BusinessDay 24 May 2017

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 24 May 2017
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, May
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
May 19, 2017 from $30.9
billion stood as at May 5,
2017, 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.