Wednesday <strong>24</strong> <strong>May</strong> <strong>2017</strong> A1 BUSINESSDAY STATES COMPETITIVENESS & GOOD GOVERNANCE AWARDS <strong>2017</strong> C O N F E R E N C E S Award Categories Most Improved In Housing Development Most Improved In Educational Development Best State Promoting Made in Nigeria Goods/SME Development State With The Most Improved Security Most Improved State In ICT/Technology Best State In Sports Development Best State In Tourism Fastest Growing State Economy Ease Of Doing Business Transparency In Governance Most Improved In Rural And Urban Infrastructure Development Most Improved In Health Care Development Most Improved In Agricultural Development Governor Of The Year Transcorp Hilton, ABUJA Thursday 13th, July 6:00pm For further enquiries, call: ANTHONY - 0802 316 5438 | RERHE - 0909 392 5792 | JOHN - 0802 316 5436 BASHIR - 0802 758 8990 | PATRICK - 0703 <strong>24</strong>9 6069 | ADA - 0803 426 5411 email: conferences@businessdayonline.com
A2 BUSINESSDAY C002D5556 Jubilee Syringe sets to end regime of syringe importation in Nigeria IFEOMA OKEKE As an answer to Nigeria call for increased direct foreign investment in the country and also create jobs across the various cadres, Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company will in August this year commence full production of syringes in the country. Located on an 8000 square meter of land area in Onna Local Government of Akwa Ibom State, Jubilee Syringe which will be the first syringe manufacturing company in Nigeria, second only to South Africa in the whole of Africa, intends to kick off with a start up production capacity of between 350 to 400 million syringes annually, with provision for expanding its production capacity to 1billion syringes by 2018. This estimated 350 - 400 million production lines Jubilee Syringe intend to start-up with in Nigeria, far overshoots that of South Africa, as the South African Company has a production capacity of only 93 million, making Jubilee Syringe, of course, upon completion and commencement of operations the largest syringe production company in the entire African continent. Owned by Onur Kumral, a Turkish-born business man and investor, whose investments spanned over 17 countries of the world, and having believe that Akwa Ibom has good development policies and adequate security, in addition to the overwhelming support provided by Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration, he was spurred to confidently take the risk of IT experts chart way for data explosion in Africa Information Technology (IT) and telecommunications experts at the International Telecoms Week Conference in Chicago have discussed the dire need for Africa to grow its broadband data through increased investment. Experts from Google, Facebook, WIOCC, Liquid Telecom and Angola Cables who spoke on the theme “Achieving a Connected Continent: Leading The Data Explosion Across Africa”, said that the data explosion in the continent will need to be driven by further investment in local networks to reach more end users rather than new submarine cables, as most African submarine cable systems had the capability to deliver 100 GBPS wavelengths, however, Africa has not utilised near enough capacity to saturate those systems. According to the panelists, for broadband to become more pervasive, there is need for continued investment and innovative business models to aid the rapid deployment of access networks across the continent. Speaking on ways to improve broadband and data penetration, Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, said that there is a need for the continent to go beyond mobile infrastructure. The CEO of the company which recently acquired South bringing such huge investment as Jubilee Syringe into the country. According to Kumral, even though the company is in Nigeria to make profit, its primary aim is not only to create jobs, but also to help in stabilising the nation’s economy and add value to Nigerians through training and retraining. His promise of adding value to Nigerians was realised when Jubilee Syringe recently sent 12 Nigerians to Istanbul, Turkey, for advance training on key areas of Injection Machines. These 12 Nigerians were trained on the operation of Injection Moulding Machines, Maintenance of Moulds and Quality Control. Kumral had stated in an interview recently that there is this situation in Nigeria right now where the country is losing huge dollars daily through importations and noted that there must be deliberate efforts by all to stop it. “If you are losing your dollars, you arrest the situation by simply stopping importations. And this arrest is possible only when you start producing and manufacturing inside your country. If you manufacture, you save huge dollars and use it for something else,” he advised. Zubeyir Gulabi, Jubilee Syringe managing director for Nigeria said while receiving the 12 Nigerians who returned from Turkey, that they are the future of industrialization in the state and the nation. He observed that there are plans by Jubilee Syringe to send more Nigerians for training especially in the area of safety, packaging and printing. …Say there is need to go beyond mobile infrastructure JUMOKE AKIYODE African operator, Neotel for $429 million said; “As consumers in Africa start to use the internet for content, TV and on-demand services, mobile will have its limitations, not just in terms of technology, but also in price. We need to look at other technologies to achieve cost effectiveness”. Uche Ofodile, Regional Head, Africa for Express Wifi at Facebook said that Facebook’s decision to invest in Uganda by working with Airtel to deploy fiber backhaul was informed by the demand for it, as well as favorable regulatory environments. The panelists’ assessment of data center growth in Africa also indicated that uptake is not as rapid as experienced in other parts of the world and that most of the content consumed in Africa is hosted in Europe. Data center operators, MainOne and Liquid shared their experience that initial demand on the continent has been driven by Enterprises and financial institutions as against other geographies where OTT players are the biggest data center players. “We do not see any of these OTTs hosting their services from Africa. We are not seeing meaningful investments coming into Africa (from OTT players) and with the sizeable population of the continent, we need to see them play a larger role in the African ecosystem”, the panel concluded. Q1 GDP shows Nigeria gradually exiting recession Wednesday <strong>24</strong> <strong>May</strong> <strong>2017</strong> NEWS L-R: Ingo Herbert, Germany Consul General; Steve Ayorinde, commissioner for information & strategy, Lagos State, and Laurent Polonceux, France Consul General, after a reading of ROUTE 234, a travel anthology by Nigerian arts and culture journalists at the German Consulate. Bonga production hits 200,000 bpd after TAM .....as plans are underway to extend life span of FPSO OLUSOLA BELLO Production from the Bonga oil field, the nation’s first deepwater development now hits between 180,000 barrels per day and 200,000 barrels per day after the completion of the turnaround maintenance (TAM), which took about 36 day to complete. The Total Capacity of Bonga field is 225,000 barrels per day. There are also indications that the Life span of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility may be extended by 10 years from 20 years if all the plans on ground work out well. The field has also in the last 12 years delivered 702 million barrels and currently operates at 92 per cent availability. The volumes came from the Bonga main field and Bonga Phases 2 and 3 that unlocked the nearby Bonga North West field in August 2014. It has capacity for 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Lurking in pockets of Nigeria’s first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report released Tuesday, <strong>May</strong> 23 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are signs of an economy cranking back to life. Bogged down by a sickly oil sector and slowing agricultural expansion, GDP shrank 0.5 percent in the first three months of the year. It is however the second successive quarter of milder contraction, following a 1.7 percent retreat in the final quarter of 2016. “That means we are gradually getting out of recession,” said Muda-Yusuf, director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). “There are signs the economy will exit negative territory in the According to the Bayon Ojulari, Managing Director of the oil field operator, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), who spoke after the completion of the TAM, said “after a major turnaround maintenance which was completed in April, one of the highpoints of the turnaround was the engagement of about 65 Nigerian contractors and subcontractor companies”. Over 1000 people were involved, spread across worksites and vessels in the exercise described as the biggest in scope in the 12-year history of the asset He said, “The exercise stimulated growth of support industries vital to deep-water asset management. It provided a wider benefit to the Nigerian economy by boosting demand for a range of goods and services including offshore vessels and platforms, materials, floating hotel and helicopters.” According to Ojulari, the turnaround witnessed an optimisation of resources ..manufacturing grows for first time since Q4 2015 LOLADE AKINMURELE & HEZRON ATUNDE second quarter,” Yusuf said by phone, hinging his outlook on increased dollar supply in the period, as well as initiatives to boost the ease of doing business. “The Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) upped dollar supply significantly in the second quarter, even as radical reforms boosted the ease of doing business. These should move the economy into positive territory in Q2,” Yusuf said. The CBN has sold more than $4 billion in the last four months to ease pressure on the naira, which has now firmed on the black market from a record low of N520 to the dollar prior to the interventions. The black market naira exchanged for N380 per dollar on Tuesday, according to Abokifx, which collates daily prices from traders. The official interbank rate and was safely completed within schedule. The exercise included statutory and regulatory checks and inspections; repairs and replacement of equipment; and upgrade of facilities. A critical success factor, according to Ojulari, was the collaboration by more than 10 functions who benchmarked their contributions against a robust execution plan. Procuring materials from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) saved cost and ensured seamless delivery, and the project team sourced key equipment and carried out fabrications within Nigeria. This innovation, he said, marked a turning point in SNEPCo’s efforts to develop the capabilities of Nigerian companies in the provision of goods and services in deepwater oil and gas production. Ojulari expressed delight at the increasing number of women on the frontline, noting that more women were involved at every stage of the turnaround compared to any of the three previous exercises. has stagnated at N305 per dollar since the start of the year. Bayo Adeyemo, markets head and country treasurer at Citi Bank thinks the CBN deserves a pat on the back for the naira appreciation. Nigeria’s economy contracted last year, for the first time in 25 years, after it took a beating from a slump in oil prices and militant attacks on pipelines, which caused production to fall to an almost three-decade low. Foreign-currency shortages fuelled by falling oil exports caused inflation to accelerate every month for more than a year until January. But the index has since slowed, while optimism for an economic rebound has grown. Inflation printed 17.2 percent in April, after slowing for the third consecutive month. Naira maintains gain as CBN keeps interest rate unchanged …External reserves declines to $30.6 HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE The nation’s currency on Tuesday strengthened against the U S dollar across foreign exchange market segment after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) kept Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) unchanged. Naira gained N0.25k to close at N383.31k per dollar at the investors and exporters window on Tuesday compared to N382.56k per dollar quoted on Monday according to data obtained from FMDQ. The local currency also gained marginally N0.05k at the inter-bank spot foreign exchange market. It closed at N305.40k per dollar as against N305.45k per dollar the level it was last week. At the black market, the naira remained stable closing at the rate of N380 to the dollar. External reserves has declined by 1.04 percent to $30. 66 billion as at <strong>May</strong> 19, <strong>2017</strong> from $30.9 billion stood as at <strong>May</strong> 5, <strong>2017</strong>, data from CBN has revealed. The CBN has since February 20 been intervening in the foreign exchange market by way of injecting dollar to meet demand for retail and wholesale as well as to close the huge gap between the official market and Bureau De Change (BDC) segment. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) yesterday at the meeting in Abuja emphasized the need to sustain and deepen the Bank’s foreign exchange management policies and measures in order to reap the benefits of the passthrough to consumer prices.
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