Financial 17 November 2014

Agriculture Interview

Africa must increase fertiliser input to boost productivity —Mkandawire

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NOVEMBER 17, 2014

No wrong-doing in our hotels' IPO, says Transcorp

By OMOH GABRIEL

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he management of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria has denied any wrong doing in the Initial Public offer of Transcorp Hotels, saying that it breached no known regulation or law in the process. It said that the shareholders asking capital market regulators to void the initial public offer are ignorant of the provisions of the law, stating that there is no basis or requirement for the shareholders of Transcorp to approve the above activities of TranscorpHotels.

Vanguard reported on Friday that some Transnational Corporation shareholders have urged the Nigerian capital market regulators to void the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Transcorp Hotels.Plc. The shareholders under the aegis of the Independent Shareholders

Association of Nigeria (ISAN) made the demand in separate letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

ISAN said that their demand became imperative following serious breach of operating capital market laws by the regulators. ISAN, in letters signed by Sir Sunny Nwosu and Mr Adebayo Adeleke, National Coordinator and General Secretary respectively described the approval for the recently concluded offer of the shares of Trancorp Hotels as criminal and the height of regulatory impunity.

According to ISAN, the sale of Transcorp Hotel shares was an authorised bulkanisation of Transnational Corporation Plc. According to ISAN, we are not aware of any Annual General Meeting or Extra-Ordinary General Meeting as prescribed by Law, where a special resolution was proposed and passed

by shareholders of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria.

Reacting to the shareholders' position, Transcorp Management said, ”The issue is whether the shareholders of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (“Transcorp”) are entitled by law to approve the change of status of Transcorp Hotels Plc (“TranscorpHotels”) (formerly a private company) to a public company, its initial public offer (IPO) and subsequent listing by the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“Legally and practically speaking, there is no basis or requirement for the shareholders of Transcorp to approve the above activities of TranscorpHotels. The latter is a company of full legal status with its own shareholders and Board that direct its affairs. Companies and Allied

Continues on page 18 SEMINAR From right: Peter Amangbo, GMD/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc and Segun Awolowo, CEO, Nigeria Export Promotion Council at a one-day seminar on International Trade titled, The Future of International Trade in Nigeria, organized by Zenith Bank at the Civic Centre, Lagos.

Stakeholders worry over sustainability of market agreement

By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

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ontinuous default on rules and regulations guiding insurance operation by practitioners have made the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, to call for a new market agreement for members of the Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, as a form of self regulation amongst insurance operators.

While charging the NIA Chairman for the market agreement, Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel said, “I want to trust that you will advance on the NIA objectives and produce a new market agreement that will be signed by all the insurance companies on the basis of mutual self-regulation.”

According to Daniel, the market agreement is imperative at such a time when the cooperation and collaboration of members can no longer be described as mutual and respectful.

However opinions are divided as to the workability of another market agreement following the inability of insurers to comply with a previous one.

Recall that the NIA entered into a market agreement in 2008 when Mr. Wole Oshin was the Chairman of the Association. However, non compliance made the agreement to crumble.

Hence with NAICOM calling for a new agreement, all eyes are on the sector to see if the charge of the Commissioner will be adhered to.

Reacting to the charge from the Commissioner, new Chairman of NIA and Managing Director of Linkage Assurance Plc, Mr. Gus Wiggle said that NAICOM did not

Continues on page 19 C M Y K

18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Cover Story

The Basic Guide to Starting Your Business Part 5 WHO IS AN ENTREPRENEUR? here are many differing views on what makes someone an entrepreneur and what an entrepreneurial venture is. The term itself is believed to have originated from French, coined by a French economist, JeanBaptiste Say Say,, in about 1800, who defined an entrepreneur as “one who undertakes an enterprise , especially a contractor acting as contractor,, intermediary between capital and labour” labour”. But it was first defined in English by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon, as”” a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome”. The definition of entrepreneur is not limited, as various writers and world renowned entrepreneurs have given it various meanings. For instance, one of the great motivational speakers and writers of our time Robert Kiyosaki, in his book “Retire Young, R etir Retir etiree Rich” defined an entrepreneur as “someone that sees an opportunity opportunity,, puts together a team, and builds a business that profit from the opportunity”. As you can already see, the word entrepreneur is inexhaustible.

According to the MerriamWebster online an entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise”. A more detailed definition given Daile T uck er by Tuck ucker er,, an entrepreneur herself, who in her own words describes an entrepreneur as “a person who has decided to take control of his future and become self employed whether by creating his own unique business or working as a member of a team” team”.

Something that keeps coming up about entrepreneurs is their ability to see opportunities and make the most of it, not minding the risks they will undertake.

Entrepreneurs are generally in competition with themselves and believe that success or failure lies within their personal control or influence.

So it is very important for you, when starting a business, to

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INVESTITURE - Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, Group CEO UBA Capital Plc being conferred with the Fellowship Award of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), by the President/Chairman of Council, CIS, Mr. Albert Okumaga, at the 2014 CIS Conference & Investiture of Fellows, held at Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, recently.

No wrong-doing in our hotels IPO, says Transcorp Continues from page 17 Matters Act (CAMA) (section 33(1) & section 50(1)-(7) provide that any company may, by special resolution (75% shareholders’ approval), change its name or convert from a private company to a public company or a public company into a private company, etc.

“For the purpose of the IPO and listing, the Investments and Securities Act and SEC Rules require the approval of the shareholders and Board of the issuer to offer shares to the public (not its parent or holding company ’s shareholders). Whether or not TranscorpHotels is a whollyowned subsidiary of Transcorp, the legal status does not change.

“TranscorpHotels is a separate legal personality and its shareholders and Board took their decisions to change the name, convert to a public company, do an IPO and list on the floor of the NSE. Transcorp Directors on TranscorpHotels’ Board are not supposed to fetter their discretion (section. 279 (6) CAMA) before taking a decision on the Board where they serve, rather they exercise their business judgment in the interest of TranscorpHotels. It will also amount to conflict of interest if they were to do otherwise.

The regulators would not have approved the process if the consent/approval of the parent/holding company shareholders (Transcorp) were required by law and not

obtained.

“The case would have been different if Transcorp was hiving off a business (which is not the situation here) – then SEC approval will be required based on existing SEC Rules. But here, TranscorpHotels is simply going public and asking for subscription of its share from the public.

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ranscorp (and its shareholders) is not in any way negatively affected or prejudiced by this development. It continues to be the majority shareholder in TranscorpHotels, receiving its dividends and consolidating its Accounts as required by law.

As a mark of courtesy, good shareholder relationship and

TranscorpHotels is a separate legal personality and its shareholders and Board took their decisions to change the name, convert to a public company, do an IPO and list on the floor of the NSE

shareholders’ right to know, Transcorp is expected to formally inform its shareholders of the development in i t s s u b s i d i a r y, TranscorpHotels, which is what Transcorp has done by publishing a “Letter to Shareholders” from the Chairman of Transcorp. We could not have informed shareholders at the last AGM because this development had not occurred then.

The shareholders had said “Spinning off and offering for sale shares of Transcorp Hotels is an unauthorized dismemberment of Transnational Corporation Plc,”.

The association said that they are constrained to draw the attention of SEC and NSE to the regulatory impunity because the IPO of 800 million ordinary shares of Transcorp Hotels negates the provisions of the Investment and Securities Act, rules and regulations of the commission and listing requirements’ of the Exchange.

The shareholders said their quest for probity, accountability and due process, stemmed also from the issues raised by NOGA Hotels International (NHI) SA, a major investors in Transcorp Hotels.

ISAN also said that NHI had in a subtle caveat emptor advertorial published on October 16, 2014 in some dailies, described the IPO as contrived, following unresolved issues over ownership of Transcorp Hilton Hotels, Abuja.

be sure that you can identify opportunities, make the most of them and have the wherewithal to thrive even in the midst of risks and unforeseen circumstances and that is why carrying out a self analysis cannot be over emphasized.

Entrepreneurs are leaders, prime movers, authors, pacesetters, investors and risk bearers. They are usually pioneers who strategize and formulate the rules for the general interest of the enterprise for others to follow.

An entrepreneur conceives an idea and brings it to life through systematic and wellarticulated planning, driven by the passion and the need to achieve uncommon things.

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n entrepreneur not only assumes responsibility and the risk for a business operation with the expectation of making a profit, the entrepreneur also generally decides on the product, acquires the facilities, and brings together the labour force, the capital and production materials. Simply put entrepreneurs are people who choose to see positivity where negativity abounds.

Bear it in mind, however, that if a business succeeds, the entrepreneur reaps the reward of profits; on the other hand, if it fails, he or she takes the loss.

Successful entrepreneurs are not perfect people but are brilliant, productive, and articulate; it takes both the heart and the head to successfully run an entrepreneurship. Also note that an entrepreneur is an inspirer, a motivator, a coach, a great listener, attentive, consistent and enthusiastic.

A lot of people go into business for the sole reason of making money; this is not a good idea. It’s not a good idea because the main ingredient for success is missing. The main ingredient for success is passion, and it’s virtually impossible to maintain highlevels of energy when you’re doing something you don’t love. There will always be challenges in owning a business. Your love and passion is what takes you through those challenges.

Without that passion, you probably won’t make it.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 19

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he greatest challenge facing Nigeria today is that of leadership.

Nigeria needs a leader that the people can identify with and can inspire them to great heights. It is sad that 54 years after independence, Nigeria still lacks a leadership culture, without a role model for upcoming ones to aspire to be like. It is either “I was drafted to be a leader by my people” or leaders have emerged as a result of ethnic arithmetic. Nigerians are suffering from the vacuum created by leaders without vision for the country.

At the recently concluded World Economic Forum conference in Dubai, a startling 86 per cent of respondents to a global Survey on the Global Agenda agree that there is leadership crisis in the world today. Why would they say this? Perhaps, because the international community has largely failed to address any major global issue in recent years. It has failed to deal with global warming, then barely dealt with the failure of the global economy, which has caused such severe problems in North America and Europe. Meanwhile, violence has been left to fester in the Middle East, the region our Survey showed is most affected and concerned about this problem. So why are we suffering such a lack of leadership?

Back home in Nigeria, in recent times, leaders at various levels have failed to address issues affecting the country. Instead of looking at the cause of problems facing the country, it is all about blame game. Nigeria in the last 30 years has failed to resolve the economic crisis that led to the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the Babangida era. It was SAP that destroyed the naira and the nation has not been able to redress the situation. All the hopes and promises of SAP were dashed by

Nigerians must search carefully for the next leaders visionless leadership who pursued their personal agenda instead of the national agenda.

The various governments that followed have made the situation worse so much so that the level of unemployment in the country is frightening.

Added to the unemployment situation in the country, the insurgency in the North-East has remained in the realm of blame game. It is either the insurgency is to stop the President from getting a second term or it is about islamising Nigeria.

While this lack of leadership lingers, the insecurity in the country is claiming the lives of innocent children, youths and adults alike.

Yet, there is no spark of

leadership from any quarters to rally Nigerians against the brazen killing of Nigerians in their own country and the effrontery of a group of callous dissidents claiming and renaming parts of the country.

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igeria’s political culture and governance have grown; its mechanisms have been

A Nigerian who wants to emerge as a leader of the people must have a global interdisciplinary perspective; must engage in longterm empirical planning; have a strong communication skills; must be able to prioritise social justice and well-being over financial growth

plagued by decades of factional alignment, dynasty and deep corruption.

In Nigeria today, 99.9 per cent of Nigerians would say that corruption is a problem; some regard dishonest leadership in Nigeria as a serious issue.

The deeper you go into these endemic failures in Nigeria, the harder it is for anyone to emerge as a strong leader in the eyes of the

populace. Every Nigerian that goes into public office is forced to play the game the way it’s built, popularly called the Nigeria factor – which is inevitably in the interest of the system, it is only the people in the system that thrive and survive; and rarely in the interest of the people. In Nigeria, the only people with the institutional power to break through are those admitted into the system by their godfathers.

Globally, the best leaders know they must mediate, listen and include the opinions of others before making a decision. This is not the case with Nigeria.

Those in position of power in Nigeria have become adamant to the point that they would now say that whatever is the issue, no matter how bad, it will take just two weeks to fizzle out.

If that is not the case, how can you explain that 230 young girls were abducted from their school since April this year and all our leaders keep saying is we are on top of it? The matter is almost a forgotten issue. How can a part of a country be occupied by miscreants and the national armed forces are pleading helplessness?

In Nigeria just as the

global survey has revealed indeed, the only people to rank lower than government leaders are religious leaders.

Many Nigerians have concerns that religious leaders are abusing their positions, and many more believe that these religious personalities cannot be of help in addressing Nigeria’s problems. This is because there has been such a swell in religious violence recently, with the rise of terrorism, that people are becoming wary of religious leaders.

The question then is, what skills do our leaders need to win back the confidence of their populations? The World Economic Forum Survey respondents identified several virtues that a leader should have. A Nigerian who wants to emerge as a leader of the people must have a global interdisciplinary perspective; must engage in long-term empirical planning; have a strong communication skills; must be able to prioritise social justice and well-being over financial growth; must have empathy for his people; courage to take decisions; morality; and a collaborative nature. Looking at the person emerging from this profile, it’s not enough to simply be inspirational; the best leader must mediate, listen and include the opinions of others before making a decision.

Nigerians must be on the lookout for such a personality.

Business & Economy Continues from page 17 actually call for a new agreement rather the regulator charged members to key into the old existing one.

Wiggle said, “The Commissioner only made a plea for insurers to key into the old market agreement. Some members are yet to key into it because most of them don’t have a clear understanding of what the market agreement entails and not all insurers are on the same page on it.”

However, Wiggle said that his administration as the Chairman of the NIA will use persuasion to bring all members of the Association into agreeing to move the sector forward.

“The market agreement encompasses business

Stakeholders worry over sustainability of market agreement conduct, risk pricing, customer satisfaction, and even marketing and we will make a level playing ground for everybody to comply because we want all insurers to be on the same page. I am optimistic that the NIA won’t mete out sanction to any insurer going forward. We expect all to comply on their own,” Wiggle said.

Managing Director of Wema Insurance Brokers, Mr. Gbenga Olawoyin said that the market agreement is all about conduct and behaviour among players in the insurance industry.

According to him, the previous agreement may not have worked due to cut throat

competition in the insurance sector. However, he charged NAICOM to encourage appropriate pricing of risks going forward.

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ccording to him, the market agreement is wide and is centred on market conduct, corporate governance, disclosure, claims settlement, and doing things right. The aim is to sustain businesses as well as increase insurance contribution to Gross Domestic Product, GDP. Former Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Oladipo Bailey said that entering a market agreement is not a problem but compliance on the part of companies has always been a

challenge.

Bailey said that other sectors in the Nigerian economy can reach an agreement and stick to it, but what is obtainable in the insurance sector is a different kettle of fish because the operators find it difficult to agree on things.

Bailey said that nobody should operate as an island instead all hands must be on deck to make the insurance sector grow.

He said, “Insurance is business of trust, as such, operators really need to come together and agree to move the sector forward and all must keep to the agreement and NAICOM must ensure that the agreement works.”

The NIA was established in 1971 as an umbrella organization for all insurance companies in Nigeria, to promote and uphold the universally accepted standards of business ethics and professional integrity among its members. One of the goals of its founding fathers was to protect and advance the common interests of insurers in Nigeria by creating and sustaining a positive image for the insurance industry and contributing to legislation, and decisions made by the government and other public authorities in the best interest of the industry in particular and the national economy in general.

20 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Business & Economy

Investment into Free Trade Zones hits N2.7trn — NEPZA

By FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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igeria Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA has raked in a whopping N2.7trillion, an equivalent of $13.5billion investment into the country’s Free Trade Zones, FTZs. The Managing Director of NEPZA, Mr Gbenga Kuye at a media workshop held in Abuja penultimate weekend, said the N2.7trn investment was boosted as a result of the fruitful results of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan which cut across all sectors of the Nigerian economy including the free trade zones.

The breakdown of the

total figure revealed that the country attracted N 5 6 0 b i l l i o n , representing $3.5 billion from 2012 to 2014, while between 1992 and 2012, the country raked in a total of N1.7trn, ($10bn), a grand total of N2.16trn ($13.5bn) into the FTZs. Some of the areas that attracted the investment according to him are the NAHCO Free Zone ($25.5m); Ogogoro Industrial Park ($690m); Badagry Creek Integrated Industrial Park at Snake Island, Lagos ($1.3bn); Lekki Deep Sea Port at Lagos Free Zone ($1.4bn); and the Mega Fabrication and Integrated Yard at Ladol Free Zone ($300m).

He explained that the investment can be more appreciated when the

amount of investment raked within 24 months to the figure that was attracted within 120 months.

According to him, “Our achievements can better be appreciated when compared with the fact that between 1992 to 2012 the free trade zones scheme attracted a total investment of $10bn, while in the past two years alone, we have attracted over $3.5bn.

This is an accumulated figure of investments to date”.

He said, “We have come up with the concept of the Nigeria International Financial Center, based on the Dubai International Finance Centre that will be located within our free zones”.

The whole objective NEPZA boss elucidated

is to motivate Nigerians to transfer their funds back to Nigeria to set up industries because currently 80% to 90% of

total Nigerian funds are located outside of the country. The New Financial Policy will increase development

and industrialization.

“NEPZA will become the hub that everyone has to connect to. We want my zones to be in the top-50 zones in the world. We want a line that shows that 15% percent of manufacturing is coming from these zones”.

MEETING - From left: Secretary General , International Chamber of Commerce Nigeria (ICC NIGERIA), Olubunmi Osuntuyi; Vice Chairman, Banking Commission, (ICC NIGERIA), Dr.( Mrs.), Omolara Akanji; Group Head, Business Services, eritage Bank, Wunmi Adeniyi and Head, International Service Department , Heritage Bank, Nneka Oshohi during the Banking Technique and Practice Commission Meeting at Heritage Banking Company Limited in Lagos.

Elumelu, Dangote seek more local actors in oil and gas

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wo Nigeria entrepreneurs, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President Dangote Group and Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman,Heirs Holdings, have lent their voices to the call for more indigenous participation in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry. Both, who were Guest Speakers at 32nd Annual International Conference of the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), in Lagos, Nigeria said the involvement of indigenous institutions and players, would bode well for the economy and sued for a deliberate and systematic approach to the involvement of Nigerian entrepreneurs in the oil and gas industry. ”I was encouraged to come into the oil and gas industry by someone who believes deeply in Nigerian local capacity” said Mr. Elumelu in his opening remarks.

He explained that localization will impact positively on the sector just like it happened with banking.

“Many years ago it was the general belief that only expatriates could own and run banks in Nigeria.

Today, however, the top five banks are owned and run indigenously and we need for the same to happen in the oil and gas sector” Mr. Elumelu said. The seasoned entrepreneur, whose pan-African investment company is investing in the financial services, oil and gas, healthcare power and hospitality sectors, revealed that he C M Y K

has ambitious plans in the Oil and Gas industry, disclosing that he is looking forward to the day when Nigeria will have the capacity to refine its petroleum on its own shores. According to him, Tenoil Petroleum and Energy Services was set up as a platform to manage and operate Heirs Holdings’ investments across the energy value chain, as well as the extractive minerals sector. “Gas remains a hindrance to our economic development yet we have it in abundance. Efficient utilization of our gas resources is important if we want to create employment, fix the economy, send our children to school and generally make things work” Mr. Elumelu said.

Aliko Dangote, who is the President, Dangote Group, emphasized the importance of policy and regulation in the quest to indigenize the sector. Dangote also harped on capacity building and explained that the petrochemical plant in the Lekki free trade zone in Lagos, which when completed by 2017 will employ thousands of Nigerians and turn the country into a net exporter of petroleum products. He also disclosed that when he set up Dangote Cement in 2007, the cement industry had little local capacity but has since changed with indigenous players now having the dominant market share in the Nigerian cement industry.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 21

Business & Economy

Dangerous cargoes streaming in through lapses in PAAR — Customs agents … Call for return to Pre-shipment inspection regime

By GODFREY BIVBERE

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learing agents under the aegis of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, has warned of the potential danger posed by the influx of dangerous cargoes following the lapses in the PreArrival Assessment Report, Regime, PAAR. This is even as the group called for the return to the Pre-shipment Inspection regime to check such cargoes coming into the country.

In the Pre-shipment regime, government engages the services of Pre-shipment agents to inspect all goods destined for Nigeria before they could be shipped down. Recall however that the country abandoned that regime for destination inspection a few years ago as a result of obvious lapses.

The agents explained that as a result of focus on revenue collection on the part of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS and the insincerity on the part of some importers, offensive cargoes are entering the country almost unhindered.

Speaking on behalf of the Council, Uchu Block, the group’s Deputy National President, told Vanguard that although the PAAR would have helped to bring sanity to the clearing process in the country, Customs emphasis on revenue

collection and insincerity on the part of some importers and their agents is putting a clog on the success of PAAR. According to him, “the kind cargo coming into the country today can only best be imagined” as the 2015 elections

draws closer. He noted that officers of the Customs hide behind the said insecurity on the part of importers and their revenue drive for government to frustrate the implementation of the PAAR regime.

COMMISSIONING - From left: Mrs. Ebun Onabanjo, Honorable Trustee, FNSB; Chief (Dr.) Eniola Akinsete, Life Vice President Federal Nigeria Society of the Blind; Her Excellency Dame Abimbola Fashola, First Lady Lagos State; and Mrs Biola Agbaje, Chairman, FNSB, at the Commissioning of Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind Workshop/Building, held in Lagos.

Manufacturers lose N22b to Shell gas cut …We are repairing the leakage that forced gas cut-Shell Nigeria Gas

By SONI DANIEL, Regional Editor, North

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he cut in gas supply to no fewer than 87 manufacturing companies in the Agbara and Ota industrial belts of Lagos and Ogun states has cost manufacturers about N22b in the past three weeks, manufacturers, whose businesses have been affected, have cried out.

Four manufacturers, who called our correspondent to complain of the problem, lamented that their businesses had witnessed the worst setback since the incident, which they blamed on the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) that supplies the two areas with gas.

But the major twist to the ugly development is that whereas one of the manufacturers, an indigenous outfit lamented that its firm, a large scale food processing plant had lost an average of N300m in the first week of the problem, the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) that regulates industrial gas consumption and supply, claimed ignorance of the development.

But another officer of NGC at

the Lagos office accepted that unofficially, the regulating company was aware but Shell does not want the matter to become a public issue as it did not formally inform NGC of the problem.

The official said that the NGC had no problems with gas supply to Shell and wondered why the problem had not been sorted out before now.

One of the manufacturers said on Tuesday, October 28, Shell

sent emergency emails to the manufacturers declaring Force Majeur on supply, implying there is unforeseen development that would disrupt supply. The excuse they gave for the development was pipeline vandalism. But they didn’t give a date for the return of gas.

“Last Monday and Tuesday, we had some pressure in the line, but there was no supply.

But after that initial mail, Shell

has not replied all our subsequent inquiries on the return of supply. It has always been evading the question and promising to get back to us without any action. While few manufacturers, especially the multinationals have sought alternative source of power for their production, most of us that have no alternatives have been totally out of business these two weeks.

FG to create 3m jobs in 12 months, says, Minister

By NAOMI UZOR and FUNMI AMODU

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he Minister of Labour and Productivity, Alhaji Kabiru Turaki, has said that, in a bid to fast track job creation in the country, the Federal Government recently inaugurated national job board under the chairmanship of the Vice President to create three million jobs for unemployed Nigerians in the next 12 months.

Speaking at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair, Turaki, assured Nigerians that in spite of the daunting insecurity challenges and harsh business terrain confronting Nigeria, the country will continue to rank as the number one investment destination in Africa.

“This nation is highly blessed with limitless opportunities for investments with a high rate of turn over, which is attractive to any interested investor. The federal government will continue

to harness all the economic potentials of this country to ensure that Nigerians derive maximum benefits from them” he said.

He said other measures put in place towards achieving economic goals in the transformation agenda include: rebasing of the National GDP, which has no doubt secured the country’s rightful place as the largest economy in Africa and the 26th largest economy in the world, initiating the community works programme, leading to the creation of 370,000 jobs in 3 years in the 36 states, hosting the World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja for the first time in this year which helped to showcase Nigeria’s impressive economic growth to the global audience and attracting foreign investments, making Nigeria the preferred destination for foreign direct investment in Africa, which no doubt will lead to unprecedented

Zenith bank committed to international trade

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he Group Managing Director/ CEO, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Peter Amangbo has reiterated the banks’ commitment to the growth of international trade in Nigeria.

In a keynote address at a seminar with the theme: ‘The Future of International Trade in Nigeria,’ organised by the bank, held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos last week, Amangbo said the primary aim of the bank for organising such programme was to keep its numerous customers up-to-date in the present trend of international trade.

Experts said Nigeria’s international trade has remained unbalanced as the volume of import continues to surpass that of export. This is because the container market in the country in the last eight months has been strongly dominated by imports. Within this period, the nation’s import and export ratio was said to have remained at 92 percent import to 8 percent export.

NIMASA remits N9.7bn to federation account

By GODFREY BIVBERE

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he Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi has said that the Agency has so far remitted over Nine Billion Seven Hundred Million naira (N9.7b), being operating surplus in 2014 alone to the federation account.

Akpobolokemi who stated this in Lagos explained that contrary to recent media reports, figures available at the Federal Ministry of Finance showed that NIMASA has remitted the above amount. According to him, “NIMASA is mindful of the critical role of financial resources in actualising the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan and has therefore continued to contribute its statutory quota towards making the government’s programmes a reality”. A statement from the agency quoted the NIMASA as stressing that the agency will continue to make remittances to the federation account. The NIMASA helmsman also noted that the agency is committed to actualising its mandate working with more advanced technology, like the recently launched Satellite Surveillance System that is capable of monitoring in real time, vessel activities in the country ’s maritime domain.

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Banking & Finance

Access Bank launches customised debit cards

BY EDIRI EJOH

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n line with enhancing its services, Access Bank Plc has initiated digitally friendly customised debit cards that makes possible for uploads of an image of choice by the user.

The card tagged, “Persona,” is said to be the first of its kind in the banking industry in Nigeria.

Unveiling this at the launching of the product in Lagos, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, disclosed that more possible services that would satisfy the customers are yet to unfold According to him, “Access bank has in the last five years been renowned for commercial bank operations, but from that period till now, our services has transcended from being commercial to becoming a large diversified bank with a brand of packaged retailing scheme incorporated to partnering our stakeholders.

“We promise not to give up in doing what we do best, doing new things and finding new ways to do old things."

British Council partners First Bank on creative investment

BY EBUN SESSOU

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HE British Council in partnership with First Bank of Nigeria Limited, has launched the GenTalks initiative in association with Generational Voices, GenVoices, to stimulate youth participation in the articulation of practical growth strategies for Nigeria’s creative industries using digital platforms.

The initiative is to gather ideas on sector development strategies and reinforce young people’s capacity to participate and lead policy and sector development. This project will stimulate solution focused debate and discourse based on already articulated growth barriers to the Nigerian creative industries.

Speaking on the initiative, “Growth Strategies for the Nigerian Creative Economy”, Director Arts, British Council, Ms. Ojoma Ochai, said, the project will crowd source growth ideas online and curate these into a series of face-to-face events with participation from key Nigerian Creative Industries stakeholders and young people interested in the growth of this sector.

Staff indifference slows enrollment for biometric verification

By BABABJIDE KOMOLAFE

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HERE are indications that banks may not to meet the deadlines for the enrolment of their customers for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) due to staff indifference to the enrolment exercise.

Recall that last month the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed banks to ensure that 40 percent of their customers are enrolled for the BVN by December 31st 2014. It also gave them till March 31st 2015 to enroll 70 percent of the customers for the BVN. Though most of the banks have stepped up efforts to educate their customers and encourage them to enroll for the BVN, these have mostly been limited to email and text messages.

Investigation reveals lack of similar efforts at the branch level in most banks. For example, in some of the branches visited by Vanguard, there was little or no effort to create awareness about enrollment for the BVN either by signatures, banners or by word of word of mouth by customer relations officer and tellers attending to customers across the counters.

Investigation revealed that in some of the branches, the BVN enrollment was discussed at meetings but there was no follow up to ensure that tellers and customer relations officers were encouraging customers to go for the enrolment. This however is despite the fact that there were dedicated desks and staff for the enrollment exercises in most branches.

As a result, the enrollment of customers for the BVN has been

in trickles or at very slow pace in most banks.

Confirming this development to Vanguard, a staff in charge of the BVN enrollment in one of the top three banks, said, “Our management have been complaining that the pace of the enrollment is slow, and that we not meeting our target.”

Investigation revealed that tellers are the major culprit in this regard. Though they attend to millions of customers every day, they rarely speak or encourage customers to go for the enrolment.

The BVN was introduced by the CBN to give each customer a unique identification number

based on picture and fingerprint (biometric) capture of the customer.

Though introduced February this year, enrollment of customers have been slow. This prompted the CBN to introduce measures to fasttrack the exercise.

In a circular dated Tuesday October 21, 2014 and signed

by Dipo Fatokun, Director, Banking and Payments System Department, the CBN said that all credit customers must have BVN by December 31, 2014.

The circular stated, “You will recall that the CBN in collaboration with the Bankers Committee launched the BVN project in February 2014. As part of the overall strategy of ensuring the effectiveness of Know Your Customer (KYC) principles, the BVN gives each bank customer a unique

identity across the Nigerian banking industry,” the circular affirmed.

“It has observed that deposit money banks are making steady progress towards the enrollment of their customers.

However the attention of CBN has been drawn on the need to clarify grey areas in the process of enrollment of the customers on BVN”.

The apex bank said it had therefore become necessary for it to issue clarifications for the stakeholders to note and implement.

“Where an existing customer wishes to register the BVN with his or her bank, capturing his signature and photo identification documents may not be necessary, as the bank is expected to have those records during the account opening.

CONFERENCE - From left: Managing Director, FBN Capital Limited, Mr. Kayode Akinkugbe; Chairman of the Board FBN Capital, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika; Guest speaker, Dr. Anil K. Gupta International Expert on Strategy, Globalisation and Emerging Markets; and CEO FBN Holdings Plc, Mallam Bello Maccido at the FBN Capital 4th Annual Investor Conference recently.

CeBIH retreat examines PSV 2020 and policy regulation

B

ANKING and E-payment experts will converge at the 2014 annual retreat of the Committee of E-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH) to examine the role of policy regulation in the implementation of the Nigeria’s Payment System Vision 2020.

To lead discussions at the retreat are Alhaji Sulemain Barau, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Operations Directorate; Mr Philips Oduoza, Group Managing Director, UBA Plc and Mr Dipo Fatokun, Director, Banking & Payments System, Central Bank of Nigeria.

Other speakers are John Chaplin, Global Retail Payments Expert, United Kingdom; Hany Fekry, Chief Commercial Officer,

Emerging Market Payments, Egypt; and Omar El Moataz, Senior Sales Specialist at NCR Corporation.

The theme of the two day retreat is “Payment System Vision 2020 – Creating an enabling environment through policy regulations”, and it is scheduled to hold in Abuja this week.

Speaking on the theme of the retreat, CeBIH President, Mr. Tunde Kuponiyi said, “The Payment System Vision 2020 has been developed with guidelines that ensure the Nigeria Payments System will be nationally utilised and internationally recognised.

CeBIH recognises the inevitability of a conducive

regulatory environment for the successful implementation of the goals and objective/ principles of the PSV 2020, hence the Committee decided to explore the theme “Payment System Vision 2020 – Creating an enabling environment through policy regulations” at its forthcoming annual retreat”.

He said that the retreat will leverage on the wealth of experiences of the various speakers to explore the dynamics of developing a vibrant payment system in an environment of conducive policy regulations.

Explaining the reasons behind the theme, Mr Adeyinka Adeyemi, Managing Director, Intermarc Consulting,

said that governments globally have come to recognise the impact of electronic payments on the overall economy of nation states and as such have focused on creating virile and conducive environments for payment systems and structures to thrive.

Established July 2009, CeBIH comprises of all heads of e-business/e-channels and cards services of all the 23 banks in Nigeria. The primary objective of the Committee is to promote electronic banking services in line with global best practices and serve as a forum for sharing ideas and experiences by the E-banking industry Heads.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 23

Banking & Finance

Banks resist CBN’s forex intervention •Clamour removal of 10 kobo margin •External reserve falls to $37.59bn

Ecobank Nigeria donates anti malaria kits

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By BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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anks have started resisting efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to intervene in the interbank foreign exchange market.

Investigation revealed that most of the banks shunned the CBN intervention dollar sales last week, in protest of the limit of 10 kobo margin imposed on sale of such dollars. Consequently, the interbank bank exchange rate closed above the N170 mark lat week.

Recall that two weeks ago, the CBN said that banks must sell dollars purchased through its intervention within two days at a delivery rate not more than 10 kobo above the purchase rate.

The CBN also said that intervention dollars not sold within two days must be returned at the original rate.

It also banned banks from selling intervention dollars in the interbank market and also to bureaux de change.

“The 10 kobo margin imposed by the CBN makes the intervention dollars of little use to the banks”, an interbank source told Vanguard under anonymity.

“If the CBN wants banks to continue to buy its intervention dollars, it has to remove the limit of 10 kobo margin”, the source said.

As a result many banks became reluctant to purchase the intervention dollars.

Investigation revealed that on Thursday, many banks shunned the CBN when it called to request for their exchange rate quotes. It was gathered that those who bought explored how they can circumvent the 10 kobo limit.

Realising this, the apex bank on Friday issued a warning to all the banks, threatening to sanction any bank found circumventing the 10 kobo margin limit.

Consequently, the intervention dollars sold on Friday had minimal impact on the interbank exchange rate.

From N172.3 to the dollar on Thursday, the interbank exchange rate moderated to close at N171.2 to the dollar on Friday, translating to 90 kobo appreciation for the naira.

But on a week-to-week basis, the naira depreciated by N5.4 during the week as the interbank rate rose from N165.8 to the dollar the

previous week, to N171.2 last week.

In the same vein, the naira last Wednesday suffered its largest official depreciation in three years. At the Bi-weekly Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) session conducted on Wednesday by the CBN, the official exchange rate rose to N156.39 to the dollar from N155.85 at the previous session conducted on Monday. This translated to 54 kobo depreciation of the naira against the dollar, and the biggest in three years. When combined with the five kobo depreciation at the RDAS session on Monday, this translates to 59 kobo depreciation of naira during the week at the o f f c i a l market.

Until last month the CBN had f i e r c e l y defended the n a i r , maintaining the official exchange rate a r o u n d N155.75 per dollar since April 2013.

But following t h e increasing decline in the nation’s external reserve, r i s i n g demand for f o r e i g n exchange occasioned

by foreign investors divesting from the country in response to decline in price of crude oil, the apex bank started depreciating the naira at the official exchange market. On October 15th, it depreciated the naira by one kobo, and by two kobo on the 3rd and 5th of November. On Monday, November 10th, the CBN allowed the naira to depreciate by five kobo and then 54 kobo on Wednesday.

The last time the CBN allowed the naira to depreciate more than 50 kobo at the official market was on 28th of November 2011.

External reserves fall by $37.59bn The nation’s external reserve maintained its downward trend last week, falling by $390 million to $37.59 billion. This was despite 46 percent decline in dollar sales through the biweekly RDAS sessions last week.

Result of the dollar sales show that the amount of dollars The sold by the CBN dropped to external $319.96 million reserve has from $599.73 million the fallen by previous week. $1.17 The effect of the reduced dollar billion this sales through month and RDAS on the by $6.34 external reserve was however billion this nullified by the year. increased sale of intervention

dollars in the interbank market. Cumulatively, the external reserve has fallen by $1.17 billion this month and by $6.34 billion this year. With the price of crude oil falling further last week, and the CBN still bent on defending the naira, the external reserve is expected to fall further.

Treasury bills record 225% oversubscription Treasury bills trading last week recorded 225 percent oversubscription, reflecting continued impact of the interest rate limit imposed on banks’ deposit with the CBN. Recall that the CBN, the previous week, said that banks should not deposit more than N7.5 billion with it, and any amount deposited beyond this limit will not attract interest rate. As a result, banks have been seeking alternative investment channels for their idle cash.

Result of the treasury bills trading show that the CBN offered N80 billion worth of secondary market (OMO) bills but banks and other investors demanded for N260 billion, while N228 billion was allotted. During the week, the CBN paid for N244.17 billion treasury bills that matured. This moderated the effect of liquidity outflow through foreign exchange and treasury bills purchases.

cobank has donated malaria prevention kits worth several millions of naira to various schools and healthcare Centers in rural communities across Nigeria being part of activities to mark “Ecobank Day”, observed simultaneously in 36 African countries where Ecobank is present. Ecobank Day which is an annual event is a community action day set aside for the bank staff to directly engage with and render service to the community.

The 2014 edition with the theme: Malaria Prevention & Control in Sub-Saharan Africa saw Ecobank Nigeria staff offering the malaria prevention supplies that includes easy to use SD Malaria Testing Kits, Mosquito Treated Nets and Mosquito Repellant Creams to pupils and officials in 9 schools and 9 basic healthcare centers across the geopolitical zones of the country.

Some of the healthcare centres and schools visited include St Kizito Clinic, Jakande Estate Lekki Lagos; Cherubim & Seraphim Primary School, Majidun, Ikorodu Lagos; Community Basic Primary School, Ladogan, Iseyin, Oyo State; Government Secondary School, Jos; Queen Amina College in Kaduna and Eastern Academy Onitsha, among others.

Bank directors hold forum

B

ank Directors Association of Nigeria, BDAN will tomorrow hold their annual stakeholders’ forum, bringing together executive and non-executive directors of banks, officials of other financial institutions, regulatory authorities, professional bodies and executives of other leading companies in Nigeria. In a statement, BDAN said the forum will provide an opportunity for banking professionals to share thoughts on the theme of the Forum, which is “Competing Globally from the Boardroom: Reviewing Benchmarks for Nigerian Bank Directors.” It noted that that this year’s forum is aimed at enlightening directors on the need for Nigerian Banks and companies in the 21st century to have a board that understands the implications of, and need for global competition.

C M Y K

24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Corporate Finance

BY PETER EGWUATU

Concern for employees' safety, welfare earns Lafarge awards

By PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

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AFARGE Africa Plc’s good labour practices, employees safety and welfare packages, career growth and development and its commitment to impacting positively on host communities has earned the company Awards.

The cement manufacturer emerged the overall first runnerup with six nominations at the 8th Nigeria Corporate Social Responsibility Awards, SERAs held in Lagos recently for its contributions to Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR and the development and sustainability of the Nigerian society.

The Group Managing Director/CEO of Lafarge Africa, Mr. Guillaume Roux was one of the proud recipients of the prestigious Sustainability Champion award at the ceremony, said that sustainability is very key to the company, which has been operating in Nigeria for over 50 years, with over 98 per cent of its employees as Nigerians.

“I am happy to have been recognized as a champion.

Sustainability is very important for our company because we’ve been here for a long time, we’ve been here for more than 50 years.

We hope to be here for the next 100 years” he stated.

CAP Plc empowers unemployed youths

I

N line with its corporate social responsibility thrust, Chemical and Allied Products, CAP Plc., a subsidiary of UAC of Nigeria Plc, UACN, manufacturers of Dulux paints and the technological licensee of AkzoNobel, world’s largest paints and coatings company, has empowered some unemployed youths by providing them with skills to become professional painters.

The Dulux Painters Academy initiative, a six-week intensive painting apprenticeship, which was held in Lagos recently, was specially designed by the company to empower young people as highly skilled professional painters. The training covered areas such as Paint Application, Quantification, Colour Psychology, Common Paint Problems and Solutions, Professional Ethics as well as Site–Attachment with already established professional painters.

T

HE proposed merger between Nigerian Breweries, NB Plc and Consolidat ed Breweries if consolidated will enhance Nigerian economy, according to analysts.

Analysts argued that the consolidation of the two companies will enhance the revenue base of government through payment of higher tax.

NB has stated that the proposed merger is expected to create a platform for improved efficiency and economies of scale resulting from the streamlining of operations.

The enlarged company is expected to efficiently manufacture products of both entities through the combined operational capacity of both companies.

According to NB, “Products will also be sold and distributed across the entire combined sales and distribution network of the two companies. Cost savings from increased efficiency in procurement, supply chain management and support functions are expected to ultimately enhance shareholder value.”’

Analysts had stated that the Consolidated Breweries shareholders will become shareholders of a larger and highly profitable entity. Synergies created as a result of the merger will create additional value for shareholders.”

It was gathered from sources close to NB that shareholders unwilling to be part of the enlarged company will have the option to receive cash for their shares and make alternative investments as they deem fit.

On liquidity for shareholders: It was learnt that the Scheme of Merger provides Consolidated Breweries shareholders with a more liquid stock.

Nigerian Breweries is a listed company with its shares traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Consolidated Breweries is not.

Several analysts had opined that shareholders of Consolidated Breweries will enjoy the benefit of holding shares in a liquid company listed on the NSE, noting that the proposed merger will ensure that Consolidated Breweries’ quality brands are marketed and distributed nationwide, hence creating more value for all stakeholders On the economies of scale, the proposed merger will provide a platform where the enlarged company can benefit from economies of scales in procurement, distribution and manufacturing of all the products on offer. “We expect the benefits accruing from these to accrue to all stakeholders” an analyst said.”

It has been gathered that following the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC approval of the scheme of merger and subsequent approval of the Federal High Court, Nigerian Breweries Plc and Consolidated

From Left: Mr Osita Ede, Head, Mass Market Segment, Diamond Bank PLC; Mr Uzoma Dozie, GMD/ CEO; Aishah Ahmad, Head, Retail Banking and Calix Ita, Head, Monitoring Department, Lagos Office, National Lottery Regulatory Commission at the launch of Season 7 of Diamondxtra draws held in Lagos recently.

NB, Consolidated Breweries merger to grow Nigerian economy Breweries Plc have commenced preparations for their separate Court Ordered Meetings (COM) to seek shareholders consent to the proposed merger.

The Notice of Meeting has been published and both companies have commenced dispatch of the scheme of merger documents to all shareholders.

Both Court Ordered Meetings have been scheduled for Thursday, 4th of December 2014.

While COM for shareholders of Consolidated Breweries Plc will hold at the Lagoon Restaurant on Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Lagos. The COM for shareholders of Nigerian Breweries Plc will be held at Zinnia Hall, Eko Hotel, Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Lagos.

Content of separate Court Ordered Meetings It was gathered that the proposal to be placed before the shareholders is to combine the operations of Consolidated Breweries and Nigerian Breweries into a single legal entity effected through a Scheme of Merger. The surviving entity of the merger will be named “Nigerian Breweries Plc”.

On how has the value of both companies been determined for the purpose of this proposed merger, it was gathered that Nigerian Breweries Plc and Consolidated Breweries Plc have been advised by separate independent financial advisers in determining their fair values and the financial details for the expected combination of the two businesses.

Meanwhile, an independent fairness opinion was obtained by Consolidated Breweries Plc from Ernst & Young in deciding to proceed with the transaction On how will the decision to approve the merger proposal be

taken by either company, analysts stated that “In line with the Companies & Allied Matters Act, the Scheme of Merger document will be presented to shareholders at separate Court Ordered Meetings. Every attending shareholder or his proxy will be entitled to vote at the meetings.

For the proposed merger to be approved, 75 per cent of those shareholders present and voting at the COM will need to vote in its favour.

HEINEKEN NV is the majority shareholder in both companies, hence has the power to ultimately decide whether or not to merge the companies.

On the process for such merger decision to be made, it was gathered that a decision to merge has been taken by the Boards of both companies, in the best interest of each business, its brands and its people.

HEINEKEN is represented on both boards, but does not make these decisions on its own.

Ultimately, the proposal to merge will be approved by 75 per cent of the shareholders of the two companies present and voting in separate Court Ordered Meetings. While HEINEKEN as shareholder of these two companies has the right to vote and is in favour of the merger, HEINEKEN has decided not to vote, avoiding any possible doubts on Heineken’s integrity/ conflicts of interest in this deal.

HEINEKEN’s decision will give the minority shareholders of both companies sole discretion as to whether to approve the proposed merger.

Terms of the merger The Shareholders of Consolidated Breweries Plc will receive Four (4) ordinary shares in Nigerian Breweries Plc for every Five (5) ordinary shares held in Consolidated Breweries as

at the Terminal Date or a Cash Consideration of N120 per share of Consolidated Breweries held.

On why are Nigerian Breweries Plc and Consolidated Breweries Plc embarking on this merger and what are its benefits to shareholders , source close to both companies said “The Directors of Nigerian Breweries and Consolidated Breweries have decided to align their long-term strategic interests with a view to enhancing the operational efficiencies of both companies thereby maximizing value for all shareholders. This combination will ultimately reduce overheads and enhance shareholder value through the exploitation of various operational synergies. This will result in improved revenues, cost savings and operational efficiencies in the enlarged Nigerian Breweries.

The proposed merger will enable the surviving entity, Nigerian Breweries, efficiently manufacture products of both entities through the combined operational capacity of both companies. Products will also be sold and distributed across the combined sales and distribution network of the two companies.”

The document of the proposed merger when sighted by Vanguard revealed that if the shareholders approve the merger , it is expect that merger will be completed in January 2015.

According to the merger document “Considering the receipt of SEC approval, Federal High Court approval for the COM, and the fact that both companies are majority-owned

by Heineken, the two companies will start collaborating in their business operations. Until all the statutory processes are completed, both companies will continue to operate separately.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 25

Corporate Finance

How banks grow customers’ wealth through promos Stories By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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ecent trends in the banking sphere seem to suggest a changing twist for good as the customer is treated to various forms of incentives to woo them over as investment partner.

At various banking halls across the nation, customers now meet a more relaxed smiling Teller ready to attend to their needs with patience.

But more than that also, banks now connect with customers in various other ways like offering free packages to entice them into saving to shore up their deposit base, especially in this season of high competition. Some banks hitherto not very much visible in the retail segment are now making foray, indicating they are keen to attract this new bride – the customer.

A good example is the recent Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited 2014 Mega Rewards Promotion exercise for its customers. The bank noted at the grand draw in Lagos that it earned in excess of $17 million (an equivalent of N2.64 billion), a 109 per cent leap over the initial target of $15 million during the period between February 13 and June 30, 2014 when it ran the reward promotion campaign. This came as a result of the bank’s awareness that customers are truly kings in the financial services sector and not just pawns in the hands of ‘shylock merchants’ who simply lure them for profit purpose.

The bank also grew its deposit base within the period with additional 5,303 customers.

The promotion, according to the bank, is a deliberate effort to reward existing and new customers for their patronage.

It was also a continuation of the bank’s efforts to further penetrate the retail banking space and deliver added value to its growing customer base and deposit base. The Mega Rewards Promotion represents a unique offering in the banking industry where customers can win mega prizes simply by maintaining a savings or current account.

“One main objective of the Mega rewards promotion was to grow our customer base and deposit base,” said Diran Olojo, Head, Brand and Marketing, Standard Chartered Nigeria & West Africa.

The bank said it connects customers to global opportunities around the world.

Mrs. Bola Adesola, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria said: “We value our relationship with our customers because we believe that the strength of any relationship comes from listening, understanding and responding adequately to the needs of our customers. This is why we commenced the Mega Rewards Promotion to meet some of the financial goals of our customers.”

This manifested in the emergence of Taiwo Ayoku, a Lagos based businessman and customer of the bank as the star prize winner of the Mega promotion. For him, it was a unique early Christmas present with style. He won the promotion’s mega star

prize of a 2014 Porsche Cayenne, a midsize SUV worth $49, 600 (valued at approximately N9.4 million).

Winning the grand prize was a worthy gift from a bank with reputation.

“I have maintained accounts with Standard Chartered in the past four years and I think this is a just reward worth applauding. I believe the system has been transparent.

Yes, I am more than satisfied with the prize,” said Ayoku.

According to usnews.com, ‘the 2014 Porsche Cayenne comes standard with a 10speaker stereo system with a 7-inch touch-screen display, Bluetooth and dual-zone automatic climate control.

Other features available as options or on higher trims include an upgraded stereo system, four-zone automatic climate control, satellite radio and navigation. Available

active safety features include front and rear parking sensors, a backup camera, adaptive cruise control and lane change assist.’

The Porsche Cayenne also comes with a lot of recommendation among leading autoreviewers who rate it #5 in the class market category.

Other mega prizes for grabs beside the Porsche Cayenne were N5 million cash, six iPads and 10 Samsung Galaxy smart phones.

Over 450,000 entries were recorded in the first two draws. During the mini draws, three customers of the bank also received N1 million each. Four winners of iPads also emerged at the mini draws.

Stocks will collapse by 50% — Experts

I

t is only a matter of time before the stock market plunges by 50 percent or more, according to experts.

“We have no right to be surprised by a severe and imminent stock market crash,” explains Mark Spitznagel, a hedge fund manager who is notorious for his hugely profitable billiondollar bet on the 2008 crisis.

“In fact, we must absolutely expect it.”

Unfortunately Spitznagel isn’t alone.

“We are in a gigantic financial asset bubble,” warns Swiss adviser and fund manager, Marc Faber.

“It could burst any day.”

Faber doesn’t hesitate to put the blame squarely on President Obama’s biggovernment policies and the Federal Reserve’s risky lowrate policies, which, he says, “penalize the income earners, the savers who save, your parents — why should your parents be forced to speculate in stocks and in real estate and everything under the sun?”

Billion-dollar investor, Warren Buffett, is rumoured to be preparing for a crash as well.

Wall Street flat after retail sales, UMich data PRESENTATION - From left: Diran Olojo, Head, Brand & Marketing, Nigeria & West Africa, Standard Chartered, Taiwo Ayoku, winner of Standard Chartered 2014 Mega Rewards Promotion star winner, Bola Adesola, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Ijeoma Anusionwu, acting Head of Retail Clients, West Africa, Standard Chartered Bank during the presentation of the grand prize of Porsche Cayenne SUV car, to its winner at the bank’s headquarters in Victoria Island, Lagos...recently.

C&I Leasing records N376.1m half year profit

C

&I Leasing Plc has announced N376.110 million profit after tax for the half year ended June 30, 2014, representing 65.4 percent increase over N227.443 million recorded in 2013.

The unaudited financial statement of the company released on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, showed a growth of 65.3 percent in basic earnings per share from 14.07 kobo to 23.26 kobo in the half year in 2013. Similarly, the gross earnings rose to N5.388 billion, indicating 7.6 percent increase over N5.008 billion recorded in the previous year, while its total assets for the review period witnessed 2.6 percent increase from N20.659 billion to N21.191 billion.

Commenting on its recent performance, the Chairman, Abdul Bello, said that the growth in turnover was as a result of increased revenue from its outsourcing

and car rental services, increased volume of finance lease transactions and the consolidation of C&I Motors Limited results.

He also stated that the company made substantial investment in systems upgrade and going forward, would be looking to reap the benefits of those investments.

Shareholders of the company had recently approved a stock loan facility of about N2.240 billion for the expansion and development of a strong diverse finance service base. The loan facility, an unsecured redeemable convertible loan stock is expected to last from 2009 to 2014 in registered units of N4.75 at par.

According to the Managing Director, Mr. Emeka Ndu, based on the confidence and results posted by the company, shareholders had cemented their support for the management by approving the loan.

U

.S. stocks were little changed on Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 near record highs as investors assessed the impact of oil prices on the economy.

A stronger dollar and decline in gasoline prices affected a trio of economic reports on Friday as overall retail sales rose more than expected while U.S. import prices fell in September by the most in more than two years.

In addition, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment for this month came in at 89.4, the highest since July 2007, buoyed by falling unemployment and gas prices.

“It’s a consolidating day and everyone is focused on oil, what is oil telling us here?” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

26 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Commodity Index

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Visa partners foundation to promote financial inclusion

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Stories by PROVIDENCE OBUH & JOY UNUANE

T

HE global payments network, Visa Inc. has entered into partnership with Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc and Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) to provide women entrepreneurs with mobile technology solution to promote financial inclusion in Nigeria.

General Manager, Visa West Africa, Mr. Ade Ashaye, said that 2,500 women entrepreneurs will become agents in the retail network of FBN through the collaboration and that the agents will in turn bring branchless banking and mobile financial services to at least 75,000 Nigerians living in rural and underserved communities. “Lack of access to financial services and capital are barriers for women entrepreneurs in the country.

Empowering women by bridging this gap will translate to the empowerment of the country as a whole as women tend to invest a significant proportion of what they earn back into their families’ health and education, making a lasting difference. “We believe access to financial services is essential for progress. Financial inclusion is a bridge that allows formerly isolated members of an economic system to join in and become contributing participants. Improving access to financial services and electronic payments is a critical building block to help more people improve their lives and lift themselves out of poverty,� Ashaye said.

He explained that the initiative is part of effort to help increase the financial awareness of more women in the society, adding that FBN will provide the women with training on the mobile banking products while YTF will provide capacitybuilding entrepreneurship training to help them gain comprehensive knowledge and information on subjects that are core to their development as entrepreneurs.

Ezekwesili to give keynote address at WISCAR anniversary E rstwhile Vice President, World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, will give keynote address at Women in Successful Career (WISCAR) annual event.

WISCAR is a not-for-profit organisation set up to counsel, mentor and enable career women realise their full potential and contribute to organisations and the nation.

The annual event scheduled to hold on November 29, is themed “Pioneering Women: Initiating, Leading and succeeding.�

In a statement, WISCAR said that it will graduate its fifth stream of 2014 mentees and induct the sixth stream of mentees for the 2015 at the event.

Speaking on the event, Founder, WISCAR, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, said that the 12 months mentoring programme is designed to have a transformational impact on its mentees, enhance their performance and progress them up

the career ladder.

Oyagbola who is also the Human Resources Executive of MTN, stated: “WISCAR aims through its unique, structured and formal WIN with WISCAR mentoring programme to equip women with the necessary skills and tools to be successful. WISCAR helps to develop and build capability in women in the workplace at the personal, interpersonal and organizational levels.

Our goal is to promote and enable the emergence of the next generation of women leaders that contribute to the success of organizations, are valuable role models and agents of positive change within their respective organizations and Nigeria She added that the event will highlight the importance of ensuring an equal opportunity for men and women to contribute to the growth and development of the Nation by showcasing pioneering and successful women, the difference they have made, how they did it and celebrating their achievements.

Winners emerge at Ikeja City Mall’s promo

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HREE winners have emerged in Ikeja City Mall (ICM) Independence promo scheduled for the month of October to reward shoppers with consistent loyalty and patronage.

Shopping vouchers of N150, 000, N75, 000 and N50, 000 expected to be spent within the mall during a stipulated time was given to the winners and a surprise winner of N20, 000 also emerged in a draw that took place at the management office inside the mall.

Mr. Abdulwahab Abiodun received the grand prize of N150, 000 for purchase of N120, 000 worth of items from Mr Price, a clothing store.

Marketing Manager, ICM, Mr. Eniola Ositelu, who put a call through to one of the winners said, “We are pleased to inform you that you are one of the lucky winners at the just concluded Independence promo and for being loyal to us, you are hereby rewarded with a shopping voucher of N150, 000 to be spent within the mall at a stipulated period.�

On receiving the call, Surprised Abiodun screamed for joy, saying: “Yes, I can remember I made a purchase of items worth N120, 420kobo from Mr Price and I am happy it has yielded more amount than I spent at the mall. Thank you so much for this wonderful gift, I am grateful.�

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 27

Homes & Housing Finance

REIT boosts housing supply in Nigeria — FSDH Asset

By MICHAEL EBOH

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igeria’s housing challenges will be partly addressed with increased investment in Real Estate Investment Trust, REIT, as it is currently enabling the construction of properties for different classes of individuals and corporate organisation in different parts of the country, said Mrs. Olumayowa Ogunwemimo, Managing Director, FSDH Asset Management Limited.

FSDH Asset is the fund manager of UAC Property Development Company ’s (UPDC) REIT. According to Ogunwemimo, given the huge capital that is required for direct real estate investment, most investors are unable to achieve a real estate portfolio that is diversified across real estate types, such commercial real estate, residential real estate among others and geographical location.

She said, “REITs provide investors with an opportunity to invest in a diversified real estate portfolio. Investment in a diversified REIT, such as the UPDC REIT, provides such

ANNIVERSARY - From left Eng Lookman Animashaun, Head, Engineering Unit, Medview Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, MD/CEO and Captain Wale Oke, Head, Flights Operation at the press briefing to mark the second anniversary of Medview Airline Schedule Operation held in Lagos. Photo Lamidi Bamidele. opportunities, as the REIT is not only diversified across real estate types but it also ensure that its investments are not concentrated in one part of Nigeria as the properties are located in different parts of Lagos, Abuja and Aba.” She explained that a Real Estate Investment Trust pools funds together from many investors in order to purchase real estate assets and/or real estate related instruments, which have the ability to generate income. “There are three types of REITs – Equity

REIT, Mortgage REIT and Hybrid REIT. An Equity REIT invests only in income generating real estate properties, while a Mortgage REIT invests only in mortgages, that is, loans that have been granted for the acquisition/construction of buildings). A Hybrid REIT invests in a combination of both income generating properties and mortgages,” she added. She, however, stated that despite the fact that REITS are not common in Nigeria, investors are

Workers’ housing: Reps tackles NMRC on 16% mortgage rate

By YINKA KOLAWOLE

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Shelter Afrique grants Wema Bank $10m mortgage facility

he House of Representatives Standing Committee on Finance has faulted the 16 percent being demanded by the Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) as interest rate on mortgage from workers) under a housing scheme spearheaded by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).

Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, criticised the demand during a stakeholders’ meeting, convened at the instance of NLC and TUC, attended

by Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and a private developer, Good Homes Development Company, to mediate on the issue of housing for workers.

Jibrin said the 16 percent interest rate was unacceptable, describing it as ‘ridiculous’ given the plight of Nigerian workers. His words: “It is ridiculous. How can workers pay 16 percent interest rate? And we keep telling the country that everything is fine with the scheme. How can workers pay 16 percent?”

The Committee had summoned the Managing Director of NMRC and Chairman of SURE-P and other stakeholders, including the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, but

none was at the meeting. They were invited to respond to questions bothering on federal workers’ housing scheme, which is said to be facing funding challenges.

Jibrin threatened that the committee will issue warrant to force them to appear before it should they fail to appear at its next sitting as, according to him, the country could not endure labour unrest at the moment. He also directed that all the stakeholders, including the Minister of Finance, MD FMBN, MD NMRC, Chairman of Good Homes, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to interface in the matter and report back to the panel on Thursday.

Members of the committee wondered why FMBN should peg its interest rate at six percent while NMRC’s at 16 percent, arguing that the later was too high and beyond the accessibility of Nigerian workers. NLC President, Comrade Omar Abdulwaheed, who spoke on behalf the congress and TUC lamented the workers’ predicament. He disclosed that NLC and TUC partnered some government institutions to address the housing problem facing workers, and reached an agreement under which Good Homes Development Company was to provide the houses for workers, but that the scheme had stalled due to paucity of fund.

gradually becoming aware of the benefits of investing in a REIT and have taken advantage of the opportunities provided by the UPDC REIT. According to her, the benefits of investing in a REIT include the fact that they provide stable and regular income to investors, especially as REITs typically pay out 90 per cent of the total income realised on an annual basis. “In order to ensure that the UPDC REIT provides investors with regular income, the Trustees and the Investment Committee have approved the payment of an interim distribution to its unit holders to be paid on December 4, 2014. The distribution represents 90 per cent of the realised income earned for the period ended June 30, 2014,” she said.

She further stated that REITs allow investors to be beneficial owners of real estate assets, without having to make huge capital investments, as is typical of direct investment in real estate.

“With as little as N100,000, investors in the UPDC REIT became part owners of such prime properties held in the REIT as the Victoria Mall Plaza 1 & 2 situated on Aboyade Cole in Victoria Island, the prestigious Abebe Court on Bourdillon Road in Ikoyi and the centrally located UAC Complex in the Central Business District of Abuja,” she added.

helter Afrique has granted WEMA Bank Nigeria Plc a $10 million development finance facility to boost the real estate sector in Nigeria. Shelter Afrique is a Pan -African development finance institution focused on financing affordable housing in Africa.

Managing Director of the bank, Segun Oloketuyi, said the deal underscores the confidence of both local and international partners’ in Wema Bank’s capacity to handle huge transactions. He reiterated the bank’s commitment to supporting the growth of the nation’s real sector and ensuring affordable housing finance in the country through easy access to loans and other value added services.

On his part, Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, James Mugerwa, said the agreement with the bank on the facility is a step in the right direction. According to him, his organization remain committed to providing affordable housing across the continent of Africa.

‘Data management critical to improving affordable housing in Nigeria’

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anaging Director of Lamudi Nigeria, Obi Ejimofo has said that effective data management in the real estate sector is critical to transforming the sector and making housing affordable in the country. He stated this while presenting data-based comparison between supply and demand in Lagos housing market based on Lamudi’s first twelve months of operation.

This was a part of a presentation at an Annual General Meeting of Estate, Rent and Commission Agents in Lagos.

He said, “For affordable housing to truly be effective as a policy objective, it is critical to carry out research on exactly what people want in housing, where they want it and how much they are able to pay for it. Accurate and granular data on housing demand is an essential component of this research.”

Meanwhile the property portal has officially announced its grip in the online real estate space with over 30,000 unique listings.

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Getting slaughtered again on the Nigerian Stock Exchange?

“One of the lessons of history is that people [especially Africans and Nigerians in particular] never learn from history.”

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he current travails of investors in the Nigeria Stock Exchange, NSE, has once again convinced me that Nigerians, including those we regard as the “brightest and the best”, never learn from history. Back in November last year, writing under the title, ANOTHER CAPITAL MARKET CRISIS COMING UP, I warned my Fellow Countrymen about the crisis they now face in the NSE. Once again, I was ignored. Now millions of shareholders will shed trillions of naira as well as tears, and possibly life, for being so negligent. The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the NSE have driven us into a hole once again. Only a fool will henceforth invest in the NSE and believe in the SEC until the foul nest is overhauled.

Read on.

ANOTHER CAPITAL MARKET CRISIS IS ROUND THE CORNER “A total of 92 companies fell short of the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s minimum listing standards between December 2012 and September 2013". PUNCH, October 14, 2013.

Three days after that report, PUNCH in its editorial of October 17, 2013, titled “PREVENTING ANOTHER CAPITAL MARKET CRASH” warned the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, not to stop at indictment of erring companies but to take pre-emptive steps to avert another crash – just as the nation seems to be digging itself out of the hole into which former managers of the capital market plunged the nation. PUNCH gave good advice but

it might be coming a little bit too late to save the situation completely.

In my nearly twenty years of writing on these pages, I had predicted four crashes – two banking and two capital market crashes. The first was in reference to the banking crisis of the 1997/98 financial years. Writing under the titled FUNNY MONEY, I had predicted that Nigerian banks, which at the time were enjoying rave reviews in the media in general, were as a matter of fact deceiving all of us. The high profits and dividends being declared were out of tune with the underlying economy which was in a recession. My query then, as now, was “What sort of investments were banks making to earn the returns they were declaring?” I went further to list seventeen (17) banks which were sure to go under.

The list included Alpha Merchant Bank, the darling of ignorant investors, and Commerce Bank headed by two former heads of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN. Few people believed me until the banks went belly up and bankers changed designer suits for prison uniforms.

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y prediction about the unhappy fate of the capital market was taken as a huge joke by traders at the time. They found it so hilarious they actually pasted the article on their notice board as share prices at first climbed up – thanks to millions of unwary investors. Well, I had the last laugh when share prices turned down and did not stop until the market had shed about 30 per cent or more. Suddenly, my article disappeared from the notice board.

Back in 2007, I was busy warning Nigerians that the banks were not as healthy as Professor Soludo would have us believe; we were experiencing FUNNY

MONEY II, but few listened. Then in 2008, I warned the former NSE DG, Dr Ndidi Oyuike, to pack and go before the market crashed on her head – if she wanted to have a decent send off party. But, they never listen.

The market crashed; she was removed without a send off and the following year, 2009, the banks came tumbling down after the capital market.

The present predicament has all the earmarks of crises we have experienced in the past. Then as now, the malfeasance starts with companies that are relatively large in the capital market. To begin with, how many companies are there anyway that 92 will, at once be guilty of violating listing standards? Then you look at some of the names mentioned and it is easy to see that some of the same companies or individuals who had been involved in malpractices in the past are again featuring in these. One particular company has again raised the issue of conflict of interests. How can we allow a major investor in the capital market to be involved in the regulation of the market? No other modern market would allow it. But, impunity and immunity have become part of the defining characteristics of Nigeria since 2010. As long as you are loyal to the man at the top, you can get away with murder.

Well, if you are a small investor, not wanting to be murdered, this is the time to start re-appraising your investment portfolio before the roof caves in again. You are probably asking: why should it? Then, let me disclose a closely guarded secret known to the business moguls when things like this happen.

All business reports can generally be summarized into three: good, fair and bad.

It is good news when the company’s operating results are better than budget

estimates; profits are higher, returns on investment are above estimates and good dividend will be forthcoming. Such reports get out very quickly to the capital market and other stakeholders. Fair reports mean that there is a mixture of good and bad news. Gross revenue might be up but profits might be down – or vice versa. Dividends might be reduced or not paid at all and the Board would have to meet to decide how to present the good and the bad in a way that would not upset the shareholders. The reports then get delayed a little bit while spin doctors and creative accountants are called in to dress up the results.

The real elephant in the television store is the bad news. That is when the revenue is lower than expected; the profit is tending towards an outright loss; dividends are definitely out of the question and the management and board face a stormy Annual General Meeting, not to talk of massive sell-offs at the capital market. That is when like the school boy who failed the exams, woefully, there are long delays in releasing the figures.”

Now, the NSE had lost 20.40% of its market value in just five weeks and the end is not in sight. In any other country, investors, anxious to avert disaster would have been burning down my telephone number with calls wanting to know how I could have been so accurate in my predictions and seeking advice on which securities to off-load. But, not My Fellow Nigerians. They willingly go down with the sinking ships they hold as shares – many of which are not worth much anymore. Banks again are in the lead – for reasons I will not now want to disclose.

Visit: www.delesobowale.com or Visit: www.facebook.com/biolasobowale

Economy

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igeria is not just a place to set up a business. The country is a big and growing market. Investing in Nigeria is tantamount to connecting to a big market The relationship between trade and poverty is inverted. Countries with higher proportions of global trade tend to have less of poverty. Conversely, countries which contribute the least to global trade have higher poverty rates.

This shows the importance of good trade policies in reducing poverty rates and increasing prosperity. Also, this shows why there is intense competition for export markets even by countries that already control significant share of global trade. Little wonder trade facilitation has become an economic policy of great importance.

Development experts can’t agree more. Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank president, said in a recent statement that, “Trade is a critical component to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity.” The foregoing therefore suggests that developing countries have to trade their way out of poverty. For African countries to reduce poverty, they must increase their share of global trade. But how to bring this about is anything but easy.

Trade Challenge Sub Saharan Africa is reputed to be the least developed region of the world.

The SSA region is also the least integrated into the global economy

Lower trade and higher poverty rate are cousins

By ROBERTS ORYA through trade. Since the 1960s, the share of sub Saharan Africa in international trade has become progressively smaller: less than 5% for all merchandise and 3% for agricultural products in 2010 (World Foundation for Agriculture and Rurality 2012). Trade within the SSA region is also dismal.

Tariff and non-tariff barriers have been obstacles to intra-regional trade.

Although the higher hurdles are non-tariff barriers, the ECOWAS goal of free movement of person and goods across member countries remains more of a wish than reality.

Exports from Africa are mainly mineral resources and agricultural produce.

With very low industrial base, the commodities are exported to other regions of the world and returned later to the continent as costlier finished products. This trade

pattern results in “jobless growth” in the exporting countries when the prices of the commodities are high in the international market. The jobs that are created and sustained during commodity boom are mainly in the countries that “refine” and turn the commodities to finished products through industrial activities.

But when prices of commodities are depressed, fiscal shocks are transmitted through the trade channel to the

To achieve this, empowerment of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) is of utmost importance, both in itself and in gaining more share of global trade

exporting countries, with severe human and economic implications.

Apart from being procyclical, trade in commodities is generally noted for volatility of current account positions and exertion of pressure on the exchange rate. The persistence of weak or negative growth in Europe and slower growth in China has dented economic growth in countries that depend very much on the export markets including Germany. But this does not build a case against active play in the export markets; it probably asserts the importance of domestic

consumption as a cushion during a period of weaker exports.

Export Diversification Having established the role of trade in reducing poverty on the one hand, and the deleterious effects of export of mainly primary products on the other, it therefore means that the way to reduce poverty in developing countries is through export diversification by boosting industrial activities. Gaining a mileage in export diversification does entail formalisation of informal trade.

To achieve this, empowerment of smalland medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) is of utmost importance, both in itself and in gaining more share of global trade.

The key problem with informal trade is that it deprives policymakers of the major tool of policymaking, which is data. Informal trade usually takes place off the radar, making data gathering and processing virtually impossible. But policymakers need to know areas where it is important to scale up positive results in trade activities. (To be continued) *Roberts Orya is Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export – Import Bank.

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Aviation

Airline operators decry lack of parking space at Lagos airport

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

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HAIRMAN, Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, Captain Nogie Meggison has said there is no sufficient airplane parking space at both the local and international wings of the Muritala Muhammed International Airport,MMIA, Lagos.

Captain Meggison stated this while presenting a paper at a seminar titled “Aviation Infrastructure and Policy As Stimulus For Economic Growth In Nigeria” held in Lagos. He said this lack of space has contributed to airplane crash incidences within the airport and flight delays.

According to him, “Airplane parking is becoming a nightmare, and ground accidents have tripled over the past 3 years. 30 percent of cargo planes cannot find spaces to park at the cargo ramp. They are sent to international or have to park on the taxi way temporarily.

The ramp has not been expanded in the past three

decades.”

He added that this problem has forced airlines to resort to parking their planes and even boarding passengers the next day inside their maintenance hanger. This has resulted to chaotic early morning flight departures, especially at MMA

Meggison said, “At MMA 1, the ramp can only take 6 airplanes. Arik’s 11 early morning departures is a problem. As of now, Arik not only uses the maintenance apron for boarding but now have to park airplanes inside their hangar to board passengers. With Air Peace

AWARD - From Left: Mr. Haiko Wolberink, Imperva Regional Director for Europe Middle East and Africa; Mr. Kingsley Eze, Managing Director/CEO, Tenece Professional Services and Mr. James Pattison, Vice President, Imperva EMEA, during the event to award Tenece the best global partner of Imperva for 2014.

Medview Airlines airlifts 756,437 passengers in two years

By DANIEL ETEGHE

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edview Airlines last week revealed that it has airlifted a total of 756,437 passengers on its domestic route since it started operations in the country in October 2012.

Disclosing this development to newsmen at the headquarters of Medview Airline in Ikeja, Lagos, Managing Director of the airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole said that the airline has made a remarkable progress since it started operations on the domestic scheme.

He said that the airlines started with the hajj operations in 2006 stressing that the airline had airlifted over 250,000 pilgrims both in Nigeria and other part of West Africa countries including Mali, Burkina Faso and Cote devoir.

Alhaji Bankole also said that the airline has indicated interest to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE adding that the airline was ready to go public as a public liability company. ‘’We have commenced

joining soon with 7 airplanes, one can only imagine the impending chaos.”

He further said that, “MMA 1 only has one processing point/scanning machine with Arik’s 11 early morning departures by 7:30am, these bottlenecks cause delayed flights through the day. MMA 2 has 2 processing points/ scanning machines to process passengers, with about 15 departures before 8am. And more airlines coming up, the parking space and passenger processing bottlenecks and drama can only get worse.”

discussion with the management of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to be listed in the market” Alhaji Bankole said.

Alhaji Bankole further stressed that Medview Airlines had just added two additional Boeing 737-400 aircraft with registration numbers 5NMAA and 5NMAB noting that the

aircraft were acquired to meet up with the growth of passengers traffic that are patronizing the airline.

He said ”Currently, the aircraft are undergoing C checks in Thai Airways facilities in Thailand. We started our hajj operations in 2006 and in October 2012, we began our domestic operations which has grown to the level

we are now and that is why we are celebrating the two years anniversary on the domestic scheme” Alhaji Bankole noted that the government had given Medview airline the permission to operate on the regional routes and international rout stressing that the airline flies to Accra, Ghana, Dakar, Senegal, Libreville and Abidjan as he said that the international routes include Dubai, Tel Aviv, Isreal and Singapour.

Dana Air to commence regional flights soon

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

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S Dana Air celebrates its 6th anniversary, having started flight operations on 10 November 2008, the airline says plans are underway to commence regional flight operations by the second quarter of 2015.

Speaking on key achievements in the last six years, Head, Corporate Communications of the airline, Mr. Samuel Ogbogoro said that despite the peculiar operational challenges inherent in the aviation sector, Dana Air has been able to surmount the challenges and has made giants strides.

According to Ogbogoro “Dana Air is the first and only Nigerian airline to have successfully undergone an operational audit conducted by

the Flight Safety Group (FSG) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority in conjunction with their foreign partners and has in the course of the last years airlifted over 2.3 million guests.”

Mr Ogbogoro stated further that the airline is not resting on its oars as it is constantly reviewing its operations in line with current trends to meet the expectations of its guests and the flying public through the introduction of innovative products.

He added that the airline has also demonstrated responsiveness to the community as it continues to invest in credible Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities that impact and touch lives through the Sri Sai Vandana Foundation (SSVF). The SSVF manages the Sai Orphanage that presently houses 11 children whose daily needs are being provided by the foundation.

FAAN partners EFCC on corruption

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HE Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, is to partner the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, to check malpractices in FAAN and enhance the delivery of efficient services.

The Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka said this during his address at the EFCC anti-corruption interactive session, organised for management staff of FAAN at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja .

Chidoka urged staff of the Federal airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, to “always consider how their actions would add value to the aviation sector and make it more efficient and customer friendly”.

According to Mr Yakubu Dati, General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, the minister told FAAN staff that they “have no reason to undermine the system because they have a stake in it and appealed to them to ensure that service delivery to passengers and other airport users is undertaken according to establish international standards and best practices”.

He reminded all staff working at the airport that their performance is accessed daily by passengers and other airport users, and that this assessment determines the public image of FAAN. There was presentation of papers on ‘Corruption, Economic and Financial Crimes and Work Place Ethics: X-raying FAAN’ by top officials of EFCC. They include Mrs Aisha Larai Musa, Head, Enlightenment and Reorientation Unit, Barrister E.A Jackson , and Mrs Felicia Bot- Timothy.

They also had an interactive session with participants.

Earlier in a welcome remark, FAAN’s Director of Administration, Barrister Ikechi Uko said the collaborative relationship with the EFCC is one of several scheduled to build capacity and strengthen staff.

The session was attended by the Managing Director of FAAN, Engr Saleh Dunoma, Directors, General Managers and all Airport Managers in FAAN.

34 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Agric Interview

Africa must increase fertiliser input to boost productivity - Mkandawire

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rofessor Richard Mkandawire, Vice President of the African Fertiliser Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) was once the Head of Resource Mobilisation, Partnerships and Communications at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency).

He was also one time Head of the NEPAD Agriculture Programme and the principal architect of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which is an African conceived, owned and driven agriculture development initiative endorsed by the African Heads of State and Government in 2003.

In this interview with JIMOH BABATUNDE at the African Union headquarters in Addis Abba, Ethiopia during the last Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa Forum (AGRF), Mkandawire talks about the need to increase fertilizer usage in Africa as a mean of increasing productivity as well as biotechnology in agriculture.

Excerpt :

On the new campaign think we all agreed that you cannot speak of an Africa agricultural revolution without paying attention to fostering increase supply and usage of fertilizers by smallholder farmers.

As you may recall, in 2006 that African Heads of government held a summit in Abuja where they focused on fertilizer and at that summit there was a commitment to increase the fertilizers use by 50 kilogram per hectare, but right now as you know on average in Africa we use less than 10 kilogram per hectare.

Obviously without use of fertilizers we can actually forget about increasing productivity in Africa, we need additional inputs to use fertilizers.

The challenge of course is that fertilizer is very expensive and therefore we need committed financing, financing from our government is because bonds are very expensive, interest rates are very high. It is not affordable for smallholder farmers.

And obviously we need some different mechanism that will enable us to grow fertilizer companies across Africa, companies that are owned by Africans. Why should we be getting fertilizers from Norway? Why should we be getting fertilizers from Asia?

When actually in Africa there is potential to produce our fertilizers.

I am delighted that Nigeria is providing some leadership in that direction, there is actually a reflection on how you can begin to manufacture fertilizer locally within Nigeria. In other African countries the natural resources are there to manufacture and

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produce fertilizers.

On the number of countries that have met the promised in Abuja in 2006

•Professor Richard Mkandawire with Sylvia Mwichuli and Maria Mulindi of AGRA. African farmers

There is no question at all about that. The first thing is that we ensure we quickly This is precisely the move towards establishing challenge that not many African finance mechanism. There countries have really moved are lot of innovative ways of beyond Abuja financing as there are many recommendation of moving models available. towards 50kg per hectares. If One of them is the Africa there is anything, I don’t fertilizer agro business believe they have moved partnership model, we call it beyond 15kg per hectare for agro business partnership most of the countries. contract , where we provide That is why the average even credit guarantee to potential up to now is still around 10kg suppliers of fertilizers to those per hectare, but those countries who want to construct that attended the Abuja warehouses , we provide summit if they have moved at matching grants to enable all, a few countries like them increase the availability Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, of fertilizer closer to the and Tanzania have moved farmers. Given the challenges beyond 10kg per hectare, but of accessibility in terms of majority of the countries have distances, some not. of the Most of the smallholder countries still farmers have to use only 3kg walk to per hectare of access fertilizers. fertilizer, you It is critical we cannot actually make fertilizers enhance accessible, it agricultural must be closer productivity to where the without use of farmers are fertilizers, but located and this of course we Obviously why if we began are not just to build more without use talking of infrastructure, chemical of fertilizers warehouses in fertilizers we can places where alone, we are the farmers are talking of actually located we other by forget about will actually products and enable farmers residues increasing to have easier enriching the productivity access to soil. in Africa fertilizers.

Perhaps, we On how to need to put the increase fertilizers in fertilizer s m a l l affordability for

packages to enable those with smaller pieces of land, who do not need 50kg of fertilizers but just need 15kg of fertilizers to be able to buy it in smaller quantities.

On wrong application of fertilizers by farmers I think we need to make sure that fertilizers that are used by smallholder farmers are used appropriately, it means we provide additional training to these farmers. Therefore, our extension workers must be knowledgeable not only in terms of how much to apply to a given piece of land, but also in terms of doing soil analysis.

There must be soil testing so that the fertilizer that is applied to a given piece of land is actually applicable to that piece of land. One of the challenges we face in Africa is that we tend to use blanket application of fertilizer regardless of the ecological zones or the nature of the soil in that particular farm.

I think we need to move towards soil testing but that requires money, more money needs to be provided for our research institutions to make sure that their laboratories are equipped with facilities that do soil testing. But beyond that we need to train scientists on how to do soil testing.

If we are doing enough on agricultural research Africa will not grow without research. We need to leapfrog and bring on board some of the technologies that have been developed elsewhere and those developed by research institutions like IITA in Ibadan.

IITA has done a lot on

cassava, I think we need to see how we take these research works to the farmers, but this will also requires that farmers participate in research.

Sometimes, our researchers operate in ivory towers, they just assume they can actually do research, pass it on to farmers.

There is a kind of linear approach to research. Research must be participatory, where you bring on board private sector, you bring in farmers, they must also have input. I think very often we think that farmers are ignorant, they are not. They are some of the first class researchers and we need to acknowledge that, so their involvement is very critical.

But beyond that, I think we need to see how best we showcase some of the success stories in research, breakthroughs and technologies that have proven useful for smallholder farmers.

A good case is the cassava boom in Nigeria, excellent research done by IITA, but what extent is Malawi, Zambia or Mozambique tapping on this research?

I think we need more country collaboration and I am aware that my country for example has requested Nigeria to support its research capacity in the area of cassava. I hope Nigerian government will consider seriously how to support countries that are not really advance in terms of research.

Nigeria has a large reservoir of good scientists and I think Nigeria should see itself as a driver of agriculture growth in Africa.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 35

E- Commerce

Carmudi Nigeria targets 10 million users as listings hit 40,000

By JONAH NWOKPOKU

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ARMUDI Nigeria, an online car retailer has said that its target is to attract at least ten million users to its website, www.carmudi.com.ng even as the site recorded about 40,000 listings including over 800, 000 Facebook fans.

According to the car dealer, the milestone comes on the heels of a well-attended dealer ’s forum held by Carmudi in Ibadan which hosted members of the automobile dealers association.

In a statement, Carmudi said, “The online marketplace has successfully driven its way into seven cities in Nigeria and is estimated to reach over 10 million users in the country.”

Speaking on the achievement, Carmudi’s Head of Business Development for Africa, Karl-Johann Sturesson said: “The trust we have gained from buyers and sellers across the country is amazing.

‘Mobile technology driving ecommerce in Nigeria’

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igeria’s

online

marketplace,Kaymu.com.ng has said that online sales growth is greatly influenced by mobile technology, especially hand held mobile devices.

With more than 120 million mobile subscribers, Nigeria is the largest mobile market in Africa and the tenth largest in the world.

According to a recent survey, Nigeria has one of the highest internet penetrations in Africa via mobile and handheld devices, as in 2013, over 10 million smart devices worth $1 billion were sold in Nigeria; a large part of this attributed to affordable access to data on mobile devices.

Managing Director of Kaymu, Evangeline Wiles, said mobile consumption is fuelled largely through app usage.

She said, “Since the launch of Kaymu's mobile app in September, o u r sales figures increased significantly with most of the growth coming from the mobile platform.

Shoptomydoor’s breaking barriers to international commerce — Udeh

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hoptomydoor is a Nigerian online retailer that allows Nigerians, individuals and business owners, shop from over 80, 000 stores in UK, U.S.A and China. In this Jonah interview with Nwokpoku , the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Shoptomydoor, Nduka Udeh said Shoptomydoor is using ecommerce to explore international commerce by providing an avenue for Nigerians to shop from any store that will traditionally not ship to Nigeria. He explained, among other things how Shoptomydoor works and how the business model is opening up Nigeria’s economy.

Excerpts Business history & model We have been in business since 2009 and that was a time e-commerce was not prevalent in Nigeria. At the time, we started with a site called shopfromamerica.com and centred strictly on America but with changes in e-commerce landscape, we decided to expand to other regions including China and UK. So we had to look for a name that encompasses shopping from virtually anywhere. That was when we decided to switch over to shoptomydoor.com. A lot of people may look at Shoptomydoor and say it is new because we did that transition just about four months ago. However, all we had to do was transition all our old customers to the new platform and that is where we are now.

How Shoptomydoor came about I was based in the US after studying here in Nigeria. So, about six years ago, I was getting emails from people asking me to help them to buy one item or the other in the US. And when I did the analysis, I saw that the cost of things there are a lot cheaper.

For instance, a laptop that you will see selling in Nigeria for N180, 000 might be selling in the US for N100, 000 and the logistics may add it N10, 000 so that at the end of the day, you are sure of the quality of whatever that you are getting.

However, getting a lot of these stores to talk to us was a

big challenge. A lot of them didn’t want to ship to Nigeria due to the perception they have of Nigeria in terms of fraud.

But we had to find a way to localise the purchase without charging the customer excessively.

The concept that we came up with was that of local address for people who do not live there. What we did was to acquire a warehouse and we are able to assign each person a part of that warehouse. So you have an individual who goes onto our platform, who signs up and we assign him an address in the US, UK or China, so that when they now go to any of these stores to buy things, they are able to ship it locally to that address. And then because we know who the person is, we are able to deliver it to him.

Essentially, what we provide is an avenue for you to shop from any store that will traditionally not ship to Nigeria, of which most will not ship to Nigeria.

These stores will accept your payment, especially with PayPal in Nigeria now but they do not offer shipping to Nigeria and that is where Shoptomydoor comes in.

The process First, most of the things that people buy through us are products that cannot easily be seen here or can be found but very expensive.

Let’s say I want to buy the iPhone 6 that has just been released. I will go to the store, like Amazon for instance and order for the item.

Now if Amazon ships to Nigeria, it will be expensive because they will have do it one item at a time. So instead of the customer transacting directly with Amazon, he goes t o Shoptomydoor, and sign up at the homepage and at the point of signing up, which takes less than a minute,

•Nduka Udeh

they will be issued an address in the US where that item would be shipped directly to.

Example: Mr. John Adeyemi (not real name) goes to Shoptomydoor, keys in his username and password, the next page will ask him for the delivery address in Nigeria, he keys that in and instantly, he sees a page that says this is your US, UK or China address. A typical address will come in the form of John Adeyemi, Unit 3051, 9947 Hawaiian Drive, US which is our warehouse. So that unit number distinguishes that customer from every other customer. So whenever that customer wants to shop on Amazon, eBay, or any other store, he gives them that address and we pick the items from there and send them to Nigeria.

Now the key distinguishing factor is that unit number. Already we have over 30, 000 Nigerians using the platform on the daily basis.

So we had to find a way to make sure that we do not mix up one customer’s package with another. And that was where the concept of that unit number came about.

Essentially, what we provide is an avenue for you to shop from any store that will traditionally not ship to Nigeria, of which most will not ship to Nigeria.

C o s t implications First, we do not charge a processing fee which is common with other online

retailers. Take for example, a laptop costs $1000 in the US. A typical online platform will charge you ten percent, so that you pay the $1000 and the $100 processing fee and then for the shipping as well and that at the end of the day, that person has spent N17,000 equivalent in processing fee.

But with Shoptomydoor, you go directly to the site, buy the item without paying any processing fee, as if you are shopping like an American, a Chinese or Briton depending on which country you are shopping from.

When these items get to us, all we charge you is for the shipping. The second aspect is that you have stores who are opening up to Nigerians. So if I were to shop on Amazon or eBay for example, and they agree to ship directly to Nigeria, you have to pay for that one item all the way to Nigeria.

But with Shoptomydoor, you have your own US address as if you are resident there. A customer can buy from hundreds of stores, send everything to that one address and we will combine them and ship as one. The more stores you are buying from, the cheaper it becomes and we have seen people save in excess of 80 percent on shipping cost by using this free consolidation platform.

Cost of shipping On the cost of the shipping when it eventually gets down here, we run a very transparent system. We make sure that you are able to know the cost of your shipping before you even decide to buy. So when you go to our platform, there is a link that says you should get a quote.

36 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Tax Matters

How to obtain, update and validate your taxpayer identification number (TIN)

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he Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a unique number allocated and issued to identify a person (Individual or Company) as a duly registered Taxpayer in Nigeria.

It is for use by that Taxpayer ALONE. Registration for tax purposes is a legal obligation of every person who is required to pay tax in Nigeria.

The following necessary details for obtaining and updating TIN should be presented to the Tax Office nearest to the address of the Taxpayer.

OBTAINING TIN For a Company, Enterprise or Business registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) 1.

Duly completed Application form for TIN; 2.

EITHER Certificate of Incorporation (for a Company) OR Business Name Registration Certificate (for an Enterprise & Business) showing clearly the Registration Number in each case; 3.

Documents containing the following information: i.

Address of Company, Enterprise or Business; ii.

Principal location of business; iii.

Date of Commencement of business.

For an Individual who (or whose business) is not registered with the CAC 1.

Duly completed Application form for TIN 2.

Any of the following valid (current) identification documents: ?

International Passport; ?

National Identity Card; ?

Staff Identity Card (employed persons); ?

National Driver ’s License.

The following RULES are important: (i) All information marked * on the application form MUST be provided; (Ii) The characters of the NAME

AWARD - Consultant, Cameroun, Ms. Golda Makoge; Principal Partner, Mr. Sola Fijabi; Executive Director, Mr. Taiwo Ogunwumi all of Brooks and Blake, receiving the PR Agency of the Year Award for Brooks and Blake Nigeria from General Manager, Business Development, MTN ((Sales and Distribution), Mr. Kola Oyeyemi at the 2014 Marketing World Award in Lagos. i.e. letters and other symbols constituting the name MUST NOT exceed two hundred (200); (iii) The characters of the ADDRESS also MUST NOT exceed two hundred (200); (iv) Email address must be UNIQUE and ACTIVE; (v) Mobile

it was initially generated by providing the following additional information: 1.

Email Address; 2.

Phone Number.

After updating, the system indicates that “The TIN has been successfully updated”.

Telephone Number MUST be eleven (11) digits e.g.

(08763201210).

UPDATING TIN Updating TIN under the ‘National Single Window’ System is a requirement for taxpayers with incomplete records with Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

TIN may be updated at the Tax Office where

TIN validation is the process of confirming that the updated TIN meets the necessary conditions for transacting business with other Organizations such as Nigerian Customs Service (NCS),Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

The Joint Tax Board TIN (JTB TIN) It is important for a person to note the following information about the JTB TIN: (i) The JTB TIN is designed to subsequently replace the current TIN and is already in use within FIRS and several other States of Nigeria; (ii) The major difference is that the JTB TIN has ten (10) digits, it is uniform and general across Nigeria. It is UNIQUE for every registered taxpayer in

Nigeria and not limited to FIRS Taxpayers alone; (iii) The JTB TIN is presently being issued out at the point of registration and also updated by FIRS and the States which have so far adopted it; (iv) Every Taxpayer in Nigeria will ultimately be required to possess and use ONLY the JTB TIN. VALIDATING TIN TIN validation is the process of confirming that the updated TIN meets the necessary conditions for transacting business with other Organizations such as Nigerian Customs Service (NCS),Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), etc.

A Taxpayer can validate his/her TIN directly on the FIRS Trade Portal i.e. www.trade.gov.ng/firs by following the simple procedure and rules below: (i) Enter the TIN and the same email address that was provided to the Tax Office when updating; (ii) N E X T, enter the security word (captcha) and click on

“Validate”; (iii) If the validation is successful, the following confirmation notice shall be displayed: “Register with NCS Done” (iv) THEN, an automatic email notification from “Nigeria Single Window” with a log-in password and instruction on how to complete the registration process would be sent to the Taxpayer ’s email address; (v) Upon completing the validation exercise, an email will automatically be sent to the email address provided confirming successful validation. A Taxpayer should therefore check the email including spam folder.

AUTHENTICATING TIN This is for the Taxpayer to re-confirm his/her updated and validated TIN. A Taxpayer experiencing difficulty in validating TIN (receiving Error Messages) should seek professional assistance from the Tax Office or send email to: tspd@firs.gov.ng or taxpayer.service@firs.gov.ng

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 37

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38 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 — 39

Advertising

Power of leveraging partnership for brand loyalty Stories by PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

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ANUFACTURERS and marketers alike today are turning to a number of different marketing tools to grow and drive their brands and businesses forward. Within the busy world of brand marketing, utilizing the strength of marketing alliances or marketing partnerships to get product into new channels and venues is an essential marketing element to generate incremental sales.

As corporate and brand budgets are constantly scrutinized, partnership brand marketing can grow business and acquire new customers and users in all channels of distribution.

The power of partnership brand marketing brings two different companies and brands together – each with their own brand equity and their own distribution channel strength.

Many organizations often place partnership marketing under the Promotions banner within the marketing mix, and as such, can become more promotions-based and limiting in nature.

Partnership marketing however, are much more strategic and expansive in scope, and therefore, more than just promotions.

For partnership marketing to deliver its full potential, it is elevated to a more strategic level.

That was why Glo, Airtel leveraged on the rising profile of football clubs like Manchester and Arsenal respectively to give the impression that players of the clubs use their network.

The latest to join the fray is Chi Limited, owner of the Chivita 100% and Chivita Active among others, a proposition that the

management of the company believes will increase the brand equity of the brand in the market.

Recently, at a ceremony held at Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester UK, the management of Chi Limited signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Manchester United.

The deal will allow Chi Limited use the legendary Manchester United crest, club imagery, players and other intellectual property on a range

of products throughout Nigeria, will rather help to boost the brands share of voice and market share.

The key reason for partnerships is to involve all elements of the marketing mix, and thus impact a company’s overall marketing message and platform, its advertising program, as well as product packaging and merchandising.

To yield partnership marketing’s full potential and reap all of its results and successes, it is positioned at the top of a company’s marketing mix, providing incremental value at all levels. Thus, partnership brand marketing can actually affect and contribute to all elements of the marketing mix.

HE National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN, has asked the nation’s judiciary and office of the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Investment to make proclamations on the NIMN Act, to enable it check activities of quacks and erring members.

The re-elected president and Chairman-in- Council of the institute, Mr. Ganiyu Koledoye, made the plea at the 5th Annual General Meeting of the institute, held recently in Kaduna.

According to Koledoye, this had become necessary; since such unwholesome practices had continued to constitute one of the critical issues affecting the institute.

The NIMN boss also noted that in spite of efforts of the institute, alongside other professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), Institute of Chartered Secretaries and

A

FTER 300 years of production, Nigeria becomes second in global entry of Martell Caractere, a cognac spirit drink, after USA. The drink has remained in France, its place of original manufacture, where it is rooted in history utilising the 300year-old Martell Method, a unique distillation process passed down from Jean Martell, who the drink was named after.

The Managing Director, Pernod Ricard Nigeria, marketers of the drink in Nigeria, Mr. Oliver Fages, said at the launch in Lagos that the introduction of ‘Martell Caractère’ into the Nigerian market is in line with the global drive to position the brand uniquely in the minds of consumers.

According to Fages, Martell is created using grapes sourced from Martell’s own vineyards in the Domaine Jean Martell, distilled twice without lees and aged in fine grain French oak barrels.

MTN, Glaxo, Promasidor men pick awards LAUNCH - From Left: Finance Director, Mr. Michael Ehindero; Managing Director, Mr. Olivier Fages; Senior Brand Manager; Mrs. Lola Ashafa and Marketing Director; Mr. Sola Oke all of Pernod Ricard Nigeria at the launch of Martell Caractere in Lagos.

NIMN seeks legal support to check quackery T

Nigeria ranks 2nd in global entry of Martell

Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), towards achieving placement in the federal civil service scheme, members were yet to be fully recognized in the sector.

Koledoye however added that the institute had, in the past one year, succeeded in halting the declining trend in its turn-over by opening up and penetrating

the North Central and North West markets.

While expressing his administration’s resolve to opening new frontiers, the NIMN boss noted that the expansion drive embarked upon by the institute in the past two years, had begun to yield results, as noticed in the increase, from a partially-

functioning six chapters, inherited two years ago, to over twenty three chapters which the institute presently boasts of.

He re-assured members of the council’s resolve to reposition the institute as a frontline professional body in the country, by pursuing policies that are memberfocused.

Media Perspectives kicks off media school

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EDIA Perspectives has kick started its training academy tagged Media Perspectives School of Media. The academy is a technology-enabled platform set up to increase the agency’s capacity to deliver world class media planning and implementation to clients’.

The School kicks off with the agency’s staff member last month. It incorporates a blended learning approach to on-the-job training, where participants access the training content via specially designed android tablets while attending lectures, discussion forums and online/offline interaction sessions.

According to the Managing Director of the company, Dr. Tayo Oyedeji, the objective of

the academy is to further consolidate the agency’s leadership position in the media advertising industry. According to Dr. Oyedeji, “Media Perspectives’ goal is to remain Nigeria’s No. 1 media advertising agencies in billings and reputation for excellence by deploying the nation’s best trained media advertising specialists to develop consumer-focused media strategies for our clients.

The only way to achieve this vision is to empower our people with the best training materials available anywhere in the world.

We believe that if we take care of our people and consistently do good work, then success will follow”.

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T was a moment of pure delight, when the trio of celebrated marketing icons in Africa and beyond; Kola Oyeyemi , GM Business Development (MTN sales and distribution/ President of ADVAN; Advertisers Association of Nigeria, Lampe Omoyele, Africa Marketing Director Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare (gsk) and Kachi Onubogu, Commercial Director at Promasidor were called to take the lifetime achievement award, industry personality of the year and marketing professional Awards of the year at Oriental Hotel Lekki, venue for the 4th Marketing World Awards 2014.

The night rose to a crescendo with the announcement of the awards to the three icons who have invested tremendously into the marketing space with their extraordinary marketing intelligence.

The presenter of the awards, Mr Rufai Ladipo Managing Director Agile Communications, also a former president of AAAN, said the awardees deserved the awards; looking at their various contributions into the industry growth and relevance in the country’s economy.

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40— Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 Email:lesleba@lesleba.com, lesleba@gmail.com Blog page:www.lesleba.com/blog2 Website: www.lesleba.com Tel:0805 220 1997

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he CBN recently restricted direct sales of the federation’s official dollar reserves to some sectors of the economy; consequently, the importation of electronics, information technology, generators, and telecom equipment, finished products and invisible transactions will henceforth be funded with more costly dollars from the Interbank foreign Exchange market. The CBN’s objective is apparently to reduce the demand pressure on the Naira/ dollar exchange rate, and thereby restrain the rate of depletion of the Apex Bank’s self styled own reserves, which currently hover around $38bn.

Indeed, Nigeria’s monetary authorities have fumbled with one system or the other for determining an appropriate exchange value for the naira against major international currencies, particularly the dollar, for almost three decades.

The various exchange rate mechanisms whether christened FEM, IFEM, AFEM, DAS, RDAS, WDAS or any other fancy acronym can never claim to be truly market determined and they have all without exception, eventually led to the depreciation of the naira, even sometimes ironically, inspite of huge idle and rapidly increasing reserves!

In reality the most recent measures in November 2014, will similarly fail to produce an appropriately priced, market determined and people friendly exchange rate; clearly, the current retail Dutch Auction system which was reintroduced in October 2013 to replace the second time failure wholesale DAS is by all intents and purposes, a product of administrative fiat; for example, inspite of fortuitous bountiful CBN reserves and the credible accrued surpluses in the constitutionally controversial, excess crude dollar account, the Naira official rate of exchange remained at about

What is the dollar exchange rate?

N155 for about 5 years or so, ten years! inspite of our favourably Instructively also, the expanding imports cover. billionaire CEO of the Indeed, when the wholesale International Fortunes Dutch auction system (WDAS) Magazine, had cautioned was first introduced in 2006, the Nigerians in a 2006 lecture in incumbent CBN Deputy Lagos, that IMF-induced Governor for Economic Policy, development policies have Dr. Obadiah Mailafia never had the desired impact in explained at a press briefing developing countries and that the “liberalization of the therefore advised the adoption forex market was one of the of creative local strategies. conditions for the Chukwuma Soludo, the consummation of the Paris incumbent CBN Governor’s Club “debt forgiveness” deal, assertion on that occasion that which was also endorsed by Nigeria’s economic reform the International Monetary programme ‘NEEDS’ was Fund!” (Punch 21/02/06 pg. indeed home-grown was 2). Talk about the doubtful unexpectedly debunked by his utility of advice from a Deputy, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia in proclaimed well-wisher who his own press briefing of agrees you are poor and yet February 2006. insists on taking away the very Nonetheless, according to Dr. money you need to keep Mailafia, the new WDAS system yourself alive! Indeed, the would promote efficiency of the Paris Club debt deal was forex market and the economy criticized by as a whole; the well-meaning CBN Deputy international Governor assured i c o n s Nigerians that the including no wholesale (DAS) in less a Nobel It would be contrast to the Laureate as Retail Dutch national deceit to failed b e i n g Auction System obscene and claim that by (RDAS) which was m o r a l l y being discarded, consolidating and w r o n g ; “will facilitate a progressive facilitating the sale m a r k e t B r i t o n s of forex to banks d e t e r m i n e d similarly exchange rate, advised Tony for onward sale to because an Blair to return exchange rate their customers the UK’s share determined by with WDAS, the public of the ‘loot’ policy is not siphoned in the interest of foreign exchange from Nigeria, consumers”; this is market would as the value certainly good talk, was more than but wait a minute, become what the UK how can several liberalized as had given as banks buying aid to the claimed by the foreign exchange whole of from one major CBN Africa in over supplier i.e. the

CBN which controls 90% of the available foreign exchange supply lead to a market rate that is freely determined by popular demand and supply, especially when the main seller of foreign exchange in the market also doubles as the official custodian and only producer of naira supply?

It would be national deceit to claim that by consolidating and facilitating the sale of forex to banks for onward sale to their customers with WDAS, the foreign exchange market would become liberalized as claimed by the CBN. True liberalization implies having multiple sellers and multiple buyers; the 36 states, 774 Local governments and federal government and its agencies are the correct owners of the dollar component of the distributable dollar revenue, and it is only when these stakeholders can trade their own share of the dollars via the instrument of dollar certificates in a free market of existing Naira values that we can have a truly liberalized market and only then will the critical contradictions and anomalies in the Nigerian economy be successfully resolved as the economically destabilizing ghost of excess liquidity particularly will finally be exorcised.

The apparent failure of the various forex market systems so far, is probably best amplified by the abiding contradiction of Naira depreciation, inspite of extended imports cover; thus inspite of our relative ‘debt free’ status and bountiful reserves which could support over 20 months cover in 2006, the Naira has inexplicably

depreciated to N120, well below the N80=$1 made possible with $4bn reserves and 4 months imports cover that prevailed for over 4 years from 1996.

Furthermore, IMF imposed forex strategies have never succeeded in eliminating the challenges of the economic distortions caused by multiple exchange rates; for example, the current official CBN rate of N155=$1 exists side by side with an interbank rate of over N160=$1, and a Bureau De Change rate of over N170=$1; furthermore, it is not clear what special rates apply for funding specific government imports, or indeed the rates which are applicable for pilgrims to Mecca and Jerusalem. In any event, it is incongruous, that dollar demands of faith of pilgrims’ should be subsidised while real sector and mass consumer imports which include vital operational equipment for industrial and commercial consolidation may have to pay well over 10% for funding their forex requirements.

Regrettably, the new CBN measures seek to control and reduce the demand for dollars with restrictions to cheap dollar access for obviously critical sectors of the economy.

However, the net impact of this strategy, would be to spur an inflationary threat that may push the already oppressive inflation rate beyond 10%; additionally, the restriction of dollar sales will similarly push the Naira exchange rate towards N200=$1 with a collateral increase also in the price of fuel which may drive annual fuel subsidy payments above N2tn (over $12bn) or well over 40% of our annual budget!

Ultimately, rising inflation and depreciating Naira may well sound the death knell of deepening poverty nationwide.

•Save the Naira, Save Nigerians!!

Business & Economy Shonekan lauds Jonathan over implementation of NESG recommendations

By CHRIS ONUOHA

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ormer Head of State, Chief Ernest Shonekan, has lauded the bold decision taken by President Goodluck Jonathan in approving the recommendations made by Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, during its recent annual summit conference.

Shonekan who spoke at the commissioning of the newly built NESG Summit House in Lagos, said government’s proactive measures in

acknowledging and implementing the recommendations is a sure way of building a better society and described government’s action as a step in the right direction towards repositioning the economy.

He described NESG a credible think tank group that has helped in developing the nation by monitoring government policies and coming up with realistic recommendations and at the same time worked in attracting government action towards such recommendations.

Some of the highlighted recommendations that have made progress came from previous summits on “Growing Agriculture as a Business to Diversify Nigeria’s economy” with Draft bill on “Growth Enhancement Scheme, bill for the National Policy, progress in the creation of commodity exchange driven by Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment and investments by the private and public sector in enhancing agricultural growth with funding support from the International Financial Institutions.

Omoh Gabriel Babajide Komolafe Clara Nwachukwu Peter Egwuatu Yinka Kolawole Favour Nnabugwu Godwin Oritse Godfrey Bivbere Michael Eboh Franklin Alli Ebele Orakpo Ifeyinwa Obi Rosemary Onuoha

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Group Business Editor Deputy Business Editor Energy Editor Asst. Business Editor Snr Bus. Correspondent Insurance Correspondent Maritime Correspondent Maritime Correspondent Energy Reporter Industry/Agric. Reporter Energy Reporter Maritime Reporter Insurance Reporter

CONTRIBUTORS Princewill Ekwujuru Nkiruka Nnorom Jonah Nwokpoku Naomi Uzor Providence Obuh LAYOUT

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Media/Marketing Capital Market E-Commerce Industry Micro Finance Graphics Department