM decrease in FX turnover was mainly driven by the 21.80percent ($2.46billion) decrease in FX Spot turnover.

Similarly, FX Derivatives turnover recorded a MoM decrease of 24.73percent ($1.69billion) driven by the 38.02percent ($1.14billion)

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MoM decrease in FX Swaps turnover. In October 2019, the Naira-settled OTC FX Futures Contract (NGUS OCT 30 2019) with a total open contract value of $1.19billion matured and was settled, and a new contract, NGUS NOV 25 2020 for $1billion at $/N366.22 was introduced.

This brings the total value of open OTC FX Futures Contracts to approximately $9.74billion, while the total value of contracts settled since inception to date stands at about $20.77billion.

In October 2019, the CBN Official Spot rate for $/N remained constant at $/ N307. Similarly, the parallel market rate remained constant at $/N360, while the Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) FX Window by $/N0.43 to close at $/N362.66 in October 2019 ($/N362.23 in September 2019).

Fixed Income Market (T.bills and FGN bonds) In October 2019, total OMO bills outstanding stood at N14.87trillion, representing a MoM decrease of 2.30percent (N0.35trillion), whilst average T.bills outstanding remained constant at N2.58trillion.

Ho w e v e r, av e ra g e F G N bonds outstanding increased MoM by 0.79percent (N0.07trillion) to close at N8.90trillion in October 2019 from N8.83trillion reported in September 2019.

Trading intensity for T.bills decreased to 0.39 in October 2019 from 0.48 recorded in September 2019, however, trading intensity for FGN bonds remained constant at 0.11 in October 2019.

Year-to-date (YtD) trading @Businessdayng

intensity for T.bills and FGN bonds stood at 4.47 and 1.33 respectively compared to 4.39 and 1.29 recorded in the corresponding period in 2018.

In October 2019, T.bills within the 6M - 12M maturity bracket were the most actively traded among the short-term securities (that is 1M – 2Y) accounting for 41.23percent of the total Fixed Income market turnover, while FGN bonds within the 7Y – 10Y maturity bracket were the most actively traded among the medium to long-term securities (that is 2Y – 30Y), accounting for 4.74percent of the total Fixed Income market turnover.

Weighted average yields on the short, medium and longterm fixed income maturities decreased by 0.06percent, 0.16percent and 0.36percent respectively in October 2019. This can be attributed to the sustained interest in fixed income securities by foreign portfolio investors and local institutional investors due to favourable real returns compared to other asset classes.

However, inflation-adjusted yield remained positive across all tenors in the period under review. Money Market (Repurchase Agreements / Buy-Backs and Unsecured Placements/Takings).

Total turnover in the Money Market increased MoM by 18percent (N0.57trillion) to N3.74trillion in October 2019, driven majorly by the Repurchase Agreements/ Buy-Backs segment which recorded a MoM increase of 15.09percent (N0.44trillion) in turnover to N3.32trillion in October 2019 from N2.89trillion in September 2019.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

19

Investor Helping you to build wealth & make wise decisions

Analysis

As C&I Leasing shops to N3.2bn via Rights Issue Iheanyi Nwachukwu

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& I Leasing Plc is currently shopping for N3.2billion by way of Rights Issue of 539,003,333 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N6 per share.

The acceptance list for the Rights Issue which opened on Monday November 18, 2019 will close on Friday December 27, 2019. The company is offering existing shareholders 4 new ordinary shares for every 3 ordinary shares held as at the close of business on September 4, 2019.

The Rights Issue which is for the company’s shareholders who have been with them over the year offers them the opportunity to key into the opportunity in the low priced shares.

It is currently the only leasing company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

No doubt that after the Rights Issue, any investor who has followed the trend around the company’s businesses will definitely like to hold the stock.

Already, the N6.6 per share which the stock had traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange implies 270.8percent gain yearto-date (YtD).

Company overview C & I Leasing Plc was incorporated in 1990 as a limited liability Company and duly licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to offer operating and finance leases and other ancillary services.

Today, it is the foremost brand for finance leases, and other ancillary services in Nigeria. With a current market capitalisation of over N3 billion (approximately $10 million), a staff strength of over 5,590

Andrew Otike-Odibi, Managing Director/CEO, C&I Leasing Plc

people and operational offices at key locations in Nigeria, Ghana and UAE, the company takes pride in its track record of exceptional and qualitative service delivery. Its total assets stood at N52.61billion as at December 2018, Over the years, C & I Leasing Plc has enjoyed consistent growth and has expanded its scope of business to cover major sectors of the Nigerian economy, providing specialized services, in Marine, Telecommunications, Oil and Gas, Equipment Rentals, Manpower Outsourcing and Transportation. Currently, the Company has three divisions and two subsidiaries under its auspices, making up the C & I Leasing group of companies. The Company’s divisions include its Hertz/Fleet Management, Marine Services and Personnel Outsourcing.

Use of Rights Proceeds

The N3.2billion projected proceeds from C&I Leasing Plc Rights Issue will be used to expand the company’s business and meet its working capital requirements. Summarily, leveraging the Rights Issue, the company wants to enhance its capital structure for optimum performance, provide working capital support in a timely manner, and capture potential attractive growth opportunities.

CEO speaks “Nigerian leasing industry is vibrant and can thrive during periods of both economic boom and recession” said Andrew Otike-Odibi, Managing Director/CEO, C&I Leasing Plc. Otike-Odibi noted during a conference call on the Rights Issue that it allows the Company’s shareholders to increase their equity holdings at a discount while creating an avenue for capital gains.

“It is expected that appetite

for the equities market will be renewed by both domestic and foreign players, following the just concluded election as market fundamentals remain supportive of growth”, OtikeOdibi added.

The financials scorecard – upward trajectory maintained Between 2013 and 2018, C & I Leasing’s total assets base saw an increase from N19.11 billion to N52.61 billion at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.5percent. This was attributed to the significant increase in operating lease assets from N22.52 billion in 2016 to N30.69 billion in 2018. The rise in total assets was followed by an increase in shareholders’ funds from N8.09billion in 2016 to N11.83billion in 2018.

The rise came on the back of 424.91percent rise in retained earnings recorded between 2016 and 2018.

Over the same period, profit after tax (PAT) grew by 30.29percent driven by income from joint venture and a 1473percent jump in interest income. Also, between 2013 and 2018, the operating income for C & I Leasing Plc increased from N3.73 billion to N7.93 billion. It has grown at a CAGR of 16.3percent over the past 5 years following: increase in other operating income, interest income, and relative improvement across business segments.

The operating income margin grew from 30percent to 35percent in 2017, it however declined in 2018 to 28percent following lease expenses growing at a faster rate than lease income; and further dragged by nil income in vehicle sales.

Earnings before Interest Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) maintained an upward trajectory over the past

5 years, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.8percent.

The company’s total debt (short and long term debt) to equity has been on an average of 3.19x in the last three years; up from 2.6x in 2014, depicting an increased borrowing by C & I Leasing in recent years.

The current ratio measures the ability of the company to meet its short term liabilities from its short term assets. C & I’s current ratio suggests a steady pattern and the business model of the company as it has remained on the same level in the past 5 years.

In addition, the company’s long term assets/investments can be used to meet its liabilities. The Company’s interest coverage ratio (how many times the company’s operating profit can cover its interest expense) increased from 1.21x in 2015 to 1.33x in 2018.

This depicts that the company generates more than enough operating profit (Cash flow) to pay its interest expense.

Projected earnings Between 2019 and 2023, C & I Leasing expects its total revenue to witness a steady increase from N33.67 billion to N66.34 billion at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.48percent. This growth will be supported by increased volumes –that is anticipated rise in gross earnings in the Company’s divisions in Nigeria, Ghana and United Arab Emirates. In line with the growth is total assets, the company anticipates a simultaneous rise in shareholders’ funds from N13.68 billion in 2019 to N34.57 billion in 2023. The significant rise in shareholders’ funds will be substantiated by a 466percent growth in retained earnings.

Over the same period, it expects net income to grow by 367percent, following significant increase in revenue of the business divisions and other operating income.

Leasing industry overview The appetite for leasing continues to increase especially in the current economic situation which has made outright purchase increasingly difficult.

This is buoyed by multinationals and other large corporate for service oriented leases like fleet management. The industry continued to witness the banks as the lead players, particularly financing big ticket leases and providing funds to lessors for lease transactions.

According to the Equipment Leasing Association of Nigeria (ELAN), the non-bank lessors account for about 80percent of customer base, mainly from the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). Data from the ELAN also shows that Finance lease has remained the predominant type of leases accounting for 70percent of the transactions while operating lease accounted for 30percent.

In terms of asset categorisation, about 40percent of leased assets are vehicles including trucks for haulage and buses for inter-state commercial transportation, which have been major attraction in recent times The company expects the leasing industry to sustain its growth on the back of the following drivers: its major role in the diversification and other developmental agenda of the Government; the creative financing option it provides for several sectors, rather than the cost of outright purchase; and the resilience of the sector to thrive in both booming and recessionary period.

CBi unveils web-based solution to help MSMEs meet COSO 2013 standards

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he Convention on Business Integrity (CBi) in collaboration with ActionAid and Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) hosted stakeholders to the “Unveiling of a Unique Webbased Solution that prepares MSMEs to meet COSO 2013 standards on internal controls and to establish certifiable anti-bribery, anti-corruption standards (ABAC).”.

The launch which had in attendance key stakeholders in the MSME landscape especially members of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) was an opportunity t o l e a r n a n d vo i c e t h e experiences and challenges

L-R: Solomon ADEROJU, chairman, NASME Lagos; Oluwatosin OJO, investment manager, SME. ng; Soji APAMPA, CEO, Convention on Business Integrity (CBi); Ayodele Oloyede, head, emerging businesses, Access Bank, Peter BANKOLE, director, EDC, Pan Atlantic University, Funmi OYEFUSI, director, organisational effectiveness, Action Aid & a Representative from Action Aid. www.businessday.ng

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with doing business in Nigeria.

Many agreed that beyond access to finance, MSMEs are faced with difficulties in relation to access to market, technology, information, infrastructure and indeed suppor t ser vices and a compliance framework which the platform helps to address.

In his keynote address, the CEO, Convention on Business Integrity (CBi), Soji Apampa stated that “MSMEs in Nigeria are severely challenged by issues of undercapitalization, lack of records, difficulty to access of bank credit, high cost of doing business, irregular power supply, inability to separate personal finances from business, corruption, infrastructural inadequacies @Businessdayng

like bad roads, government lack of interest in the sector’ amongst a host of other challenges.

He went on to explain that SMEs can distinguish t h e m s e l v e s f ro m o t h e r o rga n i s at i o n s by u s i ng compliance with international standards as a competitive edge and subscribing to the COSO 2013 framework; adding that donor organizations as well as development banks have had cause to stop MSMEs from participating in their activities because of integrity issues such as falsification of their year of incorporation, doctoring the value of reference contracts and tampering with the experience of key personnel, in a process called Debarment.

20

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Retail &

consumer business Luxury

Malls

Companies

Deals

Spending Trends

COMPANY

PZ Cussons slips from grace Our reporters

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rom the sixties to the mid-nineties, a lot of families were addicted to the array of products manufactured and produced by PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc. The ubiquitous influence of these products was felt in the society; in restaurants, offices, conferences, salons, hotels, which underscores a period of bloom for the consumer goods firm.

Brick and mortar shops were awash with Imperial leather soap (a premium brand), and shoppers swooped on it like a swarm of bees. The detergent is multipurpose, as household use it

to bath and launder clothes.

PZ Cussons’ flagship brands were advertised on the pages of every Nigerian Newspaper and Television Soap Opera, as it was a poster child of the industry.

However, the glory days of the company that produce electrical, homecare, personal care and beauty are over, as a weak macroeconomic environment and stiff competitions are undermining earnings.

In 2016, the Nigerian consumer goods giant had earnings beaten down due to lack of availability of the U.S dollar, as a severe currency shortage, brought on by a sharp in the crude oil price of mid-2014, tipped the country in its first recession that year.

Last year, PZ Cussons

Group UK - the parent company of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc (PZ), had blamed disappointing results on its Africa operations, especially Nigeria.

The parent company debunked rumours that it planned to exit a market it’s been operating in for 120 years.

In 1899, George Zochonis and George Paterson, founders of PZ Cussons Group of Companies, opened their first factory in the country.

For the third quarter ended 31 August 2019, PZ Cusson’s revenue dipped by 0.56 per cent to N15.80 billion. Between 2018-17 financial period, its top lines (sales) declined by 15.88 per cent to N15.89 billion, but it was up by 12.77 per cent to N18.89 billion in 201716 periods.

The slump in revenue can be largely attributed to weak-

ness in the Home and Personal Care (HPC) Segment as it continues to wrangle with increasing competition from cheaper unbranded products as well as products from unrecognized smaller players which continues to exert pressure on HPC business.

As a result of weak sales and the rising cost of production, the company has been recording recurring losses and deteriorating profit margins, which is why it has not been able to deliver a higher return on shareholders’ returns.

Gross profit has reduced by 67.15 per cent to N2.71 billion in the third quarter ended August 31 2019; it dipped by 32.45 per cent to N4.53 billion in 2018-17 financial period, declined by 83.13 per cent in 2017-16.

It recorded losses of N1.13

billion in 2019, and N2.66 billion in 2018, N1.23 billion in 2017, N1.58 billion in 2016, but it recorded a profit of N377.16 million in 2015, and N555.45 million.

PZ Cussons operates in an environment where consumers have refused their pulse spring as inflation and fuel hikes have eroded their purchasing power.

The unemployment rate now stands at 23 per cent, one

While the economy expanded to 2.28 per cent in the third quarter of (Q3) 2019 from 2.12 per cent in the second quarter, trade, recorded its second consecutive contraction, down by 1.5 per cent.

That validates the pains of consumer goods firms as partial closure of borders and lack of economic stimulus compounds their woes.

Investors have dumped the shares of the PZ Cussons

of the highest in the world, as over 50 per cent of a population of $1.98 a day. The country overtook India as the poverty capital of the world.

Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to a 17-month high in October as food prices surged.

Consumer prices rose 11.6 per cent from a year earlier compared with 11.2 per cent in September, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a recent report.

Nigeria, which coincided with a stock market rout, as lack of policy direction on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari led administration has continually undermined foreign direct investment.

Pz Cussons’ share price, which peaked at N31 in June 2015, has dropped more than six times to close at N5.25 as of 2:00 pm Tuesday in Lagos.

Its shares trade at 88.98 times earnings.

Company

Remy Martin launches new brand campaign to woo customers Bumi Barley

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remium Cognac brand, Remy Martin has announced the launch of its new global brand campaign capturing the essence of collaborative efforts and the success it generates.

The campaign tagged, ‘Team Up for Excellence’ aims to emphasize that behind every individual success is a collective story of collaborators united for excellence.

The global campaign launch took place on October 21st, 2019 with a dazzling cel-

ebration in Versailles, France.

The prestigious event was graced by guests from around the world including Jermaine Dupri, Tamra Simmons, Murda Beatz, Christopher Ubosi amongst others who share the same uncompromising commitment to achieving excellence in their respective arts.

Consistent with Remy Martin’s quest of excellence, the new campaign seeks to highlight people with extraordinary accomplishments and the various talents behind them – their teams.

To buttress the contemporary idea of the campaign, two films directed by Bra-

zilian director, Vellas were conceived. The films draw on the iconic, nearly 300-year history of Rémy Martin, rooted in reflecting the brands values of authenticity, audacity and generosity.

To launch the campaign locally, Remy Martin has joined forces with a talent who embodies the spirit of the brand; Christopher Ubosi, Founder and CEO of Megalectrics Ltd, the company behind multiple radio station brands - Beat FM, Naija FM, Classic FM and Lagos Talks FM which are at the forefront of entertainment broadcasting across Nigeria.

The campaign introduces

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and showcases the team behind Christopher with appealing visuals.

History has often told us the timeless stories of remarkable individuals, but history concealed the essential part of some extraordinary characters behind these people. Remy Martin is confident that by partnering with Christopher Ubosi to achieve this feat millions of people across all demographics will be inspired to Team Up for Excellence.

Remy Martin’s success through history lies in the encounter and collaboration of key characters - The Wine Grower, The Master Distiller,

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The Cooper and The Cellar Master. And like Remy Martin, Christopher Ubosi is where he is today because of the key talents he has encountered, collaborated with through the years and have stood by him.

“My Journey has been a unique one fueled by collaborative efforts” says Christopher, “Having the right team members like Deji, Gbemi and Chico¬ has been key to birthing and executing various projects successfully and that’s why the Megalectrics brands have risen to the top of the industry.”

He added, “My team members who will be featur@Businessdayng

ing in this campaign include the Group General Manager for Megalectrics, Deji Awokoya, the Program Director of Naija FM, Gbemi OlateruOlagbegi and the Program Director of Classic FM, Chico Aligwekwe.”

Augustin Depardon, Global Executive Director of Rémy Martin, stated “Rémy Martin is more than just a brand, it is a constellation of talent driven by that rarely found feeling of belonging to a real family. We remain committed to exploring collaborations with those who have embodied diversity and multiplicity of their lives through achieved successes.”

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Retail &

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consumer business

CONSUMER SPENDING

COMPANY

Louis Vuitton owner LVMH seals deal with American jeweler, Tiffany

Lafarge Africa to deepen market share amidst declining consumer spending

OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE

s cement manufacturers in Nigeria continue to woo consumers with different promotional offerings amidst declining consumer spending occasion by inflation and low purchasing power, Lafarge Africa is aiming to deepen market share to grow its bottom-line.

The cement company said this is in line with its commitment to sustainably create value and impact the lives of its customers. Lafarge Africa Plc has therefore announced the commencement of its Ember ‘Buy & Win’ consumer promo. The promo, which started in October, will run till the end of December.

“We are truly excited at this

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n a deal worth $16.2bn, LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury group, has reached a deal to acquire Tiffany & Co, US jeweler famed for its engagement rings and white diamond necklaces.

The company, which has premium brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Moët & Chandon, announced it had agreed to pay $135 a share in cash According to LVMH, the deal would transform its watches and jewelry division, which includes Bulgari, TAG Heuer and Hublot, and boost its presence in the US. The Tiffany takeover would mark one of LVMH’s biggest acquisitions as it continues to expand its interest in jewelry and exposure to the US markets.

The hard luxury section-

watches and jewelry – is one of the fastest-growing areas and is the only sector where LVMH is not a leader.

The Tiffany deal will enable it to challenge Cartier owner Richemont’s dominance. The world’s biggest luxury groups have been buying up smaller brands as they compete for younger customers and high-spending Chinese consumers.

Tiffany is a well-recognised

jewelry brand in China.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, by adding Tiffany to its stable of brands, LVMH will more than double its market share in jewelry to 18.4 percent, surging ahead of Johann Rupert’s Richemont, at 14.8 percent.

According to Bain & Co, management consulting firm, jewellery was one of the strongest-performing areas of the luxury industry in 2018,

forecast that comparable sales in the 18 billion euro ($20 billion) global market was set to grow 7% this year.

Europe’s richest man, Bernard Arnault’s luxury goods empire, and Chairman of the company, first approached Tiffany in late October this year with a $14.5 billion bid.

However, after the review of the proposal by Tiffany’s Board of Directors, it was rejected as the amount was termed too low. The new deal values each Tiffany share at $135 in cash which is higher than the initial offer of $120 a share.

Tiffany founded in 1837

by Charles Lewis Tiffany opened the first store in downtown Manhattan. Presently, Tiffany now has more than 300 stores around the globe. Apart from jewelry, the company sells stationery, fragrances, water bottles, personal accessories, and leather goods.

Nigerians shift to spaghetti as price of local rice spikes

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efore the closure of the Nigerian borders, Felicia Otti, a housewife and a mother of four used to consume foreign rice with her family on daily basis.

Two months after the barricade, foreign rice has become inaccessible because it is expensive to purchase, making her and the family to opt for the locally produced rice.

A torrent of demand for local rice means the price has skyrocketed, which has forced Otti and her household to swoop on spaghetti, a popular pasta food among Nigerians.

This is the tread that most Nigerian consumers are currently following now. The closure of the border by the federal government to prevent the country from being a dumping ground for imported products and to also boost patronage of locally made products has led the prices of local products like rice to increase.

A survey at Daleko market, the biggest rice market in Lagos, shows that a 50kg bag of

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local brands from integrated rice millers such as Mama Pride, Umza Classic, Mama Choice, Lake Rice, Three Brothers, Al-Hamsad, among others now sells for average of N19,500 as against N24,000 sold a month ago, indicating a 19 percent drop in prices. Before the closure of the border, it was sold at a price of N13, 500-N14, 000.

Over the weekend, BusinessDay paid a visit to major retail stores like Spar, Hubmart and the rest around Ikeja, Lagos state and from its finding, discovered that demand had increased for spaghetti but prices remained unchanged.

A top official at Spar said, “People are purchasing more of spaghetti to rice now. The demand for spaghetti and macaroni are increasing. For us, demand has approximately

increased by 10 percent. Although, it is still the same price, we have not increased it yet.”

According to Akin Akanni, the supervising manager at Hubmart, for them, the demand for indomie because it is still in the pasta family.

“Indomie demand has raised by almost 12 percent,” says Akanni. For example, a cartoon of 20g chicken flavour indomie cost N2,000, a 500g cartoon of Golden Penny pasta containing 20 pieces costs N3,500 and a 450g Power pasta spaghetti costs also having 20 pieces costs N2,950.

Abiola Gbemisola, Consumer analyst at Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham said that the fact that consumer are switching to spaghetti shows that they see it as an available substitute to rice.

“I would expect that these

switches are also towards other pasta products like Macaroni and the likes. This will then lead to increases in the prices of pasta related products at retail and wholesale markets.

It is however positive for pasta manufacturers as they would earn higher revenues (prior to now, they could not increase prices due to high competition),” Gbemisola further said.

Spaghetti and rice are both a source of carbohydrates to the human body and are also staple foods. Spaghetti is one of the most popular forms of pasta and it is used in dishes all around the world. Most spaghetti is made from durum wheat, so it is high in complex carbohydrates and includes all the nutrients found in refined white flour.

“I think it is true because during a conference call with one of the companies that I analysis, they said that they were expecting more demand for spaghatti because it is cheaper than rice. Besides, both foods achieve the same function to the body at the end of the day,” Eronmosele Aziba, Consumer analyst, Tellimer Group, said.

Munch IT wins 2019 West Africa consumer choice awards

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unch It a Nigerian corn snack product has been awarded Nigerian consumer choice brand for 2019 at the West Africa, Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards for Marketing Excellence held in Lagos.

The newly introduced brand by Kelloggs Tolaram also emerged 3rd places in the Innovation category and also the most celebrated, following an online voting by Nigerians that lasted for over 2 weeks.

While receiving the award, Darlington Igabali, Marketing Manager, Munch It, said the

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award is a tastement of how much work the company has put in before the brand was introduced to Nigerian consumers.

“It is such a great feeling attracting such recognition and accolades from consumers in just one year of the brand’s presence in the Nigerian marketing landscape, this clearly shows that hard work pays and we are hitting the right spot in the heart of consumers” he stated.

“This award, again got to show Nigerian consumers are yawning for products that not only meet their taste but also with quality, and this what as a company we strive daily to satisfy Nigerian consumers expectations.”

L-R: Yinka Adebayo, executive director, MediareachOMD; Neha Sharma, brand manager, Munch It; Darlington Igabali, marketing manager, Munch It; Benson Evbuomwan, member, ADVAN Panel of Judges; Omotayo Abiodun, public relations manager, Tolaram Group; Vani Malik, general manager, Munch It during the presentation of Consumer Choice Award to Munch IT at the 2019 Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards for Marketing Excellence, West Africa.

Team Lead: Bala Augie, Olufikayo Owoeye; Analyst: Bunmi Bailey; Graphics: Fifen Eyemisanre Famous www.businessday.ng

promo aimed at rewarding our valued customers and thanking them for their unwavering support in ensuring that our range of cement products remains the first choice for construction purposes across the country.

“The promo process is very simple and transparent. Buy any trade brand of Lafarge cement bag, find a scratch card inside, what you find when you scratch the card is what you win instantly. It allows more Nigerians to participate and stand a chance to be instant winners,” said Gbenga Onimowo, the company’s commercial director.

According to Onimowo, Lafarge is committed to constantly create value in terms of quality product and service by continuously exploring sustainable ways of impacting the market positively.

COMPANY

David Ibemere

CONSUMER SPENDING

BUNMI BAILEY

SEYI JOHN SALAU

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

TECHTALK Innovation

Apps

Fin-Tech

Start-up

Gadgets

Ecommerce

IOTs

Broadband Infrastructure

Bank IT Security

Too many mobile applications chasing tiny phone spaces: Are super apps the answer?

Stories by FRANK ELEANYA

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early every business today embarking on innovation see mobile applications as an important channel to communicate directly with customers. However, the African smartphone market is littered with devices using very low storage leaving users with very few downloadable options.

The world of mobile applications have certainly grown from 2008 when the iOS store had just 500 applications in its first iteration to now housing 1.8 million apps as of third quarter of 2019, data from Statista has shown. As the leader of the app stores, Android is home to 2.47 million apps while Microsoft has 669,000 apps.

According to App Annie, the total number of apps downloaded in 2018 was at 194 billion, up from 178 billion in 2017.

Also in 2018, global mobile app revenues amounted to over $365 billion. In 2023, mobile apps are projected to generate more than $935 billion in revenues via paid downloads and in-app advertising.

For most African countries, Android is the dominant OS so when an African app developer loads up his or her mobile app, it’s going it into an online supermarket that has over 2 million products. Of these, apps in the Play Store, 60 percent are never downloaded.

Also, less than 20 percent of the 40 percent downloaded are ever put to good use.

Findings reveal that South Africa (SA) ranks first in Africa in terms of app usage, with a third of its population using mobile applications, followed by 31 percent in Ghana, 28 percent in Nigeria, 19 percent in Kenya and 18 percent in Uganda.

Beyond difficult interfaces and poor fits to local solutions, the majority of people in Nigeria and Africa, in general, are not downloading mobile apps so much because there is simply not enough space in their phones to do so.

First, with millions of people living below the poverty line, Africa is a big market for feature phones and cheap smartphones. That is how come Transsion through its brands such as Techno, Infinix, and Itel, is able to capture the biggest share of mobile phone market on the continent from Samsung which sells relatively

expensive phones, in 2017.

Unlike Samsung, Transsion’s primary strategy is the sale of cheap phones. And the cheaper the phone is the lesser the size of storage on the phone.

Nearly all smartphones come with preloaded mobile apps. Sometimes all the space a user has left could only take 5 more apps. Social media which are arguably the most popular mobile apps often are not preloaded hence they are the first to be downloaded.

The era of Super Apps New startups in Nigeria such as Opera’s OPay and PalmPay a payment platform from Transsion, are finding a way around poor storage space by building Super Apps.

Super apps refer to many apps within an umbrella app.

It’s an OS that unbundles the tyranny of apps. It’s a contrast from the ‘single-purpose apps’ made popular by Silicon Valley. Single-purpose apps focus on tackling one consumer problem and have a clear, easy to use interface.

Like the OPay app, super apps often operate at the intersection of logistics/hyper-local delivery, commerce, payments and social.

The OPay app, for instance, is home to services such as

OPay (the payment platform), ORide (ride-hailing and logistics); OFood (food service); OTrike (tricycle service); OBus (bus-hailing service); and OCar (ride-hailing).

Chinese heritage Chinese startups laid the foundation of Super Apps as it helps smaller businesses reduce the cost of building and managing a separate app. Super Apps also helps smaller startups to ride on the popularity of established brands to gain visibility.

According to one expert, super apps are considered attractive for Chinese startups because users are accustomed to seeing a busier interface and appreciate the ‘one-stop-shop’.

AliPay of Ant Financials and a subsidiary of the Alibaba group is one of the biggest Super Apps in China. The

AliPay platform houses different apps in sections such as Fund Transfer and Third-party Services. The app allows users to use city service, pay utilities, buy movie tickets, book a room via Airbnb and do a lot more stuff.

In other words, a financial app owned by a Nigeria bank or a prominent fintech startup can take a lot more third party applications which also increases activities on the app.

The model is already growing in many Asia countries and is likely the model Chinese startups in Nigeria are going to use to dominate the market.

It’s beyond Super Apps But experts also say the size of mobile apps poses a bigger problem for many users. Interestingly, OPay has a downloadable size of 23.56 MB which is

What’s inside FG’s controversial social media bill?

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he Nigerian government’s alleged plan to gag social media users seem to be making progress in the national assembly, much to the consternation of many Nigerians.

Sponsored by Senator Muhammad Sani Musa (APCNiger East), the social media bill passed second reading last week.

Here are a few provisions of the bill; First, while it has been nicknamed the Social Media Bill, it is actually titled the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019 (SB 132).

Second, it is almost an exact replica of a Singaporean bill with similar title which commenced on 2 October and aims to “prevent the electronic communication in Singapore of false statements of fact, to suppress support for and counteract the effects of such communication, to safeguard against the use of online accounts for such communication and for information manipulation, to enable measures to be taken to enhance transparency of online political advertisements, and for

related matters.”

The Nigerian copy also proposes “to prevent transmission of false statements, declaration of facts in Nigeria and enable measures to be taken to counter the effects of such transmission; to suppress the financing, promotion and other support of online locations that repeatedly transmit false statements and declaration of facts; to enable measures to be taken to detect, control and safeguard against uncoordinated inauthentic behaviour and other misuses of online accounts and bots; to enable measures to be taken to enhance disclosure of information concerning paid content directed towards a political end; and to sanction offenders.”

Third, the bill empowers the police, “any” law enforcement agency, and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to order removal or corrections of false statements against public interest published online or order internet service providers to block access to online sites and accounts that transmit same.

Fourth, false information declaration includes false

statements of fact; statements likely to be harmful to the country’s security, public health, safety, tranquility or finances; statements that harm Nigeria’s relations with other countries; statements that influence the outcome of an election or referendum; incite feelings of enmity, hatred towards a person, or ill will between a group of persons; or diminish public confidence in the performance or exercise of any duty, function or power by the government.

Fifth, the punishments includes N200,000 fine or 3 years imprisonment or both for making bots (not defined) for transmission or enabling another’s transmission of false statements of fact; N150,000 or 2 years imprisonment or both for soliciting, receiving or agreeing to receive any financial or material benefit as an inducement or reward to provide services for transmission of false declaration of fact; for others - fine not exceeding N500,000.

Transmitting of false declarations comes at a price of N300,000 or 3 years imprisonment or both; for other - fine not exceeding N10 million.

Team: Frank Eleanya, frank.eleanya@businessdayonline.com; Caleb Ojewale, caleb.ojewale@businessdayonline.com www.businessday.ng

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smaller than most standalone fintech apps.

Due to size, users are exchanging mobile apps of financial services for USSD technology just to save more space for their pictures. Outside social media, bank mobile apps are the next important downloads for users.

“We went through this with GTBank in 2014. People were not downloading their app,” said Victor Asemota, African Partner of Alta Global Ventures. “They wanted smaller sized apps and we were creating them with Bi.Nu.” All in all, users will be very loyal to an app that is easy to use, friction-free, functional, provides good services and allows for a multifaceted experience. If that fits the description of a Super App, the bigger the better.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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LegalBusiness BD Business Law Industry Report Practice Intelligence Partnerships

Legal Business Project: BusinessDay Management meets with Advisory Board

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he management of BusinessDay on Monday November 25th, 2019 held an inaugural meeting with newly appointed members of its ‘Legal Business Advisory Board’ to chart the path for its recently launched legal business project.

The Board, which is set to provide direction for this Project, is made up of very eminent members of the legal profession who were selected in recognition of their wealth of experience as legal professionals and business experts.

The Unit, headed by Theodora Kio-Lawson will collaborate with BusinessDay Research & Intelligence Unit (BRIU) to conduct in-depth research and analysis of Nigeria’s legal market, with the aim of providing authoritative and well researched data, commentary, market insight and various other value adds to the legal profession.

At the meeting which took place at the Radisson Blu, Victoria Island, Lagos, members of the board commended BusinessDay for the initiative, while conveying their commitment to the success of the project.

In his remarks, the immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), Olumide Akpata stated that the current state of the legal profession was not reflective of a nation with one of the largest economies. According to him, there was need for lawyers in Nigeria to catch up with the rest of the world. He however expressed hope that the legal business project through its objectives would help address some of these critical issues.

Also speaking at the meeting, Ayuli Jemide, Lead Solicitor at Detail Solicitors, noted that it was important to stay the cause, focusing on the interest of Nigeria and the legal profession, whilst avoiding any self-serving topics and issues.

Founding partner of Banwo & Ighodalo, Asue Ighodalo identified various points of dis-

L-R: Olumide Akpata, managing partners, Templars; Ebele Ikpeoyi, executive associate, Bloomfield Law Practice; Ayuli Jemide, managing partner, Detail; Christine Sijuade, partner, Udo Udoma and Belo Osagie; Fola Akande, company secretary/chief council West Africa, Cadbury; Seni Adio, managing partner, Copley Partners; Theodora Kio-Lawson, Manager, Legal Business Unit, BusinessDay Media Limited; Osaro Eghobamien, managing partner, Perchstone and Graeys; Olubunmi Fayokun, partner, Aluko and Oyebode; Asue Ighodalo, founding partner, Banwo and Ighodalo; Kubi Udofia, managing associate, Babalakin and Co, and Frank Aigbogun, publisher/CEO, BusinessDay Media Limited, during the BusinessDay legal business advisory board inaugural meeting in Lagos.

Seni Adio, SAN, Priscilla Ogwemoh and Olumide Akpata

Frank Aigbogun (R) and Asue Ighodalo

cussion for the board at its next meeting, noting that a proper work structure will be critical to its next steps.

Echoing the concerns of other board members, the current www.businessday.ng

Olubunmi Fayokun and Priscilla Ogwemoh

Ayuli Jemide and Olumide Akpata

Chairman of the NBA-SBL Seni Adio, SAN noted the declining state of the profession which according to him, is not helped with the graduation of over 8, 000 lawyers annually from the

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Nigerian Law School.

He said, “Growth is still stunted in the industry. Yearly, these young lawyers join the profession with very little assurance of success in the mar@Businessdayng

ket.” Nonetheless, the NBA-SBL chairman, expressed confidence that if any medium had the capacity to tackle some of these issues, it would be BusinessDay. Continues on page 28

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

LegalBusiness IndustryFile How HiiL selected a winner for its 2019 innovating Justice Challenge BD

…Along with a group of next-generation justice innovators

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he Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) recently held its 2019 Innovating Justice Challenge Regional Finals in Lagos, Nigeria to select the next generation of justice innovators across Africa.

The finals, which held at the Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Victoria Island, saw seven justice innovators - Africlaim, Appruve, Bankly, Community Peace Initiative, Lay Better, Sunulex, The Flemer Project Initiative and Vesicash from across various parts of Africa pitch as finalists to a jury of international experts.

1st runner up, Africlaim flanked by members of the jury.

AFRICLAIM specialises in se- Members of the Jury, with the winner of the 2019 HiiL Innovating for Justice Challenge. curing financial and non-financial third party investment, tailored compensation for African airline training and business developpassengers involved in flight disment support, access to HiiL’s ruptions including cancellations, international network of experts delays, and overbooking, while and global exposure.

APPRUVE - the flagship product In addition to the grant fundof a Ghanaian startup, is a financial ing of Twenty Thousand Euros identity infrastructure that enables (€20,000. 00), that will be shared financial services to verify and onamong the three winners and their board the identities of individuals participation in HiiL’s Justice Acceland businesses. erator, Appruve and Africlaim will COMMUNITY PEACE INITIAbe attending a one-week intensive TIVE seeks to promote peace and Justice Entrepreneurship School justice in conflicting communities and Innovating Justice Forum in in Northern Nigeria by engaging Hague, Netherlands. their traditional and religious leadThe West Africa Regional Finals ers to resolve communal conflicts, Panel on JusticeReform, L-R, Yemi Candide-Johnson, President, Lagos Court of Arbitration, while LAY BETTER through its Funke Adekoya, SAN, Partner, Aelex, Theodora Kio-Lawson, Manager, BD Legal Business, is one of four events taking place across Africa the Netherlands conversational mobile BOT, Lili- Seni Adio, SAN and Kemi Eweje Ministry of Foreign Affairs to scout ane provides legal advice in more the next generation of promising by technology, to provide active three startups, which will gain acthan 10 areas of law for citizens of legal representation for indigent ceptance into HiiL’s Justice Accel- justice innovations preventing or Benin Republic.

SUNULEX aims to help Sen- pre-trial detainees. On its part, erator Programme. Of these three, resolving people ́s’ most pressing egalese citizens understand the VESICASH is an escrow platform Appruve, the flagship product of justice needs.

HiiL is notably raising a global law; providing them with free short that prevents disputes and uses its a Ghanaian startup, emerged the videos explaining their rights and digital dispute resolution mecha- winner of the 2019 Hague Insti- community of justice entrepreprocedures of enforcing them. nism to resolve digital transaction tute of Innovation of Law (HiiL) neurs who are getting international Innovating Justice Challenge West recognition for making justice While, THE FLEMER PROJECT dispute in less than 72hrs. systems more user-friendly, as the After a series of groundbreaking Africa regional final.

INITIATIVE facilitates the deThe winners received up to institute supports innovation that congestion of Nigerian prisons, and passionate pitches, three (3) through the use of an incentive- innovations - Appruve, Africlaim Twenty Thousand Euros (€20,000. prevent or resolve people ́s pressbased volunteer system enabled and Flemer were selected as top 00) in grant funding and potential ing justice problems.

The Keynote address at the finals was delivered by Justice Yetunde Adesanya, Chairman of the Small Claims Court Committee, Lagos State, while Jan van Weijen, Consul-General of the Netherlands delivered the welcome address.

Between the pitches, were two panel sessions - a panel on “Justice Reform: Perspectives from the bar” and another on “Impact Investment: A tool to finance justice innovation”.

The panel on justice reform had, Funke Adekoya, SAN - Partner, Aelex, Yemi Candide-Johnson, SAN - Partner, Strachan Partners, Kemi Eweje, FCIArb - Partner Patreli Partners, and Theodora KioLawson – Legal Business Manager, BusinessDay. While discussants on the second panel include, Solape Hammond - Founder Impact Hub, Lagos and Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Sustainable Development Goals and Lagos Global, Dotun Olowoporoku, Associate Investment Director, Novostar Ventures and Nichole Yembra, Managing Partner, Chrysallis Advisors.

During the first panel, it was established that justice was not the sole preserve of lawyers or judges, but rather, it belonged to the people — It was stated that justice was public service and as such, both lawyers and judges must ensure its success as determined by the people who engage with the justice system. The second panel on the other hand, tackled the differences between non-government organisations and social enterprises.

HiiL (The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law) is a social enterprise devoted to user-friendly justice, which means justice that is easy to access, easy to understand, and effective.

RIGHTSWATCH Court affirms SERAP’s right to sue Buhari, NASS, others over security votes spending

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Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday granted leave to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in a suit against President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate president Ahmed Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila “over the failure to disclose details of allocations, disbursement and spending of an estimated N241.2 billion yearly as security votes between 1999 and 2019.”

Others joined as parties in the suit are, Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ahmed Idris, Accountant General of the Federation and Anthony Ayine, Auditor General for the Federation.

Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed, who gave the ruling following the hearing of an argument on

ex parte motion by SERAP’s counsel, Opeyemi Owolabi, expressed satisfaction that the leave ought to be granted and adjourned the motion on notice to December 10, 2019, for hearing.

Justice Mohammed ruled that hearing notices be issued and served on all the respondents within eight days.

The order by Justice Mohammed has now cleared the way for SERAP to advance its case against the respondents and to challenge their refusal to account for the allocations, disbursement and spending of security votes by the Federal Government, 36 state governors and 774 local governments between 1999 and 2019.”

In the suit number FHC/ABJ/ CS/1369/2019, SERAP is applying for judicial review and an order of mandamus directing and compelwww.businessday.ng

ling the President Buhari, Lawan, and Gbajabiamila to disclose details of spending of budgetary allocations as security votes since 1999.

The suit followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information requests and “the respondents’ failure to account for some N241.2 billion of public funds allocated, disbursed and spent yearly as security votes, and the corresponding lack of effective protection of the rights to security and welfare, life and physical integrity of millions of Nigerians.”

The suit read in part: “Nigerians have the constitutional and international human right to know details of the exact amounts that have been spent as security votes and specific areas and projects covered by the allocations, disbursement and spending. There is overriding public interest in Nigerians having access to these https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng

details, and the respondents have legal obligations to facilitate public access to such information.”

“Constitutional provisions requiring governments to ensure the security and welfare of the people are intended to protect the security and safety of citizens and not the security of a few individuals in government. Without transparency and accountability, the mismanagement and corruption in the allocation, disbursement and spending of security votes will continue with devastating consequences.”

“Public officials receiving and spending security votes ought to come clean with Nigerians on how exactly these public funds are spent. Unless the reliefs sought are granted, Nigerians would continue to see the appropriation of public funds as security votes as a

tool for self-enrichment.”

“The suit is seeking to offer governments at all levels an important opportunity to be transparent and accountable with the exercise of their discretionary powers in the allocation, disbursement and spending of security votes. The public interest in the disclosure of these details outweighs any private interest the respondents may be seeking to protect.”

“As revealed by a 2018 report

by Transparency International (TI), most of the funds appropriated as security votes are spent on political activities, mismanaged or simply stolen. It is estimated that security votes add up to over N241.2 billion every year. On top of appropriated security votes, governments also receive millions of dollars yearly as international security assistance.”

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BUSINESS DAY

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Members of the legal profession call for constitutional reform

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awyers and judges in Nigeria have called for a reform of Nigeria’s legal and constitutional system in order to stem the slide into anarchy and economic downturn.

Speaking at the 2019 Dinner & Awards Night of Otu Oka Iwu, an umbrella society of lawyers of Igbo extraction, the judges warned that unless urgent steps are taken to restore the rule of law and respect for human rights, the country’s development may continue to plummet.

The event which held at The MUSON Centre, Lagos also witnessed awards to leading jurists including respected Supreme Court judge, Justice Chima Nweze (PhD, FCIArb); Justice Ugochukwu Ogakwu of the Court of Appeal; Justice Nelson Ogbuanya of the National Industrial Court, as well as Justice Sunday Bassey Onu and Justice Obiora Egwuatu both of the Federal High Court.

Others who also received the coveted awards are former Chairman of The Body of Benchers of Nigeria, Owelle George Uwechue, SAN; President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr. Nnia Nwodo; Chairman of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), Chief Emeka Ngige SAN; former Otu Oka Iwu presidents, Chief Guy Ikokwu and Mr. Zik C. Obi II; former Lead Prosecution Counsel at the United Nations International

L-R: Chino Obiagwu of LEDAP, Ngige, Ikokwu, Nweze and Zik Obi

Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Mrs. Ifeoma Ojemeni-Okali and immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (Lagos Branch), Mr. Chukwuka Ikwuazom.

In his dinner speech, Nwodo traced the decline in the fortunes of fossil oil, Nigeria’s major revenue earner, adding that aside from the emergence of shale oil, new technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous/electric cars point to a bleak future for the fossil oil market.

Noting that new technologies are also threatening lawyers’ employment, Nwodo urged law-

yers to take the lead in canvassing constitutional reform. His words: “Oka Iwu Ndigbo must take a front position in championing our resolve to bring about constitutional reform in our country. It must address the issue of effective political representation. It is qualified to catalyse growth in digital education and agriculture. Mere rhetoric will get us nowhere. The time for action is now.”

Speaking earlier, Uwechue condemned the “blatant disregard for human rights and the rule of law by the Federal Government.” The former Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representa-

tives also noted that “the manner in which the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen CJN GCON was suspended pursuant to an exparte order was clearly outrageous and undermined the principle of separation of powers in a truly democratic governance.”

Uwechue, who was the chairman of the occasion, however warned that citizens must follow due process in stating their grievances, noting that “we have the duty, as lawyers, to advise our people that we must follow due legal process of going through our elected representatives – Ohaneze Ndigbo, the

State governors, federal and state legislators and even local government area chairmen and councilors.”

In his address, the President of Otu Oka Iwu, Chief Chuks Ikokwu, said that while the association would not join in the “public bashing” and humiliation of judges, it “will continue to participate actively in the national debate and discussion for enthronement of the rule of law, respect for the individual and collective human rights of various ethnic nationalities of the Nigerian Federation and for equity and justice,” adding that “We support strongly the quest by the various nationalities for a restructured true Federating Units to propel this country into the present age. Those who oppose this quest do so in denial and live in the past.”

Speaking on behalf of the honorees, Justice Ogbuanya said he was “personally elated” with the honour, adding that the association “has once again distinguished itself as a pan-regional union” that propagates national unity. He noted that the award is especially unique given that it is a “recognition of excellence bestowed only on jurists who have distinguished themselves in their chosen fields.”

Otu Oka Iwu is duly incorporated as an association of Igbo lawyers set up immediately after the Nigeria-Biafra War to cater especially for the interest and welfare of Igbo lawyers.

Law firm to focus on technology at its annual lecture series

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lliance Law Firm, a law firm with expertise in corporate commercial transactions and dispute resolution has announced that its 2019 annual lecture series and business luncheon will focus on ‘Leveraging Technology to Develop and Rebrand Nigeria’.

The theme is considered topical due to the disruptive and pivotal place of technology in Nigeria’s quest for economic advancement, nation building and positive image profiling.

The law firm has assured that it has gone to great lengths to assemble a stellar faculty and top executive audience in order to do justice to the theme.

The Alliance Law Firm lecture is an annual event which brings together key stakeholders from across the world to discuss critical and topical themes central to the socio- economic development and industrial growth of Nigeria. It is part of the Firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility programmes aimed at giving back to society.

The keynote lecture will be

delivered by Leo Stan Ekeh, the Founder/Chairman of Zinox Technologies Limited and Konga.com. The event is being chaired by Ernest Ndukwe, the Chairman of MTN Nigeria Plc. The panel of discussants includes: Patrick Akinwutan, MD/ CEO of Ecobank; Chantelle Abdul, GMD Mojec International Holdings; Andrew Nevin, the Chief Economist and Partner Deal Advisory at PWC; Segun Aina, President Fintech NGR; Justice Chima C. Nweze

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Linda Ikeji, a leading Blogger in Africa; and Umar Bindir, the former Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NOTAP. Speaking during a press conference to announce the event, Uche Val Obi, managing partner, Alliance Law Firm said the Firm will also use the occasion to unveil its Doing Business In Nigeria Guide manual which has been described as the most friendly handbook for start-ups, foreign and established businesses

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wishing to operate seamlessly in Nigeria.

He further explained that in doing this, the firm leveraged its advisory experiences and role as notable contributor to the IMF/World Bank Doing Business publications.

“I also wish to state that this event doubles as a Business Luncheon which allows participants meet friends and associates, and network as we approach the end of year.

“Expected invitees include top executives of Telecoms, Technology, Banks, Oil and Gas, Maritime, Hospitality, Exchanges, Issuing Houses, Conglomerates, business leaders, entrepreneurs and policy makers,” Obi said.

The maiden edition held in 2018, which discussed the emerging trends in corporate governance, featured Dotun Suleiman, Chairman of FRCN, as key speaker, and was chaired

by Pat Utomi, supported by an eminent panel of experts drawn from multiple sectors of the economy and regulatory insti@Businessdayng

tutions to enrich deliberations.

The panel paraded Austin Avuru, the MD/CEO of Seplat Petroleum Development Plc; Mary Uduk, the Director General of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC); Oscar Onyema, the CEO of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE); Ben Akabueze, the DirectorGeneral of the Debt Management Office of the Federation; Fabian Ajogwu, SAN and Toyin Sanni, then CEO of United Capital Plc. The highpoint of the event was the presentation of a pioneering book titled ‘Class Actions in Nigeria’ authored by Uche Val Obi, by Justice Ejembi Eko, on behalf of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) supported by other dignitaries present.

“The book is presently the only standard local text on class action in Nigeria. We are presently working with some heads of Court in Nigeria on developing practice directions that will facilitate the development of class suits in the country,” Obi said.

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LegalBusiness

Legal Business Project: BusinessDay....

Continued from page 25

The BD Legal Business Project will amongst other things, provide thought leadership in areas such as the growth of legal businesses; continuing legal education and capacity building; remuneration for young lawyers, billing standards; gender-related issues in the workplace; economic trends and policies that affect the legal profession; Investments, partnerships; succession planning, amongst other things.

See below photos from this event. A full list with profiles of Members of the Advisory Board will be published next Thursday.

Watch this space.

Osaro Eghobamien, SAN (L) with Frank Aigbogun, publisher/CEO, BusinessDay Media.

Osaro Eghobamien and Olumide Akpata

Fola Akande and Priscilla Ogwemoh

L-R: Olubunmi Fayokun, Priscilla Ogwemoh, Fola Akande and Christine Sijuwade

L-R: Osaro Eghobamien, SAN, Olubunmi Fayokun and Asue Ighodalo Insta on stage: Theodora Kio-Lawson www.businessday.ng

L-R: Ebele Ikpeoyi, Olubunmi Fayokun, Priscilla Ogwemoh, Fola Akande and Christine Sijuwade

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@Businessdayng

Aluko & Oyebode Partner, Olubunmi Fayokun (L) with Theodora Kio-Lawson, Manager, Legal Business

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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LegalBusiness

YOUNG BUSINESSLAWYER

Lawpavilion launches A.I. powered speech to text transcription for courts Go to the Ant!

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egal tech solution company, Law Pavilion has scored yet another first in the fore front of Legal-Tech innovations with its latest innovation - the Artificial Intelligence powered Court Manager, which explores a first of its kind Speech to Text Transcription technology as well as a Document Review feature that reviews and analyzes documents submitted by Counsel, in seconds. This new tech promises a major boost for speed of justice delivery in Nigeria.

According to a representative of the company, the innovation is borne out of LawPavilion’s burning desire not only to enhance the speed and quality of citizens’ access to justice but to also ease honorable Judges of the stress of having to write every

court proceeding in long hand, while poring over several pages of printed documents submitted

by Counsel.

Explaining the new development at its Lagos office, Yinka Bada, Head of Product Management, said LawPavilion Court Manager is a super smart digital

assistant that provides a Judge with a panoramic view of all the cases in his court. It’s A.I Document Review feature, at the click of a button, automatically, and in few seconds, reviews and analyses documents submitted by Counsel.

She further explained the introduction of Docket Management and Scheduling System that seamlessly simplifies the management of daily court proceedings, aggregates all outstanding matters, tracks the resolution of an individual matter through all it’s stages, collate case records, and even compiles the judge’s Quarterly Returns Evaluation Forms for the National Judicial Council Automatically!

The unveiling of this latest innovation will be at the ongoing 2019 Judges Conference at National Judicial Institute, Abuja.

Etomi honoured for his service to the global legal profession

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he founding partner of George Etomi and Partners (GEP), has been recognised by the British Nigeria Law Forum (BNLF) for his distinguished service to the global legal profession at a ceremony in the United Kingdom.

The award which was presented to him by Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK, Hon. Justice George Oguntade CFR, was done at the 2019 dinner/awards night

of the forum in London Announcing its shortlist of awardees in August, the forum made up of practicing lawyers and students in the UK and Nigeria had disclosed that the highest recognition this year was an award for distinguished service to the legal profession which will be presented to George Etomi, Founding Partner of GEP Law, Nigeria.

Established in 2001, the forum has a long and successful track

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record of staging professional and social events designed to develop and support the careers of its members. It is also designed to connect its members in the UK with their counterparts in Nigeria and vice versa and has become a networking forum in which crossborder business opportunities are created.

See Photos below from the ceremony

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roverbs and adages have for long been a means of communicating values as well as corporate strategies. These proverbs represent ideals that we live by and many times, they unlock our success when assimilated. I was reading folklore recently and it exhorted on the wisdom of the ant, but I was more thrilled at the features of the ants and how they play out in their communal organisation which is described to be the highest form of sociality. One which I found very instructive on the culture of work that we imbibe as professionals is as follows: “Go to the ant, consider her ways… which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provides her meat in summer and gathers food in harvest”. My emphasis in this article will be on the phrase “…which having no guide”.

In a world where mentoring, coaching and handholding are buzz words and many people are quickly latching on without understanding the application or use of these, the lessons in this proverb are necessary.

We do not all come into the work force on a level playing field and like the proverbial Animal Farm establishes, not all “animals” are equal.

Nonetheless, each one of us embodies a bundle of talents, resource and capacities that can and must be honed and optimised. Some get on quite quickly and you would call them the trailblazers, they seem to know just what to do, how and when it should be done. Others not being so graced do not and, in some cases, others choose to outsource incapacity and play catch up.

I am pro-networking, mentoring, guidance, understudy and whatever other form such relationships take.

However, one thing I have since understood is that these relationships do not operate in lieu of personal responsibility. In fact, without the ingredient of self-regulation, the individual has minimum chance of levelling up or optimising capacity because it is indeed the fulcrum of personal success.

As simplistic as it sounds, there is a whole body of science built around self-regulation and you can explore it in texts and books. Albeit, I will like to establish that the journey to self-regulation is not easy for everyone and, “eye service” (which in my opinion, is the opposite of the word “self-regulation”) is not just a behavioural defect but a survival strategy for most. It may not be apparent on day one, but we spend our entire lives as professionals on this journey and it is important to adopt optimal executive function as a strategy for life.

Self- regulation speaks to mental skill and capacity to control and produce pre-determined goals and results. The more scientific definition is “Executive Function”. Executive Function is defined as mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, filter distractions, prioritize tasks and juggle multiple tasks successfully. It is more like the traffic control of our impulses.

Where reviewed literally, this is the engine room of the individual and ultimately, the core determinant of how well we do. This means that @Businessdayng

great Executive Function is equivalent to excellent self-control, organisation, prioritisation etc. Scientific indices have been outlined which show how good a person’s Executive Function is and though not exhaustive, they include: Paying attention; Organizing, planning, and prioritizing; Starting tasks and staying focused on them to completion; Understanding different points of view; Regulating emotions; Self-monitoring (keeping track of what you’re doing).

This list could easily be substituted with the typical appraisal checklist shared in most professional circles periodically. By implication, apart from technical knowledge in our respective fields, as professionals, our development will largely revolve around the quotient of executive function we display. The earlier we begin to improve and develop, the better our journey. Excellent Executive Function guarantees success most of the time. Executive Function could be scientific or genetic but, in many cases, it is largely impacted by our socialisation and exposure. This means that it can change, and it can be cultured. The Young Business Lawyer who wants to thrive must level up his/her Executive Function to suit the goals or ambitions that they lay claim to. Where not in parallel, the desired results will always loom far away or be compromised.

As we begin to wind up and pull temporary stops on projects and work, it is important that we take this checklist and honestly review the components of our Executive Function. If it does not cut it then the proverb above would be useful to digest. The ant has phenomenal Executive Function because having no guide, it achieves the results even when the seasons change.

Be like the ant!

OYEYEMI ADERIBIGBE is a Senior Associate at Templars. She is also the current Vice-Chairman of the Young Lawyers’ Forum of the Nigerian Bar Association -Section on Business Law and the Young Lawyers’ Committee Liaison Officer of the African Regional Forum of the International Bar Association.

Feedback – Oyeyemi.aderibigbe@templars-law.com; yemiimmanuel@yahoo.com.

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

ENERGYREPORT Oil & Gas

Power

Renewables

Environment

Shell harps on right investments climate to expand oil and gas landscape Olusola Bello

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hell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has called for the right investment climate, to enable the expansion of Nigeria’s petroleum landscape and enable the increase of Nigeria’s oil production from the current average of 2.3 million barrels per day to 3 million barrels per day and boost the country’s proven oil reserves to about 40 billion barrels through further exploration and appraisal.

Osagie Okunbor, country chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, and managing dsirector, made this call at the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists’ (NAPE) 37th Annual International Conference and Exhibition’s aspiration of expanding Nigeria’s petroleum landscape through digitalization, innovation and emerging technologies.

He said the right investment climate would also include strengthening our regulatory bodies, giving priorities to research and further enabling the indus-

try’s financials. I believe that where the investment climate is right, digitalization and deployment of emerging technologies will enable incremental value creation over the coming years.”

“I believe that if we appropriately apply the valuable information and lessons from this conference, our industry will experience a giant leap in transformation. It will support our aspiration of expanding Nigeria’s petroleum landscape, he said.”

“In Shell, digitalization is more than technology.

It is also about people and ensuring more agile ways of working”, he continued.

“We employ leading data scientists who unlock value from the vast amounts of data that Shell has access to in a responsible manner whilst maintaining customer trust.”

“Across all our businesses, we look for opportunities where we can replicate and use this at any scale. We look to use applicable standard

Sahara Power trained 198 engineers in five years ...to fill gaps in power sector

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etermined to bridge the technical manpower gap in the power sector, Sahara Power Group has trained and released another set of 38 young engineers into the power market.

This set of engineers will help to fill the gap being created by the aging workforce in the industry. They have also brought the total number of engineers trained so far to 198 in the last five years.

The training which came under the company’s programme called Sahara Graduate Engineering programme (GEP) was intended to provide one year practical and innovative trainings for fresh graduates from the Nigerian universities, especially Electrical and mechanical graduates.

Through this, they are able to acquire the skills to operate in the power network.

The GEP is an annual capacity building initiative of the power group jointly organised by its Egbin Power Plc and First Independent Power Olusola Bello, Team lead,

Limited (FIPL) in collaboration with the National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN).

The new graduates,who were offered certificates during the graduation ceremony in Lagos are not restricted to work for the company.

Kola Adesina, group managing director of Sahara Power Group, while speaking at the event, said the trainees were selected out of over 8,500 applicants after a very rigorous process, adding that they were chosen from various fields of engineering profession including electrical, chemical, electronic and mechanical.

He said: “Over the past 12 months, they have embarked on intensive classroom training and hands-on activities across Power Generation, Operations, Distribution, Transmission, Electricity and Commercial Awareness.

“These rigorous sessions led by seasoned power experts have given our graduates a strategic understanding of the entire value chain of the Nigerian Power Sector.

“I am confident that this

Graphics: Joel Samson.

foundation will empower our future power experts to disrupt and transform the sector as they progress in their careers.”

According to him, the GEP has birthed several success stories in the past four years and has produced 198 engineers who are driven by innovation and passion to light up Africa.

He said he was confident that the programme will remain a robust platform for developing the next generation of power experts that will ensure Sahara Power Group continues to bring energy to life in Nigeria and Africa.

“Since 2014, Sahara Power Group has recruited over 130 graduate engineers in line with our commitment to empower the youth and develop local capacity in the power sector,” he added.

The Sahara Power boss charged the new graduates to be focused in life and use lessons and skills acquired during the training to add value to the society particularly to the Nigerian power sector.

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technologies (unless there is a competitive advantage to building proprietary solutions) to change the way we search for and produce oil and gas, design wells, provide energy, or buy goods and services”, he said.

Okunbor said the use of advanced infrastructure and partnership with some of the world’s biggest cloud providers, give the company the capacity for powerful data analytics.

He said: “We are leaders in deploying artificial intel-

ligence and are using it in areas ranging from seismic analysis to drilling and predictive maintenance. All of these we do because we know that digitalization has a big role in delivering all our strategic goals.We can do more. The industry can do more. This future is more in our hands than we think”, he said.

Also commenting on the Nigerian educational standards he said, re-orientating the thinking of undergraduates in Nigerian universities as one of the critical actions to challenge them on the use of emerging technologies to enable innovation and allow Nigeria to actualize the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists’ (NAPE) 37th Annual International Conference and Exhibition’s aspiration of expanding Nigeria’s petroleum landscape through digitalization, innovation and emerging technologies.

According to the Shell boss, he said, the company has collaborations with the academia in Nigeria and now has two successful centres of excellence that promote the emergence of industry-ready graduates at university level.”

He told the conference attendees in Lagos, that the Centre of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Benin established in 2012, the Rivers State University Centre of Excellence in Marine and Offshore Engineering established in 2017, along with SPDC’s six Professorial Chairs and the Sabbatical & Internship programmes in key areas, grow skills within Nigerian universities for the industry.

He said: “Every year, since 1980, 10 Nigerian professors and 25 research interns commence one-year research programmes in SPDC and share their findings with SPDC in fields such as biodiversity, petroleum engineering, geophysics, impact assessment, community health and oil and gas exploration, contributing to providing critical industry input into higher education in Nigeria.”

He described these programmes as examples of necessary steps to enable the NAPE aspiration of expanding Nigeria’s petroleum landscape through digitalization, innovation and emerging technologies.

Why ExxonMobil wants to sell $25 billion assets in Africa, Europe

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xxon Mobil plans to sell up to $25 billion of oil and gas fields in Europe, Asia and Africa in its biggest asset sales for decades, seeking to free up cash to focus on a handful of mega-projects, according to three banking sources.

According to Reuters, the company is planning to sell its operations in Chad, Equatorial Guinea as well as parts of its Nigerian assets.

The sell-off would be a marked acceleration of the U.S. oil major’s previous divestment plans. It would represent an ambitious attempt by chief executive Darren Woods to catch up with competitors who carried out sweeping portfolio reviews and sold swathes of assets following the 2014 market crash.

Exxon’s shares have underperformed its major rivals’ in recent years. The disposals would help the company increase spending on new developments and appease investors unhappy with weak cash generation and oil output, which flat lined under Woods’ predecessor Rex Tillerson.

The sales would see Exxon effectively quit its upstream oil

and gas business in Europe, according to the three banking sources with direct knowledge of the plans. They would free up cash to invest in new developments in Guyana, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Brazil and the United States.

An Exxon spokesman declined to comment on specific assets offered for sale but noted it has told Wall Street its asset sales could reach $25 billion through 2025.

In recent months, the Texas-based company has drawn up an extensive list of assets that it wants to divest, spanning at least 11 countries, the sources said.

The list, details of which have not been previously reported, would easily exceed its current divestment target which envisages it selling about $15 billion of assets by 2021.

Exxon has struck a number of deals in recent months including a $4.5 billion exit from Norway, and is also already offering assets in Australia, Nigeria, Malaysia.

The expanded plan will see Exxon also sell out of operations in the British North Sea, Germany and Romania, according to the sources. In

Email: energyreport@businessdayonline.com, Tel: +234-8023020011

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Europe, that would leave it with production only in the Netherlands, where it holds a stake with Royal Dutch Shell in the giant Groningen gas field which the government plans to shut down in 2022.

While Exxon is set to ramp up its spending sharply in the coming years to develop new oil and gas projects, most of its peers have more cautious spending plans due to an uncertain outlook for oil prices and growing pressure from investors to diversify away from fossil fuels toward renewables.

Exxon responded more slowly to the 2014 oil price crash than some of its rivals that sharply cut spending, putting it under pressure from shareholders to reduce costs.

Exxon’s shares heavily underperformed relative to other Oil Majors over the past five year Unlike rivals such as Shell and BP, Exxon did not carry out major review of its portfolio in recent decades. BP sold over $65 billion of assets following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico while Shell sold over $30 billion after acquiring rival BG Group in 2016.

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BUSINESS TRAVEL NAHCO envisages increased growth as firm implements five-year transition plan Stories by IFEOMA OKEKE

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he Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) PLC has said that it expects year to year growth and consolidation as it continues to implement its five-year transition plan.

This is just as the handling company revealed some strategies it has employed to reduce, to its barest minimal, the airside incidents that may cost the company millions.

Tokunbo Fagbemi, Group Managing Director of NAHCO PLC, who made these revelations at the Gateway Forum organized by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) said the five-year plan which began this year and is expected to run till 2023 will put the company in a better footing than it was met.

According to her, as part of that growth plan, the company has invested at least two billion naira in the acquisition of ground handling equipment as part of the

first phase of its investment plans.

She further explained that company has commenced the second phase of the exercise and hoped to improve on its equipment acquisition to further cement its position as a leader in the sub-sector.

Fagbemi said,” We have a five-year plan which started this year and will end in 2023 and we just started the first year. This year it’s been more of investment and putting things in place. Next year, we believe that we would be able to show some more growth, it’s not that we won’t have growth this year but next year we would also consolidate and by year three we should be able to really show the growth.

“But what we believe year by year, month by month we should be able to show we are on that path. And so we’ve been able to reduce some of our operating costs by being more efficient in what we do.”

The NAHCO GMD also hinted that the company was in a series of meetings to

Tokunbo Fagbemi

enable them tinker the price of cargo as it was currently very low.

“We have our challenging moments because right now we are trying to increase our price of cargo because we have invested a lot and we are working with the agents to ensure we arrive at something beneficial

mostly for the shippers and concessionaires who are the people we provide that service to.

“So we have a direct agreement with the airlines and the airlines have an agreement with the consignees and shippers but it’s important that we are able to fulfill what is on the contract

with the airline and the airlines also have the shippers and consignees. And we are trying to ensure that in terms of operations things are done according to operational standard and with the support of stakeholders like customs we are seeing those things happen.

On its plans to avoid air side incidents, Fagbemi said there were not only constant talks and training but that the company has enforced certain standards to ensure that the staff do what is right basically all the time.

“One of the things we do is that we have pep talks so every morning there is talk on safety. We have a way we train our people and its daily.

There are trainings done daily, there are trainings done weekly, there are trainings done monthly; there are trainings done yearly and everybody does their training and if you are not trained on an equipment, you are not allowed to go on that equipment and those rules are enforced and our standards units are on ground, viewing the operations 24/7 and their

job is just to ensure that the quality control is in place and we don’t joke with that.

“We also have audits, where we do self-audits, we go and see an airline for example and ask them what are the challenges and the airlines themselves audit us. So we audit ourselves, the airline audits us and we are very strict if anyone breaches even the simplest of procedures, we don’t joke with them.

“If you breach a small procedure and nothing is done, you will do something bigger and that’s what we are doing and everyone (the whole team) works together because everyone realizes that if something does happen, the company is going to pay, if the company pays, it takes out part of whatever all of us are going to earn as performance bonus, so that is also helping because we all want the company to do well so from top to bottom everybody enjoys. Everybody watches the next person in addition to our quality team watching everything,” she said.

Bi-Courtney deepens commitment to air safety, holds awareness campaign

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i-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, operators of the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal Two (MMA2) has promised to deepen its commitment to safety during its recent awareness campaign, themed ‘Safety: It Takes All of Us.’ This is also as the com-

pany said it will continue to develop and practice robust safety culture across the entire aviation activities that recognize the importance and value of effective aviation safety management.

This it said will be achieved by a clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders aimed towards the develop-

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ment and delivery of safe practice and procedures.

Speaking during the safety awareness programme held at MMA2 in Lagos, Charles Aroguma, BASL’s safety manager, said the event is part of Bi-Courtney’s commitment to ensuring safety in all its activities and it takes everyone coming and working together to

make safety a reality on the apron.

“We sincerely hope that with this campaign we would be able to address challenges which are inherent in our day-to-day activities.

“These include the violation of apron safety rules and regulations, oil spillage during fuelling, working without personal protective equipment, the use of unserviceable equipment, and activities of ground handling personnel, promoting quality reporting culture and prompt identification and intervention on potential safety-related issues in and around the apron.

“We are confident that this exercise will create the required awareness and improve our attitude to safety on the Apron in particular and the airport terminal in general,” Aroguma said.

He explained that safety is very critical and important as far as the industry is concerned and it is very important the company comes up with programmes like these to sensitise peo-

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ple and bring them back to what they should know about working in this critical environment.

The safety manager said they want to make sure that the terminal is safe, so that those who are flying are also safe.

He said the staff are trained on safety on a daily basis.

“They know the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and they understand that they are working in a volatile environment. They need to be very careful how they work because their lives also matters and also understand that there are passengers on the aircraft when the aircraft is airborne. We tell them the basic things they need to know about safety on the apron,” he said.

Speaking on how the company maximises space to park aircraft, Aroguma said Bi-Courtney is always in talks with the airlines so as to programme their operations so they don’t have too many aircraft parked at the same time.

Also speaking at the event, Mohammed Oduno@Businessdayng

wo, director of Aerodrome and AirSpace standards, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) said the programme helps the authority improve safety and security on airside because they have observed that MMA2 needs to make certain adjustments.

“For MMA2 to willingly conduct this programme, I think it is commendable and that is why my HOD and I came to physically attend. This is to also encourage them that safety is everybody’s business whether spillage or FODs, it is everybody’s business.

He commended MMA2 for implementing the Safety Management System (SMS) NCAA recommended adding that the system by itself is a self-check that audits itself.

“The SMS is fairly new but everything that is happening now is okay. If you want to know if your SMS is working, you will see a lot of issues popping up. But the importance of data storage is very critical because SMS does not exist without data,” he explained.

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Markets + Finance

‘Providing proprietary research, commentary, analysis and financial news coverage unmatched in today’s market. Published weekly, Markets & Finance provides all the key intelligence you need.’

Seven-Up MD fires warning shot at Bigi drinks; vows to put disruption to bed OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE & OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN

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he last may not have been heard on the intense battle in Nigeria’s Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) segment over market dominance.

In an e-mail posted to its staff and seen by BusinessDay, Zaid Maalouf, managing director, Seven-Up Bottling Company, warned its staff to double down on efforts to regain its lost place in the market.

“B-brand disruptive business model will either become a temptation for anyone who has a bit of money to start own brand in Nigeria or it will become a curse that ensures no one takes such a decision again,” Maalouf said in the mail.

Maalouf further said the dream of B-brand – presumably home-grown brand – to take over Nigeria’s CSD market from A-players must be put to bed once and for all.

The A-players in the CSD market include American multi-national, Coca-Cola and Pepsico’s Seven-Up bottling Plc, two brands that have continued to struggle for market share after a recent disruption from Rite Foods, makers of Bigi drinks.

While the reality of the market disruption is dawning on the A-players, Maalouf vowed

never to sleep until the dream of restoring Seven-Up Bottling Company to its rightful place comes to fruition.

Maalouf further accused its sales team of not having a clear sales strategy noting that incentives are being delayed for no reason. “Our sales team are working as a job not as a passion with a clear dream,” he said.

According to Maalouf motivation in the sales team is very low, with weak sense of direction and accountability.

In the past, the jostle for market share was between two heavyweights Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

However, happenings in recent times have shown that the frenzy around these two heavyweights is about to dissipate.

In the past effort have been made by several small players to win the hearts of consumers and market share, sadly, this attempt was only an effort in futility as they were soon sent back to play on the fringes of the market.

Rite Foods makers of Bigi Cola made entry into the Nigerian market in 2016, at a time when the country was battling with economic recession which has left most consumers cash trapped.

Leveraging more volume at a lower price Rite Foods introduced six flavours of Bigi drinks namely: Cola, Orange, Tropical, Apple, Bitter Lemon &

Ziad Maalouf, managing director, Seven-Up

Lemon, and Lime into the market. In 2017, it made an entry into the energy drink segment with fearless energy drinks with Fearless classic and fearless red berry. It also has a world-class factory located at Osasa Ijebu in Ogun State To cover for the scarcity of forex during the economic recession in 2016, the two big players in the CSD market increase prices of their 50cl bottles to N150 this did not go down with millions of consumers who are battling with shrinking wallet.

After series of backlash from consumers, Pepsi introduced its much publicised

“Things I Long Throat For” campaign with the introduction of a 60cl Pepsi bottle. The new product was 20percent more than the previous Pepsi bottle and priced at just N100, consumers more value for their money.

The long throat campaign also saw the signing of A-list artists such as Wizkid, Tiwa Savage to help drive sales and gain significant traction on social media. This also saw the hashtag long throat trending on social media platforms like Twitter for weeks.

Having lost a significant market share with sales plummeting, Coca-Cola responded

with the release of its own 60cl pet bottle. The company also unveiled the ‘Solo or Bigger Boy’ campaign, offering its customers a choice between the 60cl bottle at N150 and the 35cl bottle at N100. With massive advertising and publicity, Coke appeared to regain some ground.

Still basking in the euphoria of regained market share, Pepsi came up with a price reduction campaign tagged, “No Shaking, Carry Go” offering customers the 50cl Pepsi bottle at N100.

With no plans to slow down, Pepsi aggressively promoted this new offering across a few key markets.

This campaign received a lot of radio airtime as well as massive promotional activities across its key locations. Coca Cola launched its ‘Mama di Mama’ campaign, unveiling the ‘Mama’ 1 Litre bottle at the retail price of N200.

A check on informal retail points particularly hawkers in the energy draining Lagos traffic and street kiosks suggest stronger carriage of Bigi drinks than any other brand.

As one of the ‘4Ps’ of marketing (along with product, promotion, and place), pricing is a key tool in a marketer’s arsenal, despite arguably being the most effective lever for driving profits.

Brands often shy away from increasing prices within a competitive market so that customers don’t defect to cheaper

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brands and they lose volume sales and therefore market share.

No doubt the battle is not yet won as A-players are focusing their strategic energy on every other ready-to-drink beverage market asides soda.

These include fruit and vegetable juices, value-added dairy, flavoured waters, iced teas, ready-to-drink coffee and maybe even alcoholic cocktails.

Recent moves by the soft drink giant points to the fact that it is still in the race. First is its acquisition of Chi Limited, the company with a near-monopoly in the packaged juice and value-added dairy markets in Nigeria.

The other is its $600 million planned investment in Nigeria from 2017 through 2020 targeted at expanding its ex-soda businesses.

Going by its history Coca Cola is poised to win every foreseeable war in the near to mid-term future.

But if against all odds, Bigi persists as a “hindrance”, Coca Cola has one strategic plan. A plan it has been forced to play on several occasions, which is to buy the Bigi drinks business off Rite Foods., and Incorporate Bigi into its drinks portfolio thereby killing-off the brand completely and strengthen its grip on the market.

How this would play out, only time would tell.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

33

Corporate Social Impact

The SERAS CSR Awards Africa Ends on a Glorious Note Stories by Onuwa Lucky JosepH

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he wait was well worth it for the finalists and delegates that travelled from fifteen African countries to be part of the finals of the 2019 SERAS CSR Awards, the number one corporate social responsibility and sustainability recognition event in Africa.

This edition which held in the Grand Ballroom of Lagos Oriental Hotel at Victoria Island was definitely an upgrade on the previous twelve editions as TruCSR pulled all the stops to create an OSCAR-like atmosphere with all the glitz and glamour in place.

Considering that the previous 12 editions held at the MUSON Center, Onikan, Lagos, the 2019 edition announced the SERAS as having finally come of age, and now a member of the big leagues of events of its kind around the world.

The night began with Ken Egbas, the founder of the awards, stressing the difficulty of growing the platform to the height it has attained. In his words, “It has been thirteen years of a grueling grind of a journey growing The SERAS CSR Awards Africa into what it has become today – Africa’s biggest and most important recognition in corporate social responsibility and sustainability, and also a leading business awards and most credible platform of its kind in the world.”

Egbas also drew the audience’s attention to the objectives behind setting up the platform in 2007 in the first place which were – to remain the gold-standard recognition in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability in Africa, and also enable the drive towards actualization of the sustainable development goals in Africa by enabling a platform that promotes, measures and harmonizes the contributions of private sector, governments/public sector and non-governmental organizations to attain set targets.

The total tally from the 13th edition shows over 900 entries received from nearly 300 organisations, with over 5000 projects across Nigeria and other parts of Africa verified, assessed, and documented, 240 award recipients, and an annual awards ceremony that has hosted over 15,000 key industry leaders and many others.

Egbas also used his moment to announce the release of Nigeria’s first CSR and Sustainability ranking due for release on 1st

L-R Uche Ogbonna Sustainability Manager, Coca Cola West Africa, John Ehiguese , MD, MediaCraft; Yeye Agnes Shobajo, VP Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mrs Amaka Onyemelukwe, Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Cocoa Cola Nigeria

December 2019, in partnership with Forbes Africa. The rankings are a culmination of 13 years of data collection from field visits, interviews with leaders of over 250 organisations and their various stakeholders.

The evening went straight into the presentation of the first set of eight awards, soon after a brilliant opening by ageless crooner, Yinka Davies, and new act Iree who bellowed the SERAS theme song. The quickly followed by new music act, Bode Black.

Twenty-five awards were won on the night. Some of the winners include – Best Company in Stakeholder Engagement, which went to Coca-Cola. Chevron carted home The Best Company in Infrastructure. Dangote emerged winners in the Food Sufficiency category. New entrants IHS emerged winner of the Best Company in Work-Place Practice. Flour Mill, also a first timer at The SERAS, won a category as well, while. International Breweries Plc completed the list of first timers who shone at the award this year.

In the individual honours category, Olumide Orojimi of the Nigeria Stock Exchange beat Omobolanle Laniyan of Access Bank and Victoria Ndee Uwadoka of Nestle

to the top honour as the CSR and Sustainability Professional of the Year. The drama didn’t end there. The ever ongoing competition for Africa’s most responsible business between Access Bank and Dangote saw Dangote win 3 categories and emerged first runner-up, overall. Union Bank polled enough numbers from their showings in the various categories to come third overall. The top win for the night went to Access Bank, who become the second company to record a hattrick of overall wins, having won in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The only other company to have recorded such a feat is MTN who won in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Also noteworthy are the 2019 e xt ra o rd i na r y a c h i e ve m e nt awards that went to Fauziya Abdi, for her project WAVE - Women Against Violent Extremism, in Kenya; Professor Ezekiel Okemwa of CANOPS, for one of the most successful tree planting campaigns in Africa; and Also Ishihara of Japan Bio Farm, for creating enzymes that makes crops resistant to drought in Zambia in the process boosting crop production by over 400 percent.

As the night wore to a close, it as easy to tell that the guests had enjoyed a beautiful evening.

According to Mary Ephraim, the executive director of TruCSR Consulting, and chairperson of the local organising committee, “we have come to the end of a process that began in March 2019, where the most responsible businesses in Africa have been unveiled to the whole world. As always, our goal was to deliver a world class awards ceremony that offers the best experience for all our guests, and one that shows the other organisations in Africa why business-for-good can only make the world a better place for all.”

At the end of the ceremony, Ken Egbas made the rounds congratulating all the winners and posing for photographs with winners, friends, and wellwishers. It was easy to tell from the strain in his voice and the bags around his eyes that the event must have cost him and his team a few sleepless nights.

When, asked “how did you pull this off?” it was with a wry smile playing on his face that he said, “Hey, I did not pull anything off…

I am just as surprised as everyone else as to how near excellently it all turned out…this is definitely God’s hands on the project” I have followed The SERAS from its first edition in 2007 and I

A Tale of Two 35Billion Dollars

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wo extremely wealthy individuals: number 1 and number 2 on the Forbes Billionaire List had, if you like, $35billon (N12.69 trillion) to play with. More money than whole Nigerian states can ever hope to see in one generation.

More money than the entire Nigerian budget for 2020 (N10.33

attestable force for good in Sub Saharan Africa.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, on the other hand, spent $35bilion to divorce his ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos. Largest divorce payout in history. But its chump change for the man who after that little setback has since regained his position as the richest man in the world with more than $108 billion dollars to his name.

trillion).

Bill Gates sold approximately $35 billion worth of Microsoft stocks for his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That gargantuan amount has enabled the Gates Foundation do some incredible work around the world, never mind conspiracy theorists.

The Foundation has been an www.businessday.ng

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am aware that funding for an idea this lofty has been a challenge for the organizers. In 2009, Egbas told me a story of how he went to pitch for a sponsorship proposal to a leading telecoms company, where he found himself in the same room with organisers of a music show. He came out of that meeting with a 750,000 naira cheque for The SERAS. While he sat at the lobby not knowing what to think, he saw the music show crew fist bumping, and celebrating having clinching a 100 million naira sponsorship.

He said he considered shutting down the event out of frustration and discouragement. But considering the grand success of the SERAS this year, and the credibility and relevance that the platform has garnered all over Africa, it is surely a matter of time before the platform becomes selfsustaining. Nonetheless, it makes you wonder as an observer, why a project that is this deep and drives change and development and creates access to opportunities for the less privilege and people at risk in society should go cap-in-hand each year. Hopefully, with the performance of The SERAS over the years, itself and others like it should begin to enjoy look-ins.

@Businessdayng

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Corporate Social Impact

Onuwa Lucky Joseph (08023314782) Editor.

2019 Thanksgiving season powers on with ‘Giving Tuesday’ (Dec.3) Stories by Onuwa Lucky JosepH

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or a lot of folks, 2019 won’t rank as one of their best years. And that’s putting it mildly.

The stories from different parts of the country have been far from cheery. Jobs were lost, livelihoods messed up, kidnappings, robberies, rape, election violence, ritual murders, road accidents, felled buildings, listless stock market, closed shops, kids not in school, banditry and the whole cocktail of tragedies that have become the reality of the average Nigerian.

And so, not many have looked forward to end of year because they do not have much by way of achievements to declare. But we know that seasons come and go, in the same way as the oceans ebb and flow. No one stays at the crest forever; although to be honest, no one deserves to live so deprived in a country brimming over with such an evident myriad of opportunities.

What’s for sure, as the Scriptures advise, is to be grateful for being wherever we are. Thankfully, most Nigerians subscribe to some faith that keeps them conscious of the fact that they are not fully or always in charge. There are always those niggling variables, many of which have a despairing tendency to spring from nowhere

to tilt our destiny cart and leave us tottering and struggling to regain balance. We are bewildered at how many times this year we’ve been (some of us literally) at the mercy of the inclement elements.

No reach-outs from friends, no

encouragement from family, a perpetually discouraging account balance being our lot, not to mention the epidemic of depression that’s led not a few to putting an end to what they consider a worthless existence.

Why Sadio Mane is The Man! O ne of those facts not told and restated as often as it should in the media is Sadio Mane’s place in the record books as the man with the fastest hat trick in the English premiership history. In a 2015 game against Aston Villa, while playing for Southampton Sadio scored three goals in 2 blistering minutes 56 seconds beating Robbie Fowler’s record set in 1999.

And even if all he’s done is on account of this, the man should have some major chip (more like boulder) on his shoulder.

He clearly doesn’t. If anything, he’s ever the picture of humility, deigning to do what most superstars his range would not even imagine. One of those images that went viral recently was when he helped pick some cases of bottled water that some heavily burdened Teranga Lions of Senegal official needed to move.

It was a no biggie for him.

Aside that is his large heart for things connected to people from his roots. He’s so deeply Senegalese and wants nothing

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However, no life is considered truly successful which has not undergone its fair share of ups and downs; the vast majority of humanity experiencing far more downs that can drown the strongest of spirits. Which might persuade some philosophers to begin a new school pillared on the preposterous conclusion that Nigerians are bound to become a successful lot, going by the gale of tribulations we are forced to endure and survive year after year after year.

What we know for sure, however, is that wherever we find ourselves is not the deepest nadir there is. A little shift of gaze form our own circumstances will quickly reveal to us how blessed and fortunate we still are despite what assails us on every side. Nigeria, for instance, (despite the leaks in the economy that are serving to despoil the environment), still is the largest economy in Africa.

Notwithstanding that the average citizen does not benefit directly from that – dubious, some would say – title, it is a statistic that gives Nigerians some swagger and a sense of potential for a turnaround in fortunes. On an individual level, everybody reading this is still alive and hopefully well and so not bereft of hope hope for a tomorrow that’s better than today.

It is not for nothing that thanksgiving comes around year end.

There are reasons to be grateful,

to be happy, to take pride in our strides be they big, be they small; to be grateful for the opportunity to strive and struggle in the hope that the elusive turnaround is just around the corner. Even after we might have navigated an endless number of corners, there is still that next corner just might spring the pleasant surprise.

And so, we, aware now of our fortunate circumstances must spring for those less fortunate, of which there are millions. In our individual capacities, we can do, even if for one person, something that brings some light and glow into their lives. In our corporate capacities, there’s a whole lot more we can do stanch the sighs and entreat the elusive smile.

Giving Tuesday is where the giving season pulls the trigger.

This is not the time to dwell on the ‘foreignness’ of the concepts.

To give is the divine element gifted humans to brighten humanity.

So, as we glean from the Giving Tuesday website: Make someone smile, help a neighbour out.

Write a personal note or words of encouragement for a student or someone in need.

Give time. Give voice. Give money. Give goods. Give kindness.

Give talent. Give individually. Give together. Give. One human to another. Kindle a fire of gratitude.

There’s no better season than end of year. Let’s do it!

more than for his people to make greater progress. So, rather than engage in the excess typical of new money folks, Sadio painstakingly invests in his people. By his own admission, he didn’t go to school. So, for so that his kinsmen can do better in that area, he is building a $300,000 school in Bamballi the village he hails from.

Some would put his largesse down to the fact that he earns £100,000 a week at Liverpool, a club where he has consistently stayed the main goal poacher alongside Mo Salah, his Egyptian team mate. The lethal African strike force is inching gradually towards helping Liverpool win the premiership for the first time in a long time.

The hunger in Mane’s game is reflective of the hunger he suffered as a child. “I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefoot, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I win thanks to football, I can help my people”.

“Why would I want ten Fer-

raris, twenty diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world?” Mane asks, perplexed.

What he does is for so that a lot more people would be part of the fortune dished him by Providence and the proverbial dint of hard work: “I built schools, a stadium; we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy.

Did you read that? “70 euros per month to all people”… The man is a de facto government that his people look up to for their needs to be met every month.

Fortunately for the people of Bamballi and beyond in Senegal, they have a man who does not “need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes.

I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me.”

That is why we cannot but give it up for Mane, the diligent, responsible son of Africa. Oh, for more Manes!

@Businessdayng

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

35

feature How new town devts are redefining living, commerce and leisure in Lagos With a population estimated at 22 million and projected to hit 50 million by the turn of 2050, Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub and commercial nerve centre, needs all the houses it can get which is why the state government is aggressive in its pursuit of private sector partnerships to deliver housing for the teeming population. The Ilubirin project, a mixed use housing development by the Lagos Lagoon, is a product of such partnerships that are not only changing the state’s skyline, but also redefining living standards and city lifestyle, writes CHUKA UROKO.

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n Lagos State today, the development of new towns is everything to write home about and that is, however, to be expected in a city state where growing and projected to hit 50 million by 2030.

In various parts of the city, new urban communities are springing up, crystalising into what is today known as ‘New Urbanism’ which has developed as a response to congestion in the city centre where housing, school places and hospital beds are in short supply and commercial rents are cut-throat.

Essentially, these new town developments are urban design movements that promote walkable neighbourhoods containing a range of housing and job types, redefining living, commerce and leisure.

One of such new town developments is the Ilubirin Housing Estate. This is a mixed use development whose first residential offering, The Premier Collection, will deliver 108 spacious apartments across five elegant blocks, consisting of 20 studios, 64 twobedroom and 24 three-bedroom apartments carefully designed and detailed to provide some of the finest places to live.

The promoters of this neighbourhood describe it as a place for families, for couples, a home for individuals. They say it is where affordability meets luxury – a new quality of apartment living, a new and inclusive community for Lagos residents.

Located on the northwest coast of Lagos Island, the development is centrally positioned between the mainland and the core districts of Victoria Island; Isale-Eko; Obalende; and Ikoyi.

With its proposed slip road due to open in December 2019, Ilubirin will have direct access to the Lagos Ring Road—an efficient and streamlined route to both the mainland and other hubs of Lagos.

It incorporates modern residential, commercial and leisure facilities, including medical, schools, sporting, chic shopping boulevards and spacious public squares, a hotel, performance and leisure spaces, marina, and landscaped gardens.

In addition to contemporary residential apartments, Ilubirin provides a unique community for families, couples, and individuals. Stunningly landscaped with garden, wetlands and lagoonside promenades, this dynamic new community will set new lifestyle standards in this part of the city.

Developed by Ilubirin Fore-

shore Projects Limited and constructed by Arbico Plc, Ilubrin is a joint venture project being undertaken by the Lagos State government and First Investment Development Company (FIDC), to create a new place to live, work and play and crucially assist in addressing the housing deficit in Lagos.

Lagos is the 7th fastest growing city in the world. A housing market report compiled by the Pison Housing Company estimates the housing demand-supply gap in the sprawling at 3 million with a yearly requirement of 200,000 housing units to be built in the next 10 years to bridge the gap.

The sprawling city is a very active rental market because, according to the report, over 80 percent of its residents lives in rented accommodation some of which are grossly deficient for decent human habitation. The state’s housing deficit is said to be both qualitative and quantitative.

It is hoped that the 29-hectare mixed-use Ilubirin development will benefit from a substantial residential leisure component linked to the lagoon edge and a remarkable new wetland park.

With an overall urban design by international firms, GAPP Architects and Urban Designers and SAOTA, Ilubirin is set to become an inspiring neighbourhood for a forward thinking and aspirational community.

Expectations iare that Ilubirin will create a benchmark for future community developments in

Lagos, anchored on the concept of ‘Live, Work and Play’, with not only a residential offering, but also a new school, offices, shopping, hotel, medical centre, leisure facilities and a brand new marina for the lagoon.

At a meeting and tour of the ongoing work at the project by representatives of the state government and the developer, FDIC, commitments were made on the completion of the first phase of this new neighbourhood.

“We have a solid plan to deliver the first phase of the project in the third quarter of 2021 and the first residential apartments in 2020.

Ilubirin is a critically important development for the city that will rejuvenate the area. We have a duty to ensure that more Lagos residents become homeowners and that the homes themselves are built to the very highest standards, ” said Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, the Commissioner for Housing in Lagos.

Wale Bamgbelu of FIDC affirmed this, saying there was a collective determination and commitment to the timely delivery of Ilubirin which would set a new standard for mixed use projects.

A revised masterplan of the project has just been completed. It is expected the new masterplan will optimises the marina positioning and create a new shopping spine through the new neighbourhood.

According to the developers, the 29-hectare space will accommodate facilities such as residential apartments to sit on 242,350

square metres; medical facilities, schools (8,000m2), shopping (10,000 square metres); boulevards and public squares, offices (10,000 square metres), a hotel (8,500 square metres), performance and leisure spaces (10,000 square metres). There will also be landscaped gardens and new green wetlands.

The lagoon water’s edge is the area where the main concentration of leisure, retail, and hospitality facilities will be located. These areas accommodate restaurants, coffee shops, hotels and various other water-related recreational activities.

The public space allows for events and has an attractive pedestrian character, thus creating a vibrant public environment. By ensuring that there is also a mix with residential apartments, the development will be active and safe 24 hours a day.

The houses available target specifically Lagos’ vast emerging middle class. They are an affordable solution for people who wish to be close to central Lagos without the burden of high-end gated communities.

The promoters of this project say they can vouch for the quality of the product they are preparing for the market. Besides the quality standard of the material inputs, both the developers and the contractors handling the project have good and long standing track record.

Founded in 2008, FIDC has emerged as one of the leading and rapidly expanding building

construction and civil engineering management companies in Nigeria. It has brought over 40 years of combined local and international experience to bear on the work it is doing on this project. Its directors have positioned the company to continue its impressive growth.

FIDC’s central business policy has been to source prime locations, build properties of premium quality and provide exceptional services for its clients. This combination of local expertise, a central business policy along with global investor-relations has formed a structure for FIDC as an industry benchmark brand.

ARBICO, the lead contractor on the project, was established in 1958. It has been successfully delivering building and civil engineering contracts for 60 years, becoming one of the leading building construction companies in Nigeria to date. ARBICO’s longevity has seen it take on a multitude of clients, from governments, multinational companies, industrial groups to high-net-worth individuals.

With each development, ARBICO continuously solidifies its global reputation and track record for managing and delivering construction projects on time with an operational strategy to maintain full professional services.

The combination of efficiency, time and resource management and team experience, has guaranteed every project it has successfully executed are on time and within budget.

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

interview

‘Nigeria has enough bandwidth to cater for Internet of Things’ Lare Ayoola, CEO of IoT Africa Networks Ltd, speaks with Frank Eleanya on the prospects of the Internet of Things for the Nigerian economy. Ayoola says IoT has the potential to transform every industry and cut down on waste of resources. He also explains the recent partnership between IoT Africa and Sigfox, a global IoT company that provides one of the lowest bandwidth IoT networks.

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What is IoT to the average person? oT means the Internet of Things. However, that does not mean much to most people. We have the internet and we have devices, so IoT is an ecosystem that allows sensors, things in your environment to speak to the internet and tell you about what is happening in that environment. It could be a temperature monitor that could speak to you through the internet and you will be able to read that information on your phone, on your monitor or your laptop and get that information and act upon it.

Therefore, what we are talking about are sensory devices that measure temperature, pressure, location, vibration, movement, humidity, pH level in the soil, door open and closed, fire or no fire. The sensors measure that and communicate wirelessly using radio signals to a base station. The base station talks to the cloud which cloud, which in turn talks to the platform and the platform talks to your phone or your laptop and gives you the information. The Internet of Things is many things.

Do you think Nigeria is ready for IoT? Nigeria is very ready for IoT. One of the major components of IoT is the internet which internet, which is available in almost all parts of Nigeria. IoT does not use much bandwidth, it uses very little bandwidth, especially Sigfox Technology.

It is an ultra-narrow band sending data packets of less than 12 bytes.

Therefore, it is a very tiny bit of information and using a very tiny bit of bandwidth. Nigeria has enough bandwidth to cater for IoT more than any other requirement. I think the government has done its job; it has enabled the telecoms industry and telecoms private companies to be established by law. The telecoms companies have provided internet and made it available to everybody at an affordable rate. Virtually everybody from the highest to the lowest has access to the internet in Nigeria now.

The second thing that the government did was by enabling telecoms, over 30 million Nigerians use smartphones. That is the last figure I saw and I am sure it is rising every day because smartphones are getting cheaper. Because people use smartphones, it means they have a device through they can see what is going on in their home. I don’t mean video because Sigfox IoT doesn’t enable that – but they can if their doors are open or closed or if there is a fire, breaking into their homes, their shops, if their car is moving away from where it is, etc. The internet we have now be-

Lare Ayoola

ing provided has enabled the use of smartphones to bring about IoT. Of course, there is a software that software goes with it. But Sigfox who is our partner provides that technology and also there are hundreds of other Sigfox partners across the world who spend time developing software, devices and so on.

Could you tell us more about the partnership between IoT Africa and Sigfox and the impact it is going to have on the Nigerian economy?

IoT Africa is the exclusive partner of Sigfox France in Nigeria. This means that we will build the low power wide area network, and we will allow connectivity of Sigfox compliant devices to connect on the network.

The relationship is one of over 65 relationships in the world. Over 65 countries today have Sigfox technology running in their IoT. Nigeria is one of the 65 countries. IoT Africa is the Sigfox operator for Nigeria.

Our responsibility is to build the network, operate, maintain, support and build the channel partners who will sell connectivity to the network.

Our job also - for now until our channel partners take over - is to provide sufficient devices and solutions, software platforms, dashboards and other components of the IoT ecosystem to be able to supply the customers with a complete solution. Our job is also to provide our partners with technical support, marketing training and marketing support and ensure customer service is first class.

What should the industry expect with Sigfox?

With IoT Africa as a Sigfox operawww.businessday.ng

tor in Nigeria, I think the Nigerian economy should expect a substantial boost. The provision of IoT services and solutions in Nigeria enables improved productivity, minimizes waste, maximizes loss prevention, makes decision making much faster by providing a massive amount of data that can be analyzed and presented for decision-makers. For instance, the insurance industry will benefit tremendously because the industry will no longer receive information about a house or factory that has burnt down. However, as the fire is starting the insurance company will know that the fire is starting. It will also help the work of the fire brigade and the police. The IoT will provide very quick information about very many things and enable very quick decision making to make sure that loss is prevented.

You can put sensors on breaches and tall buildings so that when the columns are starting to fail, there will be a contraction or an expansion which will tell the engineers that something out of the ordinary is happening to this load-bearing column and somebody should look at it. Therefore, the incident of a building collapsing can almost be almost totally eradicated at least to the extent you will be able to get every occupant out of that building on time, so there will be no loss of lives.

When you look at what IoT can do to the economy as a whole, like in the health sector where most of us have elderly relatives in the hometowns and we are not there with them. Hence, most of us have no idea how well our fathers or

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mothers are doing; whether they have fallen down and need help; or have a weak pulse or it seems too fast. So many things you have no idea about our elderly relatives in the village. We also - to a large extent - have no idea where our children are. With IoT, you can know where your children are at every point in time, how well they are doing; how well the elderly people are in the village. They can wear a simple device on their wrist, which reads his basic body information such as temperature, pulse, and others can be taken.

IoT will help the health sector, the agricultural sector, the industrial sector, the banking industry, and the insurance industry. One of the challenges that many companies face is the theft of their goods. IoT coming into Nigeria will cause a dramatic change for the better in every aspect of life. Even the least paid worker in Nigeria would be able to install a home security device in his or her house and be able to monitor what is going on in their home from their smartphone.

What is the value of the IoT market?

My estimates of the value of the market are, within the next five years, probably about $1 billion. Worldwide, it is reported to be around $1 trillion. The market is huge.

What are the jobs that could be created from IoT in Nigeria?

It is a totally new industry; it is not replacing any industry. What that means is, for instance, there are 40 million homes in Nigeria out of which 100 percent do not have one smoke alarm; 100 percent of them do not have any intrusion detector, imagine how many technicians will be required to fit 40 million homes with safety and security devices. Let us look at offices where most are not measuring temperature, carbon dioxide, 99.9 percent do not have a fire alarm. Imagine how many people will be required to fit offices with fire alarms. It is dramatic.

Today, agriculture is not monitored by any means; there are no devices in the field to monitor moisture, PH level nitrate level, temperature, etc, these are the things that affect crops. If the temperature is too high, the crops will fail, the solution could be to sprinkle them a little bit more often with water. Many times, farmers are spending too much money on fertilizer. They put fertilizer when they think the soil needs, but the IoT devices will tell them which parts of the field require fertilizer. It will cut the use of fertilizer by as much as 50 percent and you will still get the same @Businessdayng

result as you are getting now with overuse of fertilizer. The overuse of fertilizer kills the soil because it has an impact on the microorganisms that are in the soil required for plans to even absorb the fertilizer in the first place. Helping reduce the overuse of fertilizers, you create many jobs; somebody has to sell to the market, somebody has to install the device; somebody has to maintain, etc. massive job creation from this and we are talking about a country of 196 million people according to PwC. That is many people to serve.

Every industry that can help create employment should be encouraged.

How do you address the local content side of the Sigfox technology?

Local content is something that we take seriously because we are acutely aware of the regulations concerning it. I know that NITDA has come up with policies relating to local content; also coming from the oil industry, I am well aware of the local content laws. What are our strategies to keep within the guidelines and surpass them? First, all we are bringing is network technology and device technology. There is a huge labour force there will be involved in the selling, installing, supporting and carrying out warranty management. Sigfox has a developer kit and it encourages developers to use their technology to develop software that facilitates IoT. The data received has to be analyzed and presented in the right form for people to be able to understand. Somebody has to write the software to do that, somebody has to do the data analytics. What Sigfox does is it encourages by providing software developers with all the tools that they need to develop software applications to work on the Sigfox platform.

Sigfox also encourages device manufacturers to design their own devices that are compliant with Sigfox technology. IoT Africa’s job as the Sigfox operator of Nigeria is to liaise with the universities, the innovation hub and share with them sufficient information to help them identify opportunities and become Sigfox partners. A device partner is either a device manufacturer or software developer that produces a device or software that facilitates IoT using Sigfox technology. Sigfox is no longer a closed technology. It is an open technology, which means that thousands of software developers in Nigeria will spring up and focus on participating in this IoT revolution.

Thousands of electronic engineers, computer scientists, mechanical engineers and agricultural engineers and so on will spring up and start using Sigfox technology.

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news

FG yet to reinforce relevant laws to curb gas flaring in Niger Delta - Akpabio Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja

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inister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, says ecological impact of gas flaring remains one of the major challenges confronting the Niger Delta region, saying the Federal Government has not reinforced the relevant laws to stop gas flaring by multinational oil companies operating in the region.

The minister in a statement signed by Deworitshe Patricia, head of public relations unit of the ministry, while receiving the delegates of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons on the provisions of sustainable support to displaced and vulnerable persons in the country, said there was need to promote peace and understanding between the citizens and the government.

The minister said the ministry was committed to redirecting the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as an interventionist agency to its mandate, adding that the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC would give total support to the Commission to execute its humanitarian services and provide durable solutions to the concerned persons all over the country.

Akpabio speaking further charged the chief executive of the Commission to liaise with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and meet with the ambassadors of

those countries repatriating Nigerians for economic reasons to ensure that there was peace and understanding between the citizens and the government.

Basheer Garba Mohammed, commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, in his remark, said the Commission was seeking mutual cooperation and partnership with all the stakeholders in giving psychological and physical support to all vulnerable Nigerians, as the country was still faced with humanitarian challenges According to Mohammed, there are about 2.2 million internally displaced persons in the country with majority in the North East while over 44,000 refugees majorly in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states of the Niger Delta region.

Mohammed lamented the meagre budgetary allocation, which according to him, was grossly inadequate to meet the needs of the commission hence the need for this partnership to provide skill development, empowerment and to ensure that displaced persons were adequately resettled.

“In year 2020, the Commission intend to move away from giving hand out to persons of concerns and provide more durable and sustainable support that will integrate them back into the society. We will also sensitise the Communities and the Youths on the dangers of irregular migration.”

To save media business, Shobanjo advocates new contract payment structure for advertisers Daniel Obi

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s the media industry, including advertising agencies and traditional media companies struggle to remain in business over delayed contract payment and rising debt within the industry, Biodun Shobanjo, chairman of Troyka Group, Wednesday proposed 60 days duration for payment of media contracts by clients.

The proposal is on the background to save the struggling media industry that is facing many challenges, including effects of 2016/17 economic recession, budget cut by clients, inconsistent policies by government and multiple taxations, especially in Outdoor sector.

While advocating that interventions are needed in these areas, he said the debt within the industry between clients, service providers, media owners and advertising agencies must be checkmated.

All is really not well in the industry. While some agencies are folding up or owing salaries running into months, others don’t have businesses to sustain their operations.

Shobanjo, who shared his thought in the industry with participants at the National Advertising Conference in Abuja suggested that the debt and

delayed payment which is frustrating media practitioners can be stopped through legislation.

Explaining how the 60 days payment period can be achieved, Tunji Olugbodi, the CEO of Verdant Zeal who endorsed Shobanjo’s suggestion believed that the 60 days payment period can also be realised through agreement with the clients.

Olugbodi also said that the clients need education and enlightenment to see things from the perspective of the agency and agencies can also understand the financial situation of the clients.

He also suggested engagement with all the stakeholders and operators in the advertising value chain to address the debt challenges.

On adequate regulation within the industry, Shobanjo whose presentation addressed contemporary issues in the industry further called on APCON to play its regulatory functions without fear or favour. “A situation where interlopers are allowed to infiltrate the business as the case in many sectoral sectors must be stopped”.

For instance “where the law prescribes that foreigners acquire not more than 25percent equity in Nigerian advertising companies but this is circumvented by using unscrupulous Nigerians must be stopped and reversed”.

Henley Business School tasks Nigerian alumni to deepen presence FRANK ELEANYA

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ondon-based Henley Business School says it plans to deepen its presence in Nigeria by leveraging its alumni network comprising of over 400 former students.

Established in 1945, the University of Reading Business School is ranked 27 among the top 100 best schools in the world. Presently, the school boasts of 80,000 alumni network spread across 160 countries.

The dean of Henley Business School says at an alumni network meeting in Lagos that Africa is a focal point for the institution. But while it has a physical presence in South Africa, its presence in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country is yet to gain traction. The institution faces competition from more entrenched schools such as the Lagos Business School.

Nevertheless, Board says its entry strategy is more collaborative. “Our approach is to learn as much as we can from the market. Let’s be honest, we do not so much about Nigeria to put up a physical presence, but we have had an amazing set of students

from the country who are our alumni’s now. We expect them to be our ambassadors here,” Board said.

He further said the visit to Nigeria was primarily to connect with a much larger range of Henley Alumni so as to ensure everyone is in connection with one another.

While in Nigeria, the business school is spreading its tentacles to include creative and digital entrepreneurs.

Jean-Pierre Choulet told BusinessDay that this is in line with the school’s evolving strategy and the shift in global market operations where organisations are increasingly investing in technology.

Nigeria, he said, has a rich population of 200 million people with 65 percent of the people below 35 years of age and feeding into the workforce and market.

However, making a successful business is beyond just buying new technologies and creating solutions, Choulet said.

“We are working towards adding value to accompany the youths from the grass root, middle class, and upper class to develop themselves and be enabled to drive Nigeria’s economy towards a sustainable developed economy.”

NPA signs 5-year deal with Port of Antwerp to enhance supply chain efficiency AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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eterminedtoenhancethe efficiency of operations in the nation’s seaport, the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Wednesday in Lagos, signed a 5-year partnership agreement with the management of the Port of Antwerp International (PAI), Belgium, to tap from the existing technical know-how of one of the world’s leading ports.

Under the agreement, which is expected to last for five years with an option of renewal, the Port of Antwerp will play an advisory role with regards to enabling further development of Nigerian ports.

BusinessDay understands that the Port of Antwerp is known in Africa as the maritime centre of Europe because of its numerous supply chain connections. Out of all ports in North-West Europe, Antwerp has the highest number of direct services to West Africa, resulting in a market share of nearly 50 percent amounting to freight of 15 million tons, which Nigeria has the highest volume of 6 million tons annually.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony held in Lagos on Wednesday, Hadiza BalaUsman, managing director of the NPA, said the Authority was renewing its 19 years agreement, which it first signed with PAI years ago.

Usman, who was represented

by Sakonte Davies, executive director, Marine and Operations of

the NPA, said the new agreement was geared towards building a bilateral relationship that would be mutually beneficial for both countries.

According to Usman, the partnership agreement is in line with the vision of the management of the NPA of making Nigeria ports, the leading port in Africa, owing to the fact that Belgium port is the second leading port in Europe and 12th in the world.

She said the MoU would give the Authority the opportunity to tap the wealth of experience that PAI had exhibited in Europe, expressing optimistic that the partnership deal will grow the mutual aspirations of the two countries.

Earlier, Daniel Dargent, Belgium Ambassador to Nigeria, who said the visit to the NPA was part of the third trade mission of Belgium potential investors to Nigeria this year, stated that the new agreement provides both countries with an opportunity to expand its trade volume.

“We see a lot of potential in the port of Lagos due to Nigeria’s growing economy. The freight transport with Europe has increased substantially. By means of this collaboration we can use our know-how to advise the port of Lagos in its further development,” said Kristof Waterschoot, CEO of PAI. He said the agreement underlines the ambition of PAI to consolidate and further develop its already strong position in West Africa.

Seyi Makinde, governor, Oyo State, presenting 2020 budget to the Oyo State House of Assembly at the House chamber, Secretariat, Ibadan.

FG blames states for inability to revitalise 10,000 PHC units Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja

… NPHCDA disburses N5.5bn to states

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the country loses about 2,300 under-5s and 145 women of child bearing age each day.

The Federal Government in an effort to address challenges pledged to revitalise 10,000 PHC centres across the country. President Muhammadu Buhari, who kicked off the scheme early 2017, hoped it would ensure delivery of quality basic health care services to the majority of Nigerians and drive Universal Health Coverage.

Government’s target was to revive one PHC centre per ward to widen access.

However, the scheme has achieved meagre success, nearly three years after because the project lacks a sustainability plan, defined budget, as well as required human resource among other chal-

ack of needed commitment at both the state and local government levels is real reason the Federal Government has not delivered the 10,000 Primary Health Care units it promised to revitalise since early 2017.

This delay comes amid concerns of a decaying health system with several challenges and resultant poor health indices, despite meagre progress though.

Available statistics from the Nigerian government note Nigeria makes up only 2% of the world’s population but accounts for 14% of the global maternal death burden. One in every eight Nigerian children dies before their fifth birthday; nearly 10% of new born deaths occur in Nigeria, while

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lenges, according to information available to BusinessDay. “So far, about 4,000 primary health care centres have been renovated, not revitalised,” Faisal Shuaib, executive director/chief executive of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday as he heaped blames on states and also faulted poor human resource required to drive the project.

According to Shuaib, President Buhari kicked off the policy thought by the Ministry of Health to ensure that every political ward in Nigeria has at least one PHC centre that can provide basic and essential health care to all Nigerians.

“It was always supposed to be a collaboration between the Federal Government, the @Businessdayng

state and LGAs, but principally states. I think this is something that really needs to sink in.

“Ours is to provide the oversight and we will continue to advocate, oversight, to help coordinate, and make sure that primary healthcare is delivered,” he assured.

According to him, “You can advocate all you can but it is also important that you have a responsive partner who is willing to do something to change the landscape,” expressing satisfaction that the current governors are prioritizing primary health care.

“The key challenge has always been the human resources, revitalization is not just about renovating the building, but also providing the full complements require to make a health facility functional,” he said.

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news CBN budgets over N2trn for 2020 fiscal year JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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L-R: Taiwo Oyedele, partner, PwC: Amine Mati, senior representative in Nigeria, International Monetary Fund (IMF); Jumoke Oduwole, senior special assistant to the president; Bismarck Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company; Frank Aigbogun, publisher, BusinessDay, and Laoye Jaiyeola, CEO, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), at the launch of the IMF Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa titled ‘Navigating Uncertainty’, in Lagos.

Capital projects to get 40% of annual budgets in next 10 years …as Economy Stimulus Bill passes second reading

JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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f the Economy Stimulus Bill which passed second reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday eventually becomes law, it would mean that at least 40 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget would be allocated to capital projects in the next 10 years.

Nigeria allocated just about 20 percent or N2.46 trillion (inclusive of N318.06 billion in statutory transfers) of its N10.33 trillion 2020 national budget to capital projects.

In a bid to change this narrative, the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed for third reading the Bill for an Act to Provide that 40 Percent of Nigeria’s Annual Budget Should be Earmarked for Capital Projects in the Next 10 Years, otherwise called the Economy Stimulus Bill.

The Bill, sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House, seeks to provide that 40 percent of the nation’s budget be earmarked for capital projects for the next 10 years. It also creates some form of monitoring process to ensure implementation and enforcement by providing that upon commencement, the Accountant General of the Federation shall submit quarterly reports to the National Assembly on the performance of the capital budget and must be submitted within two weeks after the end of a corresponding quarter.

According to the Bill, “National Assembly shall within two weeks consider the report of the Accountant General of the Federation and if not satisfied shall pass the necessary resolution to ensure implementation and performance

by the President. This Bill shall be in force for a period of 10 years after which there shall be a review by the National Assembly.”

It stipulates that there shall be a “penalty of five years imprisonment or a fine of N50 million or both for violation or any attempt by any person to frustrate the implementation of the Bill when passed”.

“This stringent punitive measure suggests that the current state of infrastructure and economy are not such to be handled with kids gloves,” it says.

In a lead debate on the importance of the Bill, Gbajabiamila said capital expenditure motivates increase in investment, leading to production capacity increase.

Gbajabiamila, who spoke through Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader of the House,

said production capacity increase gives rise to increase in goods and services produced in the individual economy, activities which when aggregated will in the long run increase the Gross Domestic Product.

“Capital projects attract more investments, create jobs and reduce unemployment. Capital projects lead to the empowerment of more people. More people will pay tax to the government thereby empowering the government with more revenue to reinvest in new projects,” the speaker argued.

“Arising from the above and the current economic challenges confronting us as a people, coupled with the decaying state of infrastructure across the country, we cannot undermine the importance of

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Nigeria spends N126.3bn in one year on pipeline repairs

…loses $75bn in one month in production shut-in from 9 terminals DIPO OLADEHINDE

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frica’s biggest oilproducing country spent N126.3 billion between April 2018 and April 2019 on repair and maintenance of leaking pipelines carrying crude oil from wells to flow stations in the Niger Delta, where more than 90 percent of the country’s crude is produced.

In Nigeria, petroleum and associated products are transported through extensive network of pipelines that run across different locations throughout the country from remote to populated areas.

These pipelines are, however, poorly secured, thereby making them targets of repetitive attacks by vandals and this has cut the country’s revenue

from oil and gas by half.

Nigeria incurred a huge cost of N77.74 billion maintaining and repairing its oil pipelines from April 2018 to December 2019, while it incurred another N48.89 billion on keeping its old pipelines active from January to April of 2019, according to report from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Pipelines vandalism remains a huge challenge to Nigeria. The NNPC report shows the country recorded a total of 2,092 pipelines breaks between July 2018 and July 2019.

“Products theft and vandalism have continued to destroy value and put NNPC at disadvantaged competitive position,” NNPC admitwww.businessday.ng

ted in its latest report.

The NNPC monthly report for July shows the five terminals that had major shut-in as a result of leakages connecting them to major oil wells include Pennington, Agbami, Erha, Bonny, Qua Iboe, Amenam, Usan, Egina and Bonga terminals.

Combined production shut-in from all the nine terminals in July 2019 was 1.2 million barrels, with a total value of US$75 billion using the average price of the international Brent crude, the benchmark for Nigeria’s crude oil which sold for an average price of $61.48 in July.

Nigeria lost 19,000 bpd worth $1.1 billion at the Pennington Terminal which was shut down due to pipeline leakage, while Agbami Ter-

minal was shut down due to loss of main power, leading to a loss of 77,000 barrels worth $4.7 billion.

Oil production in the Erha Terminal was shut down for two days due to maintenance activity and flare management which led to a loss of 304,490 barrels worth $18.7 billion, while Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) was shut down for 12 days due to the fire around Awoba manifold leading to a loss of 120,000 bpd to 150,000 bpd.

Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) leading into Bonny was shut down due to leaks at Owokiri (near Patrick waterside) with a production loss of 120,000 bpd worth

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he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) plans to spend some N2.004 trillion in the 2020 financial year, raising planned spending by some N594 billion from the previous year, according to figures exclusively seen by BusinessDay. The apex bank’s total budget for 2019 was N1.410 trillion.

Accordingly, total recurrent expenditure rose from N1.403 trillion in 2019 to N1.997 trillion in 2020, while capital expenditure rose from N6.786 billion in 2019 to N7.289 billion in 2020 budget.

From the major highlights of the budget presented before the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, general administration expenditure was raised from N154.113 billion in 2019 to N169.196 billion in 2020.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, who was represented by Edward Adamu, deputy governor corporate services, said the apex bank was raising surplus deficit administration expenditure from N1.256 trillion

to N1.835 trillion. The CBN expects to expend N1.647 trillion on liquidity management, higher than the N1.068 trillion in 2019, while other operations expenditure moved from N181.440 billion to N181.442 billion.

Also, a total of N98.173 billion has been proposed for investment in fixed assets in the 2020 budget while there was assurance by the management of CBN to give attention to ongoing projects.

Sources at the presentation said details were not furnished to the Committee on how much was budgeted and spent on new and ongoing projects.

Some projects captured in the 2020 budget include 17 system developments, plants and machiner y, strong room items, furniture fittings, among others.

Gudaji Kazure (APC, Jigawa), a member of the House of Representatives, had earlier raised alarm over the rise in the CBN budget for the 2020 fiscal year, describing it as outrageous.

Kazure had vowed to personally sponsor a motion on the floor of the House to canvass for a drastic trimming of the CBN budget.

Nigerian ports require cost reduction, tariff review to gain from border closure AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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or the Niger ian economy to benefit from the border closure by the Federal Government, the country’s seaports must reduce the cost of doing business, review duties placed on imports like vehicles, and improve on ease of clearing cargo at the ports.

A cross section of shippers who spoke to BusinessDay said taking the above measures would help to address some of the reasons Nigerian importers divert their imports to ports in the neighbouring countries and make the nation’s ports attractive to do business.

They said automating cargo clearing processes and ensuring the use of scanners in the inspection of cargo at all the ports are essential in driving ease of cargo clearing and cost reduction for shippers.

President Muhammadu Buhari on August 21 announced the closure of Nigeria’s land borders with Republic of Benin in order, he said, to check the menace of smuggling, especially of rice.

While the policy has largely been viewed from the perspective of its nega@Businessdayng

tive impact, shippers say it can also benefit the nation’s economy if the right actions are taken.

Jonathan Nicol, president, Shippers Association of Lagos, said Nigeria needs to first simplify all import adjustment policies and reduce import duty on goods and services in the country.

“The cost of using Nigeria ports is excessively high due to excessive pursuit of revenue by government agencies. This should be reversed.

The level of corruption in clearing of cargo is alarming and has indeed gone out of proportion. Therefore, there is urgent need to address all aspects of human contacts in the ports,” Nicol said in a telephone interview with BusinessDay. Describing multiple examinations of cargo by various units of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as a major bureaucratic bottleneck that causes delay and adds to cost, Nicol said government is losing out on the Customs External Tariff (CET) regime as bulk cargo is being discharged at neighbouring ports as final destination.

This, he said, necessitates review of the CET regime.

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news Nigeria’s low per capita growth driven...

Continued from page 1

latest report on Regional Economic Outlook (REO) for sub-Saharan Africa themed “Navigating Uncertainty”, which it launched in conjunction with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Lagos.

“Competition among firms is generally deemed an essential driving force of market economies,” said Amine Mati, senior resident representative for Nigeria/ Africa department, giving highlights of the report.

“An adequate competition policy framework is essential to protect consumer welfare and derive the expected developmental benefits from product market reforms such as deregulation and privatization,” Mati said.

He said empirical analysis suggests that increased competition can boost real per capita GDP growth rate by about 1 percentage point through improved export competitiveness, productivity growth, and investment.

Mati said long-term investment and healthy competition should be present in a business environment in order to achieve sustainable economic growth, adding that it is necessary for policymakers to mitigate risk in the business environment by establishing the right polices that will be attractive to investors.

Also, Nigeria’s inflation rate is expected to rise by 11.7 percent next year from 11.3 percent projected in 2019, while the country’s current account balance will contract by 0.2 percent in 2019 from 1.3 percent in 2018.

The country’s inflation rate, a measure of composite changes in the prices of consumer goods and services, increased by 11.6 percent in October 2019 from 11.2 percent in September.

IMF projects government debt to reach 31.4 percent of GDP in 2020 from 29.9 percent in 2019 and 27.3 percent in 2018.

According to the report, economic activity in the region’s three largest economies – Nigeria (an oil exporter), South Africa (a non-oil, resource-intensive country), and Ethiopia (a nonresource-intensive country) – illustrates the bifurcated growth paths in the region.

South Africa’s growth is projected to remain subdued, increasing only mildly from 0.7 percent in 2019 to 1.1 percent in 2020, as private investment and export growth are expected to remain low. Medium-term growth is projected to be slightly lower than 2 percent, barely above population growth.

This reflects structural

constraints (including high cost of doing business, inflexible product and labor markets, and low public enterprise efficiency) which are expected to keep business confidence and private investment lacklustre.

“Sluggish growth in Nigeria and South Africa is likely to limit positive spillovers to their trading partners, especially remittances, financial sector activity, and import demand,” IMF said.

Economic experts at the public presentation of the IMF’s latest report on Regional Economic Outlook (REO) for sub-Saharan Africa called for a reformation of the country’s economic and investment policies in order to foster sustainable growth and development in the country and also improved healthy competition which will drive activities in the business environment.

Bismarck Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company, said the country has various economic problems.

However, he said, the problems can be solved through alignment of beliefs and favourable economic practices as well as policy and structural reformation.

Rewane said “structural reformation is necessary to achieve economic growth and protecting industry is something policymakers should come to terms with”.

He also said that economic growth is a fiscal issue that can be supported with monetary policy, especially if adequate lending culture can be transmitted into activities that will spur growth.

Speaking on Nigeria’s closure of its borders, Rewane said, “The border closure basically serves two purposes. First is giving statistical data as to how much economic activity goes on in the country, and secondly, it reveals the measure of informal economic activities in the country.”

He said the border closure so far is achieving its purpose.

Jumoke Oduwole, special adviser to the president on doing business, said during her presentation that the country has abundant opportunities available in various sectors ranging from the micro, small and medium enterprises, ICT, agriculture among others open for investors.

She said the economy needs better competitive advantage on the global market, which can be achieved with improved infrastructure and reformed ease of doing business policies.

She urged private sector stakeholders to collaborate with the government in order to embark on sustainable economic growth.

L-R: Mike Ogbalu, CEO, Verve International; Patrick Akinwutan, MD/ CEO, Ecobank Nigeria plc; Uche Val Obi, managing partner, Alliance Law Firm, and Chantelle Abdul, GMD, Mojec Int’l Holdings, during the 2019 annual lecture series of Alliance Law Firm themed ‘Leveraging Technology to Develop and Rebrand Nigeria’, in Lagos.

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Firms find gold in Nigeria’s N457bn...

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cially Nigeria, making a big showcase due to blossoming e-commerce and Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

China firm Xuchang, whose export of wigs hit $1 billion in 2016, has broken into the Nigerian market, with Africa’s biggest economy and South Africa making up its largest market.

Data show that South Africa, Benin and Nigeria constitute more than 80 percent of China’s total wig exports to Africa.

“For most women, hair maintenance is essential in order to maintain an attractive appearance. Therefore, the growing female population, particularly in major urban areas, and growth in the numbers of young women among Generation Z are set to boost sales growth and strengthen hair care over the forecast period,” Euromonitor International’s latest report on Nigerian hair industry said.

Nigerian women make up 49.34 percent of the total population. The World Factbook estimates the population of women between 15 and 24 at 19.86 million while those in the ages 0 and 14 are 42.28 million. The

population of those above 65 is about 3.26 percent, the data show.

A number of women in Nigeria prefer Chinese hair, but the upper middle class and the super-rich population are addicted to the more expensive Brazilian hair products, especially human hair.

L’Oréal Nigeria’s Dark & Lovely is the leading hair care brand due to high levels of consumer loyalty, but Godrej Nigeria is among the fastest growth among all of the competitors in hair care in 2018, Euromonitor said.

“Competition is a good ground for business to thrive,” Temitope Mayegun, CEO of Avila Natural Products, one of the largest natural skin and hair care brands in Africa, told BusinessDay. Local manufacturers also export hair products to several countries, earning FX. Data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that the value of false beard and eyelashes exported to the United States in the second quarter of 2019 was N649 million, more than fermented cocoa beans’ N250.7 million and raw cocoa beans value of N217.2 million.

Local firms have, however, faced intense competition from foreign brands.

Govt determined to remove ...

Continued from page 38

$7.3 million.

At Qua Iboe Terminal, there was production shutdown for 12 days due to equipment failure and maintenance of oil facility leading to a cumulative loss of 235,000 barrels worth $14.4 million, while Usan Terminal was shut down for six days due to plant trip incidents with a total loss of 192,460 barrels worth $11.8 million.

Oil production was shut down at Egina due to the trip of safety device which led to a loss of 32,000 bpd worth

$1.9 million, while a drop in production at Bonga due to plant shutdown led to a loss of 90,000 barrels worth $5.5 million.

At Amenam Terminal, there was full field shutdown due to integrity work on OML 100 leading to a shortfall of 15,829 bpd, while force majeure declared on OML 102 led to a production loss of 16,000 bpd.

Speaking to BusinessDay on the challenges the NNPC seems to be having with its leaking pipelines, Ademola Henry, team leader at the Facility for Oil Sector Trans-

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Chinese products are particularly cheaper than peers, but many of the firms admit the sophistication of Nigerian consumers who prefer quality to cheap price.

Like manufacturers in other sub-sectors, hair makers face high production costs, exposure to the foreign exchange as inputs of hair care industry are mostly imported, and are hard hit by delays in ports. Faking is also a key challenge in the market.

Solpia Nigeria, producer of Xpression, was reported to have sacked over 1,000 workers last month owing to economic woes in Nigeria.

“Due to the activities of unscrupulous people faking and passing off our hair attachment products, especially Ultra and Rich Braid, coupled with low sales and the present economic situation in the country, we deemed it absolutely imperative to downsize our workforce in order to remain in business,” the company was quoted as saying.

“The said products have suffered monumental faking and passing off by Nigerians and Chinese nationals despite our fight against their unholy activities,” it said.

According to Mayegun, the industry faces challenges of poor access to funding for sophisticated machinery and raw materials. formation (FOSTER), questioned why the government is still operating pipelines when it is such a high-cost centre.

“Anytime NNPC cannot find anywhere to hide expenses that they have incurred, they just record them as losses under pipeline repairs, which is very sad,” Henry said.

He advised that the Federal Government should “deregulate the sector and commercialise the pipelines and allow them to operate on a tariff model which will further block leakages”.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng @Businessdayng

Capital projects to get 40% of annual...

Continued from page 38

this Bill which seeks to provide 40 percent of our annual budget for capital project for the next 10 years.

“The purpose of the Bill is for us to use our legislative instrument, having been empowered by the Constitution, to support the Federal Government to improve on the nation’s infrastructure and drive the economy for the next 10 years. I call on you, my honorable colleagues, to consider the passage of this Bill to stimulate the economy for the empowerment of all those we represent,” he said.

In his personal contribution, Elumelu said a critical look at the 2020 budget shows that just 20 percent was earmarked for capital projects and the Bill was aimed at correcting these anomalies.

He lamented that the N120 billion allocated to the power sector in the 2020 budget was not up to 1 percent of the money needed to turn around the sector.

He maintained that one of the things that can make the country grow significantly is to provide critical infrastructure, but the infrastructure cannot be provided if there were not reasonable budgetary allocations to capital projects.

Bamidele Salami (PDP, Osun) in his debate said one of the challenges Nigeria has over the years is that the country borrows heavily but there is nothing on ground to show for borrowing. He said the proposed Bill would help government spend on building infrastructure that would create more jobs.

Abdul Ganiyu (APC, Kwara) on his part observed that recurrent items and overhead items are being lumped together under capital projects, but with new Bill has clearly defined everything and it would be a catalyst for the development of the country.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Live @ The STOCK Exchanges Prices for Securities Traded as of Wednesday 27 November 2019 Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

Company

Market cap(nm)

Price (N)

Change

Trades

Volume

PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES (Equities) BANKING ACCESS BANK PLC. 318,129.77 8.95 -3.76 293 6,392,008 UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC 239,395.95 7.00 -0.71 191 7,750,370 ZENITH BANK PLC 580,835.14 18.50 0.82 277 22,505,294 761 36,647,672 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 233,319.40 6.50 -6.47 257 10,527,286 257 10,527,286 1,018 47,174,958 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC 2,401,832.54 118.00 - 93 1,016,330 93 1,016,330 93 1,016,330 BUILDING MATERIALS DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 2,447,016.86 143.60 -0.28 71 450,438 LAFARGE AFRICA PLC. 225,509.14 14.00 - 44 300,670 115 751,108 115 751,108 EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 323,467.98 549.70 - 7 81,877 7 81,877 7 81,877 1,233 49,024,273 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 1,710.00 85.50 - 0 0 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (REIT) 10,175.81 40.70 - 0 0 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 11,873.80 4.45 - 1 4 1 4 1 4 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND 411.91 552.20 - 0 0 VALUEALLIANCE VALUE FUND 3,312.39 103.20 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 CROP PRODUCTION FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 440.00 0.20 - 0 0 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 47,361.63 49.65 - 28 269,138 PRESCO PLC 37,850.00 37.85 - 13 23,879 41 293,017 FISHING/HUNTING/TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. 8,520.00 4.26 - 0 0 0 0 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1,650.00 0.55 10.00 20 1,322,751 20 1,322,751 61 1,615,768 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 873.61 0.33 10.00 2 102,248 JOHN HOLT PLC. 217.92 0.56 - 1 1,910 S C O A NIG. PLC. 1,903.99 2.93 - 0 0 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC 41,054.47 1.01 -0.98 70 26,345,106 U A C N PLC. 20,169.08 7.00 -5.41 81 6,589,473 154 33,038,737 154 33,038,737 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ARBICO PLC. 711.32 4.79 - 0 0 0 0 INFRASTRUCTURE/HEAVY CONSTRUCTION JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 25,080.00 19.00 - 13 200,470 ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 6.60 - 0 0 13 200,470 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PLC 2,598.40 1.00 - 1 39,767 1 39,767 14 240,237 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 954.53 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 7,986.09 1.02 - 3 54,200 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 242.22 0.89 - 0 0 GUINNESS NIG PLC 67,901.87 31.00 - 34 373,747 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 80,801.10 9.40 - 13 45,163 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 407,042.31 50.90 - 26 57,948 76 531,058 FOOD PRODUCTS DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 174,000.00 14.50 -0.68 145 3,004,377 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 74,831.93 18.25 0.27 58 1,624,564 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 8,406.01 1.06 2.91 34 1,352,992 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 1,340.10 0.36 - 0 0 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 766.26 4.30 - 0 0 NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC 37,092.14 14.00 - 10 16,915 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 3,321.07 12.15 - 0 0 247 5,998,848 FOOD PRODUCTS--DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 16,903.82 9.00 -8.16 56 2,114,743 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,030,373.86 1,299.90 - 31 26,896 87 2,141,639 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 1,680.31 22.10 - 0 0 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 4,803.24 3.84 - 16 230,144 16 230,144 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 20,845.00 5.25 - 31 229,556 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 91,920.09 16.00 -1.84 57 844,417 88 1,073,973 514 9,975,662 BANKING ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED 128,446.86 7.00 - 39 536,821 FIDELITY BANK PLC 57,659.85 1.99 -0.50 117 11,110,939 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 879,992.26 29.90 0.34 154 6,942,714 JAIZ BANK PLC 20,330.33 0.69 -8.00 39 1,871,937 STERLING BANK PLC. 55,565.51 1.93 -3.50 28 1,183,020 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 203,845.27 7.00 -0.71 21 574,267 UNITY BANK PLC 7,598.07 0.65 - 2 221,282 WEMA BANK PLC. 27,773.62 0.72 -1.37 35 2,817,656 435 25,258,636 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC 4,117.00 0.20 - 0 0 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,989.75 0.72 2.86 22 2,786,529 AXAMANSARD INSURANCE PLC 18,060.00 1.72 1.78 6 529,200 CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC 2,926.80 0.36 -10.00 1 430,000 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 22,820.04 2.20 - 3 7,700 CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC 11,341.72 0.77 2.67 25 4,710,000 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 909.99 0.20 - 0 0 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 1,228.00 0.20 - 1 2,000 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE PLC 487.95 0.38 - 0 0 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 1,977.33 0.27 - 21 2,108,504 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 2,835.58 0.66 - 6 73,000 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 4,080.00 0.51 - 2 20,000 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 2,234.55 0.20 - 0 0 NEM INSURANCE PLC 10,561.01 2.00 - 25 513,145 NIGER INSURANCE PLC 1,547.90 0.20 - 4 279,828 PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC 2,745.10 0.51 - 1 1,000 REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC 1,400.44 0.21 -4.55 49 6,358,500 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 1,834.98 0.22 - 1 13,000 STACO INSURANCE PLC 4,483.72 0.48 - 0 0 STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC. 2,582.21 0.20 - 0 0 SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC. 2,800.00 0.20 - 0 0 UNIC DIVERSIFIED HOLDINGS PLC. 516.46 0.20 - 0 0 UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC 3,200.00 0.20 - 0 0 VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 2,773.33 0.20 - 0 0 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 5,085.44 0.38 8.57 28 4,349,854 195 22,182,260 MICRO-FINANCE BANKS NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 2,538.17 1.11 -7.50 1 100,000 1 100,000

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MORTGAGE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND SERVICES ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 4,200.00 1.00 - 0 0 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 7,370.87 0.50 - 0 0 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 5,796.93 1.39 - 0 0 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 2,265.95 0.20 - 0 0 UNION HOMES SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC. 2,949.22 3.02 - 0 0 0 0 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AFRICA PRUDENTIAL PLC 8,200.00 4.10 -2.15 24 301,840 CUSTODIAN INVESTMENT PLC 35,291.19 6.00 - 7 32,575 DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC 660.00 0.44 - 0 0 FCMB GROUP PLC. 39,803.45 2.01 -0.50 66 7,785,197 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 1,131.98 0.22 4.76 8 804,825 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 419,985.42 40.10 - 12 135,981 UNITED CAPITAL PLC 14,100.00 2.35 -1.67 68 5,107,425 185 14,167,843 816 61,708,739 HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS EKOCORP PLC. 1,994.40 4.00 -1.72 7 109,939 UNION DIAGNOSTIC & CLINICAL SERVICES PLC 781.69 0.22 -8.33 4 398,500 11 508,439 MEDICAL SUPPLIES MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 494.58 0.50 - 1 760 1 760 PHARMACEUTICALS EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 366.17 0.50 - 0 0 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 7,823.85 3.75 - 7 117,211 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC. 6,816.50 5.70 -9.52 48 1,178,968 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 3,536.73 2.05 4.59 8 215,732 NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC 1,386.38 0.73 8.96 40 1,546,319 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 556.71 3.62 - 0 0 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 325.23 1.50 - 0 0 103 3,058,230 115 3,567,429 COMPUTER BASED SYSTEMS COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC 888.00 0.25 4.17 12 2,021,045 12 2,021,045 COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS OMATEK VENTURES PLC 1,470.89 0.50 - 0 0 0 0 IT SERVICES CWG PLC 6,413.06 2.54 - 0 0 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 486.00 4.50 - 0 0 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 316.77 0.64 - 0 0 0 0 PROCESSING SYSTEMS CHAMS PLC 1,831.46 0.39 -7.14 126 18,920,157 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 9,996.00 2.38 - 0 0 126 18,920,157 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AIRTEL AFRICA PLC 1,123,311.48 298.90 0.03 3 173,315 3 173,315 141 21,114,517 BUILDING MATERIALS BERGER PAINTS PLC 2,173.68 7.50 - 4 11,089 CAP PLC 17,010.00 24.30 0.41 31 821,782 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 249,726.52 19.00 - 7 22,755 MEYER PLC. 313.43 0.59 - 0 0 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC 1,769.32 2.23 - 0 0 PREMIER PAINTS PLC. 1,156.20 9.40 - 0 0 42 855,626 ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2,256.91 2.09 - 0 0 CUTIX PLC. 2,536.30 1.44 8.27 9 332,027 9 332,027 PACKAGING/CONTAINERS BETA GLASS PLC. 26,898.49 53.80 - 0 0 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 388.02 9.10 - 0 0 0 0 AGRO-ALLIED & CHEMICALS NOTORE CHEMICAL IND PLC 100,754.14 62.50 - 0 0 0 0 51 1,187,653 CHEMICALS B.O.C. GASES PLC. 2,547.42 6.12 - 3 2,345 3 2,345 METALS ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 1,781.64 8.10 - 1 500 1 500 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC 852.39 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 PAPER/FOREST PRODUCTS THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 83.60 0.38 - 1 225 1 225 5 3,070 ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC 1,315.17 0.21 -4.55 35 3,713,579 35 3,713,579 INTEGRATED OIL AND GAS SERVICES OANDO PLC 43,509.94 3.50 -9.09 77 1,737,472 77 1,737,472 PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTORS 11 PLC 53,332.04 147.90 - 5 8,385 CONOIL PLC 12,838.11 18.50 - 18 95,986 ETERNA PLC. 3,651.61 2.80 - 13 462,957 FORTE OIL PLC. 23,574.91 18.10 - 67 307,104 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 4,663.23 15.30 - 7 2,709 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 37,652.97 110.90 - 18 18,026 128 895,167 ADVERTISING AFROMEDIA PLC 1,598.06 0.36 - 0 0 0 0 AIRLINES MEDVIEW AIRLINE PLC 17,551.17 1.80 - 0 0 0 0 AUTOMOBILE/AUTO PART RETAILERS R T BRISCOE PLC. 270.56 0.23 - 1 100 1 100 COURIER/FREIGHT/DELIVERY RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2,623.26 4.45 - 11 40,500 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 421.96 0.90 5.88 4 442,540 15 483,040 HOSPITALITY TANTALIZERS PLC 642.33 0.20 - 0 0 0 0 HOTELS/LODGING CAPITAL HOTEL PLC 4,259.15 2.75 - 0 0 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 2,598.50 1.25 - 0 0 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. 7,862.53 3.50 - 0 0 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 41,042.18 5.40 - 0 0 0 0 MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 4,800.00 0.40 - 0 0 0 0 PRINTING/PUBLISHING ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 223.78 0.37 - 0 0 LEARN AFRICA PLC 972.03 1.26 - 0 0 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 1,183.82 1.99 - 1 198 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 629.86 1.46 - 1 6,900 2 7,098 ROAD TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC 679.66 0.41 - 1 5,000 1 5,000 SPECIALTY INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 757.44 3.20 - 0 0 SECURE ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY PLC 1,126.31 0.20 - 0 0 0 0

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news

IoD to strengthen corporate governance in Self-regulation, agency capitalisation, constitution of APCON Nigeria - Abuja chairman Council seen as solutions to grow Nigeria’s ad industry BusinessDay recalls that Tony Ailemen, Abuja

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buja branch of the Institute of Directors (IoD) says it is embarking on developing a fresh approach to strengthening good corporate governance practice in Nigeria through robust welfare for its members.

The Institute also reveals that it is working on getting Charter status for its membership, as well as leveraging its highly valued reputation to attract stronger support and patronage from the public sector.

At the investiture of the first female chairman and 8th executive council members in Abuja branch, the IoD notes it will mobilise to ensure the passage of the necessary legislation that will ensure that its members are chartered.

The first female chairman of the body, Edith Aguele, told BusinessDay in Abuja that under her leadership, “getting Chartered, aggressive membership drive as well as enhanced members welfare” would be major priorities.

the bill that seeks to grant IoD charter status was passed in 2018, but did not get presidential ascent.

IoD Nigeria is an affiliate of the IoD of the United Kingdom (UK), which was founded in 1903. While IoD UK is fully chartered, their Nigeria affiliate has been struggling with plans to get the status.

For Aguele, “Getting the Charter status means a lot to us. It will obviously add value to what we are doing by enhancing training and development.

“We want to ensure that you cannot sign documents unless you are Chartered, because for us, the success of any company depends on the quality of its leadership and the decisions the directors and employees make.”

She also called for stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors as the body was eager to help in shaping public policy initiatives for better economic opportunities for teeming Nigeria youths

Daniel Obi

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ractitioners in Nigeria’s advertising industry gathered Tuesday in Abuja where they took critical selfassessment of the profession with far-reaching suggestions to tackle the numerous challenges confronting the industry.

The solutions they arrived at include: urgent re-constitution of APCON council, adequate capitalisation of agencies in the industry, mergers and acquisitions to guarantee bigger firms, and collaborations within the industry.

The maiden national advertising conference initiated

by Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), with representatives from all sectoral groups, is concerned about the non-appointment of APCON council by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government for about six years, a development that impedes the industry growth.

The forum, with over 400 delegates, notes that the less attention government is paying to the industry makes it mulls the idea of taking its fate in its hands by adopting self-regulation to grow the industry.

Opening discussion at the forum, the CEO of APCON, Ijedi Iyoha, who is driving the body in spite of the absence of a council, solicited for more perceptive support, encouragement and partnership of various levels of government with the private sector in the advert business.

“The advertising profession is essential bridge which requires no dichotomy between public and private sector. The intensification of promotional policies by government for this profession will translate to immeasurable boost in the economy,” she said.

According to Iyoha, Nigeria is a destination to reckon with in investment in Africa, as “we have the desired market for every business and this market comes the need for advertising.”

She underscored the contribution of advertising to economic growth, stating that advertising brings positive balance in dealing with nations and people, and hoped the conference with the theme: Advertising in the Post Digital Age: The Profession, The Business and Nigeria’s socioeconomic Development’ would come up with solutions for the industry.

Leading the discussion on the topic, Lolu Akinwunmi, chairman of Prima Garnet, called for immediate reconstitution of APCON council as the apex advertising body had many roles to play in economic growth.

“It was inconceivable that last chairman of APCON was in 2015 and he served a few months before Buhari administration scrapped all boards of parastatals, including APCON. Sadly, APCON has been running without a council since then,” Akinwunmi said.

APCON plays major roles in ensuring that offensive com-

munication is not shared in the public space, he said, as APCON also supervises the programmes in higher institutions and determines and registers higher institutions and practitioners.

Akinwunmi hopes that government resolves what is holding it in appointing the board for APCON to allow the industry function effectively.

The market communication practitioner who took a holistic view of the industry also noted that globally, businesses and professions including advertising industry were facing challenges and more so in Nigeria, as a developing country. “Most of the challenges are related to the profession while others are of general interest,” he said.

Some of the challenges are poor economy, government policies and regulations, multiple taxations, poor and inadequate human resource, and lack of research by agencies, inadequate capitalisation, corruption and industry debt, which is rising.

Order NAFDAC to subject imported drugs to public analysts’ test, IPAN tells FG Seyi John Salau

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n a renewed effort towards implementing stringent measures to ensure quality, standards regulation in the country, the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN) has advised the Federal Government to mandate National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration of Nigeria (NAFDAC) to subject all imported pharmaceutical and chemical products to be tested

by Public Analysts laboratories.

IPAN posited in a communiqué issued after its 28th mandatory Continuous Professional Development Workshop in Lagos recently, that “there are fundamental quality certification lapses in the process of importation of products into the country,” which are inimical not only to the lives of the citizens but also the economy of the country.

It insisted that IPAN was equipped enough for qual-

ity certification of all imported pharmaceutical and chemical products before clearing.

It further recommended that “IPAN with other relevant stakeholders should liaise with the government to establish reference laboratories for solid mineral resources, oil and gas analysis” in the country to enhance adequate local harness and the huge economic benefit of solid mineral resources, oil and gas deposits.

The body further observed that solid minerals sector of the economy, has a “huge potential of creating wealth, job opportunities and economic growth for the nation,” but has not been fully explored by the government due to poor awareness.

It also decried inadequate reference laboratories for solid mineral resources, oil and gas analysis in the country, and advised on the importance of involving Public Analysts in the solid mineral sector.

Winpart, Philips train technician, dealers, motorists on safety, driving comfort MIKE OCHONMA

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inpart Nigeria, a division of CFAO Motors, partners Philips in training dealers, technicians and motorists on modern technologies and innovations in the manufacturing of lighting products in the automotive industry.

Company sources say the new strategic thinking is in line with its commitment to ensuring that international best practices on road safety and vehicle maintenance are adhered to in Nigeria.

The technical training and networking event which had in attendance automotive professionals with the theme; “Knowledge Update on Current Technologies and Future Development in Vehicle

Vision,” which took place at the Mitsubishi showroom in Adeola Odeku Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, harped on genuine concern for safety and driving comfort.

In his opening speech, Thomas Pelletier, managing director, CFAO Nigeria plc, said “CFAO has been committed to delivering value to Nigerian consumers for the past 117 years.”

According to Pelletier, “We are a partner of choice for leading automotive brands and we take road safety seriously. In a bid to address safety issues, we have collaborated with leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make genuine auto parts available to Nigerians in less than two hours through a quick delivery system. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Ore Famurewa, executive director, corporate affairs, FrieslandCampina WAMCO; Mustapha Bello, non-executive director, FCWAMCO; Roel van Neerbos, president consumer dairy, FrieslandCampina Netherlands; Abubakar Sani Bello, governor, Niger State; Ben Langat, managing director, FCWAMCO, and Moyo Ajekigbe, chairman of the board of directors, FCWAMCO, after the company and the state signed a Memorandum of Understanding on dairy development of 10,000 hectares of land in Bobi Grazing Reserve, Niger State, in State House Abuja.

ED, Titan Trust Bank completes PhD

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xecutive director (Business, Operations, IT and Corporate Services) and executive compliance officer, Titan Trust Bank, Adaeze Udensi, bags a Doctorate in Credit Management from the University of Panama, Panama.

A consummate banking professional, Udensi has also successfully completed several Executive Management Programmes in Wharton Business School, Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Business School, and European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD).

With over 23 years of banking experience across Retail, Commercial, Public Sector, e-Business, Private Wealth Management, Credit & Marketing and Business Development, Adaeze Udensi has a deep attestable knowledge of the business market and financial services industry with unrivaled accomplishments

attached to the positions she has managed.

Adaeze Udensi served in different capacities at Zenith Bank where she oversaw the growth of its Oil & Gas, Public Sector, Commercial and Retail Businesses taking it to the second largest portfolio in the bank before leaving as a General Manager in 2014.

Prior to joining Titan, Adaeze Udensi was the executive director in charge of the SouthSouth/South-East Directorate and Executive Compliance Officer for Heritage Bank.

In this position she was also responsible for driving the Retail Business at Heritage Bank across the entire 160 branches in Nigeria.

Adaeze Udensi is a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Scotland; Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration and an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

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Art of Technology Lagos parley bridges gap between government, tech ecosystem KELECHI EWUZIE

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etermined to bridge the gap between government and the technology ecosystem and to co-curate the Lagos Innovation Masterplan, a design thinking talk shop was held in Lagos on Tuesday.

Victor Gbenga Afolabi, curator of Art of Technology Lagos 1.0 and founder of Eko Innovation Centre, while speaking about the event that attracted over 200 people including the deputy governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, said the essence of the parley was to engage government with key players in the tech and private sector.

Afolabi observes that the government has always known that Lagos needs the ecosystem to leapfrog and create that 21st Century economy, adding that Babajide Sanwo-Olu has always talked about turning Lagos into a smart city.

According to him, “The eco@Businessdayng

system also needs to engage with government such that they enjoy the kind of patronage, access and funding that can make them do what they do best which is creating enterprises.”

The talk shop, which was sponsored by the Lagos State Government through the office of the Special Adviser on Innovation and Technology and the Eko Innovation Centre, is a prelude to the Art of Technology 1.0 scheduled December 5 - 6 in Lagos at the Oriental Hotel.

Afolabi noted that the event will feature 4 keynotes, 5 product launches, 20 industry speakers and 1 full start-up funding. The programme is also expected to play host 17 tech hubs, 50 developers, 23 investors, 28 start-ups and over 2000 participants.

Pledging the commitment of government and tech collaboration, Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor, opines that it is the people in the Information and technology space that can change this country.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 28 November 2019

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Emefiele to provide policy direction for 2020 at CIBN bankers’ dinner HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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entral Bank of Nigeria’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, will on Friday provide economic insight into the monetary policy and regulatory direction of the coming year.

Emefiele, who is going to deliver a keynote speech at the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) annual bankers’ dinner, will also assess the current year realities in the financial sector.

Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, Senate president; Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker, House of Representative; Babatunde SanwoOlu, governor, Lagos State, as well as other state governors, are expected to be distinguished guests at the forum.

This year’s dinner promises to be unique as the Organising Committee, under the leadership of the CEO of Union Bank of Nigeria, Emeka Emuwa, has introduced a number of new initiatives to make it memorable and impactful.

The event is expected to celebrate, recognise and impact the industry. Foremost of the paradigm shift from previous editions is the introduction of an Industry Charitable endowment scheme, which will be launched to support high impact initiatives across the country and the institution of Awards to honour deserving individuals and organisations that have exhibited and promoted the values and ideals of

the banking industry.

Being the biggest high-profile social forum annually organized by the Institute for the banking and finance industry, distinguished personalities including captains of industry, top echelons of banks and non-bank institutions, diplomatic missions, top government functionaries, legislators, judiciary, accomplished businessmen, academia and other stakeholders are expected to interact and network under a convivial social setting.

Other top dignitaries expected at the occasion include Ahmed Bola Tinubu, National Leader of Action Progressive Congress ; Aliko Dangote, President/Chairman, Dangote Group; Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Foundation; Bernhard Stephan Schlagheck, German Ambassador to Nigeria; Abhay Thakur, High Commissioner of India; Ms. Catriona Laing British High Commissioner; Umaru Ibrahim, Managing Director/Chief Executive, NDIC; all Deputy Governors and Directors of Central Bank of Nigeria; all Chairmen and Managing Directors/CEOs of banks; Senator Uba Sani, Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions; Victor Nwokolo, Chairman, House Committee on Banking; Wale Tinubu, Chairman, Fortis Oil; Segun Ogunsanya, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Airtel Nigeria Limited, among others.

Edo spends N54bn on roads projects in 2019 - Obaseki IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin

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do State government says it has so far committed N54 billion to construct 101 roads in the 2019 fiscal year across the state.

Governor Godwin Obaseki made the disclosure at the presentation of the 2020 budget proposal of N177,601,812,050 billion to the Edo State House of Assembly, November 13, 2019.

The 2020 budget estimates is made up of N85,539,289,300 billion as recurrent expenditure and N92,062,522,750,72 as capital expenditure, respectively.

The text of the budget exclusively obtained by BusinessDay in Benin City notes that the roads, stretching for 414 kilometres, were constructed by the ministry of infrastructure.

Obaseki also disclosed that a total of 300 roads spanning 212 kilometres were constructed by the Edo State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR) across the state.

The governor listed the roads constructed to include, the ongoing dualisation of Ekehuan Road and construction of Irhirhi- Aruogba-ObazagbonOgheghe road, Ugbor-Amagba Road, St. Saviour Road, BeninAbraka Road with spurs, re-

habilitation of Benin-Iguobazuwa-Ogbese road all in Edo South Senatorial District.

Also, the constructed Agbede-Awain road, Afokpella- Ogriga-Okugbe road with Awuyemi spur, rehabilitation of Secretariat Road, Igarra, Imeke township road, Jattu and Bank road, Agenebode, among others, in Edo North Senatorial District.

Others are rehabilitation of old Agbor Road - Ugbegun, Ekpon-Ubiaja road, Angle 80 Ilushi, Ewohimi-Uselu junction - Okaigben, Opoji-Ugbegun road, Akia round about, reconstruction of Erewele Street, Eguare-Irrua, all in Edo Central Senatorial District.

He however added that the sum of N22,011,922,750,72 billion was proposed for the ministry of infrastructure in the 2020 fiscal year as capital expenditure, while N2 billion was for the State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR).

He also disclosed that N6 billion had been proposed for constituency development programme to be implemented by the State House of Assembly and the ward development committee during the fiscal year.

Fitness Fair introduces wellness packages for Nigerians Bala Augie

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igerians have been urged to take to regular exercise and healthy dieting to improve wellbeing and a healthy lifestyle. This is because committing to a healthy diet can be consider as one of the smartest decisions to be taken, as eating well do not only contribute to making us look good and feel better, it can also save both individuals and corporate some future health costs.

“The beauty is that exercise strengthens not only your muscles but your heart to pump strong and push blood with less beats and your lungs to breathe deeply and supply oxygen better as well as detoxify more efficiently. When you understand choosing life and choosing nutrition, you will be able to eat more of those natural foods and begin to reach for the things that you should eat,” said Uganze Eke, the chief fitness officer/chief consultant of Fitness Fair, a wellness and lifestyle company.

According to Eke, imbalance in the body composition is the cause of various diseases like hypertension, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases.

However, regular monitoring of body fat deposits and muscle mass empowers the body to

understand how strong or weak the body system is.

She stated that a good lifestyle equates work-life balance, beneficial recreation, strong mental resilience and Sleep. “We encourage you to eat healthy foods not diet, exercise by having fun and be empowered by taking charge of your medical conditions head on not in fear or ignorance,” said Eke. Speaking on other packages offered by Fitness Fair, Eke said several special packages have been put together for its round the clock, on the move corporate individuals. She opined that the package is set to improve staff productivity, work attendance, reduction in healthcare cost, improve staff moral and increase employee’ssatisfactionandmore.

Fitness Fair provides healthy food and salad options designed to support busy lifestyles while helping individuals’ maintaining health goals. Membership at the company’s wellness club offers the opportunity to receive free health education and support.

“Let your body heal with needed vitamins and nutrients supplied by our organic freshly made foods daily,” said Eke stating that Fitness Fair aim to take the message of preventive health maintenance and disease prevention to the grassroots.

Business community charged on innovative measures to conserve biodiversity Chuka Uroko

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igeria’s business community has been charged to come up with innovative ideas that will help the country conserve its biodiversity for future purposes.

Sharon Ikeazor, the minister of state for environment, who gave the charge, noted that as the most populous black nation in the world and with government’s renewed desire to catch up with lost opportunities in ensuring sustainable socio-economic development for the citizenry, it is apposite that Nigeria takes advantage and optimally utilise its natural resources without compromising the existence and the ability of unborn generation to meet their own needs.

The minister stated this at the ‘Nigerian Business for Nature Forum’ organised by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), aimed at developing new business strategies for biological conservation in Nigeria.

Ikeazor said the theme of the forum, ‘New Deal for Nature and People’ presupposes that businesses adopt new mechanisms, processes and interactions to improve on how people inter-faced with nature, stating that it aptly captures government’s desire to re-engineer how the people, individually and collectively, relate with nature.

According to Ikeazor, the forum is important to the federal government because it provides opportunities for link-

ages with job creation pillar of the ‘Next Level Agenda’.

“Untapped opportunities for creating jobs in the informal sector, especially as regards our rural communities that live close to our biodiversity, is enormous.

“Similarly, sustainable management and use of biological diversity would also ensure availability of raw materials for SMEs to flourish.

Besides the above, the foreign exchange earning capacity of biological diversity, especially when well linked with tourism needs no further emphasis,” he said.

Philip Asiodu, president, board of trustees, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) in a statement, said forum is a collaborative initiative led by the NCF with support from the ministry of environment, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and BirdLife International.

According to Asiodu, the NCF with its partners decided to organise the forum to discuss how the loss of biodiversity is on the increase with critical consequences and how the private sector can help stem the tide.

“The concept of this forum was premised on the fact that business products, practices, supply chains, and business models can have a major impact on critical areas of biodiversity conservation and that the private sector plays a critical role in determining how biodiversity is used and conserved,” said Asiodu who was represented by Marie Fatayi-Williams. www.businessday.ng

L-R: Soji Awogbade, partner, Aelex; Janet Omisore, director, Togetes Integrated Limited; Oladapo Abiodun, chairman, SME Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Shade Bembamtoum-Young, council member, LCCI; Chinedu Ezenwa, head, chemical technology, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, and Francisca Odega, representing regional coordinator, Nigerian Export Promotion Council at the LCCI SME Group 2019 Annual Seminar in Lagos, yesterday.

Zenith, Union Bank, others collect N8.788bn stamp duties in 4 years ... as Reps order commercial banks to submit list of MDAs operating revenue accounts, FIRS collections James Kwen, Abuja

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ome Commercial Banks including Zenith, Union Bank, Jaiz Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Unity Bank have collected N 8.788 billion stamp duties from January 2016 to November 2019 for the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST).

The Banks released this figure Wednesday when they appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts to provide details on stamp duties collection and bank accounts of Ministries, Departments and

Agencies (MDAs).

Accordingly, Zenith Bank has collected N 7. 412 billion, Jaiz Bank collected N137.89 million, Union Bank collected N452.529 million and Unity Bank collected N616 million during the period under review.

However, First Bank, Heritage Bank and Sun Trust Bank also appeared but could not make presentations regarding the transaction details of the collection of stamp duties and other things demanded by the Committee and appealed for more time to reappear.

Addressing the Banks chief executives, chairman of the

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Committee, Wole Oke, directed them to furnish the Committee with the comprehensive list of MDAs still operating revenue collection and expenditure accounts with commercial banks in violation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The Committee particularly fingered revenue generating agencies such as: Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria; Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation; Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System; Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit;, Nigerian Export Import Bank, and Nigerian Collateral Register, @Businessdayng

who appear to be operating accounts with Commercial Banks.

Oke stated that the Accountant General of the Federation, during an interactive session with the committee disclosed that only Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) are exempted from the TSA policy.

He also directed the banks to furnish the Committee with details concerning their collection of 1% revenue on behalf of contracts during the period under review when they would be appearing in one week’s time.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

news

Lagos tasks AIDS agency to track 60,000 untreated HIV victims

JOSHUA BASSEY

… as state presents 2018 impact survey

agos State government is on the trail of about 60,000 people that tested positive to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) but did not go back for treatment.

Governor Babajide SanwoOlu charged the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA) to find the individuals for immediate antiretroviral therapy.

The governor gave the charge, Wednesday,attheinaugurationof the state’s HIV consortium group held at Radisson Blu Anchorage HotelonVictoriaIsland.Theevent also featured the formal dissemination of disaggregated Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS).

According to Sanwo-Olu, the HIV victims were diagnosed of the virus but not captured in the state’s HIV response database. He said the search for the individuals was to enable the state administer adequate antiretroviral treatment on them and prevent the spread of the deadly disease, as one of the key healthcare goals of his administration was to reduce the number of new HIV infections and help victims manage the trauma in line with best practice.

He disclosed that his govern-

ment, since inception, had sustaineddeploymentofresourcesto fight AIDS through LSACA, leveragingamulti-sectoralapproachto achieve prevention and control.

He said: “Lagos State government and its partners have worked and sacrificed resources to achieve the level of awareness that have significantly changed the behaviour of our people. This is evidenced by the reduction in the prevalence rate which currently stands at 1.4 percent.

“Although, the current prevalence rate shows a reduction, it is still a source of concern when we consider the actual number of people within the bracket. There is therefore the need for us to step up our efforts to achieve a further reduction in the prevalence rate through aggressive public enlightenment campaign, which must be taken to the nooks and crannies of the state.”

The governor said his government had strengthened its commitment towards achieving the “90’90’90 Goals” of the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), pointing out that the health and environment pillar of his administration’s development agenda, known as

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project T.H.E.M.E.S, would be implemented to prepare Lagos in achieving the goals by 2030.

Theapproachbeingdeployed, the governor noted, would be multi-sectoralandfocusedonimproving the health system service delivery, scaling-up community response and maintaining sustained support of programmes.

He said: “This approach will concentrate on communities and their structures which have been at the forefront of the HIV response at the global, national and state levels; reaching out to people with prevention, care and support as well as treatment; promoting human rights and dealing with gender issues.”

He said the purpose of inaugurating the Lagos State HIV consortium group was to provide a platform for stakeholders to collaborate and coordinate a sustainedandimprovedresponse towards achieving the 90’90’90 target in Lagos.“Let us voluntarily present ourselves at designated centres to know our HIV status.

Being HIV positive is no longer a death sentence as people living with HIV/AIDS will be supported with necessary medication to live a normal life.”

Raw material index drives manufacturing PMI 59.3 points expansion HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

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he Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) of the manufacturing sector expanded by 59.3 points in November from 58.2 index points in the preceding month, driven by raw materials inventory.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday released the PMI report, which showed that production level, new orders, supplier delivery time, employment level and raw materials inventories grew at a faster rate in November 2019.

The raw materials/WIP inventory of the sector grew for the 32nd consecutive month in November 2019 to 60.6 points, as the index grew at a faster rate when compared to its level of 58.6 points in October 2019.

The manufacturing PMI

expanded for the 32nd consecutive months. The report revealed that 13 out of the 14 surveyed subsectors reported growth in the review month.

These include transportation equipment; petroleum and coal products; furniture and related products; electrical equipment; plastics and rubber products; food, beverage and tobacco products; nonmetallic mineral products; printing and related support activities; cement; fabricated metal products; primary metal; chemical and pharmaceutical products; and textile, apparel, leather and footwear.

The paper products subsector recorded decline in the review period.

Interestingly, the manufacturing sector was favoured in the banks’ credit to private

sector as the sector received N459.69 billion, the highest in two decades.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN, said on Tuesday that growth in credit to the private sector, improved to 13.08 per cent in October 2019 from 12.49 per cent in the previous month, reflecting the impact of the Bank’s recent policy on loan-to-deposit ratio. An increase in absolute gross credit, amounting to N1.2 trillion, was recorded between end-May and end-October 2019.

Production level index for manufacturing sector grew for the 33rd consecutive month to 60.1 index points in November 2019. The index indicated a faster growth in the current month, when compared to its level 59.3 points in October 2019.

Obaseki to swear-in new SAs, SSAs today

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do State governor, Godwin Obaseki, will today swear-in his newly appointed Special Assistants and Senior Special Assistants.

In a statement, Crusoe Osagie, special adviser to the governor on media and communication strategy, says the swearing-in ceremony will hold at the New Era College Hall, at Upper Mission Road, in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

He says the newly appointed Special Assistants and Senior Special Assistants are expected to be seated by 9:30, as the event will commence by 10am prompt.

According to the statement, “It is hereby announced for the information of the general public that the swearing-in ceremony for newly appointed Special Assistants and Senior Special

Assistants by the Executive Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, will hold on Thursday, November 28, at New Era College Hall, in

Upper Mission Road.

“Guests are expected to be seated at 9.30 as the event will commence by 10am prompt.”

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

Garden City Business Digest Secret key revealed to Niger Delta youths:

Turn that thing you love doing into a business and earn money – Shell-trained entrepreneur and CEO, Mercy Ikeji Ignatius Chukwu

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he is young and enterprising, but that was not how she was before Shell’s LiveWIRE scheme caught up with her years ago. She knew how to sew quite already but she was aspiring to get into the university and study accounting when LiveWIRE happened on her in Port Harcourt. She came tops in the entrepreneurship training and got some seed capital to try her hands but exploded like a oil bean seed. Soon, many funding agencies local and international saw her prowess and boosted her businesses.

Today, Mercy Ikeji tells Rivers youths and others anywhere thus: “Look inward and find out that thing you can do and do well, and use it to make money. You can develop an enterprise from any skill you have; turn it into a business.

Instead of waiting endlessly for paid employment, establish yours. Unemployment is not a Nigerian problem, it’s a global challenge.

Look inward and build that skill you have.

You can make money from it and help others to get jobs.”

She went on in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay: “If you have a business, you cannot work again. You have reduced unemployment. Those working for me now will no longer join the queue of unemployed people.

Instead of hanging around wasting time looking for white collar job, you can develop your business and add value to yourself and your country. There is no time to waste. Everybody should get up and look for that thing inside you and start doing that thing you love doing.

Turn it into an enterprise and help yourself.”

Strong words!

Ikeji, a young mother, is the CEO of Dezionite Interiors and General Services, a limited liability company focused on professional cleaning services and interior decoration.

They clean houses, companies, hotels and

Mercy Ikeji

also furnish them with curtains, bedspreads, wall papers, etc.

She is also the founder/president of Dezionite Helping Hand Devt Initiative, an NGO founded to specifically handle enterprise development in the Niger Delta and Nigeria.

“What led me into establishing this outfit (NGO) is because from own life story I started from nothing to where I am today. I was helped. I received so many opportunities such as the Livewire, Tony Elumelu and Groffin funds. I was able to access these funds because I had some knowledge but a lot of others do not have this. They are basically challenged by funds, how to get grants. I am an accountant by profession and I have experience in this area. So I had to set up an NGO to help other Nigerians struggling to access funds.

“I help them prepare business plans and help them process them at the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks, using my accounting profession and experience. The NGO is targeted at handling this problems for entrepreneurs,

which is finance; access to business finance. We have been able to access funding severally from the BoI, and the bank deemed it necessary to accredit me as one of the consultants in the name of Business Development Service Consultant.

So, Dezionite Helping Hand Initiative (with me as Mercy Ikeji) is accredited consultant to the BoI to help entrepreneurs access business funding.”

On what actually she does to help people access funds, Ikeji said: “We first organize workshops to explain to people the different kinds of funding available. A lot of entrepreneurs do not even know that some monies have been set aside for them. We tell people how to apply and go through the process of application. We help people. We put you through all the conditions which most people do not know. Even if they know there is money in BoI, but they may not know the documents required. We help them prepare bankable business plans that will be accepted anywhere in the world.

“As accredited consultants, we also help them process the loans and we certify the processing. It is to help entrepreneurs. We have been successful in getting people to get loans especially businesses in Lagos, PH, Enugu, Warri and Ugheli. They have received their offer letters and some have started drawing down. We have had outstanding results in doing this as the BoI can confirm. Over 14 persons have accessed loans in PH alone. As people access loans, more people show interest. Some persons who were known to be struggling now become points of envy. When people ask them, they tell their stories, thus raising more awareness.’

Dezionite is not involved in loan recovery because the banks have their mechanism for this. Her outfit only offers business support mentoring so they can appreciate the sensitivity of loans. It is the responsibility of the banks and BoI to collect their loans back.

Hope for rural entrepreneurs Ikeji revealed several packages on the way to

helping entrepreneurs based in the rural areas.

She mentioned access through the microfinance banks and other sources. She said they are still in the process of working with this out with the BoI because they are still trying to develop their own MFBs targeting the rural areas. “We are developing cooperatives that can access funds from the organizations and give to rural people in the communities, especially the low income individuals. We are setting up financing cooperative societies to grow them to a MFB.” The financial secretary of past beneficiaries of Live WIRE said they still meet and share ideas and encourage new beneficiaries. On what motivated her into writing two books at same time on entrepreneurship, Ikeji said she discovered that a lot of young business people do not know what they wanted. They do not know that these monies are available. “The first book (Developing Your Enterprise) has a robust list of funding organizations (up to 41 places) that entrepreneurs can get money from so that people who cannot come to our seminars can get money for their businesses through these books. Also, how you can grow your business and get funds.

“It is not every business that banks can fund.

There are things they are looking for such as registration, corporate account, and correct records. These are clearly stated in the books including the BoI and CBN loans. The second book (Bankable Business Plans) is very vital because without a business plan, you can never get a loan or grant. It is one of the major documents any organization will ask for. You must be prepared to submit a well written plan. In the second book, I did a step by step template on how to business plan that have succeeded in attracting loans. They are bankable business plans. I have not seen any book that directly addresses this gap especially funding lists and templates and steps plus examples of business plans. I decided to put these there to fill that gap for entrepreneurs.”

ALEM’s Eugene Ogu insists on God’s blueprint for men and churches Port Harcourt

by Boat

IGNATIUS CHUKWU

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hat do men do; their will or their Father’s will. As far as a strict man of God, Eugene Ogu, the General Overseer (GO) of Abundant Life Evangelical Mission (ALEM), is concerned, most men and even churches these days do their own wills whereas God has a blueprint of how every single thing should be done.

The critical area is whether man should build more of churches or build Christ in the hears of men. Put another way, he wants to know whether churches should erect giant buildings and huge congregations or do more of intervening in the lives of the poor.

To him, God has a blueprint and those who claim to follow Him should always walk along the blueprint. Inquiring to know every blueprint is the hallmark of spirituality upon which the Christian faith is built. Hmmm.

A major example of failure of Christendom in Nigeria is the huge presence of refuges in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the North-East zone of the country. He sees the refugees as fellow Christians fleeing from Boko Haram, people of another faith being antagonized for being Christians. The least the rest Christians would do is to pick two persons and look after as sacrifice for the faith. Instead, most churches vote billions to compete in who has the biggest alter or edifice or jets.

Ogu disclosed this last Sunday when the 2019 Press Week Committee of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Rivers State, paid him a courtesy visit at the church’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.

He said: “Why must any Christian be in the IDP camp. If every church in this country decides to take two persons each out of the IDP camps, we will not have any Christians left in the camps.”

The cleric stated that as a Church, ALEM is taking care of several victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East through the con-

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struction of schools and provision of water. Even right in the PH headquarters of the church, there are some northerners living there.

Ogu further stated that children of 1,500 widows are enjoying the Church’s scholarship programme up to University level in the South-

ALEM’s Eugene Ogu

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East and South-South zones of the country.

He commended the Correspondents’ Chapel of the NUJ for finding it worthy to organise thanksgiving service at the end of the year.

The cleric said: “We appreciate people who know that God deserves to be thanked. It is one aspect of Christian life a lot us people undermine. If this country will change, some of you, journalists, must be courageous to speak the truth. God has a blueprint for everything He does but we always jettison it.”

During the church service, the apostle harped on showing gratitude to God saying many do not behave like the one leper that came back to thank God. He said showing appreciation is key to unlocking heaven.

Earlier in his remarks, Chairman of the 2019 Press Week Committee, Ignatius Chukwu, said the purpose of the committee’s visit was to request for the approval of the Church to host the end of year thanksgiving service of the Correspondents’ Chapel. Chukwu made it clear that the Correspondents look carefully before adopting any church to associate with.

He said their scanning had revealed that ALEM stands out in certain areas and would host the exercise and work further with the Chapel even after the thanksgiving Sunday. It is important to apply this key.

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Investing in Rivers State RIRS, Access Bank partner to drive Rivers informal sector tax collection • Bank donates 10 buses to RIRS but governor wants more • For sake of IGR, Gov Wike approves TSA • Branded kiosks coming as Access ready to back any RIRS initiative Ignatius Chukwu

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frica’s largest bank, Access Bank, has entered into partnership with the Rivers State Inland Revenue Service (RIRS) to boost the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) which the Joint Tax Board 2019 half year report put at N12.7Bn per month.

Access, which after the merger with Diamond Bank in April 2019 emerged as one the biggest banks in Nigeria by in terms of assets, loans, deposits and branch network, demonstrated the collaboration by donating 10 new buses to the RIRS for the purpose of deepening the new initiative called Informal Sector Tax Drive.

The buses were handed to the Rivers State Government right in the Brick House in the presence of Gov Nyesom Wike who asked for more buses, saying the state deserved more going by the volume of business the bank controls in the oil-rich state.

L-R: Adoage Norteh of RIRS and David Tinat of Access Bank

The Head, Government Revenue Collections, Access Bank Plc, David Tinat, who handed the buses de-

scribed it as a great opportunity and honour to partner with the RIRS to move into the informal sector. He

told BusinessDay in a brief chat that the bank was willing to support the state government in any meaningful programme especially in IGR efforts.

He said the bank would go all the way with the Rivers State government in any meaningful initiative. Without committing the bank on donating more buses, Tinat said the RIRS was going into erection of branded kiosks all over the state and promised that Access would back the scheme.

In his opening remarks, the executive chairman of the RIRS, Adoage Norteh, made it clear that whatever the measure, that the agency put ease of doing business ahead any other thing. He said the agency had tailored its operations in line with the governor’s directive to boost IGR without disrupting businesses.

He said this underlined the approaches adopted by the RIRS to secure the understanding and buyin of the business community and has since the past one year engaged the informal sector groups as well as organized groups such as PHCCIMA, NBA, MAN, Petroleum Marketers,

Former FUTO VC urges his Ngor Okpala people to use politics to unlock development

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ormer Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), the professor, Jude Njoku, has asked all Ngor Okpala people of Imo State to wake up to the political and economic realities of the country. He has urged them to think again about politics and use it to unlock the development of their area.

The academic said continuing to see politics as dirty would be a costly disposition and urged his people to capture political power to drive the economic acceleration of the area. He also charged them to embrace peace and unity to enable them achieve both political

and economic development.

He spoke in Port Harcourt on Saturday, 23rd November 2019 at the 30th anniversary celebration of Ngor Okpala Patroitic Union (NOPU) held at the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA).

“There is a strong relationship between unity, progress and development. We all know the popular saying ‘United we stand, but divided we fall” he said.

Njoku continued: “It is also clear that with unity, there will be peace, and peace is a precondition for progress.” The professor, who is a son of Ngor Okpala, noted that the LGA has been lagging behind in the scheme of things, especially

political development.

He attributed this backwardness to lack of peace and unity among the political elite as well as the indifference of some eminent sons and daughters Ngor Okpala to politics.

“They have this notion that politics is a dirty game and therefore prefer their comfort zones. This is a wrong approach. Let our good people come out and change the narrative for good,” he said “I urge all of us not to look away from politics anymore. The time is over when people kept off from politics, regarding it as a dirty game. Politics is dirty because decent people like you have kept off

President of NOPU, Peter Nwachukwu, Chidinma Nworgu, HRH Eze Eze Fred Nwachukwu, his wife and Jossy Nkwocha www.businessday.ng

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trade unions, etc. He said: “The result has been positive. Today, Access Bank Plc is ready to support the government. The organised sector (OPS) is participating already, but most informal sector people are not paying.

It is a huge task to collect taxes from the informal sector people, because it is difficult to know them.”

Norteh suggested the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in Rivers State to block leakages, saying the RIRS is ready to optimize this.

Responding, Gov Wike approved the TSA system saying it was wrong for the state to have over 40 bank accounts. He said he would have no obstacle implementing the TSA because nobody sponsored him in the election and nobody would thus demand for control of any revenue operation as compensation.

Wike hoped that the IGR would stop fluctuations and increase by 50 per cent. He regretted that only the organized private sector (OPS) alone was bearing the tax weight in the state, but admitted that the coming of the informal sector would create impact.

Elizabeth JackRich Aid Foundation trains 1100 female entrepreneurs, doles out N112.4m to beneficiaries all over Nigeria

and abandoned it to those they consider dirty”.

Chairman of the anniversary organising committee, Jossy Nkwocha PhD and the President of NOPU, the engineer, Peter Nwachukwu, had earlier set the tone for Njoku’s keynote address.

Both of them had called for concerted efforts to move Ngor Okpala forward.

The event attracted political leaders, royal fathers, religious leaders, the academia, captains of industry, women and youths. Phil Ukaegbu, a prominent Port Harcourt based medical doctor, son of Ngor Okpala, was chairman of the occasion.

Theodore Okwu Ejike Ekechi (TOE), Board member, North East Development Commission, was there as well as business moguls Okenze Ken Agbiriogu and a top chief, Val Okere, the Amadioha of Ngor Okpala. The chairman of Ngor Okpala Traditional rulers Council, HRH Geoffrey Okoro, and the Eze of Ngor Autonomous community, Fred Nwachukwu, were there in their royal splendour.

Another highlight of the event was award of honour to founding fathers of NOPU including the royal fathers and Okenze Emy Nkwota. President of NOPU, Peter Nwachukwu, was quite elated about the huge success of the event.

Ngor Okpala born music maestro Chimuanya and his men were at the music stand to keep the audience on their feet. @Businessdayng

Ignatius Chukwu

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total of 1100 women around Nigeria have been lifted out of poverty by the Belemaoil-backed Elizabeth JackRich Aid Foundation who gave out a tN112.4m to the female entrepreneurs.The women began two weeks training in various skills such as Fish Farming, Poultry, Catering, Computer Appreciation, Hair Dressing, Make-Up, Bead Making Designs, Leather Work and Hand Crafts. fish farming, poultry, catering, bead-making, make-up, etc in Port Harcourt and Abuja. They graduated last week in both centres only to run into N100,000 each with a disabled participant carting home N2m. Some outstanding ones got N200,000 to go start their businesses.

The scheme is said to be in a bid to improve the economic wellbeing of families in Nigeria. Thus, the nongovernmental organization (NGO), the Elizabeth Jack-Rich Aid Foundation, flagged off the Entrepreneurship Training and Economic Empowerment Programme.

The Scheme was flagged-off in Abuja on Monday 11th November with 500 beneficiaries covering indigent persons from the Federal Capital Territory and the northern region as well as in Port-Harcourt on Tuesday 12th November 2019 with 600 beneficiaries covering local communities in Rivers State and other parts of the Niger Delta. They graduated last week.

The founder of the Elizabeth JackRich Aid Foundation, Elizabeth JackRich said the programme is aimed at eradicating poverty and taking women off the street.

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

cityfile Kano to upgrade Challawa Water Works

K L-R: Samson Adetola, corporate administration, STL TRUSTEES; Folasade Ademokunwa, head, business development, STL TRUSTEES; Oko Mba, head, account and operations, STL TRUSTEES; Oluwatosin Olowoyeye-Taiwo, founder, Street to School Initiative; Funmi Ekundayo, MD/CEO, STL TRUSTEES; Olufela Ifeoluwa, head, teacher training unit, Street to School Initiative,

ICPC partners banks on anti-corruption fight in Oyo, Ogun REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

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he Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) is to collaborate with banks operating in Ogun and Oyo States in the anticorruption fight.

Stephen Pimor, ICPC commissioner for Oyo and Ogun offices, stated this in Ibadan during the commission’s recent meeting with compliance officers of c o m m e rc i a l b a n k s i n Oyo State.

Pimor said that the commission had facilitated the collaborative meeting to ensure smooth operations in its anti corruption war, describing banks as being critical in the corruption war.

“Commercial banks are very critical stakeholders in the fight against corruption.

When people steal money, the first place they think of taking it is the bank” It is after keeping it in the bank that they will move it to the second bus-stop which is to invest in properties and other things.

‘So, you can see that the banks are very important stakeholders in the fight against corruption. We cannot do without them. It is that strategic position they occupy in the anticorruption war that is making us to parley with them and we hope that the parley would b e p r o d u c t i v e ,” s a i d Primor.

The ICP C commissioner added that the

collaborative meeting with the bank officers would also facilitate smooth execution of their assignments.

“Now that we are talking together to overcome areas that m a y c a u s e h i c c u p, I think it will facilitate t h e re s p o n s e t i m e o f our activities too,” he said.

Elijah Adegboye, zonal head of compliance for one of the commercial banks, said t h a t I C P C w a s i n t e rested in bringing compliance officers in the banks together to forge a harmonious working relationship.

According to him, the essence of the meeting was to collaborate and discuss areas where there had been challenges in their rela-

tionship with the commission.

Adegboye said that they were able to share their challenges w ith the commission and affirmed their support in the fight against corruption.

“I believe that goi ng f o r wa rd , s o m e o f the reference in our relationship would be smoothened.

“We now know ourselves by name and the agents of the commission as well as compliance agents of the banks. By this interact i o n o u r w o r k i n g re lationship is going to improve from now” he said.

The session was attended by compliance o f f i c e r s f ro m va r i ou s commercial banks operating in Oyo State.

Court sentences parents for selling 2-month-old baby

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Wus e Zone 6 C h i e f Mag i s trate Court, Abuja, has sentenced 20-year Stanley Sunday and his girlfriend, Onyinyechi Ikechukwu to 20 days imprisonment for selling their two-month son for N300, 000.

The convicts, who are residents of Idu, Karmo, Abuja, were arraigned on a count charge of selling of a minor for unlawful purpose.

The y b oth pleade d guilty to the offence and urged the court to temper justice with mercy.

The prosecution counsel, Adama Musa told the court on Tuesday that one Nasiru Tukur, an Inspector of Police, attached to Railway Police Station, Idu, Karmo reported the matter at Karmo Police Station on July 9.

According to Musa, Tukur broke the case opened when neighwww.businessday.ng

bours of the convicts came to make the complaint that their neighbours’ baby suddenly disappeared and when they asked the parents for the whereabouts of the baby, they could not o f f e r a n y re a s o n a b l e answers.

The prosecutor further said that the neighbours at this point suspected that the parents had sold the baby.

He added that during police investigation, the

convicts confessed that they sold their baby to one Chioma Ubor who is currently at large, for the sum of N300,000.

Musa also said that the offence contravened the provision of Section 278 of the Penal code.

The chief magistrate, Ahmed Ndajiwo therefore, sentenced the convicts. He, however, gave them the option to pay N3,000 each as fine.

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ano State government is to upgrade Challawa Water Works in Kano metropolis, aimed at boosting water supply in the state.

Ameen Yasar, the director general, media and public relations’ at the Government House, disclosed this in a statement.

“The project when completed will help improve the living condition of more than 1.5 million people residing within the greater Kano axis, by enhancing their access to potable drinking water,” he said.

According to Yasar, the project would be executed with development support from Agence Franchise de Development, AFD of France.

He said Governor Abudullahi Ganduje, met with officials of the organisation during his official trip to Paris, France, to finalise arrangements for

accessing the development support, explaining that the project would also ensure the installation of meters in residential buildings in the metropolis.

“The installation of the meters will help us to increase our internally generated revenue, reduce wastage and improve sustainability of public water supply system.

“Currently, potable water supply in the state is facing serious challenges because of obsolete water infrastructure, rapid urbanisation, population growth and imperatives of development, among others,” he said.

The official explained that the upgrade project would entail provision of modern infrastructure, replacement of old pipes and extension of reticulation to places where pipe borne water was not available.

Bank employees charged with N1.5m theft

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wo employees of micro finance bank have been charged before an Ogudu Magistrate Court in Lagos over alleged N1.5 million theft from their employee.

The defendants, Deborah Williams, 23 and Damilare Giwa, 24, both resident in Gbagada, Lagos State, however, pleaded not guilty to the twocount of conspiracy and stealing.

The prosecutor, Lucky Ihiehie, said that the defendants stole from RIC Microfinance Bank on October 16 at the bank’s Gbagada branch.

Ihiehie said that the defendants defrauded the bank of the said amount,

adding that he scam was discovered in October.

“During the October auditing, it was discovered that money was missing.

“All the staff members in the department, where the money was missing, were arrested.

“After much interrogation, the two defendants were arrested,’’ he said.

He said that the offences contravened Sections 287(7) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The magistrate, Ejiro Ku b e i n j e, g ra nt e d t h e workers bail in the sum of N200, 000 each with two sureties each in like sum.

Kubeinje adjourned the case until December 10 for mention. NAN

NGO to build life-afterstroke centre in Aba GODFREY OFURUM, Aba

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ealth Development Initiative (HDI), an Aba based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has announced plans to set up a “Life-after -stroke Centre” in Aba, to increase awareness on stroke, strengthen services for stroke prevention, control, and ensure that survivors are up again after a stroke. @Businessdayng

Nancy Onwueyi, coordinator, Health Development Initiative, disclosed this to Cityfile in Aba, during a 3-day stroke awareness campaign, organised by her NGO to mark this year’s world stroke day.

She advised Nigerians to eat healthy, check their blood pressure and sugar level, avoid stress and exercise regularly for at-least 30 minutes, daily, to avoid stroke.

Thurssday 28 November 2019

FT

BUSINESS DAY

FINANCIAL TIMES

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World Business Newspaper Mehreen Khan

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rsula von der Leyen’s incoming European Commission has won the backing of a clear majority of MEPs, allowing her new Brussels executive to start work on December 2.

The European parliament on Wednesday approved the new team of commissioners, known as the college, by 461 votes in favour, with 157 against and 89 abstentions. The necessary majority was bigger than expected and easily surpassed the nineseat margin that enabled Ms von der Leyen to be confirmed as the commission’s next president in her own confirmation vote in July.

Ms von der Leyen and her 26 commissioners will take office from next Monday, a month later than planned, after delays caused by MEPs’ rejection of an unprecedented three candidates during more than six weeks of hearings.

The former German defence minister will succeed JeanClaude Juncker. She has promised to run a “geopolitical” commission and will unveil her first landmark climate policy package in the next two weeks.

Von der Leyen’s Brussels team wins approval from MEPs

Next president of European Commission to push package of green measures

Ursula von der Leyen: ‘The European Green Deal is a must for the health of our planet and our people — and for our economy’ © Reuters

Ms von der Leyen’s commission won the backing of the parliament’s three biggest groups — the centre-right conservatives, social democrats, and

Florida acts to tackle serious threat from flooding and rising sea levels

Tech-heavy exchange last topped rival’s listings haul seven years ago

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asdaq’s listings business is on course to eclipse that of bitter rival the New York Stock Exchange for just the second year since the dotcom bubble.

The Times Square-based exchange raised $32bn across 153 initial public offerings in the first 11 months of the year, outpacing the $26bn in 46 listings for NYSE, according to Dealogic data.

Nasdaq last surpassed the NYSE in 2012. Before that, the technology-heavy exchange had failed to edge ahead of the “Big Board” since 2000, during the giddy highs of the internet boom.

Nasdaq’s dominance for the year has upended the usual state of play in one of the most cut-throat rivalries on Wall Street. NYSE typically raises the biggest sum in IPO proceeds by securing the larger deals, while Nasdaq soaks up a greater number of smaller listings.

The contest has “always been intense”, said Nelson Griggs, president of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. “Every single deal we fight for and for a larger IPO it’s a bigger fight.”

Column chart of IPO proceeds by exchange ($bn) showing Nasdaq heading for rare win over NYSE Nasdaq secured two of the topfive listings, including the thirdlargest of the year for ride-hailing company Lyft. But the exchange lost out on the two largest deals to NYSE, with the top spot going

Billy Nauman

to Uber, which raised $8bn when it went public in May. Uber’s decision to list on the NYSE came a decade after the exchange dropped a policy that blocked lossmaking companies from listing — a move designed to weaken Nasdaq’s grip on the tech sector.

Over the past few decades Nasdaq has attracted the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook, which now form the largest companies by market capitalisation in the S&P 500 index.

Now a new front is emerging in this battle between the New York bourses. Nasdaq raised $4.7bn from biotech IPOs in the year to date, around 15 per cent of its total, while NYSE secured none. But in a move designed to attract biotech groups, NYSE cut listing fees by 75 per cent in May and capped them at $100,000 over three years for businesses with less than $5m in revenue that are valued above $200m.

Bar chart of ($bn) showing NYSE secures top two biggest IPOs John Tuttle, vice-chairman and chief commercial officer for NYSE, said the exchange “continued to execute the biggest IPOs of the year” and pointed to its ability to attract other deals including direct listings, where a company’s shares are released on to the market but no capital is raised, and special purpose acquisition companies, or “spacs”. www.businessday.ng

vote, while an anti-EU populist group that includes Italy’s farright League and France’s Rassemblement National rejected the commission.

Miami Republicans at odds with Trump on climate change

Nasdaq on track to steal NYSE’s IPO crown Richard Henderson

liberals — along with a number of MEPs from the Eurosceptic alliance that includes Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party.

Green MEPs abstained from the

To win over her sceptics and build a clear majority in the parliament Ms von der Leyen was forced to find new nominees from Hungary, France and Romania after the original candidates were rejected by MEPs. Ms von der Leyen’s majority will face its first test on December 11 when Brussels’ unveils a “green deal” that will raise the EU’s emissions cutting targets for 2030 and launch a transition fund for poorer member states.

“The European Green Deal is a must for the health of our planet and our people — and for our economy,” Ms von der Leyen said before the vote.

MEPs said the positive vote was not a “blank cheque” for the incoming commission.

Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens said, her party had “clear concerns” about some of the new college but urged the president to “makes this commission the climate commission”.

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n a rain-lashed evening in Miami’s Little Havana neighbourhood, a group of residents has come together to discuss the biggest threat to their community: flooding and rising sea levels caused by climate change.

Jim Murley, chief resilience officer for the surrounding MiamiDade County, stood up to outline his plans to protect this corner of South Florida, as one local explained how his property had been flooded more than a dozen times this year, even though he lived miles from the sea.

“Climate change . . . is always on our minds,” Mr Murley told the gathering this month at a community college. “The county’s entire $8bn budget is based on [increasing] resilience” to climate-related issues such as more frequent floods and hurricanes, he added.

These threats are having a profound effect on politics and city planning in Republican-leaning Florida, a state famed for its coastline and wetland Everglades whose highest point is just over 100 metres above sea level.

Republicans in Florida, including Carlos Giménez, Miami-Dade’s mayor and Mr Murley’s boss, are making a concerted effort to tackle the problem, investing money and political capital. This is in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who has labelled efforts to tackle climate change a threat to American jobs and recently moved to pull the

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US out of the Paris climate accord.

Even Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Trump-loving governor who won his party’s nomination by positioning himself as a hardcore acolyte of the president, is taking climate change seriously. Shortly after taking office this year he appointed Florida’s first chief science officer, and he has lamented how climate change has become “politicised”.

“My environmental policy is just to try to do things that benefit Floridians,” he was quoted as saying in local media this year.

Ben Kirtman, a University of Miami climate scientist, contrasted that with the views of Rick Scott, the previous governor. “There is a sea change difference in the state government. There were components of [Mr Scott’s] administration that were saying: ‘You can’t even talk about climate change’,” he said.

That Florida Republicans are putting climate change at the heart of their programmes — just as a Republican president prepares the ground for his 2020 re-election campaign by playing down the same issue — underlines the complexity of a subject that has divided the country.

Studies have shown that US voters are some of the least worried in the world about climate change, which has given Mr Trump the political space to loosen environmental regulations and ditch the world’s foremost climate agreement.

But low-lying Florida is different because it is so vulnerable.

The state is exposed to the Atlantic hurricanes that scientists say are @Businessdayng

intensifying and becoming more frequent owing to climate change.

Rising sea levels also threaten to leave tens of thousands of homes in south Florida underwater within decades, including the multimillion-dollar properties that line the coastline, while hundreds of thousands would be at greater risk from catastrophic flooding.

A recent UN study predicted sea level rises of up to one metre by 2100 if the world continued with “business as usual” levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of its efforts to tackle the issue, the city of Miami this year launched a $400m “forever bond”, with half the proceeds going to address sea level rises.

One of the first projects funded was in the upmarket Coconut Grove neighbourhood, where wealthy residents can dock their yachts a few steps from their front doors.

The city administration is installing pumps, improving infrastructure to prevent water from bubbling up through the storm drains and raising the sea walls.

This had an immediate impact and cut tidal flooding, even though the project is far from finished, said Jane Gilbert, chief resilience officer for the city.

Yet Prof Kirtman questioned whether Miami should be prioritising this sort of spot-fix approach.

He said only a huge public works programme on the scale of that undertaken during the 1930s, when the Hoover Dam was built, could avert the “fire-hose of disasters” that the city faced.

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Thurssday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

NATIONAL NEWS

Ukraine’s anti-graft prosecutor seeks to weather Trump storm Ruslan Ryaboshapka says ‘there are no untouchables’ as he carries out anti-corruption overhaul Roman Olearchyk

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uslan Ryaboshapka, a lawyer and anti-fraud whistleblower appointed general prosecutor of Ukraine in August, faces more than the task of cracking widespread corruption at home.

As the new face leading the effort, he also has to convince US president Donald Trump that his country is changing under the administration of Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian who was elected president in the spring on promises to root out corruption and end a smouldering undeclared war with Russia that has claimed nearly 14,000 lives.

It will be difficult, to judge from recent Congressional testimony in Washington given by former US special envoy Kurt Volker, who cited Mr Trump describing Ukraine as “a terrible place” of “terrible people” who are “all corrupt”.

In an interview, the 43-year-old prosecutor said he was “bothered” by daily depictions of a lawless Ukraine in the US impeachment inquiry. “This is not fair,” he told the Financial Times. “Ukraine is not as corrupt as is being presented there . . . We have made significant progress as of late.”

Mr Ryaboshapka first served as deputy head of Mr Zelensky’s office and was appointed prosecutor weeks after the Ukrainian leader’s infamous July phone call in which Mr Trump pressed him to launch probes into past Ukraine dealings of former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. In a non-verbatim transcript of that call, Mr Zelensky, in an apparent bid to appease his US counterpart, refers to the forthcoming appointment of a prosecutor who will be “100 per cent my person”.

Mr Ryaboshapka insisted other candidates were being considered at the time. “I am 100 per cent my own person . . . The general prosecutor, not of Zelensky, but of the country,” he said.

Asked about a potential probe focusing on the Bidens and their connection with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, Mr Ryaboshapka said Mr Trump’s attorney-general William Barr had made no contact to formally request a joint investigation. A broader audit into past and current cases, including those involving Burisma, were under way, he said.

Having years earlier worked at the Ukraine office of Transparency International, Mr Ryaboshapka won the respect of activists in 2017 when he resigned as deputy head of Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption in protest at cover-ups in probes of asset declarations made by public servants.

Daria Kaleniuk, director of anticorruption watchdog Antac, said Mr Ryaboshapka has been “instrumental” in preparing a set of anticorruption laws under Mr Zelensky which are “already adopted and are being implemented”, including some which were “stalled” under Petro Poroshenko, the previous Ukraine president.

“There is also a good chance to reboot the entire prosecution and judiciary,” Ms Kaleniuk said. “Ruslan was moving all these reforms when he worked in the presidential office, now he is focused on imple-

menting prosecution reform.”

Ukraine, which received financial backing from the IMF, the US and EU after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, is “not in bad shape with regards to anti-corruption infrastructure” formed in recent years, including the creation of a new anti-corruption court, Mr Ryaboshapka said.

Mr Zelensky’s parliamentary majority has reintroduced criminal responsibility for illicit enrichment by public servants, established protection for whistleblowers and will soon reshuffle leadership of the anti-corruption agency Mr Ryaboshapka quit years earlier. Mr Ryaboshapka’s office has handed investigative powers to anti-corruption bureaus set up as part of the IMF and western support packages.

The prosecutor described reform of a dysfunctional court system as a challenge that will take years and pointed to near-term plans to streamline the country’s Supreme Court, slashing its number of judges in half from 200.

He hinted at the likely replacement of Roman Truba, head of the recently formed State Bureau of Investigations, whose independence was questioned by leaked audio recordings suggesting he received orders from Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Bogdan. Mr Truba has described the recordings as “fakes.”

Mr Ryaboshapka said he would also downsize 11,000 nationwide prosecutors by a third by vetting out dishonest and qualified personnel.

“This is the largest number of prosecutors per capita worldwide with the exception of the Russian Federation,” he said. Those staying will get a 50 per cent salary increase to reduce temptation of fraud.

Mr Ryaboshapka spoke before an IMF delegation ended its second visit to Kyiv without approving a new multi-billion-dollar programme, in part owing to concerns over PrivatBank.

The largest commercial lender was nationalised in 2016 after a massive balance sheet hole was identified. Former owners led by oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who backed Mr Zelensky’s presidential bid, seek through litigation to reclaim control over the bank and rebuff government attempts to recover losses from them.

They have not been among a handful of politicians and businessmen arrested or charged in a flurry of probes that also targeted allies of Mr Poroshenko.

Describing the PrivatBank case as “one of the highest priorities,” Mr Ryaboshapka said probes linked to Mr Kolomoisky were in the hands of an independent anti-corruption bureau.

“The PrivatBank case is truly being investigated . . . There are no untouchables,” he said.

Turning back to Washington, where US Congress is moving to impeach Mr Trump, he said: “It’s critically important for the west not to pull us into some conflicts between their ruling elites, but to continue to support so that we can cross the point of no return.

“We have a historical moment in Ukraine now where cardinal change is possible . . . where we can go from an oligarch system of governance to a European and democratic one.” www.businessday.ng

Man City striker Sergio Aguero. The Silver Lake cash injection will help fund CFG’s aggressive expansion plans, including the acquisition of more clubs globally © FT montage; Getty Images

Man City stake sale breaks valuation record for a sports group FT exclusive: Silver Lake deal puts worth of English champions’ parent at $4.8bn Murad Ahmed

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anchester City’s owner has agreed to sell a $500m stake to Silver Lake in a deal that breaks a record in sports valuations and fuels the football group’s international expansion.

The US private equity firm is buying more than 10 per cent of City Football Group at a valuation of $4.8bn, injecting new capital into the Abu Dhabi-controlled organisation that owns Manchester City and affiliated teams in the US and China.

On Wednesday, Silver Lake and CFG announced the deal, which was first reported by the Financial Times. “We and Silver Lake share the strong belief in the opportunities being presented by the convergence of entertainment, sports and technology,” CFG chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in a statement. The companies said the transaction was subject to regulatory approval in some territories.

California-based Silver Lake made its name investing in technology companies such as Alibaba, Dell and Skype but has pivoted in recent years to entertainment, with a portfolio that includes the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Hollywood talent agency Endeavor.

Mr Al Mubarak and Silver Lake managing partner Egon Durban signed the deal on Saturday, according to people briefed on the transaction.

Hours later, the pair were spotted beside each other as City defeated Chelsea to boost the team’s hopes of retaining England’s Premier League title.

Silver Lake had approached other leading English and European clubs, including Chelsea, according to people with knowl-

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edge of its strategy. The firm was attracted by the multibilliondollar prices paid for football media rights by broadcasters and internet groups.

Silver Lake intends to hold its stake for about a decade but could seek to cash out through an initial public offering or sell to another private investor, according to a person close to the investment group. Regardless of Silver Lake’s eventual exit strategy, Abu Dhabi intends to retain its majority ownership of CFG. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a billionaire businessman and member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, bought Manchester City in 2008. He has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on world class footballers in an effort to turn the club into a global force capable of winning the sport’s biggest prizes.

Under Mr Al Mubarak, one of Abu Dhabi’s most powerful officials, CFG has gone on to buy into clubs worldwide.

The company acquired Chinese third-tier side Sichuan Jiuniu, adding to investments in the US, Japan, Australia, Spain and Uruguay. CFG is also in advanced talks for a takeover of Indian Super League side Mumbai City FC, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

The $500m cash injection will help fund CFG’s aggressive expansion plans, including the acquisition of more football clubs globally, as well as the planned construction of a stadium in New York, according to people with knowledge of the group’s plans.

Activists have criticised Manchester City’s owners, believing the club is a means of projecting Abu Dhabi’s soft power and damping criticism of the UAE’s human rights record.

CFG has argued its model has a clear profit motive and its executives believe the Sil@Businessdayng

ver Lake deal is vindication of a business strategy that will deliver significant returns to shareholders.

But making money through CFG, with City still the only profitable club within the global network, will take many years.

In 2015, China Media Capital led a consortium that paid $400m for a 13 per cent stake in CFG, valuing the group at more than $3bn. The new deal will leave Sheikh Mansour as majority shareholder at 77 per cent, China Media Capital at about 12 per cent, and Silver Lake at just over 10 per cent.

The Silver Lake deal comes even as Manchester City is threatened by an investigation by Uefa, European football’s governing body, into alleged breaches of “financial fair play” rules designed to stop clubs overspending in the pursuit of silverware.

In May, Uefa investigators looking into claims that the English club had masked funding from its Middle Eastern owner, recommended the team be banned from the Champions League, where participating clubs share in more than €2bn in prize money, for at least one season. A final ruling by Uefa is expected in December.

Following due diligence, Silver Lake executives concluded that even with the risk of lost revenues from such a ban, the business was still worth $4.8bn, according to people close to the transaction.

The valuation puts CFG above its sporting peers. Joe Tsai, co-founder of Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba, bought a controlling share in the Brooklyn Nets basketball team this year at a $2.35bn valuation, the highest for a US sports team.

New York-listed Manchester United — City’s local footballing rival — has a market capitalisation of $2.8bn.

BUSINESS DAY

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FINANCIAL TIMES

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COMPANIES & MARKETS

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Moral Money: Green policies break through logjam of ‘Brexit election’ Your guide to the investment and business revolution you can’t afford to ignore Billy Nauman, Camilla Hodgson and

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f you want more Moral Money content throughout the week, check our hub page regularly at ft.com/moral-money for breaking news, analysis and curated commentary on this bubbling revolution. Follow us on Twitter @ftmoralmoney, forward this newsletter to colleagues who you think would find it valuable, and sign up here if you haven’t already.

UK election rivals compete for the green vote To the world at large, only one word comes to mind about the upcoming UK election: Brexit.

But Moral Money readers will be keen to note that the environment has become a key battleground for politicians across the spectrum, from the ruling Conservatives to the opposition Labour party and their Liberal Democrat challengers.

On Thursday, all the major party leaders — with the notable absence of prime minister Boris Johnson — will take part in a televised climate debate.

“In the 2017 general election, you felt like nobody was paying attention [to environmental issues],” said Paul McNamee, head of politics at thinktank Green Alliance. “That seems to have completely flipped.”

Labour under Jeremy Corbyn (pictured above) has taken the strongest position, promising a full-on “Green Industrial Revolution” that it said would create 1m jobs in sustainable industries to help workers transition away from fossil-fuel employers. It said it would retrofit nearly all of the UK’s 27m homes to the “highest energy-efficiency standards” and ensure that 90 per cent of electricity comes from renewable and low-carbon sources by 2030.

The Tories have focused on nature and biodiversity, laying out plans for a £640m “nature for climate fund” and promising to plant 30m trees every year by 2025 — despite being unlikely to meet an existing goal to plant 11m over five years. The party also called a halt to fracking at the start of the campaigning season, something environmental activists have long called for. However, the Tories shied away from any “carbon taxes”, while Labour said it would impose a windfall tax on oil and gas companies and the Lib Dems promised a frequent-flyers levy.

The Lib Dems also said they would make £2bn available for ultra-low or zero emissions buses, and plant 60m trees a year to absorb carbon and improve biodiversity. The party promised to end fossil-fuel subsidies by 2025 and provide £5bn of initial capital for a new Green Investment Bank.

The Lib Dem manifesto also takes a strong stand on the role business should play in society.

Jo Swinson’s party believes “business can be a force for good” and outlines numerous changes designed to promote a kinder, gentler capitalism — very much in line with the “stakeholder primacy” model proposed by the US Business Roundtable.

Britain’s major parties agree

on little at the moment, but the fact that the environment — and business’s role in it — is breaking through the Brexit logjam suggests it is one priority on which many voters can agree. (Camilla Hodgson) The Academy putting principles on purpose In its 117-year history, the British Academy has been home to illustrious thinkers and doers from John Maynard Keynes to Mary Leakey. For the past two of those years, it has hosted one of the world’s most ambitious efforts to reform capitalism for the 21st century; a programme asking searching questions about business’s role in society.

A year ago, that group set out a framework, arguing that “the purpose of business is to solve the problems of people and planet profitably” — language that has gained wider currency in 2019.

On Wednesday its second report, Principles for Purposeful Business, builds on that by proposing eight principles for business leaders and policymakers around the world.

You can read the full list here, but they range from corporate law placing purpose at the heart of the company to governance aligning managers’ incentives with companies’ purposes.

The report is only a starting point, according to Colin Mayer, the Saїd Business School professor leading the initiative. Engagement with boards and standardsetters around the world will be vital if its ideas are to trigger the change the Academy hopes for.

The Academy plans a series of “purpose summits” next year.

Mayer was optimistic, saying he had seen “astounding” progress in the past year and hoped we would see countries, institutions and companies trying to “leapfrog” each other to claim what we might call the Moral Money high ground.

But he warned that “serious deficiencies” in ESG measurement risked undermining progress.

The Academy’s report follows hard on the heels of another prominent UK contribution to the debate: a statement from the Institute of Directors recommending the creation of a new form of company, the “public service corporation”, which would be legally required to balance shareholders’ interests with those of workers and other stakeholders.

“For one of the most conservative bodies in Britain to come out with a statement like that is to some extent more surprising than for the Business Roundtable to issue its statement” on stakeholder capitalism, Prof Mayer said. Further evidence that change is afoot.

With the US edition of Art Basel kicking off next week, anyone who is anyone in the art scene (as well as scores of fashionistas, influencers and hangers on) will be making their way to Miami Beach. But this year, amid the glamorous gallery events and raucous raves, there is sure to be serious debate about the controversy concerning “dirty” philanthropic money coursing through the art world. www.businessday.ng

Iceland and New Look set to change hands again

South African conglomerate Brait plans to dispose of stakes in both retailers within five years Jonathan Eley

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celand Foods and New Look are set for yet another sale as South African conglomerate Brait revealed plans to dispose of its stakes in both UK retailers within five years.

Johannesburg-listed Brait, in which tycoon Christo Wiese is the largest shareholder, needs to reduce its debt and on Wednesday said it was planning a recapitalisation to raise equity and reshape its balance sheet.

The company built up stakes in New Look, Iceland and gym operator Virgin Active from 2011 as part of a strategy to hold large interests in unquoted retail and consumer businesses outside South Africa.

It owns 63 per cent of Iceland, a frozen food retailer that has around a 2.5 per cent share of the UK’s grocery market.

Brait’s stake in New Look was diluted down to 19 per cent this year when the fashion retailer restructured its own debt burden, imposing heavy losses on its bondholders.

One London-based banker said it was unlikely that either business would return to the stock market in their current form. “New Look’s bonds are telling you that the equity is worthless. It will probably end up being fully controlled by its bondholders,” he said.

The banker added that the company was probably too big for specialist investors such as Alteri and OpCapita to take on, and that a stock market flotation would be a hard sell given market conditions in the UK. “Brait will adopt a new strategy that will focus on maximising value through the realisation of its existing assets in the portfolio over the next five years and returning capital to shareholders,” the company said in a statement to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

The changes would be the latest

New Look is one of several retailers to have pushed through a CVA last year, only to find that trading has remained difficult © Bloomberg

phases in the often turbulent histories of these businesses, both of which have changed owners in the past decade. New Look was taken private in 2004 by Permira, Apax and founder Tom Singh, before Brait paid £780m for the business in 2015. Two years later it wrote down the value of the equity stake to zero.

Following the recapitalisation, other shareholders include Alcentra, CQS and Avenue Capital and 5 per cent is set aside as part of a management incentive plan.

Iceland became a public company in 1984 but was acquired by Icelandic investment group Baugur in 2005 after a disastrous merger with wholesaler Booker. Following Baugur’s collapse, Iceland’s founder Malcolm Walker and his team bought the company back with support from Brait, Dubai-based Landmark Group and sofa tycoon Graham Kirkham. Landmark and Lord Kirkham were bought out in 2015.

The remaining stake in Iceland that Brait does not hold is owned

by Sir Malcolm, his son Richard and other members of the management team.

The supermarket chain is trading solidly — new store openings meant

sales rose 2.4 per cent in the first half — but is heavily leveraged. Its net debt of £736m is more than five times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Although Iceland has been a listed business before, Sir Malcolm has previously expressed a preference for operating it privately.

Both Iceland and New Look declined to comment.

Mr Wiese has suffered heavy losses as a result of his exposure to Steinhoff, another South African conglomerate in which he owned a large stake and which revealed a major accounting fraud in 2017.

Steinhoff is also liquidating its assets to cut debt. Last week, it said it would sell its holdings in UK furniture retailers Bensons for Beds and Harveys to a fund managed by Alteri Investors.

John Gnodde, head of Brait’s corporate adviser BSAL, will step aside early next year as part of the group’s recapitalisation plan. Mr Gnodde, the brother of Goldman Sachs International chief executive Richard Gnodde, is also a director at New Look and one of Iceland’s parent companies and will be “assisting the investee companies in ensuring a smooth handover.”

Deere slashes profit forecasts on farm industry pain Equipment maker says poor harvests and trade fears have curbed demand Peter Wells

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ohn Deere forecast its net income would decline sharply in 2020, confounding analysts’ expectations and highlighting the tough conditions in the farming industry.

“Lingering trade tensions coupled with a year of difficult growing and harvesting conditions have caused many farmers to become cautious about making major investments in new equipment,” the tractor maker’s chief executive, John May, said on Wednesday.

Deere said it expected net income in the range of $2.7bn to $3.1bn in 2020. That implies a drop of 5 per cent to 17 per cent from the $3.25bn it reported for the 2019 financial year just ended and compared with a median forecast

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among analysts for an 8 per cent increase.

The forecast took the gloss of a result for fiscal fourth quarter 2019 in which sales and adjusted earnings come in ahead of Wall Street forecasts. The company’s shares were as much as 5 per cent lower in premarket trade.

Mr May added that results from the company’s financial services division have come under pressure due to losses on operating leases, but favourable general economic conditions have helped support demand for smaller equipment and led to a record year for Deere’s forestry equipment business.

In its fourth quarter, Deere’s overall sales were up 5 per cent from a year ago to $9.9bn, topping Wall Street forecasts. Reported net income enjoyed a $41m boost from @Businessdayng

adjustments to income tax, but adjusted earnings of $2.14 a share were down 7 per cent from a year ago, albeit 1 cent ahead of analyst forecasts.

Higher prices and shipment volumes outweighed unfavourable currency fluctuations on the revenue line. The hit to profits came from higher costs associated with production, sales and administration and research and development.

Despite concerns around agriculture and trade, Deere shares were still up 18 per cent in 2019 at Tuesday’s closing bell and on November 11 closed at a record $179.80. The S&P 500, which closed at a record on Tuesday, is up 25 per cent this year.

Shortly before the market open on Wednesday, Deere shares were down 4.9 per cent at $167.97.

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Thurssday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

FT

ANALYSIS

Brussels eyes easing bank rules to spur green lending Cut to capital charge fits low-carbon agenda but risks battle with regulators Sam Fleming and Jim Brunsden

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russels is exploring a proposal to ease EU banking rules in a bid to spur green investment in Europe. he plan underlines the environmental ambitions of the next European Commission, the EU’s executive, which is expected to be voted into office on Wednesday for a five-year term.

But it is likely to stoke a battle with regulators at the European Central Bank, where officials have warned against tampering with rules designed to make bank lending less risky.

Valdis Dombrovskis, a vice-president of the commission, told the Financial Times that he wanted to examine a cut to the capital charges imposed on banks’ climate-friendly lending. He said the initiative would encourage banks to finance energyefficient homes, zero-emissions transport and other green investment by reducing the amount of capital they would have to set aside against such lending.

A “green supporting factor” for bank lending is “something we need to explore”, Mr Dombrovskis said in an interview.

Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming commission president, is prioritising plans to curb EU carbon emissions as part of a so-called green new deal.

The European Parliament is due to vote this week on new climate targets.

Mr Dombrovskis, who heads Brussels’ policymaking on financial regulation, will have expanded responsibilities in the incoming commission, which will start work on December 1.

These include being in charge of plans to mobilise €1tn of climate-related

investment over the next decade.

His plan for capital charges — which was briefly floated by Brussels two years ago — faces opposition from banking supervisors. Andrea Enria, the head of the ECB’s bank supervision arm, insisted last week that financial institutions’ capital requirements should be based on the level of risk they take and should not be altered to pursue other objectives.

“Our mandate is to make banks safer and sounder,” Mr Enria said.

Mr Dombrovskis acknowledged the resistance to the proposal, noting that “green does not mean risk-free”.

His plan would draw on Brussels’ experience after the 2008 financial crisis, when it tried to drive bank lending to small and medium-sized businesses through similarly favourable capital treatment.

Under those EU rules, capital requirements for such business loans are nearly 25 per cent below what they otherwise would be. Mr Dombrovskis suggested green capital relief could be similar in scale.

Brussels needed to look at “the ways to practically facilitate, to practically support this green investment”, he said.

Ms von der Leyen is assembling other green measures as the EU pushes for carbon neutrality by the middle of the century. Mr Dombrovskis said that among the priorities was a reform of the emissions trading scheme, which sets a carbon price in the EU. The changes could expand the scheme to shipping and widen its coverage of aviation.

“If we want to move towards carbon neutrality, we will have to look also at sectors like aviation and maritime,” he said. “It is difficult to continue to exempt energy-intensive sectors.”

Jeremy Corbyn’s moment of truth looms large Radical Labour leader believes he can defy polls and beat Boris Johnson Jim Pickard

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e is the least popular leader of the UK opposition in living memory but Jeremy Corbyn believes he can still drag the Labour party over the line on December 12 with his radical programme of change.

Mr Corbyn has barely two weeks left to cut the current opinion poll lead of 13 percentage points enjoyed

by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.

For the 70-year-old radical leftwinger, whose election as Labour leader four years ago stunned the British establishment, the moment of truth is looming large. His close friends believe he will step down if Labour ends up going backwards in next month’s election.

Mr Corbyn’s leadership has become a central theme of this election campaign driven by his ambivalence on Brexit, his hard left views and the party’s enduring anti-Semitism furore. On Monday night the chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis added to the pressure on the Labour leader when he said a “new poison” had taken hold in the party, “sanctioned from the very top”.

A graphic with no description Even now Mr Corbyn is convinced he can pull off a surprise. But on the streets of Northampton, a market town 60 miles north of London, his name is met with a lack of enthusiasm.

“I think he’s dangerous, he’s so extremely leftwing,” said Monica Jen-

kinson, a librarian. “Jeremy Corbyn would take us back to the 70s . . . he would put this country into too much debt,” said David Garforth, a pensioner.

During the 2017 election Mr Corbyn succeeded in shifting the debate away from Brexit and his own leadership and on to public services. Even though he lost the election to Theresa May’s Conservatives, his leftwing agenda and popularity with young voters reached a peak in the summer of 2017 when his name was chanted by festival-goers at Glastonbury.

But so far there are few signs that his party’s even more radical manifesto, which included sweeping nationalisation plans and a commitment to increase taxes by £83bn a year, has delivered a similar “cutthrough” moment.

Peter Kellner, former president of YouGov, said there was a “curious tension” in how voters see the party.

“Some of their policies are quite popular, rail nationalisation, increasing taxes on people earning over £80,000, freedom of movement, workers on companies’ boards,” he said. “On the other hand Jeremy Corbyn performs terribly on issues of competence, character and strength.”

In a contest between policy and character voters tend to make decisions based on the latter. “A party could promise free holidays in Disney for every family, people might like that but they might also think you don’t have a cat’s chance in hell of providing it,” Mr Kellner added. www.businessday.ng

Arnaud Lagardère’s battle to retain grip on French empire Can an activist shareholder shake up the once legendary company?

Harriet Agnew

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n September 2014, Arnaud Lagardère organised a seminar in Rome for the top managers of his French media group Lagardère. As the team gathered, one crucial person was missing.

At the eleventh hour, Mr Lagardère appeared by video link to cancel his appearance, without explaining the reasons why, according to a person who attended.

“If you want to know Arnaud’s whereabouts, check out the social media accounts of his wife,” this person added. The group in Rome did just that. Within minutes, they came across photographs of a perma-tanned Mr Lagardère and his wife, Belgian supermodel Jade Foret, celebrating her 24th birthday. Mr Lagardère had filled their house with balloons, red roses and a Chanel-themed birthday cake.

This incident is just one of many that critics say has come to characterise the controversial tenure of the 58-year-old Mr Lagardère at the helm of the French media company. The publicly traded group, which has fallen in value since he took the helm after the sudden death of his father Jean-Luc Lagardère in 2003, was once one of France’s great industrial empires, helping to create European aerospace group Airbus. Now its focus is the Hachette publishing house and Relay newsagents as well as radio, sports and entertainment assets.

Prestigious titles such as Paris Match and weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche give Mr Lagardère a prominent position in the media. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy once even described him as “my little brother”. But he has also attracted plenty of scorn for both his management style and the performance of the business. Despite running a group that is headquartered in France, Mr Lagardère spends several months of the year in Florida, and once skipped a board meeting to attend the Roland-Garros tennis tournament in Paris.

The company’s share price has substantially underperformed its benchmarks, while management and restructuring costs have soared. Last year Mr Lagardère

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appeared on the front page of leftleaning daily newspaper Libération with the headline “Papa, j’ai rétréci l’empire” — “Dad, I shrunk the empire.”

Now Mr Lagardère is facing his moment of truth. Amid a battle with activist investor Amber Capital, a French court has sided with the London hedge fund and ruled that he must publish a decade’s worth of accounts for Lagardère Capital & Management, the private holding company through which he owns his stake in the media group. Lagardère says that Amber is trying to “discredit and destabilise our group”.

The ruling threatens to lift the lid on Mr Lagardère’s personal debt levels and put his empire under renewed scrutiny. In August, the FT published figures from LC&M’s 2017 accounts, showing that it had €204m of debt at the end of 2017 — more than the current value of Mr Lagardère’s shares in the group that bear this name.

The stakes are high. At risk is his ability to maintain a tight grip on Lagardère through an arcane structure, and whether his lenders, investors and supervisory board will continue to support Mr Lagardère once they have a better sense of his true financial situation.

Jean-Luc Lagardère was a customs inspector’s son and an engineer by training. He became chief executive of industrial group Matra in the 1960s, where he developed sophisticated new surface-to-air missiles and diversified it into new areas such as space technology, transport systems and telecommunications.

A foray into media began in 1981 when Mr Lagardère bought Hachette, an ailing 155-year-old French publishing company.

Mr Lagardère merged Matra with Hachette in 1992, resulting in a bizarre missiles-to-magazines business. Around the same time, he also created the Lagardère group, which later absorbed Matra Hatchette and became Lagardère SCA. Known as a société en commandite par actions, this is a special legal status that is a hybrid between a partnership and a limited liability company. The elder Mr Lagardère incorporated a personal holding @Businessdayng

company, LC&M, through which he owned a 5 per cent stake in Lagardère SCA. He guaranteed his investment by taking on personal liability for the company’s debts.

Meanwhile, through a series of aerospace mergers in the 1990s, Mr Lagardère created the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, now Airbus, in which Lagardère group owned a 15 per cent stake.

In 2001, the elder Mr Lagardère handed over the day-to-day running of the group to Arnaud, his only son, just two years before he died aged 75. Following his father’s death, the younger Mr Lagardère kept the commandite structure and borrowed money to increase LC&M’s stake in Lagardère SCA. Lagardère SCA’s structure has several key implications. First, despite only owning a 7.2 per cent stake in the group through LC&M, Mr Lagardère’s position is highly protected. Crucially under the commandite structure, the shareholders — or limited partners — cannot remove the general partner, Mr Lagardère, as they could in a normal company. His mandate is voted for renewal every six years by the supervisory board.

“The commandite structure was made for the 19th century,” says Loïc Dessaint, chief executive officer of corporate governance group Proxinvest. “It’s a fortress, where [ . . .] the standard governance rules don’t apply. It is missing basic shareholder rights, such as the right of the board to dismiss the chief executive.”

Lagardère says the structure provides strong corporate governance and helps to align the interests of management and shareholders, allowing it to focus on “the long-term interest”.

The counterbalance to Mr Lagardère’s unlimited powers as general partner of the SCA is that he also has unlimited responsibility for the company’s liabilities. This quid pro quo is central to Amber’s lawsuit to force Mr Lagardère to publish LC&M’s accounts: Amber argues that if Mr Lagardère bears unlimited responsibility for the company’s liabilities, shareholders need to know what his financial guarantee is worth. Amber declined to comment.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

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Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

POLITICS & POLICY

Makinde presents first budget of N208b to Oyo Assembly REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan

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overnor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Wednesday, presented the 2020 appropriation bill of N208billion on the floor of the State House of Assembly.

The budget proposal, which was N77billion, lower than the N285.2 billion 2019 Budget presented in 2018 by his predecessor, Abiola Ajimobi, has N100,142 billion as capital expenditure, representing 47.9 percent of the total budget estimate.

This was an increase of 20 percent of capital expenditure compared to the 2019 budget.

While, the total recurrent expenditure for 2020 fiscal year is N108,660 billion representing 52.1 percent of the budget.

Makinde, who arrived

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde presenting 2020 Budget to the State House of Assembly at the House Chamber, Secretariat, Ibadan.

the Assembly complex in Ibadan, the state capital, around 11.00am in company of his Deputy, Rauf Olaniyan, members of the state executive council, traditional rulers and mem-

bers of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) in the state, said that 22.37 percent of the total budget has been allocated to education and 5.18 percent for health.

Makinde said that works,

Edo 2020: Ize-Iyamu will cut Oshiomhole to size if made governor - APC chieftain IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, Benin

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ndrew Osawaru, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Wednesday predicted that Osagie Ize-Iyamu would cut Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the party, to size if made the governor of Edo State in the 2020 governorship election.

Osawaru, in a statement made available to newsmen in Benin City, said Oshiomhole will make the greatest mistake of his life if he foisted a person that plotted his impeachment while serving as governor of Edo State.

“While some people are already talking about Oshiomhole’s overbearing influence in the affairs of the state, others are talking about how he will be cut to size by his new found friends after handing over the party’s ticket to them.

“Oshiomhole will be making the greatest mis-

take of his life working with those who plotted his impeachment when he was the governor of Edo State”, he said.

While noting that the deputy governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, who Oshiomhole now says is betraying him, stood by him and fought the new friends of Oshiomhole with his blood when he was the majority leader of the state house of assembly.

He also alleged that the new friends of Oshiomhole were the same people that led thugs to invade the House of Assembly in order to impeach him that were resisted by the deputy governor.

He further alleged that the so-called “new friends of Oshiomhole”, have already perfected plans to pay the national chairman back in his own coin for the humiliation they got from him when he held sway as the governor of the state.

The APC chieftain, explained that the alleged plot by the party’s national chairman was alwww.businessday.ng

ready causing an uneasy calm among supporters of Charles Airhiavbere, Chris Ogiewonmyi and other members of the Edo Peoples Movement (EPM).

“There is uneasy calm among supporters of Gen. Charles Airhiavbere, Engr.

Chris Ogiewonmyi and other members of the Edo Peoples Movement on why Oshiomhole and Captain.

Hosa Okunbo will foist on the people, ‘Pastor’ Osagie Ize Iyamu, who left the party”, he stated.

He opined that the disintegration in the party will be full blown in the weeks and months ahead as supporters of various aspirants will want to outdo one another with series of blackmail.

He noted that Oshiomhole may be the major loser as he would no longer have the formidable support he enjoyed from Edo North prior to the 2012 election as he has balkanised the party and betrayed his political son for those who plotted his impeachment.

infrastructure, education, health and agriculture were among the key areas where the budget will focus on.

Stating reasons the capital expenditure increased by about 20percent compared

to the 2019 budget, the governor said: “Increased allocation to capital projects directly contributes to a more buoyant economy and sustainable development.”

According to him, ‘You will also note that our capital expenditure increased by about 20percent compared to the 2019 budget.

Total capital expenditure of N100,142,690,046B, is 47.9percent of the total budget estimate. The importance of this increase should not be lost on us.

Increased allocation to capital projects directly contributes to a more buoyant economy and sustainable development. As stated earlier, we will not only be starting new projects but also completing all ongoing projects from the previous administration.”

On the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Makinde insisted that the sum of N3billon is expected as

the monthly IGR from January, adding that this will be achieved without adding any burden on the citizens.

“This will be achieved without increasing tax burden on the people of Oyo state,” he said.

While saying that the government is aiming at least 70 percent budget implementation, he promised: “It is a budget that every woman, man and child in Oyo state can be proud of.”

He however, disclosed that Oyo State Road Maintenance Agency had been mandated to establish zonal offices in Oyo, Ogbomoso and Ibarapa.

Makinde also revealed that the state is embarking on staff audit and creating a data base for staffers to curb ghost workers in the state.

Speaker of the House, Adebo Ogundoyin promised that the Assembly will pass the bill without wasting time.

Social Media Bill: Protesters invade Lagos Assembly Iniobong Iwok

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cores of protesters, Wednesday, marched to the Lagos State House of Assembly and demanded an end to the social media bill and the hate speech bill.

Recall that a week after the Senate introduced a bill to regulate social media; it also introduced another bill seeking to establish a commission for the probation of hate speech in the country.

T h e b i l l p re s c r i b e d death by hanging for any person found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person.

However, the proteste r s, w h o w e re m o st ly youths, comprised different civil society groups, c o n c e r n e d Nig e r i a n s, including the O ccupy Nigeria Group, Take it Back Movement, Socialist workers youth group, among others.

The protest, which started at the Ikeja Local Government Area secretariat moved to the Lagos

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State House of Assembly at Alausa.

The protesting groups, called for the withdrawing of both bills which had passed the second reading stage at the National Assembly, noting that the bills were undemocratic and a violation of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

Towolawi Jamiu, spokesperson of the protesters, told the representative of the Lagos State House of Assembly that they were gathered to express their grievances towards the intention of the Senate to completely truncate Nigeria’s democracy.

According to him, “The Judiciary has been totally hijacked; the ninth Assembly has also been hijacked. We are here to say no to the social media and hate speech bills and demand that they should be totally scrapped.

“The bills are not for the interest of the masses and we are going to resist the bills. The laws were smuggled into our democracy from the military regime and we are going to resist @Businessdayng

them,” he said.

The protesters, however, urged the State House of Assembly to liaise with their colleagues at the Senate and ensure that the bills did not see the light of day.

Adebisi Yusuff, a member of the House of Assembly who addressed the protesters, said there was a process of the law through which a bill can be killed.

“No bill can be passed without subjecting it to public hearing. As a vocal group, you can mobilise your members to attend the public hearing where your opinions w ill be heard,” Yusuff said.

The lawmaker, however, added that he had not seen the bill and could not comment further on it.

“I have not even seen the bill myself, I cannot be in support or against what I have not seen,” he added.

Yusuff assured the protesters that their grievances would be heard on the floor of the House and that he would represent them well.

Thursday 28 November 2019

BUSINESS DAY

MADE in aba

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Uplifting Aba textile industry to grow Nigeria’s manufacturing sector Gbemi Faminu

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ba, Nig er ia’s industrial city, is known for producing fine-fitting shoes. But it is also popular for producing garments used in the country and in the West African market.

The Aba garment industry attracts buyers from different parts of the country and even West and Central Africa. Pairs of suits made in the city are bought by merchants from different parts of Africa from the commercial city.

A 2018 report by the Policy Development Facility (PDF), a rapidresponse facility that supports federal government officials in implementation of p o l i c i e s, s a i d t h e Ab a garment industry employs 21,000 people.

The popular Garment Village in Aba is dominated b y a p p a re l p ro d u c i n g factories. Most of them are small-scale, and are clustered around Ngwa Road. “There are approx imately 600 independent producers working in this cluster with between five and 10 employees,” the PDF report said.

“Due to the residential nature of the area, the t a i l o r s w o rk i n ro o m s meant for families to live in rather than in purposebuilt factory spaces,” it said.

This limits the size of the factories and the productivity of workers as smaller operating spaces cut down the number of tailors that can collaborate on a specific piece of clothing, it stated.

“Modern clothing factories use some assembly line principles, which would be impossible with the small working spaces producers in Aba have,” the report added.

There is also the Ekeoha Shopping Centre, which is in a well-built and -planned neighbourhood.

According to the report, small-scale apparel producers mostly operate on Kent and Mosque Roads and the perpendicular

Okezie Ikpeazu, governor, Abia State

streets that connect them f ro m A z i k i w e Ro a d t o Clifford Road.

However, part of the challenge of this industry is lack of funds for expansion.

Okorie Agba, an apparel maker, told BusinessDay that they need money to meet their supply targets, “When someone orders for garments, sometimes you have to source for money and produce what they want,” he said.

“This is because they give you little and ask you to produce what they want.

At this point, you need money to produce that, especially if the order is in high quantity.”

The PDF report pointed out that roads need to be better to support garment makers reach their targets.

An active and functional textile industry will be an added advantage for a manufacturing sector to thrive, especially in an emerging e conomy which has the advantage of a larger market and abundance of resources, analysts say.

Unfortunately Nigeria’s textile sub sector is in a www.businessday.ng

comatose state despite having a thriving industry in the early 90s. Overtime, the industr y dwindled due to poor policies and smuggling.

In an effort to revive the comatose textile industry, the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele placed a ban on textile import into the country as he explained that the country’s textile industry has collapsed from 128 to about 20. However, plans to revive the over 100 comatose textile plants are yet to be implemented which negates the motive behind the ban placed on textile import.

Reviving Nigeria’s textile industry goes beyond just placing a ban on textile import, analysts say.

Gherzi Sub-Sahara, a textile consulting firm, reported that Nigeria would need a minimum of $1.4 billion (N504 billion) in new investments to revive its textiles industry.

Experts explain that just like the ban implemented in 2016 over 41 different items distorted the market, causing loss of jobs, investments and assets,

the textile ban will cause a n o t h e r havo c, w h i c h will ultimately hinder the much-needed economic development.

According to data from Trading Economics, Nigeria spent a total of $ 32.3 million importing textiles and textile products in 2017. The textile industry has been unable to reduce unemployment and contribute meaningfully to the country’s economy and GDP growth.

In comparison to Bangladesh, a developing economy, the garment industry was able to wa d e t h rou g h va r i ou s challenges to currently become the world’s 2nd largest exporter of ready made garments (RMG) after China.

The countr y earned $33 billion from export of RMGs in 2018.

A World Bank report stated that, “Bangladesh is the world’s second largest producer of ready-madegarments in the world, and apparel comprises 83 percent of Bangladesh’s exports. Bangladesh hosts around 5,000 ready-made-

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@Businessdayng

garments factories that employ no fewer than 4 million workers, 80 percent of which are women.”

L at i f at Mu ha m m e d , chief executive officer (CEO) of Teephafabrics Asooke said, “The policy will shake up the textile business environment at first, but manufacturers in Aba are up to the task especially if they can get investors to provide necessary things. “ Fur ther more, once th e te xti le i n d u str y i s revived, it will boost the Nigerian economy and spur economic growth.”

Presently, Nigeria lacks the capital and infrastructure to revive its comatose textile industry.

Local production of textile will require local sourcing of raw materials which local farmers without aid cannot deliver.

Vincent Nwani a Lagos-based business consultant said, “The first step is to build and grow a domestic textile value chain including active mills across the country.

The starting point is provision of electricity to @Businessdayng

the industries, subsidising i m p o r t at i o n o f t e x t i l e machines, incentivising cotton farmers and creating ready off-takers for them.”

Muda Yusuf, directorgeneral of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, advised that the burden of infrastructure deficiency, high operating and production cost need to addressed in the textile industry before sustainable progress can be recorded.

He further said that more attention should be given to healthy competition in the business environment as well as resource-based industrialisation in order t o f u r t h e r a c c o mp l i s h viable industrialization.

Nigeria’s GDP report supplied by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the non-oil sector contributed 92.94 percent to real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2018. The textile and fashion industry has the potential to contribute to this and foster economic prosperity in the country just like Bangladesh but the countr y requires efficient to achieve that.

industry Insight

BUSINESS DAY Thursday 28 November 2019 www.businessday.ng

Fixing manufacturing value chain through fiscal, monetary policies MICHAEL ANI

N

i g e r i a’s m a n u factur ing sector recorded a modest growth in the third quarter of 2019, thanks to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy aimed boosting credit to the sector.

The sector grew 1.10 percent on an annual basis, its fastest expansion since the start of the year, against a negative growth of 0.13 per cent in the previous quarter, as the sector was a major beneficiary from the CBN’s policy, forcing commercial banks to lend as much as 65 percent of their loans mainly to the real sector.

While the news of an expansion of 1.10 percent is something to cheer, seeing that the sector has been a free fall since it recorded a 2.35 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2018, it is still meagre going by the 7 percent growth global consulting firm, Pricewaterhousecoopers, says the sector could grow if structural issues across its value chains are resolved.

But boosting lending to the sector alone is a necessary but not sufficient condition for solving the numerous challenges in the sector as there needs to be a push from the fiscal side aimed at stimulating growth in the sector.

Such fiscal reforms needed to complement the increasing credit include: fixing the dilapidated road network, providing power, scrapping the multiple exchange rates, and supply variability of rain-dependent agricultural inputs.

The challenges faced by manufacturers are probably best put by Frank Jacobs, a one-time president of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria, in remarks to the media in April 2018: “A situation where you generate your own power for production does not make you competitive, because whatever is produced in this country is produced at a higher cost when compared to other parts of the world. The same goes for the transportation system as we still move our goods via roads, even the heavy duty goods. Such goods which should go by rail, lack enough rail lines to carry them. There is a need to develop the transportation sector to the point where it can support the manufacturing sector and also support the economy.”

The Nigerian manufacturing sector is made up of 77 industries and is dominated by food, beverages and tobacco, with sugar and bread products generating the greatest value of output, based on data from the National Bureau of statistics.

As a critical sector, it has a lot of opportunities that, if har-

nessed effectively, could attract the needed investments that would create jobs for the country’s teeming youths, as well as boost economic development.

However, due to the economic maladies from the fiscal side, growth in the sector has been tepid.

According to MAN, over N20 billion is lost annually by manufacturers operating within the Amuwo Odofin and Kirikiri Industrial Zones as a result of dilapidated infrastructure.

In Agbara, Ogun State, one of the biggest industrial clusters, roads were bad for many years despite taxes paid by large enterprises in the cluster such as Flour Mills, Unilever, PharmaDeko and others.

“I will like to put on record that the only motorable road within the OPIC Estate was constructed by members of MAN

within the estate,” Paul Gbededo, group managing director of Flour Mills of Nigeria Gbededo, told Dapo Abiodun, governorelect of Ogun State, on April 11 this year, while describing the dismal state of roads at Agbara.

The roads in the industrial city are being constructed at the moment, but it is long in coming.

In 2017 alone, manufacturing companies in Nigeria spent as much as N117.38 billion on fuelling their plants to run their daily operations, MAN said. This affected their ability to expand operations, acquire new machinery to produce more in order to give juicy returns to shareholders.

“The biggest challenge facing manufacturing companies as well as small and medium scale enterprises is power and this has led the death of many business

in the country,” Muda Yusuf, director general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said recently.

This is so not good for a nation that wants to open up its economy to trade with others in the continent as this might put it on the losing end Nigeria had in July this year joined 53 other African countries in signing into a trade agreement that will see it open its economy to free trade on virtually 90 percent of its imports.

With the trade pact, the country alongside other parties to the agreement would be open to an estimated $3 trillion market with trades among 1.2 billion people.

While the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement is expected to come with several benefits, stakeholders have raised concern on the possibility of Nigeria losing big to other smaller African nations in the deal given its huge infrastructural deficit.

In order for Nigeria to benefit from the African trade agreement, MAN highlighted several recommendations that must be looked into by the government At a recently held stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, Frank Onyebu, chairman, MAN, Apapa branch, said beyond the challenges of dilapidated roads, poor power supply, multiple taxation, and security challenges, manufacturers, especially those within the Amuwo Odofin and Kirikiri industrial areas, are faced with additional challenges of access to their factories owing to the invasion of trailers and other articulated vehicles into the industrial areas.

Onyebu said the precarious situation has brought about most factories accumulating

large stocks of unsold inventories since customers no longer have access to the affected factories.

In 2015, when the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration came into power, it said its focus would be largely on small and medium scale enterprises as well as the manufacturing sector as its key execution priorities of its four-year Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

Other stated priorities included the stabilisation of the macroeconomic environment, energy sufficiency, improvement of transportation infrastructure, and the achievement of food security.

To ensure optimal execution of the ERGP, the Nigerian government resolved in August 2017 to conduct sector or focus labs “designed to tackle complex challenges by bringing together all stakeholders to identify the root causes of the challenges within a sector and generate ideas and resources to solve them”.

For manufacturing and processing, phase one of the ERGP focus labs sought to unlock investment commitments in the food manufacturing, textile, garments and leather industry, mining and downstream activities, petrochemical industry, general manufacturing, and industrial parks.

In phase one, for instance, the focus labs expedited the access of a mining company to the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF ), and brought to the attention of the mining minister the troubles of a bitumen mining company seeking to renew its exploration licences. Additionally, the focus lab aided a metal manufacturing and aluminium company, which “required additional funding” and had held several funding syndications with multilaterals and commercial banks, in getting an agency of the World Bank to conduct a review of their projects within the lab.

However, most of the recommendations are yet to be implemented.

A major key area challenge that must be addressed is multiple taxation. Experts say manufacturers and MSMEs in the country pay over 50 taxes across the country.

In the second quarter of 2019 survey conducted by MAN, 95 percent of CEOs said multiple taxation was their biggest impediment. The number was previously 92 percent in the first quarter.

Analysts believe that addressing this drag will improve manufacturers’ margins, with positive multiplier effect on job creation, factory expansion and improvement in non-oil export to earn foreign exchange for the economy.

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