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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 23, 2017
BUSINESS INSIGHT
TheTransformativeBenefitsofNigeriaGoingCardless Uzoma Dozie
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hanks to changing lifestyles and the ubiquity of mobile phones, the number of people across Nigeria using mobile banking is rising exponentially. This is creating the opportunity to turn my vision of a cardless Nigeria into a reality. By 2020 there will be 200 million smartphone connections in Africa (Guardian). In Nigeria, there are more mobile phone lines than adults, 16 smartphones are sold every minute and 24% of people already have access to mobile broadband (GSMA). Mobile technology, mobile payments, and therefore cardless payments are already becoming a way of life for millions of people. Digital banking technology is moving beyond payments, as it is now possible to open a bank account, create savings plans and conduct other transactions using a mobile device. Traditionally, the progression is as follows: cash-using customers become cashless as they switch to using cards, and then become cardless as they switch to using their mobile for all financial transactions. However, technological developments – in particular the growing use of mobile – have presented Nigeria with a unique opportunity to leapfrog straight from cash to cardless. There are however great challenges to overcome. In Nigeria, 80% of payments are still made in cash. Diamond Bank is at the forefront of modernising payments with 89% of our transactions now cashless – up from 67% in July 2016. Steps are being taken in the right direction, and technological innovation can really propel this transformation forward. Going cardless is well suited to the realities of Nigeria’s economy and geography, with over 50% of the population living in rural communities (World Bank) where infrastructure is often minimal. Customers are more likely to have access to a mobile phone than proximity to a physical branch, meaning electronic
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payments are better suited to the population. The leap to a cardless society will have life-changing ramifications for rural Nigerians. For example, in Diamond Bank’s partnership with MTN, over nine million customers have opened a bank account on their mobile phone simply by dialling a shortcode. Opening an account no longer requires a branch – it only needs a phone signal, which covers 99% of Nigeria.
Cardless banking will also enable these communities to become more economically active. With access to finance at their fingertips, mobile banking will allow individuals and SMEs to unlock their full financial potential. It will promote financial inclusion of a population that are typically under-banked or completely unbanked. It will also act as a springboard for them undertaking further financial transations, boosting financial literacy. Using cardlesss technology to reach remote communities should be a key priority for Nigeria’s banks. Doing so is a win-win situation; not only does it ensure more people are banked, it ensures more people are part of the formal economy. This will create jobs and revenue – necessary for the development of healthcare, education and some other key national infrastructure. Going cardless will also give people access to financial products on-the-go. This improves the customer experience, as in a cardless economy people can make a range of payments anywhere and on a 24/7 basis, spending less time at ATMs and branches and more time generating commerce or with families. Further down the line, you might ask: what comes after Nigeria goes cardless? We see the future of financial services as increasingly digitalised. Touch fingerprint recognition, as used on the Diamond Mobile app, and developments with retina technology have the potential to make banking easier for customers. Fraud could even be pre-empted, as the technology and service becomes more personalised to the individual or business. We are even exploring the potential role of virtual reality in our branches. Nigeria is becoming more mobile and digital. It is now up to the financial services sector to respond to this technological revolution and challenge the norms to make way for a truly cardless future. Banks, supported by the Fintech industry, have the capacity to drive this enormous change. I believe a cardless economy can transform Nigeria from the bottom up.
Vowgas
Championing Local Content in Oil and Gas Sector Determined to prove that there can be capacity for a wholly Nigerian company to become an active participant in the engineering and fabrication works in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, MGVowgas Nigeria Ltd, has begun ambitious project building and equipping a modern fabrication yard in Port Harcourt, Rivers State
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he Group Managing Director of MG Vogas Godwin Izomor, exudes passion for Nigeria. According to him, “there is now no more reason why fabrication jobs from the IOCs should be taken abroad, thus promoting capital flight. All that is needed in terms of quality and dimensions of work are here in this fabrication yard.” Continuing, he said, “We have plasma cutting machine that can cut up to 200 millimetre thickness of plates. We have rolling machines that can roll up to 200mm thickness plates. We have three automated welding machines that can weld aluminium and stainless steel.” Still speaking on the quality of machines in his yard, the Vowgas boss explained that “the difference between this yard and other yards is the kind of equipment we have here. Nobody in Nigeria has the kind of equipment we have. We are importing two major equipment like the oven. Presently, our furnace has the capacity of 1, 600 degree centigrade. We shall also import the flanges from India and some other countries. And we will be the only fabrication yard that will have it here in Nigeria.” The Vowgas boss added ,”Before now, barges and tug baots were imported from Europe and America under the flimsy excuse that Nigeria did not have the capacity to produce them. Today, we have been able to fabricate lots of equipment without any assistance from anybody.” Izomor lamented the huge loss Nigeria has been suffering as a result of big companies taking jobs to other countries. “We in MG Vowgas are pained daily when we see that for almost every little construction, other international companies take such jobs to their countries to fabricate and eventually ship it back to Nigeria. Apart from the loss of time and huge revenue, that system really depreciates Nigeria as it creates job for others in other countries and leaves our people even more unemployed. “Unlike other countries that have operated in Nigeria: Samsung, Hyundai, other foreign companies, none of them has developed a good fabrication yard, like ship-building fabrication yard, that can compete anywhere in the world. They
Executive Secretary, NCMB, Engnr Simbi Wabote congratulating the Group Managing Director, MG Vowgas Nig Ltd, Mr. Godwin Izomor, after the tour of the Vowgas fabrication and Shipyard, in Port Harcourt… recently
are all rent seeking companies. They come here, collect multi-billion dollars and they don’t develop the economy. They collect the whole big contracts, $4 billion, $5 billion and they don’t have anything to show for their having operated in this country. They go to their countries fabricate these things and bring them to Nigeria. This must stop,” he said. Izomor explained that Vowgas, over the years, has carved a niche in engineering design and development services, given its assemblage of renowned expertise by trained personnel, adding that MG Vowgas have the expertise to offer services like fabrication of pressure vessels, modules, off-shore structures and FPSO (Floating Production Storage Offloading facilities). He added that the company is equally strong in engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) in the oil and gas sector, especially with the availability of WPS (Welding Procedure Specification) machines. With four modern and fully computerised fair workshops fitted with high caliber machines and equipment, the Fabrication Manager of Vowgas,
Engineer Paulo Rosario, noted that the speed and quality of works, using the modern equipment matche world-class standard in the oil and gas sector. Impressed by the array of trained personnel, foreign experts and equipment at the facility, Mr. Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) who recently took a tour, of the facility with senior members of the Board, said there is no longer any justification for fabrication jobs in the oil and gas industry to be taken outside the country. Wabote was impressed the job opportunities Vowgas facility has provided for Nigerians. He stated that from the aversion of capital flight which the coming on stream of the facility will ensure, it will also enhance the speed of delivery of jobs in the industry as the length of time usually lost in placing order for such jobs or sending such jobs abroad for fabrication, would have been cut off by the reliable alternative provided by MG Vowgas. The NCDMB boss promised to partner
Vowgas for the development of EPCI services in the oil and gas sector. “I am impressed with your excellent facilities here. I am blown away by what I have seen here. Your office complex, the fabrication shops, your 300 metres long site is enough to take any FPSO, plus your water depth of seven metres which is also a very good edge too bring in vessels. Most of the global fabrication yards started like this. We will be willing to assist and partner with Vowgas to grow even bigger,” adding that the Local Content Digest will accommodate and feature the feats achieved by MG Vowgas. “You know NCDMB is a regulatory agency for the entire oil and gas industry including the NNPC. As for this private initiative, our objective will be to ensure that work scopes that this yard can handle are given to this yard. We will ensure that they participate in competitive and transparent bidding process, and become the lead contractors instead of sub-contractors to people who don’t have facilities like this. This is an amazing facility and with a little encouragement, they will do much more than what we have here.”