Business | Money
NEW TELEGRAPH WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015
TAX BOOST
African countries can mobilise over $500 million yearly
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or African countries to make significant progress in their battle to over come financial challenges, they have to focus on mobilising their domestic resources instead of relying on external aid. This was the view of financial experts at the just concluded 50th Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abidjan. The experts whose session was titled, “The Future of Financing for Development in Africa”, reiterated the urgent need for African countries to develop the capacity to mobilise resources locally. Africa Capacity Development Foundation’s (ACDF) Emmanuel Nnadozie, said if African countries bolstered their tax collection capacities, as much as $500 million can be mobilised yearly. Apart from tax, other areas to explore would include the stock market and the sovereign bond market. He noted: “The continent has experienced illicit financial outflows of
How to solve Africa’s financial woes, by experts the order of $50 billion per year; way higher than it receives in aid every year. If these outflows were totally curbed, therefore, Africa can potentially eliminate its need for aid. Countries in the region
need to build up their capacity to fight corruption or face the real threat of institutional collapse.” Similarly, Co-Head, Financial Institutions, Africa, at Standard Chartered Bank, Olu-
korede Adenowo, noted that Africa is making progress in overcoming its prior reputation for poverty and instability but still had a lot to do in remedying its macroeconomic volatilities.
continent and other enablers would readily include import substitution and product diversification. However, he noted that implementing these recommendations will not prove easy, as the saying goes :“The devil is in the details.” From political will and sponsorship to the buy-in of the citizenry, a lot will be required to change the historic direction that Africa has followed for decades.”
L-R: Managing Director, Coscharis Technologies, Mr. Mukoro Emomine; Managing Director, Proxynet Communications, Mr. Ozo-Onyali Edward; Business Development Manager, Africa, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Mr. Marco De Vries and Director, Enterprise Business, Mr. Ojei Charles, at the Samsung Business Partner Day, in Lagos… yesterday. PHOTO: SULEIMAN HUSAINI
NIBSS pledges to develop more e-portals Tony Chukwunyem
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he Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) has promised to design more Electronic Portals (e-portals) for the financial sector as part of efforts to reduce costs and enhance service delivery. The Executive Director, Technology & Operations, NIBSS, Mr. Niyi Ajao, stated this in a chat with the New Telegraph at the launch of the Electronic Pension Contribution Collection System (EPCCOS) in Lagos. He disclosed that apart from the EPCCOS, the NIBSS would soon launch another portal aimed at boosting the country’s payment system. Ajao dismissed concerns that NIBSS could be stretched for capacity because of the
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Hence, greater transparency, more robust governance and stronger tax collection systems are key objectives to realize. He said intra-African trade is a key domestic financing lever for the
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cobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Albert Essien, has been adjudged the African Banker of the Year at the 9th edition of the African Banker Awards in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. A statement issued by ETI’s Group Head, Corporate Communications, Richard Uku, said the award recognised the contribution of individuals in management positions, and best practices in African
demand for its services from various players in the financial sector. He said: “Don’t forget that NIBSS is owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and all the licensed banks in the country, so, we have the necessary support to adequately perform our role in the financial sector.” Commenting on the EPCCOS, which NIBSS launched in partnership with the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PENOP), he pointed out that the EPCCOS is a contribution collection system, which tracks employees’ monthly pension remittance schedules produced by employers for Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and records matching payments to the custodian accounts of the employees’ PFAs.
Also speaking on the EPCCOS, NIBSS Managing Director, Ade Shonubi, said that the portal was developed to make it easier for people to get their contributory pension funds paid easily. He said: “What happens these days is that employers come up with a schedule and then pay whoever the PFA is. But sometimes the information does not get sent on time and your contributions are not recorded against you well. What we have done in collaboration with PENOP is to come up with a system, which automates the process so that both the schedules and the payments can be tied together so that it would not be that when payment has been made, questions will still be asked about who the payment was made for?
Buyout firm seeks further $750m for African deals
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merging Capital Partners, the buyout firm that’s made more than 50 investments in Africa, is seeking as much as $750 million as it pursues further deals. The funds will be sought in the next 12-18 months from development agencies, sovereign wealth, pension funds and family wealth offices, joint Chief Executive Officer Vincent Le Guennou told Bloomberg in an interview. Acquisitions made with the additional funds would take ECP’s assets to $3.25 billion. The Washington-based firm holds stakes in 15 companies and has invested in 45 countries since it was set up in 2000, targeting chiefly financial services, power and water, telecommunications
ETI CEO wins award banking. The statement said Mr Essien was one of five contenders for the award including Segun Agbaje of Nigeria’s GT Bank, Paulo Alexandre Duarte de Sousa of Banco Comercial e de Investimentos of Mozambique, Charles Kimei of Tanzania’s Cooperative Rural Development Bank
Bank Plc and Tariq Sijilmassi of Morocco’s Groupe Credit Agricole. Mr Essien in his acceptance comment said: “I am deeply honoured to receive this award. It comes as a surprise to me because although I have worked for Ecobank for the last 25 years, I have only been Group CEO for just over
a year. On the May 22, Ecobank was named the African Retail Bank of the Year at the Global Retail Banking Awards ceremony in London. The bank according to the statement, also received a nomination in the African Banker Awards in the Best Retail Bank of the Year category.
and consumer goods. “We want to continue to do what we know to do, which is investing in companies and help them develop,” Le Guennou said. ECP’s investments include control of water and power producer Eranove SA, which operates in Ivory Coast, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a majority stake in bank holding company Oragroup SA and more than 17 percent of mobile phone tower provider IHS Holding Ltd. They are examples of companies Le Guennou said are the “regional champions” the firm prefers to own. West Africa is the most attractive region on the continent for buyout firms, according to a 2014 African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association report, as economic growth far outpaces South Africa, its mostdeveloped economy. Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer and the largest economy in Francophone West Africa, targets growth of 10 percent this year. Senegal expects expansion of 5.4 percent, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees Nigeria growing 4.8 percent. South Africa’s central bank predicts 2.1 percent growth.