PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014
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Industry Fake products in Despite price slash, Dangote market now cement still sells at 1700 40%-SON From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos
Alice Ajakaye, Lagos
S
tandards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said its has recorded a sharp fall in the level of substandard products in Nigeria, saying it has drop from 80percent to 40 percent. SON, Director-General, Dr Joseph Odumodu, at a word press Conference titled “Made in Nigeria for the World, a transformation imperative, described the reduction as a major improvement on the fight against substandard goods in the country. Odumodu recalls that when he assumed office four years ago, over 80 per cent of products in the market then were fake and sub-standard products, a development that left the Nigerian consumers very vulnerable, adding that over 90 per cent of those products were imported goods. Odumodu noted that for the Nigerian brands to be able to compete effectively on the global stage, there was the need to adhere strictly to standards as specified by relevant regulatory authorities. “At SON, we believe the way to go now is standardisation, especially when the oil fortunes in the global market has continued to drop. We need to ensure products that come out of here are of global standards, because there is nothing like local standards. “We are introducing a product liability insurance scheme that would make producer of a product liable if anything goes wrong with the consumer while taking such product. “For instance, it is unfortunate that there was no compensation of the parents of those babies that died as a result of the sub-standard drugs they took some time ago, since the company itself was shut down. But this insurance scheme would enable consumers get compensation when such happens,” he added. Odumodu noted that standardization should inculcated into Nigerian schools curriculum saying this would go a long way in ensuring standards in Nigeria. He cited the South korea example, in which standards were taught to a group of students,while another group of students were not taught and at the end of the experiment student that were exposed to standards fared better by 30% in all they did than those that were not exposed to standards.
D
espite announcing 40 per cent reduction in the price of its cement, Dangote Cement still sells at its old rate of 1700 per 50Kg bag. Peoples Daily checks in Lagos and Ogun reveals that cement distributors still sells at old rates. Some distributors lamented
that the cement company did not inform them of plans to slash prices before announcing it to the public. They lamented that old stocks are still in the market and would be sold off at price purchased from the company despite the slashed price. Alhaja Abeni Olayemi, said the news is causing disaffection between cement consumers and distributors. She noted that
it would be difficult to sell at Dangote’s recommended price. She noted that the price slash would reduce the demands for other brands of cement in the market, saying that customers will prefer to buy affordable products than go for expensive ones,” Olayemi said. Group Managing Director of Dangote Cement, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, said the Company has pegged
the Dangote 32.5 cement grade at N1,000 per 50 kg bag, while the higher 42.5 grade is to sell for N1,150 per bag. Edwin said the move is in line with the company’s commitment to the nation’s dire need for the development of infrastructure and to boost the federal and state government’s ongoing effort to reduce the near 20 million housing deficit in Africa’s largest economy.
(L-R): Tayo Oduwole (Head Innovations, CWG); James Agada (Group CTO, CWG); Bature Umar Masari (Director-General/CEO, SMEDAN); Austin Okere (GMD/CEO, CWG); Nasiru Izegwire (Regional Manager, North-CWG) during a meeting in Abuja.
‘eCommerce Beyond selling shoes, phones online’ From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos
I
t is common to associate eCommerce with popular sites such as Jumia or Konga or Amazon and other online retail shops. In Nigeria, it is a belief that is held by a large number of Nigerians that when you want to buy consumer items like shoes or electronics or books you can go online. Of course other web sites allow you to search for jobs or properties or cars but you cannot really buy those online. eCommerce properly done allows an organization of any size to greatly increase her turnover and sales irrespective of the business or the goods being sold. Latest statistics show that 66 million Nigerians are on Facebook, the popular internet social website. 24 million Nigerians
have smartphones that have internet capability, and internet penetration is at 50%. Internet is used in Nigeria by men, women, children, teachers, students, businessmen and enterprises. The addressable market for any business that goes online literally explodes. The importer of shoes can sell to more dealers, the FMCG can sell to her distributors, and the tailor can sell both tailoring service and readymade clothes, while the event organizer or transporter can sell tickets. Chief Technology Officer, CTO Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Mr. James Agada, said the CWG Openshopen platform enables any one to sell anything online. Sales is not only about accepting orders. IT is also about collecting payments and making deliveries.
He said with CWG Openshopen, these services are built in so that once you sign up, you can, if you want, begin to receive payments online and have your goods delivered to customers nationwide without having to invest in any other logistics for payments or delivery. Take for instance an FMCG that cur rently battles with a bank to help do collections and hires an army of order takers to input order details into her ERP system. The FMCG can replace the entire collection and ordering system by opening an online shop on openshopen for her factors and distributors. They will order online, pay online and delivery can be arranged. Or consider a transporter who wants to run a cashless ticketing system. Simply put the tickets online and people
can buy and pay and get their ticket numbers which can be verified from a phone. According to Agada, the CWG Openshopen platform takes eCommerce way beyond the pedestrian selling of shoes and phones, and extends it into the best tool for increased market access. This is a deliberate design borne out of the determination of CWG Plc through her new CWG 2.0 initiative to democratize access to the technology of business. With 17.6 million small enterprises in Nigeria, extending eCommerce to the sale of locally made goods and services greatly expands market access for local content. This same role has been played by Alibaba in China. Today, Alibaba’s stock sell for $98-$100 per share. It will be interesting to see whether CWG shares will also trade at those levels.