BusinessDay 19 Sep 2017

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NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I **TUESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2017 I VOL. 14, NO 441 I N300 @ g 

Nigeria has higher investment risk but 

beats sub-Saharan Africa peers on returns 

As country drops out of RMB’s top ten investment destinations for first time 

LOLADE AKINMURELE & ISAAC ANYAOGU 

Among Africa’s top 

three economies, it 

is Nigeria that offers 

both the highest risk 

and highest reward 

to foreign investors, according to 

a Risk-Reward index developed 

by global risk consultancy firm, 

Control Risks Group Limited. 

The “Africa Risk-Reward” 

index computed by UK-based 

Control Risks, in partnership 

with NKC Economics, aims to 

give a clear assessment of the 

investment climate in African 

countries to investors, to enable 

them accurately measure each 

country against their own appetite 

for risk, with full knowledge 

of the challenges they are likely 

to face. 

Nigeria’s ranking is impacted 

by a shrinking economy and 

militancy, while security risks 

and escalating political risks, 

mean Egypt and South Africa, 

respectively, are sometimes on 

the investment radar for the 

wrong reasons. 

However, Nigeria and its 

Multinational oil companies offer over $1billion in financing for new gas projects 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

This year alone, multinational 

oil companies 

have provided more 

than $1billion in alternative 

financing for gas projects 

energy sector are too big to be 

brushed aside, according to 

Control risks, thereby earning 

Africa’s largest oil producer a 

reward score of 6.0, ahead of its 

in Nigeria, and experts say this 

may be a viable model to unlock 

the country’s gas potential. 

Last week, Shell Nigeria, a 

subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, 

signed a $300m deal with Nigerian 

Independent, Shoreline 

peers. 

Despite a high reward score, 

Nigeria’s charms fade against 

a risk score of 7.3, which also 

beats that of its sub Saharan 

Energy, to develop market and 

distribute natural gas around 

Lagos. 

The deal is expected to see 

Shell help Shoreline develop a 

transmission network for distributing 

gas around Lagos, 

Join the discourse at 23rd Nigerian Economic Summit 

Theme: Opportunities, Productivity & Employment 

...Actualizing the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 

Continues on page 4 

L-R: Ibikunle Amosun, governor, Ogun State; Godwin Obaseki, governor, Edo State, and Rauf Aregbesola, Governor 

Osun State, during the APC Zonal Public hearing on federalism, held in Benin City, Edo State, yesterday 

... Model now seen as viable alternative funding 

Africa peers. 

“Views on Nigeria can tend 

towards the extreme. Some 

based on a 20-year concession 

granted to downstream gas company, 

Gasland Nigeria, which 

was acquired by Shoreline in 

2015. 

In the last week of August, 

French oil giant, Total, joined 

other investors including Greenville, 

and Gas Aggregation Company 

of Nigeria signed a $500m 

Inside 

NCAA certifies 

FAAN as MMIA 

aerodrome 

operator 

deal in the first three mini Liquefied 

Natural Gas, LNG, plants in 

Nigeria. 

In June, global drilling giant, 

Schlumberger also struck a deal 

to provide $880m in financing for 

the Madu and Anyala gas development 

projects on OML 83 and 


10th - 12th October, 2017 

Transcorp Hilton, Abuja 

www.nesgroup.org 

CBN goes hard 

on banks over 

breach of Forex 

rules 

P. 35 

P. 4 

Nigeria failing 

to maximise 

free trade 

benefits 

P. 4 

NNPC: several 

positives amid 

the uncertainty 

– Gregory 

Kronsten 

P. 9

Tuesday 19 September 2017 

2 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

3


C002D5556 


NEWS 

NCAA certifies FAAN as MMIA aerodrome operator 

... raises safety standards, liability ... as Cat-1 safety status deadline nears 

IFEOMA OKEKE 

The Nigerian Civil 

Aviation Authority 

(NCAA) has approved 

the Federal Airports 

Authority of Nigeria 

(FAAN) as the certified aerodrome 

operator for the provision 

of required airport services, facilities, 

systems and equipment 

at the Murtala Muhammed 

Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, in line with 

international standards and recommended 

practices. 

This certification means that 

FAAN is responsible for providing 

and maintaining aviation 

facilities and regulating the 

Nigeria has higher investment risk but beats... 

Continued from page 1 

businesses we talk to are so 

deterred by coverage of terrorism 

and violence, and what they feel 

are insurmountable problems of 

corruption, that wherever they 

look, they see reasons not to work 

in Nigeria, while others are so 

drawn by the size of the potential 

market and the rewards, that they 

can be tempted to overlook the 

risks,” said Daniel Magnowski, 

Senior Analyst, Control Risks. 

“When we are talking about 

Nigeria, we keep coming back to 

the phrase ‘challenging but manageable’ 

and it’s absolutely right, 

whether that’s in oil blocks, power 

stations, hotels or telecoms,” Magnowski 

added. 

Nigeria’s risk and reward scores 

compare to South Africa’s 4.8 reward 

score and less than 5.0 risk 

score; and Egypt’s 5.5 reward score 

and 6.0 risk score. 

Africa’s three largest economies, 

however come up short in 

comparison to East African powerhouses, 

Ethiopia and Kenya. 

Ethiopia outperforms all other 

African peers on the reward score, 

with 8.0. Its high reward score is 

accompanied by a risk score of 5.8.. 

Kenya’s reward score is 6.7 

while its risk score is 5.6. 

In a separate report by Rand 

Merchant Bank, released Monday, 

Nigeria dropped seven places to 

13, as the most attractive investment 

destination in Africa, while 

South Africa also ceded top spot 

to Egypt. 

This is the first time Nigeria 

will not feature in the top 10 most 

attractive investment destinations 

report by Rand Merchant Bank, 

one of the largest financial services 

groups in Africa, because the country’s 

short-term investment appeal 

has been eroded by recessionary 

conditions. 

Neville Mandimika, RMB Africa 

analyst and contributor to ‘Where 

to Invest in Africa 2018’ said, “The 

last three years have sounded an 

alarm, amplifying what is now a 

dire need for the economies of 

Africa to shift their focus from traditional 

sources of income to other 

viable alternatives.” 

According to the report, Morocco 

retained its third position 

for a third consecutive year, having 

benefitted from a greatly enhanced 

operating environment since the 

“Arab Spring” which began in 2010. 

Ethiopia, a country dogged 

by socio-political instability, displaced 

Ghana to take fourth spot, 

mostly because of its rapid economic 

growth, having brushed 

past Kenya as the largest economy 

in East Africa. Ghana’s slide to fifth 

position was mostly due to perceptions 

of worsening corruption and 

weaker economic freedom. 

Kenya holds firm in the Top 

10 at number six. Despite being 

surpassed by Ethiopia, investors 

are still attracted by Kenya’s 

diverse economic structure, promarket 

policies and brisk consumer 

spending growth. A host of 

business-friendly reforms aimed 

at rooting out corruption and 

steady economic growth helped 

Tanzania climb by two places to 

number seven. 

Rwanda re-entered the Top 10 

having spent two years on the periphery, 

helped by being one of the 

conduct of airport opeartors, 

especially airlines. 

“The implications of the certification 

are that FAAN can 

now be sued by any operator for 

damages to property or equipment 

due to negligence. For 

example, like the loss of the 

Emirates aircraft undercarriage 

on the badly maintained Abuja 

runway. The NCAA too could 

be jointly sued and hopefully, it 

must have ensured that the certificated 

airport is properly and 

sufficiently insured for damages 

to any airlines aircraft that could 

be caused through operational 

inadequacies, or by its staff,” said 

John Ojikutu, member of aviation 

industry think tank group, 

the Aviation Round Table (ART) 

and Chief Executive of Centurion 

Securities, in an interview 

with BusinessDay. 

This development is coming 

a few weeks after the US Federal 

Aviation Administration (FAA) 

refused to renew Nigeria’s Category 

1 safety status because 

Nigerian airports did not meet 

the FAA’s safety and security 

requirements. The FAA therefore 

gave Nigeria 65 days from August 

24, this year (2017) to resolve 

the identified issues, failing 

which Nigerian airlines would 

be barred from operating flights 

to and from the United States of 

fastest reforming economies in the 

world, high real growth rates and 

its continuing attempt to diversify 

its economy. 

Tunisia occupied the ninth position 

on the back of advancing political 

transition and an improved 

business climate achieved by 

structural reforms, greater security 

and social stability. 

Cote d’Ivoire slipped two places 

to take up the tenth position, despite 

a low business environment 

score which was compensated 

by its government’s significant 

strides in inviting investment into 

the country, leading to a strong 

increase in foreign direct investment 

over the years, making it one 

of the fastest growing economies 

in Africa. 

Uganda’s outlook is marred by 

a tumultuous 2016 and related uncertainty, 

debilitating drought and 

America. 

Nigeria has barely 39 days to 

meet the standards required by 

the FAA. 

FAAN is also required to 

promptly notify the Nigerian 

Civil Aviation Authority of any 

changes in aerodrome services, 

facilities, procedures or staffing 

levels, that can affect the certification 

of the aerodrome. 

Ojikutu says he doubts if Nigeria 

can attain the Category 1 

safety status without having its 

major airports certified. 

According to him, airport 

certification is a requirement and 

compliant to the Nigeria Civil 


high commercial lending rates. 

Botswana, Mauritius and Namibia, 

widely rated as investment grade 

economies, did not feature in the 

Top 10 mostly because of the relatively 

small sizes of their markets. 

Market size is a key consideration 

in the report’s methodology. 

The report warns that African 

economies could hover on the 

brink of disaster, if they continue to 

depend on their current economic 

fundamentals and do not usher in 

economic diversification. 

Nigeria’s economy, which vies 

with South Africa as the largest on 

the continent, has been battered by 

the fall in oil price and lower production 

(a result of a resurgence of 

militant attacks in the Niger delta). 

These factors dragged GDP 

growth down from 6.3 percent in 

2014 to 2.7 percent in 2015, with 

the economy actually contracting 

Nigeria failing to 

maximise free 

trade benefits 

ODINAKA ANUDU 

As Nigeria turns down the 

Economic Partnership 

Agreement (EPA) proposed 

by Europe, checks show that the 

country is not making maximum 

use of various international trading 

agreements with many countries. 

After 16 years of A the African 

Growth And Opportunity 

Act (AGOA) which allows 6,000 

products to be exported to the US, 

duty-free, till 2025, Nigeria is yet to 

raise its export substantially to the 

world’s biggest economy. 

In 2014, Nigeria exported products 

worth only $2.6 million to the 


L-R: Governors 

Rotimi 

Akeredolu of 

Ondo State; 

Dave Umeahi 

of Ebonyi State, 

and Abdullazizi 

Yari of Zamfara 

State welcoming 

President 

Muhammadu 

Buhari, during 

his arrival 

in New York 

for the 72nd 

Session of the 

United Nation’s 

General Assembly, 

yesterday. 

NAN 

by 1.6 percent in 2016. 

However, Nigeria managed to 

make a narrow exit from recession, 

as the economy grew 0.55 percent 

in second quarter 2017, the first 

growth in six quarters according to 

data compiled by BusinessDay and 

sourced from the National Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS). Growth was 

driven by improving oil production 

volumes and prices which trended 

higher in the period compared to 

a year ago. 

The dollar shortage brought 

on by declining petrodollars has 

also abated since the introduction 

of the NAFEX window in April, 

which caters to the dollar needs of 

investors. 

These factors are gradually 

boosting investor confidence in 

Nigeria, as deduced from the trend 

in capital importation in the three 

months through June.


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

5



C002D5556 

NEWS 

‘Military’s declaration of IPOB, governors’ 

proscription of group unconstitutional’ 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja 

Senate president, Bukola 

Saraki, has faulted 

the proscription of 

the Indigenous People 

of Biafra (IPOB) by South 

East governors, describing 

as unconstitutional the categorisation 

of the group as a 

‘terrorist organisation’ by the 

Nigerian military. 

In a statement he signed 

on Monday, Saraki insisted 

that due process was not 

followed in the proscription 

of IPOB and its declaration 

as a terrorist organisation, 

disclosing that the Senate 

would meet with security 

chiefs over its clash with 

IPOB members in the region. 

He also cautioned the 

President not to overstretch 

the military, adding that the 

National Assembly is working 

towards strengthening 

paramilitary agencies to 

help in curbing civil unrest 

in the country. 

Nigerian National 

Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC) 

has assured motorists 

and consumers of 

petroleum products nationwide 

that the fire incident 

that occurred at Apapa loading 

jetty at the early hours of 

yesterday will not affect supply 

of petroleum products. 

Already, the NNPC has 

deployed a team of engineers 

to the jetty while 

the repair of the affected 

parts would commence 

immediately. 

The fire was sparked 

off from the activities of 

hoodlums scooping fuels 

spilled from ships discharging 

at the jetty. 

NNPC group managing 

director, Maikanti 

Baru, who has been fully 

briefed on the incident, 

“I also wish to state 

that the announcement 

of the proscription of the 

group known as Indigenous 

People of Biafra (IPOB) by 

Governors of the Southeast 

states and the categorization 

of the group as a 

‘terrorist organisation’ by 

the Nigerian military are 

unconstitutional and does 

not follow due process. 

“Our laws make clear 

provisions for taking such 

actions and without the 

due process being followed, 

such declaration cannot 

have effect. I am sure the 

President will do the needful 

by initiating the right 

process. 

“This will go a long way in 

demonstrating to the world 

at large that we are a country 

that operate by laid down 

process under every circumstance. 

So, those who have 

been hammering on this 

point should maintain their 

cool,” Saraki said. 

NNPC says Apapa jetty fire incident will 

not affect supply of petroleum products 

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja 

described the occurrence 

as unfortunate, assuring 

that NNPC had more 

than 1.6 billion litres of 

premium motor spirit - 

petrol, enough to last for 

48 days. 

Baru, in a statement on 

Monday, also said the Corporation 

also had in stock 

sufficient quantity of Automotive 

Gas Oil (AGO) - diesel, 

Dual Purpose Kerosene 

(DPK) - kerosene, as well as 

Aviation Turbine Kerosene 

(ATK) to serve the country. 

It therefore advised motorists 

not to engage in panic 

buying, adding that they 

report any challenge they 

might have in the course 

of purchasing to the Department 

of Petroleum Resources 

(DPR), which is 

statutorily empowered to 

deal with such issues. DPR 

has offices located in all 

parts of the country. 

NNPC targets 80-day fuel stockpile in 

response to marketers’ strike threat 

To avert a possible 

disruption in fuel 

supply, the Nigerian 

National 

Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC) is stockpiling 

about 80-day supply 

of fuel going by the average 

consumption of 35 million 

litres per day, BusinessDay 

learns. 

This has led to an accumulation 

of 1.640 billion 

litres of petrol in stock, which 

will last the country up to 46 

days consumption; an additional 

1.125 billion litres is 

expected to be delivered by 

the end of the month, raising 

the country’s storage to 

about 79 days of petroleum 

consumption (35m litres 

daily), according to analysts 

at Ecobank Research. 

“The purpose of stockpiling 

petroleum is to secure a 

stable supply while the refineries 

undergo some reha- 

Why Lagos judiciary is a reference point - Ambode 

JOSHUA BASSEY 

Governor Akinwunmi 

Ambode 

of Lagos State says 

the state judiciary 

is a reference point in terms 

of independence, justice 

dispensation and working 

relationship with other arms 

of government. 

Ambode therefore assured 

that his administration 

would continue to prioritise 

the welfare of serving and 

retired judges in Lagos to 

enable them give their best 

to the economic prosperity 

of the state. 

The governor spoke on 

Monday when the outgoing 

Chief Judge of Lagos State, 

Olufunmilayo Atilade, visited 

him at the Lagos House, 

Ikeja, saying his administration 

from inception in May 

29, 2015, had embarked on 

some reforms in the judiciary 

to improve its capacity for 

service delivery. As a result, 

he said the state judiciary 

had become a reference 

point of how the judiciary 

should run. 

The judiciary has made 

an appreciable progress 

in the last two years of this 

administration, the governor 

noted, adding that part of the 

reforms was to ensure that 

every judge after a meritorious 

service to the state 

retired into a life of comfort. 

“Reform in the judiciary 

is a continuous thing. In areas 

where we have not done 

well, we would improve on 

them and we would also ensure 

that we make life comfortable 

for retired judges. I 

ISAAC ANYAOGU 

... as chief judge bows out Sunday 

… as subsidy on fuel seen reaching N31/litre 

bilitation and to prevent any 

significant social, economic 

and political problems in 

the event of oil supply shortages,” 

said the Ecobank energy 

research team led by 

Dolapo Oni. 

The Petroleum and Natural 

Gas Senior Staff Association 

of Nigeria (PEN- 

GASSEN) last week called 

on the Federal Government 

to settle all debts allegedly 

owed oil marketers to avert 

strike by oil marketers and 

massive retrenchment of 

their workforce. 

Oil marketers are demanding 

for over N720 billion 

subsidy arrears, which 

comprises outstanding subsidy 

owed on the importation 

of petroleum products, 

accrued interest on loans 

from banks and exchange 

rate differential, which made 

them to halt importation of 

refined petroleum products 

leaving only the NNPC doing 

the business. 

As a result of this stockpile 

by the NNPC, petrol 

pump prices have reduced 

marginally from N145/litre 

to N142/litres. But this is 

coming at a cost. 

“In our opinion, the actual 

landing price of gasoline is 

likely higher than the current 

N130/litre at which marketers 

are able to lift products 

at the depots. Adjusting for 

transport time (thus, using 

prices from July/August), 

the average tonne of gasoline 

from Europe would have 

landed offshore Nigeria at 

an estimated N143.55/litre,” 

said the Ecobank research 

team. 

Ecobank further said, 

“Pump prices would have 

risen to N161, if current 

distribution margins were 

retained. This implies an 

implicit subsidy of about 

N31/litre on products. This 

explains to some extent, 

NNPC’s under recovery of 

about N79.5bn by the end of 

June 2017.” 

Marketers have been unable 

to source foreign exchange 

to carry out imports 

leaving commercial storage 

levels at an all-time low but 

NNPC’s stockpile is helping 

to increase their storage volumes, 

as well as for its depots 

in Mosimi and Ejigbo. This 

is increasing fuel inventory 

is helping to keep the retail 

band of PMS between N143 

and N146 around the country. 

Meanwhile, has improved 

foreign exchange 

from its upstream operations 

buoyed up by rise in 

crude oil prices and crude 

oil volumes. Oil prices rose 

to $55.57 per barrel yesterday, 

on the back of a drop in 

US rig count by seven, the 

highest since January and 

Nigeria’s oil production rose 

to 1.8m bpd, after a lull in 

militancy. 

L-R: Obaro Odeghe, chairman, promo committee/regional bank head, Apapa; Chijioke Ugochukwu, executive director, 

shared services and products, and Gbolahan Joshua, chief operations and information officer, all of Fidelity Bank plc, at 

a press conference on Its new savings promo tagged ‘Get Alert In Millions Promo Reloaded, held in Lagos. 

am very particular about the 

welfare of judges because 

that is a sacred institution,” 

the governor said. 

He also underscored the 

contributions of the judiciary 

to the success of Lagos, saying 

the harmonious relationship 

among the three arms of 

government had placed the 

state on growth path. 

“I want to say that if there 

is actually an arm that I’ve 

actually had collective responsibility 

with is the judiciary. 

It has been totally 

independent and we have 

not in any way interfered in 

all the things that have been 

done in the Judiciary and 

again everybody see the Lagos 

judiciary as the shining 

example of how the judiciary 

should be run,” he said. 

NIRSAL, Stanbic-IBTC N50bn agric-finance 

scheme targets 200,000 smallholder farmers 

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja 

Nigeria Incentive- 

Based Risk Sharing 

for Agricultural 

Lending 

(NIRSAL) has entered into 

a N50 billion agricultural 

financing partnership with 

Stanbic IBTC Bank for the 

2017/2018 dry and wet 

seasons, targeting 200,000 

smallholder farmers, especially 

those that meet 

the risk acceptance criteria. 

Under the terms of the 

partnership, which was 

signed by both parties 

weekend in Abuja, NIR- 

SAL is to provide credit 

guarantees to cover up to 

75 percent of Stanbic IBTC 

loans to bankable agricultural 

projects using its $300 

million risk sharing facility. 

The partnership will 

cover NIRSAL supported 

projects in livestock, crops, 

mechanisation, tree crops, 

logistics and poultry. 

Stanbic, at the launch, 

committed an initial N10 

billion for the take-off of the 

scheme. The managing director 

of Stanbic IBTC, Demola 

Sogunle, said the partnership 

would increase economic 

impact of agricultural value 

chain to drive government’s 

diversification plan and revenue 

generation. 

“The first phase of the 

scheme is projected to 

create over 92,000 direct 

jobs, impact about 200,000 

lives, boost incomes of 

rural farmers and complement 

government’s efforts 

to drive inclusive economic 

growth through agriculture. 

It will also lead to 

the cultivation of an additional 

11,195 hectares of 

arable land, increase the 

National food output by 

up to 50,580MT in yield 

and provide N3.87bn value 

addition,” Aliyu Abdulhameed, 

managing director of 

NIRSAL, said at the launch. 

The NIRSAL CEO pointed 

out that,”50 percent 

of our efforts go to small 

holder farmers,who are 

organised and structured. 

Individual farmers may not 

have access to structured 

access to agric-financing, 

but when they aggregate 

themselves into co-operatives, 

they become financeable.”


C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

7



C002D5556 

NEWS 

Manufacturers make new 

investments as economy eases 

ODINAKA ANUDU 

After many months 

of lull in the manufacturing 

sector, 

deep pocket 

investors have 

returned to factory expansion, 

setting up new plants, 

as foreign exchange becomes 

more readily available and 

economic crunch eases. 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari commissioned Olam 

International’s $150 million 

integrated feed mill, breeding 

and hatchery farm in 

Kaduna State last week. 

The plant by the Singapore-based 

Olam is the largest 

integrated feed mill in 

the country, with capacity 

to employ 8,000 Nigerians 

directly and indirectly, including 

200 veterinary doctors 

and a storage facility of 

50,000 metric tons estimated 

to sell 72,000,000 eggs and 

52,600,000 day old chicks. 

“This investment will utilise 

around 180,000 tonnes 

of corn and 75,000 tonnes 

of soya beans for feed production. 

It has the capacity 

to produce 360,000 tonnes 

of animal feeds every year,” 

Vinod Kumar, Mishra, Middle 

East Olam International 

business head, said before 

the commissioning. 

Standard Metallurgical 

Company Limited (SMC) 

last month announced plans 

to launch a billet mill to 

produce standard wire rods 

in Nigeria. 

The company will be the 

first factory to produce billets 

suitable for producing 

standard wire rods in Nigeria 

as almost all wire rods 

produced in the country 

currently are made from 

imported billets. 

“Three months from now, 

we are going to start producing 

billets in Nigeria,” 

Mohammed Saade, managing 

director, SMC, told 

BusinessDay. 

“Currently, we are producing 

300,000 tonnes of 

wire rods per year. With 

phase two, we would produce 

260,000 tons of billets 

in Nigeria. Nigeria today is a 

big market and we are committed 

to meeting local demands 

and the surplus can 

go to the ECOWAS market,” 

Saade said. 

On August 29, Nigeria’s 

vice president Yemi Osinbajo 

commissioned the Edo 

State Fertilizer And Chemical 

Company Limited in 

Auchi, Edo State, a publicprivate 

venture with capacity 

to produce about 60,000 

metric tonnes of fertilizer 

per annum. 

Same day, BUA’s second 

cement line, located at Okpella, 

Edo State, capable of 

producing 3 million metric 

tonnes, was commissioned 

by the vice president. 

“It is engineered to be 

the most environmentally 

friendly cement plant in Africa 

with the most advanced 

duct emission systems. Our 

technology has the latest 

filtration with capacity of 

less than 10 milligram per 

normal cubic meter. We use 

natural gas, which is a very 

clean energy for both our 

kiln as well as the power 

plant in addition to having 

a very green environment,” 

Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman 

of BUA Group, said. 

In June this year, Dangote 

Sugar signed a $700 million 

deal with Nasarawa State 

government for the establishment 

of sugar plantations 

in the state. In August, 

Dangote Group penned another 

$450 million deal with 

Niger State for the establishment 

of fully integrated 

sugar complex.


COMMENT 

GREGORY KRONSTEN 

Head, Macroeconomic & 

Fixed Income Research 

FBNQuest 

The old-style Nigerian 

National Petroleum 

Corporation (NNPC) 

viewed financial and operational 

data as its private 

property, and not to 

be shared at any cost. The new-look 

corporation in place since mid-2015, 

in contrast, looks to share data and 

engage with some of its stakeholders. 

One result of this stance has been the 

introduction of a monthly Financial 

and Operations Report. 

Rather than regret the weaknesses 

in the reports such as the fact the 

monthly financials end with the results 

at the operational level (and so 

without below-the-line adjustments), 

we scrutunize them for what they do 

reveal. The financial performance 

has improved, ie losses have been 

contained. So the operational loss 

has been reduced from N267bn in 

2015 to N197bn in 2016 and N46bn 

The future of the 

refineries has become 

subsumed 

within national 

identity politics so 

we do not see any 

mileage for our 

favoured policy (of 

allowing them to 

wither away) 

comment is free 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline. 

NNPC: several positives amid the uncertainty 

in H1 2017. 

In the current environment this 

is about as good as it gets: by this we 

mean the security issues in the Niger 

Delta, the absence of a new legal 

framework for the industry for many 

years, the soft price of crude and the 

sorry condition of the corporation’s 

refining arm. All becomes clear when 

we look at the performance of the 

three main activities (production, 

refining and retail/marketing) through 

the results of this June and those of 

June 2016. 

Revenue from production amounted 

to N75bn in June (or N9bn net 

after costs), compared with N19bn (or 

N2bn) one year earlier. The increase 

is due to more settled conditions in 

the delta. Officials have indicated that 

sabotage (production losses/leakages) 

peaked in mid-2016 at up to 700,000 

b/d. The problem has receded rather 

than gone away. The corporation’s 

COO said last week that the Trans 

Niger Pipeline has been breached 27 

times year-to-date, compared with 39 

times in 2016. 

The Nigerian Petroleum Development 

Corporation is one of the principal 

losers from leakages. It managed 

production of 50,000 b/d in June and 

hopes to push up output to 250,000 

b/d on the completion of its “re-kitting 

project” and repairs to other vandalized 

oil infrastructure. 

Revenue from refining totaled 

N37bn in June 2017 (N3bn after costs) 

and was negligible the previous year 

(N7bn loss). Accounting changes explain 

the variance in this case. Since 

January 2017 the results reflect the 

refineries business model whereas 

last year the data excluded petroleum 

product sales and crude processing 

costs. The results for this June also 

reflect the temporary closure of two of 

the three refining companies. 

Looking ahead, the corporation 

also announced last week that the 

refineries would shortly be closed for 

rehabilitation and would be reopened 

producing at their full capacity by 

Trump’s path to IP wars 

C002D5556 

2019. This deadline coincides with 

the target to end imports of premium 

motor spirit (PMS or petrol/gasoline). 

We have to be wary of the target and 

also of the rehab since this is far from 

the first over three decades. 

The future of the refineries has 

become subsumed within national 

identity politics so we do not see 

any mileage for our favoured policy 

(of allowing them to wither away). 

The minister of state for petroleum 

resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu, has 

said that in their current condition 

(without the costly rehab) they could 

contribute no more than six million 

litres per day to domestic consumption 

of about 35 million litres. Happily, 

Nigeria is moving towards self-sufficiency 

in petroleum products thanks 

to the private sector. At least some of 

the projected 650,000 b/d capacity of 

the Dangoterefinery project in Lagos 

State will be available within the 

target date. Other projects are on the 

drawing board such as a 150,000 b/d 

scheme for which Agip Nigeria has 

signed a MoU with the FGN. Industry 

sources suggest that small-scale 

modular refineries could produce an 

additional 100,000 b/d by 2019. 

The corporation’s retail and marketing 

activities made an operational 

loss (after related costs) of N3bn in 

June, compared with N11bn one 

year earlier. Revenue was similar in 

BUSINESS DAY 

9 

the two months at about N180bn but 

the corporation managed to trim its 

costs. Availability of products for retail 

across the country has improved in 

recent months, and the corporation 

has steadily raised its share of product 

imports at the expense of the said 

marketers. 

As it is unclear how self-sufficiency 

will affect the economics of this business 

so we have little idea what form 

the industry bill will take. It would be 

wrong to assume that the House of 

Representatives will support a version 

close to the petroleum industry 

governance bill passed by the Senate 

in June. A further complication is that 

the ministry has released a draft fiscal 

policy which analysts in the industry 

see as having similar tax proposals to 

the last version of the old petroleum 

industry bill. 

It is therefore premature to paint 

a rosy picture for the industry in the 

years ahead, one in which there will 

be additions to the five large deep offshore 

producing fields (Bonga, Erha, 

Agbami, Akpo and Usan) beyond Total’s 

Egina due to start producing next 

year. While we play this endless waiting 

game, we can say that the corporation 

has upped its performance under 

Kachikwu’s influence and gone almost 

as far as it can in this uncertainty. 

Send reactions to: 

comment@businessdayonline.com 

DAN STEINBOCK 

Dr Dan Steinbock is the founder of 

Difference Group and has served as 

research director at the India, China 

and America Institute (USA) and visiting 

fellow at the Shanghai Institutes 

for International Studies (China) and 

the EU Center (Singapore). For more, 

see http://www.differencegroup.net/ 

As the White House 

is about to escalate 

trade friction in intellectual 

property, 

it has opted for a flawed, 

partisan approach. 

In mid-August, President 

Trump asked U.S. Trade 

Representative Robert Lighthizer, 

a veteran Reagan 

administration trade hawk, 

to open an investigation into 

China’s intellectual property 

(IP) practices. 

The first public hearing 

about Chinese trade conduct 

is scheduled for October 10 

in Washington. 

The White House IP narrative 

As Lighthizer initiated the 

investigation, he seized the 

notorious Section 301 of the 

Trade Act of 1974, which in 

the 1980s was used against 

the rise of Japan and which 

Japan and the EU regarded as 

a violation of the rules of the 

World Trade Organization 

(WTO). Instead of free trade, 

it represents “aggressive unilateralism” 

and authorizes 

retaliatory tariffs. 

Lighthizer draws from the 

highly partisan US Commission 

on the Theft of American 

Intellectual Property, 

which was mobilized in the 

early 2010s - amid the rise of 

China’s indigenous innovation 

and foreign investment. 

Relying on contested estimates, 

the Commission believes 

that IP theft amounts 

to $225-600 billion annually 

in counterfeit goods, pirated 

software, and theft of trade 

secrets. As a result, it advocates 

more aggressive policy 

enforcement “to protect 

American IP.” 

Essentially, the US IP 

narrative claims that Chinese 

government forces US 

companies to relinquish its 

IP to China. The narrative 

is consistent with Trump’s 

“America First” stance and it 

has been quoted, referenced 

and echoed uncritically by 

media. 

Nevertheless, it is deeply 

flawed. 

The real IP narrative 

While foreign companies 

in China are often warned 

not to part with “too much” 

in technology transfer and IP 

deals, they are not forced by 

the Chinese government or 

other interested parties into 

those deals. 

Moreover, in contested 

legal cases, the Chinese government 

has often supported 

foreign companies. As the 

Wall Street Journal reported 

last year, when foreign companies 

sue in Chinese courts, 

they typically win. From 2006 

through 2014, foreign plaintiffs 

won more than 80% of 

their patent-infringement 

suits against Chinese companies, 

virtually the same rate 

as domestic plaintiffs. 

For years, foreign multinationals 

have effectively 

exchanged their technology 

expertise for market share 

in China. 

The rush of IP companies 

to China intensified a decade 

ago amid the global crisis, 

when the Silicon Valley giant 

Intel opened a $2.5 billion 

wafer fabrication foundry in 

Dalian, northeast China. As 

advanced economies struggled 

with stagnation, China 

continued to grow vigorously. 

So the bet proved very 

lucrative. At the time, Intel’s 

chairman was Craig Barrett. 

Today Barrett is one of the 

five commissioners of the 

US IP Commission which 

portrays America as a victim 

of massive IP fraud. 

Not surprisingly, some 

US observers see the Trump 

administration’s IP investigation 

as less a scrutiny of 

forced technology transfers 

than a negotiation ploy. 

In reality, much of China’s 

IP progress can be attributed 

to past technology transfers 

and the government’s huge 

investment in science and 

technology. And as Chinese 

companies have moved up 

the value-added chain, they 

stress the need for IP protection, 

particularly patents. 

Timing matters 

Already in 2006, I noted 

in the prestigious US foreign 

policy journal The National 

Interest that emerging Chinese 

multinationals were 

“no longer satisfied with 

imitating. Instead, they seek 

to convert cost advantages 

to more sustainable competitive 

advantages—often 

through innovation.” At the 

time, few took the prediction 

seriously. 

Typically, the Trump IP 

debacle is escalating as Chinese 

companies join the 

global rivalry for cuttingedge 

innovation. In terms of 

the number of total patent 

applications, China’s share 

has exploded. Two decades 

ago, it was far behind the 

US, Japan, South Korea and 

Germany; the world’s leading 

patent players. Now it is 

ahead of all of them. 

But in these rivalries, not 

all patents are of equal value. 

The so-called triadic patents, 

which are registered in the 

US, EU, and Japan to protect 

the same invention, tend to 

be the most valuable commercially 

and globally. 

In triadic patents, too, 

China’s patent power has 

increased dramatically and 

will surpass that of Korea and 

Germany soon. The patents 

of Japan and the US peaked 

around 2005-6. Despite some 

progress, US patents are still 

15% below their peak, whereas 

those of China have increased 

more than sixfold in 

the past decade. 

Since patent competition 

is accumulative, catch-up 

requires time. But here’s the 

thing: If, for instance, US 

and Chinese triadic patents 

would increase in the future 

as they have in the past five 

years, China could surpass 

the US by the late 2020s. And 

perhaps that’s why Trump is 

targeting China’s IP today. 

However, neither innovation 

nor intellectual property 

are an exclusive privilege of 

the West. 

•A slightly shorter version 

was published by China Daily 

on September 15, 2017 


comment@businessdayonline.com

etary, 

y. 

.com 



C002D5556 

COMMENT 

MAZI SAM OHUABUNWA OFR 

Ohuabunwa is chairman, African 

Centre for Business Development, 

Strategy 

Innovation (ACBDSI). 

STRATEGY & POLICY 


Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

The military stokes the fire in the South East 

It is heart-wrenching 

to watch this country 

walk into preventable 

cataclysm. A nation that 

has one war in its hand 

seems to be courting another. 

I am amazed. A nation that is 

talking about unity is persisting 

in promoting disunity. 

A nation that wants peace, 

is shedding innocent blood 

ceaselessly. I do not know 

what to make of these incongruences. 

Yes, the military can decide 

to carry out military exercises, 

but it must be carried out 

within the ambit of the law. 

The military is assigned to 

protect the country against 

external aggression or called 

in to maintain internal peace, 

when there is internal aggression 

or insurrection and the 

police is overwhelmed. Yes, 

there is a spike in crime rate 

in Nigeria, especially violent 

crimes of armed robbery and 

kidnapping and the Nigerian 

Police is proving incapable. 

Many people have recommended 

how to make policing 

effective in Nigeria but 

much of these have fallen on 

deaf ears. So in cases where 

the police is overwhelmed 

by violent crimes, it may be 

understandable if the military 

is called in once in a while to 

help the Police. And I believe 

this is already happening in 

the country as we see the military 

all over the place manning 

checkpoints and doing 

sundry police duties. 

But when the Nigerian 

Army announced recently 

that it was embarking on a 

military exercise it called 

Egwu Eke 2( Python Dance 2) 

in the South East and included 

in its objectives, curtailment 

of secessionist agitations, my 

heart skipped a beat. I smelt 

a rat. What is the military 

about to start? Have the political 

leaders who authorized 

the exercise considered the 

repercussions? Setting out 

the army to curtail the secessionist 

agitators at this time 

for what reason? Who are 

these? Is there no difference 

between secession and selfdetermination? 

As much as we know, the 

agitators for Biafra called 

by IPOB and led by Nnamdi 

Kanu are not armed. Since 

Kanu was released on bail, 

they have not been holding 

street marches or demonstrations, 

except for a few rallies 

which are acceptable in a 

free democratic society. They 

As much as we know, 

the agitators for Biafra 

called by IPOB and led 

by Nnamdi Kanu are not 

armed. Since Kanu was 

released on bail, they have 

not been holding street 

marches or demonstrations, 

except for a few rallies 

which are acceptable 

in a free democratic society 

have attacked no one physically. 

They have insisted on self determination 

asking for referendum 

to validate their quest.The 

only attack they do is verbal, 

against anybody who opposes 

their agitation or their method. 

Many leading Igbo including 

the President-General of Ohaneze, 

Chief Nnia Nwodo and the 

Chairman of Alaigbo Development 

Foundation (ADF) Board 

of Trustees, Dr. Dozie Ikedife 

have been verbally attacked 

severally by IPOB. Even some of 

the South East Governors have 

been verbally assaulted. The 

constitution has sufficient safeguards 

for those who feel verbally 

abused. Using the military 

to go and harass and kill verbal 

abusers is not one of them. 

Then the military decides 

to begin their python dance 

by going to the home of Nnamdi 

Kanu and his parents to 

demonstrate their serpentine 

dance steps. Nnamdi Kanu and 

his IPOB were not marching on 

the street, they were not protesting, 

they were not blocking 

the streets or causing any 

nuisance to other people. How 

far can the army go to stock the 

fire? It is a big shame that Nigeria’s 

military went to Nnamdi’s 

place to taunt him, to provoke 

him and to lure him into battle. 

I do not know how any well 

meaning Nigerian can justify 

or defend this brazen,reckless 

and incendiary behavior of the 

army in Umuahia last week. 

As would be expected, 

the gambit of the military 

worked. The IPOB people were 

incensed and they began to 

rally to the ‘defence’ of their 

leader in Umuahia. And then, 

they ran into the ambush of 

the military in Oyigbo, Aba 

town, Aba-Owerri Road, PH- 

Enugu Expressway, Umuahia 

and elsewhere and the trouble 

escalated with so many 

people allegedly killed, some 

gruesomely, some injured and 

some assets burned including 

worship places. Shops were 

shut and innocent people 

began to run helter skelter, 

reminiscent of a war situation. 

Journalists were intimidated 

and the NUJ office in Abia was 

vandalized so that the world 

will not know the mayhem 

that has been visited on Abia 

Defending the nation’s food industry 

State. Abia State Governor 

imposed a curfew in Aba. As 

we write, the entire south 

East and parts of Rivers state 

have been swamped by the 

military . There is a security 

check every half a kilometer 

from PH to Enugu and Pedestrians 

are asked to raise their 

hands while crossing the check 

points. Sometimes, occupants 

in vehicles are subjected to 

the same humiliation. As we 

drove past these stern looking 

soldiers last week, my driver 

quipped ‘It looks as if the 2nd 

Biafran war has started?” I responded 

that I hoped not but 

that the signs were ominous. 

I do not know who are the 

beneficiaries of the events of 

last week in Abia state. May 

be the military commanders 

or the civilian political leaders 

who authorized the invasion. 

Certainly not the peace and 

unity of Nigeria. I can confidently 

announce to those who 

want the unity and indivisibility 

of Nigeria that this method 

will never work. Repression of 

the cry for Justice and freedom 

has never worked anywhere 

in the World. Unity by force of 

arms will not endure. Enduring 

unity is built and nurtured. 

It is my wish and prayer that 

Nigeria’s political leadership 

rethinks this dangerous approach. 


comment@businessdayonline. 

MA JOHNSON 

Johnson is a marine project management 

consultant and Chartered Engineer. He is 

a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, 

Science and Technology, UK. 

From the moment man 

came into existence, he 

was kept in the garden 

of splendour and abundance 

by his creator. The 

land which is a factor of production 

with its abundant resources was to 

be used by man for his pleasure. 

This is so, because the creator directed 

at the inception of the world 

that man should cultivate the land, 

have dominion over it, and take 

command of all earthly and aquatic 

creatures. By implication, neither 

man nor land/sea was designed 

to be idle or unoccupied. There is 

bound to be food crisis when man 

is idle, and land/sea is uncultivated. 

And if man does not occupy the 

land/sea with appropriate technology, 

he may have less food to eat. 

Clearly, any nation that cannot 

feed its citizens is vulnerable to external 

manipulations and pressures. 

That is why for centuries, agriculture 

has been acknowledged as 

the foundation of civilization and 

stable economy in most nations. 

Agriculture is not only the production 

of crop as popular belief 

holds, it is about the production 

of food and fiber from the world’s 

land and waters. Globally, statistics 

from the United Nations Food 

and Agriculture Organization, 

show two facts which should not 

be true: Firstly, there is sufficient 

food produced in the world every 

year to feed every human being in 

the world; and secondly, nearly 

815 million people literally go 

hungry every day with more than a 

third of the earth’s population- 2.5 

billion men and women malnourished 

one way or another. 

In the case of Nigeria and its 

numerous resources, it is unbelievable 

that there is low food 

production when actually the 

population is rising. Certainly, this 

uninspiring report creates fears 

of food insecurity in the country. 

When it was published recently 

that the “Federal Government (FG) 

targets US$ 8.0 billion forex earning 

annually from yam exports”, I 

thought Nigeria is self-sufficient 

in food production., and thus, I 

jumped for joy. The justification 

for this policy was that if Ghana 

could export yam, why can’t Nigeria 

do same. Although, Nigerian 

farmers have begun registration 

for yam exports according to re- 

ports, Iam aware that yam pounding 

machines are made in Japan. 

The flow of my earlier thoughts 

on food sufficiency was arrested 

when the National Bureau of Statistics 

(NBS) recently released its 

Q2 2017 report which reflects that 

food inflation rose to 20.28percent 

as against 19.91 percent due to increase 

in prices of bread, meat, fish, 

oil, potatoes, yam and other tubers 

and vegetables. One may then ask: 

why is the price of these basic food 

items rising? Some experts believe it 

is either due to high demand for food 

or that the nation is not producing 

enough. I don’t believe that the demand 

for food is high because there 

aren’t much funds in circulation 

despite the reduction in inflation to 

16.01 percent in August 2017. Like 

one analyst puts it, that there is no 

way a recession can end without increase 

in consumer demand. I agree. 

And that is why methinks that food 

inflation is rising not because there 

is increase in demand by consumers 

but due to Nigeria’s inability to 

produce enough. 

It is a sensible pursuit when a nation 

develops its agricultural sector 

such that it will in the end contribute 

significantly to real wealth and joy 

for the people. This has compelled 

most nations to make effort to discover 

and develop their agricultural 

sector as a first step towards a 

civilized life. The citizens of a nation 

cannot be healthy, happy and peaceful 

if there is insufficient supply of 

food. It is for this reason that our 

nation’s food industry needs to be 

defended at all cost. It is to allay 

fears that there is likelihood of food 

insecurity in Africa’s most populous 

country, Nigeria. 

For several years, any food item 

produced in Nigeria is not sufficient 

to meet the demands of the people. 

That was why when the FG says 

in November 2015 that it will not 

spend the sum of N1.0 trillion to import 

agricultural products to meet 

local demands, it sounds good. 

But I requested in this column to 

know what the FG will do to provide 

food security for about 180 million 

people in order to cover the gap to 

be created by the ban on imported 

agricultural products? 

In a serialized article titled Innovation: 

Complex but Inevitable, 

which was presented in this column 

in 2015, I wanted to know if the FG 

planned to embark on agricultural 

research in order to add value to 

existing locally produced crops so 

that they could be consumed and 

also exported? The question was 

raised because agricultural research 

in many African economies including 

Nigeria has limited capacity 

for meeting priority needs such as 

boosting productivity of food crops, 

adding value to agricultural products 

through postharvest processing 

and ensuring sustainable use of 

land resources for farming. That is 

why the overall level of knowledge 

employed in the agricultural sector 

remains low in many African countries 

including Nigeria.Another reason 

is that agriculture is not living 

up to its potential as an engine of 

economic growth. 

A lot is currently being done 

by the Minister of Agriculture but 

there is room for improvement. 

Activities in the agricultural sector 

must be backed up by an agrarian 

revolution to increase food production. 

Throughout history, agrarian 

revolution is usually the indication 

of industrial revolution. It is the responsibility 

of the FG to ensure that 

industrial and technological bases 

of the country are strengthened to 

support food production. Efforts 

must be made to ensure that our 

farmers farm all-year-round, with 

the farmers being provided seed 

varieties to increase yield/hectare 

to produce enough food for our 

population. The FGmust continuously 

intervene by paying more attention 

to improving storage and 

value chain in the food industry. 

If the nation doesn’t improve road 

networks, build more dams and 

ensure they are working to support 

irrigation farming, encourage 

mechanized farming, Nigeria may 

continue to export yam while importing 

same from abroad. 




COMMENT 

RAFIQ RAJI 

Raji is a principal at Macroafricaintel 

Invest- ment Limited, an Africa-focused 

macro research and investment 

consultancy based in Lagos, 

Nigeria. He was previously an Africa 

economist at Standard Chartered 

Bank in London, United Kingdom 

The South African Reserve 

Bank (SARB), 

whose monetary 

policy committee 

(MPC) meets this 

week (19-21 September), has 

proved to be quite aggressive 

in protecting its independence. 

After successfully fending off 

an attempt by the Public Protector, 

Busisiwe Mkhwebane, 

an ombudsman, it has gone on 

the attack; lest its detractors in 

the government and elswhere 

begin to think an assault on 

its constitutionally mandated 

role will not be without consequences. 

In a court affidavit 

filed recently (11 September), 

the SARB accuses the ombudsman 

of conspiring with the 

office of Jacob Zuma, South 

Africa’s president, and the 

State Security Agency (SSA), 

the domestic spy agency,in 

deciding on her recommendation 

that the central bank add 

the promotion of “balanced 

and sustainable economic 

growth” and protection of “the 

socio-economic well-being 


South Africa: All about political risk 

of the citizens” to its primary 

mandate of inflation targeting 

and protecting the rand.A High 

Court set aside her instructions 

in August. More important is 

what this latest action by the 

SARB implies. It clearly does 

not think those seeking to hamper 

its independence are about 

to give up. Unsurprisingly, 

Moody’s, a credit rating agency, 

has highlighted the matter as a 

key risk to the country’s rating. 

But that is just one dimension 

of a cocktail of political risks in 

South Africa at the moment. 

Dirty tricks 

Of greater consequence 

momentarily, is the upcoming 

elective conference of the ruling 

African National Congress 

(ANC) party in December. Cyril 

Ramaphosa, South Africa’s 

deputy president and one of 

the two leading contenders for 

the party’s presidency, who 

incidentally is alsothe preferred 

candidate bymarket 

participants, is beginning to 

face assaults of his own. It was 

recently revealed he had numerous 

extra-marital affairs. 

Why his detractors thought this 

would undermine his chances 

is somewhat curious: President 

Zuma has survived scandal 

upon scandal in this regard; 

that is, even as he has numerous 

wives. In Mr Ramaphosa’s 

case, though, the revelations 

were meant to demystify him 

amongst whites, who incidentally 

dominate the affluent 

business community. More importantly, 

it speaks to the extent 

that parties to a very high stakes 

elective conference would go to 

Fuel prices continue to be 

sensitive to a resurgent international 

crude oil market, 

though, rising by at least 

3 percent in September. 

Annual consumer inflation 

which came out at 4.6 

percent in July is likely to 

rise to 5.0 percent in August, 

but it should moderate 

subsequently; based on my 

forecasts 

have their way. Mr Zuma, who it 

is believed wants his ex-wife and 

former African Union Commission 

chairperson, Nkosazana 

Dlamini-Zuma, to replace him, 

has allegedly been putting state 

resources behind her campaign 

to put her ahead of his deputy. 

It has also been confirmed 

that she would be sworn-in as a 

member of parliament (MP)this 

week (18-22 September) with a 

view, it is reckoned, to being appointed 

to the cabinet. Perhaps 

a greater ploy is at hand, some 

muse: it may well be that she is 

being positioned to replace Mr 

Ramaphosa as deputy president. 

In that event, Mr Zuma could 

simply resign to enable her take 

his place before the December 

conference. With state resources 

and patronage at her behest consequently, 

she could prove too 

formidable for Mr Ramaphosa 

to beat. 

Another rate cut likely 

But would these considerations 

matter at the 

C002D5556 

Send 800word comments to comment@businessdayonline.com 

SARB’sSeptember MPC meeting? 

Yes, definitely. More importantly, 

the committee would 

likely try to weigh how all of 

these could impact on the inflation 

outlook and hence its decision 

on interest rates. I believe 

there is room for at least another 

rate cut to 6.5 percent before 

end-2017, after a 25 basis points 

cut in July to 6.75 percent. This 

is consistent with the consensus 

view. 

Where I differ is in the timing. 

Fellow economists, at least 

those polled by Reuters, believe 

that this would happen at the 

September meeting. My view is 

that the committee would wait 

till the next meeting. It would 

almost certainly be watching 

closely the deliberations of the 

Federal Reserve, the American 

central bank, which will decide 

on interest rates on 20 September, 

a day before its own. I am 

of the view the Fed would probably 

not be as hawkish as it was 

hitherto. Domestic factors likely 

outweigh any global market 

considerationsfor the SARB at 

this time, however. 

Those who support a September 

cut suppose doing so 

later would be too close to the 

elective ANC conference in 

December; when market participants 

might likely be a little 

jittery. Pressure point in this 

regard would emanate from the 

rand, which often reacts to negative 

political news; albeit lately, 

it is proving to be somewhat 

resilient to the noise. Otherwise, 

the inflation outlook is quite 

benign, although risks remain. 

The maize harvest is expected 

to be bumper; an exportable 

BUSINESS DAY 

11 

surplus is expected even. There 

is ample power supply. Fuel 

prices continue to be sensitive to 

a resurgent international crude 

oil market, though, rising by at 

least 3 percent in September. 

Annual consumer inflation 

which came out at 4.6 percent in 

July is likely to rise to 5.0 percent 

in August, but it should moderate 

subsequently; based on my 

forecasts. What is key, though, is 

that inflation is likely to remain 

within the SARB’s target band 

of 3-6 percent over the short to 

medium term. 

Fiscal headaches 

Finance minister Malusi Gigaba 

has set 25 October for 

the delivery of his mediumterm 

budget policy statement 

(MTBPS). A key focus would be 

how he plans to deal with stateowned 

enterprises (SOEs), most 

of which are haemorrhaging 

cash; if they have it, that is.Top 

amongst them is South African 

Airways, the national carrier, 

which the Treasury plans to 

bailout to the tune of 10 billion 

rand (US$760 million) in October.Even 

though under new 

management, it is supposed 

that perhaps the carrier might 

stand a chance of coming out 

of the doldrums, any bailout 

package that either takes money 

from better run SOEs (or sells 

lucrative stakes in firms like 

Telkom SA) or public pensions 

would be unwise. Whether it is 

the airline, another ailing SOE 

or the economy, what is needed 

is not another fiscal push but a 

structural fix. 

SALIENT 

Enhancing leadership by engaging diversity 

WEYINMI JEMIDE 

Jemide is a certified master coach and 

currently a doctoral candidate in applied 

leadership and coaching. He writes every 

Tuesday in BusinessDay 

The most successful organisations 

are those with the most diverse 

and engaged workforces. 

Studies show an 80 per cent 

improvement in business performance 

among those with high diversity levels. 

When people feel included and able to 

reach their full potential, they are more 

engaged, more productive and often 

more creative – Charlotte Sweeney & 

Fleur Bothwick in “Inclusive Leadership”. 

Diversity is an emerging topic of conversation 

in national and organisational 

settings. Despite its importance, it has 

not generated sufficient awareness in a 

critical mass of audiences. While some 

organisations talk about it, many others 

have not caught on with its significance 

in organisational effectiveness and 

leadership. Yet, diversity is an inevitable 

element of human and organisational 

existence. Leaders need to be more 

knowledgeable about diversity and 

place it within relevant contexts in the 

organisations they lead. In this article, I 

present the case that enhancing leadership 

through diversity covers four 

measurable factors – instituting deliberate 

policies, avoiding group think, 

accepting differences and providing 

training and skills. 

Instituting policies on diversity 

To benefit from diversity, leaders 

need to be deliberate in installing 

relevant organisational policies. This is 

an absolute requirement in the process 

of enriching organisations through 

diversity. But policies will not execute 

themselves and they require the support 

and action of executives. Leaders, 

especially at executive level have to be 

role models of the policies they profess 

to support. 

When top leaders demonstrate 

the understanding and application 

of diversity, organisational diversity 

is strengthened. Boards of corporate 

entities also have to lead the way at 

their level so that management teams 

are given no choice but to implement 

diversity policies. Having a strategic 

plan for diversity will entail creating a 

vision for it that is linked to business 

strategy. It is imperative that leaders 

are consistent role models of inclusive 

leadership. 

Avoiding groupthink (and embracing 

dissent) 

Groupthink has the capacity to bring 

diverse people together and mould them 

into a single perspective or thought pattern. 

While it has it benefits, groupthink 

can also kill innovation and creativity at 

individual and team levels. Herminia 

Ibarra notes that: “…effective leaders 

create and use networks to tap new 

ideas, connect to people in different 

worlds, and access radically different 

perspectives.” In other words, effective 

leaders intentionally avoid groupthink to 

build their leading and learning capacity. 

Leaders need to figure out correctly 

that dissenting voices are not necessarily 

negative voices. This implies that leaders 

should actively encourage dissent and 

extract its positive elements. 

Although it is said that silence is 

golden, it can also be a leader’s death 

trap when the whole team is silently 

disagreeing but unable to voice it. 

The dissenting voice becomes the life 

guard of the leader by steering away 

from drowning in groupthink. As James 

Kouzes and Barry Posner express in “The 

Leader’s Legacy”, “…we never benefit 

from, nor truly believe, the sycophants 

whose flattery is obviously aimed at gaining 

favour. We know that no one can be 

that good. To stay honest to ourselves, 

what we really need are “loving critics” 

– people who care deeply enough 

to give us honest feedback about how 

we’re doing.” To build true diversity is 

to enable diversity of opinion. 

Accepting differences as inevitable 

Differences are integrated into our 

collective humanity – differences in 

background, race, education, genetics, 

colour, nationality, language, culture, 

personal experiences and the most 

natural of all gender. The contents of official 

forms recognise these differences 

and we usually are compelled to document 

how we are different from others. 

Differences are mostly inevitable, and 

uncontrollable but hardly viewed as 

valuable. Consequently, human beings 

would be better off acknowledging and 

accepting differences and seeking to 

use them productively. 

Generational shifts also emphasise 

the differences even in modes of 

thinking and values. The older ones 

long for the “good old days” while the 

younger ones claim the older ones are 

“old school”. The good old days had 

their positives but the world might 

be regressing if indeed it returned to 

the past. The present has its benefits 

and has taken lessons from the past as 

points of improvement. Leaders should 

show the way in accepting differences 

and blending them into organisational 

success. 

Providing training and skills 

Leaders and organisations should 

not assume that people will automatically 

understand the workings 

of diversity. Instead, it is necessary to 

actively provide knowledge platforms 

for employees to learn about diversity 

and grasp how it empowers them to 

achieve better results. As the opening 

quote of this article suggests, business 

improvement is linked to organisational 

diversity. More and more companies 

are activating policies about diversity 

but the journey to full understanding 

is still a long one. Like other knowledge 

gaps, organisations, leaders and HR 

executives in particular should seek 

to fill the gaps in learning the value of 

diversity. 

Closing note 

Diversity researchers David Thomas 

and Robin Ely conclude that when differences 

are used to shape goals, processes 

and teams, employees bring more of 

themselves to work. This is a strong argument 

for leaders to appreciate diversity. 



12 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Tuesday 19 September 2017 

EDITORIAL 

PUBLISHER/CEO 

Frank Aigbogun 

Laying the foundation for violent agitation 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

Prof. Onwuchekwa Jemie 

EDITOR 

Anthony Osae-Brown 

DEPUTY EDITOR 

John Osadolor, Abuja 

NEWS EDITOR 

Bill Okonedo 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

SALES AND MARKETING 

Kola Garuba 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS 

Fabian Akagha 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SERVICES 

Oghenevwoke Ighure 

MANAGER, SYSTEMS & CONTROL 

Emeka Ifeanyi 

HEAD OF SALES, CONFERENCES 

Rerhe Idonije 

SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER 

Patrick Ijegbai 

CIRCULATION MANAGER 

John Okpaire 

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North) 

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan 

We are quite 

terrible 

with history 

in this 

country 

and as George Santayana 

aptly puts it, those who cannot 

learn from history are 

doomed to repeat it. Since 

the Nigerian army violently 

crushed Isaac Adaka Boro’s 

twelve-day revolt in 1966, 

the Nigerian state has found 

it expedient to employ brute 

force to suppress any legitimate 

expression of frustration 

and dissent and this 

has led to more violence 

for which the Nigerian state 

has shown absolute lack of 

capacity to manage - 

Even with the return to 

democratic governance in 

1999 with the attendant freedom 

of expression it guarantees, 

Nigerians are now realising 

that the Nigerian state 

was unwilling to listen to 

any legitimate agitation and 

was determined to employ 

maximum force to crush any 

form of dissent. Gradually 

and with time, non state actors 

have come to understand 

that the only language the 

Nigerian government understands 

is that of force. It was 

this realisation that led to the 

Niger Delta insurgency; and 

by 2005, violence became the 

chief means by which power 

and resources were negotiated 

in the region. We are all 

witnesses to how these youths 

used violence to successfully 

negotiate multi billion dollars 

amnesty programme and 

pipeline protection contracts 

starting from 2008 to 2014. 

But alas, the Nigerian state 

has learnt nothing from such 

bitter experiences and has 

continued to use crude violence 

and force to respond 

to peaceful agitations. The 

unspoken message to these 

groups and individuals being 

continually mowed down and 

massacred by the army is that 

peaceful demonstrations or 

protests never pay. The only 

chance they have of being 

taken seriously is by engaging 

in armed and violent confrontation 

with the state. 

It was the same message 

that was passed to the band of 

radical but peaceful Islamic 

movement- Boko Haram - between 

2008 and 2009. The army 

and police pursued a brutal, 

deadly and illegal crackdown 

on the group that peaceful 

elements within the group 

were either wiped out or lost 

their voices and the apostle of 

extreme violence and terror – 

Shiek Ibrahim Shekau – and 

his like took over. We are yet 

to comprehensively defeat the 

insurgency and the country 

cannot recover quickly from 

the destruction and damage 

the group has caused and is 

still causing the country. 

But just as our military continue 

to fight the Boko Haram 

insurgents with no sight on 

victory, the government is 

willing to open up another 

unnecessary war front in the 

South East. This is most irrational 

and counterproductive. 

By declaring a largely peaceful 

group a terrorist organisation 

and proscribing an entire 

people’s right to free speech 

and association, the Nigerian 

government is steadily and 

quickly pushing the group 

to embrace violence. At the 

strategy meetings of these 

groups, there are bound to be 

voices pointing out the successes 

recorded by violent 

groups in the country and 

how seriously the Nigerian 

state responds to the demands 

and agitations by the violent 

groups and may be pushing for 

the jettisoning of the non-violence 

method. As the Nigerian 

state continues with its brutal 

crackdown on these peaceful 

groups, such hardline voices 

within them may eventually 

be gaining grounds and may 

soon displace those urging for 

the continuation of peaceful 

struggles. Is the country ready 

for another war front? History 

suggests we are not. 

We call on the people of influence 

and goodwill to prevail 

on the government to rollback 

its brutal crackdown on agitators 

for secession in the Eastern 

region of the country. 

GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) 

Ignatius Chukwu 

HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES 

Adeola Obisesan 

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD 

Dick Kramer - Chairman 

Imo Itsueli 

Mohammed Hayatudeen 

Albert Alos 

Funke Osibodu 

Afolabi Oladele 

Dayo Lawuyi 

Vincent Maduka 

Wole Obayomi 

Maneesh Garg 

Keith Richards 

Opeyemi Agbaje 

Amina Oyagbola 

Bolanle Onagoruwa 

Fola Laoye 

Chuka Mordi 

Sim Shagaya 

Mezuo Nwuneli 

Emeka Emuwa 

Charles Anudu 

Tunji Adegbesan 

Eyo Ekpo 

ENQUIRIES 

NEWS ROOM 

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LEGAL ADVISERS 

The Law Union 

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STATEMENT 

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www.businessdayonline.com

Tuesday 19 September 2017 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 13 

COMPANIES 

& MARKETS 

Company news analysis and insight 

C/River to 

recover N104m 

debt from cocoa 

farmers 

P 14 

Ecobank’s earnings surge despite 

continued headwinds 

….HY Net income up 21 percent 

BALA AUGIE 

EcoBank Transnational 

Inc’s second 

quarter profit has 

surged 21 percent 

despite continued 

macroeconomic headwinds, 

thanks to a reduction in costs 

and contribution from interest 

income. 

The growth at the bottom 

line can be attributed to improved 

yield on loan book and 

high yield on money market 

instrument. 

For the first six months 

through June 2017, EcoBank’s 

net income surged by 21 percent 

to N37.73 billion compared 

to N31.01 billion as at June 2016. 

Operating incomes were up 

34 percent to N278.48 billion 

in the period under review as 

against N208.48 billion as at 

June 2016. 

Gross earnings spiked by 

41 percent to N386.85 billion 

in June 2017 from N273.44 billion 

the previous year. Interest 

income was up 34 percent to 

N241.90 billion in June 2017 

as against N180.05 billion the 

previous year. 

Non Interest revenue surged 

by 54 percent in the period under 

review, driven by increased 

client-driven foreign exchange 

(FX) sales and trading income, 

following the further liberalization 

of the foreign exchange 

market. 

The central bank has introduced 

the Investors’ and Exporters’ 

early in the year that ease the 

flow of dollars in country hard 

hit by a severe dollar shortage 

since oil price fell in mid 2014. 

EcoBank has remained efficient 

amid a high inflationary 

environment and rising regulatory 

costs as cost to income ratio 

fell to 60.60 percent in June 2017 

from 62.70 percent as June 2016. 

A lower ratio means a lender 

is efficient in reducing costs 

while increasing profit. 

“Our audited half year results 

demonstrated the benefits of 

our diversified business model. 

Despite a fragile macroeconomic 

backdrop in most of our 

markets, we still generated a 

15.6% return on tangible equity 

and further improved our costtoincome 

ratio to 60.6%, driven 

by our continued cost reduction 

initiatives across the network,” 

said Ade Ayeyemi, Group CEO 

of ECobank. 

”We are also happy with the 

progress we are making on the 

digital front, particularly on our 

strategy to enable millions of 

unbanked Africans have access 

to financial solutions using our 

revolutionary Ecobank App 

and other digital channels,” 

said Ayeyemi. 

Ecobank’s deposit from 

customers was up 3 percent 

to N4.23 trillion amid a tough 

and volatile macroeconomic 

environment. 

Big Banks in Africa’s most 

populous nation and largest oil 

producer recorded slow growth 

in deposits as customers are liquidating 

deposits for Treasury 

Bills (T-bills). 

The cumulative total deposits 

from customers of the 12 

lenders that have released Half 

Year 2017 results increased by 

1.0 percent to N16.53 trillion in 

June 2017. 

This compares to the half 

year period to June 2016 when 

deposits from customers surged 

by 31.54 percent or N4 trillion to 

N16 trillion. 

The relatively weak growth 

in deposit in the first half of the 

year can be attributed to two 

major factors, amongst others. 

First, most corporates continuously 

deployed otherwise Naira 

deposits into foreign currency 

purchase, taking advantage of 

the increased FCY liquidity in 

the system; thanks to the I&E 

window and increased supply 

from the CBN,” said Abiola 

Rasaq Head of Investor relations 

United Bank for Africa (UBA). 

Ecobank’s shares have 

gained 73.15 percent since 

the start of the year while the 

lender has a market capitalization 

of N428.98 billion. Total 

shareholders fund stood at 

N502.59 billion while total assets 

was N6.45 trillion. 

Boska administers free 

medical service at Ibadan 

AnthoniaObokoh 

In bid of improving overall 

health and raising 

awareness of the risks 

related with inadequate 

personal healthcare, hundreds 

of Nigerians at Gbagi 

area in Ibadan, on the 13th 

of September, benefited from 

the ongoing nationwide free 

medical services. 

A Major Pain killer Company, 

DexaMedica makers of 

Boska organised its Pain Free 

Day initiative to help consumers 

stay fit. 

A qualitative findings according 

to Boska team, shows 

that consumers do not pay 

attention to their health until 

it finally results in general 

breakdown. 

KafayatMoradeyo, senior 

brand executive DexaMedica 

,said finding have shown that 

70 percent of people often 

catch flu during raining season 

which also results in body 

breakdowns.’’ I am confident 

that DexaMedica will continue 

to improve the delivery of 

quality health care for consumers 

in the months ahead. 

“This Pain Free Day edition 

is specially designed to 

keep consumers fit as they go 

about their domestic and work 

activities,” said Moradeyo 

The Pain Free Day event 

was attended by hundreds of 

market users and residents 

from communities of Gbagi 

area as attendees were educated 

on health tips and risks 

associated with inadequate 

care of oneself. 

The exercise provided 

the opportunity for consumers 

to see health experts 

who provided full range of 

health services for free. They 

provided free eye glasses 

for those in need as well as 

prescribed drugs to treat 

eye, ear and nose defects. 

Besides rendering free 

health services, team also 

leveraged the opportunity to 

educate consumers on how 

to live stress-free while at their 

various duties. 

Dubai plans world’s largest 

solar power plant 

Dubai, with peerless 

monuments 

such as the world’s 

7-star hotel and 

tallest building, is taking its 

record breaking obsession to 

solar power. 

The small state, that is 

a part of the United Arab 

Emirates will implement the 

world’s largest Concentrated 

Solar Power (CSP) project 

valued at 14.2 billion dirham 

(3.87 billion U.S. dollars), the 

daily Gulfnews reported on 

Saturday. 

The CSP project will be 

implemented by Dubai Water 

and Electricity Authority 

(Dewa). And the largest single-site 

project will generate 

700 megawatts (MW) of power 

when it is completed in the 

last quarter of 2020, parallel to 

the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. 

The project will include 

the world’s tallest solar tower, 

standing 260 metres tall, the 

report said. 

The project comes as part 

of implementing the fourth 

stage of the Mohammad Bin 

Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park 

and to support the end goals of 

Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 

2050, said the report. 

Gulfnews quoted the UAE 

Vice President as saying “We 

are steadily moving towards 

achieving Dubai Clean Energy 

Strategy 2050 goals, which we 

have launched to turn Dubai 

into a global hub for clean 

energy and green economy 

and become the lowest carbon 

footprint in the world 

by 2050.” 

The Mohammad Bin 

Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park 

is the largest single-site strategic 

renewable energy project, 

using the Independent Power 

Producer (IPP) model. 

It will generate 1,000MW 

by 2020 and 5,000MW by 

2030, according to the report. 

According to Dewa’s Dubai 

Integrated Energy Strategy, 

the Gulf Arab sheikhdom 

aims to generate 71 percent 

of its total power output from 

natural gas, 12 percent from 

nuclear power, 12 percent 

from clean coal and 5 percent 

from renewable energy 

by 2030.

14 

BUSINESS DAY 

COMPANIES & MARKETS 

C/River to recover N104m 

debt from cocoa farmers 

The Department of 

Cocoa Development 

in Cross River 

says it is set to 

recover the N108.4 

million rent from farmers to 

whom the State Government 

leased out its cocoa estates. 

Mr Oscar Ofuka, the Special 

Adviser to the Governor 

on Cocoa Development, 

disclosed this to our correspondent 

in Calabar on 

Sunday. 

Ofuka said that the amount 

was for the 1,144 plots of cocoa 

farmland which were 

leased out to some farmers 

that avoided the capturing 

of their biometrics by the 

department. 

He told NAN that the 

department carried out a 

biometric verification of 

the farmers to ascertain the 

number and identities of 

those who actually planted 

on the government’s cocoa 

estates. 

“On the directive of the 

governor, we recently carried 

out a biometric verification of 

the real cocoa farmers. 

“This was to ascertain the 

Good news as oil 

prices rise toward $56 

Oil prices were lower on 

Friday but on course 

for weekly gains, the 

third in a row in the 

case of Brent as the clean-up after 

hurricane in the United States 

gathers pace and the outlook for 

demand rise. 

U.S. West Texas Intermediate 

crude was above 50 dollars on 

hitting a four-month high and 

finished 1.2 per cent higher at 

49.89 dollars, the highest since 

July 31. 

Brent crude futures were at 

55.24 dollars a barrel just as they 

hit 55.99 dollars on Thursday. 

The Organisation of the Petroleum 

Exporting Countries 

(OPEC) this week forecast higher 

demand for its oil in 2018 and 

pointed to signs of a tighter 

global market, indicating its 

production-cutting deal with 

non- member countries is helping 

to tackle a supply glut. 

It was followed by the IEA 

saying the global oil glut was 

shrinking, thanks to strong 

European and U.S. demands 

as well as production declines 

in OPEC and non-OPEC countries. 

BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley 

said oil prices were likely to 

stay up to 60 dollars as major 

producers kept output restricted. 

In other markets, typically 

safe haven assets like the Yen 

and gold were higher after North 

Korea fired off yet another missile 

in breach of United Nations 

sanctions amid high regional 

tensions over its nuclear weapons 

programme. 

number of plots of farmland 

that were leased out and the 

actual amount to be realised 

as lease rent. 

“We have since concluded 

the exercise and it was discovered 

that some farmers did 

not pay for the use of 1,144 

plots which amounted to over 

N108.4 million. 

“Those to whom these 

plots were leased, failed to 

show up for the verification 

and we feel that they have 

shortchanged the state. 

“So, we want to recover 

these monies and pay same 

into the cocoa development 

revenue account domiciled 

with the state Internal Revenue 

Service. 

“The state needs money to 

execute projects, especially 

now that the revenue from 

federation account is dwindling 

seriously,” he said. 

Ofuka disclosed that a 

five-man committee had 

been set up in the department 

with the mandate to recover 

the funds from the concerned 

farmers. 

He said that the committee 

was also charged with 

Nigeria to deepen economic 

ties with Indonesia 

The Nigeria’s Ambassador 

to Indonesia, 

Mr. Hakeem Balogun, 

has expressed desire 

to deepen existing economic 

ties between Nigeria and Indonesia 

A statement by the Nigerian 

Embassy in Indonesia 

quoted Balogun stated the 

commitment when he presented 

his Letters of Credence 

to Indonesian President Joko 

Widodo in Jakarta. 

The new ambassador who 

applauded the existing cordial 

bilateral relations between 

Nigeria and Indonesia said that 

focus would be on enhancing 

relations in trade and investment 

He said that efforts would 

be geared towards development 

of agriculture, energy, 

solid minerals, oil and gas, 

manufacturing, tourism and 

infrastructure. 

He also conveyed President 

Muhammadu Buhari’s fraternal 

goodwill and good wishes 

to Widodo. 

Balogun told the Indonesian 

president that he would 

convey his request on his 

invitation to Buhari to visit 

Indonesia and his request for 

direct purchase of Nigeria’s 

crude oil. 

The envoy stressed the need 

for continued efforts to enhance 

the existing economic 

ties between the two countries. 

The ambassador said that 

the mandate of identifying 

the real cocoa farmers in the 

estates. 

“We want everybody that 

owns a cocoa plot to be physically 

present in their farms, so 

that we separate real cocoa 

farmers from cocoa politicians. 

“We want the biometric 

data of all cocoa farmers in 

the state for effective planning 

and proper identification,” 

he added. 

The special adviser 

blamed the defunct cocoa 

allocation committee in the 

state for the irregularities that 

led to some of the farmers 

defrauding the state government. 

He expressed optimism 

that the new cocoa production 

initiative of the Gov. 

Ben Ayade-led administration 

would help stabilise the 

economy of the state. 

“I can tell you that if the 

initiative is properly implemented, 

with cocoa alone, 

our state will be sustained. 

“So we have to do everything 

humanly possible to 

keep the pace,” he added. 

Nigeria was the surest door 

through which Indonesia could 

enter the African market. 

He said that the current volume 

of trade between Nigeria 

and Indonesia stood at around 

1.7 billion dollars in favour of 

Indonesia. 

Balogun assured that he 

would interface with the relevant 

Indonesian investors to 

take advantage of the favourable 

investment climate in 

Nigeria as the largest market 

in Africa. 

He said that a proposed 

Nigeria-Indonesia Joint Commission 

would be an opportunity 

for both countries to further 

boost the existing cordial 

relations. 

In his response, the Indonesian 

president noted the 

need for Nigeria and Indonesia 

to strengthen the existing 

cordial bilateral relations between 

the two countries. 

Widodo said that there 

were many Indonesian companies 

in Nigeria, including 

IndoFood, makers of the 

popular Indomie Noodles. 

He said that Nigeria and 

Indonesia established diplomatic 

relations in 1965 

with the establishment of 

the Indonesian Embassy 

in Lagos. 

He said that Nigeria subsequently 

opened its embassy 

in Jakarta in 1976 to enhance 

bilateral relations between the 

two countries 

C002D5556 


German Government sees skills 

acquisition playing key role 

in economic transformation, 

entrepreneurship 

Modestus Anaesoronye 

The Federal Republic 

of Germany has 

tipped Nigerian for 

stronger economic 

growth if the country can 

harness its vast natural and 

human resources by giving 

priority to skills acquisition 

and training. 

Speaking in Lagos during 

the graduation ceremony for 

a new set of apprentices in 

Office Administration profession 

of the ongoing German 

Dual Vocational Training 

Partnership with Nigeria 

(G-DVTPW-N), the German 

Consul General to Nigeria, 

Ingo Herbert, specifically 

tasked the government to 

give Dual Vocational Training 

(DVT), special attention. 

Herbert who was represented 

by the Political, 

Cultural and Press attaché 

of the Consulate General 

of the Federal Republic of 

Germany, Lagos, Sebastian 

Polzin called on Nigerian 

Government to borrow from 

Germany that brought its 

economy out of doldrums 

through DVT. 

According to him, as a result 

of the introduction of the 

training Germany today has 

the lowest unemployment 

rate in the world and not less 

than 95 percent of its youths 

are gainfully employed. 

Speaking in the same, 

Martin Hug, Short Term 

Expert and German DVT 

trainer in Nigeria, remarked 

that, “In Germany the employers 

and the industry demanded 

the dual vocational 

training in 1950 because 

they needed employees 

with basic skills and with 

specific knowledge. 

“Dual Vocational training 

brings a great advantage 

to the employers and 

the employees. Through the 

combination of theoretical 

and practical elements the 

trainees receive basic skills 

and a broad knowledge in 

their field. After 12 months 

the employers get highly 

qualified staff.” 

According to the G-DVT- 

PW-N programme Coordinator, 

kehinde Stephen Awoyele, 

“German Dual Vocational 

Training Partnership With 

Nigeria, is an initiative of Federal 

Republic of Germany and 

is geared towards rising the 

employability bar of Nigerian 

youths and reducing poverty 

in the country. It is financed 

by the German Federal Ministry 

for Economic Cooperation 

and Development (BMZ) and 

conducted by sequagGmbH. 

It’s steered by the CCI Giessen-Friedberg 

as the German 

project partner. 

“The partnership programme 

focuses on Office 

Administration, Industrial 

Mechanics, Industrial Electronics 

and Technical Facility 

Management professionsthe 

first phase of the project 

ran successfully from 2012- 

2015, and it is now in the second 

phase that will terminate 

in 2018.” 

In his speech Awoyele 

highlighted lack of company 

support for apprentices and 

trainers dedication during 

the training as part of challenges 

to be overcome in the 

training. 

The sustainability of the 

programme that has trained 

scores of Nigerian youths in 

different parts of the country 

was of serious concern to The 

Lagos Chamber of Commerce 

and Industry, LCCI. 

Speaking through its 

Chairman, Board of Business 

Education, Services and 

Training Unit, Soboma Ajumogobia, 

the chamber however 

expressed confidence 

that, “Our Nigerian partners 

will rise to the unique 

challenge of shouldering the 

onerous responsibility for this 

important project and also for 

sustaining it in the years and 

decades ahead of 2018 as we 

collectively strive to build a 

critical mass of competitive, 

productive and highly skilled 

workers.” 

Ajumogobia in the meantime 

saluted “consistent, 

committed and laudable 

collaborative efforts of various 

Nigerian partners in underscoring 

sustainability of 

this programme well into the 

future as we approach the 

inevitable closure of the funding 

window- a critical success 

factor from the government 

of the Federal Republic of 

Germany”.

Tuesday 19 September 2017 C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 15 

COMPANIES & MARKETS 

NSE market capitalisation dips by 1.84% 

Business Event 

Transactions on the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange 

(NSE) closed for the 

week on Friday on a 

negative note as the market 

capitalisation dipped by 1.84 

per cent. 

The News Agency of Nigeria 

(NAN) reports that the market 

capitalisation lost N226 billion 

or 1.84 per cent to close 

at N12.067 trillion against the 

N12.293 trillion recorded on 

Thursday. 

The All-Share Index also fell 

by 1.84 per cent or 654.47 points 

to close at 35,005.57 from the 

35,660.04 posted on Thursday. 

Dangote Cement topped the 

losers’ table, dropping N8.19 to 

close at N205.8 per share. 

Total Oil trailed with a loss of 

N7.1 to close at N225, while Nigeria 

Breweries depreciated by 

N5.55 to close at N175 per share. 

PZ Cussons dropped 99k to 

close at N25, while Forte Oil lost 

9k to close at N47.9 per share. 

On the other hand, International 

Breweries led the gainers’ 

chart, chalking up N1.42 to close 

at N38.95 per share. 

Guinness appreciated by 

N1.25 to close at N96.65, while 

Flour Mill rose by 4k to close at 

N27.4 per share. 

Transcop share price rose 

by 35k to close at N6.21, while 

Access Bank gained 2k to close 

at N9.9 per share. 

Fidelity Bank emerged the 

toast of investors, accounting 

for 24.59 million shares worth 


FBNH came second on the 

activity chart with 14.27 million 

shares valued at N79.51 million, 

while Access Bank sold 13.64 

million shares worth N132.87 

million. 

Zenith Bank traded 12.64 

million shares valued at N280.37 

million, while Afribank sold 

11.57 million shares worth 


The volume of shares traded 

rose by 24.80 per cent as 160.139 

million shares worth N2.96 billion 

were traded in 3,367 deals 

compared with the 128.312 

million shares valued at N2.73 

billion traded in 3,241deals on 

Thursday 

L-R: Demola Oladeinde, first assistant secretary general, Igbobi College old boys Association (ICOBA), 

Yomi Badejo Okusanya, secretary general, ICOBA, and Foluso Phillips, president, at the annual general 

meeting of ICOBA in Lagos . 

22 cars up for grabs in Shoprite 

Nigeria’s birthday giveaway 

Shoprite Nigeria is 

giving away 22 brand 

new Hyundai Grand 

Xcents in its “Biggest 

Birthday Promotion” which 

is running until 8 October 

2017. 

To stand a chance of winning 

one of these stylish cars, 

simply purchase one of 11 

participating products at any 

Shoprite store nationwide. 

Customers then need to write 

their name, email address and 

contact number on the back of 

CWG signs contract to transform Enugu 

State Gaming Commission 

Modestus Anaesoronye 

CWG Plc, a leading 

Information Communications 

Technology 

services provider and 

the largest Systems Integration 

Company in Sub-Saharan Africa 

has signed a 5-year contract 

with the Enugu State Government 

to aid in transforming 

the Enugu State Gaming Commission. 

The contract, which is the 

first of its kind in Nigeria, has 

been designed to reposition 

Enugu State as the National 

Leader in the effective management 

and regulation of gaming 

activities in the country. 

The term ‘Gaming’ which 

comprises of casino games, 

sports betting, various promotions, 

lottery and lotto games 

has been estimated to be over 

N5billion a day business in 

Nigeria, a huge market potential 

that is yet to be tapped 

The Enugu State Government 

targets to seize the opportunities 

presented by the 

use of Technology to drive its 

Transformation agenda, as it 

provides an unprecedented 

avenue to streamline the State’s 

activities in the said sector and 

ensure protection of investors, 

operators and consumers. 

This partnership, at the behest 

of the Executive Governor, 

the till slip and drop it in the 

entry box which can be found 

in store. 

Shoprite South West Regional 

Manager, Femi Oke 

echoed to reporters that “There 

is no limit on the number of 

entries allowed per customer. 

Winners will be selected in 

a lucky draw after 8 October 

2017”. 

Femi further said that “As 

part of our birthday celebrations, 

Shoprite Nigeria has 

also partnered with leading 

, Ifeanyi Ugwuwanyi with CWG 

Plc would require that the 

company deploys customized 

versions of her e-permits 

platform for efficient issuing 

of necessary permits for operators, 

premises, agents, personnel 

and games in the state. The 

solution will ensure efficiency 

and fairness to the benefit of 

all stakeholders. CWG Plc will 

also provide additional value 

in consumer protection. 

The Enugu State Gaming 

Commission was inaugurated 

earlier this year and the Chairman, 

Harrison Ogara stated 

that “The commission is carrying 

out the mandate of the 

current administration which 

in the long run is to transform 

Enugu State into the premier 

destination for gaming operators 

in the country. We 

will make the commission the 

most forward looking of all 

gaming regulatory authorities 

in Nigeria. The partnership 

with CWG Plc allows us to do 

this in a cost efficient way.” 

James Agada, group CEO, 

CWG Plc, commenting about 

the partnership noted that 

“The partnership with Enugu 

State falls neatly in line with our 

strategic intent as an organization 

and fits our new business 

model which is focused on 

solving problems and creating 

value for partners and stakeholders. 

He further stated that 

producers and manufacturers 

to offer customers fantastic 

special offers across 

all its stores”. 

Since launching in Nigeria 

in 2005, Shoprite has introduced 

the country to a worldclass 

shopping experience 

through its core business promise 

of lower prices. The retailer 

is committed to the growth of 

the Nigerian economy, and 

to this end the majority of 

products sold by Shoprite are 

sourced locally. 

CWG Plc will bring to bear, its 

25years experience in building 

systems, automating processes 

and the ability to create value 

for our partners.” 

Also commenting, 

Udukheli Izebuno, business 

director, Government Sector 

at CWG Plc further explained 

that “CWG Plc operates to 

solve problems wherever 

they may exist; particularly 

those that appear intractable 

but which in the long run 

will increase efficiency and 

citizen satisfaction particularly 

within the Government 

Sector. Since we have clearly 

identified several areas where 

government ability to deliver 

services or generate revenue 

are being hampered, it is easy 

to develop bespoke technology 

platform solutions 

to address it. Incidentally, 

the Gaming zone is one of 

those areas and this partnership 

is a vindication of CWG 

Plc’s focus on partnering with 

Government, Agencies and 

Ministries”. 

CWG Plc, which is celebrating 

her 25th Anniversary this 

year is active in other economic 

sectors including Telecommunications, 

Financial Services, 

Utilities, Health and Financial 

Inclusion providing platforms, 

consulting and managed support 

services to blue chips and 

SMEs. 

L-R: Yemi Idowu, trustee, N.O Idowu Foundation; Koffi Herve Yangni-Angate, president, Pan-African 

Associations of Surgeons; Moses Alake Adeyemo, deputy governor, Oyo State; Lanre Tejuosho, chairman, 

Senate committee on health and Tope Adeniyi, managing director/CEO, AXA Mansard health, at the 

commissioning of the N.O Idowu Community health Centres in Eniosa-Onibepe. 

L-R: John Ugbe, managing director, MultiChoice Nigeria; Wangi Mba-Nzoukwu, regional director, Mnet 

West Africa and Martin Mabutho, general manager, marketing and sales, MultiChoice Nigeria during the 

live screening of battleground 100th episode in Lagos. 

L-R: Wemimo Onajobi, marketing director, Showcase Fair; Omolabake Bashirudeen, assistant director, 

commercial representing the Lagos State commissioner for commerce, industry and cooperatives ; 

Taibat Akintola, CEO, Showcase Fair, and Flora Tokim-Ndifon, representing Alaba Lawson, Iyalode, at 

the Showcase Entrepreneurs Fair at TBS in Lagos. 

Pic by Pius Okeosisi



C002D5556


C002D5556 

17 

MEDIABUSINESS 

BUSINESS DAY 

MB 

NIMN moves to enforce 

compliance with Marketing Act 

Stories by Daniel Obi 

Media Business Editor 

The National Institute 

of Marketing 

of Nigeria 

(NIMN), has 

stressed that it 

is now fully positioned and 

determined to enforce the 

provision of the NIMN Act, 

which mandates marketing 

professionals and marketing 

related organizations 

in Nigeria to obtain practice 

license from the institution. 

The President of the institute 

Tony Agenmonmen 

made this disclosure in 

Lagos recently where he 

clearly declared that there 

are thousands of marketing 

professionals in Nigeria 

who are not registered with 

NIMN, adding that by the 

position of the law, they are 

in violation of the NIMN Act 

No 25 of 2003. He noted that 

the responsibility for compliance 

rests on both the 

individuals and the companies 

that employ them. 

According to him, “Section 

20(2) of the Act states: If 

on or after the coming into 

force of this Act, any person 

who is not a member of the 

institute practices or holds 

himself out to practice as a 

marketer for, or in expectation 

of reward or takes or 

uses any name, title, addition 

or description, implying 

that he is in practice as 

a marketer, he commits and 

offence.” 

In view of its determination 

to encourage such erring 

members to comply with 

the provision of the law, 

NIMN has created a window 

of opportunity for a special 

Fast Tracked Executive 

membership programme. 

This programme covers all 

categories of membership, 

including associate, full 

member and fellow. 

Agenmonmen declared 

that interested professionals 

can register for the 

fast tracked programme 

through its online portal. 

He also added that those 

who may not be able to meet 

the requirement for the fast 

tracked executive membership 

will need to follow the 

examination route. Interested 

candidates have between 

12 September to 31 December 

2017 to undertake the 

programme, he said. 

The NIMN President 

noted that this development 

is in line with the 

institution’s preference for 

non-use of force in driving 

compliance. “Our approach 

to compliance is to avoid 

the use of force, except this 

is a very last resort. We are 

convinced that it is in the 

collective interest of all true 

marketing professionals 

and marketing organisations 

to support the effort 

to ensure that only true 

and qualified marketers, 

practice marketing,” Agenmonmen 

said. 

At the expiration of the 

grace period, the NIMN 

President noted that a comprehensive 

register of marketing 

practitioners, including 

organisations that have 

registered and therefore are 

in compliance will be pub- 

lished. “Practitioners and 

organisations not in the register 

will be seen as unable 

or unwilling to comply with 

the provisions of the law and 

will be handled in accordance 

with the provisions of 

the Act accordingly.” 

“By January 2018, it will 

be compulsory for all companies 

recruiting into their 

marketing departments to 

indicate membership of 

the National Institute of 

Marketing of Nigeria as a 

mandatory requirement 

in addition to other qualification 

for employment,” 

Agenmonmen said. 

Still on the issue of 

membership, NIMN is also 

reaching out to about nine 

thousands of its over 10 

000 members who have 

not been financially active, 

and whose membership of 

the institution have technically 

lapsed. These class of 

members have now been 

given up to December 2017 

to regularize their membership 

by paying their accumulated 

subscription 

up to 2017. “If they fail to 

do so, their names will not 

be in the register and the 

provision of the Act will also 

apply,” Agenmonmen said. 

As part of effort to drive 

this process, a compliance 

committee has been set up. 

The committee is expected 

to facilitate the process. 

MultiChoice 

not launching 

pay-per-view 

service 

Pay-television service 

provider, MultiChoice 

Nigeria, 

has described as 

untrue social media reports 

suggesting that it is about 

launching a pay-per-view 

service in the country. 

The company’s position 

was made in a statement 

issued in Lagos yesterday 

to set the records straight. 

According to a statement, 

MultiChoice explained that 

ahead of the epic Flloyd 

Mayweather vs. Conor 

McGregor boxing fight, it 

explained to the media that 

DStv subscribers would 

have access to the fight as 

part of the DStv Premium 

package, while subscribers 

to pay television services 

in the USA would need to 

pay an additional US$99 on 

Pay per view basis to access 

the fight. 

This, said MultiChoice, 

demonstrates the great value 

DStv provides to its subscribers 

in Nigeria. “During 

the briefing, it was clarified 

that Pay Per View is a pay 

television service whereby 

subscribers of a particular 

television provider can 

purchase additional sporting 

events to view over 

Coke sustainability 

efforts recognized 

Coca-Cola HBC, a foremost 

bottler of The 

Coca-Cola Company, 

has been recognized 

in its sustainability in the beverage 

industry for the fourth 

consecutive year by the Dow 

Jones Sustainability Indices 

assessment. 

Following a robust sustainability 

performance in 2016, particularly 

in the areas of labour 

practices, strategy for emerging 

markets, health and nutrition, 

and across the environmental 

dimension, the Company 

achieved a total score of 90, 

which is 38 points higher than 

the industry average. 

A statement said that during 

the year, Coca-Cola HBC 

continued to focus on minimising 

its environmental impact 

further and driving positive 

change in collaboration with 

its partners by developing a 

sustainable value chain and 

supporting the communities 

to enhance their overall wellbeing. 

Intafact Hero’s foundation rewards budding entrepreneurs with N82m 

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM 

The Intafact Hero’s 

Foundation Kickstart 

Programme; a CSI 

initiative of Intafact 

Beverages Limited has just 

concluded its 2nd award 

ceremony which rewarded 40 

budding entrepreneurs’ with 

the sum of N82m. 

Now in its second year, the 

Intafact Hero’s Foundation 

continues to promote and instil 

a culture of entrepreneurship 

among Nigerian youths 

to enable them reach their full 

potentials via the intensive 

training, seed capital and 

mentoring provided through 

its Kickstart progrmme. 

“Through Intafact Hero’s 

Foundation- CSI programme, 

it has empowered Nigerian 

youths to contribute meaningfully 

to the economic 

growth of Nigeria especially 

as the programme has been 

expanded to accommodate 

more states such as Benue, 

Delta and Edo beyond the five 

south Eastern States which 

the programme started with”, 

said Nnaemeka Achebe, the 

Obi of Onitsha, Chairman of 

Intafact Hero’s Foundation. 

Also speaking at the event, 

the Executive Governor of 

Anambra State, Willie Obiano 

encouraged the youths and 

awardees to take advantage 

of the opportunities provided 

by the Intafact Hero’s Foundation 

Kickstart Programme. 

He posited that “to become a 

successful entrepreneur, you 

must be passionate about 

your craft, resilient and disciplined, 

especially in the 

face of the current economic 

challenges. You must be ready 

to push ahead with the same 

strength, focus and vision that 

brought you to this point, and 

be ready to always go the extra 

mile and create value”. Governor 

Obiano, said his government 

has always empowered 

the youth and shall continue 

to do so while encouraging 

other companies to emulate 

Intafact Beverages Ltd. 

Regional Director AB In- 

Bev and also a Trustee of the 

Foundation, Godwin Oche 

said that the Intafact Hero’s 

Foundation Programme is 

in line with AB InBev’s desire 

to deliver on its sustainable 

development objectives by 

helping to nurture prosperous 

and healthy communities. 

He also called on the 

successful awardees to use 

the grants they have received 

judiciously to grow their businesses. 

Explaining the programme 

further, he said: “in 

order to assist the awardees 

actualise their dreams, they 

will be mentored and guided 

for a period of one year by 

mentors, seasoned in the 

field of business and entrepreneurship”. 

The awardees who had 

earlier received rigorous and 

intensive business training 

in June 2017 at the Business 

School of the Nnamdi Azikwe, 

University, Awka expressed 

their gratitude to Intafact 

Beverages for the opportunity 

to pursue their dreams, saying 

the funds would go a long way 

to setting up and expanding 

their businesses. 

Aluchuru Chukwunonso, 

one of the recipients’ who got 

N3m for his paper production 

business said he would 

be eternally grateful to the 

Intafact Hero’s Foundation for 

making his lifelong dream to 

become a reality. 

and above their normal 

subscription package and 

charges. Furthermore, it 

was explained at the briefing 

that this service does not 

currently exist in Nigeria or 

anywhere else in Africa at 

the moment, but its being 

used in the United States 

and the United Kingdom,” 

the statement explained. 

The company assured 

that its customers will receive 

direct communication 

should any new DStv service 

be offered in the future, 

adding that it remains committed 

to continuously providing 

world class content 

and improved value to its 

customers at all times.


C002D5556 Tuesday 19 September 2017 

Marketing&Pr 

EXMAN will engage FG on leveraging the 

body’s strength for national development 

Operators in the experiential marketing had early in July, 2013 came together to 

form Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria. Kehinde Salami who is also 

the CEO of Ideas House Marketing Communications Limited is the third President 

of the 40-member body. In this interview, Kehinde who had served as both 

financial secretary and general secretary of the body spoke extensively about 

the association, benefits to members and how government could leverage the 

capacity of EXMAN members to drive its programmes. Excerpts 

You served on 

the last two excos, 

what are the 

things you could 

point to that the 

EXMAN has achieved in the 

last 4 years. 

When this association 

started we needed to brand 

it. We carved a vision statement 

which is to be a respected 

force for the growth 

of Nigeria’s brands through 

meaningful experience. 

Unfortunately, experiential 

marketing has been seen as 

those party people that organize 

events. There are two 

things that endear in a relationship 

and firstly is mutual 

respect and also trust. Over 

the last 4 years, EXMAN has 

been able to gain significant 

trust of the clients and 

respect. Some clients now 

demand that only certified 

members of the association 

be part of pitches. The first 

exco built the foundation, 

the second exco created 

awareness of the association 

and our job is to build on the 

success of the past. 

Experiential activity 

appears to be limited 

in scope, how then do you 

incorporate mass publicity 

in experiential marketing? 

One of the core values is 

for clients to be able to pinpoint 

the cost per contact. 

Experiential marketing offers 

standard, speed and 

scale. We have agencies at 

different levels but the value 

offers are not negotiable. 

Sometimes if you are having 

experiential in Nassarawa, 

Chi Limited, manufacturer 

of Hollandia 

Choco 

Malt has said that 

the recent introduction of 

ChocoMalt drink to the 

market is beginning to generate 

popularity. It said in 

a statement that with consumers 

constantly looking 

for new and improved product 

values and experiences, 

Hollandia ChocoMalt Drink 

offers innovation as well 

as superior values that are 

exciting and attractive. 

Kehinde Salami 

clients expect the same in 

Gombe and Calabar and 

Owerri with same standard. 

This can be amplified with 

social media, radio hype and 

digital. Experiential marketing 

is marketing communication 

that touches on five 

senses – see, taste, smell, feel 

and hear. That is why clients 

are focusing on that area 

now. Experiential is also important 

where literacy rate 

is about 50 % and the ability 

for people to ask questions 

and sample is critical. 

It is argued that your 

fees are higher when compared 

with other platforms, 

do you agree? 

We don’t get in to the notion 

of comparing our financial 

modeling processes. This 

is because the nature of our 

businesses is completely different. 

Every agency has processes 

and they use different 

models for charges depending 

on resources deployed 

on strategies. In our industry 

we deal a lot with third 

party suppliers as there are 

other parties plugging into 

the cost. But more importantly 

is that experiential offers 

direct engagement and 

offers return on investment. 

We also invite specific target 

Hollandia Choco Malt market deepening says Chi 

“Convenience, delicious 

taste and instant or sharp 

sharp nutrition are at the 

core of the product values 

that has endeared the 

brand to consumers. Fondly 

referred to as 3-in-1 Yo!, 

Hollandia ChocoMalt Drink 

is the first ready-to-drink 

blend of chocolate, malt and 

milk in Nigeria. It provides 

instant nutrition within 

reach and can be consumed 

immediately after opening. 

It is rich in vitamins and 

minerals, and takes away 

audience to events. I must 

say that we are not cheap 

and we are not expensive, it 

depends on the brief and the 

objective. 

How can you drive government 

projects and add to 

national interest 

We have met with House 

Committee, Commerce and 

Industry of National Assembly 

where we presented how 

we can be of value to Nigeria. 

Unfortunately we have 

not gotten too far. We also 

wanted to showcase the value 

we can offer. We thought 

that the proposed school 

children feeding was an opportunity 

to engage EXMAN 

agencies in terms of logistics 

support, execution, standards 

and project monitoring. 

As EXMAN, we have foot on 

the ground in this country. 

Our plan is to re-engage government 

on leveraging on 

our strength for national development. 

This is because 

government does a lot of research 

and programmes to 

educate and enlighten the 

grassroots. We are looking to 

partner government to carry 

some of these tasks. 

About how much would 

you put the value of experiential 

marketing? 

There is no science to 

show the worth of the industry, 

but we believe it should 

be about N30 billion. 

How do you manage 

area boys in your business? 

We face them every day. It 

is an item that must be taken 

care of as part of issues. 

the hassles and inconvenience 

involved in preparing 

choco-based beverage 

drink the traditional way”. 

The statement quotes Israel 

Oladele, a social worker 

with the Lagos State Hospital 

Management Board, 

as saying that a satisfied 

consumer creates value 

and loyalty, and will likely 

share his or her experience 

with other consumers. “I 

got to hear about Hollandia 

ChocoMalt Drink by wordof-mouth 

recommendation 

CSR: Kantar TNS equips 

public school with 

educational materials 

…Marks Kantar Day in Lagos 

SEYI JOHN SALAU 

In its Corporate Social 

Responsibility, 

CSR initiative, Kantar 

TNS, a global research, 

insight and consultancy 

company has donated educational 

materials to Ojodu 

Primary School 1 to aid the 

teaching-learning process 

in Lagos. The organisation 

also marked Kantar Day 


The donation includes 

3,500 exercise books, packet 

of white board markers, 

cardboard papers, and 

math-sets, and the beautification 

and painting of a 

block of six classrooms to 

welcome the pupils back to 

school for the new 2017/18 

school session. 

Seun Tuyo, Research 

Manager, Kantar TNS, in a 

statement said the company 

adopted some schools as 

part of its CSR to continually 

support the effective delivery 

of educational processes 

in Nigeria. 

She stated that Kantar 

TNS adopted Ojodu Primary 

School 1, in August. “We 

started in August by painting 

one block of 6 classrooms 

and also distributed 

3500 exercise books today, 

packet of white board markers, 

cardboard papers, and 

math-sets. Also we will help 

to raise young minds, fund 

the schools, and continue to 

provide educational materials 

like textbooks, stationeries 

to support the adopted 

schools,” she said. 

and decided to buy the 

product in a neighborhood 

shop in my area. The product 

recommendation came 

in timely as it has taken 

away the inconveniences 

associated with preparing 

a chocolate, malt and 

milk drink. Essentially its 

offer of sharp sharp nutrition 

means consuming 

the product has become a 

part of my daily nutritional 

requirement,” he said. 

Kelechi Onyedika, a 

student of the Philosophy 

Apart from donating educational 

materials to Ojodu 

Primary School, Kantar TNS 

was also involved a humanitarian 

activities earlier in the 

year with the World Malaria 

Day, after which, it helped 

in raising funds for UNICEF 

between July and August. 

Speaking on the essence 

of Kantar First Day, Seun 

said it is to promote synergy 

and ensure collaborative 

working relationship within 

the Kantar family. “The essence 

of the Kantar first day 

is to ensure we have more of 

collaborations than competitions 

as an entity. As of last 

year, we started marking a 

new face in our businesses 

to function as Kantar together, 

but before, we used 

to function without the parent 

brand name, Kantar”. 

Kantar first is an internal 

day celebrated within the 

organisation. It is a global 

day set out to mark the beauty 

of collaboration between 

all the Kantar businesses, 

that is, Kantar Media, Kantar 

Publics, Kantar Global 

Partner, and others. 

Collectively, the Kantar 

global brands work in synergy 

to help clients define 

their brand purpose, develop 

winning advertising 

campaign, engage consumers, 

and drive brand growth. 

With over 40 years of advertising, 

media, brand equity 

research, and consulting 

experience, Kantar TNS leverages 

latest technologies to 

develop new products and 

services to help clients grow 

their bottom line. 

Department of Lagos State 

University, emphasized the 

popularity of Hollandia 

ChocoMalt Drink amongst 

students of the University. 

He stressed that students 

have busy schedules and 

love brands that make life 

easier for them. 

Adedayo Olumide, a 

brand consultant, “Hollandia 

ChocoMalt drink 

guarantees convenience, 

has a delicious taste, offers 

instant or sharp sharp nutrition 

and is truly satisfying.


businessday 

EDUCATION 

Weekly insight on current and future trends in education Higher Primary/Secondary Human Capital 

Nigeria employers say reputation-based 

global higher education ranking reliable 

…as scholars express growing concerns 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 19 

Stories by STEPHEN ONYEKWELU 

Nigeria employers 

say reputation-based 

global higher education 

ranking might 

not be fool proof but 

helps to spot trends in graduates’ 

ability to deliver but some global 

scholars have raised concerns 

about tendency to give undue 

weight to such criterion. 

Higher education ranking organisation 

such as United Kingdom 

based duo of Times Higher 

Education (THE), QS World University 

and Shanghai based Academic 

Ranking of World Universities 

(ARWU) derive at least 40 percent of 

their results from the reputation of 

higher institutions among scholars 

and employers. 

“Indeed, rankings are largely 

about reputation. According to 

QS, reputation is a calculation 

with 40 percent derived from the 

responses of academics and 20 

percent from employers. An institution 

improves its position in the 

rankings if it scores big in these 

two indices based on perception. 

The THE reputation index 

is entirely based on a perception 

survey which requests subjects “to 

name no more than 15 universities 

that they believe are the best” 

wrote Damtew Teferra, professor of 

higher education, leader of Higher 

Education and Training Development, 

and founding director of the 

International Network for Higher 

Education in Africa, University of 

KwaZulu-Natal. 

University rankings are one of 

the ways that universities can show 

their concern for delivering good 

research and teaching. However, 

they are not the only way universi- 

After successfully providing 

qualitative education to 

teeming young Nigerians 

from nursery up to secondary 

school levels in the last 62 years, 

one of the renowned educational 

institutions in the country, Corona 

Schools’ Trust Council has expanded 

its services to crèche, playschool and 

after -school. 

Adeyoyin Adesina, chief executive 

officer of the Trust, said in 

a statement, that the Trust decided 

to expand its tentacles in response 

to the changing dynamics of the 

environment and needs of parents to 

have their babies and toddlers constructively 

engaged, while they are 

at work, or for an additional period 

after school hours, in productive and 

Olatunji H. Oluwakorede, highest world scorer in Mathematics at the Cambridge examination, with parents, siblings, chief 

human manager and Group managing director of CMB Group at the presentation of cash reward as part of CMB Education 

Initiative. 

ties can respond to the need to act 

responsibly. 

“Education is global and if the 

ranking is based on surveying 

global scholars and we do not have 

many African scholars who can be 

surveyed, then we have a lot of work 

to do. It might be all around reputation 

but universities build their 

reputation overtime. For instance 

Stellenbosch University in South 

Africa has improved in its ranking 

over the past one year because they 

started doing a few things right” 

said Gossy Ukanwoke, founder 

of Nigeria-based Beni American 

University. 

“Nigerian lecturers do not publish 

in five or four star peer reviewed 

journals in their respective disciplines. 

We still have lecturers who 

submit students’ research work for 

publication. This is not how to build 

reputation. If you ask an employer 

today in Nigeria whether they 

would rather higher a Harvard or 

University of Lagos graduate, they 

would go for the former. This is not 

just because of the name or reputation. 

It is also about delivery. I take 

those rankings serious. We need to 

find out what to do to get into those 

rankings” Ukanwoke added. 

According a survey conducted 

by Philips Consulting, Lagos-based 

consulting firm in 2014, 62 percent 

of employers do not think tertiary 

institutions in Nigeria are doing a 

good job of producing successful 

graduate employees. These employers 

stated inadequate workplace 

skills, bad attitude to work, 

fake degrees, high cost of required 

training, volume of applicants, age 

limit and high salary expectations 

as the main challenges faced in 

recruiting graduates. 

The views of employers surveyed 

Corona expands service spectrum, offers crèche, playschool and afterschool 

supervised activities in a conducive 

and safe environment. 

Given the institution’s experience 

and professionalism, the CEO 

noted that the new addition was not 

a venture embarked upon haphazardly 

without a detailed study and 

assessment of the landscape and 

alignment to established goals as an 

organisation. 

Adesina added that following the 

outcome of their investigations, they 

have firmly resolved that these are 

areas that align with their vision and 

mission statements, and to which 

they can deploy their brand and well 

known expertise. 

The crèche section she said, 

would care for babies between the 

ages of three months to 15 months 

and the playschool will serve toddlers 

between 18 months and three 

years, while Corona After-school 

Enrichment Services (CASES) will 

run from 2.30pm to 6.00pm. 

Throwing more light on facilities 

on ground that would make staying 

conducive for the children before 

they are picked by their parents, Adesina 

stressed that the schools have 

established standards to maintain. 

“Therefore, parents and guardians 

should be rest assured that there 

are clearly defined structures, age 

appropriate facilities and personnel 

that ensure all the schools are safe 

and conducive for care, play and 

learning.” 

On the affordability, she said the 

rates have been determined based 

in the course of BusinessDay’s 

investigation was captured succinctly 

by David Isiavwe, General 

Manager of Union Bank Plc. Isievwe 

said it is a combination of different 

things, reputation is one but also 

the capacity of the product of different 

institutions to demonstrate 

learning by applying what they have 

learnt in a work environment. 

“You might have someone who 

graduates from a given university 

but is not able to effectively use 

the knowledge and skills acquired 

in school. If it is just one or three 

persons, it could be negligible 

but when you have products of 

particular institutions basically 

unable to apply the knowledge 

they have gained then it becomes 

a trend. This builds reputation” 

Isievwe said. 

“Among employers, graduates of 

the University of Benin graduates 

were reputed to do very well in 

Information Communication Technology. 

Take the University of Ife, its 

engineering graduates have a reputation 

to do well, this is not one-off 

but a trend employers noticed over 

time. You find some students from 

specific universities do very well in 

particular areas at the work place. 

This dovetails into reputation. If 

take a Harvard university graduate 

for instance, the people that come 

from Harvard have a reputation of 

doing well in business and leadership 

related roles because of the 

depth and quality of study.” 

Given a methodology that is 

reputation based some higher education 

experts contend that the final 

score from these survey responses 

lack rigor and skewed against African 

universities because according 

THE only 2 percent of the survey 

participations are Africans presumably 

located on the continent. 

Something else that is considered 

is the mix of international students 

and lecturers in the various higher 

institutions. “If go to Harvard University 

for instance you have professors 

from China, Japan, England 

and some African countries. Come 

to Nigeria, how many foreign lectures 

do you see, let alone foreign 

students. It is a point based ranking 

system and all this contributes 

to the final score” Ukanwoke said. 

BusinessDay survey shows only 

one or two Nigerian universities 

can boast of students from five 

countries. This means an average 

Nigerian goes through their entire 

university education in Nigeria 

without meeting a student from another 

country. The point of having 

international students in the class 

is that you learn and understand 

other people’s culture. And all of 

these things add up. 

on a study of the costs involved to 

deliver a Corona quality programme 

and what already obtains in the 

industry. 

With regards to the kind of emergency 

preparedness approach the 

school is looking at in terms of safety 

and security, Adesina emphasised 

that the issue of safety in a school 

cannot be over flogged. “Established 

structures in our schools include 

documented policies and processes 

on health, safety and security. These 

are periodically tested and updated 

as appropriate. 

Compliance is enforced and the 

entire school community – pupils, 

employees and so on, are educated 

and very familiar with health, safety 

and security procedures and emergency 

response and escalation 

channels. We maintain necessary 

relationships with the government 

agencies charged with these responsibilities 

in the state to enhance our 

efforts,” she assured. 

Stephen Onyekwelu 

Content producer 

Fifen Eyemisanre Famous 

Graphics 

For comments and 

contribution write to: 

stephen.onyekwelu@ 

businessdayonline.com

C002D5556 



businessday 

EDUCATION 

OYIN EGBEYEMI 

The beautiful thing 

about children (especially 

before their 

teenage years) is that 

they are not yet formed. They 

are pure, innocent and really 

just beginning to learn the 

ropes of life. Those who are 

exposed to relatively normal 

upbringing (i.e. not in adverse 

conditions such as abusive 

homes and war-torn countries) 

have certain attitudes 

and behaviours that I think 

adults could learn from. Some 

of these are described below: 

“I can do anything and 

everything”: Children are not 

very aware of their limits… 

and as dangerous as it sounds, 

this is actually an attitude that 

many adults lack. It’s very 

interesting to see infants attempt 

to walk, talk and do 

many of the things that they 

watch their older ones or even 

adults do. They make many 

attempts, fail many times, 

but pick themselves up and 

continue to try again. 

Even when they make demands 

for certain items they 

desire, they nag and nag and 

nag until they get them. They 

persevere until they succeed; 

or they may hurt themselves 

and fail, but they quickly pick 

themselves up and move on. 

This skill of persistence and 

perseverance is something 

that many adults lack today; 

but if we applied these more 

to some of our own challenges, 

we would probably yield better 

results in our endeavours. 

AKINREMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan. 

A few things to learn 

from children 

“What grudge?”: Literally. 

It is almost impossible to hold 

a grudge with children. One 

minute, they are having a heated 

argument over one fickle 

subject, and the next minute, 

they are best friends. They do 

not hold on to the wrongdoings 

of others and use them 

as weapons against them even 

after the argument has been 

resolved, unlike adults who 

could hold grudges that may 

last lifetimes. They also do not 

exhibit passive-aggressiveness 

that adults are so familiar with 

(the “I forgive you, but do not 

really forgive you attitude). 

What happened to “forgive 

and forget?” 

“We are all different but 

equal”: The current state of 

the world and many recent 

activities are beginning to 

make it clear that adult human 

beings might be more 

divisive than we thought. This 

even questions the concept 

of globalisation. With racism, 

anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi 

demonstrations gaining some 

form of momentum in the 

West; and of course our cultural 

barriers in Nigeria and 

many other African countries; 

and even intellectual and 

social differences, you would 

wonder what the actual underlying 

reasons for such discrimination 

other than human 

beings merely just deciding 

that one group is more or less 

superior to the other (again, 

for no concrete reason other 

than an irrational opinion). 

When children are young, they 

do not have these issues; they 

see one another as different 

and equal and accept it. After 

all, we cannot all be the same, 

and are each a product of our 

environments or our make up. 

I found it absolutely beautiful 

when one of the children 

at the school I work at was 

asked who his best friend 

NEWS & INSIGHT 

is, and he said that is was 

one of his intellectually challenged 

classmates. It could 

be because the classroom 

environment and teaching 

methods at this school are 

deliberately planned to ensure 

equality; however, for a child 

to make that conscious decision 

to select that one person 

amongst about fifteen others 

in his class. It goes to show that 

children have the ability not 

to judge other people for their 

differences. This is something 

that adults have a great deal 

to learn from, so that we get 

along a little better. 

“I love you, and I’m not 

afraid to say or show it”: Children 

are probably the most 

expressive form of human 

begins. They are not afraid to 

show affection to one another 

and to others around them. 

I have received numerous 

unsolicited hugs and “I love 

you’s” from some of these 

young people whom I have 

known for less than a year. 

For them, love is not as 

complicated as we as adults 

seem to make it. Because of 

the fear of vulnerability (which 

is usually linked to weakness), 

adults seem to hide their true 

feelings and fail to express 

them effectively, whereas they 

are fully aware of the way they 

feel. Why can’t we take a note 

from children and express 

more love to each other in 

whatever way we can, rather 

than fronting and hiding our 

true feelings from each other? 

Children are absolutely 

wonderful creatures. If we 

took a few lessons from them, 

there would probably be more 

peace and love in our communities 

and in the world that we 

live in today. 

Oyo trained 10,000 pupils in Summer Holiday programmes 

Over 10,000 senior 

secondary school 

students participated 

in Oyo state 

Government West African 

Examinations Council WAEC 

Boot Camp in 66 centers 

across the Local Government 

Councils and Local Council 

Development Areas to prepare 

them for the forthcoming examinations. 

The government equally 

said 300 pupils between the 

ages 14 and 18 from both 

public and private schools 

participated in its OyoMesi 

Job Experience (OJE) scheme 

initiated to reignite the learning 

passion in pupils and give 

them appropriate exposure 

in the work place in order to 

imbibe relevant work ethics 

to prepare them for an excellent 

future. 

Bisi Akin-Alabi, Special 

Adviser to the Governor on 

Education, stated these in 

Ibadan, saying that another 

set of about 1000 pupils partook 

in a 4-week French 

Clinic and Cluster learning 

on Digital Literacy with 

three pilot centres including 

St Annes School, Molete, 

Lagelu Grammar School 

Agugu and Anglican Commercial 

Grammar School, 

Orita-mefa. 

Akin-Alabi noted that the 

French Clinic was organised 

to expose pupils to fresh as a 

second language for social interaction 

on global scene, adding 

that the digital literacy was 

meant to give pupils’ access to 

Information Communication 

Technology (ICT) as tools 

for learning and education 

enablers. 

The Special Adviser, Education, 

explained that the 

WAEC Boot camp was organised 

to keep the pupils 

focused and prepare them 

Oyin Egbeyemi is an Executive 

Administrator at The Foreshore 

School, Ikoyi, Lagos state. 

for future examinations, stating 

that the long vacation 

represents a risk period in 

education for teenagers as 

they become restless and 

often engage in mischievous 

activities. 

According to her, “All the 

OyoMesi activities, OJE, 

French Clinic, Digital Literacy 

and WAEC Boot Camp, have a 

common objective. They are 

meant to get pupils engaged 

in purposeful activities that 

are value adding to their education, 

discourage anti-social 

activities and vices as well as 

juvenile delinquency during 

the long vacation. Most 

parents are not around to 

properly monitor their wards 

during the long vacation.” 

Akin-Alabi added that the 

Oyo State Government took 

the novel steps to prepare the 

pupils for future challenges 

and engage them in productive 

things rather than discouraging 

activities. 

Bad education by design? 

How Design Thinking Can Fix Education in Nigeria – Part 1 

SIMI FAJEMIROKUN 

There is a problem 

we all live with. It’s a 

silent killer that suffocates 

systems, arrests 

development and destroys 

the aspirations of millions 

of Nigerians. It affects every 

household. Although, a few 

escape it’s damaging effect 

and treat it with mild irritation, 

most can’t escape its impact. 

This economic terrorist causes 

households to breed citizens 

whose life prospects are severely 

limited to a life of poverty. 

This man-made disaster 

is called the public education 

system in Nigeria. 

If you googled education 

in Nigeria, the words ‘state 

of emergency’ will trail your 

search and little wonder why. 

A sneak peak of recent headlines 

will reveal the many 

distinguished voices that have 

declared a state of emergency 

in the sector. Our recent track 

records are; ‘Senator Tinubu 

declares state of emergency’, 

‘Malala declares state of 

emergency’, ‘Stakeholders 

advise Federal Government 

to declare state of emergency’, 

‘Kebbi Government declares 

state of emergency with 63 

out of 73, 378 passing common 

entrance and eligible to 

go to Unity School’ and the 

list goes on. 

There seems to be a festival 

themed ‘state of emergency’ 

across the country and after 

such declarations are made, 

a high-studded committee is 

formed and tasked to look into 

the issues. This leads to incremental 

change that translates 

to little value and the problem 

we all live with remains intact. 

If truly there was an emergency, 

then there’s nothing 

more important in an emergency 

room than the simple 

truth. Let’s briefly imagine an 

emergency call. Is the victim 

breathing? Was the person 

shot? Where was the victim 

found? You see in a real emergency 

there is no room for lies 

unless the caller has no intention 

of saving the victim. So 

here’s the simple truth- there 

is no education crises, there’s 

only a crises of ignorance. 

Normally, when a state 

of emergency is declared, 

it alerts citizens to change 

their normal behavior and 

government suspends normal 

constitutional procedures to 

regain control of a situation. 

In Nigeria’s case, a state of 

emergency has not translated 

to a change in behavior or 

attitude. 

A quote by Antonio Gramsci 

‘The old is dying and the 

new cannot be born’ might 

capture our condition, a 

strange morbidity, which 

lacks new ideas but takes 

grim pleasure in its dreadful 

status quo. Grand statements 

of ‘state of emergency’ and the 

jamboree of putting an uninspired 

committee together 

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state was about to cut tape for 

the foundation laying ceremony of a re-established and relocated 

Ogun State Polytechnic at Ijaiye-Oke Eeyinbo in Ipokia local 

government at the weekend. Pic by Razaq Ayinla 

that will release a stale report 

cannot be the process that will 

get us out of this rot. For real 

change to occur there must be 

a departure from the familiar. 

We must be willing to go 

where we have not gone before. 

We’ll need to implement 

Design Thinking. The reason 

past plans have failed is due to 

the linear approach used. This 

linear thinking presupposes 

that the problems are obvious 

such as lack of infrastructure, 

teachers and financing. It’s an 

ineffective approach that can 

be equivalent to drinking water 

from a fire hose, the scale of 

the issue seems overwhelming 

and inertia sets in. 

Design thinking is a methodology 

used by designers to 

solve complex problems and 

find desirable solutions for 

change. Its starting point is discovery 

via a human-centered 

approach that embeds itself in 

the lives of the people that will 

benefit from it- the end user. It 

taps into capacities we all have 

but are overlooked by stale 

problem-solving practices. 

Such as looking inward to 

find ‘Positive Deviants’ which 

considers the very few places 

where the public education 

system might be working. 

Then it takes that relevant and 

unique cultural context and 

scales it up. This allows us to 

develop high-impact solutions 

that deliver real results. 

SIMI FAJEMIROKUN is the 

founder of Read2Succeed 

Africa. 

With new polytechnic, Ogun’ll become centerpiece of 

industrial skills education in Nigeria - Amosun 

RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta 

Haven achieved an 

economic status 

of the largest industrial 

hub in the 

country with most presence of 

manufacturing plants, Ogun 

state is working towards being 

the centrepiece of industrial 

skills and technical education 

designed to feed manufacturing 

industries operating in 

the country, especially those 

domiciled in the state. 

The move came to the fore 

following the foundation laying 

exercise conducted by 

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of 

Ogun state for the main campus 

of new polytechnic tagged, 

“Ogun State Polytechnic located 

at Ijaiye-Oke Eeyinbo in 

Ipokia local government area 

of the state at the weekend. 

The foundation laying ceremony 

for new polytechnic 

came into the existence due 

to the upgrade of the Moshood 

Abiola Polytechnic, 

Abeokuta (MAPOLY) to the 

Moshood Abiola University 

of Science and Technology 

(MAUSTECH), which 

prompted re-establishment 

and relocation of the institution 

to Ipokia in Ogun West 

Senatorial District. 

Speaking shortly after the 

foundation laying of the institution 

that will sit on 500 hectares 

of land, Governor Amosun 

said, “Through the sovereign 

and collective will of the good 

people of Ogun State and by an 

act of the Ogun State House of 

Assembly, we recently changed 

the status of our leading Polytechnic, 

the Moshood Abiola 

Polytechnic, Abeokuta, to a 

degree-awarding institution. 

“The Institution, which will 

henceforth be known as the 

Moshood Abiola University 

of Science and Technology 

(MAUSTECH), will enlist in 

the comity of Universities 

in the nation as one of the 

foremost citadels of learning 

in Nigeria. And, in its stead, a 

new multi-campus Polytechnic 

to assume the original 

name of the Polytechnic, that 

is, the Ogun State Polytechnic, 

emerging in Ipokia, in the 

Ogun West Senatorial District. 

“The journey to establish 

this new Ogun State Polytechnic, 

Ipokia, began with 

the resolution of the 51st State 

Executive Council Meeting of 

2016. This was later sent as a 

Bill to the State House of Assembly 

and passed into law 

on 13th March, 2017. 

The journey took a step 

further into reality when on 

Monday 3rd July, 2017, an 

official presentation of documents 

for the establishment 

of the Ogun State Polytechnic, 

Ipokia, was undertaken at the 

National Board for Technical 

Education, Abuja.


BDTECH 

BUSINESS DAY 

21 

In association with 

‘Our TCCF certification shows global, high 

standard data center facilities’- Coker 

Tunde Coker is the Managing Director of Rack Centre, West Africa’s premium data center and collocation services provider. In this interview, he speaks on the importance 

of certification in data center management and the need for organisations operating in Nigeria to host data locally, among other issues. Excerpts: 

Rack Centre recently attained 

the Tier Certification of Constructed 

Facilities (TCCF), 

which is the first of its kind for 

data centre operators in West 

Africa. What standards did you meet to 

have attained this? 

The TCCF certification is an advanced 

certification for Tier III Data Centre operators 

and the Tier III is a validation that 

the company is fundamentally fit to provide 

global standard quality of service at 

99.9 per cent. Since its launch in October 

2013, Rack Centre has operated at 100 per 

cent uptime without downtime, because 

we operate as a Tier III constructed facility. 

Before the TCCF is awarded to any 

Tier III Data Centre Operator, the Uptime 

Institute, which is the global body that 

carries out data centre certification, will 

first do a detailed check of the facilities to 

ensure that the data centre is operating to 

best global standard. The entire process of 

the certification was a forensic analysis of 

the facilities by experts of Uptime Institute 

from the US and UK. We met the criteria 

of being a true Tier 111 data centre operator 

that does not cut corners and does not 

compromise on quality of services rendered. 

Any organisation can say they are 

Tier 111 data centre but what matters is 

the TCCF certification. 

How would the TCCF certification 

positively affect the operations Rack 

Centre to its customers and Nigeria’s 

economy? 

The certification means several things 

to us at Rack Centre. It means authenticity, 

such that our customers will know that 

we are committed to everything we say 

and do as a data centre service provider. It 

also means to us that our customers will 

enjoy quality service from us and it means 

that our customers are coming into high 

standard facilities that have been certified 

globally. It also shows that Nigeria now 

has global standard facilities that could 

host local data locally, without organisations 

operating in Nigeria, going abroad 

to host their data. With the certification, 

Rack Centre is now the most certified 

constructed facility in the whole of West 

Africa. The award is also recognition of 

the fact that Nigeria can deliver this type 

of technology and operate it successfully. 

There are other Uptime Certifications that 

is the gold category and we intend to have 

that certification in the next six to eight 

Tunde Coker. 

months. 

What is the difference between design 

certification and constructed certification, 

and where did Rack Centre start 

from in all of these? 

The first step in TCCF certification is 

the design certification before the constructed 

certification. 

Rack Centre started with the design 

certification and we built it to standard, 

and we doubled the capacity of our facilities 

from 119 racks to 255 racks. Before 

the constructed certification, we did a self 

testing before inviting the Uptime Institute 

for verification and certification of 

constructed facility. Our design extension 

was revalidated in July last year, before 

the TCCF certification. Throughout the 

period of the design extension, we did not 

have one second of downtime because 

it is a pure Tier III data centre. There is 

a time limit for the attainment of TCCF, 

which is determined by the Uptime Institute. 

They have the authority to withdraw 

the design certification if the organisation 

stayed too long to get itself prepared 

for the constructed certification and the 

time limit is determined by the Uptime 

Institute. Again the TCCF certification is 

not one-off. The standard is certified every 

year and if for any reason the organisation 

falls short of the standard in any 

given year, the certificate is withdrawn 

immediately. 

With global standard data centers 

like Rack Center, do you think organisations 

operating in Nigeria will now 

start to host their data locally? 

With the TCCF certification, there is 

absolutely no need for any organisation 

to continue hosting their data outside the 

country, because we now have the quality 

and standard, which they are looking for 

outside the country. Today, Rack Centre 

is hosting the Internet Point Exchange of 

Nigeria (IXPN) and this is helping organisations 

to localise their traffic in Nigeria 

because we are a true carrier neutral data 

centre operator. Any pan African bank 

that wants to host and connect its branch- 

es, can actually do so from our facilities in 

Nigeria, because FinTech Application in 

Nigeria is domiciled at Rack Centre. People 

can actually host their global cloud 

from Rack Centre facilities in Nigeria. Also 

web hosting could be done from our facilities 

in Nigeria, and the latency is very low. 

We are also less expensive, when compared 

to the cost of hosting data abroad. 

Recently the Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) mandated all banks to host 

their data locally in Nigeria. How will 

the TCCF certification compliment 

what the CBN is trying to drive? 

Our TCCF certification will further 

give CBN the confidence to hold firmly to 

its mandate because we can be dependable. 

The banks can depend on us to host 

their data with Rack Centre in Nigeria 

because we have been certified by the 

Uptime Institute, which is a testament to 

the fact that we can host the data of commercial 

banks in our facility in Nigeria. If 

a data centre is down for few minutes, it 

can affect the performance of the bank 

and every other organisation that has its 

data hosted in such facility because it will 

affect the latency period. But now that we 

have the constructed certification, banks 

can be rest assured of quality data services 

from us. With us, there is reliability and 

reduction in cost of service. So there is a 

systemic impact of having a reliable Tier 

III Data Centre facility in Nigeria. 

How will this certification help to 

address the issue of big data growth in 

the country? 

Big data is part of Rack Centre business 

and our goal is to grow and host 

big data of organisations in our facilities 

in Nigeria. Big data is trending now 

and every organisation strives to grow 

its data. Everybody is connected to the 

big data analytics. The mobile phones of 

subscribers are constantly sending data; 

they are used to take photo shots and 

sending them through the internet or 

Bluetooth and via the social media like 

Facebook and WhatsApp. But that continues 

to grow as our broadband penetration 

continues to deepen. Analysis 

shows that for every 1 per cent of broadband 

penetration, there is over 1 per cent 

growth of GDP. In advanced countries, it 

can be up to 2 per cent growth in GDP. 

It is one thing to have broadband penetration 

and another thing to have a 

reliable power distribution. So we need 

data centers to actually drive broadband 

penetration in the country. As this systemic 

effect grows, businesses stand to 

grow immensely. As businesses grow, 

organisations have come to realise that 

they cannot afford to expand their data 

centre, so they need collocation of data 

centre facilities, which Rack Centre offers. 

So, the more quality of collocation 

data centers we have the better for us. 

So, big data is going to have big systemic 

impact on the country’s economy, especially 

with our huge population number. 

If the attainment of TCCF certification 

attracts more customers, how prepared 

is Rack Center to accommodate 

the influx of these new customers? 

We are expecting influx of new customers 

as well as surge in the demand 

of our services, since we have been certified, 

but being a modular organisation, 

we have nothing to be worried about 

because the modular nature of our business 

will allow us to expand with ease. We 

saw this coming and we have prepared 

for expansion and the doubling of our facilities. 

We have already done the design 

expansion and we are ready to upgrade 

our facilities. We have expanded to 255 

rack capacity and within six months, we 

can double that capacity to over 530 racks, 

including our power expansion plans. 

We can expand our rack facilities to 3000 

racks and we have the technology, power 

and funding blueprint to do so. 

Do data center operators have issues 

with collocation as a result of limited 

infrastructure as in the case of telecommunications 

operators? 

We have sufficient collocation facilities 

and capacities and we will be delighted 

to collocate the telecoms operators on 

our facilities. What we need do is to expand 

the capacity to accommodate collocation 

of telcos. We are carrier neutral 

and any telco could come to our centre to 

collocate. Our facilities do not encourage 

competition among the telcos who will 

want to collocate on our facilities. Rather 

than the telcos building data expansion 

facilities, they can actually collocate on 

our facilities, bearing in mind that they 

will not need to worry about the challenges 

of connectivity and collocation, 

and this will help them focus on their core 

business. We have the facilities that will 

make telcos to expand and operate more 

efficiently.

22 

BUSINESS DAY Tuesday 19 September 2017 

BDTECH 

E-mail: technologybusiness@businessday.com 

Apple iPhone X vs iPhone 8/8plus: The real difference 

STORIES BY 

JUMOKE AKIYODE LAWANSON 

The new Apple 

iPhone 8 series 

launched about a 

week ago, and Apple 

enthusiasts who 

have waited to see the new upgrades 

are now torn between 

knowing which device is better 

suited for their needs, as Apple 

ditched the tradition of releasing 

a standard version and a 

plus version, and decided to 

announce the launch of not 

two but three new devices at 

once; the iPhone X (10) which 

will be officially released on the 

3rd of November 2017, after 

the iPhone 8 and iPhone plus 

phones on the 22nd of September 


I’ll start by pointing out 

the similarities between these 

three devices, because the list 

is shorter than the differences. 

Design: They all feature the 

same glass design on the front 

and back, the actual type of 

glass is the same on the iPhone 

X and the iPhone 8 and 8 plus 

series, as it is 50 percent harder 

than the standard glass on the 

previous iPhone 7 and 7 plus, 

so that is good in terms of durability. 

Display technology: As far 

as displays go, the three devices 

have the same technology 

in terms of true tone display, 

so they will all adjust the 

ambiance of the display to the 

SES, satellite operators 

have announced the 

beginning of a new era 

in global cloud-scale 

connectivity and high power 

data services with the launch 

of O3b mPOWER, a revolutionary 

and powerful networks system 

that will deliver efficient 

high-performance network 

communications to users all 

around the world. 

The rapidly expandable and 

highly scalable O3b mPOWER 

system will leverage innovative 

space and ground technologies, 

and enable SES Networks 

to deliver fully-managed services 

in the dynamic mobility, 

fixed data and government 

markets. O3b mPOWER is 

capable of delivering multiple 

terabits of throughput globally 

and is scheduled for launch 

starting in 2021. 

According to Karim Michael 

Sabbagh, President of 

SES; “SES Networks’ investment 

in O3b mPower further 

showcases the confidence of 

SES overall in non-geostationary 

satellites.” 

Speaking at a press conference 

in Paris last week, which 

was streamed live on Facebook, 

Sabbagh, said; “With the 

launch of O3b mPOWER, SES 

current colour temperature in 

the room giving it a more even 

look. They are also capable 

of the the same brightness, 

so even though the iPhone X 

has an organic LED display, it 

is has the same brightness as 

the iPhone 8 series which have 

LCD screens. 

IP67 water resistance: The 

three devices are IP67 water 

resistant, meaning they can be 

dropped into water up to 3ft 

deep for 30 minutes without 

being damaged. The processing 

power of the devices are 

also the same. 

Camera: All the cameras 

are 12 mega pixels, although, 

only the 8plus and the iPhone 

X have the portrait mode. 

is opening a new era of connectivity, 

fundamentally transforming 

the role and capabilities 

of satellite. O3b mPOWER 

is a unique system with exponentially 

more power, performance 

and flexibility which 

sets the technology at the highest 

level, offering a visionary 

roadmap for next generation 

technology. 

We are leveraging the pole 

position we hold today by 

relying and building on the 

strengths of our existing O3b 

Medium Earth Orbit constellation. 

We are taking a longterm 

strategic commitment to 

They all have the improved 

flash unit with a two times 

better uniformity when taking 

pictures in the dark. All three 

front cameras have the same 

7 mega pixel sensor, although 

the iPhone 8 can do the portrait 

mode on the front and the 

others cannot. 

Capacity: They al have the 

64GB and 250GB storage capacity 

and they all have the 

Qi wireless charging and fast 

charging. So 30 minutes charging 

would give you about 50 

percent battery life. 

How are these three devices 

different and why should 

i choose one over the other you 

may ask; well, the most obvious 

is the look and overall form 

further boost our capabilities, 

going beyond boundaries and 

redefining the frontiers of what 

satellite connectivity can accomplish. 

O3b mPOWER will 

be instrumental in empowering 

customers to massively 

scale up their businesses and 

capture new growth. This will 

enable us to further execute 

on our differentiated service 

offering and deliver profitable 

growth in line with SES’s financial 

framework,” he added. 

Sabbagh mentioned that 

the seven satellite system will, 

in addition to bringing substantial 

new capacity, elimi- 

factor. Like most plus series, 

the iPhone 8 plus is obviously 

much bigger than the iPhone 

8 and iPhone X devices which 

fit comfortably in the palm of 

a hand. The borders are different, 

as the iPhone X has 

stainless steel borders which 

is tougher and will resist drops 

a little better while the iPhone 

8 plus has aluminium borders. 

The iPhone X is also the thickest 

of the three, as it is 7.7mm 

thick while the iPhone 8 plus is 

7.5mm. 

Secondly, the colour varieties 

are different. The iPhone 

8 comes in space grey, silver 

and the gold colour, however 

the iPhone 10 does not come in 

gold colour. 

Another differentiating 

feature is the face identification 

capability of the iPhone 

X, which can scan your face, a 

3D map model of your face can 

be made and you can do different 

things with that, such as; 

unlock your phone with face 

ID, pay for certain things with 

it or even make an emoji using 

your face, the new fun trick that 

the iPhone X has which is not 

available on the iPhone 8 and 

8 plus. 

Although they all have 

12MP cameras, the iPhone 

X has a lower aperture zoom 

lens which helps you get a better 

quality picture in low light. 

It also has dual optical image 

stabilisation, a zoomed image 

would be stabilised. 

In terms of battery life, the 

iPhone X will do an hour less 

of internet usage time and 

video playback, compare to the 

iPhone 8 plus. 

Lastly, the price and release 

date; The iPhone X carries with 

it a premium over the iPhone 

8 and 8 plus which retails for 

$1000- $12000. The iPhone X 

retails for $200 over the price 

of the iPhone 8plus and $300 

over the standard iPhone 8. 

The unique display and design 

of the iPhone X shows that it is 

definitely in a league of its own. 

The iPhone 8 and 8plus will be 

mass produced, however, the 

iPhone X will be more difficult 

to get. 

SES opens new era in global connectivity with O3b mPOWER 

nate the need for replacements 

of two legacy geostationary 

satellites. 

“This is only the start of the 

journey,” he said. “There will 

be further optimisation of our 

geostationary fleet going further 

as we grow that particular 

system for data centric applications.” 

Signalling intent to have at 

least some of the O3b mPower 

satellites launched before ViaSat-3, 

Steve Collar, the CEO 

of SES Networks, said the new 

constellation “will be the first 

multi-terabit system” in orbit. 

“We will be able to deliver 

anywhere from hundreds of 

megabits to 10 gigabits to any 

ship at sea, which sounds like a 

tremendous amount, but as we 

develop over the course of the 

next five to 10 years, that is the 

need that is going to be there,” 

Collar said. 

According to Collar, the 

company’s goal is for the system 

to eventually reach any 

point on Earth. 

“We designed O3b mPower 

as a system, not as a bunch of 

satellites, and not as limited to 

the first seven satellites that we 

launch. So O3b mPower will 

be and is conceived as being a 

fully global system”, he said. 

Paul Rusnock, Boeing Satellite 

Systems International’s 

Chairman and CEO, said the 

O3b mPower constellation 

will use a new satellite platform 

based on Boeing’s 702 

line of scalable buses. A bigger 

change than that, he said, 

is the implementation of a 

new “highly integrated electronics 

phased-array payload 

system.” 

“It’s quite a departure from 

our standard product. It’s very 

light, it’s very powerful in how it 

can produce capability and get 

the resources where they need 

to go,” he said. 

MTN, TD Mobile 

launch Freetel ICE 

2 smartphone 

Jumoke Akiyode Lawanson 

MTN has partnered 

with TD Mobile, 

a subsidiary of 

Technlogy Distribution Africa, 

to launch the new Freetel 

ICE 2 android smartphone in 

Nigeria. 

It was revealed at the 

launch in Lagos last week 

Thursday, that the Japanese 

device which is Google GMS 

certified and runs all Google 

Apps will come with double 

data bonus on every data 

bundle purchased for three 

months. 

The smartphone which is 

pre-loaded with Worldreader’s 

free e-library of 50,000 e- 

books will sell for about N13, 

000 ($35), an attractive pricepoint 

that is expected to deepen 

the pace of smartphone 

penetration in the country. 

According to Rahul De, 

Chief Marketing Officer, MTN; 

“We are excited by this partnership 

because our focus 

over the years has been on 

connecting millions of Nigerians 

to each other and the 

world, thus expanding access 

to information, entertainment 

and endless opportunities. 

The affordable and innovative 

ICE 2 takes us further along 

this journey, allowing more 

Nigerians make the transition 

to smartphones.” 

Also speaking at the event, 

Gozy Ijogun, Managing Director, 

TD Mobile, the sole distributor 

of Freetel ICE 2 said 

that the launch of the device 

is a fitting testimony to the 

company’s landmark strides 

in making ICT products and 

devices accessible, affordable 

and usable across Africa. 

“Since inception, TD Mobile 

has been the leading 

driver of smart devices penetration 

in the West African 

sub-region. The launch of the 

Freetel ICE 2 resonates with 

our mission of spear-heading 

a technology revolution in 

Africa and further shows why 

we have remained in the forefront 

of bringing the best and 

latest technology products to 

the sub-region. Through the 

strategic partnerships with 

our massive network of operators, 

dealers and retailers, 

we are sure to see the ICE 2 

Android smartphone in the 

hands of millions of Nigerians 

in no time,” she said. 

Speaking on the affordability 

of the smartphone, 

Adama Diallo, Google’s Head 

of Nigeria for Android Partnerships, 

said; “we have been 

truly impressed by the quality 

of the Freetel ICE 2 at this 

price point. We are excited to 

continue working with ecosystem 

partners like Freetel, 

TD and MTN to offer Android 

devices at every price point 

and connect more Nigerians 

to the internet.”


BD 

Markets + Finance 

‘Providing proprietary research, commentary, analysis and financial news coverage unmatched in today’s 

market. Published twice weekly, Markets & Finance provides all the key intelligence you need.’ 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

23 

Fidelity Bank plc: Increased earnings 

supported by yield on assets 

BALA AUGIE 

Fidelity Bank Plc just 

released its second 

quarter results that 

shows improvement 

in all financial 

ratios as the lender continues 

to navigate the storm of macroeconomic 

headwinds. 

The Bank currently has 

over 400,000 shareholders 

with the majority being Nigerian 

citizens and corporations. 

The Nigerian lender’s retail 

strategy has been driven by 

the development of bespoke 

electronic products that drove 

rapid customer enrolment. 

In the last 30 months, Fidelity 

Bank has migrated over 

a million customers to its 

flagship mobile and internet 

banking products. 

Over 72 percent of its customer 

transactions are now 

done on electronic platforms 

with ATMs and mobile banking 

accounting for about 70 

percent. 

Fidelity Bank has a total 

market capitalization of 

N37.67 billion while total 

shareholders fund stood at 

N192.30 billion as at June 

2017. It has a total asset of 

N1.29 trillion. 

The Nigerian lender’s 

shares have gained 54.76 percent 

since the start of the year, 

which means investors are 

buying into the shares of bank 

on back of expected higher returns 

on their investment. 

Increased yield on earnings 

asset underpins gross 

earnings 

For the first six months 

through June 2017, gross earnings 

increased by 22.1 percent 

Year on Year (YOY) to N85.8 

billion from N70.26 billion as 

at June 2016. The growth in 

gross earnings was driven by 

a combination of increased 

yields on earning assets which 

led to a 27.80 percent (YoY) 

growth in interest income, and 

a 0.7 percent growth in net fee 

income to N11.2 billion. 

Interest income increased 

by 27.80 percent to N72.85 billion 

in the period under review 

as against N57.0 billion the 

previous year. A breakdown 

of interest income shows interest 

income on loans and 

advances to customers were 

up 28.70 percent to N41.56 

billion while interest income 

Nnamdi Okonkwo, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc 

on liquid assets grew by 25.36 

percent to N15.44 billion in 

June 2017. 

Net interest margin (NIM) 

improved to 7.4 percent June 

2017 from 6.4 percent as at 

December as the increase in 

the lenders’ average yield on 

earning assets outpaced the 

increase in average funding 

cost. The yield on earning assets 

has consistently inched 

up since the second quarter 

of 2016, growing from 11.8 

percent to 15.5 percent in June 

of 2017. 

Source: Company Financials; Markets and Financials 


Reduced operating expenses 

bolster profit 

Profit before tax (PBT) 

increased by 66.70 percent to 

N10.21 billion in the period 

under review from N6.10 billion 

as at June 2016. Operating 

income was up by 30.10 

percent to N45.83 billion in 

June 2017 from N42.38 billion 

the previous year. 

Fidelity Bank has remained 

efficient amid inflationary 

pressures and high regulatory 

dues as cost to income (CIR) 

ratio fell to 67.30 percent in 

June 2017 from 74.20 percent 

as at June 2016. 

A CIR means a lender is 

efficient. 

Operating expenses were 

down 1.80 percent to N30.90 

billion in the period under review 

as against N31.50 billion 

the previous year. 

The drop in operating expenses 

was driven by personnel 

costs, process improvement 

and digital banking initiatives 

which have continued 

to optimize the bank’s cost 

profile. 

Non Performing Loans 

Improves on increased collections 

Fidelity Bank’s risk management 

strategy has paid 

off as Non Performing Loans 

(NPLs) improved to 5.80 percent 

in June 2017 from 6.60 

percent as at June 2016. 

In absolute terms, NPLs 

fell to N49.40 billion as at 

June 2017 from 43.35 billion 

the previous year. Coverage 

ratio improved to 98.6 percent 

in June 2017 compared to 

83.50 percent as at December 

2016. Net loans and advances 

increased by 0.3 percent to 

N720.2 billion as the bank 

remained cautious of increasing 

its exposure in selected 

sectors of the economy. 

Cost of risk increased marginally 

to 1.3 percent in June 

2017 from 1.2 percent as at 

December 2016 while full year 

guidance in 1.0 percent. 

The Bank’s total deposits 

declined by 4.0 percent to 

N761.10 billion in June 2017 

from N793.0 billion as at June 

2017 as YTD to N793.0 billion 

as more customers favour 

investment in government 

securities due to very high 

returns compared to term 

deposits. Average funding 

cost also grew but at a slower 

rate to 7.5 percent in the first 

quarter of 2016, before dropping 

marginally to 7.4 percent 

the second quarter of 2017. 

High funding cost was 

due to high yields on government 

securities which have 

continued to spike deposit 

rates upwards. 

Fidelity Capital Adequacy 

ratio CAR improved to 18.4 

percent in June 2017 from 

17.2 percent as at December, 

which puts it well above the 

regulatory minimum requirement 

of 15 percent. 


BD MARKETS + FINANCE (Business Team lead: PATRICK ATUANYA - Analysts: BALA AUGIE and LOLADE AKINMURELE)



C002D5556 

Every governor seems to 

have a passion and a focal 

project; something 

regarded as an agenda 

or even a battle to fight. 

For Ifeanyi Okowa, his seems to 

be ‘war against poverty’ and a 

wealth-creation determination. 

He is pointing the way to fight 

poverty in Nigeria at the moment 

and he has results to show for 

his efforts and strategies. Now, 

Okowa has won a prestigious 

award from the premier university, 

the University of Ibadan, their 

alumni association. 

The governor thinks Nigerian 

leaders must not sentence themselves 

to mistakes of the past but to 

try new things, all to fight poverty 

by creating wealth. His efforts can 

attest to his position. 

Facts available as at May this 

year reveal that Okowa’s administration 

had completed over 

100 road projects while about 26 

road projects were on-going. The 

projects are for the improvement 

of the socio-economic lives of the 

people. 

The Job Creation Office of the 

administration, in its 2015 and 

2016 cycles, trained and empowered 

in excess of 3,000 youths, 

many of who, in the light of their 

current empowerment, have not 

only launched off successfully, but 

have, on account of their startling 

successes, become reckonable 

employers of labour. 

These youths were trained 

under two core components of 

the job creation initiative – the 

Skills Training Entrepreneurship 

Programme (STEP) and the 

Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship 

programme (YAGEP). They 

were trained in such genres as 

catering, fashion design, tailoring, 

makeover, tiling, phone repairs, 

computer repairs, poultry, crop 

farming, piggery fishery, etc. 

In order to battle poverty – the 

vice that has been credited with 

begetting many evil children 

in the society – the administration 

has also fired up more than 

3,000 enterprises with more than 

THE BIG HEART DIGEST 

In association with Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Developement Agency (DEMSMA) 

Okowa points way forward out of 

poverty in Nigeria, wins UI award 

•••Warns against the pitfalls previous intervention programmes in Nigeria 

•••Says there should be focused, enduring policy options to generate employment and poverty reduction 

•••Insists on viable, strong, productive and profitable MSMEs as harbingers of economic growth and poverty reduction 

•••Why Gov Okowa bagged ‘Distinguished Alumnus of the Year’ award of the UIA 

MERCY ENOCH, ASABA 

The University of Ibandan 

and some other 

old generation universities 

do not hobnob 

with governors for the fun of it 

or to gain relevance. Instead, 

it is those who get invited by 

such universities that get noticed. 

Thus, when Gov Ifeanyi 

Okowa turned up to deliver 

an important lecture at the UI 

last weekend, plus bagging a 

Editorial coordinator’s corner: 

As Delta shines at UI 

IGNATIUS CHUKWU 

prestigious award, eyes turned 

in the direction of Delta State 

which shone in bright colours 

in Ibandan. 

The governor has made 

wealth creation and job stimulation 

his focal agenda. This 

seems to be a critical area for 

Nigeria at the moment. Leaders 

such as Okowa who have identified 

this area and are fighting 

day and night in this direction 

are beginning to stand out. 

For more, keep a date every 

Tuesday with the Big Heart 

Digest 

Gov Okowa (right) receiving the 2016 Alumnus of the Year Award, from Chairman, Debril Oil 

Company Limited and Chairman of the Occasion, U.J. Itsueli. 

N600m, through the Delta State 

Micro, Small and medium Enterprises 

Development Agency 

(DEMSMA), DEMSMA has, in 

addition to cash, enabled the 

operators of the enterprises with 

the technical and managerial 

knowhow, to run their establishments, 

in an obvious attempt to 

significantly increase their potential 

for success, over the long haul. 

The DEMSMA is responsible for 

the micro-credit segment of the 

humongous responsibilities of 

the Job Creation initiative of the 

Okowa administration. 

There are more to the job 

creation wonder of the Okowa 

administration than many talk 

about. Under the aegis of its Production 

and Processing Support 

Programme (PPSP) segment of 

the broad mandate of the Job 

Creation Office, the administration 

has given active support to 

investors, mainly farmers, to re-kit 

their holdings. At the last count, 

815 farmers have benefitted from 

the PPSP initiative. Besides, the 

Okowa administration has equally 

undertaken the following: 

The distribution of tractors - at 

great subsidy – to 39 cooperative 

groups and farmers; distribution 

of outboard engines and fishing 

gears to 18 cooperative groups; 

the distribution of melon shellers 

to 106 women groups; the 

distribution of improved cassava 

cuttings, fertilizer and cash to 475 

farmers; the distribution of 200 

day-old chicks, feeds and cash 

each to 100 poultry broiler farmers; 

the distribution of 200 layers, 

feeds and cash each to 50 poultry 

layers farmers; the distribution of 

10 growers feeds and cash to 50 

piggery farmers, and the provision 

of seedlings, cash and agrochemicals 

for 40 tomato farmers. 

In all, the Job Creation Office 

initiative of the administration 

has succeeded largely in tackling 

the food security challenge of 

the state, answered to the deficiency 

syndrome of tertiary school 

graduates with regard to industry 

standard, provided jobs for youths, 

ensured a paradigm shift from 

theoretical education to skillbased 

training for industrial use, 

and helped raise a new generation 

of viable life-long commercial 

farmers who will succeed the 

ageing generation of subsistence 

hands in that sector. 

Health seems to bea key prong 

of Okowa’s poverty fight. The Delta 

State Contributory Health Scheme 

(DSCHS) is a social health scheme 

that aims at promoting access to 

quality and affordable health care 

service to all residents in Delta 

State. Okowa believes that the 

first foundation of Prosperity for 

All Deltans is good health. In the 

scheme, the public servants contribute 

only 1.75% of their monthly 

gross salary while the state government 

contributes the other 1.75% 

to complete the premium. Everyone 

who contributes to the funds 

and goes to the hospital when ill 

would receive care without paying 

any money at the hospital.” 

Thus, when on May 29, 2015, 

Gov Okowa took over the leadership 

of Delta State as governor, he 

rolled out the policies that would 

guide his four-year administration 

and backed them up with 

actions. The policies are rooted 

Gov Okowa at the UI event last weekend. 

in the administration’s SMART 

agenda, a five-point agenda that 

encapsulates ‘Job and Wealth 

Creation’. The agenda is all about 

the prosperity of all Deltans. Today, 

the policies have stood the 

governor out as they attract great 

institutions, groups and associations, 

to honour him with awards. 

The latest award is from the 

University of Ibadan Alumni Association 

(UIAA) which conferred on 

him the ‘Distinguished Alumnus 

of the Year’. He bagged the award 

on Friday, September 15, 2017 at 

the 2017 edition of the University 

of Ibadan Alumni Lecture held at 

the University of Ibadan in Ibadan. 

At the occasion, the governor 

delivered a lecture titled: “Good 

Governance for Wealth Creation 

and Sustainable Development: 

Experience and Lessons”, and 

the UIAA said the governor was 

chosen to deliver the lecture based 

on his antecedents in job creation, 

execution of people-oriented 

projects and his commitments 

to affordable healthcare delivery 

through the ‘Contributory Health 

Insurance Scheme’. 

Based on his wealth of experience, 

he also proffered solutions 

to the challenges facing the nation 

even as he traced infrastructure 

decay, weak public institutions, 

healthcare institutions, and governance 

in deficit. “The lamentable 

state of our socio-economic 

development evidenced by corruption 

in all facets of our national 

life, weak public institutions, 

crumbling infrastructure, urban 

decay, loyalty to primordial interests, 

weak healthcare system, 

low literacy rate, and widespread 

poverty, is indicative of a governance 

deficit”, he stated. 

He said, “We must, therefore, 

ensure effective governance systems 

and institutions that are 

responsive to public needs, delivering 

essential services, promoting 

inclusive economic growth and 

political processes that ensure 

citizens can hold public officials 

to account.” He emphasized that 

“there is, of course, no ‘one-sizefits-all’ 

model of good governance 

but having inclusive political and 

economic institutions should be 

the primary consideration.” 

While noting that; “Through 

the Annual Lecture Series, the 

University of Ibadan has maintained 

its front-runner status, not 

just as the premier university, but 

as a main driver of thought, ideas 

and policy reforms in the country”. 

Governor Okowa said, poverty 

sticks out like a sore thumb amidst 

reports of economic growth with 

more than 62 per cent of Nigeria 

living in absolute poverty. 

On the way forward, Okowa 

said; Tthere should be focused 

and enduring policy options to 

generate employment and reduce 

poverty; and viable, strong, productive 

and profitable Micro, Small and 

Medium Scale Enterprises (MS- 

MEs) as harbingers of economic 

growth and poverty reduction.” 

He listed different federal 

government’s initiatives towards 

poverty reduction to include, 

Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) 

- 1976, National Poverty Eradication 

Programme (NAPEP) - 1999, 

Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment 

Programme (SURE- 

P) - 2012, among others, noting, 

“More significant is the various 

initiatives to stimulate and promote 

Micro, Small and Medium Scale 

Enterprises (MSMEs) because, the 

MSMEs are engines of cost-effective 

employment generation, social 

inclusion, equitable development 

and self-reliant industrialization 

using local raw materials. MSMEs 

also enhance value chain development 

while facilitating the growth 

of non-oil exports.” 

Governor Okowa lauded programmes 

initiated to strengthen 

MSMEs such as the National 

Financial Inclusion Strategy, the 

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises 

Development Fund (MS- 

MEDF), the Real Sector Support 

Fund (RSSF), Youth Enterprise 

Development Programme and 

Commercial Agricultural Credit 

Scheme (CACS); and the Anchor 

Borrowers Programme (ABP), 

which was introduced to provide 

“farm inputs in kind and cash (for 

farm labour) to small holder farmers 

to boost production of these 

commodities, stabilize inputs supply 

to agro processors and address 

the country’s negative balance of 

payments on food” 

“It is fair to say that these 

initiatives have helped to boost 

macroeconomic growth and aid 

financial inclusion, and the success 

recorded so far can, at best, 

be termed modest against the 

background of persistent income 

inequality, rising unemployment 

and unabated poverty. It is obvious 

that poverty cannot be reduced 

or eradicated in Nigeria 

unless the present high level of 

unemployment/ underemployment 

is successfully tackled and 

we find a way of making MSMEs 

as productive and profitable as 

they are in other parts of the 

world including the advanced 

countries.” 

He advised thus; “Going forward, 

it is incumbent on current 

policy formulators, political 

leaders and decision-makers in 

government to avoid the pitfalls 

of previous intervention programmes; 

it is a fallacy to keep 

doing the same thing and expect 

a different result.” 

The Vice Chancellor of the 

University of Ibadan, Abel Olayinka, 

a professor, commended the 

association for attracting alumni 

of the university who have made 

marks in their chosen fields to 

deliver lecture. The national president 

of the association, Kemi Emina, 

disclosed that Gov Okowa was 

chosen to deliver the lecture based 

on his antecedents in job creation, 

execution of people-oriented 

projects and his commitments 

to affordable healthcare delivery 

through the Contributory Health 

Insurance Scheme. 

It seems Nigerians can look 

up to Delta State for leadership 

in their determination to create 

wealth and fight poverty.

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

25 


HOMES&PROPERTY 

In Association 

Fashola says exit from recession finds explanation 

in increased construction sector funding 

…as experts root for concrete as innovative solution to roads construction 

Developer assures 

buyers of allocation 

on 70% payment at 

Chatte l Homes 

Stories By CHUKA UROKO 

Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s 

minister for power, 

works and housing, 

says Nigeria’s recent 

exit from economic recession 

finds explanation in the 

increased funding that the construction 

sector of the economy has 

seen in the last 12 months. 

The National Bureau of Statistics 

(NBS) had in its second quarter 2017 

report announced that the country’s 

GDP, after four consecutive quarters 

of negative growth, has grown by 0.55 

percent, leading to the country’s exit 

from a 13-month recession that literally 

crippled the country’s economy. 

The bureau explained that the 

economy recovered from the rude 

shock which the recession induced 

because of the growth in some sectors 

of the economy including agriculture, 

manufacturing, trade and 

services which recorded 15.97 percent 

(year-on-year), 4.82 percent and 

59.05 percent growth respectively. 

This, to the minister, whose 

views were contained in his keynote 

speech at a one-day summit on the 

‘Economics of Innovative Solutions 

to Roads Construction’ organised 

by BusinessDay in collaboration 

with Lafarge Africa, was a good development. 

He recalled that when 

the economy was growing at 5-7 

percent, the complaint was that the 

growth was non-inclusive. Growth, 

he pointed out, was largely oil 

driven while sectors like industries, 

mining and construction had been 

in the negative since 2014. 

The reasons for this, he explained, 

were many not the least of 

which was that public spending up 

to 2015 was largely recurrent and 

minimally capital. “Government 

was budgeting about 15 percent of 

an annual budget of N4 trillion for 

capital expenditure, which is only 

about N600 billion, and was funding 

barely half of that”, he said, citing the 

2015 budget where N18 billion was 

budgeted for all of Nigeria’s roads, 

N5 billion for Power and N1.8 billion 

for housing. 

But the 2016 budget change the 

narrative such that in the Ministry 

of Power, Works and Housing, a total 

of N422.9 billion was budgeted, 

comprising N260.082 billion for 

Works, N91.257 billion for Power 

and N71.559 billion for housing. 

“The total sum of N269.271 billion 

was paid out to fund this budget and, 

in the end, N1.2 trillion was spent on 

capital expenditure across all ministries, 

departments and agencies in 

the 2016 budget”, he disclosed. 

Continuing, he said that out of 

these, N198.300 billion was spent 

in the works sector on roads and 

bridges and that was what induced 

the growth and exit from recession. 

He quoted the NBS report which 

says “… Q2 2017 GDP results indicate 

that the recovery was driven 

by the performance of agriculture 

and industry, especially crude oil 

and gas production as well as… 

construction… 

“With respect to construction 

and related activities, GDP in the 

sector had been negative since Q2 

2015, but turned positive for the first 

time in Q1 2017, growing by 0.15 

percent and continued in positive 

growth into Q2 2017 by growing by 

0.13 percent. The reversal in construction 

has to do with civil works 

especially due to federal government’s 

capital expenditure… “ 

Against this backdrop, the minister 

emphasized that infrastructure 

spend drives the real economy, 

stimulates production and industrial 

activity which employs people 

and includes them, describing that 

as the economics of road construction. 

He recalled that during the implementation 

of the 2016 budget, 

103 construction companies executing 

192 projects were paid who employed 

17,749 people directly and 

52,000 people indirectly in works, 

adding that there was provision of 

funding under the 2017 budget in 

the sum of N90 billion out of which 

N47.169 billion has been paid to 62 

contractors working on 149 projects 

to continue work on roads and 

bridges and keep people at work and 

sustain production. 

But, in spite of this commitment 

to funding roads infrastructure by 

the governments, discussants at the 

summit submitted that government 

cannot do it alone because of the 

huge capital requirement, hence the 

need for private public partnership 

(PPP) initiatives which the minister 

affirmed. 

Patrick Mgbenwelu, a banker, believes 

that a well structured project 

will always find liquidity, meaning 

that private sector operators are 

always ready to provide the finance 

for a good project. 

Adekunle Oyinloye, the managing 

director of Infrastructure Bank, 

agrees, stressing that the model that 

works for infrastructure development 

is the PPP. According to him, 

contractors working for the federal 

and state governments are owed 

about N1.7 billion and some of these 

debts are as old as five to 10 years 

which will not be the case in a PPP 

arrangement. 

Earlier, Femi Yusuf, Head, Roads 

Segment at Lafarge, had offered 

insights on the economics of concrete 

roads pavement, highlighting 

the advantages of this approach 

over asphalt roads. “Virtually all 

countries of the world have adopted 

concrete pavement as a viable option 

for roads infrastructure, he said, 

explaining that this option is rigid 

and loads are distributed relatively 

over a large area. 

“It lasts longer, it is more costeffective 

and its life cycle is lower 

but the initial cost is higher than 

asphalt. It however, decreases with 

time until it nearly becomes zero”, 

he said, and disclosed that this was 

used to construct the 7.5-kilometre 

road adjacent to their cement plant 

Chattel Realty and Investment 

Company Limited, 

an innovative real estate 

development company that engages 

in the development of master 

planned housing estates, and 

the developer of Chattel Homes, 

has assured prospective buyers of 

plots of land at the estate of instant 

allocation once they are able to 

pay up to 70 percent of the price 

of the plots. 

The estate, described as ‘Affordable 

Luxury on the Pennisula’, 

was unveiled recently and, according 

to the company’s managing 

director, Ifeanyi Okafor, the 

idea of the estate was borne out of 

the company’s desire to offer its 

buyers competitive and affordable 

plots that confirm their status and 

guarantees peace of mind. 

The new Chattel Homes, strategically 

situated in Sangotedo, 

Lekki Pennisula in Eti-Osa Local 

Govt Area of Lagos, is in a prime 

neighborhood, just behind the 

biggest shopping mall in Lagos, 

The Novare Mall. The amazing 

feature of the land in the estate is 

that it is solid dry ground and not 

prone to flooding and environmental 

hazards typical of other 

areas. It is a sure guarantee of a 

first class living investment. 

“People’s right to shelter is a 

basic one and the provision of 

decent housing to all requiring 

them should be the hallmark of 

every civilized society and one of 

the criteria for gauging development. 

“However, the provision of 

adequate housing in Nigeria and 

other developing nations alike still 

remains one of the most intractable 

challenges facing human and 

national development”, he noted. 

He emphasized that Chattel 

Realty is on a mission to provide 

cutting edge real estate solutions 

to the market which has been 

yearning for high quality and affordable 

accommodation. “It is to this 

end that the company has decided 

to give instant allocation to any of 

their customers who pays up to 70 

percent of the purchase sum for 

their land in order to commence 

and facilitate their building project.



HOMES&PROPERTY 

Infrastructure 

Maintenance 

With 

TUNDE OBILEYE 

Waste management and FM 

Waste is any substance 

which is discarded 

after primary use or it 

is worthless, defective and of no 

use. Waste is basically any rubbish, 

trash, junk or unwanted 

material. It also describes something 

we use inefficiently or 

inappropriately. 

Waste collection and rubbish 

disposal play an extremely 

important role in the global 

cleanliness and health. To ease 

the pressure on government 

agencies, privately-managed 

organizations also play a part 

in these waste management 

and recycling programmes. In 

many cities, it means that local 

government agencies have 

been left with the responsibility 

of overseeing the work done by 

these privately held organizations. 

Everybody produces waste 

and, as waste producers, we are 

responsible for where the waste 

we generate ends up. Waste 

management is concerned 

with all activities and actions 

required to manage waste from 

its inception to its final disposal. 

The following have to be considered 

when ensuring proper 

waste management systems. 

• Waste avoidance: Making 

sure there is no waste. The aim 

of waste avoidance is to achieve 

waste minimization and therefore 

reduce the amount of waste 

entering the waste stream. 

• Waste minimization: Reducing 

the amount of waste 

through education and improved 

production process 

rather than improving technology 

to treat waste. To achieve 

this, recycling has been used 

and it does not only help in 

conserving our natural resources 

but also reduces the 

cost of production of many 

products. Products such as 

glass, oil, plastic, paper can 

all be recycled which will ultimately 

put less pressure on 

the natural resources used to 

manufacture these products. 

•Waste collection: Waste 

collection is the transfer of 

solid waste from point of production 

(residential, industrial, 

commercial, institutional) to 

the point of treatment or disposal. 

Municipal solid waste 

is collected in several ways, 

which could be house to house 

or bins. 

•Transportation of waste: 

There are requirements to be 

followed on how to move waste 

from one place to another depending 

on the type of waste. 

• Waste processing: This 

entails the entire life cycle of 

collection, transport, sorting, 

treatment and disposal. 

•Waste disposal: This is the 

actual step taken to get rid of 

the waste. 

With a population of more 

than 170 million, waste management 

is one of the biggest 

environmental challenges 

Nigeria is facing. Most states of 

the country do not have proper 

waste management schemes 

because most towns are handicap 

in finance and technology 

to handle municipal waste 

management problems. 

Lagos state is one of the few 

states with an organization, 

Lagos State Waste Management 

Agency (LAWMA), set up 

for this purpose. This is a huge 

challenge in Nigeria as it leads 

to delayed collection. 

As a result, the work of the 

facilities manager is made 

more difficult as improper 

waste management leads to 

health hazards, insect breeding, 

blockage of drainages, etc. 

However, it gives FM personnel 

the opportunity to articulate 

ways to improve waste management 

methodologies. 

To improve waste management 

systems, other good 

waste management principles 

include recycling and bulk 

item hauling. This segregation 

of materials reduces waste 

volumes before being disposed 

into landfills. Landfill 

sites should be well lined and 

walled to ensure that there is 

no leakage into nearby ground 

water sources. We need to also 

ensure that our laws are well 

implemented. More efficient 

and innovative methods of 

disposing waste should be 

adopted. 

Waste management situation 

in Nigeria currently requires 

collaborative effort to 

create awareness on the need 

for general waste disposal. 

Staff that will be hired must 

be trained to prevent delay in 

collection and perform the best 

practices in waste management 

disposal. Always remember to 

reduce, re-use and re-cycle. 

Obileye is a UK-trained lawyer 

and CEO, Great Heights Property 

and Facilities Management 

Limited 

Email: Tundeobileye@ 

BASF repositions, set to expand 

construction chemicals business frontiers 

Stories CHUKA UROKO 

As part of efforts 

to expand the 

frontiers of the 

construction 

chemicals business 

in Nigeria in particular 

and West Africa in general, 

BASF West Africa’s construction 

chemicals business 

has appointed a new 

Country Manager, Vania 

Mitakeva. 

Mitakeva, the company’s 

first female country manager, 

is bringing with her 

over a decade of experience 

in the construction 

chemicals industry in Nigeria 

and will be overseeing 

the company’s construction 

chemicals business for the 

West African cluster. 

BASF is the world’s leading 

chemical company that 

creates chemistry and has 

been doing so in Africa for 

over 90 years. For corporate 

and administrative purposes, 

it has divided Africa into 

four country clusters, with 

headquarters in Midrand, 

South Africa for Southern 

Africa; Nairobi, Kenya for 

East Africa; Lagos, Nigeria 

for West Africa and Morroco 

for North-West Africa. BASF 

employs around 1600 people 

in Africa and, since 2016, 

its African headquarters 

has been based in Nairobi, 

Kenya. 

But the company, according 

to Jean-Marc Ricca, 

BASF‘s Country Cluster 

Haven Homes encourages LASPARK on 

environmental transformation 

The Lagos State Parks and 

Gardens Agency (LAS- 

PARK), the state government’s 

agency for lands capping 

and beautification of spaces in 

the environment into alluring 

parks and gardens, recently 

received a “modest donation” 

from Haven Homes to support 

the agency’s environmental 

transformation and beautification 

strides befitting Lagos as an 

Head for West Africa, who 

spoke in an interview with 

BusinessDay, they have 

found Nigeria a compelling 

story after two years 

in the country. “Our challenge 

now is the ability to 

convince our organization 

that there is a compelling 

story in Nigeria. We want 

them to just come to Nigeria, 

not Kenya, not Morocco or 

anywhere else. We want to 

propagate that story which 

defines the future”, he said. 

As part of her role, Mitakeva 

will be focusing primarily 

on expanding the frontiers 

of the Construction Chemicals 

Business specifically, 

and that of BASF West Africa 

in general. “I am particularly 

excited about joining the 

vibrant and connected team 

at BASF West Africa at this 

time, and I look forward to 

emerging mega city. 

A real estate firm of great 

repute, Haven Homes is Nigeria’s 

life style living developers 

and promoters and, according 

to a statement from the company, 

the donation to LASPARK, 

which comprised giant refuse 

bins, was in furtherance of its 

commitment to meeting the 

needs of its immediate environment 

and the larger community 

L-R: Babatunde Hunpe, special adviser to the governor on environment; 

, Abimbola Jijoho-Ogun, GM Laspack; Ufuoma Ilesanmi, 

GM, Haven Homes; Vivian Olowu, clients officer, Haven Homes; 

and Alexander Akhigbe, CEO, African Clean Up Initiative. 

contributing to, and being 

part of BASF West Africa at 

this phase of its impressive 

growth”, Mitakeva said. She 

will be based at BASF‘s Construction 

Chemicals plant in 

Lagos, Nigeria. 

Ricca noted that “as BASF 

continues its strong commitment 

of investing and 

growing in and with Nigeria, 

we are delighted to 

have Vania join us with her 

wealth of experience which 

will be of great value to the 

company; this comes at an 

exciting time in our business 

when we are consolidating 

our processes and deepening 

our imprints across all 

industries in Nigeria.“ 

Having settled in Nigeria, 

Ricca said there is no looking 

back but forward. “We 

don’t look back. Sincerely, 

we look forward. Everything 

and creating values under its 

corporate social responsibility 

programme. 

Ufuoma Ilesanmi, the company’s 

general manager, accompanied 

by the clients’ service 

officer, Vivian Olowu, made 

the donation on behalf of the 

company which was received 

on behalf of the agency by the 

special assistant to the state 

governor on environment, Babatunde 

Hunpe, in conjunction 

with the General Manager of the 

agency, Abimbola Jijoho Ogun 

while the CEO, African Clean-up 

Initiative, Alexander Akhigbe, 

witnessed the brief ceremony. 

Ilesanmi, arguably the 

youngest chief operating officer 

of a major property development 

firm in Nigeria, who represented 

the company’s MD/ CEO, Tayo 

Sonuga, said, “Haven Homes 

was motivated to make the bin 

donation because our firm believes 

LASPARK could still improve 

on the impressive work it 

is doing to beautify a mega city 

that will make you look back 

will keep you complaining 

how difficult it is. You 

should keep your mindset 

that, yes, it is difficult but we 

have to keep going. We don’t 

want to lose sight of why we 

are here”, he said. 

Continuing, he said, “we 

have no time to look back 

because Nigeria has no time 

to look back as well. We remain 

committed. We have to 

continue to create value for 

customers and, in doing so, 

we will also be creating jobs”. 

Ricca noted that there is 

need to find the right way 

to define infrastructure, 

advising that, as a country, 

Nigeria has to act together 

in developing the infrastructure. 

“There should be commitment 

from the private 

sector and good policy from 

the government”, he said. 

like Lagos through parks and 

gardens. 

“We are making this donation 

to encourage LASPARK to 

do better than they are doing 

currently. Even though they are 

doing great now, there is always 

room for improvement and it is 

such little gestures like ours that 

will help to achieve that and as 

modest as our donation seems, 

we are aware that little drops 

of water make a mighty ocean. 

We sincerely hope that other 

corporate organizations will 

emulate our humble gesture and 

contribute to a very worthy cause, 

after all, the environment is an 

important matter to all and Lagos 

must be kept clean and beautiful”. 

On their part, LASPARK appreciated 

the Haven Homes’ kind 

gesture and wished that other 

corporate organizations would 

do likewise because government 

subventions alone could not enable 

them to do all that they would 

want to do in the onerous task of 

beautifying the environment.


27 

BUSINESS DAY 

Energy Report 

C002D5556 

Oil & Gas Power Renewables Environment 

NERC wants TCN, others to improve capacity, services to save power sector 

Olusola Bello 

Amidst allegations 

and counter allegations 

of loads 

rejection by electricity 

distribution 

companies (Disco), the 

Nigerian Electricity Regulatory 

Commission NERC has 

urged the Transmission Company 

of Nigeria to improve on 

capacity and quality of service 

it is offering. 

The commission also advised 

the Discos to stop rejecting 

loading. 

NERC told the TCN to act 

urgently to save the industry 

from collapsing by ensuring 

an effective supervisory 

control and Data acquisition 

(SCADA), adding that TCN 

needs to make reasonable 

investments in its network 

expansion and capacity. 

The commission in a presentation 

at the 19th edition 

of the monthly power sector 

operators meeting held in 

Akangba, Lagos, also gave 

the same advise to electricity 

generating companies to improve 

their capacities, quality 

of delivery and capacity re- 

Petroleum and Natural 

Gas Senior Staff Association 

of Nigeria 

(PENGASSAN) has 

called on the Federal Government 

to settle all debts 

allegedly owed oil marketers 

to engender growth of not 

only the downstream sector 

but all sectors of the oil and 

gas industry and develop the 

nation’s economy. 

The senior staff trade 

union made the call against 

the backdrop of the threat by 

the marketers to embark on 

massive retrenchment of their 

employees if the government 

refused to settle the over N720 

billion subsidy arrears. 

The debts, according to 

the marketers, was the outstanding 

subsidy owed on 

the importation of petroleum 

products, accrued interest 

on loans from banks and 

exchange rate differential, 

which made them to halt 

importation of refined petroleum 

products leaving only 

the Nigerian National Petroleum 

Corporation (NNPC) 

doing the business. 

PENGASSAN said if the 

government is genuinely interested 

in the growth of the 

covery so as reduce to barest 

minimum the level of damage 

that could be suffered by the 

Discos. 

As for the Discos, the regulatory 

commission urged 

them to stop load rejection 

and adhere to the commitment 

they made as regards 

metering. 

The Discos, it stated must 

aggressively upgrade their 

networks and also expand 

their capacities, adding that 

they must speed up the customers 

enumeration exercise. 

It stated further that customer 

service standards 

must be enforced by completing 

the metering of maximum 

demand customers, 

improvement in timelines in 

fault resolution, communications 

of planned outages; 

improve market liquidity 

such as contract enforcement 

and sanctions for non 

compliance 

The Transmission Company 

of Nigeria (TCN) had 

decried the habit of the electricity 

distribution companies 

(Discos) of refusing to 

take maximum electricity 

loads allocated to them for 

distribution to their various 

consumers. 

PENGASSAN urges FG to settle 

marketer’s debts to avert mass sack 

downstream sector and want 

to attract more investments 

in the sector, which is almost 

moribund, then it should pay 

the debts owed the marketers. 

In a statement signed by 

the PENGASSAN National 

Public Relations Officer, 

Comrade Fortune Obi, the 

government should try as 

much as possible to verify the 

authenticity of the claims by 

the oil marketers and ensure 

quick settlement of the genuine 

debts. 

“The government should 

try to separate the genuine 

claims by the importers from 

spurious one and pay them 

Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, 

minister of state for petroleum 

because we will not like to 

be engulfed in the mistakes 

of the past where briefcase 

marketers milked the nation 

through dubious subsidy 

claims. 

“A situation where the 

workers in the industry bear 

the inability of the government 

to honour its obligations 

as part of the importation 

deal will be unfair and unacceptable 

to our Association. 

This is against the President 

Muhammadu Buhari’s administration 

major policy of 

job creation. 

“As a responsible trade 

union, as much as we will 

support any move by the 

government to end subsidy 

regime and spurious claims 

by the marketers, we are also 

canvassing for the payment 

of debts that can hinder the 

growth of the downstream 

sector and attract investments 

into the sector.” 

He noted that in the last 

five years, workforce in the 

downstream sector, especially 

the marketing sub sector 

have depleted by over 70 per 

cent, adding, “most of them 

were thrown to the already 

over-bloated labour market. 

According to the TCN’s 

tweet on their load allocation 

for the period between 

August 27 and September 3, 

2017, the Discos rejected a 

total of 22,277.53 megawatts 

(MW) of power produced by 

power generation companies 

(Gencos). 

This is despite current records 

from both the Nigerian 

Electricity Regulatory Commission 

(NERC) and International 

Renewable Energy 

Agency (IRENA) indicating 

that well over 89 million Nigerian 

citizens do not have any 

form of electricity connections 

to their homes. 

Yet, the Discos according 

to the TCN records refused 

to take up an average 

of 2,784.6MW every day for 

distribution to their customers, 

thereby suggesting that 

the rejected volumes were 

produced by the Gencos, 

and the TCN is unwilling to 

transmit them. 

The Discos on August 27, 

2017 collectively rejected a 

total of 1,351.47MW; the next 

day, they allowed a whopping 

3,129.05MW to waste; while 

on August 30, they simply 

could not take up 2,841.1MW 

that was generated. 

Similarly, their load rejection 

acts continued on August 

31, when they failed to accept 

2,656.46MW of power that 

was generated; on September 

1, they could not take 

2,713.95MW; as well as on 

September 2 and 3 when they 

could not take 3,010.59MW 

and 3,267.17MW respectively. 

Fashola tasks transmission substations 

on maintenance culture 

The Minister of Power, 

Works and Housing, 

Raji Fashola has advised 

transmission 

substations in the country on 

regular maintenance of their 

equipment. 

The Minister stated this 

at the inauguration of Transmission 

Company of Nigeria 

(TCN)’s 60MVA Mobile Transformers 

at Ajah 330/132/33kv 

transmission substation in 

Lagos. 

The minister said that lack 

of maintenance of equipment 

had resulted into shutting 

down of many TCN substations 


According to the minister, 

substations do shut down 

suddenly and then there is no 

part available to replace faulty 

or damaged equipments 

“So, we need to know the 

regular part that frequently 

breakdown so that we can 

make provision for it. 

“Go into your records and 

let us know the parts that damage 

frequently or once in six 

months. 

“What needs to be upgraded. 

All these will help us 

to plan ahead because they are 

all mechanical thing”. 

He said:”We can’t be reacting 

all the time, we must be 

proactive,” he said. 

The Minister said that substations 

should take an inventory 

of all part that damage 

regularly and send it to the 

ministry to get spare parts, 

saying that If they cannot plan 

maintenance, then they would 

not be able to provide service. 

“Distribution Companies 

(DISCOs) want power and it 

not good to have our substation 

shutting down all the 

time,” he said. 

Fashola said the commissioning 

of additional 

60MVA mobile transformer 

in Ajah substation would 

increase transformer capacity 

to 280mva, saying that 

this is an improvement the 

government is talking about 

in transmission of power 

supply. 

Geoffrey Nwokoye, the 

General Manager, TCN Lagos 

Region said the additional 

mobile transformer would improve 

transmission of power 

supply to residents of Alaguntan, 

Badore, Ibeju and Lakwe 

environs. 

Nwokoye assured residents 

of the area that problems associated 

with transmission constrain 

in the areas were over. 

Oil Markets Strengthen 

as U.S. Shale Struggles 

West Texas Intermediate 

(WTI) 

rose to its highest 

level in more 

than a month last week, hovering 

just around $50 per barrel. 

Brent surpassed $55 per barrel, 

the highest level since the beginning 

of the year. 

Strong demand combined 

with easing fears about hurricane 

disruptions in the U.S. 

has pushed oil up this past 

week. Plus, another missile 

launch from North Korea kept 

the markets on edge. 

The IEA published an encouraging 

Oil Market Report 

last week, noting that global oil 

supply contracted for the first 

time in months while demand 

remains very robust. The Parisbased 

energy agency said that 

oil demand growth could hit 

1.6 mb/d this year, an upward 

revision from the 1.5 mb/d 

estimate last month. 

Refined product inventories 

are also nearing the 

five-year average level, a sign 

that the oil market is making a 

great deal of progress towards 

rebalancing. The report also 

dismissed fears that the hurricanes 

in the U.S. would dramatically 

reduce demand – the 

agency said any effects will be 

“short-lived.” 

While OPEC members 

have cut some 1.2 million 

barrels of production over 

the past year (plus a little less 

than 0.6 mb/d from non-OPEC 

members), that has not actually 

translated to the same 

reduction in exports. 

In fact, oil exports from the 

participating countries remain 

elevated, undercutting the efficacy 

of the agreement. The 

Wall Street Journal says that 

although OPEC agreed to cut 

output by 1.2 mb/d, exports 

have only declined by 213,000 

bpd, as countries sell product 

from storage or otherwise 

reduce consumption to leave 

more oil for export. 

Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates 

is shorting U.S. shale 

companies because he says 

they are much weaker than the 

market realizes. “In our view, 

people have been looking at 

this industry through the rosecolored 

glasses of Wall Street. 

And this is the inherent problem 

with the North American 

shale business,” he said at a 

CNBC conference . 

Chanos said that around 

three dozen shale drillers will 

see their earnings eaten up 

by spending this year, leaving 

them struggling to pay off 

debt. He argues that many 

drillers will never escape this 

debt treadmill. He also argues 

that the excessive focus from 

Wall Street on EBITDA figures 

obscures deeper financial 

problems in the shale patch. 

Olusola Bello, Team lead, Analysts: Kelechi Ewuzie, Isaac Anyaogu, Graphics: Fifen Famous. Email: energyreport@businessdayonline.com, Tel: +234-8023020011; +234-7037817378; +234-8036534708



C002D5556 

Energy Report 

Vowgas raises bar on Nigerian 

content capacity development 

In – country capacity development has been an issue for Nigerian oil and gas companies. Olusola Bello 

this write -up x-rays how of MG Vowgas is tackling the issue with the aim of reducing capital flight. 

Perhaps determined to prove 

that there can be capacity for 

a wholly Nigerian company 

to become an active participant 

in the engineering and 

fabrication works in Nigeria’s oil and 

gas sector, MG Vowgas Nigeria Ltd, had 

embarked on the courageous project 

of building and equipping a modern 

fabrication yard in Port Harcourt, Rivers 

State. 

Godwin Izomor, group managing director 

of the company, while outlaying 

the deep drive for the project, exuded 

more of a passion for one’s nation and 

profession than the economic reason. 

According to him, “there is now no 

more reason why fabrication jobs from 

the IOCs should be taken abroad, thus 

promoting capital flight. All that is needed 

in terms of quality and dimensions 

of work are here in this fabrication yard”. 

Continuing, he said, “we have plasma 

cutting machine that can cut upto 

200 millimetre thickness of plates. We 

have rolling machines that can roll up to 

200mm thickness plates. We have three 

automated welding machines that can 

weld aluminium and stainless steel” 

Still speaking on the quality of machines 

in his modern yard, the Vowgas 

boss explained that “the difference 

between this yard and other yards is 

the kind of equipment we have here. 

Nobody in Nigeria has the kind of 

equipment we have. We are importing 

two major equipment like the oven. 

Presently, our furnace has the capacity 

of 1,600 degree centigrade. We shall 

also import the flanges from India and 

some other countries. And we will be 

the only fabrication yard that will have 

it here in Nigeria”. 

In an exultant tone, the Vowgas 

boss said ,”before now,barges and tug 

baots were imported from Europe and 

America under the flimsy excuse that 

Nigeria did not have the capacity to 

produce them, but today, we have been 

able to fabricated lots of equipment 

without any assistance from anybody”. 

In an interview, Izomoro lamented 

the huge loss Nigeria has been suffering 

as a result of big companies taking jobs 

out of Nigeria to other countries. 

According to him, “We in MG Vowgas 

are pained daily when we see that 

for almost every little construction, 

other international companies take 

such jobs to their countries to fabricate 

and eventually ship it back to Nigeria. 

Apart from the loss of time and huge 

revenue, that system really depreciates 

Simbi Wabote, executive secretary Nigerian Content and Monitoring Board, and Godwin Izomor, the group managing director of 

MG Vowgas Nig Ltd, along with others during the facility tour of the the company by the NCMB Board in Port Harcourt, recently 

Nigeria as it creates job for others in 

other countries and leaves our people 

even more unemployed. 

Unlike other countries that have 

operated in Nigeria: Samsung, Hyundai, 

other foreign companies, none 

of them has developed a good fabrication 

yard, like ship building 

fabrication yard, that can compete 

anywhere in the world. They are all 

rent seeking companies. They come 

here, collect multi-billion dollars 

and they don’t develop the economy. 

They collect the whole big contracts, 

$4billion, $5billion and they don’t 

have anything to show for their having 

operated in this country. They go to 

their countries fabricate these things 

and bring them to Nigeria. This must 

stop”, he warned. 

Izomor explained that Vowgas, 

over the years, has carved a niche 

in engineering design and development 

services, given its assemblage 

of renowned expertise by trained 

personnel, adding that MG Vowgas 

have the expertise to offer services 

like fabrication of pressure vessels, 

modules, off-shore structures and 

FPSO (Floating Production Storage 

Offloading facilities). 

He added that the company is 

equally strong in Engineering, Procurement, 

Construction and Installation 

(EPCI) in the oil and gas sector, 

especially with the availability of WPS 

(Welding Procedure Specification) 

machines. 

With modern and fully computerised 

four workshops fitted with high 

caliber machines and equipment, 

the Fabrication Manager of Vowgas, 

Engineer Paulo Rosario noted that the 

speed and quality of works, using the 

modern equipment matches worldclass 

standard in the oil and gas sector. 

Facilities like super welding machines 

that can weld aluminum, stainless 

and normal iron; the multimaxx 

drilling machine and the array of 

300T, 100T and 150T crawler cranes, 

including Varnsdor TOS WHQ Milling 

machines, etc.; Rosario assures that we 

have the men and expertise to accomplish 

any related work in the oil and 

gas industry. 

Impressed by the array of trained 

personnel, foreign experts and equipment 

at the facility, Simbi Wabote, the 

Executive Secretary of the Nigerian 

Content Development and Monitoring 

Board (NCDMB) who recently took a 

tour of the facility with senior members 

of the Board, declared that there is no 

longer any justification for fabrication 

jobs in the oil and gas industry to be 

taken outside the country. 

Wabote was particularly overawed 

by the huge job opportunities the Vowgas 

facility has provided for Nigerians 

adding that apart from the aversion 

of capital flight which the coming on 

stream of the facility will ensure, it will 

also enhance the speed of delivery of 

jobs in the industry as the length of 

time usually lost in placing order for 

such jobs or sending such jobs abroad 

for fabrication, would have been cut off 

by the reliable alternative provided by 

MG Vowgas. 

The NCDMB boss promised to 

partner Vowgas for the development of 

EPCI services in the oil and gas sector. 

As he put it, “ I am overtly impressed 

with your excellent facilities 

here. I am blown away by what I have 

seen here. Your office complex, the 

fabrication shops, your 300 metres 

long site is enough to take any FPSO, 

plus your water depth of 7metres 

which is also a very good edge too 

bring in vessels. Most of the global 

fabrication yards started like this. We 

will be willing to assist and partner 

with Vowgas to grow even bigger”, adding 

that the Local Content Digest will 

accommodate and feature the feats 

achieved by MG Vowgas. 

“You know NCDMB is a regulatory 

agency for the entire oil and gas 

industry including the NNPC. As for 

this private initiative, our objective will 

be to ensure that work scopes that this 

yard can handle are given to this yard. 

We will ensure that they participate 

in competitive and transparent bidding 

process, and become the lead 

contractors instead of sub-contractors 

to people who don’t have facilities like 

this. This is an amazing facility and with 

a little encouragement, they will do 

much more than what we have here” 

He commended the passion behind 

the building of the facility given that it 

has not really had any major contract 

“but they have gone ahead to build this 

great facility which also gives them the 

first mover advantage: do the investment, 

the work will come. And I can 

assure you that the NCDMB will support 

you for that work to come to this 

yard”, Wabote said. 

Izomor who complained about the 

huge cost of energy supply in the company, 

said the fabrication yard requires 

6000 KVA generator to power the various 

equipment “as we cannot depend 

on NEPA to run this place because 

power surge can destroy our facilities 

and equipment”. He informed that 

the yard which currently has 3000KVA 

generator will need another 3000KVA 

generator for optimal performance of 

all its facilities. He also lamented the 

issue of security noting that the cost 

of providing security in the facility is 

twice the cost of maintaining the regular 

workforce in the company. 

But despite the challenges, Izomor 

reiterated that the company is wholly 

committed to growing the Nigerian 

brand, explaining that the local content 

policy of the federal government is 

being fully implemented in the company, 

stressing that, “ we have built 

our massive fabrication yard here in 

Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the purpose 

of building the Nigerian capacity in the 

oil and gas sector”. 

The company which presently has 

98 per cent Nigerian management staff 

structure says it now has the capacity 

to train over 500 skilled and unskilled 

workers to fit into the Nigerian oil and 

gas industry. 

Although the company is presently 

well equipped with major and ancillary 

facilities for efficient job delivery, Mr 

Izomor explained that beside the 1,000 

horsepower tug boat, and three big 

cranes with varying capacity, the company 

is concluding plans to “increase 

our fleet of vessels to meet the demand 

of the International Oil Companies 

(IOCs) operating in Nigeria”. He further 

explained that beside the supply and 

management of vessels, the company 

“has experienced personnel to provide 

logistics support to customers, ranging 

from project start-up support to full 

project logistics management”. 

Energy theft: Eko Disco plans to make public culprits 

In its continued fight against 

energy theft within its area 

of operations Eko Electricity 

Distribution Company 

(EKEDC) plans to make the names 

of offenders public as it is set to 

has launch ‘Operation Name and 

Shame’. 

Oladele Amoda managing director 

and chief executive officer- 

EKEDC while speaking to journalists 

after launching the programme 

at the Corporate Headquarters of 

the company in Marina Lagos, said 

the exercise was aimed at fishing 

out everyone engaging in energy 

theft through meter bypass, illegal 

connection or reconnection and 

publishing the names and house 

address of such people in both 

conventional and social media. 

This, he said, would be in addition 

to handing over culprits 

caught in the criminal act to law 

enforcement agencies for possible 

prosecution. 

Amoda said apart from depriving 

the company of revenue due 

to it, energy theft is also an act of 

economic sabotage that is capable 

of derailing the desired total transformation 

in the energy sector as 

being envisioned by the present 

federal administration. 

The Eko Disco boss said the 

company would not fold its arms 

and watch some unscrupulous 

criminal elements prevent it from 

its goal of giving the very best of 

services to its customers. 

Speaking further, he said since 

energy theft is a crime against the 

law of the land, law abiding citizens 

should not aid and abet perpetrators 

by keeping quiet when they 

see such acts being perpetrated 

within their vicinity. 

He therefore implored members 

of the public to report cases 

of energy theft to the nearest 

EKEDC Office or security agencies. 

He further hinted that customers 

can avail themselves of 

the opportunity of the company’s 

newly introduced whistle blowing 

policy which has enticing 

rewards for anybody who comes 

up with useful information leading 

to the apprehension of energy 

thieves and other criminal elements 

either among the staff or 

customers of the company. 

‘If we all desire good electricity 

supply services, we must also be 

ready to play our part in sanitising 

the electricity supply system 

and environment in order to rid 

it of unwholesome practices such 

as energy theft and other forms o 

fraud’. Amoda said.


MTN, partners 

provide support 

to victims of 

Benue flooding 

MT N Foundation 

has 

joined ongoing 

efforts to 

provide assistance to internally 

displaced persons 

(IDP) left homeless by the 

flood that recently devastated 

Benue State. 

At the weekend, representatives 

of the Foundation 

in collaboration 

with PR agency - Brooks 

& Blake, and video production 

company - IBST 

Media, visited the International 

Market Camp for the 

IDP in Makurdi, the state 

capital. The camp was set 

up following the floods and 

recently registered 4,775 

persons displaced and in 

need of relief materials. 

Commenting on the importance 

of public-private 

partnerships, Sola Fijabi, 

principal partner, Brooks 

and Blake Nigeria, said: 

“The efforts of our government 

in alleviating the 

challenges faced must be 

appreciated. We must realise 

that the government 

cannot do this alone, and 

this makes it necessary 

for private organisations 

to pro-actively contribute 

towards addressing these 

issues.” 

The team met with affected 

individuals and 

families, and chronicled 

their stories of sorrow, 

hope and gratitude. 

“Like stories of devastation 

in other parts of the 

world have prompted great 

acts of kindness and support, 

we must tell our story 

in a compelling way. Highlighting 

a common humanity 

and ongoing relief 

efforts in a way that forever 

remains indelible in our 

memories, and prompting 

more of our countrymen to 

step up and lend a helping 

hand,” Remi Ogunpitan, 

managing director, IBST 

Media, and media partner 

on the donations, said. 

Sleep and cooking utensils, 

including mattresses 

and pillows, kerosene 

stoves, non-perishable 

food items and other relevant 

materials, were distributed 

to ease the present 

circumstances. 

Speaking on the visit, 

Blessing Amanze, the regional 

trade marketing 

manager of MTN Nigeria, 

said: “MTN has an enduring 

commitment to 

our people, our customers, 

and our country. We 

stand with our brothers 

and sisters - the people 

and government of Benue 

State, at this difficult time. 

We sympathise with you, 

and hope that this token 

helps provide some much 

needed comfort.” 

C002D5556 

BUSINESS DAY 

29 

NEWS 

IPOB: 7 persons arraigned for murder, terrorism in Aba 

GODFREY OFURUM, Aba 

Seven members of the 

Indigenous People 

of Biafra (IPOB) accused 

of murder and 

terrorism were on 

Monday arraigned at the Magistrate 

Court 3, in Aba North 

Local Government Area of 

Abia State. 

The arraigned IPOB members 

are Chinonso Ude, 30 

years, Maduabuchi Echereodo, 

25 years, Udochukwu Ikechukwu, 

32 years, Okechukwu Daniel, 

20 years, Ifeanyi Sunday, 

33, Okezie Jeremiah, 26 years, 

and Chizuruoke Nwazuo, 27 

years, were accused of killing 

one Cyril Nwosu, an assistant 

superintendent of Police as 

well as setting ablaze Ariaria 

Divisional Police headquarters. 

The accused, according to 

police prosecutors, committed 

the offence on Thursday, 

September 14, 2017 at Ariaria 

area of Aba, the commercial 

hub of Abia State. 

Based on count two of the 

charge, which bothers on the 

murder of Cyril Nwosu, lawyer 

to the accused persons raised 

objection on the charge, saying 

the court had no power 

to function in the matter and 

urged the court to grant the 

accused bail. 

Gabriel Ogbonna, police 

prosecutor and an assistant 

superintendent of Police, however 

urged the court to direct 

on what to be done. 

Based on the argument that 

ensued, the court adjoined the 

matter to September 27, 2017, 

for plea and ruling and the accused 

persons were remanded 

at the Aba Federal Prison, till 

September 27, 2017. 

Meanwhile, the Abia State 

Police Command on Saturday 

disclosed that it arrested 37 

members of IPOB involved in 

skirmishes in the state. 

While soldiers along Isiala 

Ngwa area of the state reportedly 

arrested 30, seven persons 

were allegedly among the 

arsonists that burnt and looted 

Ariaria Police Divisional headquarters 

at the early hours of 

Friday. Anthony Ogbizi, Abia 

Police commissioner, while 

guiding a team from the Inspector 

General of Police, led 

by Taiwo Lakanu, AIG Operations, 

Force Headquarters, on 

tour of the area, stated that the 

suspects would be arraigned in 

court on Monday. 

He explained that investigation 

into the matter would 

continue, stressing that efforts 

were ongoing to track others 

that were still at large. 

The suspects, it was gathered 

were arrested through 

intelligence gathering, by the 

combined team of the IGP 

team and officers of the Nigeria 

Police that were onground 

in Aba. Ogbizi further 

disclosed that Improvised 

Explosive Device (IED); Petroleum 

Bomb (Bottle containing 

fuel, pieces of broken glasses 

and other dangerous materials) 

were equally recovered 

from Nnamdi Kanu’s house, 

by the army , which have been 

handed over to the Police. 

He revealed that the Station 

Officer, an Assistant Superintendent 

of Police, who 

sustained serious injuries 

when he was attacked by the 

arsonists, died early hours of 

Saturday, in an undisclosed 

hospital.



C002D5556


NEWS 

FG responds as new case of 

yellow fever confirmed in Nigeria 

ANTHONIA OBOKOH 

Federal Ministry of 

Health has confirmed 

a new case 

of Yellow Fever in 

a young girl in Oke 

Owa community, Ifelodun 

Local Government Area of 

Kwara State. 

Isaac Adewole, minister of 

health, said the Lagos University 

Teaching Hospital carried 

out the laboratory diagnosis 

of the case while the Institute 

Pasteur, Dakar, Senegal, confirmed 

it on September 12. 

The minister made this 

known in a statement issued 

by Boade Akinola, director, 

media and public relations 

of the ministry on Monday 

in Abuja. 

Adewole further said, “Following 

the confirmation of the 

case, the State Epidemiology 

Team has begun investigation 

in the affected area and surrounding 

communities. 

“A joint team from the 

Nigeria Centre for Disease 

Control, National Primary 

Health Care Development 

Agency and the World Health 

Organisation Country Office 

has been deployed to support 

the State in carrying out 

a detailed investigation and 

risk analysis. 

“An Outbreak Control 

Team has also been constituted 

to ensure rapid and coordinated 

decision-making.’’ 

Yellow fever is an acute 

viral haemorrhagic disease 

transmitted by infected aedes 

mosquitoes. 

Symptoms include fever, 

headache, jaundice, muscle 

pain, nausea, vomiting and 

fatigue. Some infected people 

may not experience any of 

these symptoms. In severe 

cases, bleeding may occur 

from the mouth, nose, eyes 

or stomach. 

The minister has therefore 

assured that all the agencies 

of the Federal Ministry of 

Health and their partners 

will work together to support 

the government of Kwara to 

respond in order to prevent 

further spread. A vaccination 

campaign is already being 

planned in the affected area to 

prevent further spread. 

“The most important measure 

to take in preventing 

Yellow Fever is vaccination 

against the disease. A single 

dose of Yellow Fever vaccine, 

which is included in Nigeria’s 

routine immunisation schedule 

given at nine-months, is 

free, and sufficient to confer 

sustained protection of up to 

10 years,” he said. 

Other methods of prevention 

include using insect 

repellent, sleeping under 

a long-lasting insecticide 

treated net, ensuring proper 

sanitation and getting rid 

of stagnant water or breeding 

space for mosquitoes, 

he said. 

According to Adewole, 

although there is no specific 

medicine to treat the disease, 

intensive supportive 

care is provided, as “most 

patients would recover with 

appropriate care.” He therefore 

urged that health care 

workers are strongly advised 

to practise universal care 

precautions while handling 

patients at all times and also 

to be alert and maintain a 

high index of suspicion. 

“The Federal Ministry of 

Health, its agencies and partners 

will provide all the support 

needed to the Kwara State 

Ministry of Health to respond 

to this outbreak. 

“Therefore, I call for calmness 

and I advise everyone 

to avoid self-medication but 

report at the nearest health 

facility if feel unwell,” he said. 

C002D5556 

Fear of 40,000 job loss: Opposition warns against 

closure of ‘over 5,000’ private schools in Rivers 


The steady closure 

of private schools 

in Rivers State in 

the past week has 

attracted warnings from 

the opposition who says the 

consequences for the state 

will rather be grave. 

Those opposed to the 

closure say it would create 

mass loss of jobs at a time 

such as this, advising the 

state government to rather 

set standards and grow the 

schools to meet up. Many 

have expressed solidarity 

with the Nyesom Wike administration 

for the threat 

to shut 1,866 unregistered 

schools but the opposition 

put their figure at 5,000. 

Speculations are rife that 

disagreement within the 

executive council led to the 

dissolution two months ago. 

The new commissioners are 

yet to be assigned portfolios. 

Speaking for those 

against the mass closure 

that started on September 

11, 2017, even after most 

of the marked schools had 

paid emergency fees of up 

to N300,000 said to be to 

get some respite for another 

one year, the state boss of 

the All Progressives Congress 

(APC), Davies Ibiamu 

Ikanya, said in a statement 

in Port Harcourt, Monday, 

September 18, 2017, that the 

move would lead to disaster. 

He said, “The offence 

of the proprietors of these 

schools, both indigenes and 

non-indigenes is that they 

are members of APC, so they 

must be ruined by declaring 

their educational institutions, 

which they have been 

operating all these years 

without any problem, illegal 

and marked for destruction.” 

The statement disclosed 

that Wike accused those 

against his plan of being 

fifth columnists and resolved 

that the best strategy was to 

tactically dissolve his cabinet 

and reconstitute it with those 

who would support his drive. 

The opponents advised 

Wike to rethink his decision 

as the action would throw 

over 40,000 small and medium 

school owners, teachers 

and education support 

services providers in the 

State would be thrown into 

the already-saturated job 

market. 

According to the statement, 

“The road to this has 

been long in coming. He has 

found allies in men who do 

not have idea of the implications 

on the future of Rivers 

State. Wike never considered 

the plight that these proprietors, 

their employees and 

students will face in implementing 

this drive. 

BUSINESS DAY 

31 

Equip police to tackle 

internal security, 

crisis - PFN urges FG 

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin 

Pentecostal Fellowship 

of Nigeria 

(PFN) has called on 

the Federal Government 

of Nigeria to adequately 

equip the Nigeria Police to 

tackle internal security crisis 


Felix Omobude, president 

of PFN, made the call in 

a statement made available 

to newsmen in Benin City, 

Edo State, at the weekend. 

Omobude also urged the 

Federal Government to desist 

from using the military to address 

civil crisis in the country, 

saying the Federal Government 

should cease from using 

the military to quell civil crisis, 

the situation in the South-East 

was a point of reference. 

The clergyman, who described 

the use of soldiers 

to tackle internal security 

matters as a return of dark 

days in Nigeria’s democratic 

process, noted that it was 

wrong for the Federal Government 

to have rolled out 

military men into the streets 

in some Nigerian cities. 

The PFN also called on all 

Nigerian agitators, especially 

the Indigenous People of Biafra 

(IPOB), to conduct their 

agitation within the ambit of 

Nigeria laws.

32 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Tuesday 19 September 2017 

Harvard 

Business 

Review 

Tips 

& 

Talking Points 

TALKING POINTS 

Gender and Salary History 

1.8%: According to U.S. data from Pay- 

Scale, when women were asked in job interviews 

to disclose their salary histories, 

the ones who refused were offered 1.8% 

less than the ones who did disclose. For 

men, refusing to disclose a previous salary 

history yielded an offer 1.2% higher 

than men who disclosed. 

+ 

A Growing Global Workforce 

3.5 billion: The global labor force will 

reach 3.5 billion people by 2030, according 

to a recent analysis from the 

McKinsey Global Institute. 

+ 

Troubled Years Ahead for Venezuela 

2020: According to analysts, it’s unlikely 

that Venezuela’s economy will return 

to growth until at least three years from 

now. 

+ 

Health Incentives 

$90: Health programs at work that result 

in a 5% weight loss among overweight 

and obese employees produce a savings 

of $90 per person for employers. 

+ 

Taking Your Phone Everywhere 

90%: Data from Verizon showed that 90% 

of customers used their phones while in 

the bathroom in 2015. 

To get out of a creativity rut, change your habitsCreativity can fade when you get bored 

or discouraged at work. To get your creative juices flowing again, change your habits: 

ing obstacles you can change, and continue 

on from there. 

— Find ways to share what you know with 

others — write an article, lead a training 

session, or mentor a young upstart. 

(Adapted from “How to Spark Creativity 

When You’re in a Rut,” by Priscilla Claman) 

Don’t rely on your boss to 

resolve every conflictIt’s 

tempting to escalate 

conflicts to the boss 

Can’t agree on how to prioritize projects 

or on which deadlines need to 

shift? Ask the team leader to step in and 

make the call. But it’s better for everyone 

— you, your teammates and your 

boss — if you can solve issues without 

always involving the higher-ups. Treat 

conflict not as an annoyance that leads 

to anxiety and alienation but as an opportunity 

for growth. Ask everyone on 

your team to commit to discussing any 

differences openly — and then model 

the right behavior. Calmly share your 

ideas with the group, even when they 

clash with a co-worker’s, and refuse 

to point fingers when a disagreement 

arises. 

( Adapted from “How Self-Managed 

Teams Can Resolve Conflict,” by Amit 

Maimon.) 

Put limits on how much you use 

your phone 

We carry our phones everywhere, 

but always being 

connected has costs: In 

one survey 82% of people 

said smartphones have 

hurt their ability to converse 

with others and 89% 

said their devices have 

resulted in chronic physical 

pain. It’s important to 

set boundaries around 

technology — and you 

don’t have to go on an allout 

“digital detox” to do 

it. Try small experiments: 

Leave your phone behind 

when you go to lunch or 

take a walk. Set a time limit 

for how long you’ll scroll 

through Instagram or Twitter, 

especially at bedtime. 

And when the time’s up, 

put your phone away — 

not on your bedside table but 

a short walk away from your 

bed or even in the other room. 

Giving yourself these needed 

breaks away from screens will 

help you see that you don’t 

need your phone with you, 

regardless of how much it may 

feel that way. 

(Adapted from “Device-Free 

Time Is as Important as Work- 

Life Balance,” by Charlotte 

Lieberman.) 

— Make an effort to try something new 

every month. Meet new people at work. 

Talk to new clients. Look for intersections 

— places where your department’s work 

overlaps with another’s. 

— Volunteer for a cross-functional activity. 

And seek out obstacles as opportunities 

for research and analysis. (Why is it 

there? Whom does it serve? What are its 

effects? What are other ways of getting the 

results you’re looking for?) Start by selectc 

Yes, leaving your job because 

of your kids is oK 

You’ve decided to leave your 

job because of your needs as a 

working parent — you wanted 

a more flexible schedule or a 

higher salary or to take some 

time off. Be prepared to be 

on the receiving end of some 

editorial comments about 

your decision. Some might 

be clumsy (“Couldn’t take it, 

huh?”). Others might be wellintentioned 

but disheartening 

(“Be careful — my law school 

roommate left after her first 

was born, and she could never 

find a job again”). The comments 

have nothing to do with 

you, so ignore them. Put on 

blinders and stay focused on 

running your own race, with 

the goals you’ve set for yourself 

— not the ones others set 

for you. Your boss may have 

some negative reactions, too — 

pushback, derision, irritation, 

disbelief. Empathize and focus 

on the positive: “I understand 

your point of view as a leader 

of the company, but I’ve made 

this decision as an individual, 

and a father.” 

(Adapted from “When You’re 

Leaving Your Job Because of 

Your Kids,” by Daisy Wademan 

Dowling.) 

2017 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate 

If you feel ostracized at work, 

seek social support 

Anyone who has been ostracized 

at work — left out of 

meetings or important email 

threads, looked over for a committee 

position or ignored 

when making suggestions — 

knows how painful it can be. 

Don’t ruminate alone about 

the situation; that will only 

make you feel worse. Reach 

out to people. Talk to trusted 

co-workers who know the situation. 

Perhaps there’s an explanation: 

For example, maybe 

you weren’t invited to that 

meeting simply because you’re 

low on the totem pole. Consider 

whether there’s anyone 

else that is also getting the cold 

shoulder (for instance, does 

Joan tend to ignore Alejandro 

in meetings too?). Talk to them 

and see if your stories match 

up. You’ll feel validated if they do, 

and you may realize that the issue 

lies more with Joan than with you. 

Lastly, find people who do value 

your contributions and spend 

more time with them. Positive 

social interactions go a long way 

toward repairing your self-worth 

and confidence. 

(Adapted from “What to Do When 

a Colleague Excludes You,” by 

Sandra L. Robinson and Kira 

Schabram.)


NCAA certifies FAAN as MMIA aerodrome... 


Aviation Regulations (NCAR) Part 

12.6.4, which carries obligations 

on the operator to continuously 

maintain standards and competence 

in operation and ensuring 

availability of skilled manpower 

in sufficient numbers, for the 

periodic maintenance of the facilities 

and the system. 

He disclosed that the certification 

was not meant for International 

Civil Aviation Organisation 

(ICAO) to conduct but for it 

to witness as an observer. 

Speaking at the certification 

event in Lagos yesterday, Muhtar 

Usman, director-general, Nigerian 

Civil Aviation Authority, 

(NCAA) said the current 

drive towards the certification 

of Nigerian airports is very significant, 

as a requirement by 

the ICAO and Nigerian Civil 

Aviation Regulations, and even 

more importantly, as one of the 

critical safety targets set by the 

Abuja Ministerial Declaration 

of July 2012, which mandates 

all African states to certify their 

international airports. 

“The certification is an enabler 

for the attainment of a regional 

hub, which Nigeria desires for 

Lagos and Abuja. It is an enabler 

for airports in its territory to meet 

regulatory safety requirements 

on a continuing basis, and that it 

is providing uniform conditions 

for safe and efficient operation 

of aircraft from all other states, 

as required by Article 15 of the 

Chicago Convention. 

“Aerodrome Certification is 

therefore an ICAO strategy for 

the standardisation and harmonisation 

of airport services, 

facilities and procedures, as 

well as ensuring uniformity in 

safety and critical aerodrome 

elements, irrespective of differences 

in ownership and management 

of such aerodromes,” 

Usman said. 

He further explained that 

the certification would assist 

states to effectively implement 

the critical elements of a safety 

oversight system, in accordance 

Multinational oil companies offer over $1billion in... 


with Annex 14 Vol. I, and other 

relevant ICAO specifications. 

He added that it would signify 

to aircraft operators and other 

organisations operating at the 

aerodrome, that at the time of 

certification, the aerodrome 

meets the specifications, regarding 

its facilities and operations, 

and that it has, according to the 

certifying authority, the capability 

to maintain these specifications 

for the period of validity of 

the certificate. 

He noted that the NCAA is 

required to immediately commence 

the implementation 

of a post certification surveillance 

plan for the continuous 

monitoring of airport services, 

facilities, procedures and manpower 

levels, to ensure that the 

Acceptable Level of Safety is not 

infringed on. 

The NCAA, in her safety oversight 

responsibilities, would ensure 

compliance with ICAO and 

national regulations at all times, 

and where necessary, sanctions 

would be imposed, or certificates 

suspended, to enforce 

compliance with standards. 

85, operated by indigenous firm, 

First Exploration & Production 

Development Company. 

The project will be developed 

with an existing Floating Production 

Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and 

is designed to add 50,000 bbls of oil 

per day and 120 MMscf of gas per 

day. Project FID is expected to be 

made in December 2017, with first 

oil production in 2019. 

Under the agreement, Schlumberger 

will contribute the required 

services and capital for the project 

development until the first oil is 

drilled. The joint project team will 

leverage the technical expertise of 

Schlumberger and the extensive 

local knowledge of the partners. 

Industry operators tell BusinessDay 

that more of these deals 

are underway, indicating a growing 

trend of big oil companies assisting 

local oil firms with financing for gas 

sector projects in Nigeria. 

“This alternative financing approach 

could be key to unlocking 

Nigeria’s gas potential,” says a team 

of oil sector researchers at Eco- 

Bank, led by Dolapo Oni. 

“While local commercial banks 

remain technically unable to provide 

the long-term low-interest 

loans required to finance gas 

projects, partnership with these 

multinationals who have access 

to cheaper capital from developed 

capital markets could be 

the solution. More importantly, 

the absence of the NNPC from 

this particular deal, except as an 

industry regulator, reduces the risk 

of any government interference, as 

it is an entirely private sector deal,” 

said the bank’s research team. 

However, these deals are not inspired 

by altruistic motives, as these 

multinational oil firms are seeking 

opportunities to expand their markets. 

For some, it is part of a global 

strategic plan to diversify income 

sources in a world where huge oil 

incomes are no longer a certainty. 

Shell’s investment in Shoreline 

Nigeria failing to maximise free trade... 


US, while South Africa exported 

in excess of $1.2 billion. Nigeria’s 

non-oil export to the United States, 

under AGOA, fell to $1.141 million 

in 2016, representing a 23.5 per 

cent slump from $1.491m in 2015. 

Ethiopia exported products to 

the US worth $35 million in 2013 

and up to $40 million by 2015. Foreign 

companies such as Chinese 

big shoe maker, Huajian Group, 

produce in Ethiopia and specifically 

export to the US market, earning 

$20 million annually. 

“What we have found is that we 

are not really taking advantage of 

opportunities in AGOA. We have 

failed to take advantage of the first 15 

years of AGOA existence, but some 

others have,” said Olabintan Famutimi, 

president, Nigerian-American 

Chamber of Commerce, in Lagos. 

Rather than benefit from the 

Common External Tariff (CET) 

which is a free trade agreement 

among the 15 countries of ECOW- 

AS, Nigerian pharmaceutical companies 

were almost brought to 

their knees, due to an aspect of the 

agreement that imposed five to 20 

percent tariff on imported raw and 

packaging materials, while requir- 

gives it an opportunity to move into a 

fast growing Lagos gas market. Shell 

is seeking to transform into a global 

gas company, developing gas for use 

in heavy transport such as shipping 

and building new LNG to supply 

underserved markets. Last year, it 

paid $52 billion to buy BG Group Plc 

and got control of gas deposits from 

Kazakhstan to Australia. 

“Although Shell owns a downstream 

gas subsidiary that has 

been operating downstream gas 

pipelines since 1998, they are not 

part of this deal, as they do not have 

concession for this part of Lagos. 

This deal gives Shell access to a fastdeveloping 

axis in Lagos, which 

will benefit from the Lekki Free 

Trade Zone, upcoming Dangote 

Refinery and several more industries,” 

says Ecobank research team. 

Schlumberger is spending billions 

of dollars in Nigeria and around 

the world, buying up stakes in its customers’ 

oil and gas projects, investing 

in the same ventures it supplies with 

equipment and expertise. 

According to the company, 

this new business model gives it 

C002D5556 

ing that drug importers pay no duty. 

“The CET will simply destroy over 

N300 billion investment made by 

pharmaceutical industry and result 

in one million Nigerian employees in 

direct and indirect employment losing 

their jobs,” Okey Akpa, president, 

Pharmaceutical Manufacturers 

Group of the Manufacturers Association 

of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), told 

BusinessDay in 2015. 

However, the Federal Government 

had to intervene this year, 

by imposing Import Adjustment 

Tax (IAT) on imported medicines, 

to save the industry from collapse. 

Hamma Kwajaffa, directorgeneral, 

Nigeria Textile, Garment 

and Tailoring Employers Association 

(NTGTEA) told BusinessDay 

recently, that the CET has further 

encouraged the influx of cheap 

textiles into the country, thus frustrating 

local players. 

The complaint was attributed 

to the fact that goods from Asia and 

other parts of the world, now pass 

off as ECOWAS products, thereby 

denying Nigeria of the tax revenues. 

The CET encourages uniform tariff 

among 15 countries of West Africa, 

some of whom are zero duties. 

“We have discovered that some 

L-R: Love Idoko, 

author and 

motivational 

speaker; Vice 

President Yemi 

Osinbajo; Emmanuel 

Uduaghan, 

former 

governor of 

Delta State, and 

Adam Nuru, 

managing director, 

First City 

Monument Bank 

(FCMB), during 

a literary event 

tagged ‘Activating 

Success 

With Love Idoko’ 

and unveiling 

of the compendium, 

‘Celebrating 

The First 

100 Episodes’ in 

Abuja. 

a say in drilling decisions, oilfield 

management and even on hiring 

other Schlumberger units for 

service contracts. The expanded 

operational authority saves Schlumberger 

from bidding for each of 

the many jobs that typically require 

separate contracts on a large drilling 

project - effectively locking out 

the firm’s competitors. 

“Given the enormous gas reserves 

and projected increase 

in power demand, I believe this 

investment model is viable,” said 

Chijioke Mama, an energy lawyer 

based in Lagos. Mama adds, “However, 

to be sustainable, the numerous 

challenges facing the gas 

sector have to be tackled, namely, 

pricing, infrastructure and robust 

regulations.” 

These multinational firms 

seek to leverage Nigeria’s newly 

approved national gas policy. 

Through the policy, government 

clearly defines the direction for 

gas infrastructure ownership by 

prescribing full legal separation of 

gas infrastructure ownership and 

operations and trading. 

BUSINESS DAY 

33 

NEWS 

third party goods come into the 

country in the name of CET. We are 

grappling with the problem, but if 

you are a manufacturer and import 

raw materials from Spain, you will 

pay tariff,” said Hameed Ibrahim Ali, 

comptroller-general of the Nigeria 

Customs Service (NCS) at a dialogue 

with the Manufacturers Association 

of Nigeria (MAN) last week. 

The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation 

Scheme, allows Nigeria 

and 14 other countries to export 

freely to the West African region, 

but Nigeria’s total exports to the 

region were worth $154.47 million 

in 2015, falling from $350.86 

million the previous year. 

Nigeria’s non-oil export in 2016 

was estimated by the International 

Trade Centre at $3.04 billion. 

John Isemede, former directorgeneral 

of the Nigerian Association 

of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, 

Mines and Agriculture 

(NACCIMA) and international 

trade expert with UNIDO, said 

Nigeria’s failure to maximise free 

trade benefits is based on its poor 

non-oil export capacity. 

Muda Yusuf, director-general of 

the Lagos Chamber of Commerce 

and Industry (LCCI) said the major 

challenges are lack of competitiveness 

and information. 

“Trade is about competition. If 

you have all the agreements and 

you are not competitive, you will 

make no headway,” said Yusuf. 

“Many of the industries that 

are surviving in the country are 

doing so on the basis of protection. 

You have to be price and quality 

competitive and sometimes, there 

is insufficient information and 

awareness,” he said. 

Nigeria, last week, rejected the 

Economic Partnership Agreement 

(EPA) because it will destroy its 

domestic industries. 

“Nigeria has clearly indicated that 

it is not happy with the EPA. Unless 

we have the EPA that is favourable to 

us, unless we have an EPA that will 

not endanger our businesses, we 

will not be signing it,” Zainab Ahmed, 

minister of state for budget and 

planning, who represented Nigeria’s 

president Muhammadu Buhari, said 

at the MAN AGM. 

The EPA is a free trade agreement 

between the 15 countries of 

the Economic Community of West 

African States (ECOWAS) and the 

Europe, seeking to enable West African 

countries access the European 

market and vice versa, without paying 

tariffs. Europe is committing 6.5 

billion euros every five years beginning 

from 2015 to 2019, including 

during the 20-year transition period 

that will end in 2035. 

The EU will open its market 

completely from day one, while 

West Africa will remove import tariffs 

partially over a 20-year transition 

period once the deal is ratified. 

Nigeria recently ratified the 

Trade Facilitation Agreement 

(TFA) as the 107th member of the 

World Trade Organisation (WTO) 

while the Common Free Trade 

Area (CFTA) could begin in 2018. 

“EPAs will put your regional 

trade and integration at risk. You will 

find that most of the products that 

you are producing locally are in fact 

traded regionally in ECOWAS. If you 

acquiesce to the EPA and its corollary 

liberalisation, EU competitiveness 

will certainly jeopardise you regional 

trade. EU products are likely 

to flood your market and displace 

domestic and regional production,” 

Benjamin William Mkapa, former 

president of the United Republic of 

Tanzania, advised Nigeria.



C002D5556 

Read Ambitiously 

Trump to take an agenda of 

change to the United Nations 

China widens Bitcoin crackdown 

beyond commercial trading 

CHAO DENG 

Chinese authorities are 

moving toward a broad 

clampdown on bitcoin 

trading, testing the resilience 

of the virtual currency as 

well as the idea its decentralized 

nature protects it from government 

interference. 

Regulators have decided on 

a comprehensive ban on channels 

for the buying or selling of 

the virtual currency in China 

that goes beyond plans to shut 

commercial bitcoin exchanges, 

according to people familiar 

with the matter. 

Officials communicated the 

message to several industry executives 

at a closed-door meeting 

in Beijing on Friday, according to 

people who were at the meeting. 

Until last week, many entrepreneurs 

in China’s bitcoin circles 

had thought authorities might 

shut down only commercial trading 

activity while tolerating peerto-peer, 

or o ver-the-counter, 

bitcoin platforms, which enable 

buyers and sellers to find each 

other and trade directly. 

Word of a more serious tightening 

spread after the meeting 

and at least one Chinese platform 

last week announced it 

would halt one-on-one trading 

services per official instructions. 

The Chinese plan represents 

some of the most draconian 

measures any government has 

taken to control bitcoin, created 

by an anonymous programmer 

nearly a decade ago as an alternative 

to official currencies, and 

word of it sent another wave of 

anxiety through the Chinese 

bitcoin community. 

China has digitized its financial 

sector faster than any other 

nation. Authorities continue to 

support the trend, though their 

public comments also suggest 

concern bitcoin could weaken 

official control of the country’s 

money supply. 

New way to track auto 

innovation: Patent filings 

CHRISTINA ROGERS 

Car fanatics wanting a 

glimpse at the auto industry’s 

next big thing 

used to flock to auto 

shows. Now, many of them flip 

through online patent filings. 

Auto makers, pressured to 

keep up with Silicon Valley companies 

working on autonomouscar 

technology and ride sharing, 

have sharply boosted their U.S. 

patent filings over the past five 

years. In 2016, 10 of the world’s 

largest car makers submitted 

9,700 patent applications, up 

110% from 2012, according to 

consulting firm Oliver Wyman. 

“The pressure is for us to invent 

before the Valley does,” said 

Bill Coughlin, chief executive of 

Ford Global Technologies LLC, 

which handles the Dearborn, 

Mich., auto giant’s patent and 

copyrights. “The last thing we 

want is to be a fast follower.” 

A growing number of these 

filings seem straight out of science 

fiction, covering inventions 

intended to help people pay less 

attention to the road while they 

drive—or don’t actually drive 

at all 

Ford Motor Co. F 0.38% seeks 

a patent for a drone system that 

would locate passengers who 

call a self-driving robo-taxi, 

while another Ford filing, envisioning 

self-driving cars with 

conference room-style seating, 

seeks to patent a special air bag 

that will fit into a center table to 

protect the occupants facing it. 

FARNAZ FASSIHI 

President Donald 

Trump’s debut at the 

United Nations’ annual 

gathering of world 

leaders was set to kick 

off with a U.S.-hosted event on 

overhauls at the world body. 

Monday’s summit, set to be 

attended by world leaders and 

senior officials from more than 

100 countries, comes a day before 

Mr. Trump’s highly anticipated 

official address at the General 

Assembly. 

Mr. Trump, U.N. Secretary 

General António Guterres and 

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley are 

As ISIS falters, U.S. allies and Syrian regime maneuver for advantage 

MARIA ABI-HABIB & RAJA ABDULRAHIM in 

Beirut & NATHAN HODGE in Okeirbat, Syria 

scheduled to deliver speeches on 

U.N. overhauls focused on better 

efficiency, transparency and 

management, diplomats said. 

While Messrs. Guterres and 

Trump are at odds about issues 

including the Iran nuclear deal 

and the Paris climate accord, 

they appear to share a common 

view on the need to make the U.N. 

more effective and influential, 

diplomats said. Mr. Trump, who 

has repeatedly expressed his 

skepticism about international 

organizations such as the U.N. 

and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 

last year said the U.N. 

is “not a friend of democracy” and 

“not a friend of freedom.” 

In the last Syrian province 

largely under Islamic State 

control, U.S.-backed forces 

are on a collision course 

with the Syrian and Russian 

militaries as both sides scramble 

to strengthen their hands ahead 

of postwar negotiations. 

The contest for territory is 

playing out in Deir Ezzour, an 

oil-rich province where Islamic 

State has fought to protect its revenue 

streams and preserve what 

remains of its rapidly shrinking 

caliphate. 

The Damascus-based Syrian 

government, backed by Russia 

and Iran, wants Deir Ezzour’s 

resources to repair a shattered 

economy and replenish its coffers 

by exporting oil. It could also 

help Tehran establish a route 

over land to Beirut to support its 

Lebanese allies. 

The U.S.-backed forces, who 

are led by Kurds, are also fighting 

Islamic State but wary of giving 

ground to the Syrian regime. 

Kurdish leaders want to use the 

province’s wealth as a bargaining 

chip that could help them secure 

greater autonomy in Syria. 

“The Kurds are trying to get 

as many cards in their hands as 

possible for the time when everyone 

sits around the table to play 

the big game. The scorecards 

that everyone will be looking at 

when they sit around the table 

and think, ‘Who has the most 

and can ask for the most?” said 

a senior Western diplomat who 

is based in the Middle East and 

The United Nations General 

Assembly meeting in New York 

this week will be dominated by 

international concern about 

North Korea after the country 

fired a missile over Japan again 

last week. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib 

tells us what to watch out for 

during the meetings. Photo: Getty 

The U.S. is the top financial 

contributor to the U.N., donating 

28.5% of the $7.3 billion peacekeeping 

budget and 22% of its core 

budget of $5.4 billion. The U.S. is 

conducting a mission-by-mission 

review of the U.N.’s 16 peacekeeping 

operations and lobbied to 

slash $600 million this year from 

the peacekeeping budget. 

Mr. Guterres said he has two 

priorities for overhauls: establishment 

of an advisory board 

on mediation to work toward 

conflict prevention and improving 

gender parity at the U.N. 

The U.S. and other critics say 

the organization’s archaic bureaucracy 

and management 

style hinder its operations, from 

humanitarian assistance to dayto-day 

field and office functions. 

The U.S. has also complained 

about U.N.’s costs, arguing some 

of its work within various organizations 

overlaps. 

focused on the Syria conflict. 

With these different armed 

groups closing in on Deir Ezzour, 

forces backed by the U.S. and 

Russia are sometimes fighting 

within a few miles of each other, 

raising the risk of missteps that 

could inflame tensions. 

On Saturday, Russian military 

forces attacked a location in Deir 

Ezzour east of the Euphrates 

River where they knew troops 

from the U.S.-led coalition and 

allied Syrian rebels were operating, 

the U.S. military said. 

The strike injured several 

members of the U.S.-backed 

group, known as the Syrian 

Democratic Forces, according 

to a statement from the U.S.-led 

coalition. The statement added 

that the U.S. would seek talks 

with its Russian counterparts to 

avoid future conflicts. 

The incident is the latest of 

several where different sides 

fighting Islamic State have collided 

in Syria. In June, the U.S. 

military downed a Syrian government 

warplane after it had 

attacked Syrian Democratic 

Forces on the ground. 

Western diplomats representing 

countries closely allied with 

the U.S. say that Washington’s 

plans in Syria are unclear and 

it lacks a longer-term strategic 

objective beyond driving Islamic 

State from Raqqa, the de facto 

Syrian capital of its self-declared 

caliphate.


L-R: Collins 

Okenyi, honourable 

commissioner 

and 

member, Enugu 

State Independent 

Electoral 

Commission 

(ENSIEC); Lola 

Cardoso, head, 

strategy and innovation, 

Union 

Bank; Emeka 

Emuwa, CEO, 

Union Bank; 

Eucharia Offor, 

Enugu State 

commissioner 

for finance, and 

Oyinkan 

Adewale, executive 

director/ 

chief financial 

officer, Union 

Bank, at the 

bank’s centenary 

gala held in 

Enugu recently. 

CBN goes hard on banks over breach of FX rules 

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE & 

ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja 

Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) on 

Monday, threatened 

to sanction 

any Deposit Money 

Bank (DMB) in breach of 

its earlier directive instructing 

them to, among other things, 

open teller points for retail 

forex transactions and to have 

electronic display boards in all 

their branches, showing rates of 

all trading currencies. 

This comes as the Apex 

Bank sustained its intervention 

in the various sectors of the 

inter-bank Foreign Exchange 

market with the injection of 

$545 million. 

In a circular, the CBN 

warned that it would mete out 

stiff regulatory sanctions to 

banks which fail to comply fully 

with the directive by October 

13, 2017. The circular signed 

by the Director, Banking Su- 

Oyigbo violence: Northern governors assure of 

non-retaliation, commend Wike for protecting lives 


Governors from 

Northern Nigeria 

have arrived Port 

Harcourt, Rivers 

State, where they assured of 

non-retaliation in their part 

of the country over the recent 

violence that took place 

in Abia and Rivers states last 

week. 

They have patted Governor 

Nyesom Wike of Rivers 

State on the back, saying he 

moved fast to nip the violence 

that erupted in Oyigbo 

local council of the state in 

the bud. 

Wike had come under 

criticism for keeping mute 

from Tuesday when the 

violence began until Friday 

when he issued a state 

broadcast condemning the 

killings. Many had referred 

to the prompt intervention 

and endless movements of 

the nearby Abia State governor, 

Okezie Ikpeazu, all 

through the violence in Aba 

and Umuahia, meeting all 

groups to halt the violence. 

The Northern Governors 

…floods market with $545m 

pervision, Ahmad Abdullahi, 

stressed that the Bank would 

bar erring DMBs from all future 

CBN foreign exchange interventions. 

The CBN on March 3, 2017 

directed banks and authorised 

dealers to open a teller 

point for retail FX transactions 

(PTA/BTA and SME) including 

buying and selling, in all locations 

in order to ensure access 

to foreign exchange by their 

customers and other users, 

without any hindrance. 

The March 2017 circular 

also directed DMBs to have 

electronic display boards in all 

their branches, showing rates 

of all trading currencies, which 

it urged customers to insist 

on, in processing their foreign 

exchange transactions for invisibles 

and the SMEs window. 

The objective was to create 

awareness among members 

of the public, regarding the 

Forum however said it was 

the broadcast in Rivers State 

on Friday that saved the 

situation. 

He declared: “Governor 

Wike we are mightily proud 

of you. We are mightily associating 

ourselves with you. 

Nigeria is greater than political 

differences. We belong to 

one political family and that 

is the Federal Republic of 

Nigeria. No interest should 

be bigger than the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria. You believe 

in the Nigerian Project. 

For that, we remain eternally 

grateful”. The Northern 

Governors Forum called for 

the enthronement of Peace 

building measures despite 

the challenges facing the 

country. 

The forum delegation 

led by the chairman (Borno 

State Governor), Kashim 

Shettima, had Katsina State 

Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, 

Sokoto State Governor, 

Aminu Waziri, Kebbi State 

Governor, Atiku Bagudu, 

and Plateau State Governor, 

Simon Lalong, as members. 

Obaseki seeks intense sensitisation of poor 

in Ozone Layer Preservation campaign 

Governor of Edo 

State Godwin 

Obaseki has called 

on frontline international 

and domestic environmentalists, 

heads of states 

and other stakeholders in the 

fight for a safer environment 

for human habitation, business, 

work and leisure, to 

galvanise more of the global 

poor to join in the fight. 

Obaseki made the call 

on the occasion of the International 

Day for the Preservation 

of the Ozone Layer, 

observed on September 16. 

According to Obaseki, 

“poor people are more in 

number especially in third 

world countries and should 

be galvanised to join in the 

global effort to preserve the 

ozone layer and the environment.” 

The governor further said, 

“The failure to appreciate 

the crucial role of the mass 

poor across the globe in our 

collective fight to save the 

environment, accounts for 

the seemingly slow pace in 

availability of such facilities 

in branches of the banks at 

clearly disclosed prices. But 

the CBN has frowned at the 

banks for not fully complying 

with these directives. 

Accordingly, the CBN has 

given the erring banks a fourweek 

period, expiring on October 

13, 2017, to fully comply 

with its directives or face 

regulatory sanctions, which it 

noted, include but not limited 

to being barred from all future 

CBN foreign exchange interventions. 

Meanwhile, a breakdown 

of the CBN’s latest forex injection, 

indicate that the retail 

Secondary Market Intervention 

Sales (SMIS) received the 

largest intervention of $285 

million. Other components 

of the released figures include 

the $100 million offered for 

wholesale SMIS, $90 million 

for Small and Medium Enterprises 

(SMEs) window and 

$70 million for invisibles such 

as Basic Travel Allowances, 

tuition fees and medical payments. 

According to the CBN acting 

director, corporate communications, 

Isaac Okorafor, 

the amount released underscored 

the CBN’s commitment 

to ensure a liquid interbank 

foreign exchange market, 

where all genuine requests 

will be met in line with extant 

forex guidelines. 

Okorafor also expressed 

optimism that, with the accretion 

to the nation’s foreign 

reserve, the CBN would 

continue to fulfil its mandate 

of safeguarding the international 

value of the legal tender. 

He further disclosed that 

the Bank’s management also 

remained optimistic about 

achieving a convergence between 

the forex rates at both 

the inter-bank and BDC segments. 

achieving the desired goals.” 

He explained that some of 

the practices popular among 

the mass poor of the earth, 

like bush burning, felling of 

trees are partly responsible 

for global warming, with 

strong link to the depletion 

of the ozone layer. 

He lamented that “several 

used home appliances and 

industrial equipment made 

with chemicals that destroy 

the ozone blanket find their 

way to third world countries 

and are used by poor people 

who do not have the capacity 

to destroy them in line with 

global conventions, when 

they are beyond repair.” 

He maintained that all 

hands must be on deck in 

the education and mobilisation 

of the poor people in the 

campaign, if measured success 

can be achieved. 

The ozone layer, a fragile 

shield of gas, protects the 

Earth from the harmful portion 

of the rays of the sun, 

thus helping preserve life on 

the planet. 

C002D5556 

Governor of Edo 

State, Godwin 

Obaseki, on Monday, 

hosted the All 

Progressives Congress (APC) 

panel on True Federalism in 

Benin City, the state capital, as 

the party commenced public 

consultation on Nigeria’s restructuring. 

Welcoming the members 

of the party’s team one, in 

charge of the South-South 

geopolitical zone, made up of 

the governors of Kano State, 

Abdullahi Ganduje; Ogun 

State, Ibikunle Amosun and 

Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, 

Obaseki assured the delegates 

that their submissions would 

be given due consideration. 

Some of the delegates 

drawn from Edo, Delta and 

Bayelsa states made a case 

for a return to the regional 

structure, parliamentary system 

of government and parttime 

legislators as against the 

current cumbersome and 

expensive model. 

Frank Nwugo, a legal 

practitioner from Delta State, 

submitted that the National 

Assembly should deliberate 

on restructuring the country 

and adopt part-time legislator. 

Daniel Usifoh, a represen- 

BUSINESS DAY 

35 

NEWS 

True federalism: Obaseki hosts panel 

as APC flags off public hearing 

... delegates seek return to 

regionalism, part-time legislation 

Bayelsa: Entrenching SMEs growth, 

development through budgetary allocations 

SAMUEL ESE, Yenagoa 

Bayelsa State government 

has taken 

steps to entrench 

the growth and 

development of small and 

medium enterprises (SMEs) 

through budgetary provisions 

in its annual budget, 

as part of efforts to diversify 

revenue sources in preparation 

for a time without 

crude oil. 

Governor Henry Seriake 

Dickson made this disclosure 

while speaking on the 

topic, SMEs Participation in 

the Current Drive for Utility 

of Local Technology and 

Resources at the 2017 Africa 

SME Expo with the theme: 

Promoting SMEs for Sustainable 

Development and 

Economic Growth. 

Dickson, who was represented 

by his deputy, John 

Gboribiogha Jonah, used the 

occasion to highlight some 

of the initiatives his administration 

had embarked on 

to provide financial support 

and guidance in the areas of 

agriculture, manufacturing, 

trade and service provision 

to ensure growth of small 

businesses in the state. 

One of the major steps 

the state has taken is the 

institution of a N10 billion 

Entrepreneurship Development 

Fund while presenting 

the 2017 Appropriation Bill 

before the state house of assembly 

in December 2016. 

He said, “The objective is 

to encourage small and me- 

tative of Ika Ethnic Nationality, 

said the Ika social group 

wants the nation to go back 

to the regional system of government. 

He recommended 

the creation of eight new 

regions; four in the north and 

four in the southern part of 

the country. 

He also recommended the 

adoption of the parliamentary 

system of government, noting 

that the presidential system 

was too cumbersome and 

expensive to run, and called 

for the abolishment of the 

Federation Account. 

Earlier, the host governor, 

Obaseki, explained that the 

APC embarked on the public 

hearing to gather all shades 

of opinions from the public 

for the restructuring of the 

country. 

He urged the delegates 

to feel free to air their views 

on all issues, assuring that all 

submissions would be given 

due consideration. 

The Edo governor also 

said the submissions from 

the various local government 

Councils as well as from organised 

labour unions in the 

state would be collated and 

submitted to the committee 

within a seven-day period. 

dium size businesses become 

innovators and ultimately 

become a hub for local resources 

and technology. 

“As part of a wide ranging 

approach to the growth, 

development and sustenance 

of SMEs, the state 

government is expanding 

our education initiatives to 

cater for vocational and skill 

acquisition centres so that 

young people can emerge as 

providers of local technology 

and resources.” 

Dickson disclosed that 

his government established 

the Izon-Ebi Microfinance 

Bank to provide small businesses 

with access to funding 

which is crucial if people 

must innovate and think 

outside the box. 

Other efforts include the 

building of a 60-tonne per 

day cassava starch factory 

with 100 hectares of cassava 

farm, the Aquaculture 

Village at Yenegwe with a 

20-tonne per day feed mill, 

500 earthen ponds, hatchery 

and fish drying and preservation 

units. 

The construction of the 

cargo airport with a runway 

of 3.5 kilometres, development 

of an industrial 

park which will operate as 

a power hub, plans to revive 

Peremabiri Rice Farm and 

mills in collaboration with 

the Federal Government and 

training of young Bayelsans 

at Songhai to take part in the 

agricultural revolution are 

all aimed at boosting SMEs 

development.

Tuesday 19 September 2017 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY A1 

FT 

FINANCIAL TIMES 

Trump champions UN while 

urging reform 

Page A2 

World Business Newspaper 

Pakistan’s new PM 

warns Trump of 

terror risk if US ends 

status as an ally 

KIRAN STACEY AND 

FARHAN BOKHARI ISLAMABAD 

Pakistan’s new prime 

minister has warned 

the US that it risks 

fuelling terrorism in 

the region and undermining 

military efforts in 

Afghanistan if Donald Trump’s 

administration follows through 

with a threat to downgrade its 

relationship with Islamabad. 

Just days after the Financial 

Times revealed that the US was 

considering stripping Pakistan 

of its status as an ally because of 

a perceived failure to tackle terrorism, 

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi 

said the hardline approach could 

backfire. 

In an interview with the FT 

he threatened to drop the US as 

a supplier of military aircraft to 

apply pressure on its ally. F-16 

fighter jets made by US company 

Lockheed Martin have become 

the mainstay of the Pakistani 

air force. 

“We would like to buy more 

F16s, but we do have other options,” 

Mr Abbasi said. “We have 

a long relationship with both 

the French and the Chinese, 

and we have been developing 

the JF-17 alongside the Chinese, 

which in many ways meets or 

even exceeds the specifications 

of the F16.” 

Others in Islamabad said 

Pakistan could employ other 

tactics to pressure the US. One 

• Statistics Authority tackles NHS 

claim; Foreign secretary deepens 

Tory divisions 

Boris Johnson has been accused 

of a “clear misuse of 

official statistics” over his 

revived Brexit pitch to give the 

NHS up to £350m extra a week, 

in a row that threatens to deepen 

Tory divisions and overshadow 

Theresa May’s efforts to break the 

deadlock in EU negotiations. 

The foreign secretary’s ticking 

person close to the powerful 

Pakistani army said: “We could 

make it harder for the US to use 

supply routes through Pakistan 

to serve its troops in Afghanistan, 

and we could stop co-operating 

on drone attacks. That would 

make the war in Afghanistan a 

lot more difficult.” 

Speaking as he prepared to 

fly to New York to attend the UN 

general assembly, Mr Abbasi said 

he found Washington’s Pakistan 

policy “confusing”, adding that he 

had to rely on media reports to 

find out what Mr Trump’s plans 

were for the region. 

“The signals we get from 

Washington are confusing but 

our message is very clear: we are 

committed to fighting terror and 

we will continue to fight terror,” 

he said. “All it will do [if the US 

downgrades Pakistan as an ally] 

is degrade our efforts to fight 

terror, and I am not sure if that 

will work for the US.” 

The Pakistan prime minister 

is hoping to meet Mike Pence, 

the US vice-president, while in 

New York; another meeting is 

planned between Khawaja Asif, 

Pakistan’s foreign minister, and 

Rex Tillerson, his US counterpart. 

Pakistan insists it is doing all 

it can to eliminate terror groups 

such as the Taliban, which operate 

around the border with 

Afghanistan, but Mr Abbasi 

admitted the limitations of its 

operations. 

Number-crunchers take Johnson 

to task over revived £350m pledge 

HENRY MANCE 

off by the UK Statistics Authority 

came just days before the prime 

minister delivers her biggest Brexit 

speech in eight months in Florence 

on Friday. 

Mr Johnson went off-message 

over the weekend, with a 4,200- 

word article in the Daily Telegraph 

that departed substantially from 

government policy. After months 

on the fringes of the Brexit debate, 

Mr Johnson decided to recall the 

contentious £350m figure, writ- 

Continues on page A2 

Adam Schiff 

Pressure builds on Facebook over 

Russian ad sales in US election 

COURTNEY WEAVER 

• Network hands information 

to special counsel; Lawmakers 

question role in meddling 

US lawmakers are stepping 

up pressure on 

Facebook as concerns 

rise about the role the social 

media network played in Russia’s 

interference in the 2016 

presidential election. 

Facebook yesterday said it 

had shared new findings about 

ad sales with special counsel 

Robert Mueller. “We are providing 

information to special 

counsel, including ads and 

related account information,” 

Facebook said. 

Adam Schiff, the ranking 

Democrat on the House intelligence 

committee, said there 

were outstanding concerns 

about Facebook’s transactions. 

“We are requesting a lot more 

information from Facebook . . 

. there are a lot of unanswered 

questions,” he told ABC News. 

Since revealing that “inauthentic” 

Russian actors had 

purchased at least $100,000 of 

ads on the site, Facebook has 

found itself under scrutiny as 

Italy - The gatekeeper 

and the comedian 

Page A3 

part of a probe into possible 

communication between Moscow 

and members of President 

Donald Trump’s campaign. 

The revelations have set off 

alarm bells in Washington, 

with some legislators questioning 

why Facebook was only 

releasing news of the ad sales 

at such a late stage - close to 

a year after the election - and 

whether other big technology 

companies, such as Twitter and 

Google, had acted similarly. 

Mr Schiff said: “There are 

issues about what legal process 

we need to use to get this 

information from Facebook. 

But frankly, I am distressed 

that it has taken us this long to 

be informed that the Russians 

had paid for at least $100,000 of 

ads designed to try to influence 

our electoral process.” 

He said he did not believe 

the special counsel investigation 

would conflict with the 

congressional probes run by 

him and other investigators. 

He added that his committee 

would ask whether other tech 

groups had been caught up in 

election interference activities. 

Facebook has described 

some of the ads, bought by Rus- 

sian actors, in general terms, 

saying many focused on “amplifying 

divisive social and 

political messages”. However, it 

has not publicly disclosed details 

of the contents of the ads. 

It has said they did not contain 

specific messaging about the 

election or presidential candidates. 

The fresh focus on Facebook 

comes as Congress ramps up 

its investigations into potential 

co-operation between members 

of Mr Trump’s campaign 

and Russian officials last year. 

Dianne Feinstein, the ranking 

Democrat on the Senate 

judiciary committee, told CNN 

yesterday that members of her 

committee had spent five hours 

questioning Donald Trump Jr, 

the president’s eldest son, over 

a 2016 meeting with a Russian 

lawyer who was reportedly 

willing to share compromising 

information on Hillary Clinton. 

Mr Trump Jr has said he did 

not receive any compromising 

information from the lawyer 

and did nothing wrong. 

Ms Feinstein said Mr Trump 

Jr would testify publicly before 

her committee in the next few 

months.


A2 BUSINESS DAY 

C002D5556 

FT 

Number-crunchers take... 

NATIONAL NEWS 

PwC under fire for advising Ofwat on pricing while working for water groups 

GILL PLIMMER AND JIM PICKARD 

PwC is facing criticism over 

potential conflicts of interest 

after advising Britain’s water 

watchdog at the same time as working 

for several water and sewage 

companies. 

The concerns centre on the formal 

review that Ofwat, the regulator, 

conducts every five years to determine 

the prices water companies 

Continued from page A1 

ing: “Once we have settled our 

accounts, we will take back control 

of roughly £350m per week. It 

would be a fine thing, as many of 

us have pointed out, if a lot of that 

money went on the NHS.” 

However, that figure does not 

account for Britain’s rebate from 

the EU or spending, such as farm 

subsidies, which the government 

has vowed to maintain. 

Mr Johnson was yesterday 

rebuked by Amber Rudd, the 

home secretary, for “back-seat 

driving” over Brexit. But the most 

unseemly exchanges came with 

David Norgrove, chair of the UK 

Statistics Authority, who wrote to 

Mr Johnson criticising the use of 

the £350m figure. 

The dispute deepened when 

Mr Johnson’s office claimed Sir 

David was only complaining 

about the Telegraph’s headlines. 

Sir David responded that he was 

taking issue with the whole article. 

Mr Johnson’s office then accused 

Sir David, a former private secretary 

to Margaret Thatcher, of “amnesia”, 

and the foreign secretary 

himself wrote a letter complaining 

of “wilful distortion” by the UK 

Statistics Authority. 

The public body raised similar 

concerns about the £350m figure 

during last year’s referendum 

campaign. Challenging “the misuse 

of public statistics” is among 

its formal objectives; in the past, 

ministers have apologised after 

being accused of misuse. 

Mr Johnson’s return to the 

Brexit debate was interpreted by 

many as a leadership bid but Tory 

MPs have shown little interest in 

toppling Mrs May. Even one ally 

of Mr Johnson called his intervention 

- on the day of a terror attack 

in London - “inept”. 

The foreign secretary’s article 

seemed designed to infuriate 

chancellor Philip Hammond and 

Brexit secretary David Davis, who 

have been steering government 

thinking on a transition deal. Neither 

was mentioned in the piece. 

Mr Johnson wants a transition 

deal to last 12 to 18 months, 

without large payments to the 

EU, while Mr Davis and Mr Hammond 

have said the deal could 

last three years, with greater payments. 

Downing Street said: “The 

duration and precise nature of an 

implementation period are a matter 

for negotiations.” 

‘It’s absolutely clear to everyone 

that the driver of the car in 

this instance is the prime minister’. 

charge customers over the subsequent 

half-decade. 

During the three years to 2015, 

Ofwat employed PwC, one of the 

big four accountancy firms, to assess 

pricing for the 2015-20 period 

- dubbed PR14. 

PwC was also the auditor between 

2010 and 2014 of six of England 

and Wales’ 19 water companies, 

including Anglian Water, 

Yorkshire, South West and Bristol 

Donald Trump 

When Steve Jobs launched the 

iPhone in 2007 he claimed 

it was a revolutionary product 

that would change everything. 

Hyperbole was, of course, his second 

tongue. But a decade on, it could be 

argued that Jobs was largely right, 

even if not in the way he imagined. 

The launch of Apple’s latest 

iPhone X in Cupertino last week once 

again highlighted what a phenomenon 

the smartphone has become. 

With more than 1bn devices sold, the 

iPhone probably ranks as the most 

profitable product in history, helping 

to turn Apple into the most valuable 

public company in the world. 

But, as Brian Merchant explains 

in his snappy book The One Device, 

The Secret History of the iPhone, the 

smartphone has evolved in ways that 

Jobs did not envisage. His primary purpose 

was to reinvent the telephone by 

throwing in an iPod and a web browser. 

But it was the subsequent launch of 

Water, accounting for about a third 

of the sector’s revenues. 

The firm advised some of its 

clients on their business plans - including 

bill prices, customer service 

and investment - which were put to 

the regulator as part of bids for PR14. 

In its 2014 accounts, for instance, 

Anglian Water disclosed that it paid 

£400,000 to PwC for non-audit work, 

“including advisory work in relation 

to the business plan”. 

the App Store that super-charged the 

iPhone’s growth and created a whole 

new branch of economic activity. The 

iPhone’s killer app was as a store for 

others’ apps. 

Apple’s achievement was to put a 

supercomputer in everyone’s pocket 

and allow others to figure out how to 

use it. The Apollo Guidance Computer, 

which helped man land on the moon in 

1969, contained 12,300 transistors. The 

iPhone 7 contains 3.3bn. In Mr Merchant’s 

words, this iPhone supercomputer 

has become the “foundational 

instrument of modern life”. 

That app economy has spawned a 

new generation of Silicon Valley companies 

such as Uber, Instagram, Snapchat, 

and Airbnb and weaponised social 

media businesses such as Facebook. 

Adding in rival app ecosystems, such 

as Google-Android and China’s superapp 

communities, the AppAnnie data 

company estimates consumers will 

download 197bn apps this year, rising 

to 353bn by 2021. 

That explosion of app usage has led 

Antoinette Sandbach, a Conservative 

MP on the business select 

committee, said the regulator 

should reconsider its relationship 

with PwC “in the light of this information” 

and investigate the ties 

between PwC and the utilities. 

Martin Blaiklock, a consultant 

in the private funding of public 

utilities and a former director at the 

European Bank for Reconstruction 

and Development, said the fact that 

Data sovereignty should guide any redesign of the digital economy 

JOHN THORNHILL 

to a surge of personal communication, 

consumer convenience, and on- demand 

entertainment. No longer can a 

teenager in possession of a smartphone 

ever again complain of being bored. 

But this technological revolution has 

also come at a cost in terms of economic 

disruption, mass distraction and the 

erosion of privacy. In Europe, where 

citizens’ rights tend to trump consumer 

convenience, a different sensibility 

prevails. Here, US tech companies are 

sometimes portrayed as vampirical 

colonialists, sucking all the data out of 

European consumers, reducing them 

to bloodless advertising fodder. 

The EU has responded by tackling 

some of the US tech groups on competition 

grounds and adopting a farreaching 

General Data Privacy Regulation 

that comes into force next year. The 

European Commission has estimated 

that by 2020 the value of citizens’ personal 

data will reach €1tn, almost 8 per 

cent of EU gross domestic product. It is 

determined that this valuable resource 

should be used more responsibly. 

South Africa’s descent into despotism must stop 

SAM FLEMING AND PAN KWAN YUK 

• Zuma’s rotten rule demands a robust 

international response 

In recent months, Brazil and 

South Korea have shown how 

far countries can go in the fight 

against corruption. No one, not 

even the president, has been above 

the law. If South Africa is to ensure 

that “state capture” - the harnessing 

of public resources for private ends 

- does not ultimately lead to state 

failure, it must follow suit, and soon. 

Thanks to the courageous efforts 

of civil society groups such as 

Corruption Watch and Save South 

Africa, the grubby nexus between 

the Gupta family business empire 

and President Jacob Zuma’s administration 

has come into sharper 

focus. So too has the part played 

by international firms such as Bell 

Pottinger, KPMG and McKinsey. 

The Gupta scandal has robbed the 

country of its post-apartheid lustre 

and exposed how far the integrity of 

government institutions, including 

the national prosecutor’s office, has 

been undermined. 

Reversing this rot is the most important 

challenge South Africa has 

faced since the dismantling of white 

minority rule. Not so long ago, under 

Nelson Mandela, much of the African 

continent looked to its southernmost 

nation to help lift it from the yoke 

of corruption and oppression. The 

question now is how far the country 

can descend before it replicates the 

looting and rent extraction that has 

ruined so many other African states. 

Under Mr Zuma South Africa has 

become poorer, jobs have become 

scarcer, the rand has fallen, and its 

credit rating has been downgraded 

to junk. South Africans are more divided 

and frustrated than they have 

been at any time since the dawn of 

black majority rule in 1994. It has 

been a slow-burning disaster, but 

one that becomes more explosive 

the longer it goes on. Today, top 

businessmen invoke Venezuela in 

the same breath as South Africa. 

At the outset of his rule, Mr Zuma 

was already compromised by hundreds 

of counts of corruption related 

to a 1999 arms deal. Any residual 

credibility has been long since been 

stripped away. Patronage networks 

have become central to the ruling 

African National Congress’s raison 

d’être. Graft has infected all levels 

of the state. 

PwC was an adviser to both Ofwat 

and several water companies meant 

there was “clearly the potential and 

possibility for collusion across the 

negotiation table”. 

Ofwat said that when working 

with PwC on PR14, it took steps 

to “ensure that any existing actual 

and potential conflicts were identified 

and suitable measures put in 

place to ensure there were robust 

ethical walls”. 

Trump champions 

UN while urging 

reform 

KATRINA MANSON 

• ‘Tremendous potential’ lauded in 

speech at global body he once lambasted 

The US wanted to help the United 

Nations achieve its “truly noble 

goals”, said Donald Trump, presenting 

himself as a champion of the 

multilateral institution he had labelled 

an inefficient talking shop. 

“In recent years the UN has not 

reached its full potential because of 

bureaucracy and mismanagement,” 

the US president said in a short, scripted 

speech at the body’s headquarters. 

“Make the United Nations great,” he 

said later in an echo of the campaign 

slogan that had brought him to victory 

as president. The UN, he said, had “tremendous 

potential”. 

The positive words mark a 

turnround for Mr Trump. The leader 

said he wanted to “find ways the UN 

can . . . be better at development, 

management, peace and security”. Mr 

Trump will address the UN’s general 

assembly today. 

Mr Trump previously said the UN 

was no friend of freedom and had failed 

to end the big conflicts of the world. 

He had even lambasted its marble 

tiles as too small. Combined with his 

isolationist posture, underpinned by 

his “America First” credo, it led many 

allies to fear he would abandon the 

organisation. 

UN officials had worried the US 

would seek to slash or withhold its 

funding. 

Nearly 130 countries have signed a 

US-drafted 10-point declaration that is 

short on specifics but whose signatories 

pledge support for broad reform. 

This will be spearheaded by UN 

secretary-general António Guterres, 

who said “Byzantine procedures” and 

“endless red tape” keep him up at night. 

Mr Trump said reforms will cut 

bureaucracy, dispense with outdated 

systems, protect whistleblowers and 

focus on results rather than process. 

“While the United Nations on a 

regular budget has increased by 140 

per cent, and its staff has more than 

doubled since 2000, we are not seeing 

the results in line with this investment,” 

said Mr Trump. 

The US is the chief financier of the 

UN, funding more than 28 per cent of 

the $6.8bn peacekeeping budget - close 

to three times as much as the next largest 

financial backer, China. The US also 

funds 22 per cent of the smaller core 

UN budget. 

Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the 

UN, said yesterday that she had found 

“a friend” in Mr Guterres, a life-long 

socialist, former prime minister of Portugal 

and refugee champion. “Trump 

actually working with a multilateral 

body - it’s quite amazing,” said a UN 

official. “This is the exact opposite of 

what he has said before.”


ANALYSIS 

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FT 

Italy - The gatekeeper and the comedian 

JAMES POLITI AND 

HANNAH ROBERTS 

FT SERIES: THE EURO- 

POPULISTS- Since the 

death of his father, Davide 

Casaleggio has become a 

central figure in the Five 

Star Movement, write James Politi 

and Hannah Roberts. But with the 

populist party holding a real chance 

of victory, it has disclosed little 

about the roles played by him and 

his company. 

When Davide Casaleggio took the 

stage at a former Olivetti typewriter 

factory in Ivrea, north-west Italy, in 

early April, his audience had already 

been subjected to an apocalyptic, 

10-minute film. The internet, it 

warned, was “like atomic energy” 

that could be used for good or evil, 

including the creation of “Orwellian 

dictatorships”. 

“The future is already present, 

you just have to know where to 

see it,” Mr Casaleggio told the participants 

in the day-long affair that 

included Fabio Vaccarono, chief 

executive of Google Italy. 

An uncharismatic 41-year-old 

management consultant and extreme 

sports aficionado, Mr Casaleggio 

was able to host such a highprofile 

event because he has placed 

himself directly at the intersection 

of the internet and politics in Italy. 

He is president of the Rousseau Association, 

which runs an internet 

platform designed to introduce 

direct democracy into the antiestablishment 

Five Star Movement 

by conducting online primary votes 

and surveys of members on policies. 

This has made Mr Casaleggio 

the gatekeeper and most important 

force behind Five Star, a political 

party founded in 2009 and fronted 

by comedian Beppe Grillo, which is 

aiming to take control of the country’s 

parliament in the general election 

scheduled for early next year. 

For supporters, Mr Casaleggio - 

whose small Milan-based company 

also runs a blog by Mr Grillo - is a 

trailblazer in adapting the tools of 

the internet to give citizens a direct 

voice in modern politics and to shatter 

the mould of backroom deals. 

“We brought the digital revolution 

to politics,” says Carla Ruocco, a Five 

Star lawmaker. “We are the closest to 

the piazzas, to the people.” 

But the complicated fusion of 

Mr Casaleggio’s public and private 

functions has raised questions about 

accountability gaps and potential 

conflicts of interests within Five Star. 

Critics question whether one individual 

should play such a significant 

role while having no official party 

position and while his business is 

so central to its activities. 

“Casaleggio is the head of the 

Five Star structure, which puts him 

at the centre of the movement. It all 

goes through him,” says Piero Ignazi, 

a professor of political science at the 

University of Bologna. 

Fabio Bordignon, professor of 

political science at Urbino University 

and a specialist on Five Star, 

adds: “Transparency is one of their 

battle horses, but it is entirely partial 

transparency” 

Even some of the membership 

are calling for more internal democracy. 

“There is a democratic deficit 

here,” says one Five Star insider. “It’s 

like a sect.” 

Heading into the election cam- 

Davide Casaleggi 

paign, Five Star is trying to convince 

a dissatisfied electorate that it can 

wipe out corruption from the country’s 

politics and snatch economic 

sovereignty back from the EU. Given 

that it is currently level in the polls 

with the ruling centre-left Democratic 

party, it has a realistic shot at 

gaining power. At a party conference 

next weekend in Rimini and with Mr 

Casaleggio’s blessing, party members 

are expected to choose Luigi Di 

Maio, a 31-year-old Neapolitan and 

vice-president of the lower house of 

parliament, to be its candidate for 

prime minister in an online vote run 

by Rousseau. 

With Five Star possibly approaching 

power, Mr Casaleggio’s presence 

as a businessman at the heart of the 

party has brought echoes of the debate 

surrounding Silvio Berlusconi, 

the media mogul and former threetime 

prime minister. “The scale is 

different but the principle is the 

same,” says Mr Ignazi. 

Voters as ‘ant colonies’ 

Most of all, Mr Casaleggio’s lowprofile 

means that little is known of 

his deeper political views and the 

agenda he might push were Five 

Star to win the election. In the past 

he has at least flirted with ideas 

about how to use technology to 

manipulate public opinion - in an 

echo of the semi-authoritarian path 

he vowed to exorcise in the opening 

film in Ivrea. In a book called 

Tu Sei Rete, or You Are Network, 

Mr Casaleggio wrote that people, 

like “ant colonies”, could be easily 

conditioned through the diffusion 

of simple messages. 

“It’s necessary that the components 

are many in number, that 

they meet casually and they are 

not aware of the characteristics of 

the system in its complexity,” he 

wrote. “An ant must not know how 

the formicary works, otherwise, 

all the ants would take on the best 

and least tiring roles, creating a coordination 

problem.” 

Mr Casaleggio’s pivotal role in 

Italian politics is essentially inherited. 

His father, Gianroberto Casaleggio, 

co-founded Five Star in 2009 

alongside Mr Grillo, and was himself 

seen as the éminence grise behind 

the party. When Gianroberto died 

in April last year, he passed the reins 

of his company - called Casaleggio 

Associati - to Davide. 

A child chess prodigy, Mr Casaleggio 

graduated in economics 

at Milan’s Bocconi University. He 

lives with his long-term girlfriend 

Paola Gianotti, a champion cyclist, 

and practises ice diving in frozen 

alpine lakes, according to a friend at 

his diving club. Five Star colleagues 

paint a picture of a reserved, targetdriven 

man rather than a political 

visionary, unlike his father. 

Max Bugani, one of Davide’s closest 

allies, says: “He is a workaholic, a 

bit manic, very focused.” One former 

Five Star parliamentarian told the 

FT that “Casaleggio has only one 

objective, to become the leader in 

the world at developing algorithms 

that determine web behaviour and 

then sell that information to clients.” 

Mr Casaleggio declined to comment 

for this article, but at an 

August press conference in Rome 

he denied being a leader in Five 

Star. “My role has always been of 

support to the movement. I do not 

hold elected office, I do not ask Five 

Star for a salary. I am one of many 

activists, many volunteers,” he said. 

The family business 

Mr Casaleggio has however 

been much more than that since 

his father died. He has participated 

in most of the big political moves 

made by Five Star in recent months, 

including a failed attempt to switch 

alliances in the European Parliament 

in January. He has frequently 

travelled to Rome to huddle with Mr 

Grillo and other key officials, including 

Virginia Raggi, the embattled 

Five Star mayor of the Italian capital. 

Since Five Star lacks any headquarters, 

key meetings have been held at 

the Hotel Forum, a four-star albergo 

500m from the Colosseum Just this 

month, he appeared with Mr Grillo 

in a video to fundraise for the Rimini 

conference. 

If Five Star were to win the premiership, 

possibly in alliance with 

other populist parties, it would be 

unclear who would be calling the 

shots, and based on whose interests. 

There are no formal mechanisms 

for party members to challenge 

Mr Casaleggio’s leadership - giving 

him, along with Mr Grillo - virtually 

unchecked power. 

Casaleggio Associati is essentially 

a small ecommerce consultancy that 

advises clients on the best strategies 

to sell more online. In 2016 it lost 

€48,000 on revenues of just under 

€1m. 

Venerando Monello, a lawyer 

close to the ruling Democratic 

party, has mounted a legal challenge 

against Five Star’s internal 

structure. “We do not know what 

relationships Casaleggio Associati 

has with foreign powers or foreign 

companies. We don’t know whether 

there can be interference with the 

political activities of Five Star from 

Casaleggio’s commercial activities.” 

A spokesman for Mr Casaleggio 

refused to comment, but Five Star 

officials shrug off these concerns. 

They argue that their digital model 

- which means low overhead costs 

and no headquarters - means they 

are less susceptible to money. Any 

flaws in accountability, they add, 

pale in comparison with the lobbying 

ties of traditional parties. 

“How can we be influenced? 

We do politics without any money,” 

says Carla Ruocco, the Five Star 

lawmaker. 

The nerve centre of Five Star’s 

structure is Rousseau - Gianroberto’s 

brainchild and an internet platform 

named after the 18th century philosopher 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau 

who championed direct, as opposed 

to representative, democracy. 

Through Rousseau, Five Star selects 

party members, holds online votes 

for candidates in all elections, allows 

people to propose and comment on 

legislation and receives donations. 

This year, members have also voted 

on Five Star’s platform for the next 

election. 

“I say this with great humility, 

but equally great firmness: there is 

nothing similar in the world, no one 

else has ever created such a way of 

aggregating people and ideas as us”, 

said Danilo Toninelli, another Five 

Star lawmaker. 

While Mr Casaleggio may dismiss 

his importance to Five Star 

as a whole, he cannot do the same 

when it comes to Rousseau. He is 

the president of Rousseau and his 

company shares the same address in 

Milan, even though they are separate 

entities legally. The leadership of 

Rousseau also includes two of Davide’s 

right-hand men: Mr Bugani, 

a city councillor in Bologna, and 

Pietro Dettori, the former social media 

manager at Casaleggio Associati. 

So far, Rousseau only has about 

140,000 registered members - out of 

Five Star’s approximately 9m voters 

in the 2013 general election - and 

only those who entered the movement 

before July 2016 can vote on 

party issues. Rousseau staffers say 

they have a target of 1m members, 

but screening is costly and time-consuming. 

“We have so many requests, 

we have to make sure they are real 

people,” says Mr Bugani. 

But critics say that limiting membership 

helps Mr Casaleggio minimise 

internal opposition. “We don’t know 

anything about the internal political 

debate, and the players at the top have 

total control,” says Massimiliano Panarari, 

a professor of communications 

at Luiss University in Rome.



BRIAN REUBEN 

BUSINESS DAY 

T R A I N I N G 

A HUMAN CAPITAL AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT COMPANY 

World Class Business Insights 

Three ways to grow a business 

There are three ways 

to grow a business, 

most people are 

however stuck at using 

only one - increase 

the number of people 

buying. Yes when more people 

buy from you, the business will 

grow but there are two even 

more powerful ways of making 

growth happen. You need all 

of them. The first is to increase 

the number of clients. Next is 

to increase average value of 

each transaction. And finally 

increase the frequency of each 

purchase. 

Increase the number of paying 

customers and clients: 

There are three basic things 

you can do to increase your 

client or customer base. First 

you can increase your lead 

generation through advertising, 

referrals, lowering your price 

to acquire new clients at break 

even up front and make profit 

latter, increasing the perceived 

value of your offering through 

customer education, developing 

a unique selling point, effective 

use of the social media 

and sponsoring events that 

will endear your brand to your 

intended audience. There are of 

course other ways this can be 

done. But the central idea is to 

make it easy for people to buy 

from you. 

Secondly, you can increase 

your customer loyalty by delivering 

higher than expected 

level of services and building 

relationship with your customer 

through regular communications. 

When you deliver 

superior services and have an 

active relationship with your 

customers, they stay with you 

and buy more and more from 

you. This way you increase your 

sales unit which will translate to 

growth for your business. 

Thirdly, you can increase 

the number of sales enquiries 

you turn into successful sales. 

By increasing sales skills levels 

of your staff you make make 

it easy and possible for more 

people to buy from you. You 

can also sale to a custormer 

at an amount less than your 

published price. That means acquiring 

clients at breakeven up 

front and make a profit on the 

back end. Other ways include 

making risk-free offers, trial offers, 

and advertising. 

This way you increase your 

client base which leads to more 

sales, more profit and of course 

growth. But this is all many 

business leaders know about 

business growth ignoring the 

other two even more powerful 

even ways of facilitating business 

growth. 

Increasing the transactional 

value of each purchase: 

The average transactional 

value is the average amount of 

money that a buyer spends with 

you in a single purchase. To 

determine your average transactional 

value, weigh the total 

value of transactions against 

the total number of transactions. 

This is so important because 

you can have so many 

people buying from you yet not 

selling as much as you ought 

to. The true profitability of your 

business begins when you learn 

to increase the average transactional 

value of your clients. 

One fundermental way of 

increasing the average transactional 

value is to design your 

business in a way that makes 

cross-selling and up-selling 

easy. Cross-selling is when 

you sale multiple products or 

services to your new or existing 

customers. This begins by 

having an intelligent sales team 

well versed in selling skills and 

human psychology. You will 

require a sales team that thinks 

strategically otherwise you will 

loose money without realizing 

that. Who knows how much 

you’ve lost already. 

There are other ways of increasing 

the average transactional 

value like, using pointof-sale 

promotions, packaging 

complementary products and 

services together, increasing 

your pricing and hence your 

profit margins and changing 

your product or service profile. 

I intend to deal with all of 

these on this column so you 

can understand simple ways to 

skyrocket your business results. 

You will however get the opportunity 

of having a thorough 

grip on all of these and more 

when you register for the Strategic 

Marketing Master Class 1.0 

which I will lead in Lagos on the 

12th and 13th of October. We 

however have limited seats and 

you may want to check www. 

businessdayonline.com/training/download-brochure 

to see 

if you can still secure a spot. 

Otherwise you may also like 

to reserve a seat for the 2nd 

edition of thesame program in 

November(although that will 

be slightly more expensive). 

However its important that 

you check now to see if you can 

still get a seat for the October 

edition. 

Brian Reuben, the Lead 

Consultant, D•Seven Associates 

is a business advisor, 

keynote speaker and the author 

of Building Your Own 

High Performing Business. 

He is a member of Business 

Day Training faculty. @brianoreuben 

This Page Is Open For Sponsorship, for details call 0808 726 4420.


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BUSINESS DAY 

Quick-Takes 

a different look at business &market news 

Exit from recession and 

the gospel according to Lai 

Since the Nigerian 

Bureau of Statistics 

(NBS) released 

its second quarter 

2017 report which 

announced that Nigeria has 

exited from its 13-month recession, 

the country has been 

inundated with emergency 

and pseudo economists who 

have been busy analyzing and 

interpreting what it means to 

be out of recession. 

NBS had on September 5 

announced that the country’s 

GDP, after five consecutive 

quarters of negative growth, 

has returned a positive 

growth of 0.55 percent, leading 

to the country’s exit from 

recession. 

The bureau explained 

that the economy recovered 

because of the growth and 

contribution from some sectors 

of the economy including 

agriculture, manufacturing, 

and especially the oil sector. 

Expectedly, the emergency 

economists comprising 

mostly government officials 

have been celebrating 

this landmark development 

which, they claim, is a result 

of their visionary leadership 

and people-focused 

programmes. For them, it 

amounts to cleaning the Aegean 

Stable left behind by 

“those who were managing 

the economy before 2015”. 

This development has 

become a gospel and, like 

Matthew, whose account 

opens the New Testament 

in the Bible, the minister for 

information and culture, Lai 

Mohammed, was the first to 

attribute the ‘miracle’ of economic 

recovery to the ‘magic’ 

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST I TUESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2017 

C002D5556 

EPA and Nigerian industries 

Europe is proposing 

the Economic Partnership 

Agreement (EPA) 

to West Africa. Other 

countries in the region have accepted 

the free trade agreement 

except Nigeria and The Gambia. 

For starters, the EPA is a free 

trade agreement between the 15 

countries of the Economic Community 

of West African States 

(ECOWAS) and the Europe, 

seeking to enable West African 

countries access the European 

market and vice versa, without 

paying tariffs. Europe is committing 

6.5 billion euros every 

five years beginning from 2015- 

2019 to the scheme, including 

during the 20-year transition 

period that will end in 2035. 

The EU will open its market 

completely from day one, while 

West Africa will remove import 

tariffs partially over a 20-year 

transition period once the deal 

is ratified. 

For agricultural products or 

finished consumer goods currently 

produced in West Africa 

wand of government policy 

Coming out from recession, 

according to the 

minister, means “the worst 

is over”. He added, among 

other things, that what this 

means also that investors 

will now be coming into the 

country to invest and grow 

the economy further, assuring 

that government would 

sustain and build on what it 

did to get the economy out of 

recession through sustained 

policy interventions in various 

sectors. 

As spokesman for a government 

that, many believe, 

has dug more holes than it 

can cover, Lai is entitled to 

his opinions. He was also 

expected to say all he said, 

But that “the worst is over” 

remains debatable for the ordinary 

Nigerian on the street 

who has to daily haggle prices 

with the trader in the market 

or for the man or woman who 

lost his job and may never get 

it back or get another. 

Exit from recession notwithstanding, 

commodity 

prices remain relatively high, 

especially for gari, rice, beans, 

yam which are all staple food 

for most Nigerian families. 

Before 2015 up to the third 

quarter of 2016 when the 

economy slipped into recession, 

a paint can measure of 

garri was selling for N300- 

N500.00; a derica (measure) 

of beans sold for N150-N180; 

a sizeable tuber of year sold 

for N400-N600.00 while a bag 

of rice, depending on brand, 

sold for N8,000—N9,000. 

Today, in spite of the exit 

from recession, a paint can of 

garri sells for N800; a derica 

(measure) of beans is selling 

for N250-N300; a sizeable 

tuber of year sells for N1000- 

N1,200 while a bag of rice, depending 

on brand, is sold for 

between N12,000—N15,000. 

Similarly, the exchange 

rate of the naira is at N360 

to US$ and even though it 

is a significant drop from a 

or for which the region plans to 

develop production capacity, 

West Africa will not reduce its 

import duties. 

The EU says the EPA will 

improve ‘rules of origin’ only 

for West Africa, making it easier 

to consider goods sourced and 

transformed in various countries 

of the region as West African 

goods benefitting from free access 

to the EU market. 

The EU further says that it 

will support West Africa’s economic 

development, industrialisation 

and job creation, through 

a body called ‘Competitiveness 

Observatory’, which will monitor 

and assess, based on clear 

indicators, the implementation 

and impact of the EPA on the 

economies of the West African 

countries. 

However, Nigerian manufacturers 

say it is an obnoxious trade 

agreement that will decapitate 

industries, as Nigerian cannot 

compete with Europe at the 

time in this country when 

it exchanged at N520 to the 

US$, it is still well above the 

average of ‘N199 to the US$ 

it exchanged before things 

‘changed.’ 

It is amazing how presumptuous 

our leaders 

could be when they speak 

to the people and on issues 

of the moment. It is always 

as though everyone else is 

daft and incapable of seeing 

through the façade that 

masks governance in this 

country. 

Nothing could be truer or 

more incontrovertible than 

the argument that the economy 

slipped into recession by 

the action and inaction of this 

government. Good enough, 

some of those actions and inactions 

are being retraced. So 

the government should just 

save us the ego-trip of being 

experts in economics. If they 

were that good, the economy 

would not have gone into 

recession in the first place. 

moment. 

According to the Manufacturers 

Association of Nigeria 

(MAN), Nigeria and West Africa 

are not in a position to conclude 

a reciprocal trade relationship, 

saying that the EPA is structured 

to limit the growth of manufacturing 

in West Africa, particularly 

in Nigeria. 

Last week, the federal government 

temporarily put the 

kibosh on the EPA by stating 

that ‘unless Nigeria has an agreement 

that is favourable to us, 

unless we have an EPA that will 

not endanger our businesses, we 

will not be signing it.’ 

This could hurt Europe 

but it also could hit Nigeria’s 

export to the EU as it could be 

subjected to the World Trade 

Organisation (WTO) standard 

tariffs, which are very high. 

What is, therefore, required is 

a re-negotiation that will guarantee 

that local industries are 

protected while ensuring an 

open border for certain types 

of European products. 

Nigeria’s oil dependent future 

faces more uncertainty 

Ni g e r i a ’ s 

economy 

though said 

to be considerably 

diversified in 

terms of GDP composition, 

still has about 

80 percent of foreign 

exchange earnings 

coming through oil receipts. 

The future of 

oil is now increasingly 

uncertain, not only 

on account of general 

growing interests in renewable 

energy, but as 

more governments and 

automobile companies 

express readiness to 

put an end to the era of 

petrol/diesel powered 

vehicles. 

Last week in what 

appeared to be a game 

changer, China, the 

world’s most populous 

nation expressed 

readiness to eventually 

ban the sale of all fossil 

fuel-powered cars 

in the country, within 

a timeline to be determined. 

Xin Guobin, the 

Chinese vice minister 

of industry and information 

technology, 

was quoted expressing 

the view that the 

government is working 

with other regulators 

on a timetable to end 

production and sales. 

The move will have a 

profound impact on 

the environment and 

growth of China’s auto 

industry. 

China’s vehicle sales 

numbers have led the 

world recently, and are 

increasing at an impressive 

clip annually, 

and with the recent 

announcement, it becomes 

logical for automakers 

to start reconfiguring 

their long-term 

strategy to focus on 

Electric vehicles; also 

making it imperative to 

wonder what happens 

next with Nigeria’s oil, 

just like many other 

countries which seem 

unprepared for a future 

beyond oil. 

Similarly, India, the 

largest destination of 

Nigerian oil, according 

to the National Bureau 

of Statistics (NBS), 

is also planning for a 

greener and more environmental 

friendly 

future with projected 

bans on the use of petrol 

cars. India plans to 

replace all petrol- and 

diesel-fuelled cars with 

EVs by 2030, although 

getting the supporting 

infrastructure may 

prove to be a herculean 

task. 

The United Kingdom 

has also disclosed 

plans to impose a ban 

on petrol and diesel 

cars by 2040, just as 

Sweden, France, and 

Norway have expressed 

similar intentions. 

These plans to phase 

out petrol and diesel 

cars are riding on the 

back of the desire to 

tackle air pollution 

problems and limit 

global warming in the 

face of climate change. 

In order to limit global 

warming to below 2 

degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees 

Fahrenheit), the 

target set by the landmark 

Paris Agreement 

on climate change, the 

world will need 600 million 

electric vehicles 

by 2040, according to 

Paris-based International 

Energy Agency 

(IEA). 

Electric cars are 

considered a better 

and greener alternative 

to fuel-driven cars 

because, irrespective 

of the source of their 

power - solar, hydro, 

wind, biofuel, or even 

nuclear - they produce 

zero carbon in operation. 

As more countries 

seem willing to embrace 

a future where 

oil has a lesser role to 

play, Nigeria’s plans for 

the future are yet to be 

known. 

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Ghana Office: Business Day Ghana Ltd; ABC Junction, near Guinness Ghana Limited, Achimota – Accra, Ghana. 

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Editor: Anthony Osae-Brown. All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.

BusinessDay 19 Sep 2017

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