Monday 21st November 2016

Enelamah Claims Nigeria Recorded over $20bn Investment Inflows in One Year IOCs move to attract more offshore funds Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja In a remark certain to befuddle Nigerians, the federal government claimed at the weekend that the country recorded over $20 billion investment inflows in the last one year, adding that

such inflows came by way of infrastructure financing, transactions between local private sector players and their offshore counterparts, as well as sundry commitments,

among others.

This is coming amid moves by the international oil companies (IOCs) to attract huge offshore funds to boost operational capacity.

The Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, who made the disclosure in an interview weekend, listed investment inflows in

the past 12 months as those from the China Eximbank, General Electric (GE), Kellogs, Coca Cola, and Chi Company, among others.

Ironically, the so-called

Another 25 Killed in Fresh Zamfara Attack... Page 55

investment inflows have not been evident in an economy reeling from a severe foreign exchange shortage, rising unemployment and spiralling inflation.

“Yes, people are surprised Continued on page 10

Monday 21 November, 2016 Vol 21. No 7886. Price: N250

www.thisdaylive.com TR

UT H

& RE A S O

N

Gunmen Kidnap Ex-Minister in Front of Maman Daura’s House with Abba Kyari Inside Incident occurred after shoot-out with chief of staff’s security detail

John Shiklam in Kaduna

Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi; Group Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe; Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele; and President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Prof. Segun Ajibola, at the 2016 Bankers’ Dinner, held in Lagos… weekend

A former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse, has been abducted by unknown gunmen in Kaduna.

The incident occurred at about 11 a.m. yesterday in front of the Inuwa Wada Road residence of President Continued on page 10

Why Buhari is Determined That APC Wins Ondo Guber Poll Presidency: Tinubu’s Ondo problem is self-inflicted Ruling party opposes call to shift election

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The outcome of Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State is a major test run for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid in 2019, presidency sources have said.

According to THISDAY

checks, the Buhari camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is determined to win Ondo State, first to make a statement in terms of who is

in charge of the party, and two, to set the path for the 2019 general election.

Sources in the presidency hinted that with the decision

to edge out certain players in the APC over the Ondo governorship poll, and the decimation of the most formidable opposition, the

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the race, the camp of the president is out to test its popularity as well as capacity for political strategy in the

MTN Probe: Again, Senate Committee Summons Banks... Page 55

lead up to the 2019 elections.

A source hinted that though the president is very keen on a second term in office, he is taking it slowly because of the state of the country, but would not mind taking his Continued on page 9

2

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

3

4

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

5

6

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

7

8

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

9

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

PAGE NINE

NNPC, Shell Sign MoUs with Banks for $2.2bn Contractor Support Fund Ejiofor Alike Shell Companies in Nigeria, supported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with eight Nigerian banks under the revised Shell Contractor Support Fund, the latest milestone in an effort to improve access to finance for Nigerian vendors and suppliers in the oil and gas industry.

Under the MoUs signed in Lagos, Access Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Standard Chartered Bank,

First City Monument Bank (FCMB), and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc have set aside $2.2 billion for contract execution

by Nigerian firms.

According to a statement

by Shell, the scheme provides support for contractors to enable them finance projects executed for Shell Companies in Nigeria in line with the aspirations of the Nigerian Content Act. To access these funds, the contractors must have a valid purchase order and meet the banks’ risk assessment criteria. This revised version is in response to market realities and will offer loans faster and at cheaper rates.

The Managing Director of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said at the signing ceremony in Lagos that supporting SMEs under this scheme was for the mutual benefit of all the parties.

“While the scheme reduces the pressure from requests for advance payments from contractors on us, it also ensures optimum delivery by our contractors, leaving the banks with a de-risked clientele base, in addition to the comfort of domiciliation of payments,” Okunbor said.

Also speaking, Shell’s Finance Manager, Nigeria and Gabon, Guy Janssens, added that funding is key to enable contractors deliver and grow. Janssens also urged the banks to make the scheme work.

Commenting on the MoUs, the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, advised the contractors to perform in order to build trust and grow.

The Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment and Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr. Dafe Sejebo, who was represented

by Bunmi Lawson, implored

the banks to make the loan facilities available to the vendors when they come for them.

In the same vein, the Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Mr. Bank-Anthony Okoroafor, enjoined the banks to be realistic in their demands in order to engender easier access to the funds.

Responding, one of the contractors, Moritz Abazie of Strides Energy and Maritime Limited, urged the banks to ensure that the rates charged are comparable to credit sourced from overseas so that Nigerian firms could compete with foreign firms

in bidding for jobs.

The Contractor Funding Scheme started in 2011 with the Shell Kobo Fund, which gave rise to the Shell Contractor Support Fund in 2012. The scheme has been redesigned to address the current economic exigencies and to align it with stakeholder needs by merging the two initial initiatives.

To date, the six participating banks have disbursed $1billion to over 220 vendors. In 2015, 93 per cent of all contracts awarded by Shell Companies in Nigeria were undertaken

by Nigerian companies amounting to $900 million.

WHY BUHARI IS DETERMINED THAT APC WINS ONDO GUBER POLL chances if the atmosphere is right.

It is for this reason the presidency is said to have gone out on a limb over the Ondo governorship poll slated to hold this weekend. The source noted that if, with all that has been at play in the Ondo theatrics APC wins, then Buhari would throw his hat into the ring come 2019.

However, if the outcome of the election does not go as planned, it may not necessarily mean that the president would automatically abandon his re-election bid, but he might only take a more cautious approach to his second term bid for the presidency, especially if the mood of the public remains the same.

Although the source did not address the allegation of interference by the presidency in all that has gone on in the state, especially within the PDP, it is generally believed that the presidency actually had a hand in the crisis in the main opposition party, particularly the bid to stop the candidate of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN).

Another source told THISDAY that the general consensus is that if the outgoing governor is able to get Jegede on the ballot, then the dream of the president to realise a Rotimi Akeredolu governorship might be in jeopardy, hence the alleged attempt to frustrate Jegede’s candidacy through

TOP GAINERS NGN NGN TRANSCORPHOTEL 0.48 5.25 AXAMANSARD 0.09 1.89 OANDO 0.18 3.96 MAYBAKER 0.04 0.92 NAHCO 0.09 2.34 TOP LOSERS NGN NGN FLOURMILLS 1.74 16.20 BERGPAINTS 0.66 6.23 AIICO 0.03 0.57 SEPLAT 18.05 342.95 PZ CUSSONS 0.78 14.99 HPE Nestle Nig Plc N800.00 Volume: 165.576 million shares Value: N888.174 million Deals: 2,279 As at yesterday 18/11/16 See details on Page 37

% 10 5.0 4.7 4.3 4.0 % 9.7 9.5 5.0 5.0 4.9

the courts.

It is against this backdrop that the president’s foot soldiers are said to have resolved to not only frustrate the emergence of Jegede, but ensure that Akeredolu emerges the next governor of Ondo State.

Another reason the Ondo saga is believed to have become really messy is the alleged decision by a former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to extract his own pound of flesh from Mimiko, who was believed to have worked against him in 2014 when he sought re-election but was defeated by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Sources informed THISDAY that Fayemi is taking the Ondo election personally because of Mimiko, and is the very reason the Minister of Solid Minerals Development has not hidden his desire to oust the PDP and Mimiko’s candidate at all cost.

He was even said to have been responsible for some of the problems the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate, Olusola Oke, had at the time he (Oke) defected to the AD. All he wants, sources said, is to clear the road for Akeredolu and would stop at nothing including decimating whoever stands in APC’s way.

Another presidency source also volunteered that the angst of the National Leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over the party’s primary in the state, which threw up Akeredolu was self-inflicted.

He said Tinubu had no reason to hold a grudge against the party or Buhari over the primary because the National Chairman of the party Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, at the outset, gave Tinubu his due as the national leader of the APC and its leader in the South-west geopolitical zone by consulting with him and sharing with him the delegates’ list.

“However, Tinubu’s camp tried to hedge its bet by backing three candidates for the primary. Rauf Aregbesola was backing Olusola Oke, Tinubu’s wife, Remi, was pushing for Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice, while Tinubu was supporting Dr. Olusegun Abraham.

“So Akeredolu who

AUN CELEBRATES ITS FOUNDER’S DAY

Former Vice-President and founder, American University of Nigeria (AUN), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (R), and Chairman, Board of Trustees of the university, Mr. Akin Kekere-Ekun, at the 11th Annual Founder's Day held at the Lamido Aliyu Musdafa Commencement Hall at AUN, Yola, Adamawa State… weekend was not given much of a chance came and decimated the field of Tinubu’s contestants in a very close race to win the primary.

If you recall, he only beat Abraham who was second by 31 votes while Abraham beat Oke who came third in the primary by 97 votes.

“The reason it was so close was because Tinubu’s camp was hedging its bet and did not want to put all of its eggs in one basket, so it could not make up its mind by backing one candidate against Akeredolu.

“As such, the votes that could have gone to Abraham was split among other candidates that they were backing,” the presidency source explained.

He also revealed that once Akeredolu emerged the party’s candidate in the Ondo poll, the APC, its governors and presidency were in no mood to change the outcome of the primary

despite the recommendation of the review panel that it should hold another primary, citing other instances such as the Katsina and Adamawa primaries in 2014.

“If Buhari could accept the outcome of the Katsina primary in which his preferred candidate, Hadi Sirika lost to Aminu Masari, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar accepted his candidate’s loss to Jibrilla Bindow, we would have expected Tinubu to do likewise by embracing Akeredolu as the APC candidate in Ondo.

“However, he has refused to do so, forgetting that the loss of his candidate to Akeredolu was selfinflicted,” he said.

Meanwhile, APC has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to postpone this weekend’s governorship election in Ondo State on account of the internal crisis in the

PDP. APC said that it opposes the call made by PDP on the electoral body to shift the election date to allow it settle its internal crisis.

A statement yesterday by its National Secretary, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, said that the crisis in the PDP was self-inflicted and as such the party could not hold Ondo State and the country hostage on account of its internal problem.

“The attention of the APC has been drawn to a bizarre request by a faction of the PDP on INEC to postpone the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State on account of the PDP’s internal crisis.

“APC calls on INEC to ignore PDP’s bizarre request and concentrate on delivering a free, fair, credible and transparent ballot on election day.

“The PDP in continuation of its wild conspiracies on the Ondo governorship election has also accused

the APC of colluding with the judicial system, INEC and security agencies to ‘manipulate’ the outcome of the Ondo State governorship election.

“The PDP crisis and the aftermath governorship candidate tussle within its ranks are self-inflicted and the PDP cannot hold Ondo State and indeed the country hostage on account of its internal crisis.

“Instead of making the ridiculous election postponement request on INEC, the PDP should focus and redirect its energy towards putting its house in order.

“The APC is not party to any scheme to subvert justice and undermine the very progressive and participatory democracy which the APC fiercely stands for.

“The Ondo electorate is wise and will vote for the candidate with a proven track record of performance on election day,” it said.

10

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

NEWS

Why African Music Finally Has the World’s Ear We are consuming more music than ever before, and from a wider range of sources, and emerging markets in Africa, in particular, are becoming more profitable. UK-based record company Beggars Group, for example, reported that 20 per cent of its revenue comes from emerging markets.

It is now licensing music for the first time in Nigeria, Uganda and Angola, according to an IFPI report.

“Bits of the world that you don’t see regularly as record markets are much bigger for us in the streaming world than the download or physical world,” said Beggars Group founder and chairman Martin Mills in the report.

South Africa, for example, saw overall digital revenue in music double in 2013, according to IFPI's 2014 report.

Streaming is becoming more popular globally — it rose 93 per cent in 2015, according to IFPI. As smartphone penetration in Africa increases — it went from two per cent in 2010 to 11 per cent in 2013 — streaming services are gaining ground, giving the music made on the African continent more opportunity to find a global audience.

In South Africa, it is estimated that 40 per cent to 50 per cent of digital income now comes from iTunes, according to IFPI's 2016 report.

“This is an amazing time for African music,” Nigerian Afrobeats artist Mr Eazi told CNN. “Because of the internet Africans are exposed to the rest of the world without travelling. Afrobeat is now

urbanised, the internet has made everything wellpackaged.

“Now you see A-listers all around the world, like Drake and Nas, sampling African music; I’ve even heard Japanese music with African drums. It’s invading pop culture and it’s a marvelous time for African music.”

Another A-lister who may have been influenced

by African music is Alicia Keys, after releasing her single In Common, she had people wondering if it was, in fact, an Afrobeats song.

As the internet serves African music to the rest of the world, an appetite is developing for this market.

It is estimated that the South African entertainment and media industry will generate R175.4 billion ($122 billion) in revenue next year. Total exports from Africa’s entertainment sector currently bring in roughly $480 million a year, according to Politifact.

“African music has always inspired many other genres and popular artists,” UKbased radio presenter and club DJ Abrantee Boateng told CNN. “If the music is good and it is exposed to a wider audience, increased growth is almost inevitable.”

The formula for international success seems to be good music and even better marketing.

“The artists started thinking beyond the continent of Africa and applying business strategies to their releases, securing international collaborations, making commercially appealing tunes and utilising the power of social media to get noticed,” Boateng added.

In two of sub-Saharan

D'banj Africa’s largest economies, Nigeria and Kenya, income from consumer spending on recorded music was predicted to reach $43 million and $19 million by the end of last year, respectively, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

As digital music sales grow, the artists hope this means increased recognition for their work.

“My hope is that an African pop star will win a Grammy, and occupy the number 1 position on a Billboard chart,” South African singer Lira told CNN. “At the moment, we work as best as we can with the platforms that are available to us, at some point the power and influence of African music will be unavoidable.”

“I’m predicting that DJs

like Calvin Harris and David Guetta will start coming down to infuse African music in their sound,” Mr. Eazi added.

“Artists will start getting proper publishing (deals) once the African music scene gets half as organised as it is in the UK, once there’s distribution, once there’s marketing.”

Nigerian singer May7ven sees language as a huge

advantage for African music.

“When you compare the growth potential of African countries to China and India, the major difference is that English is not the main language in those territories.

So despite their numbers they may alienate the rest of the world, that’s the reason why African music and film industry will be the world’s largest.”

“They say you need oil to get out of oil and this will improve the oil sector significantly,” Enelamah said.

On what his ministry is doing to diversify the economy vis-a-vis trade and investment, the minister said the ministry was more of an enabler trying to put in place the requisite environment for businesses to thrive.

“The Ministry of Trade and Investment has a particularly important role to play because we view ourselves as a key enabler to those that are in industry, trade and investment.

“Permit me to explain what I mean by being a key enabler.

I think all those issues that people have with doing business, whether it takes too long, whether people

are trying to give them a hard time, I think we have a particular responsibility as a ministry to make it easy for them to understand and make sure government is listening to them.

“The good news is that this is what is shared by the entire government, right from the president. That was why the president launched the Presidential Enabling Business Council. That’s why it is chaired by the vice-president,” the minister stated.

He added that the ministry was also working on the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan as a key programme of government that would help to diversify the economy away from oil, and tilt more towards agriculture and agro processing.

off,” one eyewitness said.

Security sources said the gunmen might have mistaken Hirse for Daura.

Daura himself was inside the house with Kyari and other guests when the incident occurred. He was said to have been preparing to leave for Abuja.

Confirming the abduction, the spokesman of the Kaduna

State Police Command, Aliyu Usman, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), however said Hirse was not kidnapped in front of Daura’s house, but along the street where the president’s nephew lives.

He said the police immediately mounted a manhunt to rescue Hirse and arrest the culprits.

ENELAMAH CLAIMS NIGERIA RECORDED OVER $20BN INVESTMENT INFLOWS IN ONE YEAR about how big investment inflows are because they have come in large chunks.

But let me tell you that we have gotten a total of well over $20 billion,” he said.

He stated that the major infrastructure projects were part of the investment inflows, adding that what people see as investment inflows are “not just the money physically”, but also the commitments that have come.

He added: “If you look at the infrastructure projects that we are doing, there is a $20 billion or more infrastructure projects with the China Eximbank. It has been signed and it’s now implemented around railways and related infrastructure.

“There is an agreement with General Electric, which

is about $2 billion which they have committed in the last one year. There are private sector investments such as Chellarams, which sold a major part of their business to Kellogs of the United States.

That deal was may be about $400 million.

“There was a deal that was done by Chi with Coca Cola. That deal also ran into hundreds of millions of dollars. BUA also sold something (its flour mills unit) to an international player (Olam International of Singapore) for a substantial sum.

“However, we want to increase the steady inflow of foreign direct investment across all levels because there are many more people waiting on the sidelines, apart from

the big people who are doing multi-year infrastructure projects.”

The minister recalled that the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) had “just appointed a new hand for the private sector”, adding that “as a government, we want to partner with the private sector”.

According to him, the government doesn’t have all the money it needs to develop the country, and it is therefore willing and committed to partnering with the private sector players and development capital to develop the country by making sure such capital goes into the right places.

“I think you will find that in investment, things are picking up even in terms of

statistics. There is a significant uptick in investment, even though some of it has to do with fixed income investment.

But it’s still capital that we need.

“Another thing I want to say regarding investment is that the oil companies have reached an agreement that is now being finalised to bring in more money into the oil and gas sector.

“You will hear more about it from next week (this week).

We are just going through the process. You know oil; everybody has a stake in it...

There was a meeting with the National Economic Council and other stakeholders will be briefed but it’s a very important programme to bring in billions of dollars into the country.

GUNMEN KIDNAP EX-MINISTER IN FRONT OF MAMAN DAURA’S HOUSE WITH ABBA KYARI INSIDE Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, Alhaji Mamman Daura, when the former minister came visiting.

Hirse and a friend were said to have earlier visited the Kaduna family residence of the late Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki, who died last week, on Kabiru Road to condole with the family of the deceased.

It was after the condolence visit to Dasuki’s house that he and his friend decided to stop over at Daura’s house a few meters away.

Daura was said to have been at home receiving guests and associates including the president’s Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari, when the incident happened.

According to eyewitnesses,

the gunmen on reaching the scene ordered Hirse into a waiting car.

“They ordered him to get into their car but he tried to seek further explanations from them and voices were raised, so people started to approach the scene.

“As the argument ensued, one of the gunmen raised the gun he was holding and made

to shoot but it did not fire. He tried it the second time and it failed, but the third time, a shot rang out and people ran for their dear lives.

“Upon hearing the gunshot, Abba Kyari’s security detail who were outside Maman Daura’s house shot back at the gunmen who quickly forced the former minister into the car, threw out his cap and babariga and sped

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

11

12

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

53

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

13

14

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

DATA AND AFRICA’S GROWTH

A

Michael R. Bloomberg argues that reliable, accessible data plays a critical role in any economy

frica is home to some of the world’s fastestgrowing economies and is one of the most promising regions for international investment.

This growth could be accelerated by addressing a fixable problem: lack of good data.

Reliable, accessible data plays a critical role in any economy. Investors require data before making decisions, and the more complete and up-to-date the data, the greater their willingness to invest.

Data also helps public officials make sound decisions that promote growth and innovation, and enables citizens to hold government and business accountable. This is why improving data collection has been a high priority for many African governments, as well as Pan-African and global institutions.

The private sector also has an important role to play. The company I founded, Bloomberg, provides access to real-time financial news and data, and we have been working with capital markets in 24 African cities to make local economic and financial data more easily available, which helps to attract investment.

While considerable progress has been made in the past several years, there are still large gaps in data, including economic and financial data, across the continent. Where there is data, it is often not standardised or up-to-date, or not readily accessible.

Solving these problems was the focus of our second Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators forum in Naivasha, Kenya. The event – part of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa, which we launched in Johannesburg in 2014 – brought together leaders in government, business, media, and technology to discuss ways to harness data to drive growth.

Through our Media Initiative, we’re working with universities in three of Africa’s largest economies – Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa – to train journalists to analyse and report on economic data, and to improve the quality and availability of that data. Financial journalism can bring more accountability and transparency to African economies and drive investment and growth, but only if journalists have access to reliable information.

We believe collaboration among sectors can help economies grow, and this spirit of cooperation drives the media innova-

DATA HELPS PUBLIC OFFICIALS MAKE SOUND DECISIONS THAT PROMOTE GROWTH AND INNOVATION, AND ENABLES CITIZENS TO HOLD GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS ACCOUNTABLE

tors conference. Our influential community shared insights on the kinds of data and information that are most useful to them and pose ideas for how to improve access, analysis and distribution of data, including through public-private partnerships.

The forum was also an opportunity for media companies to share strategies that will help them navigate new opportunities arising from social and mobile technology. Mobile is expanding faster in Africa than anywhere else, and that represents a great opportunity, because it is generating an extraordinary amount of new data. Governments can use that data to improve services and the public can use it to be better informed. Private companies can use public data to find ways to better serve customers, and journalists can use it to expand their coverage about important issues.

As a philanthropist who also served three terms as mayor of New York City, I’ve seen the difference that reliable data can make in people’s lives. Through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health programme, we’re helping governments – including six countries in Africa – collect and analyse public health data. Through our Equal Footing programme, we are compiling data on philanthropic efforts in Africa to allow funders, nonprofits, and governments to learn from and collaborate with each other, so that resources have the biggest impact.

Last September, I joined U.S. President Obama and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to host the second U.S.Africa Business Forum in New York City. We were joined by hundreds of business and government leaders from Africa and America, with the aim of building new partnerships and increasing business investment between the U.S. and Africa. Reliable data and strong economic journalism can help us reach those goals, fuel Africa’s continuing growth, and improve millions of lives throughout the continent. By bringing together leaders from across sectors and across Africa, the Naivasha forum made significant contribution to these efforts.

Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City, is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News

ARE WE LOSING OUR HUMANITY? It is time to stop senseless killings, writes Kester Osahenye

“

I was a witness of the execution at Horsemonger-lane this morning. ... I believe that a sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of the immense crowd collected at that execution this morning could be imagined by no man, and could be presented in no heathen land under the sun. The horrors of the gibbet and of the crime which brought the wretched murderers to it, faded in my mind before the atrocious bearing, looks and language, of the assembled spectators ... when the two miserable creatures who attracted all this ghastly sight about them were turned quivering into the air, there was no more emotion, no more pity, no more thought that two immortal souls had gone to judgment, no more restraint in any of the previous obscenities, than if the name of Christ had never been heard in this world, and there were no belief among men but that they perished like beasts.”

These effusive outbursts of the famous British author Charles Dickens totally captured my angst, the level of man’s inhumanity to man and the ways sacred lives are wasted in Nigeria. Dickens was amongst the 30,000 crowd that witnessed what was referred to as the “Hanging of the Century”, of Mr. and Mrs. Manning on November 13, 1849, at the Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Southwark, United Kingdom. The Mannings had murdered their friend, took his money and buried him under the kitchen floor.

That execution dealt an emotional blow on the psyche of the famous writer; he was upset by the unbridled delight of humanity at the execution of the husband and wife.

The glee and ostensible bliss at the deaths of others by humanity is not restricted to the 1849 United Kingdom, but has taken a frightening dimension in our country.

On November 16, 2016 in Badagry area: a suburb of Lagos State, a seven- year- old boy was lynched for allegedly ‘trying’ to steal garri from a trader’s shop. The online video and pictures of the heartless lynching, spellbinding killing of this minor are horrid, heart-rending, insensitive, incredulous and sadistic. We have suddenly slithered into a nation that derives malicious pleasure at the pains of others. From history, the epidemic of unguarded epicaricacy is a symptom of many veiled ailments, which are festering under inherent psychological and economic disorders. The resurgence of such maladies always lead to calamitous revolts, riotous capers, intemperate communal conflicts, genocidal overtures, lack of respect for human lives and obliterating compassionate hearts. The gloating of citizens at the death of a minor, who might have been forced by hunger, to take some cupful of garri from the trader, is the abysmal height of this malaise.

Citizens would capture these heartbreaking pictures with their smartphones, join in the unholy umbrage and upload those offensive materials on the internet, instead of calling the police or anyone that could stop the seething cruelty. In February this year, a young boy of about 15 years, fainted at a bank ATM queue off Awolowo Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Everyone ran off as if the young guy had leprosy. I immediately held him and applied some rudimentary medical resuscitation measures; he looked dehydrated, malnourished and fatigued. I instantly requested my chauffeur to get water; I poured some on his head, others on his dry and sticky mouth. He gasped for breath and let out a shrilling tearless scream. The bystanders and quick-to-criticise interrupters, who did not help said several negative things that could not dissuade me from displaying Godly

virtues, which distinguished humanity from animals. Some warned me that the police would arrest me if anything happens to the boy. I was bemused at how our experiences typified how we should treat others and behave. I ignored the naysayers and took the young boy to a restaurant where I got him food and water. He ate elatedly and muttered, that he trekked a long distance to cash the little money his parents sent to him to buy books and food. He was a student at a nearby secondary school. I handed him some naira notes, hugged him as flurry of emotions ran through my head and I felt the cold sting of tears streaming down my face. I shed tears for a country that used to live the values of our forebears, where we were ‘our brothers’ keepers, where a whole community raises a child. That was when anyone could flog you and take you to your parents, where you will receive additional dose of the cane, for a display of ‘public affronts that blotched our good family name’. Every child was your child, we looked out for our brothers, cousins, friends and gave shelter to strangers; we respected, gave gifts and physical support to the elderly, not raping the older women as recently experienced in one state of the federation recently.

We are so religious as a nation, yet hatred and atrocious acts compete with our sanctimonious avowals. We cannot give palliative measures to a deep-seated disorder such as morose delectation that spilled the innocent blood of four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt at Aluu, Rivers State, on October 5, 2012. It sent innumerable citizens to their early graves, it has snuffed out lives of guiltless infants in Akwa Ibom State who were branded ‘child witches’, until Anja Ringgren Loven, the Danish aid worker rescued a little child, Hope, from the claws

of death. Today Hope has become the poster child to educate the global community that this barbaric fairy-tale of ‘Child Witch” is anachronistic, retrogressive and foolish like the propagators of the archaic mythology.

It would take the collective efforts by family, community, hamlet, village, local council, state and the federal government to have a moral rebirth; we must begin to elevate good ethical conducts and archetypical endearing values that made us one nation; we must hand over culprits to the law enforcement officers. We cannot take laws into our own hands through dastard acts of savagery. The hapless NGOs and government agencies with self-serving objectives would only make this a utopian project. To live in a nation where everyone is empathetic and assuredly ready to protect their neighbours from danger, we must jettison hatred, psychopathic behaviours and tribal sentiments that had thrown our communities and cities into killing fields.

Hatred, jungle justice perpetrators and total indifference to barbarism are co-equals in atrocities. Indifference fuels complicity and tacit endorsement of criminality; indifference whether innate or choice driven is a destructive anathema that allows evil to thrive in our society. If you cannot confront the evil as a survivalist tendency, to save your own life, you must report or invest your mental, intellectual, spiritual and physical energies to stop crimes. If we claim we love God that we do not see, yet we cannot show concern for humanity, then we are paying lip service to the essence of love. Our collective inaction and lack of concern continued to make easily preventable deaths of the innocent possible.

The time to stop senseless killings is now.

Dr. Osahenye is a creative writer

15

T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ Í°ÍŻËœ Í°ÍŽÍŻÍ´

EDITORIAL DEALING WITH ASUU’S WARNING STRIKE Government may do well to obey agreements freely entered

P

redictably, academic activities were for most of last week grounded in several universities across the country as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) made good its threat to embark on a warning strike. But, as we have admonished repeatedly, it is important for the federal government and ASUU to quickly find common grounds on this perennial problem. To the extent that students in our universities have suffered enough in recent years, this administration should do everything to ensure we do not return to the dark past.

Strikes have contributed significantly to the decline in the quality of graduates of our public universities.

The hurried academic calendars, following the end of industrial actions, allow for very little attention to serious studies or research. That is why our public universities have continued to go down the ladder of academic ranking, even among their peers in Africa.

The state of Nigerian campuses today is rather pathetic as students are practically left to their own devices. Even before WE CANNOT SHY AWAY ASUU’s warning FROM THE FACT THAT strike, no academic THE UNDER-FUNDING OF work was going THE EDUCATION SECTOR on in many of the HAS HAD COLLATERAL campuses due to DAMAGING EFFECTS ON internal problems.

THE COUNTRY, SUCH THAT For instance, at the OUR UNIVERSITIES HAVE Federal University of NOW BECOME CARCASSES Technology, Akure, OF THEIR FORMER SELVES academic activities had been paralysed over issues of fraud and corruption.

At the University of Calabar where lecturers joined the strike, Chairman of the local ASUU chapter, Dr Tony Eyang seemed more concerned about the application of the Treasury Single Account, (TSA) to universities.

It is noteworthy that the federal government and ASUU had for several years been locked in a running battle over the implementation of agreements on the funding of the country’s public universities. The

Letters to the Editor

S

consequences have been lengthy industrial strikes by the lecturers, with the attendant debilitating effects on educational development in particular and academic pursuits in general. Therefore, another strike would further damage whatever remains of the credibility of tertiary education in our country.

T T H I S DAY

EDITOR

DEPUTY EDITORS

˜

MANAGING DIRECTOR

DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR

CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD

EDITOR NATIONĂ­ S CAPITAL

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN

GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ˜

˜

˜ ˜

GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR

DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS ˜

˜

˜ DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR

SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ˜ CONTROLLERS

˜

˜

GENERAL MANAGER

GROUP HEAD

ART DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION

TO SEND EMAIL: rst name.surname@thisdaylive.com

he university lecturers had announced recently that the union was being owed about N660 billion as Needs Assessment Intervention Funds (NAIF) by the federal government. According to ASUU, the money is part of the unpaid intervention fund for the last three years. In addition, ASUU argues that the federal government still owes academic staff in the public universities a whopping N200 billion arrears of earned allowances for the 2014 and 2015 academic years. The union made a number of other claims with a warning that it could yet go on another strike. That was the genesis of the ongoing one-week warning strike which, given past experience, could be a prelude to another long closure of our campuses.

However, we cannot shy away from the fact that the under-funding of the education sector has had collateral damaging effects on the country, such that our universities have now become carcasses of their former selves. But dealing with the challenge requires more than seasonal strikes by the lecturers while the federal government also needs to understand the primacy of constant dialogue, especially given the current realities.

Therefore, going forward requires other critical stakeholders in the education sector joining in the efforts to find a lasting solution to what has become a perplexing national challenge. In doing this, the federal government should take the initiative so that we can collectively come up with ways to reposition tertiary education in our country. It is unfortunate that disputes are always occasioned by the broken promises and unfulfilled agreements of the federal government.

Yet there is no way we can develop our country until efforts are made to revitalise key sectors like education.

Another strike by ASUU will not be in the interest of the nation.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to speci c publications in THISDAY should be brief (150≠200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well≠written and should also not be longer than (950≠1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

BELLO: ONE YEAR OF SERVICES IN FCT

ince he was plucked, in a manner of speaking, from his previous assignment as the boss of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria and invested with the back-breaking task of administering the affairs of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, has exhibited discernible phases of positive disposition to his assignment and - wait for it - with appreciable results.

The minister, who took over the mantle of leadership on November 11, 2015 immediately unchained the FCTA and placed it on the path to sustainable development with a firm promise not only to sustain the legacies of his predecessors, but to also increase the tempo of executing developmental projects in the territory.

It has often been said that anniversaries, either in the life of an individual or in the history of a nation, is a milestone worthy of celebration. On this occasion of Muhammad Bello’s one year in office as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, I intend to interrogate the man’s activities in office so far with a view to highlighting some of his achievements.

With his eyes firmly set on leaving a positive imprint on the canvass of history of the FCT, especially in the area of infrastructural development, the first fundamental thing the minister did was to embark on visits to several project sites with a view to taking stock of inherited projects that have immediate and direct bearing on the lives of FCT residents.

Some of the projects visited include the Abuja Light Rail and the knotty Karshi – Apo – Arah road.

Keenly aware of the pivotal importance of the on-going Abuja Rail Mass Transit, the minister assured residents of FCT that his administration would work assiduously to make the Abuja rail system operational in the last quarter of 2017.

Another area that attracted Bello’s ministerial attention is environmental sanitation, which necessitated his unscheduled visit to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to signal the commencement of a frontal war on environmental filthiness (WOF). To bring the issue of personal hygiene and environmental nuisances to the fore, he introduced the FCT Household and Community Sanitation Exercise in the Area Councils and satellite towns of the FCT. This was after giving the sum of N1.6 billion as bailout to the six area councils to settle the salaries owed their staff.

In the area of provision of potable water, Bello, after series of meetings and visits to the FCT Water Board facilities, including the Lower Usuma Dam, gave a firm assurance that his administration would work diligently to improve supply of clean water to the entire residents of the FCT and true to his promise, he has been inching closer to realising this noble objective.

In his determination to decongest Abuja city centre, the minister has invested so much attention on the development of the six area councils, and the satellite towns, just as he has moved the Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD) to Karshi to bring it closer to the rural people.

In his determination to build on the legacy left behind

by his predecessors in the sanitisation of the Abuja Land Administration system, the unassuming Bello equally set a machinery in motion that will help sanitise the processes of allocating land in strict compliance with the rule of law, declaring that henceforth, the FCT Administration would only allocate plots of land in the Abuja industrial zones to genuine manufacturers that have capacity to develop them for purposes they are earmarked for and must be within a time frame.

It would also be recalled that few weeks after assuming office, Bello did what several Nigerians thought was farfetched and practically impossible when he offset the over N2 billion owed cleaning and maintenance contractors by the previous administrations to enable them resume work on the evacuation of solid waste in the city centre and satellite towns.

The minister equally paid over N1.787 billion to the Universal Basic Education Board, which included arrears that have not been paid since 2013. He has further released the sum of N2,939,681,413 and N808,075,585 as counterpart funds for the Abuja rail project as well as its consultancy services respectively.

Contrary to insinuations from several quarters that the administration has not done enough in containing the menace of cattle grazing, the Bello-led administration has in the last one year arrested 589 hawkers, 25 cows and 51 sheep and prosecuted nine herdsmen.

Rogers Edor Ochela, Abuja

16

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

POLITICS

Group Politics Editor Olawale Olaleye Email wale.olaleye@thisdaylive.com 08116759819 SMS ONLY

T H E M O N D AY D I S C O U R S E

With Uncertainty, Ondo Braces for Governorship Poll The battle for the soul of Ondo State is gradually inching to a close, with the election billed to hold this Saturday, November 26. Unfortunately, the people of the state are going to the poll to elect a new governor with a disturbing uncertainty hovering over the political atmosphere believed to have been orchestrated by external forces with a stake in the outcome of the election. In this pre-election analysis, James Sowole traces from inception the electoral battle that may have been wittingly or unwittingly reduced to a two-horse race

Buhari raising the hand of Akeredolu at the party’s grand finale rally in Akure, Ondo State capital, recently

P

reparatory to the November 26 gubernatorial election in Ondo State, a track was adopted from a popular song of Harry Song, a hippo star, to produce a jingle for the Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, SAN after he emerged candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from what was known as a legally constituted primary of the party. The jingle ‘After Mimiko who be next…

Eyi…tayo…My people Let us vote for Eyitayo so that Ondo State will continue to be good…

Vote Eyitayo Jegede as Governor Ondo State’.

This popular jingle became a household song immediately it hit the airwaves and was also twisted by local musicians for other parties’ candidates whenever they went on campaign.

But things have changed in the last three weeks, sequel to the legal imbroglio occasioned by the rivalry between Senators Alli Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi for the control of the party at the national level and which has also had effects on the situation in some states.

The case of Ondo State became worse with the crisis over who is PDP’s standard bearer and which had already affected the chances of the party in the forthcoming election. The musical jingle which was made specifically for the PDP candidate, Jegede, before he was substituted by the Federal High Court, Abuja, with Jimoh Ibrahim, was soon twisted in a way to mock Jegede and the PDP. The people in town now sing thus: After Mimiko who be next…Emi o mo…I don’t know o… I don’t know o!

The message of this twisted version of Jegede’s song actually captured the state of things on the forthcoming governorship election in the Sunshine State as at now, though the three major candidates and their supporters had been going about with their campaigns with the aim of persuading the electorate to vote for them.

With just six days to the election, the political field is still widely opened to any of the leading candidates to explore.

Prior to the October 14 judgment, which was enforced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on October 27 with the substitution of the Jegede’s name for Ibrahim, Jegede was leading other candidates due to the fact that he started his own campaign earlier than others. While the APC was still managing the post-primary issues that tore the party apart,

Jegede was already on the field campaigning and this enabled him to cover more grounds.

At that time, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate, Chief Olusola Oke had not settled in the party while the All Progressives Candidate (APC), Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN was still consulting with various stakeholders on how to manage the intra-party crisis that arose from the primary that produced him.

Though Ibrahim had embarked on campaign tour of local government areas of the state campaigning, the substitution of Jegede has affected greatly the chances of the PDP to retain the executive power in the state. With Ibrahim as the candidate of the party, it is the belief of many people that the PDP cannot win the election even if Akeredolu and Oke were not in the race. It was also being said by the people that Ibrahim was not out to contest the election in the first instance but out to stop any candidate sponsored by Mimiko.

However, stopping Miimiko’s candidate is tantamount to stopping PDP from election.

Despite the substitution of the Jegede’s name, the Ahmed Makarfi faction, which Mimiko belongs, had continued with subtle campaign for Jegede by playing host to different groups in the state and assuring them that they should not be discouraged by the court judgment, because it cannot stand. Mimiko, at different for a, had also urged the people to continue with their campaign for Jegede in order to put those who do not want Jegede to contest to shame because they knew he would win the election.

As the waiting game tarried, anxiety gripped some members of the PDP on the fate of Jegede and PDP. Two thoughts were in the mind of these people. One was that since the Supreme Court is the last destination of issues like the one at hand, it would be disastrous for them to work for Jegede and the PDP to win the election but only for Ibrahim to go to Supreme Court and be declared the governor. To these people, the risk is not worth taking, so, the need to quickly pitch their tents with a candidate whose candidacy is not controversial.

The other thought in the mind of these people is that the Justice Okon Abang judgment had demoralised many people and had made them to shift allegiance to another party because of the pains of waiting for another four years particularly

by those who don’t have any other job apart from politicking. Also, it is being peddled that Mimiko was already discussing with a camp in APC. This rumour was vehemently denied by the government and the PDP loyal to Mimiko.

Debunking the rumour, PDP Publicity Secretary in Ondo State, Mr. Banji Okunomo said the rumour circulating to the effect that that there was an understanding to support a person or another party in the forthcoming election is false, absolutely incorrect and erroneous.

“Our party has no other candidate other than Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, who we are determined to work assiduously to make governor through the popular vote of the people of Ondo State.

Any contrary view aside from this is unfounded, dishonest and baseless. Therefore, we call on the people to disregard such view totally,” Okunomo stated.

With this statement and other assurances given

by Mimiko, all hopes were not lost because what looked like the travails of Jegede only made him

The case of Ondo State became worse with the crisis over who is PDP’s standard bearer and which had already affected the chances of the party in the forthcoming election. The musical jingle which was made specifically for the PDP candidate, Jegede, before he was substituted by the Federal High Court, Abuja, with Jimoh Ibrahim, was soon twisted in a way to mock Jegede and the PDP

more popular because the issue as at the time of filing this report, was the most discussed in the entire country.

That Jegede was popular was not in doubt because the mere granting of his leave to appeal the Abang judgment was greeted with jubilations as people trooped to the streets in various parts of the state to celebrate the ruling of the court to continue with the matter. The decision of the court came despite the application of the factional chairman of the party, Biyi Poroye challenging the constitution of the Special Appeal Panel.

Yet, the unexpected came to the camp of Jegede last Friday, following the indefinite adjournment of the judgment of the appeal filed by Jegede against Abang’s judgment. The Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja adjourned indefinitely the judgment on the appeal filed by Jegede. The Saulawa panel also adjourned all other pending appeals, including one filed by Makarfi, relating to the dispute over the governorship ticket of the PDP in November 26 election.

The panel said on Friday in its judgment on Jegede and Makarfi’s appeals, which it heard between Wednesday and Thursday that it took the decision to adjourn “sine die” (indefinitely) to await the decision of the Supreme Court on interlocutory appeals filed by the respondents.

Saulawa also cited the motion filed by the respondents before the Supreme Court last Thursday, asking for an order of the apex court to disband the Saulawa panel and take disciplinary action by going ahead to hear the appeal in defiance of established judicial principle.

The nine respondents led by Poroye, who filed the motion before the Supreme Court are state officials of the Sheriff-led faction of the PDP in the South-west zone.

Disturbed by the decision of the Court of Appeal, the Makarfi faction of PDP, in swift reaction, cautioned the judiciary not to experiment with the destiny of the state by its handling of the case bothering on the candidacy of its candidate in the election.

The party urged the Supreme Court to rise to the challenge before it by giving the case expeditious hearing as election is around the corner. The party, in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka, said the issue on hand CONT’D ON NEXT PAGE

17

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

POLITICS/ THE MONDAY DISCOURSE W I T H U N C E R T A I N T Y, O N D O B R A C E S F O R G O V E R N O R S H I P P O L L is about the destiny of a state and the person the people of the state want as their governor, adding that any attempt to truncate this wish would spell doom, which the judiciary is in the position to avert now.

The party commended the Court of Appeal over what it described as its obvious commitment to the administration of justice in the matter by giving it expeditious hearing.

Appealing to the Supreme Court to equally rise to the occasion and dispense the case in good time, the PDP said it noted with aghast the further prolongation of the pre-election matter involving it “based on the premature appeal by Jimoh Ibrahim and his band of fifth columnists to the Supreme Court.”

The party said it continued to be taken aback by the grandiose plan to stop it from contesting the election through the foisting of “this needless crisis on our party by elements within the corridors of power, who are doing everything possible to deny the people of Ondo State the right to choose from the myriad of choices available to them in the forthcoming governorship election.

“We have stated clearly that Jimoh Ibrahim is not in any manner a member of our Party and the fact that he today parades himself as our standard bearer is through the contrived instrumentality of the Court,” the statement said, stating further that the nation has descended again into the dark days of rape of her democracy as the ruling party, APC, has used its privilege advantage of controlling federal power to muscle her democracy and also capriciously rape it mercilessly.

Submitting that “this action is geared towards giving undue and unmerited advantage to the APC candidate in the election, “the PDP said it is most certainly not only ungentlemanly, but confirms the fact that those atop of the nation’s commonwealth today are not statesmen.”

The party said the fact that Jimoh Ibrahim is not its candidate,”the fact that he is being foisted on our party is due to the fact that he is not electable as he remains a political albatross the people of the state will not touch. The highest number of votes he can ever poll in any election in Ondo State cannot exceed 2,005 only, and this generally known fact is the reason characters in the APC are using him to destroy our party.”

Positing that “posterity will certainly judge in this ugly development” the party said it is watching, but also wish to declare that “a dangerous and desperate precedent has been set, the aim of course to rig the APC to power in Ondo State. We also bring to the president’s attention that under him, institutional rape is the order of the day, we also wish to remind him that under the reign of President Goodluck Jonathan, his immediate predecessor, there was respect for institutions, political desires and expressions.

“Mr President is the leader of the entire nation and not for his Party, APC alone. He must ensure the health of the nation, even as we restate that Nigeria is a democracy and we will struggle to maintain that status,” Fadaka stated On the other hand, the adjournment of the case at hand was the tonic that Ibrahim’s camp needed to forge ahead in its campaign. The Sheriff faction, in a statement by the Director of Publicity, Yemi Akintomide, commended the three-man special Appeal panel.

“Indeed, this is a bold, moral and right action taken by the panel to adjourn sine die since the respondent in the suit, Biyi Poroye had approached the Supreme Court to challenge the leave given to Eyitayo Jegede to appeal the June 29, 2016 judgment delivered by Justice Okon Abang of Federal High Court, Abuja which declared Poroye as the authentic chairman of PDP in Ondo State.

“This has renewed our hope and belief in the judiciary as the last hope of common man and put to shame desperate politicians, who before now, thought that they could bribe their way into the mentality and integrity of the judges.

“We use this opportunity once again to salute the courage and resilience of our amiable chairman, Biyi Poroye and the ‘Joshua of Time’, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (CFR), who the Lord has ordained at this period of time to take our Sunshine state out of the Egypt to its Jerusalem city of fulfillment”, he said.

But keeping hope alive, Jegede after the adjournment called for calm among his supporters.

In a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of his Campaign Organisation, Kayode Fasua, Jegede said he was not unmindful of the fact that the temporary setback is the handiwork of some anti-democratic elements hell bent on truncating his mandate for the November 26, 2016 polls.

He, however, said as a true believer in the rule of law and the judiciary, he would be at the Supreme Court tomorrow (Tuesday) to thrash out issues raised by the appellants. He said the objective of the appellants was to stop a review of Abang’s contrived judgment through various baseless petitions, spurious blackmail and media propaganda, adding that the day of reckoning was near for these anti-democratic elements.

Jegede appealed to his supporters and believers

Jegede raises his flag when he was formally recognised as PDP candidate

Ibrahim addressing journalists in Akure on the crisis in the party. The court says he is the PDP candidate

in his course that despite the hurt they feel they should not take laws into their hands but remain resolute and intensify their door-to-door campaigns, restating that he would contest and win the upcoming poll.

“I call on our supporters to remain calm, and not be weighed down by the latest developments, which I believe should only strengthen our resolve in ensuring that despite all contrivances and manipulations, we will contest and win the November 26, 2016 governorship election.” he said.

He said his team of lawyers is working assiduously to ensure that this grave injustice to subvert his mandate through several devious means of propaganda, blackmail and unprecedented assault against the judiciary is corrected using available legal means “For us, there is no looking back. We remain resolute and focused in our desire to bring development, progress and prosperity to our people. This is our Article of Faith and with God, we will triumph,” he said.

In politics, the more problems one’s opponent has, the better for the others. So, that the PDP is “technically” being edged out of the race, the better for the APC and AD. It was generally believed that should Jegede be allowed to contest on a level-playing field, Mimiko would definitely work for him and deploy state apparatus for the election. It is expected that Mimiko would work for Jegede, it is expected that the federal government would use the federal might to back the APC candidate, Akeredolu.

Oke during one of his campaign tours

Interestingly, with the situation on the ground, it is generally assumed that the battle for the number one job in the state is essentially between the APC and the AD candidates, except something changes in the last minutes of the election.

For Oke, the Jegede travails had become his own advantage because the old PDP members and the aggrieved APC members had teamed up with him for the election. It is also believed in many quarters that should Jegede be out of the race, the APC would do everything to crush AD, using the federal might.

Suspecting the likelihood of this, the AD had been raising the alarm that the APC was poised to win the election at all cost.

Oke, who spoke through the Chairman of his Publicity Team, Kolawole Olabisi, warned that the era of election rigging and the use of the federal might to rig had gone forever and asked those contemplating such to perish the thought forthwith.

Speaking against the backdrop of insinuations from certain quarters over boasts by members of the APC that federal might would be used to win the election at all cost, Oke advised that the electoral process in Nigeria has grown beyond the era of ballot boxe snatching and stuffing.

While commending President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he described as a democrat, Oke warned that those planning to rig should be ready for the wrath of the people of the State.

“We have a president who is a democrat and a complete gentleman; one who does not believe in this rigging plan by members of his Party.

Those who believe in the snatching of ballot boxes should know that that belongs to the past, it is now anachronistic. Those who think that results can be manufactured for them and be announced should know that that is no longer fashionable.

“It is very ridiculous that people can boast of rigging and scaring the people in this era. Our electoral processes have grown over time and with the introduction and insistence on the use of card readers for the election, how much can somebody do?”

While describing as laughable the antics of those who think that this was the APC primaries that they could rig with ease, Oke said it was lamentable that while he was busy traversing the length and breadth of the state, some people sat in the comfort of their offices threatening the people to rig with federal might, warning also that the people who want to rig the election must be ready for the consequence, insisting that the election cannot be rigged by anybody.

“This election is not available for rigging.

Power now resides with the people and they will determine who they want. And I am relying on the strength of the people of Ondo State for this election. That is why till the very last day of the campaigns, I will relate with them, canvass for their votes. Let them come out in their numbers and cast their votes for me.

“Let those who are boasting of rigging come along and manipulate the election; it is ridiculous.

This whole idea about federal might because it CONT’D ON NEXT PAGE

18

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

PERSPECTIVE

Imo: Before the Conflagration Imo State needs help and urgently too, writes Mike Igbokwe

F

or the past four or more months, Imo State has been in the front burner of political discourse across the length and breadth of Nigeria.

But it has been for the wrong reasons, indeed, as aptly captured by the editors of a national daily, who were bewildered at the turn of events in a state once reputed as one of the most peaceful in the entire federation.

If it were just bad news, perhaps, the good people of Imo State, together with keen observers outside the state, would have been less agitated than they are currently. The big worry is that the state is at a boiling point and according to even casual observers, may implode any moment from now.

Only a couple of weeks ago, a group of elders and seasoned professionals residing in the state raised the alarm over a looming anarchy in the state. In an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, the group, which went by the name, Concerned Imo Citizens Group (CICG), accused the state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, of taking precipitate actions that were capable of plunging the state into a conflagration of a dimension that is yet to be seen in the annals of the peace-loving people of the state.

In the letter titled, “Imo State Tilting Toward Fascism And Anarchy Under Governor Rochas Okorocha…”, the group accused the governor of imposing terror and tyranny on the people and urged President Buhari to intervene as a matter of urgency to avoid a total breakdown of law and order in the state.

Said the group: “We are aware that the hands of the federal government are full in trying to deal with various security flash points in the country, to add mass insurrection in Imo state to it when it could be avoided by the timely political intervention of the President would be ignoring the imperatives of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Such a development, if it is allowed to occur in Imo state, would surely help to compound the crises of instability in the already beleaguered federal republic of Nigeria”.

The group went ahead to list over twenty sub headings under which it itemised no less than 100 “evidence of the explosive state of fascism and looming anarchy in Imo state”. Principal among these are the destruction of the constitutional order of Imo State; rendering moribund the legal and administrative structures and organs of the state; rendering the state civil service comatose; imposition of hardship on the people; wasteful style of governance; breach of financial regulations etc.

Keen watchers of the Imo political terrain, both within and outside the state, however point out that the observations of the CICG are not entirely new. They point out that the people of the state have had to contend with the bizarre style of Governor Okorocha right from the beginning of the administration in 2011.

Initially, the people were taken aback over the way and manner the governor, who was supposedly elected on a popular acclaim, turned out to adorn an anti-people garb not long after he assumed office. But they preferred to remain calm and optimistic.

For a people known to be sophisticated, enlightened and understanding, the generality of the Imo populace decided to endure Okorocha’s high handedness, with the hope that he would turn a new leaf or that in the alternative, a possible change of government in 2015 would return things to the level of their collective expectation.

But none of that happened. Not only did Okorocha refuse to change, he used the coercive apparatuses of the state to narrowly escape defeat at the 2015 governorship election.

But if the people thought that his victory at the very keenly contested election that went into a second balloting would make Okorocha soften on them, they were

Okorocha...the changing narrative

mistaken. For example, shortly after the election, the first thing Governor Okorocha told a bewildered people was that the state owed him over N6billion naira in salaries and allowances he claimed he did not collect for four years. He followed this up by introducing a policy of paying civil servants only 70 per cent of their salaries, even with arears of salaries of upwards of fourteen months.

Till date, pensioners are owed over 24 months of unpaid arrears while primary and secondary school teachers are owed over 18 months of salaries despite the N29.4 billion bailout fund made available to the state. As a matter of fact, Imo is among the states that were being investigated by the anti-craft agencies for alleged misuse of the bailout funds.

In the letter to President Buhari referred to above, the eminent group of Imo citizens noted that “the situation in Imo State under Governor Okorocha is like a time bomb waiting to explode”. The group is not alone.

Earlier, another group by the name Coalition of Imo Patriots had in a public statement on October 28, 2016 noted that “It is inconceivable that a man elected to protect and enhance the welfare of the people has turned to be a persecutor and oppressor of the same people”. In the statement titled, When Will Okorocha Stop Fooling Ndi Imo?, the group added that “besides waging war against Ndi Imo, Okorocha’s actions and inactions have completely destroyed Imo…” If all of the above constituted the remote causes of the current boiling-point tension in Imo State, the evident immediate cause is the recent and indeed on-going massive demolition of both private and public buildings in the state capital, Owerri, as part of a supposed urban renewal programme, which began late July, 2016.

In an unprecedented and bizarre manner, the administration of Governor Okorocha put residents of the state capital to a shock when bulldozers were sent, unannounced, to demolish residential buildings, offices and shops.

Last count, the exercise has led to the closure of three three-star hotels in the state capital, resulting in the retrenchment of hundreds of workers. The exercise also saw to the uprooting of electric cables and water pipes that cost the state several years and over 1.5 billion US Dollars to install.

Apart from that no compensation were discussed with the affected property owners, the people have had to grapple with the direct consequences of remaining without electricity and water supplies even as scanty as they were hitherto.

The roads where the bulldozers visited have been rendered impassable with no provision for alternative routes, thus making life extremely difficult for motorists and

commuters. Big trucks and articulated vehicles, including petrol-laden tankers, have to wade through narrow, pot holes infested routes to pass through the state capital, enroute to their destinations within and outside the state.

Urban renewal experts insist that the programme is bereft of the needed consultations and professional touch. They point out that the purported urban renewal programme is effectively destroying the existing master plan for the Owerri capital city without a replacement.

“The Owerri capital city has an original master plan which is being destroyed without an alternative master plan”, said Mr. Chima Eze, an Architect based in Owerri.

Eze pointed out further that given the current economic situation in the state, the road expansion project of the Okorocha administration “is uncalled for”.

According to him, nearly all the roads being expanded have reached the permissible limits of their expansion under the existing master plan. “Now that they are being expanded without a new master plan, it means turning the Owerri city into an urban dungeon in no distant time”, Eze said.

Apart from the concern over the architectural sanctity of the Owerri capital city, the road expansion programme, regarded as “needless” by a majority of the citizens, has inflicted untold hardship on the people. Besides sudden loss of means of livelihood, many families have lost their homes, with some indeed broken. As expected, condemnation has been trailing the exercise which many observers have described as “insensitive”.

From abroad, Imolites living in both the United States and Europe have condemned Okorocha for inflicting hardship on the people in the guise of development. From the United Kingdom, the Imo Union in a recent statement described the rate of destruction of the Owerri master plan as “callous and unprecedented”.

Rising from a meeting in London, the union, speaking through its President, Elder Adolph Agbasonu noted that all the legacies left behind by past administrations in the state have been destroyed and replaced with “non-viable or non-profitable projects”.

But given the way the administration went about it and its antecedents, there was palpable fear that it would entertain no opposition to its urban renewal programme that has been nonetheless described as bizarre, uncoordinated, half-hearted and haphazard.

The fear became real following the decision of a prominent citizen of the state, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, to enforce his right over his property along Orlu Road,

For a people known to be sophisticated, enlightened and understanding, the generality of the Imo populace decided to endure Okorocha’s high handedness, with the hope that he would turn a new leaf or that in the alternative, a possible change of government in 2015 would return things to the level of their collective expectation. But none of that happened

Owerri and which had been earmarked for destruction. Ihenacho, a former Minister of Interior and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) at the 2015 general election, had sought and obtained a court order barring the Okorocha administration from demolishing, his property at No. 6 Orlu Road, Owerri, which he has lived in for over thirty years.

But the Okorocha administration in its characteristic manner disobeyed the court order and went ahead to send the bulldozers to the property. In fact, the governor supervised the operations himself. After the destruction, the ex-minister waited for over two months to see if there would be further developments. When he saw none, he made moves to recover his property by putting up remedial structures in order to ward off the erosion that was eating away the foundation of the building.

To his surprise, however, Okorocha’s deputy, Eze Madumere, led bulldozers to personally supervise the destruction of the new structures even when there was a subsisting court order. The task force led

by Madumere dug a six-foot trench in front of the house, thus making it impossible for anybody to have access to the property; and for more than three months, the marine expert and business mogul could not enter this house.

Angered by this, Ihenacho had in an interview with a national daily, which sought to know how he felt over the incident, described Imo State as descending into a dictatorship.

“A situation that gives the impression that we are under an authoritarian leadership and when the dictator himself does not really know what he is doing, then, confusion of the type we are seeing now continues to reign”, Ihenacho had told the newspaper.

In answer to a question, Ihenacho had asked rhetorically: “Do you see that the people are consulted? Do you see that the feelings of the people are taken into account?

Do you see people’s houses being damaged, broken into without anybody talking to them, without any talk of compensation?”

Naturally, hell was let loose, Okorocha and his aides descended on Ihenacho, raining abuses on him. Unruffled, however, Ihenacho returned to court to look for ways of enforcing the earlier order, after going to the state Ministry of Lands to ascertain the limit he could erect a fence and an erosion control structure. The court granted an injunction to the effect that the proposed erosion and flood control structures should not be destroyed and which was duly served on the governor.

Highly dependable sources disclosed that on Saturday November 12, 2016, the exminister had a meeting with the chairman of the state environmental control agency (names withheld) and that the duo agreed that the builders should continue with the flood and erosion control structures. Yet, two days later, precisely on Monday November 14, 2016, the state deputy governor, Madumere at about 5pm led bulldozers to destroy the structures for a second time.

Some observers believe that the fight between Okorocha and Ihenacho may provide an opportunity for the people of the state to test their will to resist a growing tyranny in a democratic dispensation.

Ihenacho happens to be an “Owerre man”, though he does not come from Owerre Nchise, whose people are locked in a war of wits with the governor over his proposed relocation of the famous Eke-Ukwu Owerri market.

There are fears that even with a court restraining the government, Governor Okorocha is hell bent on the relocation.

With an Ihenacho reputed for being highly influential in the entire Owerri federal constituency, observers believe that the governor may be touching the lion’s tail.

How the entire thing will play out lies in the bowels of time.

•Igbokwe wrote from Owerri

W I T H U N C E R T A I N T Y, O N D O B R A C E S F O R G O V E R N O R S H I P P O L L doesn’t exist anywhere is an illusion,” Oke stated.

To the APC, the suspicion about plans to rig the forthcoming election needs not arise because Akeredolu had traverse the length and breadth of the state, canvassing for votes.

Speaking on this, the APC Deputy Chairman, Mr. Ade Adetimehin said Akeredolu remained

the most popular candidate because of his consistency and pedigree. He said Akeredolu had demonstrated his popularity during the keenly contested primary of the party and would replicate this on November 26 and Ondo State would be better for it.

Adetimehin said the AD candidate had

demonstrated his desperation to become the governor by belonging to three different parties within 18 months simply to become the governor at all cost. He said Akeredolu had done all that was needed to win the election and by the Grace of God, he would win the election.

With the state of the parties so far, the twisting of

the music track in the jingle produced for Jegede actually summarised the uncertainty about who is likely to win the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State. But for whoever emerges, it is not going to be a tea-party, not only because the stakes are high but because the intrigues are also overwhelming.

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

19

20

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

FEATURES

Acting Features Editor Charles Ajunwa Email charles.ajunwa@thisdaylive.com

R-L: Ambode, with Deputy Governor, Dr. Oluranti Adebule, at the exhibition stands being conducted round by the Special Adviser on Food Security, Mr. Sanni Okanlawo, during the Lagos Food Security Summit and Exhibition at Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja... recently

Feeding the Nation, Securing Lives Amid the challenges of providing food security, the Lagos State Government recently rounded off a two-day summit on food security, during which stakeholders advocated strategic investment in agricultural sector. Gboyega Akinsanmi writes

O

nly last week, stakeholders in agricultural sector – academia, civil society, investors, policymakers in governments and the media – converged on Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja.

A good number of practitioners too flooded the location with a common position, which the state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode said, was taken to end the gravest threat to humanity.

That was the passion that drove the just concluded Lagos Food Security Summit and Exhibition. It was, perhaps, the first of its kind in the state, even in the entire country. Convened under a theme, ‘Actualising Sustainable Food Security in Lagos State: A New, Comprehensive Agenda’, the summit was designed to foster food security in the state.

Likewise, this passion shared some commonalities with Ambode’s policy thrust. In the main, he said the summit was convened “to explore the state’s agricultural value chain potentials; establish strategic partnership with other states and equally maximise its comparative advantage in the sector.” In all, he said, it was designed to guarantee sustainable food security.

That was indeed the central thrust to which every participant subscribed. Like other stakeholders, however, the governor contextualised the summit simply in the light of prevailing economic recession. For him, this economic condition has made it compelling and imperative to develop a sustainable programme that will guarantee food security for the people of the state.

He reeled out his concerns one after the other. He, first, faulted the country’s policy choice, which he said, had been a source of food crisis. As a country with comparative

advantage in agriculture, Ambode lamented the country’s policy choice of spending billions of foreign exchange “to import food and food items, many of which can be cultivated in our country.”

He, also, faulted the country’s approach to food production. He argued that agriculture “is not just a tool of poverty alleviation,” which he said, had dominated the policy content of most governments before now.

Rather, he argued, agriculture is a business and profession, which strategic investment and sustained development if the country must get it right.

By implication, Ambode said the prevailing economic crises facing Nigeria “have called for a review of this approach and the redirection of our energies to food production. Our country is blessed with very good arable land and a climate that supports food production.”

However, he said, political will is required to provide strategic guidance for actualising food security.

He, equally, lamented missed opportunities,

As a country with comparative advantage in agriculture, Ambode lamented the country’s policy choice of spending billions of foreign exchange to import food and food items, many of which can be cultivated in our country

which he said, were induced by poor policies and untoward incentives. Rather, he said, the country created an army of malnourished children. It, also, created millions of unemployed youths, whom Ambode said, could have been meaningfully engaged if the country “has strategically developed agriculture and human capital together.”

For Ambode, however, it is not too late.

He believed Nigeria “can still achieve food security and create employment opportunities for our teeming youth.” But he said it would require right policies and incentives, which he said, would “attract significant investment into the agricultural sector. Every nation must be able to feed its citizens without resorting to importation.”

He, thus, ruled out alternative to achieving food security other than tilling the land.

He canvassed best practices, which he said, would improve efficiency in the agricultural value chain. That was the exact point the governor said the state government “has started proving with this summit,” which sought to maximise the state’s comparative advantage.

Sound as Ambode’s policy direction might be, however, the Vice President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Sani Dangote made case for broader and wider approach. Dangote, who chaired the summit, believed the Ambode administration could expand its policy scope and work in the contest of South-west rather restricting itself “to resources available in its territory alone.”

Dangote observed geographical disadvantages of Lagos. He observed a substantial territory of Lagos is water, though that offers its own advantage. Amid its teeming population of over 22 million, Dangote said the state “is faced with the dearth of arable land.”

Despite challenges its geography throws up, he said, Lagos can work towards feeding

the South-west.

So, for him, the dearth of arable land should not limit the policy scope of the state government. Rather, Dangote noted that in spite of the shortage of arable land in the state, the state government “can effectively leverage on its comparative advantages “to guarantee not only food security in the state, but also feed all neighbouring states in the South-west.”

How can this be done? Dangote provided a little insight into how the state can feed itself; supply its neighbours and create massive wealth. For him, the era of frivolous spending must end; strategic investment be attracted and human capital must be developed together.

He, thus, cited a whopping of $700 million spent “to import salt into Nigeria annually.”

He described the spending as unnecessary and pathetic. He argued that about 90 per cent of the salt consumed in Nigeria “is imported despite the availability of Atlantic Ocean in the country. But there is a process that allows us take water and extract salt from Atlantic Ocean. This will allow the country to keep $ 700 million spend annually importing salt.”

Dangote, extensively, examined the economic value of coconut industry. Even though it had been abandoned for decades, he said the industry had potentials “to generate huge foreign exchange annually. From this industry alone, over $1 billion can be generated annually considering the numerous benefits attached to coconut aside employment it will generate.”

Contingent on diverse opportunities the agricultural sector offers, Dangote canvassed sustained investment in new technologies and human capital. He asked the state government “to consider developing hybrid greenhouses where we can develop hybrid horticultures,

21

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

FEATURES

Exhibition of agricultural produce at the 2016 World Food Day in Ikeja… recently

R-L: Vice President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Sani Dangote, Ambode, Deputy Governor, Dr. Oluranti Adebule and Special Adviser on Food Security, Mr. Sanni Ganiyu Okanlawo, at the exhibition stands during the Lagos Food Security Summit and Exhibition at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja... recently fruits and other crops. It will help the state to transport food produce to other states.”

He, also, asked the state government “to embark on food preservation in order to ensure the availability of food items all-round the year. When there is no food security, there will not be any meaningful development in Nigeria. There are some challenges with availability of land. Although the state has confronted with large water body, but it is advantage to the state.”

He said the state “has a large population with an economy ranked as the fifth largest in Sub-Saharan Africa. It also has a bulging youth population and capital of the country’s industrial base. It, thus, has the capacity to make agriculture a profitable business. This will encourage youths to take up agriculture as a profession and contribute their quota to achieving food security.”

Ambode’s programme, however, is not at variance to what Dangote canvassed at the summit. This was evident in the volume of food and food items its people consume daily. Based on the state’s household statistics, Ambode said the state “consumes over N3 billion worth of food daily. This represents a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs in the agric sector.”

On this ground, the governor explained different initiatives his administration had adopted to achieve food security. He specifically cited a memorandum of understanding (MoU) his administration sealed with the Kebbi State Government in the first quarter.

In the main, he said the initiative was “to develop rice, wheat, groundnut, onion, maize and beef value chain.”

By projection, Ambode assured that the partnership “can result in the supply of 70 per cent of the total national rice consumption.”

By implication, he noted that the partnership

Nigeria can still achieve food security and create employment opportunities for our teeming youth…

Every nation must be able to feed its citizens without resorting to importation

Pig farmers at the 2016 World Food Day in Ikeja

could save Nigeria about $11 billion it spends annually “to import wheat, rice, sugar and fish among others.” For him, the task of achieving food security forms the fulcrum of our administration.

He, also, cited another form of partnership the state had developed with Ogun, Oyo and Abuja. In each of these states, the governor disclosed that the state had acquired land purely for agricultural purposes. In Ogun State, for instance, he said the state acquired 500 hectares of farm land for rice cultivation.

In Osun State, also, he said 84.7 hectares for oil palm processing among others.

Of the 84.7 hectares acquired in Osun State, Ambode noted that about 20 hectares “is already used for palm produce. Others are used for rice farming, cassava and maize among others. Besides, Lagos State has acquired additional 1,000 hectares of land in Osun State.” In Abuja too, he said the state acquired 50 hectares primarily “to support food production.”

By his judgment, therefore, the governor believed the partnership had paid off in the last 18 months. He explained that the state “only collaborated with other states in the areas of comparative advantage. It has, indeed, proved especially beneficial for

Lagos State given its low land mass and the rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in the state.”

In the light of what Ambode earlier canvassed, the quest to pursue and attain sustainability in food security is imperative, Mr. Sanni Okanlawon said. Okanlawon, Special Adviser on Food Security, said the quest was the core reason behind the summit, which he said, would on the long run develop and institutionalise a food security framework.

Okanlawon, thus, explained the strategic significance of the framework, which according to him, would help guarantee sustainable food security for its growing population. He added that it would help realign emerging realities with new global trends on food safety, food processing, food storage, food handling, funding of agribusiness and agric insurance.

So, the special adviser said it would ease the process of doing business in “areas of investment opportunities including modern abattoirs, agro processing for export, storage facilities, dairy farming, and livestock feeds production and development of settlement among others. The investment climate in Lagos State is very bright and investors are guaranteed a profitable return.”

22

IMAGES

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Photo Editor Abiodun Ajala Email abiodun.ajala@thisdaylive.com

L-R: Chief Executive Officer, Aramex Nigeria, Mr. Faisal Jarmakani; Postmaster General/CEO, NIPOST, Mr. Bisi Adegbuyi; CEO, Aramex International, Mr. Hussein Hachem; Associate Director, KPMG, Mrs. Ehile Adetola Aiibangbee; and Chairman, Aramex Nigeria, Mr. David Spavgo, at the official launch of Aramex Nigeria in Lagos... recently ETOP UKUTT

L-R: Executive Principal/Heads, Banks & Brokers, Financial Institutions, Standard Chartered Bank, Oloruntimilehin George; Registrar, Collateral Registry, Mainasara Muhammad; Deputy Director, Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Nigeria, Alimi R. Adams; Senior Financial Advisor, IFC/World Bank, Ubong Awah and Head Research and Development, National Collateral Registry, Dr. Musa Olasupo at the Workshop on National Collateral Registry by Bankers Committee’s Sub Committee on Economic Development Sustainability & Gender in Lagos...recentlly

Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Muhammadu G. Abdulllahi( left ) and Managing Director, Halogen Security Co Ltd, Wale Olaoye, during a courtesy call at the NSCDC’s Abuja headquarters by Halogen... recently

L-R: Company Secretary, Fan Milk, Mr. Olakunle Olusanya; National Sales Manager, Fan Milk, Mr. Bunmi Aromona; Chairman, Lagos State Task Force, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi; Managing Director, Fan Milk Plc, Mr. Hans Padersen; and Director, Empowerment, Monitoring and Compliance, Ministry of Environment, Lagos State, Dr. Afolabi Tajudeen, during the presentation of 1000-Unit Safety Reflective Vests to the Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences in Lagos...recently

L-R: Patron of El-Almin Polo Team, Mohammed Babangida; President of the Kaduna Polo Club, Suleiman Abubakar; the Captain Katsina Gobarau team, winners of the El Amin Cup, Prince Ahmed Abdulmumuni Kabir and the Vice President of Kaduna Polo club, Sani Jega during the prize presentation of the 2016 MTN international polo tournament in Kaduna... recently.

L-R: Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko; Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, during the Governors’ Forum Meeting at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja...recently

Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Dr Maikanti K. Baru (second right); President, Nigeria Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Nosa Omorodion; Shell’s Oke-Oghene Uruh, Omagbemi Kakayor and other officials during the GMD’s visit to the Shell stand at the NAPE 2016 exhibition at Eko Hotels, Lagos...recently

L-R: General Manager, Government & Community Affairs, Premium Steel & Mines Ltd, Mr. German Victor, Chairman, Udu Local Government Council, Delta State, Hon. Chief Kpomah Solomon, CEO Premium Steel & Mines Ltd, Mr. Prasanta Kumar Mishra, Wife of the CEO, Mrs. Bidyut Prava Mishra and Vice Chairman, Udu Local Government Council, Delta State Hon. Mrs. Omene Esther at the presentation ceremony of a fully fitted ultra-modern ambulance and 3 bedroom bungalow to the Udu LGA by Premium Steel & Mines Ltd in Udu Delta State... recently.

23

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD NIBOR OVERNIGHT 1-MONTH

R A T E S 12.4167 18.2599

A S

3-MONTH 6-MONTH

A T

20.4766 22.2256

Group Business Editor Chika Amanze-Nwachuku Email chika.amanzenwachukwu@thisdaylive.com 08033294157

N O V E M B E R

NITTY 1-MONTH 2-MONTH 3-MONTH

14.6097 16.0566 17.8063

6-MONTH 9-MONTH 12-MONTH

1 7 , 20.1796 21.6321 22.8607

2 0 1 6

EXCHANGE RATE N305.59/ 1 US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes Ecobank Appoints Company Secretary

DECISION MAKERS

President Muhammadu Buhari (middle) flanked by Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board, Simbi Kesiye Wabote, Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Chairman PETAN, and Board member of NCDMB, Mr. Bank Anthony Okoroafor, when the president inaugurated the boards members of NNPC, NNRA and NCDMB at the State House Council Chamber in Abuja…recently

How Nestle, Flour Mills, Others Got $660m CBN FX Allocation Obinna Chima The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has listed a total of 1,342 manufacturers, power, trading and firms operating in other sectors that got foreign exchange (FX) through its recent intervention.

In all, a total of $660,173,976 million were sold to the firms through FX forwards to their respective bank for onward sales to the operators.

The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was in line with its earlier promise to ease the FX pressure on manufacturing and agricultural businesses through forward sales under the flexible FX regime.

The central bank stated this in a publication titled: “FX Utilisation for Banks for September 2016,” obtained on

ECONOMY its website at the weekend. The FX was for procurement of raw materials, plants and machinery by manufacturers and other real sector operators.

The report showed that Nestle Nigeria got $323,434; Dana Motors got $12,877,278.81; CFAO Motors -$53,133.38; Flour Mills - $2,360,500; Jubaili Brothers - $271,704; Nigerian Breweries -$6,240,000; Ok Foods Limited - $889,699; Fouani Nigeria Limited - $39,253.73; Glaxosmithkline Consumer Plc - $1,202,391; Friesland Campina WAMCO - $3,097,973, and Honda Automobile - $552,028.22 Others were A-Z Petroleum Products Limited which bought -$12,962,425.04, through the FX auction; Rahamaniya Oil

& Gas - $19,220,000; Dag Motorcycles Industries Nigeria -$27,964,123; Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited -$5,882,293.67; Lafarge Africa Plc -$36,634.52; Mikano International Limited- $439,746.04 and MTN Nigeria- $1,285,857 Furthermore, Biswal Limited got $6,779,858.11, HIS Nigeria Limited -$10,006,405.57; IPI Power Tech -$7,405,595.55, Promasidor Nigeria Limited -$2,100,000, Saba Steel Industries Limited -$11,147,478.58; Crown Flour -$10,254,558; African Foundries Limited -$4,020,679.36; Parco Enterprises Limited -$6,558,320; Prime Plastochem Nigeria Limited -$5,668,012.75; and Matrix Energy Limited ($14,872,223.91).

Uniliver Nigeria, Stallion, Deli Foods, Honeywell Flour Mills, De United Foods, were

also among the firms that got the FX. The CBN acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, had explained that the CBN was committed to ensuring that manufacturers of goods for which Nigeria does not enjoy comparative advantage were able to get letters of credit (LCs) to import the required materials for their businesses.

Citing the case of some manufacturing industries in Nigeria, which had posted huge turnovers since the CBN introduced restrictions on the sourcing of FOREX for 41 items from the inter-bank market, Okorafor had insisted the restriction had indeed yielded positive results.

Continued on page 24

Free Float Deficiency: More Companies May Delist from NSE Goddy Egene There are strong indications that the decision of Ashaka Cement Plc to voluntarily delist from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may lead to exit of some other companies which are in violation of the NSE’s free float rule.

The NSE rule stipulates that listed companies maintain a minimum free float for the set standards under which they are listed in order to ensure that there is an orderly and liquid market for their securities. For instance, the free float requirement for companies on the Main Board is 20 per cent and 15 per

CAPITAL MARKET cent for Alternative Securities Exchange Market (ASEM) companies.

However, some companies have free float deficiencies. Such companies have remained in the market due to waivers given to them by the NSE to comply. But Ashaka Cement disclosed last week it was delisting from the NSE and remained an unlisted public company. Shareholders of the company are expected to meet today to approve the proposal.

THISDAY checks showed that the decision of Ashaka Cement might have emboldened some

of the companies which have free float deficiencies to also exit the NSE. Some of the companies that have free float deficiencies are: Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Capital Hotel Plc, Great Nigerian Insurance Plc, Chellerams Plc, Nigerian Ropes Plc, A.G Leventis Plc, Interlinked Technologies Plc, Transcorp Hotels Plc, Infinity Trust Mortgage Plc, Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc and African Paints Plc. While most of them are enjoying a period of grace to comply, Chellarams Plc has applied to migrate to the ASeM. On the other hand, Nigerian Ropes Plc has stated its intention to

delist from the NSE. Stockbrokers to some of the companies told THISDAY that the companies are only managing to stay on and are looking for any opportunity to exit.

“As you may know, remaining on the NSE is not an easy thing. It is costly and very rigorous to comply with the listing requirements. Although the companies would ordinarily want to remain listed given the benefits, the challenging operating environment is making it difficult for many of them,” a broker said.

Continued on page 24

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of the Ecobank Group has announced the appointment of Mr. Madibinet Cissé as Group Head, Legal and Company Secretary/ Group Counsel.

Cissé, whose appointment takes effect on the 9th of January 2017, will report jointly to the Ecobank Group CEO and the ETI Board of Directors.

Cissé replaces former Company Secretary and Group Counsel Samuel Ayim, who took leave of the company in July to pursue other opportunities.

The bank explained in a statement that Cissé has a wealth of experience in the legal field. “He comes to Ecobank from the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in Lagos, Nigeria, where he is currently Senior Vice President and Lead Counsel. He is an English law, French law and OHADA- (Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa) qualified lawyer and an attorney and counsellor at law at the New York Bar of Attorneys.

Before joining AFC, Mr. Cissé worked as Senior Legal Counsel at the African Capacity Building Foundation in Harare. He was an associate in the finance departments of two Paris law firms – Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Gide Loyrette-Nouel. He was also an associate in the legal and tax department of Ernst & Young in Conakry, Guinea,” the statement added.

In addition to his expertise in corporate secretariat- and governance-related work, Cissé also specialised in bilateral borrowing, bond issues, equity investment and debt financing for major infrastructure projects across various sectors across Africa, including those in power and energy, roads, transport and Logistics, oil and gas, mining, heavy industries and telecommunications.

Standard Chartered Bank Wins Awards

Standard Chartered Bank has disclosed that it won the ‘Best Regional Consumer Digital Bank’ for Middle East and Africa by the Global Finance for the fifth consecutive year.

The announcement of the win came at the Global Finance Digital Bank Conference and awards dinner which recently took place in London.

Speaking about the repeated win, the Regional Head of Retail Banking for Africa and Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank, Jaydeep Gupta, was quoted in a statement to have said.

“We are delighted with this industry recognition. Winning the award for the fifth consecutive year is a testament to our continued focus in developing market-leading online and mobile channels that deliver easy, convenient banking to all our clients.

“We have been investing in developing our digital banking solutions not only to transform client experience but also to provide them with the highest levels of security. We continue to invest for long-term growth Africa and Middle East were digital technologies will shape the future of banking,” a statement quoted Gupta to have said.

Standard Chartered also wonThe World’s Best Consumer Digital Bank for the sixth consecutive year, beating out competition from 261 banks from around the world and dominated the Global Subcategory Awards, sweeping up awards for Best Global Consumer Mobile Banking, Best Global Consumer Mobile Banking App and Best Global Information Security Initiatives.

Eni Backs Coral Field Devt

Eni’s board of directors has authorised the investment for the first phase of the development of the Coral discovery, located in the deep waters of the Rovuma Basin offshore Mozambique.

The project involves the construction of six subsea wells, which will be connected to a floating production facility with a liquefaction capacity of over 3.3 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year (equivalent to approximately 5 billion cubic meters).

The Coral field, discovered in May 2012, is entirely located within Area 4 and contains about 16 trillion cubic feet of gas in place. In October, Eni and its Area 4 partners signed an agreement with BP for the sale of the entire volumes of LNG produced by the FNLG Coral South, for a period of over twenty years. This was the first agreement ever signed in Mozambique for the sale of LNG produced in the country.

“Our interactions with contractors showed that many of them had not been paid for an average of two to three years before we resumed” Minister of Power, Works and Housing,

Mr. Babatunde Fashola

24

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD HOW NESTLE, FLOUR MILLS, OTHERS GOT $660M CBN FX ALLOCATION

He therefore urged manufacturers to take advantage of the policy, which he stressed was part of efforts by the CBN to ensure that Nigeria reclaims its status as a major producer through backward integration initiatives and conserve billions of FX spent on import bills annually.

The Chairman of Sosaco Nigeria Limited, the makers of the popular Gino tomato paste brand, Mr. Francis Ogboro, recently told THISDAY that there was a significant improvement in dollar supply in the country, pointing at the recent policies by the CBN. Ogboro, who noted that although the FX situation was still far from what manufacturers in the country would want, he admitted that the situation had improved considerably from what obtained a few months ago.

“We are encouraged by the recent improvement in FX supply. It has improved from the stagnant situation that used to be the case in the past.”

FREE FLOAT DEFICIENCY: MORE COMPANIES MAY DELIST FROM NSE

The broker disclosed that the decision of Ashaka Cement to delist is being seen as an opportunity for some of the companies to also exit.

“I must tell you that some of the companies that are not doing as well as Ashaka Cement are thinking of following that exit route. They feel remaining on the NSE is expensive considering the fact that the economic headwinds are impacting negatively on their operations,” the broker said.

Directors of Ashaka Cement had explained that apart from the free float deficiency, neither the company nor any shareholders are benefiting from the continued listing as shareholders are not getting any exit opportunity and their investments have been locked up and they find it difficult to dispose of their shareholding.

They added that the company is bearing unnecessary cost in complying with its listing obligations.

Group Business Editor

Chika Amanze-Nwachuku AgriBusiness/Industry Editor

Crusoe Osagie

Comms/e-Business Editor

Emma Okonji

Capital Market Editor

Goddy Egene

Senior Correspondent

Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents

Chinedu Eze (Aviation) Linda Eroke (Labour) Eromosele Abiodun (Maritime) Ejiofor Alike (Energy) James Emejo (Nation’s Capital) Obinna Chima (Money Mkt) Reporters

Nume Ekeghe (Money Market) Nosa Alekhuogie (AgriBusiness)

NEWS

Group Life Insurance: Delay in Release of N5.4bn Premium Funds Stalls Contract Renewal Ebere Nwoji The federal government’s delay in releasing about N5.4 billion funds for the payment of premium for the Group Life Insurance of the federal civil service workers is said to be a major factor inhibiting the renewal of the contract which expired three months ago, THISDAY checks have showed.

This is despite the prevailing no premium no cover law guiding insurance contract in Nigeria at present.

Insurance operators have insisted that should anything happen to any of the federal government’s employees whom the group life insurance contract is meant to protect, they are not obliged to pay any compensation given the prevailing ‘no premium no cover’ regime.

Section 4 (5), of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 states that “Every employer shall maintain a group life insurance policy in favour of each employee for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employee and premium shall be paid not later than the date of commencement of the cover.

But in the case of federal government workers, the group life insurance contract for the year expired since July and the delay in its renewal has elicited criticisms from the general public.

THISDAY gathered from sources close to the Office of

Head of Civil Service of the Federation that bureaucratic processes, contest for supremacy between the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the Office of the Head of Service, and the non-release of the projected N5.4 billion funds for premiums by the Ministry of Finance were responsible for the delay in renewal of the policy.

The sources explained that the renewal will go through processes; first the certification of the underwriters by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), secondly the approval by President Muhammadu Buhari and lastly, request for release of funds by the finance ministry.

According to a source, the BPP had certified 20 out of the 21 insurance companies forwarded to it for the underwriting of the Group life insurance renewal of the civil servants, adding that though they had also written to NAICOM for confirmation but till date, NAICOM has not responded. However, he maintained that the Head of Service has no option than to go ahead with the list already certified by the BPP, which also was among the companies that NAICOM had already published in a newspaper advert as having been licensed by the commission.

Nigeria’s participation at the recently concluded International Telecommunication Union (ITU Telecoms World) conference, in Bangkok, Thailand, no doubt, has strengthen foreign investors’ confidence to invest in Nigeria’s telecoms sector, thus raising hope for future telecoms investment in Nigeria.

Led by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Nigerian delegation, include the members of the National Assembly; Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) of government; telecoms operators; telecoms service providers; broadband service providers, start-ups and the media.

NCC and the Nigerian delegation made a good show of Nigeria’s potential and investment opportunities in Information and Communications Commission (ICT), which attracted foreign investors from over 120 countries of the world who attended this year’s ITU Telecom World conference, to see the need to invest in Nigeria’s broadband.

The Nigerian government and the private sector, made a pitch to foreign investors, where they presented the country’s developments in ICT, and the opportunities for future

After six weeks submission, it took government some time to process all their papers and after it had shortlisted those it wanted, it needed certificate of no objection from the BPP. “After the response was received, we had to write to Mr. President for approval. So, since the day we got that approval from Mr. President, we’ve continued with the processes of making sure that the perfect thing is done before we present to the Ministry of Finance for payment. There is money for it, it is in the appropriation and nobody had told us that there is no money to pay for it.

FOR EFFICIENT TAX REGIME

L-R: Partner/ Chief Operating Officer, KPMG Professional Services, Mr.Victor Onyenkpa; Excutive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr. Babatunde Fowler; Partner/ Head,Tax Regulatory & People Services, KPMG, Mr.Wole Obayomi; Partner,Tax Regulatoty & People Service Division, KPMG, Mrs. Nike James; and Partner/ Head, Audit Services, Mr.Wale Ajayi, at the KPMG tax breakfast session in Lagos… recently

ITU 2016 Raises Hope for Telecoms Investment in Nigeria Emma Okonji

Further, he indicated that though the Head of Service has commenced processes for the renewal of insurance of federal government assets, it has decided to conclude that of the Group Life Insurance in order not to over burden the government with so many requests for funds.

According to the source, there is no other problem regarding the policy renewal but government is just going through some processes.

He recalled that in February, this year, the government published an advert inviting insurance practitioners to apply and that took six weeks.

investment.

A former Secretary-General of ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Toure, who was the special guest of honour at the Nigeria’s Investment Forum at the conference, reminded foreign investors of the population size of Nigeria, which he said is a strong factor that would attract quick returns on investments.

According to him, the over 170 million population of Nigeria is a major factor that would attract investors because the market is huge and the people are ready.

Speaking during the panel session on “Smart Communities as the key to a Digital Nigeria”, the EVC of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof.

Umar Garba Danbatta talked up the opportunities for investment in Nigeria, aided by flexible regulatory policies. Buttressing his comments, the Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Funke Opeke, described the telecom infrastructure gaps in the country as opportunities available for investment. She highlighted as example, the governmentassisted Infrastructure Company (Infraco) project, where MainOne is licensee for Lagos State, which aims to expand broadband penetration from the current 20 per cent to over 30 per cent targeted in the National Broadband Plan for 2018. Ac-

cording to her, licensees for five other regions of the country are currently available for bid.

Opeke highlighted the tremendous potential Nigeria’s ICT industry offers to investment, underlining Nigeria 80 million internet users, the growing population of smartphone users, and the country’s over 100 per cent voice penetration. She noted that most regions of the country were still under-served in terms of ICT deployment and explained that the commitment of government to diversify the economy from oil will require greater ICT penetration to create jobs.

“Availability of broadband infrastructure across all regions of Nigeria and the technology adoption this will facilitate will greatly accelerate the pace of development in Nigeria, facilitate increased non-oil trade, enhance the digital economy, improve public access to education, health and other social services and aid job creation,” Opeke said.

Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs at Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, who also sat at the panel discussion during the Nigerian Investment Forum in Bangkok, commended the efforts of government and the NCC, for their efforts in wooing foreign investors to invest in Nigeria.

LADOL Boss Counsels Young Entrepreneurs on Economic Drive Eromosele Abiodun The Managing Director, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), Dr. Amy Jadesimi has called on Nigerian youths, especially the growing rank of young entrepreneurs to take charge in driving the emerging global economic growth.

She said this has become necessary considering the rapid growth in the productive class that currently accounts for the larger part of the rapidly growing world population- a global trajectory that will continue to be positive.

The LADOL boss, who made the call at the 2016 conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) Young Professionals Leadership Forum (YPLF) held in Lagos, urged the youths to take advantage of the rapid spread of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in achieving the goal.

Pointing out that over the next 15 years, there will be a huge shift in financing focus from multinationals to entrepreneurs and mid-sized companies, she noted that the development will come with political challenges and social dislocation as the world adjusts to the new trend.

According to her, “The population of Nigeria will increase to

300 million, over 60 per cent of which will be below the age of 20 and the world’s population will increase to a billion by 2050 where 25 per cent of this population will be in Africa over the next 15 years.”

Jadesimi contended that, “despite the negative and cynical narratives pervading our public spaces, the facts show that young people of today should celebrate the fact that they are growing up in a world that could be on the apex of high growth and affluence with decreasing equality.”

“Hard working, educated and entrepreneurial millennial in low income will be the ones to take up and create the 600 million new jobs the world need between now and 2030. These jobs will be created by small medium enterprises (SMEs), “She said.

According to the LADOL boss, “Leading international companies and institutions have recognised the critical importance of funding and partnering with local SMEs in emerging markets from the smallest to the largest.

“Young people all over the world have access to a huge range of resources which are the classes taught on YouTube for free to online conference and internships at a growing number of real private sector companies in Nigeria.”

25

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

MARKET REPORT

Stock Market Falls 8.6% in Five Weeks on Sustained Sell Pressure Goddy Egene and Nosa Alekhuogie

foreign exchange market illiquidity), high discount rate and bearish forward earnings expectation. However, given the current downtrend, some stocks have fallen to attractive positions for bargain hunters and we see domestic investors taking advantage of these opportunities in sessions ahead,” they said.

Despite the expectations that domestic investors would take advantage of the attractive prices of stocks, the market extend bearish streak to fourth with the NSE ASI down 0.21 per cent to close at 25,599.79. The market capitalisation shed N18.4 billion to close at N8.7 trillion.

The negative performance resulted from sell pressure on Nigerian Breweries (-0.6 per cent), Forte Oil (-5.0 per cent), Total (-4.8 per cent) and GTBank (-0.7 per cent).

Sector performance was mixed as two indices gained while three declined.

The NSE Insurance Index rose by 0.5 per cent on gains by Continental Reinsurance (+3.0 per cent), and AIICO Insurance (+3.5 per cent). Similarly, the NSE Banking appreciated by 0.2 per cent on the back of gains in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (+3.0 per cent) and Access Bank (+1.9 per cent).

Conversely, the NSE Oil & Gas Index led sector decliners, shedding 1.6 per cent on account of losses in Forte Oil(-5.0 per cent) and Total (-4.8 per cent) while the NSE Consumer Goods Index lost 0.3 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index went down by 0.2 per cent as CAP Plc and Ashaka Cement Plc shed 5.0 per cent and 2.7 per cent in that order.

A five-week bear run at the stock market has pushed the year-to-date decline of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (NSE ASI) to 10.8 per cent last Friday. The market, which has been recording a free-fall, shed 2.42 per cent last week and has dipped by 8.6 per cent in five weeks.

Specifically, the NSE ASI closed at 25,537.54, while market capitalisation stood at N8.791trillion last Friday.

Decline in the shares of high-capped stocks across consumer goods, cement, oil & gas and banking sectors was responsible for the huge loss suffered last week. The market has remained under pressure as domestic investors continued to seek safety in high yielding government treasuries while foreign institutional investor participation remains constrained by currency challenges and the weak macro indicators.

Analysts at Cordros Capital Limited said: “Having lost 8.6 per cent in five weeks, we expect some cherry-picking across the market, considering where stocks prices currently trade. That said, we reiterate that a sustainable recovery in equities will remain constrained by a subdued macro which has sent the local and foreign institutional investors (accounting for 80 per cent of total monthly trades) on sabbatical.”

Daily Market Performance Summary The bears sustained their strong grip on the stock market on Monday when trading resumed for the week.

As a result, the NSE ASI fell by 0.70 per cent to close at 25,986.81, while market capitalisation dipped below N9 trillion to N8.945 trillion. Year-to-date, the market has declined by 9.2 per cent on the continuing bearish trend in the past weeks.

Apart from the NSE ASI that fell, trading activities declined by 92 per cent and 57.6 in value and volume terms respectively. The total value of stocks traded was N1.12 billion, down by 57.64 per cent from N2.63 billion recorded the previous trading day.

Twenty-two stocks declined in value yesterday led by Forte Oil Plc. The oil stocks fell by 9.7 per cent to close at N10.18 per share. Honeywell Flour Mills Plc trailed with a depreciation of 5.0 per cent to be at 1.14 per share.

Cadbury Nigeria Plc and NASCON Allied Industries Plc went down by 4.9 per cent in that order.

Oando Plc shed 4.8 per cent, just as CAP Plc and Champion Breweries Plc fell by 4.6 per cent apiece. Vitafoam Nigeria Plc and PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc lost 4.4 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.

On the other hand, May & Baker Nigeria Plc led the price gainers with 4.7 per cent to close N0.89 per share.

WAPIC Insurance Plc appreciated by 4.0 per cent, just as Livestock Feeds Plc and Mansard Insurance Plc gained 2.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

Market analysts at Meristem Securities Limited, said: “We attribute the day’s negative outing to continued investors’ apprehension towards the equities market, given the weak economic fundamentals. We expect the mix of profit taking and bargain hunting activities to determine the direction of market sentiments going forward.”

The market maintained its downward trend on Tuesday with the NSE ASI depreciating by 0.50 per cent to close at 25,857.06. The depreciation recorded in the share prices of Lafarge Africa, Zenith Bank, Oando, Transcorp

and Dangote Cement was responsible for the loss posted on that day.

The total value of stocks traded on Tuesday was N905 million, by 18.9 per cent from N1.12 billion the previous day. The total volume of stocks traded was 189.72 million shares exchanged in 2,417 deals. The most actively traded sectors were: Financial Services (160.35 million shares), Oil & Gas (12.59 million shares) and Consumer Goods (9.09 million shares), while the three most actively traded stocks were: Standard Alliance Insurance (95 million shares), United Capital (11.33 million shares) and FBN Holdings (11.22 million shares).

The bears remained in control for the third day running, driving the NSE ASI further down by 0.79 per cent to close lower at 25,653.14. Similarly, market capitalisation closed lower at N8.83 trillion.

Bearish sentiment towards Nestle Nigeria Plc (-1.8 per cent), Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (-1.8 per cent), and Forte Oil Plc (-7.4 per cent) impacted market performance. However, activity level remained mixed as volume traded dipped 23.2 per cent to 145.7 million units while value traded rose 49.2 per cent to settle at N1.4 billion with total number of deals closing at 2,421.

Performance across sectors was largely bearish as all indices closed in the red save for the NSE Industrial Goods Index which rose 0.08 per cent on the back of gains in Lafarge Africa Plc (+0.2 per cent). The NSE Oil & Gas Index fell by 1.8 per cent pressured by sell-offs in Forte Oil Plc(-7.4 per cent) and Oando Plc (-4.9 per cent), emerged the top sector loser. Similarly, the NSE Banking Index went down by 1.2 per cent following weak appetite for GTBank Plc and Zenith Bank

which fell by 1.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively. Also, the NSE Consumer Goods Index lost 0.9 per cent on account of losses in Nestle (-1.8 per cent) and Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc (-9.7 per cent), while the NSE Insurance Index depreciated 0.3 per cent.

TOP TEN BROKERS(BY VALUE)

According to analysts at Afrinvest West Africa, performance of the equities market has been uninspiring in the past one month, with the broader index down 7.9 per cent within the period.

“This could be explained by investors’ pessimism regarding macroeconomic fundamentals (particularly

AS AT LAST FRIDAY

BROKER

VALUE % VALUE

STANBIC IBTC STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

1,834,507,687.31

16.79

RENCAP SECURITIES (NIG) LIMITED

1,349,307,183.56

12.35

726,264,784.91 473,237,877.85

6.65 4.33

CHAPELHILLDENHAMSECURITIESLTD-BRD

415,469,247.22

3.80

INVESTMENTONESTOCKBROKERSINTLLTD-BRD

414,405,630.23

3.79

GTI SECURITIES LIMITED - BRD CSL STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

FBN SECURITIES LIMITED

324,541,220.20

2.97

EFCP LIMITED

307,670,789.47

2.82

CARDINALSTONE SECURITIES LIMITED MERISTEM STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

TOP TEN BROKERS

(BY VOLUME)

246,201,278.14

2.25

244,411,812.61 6,336,017,511.50

2.24 58.01

AS LAST FRIDAY VOLUME

%VOLUME

PAC SECURITIES LIMITED

190,396,110

11.56

GTI SECURITIES LIMITED - BRD

129,379,879

7.85

STANBIC IBTC STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

109,164,877

6.63

RENCAP SECURITIES (NIG) LIMITED CARDINALSTONE SECURITIES LIMITED

90,075,337 83,400,127

5.47 5.06

CHAPELHILLDENHAMSECURITIESLTD-BRD

72,547,345

4.40

APT SECURITIES AND FUNDS - BRD

68,142,057

4.14

PLANET CAPITAL LIMITED

66,263,527

4.02

MERISTEM STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

64,784,445

3.93

INVESTMENTONESTOCKBROKERSINTLLTD-BRD

60,576,973

3.68

934,730,677

56.75

BROKER

Market turnover Reflecting on the low patronage in the market 823.547 million shares worth N5.444 billion in 11,634 deals were traded last week, down from 2.847 billion shares valued at N7.420 billion that exchanged hands the previous week. The Financial Services Industry remained the most traded with 616.999 million shares valued at N2.667 billion traded in 6,142 deals; thus contributing 74.92 per cent and 49 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 47.741 million shares worth N43.735 million in 510 deals. The third place was occupied by the Consumer Goods Industry with a turnover of 42.674 million shares worth N1.735 billion in 2,112 deals.

Gainers and losers Meanwhile, only 10equities appreciated in price last week 18 equities of the previous week, while 48 equities depreciated in price, higher than 36 equities of the previous week. May & Baker Nigeria Plc led the price gainers with 12.9 per cent, trailed by Access Bank Plc with 3.7 per cent. Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc rose by 3.6 per cent, while Union Bank of Nigeria Plc garnered 3.3 per cent. Continental Reinsurance Plc, AXA Mansard Index Plc and Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc appreciated by 2.9 per cent 2.7 per cent and 2.6 per cent in that order. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc, National Aviation Handling Company Plc and UAC of Nigeria Plc grew by 2.0 per cent, 1.7 per cent and 0.51 per cent respectively.

On the contrary, Forte Oil Plc led the price losers with 20.8 per cent, trailed by Transcorp Plc with 18.6 per cent. Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc and Paints and Coatings Manufacturers Plc shed 14.3 per cent and 13.1 per cent in that order.

26

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

INSIDE BROAD STREET STATUS REPORT

CitiBank Foresees Increased Investments into Nigeria in Q1 2017 Nume Ekeghe in London

A view of Lagos financial district

AKINWUNMI IBRAHIM

Overnight Lending Rate Falls on Cash Injection Obinna Chima The overnight tenor of the Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate (NIBOR) fell to 14 per cent on Friday from 22 per cent the preceding week after the central bank repaid matured treasury bills, injecting cash into the banking system, traders said.

Traders said the bank injected around N140 billion through its pay-out of matured open market operations bills, which helps lower borrowing costs among banks.

The cash helped money-market liquidity, trader despite bond and treasury bill during the week. The debt office raised N39 billion with local currency bonds and N120 billion in short-dated treasury bills last week.

The overnight lending rate had risen earlier last week to peak at 30 percent last Wednesday due to tight liquidity, Reuters revealed. It fell on Thursday following cash injections from matured treasury bills. Traders expect borrowing costs to rise slightly next week as liquidity drains away.

According to Afrinvest West Africa Limited, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rolled over maturing Treasury Bills mid-week at slightly higher rates. However, two open market operations (OMO) maturities last Thursday, worth N140 billion eased liquidity shortage in the system to offset the treasury bills and bond auctions debits.

The Afrinvest report further showed that sentiment in the treasury bills market was largely bullish as rates closed the week lower on three out of five sessions.

At the start of the week, average treasury bills rate opened 18 basis points (bps) higher but sentiment was bullish on subsequent sessions, save for Wednesday, as investors continue to pile into short term debt securities.

MARKET INDICATOR But the outcome of the monetary policy committee meeting holding this week will influence market pricing of treasury bills.

Barring any OMO auction, money market rates are expected to hover around current levels.

FOREX Market The naira/dollar exchange rate was largely stable at all segments of the FX market during the week. Earlier in the week, the FMDQ OTC exchange announced the suspension of the FMDQ interbank spot rate, replacing it with the CBN spot rate until the general market structure becomes more credible and transparent.

Consequently, the FMDQ published the last executed trades (usually CBN interventions) as the CBN spot rates during the week. Expectedly, the CBN spot rate was stable on all trading days of the week, closing at N305.25/$ on Monday, before depreciating marginally to N305.50/$ towards the end of the week.

“Our expectations of further fragmentation of the FX market and a liquidity constraint at the parallel market materialised as black market operators refused to sell dollars at the regulatory mandated rate of N400.00/$1 but willing to buy at N395/$1, most likely to hoard. However, naira/dollar rate at the underground parallel market for operators willing to defy regulatory directives on rate traded between N455.00/$ and N465/$ during the week without liquidity constraints.

“In the futures market, total value of open contracts stood at $3.8billion as at Friday 18th November. We observed that investors are subscribing more to the longer dated Naira settled OTC futures contracts which are at-

tractively priced. We expect the CBN to fulfil its obligation on the maturing NGUS NOV 23 2016 futures contract and also replace it with a NOV 2017 instrument in line with recent trend.

“In the interim, we expect that developments in the FX market will be at the vanguard of discussions at the MPC meeting. We opine that the issues in the market will continue to intensify peradventure status quo remains on the management process of the FX market,” Afrinvest analysts stated.

Bond Market Review and Outlook Sentiment remained bearish in the local bond market last week as average yield across benchmark bonds trended higher on all sessions. As with recent trend, investors continued to show preference for dealing at the shorter end of the yield curve (NTB and OMO), culminating in under-subscription of instruments offered at this month’s bond auction. The week opened on a bearish note and sentiment remained negative till the close of the week. Thus, average yield across benchmarks closed the week at 15.9 per cent, up 65bps week-on-week.

The bearish sentiment was attributed to high inflation levels and investors’ preference for short term debt securities which witnessed increased participation as the primary market NTB issuance conducted midweek was oversubscribed. On Wednesday, the DMO offered N35 billion, N25 billion and N35 billion of the JUL 2021, JAN 2026 and MAR 2036 instruments. However, only the N5 billion, N14 billio and N20 billion were allotted at marginal rates of 15.5%, 16.0% and 15.9% as subscription rate fell to 0.5x, 0.7x and 0.8x for the three instruments on offer respectively.

Citibank has projected that there would be an inflow of foreign direct investments into Nigeria in the first quarter of 2017.

The Citi Head of investment banking, Mr. Miguel Azevedo and Citi Africa Public Sector Group Head Mr. Peter Sullivan said this at the just concluded EMEA media summit by the bank held in London.

Both executives who are responsible for major Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Africa and Nigeria said investors still have strong appetite for Nigeria.

Sullivan said: “We do see a very strong pipeline coming in the first quarter of next year. So right now after the US elections, we think there may be a window before year end if some of the sovereigns are ready to go as people get more accustomed to president elect Trump.

“We still feel that investors have quite an appetite for Africa and are still very much interested but they will be looking at sovereigns were they are confident about their growth story and about the ability of these sovereigns to put that money to work in infrastructure in sectors that would continue to drive growth.”

Furthermore, he said: “Nigeria had gone out publicly with a request for proposal (RFP) to help them with $4.5 billion medium term note program, the results of that hasn’t been announced and we wouldn’t expect Nigeria to come into the market till the first quarter of next year.

“But I think again what we witnessed in 2016 from the funding financing point of view many if the African sovereign were really looking to maximize the amount of conventional funding. Sovereigns visited China in their first half of this year and got a number of key funding equipments around priority infrastructure projects in their respective countries, worked with works bank, Africa development bank in securing a lot of that funding.”

Also his part, Azevedo said: “There challenges in many economies like Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt. I think those economies are at different stages of addressing this crisis. If we look at Egypt, they have done a massive devaluation, Nigeria did a devaluation. So the environment is not easy.

“The whole atmosphere is one of more challenges than opportunities right now. but this is a very short term and if we look at the medium term, all the fundamental attractions of Africa are still there and we have to believe that we would back in business. The good thing of this crisis is that we are seeing the beginning of diversification happening.

“Hopefully the macroeconomic policies will be more consistent, Africa will keep rising but we are going through a bit of pause now but Africa would rise again.

2017 would be better than 2016.”

CEO, Citi Nigeria , Mr. Akin Dawodu

27

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

APPOINTMENT / AWARDS

Coca-Cola Bags ADVAN Awards for Marketing Excellence It was a harvest of awards for beverage giant, Coca-Cola Nigeria, as it took home five awards for Coca-Cola and 5Alive Pulpy at the Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards for Marketing Excellence 2016, which held in Lagos last weekend.

The ADVAN Awards for Marketing Excellence is Nigeria’s most prestigious award to recognise and celebrate outstanding creativity and impact in brand marketing and activation as well as to reward marketing professionals who have made a significant mark in the profession.

The company’s flagship brand, Coca-Cola, clinched the award for ‘Best Digital & Social Media Marketing

Campaign’ of the year for its inimitable Share a Coke II campaign, which has set a high benchmark for brand advertising and consumer engagement.

Coca-Cola also clinched the ‘Best Experiential Marketing Campaign’ Award for the Copa Coca-Cola grassroots youth football tournament, which set a record with 3, 000 matches played by 60, 000 teenage footballers drawn from 3, 000 schools across 32 towns and cities in the country. The grand final match at Onikan Stadium in Lagos featured an epic performance by one of Nigeria’s most famous football stars, Austin Jay JayOkocha who, disguised as an aged janitor, wowed

the crowd with a display of football artistry and sent it into a frenzy as he dramatically shed the makeup and costume to reveal himself.

The brand capped the wins as runner up for the ‘Brand of the Year Award’, while its sister brand and new juice offering, 5Alive Pulpy won the award for the most innovative brand.

5Alive Pulpy also emerged as runner up for the ‘New Brand Revitalisation Award’.

Speaking on the development, Patricia Jemibewon, Marketing Director at CocaCola Nigeria said: “These multiple awards represent a gratifying reward for our unrelenting commitment to engage, excite and inspire consumers in unique ways

with our marketing initiatives while refreshing them with their favourite beverage brands.

“At Coca-Cola, we are always seeking the most engaging and memorable ways to connect with our consumers and keep our brands where they belong – atop their hearts and minds,” she added.

The 2016 ADVAN award ceremony follows from last year’s complete overhaul of the award categories, judging criteria, selection process and a team of judges that comprising some of the finest minds in the marketing profession in Nigeria to ensure a transparent process.

Marketing Director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Franco Maria Maggi, was the Chairman for this year’s awards.

PROMOTING FINANCIAL LITERACY

Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Abosede Onanuga; Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Mounir Gwarzo; Governor Ibikunle Amosun; Chairperson, SEC Technical Committee on Financial Literacy Week(TCFLW), Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni and Commissioner for Education, Ogun State, Mrs. Modupe Mujota when members of TCFLW visited the state on financial literacy campaign in Abeokuta…recently.

Technology Times Founder Appointed Chairman Technology Times Media Limited has announced that its Board of Directors has named the current Founder/CEO, Mr. ShinaBadaru, as Chairman and member of the Board of Directors. The appointment takes effect from December 31, 2016.

Badaru is currently the CEO of Technology Times, which he founded in August 2004. It has since then grown to become the trusted provider of news and information on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in Nigeria.

Badaru will stay till the end of 2016 when a new management team will be named to drive the growth of the Nigerian technology media organisation into its second decade in delivering technology news and information to readers across Nigeria, Africa and beyond, the company said.

Announcing the appointment, Head of Corporate Services at Technology Times, Mrs. AdebolaAdenekan, said that the Board of Directors has also

confirmed that the company will announce new talents to drive the consolidation of market leadership by the organisation and value innovation foray into new industry segements in the Nigerian technology market.

“The Board has decided that in his new role as Chairman, Badaru will help take Technology Times to the next growth phase by shaping the direction of consolidation of market leadership and business foray into value innovation in new business segments straddling entertainment, payments, e-commerce, among others,” Adenekan said.

Adenekan added that the appointment of Badaru as Chairman of Technology Times validates the Board and Management’s confidence in him to lead the organisation’s overarching strategic investments in new market segments that fosters the founding vision of the company.

Badaru is a key technology industry pioneer in Nigeria and as our nation stands at the cusp

of a new vista, we are excited that he has been called upon again to lead us at this pivotal phase,” Adenekan said.

Commenting on the appointent, Badaru said “the opportunity to shape the overarching vision of Technology Times into the future and also drive the next phase of the company’s expansion into new industry segments is for me another important call to action.”

According to him, “this is a rare privilege to be part of the team that defines a roadmap for the Technology Times intervention in leveraging the possibilities of technology to supercharge innovation, foster job creation and promote economic growth across markets in Nigeria, Africa and beyond.”

During his journalism career, Badaru has earned many awards and recognitions, including the first Nigerian recipient of the SAP African Technology Reporting Award in 2001 and First Prize Winner of UN African Media Awards on Local ICT

Content, among several local and international awards.

Badaru graduated from the Department of Mass Communications, University of Lagos in 1993 and started his journalism career in THISDAY Newspapers in 1996 where he was pioneer IT Reporter, pioneer IT Editor and pioneer Electronic News Editor for THISDAY before leaving in 2000.

Badaru has since written on technology issues for various print and online media organisations, and has pursued careers in journalism.

He has moved into investments in companies in media, technology and allied sectors.

Badaru, a member of the Board of Trustees of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), is a member of various professional bodies and associations including the Rotary Club of Iponri.

Badaru also sits on the Board of companies in the e-commerce, market intelligence, media & entertainment and technology business consulting industries.

Jumia Travel Nigeria Awards 28 Lagos Hotels Jumia Travel Nigeria has celebrated its 3rd year of doing business in the country, where it awarded a total of 28 hotels in Lagos for offering better customer service and enhancing customer experience.

The award, which held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, also marked the second edition of its awards ceremony.

A total of 28 Lagos hotels were awarded under five categories namely, Customer Choice, Best Partner Hotel, Best Hotel Partner, Booking Award, and Rising Star Award.

While presenting the awards, the Managing Director, Jumia Travel Nigeria, Kushal Dutta, said: “It is rewarding to celebrate greatest achievements and relationships that not only set the awardees apart, but also strive to create better service and experience for the guests. The objective is to appreciate outstanding performers while creating a dynamic platform for players to meet and interact.”

Some of the winners of the Customer Choice Award included, Ikoyi Fairview Apartments; Apartment Royale Hotel & Suites; Jeromes Gardens & Suites; Bluespring Hotel; and Epe Resort. Winners of other categories included Ibis Hotel Ikeja; Park Inn by Radisson; Fahrenheit Loft; Eko Hotel & Suites; and Cumberland Hotel.

Speaking on the performance of the company in the last 11 months, Dutta stated that investment in world-class technology that has improved

customers’ experience on the company’s portal has been one of the greatest achievements recorded so far. He made reference to the Web Progressive App (WPA) technology developed by the company, which makes customers spend less time searching their hotels of choice.

The technology, according to him, was showcased by Google at the Web Development event recently.

“Our monthly traffic grew from 93,000 to 650,000 making Jumia Travel the largest online travel agency in the country.

In the last three years, Jumia Travel has provided an online platform for local hotels, ensuring that both small boutique properties as well as privately owned residences can enjoy fair display and online presence as with global chains and renowned brands,” Dutta said.

Paving and supporting the digitization process of hotels and the adoption of eCommerce has also been at the forefront of objectives set by the company, with 50 per cent of its hotel partners making their online debut via the platform, Dutta added.

Among innovative solutions launched by Jumia Travel include WEX virtual payment, which is a solution that allows hotels to easily receive payment from guests; various mobile-based payments; progressive web extranet; Live Chat; Local languages; and Around-the-clock customer service.

StarTimes Wins Most Rewarding Brand Award at BJAN 2016 Frontline digital TV network operator, StarTimes has received another medal for service excellence that further boosts its growing profile in Nigeria. The pay TV company has again been awarded as the Most Rewarding Brand (Sales Promotion) for its Copa America campaign by Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN) in Lagos recently.

It was also honoured as a special nominee for Most Impressive Customer Care award.

The award ceremony which held in Lekki was the grand finale of the fourth Annual Brand and Marketing Conference of Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN) organised to reward outstanding brands and service providers across the business sectors and industries.

The colourful ceremony was attended by many dignitaries and business leaders, including representatives from leading household names like StarTimes, Stanbic IBTC, CBN, NBC, NCC, Fidelity bank, Ntel and others.

StarTimes was awarded for its numerous rewarding customer campaigns and ground-

breaking innovations in the pay TV industry. Recently, StarTimes introduced new channels including CNBC Africa, FOX Life, NatGeo Channel, Bollywood Africa and others. In the same vein, StarTimes recently announced opening 13 of its top channels to digital TV subscribers for 168 hours of free viewing in November.

StarTimes Head of PR, Israel Bolaji, stated: “StarTimes is so excited to be recognized and awarded

by BJAN for its excellent offerings to subscribers in Nigeria. This is another high-profile award we are getting this year and this will further propel us to do more.

We will not spare any effort to offer rich, diverse and high quality digital television experience to Nigerian and African viewers.”

StarTimes will continue to offer subscribers the best in class of pay TV experience with world class channels for drama, sports, kiddies, news, music and religion.

We are keen to continuously enhance access and improve digital television experience for our subscribers, Bolaji added.

28

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Fashola: The Choices before Us are Difficult The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, recently briefed journalists on his stewardship in the past one year, during which he gave a sector-by-sector breakdown of the all activities under his supervision. He said given the limited resources at the disposal of government, he has been making difficult choices in the collective interest. Olawale Olaleye presents the excerpts: Your appointment was hailed by many people as Minister of Power, Works and Housing. What have you been doing in the last one year in meeting the expectations?

Our memories will recall that on the 11th November, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, concluded the process of constituting his cabinet by administering the oath of office on ministers. I was assigned to consolidate a newly merged ministry of Power Works and Housing, shortly after which I briefed members of the public and the press about our plans, in my maiden press briefing tagged “Setting the Agenda.”

While some of the assumptions may have altered somewhat about the timing of the budget, a budget was eventually signed into law on Friday 6th May 2016 (6 months ago) and we have set about implementing the budget of N260.082billion with the releases of N70billion made in June (for Quarter I) and N60billion made in October (for Quarter II). It is now exactly a year since we were sworn into office, and I believe it is an appropriate time to acquaint you with our progress of work.

Because the three ministries are involved, I will dwell on summaries in order to manage time, but from time to time, I will highlight some details whenever they are necessary to explain a point and to reinforce our commitment to remain accountable to you, our employers.

Starting with Works, how much have you done?

This ministry as we all know is responsible for civil works especially the construction of roads, bridges, buildings and other similar civil engineering undertakings. As I mentioned during my briefing on the agenda setting, we had inherited about 206 road projects already contracted out with outstanding completion costs in the region of N1.5 Trillion.

Although the works ministry share of the 2016 appropriation was N260billion, which was a lot more than the 2015 budget of only N18billion that the last administration left, it is a drop in the ocean against the liabilities that were outstanding to contractors.

Our interactions with contractors showed that many of them had not been paid for an average of two to three years before we resumed, and this explained the stoppage of works, by the contractors, the layoff of workers, and consequently poor condition of many roads. With limited resources against liabilities, with debts already owed, we had to make difficult choices of deciding which of the 206 roads under contract we should start with, and how many. Our choices were informed by the realities of our economy and the size of our resources. We resolved that all roads are economic roads but that some were more urgent and more impactful than others.

So, our choices were determined by roads that carried the heaviest cargo, to allow farmers, businessman, industries and travelers move their goods and themselves across the country in order to drive productive activity.

Secondly, we chose roads that support our energy sufficiency and put our resources in roads leading to and from petroleum tank farms so that we can move petro, diesel and kerosene across Nigeria. We also chose roads that led to and from our major sea

Fashola and airports so that maritime business can go on, to drive the economy.

Therefore, we re-mobilised contractors back to work on roads across the six geo-political zones. Some important roads in this category are: The Port Harcourt-Aba Road, where mobilisation was delayed until Monday, 31st October because of rains, and the difficulty of establishing a works yard.

They are Sokoto-Tambuwal-MakeraKontagara Road, where work is going on in Sokoto-Kebbi-Niger States; Ilorin-Jebba Road (Kwara State); Loko-Oweto Bridge (Nasarawa/ Benue States); Shagamu- Ibadan (Oyo-Ogun State); Shagamu-Lagos (Lagos-Ogun State); Ogbomosho-Oko-Ilogbo-Osogbo (Oyo-Osun State); Funtua-Katsina (Katsina State); WukariAkwana (Taraba State); Abriba-ArochukwuOhafia (Abia State); Abuja-Lokoja-Airport (FCT/Kogi State); Oji-Achi-Obeagu-MmakuAwgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku (Enugu

State); Ajase Ipo–Offa–Erinle–Osun State Boundary (Kwara State); Ikot Ekpene Border-Aba –Owerri Dualisation and (Akwa Ibom/Abia and Imo States).

We also paid consultants, who are supervising these roads and had been denied payment for two to three years. This has helped to recover lost jobs, and put some money back in circulation, as part of a government strategy to build out of this recession. As I said during our first briefing, our short-term objectives are to complete uncompleted road contracts, restore motorability to as many roads as possible, improve journey times and reduce the cost of travel for commuters.

This has clearly started on the roads I have spoken about and the results will accrue as progress on the works improves over time and the roads are completed. In the medium to long term, we intend to cover more roads as our resources permit, and

increase our maintenance capacity of road assets to ensure that we do not neglect our highways again in the manner we have done over the years to our collective detriment.

The first step to maintenance is to restore the authority of all the states controllers of works, to charge them to take responsibility for all federal roads within their states posting, and to bring up an annual budget that will be submitted to Parliament.

This will help us decentralise authority over road maintenance, vest responsibility on the people, who are on the ground and closer to the roads so that they can resurface damaged roads, clear over-grown vegetation, enforce axle-load compliance, install signs and lane marking and gradually restore our highways to contemporary quality.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

29

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

FASHOLA: THE CHOICES BEFORE US ARE DIFFICULT What is to be expected in 2017 in the Works Ministry especially on roads construction?

Going forward, in 2017, we have developed proposals for the budget to intervene in critical roads in the six geo-political zones that lead to and from major food producing states, based on information supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture. We plan to do the same for states that produce minerals from mining activity, and for states, where we have strategic fuel depots. For decades, we have paid almost no attention to bridges built across the country as though they are indestructible. We are beginning to see erosion, stress, and in some cases, failures and near collapse in Kano (Tamburawa), Lagos (Ijora), Kogi (Lokoja) Ogun (Long bridge on Lagos-Ibadan) Kaduna (Jaji) and other places.

Although we have started some work in a few places, we have only about N2billion to work in the 2016 budget. We have nonetheless developed a three year plan to cover 42 bridges that will require about N277billion authorisation by parliament over the period. I must also point out that we received representation from parliamentarians about roads in their constituencies and from the monthly FRSC reports, all of which have been factored into our next three-year plan.

How far we go, how much we get and how much we can do, now depends on how much money the country can get, and how much she gets approval to spend.

One of the problems in Nigeria is construction of poor quality roads which depreciate easily. Why is it difficult for us to construct roads that last 20 to 30 years in Nigeria?

Let’s understand one thing. Roads are depreciating assets. I think we have this notion that once we build a road, nothing will happen to it. Nothing can be further from the truth. Once you build a road and start driving on it, it starts to depreciate.

It can be designed and built to last 20, 30 years. Whether it achieves its design life is a function of how you use it and whether you do the maintenance. So, if you build a road to carry maximum 30,000 tons and you are loading it with 100,000, then you have started killing the road at triple the depreciation rate.

I don’t think it is quite accurate to say that the roads were badly built. We don’t have the evidence of that as standing alone that these roads were badly built. Unless we sift the evidence of bad construction away from the prevalence of abuse, which clearly we all we know, can we then say that the roads were badly built? We are already under obligation in the ECOWAS sub-region to enforce axle load compliance.

We will be taking some major steps in this area very soon.

That’s part of the reason for decentralisation and part of the works that controllers will be doing. They will be better able to monitor the development of their roads. There is no block-out of weighbridges. In fact, we have developed some new weighbridges.

What we are looking at now is weighbridges are ineffective if we don’t have warehouses.

We are looking now at people, who will manage those weighbridges by investing in warehouses and sign concession agreements with them. That is where we are now.

You once said you cannot build low income houses during your tenure as governor of Lagos, do you still maintain that stance as the Minister in charge of Housing?

About mass housing and low income earners, we need to be clear. I think I was clear. You were asking me about low cost housing when I was governor and I said ‘Give me low cost cement and give me low cost iron rods and tell me who will accept low cost labour to build at those sites because those are the inputs’. If you don’t have those inputs, can you do business whereby you buy a product for N10 and then you sell it for N5?

Assuming you succeeded, fine, but where is the sustainability? And perhaps that is one of the reasons we haven’t been able to build on a continuous basis. We build once in 20 years and then we forget about it. Sustainability is at the heart of any successful programme

Fashola and if you can’t deliver sustainability, then, it is not successful. Mass housing is different from low-cost housing. They mean different things. We had a seminar, two workshops actually on affordable housing, local and foreign participants.

We couldn’t agree on the definition of affordable. The one definition that everybody agreed on was ‘It depends’ because somebody showed us a $5,000 accommodation, two bedrooms but toilet was outside. Is that what you want? It depends. What we are targeting is a group and that is why I said once we start building, we are going to verify what we have done because some of the initiatives of the past, we’ve studied all of them.

With limited resources against liabilities, with debts already owed, we had to make difficult choices of deciding which of the 206 roads under contract we should start with, and how many. Our choices were informed by the realities of our economy and the size of our resources. We resolved that all roads are economic roads but that some were more urgent and more impactful than others

We have seen some of their strengths and some of their weaknesses. We are trying to overcome some of their weaknesses and build on their strengths. We are targeting the income group in the public service between level 8, 9 to 15 and 16 and those, who earn such income in the private sector. Those are the people who are most vulnerable.

That doesn’t mean that some of the engineers working for me don’t need houses but I am not building for them. Some of them may not even want government-built houses, they just want a site and service scheme.

That is where we are going to later. Our affordability model may work, it may not work. If it doesn’t work, then we go back to our lab and see what we need to fix.

What happen to toll gates; are you still for it?

On toll gates, the law on tollgates is still there, the Federal Highway Act 1971 is still there. The question is ‘do we want toll gates?’ When we put a tollgate here in Lagos, I remember what some of us did. I remember somebody even put tomato paste on his face and sent it out that we had killed somebody for protesting over toll gate. And I know how many people went to court to say we can’t toll. So, we must decide what we want. It is not what I want because I am here to serve you. If there is a consensus that we want to pay toll, it will be news for investors.

The whole investment community watched that drama in Lagos and you think they will run back to that country? Now, if the most ‘sophisticated part of the country’ fought a war so to speak, over a toll, what will happen to the less sophisticated part of the country? If you are an investor, will you go back there? That’s the message we sent out. I remember that shortly after the event, a Nigerian called me from the UK and he said he wanted to thank me. I said what for? He said for standing up for that

toll plaza. I said but that’s my job.

He said ‘no, you did more than your job.

I was trying to raise money for a project in Nigeria and immediately they heard about the toll protest, the investors said they want to wait and see what the government will do, whether it will defend those investors or not before we come’. Politicians meet at nights, investors have where they meet too and they talk.

As I said during the hearing on the Road Fund Bill and the Federal Road Maintenance Bill, the biggest challenges to investments are social and political. Political challenge is that we campaign with investments ‘If you vote for me, I will cancel this toll’. When we make those campaign promises, it scares investors away. They won’t come. So, we must stop it if we want to see investments in our country. The social ones are the way we hold and cling to land.

Whenever any investment comes into any community, that is when they get a human rights lawyer to file an injunction to stop the construction when money has been spent, disbursement is ready or has been made, the project has a timeline of 48 months construction, they have started factoring the 49th month as operation, they are projecting that the project will break even in 70 months, then you go to court. That’s what we do in Nigeria. I can tell you so many of the things we see in transmission.

For example, in Itu, they went to put shrine there to drive away the contractor. Those are social issues. You won’t get investors.

There was one in which there was court case for two years; all sorts of things. You pay compensation to one, who says he is the owner. Immediately he collects his compensation, he disappears and then his brother will come, claming you paid the wrong person. That is why I keep saying these are not technical problems. They are man-made problems.

30

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

31

32

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

33

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

Nigerian Air Force Tasks Personnel on Flight Safety Chiemelie Ezeobi In a bid to ensure flight safety, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has charged its personnel to be safety conscious and avoid habits that could impede flight operations.

This charge was given by the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal Sani Ahmed, at the launch of the NAF’s Flight Line Safety Campaign.

The campaign saw air personnel picking foreign object debris across the flight line at 401 Aircraft Maintenance Depot, Lagos, after which they were taken through some first aid drills by an official of the

Nigerian Red Cross, Bright Charles.

Personnel were also lectured on safety in hanger and flight line environment, as well as engineering practices and procedures in the Air Force.

According to Ahmed, the two-day safety campaign was aimed at reawakening safety habits on the flight line.

He said: “NAF operates sensitive equipment and we don’t want anything to happen to them. Therefore, there’s need to identify differences between safe habit and unsafe act.

“Flying is a risky business and so, we want to ensure we maintain high level safety in the flight line. By now, personnel

should be able to differentiate between hazard, risk and danger.

“We introduced them to flight line walk not just to keep the flight line clean, but so that they would know that certain objects pose serious dangers to our operations.

“Somebody might see a small metal and ignore it but that metal can cause serious risk if it pierces the tyre. It would also cost money to repair or replace that tyre.

“This campaign is usually done yearly because we have sophisticated equipment at hanger and so, personnel need to be reminded on what to do to avoid disaster.

“Safety is a continuous

business and must be done regularly so that it becomes part and parcel of personnel.

“We are looking to make it quaterly because it is a continuous thing. It is the thinking of the headquarters that personnel should be able to differentiate between safe habit and unsafe act.”

At the exercise were the Commander, 435 Base Service Group, Air Commodore Paul Masiyer; Command’s Evaluation Officer, Air Commodore Edward Adedokun; Commander, 401 Aircraft Maintenance Depot, Air Commodore Emmanuel Wonah and Commander, 65 Forward Operation Base, Badagry, Air Commodore CU Umolu, amongst several others.

Ugwuanyi: Nsukka Trade Fair Will Boost Enugu’s Economic Growth Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State on Wednesday reiterated his administration’s commitment to support business ventures that would promote opportunities for both local and international businesses with a view to expanding the state’s economic potential.

The governor spoke at the opening ceremony of the first

DA

L-R:

Nsukka Trade Fair organised by the Nsukka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NSCIMMA).

He said the fair, themed: “Promoting SMEs and Agriculture for National Recovery”, would provide the platform for the identification and harnessing of business and investment opportunities in the state, especially in the areas of agriculture and agro-allied ventures and small and medium enterprises.

The governor also added that the event was consistent with the administration’s policies to attract investment and create business opportunities for the state’s economic growth and quest for diversification of its economy.

Ugwuanyi reassured the people of the state of his commitment to develop the entire state, enjoining the people of Enugu West Senatorial district to organise a similar fair so that

the three senatorial districts will exploit the inherent benefits of trade fairs for the overall interest of the state.

Earlier in his address, the President of NSCIMMA, Dr. Basil Onugu, said that the mission of the association was to promote business and economic development in the state in general and Nsukka zone in particular in order to create wealth and jobs through entrepreneurship and innovation.

Kogi to Plant 21, 000 Hectares of Cassava Next Year Yekini Jimoh in Lokoja As part of Kogi State government drive towards actualising the drift from subsistence farming to agriculture as business, the state government is to facilitate the planting of over 21,000 hectares of cassava farms in 2017.

The acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Isah Ochepa disclosed this at a meeting of the state agricultural Core Delivery Team (CDT) in Lokoja.

Ochepa said farmers in each of the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi were expected to cultivate 1,000 hectares each to make up the 21,000 hectares.

Also speaking at the meeting, acting Managing Director of the state Agricultural Development Project (ADP), Mr. James Ogunmola said efforts were also being made to train farmers on preservation of orange flesh sweet potato vines.

This, according to him, is to enable preservation of the vines for distribution to farmers during the next rainy season adding that government had planned to embark on mass production of the orange flesh sweet potatoes.

He said that the nutritional value of the vegetable crop was high and had been recommended particularly for children and adults especially, diabetic

patients.

The Managing Director said the decision to produce the potatoes in large quantity was made against the backdrop of the school feeding scheme being contemplated by the state government.

Ogunmola described it as a women-friendly crop being planted in Kenya and Tanzania saying that assimilation of its carbohydrate content during metabolism was gradual and not at once as with others.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Victor Adejoh, Team Lead of Synergos Nigeria, organisers of the CDT programme said the meeting was aimed at engaging government representatives on the need to provide for activities of the State Partnership for Agriculture in 2017 budget.

Adejoh said Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) providing support for the various SPA programmes through Synergos, wanted to see that certain monetary provisions were made for the partnership to show the seriousness of government in transforming agriculture.

“I appeal to CDT members and key budget leaders to have the SPA captured. The target of Synergos in the SPA is to develop an all-inclusive policy to drive the transformation from subsistence farming to agriculture as business”, he said.

34

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

35

36

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Fowler: Banking Sector among Least in Tax Compliance in Nigeria Obinna Chima The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler, has said that the banking sector in Nigeria is among the least in terms of tax compliance in the country.

The FIRS boss stated this at a tax breakfast meeting organised by KPMG in Lagos at the weekend.

“I just have to tell you the truth; the banks are one of the least compliance when it comes to tax. We have had cases whereby we had outstanding remittances in the region of N2 billion from the banking sector,” Fowler said in response to a question at the meeting.

Earlier, the Fowler pointed

out that in terms of compliance, Nigeria has one of the lowest level of tax compliance in Africa.

“When we look at how well we are complying in terms of tax, it is not a good one,” he said, noting that the country’s Value Added Tax (VAT), at five per cent, is equally one of the lowest in the continent.

“The FIRS has looked at the economic realities. We have also looked at our strength and weaknesses; we have looked at where we are when it comes to tax complaince within Nigeria. But one of the main issues when you talk about tax administration is fairness. And we have taken an approach, taking into consideration the low liquidity.

“We took the approach that

we should start afresh and that was what brought the issue of tax waiver on interest and penalty. We have waived that for three years.

Of course, it includes companies that we are auditing presently and companies that we called forward with a self assessment.

“On the issue of the self assessment, we did find out to our dismay that a lot of major organisations were not totally truthful in terms of their self assessment. The waivers cover all taxes as enshrined in the first schedule of FIRS Establishment Act, 2007,” he explained.

The window period for the tax amnesty is valid for 45 days.

It commenced on October 5 and will terminate on November 24th. The waiver covers from years 2013 to 2015.

‘Declining Disposable Income Major Threat to Economic Recovery’ The Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane has said that the declining disposable income in Nigeria may affect the anticipated recovery of the economy, which is currently in recession.

Rewane said this in a keynote address at the 2016 Business Outlook for CEOs, Business Leaders and Senior Managers organised by the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) held in Lagos recently.

According to the economist, consumer confidence in the country has been on persistent decline in the past two years,

adding that lower consumer confidence causes a shift in deposits.

“But all projections show that private consumption is going to pick up in 2017 and 2018.

Everything points to the fact that it would get better. But that will be until the exchange rate arrangement is optimal and until treasury bills rate begins to come down.

“Nigeria has certain problems, first of all, revenue problem.

We need to do something to improve government revenue.

From what we gathered, government revenue is bound to increase from N2 trillion to about N4.2 trillion.

“We think that GDP growth next year would be 2.1 per cent positive. But the statistician general tells me that we need to growth by 6.7 per cent for the next four years to get to full employment,” he added.

He also predicted that inflation, which is currently at 18.3 per cent, would drop to about 15.8 per cent next year, adding that if the foreign exchange market is allowed to get to equilibrium, the country’s external reserves may climb to $26 billion next year.

“I think there is light at the end of the tunnel, but there is definitely hardwork to be done,” the FDC stated.

AAS: $7m Funding to Benefit Innovators in Nigeria The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) based in Nairobi, Kenya, has disclosed that the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), an agenda setting and funding platform and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has set aside a US$7 million in innovation grants to fund innovative and out of the box ideas and research to improve Africa’s health and developmental outcomes over the next five years.

According to a statement by the AAS, calls for proposals would be issued for the new funding every year, the first of which has opened, to seek solutions and strategies to reduce maternal, neonatal and child deaths in Africa.

The call also sought creative approaches to inspire African governments to increase their R&D funding in response to the African Union target set in 2007 for countries to allocate one per cent of their Gross

Domestic Product (GDP), to research.

An African woman faces a one in 31 chance of dying from complications due to pregnancy or childbirth, compared to a 1 in 4,300 chance in the developed world.

Nigeria is the second largest contributor to child and maternal mortality rates in the world with the country recording 2,300 and 145 deaths of children under-five women, respectively, every day.

Access Bank Reaffirms Commitment to Women Entrepreneurs Ugo Aliogo and Abdulkareem Azeezat As part of efforts to improve the growth of businesses in the country, Access Bank Plc has reaffirmed its desire to continue to support women entrepreneurs by providing access to finance through a robust capacity building programme that cuts across different businesses owned by women.

Disclosing this in Lagos, at a training organised by the bank to commemorate the Women Entrepreneurship Week with Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) recently, the Deputy General Manager Access Bank, Ope Wemi-Jones, noted that the bank provides solutions that improve the wellbeing of women by giving them discounted finances for women to

undergo a specialised procedures.

“For us, it is not just about banking with men only. It is part of our cooperate strategy, we understands the need of women, appreciate the role of women in social and economic development and we have a whole team dedicated to supporting, mentoring, counseling them and to getting them right in terms and to set them in right track in managing their businesses,” she noted.

She explained that the challenges facing women in the area business financing had been overflogged, adding that in terms of access to finance, women always complain about having discounted finance and some of these things are what the WWE initiative in Access Bank stands for.

Jones added: “In terms of

access we have some special fund that we lend to women it might not be as that simple digit, yet I think it is a bit lower than what you will get at a commercial rate. In terms of capacity building, it is a huge gap for access finance for women; we have series of programmes such as the design banking association so that women can prepare their businesses for financing.

“Also a lot more that has to do with book keeping operational efficiency ,lowering your cost of operation to using technology which is what the whole world is talking about now to drive your business for us to get on track we have online community the WWE community to create a huge network of opportunity for women.”

Fowler

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JUNE 2016 Broad Money (M2)

21,684,965.22

-- Narrow Money (M1)

9,125,933.16

---- Currency Outside Banks

1,379,187.93

---- Demand Deposits

7,746,745.22

-- Quasi Money

12,559,032.07

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,105,663.47

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

14,579,301.76

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

24,318,143.03

---- Credit to Government (Net)

2,893,190.01

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

5,004,677.26

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

-2,111,487.25

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

21,424,953.01

--Other Assets Net

-9,738,841.27

Reserve Money (Base Money)

5,370,199.87

--Currency in Circulation

1,684,725.89

--Banks Reserves

3,685,473.98 • Source - CBN

MANAGED FUNDS Initial Price (N)

Buying Price(N) 1,660.29

1,685.29

1,000.00

11,002.32

11,326.67.11

Stanbic Balanced Fund Stanbic IBTC NEF

Selling Price

Stanbic SIBond

20

120.47

120.47

Stanbic IBTC Ethical

1

1.10

1.13

Stanbic IBTC GIF

142.90

143.38

UBA Balanced Fund

1.2563

1.2493

UBA Bond Fund

1.3443

1.3443

UBA Equity Fund

0.8205

0.8074

UBA Money Market Fund

1.1510

1.1510

ARM Aggressive Growth Fund

N13.0544

N13.4480

ARM Discovery Fund

N288.2515

N296.9425

ARM Ethical Fund

N22.5268

N23.2060

ARM Money Market Fund

13.1030 (Yield % ) • Monetary Policy Rate - 13%

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT 17 NOVEMBER 2016 The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $42.83 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $42.90 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Rabi Light (Gabon), Minas (Indonesia), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

37

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

NSE Advises on Protection of Intellectual Property, Business Information Goddy Egene and Nosa Alekhuogie The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week reiterated the need for the capital market operators and other business leaders in the country to ensure that they protect valuable intellectual property and business information in digital form against theft and misuse.

Executive Director, Market

Operations and Technology, NSE, Mr. Ade Bajomo, stated this at the 4th Nigerian Capital Market Information Security Forum (NCMISF), themed “Does your business have the resilience to withstand a disaster?

-The Business Case for Business Continuity Management,” in Lagos.

According to him, cyber security is an increasingly critical

T H E

management issue, which must be addressed head-on. Bajomo disclosed that NCMISF was born out of the need to provide a platform for stakeholders and thought leaders in the information security space to share knowledge on Information Security, best practices and cyber breaches in Nigeria and the world at large.

The NSE chief noted that as technology evolves and businesses

N I G E R I A N

become more prone to attacks, it was evident that business continuity could no longer be treated as an afterthought or a surplus cash flow item.

“It should become an integral part of operational planning and operational cost. The need for business continuity planning has grown rapidly in today’s fastpaced, volatile business climate and as such organisations cannot

STO C K

afford the risk of not having a continuity plan in place,” he said.

Bajomo explained that business continuity, which is the capability of the organisation to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident is now considered a societal security issue, essential to protect a society or economy.

He stated that the NSE

E XC H A N G E

remained committed to executing innovations that will promote transparency and sustainability.

“At The NSE, we remain committed to executing several key innovations that are aimed at developing a more transparent and sustainable market, with structures to support the delivery of a wide range of investment products and ensure continuity,” Bajomo added.

38

MONdAY, NOVEMbEr 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

May & Baker Grows Profit to N66m in Nine Months Goddy Egene May & Baker Nigeria Plc has sustained its growth in profit despite challenging operating environment. The unaudited results of the healthcare company for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, showed that its sales and profit grew as the firm continued to leverage on its improved production capacity and efficient cost management.

May & Baker grew sales by 12.5 per cent to N5.94 billion

from N5.28 billion. Although the company recorded high cost of sales, internal cost management and reduction in finance cost helped to boost its bottom-line.

Finance costs reduced considerably from N425.39 million in 2015 N377.93 million in 2016. Consequently, profit before tax rose to N66.24 million in 2016 as against N60.63 million while profit after tax grew to N44.4 million in 2016 compared with N41.2 million in 2015.

Commenting on the results, Managing Director, May & Baker

A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager.

Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

Nigeria Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, said it showed the commitments of the board and management to long-term growth of the company.

He said the management of the company remained focused on improving the performance by curtailing costs and exploring value-adding business opportunities to create a more robust base that can sustain long-term growth.

The nine months performance further reinforced the sustainability of the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg.

Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 17-Nov-2016, unless otherwise stated.

company’s performance, after posting growths in full-year 2015 and the first-half of this year. Following the improved 2015 results, May & Baker Nigeria had increased total dividend payout by 20 per cent to N58.8 million for the 2015 business year compared to what it paid for 2014 business year.

Addressing shareholders of the company, Chairman, May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), had said the company was set to break new grounds and enhance

the value of their investments.

He said May & Baker plans to expand into new business areas as it seeks new opportunities that will add value to its performance while sustaining the growth of existing businesses and investments.

According to him, with its existing businesses showing resilience and the continuing operational efficiency of its World Health Organisation (WHO)-certified pharmaceutical complex in Ota, Ogun State, the company is shifting focus to

acquire new competences and expand its business into new profitable ventures.

“In the years ahead, our plan is to acquire necessary competences in new business areas and seek opportunities that will add value to our investments. At the same time we shall continue to leverage our installed capacity at the pharmaceutical facility in Ota, energise the food and beverages businesses by promoting existing brands and introducing new ones,” Danjuma said.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors.

Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return.

NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 1 270 1680 Fund Name Bid Price Afrinvest Equity Fund 120.71 Nigeria International Debt Fund 219.32 ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price ACAP Canary Growth Fund 0.67 AIICO CAPITAL LTD Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price AIICO Money Market Fund ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name ARM Aggressive Growth Fund ARM Discovery Fund ARM Ethical Fund ARM Money Market Fund AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund AXA Mansard Money Market Fund CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Nigeria Global Investment Fund Paramount Equity Fund Women's Investment Fund FBN CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fbnquest.com; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name FBN Fixed Income Fund FBN Heritage Fund FBN Money Market Fund FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund FIRST CITY ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fcamltd.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Equity Fund Legacy Short Maturity (NGN) Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Growth Fund

100.00

aaml@afrinvest.com Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 121.54 10.75% 220.45 9.58% info@acapng.com Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.68 9.58% ammf@aiicocapital.com Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

100.00

16.54%

enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Bid Price 12.01 281.46 22.25

Offer Price 12.37 289.94 22.92

Yield / T-Rtn -1.45% 0.70% 0.91%

1.00

1.00

15.40%

investmentcare@axamansard.com Bid Price 103.07

Offer Price 103.13

Yield / T-Rtn 3.10%

1.00 1.00 14.73% investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Bid Price 2.12 9.03

Offer Price 2.18 9.26

Yield / T-Rtn 4.37% -8.37%

82.88

85.01

2.19%

invest@fbnquest.com Bid Price 1,074.36 103.61 100.00 $101.44 $101.23 108.14

Offer Price 1,075.44 104.14 100.00 $102.31 $102.11

Yield / T-Rtn 4.85% -1.53% 13.92% 5.32% 5.11%

109.59

8.87%

fcamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Bid Price 0.91 2.53

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.92 0.55% 2.53 8.73% coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price 2,168.02

Offer Price 2,192.68

Coral Income Fund 2,070.73 INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price

Yield / T-Rtn -0.34%

2,070.73 9.46% enquiries@investment-one.com Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund

1.00

1.00

15.20%

Vantage Balanced Fund

1.64

1.65

0.37%

LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 0.99 1.01 11.32% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 996.79 996.79 -0.32% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: www.meristemwealth.com ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 9.24 9.32 -5.56% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 13.95% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.04 1.05 5.21% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 10.35 10.42 3.86% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 107.74 108.47 5.75% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.23 1.23 8.98% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 1,796.99 1,807.07 7.00% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 151.84 151.84 3.24% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.75 0.76 0.67% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 182.96 182.96 7.82% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 132.10 133.74 -2.38% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 16.46% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,380.24 7,477.63 2.68% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD unitedcapitalplcgroup.com Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.14 1.16 8.40% United Capital Bond Fund 1.25 1.25 15.97% United Capital Equity Fund 0.68 0.69 -1.31% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.00% ZENITH ASSETS MANAGEMENT LTD info@zenith-funds.com Web: www.zenith-funds.com; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 9.38 9.54 -1.62% Zenith Ethical Fund 11.02 11.12 -3.75% Zenith Income Fund 16.82 16.82 4.87%

REITS

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

11.58 122.85

3.99% 6.04%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

8.54 73.08

8.64 74.46

-10.80% -12.19%

Fund Name FSDH UPDC Real Estate Investment Fund SFS Skye Shelter Fund

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS

Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697

Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

2.51 7.17 11.82 15.63 128.68

2.55 7.25 11.92 15.83 130.68

8.58% 12.13% -5.79% -18.54% -

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

39

40

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

41

42

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

43

44

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

COMMUNIQUE NO 109 OF THE MONETARY POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING OF MONDAY AND TUESDAY 19TH AND 20TH SEPTEMBER 2016 The Monetary Policy Committee met on 19th and 20th September 2016, amidst persistently subdued global and domestic economic and financial environments. The Committee assessed the prevailing global and domestic risks to September 2016, and the outlook for the last quarter of the year. In attendance were 10 out of 12 members.

International Economic Developments The Committee acknowledged the tepid growth performance of global output, but noted the constraints imposed by lingering legacy factors, the June 23rd Brexit vote, continuing weak demand in the emerging markets and contracting productivity. Whilst the advanced economies, led by the United States, are showing signs of growth recovery, the outlook remains fraught with uncertainty as long-term government bonds have nosedived to multi-year lows on expectations of loose monetary policy from the advanced economies and continuing depressed output in the Euro Area, Japan and China. Consequently, the IMF had in July 2016, downgraded its baseline global growth forecast to 3.1 per cent from 3.2 in April. The World Bank in its June 2016 Report on Global Economic Prospects showed even less optimism in forecasting 2016 global output growth at 2.4 per cent from the 2.9 per cent in January. The subdued global growth prospects is traced to persistently weak aggregate demand in the emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), soft commodity prices, diminished investment, contracting trade, weak demand and rising inflation. Volatility in the global financial markets appeared muted in the second quarter of the year despite the UK Brexit vote. While crude oil prices remained tepid following supply disruptions in Nigeria, Iran and Iraq.

Expectations of US interest rate hike remained ripe but not heightened.

US economic growth firmed up at a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 1.1 per cent in Q2 2016, although with a downward adjustment of 0.1 per cent from an earlier first estimate of 1.2 per cent. It, however, still represents a noticeable improvement compared with the 0.8 per cent growth recorded in Q1 2016. The improved performance of the economy was attributed to increased private consumption spending, a robust labor market and increased exports, even as retail sales and manufacturing output declined.

Japan’s economy expanded against the backdrop of weak wage growth and an external sector that is undermined by a strong yen, at an annualized seasonally adjusted rate of 0.2 per cent in Q2 2016 compared with 1.7 per cent in Q1 of 2016. Fearing that monetary policy may be approaching its limits, the government on 2nd August, approved a fiscal stimulus of ¥13.5 trillion (US$132 billion) in a spirited attempt to jumpstart the economy, even as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) dismissed market speculation that it was planning to stop its monthly monetary stimulus program of ¥6.7 trillion ($69.07 billion). The massive fiscal and monetary stimuli are, however, yet to have the desired impact.

Real GDP in the Euro area expanded by 0.3 per cent, a significant decline compared with the 0.6 per cent recorded in Q1 2016. Downside risks and expectations from the Brexit vote may not have crystallized yet and no attendant major economic shock to the euro zone has yet been experienced.

As such, many of the conditions that had driven the recovery remained in place, suggesting that Q3 growth may further improve.

Following its September 8th, 2016 meeting, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank resolved to leave its key interest rates on the main refinancing operations, the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility unchanged at 0.00, 0.25 and -0.40 per cent, respectively. The Council also reaffirmed its commitment to sustain the monthly asset purchases of €80 billion (US$90.4 billion) until end of March 2017 or until a sustained adjustment is seen on the path of inflation, towards the 2.0 per cent policy target.

The Bank of England (BoE), at its August 4th meeting, and in attempts to further blunt the aftershocks of the Brexit vote, decided to cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2009, by 25 basis points from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent, the lowest ever in the Bank’s history. The Committee voted to increase its monthly assets purchase program financed through the issuance of reserves by another ₤60 billion (US$80.4 billion) from ₤375 billion (US$502.5 billion) to ₤435 billion (US$582.9 billion). Furthermore, the BoE revived its financial crisis-era U.K. government bond buying program financed through the issuance of reserves, up to ₤10 billion ($13.4 billion), in effort to stimulate the economy and steer inflation towards its 2.0 per cent target.

While major EMDEs continue to be constrained by low capital inflow, the intractable macroeconomic environment faced in 2015 and through to the first half of this year is gradually abating. The prospects for near term full economic and financial recovery in the EMDEs remain subdued, with the IMF (WEO July 2016 Update) projected growth rate forecast for this group of countries at 4.1 per cent, a downward review from 4.3 projected in April. However, the resumption of growth is expected to be powered by rising credits and a surge in government spending.

The potential alliance between OPEC and non-OPEC members like Russia, to reduce quota, in the face of disruptions to production in Nigeria, Libya and Iraq, have aided relative stability in crude oil prices. Globally, general price levels remained tapered due to sustained low oil and other commodity prices. In the advanced economies, despite the uncertainties arising from the UK referendum, accommodative monetary policy stance of the region’s central Banks, negative interest rate in Japan and elsewhere, as well as various fiscal stimuli, global inflation has remained suppressed.

As deviations in macroeconomic fundamentals in the advanced economies and the EMDEs widen, monetary policy could continue to diverge between the two in the short to medium term.

Domestic Economic and Financial Developments Output Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in August indicated that the economy had slipped into recession following another contraction in Q2, 2016. The August 2016 data showed domestic output in Q2, 2016 contracted by 2.06 per cent. This represented a decline of 1.70 percentage points in output from the -0.36 per cent recorded in Q1, and 4.41 percentage points lower than the 2.35 per cent growth in the corresponding period of 2015. The non-oil sector contracted by 0.38 per cent, compared with the 0.18 per cent contraction in the preceding quarter. Agriculture; Other Services; Education; Arts, Entertainment & Recreation; and Information & Communication, grew by 4.53, 4.32, 2.88, 1.80 and 1.35 per cent, respectively.

The shocks associated with energy shortages and price hikes, scarcity of foreign exchange and depressed consumer demand, among others, apparently proved to be more damaging than expected. Recognizing that the conditions which precipitated the current economic downturn were not essentially sensitive to monetary policy, the MPC again renewed its call for urgent

complementary fiscal policies to resuscitate production and engineer aggregate consumption. In particular, members underscored the imperatives of diversification of the economy away from oil into agriculture, manufacturing and services as well as more efforts towards payment of salaries and arrears of public sector employees; particularly in states and local governments to stimulate aggregate consumption, as part of the overall fiscal policy menu kit. On the supply side, efforts must be intensified at increased capital expenditure to redress infrastructural deficits, improve the business environment and spur growth.

Prices The Committee noted that headline inflation (year-on-year) rose again in August to 17.6 per cent, from 17.1 per cent in July 2016, thus maintaining the upward trend since January 2016. The increase in headline inflation in August reflected increases in both food and core components of inflation. Core and food inflation have increased from 16.93 and 15.80 per cent in July to 17.2 and 16.43 per cent, respectively, in August 2016.

The Committee nonetheless, noted that the month-on-month evolution of consumer price inflation has been less phenomenal. The headline inflation index rose by 1.0 per cent in August from 1.3 per cent in July, 1.7 per cent in June; and 2.8 per cent in May 2016. Similarly, the core index has been increasing at a decreasing rate since May when it rose by 2.7 per cent. It moderated to 0.85 per cent in August from 1.22 per cent in July and 1.83 per cent in June. The same pattern of moderation is seen in the food (month-on-month) index which rose by 1.2 per cent in August from 1.21 per cent in July, 1.4 per cent in June and 2.6 per cent in May. The MPC further noted that the pressure on consumer prices continues to be associated with reform-related legacy and structural factors including high costs of electricity, transport, production inputs, as well as higher prices of both domestic and imported food products. The MPC expects that with the onset of the harvest season, the restrictive stance of policy as well as the flexible FX regime, prices will begin to taper in the fourth quarter.

Monetary, Credit and Financial Markets Developments Broad money supply (M2) grew by 8.08 per cent in August, 2016, compared with the July level of 10.75 per cent. When annualized, M2 grew by 12.12 per cent in August 2016 above the growth benchmark of 10.98 per cent for 2016. Net domestic credit (NDC) grew by 20.09 per cent in the same period, annualized at 30.14 per cent. At this rate, the growth rate of NDC was above the provisional benchmark of 17.94 per cent for 2016. The development in NDC, essentially reflected the relative growth in credit to the private sector of 21.07 per cent in the month, annualized to 31.61 per cent. Credit to government grew by 1.99 per cent in August 2016, which annualized to a growth of 3.0 per cent compared with the growth benchmark of 13.28 per cent. The growth in M2 was traced to exchange rate effect following the depreciation of naira in the second quarter of the year.

Money market interest rates reflected liquidity conditions in the economy. Average inter-bank call rate, which stood at 15.00 per cent on 8th July 2016, closed at 30.00 per cent on August 26, 2016.

Between July 8th and 26th August 2016, interbank call rate averaged 24.95 per cent. The rates increased to 50.0 per cent on July 15, 2016. The sharp increase was attributed to the drop in net liquidity during the period.

The Committee noted a decline in the equities segment of the capital market as the All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 3.51 per cent from 28,733.90 on July 18, 2016, to 27,725.40 on September 15, 2016.

Similarly, Market Capitalization (MC) declined by 3.55 per cent from N9.87 trillion to 9.52 trillion during the same period. In addition, relative to end-December 2015, the capital market indices fell by 20.06 per cent and 3.35 per cent, respectively, reflecting the slowdown in the economy. Overall, the capital market did not show vulnerabilities to domestic and external sector developments.

External Sector Developments The average naira exchange rate weakened at the inter-bank segment of the foreign exchange market during the review period. The exchange rate at the interbank market opened at N285.25/ US$ and closed at N305.90/US$, with a daily average of N302.87/US$ between July 1st and August 26, 2016. The Committee observed that total foreign exchange inflows through the CBN increased by 89.14 per cent, from US$1,092.21 million recorded in July to US$2,065.79 million in August 2016.

This increase was due mainly to receipts of foreign flows within the month. Total outflows, however, decreased by 4.57 per cent from US$2,728.12 million to US$2,603.35 during the same period. In efforts to deepen the foreign exchange market and stabilize the financial markets generally, a number of policy instruments were deployed since the last MPC meeting, including an increase in the benchmark interest rate and the directive to IMTOs to sell forex directly to Bureau de Change Operators, in order to improve liquidity in that segment of the foreign exchange market. While challenges remained, the Committee expressed optimism the policy menu was in the right mix.

The Committee’s Considerations The Committee acknowledged the weak macroeconomic performance and the challenges confronting the economy, but noted that the MPC had consistently called attention to the implications of the absence of robust fiscal policy to complement monetary policy in the past.

The Committee also assessed the impact of its decision to tighten the stance of monetary policy by raising the MPR in July 2016. At the time, the Committee understood the complexity of the challenges facing the economy and the difficulty of arriving at an optimal policy mix to address rising inflation and economic contraction, simultaneously. The Committee also recognized that monetary policy had been substantially burdened since 2009 and had been stretched. The Committee noted that new capital flows into the economy, approximately US$1 billion, had come in since July, while month-on-month inflation has declined continuously since May 2016. Against this background, members reemphasized the need to channel monetary policy instruments essentially in addressing stability issues around key prices (consumer prices and exchange rate) as prerequisites for growth.

The MPC noted that stagflation was indeed a very difficult economic condition with no quick fixes: having been imposed by supply shocks, culminating in twin deficits: fiscal and current account.

Consequently, the policy framework must be reengineered urgently to provide a lever for reversing the negative growth trend. While the imperative for ensuring financial system stability remains, the MPC reiterated the fact that monetary policy alone cannot move the economy out of its present condition.

The MPC considered the numerous analysis and calls for rates reduction but came to the conclusion that the greatest challenge to the economy today remains incomplete structural reforms which

1

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 raise costs, risks and uncertainty. The calls came mainly from the belief that reducing interest rates will spur credit growth to promote consumption and investment spending not only in the private sector but also by the public sector. The Committee was of the view that in the past, the MPC had reduced rates ostensibly to achieve the above objectives; but found that rather than deploy the available liquidity to provide credit to agriculture and the manufacturing sectors, the rate cuts provided opportunities for lending to traders who deployed the same liquidity in putting pressure on the foreign exchange market which had limited supply, thus pushing up the exchange rate.

With respect to providing opportunity to the public sector to borrow at lower rates, the Committee agreed that while it was expected to stimulate growth by encouraging aggressive spending, doing so without corresponding efforts to boost industrial output by taking actions to deepen foreign exchange supply for raw materials will not help reduce unemployment nor would it boost industrial capacities. The Committee was also of the view that consumer demand for goods which will be boosted through increased spending may indeed be chasing too few goods which may further exacerbate the already heightened inflationary conditions. The urgency of a monetary-fiscal policy retreat along with trade and budgetary policy, to design a comprehensive intervention mechanism is long overdue.

The Bank has since 2009 expanded its balance sheet to bail out the financial system and support growth initiatives in the economy. While stimulating economic growth and creating a congenial investment climate always is and remains essentially the realm of fiscal policy; monetary policy in all cases only comes in to support sound fiscal policy. Nevertheless, the Bank has and shall continue to deploy its development finance interventions to complement the overall effort of fiscal policy towards reinvigorating the economy. The interest rate decisions of the Bank are, therefore, anchored on sound judgment, fundamentals and compelling arguments for such policy directions.

The Committee also feels that there was the need to continue to encourage the inflow of foreign capital into the economy by continuing to put in place incentives to gain the confidence of players in this segment of the foreign exchange market. Consequently the Committee considers that loosening monetary policy now is not advisable as real interest rates are negative, heightened demand pressure exists in the foreign exchange market while inflation is trending upwards.

The Committee noted the positive response of the deposit money banks (DMBs) to the Bank’s call for increased credit to the private sector between July and August. As the growth in the monetary aggregates spiked above their provisional benchmarks, headline inflation continued its upward trajectory in August 2016, and now close to twice the size of the upper limit of the policy reference band. Supply side factors including energy and utility prices, transportation and input costs, have continued to add to consumer price pressures. Members emphasized that improved fiscal activities, especially, the active implementation of the 2016 Federal Budget, and payment of salaries by states and local governments, will go a long way in contributing to economic recovery. In the same direction, the Committee urged the fiscal authorities to consider tax incentives as a stimulus on both supply and demand side of economic activities.

Outlook The data available to the Committee and forecasts of key variables suggest that the outlook for inflation in the medium term appears benign. First, month-on-month inflation has since May 2016 turned the curve; second, harvests have started to kick-in for most agricultural produce and should contribute to dampening consumer prices in the months ahead; and third, the current stance of monetary policy is expected to continue to help lock-in inflation expectations which, has started to improve with the gradual return of stability in the foreign exchange market. In this light, the MPC believes that as inflows improve, the naira exchange rate should further stabilize. Overall, the major pressure points remain the challenges in the oil sector (production and prices), output contraction, and other financial system vulnerabilities as well as foreign exchange shortage.

The Committee’s Decisions The Committee assessed the relevant risks, and concluded that the economy continues to face elevated risks on both price and output fronts. However, given its primary mandate and considering the limitations of its instruments with respect to output, the Committee elected to retain the current stance of policy, evoked at its last meeting when it raised the MPR from 12 to 14 per cent. Conscious of the need to allow this and other measures like the foreign exchange market reforms to work through fully, the Committee decided to retain all the monetary policy instruments at their current levels.

In summary, all 10 MPC members voted to: (i) Retain the MPR at 14.00 per cent; (ii) Retain the CRR at 22.5 per cent; (iii) Retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30.00 per cent; and (iv) Retain the Asymmetric Window at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR Thank you for listening.

GoDwin i. EmEfiElE Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria 20th September 2016 PERSonAl STATEmEnT BY THE monETARY PoliCY CommiTTEE mEmBERS 1.0 ADElABU, ADEBAYo An assessment of the latest macroeconomic data reveals intensification of key challenges confronting the economy since the beginning of the current fiscal year. Inflation continued its upward trend for eight consecutive months with headline inflation accelerating to 17.61 percent in August 2016 while the 2016Q2 output growth at -2.06 percent confirmed the widely held speculation that the economy is in recession. Besides, a number of other macroeconomic indicators continued to display less than satisfactory performance. The level of external reserves at US$24.52 billion at end-August represents a decline of 13.29 percent compared with the position at end-December 2015 while the pressure on the exchange rate continued unabated. Development in the global economy is equally less supportive with global growth trailing below medium term average while the level of tension in the global financial markets remained considerably elevated on the heel of uncertainty surrounding the timing of monetary policy tightening by the US Fed as well as the forthcoming presidential election in the US. In light of the fact that the economy is now in stagflation mode, it is absolutely compelling for policy makers to carefully deploy optimal-mix of policies in order to avoid costly trade-off. With respect to inflation, the challenge is a bit complicated to the monetary authority because the pressure is from both the core and food elements. For instance, core inflation increased by 17.61 percent in August, on year on year basis, while food inflation increased by 16.43 percent during the period.

It should be expected that the increase in the MPR by 200 basis points in the July meeting would sufficiently address the concern over the core components leaving the issue of non-core elements outstanding. The key drivers of non-core components are legacy factors such as the increase in petroleum products prices and electricity tariffs in the early part of the year while the ongoing sharp adjustment in the exchange rate is providing additional headwind.

As alluded to in my last statement, it should be expected that the impact of upward adjustment in petroleum prices and energy tariffs may wane soonest which, invariably, implies that the major challenge to inflation over the medium term is the instability of the exchange rate. As such, a prominent consideration for decision at this meeting is the need to stabilize the exchange rate.

45 Exchange rate at the interbank market depreciated by 54.82 percent in the first eight months of the year while the margin between the BDC and the interbank markets equally widened considerably on the backlash of mounting demand pressure in the FX market. An assessment of the dynamics of FX flows in the first eight months of the year reveals a steady net outflow except in the months of February and May. Although, it is expected that the proposed commencement of PTA disbursements

by Travelex could stem the demand pressure but the adverse supply shock appears stronger while the medium term outlook does not offer a respite in view of many likely sources of headwinds.

First, the issue of negative term of trade shock through the plummeting oil price should be taken as a permanent shock. This thesis is drawn largely from the fact that the continue drop in price is driven principally by supply related factors. Among others, recent forecast of supply by the OPEC shows that supply may exceed projection in 2017 as a result of enhanced production by non-OPEC members particularly Russia. Second, the widely expected hike in the policy rate by the US Fed would invariably further strengthen the dollar with the attendant increase in net outflow of capital from developing and emerging market economies.

Within this context therefore, I am of the view that ongoing price discovery in the FX market should be allowed unimpeded albeit guarded interventions to avoid sharp swings that could disrupt orderly conduct of economic activities particularly in the banking sector. My view is premised on both theoretical construct and practical experience. From theory, the famous Balassa-Samuelson thesis posits that sustainable appreciation in real effective exchange rate could only come about through productivity gains which are completely outside the confinement of monetary policy. Productivity gains rest squarely on structural reforms. From practical perspective, experiences in some other climes, notably Japan, have shown that the level of exchange rate is fairly immaterial but the paramount consideration to economic agents is the degree of stability as such would engender confidence. Within this context therefore, I hold considerable deal of reservation against further increase in the policy rate on the sole basis of mitigating slide in the value of the domestic currency.

The other key issue is the contraction in output for the second consecutive quarter, thereby pushing the economy into recession. The issue bring to the fore again the necessity for deep structural measures. The infrastructural deficit arising from long period of neglect in investment in critical infrastructure particularly power needs to be addressed head on. This notwithstanding, monetary policy cannot afford to stand aloof at this critical point, more so in view of the evolving paradigm on mandate of monetary policy which seeks to accommodate inclusive growth. While the Federal Government continues to fine-tune the various reform measures particularly on the energy sector, the monetary authority should also put in place complimentary measures. In this regard, it is a welcome development that the recent measures by the Bank to exclude certain items from interbank forex demand has started showing positive results. An assessment of the current account of the balance of payment for the second quarter of the year revealed that trade deficit moderated considerably as a result of decline in import largely traced to items excluded from interbank foreign exchange market. In order to consolidate on the gains of such policy therefore, some form of assistance should be given to domestic production of commodities in this category such as rice and other staples with a view to completely eliminating these items from import list.

Thus, I would reiterate my support for specialized credit schemes such as NIRSAL in order to jump start the production of these commodities.

With respect to enhancement of productivity, massive investment in infrastructure is germane but there is also the need to recognize the limitation imposed by resource envelope in view of obvious challenge of low oil prices. The fiscal authority obviously needs to inject resources which could be sourced from either domestic or external market. I however hold some reservations to sourcing from domestic market, at least for now. Apart from the fact that domestic public debt is becoming too high, credit to the private sector is growing at a pace required for an economy in recession.

Credit growth to the core private sector as at end-August was 18.63 percent, significantly below an acceptable threshold for an economy in recession. Further borrowing from the domestic market therefore presents additional challenge of stifling credit to the private sector with far reaching implications on growth. From this viewpoint therefore, I lend my support to the proposed external borrowing by the fiscal authority but on such terms and conditions that are highly concessionary terms to avert another debt overhang.

Against this background and given the need to allow full transmission of the upward adjustment in the MPR at the last meeting, I would like to propose for the retention of all monetary policy measures currently in place.

2.0 AlADE, SARAH o.

At -2.06 percent, the second quarter GDP numbers show a deeper GDP decline than witnessed in the first quarter, dragging the economy officially into recession. Although a reversed June inflow data showed an increase, the increase is not enough to keep the economy from sliding into deeper recession. The decision at this meeting is whether policy should respond to the price stability or growth objective. With accelerating inflationary pressures, policy should still favor price stability as rising inflation will erode purchasing power and further depress growth with headline inflation reaching 17.6 percent in August from 17.1 percent recorded in July. Given these developments monetary policy should remain focused on fighting inflation and attracting foreign investments to cushion the loss in foreign exchange earnings from oil. I will therefore support a hold on monetary policy rate.Global growth remains tepid amidst uncertainty: Although the United State economy added 151,000 jobs in August, it was a slower momentum than in the past. Despite August’s weakerthan-expected results, labour market has been one of the bright spots in the American economic recovery. Job growth since the beginning of the year has outpaced the performance of the broader economy, which has averaged annual growth rate of less than 1 percent as uncertainty and elevated volatility in the global financial markets continue to exist. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) for July 2016 downgraded its baseline forecast for global growth to 3.1 percent from 3.2 percent in the April version. In the Emerging Market and Developing economies, weak aggregate demand and low commodity prices have translated to output decline and resulted in difficult economic and business environment. Depressed commodity prices continued to pose downside risk to growth in emerging markets, especially on commodity exporting countries, thus, dampening prospects for near term economic and financial recovery in those economies.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth continues on a negative trajectory: Output growth in the second quarter continued on a steeper decline than what was experienced in the first quarter. The effect of energy shortages, high electricity tariffs, fuel price hikes, scarcity of foreign exchange and depressed consumer demand continued to dampen growth in the second quarter. In addition, the implementation of the 2016 budget remained slower than expected affecting the speed of economic activities at a time when fiscal policy is needed to complement the efforts of monetary policy to spur growth. Second quarter GDP growth contracted by -2.06 percent compared to a -0.36 percent recorded in the first quarter. This represented a decline of 1.70 percentage points in output from the first quarter numbers The decline in GDP in a normal circumstance would have called for a reduction in monetary policy rate, however recognizing that the conditions which precipitated the current economic downturn were not sensitive to monetary policy interventions, in the face of rising inflation and dry up of capital inflow, monetary policy must focus on its core mandate of price stability as rising inflation would erode the purchasing power if not checked. Efforts to spur economic growth will require the cooperation and collaboration of monetary and fiscal policy and delicate balancing of both global events and domestic risks. Therefore, policies targeted at expanding the revenue base such as improving tax administration and broadening the tax base should be pursued vigorously.

In addition, the on-going discussion on concessional borrowing with multilateral organizations should be intensified to increase capital expenditure to redress infrastructural deficits, improve the business environment and spur growth.

Headline inflation has remained elevated during period. Headline inflation further increased to 17.61 percent in August 2016, from 17.10 percent recorded in July. The increase in headline inflation in August reflected increases in both food and core components of inflation. Core and food inflation

2

46 have increased from 16.93 and 15.80 per cent in July to 17.2 and 16.43 per cent, respectively, in August 2016. However the rate of increase is declining, headline inflation index rose by 1.0 per cent in August from 1.3 per cent in July, 1.7 per cent in June; and 2.8 per cent in May 2016. Similarly, the core index has been increasing at a decreasing rate since May when it rose by 2.7 per cent. It moderated to 0.85 per cent in August from 1.22 per cent in July and 1.83 per cent in June. The rising inflationary pressure was largely a reflection of structural factors, including high electricity tariff, high transport cost as a result of higher fuel prices, high cost of inputs, low industrial activities as well as higher prices of both domestic and imported food products. The persistent upsurge in inflation calls for balanced monetary and fiscal policy intervention to mitigate the effect on the poor. Since high inflation hurts the poor as it erodes their purchasing power and affects investment decisions negatively, policy middle ground to achieve the objective of lower inflation and growth should be pursued.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY Data on Balance of Payments shows that current account deficit reduced by about 80 percent in 2016Q2 compared to the corresponding period of 2015 and Month-on-Month measures of inflation are trending down while Year-on-Year measure is only increasing at a declining rate. These reflect ongoing adjustments in the economy in response to the various monetary policy measures particularly since the last quarter of 2014. The key issue therefore is to remain focused and be on track in our approach by not sacrificing long terms goals on the altar of short term often political gains while simultaneously collaborating with the fiscal authority for complimentary policies.

Thus in view of far reaching measures taken in the last couple of meetings and bearing in mind the relatively long transmission lag in monetary policy, I opt to vote for a hold in monetary policy stance.

3.0 BALAMI, DAHIRU HASSAN In the July 2016 World Economic Outlook, the IMF marked the global economic growth rate downwards from 3.2% in 2015 to 3.1%. The vulnerabilities and risks to global economic activities include: slowdown and rebalancing of the Chinese economy, decrease in investment and trade, deflation in Europe, monetary policy divergence between the US and other major economies, declining capital flows to emerging and developing economies, prolonged weak oil and other commodity prices, and regional political tensions. However, the global level of inflation is likely to remain subdued as a result of weak demand and negative output gaps as well as plunge in crude oil and other commodity prices.

Pressure Points Global economic recovery still remains weak and the prospects of improvement is not only diminished but it equally exhibits considerable divergence across many developed and emerging market economies. Apart from the impact of well-known lingering challenges such as the softness in output of many big emerging economies, a worrisome evolving challenge is the rising tension in the global financial markets basically due to the current as well as the anticipated rally in the US dollar.

In the EU, although the Pound Sterling is showing a gradual rebound from the initial sharp slump following Brexit decision in June, equity prices particularly for European banks are still lower than the pre Brexit period. Thus, a sizeable number of investors in the EU are reallocating their portfolio in favor of dollar denominated assets which may further strengthen the dollar. Another major force that is providing support for the US dollar is the action or anticipated action of notable global central banks including the US Federal Reserve System (Fed). The concern about the stance of the Fed policy rate since the beginning of the year is not about imperativeness of further tightening but the appropriate time. Latest economic data particularly on inflation which is now close to the threshold of 2 percent suggests that the time is almost ripe. Probable reasons why the rate hike may not take place at the September’s meeting of the FOMC are mainly softness in consumer demand, weakness in manufacturing and the attendant slowdown in job growth. Invariably, if the rate hike does not take place in September, it may not likely exceed December. The point here is that investors are already forming expectation along this scenario with implication of sharp increase in the demand for the dollar. Another central bank whose action will weigh heavily on global financial market is the Bank of Japan (BoJ). The concern about BoJ is heightened on the backdrop of its reputation of aggressive quantitative easing. Developments in Japan revealed that key macroeconomic indicators continue to deteriorate despite the massive stimulus program by the Government. This has compelled the BoJ to move its interest rate to a negative territory with the intention to weaken the Yen but, obviously, this could also trigger investors’ flight to safe haven which is mainly dollar denominated assets.

Furthermore, some other central banks like Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Reserve Bank of Australia are contemplating further easing of monetary policy stance though for different reasons.

Thus, it should be expected that the US dollar will continue to appreciate against many currencies particularly emerging economies currencies including the Naira. For Nigeria in particular, further rally in the US dollar poses additional risk to the external sector as crude oil becomes more expensive to economic agents that are holding other currencies thereby constraining demand.

These global shocks have effects on the domestic economy. The 2016 first quarter GDP growth rate has witnessed a downward trend of -0.36% while the second quarter rate was -2.06%, which is partly due to decline in industry, construction and services growth; technically confirming the Nigerian economy is in recession – a situation of severe contraction phase of the business cycle involving high rates of unemployment, inflation and a decline in national income.

Beside financial market issue, some political issues in the global environment are also exerting significant downward pressure on the prices of crude oil. The key concern now is oversupply as the market becomes cynical of the success of the deal on output cap between OPEC and Russia. In view of this development, OPEC has revised its earlier forecast of drop in output as supply may receive significant boost from non-OPEC members.

Inflation rate has increased sharply from 9.62% in January 2016 to 16.59% in July, and rose further to 17.6 % as at the end of August with a forecast of 18.37 per cent for mid September 2016. This rising trend, as stated earlier in my July statement, has been driven mostly by structural reforms such as the PMS subsidy removal which led to high cost of transportation, increase in electricity tariffs as well as liberalization of the exchange rate. The slide in the nation’s external reserve from USD 28,207.64b in 2015 to USD 25.0b in September 2016 is not unconnected with the drop in global oil prices as well as the reduction in crude oil production due to the vandalization of oil pipelines and facilities by the Niger-Delta militants. This eventually has caused a depreciation of the naira with the attendant increase in risk weighted assets and drop in CAR to 14.56 per cent in August 2016, increase in the ratio of NPLs above the prudential limits of 5 per cent at 13.42 per cent as at August 2016, and a fall in the ROA and ROE to 2.03 per cent and 16.32 per cent in August 2016 as against 2.48 per cent and 20.55 per cent witnessed in June 2016. In addition, the depreciation has led to an increase in the cost of importing both producer and consumer goods. Also, the high lending rate has not been economically friendly either, which as a point of note, kills investment and stifles economic growth.

The interest rate has ranged from 27% in December 2015 to 28.73% in May 2016.

Domestic Environment The risk matrix in domestic macroeconomic environments has not been significantly altered from the condition that prevailed at the last meeting held in July, suggesting that legacy factors are at work.

Headline inflation on year-on-year basis continued with the upward trend since January, increasing to 17.6 percent in August with the pressure emanating from both food and core components. The development is underpinned by the lingering effect of upward adjustment in the prices of fuel and electricity which took place in the early part of the year as well as exchange rate pass through occasioned by the depreciation of the Naira exchange rate.

The recently adopted foreign exchange regime is bringing more transparency into the foreign exchange market. After a period of restriction in the foreign exchange market, a new market driven approach was adopted in June, 2016. This has brought the needed transparency, price discovery and greater participation in the market. In addition, the new framework is attracting inflows into the market, increasing supply and ensuring continuation of economic activities, although more should be done to further increase supply. In addition, the decision to increase the monetary policy rate will further help encourage foreign inflows, curb capital outflow and provide liquidity to the interbank market. At this time, monetary policy should be focused on restoring confidence in the domestic economy and increasing supply of foreign exchange to attract inflows.

Against this background, I support policy continuity by voting for a hold on the policy rate to gradually bring inflation under control and bring interest rate to a less negative territory. Decreasing rate at this time will make interest rate more negative which is bad for investment at a time when the nation needs all the investment it can get to support growth.

I therefore support the retention of Monetary Policy Rate at 14 percent, the retention of Private Sector Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) and Liquidity Ratio at 22.5 percent and 30.00 per cent respectively; and retention of the Asymmetric Window at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR to help attract capital inflow and spur growth.

The All Share Index (ASI) got to a low of 23,916.15 in January 2016 down from 28,642.25 in December 2015, before rising to 27,889.44 in July 2016. The performance of the capital market in Nigeria has not been very active due to exchange rate problems and hike in the US monetary policy rates that led to increase in the level of FDI outflow, while the ASI and market capitalization declined by 3.4% and 3.6% respectively.

It should be noted that domestic shocks are important as global shocks and the ability of the Nigerian economy to sustain future growth will depend on the domestic policy response to the global economic situation. So therefore, what monetary policy response can be put in place to get the economy out of the recession? How do we increase the foreign exchange inflows and promote growth without jeopardizing price stability which is critical to growth?

This would require effective coordination between monetary and the fiscal authorities to stimulate the economy through diversification, providing credit at lower rates to the major growth drivers of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing, and mining, raising liquidity in the economy to stimulate consumption, investment, and trade, as well as attracting capital inflows and taming inflation. On the basis of the analysis I vote to hold to: I. Retain the MPR at14.00 per cent.

II. Retain the CRR at 22.5 per cent.

III. Retain the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent, and IV. Retain the asymmetric window at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR. This would allow the effects of MPC actions taken in July to fully manifest before other major policy options are considered.

4.0 BARAU, SULEIMAN Background My vote is to hold at this meeting, largely informed by the need to allow full transmission of the impact of the 200 basis points increase in the policy rate at the last meeting. Macroeconomic condition remains weak mainly on account of legacy factors, thus, inflation is still trending up albeit at a slower rate while the second quarter data on GDP growth confirmed the reality of recession. This, in essence, implies the economy is in stagflation phase. Beside the stagflation issue, the pressure in the interbank FX market remains elevated while the margin in rates between the interbank and the parallel markets continues to widen.

In terms of monetary policy measures at this meeting, it is well known that the task of managing stagflation cannot be shouldered by monetary policy alone, thus the strategy at this period should be a coordinated fiscal and monetary policy measures as I have expounded in a number of previous MPC statements. More fundamentally, I am convinced that the various monetary policy measures taken so far are in the right direction and in fact, visible positive outcomes should begin to crystalize soonest. My assertion is based on the assessment of some underlying statistics which reveals the commencement of the process of correction in major imbalances of key macroeconomic sectors.

Furthermore, as widely envisaged, the latest statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that output contracted by 2.06 percent in 2016Q2, confirming that the economy is in recession. The issue is a bit worrisome given that the contraction is from both the oil and non-oil sectors. Projections from some sources, including the IMF, show that the economy would remain in recession up to the end of 2016 while some recovery could be expected in 2017. Invariably, this challenge has taken its toll on critical developmental indicators particularly employment with the latest data showing that unemployment rate accelerated from 12.1 percent in the first quarter of the year to 13.3 percent in the second quarter, while underemployment increased from 19.1 to 19.3 percent during the same period. Besides, the banking system is just recovering from the adverse impact of the shock to oil price, thus continuing deterioration in economic activities may pose considerable threat to the quality of banking system assets.

Another key challenge is the lingering demand pressure in the foreign exchange market which continues to widen the margin between the interbank and the BDC’s rates. It is noteworthy that the adoption of flexible exchange rate model is enhancing the process of price discovery in the interbank market but the current margin of about 30 percent between the interbank and the BDC rates is clearly above the tolerable limit. The threat to stability in rates would be from both demand and supply sides. On the demand side, among other factors, the huge margin between the two markets, obviously, creates strong incentive for agents in the interbank market to exploit the arbitrage opportunities. From the supply side, global developments as discussed above as well as recurring crisis in the Niger Delta region, constitute key challenge.

Discussions/Way Forward Contemporary discourse on our current economic predicament (recession and stagflation) has largely been by commentators who are not well informed. Booms and Busts are cycles that characterize open market macro-economies, often with short term time span. Stagflation is the less common and more complicated economic scenario where there is declining growth and heightened inflation.

We have not witnessed Boom-Bust cycles in a measured way in Nigeria largely because our economy is not matured and also because developments in the external environment for a mono-product economy have largely been favourable. In my view we are in a recession now for the following reasons; • Sustained decline in the price of oil • Severe reduction in production and export due to militancy in the Niger Delta • Fiscal indiscipline – poor system of revenue generation and terrible culture of high recurrent and low capital expenditure • Lack of a disciplined implementation of oil price based fiscal rule. Expenditure pattern has always been pro-cyclical • Lack of domestic savings and willingness to embark on structural reforms to diversify the economy in a disciplined and sustainable manner.

• Aggressive easing of monetary policy since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 – this has severely curtailed the efficacy of monetary policy.

• Poor handshake between fiscal and monetary authorities.

In addition, there has recently been uninformed view that the Central Bank of Nigeria and by implication, the Monetary Policy Committee should take measures that should bring Nigeria out of recession. Can monetary policy alone take the country out of recession? No. Indeed as a result of unprecedented structural liquidity, we have almost reached the limit of the efficacy of traditional tools of monetary policy formulation and implementation.

3

47

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 Manage the Exchange Rate: Current inflationary trend is driven by both legacy factors and exchange rate depreciation but there is high likelihood that the effect of legacy factors would wane in the near to medium term. In essence, the drivers of the uptick on-year-on year basis could be attributed to the legacy factors while the exchange rate is the single factor that has been unstable on monthly basis. Thus, efforts should be made to stabilize the rate in this market in order to effectively anchor the expectation of economic agents. The major challenge in the foreign exchange market at the moment is largely from the supply side. It is noteworthy that the various measures taken so far have moderated the rate of forex outflows but the rate of inflow has decelerated faster than outflow.

For example, available data shows that average outflow in the first half of 2016 decreased by about 37 percent compared to the trend in the second half of 2015 while inflow decreased by about 46 percent during the same period, suggesting the need to improve the supply side of the forex market.

It is on this basis that I would advocate for the retention of the current tight stance of monetary policy with particular emphasis on the maintenance of current level of the MPR while not ignoring further administrative measures that could reduce demand pressure.

Special Credit Schemes: As mentioned in my statement of last meeting, the present economic phase requires a lot of innovations in policy arena to address the multifaceted challenges. Broad money supply (M2) increased by mere 8.08 percent in the first eight months of the year. In light of the growth challenges, some form of arguments may be canvassed for reduction in monetary policy rate but I clearly do not see any need for this. Firstly, stability in macroeconomic environment is required to foster growth sustainably. Second, in view of the oligopolistic structure of the country’s banking system, pricing of credit is more of supply than demand driven, and as a consequence, a reduction in the policy rate may not necessarily translate into reduction in lending rate particularly when other binding constraints to improvement in asset quality of the banking systems are yet to be addressed.

Thirdly, Interest rate is a problem but is not the key problem of manufacturers. Fourthly, studies have not established a clear correlation between MPR and lending rates. Fifthly, MPR adjustment has not necessary led to private sector credit growth. Therefore, a pragmatic approach towards addressing the growth challenge should be based on identification of certain critical sectors that must be supported through intervention.

A careful diagnosis of the inflation dynamics reveals that the major drivers particularly on monthly basis are imported food items such as rice and vegetable oil. I would therefore emphasize the need to strengthen the special intervention of the Bank with a view to building the progress made in the production of these food items. Such approach would not only address growth but inflation challenge would equally be substantially addressed.

Strong Sectorial Policies: The need for the diversification of the economy has always been identified but this has not been pursued with discipline. The current challenges are indication that the era of treating diversification related issues with levity is over. The good news however is that considerable space exists for diversification even within the oil sector. The import bills on refined petroleum products currently constitutes over 60 percent of total import bills, thus a major source of demand pressure in the interbank foreign exchange market, in addition to the fact that frequent removal of subsidy on imported petroleum products continue to trigger inflation pressure. As a result, there is a compelling need to address all impediments on the path of downstream investments in the oil and gas sector and provide support towards the establishment of a local refining capacity that is private sector driven.

Solutions to recession: Some thoughts; Some of the short term solutions include firstly - short term efficient borrowing (FCY) – largely in foreign currency because they are cheaper, Federal Government balance sheet is exchange rate lodged and will elicit the least inflationary impact.

Secondly, fiscal spending and not monetary fiat; Thirdly, fixing the Niger Delta problem; Fourthly, price stability – low and stable inflation and exchange rate (given its pass through).

Some of the long term solutions we have been harping on include; Firstly, structural reform; we need to say less here; Secondly, effective diversification to have dominance of non-oil export as source of revenue via foreign exchange earnings and taxes. Currently oil accounts for about 10% of our GDP directly and analysts argue that it indirectly accounts for over 60% of our GDP growth.

This scenario has to be consciously reconstructed to elicit less dependence on oil. The current recession provides the opportunity for us to do this; Thirdly, fiscal discipline/consolidation. Earnings from oil should largely be saved or used to diversify the economy. We must streamline recurrent expenditure and ensure that more resources are elicited from other sectors of our GDP apart from oil; Fourthly, anti-cyclical fiscal policy in order to elicit savings from windfall which, if we done, in the past would have been a source of counter recessionary of spending.

Decision In light of the issues discussed above, I am of the view that the subsisting monetary policy measures are on the right track and more fundamentally there is a need to allow the hike in policy rate at the last meeting to fully transmit through the economy. In addition, the monetary authority should direct its intervention schemes towards critical sectors that have impact on both output and inflation.

I therefore propose for the retention of all measures of monetary policy currently in place.

5.0

GARBA, ABDUL-GANIYU

Context The problem with the Nigerian economy is not recession! Neither is it stagflation. Both are effects, not causes. The principal problem I believe is a persistent and long standing unwillingness to urgently “harness, direct and put to effective use the best available intellectual and political resources” to develop a forward looking medium to long term strategic macroeconomic management framework for Nigeria with the wellbeing of Nigerians as its principal end. The shock (oil price and quantity) is also, not the problem. It is the failure to anticipate and consistently and effectively respond to shocks within a medium to long term framework that is the problem.

For every building, the foundation is critical. If the foundation is deep and master builders use superior materials to expertly build the foundation suitable for the location and the building, the foundation will carry the weight of the building and withstand stresses including earth tremors.

However, when inferior materials are used, the building will crumble when subjected to even the most minimal stress.

Before the GDP growth turned negative in the first two quarters of 2016, the path of the economy had turned southwards many quarters before then. Growth peaked in the third quarter of 2013 and began to steadily decline from the fourth quarter of 2013 with industry the worst hit; unemployment has been trending upwards for more than a decade; national savings and real investment has been receding as part of sustained trend of public and private dis-savings for many years; reserves of over $65 billion in 2008 was steadily depleted by the funding consumption goods and services, fuel import games and capital flight; the public debt is almost twice its level before Nigeria used more than $18 billion to free itself from the sovereign creditor cartel; the problem of twin deficits gradually crept upon us in 2014 as the inevitable negative oil price shocks followed the events associated with tapering and the misalignment of policies between the US and the EU; cost-push inflation began creeping in in the aftermath of the devaluations of November 2014 and gathered steam as exchange rate spread widened from February 2015.

The “loud noise” about recession and stagflation is distracting from a deeper and clearer focus on the real problem: a perverse model of development driven by consumption of imported goods and services, fuel imports, low-value added primary exports, sustained de-industrialization; capital flight masquerading as financial flows and the creation of rent havens in both the real and financial sectors which distorts access, pricing and allocation and undermines growth and employment generating innovations.

The dominance of the policy discourse by “recession or stagflation diagnostics” is dangerous because it has elevated shallow, superficial and misleading conversations into national prominence with a present hedonistic orientation that puts the future at great risks. Inevitably, the misdiagnosis is narrowing conversations to dangerous quick fixes that could potentially do great harm to the future capacity of government and citizens to leverage on endowments to build sustainable value adding economic systems. When the federal government was advised more than a decade ago to reduce investments in oil and gas (a cash cow) and to sign production sharing contracts, the negative effects on the structure of government expenditure and on future flows of revenue was discounted.

Yet, the structure of contracts is having a powerful impact on government finances. When states were empowered to borrow outside the framework of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 and repayments locked-in to future revenue allocation, the effects on the future of state finances and governance were discounted. When the refineries are not delivering values that will reduce the demand for US$, they hurt employment, growth and the stability of the Naira. Savings from domestic refining will generate far more positive current account balance than what government could raise from the Eurobond markets or from sale of assets. Reversing the disincentives to remittances by giving beneficiaries access to their resources in the currency of origin will generate far more financial inflows that portfolio flows or any similar “tapeworm remedies”.

Quick fixes in strategic vacuums such as selling national assets to fund consumption of imported goods and services, fuel imports and to attract foreign investment and support the value of the Naira; the selling of US$ to BDCs, borrowing and spending to dig the economy out of a hole, adopting accommodative monetary policies to stimulate growth, raising interest rates to attract portfolio flows to support the Naira cannot fix the weak foundations of the economy. On the contrary, they will deepen the hole and weaken the foundations further.

It is important to remember that Nigeria has been selling its national assets since 1986-88; that it has willfully promoted financial contagion, asset price bubbles, capital flight and instabilities through capital account liberalization and de-industrialization that have harmed long term growth by expending its savings on the consumption of imported goods and services, fuel imports and capital flight; through de-industrializing policies (various episodes of generalized increases in supply prices; deterioration in public infrastructural assets; public bias against locally manufactured cars, furniture and consumables and the budget effects of unequal income distributions which favour imported goods and services and capital flight).

Students of economic history will know that no nation successfully digs itself out of the depth and breadth of economic decline that is Nigeria’s situation in the short term. There are sufficient examples: United States and the global economy (1973-86); Japan (1990-date); Eurozone (2008date); Brazil (2013-date) just to mention a few.

Decision I vote to hold. The primary reason for my vote is that monetary policy rate has lost its potency for stimulating growth and employment and for reducing domestic prices and the pressure on exchange rate which passes through to prices directly and indirectly through high inflation expectations.

The interest rate corridor used as the signaling device for influencing the interbank rate has long collapsed. Lower rates have been undermined by conflicting movements in money supply and by the interest rate asymmetries institutionalized by deposit money banks who pass-on lower rates to borrowers with high interest rate elasticities (the big ticket borrowers who account for most of borrowed funds) and pass-on higher interest rates quickly to borrowers with low interest rate elasticities (retail borrowers who have higher output and employment elasticities). The favoured sectors are the rent havens (oil and gas, general commerce, utilities, etc.) that have low growth and employment elasticities. The unfavoured sectors are not only constrained by costs, they are also constrained by access and by policy bias. The AMCON effect has created a liquidity challenge that has weakened the effectiveness of monetary policy since 2012. Fixing the malfunctions in the forex, money, stock and security markets to minimize the predominance of rentier activities are far more important than changing interest rates.

The state of the economy, believe me, does not need any policy dissonance between monetary and fiscal authorities. I have repeatedly argued that neither fiscal nor monetary policies could solve the problem. I had emphasized that “the cross-cutting causes of the stagflation demands analytical breadth, depth and clarity well beyond the typical requirements for monetary policy because the networks of cause-effect relations that produce stagflation extend far beyond the domain and reach of monetary policy.” I have also argued that “it is a potentially disastrous error to expect and to demand that monetary policy carries the economy either through traditional instruments or in combination with expansions in its balance sheet.” It is far more dangerous to anchor policy on the savings of foreign nationals in a global economy where only the risk lovers are more likely to be attracted at unusually high and harmful premiums.

I am still convinced that there is an “urgent need to harness, direct and put to effective use the best available intellectual and political resources” by both the fiscal and monetary authorities to develop a forward looking strategic macroeconomic management framework for Nigeria.” This is the critical foundation upon which medium to the long term effectiveness of macroeconomic management compatible with the long term wellbeing of Nigerians could be built. It ought to be clear to all stakeholders that the economic and welfare costs are growing every second as the recognition, consensus and action lags by the relevant actors in the macroeconomic policy space are lengthening!

6.0

NNANNA, O. JOSEPH

MAJOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS The review of global macroeconomic indicators suggests that the uncertainties that characterized growth in 2015 have continued to persist during the third quarter in 2016. The International Monetary Fund has downgraded 2016 global growth forecast from 3.2 percent to 3.1 percent. The key macroeconomic headwinds acting as push factors include increased financial market volatility, labor market rigidity, weak oil price and declining capital flows into emerging markets. Overall, a tepid recovery has been recorded in the advanced economies – especially, in the United States and the United Kingdom.

However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, growth has declined driven by persistent commodity price shocks and lingering effects of Brexit. Similarly the aftershocks of growth rebalancing and uncertainties surrounding the Brexit vote may have contributed to growth slowdown in China and some countries in the Eurozone respectively. Given the asymmetric effect of global macroeconomic fragilities on growth performance across regions, there is need to exercise caution in considering policy choices in addressing its consequences on the domestic economy.

Recent domestic macro-economic developments The emergence of: twin deficits, rising inflation and unemployment, negative output growth, illiquid foreign exchange market and exchange rate volatility characterized the major adverse developments during the review period.

Data from the National Bureau of statistics revealed that growth further contracted sharply from -0.36 percent in Q1 to -2.06 in Q2 of 2016. Both oil and non-oil sectors contributed to the negative growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as business confidence declined to all time low. The overall “Confidence Index” registered negative -24.1 percent, indicating respondents’ pessimism on the macro economy during the period. The combinations of infrastructure deficits – especially, electricity supply; external reserves constraints and exchange rate volatility impacted adversely on the manufacturing sector. Consequently, factories operated at below capacity, workers were laid off and unemployment worsened.

4

48

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

Generally, the headline inflation had been on an upward swing since June, rising from 17.1 percent in July to 17.6 percent in August and forecasted to rise even further - driven by rising food inflation and the pass through effect of exchange rate depreciation. Other contributing push factors include: rising petroleum products prices, and increase in electricity tariff.

investment. Furthermore, the financial stability issues identified will also worsen as the higher cost of credit, arising from raising interest rates, undermines the ability of borrowers to repay outstanding loans. The prospect of attracting foreign capital inflows represents perhaps the only reason which can be advanced for a higher Policy rate. This prospect, as I will now argue, is an exercise in futility.

The monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria during the period was expansionary, deliberately designed to accommodate the challenges faced by the fiscal authorities. And as such, Credit to the Government rose by 151.6 per cent on year-on-year basis; representing 115.5 percentage point increase above the programmed target. The Government’s fiscal operations during the period was generally, weak and characterized by huge expenditure overruns and dwindling revenue collection, and resulted to substantial overall deficit of -2.8 per cent of GDP. This deficit was largely financed by the Central Bank and the deposit money banks.

As I argued at the meeting in July when a majority of MPC members decided to raise MPR, the fundamental misalignment of Nigeria’s Policy Stance made Nigeria an unattractive destination for any but those with extreme risk appetites to invest. I haven’t changed that view. Indeed, it was strange – almost macabre - to witness a Central Bank which had spent much time disavowing foreign capital reverse itself and expect to be credible. Since that meeting, the Central Bank has proceeded to picking winners and losers; micro-managing all aspects of forex market activity. This position is unsustainable. In addition to continuing to severely erode confidence in Nigeria’s policy making, manipulating the market in this way will eventually breed sharp practices.

Developments in the balance of payments (external sector) were generally disappointing. In US dollar terms, the provisional visible imports value as at Q2 2016 was $11.2 billion, while exports stood at $9.3 billion, resulting to a current account deficit of some $404.7 (-0.88 per cent of GDP).

The Stance of Monetary Policy – CBN’s Core Mandate The recent adoption of flexible exchange rate regime and time consistent monetary policy rate (MPR) coupled with mix of demand management strategies have contributed to the gradual accretion to reserves, and improved portfolio inflows due to high asset yields and stable macroeconomic outlook.

In its 251st Meeting held on July 25-26th 2016, the Monetary Policy Committee after its thorough review of macro-economic developments during the period decided to abandon its fixed exchange rate regime for a flexible regime and to adopt: (1) An MPR of 14.0 per cent (2) A CRR of 22.5 per cent (3) A liquidity Ratio (LR) of 30 per cent and (4) An asymmetric corridor of +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR. It should be recalled that these policy targets were adopted against the backdrop of rising inflationary pressures and foreign exchange market illiquidity. To be sure, the major objective of this policy stance was to achieve the CBN’s statutory mandate of price stability and to induce foreign portfolio inflows in the face of weak commodity prices. Surely, the socioeconomic milieu under which the 252nd MPC Meeting met and deliberated was not different from that of the 251st MPC Meeting.

Specifically, the sustained weakness in the global oil price has continued to impact negatively on Nigeria’s external reserves in particular, and the macro-economy as a whole. Thus far, the external reserves have decreased from US$27.756 in March 2015 to US$24.53 as at September 15, 2016.

The heightened demand pressure in the forex market has led to a substantial depreciation of the naira exchange rate and stagflation. These developments clearly undermine the achievement of the statutory mandate of the CBN, if left unaddressed.

Conclusion Against this backdrop, notwithstanding the seeming apprehension the temporary negative impact which the recent adoption of a flexible exchange rate regime and the pegging of the MPR at a comparatively high rate, might have caused, nevertheless, the consequence of this decision has started to yield visible positive results, as inflows through the Central bank increased by 89.14 percent, from US$1,092.21 million in July to US$2,065.79 million in August, 2016. With liquidity slowly but steadily returning to the market, I see merit in sustaining the MPR rate 14.0 percent at a time when inflation is running at above 17.0 per cent. With the restoration of liquidity in the forex market, the naira exchange rate is bound to stabilize and inflation will be restrained. Furthermore, I see merit in sustaining the Cash reserve requirement at 22.5 per cent and the Liquidity Ratio at 30.0 per cent and keeping the asymmetric corridor unchanged, in order to safeguard the safety and soundness of the financial system.

The current scarcity of Forex will not be resolved by the current tactics. Resolving the Forex scarcity will require either borrowing what is needed or inducing flows through fiscal measures – especially in the oil sector.

The option of reducing interest rates also does not apply. Economic theory suggests that reducing the cost of borrowing will stimulate investment. This process assumes the absence of concerns around Financial System Stability. Prior to August, despite banking sector liquidity of almost 47percent significantly above the 30percent regulatory requirement - credit to the ‘Core Private Sector’ had been growing slower than inflation – in other words, contracting when adjusted for rising prices.

This situation is unsurprising given the worsening portfolio of non-performing loans.

In other words, releasing additional liquidity to reduce lending rates in the face of the unwillingness of banks to lend simply provides banks with resources that won’t be devoted towards productive sector lending. In the best case scenario, Government Treasuries will be the destination for any injection of liquidity as banks seek to strengthen weak balance sheets. The worst case scenario has easing liquidity conditions simply provide further ammunition to destabilize a Forex market already reeling!!

What the foregoing illustrates clearly is that without reform, we are at the limit of the effectiveness of Monetary Policy.

The present conditions call for a fundamental review of fiscal and monetary policy interventions. With regard to liquidity management, I have raised the possibility of variable Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR).

This may be instituted by moving CRR from being a lever of regular Monetary Policy management to become a Macro-Prudential Lever. If for example, 3-bands are set, Banks know well in advance what CRR will apply as their Balance Sheet changes. This not only removes some of the uncertainty which attends the run-up to MPC meetings, it also provides a greater measure of freedom to Banks in managing their affairs – that can’t be a bad thing!!

8.0 UCHE, CHIBUIKE U The current state of the Nigerian economy clearly highlights the urgent need for fiscal and monetary authorities to work more closely together. With the economy in recession, industrial production declining, unemployment and underemployment on the increase and inflation and bank NPLs in double digit territory, it is clear to all stakeholders that there is very little monetary policy, on its own, can do to change the direction of the Nigerian economy. Tightening money supply by raising interests rates, for instance, is unlikely to contain the current inflationary pressures. This is especially so given the structural nature of inflation in Nigeria. It is for instance public knowledge that fuel and energy prices which have more to do with exchange rates are important determinants of inflation in Nigeria.

7.0 SALAMI, ADEDOYIN The screaming news headlines announcing the call for reduction in policy interest rates by the Hon. Minister of Finance provided an interesting backdrop for this meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Whilst less public channels of communication may have been preferred, the seeming tension between Monetary and Fiscal Policy reflects the challenging nature of Nigeria’s present economic circumstances.

With the troubling developments in the parallel market exchange rate for the Naira, it is not surprising that the prices of petroleum products in the country has come under pressure. There are for instance, reports that petrol is now being sold above the official price of N145 per litre in more than half of the states. This certainly is not good news for inflation in our country. On the positive side, it is pleasing to note that the view that MPR should be raised mainly because it will encourage foreign portfolio inflows is gradually losing currency within MPC. Any such inflows that do little to influence the development of the real sector is at best speculative capital.

With other members, I voted at the end of discussions to hold the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at its current level of 14percent.

The alternative strategy for MPC is to reduce MPR with the hope that it will help promote real sector development. This however makes little sense at the present time. This is partly because real rates are already in negative territory. Any move in the above direction will therefore further discourage savings and impede bank intermediation. Perhaps more important is the fact that perennial structural problems with our economic production infrastructure has consistently made it difficult for banks to narrow the variance between their lending and deposit rates. In the present situation where banks are forced to provide their own electricity, security, water supply and sometimes roads, it would be foolhardy to expect the interest rate variance of such banks to reduce materially simply by reducing MPR which is already in negative territory in real terms.

In the run-up to this meeting, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released figures for both inflation and output. Overall or ‘Headline’ prices were reported to have risen by 17.6 per cent in August when compared with the same month a year ago – the tenth consecutive monthly increase since October 2015. Similar to Headline Inflation, both Food and Core Inflation rose to 16.43percent and 17.20percent respectively.

Whilst year-on-year inflation remains high and rising, the rate of increase has however continued to slow when prices are measured on a Month-on-Month basis. Available figures show that Aggregate or ‘Headline’ Inflation rose by 1percent in August when compared with the previous month – the slowest rate of increase since Feb., 2016. The same measure shows that the increase in food price, at 1.2 per cent, remains unchanged when compared with July 2016. The rate of increase in Core inflation also declined to 0.9 per cent in comparison to the increase of 1.2percent the previous month.

The measure of Output, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for the 2nd quarter of the year (Q2-2016) showed that the production had shrunk further thus providing official confirmation that our economy had tipped into a recession. Worse still, the data shows widespread and long-lasting contraction amongst some of the biggest sectors. While Agricultural sector grew quite robustly, other major sectors either contracted of slowed quite sharply.

Coupled with rising inflation, it is quite clear that the Economy is in a place worse than the professional Economist’s nightmare of stagflation!! Bank Staff presentation on Banking System Stability (BSS) rounded-off a dismal picture of economic and business conditions. The BSS presentation showed the non-performing loan (NPLs) portfolio of banks in Nigeria had risen to 13.42 per cent – to think it had been officially recorded at 4.88 per cent at the end of 2015! Not only is the ‘official’ figure now a multiple of the regulatory threshold of 5percent, I continue to be very fearful that the figures on offer may not represent the full extent of the balance sheet weakness of the Nigerian Banking System.

Theory and evidence around the world is clear that the Regulator is ‘always the last to know’.

Indeed, the Regulator only catches up with Sector Operators when a crisis blows open. Given the fundamental weakness of the Balance Sheet of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the prospect of a banking system crisis doesn’t bear thinking – yet, despite the assurances of Bank Staff and Management, I remain concerned.

Given the foregoing, it was quite clear that colleagues and I would have our work cut-out trying to respond appropriately to the cocktail of challenges.

In voting to hold the MPR unchanged, I take the view that raising interest rates cannot solve any of the challenges by which we are confronted. Reducing rates will, given the present circumstances, also not address the issues identified in previous paragraphs.

In a recession, raising interest rates will further damage the economy by reducing much needed

In the light of the above, it is clear that there is a limit to what monetary policy can do. There is therefore need for more strategic cooperation between the monetary and fiscal authorities if we are to stand any chance of getting out of this recession. With the possibility of a dramatic rise in both oil prices and quantities produced in Nigeria greatly diminished, the above need for cooperation is even more urgent.

Bluntly put, unless we are able to diversify our economy away from oil rents, there may be no other viable path out of our current recession. It is in the light of the above reality that I believe that the current talk about Nigeria borrowing and spending its way out of this recession needs to be contextualized. In recent times, for instance, we have seen the Nigerian debt profile rising unenviably with very little, in terms of economic growth, to show for it. It is for instance, fair to state that Governments, at various levels, have mostly been borrowing to meet recurrent expenditure.

Without materially improving the infrastructure necessary for real sector development and economic growth to take place, the idea that our country would borrow and spend its way out of this recession will remain an illusion. The obvious pressure to continue in our bad habit of borrowing simply to meet recurrent expenditure must be resisted.

Given the current level of oil prices, it is clear that we do not have any obvious cash flow streams that can help repay our currently ballooning national debts. It is therefore safe to conclude that these debts will increasingly constitute a problem for our economy, which is already in dire straits, at least in the short and medium term.

In the light of the above, the view that we can spend our way out of the present recession needs to be carefully rethought and rephrased. This can only make sense if recurrent expenditure of government is drastically curtailed. For this to happen, the over bloated size of government, which is the elephant in the room, has to be addressed. This will create the conducive environment required for government to pay more attention to capital expenditure. This will help promote the development of the necessary developmental infrastructure that is critical to real sector development and the diversification of our economy away from oil rents.

Based on the above arguments, I have come to the careful conclusion that the best line of action for MPC at the present time will be to maintain status quo. It is my hope that we will in future see more cooperation between the fiscal and monetary authorities. While it is possible for us to borrow and spend our way out of the current recession, this can only be possible if government recurrent expenditure is drastically reduced. The focus of Government must be the development of infrastructure necessary for the promotion of real sector development.

5

49

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 I therefore vote as follows: (i) to retain the MPR at 14.00 per cent; (ii) to retain the CRR at 22.50 per cent; (iii) to retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30.00 per cent; and (iv) to retain the Asymmetric Window at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR. 9.0 YAHAYA, SHEHU The Domestic Economy With a GDP fall of 2.06% in Q2 2016 year on year, the reality of a recession has hit the Nigerian economy, but a recession that is combined with considerable inflationary pressure. The effects of the disruptions in oil production, gas output that have been experienced in the last few months have combined with the consequent reductions in electricity production and forex shortages to impact significantly on the GDP of the country. The most significant contraction came from the oil sector, where output fell 17.5%, and this obviously had a big effect on oil-related or oil dependent sectors that are nominally classified as non-oil. Hence the industrial sector output fell by 2.03%, with the sharpest decline occurring in the food, beverages and tobacco sub-sector. Construction also declined by 0.28%. Worryingly, disruptions to oil output persisted into the third quarter. This means that the fall in GDP may not yet have bottomed out. Only domestic food output presents a bright figure, with output increasing by nearly 1%, led by increases in cassava, yam and livestock- and this is before the harvest season in the northern part of the country. This, along with the policy measures being implemented by the government and the Central Bank to stimulate agricultural production, gives a basis for some guarded optimism.

The delay in implementing the budget, particularly capital expenditure, has meant that the stimulatory objective of the budget is yet to kick in. The government is currently making efforts to speed up the implementation of the capital budget, but this will not come in time to have the desired positive impact on third quarter growth.

One of the more far-reaching consequences of the economic recession and the delayed budget implementation is the steady increase in the rate of unemployment for each of the last six quarters since Q4 2014, at a time when it is more difficult to evolve alternative survival measures.

The rise in price levels are also persisting, with the headline inflation at 17.61%, year on year, in August. Food inflation was at 16.43%, while core inflation was 17.21% during the month. Imported food, bread and cereals (due to cost of rice and wheat imports)m made a substantial contribution to the inflationary pressure in August and this is largely attributable to the naira depreciation effect.

Despite the rise in general price levels, it is pertinent to note that the month-on month increase in headline inflation for August 2016 is 1%, which is the lowest since February 2016. It is therefore hoped that the inflationary pressure, though likely to increase in the next few months, may be beginning to slightly taper off, unless fresh shocks hit the economy. It is also pertinent to note that the inflationary pressure was mainly (but not exclusively) stoked by the increase in fuel prices and the depreciation of the Naira.

With regard to the foreign exchange market, there is still substantial pressure on the value of the Naira, despite the many measures that are being deployed by the Central Bank to address this challenge. Firstly, non-oil exports have not been able to ameliorate the fall in foreign exchange earnings due to the fall in output and price of oil. Non-oil exports are estimated to have fallen by 27% between June and July 2016. Secondly, the liberalization of the foreign exchange market, the managed float and the innovative use of futures markets have rationalised the market, but have not yet attracted sufficient levels of foreign portfolio investments into the country or sufficiently closed the gap between the inter-bank and parallel foreign exchange markets. One of the key factors is the uncertainty over the level of oil output, which has compounded the low prices. Hence the level of foreign reserves continues to fall steadily. In this regard, it will be difficult to significantly increase confidence in the foreign exchange market until the supply disruptions have been curtailed.

Although the banking and financial sector is still robust, it is obviously coming under increasing pressure. It is coping with the depreciation in the value of Naira because of the net positive foreign assets position of the DMBs, but there are increasing challenges with respect to non-performing loans, especially in sectors such as oil and gas due to foreign exchange exposures, and in power and energy. ROEs and ROA are also suffering, but deposits and assets are still rising. While vigilance must remain high, there is no immediate threat to the sector.

The Global Economy Prices in the economies of Nigeria’s main trading partners are low and there is little chance for any price surges. Oil prices are also likely to remain weak over the medium term, despite occasional short term surges driven by specific events, mainly due to over-production, uncertainties over OPEC output controls and weak growth in the global economy. Growth in the US is positive, but still relatively low, growth in EU countries is quite weak. Brazil, Japan are faced with very low or negative growth rates in the medium term and the effects of Brexit are still generating uncertainties in the global economy. While growth is still high and stabilizing in China and expanding in India, the overall picture is such that there is unlikely to be a major impetus to growth in Nigeria from substantial demand increases in the global economy in the near term.

Summary and Conclusion There are clearly many factors combining to determine the current dynamics of the Nigerian economy. At this moment however, the main nexus for the short term appears to be the foreign exchange market. Following the liberalization of the market, it is necessary to stabilize the value of the Naira. This will help provide the right signal to allow better planning for domestic investments, give an incentive to foreign investors, stabilize PMS prices, thereby stemming any additional inflationary pressures therefrom and help alleviate speculative pressures in the market. The key thing is to augment the supply of foreign currency in the market and stabilize reserves. This must be done in the short term to allow time for the various policy measures articulated by the government to be implemented and have some impact on diversification and local value addition, which will mainly be visible only in the medium and long term. This must be done without undermining efforts to re-generate growth. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain stability in the financial sector and avoid compounding the challenges facing financial institutions.

Much of what needs to be done has to come from the fiscal authorities. Monetary policy instruments can only play a minor role as they will have very limited effectiveness at this particular juncture.

At the last MPC meeting in July, the monetary policy rate was raised by 200 basis points in an effort to stave off inflationary pressures and to attract foreign portfolio investments. Capital importation in the last 3 months has risen to just over US1 billion, much higher than in the previous months.

However, about two-thirds of that occurred in June, before the last MPC meeting, raising questions as to whether the primary impetus for this was the increase in rate or simply the effect of the liberalization of the forex market. Also, as mentioned above, although headline inflation rose in August as compared to July, the rate of increase was lower than in the previous 5 months. How much this is attributable to the policy rate hike is not clear, especially since a close look at the components contributing to the headline inflation reveals that they are largely related to Naira depreciation and PMS de-regulation effects.

In consideration of the above therefore, it is important to have a clearer picture of the effects of the last policy rate increase before additional measures in that direction could be taken. Another policy raise at this time should not be contemplated as it would be counter-productive in a situation of deepening recession. It would also make public debt service more difficult as well as complicate the challenges facing the financial sector without necessarily delivering a substantial increase in PFI. Yet, lowering the policy rate is not appropriate, not just because the effects of the last raise are yet unclear and a complete reversal within 2 months would be unwise, but also because price levels are still rising and are forecast to continue rising until the end of the year

I therefore vote to maintain the current policy stance with respect to MPR, the corridor, CRR, liquidity ratios.

10.0 EMEFIELE, I. GODWIN, GOVERNOR OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA AND CHAIRMAN, MONETARY POLICY COMMITTEE Global economic conditions remained weak in the first two quarters of 2016 as short-term outlook dampened. Consequently, the 2016 global growth forecast was downgraded to 3.1 percent and 2.4 percent by the IMF and World Bank, respectively. These reflected the weak demand, fragilities and uncertainties in both developed and developing economies. Recovery in the United States, though positive, remains marginal, while the palpable fear of deflation continued to threaten productivity and demand in the Euro Area and Japan. With the June 2016 vote to exit the European Union, prospects of the UK economy seem to have been undermined. The ongoing rebalancing and slowdown in China together with the weak performance of the most emerging markets and developing economies further complicated the state of the global economy, worsened the volatilities in the financial markets and diminished short- to medium-term outlook.

Altogether, the weak global conditions are having protracted adverse effect on the Nigerian economy as they expose the deep structural weaknesses that are inherent in the macroeconomy. Recent data indicate that Nigeria tipped into technical recession in the first of 2016 with two consecutive quarters of contraction. From an output growth of 2.1 percent in 2015Q4, the economy contracted by 0.4 percent in 2016Q1 and 2.1 percent in 2016Q2 despite a quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.8 percent. The 2016Q2 contraction reflected the 17.5 and 0.4 percent decline in oil and non-oil GDP, respectively; with the latter accounting for 91.7 percent of overall performance. The moderate contraction of the non-oil sector was cushioned by positive growths in: agriculture; information & communication; water supply; arts, entertainment and recreation; professional, scientific and technical services; and Education and Other Services.

As I noted in my earlier statement, the contractions during in the first half of 2016 were traceable to the legacy shocks experienced since 2014. Noticeably, the spill-over effect of lower oil prices on foreign exchange availability and constricted fiscal space was reinforced by acute energy shocks (fuel and electricity), weak domestic demand and poor financial markets sentiments to weaken the performance and prospects of the domestic economy. As the effects of the underlying shocks lingers, I cautiously sense that the contraction may persist, albeit at a reduced pace, throughout 2016. I note that overriding weight of foreign exchange in the economic performance reflects the high propensity of Nigerians to import. Throughout the first six months of 2016 trade balances were negative as year-on-year imports grew by 21 percent in 2016Q2 while exports fell by 29.4 percent. A cursory analysis suggests that rising imports may reflect aversion for substandard domestic products rather than an innate taste for foreign goods. Hence, effective diversification of the economy may require quality assurances, standards enforcement and consumer protection in Nigeria. Nonetheless, I maintain that a broad-based diversification of the economy remains nonnegotiable, incontrovertible and exigent at this time.

Nigeria’s economic performance in the first half of 2016 was compounded by ascending inflation rate. From a single-digit rate of 9.6 percent in January 2016, year-on-year headline inflation grew to 17.1 percent in July 2016 and 17.6 percent in August 2016. The rising inflation does not only reflect the ascents of both food and core components of inflation, it more critically underlines the imperatives of imported inflation which rose from 11.2 percent in January 2016 to 20.7 percent in August. Again, this typifies the undue influence of foreign exchange on the every aspect of the Nigerian economy and the urgent need to delink the country from these influences. I note that although inflation rose in August, it is decelerating. Similarly, month-on-month rates are steadily declining with headline growth falling from 1.3 percent in July to 1.0 percent in August. This can be attributed to the moderating impact of some of our past actions to curb inflation.

Monetary and financial data shows an annualised growth of 12.1 percent for broad money supply (M2) in August 2016 relative to the target of 10.9 percent. At annualised rates of 30.1 and 31.6 percent, apiece, net domestic credit and private sector credit exceeded their benchmarks of 17.9 and 13.4 percent. However, analysis of money market interest rates showed that average interbank rate stood at 25 percent between July and August 2016. I remain of the view that rising private sector credit, irrespective of the interest rates, needs to be properly channelled productive sectors with high level local content of raw materials. I believe that this will have significant multiplier effects on output and employment without amplifying pressures in the foreign exchange market. This is especially important as the naira-dollar exchange rate depreciated from ₦292.90/US$ on 19 July 2016 to ₦305.5/US$ as at 16th September 2016.

Overall, I note that as the impact of the shocks persists, the challenges of the Nigerian economy will continue into the third quarter. In-house analysis suggests high likelihood of growth contractions, rising inflation, high unemployment rate and the twin deficits lingering into quarter three. However, following our recent policy decisions and as the legacy effects of the energy price shock (fuel and electricity) dissipates; I expect key economic indicators will improve in the near-term, in the absence of further adverse shocks. We expect that as the effect of past policy decisions to begin to touchdown fourth quarter outcomes may start improving. Hence, it is genuinely likely as the base effect wanes, inflation rate may begin its return to single in the first quarter of 2017. It is also highly probable that the contraction would have reversed and the technical recession ended at that date.

However, whereas we cannot fine-tune monetary policy endlessly, it is imperative to understand the core of our economic challenges. I note that Nigeria’s marginal propensity to import, at between 0.7 and 0.8, is significantly high. These figures imply that about 70 to 80 percent of every extra naira to economic agents in Nigeria will find its way to the foreign exchange market to seek imports.

Expansionary macroeconomic policy, if not properly targeted, will export jobs and debilitate Nigeria’s economy. I reiterate the need to identify high impact productive ventures in Nigeria with near-zero import content to benefit from fiscal stimuli. This will ensure that the multiplier effect of the extra spending in maximised locally with minimal leakage abroad.

In conclusion, I note that the choice before us today remains intricate as it revolves around the trade-off between inflation and growth in a stagnating economy. Though inflation remains largely structural, evidence suggests that our bold policy decisions are beginning to slow it down. Monthon-month rates are falling across all components while the year-on-year rates are decelerating. It is crucial to ensure that inflation rate in medium-term is effectively curtailed.

Nonetheless, it is also important that we allow the effect of past policy shocks to asymptotically dissipate in order not to subvert the natural trajectory of impulse-response relationships. In addition, on the balance of evidence, I assert that the current level of the monetary policy rate is optimal and appropriate. Attempts to reduce the rate at this time will be counterproductive as it goads the time inconsistency problems associated with macro-policies. It may also have tangential adverse effects on the foreign exchange market if it deters inflows. The level of liquidity in the system is adequate to drive growth if appropriately channelled. In this regard, there is no need for the central bank to create new liquidity as this may complicate inflation without benefiting growth.

The task now is to ensure that fiscal stimuli are creatively transmitted to productive ventures with near-zero import content, if the multiplier effect of the marginal spending is to be maximised.

Based on the foregoing, I vote to: 1.

Retain the MPR by 200 basis points to 14.0 percent; 2.

Retain the CRR at 22.5 percent; 3.

Retain the asymmetric corridor at +200/–500 basis points; and 4.

Retain Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent

6

50

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

51

INTERNATIONAL

email:foreigndesk@thisdaylive.com

Over 100 Killed as Indian Train Derails

Fourteen coaches of an Indian train derailed early yesterday, killing at least 100 people, police said.

According to reports, the death toll in the accident is likely to rise, and at least 75 were injured and admitted to hospitals, said Rahul Srivastav, the public relations officer to the Director General of Police in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the accident took place.

The accident occurred at 3 a.m. on Sunday about a mile

from Pukhrayan railway station, about 40 miles southwest from the northern city of Kanpur, on a train bound for Patna, the capital of the state of Bihar.

“Three o’clock is the time when people are sleeping,” said Mr. Srivastav. The deaths and injuries occurred when people were “mostly falling over each other and colliding against the compartment,” he said, adding that the number of injuries are

always higher at night.

Two coaches were crushed in the derailment, and people were hospitalized with head injuries and fractures, he said. “The whole train was shaking,” said a young boy who was a passenger, in a televised interview with NDTV, a news channel. “My sister was there and my brothers were there. I found everyone except for my father.”

“I became very numb and I thought what has happened here?”

Obama: Give Trump Time, Don’t Assume Worst President Barack Obama has told the international community to the give the President-elect, Donald Trump time, and not to assume worst from him. In the last stop of an international farewell tour that included visits to Greece and Germany, Obama continued his efforts to calm anxieties since Republican businessman Trump beat Democratic rival and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential race.

“My main message to you ... and the message I delivered in Europe is don’t just assume the worst,” Obama told a group of young people during a question-and-answer session in Peru on Saturday.

“Wait until the administration is in place, it’s actually putting its policies together, and then you can make your judgments as to whether or not it’s consistent with the international community’s interest in living in peace and prosperity together.”

Trump won the election after promising to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, rip up trade deals and ban Muslims temporarily from entering the United States.

Obama has sought to soothe fears by pledging to ensure a smooth transition of power and expressing optimism that the president-elect would shift away from inflammatory campaign rhetoric once he

faced the realities of the job.

“It will be important for everybody around the world to not make immediate judgments but give this new presidentelect a chance to put their team together, to examine the issues, to determine what their policies will be, because as I’ve always said, how you campaign isn’t always the same as how you govern,” Obama said.

But Obama has couched his assurances largely in hopeful language that Trump’s team would see the merits of policies that Democrats championed despite Trump’s pledged to dismantle them, from the Iran nuclear deal to an international pact to fight climate change.

said a young woman in a televised interview. “This is the first time I have seen such an incident.” The Uttar Pradesh Police, the railway police, the National Disaster Response Force, and the state health department had been dispatched to the scene. Rescue efforts were ongoing Sunday afternoon, 12 hours after the accident.

“Cutters and gas cutters and all kind of instruments are needed when coaches get mangled and

topple over each other,” said Mr. Srivastav. India has long struggled to modernize its creaking railway infrastructure, which is one of the largest in the world but suffers from neglect and age.

The cause of the accident was unclear on Sunday. Ved Prakash, the director of information and publicity for the railways, said that he suspected a “rail fracture,” or a crack in the train track, though it was too early to be sure. Indian

railways have recorded dozens of fractures of various tracks, according to The Hindu newspaper.

“The death is so high, we are really perturbed,” he said on Sunday in a telephone interview.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government would provide 200,000 rupees, or nearly $3,000, to the families of those killed in the accident, above any amount offered by the Indian railways.

Rescue Ship Carrying Migrants Reaches Italy A rescue ship carrying more than 200 migrants and eight bodies, docked in Sicily yesterday after a deadly week in the Mediterranean in which hundreds drowned trying to reach Europe from Libya. Most of the 219 men, women and children on the rescue ship Bourbon Argos were West Africans, according to Doctors without Borders, which operates the ship.

They included 27 men who were rescued by the British navy on Wednesday, and transferred to the Bourbon Argos, after the rubber boat they were on deflated. Six bodies were fished out of the water on Wednesday and 97 others who were on the dinghy are missing and feared dead.

In total, an estimated 365

migrants drowned last week in the Mediterranean, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.

Survivors of the dinghy said that a smuggler towed them out to sea for two hours and then at gunpoint forced them to hand over the life jackets they had paid for, plus the dinghy’s engine, and left them adrift.

“At that moment I thought we were going to die, I knew we were not close to Italy and without an engine we could not get far. The smuggler told us we would be rescued, but I felt we were going to die,” Abdoullae Diallo, 18, from Senegal said in French in an interview conducted on board the rescue vessel.

The British Royal Navy’s HMS Enterprise, patrolling as

part of the EU’s anti-smuggling mission Sophia, picked up the survivors clinging to what was left of the rubber boat about 55 nautical miles from Tripoli.

The death toll in the Mediterranean -- the most dangerous border crossing on the planet for migrants -- is estimated to be 4,636 this year, 1,000 more than in all of 2015, the IOM said on Friday. More than 168,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat this year, exceeding 154,000 for the whole of 2015 and quickly approaching 2014’s 170,000 record.

Italy has borne the brunt of new arrivals since the implementation in March of an agreement between the European Union and Turkey to curb the flow of migrants sailing for Greece.

52

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

54

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

NEWS

News Editor Davidson Iriekpen Email davidson.iriekpen@thisdaylive.com, 08111813081

Fitch Revises Nigerian Banks’ Issuer Default Ratings Downwards

Obinna Chima Fitch Ratings has revised downward the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, FBN Holdings Plc (FBNH), Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Limited (FCMB) and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc to ‘B-’ from ‘B’.

The agency, however, affirmed the Long-Term IDRs of Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTB), Access Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), Wema Bank Plc and Bank of Industry (BOI).

The rating agency explained that the downgrade was in line with their stand-alone creditworthiness as defined by their Viability Ratings (VR).

Also, the Support Rating Floors (SRFs) of 10 Nigerian banks was lowered to ‘No Floor’ and downgraded nine banks’ Support Ratings (SRs) to ‘5’ following a reassessment of potential sovereign support for the banking sector.

Fitch stated this in a statement at the weekend.

SRFs reflect the agency’s view about the likelihood that a rated entity will receive extraordinary support in case of need, specifically from government authorities.

This usually means from the national authorities of the country where the financial institution (FI) is domiciled, although in certain cases, Fitch may also factor potential support from international government institutions into its assessment.

SRFs are assigned on the ‘AAA’ rating scale. Where there

is no reasonable assumption that sovereign support will be forthcoming, an SRF of ‘No Floor’ is assigned.

“The downgrade of the banks’ SRs and the revision of 10 banks’ (including Wema) SRFs to ‘No Floor’ reflects Fitch’s view that senior creditors can no longer rely on receiving full and timely extraordinary support from the Nigerian sovereign support if any of the banks become non-viable.

“Fitch believes that the Nigerian authorities retain a willingness to support the banks, but its ability to do so in foreign currency is weakening due to Nigeria’s eroding foreign currency reserves/ revenues, as well as limited confidence that any available foreign currency will not be used to execute other policy objectives.

“Therefore, Fitch takes the view that support, if ever required by the banks, cannot be relied upon. The Long-Term IDRs of Diamond, Fidelity, FCMB and Union Banks are downgraded to ‘B-’ as they are now underpinned by their VRs of ‘B-’ rather than their SRFs, as was previously the case. The downgrade of FBN’s Long-Term IDR reflects both a revision of its SRF and a downgrade of its VR. “The latter reflects Fitch’s view that the bank’s capital base is no longer commensurate with its risk profile, reflecting questions about asset quality, particularly its level of unreserved impaired loans to Fitch Core Capital (54 per cent at end-June 2016) and pressure on its regulatory capital adequacy ratio. The VR of FBNH has also been downgraded, which drives the downgrade of its

Long-Term IDR to ‘B-’. Fitch has also downgraded the National Long-Term Ratings of Diamond, Fidelity, FCMB and Union Bank to ‘BBB(nga)’ from ‘BBB+(nga)’ following the rating actions on their Long-Term IDRs. “The National Long-Term ratings of FBN and FBNH have also been downgraded to ‘BBB(nga)’ from ‘A+(nga)’ and ‘BBB+(nga)’, respectively,” it stated.

Furthermore, the international rating agency said it was currently monitoring the banks’ ability to meet maturing foreigncurrency obligations, stating that in the current difficult market conditions, it believes Nigerian banks are facing challenges to refinance existing obligations and/or obtain foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to meet maturing obligations.

The new foreign-exchange regime has provided limited

respite in accessing foreign currency in the interbank market, Fitch added.

FX forward contracts provided by the central bank since June 2016 have helped reduce large overdue trade finance obligations, which were either extended or refinanced with international correspondent banks.

“Fitch has not considered the extension/refinancing of overdue trade finance obligations by some Nigerian banks as a distressed debt exchange (DDE).

For a debt restructuring to be classified as a DDE under Fitch’s criteria, the restructuring must impose a material reduction in terms compared with the original contractual terms, and the restructuring or exchange must be conducted to avoid bankruptcy, similar insolvency or intervention proceedings, or a traditional payment default.

“In our view, the extension/ refinancing of overdue trade

finance obligations has not led to a material reduction in terms for the correspondent banks. It is also uncertain whether the extension of these obligations would have prevented a traditional payment default. Extension/refinancing could be classified as a DDE if some banks continue to roll over these obligations.

“Asset quality across all segments of the economy is being affected by currency depreciation, rising inflation and scarcity of foreign currency for key sectors. In our view, asset-quality problems are understated by high levels of restructured loans at many banks, particularly in the oil and gas sector. Sustained low oil prices and continuing production disruptions in the Niger Delta could cause industry NPL ratios to rise more dramatically,” Fitch added.

Fitch expects banks to remain profitable in 2016 despite slower asset growth and higher loan

impairment charges due to still strong earnings generation and, for most banks, potential exchange gains from long foreign-currency positions.

It noted that Nigerian banks remain exposed to further depreciation of the naira against the United States dollar.

“The main impact is on regulatory capital ratios due to the translation effect of risk-weighted assets. Some banks have limited buffers over regulatory minimums and any further erosion of capital ratios beyond our expectations could be credit negative.

“Zenith Bank and GTB have the highest VRs in the sector at ‘B’+, reflecting their relatively strong and resilient franchises and sound financial metrics compared to peers through the cycle. Access and UBA have VRs of ‘b’. These reflect good financial metrics compared to peers and relatively good franchises,” it added.

PDP Hails Ex-President Jonathan at 59 Says Nigerians yearning for his return Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday congratulated Nigeria’s former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, on his 59th birthday.

In the congratulatory message issued on behalf of the party by the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, the part praised the former president for some of the legacies he created while in office.

The statement signed by the PDP spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said many Nigerians are clamouring for the return of the Bayelsa State-born former leader due to the present difficulties facing the nation.

The party congratulated the former president on behalf of the Board of Trustees (BoT), National Executive Committee (NEC), National Caucus and the entire PDP family on the occasion of his 59 birthday anniversary.

“At 59, your legacies and achievements in academia,

politics, governance and social life remain indelible and worthy of emulation by well-meaning people. You are a shining light during and after office as one of the Heads of State in Nigeria and Africa in general who willingly conceded power to the opposition in the interest of peace and democracy.

“In less than two years of leaving office, Nigerians are yearning and crying for your return especially as your successor who won the 2015 presidential election on the altar of propaganda and lies against your administration has done no better since he took over from you on May 29, 2015.

“The harvest of your electoral reforms for free, fair and credible electoral and democratic processes for which the All Progressives Congress (APC ) is the primary beneficiary of have been eroded and quickly replaced with inconclusive elections, electoral apathy, voter inducement, intimidation, harassments and unfair incarceration.

PUTTING HEADS TOGETHER

L-R: Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal and Taraba State Governor, Arch. Darius Ishaku, at a reception in honour of the Speaker and Mr. Babachir, organized by Northern Nigerian Christian Politicians, at the I.C.C. Abuja on the 19th November, 2016

200,000 Successful Candidates to Begin Work Dec 1 under Buhari Employment Scheme Tobi Soniyi in Abuja The presidency has sent the names of the successful 200,000 unemployed graduates selected in the first batch of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s plan to hire half a million Nigerians to states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for deployment.

This was contained in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande.

He said the states and FCT would assign the successful candidates to specific assignments.

The statement said the successful candidates would begin work on December 1.

Akande said: “While the 200,000 have been selected about two weeks ago, their names have now been sent to state governments and the FCT

who would deploy them to their specific programme assignments.

“The names would also be published this week on the N-Power internet portal, while the participants would start receiving messages informing them of their selection as from, November 21, 2016.

“State governments and the FCT are also encouraged to post the names of the successful first batch applicants in their local government areas while there would be further public announcements.”

Akande also stated that before the end of the month, states and FCT would be engaged in deploying the graduates who would formally start working and earning their stipends on December 1, 2016.

He said out of the 200,000 first batch, 150,000 of them would teach, 30,000 would work in the agriculture sector

and 20,000 in healthcare delivery covering the three specific programme assignments.

The N-Power Volunteer Corps is an expression of the President Buhari’s commitment to invest in the human capital development of Nigerian citizens, particularly the young people.

The N-Power programmme is also an innovative means to enhance ailing public services in the area of basic education and primary healthcare. Also in the agriculture sector, it is aimed at achieving self-sufficiency by giving our farmers relevant advisory services.

The presidency said the N-Power would engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates. It is a paid volunteering programme of a two-year duration that engages graduates in their immediate communities, where

they will assist in improving the inadequacies in the education, health, and agriculture sectors.

The 500,000 graduates under the N-Power Corps programme will be trained in skills that will enable them exit after two years to economically viable job and business opportunities.

As part of the programme, the participants would own tablets that will contain information necessary for their specific engagements as well as information for their continuous training and developments.

Participants will be provided teaching, instructional and advisory solutions in four main focus areas, and will be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000 during the programme. The four main focus areas are in basic education, agriculture extension services, public health and community education (civic and adult education).

ed nd acy ng ow ent

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

55

NEWSEXTRA

Another 25 Killed in Fresh Zamfara Attack Yari orders investigation

At least 25 people were killed on Saturday night when gunmen stormed three communities in Zamfara State, an official said.

The lawmaker representing Zurmi West in the state House of Assembly, Yusuf Moriki, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the incident occurred at Dole, Tudun Bugaje and Kwangwami communities in Zurmi Local Government Area.

Moriki said 25 were killed, while many others were injured during the attack.

“So far, we have the record of 25 people who were killed during the attack, while many others injured have been taken to hospital for treatment,” he said.

The bandits attacked the villages on Saturday night after carrying out

similar attacks in some communities at neighbouring Shinkafi Local Government Area, the previous day.

Saturday’s attack occured about two weeks after gunmen killed over 40 people in another attack in Zamfara.

The gunmen suspected to be cattle rustlers stormed a mining site in Gidan Ardo Village of Bindin district of Maru Local Government Area.

Witnesses in the area said the gunmen, numbering over 70, rode into the mining site at around 3p.m. on November 7 and shot anyone on sight, killing over 40 persons and injuring several others.

Meanwhile, state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, has ordered full investigation into the circumstances that led to Friday’s abduction of

over 40 persons by gunmen in Maru Local Government Area of the state.

This was contained in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Alhaji Ibrahim Dosara, and made available to journalists in Gusau at the weekend.

Dosara also said the governor had ordered an immediate investigation into the activities of the bandits in the state with a view to restoring peace in the area.

Eyewitnesses said the gunmen numbering over 100 stopped three Toyota Canters carrying passengers from Dansadau to Dankurmi and diverted the vehicles at gunpoint to an unknown destination.

The hoodlums abducted all the passengers , except one woman who they spared alongside her three-year-old son and told her to report back what happened.

The woman was said to have reported back to Dansadau that

the bandits would not release the hostages until the governor released their cows numbering over 400 which were recovered from them by security men recently, within seven days.

A joint security patrol had recovered the rustled cows from the criminals during which seven members of the gang were also killed near Bindin village of Maru Local Government Area.

Shortly after the abduction of

the villagers, a team of mobile policemen went on a rescue mission but the bandits shot and killed two of them and also went away with a third.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Muhammad Shehu, said a joint security patrol was already on the trail of the bandits, assuring residents that they would soon be arrested.

10 Killed in Cross River Communal Clash Bassey Inyang in Calabar No fewer than 10 people, mostly youths have been killed following renewed violent clashes between the people of Usumutong and Ediba communities in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State.

Scores of the combatants from both communities have also sustained various degrees of injuries, but there was no account of the destruction of any property.

Information gathered from sources from both communities indicated that the casualties from the violent conflict which erupted again from Saturday were from both communities.

An eyewitness from one of the warring communities who spoke through phone, said trouble started on Friday following allegation that youths from Ediba had gone to a land in dispute between both communities when a funeral ceremony was going on in Usumutong.

The witness who pleaded not to be quoted said: “They are still quarrelling over a piece of land.

They are saying that the last time there was a conflict, the Usumutong people inflicted so much casualties on them, so they were looking for an opportunity to strike back and did so on Friday. It was a revenge attack.

“The people of Usumutong who suffered the attack are planning a counterattack from what I am hearing because it is like today (Monday) is the market day of the Ediba people.

“It is actually a sad situation because the two communities

are brothers and sister. There is no difference between them and they are just killing themselves like that. It is just animalistic. In this age of civilisation people are still doing such.”

An account from another anonymous source from area stated that the recent war had broken out due to suspicion that an Ediba youth who was a cyclist was attacked on Friday and murdered by some gunmen suspected to be persons from Usumutong.

Reacting to the fresh round of violent hostilities between both communities, the State Security Adviser, Mr. Jude Ngaji, said security personnel have been drafted to the warring communities to restore calm.

Ngaji who said the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade, was really angry over the resurgence of the communal clash said the state government would not tolerate a recurrence of any clash.

“The governor is very livid with this development because great efforts have been made to bring peace to the area. We had gotten respected leaders of both communities and plans were still on to ensure both communities co-exist peacefully. Then all of a sudden this happens. There will no longer be any Mr. Nice Guy in dealing with this problem. “The big stick still will be employed this time to check the problem.

The present administration will ensure that though the problem has been age long, it will end once and for all. We will ensure that every perpetrator of this crisis will be brought to book,” Ngaji said.

Buhari Commiserates with Indian Prime Minister over Train Disaster Tobi Soniyi in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed deep sorrow and regret over yesterday’s train disaster in India that killed more than 100 passengers near Pukhrayan.

In a statement, issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, he president expressed great sorrow and profound shock over the train derailment and heavy loss of lives.

Buhari commiserated with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the families

of the victims.

Buhari said: “the loss of human life on whatever scale, and anywhere, is bad enough,” adding that “the world becomes united in sorrow during such moments because our common humanity makes us a family.”

The president said that the government and the people of Nigeria felt and shared the pains and the anguish of the families of the victims and all Indians.

The Nigerian leader prayed that God would comfort the grieving Asian nation.

FOOD SECURITY

R-L: Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu; his Sokoto State counterpart, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; and Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, at the flag-off of the 2016/2017 dry season wheat farming and launch of CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Scheme in Sokoto...weekend

MTN Probe: Again, Senate Committee Summons Banks Obinna Chima The Senate Committee on Banks, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions has once more invited the Chief Executive Officers of four banks allegedly involved in the repatriation of capital by MTN for a meeting tomorrow.

The banks were alleged to have connived with MTN Nigeria and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, to move the sum $13.9 billion out of the country without the required authorisation. The banks are Standard Chartered, Stanbic IBTC, Diamond Bank and Citibank.

Although a source who disclosed the summon of the banks by the lawmakers did not give reason for the fresh summon of the bank chiefs, he described it as an attempt by the lawmakers to harass the financial institutions, even when one of the regulators at the hearing, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) had blamed the matter on regulatory lapses.

In fact, the Executive Secretary of the FRCN, Mr. Jim Obaze had said the regulatory agencies should be blamed for the infraction.

“Everything in the country is now subjected to politics rather than rule of law. As a nation, we must be careful how we go about things, even as

lawmakers, we must not scare away investors all in the name of oversight function,” the source said.

The upper legislative chamber, according to a motion moved by Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) had on September 27, alleged that MTN beat the nation’s financial regulatory laws by failing to obtain a certificate of capital importation (CCI) as authorised by CBN Financial and Miscellaneous Act within 24 hours between 2006 and 2016 before moving the money out of the country.

The senator had alleged that MTN did not request for the CCI from its bankers, Standard Chartered Bank, within the regulatory period of 24 hours of the inflow, nor was the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) notified of the inflow by the bank within 48 hours of receipt and conversion of the proceeds to naira as required by regulation.

CCI is a CBN certificate issued by banks for importation of cash (foreign currency inflow) for investment as equity or loan, and also for importation of machinery and equipment for investment as equity or loan. It is usually issued in the name of the investor within 24-48 hours of the inflow of the capital into Nigeria. The primary purpose of the CCI is to guarantee access to the official foreign exchange market for repatriations of capital

and returns on investment – dividend, interest, and capital on divestments. A copy of the

CCI must be presented to the Nigerian bank to process a remittance by the requesting

Ondo Poll: Coalition Accuses Presidency of ‘Arresting Judgment’ As many Nigerians are still worried why the Court of Appeal curiously declined to judgment last Friday on who the authentic governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State between Eyitayo Jegede and Jimoh Ibrahim, a prodemocracy coalition, Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution (CDNDC), has accused the presidency of “arresting the judgment to fester it political interest.”

According to the group in a statement issued, by its CoConvener, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, yesterday, “Everything that is playing out in the Ondo State election is about the 2019 agenda to plant the ruling party in that state at all cost. We will see more of this executive impunity in other states in the weeks ahead.

“We make bold to say that the axis of Jimoh Ibrahim, Ali Modu and Buruji Kasham, has no capacity to run riots against the judiciary and sponsor such scandalous petitions against revered justices without the support of the powers-that-be,” according to a statement by it.

“You could see it written all

over the faces of the justices on the Appeal Court panel, that they were practically forced by the power that be, to do a volte-face in delivering the judgment in the PDP candidacy tussle.

“Until this wicked interference, Justice Saulawaled panel had resisted all the mischievous processes in the suits, guided by the decision of the Supreme Court in Agumagu vs NJC, which gives it authority to proceed to judgment despite a curious notice at the apex court.

“They want to destroy everything and turn Nigeria into a fascist state ahead of 2019. They are using power with brazen recklessness and subverting all democratic institutions to fester a sordid political interest, but they will fail.”

The group in the statement also expressed worry that “these gangs of political predators backed by the hawks in the Presidency might extend their blackmails to the Supreme Court, all in a bid to ensure that the stinking judgment of Justice Abang is not reviewed.

56

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

NEWSEXTRA

Atiku: Boko Haram Still Retains Capacity for Deadly Attacks FG introduces educational programme to counter violent extremism

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja and Daji Sani in Yola Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku

Abubakar, has said the Boko Haram insurgents still retain the capacity for occasional deadly attacks in the North-eastern region of the country.

APC Chieftain Warns Buhari over Kalu’s Defection Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Prince Paul Ikonne, has said the party and President Muhammadu Buhari may not a make a headway in the South-east if they rely on politicians like the former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu.

While reacting to Kalu’s defection to the APC, Ikonne cautioned that his entry would not add any value to the party but rather bring confusion to a party already being rebuilt and repositioned for proper impact in 2019.

Ikonne, who was the gubernatorial candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2011 elections in the state, said in an interview with journalists in Abuja yesterday that the former governor is in the habit of jumping from one party to another without commitment to any.

“It is nothing to celebrate. There is nothing to celebrate about Orji Kalu joining the party because Abia APC and South-east APC is being rebuilt and repositioned for proper impact for us to make the desired change like we did during the last presidential election; we played a critical role. So, having Kalu join the APC is nothing to celebrate.

“If everybody in Nigerian politics plays the kind of politics Kalu plays, you will find out that we won’t make a headway. Joining the party today, the question I have for him is, what is he bringing to the table?” he queried.

“We are not against him as a

person because he has freedom of association, in politics nobody can stop other from joining but you can’t leave your shadow behind.

“What we don’t want in Southeast generally is confusion. We don’t want the South-east APC to be thrown into confusion because we have prominent people, people of honour, people also that laboured to make sure that PDP did not have a free day. We have the likes of Senator Chris Ngige, the governor of Imo State, Minister of Science and Technology and some other prominent people that are joining.

On whether he was speaking the minds of the party’s executive in the state, Ikonne said his views buttress the sentiments of the party leaders.

“The general impression even in the South-east is sad; there is no celebration anywhere. You can’t move anywhere and leave your shadow behind. His (Kalu) party, the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) is still there and he said he has resigned. We have nothing against him as a person,” he said.

According to him, those that joined the party in the zone left their former parties completely and tore their cards, “It is not that when they don’t get what they want, they go back to their former parties. The South-east does not want crisis or confusion in the party.”

When asked if he was afraid of the former governor taking over the structure of the party in the state, Ikonne dismissed such fears, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari needs men and women of integrity to work with.

Don’t Embrace APC’s Change Mantra, Fayose Warns Ghanaians Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti As the December 7 presidential election in Ghana draws near, Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose has counselled the people of Ghana to be mindful of making the same mistake made by Nigerians in the 2015 presidential election by voting for change, which has brought hunger, sufferings and economic recession to the country, such that even the entire West African subregion is being affected.

He said: “By buying into the All Progressives Congress (APC) message of change, Nigerians are now facing a kind of hunger and suffering never experienced in the country in the last 30 years and Ghanaians must not fall into that kind of trap.”

The Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti yesterday that Fayose made this call while playing host to some men of God from Ghana at the weekend.

The governor said: “Ghanaians should not succumb to the deceit of the opposition party that are calling

for a change of government. Rather, they should return the incumbent president, John Mahama, who has no doubt done creditably well to deserve a re-election.

“Ghanaians should know that the change in Nigeria brought hunger, suffering, disregard for the rule of law as well as arrest and detention of Nigerians without trial and be mindful of those preaching change to them.

“Most importantly, the situation in Ghana at present is similar to that of Nigeria. Like President Muhammadu Buhari, opposition party, New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo has contested the presidency two times. This is the third time he is contesting. He is also 74 years old.

“In Nigeria, change is synonymous with economic recession that is even getting to the level of depression. Even majority of those who brought the change are now regretting it.

“Therefore, tell your people in Ghana that Nigerians are already regretting the change they made last year, which has plunged the country into serious economic hardship.”

Atiku made the remarks at the 11th Founder’s Day ceremony of American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola in Adamawa State, which was also to mark his 70th birthday at the weekend.

The former vice president, while acknowledging the effort of the security to improve the security situation in the region, said more still needs to be done to restore normalcy in this area, adding that the insurgents remain and still occupy a specific geographical space in the region.

He said the improvement in the security situation also means that some internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been able to return to their homes to live normal lives.

“I would like to specially acknowledge the efforts of our security forces in making these possible,” Atiku said.

However, he said many citizens in the zone still remain vulnerable and live in fear, adding that more needs to be done to finally address

the situation so that all the IDPs would return to their homes.

According to him, “Many citizens in the zone still remain vulnerable and we cannot say that the problem is over until every displaced person is able to return home, to the office, to the market, to the farm, and resume normal activities.

“We cannot say it is over until we rebuild the schools, the churches, the hospitals, the markets and the homes that had been destroyed. And we cannot say it’s over until the survivors of this insurgency receive the help they need, including psychological therapy to deal with the trauma that they have been through.”

Meanwhile, the federal government today begins an education advocacy programme for school-aged children displaced in the North-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe by Boko Haram insurgency.

A statement issued in Abuja yesterday by the Senior Special

Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande said the programme would include a writing and speech competition among the children.

He said the programmed is aimed at countering violene extremism.

He said: “The competition is open to all school-aged children (8 -18 years old) currently receiving various forms of education in the Internally Displaced Persons Camps and Host Communities in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.”

He explained that the advocacy model would engage the children in conversations concerning their educational plans, intending to create a sense of involvement and enhance the success and sustainability of their education.

The programme, tagged ‘2016 Protecting Education Advocacy Challenge, PEACH’, will involve school-aged children

residing in the camps and host communities across the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, and will be conducted in three stages.

The stages are self-expression through creative writing, focused mentorship and the development of an advocacy campaign which will be presented by the children themselves before a live audience.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Dr. Mariam Masha, who is overseeing the programme said education remained one of the pivotal tools in addressing ignorance.

The programme, according to her, is jointly hosted by the Office of the National Security Adviser, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) who would also actively participate in the focused mentorship for the children.

TOWARDS BETTER HEALTHCARE

L-R: Executives from General Electric, Terri Bresenham; Farid Fezoua; Tolu Disu and Kaduna State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Paul Dogo, at the flag-off of the supply of equipment to 278 public hospitals in the state....weekend

Higher Cement Production Has Helped Manufacturing Sector’s GDP Chineme Okafor in Abuja The improvement recorded by cement producers has helped increase the manufacturing sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from about four per cent to approximately nine per cent, the Group Executive Director of Dangote Group, Mr. Edwin Devakumar, has said.

Devakumar disclosed this at the weekend in Abuja when he made a presentation titled: ‘the Nigerian Cement Sub-Sector: A Success Story in Solid Minerals Utilisation, at the 46th annual general meeting, Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE).

He explained that the rebirth of local manufacturing of cement in Nigeria had led to a massive boost in mining operations across the country.

According to him, about 33 metric tonnes per annum of

quarried materials were estimated to have been required to meet cement production in 2015.

He also said local cement production had created thousands of direct and indirect jobs and has displaced foreign exchange demand for cement importation, which would by now have grown to about $2 billion annually.

“It has increased revenue to government in form of taxes, not just from the cement manufacturers but also from other participants in the value chain.

“Cement scarcity is now a thing of the past as local production capacity outstrips demand.

There is now prospects of forex earnings from cement exports to neighbouring countries. It is also a healthy addition to the stock exchange and distribution of wealth to the stockholders,” Devakumar said.

According to him, Nigeria’s solid minerals have at least 44 known minerals scattered across the length and breadth of the

country and which include precious metals, base metals, bulk and rare earth minerals.

He said: “Although mining activities in Nigeria started over a hundred years ago, the mining industry in Nigeria has remained largely underdeveloped and its contribution to GDP, export earnings and employment are at present insignificant.”

He however stated that the resuscitation of cement manufacturing and its positive impact on mining activities in Nigeria had been a few bright spots in the mining industry, adding that the underlying fundamentals for cement demand was good and robust growth was expected over the medium term in future.

Similarly, in his address, the National President, NSChE, Prof. Emenike Wami, explained that no nation can claim to have developed if it engaged in mere trading activities.

He said true development

comes from the establishment of a robust manufacturing base which creates windows of opportunities.

Wami also noted that chemical engineering was fundamental in driving development in manufacturing industries, as it essentially involves conversion of any primary material such as mineral, chemical or agricultural material into either intermediate or end products like cement, soap and detergent, fertilizer, sugar, flour, beverages, paints, vegetable oils, cosmetics, and toothpaste.

“So it is our objective to foster and promote the chemical engineering in theory and practice and enhance the usefulness of the profession to the public. For as chemical engineers, we are equipped with the right skills to develop and optimise the solid mineral sector in a way that will ensure a quick turnaround of our economy,” Wami said.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

57

NEWSEXTRA

Buhari Vows to Revamp Agriculture in N’Delta Begs militants to stop bombing, embrace farming cousin of bombings Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa and Sylvester Idowu inWarri President Muhammadu Buhari at the weekend in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, vowed to revamp the economy of the Niger Delta to ensure that in the next few years, agriculture would coexist and compete favourably with proceeds from the export of oil and gas resources.

The president who blamed successive governments for missing several opportunities to steer the Nigerian economy away from its sole dependence on oil and place it on a solid footing, pledged that his administration would pursue the diversification of the Nigerian economy with vigour.

Buhari who spoke during the Green River Project (GRP) Farmers’ day, jointly organised by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and supported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Oando Plc, stated that if the current momentum is sustained, Nigeria would be self-sufficient in a couple of years from now.

The GRP is dedicated to the celebration of achievements of farmers in Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers and Imo States and according to the organisers, has enabled Agip and its joint venture partners to assist the states in agricultural production towards achieving food sufficiency and economic empowerment.

While calling for the support of everyone, the Nigerian leader reiterated that he had already begun plugging the loopholes which led

to the degeneration of the economy, noting that with the feedback at his disposal, Nigeria was on the path of recovery.

“As well as plug gaps and shortcomings, I am pleased to let you know that the results have started to take shape “There is no doubt that these are difficult times for us as a nation.

Having squandered most of the opportunities we had to lay a solid foundation in the past, we have seen our oil-dependent economy slide into recession largely on account of falling oil prices as well as militancy and vandalism of oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta.

“But even as these economic difficulties have unfolded over the last two years, we have gone ahead to lay our vision for restoring the economy and placing it on a diversified footing largely on agriculture and solid minerals.

“The result has been heartwarming. The most recent GDP figures for the second quarter of 2016, rose in two major areas; agriculture and solid minerals,” he said.

In the audio-visual message he specifically sent for the occasion and a separate message read on his behalf by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who represented him, Buhari also begged Niger Delta militants to halt the harm being inflicted on the economy and the Niger Delta ecosystem by the bombing of oil and gas facilities in the region.

“I appeal to the people of the Niger Delta to embrace peace and focus on agriculture for sustainable economic development and

wealth creation. I urge you to take advantage of the huge potential in agriculture and stop the destruction of oil and gas pipelines which only serves to destroy our ecosystem and economy,” the president added.

He said that with the agricultural policies and programmes currently being put in place and the kind of partnership shown by Agip in revamping agriculture in the Niger Delta, the people of Nigeria would soon have a cause to smile.

In the message, the president said the Niger Delta possesses one of the best wetlands in the world and advised its people to embrace peace so that genuine development could take place.

Buhari stated: “Let me use this opportunity to reiterate our uttermost commitment to our farmers across the country. This government is championing several schemes aimed at supporting farmers and agriculture.

“Let me list a few of them. The anchor borrowers programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria which has already impacted positively in rice production levels in several states.”

He said twith the good harvest coming in from parts of the country, there was no doubt that such partnerships initiated by NAOC and its owners would go a long way in adding value to farmers.

Describing the GRP in the Niger Delta as “ one of its kind and worthy of commendation and emulation by all oil companies, Buhari stated that apart from the huge oil and gas deposits, the Niger Delta region is blessed with one of the world’s largest wetlands with arable land for agriculture

Ban Export of Nigeria’s Grains,Tambuwal Tells FG Against the backdrop of the concerns in some quarters over the outbreak of famine in Nigeria next year, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State has urged the federal government to immediately stop the export of food items to neighbouring countries, especially through the land border.

Speaking in Isa Local Government Area of the state at the flag off of the 2017 dry season wheat farming, Tambuwal also called on the federal government to come up with emergency plans to purchase excess grains from the farmers so as to boost grains reservoir in all parts of the country.

He also raised the alarm over the massive exportation of grains

from Nigeria, saying it portends great dangers to Nigeria’s future food security.

“I keep wondering why we have to ban import of food, especially rice, from the land border but allow massive export of our food commodity to neighbouring countries.

“Considering our population, we must take measures that will enhance food security in our country,” the governor said. Speaking at the event, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said despite challenges, Nigeria is on the verge of being self sufficient in food production.

According to him, the journey to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production, especially rice is already being realised.

“This is where the country can feed itself and even have surplus for exports,” he added.

Emefiele commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his ongoing efforts to diversify the nation’s economy from heavy dependence on oil revenue, saying he deserves commendation for allowing the CBN to initiate the Anchor Borrowers Programme.

Emefiele commended Tambuwal for providing adequate subsidised fertilizers and other inputs for the farmers.

In their separate remarks, Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu and Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, said theAnchor Borrowers’ Scheme would transform the agricultural sector in the country.

Brothers at war as Tompolo accuses

and has the capacity to become a domestic and international provider of agricultural produce.

The president disclosed that $9 billion dollars was currently being lost to lack of facilities for prompt processing of agricultural produce annually and $22 billion used in the importation of a few agricultural products.

He said the federal government was repositioning the bank of industry, BOA and has created the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending NIRSAL, to enable farmers access to credit facilities.

The President stated that the provision made by Agip in supporting beneficiaries with processing facilities would go a long way in ameliorating the huge losses.

While commending the ‘unrelenting’ efforts of the company”, he urged them to sustain the initiative as oil production and agriculture can coexist and pave the way for sustainable prosperity.

He urged the governors to collaborate with the federal government to make agriculture a key business in Nigeria as it will help curb restiveness and increase revenues in the states.

Chairman of the company, Uberto Cararra, in his speech said the programme has been helping the youths as well as women and expressed joy that the GRP was receiving attention from the right quarters.

The MD, Oando, Pade

Durotoye, who was represented

by Anthony Sawyer, General Manager Operations, noted that the programme currently has 35,000 farmers within 120 communities in its fold, but called for a “ more aggressive and varied implementation strategy”.

Also, the General Manager District, Marco Rotondi, said the GRP was changing the perception that the Niger Delta was “all about insecurity and militancy”.

Prof Humphrey Ogoni, Vice Chancellor of the Niger Delta University, in his address said attention should be paid to mechanised farming, integrated farming system and more collaboration with research institutions like the NDU. Meanwhile, ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias “Tompolo” yesterday broke his silence on recent spate of bombings in the Niger Delta, alleging that his cousin, Michael Johnny, was behind series of recent attacks on national assets.

He said confidently that the security agencies were aware of the involvement of the said Chieftain of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State, Chief Johhny, in the recent attacks on oil facilities in the region.

Tompolo maintained that information at the disposal of security agencies indicated that a suspect in their custody had allegedly confessed that Michael Johnny sent him (the suspect) to bomb oil facilities.

Tompolo in a statement signed by his Media Consultant, Paul Bebenimibo, was reacting to an online publication that militants are plotting to attack more facilities unless the federal government stalls Tompolo’s trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

He expressed surprise that the publication was coming up two days after his cousin, Chief Michael Johnny appeared on a national television accusing him of being the mastermind of attacks on oil facilities.

Reacting to the publication, Ekpemupolo again dissociated himself from the threat by the group noting that he did not and will not send anyone to attack oil facilities in the Niger Delta Region.

“The attention of my client, Tompolo has been drawn to an online publication by a faceless person or persons, that militants have vowed to attack more oil facilities over Tompolo, if Federal Government of Nigeria refused to drop the criminal charges against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) unequivocally dissociates himself from this threat as he did not send anyone to attack oil facilities in the Niger Delta region because of his case with the EFCC. Tompolo has consistently denied involvement in the resurgence and bombing of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region.

58

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 • T H I S D AY

NEWSEXTRA

LASG: Macroeconomic Framework, Policy Inconsistencies Killing Our Economy Outlines how it created enabling environment for investors Gboyega Akinsanmi The Lagos State Government at the weekend lamented that macroeconomic framework and policy inconsistencies had pushed Nigeria’s domestic economy on the verge of total collapse.

Reflecting on how it created enabling environment and attracted local and foreign investors to the state, the state government added that the country “is yet to get its economic framework right.”

The state Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr. Rotimi Ogunleye, expressed the state concern at the 2016 Africa Industrialisation Day held at Adeyemi Bero Hall, Alausa.

The programme tagged: ‘Financing Industrialisation in Africa: Challenges and Strategies’, brought together many emerging industrialists who exhibited their

products.

Also with the commissioner at the programme were the Special Adviser on Commerce, Mr. Benjamin Olabinjo; Permanent Secretary, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives Mr. Olalekan Akodu, and Regional Head, Bank of Industry (Lagos Office) among others.

At the session with the emerging industrialists in the state, Ogunleye noted that macro-economic framework “has always been the challenge for the Nigerian economy.

The country is yet to get right.”

He lamented unprecedented variations in the available economic data which he said were normally presented to justify that the Nigerian economy “is not diversified. There is visible diversity from available statistics.”

Upon the rebasing of the Nigerian economy in 2014,

Ogunleye said oil then “accounted for 37 per cent and down to 16 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Agriculture accounts for 22 per cent and manufacturing 7.4 per cent from as low as 1.9 per cent prior to rebasing.

“The trade and services sector accounts for 54 per cent of our GDP. The question is why has the manufacturing sector unable to account for at least 50 per cent of the GDP and upward of 80 per cent of export earnings?” He explained.

The commissioner explained that the country had failed to embark on a large-scale agricultural value added development and industrialisation, saying it implemented infrastructure overhaul “to boost power supply.

“We did not adopt and implement comprehensive

infrastructure overhaul to boost power supply and thereby save manufacturers from the cost-push inflation trend occasioned by huge expenditure on power generators and other alternative source of energy.”

He cited other challenges facing the organised private sector (OPS) to include policy inconsistencies, inadequate and poorly maintained roads, insatiable demand of Nigeria consumers for imported goods and insecurity.

The commissioner lamented that there was dearth of soft credit for the micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs), which he said would make them to upscale their products.

Ogunleye said there “is urgent need to begin to diversify our economy particularly with the

dwindling revenue from oil occasioned by the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.

“Industrialisation therefore must be at the front burner of every discourse backed by action through government programmes and projects in collaboration with the organised private sector.

“We have always been in the vanguard for the enhancement of Nigeria’s fiscal and monetary policies to drive the economy and create a wholesome environment for the private sector.”

He, therefore, noted that the state government “has always striven to create and sustain our status as a megacity. We have created a business friendly environment that would attract

more local and foreign investments into the state to create jobs and increase productivity.

“We have set up our target at creating a 24/7 economy. Hence, we embarked on the Light-Up Lagos Project which has made movement at night more secure and alluring.

“Our development imperatives as state place on us the responsibility of developing strategies that will help to harness public and private investments with a view to having a dynamic and expanding economy that is functional and visually attractive.

“We have predicted our development plans on four parameters comprising economic development pillar, infrastructure development pillar, development and security pillar and sustainable environment pillar.”

NAF Destroys More Illegal Oil Barges in Rivers Senator Iroegbu in Abuja The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in its continuous efforts to rid the Niger Delta and maritime area of the country of economic sabotage, has destroyed another set of illegal oil barges in River States.

The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, in a statement yesterday, said two of the latest barges filled with stolen oil were set ablaze by NAF

helicopters on armed patrol around Okoromabie and South-east of Port Harcourt refinery.

Famuyiwa also stated that the third barge, surrounded by canoes carrying drums, was sited at Onne.

While individuals around the barge and canoes fled when fired at, he said the barge and drums did not explode, indicating the possibility of being empty.

He also enclosed a declassified video of the strike.

Rivers Rerun: Nobody Can Impose Representatives on Rivers People, Says Wike Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has declared that the state is too big for anybody to impose representatives on the people, stressing that the people must be allowed to elect their representatives.

Speaking during a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dedication service for the commencement campaign for the 2016 re-run elections in the state at Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in Port Harcourt yesterday, Wike urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be neutral in the course of the rerun election to ensure that the will of the people prevails.

He said: “This election would prove whether INEC is ready to conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria. “ The governor noted that the PDP remains committed to violence-free elections, pointing out that the opponents of PDP should play within the rules of engagement.

“What causes violence during election is when the umpire wants to manipulate , rig or write results. We will resist any attempt to write results.

“PDP will not be involved in anything violent, but we will not allow anyone to steal our votes. We will protect our votes and make that the people’s mandate is declared,” he said.

The governor explained that

the PDP was dedicating its forthcoming campaigns for the rerun elections to God because the party relies on God for victories.

He noted that the PDP was sure of victory at the rerun polls because of the massive achievements of his administration in the last 17 months.

The dedication service for the flag off of the campaign for the rerun elections was attended by Deputy Governor, Ipalibo Harry Banigo, state and National Assembly members, political leaders of the state, commissioners, local government chairmen, women and youth groups.

Venerable John Adubasim of the Saint Paul’s Anglican Church while dedicating the PDP campaigns for the rerun elections to God, asked members of the party to trust in the Lord for their sustenance and victory.

Earlier yesterday, the governor worshipped at the Emmanuel Anglican Church, Okoro-Nu-Odo Deanery during the church’s 2016 Annual Adult Harvest Thanksgiving Speaking there, he said his administration would fight crime across all communities. He however, warned against the politicisation of crime.

He said anyone caught

committing crime while be made to face the weight of the law.

PUTTING HEADS TOGETHER

L-R: Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike; former acting National Chairman, Peoples Democractic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus; and former NBA National President, Chief Onueze Okocha, at the 2016 annual adult harvest thanksgiving of Emmanuel Anglican Church ,Okoro-Nu-Odo Deanery in the state...yesterday

FG to Fix South Sudan’s Health Care Sector Paul Obi in Abuja The federal government at the weekend said efforts are in top gear to intervene in South Sudan’s health care sector by assisting the country to fix its dilapidated health system ravaged by prolonged war.

The Minister of Health, Prof.

Isaac Adewole, promised that government is ready to rigorously engaged the Republic of South Sudan in tackling many of its fallen health care system.

Adewole gave the assurance in Abuja during a meeting of high level ministerial team led by South Sudan’s Minister of Health, Dr. Riekgai Kok. The minister stated that all the challenges besieging the South Sudan health sector would be attended to by the Nigerian government as part of its intervention in that country.

He explained that Nigeria would deploy the resources at its disposal both human and capital towards making sure that the obstacles are reduced to the barest minimum.

According to Adewole, “We are willing to support you, it is our duty, it is only Africans that

can develop Africa, and we have to do it.’’

Earlier, the South Sudanese Minister of Health acknowledged the contributions and vital role played by Nigeria during South Sudan struggle for independence, describing it as immeasurable and dependable Kok said: ‘‘For those of you who may not know, Nigeria has been supporting the course of the people of South Sudan, before its conception. In 1990s all the way until the birth of the new nation in 2011, Nigeria played a pivotal role in the search for just and lasting peace.”

He stressed that South Sudan suffered persistent policy of deliberate neglect and institutionalised marginalisation since the independence of Sudan in 1956 adding that, as a result, the country was enmeshed in decades of devastating war that led to loss of millions of human lives, massive displacement of people, destruction of both physical and social infrastructure, and loss of human resource development opportunities, including the loss

of experienced health professionals.

The minister added that given the role that Nigeria had played in supporting South Sudan, even before its conception, there is optimism that Nigeria can play a tremendous role in supporting the development of healthcare delivery in both public and private sectors.

Kok appealed to the leadership of the health sector in Nigeria and the federal government to assist South Sudan in scaling up production of mid-level healthcare

professionals and task shifting, and also deployment of specialists and consultants and other allied healthcare professionals to support service delivery at teaching and state hospitals in South Sudan.

He also extended an invitation to Adewole for a visit to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, stating that, Nigeria has a prominent role to play in the development of the African continent, with South Sudan on top of the list of beneficiaries looking up to Nigeria as a big brother.

MNJTF Spokesperson Loses Mum, Sisters in Accident The spokesperson of Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) with Headquarters in Chad, Colonel Mohammed Dole, has lost his mother and two sisters in a road accident.

The accident occured near Maru town in Zamfara State on their return journey after they had paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, in Kaduna.

Reacting to the loss, the Borno State Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) condoled with the family of Colonel Dole over the incident.

In a statement signed by Timothy Olanrewaju, the Secretary of the Correspondents’ Chapel said: “The incident is indeed heartbroken but we pray to God to console him, the entire Dole’s family and grant the deceased al-jannah fidau.”

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

59

60

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

61

62

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016 T H I S D AY

63

T H I S D AY •MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2016

MONDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

10TH WOMEN AFCON

Oshoala on Rampage as Falcons Crush Mali 6-0 Gallant Falconets bow out of U-20 World Cup Duro Ikhazuagbe Nigeria’s Super Falcons opened their Women Africa Cup of Nations defence yesterday on a ruthless note, hammering their Malian counterparts 6-0.

2014 African Woman Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the last edition of the championship in Namibia, Asisat Oshoala was the star of the Super Falcons. She scored four of the six goals to put Nigeria in perfect control of Group B of the 10th edition of the women AFCON. USA-based Francisca Ordega started the rout with a smart finish from Ugo Njoku’s run down the Malian defence in the 22nd minute. Before that, Oshoala’s darting run and pass in the 15th minute was fluffed

by Uchechi Sunday, who wasted a number of opportunities on the day.

Four minutes after Ordega’s goal, midfielder Halimatu Ayinde came close after a good move but her chip rocked the upright with the Malian goalie beaten. Five minutes before recess, Oshoala read brilliantly a through pass and beat the goalie before slotting into an empty net for her first and Nigeria’s second.

A minute into the second half, Sunday again missed with only the goalie to beat from Faith Ikidi pass, but she made it three from the penalty spot a minute later after Osarenoma Igbinovia was brought down in the box.

Thereafter, it became an ‘Oshoala Show’. The introduction of a clever Chioma Wogu for fumbling Sunday worked well for her. In the 62nd minute, Oshoala latched onto a header by Wogu to outrun a defender and the goalkeeper before smashing into the roof of the net, and six minutes later, benefitted from another Wogu

pass to meander past two defenders and slot past the goalkeeper.

Her fourth, and Nigeria’s sixth, came from another brilliant pass, from captain Rita Chikwelu, with 12 minutes left.

The Falcons will certainly meet stronger opposition from Ghana’s Black Queens, whom they play in their next match on Wednesday.

However, it was not a good day for Nigeria’s ladies campaigning in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Papua New Guinea as the Falconets crashed out of the competition despite defeating Spain 2-1.

Falconets flexed their muscles and fought hard before a capacity crowd at the Papua New Guinea Stadium to earn the victory.

The match was played under heavy wind conditions that did not help either of the teams as they struggled in the circumstances.

The joy of victory was short-lived for the Falconets as Japan’s routing of Canada in the other Group B match meant Japan and Spain advanced and Nigeria would go home. The Nigerian delegation will return home on Wednesday, November 23.

Despite the end of the road for the Under-20 ladies, Head Coach of the team, Peter Dedevbo, yesterday evening showered encomiums on the Falconets for winning two out of three matches they played.

For Dedevbo, his girls deserve all the accolades because they proved themselves worthy ambassadors of Africa’s most populous nation.

The 2014 World Cup silver medal-winning Coach noted

that the girls gave their best in flying Nigeria and Africa’s flag but it was unfortunate that they were so cruelly eliminated, despite finishing with the same six points as the two other teams (Japan and Spain) that advanced to the last eight.

“Sincerely speaking, you all are stars and I am proud of you. Despite the circumstances, you were not disgraced. We had lofty dreams of making it to the final or even going one better

than we took our country in Canada four years ago, but it was not to be. Collectively and individually, we worked towards achieving that goal, but our best could not take us that far,” Dedevbo said.

Stand-in captain and scorer of the winning goal, Chiwendu Ihezuo, wept profusely after Nigeria’s early exit.

Ihezuo, who won the FIFA Live Your Goals Player of the Match award in the win over Spain, couldn’t control

her emotions as she broke down at the post match press conference.

The BIIK Zazygurt of Kazakhstan player, with two goals from three games, lamented her inability to actualise her dreams of contesting for the tournament’s golden boot.

She was instrumental to Falconets’ presence in Papua New Guinea, scoring seven goals out of the 13 Nigeria recorded during the qualifying series.

“I had high hopes for this tournament. I even set a target of six goals for myself, but my dreams have been blown away like dust in the winds.

I admit that our predicament today was as a result of the six goals we conceded against Japan. I kept hoping for a turn-around that would see us progress in the competition.

“I pushed extra hard. The consolation for my much – desired Golden Boot is this award and I am grateful to God for it,” Ihezuo sobbed.

Lagos Country Club Wins 25th Quadrangular Games

PREMIERSHIP

Moses Voted Man-ofthe-match as Chelsea Beats ‘Boro to Move Top Super Eagles’ forward, Victor Moses, wants Chelsea to hold on to top spot for the rest of the Premier League season following their 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough yesterday.

Diego Costa’s 10th league goal of the season at the Riverside Stadium gave Antonio Conte’s side a sixth top-flight win in a row and took them a point clear of Liverpool and Manchester City in the standings.

And Moses, who was named man-of-the-match as he continued his exceptional run of form, is determined to stay ahead of the chasing pack between now and next

Asisat Oshoala (right) and Francisca Ordega celebrating the 6-0 rout of Mali... yesterday

May. “The Premier League is harder every season, so we just want to make sure we stay on top now,” he told Sky Sports.

“We showed a lot of character today. In the second half they came at us but we were really strong at the back.

“I’m delighted to be in the first 11. I just want to keep on enjoying my form.

“I’ve been on loan three times, but we’ve got a good manager here who wants to give the young players a chance, so I just want to stay in the starting 11 now.”

Lagos Country Club Ikeja was crowned champions of the silver jubilee edition of the Quadrangular Games in a colourful closing ceremony held at the swimming section of the sports club at the weekend.

The champions who were host of the one-week Games garnered 45 gold, 41 silver and 37 bronze medals totalling an overall haul of 123 medals to top the table.

The second position went to Ikoyi Club 1938 with 14 gold,

15 silver and 11 bronze medals while Apapa Club came third with 5 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze medals with Lagos Lawn Tennis Club Onikan taking the fourth place with 3 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze medals.

The four Lagos-based sports club that took part in the weeklong Games competed in more ten sports events including squash, tennis, table tennis, swimming, dart, badminton, chess and scrabble.

The Chairman of the Local

Organising Committee of the Quadrangular Games, Mr. Semiu Oganla said this year’s edition of the Games was spectacular because it marked 25 years of bonding and friendship among the four participating clubs.

“This edition of the Quadrangular Games again succeeded in promoting the spirit of social interaction among members of the various clubs,” Oganla said.

President of the Lagos Country Club Ikeja, Chief

Kayode Moradeyo paid tribute to the founding fathers of the Quadrangular Games and praised the Organising Committee for doing an excellent job.

“I congratulate Lagos Country Club for placing tops in the Games. In the spirit of sportsmanship we are all winners and I pay tribute to the founding fathers for this noble idea of strengthening the relationship and fraternity among participating clubs,” Chief Moradeyo said.

Michael, Agugbom Are Top Seed as Dala Serves off After two rounds of qualifying matches, the main draw of the 2016 Dala Hard Court Tennis Championship serves off today in Kano with Moses Michael and Christy Agugbom as the top seeds for the men’s and women’s singles.

Tournament Secretary,

Yusuf Datti, hinted at the weekend that no fewer than 128 players featured in the men’s preliminary while about 60 ladies slugged it out for places in the women’s final chart.

The men’s main draw will be filled by 32 players of which

will be the top 20 in the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) rankings, eight qualifiers as well as four wild card entrants while the top ten ranked players, four qualifiers and two wild cards beneficiaries will occupy the women’s main draw chart.

It means the likes of Moses

and Sylvester Emmanuel who battled for the CBN Open in Lagos in June as well as Thomas Otu, Joseph Imeh, Shehu Lawal, Abdulmumuni Babalola, Clifford Enosoregbe, Nonso Madueke, among others, will be in the hunt for the top prize in the men’s singles.

TR

Monday November 21, 2016

UT H

& RE A S O

N

Price: N250

MISSILE Saraki to Media

“It is in fact very unfortunate that these empty speculations by the media are now forming the basis for commentaries by some politicians who are in a position to be better informed. Politicians should stop playing to the gallery or drawing political capital from all issues. When serious national issues are on ground, we should refrain from making statements based on mere sentiments” –Senate President Bukola Saraki accusing the media of not exercising restraint in their reportage and commentaries in order to properly serve the people.

ABRAHAM E.NWANKWO GUEST COLUMNIST

Why Nigeria’s Economic Outlook Remains Positive

H

istorical experiences of countries and regions following events that devastated their whole economies and markets show that no matter how huge the setback may be, it can easily be converted to a platform for recording achievements, at a rate and scale not considered feasible under normal conditions. This was the case with the U.S.A. after the Great Depression in 1933; this was the case with Europe and Japan after the Second World War in 1945; and, this was the case with Singapore after it was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965.

In such challenging circumstance and indeed in any human challenge, it seems reasonable to propose that there are two broad determinants of the ultimate result. The first, which is the necessary condition, is the objective material condition of the economy, summarised in its material resources and potentials. The second, which is the sufficient condition, given that the first condition has been satisfied, is the attitude of the economic agents towards the country’s economic condition and its prospects. The economic agents are the households, the businesses and the government.

If the economy has, internally, the production capacity and natural resources in sufficient amounts, the appropriate response would be to undertake as much self-driven initiatives as possible. On the other hand, if an economy faces a condition of low internal availability of productive capacity and resource endowment, the appropriate response would be to seek external support. In real life, the prevalent conditions and corresponding responses are those of some degree of combination of the two extreme corners. In whichever case, failure to make the right response could be because of ignorance of the opportunities and possibilities. Or, it could be a reflection of pessimism, laxity and fatalism, which have conditioned people to succumb to, rather than triumph over, a trying time.

Embedded Resilience & Solutions Nigeria passes the test for the necessary condition for recording a triumph over its current economic setback. The resilience of Nigeria’s economy and sources of the solutions to the economic challenge are, paradoxically, embedded in the major sources of the problem. First, we see the logic of this thesis in the external sector – the import structure and the export structure.

Using 2014 figures, Nigeria’s consumer goods imports (including food imports) amounted to US$29 billion. Applying the right collective attitude, we should programme to reduce this, in the minimum, by 50% in the next 3-5 years, achieve a cumulative reduction of 75% in the next 5-7 years, and a further cumulative reduction of 85% in the next 7-10 years. This will give an average annual forex savings of US$15 billion, US$22 billion and US$25 billion, respectively, in the three phases.

Applying the same logic with appropriate scale-downs for raw material imports,

and scale-ups for exports of agro and agro-processed, manufactures and solid minerals, the forex gains from import replacement is estimated at US$17.3 billion per annum for Year 3 – Year 5, US$25.6 billion per annum for Year 5 – Year 7, and US$29.5 billion per annum for Year 7 – Year 10; and from export expansion: about US$11 billion per annum for Year 3 – Year 5, US$ 16 billion per annum for Year 5 – Year 7, and about US$27 billion for Year 7 – Year 10. These changes in import replacement and export expansion will impact positively and significantly on foreign exchange reserves, the exchange rate and, output and employment. Such programmed substitution and expansion will dramatically change the economic landscape and dynamics in two major ways.

First, is the indirect impact in conserving foreign exchange reserves and supporting appropriate value of the local currency.

Second, they will generate a big boost in economic activity, employment generation, poverty reduction, self-sustainability and economic sovereignty.

Hidden Fiscal Space The second carrier of the problem and its solution is the fiscal sector. Of particular relevance in this respect is low non-oil tax-GDP ratio – taking into account the need to back out oil-based tax revenue. The nature of modern economies is that as aggregate economic activity, summarised in the GDP grows, so does public revenue. However, while the tax-GDP ratio for countries in Nigeria’s peer group is about 18 per cent, Nigeria’s non-oil tax-GDP ratio is below 6 per cent. It is, therefore, not surprising that when oil export prices decline, Nigeria experiences fiscal crisis. The explanations for this include low tax compliance rate and the large size of the informal sector. The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) are already implementing initiatives to tap this fiscal space. The upside of the existing public revenue weakness is that even on the basis of the already achieved level of aggregate economic activity, and without raising the tax rate, the public revenue from non-oil tax could be tripled.

Sleeping Resource Base Beyond the reconfiguration or structural twisting of existing dynamics, the third domain of Nigeria’s economic resilience is the abundance of untapped resources and potentials, which offer direct opportunities for massive investment, growth and employment. These include: geography and ecology – geo-vegetation variety, from mangrove swamp through tropical forest to Sahel and desert, with their spectrum of animal and plant resources; over 48 per cent uncultivated arable land out of total arable land of over 76 million hectares; more than 30 non-oil minerals available in commercial quantities; abundant oil and gas reserves on which a massive petrochemical complex for fertiliser, industrial chemicals, medical chemicals, polymers and plastic can be built;

huge infrastructure and housing deficit; huge internal market, with a population of over 170 million people, which is a major strength factor for countries like the U.S.A, India and China, plus access to the ECOWAS regional market. These are all sleeping assets ready to be awakened and motorised to generate rapid, inclusive growth. They offer high returns to foreign direct and local direct investors.

Enablement from Sector Reforms Various fiscal and structural reforms are already forming the base for a trajectory of inclusive and sustainable economic resuscitation: revenue reforms, including innovative measures that are capturing thousands of entities into the tax net; the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and other cash-management reforms heralding more optimal cash flow management; cost-saving and waste-limiting measures driven by the Efficiency Unit and the Presidential Task Force on Continuous Auditing; significant, though continuously challenging, fiscal stabilisation initiatives among the sub-nationals, including the ongoing operationalization of the Fiscal Sustainability Plan designed by the Federal Ministry of Finance which contains 22 reform points to which states of the federation

have subscribed − towards creating the ambience required for medium-to-longer term stabilisation and self-sustainability.

Connection to Debt Strategy What does this outlook imply for Nigeria’s public debt management strategy? It signals that in the next four or five years, the debt strategy will change dramatically, as it aims to take advantage of the strength at home in its portfolio mix. It will be time to reap more fully and sustainably, the benefits of domestic debt market sovereignty.

Conclusion Nigeria’s economic outlook remains positive because it has adequate room to manoeuvre in both the external and fiscal sectors, plus an abundance of material and human resources.

The sufficient condition for it to convert the challenge of recession to a base for turnaround and phenomenal prosperity is for all stakeholders to be committed to productive work, driven by an attitude of optimism and confidence.

Nigeria has everything it takes to build a strong economy for a great people.

•Dr. Nwankwo is the Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Nigeria

THE “NOT ON SEAT” SYNDROME

YOU KNOW WHEN WE TALK ABOUT CIVIL SERVANTS “NOT ON SEAT” OR SPENDING MANY MAN-HOURS TO MAKE SURE FILES GO MISSING SO THAT CALLERS CAN MAKE SEVERAL TRIPS TO TRACE OR RETRIEVE THEM….?

…AND THEY CONTINUE TO GIVE CALLERS THE RUNAROUND UNTIL THEY PART WITH “SOMETHING LITTLE” TO FIND THE MISSING FILES AND OFFICERS?

WELL, HERE…. THIS IS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT! THIS HOUSE BELONGS TO A CIVIL SERVANT! ….BUILT WITH THE PROCEEDS OF “NOT ON SEAT” AND MISSING FILES!

YEAH… FAMILIAR SCENARIO!

YEAH…TELL ME ABOUT IT…!

YEAH, WHICH IS WHY FILES ARE NEVER GOING TO STOP MISSING AND OFFICERS WILL CONTINUE NOT TO BE ON SEAT!

21-11-16

Printed and Published in Lagos by Leaders & Company Limited . Lagos: 35 Creek Road, Apapa, Lagos. Abuja: Plot 1, Sector Centre B, Jabi Business District, Solomon Lar Way, Jabi North East, Abuja .

All Correspondence to POBox 54749, Ikoyi, Lagos. EMAIL: editor@thisdaylive.com, info@thisdaylive.com. TELEPHONE Lagos: 0802 2924721-2, 08022924485. Abuja: Tel: 08155555292, 08155555929 24/7 ADVERTISING HOT LINES: 0811 181 3086, 0811 181 3087, 0811 181 3088, 0811 181 3089, 0811 181 3090. ENQUIRIES & BOOKING: adsbooking@thisdaylive.com